Future Trainer

Hello everyone! I hope your weeks have been well and all is well in your lives! Everything is doing great here in the FFLM!

On Tuesday we had our finally District Training with our district. We talked about putting on the full Armor of God. If we don't then not only do we not have as many things to fight with but Satan has more weak spots to get us. Don't let it happen. Stay strong and wear the whole thing! We went and did missionary work and knocked doors and then that night we ate dinner on the docks! There is a store here that is kind of like Walmart called Publix and they have the best subs. So we had Pub Subs on the docks and just got to look at the stars for like 45 minutes and watch the boats go by. It was very relaxing for a missionary life. 

 

Wednesday we had service at the food bank and then went out knocking. We had 2 hours to get out and find. We are required to knock for at least an hour a day but we figured we would just keep going instead of visiting a recent convert. Because we kept going we met Rich. He was very quiet but loved hearing what we had to say. We testified at the end of how much God loved him and he started to cry. It was probably one of the most spiritual experiences I've had while out here. I love the people here so much and so does God. That night the Young Women in our ward stopped by our house and made us brownies! They are so cute. 

 

Thursday we did a zone wide exchange. We are the only 4 sisters in our zone though so I got to go with Sister Murdock. It was an awesome day. This is her last transfer so she leaves on Thursday and will be greatly missed. We went back to teach Rich but he read the pamphlet and said he wasn't ready right now to learn more but said he would be some day. I can't wait for that day to come. We taught Shernette's brother Biggy that night. He is fun. It was just awesome and he had really sincere questions. It's cool to teach with the recent converts.

 

Friday morning we woke up and had a scavenger hunt planned for the Elders around our apartment complex because they don't work out. They were not impressed but we had fun watching them run around haha. We had a Sisterhood exchange today! We have like 5 sets of STL's in our mission and they are over a group of sisters. That is our Sisterhood. I got to go on an exchange with Sister Dalton.  She is awesome. She is one transfer behind me. We found a super cool investigator named Rick. We haven't been able to teach him a full lesson yet but he texts us all the time so we are excited to.

 

Saturday Sister Smith came down with a fever so we had to spend the day inside. I did a lot of drawing and coloring and studying and thinking haha. Sister Noftle wasn't feeling well that night so I went to a new member meeting for stake conference with Sister Murdock. Elder Wakolo came and spoke and just answered questions for an hour. It was cool. We stayed for the first half of the adult session because Sister Murdock's recent convert spoke which was cool. Then we went home to take care of our companions. That night the AP's told us they were going to close our area and to get ready to leave. We were so sad.

 

Sunday we went to stake conference. Elder Wakolo is awesome. The temple president and matron spoke as well and they all talked about beginning with the end in mind. That was cool because that is what we talked about at Zone Conference. They also talked about how when we double our efforts to make it to the temple, Heavenly Father doubles the blessings he will give us. So I am giving my commitment early. Go to the temple!!! I promise you that you will be blessed beyond measure. Elder Wakolo took a picture with us after and then we headed home so Sister Smith could rest some more. We went and had dinner with a member, Sister Johnson, and let her know we were both going to leave. She was sad. Then we went over to Shernette's house to teach Biggy and let them know we were leaving. They were sad too. Then we went home for the night. We got a call from the AP's. We were sad. They recognized we were sad. Then they told us to thank Jesus because I WAS GOING TO STAY IN SUNRISE!!!! We weren't sad after that. We called everyone we told we were leaving and let them know I was staying. Roller coaster of emotions. I love this branch so much. 

 

Yesterday we had service at the food bank, did some knocking and had dinner with our district. My least favorite part about transfers is having to make new friends once you finally love the other ones. It will be good though. We found a super cool girl named Kira who was so excited to talk about God. Then we came home and waited for transfer calls. I AM GOING TO TRAIN!!! I am honestly so excited and there is no where I would rather do it than here. 

 

I love the FFLM. I love my mission family. I love my normal family. I love all of you. Most of all I love my Heavenly Father. I hope you all have a great week!!!

