Good week, lots of work!

     Hello to all my family, friends, and coaches at home, at college, and serving the Lord all around the world! Hope this email finds you all well and loving life! College football is upon us here in Minnesota and I love it! It makes me excited to suit up next fall for the Mavs.  The work here is going good! We've had a good week of work and have really been cruising on how we are working together and working with people in our area!

     Monday we had district p day and that was super fun! The Brainerd and Alexandria Elders came down Sunday night and stayed at our place and then in the morning we played some basketball at the church. I don't know how but my jumping has gotten way better so I can almost legit dunk now. I almost had a put back dunk on a fast break. The ball like perfectly kicked off the rim and I came right down the lane and it went just through my fingers so I just dunked air haha. I got up on the rim though, so I'm super stoked I can do that now. We went to Val's for lunch, which is this little old school drive in burger place that is way good. After that we played football and some board games and Elder Bentley made us Wok Chicken with ramen and it was amazing.  I was a little skeptical, but it was amazing! Monday night we had a lesson with LJ in the group home and another dude there named Isaac joined in on our lesson. Isaac showed us his electric guitar skills and that was a party haha. We read a little bit out of the Book of Mormon with them and I said, "I felt hope when you guys read that. I usually have dark thoughts, but I had happy thoughts while you were reading!" That made my day, seeing the Book of Mormon be able to help someone like that!

     Tuesday we mowed Connie's lawn again and had another good chat with her. She had finished reading the Plan of Salvation pamphlet and had some issues with the 3 kingdoms of glory. She said her church teaches there's just one Heaven and one hell and that all you have to do is believe to be saved, not do good works like baptism and stuff. So I brought up these points: 1) If we believe in Christ, wouldn't that motivate you to follow His example and be a good person (do good works)? She said yes to that. 2) If I say I believe in Christ but I steal and lie and murder then am I still going to Heaven? She said no to that. But then I said, "Well, by your standards, I'm going to Heaven because I'm a professed believer in Christ!" She realized after that, that just teaching faith without works doesn't make a lot of sense. Teaching that all you have to do is believe to be saved really makes no sense. At least to me it doesn't. So we helped her realize that you have to have faith and also do good works (be baptized, repent, live a righteous life) in order to receive salvation. Aside from the fact that Christ and his apostles teach that in the Bible and Book of Mormon.....After that we did some more service for this lady that Elders Meyer and Kennedy found on exchanges. She is way nice and we edged her whole driveway so they could resurface it this summer. She had a lot of questions about missionaries and our church so that was awesome! We are helping her out again this Wednesday! After that we knocked some town homes in East Sauk Rapids. We met like no one interested except this dude from Kuwait. He is here going to school in St. Cloud. His mom and brother were visiting from Kuwait and he is loaded. He was on the Kuwait national soccer team before he came out here. Anyway, way cool dude and he invited us in and we taught him and his mom and brother. They are Muslim, so they don't believe in Christ as the savior of the world, but they were interested in our message and had a lot of questions! We are meeting with him again this week, too. After that we met this couple named the Sanchez's at the church. They are from Arkansas and are moving up to Sartell in like 3 weeks or so. Brother Sanchez is hilarious and has this southern accent that kills me haha. He loves watching football on Sundays and was a little sad that our church starts at one because he will miss the 1 pm and start of the 4 pm games. After that Ashley made us dinner at her place and it was the bomb. She made this way good tator tot hot dish and also banana cream pie, which is my fav. I found out she loves country music so she played some of her favorite songs for us (tender mercies). We finished teaching the Plan of Salvation to her and she just out of the blue is like, "I wanna get baptized, but I've never been baptized." So we set a date for October 14 with her! She has a lot of stuff to work on before then, but hopefully she can hit that date! After that we cleaned up the home visits list and the NAC list for the ward council and other missionaries to follow here.

     Wednesday we had district meeting and it was an adventure as always cuz Alexandria's Skype like cut out half way through so we had to sit there and wait for it and then try to call them and get it all worked out and all that. So it took like 2 hours to have district meeting. After that we drove up to Watab to stop by all the people we had found like 3 weeks ago. None of them were home or interested so we ended up knocking more doors. We found this way old guy named Henry. He basically told us he thinks he's going to die in like a week or two, but he seemed like he was in pretty decent shape. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and gave him a chapter to read. Hopefully he reads it and can just feel the peace that comes from it. After that we had a lesson with a family who just moved into our ward up in Rice. The mom has been in and out of activity her whole life and her kids just got baptized like 2 months ago. They love the church so much now, and her older son is 13 and is on fire. Their names are Sister Davis, Russell, and Luke.  Russell passed the Sacrament for the first time this week and thought it was awesome! Way cool family. We did a Book of Mormon lesson with them on the importance of reading it each day to continually strengthen our testimony of Christ and of the restoration. They said they have been reading each day since the kids got baptized! So it was way cool! After that we had a lesson with Flora and she basically taught us the Plan of Salvation! It was awesome, she really knew her stuff. So that was super cool and she also said the closing prayer. We had dinner with the Petersens and then we went to campus and did some contacting for about an hour and a half to end the day. We met this dude named Jay who seemed interested, but we haven't been able to get in contact with him haha. And we met these two girls sitting out on their porch and talked to them for like 30 minutes. One of them had taken world religions but hadn't read the Book of Mormon, so we gave her a copy. They told us about some upcoming events we could go to on campus where lots of people would be at! So that was good!

