Sister Sophia's Florida Fun: "Feed my Missionaries"

- Probably somewhere in the bible

What a week it has been! We seriously only ate at home for breakfast this week. We had dinner and most lunches with members. It was so awesome! I literally love the members in this branch so much!

Last Monday after p-day was over we went to Miami Dade for a little bit before FHE. We didn't really find anybody but we did talk to a guy named Derek for a hot second as we were leaving. Literally for probably 2 minutes because we were on our way out; gave him a card and told him to check out the website. Then we headed to FHE at a member's house because we were going to do family history work and as we pulled up, Derek called. He told us that he has some questions and wanted to meet up. What a miracle. So we set up a time for Friday and ended the night with FHE.

Tuesday morning we went to Miami Dade to talk to people. This week for some reason was pretty hard to find. No one wanted to listen and they all said they were busy. We finally came to the conclusion that it must be midterms for the summer semester or something. Then we headed to District Training. We talked about serving with all your heart, might, mind, and strength. It was probably one of my favorite training's. It made me reflect on the sports that I played growing up and how my mission is like a championship game and I have to give it my all clear up until I'm home. After that we ran to Publix to get some food before heading over to Graham's house. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and boy am I grateful for technology and the videos the church has. We were struggling helping him understand dispensations but there is a video on lds.org about it so we pulled it up and it connected everything together. I am so grateful we have smartphones that we can pull videos up like that on. After our lesson we headed to our member Michael's house for dinner. We ate outside but it looked like it was going to rain so he brought an umbrella and held it the whole time. He is so awesome. We had some awesome spaghetti and then got back to work. We talked to a few of his neighbors to end the night and then headed home.

Wednesday morning we had our normal studies and things and then had lunch with our member James! He is super funny and took us to Pei Wei. I had never been before and it was pretty good! I love being able to see how much the members find missionary opportunities and love to talk about them. They do it so much! I am not lying when I say this Branch is literally the best. After lunch we had another lesson with Graham and this time our member Andrew came with us. We were planning on teaching him about prophets I think but then the Word of Wisdom got brought up and plans change. I love when God does that. Andrew was a huge help, being a convert himself, and Graham really felt like he could overcome some problems he was having. We are excited to keep helping him along this process! After our lesson we headed to UM to find some new friends but most the people there were for a summer high school program or orientations so we didn't really find anyone. That night we had dinner with Kevin before Institute at Earls. Institute was good. We talked about Eternal Marriage and the best way to keep a marriage happy. Communication is key everyone. Never forget.

Thursday we decided to try and start our day at UM to see if it would make a difference on who was there but it didn't. Lol. We tried our hardest though and then went home to have our studies. After some planning and goal setting, we went to Miami Dade to find and we ended up talking to this guy named John who wasn't interested in coming to church or learning more but he had really good questions and we planted a really good seed. Sister Dees and I both felt like he was why we had to be on campus that day. We had dinner that night with President Schmeil and his family. Elder Lorimer and Elder Gorze also came so it was really fun. Elder Lorimer goes home on Thursday and he will be truly missed :'( He is such an awesome Elder. After dinner we went to visit some members. No one was home but the sunset was incredible. I know God put us in that neighborhood that night so we could have the best view of the most spectacular thing in this world:)

Friday was normal morning but we had lunch with our member Hannah and her roommate Liza. They both play volleyball at UM so Sister Dees was really excited to meet them. I always feel so tiny around them because they are soo tall. Esta bien. After lunch we headed over to UM and weren't seeing much success until we met Alex. She had been taking an exam on her laptop and we scared her so bad. We felt bad but she took the time to listen to us and had a lot of questions. She mostly believes in philosophy but it was cool to see her heart change as we talked to her about the Plan of Salvation and everything it entails. We had to leave but would've loved to keep talking to her but it was time to go see Derek! So we headed down to Miami Dade and were able to meet with him. The lesson was kind of all over the place but Derek said that Satan was trying to stop him from coming but he knew that was Satan so he did everything in his power to meet with us. It was really cool. I love this gospel and being a missionary!! After our lesson with him we had dinner with Kevin again at a little pizza place by our house that was honestly super good. After dinner we visited our member Chris and his family who had just got back from a wedding up in Orlando at the temple of one of our members! From where I am to Orlando is like St. George to Lehi. It's also the same distance from where I am to Key West and let me tell you, people go on trips all the time. I was always lucky to go like twice a year but it is a monthly thing down here. Everything is so far apart so they just go! It's always worth it.

