Boxes & Cough Drops

So here is my big news of the past two weeks.  Sis. Cook and I are
only in the Young Single Adult branch now, they took us out of the
family Ward!  We have mixed feelings about this.  We worked really
hard to develop some good relationships in the ward and we were
starting to work with a lot of less actives.  But it's okay, we still
love the YSA and this will take a little bit of pressure off of our
shoulders.  They brought in another set of Elders for the family Ward,
so there are now two sets serving there.  We just have a lot of
finding to do for the YSA.  Not many people to work with there when it
has a total of about 35 people.

The majority of last week was spent helping a new investigator pack up
and move, and staying home because my companion was sick.

Tammy was a media referral from a few weeks ago who asked for help
moving.  We told her we would love to help and went over a few days
later.  She is going through a lot with her health and doesn't have
any support or anyone that lives with her.  After assessing the
situation I knew that a lot more help would be needed than just Sis.
Cook and I.  So we enlisted the Elders.  Long story short, Tammy told
us she had to be out of her house in about 6 days from the first time
we met her.  So we spent Wednesday and Thursday at her house helping
her pack.  Friday we spent home because sister Cook was sick.  Had
some great time to work on my mommy skills by cooking and cleaning all
day.  Then we went to work on Saturday and Sunday.

This past week we have been really focusing on finding.  We went on
exchange from Tuesday to Wednesday, so I spent the day in Westbury
with Hermana Grass.  Westbury is great!  It reminds me a bit of
Brooklyn.  People are walking/hanging out on the streets, people are
much more willing to talk at the door, and it has a lot of little
corner shops.

On Thursday-Friday we were on exchange with the Patchogue sisters and
Hermana Ence was in Plainview with me.  She is wonderful!  We did a
lot of finding and ran into a few adventures along the way.  One of
our ideas s to try and find colleges that we can try and knock around.
Hopefully find some students nearby.  So Hermana Ence and I found Old
Westbury campus on our GPS and took a trip out there.  With the
changing leaves, It was the most beautiful thing I have seen yet on
the island.  But we could not find any housing around it and the
closest houses were all mansions.   But we did try knocking on a
mansion door.  That was one of the most intimidating experiences of my
life.  Haha it turned out fine though.  Friday night was the Ward
Halloween party.  It was so fun!  The Smith family was there dressed
as gnomes, Christina and her husband came (a less active member) and
so did Nanna Shirley!  It was so great and such a fun activity.  They
had a chili cook off and the missionaries were the judges :)  there
was some interesting chili there. Haha then it ended with a trunk or
treat for the kids.

On Saturday we were suppose to go to the temple with Leyla a recent
convert.  We waited and called and waited and didn't not here from her
until 8 hours after we were suppose to leave.  Turns out she is really
sick right now.  Satan is working really hard on not letting her go to
the temple, it can be a bit frustrating.  But we are trying to help
her stay positive, because she has her heart in the right place and
will get there eventually.

For preparation day we went to the Old Westbury Gardens.  It was
beautiful!  It had this huge mansion from the 1700s.  All of the
leaves are changing so beautifully here.  I love the fall!

Sunday was Stake Conference and we had Elder Dudley and Elder Packer
of the 70 come.  It was so amazing!  They talked a lot about change
and the importance of change in our lives.  Elder Dudley talked about
the faith to move mountains and then related it to moving the
mountains in our lives.  A mountain of pain, a mountain of guilt etc.
He said that change is the way we act upon that faith.  It was a
really great talk.  I know that is very true.  That we all have
mountains that need to be moved and CAN be moved.  It just takes us
stepping out of our comfort zone and allowing the Atonement to make
that change.

It has been an amazing week full of wonderful experiences.  I hope
that everyone will try to make the changes that are needed to move
this weeks mountains.  Love you all!
Sister Beecher