Statistics from 2013‏

We just got a text from President about our statistics for this last month and the last year.  This is what it read:

"Dear Elders and Sisters,

It's a great finish to a great missionary year in Western Australia!  We were blessed with five more baptisms and confirmations this weekend.  That's 30 baptisms for the month of December - an all time high watermark in at least this century!  

Another first: Every zone reached its baptismal standard of excellence this month!  It also brings us to high watermark for baptisms in a year over that same period of time of - 195!  The tender mercies come as a result of everyone's diligent efforts.  That you for the hard work you do every day and for what you are becoming."

No worries we are just making history here in the APM!  I'm so blessed to be a small part of it :)

Christmas in a ghost town‏

Hey there!  First off I have to say how much I loved seeing mom's blogs from Christmas!  It was good to see that everyone got lots of goodies and that Santa didn't miss anyone.  I loved the pictures from hiking.  My favorite one was David planking between the two rocks.  He just barely made it.  I got a good laugh from it.  I like the new kickball tradition.  The pictures from that are priceless!  I also loved the photo from Christmas past with dad and his siblings performing the nativity.  Classic Beckstrand tradition.

Well this year for Christmas Eve we went over to Brother Timu's house, our ward mission leader, to drop off his Christmas present from us.  He asked where we were eating for dinner and we told him that we didn't have any dinner plans.  His jaw dropped and he said, "That's it you aren't leaving here until after dinner.  You don't have any appointments that that interferes with do you?"  We didn't have any set appointments for the rest of the night so we enjoyed an awesome dinner with them.  As we finished dinner Brother Timu said, "Do yous have a spiritual thought for us?"  I said, "Right now?"  and he replied with, "No more like 10 seconds ago."  We all laughed and being missionaries we are always prepared so we went into their living room and I opened up Luke chapter 2.  I told them about our family tradition of the nativity.  Sister Timu's friend was there and she isn't a member so I was grateful for the opportunity to share my testimony about the Savior with her.  I read about Mary and Joseph going to be taxed, having no room in the inn, and then I read the account of the shepherds and the angels.  I stopped our story there and talked about how each of us can relate to either the shepherds or the angels.  The shepherds were humble and when they heard the truth about the Saviors birth they went straight away to worship Him.  After their faith had been solidified by seeing the Savior they went about telling everyone what they had seen and heard.  The angels knew what had happened and were gladly spreading glad tidings of great joy.  I was able to bare my testimony on getting to know the Savior better.  Every time I study more about the Saviors life the closer I feel to him.  I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have been a shepherd and have been able to see the Savior in the manger.  I agree with dad however that I, along with all of you reading this, were definitely angels in the heavenly choir.  What else could we have been doing that would have been more important that night?  Nothing, that's what.  We had all chosen to come to earth and we knew that the Saviors birth was going to be the start of His life, ministry, death, and resurrection making it possible for us to repent and live with God again after this life.  I know I was praising that little babies birth that night in the fields to the shepherds.  

 

What about you?  Read the account of the Saviors birth again.  Where you one of the humble parents who came to know the significance of their child's birth by spiritual revelation?  Are you a faithful Elisabeth or are you like Zacharius who needed to see an angel in the temple and be given a sign to know.  Are you an angel or shepherd spreading what you know to all who will listen?  Are you a Simeon or Anna who worshiped in the temple day in and day out until they saw the Savior and upon seeing him knew who he was immediately? Are you a wise man bringing gifts of your talents, time, efforts, or mistakes to the Savior to show your love for him?  There is so much that we can learn from this beautiful little nativity story.  I'm grateful that we read it every year as a family.  It's made me really appreciate the life of the Savior.  After our spiritual thought we went around and looked at Christmas lights.  There was one house that had their lights done to music on a radio station like the house in Washington fields.  I was the only one in our group of 8 people that had ever seen that before.  It was cool to see everyone else ooh and aww over it.  Then we went home and set out cookies for Santa and celery and carrots for the reindeer.  

 

For Christmas day I woke up and jumped out of bed.  I didn't sleep very well that night anyway because I was so excited for Christmas.  I've never been that excited before in my life.  I had my camera right next to my bed and I recorded waking up Sister Vaiula.  It was so worth it.  Then we ran out and opened up our packages.  It was so much fun.  I got a package from the Relief Society that had a photo album in it.  They had all signed a Christmas card for me.  I definitely felt the love.  I got a fun little package from my trainer with all kinds of goodies in it.  The Elders made scripture cases for us.  They are pretty amazing.  They made them out of cereal boxes and pictures from Ensigns.  They are awesome.  And of course I got a white Christmas from all of the snowflakes that came out of that box.  I loved reading everyone's letters.  They each touched my heart in more ways than you'll ever know.  I loved every one from Grandma and Grandmas all the way down to little Luke and Jenna.  Thank you to everyone who wrote :)  Then we drove over and dropped off our presents to the Elders.  We bought them stockings that we filled with lollies.  Then we bought a tie for each of them, wrapped it, and placed it in their stocking as well.  We just doorbell ditched it at their flat.  Then for lunch we went to Christmas in the park.  We went to Centennial Park where they had bounce houses, a dunking booth, big blow up balls like the one the Wells have,  food, ice cream, and music blaring the whole time.  Lunch and every single thing was absolutely free!  No charge for anything.  It was fun to see a bunch of members there.  We decided that that would be the best place for everyone who is still in Kalgoorlie to see the missionaries.  

