🕺🏼😁😂👋😀👂👋😴 gosh, it's been a week...

Wow, this was a crazy week! It was also really hot, the temperature said it was in the 90's but the heat index was in the 100's, and we were out in it all week! We had a leadership training meeting on Tuesday where we got to know or mission president and his wife better. Man! They are inspired! Wow, I learned so much from them. It was great. And then all that afternoon evening in we walked and just talked to people and met quite a few cool people, and one interested person said we could come back. And then we met some pretty neat people from India on our way back.

Wednesday we had a great miracle of a new investigator. We have had this potential we haven't been able to see in a long time, but we've found people to teach in her neighborhood in the meantime. So as we were driving to go contact some of those people, we dropped her. Then we saw that her car was home, and none of the other people were, so we decided to just try her. And we had a beautiful lesson. We both felt very prompted to teach tithing. So we taught tithing. She totally accepted our challenge for her to pay tithing.  It was really cool, and we immediately un-dropped her.

Then that night we went on exchanges with the Jackson Sisters. I went to Jackson with Sister Tyree. We had so much fun, and again, it was soooooo hot. But, of course, that lead to one of our best miracles that day. We were contacting a bunch of people, and standing out in the hot sun for several hours. So we decided that we should get ourselves some ice cream or something for standing in the heat so long. At first we couldn't find anyplace to go for ice cream, so we decided that we'd pay attention as we drove to the next person we needed to see and go there after we saw them. So as we were driving we saw a snow cone place and we got to go there after we found the referral's house and talked to some people. The guy at the snow cone place is amazing. We taught him about the Book of Mormon, and then we taught him about keeping the Sabbath day holy. He was super nice, and they are totally going to go back and keep teaching him now! It was neat.

Snow cones!!! (Sis Tyree & Sis Beckstrand)

My old home

Then we exchanged back that evening and went straight to bed. Then on Friday we had weekly planning, and then another exchange. This time in Southaven to help our with the ASL, so I went to be in Southaven with Sister Fifield. We had so much fun! We contacted some deaf people, and we had a lesson with one deaf lady, and it was amazing because I totally understood pretty much everything she said I could follow our conversation!!! That was a miracle. It was great. We also had dinner one family's house, the same one as last time, that I found and then they got baptized in December, with the cute little kids. We had so much fun teaching them, the two little girls are preparing for their own baptism now. They gave us some fun art project things they made. That inspired us, so we went home and made our own with nail polish. Sister Fifield made Snoopy and I made a fancy jar. It was fun.

Our art projects!

Then the next day we went to ASL class where we were going to exchange back, and Sister Anderson and Sister Vaitai were a little late getting back to us, so I got to interpret for the deaf member that comes to the class. It was so fun to interpret again! Gosh! I've missed sign language.

Two exchanges this week was super exhausting, but we had so much fun. On Saturday we got to see this amazing less active in our ward. She's the one that we miraculously found a few weeks ago. She love it when we come over, and we have so much fun talking to her. She's so cute!!!

And then yesterday was the best and hard. The best because we got to go to church and take the sacrament. Yesterday was so good. Everything at church was amazing and I felt the spirit so strong. It was hard because nobody came to church, and we were both exhausted by our long week. But we had one really good lesson, and then a really good contact with a guy we found a couple weeks ago.

It was a long week, but we had so much fun with all the people we saw and met and all of our exchanges. We learned a ton, and loved a lot. It was so fun!!

Love y'all!
Kimber
Sister Beckstrand

18 Months!
(ASL "18" on the left)

Bartlittlepieceofheaven

I'm right by the temple now 💗

Look at these flowers!

