Happy 9/11/17!

     Hello to all my family, friends, and coaches back home, at school, and serving around the world! Hope this finds you doing well and enjoying this beautiful fall weather. It's been in the 50's and 60's this whole week in Sauk Rapids and I love it!

     Last Monday we had the transfer board come out, and as you know, Elder Meyer and I are staying for our third transfer together here in Sauk Rapids. We did travel plans later in the afternoon after an insane thunderstorm and hailstorm. After that it cleared up and we went to dinner at the Otis's. It was their daughter's fifth birthday so they had a bunch of her friends over, too! Brother Otis was telling us all these way funny stories from his mission in LA, California. He's a funny guy.  After that we knocked some doors and then had a lesson with LJ. He had read 7 chapters from the children's Book of Mormon we had given him, so that was awesome! We are going to start teaching him twice a week to be able to cover everything we need to and to help him retain what's being learned and apply it a little better. We still haven't had any luck getting him to church but hopefully this week will be better.

     Tuesday morning we planned out a presentation we had been asked to do by Brother Casper for mutual for the YM. He wanted us to talk about how the YM can share the gospel with friends at school and on social media, so we got our lesson all ready for them. After that we went to campus and had a lesson with Gold. He is a Korean dude in our ward that is a YSA. We are trying to help him get the Melchizedek Priesthood, but he feels like he isn't ready yet. Not sure why, but we are helping him work towards it! Anyway, he checked out a room in the library for us to meet in. As we were having our lesson, the "library cops/mall monitors" show up and tell us we can't meet in the library because we are having a religious meeting. We told them that he is a member of our church and he's a student so he checked out the room and we aren't technically "proselyting". So they let us finish our lesson and then told us to come talk to them after. So we go over to their building and they told us we couldn't proselyte on campus because it was against the law (which it isn't). So they told us to go over to this other building and talk to some other guy about it, and I was a little fed up at this point because no one had a straight answer as to what we could do and couldn't do. So we go over to the Atwood building to talk to the dude in charge of "Free Speech" stuff on campus. He told us we can walk around and talk to anyone we want, and there's nothing that says we can't. He said if we do lessons with people to do them in the Atwood building because that's where that stuff is allowed on campus. So thankfully, he was a good guy and was like, "Yeah, there's nothing those "cop guys" can do. You can talk to anyone wherever on campus." So that's good now. After that we were sick of being on campus so we did some stop bys and no one was home unfortunately.  Tuesday was a rough day haha. Then we knocked doors for two hours and literally no one talked to us. We talked to 2 people and neither of them were interested haha. So it was one of those days for sure, but we worked hard all day, and even though nothing happened, we did our best! After dinner we went to institute and that was super good! Brother Brady had some insight from his mission that he shared with everyone: "As missionaries, you are called to invite people to repent and turn towards the Savior. As you are courageous and talk to everyone, even if they don't get baptized or accept the gospel, if you can do something that will make them focus on Christ more or change one little thing in their life to be better, then you are fulfilling your call. If you can help people make those changes little by little over time, eventually, they will want to make the big change and get baptized and follow Christ." That really hit me that even if people don't want to hear this message, we should still leave them something to read and ponder or just help them in any way to focus more on the Savior. As we do that, and as other missionaries do that over time, they will make baby steps to repent. So it made me want to be better at just helping everyone we talk to want to change something or just think, "Maybe I should read the BOM or pray today or serve someone." Because as people do that, they are repenting!  Pretty cool!

     Wednesday was another kind of slow day, but it ended on a good note! We mowed Connie's lawn for her in the morning and Elder Meyer talked to her while I mowed. They talked about tithing and a bunch of random stuff in the church, but at the end when I got done mowing, Elder Meyer was like, "She said every time we come over she gets more and more interested in the church. She reads more, she has more questions and she is definitely feeling the spirit more!" She said she wants to come to church but is super busy right now with work and some illnesses she is taking care of. We will continue to do service for her and help her progress. She took a Book of Mormon and said she would read it, so that's great! We went to campus and did some more contacting after that. Contacting for me is really hard. I don't know why, I'm just not good at naturally talking to people and then tying it in to the gospel. I've gotten better, but it's hard with college students especially.  We didn't find anyone solid but gave away some pamphlets and cards and stuff, so it was good! After that we stopped by Matt's to see if he was around since we've had no contact with him for like a month. He wasn't home, but his mom was, and we talked to her for like 10 minutes. She's really nice and she told us he is working night shifts at work now. Not sure why? But she said she'd tell him we stopped by and all that, so maybe we can start teaching his family.  After that we knocked doors for about 2 hours in Sartell. The street we picked was right by the high school and they had football practice going on. I got a little trunky when we drove by, haha cuz I'm so excited for football next year! Once we get going knocking doors though, I love it! We met some nice people and no one was super interested until the last house we knocked on. This Hispanic lady opened the door and we started talking to her a little bit and she told us she also knocks doors for her church, too. So we realized that she as a Jehovah's Witness and she started telling us all these reasons the Book of Mormon wasn't true. We sat and listened to her for like 20 minutes, and then we just taught a really simple restoration lesson and bore our testimonies. She still wasn't really listening but we listened to her and did what we could to invite the spirit. I hope some day she will recognize it and realize that the Book of Mormon is true and that this is Christ's church on the earth. But it just wasn't her time when we knocked on her door! After that we had dinner at our place and then went to mutual to talk to the YM about sharing the gospel. It was really fun! We did some roll plays and read some of Preach My Gospel chapter 5, and taught them how to use the Book of Mormon to respond to objections about the church. We also talked a little about Facebook and how to use social media to reach out to friends and family to share the gospel! It was really fun and we had a good time.

