April 4, 2016 Keep Loving, Keep Trying, Keep Trusting, Keep Believing, Keep Growing

Dear Coco,

I miss you so much. Wen you get home can we resel? I love you so much. I hope you are having fun at canida. I miss woching fox and the hounds. Wen you get home lets play hid in go seek. I have so miny things to play oh and we code take jojo for a wok. I miss you. Be a god mishanarey.

Love,

Maleah

Dear Maleah,

Holy cow maleah you are making me cry! haha of course we can resel and watch our favorite movies Fox and the hound, ponyo, all dogs go to heaven, and even more! I bet you couldn't find me when we play hide n seek. ;) remember when we were playing hide n seek and you hid in your closet in the shelves and you scared me really bad? ;) hahahah super funny! I miss you so much Maleah, keep being a good girl. And I will be a God Missionary, thanks for the reminder. xoxoxoxoxoxo

Love,

Coco

Dear All,
Indeed they did call my mission president to be a 70 which was quite shocking! Everybody was so very confused haha! He disappeared for a week, (Most missionaries didn't know that) the AP's had no idea where he went either which i find pretty funny! He had to keep it a secret from everybody even his family. He found out early February apparently. I'm pretty sad about it, i love this guy so much. I don't know what other mission presidents are like but I think President Clayton is one of kind. He's taught me so much. Especially how to be be yourself when you are doing missionary work. His love from the mission and the missionaries is so very powerful. You can just tell by looking at him that he has the light of Christ illuminating from him. I'm going to miss him a ton. He's leaving June 1st. I'm excited to see who our next mission president is! We had a pretty good week this week! We wish we could have taught i lot more investigator lessons! We did a good job teaching the less actives and a lot of them are progressing!! Tim and Wendy aren't responding to our text messages and every time we stop by they aren't home so I'm not sure what the deal is with them. They said that they would come to church the last three times but never end up showing. So I hope everything is OK with them. The rest of our investigators couldn't meet and set up times for this week. We did get to see Victoria (one with the new baby). She came out with Dawn to General Conference and she loved it! It's one of the best feelings when you are listening to the talks and you know that they are applying to your investigators and there eyes are fixed on the screen and can just tell that they are feeling the spirit! We just need to teach her one more lesson and she will be a progressing investigator!!! It'll be the first one since the area was opened which was last september! So i'm getting excited! The Gascon's who we found last week(helped take down the signs) watched General Conference as well and they really enjoyed it! We had a wonderful lesson with her and her two boys who are twins! She brought up the concerns of her not being able to discern whether not it's her own thoughts or the spirit. And we had a powerful lesson on that and the spirit took over. We reminded her of the time she was baptized and the miracle that happened to her when her back was killing her before the baptism and then when she was baptized the aching was gone! Talked about the Gifts of the Spirit, shared with her many scriptures. And now she wants to put everything that we taught her to the test! It's also one of my favorite things to see that people are so willing to do there part so that they can come closer to Jesus Christ and to feel of the happiness and peace. I'm so proud of Sister Gascon! Denny is progressing well and he's getting excited for his patriarchal blessing! HOLY COW so i could ramble on about the work that we did (which was great by the way and things are going well in sudbury) but i want to talk about general conference!!!! This one was probably my favorite of all time! I feel like a lot of the speakers talked a lot about families and marriage and the importance therein. I couldn't help but think of my own family and how blessed I am to be in it with such loving parents that care about me and beatiful pure sisters. I love you guys so much and i thank you again for the things that you guys have all taught me and will continue to teach me. I want to follow up mother and father lol how is the kneeling and praying together coming? ;) Elder Ballard brought it up so it must be important! I'm so very grateful for the "Family Councils" that we had as a family, as a parent and child, and even the ones parent to parent. They truly do help. I will never forget the days when we had "Special Days" and I got to spend time with you guys!! Ever think about doing it again? I will say that the one that stuck out to me was of course my favorite speaker of all time Elder Holland!  Something that he said that stuck out to me was that we need to remember tomorrow, and all the days after that, that the Lord blessed those who want to improve!! If you stumble in your efforts, so does everybody else!!! The Savior is always going to be there with you!!! Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever!! I love it so much! We went to a less actives house that we have never been by before right after the after noon session on sunday and this lady opens the door and she starts speaking in french and me and elder herbert just look at each smiling and we say yeah we don't speak french! hahah and she turns around and calls someone and it's a ysa girl in our ward and she says Oh hey guys! It turns out that this ysa girl is the daughter of this less active mom! So she let us in and we talked about conference with her and she said that she would watch the last general conference session and she really loved the lesson that we taught her and she want's us to come back and teach her. General Conference blessings! haha she is super funny! she hasn't come to church for a long time but she said she wants to start coming out! I love it!! Oh I just got an email from my old companion. Here is what he said, " So that guy who went up to the cabin, Jeremy, he got back and we met up with him the other day. He's still super elect. He even came to the Sunday morning conference Session at the chapel.  Jeremy liked it. I think the Sunday morning session was a good one for him to watch." so i'm super pumped about that! Well time is running low sadly but I love you guys with all my heart. Remember to keep pressing forward no matter what! And please remember tomorrow and strive to keep the same feelings you have when you do something right and you taste of the fruit! The Gospel is true, and I can not deny it. I will not, and I can not. No never, no never! haha 

Forever and Always,

Colteyboy, coco, Elder Beddes

"Hast though not known? Hast though not heard? God giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, for the Lord God will hold their right hand saying unto them, Fear not, I will help thee" -Isaiah

Canadian Pride!

President and Sister Clayton: "We are excited for the changes occurring in our lives and grateful for your love and support! We are blessed to able to serve in the Canada Toronto Mission until July 1st. We will post the name of the new CTM president as soon as we know! We love Canada! We love Ontarians! We love, love, love our missionaries!"

March 29, 2016 Happy Easter and Merry General Conference!