I love Bartlett!! It's so fancy here! And Sister Anderson is AMAZING!!!!!! It's crazy to realize how long I've been out, and how much I still have to learn. President Wakolo leaves this week, and we will miss him so much! This week was strange and super long, but as usual it's over before we knew it. I have met so many people, and they are amazing. Heavenly Father loves to keep me busy, we got super overloaded at church yesterday with so many people we had to talk to, and so many people that came that we wanted to meet and get to know. There was a missionary homecoming yesterday and he had a ton of friends there. It was fun because he actually got called to sign halfway through his mission, so he needed us to go welcome some of his friends who came a little late so he told me from the other side of the chapel in the middle of the opening hymn that we needed to go help them. Via sign language. It was fun. Plus his friends are great. Seriously, sign language is a super power! Plus there were a few random run ins with members from past areas. At church there were two couples from Millington. That was fun. Then on Saturday we got to go help clean the temple. And I saw some members from Otter Creek, and I saw a lady from Mountain View. Who knew? I love this place. Also Saturday was just plain amazing. We decided to take a walk day that morning, so we had a member pick us up for a lesson we were having in her home. It's funny because that is the bishop's wife, and we had a lesson with a part member family and another family came to support them. That was a lesson just like one from the district. In the bishop's home too. It was so cool. The bishop here is amazing! He is so ready to help. Also, this is the first time I've ever had a bishop who was able to give us a bishop's blessing my second day here, have a lesson in his home that he set up with the investigators, and then have us over for dinner again later that day. This guy is amazing. He's great (he also doesn't have any kids at home, that might help). Also Saturday we went to go talk to a guy who is married to a less active, and on the doorstep we asked him if he's read the Book of Mormon, yes. and he wants to come back to church. What does he know about Joseph smith? Not much, just everything about his vision and how he translated the Book of Mormon and how Jesus used him the re-establish his church. You know, just everything. So do you believe he's a prophet? Yes. Have you prayed about it? Yes. Seriously? Yes. Do you want to be baptized? Yes. So we set a date with him right there on his doorstep. He's amazing.

Then on Thursday we had prayed to find a new investigator and have a lesson that we did not plan for. Then Heavenly Father answered our prayers with a beautiful woman and her cute little boy. She was talking about stuff with who God and Jesus are, and it didn't really make sense, but we share the first vision with her and when we talked about what Joseph Smith saw (JS-H 1:16-17) her face lit up. Then when she said the closing prayer she thanked God for sending the ladies to give her answers she's been searching for for a very long time. She's amazing!! 

Those are just a few of the miracles this week. There were many more, but John 21:25 says it perfectly. The Lord is good (D&C 33:7-15). And Sister Anderson is wonderful. He birthday was yesterday! She just turned 20!!!!!! So we had a lot of fun yesterday. 

I love this! AND........Sister H. got baptized yesterday!!!!! I had to leave right before it, but she is beautiful! And I am so excited and happy for her! She is beautiful. It was such a fun week. 

Love y'all! 

Kimber

Sister Beckstrand

From Sis Brummett's email about their investigator baptism:

CONGRATULATIONS TO C FOR BEING BAPTIZED YESTERDAY!!!!!

She has been waiting so long and it was so worth it! (D&C 20:37)The baptism was beautiful and the Spirit in the room was the strongest I have felt in a while. So many people came to support her. Beautiful talks were given and beautiful music was sung! C was glowing! You could tell how happy she was after her baptism! I love her with all my heart, and I cannot wait to see her grow in the true church of Christ! (I swear, she's going to become a Young Women's president.)

Look at that hair! 

Happy Birthday Sister Anderson!

The gospel of Jesus Christ!

Look at that sunset! Can you see us?

Happy fourth of July in a week!

If You Talk to That Lady I'll Open the Door

All the ASL sisters and the Little Rock STLs visiting
over lunch about the exchanges

That's my boy! Love this kid, he loves the Book of Mormon
(She got to see him, her first mission baptism, while
on exchanges in her first mission area last week!)

♥ It looks like these sisters heart-attached their investigator's
door with notes and scripture hearts! ♥

Saw this girl again!

So many miracles this week. I can't even try to write them all.

So back when Sister Brumett was having her very first walk week, about 2 transfers ago, we met this great man, who was so ready for the gospel. We shared a bit with him, and then set a return appointment. And then he missed the return appointment. And then we were super busy, so we were never able to get back to his house. So, those two transfers roll by, and then we have an opportunity Monday to go by his house again. When we get there he's still waiting for us. Not only did he remember us, but he had read the pamphlet we gave him, and he wanted to know more, he wanted our number, and he accepted a baptismal date! He has been waiting for us this whole time. So now we are working with him, and he's really cool. (2 Nephi 2:24) (For Sis Brummett's account of this story, see below.)

