Miracles!! A little divine intervention...

Church, us and Sister Phillips (the sweetest woman ever!)

There were some pretty neat miracles this week. One time the Lord made our phone quit working for a couple hours, which was pretty annoying, but then it turned out that that needed to happen for our miracle. (Silly missionaries, don't you know that when inconvenient things happen it's because Heavenly Father wants something important to happen?) We hadn't been able see our investigator for several days, we really needed to see her because it had been so long since we'd taught her, we were having to push her baptism a couple weeks (her original date was going to be last Saturday 😕) so she could prepare. This is a really busy woman. She'd missed her appointment, we'd just had dinner, and we had to decide to go see her or go to Book of Mormon class where we just might be needed to interpret for class and our dumb phone didn't have any service to see if we were needed. So we decided to just go see her instead and be late for Book of Mormon class. We were also really on edge about the lesson plan we had because we had to tell her she couldn't be baptized in a few days. So we prayed really hard and asked for a stupor of things wouldn't come out right, and we decided to read Moroni 6 with her. I just love that chapter, it is so good! So we went in and read it and talked about what it outlines for a person to do to get baptized, and then we talked about how that applies to things she needs to do, what we have to help her do... all the things we as missionaries do, and then we talked about haw she will need a little more time to get everything done so she will be prepared for baptism. It was beautiful, and she is amazing because when we said we wouldn't be able to have that happen on the original date she said "okay, when's the next date I can be baptized on?" This woman is amazing!!!! I love her and her family! Then we left that beautiful lesson and went to Book of. Mormon class for that last fifteen minutes, and as we come in, there are two deaf members there and they totally waited for us so that we could interpret for them. They'd even calling and texting us, and we'd gotten none of it because Heavenly Father wanted us somewhere else, and when we got there our phone started working again. That was really fun.

Another time this week we were walking to an investigator's house in an apartment complex and we saw his lady and said hi, but we kept walking and then she called us back over and asked for a pamphlet or something if we were giving things out. So we had a really good conversation with her, she's neat, I hope we are able to see her again soon.

This whole week was full of things like that. We've had so many wonderful things happen. This place is the best. And this week we are having ASL exchanges, so I'm going to Southaven for a couple, days with Sister Vaitai!!! I'm super excited! Plus I'm excited to learn from Sister Vaitai. It's just so amazing here, I get a front row seat to he miracles of the gospel in people's lives. It's wonderful.

Love y'all!
Kimber
Sister Beckstrand

We have fun skyping with the other sisters for language Study.

From Sis Brummett's email, including a story that Kimberly left out...

There were a lot of miracles this week!!!!

ROBERT IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!! (He is the deaf man we are teaching over skype.) He is so fantastic and I love him so much!!!! During our lesson with him this week, we talked about the Lord's plan for us; that we lived with Heavenly Father before we came here (Romans 8:16-17) and we want to be able to live with Him again after we die. (Moroni 7:41) We told Robert that we need to be baptized by proper authority so that we will be able to get back home. We asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said "yes! I want my sins to be removed!" After the lesson, he said the cutest prayer which went something like this: "Oh God, I want to be baptized so my sins can be removed. Thank you." I LOVE THIS HUMBLE MAN!!!!

We are going to be teaching the lessons to an adorable part-member family!!! The daughter, Amarie, is 10 and she loves the Lord with all her heart! As we were leaving, she walked up to us and said "Do you know what else I love about Jesus? He died for me. It was hard but it was worth it." I said, "because you're worth it, Amarie." I love how much the Savior loves us and he truly suffered that much for us because we are worth it; each and every one of us.

We were walking around an apartment complex when we heard someone say "this might be an awkward question, but do you have a pamphlet or something?" Her name is Aris and she is adorable! We did indeed give her a pamphlet along with the whole "Mormon starter pack" haha. (Card, pamphlet, Book of Mormon...) We hope to visit her again this week!

Waiting for the Sisters to get on Skype for language Study,
bags that Sister Breaux made for us, and SisB and I being goons!!

Some fun in the rain!

Sister B and I are making some cool wall art! We are almost done!

