Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen

Hey everyone, this was a great final full week as a missionary. It's odd to think that it was my final week. The fact that I'm coming home in just a couple of days hasn't really sunk in yet. I was told by several people that it probably won't sink in fully until I wake up in my own bed. That's going to be a weird experience. 

This week we were able to meet with and teach Willie several times. He's a good guy, and he loves the Lord, he just seems like he can't wrap his head around a few things that we teach. We were able to teach him the Restoration, as well as read some stuff from the Book of Mormon with him, including the introduction. In the last couple of paragraphs of the intro to the Book of Mormon, it invites all who read to pray and ask God to know that it's true. It then promises that when we gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, we will also gain a testimony of three other things: 1) that Jesus is the Christ, 2) that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and 3) that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord's kingdom on the earth. Willie, like many others I've met and taught, have a bit of difficulty connecting those dots. First and foremost, one needs to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. And that can only be done by reading it, and praying to God to know that it's true. Like President Monson said, "The importance of having a firm testimony of the Book of Mormon cannot be overstated." That's something that we tried and prayed to be able to help Willie understand. He hasn't quite grasped the importance of it, so hopefully whomever the missionaries are in this area in the future will be able to help him out. 

Speaking of missionaries in the future, I have no idea who they are going to be. Elder Conner and I are both leaving Tuscaloosa, and I'm not sure yet what President's plans are for this area. I assume he will put two other Elders back here when we leave, but you never know if he'll swap for Sisters or just close it completely. It's always difficult doubling out of an area. It's a little bit tougher for us but it's much more difficult for the people we have met and taught. I think it really throws them off when they expect two people they've met before to show up to the appointment rather than have two people that they've never met show up. We met several people last night tracting with whom we made appointments to see later this week. I knew I wasn't going to be there for those appointments, but I didn't think that Elder Conner wouldn't either. Hopefully they still go alright. 

One cool thing that happened this week was I got to give another baptismal interview for a lady named Neva that the Northport Elders have been teaching. Neva has been learning from the missionaries and been coming to church every week for over six months, but she just never could really commit fully to be baptized. She also is a very nervous and anxious person, and so that's another thing that kind of got in her way. Last transfer she was ready to be baptized and Elder Erickson did her interview, but it just didn't go well. She shared with him some doubts and concerns that she had, and so her baptism was postponed for a while. I was worried that the same type of thing would happen when I re-interviewed her last week, but everything went great! Neva has a strong testimony and was excited for her baptism. It all went super well, and she was able to be baptized and confirmed this past weekend. That was an event that was a long time in the making, and it was great to be able to participate in it happening. 

Well, this being my last email, I wasn't really sure what to share. I wanted to share something deep and profound, but I'm not sure what that might be. So I'll just share a few of my thoughts and testimony, and wrap up there. 

I'm going to miss being a representative of Jesus Christ, and sharing my testimony with everyone around me every day. One of the greatest ways to strengthen a testimony is to share it. Not to say that I won't share it anymore, just not as frequently as I do now. I'll miss that. I'm going to miss being around, associating with, and loving other missionaries. That was a blessing unforeseen to me 2 years ago - being around so many people like myself with the same goals and standards and purpose. I love being around missionaries all the time. I'll miss that. I'm going to miss having an hour or more set apart every day to study the scriptures. One of the wonderful things I have gained as a missionary is a love for and a knowledge of the scriptures. I will obviously make time each day to study, but I will miss having as much time as I have enjoyed for the last two years to do so. I will miss the people of Alabama. I will miss hearing the terms "fixin' to" and "roll tide" and "bless your heart" mixed into every conversation. Most people here have a deep love for these things: faith, family, food, and football. Haha I do too, so maybe that's why I've loved being around them. I love Utah and I love being around so many members of the Church, but I'm going to miss the people here, many of whom I know and love.

I know that God is our Father, and that He loves us. I know that Jesus of Nazareth is the living Son of the living God. He is the Christ, and He is my Savior. I know that this is His Church. I know that the prophet Joseph Smith was chosen by God to restore the Church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that Russell M. Nelson is Joseph's authorized successor, and is a true prophet of God. I know that there is power in the written word of God, and I know that there is power in prayer. I know that there is no decision that will deny us the presence of the Holy Ghost that is worthy of our consideration. I love my mission. I love it because I love the Lord. I also love all of you, miss you, pray for you, look forward to seeing you soon, and thank you for sharing this experience with me. 