Hey thanks for the large amount of pictures!! I loved them! I really do think I could play the violin, whenever we sing hymns I know what fingers to use for each note, so I know I haven't lost it which is really cool. :) I don't know anybody that plays the violin here.. :( oh well thought it was worth a shot, it would been pretty cool to play the violin for my free time! But it's alright! I do write in my journal everyday actually and speaking of which my journal is about filled so I don't know if I should just by one here? Or do you have one in mind that you want me to use? I have given a total of three talks for about 15-20 minutes, I'll be giving another one in Manatullin Island branch next week! I've given probably 5 priesthood blessings so far, and I haven't blessed the sacrament yet but might have to in the branch! :) sounds like you guys had a fantastic week! Seems like yesterday I was huntin eggs in our backyard with the kiddos, how time flies! I was just thinking about last Christmas and I can't believe it's been three months???? what the?? Something cool that's happening is Tyson is leaving on his mission tomorrow! I'm so proud of that guy, he's going to be such a great missionary. I remember that day like the back of my hand, so many emotions! haha I remember saying goodbye to you guys and it's weird that Tyson is going to be doing the same thing! It was extremely tough to say goodbye to you guys and I wish I could of hugged you guys longer. I don't think I ever told you guys that but I regret not doing it. But I know you guys love me and miss me haha! Thanks for the Easter Card guys, it was pretty funny! You guys are the best! This week was a great week! It was a seeking out the less actives week. We didn't have much success with finding investigators and meeting with the ones that we already have. It was just a busy week for them I guess, but we met with the A...'s and the D....'s who are less active families! We helped Sister A who was baptized a long time ago with taking down a sign! I'll show you pictures of it. She is single and has two kids, after service for her she wanted us to come to her house so that she could feed us dinner to say thank you. We started a conversation about the gospel and it turns out that she is very spiritual and she loves the bible. The only reason she hasn't been coming to church is that she has done some past stuff with her boyfriend and she feels very guilty and knows that was she was doing was wrong and so she didn't want to come to church. As the conversation went on it turns out that she has some very sincere questions that she wants answered. One of them is that she is confused whether or not she feels the spirit or if it just her having good feelings and same with the thoughts she has. so we told her that we could help her found out how she can know and teach her about the spirit, and she just got so excited. I've never seen some one more excited to learn about the gospel ever! She shot out of her chair and she shakes our hands and says, "Wow, March 26th of 2016!! It has finally come!" hahah it was pretty funny but we have an appointment with her this Wednesday and I'm excited to teach her! We stopped by the D's. They are an older couple and they told us to come over for dinner another day. We had a wonderful turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, oh it was delicious! And we had a wonderful lesson on the Atonement and the Resurrection, the spirit was very strong. We committed them to come to church and they ended up coming!!! The first time in years and now they want to start coming back! The Lords hand is in Sudbury, I just love seeing what is happening to this area and the way the people here are wanting to taste of the fruit whether it's their first time or they are coming back for more! It truly is a blessing to be a part of this great work. We had dinner and lunch on Easter with the B's and the M's they are such kind families. The B's are crazy but they are very nice, they did this Easter Egg hunt for me and Elder H, brought me back! :) I loved going around sharing the Easter message to everybody! We went downtown and just sang easter songs and found some potentials there, it was a blast! Funny story of the week: We were singing downtown and we see this very drunk lady come walking towards us. She stops and just looks at us and starts mumbling, I couldn't quite understand all that she was saying but I picked out some stuff. She said, "I promise I don't drink, I just need a couple of dollars." "What time is it, do you have a clock on you?" hahaha she just kept mumbling some stuff and I gave her an Easter Card and I said, "Merry Christmas!!" Just to see what she would do, and she just looked very confused and just looked around and saw all of the snow and she says merry Christmas back! hahahha it was pretty funny! Had some more funny experiences like tracting into this crazy old lady who thought all Mormons are sex slave drivers and we have horns that we are hiding! That one was interesting! We also had Zone Conference, three zones came so it was a full house! It was a very spiritual time. We had to give an instruction and we related it to basketball and we played a little bit of trash basketball and threw out some candy! Everybody loved it, it was a fun time! I'm excited for General Conference coming up!! I can't believe it's already here! Come with questions, sincere questions and it's interesting how they are answered! I've experienced it myself and I can't wait to feel of same spirit that you guys are going to be feeling as we watch the same general conference, just in different countries! ;) I love this Gospel with all of my heart. God loves us all, he knows and he wants the best for us. The Restoration is a fact! He called Joseph Smith to be a prophet to restore these precious truths. I'm glad and it does my heart good to know that the Priesthood has been restored to the earth! God Bless you all and I wish you a Happy Easter and a merry general conference!

Forever and Always,

Elder Beddes coco and colteyboy     

 This is that sign I took down!

My first zone leaders. they are going home really soon and they are some the best friends that I've made on the mission. I'm going to miss these guys so much

Manatullin Island abandoned something... I don't really know.

Forever Young Elders haha

Happy Easter!

This is my game face! Doing missionary work in Sudbury, Canada!

 President Clayton: "Last week we met with the rest of our zones and had a great time learning how to PLAN! These missionaries are wonderful and they do marvelous work. First picture North York, Oshawa, and Kingston Zones. Second picture Barrie, Sudbury, and Ossington zones. We had an ice storm for the last one which made getting to and from an adventure!"

March 21, 2016 Honestly One of the Best Weeks on my Mission!