 

After lunch we went to visit our investigator Christie and her kids.  On pday we bought both of her girls teddy bears and bought her little boy hotwheels cars.  We wrapped them all up, plus a box of chocolates for mum, and delivered them to them.  They had the biggest smiles on their faces.  It was my favorite part of Christmas day for sure.  Then for dinner we went over to the Silipa's house where we had dinner.  This family makes up about half of the ward.  We call them the Samoan ward :)  There were the Iosefas, Hunts, Paia'auas, Taupaus, and the Leitupos.  Christmas dinner made Sister Vaiula feel right at home.  We had fresh fish, chop suey, with fried rice and eggs.  There was a whole table full of so many different kinds of Samoan dishes that I didn't even really know where to start.  I only had one plate of food and was completely full.  Dessert was pavlova, which is my favorite Aussie dessert.  I don't know how to explain what it is.  It's like a marshmellowy cloud-like spongey cake thing usually adorned with fruit.  Haha  How's that for a description?  

Boxing day was the best!  I loved being able to Skype home and talk with all of you!  I'm glad you liked your Christmas presents :)  It was a the best Christmas gift.  

This week has been pretty slow seeing as everyone here that didn't have to work at the mines either went to Perth or to Esperence for the week.   Those that did have to work, because the mines never stop working, weren't very friendly because they had either just gotten off a night shift or they were bummed that they had to work over Christmas.  Anyway we made the most of our week and tried to find anyone who would listen to us.  There were 2 highlights in teaching this week.  

 

First off cute little Jay Tairua that we are teaching shared with us an experience he had as school last week.  One of his friends (age 9!) took the Lord's name in vain.  Well Jay being the amazing little kid he is says, "You shouldn't say that.  It is against the 10 commandments.  It doesn't make Jesus very happy."  With his friends puzzled look Jay continued, "Did you know that there is a place for people that don't do what Jesus tells them too?  You just don't get to live with Jesus."  He then proceeded to tell his friend all about the Plan of Salvation.  His friend at the end said, "I don't want to be bad anymore.  I'm going to try to be really good so I can live with Jesus."  Jay jumping on the opportunity added, "You should come to church with me!"  Okay people if this little 9 year old can do it then we all can do it!  We all have friends that need to know what they should be doing in order to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again.  We have the knowledge so we shouldn't be afraid to open our mouths and share it with our friends.  

 

2nd Story-  Yesterday we were trying to sauce out who was still in town and we dropped by an investigators house.  His name is Charlie.  He is about 76 and lost his wife a few years ago.  Last time we taught him the Plan of Salvation and he asked about how our church started.  We went back yesterday and taught him the Restoration.  I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that this gospel is true.  Why? Because as we stood on his doorstep and shared the Restoration with him he felt that God loves him.  He said it made sense that God would call another prophet, that he would give scripture and prophets to the whole world, and he committed to read the Book of Mormon!  That though isn't why I know the church is true.  I know it is true because every time, EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.  I've shared the 1st vision with someone something interrupts it.  I'll usually get through, ". . . which descended gradually until it fell upon me. . ." and something will happen.  Either the child cries, or the dog barks, or the phone rings, someone comes to the door, you name it and it has happened.  If this church wasn't true I would be able to just breeze through that story with no problem.  However, that isn't a story.  It is a factual moment in time when the veil was parted and God reached out in love once again to his people.  It's a moment that changed the whole world all because of one boys humble prayer.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on the face of the earth.  It is the only church with the fullness of Christ's gospel including priesthood power, and sealing and saving ordinances for the living and the dead.  Satan will always be around when we are the strongest.  We must be the members of Christ's church that God needs us to be!  We can be the kind of people that when we rise from our morning prayers Satan says, "Dang it, they are awake."  I love sharing this gospel.  I love being a missionary.  I love feeling my testimony grow and my conversion deepen every day that I am out here.   If we aren't closer to God today than we were yesterday then we are the ones who have moved.  Keep building your testimony through reading your scriptures and saying your prayers.  Those simple things are what build a strong foundation in the gospel.  I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week full of opportunities to share what you know!  :) 

All my love, Sister Shayne    

Pictures are Christmas lights and cookies for Santa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas presents, snowflakes, and a very tired but excited me :)

 

 

My presents

 

 

Stockings for the Elders.  We wrote quick notes for them and gave them each $20 for food.  We were just going to buy them gift cards to Subway but Subway didn't do gift cards .

 Christmas in the Park.  The lady in black is Sister Iosefa.  She is great!  

 

 

 

 

Sound shell where they were playing all the music and handing out ice cream because it was too hot anywhere else and the ice cream would have melted.

Yous must not have been asleep at 10pm because Santa made an appearance at our celebration.  In typical summer style he rode in on a firetruck

 

Brother and Sister Baker

The following were a couple emails that we received 

from the Bakers in Australia.