Saturday morning after our studies we had a district Blitz! It was the last time our entire district would be together due to transfers so it was really nice to be around everyone. After our blitz we went and saw Devin. The branch pitched in to buy him a quad because he always comments on ours. So we gave it to him because his birthday is coming up and he was super grateful for it. It helped him feel a lot more welcome to come back to church. After our lesson we headed more into Homestead. Actually, we went straight through Homestead and ended up in Florida City. Just south of Homestead, just north of Marathon which is the start of the Keys. There is a Miami Dade campus there we wanted to check out. There was no one there because it was a Saturday but it was nice to see. We wanted to knock around it but we quickly learned that Florida City is not quite as nice and safe as Homestead. So we went to the chapel down there instead and knocked in that neighborhood. We had dinner with our member Grant literally out in the middle of nowhere. He basically lived in the everglades he was so far out. But it is a really nice area and his family was so awesome. After dinner we visited some people on the area book because we knew it would be awhile before we got back down there and then we took the hour drive home. That night we had a mission conference call where we heard the news of the passing of Elder Augustin. He had been home for a bit and had an accident in a river. I served with Elder Augustin for my first 3 transfers. It was hard to take the news. We dedicated all of our work in the mission on Sunday to him. You could definitely feel the spirit of unity as we worked.

Sunday morning we were really excited for church because Graham was coming!! The only other time he had been was up in Orlando. In the YSA up there most of the members are in Disney University and can't go to church in the morning so they have special permission to do a night sacrament and that is what Graham went to so it was really different to him. He really liked it though! We had a potluck afterwards and he was going to stay but ended up having to leave because his mom was in town so we stayed and ate with the branch. After we went to our member Trevor's house because he had invited a friend to dinner and we wanted to say hi and invite him to activities. We thought we left the church late enough to be safe but when we got there they had just finished praying and hadn't even ate yet! Dinner round 2. If a Latin family starts eating while you are there, you better make room because they wont let you refuse. We were so stuffed. But Trevor's friend Luis was super cool and is waay good at the piano. We ended the night digesting and knocking. Always fun.

Yesterday morning we had our normal studies and then headed to UM. Our member Grant was going to feed us lunch before our lesson with Alex but he ended up getting caught up in the hospital because he had an x-ray on his foot so we decided to have lunch after the lesson. We went ahead and met up with Alex. We explained more simply and in order the Plan of Salvation. She had a lot of really good questions and the lesson didn't end up getting over till like 2:30. So we went to meet up with Grant and didn't have lunch until about 3:15. Then we went to campus to find more friends! We found a super cute girl named Kelly who has been looking to find a place to go with her boyfriend! We told her about the Book of Mormon and she was so excited to have her own and to start reading it. We had dinner with our members Kara, Sam, and Nicole at Kara's house. They made us breakfast! It was so good. I haven't had real breakfast food like that in a while. Then we headed to FHE where we mostly hung out with the branch and ate ice cream. The branch was more worried about transfer calls then I think we were. I am happy to say that Sister Dees and I get to stay together here in Snapper Creek YSA! :) This is Sister Dees' last transfer so there is a lot of work to do. We are beyond grateful that we get to stay.

I love being a missionary. I love this branch. I love the heat and humidity of Florida. I love all of you! Don't forget to go to the temple this week! It's summer now so you should have plenty of time ;) Have a great week and stay awesome!

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: The flags at MDC! There are a ton of them all over. I think it's from all the countries? But I'm not 100% sure and I only know like 6 or 7 of them but they are always fun to try and guess.