A Smile Speaks Every Language

Family!

Well Cheney reminds me a lot of Lehi.  I told you about the trains and how every time we go to bed I hear them and think of Grandma and Grandpa Shelton's house.  Well they also have a mill.  I'll add pictures so you can see.  We walk by this at least 4 times a day and I can't help but smile. 

The other day while we were eating dinner we were watching the Testaments (we can watch church movies like that during meals and getting ready for bed).  The scene changed and all of a sudden there was the Butterfly Girl.  I was like, "Hey I know her! Her name is Whitley!"  Sister Dickerman was like, "Wow that's cool!"  Then I got to tell her about all of the summer plays and whatnot.  It was kind of fun :)
I'm not nearly as picky as to what I eat.  Sister Dickerman really likes to cook and I have decided to just eat whatever she puts in front of me.  I am learning to deal with tomatoes.  I still can only eat them cut up small and with other stuff though.  We had potstickers for dinner the other night with noodles.  We do really well with what we eat.  We get fed by members about once a week.  The singles ward doesn't really have time.  It's usually the kids that live at home that feed us.  We definitely don't complain.  

 

Looking back on this last week I feel like we did nothing and everything all at the same time.  P-days are always great.  I was able to print some pictures to put in my little photo album that I keep with me.  We also played more rugby.  It's a great game and tons of fun to play.  We are playing basketball and rugby today.  I'm going to try and introduce the Sound Game and see if anyone will play it.  Some of the Elders will be up for it but I think we may have to convince a few to play.  Tuesday I woke up at like 5am from a dream with tears running down my face.  We had received a call on Monday from one of the Elders at the Mission Office but missed the call and he didn't answer our return call.  Someone made the comment that it was probably something about my visa.  My dream was about getting the call that said my visa had arrived.  In my dream Sister Dickerman and I were on our way home and met up with the Elders and shared the news.  We were all really bummed and crying in the dream because no one wanted me to leave and I didn't want to leave.  When I woke up I had be literally crying.  I was a little shocked at how attached I have become to this area, the members, and missionaries in just a few short weeks.  It will definitely be a bitter sweet experience leaving here and going to teach in Australia but I'll go wherever the Lord needs me and I will be there ready to work at full force when He needs me there.  I still haven't actually received any word on my visa but I will let you know when I do.  Mission President will call us when he finds out anything about it.  Until then I'm just going to enjoy my mission here in Cheney.  Side Note from Penny - We got her flight plans 4 hours later.  She leaves in 1 week on her P-day which means we won't get an email from her but a phone call from the airport instead.  Then it will probably be another week until she gets a P-day where she'll be able to email.  So we'll see. -

Every week we are required to spend 3 hours on Mormon.org.  We are supposed to familiarize ourselves with the website so that we can refer as many people to it as possible.  I highly encourage everyone to get on and check it out.  Watch the videos, make a profile, and learn more about what we believe.  On Wednesday we were doing our "mormon.org hour" (as we call it)  and were checking out the different websites that we are allowed to visit.  I was on mormonchannel.org watching Mormon Messages.  There was one video that made me tear up.  It's called "My brother Hyrum."  It's easily the cutest video I've seen in a long time.  If you are ever just wasting time on the internet in one way or another I suggest opening up either of those websites and watching those videos instead of pulling up Facebook for the 6th time in an hour of browsing Youtube.  They are so great!  The "I'm a Mormon" videos on Mormon.org are awesome!  They just talk about normal average day people and how their faith in Jesus Christ makes them who they are.  Some are fun and cute and others are truly inspiring.   

One thing that we get to do as a service project is teach people English.  Brother and Sister Halloway are the coordinators of the Daily Dose program here and we help them every week in teaching English.  Luckily Brother Halloway and Sister Dickerman are fluent in Spanish.  The first lesson we had last week went waaay over my head.  I ended up taking one of the worksheets home to work on my Spanish so that I could help more in the lessons.  I may end up learning part of a language on my mission! haha It's fun to help these people work on learning something new.  It's great to see their faces light up when they understand something.  A smile speaks every language.  I absolutely love that.  I have been complimented a couple times this week on my smile.  I have decided to have this prema-grin all the time.  That way people at least know we are friendly.  This work is supposed to be fun.  I want to show people that this gospel brings happiness to people.  I know it has brought so many blessings of happiness to my life.   This week we nearly dropped every investigator we had.  We got down to visiting a ton of people and asking ward members for people to teach.  We decided to just be obedient, diligent, and hopeful.  We decided to turn everything over to the Lord.  In a matter of days we had been given 7 or 8 referrals.  We have some that seem really promising that we are going to visit and meet with this upcoming week.  The Lord is ever mindful of us.  All we have to do as missionaries and members a like is to live the gospel.  Find ways to more fully live the gospel commandments in your daily life.  As we strive to have the spirit with us at all times God will put people in our paths for us to bless.  All we have to do is open our mouths and be ready to share the truths that we know.  20 seconds of insane courage can and does bring forth miracles that we never imagined possible.  Keep the faith, read your scriptures daily, go to church and serve others.  Pray for opportunities to see and help perform miracles.  The Lord stands ready to bless us and bless all of the people around us through our incredible strong testimonies of the restored gospel.  I love you all so much and know that you can help the work move along.  I'm grateful for your prayers.  They are definitely felt.  Never forget who you are as a child of God.  You are greater than you think you are. 

