Look At All the People

Hey all! This week has been pretty good. Sister Dees heads home tomorrow (RIP) so we have been working our tails off. 

Last Monday we started off the week with some fun and went to Zoo Miami once again but this time with our members Kaity and Joseph! It was seriously such a blast. I love all the members in this branch with my entire heart.

 

Tuesday morning we started with our District Meeting. We talked a lot about how important members are. I don't think any of you truly realize just how much of an impact you make on missionary work. And those of you living in Utah, I know nothing gets done in missionary work there without you. If you have an opportunity to go out with the missionaries this week, go! You will be an answer to a prayer and I can promise you that an answer will come to questions you have as well. Our day was kind of all over the place and I honestly can't remember very specific details but that night we had dinner with our member Michael. I love spending time with our members. We saw a super cool miracle that night. It was getting pretty late and all of our plans had fallen through but we knew that we had promised God we were going to find a new friend so we went out to knock a few more doors before heading home. The third door we knocked, a YSA opened. First miracle because it's usually pretty hard to find YSA knocking. Second miracle, there were 3 more standing behind him in the doorway! Third miracle, they all told us to wait a second so they could go grab their shoes and come out so we could teach them. We were able to share the Doctrine of Christ lesson that we had practiced that morning and they were so excited to start reading the Book of Mormon and follow the example of our Savior! Miracles happen all over the place :)

 

Wednesday morning we started with our normal studies and then had to head up north for a couple hours because Sister Dees had her departing interview with President Garns. Ah I'm going to miss her like crazy. After her interview we headed straight to UM. Classes started this week and we were excited to see who was there. Well, last week we had a problem with just the fact that there were no people there. When we showed up on Wednesday we literally felt like we were getting trampled on because there were so many people there and we had no idea who to talk to or how to talk to anyone. We have definitely been working on how to follow the Spirit more. That night at Institute we talked about how God answers our prayers. Sometimes he answers them right away and we receive the answer we are expecting. Sometimes its not right away and sometimes it's not the answer we want to hear but he will always answer them. I know that God has a lot of trust in us as his children. Sometimes he doesn't give us specific direction because he trusts us just to figure it out. I also know that God will never let us lead ourselves down the wrong path for too long. If we make a wrong choice in our life he will always be there to stop us where we are and figure out what way we need to be going in our lives.

 

Thursday we spent a ton of time on UM. We talked to a lot of people and met some pretty cool people through out the week but they all kinda dropped off and told us they don't want to hear from us. But that's okay because it gives us more time to find the people who are ready to hear from us! We had dinner with our member Andrew that night. I can honestly say that I have learned something from every member here. They couldn't be more different but they have all put a huge impact in my life and I am excited to keep learning from them and hopefully I'm helping them along the way as well. That night we stopped by Kevin's house on our way home to say hello and share a message. He wasn't home but we did get to talk to his mum. Ah I just love them all!

 

Friday morning we had a Sisterhood Council. Basically its like a district meeting but with just the sisters. We talked about having courage and the importance of just opening our mouths. I shared the story of my favorite Bible hero, Esther. I know that when we have God on our side, nothing can stop us. And when we have God on our side, even if the outcome isn't what we wanted we can know it is what God wanted. After our council we made a million phone calls it seems like. We are trying to get a club on campus at UM so we can have Institute there and so we can set up a booth. It would be super effective if we could but we are still trying to work out the details. I'll keep you updated on how it works out. That night we had dinner at this place called Pincho Factory (literally the best) with our friend Kaity that Sister Goldstein and I taught. It was a good time to catch up and get to see her again.

 

Saturday we had lunch with a returning member and her little brother at a Cuban place. I love all the food here so much! One of the perks of living in Florida. You get basically anything you could think of and the majority of it is pretty good! We spent some time knocking today and got to finally visit a returning member that we have been trying to get in contact with for a while. They were busy but invited us back for dinner next week so I'll tell you more then. We had dinner with Joseph. Once again, learned a lot of things that I hope I can always remember. We had a chance to talk to the waiter that asked about our Book of Mormon so that was cool too! We went to UM that night which was nice because there weren't near as many people there haha. Back to normal for a second. 

