One more transfer to go!

     What’s up to all my fam, friends, and coaches back home, at school, and serving around the world! Hope this finds ya well and enjoying whatever you’re doing.  Transfers are this week and I will be staying in Lake Nokomis for my last transfer, but I will be moving to the North area with Elder Akins! My son, Elder Sherwood, will be companions with Elder Peterson and we will all be living in the Murals, so it’ll be a party for our last transfer. The Spanish District got wrecked and I was sad about that because they do super well together and work really hard. I’ll keep it short this week because I got to talk to everyone yesterday for Mother's Day!

     So Sunday was Mother’s Day and it was awesome because we got to call home and talk to the fam for a while! It was great to see everyone and hear how you’re doing. I’m so grateful for my mom and grandma. They are the best and have been such great influences on me throughout my life. I’m so blessed to have them in my life.  We also did a super cool chalk drawing of the Plan of Salvation yesterday as part of our zone finding challenge for the week! See pics below. It was pretty fun! Elder Peterson has the “Bob Ross Song”, so we listened to that before we chalked and then we #Rossed Minneapolis.  We had 2 investigators at church so that was great! Matt and Emily McIntosh came and we talked to them for a while after church. They said we could come over this week!  Emily is going to have her baby this week, so hopefully we can get there before the baby comes haha. Sunday was a good day! Everyone had to do Mother’s Day calls at different times, so we had those for most of the day and then did some chalking and contacting in between!

     Saturday we found out Elder Hickman was the new AP, so we helped him get packed up and ready to go to Bloomington Saturday night. I finished a Mother’s Day movie I made for Mom in the morning, and then Elder Peterson and I biked down to the South part of our area to stop by a new bible referall we got, but they weren’t home. So we biked around and stopped by some less actives and part member families and contacted people outside. It started raining pretty good while we were biking, so my shirt got thrashed with mud haha. This lady with a baby was out doing yard work, so we stopped to see if we could help her and she’s like, “Why would you want to help?” I was like “Because we like helping people!” She thought that was pretty cool haha, so she took a card and said she might call us later to help with yard work! After dinner we had a lesson with Ibe. We’ve been trying to meet with him for like a month and half and we finally got an appointment set up. We had a way good restoration lesson with him and he had some great questions about prophets. We talked about how we have prophets on earth today and also about the Book of Mormon and personal revelation. He really liked the personal revelation stuff we talked about. He said he wanted to read the Book of Mormon and we also gave him President Nelson’s last 2 conference talks to read! It was sweet.

     Friday we did service at the VA and that was super fun again haha! We made this elaborate painting of a bird with the old dudes, and they actually did really good with it! It was fun to help them out and stuff with it. They’re so funny and such nice guys. We had dinner with the Ramseys Friday night and had our deep doctrine/conspiracy theory/world news and politics discussion again haha.  Elder Peterson says that’s how we minister to Brother Ramsey because his kids are crazy so we basically have “bros night” with him on Fridays while his wife watches the kids for a little bit. 

     Thursday I don’t remember much, but we had a lesson with the Iversons and it was really good! We read Mosiah 4 with them and then discussed different points that stuck out to us. The thing that stuck out to me was it talked about how merciful God is to us and literally gives us whatever we ask for if we ask in faith and it’s a righteous desire. King Benjamin relates that to us, how we need to be merciful and serve others and not pick and choose who we serve, but just love everyone and be kind to all! It was a really good chapter. We are gonna focus a lot more on reading the Book of Mormon with our investigators and less actives because it is so powerful! The Book of Mormon is the number one tool we have as missionaries to help with the conversion process. I’m a 100% believer in that.

     Wednesday we had a couple of really cool miracles! We were out in Hopkins after district meeting and stopped by this lady we found last week. She wasn’t home and these people were chilling out on their porch next door to her house, so we talked to them and they basically said, “We are Baptist and our grandma is our pastor, so she’s right and you aren’t.” We tried to teach and testify, but they were just being really rude so we were like, “Have a good one!” After that we knocked the rest of the cul-de-sac and found this dude named John. His dad or uncle or something was out smoking and he told us to go away and no one wanted to talk to us. Then John comes out the door and I was like, “Hey! You ever met missionaries from the LDS church before?” He’s like, “No, but I just started reading the Bible.” So we taught him about the Book of Mormon and he was really interested in it. We had a way cool discussion with him on his porch while the grumpy old dude sat there and listened. I wanted to just wink at him when we left but I didn’t haha. It was super cool though that we found John! We had dinner with the Hehrs Wednesday night and Brother Hehr made “Juicy Lucy’s” for us. They’re like half pound burgers with cheese melted on the inside of the patty. They were super good! And we had a good gospel discussion with them. Sister Hehr and their daughter came to church but Brother Hehr has only come to church like once since we’ve been here, so we've got to keep working on him.

