Interviews/exchanges

Hey y'all! How is everyone doing? This week has been awesome here in Sherbrooke. We had a couple of awesome lessons and helped moved some people and had interviews with president Phillips and exchanges. It was overall a good week. I forgot to bring my book this week and I don't remember a ton that happened but here goes nothing. 

Last Wednesday we met with friend jimmy. He is doing really good. We played a round of darts with him and then read the scriptures with him. That night we had FHE with the LaRoche family. It was super good. They are less active and the father is deaf so we sign with them a little bit. I don't think much else happened that day

Thursday we started off with interviews with president. We got there and waited a bit for the other elders to finish with theirs. Interviews with president are always good. Elder Arnold had a over 2 hour interview because it was his exit interview and they just talked for a long time. Got some good studying in during that haha. After that we just passed by a couple of people and met with our friend pascal. He is doing really good and is helping his brother get baptized now! He has also been doing a lot of family history work and that's been awesome.

Friday we went on exchanges and I was with elder Tarauora. He is awesome. We had a couple missionaries come up and visit our apartment and bring us boxes because we are closing the apartment after this transfer. After that we had lunch with a two members. One only speaks English and the other is semi bilingual but we are both bilingual so we had to translate for some of it. It was interesting.  We also had district council and read and talked about 3 Nephi 11. Such a good chapter. After that we went knocking and found this dude named Sebastien. He is awesome and was super open to our message and we talked to him for about 45 minutes. It was nice. We then went and got dinner because elder T had never had poutine aha. It was super fun. 

Saturday we started the day off with helping someone move. This member had some friends that kept having water problems so they decided to move. It was super good and we have some return appointments with them aha. That night we had dinner with the herring family. They are awesome and they have some kids that aren't members that were there this time. It was nice to talk to them. 

Sunday was good. All four of us missionaries gave a talk on part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I gave a talk on faith and it was all pretty nice. The rest of the day was used passing by less actives and other members. We went by a couple of the father out places and drove through some nice country roads and ended up in a little town kinda like pine valley. It was super nice. 

Not a ton happened yesterday either. We tried to pass by a couple of people but nothing worked out so we decided to pass by a less active recent convert and he really needed a visit. We stopped by at such a good moment and it was really the timing of the Lord. We had a nice long conversation with him and helped him with some of his questions and struggles. After him we had din er and FHE with the LaRoche family again and were able to learn a little more sign language and share a message with them. Super nice. 

That's about it for this week. Sorry it's a little shorter than usually but I'll remember my book next week and get a good email in. A quick spiritual thought for y'all. In church we were reading the talk from Elder Eyring called Try Try Try from October 2018 and I made a really cool connection between that talk and 3 Nephi 11 verse 37 and 38 and how it talks about becoming like a small child. I invite you all to read both. Super good. Have a wonderful week! 

Love you all!

Elder Beckstrand

Dope car

Poutine

Snow mobile crossing

Cool country drives

Service Laying Sod!

Bonjour y'all! How is everyone doing? I hope you all had a great week and had some fun! This week was pretty crazy and fun. We found a couple of new people to teach and had a few really good lessons this week too. We also were able to do some good old service again! it was really fun. Here is  a quick little run down of everything.

Last Wednesday we started out with some studies like normal but we got a call from this member in our ward and he wanted to take us out to lunch. It was really good. he took us to a pretty nice restaurant and we had a good talk. He is still a recent convert and had some questions about church and how things happen. It was a good talk. Later that day we had a really good lesson with a less active lady and this young active couple in our ward. They are all awesome. We talked about the temples and the importance of going often and the blessings we can receive from going. We also read some of the talk from April 2016 called See yourself in the temple. Y'all should reread it if you have the time. It was a good one.

Thursday was pretty slow but still good. We had a good district council with the zone leaders. Later that day we did a whole bunch of knocking and found this really awesome couple from Africa. Christ and his wife Esther let us in right away and we taught them the restoration. They just ate up everything we shared and loved it all. At the end of the lesson we asked if we could come back again and they said yes. They really wanted to learn more and are super solid people. After that we had another good lesson with Bernadette and her children. We talked about baptism with them and extended a baptismal date to them. Bernadette is super solid already and is basically a member but isn't baptized. She said she would really pray about it again though and put thought into it. Her children are thinking about it too. Hopefully they will get their answer soon! 

Friday was my moms birthday! We passed by Jimmy for a couple minutes and also Pascal. Two of the recent converts. After that we knocked a building because we had about 20 minutes before our next thing and didn't know what else to do. We found about 4 or 5 people in that one building and they all said we could come back next Wednesday. It was really cool. After that we stopped by a less active member. He is really cool but just kinda hard to understand. He even speaks English.  That night I got to call my mom because it was her birthday. That was cool.