Much love,

Sister Beckstrand   

God's Grace

This is Shayne's notes from a talk she heard in her women's conference that she wanted to share with everyone.  If you have any questions just ask.  I love the picture.

 

Don't Be A Jack Mormon!

Family!

I love hearing how everyone is doing.  Life sounds like it is going pretty darn great back at home.  Life out here is pretty wonderful.  Last Monday for our p-day activity we were able to go bowling.  Yes bowling!  It was sweet!  Then we went to the park and played Rugby with missionaries from our Zone and some ward members.  Heidi Grear is the LDSSA Pres here at EWU and is on the girls rugby team.  She is wonderful.  She gives the greatest hugs ever.  She came and taught us how to play rugby.  We only played touch but it is soo much fun.  I'm bummed Pine View never got a girls team going when I was like in 8th grade.  I totally would have played.  Maybe I'll go to like Utah State when I get back and join their club team.  Elder Mitch Trowbridge, our district leader, is from Alpine and played rugby in high school so between he and Heidi we learned pretty fast.  It was a blast.  We are probably going to play every p-day from now on.  We have some investigators that are going to play with us today and some less actives that we can't get a hold of that are on the rugby team here.  Who knew that rugby would be such a great missionary tool, right?
Tuesday was rough, we are doing a lot of finding and contacting right now in this area.  It's tough being in a college town but we are doing a ton of good just being here and meeting with the few people that we are able to meet with.  We visited Sister Mackson again on Tuesday.  She's the one that is struggling through breast cancer.  She only has a few more weeks of radiation and then she moves on to chemo.  She's a strong lady and loves having us come over.   She says we give her hope and courage to carry on.  She has her bachelors in harp from BYU.  She let me play with her harp and taught me how to play it.  It is a ridiculously simple instrument if you know how to play the piano.  I played a couple of hymns off the top of my head and we just enjoyed being around each other.
On Thursday we went on exchanges.  Sister Dickerman and Sister Senger (from Gieger Heights) had to go to a trainers meeting by the temple so Sister Webb and I were able to be companions for the day.  We have been out the same amount of time and really relied on the spirit and our training to carry us through the day.  We had a really awesome lesson with a lady named Kathy.  We decided to just find out where she was in the Book of Mormon and read with her.  At one point we asked her a question about what she read.  She didn't know the answer but it was written in the footnote.  I flipped by book around for her to see what I had marked.  It was as if I showed her gold.  She had no idea what those little things were for.  She looked at her mom (who is a member) and said, "Why haven't you ever show that to me that before?!"  Her mom kinda just shrugged her shoulders.  Kathy said that she loves puzzles and that knowing what those are and being able to tie the Bible and Book of Mormon together through it was amazing.  She just started to glow.  It was the greatest thing she could have ever heard.  At the end of the lesson she said, "Well we know exactly why you were here today.  I will be able to learn and understand so much more now.  Thank you."  I had no idea that that simple thing would mean so much but I acted on the spirit and it may completely change the way she learns from the scriptures and grows closer to her Heavenly Father and receives the revelation she needs through the Book of Mormon.  
Later that night when Sister Dickerman was back we were able to go have dinner with Neal, a less active in our ward.  He had his nonmember girlfriend over for dinner so we could share a message with her.  Neal is in the Army Reserves so he and Sister Dickerman and a lot to talk about ( Her step dad was in the Navy for 22 years, her brother in the Army, and she did Coast Guard for a year and a half until she tore her meniscus and ACL in her knee during a crew rowing accident).  Then Lesley, his girlfriend, started bringing up sports and we just had a ton to talk about.  At the end of the dinner we shared a message of faith.  We talked about how God humbles us to make us stronger and how He will always be there for us to build us up and help us carry on.  The spirit was really strong.  We pray that her heart was touched and that she will want to learn more. 
Saturday was an interesting day.  President Mullen and the APs had decided that this day would be a Super Saturday.  That means that they would pick something for us to focus on.  This time it was to invite as many people as possible to come on church tours.  Church tours are an incredible tool in bringing people to church and teaching them really simply the things that we believe.  We show them pictures of Christ, the chapel and Sacrament table, and the font.  We get to talk about each thing and bear powerful testimony of the sacredness and greatness of each place.  It really is incredible.  So we had set a district goal of 50 invites between our 3 companionships.