     Tuesday we had a challenge to knock 25 doors, so Elder Peterson and I did some tracting and one of the first doors we knocked on this lady answers and she’s Vietnamese. However, she’s FaceTiming her daughter who speaks English, so we taught the lady who answered the door through her daughter on FaceTime haha. It was really weird, but it worked and she said we could come back, so we are in the process of finding some Vietnamese speaking people. We met a few more cool people while we were tracting and gave out like 4 Books of Mormon, so it was fun!  We had dinner with the Bearss and it was super good. They just made a bunch of appetizers and it was sweet! After that we had a lesson with Brother Glover and read Enos with him and talked about prayers and receiving revelation for ourselves. He had all these super random questions about there being 19 apostles in Acts. So we read over it and it said they called like 7 disciples to help run the church. It was super weird haha. He was saying some crazy stuff. Pretty interesting. Brother Glover is awesome, though. He’s always the swaggiest guy at church.

     Monday we had zone p day and played volleyball and football and I had a blast playing football. The Hermanas were good sports and played football too, and it was way fun! I’m excited to play this fall haha. Monday night we had a lesson with Eric, and he told us he got mugged on his way home from work and they took his phone, wallet, and paycheck, so he basically got screwed and had no money or way to contact anyone. We talked about how we can find peace through reading the Book of Mormon. We also gave him a blessing to help him out and he really appreciated it and said he felt way better after! 

     It’s been a great week! I’m excited to get this final transfer underway! It’s been a ride here in the MMM and I’m ready to finish it off strong. It was awesome to see my family yesterday. I’m so grateful for you and all you do to support me as a missionary! Love you guys! 

Much love,

Elder Beach

Biking!

"Rossing" Minneapolis!

Our Plan of Salvation chalk drawing.

Good food = Good mission!

We took a double picture with our iPads.

Interesting week to say the least!

     What’s up to all my family, friends, and coaches back home, at school, and serving around the world! Hope y’all are doing well and enjoying the beautiful spring weather and the amazing sunshine I haven’t seen for like 6 months haha. This week was pretty good! Lots of interesting stories to report on and lots of laughs as well haha. So.... here we go:

     Monday was P day and we played some volleyball and threw the football around at the church! It was super fun this week. We had some really good volleyball games, so it was great. I love playing on the front against Eder Peterson so I can block all his spikes.  It was really fun. Probably one of the better P days we’ve had in a while. After that we took the North Elders shopping and then we had to do some stuff to get ready for MLC. So we spent a good hour just texting people to get numbers, goals for the next month, and putting it all into spreadsheets for MLC reports. We also finished the zone focus for May and it is sweet! I’ll put a picture of it in this email so you can check it out. 

     Tuesday we had MLC in Bloomington! It was a much better MLC than usual. When we did our problem/address the problem portion of MLC, we actually accomplished something this time instead of just adding more problems to the original problem.  That’s how last month's MLC was.  We also got the opportunity to share our “departing testimonies” because they usually have the missionaries going home share theirs at Zone Conference. For the next Zone Conference it will be a Mission Conference with a General Authority coming, so President just had all the departing missionaries share their testimonies at MLC. It was really bittersweet to see so many people that came out with me and now we are all almost done.  It was sweet to see how much our testimonies and hearts have changed since we were in the MTC though! One thing we also did at MLC that was really cool was we talked about setting a mission goal for monthly baptisms and everyone will focus on that goal. We prayed as an entire mission leadership council and came to a unanimous decision that 20 baptisms was a good goal that was achievable. The spirit was super strong and it was amazing that over 30 missionaries all came to the same conclusion of 20 baptisms. Revelation is so cool. After MLC we drove out to Waconia to blitz their area overnight. I worked with Elders Roundy and Harris. They are both super cool young Elders. I had a blast with them! We found this really cool dude named Fostin. He was out working in his yard, so we stopped to offer some help! He was so excited that we stopped to help haha. He said he was done working for the day (it was like 8:15 pm) but he would love some help in the next few days. We talked to him about the restoration of the gospel and gave him a Book of Mormon. He was really interested in coming to church! So I know the Elders were supposed to help him finish his yard work, but I’m not sure what happened after that. I’ll have to find out.  We also had a super funny dinner with all 5 Elders at the Amott's house. Sister Amott has no filter whatsoever, and she is hilarious. 

     Wednesday morning was district meeting and interviews for the Waconia District so we drove out to district meeting and it went really well! After that we stopped by some less actives and former investigators in Hopkins and St. Louis Park. We talked to this African dude who was a born again Christian or something like that. He said he wouldn’t take a Book of Mormon because the Bible was the only book of scripture on earth. He also said all you have to do is believe to be saved. Then his wife comes out and starts giving us her two cents, too. We both shared some scriptures from the Bible and Book of Mormon about being baptized and receiving the Holy Ghost. Then they told us we needed to repent and accept Christ as our Savior so we were both pretty fed up at this point and just walked away before we said something stupid haha.  Some people are frustrating..... we did a few more stop bys after that and then headed back to our apartment to put all our stuff away from exchanges and pick up the North Elders for dinner with Sister Wetzel and the Abstans Sisters. So this dinner was seriously the coolest miracle this week! We got there and only Becky was there (she’s not a member of the church but wants to be) so we talked to her about baptism and reading the Book of Mormon and just got to know her a little bit. We were there for almost an hour before Sister Wetzel and Aamanda (Becky’s sister who is a member) showed up. This guy named Eric came with them and he is friend with Sister Wetzel. She has known him for like 3 years and she told us she’s been waiting for the ideal opportunity to introduce him to the church. So Eric had met the North Elders like 5 months ago at Taco Bell. And then we had dinner with him! We taught him an awesome restoration lesson and he had so many cool life experiences that have perfectly prepared him to accept the gospel! Like his best friend's name is Joseph Smith. Go figure. It was so cool! He told us he wanted to come to church, but he worked on Saturday night super late. We told him if he read the Book of Mormon, God would provide a way for him to come to church. So he started reading Wednesday night, called us Friday morning and said his boss gave him Sunday off! It was a miracle.  Then he didn’t come to church, so that sucked. 