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

 

Florida Sunshine: The swap shop! We drive past it all the time but we finally went last pday. Everything you would expect of a swap shop. If you look close in the picture with the brown sign, it says St. George on it (:

 Publix Subs on the doc. It was a magic night. We got to look at the stars too which was fun.

 This cute chair on the dock and Sister Murdock and I. She goes home tomorrow :( We will miss her so much. She has done so much here in the FFLM

Put on the full armour of God

The awesome Elders in our zone

Our cute Sisterhood

 

Shernette's Fam and Sister Johnson

And our cute last dinner as a district at Las Carnitas

Just an added side note from Penny- 

During Primary on Sunday I got this text...From Elder Wakolo himself! 

Venice of America

Hello outside of the mission world! How have you all been?? This week has been great!

Last Tuesday we headed down to Las Olas. It is basically like the tourist street of Ft. Laud. There are are museums every other store and it is just a lot of fun. After walking around down there for a bit we went to the beach and saw the International Swimming Hall of Fame. If I would've had more time I would've gone in and checked it out. Another time. That night Claudio and John took us and the the STL's out to a cute place called Beehive Kitchen and then took us up to the top of a parking garage to see the view. It is really so beautiful here. I love it so much.

Wednesday we had a zone training up in Coral Springs. We talked about forgiveness and how it is a big step in the repentance process. Forgiveness is liberating and we can forgive ourselves then it is that much better. I saw a Mormon ad one time about someone holding a rope. If it starts to pull away it is going to hurt your hand, cut it up, and give you blisters. But as soon as you let go, your hand stops to hurt. That is how forgiveness is. It was a good training. That night we had Book of Mormon class. We had the most people show up so far this transfer. It was awesome. Learned a lot of stuff about 2 Nephi 2.

Thursday was just amazing. We had studies all morning, went knocking for an hour, and then met Claudio at Shernette's house to go to the TEMPLE!!! Shernette is a recent convert and so are her two kids. Her son Jamari is 13 and wasn't able to go to the temple last time they went so it was his first time! He was pretty nervous but ended up loving it. I love going when it is someone's first time. The temple really does have a special spirit that just makes you want to be better and always be there. If you haven't gone in a week, go tomorrow! Schedule it in your phone right now as you are reading this. I promise you that it will add blessing in your life that you are searching for right now. Christ is mindful of you. Let him help. Go to the temple so he know you are ready for him. It was also Sister Smith's year mark today we celebrated by watching Legacy that night and making cookies. Fun times.

Friday was full of a lot of service. We went to go help one of the sisters in our ward, Sister Brady, move. We all got there at 8 but her husband wasn't there with his Uhaul yet so we waited. Once he got there we followed him to the storage unit to help him unload and then headed back to the house. We waited for another half an hour and then the owner called and said he couldn't find the key. So we went home and studied instead. We went and did more service that afternoon at the food bank and then pretty much just knocked and tried to visit people after that with no luck.

Saturday morning we headed up to the Coconut Creek chapel to knock with their young women. They had a missionary week and wanted to end it with the missionaries. They invited us because we are the only missionaries in the zone so we got to go. There were two young women with us and they were super cool. One of them could speak Spanish and Portuguese. The first house we knocked on only spoke Portuguese and the YW just took over. It was a cool thing to watch happen. She is going to be an awesome missionary one day. If you guys are ever sitting around thinking of something to do, go knock with the missionaries! It is a lot more fun than you think and I promise you will have a great time. That night we went knocking and we were prompted to go to a trailer park. It looked really Spanish but we were determined so we parked, prayed, and off we went. The very first door we knocked in had an 18 year old girl who opened and was excited to hear a message in English. As we taught her the Restoration our love for Rykell just grew and grew. She accepted it and is excited to try and get work off to come to church. We knew after that that she was why we needed to be there at that time. 

Yesterday was a pretty normal Sunday which is always great. We went and visited our friend Bill from a while ago and he was doing great. Had surgery on his heart and is still scared to come to church but we are going to help him overcome obstacles and he will be there next week. 

I love this gospel. I love being here in the FFLM (friends for life mission) and reaching people every day. Go to the temple. Say your prayers. Read your scriptures.