 

Sunday was Sister Dees' last Sunday which was super sad. She spoke and gave a musical number which was super cool. There were a ton of people which was super awesome! We had Ricky teach 3rd hour which was a neat experience. I know that God loves every single one of his children. That has been a cool thing to learn on my mission. We had dinner with our member Andrea who served in Josh's mission so I always love eating with them and hearing about where my little bro is. We knocked for the rest of the night but didn't find anyone. But that's okay because we know there are miracles coming!

 

Yesterday we spent a lot of time outside in the sun and working hard. We spent a bunch of hours talking to people and then had a blitz with our district and knocked doors for a bit. We had dinner with Kevin and his family that night. It was all pretty sad honestly. I'm going to miss this goon like crazy. At FHE last night the members attacked Sister Dees with shaving cream and then after standing there for a bit she realized that no one else was getting attacked so she jumped on me. That was a fun car ride home. Sister Dees will sadly be going home but I will be staying here another transfer and Sister Hammond will be my new companion! I am super excited and I am so happy to be staying here!

 

I hope you all are doing well. Stay awesome and keep praying and reading your scriptures and going to the temple :) 

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

 

Florida Sunshine: Sister Dees. Literally she makes me smile every day and even though she is going back to Utah, she will always be a ray of sunshine in my life. 

Niner Niner

What a week it has been the Miami South Zone of the Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission. This letter is a bit of a long one but it has some awesome things in it I promise :) Sister Dees and I were thinking about what it was like last year at this time and we have agreed that last year was way hotter and we are getting lucky that it hasn't been so hot. Maybe there wont be a hurricane this year *fingers crossed*. 

Last Monday, once p-day was over, I remembered that Aunty Jo and Uncle Kyle had told us where Uncle Kyle lived when he served here so we decided to go knock them to see if they were actually as sketchy as Aunty Jo had described them to us. Well, turns out, they are some of the nicer apartments I have knocked on my mission. We met some super cool people in that short hour because we had to head to FHE but we are planning on going back to see if we can find some YSA. 

Tuesday we had District Training and talked about how we can have more meaningful prayers. In Doctrine and Covenants 88:64-65 it basically says that if you just pray to check it off the list and you don't really put any thought into it then you condemned yourself with that prayer. So I have been working on being more meaningful with my prayers and I have seen a huge difference on what I am learning and how God is helping me everyday. I encourage you all to do the same! That day we had some really cool lessons set up but they all ended up falling through. We had dinner with Grant that night at Ihop and Sister Dees and I got him laughing pretty hard. I had some videos but sadly my phone broke so I might have lost them. More on that later. That night we exchanged with the Coral Reef Sisters!

Wednesday I had the opportunity to spend the day with Sister Holbrook in Coral Reef South! Our stake is a bilingual stake so I got to put my Spanish to the test while we were knocking on doors. They have some really cool friends that they are working with that I had the opportunity to meet. Shane is this super awesome guy that is in his early 50's that knew they showed up one day to change his life. We had the chance to teach him about the sacrament and why church is so important. We talked about how living in Florida, you walk outside and it's pretty muggy. You are sweaty all day and getting bit by bugs all the time. It rains non stop so you are constantly walking in mud and are just pretty disgusting and can't wait to go home and take a shower so you can be clean again. Well, when we go throughout our week we sin, we make mistakes, we go against God's will and just don't do things right because frankly we are all human. Well, the sacrament is that nice shower that we get to take at the end of the day that washes us clean from whatever went on through the week as long as we are willing to scrub (repent) and get rid of it. After our lesson with Shane we had dinner with a member in their ward. Their recent converts, Penny and Aniah, were there too! (Mom, Penny says hi!) They are all a hoot. I love the people here so much. That night we saw a cool little miracle when we got to teach their friend Juliam that Sister Holbrook and I found knocking last week. We had the chance to teach him about the Restoration because he recently started going to church and was trying to figure things out so the message we shared really touched his heart. He just moved here from Mexico to be with his sons so he is learning English but wanted us to teach in English so he could learn more. Some things we had to clarify in Spanish but as we neared the end of the lesson we linked it into the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited him to be baptized! He said yes right there and I am excited for the Sisters to continue teaching him (small note, he came to church on Sunday and loved it!!) After our lesson we headed up to the church to exchange back. 