What a week

Wow. This week was so good! And not the best. What a missionary life we live 😍

Last week after we emailed we went to see what the elders were doing (they had walked through with a heavy looking cooler, a couple bags of potatoes, and lava lavas on. We were curious. Apparently President Wakolo wanted to put on a Fijian type luau for the local bishop and stake president of the ward he's been in for the last three years. So they were preparing for that. And President was there. So we said hi, then went off to get our grocery shopping done, then we had to come back for the wifi to finish stuff before we went home. They were still getting the luau set up. And then President asked if we were still working. We said, "No? We just emailed." (In my head I'm thinking, it's p-day right? We just emailed, I hope it really is Monday.) Then he asked why we were still dressed up. We just never thought to change, then he asked us to come over and get a piece of pizza. It was weird, but we had fun. 

Then President called us on Wednesday and invited us to attend the Missionary Leadership Council (MLC) because he was impressed that we were able to take this hard area and be so successful here. So that was cool, thanks President. Then we spent the next day trying to figure out what we did. 

MLC was amazing. I learned so much. I'm so glad I got to go. And Sister Brumett is so lucky to have that experience so early in her mission. Sister Wakolo talked about success and shared a cool scripture we keep thinking about, Alma 26:27, "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success."

That wasn't the only good thing there, but that was just the beginning. It was so sad though when President was instructing and someone asked a question about how to prepare for the changes that will be coming with the new mission president, he said that the moment President Hansen steps into the airport, President Wakolo's keys are gone. He said "We become Old Testament" and he had tears in his eyes as he said that. We will be so sad to see him go, he and Sister Wakolo are amazing And wonderful, but we must let them go and embrace President and Sister Hansen, and they will be amazing. Anyway, President's new assignment puts him over the mission again, but in Salt Lake instead, and then other missions are added. 

I am so grateful for the opportunity to have starved ("started" or"served" can't tell which she meant) with President Wakolo. He is an amazing spiritual man, and I will always be grateful for his leadership here. We will miss him. And I am so excited to see what comes with President and Sister Hansen. 

Mother's Day meatballs, 😭 I'm so sad, I'll probably miss them, but they are so good, maybe I'll ask him to reschedule?? Who knows. 😄

Friday was really hard at first, we were getting turned down hard by everyone we talked to, and we were feeling kinda down. When we were driving to our next appointment Sister Brumett saw a lady on working in her yard, and the Spirit told her to stop. So we pulled over and went to talk to her. The first thing we see is her really inappropriate t-shirt, and we knew that she was ready for the gospel (mostly Sister Brumett knew, she's amazing). We had a beautiful lesson with her, and she is so ready for the gospel. We were even able to go into her home and bless it, and we are going to go back soon. She is an amazing lady!

We had a million dinners with the members this week this week. Ok, not a million, but pretty much every night this week. We had dinner twice at the ward mission leader's house two days in a row, the first day was not planned, and he had his youngest son talk to us on the phone and invite us. It was so cute!!! Also, we were able to tell him what the white handbook says about his job and he loved it, he's making a few changes because of that. I love the white handbook! It is so inspired!

There is this amazing deaf guy that the sisters in Searcy found, and we had our first Skype lesson with him on Saturday! He is amazing! So prepared for the gospel!!! He has beautiful questions! He asked why Jesus was so important. We said that he made it possible for us to go back to heaven to be with Heavenly Father again. And at the end of the lesson he opened his Book of Mormon and asked us that "HATH" meant, so we told him. He has many such random and perfect questions. This man is amazing!! We are so excited to continue working with him!

So we've started praying for the Lord to send us a particular elect person everyday, and as we pray about it we ask for them to have something to identify them, remember the person with yellow shoes? That kind of thing. And we promise the Lord we will talk to them and not leave until we give them something. Yesterday's identifying feature was: Leopard print pants. Well, that turned out to be an adventure. Again as we were driving to an appointment we saw this group of people out in their yard, they were a bunch of young people partying, a worldly kind of party 😕. We looked as we drove by and just as we knew but feared, the person with the leopard print pants was at the party. So we pulled over and got out to talk to her. It was a crazy experience and if I didn't have Sister Brumett walking right beside me I never would have gotten out of the car. We went and talked to the lady, and got hit on by a drunk man, and yelled at by another two drunk guys, then we felt like we needed to go, so we got the name of the lady with the leopard print pants and left her with a card and walked away. The Lord sometimes gives us hard things to do, but it always works out when we try our best. And we are perfectly safe. That was fun. I can do hard things. 

