2 Timothy 4:6-7

     What’s up to all my fam, friends, and coaches back home, at school, serving around the world, and also here in Minnesota! This week has been really great and was a fun way to cap off the last two years in the Lord's service. I’d like to just share a few quick highlights and then my testimony with you all!

     On Sunday, Elder Akins and I were able to pass the sacrament with Thome for the first time. He was baptized here like a month ago and this was his first time being able to exercise his Priesthood authority in a Priesthood ordinance. It was an awesome experience for me to be able to participate in that with him. I’ve come to gain such an appreciation for the sacrament on my mission. I believe it is truly one of the “saving ordinances” of the Priesthood because it allows us the ability to renew the covenants we’ve made with God each week and in turn, have the spirit with us to cleanse us and offer an opportunity for spiritual rebirth each week. It’s  such an amazing thing! 

     Coolest thing of my life was being able to see my parents for the first time in 2 years yesterday! They met us at Mission President's fireside last night, and I ran through the church with Elder Akins and met them on the other side of the church. I of course hugged my mom first, and she shed a few tears haha.  Dad was next, and I don’t think he cried much, if at all, which was good because I’m not much of a crier haha. It was amazing to see them and talk to them and hug them and introduce them to everyone I’ve grown to love on my mission thus far! Such a sweet experience to have with my parents! Thome spoke at the fireside and he did an excellent job. He bore a great testimony and shared such good stories of his conversion process. It was a night to remember for sure! I don’t think I’ve smiled that much in a single day for a long time haha.

     Basically all we’ve done this week is normal proselyting stuff and visiting members to say good-bye to them. So nothing like super crazy happened this week as far as missionary work goes, but it was fun to share my testimony with them and continue to strengthen them a lot! I love the members here in Minnesota and I’m really going to miss them.  They’re awesome! 

     Well, it’s been a ride here in Minnesota. I’ve grown to love the Lord and the people here more than I ever thought possible. I’m so grateful that I’ve been able be a missionary and represent the Lord, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and my family. I’ve grown so much in my knowledge of the gospel and of my understanding and ability to apply the atonement of Jesus Christ in my life. I know the Book of Mormon is true without a doubt. Each time I read it I learn more, and I completely know it was written for our day by inspired prophets of God. Our current prophet, Russell M. Nelson, has asked us to read to read it each day and I know that as we follow his counsel, we will be kept safe from the fiery darts of the adversary. I’m grateful for my family and for the blessing they are to me. The family unit is one of God’s greatest gifts to us, and I know as we follow His commandments and the counsel of the prophets and apostles, our family will be strengthened and blessed. 

I look forward to seeing you all soon! Much love to you all. Thanks for the prayers and support throughout my mission. Couldn’t have done it without you all! God bless you all until we meet again!

Much love,

Elder Beach

Still working hard!

The taco truck!

Dinner appointment.

P-day with the district.

Basketball with Ke and De.

Final good-byes with those I have come to love.

Service at Feed My Starving Children.

Reppin' the Mesa Pride!

One more week!

     What’s up to all my fam, friends, and coaches back home, at school, and serving around the world! Hope you’re having a great week! Happy Father’s Day to all the dads in my life, and most importantly, my own Dad! Love you and hope you had a great day. Can’t wait to see you and Mom next week!  This week's been pretty good and was basically my last full week of proselyting on my mission because we have a lot of departing missionary interviews, packing, etc. this week. I’m going to do my best to keep it all to a minimum so I can spend as much time as possible this week doing the work.  I will continue the trend of sharing lessons learned and some funny and cool stories!

     I think I will start off with a funny story this week! So we went to see Robbie “Bee Sting” Virkus this Sunday because it was Father’s Day and he’s a pretty lonely guy. So we get there and he’s got his music going full blast, so we had a little dance party with him.  He likes to dance.  Robbie isn’t all the way there mentally, so towards the end of the lesson he just goes, “I’m the Holy Spirit!” Then he gets out of his chair and goes and stands facing the window with his back to us. He says, “Guess who’s coming tonight?” Peterson says, “Santa Claus?” Robbie goes, “No! Jesus is coming tonight! Look at those storm clouds brewing in the east. He’s coming tonight!” We were like. “Ok, we gotta go!” He’s like, “Let’s say a prayer first. I’ll say it!” So he goes and lays on his bed and starts his prayer.  I don’t want to make fun of his prayer or anything, but it was the most hilarious prayer I’ve ever heard.  He started out with, “Blessed be the meat!” And ended with some rhyme about different colors of people being all right in God's sight. It was very heartfelt but just really interesting haha. He is a funny guy! After he got done praying he says, “Man, that dancing really tuckered me out!” So that was a pretty funny visit with Robbie Virkus.

