White Friday

Hi everyone! It seems like just yesterday that I emailed home. Probably cause it basically was. The last 3 days have been very eventful to say the least.  

Wednesday morning we left bright and early to head down to transfers because Sister Oliveira had to be there early for the training meeting. While they were there we headed over to Broward County campus to OYM. It was really fun and we met some cool people. Then we ate some Chick-fil-a for lunch and headed back to transfers where I met my new companion, Sister Dorlean! She is straight from Haiti and learning English but she is awesome. She is the only member of her family and is so strong in the gospel. Also, we have the same first name so that's cool :) I got to see some of my friends and then we headed on back to Boynton Beach. That night we had dinner with Sister Anderson at Olive Garden. It was way good. I haven't had that in a long time. Then we went shopping and headed home to unpack.

Thursday morning I ran a 5K on the treadmill in honor of the Thankful 13. Then we had a zone council on the new Light the World initiative for this December. If you haven't seen the videos yet I invite you to go check them out! Its going to be a really good year. Then we had some studies and headed to dinner with the Jensens and the Hanks! We played some rugby outside with their son Carter while the food was being prepared. It was really fun and well needed. Felt just like at home. That night we started out the Christmas season caroling at Walmart. We got kicked out but it was fun nonetheless. :) I cant wait to get to spend time singing this transfer. It's going to be fun. 

This morning we got up nice and early and Sister Mikee took us to the temple! It was a much needed trip. And it was even better when my trainer Sister Kaylin Bingham showed up!! Greatest surprise. I know today is basically over already but I invite you all next year to spend black Friday at the temple. It's much more fun and you receive eternal blessings from White Friday. 

I hope you all have a good week this next week! Because we went to the temple today, our next pday wont be until December 3rd so I will talk to you then!

All my love, 

Sister Beckstrand

Zone pictures!

Thanksgiving Dinner :)

Sister Jensen and I :)

Me :)

Sister Dorlean and I :)

Kaylin and I :)

Bring on the Holidays

Hello everyone! I hope your week was amazing and that you are all excited for the holidays coming up! I know I am :) Spending holidays on the mission is one of the greatest things. Especially when you have a super awesome ward like Boynton Beach. This week was a pretty normal one for us. 

Wednesday I got to spend the day in Boca Raton so that was way fun. We did some pretty normal missionary work. We had a meal appointment that night with one of their members and her sister who is super Catholic. The member wanted us to teach her the Plan of Salvation so we tried but she didn't want to hear it. So we just testified of our purpose as missionaries and of the church and now the rest is up to her for now. The member made us some really good fish and potatoes. I love being in a family ward. (no offense to my YSA friends) That night we had a Doctrine and Covenants class that was actually pretty cool. They are going over points in the book "Saints." If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it. It is sooo good and teaches us soo much about the church. 

Thursday morning we had another emergency with some other Sisters in our zone so we spent the morning with them and then had a comp study with the Zone Leaders and the Assistants on how we can help chase the darkness out of our lives and the lives of our friends. As missionaries it is up to us to help bring the light into others lives and to help them feel of God's love. It was honestly really good and I am excited to apply the things I learned. That evening we had dinner with the Milton's which is always good. That night we went to visit our friend Chrissy. Her husband is a returning member and we aren't really teaching her but just trying to become her friend first. They had just got some kittens that morning to foster for a couple weeks so we got to play with them. It was super fun. 

Friday morning we went to visit our member Lauren. She was baptized back in April so we have been going over all the lessons again. We taught her the 10 commandments and helped her to learn the hand signs so she could remember them. It was a fun lesson. That night our member picked us up to take us to some lessons. We went and saw Kimberly first. She was almost baptized about 3 months ago but then called the sisters and told them she didn't want to hear from them. She called us Sunday saying she was being led back to us. She kept calling herself a "dry Mormon" so when we go back we will have to explain that we don't say that anymore so she might as well just get baptized all ready. She has been reading the Book of Mormon a lot so that is a miracle in itself. Then we went to see our friend Katie. She is a talker. We got as far as the Spirit World while teaching the Plan of Salvation and then it went off track for about 45 minutes and we had to leave. Next time. 

