Excitement and Downfalls‏

Family!

This has been an interesting week.  So last week I ended our email with talking about two girls that came to church and said they wanted to be baptized.  Well we met with them on Tuesday and Wednesday this last week.  The lessons went as follows.  Tuesday addresses Mania's concerns because Sadaf wasn't there, invited her to be baptized after teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, she said yes.  Wednesday same thing but with Sadaf being invited to be baptized the same day as her sister.  She said yes. (See first picture for our excitement as we walked home from that lesson)

 We taught them the Restoration and invited them to read the Book of Mormon (in Persian).  They agreed and their friend who helps translate sometimes said, "Can I have one of those books as well?"  He definitely feels the Spirit when he listens in on the lessons and helps his friends understand what we are sharing with them.  Sadaf's English is pretty good but Mania's isn't.  Sadaf added me on Facebook haha She is 25 and Mania is 32.  They are golden.  We had another lesson with them on Saturday and taught the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity.   They had no problems with either.  Mania said that tea would be hard to give up but that she would do it for the Lord.  It was really cool.  Mania and Mahdi (the friend that translates) biked with us halfway home that night because they didn't want us biking alone.  (See Picture)

I've never felt so much love for people before.  The girls are amazing and the family they live with are so supportive.  They came to church on Sunday and had an interview with one of President Lindsay's councilors and he determined that they can't actually be baptized.  I was gutted.  I wanted to cry right then and there.  We found out that they aren't here on a long-term visa yet.  The church standard is that they need to be a citizen or have a long-term visa to ensure that they will be living in a country where the gospel is and where they will be safe to worship it.  It broke my heart having to tell them that they can't be baptized until they get their permanent visas.  Sadaf told us on Saturday that she was so happy to be somewhere that not only let her be a Christian but that she has friends (us and the members) that are happy and proud that she is a Christian.  She doesn't have to lie and say she's a Muslim anymore just to read her scriptures.  It was rotten news.  We did however get permission to continue to teach them and prepare them for the time that their visa do come through. (Visa problems, I know the feeling.)  We will still teach them because the family that they are staying with are permanent citizens of Australia now.  Mahdi and his mom have been sitting in on the last 2 lessons and really enjoy what we share.  We may end up teaching and baptizing them first.  You never know, the Lord works in mysterious ways. 

I finished the Book of Mormon Challenge!!!  I have never learned so much from the scriptures as I have in the last 5 months.  I took Moroni's exhortation at the end of the Book of Mormon and prayed after I finished it.  I've always known the Book to be true so I wasn't asking for a confirmation but more of a prayer of thanks for the opportunity I have to read this book,  to study it daily, to learn and grow from every little verse I read, and to share its wonderful message with the people here in Western Australia.  I just cried as the Spirit touched my heart and solidified all the truths that I hold dear.  It was a moment I won't soon forget. 

In Relief Society our RS President Sister Dunlop gave an incredible lesson about coming unto Christ.  I just cried the whole lesson as I sat next to Sadaf and Mania.  The Lord really does know and love each of us so individually.   Brad Wilcox once said, "Come unto Christ, Come as you are, and Come now!"  I loved that quote.  Another was, "The Lord may not always come when you want Him to, but He will always be on time."  I have a strong testimony on that.  That's basically my entire testimony in one sentence.  He has a plan, He knows what's best, and He will guide us down the path we need to be on if we submit our will to His and carry on down the path holding tight to the iron rod. 

We had dinner with the Berryman's last night and I have 2 new games to teach the family when I come home that rival the Sound Game and Dip Dip Dip in fun and laughter. That's about it for this week.  I pray for you all every day and hope you are doing well.  There are letters for Sophie, Josh, Ben, David, Eric, and Sloan in the mail.  Keep an eye out for them in the next week or so.  Love you all!!!