I love it here, I love the reality of the gospel and how I've come to know it better  is than ever before, and I am so gregarious for all I've learned. I love Arkansas! This place is wonderful. The people are the best. 

Also, the Watermelon here is amazing. 

Love y'all! 

Kimber

Sister Beckstrand

The most glorious of all subjects belonging to the everlasting gospel

This was an interesting walk week. We had so many people coming out with us. We had a lot of really good lessons. And the wife of the man who got baptized this week is super excited for her baptism on the third. Since Sister Brumett sang at his baptism they said that they were talking and they wanted me to sing with Sister Brumett at hers. So now we have to prepare a song for that. Lots of fun. Also this week we were walking down a road and Sister Brumett saw these two guys (Sis Brummett discribed them as big, a little scary looking, and a little drunk) and said that we should talk about family history with them. So we went up and started talking to them about coming to do family history and finding out who their family is. We pretty much never feel prompted to start with family history, but it totally got them excited to do it, and the are planning to come to the family history center this week. It's so exciting!

Not much happened this week. We were really busy, but there are no big exciting stories.

But, this week I was reading scriptures about family history, and I fount this really cool scripture: D&C 128:17-18 (16-18), "... This most glorious of all subjects belonging to the everlasting gospel, namely, the baptism for the dead... It is sufficient to know, in this case, that the earth will be smitten with a curse unless there is a welding link of some kind or other between the fathers and the children, upon some subject or other--and behold what is that subject? It is the baptism for the dead. ...for it is necessary in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fullness of times, which dispensation is now beginning to usher in, that a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place, and be revealed from the days of Adam even to the present time." (emphasis added) This is so beautiful because out of this whole glorious and beautiful plan that the Father showed us, this (the underlined portions) is His favorite part, because it is the most merciful part! And this makes the loss of plain and precious truths from the gospel (1 Nephi 13:24-29) even more sad because Satan took Heavenly Father's favorite part and threw it away. It is so sad, but how happy He must have been for that to be restored to the earth! I love that, "the most glorious of all subjects belonging to the everlasting gospel, namely, the baptism for the dead" and to think that children as young as 12 get to help out with His favorite part. I can just see it: the pre-earth life, all of Heavenly Father's spirit children standing all around Him as He introduces this wonderful plan that He is so proud and excited to share with us, and after He explains it all to us He says, "But this is my favorite part, this plan is amazing, but that right there is my favorite part of it all."

I think that is beautiful, and it gives another special meaning to the opportunity to be able to go to the temple and participate in Heavenly Father's favorite part of His plan.

There were many beautiful moments this week, and I have had such a fun time living it. I am so blessed to see the incredible power of the gospel completely change the life of not only an individual, but of an entire family. The gospel has the amazing power to take a family that has been torn and shattered by the world and heal it completely. All the pain and anger and frustration gone. The power of the gospel is real. And I love it!

Love y'all!

Kimber

Sister Beckstrand

This is a beautiful flower we found this week, it's amazing!

And some beautiful fluffy Arkansas clouds

 

Mom post addition:

I got the most beautiful letter from Sister Brummett in the mailbox last week - talking about how wonderful my daughter was, how similar they are, including similar family situations, etc. Even down to the family jokes, "You're my favorite Kimberly" and - Kimberly's dad's favorite - "Dads that tell good Dad jokes, not dumb ones!" She even honored me by comparing me to the mothers of the armies of Helaman  - wow, that's a tribute! I asked Kimberly to pass on a message of thanks to her for me, and she even sent me her email home as well, thus filling me in on another viewpoint of their week. Back and forth, we agreed that "we're going to keep you forever" too. We like that plan a lot. :)

Final Skype as a Missionary - Mothers' Day 2017

We got our 45 minute Mothers' Day Skype session with our missionary yesterday - it was AWESOME! She has matured so very much, and is so very happy. It was beautiful to see, and lovely to talk together. And to think, we'll be together in 2 1/2 months!

