HEY MOM! Happy happy birthday! I love you so much! Please have a wonderful day of enjoyment and low stress :) Have any sweet plans? I hope so. This has been a wonderful week with many ups and downs. Mostly ups :) The Lord always blesses us with ups if we turn to Him and endure to the end through the downs. Never give up, never give in, never surrender!
Ok.... first off I guess I'll let you know what happened last Monday evening. We were just finishing up dinner when we got a call from a less active member, Sister B D (about 58 years old and has lived here for 3 months). We had met her once before with our ward mission leader Brother D, and had given her a blessing. As we answered and asked her how she was she told us she was terrible and was going to kill herself. WHAT?!?!? We told her to NOT do anything and calm down. We kept asking her what was wrong and where she was but she wouldn't tell us. She just kept crying and saying over and over that she was going to kill herself. We told her we'd have a prayer and said a quick prayer with her over the phone. Finally we got her to tell us where she was, and she said, "I'm in the Walgreen's parking lot. You have one chance to talk me out of this." Woah lady! We threw our ties back on and hurried to the car to drive there. We called our ward mission leader to ask him what to do and he said to go but if the Spirit prompts us then call the police immediately. I called Bishop W (the one on the skateboard ha ha :P) and he called the police and another ward member to come be with and help us out. It was pretty stressful. We got to the parking lot and talked and prayed with her, but she was just sitting in her car saying those same things over and over again about how she was suicidal. Anyway, the police eventually showed up and searched her car and ended up taking her to a mental health facility nearby called Lifestream. Apparently she had gotten in a fight with her daughter (who she lived with), and her daughter had kicked her out of the house. It was pretty sad because she felt like God didn't love her and she had nowhere to go... she had been sealed to her husband a long time ago and she said she knew that if she committed suicide then she couldn't be with him, but she didn't care anymore because life was so bad. We kept telling her how God does love her and cares about her, and that she could do it and life WILL get better. So, basically, we are lifesavers ;) It is the best thing in the world to be spiritual lifesavers everyday! It was also cool to be a physical lifesaver as well :P
So I can't believe that Mindy is at BYU! WAhooo! I bet she is having a blast. I've been praying hard for you everyday to adjust, get into the swing of things, be safe, make new friends, and for the guys to stay away ;) Hope all goes well.
Good news, I am becoming a smoothie master. I use that blender everyday and it works fantastic! I usally put in frozen peaches, pineapple, strawberries, mangos, blueberries, carrots, and a banana! And milk and some orange juice. No sugar or anything but it tastes really good and is healthy :)
Thursday we had a service project with Bishop W and he is the man! He has a way cool family too - a daughter on a mission, a son going to BYU, a daughter going to BYU who will be going to BYU Jerusalem (same thing mom did I think) and then a mission, and then two more daughters who live at home. They are way nice, and the cool thing is that Bishop and his wife are converts! He is a doctor and doing pretty well; he wrote a book on thyroids and has a company that sells some sort of something or other. Funny thing... he and his wife met in a bar (before they were converts of course). You never would have guessed that though, they are amazing people! Anyway, we went there Thursday morning and helped him replace 2 or 300 feet of wire fencing! It was hard work but so much fun. Bishop is hilarious! He is really smart too. About an hour before we finished it just started pouring rain on us and we were SOAKED! It was a blast. Bishop is crazy though lol he did a front flip thing over the fence and then when we walked back to his house he just pulls out his skateboard and starts riding on his hands! I was laughing so hard. It was fun to be with him and talk to him though, he is really cool. It was nice to have a buddy almost as cool as Dad to be with and work with for part of a day =]
In the words of Allie, "HAPPY DAY!" Although I'd like to also add in "Happy Week!" and "Happy Life!" and actually "Happy Eternity!" Yeah! Thanks Bal :) I always think of you smiling and saying in your th-th-th voice little things like that and it cheers me up. You all cheer me up!
Hey, feel free to send me any church cd's if you desire... yes, even Hillary Weeks ha ha. Any good music (in accordance with the White Handbook) would be appreciated. Don't feel like you need to do that immediately though, just throwing that out there for the future if you have a chance to get around to it. By the way, I hope you are putting my iPod to good use. Please share it or use it as much as you'd like! I want it to not just sit there dead. Enjoy it please :)
Cool random fact - we are teaching Oneill Chambers' (wide receiver on BYU's football team) uncle! He seems pretty receptive and open to the message. He has seen a big change in his nephew's life as well.
A neat story real quick before I go - We went out with brother C Tuesday night (we usually go home teaching with him the last tuesday of the month. I think he forgot tomorrow is though or something idk because we went last week) and we stopped by a less active family. We didn't think much of it at the time, just a normal visit. We left them with a scripture and prayer, and noticed that after the prayer the mom A had gotten teary eyed. We talked about it after and it was neat because we could tell she had felt the Spirit. We called them the next day and got a return appointment to go back and watch Joseph Smith - Prophet of the restoration with them on Friday. We went back Friday and were talking with them after the movie and A just broke down and said she knew they needed to come back to church. She told us that before we stopped by on Tuesday they had been in the middle of a fight and there was a bad feeling there. When we came there was a peaceful feeling and they knew that they needed to come back to church! She said it was like a sign from God :) It was so cool because we were just doing the normal rounds I guess you could say and yet the Lord was guiding us! He knows what everyone is going through and if we just do the small things he asks, then we can be a huge help to people. We can be instruments in his hands, and there is great joy that comes from that! Check out Alma 29:9.
Well my time is up, but I love you all so much! Happy birthday mom, I hope you have a wonderful week! I love you all and do some extra cleaning or something for me for mom :) Did that make sense? Ha ha love ya!
-Elder Beckett
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
8/23/10 (Mindy's Birthday!!)
Happy happy birthday to Melinda Jane! I hope you have a fantastic birthday! You are an amazing girl and I sure miss you lots. Hopefully amidst packing you will have some time to sit back and enjoy a moment relaxing and partying and whatever else you want to do! I love you lots!
This has been a good week, as all are in the mission field. Hard, yes, but missions never were easy I suppose. I'll admit I was having a downer few days; I think the devil was working extra hard to keep me discouraged. I had some awesome experiences though that definitely strengthened my testimony, and received some really great letters from family and friends. One thing I continually learn to have more faith in is the power of prayer. Sister McNeill invited me to find people to teach ASAP (through Always Saying A Prayer). Even if it's just at the doorstep or whatever. The first door we went to the lady opened and I told her we were sharing a message about Jesus Christ and asked if she had a second to listen. She invited us in and then we had a prayer, taught a lesson, and left her with a Book of Mormon and Moroni's promise. Throughout the rest of the day we implemented prayer into our contacting as often as possible, and it was WAY more effective than not. We didn't even tract a whole lot of area, but we taught a lot more lessons than we usually would be able to when contacting the same amount of people. Prayer really does work, especially when we are sincere and have faith.
We met a guy who used to work in Area 51 this week.. it was definitely interesting. I asked him if he had ever seen an alien or anything and he said, "What does it matter? You wouldn't believe me anyway." We told him to try us and so he began his story.
