Happy 4th of July!!!

These pictures were texted to Mom last week!
Sis Beckstrand & Sis Anderson

She got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(The woman Sis Beckstrand & Sis Brummett were teaching
before the transfer)

This week was so fun and crazy! We had so much going on! Monday we just hung out and then saw some people in the evening. We actually had a pretty interesting lesson sitting on the ground in front of the temple. That was pretty neat. Tuesday we had a fun district meeting. We have a senior couple in our district! They are really fun. I like it here! The  we did some studies, had a great lesson with a part member family, the kids are getting baptized this Saturday by the way, so that's exciting. Then in the evening we had a lesson with this super nice couple. The husband had done some research of the Book of Mormon and couldn't quite agree with it. But his wife understood everything we had to say in answer to his questions about it. They were super kind, but he did not understand and it was so sad. But if there is ever a question, all you need is 2 Nephi 33:10-11. That is the simple truth, and Moroni 10:3-5 is the key to make it work. The step that was missed was to just read it. Just like President Monson said in this last General Conference, there is "...power of the Book of Mormon and [there is a] critical need...as members of this Church to study, ponder, and apply its teachings in our lives. The importance of having a firm and sure testimony of the Book of Mormon cannot be overstated.
"...If you are not reading the Book of Mormon each day, please do so. If you will read it prayerfully and with a sincere desire to know the truth, the Holy Ghost will manifest its truth to you. If it is true--and I solemnly testify that it is--then Joseph Smith was a prophet who saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
"Because the Book of Mormon is true, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s Church on the earth, and the holy priesthood of God has been restored for the benefit and blessing of His children.
"...If you do not have a firm testimony of these things, do that which is necessary to obtain one. It is essential for you to have your own testimony in these difficult times, for the testimonies of others will carry you only so far."
And it is so true! I am so grateful for my personal testimony and love for the Book of Mormon.

Ok, then on Wednesday we had Missionary Leadership Counsel in NLR, and I was amazing. That was President Wakolo and Sister Wakolo's last day in the mission. It was so full of love and the spirit and revelation. I love the things I have learned from President Wakolo. I have learned of love and leadership and of becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ, and there is nothing I love more. That was such a fun day, and I learned a ton, and we got home at 9 pm, so that was all we did that day.

On Thursday we went out to Jackson to do a blitz with the sisters there who are whitewashing this transfer. We had a lot of fun with them, and their area is about an hour and fifteen minutes away, so that took up a large chunk of the day as well, then we finally got to do some work in our area. It was fun.

This whole week was so fun and full of revelation. I have felt the need to study more modern revelation because that is where we get the most things that apply to our lives today. And I learned a lot when I read the talk by President Monson. Also it was really dumb on Friday because I ended up having a pretty bad headache all day, but we accomplished much, and had a really good dinner with some killer hush puppies, mmmmmmm. But then that night I could not sleep, and around four in the morning we had to call a member in the ward and ask them to come give me a blessing. After that I was able to sleep, ("I revere the priesthood. I have witnessed it's power time and time again. I have seen its strength. I have marveled at the miracles it has wrought." President Monson 2015 April General Conference) and we had a pretty good day on Saturday. And a really great lesson with the family that we are helping get baptized this Saturday. But the best part of that day was when we got to go to the temple and help clean, an they really needed us because barely anyone come that day. Everyone is out of town for the 4 of July.

And yesterday was really rough, nobody wanted to open the door. They would peak through the blinds and decide they didn't want to talk to us and not open the door. So dumb! But after a long day of all that rejection we were tired, and I was pretty annoyed, which is also dumb because I'm supposed to be Christlike. So, as we were driving home at the end of the day I saw this couple sitting out in their driveway, and the Spirit told me to pull over and talk to them. Sister Anderson was writing something down and I was tired, I didn't want to.  But the Spirit is perfectly diligent, and He knows me. We turned around and went and talked to this couple, and they were beautiful. They were so excited to talk to us and I loved being able to share the Book of Mormon with them and promise that that will answer the questions they were asking us. We even got to give them a copy of The Family: A Proclamation to the World. They loved it! Silly Sister Beckstrand, just listen to the Spirit and your day will be better!

In closing today, I want to quote the final part of President Monson's talk to the world as the Holy Prophet of the Lord Jesus Christ, "...I implore each of us to prayerfully study and ponder the Book of Mormon each day. As we do so, we will be in a position to hear the voice of the Spirit, to resist temptation, to overcome doubt and fear, and to receive heaven’s help in our lives. I so testify with all my heart in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Love y'all!
Kimber

The ride home in the transfer van. It was a long ride, but lots of fun
when we were literally stopped on the road for about two hours
(we inched along for most of that time), the elders in front
got out and handed out copies of the Book of Mormon
all along the highway. It was a lot of fun. 

