Hi hi hi!

This week was better. Thanks for your encouragement and prayers. I am Sister Fisher-less! The ball is in my court. I'm glad I have Sister Anderson to help me out though. She's a cutie. She is 6'1!!!! I've NEVER served with anyone taller than me! She is from Idaho and is 21. She's great!

Umm... I honestly don't have much to say this week, I'm freaking out a bit that I'm in charge, but I keep praying and the Lord is the best comforter.

Sad news... Our investigator P broke up with us yesterday at church :( I cried. She was doing AMAZING! She has been investigating the church for 7 years, so I was sure this was her time to bloooom! She has been reading the Book of Mormon chapter after chapter, and there is a legitimate change... physical change... I can see it in her face! I have never witnessed that before!!! It has been incredible. She committed to baptism on January 18th with her daughter, but out of the blue yesterday, she told us she is done. She doesn't want to get baptized. She refuses to give up coffee and go to church for 3 hours. NOOOOO. Ugh. My heart literally shattered; I really have felt the love that our Heavenly Father has for His daughter P

We have a baptism this week, for M

:) we are soooo excited! She is so ready. Please keep her in your prayers :)

The week has been good, getting the hang of things all over again.

 

TELL me about finals!!! How did you all like Indi? I've been there twice.... bahhhhhhhhhhh... so fun huh?! Any BTR's? I want some updates, people.

I love you all. Keep on keepin' on. Talk to you in a month. :)

<3 Sister B

Miracles...Miracles

Our investigator H was BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!! It was a beautiful service. Her mom is re-activating, and one of her siblings is not a member, and the other is, but really doesn't want anything to do with the church, and then of course, the two cute 18 mo. old twin boys :) Well, her whole family came to support her on the day of her baptism!!! It was wonderful. The spirit was so strong. It was neat because, like all of the YW came to support her, a ton of the leaders and other ward members as well. Hailie's mom gave the opening prayer, and I have never wanted to hear a prayer on repeat except hers! It was absolutely amazing. We had 2 of our investigators there (a mother and daughter), and afterwards, they both just break down crying, and the daughter said, "I'm ready. I want to be baptized." It was AMAZING. I'll send you some pics. :)

 

I wanted to share with you a miracle that happened yesterday. Sister Fisher and I had not taught any Restoration Lessons throughout the week plus we had to set things up for the baptism, etc. it was just crazy! So, we planned a two hour block for us to tract last night. Boo. It was so cold, so we went to one of the few apartment buildings in Eau Claire. We knocked on a couple people's doors, and amazingly, they were willing to listen to the message of the Restoration, so our night was off to a lovely start. We headed over to another apartment building, and knocked all the doors except one, and we started heading out the door to another building. This is where it gets good! Family: I can honestly tell you that I have never had the Spirit direct me so clearly like it did last night. As we were heading out the door, the Spirit whispered, "Knock on the door." We did. There was barking and a lady opened the door. We introduced ourselves, as she did to us. Her name was Wilma. We started talking to Wilma, and she suddenly interuppted us by saying, "Um... I'm not very comfortable talking to people I don't know" So, Sister Fisher got out a pamplet and handed it to her for her to keep, and while Wilma and Sister Fisher were talking, the Spirit whispered something else. It said, "Look at her dog." Look at her dog? Ok... well, her door was cracked open just a little so how was I supposed to see the dog? As my comp was talking to Wilma, I felt like an idiot, but I crouched down as smoothly as I could, trying to not look like a creep, and through the little space between her legs, I saw her dog, Star, who looked JUST. LIKE. HAPPY. Only difference: 10 llbs heavier. I interuppted the conversation between the two and said, "Oh! I love your dog! I have a dauchund (sp?) at home too!" Instantly, Wilma and I went from complete strangers to BFF's. She opened the door widely and smiled and told me I could pet her. As I kept petting her, again, the Spirit said "Keep talking about her dog" so, I did. And soon enough Wilma said in a Nonna voice, "Oh, come on in." We walked into her tidy apartment, and there was a gal sitting on the couch with her father. We all started talking a bit, and then out of no where, Wilma said, "Hey, my niece got baptized yesterday, you might know her... her name is H." H?! "We're the missionaries that have been teaching H!" What a small world. As we kept talking, I kept looking at Wilma's daughter and was wondering where I have seen her before, she looked so familiar. I finally made the connection that earlier in the week, we were at H's home helping clean clean clean before their home inspection, and right as we were headed out the door, and 3 person family walked into H's home with KFC. It was H's family! Funny, huh? Well, we start talking about religion, and Wilma was like, "I've been forced into religion my whole life, and I vowed that I'd NEVER do that to my children." So, we turned to her daughter, Tiffany, and asked what her stance is on religion, what she believes, etc. She told us that she is open to anything. "Can we share a quick message with you?" "Of course, come see my room." We sat in Chelsie's room. Taught her the Restoration. Invited her to be baptized, and she accepted. WHAAAAAT?! Huge miracle. Heavenly Father is the best.

