One Day More!!

Well friends, the time has officially come. I don't know where the last 18 months went because I honestly feel like it's only been a year but alas, my time has come. We worked super hard this week and saw really cool miracles! 

Tuesday we spent the morning down in Fort Lauderdale for my departing interview with President Garns. He gave me a lot of really good advice for life. But that's no different than what he's done my entire mission. I sure am going to miss the Garns and all that they have done for me here in Florida. They are the best. We knocked for a bit that day and had dinner with the Milton's. Sister Milton hurt her ankle this week so it was fun to get to help out a little with dinner. We ended the night at Book of Mormon class but there were only like 3 people. They talked all about how missionaries are God's angels here on Earth. It was a fun conversation :)

Wednesday was my last round of District Councils and Sister Jensen and I stayed together all day. The councils were all about repentance and helping our friends know how to apply the Doctrine of Christ in their own lives. Sister Jensen and I did a role play at one of them. Those are always fun. Once those were over we took the Palm Beach sisters out to lunch. We were in downtown Palm Beach and it was crazy. Any place downtown in Florida just makes you feel like you're in a movie. We did our studies at the church after that and then had dinner with the Harms. They have a huge Great Dane named Magic. He's awesome. Before we left we played tug of war with him and I've never been so scared of a dog haha. Their voices are just so incredibly deep it's crazy. They also have a really cool fish tank with predator fish so they were all over the place which was fun. They even had a puffer fish and they got him to puff up a little. It was really cool! We ended the night reading Alma 34 with Phillip. It ended up being super inspired because he told us he wasn't sure if Jesus Christ was really a real person or not. We had a really good lesson that night about Christ and repentance and invited him to pick something to repent of. 

Thursday morning Sister Jensen and I had a come study with the AP's and the zone leaders. We talked about how Christ is the perfect leader and we should strive to lead like He did. Then Soeur Dorlean and I headed over to Zenaida's. We taught her the last little things she needed to know and went over the interview questions with her. On our way out she gave us this Filipino dessert thing. I'm honestly not entirely sure what it was but it was good and that's all that matters. We ran home and ate some lunch and then went to the food pantry for service for my last time. I'm going to miss having opportunities like that when I get home. Something that's nice about being a missionary is that those things are always around and there are always things to do. When you are home it's harder to find those opportunities because you're not constantly looking for them. That's why it's so important to share the Gospel with everyone because you never know who it's going to touch or who needs it. After service we went to visit one of the old ladies in our ward. She showed us lots of pictures of her family and told us her conversion story. It was really cool! I'm going to miss that about Florida too. At church last week, during Sunday School, our teacher had everyone raise their hand who was a convert to the church and there were only 6 people out of the 25 in the class that didn't raise their hand. It was really cool. We had dinner that night with the Tomsik's. They are a super awesome family and help out so much in our ward. It was their dogs birthday so we went to Five Guys so he could have a hot dog lol. 

Friday morning started at Zenaida's for her interview! It took 2 hours to fill out the form because she couldn't remember the year her kids were born so we had to do a lot of math but she passed and was so excited! We knocked a bunch that day and had dinner with one of our snowbirds from Oregon. Her husband is Jewish so it was cool to hear about his religion a little bit. They decided that Sister Dorlean is going to teach all the Relief Society how to make Haitian food. I wish I could be there for it. I guess shell just have to come to Utah after she goes home :) There was an Evening with Elder Rasband that night that we were invited to watch so that's where we ended our night. It was really really good. One guy talked about how we can be better teachers to those we lead. It was really helpful. Elder Rasband talked about how we can help those who are suicidal and how we can help prevent it from becoming an even bigger problem than it already is. 

