Transfers what?

Hey family! So this past week has been great, and hard, but the Lord has carried me through :) We had Zone Leader Council, which is always a wonderful experience. I always learn so much, and it is very helpful to find out how the mission is doing as a whole, and what areas we can improve on.

So, Elder Johnson will be transferring to Daytona Beach! He is going to love it there with Grandpa and Bill and everyone. I will be companions with Elder Jensen. I don't know his name or where he's from or anything, but I think he's been out for about a year now. It should be a fun experience, in that we are both zone leaders who don't really know much about being zone leaders! So, we will just work our hardest, give our best, be exactly obedient, and rely completely on the Lord. Things will work out :) Also, our zone has grown. They dissolved the spanish zone, "La Zona," so now we will have 37 missionaries in our zone. That is a lot. Please pray for us!

This past week was good, a lot of wonderful things happened! M, our friend that we were teaching in this ward a while back, called and asked if I could come to where he is at and baptize him! I got permission from President, and so if that goes through I will be baptizing him soon. He is so cool! He is the one that came to church here with his friend for a while, but then we had to pass him off to the other missionaries where he lived. However, we just barely heard that he isn't sure if he still wants to be baptized or not :( So please, please, PLEASE pray for him that the Spirit will touch his heart and he will KNOW that this is the right choice. He is so elect!

We also got to go see G & L for a quick minute (they are the referrals and friends of the F family). They have J, J, and J, who are 14, 7, and 3 respectively. J's birthday was recently and so we brought him by a nice picture of Jesus as well as the Finding Faith in Christ dvd. He loved it! L invited us to dinner at their house this week, and so we will be going and teaching them then. They are such a great family, but we need to get them married and to church. Please pray that the Spirit will continue to work on them and that they can come to church this week!

Another wonderful member referral we are working with is the C family. They are from Colombia, and B J is good friends with their son J. They are such a great family! We are going to see them tonight. Please pray hard for them as well that they will accept the gospel message and come to church this Sunday.

We had D come to church on Sunday! It was great :) D is the man. He has a baptismal date for July 31st, and things are looking positive. We aren't quite sure how his experience at church was yesterday - it seemed like it went welll, but he had to leave right after Sacrament meeting. Please pray for him to feel the Spirit and come back to church. We also set a date with a lady named A, but it's looking like she's going to have a harder time getting Sundays off for work. She'll get there though :)

Sister Allen, as you will see in the transfer emails, is now training in Sebastian! Good for her =] She is a champ and will do great! I still haven't seen her here yet. Elder McClatchy is still in the same area he was last transfer too, so we haven't quite been in the same zone yet.

Anyway, things are going well and I love you all so much! I'm glad to hear that Dad made it back safely, and that Allie got her patriarchal blessing! What a wonderful experience. You are all in my thoughts and prayers each day =] Sorry I haven't been writing much, I will do better at that. Wonderful things are happening here in the Florida Orlando mission; there are a lot of good changes to help us stay more focused on our purpose and what we need to accomplish. Leadership is getting younger and younger; the majority of the current zone leaders will be home this or next transfer. Things are getting exciting, and the culture of the mission is changing for the better!

I love you all!

-Elder Andrew John Beckett

Happy 4th, in Utah or Alaska! ;)

Hey fam! I love you guys 7 much (which is the max and then some =])!

I hope you had a wonderful 4th there in Utah; I think that's definitely one of my favorite holidays back home. It's just fun to spend the 4th of July in Grantsville, UT. This has been a fun and busy week. Let me tell you a way cool story that happened on Monday... :)

So, I was at the church with a bunch of the missionaries playing basketball. We were shooting around and I look over at the door and see some people walk in. They look kind of like Teresa and Abi McNeill. I don't think anything of it, and then I do a double-take and they look EXACTLY like them! Well, it turns out it really was them ha ha! I ran over and was like, "HEY! Wow, ha ha, what's going on?" It was so much fun. We talked for a few minutes, they brought us a bunch of delicious Pizza Hut pizza, and then they headed out. I guess they have friends/cousins in the Ocoee ward, the Claibornes, who they were up here visiting. It was awesome to see them though!