Thursday morning we had a bunch of lessons set up and they also all ended up falling through but it gave us some time to go talk to people at Miami Dade. We talked to this one kid who just started and is playing baseball. We talked to him about commandments and how the commandments God gives us are like the rules to a sport. It's totally up to us if we want to follow the rules or not but more often than not, if we disobey then it doesn't turn out too hot for us. It's the same with God's commandments. If we keep them, we may not know what it may be like otherwise but God will be on our side. Later that day we went home to do our weekly planning. Back story, last transfer the app on Sister Dees' phone that allows us to have the missionary stuff on it and puts filters on everything stopped working so for the last two transfers we have just been using mine while we have been in communication to fix hers. Well, about a half an hour into our planning, we pick up my phone to look at something and put in the password, and no luck. We tried a million more times and it kept saying it was wrong but we for sure knew it was right because it was working like 5 minutes before that. So we thought we would try and restart it to see if that would help. On our phones there is a backup password that you have to do before the phone starts up as like a backup security. We got to that point, put in the password, no luck. We tried 3 more times and then realized that literally everything else that we needed for the rest of our day was on it. And we no longer had communication with anyone. So we went next door and asked the guy working on our neighbors house if we could use his phone. Luckily he said yes so we called our technology missionary, Elder Peterson, to have him call Salt Lake so they could unlock my phone. Well, he called us back about 5 minutes later saying they couldn't find it. So they tried a bunch of different things and in the mean time we realized we were having dinner with Ben that night at some random Subway. Luckily I had followed the promptings I got a few days earlier to write down Kevin, Grant, and Liz's numbers so we went and grabbed my planner and then called Kevin to get a hold of Ben so we could get the address to where we were going. So while Elder Peterson was trying to figure out my phone we went and had dinner with Ben and then went back to Kevin's house to call Elder Peterson. He gave us a new password, it didn't work, and then my phone told me I only had 8 attempts left before it factory resets. We need to avoid that because then it is useless. Well, they gave us some instruction to try the next day so we ran home, grabbed my stuff, and then headed down to the Zone Leaders house for a zone wide exchange!

So Friday was crazy. We did this thing called a niner niner. So basically we woke up, exercised, got dressed, read the Book of Mormon and were out the door by 9. The next 12 hours were full of only finding activities. 9-9. No visiting friends, no members, mostly just knocking and visiting formers. For 12 hours. We had a goal as a zone to find 21 new people to teach. I got to go back to Coral Reef South with Sister Dalton and we got right to work. One of the people we found was way cool! We knocked on her door and she said she was looking for a church! We taught her about ours and she said she would be at church! Nice. Then we talked to this one guy who was getting his food truck all set up to head out so we talked to him for a bit. He wasn't interested but he gave us each our own bags of lychees. Nice. Then we worked and worked and worked and then had dinner with Elder McCombs and Elder Duval with the Smith family. They made us some of the best homemade pizza I have ever had. It was pretty good stuff! That night we tried to visit someone but they weren't home so we decided to knock. It was 8:30 and we only had 30 minutes left. It was dark, there weren't a lot of cars home, and we had only found 20 out of 21 people so far. Well, Sister Dalton and I had a lot of faith and we met Nora. She is this cute Cuban lady. We were talking to her husband as well but he left because their grandson, who was darling, had just woken up and he had to go take care of him. 21/21 When we got home that night we were all exhausted and ready to sleep. We saw awesome miracles and had a great time! 

