President's Fireside

Hello to all my family, friends, and coaches back home, at school, and serving the Lord all around the world! I hope you all are well and had a great week. This week has been really good here in Apple Valley so I'll dive right in to our adventures from this week!

On Monday we had P day as usual and played some basketball at the Lakeville chapel. After p day was done we had dinner at the Lewis's house and did a family home evening with them afterwards. I love the Lewis family! They are super cool and their kids are so funny haha. Their youngest son, Dagan, is a hoot and half.  We did a lesson about the Stripling Warriors and read about them out of Alma and then wrote letters of encouragement and gratitude to each other, like Helaman did to Captain Moroni. So we wrote letters to each other and Elder Sherwood and I wrote ones to the Lewis family. So anyways, Dagan tore up Elder Sherwood's letter. He is crazy! We also burned the outside edges to make them look old and authentic. It was really fun! Then we went to the Gretz for Katelynn's birthday party which was a water balloon fight. It was pretty fun! Katelynn and Mikey are really opening up to us and we are starting to get a good relationship with them!

Tuesday we had a district meeting and while Elder Sherwood and I were giving a training, this guy walks in and says he needs to talk to us in private. So Elder Sherwood and Kershaw went to talk to him and I finished giving the training to all the sisters. A true "Sistrict Leader".  Apparently the guy wanted money for a plane ticket or something so we just referred him to the Prince of Peace church we do service at.  After district meeting we went to zone service at Prince of Peace and then we had a lesson with Daren. We read 2 Nephi 31 with him and talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He starting asking questions about the last verse where it says that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are one god without end. He said he had always believed in the trinity so we taught him the first vision again. He said Joseph couldn't have seen God face to face because Moses couldn't either. So we shared a scripture in the Old Testament where a guy named Jacob saw God face to face and also in the Pearl of Great Price in Moses where it expounds on Moses actually seeing God and talking to him face to face. It was a really good discussion and by the end Daren was able to recognize that they are 3 separate and distinct beings but are one in purpose: "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." I'm grateful for scriptures to back up our teaching and for the Holy Ghost to testify to him that what we were teaching is true. He was able to understand the scriptures and listen to the Spirit. It was great! Tuesday night we tracted and didn't really find anyone haha. One of the first doors we knocked on this guy answered and was like, "Hey what's up guys?" And we gave our little shpeel and he goes, "Well I'm a Christian, so I don't want to hear your message." I said "So you're Christian but you don't want to hear a message about Christ?" He just kind of blankly stared at us and I think he realized how stupid he sounded and then was like "Uh yeah.... have a good evening guys." And shut the door. I just have to laugh at some people.

Wednesday was exchanges with the ZLs! Elder Kershaw came to A-Val with me and Elder Sherwood went to Crystal Lake with Elder Kemberling. We had a lesson with Trish and Brother McGregor in our ward came joint teaching with us. He is a convert so he was a good help in sharing his testimony and the blessings of the church. Trish had a question about what the purpose of life was so we taught her the plan of salvation. It was a little scattered cuz she kept asking random questions but we basically just ended up using scriptures and testifying that God has a plan for each of us and that this life is the time to prepare to meet our Heavenly Father again. We are here to learn and grow and progress and also to be happy! God didn't put us here to be miserable.  I thought it was a really good lesson and the Spirit was definitely there. She told us she isn't looking to change religions but she's changed her church twice in the last two years and keeps inviting us over because she said we have answers to doctrine and questions she's had that her churches can't answer.  So I'm confident she will progress, it will just be a slower process. She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying right now, but she works on Sundays so she can't come to church. After that we had an appointment with this lady named Joyce Thomas who is from Alabama. Elders Wolfley and Tillotson taught her when they were here, and she hasn't set up an appointment with us since I've been here. We finally got one set up at 4:00 pm on Wednesday. Our lesson with Trish got out at like 3:50 pm so we hurried down there and got there at about 4:06 pm. We called her and texted her letting her know we would be a little late but we're on our way. So we get there, knock on her door, and her granddaughter answers and says she just left.  I was like, "Wow, ok." She's done this like 3 times. It's getting really old. I swear she just tells us to come at 4 pm and then leaves at 3:50. We are going to start showing up at 3:45 so we can make sure to catch her home. We decided to visit Bob Hosman cuz we had like 30 minutes. He was having dinner with a bunch of people in the memory care section of the old folks home. We had a great chat with all his friends and him about baseball and our church and what we do as missionaries! It was pretty funny too because some people are old and a little out of it.  They are all so loving though. I really enjoy visiting the elderly folks in our ward. They have such great hearts and advice for us kids! Then we went tracting in these town homes that Elder Sherwood and I had started on Easter. We knocked in the rain for a while and had a funny experience and way cool one, too. So the funny one was we knocked on a door and this guy answers and Elder Kershaw is like, "Hey man, I'm Elder Kershaw, how's it going?" He says good. Elder Kershaw goes in for the handshake and the dude just stands there. He basically doesn't even acknowledge him.  He said his name was Mordechai and said he was Jewish and then just slammed the door in our face.  I was dying.  He just totally rejected Elder Kershaw's handshake haha. Then we both felt impressed to knock this one row of town homes and one of the last doors we knocked this guy opens the door and lets us in. We shared the Easter video with his family and gave them a Book of Mormon to read. He was super nice and said we could come back next week. Then we went to Panda for dinner and this guy got chased by like 6 cops and thrown on the ground and arrested right outside of Panda.  It was crazy! Pretty sure it was a drug deal or something because they were pulling plastic bags of stuff out of his pockets.  It was crazy. Then we had a lesson with this less active guy named Mark Lightner. He said he took a break from life and basically sat in his basement and contemplated what he wanted in his life. He decided he wanted the church to be in his life, so we were like, "Sweet!" He didn't come to church on Sunday though.  

