Hello!

Ok, BEAUTIFUL shower! Dear Lizzie to the T. It made me a little homesick looking at that :) you've got a gift, mamacita. Looked great.

Glad all the camping went well this week! We had some pretty crazy storms as well. It went from like high 80's to mid 60's within 20 minutes, and clouds rolled in, and it PACKED down rain... people were driving through RIVERS. And then out of absolutely no where it started HAILING! HUUUUUGE chunks of ice... bigger than quarter size. It was freaky, I thought our windshield was gonna crack. And then the tornado siren went off, I haven't heard that at all since being on my mission, so that scared me a little, but... no tornado. Just bad winds.

This week was again full of miracles. It is amazing what happens when you have faith that the Lord will back you up 100% der der der... It's taken me so long to figure that one out. But we had a really cool miracle that resulted from 'heart-attacking' someones door. (when you cut out paper hearts and write a nice note and tape it all over someone's door) We heart attacked a less active who is struggling. She and her bf live together and the bf's sister lives with them to take care of the la's twin boys. Anyway, this la was pregnant, but she found out this week that she lost the baby. It was super sad. So, that's when we heart attacked their door. And the bf's sister, L.. she is SUPER cute. 

 

Well, we wrote her name along with everybody else's on the note, and I guess that REALLY meant a lot to her. H, the LA said that she about cried because it meant so much... she didn't think we even knew her name.

 

Well, a couple of days later, we went to H to do a teaching evaluation and as we pulled up, she was pulling out saying she forgot we were coming but that she'd be back soon and that we were free to go inside and chat with L.  We've never really talked to her that much before, but we went in and she was with her friend who is currently on probation and is going through a rough time. He is from the Middle East, and his mom in Christian, his dad is Muslim, and he has gained a super strong faith in Christ from being in and out of jail. And his personality was Scooby Dayley.

 

Well, thankfully 'Scooby' was asking about religion right off the bat. Then L started to ask some questions, and we were able to talk a lot about our faith. Once we started talking more in depth, H came back with 3 other guys, and then they sat in and listened! It is always soooo intimidating to teach in front of our peers, but the Spirit was sooo strong and they had legitimate questions and were really interested in the things we were teaching them. They all wanted a Book of Mormon, so we got 5 out of our car to give away.

Then when we had a moment alone with L we asked her what she is hoping to gain from meeting with us and she said, "You both are always just so happy, and I want that. I want to find myself too. I want to know who I am and to be confident in that." So we testified boldly to her that this gospel is where she will find answers to all of her life's questions. She got emotional and afterward said "I had a really big anxiety attack today, and so I wasn't wanting to talk to anybody, in fact, I wasn't even gonna open the door, but I felt like I needed to, and now I feel sooooo much better.'' It was just super cool to see her go from depressed to excited within the time we had to chat with her. AH. The Lord is good.

Another miracle is that Sister Sta (our ward musical master) was wanting to play a flute arrangement of some song, and she was gonna have her son play the piano to accompany her, but last minute he couldn't do it, so she called me and asked if I could accompany her. Ahhhh... It was a tougher piece too, but thankfully I was able to pull it off by Sunday! We were able to have 4 investigators to church and they all LOVED it. Good things are happening... and yes, I totally do think I was part of that experiment of keeping missionaries in an area for a long time... ha, I love it though!

I am so excited that Sister M is going over to eat! That's gonna be great.  She will love you all. You will love her. Tell her how much I love her and am continuing to pray for her.

Ok, horrible email. Sorry. We've just got a thousand things to do today... also.. I get my new companion next week... ahhhhhh... I'm gonna miss Sister L. It's been so fun. She has the laugh of Renee Goodman. So contagious. (her name is Renee too... odd!)

Love you all so much.

-Sister B

Hey hey! Happy 4th, it sounds like it was a whole week celebration!
Just like last 4th of July, we did... nothing. Literally. Haha I'm excited to celebrate next year.

Yesterday we had some investigators come to our church! And it was perfect because everyone seemed to have born their testimonies on Christ's Atonement and the spirit was STRONG. It was incredible.  6 investigators came to church! Whaaaaaaaat... Again, Heavenly Father has been proving to me time and time again that this is HIS work. I love it. He blessed us with SO many teaching opportunities, and again, our key indicators have never looked this good--out of my WHOLE mission. It is amazing. We are finding soooo many people who's hearts are prepared for the gospel!!! 

