ENJOY IT.

Dear Family,

Greetings to all.

This week we had divisions with our sister training leaders and guess what? I got to work with Hermana Noh! She only has one change (6 weeks) left and she goes home (ahhh how weird). I enjoyed every experience she shared with me and it made me realize that the mission is SHORT. Time is limited and you have to use ever bit of it working hard trying to bring the salvation unto all you possibly can. To be honest, 18 months is short but I am not going to let that keep me from finishing strong and enjoying every minute of it. To be hones, I am sincerely enjoying every minute of my mission. 

We visited Familia Villafuerte this week, well actually only Renata. We talked about general conference and she told us how her desire to be baptized, to be member of God's church had grown. We decided to talk with her to see if there was a way that she could receive permission from her parents to be baptized. In the end, we decided that we were going to fast and that they were going to ask for a signed letter from her parents, giving her permission as well as Mauricio her brother to be baptized. We are hoping and praying that they will be able to be baptized this weekend!

Today with Maria Dolores we learned how to make Pan de Naranja or Orange Bread. Maybe it sounds weird but it is absolutely delicious! It is basically a cake- maybe the picture shows better that my word how delicious it tasted. We have more confidence with Hna Dolores and we see that she enjoys our visits cooking or learning the gospel- both of them equally enjoyed.

Two short things to finish:

1. My favorite general conference talk this week was Jeffery R Holland's talk. I invite you to read it.

2. I want to hear which talks were your favorite and a favorite quote from the talk. 

Whelp. Gotta go. I hope you know I love you all!

Hermana Beardall

Easter Sunday

Beautiful spring flowers in the trees here in Celaya

G I R A S O L E S. (sunflowers)

Dear Family,

Before I say anything, I just want to let you know that I am extremely grateful that because of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, I AM TRULY HAPPY. 

This week has been a beautiful week full of skin-burning sunshine and beautiful "Diosidencias" as Hna Womack says ( or Godly coincidences in English).

NUMERO UNO: This week we finally visited M D. She let us enter her house and we taught her in preparation for the General Conference. At the end of the lesson, she invited us to do an Family Home Afternoon with her niece A S who is currently less active along with her three sons. We readily accepted the invitation, surprised and more than happy to participate. 

I loved it. I watched as M D took control of the event, assigning the opening and closing prayer, choosing the hymn, and participating immensely in the lesson. I watched how her excitement made her less-active family members begin to participate, the rebelious teenage sons listening closely to what was being said (even if it was a few minutes here and there :) and A willingly accepting our invitation that they could join us in the conference. The way everything unfolded couldn't have any more perfect and it was clear that the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ really is a guide and blessing to unite the family. 

NUMERO DOS: La Conferencia General de La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días. Once again, I watched the conference in Pinos Ward (and for those who were asking, I watched it in Spanish). I can't believe it has been 6 months since I started here in Pinos. The members ask me if I want transfers but with a firm NO I enjoy every moment I can be here in Pinos.

Anywho... General Conference. R came to the conference with her sister E but because M was embarassed because he forgot his sunday shirt, he didn't come (He is 11 yrs old and the most animated person I know to come to church... but only when he has his Sunday Shirt :) D came to the conference too! I was so happy to see everyone that came but even more to see our investigadors there. I was praying so hard that there would be atleast one talk that caught their attention and gave them the answers they needed. And you know what? I think God heard my infinite prayers :) 

I honestly can't think of ONE talk to share with y'all but I will share snippets of a few talks that I like- Things I learned from one of the speakers. One thing that really struck my mind was the talk by Quentin L. Cook. Crazy enough, I had been thinking about sunflowers all week long and to hear Elder Cook talk about sunflowers caught my attention. I am not exactly sure if these are his exact words because it could be personal revelation or errores in the translation from spanish to english, but I liked this idea: "That which will protect us and guide us is our righteousness." Being obedient and righteous have the blessings of protection and direction. Like the Girasoles (sunflowers) having our mirada (sorry I can't remember how to say this word in english) set on Christ, our spiritual growth and strength is clear. As sure as the sun will rise every day, Christ is always there. His light is bright and possible to find and follow.

I hope General Conference was just as wonderful or more for you as it was for me. 

Thank you to everyone who has been my teacher and example in learning and living the gospel. Because of the gospel I AM TRULY HAPPY.

HAPPY HERE IN PINOS,

Hermana Beardall

And we keep on rollin'.

