Long Week of Working Hard!!

Happy Memorial Day to all my family, friends and coaches! Thank you to all those who have given their lives for our great country and all those who are currently serving! I'm grateful we live in this great place and have the freedoms we do. This week has been really slow and long but we've worked hard this week! We didn't have a ton of cool stories from this week so I will just share some highlights and funny stories from this week.

On Monday, we had P day and played "Big Pot, Little Pot" which is one of my new favorite basketball games! So you get in a line and shoot from half court. If you make it, there is 1000 in the "Big Pot". Then where ever the ball lands after you shoot it (you run up and try to catch the ball close to the hoop as possible) and if you make it, then it's 500 in the "Little Pot." Then the next person shoots from half court and tries to make it. If they miss from half court and I had made it, then they get 1000 points and if they make it in the "Little Pot" then there is 1000 in the "Little Pot" now. The object is to get as few points as possible and if you get to 10,000 points you are out. It is really fun! We also played 2 on 3. It was me and Jaidyn Gretz verse Elders Sherwood, Coon, and Jorgensen. I've been working on my baseline spin move and I wasted Elder Coon a few times with it haha. Elder Jorgensen always plays catch with me on P day too, so that was great to throw the football around, too. I still feel like I have pretty good arm strength, even though I throw like once a week haha. Monday night we did some tracting in Rosemount and only knocked like 5 doors and talked to each person for like 10 minutes each! It was pretty miraculous if I say so myself. Unfortunately, no one wanted to have us back to teach. Elder Sherwood baked a cake Monday night for district meeting and it was the best cake ever! More on that later. 

Tuesday morning we had district meeting and it was super good! It was us and the Crystal Lake and Prior Lake Sisters. So I was the "Sistrict Leader". I've really enjoyed serving as a "Sistrict Leader" here because the Sisters are great. They work hard and don't have any drama to deal with. So I've really appreciated their work ethic and all that! We didn't have any lessons on Tuesday because Daren was out of town. So we tracted this street in Burnsville that was kind of hard to get to and out of the way. So we started knocking and there was just a bunch of older people who were really nice and talked to us, but weren't super interested. Then the last house we got to this teenage girl and this younger boy were out front so we talked to them. His name was Caleb and he was very energetic and was riding around on a bike haha. Then this lady pulled up with his siblings. She invited us in and told us she was their babysitter and told us to start teaching these little kids.  So they started asking us all these weird questions like, "Is God a turtle?"  So we answered their questions while teaching as well. It was really weird. The lady was from Argentina and I guess she was pretty familiar with our church and missionaries because she knew a lot about our church and stuff. Anyway, it was interesting to say the least. After dinner we did splits with Brother Ruff and Brother Amott. I went with Brother Ruff and we visited Bert Goff, who is a prospective Elder working to get the Priesthood. He is almost done smoking and is down to a pack every 3 days. He's really close! So that was a cool thing to see from him!

Wednesday we had a lesson scheduled with Trish, so we went over there and when we got there, she proceeded to tell us she didn't want to meet anymore because some of the stuff we taught her was beyond what she could come to grips with. She said she didn't believe infants were saved through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and that kids needed to be baptized, and she said the fact we use water instead of wine for the Sacrament just seemed wrong to her, so she she said she didn't want to meet anymore. It was unfortunate, but she wasn't ready to hear the gospel. We did what we needed to do by sharing it and helping her feel the spirit and teach her restored gospel doctrine and principles. She has her agency to accept it, but she didn't. But it is what it is.  After that we tracted this insanely nice street. It was crazy how nice it was. The very first door we knocked took like 3 minutes to walk up the driveway to the house haha. Anyway, we knocked on this door and this kid named Grayson came to the door. He was 11 years-old and we talked to him about the Book of Mormon for like 20 minutes. He was really cool and gave us his home phone and said we could come back and talk to his family. He said they were Catholic, but would be interested in our message. I hope they are!  There was like 14 houses on the street and it took us an hour and a little bit to knock them because they were so far apart and the driveways were so long haha.  After we got done we had some dinner and then Brother Moerschel came out with us. We visited Lorraine and she just had us move a bunch of dirt and clean out part of her garage. It's a mess, so I'm glad we could do something to it! Anyway, after that we went to basketball and thank heavens no one was angry or fighting this week! We had a good clean game and no fights or arguing broke out! It was very fun.

Thursday was pretty great! I went to Dr. Rapp to get my neck adjustment one more time and then I gave him a Book of Mormon! He took it and chuckled, but I'm hoping he will read it.  After that we went and helped Sister Gretz landscape her front yard. We cut out a bunch of sod and edged it next to the driveway and put in a bunch of rocks. It looked really good.  Elder Sherwood and I basically are professional landscapers now haha. After that we went to Mikey's last trap shoot to support him in that. He did pretty well! There was one guy in his group that went 23/25 both rounds which is dang good. After that we went home and showered and got cleaned up and then had some dinner at the Gretz's house and then went to Katelynn's graduation. She graduated from this school you can go to if you need some extra help or if you're way behind in school. It's pretty cool that she graduated because she was really behind in school and now she is right back on track. I'm glad we could support her in that. One cool story is that the Gretz flew Katelynn's sister from Florida up for her graduation. Her sister is deaf and they haven't seen each other for like 13 years. Her sister is much more spiritual and we were able to talk to her a little bit via text at the trap shoot. Hopefully we can share some more with her before they leave! 

