Goodbye Elder Puura

Bonjour à tous! How are yall doing? It feels like I just barely had p-day.  This week went by really quick and it was pretty good. This area is super great and we have been seeing some really neat things happening here. I believe it is all because of the program our bishop started. We invited all the members to start praying for personal missionary experiences in their lives and to pray for a specific less active in the ward. Since we have started that and been following up with the members to make sure its happening  we have found about 7 new people and have seen improvements with a couple of our less actives as well. It's been amazing to see the power of prayer especially when it's a whole group of people praying for the same things. Let's jump right into what happened this week.  


Last Wednesday we started off with district council where we welcomed in a new elder that just came in from the MTC and also said bye to Elder Puura who was going home the next day. It was a very unique chance that we had and it went well. We learned a lot and came up with some plans and ideas for this new transfer. After the council we went with Serge and the bishop and his fam to a buffet which was really good. After that we did a little bit of finding and passed by a couple of our friends. That night we had dinner with the Barrios family which is neat because usually we can't because the father is in the army but as a trio we could go visit them. It was really nice to visit members we haven't seen yet. After that we had a lesson with our buddy Jean-Michel. He is really cool. He used to be a professional speedskater and even has a poster of it in his house. He has a lot of questions about the church and is pretty open to the doctrines that we share with him. We invited him to come to church and he accepted! 


Thursday was weird ahah. Not much happened. It was elder Puuras last day so we did some studies and then went around and let him say bye to a couple of people and then we had to drive him all the way into Montreal and then back. 


Friday was pretty good. After studies and lunch we visited a recent convert here named Pascal and we were introduced to his new girlfriend who just so happens to be interested in the church. We got to know her a little bit and then Pascal asked us if we could teach her the Word of wisdom as the first lesson which was kinda odd  and a first but that's what she had questions on so that's what we taught. It turned out pretty well and she is open to meeting with us more and learning more. She also has 4 kids that we will hopefully start teaching as well. After that we did some finding which is always fun. We met this lady that spoke English and at the beginning she was not nice and not very happy but as soon as we cleared up that we were not Jehovah's witnesses then she was a lot nicer and we had a really nice conversation. She had some not so nice experiences with them but said she likes our church more than many others. She has only had good experiences with talking to missionaries at her door. It was super interesting but super funny. It was also a little testimony builder for me because it shows that for those that really take the time to learn about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints knows that we are good normal Christian people who try to do what's best. Later that night we had a really nice lesson with Dany and we are trying to help him start coming back to church. He is currently in a tough spot in his life but he is trying his best to go back to church. 


Saturday. We had lunch with one of our friends named Nancy. We helped her move a couple of weeks ago and she was super grateful for our help she invited us over for lunch. We were able to share a little bit of the gospel with her and we actually invited her to come to church. She couldn't make it this week because of work but said she would come next week for sure. She is also going through a rough patch and just found out she has to move again so we will help her with that which will probably let us have another lunch with her which will hopefully lead to her being more open. That's the power of service. It opens doors and softens hearts. After lunch we headed back over to Pascals place to talk with him. Marie wasn't there but he did say they talked and she is really open to learn more and that might be able to teach the kids as well when they are there. He is doing such great missionary work and doesnt even know it. After his visit we had dinner with bishop and his family and then we went on some visits with bishop. We passed by a couple of our friends and then visited some members. We visited a member family who has a missionary out at this time who will be coming home soon for surgery and it has been kinda hard for all of them so it was nice to visit them and support them in their work and lives. The Lord is definitely watching over his missionaries and their families and everyone they work with. He blesses us each and every day with something. May be big or small but it is always there. Every day. Try looking for it if you dont see it yet. You will find it. 


Sunday was good. Not a whole ton happened either but church was good. Pascal was there with his girlfriend and three of her kids and so was a less active that I've never seen so that was really nice. We talked with the kids of mary after and they said they enjoyed it and want to come back again! They have been prepared and I'm excited to share the gospel with them. After church we visited some more people and then decided to make crepes for dinner and we made a couple extra and decided to take some around to less actives or our friends. We had a really sweet moment when we visited a less active family. They were very touched that we thought of them and made them nutella crepes. It was really nice. The Lord will help us when we look to serve others. We just have to get out there and be willing to act on the promtings he gives us.