Saturday morning we had breakfast with David at this place called "The Diner." It is soooo good. Highly recommend. After we ate we went over the Plan of Salvation. It was one of the weirdest lessons I've had but it was good. After ward Sister Oliveira didn't feel good at all so we went home and she threw up for about the next hour. We stayed home until a blitz that we were having because Sister Oli refused to stay at home. We had Thanksgiving dinner after that with our ward. She didn't eat very much food but she did not last long before we had to go home again. But it was fun to be there with our ward and the Haitian ward. 

Sunday was really good. We were supposed to have 3 of our friends come to church but none of them did. We don't know why. They just keep making up excuses. Any one have any tips for me? Brother Milton got called as our new Bishop which was a huge surprise for everyone that we were getting a new Bishop. We taught Relief Society on the talk "Try, Try, Try" by Elder Eyring from this last conference. If you haven't listened to it since conference, I invite you to go back and listen to it tonight! You wont regret it. We had dinner with the Haws family that night. They have 4 kids and one that's about a month away. They are such a handful but so fun. Sister Oliveira got sick after eating again so we spent the rest of the night at home so she could rest. 

Yesterday we were packed from one thing to another. We saw Sherly first. She is awesome. Super Catholic but over time I know she will get baptized. We went over Joseph Smith's role in the restoration and why a restoration was even needed in the first place. Then we went to visit a referral named Gerry. He is really funny and was really excited to read the Book of Mormon on his Nook. Then we headed to see Yarelis and her son Chris. They are soo awesome. Just a word to the wise, if you ever go out with the missionaries, pleeeaaasseeee be on time. Our member was late and it threw off the rest of our night. We knew by now that Sister Oliveira was going to be leaving so we headed over to see the Jensen family and play some Foosball with them for one last time with Sister Oli. Then we headed down to see Dennis, one of Sister Oli's recent converts. We went over the Word of Wisdom and then headed to dinner with our members. They are great. Then we ran to the church for a lesson with Phillip. David came with us and was a huge help to our lesson! We are really grateful that we have him in the church now :) Phillip is doing good. We aren't too sure if he is really getting what we are teaching or if he really cares. We are going to pray about him. Then we ran to say goodbye to Kimberly. It was a good time. Then we headed home for transfer calls! Sister Oliveira will be transferring to Coral Springs and will be training! She is going to be awesome. I am staying here in Boynton Beach and my new companion will be Sister Dorlean! She is from Haiti and I am super excited to meet her! It's going to be a fun transfer! 

I hope you all have a good Thanksgiving this week! I am so grateful for this Gospel and my Savior Jesus Christ. I wouldn't be who I am today without him. I am also grateful for the Book of Mormon and the things I learn from reading it. I am grateful for my loving Heavenly Father who continues to answer my prayers and comforts me when I need it. And I am especially grateful for the temple and that power and blessings that come from attending it on a regular basis. I hope you all have a fantastic week!

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: these huge mushrooms outside our apartment! Apparently they've been here for a while but I just noticed them.

And a pic of my sad companion who doesn't want to leave Boynton 

Note from Penny - This is the kind of picture you get from a wonderful missionary who probably looked at this picture and thought it looked like the number 8 and remembered that she was baptized when she was 8 years old.

 

Milagres

Hello everyone! Hope everyone's week was amazing! I know mine was! A lot happened this week so buckle up!

