Transfers!

     Hello to all my family, friends, and coaches back home, at school, and serving the Lord around the world! Hope this email finds you well and loving life and enjoying is beautiful fall time of year! I love the fall so much. It's my favorite time of the year.  Elder Meyer and I are going "eternal" so we will be going 3 transfers together in Sauk Rapids. So I will be here at least 2 more probably, unless it gets whitewashed next transfer. 

     Anyway, this week's been a good week! Monday we went to this big mall and walked around and looked at the stores. We went to Boot Barn and checked out some cowboy boots. The lady kinda gave us the run around and tried to get us to buy the most expensive pair because she said they'd last longer than all the other ones. Then this dude comes in and he has a pair of the cheaper ones on and she asks him how long he's had them. He tells her like 4 years longer than she told us they were able to last. So I was a little upset and we decided to leave because we weren't getting the straight up answers from the lady working there. Oh well.  After that we did some shopping, laundry and worked out and threw the football around at the church.  We went and knocked some doors in the evening and found a few cool people to talk to. We met a Jehovah's Witness, and he was way nice and talked to us for like 20 minutes and took a Book of Mormon! So that was cool! After that we had a lesson with LJ and we taught him the Plan of Salvation and drew out the picture of it for him to help him understand it better. We are having a tough time getting him to church because the people at his group home switch staff members right when he needs to come to church, so it's tough to get him there, and we can't get him a ride unfortunately because the group home workers have to give him rides. So we are still working on that, and hopefully can get it figured out today!

     Tuesday we did service at Connie's house. Elder Meyer did most of the teaching this week and I did most of the mowing which was great because I really enjoy mowing lawns. I can just get lost in my thoughts and go to work. Connie said she wants to come check out church now and we are going to give her a Book of Mormon this week. After that we had a lesson with Flora at the church. She is having a rough time with her parents not wanting her to go to church or mutual and some other stuff. So we just talked about that and how she can prayerfully approach how she will talk her parents about it. It was a good lesson and hopefully we helped her out. After that, Brother Christie drove us up to Rice to knock some doors and have a lesson with the Squires family. We found this girl named Sadie who we taught a little about the restoration and Book of Mormon, and she took a Book of Mormon, too, so that was sweet! We did a lesson about the Book of Mormon with the Squires family after that. Brother Squires is less active, but his wife is active, so we invited them to have daily individual and family Book of Mormon study. Reading the Book of Mormon each day is such a benefit, and I truly believe can solve like 99% of problems in homes and work and life! After that we had to drive all the way down to Becker for dinner at the bishop's house. His sister, who is a member of another faith, was there for dinner, and so we were able to teach her a restoration lesson and she took a Book of Mormon and said she would read it! She lives in the cities though, but Bishop said he will follow up with her. Bishop made one of the bedrooms in their house into an escape room. So we got to try to escape from this room and it was way cool! Bishop made everything in it, and all the contraptions and locks and stuff, and it was fun! We got out in like 35 minutes. You get an hour to get out, so we did good.  After that, Brother Roback took us to see the Alecksons, who are a less active family who were baptized in the Princeton ward, and have been less active for like 5-6 years. We finally got in with them and it was great. They seem ready to return to activity, so we will be working with them now! After that we headed back home because the drive is like 40 minutes. We found out we would be getting Facebook approved to use as missionaries, so we got our Facebook set up that night too. 

     Wednesday we had district meetings in the morning and then we went and did service for Stephanie. That was awesome! Her two sisters were visiting from out of town, and her one sister asked us a ton of questions about the church and stuff, so we sent her home with a pass along card, articles of faith card, 3 pamphlets and a Book of Mormon. She seemed really interested and said she had some friends back home in California that were Mormons and loved them! So that was sweet! S also told us we could come teach her this week.  After that we went to SCSU and did some contacting. Contacting is really hard for me haha. I struggle talking to college kids and getting them interested, but I think I got a good system down now haha. We met this girl who we taught and are teaching again this Friday. After that we had dinner with Sister Kennedy and Gold and Dave. We then drove out to Foley and stopped by some people out there. We had a lesson with Christy that we met last week. She is a little crazy haha. She's way into miraculous healings and evil spirits and stuff like that. So we ended up somehow talking about the Plan of Salvation as part of that haha. But it was really good! We invited her to read the Book of Mormon and to come to church, but she didn't come this week because she was out of town again.  We stopped by Bart, who was the deacon at that church in Foley. He's actually a way chill guy. We talked for about 20 minutes with him and he gave us some pre-workout stuff because he works for Advocare. So we got to talk about fitness stuff and all that! We did some more tracting too, and found a few people who were nice and would listen, but not super interested. We stopped by Jessica that we met last week and gave a Book of Mormon to. She hadn't read any of it, but her 10-year-old daughter had. Her daughter loved it, but Jessica wasn't very interested and neither was her husband, so we aren't teaching them anymore. But someday they may be ready!