That's about it for this week. Keep up the good work and know that the Lord is there and He loves you! 

Love Elder Beckstrand

Tahitian Sandwich

Bonjour à tous! How is everyone doing? I hope you are all having a blast this summer and are enjoying your vacations or whatever you may be doing. This week here in Sherbrooke was full of adventures. This last week we have been a trio and this next Thursday we go back to a normal team of missionaries. We gained Elder Puura from Tahiti and he is spending his last full week with us and then he is going home. It's been nice to have him here to learn from and share of his joy. He is a great missionary. Anyway, here is a quick rundown of what happened this week.  


Last Thursday, because pday was Wednesday, we drove down to Montreal to pick up Elder Puura but after spending a little bit of time at the mission office we found out that we were supposed to go to the mission home. By the time we found out, they were already on their way to the office so we got to say hi to a couple of other missionaries while we waited. Not a whole ton else happened that day, we did have dinner with a member that knew we were getting a second Tahitian so she made us some poke bowls with raw fish. It was interesting to say the least but then we were able to share a really neat message with them about Jesus Christ. We had them look at a picture of Jesus during the entire length of a instrumental song and as they looked at it we asked them different questions about their relationship with Jesus just for them to reflect on. We have tried it with a couple other families too and the spirit is super strong ever time. After that we had a nice lesson with a less active named Pierre. He is doing pretty good and he said he would try to come back to church soon with his sister who is active. Super cool little miracle with him. 


Friday was pretty good. We had lunch with a member where we chatted about Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail. D&C 121 is a really good chapter if you get the chance to read it soon. We then had a short lesson with Pascal which was good. After that we took our car into the garage because I could feel the back brakes wearing out and it made a nasty sound every time we used them so we took it in. We then found out that they were keeping it for the weekend and that we were now walking for the weekend. That was going to be interesting because elder Puura had torn a couple muscles in his ankle the transfer before and was still in recovery and couldn't walk a whole ton. Thank goodness for our wonderful members. Someone from the shop took us to a members house where we had dinner and then did a little Facebook finding and other things we could think of without the car. 


Saturday I got some really good studies in and learned more about the plan of salvation. Who we are. Where we are going. What we can become and the why behind all of it. There is always more to learn which is awesome. I highly encourage all of you to really sit down and think about the gospel and ask yourself some questions and then go do some studies and find the answers. The spirit will always testify of truth so be open to the feelings of the spirit as you do so. Saturday we did have a baptism of the daughters of a member. I was very impressed with the simplicity of the service but also how strong the spirit was. It was a very nice service and a good amount of the ward was there. We then went back to their house to get some food after. After that we profited off the fact that we have a festival just across the street from our apartment so we did a little bit of walking and did some street contacting. We were able to talk to quite a few people and also found this really nice couple from the Ivory coast. We asked them what their names are and its Abraham and Sara. So we are now officially teaching Chirst, Esther, Abraham and Sara. Who would have guessed aha. Later that night we also had a nice lesson with our Arabic friend, Rada. We went over the restoration again with her asking more questions and trying to keep it simple. It was really good. She believes that Joseph was a Prophet and she likes the Book of Mormon. After the we walked back and tried to do some more finding. 


Not a whole ton happened on Sunday. We had our high council elder come to our ward which was nice because it is now a Brother from the Drummonville ward where I was trained so I got to talked to him. We got some studies in after church and had dinner with brother Herring. We then walked around the park where the festival was and tried to do some finding but didn't have a ton of success. 