This week we had ASL exchanges!!!! I got to go to Southaven! (I love that place) with Sister Vaitai! It was so fun! And I signed the whole time I was there, no matter what. It was hard, but not as hard as I though it would be. We had dinner with a family I had found while I was there, (and they are baptized now) and they totally remembered me! And we got to talk about the plan of salvation with them. It was so fun! And that night we Skyped with a deaf lady who is so cute! And she really wants to come to church, she just hasn't been able to find the address, so we texted it to her after. That was so exciting! She is so sweet!

The second day of the exchange we went to go see the first person I baptized. His mom is deaf, so we got to see her (she's still not baptized, but she knows it! She'll get there) but it was a bad time to see her, so we went to the library to see him (the guy I baptized-well as much as a sister can 😂), and we taught him a lesson in sign language because we couldn't talk, it's the library. That was really fun, using my language. We tried a bunch of deaf people, but no one was home or available. So we went to dinner, which just so happened to be with the family that I got to go to the temple with a couple months ago. I was fun to talk with them for an hour and to continue signing. I think I've improved a lot. Then we got to go teach ASL class. That was a lot of fun. We started working on sentence structure. Also I got to see one of the deaf members again. We had a better conversation than I was able to have with him before. I've learned a ton in the last year. (2 Nephi 28:30) Then we had ward correlation. Wow, it was cool to see all the members again, to see how the work continues to progress, to see the new people they are working with. To meet the investigators, to find new people for them to teach, some that I remember from before. One time we were driving to a deaf member's house and we saw this lady and I got the prompting to get out and talk to her, so we went and talked to her and turns out she probably talked to me a year ago, and she's been reading the Book of Mormon and loves it, and she's been dropped, but her follow up date was three days from the day we saw her and talked to her, and the appointment we set was on her follow up date. That was a really cool miracle. And I don't know if that even made sense, but it was neat. I love Sister Vaitai, she is so fun to work with, and she is so strong. I love how much she devotes to the work, how important it is for her to serve, even giving up Volleyball for it. The Lord will bless her beyond her dreams for it, we heard a story about that yesterday from the general authority who came for stake conference. It was so cool.

Then the next day we came home and all of the ASL sisters, and the Little Rock STLs went to lunch to talk about the exchange. It was good I feel like we learned a lot, and I definitely learned a ton, and next time is going to be even better.

Also, this week we finagled a ride out to a family we really needed to see, but they weren't home, again, so we were debating between going home and going finding around there, or going to try to do service at a member's home who live near. We decided on the service thing. We show up and knock on the door. Her goddaughter was there and let us in, she said that the Sister was sleeping but we were welcome to do the dishes (yes!! our goal!) and so we got to work. About a half hour later, we are nearly done and Sister Brumett is struggling to figure out where to put the rest of the dishes, the Sister gets up and walks out into the kitchen, right then I remember that she'd had surgery the day before so I ask how she's doing and everything. She was so thankful that we had come by, she said that she was planning on doing the dishes when she woke up, and that she had thought about calling us, but had decided not to. And then we just so happened to show up. The Spirit is amazing. (Alma 26:27, 3 Nephi 5:13, Alma 18:16, Matthew 25:40, D&C 8:2-3, 8-9)

On Saturday we had our first (1 1/2) ASL class for this ward, and there were six people there! A member in our ward and her son, our recent convert and his wife, and one of our investigators and her daughter. It was super fun, we got to play some games that help remember the signs. They all loved it.

