New Area...

Hey y'all! It's been a crazy week! The first week in a new area is always a strange one, especially if it turns out to be your walk week. Basically, we did a lot of walking his week. So I'm follow-up training Sister Ellis, but she's pretty much already trained. It's been great.

So I have met a lot of new people here. Apparently this has been a really hard area for the last transfer, but they managed to build up a teaching pool right as I got here, so we had stuff to do all week. There just aren't very many potentials in the area book. But there are some good people to talk to. Most of our time we walked around the area trying to get in people's houses, and we just smiled and waved at everyone as they drove by us. Lots of people we talked to on Saturday said they had seen us and were more open to talking with us because of it.

On Saturday we went out with a member and we tried to contact a referral in Shelby forest, and we ended up driving around the forest for about two hours getting lost and not being able to find the address. Turns out it doesn't exist, but we had a great adventure driving through a gorgeous forest, and because we got so close to the river in the meanwhile, we stopped for a minute and got to walk down the boat run thing and get our feet wet in the Mississippi River. It was really fun. But the pictures are on the members phone, so we'll have to get that sometime. That was a really fun day. And yesterday the elders had a baptism! So we got to go to that after church. So far I really like the area, and the ward is amazing. It was a really good week. A lot of things remind me of Southaven, Mostly because I can tell that this is NOT Arkansas. It feels like Tennessee. I can't describe it any other way. But it's really great to be so close to my first area. Lisa was actually at the church by the temple when the transfer van pulled up last week, so I've already gotten to
see her again. Plus, when we have zone conference I'll get to see Sister Havran! And meet her new greenie! It's pretty exciting.

Sister Beckstrand

Transfers and temples!!!!!

Hey, so not a lot of time today, but a lot has happened this week. First, and best, I got to go to the temple today!!! It was amazing. And the Bartlett temple is gorgeous. And tiny. I loved it!

Then, I got transferred!!! I'm in Millington, Tennessee now. My new companion is Sister Ellis. She's from Arizona, near Phoenix.

It was a fun time in Sherwood. We had a day exchange this week with Sister Decker and Sister Hirschi. I got to spend all day with Sister Decker, and we had a great time. We had so many lessons that day it was incredible. All transfer it has been hard to do work in Sherwood. We didn't have a lot of interested people to teach, and that day it all turned around. From that point on we have been busy busy with people to see. It was really fun.

We had Sister Forsyth with us this week, she was really fun to be with. She also helped a lot with some lessons that would have been rally tough without her. She is super cute. I like her. I'm really going to miss her and especially Sister Esplin, but I'm excited to start working in this new area and get to know the people here. It's going to be a great week!

Love, Kimber
Sister Beckstrand

The threesome before transfers...

Four generations!!

Conference - a Missionary Holiday!

It's just been a week. Last Monday we had a great lesson with a member's good friend. And she really loves what we've shared so far. On Tuesday, we helped a member clean her house, that was a big project, and we are going back this week to continue helping out. And we saw a less active who we can't really count as less active anymore. She is the best, she is so Deseret to learn and understand everything about the gospel, and she just loves it.

Wednesday was a busy day. We did a lot of finding. Also, we were in a trio for a couple days this week over Wednesday and Thursday, Sister Jensen is really great. We went visiting teaching with a member, and got to see some great dog tricks.

Thursday we saw our great less active again, and we got to talk to Donna for a while. We explained general conference to her, she though it was really interesting.

Friday was a day full of running around and meeting people. We didn't have a lot of lessons, but lots of good contact.

And then we had general conference all weekend. We had some people (all less actives and recent converts) come to general conference. It was really cool to see them there. It was a good week. Lots of things going on, not much to tell though. Sorry, I'm not a writer :) General conference was great, truly the missionary holiday.

Love y'all!
Kimber
Sister Beckstrand

Response to a Mom-Question: Conference was great! Really the only holidays that we get as missionaries. We got to watch it at the church, we could go to a member's home if we wanted, but we wanted to see if any of the people we invited would come to the church. No one came though :/, except some recent converts and less actives, that was good at least.

Love the office people!!

Also, Sister Jensen!

😰 No more walking!

So this week was a little rough. First, we ran out of miles. Little Rock is so far that living there took a big toll on our miles before we moved. So we walked, for three days we did pretty good walking to all the places we needed to go. First, we walked all the way from our apartment along Warden Road to a road about 2.8 miles away. That took about an hour. Then that night we walked 1.5 miles to the church, which took 30 minutes and then to dinner, 0.9 miles for about 20 minutes and then home, 2.7 miles which was another hour. Then the next morning we walked back to the church 3.5 miles away from our apartment, that took 1 hour and 20 minutes. We were on time for our ride to lunch. But completely exhausted and overheating a little bit. We were finding for all that time, but Sister Esplin's ankle did not like it and it was hurting her pretty bad, so we got permission for more miles and no walk week, but we have to be super sparing about it and ride with members whenever possible. But no more walking, doctor's orders. Sprained ankles cause problems as a missionary, but Sister Esplin is a trooper getting the work done even though it hurts. Over all in those two days we walked 11.4 miles in 4 hours of walking this week. We were so sore and tired. It was fun though. We feel like we accomplished a lot.

Then it turned out we had been handing out Spanish cards all along. Oh what a week! Also, all the people we have been teaching have disappeared. So we are officially starting over again. It's kind of funny, our focus now is all finding, but we're not supposed to walk... ☺️ Well, we'll just take it slow and knock every house on streets we feel inspired to go to.