Sisters Beckstrand & Anderson

Sister Ellis!!!!
(Former companions)

Good bye President Wakolo! We love you!!!

Memphis?

The Mississippi!

Mom-Post: New mission president, thanks & farewell

Here's a quick Mom-Post sharing a few pictures and memories. Kimberly will appreciate having these in her blog when she gets back. As of this week, ALRM got a new mission president:

Arkansas Little Rock Mission

Karen and Norman E. Hansen

Norman Edward Hansen, 57, and Karen Keysor Hansen, five children, Chehalis Ward, Centralia Washington Stake: Arkansas Little Rock Mission, succeeding President Taniela B. Wakolo and Sister Anita H. Wakolo. Brother Hansen serves as a Scoutmaster and is a former stake president, bishop, high councilor, stake mission president, and missionary in the Arkansas Little Rock Mission. Area field manager, Darigold. Born in Rupert, Idaho, to Vernon Anderson Hansen and Emma Josephine Baker Hansen.

Sister Hansen is a former stake and ward Primary president, ward Relief Society president, ward Young Women presidency counselor, stake public affairs committee member, achievement day leader, and Cub Scout leader. Born in Glendale, California, to James Brian Keysor and Rachel Patricia Keysor Wait.

Arkansas Little Rock Mission Office

Arkansas Little Rock Mission Home

Inside the Mission Home

Goodbye to Pres & Sis Wakolo!
Thank you, and MUCH LOVE!

But thankfully, because of his April call to the Seventy, he will be in Utah regularly! Kimberly will be able to see them much more often than otherwise!

From the LDS news page:

Elder Taniela Biu Wakolo has dedicated every day of his life since his baptism in March 1994 to serving the Lord.

Born in 1967 on the small island of Lomaloma, Lau, Fiji, to Taniela Vosa and Temalesi Buadromo Wakolo, Elder Wakolo was the youngest of six children. “I was raised in a very humble home, but we were rich in terms of the love we had for each other,” he said.

At age 12, Elder Wakolo left his parents’ home to attend boarding school with more than 500 young men, ages 12 to 19. “That was great training ground for me,” he said. “It is where I learned self-discipline.”

He dated Anita Herberta Moimoi, a recent convert, for more than a year. They married on August 22, 1987, in Suva, Fiji.

Conversion didn’t come overnight for Elder Wakolo, and over the first eight years of the couple’s marriage, he met with many missionaries. “I completed the [missionary] discussions four times in eight years,” he said. “I have 24 missionaries.”

It was a simple question from one of those missionaries about the name of the Church that changed his mind about baptism. “The Church needs to be named after its owner,” he said. “That was it for me.”

Elder Wakolo and his wife were sealed in the Nuku‘alofa Tonga Temple in 1995. They are the parents of two children.

Service opportunities quickly followed his baptism. Two weeks after his baptism, he was called to the ward Young Men presidency and to co-teach seminary with his wife. After less than a year, he accepted the call to serve as branch president. He later served as counselor in a stake presidency, stake president, and Area Seventy. At the time of his call as a General Authority Seventy, he was presiding over the Arkansas Little Rock Mission.

Elder Wakolo studied management and public administration and earned a master’s degree in management. Most recently, he was the manager at the Church’s Fiji Service Center.

(Find more info here)

The newly sustained Elder Taniela B. Wakolo walks to theConference Center stand 1 April 2017

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

Man, those shoes were yellow

He was so excited!

(Ok, so that was Sister Brumett's title, but it fits.) This week was crazy! A lot happened.

• We helped our investigators move into their new house with a general authority

President Wakolo, who is now a general seventy, showed up for a baptismal interview with them and they drove up with a truck load of stuff, (it was the first time we'd been to their new house) and we started helping them move things inside. The mom is super proud of that house too. She was showing us some of the perks of this new one. It was so fun. And we had a lesson planned, and it was going to be beautiful, but then she had to leave to continue bringing more things from their other house, so we ran outside. And started working on his baptismal record through the door. Then after another truckload appeared without her after we brought the stuff inside, we started kind of teaching one of their sons with President. That was fun. But then he had to go back and get more stuff, so President decided to just do the interview and then we'd give the lesson later. So we went knocking, and found two amazing people, and one of them really needed the message of the gospel rig

ht then, he needs to feel God's love now more than ever, Heavenly Father put us where He needed us. It was so good. 