Last Tuesday we had Zone Conference again! Elder Shayne M. Bowen of the Seventy came with his wife. It. Was. Amazing. We sang our musical number very first and it was definitely not the best we had done but it was good. The recording I'll send was one of our practices. Elder Bowen talked about a lot of things but mainly gave us 6 points that we can work on as a mission that will help us progress at a faster rate than we are at right now. They are: 1- Arise at 6:30  2- Plan 30 minutes daily  3- 30 testifying contacts daily  4- 30 lessons weekly (preferably with members present) 5- Urgency  6- Quiet Dignity   We, as a mission, definitely do not get 30 contacts a day or 30 lessons a week so those 2 we are really hounding down on and making sure we testify to everyone we see. It's honestly harder than I thought it would be because we are struggling knowing where to go to find that many people to talk to. But as we have faith, we know God will lead and guide us. He also talked a lot about the Oath and Covenant of the priesthood. I honestly still don't understand it that well but I understand better than I did before. Once zone conference was over we went out and knocked for 45 minutes and then came back. We stayed in our skirts and let me tell you, that was the weirdest thing I have done on my mission. I definitely appreciate being able to wear pants. Then we headed back to the church for another 2 hours for MLC with Elder Bowen. We talked about the Priesthood for 2 more hours. At the end he answered some questions that we had so that was neat too. It was a spiritually exhausting day. After MLC we had dinner with the Milton's and then headed to Book of Mormon class. We read Alma 13 and guess what our lesson was on? The priesthood. I feel like a pro on the priesthood now. I could speak at General Conference about it! Lol no I couldn't. Still a lot I have to learn. 

Wednesday morning we had the opportunity to help one of our members move in. Every time Sister Oliveira and I would move something she was so impressed that we could move just as much as the Elders. We got a call while we were there from the other Sisters that another sister in the zone was struggling so we left and I headed to their house with Sister Jensen. We were there for the better part of the day until we got a call from Sister Wheeler that Sister Oli had thrown up. So we met up with them and I took my sick companion home for the day. 

Thursday was honestly the most normal day I've had doing missionary work since being in Boynton Beach. We had service that day at the food pantry. It gets kinda boring there so we rewrote the words to "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?" to "Do You Wanna be Our New Friend?" It was pretty funny. We had dinner that night with Sister Hillam. She is 8 months pregnant so we had super cheesy mac and cheese that honestly didn't make me feel to great but it was really good :) That night we finally got to see Katie again after almost a whole month. She has had some family problems going on but we really excited for us to be back said it was the perfect day for us to be there. We had set up that lesson at the beginning of the week so it testified to us that God is really in control and knows when our friends need us and what they need to hear. 

Friday I went on exchanges with Sister Wheeler!! It was so fun to spend a day in Camino Gardens. We mostly did a lot of knocking looking for people that speak Spanish. We knocked with the Elder Van Dyke and Elder Egan earlier in the day but all we found was this cat that followed us around and had obviously been in a few street fights. It was super nice though. We also knocked with Elder Watkins and Elder Bishop later that night. It was right before our meal appointment and we were starving so they brought us some chicken nuggets lol. While we were knocking with them we saw a really cool last door miracle! Celine and her daughter Gigi were excited to hear about the Book of Mormon and have the sisters back! Our meal appointment was with one of their recent converts. It was so much fun. Sister Wheeler is vegetarian so they made us some lasagna with mushrooms. I was honestly impressed. 

Saturday was pretty good. We honestly didn't do much. Sister Jensen and I met up with the zone leaders to plan out a zone council and then we went back home. Sister Oliveira wasn't feeling well so she got a blessing from the Elders and stayed home to rest. We had dinner with the Jensen's at Chris' Taverna. It was Greek food and was really good! I love the Jensens. They are so funny. After dinner we went back home so Sister Oliveira could rest some more. 

Sunday was honestly the best day of the week. We saw so many miracles and we are so grateful for God putting all these things in our path. So it started out at church. President Garns came to our ward so we were showing him around when a member walked up to us and goes, "Sisters! I want you to meet my friend Sheryl!" We look over and instantly recognize her because she came to David's baptism last week because she is his next door neighbor! We were really excited to see her. After Sacrament meeting was over we went over to talk to her and she apologized for being so mean to us when we knocked on her door. She got a little emotional but promised her it was okay. Hearts can change! Then we noticed we had a voicemail on our phone so we headed to the kitchen to listen to it. It was an old.friend Sister Oli had taught and she almost got baptized but then changed her mind and told the sisters to not contact her again. Well, Kimberly called saying she had quit smoking and God was leading her back to us! We were so happy to get to talk to her! Then after dinner we were knocking with the Elders for a hot second but had to leave to an appointment with a friend that some other Elders had found for us. So we go start teaching Natasha and halfway through the restoration her friend Brianna comes out and just starts asking us a million questions a out the Book of Mormon. Thanks to the Spirit we were able to answer them all and finish our lesson. At the end Sister Oliveira read Moroni 10:3-5 and they both went, "Woah." They couldn't wait for us to come back! So then we get in the car and Sister Oli goes, "The only other thing that could happen this night is for the Elders to call and say they found us a new friend." Cue the phone ringing, they found us two new friends and one of them is Brazilian! It was quite an amazing day. 

