September 12, 2016 Time is Flyin, The People I'm Lovin...

First off the backyard looks amazing! It's funny to look at the weeping willows back there and to see the smaller one.. well still smaller! Everything looks so green! And that waterfall is soo beautiful! Nice job family!! Well done my good and faithful family! haha sounds like sports are starting up again, school as well. Glad i'm not in High school anymore! I remember getting some of those tickets that Brooke got! I absolutely hated them, Chase got like five of them in a row one week! It was pretty crazy and funny! Well I thought I would do the email in a different way this week, tell me if you like it more! Alright:

Monday: It wasn't pday cause of Labor day! Boy does the week before that one feel sooo slow because of the change of pday! But we were able to visit some of the members in the branch and teach them some of the lessons. It's our goal to really gain the members trust here so that we can work together in this great work as they give the names of those who are their friends, family, neighbors, etc. So we have been doing our best to do service for them, do random acts of kindness such as making cookies for them. I love seeing the faces of those who we give cookies for, it's awesome! We had dinner with the Savjevecs, they are sweet! They have a lake in their backyard, that's what the pictures were of last week! Then we decided to do something a little different haha. We decided to call random people in the phone book and see if they would be interested and we found one!!

Tuesday: So we went to that guys house who we called! He was an older man, and the lesson was not what i expected it to be! haha he said that he was Non practicing JW and he was pretty much warning us of the road we were taking. haha we tried teaching him but nothing came from it. So we just left. It was sad, but we bore testimony to him and gave him a pamphlet, but he said that he was told not to take anything from us. :( Pday was good. Played some zone sports. :)   

Wednesday:  Had a lesson with Evelyn Lovett one of our less actives that we are working with. We taught her the Plan of Salvation. She really liked it, she had a ton of questions about the after life. :) I love teaching it so much, it's probably my favorite lesson to teach. Did some contacting and tracting in the boonies! It sure is pretty, leaves are starting to change!

Thursday: Elder Arnold of the 70 came and visited us! We drove down to Toronto and had the meeting at a 3 story church! It was crazy, i've never seen a bigger church, it looked like a temple! It was good, he was very stern and straight up with us. He reminded me of Elder Holland, people thought he was a little to serious. It reminded me of high school sports coaches, but i felt the spirit and I learned a ton. I got to see a lot of my good friends there as well! My first time being in Toronto too, the whole year i've been out. It was crowded and busy! haha

Friday:We went on exchanges. As a district leader you are supposed to go on exchanges with the elders in your district so elder olsen and i went to napanee and elder hafen and elder koffee went to smith falls. It was a good time, we talked to a ton of people and found an investigator, Hallie. She's pretty sweet, she really like The plan of salvation and love it if we came taught her more! 

Saturday and Sunday: These were good days, kind of slower days, lots of dropping by people and contacting and such. I think the highlight of these days was our visit with Angie. She's gotten a ton more happy this past week! She's read to Alma 5!! She prays everyday but says that she hasn't gotten that answer yet which is pretty dissapointing but she knows where to look and she knows how. We taught her The Plan of Salvation and she loved it. She said that it all makes since and she really does want to believe but she has a hard time with it, cause she has had some experiences where she thought she made the right decision but turned out to be wrong. And so she's a little hesitant with the whole thing. I remember at the end of the lesson bearing testimony of it all, and I promised her that this was the true church and that the things that we have told her are true and I started tearing up when i promised her that. Wow, the lessons you know that the Spirit is present and the inv. can feel him are by far the best lessons. She started tearing up as well. She's golden. We are going to start meeting with her twice a week now! I can really see Angie in white clothing, it's one of those people I feel I was meant to touch the hearts of on my mission! 

Well I got to go! I love you all, you already know. Time is flyin, Revelation is pourin, the people i'm lovin, and the Spirit i'm feelin. ;) Peace out

Forever and Always,

Elder Beddes, Coco, Colteyboy 

The Toronto Church! IT's huge! 

 

A typical Napanee view! 

 Our apartment.

 

Good 'old' companions! 

