Sister Sophia's Florida Fun: 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!