And I got the most beautiful Mothers' Day card from her in the mail the day before, and it includes a "bouquet of Arkansas flowers" - real dried flowers attached artistically to the lovely card! That took some planning too!

Then will I make weak things become strong

Ok, wow! This week went by so fast! I can't believe it's over already. And that's the end of this last transfer. And I survived! This will be my third transfer here in the Otter Creek area, which is good because I just love the people here! We have made so much progress this week with our investigators. We did drop many, but Sister Brumett figured out a good analogy about raspberries that made it a good thing to drop people. We simply cannot focus on those who aren't ready yet, and just like with unripe raspberries, if you pull too hard you break them off and they can no longer grow. It is such a relief to not be spread so thin with all the people we are trying to teach. But we worked hard this week, and we made a lot of progress in ourselves, and our investigators made a lot of progress. It was great! And we have a man who is so prepared for his baptism this week. We are so happy we got to stay for that! It's funny because the weeks like we feel like we did the worst we actually did the best. This is such a thing that Heavenly Father does, the closer you get to Him the weaker and more sinful you feel,  up then it is a beautiful thing to feel that, Ether 12:27 talks about how the Lord gives men weakness so we can be humble, and then with Him weak things can be made strong. We just have to let him. Seriously this week is a perfect example of that. I am so imperfect, and I have a lot to work on, but I am happier than ever! There was one lesson we had this week with a wonderful woman who I love so much, but we could see no progress in her, so we planned a final lesson, one to find out what her iceberg is and planned to drop her if she didn't make the commitment to come to church. It was a beautiful lesson, completely lead by the Spirit. We both shared personal weaknesses that are similar to hers that we have that make our lives challenging, but we push through because we know that God wants it of us. Some of the things we shared were a shock to her and her member friend who was there (apparently 'shy quiet me' is not someone they know, I guess Ether 12:37 could apply here a little). And in one case we increased the member's testimony of coming to church, and she has committed to be better at that, but in the end, she did not make the commitment we needed to be able to continue teaching her. We said we'd continue stopping by now and then, but we could promise regular visits anymore.

As hard as that was, it is also a testimony building moment of what is described in 2 Nephi 3:21, "Because of their faith their words shall proceed forth out of my mouth unto their brethren who are the fruit of thy loins; and the weakness of their words will I make strong in their faith, unto the remembering of my covenant which I made unto thy fathers." I kinda really like how that connects to my personal fear of talking to people, and then how I've gotten over a lot of it. It's not completely gone yet, but my words are made strong in my faith in Jesus Christ. And that weakness was made strong when we talked to that member at church and she told us that she almost said yes, and we had gotten closer to getting that answer from her than anyone else. And then she had gone out and bought herself a dress, maybe not completely dropped yet. But is is so true how the Lord puts you with the person you need to be and in the people's lives He wants you in to be able to help them in their personal journey back to Him. And apparently we are not done yet because we are both still here! And I get to finish training Sister Brumett, who I just love so much! We have so much fun together, and we are always on the same page when we are thinking of things. We literally have the exact same thoughts all the time.

Some wonderful things that happened this week was when we had an amazing zone meeting, so much revelation there. We went to Hot Springs with a deaf member to try to contact some deaf people there. It was about an hour and a half drive there and back. And it was pouring rain like I haven't seen in a year. It was hard to see the road all the time, but we made it there and back safely, (Thank you Heavenly Father!) we also had several good lessons with a lot of wonderful people. It was so good this week! And we had many people come to church, many miracles as we just followed the Spirit. I love how amazing these people are. They all love Christ and they all want to come closer to Him, and they don't mind talking about Him!

Also, a really cool scripture I found his week is in D&C 38:3 "[Jesus Christ is] the same which spake, and the world was made, and all things came by [Him]." I especially loved it because it reminded me of a song that I've recently acquired where it says "To the One who spoke and set the sun ablaze, to the One who stopped the storm and walked the waves, to the One who died so He could say, You Matter! Don't you know you Matter? You Matter! I hope you know you Matter!" It's a song called Matter, and I really enjoy it.