     Sunday was a really cool day for me. The proselyting was a little rough and it was like 95 degrees and super muggy. Jackson, I somewhat can sympathize with you. You’re a man for being in that every day. We are on bikes every day though haha.  It’s so hot! So Elder Peterson and I spoke in church on “Our relationship with Heavenly Father.” I felt prompted to fast on Sunday because I was giving a talk and also doing three baptism interviews for a family in the Eden Prairie ward after church. I had an awesome experience fasting. It really strengthened my testimony of it. I can see why when there are big decisions to be made or inspiration to be had, the apostles gather in a spirit of “fasting and prayer.” I fasted to have the spirit with me and magnify the words I said in my talk and also to help Maisha, Amyla, and Sir'Kendrick have good interview experiences. My talk went great! I was happy with how it turned out. Elder Stacey of the 70 who’s in our ward was there as well, so it was a little intimidating to speak in front of a General Authority. After Sacrament Meeting, Brother and Sister Schreiner grabbed me and said that my talk had been an answer to some prayers in their family. I was really surprised by that because I wasn’t expecting that to happen. I’m grateful as I prepared that I had the spirit to help me know what to say and include in my talk. After the meeting was over, Elder Stacey grabbed me and Elder Peterson and took us in a classroom and had a little interview thing with us. He gave us some advice and gave us an apostolic blessing. It was a great spiritual experience, and I know that he was truly called of God! After church the baptismal interviews with Maisha and her family were awesome! They are all super prepared and ready for baptism. Her daughter is so excited to get baptized. It just made my day to see how excited she was when we finished the interview and I told her she was good to go! It just made my whole day to see how happy they were.  It was pretty sweet! 

     One thing I’ve become so much better at on my mission is not getting angry with stupid people haha. This time last year I would get fired up about people telling us we were wrong or going to hell or whatever. This week we met a few of those people and it was cool to be able to just keep a level head and not get all riled up by those people. We met this one lady on Saturday and it was like 100 degrees and super hot. She opens the door and just lays into us about how she believes in Nordic mythology and how Christianity is corrupt and we are completely misled. She went on for a solid 15 minutes so we just got to stand there listen to her rave at us. I amazingly was able to keep my cool and not get super fired up. We just tried to share our testimonies, and unfortunately she didn’t want to hear them, so I was just like, “All right, have a nice day!” Then she seemed mad that we didn’t want to hear her anymore.  Oh well! I have learned that people are much more likely to listen and be able to hear the spirit when you just share your testimony and invite them to act instead of arguing or Bible bashing. The spirit is the real teacher in the work and is much more powerful than any sort of debate or proving people wrong! 

     Another thing I keep learning on the mission is how far the world is moving from the standards of the church and how confused people are. We talked to a guy this week who was an “earthist”. So he basically believes that he came from the dust, and when his life is over, he will return to the dust, and that’s the end of it for him. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation and how we are all spirit children of God and we will one day return and live with God again. He was just like, “Eh, that’s not that appealing to me.” I was baffled! How would your life have any purpose whatsoever?? It was crazy! We also went to read the Book of Mormon with Brother Glover and his cousins were there. They were being super rude to us and telling us we were Edomites and that we were going to hell because we were white. Brother Glover kind of laid into them and told them to get out. I’m grateful to him for sticking up for us and our beliefs. We ended up having a really good Book of Mormon read with him. Reading the Book of Mormon is the number one way to stay converted to the gospel and stay active in the church. There is no way you can read the Book of Mormon every day and go less active or lose your testimony of Christ and the restored gospel. It’s just not possible! Brother Glover is a homie, and I’m grateful to have gotten to know him. I am also grateful for the restored gospel and the answers it has to life’s greatest questions. God doesn’t want us to be confused. He is a God of order and He has all the answers and will reveal them to us if we but ask, seek, and knock. In D&C 76:5-10 it says: 

       5 For thus saith the Lord—I, the Lord, am ​​​merciful​ and gracious unto those who ​​​fear​ me, and delight to honor those who ​​​serve​ me in righteousness and in truth unto the end.

​​​       6 ​Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their ​​​glory​.

​​​       7 ​And to them will I ​​​reveal​ all ​​​mysteries​, yea, all the hidden mysteries of my kingdom from days of old, and for ages to come, will I make known unto them the good pleasure of my will concerning all things pertaining to my kingdom.

​​​       8 ​Yea, even the wonders of ​​​eternity​ shall they know, and things to come will I show them, even the things of many generations.

​​​       9 ​And their ​​​wisdom​ shall be great, and their ​​​understanding​ reach to heaven; and before them the wisdom of the wise shall ​​​perish​, and the understanding of the ​​​prudent​ shall come to naught.

       ​​​10 ​For by my ​​​Spirit​ will I ​​​enlighten​ them, and by my ​​​power​ will I make known unto them the ​​​secrets​ of my ​​​will​—yea, even those things which ​​​eye​ has not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet entered into the heart of man.

     What a great promise to us as mortals on earth that God will reveal to us such great mysteries if we serve Him in righteousness and humbly seek after truth.  Pretty sweet!

