Mission Conference and Ministering

     What’s up to all my fam, friends and coaches back home, at school, and serving around the world!  Hope you are all doing well, enjoying the start of summer and having a blast in whatever you’re doing! This week's been pretty good! It’s been kind of a different than your “traditional” week of missionary work, but I’ve learned some good lessons! So continuing my last transfer tradition of lessons I’ve learned, and cool stories, here’s the weekly email:

     So this week we had mission conference on Thursday in Bloomington. Elder Dyches of the 70 came and did a few trainings with us. He used to be the Mission President of the Oregon, Portland Mission and he’s an intense guy. President Barney is super chill and I love him to death and would run through the wall for him. Elder Dyches I would also run through the wall for, but just because he’d be right behind me chasing me through it!  He’s a pretty fire and brimstone kind of guy. He did a training about reading the Book of Mormon with our investigators and recent converts. I’ve found the longer I’ve been out, the more I try to get everyone we work with in the Book of Mormon during lessons. He said the church did a study in the Alabama, Birmingham and somewhere in Fifi missions and when members read the Book of Mormon every day with recent converts, they had a 100% retention rate. 100%! That’s amazing! That just goes to show how powerful the Book of Mormon is in conversion and retention. I’m so grateful God has given us the Book of Mormon in this day and age because heaven knows we need it!  I really can’t even put into words how grateful I am for it and the additional knowledge and spiritual enlightenment it has brought into my life. Another thing he taught us was to show gratitude to members. He taught us how to make a little origami missionary thank you note. It was pretty cool and I need to start making them for members or investigators! They’re pretty cool. I’m so grateful for all the members in Minnesota that have opened their homes and hearts to me in the last two years. As I look back on all of them, there are so many that come to mind! It’s amazing all the awesome people and families I’ve been able to meet and associate with as a missionary. What a blessing that has been for me! 

     Cool finding story this week: Elder Akins and I were walking down a road about a half mile south of our apartment. We were doing a “spirit walk” where you just walk around and knock whatever houses you feel inspired to knock on and talk to people outside. So we were walking down the road and this lady comes out of an apartment on our left, so we headed over to talk to her. Her mom pulled up right when we started talking to her and she said she had to leave. We quickly shared a few sentences about the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon, got her address, and set up to meet with her the next day. So we went back the next morning and she actually kept the appointment! Her name is Arnisia, and she’s actually 16. She looked a lot older haha.  Both her parents were Baptist pastors when she was growing up, but she hated church and all the talk of going to hell and stuff. She’s currently living in foster care (not sure why?) and told us her relationship with God isn’t quite what she wants it to be. She felt like bad things just kept happening to her and she didn’t know why. We spent a good deal of the lesson just talking about who God is, our relationship to Him and how we can build our relationship with Him. We also taught her the restoration and after we shared the first vision she’s like, “I’m speechless! That is absolutely amazing!” As we taught her we also were able to use a lot of Book of Mormon scripture to support our testimonies. It was a great lesson and the spirit was super strong.  She said she and her foster mom would be at church on Sunday, but they didn’t show up and we’ve tried to stop by and haven’t been able to get ahold of her since then.  Keep us/her in your prayers that we can get back in contact with her!

     One thing we’ve been doing a lot this week is ministering to members. I feel like my mission has prepared me a lot to minister to members back home in whatever ward I end up in. I’ve also come to realize that some members have been ministering long before the new ministering program came out. Brother Ramsey (they feed us every Friday) is the epitome of ministering. He works with so many members who are less active or need some extra help behind the scenes. The longer I’ve been here, the more I’ve seen just how much he does. If you weren’t in ward council or knew him well, you’d never know that, but he ministers and befriends so many members and helps them out a lot! He’s awesome! So we’ve been working with this semi-active member named Robbie Virkus. He’s got Schizophrenia and is working to get off smoking and coffee and drinking. We’ve been meeting with him like once a week and reading the Book of Mormon with him and sometimes help him clean up his apartment! We call him every day and see how he’s doing with reading and he’s gotten to the point where he will read a chapter and then call us and ask for another one. He’s a little off mentally, but he’s a nice guy and has a good heart. His birthday was on Sunday, so Elder Sherwood baked him a cake and we all went and visited him Sunday night. He was pretty stoked we came over to visit him! He said his birthday went from a 5 to an 8 after we came over. So I was glad we could help make his birthday a little better! Another way we were able to minister on Sunday was we visited a member from the Buffalo ward in the VA hospital. He had open heart surgery last week and has been in there since Tuesday last week.  We visited him for about 45 minutes on Sunday afternoon and he was so happy to have someone to visit with. He told us his conversion story and it was really cool! I was glad to see him again and glad he’s doing well! After that we took Brother Barrett (he’s a ward missionary and he’s blind) to visit the Soogers. He’s their ministering brother and told us he hasn’t been able to set up anything with them, so we we got an appointment set up with the Soogers and took Brother Barrett with us. We had a great visit and I felt like it went really well. Brother Barrett was super grateful to be able to visit them because he hadn’t been able to connect with them for a while. I also got to know Brother Barrett a lot better while we drove there and drove him home! He’s such a nice guy. I like him a lot!

