GOOD BEAUTIFUL MORNING! It is a LOVELY 47 degrees here in Eau Claire. Oh my GOSH. I did not realize how sun-deprived I was. I've been lacking some serious Vitamin D. I walked out the door with a light sweater, normal tights (not fleece lined) and FLATS!! Whaaaaaaat. It feels so so so good.

Oh, and for the record, this winter, Eau Claire was the COLDEST place in the entire United States. EAU CLAIRE! Of course.

 

CONGRATS STEVIE!!!!!!!!!!! HOW AWESOME!

 

This week was incredible in terms of member present lessons... we got 7! And the members here are so wonderful. They add so much to our lessons and are wonderful at befriending everybody. One that sticks out is... our bishops daughter, who is 17 is on the Cheerteam at her school, and there is a guy named  B on her team who is Catholic and has been going through a rough time recently and he came to her for guidance (knowing she was LDS) and so that talked about the gospel for a little while and finally she asked him if he just wanted to meet with the missionaries. "YES! I was wanting to ask you if that'd be ok, but I wasn't sure if your missionaries talk to people who aren't a part of your church!" HA... soooooo... we met B. He told us about how he is struggling with the death of one of his best friends that happened recently and how he feels like he shouldn't be mourning over her death as much as he still is. We taught him the Plan of Salvation, and of course (him being Catholic), this really touched his heart. We introduced the Book of Mormon to him, and he committed to read Alma 40. At the end of the lesson he said that we answered all his questions and that everything "just made sense" and "seems so hopeful."

We got a text from our Bishop's daughter a couple of days later that said "Hey! B LOVES the bom, he keeps sending me pictures and verses to read, he read half of Alma and is now starting over to read it from the beginning :D"

MIRACLE!

 

Then we had some wonderful lessons/conversations with the two families we are teaching! Heavenly Father is blessing us so much. It is AMAZING to teach these wonderful people, who are honest truth seekers.

Small and simple things, yes! I read a talk about that today, actually. It was by Richard G. Scott called "Peace at Home" ? I think. But he talked a lot about having a Christ-centered home and how important it is to do the daily simple things that will build a Christ-centered home:

 

Daily personal and family prayer.

Daily personal and family scripture study.

Weekly family home evening.

 

I love love love love love love love love love love love love and love you.

-Sister Beeson

I am soooooo proud of you all for your wonderful missionary efforts. It really IS about inviting people. That's the hardest part for sure, but after that, it's smooth sailing thanks to the Spirit. Keep on doing what you're doing! :D

We had a 'MMM' week! (Minnesota Minneapolis Mission-Many Mighty Miracles)

C*** (a highly sarcastic/funny person who sucks all confidence out of my companion and I) originally refused to meet with the missionaries, but she'd help out with Teaching Evaluations every once in a while. She has been struggling lately with purpose, and agreed to meet with us. We taught her the Restoration, and she often points out how she thinks we are here just because we have to be, and thinks we're living off our parents testimonies. I decided at that moment to not let her sarcastic/semi hurtful personality effect me, so I bore testimony that I know for MYSELF that what I share is true. I got very emotional, and the Spirit definitely helped her understand that.. and then she agreed to meet with us AGAIN! And even have a member with us!!! (that part was huge) it was again, another great lesson.

We met with two of the cutest Chinese ladies on campus. We taught them in the Davies Center, and there was obviously a HUGE language barrier, but we were able to testify and teach simply about the nature of the Godhead and eventually the Restoration. As we were teaching, I noticed a campus guy who kept looking over at us while we were teaching. Finally, he got up, walked up to us (shaking heavily from nervousness) and said to the Chinese ladies, "Most Christians don't believe in the Book of Mormon. It's not true. Joseph Smith made the whole thing up and so I thought you should just hear both sides of the story. I appreciate what you girls are doing, spreading the word and all, but I'd really advise you to look into Joseph's life history." HA. Ticked me off. But, rather have the opposition come to them while we're with them than away from them, right? We pointed out that it is important to find out for yourself. We talked about prayer (they had no idea what that was) and at the end, S*, gave her first BEAUTIFUL heartfelt prayer. It was amazing.

P and L have not been in our lives lately. They called us Saturday night, told us the heavy difference they've seen in their lives from not coming to church, and so they came on there own yesterday, L again bore her testimony. M (a cutie campus gal) came as well!

We got a text from A who has met with missionaries in the past, and we've been going over there again and again and she's never home/available, but out of the blue she texted us asking if we could come over to talk because she was having a rough time. We got there and taught her (and her BF) the Plan of Salvation. BF said, "Wow, a lot of my questions are being answered."

Got invited to a YSA CES Fireside, but needed an investigator, no one was available, but L was able to come last minute! BUT it started in 5 minutes and we didn't have a ride for her. One of our members happily and quickly agreed to take us! (Fireside fit Lto the T)

Sister Smith and I have been fasting for our Hmong investigator family because there was not much progress with them but we see their potential, and we got an AMAZING voicemail telling us her plans to be baptized by the end of the month. MARCH MADNESS, PEOPLE. :D

These may not seem like huge miracles, but they SO are!!! Heavenly Father is SO aware of all of us. I'm so grateful to be His servant!