     Thursday morning we had Lake Nokomis District Meeting and then we started weekly planning after lunch. Oh! Brother Archibald and the Buffalo Elders came and took us to Tepanyaki for lunch! Haha Brother Archibald is so funny! He called President and got it approved and everything. He’s doing well and it was good to see him! We had this bible referral named Isaiah, and we had a lesson set up with him at 3 pm. We texted him to make sure it was still good to come over. He’s like “Nah, I’m working.” Then he starts telling us God hates us because we are white and God was black. We were like, “Dude, it doesn’t say that anywhere in scripture that God is black.” Then he sends us all these random scriptures about random things that have nothing to do with anything. Then he’s like, “Do you honestly believe that there was a group of people in the ancient Americas called Mormons?” Peterson just went off on him at that point because the dude is making the dumbest comments. It was so dumb haha. I felt like I lost brain cells talking to the dude, but it is what it is haha. After that we had a zone finding hour and we met some pretty cool people! We met this lady named Cady who grew up in Vermont and her best friend was Mormon. She said she was super busy at the moment we knocked on her door, but that we could come back in a few weeks and teach her family! She also had no clue the church was like a mile from her house haha. So she thought that was sweet, too. After that we had some dinner at the apartment and then commenced weekly planning.

     Friday morning we had the Spanish district meeting and it was good! After that we headed to the VA for service. We had a Cinco De Mayo party with the guys and made salsa and guacamole with them and did a piñata! Elder Hickman and I held the piñata and almost got whacked in the face a few times haha. It was super fun though! We had a blast with the old guys haha. After that we headed over to the Showleys and helped them put in a rock path in their backyard. We dug out sod, dug it down, filled it with base filler and then put the rocks on it. Brother Showley likened it unto a POW camp doing hard labor, but it wasn’t that hard. Anyway, it looked really good when we finished. We got most of it done!

     Saturday morning we finished helping the Showleys with the path and got it all done! It looked super good and we were proud of our handiwork.  See pics below. After that we helped Brother Pridgeon load up a UHaul truck and move his stuff because he is moving to North Dakota, I’m pretty sure. We stopped at a gas station to get drinks before we went to the Pridgeons and these black ladies came in and were like 5 people behind us in line to get fountain drinks. I was filling my drink up and they’re like, “Oh my gosh! Can’t they see there's people in line? They need to hurry up! Oh my gosh!” I wanted to just be like, “Shut up! Wait for freaking 30 seconds.” Man they were being so rude. None of us said anything but I was like man.... After that we headed home and showered and headed to the church to have dinner with the Gadds and Sister Piene, the Mission Secretary. It was super good! We had ham, sweet potato fries and fresh fruit! It was awesome. Sister Piene made me this sugar free cinnamon apple jello stuff for dessert that was super yummy, too.  After that we did some contacting in the MLK Park and talked to Denny again! He’s like, “I haven’t read the Book of Mormon yet. I just don’t know if it’s true or what church is true and i just found out I have lung cancer and need to stop smoking.” So guess what? We just testified that if he read the Book of Mormon every day, he would be able to stop smoking. He was like, “I don’t know...” So we were like, “Denny, what do you have to lose? We promise that if you read the Book of Mormon each day, you will have the spirit more in your life and be able to overcome smoking.” He said, “Alright! I’ll start reading it.” So that was pretty cool! He also said he might check out church soon. After that we went with the North Elders to basketball. That was super fun and we had some good games.

