The one with service and Hosptials

The one with service and HosptialsBonjour à tous! How is everyone doing this week? This week here in Bridgewater was kinda slow but was still good. It has rained here a lot and no snow yet. I'm still hoping and praying that we will get some soon. Anyway here is a quick outline of what we did this week.

Last Tuesday  we had dinner with our bishop and his wife. They got permission from the Mission President to have us over with a group of sister missionaries which was cool because it was Sister Hoag from Pine View High School. It was super cool to have that dinner. We also watched the video that the church came out with called The Christ Child. It is so good. Everyone should watch it and share it with a friend. 

Wednesday we had district council and then we went and had some service with a member in our ward. He had a whole truck load of mulch that we had to move around to different areas on his property so I stayed by the pile just shoveling it into wheelbarrows while the others carried it around and dumped it in different places. It was really good and I got a good workout. We then had dinner with that family and they are super nice. After that we went to the church to play volleyball because all the youth had a dance on friday so we changed the day and we also had a little party before because it was the end of our missionary quest! We totalled up all the points that all the youth had earned and then the deal was that the winning team got to pie the losing missionary. My team earned around 600 more points than Elder Constants team so we had about 6 youth with whipped cream attack him. He was a very good sport about it all and the youth really liked it. After that we played volleyball and it was good. 

Thursday we had another meeting with all of the people training this transfer. Those are always really good because we take a little bit of time to go around and share different miracles we have seen recently. I think that is very helpful for those new missionaries too so they can see that this is all worth it from the beginning. We also had dinner with a member family that we haven't really met before and it was really good to see that relationship start and grow. They are so nice and have such strong testimonies. They also asked us to help them move an oven and a fridge because they saw we had a truck. Oh the blessing of driving a truck haha. More service opportunities. That night we had our french class. Those are nice and our students are doing pretty well too.  

Friday was good. We got to help out at the food bank and the Clothing bank here in town. We have become the professionals at bagging up dog and cat food at the food bank and the ladies love us at both places. They ask us questions every once in a while and we get to see quite a bit of people from the community. We got lunch between both at Subway and while we were eating, there was a school group of Acadians that walked in. Those are the people from New Brunswick that speak French. It was so nice to hear so much french again. It was also such a different accent and it was super fun to hear them speak. Later that night we did some street contacting and then went out to a members for dinner again. They are all nice out here. I love them all. We talked a little about St. George and the new temple because they lived there for about 2 years and loved the St.. George Temple and are planning on going to visit the new one once it is built. Its sad that they are closed for now but it will be so cool once both of those are open and working! 

Saturday wasn't too exciting. We did have a lesson with the native man we are teaching. James had a few questions on Priesthood but understood it well once we explained it to him. He seemed to like it all really well and as we were talking he started talking about stories they tell in their community and between natives so we asked if they have a story kinda like the one told in 3 nephi chapter 11 and they do! So we told him about that and invited him to read that. It was really cool. 

Sunday and yesterday were both pretty similar. We spent a good part of that in the Hospital and helping out a member in our ward. Sister Russell is an amazing recent convert that we have been working with and have been really her only "family" here. After church we gave her a blessing and then a member who is a doctor looked at her and called the ambulance to come pick her up. He thought she was going to have a heart attack and just was really sick so we went with her and made sure she was okay. We also helped that family move their oven and fridge and visited a couple more members. Nothing super crazy or exciting else happened. 

That's about it for this week. I hope that you are all doing well and that you are enjoying this amazing season that is finally here. Keep being awesome and don't forget to watch The Christ Child and share it with a friend!

Love y'all!

Elder Beckstrand 

The one with Elder Bassette

Bonjour à tous! J'espère que tout va bien. How has everyone's week been? This last week here has been pretty good. We have had so much happen this week and we have seen the Lord truly lead and guide us to be in the right place at the right time. We also had Zone conference this last week with General Authority Elder Bassette. He is one of the councilors for the missionary department in Salt Lake City. He knows so much about missionary work and life and the Gospel. Lets jump right into this weeks review.

