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

The people are always golden on the Otter side of the Creek!

Sister Esplin is really good at these titles. 😃 (Asked her how she got a title from Sis Esplin already, and she said, "I just talked to her - we just talked on the phone - and asked her for a title, I've been doing it for all my areas since we got separated. ")

Sis Fifield & Sis Beckstrand

Also, this week has been so fun! Whitewashing is great! This Ward is great! We have a great guy we are teaching that is so excited for his baptism at the end of this month. And we have met so many great people! And we are going to be doing ASL work! We haven't been able to meet with many deaf people outside of church yet, but that'll probably change this week. And we found out yesterday morning that we were starting walk week right after church. So we are car-less. And so far it's been great 😅. At least we found a ride to grocery shopping this morning. So, ya, my area is a little section in SW Little Rock, and we can go outside of our area for ASL work, but we haven't done it yet. My new address is .... It's really nice that the church building is literally a five minute walk from where we live. It's like being back home again. Fun stuff!

And Sister Fifield and I have had a ton of fun already! This transfer is going to be so fun! We've gotten to know each other really well already, it doesn't feel like it's only been a week, it feels like it's been longer. And we are also in sync for our mission timeline! We will be going home together! She's from Kaysville Ut, and she does voice acting for people on YouTube. (Look up 'Bloctor Who' she's Scarlet). She does a lot of fun things. Lots of crafty artsy stuff, it's fun to watch her work! It's great.

Blessing this week:
Yesterday we were sitting in the foyer waiting for the bishop to text us back when I saw the Tithing slip and envelope on the wall, and decided to grab one, I was thinking why am I getting this now? I've got a couple weeks until the first of the month, but I grabbed it anyway and stuck it in my bible. Then last night we were teaching our investigator about Tithing and Sister Fifield started explaining how the slip looked and worked and then I remembered that I had one in my bible! So we were able to have that and to give it to him so he could see it and have one. It was so cool! And I loved to see how the Spirit was able to just make me grab one even though I didn't need it yet. It strengthened my testimony of following the Spirit, even if the lesson would have gone well without it, it made it better that we were able to have one.

It was a great week.

Love y'all!
Kimber
Sister Beckstrand

PS - And no, I'm not in the area of the mission office anymore, so I don't get to go there unless it's a big meeting or something. But one of the office couples goes to this ward so I get to see them on Sunday, it's fun. 

The following pictures appear to be from Sister Beckstrand's previous area, Mountain View:

The best people in the world!

Hiking! In our service project!

 

Driving in the car!

My district!

"He's shaped like a corndog"

Look at that tiny dog!! She's full grown too!

This week was so good. And so exhausting. So many times this week I just fell into bed and fell asleep so fast it was disorienting in the morning. We had a couple incredible meetings this week, first being the Worldwide Missionary Training Broadcast. It was so good, and there were some pretty crazy changes made. The key indicators have changes, we only have four now, and our schedule has been changed. It's going to be an interesting change, but so far it's been great 👍. The other meeting that was incredible was with Elder Neil L. Anderson. The whole mission was there. It was a great experience. I'm still reviewing my notes, but I loved how they talked about giving up everything to Heavenly Father. And Elder Anderson encouraged us to memorize scriptures from the Holy Bible and the Book to Mormon. It was such a great meeting. And it was made even better by the fact that our two recent converts and the Ward mission leader and his girlfriend (who happens to be another recent convert) were our ride, and they stayed for the missionary meeting, and then they went to the youth meeting right after! It was so great.

Another thing that made Sister Lloyd and me so proud, we felt like mothers to their children, was when our branch president switched up the speakers for sacrament meeting and had the youth speak on what they learned from Elder Anderson, and both S & A talked about things they learned and said how they knew the Church was true and gave the best testimonies ever!!! And S blessed the sacrament yesterday!!! It was the best. 😄 We just kept looking at each other and smiling and thinking that they were the best people ever. (Plus it totally let me off the hook for a talk I was going to give on the sacrament. So that worked out 😁)

This area is amazing! The people 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦👨‍👩‍👧‍👦here are the best! And there are so many prepared hearts💕! 

And the title of this letter comes from our conversation in the car on the way home (2-2 1/2 hour drive) - apparently that's a thing. They also said that there are some (persons?) shaped like a sucker. It was a funny moment. 

Last night was the first time we didn't have daily planning at night🌄. It's in the mornings now🌅. And it's a good thing because we shut down! We were so exhausted. Sister Lloyd and I were talking in the southern accent, and she said something so completely southern that I died! I just laughed until tears were rolling down my cheeks. 😂 It was the best. 

This week was so good! And we have a possible baptism this weekend. We'll see how it goes, cross your fingers and pray really hard! He is so ready and prepared!! It'll happen sometime anyway, but everyone is hoping this weekend. 