     Thursday we accounted with the Alexandria district in the morning. So the Elders left their keys, iPads and bags in the church and then accidentally locked themselves out of the church. So when we called them they were walking like 3 miles to their ward mission leader's house to get keys. So that was pretty funny haha. After that we had a lesson with Kait and her sister on campus. She is an investigator that Elders Meyer and Nelson found like right before I got here. We texted her to see if she wanted to meet and she said sure and asked if her sister could come too, so we were like, "Heck yeah!"  She had a page of questions from her world religions class she was taking, so we went over all of those. We originally were going to teach the Plan of Salvation to them, but she had all these questions, so we answered them. At the very end, her sister was like, "So what's the purpose of life?" So we ended up getting to share a little of it with them and gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet! It was cool how it worked out that we still ended up getting to share that with them. After that we did service at the humane society and we got to clean up and tape labels on "poop buckets". So that was an adventure for sure, but luckily they weren't too messy when we started so nothing bad happened to us haha. After that we went and knocked some doors on this little street in Sartell we found last week and felt we should go knock. So we knocked the whole street and we only found one guy, but he seems pretty solid! His name is Matt, (I know, ironic ) and he said his family is Catholic but haven't been practicing for the last few years because of some issues they had with the church. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how God had restored His original church to the earth through the prophet Joseph Smith, and Matt thought that was super interesting. He took a Book of Mormon and said he'd read it and we could come back this Wednesday and talk more to him. He's like, "I can give you an hour to talk. Is that too much time?" We were like, no that's great! We'd love to talk for an hour haha.  After that we had dinner with the Smith family. They are a part member family, and it was great to have dinner with them. Dan isn't a member, but he is a great guy. He was in the army for like 28 years and is retired and works at the Foley High School weight room now. He's a big dude. We talked about all his adventures in the army and I talked to their son a lot about football because he is in 8th grade and just started playing. So we looked at some of their plays and talked about his position and all that good stuff. He's really excited to play so that's sweet! After that we had a lesson in Foley with a less active named Shyanna Zurn. She got baptized like a year ago in the Princeton ward and moved into our ward a few months ago. Her husband isn't a member and is always out hunting or fishing so she's home a lot with their 4 month old and big old dog haha. She's really cool and has a great testimony of the gospel. I'm not sure why she doesn't come to church, but we are getting the Relief Society involved to help her out and get her some fellowship! She is a florist, so we talked about how she got into that and she showed us her portfolio of flower stuff and it was pretty cool! After that we had to go to stake council meeting to talk about how each ward is helping the missionaries and the work progress and what we can work on as a stake to improve. It was good, and I feel like President Baker is really pushing to hasten the work in the St. Cloud zone right now, so I love it.

     Friday morning we did accounting and then did weekly planning. That was decent as usual haha. We had a lesson set up at 3 pm with Cassondra that we found on campus last week! We taught her the full restoration lesson and it was super weird because the whole time she kept talking about the people that were being affected by the hurricanes and if it was God's doing or just nature taking its course. So we got to talk about signs of the times a little bit and how it says in the Bible and Book of Mormon that there will be great natural disasters at the last days. Anyway, it was a good lesson and she said she felt a lot of peace and happiness after meeting with us. She hadn't read the Book of Moron at all, but she said she's been really busy and will have more time this weekend to read.  After that we drove up to Rice and knocked some doors until we had a lesson at 7:30 pm with Sister Davis and her kids. Brother Christie drove us out, so that was great! While we were planning our lesson for them, we originally were going to teach the Plan of Salvation, but when we were driving up to Rice, I had the thought to read in Alma about the Stripling Warriors and talk about their characteristics. So that's what we did! And it just so happens that it was Luke's favorite story and his favorite song is "Army of Helaman" so it ended up being a really good lesson with them! After we read the story in Alma we sang all 3 verses of the song with them and it was awesome. The spirit was super strong.  After that it was time for us to head home because they live about 30 minutes from our place and we still had to drive back to Rice. It was a good day!