Dear Joel, Penny, Elizabeth and Rick, 
 
Fondest greetings from the most remote mission on earth, indeed the "ends of
the earth"... see D&C122:1 :)  
 
Trish and I were delighted to have your beautiful daughters in our home
tonight for dinner. What beautiful young women they are ! and a true credit
to their parents.  
 
We enjoyed getting to know them both just a little more. I am President
Bruce Lindsay's exec sec, so I have the opportunity to mix with many of the
missionaries, it is a real joy for Trish and me. 
 
It was obvious that Sister Terry enjoys the fine arts and craft and we
really enjoyed getting to know a little more about the Beckstrand family.
Penny has Scottish roots,  and Joel is from a family of 10 siblings who are
mostly all athletes   :)  
 
Of course I was most interested that Rick works for IBM  !  I had 23 years
with IBM in both marketing and management ( 16 Clubs & 4 Golden Circles Rick
:) -  says he humbly  :)   It was obvious that Elizabeth was a very special
person in Sister Terry's life too  :)  
 
Please pass on our love and gratitude to your extended families,  we confirm
just how great your girls are, and how blessed we feel to have them both
working in our ward.  You can tell that they love each other, and are a lot
of fun to be around. 
 
Fondest regards,  PHIL & TRISH BAKER  

Dear Terry’s and Beckstrand’s, 

Just wondered if you might enjoy some additional  items from Perth WA.   

I was invited to keynote the Bruce R McConkie 1961-64 missionary reunion last April  in Salt  Lake  -  my address was edited and submitted to the Meridian magazine by one of the attendees.    It was a special time for me , the 50^th anniversary of my baptism. Trish was teaching school, so my cousin accompanied me, his first visit to Utah.

The photo shows the Mission Presidency and our Mission Branch Presidents, who were attending the annual BP’s training seminar in 2012.  (I am holding the baby – as usual  J  )   Sitting next to President Lindsay is Elder Peter Meurs, our AA/70 .     Terry’s , Peter and Maxine  &  Trish and I walked the Cotswolds 2 years ago,  very dear friends.    -  PHIL

Christmas Miracles!!! Part 1 Kwinana Sister Training Leaders‏

This week we had the awesome opportunity to have Sister Ensign and Sister Bailey come spend a few days with us.  They are our Sister Training Leaders!  I was soo excited when I heard that those two of all sisters were the ones that would come out to exchange with us.  Well they arrived last Monday at about 3pm.  We had some great lessons that night.  I was with Sister Bailey and Sister Vaiula went with Sister Ensign.  As soon as they stepped off the train I felt a different spirit.  I knew that some miracles were about to take place but I couldn't have anticipated what actually came from it. 

On Tuesday Sister Ensign and I went to visit a young mum named Christie.  We tracted into Christie a few weeks ago and she said she had no belief in God or Christ.  We decided to go back and teach her the Plan of Salvation.  She let us in and listened.  We got to Christ's Atonement and asked her, "Christie how does that make you feel to know that Christ went through all of that for you?"  She just started crying and said, "I know I'm not alone."  She opened up to us about just coming out of an abusive relationship where the guy left her for someone else.  She has 3 kids.  A 7,5, and 3 year old.  Her kids are darling and super well behaved.  We talked about how we all have choices that we make and she mentioned how she feels like she has made a lot of stupid choices in her life.  We taught about repentance and she got really quiet.  She said, "That is what I need to do.  I can feel it."  We talked about the Spirit she was feeling and how she can be cleansed from everything.  We invited her to follow Christ and be baptized and she said yes!  She is on date for the 25th of January!  It was amazing.  I just got in the car and teared up as I offered a prayer of thanks for giving us the opportunity to help Christie.

 

 

 

Later that night Sister Bailey and I were able to go visit the White family.  Remember last week how I said Sister White came up to us at the Broadcast and said that they wanted Emma their 10 year old to be baptized on he 24th?  Well we had dinner with them and went through the baptismal questions with Emma.  She is a brilliant little girl.  I am just blown away at how prepared she was to be baptized.  While we sat and ate we made a program for her baptism.  We set up an interview for Luke, Emma's dad, with Bishop and called the Ward Mission Leader Brother Timu and told him that we are having a baptism on Sunday the 22nd.  Everyone was blown away and planning went into full force.  I'll finish this story later.  But miracle number two was that we had set another person on date to be baptized. 

Then Sister Bailey and I went with Brother Ben Klemasz to visit Lemuel and Madyson Tipene.  Mady is another 9 year old in the ward that wants to be baptized but because of her family going less-active for a bit wasn't able to when she was 8.  With Sister Bailey there we got down to business.  The only reason Mady isn't working towards a baptismal date is because Lem is waiting for his dad to come over from NZ.  Well we had him call his sister right then and ask when Pop has booked his flight.  She said that he flies in on the 5th of February.  We looked at Mady and said, "Do you want to be baptized on Saturday or Sunday morning before church?"  She looked at us with a big ol' smile on her face and said, "Sunday!"  Done and dusted.  She will be baptized by Pop Tipene on the 9th of February. 

