Happy New Year!
Well New Year's Eve was definitely different this year than any
other year of my life. I was so excited to stay up (yes breaking that
mission rule, shame I know) and seeing the New Year before any of you!
Well 9:30 rolled around and we finished planning for New Years day.
Sister Vaiula fell asleep straight away. She slept all the way until
the next morning. She didn't even squirm! I was sooo disappointed. I
asked the Elders if Kalgoorlie did fireworks earlier in the day and at
like 10:20 they texted me and said, "Well if they are it's raining so
one it won't work very well and two you won't see em." I was pretty
disappointed. So I camped out on my bed with my chips and salsa, Rubik's
cube, and my journal. I'm a bit behind so I needed to catch up in my
writing. I stayed up all the way until midnight just to take some
pictures of the new year and then I fell asleep at like 12:15. Pretty
lame but it was cool knowing that it was only 9:00am on New Years Eve
where you are :)
President Lindsay challenged all of us to start off the New Year by
reading Joseph Smith's History in the Pearl of Great Price. If you
haven't read it for a while I encourage you to do so. It's only 12
pages long. I totally had the realization that Josh is 14 and Joseph
Smith was 14 when he saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I
have to give some credit to Joseph's family for trusting Joseph when he
told them what he saw. I would probably have thought that Josh hit his
head on something. Love you Squash :)
Our Zone Leaders came up this week. It was good to have them visit
and share the missions goal with us for the new year. The theme is
"Members." In the Australia Perth Mission for the last 4 months we have
seen miracles that we have never seen in this missions history. But we
have been doing most of the work alone. We can not do this work without
the members. I have a plea for every person who has been baptized into
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint that is reading this.
This week I want you to write down the time that you remember becoming
converted to the gospel. When you really knew for yourself that
the church is true. If you haven't had that yet, ask the
missionaries to come share a message to your family. The Spirit that
will come to you as you recall those tender and precious moments in your
life is what all of your non-member friends are missing. They don't
have the Spirit to help them in their lives like you do. No wonder they
seem to struggle more than they should some times. Please reach out to
a friend or relative and share your testimony with them. Even if it is
as simple as, "Hey you should pray about that." That's a testimony
that you know prayer works. Show them a video on Mormon.org or mormonchannel.org.
Heck you don't even have to show it to them, just posted it on
Facebook.
Sister Vaiula and I tracted all day Saturday in the hot
Kalgoorlie sun and only found 1 person that was willing to have us back
to share more with him. Missionary work is hard, and for you it may be
scary. But trust me if you start with something simple and harmless
then it will become easier. D&C 33:7-10 promises us that we can be
like Nephi of old if we just open our mouths and share what we
know. Once a friend sees something they may click on it and end
up watching several videos. You never know. But God knows who needs to
see that video and that simple post will turn into a friend asking
questions, taking missionary discussions in your home with your family,
coming to church with you and when they get baptized it is your
baptism. If it weren't for you they wouldn't be in the church. I know
my family has had this kind of experience just by having family prayers
at night and having friends pray with us. It's as simple as living what
you believe. Don't just be a Sunday Mormon. Going to church makes
you a disciple of Christ as much as standing in a garage makes you a
car. I know that you, whoever is reading this, has someone that you
have already thought of. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, "For God hath not given us
the spirit of afear; but of bpower, and of clove, and of a sound mind." If you are afraid, pray for strength or courage and He will give it to you.
In Gospel Doctrine we talked about Moses talking face to face with
God. He had an incredible experience that I don't think any of us can fathom completely. He learned one incredible truth though that helped
him rebuke Satan. He learned that he was a child of God. We are all
children of God. If you don't know what that entirely encompasses I want
you to know that God loves you. He knows you perfectly, and he loves
you anyway. He always will love you. He will never leave you alone no
matter how stupid your mistakes may be. The Atonement is real. It is
powerful and it can change lives. I've seen it in myself an in others
around me. It's the greatest gift that God could have given us.
The last thing I want to share is about goal setting. It's a new
year and time for new beginnings. We should grow like the Savior did in
wisdom and stature and in favour of God and man. Luke 1:22. I wrote
out my goals for the new year in 4 categories: Mental, Physical, Spiritual, and Social. It made goal setting a lot easier and more
realistic. Best of luck with your planning. I love you all and I love
seeing mom's blogs about all of your fun ice skating and what have you.
I look forward to joining you when I return. For now know that I love
you and pray for you all daily. I loved speaking to you on Christmas.
It was just the boost that I needed. You are the best family a
missionary could ask for.
Much love,
Sister Beckstrand
Sister Beckstrand
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