I'm glad you guys liked the Cadbury chocolates! I have only tried the oreo one and it's delicious. Thank you in advance for the Easter card and the package, it's greatly appreciated!! No surprise letters really. Grandma sends me a ton and love it, and I have gotten one from you a couple of days ago! Thank you for it, I love that talk so much and yes I used it in my Farewell talk. :) It's been warming up here in Sudbury. Still jacket weather but it feels good to actually feel heat waves coming from the sun every once in awhile. :) sounds like you guys have had a good week! I really like what Elder Oaks said as well about being choice spirits. It should be talked about a lot more I think. If everybody knew that, especially the people we are working with as missionaries and even the afflicted in general, I think people would be more happy and accepting! Easy as that! I can't believe you are going to Thailand again! How's Atom's English coming along? I didn't know you were an AP dad! Now I feel like I don't know anything about your mission... haha. This week has been full of miracles. Honestly one of the best weeks on mission! I don't even know where to start and I could literally right a 20 page essay about what happened but I'm going to have to condense it down! First I want to start by saying that we found 4 new investigators!!! Errol, Dominque, Earny, and Justine. They are all so nice and are willing to learn more. We taught each of them lessons after they either let us into their house or they heard us out on the street! They all asked us if we could come back and to teach them more about the Gospel, we didn't ask them! They seemed so prepared. Dominque was a media referall. We met with him a couple of days ago and he has had some life changing experience happened to him that really opened up his eyes to God. He requested a bible and we brought it to him and he let us in so that we could teach him about it and also the Book of Mormon. He was so excited to hear more about the Book of Mormon as well. He has a ton of real intent and he wants us to come back and to teach him tomorrow. He's a very smart fella and was really in aww about what we were telling him, such a nice guy. We had a lesson with Tim and Wendy! Holy cow most spiritual lesson that I have been in. We talked to them about the Book of Mormon and Eternal Families. Wendy was tearing up the whole time. They said that when we left the last lesson that they could feel the spirit so strongly and really didn't know what it was but they wanted us to come back. Wendy was shocked that Tim (apparently a easy to anger type guy) was responding to our questions and was sincerely interested in what we had to say. I've never seen Tim so happy ever, they were so excited for us coming and for the lessons that we have taught them. They excepted baptism and we told them that we are going to be there every step of the way to help them. :) they are so awesome! We taught a guy named Errol who was found tracting. He's a very very nice black guy who is very religious. Our lesson that we had with him yesterday was so spiritual. He loves his bible! He first started the whole lesson with a prayer, he offered it! he said a really good prayer, he prayed correctly too which shocked me! He asked some great questions and was very interested in the Book of Mormon. This guy is so nice and kind. he's really knowledgeable of the bible! He loved it when we said that we loved the bible. When we arrived to his house he had already read a ton from the Book of Mormon and thought it was awesome! We hit standards of excellence this week!!! That means that we found 2 new investigators, 2 new returning members, 2 investigators at church, 2 returning members, and all new converts at church as well!! It hasn't been done for 6 months in Sudbury so we had a pretty sweet celebration when both companionships hit it in the ice castle!!! We had exchanged with the sault st. Mary elders. I was with a guy I came out with in the mission, Elder Lundberg, he's a good Elder. We were out tracting and contacting when we received a call from president Clayton! he wanted to come tracting and contacting with us, so that was quite the surprise there! Elder L was freaking out the whole time but I just didn't care and was myself the whole time. We found two really solid investigators with him. I've never seen President so excited ever. He said and I quote, " I'm just so pumped right now!" hahaha it was pretty funny. he told us that he could feel the spirit really strongly when he was around us and he had a fantastic time. He told me that I was a really good contactor and that I am very personable, he was really excited about it. I thought it was really nice of him, it really was a fun time with him. :) He loved talking about families with those that we tracted into or contacted. He was a baby doctor, and he delivered I think 9000 babies in his life time, so you could tell that he had a firm testimony of families. I learned a lot from him those couple of hours we were with him. I told him about Sudbury and the miracles and success that we have been having and how we were expecting to hit standards, he was so excited!! We had stake conference yesterday and it was very spiritual. I learned a lot about missionary work, something that stuck out to me that a speaker said was that Success shouldn't be measured upon how many investigators you have at church or how many baptisms you have, but where your intent is. Are you truly concerned for the salvation of souls? Are you going to go talk to that guy across the street even though you are having a not so nice day? It's all in your attitude and how much integrity you truly have and if you trying your hardest. :) I liked it! Very good week, I can't even tell you half of it because of time. But the other investigators are great and we have appointments with them this week! the house that we got into that told us to go talk to the daughters hasn't been home everytime we go over sadly. But we will catch them don't worry! Something funny that happened to us that I thought you might like was a 1:30 at night I got out of bed and hopped onto Elder Moffat right next to me and I started wrestling him! he woke up and was very confused as to why I was wrestling him and he kicked me out of his bed and hit the ground and I woke up fully and asked him why the heck we were wrestling? He of course says I have know Idea and that I just jumped on him and started wrestling him! hahah funny thing is is that I was half awake and I could remember wrestling him! Why? I have know idea but we had a pretty good laugh afterwards when everybody woke up! :) hahahahah I love you guys! I know the church is true, I have seen many miracles and blessings from being on a mission. There is so much true happiness that the Gospel brings that you just want to keep sharing it with others so that you can see them taste of it. I have never cared so much for people I really don't even know! God bless you guy's.

Forever and Always,

Coco, Colteyboy, Elder Beddes     

A Freezing Waterfall

Family Photo!

