Hey!

Wow, what a week it has been.  Sorry I didn't send out a weekly last
week, life was super crazy!  Sister Hardman (Our trio companion for
the week) did end up going home on that Saturday (that was sad) then
Monday I got called to be a Sister Training Leader and spent the day
packing.  Then everyday since has been super, super packed.  STL's
really never get a break through out the day.  But that's okay!  Being
this busy is really hard but really rewarding!  Here is a brief
explanation of what a Sister Training Leader is... Basically we are
the female version of the Zone Leaders.  Sister Blonquist and I are
over 3 zones of sisters, so 11 companionships, which makes up over
half of Long Island.  (Including the Bermuda Sisters, but we just
Skype them.)  We go on exchanges with all of the Sisters over the
course of six weeks and try to keep tabs on them and make sure
everything is going well.  We are also involved in a lot of the
trainings and all of the leadership meetings that happen.

Sister Blonquist is on her last transfer of her mission and is a
FANTASTIC missionary!  I am so grateful I get this time to learn from
her and serve with her.  She is one of the most devoted and faithful
missionaries I have met so far on my mission.  I feel so blessed to be
with her.  She has also been a Sister Training Leader for 5 transfers,
which is really long!  Usually this calling only lasts for about 2 or
3.  She is from Springville Utah, and is going to attend BYU again in
about 6 weeks.  ;)

We are serving in the Plainview area. (Between Lynbrook and
SouthShore, my previous Long Island areas.)  This area is really nice!
 It is a lot of small, clean, beautiful, homes and feels very peaceful
here.  It is such a contrast from Brooklyn!  Normally the STLs in this
area have just been in charge of the Young Single Adult branch. (which
covers all the YSA on the island past Lynbrook, about 2/3 of the
island.)  This transfer things got switched around a bit and I have
been blinded in for a 3rd time!  We now cover the YSA branch AND the
family Ward.  Which is crazy because it's just us and one set of
Elders to cover both units.  We are being blinded into the family Ward
and Sister Blonquist has been in the YSA for 1 transfer previous to
this.  They use to have a second set of sisters here to cover the
Ward, but they took them out this transfer.  SO.  Needless to say
Sister Blonquist and I feel a little overwhelmed with everything and
we have a ton to do.  But I can already see the tender mercies the
Lord has given us this week!  I know that things will all get worked
out and we will be able to balance everything.

One of the best part of the YSA is all of the activities!  Every
Wednesday they get together and play...Volleyball!  Yay!  Lots of
members and people who are not members come so it is a great finding
event.  Also I get to play volleyball again, so I am happy.  They also
had a outdoor theater movie party on Saturday to promote bring people
to "bring a friend to church" Sunday the next day.  We went to help
set up and it looked like a blast!  The YSA in this branch have so
much fun together!

I went on my first exchange this past week in SouthShore with Sister
Hammarstrum.  She is great!  She is from California, loves to laugh,
and just finished being trained.  It was really weird/great to be back
in South Shore but I was happy to see the work hastening there.  We
were able to go look up a family that had baptism dates back when I
was serving there.  They were being taught by the other Sisters but
stopped meeting with the missionaries a few months ago.  It was really
good to stop by and chat with them about how their family is doing.
We were able to address some of their concerns and they agreed to
start meeting with the missionaries again.  They seemed to really
appreciate to visit and looked forward to seeing the sisters again at
the next appointment.  We also taught a lesson to a cute little 9 year
old girl and her mom.  This little girl has been coming to church on
her own for months now.  The Ward is really good about helping to give
her rides, and she is really enjoying the Gospel.  We taught her about
prophets and sang follow the prophet with her and her 3 younger
siblings.  Overall, this exchange was great!  I love having the
opportunity to learn from all of these amazing missionaries!

Sunday's are crazy days for us.  We meet at 7 for Ward Corrilation and
Ward council, then the 3 block of meetings for the family Ward.  Then
we jump right into branch council for the YSA branch and usually there
is a munch and mingle after the block of meetings.  So our Sunday
ended around 6.  Haha. I gave a talk in the Young Single Adult Ward on
Sunday about 3 Nephi 13:21.  I felt a little bad after but not really
at the same time.  The talk was a little rebuking.  I may have briefly
mentioned some of the major problems in YSA wards that are not brought
up much.  Ex... If your whole purpose of going to church to find
someone to date, or texting/being on Facebook during the Sacrament.
So I don't know if I won any browny points in the branch, but the
other parts of my talk went well!  Haha I told the Parable of the
Oranges, given in a CES 2015 Devotional by Randall L. Ridd.  It is
super fantastic, you should all look it up!