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: CANALS! They are everywhere! Venice of America. I love it. Always reminds me of dad.

Some pictures from Las Olas.

 

More Las Olas

TEMPLE!!!

 We headed to the beach after Las Olas and to the International Swimming Hall of Fame. It was a museum and cost money so we didn't go in but I did see a real life swimming pool. 

I Wish I Was a Convert

Man this week was full of so much fun stuff. I will see if I can get it all on here.
 

We started last Tuesday with Zone Conference! Those are always great and are such a huge spiritual high for the entire mission. We talked about how we have to begin with the end in mind. Getting baptized isn't the goal, going to the temple is the goal and baptism is the first step. It was cool to talk about that and get us focused on getting our friends to go to the temple. 

 

Wednesday night we had our family history class that we were excited for everyone to come to but to no avail. People confirmed and we were excited but no one came. We are in the process of tweaking our plans for next time. We did have an awesome Book of Mormon class that night though. If you ever get the chance to just sit and read the Book of Mormon with a group of people, take it. 

 

Thursday we went and visited the AP's recent convert Sophia and her kids Lanoria and Kendrick. They are awesome. We were talking about the Plan of Salvation and Lanoria, who is 17, mentioned how she was so exited to tell someone today that she was a Mormon! And then 20 minutes later, the kid showed up at their door and wanted to know more! We had Claudio with us and all 4 of them were just so excited to share the Restoration with him. So between the 6 of us we shared the Restoration to Benjamin. It was a super awesome moment to see how excited the recent converts get about the Gospel. I think us as life long members just forget sometimes how lucky we are to have what we have and we take advantage of it.

 

Friday we were able to watch President Monson's funeral. It really strengthened my testimony on how important the organization of the church is and how we really do have a true living prophet on the Earth today. I love this gospel so much. That night we went to visit Shernette and her family and she made us some amazing spaghetti. She told us she is going to open a spaghetti shop and name it LDS: Low Down Spaghetti. It was really funny but she seems pretty serious haha.

 

Saturday was a pretty normal day in the mission. We had a comp study with our district leader about space and then we just went to go do visits before church. No one had been texting us back but we had faith that they would all be home anyway and they were! Miracles! It was awesome.

 

Sunday was sweet. We had a regional broadcast and Elder Bednar talked about repentance, something our mission has been focusing a lot on. It was cool to hear it from an apostle of the Lord and just hear him be so straight up about it. That night we went to go visit our investigator name Mohamed. He is awesome. We got there though and some lady who only spoke Arabic let us in and told us to wait for him. So we sat on the couch and texted him and he said he was on his way home so we waited. In the time we were waiting, whoever lived at the house with him came home. One of them was this girl who was like 6'8" with her 8 inch heels on. She was from Russia and looked way to young to have a 16 year old daughter that she kept talking about. In the midst of talking to her another guy came over from Canada and he could barely understand us as well and we could also barely understand them both. We explained that we were missionaries but they just didn't get it. Then the guy from Canada insisted that we come have some wine and we declined but he dragged us over and lucky Mohamed came home right then. It was definitely a Jesus moment. We had a super cool lesson with him about the Restoration. We taught him the Plan the first time we saw him and he taught us about how he is Muslim but he was really cool about the whole thing and has just been so excited to keep learning. 

 

Yesterday we had a pretty full pros Monday. We had lunch as a district which was great and then went and did service at the food bank. It was nice to spend a lot of time with the district. Then we tried to visit some people before we had a blitz but no one was home. So we met up with the district again and knocked for an hour. I got to go with Sister Murdock which was super fun. That night we had FHE at one of our members house with Shernette and Claudio. Claudio is going through a divorce right now and he really opened up about everything. It was inspired though because the members each went through a divorce too and so did Shernette. It was cool to see her help Claudio with what he is going through. I just love how tight all the recent converts are with each other and how willing they are to help each other out. They also are really good at recognizing the adversary which has been cool to see.

 

That's about it for this week. I love you all so much! Keep going to the temple and keep being awesome! 

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: The Sunsets!! They are just so much better than the sunrises.