Then we went and played basketball at the Lakeville chapel. So Wednesday night basketball in Lakeville consists of non members and members who live Wednesday to Wednesday and treat basketball at the church like the super bowl. Not a good combo. So I was in the first game and we won the first game. The other team had a member on their team that was this short dude and thought he was really good but he wasn't. So on this fast break we had he hacked the crap out of this guy and then was running down the court with the ball and I stepped in front of him and I'm set and planted and he hits me and falls down and then gets up and proceeds to go off at me about how I'm a dirty player and I need to relax. I had nothing to say so I just walked away from him and that just made him more mad. Anyways, we killed his team so he was out. Then the next game I'm running down the court on a fast break and I'm looking back for the ball at about half court. The guy I was guarding was running front of me and literally stops. Just stops and stands there with this back to me. I didn't see him cuz I'm looking back for the ball and I plowed him. Like Madden-truck sticked. I had a full head of steam and didn't see him and just killed him. So I stop and am like, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that!" and then kept playing. I got the ball and layed it in. Then the short dude from the first game stops the game, walks out on the court and proceeds to just rip into me about how I'm a dirty player and I need to quit fouling everyone and I was like, "Look dude, you need to relax. I'm not purposely fouling, and you need to back off me before we both do something stupid." He keeps freaking out at me so I once again, turned my back and walked away. He was so mad and I was about ready to kill him. But I didn't haha. Not sure if I'm going to be going to Wednesday night basketball anymore.  I did learn I need to pray for charity because I was almost to the point where I was going to beat the crap out of that guy. It just makes me really mad when people rip on me for playing hard. I don't play dirty, I just play hard.  Anyway, good lesson for me. Moroni chapter 7.

Thursday we switched back companionships at the church and then we went and grabbed some TP cuz we were out, and then we went to Lakeville chapel for lunch with the other district. The Lake Marion Elders had a service project at their investigator, Nan's house. She had a garage full of junk and a storage pod full of junk, too. We moved all of it to her front yard so the junk collector people could come pick it up. She has the cutest little German Shepherd puppy. She was adorable! We had a lot of fun and it was great to serve her! After we went out with Brother Moerschel to visit less actives. We saw Jana and Anna Jones and Anna's daughter was there with them, too. Brother Moerschel was telling all these really weird stories and they were like, "This guy is crazy."  We also found a few of the lost sheep on our list of people that Brother Ruff wants us to try and locate so that was good! That was about it for Thursday!

Friday was weekly planning and then we had a lesson with Harry Colwell, who is a less active guy. His wife is a non member and is pretty anti-Mormon. He always tells us he will be at church but never shows up, so I don't know if he ever will come to church, but keep him in your prayers! He's a good guy! After that was mission-wide finding hour, so we tracted for about an hour and a half. We knocked on this one lady's door and she wasn't super interested and Elder Sherwood charmed her into letting us in and sharing a restoration lesson with her! Elder Sherwood is the man! Then we met this dude from New Jersey or somewhere like that (he had a jersey accent) and he took a Book Of Mormon and said he would check it out and we could swing by another time and share more with him! It was pretty good, but after that we either got the door slammed on us or no one answered, so we started out hot but ended ice cold. It was fun though! We then had dinner with the Singers. Sister Singer is a member and her husband isn't, and their kids are less active. Her son is playing football in Crookston, MN at a D2 school as a QB, so we talked about football a lot. That school is really bad so I don't know how good he is?  Sister Singer's brother and niece from Utah were there and said they went to Clearfield High School. He asked if I knew McKay Milne, and I told them I played football with in high school! He said his son had served a mission with him so that was really cool to make that connection.  It was a fun evening and we connected well with Brother Singer. Then we had a lesson with Jzaidyn Gret at Starbucks and taught the restoration because she said she doesn't really know a whole lot about church doctrine and stuff. So we are teaching her all the lessons again! It was good, and we committed her to start reading the Book of Mormon each day. Then we had a fire at the Gretz with Mikey and Katelynn. That was fun and we had a good chat about school and stuff with everyone. Then we headed home. 

Saturday we helped the Kellingtons, a less active family, move stuff from storage to their new town home. It was pretty fun and I learned how to put together a bed frame and all that, so I'm a pro now basically.  Just kidding! Then Brother Seaman took us to Subway for brunch with his wife who isn't a member. She believes everything and comes to church, I just don't know why she isn't a member.  Still building a good relationship to feel comfortable talking to them about it! Then we went and visited Stew Peterson in the old folks home. He is super cool. He served his mission in California and then served at a church college in New Zealand for 4 years. He is really smart and has some cool stories, too. It was a fun visit! Then we went and did a chalk drawing of the Plan of Salvation on a walking path around a lake. We talked to like 10 people about it, and these younger kids helped us out with it, too. They were like, "Hey, can we help?" And I was like, "Sure!" Then we taught them as we drew, and then taught their parents, too. It was really fun! After that we headed to the church for the fundraiser dinner by the scouts.  It was Cafe Rio pork burritos. Then we did some stop bys with Brother McGill and found a dude who said we could stop by this week in the evenings. He lived where a potential used to live. Then I got to conduct a baptismal interview for a lady who is getting baptized in the Crystal Lake ward. It was really cool! I was stressing a little because it was my first interview, but it was awesome. I really felt God's love for this woman, and she has sincere desires to follow Christ. So she passed and it was great! She is getting baptized on May 1. Then we headed home and called it a night. 

Sunday we had Ward Council and then Sacrament. Mitchell came to church with Danica and Enid Smith's husband also came and we are meeting with them this week. Enid is less active and her husband just got back from Africa. So we had a good turnout this week. Jaidyn and Mikey came to church, too, and Jaidyn stayed all three hours so that was great! Elder Sherwood and I taught the lesson for the combined youth third hour on how we can be better member missionaries and prepare for missions. It was fun! Then we went and stopped by the Jets fan guy we found last week and he took a Book Of Mormon and said he would check out Mormon.org and maybe come to church next week! Then we stopped by the lady whose husband passed away and she said she is really busy this week but we could come by in a few weeks and we could sit down and have a lesson! I'm excited to teach her, she is super nice and humble. 

Then we stopped by the crazy Torah lady whom we found last week and she is like all interested in meeting with us now haha. We helped her move a TV and then talked for a while and she said she wants to meet next Sunday afternoon and we can share our message and she will share hers, and we won't try to convince each other our religion is true. I'm just planning on the Spirit doing that. Then we tracted and had a way funny experience.  We were walking down this street and this little kid named Jamison comes riding up on his bike and asks us why we're all dressed up? We told him we were missionaries and taught about Jesus Christ and asked if his mom was home. He said, "Yes! Go talk to her!" So we went and knocked on her door and she talked to us for like 5 minutes and then he and this other kid came up on their bikes. She asked where they had been and they said they went across the railroad tracks and they weren't supposed to. The mom, Melissa, said that he needed to come inside in timeout for a while and the friend needed to go home. So the friend starts biking down the road and he comes running out of the house and chases the kid down and pulls him off the bike and starts throwing haymakers at him. Elder Sherwood and I are like, "What the heck is going on?" It was super funny.  Anyway, it was pretty great. 

