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

January 25, 2016 Small Miracles

Sounds like you guys are busy as always! It's good to be busy though, it makes time fly! I know that that's the case for me, I can't believe either that I've been out for five months, where does the time go? Do you like home care momma? That's good that you are getting more patients... I think? haha that sucks that A was sick! I hate throwing up so much, I don't know if you remember but we were at Eric's cabin (our old Idaho neighbor) and I had the flu and I ended up throwing up in some closet cause I couldn't find the door to the hallway! haha one of the worst days of my life! We get weekly emails that say how much you spend on your card, that's how I keep track of my money. I don't have a lot more for the rest of the month though since I kind of spoiled myself the first couple of weeks this month haha. I need to do a better job financing my money! We both do the dishes and we sometimes clean the bathroom when it needs to be clean. Sometimes I drive on exchanges but other than that not really. I haven't gotten my gloves yet, if you sent it to the office I probably won't be getting it till our next zone council or zone conference sadly. haha I'm glad you liked the horn story! I laughed so hard when you said to do that horn thing to that guy!! That was sooo funny! I totally want to do it, but I better not. We actually were tracting in that same neightborhood and we came across that same house unexpectedly and we decided to go and knock on the door again just for fun. I recorded the whole thing but the wife or somebody answered the door and was a lot more kind but was not interested. I was kind of sad it didn't happen again! Oh well, I was glad to play a part in Pete's baptism as well. He truly is an awesome guy, one of the funniest old people I've ever met as well! This week was kind of a slower week for lessons and meeting with people but we did have some small miracles happen! Some unexpected less actives showed up to church yesterday and we were happy to see them there! We set up some appointments with them! There is an excommunicated member who wants to come back and so we are going to teach her the lessons so that she can be baptized! We have a couple of former investigators that want us to come back as well! it's cool to see how people want to come back again after some time and to be able to teach them and have them feel the spirit! We had a cool experience the other day when we were getting gas. We received a referral from church headquarters, his name is Aaron. So we thought that was cool and we were planning on going over to his house, but then we received a call from him like five minutes later. He said that he was told to call us, and so we were confused on how he even got our number and who told him to call us. Any way, he said that he wanted to meet at church yesterday but didn't show up sadly. So we go over to his house after church and he answered the door and he was acting really suspicious. haha he said that now wasn't a good time and he was putting his finger over his lips to tell us to be quiet. So I just gave him the sign with my hand of give us a call later and he gave us the thumbs up. Felt like I was part of a drug deal! hahah so we were extrememly confused about this whole thing. He ended up texting us on his friends phone saying sorry about earlier. My dad doesn't really like Mormons so I didn't want him getting furious at you. He said that he had forgotten about church and said that he would come next week which is cool. We then told him that we can meet as well sometime during the week, and he said "wait you guys just work on sundays right?" haha so we told him that we work everyday for two years. Then we asked him why he was interested and he said that Mormons are the happiest people on earth and he wants to give it a try! SO SWEET!! He said that he would love to meet up and said that he would text us today and tell us when he could meet! So really cool experience! We also got a referell from the Welland elders. This particular lady moved to Stoney Creek from Welland a couple of months ago. And they forgot to give the info to us a lot earlier. So we gave her a call and she said," Where have you guys been? Let me figure out my schedule this week and then I will give you a call so we can meet up!" So blessings!!! We had a powerful lesson with Dan the other day about God. It's really cool to see his eyes opening up! He gets so interested in what we have to say, he definitely loves us and is astonished at we do! Cindy fell off the face of the earth, so not sure what happened there. :( We are seeing our new converts tonight and also our new returning member who has two kids that haven't been baptized! So we are going to try and get them baptized and them start coming out to church! Another cool experience that I had was when we were out contacting. I was prompted to go and talk to this person from india, and I was a bit hesitant cause every person I've ever talked to says that they are seek. hahah so I thought there was no point but I decided to do it anyway. I told her something that I really wasn't expecting! It was one of those moments that people talk about how the spirit takes over and its as if you are watching and listening to yourself talk but it's not really you, if that makes any since. I told her about the Book of Mormon and told her how it answers a lot of questions that a lot of people have like where do our spirits go after we die. And she got really interested, "And asked WHERE??" haha so we said we would love to come and teach you, and she said that we could come by this week! I've grown so much spiritually this week just from the small little miracles and experiences that I've had! The lord really is by our sides every step of the way! I love you guys so much, and I think about you everyday! I try not to think to much about the past and the great memories that we had because I get home sick really easily! So that just proves how much I care about you and love you. :) I hope everything is alright, and it sounds like it is from what I've been hearing, I pray for you guys everyday! Thanks for the emails they really do help! Thanks for keeping me updated as well! Thanks for everybody who sends me emails and letters as well!! I really do apprecitate it!

