Happy Easter! And... Anniversary Mom & Dad! =)

Wow, what a scary thing to hear about Grandpa Beckett. It's really interesting... even though I didn't find out anything from you this past week until now, the Spirit was directing my thoughts to him since about Thursday. He will continue to be in my prayers, and I know that no matter what happens the Lord's hand is in it. Grandpa is a wonderful person; a true disciple of Jesus Christ. As scary as learning about what happened yesterday was, I am thankful for the knowledge and testimony I have of the Savior and what He has done for all of us. I know that no matter how scary or intense situations and events may get in this life, we don't need to stress or worry too much because we know the end result! How thankful I am that Grandpa is a righteous man; an example to us all of how the Lord would be if he were here. With that being said, I fully intend to give him a big hug when I get back, just like I do all of you! =] Although whatever the Lord wills is best, come what may.

This week has been a miracle! The only way that I can describe it is as a miracle. We have been blessed with so much success from the Lord. It has been amazing; He truly hears and answers our prayers. We were blessed to teach a lot of lessons, have some solid investigators, and have 4 people at church! Super cool. A & J, a brother and sister, are super neat. They live with their mom, who is a less-active coming back into the church full-swing! We are teaching them and having dinner tomorrow, when we will set baptismal dates for them. B, our awesome friend who was originally Grandpa (Bro. A's) friend, is getting baptized on May 7th. He is awesome, and it is so much fun to watch him and Grandpa go back and forth with each other! B was a businessman from New-York, and super successful. He is 80 now, and is still as sharp as a tack. Cool fact: Elder Larsen and I will get to go to the temple with him 1 year from then when he goes through! And it will be like 1 month before I go home. What better way to finish up right before completing my mission than seeing a convert go through the temple?!? Woo hoo!

We also have an investigator who is really nice and seems very sincere. He is in his 50's. We have been working with him, and he came to church with us this last Sunday. We only have one problem.. we have heard from our sources (ha ha we know stuff... ;) that he owns a certain business that is involved with some not-so-good things. A "house of ill-repute" as one person words it. Stupid Satan... But, he hasn't mentioned anything about it yet, and so we are giving him the benefit of the doubt. We are proceeding with caution though, that's for sure. I just hope it's not true. :/ And, if it is, I just hope he has the courage to let the Atonement of Christ change him enough to completely change his ways; even if that means giving up his whole lifestyle! That is what the message we share with others does - it doesn't just change their eating habits, exercise patterns, sleeping, friends, or any one thing in particular; it literally changes their life! Everything... in a matter of a month to a few months, a person who accepts and lives the gospel of Jesus Christ can completely change their life for the eternities. It is quite a miracle to be able to see that occur.

Good news - I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life. With all of the biking all day long, walking, going to the gym in the mornings, and just missionary life in general, I am probably more fit than I've ever been. Hopefully I can keep it this way, because Daytona Beach is known throughout the ward as the most well-fed area. Most missionaries gain a lot of weight here. I am running a 5k every other morning though to help out with that lol. Hopefully I won't be too plump when I see you again ;) That would be pretty funny though if I was super chubby the next time I have the opportunity to send pictures home! Make sure you tell me if you notice a difference in me :)

I've been working on a tape to send to you - I'll do some more today. I feel like I have been just terrible at keeping in contact with you guys besides email each week :S. Oh! Mother's day phone call - I'll call the home phone again, unless you want me to call on something else. What time would be good for you? We need to get that all figured out too so that I'm not calling you in church or anything. Although that could be fun to "accidentally" call you while you are at church, just so I could hear the answering machine and leave a quick message :P Jk ha ha.

Yesterday at church (and a couple times in the past), we had a blind man play a musical number on the organ. It is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen; especially on Easter Sunday. He sat up there and played a beautiful rendition of an Easter hymn, and just smiled the whole time. I was thinking how incredible that is first of all, and then also about how neat of an example of the joy of the Resurrection that was. Even though he can't see now, he will be able to someday because of Jesus Christ. Truly that is a message of peace and hope worth sharing with the world :)

Any crazy news about anyone on the mission or in the family? Hopefully nothing too crazy like with Grandpa :/ I haven't heard anything from Nolan, or gotten his emails mailed from you in a few weeks. Is he doing ok? I keep him in my prayers. I try to keep all of my missionary brothers and sisters in my prayers, my family (ha, you've got everyone beat), and other friends and loved ones.