 

Like last night, the elders came with us to teach our investigator J and then it was 7 minutes before curfew and they asked how many Restoration lessons we taught this week. We said: "BAHHHHHHHHHHH.........we will tell you after we find someone to teach within the next 7 minutes."

1st door: no answer

2nd door: not interested

3rd door: guy answered, and his friend eventually came and joined in the convo, and then a very Lutheran girl who drove up came and joined us as well! (which we found out later her brother is serving a LDS mission in Ghana!... I completely believe that her brother has been praying for her to get in contact with the missionaries.) Anyway, we were able to teach them all the Restoration! MiRaClEs!!!!

Another cool miracle moment was when we had a meeting with our WML who really stressed how prompted he felt that we needed to go finding in Altoona. Which was CRAZY, because in all my weekly plannings for the past couple of weeks I have had the same promptings of: GO TO ALTOONA. So when he said that, it solidified that prompting. 

 

Sister L and I went to a gas station and while she was in the bathroom I looked on the map and out of all of Altoona I was drawn to 'Petunia St' and then when I was in the bathroom Sister L was drawn to 'Mum St' Petunia was a street below Mum. Crazy! So we drove over and we were pleased to see that it was a TRAILER PARK! YESSSSSSSS. HUMBLE PEOPLE. So we went out tracting, hardly anyone was home, and we met a few people uninterested, and then we had literally 5 minutes before we had to leave to our dinner appointment, and we knocked on one last house and it was a young man who has recently been going through a really rough time. We stated who we were, how we were led to him, and what we were there to share with him. He thought that it was the neatest thing that God truly led us to him. Because he was only in Eau Claire for the day and he said that it was exactly what he needed. We were able to teach him the Restoration and invite him to be baptized... it was AWESOME. God is too good.

I honestly have many more stories like that that I could share, but we have only an hour to email today.. so I'll close. But I just am so grateful for all the prayers and love and support that you've shown and given! It really means so much and I'm SOOOOOOOO grateful to be serving in Eau Claire. I can't tell you how many people at church came up to me yesterday and said "You must come back to Eau Claire and bring your family with you!" My family here, wants to meet you, my family. :) It's a good place.

I love you all and will chat with yuh next weeeeeeeeeek! <3

-Sister Beeson

Hello favorite dad.

I am smiling reading your email because I can soooo relate to you. These past couple of weeks have been EXCEPTIONALLY difficult, trying, confusing, and really, on the verge of feeling impossible. Like you, it is a wonderfully difficult feeling to suffer a smidge of Christ's sufferings.

But, like you said. A miracle ALWAYS proceeds a trial. I am grateful for that. It is beautiful to see all the way God has blessed us this week.  I have been in awe with all of the miracles we have been blessed with this week. I will never ever ever ever ever ever forget it. 

I will pray a little harder that this week with be a lighter (in both senses of the word) one for you. Thank you for being a hard worker, and for being GOOD. I love you 4evr. Totes.

<3 Your Sister Missionary.

Hey! It's good to hear from you. I love all of your emails, it makes me happy that you're happy.

I am ALSO happy! Soooo happy. So. This is how this week went, it was a roller coaster:

-I spent Monday-Wednesday evening in Cottage Grove and the sisters I was with are going through a ROUGH time with their recent convert in jail and they have been asked to be witnesses at court and everything. Crazy. 

-Wednesday: I woke up in Minnesota, we drove to Wisconsin for our district meeting, drove back to Minnesota to pick up my new youth companion, Sister Louie, and then drove back to Wisconsin. I was in the car literally ALL day.

 Sister Louie is originally from California, she spent the last year in Boston, and moved to Minnesota to live with her uncle 3 weeks ago. She heads to her mission to Mexico next month. She has the most long beautiful hair EVER. We get a long really well! 

 It has been wonderful to teach her and teach with her. I really have learned a lot from her and a lot about myself. It's a suuuuper humbling experience

Heavenly Father was extra loving and mindful of us this week. He was so so so good to us. We saw SO many miracles this week. More than I've seen for a long time. It was a testimony to me that this is SO HIS work, not mine. At all. :) And that I don't need to worry or fear or feel inadequate because again, it's not my work!

We were able to get SIGNIFICANTLY better numbers (key indicators) this week (with us only being in our area for 4 days) than we have for a very long time. Our focus has been finding since our investigator pool has dropped pretty heavily, and Heavenly Father blessed us with SIX new investigators! That hasn't happened in my 10 months in Eau Claire! Such a blessing, because they are all SOLID people. Ah! I can't even elaborate how miraculous everything has been, so I reaaaaaaaally appreciate all of your love and support and PRAYERS. It's been wonderful.