March 14, 2016 Dare to Stand Alone

hahah i'm glad you liked the videos i sent you! :) i'm glad that you laughed pretty hard dad, it always feels nice! Sounds like the week has gone really well for you guys! except for Maleah, i'm sorry Maleah! When was the last time you saw Ponyo Maleah? :) I will always remember the good times we had watching that movie! Nice job on your talk dad!! I really wish i would have been there, I like the title a lot! haha Thanks for the tips dad! These guys are really good missionaries and i know better than to do stupid things. I didn't even know you were an AP??? This week went by really fast!! They aren't kidding when they say that days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days. It's weird how it works but it feels like i was just emailing you guys. It was a good week! a lot of finding time, GOTTA BUILD THE AREA UP!! So we found two investigators that want us to come and teach them. The very first one was a women who's name is Stacy. We were tracting at night and we saw her get out of her car and start walking to her house so we ran caught her. she works at dominoes. at first she didn't want anything to do with us. we asked her about her religious background and what she believes in. she had a very bad experience with churches about ten years ago. she was kicked out of like three churches because she wasn't baptized as an infant. and now she has a very extreme hate for churches now. it was very sad but it was a perfect opportunity to bare testimony of the true church and to talk about baptism. she seemed very interested and we handed her a BOM and gave Moroni 8. she said that she would read it and now we have an appointment with her tomorrow so wish us luck! :) went on exchanges with ZL'S  a couple of weeks ago. I went with elder moffit. I really like him, we have the same personality so we get a long really well. we were out tracting and we knock on this door and this guy who is a native answers. and he called us elders! so that kind of threw us off and so we asked him if he knew us and he said that he would go shooting with the bishop ten years ago. they were apparently really good friends but he's never talked to missionaries before(bishop has told him about missionaries that's all) so he said "come on in, come talk to my kids. i have to go pick up my granddaughter." hahah so he left and we talked to his daughter and son about the book of mormon and how much it can be a blessing in peoples lives. they are in there 20's and they want us to come back!! we will see them Wednesday! hopefully the grandfather will want to sit in as well, it was pretty fun though how he just let us in and told us to talk to the kids! It's definitely  a shock when you get let in. it's only happened to me two times! so it was a miracle! i'm getting really excited about this area! i can see it progressing! the other day were driving to a lesson and we see this older man in the middle of road! he was very very drunk, he was stumbling and he really didn't look like he knew where he was. a police got out of his car and started to help him! ohh sudbury! :) i love it here, it's so much fun! These past couple of days have been pretty warm, the snow banks have decrease significantly! the other day was 11 degrees oh my gosh it felt so nice! we sadly had to drop some of our returning members that we have been working with. so long story short Rose wants full custody over her child. The mother of Rose takes care of her, but Rose thinks that she can take the responsibility of taking care of her. The mother does not think she is capable of doing it. She got very angry at her too in the lesson that we had.  So Rose decided to get a lawyer for this whole thing and she wants bishop and us to help her. And so we obviously can't be a part of that. So we dropped them both. We don't want them thinking that we are choosing sides in this whole thing. Well today my thoughts turn to the confidence and bravery of my sister B! Way to take a stand on what you did at school, it's hard sometimes and you will even get some fight back in whatever case or situation that you are in but it's all worth it in the end. You're experience reminds me of the talk the President Monson gave "Dare to stand alone!" On my mission i've had countless times where you are have to take a stand for what you believe in. It can be scary sometimes but if you look at it in a perspective that Jesus Christ himself is standing right next you, you will find that a boost of accelerating confidence and courage will come to you and the feeling is wonderful! I love you guys, it's hard to be away from you for so long, it really is, but I know that this is where i'm supposed to be. AND I'M LOVING IT!! The mission is fantastic, i'm learning so much and I can say that i've changed a whole lot for the better. :) God bless you guy's! Have a wonderful week!! 

Forever and Always,

Elder Beddes, Coco, Colteyboy    

Me and Elder Herbert when it was 11 degrees, it felt very nice!!

March 7, 2016 Holy Cow, I Love These People So Much!

This week has been a good week!! We have seen a ton of miracles since I've been here! Me and Elder Herbert have been having a blast and getting the work done! It's so fun here in the ice castle! So the highlights of this week have been the three new investigators we found!! Two were found tracting! Tim and Wendy are very nice people, they are in there 40's and they have a handicapped child. They are super humble and they want us to come back after we had a powerful lesson about the Restoration. They work for this company called Zeal which is apparently really good for your health. They gave us a couple of bottles of it, and it taste pretty funky but it's good for you I guess. Anyway they are super nice and we dropped off a couple of BOMS yesterday cause we forgot them to bring them in the first lesson that we had and they were really excited to read it and they told to come back. So they are awesome and we are so excited to work with them! We had a lesson with Victoria who is a friend of a member in the ward, and Victoria is in her 20's and she just a her new born baby! it's a cute little boy. She has been coming to church with the member periodically and she is interested in it and she loves the feeling that comes from going. so we had a very powerful restoration lesson with her. It was one of the most powerful and spiritual one's that I've been in. she was just absorbing everything. she was committing to read from the Book of Mormon pray to know if its true and she wants to be baptized! She is so solid, the only thing that is holding her back is she living with her boyfriend. But we are praying that everything will work out! We had zone council pretty far away from where we live! It was about a two hour drive from where we are. half of the zone was on Skype so I think that that is pretty funny!! It was great though! We had dinner with a family in the ward yesterday and it was pretty good, we had nachos! There is a 16 year old who plays on a competition basketball team and he has challenged me on a one on one match. Apparently he is pretty good from what I hear so I'm excited to break his ankles. The ward is pretty nice, I think I could have gotten a little more of a warm welcome but it's ok. Jesus Christ really didn't have a warm welcome for the majority of his whole ministry. I'm building relationships with them though! We have dinners about one or two times a week. it's kind of hard with other missionaries in the same ward as well! haha we have been working a ton with less actives and a lot of them are progressing! We have a couple who are wanted to receive their patriarchal blessing and even endowment so I'm super excited for them! We do service at this one place where we pretty much sort out food donations from grocery stores and then send them off to poor places! It kind of reminded me of the times I worked at Harmons! Don't really miss those days at all... haha it was weird though cause it was taking me back! I can't believe it's been six months, time is flying!! There is a pretty good weight room in the basement that I can go and get jacked so it's pretty nice!! We all sleep in the same room and it's a blast! I'm having a fantastic time here and I'm learning so much. Before my mission I would hear all of the time from dad that you are going to love the people that you serve. And I can testify that that is 100% true. Holy Cow I love these people so much and if you think about it we should because it's souls that we are trying to save here! :) It's been pretty cold here in the tundra but I've been staying warm. :) I've only fallen on my butt a couple of times. ;) haha I love you guys so much and wish you guys a good week!! zip code P3C 4G5!! Sister Erickson called me the other day and told me, so thanks momma!! as of right now I don't really need anything, thanks for thinking about me!! always in my prayers.

forever and always,

Elder Beddes coco colteyboy 

PS- I really liked this. :)

"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof"-
It speaks of His greatness, it sings of His love,
And each day at dawning I lift my heart high...
And raise up my eyes to the infinite sky...
I watch the night vanish as a new day is born,
And I hear the birds sing on the wings of the morn,
I see the dew glisten in crystal-like splendor
While God, with a touch that is gentle and tender,
Wraps up the night and softly tucks it away
And hangs out the sun to herald a new day.
A day yet unblemished by what's gone before,
A chance to begin and start over once more,
And all I need do is to silently pray
God, help me and guide me and go with me today.
-Helen Steiner Rice

Just chillin in the ice castle :)

February 29, 2016 The Frozen Tundra of Sudbury!!!