     We had a great lesson with Thome' on Tuesday and we ended up talking about patriarchal blessings. Thome was talking a lot about making decisions about who he is going to marry and where he wants to move. I felt impressed to talk about my patriarchal blessing and how it has helped me a lot with decisions I’ve made in my life. He seemed really excited to prepare to get his and see what advice God had for him to help him in his future. I’m so grateful for my patriarchal blessing and the guidance, direction, and warnings it gives. As I’ve been able to read it many many times on my mission, I’ve seen how much God knows me and the person I need to become. It’s so cool to see my progress from a year ago, but then also see how much more I need to work on as a person. It’s awesome! In Russell M. Nelson’s talk, “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for our Lives”, he says, “One of the things the Spirit has repeatedly impressed upon my mind since my new calling as President of the Church is how willing the Lord is to reveal His mind and will. The privilege of receiving revelation is one of the greatest gifts of God to His children.” God is willing to reveal his mind to us! We just have to do the things he asks us and be worthy to receive his revelation.

     Well, I’m excited for my last week here in Minneapolis. It’s really bittersweet to leave behind the people I’ve grown to love so much. It’s interesting to me that it’s harder to go home than leave home. I remember when I left I was just like, “I’m just gonna go for it and not look back.” As I go home I’ve been counseled to do the same thing. Take what you’ve learned from your mission, remember the miracles you’ve seen, things you’ve learned from the Spirit, keep progressing in the gospel, and then just move forward with faith and know that things will work out as you are faithful and worthy. I’m so grateful for the experiences I’ve had here and the lessons I’ve learned. I’m thankful for the man I’ve become, and am thankful for the blessings of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know God lives, and I know his Son, Jesus Christ, is our Savior and Redeemer, and through Him we can be born again and changed and cleansed from sin. We can also be strengthened and enabled to do the Lord's work and be His hands and voice in the work here on earth. I love you all! Can’t wait to see you this Sunday, Mom and Dad! Love you guys so much! 

Have a great week fam!

Much love,

Elder Beach

Working hard with Elder Akins!  Did I tell you that we discovered that my dad and his mom both served together in the same mission?  And now we're companions!  Awesome, huh?

District p-day!

The "Three Amigos" at Kevin's baptism.  

One of my favorite ward members in the Lake Nakomis Ward.  He helps us out so much!

Happy Father's Day to my Dad and all the Dads out there!!

Sunday night miracles are the best! - and Kevin's baptism!

     What’s up to all my fam, friends and coaches back home! Hope you’re all doing well and enjoying the start of summer break! I can’t believe how fast time is flying by.  I've only got two more weeks of work until my parents get here! Pretty crazy! This week was awesome. I feel like I’ve grown a lot this last transfer of my mission and also that Heavenly Father is helping me to see miracles more and more each day in the course of the work. I’m grateful for His ever present hand in this great work! We had a lot of cool stories from this week so I’d just like to share all of those.

     First off, Kevin Cornelius that I was able to teach in the Minnetonka ward with Elders Gooch and Nielson got baptized on Saturday. His parents both came to the baptism and sat on either side of him during the service. I was able to be a witness for the baptism and also be in the circle to confirm Kevin. This was honestly one of the most powerful spiritual experiences I’ve had on my mission. I remember the first time we taught Kevin. He was very skeptical and didn’t seem like he really wanted anything to do with the church. As we kept teaching him, as he kept reading the Book of Mormon, his heart changed. He changed. You could see that he wanted the restored gospel in his life. I was so grateful to see that be able to come full circle on Saturday.  When we confirmed him a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and conferred upon him the gift of the Holy Ghost, I cried tears of joy and happiness for Kevin. This is only the second time I think I’ve cried on my mission (the first day in the MTC was the first time haha) It was awesome to see Kevin, lots of members of the Minnetonka ward, and lots of missionaries I’ve served there with. 

     One of the really cool things we’ve had happen this week was seeing the power of our testimonies combined with the influence of the spirit change people's hearts as we talk to them! On Saturday, we were stopping by a less active member and she didn’t live there so we were walking back to our car and saw a guy next door to her house out front checking his mailbox. We stopped to talk to him and found out he was atheist and wasn’t super interested in any sort of religion. He was slightly rude to us and just seemed like every other atheist I’ve talked to on my mission. However, he asked us the question, “How do you know there is a God?” It was interesting because I had just read a scripture in Alma that day answering this question! So Alma is preaching to an anti-Christ named Korihor. Korihor basically says I’m not gonna believe in God unless you show me a sign that there is a God. Alma answers with the following response in verse 44: But Alma said unto him: Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator. 

     So we shared that verse with him and then we each bore testimony of how we knew that there was a God and also about the true nature of God. Elder Akins is so good at sharing his testimony and inviting the spirit to bear witness to others that what we are sharing is true. I’ve really loved that aspect of working with him. He is so good at just sharing his testimony and inviting others to gain a testimony the same way he did. It is awesome. Anyway, we continued to teach him about the Plan of Salvation and testify to him. By the end of talking to him he said to us that he actually felt he was more agnostic and not atheist.  It is amazing to see the spirit work in people’s hearts. Literally all we did was teach truth and bear testimony. He accepted a Book of Mormon and an invitation to read Alma 32 and pray about it. He said he would check it out but probably wasn’t interested in meeting again unless he had some questions. It was just really amazing to see the spirit work in him in like 25 minutes. It was sweet! 