September 2016 (Handwritten Note)

Hey! Thought I would quickly respond to you after reading the letter you sent me! Thanks by the way for the handwritten letter!  Also, the package!! Loved it! It's always nice to get something regarding the holiday. Thank you for the nice powerful and spiritual words in the letter. I always love hearing your testimony, it uplifts me and give me a boost. And thank you for realizing that a mission does have its ups and downs. I haven't told anybody this cause I don't want anybody feeling bad for me or anything like that but there are days where I can't help by cry in bed for seeing someone get off the straight and narrow or someone who you thought golden drops off the map unexpectedly. I t hurts and it breaks my heart! There are days where nothing goes your way and all you want to do is scream at the top of your lungs! Haha but even with the darkest of nights you can expect the sun to rise the next day. It's just nice to know that people realize that it isn't a cake walk! I've grown like you've never seen anyone grow before! Not physically obviously, although I think I've grown a little! I love the mission, it's changed me and my life. Don't worry, I'm still the same Coco, my personality hasn't change but now I can say I know who I truly am, and I'm walking and living with a purpose!! Me and Elder Hafen are getting along great! He's one of my favorite companions so far! I've had good companions! I've been blessed! Napanee is great, very quiet place! Lots of land. Can't wait for the 4 baptisms coming soon! I'm so proud of these kids!! It should be all on the same day too! So exciting! Everybody in the zone and everybody in the Branch is excited for it! Got a couple of LA's going to the temple to receive their endowments! So I'm excited about that!! Sounds like I'm going to be a zone leader in a week from what the zone leaders have said and they say the AP's told them, so I'm nervous about that but it should be alright!! Just more responsibility and more serving other missionaries! Jake and Chase are still planning on BYUI and so am I. Jake is pretty excited about it, you don't get much from Chase anymore from his emails. He's made it a goal to not talk to friends as much so he isn't trunky during the week. But from what it sounds like, he's still thinking about going! Jake said that he'll have his car up there so that'll be nice! Wouldn't be surprised if Chase brought his. Got a couple of other friends that are going to attend BYUI as well so it's going to be cool to see them! Regarding apartments... I'm not sure yet. I have a couple of missionary friends that say that they have family that live near campus that wouldn't mind us renting their downstairs out… that's what they have told me anyways. So I'll dive deeper into that and let you know! It sounds like Jake and Chase would like to live off campus rather than on but I'll find out more info for you!!! It would be cool to live off campus especially if it's going to be cheaper. Would it be 2 yrs or 4 yrs to get my undergraduate? I'm not sure what school to go to after either… lots of thinking about! Are there other scholarships I could apply for the first year of school?? I would love to save as much money as possible!! Also, what about jobs there? Would I have to go see myself if there is anybody hiring in Rexburg? Or can you look into it somehow?  Also, I feel weird and uncomfortable asking you this but do you guys plan on helping me pay for college? If not, that's completely fine. I just don't know how this is all going to work!  Is it $2500 semester? Have you talked to Jodie and Kim about any of this? Is there anybody in the Ward or anybody you guys know that could help or hook  me up with anything regarding college? Haha lots of questions!!! I don't know if you guys know this already but I'm scared  of the future! Haha it's terrifying not knowing what lays ahead of you, I have so many questions regarding college, occupation, marriage, jobs, friends, family, etc! You've been through it all though which give me comfort to know that my parents will be there for me to help me on the journey! There's going to be a lot of pondering and praying in the Celestial Room when I get back!

I'm scared to go home from my mission as well!!! It's tough knowing you have to go "back in the world" so to speak from a huge spiritual bubble you were in for 2 years. Ugh…. I'm going to stop thinking about that now haha but know that I can't wait to see you guys again and I miss you all!!!!!

Love you more that words can describe…

Elder Beddes, Coco, Jojo, Jojanater, Cocojo, Duder, Beds, Lettuce, Cbeds, Colteyboy, Colters, Uncle Drew, Colten XOXOXOXO

September 6, 2016 The Mission is SWEET!

Well well well another week has past and gone! The time flies, they are true when they say" Days feel like weeks, and weeks feel like days." It's been an interesting week that's for sure! We played Kill ball last Monday which is pretty much everyone against everyone dodge ball and my arm is done for! haha i was sore all week! I got hit in the not so good spot and i thought I was going to throw up so that was cool. I completely just decked Elder Cattelain in the face, it gets pretty intense let me tell you! haha we then went on exchanges with the zone leaders and so i went to kingston with elder Cattelain and elder hafen stayed here with elder lemon. It was pretty fun, we talked to a bunch of people, we were able to play some ultimate frisbee with a bunch of college students cause a huge part of Kingston is queens college so a ton of college students everywhere! Reminded me of BYUI and college life, but it was cool to talk to a lot of them! Not a lot of them were interested but hey whatever. We were able to find some new investigators at a convenient store. I had a feeling to start talking to this family there while elder Cattelain was talking to the cashier and they are interested in learning more! So that was cool to see, and they are teaching them now! We were able to exchange back and start finding some people to teach here in Napanee! 