Last night we had a mission prayer call and we were able to hear President and Sister Forbes for the first time. THEY SOUND ADORABLE. President Forbes has a cute little accent, he sounds like a cowboy, and Sister Forbes voice sounded like moms! It made me happy! So I'm really really excited to meet them. I already feel like I'll connect with them. Although, my heart was aching a bit from not hearing the Clements'. I'm so blessed to have all these mission parents! I love them all. Did you end up going to the Clements' home coming? 

Well, I love each of you. I love the Lord. And I am so humbled and blessed and excited to be serving with Sister Louie in my favorite place! Have a super week and a funnn fun fun 4th of July! :)

xoxoxo

-Sister Beeson

Hi, good to hear from ya. :)

Man, am I the worst daughter or what? Totally spaced Father's Day. I love you, dad. I know you know. Hope it was a good one. Last Father's day was day 33 on my mission and I spoke in Sacrament Meeting in my first area. I was scarrrrrrrrreeeeeed. And now here we are, a year later. Super crazy!

Sounds like summer is going great! Love the pictures and videos. It's so fun to see :)

Well, here is a low down of Sister Merrill's and my week:

Monday: We had a lesson with Patty (our recent convert) with her friend J, and we shared a Father's Day message. We watched 'Earthly Father, Heavenly Father' and talked about all of our dad's... (Yes I even showed them a picture of the fam, and yes dad was getting hit on by two 50 year old ladies!) and what they mean to us and how they've impacted us. Then we talked about the Father we all share: God :) it was really great.  J was intently listening and really enjoyed it. Sheesh

 

Wednesday: I honestly can't remember... and Thursday was kind of the same...

Friday:

We went and checked on a referal and the house was like a mansion, and there are at least 5 NICE cars in the front (one of them being a hummer BARF) and we knocked on the door, playing dumb, and he and his wife answered the door. If there was a couple I could pick to describe these two, it'd be the parents off of Matilda. Short, BEEFY RIPPED shirtless guy with tatt's, and fake baked, with his wife who was at least a foot taller than him with neon blonde hair, face caked with make up and fake baked as well. Anyway, it was super short, they weren't interested in the slightest. It was just... a funny moment.

Saturday we helped someone move... oh, that's all we do here by the way. EVERYONE and their dog is moving.

Sunday was probs the best day. We had a mission fast in gratitude for all of the Many Mighty Miracles we've seen in the MMM, and ya know... fasting always brings blessings... and miracles! Well, we had like zero appointments. All day long. Day of finding. In the thunderstorms. Fortunately, once we got to the church, the elders approached us telling us that one of the elders has been sick for a full week and needs to sleep to get better. So we were able to take their WHOLE DAY! Wahooo! It was so great to meet all their investigators. We met many Hmong families.. since... the elders are Hmong speaking missionaries... and one of them was K.. she is a cutie 16 year old! She is so so so sweet, and her mom was so so so hard to understand but super sweet, and we were able to teach a little of the Plan of Salvation before they left to be with fam. Butttttttttttt... Guess what? I got my Hmong name! I've been waiting for this day! C, the mom, named me! My Hmong name is Siab Zoo pronounced: She-heh Xiong (and you have to say it with the right tone. Siab is higher in tone than Zoo... and it means kind hearted. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Melted my heart. I'm so happy.

Then we met J and K and they had 4 little boys ages 5, 4, 2, and 1... it was a MAD HOUSE. It was suuuuuuuuuuper hot, smelled like little boys and Hmong food and we had the most beautiful experience. The Holy Ghost completely took over the lesson. Sister Merrill and I were able to asked many inspired questions and testify and promise specific blessings. For a moment this place became one of the most sacred places I have been on in my mission! We invited to pray about the second week of July to be baptized, and he gladly accepted. Afterwards he was just thanking us sooooooo much for all we said and how much better he felt. It was cool. We called the elders afterwards, and told them all that happened and they were SHOCKED. They have been trying to get in with them for a month, and haven't had any success for a baptismal date. It was all just meant to be I guess!

Anyway, this email is massive, my bad. I love you all and I'll see yuh l8r.

-Sister Beeson

Hi, hi!

Yup, we found out transfers today (actually, I found out yesterday because President and Sister Clements stayed Saturday for a baptism then for church on Sunday and President took me aside to chat for a second and basically told me what was gonna happen with transfers.)