Ooo, and another cool thing I though about this week comes from 1 Nephi 5:8, "And she spake, saying: Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath commanded my husband to flee into the wilderness; yea, and I also know of a surety that the Lord hath protected my sons, and delivered them out of the hands of Laban, and given them power whereby they could accomplish the thing which the Lord hath commanded them. And after this manner of language did she speak." Ok, first of all, this is an ending of a story about this family who leaves Jerusalem and walks for three days into the wilderness. And then they get told that they have to go all they way back for a very important book. Now one could wonder why didn't they just bring it with them the first time? That would have been a lot easier. And surely the Lord could have told them about it before, He knew they would need it. And maybe He did, and maybe He didn't. All we know is that it happened, and so there must be a lesson to learn here. And there are a lot, but one I thought of this week was really cool. I thought of this as I was reminded of an experience that happened to a family in a tv show that I'd seen (it's BBC's North and South) where the father uprooted the whole family and they went clear to the other side of the country. And his family followed him, because he is the Father and Husband. But they do not know why. Eventually they confront him, needing answers for this struggle they are in, coming to a completely new area with no friends. And he explains it to them. Similarly, Lehi drags his whole family away from all they know, and they follow because he is the Father and Husband, but maybe Sariah did not like being there, maybe she would much rather be at home and not traveling through the wilderness, and now possibly having her children killed for more of these crazy ideas of her husband. And her position as the Mother of these sons would greatly influence them in their lives, and her personal testimony would be important for them to become the righteous sons they needed to be, and until this experience happened, her faith was lacking. And the Lord knew that, and he provided a way for her to gain that testimony so she could be that example the sons would follow (all but the eldest two).

Also, as we were driving back from Hot Springs, we had already dropped off the deaf member and I was just thinking about how when people pray to Jesus instead of Heavenly Father, they don't get the answers they need because they are not praying to the right person. I told Sister Brumett about it and then we moved on. But then the next day during our 12 week study we read John 16:23-24, "And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." And it was exactly what the Spirit taught me the day before! It was so amazing! I love studies!!

It has been a fun week with lots of improvement, and lots of stretching. I love it!

Love y'all!
Kimber
Sister Beckstrand

We went to the Big Dam Bridge last week with the STLs.
It's the longest pedestrian bridge I think in America, it was so fun!

My last full month with a Fijian Mission President, look what Sister Hirschi sent me!

Our Little Girl Was Baptized and All is Well!!

This week has been so good. And really bad. No members kept any appointments to come out with us except Jaimie...on Sunday. That was it. It was really sad. {From what I've heard, that's very unusual for that ward!)  But other than that this week was incredible!!!We had a baptism!!!!! Rosie is the cutest thing ever! She is part of a less active family, and we've been teaching her for the past few weeks. She is nine years old and our little girl. We always feel like her mom at church, all three of us., because her family doesn't have a car so we find her a ride and take care of her at church. Her grandma is an amazing woman who is coming back to the church. She was excommunicated, but she has the strongest testimony, and she wants to come back so bad! After Rosie's baptism we went by the next day and she told us she had picked a date for her to be re-baptized!!!  I love that family!! They are amazing.

The family that we thought was made anti last week is not. We had a wonderful lesson with them and they are so incredible. So ready for the gospel. The mom had said to us that she doesn't drink or smoke or go to clubs or any of those things, and she said that even though other moms or women her age do not have her morals she's ok with it because she knows it's right. They got to go to a primary activity on Saturday where all the families with primary kids were, and we were so excited for her to meet all the other young moms in the ward with her exact morals and standards. They all loved it! Then they came to church. She told us that the pastors wife of their church had called them and asked them to come back to church, and she got in the car with all the kids and asked them if they wanted to go to that church or to ours. They kids begged to come to this one! We also had a really good lesson with another family is week about families forever because the mom is still really upset about a lost son that happened about seven years ago. They said they would come to church, and they totally did! Afterward when we talked to her she said it was goo, but she seemed a little hesitant. But a little bit later she texted and said that her daughters loved it and wanted to come back next week!