So cool story about our newest investigator Angie. We were driving in the outskirts of town and I had a impression to turn around and drive back to where we were coming from so i turned around. Then i had a feeling to turn on a street and get out. And so we did, and we just started tracting the street and the very first door we knock on was Angie. And we taught her pretty much the whole Restoration lesson on her doorstep. She was explaining how much of a bad life that she had and how she's mad at the world and the people in it and how there are so many religions in the world claiming that they have the truth and it was really stressing her out! So we were able to testify and to teach very well! Elder Hafen did an amazing job! She told us to give her a couple of days to pray and to read from the BOM. And so we did, and we came back and she said that she had read 20 chapters of the BOM! Wowsers, that makes me so happy! She said that she has been praying and hasn't received her answer yet and so we were able to teach her a little bit more about how to receive answers and we read 3 Nephi 11 with her! She loved it and she wants to believe and feels good about it, it's just that she is still hesitant about the whole thing. She has a ton of trust issues due to the experiences that she has had in the past and she has also had a ton of other religions come to the door and so she is searching. And i truly have a good feeling about this lady! She is awesome, and so prepared! She said give her another week so that she can get answer! SO i guess we will wait till next week! 

One of LA came out to church yesterday and she even bore her testimony! That was awesome! Church is definitely a lot more different than my other areas so far and Utah! haha only 20 people came last time! So it was a lot different, Elder Hafen thought it was pretty strange and completely different from what it's like in Nevada! haha it's pretty cool though if you think about it. We've been watching a ton of church history lately about Missionaries spreading the gospel in foreign lands for the first time. And i was thinking about here in Napanee and how's there is 30,000+ people and only 30 active and 2 missionaries trying to spread the Gospel! Making history! It's fun here, it's pretty, we got lots of denial from people like you would never believe, but it's been fun. I've learned so much, especially from my new companion elder h! He has such an awesome work ethic and he get's it done! He cares about the people so much it's amazing! It's so cool how much we can learn from incoming missionaries and from each one of your companions! The mission is SWEET! I miss you guys so much! And I love you all! xoxoxo

Forever and Always,

Elder Beddes, COco     

This is our LA's place that she owns! She's awesome! I'll show some more pics. 

 

 

 Elder Hafen

An abandoned theatre! Pretty cool ay? 

 Dinner yesterday! 

Member's backyard! 

 hahaha in my natural habitat

There's the smallest church ever and the apartment we stay in! 

 My apartment.