 

Well, I'm gonna have to leave soon, transfers are this Wednesday, I've got sooo much to do today. I'll be serving with Sister Anderson. Don't know who she is! Hmm... I'm excited though. Also, Sister Schwartz took over Med Lake!!! Where J and D

Eliza and Elder Tubbs from American Fork, representing us well!

live!!! AHHHH cool huh? I'm so happy. :) Anyway, I love love love you all and hope the week is spectacular. xoxox

Sister Beeson

ps. Anything for Christmas is fine ;) I just can't wait to SKYPE

PSS.. I got your Halloween package... THANK YOU I LOVED IT!:)

Wet in Wisconsin!

I'm sure it's been a crazy busy week with Regionals and all. How was it? Thanks for the pics! Looks like it was a blast. Everyone looks SO good. You are all so beautiful. 

It has been quite the week for me as well!

We have a 12 year old investigator named 'H'... she is soooo funny. Her life is rough. Really rough already.

Her mom is a champ. She was baptized a couple years ago, but has kind of fallen off the deep end. She has 5 kiddies, 3 of them from different dads... The two teenagers are sooo rebellious and absolutely RUDE to her. It breaks my heart. 'H' is getting to that rebellious stage, but we've been teaching her and she is making SO many changes. It's amazing. There are also 18 month old boy twins. Her house just smells like smoke, it's a disaster, and she has a house inspection coming up tomorrow. Us and the Elders have been working our butts off to make things tidy...or as tidy as they can be. :/ BUT... point is: 'H' has been taught for a while, and she is getting baptized this Saturday! The Saturday before Sister Fisher leaves. :( But we are so so so excited for her. She is being an amazing example to her family at such a young age... She has grown up drinking coffee and breaking the sabbath, and other commandments, but she is making these changes and helping her mom make them too. It's awesome.

Earlier in the week, we had a 48 hr exchange in Cottage Grove, MN and Zone Training the next day, which meant we'd be out of our area for 3ish days! AHHH. Terrifying. Cottage Grove was... good. I worked with Sister Breedlove for the day. She's a doll. We are practically twins. I have never worked with someone who is my exact height, who isn't physically fit in the slightest, and who has my same eye color. Haha... Well, we biked. All day. In the rain. It was about 30ish degrees. I will neverrrr forget that. Haha... We walked up the 'Stairs of Death' with our bikes, then once we started riding, Sister B's chain fell off, we had to fix that... We biked to multiple people's houses, no one was home and people were telling us to get out of the rain and into a car... we biked up sooo many HUGE hills, and then she had a phone call to make to the ZL's so we looked for some shelter outside. We found a park, dug up a little hole under the playground, and sat in it with our hoods on while it was still drizzly and freeeezing. It was great. :) And as luck would have it, 2 out of our 3 appointments canceled, so we tracted most of the day. We tracted a ton the night before Halloween, it was SOOOO foggy. Pretty spooky. It was cool, because we knocked on a door and a lady with an accent opened it. SHE WAS FROM SCOTLAND! Tender mercy or what? I was blessed to have got a brief taste of what Elder Beeson's mission was like. She just talked and talked and talked and TALKED. I told her that my dad served there, and that he said it always rains. She did some sort of interjection that I can't type out, (the noise you make when you recite Jabez) basically, 'pfft' and said to tell my dad that he is WRONG. Haha... weird. Anyway, a thought came into my mind as she was talking. Dad emailed me a few weeks ago talking about the things President McConkie would tell his missionaries, and one of them was "Make Hell's bells ring: read the Book of Mormon." I remember dad told me that the average for any missionary was two baptisms in the entire two years. President McConkie told the missionaries that they were not to carry their Bibles. So. I interrupted her rambling, got a Book of Mormon out of my bag, and said, "Kathrine. We knocked on your door this evening to share this special book with you." I went on by giving her background of what the book was, and testified that that is the reason I am here and that I know it is true. Well, she interrupted (again) haha and I guess she supposedly had met with the missionaries a long time ago and actually knew quite a bit. That was interesting. But it was just such a cool experience to be in 'Scotland' for 40 minutes. :)

Halloween was fun. We weren't allowed to tract, but we had sooo much tupperware to return, so we did that, and got a lot of candy out of it ;) One last thing, then I'll stop: Sister Fisher and I went tracting this week and met a Hmong family. A beautiful gal named 'G' and she speaks pretty decent English, but her husband and 3 children don't. She has hardly ANY Christian background. It was really hard to put things that are so natural to me into simple terms, like: baptism, prophets, commandments, and even Jesus! But, we got a return appt with her, and we knocked on her door, and she was totally expecting us, pulled out two chairs immediately, and we had a wonderful discussion. We're seeing her again tonight with the Elders (one of them speaks Hmong so he'll help translate.) Anyway, it's just something so different for me. I'm excited to simplify. It'll help me personally more than anything.

