2 Dates Set!

     A big hello to all my family, friends and coaches back home in Cache Valley, at college, and serving the Lord around the world!  Hope this email finds you all well and happy with life! I sure am happy with life right now! It's been an amazing, miracle filled week in Sauk Rapids!

     Monday was a normal p-day for us. Laundry, shopping and throwing the football around for a few hours haha.  There isn't much to do up here because the missionaries are so far apart, but throwing the ball is always fun. I love that.  After P-day we had dinner with the Broads. They are an older couple that live in a super nice trailer park. Dinner was a little interesting to say the least haha. Basically Brother Broad told us all these super weird like "urban legends of Mormonism".  There were some weird stories! And he complained about the Presidential election the whole time, too.  He has a giant rock on his dining room table and named it "Heart of Trump". I about died when he said that but he was dead serious so I had to hold in my laughter.  After dinner we tracted for about an hour and we felt we should go to this little street we had never been to. As we started knocking, we realized the neighborhood was inhabited by elderly Catholics, Lutherans, and various other religions who weren't super happy to see us! But we kept knocking and at the end of the street this lady was out on her driveway talking to another guy. She called us over and told us she had known the Elders down in Red Wing and absolutely loved them! They had helped her son with home repairs and yard work while he was going through chemotherapy for cancer. So we got to talk to her for like 30 minutes! She had some ducks in her yard and let us feed them and stuff. The crazy thing was she was only visiting her daughter for the day and actually lived in Brainerd. It was amazing that we felt we should tract that street and ran into her.  Super cool! We then had a huge rain and thunderstorm with lighting, so we ended up having to be inside the last like 45 minutes of the night which sucked, but it is what it is,

     Tuesday morning I was not feeling it. I was just having one of those days where I wasn't in the mood to go talk to people and was just not myself. I really am not a very outgoing person, but that has changed so much. I really love sharing the gospel with people now. It's crazy how much easier it is for me to approach random people and share a message with them that they may think is totally insane.  It's cool how the mission changes you for the better! So anyway, we did some walk around stop bys and I was just hating life for some reason. I was just like, "I hate knocking doors when no one is home because it's 11 AM and no one wants to talk to us." I was having the adversary get into my head a little.  Our last stop by we did to a potential named Shaun was awesome. He was out working on a car and as we walked up I literally had like an epiphany moment of, "This man needs the gospel and he is a child of God." As I felt that I just immediately started talking to him and those negative thoughts went away and I felt so much better. I find it so interesting that whenever I get down on myself or the work or whatever, the best remedy is to work and talk to people. It always brightens my day.  Super cool! There's a quote in Preach My Gospel about how the best remedy or medicine for worry or stress of homesickness is work. Because if you work, you will have the Spirit with you, and if you have the Spirit then others will feel it and the work will be successful. I agree with that 100%. We had a lesson with Greg Ward right after lunch. He's an interesting fellow haha. He's been taught on and off for about 5 years and doesn't progress at all. I really tried to listen to him and figure out where he is coming from and all that, and he just kept contradicting himself and saying he doesn't want to be more happy in life or burden God. I finally just bore my testimony of the fact that God loves him, Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration, and the Book of Mormon was true and would bless his life and bring him more happiness. He didn't really have anything to argue with after that haha.  I don't know how much more we will be teaching him, but I hope he felt the Spirit and God's love for him! We drove down to Becker after that to visit some less actives and potentials and literally no one was home. It was insane. The two people we talked to were Alex, who was the Ukrainian guy we found a few weeks back, and this less active guy who lives next to the Bishop. He didn't even know the Bishop lived next door to him haha.  We talked to him for about 30 minutes about football and DJing. He DJs for a living and is kind of a party animal, but he's a nice dude and loved talking to us. We invited him to church and gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read it. After that we headed back up to St. Cloud to go to YSA institute. President Baker asked us to start going to just add some more numbers to it and be a support there so that was super cool and really fun. 

     Wednesday was kind of weird day. We had district meetings in the morning so we Skyped into those, and then had a service opportunity with this lady set up at noon. So we show up and she's like, "I told you I have a doctors appointment right now and can't do today." She never told us that which was a bummer, and then she talked to us for literally 30 minutes about tornados and how there was going to be one in Sauk Rapids that day. She said she was a weather spotter and knew what to look for and there was going to be one that day. Well, there wasn't. It was rainy for half the day and super hot and humid and sunny the later part of the day.  We did a zone finding hour after that and we knocked this street in Sartell and literally no one was home. We talked to like 2 people in 40 doors, so that was kind of a bummer. However, one of the 2 people was super nice and talked to us for about 20 minutes. He was from Las Vegas and his best friends were Mormon so we talked about that for a while. He said his wife was a staunch Catholic and I asked him if he was too, and he said, "No... I'm a half-A Catholic!" I thought that was pretty funny.  And so did he haha. Anyway, we had a nice chat with him! We did some less active stop bys after that and met Rustin Bird, who is Reegan Bird's little brother. He is pretty cool and a lot different than his sister haha. He used to be in the military and now lives off of veterans assistance and just drinks whiskey and plays X-Box all day.  He doesn't work or anything so I don't know how he affords a house and liquor and all that, but he does haha. Anyway, he was pretty nice and we talked to him and read a little of the Book of Mormon with him. He asked for a Book of Mormon and a Bible so we gave him those to read. Hopefully he does read them! We had dinner with the Otis's and Sister Otis made Kamut pancakes. They are so good, and we need to make them when I get home, Mom! It's this Middle Eastern grain that is super healthy and super dense so like 2 pancakes made me stuffed haha. They were really good! We did some NAC list stop bys after dinner and met some of them, but they all said they weren't interested and to not stop by anymore.  Sad day. We had a member lesson with the Petersons after that about the 40 day fast, and that was really good! And then we called it a night. 