This was just a wonderful week. I spent a lot of time studying the sacrament, and it was neat to learn about it. One thing that I've appreciated understanding better is why we need to take it every week. I understood that that was a thing, and because we are so forgetful as human beings, but it was interesting to connect that as we partake of it weekly we are a continual representative of Jesus Christ. We renew our pledge to him that we will stand as a witness of Him, and the moment we decide to not take the sacrament we make that witness void. We are turning down the Atonement in our lives and put our access to it on hold until we partake of it again. It's a serious matter. That's not to say that if we can't take it for one reason or another we are making that witness void, it's the choice, us using our agency to run down that gift that He's commanded we receive weekly. That hit me pretty hard this week. There is such a thing as being too sick to get there to take it, and things like stake and general conference that prevent that from happening, but those moments are important to help us recognize the difference so we can appreciate it more when we have that opportunity again. Just like when we're sick and we enjoy being healthy so much more for it. Just never choose to be sick- not to take the sacrament. That is when we receive that damnation our soul-we quit growing and changing to be more like Christ. 

I love the gospel. I love the Lord. I love His mercy, His love, His peace, His comfort. Even though I fall so short of the mark, He is still there lifting me and helping me to be better. Sometime I feel like I can't do all He has asked of me, but then I remember who He is (or rather the Spirit reminds me) and I know that I can do it, because He is the one who asked it of me. Because He knows what I can became and He knows how to get me there. I can do all things with God, I just have to humble myself and accept His will. The great and spacious building that is the pride of the world is so huge!! Even the most humble of men still has a rather large corner of that building. There is pride in humility. But as I give it all to Heavenly Father there is strength and growth. I know He is real. God the Father lives. He loves us. Jesus Christ lives and serves us with all He has. I am so grateful for this knowledge and the opportunity to share it with so many people here. 

I love y'all! Thank you for everything you do, and especially for who you are! 

Love Kimber 

Sister Beckstrand

Here we are, enjoying dinner after the meeting with Elder Anderson

Everyone looks so good!

Bubbles! It was a fun week!

In her response to Mom's letter, (for one thing I asked her about the weather):

 You know, it's funny, but it's actually been really nice here lately. Not too cold, but still pretty chilly. It's been hanging around the fifties. Sometimes it gets chilly, but it's been staying nice. It's crazy because it's nearly January, but it feels like it's getting warmer. The trees have even started to bud!!! 

This area is significantly larger than my last areas. And here are a lot of dirt roads we drive on. We have full car (a car all the time) but we do have to take seven walk days a month. It's nice though, we get to plan it and put it on useful days. And the miles are specific for every area. It depends on how big the area is, and what other areas are in the car share. A lot of things go into it, but they work it out...

...It's funny, I can totally feel the difference when we sit down to plan for the next day and start discussing things and we start trying to figure it out, but it's not working and then we stop and remember that we were going to pray, and then it all works out somehow after we pray, it gets better and sometime the day seems to plan itself. It's really fun when ya happens. And it's interesting to note the difference. 

Love you Mom! Kimberly

"I'm so thankful and so tired"

Thank you for the title, Sister Lloyd, my sentiments exactly!

This week has been incredible. Can I just say? Two incredible weeks in a row, and now I'm so very tired. This week we had two people get baptized!!! They are the best people ever!! And then S got the priesthood the very next day, they were confirmed in sacrament meeting and then in priesthood he was conferred with the Aaronic priesthood and ordained of the office of Priest! Unfortunately we missed to ordination because Sister Lloyd was playing piano in primary. But that's ok, we were there for everything else.

Ashley and me 😃 (and Sister Lloyd in the background)
when S&A were getting interviewed.

Add caption

Brett (the Ward mission leader), S & A, Brother Gonser (Brett's Dad)

This whole week was great. It started off with a bang when we were actually productive in cleaning the house, and we swept the WHOLE HOUSE, and I'm pretty sure it had never been swept before since the missionaries first moved in. So it was a pretty big pile we had to throw away. Then we had S&A's interview, and it went really well. And then we had a great lesson and dinner at the home of a part member family who shall not be part member for long. 😋 anyway, they are a super neat family, and they make some good soup.

Tuesday we went and helped out at the Stone County museum. It was FREEZING ❄️❄️, and super fun. I ended up learning a lot about this area's history. I probably won't remember much, but it was fun. Then we went and tried a bunch of people, no one was available. We finally had a lesson with a sweet lady and it was great because the Relief Society president was able to be there with us. She is preparing for baptism in the upcoming month and so far she is loving the things we teach her.