3 baptismal dates set in one day!  Not to mention that as we went throughout the rest of our day we found 4 new investigators that were interested and willing to have us back to teach them more.  After we correlated all of this good news to the District Leader I just looked at Sister Bailey and just cried.  I thanked them for coming.  It was just exactly what we needed.  Sister Bailey was able to help me get my feet on the ground out here.  I'm so grateful that she was able to come back out here and help me more fully understand the area and the people here.  My heart was just so full of gratitude for the miracles, the sisters, the Spirit, and for the wonderful blessing it was to acknowledge the Lord's hand in all of it. 

Before bed that night I read the Cajun Night Before Christmas (found the words online) to the Sisters.  They loved it!  Sister Bailey asked me to slow down and not use so much of an accent because she was struggling to understand.  I told her that that was how I felt talking to the Aussies my first couple of days here.  It was one of the best days I've had yet on my mission.    So this week it hit over 40 degrees.  Which for you that use Fahrenheit we hit somewhere between 104-108 degrees last Tuesday and Wednesday.  Then came Thursday.  Wednesday night there was a big storm that rolled in and it rained and rained and rained.  Thursday and Friday the temp dropped to about 15 degrees (59 F).  It was a nice little change of weather.  Here are some pictures of the storm clouds and sunset on Wednesday and the rain on Thursday.  I couldn't help but bust out singing, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!" It's going to be hot again before Christmas but it was nice being able to put a sweatshirt on and wrap up in a blanket.   

 

 

 

Christmas Miracles Part 2: Presents‏

Our fridge broke this week.  It just decided to stop working.  We called up Brother Jordan over cars and flats and told him our predicament.  He made a phone call to a shop up here and called us back.   He said, "Hello Sisters it's Santa Clause here  I  just bought yous a new fridge and they will be delivering it tomorrow!"  We were pretty happy when we got something to keep food and water cold again.  The man even installed it for us and took the old fridge outside for us.  That was a pretty great present for Christmas.

This is our Christmas tree in Kalgoorlie.  I drew it the other day :)  These are our packages.  The white ones are mine.  The brown ones are Sister Vaiula's.  Just a funny coincidence.  The big brown one is addressed to both of us.  We have been really tempted to open them but we have been good and kept them sealed until Christmas morning :) 

  We went out to the Super Pit for lunch while the Sisters where here.  It's massive and amazing.  We also placed a Book of Mormon with a man from over seas. I don't remember where he is from but he speaks Danish.  We taught a mini restoration lesson with him and gave him a Book of Mormon to read on his travels.  

This is the digger.  The machines here are insanely massive.

I took a lot of pictures but these are just a glimpse of how awesome the Super Pit is.    

 

Christmas Miracle Part 3: Emma's Baptism!‏

We had an amazing Christmas miracles yesterday morning starting at 6:30am.  We arrived to the chapel and the first thing we heard when we walked in was water running in the font.  That is one of the most beautiful sounds in the world. Darling little Emma May White was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 8am.  It was such a beautiful baptism.  She honestly will be the biggest support to her family.  She will make an amazing missionary in 10 years time.  She has had this perma-grin on her face for the last week.  We started the baptismal service, Elder Battye and I spoke and then we went to watch the baptism.  When Emma came out of the water she just hugged her dad and wouldn't let go.  There wasn't a dry eye in the room.  Everyone was hit by the Spirit.  Then she was confirmed by Koko (grandpa in Moari) in sacrament meeting.  It was such a spiritual meeting.  Luke's mum is visiting and she isn't a member so it was really nice to have her at the baptism.  Sister White said that she will have us over a couple of times while Nan is in town so we can use it as a teaching experience.  I'm excited to see how this family will continue to be blessed by Emma's faith and strength.  I love this little girl.  I couldn't help but think, "This is what this gospel is all about."  While she hugged her dad in the font.  I love that families can be together forever.  

 

 

 

I'm soo excited to talk to you all on Skype in just a few days!  I love you all :)   Have a very Merry Christmas! 

Much love, 

Sister Shayne 

Luke 2: 8-14 :)  

Hard work, tears, and prayers. God feels, sees, and hears them all.‏

G'day everyone!

Well this last week flew by!  On Friday I really was like blown away at how quickly our week was coming to an end.  I'll just give a recap of how this week went and explain the subject of this letter. 

On Wednesday President and Sister Lindsay flew up to spend the day with us.  We went to lunch to celebrate how amazing our Zone is doing.  In the Bunbury Zone we had never had more than 4 baptisms in a month.  The first week of December we had, I believe, 6 baptisms in our Zone.  With Kalgoorlie contributing to that with a baptism just before I came up.  President wanted to come let us know how much he loves us and let us know that we are not forgotten out here in Kal.  After lunch with them we all went to the chapel for a District Meeting.  President and Sister Lindsay told us the Christmas story from the bible.  It was touching and just filled the room with the Spirit.  We had an awesome meeting.  Each of us got a point to teach each other.  We have a great unity in our small little district.  President had interviews with us after the meeting.  I love President Lindsay.  He would do anything for us.  I love having interviews with him because I can just feel his love for me in everything we talk about.  It really was just a boost I needed.  I printed out a 6x8 of the St. George temple picture you sent with it covered in snow and put it in a white photo frame for President and Sister Lindsay for Christmas.  Sister Lindsay LOVED it!  It was nice to have something small to give them for Christmas since they do everything for us. 