 Well, being in a college town has its problems.  One of the biggest is that  everyone goes home on the weekends leaving no one walking around campus or in their dorms.  Here is a picture of Campus at Eastern Washington University.  It's Gorgeous!  Below is a picture of the Eagle Stadium.  It's cool for 2 reasons.  

#1 It's RED  #2 It's the Washington Eagles!!  They Soar so high High HIGH!

 
We knew this would be a problem but weren't going to dwell on it and were just going to push on.  When we got to campus 3 guys skateboarded past us and said, "Happy 4/20!"  4/20 is Bob Marley's birthday.  It is basically National everyone smokes pot day.  Now that being said, 2 sister missionaries on a Saturday going door to door trying to get people to come on a church tour on 4/20 in a state that legalized marijuana doesn't work to well.  After 3 doors that were just leaking fumes strong enough to give us a second hand high we decided to rethink our plans for the day.  We went to the institute and said a prayer.  I also texted our district leader to have him offer a prayer in our behalf to help us accomplish the goal that we had previously set out to do.  We then walked to different apartment complexes.  It was about a 30 minute walk but that's where we needed to go.  One complex didn't have much luck.  We gave out one invite and then decided to try one last complex before making the 30 minute walk to our next appointment.  The Eagle Apartments were kind of our last hope to make this work.  I had a constant prayer in my heart as we knocked on doors that someone would open it.  We ended up talking to 7 more people.  2 said that they would check their schedules and give us a call.  We walked away finally feeling that those prayers had been answered.  We didn't conquer the world but we sure did make a difference in some lives. 
We were then able to meet up with the Elders at Laurie's house.  Because Laurie is 57 she will be attending the family ward once she gets baptized so we decided to have her meet the Elders.  She had called us the night before just in tears.  She has been trying to quit smoking and is struggling to do so.  She asked if we could pray for her that she might get a better nights sleep. She is soo determined to get passed this addiction. She is so strong.  We told her that we would pray for her and have the Elders over the next day to give her a blessing.  At our lesson the Elders were able to better explain the power of the Priesthood and what it is.  Then they were able to give her a blessing.  I love the Priesthood.  I can't hear a priesthood blessing without tearing up.  The spirit is always soo strong.  Once the blessing was over Laurie commented on the reverence and how peaceful it was.  It wasn't anything huge but how she felt at peace while Elder Leake gave her the blessing.  The priesthood really has been restored to the earth.  That same power that Christ had to heal the sick and perform miracles is here on the earth for us to have.  That power is real.  Worthy men who hold it are remarkable.  That is one of those things that makes us Saints.  We are Latter-day Saints.  We aren't just the Mormons.  We have a responsibility to be the best people we can me.  Our Relief Society President told us not to be jack Mormons.  We have a calling by being members of this church to love the gospel, live it and share it with all those that we come in contact with.  Whether it be on a mission or at home.  We are Saints in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I love this gospel with my whole soul.  I love the quote that says, "Work as if everything relies on you, but pray as if everything relies on Him."  This gospel is true.  Our Savior, and brother, Jesus Christ died and suffered for every single one of us.  Because of that eternal sacrifice we never have to be alone.  We can have the spirit with us at all times to be the comfort we need in a super troubled world.  I love being a missionary.  I love this gospel.  I hope that everyone finds something they can work on to become better.  Something to be more Christ-like in your life.  It will be a strength in everything that you do.  I love you all so much and can't wait to hear how this next week goes for everyone.  Keep the faith. 
 Much love,
Sister Beckstrand 

Open Your Mouth

Alrighty, first off I will just email pictures as I get good ones that I want to send.  I have emailed my President to see if I'm allowed to check the blogs and he hasn't replied so therefore I haven't checked them and haven't commented on anything or how awesome they are.  Which I'm sure they are awesome because you are doing them.  I hope he clears it soon so that I can check em out.  I just don't want to be doing something I'm not allowed to.  Rules are weird sometimes and I'd rather be safe.  I'll let you know as soon as I know.  I can print some pictures off and send them home to like Sophie and Josh but for the most part I will just email them to you.  Let me know if you get them all.

I'm glad to hear that grandpa's thing went well.  I thought about him a lot this week. 