     Thursday morning we had a lesson with Jennifer, who was the lady we found last week during zone finding hour. She had like a notebook full of questions and had read Moroni 10! It was awesome. However, her husband and pastor told her not to pray about it!  I was like, "Who the heck tells someone to not pray? That makes no sense to me." In 2 Nephi 32:8 it says: "8 And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray." We shared that with her and she said it made a lot of sense. So hopefully this week she will pray about it! She had a lot of really good questions about the Godhead and stuff like that, and just random questions from the Bible that people at her church couldn't answer. We have another lesson with her this Friday! After that we went to Quik Trip so Elder Myer could grab some lunch really quick. He got some corn dogs and squirted ketchup on his pants, and then when we got in the car he grabbed my water bottle to squirt some water on it to wash it off and it squirted all over him so it looked like he wet his pants.  I was dying and he was so mad, but laughing, too haha.  It was pretty funny! We had a lesson with Flora at like 1:30 pm, and it was awesome. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and committed her to be baptized on August 12! Please keep her and her family in your prayers. Her parents don't know she has committed to be baptized yet. We fasted and prayed for her parents to be cool with it on Sunday. After that the APs were supposed to come up, so went to our apartment to meet them and did comp study while we waited. When they got there, I went with Elder Last and Elder Myer went with Elder Cordara. We went to have a lesson with Matt at his house and also taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and committed him to be baptized on August 26! So we had a sick day because we got two dates set in one day! After that we drove out to Foley and had dinner and lesson with the Cosgroves, and we got to take some pictures with his custom assault rifles haha. We talked about the Sacrament and the importance of taking it each week and how it renews the Spirit to be with us and give us a remission of sins. Elder Bednar gave a bomb talk called, "Always Retain a Remission of Your Sins" that talks about how our baptism and the Sacrament are interconnected. It makes the Sacrament so much more important to me after I read that talk! I would encourage all to read it! After that we had a lesson with Bill and Tasha Gillam. Their basement flooded so we helped them move some stuff up and outside. There was a dude named Donald there and I ended up talking to him and gave him a Book of Mormon and he said we could come by and teach him this week. We showed the "Mountains to Climb" video by Elder Eyring to them and it was super cool. We talked about how faith can help us endure our trials. Bill really seems to like having us over, and I hope we can help him progress and come to church and all that. After that we did service for Sister Nick, and her husband actually came out and talked to us! He was pretty nice and gave us gloves to use to pull weeds and stuff. We destroyed their flower bed and got all the weeds out of there haha.  Then we headed back home for the night!

     Friday morning we had to account with the DLs about their districts and then we went with Brother Hilsgen and Brother Brinley to help one of Brother Hilsgen's friends clean up their farm and get it ready for an auction. They had a super cool/weird farm house and we cleaned out all of it and also some stuff from the barn and moved rocks and stuff. It was super fun and a good workout too, so that was good! It was out in the sticks in St. Cloud area, but it was super cool and we had a good time. We got to talk to a lot of folks there about missionary work.  After that we drove up to Little Falls and stopped by the pastor dude who we talked to a few weeks back. He hadn't read the article we gave him yet, but we had both read the book of John, so we let him know that and told him to get on it! We also had a lesson with the Dobsons. They are not really progressing right now and are letting really dumb things get in the way of coming to church and reading the scriptures and stuff. It makes me sad for them. We then drove up to Brainerd, which is like an hour and half north of where we live. We got there at around 8 pm and I went with Elder Farish and we knocked some doors in the pouring rain. ️ It was super fun though, and we gave a few Books of Mormon away and found a pastor who we set up a return appointment with to discuss religion. It was pretty fun! Friday was long day haha. 

     Saturday morning we worked out (I did) haha and then got to work. I went with Elder Searle and we did some stop bys and met this lady who we talked to for like 30 minutes. She could've talked all day haha. We listened to her stories about how she came to know God and all that. It was really cool! She said she loved to serve others and help them find God too, and I shared Mosiah 2:16-17 with her and gave her a Book of Mormon. She was super happy to accept it, and I told her it would help her with sharing the knowledge and love of Christ with others. She loved it!  After that we stopped by to see Melissa who was a potential investigator they hadn't seen for a while. She was going through a lot of struggles when we talked to her and we shared the "Mountains to Climb" video with her as well! She really liked it and we had a really good talk with her about relying on Christ's atonement to help us get though challenges in our lives. After that we had lunch really quick and then went and did some chalking in a park. Haha these two girls that were like 10 kept walking by and watching us, but wouldn't talk to us or help us out.  I was hoping they could help us but they didn't! I had a blast on exchanges, and we did some good work up in Brainerd with them. We drove home at like 3:30 and stopped by this less active dude in Little Falls who lives way out of town, but his address was no good, so that was a bummer for sure. Oh cool story I forgot. Friday when we were in Little Falls we stopped by another less active, but his roommate was there. His name was Hagar and he is in the military and lives in Duluth, but was down for a few weeks. He joined the church a few years ago after getting introduced by a friend in the service. He had no idea we had a church down in St. Cloud, so we had a member pick him up for church and he stayed all three hours! It was super cool! Back to Saturday. We had dinner with Sister Kennedy and Dave and Dave sent us the articles on Mormons his pastor had sent him. It was anti stuff and it was the Plan of Salvation with a lot of twists making it very not true. One thing I thought was funny was it said in order to be temple worthy you had to follow laws of Mormonism including: keeping a journal, having at least a years supply of food storage, and always reading the Book of Mormon. I just had to laugh. People have no clue what they are talking about sometimes but it is what it is! Dave listened a little more closely this time and didn't argue as much. Some of the stuff his pastor told him was BS, and we showed him that it was. I think that helped him realize we actually know what we are talking about haha.  Like his pastor told him that it says in the Bible you are supposed to baptize little kids and it doesn't say that in the Bible and we showed him that. So I think that helped him a little. He just believes whatever his pastor says and doesn't figure things out for himself, so we are trying to help him do that! After dinner we tracted for a while and found this super nice older lady who had been to temple square and loved it and we gave her a Book of Mormon, and she said we could come teach her some more this week and possibly do service for her too! We then had a meeting with Brother Charter to discuss the work in the ward and how the Ward Council could help! Haha Brother Charter is a hoot and half. 