Yesterday we had a zone council. We talked about how we can implement the things that Elder Bowen challenged us to do. It's going to take some time to get it where we want it to be but we know that it's possible! After being at the chapel for a minute to talk with some missionaries we set out to knock some doors. It is so hard to find 30 people to talk to some times but we can do it! After dinner later we had FHE with the Milton's and Phillip came! We taught him the 10 commandments and had a really good time together :) our lesson for after fell through so we decided to go knock with the Elders and between the two of us we found 4 new friends for the zone! It was awesome :)

Next week is transfers. I hope I stay but we honestly don't really know what's going to happen. I love serving here in Boynton Beach. I love the ward and I love the people here. Life is good here in the FFLM! We get to go to the temple this next transfer so I'm super excited! Make sure you make time for the temple this week! And don't forget to read your scriptures and pray! I love you all! Have a great week!

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: Silver fire hydrants! They are all over the place. Not sure why they aren't red but I think they're cool!

Your cute Sister Missionary :)

Christmas is among us!!

The Zone!!!! 

Elders: Bullock, Ruth, Watkins, Seal, Jaques, Gardener, Burton, Tucker, Egan, Jocelyn, Davis, Bishop, Melo, Van Dyke

Sisters: Valtriani, Allsup, Affonso, Paniagua, Gibbons, Edmunds, Jensen, Me, Oliveira, Wheeler

 

The song they sang

The cute cat that followed us around everywhere

Benjamin Ave!

Zone Conference with Sister Oli and Sister Reidhead :)

Just Baptized!

Bonjour! Hope you all had a great week because I sure did.

Last Monday we had another lesson with Phillip and Kimberly. Phillip makes everything so complicated so it's a challenge for us to make everything really simple for him to not be able to make complicated. We never have a dull moment in our lessons that's for sure. Kimberly is doing great. Our only struggle right now is getting both of them to accept a baptism date. They have really weird concerns but we know that everything can be overcome with prayer. Hopefully tonight goes well. 

Tuesday was another day full of meetings for Sister Jensen and I. It's really weird serving around so many sisters and going to so many meetings. Our zone is huge. I'm usually in a little zone with only two other sisters. But it's been good :) Some of us in our zone (Elders Egan, Watkins, Tucker, Sisters Jensen, Gibbons, and myself) got nominated by the APs to sing a musical number this Tuesday for zone conference with Elder Shayne M. Bowen.  So we did a lot of practicing on Tuesday. Actually all week. We're pretty nervous but hopefully it all goes well. That night I went back with Sister Oliveira for our ward correlation, mostly to get everything ready for David's baptism on Saturday!

Wednesday morning Sister Jensen and I went and surprised some of our sisters with Halloween candy. We kinda scared them but we had a great time. We spent most of our Halloween visiting new members that had recently moved into the ward. I am still trying to get to know all the members here. There are so many ahhhhh. Which is a good thing but I'm used to only have 20 people at church my entire mission. We went and knocked with the Boca Raton sisters later and then went and decorated their door and surprised them with candy too :) then we headed over to our members house for dinner. The food wasn't ready yet when we got there so they let us carve one of their pumpkins for them. So one of the stinky parts of Florida is that because of the humidity you can only carve pumpkins the day of Halloween because they are moldy by the next day. Even if its inside. We threw out a pumpkin yesterday that probably shouldn't have been in our house all week lol. But dinner was fun and then we headed home because we had to be home by 6:30. Don't worry mum, our Halloween was lame too. We spent the rest of our night studying for the zone conference we are having tomorrow. Elder Bowen asked us to study the Abrahamic Covenant so we took advantage of the extra time we had to study that night. Still a lot of things I don't get. Hopefully it makes sense tomorrow.