District lunch

 

 

 

 

Us at zone conference

  Had to take a picture of the MLK street sign since that was this week. Also, Utah Ave. is right behind out apartment.

 

 

This is side note from Penny - These pictures were given to me by the mom of one of the Elder's in Sophie's district.  Apparently they had a lot of fun at Zone Conference as well.  They had some District against District challenges like pie eating, face painting and of course, rugby.  You can find Sophie in the group picture by looking for her pink rugby ball.

 

 Pretty sure Sophie won the face painting competition.  She's had some practice.  Not so sure about those Elder's.

Week of Miracles

Hey everyone! 

This week has been a cold one and a great one!
Last Tuesday for p-day we played a lot of games and a bit of rugby which was fun! Sister Smith is crazy light and wanted me to tackle her so she ran right at me and I just picked her up. It was so funny. Pictures attached.

 

Wednesday we learned that God really does protect his missionaries. We went to go visit a family and right after we knocked on the door a huge dog came around the corner that we hadn't seen the last 4 times we had come. It stared at us for a bit and then went and hid behind the pillar I was standing in front of. We changed positions, it barked 4 times, stopped, and we slowly walked away. Once we were out of sight we booked it to the car. It came looking for us but we were safe so all is well. God is good. 

 

Thursday was cold. It was about 43 degrees when we went out in the morning to workout. You would think that because it very rarely gets cold in Florida that people would want to let us in and get warm but the exact opposite happened and people told us they didn't want to listen because it was too cold.  Oh well.  It's easier to find the elect I guess that way. That night we went to go visit one of the recent converts and we were telling them how President Monson had passed away and her son Jamari goes, "He passed away? Does that mean I have a chance?" It was pretty funny and lightened the mood a lot. We went to Chipotle that night with the Sisters and Claudio. I used to not like Chipotle but I have learned that I just don't like the Chipotle in St. George. I'm sorry you guys have to deal with that. haha

 

Friday was a great day. We had service and had a great talk. Our district leader has been kind of sick lately and was worried that he was going to get sent home. We just had to smile because this time of our lives is really when we have to rely 100% on the Spirit no matter what happens. I think that is what makes the mission the hardest. While we were knocking we met a crazy lady named Jannet. She was smoking the whole time and when we told her we were missionaries she started to worry. Apparently last year a girl knocked on her door asking for donations and Jannet had to help her escape this thing she was forced to be apart of. We let her know that we loved what we were doing and we were doing it all for the Lord but she was convinced that we were being hurt. She gave us some snacks and an angel to watch over us. I forgot to take a picture of it though so you will see it next week. It was pretty funny. 

 

Saturday was cool. The other sisters had a baptism. His name is Alvin and he has problems with his back so he couldn't get baptized in a font so we had to do it in President Garn's pool. It was so awesome! After he kept saying how he wanted to shout it from the rooftops that he was baptized.  It was tender. This new year we have been trying as a mission to use family history work as a better finding tool so we made a booth! We made a cute poster and got family history cards and headed to Walmart and set up outside. We made some hot chocolate and offered it to everyone and then invited them to a class we are going to have Wednesday night. It was actually pretty successful. We lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes at Walmart before they kicked us out so we relocated and kept going. We are excited to see who actually comes to the class on Wednesday.

 

Yesterday was great. It was my first real Sunday here in the Sunrise Branch. It was cool to finally get to meet everyone I love being able to go to church and just sit and feel the spirit. I love it. That night we had a new neighbor move in so we helped him take everything in last night and this morning. He is a chef and used to have a TV show called 2 Guys who love to cook or something like that. He said he is going to make us some stuff so I can't wait! We also found out last night that our District leader gets to stay so that was really exciting! We didn't want to lose him. 

It has been cold but it has been good. The work still goes on. We can't let obstacles get in our way of our eternal salvation and those around us. That being said, take out your phones right now and schedule a time that you are going to put aside to go to the temple this week. I love you all! Have an awesome week!

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: President's pool! No one is allowed in it but we see it all the time and it always makes me happy haha (also, don't mind me. This dress is so comfy but not the most flattering)

Rugby from last p day

Also a selfie

 

Family History Booth