     Sunday morning we had Ward Council but we left early to go pick up a girl Elder Myer and Elder Cordara found on exchanges. Spencer Baker drove us there and we show up and she isn't there. Her dad was like, "I think she's at her boyfriend's house." So that was a bummer. But Matt and Flora came to church! And so did Hagar, and Mark finally made it as well. The chapel was full once again, so that was awesome. Elder Myer and I both spoke on missionary work and blessings we had seen from the 40 day fast. It was cool, and I'm glad we could speak on member missionary work. After church we had dinner with the Rodebush family. They are awesome and made a bomb burrito bar for us and chocolate lava cake. We talked about college football like the whole time so that was awesome.  After that we had a lesson with Naomi, who was a lady we found about a week or so ago, and unfortunately she wasn't home.  So we tracted for like 2 hours and found like 3 new investigators and gave away like 5 Books of Mormon, so that was awesome! It was a great week and I'm loving life right now!  

     Cool learning thing from this week: We did a Christlike attributes activity in Preach My Gospel and I realized that I really sucked at having faith. I hadn't ever really thought about that before. I've really been focusing on patience and charity this transfer. And I've improved majorly on those two attributes. So I started studying about faith and how to increase it. I read the talk "Mountains to Climb" by Elder Eyring and one line that he says really stuck out to me. He says, "If the foundation of faith is not embedded in hearts, the power to endure will crumble." That really stuck out to me. I've been reading in 2 Nephi about the prophecies of the last days and how the world will be wicked and people will be complacent and not work to keep and increase their faith.  I realized that I needed to really work on increasing my foundation of faith. I had faith, I just needed to increase it and always focus on that. Faith in Christ leads us to act and to change and to repent and become better. It all finally clicked for me this week and it was super cool. Like I just finally understood what faith means to me. It's hard to explain, but it was really awesome! I would encourage all to read that talk as well as the one by Elder Bednar. They are both stellar talks with great messages. Anyway, life is good, I'm happy, I love sharing this gospel with people and I realized how sad I am going to be in 11 months when I have to come home.  I am really living the life right now and I love it! I love you all and hope all is well for you. Thank you for all the support and prayers. It means the world to me. I definitely can feel the power and strength from them. Thank you all and have a great week! God bless!

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

My workout list.

Exchanges in Brainerd.

Chalking with Elder Searle.

Cleaning out the barn.

Checking out the guns at the C's house!

Sunset on the Mississippi River.

Feeding the ducks with our new friend!

Doing Some Work!

     Howdy to all my family, friends and coaches back home, serving the Lord and at college! Hope you all had a solid week and are loving this beautiful summer time of year .  This week has been really busy and we've done a lot of finding, but have had some really good lessons with our investigators as well.

     On Monday we just did our laundry at the Dohms and emailed and then had dinner with the Caspers. They are super cool! Their two youngest sons, Brady and Noah, loved us haha and we played this funny board game/guessing game with them. Elder Myer was trying to like rush us out the door after dinner, but we didn't have any lessons or anything, and I figured 30 minutes of our time to build a relationship with the Caspers was about as productive as knocking doors. I remember the missionaries I got to go out with and be around and they were really great guys and I had fun with them. I just want members and their kids to see us as representatives of Jesus Christ first and foremost. But also as people who love them and care about them and their lives. So after we left, I explained that to Elder Myer and he agreed, so that was good! We then knocked doors for about 2 hours and didn't really find anyone solid, but we talked to a lot of cool people and gave away like 4 Books of Mormon! 

     Tuesday morning we did some service for Emily Bird, who is the wife of a less active member. She is a Jehovah's Witness but is super nice and loves having us over. We just helped her pull out all these huge plants from her flower beds and trim them up and stuff. It was fun and we had a super good time.  Tuesday afternoon we knocked doors for about 2-3 hours. We've stopped by every single person in our area book who is a less active, former investigator, or potential investigator already. All the ones in Sauk Rapdis and St. Cloud and Sartell haha.  So we don't have a lot to do except knock doors and try to find new people. Some days I get so sick of it, but we always seem to have a cool experience or an interesting story or something haha.  So we also had a lesson with Jared Mastey, who is a recent convert. He is a very interesting person. He's a good guy and he knows what he needs to do in life and he does it. We had a lesson about being accountable with our Priesthood authority and using it to bless others. That's the whole point of having it is to bless others lives! So we talked about that with him to help him understand the importance of getting the Priesthood. After that we knocked doors for another hour and half or so (we knocked for an hour before his lesson) and we met some way cool people. The very last door we knocked on this guy named Enoch answered and was super nice. He told us he was super busy with his kids but took a Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet and said we could come back this week! Really hoping he turns into something. Elder Myer and I both felt prompted to knock on his door and it was cool how open he was. After dinner we stopped by some investigators and less actives who live down in the ghetto in St. Cloud. We met this less active named Michael Koch and he is awesome! He has a garage where he works on motorcycles and cars and stuff and he is way good at that stuff. He restores cars and builds motorcycles from parts he buys and all kinds of cool stuff. He wasn't like super interested in church, but we talked to him for like 45 minutes and got a tour of his garage and of his motorcycles so that was sweet!