Such a cute lil guy!!! Congrats Tara and Dan Stewart!!!!!!!!! It's going to be weird when I come home and see another Stewart in the house! Well I'm in my new area with my companion!! Elder Herbert holy cow we are the same person, it's really weird. We are getting along so well!! He loves sports, specifically football baseball and basketball. He was pumped that we lived in Hattiesburg hahah he's never met a missionary that's lived in Mississippi! I live in a three story house that the missionaries call the "ice castle"! haha it's very nice it's the biggest missionary house in the mission so I'm blessed! Sudbury is very cold.... and there is snow everywhere literally. The snow banks are as high as me and I haven't seen any cement or road cause it's just constantly snowing and freezing. hahaha I live with the Zone leaders Elder Mckinnan and Elder Moffet. :0 They are really nice and cool, I love them to death. I hate to say it but the area is slower than the other areas I've served in. Elder Herbert has been here for 5 months and he hasn't seen any success but we are sooooooo excited to turn the place around! it hasn't seen a baptism for over two years, but we have received revelation from President Clayton that we can baptize in this area, so we are going to get it done!! We only have one investigator but a ton of less actives that we are working with!! I'm awful with names, so I'm still trying to adjust from the stoney creek area! haha the stoney creek ward was so sweet!! I made a lot of people cry apparently when I left including sister hobbs! I loved the hobbs family!! There's so much I want to tell you about Sudbury but I can't, it's just so much!! Sudbury is very ghetto, there are a lot of crazies here!! The ward isn't the typical ward..... but they are still really nice!! There are a ton of drugs, I never knew what weed smells like until I came out on a mission and I smell it all of the time here!! there were 2 people that died yesterday literally the house right next to us from a drug overdose. There are prostitutes on the road right next to ours that are out all of the time. It's a bit scary, we've met a lot of interesting people but it's all part of the experience!! We had a couple of sketchy guys offer us crack, some other sketchy people pull up next to us and offer us a ride. ITS AWESOME!!!!! I love it here though it's going to be so fun here with Elder H!! There was a lot of time this past week to go out and to find some people that want to be baptized!!! Lots of contacting downtown and a lot of tracting and we have four new potentials so that's sweet!! I change up what I say to people momma. Just depending on what the spirit brings to my mind. Maybe it's eternal families, prophets, jesus Christ, repentance, Book of Mormon. :) We have district meetings on Skype here cause the missionaries are so spread out, it's kind of fun but kind of a hassle! I've learned so much over this past week! I'm not very good at adjusting when I transfer areas and I really have to turn to the lord to receive the happiness and the relief of stress that I have and I can say that I've been blessed this past week with those. I know that prayer works and that god wants to help us but we just have to reach out and say I need help. This past week was very good and happy for me! I'm still not good with names, but that'll come over time. :) I love you guys so much and thank you for all that you have done for me. Thanks for all of the great emails as well, it really does mean a lot!! have a good week, and keep up the good deal searching at harmons and at di. ;)
oh and I cover Manitoulin Island as well. we were supposed to speak in church yesterday but the roads were icy. it's a branch of 8 active members and it's about two hours away from us so we don't do a lot of work there sadly. But it's pretty cool!!!

forever and always,

coco elder beddes colteyboy

The Frozen Tundra of Sudbury!!!

The street I live on

My regular proselyting clothes. just kidding! pday at a waterfall!!

Hobbs Family

 Some of my buddies I got to see at transfers!

