One Day More!!

Well friends, the time has officially come. I don't know where the last 18 months went because I honestly feel like it's only been a year but alas, my time has come. We worked super hard this week and saw really cool miracles! 

Tuesday we spent the morning down in Fort Lauderdale for my departing interview with President Garns. He gave me a lot of really good advice for life. But that's no different than what he's done my entire mission. I sure am going to miss the Garns and all that they have done for me here in Florida. They are the best. We knocked for a bit that day and had dinner with the Milton's. Sister Milton hurt her ankle this week so it was fun to get to help out a little with dinner. We ended the night at Book of Mormon class but there were only like 3 people. They talked all about how missionaries are God's angels here on Earth. It was a fun conversation :)

Wednesday was my last round of District Councils and Sister Jensen and I stayed together all day. The councils were all about repentance and helping our friends know how to apply the Doctrine of Christ in their own lives. Sister Jensen and I did a role play at one of them. Those are always fun. Once those were over we took the Palm Beach sisters out to lunch. We were in downtown Palm Beach and it was crazy. Any place downtown in Florida just makes you feel like you're in a movie. We did our studies at the church after that and then had dinner with the Harms. They have a huge Great Dane named Magic. He's awesome. Before we left we played tug of war with him and I've never been so scared of a dog haha. Their voices are just so incredibly deep it's crazy. They also have a really cool fish tank with predator fish so they were all over the place which was fun. They even had a puffer fish and they got him to puff up a little. It was really cool! We ended the night reading Alma 34 with Phillip. It ended up being super inspired because he told us he wasn't sure if Jesus Christ was really a real person or not. We had a really good lesson that night about Christ and repentance and invited him to pick something to repent of. 

Thursday morning Sister Jensen and I had a come study with the AP's and the zone leaders. We talked about how Christ is the perfect leader and we should strive to lead like He did. Then Soeur Dorlean and I headed over to Zenaida's. We taught her the last little things she needed to know and went over the interview questions with her. On our way out she gave us this Filipino dessert thing. I'm honestly not entirely sure what it was but it was good and that's all that matters. We ran home and ate some lunch and then went to the food pantry for service for my last time. I'm going to miss having opportunities like that when I get home. Something that's nice about being a missionary is that those things are always around and there are always things to do. When you are home it's harder to find those opportunities because you're not constantly looking for them. That's why it's so important to share the Gospel with everyone because you never know who it's going to touch or who needs it. After service we went to visit one of the old ladies in our ward. She showed us lots of pictures of her family and told us her conversion story. It was really cool! I'm going to miss that about Florida too. At church last week, during Sunday School, our teacher had everyone raise their hand who was a convert to the church and there were only 6 people out of the 25 in the class that didn't raise their hand. It was really cool. We had dinner that night with the Tomsik's. They are a super awesome family and help out so much in our ward. It was their dogs birthday so we went to Five Guys so he could have a hot dog lol. 

Friday morning started at Zenaida's for her interview! It took 2 hours to fill out the form because she couldn't remember the year her kids were born so we had to do a lot of math but she passed and was so excited! We knocked a bunch that day and had dinner with one of our snowbirds from Oregon. Her husband is Jewish so it was cool to hear about his religion a little bit. They decided that Sister Dorlean is going to teach all the Relief Society how to make Haitian food. I wish I could be there for it. I guess shell just have to come to Utah after she goes home :) There was an Evening with Elder Rasband that night that we were invited to watch so that's where we ended our night. It was really really good. One guy talked about how we can be better teachers to those we lead. It was really helpful. Elder Rasband talked about how we can help those who are suicidal and how we can help prevent it from becoming an even bigger problem than it already is. 

Saturday was awesome. Honestly couldn't have spent my last Saturday any better. We started the morning off at the church for a baptism for one of the little 8 year olds in our ward. They just recently moved from Utah and none of their family is here so they had her birthday party right after so the ward could be there. There were a lot of unicorns everywhere haha. After lunch we visited some referrals and some friends that we had been working with that wanted to say bye before I left. Then we went back to the church because the YSA had a baptism at 4 and she wanted us there. So we went to that and then had to dip early because Zenaida showed up for her baptism at 5. It went so well! She was smiling the whole time and just kept saying how happy she was. The service was half in English and half in Tagalog so that was a really neat experience. Everyone brought refreshments after so we ate and then we had to head to the Haitian baptism at 6 so I could play the piano. After that baptism the Haitian Ward had their Valentines Day party and we got invited so of course we stayed.  I'm going to miss being surrounded by Haitians all the time and hearing my companion speak Creole. I never know what's going on but it's so fun to just sit back and watch how their lifestyle is. I definitely want to go visit Haiti one day. 