     Thursday was a crazy long day haha. We had accounting in the morning and then had to work on the zone focus with the STLs and that was long. Lots of Skyping and sitting around and stuff haha.  After that we had service at the humane society and we cleaned out this giant shed for them and then washed some more dishes and crates and stuff! It was fun and I love doing service there. The people are super nice. After that Brother Poulsen took us out to Foley to have a lesson with the Cosgroves. We had a great lesson with them. We read "The Living Christ" and watched this video called "Lifting Burdens", which is all the apostles sharing testimonies of the Savior and his atonement. It was so spiritual and I loved the discussion we had about Christ. It was awesome! After that we drove down to Becker and visited Sister Shierts. She is a single lady and her husband passed away from cancer like 13 years ago. Her sons are less active, but she is active and is way nice! She and her husband built their house from the ground up all by themselves. It's this huge log cabin on like 65 acres of land. It's so awesome. It was like my dream home!  Elder Meyer shared this video called "Because of Him", and as we were watching I just like lost it haha.  I realized how awesome it is that Christ died and rose again, and because of that we can, too, and we can fix our wrongs and become better. It just really hit me hard and I really felt the spirit as we were watching it. I'm so very grateful for our Savior and his atoning sacrifice for us and the possibility it gives us to repent and change and also to live with our families forever. It's so awesome!  After that we drove down to Elk River to pick up the Sisters for MLC. We dropped them off in Maple Grove and then we went down to Medicine Lake and stayed with Elders Boothe and Hickman. We had a grand old time. I love those guys haha. 

     Friday morning we played some ball at the Crystal building with some guys from the Weaver Lake ward and us, the Medicine Lake and Crystal Elders. It was pretty fun! After that we drove down to Bloomington for MLC. We talked a lot about how to use Facebook and watched some new training videos on it and stuff. It was fun and great to see all my buds from around the mission.  We had dinner with the Duncombes on Friday night on the way back up from MLC. They have a huge house and property in Becker and have like a CrossFit/American ninja warrior gym in their basement, so I got to do pull-ups and monkey bars and a peg board, too. It was way fun! Peg boards are hard haha, but I was able to do it not too bad for my first time.  After that we had to go home and get the zone focus finished up. We did a zone focus based off of using Facebook and watching all the new training videos and learning how to use it and then applying what we learn to effectively use Facebook. While we were at the church some of the YM and Brother Casper and Brother Dohm came to the church from an activity, and then we discovered that a bat was in the church. Elder Meyer and I were trying to chase it out and it wouldn't leave, and then Brother Dohm was trying to hit it with a broom and it was a mess haha. Never a dull moment in Sauk Rapids haha. 

     Saturday we helped Brother Hilsgen side his trailer, and we did like half of it! Once Elder Meyer and I got the hang of it, we were cruising on getting the siding up. So we did a good job haha, and now I would consider myself a professional sider.  So if anyone needs someone to side their house, I will be happy to do it in like 9 months haha.  After that we had a lesson with Ashley before she leaves for Disney World this week. So we get there, and she tells us she doesn't want to get baptized into our church and she wants to start going to her church that she hasn't been to in like 4 years and doesn't even know where it is.  So anyway, it was a rough lesson and she was chain smoking the whole lesson, so that was tough, too. We got her Facebook, and will probably just send her videos or scriptures each day on Facebook to help build her faith. Hopefully she will come around soon. After that we drove up to Little Falls and did some stop bys, and then had dinner and lesson with the Dobsons. We read D&C 89 and taught the Word of Wisdom because Brother Dobson is definitely struggling with it, but he acts like he isn't. We really focused on the blessings promised in section 89 about mental, physical and spiritual strength. After that we helped them move this huge couch from their friend's house to their place! Then we had to drive home because it's like a 45 minute drive home from there. 