I want to let you know how thankful I am for the Spirit, the Comforter. We truly can't do this work without heeding His voice. That is how the Lord speaks to us! I am learning to recognize when the Lord is guiding my thoughts a lot more through the Spirit, and how to receive revelation for myself. Reading the Book of Mormon with questions, and praying sincerely for answers is a wonderful way to draw close to the Lord. This is His work! We are blessed to be able to choose to be a part of it; to choose the path in life that we take. We really are masters of our fates; captains of our souls. I love you all, keep being wonderful! Thanks for your prayers and support. I feel close to you, even though we don't get to talk much. The Spirit can keep us all close :) Have the best week of your lives yet!

Week 6 = miracle week!

Hey familia! I love ya. Tons! =]

This has been a fantastic week. So many good things have happened. First of all, I saved $70 on 3 ties I bought last P-day from J.C. Penney's. I spent 18 bucks total and they were some sweet ties! That was a great way to start off the week ha ha. Tuesday came and I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Brown. That was so much fun! It was super cool to be with my trainer again; I learn so much from him all the time. He is one of the best missionaries I know. I can't believe he goes home in 6 weeks.... aaah! Oh, and good news! Nobody in our apartment got transferred (calls were this past weekend), so we will all be staying together at least one more!

Tuesday night we were at an appointment with a guy named M. We were sitting on his front porch, which is like a screened-in place with chairs, talking to him about the gospel. He is 86, and was one of 2 people to survive out of the 29th platoon on Omaha Beach. Well, as we were teaching him his wife basically went nuts. It was one of the weirdest things I have seen. She was seriously possessed or something... she came out of the house yelling like crazy at us! She opened the door just a crack and started yelling at us, and as she did so her dog (a big blue tick hound) started going crazy too. Well, she couldn't hold the door back and the dog came running out trying to kill us. Elder Brown had already made it out the door by that time and I was on my way, but didn't quite make it. The wife was screaming to her husband, "GRAB HIM! GRAB HIM!" And I was just standing there thinking that I was toast. Well, I just stood there really calm with a prayer in my heart that the dog wouldn't eat me (although if he did I would've went all Nephite on him), and he just jumped on me a couple times barking like crazy, walked around, and I just walked out. Then M finally grabbed him as we were out the screen. The lady had this wild look in her eyes and screamed at us, "DON'T YOU EVER COME BACK! If you do I will call the police! Get out!" How rude. That's alright though, we just smiled and told M goodbye and left. Some people have anger issues, and really it just makes me feel bad for them more than anything. I think that is one thing the Lord has blessed me with - to be able to not get offended when people are mean, but rather just love them and feel sad for them instead.

Wednesday was super cool... it was one of those days where you just have NO doubt that the Lord is completely in control and guiding things. Wednesday Morning we had an appointment with an investigator in an area. He gave us his street, but couldn't remember his house number. We called and called him but he never answered, and so we decided to just go to his street and see if we couldn't find him. Well, we looked for him, and couldn't find him. We decided to tract a few houses until our next appointment, and so when we went and talked to this lady outside (the first person we saw) she was on the phone. It turns out that she was on her phone with her mom, who is LDS, and she has family in our ward. Cool! Well, we asked if we could come back sometime and share a message about Jesus Christ with her family and she said she'd talk to her husband and see. We followed up yesterday, and they weren't interested, but the seed has been planted! Now the Spirit will keep working with them and soon they'll be ready.

We turned around to go back to our car to go to visit our next appointment, M... (that is his name - you'd be surprised at how many people I've met named M...). Keep in mind that we are on this random street in Daytona Beach... well guess who we see riding their bike up the street? L! One of our investigators we've been trying to get a hold of. We talk to him, get a church tour set up (which went great by the way), and keep going. Same street, we keep going and see a member "just happen" to pull in her driveway as we drive past. We had tried visiting in the past (she is less-active), but she wasn't home. Long story short she wants to come back to church and has 2 kids that aren't baptized yet! A and J, 16 and 12. We are teaching them tomorrow.

That day kept going, we met another way cool person in the park, and that night found another part-member family with the husband who wants to be baptized. And then this morning we set a date with Grandpa's good friend B! Bis so cool. Him and Grandpa are the funniest people to watch together ever! We are going back to teach him Thursday.

We had 2 investigators at church yesterday! B and J. It was so sweet. I was asked to speak at like 9:50 saturday night. It was just a short little talk though, no biggie. Wow, I'm out of time... yet there is still so much more that happened this week! Ahh lol. You'll just have to read my journal when I get home.