Friday we did weekly planning and Sister Grover wanted us to give her a blessing because she rolled her ankle pretty good on Thursday. So we met them at the church to give her a blessing and then we went and tracted some town homes we found in Burnsville that we hadn't tracted yet haha. I've had the opportunity to give three blessings this week. Sister Darrington also wanted me to give her a blessing on Wednesday. I don't know why, but I was just not feeling it on Thursday and I remember waking up just in a bad mood on Wednesday for some reason. So I remember I prayed for a long time to have the Spirit with me and feel happy and have love in my heart for that day. I'm very glad I did that because I definitely needed the Spirit with me to give that blessing. I have learned so well that without the Spirit or the Priesthood we cannot do the work of God. God knows each of us and the Spirit knows what we need and how to best help us. I'm grateful we have the opportunity to give blessings. It is a great testimony to me that God knows us and knows best what we each need. Now, back to Friday. We started tracting and the first 21 town homes we knocked no one answered. Then we saw this lady named Marie in a car out in the turnaround part. She was just sitting there so we went over and started talking to her. She ended up talking to us for like 30 minutes and we gave her a Book of Mormon and some chapters to read! She wouldn't give us any contact info, but she said she would probably call us, so I'm hoping she does. About an hour later we found another lady named Angie. She let us in and we taught her a restoration lesson. She told us that this was actually her mom's town home and she was just there to get food because she was a poor college student haha. So it was cool we just happened to knock on her door right then! Hopefully we can get in another lesson with her. She gave us her address and phone number so we are going to call her next week and set up a lesson with her! After we finished tracting we went to the Pugmires and they took us to the Saint Paul Saints AA baseball game!  It was way fun! Brother Pugmire and their son went with us. It was like a Salt Lake Bees game. There were a ton of people there and it was a good time. They did a ton of fun stuff in between innings and give aways and stuff like that. They had this thing called the grand slam burger but I don't know how big it was. I just got a double burger and it was pretty great! Haha 2 cool stories from the game: Elder Sherwood contacted these people from Lakeville that wanted to have us come teach them but they weren't in our area so Crystal Lake got a new referall.  #2: The players warming up always throw the baseballs up into the stands. We were front row but little kids would always line up on the fence and catch the balls thrown up into the stands. So the outfielder throws the ball over their heads and it hits the stairs and I leaned backwards and one hand snagged it off the bounce. It was great! So now I have a baseball from a Saint Paul Saints game.  Great day!

Saturday was fun too, but we gained like 5 pounds haha. We had bishops breakfast at Bishop Clifford's house and they fed us pancakes, sausage, fruit, and yogurt. Then we had a Hmong BBQ at Suoa Ly's house with her whole family! She made steak, chicken, and ribs plus rice, collard greens, and this enormous berry cake thing that was so good. We decided to bike because we knew we were going to eat a ton haha. So anyway, right before we left Suoa Ly's, it poured rain. So we were a little worried about biking home in the pouring rain, but luckily it stopped before we left. We had a really good discussion about missionary work with Suoa Ly's sister and son while we were there. We talked about where we were from, why we decided to come out and serve, and how we ended up in Minnesota of all places haha. It reminded me of what Elder Nelson said in his mission conference talk about telling people about you. Tell people about you and why you are out doing what you are doing! Then they will naturally ask why you are out here and what you are sharing, etc, etc. It was good! So after that we visited the Bradfords at the old folks home. That was a really great visit. We gave Brother Bradford a blessing to help him with his health. He said to us, "If you aren't ready to give me a blessing, like if you need time to get the Spirit with you, then I understand." I said "Brother Bradford, there's a movie called Ephraim's Rescue where Brigham Young asks people how soon they can be prepare to get out on the trail to rescue the Willie-Martin handcart company. One man says, "I will gather my things and be ready in a week." Another man answers, "I can have my stuff ready in a few days." And then Ephraim says, "Brother Brigham, I am ready now." Brigham Young's emotions get the best of him and he starts crying. That is how we are supposed to be. We are supposed to be ready at any moment to exercise the Priesthood. Brother Bradford, we are ready now!" That was such an amazing moment. I've really tried to always be ready and worthy to exercise the power of the Priesthood. I'm not perfect by any means, and I'm not always perfectly worthy. But I try and I repent and I try my best! I was asked to give the blessing and it was seriously the best blessing I've given. I could just feel God talking through me to Brother Bradford. It was so cool and it was awesome! After that we tracted this street right in the center-south part of our area. We didn't really find anyone, but the house at the end of the street was interesting. This black lady pulls up in her car and Elder Sherwood is like, "Let's go talk to her!" I was like, "Ok!" So we went over and she gets out and says, "Are you Mormons?" I said, "Yes ma'am, we sure are! Can we share a message with you?" She says, "How many black people you got in your church?" I replied, "My friend Max is black and has the Priesthood and is serving a mission right now!" She just looks at us and is like, "Ok, well y'all have a good day." And went into the house before we could say anything else. It was super weird haha.  After that we went to the Davis's house and had ribs for dinner.  I was about to barf after all that food haha. Amazingly I was only 197 at the end of the day. After dinner we had a lesson with a referral from some missionaries in Finland. His name is Nevil Genjang.  He is very interesting. He has been taught for like 2 years and he told us he believes the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet, but he doesn't believe in the Priesthood authority or the restoration. I literally don't know how you can believe in the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and all that, but not believe in Priesthood or the actual restoration of the gospel.  Anyway, he just talked the whole time we were there and I literally said nothing. I'm having a really hard time with people who don't want to listen with an open heart and just want to "Bible bash" basically. I literally don't have anything to say to them. They don't want to hear, so I've just been staying quiet. I don't know if that's what I should do to handle it. But I feel that's what I should do, so that's what I've been doing. Anyway, we will probably go back once more to see if he has any interest at all in listening. But anyway, that was Saturday!

Sunday was good! We had like 3 less actives at church and Katelynn's sister came too! She is a lot more spiritual and open than Katelynn is haha. After church we went over to Lorraine's to help her move some more stuff. She literally was like we are going to have a ton of stuff to move, but we went over and moved like 4 things. So we spent like 30 minutes listening to her try and decide what to do with her stuff.  After that we tracted this street called Fernando Avenue. We knocked the whole street and most people just kept getting us mixed up with Jehovah's Witnesses. The very last door we knocked on this older lady answered and let us teach her a full restoration lesson and took a Book of Mormon! She was really kind, so hopefully we can teach her some more. Her name was Cindy.  Then we had dinner with the Petersons. They are going to be in the Hill Cumorah pageant this summer and Sister Peterson may contact you, Mom! She has lots of questions about it. Anyway, we shared a Mormon message called "Reach out with love" which shows how we can share the gospel with those around us. We asked them what is something small that they can do to become better at sharing the gospel. They decided to share more about being in the Hill Cumorah Pageant with their friends and neighbors so that was good. Then we went to the Gretz to help Brother Gretz move some stuff from the garage to the backyard and also to meet Paul, who is a referral from them and the Pugmires. He has basically been taught everything by Sister Gretz and Pugmire, but we are getting to know him and hopefully teaching him soon! We played basketball with him at this park by the Gretz's and it was super fun. We played through the wind and the pouring rain and all.  It was crazy, but super fun! Paul is really cool and I hope we can help him and bring him to Christ. 

This week has been pretty good! It's still been rainy, but I'm hoping we can get some good weather this week! I really am starting to love the members of the Apple Valley Ward, and I love working with them. Please keep us in our prayers, so that we can find some new people to teach who are ready. We've almost tracted our whole area, so pray we can find some more people! I know this is the restored Church of Jesus Christ and that this is His work today. We are hastening the return of the Lord by sharing His gospel and helping every person and creature hear that His church has been restored to the earth. I'm humbled to be a part of this work and grateful to share it with the people of Minnesota. Love you all and have a great week!