     Last Monday night we got to go down to the Gretz for a BBQ at their new house. It was super fun to see them again! They’re one of the families I’m super grateful I’ve been able to meet on my mission. We helped set up and take all the tables and chairs down and had a little bonfire afterwards. It was a big ward party in the Lake Marion ward so Elder Meyer was there, too, and we hung out for the evening with them. It was really fun to reconnect with great friends I’ve met in the mission! 

     One last insight I’d like to share from this week is from my studies of “submitting our will to the will of the Lord.” It talks about this concept in my patriarchal blessing, and I realized it’s something I really suck at, so I figured I should study it and work on it! As I was reading the Book of Mormon, I am in Mosiah right after King Noah kills Abinadi and then is killed himself. Then King Noah’s son, Limhi, takes over as King. His people are in bondage to the Lamanites and decide to go to war against them 3 times in a row even though they get murked each time they go to war. It says in Mosiah 21:13-16: 

13 And they did humble themselves even to the dust, subjecting themselves to the yoke of bondage, submitting themselves to be smitten, and to be driven to and fro, and burdened, according to the desires of their enemies.

14 And they did humble themselves even in the depths of humility; and they did cry mightily to God; yea, even all the day long did they cry unto their God that he would deliver them out of their afflictions.

15 And now the Lord was slow to hear their cry because of their iniquities; nevertheless the Lord did hear their cries, and began to soften the hearts of the Lamanites that they began to ease their burdens; yet the Lord did not see fit to deliver them out of bondage.

16 And it came to pass that they began to prosper by degrees in the land, and began to raise grain more abundantly, and flocks, and herds, that they did not suffer with hunger.

     So after doing their own will for a while and nothing good happened, they submitted themselves to the will of the Lord and were humble and accepted what he wanted them to do. Even though it sucked and they were in bondage to the Lamanites, eventually the Lord prospered them in the land as they were humble and submitted patiently to the will of the Lord. Later on in chapter 24 it uses those exact words of “submitting patiently and cheerfully to all the will of the Lord.” I’ve learned that submitting to God's will for us is often hard because it isn’t exactly what we want and often times it forces us to go through the refiner's fire a little bit. However, as we are patient and cheerful, relying upon the Lord and His knowledge and goodness, things always work out in the end for our benefit! The people of Limhi eventually are found by Ammon from the land of Zarahemla and escape the bondage of the Lamanites. So in the end it all worked out for them! They just had to be patient. I am absolutely sure they grew in their faithfulness and ability to trust in the will of the Lord from this experience though! Pretty cool stuff.

     Well, it’s been a good week! 3 more to go, haha pretty wild. I’m excited to give it my all the last 3 weeks. I’m so tired some days. It’s like the last 100 meters of a 400 meter sprint. You’re just dead, but gotta keep going haha. I’m grateful for the strengthening power of the atonement of Jesus Christ that gives me the ability to do this work. I have nowhere near the ability to do it on my own. Thank you for your prayers and support from back home. They help so much and mean the world to me! Love you all, you’re always in my prayers.

Much love,

Elder Beach

Visiting the VA hospital.

On our way to Mission Conference.

Mission Conference!

Hanging out with Elder Meyer at Mission Conference.

On our way home from Mission Conference... :)

Hanging out at the Gretz for Memorial Day.

Good hot week!

