Dominating Satan is what we like to do! (November 15's letter)

Hey family! This has been such a wonderful week, and the time is really just flying by. I can't believe it is week three of the transfer already, and that before the end of this transfer 1/4 of my mission will be gone :/ I don't even know what to think. It has been so good so far though and I can't wait to see what comes! I have never been happier in my life than I am right now; it is so wonderful :)

Ok, first of all, here is something weird. Remember how I told you about when I was at BYU, and would walk home at night, every time I did that like 3 street lights would go out the MOMENT I walked under them? Yeah, it was really weird. Anyway, that still happens here when I drive under street lights. That's going to be one of my first questions when we get to the other side - why did the street lights always go out when I walked under them? Pretty random weird thing. Anyway, just thought you should know in case I die or something. That way if you ever see street lights going out around you, you can know that you are going to die soon too.

Alright... so are you ready to hear about the awesome week that the Lord blessed us with? Here goes:

Actually, although the whole week was good, I am just going to highlight the top three events. First up was a sweet lesson we had with our mission leader, JB. He is such a great guy. He has been a member of the Church for about 20 years I think. He invited his sister and her husband over to his house for dinner and a lesson. We taught the Restoration and talked about the Book of Mormon and lots of different gospel subjects. Brother B participated a bunch, and was constantly bearing his testimony, and told his conversion story as well (which I had never heard before). The Spirit was so strong, it was neat. Brother B (all of the Bs really) are a super neat family and great people. They love to joke and have fun and they are just all around good people. That was the first cool story.

Next up was with a less-active member, AW. Elder Stock and I met with her a couple times this week to help her stop smoking. She has been smoking since she was 13 years old, and as of today she has been a nonsmoker for 4 days :) The Lord has really blessed and helped her overcome this addicting habit. She is doing great, and was at church this week with her 2 year old son M. The Branch is really reaching out and doing a great job fellowshipping her. It is such a blessing to be able to see the light of the gospel come into her life and replace the darkness that has been there for years! She was baptized in 1995 but then fell away and has been less active since then. Now she is coming to church and doing her very best to help her son have a good life. She reads the book of Mormon so much it is awesome! We brought her one about a weeek ago and as of yesterday she is in Alma. She always is telling us how she never puts it down because it makes her feel better when she reads and she can't smoke if she is holding the Book of Mormon. She's learning to find strength in the Lord :)

Awesome story number 3: A is one of our investigators as of last Sunday. We found her while looking at a potential investigator list we had in our Map Book. All the info we had was "J, H, A" and a phone number. I called them up not knowing what to expect, and a lady answered. I was like, "Hi, is H there?" The lady (who was A) said, "That's my daughter. Who is this?" Lol, come to find out, H is 5 years old. Anyway, I ended up talking to A for a bit and then asked her if we could come over and talk to her family. She accepted! That was the first amazing thing lol. That doesn't happen very often, btw.

Well, we went over Sunday night (last week) and taught her the Restoration and committed her to come to church yesterday. She was really excited to come and experience church, and we left feeling super happy and thankful to the Lord for preparing her. About halfway through the week we got a voicemail from her. She said that she had called her mom up in Maryland and told her she was coming to the Mormon church on Sunday. Her mom kind of flipped and told her not to go there, saying she needed to go to a baptist church. A thanked us for our time, and told us sorry but she won't be coming to church or anything anymore. WHAAAAAT? No! When this happens it just stinks. You have no idea how mad we were at Satan. It is crazy how fast he attacks our investigators when we commit them to doing something good and following God. It's pretty much guaranteed to happen.

Last Saturday we went over to visit with her, and we figured we'd just stop by and talk to her, hopefully being able to resolve her concerns. We prayed really hard before we went up to talk to her, and the Lord heard our prayers! We found out her mom didn't want her to come because we have more than one wife. False, heh. We had a really good talk with her, taught her to pray (she said the closing prayer), and she was set and excited to come to church the next day. Yesterday morning comes and 9:50 rolls around and she's still not there. Not that everyone is on time to church of course, but we were just antsy because we were so excited that she was coming. We gave her a call, but she didn't answer. 9:59 comes and she still isn't there yet. By this point we were kind of wondering if she was really going to come. We went outside and knelt down to say a prayer to help her get there. We waited until a couple minutes after ten, and still nothing :( The meeting was starting so we hurried in to sit down.

I was feeling really bummed because we had been working really hard to get our investigators to church, and she was the one who seemed most promising! Anyway, halfway through the Sacrament, the doors open and guess who walks in! A! Woo hoo! I didn't even know what to think I was so excited! It was kind of almost awkward because we were trying to find her a seat and quietly welcome her and be super reverent and not disrupt the sacrament. Talk about a stressful missionary moment, where you are trying to help them have a good first impression of church and everything... Anyway she also brought her daughter H (5), Two neices P and W (15 & 10) and nephew J (6) It was such a good day! Our primary was full :) They ended up loving church and stayed all three hours! It was such a tender mercy from the Lord to know that he hears and answers our prayers. After church we went over to her house with Brother B and taught her the Plan of Salvation.

Before we started teaching we felt like we should invite her to be baptized. We did, using the Lord's Invite, and she excitedly accepted! W was outside too at the time and said something about never being baptized and then A was like, "You could probably be baptized too!" So we invited her as well and she accepted! Then A was like, "Hey Boo! Get out here!" (yelling into the house; Boo is what they call P). Boo came out and A asked her if she wanted to be baptized too. It was SO COOL! Ha ha we were so excited. We taught them all about baptism and why we are baptized, and now A, P, and W will be baptized on Dec. 11th. Isn't that great? :D We are stoked. Please keep them in your prayers - pray to have their faith strengthened, and to keep the adversary from them. That would be great. Please also continue to pray for WG; we had an appointment with them last week but that didn't go through and we had to reschedule. We will be teaching them this Wednesday and watching Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration! I am super excited.

Things are going great here, and I feel so blessed to be on a mission. Thanks to everyone for your love and support. This is truly the greatest experience of my life, and there is nothing I would rather be doing than serving the Lord in the Florida Orlando Mission! I know this is where He needs me, and this is where I will be able to grow and learn the most. I know the Lord is very aware of each one of us in our lives, and is there to help us if we only ask. I love you all so much! Take care, and always hold to the rod. Hold tight, knuckle-white as they'd say in seminary :) Talk to you next week!

-Elder Andrew Beckett