Week of Learning

Hello Everyone!

Being a missionary is AMAZING! There is so much joy and happiness that comes from just serving all the time. It is pretty incredible to us how happy we can be when we are walking out on the street in the pouring rain, or stopping to talk to someone in the middle of an intersection, or just smiling and saying hello to every student that walks out of the testing center. Definitely one of the biggest rewards is seeing people smile back. Although not many people wanted to talk more extensively this week, I am sure that a ton of people felt the Savior's love for them and were lifted a little bit in their efforts to make it through life.

Honestly, being able to spread the gospel is always amazing, even though this last week was really hard. Very few of the people we are currently teaching have been able to see the long term benefits, and are not really progressing.  It is so sad for us to see them within reach of the greatest knowledge on earth, and just standing there, undecided on how to act! It has broken our hearts time and time again, but we will never give up on them; even if we must stop teaching, we will remember them in our prayers and press forward with faith.

The most apparent miracle we noticed this week again occurred in a trailer park, late at night (a different one then last week, though). We were again walking back to our car when we passed this young lady holding some grocery bags and staring at her car. We offered to help, of course, and she said yes!  (This is actually the first time anyone has let me help them carry groceries, despite many offers, so it was really cool.)  We set up a return appointment and when we taught her again later in the week, we had an amazing member come with us, and we had an incredible lesson on faith.  Her name is Brandy, and she is an evolutionary biologist, with no religious background, and a lot of skepticism. The Spirit testified powerfully during our lesson, and by the end, she was very excited to use the scientific method to experiment with prayer and find out if God is real, and if what we taught is true. It was so cool!

We love you all so much! Thank you for all your prayers!

Elder Beckstead