     Wednesday was interviews with President Barney at the St. Cloud building, so we were there from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm. It was a long day haha. Interviews went well and I honestly love President Barney already. He is such a loving guy and has a great heart and vision for the mission. I don't feel like he is going to be a stickler, "letter of the law" Mission President, which I really like. He feels that we can make our own decisions about how we spend our time and I like that. But he's awesome. We went to both district meetings too, and it is funny to see how each District Leader runs their district meetings differently. I've really learned how to accept others' ideas and opinions, and I've realized that there isn't always one right way to do things. There's lots of ways to accomplish something and everyone has their own ways of doing it. I've really come to appreciate that on my mission, and working with lots of different kinds of missionaries! After all that got done we had a few people we found tracting that said we could come back to, but none of them were home, so we just tracted the other side of the same street. The first door we knocked on we met this lady named Amy who was super nice, and we taught her a whole restoration lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon. She said we could come back this Wednesday afternoon to teach her some more! We've seen a lot of cool miracles this last week off of our backup plans. I've gained a good testimony of making effective backup plans as a missionary.  We had dinner with Brother Peterson (his whole family is in Idaho except him because of work) and he is really cool! He's in marketing and finance stuff for a company in St. Cloud, and I talked to him a lot about sports marketing and that may be something I look into for a career when I get home. He said it's a really competitive market but really fun. It's not my first choice of a career, but it seemed interesting to me! After that we drove out to Foley to visit some people out there. The Gilliams weren't home unfortunately, and the Cosgroves cancelled our meeting on the way out. So we had a few other people we wanted to stop by. We stopped by the Nicks family and met Sister Nicks and her daughter. Her husband just one day decided the church wasn't true and took his name off the records and won't let missionaries or anyone from the ward come into their house. We talked with her and her daughter outside for like 30 minutes and sprayed her weeds in the front yard. We are going back this week to pull them all out because there is a ton and they are huge. We also did some hula hooping with her daughter haha and she had a blast.  It was cool to see them just laugh and have a good time. She looked really sad when we first got there, and they both had a smile when we left so that was awesome.  Great way to end a day!

     Thursday morning we had a zone finding hour from 11am-noon. We knocked this street in north Sauk Rapids by President Baker's house. We knocked the whole street and no one talked to us the whole street so we just took a left at the end and kept knocking. At like 11:45 am we knocked on this door and this lady named Jennifer answered and came outside to talk to us. She said she was Orthodox Catholic and that that was the true church and they had the Priesthood and all that stuff. We listened to her and then explained our point of view (thanks for tip mom! Works great!). She was pretty interested in what we had to say and she said she would take a Book of Mormon and read it and pray about it, and if she felt it was true she would join the church. Just straight up that's what she told us haha. However, she said we needed to pray about her church being true. So we agreed to do that, and I haven't felt that it is true. It's hard to do that when I know spiritually and intellectually that this church is true. Like I can't deny this is the true church on the earth. So I'm hoping she can come to know that, too! Thursday afternoon we were going to do a bunch of stop bys but we got a call from some missionaries in our zone who were worried about a struggling missionary, so we had to talk about that and make a game plan for them. It took about an hour to get it all worked out but I'm hoping we helped. After transfers we will know for sure because our plans involve transfers. We knocked some doors and walked around and talked to people for about an hour and half after that. We then had a lesson with Matt, who is one of our investigators. He has been to church for 8 weeks in a row but hasn't really been super open to meeting with us. We finally got a lesson set up and weren't sure what to expect going in. Anyway, Brother Roback came with us and they really hit it off. Brother Roback joined the church like 10 years ago so they talked about how he joined the church and how he came to know it was true. Matt told us he has been reading the Book of Mormon daily and is 3/4 of the way done. He said he feels so much happier at our church than his old Catholic Church. He said he knows this is the true church and wants to get baptized but he just got named the Godfather of his nephew, and is supposed to raise him in the Catholic ways. He doesn't want his joining the church to create family tension anymore than it already is, so he said he doesn't know what to do right now. We all shared stories of where we put the Lord first and did what we were supposed to, even though it was hard. I know that when we do that then God will always bless us. King Benjamin teaches that in his sermon. He says if we follow the commandments, then God will immediately bless us. I love that promise by a prophet of God. Brother Christie took us up to Little Falls after dinner to have a lesson with Barby and the Dobsons. Barby was this lady in a wheelchair we met last time we were up there. She rode her motorized wheelchair like 2 miles to the store to get groceries.  She was super nice and said we could come visit her this week. So we met with her and taught about the restoration and shared the Prince of Peace video and gave her a Book of Mormon. She was really happy to have one and to talk to us, too. Hopefully we can keep teaching her and help her feel of the joy the gospel brings. After that we read part of Mosiah 2 with the Dobsons and it was really good! They came to church on Sunday so that was awesome! That's the first time they've come since I've been here. They're doing well.