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Wearing the Bee Yamicuh at Prince of Peace.

At the Saint Paul Saints game.

Katelynn's graduation.

The long driveway we tracted.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!

Hello to all my family, friends, and coaches back home in Cache Valley, at school, and serving the Lord worldwide! Hope this email finds you well and enjoying the beautiful and unexpected weather of spring.  My brother is turning the big 18 this week, so send some birthday wishes his way! Also, ladies, hit him up for a great date.  Keep my man Colton Durrant in your prayers as well. He has some health issues and could use all of our prayers and support!

Last Monday we did some laundry and emailed home and then played basketball at the Lakeville chapel. We got some Subway for lunch and that was pretty good! I love P days. Haha it's funny cuz we used to look forward to the weekend, and now we look forward to Mondays. That will be something I will have to switch back to when I get home haha. After basketball we went to Lorraine Haines' house to help her move some stuff for her hot water heater to get replaced on Tuesday. So we moved a bunch of stuff in her house.  She has so much stuff in her house! 

On Tuesday we did zone service at Prince of Peace and it was pretty fun. It was a very busy day despite the rain! We were filling orders like crazy. We were a little short handed because the Crystal Lake Elders and Sisters took their p day on Tuesday so they could go to a science museum. So at one point during the day, I was the only one running the food orders and it was insane. I was flying, haha. So it was pretty fun this week! After that we went to Costco with everyone for lunch. Elder Sherwood and I and the Gretz fasted for Colt on Tuesday, so we broke the fast then. Hanger was starting to set in, and we had a lesson with Daren at 4 pm, so we needed to be on our best for that! Our lesson with Daren was a bit of a roller coaster. We retaught the restoration and it was going really well until we got to the apostasy. He really struggles with this concept and also the restoration of the Priesthood. So he asked us what doctrines were lost or corrupted. So the first and most obvious is the idea of the trinity and through the first vision and the Book of Mormon we know that God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are separate beings. He said that all Christian churches believe that. I wanted to tell him that a month ago he didn't believe that! Literally like a month ago, we had a whole lesson about that with him because he believed that Jesus Christ is a part of God and how they are the same personage or being. So we listened to him talk about that for like 20 minutes and we finally just left it at we both believe the same things now. Haha sometimes you just have to agree with people and let them say their piece. Then he started asking about the Priesthood and how he believes that everyone that believes in Christ has the Priesthood because it comes from Jesus and he says Jesus lives in all believers, so everyone has the Priesthood. Doesn't make sense to me, but oh well. So then he tells us that he already has the gift of the Holy Ghost. We've gone over this so much. So finally Elder Sherwood saved the day. He's been studying a lot about the light of Christ and told him that what he has been feeling is the light of Christ and not the gift of the Holy Ghost. We showed the patterns of light video by Elder Bednar, and it made a lot more sense to him. It almost was a bad lesson, but Elder Sherwood saved it! After that, we went out with the EQP and the High Priest Group Leader to visit prospective Elders. We have 67 prospective Elders on our NAC list, but half of them have moved or are do not contact people. So anyway, we ended up stopping by like 5 each in two hours. We are going to get through our list in like 3 weeks. Most of the prospective Elders are part member families, but most of them are not interested, so I guess we will see how it goes. 

Wednesday we tracted in the morning and met this lady named Maralyn. She invited us in and basically just Bible bashed with us. I gained a very strong testimony of why we need the Book of Mormon after that visit. She asked if we believed we needed to be baptized to be saved. I said yes we believe that and then showed her several bible verses and BOM verses as well that teach that. One of the ones I used was John 3:5 where Christ tells Nicodemus that a man must be born of water and of the Spirit to be saved in the kingdom of God. She said that means you need to be born physically and have your spirit be born, not being baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. So that's why we need the Book of Mormon to clarify when people try to interpret the Bible on their own! I literally said like 2 things the whole lesson. The Spirit was telling me to not speak because she didn't want to hear what we had to say, she just wanted to prove us wrong. Elder Sherwood did all the talking and he basically just bore his testimony the whole time. That was one of the most clear impressions I've ever received from the Spirit to not talk. It was literally like a voice I heard that said, "Do not talk." So I didn't. And we now have a return appointment with her for this Wednesday! Not sure how that happened but Elder Sherwood is killing it haha. After lunch we went and saw Stew Peterson in the old folks home. He is a super cool man. He taught at the church college in New Zealand for 4 years and then served in California for 2 years on a mission. He has two daughters and one of them is in our ward. He is a very smart guy and is fun to talk to. He reminds me a little of Brother Bradford from home haha. He's just got a funny sense of humor and is such a nice guy! It was fun to visit him. After that it was pouring rain, but we decided to tract this street in Burnsville called Sherwood Place. We met this one lady named Kristy who was moving to Arizona next week and said she had met Mormon missionaries before. She said she had talked to Jehovah's Witnesses and a lot of different missionaries before. She said she had one question that no one could answer: Why do bad things happen to good people?  We told her we don't have that answer and only God knows why. We just know that they do happen and that people have agency and sometimes when people use their agency poorly it causes bad things to happen to other people. We gave her the link to a conference talk called, "God Shall Wipe Away All Tears" from last October general conference. So hopefully that can answer her question! Wednesday night we had Brother Connolly come out with us to visit the Bigboys. We had texted Justin Bigboy and he confirmed we could come over that night. So we get there and once again, they cancelled at the door because they had to go to the hospital again.  I am starting to wonder if they actually need to go to the hospital or just don't want to meet. It was raining insanely hard and there was some tornado clouds forming. So we had to pull over and wait it out for a little bit. It was raining so hard.️ We did some stop bys of some less actives and visited the Hawleys to end the night. Brother Hawley is active but his wife isn't and we aren't sure why. She was really nice, but didn't say much when we were over. Hopefully we can help her out a little bit!

