Craziness, Service, and Little Miracles

Hey familia!

Wow. First of all, good news! I am staying in Lake Reams at least one more transfer! The bad news is that... Elder Jensen is gone :( However, Elder Mullen will be coming, who is great! I love Elder Mullen and will be excited to work with him. I am so thankful for the time that I have had to serve with Elder Jensen. He will be one of my best friends for life! I have learned so much from him.

This has been a great week. We were able to teach M finally and set a baptismal date with him for Dec 4! We are excited for that. Unfortunately he wasn't able to go to church yesterday because he had to go to Miami for his work at the last second. However, his family is prepared to receive the restored gospel and so they will be good to go here pretty quick =] We had the opportunity to do some service for them the other week; just small stuff like change the smoke detector batteries, some light bulbs, and put in a lock on his door. It was a lot of fun, but at the same time built up a lot of trust! Serving others is one of my favorite parts of missionary work, and it is one of the best ways to actually show your investigators your love for them.

Unfortunately we haven't been able to get in contact with G :( We have been praying and fasting for her. She is a great lady, but we aren't quite sure what exactly her concerns are right now. We can't really help her with that unless we are at least able to meet with her. We aren't giving up just yet though :)

Saturday we had the opportunity to participate in a service project at the Buena Vista Palace Hotel with the Prader-Willi foundation. It was so much fun, and one of the best experiences ever! We got to help a bunch of people with this syndrome go through different activities and arts & crafts, obstacle courses, etc., while their families attended a conference. It was so fun to be able to cheer them on and help them just have the time of their lives! I really learned a lot more about just how much Heavenly Father loves each one of His children. You could feel it so much as we got to interact and help each of them through the different courses. I got to help out with the obstacle course, and there were a bunch of fun little things to go through like the "temple of doom" (a decorated little tunnel with fake snakes, ballons, etc.), the limbo, and some other things. A bunch of missionaries got to help out and it was a blast.

Yesterday I was feeling down because We had tons of our investigators bail on us for coming to church, we had some appointments fall through, and it was just a bummer. That night we were out doing some finding, and it seemed like nothing was going. Well, we stopped in the middle of the street and decided to have a prayer. We finished and went and talked to a lady we saw walking into her house. She ran in, slammed the door, locked it, and turned off her front porch light. Not quite prepared yet.

So, we went and talked to the next person we saw just a couple houses down who was walking in her house. It's kind of weird contacting people now that it's dark around 6 or 6:30, but that's why the Spirit is so important. We went up and talked to her and found out she had met with missionaries in the past. She was really nice (her name is M), but let us know that she wasn't interested in our message and her family had a church. Well, she was kind of going to leave to go inside, and then she offered us a drink. Normally I'm just like, "No thanks, I'm doing fine." or something like that (unless I'm dying of thirst ha ha..), but this time I felt (aka the Spirit told me) to say yes. I did and she invited us in and let us sit on her couch for a bit. Long story short we ended up talking to her and her husband for 45 mins or so about Heavenly Father & Jesus Christ, and their past experiences with the church. We were able to find out why they stopped investigating, and get a feel for where they are at now. And, best part, we are going back this Saturday to help them with some service =] Isn't the Lord great? I really have a testimony that if we seek to listen to the Spirit in our lives we will be able to hear those promptings better.

I love you all, and am so thankful for your prayers, examples, testimonies, and love! The gospel is true. I know it =)

I hope you enjoy the pics, I'll send you more soon! Love you tons!

love, Elder Andrew John Beckett

p.s. Dad & Mindy you should have letters coming this week (assuming I get it finished today... :P I should ;)

Who'da thunk?

Heyyy! Life is soooo good here in the land of Florida =] Thanks so much for the package! I got it =] It was great, and we are enjoying the treats. Thanks for the jacket too; I will be using that when it gets a little colder. Hey, random note, if you've asked me questions about something and I haven't replied, I am really sorry. I can never remember them when I email. I'll try to remember better.

This week I got to go on exchanges with Elder McClatchy! It was a blast. It was sooo weird/fun/uplifting. We were talking about it and I was just amazed. Who would've thought that we would be together in Florida as missionaries? Only the Lord knew =] We had a lot of fun, worked until we were exhausted, and ended it off with some delicious mango smoothie. I love him a ton and he is doing great!

