Good morning! Life's great as always =] Sounds like you guys are doing pretty well too!
Church was wonderful yesterday, the Lord has been blessing this ward so much. The whole S family came to church together and loved it! B and K are possibly getting baptized this Saturday, but things may get pushed back a week or two if the whole family would like to do it together. They are such a miracle family and have been awesome to get to see progress and have the light of the gospel fill their home. The dad, B, has really made progress this week and just had a complete change of heart. Now he is learning and reading the Book of Mormon, and leading out in helping his family! It is incredible to see the transformation that is coming upon them. I will never forget the picture I had in my mind as I saw the S family walking out the church doors, together as a family after church. They were all smiling, laughing, and B & K (Mom & Dad) just held hands as they walked out to their car. It was so... picturesque! Is that the right word? Idk. It was great though, and made me just think of the day when they will be sealed as a family, and walking out of the temple together. I am so thankful to have been able to get here right in the middle of them being taught, they have been such a blessing and inspiration. Oh, something else that was way fun and helped them open up a lot more was what we call the "Cumorah Cake." This was the coolest idea ever that some missionaries told us about! What you do is bake a cake, and have it be kind of round shaped. Then you cut out a square in the middle of the cake (once it's cooled). In the square you take a Hershey's chocolate bar and break it up and make a "stone" box in the middle. You make a mini Book of Mormon out of the pass-along card pictures, and even make some mini pages to put inside. We wrote some scripture references and quoted some scriptures in there. Then you put it inside, put on the lid, and frost the cake so that they can't even tell anything is different. We then took a Testimony of Joseph Smith pamphlet and highlighted all the references to the plates and the Hill Cumorah, and gave it to them with the cake. It was so much fun, and they loved it!
V M, a part-member whose whole family has been members except for him for years, is doing great =] Something clicked for him too, and it is his time. He is preparing to be baptized on Feb 18. He came to church and enjoyed it, and is really starting to click and open up more with the different members. Unfortunately A wasn't able to make it this week, he has slowed down a little. The devil has been jumping all over him, please keep him in your prayers and pray that he will be able to recognize the Holy Ghost as he has been learning more about the restored gospel. We aren't giving up on him just yet :) We also have another amazing family the Lord has been blessing us with, the P, who have been meeting with missionaries for months now. They have some great member friends, and even went to the Hill Cumorah! I think I already told you that. Anyway, they are progressing but moving kind of slow.
Ok, random notes real quick, then I wanted to share a faith-promoting experience :) Ever heard of Aldi's? We have one here and it is like the greatest thing ever. It is a grocery store chain that has done everything they possibly can to cut costs. And so you get great food for really cheap! That's where we shop. Anyway, just wanted to say that if they have those in UT you should check it out. At Wal-mart I found this new contact solution disinfecting stuff with hydrogen peroxide that I decided to give a try. You put it in this weird case and it cleans them with bubbles from a platinum reactor thing! It's really cool. Anyway, it makes your contacts feel almost brand new again. I love it. Hey, does Aunt Karrie still have access to that teeth whitener stuff? Could I buy some from her or something? I'm thinking it would be great to just whiten up my teeth right before I see you guys again, you know? ;) If not that's ok. Or should I just grab some stuff from Walmart? Also do you know what the cause/solution is for those dots you get on your arms? At least I do. I don't know if it's because of my shirts or garments or what, but yeah. Ok, well, here's the experience (I shared it with Pres. Hall too, so luckily it's already all typed up :):
I'd like to share a neat experience I had this morning. I learned a lot about how revelation through prayer and the Book of Mormon works. I was thinking last night about how I could help lift the zone, maybe give them some encouragement and get everyone off of focusing so much on the numbers. We have had several areas who are getting way too caught up in the numbers, either to impress or getting discouraged because their numbers aren't saying anything. It's getting them distracted from our purpose. Well, after praying the thought that came to my mind was to be thankful. I wrote it down and then fell into bed.