And congrats to Kenni G and Brach! That is exciting. I saw that they were coming to Orlando for their honeymoon! I almost half expected to see them at church or something ha ha. Hopefully they had an enjoyable time and got to see Disney or something fun like that!

So... word on the street is that Elder Lancaster Joel Brown I is engaged. Ha ha yeah buddy! That is so funny. Elder Larsen definitely predicted that one - his guess was 4-6 weeks after he got home. Well, it was a month and a day, which falls right into that category. Congrats Lancaster! =] He is engaged to Ali Krebs, who has faithfully waited for him these two years. How exciting. Anyway, just thought I'd give a shout-out to the Man LB.

Right now the zone is doing alright; some areas are doing great and some not so great. We need to get things rolling with all of the areas instead of just some. It's really interesting to get to see how the zone is doing and follow up with the district leaders and all. It helps me want to be a lot better!

For the 4th here, it was our P-day, which made it really nice (not a lot of people like talking to people they don't know that knock on their door on a holiday). The morning went pretty normal, we had our studies, shopped, etc., and then the Flores family took us out to lunch! They were going to take us to a bbq place called "4 Rivers," but it was closed. We ended up going to Lonestar, which was still really good! After that we went to the church and played some basketball. For dinner, our WML invited us over to their place. It was super good, we had grilled chicken and bratwurst and watermelon and salad and some good dessert too. The Js from the ward were also there. We had a good lesson with them after that about the Atonement. They are such nice people to invite us over and share the holiday with us :)

That evening we got to go on exchanges with Blake Johnson, and went and followed up with some people. We had a lesson with a really nice lady named Judy, who works at Disney. Her husband passed away and she lives in the apartments right by Magic Kingdom. It was a good lesson and we will be going back to teach her soon. After that lesson, we met Ed & Joanne Peterson at the Church and they took us to the backside of Disney to watch the fireworks! President Hall let us stay out until 10:30 to watch the fireworks. The Disney fireworks were amazing! They put on quite a show. Grantsville's is still definitely one of my favorites though too ;)

Well, we are still trying to get some solid investigators rolling. The Lord has blessed us with some wonderful families to work with - the Cs (J, the 18 yr old son, is B's friend), and the Ts (G & L are friends of the Fs'). We have shared a short lesson with them, but aren't quite actively teaching them yet. Please pray your hearts out that we will be able to continue to develop a good relationship and help them accept the gospel! Pray that the Spirit will work with them in their lives and that their hearts will be changed. Also, please pray that we will receive the needed inspiration and revelation to best help them. Thank you so much, your prayers really do have a big influence on me and the work that is going on here.

Well, transfer calls are this Saturday; it will be interesting to see if Elder Johnson will stay or go because he has been in this zone for so long. I think he is gone, but we'll see when it comes. I love you all so very much and feel your love for me each day! Thanks for being who you are. Oh, and weird thought - next 4th of July I will be spending at home with my FAMILY! Aaaah! HA ha love you all =]

Oh, btw, we had church for the first time in the Lake Reams chapel, and it was great! It's a nice building and the ward is great. There were a lot of wonderful testimonies on missionary work, and the ward is excited and ready to go! The stake has put a great fast on missionary work for the month of July. Well, talk to you next week! Lu ya!

-Elder Beckett

Lake Reams

Hey fam! I want you to know first of all that I love and miss each one of you a ton! I was looking at your pictures this morning just thinking about how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family. You truly are the best and most influential people of my life. Thanks =]

What a blessing to be able to write you once a week! I think I take that for granted. Even though it seems hard when compared to how well we could communicate otherwise in today's world (i.e. through phone, texting, IM, skype, etc.), it really is wonderful that I get to hear from you and email you once a week. If I were a missionary back in the pioneers' times it wouldn't be nearly so often. I am very grateful for email.