Thursday was a day where literally everything fell through. I went to a chiropractor in the morning to get my neck adjusted because it's been bugging me for a few weeks. He is way cool and I'm going to give him a Book of Mormon this week when I go back. He's pretty awesome!  After that we went and visited Brother Hosman. He told us some of his stories about when he was in the navy in the Korean War. He had some sketchy stories. Anyway, it was a good visit and I'm glad we could see him. He loves when we come and visit. After that we tracted this huge street in Lakeville for 2 and a half hours and didn't talk to like anyone haha. This one guy talked to us but he just tried to bash with us so we ended up just leaving and made an agreement that whenever people try to bash with us from now on we will just bear testimony and leave. We finished tracting the street and then had dinner with the Dotys. I love them! We seriously have the most random conversations when we have dinner there haha. After that Brother Moerschel came out with us and we went and stopped by a bunch of people we met while tracting. Nobody was home but we went to visit the Offoriatas and we had a great conversation with them. Sister Offoriata is Brother Moerschel's bank helper lady. So they listened to Whitney Houston songs while we talked to Brian and AJ about school and the Book of Mormon. AJ is reading all the stuff we give him to read, so that's been great. He's only in 6th grade, but he seems super with it and seems to like when we come over and stuff. I'm hoping one day his family will realize that the church is a good thing and be able to start attending. For right now, sister Offoriata just doesn't seem interested. It's sad, but it is what it is. 

Friday was weekly planning and so we got that done and then went and tracted this street way up in the north part of our area for about 2 hours. We weren't having much success but then got two doors in a row that talked to us and it was great! The first one was a lady named Nicole who talked to us on her porch for quite a bit. She asked a lot about us and where we were from and why we were here and stuff like that. She took a Book of Mormon and said we could stop by sometime when we were up in that neck of the woods. Then the next door this guy named Kevin let us in. He was really awkward but had a good spirit about him. We taught him a restoration lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon and he said we could come back this week. Hopefully both of those people pan out into something. We also met this guy named John from Florida who was a Florida State fan. He knew about our church so we talked for a while about football haha. Always do that when I get a chance. We didn't have a dinner Friday night so we went to Savers to get a new tie for President Nelson's arrival to the MMM. I found a black and blue paisley floral tie. It was sweet! Then we did some stop bys after dinner and then had a lesson with Jaidyn on the word of wisdom, law of chastity and the law of tithing. I'm very grateful we have all these commandments. One thing I've found as I've studied all these Commandments is that all of them have many blessings promised with them. That is one thing that is very cool about God's Commandments is that they all have promised blessings if we follow them. After that we had a fire at the Gretz house with Katelynn and Mikey and Brother Gretz. Elder Sherwood shared the light of Christ video and tied it into the fire. It was pretty cool! 

Saturday was awesome! President Russell M Nelson came to our mission conference in Bloomington. He is awesome. I never realized how funny he, is but he has an amazing sense of humor. We all got to shake his hand and I could just feel the goodness in him. I really want to become that kind of man. Like people can just see the light and goodness in me and feel it when they shake my hand. Elder Craig C Christensen also came and spoke with us. His talk was really amazing and I needed to hear what he had to say. He talked about that there is no greater feeling than serving a mission and then getting off the plane. He said it will be the most difficult thing you will ever do, but when your plane lands, you will feel that your sacrifice was accepted by God and He is proud of the work you did. I'm really glad he talked about that. One thing he also said was that the things you learn and become on your mission, you never will be able to change those things if you continue to live worthy to covenants you've made. I'm grateful for the man I'm becoming and will continue to strive to live worthy of the covenants I've made!  After the mission conference, our zone blitzed Prior Lakes area cuz they are struggling to find people to teach right now. I went with Elder Bolinder. He is super cool and we found this guy named Orlando. Reminded me of "Four Christmas's" with Vince Vaughn haha. Anyways, he let us in and we taught him about the restoration and the Book of Mormon and some other stuff he had questions about. We gave his info to the Sisters so they can go back and teach him hopefully. It was pouring when we were tracting and we got drenched haha but it was fun! After that we did some more tracting in our own area but didn't really find anyone. Then the Gretz took us to Culver's for dinner and we went to the YSA fireside with Jaidyn that President Nelson did. He is such a personable and funny guy! It was awesome to hear him twice in one day! 

On Sunday, Daren texted us and said he was in New Jersey for work and wouldn't be at church or at home this week. So we didn't have anyone at church on Sunday, which was a bummer. After church on Sunday we were supposed to go out one with Ryan Tennant, one of the priests in the ward. He texted us like 5 minutes before he was going to pick us up and said he couldn't go. So we took Juan Suarez out with us. He doesn't have a car and can't drive and his family is less active but he comes to church every Sunday. He is really quiet until you get him to open up.  Then he's a hoot and half haha. We were able to take the sacrament to Sister Brown at her place. She was sick and wanted us to bring her the sacrament. That was such a great experience for me. It brought back some great memories of doing that for the elderly folks in our own ward. I don't know why I ever disliked doing that. I didn't fully understand the importance of the sacrament until I've been out and now I know why it is such an important part of our week. I love church so much more now and especially the ordinance of the sacrament! After that we did some stop bys and stopped by this guy named Don who lives in Lakeville. Elder Wolfley and I found him, but he was kind of flakey on return appointments. He was home on Sunday and we talked to him in his garage for about 30 minutes. He said he could see that we were men of God and could see the light in us. I thought that was so cool.  That made my day! He said he wanted to check out our church with his family next week so hopefully he comes to church with us next week! After that we had dinner with the Lyons and then Brother McGill took us up to the President's fireside. He just got divorced and is moving back up to Canada. He really enjoys coming out with us, so I'm glad he was able to come with us to that. It was super spiritual and really great this month. I got to see Elder Peterson and connect him with Brother McGill, and they talked for a while about Edmonton since they are both from there! It was great! Jeffrey also gave the closing prayer at the fireside. He is doing so well and I'm grateful to be a part of bringing him into the church. He just seems so much more happy now, and I'm glad he has found that happiness. 

Just a cool testimony story from this week for me. I was really having a hard time with all that Colton has been going through. I didn't understand why he of all people had to have these trials. I was angry with God and couldn't understand why God wasn't helping him get better. I just had a lot of anger inside me this week and I couldn't seem to get it out of my system no matter what I did. I knew Colton needed to be home to get medical help and get himself better. I was still having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that my best friend that I have done everything with the last 6 years wouldn't be doing the same thing with me anymore. That was hard for me and I was mad about that. I was being selfish. I didn't realize that God's plan is greater than all of our own plans. God's plan is what matters most. While I was sitting in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, I was just praying to feel at peace with everything. As I was praying, I got an email from Colton saying that he was sad he had to be home, but he knew that it was God's plan for him at this time and he was at peace with it. After I read it I just felt the Spirit pour over me and I felt that peace I had been needing to feel. It was such a sweet tender mercy from God. I felt his love for Colt and I knew that God needed him to be at home getting better right now. I don't know why, but I know it is God's plan. I don't know why I'm still out here and why I've been blessed to be healthy, but I know that I can't change that and I just need to make the best of it. My dad told me to honor my friend and brother by continuing to serve honorably and bringing people to Christ. I'm grateful for this gospel and for all the blessing it brings us. I KNOW this is is God's church on the earth and that he has a plan for each one of us. We can't always see the end results of the plan but we just have to have faith and rely on the merits and mercies of Him and trust that He knows what is best for us. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Much love, 

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Our whole mission at the Mission Conference with Elders Nelson and Christensen.