     On Sunday we tracted into this lady named Caroline. She opened the door and was like, “In this house we are 7th Day Adventists.”  I was like, “Oh man, here we go haha.” I haven’t had the best experiences with them on my mission. So we asked her what exactly she believed and she told us she only believed in the Bible and some other stuff that seemed a little interesting to me.  She said she didn’t believe the Book of Mormon was scripture and I started to ask her why she believed that if she’d never read it. Elder Akins jumped in and asked, “So how did you gain a testimony of the Bible?” She told us how she had read it after going though a period of time in her life where she didn’t believe in God or anything like that. She came to know it was true through reading it and praying to know if it was true. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?  Elder Akins shared his testimony of the Book of Mormon and how he came to know it was true through following the promise in Moroni 10. I was then able to share my testimony of the Book of Mormon as well and how we can enhance our testimony of Christ through reading it and asking God if it is true, much in the same way she did with the Bible. At this point she was like,“I guess that makes sense. I will take a Book of Mormon and read some of it.” She had told us that she had skimmed through it before and found a lot of things she didn’t agree with in it. I bore testimony to her that if I just skimmed through it, I would also find a lot of stuff that I didn’t agree with either. It was through diligent study of it and sincere prayers that I came to know it was true for myself. She accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon. The power of bearing pure testimony is real!

     Another really cool thing that happened this week was we were able to do a new member lesson with Thome' in the Showley’s home on Thursday night. It was awesome! Thome' just got back from Utah because he went out to visit and go to the 40th anniversary celebration of “Be One” this past weekend. He loved it and said he felt such a great spirit in Salt Lake City and at the conference center. We had planned to read some the talk “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for our Lives” by Russell M. Nelson. Thome' expressed some of his questions he had had about whether or not to move to Utah, stay here in Minnesota, or maybe even move to Denver. He really wants to find a Mormon wife, raise a family in the church, one day serve a mission, and also continue to work for U.S. Bank. All of these are playing a part in his decision. The Showleys were amazing in sharing experiences they have had in their lives with personal revelation and we talked a lot about how to receive it for ourselves. I would strongly recommend reading that talk and applying the things President Nelson teaches us about personal revelation into your own lives. I’m still working on them, and try to fully incorporate each aspect of it, but I’ve already seen great strides in my ability to hear the spirit and receive guidance and answers in my life. This quote from his talk stood out to me more than any other thing I heard in conference this April: “Our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again. We will see miraculous indications that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, preside over this Church in majesty and glory. But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.” President Nelson is without any shadow of doubt the prophet of God. I know he knows things are coming in this world that we must be prepared for. I do not know what those things are. But I do know that having the spirit with us is essential. Being able to know truth and find answers and receive personal revelation in the coming days is necessary for our spiritual survival. Anyway, it was a sweet lesson. 

     Ok 2 more things and then I’ll be done for the week! So the biggest miracle we had this week was Sunday night at 8:30 pm. So we stopped by this less active part member family and they weren’t home, go figure haha.  So next door there was this family out playing with their dog. So we stopped and talked to them! We ended up teaching the whole family the restoration on the front porch! So there was a Mom named Quinetta and her 3 kids and then her brother DeAndre. DeAndre said he grew up religious but didn’t really go to a church or feel like he had a lot of faith. He was such a nice, genuine guy and we answered all his questions. Quinetta had some really good questions as well and I felt like we just clicked really well with them. They were super nice and we set up a return appointment for next Sunday, and they also said they would like to do a church tour on Saturday, so we need to get that set up with them! It was such a great way to cap off the week.  Elder Akins and I were on cloud 9! Such a cool miracle!

     Lastly, I read this amazing talk by Elder Uchtdorf this week called, “The Adventure of Mortality.” It talks a lot about enjoying our life journey and how we can find joy in the journey. He talked about counseling with the Lord in our decisions and had this couple of paragraphs that really stuck out to me: "Now, when we speak of letting God guide our lives, I would like to clarify one thing. You might not like what I’m about to tell you. When you ask God what to do about decisions in your life--including some important decisions--He may not give you a clear answer. The truth is that sometimes it just doesn’t matter to the Lord what you decide, as long as you stay within the fundamental covenants and principles of the gospel.

     In many cases, the decisions you make may not be as important as what you do after making the decision.

For example, a couple may choose to get married even though some in their own families do not consider them a perfect match. However, I have a great deal of hope for such a couple if, after the decision is made, they stay totally committed to each other and to the Lord with all their heart and mind. By treating each other with love and kindness and focusing on one another’s emotional, spiritual, and temporal needs--by doing the “little” things consistently--they become the perfect match.

     In contrast is the couple who thinks they picked the “perfect” person and then assumes that all the heavy lifting is over. If they quit courting each other, stop communicating one-on-one, and slide back into egotism and a self-centered life--this couple is on a path that leads to sorrow and regret.

