Happy Birthday Verny! =]

Hello Vern! And the rest of the fam! Happy birthday yesterday my brotha! I hope it was a great day for you and you learned a lot at church. I was thinking about you lots.

This has been a pretty hectic week, trying to learn all of the additional responsibilities now and planning district meeting, preparing trainings, figuring out exchanges, doing call-ins each night, etc. I am loving it though, and the Lord has sure been helping me. I am going to learn a lot this transfer (like all of them really ha ha)! Oh, and if you don't know what those things are I'll explain real quick. District meeting is a meeting we have once a week to train, instruct, and teach one another. They are a blast, and always get me pumped up to go back to work. Exchanges are what I am supposed to do once a week with each of the missionaries (throughout the transfer), where we basically swap companions for 24 hours and go work in each others' areas. Call-ins are where I just call the other Elders in my district to make sure that they are in, check how their day went, follow up on goals they have set, and just help them in any way that they need. Then I call the Zone Leaders and let them know how the District is doing. Well, day 3 of call-ins was pretty interesting.

About 9:41 comes around and I decide to give the Belleview Elders a call (Elder T- who knows the Ruuds and is from Montpelier- and Elder G - from Henderson, NV). Their phone rings 5 times and goes to their voicemail so I figured I'd just call them back in a bit. I call the Leesburg Elders (H and C), and then call Belleview back at 9:53 or so. It rings 5 times again and I leave a message telling them to pick up the phone and call me back lol. Well, I wait another 20 minutes and nothing, so then I call them again. This time the phone rings 3 times and then is sent to the voicemail. I call them back, and the same thing happens, except it only rings 2 times before going to voicemail. I called the Zone Leaders and let them know, and they said to keep trying and if they still don't answer or call back by 10:30, then to give them a call back. Well, sure enough, they didn't call back or answer so I called Elder W (Zone Leader) and told him. He said he'd call the AP's and give me a call back. Meanwhile I'm really starting to worry that they were out tracting or something and came up on a drug deal or a murder or something crazy and the people figured they had to take them hostage or shoot them or something like that. Even if their phone just stopped working, they still know that they will be called every single night to be checked on. Elder Stock and I knelt and had a prayer, and waited to hear what to do next.

Leesburg called me next saying that Elder W called them and told them to go check on them. I was thinking, "Shoot. Heck no! I'm the one that gets to go check on them! That's my duty :)" So we talked about it for a minute, and learned that the Leesburg Elders had only been there like twice, and it was night and they were without a gps. I had been there lots of times (I've been in this district my whole mission so far), and we had a gps. Plus it was only like ten minutes longer from our place than Leesburg's. So, Elder Stock and I got into our car at about 10:45 and headed out to Belleview.

Well, the Belleview Elders live like 40 minutes from here, so it was a fun little drive. We listened to "Joseph Smith the Prophet" by Truman G. Madsen on the way. Those lectures are AWESOME by the way... you should get them and listen to them. It will blow your mind. Anyway, Belleview lives in a gated community, a gate that was closed when we got there. Elder Stock and I were in our pajama pants and each had a blanket and pillow because the AP's told us just to stay the night there to avoid driving too late or anything. We parked in a parking lot across the street from the front gate to their community, and at about 11:30 at night we got out of our car, grabbed our pillows and blankets, and went and hopped the fence. Lol, I'm really glad nobody saw us and called the police or anything, it probably looked really funny. I also brought my headlight along just in case we needed it =] We walked up to their house and found a note on their door saying, "To whom it may concern - we are just fine. We lost our phone, and are at a member's house right now. Please call (352) ###-#### to get a hold of us. - Elders T and G"

This story is getting really long, but we were super glad to see that they were ok! Turns out they had no idea where their phone was, and the only phone number they had written down to call was Sister Hall's number. And she didn't answer. So they were kind of stranded until we got a hold of them ha ha. Before we left the next morning I left them with all of the important numbers they might need if that happens again, so we don't have to drive out there. It was a lot of fun though :)

Anyway, that was the crazy story of the week. It was a fantastic week though! You must have been praying really hard too, because we had 5 investigators at church yesterday! T, L & M, and D and A. We have teaching appointments with all of them set up already too for this coming week except T. We'll get her in though :)

Do you remember a little bit back when I told you about our service project to that lady named S? Well, we found out something that really let us know that the Lord does have a hand in this work. We stopped by her house to check up on her about a week after the project, and she said, "You guys really are angels!" We asked her why, and she told us that less than 24 hours after we left, a health department inspector stopped by to inspect her yard. Apparently someone had reported her within the last week or something. She didn't know who, but felt bad that they did without even saying anything to her, let alone going and helping her out. It was a testimony to me that the Lord really is working through us to bless the lives of those we meet.

Yesterday A and V S gave talks in Sacrament Mtg. for their first time. They are the sisters that I had the opportunity to confirm. They did a great job, and the branch loved it. Elder Stock also gave an incredible talk on the Atonement, and had the whole branch in tears. The Spirit was super strong, and overall it was just an incredibly uplifting meeting! I love church. Also, President F is hilarious. He is awesome ha ha. I love this branch. There was a member that got up and was announcing some things and started telling about how they work at the temple as a such and such and go multiple times a week, and President F just says loudly, "Quit bragging and stick to the script!" Everyone laughed (including the member, they took it well), and the meeting went on.

We also got to meet a recent convert who was baptized a month ago. She is a ward of the state, and sounds like she has had a really rough life. She went to visit her sister in Washington state for 10 days, and ended up getting baptized while she was there. She told us how she came to know that the church is true and basically just bore her testimony and it was incredible. Her faith is super strong and she will continue to grow and blossom in the gospel. She knows it's true and will help her in her life.

There was another lady this week who is from Georgia that contacted us this week (her non-member parents live in our area) and told us her story. She joined the church when she was 18 and got kicked out of her house for it. Apparently her dad completely ran the missionaries out of the town that she lived in for a while too. Anyway, she shared her testimony and some neat experiences of how she knows that the church is true. It really made me think about just how blessed I am to have been raised in a family that already had the gospel. I can't imagine how hard that would have been.

Well, this is quite a long email lol, and I've got to email President real quick too before my time is up, but I love you guys. Have a great week, and keep living the basics of the gospel! You are all loved and prayed for =]

love, Elder Andrew Beckett