Sister Sophia's Florida Fun: Festival of Nativities

Hey y'all! I feel like I haven't had a P-day in about 12 years. So buckle up everyone! Here goes nothing.

Saturday the 24th was pretty normal. We had a blitz up in the top of our area. Being with Sister Dorlean is awesome because now that she's with me, we can talk to all of the Haitian people that we knock into! It's so fun to just kinda sit back and watch her teach Creole. It's really neat. I wish I could speak a different language. I'm just really good at my Spanglish haha. But I can say the name of the church in French now so that's fun! I'm catching up to you Josh! That night we went caroling at Walmart again! This time we got permission so we didn't get kicked out. It was really fun as usual.

Sunday was just as good as usual. Our friend Sheryl came to church and loved it! The Elders gave her a blessing after sacrament meeting because she's pretty sick right now and she was promised that if she continues to take the missionary lessons that she would be fully healed. Talk about promised blessings. It was pretty cool. Our friend Kimberly also came and stayed all three hours. We didn't get the chance to see her throughout the week but hopefully we will be able to see her this week and set her with a baptism date. That night was mostly just full of knocking and trying to visit some people.

Monday we thought wasn't going to be very good but it turned out to be fun! We knocked for a long time all day and found a new friend named Kezia! She was really open to learning more which was really good to hear as a missionary. That night we had dinner with some members that basically just bought us dinner at Chick-fil-a and then left us there to just chill. It was honestly a pretty nice night. Then we went to see our friend Phillip. We might have to stop teaching him though. We aren't to sure if he's progressing right now. We have to take a break with him and give him time to figure it out on his own.

Tuesday morning we went to see our one of our members. She let us feed her chickens which was fun. We went home after and had our studies and then headed out to have interviews with President Garns. He's just so awesome. I know that as missionaries we are called to our mission president and not the mission. I am so grateful to be here at this specific time. That night we went caroling with the zone leaders and we saw a really cool miracle! The first door we knocked on, our friend Pam opened and she immediately started to cry. We finished our song and she was so grateful to see young people like us out doing what we were doing. After talking with her for a few minutes, she told us she had a question. She goes, "Are you scared of dying?" We all smiled and told her no. She was so surprised and we told her we could come back to share the message of the Plan of Salvation with her. It was awesome.

Wednesday morning we had to go to the other District's interview training so that took some time. We all went to Panera Bread after for lunch. That place is always so good. Then later that day Sister Dorlean and I went downtown in Delray Beach to meet with David. There is this street called Atlantic Ave. and it's full of little shops and it ends at the beach. So we stopped and took some pictures of the 100ft tree in the middle of the park and walked around as we talked about the Doctrine of Christ. It was pretty fun. We are excited to go to the temple with him soon! We had dinner with some members who are from the Philippines (shout out to Grant) so it was fun to talk with them about how big Christmas is over there and how boring we are here in America. It was fun to learn more about them!

Thursday morning we met with our friend Yarelis and taught her the Doctrine of Christ. As we were talking about enduring to the end she looked at us and goes, "When can I be baptized?" We smiled and had her pray about it right then. She now has a date for December 29th! Now we've just got to get her to come to church with us. She is awesome though. We got to see a recent convert that day too that we have been trying to see since we got here. Her name is Angela and she is really funny. She is just super busy with work and can never come to church. Oof. We then went to see our friend Fred. His neighbor was over who is from Haiti so he and Sister Dorlean talked for about an hour and then we finally got to teach Fred the Restoration. It was a pretty good lesson. Then we had dinner with some other members and then went caroling once again with Elder Van Dyke and Elder Watkins. It was a party. Well, most everyone was getting mad at us because they had kids sleeping or they just didn't like us but... we did meet this really cute couple that had heard The Tabernacle at Temple Square so they got really excited to come to our nativity!

Friday morning we went and did service for Sister Borge. She is moving soon and needed our help moving stuff around and packing up boxes. It was really fun. And she bought us pizza and chicken nuggets and stuff. The Elders came which is always a party as well. We saw our returning member Sona later that day and after being with her we booked it home to eat some dinner and then headed to the Festival of Nativities that our stake put on. Basically, they had a live nativity outside that people could walk around and look at. There were different things for them to do and then there was a free concert that they could come to. We, the missionaries, were in charge of ushering people in and giving them tours through the nativity. It was so much fun!!

Saturday was even better. That morning we received a referral from our Bishop so we went to go see her. Daphyne has been church hopping for a while so as we shared the Restoration with her she was really excited to come to church on Sunday! So were we :) Then we headed to the church and started dressing up! There was a parade in Boynton Beach that our Stake President, President Lustig, wanted the missionaries in. It was to advertise the Festival of Nativities so we got to dress up like we were in Bethlehem and we got to walk around and hand out pictures of Jesus Christ and invitations. It was so much fun to see everyone's smiling faces! Then we booked it back to the church to drop off our costumes because the nativity was starting but we had all the costumes. We also had a super cool miracle!!! There was a lady named Vivian who was on her way to Mass but was stopped by the parade so she stayed and watched. She was very unimpressed that it was a Christmas parade but none of the floats talked about the real reason for Christmas. Then we came by and a missionary gave her an invitation. She was so touched that we were there that she came to the nativity that night and loved it! Some other missionaries talked to her later and told her when church started and she said it was really early but she would try her hardest to come.

So heading over to Sunday, she came!!! And she loved it sooo much. She kept saying she wanted to leave but she stayed for all three hours and was so impressed with all the young fathers that were helping out and how many little kids we had. Our friends Kimberly and Daphyne came to church too! It was awesome. After church we had dinner with the Milton's and David and talked about getting him his temple recommend. Hopefully we can go with him this week! That night we spent one last night at the nativity and Vivian came again. She loved it and stayed for the Devotional. After hearing the prophet speak she informed us that she really wanted to hear more about our church and what we believe.

We are super grateful for the miracles that God has been putting in our paths. I love this Gospel and this Christmas season. Make sure to go out and light the world with those around you so they can feel the true Spirit of Christmas. Don't forget to read and pray and go to the temple this week!

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshie: the 100ft tree!! We see it a bunch. They did a tree lighting last week. So. Many. Lights.