WELLLL. I love you all. Sister Fisher leaves in a week-ish. Then I take over Eau Claire. AHHHHH freaking out a bit. Everyone absolutely LOVES her. It's gonna be quite the loss for Eau Claire. Anyway. Take care everybody. I'll talk to ya in a month :) whoo! xoxo

Love, Sister Beeson

P.S. I never got your Halloween package. My heart is broken </3 Did you Fed-ex it? That could be the problem...

P.S.S. My hands look like Claire's: SOOOO DRY and cracky. I'd love some Doterra for Christmas. (Wow, did I seriously just wish that?)

P.S.S.S. I don't sleep. Sister Fisher and I came to the conclusion that I have insomnia. I had an interview with President the other day and he asked me if I have 'a sense of urgency for the work' I told him I want to, I hope to think I do.

LOVE YOU!

Mom! I can't even believe I am about a 1/3 way done either! It's freaking me out, actually. This transfer is over half way done and I feel like I just BARELY left Med Lake. WHERE IS TIME GOING?

 

I'm glad you had a fun Halloween party. Know what I'm gonna be doing on Halloween? TRACTING. Mhmm. That's right. :D candy galore. I haven't gotten your package yet :( can't wait for it!!!! I'm also feeling a lot better, thanks.

Congrats on the Timp Show! 

 That is HILARIOUS about dad. I read that to my comp and we laughed ahaha

Soooo... A couple things:

-This cutie 62 yr old lady in my ward, Sister D is leaving on a mission in a month, and her step daughter, E is also leaving for her mission in a couple weeks (E is 19 too and going to Germany, she comes JT with us all the time, we're like BFF's.) Well, Sister D bought E some fleece tights, and they're very good quality, and so she just barely texted me offering to buy me a pair or two! 

How nice! People are so thoughtful down here. 

-I bought my heavy-duty $180 coat. :/ ahhh pricey!!!! It's sooo worth it though.

-I spoke in church yesterday, and it went well! I'll mail you my talk later today :)

This week has been great! We are trying to get 2 of our investigators baptized before Sister Fisher leaves! Please keep M in your prayers that she will get her marriage license soon, and He for her to keep her commitments! 

 

The power of prayer is incredible, that is what I have really learned this week. Every lesson taught, every person we visited, most topics in church were ALL about prayer. I love the quote on prayer by Gordon B. Hinckley and Howard W. Hunter in Preach my Gospel (pg 95). Put Claire in charge of FHE and have her plan around those two quotes. There is also a prayer evaluation that I take often. It's awesome! Let me know what you think. :)

I am healthy. I am happy. I am helping my companion to not freak out about leaving in 2 weeks. :( I'm so sad! She's been so great. We get along really well. Anyway, I hope you're all doing great. Miss you all!!! Love love love you! 

ps. my comp is wondering how you started your 'voice overs' and being on the radio. She has a GREAT voice and I told her she'd be good at it, and so she wants to know. Because she is freaking out about what to do with her life in 2 weeks. haha. 

LOVE YOU!

<3LIZA

Sick...yuck!

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! J AND D ARE GETTING MARRIED?!?!?! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR TELLING ME!!!! I feel like I'm out of the bubble down here in Eau Claire! Oh my heck. I started screaming I'm so happy!!!! :):):):)

Ok, wait, who did Buzz go to Sadie Hawkins with? I WANNA KNOW EVERYTHING.

Soooo... I won't take too much time. BUT. It was a good week.

*I am addicted to milk. Yes, me. Eliza. WHAAAAT? I drink glasses and glasses of it all the time. It must taste different or something down here. And the butter. And cheese. Great. See ya when I'm 500 llbs. 

*I was pretty sick this week. I had a fever, I was dizzy and nauseous... The Elders gave me a blessing, and my ward mission leaders wife took care of me :) Sister Napolitano. She's the best. She took my temp, bought me some sprite and applesauce and called multiple times a day to check up. We weren't able to leave the house from Friday night until this morning :/ ugh. Not fun. 

*I'm getting a cold sore. Yippee! 

*I'm gonna go buy my hefty coat in about an hour, soooo... I justed wanted you to know that... I hope I have enough in my account, because I have to get it regardless. There are already flurries in the air! :/

This week we met with a sister, a convert . She invited us over for some apple pie. She shared her story. It KILLED me. Absolutely killed me. 