This week was stake conference! I love stake conference. We got to go to the Youth meeting, and then the next day we went to the Adult meeting with our recent convert and his wife. It was so good. And we were interpreting for it at the same time. That was fun. When President and Sister Wakolo stood up to talk, I hunk they had a shorter time than planned, and I was interpreting for them, and after Sister Wakolo said a few things President started to speak. I'm pretty sure he said everything he planned on saying, because he was talking super fast, the Gift of Tongues is so real! He was spouting scriptures so fast, and I could not keep up. But I loved it because it just shows how well he knows his scriptures and the doctrine, and literally I have no idea if the things I signed made sense, but no matter how confused I was, my hands kept moving, so I know Heavenly Father was helping. (It made more sense to those who weren't trying to interpret it because I'm trying to think of signs I know and sentence structure at that point. (Ether 12:27)) Then the next day was Stake conference!!!!!!!! And we had five people show up!!! It was amazing! And they loved it! There was a musical number with a violin and piano and flute (there was supposed to be a violist ❤️ but he got sick 😢) , and Sister Brumett sang! It was beautiful. And I got to stand up with her and sign the song. It was super fun because in our Stake we have 3 languages, English, Spanish, and American Sign Language. So Sister Brumett sang a verse in English, then a verse in Spanish and I signed the whole thing. 💗 (Acts 10:34 is one of my new favorite scriptures) It was so amazing! And President and Sister Wakolo and the other general authority Elder Thompson and then the stake presidency sitting right behind us. No pressure.

Then we went to go see our other recent convert, the one we haven't been able to see in two weeks, and his wife, who's date got moved to this Saturday (it's happening this time, I know it) and they were expecting us, but again, just like usual, their door did not get opened to us. So like usual, they were either sleeping, or had forgotten or something and weren't there. So we are standing there praying that the door would open, and the thought comes to our minds, "If you talk to that lady I'll open the door." So as we walked up to their house, we passed this lady, we said hi, but we really needed to see them, so we didn't do much else. Then she went inside, and then came back out. We needed to talk to her. So we went and had a really good conversation with her, and we gave her a Book of Mormon, and invited her to an activity President Wakolo is putting on tonight. It was a really good conversation, and we are going back to teach her soon. It was amazing. Then we went back to the house and knocked again. Nothing. So we went back to our car. And right as were we're getting in the car, he called us, he opened his door, and we got out of the car, and went into his home for a wonderful lesson with him and his wife. It was so good, and the Lord always answered our prayers (Ether 12:6). That's how it works.

This week was amazing, and that does not even begin to cover all the miracles this week. It was so fun, and I learned a ton, and I want to say that I love the scriptures. When you teach from the scriptures by the Spirit, concerns are resolved, problems disappear. And it's the best when you can say, the Lord commands this because of this verse right here (a baptismal interview? Moroni 6:2, we are asked to do that by God). I love my life. It's amazing.

Love y'all!
Kimber

P.S.
This just happened:
Sis. Brumett-D&C 9:8 ...and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you. Yes! I love this scripture!
Sis. Beckstrand-My tablet is overheating.
Sis. Brumett-It's 'cus you have so many scriptures in there (referring to my email).
...
Sis. Brumett-It's bosom is burning!!
Haha 😂 I love her!

Sister Beckstrand

We saw President and Sister Wakolo on the long drive
to Memphis, and Jasmine was in the back seat!

I think this is Sis Vaitai

*Sis Brummett's account:

So, my first week out here in Arkansas, we met an older man named Kevin, but haven't been able to see him since. When we tried to visit him, he wasn't home, so we moved on. But, Kevin kept coming back to my mind every once and a while, so this week, we went to see him. He was home! We asked if he remembered us, and he said "uh... yeah!" (He said it like "no duh," it was hilarious!) We talked a little more, and I asked if he remembered anything we had talked to him about. Again, "uh... yeah!" We talked some more, and the Spirit said to ask him to be baptized. I was thinking, "We haven't even taught him anything about the gospel yet!" But, I listened to the Spirit and asked him. Guess what his response was....? "Uh.... yeah!" Haha I love this man! Now, he is loving the Book of Mormon, and says he feels so good when he reads it! (1 Nephi 1:12)

We also got another beautiful tribute email this week:

My wife are serving in the office at the Arkansas Little Rock Mission and we attend church in Little Rock, where your daughters are serving together as ASL missionaries.

