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

I'm a day late, but Happy Fathers Day!!!   As I am growing closer to
my Father in Heaven I am learning the importance of the role of a
Father.  I am learning of the patience, selflessness and love that a
Father needs to have to fully support his family.   Heavenly Father
has provided for us His family in every way.  I hope we all took some
time to give thanks to Him on that special day as well.
I also want to give a shout out to my Dad!  Thanks for all that you
have done and continue to do for me Dad.  I know I can always rely on
you.  Love you!

This past week was incredible!  I think it was possibly the craziest
week of my mission so far.  We were constantly on the go, I don't even
remember if we stopped to eat sometimes.  Haha

Monday:  We met with Heidi and her Mom.  It has been a few weeks since
we had a lesson so it was really good to see them!  The good news is
that Heidi is going to be here this summer.  The bad news is that she
may be moving in August.  So if she is going to make a decision the
best time is this summer.  We are going to talk to her tonight about
really committing to seeking answers.  She really likes this church
and believes it is true.  She is just nervous about how this will
effect some of her relationships with people.  Sister Hawkins and I
both have a good feeling about this though and know Heidi will want to
commit once she really understands the importance of this.

Tuesday:  We met with one of our other referrals named Zakiya.  She is
amazing and so ready for this Gospel!  She has had a lot of really
hard trials in her life and has had constant change for the past few
years.  I can tell that she is searching for stability and safety and
that is exactly what the Lord is offering to her at this point in her
life.  She understands that she needs to turn to God and let Him
direct her path.  Zakiya has a few people in her family that are
members and she can see the good this Gospel has brought into their
lives.  We are meeting with her again this next week.  We will be
taking Sister John with us, I think it will go great!
Tuesday evening we were suppose to have family home evening with the
Joyce's and Migdalia.  Well Midgalia ended up not being able to make
it, so we just had it with the Joyce's.  We played our board game with
their kids, it was really fun.

Wednesday:  We had our Zone Training Meeting.  It was all about using
Online Proselyting.  We are now back on facebook again so our mission
has had a lot of training in preparation for that.  It was really
good!  The Zone leaders asked me to share my experience about teaching
Emma online.  There were a lot of great examples and stories told and
the spirit was very strong.  Jen Blosil (a previous missionary here)
came and sang for us as well.  She has an amazing voice.
That evening we had a lesson with Sister Rodriguez and her son Chris.
We were teaching the Plan of Salvation.  It started out going alright
but the end didn't go very well.  We are going to try another approach
with them this week to see if it will go better.

Thursday:  We went to visit another referral named Karen.  Karen is a
very humble, sweet person.  She is a young single mother and is going
through a lot right now.  We told us about some of her spiritual
experiences leading up to this point in her life.  She is searching
for some happiness, direction and support in her life.  It is not a
coincidence that we started meeting with her now.  Love Karen!
Thursday evening we went to have a lesson with Sis. Lims friends that
she lives with. (Sis. Lim is a member from the Phillipines and is a
wonderful member missionary!)  We taught Aaron and Juliette the
Restoration.  It was a short and to the point lesson, but it was just
what they needed. We are trying to help them understand how this
Gospel blesses families as they are currently working on theirs with
their 3 year old son.  To be honest, we didn't even know if the lesson
was going to happen because Sister Lim just out of the blue asked him
as he walked by if he wanted to meet with us as we were visiting her
the previous week.  He said it would be fine, and he showed up!  It
was great!  Both of them took a Book of Mormon and agreed to read it.

Friday:  This day.  Well we had appointments with another referral,
Zakiya, and Noga.  But they didn't end up working out.  So we went to
the church to map out some addresses.  Once we got to the wifi we had
a huge surprise!  Our areabook said that we had over 45 new people
(media referrals) added to it!!!  What!  So our potential
investigators list doubled.  Then over the course of the day, every
time we sync to the system, we would have more.  By the end of the day
we had over 181 new referrals!!!  We were a little overwhelmed.  That
is a lot of people to look up and try to find.  The past few months
that I have been here we have gotten about 35 media referrals. We
probably get the most out of the whole mission, a lot of people here
order Bibles.  The thing is that all of those referrals are old media
referrals.  Going back to 2012.  Some have been contacted but the vast
majority, we are not sure.  So we have our work cut out for us!  It's
okay, there is destined to be a few people that want to be taught out
of all of this!

Saturday: We had a stake auxiliary training meeting.  It was great!
The stake president spoke first and then they broke into workshops for
each auxiliary.  We went to the R.S. one since none of our branch R.S.
presidency was there.