     Saturday morning we helped Brother Hilsgen some more with his siding, and we mostly did insulation and got all that squared away for the siding to go on. After that Sister Hatch called us and asked if we could come over and help her tear down her shed, so we did that really quick, and by that point it was like 3:30 pm.  We had a lesson with Flora at 4 pm, so we hustled home and got showered and changed and went to the church. We sat there for like 10 minutes and called Flora and she didn't answer, so we were getting a little worried. Then she called us and was like, "Ah! I'm so sorry I was taking a nap and my alarm didn't go off!" So we ended up just doing a Facebook video chat thing for the lesson. It was really good and worked out super good! We read 2 Nephi 31 and talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how we can still live it by continually having faith unto repentance and then partaking of the sacrament each week after we are baptized and receive the Holy Ghost! It was a good lesson and after we had some fun doing the filters on the video chat. After that we had a lesson with Sister Kennedy. She's been going through a tough time with work and Darrell has been a handful for her. We shared "Mountains to Climb" Mormon message by Elder Eyring. It's one of my favorites and I love it. It hits you right in the feels haha. After that we knocked some doors in Sauk Rapids and had some great gospel discussions with some people! We knocked on this one dude's house and he said they were moving.  We offered some service, but he declined. Then we knocked on his next door neighbor's house and ended up having a 30 minute chat with his neighbor. His neighbor was an atheist. I don't think he was, he just didn't know what he was looking for in life! He told us why he felt like that and how he wanted to believe in a God, but he just needed some hard physical evidence. We gave him a Book of Mormon, 2 pamphlets and invited him to read them and pray to know if they were true and if God was really there. As we were talking to him, the neighbor we offered service to originally came over and asked if we could actually help him haha. So we went over and helped him move like 50 boxes out of his house and into his garage. He and his wife were so happy we helped and took a picture of us to share with family haha. They were offering us donuts and all kinds of stuff and were so glad we helped. It was pretty cool! After that we had our coordination meeting with Brother Charter and called it a night! Even though numbers wise we did like nothing that day, we served a lot of people and had some really good gospel discussions. 

     Sunday morning we finished weekly planning and then had Ward Council. Brother Charter kind of got on the Priesthood auxiliaries for never joint teaching with us and not visiting part member families and prospective Elders. We've had 2 people joint teach with us in the last month - Brother Christie and Brother Poulsen, so we are trying to get some new people out. After that we had church and it was great. We had 4 investigators there. Dan Smith came, Jared brought his sister to church, and since Tommy spoke in church, the Smiths brought some non member friends to support him! So it was pretty sweet! After church we drove up to this little town called St. Stephen, which is way out west of Rice. We knocked doors for like an hour and half and gave away 5 Books of Mormon and found 2 new investigators. It was awesome! This one door we knocked on this older dude came out and was like, "You can leave right now!" And slammed the door. Then as we are walking away, he opens it again and says, "I'm a military veteran. I don't agree with your beliefs!" I was like, "We just believe in Jesus Christ." But he had slammed the door before he heard me. Elder Meyer told me he thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses because they don't believe in going to war. Anyway, Elder Meyer thought my response was pretty funny.  I don't know why, but he got a good kick out of it! After that we had dinner with the Brinkerhoffs. I love dinners there because they always have a ton of fruit and veggies that are super good! So I had like 3 plates of fruit and salad haha. After that we had a lesson with the Beckriches. Timmy was vaping the whole time were were there, and I was just like, "Timmy, what the heck are you doing with your life?" They all know what they need to do, they just don't do it! It's sad and frustrating, but you just gotta love them and keep helping them make the right choices. After that we did numbers and called it a night! 

     This week flew by! Time is going so fast. I hit 15 months in like a week and half, so that's pretty crazy to think about. I don't have a super cool learning experience or anything this week, but please friend me on Facebook to see posts from my mission and parts of my testimony of the gospel I will be sharing! Congrats to Colton and Brianne.  I can't believe you are getting married, that is so awesome! I'm so happy for you guys!  Also, happy birthday to my aunt Chris today! Thanks for all you've done for me and all the love and support! Hope it's a good one. I love you all, have a great week, cherish each moment and give it everything you've got in whatever you are doing. Live in the moment and never have regrets. Until next week!

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

When the Sisters want to do pictures, but you and your companion don't...

A family of ducks we drove by.

Elder Meyer trying out a different bike...

Elder Meyer with the Poseidon statue.

Fall is in the air!

Transfers!

     Hello to all my family, friends, and coaches back home, at school, and serving the Lord around the world! Hope this email finds you well and loving life and enjoying is beautiful fall time of year! I love the fall so much. It's my favorite time of the year.  Elder Meyer and I are going "eternal" so we will be going 3 transfers together in Sauk Rapids. So I will be here at least 2 more probably, unless it gets whitewashed next transfer. 

     Anyway, this week's been a good week! Monday we went to this big mall and walked around and looked at the stores. We went to Boot Barn and checked out some cowboy boots. The lady kinda gave us the run around and tried to get us to buy the most expensive pair because she said they'd last longer than all the other ones. Then this dude comes in and he has a pair of the cheaper ones on and she asks him how long he's had them. He tells her like 4 years longer than she told us they were able to last. So I was a little upset and we decided to leave because we weren't getting the straight up answers from the lady working there. Oh well.  After that we did some shopping, laundry and worked out and threw the football around at the church.  We went and knocked some doors in the evening and found a few cool people to talk to. We met a Jehovah's Witness, and he was way nice and talked to us for like 20 minutes and took a Book of Mormon! So that was cool! After that we had a lesson with LJ and we taught him the Plan of Salvation and drew out the picture of it for him to help him understand it better. We are having a tough time getting him to church because the people at his group home switch staff members right when he needs to come to church, so it's tough to get him there, and we can't get him a ride unfortunately because the group home workers have to give him rides. So we are still working on that, and hopefully can get it figured out today!