We have three exchanges this upcoming week, I am excited.  I will
probably only be with Sister Blonquist on Wednesday and part of
Thursday.  Haha but that's okay.  I learn so much on exchanges and
hopefully can help serve these Sisters.  I haven't even met all of
them yet, but I already love them all so much.  I feel like the rest
of my mission is about to go by super quick now.  I only have 5
transfers left and will probably be super busy here in Plainview for
the majority of that time.  It's going by too quick!

Well I hope everyone has a blessed day and is enjoying their summer!
Love you all!
Sister Beecher

This is Sister Campbell, her daughter Chantal and her boyfriend Kamar
who's holding Genesis their daughter.  On the right of me is Kimberly
and Nicholas, Sister Campbells daughter in law.  I miss this family so
much!!!



I know this isn't my name, but this is what people call me when they first meet me.  Haha there is a major subway station named this.

July 6. 2015

The many things that happened this week!

First off, we got to meet President Reynolds and his wife!  That was exciting.  They are so sweet and timid in comparison to my last mission president, but they have large hearts and a strong desire to be obedient to the Lord.  They will be really good for this mission.  All of the missionaries went to the mission office on Thursday and were introduced to President and Sister Reynolds.  They are from Salt Lake City, Utah and have lived there the majority of their lives.  So New York is a big eye opener for them, I know how they feel!  President Reynolds has a construction business back in Utah, and seems like a sweet small town guy.  We will see what changes will soon be happening here in the New York New York South Mission! 

Sister Campbell, one of the members we have been working with (Trelivia's aunt), has been in the hospital twice this week.  So we have been over to her house a few times this week.  She is going through so much right now, and we are some of the only support she has.  She is such a tough lady, because when she has a hard trial it is not just one thing, she gets them all toppled upon each other all at once.  We were making some good progress towards taking her back to the temple, but she is being hit with some mean road blocks.  Might take some more time to get over these, but we have the faith that she will make it back soon.  

We met with Zakiya twice this past week!  She is so humble and pure.  We taught her the Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  When we met with her on Tuesday we were planning on teaching her the P. Of S. But she had so many questions about repentance and baptism that we decide to flip to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The cool thing was, then when we taught her the P. Of S. on Thursday, she already understood exactly how baptism fit into the plan.  Everything made so much more sense for her.  Her baptism date is on August 2nd which is the same day as the Elders investigator, so we are going to have an exciting day in the Bushwick branch!  She is on a work trip right now, but had a major set back while there and might be coming back early now.  We will see... So maybe we will get to teach her again this week.  

The Fourth of July was great!  We got to go to a BBQ one of the members from the Spanish branch threw for the missionaries.  We got to play volleyball and party in the rain. (It started coming down pretty heavy) Then we went to Sister Campbells house after to check on her.  She has a lot of health problems and was in a lot of pain.  The Elders came to give her a blessing and then we ended up staying and trying to give her dog a hair cut.  That was interesting, but it was a great service opportunity! :) to end the night, once we came home we went up on our apartment roof and watched some of the fireworks from Manhattan.  It was really pretty!  (Although, I still think our Utah Summer Games firework show is better.) 

Here are some random tidbits from this past week: (Mom, please don't put the last three paragraphs on the blog. Thanks)

🔹While we were teaching Karen the Plan of Salvation, she asked us if we knew what the word  Bible meant.  Sister Hawkins and I looked at each other and shrugged no.  This is what she told us, "What does the Bible really stand for?  Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth."  How clever is that!  The more we talked with her about the importance of Scriptures and how they applied to the plan, the more we decided that was true.  The Scriptures are here to give us direction and instruction about what our Father in Heaven wants us to be doing here on earth.  They are key to helping us understand what we need to do in order to return to live with Him again.  

🔹Last Sunday one of the Brothers in our branch gave a talk about following Priesthood Leaders and sustaining them.  Usually Brother Jones has dark, long, curly hair.  But this day he showed up with it real short, and bright pink!  Haha. I love this branch so much.  But it wasn't his hair that stands out in my memory the most, it was his talk.  He has this journal from his great, great Grandpa named Lehi Jones.  His grandfather was one of the Latter-Day Saint pioneers that was settling Utah.  Guess where he built his household???  In good old Cedar City Utah!  This story definitely perked my interest a little more when he said that.  Lehi had 3 little kids and his wife was pregnant.  They had just finished building their home in the Cedar valley when this new community received a letter from President Brigham Young.  He asked these faithful saints to move their families out east to San Juan.  In my mind I was asking myself "why San Juan?".   If you have been to the South East side of Utah, there is not a lot there.  Haha But he told us that Lehi and his wife immediately repacked all the belongings they had and made the 300 mile journey with their small family.  Once there, they started establishing their new home.  But shortly after their arrival, Lehi received another letter.  Brigham Young was asking him to leave his family and serve a mission in the Southern states.  He asked him to gather his things and leave as soon as possible.  Barely having enough time to discuss this decision with his pregnant wife, Lehi accepted the call and soon left.  Right before he left, his toddler had an accident where boiling water was dumped down his back and all of his skin was burned off.  Even though he had a severely injured son, a wife that was due in a few weeks, and barely a roofs shelter over his families head, Lehi followed his leaders and strived to do the Lords will.  The best part of this story is he was reading all of this straight out of Lehi journal, so it was in his own words.  What trials the Pioneers had to go through.  They had so much faith and courage it amazes me.  When I hear stories like these my testimony grows of the Lords perfect plan and timing.  He knew exactly when we needed to come to this earth and what trials we needed to have. 