     Friday was weekly planning and then we tracted this street that is a newer development out on the east side of Sauk Rapids. We found this lady named Sammy who was outside with her kids, and we talked to her about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, and we were able to give one to her and she said we could come by this Friday as well to share some more with her! We also met a guy named Joshua who has met with missionaries before, but wasn't super interested. We had a great conversation about what we do as missionaries and how we are called by God through his prophet to the mission we serve in. It was really cool! We had dinner with the Bridensteins after that and it went really well. We are starting to build a better relationship with Goerge (he's the dad and isn't a member), so he's opening up to us a lot more and pays better attention during the dinner messages haha.  Hopefully we can keep helping him become more interested in the church and eventually get baptized and sealed to his family.  We had a lesson with Mark McAllister after dinner at the church and that was really good. We did a lesson about recognizing and understanding the Spirit. He has a hard time with that, so we tried to help him learn how we feel the Spirit and how we can know if it is the Spirit or not. We had a really awesome discussion about it! We shared "Voice of the Spirit" Mormon message and it was really good. He is into Alma in the Book of Mormon. He has missed church the last few weeks because he falls asleep before church. So we are working with him to get to bed on time on Saturday nights and wake up on time on Sundays.  After that we went to the Beckrich family's house to visit them. They are a less active family in our ward but are super awesome. Brother Beckrich is super fun! They love to go camping on the weekends so during the summer they never come to church. We shared the talk by President Monson about the Book of Mormon and challenged them to read the BOM each day. Brother Beckrich invited us over to help them sand and stain their deck the next morning, so I was super hyped for that because I love service! 

     Saturday was hotter than heck. ️ It was like 95 with like 75-80% humidity. We went over to the Beckrich's to help them and he wasn't ready for us to get going on it, so we ended up moving this big wooden porch swing and pulling up concrete slabs underneath it. It was huge, and we discovered a large family of maggots and ants under the concrete slabs so that was pretty great! They also had a rope in their back yard for climbing and stuff so I got to do some rope climbs (CrossFit workouts). I hadn't done one for like a year and half, but it actually was easier than last time I did them so that was good haha. After that we did another zone finding hour in the dead heat of the day, 2-3 pm. We tracted this kind of nicer area in Sartell that we had never been to and talked to a ton of people. We also found another family who had taken their names off the records of the church. We talked to the dad and he served his mission in Mexico and then took his name off like a year or two ago. We've found 3 people who have served missions and then left the church in the 5 weeks I've been here, and two of them live next door to each other and don't know they both used to be members haha.  It makes me really sad to find people like that. I don't know how you could serve a mission and then at some point leave the church. I think it all comes back to the complacency thing. Keeping your faith strong isn't hard and for some people - the simplicity of it is too hard. It really comes down to going to church, praying daily, and studying your scriptures daily. I feel that if you diligently do those things you will always have a solid foundation of faith. Obviously other things factor in too, like serving others, and living the gospel and going to the temple regularly. But I just feel very strongly that if we do those things, we will stay firm in our faith. Anyway, we gave away 4 Books of Mormon and it was pretty cool! We had dinner with Sister Kennedy and Dave. That was a bummer of a lesson.  Dave's pastor has been giving him anti stuff, so Dave straight up told us he won't ever believe the Book of Mormon is true. I find that odd because the whole time he told us he has an open mind and is open to what we have to say, but he just listens to what his pastor tells him. He told us his pastor said in the Bible it says you can baptize children, and it literally says that nowhere in the Bible. I was a sad pup for Dave. He needs to figure things out on his own and not trust in the understanding of men. Keep him in your prayers for sure. After that we had a lesson with Flora at the Dickerson's house! That went really well. We taught the Plan of Salvation by drawing it in chalk on their driveway (thanks for the chalk, Sister Gretz!) She really liked it and Laurel, Jared, and D'Shaun all helped us teach it, so it was great! Super good way to end a Saturday.