Got to see Jeffrey at the fireside.  He looks so happy!!

One of my former companions, Elder Johnston, from the YSA Stake.

Ran into a friend from the Minnetonka Ward!

Looks like the Sacred Grove!

Elder Sherwood.

Happy Mother's Day!

Hello to all my family, friends, and coaches back home, at college and serving worldwide. I hope this email finds you doing well and loving life! This week was pretty great and we had some very cool miracles this week! Since it was Mother's Day and I chatted with my family a lot yesterday, I will just include the highlights from the week and lots of pictures and videos.

Last Monday we went mountain biking with Brother Humphries and Brother Lewis at Lebanon Hills mountain bike trails. It was really fun and it was actually a fairly difficult trail we rode. Brother Humphries and Lewis are both really good mountain bikers so they were pretty far ahead of us most of the time. Aside from a few "nut buster" landings off of jumps, it was a great time! It was fun to hang out with Brother Humphries and Lewis. I really like both of them a lot!  We had dinner at Applebee's Monday night because they have any burger and bottomless fries for $6.99 so we decided to eat there. It was really good! Then we had a lesson with Jaidyn Gretz and taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson by reading 2 Nephi 31. We tied it all into the Sacrament and how faith leads to repentance and repentance leads to an ordinance of either baptism or taking the Sacrament. We talked about why taking the Sacrament is so important each week to renew our baptismal covenant we make. She said it made a lot more sense why it is so important and helped her see that she should be taking it each Sunday! It was a good lesson.

Tuesday we had district meeting and interviews with the Mission President. These are his last interviews with missionaries because he is going home at the end of June.  I'm really going to miss him and his wife. They are amazing people. Sister Forbes gave a training at our district meeting and literally kept roasting me for no reason. She loves to tease and joke around, and I was in the front row, so I was the person of interest for her jokes haha.  She is awesome. I love her! After interviews and stuff we had a super good lesson with Daren! Sister Abrahamson came joint teaching with us. She and her husband just got home from a mission in Albania, so she was really excited to come out with us! Daren wanted us to teach about reverence. I had never taught a lesson on reverence so we started doing some studying and stuff about it. We decided to read some parts of the "Teachings of the Presidents: Spencer W. Kimball." It has a whole chapter about reverence in our lives, church, and homes. It was a super good lesson! Daren told us he's been feeling conflicted about his church, because it is a rock and roll church and he feels when he worships it should be more reverent. We talked about how the spirit is a quiet voice and used Helaman 5 and the story of Elijah (I think) from the Bible where it talks about the spirit being very quiet and still but very powerful as well. Daren completely agreed with that and agrees that we should worship more reverently. I'm glad God is helping him see good things in our church, even if it is just the fact we are reverent. Daren wasn't at church this Sunday because it was Mother's Day, but he is going on a camp out with our ward and YM this weekend! That should be great! After that we did some tracting and found this girl named Lucy. She was having a fire out on her deck so we went over and talked to her and taught her about the Book of Mormon and the restoration. She said we could stop by this week! Then we had a lesson with Lorraine Haines, the lady that the sisters baptized and she used to hate the Elders until like a week ago.  Scottie Pugmire came with us. He just got back from his mission so he's been helping us out a lot. Lorraine told us she feels like devils are living in her home but I didn't feel anything out of whack there. We read some of the BOM with her and told her to start praying to feel God's love for her and to know He is there. She said there is no way to know that there is a God or any of the stuff we know. We told her to pray to feel God's presence because he loves her and wants to help her! 

Wednesday we had a pretty sweet miracle! So last week, this former investigator named Natalie texted us and wanted to meet with us. We looked through our area book at her records and it didn't have a whole lot on her. She had a few lessons with the missionaries and the Pugmire family last summer and then it just dropped off. Like there wasn't a lot of info. So we met with her on Wednesday morning with Scottie Pugmire again. We just asked her about how she came in contact with the church and why she wanted to meet up again and stuff. She tells us that Zach, Scottie's little brother, introduced her to the church last spring and she had met with the sisters 3-4 times at the Pugmire's home. Then when she went to college she had been doing lessons over the phone with missionaries she had gotten a hold of through Mormon.org. She then told us she wants to get baptized ASAP! I was like, "uhhhhh... Great!"  So we set a baptismal date for June 17 because she is out of town on a cruise in the Mediterranean until the end of the month. Then she needs to finish up the lessons and come to church a few times. But she is super solid! She has a really solid testimony and loves the Plan of Salvation and has read half the Book Of Mormon already. What a miracle from heaven! Wednesday afternoon we visited with Bob Hosman. He lives in the Ecumen assisted living facility. He told us about how he met his wife again and told us that when we get married, to always love our wives like we did on the day we marry her. Some very good advice from Brother Hosman! Wednesday night Brother Abrahamson came out with us. We went to see the Bigboys and the Wades. We talked to Justin Bigboy for a little bit and set up an appointment with him for this Wednesday at 6:30. He told us he finally got a job! Woohoo. I was so happy to hear that!  Then we saw the Wades and had a super good visit with them. Sister Wade was finally there so we got to meet her! They are super cool. John joined the church about 5 years ago and they have been kind of up and down with the church. So we are trying to help them get back into an up haha.

Thursday was kind of another bummer of a day. We had to take the car in in the afternoon to get it checked out because we were having shifting problems. So we drove all the way down to Lakeville and took it to a chevy dealership. We sat there for 2 1/2 hours. It was crazy! And nothing was wrong with it. Go figure haha. So after that we tracted for a little bit and then went over to the Gretz for dinner. Then they drove us up to a Living Legends performance in Minneapolis. It was a show where BYU students who are Native American, Latin American, and Polynesian do dances and tell a story as they do these dances. The story was literally the Book of Mormon story, just told in a Native American way so if you knew the Book of Mormon storyline, you could tell.  It was really awesome though! The Pugmires brought a non member family they are friends with, and we met them and talked a little bit. Sister Pugmire said they are close to asking them to take the lessons. The dances were really awesome, especially the Polynesian and Native American dances. They had some amazingly talent people in the show. It was fun!