So then on Wednesday we had an incredible zone meeting (that we had to drive our own car two hours (138 miles) to get to😞) and we learned sooooo much! And our role play went really well. It was fun, and a neat new way President had us do it, we all broke off into groupie of four or five companionships and then took turns teaching each other and evaluation it. We were introducing the Book of Mormon and then leading into the Restoration. Also, the mission is moving onto phase three, we are now using Skype and FaceTime to work with our investigators and members and such (warning: don't even try to contact me, I will turn you down). Also, we are going to have a giant mission wide meeting in North Little Rock (yes, you heard right, the whole mission in one place) with Elder Neil L. Anderson of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It's going to be incredible. I'm so excited! After the meeting we did a lot of finding in our area. We found one guy that could be promising. We'll see how that goes. Then as we were knocking one last door, when it was nice a dark outside we heard a howl. I thought nothing of it until Sister Lloyd said that it was wolfs, so then I started booking it to the car and she followed. We totally almost got eaten by wolfs! Just kidding, it was probably an overreaction, and probably just dogs; she was just joking. We had a good laugh though. We went back and knocked a couple days later, no one answered that time either.

Then Thursday was yet another day that began with several hours of service. We help out every week at a cute thrift store/food pantry and help put together bags of food for the people that need it. It's really fun, and I like the people there. Later that day we had a really good lesson with a guy the missionaries have been teaching for a while. He's got some pretty rough concerns, but he keeps coming back trying to figure it out. Hopefully he'll be able to get the answer he needs. Pray for him y'all, he could use it.

And then Friday came, along with weekly planning. It blindsided us, this week went by so fast. Other than planning not much happened until dinner, we had dinner with some members, and then after we had another lesson with the family that we had taught on Monday at their house. It was really great. We get a lot of Preach My Gospel and The District type lessons here (setting-wise, I don't know about the teaching). It's really fun.

On Saturday we had kind of a slow day, but surprisingly we got some big stuff done. And then in the evening we had S&A's baptism!!! And we even had an investigator (she was their friend) there!! Another investigator we had invited tried to come, but she came too early and left before we were able to catch her 😢. Oh well, it was a good service anyway. Afterwards we went out to dinner with the Ward mission leader and his recent convert girlfriend and our recently baptized members and their friend. It was really fun to see how excited they all were, and be with young people our age for a minute. We also had a really neat conversation about the Book of Mormon, and the friend who came to the baptism (we'd had a lesson with her a couple weeks ago) had been reading the Book of Mormon, and studying it and been finding connections and answers from things in the Bible she's wondered about. It was really neat.

And Sunday was just fun. S&A were confirmed, so that was a plus. After church we had a potluck with some really great food. And then we went out to work and had a couple really good lessons before we finished the week.

It was a wonderful week, and we had several people mention that Sister Lloyd and I teach really well together and that our companionship unity it really good. It was so funny, many times this week we would go to do the same thing, or have he same thought of what to teach, a scripture to use, something that needed to be done. And even just an opinion about something. It was really funny.

This whole week was just great. We had so many things happen, and just as Sister Lloyd said, "I'm so thankful and so tired."

Thank y'all for all your prayers and support, I love y'all!

Kimber
Sister Beckstrand

I love this pic of the mirror in the baptismal font!

Cream Cheese is the universal ingredient

Sister Lloyd & Sister Beckstrand

Sister Daily, maybe?

This week was a miracle week. We taught so many people, and set so many dates!! There are just so many prepared people here. I love Mountain View.

Sister Lloyd is really fun. We talk really well, and we agree on lots of things. It's been fun to laugh with her about stuff we do, think, what happens to us. All the things.

This week on exchanges Sister Daily came here and Sister Lloyd went to Searcy. It was a great experience to teach with Sister Daily. I loved how much she just shared the gospel whenever we talked to anyone. Even the waitress at dinner. It has inspired me to do better. Also, she had the goal to ask for referrals, and ever since three I've been better at asking for referrals than I have been my whole mission so far. It was a good exchange. And I learned so much.

One time this week we taught a restoration lesson with a young woman who is the friend of A, our investigator, and it went pretty well. We had two members there, recent convert and the Ward mission leader, and then S and A, the ones getting baptized this Saturday, there for her lesson. We even set a date with her! Then right as her lesson ended they wanted to have S and A's lesson because they couldn't make it to the appointment we set for the next day, and we hadn't prepared for their lesson yet. It was on the priesthood, and the rest of the points in lesson five they hadn't gotten yet. So we kind of just winged it. The Spirit helped a ton, and it ended up being a really good lesson. And it was really neat to have a big lesson on the priesthood with the new investigator there having just talked about the restoration. It was a fun experience.

By the way people, we have a double baptism this Saturday!!!! S and A are getting baptized this weekend! And they are so ready! I love them they are hey best. And so fun to teach and talk to. They have such strong testimonies it is so inspiring.

We also figured out that cream cheese works with everything. We've been trying to think of things that it would taste bad with all week, but so far we've found nothing. It literally goes with everything!