     Sunday we had to weekly plan in the morning and then we had church. Church was awesome! It was fast and testimony meeting and like every single person bore their testimony on the Book of Mormon or the Savior and His atonement. It was super awesome, and the spirit was so strong. Dan Smith and Jill Charter both came. We still haven't heard anything from Matt, and Emily said she hasn't either. The last she heard from him was that he wasn't interested in coming to church anymore. Second hour we got to have a lesson with Jill and Brother Charter on the restoration of the gospel. Brother Charter bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon to her and it was way powerful. He was like sobbing. It was so good. Brother Roback taught the lesson in Elders Quorum and it was on this talk by President Uchtdorf called "Come, Join With Us". It was a super good talk. He talks about doubting your doubts before you doubt your faith. That's something I've really come to appreciate and believe in on my mission. Some days I am just like, "Why am I here? Nothing seems to be going right and I don't even know if this is right." But in those moments I always find myself going back to what I know: The Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet, Jesus Christ lives and loves me and he will never forsake me, and God loves me and has a perfect plan for me even if I can't see it immediately. Those are some of the truths I can always hold on to when the waters are a little rough. After church we went and stopped by Adam and his family. They were chopping down this huge tree in their back yard and so we helped him with that and it was pretty legit haha. Adam was super glad we came and helped, and his kids love us now haha cuz I did a pull-up contest with them. We then knocked some doors for about an hour and met some not super nice people, but it was still good haha. This one guy answered the door and was like, "I had a revelation that 2 church people would come knock on my door and if they believed in the Apostle's Creed then I would talk to them about their church." So we are getting hyped because we thought he was going to be interested in our message but..... he just wanted to bash with us.  He said when Christ died on the cross and said, "It's finished," that ended all further revelation to people on the earth. So I asked him about Peter receiving a revelation to teach the gospel to all the gentiles as well as the Jews. He had no answer for it and I was like, "Ok... so explain that one to me."  He then just kept bashing and said we do too much to follow Christ. Like we don't have to get baptized because it's just an outward sign of an inner commitment to follow Christ. So we read John 3:5 with him and he still said we don't don't have to get baptized. He then kept telling us Joseph Smith was wrong and he just added a bunch onto what Christ taught. We just invited him to read the Book of Mormon and he said no. So we asked him why and he said because all we need is in the Bible. Obviously that is wrong because no one can agree on the same scriptures in the Bible.  Anyway, he didn't want to hear it, so we just left. People who want to bash and tell us we are wrong just make me shake my head haha.  After that we had dinner with the Charters and we had some fish and lots of veggies so it was way good! Then we had coordination meeting with Brother Charter and went home and did some numbers and called it a night. 

     This week was fun and I'm excited to spend 6 more weeks here in Sauk Rapids with Elder Meyer. This week I realized how strong my testimony of the Savior really is. I really attribute it to reading the Book of Mormon each day and the words of our prophets and apostles. The more I've studied about Christ, the more I've come to appreciate how much he has done for me and for everyone. I'm grateful that God loved us enough to give His only begotten son to come and live and die and live again for us! I'm grateful that I can change and repent and improve because of what He has done for me and the redemptive power of the atonement of Jesus Christ. It is truly amazing to me that Christ can heal us and help us and give us power to overcome the world. 

     Thanks for all your love and support from the homefront. I love and miss you all a lot! I hope all is well with you and remember to see the good in each day and look for God's hand in your life. If you seek, you will find. I'm grateful to be doing this work and to be sharing this gospel. It is truly a blessing to represent our Savior Jesus Christ! Good luck to my Mavs and Cats this week. Keep up the good work and keep winning! 

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

My nightly post-workout snack!

I ran into Brother Parkinson!  Elder Cordara and I lived with his family in Maple Grove.

Sister Gretz brought me my insulin from home after visiting my family last month.  "Hand off made, pass received!"

Doing some yard work for Stephanie this week!