Doce ou dravessura!

Trick or treat! Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you're doing well. This week was full of fun times and miracles for us!

Last Monday we had the chance to go to the beach!! We aren't allowed on the sand but there was a carpet that went out into the middle of the beach so we walked out on it and just sat there for a bit watching the water. The few people that were there gave us weird looks but it's whatever. But we got right back to work and had awesome lessons with Phillip and Kimberly. We taught Phillip about the Plan of Salvation and it made so much sense to him. That was really cool because he's into some kinda weird things. It was nice for something to finally click haha. We taught Kimberly the Word of Wisdom. She was pretty surprised at first but then thought about it and looked up how coffee is made and decided she would stop drinking then and there. It was a funny lesson. 

Tuesday we had interviews with President Garns! We also had a little interview with Sister Garns. We have been really focusing on the Restoration as a mission lately so she made sure we had James 1:5 memorized and the first vision. We had dinner with the Miltons later that night and David came! We taught him about the Law of chastity and following the prophet. We honestly thought it was going to be a pretty uncomfortable lesson but it turned out good haha. Then we headed over to the church for Book of Mormon class! We were reading about Amulek and Zeezrom so they had Sister Oliveira and I act out the conversation that they had. It was a lot of fun haha. I love being able to learn more about the Book of Mormon everyday. Now is the time to prepare. If you aren't taking this time, please rethink what you're doing and start preparing. Read your scriptures! 

Wednesday morning we taught our friend Rihanna! When she opened the door she goes, "I have some Jehovah's Witnesses here soo, no arguing in the house. Okay?" We laughed a little and walked right in. They had been there for 2 hours already so as soon as we walked in they finished up what they were saying and left and let us take over. It was actually really interesting to see how they teach. It taught me some things that I need to do and not do. But we had a good conversation after they left. Rihanna is still listening to us so that's good :) Then we went and taught our friend Linda the restoration. People, the first vision of the Prophet Joseph Smith changed history and most people don't even know it happened!! Let your friends know what church you are a part of it. Don't be crazy but be the person that plants a seed so when the missionaries come by, they are more open. After we shared the first vision Linda kept saying how she had chills. We promised her that as she kept learning and applying the things she learns that God will take of the things in her life right now that she's struggling with. Then we went and saw our buddy David :) He is such a character but so awesome. He had us meet him at a park for his lesson. We were walking along a path and talking about the 10 commandments when David realized we were no longer on the path and started running to find it. As soon as we found it again, we turned the bend and there was a turtle right in the middle of the path! If you aren't keeping the commandments in your life and have fallen off the path a little, you might not even realize it. But as soon as you do, run back. I promise that there are blessing there waiting for you just like that little turtle was waiting for us :) After our lesson I went with Sister Jensen to dinner with their Branch President. He and his wife are from Chile and don't speak a but of English but I once again realized that I can understand most Spanish. It was a way fun night with them. 

Thursday I got to go on a full day exchange with Sister Allsup in Palm Beach. She was trained in Miami Lakes right after I was so it was really fun to be with her :) We visited some members in the morning and took them brownies and then went and saw their friends Ken and VK. VK almost got baptized but his parents didn't give him permission so now they are working on the parents. During that lesson there were a ton of ants all over the ground so we ended up talking about Antman. I never saw that movie before I left so I didn't know what they were talking about but it was a pretty funny conversation. Later that day they had an event going on so I went back with Sister Jensen and we got some Chick-fil-a (shout out to Grant for eating 30 chicken nuggets that one time) and then headed to their correlation. Their mission leader just moved here from St. George about a year or two ago so it was really fun to talk to him :) 

Friday morning we went to see a recent convert named Lauren. She is a Karate master and does art so it was cool to get to know her. She had us try this fake coffee stuff that helped her to get off of coffee and it was literally so gross. I have zero idea why anyone would even want to start drinking coffee in the first place. Later that day we had one of the Portguese sisters, Sister Affonso, join us when we went to see our retuning member Sona. We watched a General Conference talk with her and prayed with her. It was a good time. Then we knocked for like 5 minutes and then went to the church for our ward's trunk or treat! Sister Oliveira dressed up as Mickey and I dressed up as Minnie. The ward loved it :) No one was there until 6:30 but a lot of people did come so that was good! Sona came and brought her son and Sister Oli and Sister Affonso got to trick or treat for their first time. It was pretty funny. Our friend Phillip showed up right toward the end and thought it was all so cool! Everyone was leaving so we ceased the opportunity and gave him a chapel tour! He works in retail and has super busy weekends so can't come to church but we are praying that he gets a weekend off soon so he can come. 

