Sister Sophia's Florida Fun: Friends For Life Mission

Here in the FFLM we are sometimes referred to as the "friends for life mission" and oh how grateful I am for the friends that I have made here. God sends us to our specific missions and mission presidents so we not only bless the lives of those around us, but so we can meet the people we need in our life that we wouldn't have met otherwise. I love the people I'm serving with and have served with. You have all blessed my life so much. This week Sister Jensen and I got to go on two exchanges so we were all over the place.

Tuesday we has zone conference. My very last one. It was pretty sad actually. I had to give my departing testimony. Most of conference was focused on consecrated obedience. We talked about the rich young ruler in the bible. He was a pretty good follower of Jesus Christ but as soon as he was asked to give up all that he had and follow Christ, he couldn't do it. We have all got to be willing to give up that one thing that is holding us back from getting closer to our Savior and becoming more like him. What's your thing? Are you willing to give it up? That night we had Book of Mormon class and correlation. Always great meetings to be at.

Wednesday we got to meet with Zenaida. That woman is literally the cutest. We got to teach her the Plan of Salvation and she loved it! Teaching her has been a learning experience for us. We have been teaching her with basically only scriptures because we know what those say. We don't understand when Sister Kovacs speaks Tagalog. But it all works out! She also kept bringing up baptism so at the end of the lesson we invited her to be baptized and she said of course!! So come February 9th Zenaida will be baptized!!! She was already setting up the time and everything. That night we headed up to Palm Beach to exchange.

Thursday I was joined by Sister Randall here in Boynton Beach. We visited out friend Daphyne that morning but she was sick so she just let us pray for her and then she sent us on our way. So we headed down to do service at the food pantry in Delray. While we were there we got a call from Sister Wheeler down in Miami. They had come up because they needed to pay a ticket at the Delray courthouse but they left their keys there and had taken the train up and back. So they hopped back on the train and we went and got their keys for them and met them at the train station. It was a tender mercy because Sister Wheelers comp is Sister Jacobsen, who was Sister Randall's last companion. So they got to talk for a little bit which was really needed. We knocked for a but that day but not much else happened. It was freezing cold by the time we had to exchange back. And Josh, when I say freezing, it was like 67 degrees and windy lol.

Friday morning Sister Jensen and I had to meet up with the Zone Leaders to plan out zone council. We only do them once a transfer but it seems like we are always planning training's. The weeks just get faster and faster. I just need a rewind button and go back a couple months. There is no way it's almost February! We had dinner that night with the Ramos family. They are from Guyana so it was cool to learn more of their culture. That has been one of my favorite parts of Florida, just learning about all these different Latin cultures and what they do. It's pretty awesome. We had to do a lot of planning that day so not much else happened.

We got to see Zenaida again on Saturday. That little nugget just gets happier and happier every time we come by. It's the best. We taught her the word of wisdom and went through the 10 commandments and then she just kept asking what all the other commandments were. It was awesome. We were all over the place trying to find scriptures in the Book of Mormon and the bible. Luckily, the Doctrine and Covenants are in Tagalog on Gospel Library so that was super helpful too. After her we headed down to Boca to knock with the Sisters. I knocked with Sister Yuen first and then later with Sister Abdo. They are both super hard working missionaries so it was fun to be with them and see how they roll. Sister Abdo goes home one transfer after me so it was good to talk about how to stay strong to the end. The mission life is literally the best life. That night I had to play the piano at a baptism for the YSA branch and speak so it was fun to be there. It's awesome to see how the work is progressing in all the different areas. Not just the mission but across the world too.

Sunday was awesome. Zenaida came to church which was good. We were worried that Sister Kovacs might forget her again but thanks to a lot of prayers, they were there :) Kimberly also got her physical temple recommended which was excited. We are super pumped to go with her on Saturday. After church we had lunch with the Haitian ward. I've never been so confused in my life. But the food is always sooo good. The Elders were there too so I wasn't completely lost. Everyone was translating for me. I love the Haitians. They are such awesome people. That night we had dinner with the Ruchs. It was good but we were still so full from lunch. But their house was really cool. In our area you've got the humble people and the pretty ritzy people. I love when people let us tour their house because I will probably never have a house as cool as theirs. That night we headed back down to Boca to exchange.

Monday I spent the day in Boca Raton with Sister Edmunds and we biked all day! It was honestly so much fun. I really love biking and wish I would've done it more on my mission. The carnival in Boca started yesterday so we went and OYMed people there. It was honestly kinda hard to find a way to talk to them but it was really good. And of course we got snow cones before we left. Then we biked over to visit a returning member but on the way there we took a pit stop at President Boggus house to grab some water. He is the YSA branch president up here and they live in a literal mansion. I had heard a lot about their house and was so excited to finally go. Their cleaning people are in my ward so they gave us a tour :) they have an actually movie theater, and elevator, its three stories and the stop is just a huge game room. They have a legit library with a ladder and everything and their backyard is literally right on the ocean. It was so cool. We tried to visit the member after our quick little pit stop but then we couldn't get in so we made the trek back to the church and exchanged with the sisters. Sister Jensen and I had dinner with their friend Erika that night. She is from Peru. They made this potato tuna stuff. It was kinda weird but pretty good!

But that's about it for this week! Got to spend a lot of time with really good friends and meet some new friends on the way. I hope your week is good! But I can promise it will be better if you make time to go to the temple :)

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand

Florida Sunshine: Friends from Zone Conference:)

We also went to the beach last week which is always fun:)