Saturday morning we woke up nice and early and headed to the Methodist church to hand out food and exchange back. They usually do the food stuff outside but they cleared out their gym thing so we got to do it inside in the air conditioning! What a blessing haha. After service we went home and showered and got ready and then went to the church and finally got Sister Dees' phone up and working again! The people in Salt Lake called us and walked us through everything and now we have a phone! Mine is still in the fixing process but hopefully we can figure it out this week. We had our studies and finally did our weekly planning. We didn't have time for a ton of stuff that day but we did get to eat dinner with Grant's family! I love the Palacios and all that they do for us. Sister Chugg has a ukulele with her and has let me keep it for a bit so we took it to dinner and sang some songs for them. It was a fun time :)

Sunday was pretty normal. They always seem to be for some reason. Our member Hannah gave a super awesome talk in sacrament meeting. Hannah plays volleyball for UM and we love her! She talked about how their team has a big whiteboard in their gym called "The Change Board". Each player has a box with their name in it and the thing they are the worst at so they can always see it. That way everyone knows what they are working on and they do all they can to change bad habits. Every day after practice they watch film to see if they fixed it and if they finally fixed it and everything all practice was perfect, they got to erase it from the board and put up the next task. She linked it to repentance. We all have our own things that we are working on every single day and want to get better but sometimes we make one mistake. But as we continue to work on it then we eventually become perfect at it and get to start working on the next thing. It can be really hard to fix it but it is always worth it in the end. Sister Dees and I taught Relief Society on Elder Bednar's talk "Meek and Lowly of Heart". If you haven't read it in a while, do it today! I love that talk with my whole heart. Elder Bednar is awesome. After dinner we had dinner with the Brown family. I love Sunday dinner with them. After dinner we knocked with the Country Walk Sisters and then when we got home we called our friend Robert. He kinda dropped off the face of the Earth all week but he answered and is doing awesome! We were so excited to finally hear from him again. He will hopefully be moving here this weekend so we can't wait to meet him in person! 

This week has been super awesome and super busy. This is Sister Dees' last week so we are going to be working really hard and I will be soaking in all I can of her before she is home. I hope you all are keeping busy with school starting and what not. Keep reading, praying, and of course, go to the temple!!

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: Lychees!! They are this little fruit that has hair on it and you peel off the shell and eat the inside. It has a seed in the middle as well but the part you actually eat is like a grape.

Group pic from the Zone Exchange

Basically the gist of service. 

Grant's awesome fam minus dad

We'll Bring the WORLD His Truth

Hello everyone! This week was a great one!

Last week we started out the week by heading down to Marathon for a zone activity! We never see the Elders in Key West so we figured we would meet them halfway and play some sports. The bus ride down we had to stand for a bit because it was so full but it was so fun. The park was about a mile from the bus stop so we got our walking in for the day. When we got to the park we caught an iguana and then played some rugby and soccer. Everyone was all over the place but the three of us that had played rugby before were just having the time of our lives. We were there for a bit and got some nice sun. Sister Dees was pretty burnt but luckily my skin is from St. George and just absorbs the heat. We had a nice bus ride back and shopped in Florida City before heading home.

 

Tuesday morning we went to UM nice and early to find some people to teach. Luckily there were a bunch of people there but it was so stinking bright. It was not nice to the sun we already had from the day before and we could barely keep our eyes open. We headed to this place called Shake Shack for lunch and as soon as we stepped inside it started pouring rain. So for those of you who think Utah weather is bipolar, you obviously haven't lived in Florida. We saw an awesome miracle though! As we were ordering the girl taking our order asked us about the Book of Mormon because we each were holding one. Well we explained it pretty quick and she asked where she could buy one. We handed her one of ours and she handed us back her phone number. We haven't been able to get in contact with her since but we know a good seed has been planted and she couldn't stop smiling she was so happy to have her own. We went home and did some studies and then went knocking and visited some returning members before we had dinner with our member Michael. I love eating with him because we always sit outside on a little table because his mum is never home. It's a pretty fun time. That night we exchanged with the Country Walk Sisters!