 

Then we got into the work of the week.  We had some great appointments set up, great plans of inviting people to be baptized, and we were excited to see some great growth in our teaching pool from the tracting that we had planned to do.  Well long story short all of our appointments fell through.  They were either called into work, going out of town, forgot, or just weren't home.  We hit 39C (102F) degrees yesterday.  I thought it was awesome but everyone else hates it.  I'm just grateful to finally have a summer.  Everyone says that these next couple weeks are going to be the hottest.  We got in the car and it was just hot and I felt at home.  That is something I've surprisingly missed about home.  Not have a summer for more than a year is awful.  The down side to it being so hot is that tracting is miserable.  Not only is it hot and sweaty but people don't want to open their doors and let out the cool air.  If they do open it they don't like to talk because it either requires them to let us in (which only one person did this week) or close the door.  The latter happened a lot.  When I say a lot I mean that we tracted for at least an hour and a half everyday and only found 1 person this week that was willing to let us come back and share more.  We were able to share the story about Christ's birth from 3 Nephi 1:13-14 at a couple of doors though and that was nice.  They didn't want to hear any more but at least we got something in.  Kalgoorlie is unlike any other place I've served yet.  Normally when tracting other places if people aren't interested they would make up an excuse or just tell us "thanks but no thanks."  Here people seem to have more to say and it's not usually anything nice about religion.  After a full day of no results I just drove home in tears.  I have been praying really hard for patience and perseverance.  I won't let it get me down but it's been a rough couple of days.  There isn't a whole lot of love out here when tracting.  Thankfully our ward members love us and take care of us. 

There was one cool thing that happened while we were tracting.  There was a house that was down this long as driveway behind another house.  We just passed by and were about to go to another house when I got the impression that we needed to go back.  As we walked down this driveway I couldn't help but think, "This is going to be a family that wants to hear what we have to share.  It's has to be.  Because we almost missed it there must be someone here that wants to hear our message."  Sure enough a big Maori dad came to the door.  We gave our little door approach and he let us come in and share our message with his 3 kids around the dinner table as they ate.  It was really cool.  The mum and dad were on their way out but they said we could come back after the holidays and share more with them.  They are going to Perth for Christmas.  That's what most of Kalgoorlie is doing for Christmas haha.  

 

I hit my half way mark of my mission!  I can't believe that I've been gone for 9 months.  Time flies soo fast when you are on a mission.  Our Sister Training Leaders called us on the 13th and sang, "Happy Halfway to you! Happy Halfway to you!  Happy Halfway Sister Beckstrand!  Happy Halfway to you!"  It was awesome!  I couldn't help but just laugh at their creativity.  It made my day :) The STL's are coming up today and will be with us all day tomorrow.  It will be nice to have them here.  Not only will we be able to teach more people but we will be able to double our finding efforts as well. 

Church yesterday and just all of our Sabbath was amazing.  At church our Ward Mission Leaders assistant bore his testimony about missionary work.  He talked about how it is the ward members that need to be reaching out and saving the lost.  He talked about rescue visits and how important they are.  Everyone was touched.  He reminded me of Brigham Young's conversion story about hearing a testimony of a man without eloquence.  Brother Paia'aua is from Samoa and his English isn't perfect but Mate, he spoke with power.  Then in Relief Society we talked about the word reflect.  We reflected on a particular moment in our life that we remember really vividly.  I thought back to state swim 2012 after I finished the 100 freestyle.  It was just something that I could remember really well.  She compared how we reflect in our lives and how we can reflect upon the life of the Saviour and how we can learn from His life.  I was incredible deep in thought when we heard the primary children in the room behind us start singing time.  I heard the most angelic choir come from those little kids.  They sang,

My life is a gift; my life has a plan.

My life has a purpose; in heav'n it began.

My choice was to come to this lovely home on earth

And seek for God's light to direct me from birth.

I will follow God's plan for me,

Holding fast to his word and his love.

I will work, and I will pray;

I will always walk in his way.

Then I will be happy on earth

And in my home above. 

I am so incredible grateful for the plan that God has for me and for each one of us.  I'm grateful for my Saviour.  I'm grateful for this Christmas season of which we have to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  I'm grateful for the atonement.  I know that by focusing on the Saviours life and teachings we can learn soo much.  I have grown so much closer to my Saviour these last 9 months.  I'm grateful for the attributes of Christ that we can adapt into our lives.   Take time this week to read the account of the Saviours birth and many of the miracles that he performed in His ministry.  President Hinckley said, “This is the wondrous and true story of Christmas. The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem of Judea is preface. The three-year ministry of the Master is prologue. The magnificent substance of the story is His sacrifice, the totally selfless act of dying in pain on the cross of Calvary to atone for the sins of all of us. …“There would be no Christmas if there had not been Easter. The babe Jesus of Bethlehem would be but another baby without the redeeming Christ of Gethsemane and Calvary, and the triumphant fact of the Resurrection.”  I testify that that is true.  Make Christmas all about Christ this year.  Start off the new year more devoted and dedicated to God and the Saviour.  It will bring more blessing into your life than you could ever imagine.  I love this gospel and know it is the only true church on the face of the Earth.  The Priesthood is real and has been restored.  The Book of Mormon is word of God and Thomas S. Monson is God's prophet on earth today.  That's my short and simple testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  