August 29, 2016 One Year Mark and Singed Eyebrows

Glad everything is going well at home! Brooke your teeth look amazing, very pretty!! Amber you look very pretty as well and tall! Holy cow! Maleah, cuter than ever as always!!! Good old school, do not miss it whatsoever! haha i remember you taking me and Jake's picture for the first day of school! I WAS SO EXCITED!!!! hahah well well well i can't believe that I had made it to my year mark. Doesn't feel real at all. It feels like I'm going to be putting in my mission papers pretty soon. Especially when I hear about people putting in their papers and getting there calls! This year has flown by, i'm pretty scared about this last year and how fast it'll go. Seems like yesterday Elder Barlow was emailing me when i was at home saying that he was at his year mark in the kingston zone! And now he's home!!! And my trainer has been long gone for awhile now... pretty scary and weird stuff. Me and Elder Kohl my mtc companion were talking about how the time has flown by and how it seems like yesterday that we were in the mtc together having fun. Then i hear from everyone that the last year of your mission is down hill and is like a blink of an eye. ughh... just feels like a dream really. I've learned so much so far, it's been crazy the amount of change that has happened to me. I absolutely know the Gospel can change and bless people, i've seen and i've experienced it. What I probably love the most about being out here is helping others change their lives as they use the Atonement of Christ and repent! It brings them so much happiness. I have had some many experiences here on the mission that has truly impacted me and testified to me that there is a God and he knows us perfectly and loves us. I love meeting new people, that's another joy of mine is that you get to meet so many people and become good friends with a lot of them! This last year is more motivation to work even harder and to be a better missionary. I'm excited! Napanee is a beautiful area. It's big too! There is a lot of country that's for sure! The week was a slower one at the beginning. People were just being mean it seemed like and unresponsive. And boy we talked to a lot of people both contacting in the streets and tracting. I was getting alittle frustrated i will be honest, more because I wanted Elder Hafen to have better experiences with him being a new missionary and all. It's been kind of tough with this area not being as successful as I would have liked it to be, but we have been working very hard and we experienced a great miracle. We had two unexpected people show up yesterday. We had a less active come to church who we found a couple of days ago. She's sweet! She invited her mom who is a nonmember and the mom invited a friend as well. As so we were able to talk to them and turn them into investigators!! They are wanting to learn more about what they were feeling at church! It was amazing. and guess what!? We hit Standards of Excellence in the area!!!!! And Napanee hasn't hit it in over a year!!!! It was really cool to see that miracle!! Elder Hafen is such a good missionary! He has that greenie fire with him! He was a little home sick this past week, especially it being a harder week, but he is doing alright. He is pressing forward, such a good guy. We get a long very well. Has a hard time with talking to people as did i, but it takes time and you get more and more used to it. The branch is really nice i like them a lot. I just wish they were more motivated to do missionary work. There is an 80 year old man who gives us a pie/cheesecake every week, holy cow we are going to get very fat. DAD HELP! Something funny and sad that happened last monday. So i really wanted to charge my camera so that I could take pictures (lost his charger). Elder Hafen stepped up to the plate and this is what he said."I have heard that if you cut a cord and touch the copper part to where you charge the battery, it will charge. So I told him that and said I wasn't sure if it would work, but he wanted me to try anyways. So I cut a cord and plugged it in, then proceeded to touch the copper to the little gold thingy's on the battery. BOOM! A bright flash of light in my face, and the electricity to half of the apartment got shut off. It temporarily blinded me (for like 30 seconds), and singed my eyebrows a little, and completely fried the battery. But I am okay and we had to reset the apartment breakers to get the electricity working again. Don't mess with stuff if you don't know how!! " lol so the battery and the charger are now gone.. hahah so sorry mom! lol it was pretty funny when it happened. Love this area, love this mission. love the comp, and love the people. life is good! Love my family and friends as well! Hope you have a good week!

Love,
Elder Beddes,coco   

August 22, 2016 What a Week to Remember!

Hey Guys! What a week to remember! It sounds like you guys are having a ton of fun! I can't believe that you ran that 5k, it looks like a ton of fun!!! The lagoon activity sounded like a ton of fun too!! I can't believe school is starting up already! It seems like yesterday was starting her soph year and i was preparing for a mission! Where does the time go? Remember to try hard and get good grades! Well saying goodbye to everyone in Sudbury was really hard. Probably the hardest area to leave. Said goodbye to some of my really good ward members and they started tearing up, which made me wanna tear up. It was bad, but i've been emailing them so it's all good. Another family that was really hard to say goodbye to was the H's. My convert family! They all started tearing up, that was extremely hard. I don't know if they told you about it but it was pretty sad. We are emailing as well, and I can't wait to see them sealed in the temple in a year! Austin cried to (the 17 year old kid i play basketball with) reminds me a lot of the catcher off of the sandlot, it's pretty funny. But it was hard to leave him too. Jamie (Hell's Angel) was mad and sad too. I'm gonna miss that guy so much. I served there for 6 months and i will never forget it! 

