Elder Beddes' Tales from Toronto: February 21, 2017 Be Grateful for What's Already Happened

Hey family and friends! And i'm glad you liked the ties dad, Happy late Birthday! Well I'll be honest the week wasn't as good as we thought it would be! Still lots of things to be grateful for though! I'm having a great time with Elder Bybee. I can't believe the transfer is windin down, the time flies by. We only have three more weeks of this transfer and my prediction is I'm leaving Kingston sadly. :( I really don't want too. We've been doing a lot of finding. We don't have a lot of people in our teaching pool, so we are out and about a ton contacting and tracting. honestly we've been getting a lot of cold shoulders lately! I don't know if it's the season or our luck of the draw but it's taught me a lot. It can be extremely frustrating when you are out trying your best talking to people and getting rejected over and over and over again. I want our area to be a good role model for the other areas in our zone but it's been hard.

So I took it to our Father in Heaven in prayer and he told me I need to be grateful for what's already happened so far. So I had a take a step back moment the other day about what me and Elder Bybee have done so far. We've gained the branches trust. The difference the first day we arrived to now is huge! We baptized Bryn!! We helped change a couple of people's lives in the branch! We reactivated Al and Joe! I've gained two best friends while serving here, Elder Bybee and Ebe. Helped motivate other missionaries in the zone. And who knows what else but I guess moral of what I'm trying to say here is that I felt a ton better in a bummy time. There's power behind the words count your many blessings.

We can relate this to my trek experience a couple of years ago since my momma and sisters want to hear about it! Gotta be obedient. ;) So I remember looking pretty good in my pioneer outfit since dad let me use some of his swag clothes. I also remember practicing for the big trek hike, we would walk from a specific church to another in preparation. I remember taking a bus to where we were going. Got there and they put us into families and we were off with our treking group. We would take turns pushing or pulling the hand cart, and honestly it wasn't the funnest thing but it was good to have a good group that wanted to work hard. But there were some people that either wasn't working as hard or others were trying but were really struggling physically. It's a long walk and it can be hard at times with the heat and with grabbing a hand cart all day but it was really good experience for me. That may have sounded really intimating and it really wasn't. You guys are going to do fine and it's going to be really fun for you guys. You'll see others struggle and others not care. But try and make the most of every moment. Think of the pioneers and what they had to do. Holy holy it wasn't even close to what we did those couple of days. I remember receiving a couple of letters from mom and dad telling me how much they loved me. It helped a ton and it was great motivation. I read those letters last week and I had forgotten what they had said to me. But it was perfect for that exact time. Their words are precious to me.

Worked at martha table the other day. It's a food kitchen! People have been asking a lot of questions about the church! We've been having some really good lessons with Rich and Andrew who are probably our most solid investigators! Rich is sweet. He's retired from the military at the age of 40. He's so sweet, I love him. He's got a great personality and we click really well. He's been asking a ton of sincere questions. I can see this guy getting baptized. He just needs to get over a couple of concerns. Andrew accepted baptism! He has a couple of things he needs to do before he sets a date but he's doing awesome!! Joe is doing really well! Been coming to church every week!

I love you guys so much! Have a good week ey?

xoxoxo

Elder Beddes