 

I hope you were all able to watch the 1st Presidency Broadcast.  If you haven't, watch it.  It was inspired.  We were able to watch it at the chapel last night.  After we were spiritually fed by that, a sister in the ward came up to us.  Sister White's daughter Emma is 10 and has not been baptized.  They have been waiting for the dad to be worthy to baptize her.  Well their family is ready for her to be baptized.  Sister White said that her husband was baptized 7 years ago on the 24th of December and if at all possible they would like to baptize Emma on Christmas Eve.  We couldn't believe what we were hearing.  We have an appointment with them on Tuesday to see how we can get her ready to be baptized.  She has had all of the lessons several times over the last year.  We are going to go through the baptismal questions with her and then play her program and get things all sorted out.  If everything goes well we should be giving their family the best Christmas present ever.  God answers prayers!  He does in His time and in His way but every prayer is answered.  "Pray He is there, speak He is listening.   You are His child, His love now surrounds you."  I love being a missionary.  Life in Australia is amazing.  The work is moving forward and individuals and families are coming unto Christ.  I am grateful for you all.  I've been blessed with the greatest family on the planet. I love you all and think about you all the time.  Can't wait to see you next week :) Until then know I love you.  You are the best. 

Much love, Sister Shayne

 

 I went through and printed pictures from mum's blog and taped them to the wall near my bed.  I love em.

 

 

 

We found this not so little guy in our kitchen sink the other morning.  Note: Our dishes were done minus those two cups in the picture.  Windows were all closed and the bench (countertop) was clean.  We have no idea how he got in but Sister Viaula took care of him.  Haha I tried to smash him and missed and ran away like a little girl hahahaha I just couldn't do it. 

KALGOORLIE!!!

Hey there!

Well this has been one heck of a week.  On Monday last week we had lunch as a Zone in celebration of our baptisms from the last month.  It was fun to find out where everyone was being transferred.  Well we knew that Sister Terry, the Ellenbrook Sisters and I all needed to be dropping me off at the train station at 2:45 in order to catch my train that leaves at 3:15.  Well at about 2:17 Sister Bailey asks me when we need to leave.  I told her about 5 minutes and then we would be off.  Sister Terry said we could stay for probably 10 and I said fine but then we would need to leave for sure.  Well Sister Bailey needed to pick up her bike from the bike shop at 2:30.  So in a quick minute or less Sister Terry and Sister Bailey had devised a plan of how to get me to the train and Sister Bailey her bike.  Those two work at a million miles an hour and no on  else can keep up with them.  So all of a sudden Sister Terry and Sister Bailey are running out of the building.  I stand up because my companion has just left the building.  I look around and see Sister Suzuki sitting by herself.  I ask her what is going on and she just shrugs being just as confused as I was.   At 2:40 I call the sisters.  They have just left the bike shop and are on their way to pick us up.  2:45 I call again and ask where they are.  They say, "We are at the lights by President's house."  I asked why the heck they are all the way down there.  They say not to worry and that I'll make the train.  I knew at that moment that I wasn't going to make my train to Kalgoorlie.  They called me straight back and they asked where we were.  We told them that we were still at lunch.  Sister Terry goes, "Oh heck we were heading to the chapel!  We are turning around right now!  Why don't you just drive to the station and we will meet you there?"  I said, "That's a great plan but I would have done that 20 minutes ago had the keys not been in the purse around your neck."  There was silence on the other side of the phone and then I just hear keys being pulled out of her bag.  "Oh no!!! It's okay we will make your train!"  We weren't going to make it.  They pulled up and we sauced out cars and took off towards the train station.  I was going in and out of traffic and Sister Bailey starts to offer a prayer that we will make it safe, that Sister Beckstrand won't get pulled over, and that she will make her train.  3:07pm Sister Bailey tells Sister Suzuki to say a prayer because her prayers are better than Sister Baileys.  Sister Suzuki starts praying and I just started to cry.  I knew I wasn't going to make it.  We pulled in to the station at 3:14.  I took off running to stop the train while Sister Terry and Sister Bailey brought my bags from the car.  As I'm running to the ticket station I see my train pull out of the station.  I got to the ticket man and asked if that was the train leaving for Kalgoorlie.  I just sat down and tried not to cry or yell at anyone.  Sister Terry and Bailey came running down the station with my bags.  They saw me and knew we had missed it.  I made them sauce out my ticket and how I was going to get to Kalgoorlie.  It was a long process and a lot of phone calls but they got my ticket switched to the morning train and everything was going to be fine.  We went back to Alexander Heights and finished out our day.  The next morning we were off nice and early with plenty of time to catch my train :)  I did indeed make that train at 7:10am and pulled in to Kalgoorlie at 2pm. 

