A Baptism!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Funny thing we saw on the roof!

Eating homemade sushi with Flora.

Service at Jodys.

Huge bug we found.

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

Flora's baptism!

Fall is in the air!

Good Week!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

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

Matt's Camero.

Exchanges in Buffalo.

Elder Myer...

God is Good!

     Hello to all my friends, family, and coaches back home, at school, and serving worldwide! Hope this email finds you doing well and enjoying the last few weeks of summer break! I can't believe that college football season is upon us yet again!  Time is flying by! This week was pretty slow but we had some awesome miracles, so I will share all the highlights as usual!

     Monday we went down to Medicine Lake to do P day with the Anoka Zone Leaders and hang out with the Gretz! On the way down we did some work in Clear Lake and Becker. We tracted for an hour in both places and didn't really find anyone. We had some good conversations with some people and got yelled at by others, but that's how it goes haha.  We played basketball at the Crystal building for like 4 hours with Medicine Lake and Crystal and then the Gretz came up and we went to Applebee's and visited and then went bowling with them! It was so awesome to see them again.   And they got to stay with my family in Utah this week, so they got a lot of the Beaches this week.  They're awesome! 

     Tuesday was MLC in Bloomington and that isn't my favorite thing in the world, but it is what it is. We spent like an hour and a half talking about how much exercise time we should get during the day. Elder Nielson, Elder Boothe and myself brought up the comments that we have people playing collegiate sports when they get home and are trying to stay in shape as best they can (myself included). President Barney said he didn't want us working out in the evening (which I do) or getting up early to workout (which I also do).  There was a lot of heated debate about it and no final decision was made on whether or not we can workout more than 30 minutes a day. I'm getting in about an hour and half a day and still proselyting a full day, so I said that to him, and I said, "I get up early to work out, I work out at night, and I proselyte a full day. If it doesn't take out of my proselytizing, then I'm going to continue to do that." He didn't really have anything to say, so I figured I'm good to continue to do that haha. His main thing was he didn't want it taking out of our missionary work time, so I was like it isn't taking any time out of my missionary work time so it shouldn't matter. Pretty much all the Zone Leaders felt the same way, so nothing should change with that.  So Elder Myer and I got home at about 7:30 pm and had time to teach one lesson to a less active family in Becker on the way home. We shared a lesson on the importance of reading the Book of Mormon each day to continually strengthen our testimony of Christ and the restoration of the gospel. It was really good, and the spirit was definitely there!

     Wednesday was a pretty solid day. We worked on our training for Zone Conference, which was on Friday. And then we did some stop bys and stopped by Rustin Bird, who is Reegan's brother. He really has no interest in religion, but he's a good guy and he believes in God and Jesus Christ. We've been trying to get him to read the Book of Mormon, but he wants to read the Bible first. He hasn't seemed to have time to read the Bible yet, though.  He doesn't do much, so I don't know why he hasn't had time yet. We left him a chapter from the Book of Mormon to read though and he said he would read it, so hopefully he does! After that we helped the Broads move their washer and dryer out of their trailer and into their garage and then move an ancient washer and dryer from their garage into their trailer. The washers were insanely heavy and we had to just pick them up and carry them because they didn't have any wheely things to lift it and wheel it on. So that was fun! When we brought the dryer up into the trailer it didn't fit because the pipe that goes in the back was too big and the plug was different than the outlet so we ended up just leaving it there and bringing the washer in too.  It wasn't super organized or anything but we got 'er done haha. We did some tracting after that and met this lady named Ann Marie who is Roman Catholic.  She took a Book of Mormon and said we could come back and teach her and her husband this Saturday, so hopefully that goes well.  After that we had a lesson with Flora and Sister Duncombe at the church. Sister Duncombe had the exact same situation as Flora is currently in. She wanted to get baptized in high school but her parents wouldn't let her, but they finally did after some coaxing. Flora's parents were still super against her getting baptized, so basically those two talked the whole time and we just sat there until we got asked questions about doctrinal stuff that Flora had questions about.  It was really good for them to talk about the whole situation! We had dinner with the Petersons way out west of Sauk Rapids after that, and then came back to stop by some people down in the ghetto part of our area. We stopped by this guy Elders Myer and Slade found on exchanges a while back, and as we got out of the car, this guy walked by so we stopped and talked to him. He said he was atheist but knew some LDS people. As we talked to him, we realized he just had no idea who God was! He wasn't really atheist, he just didn't know who God was or His relationship to us. So we taught him about the nature of God and gave him a Book of Mormon and told him that if he read it, he would feel of God's love and know He was there. It was really cool! After that we stopped by Michael Koch and he was getting ready to head up to Canada for a week to stay at his cabin and fish. He showed us some pictures from their last like 4 trips. It looks super sick up there. Their cabin is right on a lake and they have a dock and a fishing boat. It's pretty nice. We invited him to read from the Book of Mormon while he was up there. He said he might crack it open (haha) so that was good. 