     Thursday we accounted with the district leaders and then had a lesson with Larry. He had downloaded the gospel library app and had listened to the Book of Mormon for like an hour already. We taught a really simple restoration lesson because his understanding is really basic. But it was a good lesson, and we invited him to continue to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it! After that we did service at this humane society in St. Cloud that Sister Petersen hooked us up with. She works there so she set us up with some weekly service there! We just washed dishes and cages out for like 2 hours, but it was fun and we got to talk to a few people working there about our church and missionary work and stuff! After that we had a lesson with Erik. We retaught the restoration and he had some questions from Mosiah 4. After we finished the lesson we asked him what he would do if he came to know the Book of Mormon was true and this was the church of Christ on the earth today. He said "Well, I'd probably better join it!" I was like, "That's a good idea!" So we told him to keep reading and praying and he would get an answer. So hopefully he does. I'm not sure how interested he is, but he keeps meeting with us so we are going to keep inviting him and helping him gain a testimony until he tells us no! We had dinner with Gold and Sister Kennedy after that, and that was fun. Darrell was being crazy and putting stuff down our shirts and trying to shove his light saber up my butt again, but it's Darrell, so it is what it is. We drove out to Foley after that and did some tracting and met a couple cool people we are going back to this week. As we were walking down this one street to stop by people from a while back this lady came running up to the road chasing a puppy, so naturally we stopped to help her catch it and ended up talking for like 20 minutes. Her puppy was super cute and I was holding it, and it jumped out of my arms and fell on it's face, so that was bad haha. But the puppy is ok, and we ended up giving her a Book of Mormon and setting up a lesson for this Wednesday as well. She told us she had been struggling with her faith in God and was trying to rekindle that recently. She said she loves going to church and praying and talking about God but recently it's been like the flame has gone out. So we gave her a chapter in the BOM to read and set up a time to come back. We invited her to church but she was out of town this weekend.

     Friday was weekly planning and we plowed through a good session. We've discovered that when we take two breaks during planning to shoot some hoops then it goes way better.  So we've been doing that now! After that we hustled down to Clear Lake to do some tracting and go down to Becker to invite like all the less actives to the corn feed Friday night. So in Clear Lake we had some way cool miracles. Clear lake is a super small town. Like 545 is the population. There are also 3 churches within a half mile of each other. The street we felt inspired to knock was parallel with 2 of the 3 churches, so we were a little apprehensive, but just went forward with faith! The first door we knocked on we met this 20-something-year-old guy named Nathan and taught him a short restoration lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon and a chapter to read. He said we could come by this Thursday on our way down to MLC. Then the very last door we knocked on was a little ways down the street. Elder Meyer was going to jump in the car, but I was like, "Let's go do this one more house." So we knocked the door and this lady named Rebecca answered. She was way nice and had a little 8 week-old baby. We started talking about the Book of Mormon and she's like, "I actually have one! I found it while I was cleaning out my dad's house and I've always been interested in what it is exactly." So we got to teach about it and the restoration and it was pretty sweet! She said we could also come back on Thursday! After that we went to Becker to invite a bunch of less actives to the corn feed. We stopped by to see Douglas again, and he was out back doing some yard work, so we offered to help but he was just finishing up. He said he would be less busy once school starts so we could come by again in September. He's a really nice dude and I hope we can teach him! We stopped by Chris Duke and met his wife and kids, too. We invited them to the corn feed and they ended up coming, so that was awesome! The corn feed was a party. We had like 100 people there and lots of good food and also we had a football game with Bishop and some young men and other members, so it was way fun! 

     Saturday was a kind of a long day haha. We did zone comment sheets and leadership recommendations in the morning for the APs and President Barney so he knows who can train and who can't, and who can zone lead and all that stuff so if he needs to call new people he has some background on them. After that we went and did some stop bys in the ghetto part of our area and no one was home. So we ended up doing our route of people to stop by and no one was home or outside to talk to because it was raining. So that was rough haha. After that we had a lesson with Jared about the Sacrament because he was passing for his first time on Sunday. We wanted to make sure he had a good understanding of what it was and the importance of passing the Sacrament. He seemed to actually have a good understanding of what the Sacrament was and why it is important, so that was awesome. He seems to be like less weird I guess each time we've gone over, so that's been great. He's still super unique, but we've actually been having good lessons. He's getting his patriarchal blessing next week as well. After that we went to campus and this old lady stopped us right in the middle of campus and started telling us about her beliefs. She said Christ was a made up person and didn't exist, and God was alive in all of us so we have to "experiment with ourselves to truly discover God." She said there was no devil either, and he was just made up along with Christ so that the Catholic Church could control the world by fear. In the past months I would've like lost my mind and went off on her and been mad, but I seriously just felt way sorry for her. We tried to just share our testimonies of Christ and how we can have hope for a better world through Christ, as we are taught by Moroni! She didn't want to hear what we had to say though, and told us several times we were deceived and are deceiving others. Some day she will know that Jesus is the Christ, and I hope she realizes that before having to stand before Him. I really felt awful after that. It was like reading about an anti-Christ in the Book of Mormon and just feeling sorry for them. Anyway, after that we tracted for 2 hours and found zero people. It was a rough night, but we still had fun and were in good spirits. Even though we found no one, I still felt happy with the work we put in even though nothing came of it. 

     Sunday we went to the Holy Myrrhbearers Orthodox Catholic Church with Jennifer Johnson since she went to church with us last week. I'm not gonna lie, it was the weirdest church I've ever been to. It was all Gregorian chant out of a 36 page book. They do the same thing every week and they had all these scary paintings of Jesus and Mary and all the apostles. The Bishop and some other high up dude were visiting and they did this weird priesthood thing where they cut off locks of a guy's hair so he could be ordained to the office of "reader" in the priesthood. I like the Lutheran church we went to with Dave better than the orthodox Catholic Church. I'm just gonna leave it at that. After that we went to our church and it was great! Flora was there, and Jill Charter and Dan Smith came too. The Smiths are feeding us next Thursday, so that will be great. After church we had dinner and did comp study and then did some stop bys. We stopped by Adam, and they had just gotten home from camping and were cleaning out their camper. We talked for about 10 minutes and he told us he had talked to Flora about us and said they would like to have us over and we seem like "quality guys." So that was awesome. We are going by next Sunday to visit them. After that we had a lesson with the Beckriches and it went pretty well. Timmy is doing well after his surgery, so that's good. They're good people I just don't know why they don't come to church???  Still trying to figure that one out. After that we had coordination meeting with Brother Charter and then had some training evals with the Brainerd and Hutchinson Elders and had to do numbers. So that was our Sunday!