Apparently they had him out in the wilderness area by Area 51 on a 5 day shift near some mountains or hills or something. He didn't say waht his job was. On the Sunday evening when his shift started, he met a "man" named Herman. Herman was an alien apparently - Bill (the guy we met) said he had very white skin. He talked to him about a lot of things, and saw him each night of the 5 days. Here are some of the things he said:- Herman's people (they look like man except they are white white, and become more gray skinned as they get older) were like a team of scinetists who had crashed there in the mountain and were repairing their flying saucer.
- They went and were using nuclear waste to fix their spaceship, digging it up somewhere nearby
-Their people were really weak physically, but extremely smart
-They didn't have blood, but something else. It was too hot to have blood from where Herman was from
Anyway you get the idea. There were more details but I have no time for it ha ha. It was definitely interesting because he seemed dead serious as he said everything. There were no pauses to answer any of the questions I asked; he just answered straight forward. Aliens?!? Who knows lol. Unfortunately he was set in his ways and didn't want to hear more about the Gospel.
Ok, the neatest thing of my week happened this morning during my personal study. I want you all to know that I have a testimony of the scriptures! They are the word of God. Especially the Book of Mormon; I get more and more out of that book everytime I read it. How important it is to be studying from teh Book of Mormon often! It is a blessing in all of our lives. Anyway, I was reading and kind of feeling discouraged, and I read Alma chapters 32 and 33. Chapter 32 is pretty "famous" in the church, about faith and Alma comparing it to a seed. It's a wonderful chapter. Chapter 34 is also another "famous" one, with Amulek teaching the people. Anyway, I think chapter 33 often gets sandwiched between these two and doesn't receive the needed attention lol. At least that's how it was for me (until today) I was reading, and Alma quotes Zenos and Zenock. We don't have a whole lot from them in the scriptures, but what we do have is awesome! I loved Alma 33:11. Go read it, and really think about it! I learned that we really do get our joy and happiness from God, and our prayers are much more effective when they are sincere. Sometimes God gives us afflictions and trials to help us be more sincere; to come closer to Him and refine us. The central message is that this is all possible through Jesus Christ :) A new favorite scripture of mine? I think so! It is neat how the Lord can teach us many different ways, especially through the scriptures.
Well, my time is up, but I love you all! Good luck at college Mindy! GOod luck with school everyone else! Thanks for all your prayers and support; I can feel the Lord's help through the hard times. Keep living the Gospel and studying the scriptures (especially the Book of Mormon)! Christ truly is our Savior and Redeemer. The Lord loves me and each one of you. He is our Father, and how great that is! He has a plan for us =]
Be safe (physically and especially spiritually!)
Love,
Elder Andrew Beckett
P.S. I caught a turtle! We were tracting and I saw it on the side of the road and said, "Elder Creer! I'm going to hold that while you take a picture ok?" So we stopped and I held it :) It was hissing at me before I picked it up but I think he got over that. He tried to bite and claw me too while I was holding him so that's why I"m laughing and look all funny :) Then there is a beautiful sky picture - the clouds here are just incredible! Some of the sunsets are as well, I just haven't had my camera around when I see them. I'll send you some asap though :) The next ones are of my sweet tan line lol, then Elder Creer and I riding in the car. The last one we just thought was funny because this house had no stairs or anything. Pretty podunk in a lot of areas here... :P
This has been a good week, as all are in the mission field. Hard, yes, but missions never were easy I suppose. I'll admit I was having a downer few days; I think the devil was working extra hard to keep me discouraged. I had some awesome experiences though that definitely strengthened my testimony, and received some really great letters from family and friends. One thing I continually learn to have more faith in is the power of prayer. Sister McNeill invited me to find people to teach ASAP (through Always Saying A Prayer). Even if it's just at the doorstep or whatever. The first door we went to the lady opened and I told her we were sharing a message about Jesus Christ and asked if she had a second to listen. She invited us in and then we had a prayer, taught a lesson, and left her with a Book of Mormon and Moroni's promise. Throughout the rest of the day we implemented prayer into our contacting as often as possible, and it was WAY more effective than not. We didn't even tract a whole lot of area, but we taught a lot more lessons than we usually would be able to when contacting the same amount of people. Prayer really does work, especially when we are sincere and have faith.
We met a guy who used to work in Area 51 this week.. it was definitely interesting. I asked him if he had ever seen an alien or anything and he said, "What does it matter? You wouldn't believe me anyway." We told him to try us and so he began his story.
Apparently they had him out in the wilderness area by Area 51 on a 5 day shift near some mountains or hills or something. He didn't say waht his job was. On the Sunday evening when his shift started, he met a "man" named Herman. Herman was an alien apparently - Bill (the guy we met) said he had very white skin. He talked to him about a lot of things, and saw him each night of the 5 days. Here are some of the things he said:- Herman's people (they look like man except they are white white, and become more gray skinned as they get older) were like a team of scinetists who had crashed there in the mountain and were repairing their flying saucer.
- They went and were using nuclear waste to fix their spaceship, digging it up somewhere nearby
-Their people were really weak physically, but extremely smart
-They didn't have blood, but something else. It was too hot to have blood from where Herman was from
Anyway you get the idea. There were more details but I have no time for it ha ha. It was definitely interesting because he seemed dead serious as he said everything. There were no pauses to answer any of the questions I asked; he just answered straight forward. Aliens?!? Who knows lol. Unfortunately he was set in his ways and didn't want to hear more about the Gospel.
Ok, the neatest thing of my week happened this morning during my personal study. I want you all to know that I have a testimony of the scriptures! They are the word of God. Especially the Book of Mormon; I get more and more out of that book everytime I read it. How important it is to be studying from teh Book of Mormon often! It is a blessing in all of our lives. Anyway, I was reading and kind of feeling discouraged, and I read Alma chapters 32 and 33. Chapter 32 is pretty "famous" in the church, about faith and Alma comparing it to a seed. It's a wonderful chapter. Chapter 34 is also another "famous" one, with Amulek teaching the people. Anyway, I think chapter 33 often gets sandwiched between these two and doesn't receive the needed attention lol. At least that's how it was for me (until today) I was reading, and Alma quotes Zenos and Zenock. We don't have a whole lot from them in the scriptures, but what we do have is awesome! I loved Alma 33:11. Go read it, and really think about it! I learned that we really do get our joy and happiness from God, and our prayers are much more effective when they are sincere. Sometimes God gives us afflictions and trials to help us be more sincere; to come closer to Him and refine us. The central message is that this is all possible through Jesus Christ :) A new favorite scripture of mine? I think so! It is neat how the Lord can teach us many different ways, especially through the scriptures.
Well, my time is up, but I love you all! Good luck at college Mindy! GOod luck with school everyone else! Thanks for all your prayers and support; I can feel the Lord's help through the hard times. Keep living the Gospel and studying the scriptures (especially the Book of Mormon)! Christ truly is our Savior and Redeemer. The Lord loves me and each one of you. He is our Father, and how great that is! He has a plan for us =]
Be safe (physically and especially spiritually!)