 Elder Herbert

 The zone leaders, I love them to death

February 22, 2016 Farewell Stoney Creek

Sounds like you guys had a good week!!! Is there anybody good on the Celtics even? I heard so much about the all star game that was happening because it was in Toronto!! ahhh I love the all star game so much but hey serving the lord is sooooooo much better. Yes I believe I did receive the valentines package, thank you so much!! it was the package that had the gloves? hmmmm for my birthday just a nice electric razor, and some nice skinny ties!! haha i'll let you know if there is anything else I actually need!That was really nice of you to buy those missionaries their lunch. It honestly makes our day so much better when someone buys your lunch for you. Seems like yesterday that that nice man at the airport bought me and Elder Kohl our lunch, it felt so good! He was a nice Man! We eat out every once in awhile. usually on Mondays though. me and elder b like making weird things at our apartment, i'll show you a picture of one of the creations I made. :) we have about 3 or 4 dinners a week with the ward!! It's pretty good, better than Georgetown! I love this ward so much, I've built such a great relationship with them. it's to bad that I'm leaving! haha surprise, I got my transfer call yesterday!! I'm going to Sudbury Downtown! Apparently it's really really cold up there. it's five hours north of where I'm at right now!! I'm going to be with Elder Herbert. I have no idea who he is, but he's from Mississippi which is cool! We might be opening the area actually so we will see how that goes! But other than that, that's all that I know. :) Wish me luck! I don't like change at all but it's good for me. I hate packing too!! I thought for sure I was staying one more with elder b but I guess not! Elder brand is staying in stoney creek. I love that guy so much, we had so much fun! I wish I could stay at least one more with him! He's taught me so much, I think if I were to say one thing that I learned from him is how to be loving and kind not only to the people that you work with but to everybody including your companions! he's the perfect example of that, and I've tried to be more like him and becoming the best disciple of Christ I can be! This last week I feel like I've learned a lot about faith and positivity. This week has been one of the hardest ones for me! It seemed like nothing was going our way! I don't want to talk about it all in great detail but none of our investigators want to meet anymore, and our potentials turn out not be interested or they just hide from us haha. Some of our returning members dropped us as well and our new converts don't want anything to do with us. It was quite saddening. I remember crying a couple of nights in bed cause I just wish I could show them how much the lord cares about them and the blessings that they could receive. I wish I could just babysit them and tell them whats right and what could help them, but others have there agency. I always think about the Atonement and Christ when something disappointing happens. It's so nice to relate to someone who has gone through this. it's hard sometimes but I think I grow the most with times like these! Now for the good news, there is an excommunicated member who recently wants to come back! So we have to teach her all of the lessons and her baptismal date is march 20th! She is awesome and it so awesome that she has a change in heart and wants to come back! I wish I could be there for the baptism but I'm so proud of her! We had a very powerful lesson with her about the restoration, the spirit was so strong!! We found a couple of potentials this last week so who knows how they will turn out!! I've learned a ton being here in Stoney Creek. It doesn't seem like I did a lot to be honest and it wasn't very successful but I've grown the most here. I don't think there is anything wrong with planting a ton of seeds!!! I just wish sometimes that I could see them grow! :) It'll happen though and when it does it'll be a glorious experience. :) Oh Jeremy, long story short, he is going to his cabin alone for a month and half to escape the city and drugs. he is leaving his family and his phone to be up there. we gave him some material to read while he is up there! it's to bad that he is going to be gone for awhile but hopefully his plan works for him. I wish him the best! Anyway I will let you guys know how this week turns out and I love and miss you all so much!! Remember not to send anything to the stoney creek address anymore!!! thanks for the letters!!! and thank you momma for the ones you sent me!!!

I love you guys,

Elder beddes, coltey boy, coco 

I call it Gentile Tacos

Transfer call night

Feeding the Elders (look Ma, I'm holding the broccoli)

February 16, 2016 Wanna Play Some 21?

I loved your testimony Mom! Brought tears to my eyes! I'm so glad to have parents that truly care for each other and love the family that they are raising!! I have such a testimony of the Plan of Salvation and how families can be together forever!!! I love you guys so much and am so grateful for you!!! This week has been fantastic!!! I have grown so much this week and there have been many miracles that have happened that I wish I could tell you all of them and all about them!! I guess I can start with the man we saw while tracting!! We were tracting in this ghetto apartment complex and we saw a black man around the age of 21 playing basketball outside, so I thought to myself what a perfect opportunity!!! So we went up to him and I said "Wanna play some 21?" and he said yes and we started playing and we were talking about life! He is from Haiti and he moved to Canada about 3 years ago for a better life. He actually is a JW, but he was so nice and he being himself around us and it was just a good time. We talked to him about the gospel and we talked to him about the restoration and the plan of salvation! He was the nicest and coolest JW I've ever met! He invited us back to come and teach him and his family! It was such a good experience and my type of contacting!!! ;) I dream about experiences like that, but I feel that he is more comfortable around Mormons!! And we became really good friends, it was just a great experience. Me describing experiences like I've had don't do it justice, trust me. During the middle of the week we received a call from the zl's saying that they met a man on the street that is in our area that is interested in what we have to say. So we went by and he let us in. He is around 30 or so and he has a cute 2 year old kid and is married. He is a drug addict and he just lost his job, so it's a bit of humbling time in his life. He really wants to quit because he wants the best for his little boy. He has so much real intent it's crazy. He was just absorbing everything we said. We taught him the restoration and it was one of the most powerful lessons I've been in. He said that he has never felt this good ever and that he has a lot more confidence and will power to quit now, cause he really does want to. He said that it is ruining his life. He said that he would read and pray and we invited him to be baptized and he accepted without hesitation. :) We followed up and he said that he has never prayed this much in his life and it's making all the difference and he read the things we told him to the day we met him!! This guy is so sweet!! He said that he has never had so much support from anybody and he knows that God sent two missionaries to  him to teach him about the Gospel and to change his life. :) His name is Jeremy! Miracles are happening here in Stoney Creek!! We made a bunch of cookies for the members of the ward so that we can build better relationships with them so we can build the member missionary work!! They seemed so grateful!! We actually can see a huge difference in our ward dinner calendar!! There are a lot more people having us over for dinner, so that's awesome!! I think the ward is trusting us a ton more!! Another good experience that I had was when we were walking, this women walked right past us with her dog and so I tried to stop her so that we could talk to her but she said that she knew who we were and didn't' want anything to do with us. So... I just said well alright have a good day. So we were walking behind her this whole time and the dog would stop every once in awhile and we would catch up to her. So it was awkward cause she pretty much just dumped us haha. Then she started talking to us and she opened up. We ended having a conversation for an hour and a half.... hahaha we talked about her life. She has gone through a ton. She was raped twice as a young adult. She lost her parents at a young age. Her foster parents physically abused her. She lost her husband at the age of 40 when he fell down a flight of stairs, and her kids hated God for allowing something like that to happen. She also thought the same thing. So we got a lot of gospel doctrine in our huge conversation and you could tell that she was intently listening to us. :) it was her birthday as well and she was lonely so she was a bit down. She said that we were extraordinary young men and very respectful. She said that she was very impressed with us when she told us that she wasn't interested and how we didn't keep pestering her like other religious people do and she said that instead of us coming to her, she came to us and she will be thinking about us all the day! haha so we told her that the only birthday present that we could give her was the BOM and she was so excited and grateful and she accepted it. She didn't want to meet sadly but she said that she would get ahold of us if she would ever be interested. But it was such a great experience, we definitely planted a seed in her heart and she likes Mormons now is what she said! hahah so it was awesome. We found a couple of more potential investigators which is awesome!!! Laura and Manny as well told us that we could come back tomorrow to talk about church stuff!! so I'm way excited!! Miracles do happen!! We just got to keep our head up and to have faith continually!!! There are a lot of let downs as a missionary but it only makes you stronger. I just wish that I could babysit everybody we are teaching and to make their decisions for them, but you have to respect other people's agency. :) I love you guys dearly and hope you have a great week!! xoxo

Forever and Always,

Elder Beddes    

Me and Elder Brand

Pondering

Stoney Creek

It's cold outside!