Thursday we had a lot of planning to do for our upcoming week but halfway through planning we were supposed to have a lesson with our friend Estella. Well, we got there and she wasn't there so we decided to stop by Yogurtland on the way home. It was a good decision. That night we had dinner with Brother and Sister Milton and David tagged along. We taught him the last couple things he needed to know and made sure everything was all set for Saturday. David is such a funny person. He told us about his trip that he just recently took to the Galapagos Islands. It's now on my bucket list. Then we ended the night at the chapel practicing for our musical number. The whole zone met at the chapel that night for our zone wide exchange! 

Friday Sister Paniagua joined me in Boynton Beach! It was a busy day to say the least. We had a lesson with one of the recent converts named Lauren in our ward. It was really cool because the sisters that baptized Lauren lived with Sister Paniagua so she knew exactly who she was when we went to see her. Then we went home and had some lunch and then headed to see our friend Poliana. She is from Brazil and is soo awesome. We taught her the restoration and she kept telling us how her home is centered on Jesus Christ. She's basically a member of the church but just doesn't know it yet. After her we went to see Sona. She loves to talk. We were there for a hot minute and didn't get to really talk much but she said she would talk to her son about coming to church soon so that's good. By then it was almost 6 so we stopped by Five Guys on our way home and then had our studies. We met up at the church once again to exchange back and once we all got there and said a prayer, it started pouring rain. It hasn't done that in a long time. It definitely rained way more last year than it has this year. But the weather is finally cooling down so that's good! 

All of our time on Saturday was dedicated to David's Baptism. That morning we made some treats to take for after and then we had to babysit the font all day to make sure it didn't overflow. We made sure everything was all set up and ready to go! When the man of the hour got there he had brought his friends and some family which was awesome!! The baptism went great. All the missionaries in our district sang a musical number for him and the Spirit through the whole night was just awesome. After the baptism and he came back in from getting dressed, he had a shirt on that said, "Just Baptized." We were all dying. Oh David. He really loved everything and that's all that matters. One of the members even brought pizza for after. That night we went around dropping off treats to some members and doorbell ditching them. It was a lot of fun because we mostly scared them all so that was great haha. 

Sunday was daylight savings!! Yay for an extra hour of sleep! Boo for it getting darker earlier now because people stop talking to us sooner. It's fine. David was 3 minutes early to church because he didn't know it was daylight savings. I guess that's another good thing. Had it not been for daylight savings he would've missed his confirmation. But it went well. He even bore his testimony after. It was awesome. Two months ago he decided he needed to go back to church. He prayed and two days later the sisters knocked on his door. He was busy and didn't give them the time of day but they invited him to church and that following Sunday, he came!! And now he is a member of Jesus Christ's true church here on the Earth. How cool. David is awesome. After church we went home and did our studies and then went to the Rane's for dinner and then went to visit our member Dennis. I love it when people have a bunch of questions and we just get to help answer all of them. It's so fun. If you have any questions, ask the missionaries! They can help :) 

But that's about it for this week folks! Stay tuned next week when you get to hear our musical number that we are singing tomorrow. It's going to be great :) I hope you all have a great week! Keep being awesome, read your scriptures, say your prayers, and go to the temple!

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: the huge Hibiscus flowers right outside our chapel. 

The zone! (left to right) 

Elders: Melo, Watkins, Tucker, Burton, Jauques, Bishop, Jocelyn, Van Dyke, Davis, Egan, Bullock, Ruth, Gardner, Seal

Sisters: Edmunds, Gibbons, Allsup, Affonso, Oliveira, Jensen, Wheeler, Me, Valtriani, Paniagua

Sister Paniagua and I at Five Guys (shout out to Grant)

Sister Oliveira and I at Yogurtland

The sister's door after decorating it haha

David's Baptism