This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ‏

This was been one spooky spiritual week.  We had two exchanges with Sisters in our Zone, Zone Conference, and Halloween.

To start I'll tell you a little about my assignment as a Sister Training Leader.  We get the privilege of going on 24 hour exchanges with the Sisters in our zone.  We have 3 other Sister Companionships in our zone that we get to work with and help train.  We were able to do exchanges with the Midland Sisters and the Ellenbrook Sisters.  I was with Sister Billy one day.  She is from Micronesia from the island of Chuuk where they speak Chuukese.  Then another day I spent with Sister Suzuki from Tokyo Japan.  It was remarkable to help these Sisters with language study in the mornings.  I was humbled by the sincerity of their prayers as they prayed for the gift of tongues to be able to make a difference in one persons life that day.  I thought long and hard about my life before my mission.  I thought about how easily I could have shared the gospel with anyone struggling but I kept my mouth shut sometimes.  I've learned a lot from these girls.  Sister Billy's native language doesn't translate in the Book of Mormon completely.  So in their country they only have a partial Book of Mormon.  She is currently working on reading the entire Book of Mormon through for the first time in her life.  Not because she hasn't but because she has never had the full copy.  She is doing it in another language none the less!  I was floored.   I asked how she knew it was true when she was converted and she said, "It's like tasting a cake I had a little bit and I knew it was good.  Then I prayed and asked God and He told me it was true." How simple, beautiful and profound.  I am just continually amazed at the blessing it is to have the gospel reaching so many parts of the world.  I love being here and having the opportunity to associate with these people.

 

 

 As Sister Training leaders we also get to be a part of a Missionary Leadership Council that consists of all Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, the Assistants to the President, and President Lindsay himself.  This group meets once a month to review goals, set new goals, talk about training, practice teaching, and work to build the unity and power within our mission.  For the next couple of months our exchanges are specifically to help the Sisters progress their investigators to baptism by making the focus of everything always on Jesus Christ.  Why would the focus ever be on anything else?  We have really been fed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our mission this week.  At Zone Conference that was what the whole thing was on.  It's changed my life.  Everything and anything can be mended, healed, cleansed, and repaired through Jesus Christ.  With that knowledge we have to have faith in it.  Faith itself can be studied and restudied and you will continue to learn.  Faith leads to action.  That action is repentance.  Repentance always gets a bad rap.  That is the best gift that the Savior gave us.  He died so that we can repent!  That's the whole purpose behind the atonement!  It's remarkable the power the process of repentance has on our lives.  I use the simple process every day.  Many times a day actually.  I feel so close to my Savior.  I couldn't do this without Him.  Your companion (as incredible as mine currently is) can only help so much.  It all comes back to the Lord.  We take the sacrament to renew those baptismal covenants we made to always remember Him, take His name upon us, and stand as a witness of Him at times.   When we get squared away with God the spirit helps us.  A comforter, a guide, a mentor, a helper, a teacher and a friend.  That's what everyone in this world needs right now.  If we find that Spirit in our lives everything will start to pick up. Enjoy the journey.  Endure to the end sounds hard and can be intimidating.  Just enjoy the power of the atonement, the gift of repentance, and the love of the Savior. In 3 Nephi 11:41  The Lord says that the gospel will be preached to all ends of the earth.  When President Hinckley came to Perth to dedicate the Perth Temple he said, "Perth Perth, the end of the Earth."  He's right.  This is the farthest major city from Salt Lake City in the world.  The gospel as made it this far and the work that is happening here is incredible! 

 

I sat at Zone Conference on Halloween and thought to myself, "I can't believe that I got my call one year ago."  Time flies by.  The work is moving and it isn't going to stop.  Open your mouth and be a part of it.  At the end of Zone Conference we had a testimony meeting among the missionaries.  It is incredible to hear the strength and growth in the missionaries testimonies.  Elders who are nearing the tail end of their missions bore testimonies about how the knowledge they've received has changed their lives.  I was in tears.  This gospel changes lives for the better.  I love it!  Elder Boynton said, "I've been doing this all wrong for so long.  In 2 Nephi 2:25 it says, 'Adam fell that men. . . might have joy.'  If we don't end our day with more positives then negatives than we are going about life the wrong way."  How true that is!  I challenge you all to think back on your day at night and strive to have your positives outweigh your negatives.  It will bless your life in a really simple and easy way. 

Halloween here was pretty good.  It's nothing like home but they definitely gave it their best shot.  The primary's 1st counselor is from Seattle Washington so she put together a ward party for the little kids there were different stations of carnival games that we got to be a part of.  I'll send through some good pictures.  Instead of having people do Trunk or Treat however they had us line up in class rooms down the hall of the church and the kids came and did trick or treating to our classroom.  It was fun.  You can't really do trunk or treat here because they call the trunk a boot and treats, lollies.  Therefore, Boot or Lollie just doesn't have the same ring to it.  Hahaha!  We went over and visit the Pearsons because they know how to do Halloween.  I went as Sister Jekyll and Sister Terry went as Sister Hyde.  It was the quickest and easiest thing we could do with the time we had.  They thought it was clever. 

You're costumes were incredible this year!  Mom I laughed so hard when I saw the Duck Dynasty picture that my eyes teared up.  The missionaries around me didn't understand why I thought that picture was so funny.  Sophie of course pulled off the cute cowgirl costume perfectly.  Josh I think wins this year for the coolest costume.  I definitely approve!  It was pretty sweet.  Ben's make-up totally completed his costume!  he made a great zombie.  And I didn't know David had muscles like that!  I hope no body messed with him that night.  I laughed really hard when I saw all of the Wells family costumes as well.  I'm always amazed at how creative everyone is and how much we love this holiday.  I hope Thanksgiving brings just as much joy for you all!  The pictures of Ben and David's football games were great!   Looks like Ben will be a great quarterback in the future and David, just like we all thought from the time he was super little, will be a great defender.  I love you all.  I can't believe how tall Ben is getting.  Josh will definitely be taller than me when I get home.  It's so weird but really cool at the same time.  I hope and pray all is well with you all!  Have a great week!

Much love, Sister Beckstrand

Taco and burrito dinner!!!!

 

 Sister Terry doing the fishing for lollies

 

                                                                                    Elders helping with the bean bag toss
 

 Me and Sister Suzuki

Our Halloween costumes :)

 

This is my district, minus our zone leaders.  We set APM history this week by finding 44 new investigators this last week!  That is the new record of investigators found in a district in one week!  No worries we are just making history over here :)

Left to right:  Elder Richards, Elder Holyoak (District leader), Sister Bailey, Sister Suzuki, Sister Terry, Elder Faitua, and Elder Hall.