My new companion is Sister Sheryl Joyce Vaiula.  She is straight from Samoa.  She has been out for a transfer less than I have.  She is half Samoan, half American.  She has never met her biological dad.  She was adopted and raised by her mum's parents in Samoa from when she was very young.  She was baptized when she was 8 but was less-active for the 11-12 years following.  She decided that she needed to go back to church last year just before the age was lowered for the missionaries to serve.  She decided to serve a mission and worked with her Bishop to get her out on a mission.  She had to visa wait for a transfer back in Samoa so we get along really well.  She has been in Kal or 7 weeks now so I rely on her a lot to help me know where to drive.  I got to talk to Sister Donaldson (the last sister out here) just after I arrived.  She said that she had told President that if she leaves Kal that a strong sister needs to come in her place.  I was honoured that I had been trusted to be that strong sister to help in the work out here.  There is heaps of work out here.  A big chuck comes from part member families and reactivation of less-active members.  I'm so excited to see what we can do with this area.  Sister Vaiula sticks to the rules, has a desire to do work, and is ready and determined to work hard.  It's going to be great!

My first night here we went to a Relief Society Christmas Party.  It was a quick way to get to know a lot of the ladies in the ward.  I met the Bishops wife.  They are from Utah!  Their surname is Rowe.  They are super nice and were excited to have someone else from Utah in the ward.  There are about 3 or 4 American families in the ward.  I met them all at church yesterday. 

One family that I was beyond excitement to see was Brother and Sister Kaa.   I knew Sister Kaa back in the good ol' Washington YSA ward!  I knew her as Nykell Graff.  She is Mrs. Graff from Washington Elementary School's daughter.  Her little sister is Morgan Graff who I went to school with.  She graduated back in May.  Crazy right?!  She met her husband on her mission and they moved here about a year ago.  She is pregnant with twins.  It's their first kids and they are both boys.  Brother Kaa is really excited.  She isn't due until the new year but she is so small that her doctor has just told her to be on bed rest and see how long she can go.  She reckons she will have Christmas babies.  I can't believe that she is here.  We had dinner with them the other day and I loved having someone to talk to about home. 

Speaking of home.  Kalgoorlie is St. George just half was around the world.  I'll send a picture.   This picture was taken because I had a flash back of driving from the St. George temple (where I studied in between classes) and DSU.  I fully thought I was driving down like 400 S in St. George.  Just replace the gum trees with the trees we have at home.  There is also red dirt everywhere!!!!  I really feel like they sent me home for Christmas.  Minus the fact that you are all going to have a white Christmas.  Which I'm still trying to wrap my head around.  We hit 100 degrees here in Kalgoorlie the other day :)  Nice, warm,  and dry.  Just the way I like it haha

It's weird as being in the outback.  There are only 4 missionaries out her in Kal.  Our District leader is Elder Quaresima from Italy, his companion is Elder Battye from the Gold Coast of Brisbane, Me the American, and Sister Vaiula from the islands.  We are a pretty divers group but we absolutely love it!  The other day we had Zone Meeting.  Now being in Kal we are a part of the Bunbury Zone.  We are a 7 hour train ride and another 2 hour drive after that away from our zone.  How do we participate in Zone Meeting do you ask?  By phone call of course!  So we got together at the chapel here in Kal and put our phone on speaker and listened in on Zone Meeting.  It was hard to hear some of it and weird to have our phone on mute so we couldn't really be a part of it but that's just part of being in the outback! 

One great story from this week.  We are working with this family.  They are the Tairua Family.  The parents have been less-active for a long time.  They have 3 kids.  2 daughters that have tried to stay active thanks to the amazing youth program out here.  (No joke we dropped by on Thursday to say hi to people at the mutual and they had at least 25 kids at mutual that night and not all of them were there!  This ward is amazing!) Anyway Sister Tairua has a desire to return and the youngest boy Jay turns 9 this Friday and has never been baptized.   The whole family came to church last week and the mum and kids came yesterday as well.  We dropped by on Thursday night for a lesson.  Mum said that she wants Jay to be baptized and Jay wants to be baptized more than anyone else I've ever met.  We taught him the Restoration and gave him his own copy of the Book of Mormon.  Sister Tairua was touched by the lesson and at church yesterday she really opened up in Relief Society.  It was great to hear her concerns and setbacks.  The teacher really showed an increase of love and just told her that she is exactly where she needs to be to find help in regaining her testimony and strengthening it.  It's amazing what kind of effect one simple sentence like that can have on a person.  I'm grateful for all the people in my life that had given me hope and strength with their "one sentence" to me over the years. 

Jay is going to be baptized on the 11th of Jan 2014.  It's going to be great.  His primary teacher just raved about him after church to his mum.  He is a brilliant kid and will make an incredible missionary some day. 

I love teaching little kids.  The next generation is strong. Physically, mentally, and spiritually.  I have a firm testimony that the Lord has saved his strongest souls to come in the hardest of times.  Why?  Because they can handle it.  Not just handle it but they can withstand temptation, understand at a greater level, and have a testimony so deeply rooted in the foundation of the gospel that nothing can or will shake them.  That's how we all need to be.  I know I am learning from Jay just as much as he is learning from me.  It's been such a special blessing to work with these kids.  I love being in Kalgoorlie.  I can't wait to see what else is in store out here.  I love you all!