Sunday was good too. Zenaida was confirmed and the chapel was packed. We aren't sure why but everyone just seemed to be there. It was a miracle. The Relief Society room was full too which has never happened my entire mission. It was so neat to see everyone gathered together. It took us forever to leave the church because everyone was saying goodbye. It was a sad moment. We visited Daphyne later and shared a message with her about Jesus Christ and then we had dinner with the Jensens. Brother Jensen served his mission in Brazil so they made us Brazilian for my last time. They come to St. George every summer so I'll see them soon enough :) We ended the night at the chapel for Brother McGee's funeral. He passed away last week and flew him out to Connecticut to be buried so they just had the memorial service last night. None of his family are members of the church so it was cool to see them gather together and hear people from the church speak about the Plan of Salvation and how he's doing okay. I'm so grateful for the Plan of Salvation and they knowledge that we have that whatever happens in life, we will all be reunited again. What a happy celebration that will be :)

Yesterday was spent pretty much just saying goodbye to people. Our dear friend, Elder Mickelson, ended up in the hospital Sunday night. He's had a headache the last two weeks and just got worse and worse so he finally went in. Turns out there was a growth in his head. They did some tests and there shouldn't be anything wrong but he flew home this morning to get it removed. So we spent the morning at the hospital saying goodbye to him. He's still in happy spirits though so that's good. Then we went to the beach for lunch with the Bednarchiks. It was this place called Dune Deck Café and it was literally on the beach. We could've taken five steps and literally been in the water. It was awesome. It was really really good food too. We did some studies later and started packing and then had dinner at the Milton's once again. There were some other members there too so it was good to see them one last time. They all gave me their own pieces of advice on how to be a good returned missionary. I sure am going to miss all of them. The Boynton Beach ward will always have a place in my heart. We ended the night at Phillip's. He's come a long way since I've been here. He'll get baptized soon I know it. God has a plan for him just like he does the rest of us. 

We went sun rising for my last time this morning. It was good to be with friends and just breath in the Florida air. I'm going to miss Florida and everything that comes with it. The sun, the rain, the humidity, the birds, the flowers, the fish, the smells, the people, the clouds, the ducks, the water, the wind, the beach, everything. I'm so extremely grateful for the last 18 months that I've been able to spend here getting to know different people and different cultures.  I'm grateful for the testimony I've gained along the way of the truthfulness of this Gospel. I don't know where I would be without my Savior Jesus Christ and all that He has done for me. I'm sad to leave my home here in the Sunshine State but the next chapter of life begins soon. I'll see you all in a couple days!!

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand 

Zenaida's Baptism!!!!

Last sunrise in the Sunshine State :)

Boynton Beach members :)

Jensens, Bednarchiks, Miltons, Sandlins

Brother Herold, Sister Borge, and Keith:)

(Keith wouldn't stop moving so he's blurry)

Hospital with Elder Mickelson

Lunch on the beach with Brother and Sister B :)

Army of Helaman

Hello everyone! I hope you all once again had a great week. We sure did :)

Tuesday morning I finished MyPlan. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a program they make you do right before you go home to help you adjust to the normal life back at home. It's honestly really good and helped me a lot. After that we had district council. We talked about how important it is to help people understand that they need to be baptized by the proper authority. A lot of people in the world have already been baptized so when we invite them to do it again it doesn't make sense why unless they understand the need for authority. We are so blessed to have the priesthood in our lives :) we had dinner with the Kovacs that night at Olive Garden which was funny because the Elders were there too with one of their members. It's been really fun having Sister Dorlean try different foods they don't have in Haiti here in Florida. Her reaction to different things is always awesome. I love that nugget. That night we had Book of Mormon class and then Sister Jensen and I headed up to Palm Beach to say bye to one of our Sisters. She just has had some health problems lately so we went to help her get ready to leave and help the new Sister move in. We got home pretty late that night. 

Wednesday we had to take our car to Firestone. The workers there just know us now because we have gone so many times since I have been in this area. We were there for a hot minute though because they ended up changing the  battery and fixing the alignment after the oil change and stuff. Long day there. We spent most of the night knocking but we didn't end up finding any new friends. We had chicken enchiladas for dinner with the Sandlins. It was soo good. I forgot how much I love those. That night we were supposed to have a lesson with the Elders with some friends they were going to give us but they weren't home. But we waited for 30 minutes in the cold anyway hoping they would come. We just froze instead. 