This has been a week of challenges.... and triumphs! Ha, we endured through the trials well, and the Lord blessed us. M, miracle M, is getting baptized this coming Sunday. We had to refer him to the College Park Sister missionaries because he technically lives in their area, but he is super excited and ready to go! We are going to be there, unless for some reason we aren't able to get permission. M is so elect though it is amazing. He was a huge testimony and example to me of how the Lord really is preparing people to hear this message.

We did a lot of finding this week; we have been working extremely hard to build up our teaching pool. When we got here we had nobody, and we are slowly working our way up. Unfortunately D and B have dropped off the face of the earth (so it seems), and we haven't had contact with them for about a week. She got a job working 7 days a week, and he has been having some neck problems, and so it's gone downhill :(. They have felt the Spirit though, and we keep them in our prayers, and so I guess when they are ready then they will come back and learn more.

This week we searched and searched and searched for some new investigators. We visited members asking for referrals, followed up with potentials the past missionaries had left in the Area Book, visited former investigators, and then of course knocked some doors. It was almost a joke how people reacted when they saw us at their door. Door after door after door slammed. It's amazing how scared people are of the Mormons. We saw a guy all geared up and opening his door with his dog on a leash to go for a run (like really, he was all geared up - even wearing a headband), and he opened up the door and saw us there and was like, "Woah..." and pulled his dog back in and shut the door. I just started laughing and was like, "Wow, really?" I am learning to love everyone though, regardless of how they react to us.

That's kind of how our whole week went until right towards the end of it. Saturday it was raining, we got soaked, and were still just trying to find people to teach. We had an appointment with a guy named D. He is a personal chef. We met with him, and from the start of the lesson we could tell things were going well. The Spirit was there as we taught and testified of the Restoration. D understood and felt the Spirit as well, and at the end of the lesson we committed him to prepare to be baptized on July 31st! He accepted. We are excited to go back and teach him more.

Yesterday at church they split the wards and realigned the boundaries. I remember a long time ago when they did that in our stake; it's always a hard day to lose friends to another ward. We are now the new Lake Reams ward, and will be going to a church that is just up the road from where we live. It will be nice because the distance is so much shorter! That also means that they will likely be bringing in a new set of missionaries for the Windermere ward (the Lake Reams ward was taken from within the old Windermere ward boundaries).

Thank you so much for the letters and postcards! They are so awesome. And Allie, I will definitely be using that moose sticker on my next planner. I am making it right now. That is super COOL! Ha ha so thank you. So the McNeills were here? Were they visiting a Claiborne family? Elder Wilde told me that someone in their ward (Ocoee) knew the McNeills, and so I'm assuming it was them? That's so cool ha ha! Sucha small world.

Congrats to Shineah! Woot! I didn't know until now. How exciting! When is the date? And yeah, A.J. is a great name. ;) Hey, do you have Justin's address? He sent me a postcard a little while ago, but I couldn't find the return address on their and don't know how to reply lol.

Well, I love you all and am thankful for your diligence and examples! Sometimes things don't always go how we would like or expect them to, but that's when we really need to show our faith and obedience to the Lord. The blessings will come in time :) I love you so much and pray for you each and every day, numerous times. Have a great week and hope you all enjoy your scout camps and whatever else you have!

Happy Father's Day!

Hey Familia! Happy Father's Day =] Dad, I really do love you. I just couldn't bear sending off an unfinished tape... It will be finished and sent in the mail today though (well, the mail probably won't send it off until tomorrow, but yeah). I figured you'd rather have me finish the tape than send it off with some unfinished spots... who knows. Anyway, I didn't forget about you and you have been in my thoughts and prayers all week long!

It has been a fun week and a lot of good happened. I am constantly just in awe at how good the Lord is to all of us (Moroni 10:3). I am loving this ward so much already =] Elder Johnson is the man too, we have so much fun together. We are starting to get into the groove of teaching together in unity. The start of each companionship is always a little bumpy until you adjust to each other :) Service works miracles.

