Serving All In Montreal: 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!!!