Sister Sophia's Florida Fun: Would you be a Stranger?

Hello all!!! It seems like so long since I emailed. We went to the temple so we had p-day today. Because it has been so long I am going to just email about everything that happened last week and then I will email about this week on Monday.

So on Tuesday the 13th we had Zone Conference! We had a guest speaker come and talk to us about the Word of God. The Word of God is the Iron Rod. It is the Sword of the Spirit. It is the peace we find every day. It is the only way unto salvation. It is how we must learn and grow and teach. In our mission we are starting to memorize scriptures to use at the door that can testify of principles. It has been a little challenging but I know that it is inspired and I have already seen it do wonders. We also watched a million videos about Safeguards for using technology. I was not excited about getting phones but now I am so happy we have them. We have to re-learn how to use them but I have a testimony that if technology is used the right way we can hasten the work of the Lord. I invite you all to post something gospel related on your favorite social media before Sunday and share your testimony or favorite scripture. It will make you feel good and I promise it will bless someone else's life too.

Wednesday was Valentines day!! We just had a normal day up until about an hour after we left service. We got a call from Claudio informing us about the school shooting in Coral Springs. Our area is about 40 minutes straight south of the high school. It was a very solemn day as we reflected on our lives and just how protected we are as the Lord's servants. The message we carry really is special and I have seen it change lives. These are the last days and we have to do everything we can to prepare for anything and everything. Living in Florida I have had to live through a Hurricane. But I have very quickly learned that Hurricanes are one of the only disasters that you can track and be prepared for. You can never be ready for a school shooting, for an earthquake, for an avalanche, for a plane crash, or for the Second Coming. No one knows when he will come so we have to be ready every minute of every day. And it all starts with within us. If Christ came today, would you be ready?

Thursday we got our smartphones! Ah they are so big and it is so weird to have another Samsung in my hand. I didn't think I would see one of those for another year but here we are. That day we went over to Shernette's house to help her clean out a closet. We cleaned for her and she made us Jerk Chicken!! Uncle Kyle was right. One of my favorite foods so far out here in Florida. We somehow got on the topic of lemonade stands and Shernette was so amazed that we actually have those in Utah so she is going to come check them out sometime.

Friday was a pretty normal day. We had service that day and then we had a Blitz with our zone. I love Fort Lauderdale. You can seriously drive for 5 minutes in any direction and feel like you are in an entirely different mission. It's quite fun. That night we had dinner with Claudio at Ihop. We accounted with our district leader that night and he challenged us to ask more inspired questions so that is something we have been working on as a companionship. It has really been working wonders. I love expanding what I know.

Saturday we started adding everything in our area book onto the phone. It is going to take such a long time but will be such a blessing when it is all on there. If we ever have an awkward amount of time or a lesson falls through, we can just open the app, see who is close, and go see them! Now we don't have to waste as much time trying to type them all in the GPS to see who is closest. We had a BBQ at the church that was pretty fun.

Sunday started way earlier than we wanted it to. At 3am sharp, we were promptly awakened by the fire alarm. We all rolled out of bed, put on some sandals, and headed out to the parking lot where we waited for the fire department to show up. It took them 25 minutes to find out nothing was wrong and then it took us another hour to fall back asleep. Lets just say it was a pretty long day for all four of us. Church was awesome though. Sister Reidhead gave an awesome talk on service to others. Another Sister talked about serving those who are new. Sometimes we go somewhere and we are a stranger and we want someone to welcome us but sometimes it doesn't happen so we can't let that happen to others. If you ever see someone you don't know in your ward, go find out who they are. Chances are, they don't know anyone there or anything about what church even is. They need a friend. She also talked about how we don't need to be a stranger to anyone. She then asked the question, "If Christ walked in right now, would you be a stranger?" It really got me pondering. Sometimes we all get caught up in the world, because no one is perfect, and we lose a little of that relationship with Christ. We all need to be as close to him as we can so if he were to show up, we wouldn't be strangers. We could just be friends and embrace and feel the love we each have for each other. Christ will never distance himself from us so if we feel distant, we need to find out where we are.

I love you all. I love this gospel. I know that as we live it we are blessed. I know through earnest prayer and scripture study we can build a relationship with Christ that we didn't know we could. I invite you all to start now to build that relationship with him. I know mine has definitely grown here on my mission. Find the time to go to the temple and always count your blessing. Keep your chin up and keep being awesome!!

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: Frogs!! They are all over the place! This is the smallest of the 6 we saw this week but it was the only one we got a picture of. They are fast little jumpers.