 

Wednesday Sister Chugg joined me here in Snapper Creek YSA (aka. the best area in the world)! We tried to start the day after studies by going to UM but the only people there were teachers so we didn't really have anyone to talk to. We went and visited some formers instead. One of them lived by our Zone Leaders and they had just gotten back from being with the Key West Elders so we stopped by to say hi and they gave us some water. We visited a bunch of people and then had dinner with Grant at 5 Guys. We can always count on Grant to be there for us. That night before institute we had a really neat experience. Our friend Ernie is moving up to Orlando this weekend so we were able to skype in the Sisters that will be in his branch up there for our lesson on the Word of Wisdom. They are so awesome and they really just instantly loved him. We know he will be in good hands! At institute that night we talked about the Word of Wisdom so it was cool that that is what our lesson had been on. That night we exchanged back and I got my awesome Sister Dees back to myself :)

Thursday morning we had another lesson with Ernie. Grant came with us and we taught him the 10 commandments. When I was younger I remember going with the Sisters in my ward to teach one of my friends and they taught her the 10 commandments using hand gestures and I could never remember them. Now that I am a missionary they are my favorite thing. If you don't know them, ask the missionaries in your ward. I bet they can show you. Grant and Ernie are some of my favorite humans. Sister Dees and I are always laughing when we are around them. Then we went and taught our new friend Alejandro! Sister Dees found him on her exchange with Sister Remund. He just recently found God and got baptized in a different church but because he is so new to religion it has all made a lot of sense to him. As we were heading to his appointment we got a call from some Elders serving in Miami YSA who had a referral for us named Robert who said he was moving to UM in a couple weeks from Vancouver, Washington and wants to know more about the church. We were pretty pumped to call him after the lesson and then as we got in the car we got a call, answered it, and it was Robert!! He had gone to and FHE event recently and hadn't been able to stop thinking about the Spirit he felt while he was there. We had a nice talk and he couldn't stop saying how amazing it was that it was all happening. We had dinner that night with the Quiros family. Liz is engaged to Derek so we only get her until December which will be sad for the branch but we are happy we get to be with her now. Best time time be in Snapper Creek!!

Friday we had our interviews with President Garns. I always love being able to sit down one on one with him. We talked all about being able to start a Book of Mormon Experiment on UM campus. Salt Lake has been trying to pass us to do it so we have been trying to get permission to do a booth on campus for a bit so we are still waiting on that but President basically told me I'll be here for that so hopefully I stay here for at least one more transfer! After interviews President and Sister Garns took Sister Dees and I and the Zone Leaders out to lunch. It was fun to be able to sit down and chat with them :) We tried to go to UM again that day but found some apartments around there that were full of YSA so we knocked there for a bit but no one was really home. We had dinner with Kevin and his family that night. He had eye surgery so he was in a lot of pain but a little loopy. It was pretty funny actually. I love spending time with that family. We also had a chance to call Robert again that day! We taught him about where we came from and our purpose here on Earth. He is really new to everything that we have been teaching him but he understands it and loves hearing the things we tell him.

Saturday morning we called him again and taught him the Doctrine of Christ! We committed him to be baptized on September 15th once he moves here to Florida! We are all super excited. We got in contact with the Elders over there in Vancouver so they could watch out for him. We have been working with the Sisters in Orlando and the Elders in Vancouver so Sister Dees and I basically have the entire nation covered. We had the chance to head down closer to Homestead that day and and visit some returning members. They are all super awesome! We have been trying to get everyone to start coming back because the ones that we have are up and getting married on us so our branch is starting to dwindle!