Dad wrote me all about the game.  I can't believe Kobe is out! That's crazy!
How as Nikki's wedding? I want to hear that story.  I can't believe that she is married.  That's so weird. 

I absolutely LOVE hearing about the soccer games.  Oh my giddy aunt they are sooo awesome to hear about.  Tell David that he is my hero and is pretty much a stud.   Sophie wrote me all about soccer.  Her team is a beast.  My companion thinks Josh is pretty sweet.  I told her about all of my siblings and she said that he is pretty awesome.  Mainly for the unicycle and bowties :)

Thank you sooo much for the updates.  Sorry about being a stickler about checking if I can look at the blogs before I just check em out.  I love you soo much and love hearing the updates about everyone.  You are the best mom ever!  I can't express that enough. 

This week was awesome and crazy.  Tuesday we had a New Missionary Training and a Women's Conference.  It basically took up our entire day but it was totally worth every bit of it.  The Sister's Conference was awesome! Sister Mullen felt impressed to gather all of the Sisters from the entire mission for one day to give us some awesome knowledge.  I got to see Sue again and chat with her. It's such an awesome blessing to see someone from home and get to visit with her.  One of the things I learned and that  is very important is that it's okay to not be perfect, because I'm not perfect! And we won't be until we leave this life.  We had someone come speak to us about stress and how stress is actually good for us.  There is opposition in all things and it's meant to be that way.  Without stress we might as well just be dead.  After Stress Management 101 we went into the gym where Sister Mullen lead us in yoga.  Yes yoga.  She is the most flexible lady I have ever met.  I severely lack in that ability.  She kept telling us to relax and just enjoy the stretches.  I couldn't focus on anything but trying to not pull a muscle or fall over. My favorite part was when she had us lay down and do visualization and relaxation.  That really has helped.  We jump in bed around 10:15 every night and I can't get myself to fall asleep.  My mind is always wide awake when I want it to crash.  The first week here I woke up at 2:30-2:40 every morning just because my body knows it's supposed to be on a sleep schedule and jumps back to high school where 4.5 hours was enough.  This last week I only got up at 4am twice.  It's getting better.  A full nights rest is super needed out here.  So Sister Mullen's relaxation method has helped a lot to just get my body to relax and allow itself to fall asleep. 
The next lesson we had was one about perfection.  I wish I could have just recorded that whole lesson and sent it to you.  He had some great analogies that I can't wait to use either in the mission or just in life in general.  He talked about how Satan hates us.  He really does.  He doesn't want us to be happy and really hates the fact that we are out here trying to make others happy!  It really opened, I think, all of our minds to just how important our calling is. 

After we got home from that conference we did our Companionship study.  I learned that I know nothing about the Book of Mormon.  My advice to all is to open a Preach My Gospel to page 107 and look at all the ways the Book of Mormon can answer questions in our lives.  This last week I have done nothing but read and dissect the Book of Mormon.  It has been such an incredible blessing.  I've always had a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  I've always known that it give us answers to our questions because I have seen it answer questions for me in my life.  But I had no idea as to what extent it can really relate to ever single person and situation in the world.  It is the word of God!  There is no doubt about that.  No man can draw closer to God than abiding by it's precepts.  I know that with every fiber of my being! The book is true.  I challenge anyone who says otherwise to read it with real intent and if they really want to know if it's true all they need to do is pray and Heavenly Father will let them know that it is true.  If they read to try and prove it to be false, they won't be able to. Miracles come from reading and applying that book in our lives.

Wednesday and Thursday we spent a lot of time walking around campus trying to find people to contact.  Satan's biggest tool among college students is the invention of the headphones (I struggled to find the right word to call those cuz I kept having ''listening cords'' stuck in my head hahahaha!) Anyway, we can't really talk to them if they have headphones in or are talking on the phone.  Technology really sucks sometimes.  I am learning though that as you tract in apartments or contact around campus that all you need to do is open your mouth and the words that they need to hear will fill the void.  You just need to have one inspired question to spark their interest and they will listen.  The hardest thing about a mission is tracting and contacting new people and Sister Dickerman says it's her weakest talent.  I don't really know what to do or what I am doing when we go out so we are learning how to be better at it together.  Our motto for the last week was, "Open your mouth."  There are a TON of scriptures that talk about opening your mouth and it will be filled with the words of God.  We are really building our faith in that principle.