Then we went to the President's Fireside. Sister Gretz drove us and Daren up and it was great! The Minnesota Mormon Chorale performed and Daren loved it. The Spirit was so strong and the testimonies that were shared were all amazing. Daren was in tears half the time and one of the songs he was like waving his hands in the air and Sister Gretz was like holding him down.  Daren gets way into it haha. Afterwards he met President Forbes and Elder Stacey of the seventy that was there. It was great! Such a great week, and I'm looking forward to another great one. I also hit 10 months on Saturday, so that was pretty crazy. I love the mission and I'm excited to continue the work here in A-Val this week! Love you all and keep my dad and grandma in your prayers this week! Thanks!

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

At the President's Fireside with Sister Gretz.

At the President's Fireside with Daren.

I got to see Jeffrey at the fireside.  He is getting baptized in a few weeks!

Exchanges!

Chalking at the park.

Elder Sherwood found a turtle!

One of the Elders going home next transfer.  This is his "death" party.

When an Elder goes home, they "die"...

Easter!

Hello to all my family, friends, and coaches back home, at school, and serving the Lord all around the world! Hope all is well with you and you all had a fantastic Easter weekend. This week was really good for us here in Apple Valley. We've had some good stuff start to happen and I know it comes from hard work! Hard work is the secret to success in whatever you do.

Monday was P day and we played basketball at the Lakeville chapel with the zone. It was really fun and we had some good games. It is so nice to get out and run around and compete. I love competing haha. Don't worry I don't freak out or play like a football game, but I play to win.  It's fun, I love it. After p day we had dinner at our place and then we headed over to the Gretz house to do a lesson with Katelynn. She is Mikey's girlfriend and isn't a member but lives at their house. She decided to start taking the lessons so we taught the plan of salvation the first lesson just because she has had some rough things in her life and has had some family members pass away so we thought it would be good for her! It was a really good lesson and Brother and Sister Gretz helped us teach it. Overall it was pretty good and she really doesn't have much religious background, but I'm hoping, if nothing else, she can feel the spirit and know what we are sharing is true. 

Tuesday was a really good day! We had district meeting and interviews with the Mission President and they were really good. This was the first time I've had a really good interview with President Forbes. We actually talked about some stuff. I have been feeling a little discouraged I guess, and just feeling like I do the same thing each day without a lot of results. By the time interviews rolled around I figured out that I was doing good for people even if the results weren't apparent. I just needed to look at it from a wider perspective. But anyway, President talked to me about it and gave me some good words of encouragement. We also talked about Birmingham, Alabama because that is where my brother is going on his mission. It was really good, and I felt like we connected well. I also got to do a walk and talk with his wife haha. She just speed walks around the church and talks to you. We just talked about some different finding ideas besides tracting because we tract a lot! We also watched a Mission President training video from Elder Bednar about "Teaching repentance, baptizing converts." It was really good. I'll include my notes in the photos from it! After that we had a really good lesson with Daren. Brother Ruff came with us and was able to answer a couple of his questions about temple ordinances and stuff that I haven't even done, like marriage and stuff like that. He is also going to start reading "The Great Apostasy" by James E. Talmage.  He said he wants to learn more about the apostasy so Brother Ruff told him to read it. Daren was supposed to be going to Chicago this week for work, but he just informed us it isn't until May, so we are excited to meet with him this week and hopefully he can come to church this week and also to the President's Fireside on Sunday! Haha then we had dinner with the Lewis family after that. They are pretty cool! Brother Lewis is a pilot and is gone a lot but he was there this week and made burgers for us. He is really awesome and I've enjoyed getting to know him.  After dinner we did some tracting and then had a member lesson with the Davis family. We shared the new Easter video and invited them to share it with their family and friends or on social media. 

Wednesday, Chuck Deramo took us to lunch at Doolittles in Eagan. It was really good. It is a wood fired grill place and it was super pricey so it was cool to go and not have to pay for it haha. The total was like $120 for 3 of us!  He said he would be interested in taking the lessons but he is currently remodeling his house, so he said give him a few weeks to get his affairs in order (he also just retired), and then we could start doing them! I'm excited to teach him, he's a really nice guy! I forgot to get a picture of us at Doolittles, so I'll send one when we have a lesson. After that we visited Bob Hossman at the assisted living center. He has dementia and struggles to remember stuff. He actually remembered the last time we came and visited though, so that was cool! He's such a loving guy. He always tells us about how he met his wife and got married to her. It is such a cool story haha.  After that we decided to stop by some former investigators and see if they would be interested in meeting again. So the first family we stop by lets us in haha. Their names are Jodi and Enrique Arreola. They have been taught by missionaries before and got dropped like last summer. I wasn't sure why they got dropped. They had come to church a few times, read a little of the BOM and stuff. So we talked to them about their lives and what they had been taught before. They said they would come to church on Sunday but didn't.  Seriously, it seems dang near impossible to get people to church in this area. I've had one person come to church that I've invited since I got here. Satan does not want people to come to church.  It's tough. They said they would have a lesson with us again next Wednesday so we are planning on that. After that we tracted and found a couple people that said we could come back this week. We taught a few first lessons on people's door steps too but nothing super solid. Elder Sherwood is getting so much better at tracting and talking to people. It's been cool to see how far along he has come since he got here! We had dinner at 7pm with Danica Dufur and her fiancé, Mitchell. We had a blast with them haha. She was laughing at like everything we said and he was like, "idk what's going on tonight?" It was fun and he sat in on the lesson, too. He isn't a member and hasn't been super receptive in the past to the lessons from missionaries, but he has sat in on the last two lessons with us. Then we we did some stop bys after dinner and called it a night! 