Yesterday we finally got our car back  that morning so we were really happy about that. We started off by visiting someone we had talked to Saturday at the park. His name is Patrice and he had a bible with him at the park so we went to his house to talk to him yesterday. He was pretty open and interested too. After that we went and visited Jimmy. He was really happy to see us but not as happy when we asked how his smoking is. He has started smoking again because his patches are not sticking with the heat and humidity. We talked about the power of the atonement and that Jesus Christ died and suffered for us and through that we can overcome our weaknesses as long as we turn to him and ask for that help with sincere desire. After we visited another less active and then had a nice lesson with Francois. He was a little more open this time because his girlfriend wasn't there to do all of the talking. He seemed to understand everything pretty well and he asked a couple good questions. It was a really good lesson. That night we finished with a family night with the family LaRoche. They are awesome. We did some reading from Come follow me and then played a game. In the games we played on teams so it was the two tahitians and then me and the members which was really cool because the elders were speaking Tahitian and we were using sign language. You can probably guess which team was the loud one aha. It was really fun. It was a really good example of what a family night can be. A nice spiritual message followed by a game that everyone can be involved with. It was nice. 


That's it for this week.I hope you are all having fun and keeping up on your scriptures and temple attendance. Keep being awesome and I'll talk to yall next week! 

Love ya!
Elder Beckstrand


Fireworks 

Dead breaks

Perks of two Tahitian comps

Trio

Cat

Fireworks

Transfers!

Bonjour a tous. How is everyone doing? I hope that you all had a great week! This week here in Sherbrooke was pretty good and full of miracles. Let's jump right in shall we. 

Last Wednesday we started the day off with a lesson with Christ and Esther. It was the earliest lesson I've had so far but it was really good. We went through the Restoration with them again and truly testified of our church. The spirit was really strong and we started talking more about baptism. Hopefully they we be ready for that soon! For lunch we had an appointment with our friend Dany and his girlfriend. It honestly started off kinda awkward but it got a lot better as it went on. They even asked us for a priesthood blessing before we left. Vanessa went first and it was clear that she felt the spirit. She was so touched by the blessing that she started to cry. It was a tender sweet moment. After that we had some time to go knocking but didn't really find anyone except for this really nice old man who just so happens to be a deacon in the Catholic church. He was really open to talking about the gospel but he wasn't going to change his beliefs at all. That is one thing I've learned to respect. It's better to have religion and be strong in it no matter which one and try to become better through it than not to have a religion at all. 

Thursday we had lunch with the amazing Sister Lachance and Brother Bassett. It was really fun because we just shared mission stories the whole time. He served in Washington DC right after 9/11 so he had some really neat stories and miracles. Later that night we had lesson with a less active that we have been trying for a while to meet with. He is really cool and said he will try to start coming back here soon. It's always really neat to see the change in people and their desire to restart doing the things they once knew to be good and true. After that we had another lesson but this time with an ami we haven't seen in a long while. His name is Francois and at first he didn't seem to interested when we set up the appointment but we still went and tried. We got to his house the same time his girlfriend did too so she joined us for the lesson. Her name is Lucy and she is super interested in the Gosple. He is too but she just loved talking to us about Jesus. We planned on teaching them the restoration but they actually both had heard about it and had the brochure so we taught the plan of salvation and it was really good. I love sharing the gospel with anyone but it really does make it so much better when people are interested and already have a base knowledge of the gospel aha. Right after their lesson we got a call from the Mont-Saint-Hilaire and Graby elders telling us we were going on an last minute exchange that night. I hurried and grabbed my stuff and headed back to Mont-Saint-Hilaire with Elder Guerra. 

Friday was spent back in the place I called home for 6 months. It was cool to see it again but this time in the summer when everything is green and alive and not cold and dead. We had lunch with some of the youth in the ward and it was nice to see them again. For the rest of the day we just went out and did some finding because Elder Guerras comp broke his ankle earlier in the transfer and they haven't done a whole ton we we did a good amount while I was there. We were also able to get back in contact with Carl right before we unexchanged. He is super nice and is pretty interested and so are his children. It was a really nice exchange. 

Saturday we tried starting a sports activity at the church but we didn't have a whole ton of people show up but it was fun either way. Hopefully we can do it again and have more people come and play. Not much else happened that day but we did have a nice visit with Wayne that night and he told us that he found a ride to church for the next day! We were so excited and glad that he was finally coming back to church. 