The Primary is killing it! Rosie got confirmed in primary because she was late to church. We missed that, but we love the though of all those primary kids being there for it. Especially all our investigators children. The kids really feel it. The mom with the six kids said that her kids probably like feeling the "good environment" at church!! They all recognize it. The kids are the ones that are getting the families so into it. I love all these  families so much! All these kids are adorable and my favorite people ever! And Rosie is our little girl, we do all the mom things at church. I did her hair, sister Hirschi picked her up from primary, Sister Havran made  sure she knew where to go. Even her little cousin that lives with them. She is also our little girl at church. We just adore these kids.

Teaching families is the best!! It is so amazing to picture them all in with baptismal jumpers, and even in temple cloths for their sealing. I can see it for all of them. I love it!

Love Kimber

Stolen car? New investigators! A family to pray for...

Okay, so her i-pad must be auto-correcting her words, because I had trouble understanding parts of this email! I'll guess, but who knows if I get what she intended to say...

It's the south!

It has been such a good week. We have so many people to teach, and we can totally see the Lord's hand in it all. One time we were teaching a lesson to a little girl who is getting baptized this week, and a bunch of the [newborn old kiss] [neighborhood kids?] that we are friends with came running in and said that there was a cop outside at our car giving us a ticket. So we quickly ended the lesson (luckily it was over already and we were about to wrap up) and went to see what was up. It turned out that the people who's house we parked in front of called the cops because there are a lot of stolen cars that get left around that neighborhood and they weren't sure whose it was and they didn't want to get in trouble for it if it was stolen. So we cleared it up, and just talked to them and the police man for a while. Now we are teaching the family that had called the cops in us. It's crazy how the lord works right?

Also, last Sunday we had a huge family come to church, a mom and her six kids. They have been our top investigators for the last couple weeks and have baptismal dates for next month. They all loved it, and when they left they said bye and we will see you Thursday. Wednesday was their baby's birthday, and her husband was supposed to come home. We were really excited to meet him. We texted Wednesday to wish the baby happy birthday. It was all good. Then they cancelled our appointment Thursday morning, and they wouldn't answer our texts or phone calls. We got really worried that maybe she had been turned anti by someone. We weren't sure what to do because we didn't want to pressure her into never talking to us again. On Saturday we decided to go by her house to see what was up. We knocked, and her husband came out, we asked for her and he went in to get her. When he came back he told us that she had said that she was busy and couldn't come out. The whole time kids were peeking out the window and younger siblings lifting up in the door to wave and say hi. We got in the car and were certain that we were never going to see her again. We kept praying about her and texted her Sunday morning to remind her about church in case she happened to want to go. As we were planning that night we felt like we should just call her one more time. So we did, but she didn't pick up. A minute later we got a call from her, as soon as we answered the phone hung up. After a minute, she called again. We picked up and she said she was so sorry that she hadn't been able to get back to us and that thing had been so busy with her husband coming home and him having to leave again. And we set up an appointment for later this week. Prayers answered! We are so happy.

It really has been a great week. So many amazing things happened. Like running down the road after somebody we wanted to give a card to, only to find out he's Mormon. And going out to eat, making contact with a referral and having some awesome bbq at the same time. And Jimmy continuing to be one step ahead of us all the time. It's so amazing.

Love Kimber

Mud masks!!

 

Us and some of our babies :)

So many amazing investigators in Memphis

Walk week*. We walked a ton this week. It was an amazing week. We walked all over Memphis a couple times, and we have so many amazing investigators in Memphis. Those people are ready. We are teaching this amazing awesome family of a mom and six kids and the husband (yes they are married) is coming back in  town his week. We have yet to meet him, but that whole family is amazing. They are "dry Mormons" in every sense. They have the Spirit in their home like no other investigators do, even a little more than some members. They all read scriptures together and are just a cute happy family. They also came to church this Sunday!! They are incredible! We also had another little girl at church, she is part of a less active/part member family in the ward, and she is so excited to be baptized. She set her own date for next week. We found a lot of other awesome people being on walk week. And Sister Purser saved our lives so much this week. First was letting us Skype at her house since our first idea fell through last minute. Then she signed up to feed us twice this week because no one was feeding us this week. Also Lisa Boone saved our lives by picking us up when we got stranded at the church and in Memphis and feeding us one night as well. The members are so cool here. We are working on getting more people out with us, and they are so willing, just coordinating is so hard sometimes. It's been a really good week.