Well let's move onto Napanee! It's quite the place! People have been calling it "God's country" hahah ton's of land! It sure is beautiful!!! So much land it's crazy. My new companion is really cool. He is from Mesquite Nevada! He played football all of his life, and he's really funny!! He works extremely hard too, it's been learning a ton lately and fast! he's such a good missionary and he's been taking a ton of initiative which is really weird for new missionaries! HE's going to be an AP, I KNOW IT. ;) We've been having fun. The area hahaha well you could probably guess from the other area i've explained when I first come in. It's very slow. We came in with only 1 inv. who isn't solid at all sadly and only 2 LA (less active) they have been working with. I honestly question whether the elders before us did anything but that's ok. We are going to build it up ourselves! We have already found 4 new investigators from just talking to everyone! We have found 3 other LA's as well that are wanting to go to the temple and start meeting with us!!! It's been fantastic. It's been really tough though that's for sure! Napanee is a branch of 30 active, and 200 all together. So it's been a weird adjustment. Training is pretty tough too. And being a dl in a new district of missionaries I haven't even seen before! So everything is new and it's extremely hard but i've been putting my trust in God and pressing forward and it's been good! I honestly don't even know who Lavine is dad haha is she a singer? Napanee is old fashioned! I like it a ton, tons of farms as well! Old buildings that look like they are from the 1800's. We met this LA who hasn't got to church in forever!!! And she owns this huge 200 year old farm house and she renovated it and all the rooms are different cultures. It's old fashioned, dad you would have really liked it. I wish I took pictures but I lost my camera charger and so i haven't been able to take pictures at all. If you could send me a camera charger that would be fantastic! I hope you remember what it looked like. One of the solid inv. that we found was a miracle. We were calling some former investigators to see if they would be interested in learning more and I called this one and it was the wrong number and before I was going to hang up and I felt prompted to just start talking to this random dude about the Gospel! hahah and it turned out that he was really interested in what I had said and he wanted us to come over and teach him and give him a Book of Mormon. We were about to teach him the Restoration the next day and he's very solid. Just smokes and drinks, but he excepted a baptismal date for sep 24! He's so excited for it too! he's pretty sweet, but it was so cool to see that miracle! It pumped us up! 

The LA's we are now working with are sweet as well, we set a couple of dates for them to go to the temple in October! SO i'm really excited for that! The branch is really sweet though, they love to feed to the missionaries. I've never seen people so willing to feed missionaries ever, so it's really good and cool! I love it, it's been definitely a ride i will never forget! It's been good though, it's been a learning experience. Going to new area always reminds me of the savior when he went to different places. makes me wonder what it was like for him to have built relationships with friends and the people that he healed and then to move on. My district meeting was on talking to everyone about the Gospel in every contact and conversation, i learned a lot about how we can relate and guide the convos to THE GOSPEL!!! It's awesome! Anyway, love you neighbor as thy self, and love God with all your heart!!!! I love you guys dearly. here's my new address. 151 Industrial Boulevard #17 K7R 3Y4 ! The post strike never did happen i don't think! Weird huh? 

Love forever and always,

Elder beddes, coco, jojonator

"Is that your new mission president? Did you tell him you are related?!"

"Yes. he calls me cousin beddes hahaha it's pretty funny"

New companion

My good buddies before we all got split up before transfers! 

August 15, 2016 Transferring to Napanee, Ontario

Hello family and friends! 

What a week to remember! First off I am being transferred to Napinee, in the kingston zone! I heard it's a small area out in the boonies. I've been in the boonies all of my mission though, so no change there really! I'm going to be training a new missionary!!! I'm still going to be a district leader as well! I'm pretty excited! I'm actually going to do district meeting in person as well instead of over skype! Yeah!!!!!! hahaha I'm pretty happy, sad, mad, excited, nervous, all of the emotions. I'm really going to miss this place. I've been in sudbury for 6 months of my mission! 1/4 of my mission, man it doesn't seem real. It felt like I was there for 2 months. I can say though that I gave it my all, and i'm going to leave happy and with my chin up. I've learned a lot there. Probably the most i've learned was in this area. I had some good comps that helped me in my mission become a true disciple of Jesus Christ. I would say the overall thing that I learned was how to not just be a faithful worker in the Lord's Vineyard but an actual Servant. I've learned so much from my companions. Elder Kohl, my mtc companion, taught me to bear simple but powerful testimony. He has a great testimony! Elder Johnson taught me to be obedient in everything that I do and that it plays a huge role in the success that you have and the blessings that you receive. Elder Ditty taught me to be to take stand up for what you believe in a respectful and kind manner! He's a good guy, it's sad that he is home early though. :( He knows Hannah V, so that's kind of cool! Elder Brand taught me to really study and know your doctrine! he's very knowledgable! Elder Vargus taught me to have fun while you work!!! He's hilarious and he loves being himself! Elder Herbert taught me to have better love for the people that we are working with and not to focus so much on the numbers. He truly loved the people and that's what I admire about him! Elder Hernandez taught me to be yourself in every situation and to make people smile and laugh! He is hilarious and knows how to make me laugh! I am running out of time sadly but just know that I love the mission so much! It's changed me! I can't believe I am coming up on my year mark, this is all a dream it feels like! I absolutely loved Sudbury, the ghetto place of Canada! I will always remember this place for the rest of my life!!! I'm so proud of the people that I have met and the gospel that impacted them! I have seen people change because of it! we had a good week! Pretty hectic though with transfers, and now I have to go early and spend a portion of my pday and say goodbye to everyone! I've said goodbye to a lot of people, and it's pretty sad to see. I'm not exactly excited! haha Anyway I love you all and have a good week! It sounds like you all had a good week and keep giving everything your 110%! Integrity plays in important part in life and in your salvation! xoxox