     This week went by super fast! I've been reading in Alma this week as Alma is setting the church in order in Zarahemla and in the surrounding cities. Alma 5 is one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. It talks about having "the image of God in our countenance" and receiving a "change of heart". I really love these two phrases. That is something I've realized I want to strive for in my life. To always try to live in a way that I will have the image of God in my countenance and that I will always strive to repent and be more diligent and humble and a better disciple of Christ. Later on, Alma talks about the fact that we can't stand before the judgment bar of God if we have been sinners and liars and expect to be saved. He says in verses 18-19: "18 Or otherwise, can ye imagine yourselves brought before the tribunal of God with your souls filled with guilt and remorse, having a remembrance of all your guilt, yea, a perfect remembrance of all your wickedness, yea, a remembrance that ye have set at defiance the commandments of God?

19 I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?"

     Those really stuck out to me. If I couldn't stand before God with a pure heart and clean hands right now, what changes do I need to make so that I could? I've thought about that a lot, thinking about things I can do to become more loving, more Christlike, and more focused on those around me and how I can lift them higher. It was a really cool lesson I learned from Alma. I absolutely know the Book of Mormon was written for our day, and there are so many valuable lessons to be learned in its pages. If you aren't reading it each day, I strongly advise that you do so. There will be a change in your life and in your heart that will surprise you. You will want to be a better person. You will love others like Christ did, having charity, or the pure love of Christ, for all you associate with. You will come to know that Jesus Christ lives and that it is only through him that we can be redeemed and changed and exalted. You will come to know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and was translated by His prophet Joseph Smith, and that Christ's church has been restored to the earth. The Book of Mormon is the greatest book in the world. There is absolutely nothing bad that will happen if you read the Book of Mormon. Only incredible, heavenly blessings in your life! Thanks for all your support and prayers. They help me so much! 

     Good luck to my Bobcats and Mavs as football season is kicking off right now. You got Elder Beach in Minnesota sending lots of support and love your way! I love you all, have a great week and remember to take to time to smile, enjoy life, and tell those who mean most to you that you love them and appreciate them. Life's too short to not do those things. 

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Elder Meyer hammocking in our apartment.

Enjoying a rainbow and the beauties of nature.  My patriarchal blessing says to do that.

Having a little fun at dinner.

Elder K's kilt.

Our Zone Campaign!  Just having a little fun!

A Baptism!

     Hello to all my family, friends, and coaches back home, at college, and serving the Lord around the world! Hope y'all have had a good week and are loving life! I know I sure am. This week was awesome, but still had its ups and downs just like every week.

     On Monday we had p-day and we threw the football around for like 3 hours so that was awesome. We had dinner with the Caspers again and when we pulled up we realized we had already shared our Book of Mormon dinner message, so we were like, "Oh man, what are we gonna share?" We both were like, "Let's pray about it!" So we did, and immediately after we prayed I knew what to share with them. It was something I had just read in the Book of Mormon and studied in a talk called, "The Hope of God's Light" by President Uchtdorf. It talked about feeling lost in our lives sometimes, but when we do feel lost, God promises to illuminate the way before us. However, it takes an act of faith on our part to open our eyes to that Light. In Mosiah 8:8 it talks about Limhi sending people into the wilderness to find Zarahemla. It says, "They were lost for the space of many days.... yet they were diligent." That really made me think about how at times we feel lost or down or discouraged, are we diligent in living the gospel and serving others, or do we turn inward and forget God and others? The Casper's mom passed away like a year and half ago, and so they shared some stuff about how staying diligent in the gospel had helped them so much during that dark time for them. It was really good! After that we had a lesson with Brother Massey. He is a semi less active guy. His wife is less active because she puts worldly things ahead of spiritual things. So the bishop has asked us to visit with them and go over the missionary lessons, so we taught brother Massey the restoration, (Sister Massey wasn't there) but it was a super good lesson. You could tell he really felt the spirit, and we invited him to start reading the Book of Mormon each day. He's been at church the last few weeks so I'm glad to see him there!

     Tuesday was awesome! We mowed Connie's lawn in the morning. I mowed the front and while Elder Myer was mowing the back she asked me all these questions about the Plan of Salvation pamphlet we left her a few weeks back. She asked what was different about our church vs any other Christian church. So I got to teach her about the Book of Mormon, prophets (Joseph Smith), and the restoration of Priesthood authority. She said her church has always taught that the Book of Mormon was evil and our church was bad. I find it so interesting that there are many churches that openly oppose and teach false things about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Anyway, we were able to clear up a lot of incorrect info she had been told, and she said she would read the rest of the Plan of Salvation pamphlet before the next time we meet and we could talk some more about it! After that we went and walked around St. Cloud State campus because all the students are getting back for the fall semester. We met these two girls at a bus stop and talked to them for about 10 minutes. We gave both of them a Book of Mormon, but unfortunately weren't able to get their contact info because the bus pulled up really quick haha. But it was cool! After that we had a lesson with this former investigator named Larry. He lives in a group home and has FAS. He's a really cool guy and works at Goodwill. He met with missionaries like a year ago and then the church he was attending gave him a bunch of anti and some other stuff, so he quit meeting with them. He told us he still has his Book of Mormon and reads it from time to time. He was really open to having us meet with him again though, so that was cool! After that we had a zone finding hour and knocked a lot of doors, and this one house there were all these little kids outside. They were playing football and I was like, "Oh, let's go! I'm gonna play football with these kids."  So Elder Myer went and talked to the mom and I threw the football with the little kids. They asked if I played football and I said, "Sure did! And I'm playing at Colorado Mesa when I get home!" They thought that was pretty cool, so that made my day.  After that we went and grabbed dinner from the Broads and went to the church to fill the font for Flora's baptism!! The baptism was so great, there was like 10 non-members there that we talked to, and we gave out 6 Books of Mormon to people there. Flora was so nervous, but was just radiating light and happiness. I was so happy for her! 