Friday was incredible.  We had a district meeting, met with a less active member, and then went tracting but to no avail.  Then we met with the Bishop to go over the week.  As we met with him he pointed out that we have almost 40 less actives in the ward.  He expressed his concern about that and we promised to do our part to reach out to the list he gave us.  I felt really bad leaving that meeting.  I felt like Bishop Taite wasn't 100% pleased with the work we've been doing.  We went home to eat and plan during dinner.  After we ate Sister Dickerman took a short nap.  While she was sleeping I remembered President Ellsworth's words from my setting apart where he told me that I would be able to work with the leadership of the church.  I instantly knew that we needed to find/visit/call everyone that the Bishop had mentioned.  I went into my bedroom and knelt down and offered a prayer that I would be able to find those lost sheep and let them know that they are loved and thought about.  I prayed that we would be able to help Bishop Taite more fully in this work.  When Sister Dickerman woke up I purposed the plan and we set out.  My prayers were answered!  We visited 4 less actives, talked with 2 on the phone, and found out that many just don't live here anymore.  I felt soo much better.  It was such a blessing to hand our progress record over to the Bishop on Sunday and see the relief and love on his face.  We also had one of the less actives show up at church!  It was a miracle and I was so grateful that the Spirit was able to bring that blessing back to my memory and guide me on what we needed to do.

Church was amazing yesterday.  Testimony meeting in a YSA ward is better than anything.  The strength of the members in this ward is remarkable.  I wouldn't trade it for anything.  The spirit was soo strong and you could feel it's power as each student got up and bore testimony of the truths they know.  I'm so grateful to be serving in a YSA ward.  It's such a blessing. 
There are more random things that I wish I could share but I am running low on time.  I love it here.  I love hearing how everyone is doing.  Keep the letters coming.  I love you all so much!  Keep the faith, set the example.

Much love,
Sister Beckstrand

Week 2 in Spokane. On the lookout for The ROCK!

Dear Family!

I have a bunch of random thoughts to get out before I review last week.  First off, will someone please let Brad and Ashley know that their missionary CD is awesome? I absolutely love it! It has Uncle Andy's music on it as well but it isn't on there until like tract 10 so we were just driving in the car with it as a background music and I had to turn it up and mildly freaked out that it was Uncle Andy's singing.  Absolutely awesome! :D

A special note for  mom:  I'm sorry to hear that you weren't feeling well.  I'm glad Dr. LaRowe is an awesome man and was able to help you out.  Hope you feel better soon!  My fun note for you involves Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.  He has an aunt that lives here is Spokane.  She is a member but doesn't live in my zone.  Basically he comes and visits her every now and again. Cool right? He however isn't interested in the Mormons.  His mom is catholic, therefor so is he.  Kinda cool the things you learn on your mission. haha

There are a bunch of crazy people here in Cheney.  One of the awesome ladies that I've met is Debbie Mackson.  Debbie is a member and is suffering through breast cancer and told me on our first visit with her that she believes the only reason God keeps her here on earth is to be a mother to the missionaries.  She always has ice cream and stuff for us if we ever need a pick me up.  She is also a firm believer in the back scratcher.  Weird I know but she as bought like hundreds of them and she paints them and gives them to every new missionary.  I got one with flowers and it has my name on it.  Really really neat lady.

Our last name is really complicated for people.  I have been given the nickname Sister B and Sister Becky.  We aren't supposed to go by nicknames but people really struggle for some reason. 

It started to rain.  We had the most beautiful weather for the first couple of days and then it started to rain.  It isn't cold just by itself up here but they have this thing called the ''arctic wind'' that comes in from Canada and it is freezing cold! Oh man Sister Dickerman and I are not made for this kind of weather.  We miss our warmer weather from home.  We share a car with the Elders since there were soo many missionaries that came in this last transfer.  It's fun and good for us.  We only live like .8 of a mile away from the institute so our walking isn't to extensive. 

Alrighty on to this last week!
Monday's are fantastic! I love P-days.  We get to play games like volleyball, shop, wash clothes, clean the house, and write letters! Some of that doesn't sound like fun but it's great to have a complete day that is totally involved in different things like that.  Our P-day ends at 6pm and we work the rest of the day.  Serving in the YSA is fun because we get to go to FHE at the institute every Monday night.  Last week we played Family Feud.  It's fun to get involved with the members and build friendships and trust there. 

Tuesday was challenging.  We spent the day driving around our entire area looking for potentials, less-actives, and anyone that had been recently recorded in our area book in the last 2-3 years.  We had a huge list and an even bigger area to cover.  We spent about 4 hours driving around, finding houses, having appointments cancel, finding out that the addresses on half the houses were wrong or didn't exist.  In our 80+ mile journey we met with one person.  By the end of the day I was really discouraged.  In my planner I wrote, "Today was a challenge.  Finding/tracting was a bust.  We suffered in making connections.  I struggled to find the spirit, strength and confidence to carry on."  Sister Dickerman noticed the frustration that I was having and really helped open my eyes to this work.  Although we had a rough day we still managed to have some good laughs and keep our spirits up.  We have a dynamic companionship. 