Thursday I spent the day with Sister Ward in Camino Gardens! We spent a good part of the day helping their Branch President, Presidente Fuentes, move. He didn't go very far, just around the corner. So we helped pack everything into the U-hall and then unpack it all down the street. Luckily we had some Elders there to help so it didn't take the entire day. They did feed us breakfast and lunch and we got to ride in the trailer so it was pretty fun :) We live 30 minutes away from their chapel so we spent the rest of the night studying at their church because it was pouring rain outside. God is nice and always let's us get the big things out of the way before he let's the rain come. 

Friday was my last MLC :( due to a lot more rain that morning we showed up right at 9, but we were late. But esta bien. It was a really good MLC. President Garns talked about how we need to grow our faith personally so we can help our friends increase in their faith too. He helped us to know how to do that and gave us some steps to follow. It was very inspired for Sister Beckstrand. We also talked a lot about how we need to teach our friends how to repent, not just to repent. Chances are, if they don't know what repentance is, they don't know how to do it either. It's up to us to teach them from the scriptures. It was fun to see some friends again while we were there. Most missions sing "Called to Serve" as their mission song but ours is "We'll Bring the World His Truth". We always sing it when we get together with other missionaries at pretty much every meeting. Because this was my last MLC, it was also my last time singing it with everyone. Kind of a sad moment. We had dinner that night at Five Guys (shout out to Grant!) with Bishop Milton. It brought back a lot of Snapper Creek memories. We got some ice cream after and then spent the rest of the night walking around looking for some members that lived in the area but we never found them. I did find out though that Sister Dorlean is scared of frogs. It's pretty funny because there are frogs everywhere here. But she always just runs the other way as soon as she sees one. 

Not much happened on Saturday. We had to meet with the District Leaders and teach them everything we learned at MLC. We also had to do weekly planning. But we did have a fun meal appointment with the Papenfus family. Everyone knows I'm going home next week so they all make jokes every time they see me. Soeur Dorlean also just keeps telling everyone I go home soon so that's fun. She's gonna miss me when I'm gone. 

Sunday was my last fast Sunday here in Florida. Pretty weird feeling honestly. Zenaida came! The ward just eats her up every time she comes. She was there before we noticed and waved us over so she could say hi :) she is super excited for her baptism this Saturday! The two hour church thing has been really nice but it makes it harder on us for contact everyone we need to while we are at church. But we are getting better at it. We had dinner with the Rane's. They got us a really really good key line pie. I haven't had that in so long. We spent a lot of time knocking again that night but no one answered their door. This week we are determined to find a lot of people to teach. It's my last chance and we are going to work our hardest. There is still a lot of work to do and a lot of goals to hit so we've got to make it happen! 

I hope you all have a good week. Go to the temple while it's still close, read your scriptures, and make sure to pray daily! See you next week :)

All my love, 

Sister Beckstrand 

I can never have too many pictures with these nuggets :)

Taking the Gospel to the world, Via Sofia ;)

My Florida Sunshine this week are the Sunsets. I know I've done it before but I don't get very more to see so I'm soaking them up while I can :)

18 Months in the Sunshine State!

Hello everyone!! I hope you had a good week! Despite the fact I was fighting a cold all week, ours was pretty good here in Boynton Beach :)

Once P-day was over on Tuesday Sister Jensen and I had to plan our training but we stopped by their friend Gustavo's first to help him with his homework. He is the cutest little Ecuadorian 9 year old ever. They are just waiting for his mum to have a day off so they can baptize him. He's hilarious. 

Wednesday morning we started out the day with zone council. Sister Jensen and I gave a training on sacrifice. We read the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac and talked about how we all have things we need to give up on the alter as missionaries to help us be more obedient. We all have things that we need to work on. That's the great news about the gospel! We all have room to improve and progress. God is good that way. Later that day we went and saw Grandma Jean. She is from Trinidad but lived with all the LDS people over in California so she calls us her people. We didn't have a ton of time to talk with her but she gave us some snacks and we were on our way. We had dinner with the Milton's later and ended the night at Relief Society night with Kimberly. The Relief Society in our ward are literally so awesome. I haven't laughed so hard in a while. We started the Celestial University thing. Apparently it's pretty old but it looks pretty cool! We're gonna do it as a ward:) 