     Wednesday we had a lesson with Jared in the morning and it was actually normal. He is getting his patriarchal blessing on September 4th, so we just talked about patriarchal blessings and how he liked Flora's baptism. He actually was sort of normal, so that was good! Usually lessons with him are so out in left field because of his comments, but he had good insights and comments this week, so that was great. He will be passing the sacrament for his first time next Sunday. After that, Ryan Beard took us down to Becker to visit a bunch of less actives and potentials. We went 3 for 3 on the first 3 stop bys, so that was pretty great! We set up a lesson with the Alecksons who live north of Becker a little bit. They used to live in the Princeton Ward and love missionaries. Their son isn't a member, but he is way cool and we talked to him for like 20 minutes. We are seeing them next Tuesday, so hopefully that goes well. We did a bunch more stop bys and had a member lesson with the Sanders. They are a new family and we hadn't really met them much, so we stopped by to meet them! We then had to hurry home for dinner with the Kruegers. After that we did some stop bys in Sartell and we set up some service on Saturday morning with the storm chaser lady! After that we did some stop bys of some former investigators and less actives but didn't have much luck. Then we had the stake report with President Barney and the STLs and that went really well. We had the highest number of people at church for July in the last 14 months, so that was really cool! We are really trying to keep that up for this month, and also increase our finding efforts. 

     Thursday we had a blitz exchange with the Brainerd Elders because we had interviews on Friday at the St. Cloud building with President Barney. I went with Elder Kershaw and Elder Meyer went with Elder Kennedy. Elder Kennedy is a greenie, but he is really solid. He went to a year of BYU before his mission, so he is in my graduating class. Elder Kershaw and I tracted this little neighborhood and met this girl who was going to school in Massachusetts.  She happened to be at her boyfriend's house for 3 days. So she was way excited to get a Book of Mormon and read it. We gave her our number and said to call us if she had any questions, and we could get her set up with the missionaries in Massachusetts. After that we met this dude named Erik who was super nice, and we have a lesson set up with him for Monday night. After that we went to Dan and Chris Smith's house with Brother Poulsen and had a lesson with them. Dan isn't a member, but he is a way nice guy. He is jacked. He was in the marines and now he is basically a body builder. Anyway, we had a good lesson with them and built a good relationship with their family. After that we went up to Foley to have dinner and lesson with the Cosgroves. Brother Poulsen and Brother Cosgrove hit it off really quick, so they talked for about 2 hours straight and we just ended up talking to Sister Cosgrove for most of the time. At the end of the lesson, Sister Cosgrove was in tears and said, "I'm so happy that you guys are helping Petey so much! He needs good friends in the church and you are helping him out so much!" So that was good! They're trying to get a new job so they can come to church on Sundays. They still are having to drive on Sundays and haven't been able to go to church on the road yet. After that we had a lesson with the Gillams. We are probably going have to drop them because they aren't keeping any commitments.  He is always like, "Yeah, we will be at church on Sunday!" And they never come. They also don't read the Book of Mormon, either. So we talked about why we go to church and why we read the Book of Mormon. We also shared President Monson's promise about reading the Book of Mormong each day: 1. We will hear the voice of the spirit better, 2. We will overcome doubt and fear, 3. We will be able to resist temptation, 4. We will receive heaven's help in our lives. Bill was really excited about those four promises because he needs all of them in his life. He asked us to give him a Priesthood blessing again, so we did, and he was super happy we did. It was a good day! Funny thing about exchanges. So, the last two exchanges we've been on, everything Elder Meyer plans has fallen through. So last time everything he planned fell through, and all my lessons were good, and the same thing happened this time, too. I felt way bad for him haha.

     Friday was interviews with President Barney. They were super good! He's such a great, loving mission president. In my interview he was like, "Elder Beach, you don't say much as a Zone Leader, but you get stuff done and you work hard. I really love that about you." I was like, "Well, uhhhh, thanks!" I seriously never say much at MLC or any trainings or what not just because I'm not the kind of person that feels like I need to tell other people how to do their job. If someone is not doing what they are supposed to, I just try to be an example of how to do things right. If they need to be talked to then you do it in private and just tell them what they need to fix and do it lovingly. That's something I've really learned as a ZL is how to motivate and encourage, but also correct people when it is needed. Doing it the way Jesus Christ did it is like the perfect example. He would lovingly teach his disciples and if he reprimanded them, he would do it lovingly. So I'm glad President Barney is cool with how I go about my business here. Interviews were really good, though. He really takes time to talk to each missionary and get to know them and all that, so I love that about him. After interviews, we went and walked around campus and talked to some sorority girls haha. They were out doing some chalking stuff on the sidewalk out front of the sorority house, so we talked to them for like 30 minutes. One of them was named Kate, and she had a bunch of family members in Texas that were members of the church. They said we could come back and teach the whole sorority next week haha. They said some people probably won't be interested, but some would, so I'm hoping more are interested than not. After that we went up to Little Falls with Brother Christie. We did some stop bys and met the pastor dude again. He said he had read "What Is the Blueprint of Christ's church" finally. He's like, "Yeah, I got some problems with it though. There was no love at all in the article, and the whole point of it was just trying to prove that your church is right. Jesus taught us it's all about love, not what church is true." Then he proceeds to go off about how the trinity is correct and how we are deceived and are deceiving everyone we talk to. I was seriously trying not to laugh because of how hypocritical he was. He's told us how that talk had no love in it and then proceeds to rip into us for 10 minutes about how we are wrong and deceived. Elder Meyer told him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and he said we should pray about the Bible and if the trinity is real. We told him we already believed the Bible, and we would definitely pray about the trinity. After that we had a lesson with the Dobsons and that went pretty well. We focused on reading and praying each day because they've really been lacking on those things. They said they noticed a difference when they actually do those, so we left them a chapter to read and committed them to pray each day. I hope they do because it will help them a lot!