I won't go into too much detail just for the sake of you not to ball your eyes out, but when she was 3, her parents sold her for prostitution, and according to her, she remembers, as a 3 year old, praying to God to have her parents stop doing what they were doing. What struck me was how did she even know who God was? She was only 3, and her parents obviously didn't teach her anything about her Father in Heaven. From day one, she just seemed to have been so in tune with the other side. 

Anyway, she went into detail how absolutely horrible she was treated until she got married when she was 27--to an abusive husband. Her life has been horrible from the get-go. 

She is now living in a nursing home, she's only in her 50's but, she is so beat up and has so many health problems that she isn't able to properly care for herself. But she said with the most sincerity, "Life is the best it has EVER been." 

I cried and cried and cried when she shared this with us. It really put into perspective for me how BLESSED I have been. I know that you, mom and dad, would say that to us kiddies constantly growing up: "Do you know how blessed we are?" our replies, "Uh-huh." Well, I really really understand, more than ever now, how BLESSED I am to have grown up in the loving arms of Sam and Sarah Beeson. I really cannot thank my Heavenly Father enough. I can't thank you and dad enough. 

I am speaking this Sunday on a favorite General Conference talk. I'll email/mail it to you next week. Until then, have a lovely week. I think of you all very often and pray and pray and pray for you. Loves. 

xoxo.

Sister Beeson

Yeah, I never want to be sick again without my mom. That was tough. But, Sister Napolitano is Grandma Gaye to the T!!! So that was nice.

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 I'm so glad you all made a 'get away.' Fall break always seems to come when you need it most. How is dad? I've been worrying about him lately. Us missionaries talked to the Eau Claire bishop yesterday, and he just looked like he had SO much on his plate; I couldn't help but think about dad. You're the PERFECT companion for him, mom. He wouldn't be able to do what he is doing without your love and support--GUARANTEED.

Well, this week just FLEW by. I feel like my mission is going faster and faster--just like people would always tell me. We had a BAPTISM! My first! I don't know if it really counts since I only taught them once, but hey. :) M and A got a knock at the door December 2012-- the month I opened my call! And here they are, a year later, members of the church. :) It was a beautiful baptism, and Sister Fisher and I did a musical number (arrangement of 'I am a Child of God') it went well! 

Something that I have noticed since being here in Eau Claire is that I feel a LOT more in tune with the Spirit.. I don't know what has happened, but I find myself in lessons with words literally flying out of my mouth that I know for a FACT is not Eliza. It's suuuuper cool. 

Also... every district meeting, we role play. I HATE roleplaying with everything inside me. Why? Because the feedback I ALWAYS get is, "BOLD BOLD BOLD! BE MORE BOLD!" and it has always made me feel like a crappy missionary. BUT.

This week, my first district meeting in Eau Claire, we roleplayed. And I decided to take the advice I have been getting for the past 5 months and put it to action. 

I roleplayed extending a bold invitation to be baptized, and to attend church to an Elder who I came out with. He went first, and did awesome. I went next and was nervous--because of my past roleplaying experiences. BUT I did it. And I realized that whole 'words-flying-out-of-my-mouth' thing again. He looked at me after the roleplay and was SHOCKED. He kept saying how amazing I did and how he felt the Spirit so strong and loved how bold I was. WHAAAAT?! That made me feel like a hundred bucks. ( I'm not trying to brag, but it's just awesome how much the Spirit has overcome my words!) 

I met someone who is related to an A.F. friend here. President Squires is related to Jennifer Squires (the gal who was in the little graduate group who attended the temple and did little mission lessons together) so that was cool! The ward is different, it's good. Just different. I'm still pretty homesick from Med Lake, but Eau Claire is slowly growing on me. :) 

One last thing: In March, Sister Fisher and her previous companion, Sister Cartwright tracted the apartment buildings that we currently live in before they lived in them. They met a gal named K who didn't come off too interested. She was nice, but definitely didn't want to listen. Well, a little while later, the sister's moved in and became neighbors with K! They were always so nice to her, and so she'd even come by and visit them on occasion. Well, these sister's started to do 'teaching evaluations' (practice teaching lessons) with K. The more practice lessons they did, the more K felt the Spirit. She said every church she has attended has not given her the 'structure' she wants/needs. When the sister's committed her in their practice lesson to keep the Word of Wisdom, she did. When they asked her to read chapters out of the Book of Mormon, she did. She is CHANGING. She had a REALLY rough past, but through keeping these commitments, she is noticing the changes in her life and has decided to devote her life to God. Although we are K's friends and neighbors, we notice that she recognizes us as true representatives of Jesus Christ and as people she can trust.  We are teaching her about the Law of Chastity tonight, soooo... wish us luck! :) 

I'm learning to love being here. It's so different, but it's something that I'm coming to understand how much I NEED to be here. Serious.

I love you all so much! Stay warm and happy! 

xoxoxo

Love, Sister Eliza