I love you all.

-Sister Beeson

We met again with S family. We had the lesson at the church. Wednesday night at 7. PERFECT because the church was full with the mutual kids, and leaders and such. The McBride couple came with us to give the S couple a church tour. It was soooooo good. They really seemed to feel comfortable there. After the mini church tour, we ended up in the Relief Society room and were originally planning on teaching the Restoration again (more in depth) but my comp and I both were not feeling it. So... we didn't have any idea of what to do! I got out a 'Family Proclamation' and gave that to them testifying the importance of raising their children on a solid foundation; Jesus Christ; and how much that has helped me in my life, which also led us to talking about the Holy Ghost being a constant guide, and the McBrides were AWESOME MEMBERS who just took it away. :) The spirit was very strong, and it all went well. I'll update you more about what happens with them this week!
>
> Ok, something SOOO amazing happened. You know the couple that got married and baptized when I first got to Eau Claire? It happened in October, and I've been seeing them slowly progress in the gospel, specifically Brother D... I've seen him from non-member to married to baptized to passing the sacrament for the first time, and on Saturday, he was able to baptize his 8 year old son!!!! Wow. THAT is what missionary work is about. Made me so so so happy to see that happen. It was a wonderful experience.
>
>  I hope you all know how much I love you and how much I love the Lord. That is why I am here!
> xoxo Sister Beeson

9 month mark!

making valentines:)

Still in Eau Claire!

Hey hey hey! Happy Valentines! I really missed you all on the 14th.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BUZZ! I was thinking about him all day yesterday and really was bummed to miss out on his Patriarchal Blessing. How was that? I am so so sooo proud of him! Hope he had a good 17:) What a handsome boy. And CONGRATS to Uncle Ben!!! Stake President?! Wow, that's really amazing. Tell him I love him and congrats! 

Friday, the Cottage Grove Sisters came to blitz our area. So, Sister Ballif and I were companions for the day! I could take up soooo much time telling you about how amazing the exchange was. We had so many miracles, so many wonderful conversations, and so much success. I'll try to keep it brief. 

The moment Sister Ballif and I got together, we went to tract college housing, and 3 houses in a row, we taught 3 awesome Restoration lessons. My favorite part about teaching Restoration lessons is seeing the change of countenance in the people we are talking with. It is always a pay day to see them understand something and for it to make total sense to them. (Wow, that makes me sound like a mom talking about my kids. haha) That happened a lot. We were able to get a ton of return appointments with people to fill our schedule this upcoming week. 

The coolest miracle we saw on the exchange was when we stopped by L and O (the only Nigerian couple I've seen in my five months in Eau Claire.) We've stopped by in the past, but were never able to get in. We'd make appointments, and they'd always fall through. So, this time when Sister Ballif and I knocked on the door, Sister Ballif immediately asked, "Hey, do you mind if I use your bathroom?" L let us in. I started talking to her a little bit, and then when Sister Ballif came back out, we asked if we'd be able to share a quick message with her. She agreed to it. We asked L what she remembers from meeting with the sisters a long time ago. She said, "I know about Joseph Smith, and I know about the Book of Mormon. I have been reading it everyday, even if it is a little passage." 

WHAT?!?!? I had absolutely no idea! She has been so faithful reading the Book of Mormon and told us she believes it is the word of God. She had questions like, "What happens to the people who don't even get a chance to hear about the Book of Mormon? I never heard about it in Nigeria... so that wouldn't be fair!" Luckily we answered that question briefly by talking about the Spirit World, but we are so excited teach her about the Plan of Salvation next week. How cool is THAT.
Not much time but please know
I am so grateful for the gift of the Atonement. I am so grateful for the chance we have to repent every single day, to progress in our growth of the gospel and improve each day.

x0x0x0 LOVE YOU
Sister Beeson

Good morning :)

Mom... I knew you were sick... I could feel it. It's super weird when I feel like something is 'off' at home. It must be my spiritual gift or something.... bahhhhh :)

Speaking of, E and S have been down with sickness, so we haven't been able to meet with them, but they rescheduled for tomorrow. :) So I'll let you know next week!

Well, I have a new companion: Sister Smith. From Duchane (sp?) UT!

But really, this week was cray cray. Monday and Tuesday Sister Anderson and I worked out little hiney's off, and said goodbye to people, Wednesday was transfers, we worked Thursday, then Friday we went back to Minnesota for Zone Conference. AH. I'm exhausted. We had an AWESOME Zone Conference... Topics about working with the ward members (specifically the ward council) to give them a 'F.U.N. Report' F=facts about investigator (spend 1 minute) U=understanding of the investigator (40 sec) N= needs of the investigator (1 min) and then we talked about repentance (AWESOME.)... look up the BD definition of it. It's so so so good. And then self esteem by Sister Clements. :) I loooooove Zone Conferences. Its fun to get together with the other missionaries.. It's always weird seeing Elder Tubbs (Zack) haha..