Sister Shayne

P.S. If you ever need a spiritual pick-me-up go onto mormonchannel.org and watch some of the videos :)  They always invite the Spirit and make you feel like a million bucks :)

The other picture is just the street right by my flat.  It looked cool so I took a picture haha

Also I want to issue a challenge to our family for FHE this week.  I want to all to think about your favorite thing about the gospel.  The thing that has solidified your testimony of this beautiful gospel and to share it with a friend this week.  You can all practice with each other on how you will share it.  We practice teaching our investigators everyday before we leave the house for a lesson.  It's so much better to mess up to your comp than to the investigators.  it can be as simple as, "Hey we have a sweet activity at the church by my house on Wednesday you should come! You can meet some way cool people and see what we believe."  That's pretty general. This challenge goes to everyone Mom Dad David Ben Sophie and Josh.  Pray for a missionary opportunity and it will come. I know you are all amazing and probably do this on a daily basis anyway but it's the challenge we are giving our members so I thought I'd share the blessings.  :)  Love you all!

Week of Humility‏

Wow this has been a remarkable week. I've been humbled more than I ever thought I would and have learned some great lessons. Tuesday started with us not getting to some places that we had planned and our attitude and faith dropped quite a bit. I was really getting down and as we biked I just prayed that our day would pick up. We continued to bike and kept our eyes open for any opportunity to talk to people. We finally saw this lady weeding her front yard and decided to stop and ask her if she needed help. We had a good chat with her and her son. They accepted a Restoration DVD and committed to watch it and write down any questions they had. We are going to follow-up on Wednesday and hopefully it will turn out well for us.

Then that night we decided to visit a less active family named the Pearsons. It's mom, Vikki, sons Caleb Josh and Jacob and their little sister Rebecca. They are an awesome family. They welcomed us right in and chatted with us for nearly an hour. They were super open and just talked with us about everything from daily prayers, missionary work, trials they've been through, and even preparing to go through the temple. I talked mainly to the mom and daughter while Sister Kennar talked to the boys. Josh is 21 and Jacob is 17. Jacob at the end of the conversation mentioned that he wanted to serve a mission. He knows he has to get his life into shape to do so but it is a small desire in his heart right now. We have made it a goal to make this family a priority for the next month or so to help them get back on their feet and back into the swing of full activation. Rebecca is a sweetheart. She is the driving force that will bring their family back. She is amazing. It was incredible to go home that night and realize how the Lord had answered the prayer of a struggling missionary. I knelt in prayer that night and just apologized for my lack of faith at the beginning of the day and for my overall attitude in the morning. I want to just work and see miracles but it's not my will that is being done out here. I know I have to just act how the Lord needs me too and I need to be where He needs me.

Sister Kennar woke up 2 days this week with a wicked migraine that left her in bed until about 11 both days. It gave me a lot of time to study and really dissect our area book to find people and make our work more effective. One day I was studying the Book of Mormon for our challenge from President and we are all the way to the end of Ether now. I was reading this particular day in Mormon chapter 9 when I came across verse 31. I had been feeling like a really crappy trainer because we aren't having a ton of success and haven't been able to teach real solid lessons for Sister Kennar to experience and I just wanted to do more but we bike for nearly 6-7 hours everyday trying our hardest to get to as many places as possible and we really just can't fit anything else into our day. I was being really hard on myself and just wanted to be a super missionary or something. That verse reads, "But rather give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise that we have been." I felt rebuked by the scriptures and knew that I was being tried so that I could learn and that we could find a more effective way to work in our area. It's taken a lot of work but we are finally starting to see some progress and miracles come forth. Another scripture that I liked came to me as I was studying Christlike attributes. It's Alma 32:41-43. It just talks about faith, diligence, and patience. All things that I am constantly working on. Then I read a talk by Elder Holland from the 2012 April General Conference titled, "Labourers in the Vineyard". I encourage everyone to look it up and read it. It just seemed that everything I read solidified my purpose here and built my faith. Then a couple days later I was reading in Ether 9:35. It says, "And it came to pass that when they had humbled themselves sufficiently before the Lord he did send rain upon the face of the earth." Now that was when they were having a famine in the land. Well I've felt like we've had a famine of teaching opportunities in our land of Alexander Heights and after sufficiently humbling myself this week we saw a miracle yesterday. We had a recent convert bring 2 friends to church that want to be baptized. We told them that they have to have the lessons first and they set up an appointment with us today at 6:30. They are from Iran and don't speak English very well so we will have someone come to help interpret but they loved being at church yesterday and just want to learn more about Christ and God and follow them. I'll keep you posted on what happens with them. Sister Kennar yesterday said, "Sister Beckstrand, we have worked so hard and now Heavenly Father is blessing us. Thanks for always setting the example of hard work and obedience. You are a great trainer." I wanted to cry. I had been so hard on myself all week and just prayed that we would find success in this area and the Lord answered my prayers. He always answers our prayers. I love this gospel. It's perfectly simple and simply perfect. I love you all and pray that all is well at home. Know that I love you and think about you daily. You are the best family and support a missionary could ask for :)

Much love,

Sister Shayne

Ok here are the pictures of the week.

