The one on New Years Eve

Bonjour a tous. How is everyone doing this amazing New years eve! I hope you all have some fun plans and are gonna stay safe tonight. This week here in Bridgewater went by really quickly. Here is basically what happened.

Last Tuesday we had Christmas eve with the Dorey family. The father is a chef so the food was amazing and we ate so much food. It was so good. They also gave us gifts which were ties and slippers and a screwdriver. My favorite was the screwdriver and let me specify why haha. Over my mission with all the service I have done, I have just slowly been collecting and growing my tool bag. I have a pretty good bag right now but one tool I have never been able to get and I almost went to go buy is a square screwdriver. We don't really use the squares in the states but in Canada they are everywhere and I haven't been able to do anything with those...until now! I was so excited haha. 

Christmas day we woke up and opened our gifts and then went and called our families which is always great. It was so good to see the whole family and be able to skype my cousins who are also on their missions. It was really neat and definitely a once in a lifetime experience. After that we went to our first dinner of the night and it was very good as well. It was with the older couple I first lived with when elder lee and I first got into this area. They had invited a few other people over as well. There was so much good food and it was hard not to try all of it and then get full. After that we drove back up to Bridgewater and had our second dinner of the night with our ward mission leader and his family. It was just as good as the first two dinners but by that time I was not hungry anymore but somehow managed to finish my plate and almost all of my desert. God works in mysterious ways. That was basically all of our Christmas here. It was nice and calm compared to Christmas last year. If you didn't hear or read about that you can find it on the blog somewhere haha. HERE

The rest of the week was fun as well. We spent some time going around and giving out little boxes of food and treat to those we knew would be in need at that time. It was super cool. We left a big box at our neighbors door and he came over later to see if it was supposed to be our and we said no but that he was lucky to be getting that and he just smiled and walked back home. It was fun. We also went around and visited some less active member in our ward and handed out our Christmas cards and tried to get to know some more people. 

One really cool thing that did happen this week was that we got a referral from a member this Sunday so we dropped everything and went to visit him. His name is Chris and he is super cool! He is super smart and has had a ton of interesting things happen to him throughout his life. We stayed there for about an hour and a half and learned that he already knows quite a bit about the gospel and is very religious. It was such a great referral and we will enjoy teaching him! It was a good example and experience, that shows the importance of being obedient to all the rules. There is one rule that says to contact referrals within 24 hours and we did it and were blessed because of it! It was awesome. 

Anyway that was about it for this week. We did drive down to Halifax yesterday to clean out one of the old apartment because I have the truck and a trailer so I get to take care of all that. It was fun and we are still in Halifax today for a district activity to go bowling and be with the other missionaries. I'm excited. Either way, I love y'all and I hope y'all have a great week and stay safe!

Love Elder Beckstrand 

Us with Elder Sousa and Thacker

 Sousa, Thacker, Constant, me, Hsu, Sister Watson and Rhodes, Elder Albertson up front

 Tv are just for the 70s music videos

 The pins are extra skinny.

 No holes!

 I accidentally made this dent in the pillar with the ball.

 This is a picture that Josh sent when I told him of a fellow student that passed away this week from a car accident earlier this month.  He was on the football team and Josh sent this message...Sending my love and prayers from Canada #CB4L

The one on Christmas Eve

Bonjour à tous! How is everyone doing? I hope everyone is having a great Christmas eve today and have a good Christmas tomorrow. 

We have had a pretty good week here. We didn't have anything super special happen this week other than we did have two district councils because of christmas. Both of them were really good because we had a focus on christmas and Christ. Since it is Christmas eve today and not much happened this week I thought I would make this email a little different than the others and talk about the life of Christ!

Christmas is literally my favorite time of the year and favorite Holiday for many reasons. Lets start off by reading a few scriptures though.

In Luke chapter 2 we read, 1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all athe world should be btaxed. 2 (And this ataxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) 3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judæa, unto the city of David, which is called aBethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) 5 To be taxed with Mary his aespoused wife, being great with child. 6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her afirstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the binn. 8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the aglory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you agood tidings of great bjoy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is aborn this day in the city of David a bSaviour, which is Christ the cLord. 12 And this shall be a asign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 aGlory to God in the highest, and on earth bpeace, good will toward men.

And in Matthew chapter 2 we read: 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found  him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also. 9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. 11¶ And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and afrankincense, and myrrh.