     Sunday was such a weird day. So Eric didn’t show up to church, but we ended up having 2 part member families come to church, so that was sweet! We also got a new Bishop and Relief Society President. Bishop Barleen is the new Bishop and Brother Bundy and Showley are the counselors. I’m excited to work with them! The North Elders are teaching this guy named Thome Nicoceli,  and he’s getting baptized on May 19th, so we got to talk to him a lot on Sunday and he’s way cool! Super nice guy.  After church we met with Bishop Barleen and discussed some members to work with and how we can work with ward council better in the ministering efforts. Then we had “linner” with the Chryslers. I love them, they are so sweet haha. We had taco salad and it was pretty good! After that we were suppposed to meet with a Bible referral we got, so we dropped the North Elders off and then hurried over there and we called him right when we got there and he’s like, “I’ll call you back in a second.” So we waited for like 10 minutes and texted him and he’s like, “Oh I’m busy right now. Sorry.” So we went to this super ghetto Native American place called Little Earth to stop by a part member family. They weren’t home, but we were able to help their next door neighbor carry in some groceries. So that was cool that they actually accepted our help haha. We went back and got in the car and this lady with blue lipstick comes over to us. So we roll down the window and she looks at our name tags and is like, “You need to stay out of here. We don’t need you white people around here. We have our own creator. Go to another neighborhood.” Elder Peterson was like, “We are stopping by a member of our church who lives right there.” She’s like, “Stay out. You guys are being predatory and we don’t need your bibles in here. And tell your Jesus to give us back our land.” Then she made some super racist comments, so Elder Peterson goes, “Have a good one! Thanks for being racist!” She flipped out and started charging the car so we just peeled out and drove away really quick. Not the best moment of the day haha. Then we see these three guys with a weed American flag marching down the street to support the legalization of marijuana. The dude like came up to my window and starts yelling facts about weed at me. I was like, “Dude, I don’t care!” It was so weird. Then we stopped by the Soogers and we were there for like 2 hours. They can talk, my goodness.  We got the whole life story again haha. After that we did like 3 more stop bys and almost ran over a Somalian dude who ran in front of our car. There was a YSA devotional at 7 pm so we headed home about 7:30 pm to catch the tail end of it. We get home and the WiFi in the community room isn't working. Elder Peterson and I were just like, “Man, that’s the cherry on top.” So we ate dinner because we were starving and did numbers and then Sunday night sauna. It was super nice!

     Well, it’s been an interesting week here in “Lake N’Chaos” as it has been called before haha. I’m really enjoying my mission and just love serving others and helping them see how great the restored gospel is. It makes me sad when people won’t take seriously what we offer or just think they have it all already. I’m grateful for what I do have and for the joy and happiness it brings me and my family! I’m grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day say Saints, and I’m so grateful for all that entails! Have a great week, smile, be happy! Love life, serve others and thank Heavenly Father for all your blessings. I’m so truly blessed to have all I do! Thanks for the prayers and support. They help out so much on the tough days!

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Lovin' the mission!

Cinco de Mayo at the VA!

My new boots!

Golf, anyone?

Bike Week!

     What’s up to all my fam, friends, and coaches back home, at college, and serving around the world! Hope this finds you well and loving life and enjoying the journey! I’m seriously loving the mission right now. The weather has been great, tons of people have been out, and we are just having a blast sharing the gospel and serving people! It’s awesome! This week was our car fast/bike week in the Minneapolis Zone and it was super fun!

Monday we had p day and just hung out with the Lake Nokomis and Spanish districts at the church. We made this gigantic club sandwich and devoured it pretty quickly. We also played some volleyball and we actually have people who know how to play so it was really fun! Funniest moment of the day was Elder Cross (Spanish Elder) served a laser and his companion, Elder Dyerly, just jumped up out of nowhere and just smashed it right as it went over the net. It’s an illegal play but it was just the funniest thing ever because Elder Dyerly isn’t really into sports or anything like that but he just smashed this serve haha. We had to take a 5 minute break because we were all laughing so hard.  After p day we got ready to do exchanges with the Lake Nokomis North Elders and I went with Elder Hickman again, but we went in our area this time. Brother Showley called us and said someone had requested a blessing in the VA hospital, so we went down there and gave a man from Duluth a blessing before his surgery. His wife was there and she is a member of the church and he is Lutheran, I believe. He was very grateful for the blessing, though! We visited with his wife for a while, too. She seemed a little stressed out so we talked to her for a while. Afterwards she seemed much better.

     Tuesday was probably the funniest day of the week and the coolest, too! Elder Hickman and I made a goal to talk to literally every single person we came across during the day. So basically anyone within like 30 feet of us while we were walking and biking. Just a warning before I dive into some of these stories: some of the people we met and talked to were a little crazy and said some pretty crazy and funny stuff. So everything that will follow is true stories and just stuff that happens to us as missionaries. So in the morning we just walked around our apartment and did some stop bys and contacted a lot of people. We were blessed to meet a dude who was a bus driver and had like a 15 minute discussion with him and gave him a Book of Mormon. We met this guy literally walking out of our apartment building. We said we were going to talk to everyone, so we did! He was Muslim but was interested in the Book of Mormon! After that we walked a ways before we saw anyone else or had our next stop by. We were walking down this Main Street Avenue thing and this older gentleman was across the street walking with a cane. So Elder Hickman and I ran over to talk to him and see if he needed any help. Anyway, this dude was a little nuts haha. He started telling us about how he was being chased by evil spirits and how the tree across the street was following him. He also told us about how he had been part of a “delicate orgy” and the evil spirits like overcame him and his girlfriend. It was so weird. The dude was like 65, too. Kind of odd I thought haha. We gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read 3 Nephi and that if he did, he would feel much better and feel the spirit! I’m hoping he does. We walked like 2 more miles and talked to some more people and did a few stop bys, and then on the way back we were walking down the same street and here comes Phil walking towards us. He’s got his cane down the back of his shirt like a sword and one hand just chilling in his pants as he’s walking down the street. He’s like, “Hey guys!” We were like, “Hey Phil!” After lunch we biked up to see Dave Roberts, the older guy who’s blind and almost deaf. When we got there we locked up our bikes on a stop sign and there was a lady sitting on a bus stop bench, so we went and talked to her. She ended up being from Mexico City and we told her about the Spanish ward that meets in our building and taught her about the Book of Mormon. She took a copy and actually lives in the North Hermanas' area, so we got her info and referred her to them! Then we visited Dave, and right when we got into his room, he starts pulling off his pants and is like, “I need my diaper changed!” So we just ran out of the room really quick and grabbed a nurse haha. After that we had a really good visit and he listened to a general conference talk with his headphones! Then we headed to Taco Bell to meet the other Elders for dinner. After dinner we biked over to Brother Glover’s house and had a lesson with him and read “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for our Lives” by President Nelson. We had a really good discussion about it and talked about some things he can do to have the spirit more in his life and how to receive revelation for himself. I’m pretty sure we just biked around and talked to people that were out after that! Then we exchanged back at the end of the day. 