     Tuesday we did service at Connie's house. Elder Meyer did most of the teaching this week and I did most of the mowing which was great because I really enjoy mowing lawns. I can just get lost in my thoughts and go to work. Connie said she wants to come check out church now and we are going to give her a Book of Mormon this week. After that we had a lesson with Flora at the church. She is having a rough time with her parents not wanting her to go to church or mutual and some other stuff. So we just talked about that and how she can prayerfully approach how she will talk her parents about it. It was a good lesson and hopefully we helped her out. After that, Brother Christie drove us up to Rice to knock some doors and have a lesson with the Squires family. We found this girl named Sadie who we taught a little about the restoration and Book of Mormon, and she took a Book of Mormon, too, so that was sweet! We did a lesson about the Book of Mormon with the Squires family after that. Brother Squires is less active, but his wife is active, so we invited them to have daily individual and family Book of Mormon study. Reading the Book of Mormon each day is such a benefit, and I truly believe can solve like 99% of problems in homes and work and life! After that we had to drive all the way down to Becker for dinner at the bishop's house. His sister, who is a member of another faith, was there for dinner, and so we were able to teach her a restoration lesson and she took a Book of Mormon and said she would read it! She lives in the cities though, but Bishop said he will follow up with her. Bishop made one of the bedrooms in their house into an escape room. So we got to try to escape from this room and it was way cool! Bishop made everything in it, and all the contraptions and locks and stuff, and it was fun! We got out in like 35 minutes. You get an hour to get out, so we did good.  After that, Brother Roback took us to see the Alecksons, who are a less active family who were baptized in the Princeton ward, and have been less active for like 5-6 years. We finally got in with them and it was great. They seem ready to return to activity, so we will be working with them now! After that we headed back home because the drive is like 40 minutes. We found out we would be getting Facebook approved to use as missionaries, so we got our Facebook set up that night too. 

     Wednesday we had district meetings in the morning and then we went and did service for Stephanie. That was awesome! Her two sisters were visiting from out of town, and her one sister asked us a ton of questions about the church and stuff, so we sent her home with a pass along card, articles of faith card, 3 pamphlets and a Book of Mormon. She seemed really interested and said she had some friends back home in California that were Mormons and loved them! So that was sweet! S also told us we could come teach her this week.  After that we went to SCSU and did some contacting. Contacting is really hard for me haha. I struggle talking to college kids and getting them interested, but I think I got a good system down now haha. We met this girl who we taught and are teaching again this Friday. After that we had dinner with Sister Kennedy and Gold and Dave. We then drove out to Foley and stopped by some people out there. We had a lesson with Christy that we met last week. She is a little crazy haha. She's way into miraculous healings and evil spirits and stuff like that. So we ended up somehow talking about the Plan of Salvation as part of that haha. But it was really good! We invited her to read the Book of Mormon and to come to church, but she didn't come this week because she was out of town again.  We stopped by Bart, who was the deacon at that church in Foley. He's actually a way chill guy. We talked for about 20 minutes with him and he gave us some pre-workout stuff because he works for Advocare. So we got to talk about fitness stuff and all that! We did some more tracting too, and found a few people who were nice and would listen, but not super interested. We stopped by Jessica that we met last week and gave a Book of Mormon to. She hadn't read any of it, but her 10-year-old daughter had. Her daughter loved it, but Jessica wasn't very interested and neither was her husband, so we aren't teaching them anymore. But someday they may be ready!

     Thursday was a crazy long day haha. We had accounting in the morning and then had to work on the zone focus with the STLs and that was long. Lots of Skyping and sitting around and stuff haha.  After that we had service at the humane society and we cleaned out this giant shed for them and then washed some more dishes and crates and stuff! It was fun and I love doing service there. The people are super nice. After that Brother Poulsen took us out to Foley to have a lesson with the Cosgroves. We had a great lesson with them. We read "The Living Christ" and watched this video called "Lifting Burdens", which is all the apostles sharing testimonies of the Savior and his atonement. It was so spiritual and I loved the discussion we had about Christ. It was awesome! After that we drove down to Becker and visited Sister Shierts. She is a single lady and her husband passed away from cancer like 13 years ago. Her sons are less active, but she is active and is way nice! She and her husband built their house from the ground up all by themselves. It's this huge log cabin on like 65 acres of land. It's so awesome. It was like my dream home!  Elder Meyer shared this video called "Because of Him", and as we were watching I just like lost it haha.  I realized how awesome it is that Christ died and rose again, and because of that we can, too, and we can fix our wrongs and become better. It just really hit me hard and I really felt the spirit as we were watching it. I'm so very grateful for our Savior and his atoning sacrifice for us and the possibility it gives us to repent and change and also to live with our families forever. It's so awesome!  After that we drove down to Elk River to pick up the Sisters for MLC. We dropped them off in Maple Grove and then we went down to Medicine Lake and stayed with Elders Boothe and Hickman. We had a grand old time. I love those guys haha. 