     Thursday we did a blitz exchange with the Alexandria Elders so they would already be here because Zone Conference was on Friday. I went with Elder Searle again and we had a blast! We did some stop bys in the afternoon and it was pouring rain so we got soaked, and then it quit raining and was super windy and cold haha. We stopped by this way old former investigator that none of us had ever met. We stopped by and she told us her son had gotten baptized and then left the church after like 4 months. She and her husband had been reading some anti stuff I'm pretty sure because she was like, "I just have a lot of problems with the church." I asked her what her problems were and she said, "Colored people can't have the Priesthood, women can't have the priesthood, you believe Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior..." etc etc. She also had some other problems that aren't appropriate to mention on here, but I had a good chuckle about haha.  We told her about all those things and that she had been misinformed about all of them. I told her I have a very good friend who holds the Priesthood and is serving a mission just like I was, and he was black. Max, you are the man! Love you bro!  She was blown away by that, and I thought that was interesting. Anyway, she just had a lot of weird ideas about the church. On her teaching record, she had been to church almost 20 times and had been taught like 10 or 11 times. So I don't know how she got all those crazy ideas about the church. After that we tracted for like 2 hours and found some cool people. We met this college age girl named Lexi and taught her a restoration lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon. She is going to school up in Duluth in like 2 weeks, so hopefully we can get her in touch with the Elders up there. Then we met this lady who had read the whole Book of Mormon! No joke. She had some friends in the cities who were Mormon and they had given her a copy of it and she read the whole thing, but felt it wasn't really for her. We asked her if she had prayed about it and she said, "No, I guess not." We invited her to read it again and pray about it as it directs in Moroni 10. Funny story: she said her favorite book was the Book of "Esther". Pretty sure she meant Ether, but I didn't say anything. She then was like, "Yeah! I think Esther was a super bad A with all that killing people and stuff! So cool for a girl to be doing all that!" I didn't have the heart to tell her it was Ether, and he was a guy.  She was way too hyped about it so I just let it be haha. After that we had some dinner with the other Elders at our apartment and then drove up to Royalton and Little Falls with Brother Christie. We went to some way out of the way people, but none of them were home unfortunately. We stopped by this one less active in an apartment building that none of us had met.  We buzzed her box and she answered and said, "Who is it?" We replied, "It's the missionaries!" She then screamed, "I'm not coming to church! Goodbye!!" And hung up.  Sad day haha. We had a lesson with the Dobsons after that and it didn't go super great. Brother Dobson and Zach were mad at each other so Zach never came down for the lesson and Brother Dobson just ranted to us for like 30 minutes about everything. We shared the Jeffrey R Holland Mormon message about the Book of Mormon and invited them to read it each day. If they would, it would help them a lot and bring the Spirit into their home so much more. Keep them in your prayers for sure!

     Friday was Zone Conference in Brooklyn Park. So we got to drive an hour and half one way.  Zone Conference was really good and President Barney gave a training on having the companionship of the Holy Ghost always with our companionship. It was really cool and Elder Myer and I have decided to always pray for the Spirit to be with us when finding and teaching so it can help us. Because just us by ourselves we aren't nearly as powerful! It was fun to see Elders Peterson, Larson, and Boothe again. We had a good time at lunch haha. Elder Myer and I gave a training on obedience. It taught me a lot and made me realize that even though some rules seem stupid and we don't understand why they're there, they all have a purpose and a blessing with them if we follow them. So I thought that was pretty cool! After Zone Conference we blitzed Bloomington with the APs for our exchange this transfer. I had a doctors appointment in Maplewood in St. Paul so Elder Cordara and I went to that and Elder Myer and Elder Last went to a lesson. I got my A1C done and I still don't know the results, so sorry Mom and Dad! After that we went to one of their investigator's birthday BBQs at a park. There was a decent amount of people there. I started talking to this lady named ReRe. She was from Mississippi and we talked about Mississippi and that Jackson is serving in Alabama and about technology and family history work and temples and the Book of Mormon and the Bible. She was really interested in the Book of Mormon and we gave her a copy and promised as she read a page or more a day she would have more peace in her life. She said that is something she really wanted, so we promised she would have that if she read from it each day! It was pretty cool! After that we went and just walked around some neighborhoods and talked to people and stopped by potentials and less actives. We found this park that had a ton of Hispanics playing soccer and hanging out. Neither of us spoke Spanish, so we told the Hermanas to get down there and contact some people haha. It was a really fun exchange and I learned that I should just talk to people and get to know them and stuff before I just straight up say, "Hey! We are sharing a message about Jesus Christ, let us share it with you!" It works way better to talk about random stuff and tie it into the gospel haha.