Saturday a lot happened and not a lot happened. It was crazy. We went to help one of our members pack stuff so she can move. We were there for 4 hours and didn't even make a dent. It was crazy. We have no idea how she's going to make it to Utah but it'll work out somehow. Then the assistants called us and brought us a new car! So now we have a Nissan Rogue! It is literally so nice. Don't worry mum, I'll drive safe. We had an 8 year old baptism that night that we were invited to so we could talk so we went to that and then had dinner that night with the Papenfus fam. They are really funny and love video games and Disney so it was fun to talk with them. That night we knocked with the Elders for a minute. It was really dark outside but a miracle happened and people were really nice to us! It was awesome. 

Sunday was the Primary Program! My only one on my mission because last year I was in YSA. I love the primary kids. They are so stinking cute. Kimberly and David both came to church. David had his baptismal interview during second hour and he passed!! We are so excited for him :) After church we ate with the Jensen family and played "Disney or Prophet". So basically Sister Oli and I thought of all the Disney quotes and prophet quotes we could and then they had to guess where they came from. It was fun. Then we had a going away party for the Lopez family. They are moving to Utah on Wednesday and we are going to miss them sooo much. That night we had the coolest miracles. Our goal for finding this week was 5 and by Sunday afternoon we only had 2. Our District leader offered to help us knock so we met up with them and set out to find 3 more people. Well, one of the first doors we knocked on was this mom named Tara who just moved over from the West Coast of Florida. When she moved over there the first people they met where the missionaries who helped them move in. Well that was 2 and a half years ago and now she's back in our area! It was so cool to meet her and she was super excited to run into the church again. And then about an hour later right before we left, it was getting pretty dark and this one house didn't really have lights on but we decided we would knock it and John opened the door. He went and got his wife and they let us right in! Well as we were teaching the restoration we were coming up on the Book of Mormon and John stopped us and went off on a little tangent but then he brought it all around to how he knows that Jesus Christ visited the Indians after he was resurrected because it's only fair. It was crazy!! We we're so excited. So The Book of Mormon made so much sense to him. So, miracles happen.

Sorry this email was so long haha. I hope you all have a great week this week! Don't forget to read, pray and go to the temple! Have a Happy Halloween!

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: The graffiti! We pass these ones all the time. The pug and the pineapples :)

The Lopez Family!!

Halloween! Sister Oliveira was going to be Jasmine but then her hair wasn't working out later in the day so I gave her some ears. The other sister is Sister Affonso

Our nature walk with David :) We picked up the turtle lol. We probably shouldn't have...

When our district matched for our zone activity without planning it so of course you take pics

(Acted pic) Sister Jensen, Sister Oliveira (shark), Elder Egan, Elder Van Dyke, Sister Wheeler, Me

Remember Me

Hello all! I bet you all had a great week but sadly, I am here to say that it was not as great as mine was. Here's why:

Monday night we had two awesome lessons with our friends Phillip and Kimberly. Brother and Sister Taylor came with us to both of them. When members come with you to lessons it's just the greatest. They are really good at mentioning the little things that we as missionaries sometimes forget. Plus they took us to Tijuana Flats - great Tex-Mex food! - so that was a big bonus. 

Tuesday we had zone conference which was just amazing as always. There is a member in our ward named Brother Victor Garcia da Rosa, he came and shared his conversion story with us.  It. Was. Amazing.  If you would like to know why, go check out his story on Mormon.org   It's kind of a read but it is so amazing. He helped us know key points on how to help people of other faiths be willing to accept the gospel. We spent a lot of time at Zone Conference talking about the restoration and the importance of it. President Garns had people go up and role play and of course Sister Oli and I got called on. That's 3 conferences in a row now lol. But it was good and we had fun. We had dinner with the Miltons and then we had Book of Mormon class. A lot of people were there including David :) It was a great time. 

