Painting and early Christmas!

Bonjour everyone! How is everyone doing? Winter is official here in Mont-Saint-Hilaire. Earlier this week it got down to -18 and this morning we got about 6 inches of snow. This week has been full of service, teaching, and miracles!! 

Last P-day we tried to pass by a couple peoples houses but no one was home so we ended up doing some good street contacting. We walked pretty far and ended up losing our car for about an hour or so. We completely forgot where we parked it but eventually found it. 

Wednesday we had some good studies! Everyone needs to read the Book of Mormon. We then went and spent some time with a part member family that are also less active. They were really open to us and we are going to lunch with them some time soon. It is really cool to see peoples hearts change and become more open to the gospel and church again after being away for so long. 

Thursday was super fun. We spent the first part of the day helping paint a non-members house that are friends with our ward missionaries. We repainted all the walls and ceiling in their living room and the ceiling in another room. The colors were pretty nice before but they wanted it different so it went yellow! Soo yellow. We talked with the family there about the church and invited them to a Latino night we were having and they came! We got most of it done but had other things to do so we had to stop a little early. Later that night we went over to the Family Candias house to celebrate Carlos' birthday! Right after we ate some cake the fire alarm went off in the whole apartment building. Elder Halliday and I went to see if we could find it while the wife called the firemen. There wasn't any fire anywhere but smoke everywhere. We helped the firemen evacuate everyone while they found a smoking oven top. It was kinda lame ahaha. 

Friday we had district counsel and then another meeting with our ward mission leader. He is really cool and loves the church so much. That night we had a Latino night at the church! There were quite a bit of non-members there and a good amount of the ward too. We have 3 Latino families in our ward from Peru, Mexico, and Columbia! They all made their food for us to try and it was really good.

Saturday we passed by our ami named Douglas. He is about 6'8" and just this giant teddy bear. He is super nice and has a lot of questions. He is really open the things we teach him but also has his own beliefs. He is one of the only people here that speak English very well so it was kinda fun to talk to him. We them went and saw Ado. She moved here recently from Haiti. We just stopped by to give her a Book of Mormon in Creole but she invited us in and we taught her more about the book. She instantly opened it and read a couple of different verses and was so happy. She is a super solid ami. That night we played volleyball again. This time we had 13 people there. One ward family came and brought one of the daughters who hasn't been to church in about two years which is really cool and they brought two friends who aren't members. We had another less active family come and play with us too. It was such a fun night and we got to talk to everyone and invite them to other church activities. 

Sunday was pretty normal. In church we talked about ministering a lot and different ways to do it. Everyone should go out and do it because it is soo simple and easy and it will bless everyone involved. After church we had a potluck to help unify our ward and it was really nice. After that we went around to a couple of amis houses to check up on them and teach them a little. 

Yesterday we started the day by finishing painting the house and talked to the family there a little more. They seem really interested. They had someone else there visiting too so we talked to him about the church but he only spoke Spanish so the ward member kinda took over but basically taught him about the church and the plan of salvation right then and there. He really liked it so we are hoping we will be able to go back soon and talk to him more before he leaves. That night we went over and Celebrated Christmas early with the older people in our ward. We got there a little bit earlier than the others so we were assigned to decorate the Christmas tree. It didn't turn out too bad.  We had about 12 people all together and ate dinner and shared stories. We then went into the living room and sang Christmas songs together. It was a really sweet experience. 

I hope you all have a great week this week and have so much fun! Don't forget to do your ministering and reading! And go to the Temple! And pray! And go to Church! And be Nice to others! And sing Christmas songs! Just keep being awesome! 

Love you all!

Elder Beckstrand

Our ward missionaries photo

Setting up the Christmas tree. We had just done service before and didn't have time to drive home to change because our area is soo big. Elder Halliday only put up the thing in this picture.

Sketch ladder pictures that I took while trying my best to paint the walls.

Firemen and Carlos and his birthday cake.

Starting the paint job with Yellow paint. and a picture of our thermometer

Tesitmony of 8" of Snow

Salut Peeps! 

How is every one going back in St. Geezy?! This week here in Mont-Saint-Hilaire has been pretty awesome but cold with a lot of snow. We had zone Conference and exchanges this week. 

Last Wednesday was Zone Conference with Elder Hamilton. He taught us so many cool things including some of the new ways missionaries are finding the people who are ready for the Gospel. The Church is so amazing and true. He also taught us the importance of the Book of Mormon. He said the Book of Mormon is the most influential thing in our lives and promised that a daily reading will bless our lives more than anything else can. He also taught about the importance of bearing a pure testimony. He talked about testimony meetings at churches and said that we need to change the way we bear testimony. A testimony is statements of simple truths that you know to be true. Not a travel log, not a report of a service you did, or even a spiritual experience. It is the sharing of the truths that you learned from those experiences so that others can hear truth and have the holy spirit touch them and help them learn the same things. It was a super cool training and I invite everyone who is reading this to take the Council of Elder Hamilton and bear a pure testimony next fast Sunday. Also if you want, email me back and let me know how it went! After that we went and did some missionary work and a little bit of service and had dinner with a member who was really funny. 

