3 Weeks in Kansas - Tasting Prison Food :)

Hi Everyone!

Boy, oh boy! I can't believe I have already been here in Kansas for Three weeks!  Time is flying by; it is so unfair!  At least I am doing what I can to enjoy it while I am here.

This week has been incredible, and we had a ton of miracles surface.  This week Elder Eyre and I were on bikes or on foot all week, and we had a ton of success while doing it.  It was great.  Some of the highlights include having a member go out with us, chalking up a sidewalk, and finding some new investigators.  Plus, I found out the prison food here tastes great!

We didn't have a lot of dinners planned this week. The ward is just having a little bit of trouble adjusting to the fact that they now have four young hungry teenagers to feed instead of two.  However, as we have done our best to work anyway, the Lord has provided.  On both Wednesday and Thursday, we didn't have dinners planned, but we worked to contact less active members and active members along with potentials and referrals in the areas we were working.  On Wednesday, an active family ended up inviting us in and telling us they had made way too much food, and gave the rest to us!  Thursday, a potential investigator just miraculously started making us sandwiches as we were talking to him.  The Lord sure does have his hand in everything!

Thursday night we also had an amazing member, Brother Vu, go out and teach with us.  We had a lesson planned, but it fell through, so we fell back onto "inspired tracting" which is basically knock on every door that you, or the member with you, gets prompted to knock.  We ended up having more success that way than with any other tracting I have done.  We also got to visit a recent convert here named Nicole who has been struggling.  It was really neat to see the Spirit fill her home when we were there, and see how happy she was to see us and tell us her favorite scripture (Alma 41:10, followed by Alma 32, and Moroni 9).

Friday night, we ate with a soon to be member who was in prison for five years.  He made us fried burritos (basically chimichungas) and prison cake (only two ingredients: oreos and carbonated soda).  It was really fattening, but at least I know what they eat in prison here. We did have a great time hearing his conversion story and how he has really had a mighty change of heart.  He is probably one of our favorite members here.

Elder Pack's birthday

Elder Pack's birthday decorations

Saturday was Elder Pack's birthday (he is one of my Zone Leaders, and also is one of my roommates).  He had about three cakes delivered, and about three dozen cupcakes given him by various sources.  It was so funny because he is a bit of a health guru and was trying to re-gift them all to me!  It didn't entirely work.  We did celebrate his birthday by trying a new finding activity: chalking up the institute sidewalk.  It was a ton of fun to put down mormon.org references, golden questions, and so forth.  There wasn't as much traffic as we were hoping for that evening, but we know the chalk will stay there a while and get people thinking for days to come.

Chalking the sidewalk at the Institute

Sunday was awesome!  Mukund and his daughter Mitrie (spelling that one how it sounds to me) came to church, and loved it!  We didn't have any plans for lessons, be the night before we put down a list of people to try and contact.  One of them was a non-member referral, and we were told she was super busy and might only be available on Mondays; the Spirit prompted us to put her down anyway.  We then followed our plans and were able to talk to almost everyone of them, and set up return appointments with all but one that we talked to!  And, this lady who was supposedly only available on Mondays had received a schedule change for Sundays off, and that was the only time we would have caught her.  Wow!  She also knows a recent convert that lives in her same building complex!  The Lord sure knows what is going on with his children, and is preparing them to be taught the gospel.

I realized I have been neglecting a list of those who could use prayers, so here is a pretty nice list for you.  The Miners (especially Landon), Sister Mallett, Linda, Jackie and Trinity, Germaine Miller, the Mainvilles, Marcell, the Griffees, the Koiralas, Mike and Brandy, Amber and Bryant, Sister Rodriguez, Jesse and Jessica, the Siegs, the Mondays, and the Killens.

I love you all tons! Keep being amazing!

Elder Beckstead

Birthday, Housing Challenges & Blessings for Working Hard

Hello Everyone!

So, where to start!  This week has been one of the most interesting that I have had in the mission field, for sure.  First of all, this week looks horrible number wise, but it has been pretty amazing and filled with the Spirit otherwise.  Although we drew blanks in a bunch of our key indicator categories, we set up this next week to be super good and make up for a little bit.  It is so great!

