Sister Sophia's Florida Fun: Why Not Read the Book?

Hello everyone! What a great week we had this last week here in Boynton Beach! The holiday events are my favorite things.

This last Monday we saw Phillip and Kimberly again. We talked with Phillip about prayer and why it's so important. He is still looking for answers so we told him to pray every night and then open the Book of Mormon and just start reading. Then every morning we texted him and asked him how it was going! From Phillip's experience this week I can tell you that God really answers your prayers as long as you are willing to ask and do the work to find your answers. Kimberly has been struggling with the fact that she needs to be baptized by authority so we ready 3 Nephi 11 and explained how they all needed to be re-baptized once Christ gave Nephi the authority to do so. She said that made a lot of sense and we told her to watch the Restoration video before we come back. So hopefully tonight we can set her with a baptism date!

Tuesday morning I finally got to meet Troy!!! It was a moment I have been waiting a long time for. He took us right into his backyard and we just got to talk for about an hour. His dogs came over and played with us and he showed us his boards. We talked about life and about the ocean. It was so fun to finally get to connect with him and he even told us he will come to church with us soon. So that was a party :) After seeing him we headed up north for district council. That's always a good time. It's fun to get to learn from the other missionaries. God puts us all together for a reason. That night we had dinner with some members and they helped David find some family names to take to the temple. Then we headed to Book of Mormon class but David was the only one that came so we had a fun lesson as we talked about Ammon and the flocks of King Lamoni. It was really fun.

Wednesday was another really fun day! We started out the day with our studies and then we headed down south a little and knocked with the Elders for a bit and then we headed down to the Boca Raton chapel for our second parade! We met there at 4 to find out where we needed to be and where and what we were doing. Then we all went and got dinner and brought it back to the chapel and then at 6 we headed out to the parade. We dropped everyone off at the beginning and then we drove to the end and took 12 years trying to find someplace to park. Then we briskly walked back to the beginning of the parade to find our float. The theme of the parade was Broadway musicals so, of course, ours was The Book of Mormon Musical. There were signs on the side that said, "Now that you have seen the show why not read the book?" We walked with it and passed out Book of Mormon pass along cards and copies of The Book of Mormon. It was honestly so much fun. And to add to that, the Boca Raton rugby club was right behind us so they let me pass a ball with them before we started. It has honestly been so much fun to be in parades and get to hear all the marching bands and remember all the things I love back at home. But the work continues! The parade didn't start till 7:30 so we didn't get home till 11 because it was a half an hour drive but it was so worth it and so much fun!

Thursday Sister Wheeler joined me in Boynton Beach for the day! We had service at the food pantry which is always fun! After service we met up with David and his friend Julien at this random neighborhood full of peacocks! Julien was back visiting from China and he had a bunch of questions for us about the church so we just answered all the questions that he had with David's help. Oh, and we fed the peacocks. It was so much fun. They would just come take the nuts right out of our hands. Definitely want to go back and do it again. That night we went caroling for about 2 hours! It was so much fun. There are a lot of people in this area that think they are too cool for us and don't want to talk. But who can refuse a group of young people singing on their front porch? Those with sleeping children. That's who. But really though, it's fun to see how music helps open their hearts and be willing to come check out the church!

Friday was such a spiritual high. Holy cow. We started out the morning with catching a ride with some other sisters down to MLC in Ft. Laud. We went over a lot of things the mission is working on. I love being able to go to those meeting because you can really tell just how much the Lord trusts us. And President and Sister Garns. Especially when during the closing prayer the fire alarm goes off because the Elders grilling burgers outside accidentally catch the entire grill on fire and President just expects us to finish the prayer because the Elders outside can figure out their own problem. That's how missionary life is every day. We wake up to a metaphorical fire going on in our areas and President Garns just knows that we will fix it. Wow. When we got home, Sister Dorlean and I headed over to the church to print off some family names. Then we met up with our Bishop and his wife, the Taylors, and David and we all hopped in the van and headed down to the temple! As soon as we pulled up I remembered it was YSA temple night and I ran into members from Snapper Creek! I didn't think the night could get better but it did. I miss those members. It was David and Sister Dorlean's first time! Sister Dorlean is a convert of about 3 years and they just barely finished construction on the Haiti temple. It will be dedicated in April so she has never done baptisms. The first ones she got to do were for her mom and her grandma. It was really neat to get to watch that. She was smiling the entire time :) Then David got baptized for his grandpa and then he got to baptize Bishop! It was really funny the first couple times but he got the hang of it and by the end of the 10 names he was a pro. It was so nice to be doing baptisms for the dead again. I LOVE THE TEMPLE!!!! If you haven't been in the last 14 days, make a commitment to go in the next 7 days. It will bless your life. And you never know who is up there waiting for you to get baptized for them. Don't make them wait any longer!

Saturday was a pretty normal day. We had a meeting to fill the district leaders in on what we talked about at MLC. When we got to the church though the entire parking lot was packed. There was a funeral going on from the Haitian ward. I have never seen so many Haitians in one place at one time. I was definitely out of place and people definitely gave me weird looks. That night we had dinner with our other friend Kimberly. She read through the Restoration pamphlet and learned a lot of things. She has been going to church for 7 years but always had a smoking problem. But she has overcome that! So as we were eating dinner our conversation when as follows: "Sisters, I want to get baptized." "That's awesome! When?" "On my birthday." "When's your birthday?" "August 14th!" We had a really long discussion after that. So our goal with her is to move that up to as close as we can possible. She already knows the church is true. She's just missing the blessings of having the Holy Ghost. After dinner we headed to the church for a YSA baptism. We had a friend come who is YSA so he could meet the branch and the missionaries. It made me remember once again how much I miss my YSA branch down south!

Yesterday was pretty alright. Vivian came to 3rd hour but not the rest. She was also going to come to dinner with us that night at a members house but then she decided not to. All our friends this week cancelled their lessons on us. But hopefully this week is better. That night we went caroling again with the southern half of the zone so that was fun too. I just want to know what these people think when they see a huge group of missionaries walking around their neighborhood. It was kinda raining the whole time but not enough for us to care. The life of a missionary is the best life to live.

I hope you all have a great week this week! With Christmas fast approaching don't forget to go out and light your community this week with some act of service!

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: The parade! It was so fun! It was weird to see a few members in a sea of non members. It's the complete opposite of Utah that's for sure. We also fit the entire zone in an elevator so that was a party :)