February 8, 2016 You Guys Mormons?

Hahaha I don't know if I've ever had Lemon Meringue, but it sounds disgusting!! I will stick to the Chocolate Chip cookies momma! haha speaking of which, I made some of "Dan's Special Cookies" for Elder Brand and they turned out great!! Thanks for sending the recipes to me awhile back momma! Well this week has been a slower week for us. We didn't teach as much lessons as we wanted to but we did find a couple of potential investigators! We will see how they turn out because a lot of the potentials that we find either turn out to be not interested or they give us wrong numbers and addresses. :( oh well though, maybe they will regret it someday and want to join the only true church in the world! We are working with a returning member right now who has had some smoking problems along with coffee as well. His name is Sean, I might have mentioned him in some earlier emails. He smokes 30 cigarettes a day, he knows the church is true and we have been meeting with him every week! He committed to stop smoking cold turkey but he hasn't been able to do it. He lacks the confidence in himself and he seems to be very negative all of the time. We keep trying to help him but he just seems to getting down on himself. So we made a calendar for him and he said that he will cut down little by little!! We have had good success with getting alot of less actives to come to church! We have been getting on average 7 coming every sunday which is fantastic! We are meeting with the desrosiers tonight so we are excited for that!!! Also we are meeting with that part member family who's husband isn't a member this thursday. they had to cancel last thursday sadly. we received some bad news from our new converts. :( we called them yesterday to set an appointment with them but they said that they no longer want to go to church. They didn't want to give any reasons why but they said that they would call us back and tell us why later. It's sad but we are going to get them back!!! I had some funky things happen to me this past week tracting!!! But it's ok because they are going to be stories that I'm going to tell my children!! So the first one was we were tracting in this neighborhood and we weren't having any success and my companion(we were on exchanges this day, his name is Elder Cassins) said "let's knock on one more door, I feel like this one is a good one!" hahah so we knock and this guy opens the door and  pokes his head out. We ask how he's doing and we say that we are missionaries and we are sharing a message about Jesus Christ and as soon as we said that he swings the door open and to my surprise he wasn't wearing any pants or shorts but was wearing a thong.... and he says that he is gay. So i was staring at the ground cause I didn't want to look at this guys manhood and he said that he believes in the devil and screams at the top of his lungs "777"! and he slams the door in our faces!  hahahahah it was the most disgusting think i have seen on my mission!! It was awesome though!!!!!!! hahah another experience that we had was when we were going by some of our potential investigators and we were knocking on this door and all of a sudden we hear from behind us in the distance "hey!!!! You guys mormons?" and we say yes, what's going on? and he yells back well can you come over and preach to me?" so we walk over, kind of scared cause nothing to this effect has ever happened to me. He was smoking and he seemed a little off, mentally off. And keep in mind that this is an apartment complex and he lets us into his apartment. And it is trashed, it looked like there was a stampede that just ran through! And on the ground is porn magazines, and porn dvds. :( Beer everywhere, he's smoking, and the first thing he says is "The devil himself possesses me, there are voices in my head that tell me that i'm going to be crucified because my initials are JC. I've spoken to aliens. Do you guys like porn? Look at these videos." And he pulls out this hand held PS4 thingy, i don't know what you call it, but he shows us videos of him crying. It was messed up..... but he said that he wanted to change his life and wanted us to perform in exorcism. He definitely wasn't all there, I could especially tell from the things he said and the way he was acting. We shared a quick spiritual message and invited him to church and he said that he wanted to come but he didn't show up yesterday. Honestly I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible, it did not have a good spirit to it at all. I felt bad for the guy i really did, and i hope for the best for him! Anyway those were my worth telling experiences this last week! haha I hope you enjoyed them! The spiritual experience that I want to share this week was when I was meeting with president clayton in skills and interviews! It's where the missionaries in the zone meet with president and sister clayton individually. I felt the spirit so strong when i was with president. We were both tearing up the whole time from what we were saying to each other. The spirit was so very strong there, and words can't express the feelings I felt there. Something that he said that was very kind and took me by surprise (and I would prefer this not being read to others cause I don't like the brag at all), was that he told me that there are very few people that he knows that the spirit illuminates so strongly and he said that I was one of them. So i thought that was very powerful and kind of him to say that. And I can't help but thank you guys for raising me in the way that Christ would. I owe it all to you guys for what you have taught me. And I love you dearly!

Forever and Always,

Elder Beddes 

Advice From Dad:
I remember a few times on my mission meeting people that were at a bad place in their lives.  I do believe that people can be possessed by evil spirits because of choices they make in their lives.

I also know that trying to teach people or even talk to people in places where the spirit will not enter is a very bad idea.  There are some places where the spirit will not dwell and you will be wise to just leave those places, quickly.  If you go to places where there is porn or other bad pictures or where people are doing something wrong just leave those places immediately and tell the person that has shown interest that you would love to talk to them but someplace else.  There is no go reason to ever enter a house that has porn or other questionable material.  If the person is interested in talking to you then have him step outside or come to the church or to a park or to the mall.

The devil wants you to see certain things because he knows if he can plant images in your mind many times they will stick for a long time and the spirit is unable to enter your mind and heart when you have the wrong content replacing what is suppose to be good clean wholesome thoughts.

Many missionaries are intrigued by places such as the one you described but you need to remember to run quickly.  Nothing good will ever come from being in bad places. 

If someone is naked or is not wearing enough clothes just turn around and walk away.  Don't listen to what they have to say or allow them to plant bad images in your mind, it's never worth it!