     Saturday morning we drove right back up after working out in the morning. The APs had a weight vest in their apartment that no one uses, so they let me have it.  We mowed Connie's lawn again when we got home. She had us prune her trees and bushes and all that good stuff. So that was fun! After that we had a lesson with Mark, our last one because he is heading home to Iowa this week since his internship is over.  I'm really going to miss him. He has changed and progressed so much since I got here. He has started coming to church every week and reads like 5 chapters of the Book of Mormon every day. He even told us he is considering serving a mission, too. We had a lesson about temples and he said he would talk to his Branch President about getting a temple recommend and going through the temple when he got home! It was awesome. After that we went to Kwik Trip and got Matt some donuts for his birthday. Tate Roback got baptized on Saturday so Matt came to that and it was awesome. The whole time I felt the Spirit so strong. It was seriously one of the strongest times I've felt the Spirit on my mission. Tate Roback asked Elder Myer and me to be in the circle to confirm him, and I was pretty much bawling by the time it was done. I was just feeling the Spirit super strong and could feel how much love God had for Tate and how proud He was of him. It was super cool.  Matt loved it, too, and is excited to get baptized in a few weeks. His date is the 26th, but is still a tentative, so keep him in your prayers that it will all work out for that day! After that we had dinner really quick and went to Brother Charter's house to share a lesson and do our weekly coordination meeting. While we were doing the lesson, his wife just got up and left, and she's like, "Sorry, I just farted and it smelled really bad!" Elder Myer looks at Brother Charter and says, "Must run in the family!" I died.   I was laughing so hard for like 2 minutes and so was Brother Charter and like everyone haha. It was way funny.  

     Sunday morning we went to Petra Lutheran church with Dave. He invited us to come and check it out, so we did. It was really different. I've never been to another church so it was a new experience for me. It made me realize how different our church must be to people investigating our church. Their whole service was just scripted out of a textbook thing. All the prayers were rote prayers and it was a lot different than our church! The people were really nice though, and quite a few people said hi to us. After that we went home and did studies and then went to church. Matt, Flora, Mark, and Dan Smith came, so we had a full house again. It was awesome! Matt said he was trying to get his parents to come to check it out, but they didn't want to. His dad is all for him getting baptized, just not his mom.  Anyway, church was awesome, and I really enjoyed it. After church we stopped by a bunch of people in this neighborhood we had tracted. We ended up talking to like 10 people there that we hadn't met before because everyone was out BBQing or doing stuff like that. We met this guy and his wife who were making homemade wontons on their front deck and they gave us some. He was wearing a Vikings jersey, so we talked more about football and then the gospel haha. It worked way better. His wife gave us some wontons and they were dang good!  After that we had Mark's going away dinner with the Rodebush family. They've been his fellowship family in the ward, and have had him over for dinner a lot and friendshipped him at church. It was a really good dinner, and I had a ton of fresh corn. Super tasty! After that we did some stop bys but no one was home or interested, and then did some tracting and met this guy named Adam who was way cool. He was working on a big project in his garage and he talked to us for like 15 minutes.  We are helping him with remodeling his bathroom on Tuesday morning! Then this lady named Glynnis walked by right when we left his place, and we talked to her for a little bit and shared a Book of Mormon with her.  She gave us her address and said we could come back in a week.  After that we had a lesson with the Birds and Emily had read like 3 chapters of the Book of Mormon, so that was awesome. We talked about 2 Nephi 31 and left her to read Alma 7 so we can talk more about the atonement of Jesus Christ next time! Sunday night at around 10 pm Flora texted us and said her parents had signed her baptism record/form thing so she could get baptized! Elder Meyer and I were literally hugging and jumping around for joy. It was like the "Frolic in the Surf" from Rocky 3 haha.  It was such a great way to cap off the week. We are planning on her getting baptized the 19th and then Matt on the 26th! 

     I'm so happy to be serving a mission right now! I'm loving the work and it is so hard, but I love the small moments of success we have where it makes it all worth it. It's weird how so many hours of rejection and hard work and sweat and tears all seem to be worth it when someone texts you and says her parents will let her be baptized! I don't know how that works, but it seems to work out somehow.  Cool thing from this week was I've been struggling a lot with why I got sent to Sauk Rapids. I've been praying to know that answer a lot, and to see it in the work. I realized this week that Mark was one of the reasons I got sent here. We've really connected and been able to open up and share our feelings and insights and questions with each other, and we've been able to help him be active and want to prepare to go to the temple and possibly serve a mission! That was such a tender mercy to see that this week in the work. Just be able to see how much he has progressed and increased his faith and testimony. I know this is God's work and nothing will stop it. I know we are led by a Prophet on the earth today, and that this is Christ's church. I know that God lives and loves all of us, and I know the Book of Mormon is true and was brought forth by Joseph Smith in these last days to bless us and bring us "happiness and hope in the travail of the last days." Love you all, and have a great week!

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Mark with the Rodebush family.

Tate Roback's baptism.  He is awesome!

Elder Slade, Elder Boothe and me flexing.

Me and Elder Boothe.

The Sauk Rapids Sisters wanted to take a selfie.  Elder Myer and I didn't...

Elder Cordara on exchanges.

Me and Elder Boothe flexing our lats.

Me and Elder Larson.

Trying to help Elder Larson get his coat on because his lats are so big! 

All 4 Type 1 Diabetics in the St. Cloud Zone.