We've been doing a lot of RCLA (recent convert/returning member) work lately. We have more  lessons with them than investigators. We have found great success with them so far.

It was a good week, but no exciting stories to tell, sorry. The women's broadcast was really good, and out recent convert, Donna, came to that. It was great.

Love y'all!
Sister Beckstrand

Walking in the Arkansas heat...

...we are so tired. (But still smiling!)

Poor Sister Esplin! :(

 

Lots of people to meet

This week was great. We did a lot of less active and new member work. We are helping one lady get to the temple, and we are so excited for her, another few ladies to start coming to church again, and always sharing our testimonies of Christ.

We had specialized training this week, and it was a really good meeting with lots of take always to help the missionary work. It was kind of rough this week for us. Sister Esplin wasn't feeling very
good, and she hurt her ankle a week ago, so that was hampering her mobility, and then I was struggling to balance getting all the work done we needed to and make sure we didn't push her too hard. But we were able to go to the doctor today and she'll be doing some physical therapy to help it get better.

We also got a list of all members and marked who was active and less active and who was a part-member family. And we've been going around all week visiting these people and getting to know them. It was a good week. Lots of fun things happening with the people.

Sister Beckstrand

We totally matched on accident! It was so funny 😂

That was pretty fun! Love ya Gregory!

Silly companions!

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!?

Testimonies and miracles

Hey all! It's been a crazy week, on Monday we lost sister Evans :( so we spent this week figuring out our lives without her. We're finally getting it by the end of  the week. It's also really weird to be in a duo companionship rather than a trio ;) So we should be moving hopefully tomorrow, but at least this week. So we're still in the transfer apartment. And training has been fun. It's not that bad, especially  since Sister Esplin is such an amazing missionary already. It's like she's  pre-trained. It's been really good.

Also this week, there are 21 more new missionaries!! And the apartment we are in right now just so happens to be the transfer apartment. So there were five other sisters staying there besides us. And we had to drive them to and from the church in the morning and at night. It's a good thing we have the van. (And hopefully we are moving sometime this week.) Then on Thursday when they sent all the new missionaries out to their areas with their trainers, they had to take 26 people to the Memphis side, and so they took our car; so we had an extra walk day. Then they kept the car all day, so we ended up helping out in the office a bit dealing with the new missionaries paperwork. It was really fun. I actually like the tedious office work. Is that weird? I like it though. Then this week we finally saw an investigator that we haven't been able to see for a couple weeks, and she had a baptismal date for really soon. And she came to church! We are really excited to be working with her again.

It was a good week, it took a few days, but we are back on our feet figuring things out. This week has been full of learning and miracles. Also, I have seriously loved the things I've been reading in the Book of Mormon this week. I read a lot of prophets testimonies, and the blessings they see in their lives and those of the nation they are with. It's really cool to see the things that are important to them and how in the hard time they always saw how God used it for the good of the people.

One big miracle this week happened yesterday, so starting at the beginning, our first week here we saw a less active couple, we only saw the wife for a minute and then she went into the room because she wasn't feeling good, and her husband told us that she never stayed when the missionaries came over, that she might have some beef with the church or something, but he's not sure. Now he would be at church if he could drive, but he can't anymore, and he doesn't want to push her so he doesn't come. So, for all of last transfer I've been
periodically thinking of her and praying for some opportunity to serve her and be able to talk to her. Then yesterday we finally felt like it was a good time to go back and see this couple again. When we came he welcomed us in, and as we walked in we saw his wife in the office printing a bunch of papers for school. She teaches kindergarten, and we got talking about it, (Sister Esplin is going into elementary education). We were able to have a nice long conversation with her. Just standing there and talking about her life. Then we asked if we could leave a thought after about half an hour or fourth five minutes, and she came out of the office and we all sat on the couch and we read 2 Nephi 32:9. They both really liked it. And before we left we gave them our number and told her to call us if she ever needed service of any kind. She said she would when she started cutting out stuff for school. My prayers have been answered!! We were able to talk to her, we build a good relationship and, more specifically, we found a way to serve her!!! It was great. I'm so excited.

It's been a great week.

Love Kimber
Sister Beckstrand

So I emailed her back and asked if anybody knew it was her birthday, and whether she'd gotten the package we sent her. I got this back: 

Thank you! Ya, people know it's my birthday. The whole office sang to me this morning. It was fun. One of our investigators wants to make a cake with us today. It's been really fun. Sister Esplin sang me all the birthday songs in the children's songbook. It was really fun. 

That really soothed my mother-heart that someone else was remembering her, and singing to her since we can't. Then a few minutes later I got an email from the mission secretary saying that a package had arrived but had been opened. She described what was inside, and I wrote back, "The fudge is missing! Too bad!" Then I got this:

Ok, the fudge did come, and I opened the package because it was a little ripped, and I stuck the fudge in the fridges do then left the package on the table next to sister Hugentobler's desk all weekend so I wouldn't be tempted to open my presents. And the fudge was in the office fridge because I haven't wanted it to melt in the car because we are so far away from our apartment right now. 

Then tonight at a RS activity, a sister from my ward turned to me and said, "I saw your daughter on Sunday!" Turns out she had gone to visit her brother and his family in North Little Rock and she recognized Kimberly there!! What a small world when you are in the Church.

I'm enjoying getting two sides of the story lately since I found Sister Esplin's blog! Now with this link, Kimberly will eventually be able to read it too!