Wednesday changed everything.  We have a weekly service project that we help with.  It's called the Cheney Community Clothing Exchange.  Basically it's the DI of Cheney but it's run by non-members.  They have people come and drop off old washed clothes that they don't wear any more and we check them, then put them out on shelves for others to look through and take what they want.  You don't have to pay for anything.  It's all just to help the community and it is remarkable.  As we were working there it was just humbling.  It really just was a spiritual slap to the face.  I realized that I didn't need to be teaching a lesson to an investigator to be a great representative of the Lord.  I thought back to what Sister Howells said at my farewell, "Be the kind of person that if someone doesn't know God they will want to because they know you."  If Christ were on the earth He would be strengthening everyone not just the ones that don't have His gospel.   I learned today how to be a missionary and not just go about doing missionary work.  I know that one incident will affect the rest of my mission.  It was the Lord's way of telling me what I need to be doing.  I needed to be humbled on Tuesday to realize the meaning of really being a missionary, a disciple of Christ, and that representative that I've been called to be. 

Thursday we did a lot of walking ( the elders had the car all day )  The theme for Thursday would have to be "inviting ALL to come unto Christ".  We basically walked the entire town trying to come in contact with less-actives that we need to invite to things.  As we passed through campus we would try and talk to as many students as we could.  Not many cared to talk but it was a good experience to get out there and not be afraid to just tell people about the Restoration of the gospel.  We had about an hour left in the day and we invited over to the Doll House (a big blue house in the neighborhood that 4 girls from church all live in).  It was good to be able to sit and rest for a while.  It really strengthened what I had realized the day before about how we need to uplift everyone around us and not just the investigators.   It was so important to build the members up as well.  Couldn't have asked for a better way to end that night. 

Friday we had Zone Meeting :) Our Zone Leaders are Elder Scherwindski and Elder Molyneaux.  You'd think Beckstrand would be an easy name to pronounce! haha Zone training was awesome though.  We worked on being able to teach the Restoration in a minute or less.  It's a brilliant tactic to learn because most people won't listen to you for longer than that on your first conversation with them.  It was fun to time each other as well as critic our information that we could get out in that short of a time.  I was paired up with Elder De Oliviera from the Medical Lake area.  It was a blast to get to know the other missionaries in our zone and learn and grow with them. 

Saturday and Sunday! General Conference!!!! I could hardly sleep Friday night.  It was like being a little kid again and not being able to sleep the night before Christmas.  Oh I was soo ready to listen to Conference.  We were able to watch all 4 sessions at the institute with a bunch of the YSA students.  We did breakfast in between sessions on Saturday and brunch in between sessions on Sunday.    The coolest thing about listening to conference was being able to receive revelation not only for myself but for all of the investigators that we are working with.  Some of the talks I swear were written exactly for them.  God is definitely in charge of this work and this entire church.  It's soo neat.  Some of my favorite talks were: Sister Dalton's talk on being and example to others of what a covenant keeping daughter of God is supposed to be.  I couldn't help but think of mom and the incredible example she has been for me in every aspect of that in my life.  Such a remarkable blessing to have that example in my life.  I loved Elder Cooks talk on peace.  Universal peace does not exist but that doesn't mean that we can't have individual peace in our lives.  That peace comes from living in accordance to the commandments of God.  I know that is true with every fiber of my being.  I haven't been more at peace than I have been being here in the Lord's work.  This gospel is just remarkable!  I learned a lot from Elder L. Whitney Clayton's talk about raising a family.  I know I'm not there yet but I'm definitely preparing on now.  I always stuck with the quote, "Be the kind of person you want to marry."  That quote came across my mind as he was speaking because I've always said that I want to marry a return missionary and now here I am fulfilling that part of what I want in who I am becoming through this incredible opportunity in my life to serve the Lord.  If there is one thing I've learned in the last almost month is is that Strict Obedience brings forth miracles.  Obedience has been drilled into my head more than anything else.  When President Monson got up and started speaking about obedience I knew it was important.  Strict obedience here in the mission field really is key.  There isn't much else we can offer to the Lord than our will to His.  Elder Neal A Maxwell said, "The submission of one's will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God's alter.  The many things we give are actually the things He as already give or loaned to us.  However, when you and I finally submit ourselves by letting our individual will be swallowed up in God's will, then we are really giving something to Him.  It's the only possession which is truly ours to give."  I love that quote.  I can't help be thinking back to my hospital bed when I turned everything over to God and said, I know you have a better plan than I do.  So I took one step with faith and He helped that one step turn in to running and here I am, serving Him in Cheney Washington.  I love this work.  I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.  The Lord is hastening his work.  We are no longer planting seeds in people's hearts, we are harvesting the field.  And we aren't harvesting it one handful at a time but we are plowing the field down with a machine.  This work will not be stopped.  God is all powerful and knows what He is doing.  I know that to be be true without a shadow of a doubt.  I love this gospel.  I'm grateful for my awesome support system back at home.  All of your prayers are felt everyday.  I love you all soo much!  Keep the faith!