     What’s up to all my fam, friends, and coaches back home, at school, and serving around the world! Hope this email finds you all doing well and enjoying the nice toasty weather.  It’s been a pretty hot, humid week here in Minnesota. I can slightly sympathize with my brother, Jackson, but we are nowhere near the heat and humidity you’re at in Alabama haha. Also, happy 19th birthday to Jackson! Hope you had a great birthday in the mission field! This week has been pretty good! Lots of biking, finding, etc....

     So for my last transfer I’ve decided I’m just going to share things I’ve learned, insights, etc., plus include stories from the week instead of doing a “travel log” haha. 

     This week I’ve been able to realize how much I’m going to miss Minnesota and the people I’ve come to know and love here. Elder Sherwood and I got to go on exchanges this week. He’s the ZL and I’m the DL so we exchange once a transfer. I trained him about a year ago in Apple valley and now we live together again. It was fun to talk about our experiences, challenges, successes, and humorous times we had a year ago and then work together now and see how much we’ve changed and grown! I’m really going to miss the missionaries I’ve been able to serve around this transfer, Elders Akins, Peterson and Sherwood. Those guys are awesome and I’ve learned a lot from each one of them! It’s also been fun to reconnect with some people I’ve taught or been friends with earlier in my mission. My parents are coming out to visit at the end of my mission next month and I’ve been getting stuff set up with people to visit them. It’s crazy how many people I’ve become friends with! There’s so many members and others here that I’ve grown to love so dearly. As excited as I am to go home, it’s gonna be so hard to leave all those people behind. Anyway, back to exchanges with Elder Sherwood! We found a guy named Jeremy who just got out of teen challenge. He lives like 4 blocks from the church and told us he’s looking for a home church for himself because he just moved from Lakeville to Minneapolis. Crazy part: we met him on a bike trail bridge going over highway 35W which is like 4 miles from the church. He was just sitting on a bench and we biked up and stopped to talk to him. We shared a Book of Mormon with him and hopefully we can meet with him again this week! He said he would come to church, but didn’t show up. That was probably our coolest story from exchanges. We basically did a lot of stop bys haha, and most people had moved. 

     One thing I really learned on Saturday and Sunday is that things work out according to God’s timing and plan, not ours! We planned to stop by Eric (we taught him a few weeks ago at Sister Wetzel’s house and haven’t been able to contact him much since) in the morning and when we got to his apartment Saturday morning, we realized I didn’t have my bike lock and neither did Elder Akins. So we had to call the South Elders and have them bring them up to us. While we were waiting we did some area book work, and then we went to try to get into Eric’s apartment building. We got to the front door and it was a lockout building, so we tried to get the buzzer to work and it didn’t. Then Elder Akins just grabs the door and it opened right up so we got in! We knocked on Eric’s door and nobody answered, but it sounded like the shower was on so we walked outside and met this lady named Alexis. She was sitting out front of the apartment smoking and we talked to her about prophets and the Book of Mormon for like 20 minutes. She had some interesting beliefs, but we found a lot of common ground and she was excited to have a Book of Mormon to read. After we talked to her, we went back inside and knocked on Eric’s door and he was there and working us in! We ended up having a really long talk with him and he just told us about all the struggles he is going through. We shared some advice and shared a few scriptures with him and downloaded the gospel library app on his phone for him! We also got him a ride set up for church with Sister Wetzel, and he told us he was for sure coming to church because he had the whole weekend off. As we left, I thought it was awesome how everything fell into place perfectly so we could meet Alexis and still meet with Eric even though I forgot my bike lock and we were running a little behind schedule. Nothing happens by accident. So that was awesome! 