     Wednesday morning we had to do some administrative stuff at the church, so we biked there in 15 minutes (3.8) mile bike ride which was our personal record. We did our stuff and then we, the North Elders, and the Spanish Elders went to Taco Bell again haha. I ate before we went. It was a sight to see 6 elders biking down the road together haha. Pretty sweet! After lunch Elder Peterson and I biked to Hopkins which is like a 12 mile ride. We had a few appointments out there in the afternoon, and all but one fell through. We had a lesson with this guy we found a while back. He’s a less active member named Brother Penfield. He told us he wasn’t a member, but he’s on the ward list so we aren’t really sure the whole story. He hasn’t been to church in probably 15+ years. We shared the restoration with him and just invited him to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if Joseph Smith really did see God the Father and his son, Jesus Christ. He said he would read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if that’s true! So that was cool. After that we did a few stop bys and then biked back to our dinner in the South part of our area. The Purcells fed us orange chicken for dinner and it was heavenly. Biking a lot really takes it out of ya! After that we headed back home and started getting our stuff packed for our apartment move on Friday. Thursday was AP exchange, so I had 0 time on Thursday to pack for the move on Friday.  I think we biked like 30-35 miles on Wednesday haha. It was a lot! But it was pretty fun!

     Thursday I went to Bloomington with Elder McNeil. We walked around in the morning and stopped by potentials and talked to people outside. We met this really cool girl named Zxerina. She was just walking down the street and we stopped and talked to her. She had never heard of the LDS church before and was actually going on a mission trip with her church this summer. So we talked about missions and shared the first vision with her. She was really interested in the Book of Mormon. We had already given our copies away, so we gave her a restoration pamphlet and set up a time to meet with her again. Funny thing: she’s a senior in high school and just decided to ditch school and go for a walk that day. We contacted her at like 12:30 pm. Pretty sweet how we ended up crossing paths because she decided to ditch school. Might’ve been the best decision she ever made. After that we had lunch and then biked out to the East part of the area and stopped by people and talked to tons of people outside. We gave out 3 Books of Mormon and had some really good conversations with people! I love just being out and talking to people. Even if they don’t want to hear the message, I always try to help them feel they are loved and cared about and that makes me so happy! Bike week has been awesome for me. It’s  been like a spiritual recharge haha. After all that we biked back home and drove to our dinner because it was like 20 miles from where we worked during the afternoon. Dinner was kind of awkward. I ended up talking to this member's kid the whole time about the NFL draft because Elder McNeil and the STLs were just kind of in their own world at dinner. The members just talked to them the whole time and I just kind of was there. It was weird haha, so I just ate food. After dinner we helped this less active family move. They reminded me a lot of Brother Cosgrove up in Sauk Rapids. Just super nice people! They were throwing away a lot of stuff and had this old pair of cowboy boots. They were a little more like show boots or dress boots than mine are and they asked if I wanted them or else they were just throwing them out. I said, “Sure I’ll take them!” So now I've got two pairs of boots haha. I've got to do some work on the ones I just got. They’re pretty dirty and old, but once they get cleaned up they’ll be nice. After we got done with the move we did a few stop bys and then headed back up to Lake Nokomis!

     Friday we packed up our apartment and then moved the Spanish Elders into the new apartment and moved us into the Murals apartment with the North Elders. It was kind of a hastle, but we got it done in about 4 hours. Then we went to the VA to do some crafts with the old folks there. Haha this one dude, Tom, he loves me haha. He’s like “Man, you’re gonna go places with football and you’re gonna be a lady killer, too!” So this week he was bringing a bunch of women over to meet me. So he’s trying to hook me up with a date I guess. I don't know what he’s doing. We made a hand tree on a painting canvas and it was pretty fun! After that we got to visit for a while and then headed to dinner with the Ramseys. Brother Ramsey is awesome. He’s one of my favorite people in the ward here. We always go with all 4 Elders and have super cool and funny gospel/deep doctrine/conspiracy theory discussions haha. So we talked about Lincoln, early apostasies in the restored church, George Washington, and Trump. Quite the deadly combo. After dinner we were walking back and these old people come walking back by and they’re like, “Put on a coat! It’s cold out!” I was like, “It’s 65 degrees!” They seemed clueless that it was 65 degrees and sunny because they had they’re huge fur lined parkas on.  Then we were walking by this car and this white dude is sitting in the passenger seat with a baby in the back seat. He had some hood rap blasting and he was dancing around singing.  We were dying haha. The baby looked like it was so confused. After that we weekly planned and got ready for interviews with President Barney on Saturday. 