Other highlights: It was Grandpa's birthday, we had some awesome teaching appointments, we had some sweet dinners, I got some nice letters and cards, and basically the Lord just blessed us immensely! That's one thing I am learning more and more - that it's not about me at all. I do my very best and work as hard as I can, but then have to realize that it's really all up to the Lord on how things work out.

I love you all!

-Elder Andrew Beckett

Temple Trip! Week 6? Aaah!

Hey fam! I sure love ya! We had a fun, hard-working week. Plus, some crazy coincidences happened. First off, we got to go to the temple! It was so great. I love going to the temple; I always learn so much and feel completely uplifted! That's something I will definitely do a lot more when I am back from my mission. We went with the Davis' in our ward, they are super nice! We had a lot of fun, and they took us to Perkins to eat afterwards. It was delicious =] I got sick this week and that was no fun. It was like an Ultra-cold. Actually, I have had a cold like that before, but probably a little worse because it dragged out for a bit. I got it along with Nolan right at the end of our Winter semester at BYU. Mindy, beware! Jk. This sickness was shorter though, but higher intensity. Grandpa was super nice and took care of me though! He gave me a bunch of cold medicine I could take, vitamin c & zinc, and made sure I was well rested and fed. Lol I love grandpa, just like my blood-grandpas! He is an amazing person, and always watching out for us. Elder Larsen and I were able to go help him plant some flowers, weed, and clean up around his house a little bit this week. He lives alone (his wife passed away), and so we like to visit him every now and again. He has been a member of the church for 5 or 6 years, and is super solid. Gotta love grandpa!

Ok, so here's a funny story. The 4 of us Elders get to church early Sunday morning for our meetings, and after the meetings Sister Couture, the Relief-Society President asks us to come help her set up a bunch of extra chairs. She tells us, "The BYU cougarrettes dance team will be coming to our ward today; they were up here for a competition." Great, ha ha, just what a bunch of missionaries trying to stay away from girls want to hear. It was funny to see the young men in the ward though before church started, everyone was running around telling their friends and whatnot. BUT, here is the crazy part... I was standing by the door to the chapel, greeting the members as usual when the BYU team came, and I saw a girl that looked familiar. Then I realized it was Mindy's old roomate! So I said hi and told her who I was and sure enough it was her. It was super weird though because she hadn't met Mindy until after I left, and so she'd seen her more recently than me. Not fair... ha ha. She texted her though in church and told her what was happening and it was just crazy! It's weird being a missionary where you can't just call/text whoever you want! It was like there was that close link though to home because I knew she was talking/texting you Mind! I don't know if it was weird for you or not, but it was for me. What a fun day.

One person in the ward, who is actually not even a member just yet, got up to bear her testimony during the meeting. It was amazing.. DS is an investigator that the North Elders have, a senior in high school, and she is so converted! She bore her testimony of the restoration of the gospel and how she came to know the church is true. She was crying as she said what she said, and everyone in the room felt the Spirit so strong. Here is the heart-breaking thing though - that her dad won't let her be baptized! She is so prepared and converted, but she just can't be baptized. Yet. She will be 18 soon enough, and then she wants to go to Utah and attend BYU. Isn't that cool though? I learned and thought so much about how thankful I am for the gospel in my life, and for a strong supportive family. I really have a lot of love and respect for converts to the church, especially those whose families are against it :/. Anyway, that was neat to see her stand and testify that this is the true church of Jesus Christ.

I am so thankful to be here serving a mission for the Lord. There really is nothing better, and I am learning and becoming something more than I ever could be on my own! The Lord has taught me so much already, and I am so happy to think that I still have about a year and 2 months left to learn more. Although that will fly by... I can't believe how fast time goes. Anyway, I love you all so much! Keep on keepin' on, and look for what the Lord wants to teach us through each experience that we have. Sorry this email was kind of short (was it? I can never tell on these new computers because the monitors are super long and weird).

Until next week,

Elder Andrew John Beckett! =]

p.s. I got the tape & package! That was SO fun to hear all of your voices and I just loved it. Thanks!

Elect elect, wherefore art thou elect? We're going to find you! =]

Hey! Wow, what a great week! General Conference is always so wonderful. And now that I had the privilege of enjoying it on the mission again, I just realize a little more how grateful I am to the Lord for blessing us with living prophets and apostles. I sure learned a lot! Some other cool things I saw/noticed:

-Benjamin Gibson singing in the choir! Awesome job! I was telling everyone "Hey! That's my cousin! Yeah!"

-President Hales, who always does an incredible job. I love an miss him! It was refreshing to see him and hear his voice.