Saturday was awesome. Honestly couldn't have spent my last Saturday any better. We started the morning off at the church for a baptism for one of the little 8 year olds in our ward. They just recently moved from Utah and none of their family is here so they had her birthday party right after so the ward could be there. There were a lot of unicorns everywhere haha. After lunch we visited some referrals and some friends that we had been working with that wanted to say bye before I left. Then we went back to the church because the YSA had a baptism at 4 and she wanted us there. So we went to that and then had to dip early because Zenaida showed up for her baptism at 5. It went so well! She was smiling the whole time and just kept saying how happy she was. The service was half in English and half in Tagalog so that was a really neat experience. Everyone brought refreshments after so we ate and then we had to head to the Haitian baptism at 6 so I could play the piano. After that baptism the Haitian Ward had their Valentines Day party and we got invited so of course we stayed.  I'm going to miss being surrounded by Haitians all the time and hearing my companion speak Creole. I never know what's going on but it's so fun to just sit back and watch how their lifestyle is. I definitely want to go visit Haiti one day. 

Sunday was good too. Zenaida was confirmed and the chapel was packed. We aren't sure why but everyone just seemed to be there. It was a miracle. The Relief Society room was full too which has never happened my entire mission. It was so neat to see everyone gathered together. It took us forever to leave the church because everyone was saying goodbye. It was a sad moment. We visited Daphyne later and shared a message with her about Jesus Christ and then we had dinner with the Jensens. Brother Jensen served his mission in Brazil so they made us Brazilian for my last time. They come to St. George every summer so I'll see them soon enough :) We ended the night at the chapel for Brother McGee's funeral. He passed away last week and flew him out to Connecticut to be buried so they just had the memorial service last night. None of his family are members of the church so it was cool to see them gather together and hear people from the church speak about the Plan of Salvation and how he's doing okay. I'm so grateful for the Plan of Salvation and they knowledge that we have that whatever happens in life, we will all be reunited again. What a happy celebration that will be :)

Yesterday was spent pretty much just saying goodbye to people. Our dear friend, Elder Mickelson, ended up in the hospital Sunday night. He's had a headache the last two weeks and just got worse and worse so he finally went in. Turns out there was a growth in his head. They did some tests and there shouldn't be anything wrong but he flew home this morning to get it removed. So we spent the morning at the hospital saying goodbye to him. He's still in happy spirits though so that's good. Then we went to the beach for lunch with the Bednarchiks. It was this place called Dune Deck Café and it was literally on the beach. We could've taken five steps and literally been in the water. It was awesome. It was really really good food too. We did some studies later and started packing and then had dinner at the Milton's once again. There were some other members there too so it was good to see them one last time. They all gave me their own pieces of advice on how to be a good returned missionary. I sure am going to miss all of them. The Boynton Beach ward will always have a place in my heart. We ended the night at Phillip's. He's come a long way since I've been here. He'll get baptized soon I know it. God has a plan for him just like he does the rest of us. 

We went sun rising for my last time this morning. It was good to be with friends and just breath in the Florida air. I'm going to miss Florida and everything that comes with it. The sun, the rain, the humidity, the birds, the flowers, the fish, the smells, the people, the clouds, the ducks, the water, the wind, the beach, everything. I'm so extremely grateful for the last 18 months that I've been able to spend here getting to know different people and different cultures.  I'm grateful for the testimony I've gained along the way of the truthfulness of this Gospel. I don't know where I would be without my Savior Jesus Christ and all that He has done for me. I'm sad to leave my home here in the Sunshine State but the next chapter of life begins soon. I'll see you all in a couple days!!

All my love,

Sister Beckstrand 

Zenaida's Baptism!!!!

Last sunrise in the Sunshine State :)

Boynton Beach members :)

Jensens, Bednarchiks, Miltons, Sandlins

Brother Herold, Sister Borge, and Keith:)

(Keith wouldn't stop moving so he's blurry)

Hospital with Elder Mickelson

Lunch on the beach with Brother and Sister B :)

Army of Helaman

Hello everyone! I hope you all once again had a great week. We sure did :)

Tuesday morning I finished MyPlan. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a program they make you do right before you go home to help you adjust to the normal life back at home. It's honestly really good and helped me a lot. After that we had district council. We talked about how important it is to help people understand that they need to be baptized by the proper authority. A lot of people in the world have already been baptized so when we invite them to do it again it doesn't make sense why unless they understand the need for authority. We are so blessed to have the priesthood in our lives :) we had dinner with the Kovacs that night at Olive Garden which was funny because the Elders were there too with one of their members. It's been really fun having Sister Dorlean try different foods they don't have in Haiti here in Florida. Her reaction to different things is always awesome. I love that nugget. That night we had Book of Mormon class and then Sister Jensen and I headed up to Palm Beach to say bye to one of our Sisters. She just has had some health problems lately so we went to help her get ready to leave and help the new Sister move in. We got home pretty late that night. 

