Elder Beach Minnesota Minneapolis Mission: Transfers ("Hutchalo" trio)

Hello to all my fam, friends, and coaches back home, at college and serving the Lord around the globe. Hope this email finds you well and enjoying life and whatever you’re doing! So myself, Elder Layton and Elder Woolley will be in a trio in Buffalo and Hutchinson (Hutchalo). I’m hyped to be able to work with us three. We should be able to do some good work together. This week was pretty good! We had some crazy stuff happen and some cool stuff too, so enjoy.

Monday we had a sort of lesson with Homero. He is the Spanish investigator that Elder Cordwell and I taught last week. He told us he doesn’t believe the Book of Mormon is true and he doesn’t want to read it. He said he doesn’t speak enough English to tell us why, so we weren’t able to really discuss it unfortunately. It makes me sad when people won’t even give the Book of Mormon a chance. It’s literally more of the word of God written by prophets of God and people don’t want to read it.‍ Oh well, everyone has their agency! After that we drove down to Arlington to help Brother Checketts with his barn he was building. It was a canvas barn and we helped him do all the framing of the door entrance and install the doors. It was a big canvas door that rolls up on a cable system so we worked on getting that installed and put together. We worked on that until it got dark and then had dinner with Brother and Sister Checketts. It was really good! They’re awesome people and I really love them. I’ve really grown to love all the branch members in the 6 weeks I’ve been here. I’m honestly kind of sad we will only be in Hutch part time, but also excited because there is lots more work in Buffalo! Anyway, after dinner we had a lesson with Lloyd Thurn, who is a recent convert in Glencoe. We visited with him for about an hour and he really opened up and we had a good conversation about his conversion and the gospel. He’s kind of quiet and so it was great to get him to open up and chat and get to know him more. So that was really cool because usually he doesn’t say much!

Tuesday we had district meeting in the morning. We did a testimony meeting and it was really good! Most people’s testimonies were about how their missions had changed them. I know we are called to teach others the gospel and serve others, but as we do that and lose ourselves in that service, it really changes who you are as a person and as a disciple of Christ. It’s been amazing to see the changes in myself the last 17 months, and I’m excited to continue to progress in the last 7 months. After that we drove to Buffalo Lake and Hector. We had a lesson set up with Gary in Buffalo Lake at 3 pm, so we decided to stop by some less actives in Hector before that. We stopped by this dude named Larry Johnson, who is a prospective Elder. He is like 70 something and nobody had met him, so we stopped by. He let us in and everything was pretty normal. Then we got talking and he is crazy. Oh my gosh, he’s a nut. He has a physics degree from MIT, so he’s super smart, but he has some insane ideas about religion and stuff. He has this Urantia book thing that’s written by aliens, I guess. ‍️ It claims there were people in earth like 50,000 years before Adam and Eve. Then it talks about how Adam and Eve had affairs and their illegitimate kids were invisible. It was super weird. So he started sharing all of his insights with us and we just were like what the heck?? We finally got out of there and we had driven like 5 minutes in just dead silence. We then looked at each other and were like, “What the heck just happened?” Like it took 5 minutes for it to sink in how weird the conversation we just had was. It was interesting, to say the least. After that we had a lesson with Gary and that went really well! We taught him the full restoration lesson and invited him to read the Book of Mormon and taught him how to pray! He said everything we taught was super foreign to him, so he would have to ponder on it. We said that will be awesome! Read the Book of Mormon, ponder its message, and pray and ask God if it is true! So hopefully he will do that. We are going to stop by again next time we are down there and see how it is going with him. After that we drove up to Litchfield because we were going up to Sauk Rapids to blitz with the ZLs. So we visited the Reisewitzes in Litchfield. Brother Reisewitz is a member and his wife isn’t, but she comes to church every week and seems like she has a solid testimony. We got to know them and talked for a while. We shared a Mormon message about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and we had a really good discussion about how the Atonement of Jesus Christ has influenced or strengthened us in our lives. Brother Reisewitz had some really good insights and experiences that had happened in his life, so it was really good. After that we stopped by this less active lady we hadn’t met, and she just went off. She used quite the slew of profanity about the church and then was like, “I love you guys, like the missionaries are great, but the church is blah blah blah...” After she went on her rant we just headed out and tried not to laugh haha.