Annnnnnnnnnd... Drum roll.

I'm going to be serving in................

Eau Claire. Still. :) Oh my gosh, I really don't think I'll ever leave this place. 7th transfer here. 9 months, going on 10! Wahoo! You all HAVE to come visit with me before Buzz leaves on his mish. Pleassssssssse.

Well, it sounds like everyone is having a prime summer so far! Eat it up.

Well....... we've had some down falls and some miracles!

On Monday, Sister Merrill and I had an appointment that fell through and so we went to our back up plan which was to contact a potential investigator, L. We knocked on L's door, and she unfortunately wasn't home, but fortunately the young women who answered happened to be one of the most faithful young women I have even come in contact with. We started chatting a little bit, and we know mutual people from Memorial High School where she attends. We started talking about religion, and she mentioned that she is currently studying with the Jehovah Witnesses but that she is open to everything. We shared Joseph Smith's first vision with her, and the Book of Mormon, and she was in awe. She got really excited about the things we were teaching her and then said, "You know, about 20 minutes ago, I was thinking about God. I was thinking about my life. And I was thinking about how I can improve my relationship with my mom, and then you two showed up! I find that no coincidence." We invited her to be baptized, and she cheerfully without hesitation said, "YES!" We gave her the second weekend of July as a date to work towards and she cheerfully accepted that invitation as well. Jade attended Book of Mormon study with us a couple of days later, and then we gave her a church tour. She loved it all. That evening she gave us a text telling us how much she enjoyed herself and how excited she is to be involved with our church! It was very exciting, and a testimony of following our back up plans with exactness!

Then we had B and her daughter, and L and her daughter (two cute Hmong families) drop us. Saddest part is that B and her daughter had a baptismal date. :( Really does break my heart. I've really gained a respect for the Hmong elders I serve with because this has been their WHOLE mission... getting dropped all the TIME.

But then, in return, Heavenly Father blessed us with the miracle of the S family coming to church!!! Sister Anderson and I found them in December and we've been TRYING to get them to church since then! And they FINALLY came yesterday! And ya know what? Couldn't have been a more perfect Sunday.

*a mom and dad got confirmed during sacrament meeting

*two talks were on becoming perfected and they used the analogies of making rough rocks become smooth... they were both AMAZING talks, (and a sister that gave the talk HAPPENED to be a 'healer' just like Sister S! Coincidence?)

*most BEAUTIFUL musical number I've ever heard. Accapella 'I love the Lord' in tune to 'Be Still my Soul'

*President and Sister Clements shared their testimonies afterward and it was AMAZING. President Clements even chatted with them for a half hour after the meeting. (insert kip voice here) Swwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeettttttt.

Then we were also able to get in contact with Sister P... she is still mourning the loss of her hubby who decided to leave the fam. Breaks my heart. But we have an appointment with her on Tuesday! WHOO!

Well, I want you all to know, I'm totally forgetting about you. Honestly. It's weird. Like yesterday, Sister Clements asked me, "How is your family doing?" And at that point I realized how long it's been since I've thought of you guys. Haha... I still love you though. Thanks for all ya do and I'll talk to you next week! Love you!

-Sister Beeson

Oh, ps.

Brother K who got baptized shared his testimony and he talked about when he was about 1 week away from getting baptized, the elders asked him the baptismal interview questions, one of them being: Do you believe that Thomas S. Monson is the current prophet, seer, revelator? and he said "Honestly, I don't even know who this guy is."
So the elders put on some videos from lds.org and as Bro K was watching, he kept thinking to himself "I know this guy! Where have I seen him?" So he got a video out of the library at the church and it was when Thomas Monson was 10 years younger, and then it really hit him. He remembers when he worked in construction in Utah and he went to deliver some things for the remodeling of the slc temple, and he said that he remembers a man in a suit walked up to him and started talking to him. Bro K knew that this guy in the suit was one of the 'big guys' of the church, but he was in a rush and really just wanting to get out of this convo. It was Thomas S. Monson! And all at once the conversation came back to Bro K about what President Monson told him a decade earlier in response to Bro K saying he wasn't sure what he wanted in life and he was just confused about many things. President Monson said, "I promise you that there will be a time in your life where you won't be confused anymore, you will not be wandering, and you will be in the right place at the right time."

That whole conversation came to Bro K as he was watching the video of President Monson a decade ago, a week before his baptism! How cool. I hope that made sense, I'm about to rush off the computer but wanted to hurry and tell you that