Love,
Elder Andrew Beckett
P.S. I caught a turtle! We were tracting and I saw it on the side of the road and said, "Elder Creer! I'm going to hold that while you take a picture ok?" So we stopped and I held it :) It was hissing at me before I picked it up but I think he got over that. He tried to bite and claw me too while I was holding him so that's why I"m laughing and look all funny :) Then there is a beautiful sky picture - the clouds here are just incredible! Some of the sunsets are as well, I just haven't had my camera around when I see them. I'll send you some asap though :) The next ones are of my sweet tan line lol, then Elder Creer and I riding in the car. The last one we just thought was funny because this house had no stairs or anything. Pretty podunk in a lot of areas here... :P
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
August 16... ;)
Wow, what a week full of news! My heart broke as I heard about Jake McClatchy, I loved that kid. I knew him from going over to James' several times, and I've felt pretty sick for the last few days. I have been praying constantly for the McClatchy family, and my testimony of the Plan of Salvation and God's love for us has increased. I know that families can be forever! That is extremely important. Because of Jesus Christ, we can live eternally with our families. He conquered death! Because He lives, we too can all live again and be reunited with our Father. That is wonderful and extremely comforting. We just need to remember that everything is in the Lord's hands. He has a plan for me, for all of us, and we don't always know or understand what or why that is. The important thing is that we put our faith and trust in Him and never look back. I know that no matter what happens in this life, it can all be made right through Jesus Christ and His Atonement in the life to come. What a privlege it was to be able to know Jake while he was here, he was a great example to me of someone who just loved to be happy all the time! He had a wonderful smile and was always nice to me. I can't wait to meet him again.
Ok, so I guess I'll tell you a little bit about the rest of my week, and my new companion! His name is Elder Samuel Harrison Creer, and he is from Las Vegas, NV. He is way cool! Really nice, he plays soccer, likes to ski, is the middle child, and sounds JUST like Peter Parker (aka Spiderman)! It's awesome. I make him say, "With great power comes great responsibility..." all the time. He has been out nearly a year, and will hit his year mark this week. He is still considered my "trainer" as this is just my second transfer.
We set another date this week! This was with Linda Jacskon. It was cool, we were teaching her and I had the feeling to invite her to be baptized. I did, and she accepted! Now we need to just keep following up and helping her along the way. She came to church yesterday (first investigator @ church since I've been out) and it was so stressful! Especially in a crazy-ish ward ha ha. Oh, and the lesson was on tithing - probably not an ideal first experience at church lesson lol. It went well though, and I think she enjoyed it.
We have had some problems with our water lately. The first night here with Elder Creer, the water just stopped running all of the sudden. WE didn't know what the deal was, and our landlord (Leo Hall) couldn't figure it out either. For the rest of that night Leo hooked up a hose from his house so we would have water to shower and everything else with until it was fixed. The next day a pump guy came, and I guess ants had gotten into the contact point of the on switch to the pump and were keeping it from working. The pump guy "fixed" the problem and went on his way.
The next day comes and I go to the bathroom and when I flush the water in the toilet is this disgusting brownish orange color (and I went #1 so it had nothing to do with me ha ha). We turned on the tub water and it was the same! After letting it run for like an hour (every water outlet in our house and the hose out front), things cleared up a bit. Except for one thing that was still there - little floaties. Eww. In our toilets the floaties are bigger than in the sink water (probably the little filter type things on the sinks), but there are little pieces of rust or sand or grit or who knows what floating around. Definitely not clear enough to feel comfortable drinking. We told Leo, but he is older and couldn't really see them. It was frustrating because he thought he fixed the problem for us, but the floaties are still there and he ust can't see them. I called him over again, but he just told us that he has had the well (that's where our water comes from) tested before and it was sanitary. Yeah right bro, sanitary or not it's still full of little floaties which would be disgusting to drink! He told us not to worry about it - it will clear up over time. It has pretty much cleared up by now thank goodness. Leo really is a good landlord, and we've just been praying we won't get sick or anything from the water and it's been fine.
Hahaha! Here is something funny that happened this week. We were visiting members on friday and saturday, specifically members close to Linda to try and find her a ride to church. We went to the Mathews, and they said they would give her a ride. We helped them move some boxes they needed moved, and then take some stuff and unload it at their grandma's the next day. It was me, Elder Creer, Brother Mathews, and his 15 year old daughter Emily. Elder Creer was lifting a box up and went to set it down (a heavy box, mind you) on the dolly. Emily was about 5 feet away behind him, and as he set it down his pants ripped! You could hear it and everything ha ha! Oh man it was hilarious. She politely looked away and made it seem as though she didn't notice, but I am almost positive she did. I was standing in front of him and heard the rip sound. It was probably a good 4 or 5 inches (the tear) up the back of his pants. Luckily it wasn't too noticeable unless you were looking right there and he turned wrong. He had an interesting rest of the day trying to always face the people around so they wouldn't be able to see ha ha. We didn't get home until probably 2 hours later because the Mathews took us back after we finished up at the Grandma's and fed us lunch (Bro. Mathews had picked us up from their house).
I tried out the bike for the first time, and it worked great! Especially for a free bike. Our zone committed to bike one day a week to implement more sacrifice to help us work harder and save miles. I'm not sure how I feel about that but if they asked us to then I'll do it. It was fun though, but extremely hot. Biking up a hill in the hot afternoon sun in Florida while wearing dark long pants, a collared shirt, and a tie is an experience everyone should have sometime to help them appreciate cars :) Definitely the most I've sweated since being here.
That night while we were out tracting, we were walking up to a house when about ten feet away I noticed a "Beware of Dog" sign. No longer than 1 second after seeing that (I was in front and Elder Creer was behind me. We were walking next to an SUV and just got to the front of it) this big brown dog explodes out of nowhere right at me just snarling and chomping at me! All of the hair on his neck and back was up and he wanted to eat us. I thought I was going to get bit for sure. Nex thing I knew, as I was dodging/fighting off the dog from the front side (this all happened within like a second of the dog coming out) Elder Creer grabs my backpack from the back while screaming. I thought he was trying to put me in front of him and keep me between him and the dog, but he said he was just trying to pull me bacvk ha ha. Either way it was pretty comical and got our blood pumping. Thankfully he didn't bite either of us!
Ok well I love you all so much and am keeping you in my prayers. Prayer is such a blessing; especially since we can pray for specific things! Have a great week and keep doing the small day to day things to stay close to the Savior! Probably my favorite scripture for the week is Doctrine and Covenants 64:33-34. Check it out and just think how cool that promise is!
Until next week,
Elder Andrew John Beckett
Hmm. He didn't give any description for these pics so we'll just have to guess! ;)
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Ok, so I guess I'll tell you a little bit about the rest of my week, and my new companion! His name is Elder Samuel Harrison Creer, and he is from Las Vegas, NV. He is way cool! Really nice, he plays soccer, likes to ski, is the middle child, and sounds JUST like Peter Parker (aka Spiderman)! It's awesome. I make him say, "With great power comes great responsibility..." all the time. He has been out nearly a year, and will hit his year mark this week. He is still considered my "trainer" as this is just my second transfer.
