August 18th 2014

Happy Monday! It is great to hear from you, my stomach got a little queasy when you told me you got my travel plans... ALREADY?!

Mom,  Happy Birthday to the most beautiful, talented, hilarious, kind, strong, loving qwerky mom! You are so wonderful! I love you and miss you dearly.
I don't think I have thanked you enough for your example that has impacted me.  You are FORSURE my #1 role model!
When things get a little rough and tough over here, it is your strong testimony that pops into my head and has helped me stay out here just a day longer. I love you a lot for that.  I love you Mommy.
xoxox

Well, this week was wonderful. Pretty sure I gained 50 pounds on Monday.

We had a dinner appointment at 5 with some members and we were stuffed because it was their daughters birthday and so we had dinner AND dessert, and then at 7, our Muslim friend, I invited us over for food (we were originally gonna go over to eat with them when they broke their fast, but we never got the chance) so... they started us off with dried dates and date cookies, and then the dinner was ready and they had all these funky meats, and rice, and french fries, and salads and hummus and pita bread and cheese wrap things, and Sister Anderl and I were already full... :/ ahh... but we put a little on our plates, and of course they were like, "More! More! Go get more! Would you like this? or that?" noooooooooooooo. I really wouldn't. But... I didn't want to be rude. I was dying. I was just eating really reallyyyyyyyyyyyy slow. And then we were about to leave and they were like, "Wait, we have one more thing for you." And they pulled out this MASSIVE chocolate icecream cake that was bigger than my face. (And my face is BIG. :(  ) I literally couldn't walk after we left. We were DEAD. So. That was NO BUENO. I wanted to barf SO bad, but you know me, I hate barfing, so... I just dealt with a big stomach ache :( 

On Andy's birthday, it was just a really hard day. And funny thing is, is that I remember Andy's birthday perfectly from last year too. I was with Sister Szabo and it was probably one of the top 3 most discouraging days on my mission, it was the first time we both cried in front of each other. Annnnnd... guess what? Same thing with Sister Anderl. Haha... So, Andy, your birthday hasn't given me the best of luck on my mission! But it's ok. I'm glad you had a good day!:)

We had the chance to take the elders appointment for them the other day. We went to a trailer/mobile home of their recent converts, and it was tiny. 2 bedrooms. 8 humans. 13 animals. Mmm. It was a GOOD time. They had psycho cats though... one of their cats, Nugget, has a history of jumping onto elders heads and licking their hair, or par-core-ing onto a moving ceiling fan. Yeah, these animals liked us... I was dying. ICK!!! It was VERY difficult to teach.. haha

Then we drove to Minnesota AGAIN for new missionary training, and it went well! We had an appointment that evening with J, some guy we met, and... we just felt better about having the elders teach him, so we asked the elders if they could take our appointment, and then they started acting all weird and hiding their smiles... they said:

"Umm... our stomaches kind of hurt... so we will probably just go straight home..."

"What happened...?"

Then Elder H pulls up his suit sleeve and reveals a hospital bracelet... hahaha

"WHAT HAPPENED?!"

Well... here's the story, briefly.... something Buzz would totally do:

At district meeting, the elders brought a BAG full of thai peppers... and some of the elders were just popping them in like candy, and Elder Hardy  just starts CRYING because of the heat, he is shoving slices of bread into his mouth and squirting honey from the tube into his mouth, and as he is doing this, another elder says:

"You're gonna die tonight if you can't even handle a thai pepper!"

They were going to eat ghost peppers that night.

Well, supposedly they did, and Elder Hardy was dying, and his mouth and body were just on fire, he put everything/anything into his mouth that he could find: honey, bread, watermelon, milk, etc. and then he said his hands were going numb (pretty sure a ghost pepper is against the Word of Wisdom.)

Well, at like 2 am his stomach was WRECKED and he thought he had an ulcer, so he woke up the elders he was on exchanges with, got a blessing, and then afterward still felt horrible. They took him to the hospital at 2 am! The doctors gave him some sort of numbing meds and before they released him they said:

"The problem with your stomach wasn't caused by the ghost pepper, it was from some rotten watermelon you ate."

HA! And sure enough, the elders looked at the watermelon the next day and saw some things growing on it... hahah nastyyyy. 

Ok, but on the more spiritual side....

Sister Anderl and I got a referral from some members that we went to see right away, and the street that this referral lived at was like... hmm... a fairy tale street. It was so quiet, and green, and ADORABLE. We knocked on all of these houses, met a nice fellow who lived at a Snow White looking cottage, and over all it was just empty... we didn't even get in contact with the referral person. So, we knocked on the last house of that street, and again, no answer. We started walking back to our car when suddenly we hear a sweet soft voice call out:

"Excuse me! Did you knock on my door?"

we turned around and it was this beautiful woman from India. 

"Yeah, we did!"

"Well.... did you want to come in?"

UH YES, LADY. 

"We'd love to!" 

She didn't even ask who we were! She introduced herself as A, and walked us into her home, we met her white husband B, and sat in their beautiful home. We started chatting a little bit about religion and such, A being Catholic, and B non-denominational. They were asking ALL the right questions though:

"Wouldn't God just have one true church?"

"The Bible just has way too many interpretations, it's hard to know what to believe..."

You know, just the golden investigator questions.

And then it perfectly led into the opportunity to share Joseph Smith's first vision... after it was recited, we paused in silence for a second, and then asked how they felt.

A said, "The clock stopped. Everything stood still." 

UM, best description of the Spirit EVER. The Spirit was really strong.

We continued talking, and introduced the Book of Mormon, and A was very interested (she being an English professor ) and B was a little skeptical. But... we asked them what questions they've had on their mind about religion and we'd leave them a place to read.

A wanted to know how to have better faith and trust in God, gave her Alma 32

B struggles with life after death, gave him Alma 40. It was the saddest thing. He said to us:

"All of my siblings tell me that everything is ok because even though mom and dad have passed away, they are looking out for us... and that is not true. They don't even know each other in Heaven." then he looks at A and says, "I won't know you when I die... the only relationship I'll have when I pass away is with God. I won't know my kids or my friends, none of that will be in my memory." 

WHAT? B NO. It broke my heart! Mainly to see A's face as Blooked her in the eyes and told her that! 

"B,  then why do you think God would even put us into families in the first place if we weren't meant to have a relationship after this life?"

He thought... and then completely danced around his words, eventually leading to "the Bible doesn't say we will!" ... well, it doesn't say we won't either.

It was sad, so he HARD CORE needs the P of S. We're so excited to go back and see them!!!

Sorry how MASSIVE this email is. I'll quit, but hey. I love you all. I'm so grateful for my testimony of how the Gospel BLESSES FAMILIES. I'm very very sure of that. It amazes me. Have a super week, I'll be praying for you! (esp Aunt Julynn!!)

<3 Sister Beeson