Yesterday was our stake conference, and we arrived early to sit and wait for the meeting to begin.  As we waited, your daughters were there practicing to present a song during the meeting, and so we had the privilege of hearing Sister Brumett sing and Sister Breckstrand sign this lovely song, ‘Love One Another’.  They were accompanied by the piano, a violin, a cello, and a flute.  What a blessing to us to hear them sing and sign that beautiful song, done in English and Spanish probably 6 times with the practice and then in the meeting.  The practice was for the instruments, not for their performance. The angels in heaven could not have done a better job.  We are still touched by the memory of both of them. 

Thank you for raising such fine young women and supporting them as they share their great talents and their testimonies with the people here in Arkansas.

Sincerely,

Elder and Sister Hartzell

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

A good week! 😊 Feeling the love!!

More hats!

I love her!!!

District picture

This week was crazy! It was walk week, and it was super busy and productive. There was also a lot of weird stuff that happened, but it was all really amazing in the end. It all started out Monday night. We went walking, and as per our goal of truly talking to everyone, we found quite a few new investigators. For Monday night. One of the guys we met was walking down the street, and so we walked home with him talking about the restored gospel and such. It was super fun. He's a nice guy.

Then on Tuesday we started out with a miracle ride to district meeting, and that was just great. Lots of inspiration coming there. Then we were also able to get a miracle ride to our next appointment. It was a deaf guy and his son! We had a good meeting with them, and it was super fun to start teaching in sign, we were voicing at the same time, but it worked! The gift of tongues is real people. Then we started walking to the next person we wanted to see. And we did a lot of talking and finding as we walked. One sad part is we talked to this old guy, he's actually a pastor for a church, but we talked to him about the Book of Mormon, and he refused to take one. He felt the Spirit with it, and he agreed with the scripture we shared with him, but he was not interested in reading it. It was so sad. Someday he'll need it though, so hopefully he'll have another chance to take it. We really found a lot of people that day though, and mostly on that walk to our investigator's house. Also, this woman is amazing! One of my most favorite-est people ever! P is so funny, and so fun to be around. We were talking to her about things and she asked us if we needed anything to drink, and Sister Brumett asked if she had any water. P paused and looked down at her cup of water and said, "No, I haven't got any water." And Sister Brumett replied that that was a bad question and could she have some water? To which P said of course, and then she offered cranberry juice as another option, and so of course I took that one. She reminds me a lot of Grandmother. Then we continued talking-I think we were asking about the priesthood blessing she'd received a couple days earlier and asking what she felt from it, and then about helping her with anything she needed service-wise, and then talked about how she loves trees and rocks and flowers and just beautiful nature that Heavenly Father gave us -and we got onto the subject of how we didn't have a ride home and were quite stranded at her house, and so she offered us a ride. We gratefully accepted and we all got in her car. She had some white sticky stuff on her steering wheel that she said had come from an ice cream cone that was too soft and she hadn't gotten to cleaning if off yet, and of course now that we were talking about it we all had to go out for ice cream too now. So she took us to her favorite place and got us all a cone. One the ride back we talked a lot about temples and eternal families and how in order to go there one had to be baptized. She's been contemplating baptism for a long time, but hasn't committed yet, but by the end of our ride home we had committed her to look at a calendar and pray and ask Heavenly Father when He would like her to do it. It was such a wonderful time with her, and the Spirit was so strong. I just love her. Sister Brumett told her that the temple is better than trees and rocks and flowers and that she should try to get there as soon as she can because there is no better place on earth, and I totally agree. Then we went to do some service at the library. I just love libraries. They are so amazing, even though I cannot partake of their blessings at this moment, I still appreciate them. And the librarians there are so nice! I love them all, and we gave all of them cards with the link to he amazing new Easter video (which y'all should watch if you haven't yet-its amazing) and told them a little about it. I just love those people 😍. Then we got a ride from a wonderful member that is just a hoot to be around, and we met her for the first time when she picked us up there. I just love her. She took us to our next appointment who ended up not being there, which was weird, but then she took us back to the library after that because I ended up leaving my bag there and we barely made it there in time before the library closed, so all went well, TENDER MERCIES!!!😁 And then we saw Dick and Linda. They really are some of the best people ever! I love them. And it makes their day when we go by, and I love being able to stop by everyday for a few minutes to keep them uplifted. They are so cute!

