One Year Older and Wiser Too

Man this week was a busy one! I apologize for the email last week. I didn't have a ton of time so it was pretty sparse. Prepare yourself for this one.

Last Monday we went to the zoo!!!  It is huge, so spread out which was cool, and it was so much fun! One of the ladies we do service with took us for free and showed us around. We got to see all of the animals and take tons of pictures. We are planning on going back again later this transfer hopefully. 

 

Tuesday morning we had zone training. We did a training on how as missionaries we are just set apart ministers and have been called to go out and teach repentance and baptize converts. It was a good pump up. After our training we headed over to campus to talk to people. It has started getting hot but the nice breeze makes up for it :) We found a new friend named Maria who was just as excited about the Book of Mormon as we are! Then we headed down to Homestead to teach our friend Devin! We really focused on the temple today and talked about how baptism is just the first step to get to that destination of being in the celestial kingdom. It was an awesome lesson. That night we had dinner with Kevin and his family and talked about the importance of temples and invited them to share their testimony of the temple with their friends so I am going to do the same for you guys!!  Find someone you haven't talked to in a while and share with them why you love the temple or post it on your social media! Let me know how it goes next week! 

 

Wednesday morning we spent at Miami Dade. We had a lesson with Emilio with our member Andrew. We talked about how our prayers are answered. It was really cool to see how we all had prayers answered in that one lesson. Before our lesson we printed off our favorite pages from the Book of Mormon and took them to campus to have people read them and highlight things that they liked about it and then we led it into a discussion about the Book of Mormon and where the stories came from. It was really cool to use it as a finding tool. After doing that for a while we headed to Pincho Factory to have dinner with our member Nicole and Kaity. It was really fun to be with both of them. Then we headed to institute! I love that place. If you are YSA age and are not attending institute, repent and start going! You won't regret it. We talked about how important it is to be self reliant and the importance of being reliant on the Spirit it was a cool lesson.

 

Thursday morning we woke up and headed to see our friend Maria! She has a unique belief of Christian and Catholic so it was an interesting lesson. But it was really good and she loved the Book of Mormon so that is what we are going off of right now. After our lesson we couldn't go down to see Devin in Homestead so we had a video call with him on WhatsApp. It was so cool!  I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!  We read Mosiah 18 with him and then just asked him a ton of questions and he basically retaught himself the restoration. It was really neat. Then we had a lesson with Kaity after. It ended up being a really short lesson because she had to leave for an appointment and we just felt weird the entire time. She texted us a little later explaining that she wasn't interested in the message anymore but still wanted to hang out with everyone. It breaks my heart when people don't want the message that brings me so much joy but they will accept it some day. I have faith.

 

Friday morning we woke up early to surprise our sisters with cinnamon roles! So we made them and headed down to their house but were randomly surprised by the most playful dogs that literally came out of the bushes. I tried to play with them so Sister Dees could leave the cinnamon roles but they ended up eating half of them. It was a good attempt haha. Then we went home and got ready and went down to see Devin. We talked about the importance of making covenants and then set him with a baptismal date of JULY 7TH!!! He is so ready to be baptized and we are sooo excited for him. I am super grateful that I got to be a part of his conversion process here. He's awesome :) We had dinner with the Nilsen's that night and Nemesis. Nemesis moved to Utah and we miss her a ton but God has plans for her over there. It was nice to be able to spend time with her one last time. 

 

Saturday I turned 20!  Kinda weird but super fun haha. I opened my presents that morning and then we headed to a district blitz. It was crazy hot. But always fun :) We didn't have the chance to talk to many people. Saturdays are usually pretty slow. But after the blitz we went and saw Devin and read the story of the Brother of Jared with him and talked about how sometimes God requires us to put a little effort on our part. Then we went to see our less active friend named Daniel. We saw him a couple time last transfer. We really talked about the Book of Mormon with him. I can testify that the Book of Mormon can really changes lives. If you aren't reading, repent!  If you don't have time to read and pray, your life is busier than God intended it to be. Then we went home and finally had our studies. I was pretty exhausted. You always know you had a good day when you are tired. That night we had dinner with Kevin's family again. It was awesome :) His mom tried to make it as American as possible. It was cute. I love that family.  They made me a birthday cake and everything. 

Sunday morning we had our studies and then headed to church. We have been planning to speak for the last 3 weeks but things kept coming up but we finally got to speak this week!  It was pretty fun. I talked about repentance and Sister Dees talked about how God is our Father and how He is always there for us.  At church, our YSA Relief Society president, Liz, brought me some homemade brownies for my birthday.  They are my favorite thing ever. It was so great!  After church we were knocking when all of a sudden this huge bulldog runs around the corner and slobbered us to death. It was huge and so cute and so friendly. We smelled like dog the rest of the day. We had dinner with our member Andrea who served her mission in Montreal so we talked all about Josh's mission cause he gave his farewell that day. I am super pumped for him to serve!! Glad to know I have some connections here to be with him in Spirit haha.  

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!!  Make sure you read and pray and go to the temple!  You will never regret it. Have an amazing week :)

 

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

 

Florida Sunshine: Homestead!!! It's pretty South in our area but we have gone a lot because Devin lives down there and it's soo pretty!!! The sky is always gorgeous, there are a million palm trees, and it just goes on forever!!!

ZOO!

 We got to feed the giraffe!! It was so cool!

  Elephants :)

More elephants:)

I'm obsessed...

Also a Jungle Book moment

 My Zone and District

 The Pincay family and Nemesis.  These are older pictures with Sister Goldstein.

My birthday cake that the Pincay family made for me for my birthday.

Sister Dees, Me and Liz

 My amazing gifts from my awesome friends and family.  Thank you all so much!  Especially Aunt Jelly for a the great poster!  The last picture is of my new raincoat.  Thanks mom.