🕺🏼😁😂👋😀👂👋😴 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)

Bed bugs. Trunks. Passing out. Flying copies of the Book of Mormon...Missionary Life

Gosh, y'all sound like your having a lot of fun. Did you know that I make little bowls of fresh tomato toss every now and then. And it's really good. I even did parfait once.
But we've been running around too much in this new area to be able to completely settle in yet. Can I just  say, this week was crazy. Missionary work, and life wise. We had a lot of amazing lessons this week. We are teaching some pretty amazing people who need the gospel and I can't wait to share it with them. I love how excited the ward is for missionaries, we had so many member presents this week. We really only had maybe one or two lessons without a member present. It was so good. Also we had someone to church yesterday!! It was so cool. She really liked it. I'm excited to continue teaching her. We also went on splits for my first time actually. And we did it twice! Because there is so much to do and the members are so willing to help out. I love it when during dinner the members tell is to bring them to lessons and are basically begging us to take me out. It's so fun to have so many want and ask to go with us. Also having a ward missionary who drives and has no job currently and doesn't have anything to do is super helpful. Unfortunately she leaves for Samoa tomorrow and then off to college a few weeks later. So she's is off having a life now. :/ but we are really excited for stories about Samoa before she goes to college.

So, this week we moved out of the hotel because the bug guys said that they couldn't find anything in the apartment. So we moved into the apartment, despite our trepidation. And we definitely have bed bugs. We saw a few. We are getting bit every night. No fun really. So we are living out of garbage bags that hang out in the car. Ahh, the stress of bed bugs. So the next huge drama that happened was because of our living out of the car is that we have to get our clothes out of the trunk every night for the next morning. And Friday night, Sister Evans accidentally closed the trunk on my finger. And then Sister Esplin dropped her iPad, she now has a crack in the corner. We opened the trunk quickly, and my finger looked a little squished. And it was bleeding a bit. So we went inside. It didn't look too bad, just pretty squished. We weren't sure what to do, so we called the mission nurse to ask. She said to send her pictures and if it looked like it needed stitches. I said no, it looked ok, but we weren't sure. So we hung up and took some pictures to email. Meanwhile Sister Evans said that she was feeling lightheaded. So Sister Esplin told her to sit down and drink some water. Then while Sister Esplin was trying to send the email of pictures Sister Evans passed out!!! I was stuck at the sink with my finger so I couldn't do much. Sister Esplin was a boss and told me to call Sister Thompson (mission RN) and was helping Sister Evans trying to wake her up. So I called Sister Thompson right back and told her what was going on. Sister Evans is ok, just no gore or anything for her - ever! And my finger started looking less squished by this time, so everything turned out ok. My finger is fine, just a cut and a bruise. Sister Evans is ok, just not around fingers stuck in trunks. And Sister Esplin handled everything like a pro. Our greenie has had a dunk into missionary life from the very beginning. (Not that finger getting squished in normal.) So everything is ok.

But, funny story, on Saturday we were driving out of a parking lot and our windows were down cuz it was hot. and Sister Evans had her Book of Mormon and Bible and iPad on the dash and when she turned they flew towards the window. She barely caught the iPad and Bible, but the Book of Mormon went flying out. It was pretty hilarious.

For real, this week has been an adventure. Guys, missionary life is weird. And super fun. I love it.

Love, Kimber
Sister Beckstrand

She and I went back and forth a bit by email, and she explained that her mission president was aware that they were living out of their car, and that he had just given them permission to get a new apartment. Whew, on that.  I also sent her a picture of three teens sleeping through family scripture reading, and she wrote back, "Haha, I remember that :) I don't do it anymore though. Study time is too valuable for sleep." My response, "Yeah, your study time has a real purpose now, huh!?!" Her response, "Yep!" What a new life she's living, love it!!

This came in a text message Saturday from "a ward missionary serving with your wonderful daughter...I know parents like pictures... Your daughter loves and misses you!" :)