     The same principle applies to vocational choices. I have great hope for those who pick a less prestigious occupation but who do the best they can and find ways to make their work interesting and challenging.“

     I felt like that stuck out to me a lot as I’ve been thinking about my future job, spouse, life etc. Those were some great words for me to read and know that whatever I decide to do, as long as it is within the fundamental covenants and principles of the gospel, it will all work out! I know this is true for everyone. God loves us and wants us to make our own choices. He will help guide us in our choices but also wants us to make our own decisions. Whatever we decide, God will help us and it’ll work out as long as we go for it with faith and trust in God!

     Well it’s been a great week. Looking forward to 2 more good ones. Thanks for all the prayers and support and I can’t wait to see you all soon! Love you all!

Much love,

Elder Beach

My former companions, Elders Gooch and Nielson, with whom I helped teach Kevin.  This is at Kevin's baptism.  One of the highlights of my mission!

Having some fun with some of the other missionaries.

The cool hats I bought at Mall of America.

Mission Conference and Ministering

     What’s up to all my fam, friends and coaches back home, at school, and serving around the world!  Hope you are all doing well, enjoying the start of summer and having a blast in whatever you’re doing! This week's been pretty good! It’s been kind of a different than your “traditional” week of missionary work, but I’ve learned some good lessons! So continuing my last transfer tradition of lessons I’ve learned, and cool stories, here’s the weekly email:

     So this week we had mission conference on Thursday in Bloomington. Elder Dyches of the 70 came and did a few trainings with us. He used to be the Mission President of the Oregon, Portland Mission and he’s an intense guy. President Barney is super chill and I love him to death and would run through the wall for him. Elder Dyches I would also run through the wall for, but just because he’d be right behind me chasing me through it!  He’s a pretty fire and brimstone kind of guy. He did a training about reading the Book of Mormon with our investigators and recent converts. I’ve found the longer I’ve been out, the more I try to get everyone we work with in the Book of Mormon during lessons. He said the church did a study in the Alabama, Birmingham and somewhere in Fifi missions and when members read the Book of Mormon every day with recent converts, they had a 100% retention rate. 100%! That’s amazing! That just goes to show how powerful the Book of Mormon is in conversion and retention. I’m so grateful God has given us the Book of Mormon in this day and age because heaven knows we need it!  I really can’t even put into words how grateful I am for it and the additional knowledge and spiritual enlightenment it has brought into my life. Another thing he taught us was to show gratitude to members. He taught us how to make a little origami missionary thank you note. It was pretty cool and I need to start making them for members or investigators! They’re pretty cool. I’m so grateful for all the members in Minnesota that have opened their homes and hearts to me in the last two years. As I look back on all of them, there are so many that come to mind! It’s amazing all the awesome people and families I’ve been able to meet and associate with as a missionary. What a blessing that has been for me! 

     Cool finding story this week: Elder Akins and I were walking down a road about a half mile south of our apartment. We were doing a “spirit walk” where you just walk around and knock whatever houses you feel inspired to knock on and talk to people outside. So we were walking down the road and this lady comes out of an apartment on our left, so we headed over to talk to her. Her mom pulled up right when we started talking to her and she said she had to leave. We quickly shared a few sentences about the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon, got her address, and set up to meet with her the next day. So we went back the next morning and she actually kept the appointment! Her name is Arnisia, and she’s actually 16. She looked a lot older haha.  Both her parents were Baptist pastors when she was growing up, but she hated church and all the talk of going to hell and stuff. She’s currently living in foster care (not sure why?) and told us her relationship with God isn’t quite what she wants it to be. She felt like bad things just kept happening to her and she didn’t know why. We spent a good deal of the lesson just talking about who God is, our relationship to Him and how we can build our relationship with Him. We also taught her the restoration and after we shared the first vision she’s like, “I’m speechless! That is absolutely amazing!” As we taught her we also were able to use a lot of Book of Mormon scripture to support our testimonies. It was a great lesson and the spirit was super strong.  She said she and her foster mom would be at church on Sunday, but they didn’t show up and we’ve tried to stop by and haven’t been able to get ahold of her since then.  Keep us/her in your prayers that we can get back in contact with her!