Last Wednesday we met with this awesome lady named Emily. There is a sister from our ward who is serving her mission in Portugal and she got a message from one of her friends that was asking for a picture of Jesus. We got together and ended up giving her not only a picture of Jesus but a whole Book of Mormon with a different picture of Jesus in different chapters that we loved that talked about Him. She was super excited to get that and we also showed her around the church building with all of the pictures we have here. She seemed to really like it. She even said she would try to read about a chapter a night and then let us know what she thought about it. It was super awesome! After that we did some street contacting and played some chess at the library with a group there that has been pretty cool. We then ended the night with a member visit. They are so cool and one just got home from a mission and one is out and another is preparing to go so it's fun to learn from them and also help them as well. 

Thursday was a little slow with our studies and weekly planning but we were able to have some time to do some finding and visit a few members. Then that night we had our french class were we kinda did a review of everything we have taught our group. They are doing really well and remember a lot of what we have taught them. French is full of random rules and weird exceptions but it is definitely a lot easier to teach when you have someone like Elder Constant who is native and knows all of that already and can explain it well. It is also helping me with my french so I don't lose it in this english area aha. After that we drove down to Halifax to pick up some Elders and to camp the night there. 

Friday was great. We spent most of the day there for Zone Conference. Elder Bassette started off the conference and we talked about the importance of sacrifice and the importance of our calling. If any of you have seen Elder Hollands or Elder Bednar talks from the MTC, that's the kind of talk that was given at Zone Conference. It was so good and I will probably remember it for a long time. We also talked about the importance of Member missionary work. That was very interesting as well. As missionaries, we do all the hard parts of sharing the gospel and all the members work is to invite non members to church activities where the missionaries will be. Members do the finding and Missionaries do the teaching. Missionaries can and will do the finding part of it as well but the members are much better at it and know so many more people than we do. Sister Bassette then also talked to us about our roles as missionaries and how we cannot become discouraged in our missionary efforts. When we get discouraged, our desire decreases, our spirit softens, and our effectiveness drops by a lot. We talked a lot about staying happy and working the best with what is given. It reminded me of one of my all time favorite quotes that goes, Comparison is the thief of joy. We only need to think about how we are doing personally and not comparing ourselves to others because we are not them. Everyone has different skills and backgrounds making us better at some things than others. That's just how God made us and he did that for a reason. Another really good story they shared with us was one about a boy named Benjamin Landert. It was a story shared by President Monson. I encourage all of you to go find it and read it. Anyway, it was a very good zone conference and I enjoyed it very much. After that we dropped some elders off at the airport and then went back home. We contacted a few people when we got home and then we had volleyball with the youth in the ward. It is always super fun with them and they are just great Missionaries. One of them told me he had given out a Book of Mormon to one of his friends earlier that week! I'm so glad I get to work with them. 

Saturday we went to our french group and then visited a few members down in liverpool and got a return appointment with someone who I don't think is a member. If they are, they are very inactive aha. I don't remember much else of what happened that day. 

Sunday and Monday were both kinda slow and boring. We did a lot of walking that day because all of the allowed miles in the mission got reduced quite a bit so we walked which is good because we get to see and talk to more people but it has also been raining. We got to have a lesson with our native guy that we are teaching. He is doing really well and likes what we believe and there are a lot of similarities of our beliefs already. We also met with a couple members and watched the face to face with Elder Gong for the new youth program. It was very good and I think that it will help so many youth. We also visited with one of the less actives and helped her write a talk for Sunday and then we also found out that we will be speaking as well so we got to plan all three of them together. It was really good and we got a lot done. 

That's about it for this week. It's been really good and it's starting to get colder and nice here. I hope you are all doing great and having fun. Keep up the good work and if you didn't get a chance to see the Light the World Video go do it! its great. Also share it with others! 