Wednesday was awesome! I got to be with Elder Meyer for the day and we had a grand old time just like in the old days. We did some tracting in the morning and it was super cold. We didn’t find anyone solid unfortunately, but we had a good time and worked hard, so that was fun! After lunch we went and worked at the animal shelter and did some dishes again just like we usually did haha. So that was pretty fun! We then knocked some more doors about 10 minutes east of Sauk Rapids. It was a little out of the way and we didn’t even know it existed when we were there haha. We found a couple of cool people while we were knocking, so that was great! We met this one lady who just had a baby and said she was super active in another church, but thought the Book of Mormon was super interesting when we explained that it was more scripture about the gospel of Jesus Christ and was written by prophets for our day. She thought that was pretty cool! After that we had dinner with the Cosgrovess. Their daughter and granddaughter had moved in with them from Texas and then they also had a buddy that they were really good friends with there too, so we taught the restoration to them and gave their buddy (can’t remember his name) a Book of Mormon to read. So dinner and the lesson with the Cosgroves was awesome! After that we had a Skype lesson with Flora! She’s been pretty stressed out about what school to go to and we talked about that with her. She asked us, “Does God get annoyed with me if I literally ask for help with everything I do?” We were able to share Alma 37:36-37 with her:

36 Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.

37 Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

I love these verses to ask God for support in all our doings and counsel with Him in all our doings as well! God never gets annoyed with us for asking for help too much. He is our loving Father in Heaven and wants us to turn to Him always.

Thursday we were in Buffalo all day for P day and Thanksgiving! We had a Turkey Bowl in the morning with the Buffalo ward and that was great! I haven’t been able to play football much on the mission, but it was great to throw the ball around and play some safety, too. Lots of TDs, throwing and running. It was fun! After that we had dinner at Bishop Grover’s house with his fam! It was so good! I only had one plate of food, which was incredible because all the food was amazing, but I’m still trying to eat decently. The sweet potato soufflé was SO GOOD. That is seriously my favorite Thanksgiving dish. I love it. We played some around the world ping pong with bishop's kids and us 4 Elders and I won like 14 games haha. It was pretty fun! After that we went to the Poll’s house for some pie. (I just had some salad they had that was way good). Spencer Poll is 16 and he is big boy. He’s like Colt but not quite as big. He’s really athletic, too. He’s a good kid and we get along really well, so that’s been sweet. After that we stopped by a couple less active people and only one family was home so we visited with them. I can’t remember their names haha but they love the missionaries, so we will be there again for sure now that we are all in Buffalo.

Friday we were back in Hutch, so that was good! We weekly planned and that was a little tricky because we didn’t know what was going on for sure with transfers, so we ended up Facebook video messaging Buffalo and weekly planning with them for at least the start of the week. We were calling/texting the ZLs to figure out what was going on, but they weren’t entirely sure what was going on either so it was a little tricky, but we got it all done and Elder Layton and I got some good planning done for our own area, too. Friday afternoon we tracted in this area that looked like it hadn’t been tracted much in Hutch. We started out and it was mostly just people who went to other churches or they weren’t home. We both had felt like this was the street we should come to to tract, so we kept going and working hard on this street. We found this guy who had met the missionaries before and we ended up having a really good conversation with him and he was a really nice dude. He wasn’t super interested, but we were able to give him a Book of Mormon and invite him to read it and pray about it so that was cool! The next house we knocked on was this like 93-year-old lady who was super nice! She let us in her entry way and talked to us for about 20 minutes haha. It was an interesting conversation! She was a Lutheran lady and was very devout. Her husband had passed away about a year ago and she just lived alone in her house. Her kids wanted to put her in a nursing home I guess, and she was very adamant that she could live on her own. So she still lived on her own! She told us that every night she prayed that God would put someone in her life that she could share the gospel with, and we were the only people in the last few weeks that had been put in her life that she could talk to about Jesus Christ and the Gospel. So basically she just tried to convert us the whole time and we tried to do the same haha. So we didn’t get very far with her, but we had a great discussion with her so that was cool. After that we knocked the rest of the street and didn’t find many interested people haha. We did find several people that were like, “It’s kinda late to be out isn’t it?” It was 6 pm but pitch black outside. I was like, “Not really, it’s 6 pm!” People in Minnesota don’t seem to understand that just because it’s dark, it doesn’t mean it’s too late to be outside knocking doors. After we finished knocking the street we went and visited Tom Pohlen. He’s the guy we met with my first week here but wasn’t really progressing much. We both felt like we should visit him. When we stopped by he was in his garage with the door open and almost seemed like he was waiting for us! So he let us in and we talked about the Book of Mormon with him. Next time we go over to visit him we will be reading more of the Book of Mormon with him and also, playing some pool! I guess Tom is a “hustler” pool player. So he basically hustles people in pool haha. He wants to play us next time we come over, so next time we go over we will be reading the Book of Mormon with him and getting hustled in pool. After that we went and visited Jeana Bustamante. We had to meet outside her apartment because Jonathan and Robert were working. Anyway, it was good though, except Elder Layton made her “Purge List.” Not sure what that is, but doesn’t sound that great. We shared “Mountains to Climb” by Elder Eyring and she really liked it. We talked about how faith can help us with our trials and difficulties in life. One thing Jeana said about her faith was it doesn’t make trials easier or take them away, but it gives her a reason to/ability to endure them. I thought that was really cool that she had recognized that in her life!