Though I'm nearly through with some of the greatest times of my life, I will always remember this one thing: The best is yet to come.

Much love,
Elder Beach
#RollTide

Last week as a missionary!

Me, Elder Yokoo, and Devin.  Devin is the Elder's Quorum President in the YSA, and he takes us to dinner periodically.  We love him!

Elder Yokoo, me, Elder Conner and Elder Robins.  The four amigos!

Thou Art the Christ

Hey everyone, this was a good week down in Bama. It flew by and I don't seem to have a whole lot of memorable experiences to share, so I'll do my best to pull together a few and then just share my testimony. That's more important than stories anyway. 

This week we were able to get back in contact with a guy named Willie. I'm not sure if I told y'all about him before or not. We were teaching him a while back, but things weren't really clicking and he didn't seem to be ready to accept the gospel. He lives fairly close to our apartment and we would often see him out on his porch, and would sometimes stop and just have a quick chat. We were hoping to eventually teach him again when he was more ready. Well, we hadn't seen him out on his porch for like a month, and we had also stopped by a couple of times to try and begin teaching him again. He never answered. Finally we stopped by one more time the other day, and he happened to be out on his porch - with a big brace on his leg. He told us that he had been in a biking accident (he doesn't have a car and rides his bike everywhere), and that he had surgery on his leg. He had been in the hospital and rehab for several weeks and had only been home for a couple days. We were able to have a good chat with him, and we asked him if we could come by on Tuesday this week and talk about the gospel and the Book of Mormon which we had given him a couple months ago. He said that would be great! We also discovered that he didn't have a bike helmet, and so we offered to give him a spare one we have in the apartment. He was super grateful and it felt good to be of service to our old friend Willie, and also have another opportunity to give him a chance to accept the gospel. Prayers up for Willie!

Also this week I had the opportunity to interview for baptism a kid named Jayveon that the Northport Elders have been teaching. I won't bore you with the details, but we almost had a slight problem on our hands with the interview because they weren't sure if Jayveon was eight or nine years old. If he's eight, then his interview is the responsibility of the Bishop in the ward, but if he's nine then it's the responsibility of the missionaries. We were able to get things figured out (though we had a bit of a loophole to jump though) and I was able to do his interview. Jayveon is a stud. He's such a cool kid, and has an awesome testimony. I've done four baptismal interviews on my mission, and three of them have been for children age 10 and under. It amazes me how a kid that young can have such great understanding of the gospel. As members of the Church, and due to the Restoration of the Gospel, even little children know more about God and their Savior than so many of the world's theological leaders. They know that they are children of God and that is one of the most precious bits of knowledge we could ever have. We're looking forward to Jayveon's baptism. 

This week in the YSA, Elder Conner and I were asked to speak. We weren't given topics, and so I decided to just give a similar talk to one that I had written and given before when I was in Hamilton. I was to share a couple of verses and just my testimony about them, which I shared as part of my talk. I may have shared them with y'all before, but they're good verses, so hear me out. John 6:66-69 says, "From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." I know that at some point in our lives, a similar question will be asked of each of us - will you also go away? I hope that we can stand firm as Peter did, and testify boldly that we know Jesus is the Christ. That we know there is nowhere else to go except to follow Him. That we know that we are going to live our lives in defense of that testimony. I know God lives. I know Jesus is the Christ. I know that the most important decision we can make in our lives is to accept His invitation to "come, follow me." More joy awaits us in following the Savior than in anything else. I know that. 

I love you, I pray for you, I hope you have a wonderful week, and that you will always make the decision to follow Christ, no matter the cost. 

Love, 
Elder Beach 
#RollTide

Our district.

My district is dope!  We had a great time touring Bryant Denny Stadium for P-day!

On the practice field.

The field is actually just sand right now.  They replant it every year.

Jesus and Joseph

Sup y'all, it's been another good week in Tuscaloosa. Had its ups and downs for sure, but all in all we had fun and worked hard and it was a good week. 