Sister Shayne

PS.

Dad- I was reading in Jesus the Christ the other day and came across the story from John 9:1-3.  That is when they ask the Lord who has sinned that the child has been born blind.  I automatically thought of you and all of the Sundays before Christmas when we would watch Christmas Mission :)  It made my study a bit brighter. 

Mom-  Your blogs are the best!  Thank you for the one about the Thanksgiving day race.  I got a good laugh out of it.  I've decided to print out pictures from your blog and tape them up on the wall by my bed.  Our room is pretty bare and it would just make it feel a little more like home.   Just getting settled in a new area haha

Sophie-  Your meet updates are awesome!  You and your girls will be smashing my records in no time!  Just don't crush em to much.  haha

Josh-  It doesn't surprise me that you are the one who made the first snowball of winter.  I was telling someone the other day about when we had our last big now storm in St. George and you put a snowball in the deep freeze.  No on found it for ages and then when mom did we all just had a good laugh about it.  I still can't believe how tall you are.  You are taller than mom!  Which means you are taller than me!  Make sure you send me all of the new heights from the height tree this year!

Ben and David-  Good job on your basketball games!  Dad told me all about how you both not only won your games but that you both scored in them as well!  I'm so proud of the great little athletes you are becoming.  Keep running and maybe when I get back I'll run some 5K's with you :) 

I hope you are all being good so that Santa can bring you great presents this year.  Oh yes by the way my mail still gets to me out here in the outback.  They just forward all letters to us.  President is coming up this week and will bring packages and what have yous.  We are well taken care of out here and are definitely not forgotten. 

All my love from the outback! 

Picture #1  After we missed the train on Monday

 

 Picture #2  Sister Bailey's loving apology hug before I got on the train Tuesday morning

 

Picture #3 View from the train out to Kalgoorlie

 

Zone Meeting.  See our phone in the middle of the table?  Sister Vaiula, Elder Quaresima, and Elder Battye on the right.

 

Me and Sister Vaiula :) 

 

Brother Jack Kaa and Sister Nykell Graff Kaa !!! 

 

Our Flat!

 

400 South in St. George.  Really just a street in the suburb of Boulder in Kalgoorlie.

 

Overview picture of Kalgoorlie from a magazine.  It's the closest area I've had to a grid system since Cheney.

 

Sunday Studies.  My study chair broke so I was using my bed.  I think I used every resource I had available during that study haha Can you see where I sat? 

 

People in Kalgoorlie are getting excited about Christmas.  Lights are starting to go up!

 

Sister Vaiula had never washed a car at a car wash until this morning.  I had to document this first time for her.  It's a perk of having a companion from the Islands.  A lot of things are a first. 

Fun Pictures

So these are our attack copies of the Book of Mormon.  Our Zone Leaders came up with a game connected to these pocket size copies of the Book of Mormon.  For every scripture you share with someone while contacting or tracting, invitation to church you give out, baptismal invite you extend, or miracle you share you get a tick mark (check mark) for that thing.  Each tick results in a soldier for a Zone p-day game of Risk!  We are playing today.  The Zone Leaders have created a massive playing board that is a giant map of our Zone.  We are going to play within our Districts and the district winners will play to see who overtakes the entire zone.  It's going to be great.  I'll send pictures of that next week.  I'll explain what my tabs all mean.  The ones across the top are the lessons in PMG.  Blue is Restoration, Orange is Plan of Salvation, Green is Gospel of Jesus Christ, Purple is the Commandments, and yellow is Laws and Ordinances.  The pink and red tabs down the side are my 50 favorite scriptures about Christ.  We made this list from the scriptures about Christ that we marked when we read the Book of Mormon as a mission earlier this year.  The lime green tabs across the bottom come from page 105 in PMG.  They are questions of the soul that can be answered using scriptures from the Book of Mormon.  I've marked these well and it has helped me so much in contacting, planning, and teaching.  I love it!  The covers were also found by our Zone Leaders.  They are awesome!  I love it.  I'm excited to see how our last 2 weeks of accumulating points will play out today.  It should be fun.

 

 We tracted Babylon the other day.  We had no success. . .  not even one scripture shared.

These are the nuts from a gum tree.  They are called gum nuts.  This picture is specifically for Ben, Daniel, and Alex seeing as they reminded me so much of Deku seeds from Legend of Zelda :)  haha

 Christmas gets to start after Halloween here because there is no Thanksgiving holiday.  We put up our tree 2 weeks ago :)  Ours is the little cute one.  The big one is Sister Lizayas.  I thought mom might appreciate seeing that someone else goes all out on their trees. 

Our screen door hates Sister Terry.  It bit her one day just before we went tracting.  Here are some awesome pictures of her cut.  Thanks mom for the great first aide kit. The first bandaid didn't help a whole heap but it was very useful for the next few days. 

 

 

 

This is a great Huntsman spider that we saw at the church after our party 2 weekends ago.

The lizard is a Blue-tonged lizard.  This one was in our back yard one day during lunch.  I had to get a picture.  He had lost his tail and so it was in the process of growing back.