     Sunday morning, we waited for Eric forever and he didn’t show up. So we were some sad pups for about 30 minutes. We had to run home really quick to get Thome’s baptism form so the bishop could sign it. When we got back, Eric was there! He ended up taking the bus to church, so he was late, but he showed up and stayed for the whole time! The members were awesome fellowshipping him and he’s going to “Solo” with the Elders Quorum today for their activity haha.  In Gospel Principles we talked about studying the scriptures. Eric had told us he had a friend struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts, so we shared Alma 7:11-12 with him to share with his friend. He talked about how he shared it on Saturday with his friend and his friend texted him and said, “Where did you get that scripture? Cuz it isn’t in the Bible!” Eric told him it was from the Book of Mormon. His friend was amazed and really liked it. Eric said it impacted his friend a lot and helped him tremendously. I’m so grateful for the power of the Book of Mormon to “comfort, cheer and lift our souls” as President Nelson said last October. The Book of Mormon truly does that. The impact it had on Eric’s friend was some convincing evidence of that. I am very grateful for the Book of Mormon, Bible, and all other scriptures and revelations we have. They have helped me so much in my life. They contain answers to literally any questions we have. The answers aren’t always found in the words on the page, but as you read, the spirit can speak to you. It is an amazing revelatory process and evidence that God truly does speak to us. So those were some cool miracles as part of a huge story haha.

     I think I talked about this last week, but I’m grateful to be able to serve others. I love it! I’m so excited to get home and be able to minister to others through serving them and being their friend! It’s exciting! On Monday night we helped Brother Parsons haul a bunch of wood from his back yard to his truck and then we cleaned off this huge tarp he had. It was fun to help him out, build our relationship with him, and be able to serve! We also were able to do a lot of yard work for Sister McLain this week. We did a lot of landscaping with bricks and cinder blocks in her yard. We put in a couple of retaining walls in her garden areas and that was pretty fun! I’ve never done it before, but I enjoyed it. It was super hot on Thursday. Elder Akins and I were pretty dead after we got done. We dug out a 30 foot ditch and laid cinderblocks in the bottom. We had to level out everything and make sure it was all straight and stuff. It was hard work haha.  Sister McLain is awesome and she fed us Thai food every day we helped her this week. She’s a great lady, and I’m thankful we were able to help her out a lot! We also were able to help Sister Scott and Sister Solie dig out a big bush in their yard and replant it in another part of the yard. I’ve never done that before either, but I think it turned out pretty good.  haha We also got to go to the VA again this week for service. We made some collages where we cut out pictures from magazines that represent us. So I cut out football stuff and outdoors stuff and I look over at Frank who’s sitting right next to me. He’s cutting out Sports Illustrated swimsuit models.  I almost lost it.  These guys are like 80-90 years old and that’s what they’re cutting out for their collages haha! Elder Peterson and I had a good chuckle at that. Pretty funny!

     Another lesson I learned this week is to always, always, always share your testimony with people. People can gain a testimony for themselves, but hearing others share their testimonies is so powerful. Elder Akins and I have had the opportunity this week to teach and testify together while finding and it is powerful. The spirit is so strong when we both teach and then testify together. Friday night we did a zone finding hour and Elder Akins and I tracted this street in the northwest part of our area. We didn’t find anyone super solid and we were walking back towards our car to hit a few more houses before we had to leave. There was a lady sitting out on her front lawn and we stopped to talk to her. Elder Akins shared his testimony of the power the Book of Mormon has had in his life, and then I was able to share mine too. She accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon. She didn’t want to meet again, but I know she felt the spirit and I’m hoping that she will read so she can feel the spirit again! Yesterday we were way over by the Mississippi River doing some stop bys and we were walking down the road and this guy was behind a big row of bushes trimming them up, so we stopped to see if we could help. We ended up talking to him for nearly 30 minutes. He was Jewish and we talked about our beliefs and he talked about his as well. He didn’t believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior or Messiah, and Elder Akins and I both shared our testimonies of Jesus Christ and of the knowledge we’ve gained from reading the Book of Mormon. In the title page of the Book of Mormon it states that one of the purposes of the Book is “convincing the Jew and the Gentile that Jesus is the Christ.” I’m thankful for the Bible which testifies of His life and mission here on earth and the Book of Mormon which gives us additional knowledge and a second witness of his reality and divinity as Savior and Redeemer of the world! As we shared our testimonies, I felt the spirit so strong. I was hoping and praying our words would touch his heart and I don’t know if they did. He wasn’t super excited about anything we said, but hopefully he felt the spirit and feels it again as he reads the Book of Mormon and prays about it!