Some of the highlights that have been a part of this crazy week were the fact that we have been having a bit of a housing crisis, we started teaching this incredible family from Nepal, and when we were completely out of things to do and people to see, the Lord provided miracles.  A birthday was in there somewhere too.

Happy 19th Birthday!

Regarding housing: the Sisters got kicked out of the place they were living because the family had a bit of a crisis. This resulted in Elder Eyre and I getting booted out of our apartment and going to live with the Zone Leaders, who happen to also be covering our ward with us.  This happened on Wednesday; we got mattresses on Thursday, and by Sunday we had full beds. On top of that, every Wednesday another set of Elders came to sleep over for a meeting, so we had a crammed home with everyone on the floor our first night.

Makund and Devi are the Nepali couple we are teaching.  We picked them up on Wednesday and talked to them Saturday too.  They have been taught by other Elders for months, and really are amazing.  They have already come to church for about 4 months, although they didn't come much during the summer. They already have testimonies, and know it is true, and the only thing keeping them from being baptized is that they plan on going back to Nepal, and they don't want to have to be made fun of because they aren't Hindu (it would be hard for them, like their families disowning them and their friends shunning them).  We are working on figuring out how we can help them have courage to trust in the Lord and keep all of his commandments.

Kansas State Fans? Maybe this will help so no more sandwiches are thrown :)

Several times this week we really ran out of stuff to do, and the Lord provided for us because we were trying.  Once. we were completely stumped on what to do next, so we said a prayer and Elder Eyre had the idea for us to go and visit all the hispanic potentials the other Elders gave us.  None of them were home, but outside of the door of one of their homes we ran into Brother Miller, a man who had been investigating in a different city and had moved here, losing contact with the church.  We were able to refer him to some missionaries covering his ward.  It was so cool!

See the bunnies?

I must also give a huge thanks for all the letters, gifts, and emails given to me for my birthday.  You guys are all great!  I love you so much!  

Keep up the good work and watch miracles flow according to your faith,

Elder Beckstead

Made It to Kansas - Mayonnaise Miracle

Hello Everyone!

WOW! I have finally made it out here and it is INCREDIBLE!  Since the last time I had the chance to email (which was almost two weeks ago, I think) so much has happened, and so many memories have been made.  I just don't even know where to start, and I guarantee I will miss many of the miracles due to a complete lack of time I have to email.

MTC District - Elder Beckstead District Leader

I guess I should finish off my MTC experience first.  It was great to be able to be there and see a new district come and, and have all of my district be the experienced ones.  We were able to learn even more as we ushered in the new ones and I think it really helped solidify what we were learning. One of the Elders going to India didn't get his visa, and was reassigned to the Idaho Twin Falls Mission.  It was really cool to be able to testify to him that it really didn't matter where he served because if you are doing it right, you will fall in love with the people and never want to leave.  That really helped our district rally together even more to support him.  Then we left!  Early (like 2:30) Tuesday morning we were shipped up to the airport and flew in to Minnesota (someone tell Joe!) then down to Wichita.  Our second plane was probably 60% missionaries because there were so many of us and it was so small.

Wonderful members welcomed us to Kansas

Largest "mountain" in Kansas :)

Kansas., wonderful Kansas!  My first impression has been that it is a bit more humid than I am used to, and a lot more hilly than I was expecting.  After the interviews meetings and stuff, they shipped me up to Manhattan with Elder Eyre (pronounced air) to work.  That is where K-State is located, just so you know.  Anyway, there is one of the biggest hills in all of Kansas right between me and my area.   Also, we live in an apartment right across the street from campus, right next to a fraternity house, for now at least.  That is irrelevant but interesting fact of the day that will become important later.  My area is amazing though, and Elder Eyre is a complete Boss.  We are going to get along amazing and really tear it up as best we can out here.