Saturday we went down to Coaticook. We passed by this really less active lady who requested a bible. We stopped by and gave her the bible and started talking to her and her boyfriend. This area is crazy bilingual and so was our conversation with them. They both speak french but the woman preferred English because we are English but it just switches all the time. We had a great discussion non the less. We ended up giving her boyfriend a Bible and Book of Mormon as well. We read Moroni 10 with them and they invited us back to teach him and their children! It was soo cool! While we were down there we passed by a couple of other people too but not a ton of people were home. During dinner we got a call from a member asking for help with a service project. They were supposed to be laying sod all day but the people bringing the dirt and the grass never showed up until 5 at night so we went over to help. We got there around 6 and they had placed and leveled the dirt in the back so we started laying it down in the back as they did the dirt in the side and front. We finished it all in just over two hours. It was so much fun. They are the first members to use this St.George boy to his full potential of laying grass. I think I've done that one place or another every summer since I was 12. They had also never done it before so I got to teach them a few little tricks too. After that they fed us some dinner. 

Sunday was pretty good too. We had cake after church because they forgot to do it last week for mothers day so that was nice ahah. After that we went back and had a visit with Christ and Esther again. We talked about the Book of Mormon and the power of prayer with them. They loved it just as much as the first lesson with them. It was a good lesson. We passed by a couple of people before dinner with the Salvador family. They are super cool and she is the daughter of the valley family from Drummondville. It was a fun dinner and we shared mission stories with them and a spiritual thought. 

Yesterday we didn't do a whole ton but did have a nice lesson with our buddy Wayne. He is also a less active recent convert. He is doing good and finished reading the Book of  Mormon! His health has just been kinda crap lately so he hasn't been coming to church. We also stopped by the bishops house last night to talk to him about a couple of things and to drink some hot chocolate too. It was really nice. 

That's about it for this week. I hope you all have a wonderful week and keep being awesome!

Love you all!

Elder Beckstrand

MOTHERS DAY!

Bonjour! How is everyone doing? This was such a great week and it went by really quick.

We were able to call our mothers this last Sunday and I just want to quickly tell my mother how much I love her! Thank you for everything. Also thank you to all of the other mothers and grandmothers out there. You are all awesome! Other than that, not a whole ton happened this week but here is a quick run down of what happened. 

Last Tuesday after p-day we went and visited our buddy Garou. He is super awesome and really open to us and to the gospel. We shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with him and shared how the Gift of the Holy ghost is such a special gift that we have and how it can bless our lives. We gave him a soft invitation to baptized if he prays and knows that this church is true. He said yes! We still have to help him understand a few things but hopefully we will have him on a set date here soon. It was such a spiritually strong lesson. 

Wednesday we didn't really have a ton of solid things planned but we did our best and put our trust in the Lord to help us with what we had. The first guy we passed by was Clynt. He is from the Philippines and has friends back there who are members so he is curious about the church. We were just going to pass by and see if we could set up an appointment for later but he invited us in and we taught him the restoration. It was really good. After that we did a little knocking and got theses two really cool return appointments in the same building. After that we passed by Neomie. She is really cool and knows the bible really well because she is a pastor for her church here. We tried teaching her the Restoration but she kinda just preached to us the whole time and we didn't get to talk a whole ton. She has a super strong testimony of Jesus so i ask if I could share mine too before we left. it was super good. After that we spent the rest of the day knocking a college area and found a lot of English speakers. 

Thursday was pretty slow but we did have district council and lunch with a member. We talked about the  plan of salvation and why that is special to our church. I am so grateful to have the knowledge of the plan of salvation and that our families can be together forever. We just did a lot of pass bys that day and got a good couple return appointments but not a whole ton.

Friday was super rainy! We started the day off in the rain knocking doors hoping someone would be nice enough to let us in and talk to them but no one did. After a good couple buildings and getting soaked, we passed by one of the recent converts. He had just woken up and wasn't too awake but we still had a good lesson and a good discussion on the Sabbath day. Later that night we had an awesome lesson with our buddy Fernand. He is a little older and blind. he is super cool and listens to his audio Book of Mormon everyday! We are just now trying to help him get to church. When we got home Elder Aronld hit the man hole sewer thing in the parking lot because the ground around it has sunk and so it sticks up out of the ground. It didn't hit the car too bad and we didn't notice anything wrong with it so we went inside and fell asleep.