     One thing we’ve been doing a lot this week is ministering to members. I feel like my mission has prepared me a lot to minister to members back home in whatever ward I end up in. I’ve also come to realize that some members have been ministering long before the new ministering program came out. Brother Ramsey (they feed us every Friday) is the epitome of ministering. He works with so many members who are less active or need some extra help behind the scenes. The longer I’ve been here, the more I’ve seen just how much he does. If you weren’t in ward council or knew him well, you’d never know that, but he ministers and befriends so many members and helps them out a lot! He’s awesome! So we’ve been working with this semi-active member named Robbie Virkus. He’s got Schizophrenia and is working to get off smoking and coffee and drinking. We’ve been meeting with him like once a week and reading the Book of Mormon with him and sometimes help him clean up his apartment! We call him every day and see how he’s doing with reading and he’s gotten to the point where he will read a chapter and then call us and ask for another one. He’s a little off mentally, but he’s a nice guy and has a good heart. His birthday was on Sunday, so Elder Sherwood baked him a cake and we all went and visited him Sunday night. He was pretty stoked we came over to visit him! He said his birthday went from a 5 to an 8 after we came over. So I was glad we could help make his birthday a little better! Another way we were able to minister on Sunday was we visited a member from the Buffalo ward in the VA hospital. He had open heart surgery last week and has been in there since Tuesday last week.  We visited him for about 45 minutes on Sunday afternoon and he was so happy to have someone to visit with. He told us his conversion story and it was really cool! I was glad to see him again and glad he’s doing well! After that we took Brother Barrett (he’s a ward missionary and he’s blind) to visit the Soogers. He’s their ministering brother and told us he hasn’t been able to set up anything with them, so we we got an appointment set up with the Soogers and took Brother Barrett with us. We had a great visit and I felt like it went really well. Brother Barrett was super grateful to be able to visit them because he hadn’t been able to connect with them for a while. I also got to know Brother Barrett a lot better while we drove there and drove him home! He’s such a nice guy. I like him a lot!

     Last Monday night we got to go down to the Gretz for a BBQ at their new house. It was super fun to see them again! They’re one of the families I’m super grateful I’ve been able to meet on my mission. We helped set up and take all the tables and chairs down and had a little bonfire afterwards. It was a big ward party in the Lake Marion ward so Elder Meyer was there, too, and we hung out for the evening with them. It was really fun to reconnect with great friends I’ve met in the mission! 

     One last insight I’d like to share from this week is from my studies of “submitting our will to the will of the Lord.” It talks about this concept in my patriarchal blessing, and I realized it’s something I really suck at, so I figured I should study it and work on it! As I was reading the Book of Mormon, I am in Mosiah right after King Noah kills Abinadi and then is killed himself. Then King Noah’s son, Limhi, takes over as King. His people are in bondage to the Lamanites and decide to go to war against them 3 times in a row even though they get murked each time they go to war. It says in Mosiah 21:13-16: 

13 And they did humble themselves even to the dust, subjecting themselves to the yoke of bondage, submitting themselves to be smitten, and to be driven to and fro, and burdened, according to the desires of their enemies.

14 And they did humble themselves even in the depths of humility; and they did cry mightily to God; yea, even all the day long did they cry unto their God that he would deliver them out of their afflictions.

15 And now the Lord was slow to hear their cry because of their iniquities; nevertheless the Lord did hear their cries, and began to soften the hearts of the Lamanites that they began to ease their burdens; yet the Lord did not see fit to deliver them out of bondage.

16 And it came to pass that they began to prosper by degrees in the land, and began to raise grain more abundantly, and flocks, and herds, that they did not suffer with hunger.

     So after doing their own will for a while and nothing good happened, they submitted themselves to the will of the Lord and were humble and accepted what he wanted them to do. Even though it sucked and they were in bondage to the Lamanites, eventually the Lord prospered them in the land as they were humble and submitted patiently to the will of the Lord. Later on in chapter 24 it uses those exact words of “submitting patiently and cheerfully to all the will of the Lord.” I’ve learned that submitting to God's will for us is often hard because it isn’t exactly what we want and often times it forces us to go through the refiner's fire a little bit. However, as we are patient and cheerful, relying upon the Lord and His knowledge and goodness, things always work out in the end for our benefit! The people of Limhi eventually are found by Ammon from the land of Zarahemla and escape the bondage of the Lamanites. So in the end it all worked out for them! They just had to be patient. I am absolutely sure they grew in their faithfulness and ability to trust in the will of the Lord from this experience though! Pretty cool stuff.

     Well, it’s been a good week! 3 more to go, haha pretty wild. I’m excited to give it my all the last 3 weeks. I’m so tired some days. It’s like the last 100 meters of a 400 meter sprint. You’re just dead, but gotta keep going haha. I’m grateful for the strengthening power of the atonement of Jesus Christ that gives me the ability to do this work. I have nowhere near the ability to do it on my own. Thank you for your prayers and support from back home. They help so much and mean the world to me! Love you all, you’re always in my prayers.

Much love,

Elder Beach

Visiting the VA hospital.

On our way to Mission Conference.

Mission Conference!

Hanging out with Elder Meyer at Mission Conference.

On our way home from Mission Conference... :)

Hanging out at the Gretz for Memorial Day.

Good hot week!

     What’s up to all my fam, friends, and coaches back home, at school, and serving around the world! Hope this email finds you all doing well and enjoying the nice toasty weather.  It’s been a pretty hot, humid week here in Minnesota. I can slightly sympathize with my brother, Jackson, but we are nowhere near the heat and humidity you’re at in Alabama haha. Also, happy 19th birthday to Jackson! Hope you had a great birthday in the mission field! This week has been pretty good! Lots of biking, finding, etc....