     Sunday was a crazy day haha.  We tracted for like 2 hours Sunday morning and found 2 potentials. We met this dude named Tom who was heading out the door to go to the cities, but we taught him about the Book of Mormon really quick and gave him a copy. He said we could stop by later this week and share some more with his family. Then we met this lady named Teresa outside watering her flowers. She was super closed off and didn't want to talk when we first walked up, but I tried my momma's great advice to listen first, then talk. So I just starting asking her about her flowers and her dog, and if she had a belief in Christ and if she had met the Mormon missionaries before. She opened up a lot as we let her talk and then finally she started asking us what we were doing on missions and then the conversation took off.  We talked about the Plan of Salvation with her and gave her a pamphlet for that. She said her and her husband were looking for a church to go to, so hopefully they realize this would be a good one.  Anyway, as we were talking, her dog, a Boxer, freaked out and ran out in the road and just started attacking this lady's dog that was walking by. It was the most insane thing I've ever seen. The boxer dog was super nice to us and then when that lady with her dog walked by, it just took off and like superman attacked the dog and started biting it and clawing it and stuff. Teresa was like "Hey!! Get off!" And started yelling at her dog to stop and it literally just stopped and went inside. Weirdest thing I've ever seen on my mission.  It sliced the other dog's nose open so it was bleeding everywhere, and we were trying to help it and it got blood on us and stuff, and the lady walking the dog was freaking out and it was chaos.  So anyway, we ended up having to leave to get to church, but it was nuts haha. So at church we had 4 investigators there, and 3 less active families came! It was a full chapel, too. Attendance has honestly like doubled since I got here. My first Sunday there was like 50 people and there was like 90-100 this week so that was awesome!  It feels good to see a lot of people you work with at church! After church we had our coordination meeting with Brother Christie and Brother Charter and it was pretty good! They got off on a few tangents about random things, so we had to bring it back to missionary work a few times haha. After that we had dinner with the Brinkerhoffs. Sister Brinkerhoff was out of town and Brother Brinkerhoff is in the bishopric, so he was crazy busy. They have 5 boys and they are insane. He made us burgers, chicken, beef hot dogs, fruit, pasta salad, and cheesecake. It was soooo good! I was so full after haha!  We fasted on Sunday, so I was ok with pigging out a little haha. During dinner, we were inside with Brother Brinkerhoff and Mark McAllister talking about work and stuff and then the oldest son comes running in and he's like, "William and Spencer are killing each other!" So we look out the window and the second oldest kid (he's a big kid) and the middle kid (he's a lot smaller and skinnier) were literally going all out fight to the death on the trampoline. It was crazy! They were choking and throwing punches and kicking and body slamming each other.  So Brother Brinkerhoff runs out there and grabs the bigger kid off the small kid and like threw him on the ground, and I couldn't really see what else happened because some bushes were in the way, but Mark and Elder Myer and I were dying.  It was crazy haha. So we shared a quick message and then took off! We tracted up in north Sartell in some new neighborhoods for about an hour after dinner and found a few people. We met this family who knew the Otis's and we gave them a Book of Mormon and they said they would talk to the Otis's some more about it, so that was fun! And that pretty much wrapped up Sunday!

     This week has been long but fun, and we did some good work.  It's so satisfying to see less actives and investigators at church. It makes me so happy.  I'm very grateful to be serving the Lord at this time. Each day brings new adventures, and you never know who you will meet that needs the gospel or a kind word or a quick uplifting message or something. I love being able to just bring the Light of Christ into someone's life who needs it. There isn't too many other things that bring me joy like that does. I know this church is true and I know that Christ is the head of it and President Monson is His chosen prophet on the earth today. I'm very blessed to be a part of it and have all that I do. Love you all, and have a blessed week! Enjoy the summer, it's flying by. Thanks for all the prayers and support! 

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

I love meeting new friends in the mission! Mark McAllister and me.

Teaching the Plan of Salvation to Flora at the Dickerson's with chalk.

This is the story of my life... :)

July 4th and It's HOT!

     Howdy and hope you all had a great 4th of July watching the fireworks and eating good food with family and friends! This week's been pretty insane. Nothing ever goes as planned here in Sauk Rapids. Everything we plan falls through and so we basically end up finding most of the days. We occasionally get appointments that hold up but it's crazy.  We honestly never know what each day will bring!

     So on Tuesday we had zone p-day at the Kroska's farm in the St. Cloud Ward. They have like 120 acres of woods and trails and a lake. We did some service in their gardens and around their property for a few hours and then had p-day. I went fishing with Elders Slade and Harper for a while and we caught a bunch of little fish, and then we played catch with the football in the sprinklers because it was hotter than heck!  So it was pretty fun to just hang out with everyone.  Elder Slade, Elder Boothe and I sat out on the deck for like 45 minutes just talking about funny movies we've seen and dying laughing.  I was crying I was laughing so hard haha.  Those guys are awesome! That was pretty much it on Tuesday!

     Wednesday we had district meetings in the morning so we skyped into those. I got to skype into the Buffalo district meeting and Elder Harper gave a training about loving those we serve.  He did this activity where all of us dm'd in people we have loved on our missions.  I was amazed at how many people I've grown to love on my mission. I can't wait to come back and visit all these amazing people some day!

     Wednesday afternoon we did a bunch of stop bys and then tracted this street kind of out of town in Sauk Rapids a little ways. It was super hot - ️like 92 and super humid. Anyway, we found 2 new investigators and had some really good discussions with people, so it was fun! I love tracting when people will at least talk to you. When people are mean and don't want to talk, it is a grind sometimes haha.  Like when it's super hot and people are not receptive, I just get a little mad sometimes haha. But I'm getting better at controlling my "road rage".  Wednesday night we went out to Foley, which is like 30 minutes East of Sauk Rapids. We had a bunch of people to stop by out there. We stopped by Bill Gilliam who is an investigator we hadn't met yet.  He was outside having a smoke with his dog and told us he doesn't have a job and his family is falling apart and he gets high all the time. It was really sad. He was super down in the dumps. We talked about finding comfort in living the gospel and how it gives us the strength to overcome our difficulties. I also got to give him a Priesthood blessing to help him with all he was going through, and he said he felt way better afterwards so that was awesome! When we drove away I looked over and he was kneeling on the ground praying (that's what it looked like), and I just felt so much love for him and felt awful because of all the struggles he is going through. I wish we could've done more for him, but we pretty much did all we could do. After that we stopped by Carol and Sterling Ducket, who are this older couple who live where a less active used to live. Sterling thinks all religion is corrupt and wrong but all religious books are correct. So he was going off about how some book he read about Adam and Eve was scripture.  He's interesting. Carol is more open to listen and Sterling just likes to preach like he knows everything. She roasted him one time because he said all we wanted to do was preach to him and she's like, "They can't because you never shut up!" I had a good chuckle at that.  We had to head home after that so that was Wednesday!