     Saturday we were in meetings like that whole day haha. We had interviews with President Barney until like 2 pm. He told Elder Peterson and myself that he’s planning on keeping us together for our last transfer! So that’s pretty sweet.  Should be a legendary last transfer haha. After interviews we had stake council meeting in Bloomington with Elder Schweitzer of the 70. He is a super cool and funny guy. One thing he said that really stuck out me: He talked a lot about President Nelson and how he has been prepared to be the prophet. He told us a story about when they were having  council meeting about introducing technology into missionary work. People were worried that missionaries wouldn’t be using technology correctly or it wouldn’t help hasten the work. President Nelson stood up and said, “Brethren, the Lord did not lower the missionary age to increase baptisms. He did not instruct us to use technology in missionary work to increase baptisms. He did it so we could help save this generation.” That really blew me away. The people who are serving missions are learning how to use technology wisely and properly to fulfill the work of the Lord. That’s so important in the days ahead. We are also learning how to be diligent, have the spirit with us, and strengthen our testimonies of Christ and his restored gospel from a younger age. That’s cool! After that meeting we had dinner really quick and then had the adult session of Stake Conference. There were lots of people there from the Minnetonka ward that I hadn’t seen for a while, so it was great to catch up with them and get some stuff set up for when we are coming out in June to visit! 

     Sunday was Stake Conference, so we drove up to the Crystal building with the North Elders. It was really good and Elder Schweitzer gave a really good talk about the Book of Mormon. It was awesome. I got to see Kevin Cornelius from Minnetonka and talked to him for a while! He’s doing good and is getting baptized in June. After Stake Conference we had lunch and then had a Skype call with the STLs to figure out what to do for the Zone focus this next month. It took like 2 hours to get one made because we didn’t really know what to do to help the Waconia District because they’ve been struggling hard core with pretty much every aspect of missionary work. We finally got one nailed down that we think will be fun and get them excited to be out doing missionary work! After that we biked to dinner with the Staleys. They’re super cool and have the biggest baby I’ve ever seen. It’s 19 months old and is huge haha. It eats like non stop, too. They made chicken, beans/sweet potato/carrots baked together, and butternut squash and then fresh blueberries and strawberries. It was so good! I loved it. After that we biked down to the South part of our area and dropped off a Bible and Book of Mormon to a media referral we got. He wasn’t home, but we talked to him and he said to drop it off and then we could meet on Thursday this week. So that’ll be sweet. He seems like a really cool guy! After that we stopped by to see Lisa and David. Lisa was already asleep but we talked to David and got a lesson set up for Thursday, and it’s Lisa’s birthday on Friday so we are gonna bake her a cake on Thursday for it! I’m excited for it! After that we had to bike home and do numbers and #SaunaSunday. 

     This weeks been great! I’m so happy and loving the mission right now. I’m grateful to be in the Lord's service and be doing his work here. On Sunday night when we were biking, we rode by this homeless guy sitting in the median of a really busy street. I had a bag of rolls with me from dinner, so I felt like should go offer them to him. I ended up having a 10 minute chat with him and just got to know him and talk to him. He asked that I say a prayer with him and I gave him a Book of Mormon as well. His name was Matthew, and I’m grateful I was able to meet him. He was such a nice guy! It was a great experience for me to just feel the Savior's love for him! It made my whole day.  Love you all! Have a great week, enjoy the spring, get rocking the farmer's tans because I’ve got mine going full swing haha. Thanks for all the prayers and support. Keep them coming my way! They help so much.

Much love,

Elder Beach

Car fast/bike week.

Exchanges with Elder Hickman.

Our yummy dinner.

Welcome to Longfellow!

Me and Elder Peterson - we started our missions together, and will end our missions together!  

Listening to a talk together at the VA.

Sun's out, guns out

      What’s up to all my family, friends, and coaches back home, at school, and serving around the world! Hope this email finds you well and enjoying the beautiful spring weather that is finally here.  I’m pretty sure we are in the clear in Minnesota as far as spring goes. It’s been in the 60’s and sunny this last week and has been awesome to be outside talking to people. This week's been pretty good! We got “My Plan” this week, which is what you work on your last transfer of your mission to prepare you to go home. I don't know why they send it out so early because then people get trunky (not me) but it seems to have that affect on some people haha. 