Thursday we went on exchanges with the Boca Rio sisters. So that means Sister Abdo got to spend the day with me in Boynton Beach! We started with a lesson with Zenaida :) Once again it was all over the place but it was really fun. One of my favorite parts of being a missionary is seeing how excited people get about the gospel. We may not be able to understand what Zenaida says but the Spirit speaks all languages and delivers the same awesome message. I LOVE THIS GOSPEL! Later that day we found a new friend named Gwendolyn. She had just moved up from Ft. Laud and had talked to missionaries down there. She had the same questions Joseph Smith had and was so excited to hear the message of the Restoration. I'm grateful for the peace this gospel brings in a world where it's easy to get confused. It was honestly a really cool lesson. We had dinner that night with Kimberly. I love that human with my whole soul. We went through the Plan of Salvation again. She said the only thing she cares about is getting to the Celestial Kingdom. We told her that that was the perfect goal to have. We had to get Sister Abdo back down to Boca right after that so that was the end of our day.

Friday was honestly kind of unproductive because I was falling apart. Friday and Saturday were my worst days with my cold so we spend a lot of time at home so I could rest and so I didn't hand off what I had to others. We did get to go see Grandma Jean again though.  She gave us some hot chocolate and cookies and we sang some hymns with her. She also gave Soeur Dorlean an African dress! We somehow got on the topic of dresses and she mentioned how much she loved them and Jean walked into her room and grabbed a dress and gave it to her! It was so pretty and looks so good on her. 

Saturday morning we woke up to some nice rain outside. That morning the YSA had a baptism and I once again had to play the piano so we went. It was for our friend Nick that we were teaching awhile ago and then passed off to YSA. It was cool to see him make that step in his life. The primary teachers had a party that morning too so they invited us all in for lunch after. It was really good food. That night we had dinner at a members house. His wife died a few years ago and we were worried that there wasn't going to be a woman home so we could go inside but then we showed up and half of the ward was there! It was our own little party. Honestly so much fun. I am going to miss these Boynton Beach members. 

Sunday was awesome. Zenaida was there :) After sacrament we had Brother Uy give her a blessing because she has had really bad vertigo lately. I have seen the Elders give blessings in Creole before and it's really cool but it was something else seeing Brother Uy give Zenaida a blessing in Tagalog. Teaching Zenaida has been cool and has strengthened my testimony that the gospel really is the same anywhere you go and the Spirit really knows how to teach us all in our own ways. The Church is true people! And if you don't believe it, I invite you to pray about it. The Spirit has taught me some of the biggest truths on my mission. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know Joseph Smith was called as a prophet to restore Jesus Christ's church back on the Earth. I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on Earth and contains the Priesthood authority of God to perform saving ordinances. I know God is there and cares for us and loves us everyday. I know the temple is the house of the Lord and I invite you all to go this week! Keep being awesome :) 

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

I cut off 5 inches of Sister Jensen's hair! It looked pretty good :) and then another 2 inches this morning.

18 MONTHS!!! A memorable day calls for pictures of course.

Elders left to right: Mickelson, Davis, Hardy, Affleck, Court, Van Dyke, Watkins, Pereira, Randall, Gardner, Melo, Fili, Neff, Ruth

Sisters: Yuen, Me, Dorlean, Ward, Ahlm, Jensen, Abdo, Edmunds, Randall, Drecksel 

Friends For Life Mission

Here in the FFLM we are sometimes referred to as the "friends for life mission" and oh how grateful I am for the friends that I have made here. God sends us to our specific missions and mission presidents so we not only bless the lives of those around us, but so we can meet the people we need in our life that we wouldn't have met otherwise. I love the people I'm serving with and have served with. You have all blessed my life so much. This week Sister Jensen and I got to go on two exchanges so we were all over the place. 

Tuesday we has zone conference. My very last one. It was pretty sad actually. I had to give my departing testimony. Most of conference was focused on consecrated obedience. We talked about the rich young ruler in the bible. He was a pretty good follower of Jesus Christ but as soon as he was asked to give up all that he had and follow Christ, he couldn't do it. We have all got to be willing to give up that one thing that is holding us back from getting closer to our Savior and becoming more like him. What's your thing? Are you willing to give it up? That night we had Book of Mormon class and correlation. Always great meetings to be at. 