Dear Family,

This week has been crazy and I am excited for a normal (ha) week again. (Can you have a normal week in the mission?) I got sick (went to the doctor and now I am fine) and had to go to Queretaro to renew my Visa. Practically we haven't worked in our area at all this past week but here we are- still on rollin'

We have been working with Dolores this week. Dolores is Hna Lara's sister and the only one in the family that isn't member of the church. She told us that she doesn't want a "i told you so" conversion but a real and personal conversion to the gospel. She told us that she knows that it is true and we think she just needs to know the way she can recieve a confirmation not from her sister but from God, an answer JUST FOR HER. Stay tuned to see what happens.

Renata and Mauricio? Whelp, we are still waiting for their parents to return. Here we are- and we keep on rollin'. They are pretty active in the church and you could almost say they are members but the are missing one important step- baptism. :)

If you can, read this talk called Living with a Purpose: The importance of real intent 

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/worldwide-devotionals/2015/01/living-with-purpose-the-importance-of-real-intent?lang=eng

And think on something he says: "I got stars because that is what I was reading for."

Feel free to share any thoughts ideas scriptures, etc that come to mind. 

Sorry I can't write much but know that I love and think about you every day.

Love,

Hermana Beardall

Seek, and ye shall find.

Dear Family,

Thinking back on this week and all that had happened, I began to realize a pattern forming in everything we accomplished.  I thought of the words of the Savior to the people in the Americas from his teachings from his earthly ministry in Jerusalem:

 7 Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. (3 Nephi 14)

When we follow the spiritual equation to recive divine blessings from our loving Heavenly father with obedience with exactness the blessings really do come.

Finding Familia Frias One of the sisters that we are teaching gave us a reference of her neighbor- Familia Frias. We visited them right after Catalina had mentioned their name and when knocking on the door, we explained that we were the missionaries, their neighbors. The immediately let us pass into their home and we began to teach. The accepted to hear our message with a very strong, "si, yo quiero escuchar" or yes I want to listen. 

Finding People with a Specific Prayer On Wednesday our mission president asks us to do a special activity of our choice to find 5 new people. My compa and I decided that we wanted to do a prayer aksing for indications of who to find during the day. For example: Someone that already has a Book of Mormon. We listed 6 specific ideas to find people and throughout the day we talked with many people. We found Isabel and her son Luis who willingly accepted that we share our message with them. Turns out, Luis has a Book of Mormon and the missionaries five years ago were teaching him.

Finding the Family Villafuerte we lost contact with them for almost a month, but we got in contact with them and now we can continue teaching them.

Finding my companion's surprises See the pictures :)

Finding Answers and Animo This past Sunday we had Ward Conference. I had been feeling a little confused in these days and I was looking for answers. God hears our prayers and I recieved the answers I needed to keep on going :)

8 For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

I invite you to try it out for yourself. Prepare yourself for a revelation-filled General Conference with confidence that God will fulfill his promise to you.

finding,

Hermana Beardall

Life in the Pines

Dear Family, 

We had transfers yesterday but I have the GRAND BLESSING to keep living in the Pines and Hermana Guevara is my compañera!

In April when conference comes again I will have 6 months in barrio Los Pinos. Wow. Time flies. Honest truth: I absolutely love it here (can I finish my mission here please?)

Another honest truth: I don't know what it is like to have dry feet or dry shoes. Practically this whole week has been raining and raining and raining. For a day and a half it was raining non stop. But ya it has stopped-for now. 

This week has been really hard to find our investigators or to keep our appointments with them. We have lost contatct with almost all of our investigadors. This week we are on the search to find them again :) 

But walking through the streets that are more like rivers amidst the pines I got super wet and lost a pair of shoes because the velcrow (or however you spell it) was so wet it wouldn't stick. We walked barefoot for a while to get to the bus stop but the bus never came. We called a member and they helped us get home.

I almost got really upset but then I remembered something that I had learned in my personal study. I read the talk by President Dieter F. Utchdorf called Agradecidos en cualquier circunstancia (sorry I can't remember what it is called in english). 

Jokingly I started to list things I was grateful for to make my companion laugh. When the bus still didn't come, I kept listing my blessings and the two of us began to list many things but now with more sincerity. We learned the importance of elevating ourselves even in the moment of trial. In place of feeling bad for ourselves, we began to laugh and feel a greater joy that one can't experience eating chocolate (and thats a lot of joy). In place of crying over our circumstances I wanted to cry tears of gratitude for all that I had. And I have A LOT, gracias a Dios (or thanks to God) as they say here in Mexico for everything but I say it with so much more meaning.

Read the talk if you would like, it is pretty great and inspiring (especially the part that talks about how we are not made for endings but I am not going to spoil it for ya...)