Sunday was pretty good. Lately I have been studying a lot about the life of Jesus Christ and everything that he went through to save us and it's fun to see how your thoughts and feelings about things change as your knowledge and beliefs grow. I have grown to appreciate the sacrament a lot more than I used to. There is a reason why the Prophet and everyone is putting such a big focus on the sacrament meeting and the ordinances we do there. It is only one hour of our week but it is so important. After church we had a lesson with Bruno. He is slowly being more open to the gospel. Hopefully he will start reading the Book of Mormon and gin a testimony of it. That night we had a member introduce us to one of his friends that he has known for 10 years and just barely thought about sharing gospel with him. He had a ton of questions and loved talking about church. He always confuses us with the catholic church  however so we taught him the restoration and hopefully that cleared up some questions. We invited him to read and to come to church and he accepted. He already planned out which buses he needs to take and at what time so he can be there. It was really cool. 

Monday wasn't too exciting. We actually dropped two of the people we are teaching just because they keep cancelling our appointments and are not interested in learning more. Later we had another visit with Dany and we learned a lot more about him and the things he is struggling with and how we can help. Later that night we had another lesson with our members friend. Jean had more questions for us and we actually ended up teaching about the Law of Chasity with him. It was very interesting. After that we ran over to the LaRoche family's house for our family night with them. Those are always super fun. We read a little out of the come, follow me book and talk about it. They also have this little game we always play after. It is super fun  and we are all pretty equally good at it so it makes it really fun. 

Yesterday we had our district council in Graby. It was really good. We spent most of the time just talking about things that are difficult in our areas and then we would council on how we can approach these problems in different ways that might help. There is power in numbers ahah. After that we passed by a couple of peoples houses and then visited Jimmy. He has not smoked in a long time. He is doing really good right now with that. Everytime we visit him we play a game of darts because he played professionally and just loves playing. He skunked me in the first game so I made him play a second one and I still couldn't get into the game aha. He also always complements me on what ties I wear so I made a deal that if he skunked me again, I would trade him ties aha. Mistake on my part. Two throws later he had won the game. It was actually impressive how quickly the game ended after I said that so I didn't feel bad at all switching ties with him. He was super nice and gave me a nice tie in return. I made him promise he would wear it often though because that means he has to come back to church more often too. Last night we ended the day with a really good lesson. His name is Leonard. It's been a while since I've met with him but we had a really nice discussion. He knows so much about the church and has been with the missionaries for a long time that now he just wants to listen to what I have to say. He doesn't want to lead the discussions and doesn't want an influence an what I chose to share. It was really neat and different. I shared with him some personal experience and how we can apply the gospel to ourselves and how we can let the gospel change us as people. We also talked a lot about charity. I really felt the spirit during our lesson and I think he did too. He was grateful for the time we spent and was really open to more visits. Life as a missionary can be really hard and pretty discouraging from all of the people that shut us out and stuff like that but one thing that really makes it all worth it to me are the people like Leonard. The few who are open to talk about gospel. Even if he has been meeting with missionaries for a long time, he is interested in learning. He knows a lot and wants to have good discussions where we all share ideas and grow from one another. I absolutely love sharing the gospel with those who are open. 

That's about it for me this week. I hope you all are loving life and doing the things that you love to do. I know that we have been sent here to Earth by our loving Heavenly Father to experience the trials of life but to have joy as well. In 2 Nephi 2:25 we read, "Adam tomba pour que les hommes fussent, et les hommes sont pour avoir la joie." Or in English Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have JOY!" I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.

P.s. Oh yeah for transfers I am staying here in Sherbrooke with Elder Taruoura and we will be in a trio of a week with another Tahitian called Elder Puura before he goes back to Tahiti. 

Love you all.

Elder Beckstrand

This first picture is of the Festival of fireworks and music - Fete du la Nations that is going on this week right across the street from our apartment building.  Every night a different group gets a chance to shoot off their firework display as part of a competition to see whose is the best. We haven't gone into the park but it has brought at lot of new people into the town to talk to.

One year already?!

Bonjour à tous! I hope everyone is doing well. As you see from the title, I have officially been out on my mission for a full year! It has flown by so quickly and I've learned and grown so much and I'm super excited to see what this next year brings. If it's okay with all of you who might read this, I would like to make this email a little different from the others. I will share a few quick things that happen this week but then I would also like to share 10 things I've learned this last year.