Saturday morning as we left the house, I heard something scraping the ground as I was helping back up the car. After driving down the road a little we decided to stop and see what had happened. The man hole had broken part of the little piece of plastic that covers the bottom of the engine so I had to pull out some tools and hurry and take the rest of it off so we could continue on with our day ahah. No real harm done but did give us a little scare. Later that day we passed by Bruno. He had met with the missionaries a little bit before but it had been awhile  so he was kinda glad to see us again. We kinda shared the restoration with him but he had a lot of stories he wanted to share with us. We also just exchanged beliefs with each other and got a return appointment. Super cool. That was about it for that day.

Sunday was kinda slow because it was mothers day and no one wanted to talk to us. We did have dinner with the Herring Family again and talked about doing baptisms for the dead. For all of you reading this who are and are worthy members of the church, GO DO BAPTISMS. If you do not have a recommend, Go see your bishop and get one. Go often! For those of you who are wondering what I am talking about, go talk to some one you know who is a Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and ask them. They will be willing to help. Or go to lds.org

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). Find messages of Christ to uplift your soul and invite the Spirit. lds.org

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That night we called our families and I got to speak to my wonderful mother and also my grandma on that wonderful mothers day! 

Yesterday we had our schedule get all sorts of switched up on us. not a ton happened. We ended up doing more knocking than we thought we would be and had a surprise dinner with the bishop and his family. It was really good we read 3 Nephi 9:22 and talked about becoming "like the little children". It was really funny because their kids were super crazy and started to fight. One of the questions we had planned to ask them was Which of the attributes of their children would they like to have. At first it was a little funny but then we had a good talk with them. We talked about how Children forgive so easily and are friends with everyone. It was cool. After that we had a FHE with a less active family here and had a very similar discussion. It was super good. 

That's about it for this week. I hope everyone is doing well and having fun! Good luck to everyone who might be taking finals here soon and get ready for the summer! 

I love you all!
Elder Beckstrand

Cool graffiti 

Blood in a college dorm

Bacon wrapped chicken with pesto sauce

Elder Arnold's birthday!

Bonjour a tous! How have y'all been doing? This week has flown by and was so much fun. It was Elder Arnold's birthday this week so we made sure we had a little bit extra fun this week to celebrate. Here is a quick run down of what happened. 

Last p-day we picked up a member and took him to Bernadette and her family. They are awesome. Non of them are members but the Bernadette is basically a member and answers her kids question! We talked about the importance of Family prayer and scripture study. They all agreed to do it the best they could and the Spirit was so strong. 

Wednesday we started off with some studies like normal and then went and did a ton of pass bys. We Visited this guy we met last week and he was super open to us and we talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and we could see and feel the peace that it brought into this mans heart and life. It was super cool. We read a couple of scriptures with him and then left the book with him so that he could read more. 

Thursday we had district council where we talked about teaching the gospel simply. It was soo good because the Gospel is simple and easy and the more we try to add to the easy truths, the more confusing it can be. It was a pretty cool district council. The rest of that day was spent passing by people and knocking with nothing to special. 

Friday we were on exchanges with the zone leaders! I was with Elder Ludkte. We started off the day by passing by a member and going through the 12 step recovery program with him. It is super good and I recommend everyone to do it if you need help overcoming something. We then went and did some knocking and found this guy who seemed really interested and cool. We left him with a Book of Mormon and told him we would come by later to talk to him. We then had lunch at this restaurant called "Le snack" it was actually pretty good. I got another poutine. We then did some more knocking and found this awesome lady from Africa. She said she had seen missionaries before and we shared a quick message with her about the Plan of salvation and how families can be together forever. She really liked it and told us to come back next Friday. That night we finished by doing some social experiments on Facebook about the Book of Mormon. It was actually really cool and we have seen some cool things come out of that. 

Saturday was Star Wars day and also Elder Arnold's Birthday!!! We decided to spend the whole day knocking and passing by people we had found in the earlier weeks. We took a small break in the middle to go with a ward member to a less actives house and read scriptures to him. He is really cool and speaks English and french but i have a really hard time understanding either of  the languages. It is always super fun and very interesting. That night we had dinner with the bishops family and they made us home made pizza. It was super good and then they surprised Arnold with a birthday cake. It was super cool and really good. 

Sunday was really good. We went to church where Elder , the newbie, and I introduced ourselves during sacrament and then after church this member came up to us and gave us a couple of gifts. One of them is this super dope little flashlight to help us remember that we a light to the world. After church we went and passed by a good amount of less active families that we didn't know super well and shared a quick message with them and offered to help them with anything they needed. It was really cool. We met this family that moved here from Haiti and are not on the records but after we started talking to them more, they said that they would like to start coming back to church. It was super cool what a small act of kindness can do to open people back up to the Church. That night we had dinner with the Herring family again. They are awesome and gave us cheesecake for Elder Arnold's Birthday! It was really good. 