Book of Mormon class!!!

• We prayed for an elect (investigator?) one day and asked that they be wearing yellow shoes, and the lady we met had on bright yellow tennis shoes. She's really cool, we're excited to start working with her. 
• We baptized our investigator!!! It was beautiful, and he loved it. Also his confirmation was amazing. It was beautiful. 
• Sister Brumett sang at his baptism and he totally cried! It was gorgeous. And he called her an angel! She is so talented!
• Skype home, (love y'all) that was so fun, I love my family.
• Survey for finding!!! It works and its beautiful! We found some really nice people with it, it still needs tweaking, but it's amazing.

Mostly that's what happened. It was such a good week. And super busy too. I love it here! 

Love y'all! 

Kimber

Sister Beckstrand

Also, an amazing scripture I found this week: 

Psalms 42:11 (43:5)  "?..I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." 

I love it because it is so true, and super beautiful to think about. The closer I am to my God, the healthier and brighter and beautiful my countenance is. ❤️ 

Most everyday we sent out a mass text to the people we are working with, and this was the one yesterday. (Mothers' Day)

So you get this one too...

Sister Beckstrand

Mom Post - Release Date Released

We got this in the mail over the weekend (I'm showing you just the top):

So there you have it, August 1st! Part of me is very excited, but part of me doesn't want this to end, for her or for us! She's SO all in, so committed, and doing such a great job. It's been SUCH a blessing reading all of her letters every week, praying for her multiple times a day, and feeling the missionary spirit all over again. It's so distinctive, so real.  But all good things must come to an end, and then there are more good things to come...

BTW,  what I'm most excited about for the calling of her mission president to the Seventy is that instead of him returning to Fiji for her to never see again, he'll have to come to SLC for General Conference now and then, and she will get to see him again! In the many years since I got home, I've seen only one of my mission presidents, (I had three!) maybe twice?

It does look like she'll have a new mission president for the last month of her mission...a challenging experience for, but it will probably be great too.

I know, you already saw this one, but I can't help it, they're so cute!

What a week

That's my companion! (Sister Brumett)

So, y'all remember how I'm training a brand new sister? Ya right! She's  training me! She's amazing. It's super fun because we are both so excited about the gospel that we really do just spend hours talking about it and how it blesses lives. It literally solves every problem. Seriously, like what Elder L. Whitney Clayton was saying yesterday, it's the little everyday things like reading the Book of Mormon and praying that truly makes all the difference. I can totally see that in the lives of those around me. There was so much gold shared in this last general conference. Saturday was all about the plan of salvation and families! It was so beautiful.

This week was just incredible. One other amazing wonderful thing that happened was that I was able to go to Bartlett and watch a family get sealed! It was the family of a man that Sister Hirschi and I baptized last year. They are incredible, and they were so excited for it. And their little girl is so adorable. She has grown so much in the last year. And she's talking in full sentences now too. She loved it all. And it was so great to be able to see Sister Hirschi again and even meet her parents. That was fun. 

Remember this? (2016)

One year later! ❤️❤️❤️❤️ (2017)

And Sister Hirschi went home this week, but I got to see her again there and meet her parents too! It was so fun!!!

It was just a wonderful amazing week, that I will always remember. 

The gospel is true. It's real. Again, I love what Elder Valeri V. Cordón said in general conference, "No achievement in this life, as important as it may be, is as important as learning the language of the gospel" applying the gospel in your life is the single most important thing you can do. It's pointless and dismal to live without it. 

I love it!!

Love y'all! 

Kimber

P.S. Did ya catch that President Wakolo got called as a General Seventy? And he totally walked up with his sticks!! (i.e. scriptures, Ezekiel 37:16-19). (Link here to news report.)

That's my mission president!

Heavenly Father's artwork

Mom here - I received a text on Friday night:

I just saw your amazing, beautiful, missionary girls at the temple. I gave them all giant hugs from you!

(I recognized Sis Beckstrand, Sister Lloyd, Sis Hirschi (wait - she went home this week?!)
and on the far end Sis Brumett, her current comp)

My response was:

Love it, thanks!

Followed by the explanation:

This is Melissa (Sis Hirschi's mom). She got home Tuesday night and we flew back here Wed because she and your daughter's convert J__ P__ and his wife got sealed tonight. Even though it wasn't in your daughter's area Pres Wakolo let her come to the temple and see it. The girls were so cute and happy to be back together!