We set another date this week! This was with Linda Jacskon. It was cool, we were teaching her and I had the feeling to invite her to be baptized. I did, and she accepted! Now we need to just keep following up and helping her along the way. She came to church yesterday (first investigator @ church since I've been out) and it was so stressful! Especially in a crazy-ish ward ha ha. Oh, and the lesson was on tithing - probably not an ideal first experience at church lesson lol. It went well though, and I think she enjoyed it.
We have had some problems with our water lately. The first night here with Elder Creer, the water just stopped running all of the sudden. WE didn't know what the deal was, and our landlord (Leo Hall) couldn't figure it out either. For the rest of that night Leo hooked up a hose from his house so we would have water to shower and everything else with until it was fixed. The next day a pump guy came, and I guess ants had gotten into the contact point of the on switch to the pump and were keeping it from working. The pump guy "fixed" the problem and went on his way.
The next day comes and I go to the bathroom and when I flush the water in the toilet is this disgusting brownish orange color (and I went #1 so it had nothing to do with me ha ha). We turned on the tub water and it was the same! After letting it run for like an hour (every water outlet in our house and the hose out front), things cleared up a bit. Except for one thing that was still there - little floaties. Eww. In our toilets the floaties are bigger than in the sink water (probably the little filter type things on the sinks), but there are little pieces of rust or sand or grit or who knows what floating around. Definitely not clear enough to feel comfortable drinking. We told Leo, but he is older and couldn't really see them. It was frustrating because he thought he fixed the problem for us, but the floaties are still there and he ust can't see them. I called him over again, but he just told us that he has had the well (that's where our water comes from) tested before and it was sanitary. Yeah right bro, sanitary or not it's still full of little floaties which would be disgusting to drink! He told us not to worry about it - it will clear up over time. It has pretty much cleared up by now thank goodness. Leo really is a good landlord, and we've just been praying we won't get sick or anything from the water and it's been fine.
Hahaha! Here is something funny that happened this week. We were visiting members on friday and saturday, specifically members close to Linda to try and find her a ride to church. We went to the Mathews, and they said they would give her a ride. We helped them move some boxes they needed moved, and then take some stuff and unload it at their grandma's the next day. It was me, Elder Creer, Brother Mathews, and his 15 year old daughter Emily. Elder Creer was lifting a box up and went to set it down (a heavy box, mind you) on the dolly. Emily was about 5 feet away behind him, and as he set it down his pants ripped! You could hear it and everything ha ha! Oh man it was hilarious. She politely looked away and made it seem as though she didn't notice, but I am almost positive she did. I was standing in front of him and heard the rip sound. It was probably a good 4 or 5 inches (the tear) up the back of his pants. Luckily it wasn't too noticeable unless you were looking right there and he turned wrong. He had an interesting rest of the day trying to always face the people around so they wouldn't be able to see ha ha. We didn't get home until probably 2 hours later because the Mathews took us back after we finished up at the Grandma's and fed us lunch (Bro. Mathews had picked us up from their house).
I tried out the bike for the first time, and it worked great! Especially for a free bike. Our zone committed to bike one day a week to implement more sacrifice to help us work harder and save miles. I'm not sure how I feel about that but if they asked us to then I'll do it. It was fun though, but extremely hot. Biking up a hill in the hot afternoon sun in Florida while wearing dark long pants, a collared shirt, and a tie is an experience everyone should have sometime to help them appreciate cars :) Definitely the most I've sweated since being here.
That night while we were out tracting, we were walking up to a house when about ten feet away I noticed a "Beware of Dog" sign. No longer than 1 second after seeing that (I was in front and Elder Creer was behind me. We were walking next to an SUV and just got to the front of it) this big brown dog explodes out of nowhere right at me just snarling and chomping at me! All of the hair on his neck and back was up and he wanted to eat us. I thought I was going to get bit for sure. Nex thing I knew, as I was dodging/fighting off the dog from the front side (this all happened within like a second of the dog coming out) Elder Creer grabs my backpack from the back while screaming. I thought he was trying to put me in front of him and keep me between him and the dog, but he said he was just trying to pull me bacvk ha ha. Either way it was pretty comical and got our blood pumping. Thankfully he didn't bite either of us!
Ok well I love you all so much and am keeping you in my prayers. Prayer is such a blessing; especially since we can pray for specific things! Have a great week and keep doing the small day to day things to stay close to the Savior! Probably my favorite scripture for the week is Doctrine and Covenants 64:33-34. Check it out and just think how cool that promise is!
Until next week,
Elder Andrew John Beckett
Hmm. He didn't give any description for these pics so we'll just have to guess! ;)
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Monday, August 9, 2010
August 9th's Letter! :]
Hello hello! This has been another pretty crazy week. First of all, transfer calls were on Saturday and they are taking Elder Brown! How sad. He will go to be a Zone Leader in Orlando on the UCF Campus. Good luck there buddy ha ha. My new companion will be Elder Creer, and all I have heard about him is that he is funny and likeable, and I am taller than him. That will be a nice change; everyone always looks at me like I'm a kid when I'm with Elder Brown. One thing I have realized is that although my companions will be changing a lot, the Lord will always be there for me and stay with me. The Holy Ghost will always be there to help guide and direct me as well. That's definitely comforting to know that I am never alone!
Random thing I thought was funny - in P.E.C. the bishopric is constantly talking about how they find everyone's info off of Facebook. Seriously like every single week they have some important new information on a ward member or a message or something like that they received from Facebook. Yikes, it's taking over the world :P
Ok, so some other AWESOME news. Probably the best news that I have.... WE FINALLY SET A DATE WITH SOMEONE! It was super exciting! The last chance Elder Brown and I had together, we were able to set a baptismal date with a lady. She is older and smokes and will need some preparing, but it was really cool and I'm just pumped. This was our first return appointment after contacting her while tracting, and usually the people just blow us off and aren't home when we come back. She happened to be home though, and we ended up having a really great lesson with her! We were talking to her about priesthood authority and how that has been restored to the earth once more so we can perform ordinances such as baptism, and she told us she had always been worried about that because she had never been baptized and was getting older (probably about 70). Anyway, we invited her to be baptized by the proper authority, and ended up setting a date for Sep. 18th (she'll need some time... word of wisdom issues). Unfortunately, since coming on my mission I have smoked more than I have my whole life. Some of the houses I seriously choke when I walk into them, and just immediately start praying that there will be no harmful effects from being there and breathing that stuff in. Smoking is a filthy habit. I am excited for Shirley Combs though, the lady we invited to be baptized. By the way, Roy and Betty haven't been progressing (to our knowledge), so we are going back this week to see if they kept their commitment to read and pray this time. If not then we may have to drop them :/
I also am wondering if I have allergies... which I don't think I ever have before. Maybe I am just allergic to Florida or something. A lot of nights after tracting I'll come in and have a stuffy nose and be sneezing like crazy. I'm fine with it because I just take a nice hot shower and that clears me out just fine. Plus I actually love sneezing; it feels really good I think :)
Elder Brown shared a really good scripture/thought with me this week, and I think it fits in perfectly after reading John 14:27. I thought I'd share it with you. First go read that scripture in John, talking about the Savior's peace and how it is different then the world's. Then flip to Philippians 4:7 which says "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." How neat is that? Also check out the footnote on "keep" and you'll see you can also read it as "guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
I love that! Through Christ, our hearts and minds will be kept/guarded. It doesn't specify only from certain things, but if we turn to Christ and make Him the center of our lives then he can help and guard us from everything! He will keep our perspective correct; focused on things of eternal nature that really matter. I also love the first part of the verse "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding..." We are just men. God is God. He knows way more than us, but all we need to know is that His peace works. It is real! Just like we don't need to know everything about our bodies and cells and disease and whatever else for us to live, we don't need to understand everything about God for Him to benefit us in our lives! That will all come in time, when God sees fit. Also, (I don't know where this is from - Elder Brown just shared it with me) "peace isn't always the absence of conflict and affliction, but our ability to feel the love of the Savior." Life gets pretty crazy, but that has really been helping me out a lot as I try to focus daily on how I can feel the Savior's love for me in my life. By the way, I finished Jesus the Christ yesterday (so technically it was still my first transfer... sweet :) and that is an amazing book! That is just one way of many that I have been learning more about the Savior's love for me, and for all of us.