Much love,
Sister Beckstrand

Family!!! Monday's are my P-days :)

I made it to Spokane!!! The plane ride was awesome!  Take off at the SLC airport was unreal.  It was so crazy to actually be going! I sat in a single seat in the plane because we were riding 1st class.  I didn't mind too much.  It was definitely a tender mercy of the Lord that whomever signed us up for that new flight had the right connections so that we didn't have to pay for our luggage up here.  Such a simple blessing but it didn't go unnoticed that's for sure. 

When we arrived at the Spokane airport we found our carryons and then headed to the baggage claim area.  There were 35 missionaries on our flight.  7 of us are visa waiters.  They call us waiters too.  One of the other Australian sister just happens to be Sister Jennie Ellsworth from Olympus High School :)  She was the closest person sitting next to me on the plane too!  I found her!  haha Anyway we finally got down the last ramp and saw President Mullen and his wife.  They were so happy and excited to see all of us! Their happiness was soo contagious! I couldn't have been happier to be here with all of the missionaries.  There is definitely something amazing for me here.  We loaded up all of our luggage into a trailer and headed off!

The first thing we did was go "fear busting".  We met up with missionaries from the area at the local institute and paired off.  Once we had our companion for the day we got it cars and went to different neighborhoods and just started tracting!  It was soo cool!  My companion for the fear busting was Sister Edmond.  She is actually a Temple Square Sister who is doing her our reach mission here in Spokane.  The Temple Square sisters all get to serve part of their missions somewhere else in the states for a while.  Kinda cool.  Then after about an hour of tracting door to door we headed to the Stake Center. 

We all met at the stake center because the mission home isn't big enough to house 35 missionaries.  The coolest thing about this state center?  It shares a parking lot with the Temple!!!!  You literally walk out of the stake center and the only thing you see is the Temple.  It is the smallest temple I have ever seen but it is a temple non the less!  We will hopefully be able to go do a session when it opens back up at the end of the month.  We had lunch there at the stake center and then went into training.  Most of the training just do's and don't of missionary work.  Our white handbooks are our best friends.  The MTC called them our Personal Liohona's :) President Mullen was pulling us out one at a time for interviews while his Assistants did most of the training.  For the 7 of us visa waiters they didn't have a ton for us to do.  A lot of the time training was filling out the Spokane missionaries paper work and whatnot. 

Cool random story! While I was at the MTC I had to go to a meeting for the new Coordinating Sisters to figure out what we were supposed to do for the new missionaries coming in that week.  Well while I was in that meeting I met another Sister who ended up coming to dinner with Elder Plocher, Elder Edwards and I.  When we sat down to eat I looked at her tag.  Her name is Sister O'very.  I asked her, "Do you happen to be related to Megan O'very?"  She replied, "I am Megan O'very."  I freaked out.  I asked her if she swam and she said yes.  I asked if she was a breaststroker for BYU and she said yes! I about died.  I told her that I was the captain for Pine Views swim team for the last two years and that we've swam against each other for years and never actually met!  We both just busted out in swimming lingo and talking and my Elder's were soo confused.  She said she did remember seeing my name on heat sheets and things.  It was soo sweet!  Well low and behold she is serving in the Washington Spokane Mission! Crazy right?  It was soo so neat.  Anyway so I got to hang out and talk with her a bunch while we were here the first day. 

After training we had dinner, got to chat with the President and his wife at our table and then had and awesome testimony with every new missionary.  We all circled up and just took our turn bearing a quick 2 minute testimony.  It was amazing to hear the strength of all of the missionaries in that room.  One thing that hit me was that one of the Elders bore his testimony in Spanish because that is what he had been learning at the MTC.  I understood everything that he said.  The spirit definitely testifies of truth no matter what language or where it is shared.  It was a neat experience that I won't forget. Then after all of the testimonies were shared we had dessert and waited for our rides to show up. 