Wednesday morning we went to seminary! First time I've ever been to early morning seminary and it was actually pretty awesome. We weren't quite sure what our role was going to be there but then the seminary teacher just turned the time over to us to teach the lesson on the Atonement. It's a good thing we do that all day every day! The only difference with this one was that we got doughnuts after. Good times :) We had a really cool lesson with our friend Rihanna later that day. She told of us a cool experience she had where she heard a voice that just kept telling her that God is real. It really opened her heart a little so that was cool. She had a bunch of questions that we tried our best to answer. We also had lessons with Kim and Larry. Kim is way cool and had a bunch of questions about what the typical "Mormon" is. We had a fun time explaining our beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Our lesson with Larry was good. We taught him the Plan of Salvation but it's hard to tell because he had zero questions. So it either made perfect sense or no sense. We don't know which one. 

Thursday we did service at a food pantry making rice bags. Sister Oliveira has seen a lot of the movies I haven't seen so she acted out a lot of them for me. We had a great time. Then we went to see our friend Amy. Luckily this time she put her dog away. Mostly because we refused to sit down with it already trying to jump all over us. We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she didn't quite get it which was frustrating. She kept saying she got it, but she didn't. But we will get it all figured out. Then we went to see our best friend David. He wanted to feed us so we went over at 6 to teach him a lesson. We talked about the story of the Brother of Jared and set him with a baptism date for November 3rd!! We are all super excited for it. Then his neighbors came over and we all helped make this weird Ivory Coast meal. It was like soup sorta but also had peanut butter in it. It wasn't bad but I'd rather not have it again. But it was a really fun night to be with David and talk to his roommates though!

Friday we had a lesson with our friend Matt. It was kind of awkward cause he lives in a halfway house so there were a bunch of guys coming in and out the whole time and would just stare at us. But Matt and his friend Trevor are really cool! The Elders had taught him about the Book of Mormon so he had a lot of questions for us when we came back. It was fun. We had been kind of all over the place all day but we had tostadas with the Andrews family that night. They are die hard Red Soxs fans so we aren't allowed to go over until the World Series is over lol. And then we headed down to Boca Raton for a movie night at the church! The Stake President talked to President Garns so we could go and watch COCO!!!!!! We were all literally so excited. They had us show up early to help set stuff up for popcorn and cotton candy and then to welcome everyone as they showed up. David came and it was the first time for both of us watching it. They had us missionaries wear yellow helping hands vests so they could find us if they needed us. The goal was to have a bunch of the community come. Some came but not near as much as we were expecting. It was still good. And the movie was amazing!! It was weird to have a movie in the park on my mission with our friends but I loved every second of it:) If you haven't seen Coco, you are mission out. Oh it's so good. #missiongoals

Saturday morning we had to help one of our members other family move. We got there and it was already all packed up and all we had to do was put it in the truck. With our whole district there it got done pretty quick. At the end they were joking on having us follow them over to Naples to unpack it all so we called the Elders over there so they could meet them up and help unpack. The people were very grateful. Then after that we went to see a recent convert. He has kinda fallen off the face of the Earth but it was nice to meet him! We were going to feed the ducks but then there were none. Then we had some other things planned but then the Elders reminded us that they were having a baptism that night so we called David and went and had dinner with him and then went to the baptism so he could see what it's all about, even though it was all in Creole. I had to go home with Sister Jensen so we could plan some things but Sister Oliveira said it was really good so that's good! 

Sunday morning when we got to church we got a text from our friend Twan that actually neither of us had ever met saying he wanted a ride to church. So we got him one and he came! We aren't too sure if he liked it because he asked where the coffee was and we told him we don't have any so he left. Lol. But David came :) So that was good. We had a lesson with him after church and Keith sat in with us. Keith is a convert and is such a big teddy bear. He reminds me of Dwayne Johnson. If he were a member he would be a lot like Keith. After church we had dinner with the Sandlins and Lopez's. The Lopez family is moving to Utah at the end of the month and I'm really sad about it. They are awesome. But they are going to love Utah so we are all excited for them. After dinner we met with one of our returning members named Dennis. He just always has a bunch of questions for us to answer. They are things I've honestly never thought of before so it was cool to have to get my gears turning to find scriptures to help him understand different things. I need to keep studying that's for sure. 