Thursday, We went and helped paint one of our amis houses! They had so much work to do with only one can of paint. We did as much of it as we could but then had to leave once we ran out of paint. After that we went and passed by a couple of our amis and less active people here. We also did another quick service project and helped a part member family that we are teaching finish their flooring in their basement. It was pretty easy and they were a lot of fun. 

Friday was district council and exchanges. I went on exchanges with Elder Lott. He was one of the assistants when I got here and was the first elder I met in the field. This is his last transfer and he is awesome. We went knocking for a couple hours in about 8 inches of snow and I forgot to pack my boots. It was a little cold but not super bad. I made the best out of it and just ice skated everywhere with my shoes because they were so slippery. We found a couple of really cool people and then ate dinner with this super nice family. 

Saturday morning I helped Elder Lott prepare for a baptism and then ended exchanges and went back to my area. We ate some poutine for lunch and then passed by a couple amis to invite them to church. Most of them were sick though because of how quickly it got cold here. Everyone is saying it never snows like this this early in the year so this winter will be rough. That night we played volleyball at the church and had a great turnout. We had a couple non members there and they asked about a couple of the pictures we had in the church so we taught them a little and they got interested. It was super cool. 

Sunday was wonderful. We went to church early and shoveled snow for an hour or so. I don't think I have ever done that before so that was cool. That night we had dinner with this super nice family in the ward. He works a lot and the family is always busy so it was nice to finally get to talk to them. He gave us both a Christmas present. He is a photographer and a pilot so he made this book of pictures he has taken of Mont-Saint-Hilaire and surrounding city's! It is super pretty. They also asked us about our winter gear that we had and asked us if we were ready and we said we hope so. They told us to come back on p-day to go shopping with them for wither gear! 

Yesterday we had some really good studies and found some new ways to find people and help our ward better. We talked to a couple of our amis and invited all of them to a Latino night we are having at the church this weekend. We did a little bit of street contacting as well and met this really nice lady. She knew about our church already and was super nice. She said she would pray for us and said she might come to church. That night we went and helped bishop and his wife set up a garage tent thing for his car. It took them 4 hours by themselves last winter and we did it in an hour. They fed us dinner afterward and we talked about the ward and what he wants us to do to help and we shared our ideas of what we wanted to do. Our bishop is amazing and really cares for his ward just like every other bishop in this church. 

Today we went back over the ward members house to go shopping with him and he said sorry because he was really busy and couldn't go today but went last night and bought us stuff anyway! He got us these super nice gloves and socks! He is seriously the nicest person in the world! We also tried to go sledding a bit but it didn't work out and was lame. Next week for sure.

I hope you are all having a great week and keep reading the Book of Mormon and going to the temple!!! 

Love Ya's

Elder Beckstrand

Here is a picture of me haha. Elder halliday had it on his phone. This is a member that helped us with a service project. He is super nice.

Just a couple of pictures of the snow. Didn't take a lot this week. A member bought us these gloves and they are super nice. 

Mont-Saint-Hilaire!

Bonjour! 

This last week has been crazy and soo much fun. I forgot my book of remembrance at home so this weeks email might be a little shorter than others. 

Started out this week back in Drummondville saying goodbye to all of the amazing friends I had back there and continuing to find and teach! Shane did get baptized this weekend but I was not able to go. That place was a lot of fun but I'm loving it here too. 

Thursday we went to the mission home and found Elder Halliday. He is awesome. We stopped and got some poutine before we drove back up to Mont-Saint-Hilaire. We went to a members house but they didn't answer right away so we talked to their neighbor and set up another time to come back and teach them. Miracles on the first day in the new area!

Friday we had district council and I got to meet my new district and after we spent some time in that area passing by old amis and helping the elders there regain contact with lost amis. That night we passed by our Ward mission leader and was able to talk to his wife who apparently never wanted to talk to any member of the church before. She was really nice though and talked to me and Elder Halliday. They then invited us to go out to dinner with them. The daughter isn't a member either but was asking some questions so we will slowly work with her. 

Saturday we spent a good chunk of the day painting a members house. They had a flood in their basement and it ruined everything so we went in and painted everything. It looked really good at the end because Halliday was in construction and house flipping before the mission so he knew what he was doing. I did my best. They fed us dinner that night too and it was really good. 

Sunday was really good. The ward members are all really nice and speak very good french so it was easy to understand everything. We were asked to teach relief society for some reason but it was fun and ended up being really cool. Not a ton happened after that that I can remember....

Yesterday was fun. We started with helping take down a above the ground pool that was huge. They fed us a quick lunch after that and then we headed over to a ward members house for actual lunch with one of our amis here. She is this old Quebecois lady who is super nice. She already knows quite a bit about the church. We then passed by some of our other amis who are awesome. I don't remember their names right now but oh well. We then went over to our bishops house. He and his wife are from Paris and speak perfect French. They are super nice and cook very well. After dinner, we went over to a less actives house with them to do some ministering! It was soo simple but it lifted the spirits of everyone there and only took like 30 minutes! Just checking up on them, sharing announcements from life and church, having fun, ending with a song and prayer. SIMPLE. DO IT. 