One of my new favorite hymns is number 113, "Our Savior's Love." The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has a really pretty version of that song I like to listen to. The words are the most beautiful part though, and the Spirit you can feel if you listen! I love the line "as from above, it breaks through clouds of strife." The Savior's love is real! He can help us through everything we do, even if we feel it is small and unimportant. He came to earth to learn what we would go through, and to save us from death and hell! We always hear that, but when you take a minute to just ponder what that actually means it is incredible. This world and life seems to become much less important. Anyway, listen to the hymn and you may or may not learn some neat things. It talks about Christ in the 1st verse, the Spirit in the 2nd, and our Father in the 3rd.
Well, my time is about up but I just want you all to know that I love you! I love my family as well as anyone else who may be reading this :) The Gospel is true, and God loves you as well! Thanks for all of your help, support, and prayers. They lift me up a lot. I'm praying for all of you as well. Have a great week, I'll talk to you next Monday!
love,
Elder Andrew Beckett
Random thing I thought was funny - in P.E.C. the bishopric is constantly talking about how they find everyone's info off of Facebook. Seriously like every single week they have some important new information on a ward member or a message or something like that they received from Facebook. Yikes, it's taking over the world :P
Ok, so some other AWESOME news. Probably the best news that I have.... WE FINALLY SET A DATE WITH SOMEONE! It was super exciting! The last chance Elder Brown and I had together, we were able to set a baptismal date with a lady. She is older and smokes and will need some preparing, but it was really cool and I'm just pumped. This was our first return appointment after contacting her while tracting, and usually the people just blow us off and aren't home when we come back. She happened to be home though, and we ended up having a really great lesson with her! We were talking to her about priesthood authority and how that has been restored to the earth once more so we can perform ordinances such as baptism, and she told us she had always been worried about that because she had never been baptized and was getting older (probably about 70). Anyway, we invited her to be baptized by the proper authority, and ended up setting a date for Sep. 18th (she'll need some time... word of wisdom issues). Unfortunately, since coming on my mission I have smoked more than I have my whole life. Some of the houses I seriously choke when I walk into them, and just immediately start praying that there will be no harmful effects from being there and breathing that stuff in. Smoking is a filthy habit. I am excited for Shirley Combs though, the lady we invited to be baptized. By the way, Roy and Betty haven't been progressing (to our knowledge), so we are going back this week to see if they kept their commitment to read and pray this time. If not then we may have to drop them :/
I also am wondering if I have allergies... which I don't think I ever have before. Maybe I am just allergic to Florida or something. A lot of nights after tracting I'll come in and have a stuffy nose and be sneezing like crazy. I'm fine with it because I just take a nice hot shower and that clears me out just fine. Plus I actually love sneezing; it feels really good I think :)
Elder Brown shared a really good scripture/thought with me this week, and I think it fits in perfectly after reading John 14:27. I thought I'd share it with you. First go read that scripture in John, talking about the Savior's peace and how it is different then the world's. Then flip to Philippians 4:7 which says "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." How neat is that? Also check out the footnote on "keep" and you'll see you can also read it as "guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
I love that! Through Christ, our hearts and minds will be kept/guarded. It doesn't specify only from certain things, but if we turn to Christ and make Him the center of our lives then he can help and guard us from everything! He will keep our perspective correct; focused on things of eternal nature that really matter. I also love the first part of the verse "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding..." We are just men. God is God. He knows way more than us, but all we need to know is that His peace works. It is real! Just like we don't need to know everything about our bodies and cells and disease and whatever else for us to live, we don't need to understand everything about God for Him to benefit us in our lives! That will all come in time, when God sees fit. Also, (I don't know where this is from - Elder Brown just shared it with me) "peace isn't always the absence of conflict and affliction, but our ability to feel the love of the Savior." Life gets pretty crazy, but that has really been helping me out a lot as I try to focus daily on how I can feel the Savior's love for me in my life. By the way, I finished Jesus the Christ yesterday (so technically it was still my first transfer... sweet :) and that is an amazing book! That is just one way of many that I have been learning more about the Savior's love for me, and for all of us.
One of my new favorite hymns is number 113, "Our Savior's Love." The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has a really pretty version of that song I like to listen to. The words are the most beautiful part though, and the Spirit you can feel if you listen! I love the line "as from above, it breaks through clouds of strife." The Savior's love is real! He can help us through everything we do, even if we feel it is small and unimportant. He came to earth to learn what we would go through, and to save us from death and hell! We always hear that, but when you take a minute to just ponder what that actually means it is incredible. This world and life seems to become much less important. Anyway, listen to the hymn and you may or may not learn some neat things. It talks about Christ in the 1st verse, the Spirit in the 2nd, and our Father in the 3rd.
Well, my time is about up but I just want you all to know that I love you! I love my family as well as anyone else who may be reading this :) The Gospel is true, and God loves you as well! Thanks for all of your help, support, and prayers. They lift me up a lot. I'm praying for all of you as well. Have a great week, I'll talk to you next Monday!
love,
Elder Andrew Beckett
Monday, August 2, 2010
Letter from August 2... :]
Hello again everyone! Thanks for all of the letters, I love hearing from everybody! It really boosts me up and rejuvenates my attitude throughout the week. Alright so this was cool, I got a letter from Dallin Gomez about his great great great great grandpa's brother, Joel H. Johnson! I guess we are related because he is our ancestor as well! Sweet. Oh, and I played that hymn in District Meeting btw. It was pretty great. Also, congrats to Dallin on going through the temple, that's super exciting!
Just a quick note, were you able to mail the magic bullet? That would be great if you could. I have a bunch of frozen fruit I can make smoothies with, but our blender is broken and it's kind of weird to ask Elder Brown to borrow his personal blender ha ha. Ok... so I got a phone call this morning from the Zone Leader, and he asked if he could write Mindy. Ha ha I was wondering if he was joking at first, but he was dead serious. I went on exchanges with him once and he seemed like a cool guy so there you go Mind, you now have a letter coming :P Btw, I'm not just advertising my sister or anything, in fact far from that. I'm trying to keep you hidden, but people tend to look at other Elder's pictures whenever they visit and pretty much everyone is in love with you. Hey, no getting married until I'm back.