Kansas State University

Now to the miracles out in the field.  First, on Saturday we were riding our bikes to our area to go and contact some former investigators.  Our route takes us down a road with campus on one side and aggieville (all the bars and such) on the other side. As we were riding down the street, someone threw a turkey sandwich at us, and nailed me in the face.  The miracle is that the Lord made sure I was out of contact solution so I was wearing glasses.  This means that all the mayonnaise from the sandwich splattered over my face and glasses, but didn't get into my eye.  It is a good thing I am working for the One who knows everything and will protect me.

Elder Beckstead & Elder Eyre

Second, we had an appointment set up with this super sweet young potential investigator yesterday, but when we knocked on her door, there was no answer.  On our route on the way over, we had seen the other person we had planned for our backup loading his car with his laundry, so we didn't know where to go.  We counseled on the doorstep for about five minutes before starting to walk away.  Just then, Jackie answered the door!  We ended up having an amazing lesson with her and  she is now planning on being baptized!  It is amazing to see how the Lord's hand is guiding each and every minute.

Love you all!  Keep working hard and trusting in the Lord!

Elder  Beckstead

Lovin' the MTC!

Hello everyone!

This is Elder Beckstead reporting in after 1 week at the MTC.  It has been very different, but very enjoyable. There has been a ton going on and I LOVE it.  I am staying up on the main campus until next Tuesday (Aug 20th), when I get to leave at 2:30 AM (meaning I basically leave Monday night).  I am excited to be learning new skills to take out and apply as a missionary in Kansas.

Elder Beckstead and Elder Chung

My companion's name is Elder Chun.  He is a great Elder from California, who is also 1/4 Chinese, and 1/4 Hawaiian.  What a combination!  He is amazing as are the rest of the missionaries in our district.  In total, there are 6 Elders and 4 Sisters.  Also interesting to know is that all of us in the district are headed to Kansas except for two of the Elders who are headed to to the India Bangalore mission.

MTC District

It has been pretty cool to be taught up here. Role plays are great because we take them super seriously, and I am confident having seen how the Lord can provide revelation through them.  It has been amazing to see the growth of the other missionaries, who at first were really timid and had no confidence starting a gospel conversation, and now are just rolling with the Spirit like no other.  Plus, the teachers are providing new study techniques and ideas that neither of my trainers ever did, so I am learning a lot too.

MTC District at the Provo Temple

We have already had some trials in our district that have caused some serious stress.  On the first day, Elder Hisler got sick, and Thursday they had to take him to the emergency room.  He then stayed in the ICU until Saturday afternoon while they got him under control.  He is type 1 diabetic and getting sick completely messed with his blood sugar, so it took a while to get it back under control.  That was a wonderful reunion when he was able to return to his companion. Also, a couple of the role plays have been somewhat disturbing for the missionaries.  Elders Rees and Sharma got an investigator who refuses to feel the Spirit, always joking it off, while Sisters Gurr and Judynever got in the door, but got yelled at.  Thank goodness the Lord is strengthening us and helping us!

Yesterday at devotional we had Elder Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles come and speak to us. I was in the choir (which was HUGE) and it was a super neat experience. His entire talk was about prayer and how the Lord will often give us the answer of no answer so that we will grow, followed by wonderful feelings of success. We are to act and he will bless us so much! And, if the decision we make is not correct, he will warn us before something too bad happens. He also told us that if we fail in a lesson, try again having learned something, and we will be blessed of the Lord--he used Nephi getting the gold plates as an example for that. I sure thought that was amazing.  The district review afterward was amazing too, and about half of district cried openly as they bore their testimonies (yes, I am guilty of that), while the rest cried more subtly.  I think we used an entire box of tissues.

The Day Elder Beckstead entered the MTC with the only girls allowed to give him a hug!

Anyway, things are still going great! Thanks again for everything!

Elder Beckstead

Last Week in SLC

Hello Everyone!

This week has been insane!  It started off really slow, but we continued to work and work and things started happening towards the end.  It has been really cool to be able to tell people where I am going, but pretty sad to know that I may not see them again for a while.  I'm just trying to do my best to forget that last part and help as many people as possible in the last few days I am here.