First pic: You know you are a missionary when you get blisters from walking and biking in the rain. You tend to the blisters and they heal then you head out a couple days later and the skin peels away and you start to bleed. Yes that on my shoe is blood and my cute little bandaid on my ankle :)

Second pic: This is me and Elder Baptista. Will someone forward this to Blaine Salisbury, probably through facebook? He served a mini-mission in Queensland before his mission and he served with Blaine. The tie he is actually wearing is from Blaine. Small world being a missionary haha

One week older and wiser too‏

Family!

Another week as come and gone and I don't know where it went.  I finally feel like I'm getting to know our area pretty well.  It's incredibly frustrating covering such a large area on bikes but I know that the Lord has some reason behind it.  We get to talk to a lot more people this way but don't necessarily get to teach as much as we would wish.  It's been a great growing and learning experience.  When you train someone on a mission you become what we call a "mission mom" to that new missionary.  So Sister Kennar is my "mission daughter".  I really feel like a mom most days.  Teaching, leading, setting the example, cleaning up things before bed (poor Sister Kennar is just smashed most days from biking), and even little silly things like pictures.  She loves taking pictures and I always get the, "Hey take a picture!"  The other day when she said it I said, "Mom mom mom take a picture of me!!"  She laughed and it's been fun to joke around with her and get to know her better.  She has an awesome testimony and is a great missionary.  We set some goals that we want to accomplish for this transfer together and it was a great time to just sit and talk about concerns she has, fears that I had about training in this area and just how we are going to help each other become the best missionaries that we can be.  It was a really special spiritual experience that really built our unity and connection as companions.  It's fun to have an Aussie companion.   She says funny words like ice blocks which is a Popsicle.  We laugh at each other attempting to speak with each others accents and just have a gool ol' time. 
 
The other day we went to a ladies house to help her pick her oranges and tidy up her yard.  She offered us a drink of basically hot chocolate but she used powdered milk in it.  She said "I hope you don't mind that I use powdered skim milk."  We said no and then she backed it up with, "I have actually had this probably longer than I've been a member of the church. My family usually brings their own milk when they stay over."  She joined the church in 1973!!!!  I almost died trying not to laugh out loud.  We were saved by a phone call asking us to come do service elsewhere so we didn't' have to end up drinking it.  We had a good laugh about that for the rest of the day.  I've been grateful to have Sister Kennar's personality to keep me smiling.  I was pretty down the other day while we were biking.  We just weren't having any success and I was getting pretty bummed.  I said a prayer as we biked just asking for the chance to share something with someone.  We tried another door and the man was super friendly.  We were able to share a bit with him.  He said he appreciates our dedication and what we are all about.  He wasn't interested but it was just enough to see the Spirit work through me as I opened my mouth and shared simple eternal truths with him.  Heavenly Father answers our prayers!  That simple little thing was enough to pump me back up and keep me going with my head held up high.  

I was able to speak in sacrament meeting yesterday.  My topic was love at home and how my family upbringing prepared me for a mission.  I basically just bragged about you all for 15 mins.  Just kidding but kind of serious.  I started talking about FHE at grandma and grandpas every 1st Monday of the month and how our opening song is always Love at Home.  I was able to share a lot of stories about how our families love of the gospel and standards helped others, like Eric, find the gospel.  It was awesome.  Many people came up and thanked me for my talk and for reminding them of the little things they need to do with their families now.  It made me feel good.  Then we had dinner and FHE that night with a family in the ward named the Berryman's.  They are amazing.  We call Sister Berryman, Auntie.  She loves missionaries and having us over.  She is going to be my mom away from home while I'm serving here.  She had us sing Love at Home as our opening song to FHE with them :)  It made me feel right at home.  I love our family.  I love knowing that we have been sealed together for time and all eternity.  I love hearing about girls camp and youth conference from Sophie, scout camp from Josh, basketball camp and swim team from Ben, and all of the fun family trips from David.  I've been blessed with the greatest family on the planet.  I love you all and pray for you everyday.  Never forget that someone around the world loves you :)  Thank you for everything you do for me.  You are the greatest!!