One of the families in the ward are the Ks; they are polynesian. Mom, do you know anyone on Oahu in the Kaimuki Ward? Any K, V, or K? I told them that you served a mission there and Bro. K told me some people & family that he has over there.

This week we experienced a couple of double-meal nights. Sometimes we have investigators or less-active/part-member families that want to feed us, but we already have a full meal calendar. So when they offer to feed us, we just accept it a little later (dinners are to be done by 6 unless with an investigator or part-member) and have 2 =] It works out great. I'll tell you what, that is one thing I have learned how to do on my mission - eat. And then eat some more. Hopefully it will help me grow into a big strong MAN by the time I see you guys again ;)

So, just like he always does... as soon as investigators start making the most progress towards baptism, Satan starts throwing out the most opposition. D and B are kind of in a hard spot right now - they are struggling a little bit financially, D hurt his neck, and B just got a job where she works 7 days a week. Bummer :( We are still keeping close contact though and offering to help them in every way they can. We definitely aren't giving up; it's just going to take a little longer than we initially thought for them to be baptized (especially now with the new job situation and all).

We have another solid (our most solid) investigator named M S. He is so cool! He is a friend of a member named Thomas. M has been driving 50 mins each week to come to our church with his friend. Anyway, he is the one that we set a baptism date with last week for July 2nd. Well, the only problem is that he lives in the other area, so really the missionaries there should be teaching him, and he should start going to that ward. We had a great lesson with him yesterday after church and got that worked out. Hopefully we will be able to attend his baptism though! Just to give you an idea of how elect he is - Saturday night he called us (yeah, HE called US) and asked us what he can do to prepare for his baptism. So cool! He is such a great guy (20 years old), humble, and recognizes the influence of the Holy Ghost in his life. It is so cool to be able to work with people and see the effects that the Spirit has on them as they act in faith.

We had the wonderful opportunity this past Thursday to go and do temple service! We get to do that once a month as a zone. Actually though Elder Johnson and I get to do it twice a month; the zone splits in half and does it on 2 separate weeks =] It was so cool though to go and be able to help out with keeping the Lord's house and grounds looking nice! Some of the things we do are plant flowers, mulch trees, blow off the walkways, and clean the fountain. It's a lot of fun, and after we have a little lunch thing.

Well, I'm glad to hear that you survived Ragnar Mindy! Way to go! I'm also glad to know that you all made it safely back from Yellowstone. You were in my prayers even more than usual this past week :) I sure love you all. I know that this is the only true and living church on the earth. We receive revelation from God through a prophet, Thomas S. Monson. What a wonderful blessing :) We don't have to prove that it is true either! It is our responsibility however to invite everyone to learn for themselves. The pure of heart and sincere seekers of truth will hear the voice of the Lord and recognize it. Sometimes it seems that missionaries try to prove to everyone that the BOM is true, but that isn't how the Lord works. We must humble ourselves before Him and ask if it is true. Then we will receive an answer. I have received my answer, time and time again, and will continue to do so as I participate in Moroni's invitation. I love the Lord so much! He is so good to us. I love all of you as well =] Take care now, and CTR always!

-Elder Andrew John Beckett

p.s. Mom I think we probably could go on hikes or something for P-day, but with putting in numbers, calls, emailing, shopping, cleaning, etc. it seems like we'd only have an hour or two to hike (including driving time). Plus we have a very limited amount of miles we can drive each month... but that's ok. The Lord blesses us and we still are loving life!

p.p.s. The ward boundaries are going to be changed this coming week... so we might lose some of the members we've just met :/ sad! Our new church on Reams Rd. Should be a lot closer though.