Thursday we went to zone service at Prince of Peace. This week we got to sort clothes and put all the clothes on hangers and sort them and stuff. There was some weird articles of clothing haha. We found some weird lingerie stuff and some interesting shirts and what not.  After that we finished tracting the street we did on Wednesday. We found this one guy from Iran that was gardening so we asked if we could help him. He said no but we started talking to him about Jesus Christ and if he had a faith in him. He said he didn't believe Jesus was the son of God and that he was just a prophet. I said I knew Jesus was the son of God and that he lives today and is our Savior and Redeemer. He said in the Bible that it says Muhammad is supposed to be the next prophet and I was like "Where did you read that?" He says "On google!" I was like, "That isn't the most reliable source."  He told me to look it up and I did on my iPad. It doesn't even say the word Muhammad in the Bible. Then he said Jesus wasn't the savior either cuz God wasn't his father. I asked him who his father was and he couldn't answer my question, so we ended up listening to him continue to contradict himself about how God isn't his father but that he was created by God and Mary. We just said, "Have a good day!" and left haha. We didn't really find anyone interested but we talked to a lot of people so that was good at least! We then went and met Jaidyn Gretz at Starbucks to have a lesson with her. We figured she would open up more not in her house with her parents there. She just explained to us how she had fallen away from the church and then just didn't really have a lot of good friends or anything to help her. Now she's trying to get it all back together and get active again. Then we ran home and had dinner and then Brother Moerschel picked us up for a lesson with Johanna. We decided to read Moroni 10 with her since she hadn't read it since last time. It was going really good and she had a lot  of good questions and insights. Then Brother Moerschel got a little off topic and we really struggled to bring it back to what we were talking about. He did this several times and the lesson ended up being about 2 hours when we were planning on it being about an hour at the most. The Spirit was definitely there though, and she enjoyed what we read. She started asking all these questions about why we need the Book of Mormon if we already have the Bible. I told her to read 2 Nephi 29 before next time we meet and it will answer all her questions. It literally answered every question she had, so I'm really hoping she reads it! 

Friday we weekly planned and then had mission-wide finding hour from 3:30-4:30 pm. We decided to do this street that was up in the way northern part of our area. So we started with a mission-wide conference call and prayer and then started knocking. The second door we knocked on this guy answered and we talked to him for a while and then right when we were walking out to the street this car drives by, slams on the brakes and backs up to talk to us. There is 2 high school girls in the front seat and dude in the back seat. They were like, "Hey! What school do you go to?" We then told them who we were and what we were doing. They said that was really cool. The girl driving was one of those cute girls that acts dumber than a box of rocks so we basically ended up talking to the other girl. She asked us a ton of questions and said she had done missionary work too for her church. We gave her a pass along card and told them to check out Mormon.org and the Prince of Peace video. So they left and we knock on the next door and the car comes driving back down the street and they ask us for more cards and our phone number. So we obliged and told them to call us if they have any questions. Then we knocked the whole side of this street and no one talked to us. Then we saw this one guy on the other side of the street working in his garage. So we go over to talk to him and he says he is part of a church and isn't good at his church. That's what he said. So we were like, "Well hey! Jesus doesn't care if we aren't good at something. He just cares if we try and follow him!" Then he just went off on us about how he hates religion and doesn't believe in God so we just left.  Then at the end of the street we saw this lady and she waves us over. So we went over! Then she told us she used to be a Jehovah's Witness and hated it. She said they were crazy and didn't let you go to college, and if you married someone who wasn't a JW you basically got shunned by the people in the church. It was really sad to hear about. So we taught her about our church and our beliefs. She was really hesitant to come to church just cuz she said she has had 40+ years of bad church experience. We told her to call us if she had questions or was interested. So it was pretty cool! Then we had dinner at the Gretz and then went to do some tracting and had a member lesson with the Winwards. Brother Winward is from Preston so we talked about Cache Valley a lot haha.  We shared the Easter video with them too, and invited them to share it with family and friends as well!

Saturday we had breakfast at the bishop's house and did our weekly correlation meeting with him. Then we did some studies and finished our plans for the day, and then we went and visited the Bradfords at the assisted living center. They are super awesome and we hadn't visited them for like 2 weeks. Brother Bradford always talks about what a great companion his wife is and he said, "Elder Beach, someday, a cute girl is gonna wink at you and you're gonna fall head over heals in love!" I was just like that's a ways down the road. He's like "Oh, it'll probably be sooner than you think!" I was dying cuz it probably won't be that soon haha. It was a good visit! Then we went tracting and had a couple cool/funny/not funny stories:

1. We tracted into a Jets fan. Elder Sherwood loves the Jets so they hit it off and he invited us back next week!

2. We started talking to this Russian lady that kept asking us weird questions about kids being saved and that little kids are evil because of Adam's transgression and we were like no... that's not how it works! Then she told us the Book of Mormon isn't the word of God because of what it says in the Book of Revelation. So I pull out Deuteronomy 4 which says almost the exact same thing as Revelation 22. I asked her if that meant the New Testament was invalid. She had no answer.

3. This lady answers the door and asks us if we are soliciting something. We say no, we are sharing a message about Jesus Christ. She proceeds to tear into us about forcing our religion on people and just goes off. So I was like well, have you ever heard of the Book of Mormon? She just lost it and screamed at us to back off her and quit trying to make her convert. Some people...

4. We tracted into a bachelorette/Easter party, but this really cool guy named Cal talked to us and accepted a Book of Mormon!

Then we went to the Gretz and had some burgers and had an Easter family home evening lesson. It was super good. Brother Gretz did it and it was good!

Sunday was Easter and the Gretz got us Easter baskets full of stuff! They spoil us haha! Then we went to church and we had zero investigators there but all he Gretz family was there including Brother Gretz's non-member mom. So that was good! After that we dropped off the "Continuous Atonement" to Brother Bradford cuz he is studying the atonement of Jesus Christ right now and hadn't read it. I just finished it and it was awesome so I let him borrow it! Then we did some tracting and nobody wanted to talk really. It's funny how on holidays about Christ that people don't want to talk about our Savior. I don't really get it. After that we did some chalking. We went to a walking trail and wrote 2 Nephi 31:20 and people stopped and talked to us about when they walked by. We talked to 5-6 people in about an hour so it was pretty good! Then we had dinner at the Davises and it was super good! We had ham and cheesy potatoes and strawberry shortcake. Then we had a member lesson with the Lyon family and then we went to stop by some people we tracted last week. The first door we stopped by let us in and we talked to these guys named Scott and Bruno. They were really cool! They've done missionary work for their church before. They were really nice and had heard a lot about the LDS church before and had talked to missionaries before, too. We talked about the plan of salvation with them and they once again got hung up on the fall. I felt like we answered all their questions and they just had some weird ideas about things. We had a good conversation though! They were super nice and we, as well as them, tried to find common ground in our beliefs which I really respected. It was really cool! 

This week was super good! Good things are happening here in Apple Valley, so I'm excited to be here right now. I'm really starting to enjoy this time in my life where I can focus all my efforts on finding and teaching people who are ready to hear the message of the restored gospel. It makes me sad when people don't even give it a chance, but now is not their time. Seeds will be planted nonetheless! This week I read the parable of the fertile and infertile soil in Luke. It was really cool to read from a missionary standpoint and it made me realize that we are called to share the gospel, regardless of whether or not people listen to it. I know this church is true and that Jesus Christ is the savior and redeemer of the world. Hope you all had a great Easter with family and friends. Prayers up from Minnesota for you all!