First off, this week was pretty good. We were able to do a lot of service and help a lot of people in need. We helped people move and clean apartments. This week we also have a few really good lessons. We were able to share the Restoration in Arabic with our friend Rada. It was really cool and she was able to understand it a lot easier than when we tried in French. We also visited a lot of members and talked with them on missionary work and helping less actives. Speaking of less actives, we had two less active families say they would come try to come back to church this next week! So cool! We also had another reach out to us and ask us if we could come visit him. We went over last Wednesday and met with Dany and his girlfriend. They seem really cool and after asking a couple questions and talking with them, we found out Dany wants to start coming back to church and his girlfriend is not a member but is interested in learning more out the church! It was really cool to see even the less actives doing missionary work and seeing their desire to come closer to God. We have a lunch appointment with them tomorrow as well! Other than that our week was pretty normal. 

Now to the good part ahah. Here are 10 things that I have either learned, gained a testimony that it is true, or strengthened my testimony of in this past year of serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. No particular order. 

1. God is our loving Heavenly Father and we are his children. He is truly the Father of our spirits and loves us more than we can even imagine.God knows us personally. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows our strengths and weaknesses. He knows the desires of our hearts and all of our thoughts. As we allow ourselves to be an instrument in His hands, He will use us to our fullest potential and wonderful things will start to happen. 

2. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He is our older brother and the one who died to save us all. He descended below all things so that He could know how to better succor his brothers and sister. He was truly the only perfect person to walk this earth. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the true reason for Easter and Christmas! I am so grateful for what He did for me and for everyone else.

3. Joseph Smith was truly called of God to be a Prophet and restore the true and full gospel back to the earth. He had a question when he was young and by turning to God, he found his answer and was willing to act on what he was told to do. He truly received the golden plates and translated them by the power of God into what we call now, The Book of Mormon. 

4. If we look for it, we will see the Hand of God in our lives everyday. He is our Father and wants to bless us whenever he can. Sometimes we don't see it but Gob blesses us EVERYDAY with tender mercies and miracles! All we have to do is look for it. Even if it might feel like He has left us and everything is going bad, he is still there with his arms wide open just waiting for us to turn back to him. He is never the one to leave us, sadly its us who separates ourselves from Him. All we have to do is turn back to Him and he will gladly accept us and loves us!

5.  The Atonement of Jesus Christ is real and helps us repent and it changes lives. It can change our lives if we allow it. Jesus suffered and died for our sins and we can repent daily and strive daily to become more like him. In doing so, we will receive so much more Joy and happiness in our lives. I have seen the atonement of Jesus Christ act in my life and it is the best thing that we could do in our life. As we repent and change and use His atonement, we will slowly become more like Him. I have also seen His atonement work in the lives of others and I know that it can truly change people who allow it to happen. The Atonement of Jesus Christ was the greatest thing that ever happened. He saved us all from our sins and weaknesses as we turn to him and repent. 

6. The power of Prayer is real. We can communicate with our Father in Heaven through the power of prayer. If we pray for something with real intent, God will answer your questions. He will give you the comfort you need. He will bless the sick or afflicted. We also need to pray for the things that align with the will of God and then be willing and ready to act on the promptings we receive. God wants us to talk to him so we pray. He also wants to talk to us so we read the scriptures and will confirm to us the things we need to hear by the power if the Holy Ghost.

7. God has a plan for us. His plan started way before our life here on earth and continues for after this life. As we do as we are supposed to do, we are promised that we can be with our families forever. All the decisions we make is this short span of time we have here on earth will affect what happens to us in the Spirit world. The knowledge that as we do our best to stay on the straight and narrow path, we will be able to see and be with our family again even after death is very comforting and I'm so glad that it is true. 

8. The Priesthood is the power and authority to act in the name of Jesus Christ. It is the same priesthood that Jesus gave to his apostles. With this we are able to baptize people into the church of Jesus Christ and also heal the sick and comfort those in need of comfort. By the simple laying on of hands many people have been healed or comforted by the power of the priesthood and I am thankful for every chance I get to be able to help others through the priesthood that has been given to me. 