     Friday morning we played some ball at the Crystal building with some guys from the Weaver Lake ward and us, the Medicine Lake and Crystal Elders. It was pretty fun! After that we drove down to Bloomington for MLC. We talked a lot about how to use Facebook and watched some new training videos on it and stuff. It was fun and great to see all my buds from around the mission.  We had dinner with the Duncombes on Friday night on the way back up from MLC. They have a huge house and property in Becker and have like a CrossFit/American ninja warrior gym in their basement, so I got to do pull-ups and monkey bars and a peg board, too. It was way fun! Peg boards are hard haha, but I was able to do it not too bad for my first time.  After that we had to go home and get the zone focus finished up. We did a zone focus based off of using Facebook and watching all the new training videos and learning how to use it and then applying what we learn to effectively use Facebook. While we were at the church some of the YM and Brother Casper and Brother Dohm came to the church from an activity, and then we discovered that a bat was in the church. Elder Meyer and I were trying to chase it out and it wouldn't leave, and then Brother Dohm was trying to hit it with a broom and it was a mess haha. Never a dull moment in Sauk Rapids haha. 

     Saturday we helped Brother Hilsgen side his trailer, and we did like half of it! Once Elder Meyer and I got the hang of it, we were cruising on getting the siding up. So we did a good job haha, and now I would consider myself a professional sider.  So if anyone needs someone to side their house, I will be happy to do it in like 9 months haha.  After that we had a lesson with Ashley before she leaves for Disney World this week. So we get there, and she tells us she doesn't want to get baptized into our church and she wants to start going to her church that she hasn't been to in like 4 years and doesn't even know where it is.  So anyway, it was a rough lesson and she was chain smoking the whole lesson, so that was tough, too. We got her Facebook, and will probably just send her videos or scriptures each day on Facebook to help build her faith. Hopefully she will come around soon. After that we drove up to Little Falls and did some stop bys, and then had dinner and lesson with the Dobsons. We read D&C 89 and taught the Word of Wisdom because Brother Dobson is definitely struggling with it, but he acts like he isn't. We really focused on the blessings promised in section 89 about mental, physical and spiritual strength. After that we helped them move this huge couch from their friend's house to their place! Then we had to drive home because it's like a 45 minute drive home from there. 

     Sunday we had to weekly plan in the morning and then we had church. Church was awesome! It was fast and testimony meeting and like every single person bore their testimony on the Book of Mormon or the Savior and His atonement. It was super awesome, and the spirit was so strong. Dan Smith and Jill Charter both came. We still haven't heard anything from Matt, and Emily said she hasn't either. The last she heard from him was that he wasn't interested in coming to church anymore. Second hour we got to have a lesson with Jill and Brother Charter on the restoration of the gospel. Brother Charter bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon to her and it was way powerful. He was like sobbing. It was so good. Brother Roback taught the lesson in Elders Quorum and it was on this talk by President Uchtdorf called "Come, Join With Us". It was a super good talk. He talks about doubting your doubts before you doubt your faith. That's something I've really come to appreciate and believe in on my mission. Some days I am just like, "Why am I here? Nothing seems to be going right and I don't even know if this is right." But in those moments I always find myself going back to what I know: The Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet, Jesus Christ lives and loves me and he will never forsake me, and God loves me and has a perfect plan for me even if I can't see it immediately. Those are some of the truths I can always hold on to when the waters are a little rough. After church we went and stopped by Adam and his family. They were chopping down this huge tree in their back yard and so we helped him with that and it was pretty legit haha. Adam was super glad we came and helped, and his kids love us now haha cuz I did a pull-up contest with them. We then knocked some doors for about an hour and met some not super nice people, but it was still good haha. This one guy answered the door and was like, "I had a revelation that 2 church people would come knock on my door and if they believed in the Apostle's Creed then I would talk to them about their church." So we are getting hyped because we thought he was going to be interested in our message but..... he just wanted to bash with us.  He said when Christ died on the cross and said, "It's finished," that ended all further revelation to people on the earth. So I asked him about Peter receiving a revelation to teach the gospel to all the gentiles as well as the Jews. He had no answer for it and I was like, "Ok... so explain that one to me."  He then just kept bashing and said we do too much to follow Christ. Like we don't have to get baptized because it's just an outward sign of an inner commitment to follow Christ. So we read John 3:5 with him and he still said we don't don't have to get baptized. He then kept telling us Joseph Smith was wrong and he just added a bunch onto what Christ taught. We just invited him to read the Book of Mormon and he said no. So we asked him why and he said because all we need is in the Bible. Obviously that is wrong because no one can agree on the same scriptures in the Bible.  Anyway, he didn't want to hear it, so we just left. People who want to bash and tell us we are wrong just make me shake my head haha.  After that we had dinner with the Charters and we had some fish and lots of veggies so it was way good! Then we had coordination meeting with Brother Charter and went home and did some numbers and called it a night. 

     This week was fun and I'm excited to spend 6 more weeks here in Sauk Rapids with Elder Meyer. This week I realized how strong my testimony of the Savior really is. I really attribute it to reading the Book of Mormon each day and the words of our prophets and apostles. The more I've studied about Christ, the more I've come to appreciate how much he has done for me and for everyone. I'm grateful that God loved us enough to give His only begotten son to come and live and die and live again for us! I'm grateful that I can change and repent and improve because of what He has done for me and the redemptive power of the atonement of Jesus Christ. It is truly amazing to me that Christ can heal us and help us and give us power to overcome the world. 