Fotos:1. Us and Hna Torres una Hermana that we helped come back to church--WOW this Hermana is PODEROSA.

2. Irene-- do you remember me talking about her? She calls me Guera (white girl) because  she can't say Beardall. Ya ni modos.

3 y 4. Gorditas- basically a stuffed thick tortilla with cheese and meat and salsa y all the Mexican food goodness. En fin, this is what we ate for breakfast in PDAY.

Hermana Beardall

March 9, 2015

Dear Family,

On Friday we had a ward actvity about the Plan of Salvation. The Elders put it together and assigned every orginazation a theme- the example in the pictures A FIESTA and FHE. The investigators and a few members held to a rope with "the guide of the Holy Ghost" or the elders to two rooms. They had to choose a room and according to their decsisions they made they went to one of the three kingdoms.

I had to go in to the Terrestal Kingdom and explain to the people that they hadn't accepted Jesus as their Savior and so they didn't make it int the Celestial Kingdom. I can't imagine how it would be like for God to do the same for all of his children. It was sad to see their reaction to what I told them but it gave me peace to know that now they understand the importance of obedience and to make good decsisions.

Yesterday I had an experience that hurt but taught me a valuable lesson. I had the first door slammed in my face. We lost contact with our investigator Erica that was planned to be baptized this upcoming Saturday  and yesterday we went to see what happened (because she didn't come to church).  We knocked, they responded, but didn't come out to talk with us. We called her phone and she turned it off and ignored us. Then while we were waiting outside thinking what we should do next, Ericas mom walked by and asked what we needed. We said that we wanted to talk to Erica. She entered the house to look for her and the next thing we knew, her dad came out and began to speak angerly at us and told us that he never wants to see us again or know about us teaching his daughter and that "this house is catholic and always will be catholic" It hurt but in the sense  that I felt like in place of uniting the family with the gospel, we managed to separate them a little more. 

 I read the talk The Priesthood Man by  Pres. Eyring and found peace in reading the part where it talks about prayer. I applied it to my self and my situation and to pray with gratitud for the experiences I had with Erica and to ask forgiveness, etc. I felt a huge change within me that I can't express with words. I really felt the peace that I needed to know that Erica was fine and that her family also was fine.

I know that prayer changes who we are to help us become the children of God he knows we are.

Love,

Hermana Beardall

It's July Already!

Dear Family,

The weather here is like the middle of July and I am roastin'!! 

Anywho, let me tell you about this week:

1.We had divisions with our Sister Training Leaders and I got to work with Hermana Nielson again!!!! Everytime we get to work together I always feel like I am companions with McKayla. She's got that same weird personality ;) We talked about the food we missed (rootbeer floats, oven baked cookies, and egg salad sandwiches to name a few) and how all but two months of Hermana Nielson's mission we have been in the same zone. She taught me a lot about confidence and taught me a few excercises I can do :) 

When we finished divisions we went to the Fuentes House and to our surprise our companions had made pupusas (a food that they make in El Salvador and Honduras) and left us beautiful flowers. Pupusas are like Gorditas here in Mexico. Its basically a fat tortilla with cheese and beans inside and you cook it, put salsa on top and YUMMMMM. Don't worry, I am learning how to make them! 

2. For a while, we had a lot of our investigadors come to church and come by themselves but now we are starting to have problems. We make plans and everything is set to go until the morning of when we reconfirm the plans for the hundredth time and it turns out that they can't make it. 

R and M have decided with their parents that they are going to wait until their parents return to be baptized. They have no idea when they will be able to come back. I hope they get baptized before Cambios and they change me. 

A we haven't seen all week because she has been busy working. 

E couldn't come to church this week because her dad came to stay for the weekend and doesn't let her go to church for complicated reasons. 

Somehow I have remained absolutely calm through all of this and I am not stressed, I just don't know how to solve every problem.

I have learned, more than anything, this week about prayer. Moroni 7 talks about how we should pray sincerely or our prayers don't make it to God's ear. It hit me so hard and I realized that I need to talk to God with more sincerity so that He can hear my prayers and that the answers and blessings come. When we pray half-heartedly we recieve our answers and blessings half-heartedly. Think about that one for a while. A prayer so simple and sincere brings blessings so much bigger than the simple but sincere words that left our lips and reached the ears of our loving Heavenly Father. Ask sincerely and with love and you will recieve blessings from our Perfect God, Perfect Father who gives sincerely and with love that is bigger than humankind can imagine.

God loves you. Don't forget to pray.

have some good days,

Hermana Beardall