This past week we had a meal appointment with Bro. A H. It didn't go through. I recorded the story on the next tape I'm sending. It's really funny.

We had a service project with the A family; they are so awesome. They have 3 little boys. The 2 oldest, L & C are the cutest little kids... they are like our biggest fans ha ha. Whenever they see us they are like, "It's the missio-marries!" "Hey missio-mary! Look at me!" and they always are talking to us and it's just fun ha ha. I love them. I have been learning that service is a great way to help our investigators gain trust with us. And members too. I love service.

Man, I'm really having a hard time concentrating because it is really loud where we are at, and I'm kind of pressed for time because the computers weren't working. Our area has been all crazy lately - our normal emailing spot is under construction so we can't go there. They shut our gas station down. How sad. We have to drive like 10 miles to get to a gas station.

The other morning I was really pondering about before the mission and how I could've done a lot more to help people come back into the gospel, be strengthened, and especially just learn about it in the first place. I have some repenting to do when I get back. I thought up 16 people/families specifically that I want to start working with/help out. I'm keeping a list the rest of my mission so that when the Spirit tells me someone I can remember! I know that if we pray for the Lord to help us identify people who need the gospel then he will help us. Basically you can ask yourself, "Who do I know that is not a member of the church? Who is less-active?" And then from all the people you can think of you write them down. And then I suppose I'll select a few prayerfully to start with :)

We are still really struggling to get things going here :/ We are really focusing on helping the members become missionaries. Even though we can't see the immediate results now, that's the direction that we have been told to go in the mission. It will help things most in the long run. One way we have been trained to do that is through role-play. That is the big thing in the FOM right now, role-playing with members. Every appointment, dinner, whatever we practice with the members to help them know how to give out a pass-a-long card, a BOM, or invite to FHE/dinner. It's a lot of fun even though sometimes it's weird. The members here are great! Bishop Heninger is on fire and ready to go, same with his son Jake who helps us a lot. There are lots of great missionaries.

G didn't come to church this week :( Please continue to keep her in your prayers. We haven't been able to contact her a ton lately. She said she didn't like church because it was very irreverent with all the kids and going in and out of the meeting, etc. That made me really sad. But, we really feel like her concern is deeper than that. We will keep working with her.

J is an investigator we have (wife C, sons A & A) and he and his 2 sons have been coming to church this and last week. They are coming along slowly :) It's weird, I think he secretly knows this will bless his family but it's like he's afraid to show it.

I love you all so much! Thanks for being the best. Ever! Transfers are next week, so I'll let you know if I'm gone or not. It's interesting... (Wow, now this is interesting! The family history guy just had an N*SYNC song start playing really loud ha ha. How funny) but what I was saying is that the work is the same, wherever you are. Now it's more a matter of each day just giving my all to God and if I do than I'm happy. If not, then I repent and do better the next day. I know the church is true and that Jesus Christ lives! Love ya!

-Elder Beckett

p.s. WELCOME HOME JUSTIN! =]

Life's so good =]

Hey family! Hope you had a great week. I did here, we have been so very blessed. I'm short on time today, so sorry if it's not too detailed :P This week we had zone conference with Elder Larry W. Gibbons of the Seventy. It was such a great experience, and we all received tons of revelation on what we need to work on in the mission! We are going to be doing a lot more effective member-work and really focus more on establishing the church through real growth, rather than just helping people be baptized and that's it. We are going to focus more in depth on the doctrines of repentance, and enduring to the end. I learned so much from Elder Gibbons; it was great. Plus Elder Jensen & I in the role-play part of the conference got to practice teaching with him and his wife! It was pretty intimidating at first, but then we just decided to go for it, have fun, and learn as much as we could from him. It turned out wonderful.

I'll have to write more next week, but love you all! ANd yes mom, I did get letters from the primary a while back from Sis. Johnson.. I haven't written back or anything but please tell them thanks a bunch! I'm still way behind on letterse and all but I'm working on it. We never have time on P-days to do much anymore... but that's alright, I'm out here to work :) Love ya!

-Elder Beckett

Keep on Keepin' on!

