Tender Mercies

It just gets busier and busier every week! For Halloween we went to a members house and I got to hold a little puppy for two hours as we handed out (pass-along?) cards to all the trick or treaters. It was so fun, and it kept me really warm 😊.

On Tuesday we had another district meeting, but they told us where it was this time. We double checked. We had a lot of good meeting that day. We had two lessons in particular that were really great. We talked to one guy who is really fun to talk to, and we read the Book of Mormon with him, and he said that he would try even harder to read because we talked more about what it talks about and he got a little more interested. Then the other lesson was also our dinner appointment, and we got a lot covered. This guy actually came to church Sunday to fast for a date he would be baptized! Hopefully after more thought he'll know what revelations he received at that time.

Wednesday felt less busy, but we had a really good day. We had a great missionary correlation mtg, and that was really helpful. And we met a lot of people, so things accomplished! We also contacted a referral! It was a pure miracle how we found him. The address we got had a good road, but the house number did not exist, so we decided to knock on a random door that had a number near it and ask for the guy we were looking for, and it turned out it was him! That was a tender mercy. He's a really funny guy. I'm excited to go back and teach him.  And I finally got to meet one of the most incredible investigators here that Sister Ellis has been really excited about but has been sick a lot lately, so it took four weeks to get back in with her, but she is totally awesome.

Thursday was a crazy day. Planning for that day was super rough. And then as we were trying to contact the people we planed for the next day they all cancelled. All of them. Our day fell apart before it even began. We were still in companionship study and all of our plans had fallen through. So we decided to scratch all our plans for the day and go to Covington, a town we don't get to very often because it's so far away. We had several miracles happen after that. We went and saw a lady that we found a week before and she was walking up just as we pulled in, so we got to have a lesson with her right there. It was really good. Then we tried some others, had good run-ins, and then went to contact a referral that had never been contacted from way back in May, and when we gave her the Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon and told her about it she was super excited to read it and asked for our number so she could call us and set up an appointment. It was really cool. She also totally drove up as we were knocking on her door and we're just about to leave. Tender mercies! Then we went to an appointment with someone who had a baptismal date. Lately we had been thinking that we needed to talk to him without his wife there so we could get what he was feeling and thinking and we were thinking he wasn't saying much because she was super excited about it all. We had no idea how to facilitate that but we had been praying about it. Then we show up for our appointment, and he said that she was at the hospital with her dad (he'd had a surgery recently and it had gone over surprisingly well). So she wasn't there, but we asked if we could just talk to him outside right then. We had an amazing lesson with him. We got to talk about things and what he is feeling. He really opened up about things. We got to know where he is coming from more and just had an open conversation. He said that he still wasn't sure about his baptism, but that he just needed more time to pray about it all. It
was so cool. That day was full of miracles. All because we had had to re-plan the whole day, God knows how to get done what he needs to have happen.

On Friday you'd figure we would've learned to plan better after Thursday, but the same thing happened where everything feel apart as we were solidifying the day, so we had to re-plan the day, and then that day also miraculously turned out. After weekly planning we went and did service for a member, and her less active husband. He hasn't been open to missionaries in the past, but our service with him has really been softening his heat, and he super appreciates it, especially since they've been sick lately. We barely fit everything we needed to do that day, but it all worked out for the best. So many miracles that day too.

Saturday was really fun. We went way out in the country to see some investigators and we had a great time visiting with them and having a little lessons and being able to do some service with them too. They have a million animals. No joke. It's pretty much a farm. And we got to hold some kittens! It was really fun. That's mostly what happened that day. Except we did have an accidental less active lesson because we went to the wrong member's house, but it turned out great, and we have a dinner this week that we wouldn't have otherwise. It was fun. And finally Sunday... Well, we had a wonderful sacrament meeting. Church was as amazing as always. I just love going to church. We only had one investigator at church this week, but he is one that hasn't been here for a while, and it was really fun to sit with him and his family. We had a great lesson with the investigator that I finally met this week, and we were able to formally invite them to dinner with a member family that volunteered to have dinner in their home with an investigator. So we are really expected about that this week. 

 

Also, Sunday was such a funny experience when we went home to study. Sister Ellis took out one of the fruity tootsie rolls, and I asked her what flavor it was because with yellow you can never tell. We went through all the yellow flavors, and we came up with pineapple, lemon, pina colada, banana, and I was thinking really hard of other yellow flavors when I though of something that is yellow and yelled it out before I thought of what it was. CORNBREAD!! That's what I said. We laughed so hard I was sobbing. It was way too funny. 

 

Oh, it was a funny week. Just so fun. I love it. Also, something incredible that one of my district leaders once showed me, and I'm not sure if I've shared it with y'all yet. It's I. The Book of Mormon, a wonderful connection that means so much more when you understand the stories behind it. It's in 1 Nephi 1:20, "...But behold I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all the those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance." That is how the Book of Mormon starts, and then in Moroni 10:3, "Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall receive these things, if it be wisdom in God that he should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been u to the children of men..." That's how the book ends. Start to finish it is full of the tender mercies of the Lord.

 

I love his gospel. I know win all my heart it is true. He Book of Mormon is the word of God, as is the Holy Bible. They testify of the love our Heavenly Father has for us. It is a beautiful gospel that changes lives. I know it, and I love it.

Love Kimber
Sister Beckstrand

 

(This longest ever letter from my missionary with a testimony like that at the end...exactly what a mother wants to read!!! Cry, cry...

A Pomelo

 

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