Friday was weekly planning and then we had a lesson with the Bradfords. They are the older couple that lives in Ecumen assisted living facility. We had a nice visit with them and talked about how our missions are going and shared some miracles we'd seen with them! Then we tracted this street we prayed about out in Rosemount and nobody talked to us on this whole street.  When we got done, we had about 45 minutes until dinner so we got to this street that T'd into the street we were tracting. Elder Sherwood and I were both like, "Hey let's do this street, too!" This street we had a lot more success. The third or fourth door we knocked this lady let us in and we taught her the restoration. She was in her mid 20's and her mom was cooking in the kitchen. They were Asian and the mom yelled to us, "We are Catholic! Not interested." However, Dana talked to us for about 10 minutes and took a Book of Mormon from us too! It was cool.  Then we got to talk to a few more people but not a whole lot of success. We had a cool conversation with a lady who had actually just served a two year mission for her church. She took a Book of Mormon and said she would read it! She was really nice but not sure how interested she is but at least she took a Book of Mormon. After that we had dinner with the Gordhamers and that was pretty fun! They have 6 kids and the oldest is in 8th grade haha.  After that we tracted some more and found this guy who was a black guy and said he had investigated every single religion and none of them were true because every religion that's Christian doesn't portray Jesus and other "major players in the Bible" as being colored.  He said obviously all of them had colored skin. So basically he said he couldn't listen to anything we talked about because we portrayed Jesus as white and not colored haha.  It was weird. Then we went and helped the Gretz unload a truck full of firewood! That was pretty fun. They had some huge logs and there was only one I couldn't carry by myself. 

Saturday we had zone service at this 5k race up in Eagan. A lot of the missionaries from the twin cities were there so it was fun to see a lot of people. Elder Sherwood and I and Elder Nielson were in charge of the 1 mile run. There were 5 people that did it so it was pretty quick. This chubby little kid got first place and then this family of 4 walked it so it wasn't much of a race.  Taylor Peterson from the Apple valley ward won the 5k and set a course record at 19:03 minutes. After that we went to Bishop Clifford's house for lunch and to do coordination meeting. Bishop had this game called "Bean-Boozled" where you spin a spinner and it will tell you a color of jelly bean which is one of two flavors. Really yummy or really nasty haha. So then you just go till you tap out basically and say I'm done haha. Sister Clifford got screwed. She got booger and sour milk on her first two and Bishop Clifford got rotten egg and had to tap out on that one. I got dead fish twice in a row and it was nasty.  haha It was great to have a little bit of fun with bishop's family! After that Sister Gretz wanted us to come over and help out with some heavy duty landscaping and yard work. We moved a ton of rocks for them so they could plant stuff along the back of their house. Then we planted all the plants and and Sister Gretz thatched the yard, so we raked all of that up and bagged it, too. So we were supposed to have dinner with the Dotys but they canceled because it was Mormon prom and also like every high school in Apple Valley's prom as well. So Mikey and Katelynn were at prom all day so we got to do all the landscaping! It was a good Mother's Day present for Sister Gretz, though. Then they took us to Pizza Ranch for dinner so that was great! We met their next door neighbor, Jeff, and talked to him for a while about what we do as missionaries and where we were from. We also met another neighbor that lives down the street that we are going to help move some rocks sometime soon as well! Hopefully those people can become investigators. 

Sunday we had a few less actives at church including Lorraine! So that was pretty good! After church we did some stop bys, chalking and tracted a little bit. We were able to teach a first lesson to this lady named Jennifer that we had found a few weeks ago. Her husband is a Jehovah's Witness, but she was pretty interested in our message. So hopefully we can keep teaching her more this week! We chalked a big "Happy Mother's Day" and some bible verses and Book of Mormon verses about loving our mothers and stuff like that! After all our stop bys and everything we went to the Gretz to call home for Mother's Day. That was amazing. It was so great to talk to my family. I love you guys so much and I'm glad you are all doing so well. Thank you for all the support you've given me the last 11 months as I've been doing the Lord's work. I know this is His church and Joseph Smith is his prophet called to restore the gospel. The Book of Mormon is true and Jesus Christ is the son of God, and Savior and redeemer of the world. I'm forever grateful for his atoning sacrifice that allows us to repent and change and become like our Father in Heaven. I also know we can live with our families forever and I am so grateful for that! I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Helping move rocks for the Gretz.

Love these missionaries!

It was hot this week!

I miss my Hallie dog!

At the Living Legends concert.

Living Legends

Some members let us try out their cool motorcycles.  We didn't ride them, just sat on them! :)

Good Week in Apple Valley!

Hello to everyone back home, at school, and serving the Lord worldwide! Hope this email finds you well and happy. This week has been really great! The weeks go by so fast it's crazy. We've been working really hard and have had such a fun week and seen a lot of cool miracles.

Monday was p day and we played some basketball at Lakeville church as usual. We went to Perkins for lunch because it was transfers and Elder Nissenbaum wanted to go somewhere "nice" for lunch haha. Perkins has free pie on Mondays so that was nice! We found out Elder Sherwood and I are staying in Apple Valley for one more transfer. Elder Nissenbaum got transferred to Maple Grove, which is where I started my mission. Elder Jorgenson is still in Lake Marion and now Elder Coon is here, too. They're both pretty cool, so it should be a fun transfer with those guys.  After p day was done we had dinner with the Amott family. Brother and Sister Amott both went to USU, so it was fun to talk to them about it! They just had a baby, so we haven't interacted with them much. They are a cool family though! After that we tracted for a little bit, but didn't really see much success and then had a lesson with Jaidyn Gretz. We taught the Plan of Salvation and really focused on the atonement and how that is such an integral part of the plan. Without the atonement of Jesus Christ the plan would basically be for nothing. It was a really good lesson and I think the purpose of Christ's atonement really clicked for her.