     Thanks for all your love and support from the homefront. I love and miss you all a lot! I hope all is well with you and remember to see the good in each day and look for God's hand in your life. If you seek, you will find. I'm grateful to be doing this work and to be sharing this gospel. It is truly a blessing to represent our Savior Jesus Christ! Good luck to my Mavs and Cats this week. Keep up the good work and keep winning! 

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

My nightly post-workout snack!

I ran into Brother Parkinson!  Elder Cordara and I lived with his family in Maple Grove.

Sister Gretz brought me my insulin from home after visiting my family last month.  "Hand off made, pass received!"

Doing some yard work for Stephanie this week!

Good week, lots of work!

     Hello to all my family, friends, and coaches at home, at college, and serving the Lord all around the world! Hope this email finds you all well and loving life! College football is upon us here in Minnesota and I love it! It makes me excited to suit up next fall for the Mavs.  The work here is going good! We've had a good week of work and have really been cruising on how we are working together and working with people in our area!

     Monday we had district p day and that was super fun! The Brainerd and Alexandria Elders came down Sunday night and stayed at our place and then in the morning we played some basketball at the church. I don't know how but my jumping has gotten way better so I can almost legit dunk now. I almost had a put back dunk on a fast break. The ball like perfectly kicked off the rim and I came right down the lane and it went just through my fingers so I just dunked air haha. I got up on the rim though, so I'm super stoked I can do that now. We went to Val's for lunch, which is this little old school drive in burger place that is way good. After that we played football and some board games and Elder Bentley made us Wok Chicken with ramen and it was amazing.  I was a little skeptical, but it was amazing! Monday night we had a lesson with LJ in the group home and another dude there named Isaac joined in on our lesson. Isaac showed us his electric guitar skills and that was a party haha. We read a little bit out of the Book of Mormon with them and I said, "I felt hope when you guys read that. I usually have dark thoughts, but I had happy thoughts while you were reading!" That made my day, seeing the Book of Mormon be able to help someone like that!

     Tuesday we mowed Connie's lawn again and had another good chat with her. She had finished reading the Plan of Salvation pamphlet and had some issues with the 3 kingdoms of glory. She said her church teaches there's just one Heaven and one hell and that all you have to do is believe to be saved, not do good works like baptism and stuff. So I brought up these points: 1) If we believe in Christ, wouldn't that motivate you to follow His example and be a good person (do good works)? She said yes to that. 2) If I say I believe in Christ but I steal and lie and murder then am I still going to Heaven? She said no to that. But then I said, "Well, by your standards, I'm going to Heaven because I'm a professed believer in Christ!" She realized after that, that just teaching faith without works doesn't make a lot of sense. Teaching that all you have to do is believe to be saved really makes no sense. At least to me it doesn't. So we helped her realize that you have to have faith and also do good works (be baptized, repent, live a righteous life) in order to receive salvation. Aside from the fact that Christ and his apostles teach that in the Bible and Book of Mormon.....After that we did some more service for this lady that Elders Meyer and Kennedy found on exchanges. She is way nice and we edged her whole driveway so they could resurface it this summer. She had a lot of questions about missionaries and our church so that was awesome! We are helping her out again this Wednesday! After that we knocked some town homes in East Sauk Rapids. We met like no one interested except this dude from Kuwait. He is here going to school in St. Cloud. His mom and brother were visiting from Kuwait and he is loaded. He was on the Kuwait national soccer team before he came out here. Anyway, way cool dude and he invited us in and we taught him and his mom and brother. They are Muslim, so they don't believe in Christ as the savior of the world, but they were interested in our message and had a lot of questions! We are meeting with him again this week, too. After that we met this couple named the Sanchez's at the church. They are from Arkansas and are moving up to Sartell in like 3 weeks or so. Brother Sanchez is hilarious and has this southern accent that kills me haha. He loves watching football on Sundays and was a little sad that our church starts at one because he will miss the 1 pm and start of the 4 pm games. After that Ashley made us dinner at her place and it was the bomb. She made this way good tator tot hot dish and also banana cream pie, which is my fav. I found out she loves country music so she played some of her favorite songs for us (tender mercies). We finished teaching the Plan of Salvation to her and she just out of the blue is like, "I wanna get baptized, but I've never been baptized." So we set a date for October 14 with her! She has a lot of stuff to work on before then, but hopefully she can hit that date! After that we cleaned up the home visits list and the NAC list for the ward council and other missionaries to follow here.

