Hello!
Merry Christmas! I'm super excited to talk on the phone with you this Sunday! It will probably be somewhere between 2-4 Florida time, so 12-2 your time, right? If that doesn't work, then... I'll find out when I call I guess ha ha and just have to try back later in the day or something. But you said that should be good, right Mom?
I had a great idea this week. Well, it was probably inspiration. Here it is... Why don't they have someone come out with an audio version of Preach My Gospel? I think that would be the bomb. I'm going to copyright this idea (c) There! Done. But I would love that, and it would really help missionaries out. There are many different ways to learn. I was just thinking about General Conference how we watch it, read it, and now we can listen to it (I bought the cds, Merry Christmas to me ;). It really helps to have it more than one way. With Preach My Gospel we read and study it, live and experience it, watch the dvds, and I think they should come out with audio cds. So Dad or anyone, if you know someone high up in the missionary department who could make that happen, please let them know Elder Beckett would buy one. It would be super effective just to have playing even in the background, or to listen to when driving in the car, or at lunch, or whenever. That would be cool.
Hey, any statements you know of on if herbal tea is ok? Everyone says herbal tea is fine, but I don't know what the exact standpoint of the church is. The WoW pamphlet says no coffee or tea, so I was just curious what you thought and knew. Hey, I saw the Lawtons at church! Brother (Elder?) Lawton's brother came to our ward! How funny is that? I met him and his wife, kind of cool huh?
Thanks so much for the package! I am loving (and will love) it! I opened it and started reading some stuff, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to wait until Christmas or not. But then I stopped because I figured it out :) But Mom, don't worry, it's totally fine that nothing was wrapped! I love it ha ha, and I don't mind even the tiniest bit so don't think twice about it. That is something I am not too worried about ;) I admit though I couldn't wait, so I ate some of the fruit snacks right away, and some of the other stuff, and I looked at the pictures. But I saved the tape and the letters =] You guys all look so good by the way! Wow, what an amazing family I have. Holy cow Nate, you look like you are growing up a lot! I can't believe it. Maybe it was just photo-shop or something, but you look older/bigger/taller! Everyone looks a little different, but so far I'd say that Nate and Allie have changed the most from the looks of it. Now Allie you are just this beautiful tall model girl! Ha ha I love it. Not that you weren't tall or beautiful or anything before, but even moreso now. And Seth, you too are slowly losing your baby face and growing into a young man, handsome as ever :) What a great family. Mom, Dad, and Mindy you too look healthy and happy! Although your looks haven't quite seemed to change as much as the younger ones. Hopefully I have changed at least a little bit, for the better. I've gained some chub on my face since I left :P I look at the pics I have of us @ the MTC dropping me off, and pics of me now, and I look quite different ha ha. That's ok though, I'll run it off eventually ;)
This week was such a wonderful week. I love the R family so much! They are just amazing.. they have so much faith and are so loving. I got to go over there this past Tuesday on exchanges with Elder Grimm (the man) and we taught most of their family the Word of Wisdom (Bro R & A were at work). It went well, and they committed to live the word of wisdom. None of them really had any problems with it, but Sis R was drinking coffee every morning. But, she said she'd do it! So we went back the next night for dinner with them, followed up, and she hadn't drank any coffee that day! She said she had a bad headache that morning and took some tylenol, but she's doing great! Dinner was amazing, she cooked us some delicious spanish food. Bro R was there, so we retaught the word of wisdom again. He was the real coffee-drinker in the family, and so we weren't quite sure how he would take it. Well, we taught it, and then invited him to obey the word of wisdom. He looked down, thought for a minute, and then humbly said, "I will do it." What faith! I love this family, they are showing the Lord their faith and being blessed for it so much. As of yesterday, neither of them have drank any coffee since committing to, and their headaches are nearly gone. Also in that lesson we talked about missionary work and missions, and L and M were like, "We want to serve missions!" They are super excited to be baptized and serve missions and all of that stuff! And we talked to A about it, and he thought about it for a bit and then said, "Yeah, I'd like to serve a mission." After the lesson Bro R asked me what his sons would need to serve missions :) So I explained all of that to him and he smiled and said ok. I am so thankful for this wonderful family, they are one of the huge miracles I have been blessed to see on my mission. I know they will become an eternal family someday! They are just soaking up the gospel of Jesus Christ, and being blessed so much for it. It is beautiful to see and picture just how this will affect their family, life, education, career, everything! The restored gospel adds so many wonderful blessings to our lives that wouldn't be there otherwise. Oh, and L, M, and A were scheduled to be baptized on Christmas Eve/ Christmas, but now it's looking like we'll hold off because it would just be more exciting to baptize the whole family at the same time. And Bro R should be able to start coming to church at the beginning of the year, so it should be in January. We've taught them pretty much everything, so now it's just a matter of continuing to love them, get members more involved, and help them along the way! It's kind of a step of faith, because I may be getting transferred 2 days after Christmas. We'll see. But whatever happens, I am thankful to know that wonderful family, and have learned so much from them.
Well, that's all for now. I'll talk to you on Sunday! I love you!
love, Elder Beckett
No comments:
Post a Comment