Tuesday was Elder Nissnebaum's last day, so we went to Chick Fil A for breakfast because they do free chicken in a biscuit on Tuesdays. Then we went to zone service at Prince of Peace. It was a pretty busy day so we were loading and packing food for about an hour and a half straight. They had a ton of clementines that were getting close to expiring so they said, "Have all you want!" Elder Sherwood and I eat clementines like candy so we filled a grocery bag full of them. Like 10 pounds of clementines. And we've almost eaten them all already.  Then we went to McDonald's cuz elder Nissenbaum loves McDonald's and the manager paid for all our lunches. It was pretty crazy. We didn't know who she was but she was like, "I'll pay for all your lunches." So that was a pretty cool thing! After that we tracted for about 2 hours because it was a super nice day out! I have loved this week so much because the weather has been amazing and people are out and are more happy and actually want to talk haha.  So anyway, we tracted this one street we felt inspired to tract and we met this lady Andrea and her son, Antonio.  Andrea's mom is a member of the Crystal Lake ward, but she isn't a member. We taught her a restoration lesson and gave them a Book of Mormon. Antonio was like 6 so we said we would try to get an illustrated Book of Mormon for him to read. He was excited about that! Then we went to dinner at Jimmy Johns because they had $1 sandwiches. I got the "Unwich". It is a lettuce wrap sandwich without bread and it was super good.  After that Bishop Clifford came out with us to visit some less actives. We didn't have a whole lot of luck at first, but we ended up having a good chat with the Anderson girls, the crazy ones that Brother Amott and I visited last week. Bishop seemed to connect with them really well so that was good. Their dad was also there and we talked to him a little too. He isn't a member. He's a really nice guy, but he wasn't super interested in listening to the gospel. After that we went over to the Gretz and had a "fireside" with Katelyn and Mikey. It was pretty good. Keep them in your prayers!

Wednesday we tracted for a few hours and didn't really find anyone haha. We tracted these town homes up in the north part of our area we hadn't tracted yet. It was pretty much a retirement community haha. Most of the people weren't super stoked to talk to us, but it was still good. It was another great day out so that was good! We have started opening the storm doors on people's front doors and holding them open while we knock on the real door because usually people try to talk to us through the storm door and it doesn't really work.  So we knock on this one door and this older lady answers and just goes off. She's like, "Don't open my door!" I was like, "Hey! We are sharing a really cool message about Jesus Christ!" And she's like, "Close my door right now and leave." So we just said, "Have a nice day!" And left.  Then this other guy was like really nice at first but then as we started talking to him more he got really upset and said we were against everything the Bible says. I couldn't figure out how but we just said, "Have a nice day!" And left.  I literally just have to laugh at people sometimes.  After that we had a lesson with Trish. We retaught the Plan of Salvation and it was much better this time. We used the Plan of Salvation kit and she liked that a lot so she could visualize it. She said she wanted to show it to her dad and ask him what he thought of it. She is a little tricky to figure out. We invited her to be baptized and she said no but then she says, "You guys have all these answers to questions I have had that no one else can answer. But I'm not gonna join your church just because it makes sense to me." (Elder Beach proceeds to smack his forehead...) She isn't active in her own church, hasn't been for two years and has us over on a regular basis to gain knowledge that she hasn't found anywhere else. Sounds pretty true to me, but I guess that's just me!  I think she will come around eventually though. She needs to keep reading the Book of Mormon and praying. She hasn't been praying, and she says she isn't ever going to give up drinking or smoking because she likes it. I don't know why you like smoking, but that's her choice I guess. All we can do is help her come unto Christ and let him work the magic and then it's all up to her to make changes or not. After that we had a first lesson with a guy named Jesse, whom we found while tracting on Sunday. He was literally the last door we knocked on haha. He invited us back Wednesday at 5 and we taught the restoration to him. His wife's family goes to Prince of Peach church, but he and his wife aren't active in any church. He seemed pretty interested and said he would start reading the Book of Mormon and try to make it to church (he didn't make it to church unfortunately). He works construction management and has been to Logan and to Las Cruces, so he was pretty familiar with Logan and everything around there which was way cool! He was a super nice guy and I hope we can keep teaching him. He hasn't really gotten back to us on anything this week. We had dinner at our apartment and then stopped by a few potential investigators but didn't have much luck. Then we went and played basketball at Lakeville with the "try hard" crew haha.  It was much more calm this time, which was good.

Thursday we tracted these town homes right across the street from our apartment in the morning. We found this lady named Grace on the first door we knocked. She said she was Catholic but listened to a whole restoration lesson and took a Book of Mormon and said we could come back this week! We didn't really find anyone else, but that in and of itself was a miracle I would say! We then went to Savers because I needed some new pants because mine are getting trashed. They are falling apart and the sewing is falling apart. On Tuesday I got a really good pair of navy slacks at goodwill for $1.74. I got some new gray ones on Thursday for like $4.50, so not too bad. After that we went and saw Harry Colwell. I'm still not sure why he doesn't come to church. He reads the Book of Mormon and has a strong testimony. His wife isn't a member and is a little opposed to the church, so I think he just tries to keep her happy by not going. It's sad but I think that's why he doesn't come. Anyway, we had a great lesson with him. We shared this "I'm a Mormon" video about Bruce Summerhays who is a pro golfer and currently a Mission President. He really liked it because he loves golf, so it was good! After that we tracted this street for about 2 hours. We were having so much fun doing it we totally lost track of time and almost tracted into our dinner haha. We talked to so many people and gave away like 5 Books of Mormon. I've never run out of them while we were tracting but we ran out on Thursday. We had to go back to the car and get more haha. It was awesome! Then we had dinner at the Lewises. I seriously love them!  They are a super fun family. I need to get a picture with them so you can see them. Their youngest son, Dagan, calls us Mr. Beach and Mr. Sherwood.  They have 4 kids and they are always trying to show us funny videos and stuff like that. It's fun! Brother Lewis and Brother Humphries are taking us mountain biking at Lebanon Hills today so I'm hyped for that! Brother Moerschel came out with us after that. We stopped by the Wades, who are a less active family we are starting to work with and try to get active again. They went to China on vacation last week so we hadn't seen them for a while. We asked Brother Wade if we could start coming by on a regular basis to teach the discussions to him again. He joined like 5-6 years ago but has been less active for most of that time. So we are going to start working with him because he said we could come over and start teaching them again! Then we went and saw the Offoriatas. Brian and AJ were out playing basketball, so we shot around with them for a few minutes. AJ has been reading all these chapters from the Book of Mormon we've been giving him to read which is awesome. He isn't at the house on weekends because he goes to his dad's house up in the cities, so he hasn't been to church. Otherwise I'm pretty sure he would.  After that we went over to the Gretz house because Ariana had a friend over who wanted to talk to us a little bit. We shared a quick spiritual thought and got to know her a little. She's pretty cool, her name is Kiki! Then we headed home and called it a night.

