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.