-The Meridian, ID temple? Woo hoo! That will be awesome for our family up there (they still live there right?) Cool!

-We sang the version that the MoTab did of "Have I Done Any Good" with Sister Roberts leading us back in the day as a stake youth choir. I love that version!

-They talked about God Gave us Families! We love that song, remember? :) I thought that was special. And then they were playing that as prelude in the Sunday morning or afternoon session. Awesome!

There were also tons and tons of incredible spiritual truths that I learned/had brought to my remembrance from the general authorities! Elder Bednar's talk was great, Elder Oaks', and a bunch of others. I should've brought my notes with me. Anyway, it was awesome! You'll have to tell me about your favorite parts.

This week we had a couple of teaching appointments, but mostly we've just been working our hardest to find people. I'm not going to lie, or area is pretty stinkin' ghetto. No offense, but like nobody we have found so far has kept any commitments, and it seems that way with all ghetto places. AAaaaaaah it gets kind of old. We can only do so much for people, they have their agency and have to choose to follow God and ACT on what the Spirit teaches them as we talk to them. That's alright though, it us up to us to make the effort - the result is always in God's hands. So, we are just happily carrying on in the work, doing our best to find people to teach, and learning a lot along the way. Elder Larsen is doing fantastic, and catching on really well. We have been focusing a lot lately on transitions, speaking about equally, and asking inspired questions as we teach. It's been really great for me to be training, because it causes me to evaluate everything I do and say, and try and put myself in Elder Larsen's as well as the investigators' shoes.

I had the opportunity to give a blessing to Sister Reid this week in my district, and that was a super neat experience. It was one of those blessings where the words just came. It is a blast having Sisters in the district! There is me, Elder Larsen, Elders Brown & Ellis (Zone Leaders, but they come to all of our district stuff because we live with them), Elders Fox & Moon, and Sisters Reid & Worwood. It is a blast. Sister missionaries own too! I bet you were the best Sister missionary ever Mom! It's a lot of fun because even though I can't be back home watching out for Mindy & Allie, I can kind of watch over my Sisters here in a similar way! Our district is great.

By the way, I didn't end up buying a suit. I wasn't quite sure what to do (did you get those emails I sent?), so when we went there I just kind of prayed on the way over that the Lord would let me know what the best choice to do would be, and he helped me realize that I had no need for another suit right now; regardless of the price. So the Spirit helped me make the best choice :) That's one thing I've really learned a lot more about on the mission - distinguishing between wants and needs.

Random question - any new update on Matt and Nick? I heard they were ok, but I haven't heard much else. Are they helping with clean up or what's going on? I have been praying for them and was super thankful to hear that they were safe.

Thank you so much for the birthday package! I did get it! :) Sorry, I just must have forgotten to mention it. I am so forgetful... I think I was a little better before my mission, but now I just feel like I have 50 trillion things going through my head all the time ha ha. I need to learn to relax more. I feel like if I don't have everything planned and figured out and know all the details of how it's going to work out and everything, then something's wrong. I think I just need to have more faith. I have not yet received the tape & jerky package yet, but I'm sure it will come this week. I have been working on a tape for you guys, but I haven't quite filled it up yet. I'm so slow... ha ha. I haven't written any letters or anything for quite a while. I am going to try and finish the tape and see if I can write some today. P-day is always crazy! It might sound like it's the "break day," but really it's probably one of the most hectic days of the week because of all the rushing around trying to get everything done lol. But, know that I love you despite my terrible writing/recording skills! I will work on that.

Seth, go for it buddy! You can use my tennis racket =] Go get 'em champ! You'll have to keep me posted on Nate and Seth and how tennis goes for them. Mindy, keep me posted on your plans and school and friends and whatnot! Btw I knew Allie took the pic because of the title you had on it ha ha. Mom - keep it up on the job! Sounds like a huge blessing. I am glad to know that you are also (still) blessing the ward and those around you! I love my family. Dad - how have things been for you? I hope your back is better by now! What have you been up to? You probably told me in the tape I'm sure :) Nate! You stud! I was so proud of you when I got your program and newspaper clipping and everything. I showed everyone in my apartment and they were impressed. They are impressed with all of you! You are all amazing. I feel blessed to be a part of our family.

Well, I've gotta go now. The church is true! So true. It amazes me sometimes when I catch a glimpse of just how important the gospel is. He really does live! He lives and loves us. We just need to turn to him, humble ourselves, and recognize that we can't do this on our own. Have a great week and I'll talk to you next!

love,

Elder Andrew Beckett!