Heyyy! Welcome home Skylar! That is super weird to think about... and Justin gets home soon too, right? How time flies. Hey Mom, no worries about the return-letter thing lol. I was kind of wondering but it all makes sense now ;) You guys are way nice to write me at all! I am blessed with the best family ever!

Sounds like you had an awesome time in Fruita! And way to be missionaries! =] That is so awesome. I'm excited to hear what comes of the French couple. That's awesome you're going to send them a BOM. Are you going to get a French one from the Distribution Center? I love that place.

This week was stake conference, and it was amazing! There were so many great talks given. Pres. & Sis. Hall spoke as well and did incredible. He is going to be a general authority someday... you can just feel the power as he speaks! It's like his voice shakes the room almost :) Pres. Hall is such an inspired man. So here is the miracle of the week... (well, it entails a couple of miracles actually :) G came! This is G who has a son on the HS basketball team that likes Jimmer Fredette. She's awesome. We had a great lesson with her earlier this week, and the Spirit did the teaching :) We have been trying to help her understand the importance of and commit to reading the BOM and coming to church for a few lessons (she hadn't been doing it). Well, Elder Jensen & I really focused on getting out of the way of the Spirit and letting Him do the teaching this time, and it was great. Things just clicked for her and she understood. Teaching is much more than talking or telling; I learn that again and again everyday. The Holy Ghost can communicate in a moment what we may try to get across to someone for days without accomplishing it. It's a miracle.

So, Sunday morning comes and we call G to confirm that she will be coming to stake conference. She answers and says she doesn't feel well at all. Noo! :( We were way bummed. We expressed our disappointment, and wished her well. 30 mins before church starts we get a phone call and she says she's on her way! Yeah! The Lord hears and answers our prayers! And your prayers :) Thank you so much. Anyway, turns out that she felt bad and knew that she really needed to be there, so she got up and came. I love those little nudges from the Spirit! She loved it, received great fellowship from the ward, and is coming back next week. She has a baptismal date for Nov. 19th.

Hope you know I'm super happy and loving life =] Even though things get hard, it teaches me to just try to find ways to be better. I am so thankful to be here! The Lord is so good and merciful to us, and the work is going forth here. We have been blessed with some amazing people to work with! I love you all, have a great week!

love,

Elder Beckett

p.s. You'll have to send me some pics or get the attachment to work for some recent pics of you guys! I'd love that :P Take care!

The Lord Brings Us Low so He Can Lift Us Higher (eventually.. ha ha)

Good news, I'm sending you a package today with some mail, books, a cd that is awesome (I kept a copy with me), and a tape... sorry it took so long. Anyway, hope you enjoy it! Great news, I got to meet an Apostle of the Lord this week! Elder Neil L. Anderson came and spoke to us. It was amazing, and the Spirit was definitely there! I love him so much, he is very personable and his happiness is contagious. The Brethren just amaze me. He talked to us a good bit about the media and the whole "Mormons are a cult" thing, how to react to it, etc. He also spoke to us about recognizing the Holy Spirit, and then the Atonement. It was very powerful. He told us that in our lifetime (he kinda just slipped in this prophecy casual, but nonetheless I took it as prophecy :) we would see in our country that it would be quite less common to be Christian than we are now. Those weren't his direct words, but that was the jist of it. I found that interesting... Elder Jensen and I were talking about that, and we both felt like when we first got out here the main "competition" the Church had was maybe the Baptists, or the Jehovah's Witnesses. But for some reason I kind of think it's going to be Islam in the final days.. it seems like that is becoming more and more prevalent and Satan is doing all he can to convince people that Jesus Christ was just a normal man. A good man, yes, but just a normal man. I loved how Pres. Callister touched on that in his talk, quoting C.S. Lewis. There is no middle ground; either He was and is the very Son of God, or He was completely opposite of what He claimed to be. He didn't leave any room for doubt or middle ground; He didn't intend to. I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior and Redeemer of the world. I know that He lives. He guides this church through living prophets and apostles, and this really is His work. My testimony has been strengthened of that so much these past few weeks.