Wednesday we had to take our car to Firestone. The workers there just know us now because we have gone so many times since I have been in this area. We were there for a hot minute though because they ended up changing the  battery and fixing the alignment after the oil change and stuff. Long day there. We spent most of the night knocking but we didn't end up finding any new friends. We had chicken enchiladas for dinner with the Sandlins. It was soo good. I forgot how much I love those. That night we were supposed to have a lesson with the Elders with some friends they were going to give us but they weren't home. But we waited for 30 minutes in the cold anyway hoping they would come. We just froze instead. 

Thursday I spent the day with Sister Ward in Camino Gardens! We spent a good part of the day helping their Branch President, Presidente Fuentes, move. He didn't go very far, just around the corner. So we helped pack everything into the U-hall and then unpack it all down the street. Luckily we had some Elders there to help so it didn't take the entire day. They did feed us breakfast and lunch and we got to ride in the trailer so it was pretty fun :) We live 30 minutes away from their chapel so we spent the rest of the night studying at their church because it was pouring rain outside. God is nice and always let's us get the big things out of the way before he let's the rain come. 

Friday was my last MLC :( due to a lot more rain that morning we showed up right at 9, but we were late. But esta bien. It was a really good MLC. President Garns talked about how we need to grow our faith personally so we can help our friends increase in their faith too. He helped us to know how to do that and gave us some steps to follow. It was very inspired for Sister Beckstrand. We also talked a lot about how we need to teach our friends how to repent, not just to repent. Chances are, if they don't know what repentance is, they don't know how to do it either. It's up to us to teach them from the scriptures. It was fun to see some friends again while we were there. Most missions sing "Called to Serve" as their mission song but ours is "We'll Bring the World His Truth". We always sing it when we get together with other missionaries at pretty much every meeting. Because this was my last MLC, it was also my last time singing it with everyone. Kind of a sad moment. We had dinner that night at Five Guys (shout out to Grant!) with Bishop Milton. It brought back a lot of Snapper Creek memories. We got some ice cream after and then spent the rest of the night walking around looking for some members that lived in the area but we never found them. I did find out though that Sister Dorlean is scared of frogs. It's pretty funny because there are frogs everywhere here. But she always just runs the other way as soon as she sees one. 

Not much happened on Saturday. We had to meet with the District Leaders and teach them everything we learned at MLC. We also had to do weekly planning. But we did have a fun meal appointment with the Papenfus family. Everyone knows I'm going home next week so they all make jokes every time they see me. Soeur Dorlean also just keeps telling everyone I go home soon so that's fun. She's gonna miss me when I'm gone. 

Sunday was my last fast Sunday here in Florida. Pretty weird feeling honestly. Zenaida came! The ward just eats her up every time she comes. She was there before we noticed and waved us over so she could say hi :) she is super excited for her baptism this Saturday! The two hour church thing has been really nice but it makes it harder on us for contact everyone we need to while we are at church. But we are getting better at it. We had dinner with the Rane's. They got us a really really good key line pie. I haven't had that in so long. We spent a lot of time knocking again that night but no one answered their door. This week we are determined to find a lot of people to teach. It's my last chance and we are going to work our hardest. There is still a lot of work to do and a lot of goals to hit so we've got to make it happen! 

I hope you all have a good week. Go to the temple while it's still close, read your scriptures, and make sure to pray daily! See you next week :)

All my love, 

Sister Beckstrand 

I can never have too many pictures with these nuggets :)

Taking the Gospel to the world, Via Sofia ;)

My Florida Sunshine this week are the Sunsets. I know I've done it before but I don't get very more to see so I'm soaking them up while I can :)