So church yesterday was once again interesting. A nice brother got up to give the opening prayer to fast and testimony meeting, and halfway through the prayer he was like "I'd now like to bear my testimony," and then went on to bear a 2 minute testimony. I admit I peeked to see if we were supposed to be watching and if he was looking around or what, but it was still a prayer. How odd ha ha. Although that is the 2nd time that's happened; the first actually being in our home ward (if you remember :P).Ok, so I haven't heard anything about Courtnee and her wedding. How did it go? Did you go to the reception? Can you send me the announcement or something so I can see? Hopefully everything was great :) That would be awesome if you could keep me updated on stuff like that - weddings, mission calls, etc.
OH, guess what is way cool? Elder Brown was on the Price is Right! He went there with his mom and aunt and cousin for his 18th birthday. Guess what else? He got called up to play, and ended up winning a hot tub, iMac, and recycling cabinet (the total worth over $5000). How awesome is that? I didn't believe him at first. We are going to see if President Hall will approve his family sending us the copy of that episode to watch on a P-day sometime or something.
Last P-day we went golfing for like 9.50. It was my first time and pretty fun! We golfed 18 holes and had carts, so apparently that's a really good deal. I probably won't be doing that much though, I hate spending money. Today for P-day we are going to go to some thrift stores to check out if they have any good deals on ties. Very cheap yet nice looking mission ties that I can wear out.
A funny experience this week was while we were out tracting, we ran into a "deaf" lady. I told her we were sharing a message about Jesus Christ and she mouthed she was deaf. I pulled out a card and pointed to it and that's what she did again. After that I just signed "R-E-A-D" to her and pointed to the back of the card. She still just said she was deaf and closed the door. Elder Brown and I were just laughing because she was an older lady and just flat out lied to us from what we could tell. Apparently if you are deaf you can't read either.
Alright, so to fill you in on other stuff I thought I'd include a journal entry.
July 30, 2010:
"Aaaaaaants have invaded my bathroom. It's bad. So bad. I walked in tonight and they were all over the counter. Hundreds. Crawling over my toothbrush, paste, q-tips, haircutting set, shaving tools, retainers, and everything else. They were crawling out of the sink drain too. Anyway, I found the hole in the wall where they were coming from, and sprayed it with killing spray. Before that though I stuck my head in my sink and yelled as loud as I could at the ants in there. It felt really good and they all stopped moving for a second. Then I sprayed the hole so they had no means of escape, and turned on the water. I began sweeping them up like crazy! Just with one hand I probably killed 60 ants in one swipe. I didn't stop until they were all gone! My counter is now clean."
They have stopped crawling out of our walls for the moment thank goodness. There are still thousands all over outside though.
Saturday was kind of a cool experience - in that it was one of the first times where someone was actually really happy to see someone representing Jesus Christ, rather than really ticked and hateful. Most people "don't have time" or just "aren't interested." This is SALVATION PEOPLE! Come on... Anyway it was just a little girl, so not really an investigator. She totally broke the rules by running up and hugging me from the side before I even knew what was going on, but it was still nicer than the normal door slam. We were knocking doors, and we'd actually seen her biking with her friend (the night the crazy guy yelled at E Moultrie & I). She got all excited when she saw us again at her house and we gave her and her sisters pictures of Jesus again and they were way happy! She said thanks and then just ran up and hugged me. I just told her to high 5 instead. Anyway, it really made me think about how little children are innocent and pure and can teach us all a LOT. They love Christ and know more about Him than most people in the world. Christ also loves them an incredible amount. He loves all of us, so much!
Well I love you all and pray for you. Keep on keepin' on! This life is the time to prepare to meet God, and so let's not waste it. We will have all eternity to think about what we did in this life, so let's live with no regrets. A mission is like a mini life.. I will have all of my earth life and eternity to think about how I spend my 2 years of complete dedication to serving the Lord. I'm giving it my all because that's what He deserves! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Andrew Beckett
p.s. I'm going to try and attach some random pics :)First is of my haircut, the second is me with a little lizard I caught in our apt, the 3rd a sweet banana spider (he forgot to send that one, but he did send one of him and some packages from Mindy and dad!), and last was Elder Bennett, Brown, Wilson, a recent convert named Luke Bergquist, and Me golfing.
Just a quick note, were you able to mail the magic bullet? That would be great if you could. I have a bunch of frozen fruit I can make smoothies with, but our blender is broken and it's kind of weird to ask Elder Brown to borrow his personal blender ha ha. Ok... so I got a phone call this morning from the Zone Leader, and he asked if he could write Mindy. Ha ha I was wondering if he was joking at first, but he was dead serious. I went on exchanges with him once and he seemed like a cool guy so there you go Mind, you now have a letter coming :P Btw, I'm not just advertising my sister or anything, in fact far from that. I'm trying to keep you hidden, but people tend to look at other Elder's pictures whenever they visit and pretty much everyone is in love with you. Hey, no getting married until I'm back.
So church yesterday was once again interesting. A nice brother got up to give the opening prayer to fast and testimony meeting, and halfway through the prayer he was like "I'd now like to bear my testimony," and then went on to bear a 2 minute testimony. I admit I peeked to see if we were supposed to be watching and if he was looking around or what, but it was still a prayer. How odd ha ha. Although that is the 2nd time that's happened; the first actually being in our home ward (if you remember :P).Ok, so I haven't heard anything about Courtnee and her wedding. How did it go? Did you go to the reception? Can you send me the announcement or something so I can see? Hopefully everything was great :) That would be awesome if you could keep me updated on stuff like that - weddings, mission calls, etc.
OH, guess what is way cool? Elder Brown was on the Price is Right! He went there with his mom and aunt and cousin for his 18th birthday. Guess what else? He got called up to play, and ended up winning a hot tub, iMac, and recycling cabinet (the total worth over $5000). How awesome is that? I didn't believe him at first. We are going to see if President Hall will approve his family sending us the copy of that episode to watch on a P-day sometime or something.
Last P-day we went golfing for like 9.50. It was my first time and pretty fun! We golfed 18 holes and had carts, so apparently that's a really good deal. I probably won't be doing that much though, I hate spending money. Today for P-day we are going to go to some thrift stores to check out if they have any good deals on ties. Very cheap yet nice looking mission ties that I can wear out.
A funny experience this week was while we were out tracting, we ran into a "deaf" lady. I told her we were sharing a message about Jesus Christ and she mouthed she was deaf. I pulled out a card and pointed to it and that's what she did again. After that I just signed "R-E-A-D" to her and pointed to the back of the card. She still just said she was deaf and closed the door. Elder Brown and I were just laughing because she was an older lady and just flat out lied to us from what we could tell. Apparently if you are deaf you can't read either.
Alright, so to fill you in on other stuff I thought I'd include a journal entry.