Things have been pretty rough here. Elder Jensen at the start of this transfer (2 weeks ago) set some goals. A couple of those goals were that we would be more humble, and that we would learn to submit to the Lord's will and timing. Well, we are certainly learning a lot. Lemme tell ya. This has probably been one of the lowest weeks of my mission, when it comes to the numbers. It has been HARD. Yet we have been working harder than ever before, praying more, being exactly obedient, etc. I feel happier, my faith has grown more, and my testimony is more sure than ever before - despite the number results. We aren't quite sure why things are going the way they are. Nobody is keeping their appointments, the investigators we had all won't talk to us anymore, we are having the hardest time finding those who will listen.... yada yada yada. I feel extremely humbled and almost unsure what's going on... aren't the zone leaders supposed to be an example?? I don't know. But, I'll tell you what I am feeling. I am feeling hope. I know that even though things may look bad, everything is in the Lord's hands. I feel peace because I know that. I know that this is the Savior's work, and even though we can't always see the desired outward results we'd like to, we don't necessarily know what is going on inside of people. No effort is wasted. The Lord loves the people in the Lake Reams area, and is sending his Spirit and angels down to minister to them and prepare the hearts of many people to accept His gospel as the time of His coming draws near. Read Alma 13:24. We may or may not ever know the results of our work in this lifetime, but regardless of that I have a love for my Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. I will give it my best all day everyday. Even if that includes being rejected, ridiculed, and reviled. I will happily go about the Lord's work because I am thankful to be a full time representative of Jesus Christ. It is a privilege, more than I ever could have thought so. I will forever be indebted to the Lord for the many, many blessings and miracles He has shown me in my life. I love Him, and I love His children! It does make me sad when they reject the truth, especially when I know that they feel the witness of the Holy Ghost. But, that is part of Father in Heaven's plan for all of us - to have the ability to choose for ourselves.

Thank you for your examples, for being a great strength to me in my times of need! I love you all so much. Hope you have a great week!

love,

Elder Andrew Beckett

p.s. Do the Popes know a Sister Brittany McClain from the Oakley Stake? She is a missionary here. Also Sis. Barlow from the Rupert W stake?

p.p.p.s. Happy birthdays Grandma & Grandpa!

Rain rain rain... and some nice weather too =]

Hello! ;)

How has everyone been doing? Sounds like Mindy has been meeting some cute boys. Hmm, not quite sure how I feel about that Sis :P Ha ha just teasin, but you do mention to me "cute boys" a lot in your emails. Just keep them at a distance, you know? That's exciting you got to go eat with Jelly man Kelly & fam though! Sounds fun.

So you're going to Capitol Reef! How fun! Have a very enjoyable, safe trip and know that I miss and love you. That's awesome you got to go to Brian & Karmen's too. Send everyone my love :)

This week it rained for like 2 days straight! It was pretty crazy and everything was soaking (including us). We would just run around with our umbrellas everywhere. I feel really bad for the Elders who didn't have a car, they must have been extra soaked. There were also some really beautiful days where it was nice and cool and the weather was just perfect!

Lately we have been struggling soooo much with finding. Ugh. It feels like we are running out of ways to find here. We are praying for miracles though, and really trying to figure out what the Lord wants us to do. We are having a hard time getting anyone to progress. Like I mentioned last week though, we do have this awesome family, M & L, who are looking fairly positive. They were going to come to church this past week, but then they weren't able to make it unfortunately. Please keep praying for them, that miracles will happen in their family.

We had so many meetings this past week, it was crazy! We had a training we gave to some members on how to teach by the Spirit, and that went well. Then the next morning we had ZLC which was awesome. Those are always just a big Spirit fest. It's great to see where the mission is going. Just to let you know how awesome Elder McClatchy is, I'm gonna brag about him :) We were in ZLC talking about different areas in the mission and how they have been performing, and Pres. brought up that E. McClatchy's area has just been doing awesome. He was like, "We all just need to get a little McClatchy in us." HA ha yeah! It was awesome. He told us he's going to have him speak at zone conference so he can tell everyone how to do the Lord's work :P I'm all for that! It's so fun to be able to talk to him each night during call-ins; he really is such an awesome missionary and I'm really excited to learn from him this coming transfer.