Much love, Sister Shayne 

ps mom the pumpkin bush is for you. I figured maybe we can do that with the bush in the front of our house for Halloween haha

 

For a RS activity we were able to go visit a buddist temple.  Here are some pictures of their worship room.  We were allowed to take pictures don't worry.



 

Tranferred to Ballajura!

Family!

 

Transfers were crazy.  I was transferred to a new area.  I'm now in the Alexander Heights area.  There haven't been missionaries in this area for 6 weeks.  So my companion and I are basically starting from nothing.  I picked up my new comp on Wednesday at the Mission Office with all of the other new missionaries that came in.  We lined up across from all of them and then President named us off and who we would be training.  My new companion is Sister Faiga (Rita) Kennar.  She is 20.  She was born in Apia, Samoa.  She moved to New Zealand when she was like 6-7.  Then only lived there for 3-4 years before moving to Melbourne.  Her brother plays for Melbourne Storm (under 20s) and he is taking time off to follow her footsteps and serve a mission.  The club said they would take him back after his mission and double his contract.  Pretty cool, aye?  She is amazing.  I couldn't have been blessed with a better companion to work with in this new area.

 

We cover 5 suburbs all on bike.  They are Ballajura (Where we live), Lansdale, Alexander Heights, Mirrabooka, and Koondoola. It's a pretty big area so we are going to have to work hard.  We've been "doubled in" which just means that we are both new in the area.  Most times one companion stays in an area but in our case the Lord needed us to rebuild this part of His vineyard.  Training is ridiculous.  I learn more from her than she does from me.  I know that this is going to be a huge test for me to step up and really be the missionary that the Lord needs me to be.  I have a lot of room to improve but I'm working on it little by little every day.  I think it's going to take every ounce of faith I can muster to make it through these next few weeks but it's going to be the greatest thing that's happened to me.  Our Ward mission leader in the Madeley Ward is Jesse Pappas.  He reminds me of Rodney from Flushed Away.  Same personality, same look, it's really kind of crazy haha.  He is way into his calling and it is amazing to work with him.  All 4 of us missionaries in our ward bore our testimonies of missionary work yesterday.  It seemed really powerful and many members got up and thank us for the motivation to keep sharing the gospel with their friends.  Our Bishop is Bishop Holder.  I met his son Quaid at the Provo Temple on one of our Temple walks while I was there.  He is serving in Ukraine.  It's cool to have random connections here in Perth.  I constantly am reminded that this is exactly where the Lord needs me to be.

 

Yesterday I was also fasting that I could fit these shoes that the Lord has given me to train.  I don't know why it's so hard to feel adequate for the calling but it's taking a lot of faith and trust.  I started my personal study yesterday after church with a prayer and I just said, "Heavenly Father, I just need to know that I'm doing alright. I'm nervous and want to do well."  I started reading and I came across 3 Nephi 5:13.  I just cried.  I know without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord is taking care of me, that He has called me to Perth and to be a trainer with Sister Kennar for a reason.  I have never felt the spirit answer me so powerfully before.  I still tear up just thinking about how much I feel my Saviors love, guidance and support in all I do.  Heavenly Father loves us.  I know it.  I've had too many things happen to ever deny it.  I hope you all remember how much Heavenly Father loves each and everyone of you.  Never forget that your Sister Shayne loves you.  I'm doing wonderful here in my new area and couldn't be happier.  I feel your prayers bless and strengthen me everyday.  Thank you all :)

 

All my love :)

Sister Shayne

 

pic 1 Sister Kennar

pic 2 Chapel in Ballajura

pic 3 Elder Baptista and Elder Beck (District leader) with me and Sister Kennar on our way to come email this morning :)