So, with a week full of service, setting David with a date, watching Coco and eating cotton candy, and having awesome members, I'd say that my week was pretty good and probably better than yours ;) It's hard to beat a missionary. But I hope you all have an amazing week! Keep reading your scriptures, praying, and go to the temple! 

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: PVHS street 

Cooking at David's

This house in David's neighborhood that goes all out for Halloween

 1: Keith and David :)

2: my cute comp

3&4: Us at Coco with David 

5: Sister Jensen, Sister Wheeler, Me, and Sister Oliveira

6: Ice cream break

P-day at the beach ❤

Life in the North

Hello everyone! This is Sister Beckstrand here coming at ya from the most north I have been in the last year! They say the humidity is not as bad up here but I beg to differ. These last 4 days are the days I have felt the humidity the most since being here. Hopefully it's the last of the heat before it starts to cool down. Life up here in Boynton Beach is awesome! 

Wednesday we got everything packed up. We had to rearrange the house which took a second because there are 3 sisters there now. But we got it figured out. On our way out of the house we got our last call from the one and only Grant Palacio. It honestly made me even more sad to be leaving my fam there but I will see them soon enough! We had lunch with our sisters at 5 Guys and switched stuff around because Sister Hammond stayed with Sister Holbrook so I took Sister Dalton up to transfers. There were a lot of people at transfers. Mostly because we had 25 new missionaries come in which is like a million basically. My new companion is Sister Oliveira. She is from Brazil, is 24, and this is her 3rd transfer! I'm still an STL and my STL comp is Sister Jensen. She is serving in Camino Gardens with Sister Wheeler. They are our roommates :) Once we got everything figured out at transfers we were on the road! It took a minute to get home and forever to unload the car but we eventually got it all done. That night we had a lesson with our friend Katie. She is awesome! She likes to talk a lot so it's hard to stay on the lesson but we got it all figured out. That night was full of trying to unpack and get things figured out.

Thursday morning Sister Jensen and I were all over the place going to all the different District Councils. This zone is literally huge and I don't know any of the missionaries here. It's crazy what happens with the mission when you get confined down south. Everything has changed! But esta bien. Once we exchanged back with our companions we found a new friend named Andre. He is Baptist but as soon as we taught him about the Book of Mormon he asked for his own and told us he would read it by the time we come back. Then we went to visit a referral but his grandma opened the door and she only spoke Creole so we had to call some Elders to translate for us over the phone. It was awesome :) our zone has English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Creole! Quite the melting pot. He wasn't home so we had to take some stuff to Goodwill and then we had dinner with Brother Lopez.  He is my favorite human. He reminds me of Mr. Candland. It's awesome. He was baptized 4 years ago and has the strongest testimony and loves the missionaries. Most of the members in our ward are converts. They are awesome. So we had dinner with him at Chick-fil-a and then went knocking for the rest of the night! The people up here are more wealthy than the people in Miami so it is really hard to get people to talk to you. But we are going to see miracles this transfer. Sister Oliveira calls the hours after lunch and from about 7:30-9 the "Witching Hours". Those are the times when people get really mad for us being put even if we aren't talking to them. It's great. 

Friday after our studies we went to visit a returning member names Sona.  She is so cute! She has cancer so we shared the talk "Wounded" from General Conference with her. It really helped and we had fun being with her. In Miami I didn't have a problem knocking on people's doors if they had a no soliciting sign on the door or at the complex, however, people here call the cops on us so we have to be very careful where we knock. We were knocking a trailer park and it started to pour so we took shelter and then went and took pictures of the gorgeous rainbow! And then we got yelled at by some lady so we left. That night we had dinner with the Jensen's and played some Foosball and then went to visit a referral with the Elders so they could give her a priesthood blessing. Something crazy about Haitians is that they mostly all speak Creole and English but they mix it all up. It's like Spanglish but worse. So the Creole Elders came with us. The blessing was in Creole but there were 6 of us in there so it was a little packed but it was so awesome. The Church is the same anywhere you go. And it is so true!!!

