Sister Sophia's Florida Fun: 365 days = 1 YEAR!!!

What a week full of miracles!! God just keeps doing his work here in the Florida Fort Lauderdale mission and I am so grateful that I just a front row seat at what is happening.

Last Monday we had a lesson with our friend Ed. He came to church on Sunday because he wants to go to BYU but needed an interview from our bishop so we met up with him before FHE. It was a really neat lesson. He is going back to Peru for 3 weeks right before he moves to Utah but we got him all excited about learning more there. We then played corn hole for FHE!!! It was so fun. Brought back lots of memories from Pine Valley!

Tuesday was pretty good! We had a pretty normal day to say the least. We got up and had studies and then headed to Miami Dade with our member Grant for a lesson with our friend Derek. He was pretty late so we got to talk with Grant for a bit. It was a good time. I love the members in this branch so much and I'm grateful for the things I have learned from them. Derek came and I honestly don't really remember what we taught him off the top of my head. The lesson was all over the place. But at the end we testified that what he wanted in his life would come through being baptized. He was pretty skeptical about it but we read from the Book of Mormon with him and bore testimony and he is looking to be baptized on August 18th! Sister Dees and I are excited to help him along this process. That night we had dinner with our member Andrew. He made us some really good sweet potato chili. I never liked sweet potatoes but something that is cool about a mission is that it changes your taste buds so much. It's probably from all the burning hot beans and rice.

Wednesday morning we got up bright and early to get ready for Zone Conference! I love zone conference. It is such a spiritual boost for the transfer. Smart that we do it right at the beginning. We talked a lot about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I mean, it is what we talk about all day as missionaries. We have really been trying to focus on memorizing scriptures and having good role plays. The AP's asked us to do a role play at zone conference about a week ago and they gave us a scripture to practice. Well, the scripture didn't really make sense so we had no idea what to do but we practiced and practiced and hoped that God would take care of it. Well, once we got there and saw the scripture on the board, it was not the same one they gave us so we basically just winged it. It could have been way better than it was but that's what practice is for right? We made up for it by singing a musical number after lunch with Elder Te Hira and Elder McCombs. Hopefully it helped everyone forget about our awful role play lol. Once we were done we headed home and spent some time at Miami Dade. There was basically no one there so we headed to Institute. If you are in high school or college and you aren't going to institute or seminary, change that right now! You are missing out on a lot of answers that God wants to give you! I promise you will not regret dropping a class to make room for God.

Thursday Sister Beckstrand hit her 1 YEAR MARK!!!!! HOLY COW!!! A year ago I was where Josh is. So weird to think about that. It seems like I was there like 6 months ago. Not an entire year. But I am so happy that I am where I am right now. I couldn't picture it any other way. I will always hold the things I have learned in this last year dear to my heart. I wouldn't want it any other way. We saw miracles stacked on miracles!! We had a blitz on campus that morning and we found 4 new friends which was awesome because we had been kinda struggling all week and were really only teaching Derek. I love when God makes us busy. A busy missionary is a happy (and stressed) missionary :) After our blitz we had our studies and then had one of the coolest miracles happen thus far on my mission. We have a member in our branch named Kara Kushma who has been dating this kid named Ernie for a while. Ernie was taught by some Elders last year but never got baptized because he got really busy. Well, when I got to this area 4 months ago I thought he was a member because he knew so much about the church. I was shocked that he wasn't. Well we never asked to teach him because we had heard a lot of different things about his situation but we finally talked to him and Kara about it and he said that he would love for us to start teaching him! So Thursday we went to Kara's house and got to know Ernie. We hadn't even really started the lesson yet and we were just trying to figure out what it was like last year with the Elders when he goes, "I felt like they were trying to push me but I really feel like I'm ready to be baptized now." We were so excited!! We taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ and he said that baptism would mean that he was officially a part of the church he's been going to for the last year. We extended a baptismal date for August 18th but he moves to Orlando on the 17th for school. So long story short, he is getting baptized this upcoming Saturday! A lot of work for Sister Dees and I but he is so ready and so excited!! Year mark miracles!!! I wish it could happen more often.

Friday was a busy day as well. So busy actually that we didn't have time to even eat. But that's okay because we decided to fast that Ernie would be able to come to church because he said he might have to work but we knew he needed to be at church to get baptized. So we started out our day with a fast and our studies and then headed to Miami Dade to talk to some people. Well, once we got there it started pouring rain. It was so crazy. After being there for a bit we went to see Devin! It had been a hot second since we had seen him but we wanted to see how he was doing. We aren't really teaching him anymore but we want to make sure he knows he is still welcome so we had a short lesson with him and then headed to see Derek. Our member Jeff came with us. We had it at the mall because it was a good halfway point for us. The struggle with Derek is that he uses the bus to get everywhere so we never know if he's going to be on time or not. Well, we had time to talk with Jeff for a bit and then Derek came. We were planning on teaching him the Plan of Salvation but we didn't have a ton of time and he kept asking us questions about commandments so we taught him the Word of Wisdom instead. He didn't like it very much and we haven't had the chance to really talk to him since then so we will see what happens. Then we headed to Kushma's to teach Ernie again. We showed up and they surprised us with dinner! God always takes care of his missionaries :) We taught Ernie the restoration. Well, he mostly taught us. It was a really good lesson. We asked him about church and he said things weren't looking too hot but we had fasted so we had faith that everything would work out on Saturday and then we left to go knock with the sisters.

Saturday morning we headed down south to surprise the sisters. We bought each companionship a jug of chocolate milk and wrote reasons we love them all over it and then Sister Dees dressed up in her cow suit and we knocked their door. It was really fun to see their reaction and we got chocolate milk out of it. Always a good time :) Then we visited some members down in their area that we hadn't met yet and that hadn't come to church in a while. Everyone was home which was also a miracle! I am so happy that God trusts us to take care of his children at this time. I hope I can keep doing what he asks me to. That night we had dinner with Kevin and his family. They cooked for us and it was so good. My body, however, felt like nothing from the last couple days had been digesting. But it wasn't anything a good sleep could take care of. We had a blitz that night and the sunset was gorgeous! If I moved back to Florida it would be because of the people and the sunsets. They got me sold every time.

Sunday morning we were super excited for church. Ernie hadn't given us an update yet so we just kept planning and studying with faith. Then, about 5 minutes before we left the house, he texted us saying he got work off so he could come!!!! We were basically bouncing off the walls we were so excited. The power of fasting works. I have a testimony of it. When we give up our need for food, God blesses us with our need of spiritual strength for ourselves and for others. Needless to say, church was awesome and Ernie was there :) We had dinner that night with the Kushma's and Ernie and were able to teach him the Plan of Salvation. It has been really cool to see how much Ernie already knows just by coming to church and going to institute. I invite you all to invite a friend to church this week! You never know how much it could change their life. The worst they could say is no.

I love being a missionary and I am so grateful that I get to be a missionary at this time. I have learned so much this past year and I'm excited to see what the upcoming year has in store. I love Florida and the humidity and the mosquitoes and the creatures and the people all so much. I hope I can stay here for at least another transfer. This place has my heart right now. I hope you all have a great week! Don't forget to go to the temple!

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: The grasshoppers! They are literally so huge and we have seen a ton of them lately!