Saturday we went down to Buffalo Lake, Hector and Fairfax again! We stopped by these potentials that lived in Hector that Elders Layton and Meyer had found. We stopped by and had about a 30 minute “expound the scriptures unto them” chat. They said they had read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it and God told them it wasn’t true. I seriously doubt they read it and prayed about it. All the concerns they had about it sounded like anti stuff they had been reading. They said that the Book of Mormon contradicted the Bible. I asked them what about it contradicted the Bible. They couldn’t answer the question. Like literally they couldn’t answer it. I’ve never met a single person that has shown me something that is in the Book of Mormon that contradicts the Bible. The Book of Mormon is meant to build up and support the Bible and not tear it down. Anyway, we just kept bearing our testimonies of the restored gospel and Priesthood, but they said we don’t need the Priesthood or a church because we are all “the body of Christ.” I didn’t really know how to teach them/help them, so we each just shared our testimonies and left! After that we stopped by the Herrins. They are awesome! They are a less active couple but are super cool. Brother Herrin is a hoot and we are going to go help them split wood this weekend, so I’m way excited about that! Should be fun. After that we drove down to Hector and helped a family in the Willmar Branch do some work on this restaurant they are opening. Jorge Munoz (oldest one) and we redid the floor in the restaurant. I got to work down in the cellar and help put new floor boards in and stuff. So now I can do that too, if anyone needs me to when I get home. So funny story: the water in the restaurant was shut off while we were working in there so we had to go next door to the Lions Club to use the bathroom. Well, some lady who apparently “thinks she runs the town” (that’s what I got told) was getting pretty cheesed at us for going into the Lions Club buildings which was just full of a bunch of her crap. So anyway, we kept using the bathroom as needed and then we hear a drill going and it wasn’t anyone’s in the restaurant. So come to find out, she screwed the door shut from the restaurant to the Lions Club. I seriously died laughing haha. So that was pretty funny! The Gohnerts said whenever we get down there we can eat for free there.

Sunday was good as always! We had several less actives at church and Victor came and brought Jim again. Jim said he would like to have us come over and teach him in the next week or two so we are getting that all set up with him and Victor. After church we packed up everything and loaded up the car because of transfers. We were like 90% sure we would be in a trio, so we just took all our stuff up with us to Buffalo when we went up Sunday night for P day the next day. We stopped by Dylan, Nicole, and Caitlyn, and they were all asleep except Dylan, so we talked with him for about 25-30 minutes. I’m still trying to figure them out. They seem interested and are reading the Book of Mormon, but I don't know if they’re really looking for truth yet. I think if they continue to read and we can meet with them more they will come to recognize it! After that we knocked some doors for a while and gave out 1 Book of Mormon that hopefully we can follow up with! The guy was a pastor at his church and seemed fairly interested in the Book of Mormon. He said he would be out of town for a while so check back in a few weeks. After that we had dinner with the Houses. They live way out in the sticks and are super cool! They make Native American trinkets and antiques and play bluegrass guitar and banjo. Brother House can talk, oh my goodness he can talk. We were there for like 2 hours. I finally just cut him off and was like. “Alright! We gotta go!” So we finally got out of there! We did a few stop bys in Cokato after that and nobody was home/interested. After those we drove up to Buffalo.

Today we had p day with the Buffalo Elders. Elder Harper's last p day as a missionary. A member in the Buffalo ward works at a Dominoes pizza and let us come make our own pizzas for free! See pics below. They were super good! I made a chicken veggie BBQ pizza. Dang good! We went and visited some members and then a dude from the Alexandria Ward came down and took us to Cabela’s so Elder Harper could visit him before he went home! That was way fun! Cabela’s is awesome. I got a snap back for $4.99, so that was just great. I’m super excited to be in the trio this transfer. Should be a party! Happy birthday to one of my best buddies, Max. Hope 20 treats you well, big bro! I hope you all have a great week and are loving life. It goes by so fast! Thanks for all the prayers and support. It means the world to me!

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10