     Saturday we finally got to do some service for Jody! We helped her plant a bunch of plants in her backyard, and we got to talk about missionary work a ton with her. She was super grateful and said if we are around in the winter, she and her husband will take us ice fishing.  We probably won't be here, but that would be sick! After that we weekly planned and then had a lesson at Flora's house. We met her parents and they are both super nice! Her dad is hilarious haha. He's from northern England and is way funny. Her mom was way nice, too. Flora told us Sunday that her mom was like, "Who were those cute young men you had over yesterday?" We both thought that was pretty funny haha. After that we had dinner with Sister Kennedy and Dave and Darrell. We had a nerf gun war with Darrell after dinner because he was dying to have one haha. It was actually pretty fun. I haven't done that for like over a year. After dinner we knocked doors for about 2 hours until we met with Brother Charter for coordination meeting. We found a super cool guy named Karl or Kevin.  He had this super cute little puppy that was chasing us, so we brought it back to him and ended up talking to him for like 20 minutes. He took a Book of Mormon and said we could come back on Saturday! I've found that contacting people outside their homes is way more effective than knocking doors. Sometimes we just walk around neighborhoods and knock the doors we feel inspired to and then just talk to everyone outside! It works pretty well. After that we had coordination with Brother Charter and called it a day. 

     Sunday morning we called every single person on our NAC list (part member families, prospective Elders, unbaptized children of record) and didn't set up any appointments or find anyone interested. NAC list is supposed to be one of the most effective ways to find, but we can pretty much trash ours.  So we basically are down to member referrals and tracting. But that's all good! So we had ward council Sunday morning, too, and it was really good. So, sad thing was, we were supposed to have a lesson with Matt on Thursday and he cancelled because he was at work in the cities. Then he was supposed to have his baptism interview on Friday, but never showed up. We couldn't get ahold of him at all. He didn't show up to church either. He hasn't returned our texts, calls, anything. So we asked Spencer Baker if he knew anything about him and he said Matt and Emily (the girl that introduced him to the church and the girl he wants to date) work together. Everyone keeps asking if they are dating but they are just friends as of right now. Matt wants to date and Emily doesn't want to date. So Spencer told us Matt isn't coming to church anymore because of that, and he is trying to get a new job as well. So we have no clue what is going on with him. At this point, it looks like the only reason he was investigating was for Emily. That makes me way sad. I was pretty crushed when we found that out. That's not for sure, but it's looking like that right now. Anyway, on a happier note, Flora got confirmed on Sunday and Jennifer Johnson, the orthodox Catholic lady, came to church! She said she would come to church if we came with her, so we are going next week! She really liked church and had a bunch of questions which I could tell came from anti stuff. We answered all her questions after church with Brother Charter. So that was good! I'm glad she enjoyed it and I'm pretty certain she felt the spirit. After church we did a comp study really quick and then knocked doors for like 2 hours and found no one. It was rough. After that we had a lesson with the Bird family. We had no clue what to teach, so we decided to read Moroni 10 with them. As we read, I could tell Emily was feeling the spirit as we were reading. She said after, she wants to read the Book of Mormon in more depth now. I was like, "Let's go!" I really hope she will because I know the spirit will testify to her of its truthfulness if she does. After that Flora made us homemade sushi for dinner. So we had dinner with her at the church. It was really good. I'm getting the recipe from her so we can make it at home. We watched "Meet the Mormons" too, and she really liked it! 

     This week has been super good! It's been tough as far as finding people, but Flora got baptized and it was awesome. Some of the thoughts I had about Flora's baptism: "I thought when she got baptized I would be like overjoyed because I finally got a baptism on my mission. I was right, I was overjoyed! It just was for her. I didn't feel anything for myself. Like I literally did nothing except teach. Flora was the one who chose to follow Christ and made this huge step in her life to do that. Seeing how happy she was after just made me super happy. It was pretty amazing! Looking back on my mission at all the people I've helped teach and reactivate, I realized I didn't do much. Most of it was their decision to follow Christ or come back unto Christ or just do what they knew was right. It took a lot of courage and determination on their part. It was like I was just there to be their friend and help them stay on the path. As I was able to walk by their side and kind of show them the way to Christ, it made me so happy when they finally got there. That's probably one of the only things that's kept me on my mission, besides my own testimony, is just the sweet, sweet joy of seeing others come to Christ. Flora was just in the perfect situation in her life to be ready and need the gospel. I literally did nothing to find her or anything. We just taught her and helped her walk the gospel path. Helping someone in that way, and then seeing them succeed, brings a happiness that just fills you up, like almost consumes you. It's so amazing! I'm so grateful to be here sharing this gospel and helping others on their journey."  Love you all! Good luck to my Sky View Bobcats as football season is under way. Keep the winning tradition and hard work and brotherhood alive! Thanks for all the prayers and support.