So, we get to go to FHE's all across the stake on Monday night, and I am s

tarting to see that as we do so, the members are seeing us and starting to get excited.  I don't know how it is going to be elsewhere in the state, but here in our mission, we are working towards being able to have at least one set of missionaries per stake.  This last week we got to see some of the reward of letting people see us as we hit three different FHE's and every single one of have people they wanted us to meet.  It is fantastic!

Wednesday was interesting because we got to go to the Salt Lake City days of 47 Parade for a few hours in the morning.  There was only one stipulation: we had to contact and look for referrals while we were there.  That was sure interesting.  Our entire district got one street on both sides between 300 and 400.  That meant there were eight of us crawling up and down that section of road for a few hours, plus the fact that other companionships would walk past us to their assigned areas.  Elder Cooper and I did our best to talk to everyone, but people either got annoyed because they were trying to watch the parade, or they had already talked to at least one other set of missionaries. We didn't have very much success, especially compared to the sisters (who got like 30 referrals).
We also got to have an authentic southern meal cooked by an investigator.  That was great!  SOme of the best fried chicken I have ever eaten.  His beans were also great, second only to Grandpa B's famous baked beans.  I loved it, and Anthony (the investigator) committed to coming to church.

Friday was cool because Elder Cooper had to do a couple of interviews for the Spanish Elders, and I got to practice my Spanish while they waited.  It was pretty funny for me to talk to the visa waiting Elder, because his Spanish was still awful. Then again, the Elder from Argentina completely blew me out of the water.  It was a lot of fun either way.

One of the new investigators we picked up this week, Dyllan, was great.  He moved here from California about a month ago, and the very first thing he did--before he even unpacked his stuff--was to go to his 9 year old cousin's baptism.  What a way to be introduced to the Gospel!  He came to church this Sunday and loved it, and we have a couple more lessons with him set up for this next week.  He is such a great man, and I expect that he will join the church very soon, and fit in very nicely.

Sunday was the most crazy one I have ever had in the area.  We were able to stop in to 6 of our nine wards (remember that 7 of the nine sacrament meetings are a 1:00), we spoke in two of them, and we went to a couple of ward mission meetings on top of that.  We blew through so many miles it wasn't even funny, but it was necessary.  We are sure glad that everything was able to work out the way it was because we were able to pick up another new investigator with an amazing story.  She lives in Washington and got a scholarship to play softball for some school up there.  A few weeks ago she came down to live with her cousin's family for a few weeks.  She somehow got a hold of the singles ward, came and already has something like 1500 friends in this area (only a slight exaggeration). Anyway, she felt the Spirit so much she wants to stay, so she is working on transferring to Weber State!  She is actually going beack to Washington this week for a short time, but she wants to get baptized as soon as she can, so when we have her schedule figured out we are going to plan to get her wet.  It is amazing!

Thanks for all your prayers!  We see so many miracles every day, and they are in part because of your thoughtfulness.  Keep up the good work, and remember that miracles can happen wherever you are!  you just have to look for them.

Love you all!

Elder Beckstead

Here We Go!

Hello Everyone!

By now you have probably already heard the news, but I will tell you again anyways.  I am going to be serving in the Kansas Wichita Mission! It is definitely bitter sweet, because I am extremely excited to meet new people over in Kansas, but I am so sad that I have to leave all of the great people I have met here.  It is going to be hard for sure.

This last week has been a crazy one filled with lots of exchanges.  I basically had to run my area for the entire week while Elder Cooper got to go see the rest of our district and how it was running.  It was pretty fun.  I learned a lot from the other Elders, and I picked up a few great skills.  There is one huge miracle that happened on Friday, while I was with an interesting missionary named Elder Studer.  First of all, I loved the day I spent with him because we were obedient to a T in every aspect that we knew how to be obedient.  I LOVED it and felt so happy the entire time. When we were out contacting a list of people the Layton YSA Ward didn't know, we got the feeling to knock on the door on either side of the one we were actually there to contact. On one side, we met the YSA ward clerk's wife.  On the other was an interested non-member named Mike.  What a huge testimony to listen to the Spirit!