On the 4th we went down to this place near Montevallo, AL, called American Village. They have built a few buildings that look Revolutionary War era, and they had lots of cool little programs and reenactments of things, and lots of games and vendors set up. Our responsibility was to help with one building and event that was mostly meant for kids. They had lots of little games that kids from that time period would have played, and there were also a few other things that we helped the kids out with. It was pretty fun, and we all had a good time. We were there for about an hour and a half before our event time actually started, so we got to walk around a bit and see the different buildings and stuff. 'Twas pretty neat. 

On Friday we had district council. As district leader I'm kind of supposed to be in charge of what we discuss and stuff like that, and I had no idea what to do for it. I had asked everyone in the district if there was anything that they would like to train on or discuss about, but I got little input. So I just decided to break out one of my go-to chapters in the Book of Mormon: Alma 42. We just went around the room and read the verses aloud and discussed insights we received as we read. It turned out to be an awesome district council as everyone shared their thoughts and their testimonies with one another about the things taught in that chapter. It's one of my favorite chapters about the Atonement of Christ, and it does an incredible job of explaining how justice, mercy, repentance, grace, and other things work together. The Book of Mormon is truly the word of God, and as we read and discussed it that day together, the spirit was felt very strongly by everyone. I love the Book of Mormon, and I love reading it each day. I learn so much from it.

On Saturday we met with the Allreds for interviews, and it went well. President Allred did my exit interview, and he mostly just said that I need to get married ASAP haha. Obviously the plan is to get married eventually, but I don't really have plans for that anytime soon. For now, I'm just going to finish strong and keep serving with all I've got for the next 2 weeks. I'm much more concerned with that than I am with getting married right now....

I believe I told y'all about OB and Mark last week. They were two homeboys that we met and invited to our sports night on Tuesday. We texted and called them both before to remind them, and we only got a response from Mark who gave us a "Maybe I'll be there." Neither of them came, and we have been unable to contact them since. Hopefully the tides will turn soon because they were both pretty interested in learning more about the gospel when we first met them. 

I'm not sure if I told you about a guy named Doug who works at the mall. We met him there a little while ago, and he was really interested in talking about the gospel with us. He has lived in Utah for a couple years before, and he loved being around members of the Church because we are "the nicest people ever" according to Doug. I agree! Anyway, we saw him again this week and he told us that he's moving to Alaska in a few days, and so we can't really meet with him anymore. We'll send his info on up there, and hopefully the missionaries will find him. 

Also, though we briefly got in contact with William last week, our efforts to reestablish that contact with him this week have been fruitless. So it goes sometimes. He's still in our prayers and we are optimistic that we will continue teaching him in the future. 

It was odd to attend my very last testimony meeting as a missionary this week. We had an awesome one at the YSA, and though attendance at the branch was sparse, many shared their testimonies and they were all amazing. The spirit was strong and we were all uplifted as we shared the feelings of our heart with each other. One thing that I shared as part of my testimony is something that I want to share with y'all to close up this email. That is that I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and I am going to stand in his corner no matter what. I'm going to be in his corner because he was in the Savior's corner. I know that Elder Christofferson spoke the truth when he said, "Jesus has had no greater witness nor more devoted friend than Joseph Smith." The angel Moroni prophesied that Joseph's name would be had for good and evil throughout the world. Today, it sure seems to be had for more evil than good. But that's okay. I know that he was God's prophet, and I will defend Joseph Smith as well as defend the Savior for the rest of my life. 

Alright, I love y'all, pray for you often, and hope you have a stellar week!

Love,
Elder Beach 
#RollTide

Got my "rally cap" and my game face on! :)

The backstory of this picture is that we texted everyone in our district a message and told them to respond so we would know they got it.  The Sisters responded with this picture, so we responded back with one of our own.  (haha)

Spend a Week With the Lamb

Hey y'all, it's been another good week in Tuscaloosa, and we've got a good week up ahead of us. We have several cool things planned for this week, so I'll kind of tell you a bit about our past week and the upcoming one. 

I told y'all about a dude we met named Travis last week. He seemed to have some good potential and he told us he would love to come to church with us. After that first initial contact, we haven't been able to see him at all. He never answers the phone, ignores our texts, and either isn't home when we stop by or ignores us when we knock. We stopped by on Saturday night and left a note on his door as well as sent him a text just saying, "Hope to see you at church in the morning." He didn't come. Not sure what exactly the deal is. It's frustrating when people just ignore us. If they would just tell us that they weren't interested, I would be disappointed but we could at least know that we should move on. It takes longer to decide whether or not to move on when we just get ghosted. 