I love these two passages of the Child's birth. His birth was probably the greatest event to ever happen on earth and the shepherds and the wise men knew that. WIthout the birth of Christ, He could have never performed the atonement and died for our sins. Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and was exactly obedient to his Father's will and fulfilled his mission here on earth by sacrificing himself for us. That was the second greatest thing to ever happen because without that, we could not repent and be forgiven of our sins and return to live with God and our families again one day. It says that the shepherds came with haste after learning of His birth and the wise men searched diligently for Him as well because they knew of his greatness and everything he would accomplish. They all worshiped him and thanked God for His gift he had given us. God gave us the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, and Jesus gave us the gift of the atonement. Both great gifts that show us their never ending love for each and every one of us! I am so eternally grateful for those gifts they gave us and during this Christmas season, I always try to emulate the spirit of the wise men and try giving a gift back to God and Jesus. We all give gifts to our family members but we should never forget our Father in Heaven and our elder Brother Jesus Christ. That might seem like a weird thing because we cant really give them physical things but we can do other things to show them we love them and are grateful for what they have given us. Like what it says in Mosiah 2:17 ...When you are in the service of your fellow being, you are only in the service of your God. I love being on a mission because I get to serve my God every day 24/7 by serving my fellow being here in Eastern Canada. It has been so much fun and I have learned so much and become so much closer to my Father in Heaven and my elder brother Jesus Christ. I want to challenge each and every one of you reading this (yes you) to think of a gift you can give to your God and saviour this Christmas season. It can be so many things. Serving a family member, helping a friend, improving something personal, doing something to get closer to Them, or really anything. I know that we will grow closer to God by giving him a gift and serving others and He will bless us for our efforts.

I love you all so much and hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and have fun with whatever you are doing. Keep being awesome and remember the reason for the season and if you haven't seen the new video, The Christ Child, then go watch it!

Love ya,

Elder Beckstrand

Crescent Beach

 Food Bank

Elder and Sister Joanne Newsome. She used to work with my parents.

 A members house.

 Bridgewater in 1958

The one with Christmas zone conference

Bonjour à tous! How is everyone doing this week? This week here has been pretty good. We spent quite a bit of this last week in Halifax for interviews, zone conference, and exchanges. It was all super good and we had tons of fun. Here is a quick review of what we did.

While we were still here in Bridgewater we did quite a bit. Last Wednesday we did the normal stuff of street contacting and some Facebook  finding and whatever but we had this feeling all day that we had something else that we needed to do. That night we still couldn't figure it out so we prayed about it and almost right after we named a few things to do but then we kinda just looked at each other and both knew that we needed to shovel some snow and thought of a couple widows in the ward that would need help. The first lady we went to help didn't even know we were there but we did get to talk to her neighbor who was really nice and we had a good conversation and then as we continued to each house we saw little miracles everywhere. It was super cool and the Lord will direct you on where to go and what to do if you are willing to listen and act on what He says. It was super cool. 

Sunday here was really good. Church was nice as always but that night we had a christmas concert. It was really good. Elder constant played the prelude music and we both sang in the choir which was pretty fun. It sounded pretty good too. We had quite a bit of non members there and had some less actives as well. It was such a great activity and we were happy to be there. 

Yesterday we helped a lady in our ward move some wood. Its so nice to have a truck because we get to do so much more service. We moved about two truck beds full and then we drove up on the hill behind her house and she told us stories of the area and the history. We then went over and helped another lady in the ward clean up a few things at her house as well so that was fun. 

While we were in Halifax there was quite a bit that happened. We started off with exchanges on Thursday and I was with Elder Thacker and we dropped of my truck to get it serviced and then we went street contacting in the city which is always fun because there are so many people and you can just talk to everyone. That night we went over to their church and helped them set up for thier thier Christmas dinner and Zone Conference which was fun because we got to be with all of the YSA people again. 

Friday I spent the day with Elder Sousa who is from Brazil. After we did studies we went over to the stake center to have interviews with president which is always amazing. After that we went with the sister missionaries to the hospital to give someone a blessing but when we got there, the person we were supposed to give a blessing to was not so we went and got some lunch and did some finding until we got another call from the sisters to let us know if that person ever was back in thier room at the hospital. It was pretty fun. That night we went to the family ward Christmas dinner and Elder Sousa and I ate dinner with all of the Brazilians who were there. About 5 or 6 families. It was awesome. They tried teaching me some Portuguese and I tried to learn as much as I could. It was really fun. I know President Carnavale would have been proud of my efforts haha. 

Saturday was zone conference which was always the highlight of the week. We had two super great teachings on obediance and Member work. We read so many scriptures that stress the importance of obediance and how we will be blessed according to our obediance to Gods laws and commandments. We then looked at a few numbers for our mission and in comparison to other missions, our mission is good at finding people and very good at helping those people come to church but then when it comes to setting them a date to get baptised or actually getting bapized, there is a leak in the pipe somewhere because the numbers drop like crazy. We talked about finding the leak in the pipe and how members can be the fix to those leaks. We had an elder compare it to that amazing tv ad of Flex Tape. As missionaries, we have this pipe that we use to help people but there are leaks and holes but as we work with members, they can come around and slap that Flex Tape on it and stop that leak completly. As we as members of the church can work with the missionaries and do our part of the work as well, we can help so many more of our brothers and sisters recieve the Joy and Happiness which comes from living the gosple standards. After that we had lunch and a gift exchange and talent show. Elder Sousa played the guitar while elder constant sang along and it was really good. We then said our goodbyes to a few people and then headed back to Bridgewater. It was a good week. 

Thats about it for this week. We have seen quite a bit of miracles and I know that this is Christs church and that he leads and guides it and helps us fufill His work here. I love this season to remember Him and all that he has done for us. Keep being awesome and being a good example by sharing your talents and #Lightingtheworld! I love you all! 

Elder Beckstrand