Well, what can I say, I'm loving the work! There is no time to think, it's just constantly go and do. Sometimes it feels like you're pushing insanity, but the Spirit definitely "renews" our bodies and helps us give more than we thought we could. It's awesome to be a part of it. I love my family soooo much, you are in my prayers and thoughts every single day (not in a homesick, dwelling on it way; just an I love you more than anything way). Keep living the gospel as you do =] I love you!

love, Elder Andrew Beckett

p.s. This Sat we get to have a mission conference with Elder Neil A. Andersen, and Elder Burns! Woot! I am so so so excited. I'll let you know how it goes this coming week ;) Keep smiling!

p.p.s. Also Dad, I know you mentioned you might have an extra jacket? Well I've been looking around and haven't been able to find mine that I brought. I have no idea where it went if it's gone. I'm still looking, but did you say something about having an extra jacket? Just curious; if this winter is like last winter's, then I will need it. Or I can just get one here... it makes no difference to me, but please just let me know! And, there are members in the ward that go back and forth to UT frequently, and they offered to meet up and bring something or take it there if needed. Just let me know :) LUV YA!

Hey ya'll! Life is good. I loved General Conference so much! Wow, that was awesome. Darn, I left my notes at the apartment, but some of my favorites were Pres. Eyring, Pres. Uchtdorf, Elder Holland (Priesthood session... dang. I'm sure you've heard about it by now...), Elder Callister, And some of the others that I can't remember the names. Sister Dalton's was way good too! I learned a lot about later on in life stuff ;) I think my favorite session overall was probably Sunday Morning. I just sat there and was overcome with the Spirit, especially when the choir sang "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" and "I Believe in Christ." That was powerful. By the way you said Uncle Jim was in the priesthood choir right? Man oh man was I looking hard for him, but I didn't see him :( I was even praying that I'd be able to find him! But I must have missed him :( Who knows, maybe the Lord had a reason for it... maybe I would've gotten too homesick or something ha ha. Maybe the Lord has a rule about seeing only one uncle while on your mission... :P

Transfers are tomorrow, and I am staying one more here (at least)! Hopefully more ha ha, but I really love it here with Elder Jensen. We have been having a blast. I am really thankful to be able to spend another transfer with him. We still have a lot to learn from one another. Hey Mom/Mindy/Allie/whoever may get on - would you please check on facebook for J or T or any people who may have added me from here? I told Jake to get on and add me so we can keep in touch after the mission. He's hilarious ha ha. B is too, I wish I would've had him add me before he left for school but it's all good, I'll get a hold of him eventually :)

This week has been fun, we got to go on 2 exchanges. On Tuesday I was with Elder Charbadze from Russia, and on Wednesday I went with Elder White from South Jordan, UT. They are great missionaries.

OH hey, guess what... Elder McClatchy is now in my zone! YEAH! He will be district leader in the Winter Garden area! Oh man, I'm so excited. That is just what that area and district needs! He is such a stud, and I am so excited to go on exchanges with him! Good times are ahead =] Good times are now though too of course :) Life is just good all around.

The work right now has been kind of slow. We were out and about working like CRAZY to get as many people to general conference as we could, but we only had one investigator show up :( It was so sad. The talks were perfect for what some of these people are going through too; they would have been so blessed. I decided though that if we can't get them to general conference, then we will just have to bring general conference to them. Thank goodness for the internet and the conference dvds. I think I may buy them, we'll see.

Anyway, it seems like everyone we have has just been bailing out, not keeping commitments, and won't progress. :/ We are really working hard and praying that things will go up; this week we kind of hit an all-time low. Please pray that we can find the truly elect. The good news is that the Lord has blessed us to find some really positive-looking people lately, so I'm excited for that.

I'm glad to hear that you get to go to Grandpa & Grandma's today to see them and help them out! Send them my love :) By the way, the weather here is soooo nice. This weekend there was a cold front that came in and it has been perfect! I'm loving it. Life is good.

Mindy, glad to hear that you're rockin' school again! Keep it up. I am so sorry you are still sick :( I will pray for you even more than I usually do ;) Aaaaand by the way.... oh man, how embarrassing that you guys watched that movie! Ha ha that's alright. I want to see it when I get back. Or do I? Hmmm I suppose it'll be a good laugh if nothing else ;) I remember Goo nailed it though so it's all good!

Well, hope everyone else is doing good. I love you all so much. Please keep me posted on all the news of the land... :P

love,

Elder Andrew Beckett