Learning the Area

Hey family! I hope you are all safe and well up in Yellowstone! Please tell everyone I love them and miss them a bunch! Have tons of fun and be super safe =] It was fun getting your emails from Dad's phone. I also enjoyed the voice-to-text translation that came out of some of the things you said ;) Like the one about Elder Brown giving one of the best "tacos" you've ever heard a returned missionary give ha ha. I am sure it was wonderful! I look up to Elder Brown SO much; he is like the older brother that I never had. I'm glad you were able to go and meet him in person.

This was a great week, we had a lot of fun and worked hard! We got to go on exchanges with the Assistants (Elders Rydalch, Moore, and Gregson). I went with Elders Rydalch & Moore, and Elder Johnson went with Elder Gregson. We got a lot accomplished, made some goals for our zone, and had a lot of fun. I love those great Elders.

I learned some really cool things about our area! B J is a member of the stake presidency's son in the Windermere ward. He is super cool and has been out on exchanges with us several times already. He is just about to turn 18. Anyway, he has been telling us all about our area and pointing stuff out while we are driving places in our area. Not to mention that he is going to be an awesome missionary! We have a lot of fun. He and some other youth from the ward are coming to play basketball with the missionaries today in the gym. Oh, so here are some of the cool things he showed/told us about:

*Disney is our area - SO many people here work for Disney

*Shaq & Tiger Woods live in our area. We are going to baptize Shaq. Ha, funny story - we were driving past his house and decided to see if we could somehow get into his community (it's gated). We pulled off and waited for a bit to see if anyone could come by and let us in or something, and about 2 minutes later someone pulls up next to us. It is the security guards, and they asked if they could help us. We were like, "Yeah, we're just waiting around for Shaq to get here so we can baptize him." So then they let us in! And took us right to his house. Shaq said yes! Just kidding. That was actually made up. But, it was a true story up until the part when I gave our response to the security guards. What we really said was like, "Oh no, we are alright. We were just waiting for someone to come past."(which we were waiting for Shaq...:P). They told us we should go wait at a public park right up the street instead. So we drove off, a little discouraged, but with an even greater resolve to somehow find a way to introduce him to the gospel. I think it would be really cool to baptize Shaq. Just think of how many people would look into the church if he were to be baptized! Anyway, keep praying. ;) Also, if you have any great ideas about how to meet Shaq, or even get into his gated community, or if you google his phone #, that would be helpful =D

*Elizabeth Smart's uncle is in our ward; I met him Sunday. He looks just like Ed Smart.

*Apparently Matt Damon, Wesley Snipes (sp?), Ken Griffey Jr., and the heir to the Gatorade throne all live in our area too (or used to). We tracted into the Gatorade guy's house and didn't even know it until Blake told us it was his. Unfortunately he didn't answer.

*Also, this is the ward that a lot of general authorities/famous people go to when they come to Orlando. Glenn Beck comes here every so often apparently. How cool is that? =]

This week our Zone has been doing awesome, setting some solid baptismal dates! We are still getting things rolling, but the work is picking up. The Lord has blessed us so much. We set a baptismal date with M yesterday at church; he is a friend of a RM in the ward that has been coming for the past few weeks. He is solid and recognizes the Spirit! He drives 50 minutes to get to church... wow. The only sad part is that we are probably going to have to hand him off to another set of missionaries :( That's alright though; we'll see him in heaven.

We also have 2 other people who have committed to be baptized - D & B. They are awesome! They really feel like it is time to join the church, and that the Lord has been pointing them to this church. Please keep them in your prayers.

Thank you SO MUCH for the package and tape and letters and all of that fun stuff in there! I loved it =] That was a blast to open. I loved it all, and it worked out perfectly because I got it exactly on June 9! I loved the tape and hearing your voices, and your letters made me laugh too. I love you all!

I got some new pants today. Two pair. They are nice, and machine washable. I got another gray pair and a black. They should last me the rest of my mission I hope!

