Zone Conference!

Hay Ya'll! It has been another fantastic week in Daytona Beach! Woo hoo! I have learned a lot and we've had a lot of fun. BUT, first of all... HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! On Saturday =] I hope it is awesome and you get to relax! Also, happy year mark Nolan (last week:P)! We have had a really good week; the Lord has definitely blessed us.

Zone conference was this week; I learned a ton! The main two themes seemed to be 1) Obedience and 2) Planning. They are definitely two keys to doubling baptisms here in the Florida Orlando Mission. That is what the Brethren have asked us to do in our mission, and so of course that means the Lord will provide a way to do that! It was great to receive that training though, I learned a lot about listening to the Spirit as we teach and contact people. We also learned of a great backpacking scripture ;) Go ahead and read Deuteronomy 23:12-14 with backpacking in mind.

The Lord blessed us so much! We had a bunch of investigators come to church =] We had Joe (he is so cool! We are going there Friday for a lesson and he's ordering pizza and drinks ha ha. This past week he ordered in sandwiches for us. He is such a good guy though, and ready for the gospel! He came and sang in ward choir before church, and plans to come back every week! We have invited him several times to be baptized, and he will, but he just isn't sure when he will. We're working on that :P),

F: (our nice 7th-day Adventist friend who has been coming for a while now. He knows the Book of Mormon is true, but he's fighting it lol. It's quite funny to see. He will get there, whether it's this transfer or next),

B: (amazing Bill! I love Bill. He is one of Grandpa's best friends, and one of the most influential people I've met here. He and Grandpa and Bill's bro-in-law are Masons and pretty high up ones too. Like the highest you can go. They gave us all signed recommendation/application things for when we get back if we ever want to join. Bill also knows the church is true; we had an incredible lesson with him this last week where he bore his testimony of the BOM, recognized and said, "It's almost like I've been prepared for this my whole life," and is in Ether in the BOM and re-reading it from the beginning once he finishes),

L: (Leo is a man we met on the street. He has been struggling for a while with alcohol and smoking and several other drugs in the past. He is in his 50's, currently jobless, and feels like hope is lost. Little does he know what God has in store for him! I see such hope and goodness in Leo. He used to be doing great, he has 2 college degrees and then for some reason things just went downhill. I'm not sure if it was divorce or death or what, but he has been pretty down. Anyway, I have really enjoyed teaching Leo because I have learned so much about loving as the Savior would love, despite looks, clothes, habits, friends, living conditions, whatever. I feel like I have been blessed to be able to see at least a tiny part of the potential that our Father sees in all of us. We were so proud of Leo for coming because he was super nervous about coming. After weeks of encouragement, yesterday was his first attendance!), and then 3 other people who we haven't actually started teaching yet, but we know and have met. It was a great day =]

I found a cool scripture in perspective to us and investigators - 1 Nephi 1:11-12. Kind of a neat thought.

Thanks so much for calling Grandpa and the Bs! That was so fun to hear about that.

Stink; I'm out of time, but I will be adding to my tape for you today =] I love love love you all so much! The church is true. I love the Book of Mormon. It really is the BoM. Ha. Have a marvelous week and keep on smiling!

love,

Elder Andrew John Beckett