This week I have been thinking a lot about how the spirit works with people, and how Heavenly Father's hand is manifest in our lives. We have an investigator who is struggling big time recognizing that God is there, he can't recognize the blessing God has given him. It got me thinking, and as I studied and though about things I have gained a clearer understanding of the Lords hand in my life and in the works in general. I found the scripture in Moroni 7:12-13 where is says that all good things come from God, and anything that invite them and entice do good is from God. And then I realized even more that the Spirit is always talking, always encouraging us to be better. Always telling us things, in all the positive, enticing to do good thoughts. That Heavenly Father is so incredibly busy because of all the positive things in my life. His hand is so prevalent in the world that people miss it. They assume that it is just coincidence, or that providence is kind, or they're lucky, or that's just how life is, but really it's all a gift from God. Just because He loves us most of the time. Heavenly Father is the best!!!

Love y'all!
Kimber
Sister Beckstrand

Evidence that they are in the South!

A MOUNTAIN VIEW of Zion

Ok, I can't take credit for that, (the title?) it was Sister Esplin, but I figured it would work for this weeks email. First off, I'm feeling so much better, thank you for all your prayers. Second, I LOVE MOUNTAIN VIEW!!!!! This place is amazing, and while I am desperately missing Millington, this place is great. We have three people that have baptismal dates, and two of them are for next week. They even came to stake conference yesterday. We got a new stake presidency here, so there were two members of the Seventy here, and they got to meet them! Even President and Sister Wakolo got to meet them. It was really neat. The other guy who has a date didn't have a car and the meeting was two hours away, and we had a hard enough time finding a ride there that I don't feel too bad that he wasn't able to come. Anyway, he'll be at church next week. I still have yet to meet this guy, but I've heard a lot about him from Sister Lloyd, and he seems pretty cool. His wife is a member that we've taken to a lesson this week. One of the few members I've met! Stake conference kind of messed that up, I still don't know anybody (except for the people that gave us rides, and the second counselor and his family because they fed us this week at the church, and then I briefly met the branch president at the gas station.) Did y'all catch that? Branch president. Yes, I'm in a branch. And I still don't even know how tiny it is because we have not had normal Sunday yet! I'm not bitter, it's just rough because we already have exchanges this week, and it's most likely going to be members with the new STL (sister-training-leaders). Oh, well, the members I've met so far are really nice. Plus, this area is HUGE, so yay for cars! And this week,,,

This went through our minds. But wait...

This is what we woke up to on Friday. What?!? I wasn't supposed to get snow my whole time here!! And it was freezing!!! Cold wet (humid?) is soooo much colder than dry wet. Utah is a breeze compared to this. My feet about fell off several times this week.

Sister Beckstrand & Sister Lloyd (who is from Livermore CA)

We had fun though.

That's my hobo look after freezing outside and sitting in front of the space heater. It was so cold, (maybe not as cold as Alaska). Anyway, it was fun this week. Lots of busy stuff, and walking in the freezing cold, talking to people on their front porch for forty minutes while my feet turn into blocks of frozen flesh, this is the life of a missionary. I love it 😍.

Love y'all!
Kimber
Sister Beckstrand

So we had a back and forth discussion by email for a few minutes...

M-Happy ONE YEAR MARK on Friday! [I got her mailing address in case anyone wants to send her a note for that! Or you might want to email her a note. Just ask.]

K- Oh, yeah! I forget about that, every day is just the same and busy as every 😋

M- Is the sister pointing to you Sister Lloyd? Where is she from? 

I knew snow would be colder in the humidity there. Stay warm, and enjoy those baptisms!!

Love,Mom

K- Yes, that's Sister Lloyd. She's from California.

M- 13 million citizens of CA, and it's huge - can you be more specific? Your dad is from Cali!

K- Ok, I'll ask...Livermore

M- That's sort of close to San Jose, Dad dated girls from there, ha ha.

K- Haha, she's mentioned it before as a place near her

M- Love you tons. Have a great week, and think of Annie going through the temple this Thursday!

Heading home from work now.

Love,

Mom

K- Ok, that's super exciting! Tell the boys I love them. And all the cousins too :)

Happy New Year 🎆

Happy new year!!

Also, I've been transferred.

And I'm sick.

So, holiday + transfers + illness equals very little time and energy for emailing. So sorry, but this is going to be short.

My new year was great, it was just a normal day. Nothing changed but the date. 

I'm headed to the Searcy zone, on the Arkansas side. My new area is called Mountain View. My companion is Sister Lloyd. I think that's spelled right. 

Anyway, lots of changes. It's been fun, I'll miss Memphis, but Arkansas is great too. 

Love y'all!

Kimber

Sister Beckstrand

Poor thing! I think I knew she was being transferred today - I just sensed it.  It was awesome though, being able to Skype with her last week on Christmas Day. She is so mature, so positive, so committed. She's wonderful!