Well, things are going great and I am loving life. I decided I am going to do my very best to not miss a single day of writing in my journal for the last year of my mission (I missed a few the first year). I am going to make it; you can't make up the time and experiences you have out here. The gospel is true! I love it so much. I love strengthening my testimony each morning in studies, and then going out and sharing what I learned all day long! It is such a blessing. I hope all of you have a wonderful week and be super safe in Yellowstone!

love, Elder Andrew Beckett

Week 1 = Fun

Hey everyone! What a crazy and awesome week it has been. Wow, I just put in numbers for my first time and it took foreverrrrrr. We do have the largest zone in the mission I found out. Anyway... Things are going great and we are getting adjusted to our new area!

Our ward is awesome! And super missionary minded. We already have a bunch of referrals, have met with/called/texted our Ward Mission Leader a bunch and know him really well (Bro. T W), and everyone is super nice to us and excited that we are here! Church yesterday was fantastic. We brought our member-meal calendar to church (I guess the Sisters would just give it to the ward meal-coordinator and she'd pass it around) and after giving it to our meal coordinator we had maybe 3 empty days without meals for the month of June! That was sweet. We have members that are bringing their non-member friends to church, and the members here aren't afraid to talk to their friends and family about the gospel! It is super cool.

Bro. W, our ward mission leader, is just pumped! He reminds me of Bro. B in the sense that he just fulfills his calling to the max! He really knows how to get the Lord's work accomplished, and is ready to go. He has been such a huge blessing and help to us this week as we have been adjusting and getting to know what is going on here.

There is a Men's Wearhouse in our area, and I think I'll probably buy a new pair of pants or two (half-way is a good time right?) These 3 I have used every day for a year have been awesome, and I'll keep using them until they are run down. But they are getting a little faded. I've sewed new buttons on each of them, sewed a hole in the side, and done some other minor repairs. You'd be proud of me Mom ;) I even sewed my shirt pocket when it ripped (that took forever... ugh ha ha). Anyway, I just thought I'd check - do you know of any specials they have coming up, or any discount coupons you can print out online or anything?

Elder Johnson is doing great, he is the man! He is so funny; this transfer is going to be a blast. He is super excited about the work too. One thing I have already come to love about him is his desire to work out! We get up at 6 each morning and he is always just pumped to get ripped. And it is working (for him lol). I think I might have mentioned it last week, but he gave me a little electronic picture frame thing that can hold a memory card in it. I would love if you guys could load a bunch of pics that you have of you guys that you think would be good and maybe send a memory card for it? Then I could have it playing on my new electronic picture frame thing =]

So right now we are just working on getting things rolling in this area; there is so much potential here! We didn't have any investigators when we arrived, so we are finding a lot right now. We have one solid lady we are going to meet with this week named M. M walked into church on her own two weeks ago, and was back again this past Sunday! She is Brazilian and really nice. The B family are fellowshipping her, and their recently RM son T has another friend he has been bringing to church and fellowshipping. Plus there are many other members working with people around them. It is so exciting to see a little bit of the potential that missionary work has in the church, once we get all of the members on board. It is SO much more effective to have members refer their friends than to just knock doors all day. Not to mention that I like teaching a lot more than finding =]

I went to my first ZLC (Zone Leader Council) this week, and it was awesome! Super inspirational. It's neat to see how the mission is doing as a whole, and the different mission trends. That is one thing I am enjoying a lot. It is also really nice to kind of share the load as a zone leader. Don't get me wrong, I loved being a district leader, but a lot of times it felt like you were just on your own. The Zone Leaders were there to help and support of course, but essentially you are the one responsible for your district. Now there are 2 of us responsible for the zone, so it spreads the load a little more.