We spent that first night at members homes.  Random members of that ward had just opened up their homes to house missionaries for the night! How nice is that?!  I got to stay at Sister Peck's house with the 3 sisters waiting for visa's to Taiwan (Mandarin speaking) Sisters Chen, Tsoi, and Ting.  I think they'll do fine there :) I asked Sister Peck if she had any family in Lehi but she said all of her husbands family live in Idaho.  I still thought it was pretty neat that she was a Peck haha.   

The next morning we met back at the stake center for more training.  As soon as I walked in the door the first person I saw was Sister Sue Earl.  She instantly started crying and gave me the biggest hug ever!  She had no idea I was coming.  She had heard my name as they were announcing the new missionaries that morning but couldn't believe that it would really be me.  It was a fun reunion and nice to see a familiar face.  We (the new missionaries) went into a training with Sister Mullen while the Trainers went into a training with President Mullen.  Sister Mullen basically just explained how she is our mom for now and if we need anything that we can come to her.  We also talked about unity as a mission, God's will, and how we need to protect each other.
 

We then merged into the gym where our trainers were and we lined up in front of everyone until they told us who our companions were.  My companion is awesome! Her name is Sister Dickerman.  She is from Palm Springs California.  We got to talk a little about Palm Springs and all that.  It was fun.  She is a competitive rower.  She rows crew out in the ocean.  She also did MMA.  She is the girliest non girly girl I've met.  She loves the color pink and Hello Kitty.  She's been a great trainer.  She is brilliant.  She is a triple major and has no idea what she's going to settle on when she gets home.  She is exactly half way through her mission.  She is a 'Jane of all traits' and amazes me.  She says she learns a lot from me which kinda makes me feel a lot better about how I'm doing. 

Washington is totally awesome! I'm in a little town called Cheney.  It is on the eastern side right by Eastern Washington University.  They call it the Promised Land because we cover an awesome little YSA ward and people are moving in and out all the time.  New people, some super prepared and ready.  It's going to be awesome!  Yesterday totally made me miss my YSA though.  Such a fun group of people no matter where you go.  The Bishop is Bishop Tait.  He is a convert to the church.  He wasn't converted until about 3 years after he was married.  He is an incredible man and really cares about the missionary work in the ward.  About half of the ward is less active so we have a lot of work to to do get them all back but it's going to be awesome.  The work was pretty slow this week because it was spring break so they all went home but it will definitely pick up this week.  We basically went through ever area book and cleaned everything out.  It feels like we have done nothing but plan.  Our first 3 nights we had and hour and a half of planning and then Thursday we had two hours for just planning the next week.  It's been mentally exhausting but it is definitely good stuff to learn and just absorb as we go.

The YELLOW part is the Mission boundaries.

The people love new missionaries :) It's kinda fun.  I get to meet a ton of people that just love me already.  It's going to be great.  I met the Elders in our area.  They cover the 2 family wards here.  They are Elder Penrod and Elder Leake.  We made them a cute little Easter basket with a bunch of the candy you sent cuz we didn't want to eat all of it haha.  Thank you soo so much for the package though! It was such a great surprise!  Sister Dickerman loves sour candies too so it works out perfectly to be able to share the goodness.

We live right by the train tracts!  We hear the train pass by all the time and it totally reminds me of Lehi every time! I absolutely LOVE it!!! I kind of get excited every time and Sister Dickerman just laughs at me.  Between the train and the amount of trees here I can't stop gawking at everything. 

The biggest problem we face with people here is smoking.  You know you've had a good day when you come home smelling like smoke.  It's kind of fun.  The other day we were teaching a lady named Laurie.  She is an other lady from the home ward that the Elders can't teach so we go and help where they can't and they take the men in the YSA that we can't visit for a number of different reasons.  It ceases to amaze me how big of a blessing it is to have the Priesthood with us no matter where we are.  I absolutely love it.  Anyway we had taught Laurie the Word of Wisdom and then the next time we forgot something and when walked out of that lesson said, "What just happened?"  and the next comment was something like, "We just saw a mini miracle".  The Lord definitely knows exactly what people need to hear. 

I also did my first church tour.  It was the neatest experience.  I invited Amanda to be baptized at the end and she said she would once she knows it's true!  We meet with her on Wednesday :)  This work is soo awesome! I love every bit of it.  The gospel is true.  I'm soo blessed to be out here in Spokane and on a mission.  It is so remarkable.  I'm grateful for all of the letters and love from the support team back home.  Everyone is amazing!

Love you all soo much!
Sister Beckstrand :)

p.s.  I need Lily's address and John Utley's email.  If you can get me those that would be wonderful! Thank you! 

p.p.s. Read Elder Hollands talk "None were with Him" from the 2009 April Conference.  It changed my life.