We (sort of) were able to get back in contact with William this week! We called him the other day and he didn't answer but he texted us and said hello. Knowing that he can't read or text very well, we just told him simply that we missed him and asked if we could call him. He said he would call us after work. He never did. We called and texted him several times after that with no luck. I'm not sure exactly what his work schedule is like right now, but he hasn't been home when we've stopped by. I really want to get back in touch with William and resume teaching him, but it's pretty tough to do that when you can't maintain contact. I continue to pray that we'll be able to teach him. 

We met some dudes this week just chilling outside at this apartment complex near ours named O.B. and Mark. We were trying to see another person in that complex but he wasn't home so we visited with them instead. They both are in their 20s and don't really go to church much, though they say they believe in God and want to do what is right. We invited them to church and they were excited to come, and they were also super excited to come to our sports night that the Northport Elders have been trying to start up. Hopefully they'll be able to make it to both and we can build a relationship with them and help them come unto Christ. 

This upcoming week we have a couple of cool things going on. Tomorrow morning we are driving up to Bessemer so that our zone can meet with President and Sister Allred for an hour or so. It's weird that the Sainsburys are gone, and it's weird that we have a new mission president and basically a new mission with all of the stakes in Florida being added to our mission. I'm never going to see or meet most of them probably, but it's just odd to know about all of the changes going on. I am excited to meet the Allreds though, and I'm sure they're going to be awesome. 

We also have the opportunity this week to go down somewhere near Montevallo (about an hour from here) on July 4 and help volunteer at this big event that they do. Honestly, I don't know much about it, and I don't know much about what we are going to be doing to help, but it should be fun. From what I hear, they have lots of activities for kids, parades, historical reenactments, and a bunch of stuff like that. People say that there's quite the large crowd every year. Again, I'm not really sure what we are doing to help out, but that's what we will be doing on the 4th, and I'm excited for it. 

Alright, well that's some of the neat things that have been going on and that will be going on in the near future. I want to wrap up this email with a spiritual thought and then call it good for the week.

There seems to have been a big focus lately on keeping the Sabbath more holy, and making the Sabbath a delight. One of the members of our stake presidency here pointed out to us something in the scriptures that can help us to keep the Sabbath holy, and more specifically to make the sacrament more meaningful. In Exodus 12, there is a commandment to take a lamb to sacrifice as part of the passover. They are to take them lamb and bring him home with them on the 10th day, but the lamb isn't to be slain until the 14th day. Basically they kept the lamb kind of as a pet at their house for 5 days. Now, President Lewis, who was sharing this insight, asked, "What do you do when you bring home a new lamb, or a new puppy, or a new pet? You spend all of your time with it. You let it sleep in your bed with you. You give it a name. You get attached to this cute little baby animal." And then a few days after that, after their hearts get attached to this animal, they have to kill it. They have to sacrifice it. We all know that each and every one of those sacrifices performed previous to the Savior's atonement were representative of Him. And then when Jesus instituted the sacrament in Matthew 26, he replaced animal sacrifice with the bread and wine. That's what we do every single week. Instead of sacrificing a lamb, we partake of the sacrament - but the meaning is the same. So, President Lewis' suggestion to each of us, and my suggestion to each of you, is to do the following in order to keep in remembrance the importance of the Savior's sacrifice as represented by the bread and water: spend a week with the Lamb. Metaphorically take the Lamb home with you each week. Love it, get attached to it, give it a name, spend all of your time with it. And then each week when we metaphorically take our lamb to the altar, or as we literally partake of the sacrament, it will be more meaningful to us. It will become a real sacrifice. That's something I've though a lot about the past couple of weeks since that insight was shared with me. "Spend a week with the Lamb." It was a cool thought, and one I thought I'd share. 

Anyway, I love y'all, I'm thankful for all of you. You're always in my prayers. I love the Savior and I love being part of His work. This is His work. He is the Christ. Have a great week.

Love,
Elder Beach
#RollTide

Last picture with the Bessemer Zone and President and Sister Sainsbury since they go home this week!