     So for my last transfer I’ve decided I’m just going to share things I’ve learned, insights, etc., plus include stories from the week instead of doing a “travel log” haha. 

     This week I’ve been able to realize how much I’m going to miss Minnesota and the people I’ve come to know and love here. Elder Sherwood and I got to go on exchanges this week. He’s the ZL and I’m the DL so we exchange once a transfer. I trained him about a year ago in Apple valley and now we live together again. It was fun to talk about our experiences, challenges, successes, and humorous times we had a year ago and then work together now and see how much we’ve changed and grown! I’m really going to miss the missionaries I’ve been able to serve around this transfer, Elders Akins, Peterson and Sherwood. Those guys are awesome and I’ve learned a lot from each one of them! It’s also been fun to reconnect with some people I’ve taught or been friends with earlier in my mission. My parents are coming out to visit at the end of my mission next month and I’ve been getting stuff set up with people to visit them. It’s crazy how many people I’ve become friends with! There’s so many members and others here that I’ve grown to love so dearly. As excited as I am to go home, it’s gonna be so hard to leave all those people behind. Anyway, back to exchanges with Elder Sherwood! We found a guy named Jeremy who just got out of teen challenge. He lives like 4 blocks from the church and told us he’s looking for a home church for himself because he just moved from Lakeville to Minneapolis. Crazy part: we met him on a bike trail bridge going over highway 35W which is like 4 miles from the church. He was just sitting on a bench and we biked up and stopped to talk to him. We shared a Book of Mormon with him and hopefully we can meet with him again this week! He said he would come to church, but didn’t show up. That was probably our coolest story from exchanges. We basically did a lot of stop bys haha, and most people had moved. 

     One thing I really learned on Saturday and Sunday is that things work out according to God’s timing and plan, not ours! We planned to stop by Eric (we taught him a few weeks ago at Sister Wetzel’s house and haven’t been able to contact him much since) in the morning and when we got to his apartment Saturday morning, we realized I didn’t have my bike lock and neither did Elder Akins. So we had to call the South Elders and have them bring them up to us. While we were waiting we did some area book work, and then we went to try to get into Eric’s apartment building. We got to the front door and it was a lockout building, so we tried to get the buzzer to work and it didn’t. Then Elder Akins just grabs the door and it opened right up so we got in! We knocked on Eric’s door and nobody answered, but it sounded like the shower was on so we walked outside and met this lady named Alexis. She was sitting out front of the apartment smoking and we talked to her about prophets and the Book of Mormon for like 20 minutes. She had some interesting beliefs, but we found a lot of common ground and she was excited to have a Book of Mormon to read. After we talked to her, we went back inside and knocked on Eric’s door and he was there and working us in! We ended up having a really long talk with him and he just told us about all the struggles he is going through. We shared some advice and shared a few scriptures with him and downloaded the gospel library app on his phone for him! We also got him a ride set up for church with Sister Wetzel, and he told us he was for sure coming to church because he had the whole weekend off. As we left, I thought it was awesome how everything fell into place perfectly so we could meet Alexis and still meet with Eric even though I forgot my bike lock and we were running a little behind schedule. Nothing happens by accident. So that was awesome! 

     Sunday morning, we waited for Eric forever and he didn’t show up. So we were some sad pups for about 30 minutes. We had to run home really quick to get Thome’s baptism form so the bishop could sign it. When we got back, Eric was there! He ended up taking the bus to church, so he was late, but he showed up and stayed for the whole time! The members were awesome fellowshipping him and he’s going to “Solo” with the Elders Quorum today for their activity haha.  In Gospel Principles we talked about studying the scriptures. Eric had told us he had a friend struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts, so we shared Alma 7:11-12 with him to share with his friend. He talked about how he shared it on Saturday with his friend and his friend texted him and said, “Where did you get that scripture? Cuz it isn’t in the Bible!” Eric told him it was from the Book of Mormon. His friend was amazed and really liked it. Eric said it impacted his friend a lot and helped him tremendously. I’m so grateful for the power of the Book of Mormon to “comfort, cheer and lift our souls” as President Nelson said last October. The Book of Mormon truly does that. The impact it had on Eric’s friend was some convincing evidence of that. I am very grateful for the Book of Mormon, Bible, and all other scriptures and revelations we have. They have helped me so much in my life. They contain answers to literally any questions we have. The answers aren’t always found in the words on the page, but as you read, the spirit can speak to you. It is an amazing revelatory process and evidence that God truly does speak to us. So those were some cool miracles as part of a huge story haha.

