Fishers of Men

Hi all!!
This week has been awesome! And guess what, it's December!! Weird. If someone told me that here I wouldn't believe them unless they proved it on a calendar. It has been a weird holiday season this year but I have loved every second of it.

Last Monday we had a district activity at the church and our Branch President walked in and handed us an iphone. It was Mary's. She had left it at the church on Sunday after church and we got put in charge of getting it back to her. Really weird to have a smartphone in my hand again.

 

Tuesday we had District Training and interviews with President Garns. I really love that man. He is awesome. Our training was on saying meaningful prayers. Our prayers have a lot of power but only if we give them that power. I suggest that everyone should take just 5 minutes before you pray at night and think of something spiritual that happened throughout your day. I promise it will help your prayers be more meaningful and from that will come answers to your questions.

 

On Wednesday we set out just as any other day. Headed to the church to do some stuff on the computer and as we pulled in, we realized we left the GPS at the house. Well, we were about 30 minutes away from the house and didn't really have enough time to get back. We went out knocking with our District Leader so they met us at the chapel and we just followed them. Well, when we were done we were going to head back to the house and as fate would have it, Sister Beckstrand took a wrong turn and suddenly we were lost in Miramar. We were on our way to Homestead and we couldn't find anywhere to get off. So after a tiny bit of panicking we said a prayer and eventually found the I-75 and were on our way home. It is way harder to tell where you are going without mountains. You should all consider yourselves lucky. Lesson learned: never forget your GPS at home. 

 

Thursday we found a super awesome girl named Kennisha. We were able to share the #LIGHTtheWORLD video with her and she loved it! We haven't been able to meet up with her again yet but are working on it. You should all pray for an opportunity to share that video with someone this week. It really is a neat experience. Everyone knows Jesus Christ and we are all striving to be a little more like him every day. 

 

On Friday we had exchanges!! I stayed here in YSA and Sister Louissaint came and joined me. It was an awesome day to say the least. We went out knocking with her District Leader and the last people we talked to were cleaning fish. Well as conversation would have it, we found out they had just caught these 8 HUGE snapper fish down in Homestead the day before. They also have a good friend who is part of the church so we got to talk for a bit. As we were leaving the mom asked us if we wanted to take some fish. Another lesson learned: if you don't respond immediately, they will assume it's a yes. So she went inside and got a garbage bag and sent us home with their two smallest fish. They had already been gutted but we got the joy of scaling them! It was a lot of fun. Sister Louissaint grew up eating snapper and knew exactly what to do. A lot of fun memories were made and fun pictures were taken. 

 

Saturday we had a crazy miracle happen. We still had Mary's phone and we were finally over in her area where she lives so we decided to make a pit stop. She lives in a gated community and we have never been able to get in but the Lord was on our side and we got in!! Mary wasn't home but we were able to meet her mom and dad!! Ahh! We have been trying to meet them since Irma and we finally did. They are so sweet and even sent us home with some really good Hatian food. Hopefully they will start to support Mary more in her journey in the church. 

 

Sunday was wonderful, as most fast Sunday's are. The Christmas Devotional was really good. It is always sad to not be able to see President Monson but I know that he is still leading and guiding us every day. If you didn't get a chance to watch it, I recommend you do so now. It was really good.

I hope everyone is doing well! Don't forget to go out and light the world this holiday season! I know as we strive to be like Christ we are promised so many blessings. Keep going to the temple. Keep being awesome. 

 

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: These tiny bananas! We have a banana tree in our back yard and I love it!

This week Sister Schiers and I wrote our testimony in the back of a Book of Mormon and but the light the world card on it to give it out to someone we met. 

 

These were the smallest ones they had. Crazy. 

 

 Look at those teeth! I loved scaling this. Way more fun than you would think. Made me think of Uncle Charles the whole time.

PENNY - Sophie forgot to tell everyone that they are having Zone Conference next week so her P-Day will be on Wednesday next week.  I also told her to send me some selfie's of just her because I didn't have any.  I love her companions, but it would be nice to have a picture of just her.  She's darling and the queen of Selfie's.