9. The book of Mormon is true. It is another Testament of Jesus Christ. We can always learn new things from reading the Book of Mormon and the stories and things written within apply to us personally. There is so much doctrine within and it as we truly study it, we will be closer to God. As we read the Book of Mormon daily, even if it is just one or two verses, it can help us with every aspect of our lives. 

10. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church. It is the same church as that of which we read in the Bible. Jesus is truly the head and leader of the Church. Russell M. Nelson was called of God to be the Prophet and president of the Church. I know that everything that happens in this church is guided and inspired of God. I would not rather be in any other church than this one because I know this church is true. I love it with all my heart and am excited to be able to serve and teach people all about this. 

That's about it for me for this week! I hope you all have a great week and keep having fun! I love you all!

Elder Beckstrand

Comp pic

Jimmy 

The LaRoche family 

Here are some picture's that Josh sent from his P-Day adventure with HIS DISTRICT at the Zoo de Granby.  It was another miracle!  His entire district got to go together! Josh said that he felt a little apostate being able to go do something on p-day besides just sit at the church and play board games or talk to us.  He was in Heaven!  He loves to be out and about with people.  He did not look forward to p-days at all.  Hopefully that will change now.  This is one happy mom to see her son happy too!

  

 

Happy Canada day!

Bonjour à tous! How is everyone doing? Are y'all enjoying the summer heat? It is finally starting to be warm here. The other day it was about 31 degrees and humid and yesterday was actually about 28 and relatively dry so it kinda felt like back home. For all of you who don't know, the first of July is Canada's National Holiday. It is also the day that everyone renews their leases on their apartments or moves. They spend the day moving everything and then later that night there are tons of parties. I hope you all back in the states have some fun plans for the 4th! Anyway, this week was pretty fun. Here is a run down of what happened.

Last Wednesday we got a call to do some service for one of the sisters in the ward so we got dressed and went painting! When we showed up it was just us and this 74 year old lady that was there so we went for it. We started and finished the living room before we had to leave. After that we picked up one of our amazing ward missionaries named John. He took the bus all the way in from Montreal to be with us that night. We tried to pass by a couple of people and we had a few appointments fall through but it was all good in the end. We were able to visit a less active that I haven't meet yet. He is pretty cool but has some mental problems that makes it hard for him to learn a whole ton so we just are helping him learn more about the gospel of Jesus Christ. After that we got some dinner at McDonald's and then went to our last appointment for the day and she was home! Her name is Carolle. She is a pretty less active member of the church and before we didn't really know why or what she needed but our lesson went really well and she opted up to us and were able to help her with some things. It's amazing how quickly the spirit will enter a room as soon as you start testifying of simple truths. 

Thursday was interesting. We started off with studies and then had lunch with the bishop and his family. We had a really nice discussion on our plans of helping the members do mission work and help the less actives come back. Bishop wanted to invite every member in our ward to do two simple things. 1. Pray for personal missionary experiences. 2. Pray specifically for a less active that you want to see back at church. They are two really easy things to do but with the power of prayer and willingness to act on impressions, we will be able to see awesome things happen. Or in spiritual words, By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. On thing we read in preach my gospel is that with every invitation, there has to be a follow up. Bishop asked me to put my computer skills to work and make an excel sheet to report all of the follow ups and progression of members. I quickly through something together and then Bishop and I talked about it a little and the  I added a few more things. Everyone has talents! Make sure you find out what yours are and USE THEM! After that we went back and painted another room at the house while the 74 year old lady finished the rest of it because she had stayed there all day the day before and that day just painting. Super impressive. We were able to share a little bit of who we are and what we do as missionaries with her. It was nice. Later that day we had a couple of pass bys and lessons that were good and we also were able to go back to the less actives house that we regained contact with the day before and actually had a good lesson with him. He said he might be able to come back to church in a week! 