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Funny thing we saw on the roof!

Eating homemade sushi with Flora.

Service at Jodys.

Huge bug we found.

Flora loves Crocs, so we all wore them together for her baptism.

Flora's baptism!

Fall is in the air!

Good Week!

     A big hello to all my family, friends, and coaches back home, at school, and serving the  Lord around the world! I hope and pray this email finds you all doing well and loving life.  This week has been a crazy week filled with lots of cool miracles and interesting stories haha. 

     Monday was p day and we just did the usual stuff: laundry, email, throw the football around -  all that good stuff. We had dinner with the Otises Monday night and they invited the Bakers, a less active/part member family, to eat with us. Sister Baker is sisters with Bishop Montag's wife and is married to a non member named Bryan. He was super cool and he and I talked for like 30 minutes before dinner about their business they just started and this other product they've been looking into. The product is like an Apple Watch, but it measures pulse, BP, blood glucose, oxygen levels, and a bunch of other stuff. I don't know how it works, but he said they've been working with this medical company to promote it when it comes out soon. Seemed a little too good to be true, but you never know!  Anyway, we had a good discussion about the Book of Mormon with them. Sister Baker said they are just way too busy to come to church so they don't come. She said they do talk about the gospel and read the Book of Mormon at home together occasionally, so that was cool! They work 90+ hours a week because their business just started and is still in the start-up phase, but is doing pretty well. So anyway, it was a super good lesson and a good connection with them!

     After that we had a lesson with Flora and she told us she was still good to get baptized and wanted to do it on the 15th, which was a Tuesday. Laurel Dickerson is leaving on Thursday to go back to BYU, so Flora wanted to do it before she left. So we got all the logistical things nailed down and did a lesson on some of the commandments. So a pretty solid p day all in all.

     Tuesday we were supposed to help Adam with remodeling his bathroom, but when we got there he said he actually had to work, so we didn't end up helping him. He's a way nice guy, though, and said we could stop by on the weekends to chat and share some Gospel messages. We found out later in the week that his wife works at Coborns with Flora, and they are good friends, so that is a connection we are trying to capitalize on. 

     Flora had her baptismal interview with Elder Bentley right after that, so we met at the church to Skype her into the interview. She passed with flying colors.  She told us she was really apprehensive to lose her family and "old way of life", and so we talked to her about it. I shared some of my story about having a lot of schools turn away from recruiting me because I chose to serve a mission. I remember that being really hard and having a lot of doubts about serving. I shared some of the experiences I had in coming to realize that I needed to serve a mission and that things would work out. And things worked out perfectly! I'm lucky enough to be playing for CMU when I get home, and also to be serving a mission right now. It's awesome how God blesses us when we choose to follow his commandments. After that Grant and Emma Peterson bought us lunch at Val's, this little old school drive through place. It is soooo good. Their burgers are average, but way cheap. Their fries and shakes, though,  so good!  I got a pumpkin pie shake and it was divine haha. Elder Myer let me try his Oreo shake and it was the best Oreo shake I've ever tasted, hands down. Their fries were insanely good, too. If I ever come back to visit Sauk Rapids, we are definitely going there.  We then drove down to Clear Lake and did some tracting for about an hour and didn't find anyone too interested. We met some nice people, but no one was super stoked to talk about the gospel. Then we drove to Becker and tracted this insanely rich neighborhood, and it was basically like everyone hated us.  One old guy cussed us out, another told us our doctrine was corrupt and we were going to hell, and we had a few doors slammed in our face, too. However, we met this way nice man named Douglas. His name is Douglas so he obviously was nice (right dad? My dad's name is the same...) He had just moved back to Becker from Colorado, and he and Elder Myer hit it off pretty quick talking about that. We talked to him about the Book of Mormon a little bit and how it came to be and why we have it, and invited him to read King Benjamin's address in Mosiah 2-5. We promised it would help him in knowing how to bring his family closer together in raising his kids to have a firm faith in Christ and good morals. He really liked that and said he would read it. We will definitely swing by him again! We tracted for about 4 and half hours on Tuesday, and he was the only guy we found haha. But I hope our efforts will be a blessing to his family. Tuesday night we had a lesson with Brother La Claire. He is a less active that lives down in Becker like right on the edge of our area. He loves the missionaries and knew a bunch of the missionaries that I've served around. I'm not sure why he doesn't come to church, but he just said it's too far of a drive. It is a pretty decent drive, but it's not bad. So we will keep working on him. After that we were blitzing Buffalo, so we drove down there and had dinner at McDonald's since we hadn't eaten yet. The salads there are pretty good, just saying.

     Wednesday morning we did our exchange with Buffalo and it went pretty good! I went with Elder Slade, so we had the "Diabetic Duo" going on haha. We did a lot of stop bys and met some interesting people. We met this one lady who could probably be on the "Hoarders: Buried Alive" TV show. Her whole yard and house were completely filled with junk. Like her house was full from floor to ceiling, and then had tunnels in between all the trash and stuff. It was crazy!  We also had a lesson with this less active who is kind of crazy, but a really nice dude. We read some of the Book of Mormon with him and got a lesson set up for later in the week. Elder Slade doesn't like personal finding (tracting, contacting, chalking, etc.) so we basically did stop bys all day, which aren't my favorite, but it wasn't my exchange to be in charge of. During dinner we made a list of all the attributes and characteristics we want in the people we marry. It was an interesting thing because I've never done it before haha. It really made me think about the kind of person I want to marry. A lot of the traits and characteristics were ones my mom has. Glad I have an awesome Mom! After that we had a lesson with a part member family and the non member is this guy who has a recording studio in his house. So he showed us that, and we helped him write some of his rap song he is currently working on haha. Then he had to show us this video game he loved, so we watched that for a little bit and then shared a message with him. He's been coming to church and stuff so that's good! After that we met up with the other Elders because Elder Myer and I had about an hour drive to Hutchinson for our next exchange. Lots of driving. 