Love Kimber

* We learned during our Mothers' Day Skype call that the four missionary companionships in their district share three cars, (or something like that,) so every fourth week is "walk week," and they have to get around either on foot or catch rides from members. Crazy when some appointments are far away, but develops character, right?

Mothers' Day Call!

We sent her a list of questions to be prepared for. Here's the email I sent her, and some of the discussion we had with her about the questions on Skype.

~~

A few questions we have come up with for today's call...I'm sending them to you now in case you want to think about some of the answers before then. Can't wait!

Do you do all your cooking or do you ever eat with the members? How often.... (Regularly, nearly everyday eat at the members'.)
Do you eat traditional "southern"foods? Like jambalaya or hominy or grits or chitlins or catfish? (Some, but since there are so many Utah natives here for the dentist school, many of the members serve what we are used to.)
You're really eating potatoes too?! (Discovered that it's mainly baked potatoes I don't like.)
What are some of the unusual things you have eaten and how are you handling it?

How often do you meet with the ward mission leader? How closely do you work with ward and stake leaders? (We work with them A LOT. At least weekly, but usually more.)
How often do you get referrals, from locals, from far away?
Have you had any obvious results from The Book of Mormon Musical experience? (So far we have only heard of one story...)

What is your study time like now? How long? What do you study? How do you decide what to study? (Having Sister Havran with us now, we have added an hour of language training (ASL) to the routine which includes personal study, companionship study, language study and planning.)
What is your daily schedule like? How does transportation affect planning? (There are three cars for four companionships, hence every fourth week is "Walk-Week," and that week takes a lot of extra planning and counting on members to help them get further places.
On an average day, how many people do you talk to for the first time?

How does your system of goals and reporting work? What is it called? (Dad's was Standards of Excellence - SOEs.) What is easiest? Most difficult? (She showed us their planning program on her IPad, and how long their contact list is - HUGE, including contacts from previous companionships. She said that they hardly have time to follow up with former investigators though, because the new ones are so ready so quickly.)
How often do you talk to your mission president? The DLs? The Zone Leaders?
What are the STLs role in the mission?

What have you learned from Sister Herschi?
What are you learning from Sister Havran? (We don't know anything about her yet, where she is from, how long she's been out...are you all doing ASL work with her there too?) (She's from Oregon - Salem? - and has been out longer than either of the others, I think...can't remember exactly what was said. We did get to say hello to both of them, and Sister Herschi told us that she goes to BYU, so we will definitely be able to meet her someday.)

How often do you teach? What is it like? (Several times a week, and lots of visiting opportunities.)
Describe the best & most unusual. What is difficult?
Dad has more questions about teaching...he'll ask later

You often comment that you have many people you are working with who "are so ready for baptism". Why do you think that is? (We touched on that a lot earlier in the conversation.)

Are there/have you had any situations where you wish you could counsel with your parents?

Uncle Dan-What us the biggest difference between the people of Mississippi and Utah? (That the people in the South talk so openly about religion and especially about Jesus Christ. She LOVES that, and encouraged all of us here at home not to be embarrassed to bring Him and the Gospel up in everyday conversations. AWESOME advice.)
Isaac-Are more people there taller or shorter than you? (Similar...)

Talk to you SOON!
Love, Mom

45 minutes went very quickly, and it was lovely to be able to talk "in person" with her again!!

Busy Trio On

Super short letter this week, but that's okay - Sunday is Mothers' Day - 40 minutes Skype!

Hey all! It's been an awesome week. It's super fun having Sister Havran as part of our companionship. She balances Sister Hirschi and me out because we are so different. It really is the best. We have also been so busy. We keep finding amazing families who are so ready for baptism. It's so cool. The people here are so ready for the gospel. Twice this week we drove up to an appointment, and there were about twenty kids in front of the house playing. Both times! It was nuts. We have had such a fun time. And I'm getting better at teaching. It's so great

Love Kimber

P.S. And Claire, the rain has not really let up. Sometimes we get sunny days, but there are still a ton of rain showers. But it's not as heavy as it was a couple weeks ago.

Memphis Zone April 2016