Friday we had a zone focus meeting at the church. They're not my favorite, but it is what it is! The zone focus is every companionship has a baptism this transfer. We are going to work really hard to make that happen in Apple Valley. We just need to keep working hard and having faith that someone will be ready.  After that we had some lunch with the Lake Marion Elders and then went home and did weekly planning. On the way home our car was being really dumb and wouldn't shift gears. So we get home and call Elder Houel who is the driving coordinator. He is brand new so doesn't really know what is going on.  He told us to call this Chevy place and take it in next week. The place is like 10 miles away and is gonna kill our miles for that day and be a huge waste of our day. So anyway, after we weekly planned, we go out and our car is working perfectly fine. Go figure. We were supposed to have mission-wide finding hour, but the APs texted everyone like 5 minutes before and said they were canceling it. Then our 4:30 appointment with the Bigboys got cancelled. For the 3rd consecutive time they had to go to the ER or urgent care literally right before our lesson. I don't know how it always seems to happen right when our lesson is supposed to happen but it does.  It's frustrating. So we went and did some chalking/contacting on a walking path. Not really anyone wanted to talk, so it was kind of a bummer with that. We did a way good chalk drawing of the Plan of Salvation though, so that was cool! Then we went out with Brother Connolly to visit some less actives and part member families. We found a few of the lost sheep people that no one has seen or heard from forever. We also had a lesson with Suoa Ly, a less active lady in our ward. She is super nice and I really enjoy visiting her. She is feeding us next Saturday and we also might get to help her with yard work. I'm hyped for that because I haven't done any lawn mowing or anything for like 9 months haha.  We stopped by a few more people and called it a night. Stop bys are rough sometimes because people don't always answer the door haha. 

Saturday we had breakfast with Bishop Clifford and then went home and did studies and then went tracting for about an hour. We didn't really find anyone, but we had a good time and got to talk to a lot of people so that was good! After that we did some chalking on the lake and talked to several people. This one lady stopped and talked to us and seemed really interested. Then she proceeded to basically Bible bash with us and tell us we didn't need to be baptized to be saved. We just shared some bible scriptures with her where Christ tells Nicodemus that we must be born of water and of the spirit or we cannot enter the kingdom of God. Then things got weird. She told us Christ fulfilled the Old Testament through his atonement. Everything he did, including baptism, we no longer had to do because it didn't apply to us and we were all saved through the blood of Christ. She said the Bible was the end all word of God, yet she really didn't even follow the Bible. I let Elder Sherwood talk to her mostly because I was like, "Wow, she's crazy!" He did a good job and just bore his testimony. Then she kept asking us how we knew the plan of salvation was true and the Book of Mormon was true. I asked her "How do you know the Bible is true?" She couldn't really answer except for "It's the word of God, so it's true." I said, "So is the Book of Mormon. I've read it, prayed about it and asked God if it is true and I've a received a witness that it is. There is no way a farm boy with a third grade education could've written that book." I once again asked her how she knew the Bible was true. She proceeded to basically say exactly what I just said about how I knew the Book of Mormon was true. I was like, "Ok... that's what I just said about the Book of Mormon." She wasn't agreeing with anything and was getting pretty cheesed at us because she thought she could come Bible bash with us, but it wasn't really working for her.  So she just starting yelling at us that everyone was saved through the blood of Christ and left. I seriously was about to die laughing haha.  After that we had to go get ready for Jeffrey's baptism up in Minnetonka. As we were walking back to the car I said to Elder Sherwood, "It's funny that every time anyone has tried to bash with me on my mission, my testimony and scriptures from the Bible and Book of Mormon has never lost a "bash." There is no way that two 19-year-olds could know more about the Bible and the gospel of Jesus Christ unless they were part of the true church of Jesus Christ. I have absolutely no doubt this is Christ's church and that through the restoration of the gospel, we have all the knowledge we need to succeed in this life and live with God in the life to come. The Book of Mormon is true and so is the Bible. Together, they're unbeatable." He laughed and said, "I agree!" It was a great testimony builder moment for me.  Then we drove up to Minnetonka for Jeffrey's baptism. It was so amazing. He just had a light about him that I hadn't seen in him before. It was really cool to see the change brought about by the gospel. I've really come to appreciate how much the gospel changes the lives of others. It is truly amazing! The spirit was so strong and I was just happy as can be. I understand what it means now when people say, "My heart is full." My heart was full on Saturday at Jeffrey's baptism! It was awesome to see so many of my friends from the Minnetonka ward. I really miss that ward and I am hoping so much that I can spend my last transfer or two in that ward again. It is an awesome place! Brother Nelson took us for a little drive in his Aston Martin 11 he got for Christmas. That thing is nice haha.  After that we had dinner at the Gretz and did an FHE with them and a less active family in our ward. The Gandarilllas came over and had dinner with us and we did a lesson about the Stripling Warriors and played Apples to Apples. We also got to play catch with the football out in the backyard. It was fun and we had a good time! It was also Cinco De Mayo, so Elder Sherwood and I dressed up for the occasion and sang a Nacho Libre song.  It was pretty great!

Sunday was awesome! Daren came to church and even bore his testimony. I feel like since he started coming to church it has helped him so much. I guess that is why it is so hard to get people to church, because if they do come, it helps them progress so much more. Satan does not want that! Anyway, he gave a great testimony, and so many people who went after him said thanks for what he said and piggy backed off of what he said. Elder Sherwood and I also bore out testimonies with him. It was a neat experience for sure! After church we were supposed to have a lesson with the Crazy Torah Lady. She was home but was super busy, so she once again postponed to next week. So Elder Sherwood and I did some stop bys and tracted for about 2 hours until dinner. It was really hard. We were both starving from fasting and were a little "hangry" haha.  We talked to a lot of people, but didn't see much success. That's ok though because we are spreading the word regardless. We had dinner with the Gintz family. They are both converts but have really tough kids so they aren't always at church and can't help us as much as they would like. They're super cool though! After that Brother Ruff came out with us and we did some stop bys and took him to do a chalk drawing and contacting people. It was pretty fun! After that we met Jaidyn at Applebee's because she wanted to talk. So we just had a talk for a while and gave her some scriptures from the Book of Mormon to read as well. She's making some really good changes in her life, and Satan is coming at her because of it. Keep her in your prayers. She is doing great!

I seriously love being a missionary! I've really caught the spirit of it and it is awesome. I'm grateful I have this time to serve and share the gospel. Even though it is hard, it is so rewarding and it's so cool to see all the miracles each day that occur in our area. Thanks for all the prayers and support from back home! Love you all and have a great week! Can't wait to see everyone this Sunday for Mother's Day!

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Jeffrey's baptism!

Chalking the Plan of Salvation.

More chalking.

Happy Cinco de Mayo from Elder Beach and Elder Sherwood! :)

Brother Nelson's car he got for Christmas.