Other than just trying to find new people, this week has been pretty slow.  We did not have very many lessons, and we haven't been getting very many referrals, that is until Sunday.  We had the opportunity to have our Stake President speak in the Northridge Ward, and at the end of his talk, we passed out 3"x5" cards to all the members and asked them to write their name and contact info non it.  Then, we had them turn it over and write down the name of someone they committed to invite to/back to church.  We ended up with 53 cards with 1-5 names on them!  It is so exciting!  We hope that will help us stay busy as well as finding us people who already have fellowship to go and teach.  And, it also started the members to get excited.  Even if we only have a few of those names actually do something, the members will have already caught the missionary spirit, and we can have everyone not waiting by looking for experiences to share the gospel.  It is going to be so great!

Hope you all are also catching the fire!  Remember it is a commandment for us to share the word once we have received it!  Think of a friend, and make plans as soon as you are done reading this to invite them.  If you are scared, find a returned missionary and role play (practice) inviting them a few times to help it seem less awkward. I promise you will feel amazing as you take action.  It really is the best feeling in the world to know that you are saving your friends and family.

Thanks for letting jump on my soap box there for a second! Love you all!

Elder Beckstead

P.S.
I expect a report on how it goes next week in an email. :)

Miracle Week

Hello everyone!

This week has been an incredible one. Truly the Lord's hand has been present in the work. There have been so many miracles that have happened, as always seems to be the case, but this week has had some very big ones that were very easy to see

First of all, Caitlyn was baptized! We were first able to make contact with her this at a Family Home Evening activity. While Elder Cooper went and talked with another investigator, I sat and talked with Caitlyn and just tried to continue to gain her trust. It must have worked because she set up another appointment to meet with us just two days later on Wednesday. That day happened to be exchanges day, and I was with a nice Elder named Elder Baier. We went over to our lesson after much prayer and discussion about what we could do to help Caitlyn feel the Spirit and have a desire to be baptized again. In the lesson, we began by talking about how the Spirit is the greatest gift that our Heavenly Father can give us in this life. We then started to discuss what had kept her from keeping her commitment to be baptized so that we could find and help her concern. She just said that a few personal things had happened in her life and that she had come under a ton of stress. She then said she still wanted to get baptized and felt like this was the month! We immediately asked her to kneel with us and pray for a date. After a wonderful prayer we just sat there and listened. We waited for almost ten minutes in silence on our knees before Caitlyn commented, "I feel the wind of flags; I think I need to be baptized this weekend!" AWESOME! We proceeded to figure it all out and prepare, as well as telling her that the last time she had her date set, the adversary threw everything he had at her. Now, he would do the same, but she was strong enough to overcome and obey God's command. It was super, super neat. She was baptized Saturday at a very nice service and confirmed just yesterday. We are so happy for her!

Next, the stake also held a special fast for missionary work and to end the drought here in the region. It truly worked, as about halfway through the fast we got a call from one of our ward mission leaders.  He informed us that Jordan had borne her testimony in Sacrament meeting and said she was getting baptized! He then set up a date with her to be baptized on the 10 August, and that is what we are planning for now.  It will be so much fun to go over to see her tomorrow and see how the lesson goes now that she has truly accepted it. Man, I love preaching the Gospel!

Finally, Tobi asked ME to confirm him a member of the church. That was something I had never done before, and it was an incredible experience. As we laid our hands upon his head, I totally forgot that I was speaking into a microphone in front of 150 people and just said what came to me.  There is a definite power that comes from the Holy Ghost. I testify that I felt it. It was so cool. It was also pretty funny because Tobi was a little intimidated by everyone in the circle giving him hugs. He didn't quite know what to do, so he just stood there. We helped him figure it out, and it was nice. He is going to be a great support to his ward. Hopefully they can keep up the good work and continue to do missionary work.

I hope all of you are taking advantage of missionary opportunities the Lord is giving you! There is no greater feeling (at least, that I have felt) than the feeling that comes from making another person's life better and happier. Not by chance, the Gospel is the best way to do that. Keep up the good work.

Love you all!

Elder Beckstead