That was a long week, a good one but a long one.

We had almost all of our appointments cancel on us this week.  But we
also had a lot of good things happen as well.  Today we found out that
we are both staying in Bushwick for another transfer.  It has a lot of
pros and cons.  But over all I'm happy with it.  There is a lot of
potential here and we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg.  I think
I'm here for the summer...

We tried really hard to set up a game of bball for our investigators
and some less actives to come to.  We were inviting people to it all
week!  Both Sister Hawkins and I were so excited to get to wear shorts
and go soak up some sunshine now that the weather is nice.  As we went
to pick up the Arnett boys we were hoping that all 3 of them would
come play.  (There is a 22 year old, 14 year old, and a 9 year old.)
but when we showed up the only one that would come was the nine year
old.  We basically ended up babysitting the kid for the next 2 hours.
But it was okay, he needed some time out of the house to play at the
park.  Once we got to the park the Elders were there with one less
active member.  But the problem was that no one brought a ball!  All
of the people we invited go and play ball daily so I figured one of
them would bring it.  But none of them showed up.  So I ended up just
teaching my companion, one elder, and the 9 year old how to play
handball instead.  It was still fun and we are going to try again next
week.  We have had a man named Benny stop us on the street 3 times now
asking when we are going to start up the summer tournament again.
Apparently some missionaries in the area last summer set up a
basketball tournament by the church and asked everyone to sign in at
the church before they came to play.  What a great idea to find people
to teach!   Basketball is about the only thing that unifies people
here, (especially the youth) so we are going to try and start that up
again.  Hopefully we can get the branch involved in this too, we will
see!

I am trying to learn more about family history as well!  We are taking
a member named Benji to the family history center every Thursday.  It
has been really interesting learning how to "find" lost ancestors and
try to fill in a family tree.  People out here only have about two
generations of their family history filled in.  So we are trying to
learning how to search for people and add them to their trees.  It's
really cool!

We get media referrals here like crazy!  We have so many now we don't
know how to handle them all.  We have had 25+ in the past two weeks.
It's a blessing, but it's hard to manage. Hahaha. Also, finding people
home to deliver their bibles is the hardest thing!  People are never
home here.  But we keep trying and trying.  These people are searching
for something, they just don't know what yet.

On Sunday we were lucky enough to have dinner at a members house, that
never happens here!  The Joyce family invited us over for chili and
cake.  It was so much fun.  They are a young family with a 4 year old
girl and a 1 year old boy.  We talked with them about the importance
of having the priesthood in their home and how it blesses their family
to have it.  We read a little bit of the General Conference talks
called "We'll Ascend Together"and invited them to re-read all the
talks and find a way that they can help improve their family
relationships.

Over all it was a decent week.  I hope this next one will be even better!
Love you all!
Sister Beecher

My district: Elder Seaton, Me, Sister Hawkins, and Elder Joo