     Wednesday we had district meeting and it was an adventure as always cuz Alexandria's Skype like cut out half way through so we had to sit there and wait for it and then try to call them and get it all worked out and all that. So it took like 2 hours to have district meeting. After that we drove up to Watab to stop by all the people we had found like 3 weeks ago. None of them were home or interested so we ended up knocking more doors. We found this way old guy named Henry. He basically told us he thinks he's going to die in like a week or two, but he seemed like he was in pretty decent shape. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and gave him a chapter to read. Hopefully he reads it and can just feel the peace that comes from it. After that we had a lesson with a family who just moved into our ward up in Rice. The mom has been in and out of activity her whole life and her kids just got baptized like 2 months ago. They love the church so much now, and her older son is 13 and is on fire. Their names are Sister Davis, Russell, and Luke.  Russell passed the Sacrament for the first time this week and thought it was awesome! Way cool family. We did a Book of Mormon lesson with them on the importance of reading it each day to continually strengthen our testimony of Christ and of the restoration. They said they have been reading each day since the kids got baptized! So it was way cool! After that we had a lesson with Flora and she basically taught us the Plan of Salvation! It was awesome, she really knew her stuff. So that was super cool and she also said the closing prayer. We had dinner with the Petersens and then we went to campus and did some contacting for about an hour and a half to end the day. We met this dude named Jay who seemed interested, but we haven't been able to get in contact with him haha. And we met these two girls sitting out on their porch and talked to them for like 30 minutes. One of them had taken world religions but hadn't read the Book of Mormon, so we gave her a copy. They told us about some upcoming events we could go to on campus where lots of people would be at! So that was good!

     Thursday we accounted with the district leaders and then had a lesson with Larry. He had downloaded the gospel library app and had listened to the Book of Mormon for like an hour already. We taught a really simple restoration lesson because his understanding is really basic. But it was a good lesson, and we invited him to continue to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it! After that we did service at this humane society in St. Cloud that Sister Petersen hooked us up with. She works there so she set us up with some weekly service there! We just washed dishes and cages out for like 2 hours, but it was fun and we got to talk to a few people working there about our church and missionary work and stuff! After that we had a lesson with Erik. We retaught the restoration and he had some questions from Mosiah 4. After we finished the lesson we asked him what he would do if he came to know the Book of Mormon was true and this was the church of Christ on the earth today. He said "Well, I'd probably better join it!" I was like, "That's a good idea!" So we told him to keep reading and praying and he would get an answer. So hopefully he does. I'm not sure how interested he is, but he keeps meeting with us so we are going to keep inviting him and helping him gain a testimony until he tells us no! We had dinner with Gold and Sister Kennedy after that, and that was fun. Darrell was being crazy and putting stuff down our shirts and trying to shove his light saber up my butt again, but it's Darrell, so it is what it is. We drove out to Foley after that and did some tracting and met a couple cool people we are going back to this week. As we were walking down this one street to stop by people from a while back this lady came running up to the road chasing a puppy, so naturally we stopped to help her catch it and ended up talking for like 20 minutes. Her puppy was super cute and I was holding it, and it jumped out of my arms and fell on it's face, so that was bad haha. But the puppy is ok, and we ended up giving her a Book of Mormon and setting up a lesson for this Wednesday as well. She told us she had been struggling with her faith in God and was trying to rekindle that recently. She said she loves going to church and praying and talking about God but recently it's been like the flame has gone out. So we gave her a chapter in the BOM to read and set up a time to come back. We invited her to church but she was out of town this weekend.

     Friday was weekly planning and we plowed through a good session. We've discovered that when we take two breaks during planning to shoot some hoops then it goes way better.  So we've been doing that now! After that we hustled down to Clear Lake to do some tracting and go down to Becker to invite like all the less actives to the corn feed Friday night. So in Clear Lake we had some way cool miracles. Clear lake is a super small town. Like 545 is the population. There are also 3 churches within a half mile of each other. The street we felt inspired to knock was parallel with 2 of the 3 churches, so we were a little apprehensive, but just went forward with faith! The first door we knocked on we met this 20-something-year-old guy named Nathan and taught him a short restoration lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon and a chapter to read. He said we could come by this Thursday on our way down to MLC. Then the very last door we knocked on was a little ways down the street. Elder Meyer was going to jump in the car, but I was like, "Let's go do this one more house." So we knocked the door and this lady named Rebecca answered. She was way nice and had a little 8 week-old baby. We started talking about the Book of Mormon and she's like, "I actually have one! I found it while I was cleaning out my dad's house and I've always been interested in what it is exactly." So we got to teach about it and the restoration and it was pretty sweet! She said we could also come back on Thursday! After that we went to Becker to invite a bunch of less actives to the corn feed. We stopped by to see Douglas again, and he was out back doing some yard work, so we offered to help but he was just finishing up. He said he would be less busy once school starts so we could come by again in September. He's a really nice dude and I hope we can teach him! We stopped by Chris Duke and met his wife and kids, too. We invited them to the corn feed and they ended up coming, so that was awesome! The corn feed was a party. We had like 100 people there and lots of good food and also we had a football game with Bishop and some young men and other members, so it was way fun! 