Today we started with a quick hike up the "mountain" here. It is so small but was covered in SNOW. It was snowing when we woke up and we got about 6 inches of snow!. The hike was short but took us 2 hours because Elder Hallilday lost his tag in the SNOW! We looked for it forever but was never found. 

That's about all I have for this week but I hope you all have a fantastic week and have fun!

Love, Elder Beckstrand

TRANSFERS and Halloween

Salut! 

 This week has passed by really quickly here in Drummondville. We had exchanges, Halloween and transfer calls all in the same week. 

Last Wednesday we had exchanges with my amazing zone leaders on Halloween. I was with Elder Rossi for the day and we had 3 awesome miracles happen. The first was the baptismal interview for Shane! He said the Spirit was stronger in that interview than a lot of others and he is officially ready for Baptism this upcoming Saturday!! After the interview we set a goal to find 2 new people before it got dark and we had to call it a night. We had a rule that we couldn't be out after dark unless we already had a lesson planned but the other elders took those. We had about 2 hours to find 2 new people so we just started walking in the rain and knocked a lot. We found one older Quebecois lady who wasn't super interested at first but a couple of inspired questions later, we found out she has a Book of Mormon already and she has met with missionaries before. She told them to stop coming because they came everyday. We asked her if we could start coming back again but only 2 times a week and she agreed! It was awesome to see the Lord put questions into both of our minds to ask her personally. After that we had about 20 minutes left so we knocked a couple more houses but no one was interested. We were just about to leave when we both looked at this one house across the street and agreed it would be the last before we call it quits. It was another older Quebecois lady who had her own beliefs and wasn't too open but we made a few connections and she opened up a little and we gave her a brochure and told her to read and pray about it. She agreed as well but when we asked if we could come back she said yes but only for 20 minutes on Sunday. Not the ideal situation but we were up to the challenge. After that we went home and made some awesome Poutine and studied for the rest of the day. 

Thursday was not as cool. We did however help this older man from Columbia find his house. We were going to pass by one of our amis but he wasn't home so we decided to talk to this man instead. The first thing he said to us in his broken french was, " J'ai perdu" which basically means that he is lost. He didn't speak much french and no English but could speak Spanish. I know more Spanish than Elder Holt so I gave it a shot. It was hard but I kinda got my way through it. We ended up calling the sisters because the both speak Spanish and they talked to him. We eventually walked about half a mile to his house while we carried his bags for him. Once we got to his house, we gave him the sisters phone number and told him to call them. My Spanish isn't super good but I'm slowly learning little bits here and there. That Night I pulled out the Christmas music! That has been really nice. 

Not a ton happened on Friday aha. We taught Shane about the priesthood more and planned for his baptismal service!!

Saturday we did some more knocking but this time it was in the pouring rain. Its actually a lot more fun than it sounds. We eventually gave up on that however and went to do some finding though Facebook. Technology is so amazing. We have been finding less active members and older amis that we have lost contact with that don't have an address to go to or a phone number. As long as we have their full name, we have been able to find most of the people we have looked for! That kinda makes us sound like stalkers but it's for a good reasons so its okay. That Night we received transfer calls from the Zone Leaders!! Elder Holt will be staying here in Drummondville and will be with Elder Poll! The only two companions I've ever had will now be companions. I'm excited for the two of them! As for me, I will be going to my new area. 

Sunday was Stake Conference! We got to drive down to Longueuil where the temple is to watch conference. The first person that we saw was my new companion! It was all in french but it was cool because each person that spoke had a very different accent. There was one Elder who spoke that just returned home from serving in Paris. His accent was very easy to understand and he gave a wonderful talk on Jesus-Christ. After the Conference, we went back home and tried to pass by the two lady's that I met while on exchanges but couldn't find either of them but knocked and found some other cool people who are interested. 

Yesterday, not much happened but it was pitch black outside by 4:45 because of day light savings. Last night we did get a call from my new companion however. 

His name is Elder Halliday and he is awesome! I will be serving with him in Mont-Saint-Hilaire!! He told me that the ward members are excited to meet me because I talked with a few of them at stake conference. The missionaries there get fed almost every meal by the Members so I'm so excited for this next transfer! I will be getting transferred this Thursday so that means that I will not be here for Shane's baptism this Saturday but that's the life of a Missionary. I know that he will continue to be awesome and a wonderful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Heavenly Father works in many different ways but there is a reason behind everything that happens. There might be something that happens in your life that seems like a trial at the time but if you put your trust in the Lord, everything will work out and you will be blessed soo much. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week and continue to be awesome and do what you know to be good and true! 

I love you all! 

Elder Beckstrand

Last picture with Melvin, my favorite ward member!

Christmas lights!!!

A giant piece of cake from one of our amis

Me sporting elder Holt's glasses

Temple picture at Stake Conference!

Me and Elder Holt sporting our scarfs in the rain

Our ami Line and her grand daughter

Elder Rossi and I with Halloween Poutine!