🔹I finally have a favorite flavor of ice cream!!  It is THE best :)  Ben and Jerrys "Everything but the..." It is chocolate and vanilla ice cream mixed with peanutbutter cups, fudge covered toffee pieces, white chocolate pieces, and fudge covered almonds.  It doesn't get better than that!  If you ever see this ice cream, I would highly advise trying it. :) 

🔹Also, I've only heard my brother Josh talk about this...but I found breadfruit this week!  I just saw it at a small fruit/veggie market.  It kind of looked like a young coconut, and very green.  But now I can at least say I have seen it.  

🔹 Sister Hawkins and I had one day this week that was filled with highs and lows.  It felt like everything that could go wrong did, but at the same time great things happened.  Haha on our way to an appointment we missed our stop on the bus, and then the bus kept going and going and it felt like it was never going to stop.  It took us to an area (which we are sure was outside of our Bushwick boundaries) that was basically a big stretch of nothing.  It was just a large street with a few mechanic shops, a few fast food and a handful of small apartments.  It was really weird to see that in the city.  But the two things that really stood out on that street were the large and newly built KFC and Wendy's!  I haven't seen those two anywhere in the city, only out further on the island.  So we decided to have lunch at the fanciest Wendy's I have ever seen.  After we finished, we had to wait at the bus stop for about 20 minutes before the bus came.  As our bus was trudging along, it slowly pulled up to a stop light.  (Sis. Hawkins and I were seated in the very back corner of the bus and I was in the window seat.)  I looked out the window and saw this large 12 seater van backing up out of a parking lot.  It was headed right at the bus.  I thought, "no way it would hit us, he has to see this bus it's huge".  Well that van kept backing up as I watched in what felt like slow motion as it hit my window and scraped all along the back side of the bus because the bus had started forward.  The bus driver promptly got out and chewed out the little man driving, then he kicked all of us off the bus.  How that little man didn't see the extremely large bus behind him as he was backing, I have no clue.  Welcome to New York drivers.  :)  We then just walked the rest of the way to Sister Campbells house.  Once there, poor Sis. Campbell had just received some really bad news so we spent a few hours there talking with her, reading scriptures, and making her an omelette for lunch.  We then had to run to a lesson with Karen and Sis. Rodriguez after that.  Both of those lessons went great and the spirit was really strong.  

July 13
So sorry family, this week I will not be giving a big weekly.  Our
Pday kind of got all flipped around last night so we don't have much
time for anything today.  Pres. Reynolds called...
Sister Hawkins and I are about to become a trio this week!  There is a
sister who is struggling that needs a new area, companion,
everything... They decided to send her to us!  She is just finishing
her training and is a Haitian Creole called sister.  She has only been
out a few months.  So now we are trying to figure out how to fit a
third bed into our little apartment and accommodate another body.  I
am excited though, this is going to be a great learning experience for
all of us!  This week should be fun, we have institute, family home
evening with the Campbells, and our youth game night (we are trying to
be more involved with the youth so we are starting a game/sports night
every wed.  We share a spiritual thought and then try to help them
fellowship one another by having some fun).  So hopefully she will
enjoy this week.  Also, next Tuesday is transfers.  Again!  This
transfer has flown by!  Sis. Hawkins and I are hoping to stay in
Bushwick together for one more, but I think that will all depend on
how his week goes.

As far as last week went, it was really good!  We didn't have too many
lessons, but we were able to teach some very important spiritual
lessons to a lot of the people we are working with.  I feel like EVERY
person we are working with is going through one of the hardest trials
of their lives right now and this week was a pivotal week for
everyone.  Please keep Zakiya in your prayers that she will be able to
make her baptismal date of Aug. 2nd.  (Also pray that Sis. Hawkins and
I will really be able to really help our trio sister this week). She
wasn't able to come to church this past week, but she has to make it
to the next 3 in order to be baptized.  She has good intentions to,
things just keep happening that are stopping her from coming.

Well I love you all.  Hope you are enjoying your summer and taking
advantage of the amazing opportunities the Lord provides for you!

Sister Beecher