Much love, 

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Chalking.

Easter basket from the Gretz family.

Twins Game

Hello to all my friends, family and coaches back home, at college and serving the Lord worldwide! Hope y'all are doing well and have had a great week! This week has been crazy and due to a lot of meetings and service opportunities and weird p day schedule, it seems like we haven't done a ton of missionary work but it seems like we've still had a lot of success haha. 

So last Monday was a half p day because we were going to the Twins game on Thursday. So we went down to Lake Marion Elders' apartment to email and do laundry until about 1 pm. Then we were supposed to help this less active lady move some furniture at 2 pm so we went home to change, and when we got home she said the truck was late and would be there at like 3 pm. So we did some more studies and training for about 40 minutes and then headed up to help her out. It was Sister Jana Jones.  Her daughter is Anna Jones.  She is currently going through a messy custody battle with her ex husband, and they are both less active. We are really working hard with Anna to help her get active again. Jana is active, just misses sometimes due to health issues. Anyway, we helped them move a ton of furniture from a U haul truck into their apartment. They were very grateful for the help, so that was good! Then we did some tracting after dinner and it was pretty fun! We didn't really find anyone but we shared a couple first lessons and just had a fun time haha. Elder Sherwood wrote down everything funny that happened so here are some highlights:

1. We knocked on a door and this golden retriever comes to the door with a giant stuffed bear in its mouth. It was super cute, unfortunately no one answered. 

2. This Asian lady answers a door and says "I Methodist! I no listen!" And slams the door in our face. 

3. We knock on the door and this super drunk guy answers and says, "I'm an atheist. I believe in aliens more than Jesus.  Anyway, I'll shake you guy's hand cuz you're doing good work. Us white boys gotta stick together. White power!" Then he shut the door and Elder Sherwood and I were like, "What the heck just happened?"

4. Elder Sherwood and Elder "Tree" (see picture below) I couldn't stand next to him cuz of this tree, so we hung my name tag on the tree and he knocked on the door. (we already knew no one was home)

It was a pretty fun evening even without much success. I'm really starting to enjoy missionary work, even though it is a grind and pretty disheartening sometimes!

Tuesday was MLC so we did a combined district meeting with the Spanish district. I had everyone bring their favorite conference talk and we discussed them and how we can use what we learned to be better missionaries and help our investigators. Then I gave a training on Chapter 14 of PMG which is "Flirt to Convert" I tried to make it serious and actually applicable, but some people just couldn't take it seriously. Overall I thought it went well though haha. Then we had zone service at Prince of Peace food shelf and then had a lesson with Daren. He asked a lot about temple ordinances like baptism for the dead and sealings and stuff. It went well, we tried to keep it really simple. We've really tried to focus on just gaining a testimony of the Book Of Mormon cuz if you do that, everything else will follow. And you don't have to know everything before you get baptized cuz you learn a lot after! Sister Gretz told us to invite Daren and his family over for dinner and FHE at their house on Saturday so we did, and he said they would be there. After that we had a lesson with Brady and Jonah who are recent converts in our ward. We had a lesson about the Book Of Mormon. So we had a discussion based on the questions 1. Why is the Book Of Mormon important? 2. What is the purpose of the Book Of Mormon? 3. How can I gain a testimony of the Book Of Mormon? It was a really, really good lesson. We showed "Testimony of the Book of Mormon" by Elder Holland and he goes hard in that video, so it was a great finale to a good spiritual lesson. We invited them to read the Book Of Mormon each day, and pray hard for a strong testimony of it. It was great.  Tuesday night we did some more tracting and we talked to this guy for like 30 minutes. He said he had met with missionaries before and didn't believe in Joseph Smith. I asked him if he had read the Book Of Mormon and he said no and I said, "Well sir, there's your problem. If you don't read the Book Of Mormon you're never gonna believe in our church or anything about it!" He said the Bible is the only true book of scripture and he'll just stick with that.  He kept saying that we were representing Joseph Smith and his church and every time he said that I would say "No, we aren't representing Joseph Smith and his church. We are representing Jesus Christ and his church." He didn't seem to get it but wouldn't shut up, so I just quit saying anything after a while and let Elder Sherwood talk to him. He told us to go knock on like 5 of his neighbor's houses, though.  It was about 8:30 when we got done talking to him, so we knocked on a few of the houses and the last one had like 4 super nice trucks out front. This teenager pulled up right before we got there and Elder Sherwood wanted to go talk to him, so we ran over and Elder Sherwood started talking about his truck and stuff. Then we transitioned it into the gospel and gave him a Book Of Mormon and invited him to church. He said we could stop by this week sometime. He said his parents might not be super interested but we said it's ok! It was pretty cool to cap off the night well.

Wednesday was new missionary training in Bloomington. It was fun to see everyone again and there were some really good trainings given. President Elhert, who is in our Mission Presidency, gave the best training I've ever heard. It was seriously so good. It was how we can study and receive answers for our investigators and help them to receive their own answers. It was good! Wednesday night we did some stop bys with Brother Sauser and had a really good lesson with Sister Brown, who is a less active sister in our ward. We shared the new Easter video "Prince of Peace" with her and she really loved it. We also talked about coming to Sacrament Meeting and why it is important. She said Satan really works hard on her on Sundays. She has depression a little bit and she said Sundays are always a hard day for her. We told her we could arrange for the Young Men to bring her the Sacrament after church if she would like that and she said she would! Reminded me of good old 10th ward days. Sister Gretz texted us and said she had a surprise for us, so we headed over to her house real quick to grab it. She had found out the Pugmires had a barbell and weights, so she borrowed those for me and got Elder Sherwood a putt putt golf set thing and ukulele to practice haha. She is awesome!