And then came Wednesday. This is the day it stared to get really interesting. We were in the middle of trying to plan for the day, and were doing a terrible job of focusing when President Jones called and said to go over to the Hermanas apartment because Hermana Quigley was going to spend the day with us and then her companion was going to spend the day with the STLs. This was rather surprising, but we grabbed our sticks (Ezekiel 37:16-19) and ran over there. Then we continued to attempt to plan while we were all sitting there very confused as to what was going on and trying to figure it out and waiting for the STLs to show up. When they got there we went back to our apartment and finished planning, adding in the Hermanas appointments and our plans magically fit! Heavenly Father and the Spirit knew, that's why it was so rough before. Also, even though it was our walk week, it was not their walk week, so we now had a car to work with! Yay, life became so much easier, but we still wanted to focus on finding, so our goals were heavily focused on that. Then we went and taught a lesson to a Spanish investigator for the Hermanas, and I am thoroughly impressed with Hermana Quigley, she's only 8 weeks old, and she was able to teach a whole lesson in Spanish without any previous training. I understood nothing of course, but the spirit was strong. It was fun. Then we came home for lunch and language study which I totally enjoy, I love learning ASL. After that we went to contact some investigators we hadn't seen in too long, and met one of them and her cousins, we had a really great lesson one, and set a date with them. They are really cool, and they really liked the message of the restoration. And Hermana Quigley's testimony really got them. Heavenly Father is definitely in charge. We saw another investigator and did many other things that day,  one of the most surprising things was at the end of the day, after Book of Mormon class (by the way we talked about Ether 3 this week, which is my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon because of the incredible events there. I love that book!) we found out that our little trio would last the night too. So we all went home, and grabbed Hermana Quigley's stuff from next door, it was useful having her apartment right next door. It helped with food and stuff.

So that was just Wednesday, on Thursday we had more fun things. It didn't start off super fun though. After our studies (which were great as always) we went to grab some food from Hermana Quigley's apartment and on our way back Sister Brumett felt prompted to go by Dick's to see if he was ok. We walked up at a time when he'd given into some temptation, and was feeling really down. We were so sad that he was struggling and we said that we would be back in an hour or so after we'd eaten our lunch and seen somebody we had an appointment with. During lunch we thought of a plan, and we were so excited to start with him. We stopped by after lunch to see how he felt about it and then went off to accomplish it, and see the person we had an appointment with. On our way back we stopped by the church to grab a wheelchair and see if the Family History Center was open, it was technically closed, but a member in the ward was still working in it, and they said we could still bring them. So we ran home to get Dick and Linda (the wheelchair was for Linda since she couldn't walk all the way to the church). They loved it! The whole walk there was so fun for them, and they weather was just beautiful. And Linda and I got there before Dick and Sister Brumett and Hermana Quigley, so she called them slow pokes! She is so cute! And they just loved it there! At first we were a little rushed with time, we had an appointment to get to, but we felt that this really needed to happen. And then our appointment cancelled, and it suddenly worked out to give them what they needed. And they really just loved it so much! We are so excited to take them back this week. After we took them back home we went back to P's house and did some exercise for her again. And then she took us out to ice cream again. I love her! Then we saw our other investigator, and it was pretty rushed with him, and we felt really bad, but it was so good that we got to see him. So that morning during exercise we received a phone call that brought information that Hermana Quigley's companion was going home the next day, so we had to then go meet up with them to give them the key to the apartment  so she could go pack. Then our appointment fell through which was sad, but we got to go try another person that ended up not being there, but it was good stuff. The we went and got dinner at chick fil a, and then played volleyball with the Ward during dinner. It was so fun.