     Monday we had p-day and Elder Peterson’s birthday party! The Spanish District and the Eden Prairie Elders came to the church to play some board games and stuff and hang out. The Perezes brought some Little Caesar’s pizza and stuff and the North Hermanas baked a cake for him. It was super fun and we played Mafia like 4 times haha. It was getting pretty wild and he was the narrator, so you know it was fun haha. After that we helped Sister Tolbert move a bunch of huge chairs and couches in her house outside because they are redoing the floor. Then we had a lesson with the Ludwigs that was less than stellar. I’m pretty sure we mutually dropped each other after the lesson.  We were super blunt with them and I don’t think they liked that much. Basically all they do is give us these bible verses to read and then ask for our explanation of what it means and then bible bash with us. Also, Galatians chapter 3 is talking about the freakin' law of Moses. They think it means “the law”, meaning you don't do anything past saying you believe in Christ. Then they tried to explain that it isn’t talking about the law of Moses, which it obviously is. We talked about how we need to be baptized and they both were like, “Yeah, it says that in the Bible, but we don’t think it’s necessary. God will decide.” I just shared my testimony of the Book of Mormon and how I know it’s true and because of that, I know that we need to be baptized by proper Priesthood authority to receive salvation. Then they started trying to bible bash again, and I was like, “Look, wasn’t the reason you wanted to meet with us so you could learn about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?” They said yes. I was like, “Ok, well basically all we do when we come over is debate biblical scriptures or get grilled with stupid questions you have about really nit picky stuff.  So if you want to learn about what we believe, but you don’t want to listen to us teach it to you, read the Book of Mormon.” They’re like, “Oh well, we don’t subscribe to the Book of Mormon. We don’t believe it’s true.” I was like, “Have you ever read it?” They’re like, “Uhhhh.... no....” I was like, “Ok well that’s like me reading the Bible and saying it isn’t true. So read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it’s true.” That was pretty much the end of the lesson and I don’t think they were super thrilled about it. 

     Tuesday we took the Spanish Elders up to Maple Grove to get Elder Cross's bike fixed. The Spanish Elders bike full time so he definitely needs his bike to be working. His crankshaft and gears were all messed up so they got him fixed up and now he’s good to go. After that we did a bunch of stop bys and did some tracting as well. I don’t really remember a whole lot from Tuesday haha.  It’s been a long week!

     Wednesday was pretty fun! We went to the Waconia District meeting. They’re really struggling with finding, so we are going to do a finding training in their district meeting this week to help them out with some ideas. I literally don’t know how it’s so hard to find people. Like I’ve had areas where we found people but no one was solid after like one or two lessons, but they’re just not finding anyone period. So it’s a little tricky as to how we can help them. After that we did some stop bys in Hopkins and did some tracting as well. We tracted into Maxx Williams' sister! He played TE for the U of M, and now plays for the Ravens in the NFL. She was pretty nice and accepted a Book of Mormon. Hopefully she reads it and wants her brother to as well. haha. We knocked on this one guy's door and he comes to the door and here’s our dialogue: 

Guy: “If you’re bill collectors, get the f*** outta here!!”

Us: “We are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We have an awesome message to share with you!”

Guy: “I’m Missouri Lutheran. Why the h*** would I want to know more about Christ?”

*starts to close the door*

Us: “So can we share a message with you?”

Guy: “Go **** yourselves!” 

*slams door*

Us: *die laughing*

It was pretty funny to say the least haha.  After that we headed back into the main part of our area and stopped by some more people in this town home complex. We stopped by a potential named Irene. She did not live there but this dude name DK did, and he was pretty sweet! When we told him who we were, he wasn’t super interested at first. As a zone we have a controllable goal we set each week. So ours is to invite 5 people to church every day. So we invited him to church and gave him a card. He looked at it and was like, “Oh, you guys are Mormons? Man, I think it’s dope that you have like 4 wives! That’s hype!” Elder Peterson and I looked at each other and we were both thinking, “Man, should we set him straight or just keep rolling with this?” But we told him we don’t practice polygamy anymore haha. He was a little disheartened by that, but we ended up teaching him the restoration and giving him a Book of Mormon to read! So that was pretty sweet haha. We had dinner with the Showleys and that was great. They had some game called “BayBlades” that Elder Peterson and their son played. I had no clue what it was haha.  Sister Showley had some CMU hats she didn’t use anymore, so she gave those to me! So that was pretty sweet. They’re not the best hats, so I’ll probably use them as hard work hats or just put them on my memorabilia shelf for college haha. After that we stopped by a bunch of people in the south part of our area and nobody was home.  Then we did comp study at the church and did some administrative stuff and headed home.

     Thursday was pretty sweet, too! We went to FMSC (Feed My Starving Children) for service and then exchanged with the Eden Prairie Elders. I went with Elder Salins to our area. The kid is brand new to the mission, but he’s basically Elder Calhoun off of "The best two years". This kid talks to anything that moves. Like he will try and jump out of the car to go talk to people. So that was really fun for me to just talk to like a million people in one day! We met some sweet people and found a couple new investigators, too! We got to play basketball with this potential investigator's son named Khalil. So Ibe was a potential in our area book, and Elder Peterson and I met him once. Elder Salins and I stopped by and his son was out playing basketball. So we played H-O-R-S-E with him until his dad showed up! So as we were playing basketball with him we talked about the Book of Mormon with him and if he goes to church. Kahlil goes to church with his grandma a decent amount and really likes it. He said he would be interested in coming to our church as well. He’s in 6th grade and is super with it haha. We also talked to Ibe once he got home and invited them to basketball on Saturdays, and they were pretty stoked about that.  So that was sweet! Elder Salins was adamant that we didn’t have dinner so we could keep working. I was starving, but I was like, “Alright dude! Let’s do it!” We did a bunch of tracting and stop bys and then had a lesson with Paula, this lady that Elder Peterson and I found like 2 weeks ago. She invited us in and we taught her a full restoration lesson. She has some pretty unique beliefs! She thinks her mom is a prophet and that all people hold the Priesthood. She also said she believes in the Book of Mormon but she had never read it or heard of it. Then she started asking us about other books that came before the Bible. I was like, “Well, the Bible starts with Adam and Eve. I’m not sure how you can have anything before that.” She’s like, “No, they had books before Adam and Eve were on earth. You should read them.  I’ve never read them but you should research into them.” I was like “Ok......?” Super weird. But she said she’d read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. So that was good! After that we exchanged back and then went to Taco Bell on the way home because I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast and was starving haha. 