Thursday was so much fun!! In the morning, I got to lift weights'. I did snatch and snatch balance and overhead squat. It was so awesome haha. Then we went to Savers with the Lake Marion Elders to try and find some Twins Ties or Twins colored ties to wear to the game. Savers had some super nice ties for like $2-4 so we just ended up buying some of those haha. Then they told us they were having a 50% sale on Saturday so we decided we were going to go back and get me some new slacks cuz mine are wearing out a little and some more ties haha. Anyways, after Savers we had to take the bus from Apple Valley up to downtown Minneapolis to Target field for the game. We talked to this cool dude from Mexico on the bus and he took a selfie with the whole zone haha. He was a pretty cool guy! I invited him to church and gave him our number and the church address. Well it was supposed to be 55 degrees and sunny at the game, but we ended up sitting in the upper deck in the shade and it was like 37 degrees. So it was a little chilly at the game, but it was super fun. The Twins won and swept the KC Royals so that was sweet! With the tickets we got we got free hot dogs and drinks so that was sweet.  I got to sit by the Mission President and he's a hoot. He loves baseball so he was calling all the pitches and stuff and then would compare it on the jumbo Tron for what pitch it was. They played "Lose Yourself" by Eminem so everyone was singing along with it. Elder Nissenbaum asked President if he liked Eminem and President says, "I like m&ms..." We were like, "President..." It was pretty funny! They played "Anything Goes on a Friday Night" by Florida Georgia Line and I was jamming to that haha. I miss country music. It was really fun to be able to go to a baseball game with a bunch of missionaries. They had Elders Oldroyd and Harper do a bottle flip contest at one of the inning breaks on the jumbo tron haha.  It was fun! When we got home we went to the Gordhamers for dinner. Sister Gordhamer's mom and dad aren't members and they were there, so we got to talk to them during dinner and it was really good! We shared the Easter video and our testimonies of Jesus Christ and it was awesome. They both felt the spirit.Then we did some more tracting and called it a night!

Friday was a little crazy. We had weekly planning but Brother Seaman had a friend named Chuck Deramo who isn't a member who needed help moving some furniture from his office to his house. So we decided to help him out. He has met with missionaries in the past like 15 years ago. He met Brother Seaman at a McDonald's and then they ran into each other again at the same McDonald's on a later date and stayed there and talked until like 2 am. So now they are good friends. Anyways, we went and helped him move some huge cabinets and stuff. He is taking us to lunch at Doolittle's wood fired grill this Wednesday. Should be good. We are going to see if he would be interested in taking the lessons with us. He's a nice guy and he's asked a lot of questions while we've been helping him. Friday night we went tracting and did some stop bys. Not a super successful night haha but it was good. 

Saturday we had a funeral for a member of our ward who passed away. His name was Siam Solomon and he was like 13 years old. It was crazy, they went on vacation and he got pneumonia and it just went downhill way fast and he ended up dying. The funeral was really good and it was a really spiritual experience for me. Bishop Clifford and Brother Gordhamer spoke at it and Bishop's talk was really good. It made me realize how grateful I am for Jesus Christ and his atonement and resurrection on Easter Sunday. Without it, death would be the end. Life would just be done. But death is just a milestone on our celestial journey. Bishop talked about how without love, death would know no sorrow or sting. So no matter what, when loved ones pass away we will feel sorrow and the sting of death, but that can be swallowed up in knowing that we will see them again and we will all live again because of what Jesus Christ did for us. I will forever be grateful for the knowledge we have of the plan of salvation and of the atonement and resurrection. After that we went up to help move some huge glass cabinets on Chuck's wall. Elder Sherwood was a cabinet installer before his mission so he was money helping get them off the wall and taken apart. I'm just good for moving stuff haha. So we helped out with that till about 4 pm then went home to get ready for our dinner and FHE at the Gretz with Daren's family. It went so good. Daren and his wife really hit it off with Brother and Sister Gretz. Their kids loved Sister Gretz haha so it was good. We had Santa Fe chicken and it was awesome, and then we went to this farm that a member had in the Lake Marion ward and it was super fun. The kids loved it.  Then we went to the Gretz' house and had dessert. Daren brought a cheesecake and Sister Gretz made bunny buns. They're cupcakes that look like a bunny is upside down in them. It was so good!

Sunday we had ward council and then had church. Church was really good! We didn't have any investigators there. Daren said he still won't be able to come until like next week. So we are keeping our fingers crossed that he can come next week. After church we went tracting for about an hour and half. It was raining up until we parked the car and got out of the car to start and didn't rain until we got back into the car to drive to dinner haha. We didn't find anyone, but we had some good conversations with people. We met this one guy named James. He was out playing with his kids and talked to us for about 10 minutes. He knew some LDS people and talked to them but said it just wasn't for him. We gave him a card with our number to call us if he needed help with yard work or anything. He was pretty cool and told us to go talk to his neighbor because they had spiritual conversations all the time haha. So we went and talked to his neighbor and he had also met missionaries before but didn't really feel like it was for him either. He said he was an atheist which surprised me. I just bore my testimony that God loved him, and even if he didn't believe in God, God still loved him and wanted what's best for him. He said we could stop by this week so that's good! Then we went to the Lamb of God concert with the Lake Marion Elders and one of their investigators. She is really cool and is getting baptized in 2 weeks. It was really good! I got to see the Keepmans, Nelsons and Hadleys from the Minnetonka ward. I really miss them so much. I'm going to see if I can pull a few strings and serve in Minnetonka my last transfer haha.  That would be sweet! Lamb of God was awesome and I loved it. The Minnesota Mormon chorale was way good. It was a great week!

This week was really good, even though we had some crazy stuff going on haha. Last Monday I was feeling really down because I just felt like I was working hard and all that and wasn't seeing a lot of success. This week I tried to see my successes each day and was able to find a lot of them. Mom also emailed me about a difference I am making and that really helped too. Satan definitely tries to hit me in that a lot. Getting down on myself and feeling like I'm not making a difference out here. I know I am though, and it really is easy to see the success and difference you make, you just have to take a step back and look at the bigger picture sometimes. I know all missionaries serving are making a difference in someone's life. You may not be able to see it, but just believe me when I say you are! Every single person serving is making a positive difference in someone's life. So always remember that! I hope you all have a great Easter this week and remember the true meaning of this holiday. I love you all and please keep my grandma in your prayers. She is going through some health struggles right now. Thanks! Love you all! 

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Elder Tree

Just happy to be missionaries!

Seeing some old friends at the training.

At the farm.

Twins game.

General Conference Week!

Hello to all my family, friends, and coaches back home, at college, and serving the Lord worldwide! I hope this email finds you all doing well and enjoying life.  This week has been pretty good and has gone by really fast! Elder Sherwood is doing great and seems to improve daily in his confidence as a missionary. Also, big shoutout to my bro for getting his mission call to Birmingham, Alabama! He's gonna kill it, so everyone give him a pat on the back when you see him!

Monday was p day and it was pretty fun! We played some basketball at the Lakeville chapel and that was fun! There were a couple members there cuz it was spring break here so it was good and the Gretz came and played ball too! It was a good time. After that we went home and got changed and we decided to go tract this street that Elder Kemberling and I started in exchanges but didn't finish. There were a few people we had knocked into that said we could come back so we stopped by those people first. One lady, Johanna, let us in and we taught a restoration lesson to her. She grew up in Mexico and lived right by an LDS church. She knew a little about it but not much. It was a really good lesson and the spirit was definitely there. We invited her to be baptized, but she said she needed to read and pray and ask God if this was the right church before she committed to be baptized. We are teaching her again this Thursday, so hopefully she has started reading and praying!