And my relieved response:

 I was really confused when I was sure Sis Herschi had gone home already! Wow, but it sounds like a neat opportunity.  I'm glad you got to go back with her! (And I was trying to figure out how they were able to be in the temple now...) Thanks for clearing that all up. 😉

She and I continued on for a few texts...but wow, what an opportunity!

Memphis Zoo!🐼🐯🦁🐵🐧🐗🐺🐅🐆🐘🐕🐿🐠🐍

Looks like a Zone Conference gathering!

It was a long walk week. So much walking. It was really hard to get rides all week, so we just walked a ton. But we had a many miracles. We met a lot of cool people, and some great new potentials. We had an incredible zone conference this week that was just amazing. Then we had interviews with President. 

And our Ward had the Primary Program yesterday, and it was incredible. The Spirit was so strong as those little kids sang. It was beautiful. We had a miracle ride home from Covington. We were able to get an investigator and her mom a blessing from the Ward members that was so good. 

And today some members took us to the Memphis zoo! It was so fun, and took all day, so I have very little time to email, but I love you lots, thanks for all you do and mostly for who you are. ❤️

Love Kimber
Sister Beckstrand

(This email arrived around 5 pm our time, a lot later than usual for her. She had a busy day!)

Sister Ellis & Sister Beckstrand

At the Memphis Zoo

I love how they have their scriptures even at the Zoo!

Kimberly's favorite birds - the Flamingos!

Someday I'll get this missionary thing right...

Counterclockwise: Sis B, Sis. Esplin, Sis. Decker, Sis. Hirschi

Together again

A Harry Potter Bedroom!

It's been a week. It was really good. Probably the first best thing that happened this week was when we had exchanges. Sister Esplin stayed here and I went to Conway again. And Sister Decker (who was in the MTC with me) was here with Sister Esplin while I was with Sister Hirschi!! It was really fun. I loved being with Sister Hirschi again, it was so fun, and so much like when we were together before, but better. Pretty sure. It was just really fun. And I have some great goals to work on now.

Also this week, we moved!! Finally, we have a real apartment for us. And it's huge!! (I'll send pictures later, like maybe next week.) It's a two story condominium. We knew it was coming at the end of the week, but the office elders called about half an hour before we finished weekly planning and told us to pack up and to be at the new apartment in half an hour. So it actually took us an hour, we had to finish a load of laundry and get the apartment neat, we only had time to fit half our stuff in the car and we had to leave. We stopped at the church to put our food in the fridge, and then we went and got the keys for the new apartment. It's truly beautiful. And way huge. With a dining room, a kitchen, a pantry, a Harry Potter bedroom under the stairs, a family/living room, 3 bathrooms- one downstairs and two upstairs- and two bedrooms upstairs. It's way too big for the two of us, but I'm sure we'll fill it. There is just a lot of bare wall space we get to find a way to fill now. And we are still living in bags, trying to prevent anything that may or may not happen.

We also met a really awesome family this week, and they all asked for copies of the Book of Mormon during our lesson! It was really exciting. There are the cutest little girls there too.

Crazy thing, it was stake conference his week, and we talked to Donna (our recent convert) Saturday and made sure that she knew about it and that she was planning on going. She said that yes she was, and she also told us what she was going to wear. We weren't worried about her. The next morning we texted a lot of people to go to church and pretty much nobody replied. Then we went to church and got Donna a seat saved with some members in the ward, then we went and sat with another recent convert and Jasmine Wakolo because President and Sister Wakolo were speaking in the meeting. So we kept watching and waiting for people to show up, and nobody was coming or replying to our texts. Donna wasn't there yet, but she is usually later because she is slower with her walker. Finally we decide to call her and she didn't answer, but still no worries, it takes her a while to find her phone when it rings. Then the meeting starts. We are sitting there and the first speaker is about to get up and speak when we notice that Donna had called us. We felt like we had to go listen to her voicemail and if she was there tell her about her seat we saved. So we go out and call her and she says that she had fallen the night before and hadn't been able to get up all night!! She was still on the floor!! We rushed back to our keys and told Jasmine and Cyrstal (the recent convert) we'd be back soon and ran out to the car. We went and helped Donna up, put her to bed to sleep, and then rushed back to church. We missed only the first talk and the begining of the second, and we were there for the rest of the meeting. It was a good meeting, full of good talks. All is well, and Donna is fine, we had a great day yesterday overall. And, last night we got to go with one of our investigators to the young adult fireside. It was really good. And I feel like it was good for her too. That was the most exciting things that happened this week. It was a good week. Super busy, I'm still really tired, and it was great.

Love Kimber
Sister Beckstrand

Isn't she cute!?