     Friday we had Spanish District Meeting and then went to the VA and had a blast with all the homies there. There’re these two guys named Doug and Neil that I’m getting pretty tight with. So I hung out with them while we did a sing-a-long and played some board games. Haha we played “Apples to Apples” and Neil dominated, but he didn’t even know how to play. The whole game he’s like, “I don’t even know what the hell is going on? How am I winning?” I was like, “I don't know, Neil. Just keep doing what you're doing, man!” So he destroyed us, but didn’t quite grasp the concept of the game hahaha. We had a great time and the guys were happy to hang out with us! After that we had dinner with the Ramseys and the North Elders. They fed us some really good spaghetti, but it destroyed us after. All four of us were just camped out in the church bathroom for a while.  Not good. After dinner we had to do weekly planning because that was like the only time this week we could do it. So that was pretty much Friday!

     Saturday morning we met with Brother Patterson at McDonald’s to do our coordination meeting. These two old ladies were sitting next to us and they were 90 and 98 years old! They were so impressed with how nice we were dressed up that they stopped and talked to us and we ended up having a really cool conversation with them! We asked if they’d be interested in having the Elders in Minnetonka over to visit them, but they declined. They were so nice and really sweet. It was awesome! After that we helped Brother Patterson lift up his garage door because it was out of whack and didn’t work haha. Then we headed back to the church and dropped off the car for the North Elders and then did our studies and planning and then headed out on our bikes. It was a beautiful day out and tons of people were out! We talked to a lot of people and gave out like 3 Books of Mormon. Haha so many people are not interested in our message, but when you talk to everyone that’s out, you find those who are interested. We definitely saw that on Saturday!  After that we went to SA of miracles really quick to get a drink. It was a little warm out so we got some super sippers.  After that we had dinner with Brother Glover. He is pretty sweet! He used to be in gangs and some crazy stuff and then joined the church like 14 years ago. He got us fried chicken and fish again haha.  It was good but not healthy haha. I felt like a fatso after dinner haha. After that we headed out to Plymouth to play some basketball! DeAndre Singleton that I taught in Minnetonka was there and when I walked in he literally jumped on me and we just hugged for like 20 seconds. It was awesome!  He’s doing good! Basketball was way fun and we had a lot of people there.

     Sunday we basically had meetings the whole day. We had stake report meeting in the morning, then church, then met with Bishop, then we had to go back to Bloomington for the JustServe meeting with the stake then we drove back to dinner, then back down to Bloomington to Mission President's Fireside. So much driving haha. We literally had like 30 minutes to proselyte on Sunday. We just stopped by like 3 people and knocked a couple doors. It was kind of rough because it was a way nice day out and we were stuck inside in meetings all day. The meetings were good though, and we got some good headway on some stuff to help the work move forward. Mission President's Fireside was great! The Minnesota Mormon Chorale performed and they did such a great job. It was really amazing. Brother Archibald was there with the Buffalo Elders so I got to see him and I talked to Jeffrey from Minnetonka for like 20 minutes. He’s been struggling a lot, so I talked to him and offered some advice and my love! It was a good ending to the day.

     Well, it’s been a week! Time's clicking by. Can’t believe my friend, Max gets home this week and I have less than 2 months to go! It’s wild. Some ladies gave the North Elders a bunch of anti-Mormon material and told them they were going to hell. I read through it and it’s funny that they use a lot of church materials in their arguments. However, they’re used completely out of context and if you read like the whole chapter of the verses they use, it actually makes no sense in their argument. I’m grateful to have grown up in the church, with parents and grandparents who taught me the truth but didn’t force it on me. They allowed me to find answers for myself. And that is what I would advise you all to do as well. God wants you to know, He wants to speak to you, He wants you to be happy. Ask him in faith! Read the Book of Mormon, study stuff out for yourself! Don’t just take others' word for it, especially when they're way off. I’m grateful for the Holy Ghost who testifies to us of truth and helps us know in our mind in heart when things are true! I love my Father in Heaven and His perfect plan for us. I’m grateful for His son, Jesus Christ, and his role in God's plan for us. Without Christ, the plan would be for nothing. I know this is God’s work and this is His church! If you want to know for yourself, read the Book of Mormon and “Ask the missionaries! They can help you....” to know for yourself if it is true or not! (Quoting Russell M. Nelson) Love you all, hope you have a great week! 

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Happy birthday to my companion this week!

My new CMU hats.