Tuesday we had district meeting in the morning and it was really good! I gave a training on being more bold in our invites to people and challenging all those we are teaching to be baptized. Thanks Dad, for sending that talk, it was really good! I'm really enjoying being a district leader. I feel like it's helping me out more than anyone else, but it's definitely helping me be a better missionary. After that we went to Prince of Peace zone service and that was fun, as always! We had a ton of people that came to get food orders so we were super busy. There was like 30 people we did in 2 hours. Like half of those people came the last half hour, so we were scrambling the last 30 minutes to stay on top of all the orders. After that we had a lesson with Daren and Brother Hawley came joint teaching with us. It was a good lesson but it was basically just Daren asking deep doctrine questions and Brother Hawley answering them as best he could. As a missionary I've learned to teach simple, true doctrine because that's when the spirit can testify to the people we are teaching. Daren got a lot of questions answered so that was good! He's still hung up on the fall of Adam though. It's hard to explain it. Like I know why it needed to happen, it's just hard to verbalize it in a way that makes sense to someone else. Brother Gretz got hung up on the fall when he was investigating the church and has a really good explanation of how he got over it and gained a testimony of it. So we are trying to get those two together to talk about it! Daren didn't come to any of general conference and I'm not sure why. He said he had to work but he never really got back to us about anything, so it was a bummer. Right after Daren's lesson we had a lesson with Brady and Jonah about the offices of Teacher and Deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood. Brady will become a Teacher this summer and Jonah will be a Deacon. We went over the duties and responsibilities of a Teacher and Deacon with them and committed Brady to watch Priesthood session of conference with us, which he did, so that was awesome! That night we had a lesson with Bert Goff, who is a less active prospective Elder in our ward. He is working to get the Melchizedek Priesthood but he always has work on Sunday and is struggling with smoking right now. He has been trying to get work off on Sundays for like a year or more and it hasn't been able to happen for him. He also has been trying to quit smoking for like 30 years. He's down to like 5 cigarettes a day so he is pretty close to quitting! We went over D&C 107 with him because he had some questions about his reading assignment from like 3 months ago. I had only met him once before, so I didn't really know him or know what was going on. We left him to read D&C 84:33-44 which is the oath and covenant of the Priesthood. We did some tracting after that and didn't see much success and then called it a night!

Wednesday was a really busy day for us! We had a lesson at 2:30 pm with Trish, who is a newer investigator we have been teaching. She has kind of lost her faith and is trying to get it back/strengthen it. She has a lot of questions that have been unanswered for years and we are helping her find answers to those questions through the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon! She has started reading the Book of Mormon and said she likes it so far. She also works on Sundays so she hasn't been able to come to church either. Getting people to church is seriously sooooooo hard. It's frustrating. We talked a lot about how God answers prayers and having faith that He will answer them. Last time we met she wanted to talk about why bad things happen to good people. We had planned to read this talk called "God Shall Wipe Away All Tears" by Elder Evan A. Schmutz from last October conference. It is a really awesome talk and I would encourage all those who are going through difficult times to read it. Anyway, we didn't get to the talk, but we told her to read it before next week. She asked all these really good questions right before we left and we told her we would answer all of them next time. Basically all of them can be answered with the plan of salvation. After that we had to go help the Gretz move this huge couch from their basement up to their garage because Jon (Jaidyn's boyfriend) is moving out. We also moved this exercise machine down to the basement for Sister Gretz. She gave me some 35 pound dumbbells and a wall ball medicine ball so it was a good trade off. Then we had dinner with the Nelsons. Their oldest son is diabetic and so Sister Nelson was asking me all these questions about how to handle diabetes and I gave some pointers I had learned or use, but I don't know if I was that much help. Brother Ostler came joint teaching with us after that and we had a lesson with Danica Dufur and her fiancé who isn't a member. Everyone told us he wouldn't sit in on the lesson but he did! D used to be less active but is active now and she and Mitchell live together, but sleep in different rooms. So yeah.... but she is active now and he comes to church with her pretty often. He is really nice and I was glad he sat in on the lesson with us. After that we went and saw Joel and Cynthia. They let us in and we read 2 Nephi 31 with them and talked about the doctrine of Christ. We invited them to be baptized and Joel said no. Then he basically said that he didn't want to go against his family and was grateful for his dad for being a polygamist so that he could be born. Brother Ostler asked them if God told them to join the church would they? They both said they would, so he said, "The only way you're going to know that this church is true is to ask God and listen for an answer." I seriously don't even think they have a testimony of their own church, they just grew up in it and don't really want to change. They aren't active or anything in it so I don't know. It's tough. They seemed a little upset that we asked them to be baptized, but that's what we are called to do, so oh well!

Thursday we had a lesson with Harry Colwell again. He is struggling with his health a little bit. He will be 85 this week! He said he was excited to watch conference, so I'm hoping he was able to. He also told us he wants to come to fast Sunday next week because those are his favorite Sacrament meetings. We are still trying to figure out what his hold up is with coming to church. He has expressed a sincere desire to come for years, but he never does and no one can really figure out what his road block is. So that is our number one job this week with him. Before we saw Harry we stopped by this potential that Elder Wolfley and I found named Siendra. She is Cherokee, and so I told her I had some Cherokee in my family line and then she opened right up and started talking to us. Anyway, we stopped by her trailer to give her a Book of Mormon and she was really excited to get it. We told her it was a record of the people of ancient America and their dealings with God and Jesus Christ. I figured since she was Cherokee that she would like reading it for that reason. She said she was glad we brought it by because she had to go to the courthouse to do taxes the next morning at 6 AM to get in line and needed something to read while she was in line. She said she was glad to have the Book of Mormom to read haha. So that was pretty cool! We then biked down to this street we decided to tract and started knocking. Not a lot of people were home or wanted to talk, but we shared a few short messages with some people. This one guy came out and talked to us and told us he was Catholic and believed in Mother Mary and not God. He also said he didn't believe in the New Testament either, just the Old Testament. I don't know how that works, because Mary is in the New Testament, so yeah. I didn't say anything to him, just was like "Oh, that's cool!."  Some people make me scratch my head sometimes. Anyway, we knocked this one door and met this super cool guy named John. He told us he was Catholic but he thought people should be able to decide what church they belong to for themselves. He didn't baptize his kids into the Catholic Church because he thought they should be able to choose what church they went to. He was super cool and was like, "I really appreciate what you guys are doing! We need more folks like you in the world!" He said he was out of town this week but said we could call him this Friday when he gets back and set up an appointment. It was sweet. Then we had dinner at the Pugmires and that was a party. Sister Pugmire made Elder Sherwood a "greenie dinner" so we had like 10 green foods haha. After dinner we helped Brother Pugmire move a huge cupboard thing from upstairs to downstairs. It wasn't able to fit down the stairs, so we used straps and lowered it from the 2nd floor window to the ground. It was legendary (see below photos). Then we had FHE at the Gretz and we did a lesson on the Priesthood and patriarchal blessings. They've been pushing Mikey to get his patriarchal blessing before he goes to college this year. It was a good lesson and we all got to share cool experiences we've had with either a Priesthood blessing or a patriarchal blessing. It was good! 