Love,

Elder Beddes, coco,  

A crash we saw! It was crazy! Stuck in traffic for 3 hours! 

The crew!!! 

August 8, 2016 His Hand Is In This Work

Wow what a week it has been! And it sounds like you all had a good week as well!! Glad you had fun camping, having fun at lagoon, killing it at softball, sonic, and the bountiful festival! My week was amazing! I'll go ahead and just start off with the best news on my mission so far!! Two baptisms!!! I love this family soooo much!! It was such a spiritual experience! Mckena was baptized by Brother Babin a good friend of this family! It was his first actual baptism so it was very special! Especially it being my first baptism as well, baptizing Chris! When I stepped into the water with Chris it was a blast of the Spirit. I couldn't hold back the tears, I looked pretty pathetic but that's ok I didn't care! I was soo happy when Chris came up out of the water, he felt like he was 500 pounds but I managed to get him up! One of the best memories I will ever have will be the vision of myelf baptizing Chris and always seeing Mckena hug Brother Babin after she came up! Holy Cow, it was soo good! then I decided to play a little something something for them! Melissa's favorite song was I am a Child of God and so I borrowed a Violin! And I played it for them! They loved it, and I still got it! I miss playing, I will send you a video soon showing you! It was weird not playing for 3 or 4 years. To see their confirmations yesterday was amazing as well! This family I think Is part of the reason of why I came here on a mission! They are soooo awesome! It's been hard not having baptisms my first year on my mission but this made up for it! They are excited to attend the temple soon!!!!!! And I can't wait to see them get sealed as a family!! Momma, Melissa talks about you all of the time and loves you very much! It's amazing how much of an impact you have had on her and you haven't done much! So just know that you are thought of and loved by people here that I am teaching! I've been getting feelings,impressions, and thoughts that you can play an important role in this family! :) It has been a long journey for them! I remember the first day that we found them! I had a feeling about this family that great things were going to happen! After 5 months, they have made it this far! Another miracle that happened. We recieved a member referell from a couple of members on the island! Her name is Sharlene and they have been friends for awhile! She was a pastor for her own church but she had to sell it becuase they had bought a general store in the middle of nowhere! So we went to go do some service with her and we got to talk with her about our church and her church! It was such a good time, and she wants to learn more too! She has seen a couple of woman's broadcast from general conference and loves them! I think this woman is going to be baptized! It's pretty cool that she lives on the island too cause not a lot of things happen here since it's so far away! The general store is pretty country like, it was like I was in a movie! it was sweet! They fed us food their in their little restuarant inside and it was great! Ohhh and I was asking her if she knew any mormons and she said that she has a niece that was baptized a couple of years ago and I got an impression to ask who it was. It turns out that her niece was someone that I worked with in my first area, in Georgetown!! So she was freaked out about that, i was to but I knew it wasn't a coincidence! Pretty cool how God works! We found 4 new investigators as well, I wish I could describe each one of them but running out of time! Just know that I am loving the mission! I'm a changed man. I see differently. I work differently. I see everybody's great potential. I know how the Spirit feels and works. I know this Gospel is true without a shadow of doubt. I add my testimony to the Prophet Thomas S. Monson's!! That Christ lives! He is the author of Salvation and his hand is in this work. I love you all!!!!

Forever and Always,

Elder Beddes          

Chris and McKena's baptism!

More of the baptism and then the Sudbury Elders Quartet 

Pizza at Melissa's, Chris, and Mckennas!

The Zone and then my district

The Island and the General store! 