     Thursday morning we drove up to this little town in Hutchinson's area and all of us did work up there. I went with Elder Cahoon. He is from Hurricane, UT, and came out on his mission like a month ago, so he is still pretty fresh. He's a good dude, though.  I enjoyed working with him haha. He reminds me a lot of myself when I first came out. He's a little hesitant to talk to everyone, but he's a good missionary. He also talked about basketball a lot, and you could tell he missed it. I was like that with football A LOT when I first came out haha.  I just talked to him about losing yourself in the work and seeing the success in the small things and having fun. I really stressed having fun with him because I feel like newer missionaries feel like they just need to be like perfect little angels and never have any fun, haha, but I told him to have fun whenever you can. Like playing pick up ball with kids at a park, or doing service for members, or anything that is still productive but breaks up the monotonous routine of knocking doors and stop bys. So our exchange was good! We only got about 2 hours together because Elder Myer and I had to get back to Sauk Rapids for a lesson at 3:30 PM with Mtat.  So we drove back up and it took about an hour and little bit. Our zone is huge. We had a really good lesson with Matt about tithing, the Word of Wisdom, and the Law of Chastity. With the Word of Wisdom, we were a little worried he might have a problem because he drinks iced tea, but he completely understood why we have the Word of Wisdom and swore off the iced tea right then and there. We bought him some peach sparkling water stuff from Walmart that is super good. He loves peach iced tea, so we got him some other stuff so he can still have peach flavored drinks haha. After the lesson, Matt took us for a ride in his Camero and it can go fast! Haha we went like 107 mph on the highway in like 6 seconds. It was crazy haha. So we had a good time. I really love Matt. He's such a good dude. He also said he is solid for getting baptized on the 26th. He has his baptism interview this week. After that, Ryan Beard drove us out to Foley to do some finding and stop by some less active members. We knocked doors for about an hour and found like 3 new people to teach, hopefully. We found this younger family that was super nice and took a Book of Mormon. They said we could come back this Thursday to teach them some more, so hopefully they pan out. We also went and finished pulling weeds and bushes out for the Nicks. We basically had to dig out a tree haha, and Elder Myer broke the shovel in half trying to pop the roots out. We got it all cleared out though, and it looked way better! So that was awesome, and Sister Nick and her daughter came to church on Sunday, too.

     Friday we weekly planned, and it was a grind. We were both super tired from exchanges and being on the road a lot haha.  But we got her done, and then we were supposed to have a dinner with Sister Kennedy and Dave. She invited Gold, a YSA member who is Korean, so we picked up Gold and took him up there. When we got there, no one was there. We called her and knocked on the door and all that and no one answered. So we called Dave to see if he knew where she was, and he had no clue. So Gold was like, "I'll make some Korean food at my place!" So we went to Gold's apartment and had some dang good Korean food. I don't even know what it was haha. It was tuna and veggie things with like mayo and then you wrapped it in seaweed, and it was really good. He also made a bomb D'Giornio pizza.  So that was fun! After that we had a lesson with Sister Hatch, who is this less active lady who lives in St. Cloud. She actually came to church on Sunday! So that was super cool! After that we went and saw the Beckriches. Brother Beckrich was helping their oldest son get their camping trailer all ready for a big cousin hangout thing. So I figured it was for all the younger cousins. But when we left, it was a bunch of people that were like college aged, and there was a bunch of beer there, so I don't know what was going on...We had a nice talk with Timmy down in his room. He had knee surgery a few weeks ago, so we did some of his dishes for him and Elder Myer wanted to see his new Zelda game haha. So Timmy showed us that and then we told him to read the Book of Mormon. He has so much free time on his hands that there is no reason he shouldn't be reading it. He's like, "I just don't like reading. I can't even read my fantasy books." I said "Timmy, if you read the Book of Mormon every day, your knee will heal better and faster." That came way out of the blue. It surprised me even when I said it haha.  But I felt I should say it, and Timmy was like, "Oh well, I guess I should read it." I wanted to say, "Yeah, no crap you should!" Haha but I didn't. So I am hoping and praying that Timmy will start reading the BOM.