     Well, it’s been a great week here in Lake Nokomis! Only 4 more weeks. Pretty wild! I’ll be forever grateful for this time I’ve had here to serve the Lord and the great people of Minnesota. I always find it funny when we knock on someone’s door at 2 or 3 pm and it’s 100 degrees and we are just dripping in sweat and they say, “What the heck are you doing outside?” or “Why are you doing this?! It’s so hot!” We usually just say, “Yeah it is pretty hot! But we have a great message we are sharing today!” I’ve thought a lot about why young men and women leave home for 18-24 months to face the unknown, all sorts of extreme weather, angry/rude/ignorant people, illness, homesickness, stress, etc...the list goes on. When I first came out I was just here because it was my plan all along to serve a mission. Other than that, I couldn’t really give you a solid reason I was here. The longer I’ve been out, the more I’ve come to know why I am still out. I’m still out because I love God, my Father in Heaven, and His son, Jesus Christ. I’m humbly grateful to be their voice and hands in the work of salvation. I do what I do because I have a testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I have seen the fruits of it in my own life, in my family’s lives, and those evidences along with the spiritual witness I’ve received help me know it is true. I love serving others and helping them feel of God's love that I am so lucky to feel each day. I have truly grown to love the work, even when it’s hot, hard, tiring, stressful, depressing, etc. It is in the fiery furnace that God refines us and makes us into something more pure and better than we were. I’m grateful for my family and friends back home! I love you all and hope you know how much I appreciate the impact you’ve had on me to help me get where I’m at today. I’m also grateful for the family and friends I’ve come to have here in Minnesota. It’s been my home away from home for the last 23 months. I love being a missionary and I love sharing the gospel with others and serving them in any way I can.  It’s amazing! I love you all! Thanks for the prayers and support! Have a great week!

Much love,

Elder Beach

P.S. I did Memorial Day “Murph” workout today in 49:41! 

1 mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, 1 mile run

 Elder Sherwood was kind enough to do the runs with me! 95 degrees with 65% humidity. It was a scorcher haha.

Working hard in the yard!

Showing off my boots after district meeting.

Elder Millicam doing a "grinch impression".  He went to Sky View with me!

Happy Memorial Day!

The baptism of “Mormon Brother” Thome’

     Howdy to all my fam, friends and coaches back home, at school and serving the Lord around the world! Hope you’re all doing well and enjoying whatever phase of your life you are in! I’m so happy to be here in Minnesota and be sharing the restored gospel of Jesus Christ that I have come to love so dearly! The last 23 months haven’t necessarily been the best of my life but they have for sure been the best for my life. This week I’d like to just share some cool miracles we had and also some fun stories and not so much a day by day thing like I usually do.

     One of my favorite things about Minnesota is the members here. They are some of the greatest people I’ve ever been able to associate with. Just a quick two stories on this: last Sunday, Brother Parsons grabbed us and was like, “Hey! I’m cooking this week, come over Monday and we will have some brats and grill a little bit!” We were like “Sweet, we will be there!” So on Monday we got to have brats and some good food with Brother Parsons and his family. We were able to have a great discussion about President Nelson’s talk on revelation and shared some experiences we have each had, and it was really awesome to just be able to spend time with them and feel the spirit. 

     So the coolest part of our week this week was Thome’ Nicocelli go baptized! He’s been investigating the church for about 6 months. He’s known about the LDS church for nearly 20 years. He basically was a dry Mormon and lived basically all the same standards we live as members of the church. Originally he wanted to join the church to find a “blonde Mormon wife and have 10 kids with her.” He quit meeting with the Elders for a few weeks when I first got to the area and for the last 4-5 weeks he’s just been on fire. He epitomizes “feasting on the words of Christ.” It is so awesome to see his growth in the gospel. The members of the Lake Nokomis ward have been instrumental in helping Thome’ in his conversion to the gospel. Elder Bearss has been a beast with joint teaching and being a role model for Thome’ to follow. Brother Shaffer baptized Thome’ on Saturday and Elder Bearss confirmed him on Sunday at church. The Elders Quorum has done a great job of fellowshipping him and he already has ministering brothers and is getting set up so he can be a minister to others as well. Thome’ is amazing and seeing his progression in the gospel and his love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ has been an inspiration to me. It’s been even more proof of the power of the Book of Mormon and the restored gospel to not only change lives, but to bring us to Christ! It was such a blessing to be able to be a small help to Thome’ with his decision and effort to “come into Christ and be perfect in Him.” 