July 30, 2010:
"Aaaaaaants have invaded my bathroom. It's bad. So bad. I walked in tonight and they were all over the counter. Hundreds. Crawling over my toothbrush, paste, q-tips, haircutting set, shaving tools, retainers, and everything else. They were crawling out of the sink drain too. Anyway, I found the hole in the wall where they were coming from, and sprayed it with killing spray. Before that though I stuck my head in my sink and yelled as loud as I could at the ants in there. It felt really good and they all stopped moving for a second. Then I sprayed the hole so they had no means of escape, and turned on the water. I began sweeping them up like crazy! Just with one hand I probably killed 60 ants in one swipe. I didn't stop until they were all gone! My counter is now clean."
They have stopped crawling out of our walls for the moment thank goodness. There are still thousands all over outside though.
Saturday was kind of a cool experience - in that it was one of the first times where someone was actually really happy to see someone representing Jesus Christ, rather than really ticked and hateful. Most people "don't have time" or just "aren't interested." This is SALVATION PEOPLE! Come on... Anyway it was just a little girl, so not really an investigator. She totally broke the rules by running up and hugging me from the side before I even knew what was going on, but it was still nicer than the normal door slam. We were knocking doors, and we'd actually seen her biking with her friend (the night the crazy guy yelled at E Moultrie & I). She got all excited when she saw us again at her house and we gave her and her sisters pictures of Jesus again and they were way happy! She said thanks and then just ran up and hugged me. I just told her to high 5 instead. Anyway, it really made me think about how little children are innocent and pure and can teach us all a LOT. They love Christ and know more about Him than most people in the world. Christ also loves them an incredible amount. He loves all of us, so much!
Well I love you all and pray for you. Keep on keepin' on! This life is the time to prepare to meet God, and so let's not waste it. We will have all eternity to think about what we did in this life, so let's live with no regrets. A mission is like a mini life.. I will have all of my earth life and eternity to think about how I spend my 2 years of complete dedication to serving the Lord. I'm giving it my all because that's what He deserves! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Andrew Beckett
p.s. I'm going to try and attach some random pics :)First is of my haircut, the second is me with a little lizard I caught in our apt, the 3rd a sweet banana spider (he forgot to send that one, but he did send one of him and some packages from Mindy and dad!), and last was Elder Bennett, Brown, Wilson, a recent convert named Luke Bergquist, and Me golfing.
Letter from 7-26-10
Hey my forever family! I hope you had an awesome time at Bear Lake and told everyone hi for me! I sure miss all of you. You'll have to fill me in on all of the fun details of what went on! I always loved family reunions. By the way thanks a BUNCH to the Canadian Becketts for the licorice! It has been an awesome treat for Elder Brown and I! And thanks to Mindy and anyone else who contributed to that package... the candy, card, cd's, and PICTURES were incredible. I loved it and love you all! I was looking at the one of Grandma folding socks and saw in the background "families are forever" on the wall. It was cool thinking about that and how much I love you. Even though we aren't together now, this life is extremely short in comparison to the eternities! Yet so much depends on what we do here. However, because of Jesus Christ, we can overcome the times when we mess up and make it as an eternal family for FOREVER! That is so long that we can't even comprehend that. And we have no idea how awesome the Celestial Kingdom is going to be! I can't wait :) Now all we need to do is keep doing what we're doing, continually working to improve, and bring as many of our brothers and sisters as we possibly can with us!
Ok, so sorry if I didn't tell you about the "cow" part of my last email. Apparently I just... forgot ha ha. I was writing super fast and had lots to say. All the cow was in reference to was this lady we saw while we were out tracting. We look across the street, and see a lady down on her hands and her knees looking up, and she just starts mooing! Like a cow. It was the most bizarre thing, and confirmed my assumption of the ratio of weird to normal people here. It definitely keeps things interesting. This lady was also cutting the grass with hand trimmers (ones that you clip little branches or things like that with). We talked to her and she didn't want to hear what we had to say. If only she knew...
Speaking of knowing, we (Elder Moultrie and I) were the Leesburg elders this week! He has been out just as long as I have, and so it was kind of crazy. Since it was my area, I was the "senior comp" for the 3 days and did the majority of the planning and coordinating and everything. It was a good experience. Anyway, one lady we talked to just kept saying, "Oh, if only you knew what I knew!" And we were like, "What do you know that we don't know?" She just kept saying that and we eventually just told her to have a nice day and left her with a passalong card because she was obviously biased against the church. It's different here, one of the main problems we run into when trying to share the Gospel isn't that people don't know about Jesus Christ or what He did (or they think they know - in reality what we share could add so much to their knowledge and faith of Him), it's in helping them realize what we are actually saying and that our message is unique. A certain other church has kind of given us a bad rep around here and so people often confuse us with them. A lot of times when we tell people we're sharing a message about Christ they just say, "Oh, I already know about Him and am saved," and then close the door. It gets really old really fast. That's something I've been working on lately is to not get into the rhythm of rejection (as Elder Brown put it). I really have to believe and be sincere at every single doorstep, and talk to people as people, rather than a robot who is going to say (99% of the time), "Nope, not interested." I think it will be a lot easier once we find someone who is really looking for truth and who we can help progress.
Another crazy thing happened... I got yelled at worse than I have ever been yelled at in my life. Elder Moultrie and I were walking along tracting one evening when a girl and her brother rode up to us on their bikes and asked what we were doing. I told them we were sharing a message about Jesus Christ and the girl was like, "Hey, my sister is looking for a church to go to! Can you come to my house?" Apparently she lived up the street because her dad saw them talking to us and yelled something (I didn't really catch what he said). Anyway, I figured it probably wasn't best to stay so we said we'll knock into their door in a bit but for now to give this (we gave her a passalong card) to her sister. We kept walking and didn't think much of it. A minute later this car pulls up next to us. At first I was I was thinking, "Awesome, someone saw us and wants to learn more about the Gospel!" Boy was I wrong.
In the car is a white guy, about as tall as me, without his shirt on and a red bandana on his head. Apparently he was the dad of the kids, and he did NOT want us anywhere in his neighborhood. I have never heard more profanities used than how many he did when talking to us. In much nicer language than he used, he told us to leave because nobody in the neighborhood was interested and they'd come to our church if they were. He told us if we didn't get out of there right then he was going to mess (not mess though) us up. Then he got out of his car and walked up to us and told us he wasn't joking around. We told him we're leaving, to calm down, and then went and got into the car. He got back in his car as we were walking towards ours, and so we thought he was going to leave. Nope. He backs up and starts yelling at us again, saying pretty much the same stuff. I told him to calm down, we're leaving, and the only reason we are doing this was to help people be happier. He then told us to give him our money. We said no, and drove away. This guy was ridiculous. It didn't matter what we said, he was just ticked at us. I was pretty mad about it all that night, and I couldn't wait to go back and finish tracting that area another time with Elder Brown. The Gospel needs to be preached. If the Spirit tells me I shouldn't be somewhere and I don't feel safe then of course we're going to leave (which is why Elder Moultrie and I did), but if it's just some dummy yelling at us and there's no prompting to get out of there then you can bet we're going to share the Gospel with those who we can!