     Thursday morning we had a lesson with Flora! Ethan Baker, Spencer's little brother, referred her to us right before he left on his mission. She is friends with Laurel Dickerson in our ward, too, so we had a lesson at Laurel's house. Her parents are atheist and don't believe in God or anything but she believes there is a God, she just doesn't know who He is or anything like that, so we taught the restoration and taught about the nature of God and how He is the father of our spirits and loves us and wants us to be happy.  It was a super good lesson and she accepted a Book of Mormon after the lesson and said she would get baptized! So that's super good! We had a lesson with Sister Brainard in the afternoon and that went pretty well. She has so many problems and we have no clue how to help her. We just listen to all her problems and then share gospel things that will help her. She loves having us over though, so that's good! I think just having someone to talk to helps her a lot. She lives alone in this kinda rough part of St. Cloud, so she always appreciates when we come visit her. After that we tracted this neighborhood up north of Sartell. The first house we got to this lady was out picking berries on her tree, so we asked if we could help and she said, "Oh no, I'm good!" Then she started giving us these berry things and they were super good! Anyway, we got talking and she had had a super hard life so far, and we set up a time to come do service in her garden for her. She took a Plan of Salvation pamphlet, and was somewhat interested in the gospel, but service will soften her up.  We then knocked the whole neighborhood and no one was home or wanted to talk, but the last door we knocked this older lady answered and we taught her about the Book of Mormon and she took a copy and said we could come back later next week.  Also she might call us to do some service for her as well! I love service. We had dinner with the Dohms after that and Sister Dohm told us all these crazy stories about working with crazy people at the hospital.  Brother Dohm and their son, Theron, drove us up to Royalton to visit some less actives up there. We met the Lynch family and had a good discussion with them. Sister Lynch is from Grand Junction, CO, so we talked about CMU for like 10 minutes.  We shared a part of President Monson's talk about the Book of Mormon from last conference and invited them to read from the Book of Mormon as a family each day. They're a super nice family, just don't have a big desire to come to church or anything.  We stopped by some other less actives after that and called it a night. 

     Friday we weekly planned forever..... and ever..... and ever.  It just seemed really long this week. I don't know why? Brother Christie was supposed to drive us up to Little Falls, which is a 75 mile round trip. He cancelled last minute again so we were pretty bummed about that. We had two lessons set up and no one could go up with us, so we just drove up ourselves! We stopped by a few people and decided to knock two doors across from a less active who wasn't home. The first door we met was this dude who was a pastor at his church and he knew it all. Let me tell ya. So he told us he had read the Book of Mormon and didn't agree with what it taught. I asked why and he said he didn't want to get into details, but he just didn't agree with it. I always love when people can't give me a reason, just that "it isn't true." He told us Jesus Christ was the last prophet, so Joseph Smith was a false prophet and that the Book of Mormon was false as well because it was written by Joseph Smith. He said in order for it to be scripture, it has to be written by prophets. So in my mind, I'm thinking, "Ok, so Jesus is the last prophet, and in order to have anything be scripture, it has to be written by a prophet. So is the whole New Testament not scripture?" Because everyone after Jesus wasn't a prophet according to this guy. It didn't really make sense. I don't say much to people like him who think they are right because they don't want to hear what I have to say, so I just don't say anything. It also cuts down on lots of arguments cuz I tend to get a little heated when defending what I know to be true. But if I don't say anything, then I don't argue.  Anyway, he said he would read "What is the Blueprint of Christ's Church" by Tad R. Callister, and we could come back and talk to him some more. He told us to read John and it would teach us all about Jesus. I just got done reading John, and I have to agree that is does teach all about Jesus! After that we had a lesson with the Dobsons and it went really well! We talked about accountability and taking charge of our actions and doing what's right even when it is hard. They committed to start reading the Book of Mormon together each day and coming to church regularly again. They came this Sunday so that was awesome!

     Saturday we stopped by some people we found tracting and didn't have much luck with them. We were supposed to have a lunch and lesson with a less active lady named Sister Harris. Her son is an unbaptized child of record so we wanted to meet with him as well. He is almost 10 and really wants to get baptized. However his mom is less active so it's hard. Anyway, we called her at 11 AM to confirm and she said we were good to come at 1 PM.  So we show up and buzz her apartment and some guy answers and says she's asleep and we can't come in. I was a little cheesed at that point, so we just walked around and talked to everyone we saw and unfortunately no one really wanted to talk haha. We stopped by Jay and Ryan's place and both of them were there and sober, amazingly.  They showed us their garden and said they were trying to grow a 100 lb pumpkin.  They're interesting guys for sure! After that Jay wanted to show us this gospel rap group. They were actually more satanic I thought. So we listened to that, and it really drove what little spirit was in their home away. Elder Myer was like, "Hey, can we show you a rap video?" And they were like, "Sure!" So he pulls up Restoration by James The Mormon and they loved it haha. It was amazing how much James The Mormon could bring the spirit into a room, but he sure did! We decided to peace out after that before we had to listen to any more satanic gospel rap.  Jay and Ryan are good guys, they just do stupid things and cuss like sailors. We aren't quite sure how to help them right now, haha, but we are working on it. We had a lesson with Mark after that. He's the less active YSA member we are working with. He is progressing and growing spiritually, he just won't admit it to himself. I don't know why. At one point in the lesson he told us when people ask him about his faith he just says, "I don't know if I have any. My relationship with God is, I'll stay out of his life and he stays out of mine." I was like, "Look, Mark, you're trying to build a better relationship with God. You're reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church, praying, doing those things. It takes faith to do those things and to try and build a relationship with a being you can't see with your eyes. It takes an incredible amount of faith to do those things. So next time someone asks you if you have faith, you look them in the eye and say, 'Heck yeah, I have faith.' Because you have a lot of faith." It was super quiet and awkward after that, and he finally just said, "Thanks." And I could tell he meant it! That was a cool moment of my week.  