     On Sunday after church, Elder Akins and I biked over to the northeast part of our area. We have a ton of members over there that nobody knows anything about so we are helping the ward sort through the list of people. We stop by each member and then knock 2-5 doors around each member we stop by. We were able to share 3 Books of Mormon and find 2 new investigators in 3 houses. So we did 3 member stop bys and at each one when we knocked a few doors we found someone who was excited to hear the message that God is speaking to us through prophets and that His church is on earth today. We met a man name D'Mar who was at home watching basketball while his girlfriend and kids were at church. We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and shared Moroni 10:4-5 with him and testified that he could know for himself the truth of our message, just like we know of it’s truthfulness for ourselves. He was so excited to receive more of the word of God. He told us, “It would be disrespectful for me to turn this book down! I’m excited to read it!” He told us he would read Moroni chapter 10 and pray to know if it is true! It was sweet!  After that we met a college age guy named Tegan. He told us he was atheist but that he was studying a lot of religions right now. He said he still didn’t know if there was a God or how to know absolute truth. (Back story) We had Brother and Sister Lankton write their testimonies in the front cover of some Books of Mormon for us to give out while tracting. I had Brother Lankton's and it was my only one left. He had written that you can know that God lives and loves you as you read the Book of Mormon as part of his testimony. I shared it with Tegan and he was really intrigued by it. We also shared Moroni 10:4-5 with him and told him, “You can know the truth of all things, by the power of the Holy Ghost.” That’s what we are promised in verse 5! Tegan said he would start reading it and we could come back next Sunday and share some more with him! Sunday was such a fun day, just being out, talking to people, sharing the gospel, and bearing my testimony to those we met. Not everyone we talked to wanted to listen, but as we testified I knew the spirit was there and hopefully somewhere along the way they will remember the feelings they had while talking to us! 

     On Friday we got a service referral from a lady who is here doing an internship for a photographer in our area. The photographer had like 20 yards of dirt they needed help moving so Elder Akins and I did like 15 wheelbarrows full of dirt moving for them and then shoveled like 5 feet deep of dirt off the sidewalk and made a path so people could walk through it! The lady who referred them was an RM from Provo and she was out here working with them. So she was there helping too, and we were able to talk a lot about missionary work and the church with them. It was fun to serve and teach at the same time! That is my favorite part of missionary work is serving others.  It’s awesome! After that we got to serve at the VA! Haha this week we had lunch with them and played some board games and just visited them for a while. They have the greatest hearts and I love talking to them. We also did a little music time thing. Hermana Nissinen played the piano for all of us and this one guy started taking all his clothes off while she was playing so like 3 staff members had to wrestle him and get his clothes back on.  It was quite funny haha. 

    Elder Peterson and I started “MyPlan” on Tuesday, which is this thing you do your last transfer to prepare you to go home. This week were to read through our patriarchal blessing and look for promised blessings, warnings, and Christlike attributes/things your Heavenly Father wants you to become. That was probably one of my favorite studies I’ve done on my mission. One thing that really stood out to me was that I will have lots of moments in my life where I will have to choose between my will and the Lord's will. Doing the Lord's will is not always easier, but it said I will be able to find true, enduring happiness as I humbly submit to the will of the Lord. What a cool promise that is! I’m so grateful that we have a Father in Heaven who loves us and speaks to us so often. We only have to listen.  I’m thankful for our prophet, Russell M. Nelson. I know that he was called and prepared by the Lord and that he is truly a prophet of God. I know the Book of Mormon is true and we can truly get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other book. I know this for myself because I have read it many times and felt a strong desire to change things in my life to draw closer to my Savior each time I read it. I’m so very grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ and for repentance. I fall short of what I would like to be every single day. There are times where I’m just like, “Man, what are you doing?” I’m grateful that through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and his Atonement for each of us, that I can be forgiven for my shortcomings, weaknesses, and sins, and be comforted in my afflictions and strengthened by the Lord. This truly is a gospel of peace and hope. I know it is true! 

     I love you all and hope you have a great week! Thanks for the prayers and emails, I love hearing how everyone is doing back home. Can’t wait to see you all soon! 

Much love,

Elder Beach

Thome's baptism.

Showing off our boots.

Quite the contraption we came upon.

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?