The "Kissing Sailor"

Hello everyone!! This week has been one full of faith and full of fun times as a missionary. 

Tuesday we had Zone Conference! Extra spiritual high from having the mission conference with Elder Uchtdorf just 3 days earlier. We talked a lot about faith and how important it is to have faith in everything that we do. Not just as missionaries but individually as disciples of Christ. We talked about the three elements of faith which are 1) What you really believe in your heart 2) Positive words that are full of faith and 3) Actions that show faith, not just words. We know that it is by these three principles that miracles happen. As we show our faith to every person we see, they will see our faith and our determination to help them come unto Christ. We also talked about how much power is in the scriptures. Scripture Power is not just a primary song, it is a real thing. Scriptures bring a testimony and witness that sometimes we just can't convey ourselves. They were given to us not just to read but to use to share with every single person that we talk with every single day.

 

Wednesday was a pretty normal day besides the fact that we went out with faith. We testified to every single person that we saw and used the scriptures at every contact. The Lord is testing us because we didn't quite find anybody. Sister Reidhead said it best when she quoted Nacho Libre and said, "People don't think I know a buttload of crap about the Gospel, but I doo." We then decided that Nacho Libre should be an approved missionary movie. We had our Book of Mormon class that night which was really fun. We didn't have a lot of people there because most of them had work but it was still a good class nonetheless. I invite anyone reading this, if you haven't read the Book of Mormon yet today, stop reading this and go pick up your scriptures and read them. I would rather have you read that than this. But then come back and read because Thursday was a great day.

 

Thursday we had been knocking for a bit and no one would really listen to us or if they did they just wanted to bash with us. Well we were walking up to a house and an old man comes outside and asked if we were there to talk to him to which we responded yes! He quickly told us his name and asked if we knew him. We said no because we had literally just met him. He told us he was famous and told us to take a seat and that he would be right back with a picture for each of us. We sat down and as he came back out and started talking about the two pictures that went famous after WWII ended. The one of the soldiers lifting the flag on the hill and the one of the soldier kissing the nurse on the corner of Broadway and 42nd St. in times square. He then turns the picture around and we saw the "Kissing Soldier" picture and he goes, "That is me when I was 18 years old on VJ-Day right after WWII. He then told us his story and signed pictures for us for free and took pictures with us and then sent us on our way. This guys is the real deal. He even gave us articles to prove that it was him. Pretty cool if you ask me.

 

On Friday we had a sisterhood lunch which was a lot of fun. We are all pretty new so it was fun to get to know some more sisters. Then we went and helped a lady from St. Thomas move all of her stuff onto a truck so she can take it to Kentucky or something like that. She was way cool and some pretty cool stuff. She bought us pizza, we shared a prayer, and then we had a district blitz. I got to knock doors with Sister Dees. I was with her during the Hurricane so it was fun to be real missionaries with her. I am excited to be living with her this transfer. 

 

Not a lot happened on Saturday. We knocked for about 3 hours to no avail. But we still had faith and know that we are doing what the Lord wants us to do. That night we had dinner with Claudio at Panda Express. Then as we were heading home, a baby (like seriously tiny) grasshopper ended up in our car. It could hop. Let me tell you. We started to freak out so we had to pull over so we could take care of it cause we could not focus. Oh fun times. 

 

Yesterday we taught Gospel Principles. We talked about Christ's Atonement and why he did what he did and what that means to us. With Easter coming up I think it is so important to not only remember that he died for us but that he lived again. And because he lives we will have the chance to live again. I know that's true. It's what I tell people every day. I am so grateful for my Savior and all that he did and does do for me every single day. I am so glad to be here in Florida and I hope as Easter and General Conference are fast approaching that you can remember the life of Jesus Christ and everything that he did for us. Go to Conference with a question in mind on who to better yourselves every day because of Christ and I promise you will feel more joy every single day. I hope you all are doing well. I love you and hope this week is awesome. Go to the temple. Say your prayers. Read your scriptures. 

 

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: Hopper. This guy was seriously so small but gave us a good ending to a not super awesome day.

Penny's side note - Shayne and I were laughing at this picture and Shayne said, "She really is a Disney Princess except she doesn't get cute birds and woodland creatures to come play with, she gets grasshoppers, iguanas, and frogs!"  Which is so true.  Sophie will NOT kill a spider if she finds on in the house.  She will pick it up and take it outside.  I think they like her too much.  Sophie says that she's more like Princess Tiana, chillin in the Bayou.  Then she told us...It really is a party down here. Sister Reidhead saw her first iguana the other day and freaked out but it was a pretty small one. I can't wait for her to see a full grown one. They are ginormous!  Hahaha. She is pretty cute. We see lizards all the time so as soon as we saw it just stopped dead in her tracks and just goes "I'm going to pee my pants!" It was so funny. I almost peed from laughing so hard. We also see snakes all the time and she freezes up and we have to go the other way. We are going to try to find some big guys this week to show her what Florida is really all about. It is getting warmer so they are starting to come out more. 

Kissing Soldier

On our way to zone conference

First time trying Floutas

Zone Conference!! 

Signed picture of the "Kissing Soldier" 

 Penny's side note - This top picture I got from a random stranger.  The bottom ones Claudio sent me.  I love when that happens.  I'm so glad that she is in good hands.

 

Panda Express

 
 Dinner at Claudio's