Sunday is always good. We had a missionary come home so we had a solid 10 people in Sacrament haha. But it was still good! We talked a lot about the temple and revelation and how we can apply both in our lives. I challenge all of you to go back through conference and read up on how we can better receive revelation in our lives and then make the time to go to the temple this week!! Sunday night we had dinner with the Quiros family again and then got to knock with the Coral Reef Sisters. Because it is summer time in YSA it has been really nice to work with our Sisterhood more often. 

I hope you all have an awesome week this week!! Keep being awesome and make sure you're reading and praying! Put God first and everything else will fall into place. I love you all! Keep being awesome!

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: Ice Cream trucks! They are on every street and they are pretty sketchy but Sister Dees and I are going to get ice cream from one of them before she leaves in 2 weeks.

Marathon!! We woke up nice and early to drive down to Florida City to catch the bus at 7am to make it down there by 9:30. Good times 👍

Shake Shack

A cat that was literally so big and followed us while knocking

Interview pic

Miami Heat

Hi friends! This week has been quite a doozy. The heat has been coming fast but luckily it waited until August so it will get hot for a couple weeks and then start to cool back down again. My favorite thing about Florida though is that the wind is cold. Plus you are sweaty from the humidity so when the wind blows just right you get a little whiff of cold. I love Florida. Well we didn't do much last pday so I'm just going to start with Tuesday.

Tuesday was actually pretty boring but we did have a super cool lesson with this guy named Wilson. We just said hi to him and he asked us if we were insta famous. We just laughed and then he asked us if we could say a prayer for him. We ended up teaching him a whole bunch of different things and he just kept freaking out about how cool everything was. We weren't really able to continue teaching him this week but one day he'll understand the truth. That night we had dinner with our member Eric for his birthday. He got this Argentinean food for us and it was actually really good. I don't rememeber what it was called so don't ask, lol. That night we tried to go find people at UM but it was super empty. This upcoming week and the next are going to be a little slow because both schools ended this week and there are two weeks off before the fall semester starts. But God will always provide a way for us to find the people he is preparing. 

 

Wednesday morning we woke up and got ready for zone training. Sister Dees and I did a training on how to make use of prime member time at church so we can do as much missionary work as we can in those 3 hours. Missionary work cannot be done without the members. It's almost impossible to find people to teach without the help of members so if you know someone right now who maybe even has the slimmest chance of saying yes, ask them if they wanna meet the missionaries. The worst they could say is no and you will get blessed no matter what. The Zone Leaders gave a training on how to find those that are committed. Sister Dees and I have seen that we have been teaching a lot of people but none of them really understand the importance and aren't keeping commitments but we are working on it so, esta bien! We did a bunch of finding and studies that day and then we had dinner with our member Grant at Chili's (shout out to number 13) and then had a lesson with Ernie before institute. We didn't have a ton if time to teach him but we came to the conclusion that he's going to wait until he's in Orlando to get baptized so we are just playing it slow right now. 

 

Thursday morning we spent at Miami Dade. We saw Wilson one more time but it was a weird lesson and we talked all about repentance. We were supposed to have a bunch of lessons that morning but they all fell through so we spent a lot of time talking to people. We saw Ernie that afternoon and talked all about prayer. At the beginning of my mission I had a district leader that committed us all to take time before our prayers to ponder on what we would pray about and then to take time after to think about it as well. That has stuck with me my entire mission and I have seen how much more sincere my prayers have been as I've taken time to do that. I invite you all to try it! I promise you that you will find answers to your questions as you allow God to respond to you. That night we had dinner with our member Chris. His dad owns one of the biggest fish companies in SoFlo so we had crab! It was the first time for me and I was a little nervous cause I know mum is allergic but I am alive so all is well! However, if I had the choice between crab and something else, I would pick whatever the something else was. But it was pretty good for my chance at trying new things. That night we got in contact with the Sister Missionaries that are serving in Orlando in the ward Ernie is moving to. They are awesome and we have no fears that he will be taken care of up there.  :)