Another awkward thing... we were walking up to a house and there were some trees where I could see a guy standing behind them, and I thought he could see us but apparently not. We were about thirty feet away when he just undid his pants and started relieving himself. I was like, "Shoot! This is going to be really awkward if we just walk up on a guy peeing..." yet it was on a long dirt driveway and we didn't have anywhere to really go. We just pretended to read our scriptures for a minute and then walked up and talked to him after he was done. Thankfully he didn't shake our hands because he definitely didn't wash his. I guess he was a landscaper or something and just woke up and had fallen out of a 20 foot tree the day before. Sometimes things happen here that are just so crazy that I wonder if this is all just a dream! So far my mission has been pretty crazy from day to day ha ha!
Well, I'm about out of time now, but I know that the Gospel is true! One of my favorite things each day is the time we have for personal study. It really makes a huge difference in my life, and I know that if each of you will put aside some time (morning is best because it sets the mood for the whole day) to study about Jesus Christ and His Gospel it will make a huge difference! He gives me the strength to make it through each day. There is no way I would be doing this if it wasn't for Jesus Christ. It's sad how many people don't even know about Christ and what He did for him. They "know," but they don't KNOW, you know? I love "The Living Christ." That has so much goodness about Christ and what He did packed into it! You should read it as a family often, it's great. I've also really enjoyed reading the Christ edition of the Ensign, the one with the see-through cover thing and His picture on front. There are tons of great articles in there, and I've been studying it this week. This is His Gospel and He loves each one of us! He really is there and cares, even though we can't see it and it sometimes may not seem like it. Just remember, "Blessed are those who believe, who haven't seen," or something close to that. You know the point. Believe :) I love you all!
Until next week,
Elder Beckett
Ok, so sorry if I didn't tell you about the "cow" part of my last email. Apparently I just... forgot ha ha. I was writing super fast and had lots to say. All the cow was in reference to was this lady we saw while we were out tracting. We look across the street, and see a lady down on her hands and her knees looking up, and she just starts mooing! Like a cow. It was the most bizarre thing, and confirmed my assumption of the ratio of weird to normal people here. It definitely keeps things interesting. This lady was also cutting the grass with hand trimmers (ones that you clip little branches or things like that with). We talked to her and she didn't want to hear what we had to say. If only she knew...
Speaking of knowing, we (Elder Moultrie and I) were the Leesburg elders this week! He has been out just as long as I have, and so it was kind of crazy. Since it was my area, I was the "senior comp" for the 3 days and did the majority of the planning and coordinating and everything. It was a good experience. Anyway, one lady we talked to just kept saying, "Oh, if only you knew what I knew!" And we were like, "What do you know that we don't know?" She just kept saying that and we eventually just told her to have a nice day and left her with a passalong card because she was obviously biased against the church. It's different here, one of the main problems we run into when trying to share the Gospel isn't that people don't know about Jesus Christ or what He did (or they think they know - in reality what we share could add so much to their knowledge and faith of Him), it's in helping them realize what we are actually saying and that our message is unique. A certain other church has kind of given us a bad rep around here and so people often confuse us with them. A lot of times when we tell people we're sharing a message about Christ they just say, "Oh, I already know about Him and am saved," and then close the door. It gets really old really fast. That's something I've been working on lately is to not get into the rhythm of rejection (as Elder Brown put it). I really have to believe and be sincere at every single doorstep, and talk to people as people, rather than a robot who is going to say (99% of the time), "Nope, not interested." I think it will be a lot easier once we find someone who is really looking for truth and who we can help progress.
Another crazy thing happened... I got yelled at worse than I have ever been yelled at in my life. Elder Moultrie and I were walking along tracting one evening when a girl and her brother rode up to us on their bikes and asked what we were doing. I told them we were sharing a message about Jesus Christ and the girl was like, "Hey, my sister is looking for a church to go to! Can you come to my house?" Apparently she lived up the street because her dad saw them talking to us and yelled something (I didn't really catch what he said). Anyway, I figured it probably wasn't best to stay so we said we'll knock into their door in a bit but for now to give this (we gave her a passalong card) to her sister. We kept walking and didn't think much of it. A minute later this car pulls up next to us. At first I was I was thinking, "Awesome, someone saw us and wants to learn more about the Gospel!" Boy was I wrong.
In the car is a white guy, about as tall as me, without his shirt on and a red bandana on his head. Apparently he was the dad of the kids, and he did NOT want us anywhere in his neighborhood. I have never heard more profanities used than how many he did when talking to us. In much nicer language than he used, he told us to leave because nobody in the neighborhood was interested and they'd come to our church if they were. He told us if we didn't get out of there right then he was going to mess (not mess though) us up. Then he got out of his car and walked up to us and told us he wasn't joking around. We told him we're leaving, to calm down, and then went and got into the car. He got back in his car as we were walking towards ours, and so we thought he was going to leave. Nope. He backs up and starts yelling at us again, saying pretty much the same stuff. I told him to calm down, we're leaving, and the only reason we are doing this was to help people be happier. He then told us to give him our money. We said no, and drove away. This guy was ridiculous. It didn't matter what we said, he was just ticked at us. I was pretty mad about it all that night, and I couldn't wait to go back and finish tracting that area another time with Elder Brown. The Gospel needs to be preached. If the Spirit tells me I shouldn't be somewhere and I don't feel safe then of course we're going to leave (which is why Elder Moultrie and I did), but if it's just some dummy yelling at us and there's no prompting to get out of there then you can bet we're going to share the Gospel with those who we can!
Another awkward thing... we were walking up to a house and there were some trees where I could see a guy standing behind them, and I thought he could see us but apparently not. We were about thirty feet away when he just undid his pants and started relieving himself. I was like, "Shoot! This is going to be really awkward if we just walk up on a guy peeing..." yet it was on a long dirt driveway and we didn't have anywhere to really go. We just pretended to read our scriptures for a minute and then walked up and talked to him after he was done. Thankfully he didn't shake our hands because he definitely didn't wash his. I guess he was a landscaper or something and just woke up and had fallen out of a 20 foot tree the day before. Sometimes things happen here that are just so crazy that I wonder if this is all just a dream! So far my mission has been pretty crazy from day to day ha ha!
Well, I'm about out of time now, but I know that the Gospel is true! One of my favorite things each day is the time we have for personal study. It really makes a huge difference in my life, and I know that if each of you will put aside some time (morning is best because it sets the mood for the whole day) to study about Jesus Christ and His Gospel it will make a huge difference! He gives me the strength to make it through each day. There is no way I would be doing this if it wasn't for Jesus Christ. It's sad how many people don't even know about Christ and what He did for him. They "know," but they don't KNOW, you know? I love "The Living Christ." That has so much goodness about Christ and what He did packed into it! You should read it as a family often, it's great. I've also really enjoyed reading the Christ edition of the Ensign, the one with the see-through cover thing and His picture on front. There are tons of great articles in there, and I've been studying it this week. This is His Gospel and He loves each one of us! He really is there and cares, even though we can't see it and it sometimes may not seem like it. Just remember, "Blessed are those who believe, who haven't seen," or something close to that. You know the point. Believe :) I love you all!
Until next week,
Elder Beckett
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