Sunday:  For gaining 7 new investigators, not a single one showed up
to church. :( That was a bummer, but it was still a great Sunday and
we got to help with the Young Women's lesson.  After church we met
with Karen again and got to meet her boys this time.  We took her a
children's Book of Mormon to start reading with them.  She has really
great questions and is very open minded.  This time we went into more
depth with her about what people the Book of Mormon was discussing and
about the first vision.
That evening we went over to Sis. Myers house and had family home
evening with her and her sons/grandsons.  Sis. Myers kids are pretty
spaced out so she has grandsons almost the same age as Harold and
Isaiah her sons.  So we were teaching 5 teenage boys.  Haha it was
fun.  We told them the story of the Restoration and then played
Farkle.( a dice game). If one of the boys Farkled then they had to
answer a question about the lesson.  Sister Hawkins had the brilliant
idea of putting commitment questions in there as well.  So we left
with one boy promising to read his scriptures for a week, one
promising to pray for a week, and one who is not a member committed to
come to church this next week!  It was a lot of fun and it really
helped the boys learn what this church is all about.  Sister Myers
then fed us a huge feast, she is so good to us.  To end, I had made
lemon bars for desert :)

It is amazing how the Lord prepares people and brings the Gospel into
their lives at the perfect times. I had this testified to me over and
over this week.  As we talked with these different people and heard
their stories, I could hear the Lords handing guiding them to this
point in their lives.  These are some of the most humble and kind
people I have ever met.  I feel so blessed to finally have steady
people to teach.  They are all so amazing too!

We'll have a blessed week everyone!  Enjoy your summer!
Love,
Sister Beecher

Look at what is happening here this week!  We get to go to this and volunteer.  I'm soooo excited!  You should google it and tell me more details.  Haha  basically it is a world wide genealogy day and the church is co sponsoring it...kind of.  So cool right! 

This week was amazing!  We were able to set up a lot of appointments
for this week, and we finally had a week full of teaching!  It was
also my companions birthday on Saturday, so it was full of fun
surprises too.  :)

Monday, we had a surprise birthday party for Sister Hawkins with the
ASL Sisters and the Park Slope Sisters.  It was perfect!  She didn't
suspect a thing.  Sister Hawkins and I hurried and finished out
errands and headed out to the ASL sisters apartment to "go shopping"
with them.  When we got to their apartment, they had made a delicious
spaghetti and meatball lunch with a brownie cake.  It was so good!
After lunch we all walked across the street to the nail salon and got
manicures and pedicures.  Sister Hawkins loves to have her nails
painted, so that was a fun surprise.  It was the first time Sister
Hawkins and I had ever had a pedicure, it tickled... It was a great
day and we had a lot of fun.  The ASL Sisters are amazing!

We met with a lot of members this week, it was great!  We met a few
more of the less actives in the branch, and were able to find some
more people to teach.  We got Sister Lovaglio going on Personal
Progress and she is loving it so far!  It is perfect for her and
exactly what she needs.  We also met with a lady named Sis. Rodriguez
who is a genealogy wiz!  She has had to figure out so much of her
ancestry and is a great detective!  We are going back over to see them
this week as well.

On Friday we went and did some service for a pastor.  He is renovating
a old church all by himself and the Elders have been helping him for
months.  But now we get to go help too!  :)  when we got there Pastor
Loflin looked at us Sisters and said "Did they tell you this was hard
work?  Are you going to be okay?"  Haha we told him yes.  It was
funny.  I'm pretty sure I can carry wood and tie bundles just as well
as the Elders.  There was a shed that the roof had fallen in and we
had to carry all the broken pieces out of it and then tie them up.   I
was tying a knot and one of the Elders asked jokingly if I was a boy
scout.  I told him no, but I did work at a Boy Scout camp.  Haha I'm
not sure if he believed me.  It was really fun and a lot of work.  But
we look forward to going back this week!

Saturday was an adventure!  It was finally the day of her birthday and
I had a few tricks up my sleeve.  In the morning while she was in the
shower, I recruited the Spanish Sisters from next door to help me make
pumpkin pancakes, banana pancakes, and turkey bacon for breakfast.
Also to help decorate the apartment with streamers and balloons :)  it
was perfect.   Then we went to deliver a Bible to someone in the
afternoon.  They were not home, but the Elders asked if we could pick
up a key from the Spanish branch president a few blocks away.  So we
ended up spending the whole afternoon hanging out with the Spanish
branch at their branch BBQ waiting for the branch President.  But it's
okay, because we ate some delicious food!  We met up with the Elders
after and went to go get Bubble smoothies to celebrate Sister Hawkins
birthday.  Then we ran back to the church to have Corrilation meeting
with Bro. Wynder.  It was a super hectic, crazy day.  But I think it
turned out great and there were plenty of surprises for Sister
Hawkins. :)

If you haven't had a chance, you should watch the new Mormon Messages!
 There are two.  They are amazing and definitely some of my favorites!
 :)  I know that things that seem to be a burden can really be the
thing that is helping to heal us and make it through our trials in
life.

Well I'm off to a Mets game!  Happy Memorial Day everyone!
Love,
Sister Beecher