I am loving learning more about the gospel each day. I love feeling the Spirit and being taught from on high. The Lord is so good to me, and to all of us; we just need to recognize it. I love a quote that I read in the Ensign for this month - "Bloom where you're planted." We can't choose our circumstances, but we can choose how we react! We are agents, not objects. I love the gospel, and I love each of you. Mom, Dad, Mindy, Allie, Nate, and Seth - you are all in my prayers each and every day! I hope you are doing well. Sorry things have been so crazy and I haven't been able to hand-write letters for quite a while. I hope the emails will suffice for the droughts of letters in between the times I do well. And the tapes =] I'm still not quite done yet, but I'm planning on taping a little bit today. We are also going to play some basketball with our zone, so I am excited to get to know them better. I knew a couple of the missionaries here, but mostly it has been just getting to know new people (which is great :). Have a great week, I love you all!

-Elder Andrew John Beckett

p.s. Aaah, ha ha apparently my year mark is this week. Yikes.

p.p.s. Tell Elder Brown he is the man for me! And let me know how that goes =] WAIT isn't your trip this coming week to Yellowstone? Schnikes! Have a blast and be so safe! I love you guys!

Hey O-South, here I come!

Hey fam! Sorry I didn't get the chance to email until now with Memorial Day and transfers. I have been transferred. I am now in the Windermere Ward, right by the temple! My new companion is Elder Kress Johnson from Fillmore, UT. He graduated in '09 but looks like a full-grown man ha ha. He is huge. He played football and wrestled in highschool, and has 2 older twin brothers that also served missions. His dad is a county foreman and his mom is a dental assistant. He knows G. G. and some of the other people I met from there in FFA. What a small world ha ha. Anyway, we are whitewashing the area, and are the zone leaders over the Orlando South zone. It is one of the biggest zones in the mission; we have about 13 or so companionships in our stewardship. I am very excited to be here and serve, and have so much to learn!

Our new apartment is really nice. Sister missionaries used to be in this area before us, and so the apartment was super clean and smelled great. Thank you Sisters. It is a really nice apartment, like the one in Daytona Beach was. The apartment complex is called Independence Luxery Apartments or something like that. My new direct address is this:

Elder Andrew John Beckett

6902 Pasturelands Plaza #8211

Winter Garden, FL 34787

There is a nice gym here, we each have our own bathrooms, and the ward from what we can tell already is just awesome. Tons of people that work for Disney live in our ward, and apparently it is one of the most missionary-minded wards in the mission. This area is also a lot more affluent than anywhere else I've been; you should see some of the houses here! I'll have to take some pics sometime.

This last week we had leadership training, and it was great! I got to see Elder McClatchy there and we snapped some pics. I love James :) Ha ha, I kept calling him that on accident, but I think I finally got down "Elder McClatchy."

Wow, it sure was tough to leave behind Daytona Beach! There were so many wonderful people there. I'm really going to miss B and Grandpa a lot! B had heart surgery on Thursday and it went well - he was back home that evening. Now he can be baptized in a little bit! I'm "not gonna lie.." I felt very loved and missed by B and Grandpa as I was leaving. B kept mentioning how disappointed he was and was wondering why "M" (Elder M is the Assistant - he served in Daytona Beach a few months back) let me get transferred. We told B not to worry, that the next Elder coming in is really awesome, and B just looked at me and said, "Nobody can replace you." It was one of those rewarding moments where the Lord let me see that I was making a difference! That I had helped someone to feel the Spirit and find truth in their life. Even though I didn't get to see him baptized while I am there, that's ok. The change of heart is more important than just seeing him baptized. :)

Dad, you asked about printing emails off, and now I don't think I can (due to being transferred to a new area.. we email differently). That's great if you type something up and just mail it during the week; that way I can read them during lunch or breakfast or if I have an extra minute. I am really learning to keep better track of my time, and focus/concentrate on the task at hand. I think we all waste so much time without even realizing it! It takes very little effort to kind of just mope around, but when we work hard and focus and do our very best to be effective, we can accomplish a lot.

Well, my time is about up, but I love you all so much! I'm still working on a tape for you that I will send off as soon as I'm finished. I hope you have a great week, and I'm keeping you constantly in my prayers. Elder Brown is on a plane back to Utah right now. CRAZY! Ha ha love ya!

-Elder Beckett