Yesterday was pretty good. During studies, Arnold is doing this thing called MyPlan. Its something all missionaries do their last six weeks to help them get ready to go home and prepare for life. It is super funny and pretty interesting too. Later we went over to Jimmy's house. We helped him with the 12 step program again but also played a round of darts with him because it helps him focus more on the lesson if we do that with him. He is really good at darts. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Shelton, I'm not too bad myself at darts. I took second out of us three. After that we did some knocking too and then we went over to a different less actives family's home and had family home evening with them. It was really good. The mom said she would do the spiritual thought this time and it was really good. Half way through the lesson I saw two guys outside on the street riding unicycles and I got a little distracted but we finished the lesson and played a quick game with them and then ran outside to see if they were still there but they were not. It was kinda sad but we will just have to knock their building and find them some day ahah. 

That's about it for the week. I hope you are all doing awesome. Keep up the awesome work and try to have a good FHE this week. Also if you think of anyone that you should stop by and visit, do it!

I love y'all!

Elder Beckstrand

SHERBROOKE

Bonjour! How is everyone doing?? This week has been awesome and flew by. We had transfers and last Thursday and now I am in the awesome town of Sherbrooke. We also had Zone Conference on Monday! It was a super fun week! Here is a little break down. 

Last Wednesday  was my last full day in Mont-saint-Hilaire. We started off with helping bishop with finishing his bathroom. We laid down the flooring, finished filling the place with insulation, and placed some electrical outlets. After that we kinda spent the rest of the day passing by some of the people we taught and saying goodbye. It was actually kinda sad and i will miss that area a lot. The ward and the youth there are so amazing.

 

Thursday was transfers. We got up that morning and I finished packing my bags and then we said by to bishop and Headed down to Montreal. We got there and I met my new comp and then waited there for a bit for the other Sherbrooke elders. My new comp is Elder Arnold from Taylorsville Utah. He is super cool and this is his last transfer. We got to see a good amount of awesome elders and sisters that passed through there that day. We then found Elder bishop and his new Greenie. We headed back out and when we got back we passed by a few people that we are teaching here. It was awesome. Sherbrooke is very green and very hilly and not flat at all like Drummondville ahah. 

Friday was my first full day here. We started out with a district council and it is just us and the other elders here in Sherbrooke. It was actually really good and the new Elder shared his conversion story with us and it was just so spiritually powerful. We were supposed to have two lessons but the both fell through so we did some finding and knocked into these two really cool people who were awesome. After that we did have a good lesson with a young couple. We went in and they asked us if we could start with a song and then we prayed and talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and then ended it with the prayer and then ate some food. It was a perfect family home evening. It was kinda weird but also really good. 

Saturday we visited this member named Jimmy. He is super cool and really nice. After that we passed by a few people and then picked up one of the Ward missionaries named Serge. He is awesome and came to a lesson with us. After that he took us to dinner at his favorite restaurant. I got this amazing breakfast poutine. It was a normal poutine but with a different sauce, bacon, sausage, and an egg on top. It was really good. After that we visited Fernand with Serge. He is blind but is really cool and listens to the Book of Mormon on his audio books. That night we finished off with some knocking and pass bys. It was kinda weird not playing volleyball like normal but was still good. 

Sunday was really good. We went and had ward council before church and then went to sacrament meeting. In this building there are actually pews and benches and not just foldable chairs everywhere. It was kinda weird and different. Everyone and everything is also really bilingual here which was also new to me. There were a couple families that only speak English and a few that only speak french and then a lot that speak both and some that speak both and Spanish. Super cool. The meetings were good and after we had a ward potluck and got to meet all of the members. They are awesome. We then did some finding and visits before dinner. Dinner was with the Haring family. They are half Quebecois and Half Hawaiian. We get there and during dinner we played this introduction game and got to know each other.  We had a good dinner and then during desert we played another game where they tried to guess my first name. It took them a whole seven and a half minutes and a few hints. It was a super fun and we had some good laughs. After that we met with the other elders and drove back down to Montreal for the zone conference. It was about a two hour drive so we went the night before so we could be there early the next morning. We slept that night at the Zone leaders apartment with all six of us aha. 

Monday morning we woke up and went to Zone Conference. It was actually really good and we all talked about repentance and the best way to help the people we teach and ourselves repent and come closer to Christ. It was really good and then by the time we got home we just had dinner and passed by another member and called it a day. 

That's about it for this week! I hope you are all having a great time! I love you all! Have a great week and keep up the great work!

Love ya!

Elder Beckstrand

Zone