August 2, 2016 Turn To Him

It sounds like the Beddes family reunion was a good one!! Like always! I wish I could have been there, I honestly love those so much! That video was hilarious!!! It seems like yesterday when I broke the ramp for the swing! Man I think about that every once in awhile! haha I remember when the whole thing was falling over and it looked like it was going to destroy me but it didn't and then Aaron running over towards me like he was superman! It was legit. I will never forget it! I didn't know Grandpa Beddes liked Ping Pong! I want to play him now! Well this week was a week to remember! Lot's of memories and experiences! Apparently i've been teaching the discussions in my sleep a lot! #consecratedmissionary! Speaking of sleep, we pulled a prank on the zone leaders the other night. Elder Hernandez has this blue tooth speaker and he is able to record sounds on his ipod! And so we made these creepy sounds like banging on a door, whispering, yelling, crying, talking, and so on. And we put it in a dresser in the hallway and closed our bedroom door. And so we are in our beds and elder hernandez starts playing the sounds. And I start acting scared and saying "man what was that." stuff like that, just freaking them out!! lol and so they wanted to go check the whole house. They found nothing hahah and so we went back to bed. And he played some of the sounds again, I was acting like I was going to start crying, and it just made them more freaked out and we all ended up being in a corner in our room! hahahaha it got to the point where one of the elders wanted to get in the car and drive to a different elders apartment to spend the night! hahah and so we stopped it and they were soooooo relieved! One of the funniest experiences of my life. They said they have never been so scared in their lives! Hopefully they don't get us back! lol So we pretty much biked this whole last week.... my legs are like Michael Jordans now. I'll show you some videos just to prove it. But seriously my legs are so sore, it's a good work out. It's not until you ride a bike up hill when you fully appreciate how blessed you are to have a car! hahah you could relate that to the Gospel too if you think about it! ;) We biked so much this past week and we were still able to hit our record for member present lessons and investigators other lessons! So blessings being poured upon us! The people we are working with are awesome! Miracle of the week: Jamie is going home! His health is getting a lot better, and the doctors thought for sure that he was dying in the hospital but I guess not! But he says that he's going to stop smoking and he's coming to church this sunday! I love this guy so much! He's not afraid to tell everybody too that he has Mormon friends and that he's going to join the mormon church! hahah it's pretty funny, he's a funny guy! We spend a lot of time at the hospital surprisingly. We found a lot of investigators there just talking to people! Have some less actives there as well, so it's a great place to teach! We had some patient come up to us in the hospital hall way, she thinking we were cops, started to say sorry and stuff for pulling some alarm the other day! She thought we were going to arrest her or something, she was so scared! So with my cop voice I said," No need to worry Mam, everything is under control." hahaha it was awesome, she was freaking out, but once she realized everything is alright she calmed down! MCKENNA AND CHRIS PASSED THEIR BAPTISMAL INTERVIEWS WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO I excited about that!!! They are amazing, and they are going to be baptized this Saturday! so I will take lots of pics and send them to you!!! We went Manatullin Island branch last Sunday and gave a 30 minute talk about The Plan of Salvation! My favorite thing to talk about! It was awesome, I love the branch there. They are so strong in the faith, and their testimonies strengthen mine! They have some great referells for us too, so i'm excited to meet them!! I don't remember if I talked about Tiffany and her family of six last time but they are awesome! Tiffany's son who is 17 is awesome and wants to baptized! He loves basketball so we often go play outside of his house and then teach him the lessons. My type of missionary work! lol he's very knowledgeable about the gospel already!! He's very golden, we invited him to be baptized after we taught him the Restoration and he says that he wants to but he has to get permission from Tiffany, so we hope all will be well! Other than that the week was the usual. Met lots of drunks and people that were high. Taught great lessons. The spirit is felt all of the time! Working a ton, and having fun at the same time!  I love this quote! 

    

Don't give up! Don't lose hope! Turning to Him may seem easy or it may seem hard, but it is worth it. I promise you that. HOORAH HOORAH HOORAH FOR ISRAEL!!!!!!!!

Love Forever and Always,

Elder Beddes, Coco, Uncle Drew, Jojonator

Hi Lele! I'm getting beat up just like you used to do to me when we fight!!! (See picture) I love you and miss you! I love you all and I'm thinking of you constantly! XOXOXO

Dear Colten, How how you doing in Canada? Do you eat dinner a lot with people? I lost 6 teeth. I hope you're having fun! Do you play basketball a lot? When you get home can we play hide and go seek, wrestle, and fox and the hound? I have a new movie called the Pagemaster. It's about books coming to life. Be a good missionary! Love, Maleah

 

Manitoulin Island