     I think I talked about this last week, but I’m grateful to be able to serve others. I love it! I’m so excited to get home and be able to minister to others through serving them and being their friend! It’s exciting! On Monday night we helped Brother Parsons haul a bunch of wood from his back yard to his truck and then we cleaned off this huge tarp he had. It was fun to help him out, build our relationship with him, and be able to serve! We also were able to do a lot of yard work for Sister McLain this week. We did a lot of landscaping with bricks and cinder blocks in her yard. We put in a couple of retaining walls in her garden areas and that was pretty fun! I’ve never done it before, but I enjoyed it. It was super hot on Thursday. Elder Akins and I were pretty dead after we got done. We dug out a 30 foot ditch and laid cinderblocks in the bottom. We had to level out everything and make sure it was all straight and stuff. It was hard work haha.  Sister McLain is awesome and she fed us Thai food every day we helped her this week. She’s a great lady, and I’m thankful we were able to help her out a lot! We also were able to help Sister Scott and Sister Solie dig out a big bush in their yard and replant it in another part of the yard. I’ve never done that before either, but I think it turned out pretty good.  haha We also got to go to the VA again this week for service. We made some collages where we cut out pictures from magazines that represent us. So I cut out football stuff and outdoors stuff and I look over at Frank who’s sitting right next to me. He’s cutting out Sports Illustrated swimsuit models.  I almost lost it.  These guys are like 80-90 years old and that’s what they’re cutting out for their collages haha! Elder Peterson and I had a good chuckle at that. Pretty funny!

     Another lesson I learned this week is to always, always, always share your testimony with people. People can gain a testimony for themselves, but hearing others share their testimonies is so powerful. Elder Akins and I have had the opportunity this week to teach and testify together while finding and it is powerful. The spirit is so strong when we both teach and then testify together. Friday night we did a zone finding hour and Elder Akins and I tracted this street in the northwest part of our area. We didn’t find anyone super solid and we were walking back towards our car to hit a few more houses before we had to leave. There was a lady sitting out on her front lawn and we stopped to talk to her. Elder Akins shared his testimony of the power the Book of Mormon has had in his life, and then I was able to share mine too. She accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon. She didn’t want to meet again, but I know she felt the spirit and I’m hoping that she will read so she can feel the spirit again! Yesterday we were way over by the Mississippi River doing some stop bys and we were walking down the road and this guy was behind a big row of bushes trimming them up, so we stopped to see if we could help. We ended up talking to him for nearly 30 minutes. He was Jewish and we talked about our beliefs and he talked about his as well. He didn’t believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior or Messiah, and Elder Akins and I both shared our testimonies of Jesus Christ and of the knowledge we’ve gained from reading the Book of Mormon. In the title page of the Book of Mormon it states that one of the purposes of the Book is “convincing the Jew and the Gentile that Jesus is the Christ.” I’m thankful for the Bible which testifies of His life and mission here on earth and the Book of Mormon which gives us additional knowledge and a second witness of his reality and divinity as Savior and Redeemer of the world! As we shared our testimonies, I felt the spirit so strong. I was hoping and praying our words would touch his heart and I don’t know if they did. He wasn’t super excited about anything we said, but hopefully he felt the spirit and feels it again as he reads the Book of Mormon and prays about it!

     Well, it’s been a great week here in Lake Nokomis! Only 4 more weeks. Pretty wild! I’ll be forever grateful for this time I’ve had here to serve the Lord and the great people of Minnesota. I always find it funny when we knock on someone’s door at 2 or 3 pm and it’s 100 degrees and we are just dripping in sweat and they say, “What the heck are you doing outside?” or “Why are you doing this?! It’s so hot!” We usually just say, “Yeah it is pretty hot! But we have a great message we are sharing today!” I’ve thought a lot about why young men and women leave home for 18-24 months to face the unknown, all sorts of extreme weather, angry/rude/ignorant people, illness, homesickness, stress, etc...the list goes on. When I first came out I was just here because it was my plan all along to serve a mission. Other than that, I couldn’t really give you a solid reason I was here. The longer I’ve been out, the more I’ve come to know why I am still out. I’m still out because I love God, my Father in Heaven, and His son, Jesus Christ. I’m humbly grateful to be their voice and hands in the work of salvation. I do what I do because I have a testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I have seen the fruits of it in my own life, in my family’s lives, and those evidences along with the spiritual witness I’ve received help me know it is true. I love serving others and helping them feel of God's love that I am so lucky to feel each day. I have truly grown to love the work, even when it’s hot, hard, tiring, stressful, depressing, etc. It is in the fiery furnace that God refines us and makes us into something more pure and better than we were. I’m grateful for my family and friends back home! I love you all and hope you know how much I appreciate the impact you’ve had on me to help me get where I’m at today. I’m also grateful for the family and friends I’ve come to have here in Minnesota. It’s been my home away from home for the last 23 months. I love being a missionary and I love sharing the gospel with others and serving them in any way I can.  It’s amazing! I love you all! Thanks for the prayers and support! Have a great week!

Much love,

Elder Beach

P.S. I did Memorial Day “Murph” workout today in 49:41! 

1 mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, 1 mile run

 Elder Sherwood was kind enough to do the runs with me! 95 degrees with 65% humidity. It was a scorcher haha.

Working hard in the yard!

Showing off my boots after district meeting.

Elder Millicam doing a "grinch impression".  He went to Sky View with me!

Happy Memorial Day!