     Saturday was a kind of a long day haha. We did zone comment sheets and leadership recommendations in the morning for the APs and President Barney so he knows who can train and who can't, and who can zone lead and all that stuff so if he needs to call new people he has some background on them. After that we went and did some stop bys in the ghetto part of our area and no one was home. So we ended up doing our route of people to stop by and no one was home or outside to talk to because it was raining. So that was rough haha. After that we had a lesson with Jared about the Sacrament because he was passing for his first time on Sunday. We wanted to make sure he had a good understanding of what it was and the importance of passing the Sacrament. He seemed to actually have a good understanding of what the Sacrament was and why it is important, so that was awesome. He seems to be like less weird I guess each time we've gone over, so that's been great. He's still super unique, but we've actually been having good lessons. He's getting his patriarchal blessing next week as well. After that we went to campus and this old lady stopped us right in the middle of campus and started telling us about her beliefs. She said Christ was a made up person and didn't exist, and God was alive in all of us so we have to "experiment with ourselves to truly discover God." She said there was no devil either, and he was just made up along with Christ so that the Catholic Church could control the world by fear. In the past months I would've like lost my mind and went off on her and been mad, but I seriously just felt way sorry for her. We tried to just share our testimonies of Christ and how we can have hope for a better world through Christ, as we are taught by Moroni! She didn't want to hear what we had to say though, and told us several times we were deceived and are deceiving others. Some day she will know that Jesus is the Christ, and I hope she realizes that before having to stand before Him. I really felt awful after that. It was like reading about an anti-Christ in the Book of Mormon and just feeling sorry for them. Anyway, after that we tracted for 2 hours and found zero people. It was a rough night, but we still had fun and were in good spirits. Even though we found no one, I still felt happy with the work we put in even though nothing came of it. 

     Sunday we went to the Holy Myrrhbearers Orthodox Catholic Church with Jennifer Johnson since she went to church with us last week. I'm not gonna lie, it was the weirdest church I've ever been to. It was all Gregorian chant out of a 36 page book. They do the same thing every week and they had all these scary paintings of Jesus and Mary and all the apostles. The Bishop and some other high up dude were visiting and they did this weird priesthood thing where they cut off locks of a guy's hair so he could be ordained to the office of "reader" in the priesthood. I like the Lutheran church we went to with Dave better than the orthodox Catholic Church. I'm just gonna leave it at that. After that we went to our church and it was great! Flora was there, and Jill Charter and Dan Smith came too. The Smiths are feeding us next Thursday, so that will be great. After church we had dinner and did comp study and then did some stop bys. We stopped by Adam, and they had just gotten home from camping and were cleaning out their camper. We talked for about 10 minutes and he told us he had talked to Flora about us and said they would like to have us over and we seem like "quality guys." So that was awesome. We are going by next Sunday to visit them. After that we had a lesson with the Beckriches and it went pretty well. Timmy is doing well after his surgery, so that's good. They're good people I just don't know why they don't come to church???  Still trying to figure that one out. After that we had coordination meeting with Brother Charter and then had some training evals with the Brainerd and Hutchinson Elders and had to do numbers. So that was our Sunday!

     This week went by super fast! I've been reading in Alma this week as Alma is setting the church in order in Zarahemla and in the surrounding cities. Alma 5 is one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. It talks about having "the image of God in our countenance" and receiving a "change of heart". I really love these two phrases. That is something I've realized I want to strive for in my life. To always try to live in a way that I will have the image of God in my countenance and that I will always strive to repent and be more diligent and humble and a better disciple of Christ. Later on, Alma talks about the fact that we can't stand before the judgment bar of God if we have been sinners and liars and expect to be saved. He says in verses 18-19: "18 Or otherwise, can ye imagine yourselves brought before the tribunal of God with your souls filled with guilt and remorse, having a remembrance of all your guilt, yea, a perfect remembrance of all your wickedness, yea, a remembrance that ye have set at defiance the commandments of God?

19 I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?"

     Those really stuck out to me. If I couldn't stand before God with a pure heart and clean hands right now, what changes do I need to make so that I could? I've thought about that a lot, thinking about things I can do to become more loving, more Christlike, and more focused on those around me and how I can lift them higher. It was a really cool lesson I learned from Alma. I absolutely know the Book of Mormon was written for our day, and there are so many valuable lessons to be learned in its pages. If you aren't reading it each day, I strongly advise that you do so. There will be a change in your life and in your heart that will surprise you. You will want to be a better person. You will love others like Christ did, having charity, or the pure love of Christ, for all you associate with. You will come to know that Jesus Christ lives and that it is only through him that we can be redeemed and changed and exalted. You will come to know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and was translated by His prophet Joseph Smith, and that Christ's church has been restored to the earth. The Book of Mormon is the greatest book in the world. There is absolutely nothing bad that will happen if you read the Book of Mormon. Only incredible, heavenly blessings in your life! Thanks for all your support and prayers. They help me so much! 

     Good luck to my Bobcats and Mavs as football season is kicking off right now. You got Elder Beach in Minnesota sending lots of support and love your way! I love you all, have a great week and remember to take to time to smile, enjoy life, and tell those who mean most to you that you love them and appreciate them. Life's too short to not do those things. 

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Elder Meyer hammocking in our apartment.

Enjoying a rainbow and the beauties of nature.  My patriarchal blessing says to do that.

Having a little fun at dinner.

Elder K's kilt.

Our Zone Campaign!  Just having a little fun!

A Baptism!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Funny thing we saw on the roof!

Eating homemade sushi with Flora.

Service at Jodys.

Huge bug we found.

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

Flora's baptism!

Fall is in the air!