     Saturday we had a lesson with Anne Marie who was the Catholic lady we found. She was pretty set in her ways though. She doesn't think an apostasy ever happened, so it was kind of hard to teach her about the restoration of the Priesthood and the church. I just finished reading "The Great Apostasy" by James E. Talmage, and after reading it, it gave me a lot of insight as to reasons the apostasy happened, what happened during the apostasy, and doctrines and ordinances and Priesthood that was lost and changed and corrupted during that time. Anne Marie told us that nothing changed and the Priesthood had continued in an unbroken line. I really wanted to just spew some of the stuff I had just learned, but I just bore my testimony and invited her to read the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately, she said she isn't going to read it because she feels that her church is true. We made a deal to pray about each other's churches again, so hopefully that helps her. I don't know why people are so against reading the Book of Mormon.  I feel like if someone knocked on my door and said, "Hey, we have some more scripture about Jesus Christ from a prophet of God!" I would probably at least be interested in checking it out to see if it was legit or not. People are just super not for it, though. Makes me sad. Anyway, after that, we went and helped Brother Hilsgen work on his trailer. We did some good work and got like half of it insulated and covering stuff put over it, but we still need to put the siding on. So next Saturday we will probably be helping with that! After that we knocked doors for like 2 hours in this new development about 3 miles East of Sauk Rapids. It was super nice and nobody talked to us. So after we got done with all the nice houses, we were walking back to the car and Elder Myer saw this not as nice house through the trees, so we decided to go knock on it. It was a whole different neighborhood. So we drove over to it and there were these two people sitting out on lawn chairs. They immediately thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses, so we explained who we were and started chatting. Then this lady comes out of the house and is like, "The Mormons! I love you guys!" So come to find out, her name is Ashley, and she met with Sisters in North Branch and has a Book of Mormon and reads it like every day. So we set up a lesson with her for this Thursday. We found out it was a group home type house. The guy working there was named Tony.  He had met missionaries in Hutchinson like a year ago, and had a Book of Mormon as well. He gave us his number and said we could call him next week to have a lesson because he was going camping this week. It was a pretty amazing miracle that we found two different people to teach in one house haha. After that we did some stop bys down in the ghetto part of St. Cloud. We talked to Sister Harris, who is a less active lady in our ward. She said she'd been going through some crazy stuff in her life, so that's why we hadn't seen her much lately. She asked us to come by and give her a blessing on Monday night so we are doing that tonight. We also saw Sister Brainard and had a lesson with her about the atonement of Jesus Christ. She is going into alcohol treatment this Monday as well, so it was good to see her one last time before she left. We got her hooked up with the missionaries in Plymouth, too, so that they can visit her while she's there. After that we stopped by a few more people down there. At this one apartment these two black guys were out front BBQing chicken, so we went over to talk to them. The one dude was Hebrew, and just started going off about how our church hates black people and how Jesus was black and we portray him as white and we discriminate against colored people. Then he pulls out the Book of Mormon where it talks about how colored people are cursed. It doesn't say that in the Book of Mormon, it says, "For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. And thus saith the Lord God: I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities." So they aren't colored, they're cursed. God curses them with dark skin because they didn't obey the commandments. As soon as they do, we later learn that the cursing is taken from them. Anyway, we just basically stood there and listened while he bashed on us for like 10 minutes and then just bore our testimonies and left. He was still yelling at us to never preach to black people and only to white people when we left.  Pretty sad he felt that way because the gospel would really bless his life! Brother Charter cancelled our meeting Saturday night, so we just ended up working until 8 PM, and then had dinner at 8 PM and called it a night. 

     Sunday morning we stopped by a few people and no one was home. Then we finished working on Flora's baptism program at the church. Flora and Matt came to church as well as quite a few less actives. It was Ward Conference, so Bishop Montag spoke and so did President Baker. Both of them gave great talks about the Holy Ghost being present in our lives and about the story of when Jesus came and called Peter to the apostleship. He "straightway left his net" and followed Christ. President Baker asked us all to be that kind of disciple. To be ready to leave our nets to follow Christ at the drop of a hat. We had the ward potluck after and it was really good. Lots of good food and tons of people were there. So it was great! After church we were in the family history center showing Flora the baptismal program and finalizing it, and Darrell Kennedy comes in, so you already know something crazy is going to happen. Elder Meyer is like, "Hey, Darrell, what's your favorite song we could sing at Flora's baptism?" Darrell leans over to Flora and says, "Let me tell you a secret..." Then he leans in closer and very loudly whispers, "Elder Meyer wants to be in your bed.... with his pants off!" Then he ran away. I was so shocked at what I had just witnessed that I was dumbfounded. A 10-year-old kid had just said that. I didn't know anything about that stuff when I was 10. Flora was dying and Elder Myer was like, "What the heck just happened?" It was very weird to say the least haha. Always an adventure in Sauk Rapids! After that we were supposed to have a lesson with Naomi and her family. She is a lady we found like 3 weeks ago and set up a lesson with for Sunday night. We showed up and no one was there. So we knocked this street right by her house and it was pouring rain haha and no one wanted to talk to us. Everyone basically just said, "We aren't interested. And by the way, you picked a crappy day to be out!" Then they'd shut the door. So it was a bummer, but for some reason I was just having a ball. I really wanted to find someone to teach, so I was like flying to each house to knock on the door haha. But unfortunately, we didn't find anyone. After that we had a lesson with the Otis family. Not the ones we usually have dinner, with but Brother Otis's brother. They're way cool, too, we just haven't done much with them, so we had a quick lesson with them to get to know them and follow up on President Baker's challenge to give away a Book of Mormon. After that we had the last lesson with Flora before she gets baptized on Tuesday. We met at the Bakers with President Baker and Spencer and Laurel and D'Shaun. D'Shaun never shuts up so finally I was like, "D'Shaun! Shut up, please!" We literally couldn't get a word in because he wouldn't shut up. It's hard to teach when people just ramble on about nothing the whole time haha. Anyway, it was a really good lesson and Flora prayed for the first time with us, too! So that was awesome.

     This week has been long but crazy and fun, too! Time is flying by like crazy fast. Football season is already here, and next year I will be playing college ball. That's weird to think about. On Saturday night I was thinking about our area and how we could help it because, even though we have two baptisms coming up, the work is really slow right now. We do a lot of tracting and don't have a ton of success. In my patriarchal blessing it talks about how I will be able to share the gospel with the humble and meek and those who are prepared to hear it. In other words, "The elect of God". They are few and far between, but we are going to find them eventually. We may just have to knock a million and a half doors, but we will find them sooner or later. God needs those who are prepared and ready to further the work here on earth, and it is our job as missionaries to find those who are prepared. It made the work seem like super cool when I realized that. God called me to Minnesota to find his elect few and bring them the joy of the gospel. So even though the work is tough and slow, we are truly finding those that we are supposed to find here and bringing those back to Christ who are truly prepared and ready! It's so awesome to be a part of this work here. It's such a blessing in my life to not only have, but to share the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! Love you all, and have a great week! Enjoy life, it goes by so fast. 

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

A shirt I found for when I return home...

Matt's Camero.

Exchanges in Buffalo.

Elder Myer...