A letter from the Ward Mission Leader...

My name is Jason Foote. I am the ward mission leader in the Southaven Ward, where your daughter is currently serving. I want to tell you that she is doing amazingly well. She is loved by our entire ward and does so much in the Lord's service.

 

As soon as I heard her name, I quizzed her on her family history. My great-grandmother was Della Lovisa Beckstrand, daughter of Ida Lovisa Beckstrand. She told me that her uncle, Karl, had written a children's book about Anna Beckstrand and was working on one about Ida Lovisa. That got me pretty excited. I have heard those stories growing up and have always loved them.

 

I actually served in the MTC with and Elder Beckstrand as well. He would have been in the MTC in August 2009 and served in Argentina. I've lost touch with him - you don't happen to know who that would be, do you?

 

Anyway, I'm side tracked with getting excited about family history. It is fun to be able to serve with my 3rd or 4th cousin or whatever we are. She is an excellent missionary. She and her companion are having great success and are such a blessing to our ward and the people here. They are so loving and so quick to serve, and willing to do anything they can to help God's children here. There have been 2 sisters in particular that I want to tell you about, whose lives they have touched.

 

One is a sweet recent convert named E. She has a difficult living situation and lots of family conflict. Your daughter and her companion, Sister Hirschi, visited her again and again and again and finally discovered that things were much worse than anyone in the ward truly knew, and called me to let me know what was going on. We were able to mobilize the ward to help this amazing sister out, and the Sister Missionaries continue to be a huge support and blessing to her.

 

The second sister is a single mom of 6 kids named Q. She has a great testimony but is very poor and has no way to get to Church, but a great desire to come. She had some emotional problems recently and was briefly admitted to a mental hospital. Her "one call" was to the Sister Missionaries. Because of their friendship with her, we were able to figure out as a ward what was going on and get help to her and her family.

 

And I'm sure she has told you how she has used her ASL to help the half a dozen deaf members of our ward! It has been amazing to see how the Lord continues to bless us with missionaries and members moving into the ward who speak ASL. Those members are very near to my heart, and I am so grateful to your daughter for her help in befriending and interpreting for them.

 

Thank you so much for raising such an exceptional daughter and helping her to have a desire to serve a mission. She is in good hands - the Lord's hands, but also the hands of the Southaven Ward where we love her very much.

 

--

Jason Foote

Brother Foote is the man in the center signing. 

This is the kind of letter that makes truly touches parent's hearts! What a sweet letter to receive this week! This letter is included with Brother Foote's  permission.