Love ya

Elder Beckstrand 

The one with volleyball in the snow

Bonjour à tous! How is everyone doing? This week here has been pretty good. We went on exchanges, had interviews, had a new trainers meeting, played some volleyball, ate some good food, and raked some leaves. It was a pretty interesting week here in Bridgewater. Here is all that a little more in depth.

Last Wednesday we went down to Halifax to have District council which was good. We had the whole zone leadership there and we talked about the Zone vision and made some goals and plans for this transfer. It was really cool. We also read in Mosiah 14 which is a great chapter for anyone who is looking for something to read. After that we went with the Bedford Elders to get lunch and start our exchanges. I got to spend the rest of the day with Elder Thacker and our two trainees got to spend the day together and try to do missionary work in Halifax. It was really cool to see the two new elders take on the challenge of working together and not with their trainers. Elder Thacker and I went around Dalhousie University and did some contacting and we would see the other elders every once in a while which was nice because we got to make sure they were doing good and being safe without being right there with them. They did a great job. At the end of the day we all met back up and went home and had cake and Hot chocolate. It was a good day.

Thursday we stayed on exchanges because that morning we had a new trainers meeting together and then we got lunch and finished studies and then went finding until we had to go to the stake center for Interviews. Those are always good and always helpful. Right after we got done with that we rushed back to Bridgewater to have our french class. That was good. We only had 2 people this week but they are super fun and are learning well. 

Friday was really good. We had our studies that morning and then went to our clothing bank next to the hospital and did some service over there. Our job is just to do whatever needs help so this week we did a lot of cleaning and carrying things around. After that we had to do some weekly planning until we had dinner which was good because it was with all of the youth in our ward. They brought pizza and stuff to eat before volleyball. We tried having volleyball in the gym but some other group asked for it so we decided to go play it outside. Once we got it all set up and ready, it started snowing. It was soo much fun. We played for about an hour and then one of the youth decided to throw a snowball at me so that started a whole big snowball fight which was really fun. We went until either the snow was gone or our hands were too cold to pick up more snow. We then decided to go inside and play some board games until the end. It was fun. We played this fun Book of Mormon game that had about 400 questions about the Book of Mormon. 

Saturday was just full of member visits and one trip to the hospital to visit a sister who had just had her leg amputated. It was weird to know her before with two legs and now one of them is just gone. I can't remember much else of what we did but we did have dinner with a recent convert here. He is a fisherman that works out on a scallop fishing boat for 2 months at a time. He comes in for about one month and then is back out there again. He fed us really well and made sure that we didn't leave his house hungry. He then packed it all up to let us take the rest home with a huge bag full of fresh scallops from his last trip. It's too bad i'm allergic to those I've found out ahah. We are going to give them to other elders as a gift.  

Sunday and Monday were both good. We had a lesson with this guy we found on Facebook. He is a very cool native man that lives here. He speaks English but also a language called Mi'gmaq. It's a very interesting  language that is dying out. He has a lot of the same beliefs as us and is very nice. He likes us a lot and we get to talk to him often which is nice. We also helped a lady in our ward rake some leaves. It ended up only being about three bags worth so it was all done in about an hour. A lot less than the 50 bags and many hours worth back home which is nice ahah. We also had a FHE with an amazing family out here. other than that, I don't remember much more of what happened this week. It went by too fast. 

That was my week. I hope that you are all doing well and having fun! The Holiday season is coming quick and what an amazing season that is! If you get the chance, everyone should go to comeuntochrist.org and add your phone number into the daily text reminders so you can get those in December to help LIGHT THE WORLD. Also watch the Videos!  They are awesome. I love this season and I love you all! Have a great week.

Love, Elder Beckstrand

This is the Sea Bridge.

The one with a funeral

Bonjour à tous! How is everyone doing? Hope everyone had a good Halloween. This last week here was kinda slow but good. It's finally starting to get cold again. Everyone is starting to complain but I'm getting more and more excited for the snow to finally come again. Forecasted to get a little this Friday. Anyway here is a quick update on what happened.