Well, I don't remember if I told you about our investigator M... a lonnnng while back, Sister Anderson and I were having probably one of the most discouraging days on my mission, we weren't finding many people to teach, and we had a media referral, giving us hope that this person would be somewhat interested. We later found out the address didn't exist. Cherry on top of our day. So, bugged, we walked out of our car into the negative whatever weather, and started tracting the college housing. First door we knocked on: M's. She is SOOO cute. We introduced ourselves, and immediately she said, 'Come in, come in! It's too cold!" Eventually, we taught her the Restoration, and after we recited Joseph Smith's First Vision, she looked at us and said, "Wow. I got the chills. How come I haven't heard of this?!" So, there's a little refresher... well, M has been SO hard to catch, she's one busy gal, but we were able to meet her last week, and during our lesson, she invited herself to church! So, yesterday we met up and she followed us over there. The ward was AWESOME. They all showed immediate love and welcomed her in sooo well. We told her she was more than welcome to stay for all 3 hours, or just the one, whatever she'd like to do. After Sacrament: 'I think I'll stay for another' End of Gospel Principles: 'I think I'll come to the next one!" she stayed ALL 3 HOURS AND LOVED IT!!!!! She said when she left, "Wow, this was NOTHING like I thought it was gonna be. I really really liked it. I was so overwhelmed by the friendliness. Could I come again next week?"

 AHHHHHHHHHHHH :) :) :) :) :)

It was awesome. We're gonna baptize everyone on campus. We really do need a strong singles ward. There's only 2 right now. :/

I love you all!!!

xoxox Sister B

I've been a HOT MESS this past week freaking out if I'm going to be transferred... Welllllllllll................................................... I'm not. :D :D :D I get to spend my 4th transfer (month 5) in lovely Eau Claire!!! Wahoooo! Sister Anderson is leaving to my first area--Shingle Creek! She's kind of nervous, this whole thing has come as a complete shock to us! Everybody in the ward and even Sister Anderson and I thought I was the one who'd be transferred. I'm gonna miss that girl!

We've had yet another great week, we were grounded for a couple of days, locked down again, and getting the sniffles a little... :/ part of the weather I suppose. 

Well, good things were happening. We picked up a former investigator. B and her daughter A, they are sooo solid as far as Gospel knowledge goes, but as far as keeping appointments, they're really hard to catch. Well, they ended up getting in a bad car accident, and have been in and out of the hospital all week :( so we haven't been able to see them.
 Then, on Wednesday, we went to mutual to invite some young women to an 'Iron Rod' activity we were gonna have the next day (which ended up being sooo awesome btw) and we had a chance to chat with the bishop that night who told us to visit a less active.

 The next day, we went and saw the L.A., and after our visit with her, we had about 20 minutes before our dinner appointment, so we decided to tract around her neighborhood. We drove down the street, and we saw two cute little Asian girls shoveling their driveway, and they waved to us... We decided we should turn around and see them. We parked a couple houses down from the Asian girls' house, and worked our way up to it by tracting her neighbors houses first... The second door we knocked on was awesomeeeeeee.
 A man named E answered, and we introduced ourselves, and he said: "Oh! You're Mormons? If I could choose to live next to anyone, it'd be a Mormon!" so far so good... he continues by saying:"We have some really good family friends who live in Utah, and we've visited there often, we tried to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but they were doing remodeling... but, we did go to Martin's Cove on that visit! I even pulled my wife in the handcart just to see what it'd be like...." WHAT THE HECK! We taught him a brief Restoration lesson, and he invited us back to talk more about our message so his wife could be there.

*Day 2*
 We went to E's, met his wife, S, and she was a doll. SO nice. They have three little boys and are wanting to get into church. We brought the PERFECT member with us, who was totally able to relate to Stacy. The spirit was very strong as we shared Joseph Smith's experience and testified that we knew it was true. S got emotional when we were talking about how we KNEW it was true. She'd say: "I SO know that feeling. You can't even describe it. It is a very real feeling." So everything was soooo awesome...
 they are a WONDERFUL family, and seem highly interested in the church!!! :)

 P and L  came to church yesterday and L got up and bore her testimony in Sacrament Meeting... and then P DID! Pwould always say to us: "I'm not gonna bear my testimony until I'm baptized, have it written on a piece of paper, and get a haircut." But she totally went up yesterday. It was awesome.

 After church, we had some lovely finding time, and we were nervous because the dang super bowl was on, so we were assuming no one wanted to listen to us. We went and knocked some college housing, and a guy had a house full of his buddies decked out for the Broncos, but he listened to our message, and when I asked him if I could offer a prayer before we left, he got all of his buddies and said, "Hey! This chick is gonna pray, you wanna join in?" and really all of them asked me to pray that the Bronco's would win... I did... and if I heard correctly, they got absolutely creamed, right?? Haha... Hopefully they won't hold that against us..

 Anyway, sorry this email is jumbo and scattered and probs boring. But I'm so grateful for all of you, and can you BELIEVE I'M HALF WAY DONE NEXT WEEK? OH MY HECK GROSS.

Keep on keepin on. <----hate that phrase. Love you all! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
 Sister Beeson!