     Saturday night we tracted these townhomes and talked to a lot of cool people and gave out a few Books of Mormons and set up some return appointments for next Saturday! Then Brother Charter came and did our apartment inspection, and we had coordination meeting at the church. 

     Sunday we got up and it was raining, so the lady we had planned to do service for called and postponed to later this week. So we did some stop bys and no one was home, which was a bummer. Sunday mornings are pretty dead around here. People like to sleep in or something haha. We had Ward Council and then I got to talk in church! I spoke on the how to overcome apathy. I didn't know what apathy was until this week so that was good I learned haha. We had 2 investigators at church and some less active families as well, so it was good! The chapel was almost full this week, which is a huge improvement from my first day here. After church we stopped by some people we found tracting and set up some return appointments with them and then had dinner with Brother Charter's family! That was pretty fun as usual. His kids love us and it's always crazy haha.  After dinner we tracted this street in Sartell and found a lady who we taught the whole restoration to and she took a Book of Mormon and said we could come back on Sunday and teach her whole family. I'm super hyped for them! They might be golden. The door right after that was a whole different story. We knocked on the door and the door was open but the screen door was closed, so this lady at the top of the stairs was like, "What are you doing? Quit sharing a false gospel!" I was like, "Excuse me ma'am, but we are sharing the true gospel!" She didn't like that, so she came down and started railing on us about how we were deceived and we're going to hell. Then her husband comes from upstairs and just has a normal conversation with us while his wife keeps yelling at us that we are liars and are sharing a false gospel. The husband was way nicer, but had similar views. He told us he used to be religious but now found Jesus and was saved because he believes in Christ. He said as soon as he dies he is going to Heaven. I was like, well it doesn't quite work like that, but he didn't want to hear it, so Elder Myer tried to kindly teach them, but they just kept yelling at us.  Finally I just wasn't having it anymore. They obviously wouldn't listen and were being idiots, so the wife was like, "In Revelations it says you can't add to the Bible so the Book of Mormon is false!" I was like, "Well it also says that in Deuteronomy 4. So is the rest of the Bible false?" She just got mad and started yelling at us that we didn't believe in Jesus because Jesus was God and we believe He is the son of God so it's different and we are deceived. The dude told us that since he is a husband, father, and grandfather, that means God can also be 3 different persons but one being. Biggest load of crap I've heard in a while, but he didn't want to listen to me expound any New Testament scriptures that make it very clear that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are 3 separate beings. Elder Myer was just trying to bear his testimony and the dude was going off on us and so we just said, "Bye!" And left.  Elder Myer turned to me and said, "Wow! I'm surprised you didn't punch a hole in their screen door!" I was a bit surprised, too! Not gonna lie! I can sit and listen to people argue religious points, but when they tell me I'm wrong and deceived and I'm gonna go to hell, I get a little pissed off.  But I'm learning to keep my cool and just leave and not "Bible bash."  After that we had a lesson with Reegan and Emily Bird. Reegan is less active and Emily is a Jehovah's Witness, but she is super nice.  We talked about the Plan of Salvation with them and invited them to church and to read 2 Nephi 31 before we meet next time. After that we ended a quick lesson with President Baker and his family. We had a super good lesson about fasting and everyone shared miracles they've seen from fasting!

     Biggest lesson I've learned from this week is how Satan uses truth and twists it into a lie and allows us to find solace in it. So many people we talk to say, "I've found Jesus, so I'm saved" or "I believe so I'm good to go, talk to someone else." While it is good to believe in Jesus Christ, we need to live his gospel and participate in the Priesthood ordinances associated with it. It makes me sad how many people don't understand this and completely reject it. As I wrote my talk about apathy, I realized how big of a problem this is in our society today. DO NOT BE COMPLACENT WITH WHERE YOU ARE AT SPIRITUALLY!!! Satan will attack you anywhere he can if we are complacent. We need to develop the "What lack I yet?" mindset so that we are continuously striving to improve and overcome our weaknesses and doing all that we can do as Lehi teaches in the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 25:23). Keep reading the Book of Mormon daily, praying with all energy of your heart and striving to repent and become more Christlike daily. I know that as we do this, we will find true peace and happiness in this life; peace that comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! Try to stay cool! ️ It's hotter than heck up here in Sauk Rapids and super humid, too. To my brother who leaves for Alabama soon,  I know how you will be feeling in a few weeks, just to a lesser degree.  Thanks for all the love and support! Till next week. 

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

The Mississippi River.

St. Cloud Zone on the 4th of July.

Elder Myer wearing a tank top the Sisters gave him as a joke.

The picture on the left is "The Minnetonka Gang": me, Elder Gooch, my companion in Minnetonka, Elder Nielson, another of my companions in Minnetonka, and Elder Vaughn, one of the members of my MTC District (Elders Nielson and Vaughn were companions in Minnetonka as well).  The picture on the right is Elder Neilson's Mom, my Mom, Elder Gooch's Mom, and Elder Vaughn's Mom.  They got together for dinner in Utah this week!