Last Wednesday was pretty good. We had district council down in Halifax and we were able to meet all of the new people in our district. 3 of them just came from the Mtc so that's fun. At almost every district council we have a little bit of time to read and discuss a chapter from the book of mormon with the other missionaries and that is always fun because everyone always brings different ideas and it all just kinda blends together and we all learn and grow closer to God together. There is so much to learn from the Book of Mormon. After that we went back home and dropped off some Korean stuff to a member who wanted to give it to their friends and invite them to church! It was really good to see the members be active and do the work with us. We then we went and visited a couple members and then that night we went to the library to play chess. There are a couple people that go there every wednesday night to play so we thought we could use my long developed skills of chess and go meet some people. Back in intermediate and middle school I would play chess every morning and during lunch almost everyday. It was a good way to make friends ahah. I'm not the greatest at chess but I'm not as bad as I thought I would after not playing for a couple years. We meet a couple of really nice people and the older couple that started the group were wearing Ironman Jackets so we had a nice conversation about that. It was really good.

Thursday was pretty good. It was halloween so we were restricted a little but not a whole ton. We were just not allowed to go knocking after 5pm. We got our studies in and tried to visit some members that we didn't know and had dinner. After dinner we made some cookies for a member that just lost his wife. After that we had our french class and everyone still showed up so we gave them some cookies too. It was a pretty nice Halloween on the mission. 

Friday was really good. We started with our studies and then went over to the food bank and helped out there and packed up some toilet paper for them. It was really fun and the people there know us really well now and are asking us questions so that's good. We also went over to the Hospital clothing bank and helped out there as well. They are super nice and taught me how to steam clothing and make it look really good. It was pretty fun and the ladies there are always grateful for us and love having us over to help. After those we went over to a members house to practice teaching the Restoration with them. It was part of our awesome missionary quest thing that we are doing. It was good to teach again and to have Elder constant teach a little as well. The members were great and asked good questions and then we had them teach us. It went well because the two daughters are both preparing to go on missions so they had fun practicing for that as well. They also had us over for dinner after and that was great. After dinner we all went back to the church and played volleyball. It is always fun to play volleyball and spend some time with the members and get to know them better. 

Saturday was interesting. We started off the day with a funeral down in Liverpool. It was a very good reception and service. We were able to meet a couple of very neat people and make some cool connections. After the funeral we visited another member family and practiced teaching the plan of salvation and then they taught it back to us. It was really cool. It's fun to teach the members and then have them teach us because it grows our relationships and we also get to see how easy it is to share the gospel and different ways of doing it. After that we went back down to liverpool to a city dinner thing. It was with the group of french speakers and almost everyone else in the city. It was really good and we had two member families there and one of the brothers got up and started dancing to the band that was playing and so the sister member that invited us also got up and started to dance but they ended up tripping over each other and both fell. It was kinda scary but they were both okay so it was okay. 

Sunday and Monday were both kinda slow and boring. We visited a couple of members that live a little farther outside of town. We also try to plan our days out each morning but these two days both had plan changes as soon and we started going for our original plans. There were a couple times though where we were able to meet someone we didn't know or wouldn't have found otherwise but Heavenly Father knew we needed to visit certain people so he changed our plans for us. We actually started teaching this native man because of that same reason. I had started talking to him on messenger recently and he seemed interested but he lives kinda far away so we haven't been able to go out and see him but we decided to give him a video call over facebook and it worked out really well. He is super interesting and we have a lot of the same beliefs. We are planning on visiting him this sunday. 

Other than that, that's about it for this week! I hope that you are all having fun with the beautiful weather that is coming in soon. Keep being awesome and reading your scriptures. Also just because the temple is now closed in STG that doesn't mean you get to stop going. Cedar is only 45 minutes away! I love you all and I know that this Church is true. There is no way around it. If you read the Book of Mormon everyday and pray with a real intent to know truth, I know that God will let you know it is true by the power of the Holy Ghost. Have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Beckstrand 

A porcupine that was alive instead of dead on the side of the road.