Then Friday came, we got most of our weekly planning done and then had to run out to an appointment, which also fell through, but we talked to an amazing lady, and started to teach her too. She is so great! I'm excited to keep teaching her. Then we went and had an amazing unplanned lesson with an investigator we haven't been able to see in a while. I love teaching by the Spirit. I learn so much, and it actually teaches the person what they need to know. Plus, there are things that I can say as a set apart missionary that I would not have the authority to say if I were not such. I feel like I learned a lot about the setting apart this week. There is a cool quote I found in PMG (Preach My Gospel, missionary study guide) this week that really helped me understand it, "The setting apart may be taken literally; it is a setting apart from sin, apart from the carnal; apart from everything which is crude, low, vicious, cheap, or vulgar; set apart from the world to a higher plane of thought and activity. The blessing is conditional upon faithful performance” (Spencer W. Kimball). It really is true, and from that we can say things that no one else can. It was amazing. Then we went to do more service at the library, but as we were walking in we met this wonderful woman in the parking lot, and we started to teach her right there. She has an amazing desire to learn, and she had all the right questions. She is so excited to meet with us again, and we can't wait to share more with her. Then we had more productive things happen including contacting a referral who ended up being amazing and we are going back soon. And then right as we were coming in for dinner, Hermana Quigley's new companions arrived. They took our Quigley away! It was so sad! But we truly enjoyed having her with us for those few days.

And finally Saturday, we were able to get a member to go with us to contact some people we planned on seeing, we had fun with her, and she was able to take us to a deaf family's home and we got to meet them and talk to them a little bit. They were super nice. And then she dropped us off at a less active lady's home for her granddaughters birthday party. It was fun, and we were able to help her out a bit with it. And then after that we were able to coordinate a ride home from a member, and then go see Dick and go out walking again. It was a good day,  it a little less eventful than the day before. Also for some strange reason we were exhausted that day. It was a relief to go to bed.

And then on Sunday morning we were refreshed and ready to go again. We had a wonderful time at church, Sister Brumett is a great interpreter. I love the deaf people. And the sacrament was beautiful. I've been studying the sacrament prayers this week a little, and I thought it was interesting that it is blessed and sanctified for the souls. Not done thinking about it, but I think it is interesting that we bless it, like the rest of our food for our bodies, but then we sanctify it for to bless our souls. To renew our covenant with the Father. And it is especially powerful during a Fast Sunday because then your boys (body?) enjoys it even more, and your spiritual side is already being fulfilled, and then during the sacrament it is the most tangible physical way to feed the soul, and I just think that is beautiful, and there is definitely more to this, but I'm not done studying it. After church we got a car again! And it's another one of those fancy cars, Chevy Malibu. I'm a spoiled missionary. But it was great because we got to go out to see some people, and had a wonderful visit with a sweet lady who is less active, and she invited us over to dinner for Easter! I love her!!

And then the most beautiful lesson all week (maybe because it happened just last night, but it was incredible), we saw C, and he's been in a lot of pain the last few day, and he's having surgery his Tuesday, and we felt prompted to offer him a priesthood blessing. So we called the ward mission leader and as he was figuring it out we gave C a beautiful lesson completely by the spirit. It was a word of wisdom lesson, but the most beautiful way I've ever done it before. We started with the plan of salvation, with how we will get perfect bodies back in the resurrection and how when we lived with Heavenly Father before we accepted to come to earth and receive our bodies. We talked about how it is a gift from God and we accepted his directions. And then we talked about the instructions he's given us for it and we focused hugely on the blessings. He accepted it all and completely agreed with it. He is such a humble man, and the Spirit is working so strongly with him! Then the ward mission leader called and said he was there with an elder from the church. And they came in and gave C a beautiful blessing. The priesthood is amazing, and I just love this place. I love the people we are teaching, I love the ward, I love Arkansas. The Atonement is real! And the scriptures are the most wonderful things ever! I don't know how I lived without them! I barely touched them before, but now I can't put them down! Thank you for all your prayers, and thank you for making it to the end of my incredibly long letter, I love y'all and hope you have a great week!

Love y'all!
Kimber
Sister Beckstrand

Here we are again

Aren't we cute?!

Ice cream cones!

Mmmm!

Threesome in the park