This morning as I began my studies, I felt like I needed to read in the Book of Mormon. I did, and read Alma 37. As I was reading I couldn't seem to focus too well because my thoughts were on the R family, a family I had been blessed to be able to find and teach back in Lake Reams. They are scheduled to be baptized as a family this Sunday, at 9 am. I wish more than anything that I could be there. However, as I've prayed and thought and tried to figure out how to make it work, I feel like I shouldn't go or try to go because we have things we need to take care of here. Especially on a Sunday morning. So really I was just kind of feeling sad and asking the Lord why they couldn't have just been baptized while I was there, or why we couldn't have found them just a little sooner so they could be prepared before I left. Well, I got the impression that I just needed to be thankful. I still hadn't realized the theme that the Lord was trying to teach me, but I decided to start preparing for companionship study and what we were going to be going over there. For part of it we were going to review our Leadership Training notes, so I opened up my study journal and there on the first page was a talk I had been asked to give. The title? "Being Thankful"
I read through my talk outline, and it was in that moment that the Spirit brought together everything that I had been taught the previous night and that morning, the message the Lord was trying to get across to me. I felt peace and happiness as I reflected on the many blessings the Lord has given me. I remembered that when we are thankful we can deal with all of our problems and stress in a positive way. We can have more of an eternal perspective. I know that Heavenly Father loves me, as He does all of His children. He cares about each one of us so much that He places us in the exact circumstances and situations that we need to be in to best help us. I know that He has all wisdom and all power, and knows me better than I know myself. We just need to trust in Him (Mosiah 4:9)! I was thinking about my personal study and how it went, and I started feeling selfish because I was wondering what I had learned to help our investigators. That's when I realized that I had experienced, so as to understand, revelation through prayer and the Book of Mormon. So many times as I have been reading the Book of Mormon prayerfully, I will have thoughts come to my mind and feelings to my heart that are solutions to the "problems" I am facing. However small and insignificant my situation may be, my Heavenly Father cares enough to answer my questions and help and guide me. It isn't even always what I read in the Book of Mormon, but what happens and what I learn as I am doing that.
This morning as I began my studies, I felt like I needed to read in the Book of Mormon. I did, and read Alma 37. As I was reading I couldn't seem to focus too well because my thoughts were on the R family, a family I had been blessed to be able to find and teach back in Lake Reams. They are scheduled to be baptized as a family this Sunday, at 9 am. I wish more than anything that I could be there. However, as I've prayed and thought and tried to figure out how to make it work, I feel like I shouldn't go or try to go because we have things we need to take care of here. Especially on a Sunday morning. So really I was just kind of feeling sad and asking the Lord why they couldn't have just been baptized while I was there, or why we couldn't have found them just a little sooner so they could be prepared before I left. Well, I got the impression that I just needed to be thankful. I still hadn't realized the theme that the Lord was trying to teach me, but I decided to start preparing for companionship study and what we were going to be going over there. For part of it we were going to review our Leadership Training notes, so I opened up my study journal and there on the first page was a talk I had been asked to give. The title? "Being Thankful"
I read through my talk outline, and it was in that moment that the Spirit brought together everything that I had been taught the previous night and that morning, the message the Lord was trying to get across to me. I felt peace and happiness as I reflected on the many blessings the Lord has given me. I remembered that when we are thankful we can deal with all of our problems and stress in a positive way. We can have more of an eternal perspective. I know that Heavenly Father loves me, as He does all of His children. He cares about each one of us so much that He places us in the exact circumstances and situations that we need to be in to best help us. I know that He has all wisdom and all power, and knows me better than I know myself. We just need to trust in Him (Mosiah 4:9)! I was thinking about my personal study and how it went, and I started feeling selfish because I was wondering what I had learned to help our investigators. That's when I realized that I had experienced, so as to understand, revelation through prayer and the Book of Mormon. So many times as I have been reading the Book of Mormon prayerfully, I will have thoughts come to my mind and feelings to my heart that are solutions to the "problems" I am facing. However small and insignificant my situation may be, my Heavenly Father cares enough to answer my questions and help and guide me. It isn't even always what I read in the Book of Mormon, but what happens and what I learn as I am doing that.
Thanks for all of your prayers, they really help and lift me up! I especially felt them this week in Leadership Training as we gave our training and as I accompanied the meeting. It went well :) Thanks. I sure love you all, and will try to send some pictures now! Have a great week =] And Mindy, be careful snowboarding! You should... ski... ;) Even ask President Hall ha ha. We are going to go skiing someday. Love you all!
Elder Beckett
p.s. Thanks for the letter mom & newspaper article! Loved it :)
So fun to catch up on the last months worth of letters, and to see the progress of the S family all at once! So sweet! And, I too, would like to know the answers to the deodorant and protein questions he's asking! :) Keep up the great work!
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