Wednesday we got to meet with Zenaida. That woman is literally the cutest. We got to teach her the Plan of Salvation and she loved it! Teaching her has been a learning experience for us. We have been teaching her with basically only scriptures because we know what those say. We don't understand when Sister Kovacs speaks Tagalog. But it all works out! She also kept bringing up baptism so at the end of the lesson we invited her to be baptized and she said of course!! So come February 9th Zenaida will be baptized!!! She was already setting up the time and everything. That night we headed up to Palm Beach to exchange.

Thursday I was joined by Sister Randall here in Boynton Beach. We visited out friend Daphyne that morning but she was sick so she just let us pray for her and then she sent us on our way. So we headed down to do service at the food pantry in Delray. While we were there we got a call from Sister Wheeler down in Miami. They had come up because they needed to pay a ticket at the Delray courthouse but they left their keys there and had taken the train up and back. So they hopped back on the train and we went and got their keys for them and met them at the train station. It was a tender mercy because Sister Wheelers comp is Sister Jacobsen, who was Sister Randall's last companion. So they got to talk for a little bit which was really needed. We knocked for a but that day but not much else happened. It was freezing cold by the time we had to exchange back. And Josh, when I say freezing, it was like 67 degrees and windy lol.

 

Friday morning Sister Jensen and I had to meet up with the Zone Leaders to plan out zone council. We only do them once a transfer but it seems like we are always planning training's. The weeks just get faster and faster. I just need a rewind button and go back a couple months. There is no way it's almost February! We had dinner that night with the Ramos family. They are from Guyana so it was cool to learn more of their culture. That has been one of my favorite parts of Florida, just learning about all these different Latin cultures and what they do. It's pretty awesome. We had to do a lot of planning that day so not much else happened. 

We got to see Zenaida again on Saturday. That little nugget just gets happier and happier every time we come by. It's the best. We taught her the word of wisdom and went through the 10 commandments and then she just kept asking what all the other commandments were. It was awesome. We were all over the place trying to find scriptures in the Book of Mormon and the bible. Luckily, the Doctrine and Covenants are in Tagalog on Gospel Library so that was super helpful too. After her we headed down to Boca to knock with the Sisters. I knocked with Sister Yuen first and then later with Sister Abdo. They are both super hard working missionaries so it was fun to be with them and see how they roll. Sister Abdo goes home one transfer after me so it was good to talk about how to stay strong to the end. The mission life is literally the best life. That night I had to play the piano at a baptism for the YSA branch and speak so it was fun to be there. It's awesome to see how the work is progressing in all the different areas. Not just the mission but across the world too.

 

Sunday was awesome. Zenaida came to church which was good. We were worried that Sister Kovacs might forget her again but thanks to a lot of prayers, they were there :) Kimberly also got her physical temple recommended which was excited. We are super pumped to go with her on Saturday. After church we had lunch with the Haitian ward. I've never been so confused in my life. But the food is always sooo good. The Elders were there too so I wasn't completely lost. Everyone was translating for me. I love the Haitians. They are such awesome people. That night we had dinner with the Ruchs. It was good but we were still so full from lunch. But their house was really cool. In our area you've got the humble people and the pretty ritzy people. I love when people let us tour their house because I will probably never have a house as cool as theirs. That night we headed back down to Boca to exchange.

Monday I spent the day in Boca Raton with Sister Edmunds and we biked all day! It was honestly so much fun. I really love biking and wish I would've done it more on my mission. The carnival in Boca started yesterday so we went and OYMed people there. It was honestly kinda hard to find a way to talk to them but it was really good. And of course we got snow cones before we left. Then we biked over to visit a returning member but on the way there we took a pit stop at President Boggus house to grab some water. He is the YSA branch president up here and they live in a literal mansion. I had heard a lot about their house and was so excited to finally go. Their cleaning people are in my ward so they gave us a tour :) they have an actually movie theater, and elevator, its three stories and the stop is just a huge game room. They have a legit library with a ladder and everything and their backyard is literally right on the ocean. It was so cool. We tried to visit the member after our quick little pit stop but then we couldn't get in so we made the trek back to the church and exchanged with the sisters. Sister Jensen and I had dinner with their friend Erika that night. She is from Peru. They made this potato tuna stuff. It was kinda weird but pretty good! 

But that's about it for this week! Got to spend a lot of time with really good friends and meet some new friends on the way. I hope your week is good! But I can promise it will be better if you make time to go to the temple :)

All my love, 

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: Friends from Zone Conference:)

We also went to the beach last week which is always fun:)

Full day with Sister Edmunds :)

Including the Boggus house

Sister Yuen and Sister Edmunds ❤