Friday was the first official day of the new mission!! Our missions and the mission of Halifax are officially ONE! President Low arrived Thursday afternoon and President Phillip's left Friday morning. There are definitely going to be some changes and adjustments to both halts of the mission and it's going to be exciting. That morning we had a district council meeting with the Zone leaders and Sister Training leader. It was pretty good. My district leader invited our bishop to come as well so we were 11 people this week instead of 6. It was a nice change of normal. We had a nice discussion with bishop about what we are doing here in Sherbrooke and how the others can do the same thing but adjusted to their areas and needs. It was neat to see the other ideas and thoughts of all of the other missionaries. There is power in numbers. After that we lunch with Sister Lachance and read from Mosiah 4. Its a pretty neat chapter. We then went over and help Pascal move some things around his house and helped him unload and load his little trailer full of stuff. We then tried to get some finding time in but didn't get too much out of it and that about finished up the day. 

Saturday was pretty slow. Not a ton happened but we did get a call from our ward missionary, serge, saying he had a referral for us. He had met this guy Friday night while he was out for dinner and said he approached him and asked if they could talk. Most people at this restaurant know serge personally because he is there almost everyday and loves talking to people. He also likes sharing his beliefs so most people know his beliefs and know he is a member of the church. This guy told serge his life story and said he wants to change his life and wants to stop drinking. So that's where we came in. We were supposed to meet up for lunch and talk but he never showed up, which I'm a little grateful for because this guy is a part of Hells Angels up here aha. Yeah, we meet a lot of interesting people as missionaries but a lesson to be learned from all of this is that it is never to late to repent. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are always there for us when we need them. Their arms are stretched out towards us continually and all we need to do is truly repent of our sins. Jesus Christ suffered and died for all of our pains, sufferings and sins and all we need is to turn towards him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Or in the words of Disney, He saved our lives, and we are eternally grateful. 

Sunday was pretty good. Because it was the 5th Sunday of the month, it was missionary Sunday. Bishop talked about member missionary work and invited all of the members to do those two things and told them all that the missionaries full time and ward with him will be following up to see if they have chosen some less active to pray for. I'm excited to see what happens in this ward because of what the members will do. After church we had some finding time. Not a ton of people where home but we did find this dude from south Africa who has a super thick accent and is pretty open to the gospel. Later that night we had dinner with the family Herring except half of them were back in the states for the holidays so it was a kinda small group but it was good. Mike's son was still there and he is not a member so when we got to share the spiritual thought, he was able to participate more. It was nice. We then were able to visit the awesome MacFarlane family. Their oldest daughter was upstairs this time so we were able to talk to her a little bit this time. They have 5 kids but two of them are a little less active but the oldest is on a mission in Arizona and we talked to the daughter about her mission and she is slowly preparing for it. She wants to go but is waiting to do some schooling first. That was about it for Sunday.

Yesterday was insane. We woke up at 6am and looked out the window. And what did we see? Well not popcorn but just a thick layer of fog. It was pretty cool but it didn't stay very long and it was a relatively dry day. They don't call it the national moving day for nothing. We helped with 2 people moving and everywhere we went we saw different people packing and unpacking their houses. We ran over to the bishops house and started helping their neighbors move at 7am. With a little lunch break in there somewhere we finished around 4 or 4:30pm. We then went home and ate some food and then headed to the second person we were helping. They had a giant flatbed trailer that we just loaded everything on and strapped down. We then had to drive it across town and unload it on to the second floor of the new apartment. The stairs were really steep and they left us in charge of carrying all of the heavy stuff. We had two couches, a couple heavy desks, and a deep freezer with some food in it. It was crazy. By the end off all that we were so dead tired. We the  went over and finished the night with FHE with the LaRoche family. It was really nice just to sit down and talk about the gospel again and not have to worry about moving stuff. This week was Sister LaRoches turn to do the spiritual message. She gave us all a piece of paper and then we had a contest to see who could write down the most of the modern day prophets. I only got 10/17. We then talked about the importance of prophets and why it is important to remember and do what they say. It was actually pretty good. 

That's about it for this week. I hope you are all having fun and staying healthy. I want to invite you all to do the same things we invited our members to do. Pray for some personal missionary experiences and choose a less active member in your ward and pray specifically for them. I love you all and wish you the best this week! 

Love you all!

Elder Beckstrand

Cathedral

Bat boat

Moving day!