 

Friday we had our Mission Leadership Conference! I love being the eyes of the mission and coming together with the other leaders and understanding just how much out mission has grown in the last year and how far we've come! We talked about the importance of role playing, planning, and understanding the Doctrine of Christ. We have been working on those 3 things for a while and we are finally seeing some improvement in how well our skills are as missionaries so we can have more room to follow the spirit. After MLC we had to stop by the Sunrise house to grab something for a sister and Sister Reidhead was there!!! It was a nice surprise for both of us to be able to see each other. I love that nugget with my whole heart. That night we had dinner with Kevin's family and then went with them and the branch to go bowling!! It was such a great time and we had such a great turn out! Our friend Kaity came and it was really good to see her again and hang out with some other returning members. Bowling always has to be followed by Denny's so we made a pit stop on the way home. It was a lot of fun and a lot of great memories were made as Sister Dees whooped all our trash. 

 

Saturday started out good! We had service at the Methodist church handing out food. There were a ton of people there this week which was crazy so it flew by because we were constantly signing people in. My limited Spanish is coming easier haha. We ran home and changed and then headed to a blitz to knock with the other district in our zone. It was a fun time but the heat is definitely coming. After the blitz I felt super sick so we went home and I slept for like 12 hours because my body didn't want to move. Thinking back on it, it may have been from the heat and not having my water bottle... don't worry mum! I use my water bottle everywhere we go. Staying hydrated is the most important thing.

 

Sunday morning we woke up nice and early and got ready for church. We had our studies and such and then headed to the church. As we were waiting for our Branch Mission Leader to show up, another member from one of the other wards passed by. We introduced ourselves and he goes, "I'm Brother Burns!" You've got it right friends. This is the guy that donated the Dixie State Basketball Arena and why it is called The Burns Arena. I finally met him and he expressed to me how much he loves St. George and Uncle Kyle. It was fun to finally meet him. Turns out, he knows the President of UM really well so we will be getting in contact with him pretty soon to see if we can get something set up on campus. None of our friends came to church but fast Sunday is always my favorite on the mission! It was for sure a spiritual day. One thing that I really liked about church was that Sister Dees made the comment that when Joseph Smith was in the Sacred Grove and Satan was trying to destroy him, all he could do was close his mouth. The worst thing Satan can do is close your mouth but we have so much more power over him. If you get scared to share the Gospel and don't know what to say, just know that that is Satan trying to stop you because something good is going to come out of it. We had dinner with the Browns that night and they told me everything I need to know about Disney World and the best time to go. So if you need advice or are planning a trip, I'm your girl ;) We ended that night knocking with the sisters in our zone. Always fun times. We found a family that they are going to start teaching tomorrow. I love when miracles happen. 

 

I know that miracles can happen at anytime and in anyplace as long as we have the faith necessary for it to happen and we can't expect it to come all of a sudden. Fairy Godmother once said, "Even miracles take a bit of time." Don't be scared to ask God for a miracle. But when you ask, be prepared to work for it. Make the time to go the temple and read your scriptures and pray this week and I can promise you that God will help you talk to people so miracles can happen. I love you all so much and hope your week goes well!! Keep being awesome!

 

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

 

Florida Sunshine: The University of Miami!! We are here all the time (sorta) and I have grown a love for it here. With everyone being gone we have had chances to take pictures. 

p.s. The first pic is where Drake filmed his song "God's Plan"

My zone: (Left to right starting in back) Sister Chugg, Elder Hassle, Elder McCombs, Elder Mata, Elder Taiito, Elder Gazdik, Elder Duvall, Sister Holbrook, Myself,(Front) Elder Acosta, Elder Lopez, Elder Mendoza, Elder Te Hira, Sister Dalton, Sister Dees, Sister Remund 

 

Bowling with the branch!! 

 

Sister Dees and I on our way to service (feat. Uncle Kyle's hat)