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