Saturday we started with ZLC talking about how we can help this zone the most this transfer. It is literally huge and there are so many missionaries here so I have no clue what we're going to do but it's going to be great nonetheless! After ZLC Sister Jensen and I had to do some planning for our sisters and then we were supposed to meet our comps at the train stations with the bikes but it took forever and we couldn't find a pump for Sister Jensen's bike. They missed their train but it all worked out in the end. We went to visit some referrals after that the Elders found for us and then knocked for a bit and it was I think the hottest day this summer. We were both melting. So then we headed to dinner with the Papenfuss fam. They are in the YSA branch up here so we went with the Elders. It was a lot of fun. Then we were supposed to have a lesson but we showed up and she wasn't there so we ended up just talking to Brother Lopez for a bit. He is moving to Utah soon and I am so upset about it. I am going to soak up every second I can of him being here now. 

Sunday. Holy cow. This is the first ward I have served in on my mission and the first time I have had a slew of little kids. I honestly forgot what it was like to sit in sacrament and not have it be so silent. It was awesome. And the entire chapel was full!! What the heck! I have never seen that on my mission. Church was awesome. But there are a million members so it's going to take me forever to figure everything out and remember their names. After church we had to go from lesson to lesson to lesson. Our first one was with our new friend named Amy. She requested a bible so we took it over! Upon opening the door she asked if we were scared of dogs. Before we could respond the dog came bolting around the corner. I don't know what kind it was but it wasn't small and it was only a year and a half. The entire time we were talking to Amy it was literally jumping all over us and she was just laughing and listening. I wanted to kill it. It was running on the back of the couch and it had the sharpest nails so we got all sorts of scratched up. The entire time I just kept grabbing it by the collar and holding it until it would try and bite me. Untrained dogs are the bane of my existence. But we shared the restoration with her and she told us we could come back so we will pray next time that she puts the dog away. Then we went to a referral named Sarah. Well, we showed up and it turns out she is only 10 years old!! We asked her why she requested a bible and she said, "Because I'm Christian and it makes me feel good. I lost mine so I got a new one!" She was literally so cute. Her dad is a pastor though. He told us they would both read it and get back to us so hopefully they do! Then we went to see Malicia! She had the lights off the entire time so it was honestly hard to focus. It's hard enough to stay awake on fast Sunday. But it was good! We just really need to re-explain the priesthood to her though. She doesn't get it. After that we had dinner with the Haws family and then went out to knock during the witching hours. After realizing that we were not being useful, we went home to do our personal study because we still hadn't done that yet. 

Life up here in Boynton is way different than Miami. It has taken some adjusting to slowing down. It is really clean up here and everything is so far apart! Super different than everywhere else I have been here in Florida. But it is awesome and I love being here. I hope life is good back at home! Keep reading and praying and don't forget about the temple! 

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: Aladdin Ave! 

Our cute Halloween decorations 

Rainbow while knocking 

Our district <3 (left to right) Elder Egan, Elder Watkins, Elder Van Dike, Elder Tucker, Sister Jensen, Me, Sister Wheeler, Sister Oliveira

Sister Oliveira and I :)

Goodbye Snapper Creek

What a week, what a week. Quite the roller coaster of emotions for this Sister Missionary. You'll understand as you read on... 

Tuesday we didn't do much because our day was full of meetings. We did learn cool stuff though like learning how to use the spiritual gifts that you have been given. I invite you all to figure it out for yourself as well! We had dinner with Michael Pinate that night. This time it was kale soup. Was a little nervous but it was honestly so good and we all had a really good time. That night we met up with the Coral Reef sisters for exchange number three of this transfer.

 

Wednesday, Sister Dalton joined me in Snapper Creek YSA. We spent the morning at their house because they had some plumping issues and the plumber had to come by. It was a really funny story actually but not anything I'm going to put on here for all of your sakes. We ordered Papa Johns for lunch because we couldn't leave while he was there snaking our house but we had a great time nonetheless. Then we headed up to Miami Dade and UM. We spent time on both and met some really cool people. We had dinner with Grant at 5 guys for one last time *tear*. Good as always, and then headed to institute. The sisters showed up later so we could exchange back.