Friday was weekly planning. Brother and Sister Seaman took us to this Chinese buffet for lunch. It was pretty good! They had some tasty salmon and sushi so I had some of that and some veggies and stuff. After that we helped one of Brother Seaman's friends named Chuck Deremo move some stuff in his house out to the truck. He isn't a member but has met with missionaries in the past and is a cool guy. We will see if he is open to being taught again. We are helping him move some furniture from his office to his house later this week! We were out of miles for the month, so we decided to walk to dinner and tract and talk to everyone on the way up. It was like 4 miles away so we left at like 3:30 pm. We tracted a few neighborhoods and didn't really find anyone but had some good conversations with people! We walked by this park where two guys were shooting some hoops. I stopped and said, "Hey, you guys wanna play two on two?" They were like no... so I said, "What's the matter? You scared of getting beat by two guys in church clothes?" They were like, "Uhhh no, we just don't want to play." I was like, "Wow ok."We talked to a few more kids playing basketball but no one was interested in playing us. We got to dinner and we had this super weird Laotian dinner. I don't know what it was but it was basically like rubber burrito things with weird meat and stuff in it. The outside part of the burrito was this white jelly stuff. It was not that great. I ended up eating a ton of tomatoes and cucumbers. After that Brother McGill came out with us to do some stop bys. We met with the Duos and had a little lesson with them. We invited Aldophus, who is a less active, to watch the Priesthood session. He said he would come, but he didn't show up. We were supposed to have a lesson with Mason Kellington, who is a less active prospective Elder. He just had surgery on like Wednesday, so we were going to give him a blessing and share a message with him. So we get to his grandparents house where his is staying and knock on the door and ring the bell and no one answers. So we called his phone and we could hear it ringing in the house and no one answered it.  We figured he was asleep or something from the pain meds haha. Then we did some more stop bys and nobody was home, so yeah..... 

Saturday was easily my favorite day this week! The Gretz invited us over for breakfast and to watch conference. They had invited some non member friends over to watch so Ariana's friends were there and then Jaidyn and Mikey, who are less active watched as well. Sister Gretz made biscuits and gravy for breakfast and it was good!  Conference was amazing this year. I absolutely loved it and I will send pictures of my notes from conference. In between sessions we got to throw the football in the QB net the Gretz have in their backyard and play some basketball at a park by their house. Then we watched the second session of conference and then I got to FaceTime home to see Jackson open his mission call! That was so great to see the family and get to talk to all of you. That was seriously like the happiest feeling I've had in a while, just being able to see my brother open his mission call and see how hard he has prepared to be a good missionary! That brought me a lot of joy, Jackson!  Then we got to go to Pizza Ranch with the Priesthood from our ward. It was so yummy! I love Pizza Ranch, and I didn't completely pig out, so that was good haha. Priesthood session was really good as well. I seriously just loved Conference.  It was great and I got a lot of answers to questions I needed. 

Sunday morning we had breakfast and coordination at Bishop Clifford's house and then Mikey's girlfriend, who isn't a member but lives at the Gretz house, wanted a Priesthood blessing, so we just went over there to watch morning session and give her a blessing. I was asked to give the blessing, and it was really good! Afterwards she was like "How did you know all those things?" Also, Sister Gretz said her wisdom teeth are feeling way better and the swelling went down a ton after the blessing. That was the main reason for the blessing was to help with that. After morning session we went to the church to open the building for afternoon session and watch the last session of conference. It was really bittersweet for me because I loved it and it had some really good answers to questions people had, but no one came to watch any sessions. I almost got like more sad as conference went on which is not what is supposed to happen. It was tough. I really want people to feel of the joy and be able to experience the blessings of the gospel, but it's tough to find those who are ready and desire it. We had dinner with the Larson family that evening. They are insane.  We had like 4 kids screaming at us, playing the piano and the harmonica at the same time while one was meowing as loud as she could.  It was crazy. After dinner we tracted and no one was super interested in talking to us. There was this one guy that was a Catholic and just went off on us and told us we were wrong and stuff. I just said have a good day and left. Elder Sherwood and I were commenting on how we both wish we could just take how we feel and what we know and give it to people for like 2 seconds so they could feel of the love and joy we have. It's so hard to verbalize it.  I seriously have never desired people to be able to have the joy this gospel and church bring more than I have right now, and it seems like people want it less than ever right now. It's hard! 

This week was good and it flew by, but it's been tough to just help people feel the spirit and know that what we are teaching is true. People just don't seem to have a desire or drive to keep commitments and make changes in their lives to help them be happy and feel God's love for them. It's a little disheartening, but I'm holding out hope and faith that someone we are teaching will figure it out or that we can find someone who is ready to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I know without a doubt this church is the true church of Jesus Christ on earth today. It is led a prophet called of God and apostles also called by God to lead and guide us. I know the Book of Mormon is true and is the keystone of our religion and will bring you closer to Christ and our Heavenly Father than any other book in the world. I'm so grateful for our loving Heavenly Father and his plan of salvation for us. I'm grateful we can repent and change our hearts and desires and improve every day. I'm so grateful for my family. I love you more than anything and pray for you each day! I'm glad we can be together forever. This knowledge brings such peace to my heart knowing that if anything happens to us we will see each other again one day. I'm grateful and humbled I have the opportunity to share this gospel. I hope and pray all of you can embrace and live this gospel that is so precious and dear to us. It is very hard to see people reject us day after day and turn away the truth and happiness we are bringing. But I know we will be blessed for our efforts to share it with the people of the missions we are assigned to labor in. God's work will roll forth and nothing can stop it! I love you all and hope you have a great week! Sending lots of prayers your way from Apple Valley, Minnesota.

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10