Keep up the good work, work hard, but work smart!

I love you,

Dad

Found this tie at a thrift store

February 1, 2016 We Do Not Doubt Our Mothers Knew It

Hello Family!!

Today was a pretty good week! I've learned a ton from the scriptures!! I love the deep stuff in the bible, and also I love the messages of The Book of Mormon. I've learned a ton from Alma!! There sure is a lot of wars that go on, but they are actually quite interesting and you can even learn a lot from them! I love the Book of Mormon so much, I wish everybody in the world would just sit down and read it, we would have so many more converts because you can't deny the power and the feeling of the Holy Ghost when you read it! I failed to mention a couple of things in my last email that I think you would be interested in hearing! I first wanted to say that Sister Cook is now in my district.... and it's very awkward. When people say that God has a sense of humor, they aren't lying and I completely agree with it! Doing role plays with her is really weird but I'm not crushing on her so don't worry about me mom! I just find it extremely uncomfortable when I see her staring at me haha. Also, Elder Brand is a really good guy, and we get a long very well but he also has depression. :( It's been a really hard time for him these past couple of transfers, he's not homesick he just thinks that its satan working on him. So President has been calling him everynight and we have to go to therapy every once in awhile. He's gotten four or five blessings for it. Honestly I wouldn't even have guessed that he was suffering from it cause he seems like he's having a good time with me all the time but we all have our challenges and trials. I've been trying my hardest with being the best friend I could be with him. He's a lot like me, where he doesn't really like to show his emotions so we've working on just being open especially when he's feeling down. It's been helping him a lot though, just opening up. :) Anyway, I love him to death, he's such a good missionary!! Ok #3, I don't think I told you about the story of the Stoney Creek ward. So Elder Neilson called this guy to be bishop for the stoney creek ward. And this guy was moving into his new house and so the neighbors decided to help them. So two boys were unloading and loading stuff and some pictures fell out of a drawer. It was an inappropriate picture of his wife, and so the boys told everybody in the ward. And so that kind of caused some rumors and some chaos in the ward. So he got released from being a bishop just after a couple of weeks and then he was called to the Stake Presidency. So the ward wouldn't have that, so they told everybody they could about the pictures. And so the guy finally had enough and was annoyed and didn't want to do with anything with the church. So he wanted to be excommunicated and so he was and now he started his own church that is now anti Mormon. And he brought many people with him, and there were a lot of people that dropped and want nothing to do with the church anymore because of that experience. There were about 200+ people going to church in stoney creek and now about half them are inactive! A brother in the stoney creek ward said that this guy's wife had breast cancer and they were doing before and after pictures of her. The guy tried to tell everybody the reason but no body believed him. So he no longer wants anything to do with the church sadly and that experiences caused a lot of people to not want to do anything with the church. It's sad, truly sad. We've gone by a lot of those inactives and we have gotten a lot of doors slammed in our faces!! #4 I wanted to tell you of an experience that I had with a family in the ward who had us over for dinner. They are from Poland they have a very strong accent and it's pretty hard to understand but they are extremely nice, but let me tell you, they serve some pretty funky food! haha they do this three course meal thing, so they bring the first part of it on the table and you have to eat it, and then they bring the second, and so on. So you pretty much have to eat what they serve cause you don't want to be rude. So they bring out this pretty good dish of potatoes with like beef stew and you put the stew on the potatoes and it's actually pretty good. So first round was pretty good, I'm like ok I think I can do this. Then they bring out the second dish and it's this cabbage rolls/balls things. I'm like oh ok this looks like meat balls I can eat this as well, but no I cut it in half and it's this green monstrous thing that isn't even of this earth. I took a bite and started chewing it, and I started dry heaving. The family started to look at me and there was tons of pressure and I tried to hide my whole reaction from eating this disgusting thing. There was a lot of gulping and a lot of refills on the water!! I've never tasted anything so gross in my life, I thought I was gonna throw up, no joke. That was the first time ever that I thought I was going to puke from eating something. Anyway after drinking the cabbage rolls they brought out this vanilla tapioca pudding with coconut. that was sooooooooo gross, I hate that type of texture, you guys know that. I dry heaved as well but I'm pretty good with hiding it! So I drank that stuff with a mouth full of water hahaha! Worst dinner appointment of my life! We found three new investigators and the really cool thing about them is that they are part member families!!!! So they have a greater chance of getting baptized. Eric and Patrick are 9 and 11 and live with their single mother. we had a wonderful lesson with them about the restoration and it was very spiritual! We are going to try and get them baptized! Then there is Brother Mazzolini who isn't a member who is married to a member with 4 kids that are members. it's a bit odd how he isn't baptized cause they have a daughter that went on a mission and he's been married to his wife for along time. Anyway we had a lesson with them about the Atonement and it was so spiritual that Sister M started to cry! Brother Mazzolini even gave an outstanding answer to my question about how the atonement helped him in his life! I was quite surprised by his answer, it was sweet!!! It just wasn't the right moment to invite him to be baptized but we are going to do it his Friday when we go over! I'm really excited!! Anyway I had a great week!! We are building up Stoney Creek and literally feel it! I love this so much!! I'm learning so much, I never thought I would grow this much. Something that I came across one day when I was reading in the Book of Mormon struck me and my heart. In Alma 56:47-48 it talks about the stripling warriors and how they trusted in their mothers and what they said. The stripling warriors had no knowledge of war whatsoever, they never fought anybody but they still had all of the hope and faith in the world. they trusted in their mothers whole heartedly.  "We do not doubt our mothers knew it." I couldn't help but tear up because I thought of you momma and your wonderful example that you are to me. I never doubted that you knew it, your testimony strengthened mine in such a dramatic way. You helped me so much throughout my life. I look up to you so much and I couldn't thank you enough for all you have done for me! I love you guys so much and hope you have a wonderful week!!

Forever and Always,

Elder Beddes, Coco, Colteyboy

Downtown Hamilton 

Missionary Work

 Elder B