 

Thursday morning we had a lot of studies and planning to get done but then we headed to UM for our lesson with Sharae! It was literally so awesome. We talked about the Book of Mormon a little more and the Restoration. I had no idea, honestly, where we were the entire lesson but at one point I asked, " Do you believe God would answer your prayers?" Her response: "The more I read from the Book of Mormon the more I believe he would." Guys. The Book of Mormon holds so much power. Please read it. It doesn't take that long. I'm positive you can all find at least 5 minutes in your day to read the Book of Mormon instead of being on your phone. I promise you will never regret it. That night we went to visit Javan. We read out of Mosiah 2 and talked about General Conference and he was just so blown away at how many people came to listen to the prophets voice. Now just think for a second, if these were Book of Mormon times and you listened to conference this weekend, you would've got a shout out in the greatest book the world has. Isn't that neat? I think so :)

 

Friday we woke up nice and early to head up to Plantation for MLC. It was really nice. We talked about how we can have more effective studies. It's one thing to just read the scriptures but it is an entirely different thing to actually study them. If you don't have time to read the scriptures or pray, your life is far busier than God intended it to be. Schedule your priorities, don't prioritize your schedule. We hit traffic coming home but luckily still had time to head over to Miami Dade for a little bit and we ended the night knocking with some Elders. We met the cutest little family that night! If the missionaries ever knock on your door, please let them in a give them a glass of water. You wont regret it. 

 

Saturday morning we went to service at the food pantry and then headed straight from there up to a comp study with the Assistants and the Zone Leaders. We talked about the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Missionaries. It was a good reminder of the things we've got to work on as missionaries, and people in general, so w we can reach our full potential. Then we went home and got ready for the day and then stationed ourselves at the church for GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!! Wow. Just wow. If you didn't watch it, please find a way to watch it soon. Even if it's only a talk a day. My favorites were Elder Davies talk on going to the temple, and Elder Gong's talk on being creative. If you need suggestions for which ones to watch, I say those two. But it was all really really good. So just watch all of it :)

 

Sunday morning we had a brunch at the Nilsen's house and watched the first session of conference there while Katee did my nails :) Then after that session we ate with Andrea and then went to the church for the last session. WASHINGTON IS GETTING A TEMPLE!!! Wow. Just wow. I was literally crying. I am so excited. Now that we will have two temples, that means you have to go just as often if not more ;) I loved Elder Stevenson's talk. We have all got to Shepherd those around us in their own ways. That night we went home to study and we got a call from the AP's. I was expecting to get transferred but in this call they confirmed it. It broke my heart to hear that I was leaving Snapper Creek YSA. But it will be in good hands. 

 

Monday morning we had to take our car to Firestone for an oil change and they did it so fast! I was impressed. Then we had lunch with our district and headed over to UM for another lesson with Sharae. We reset her date to November 10th so she can learn all the lessons and we said our goodbyes. It was my last time on UM campus and as fate would have it, the marching band was out practicing. *tear* After our lesson with Sharae we headed down to Homestead to have dinner with Grant's family. I am going to miss that home and all who live there. As we were heading out, I ran over a tree stump in my attempt to make a U-turn and we instantly heard a rattling noise. Nice Sister Beckstrand. So we called Grant and he brought his neighbor over to look at it. We just bent something so the exhaust pipe kept hitting it but we got to FHE safely :) (just had to take it to Firestone again this morning) It was really nice to see everyone one last time. I am going to miss the branch. I will be heading up to Boynton Beach tomorrow. My new companion will be Sister Oliveira. I am super excited to continue the work up there but am sad to leave my family here. 

The church is true. Never forget it. Keep reading and praying and please go to the temple! Keep being awesome. 

 

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: Lime bikes! You pay a dollar and can take it anywhere and when you're done the bike locks itself up! Pretty cool. 

My favorite people at MLC :)

Last time with our dear Katee

Watching the marching band set up as we were waiting for Sharae

Our last time in Florida City and the last time with Grant's family. I'm going to miss the Palacios.

 

And this beauty that Grant took.