Forever and Always,

Elder Beddes, Coco, Colteyboy 

I thought this day would never come where I would be the one teaching kids in Primary about what missionaries do and having to take off my missionary coat so that the next future missionaries could experience somewhat what a missionary feels like. :) flashback to when I was in primary and the missionaries let me try on their clothes! :')  

Random Picture

 Me, Elder Vargus, and Pete

 Niagara Falls does a fireworks show every Friday, so it was cool to see that! Really pretty!

Elder Brand

January 18, 2016 My New Companion

Elder Brand is a sweet missionary! He works way hard, and we are talking to everybody! He's honestly such a sweet companion! He'll like do random nice things for me like make my bed, clean my desk, just stuff like that. He's 6'5" and likes to play basketball! He's a very smart guy as well   He went to BYUI for a semester before he left for his mission so I've been getting some details about it! Sounds like it's a pretty sweet school though everything that I've dreamed of! Speaking of which, do you know when the fall semester starts? He told me in August but he wasn't quite sure. Anyway, we like to wave at every passing car, knock on windows of cars that have people in them and talk to them about the gospel, follow people on the sidewalks and talk to them about the gospel haha that one is my favorite, when they don't want anything to do with you but you talk to them anyway). he's 21 as well. everybody is telling me that I'm a really young missionary, and it's kind of true I do feel like I'm way young! haha well this week we have found atleast 6 or 7 potential investigators that said that they would be willing to listen to what we have to say! so I'm excited for that. one of the coolest experiences that I've had so far was when we had to go to the church to go find something. and it takes about thirty minutes to get there, and we saw this guy on a bike right next to it. and so we started talking to him about the church and the gospel being restored and he was way interested. he said that he would go to church the next day and we even called him the morning of and he said he was on his way but he never showed up which was weird. so hopefully we see him again, it was snowing really hard sunday morning and he rides his bike everywhere so we are hoping that was the reason. we have been talking to a TON OF PEOPLE tracting and contacting. I wish I could tell you about each potential investigator but it would take forever, but just know that the Lord is guiding us to those who are prepared, and we are planting a ton of seeds. :) the other day it was almost time to go to the apartment to end the day, so we decided to knock on one last door. And this particular house was very big... so a very rich family. And we were on the mountain so we had a really good view of stoney creek at night. we knock on this guys door and we stand there for a minute or so and we know this guy is in there cause we can see some shadow and hear someone in there walking. and so we knock again and we turn around to look at the wonderful view and all of sudden this really loud horn goes off, so loud that I'm pretty sure all of stoney creek heard it. So I freaked out and fell down ( I don't know if you guys remember this about me or not but when I'm really scared my legs turn off and I just drop)and I was confused out of my mind as to why this guy turned on this horn. This guy ends up answering the door and it's this older guy who speaks Russian or something, he has a thick accent and we were like "Why the devil is your alarm going off?" haha and he looked so scared and we told him we teach about jesus Christ and he said no and slammed the door. So I don't know if he even understood us or not but as we were walking down his huge doorsteps the alarm goes off again and we looked back and the same guy was looking through the blinds at us! hahah so I don't know what that was all about but I love experiences like that! haha this area is being picked up though, I can feel it!! We are working harder than ever and I'm exhausted each night. This is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but it feels good. :) I honestly love it! Pete got baptized by the way! I'll send the picture! it feels good to know that I helped a guy get baptized. I loved the lessons that we taught to him. All three of them were so spiritual. He had a concern about The Word of Wisdom one of the lessons we were there, and he was thinking about dropping us actually. So the spirit told me to bear testimony of The Word of Wisdom and I started tearing up cause I could tell it was a very big concern for him because he was having a hard time with it. The spirit was so strong, and he said that he will continue to keep it and be baptized. I was reading my patriartical blessing a couple of nights ago and a part of it said that my testimony will bring many souls to him. So it was really cool to see how that came true. The Gospel is True!!! What need I say more? haha we had a good turn out at church as well! We had all of our New Converts come to church and we had 8 of our less actives come as well!! It's so sweet to see the progess of those less actives and there desire to go back to church and to become better! I love you guys dearly! I think about you everyday and hope everything is alright! :) good job with everything guys, keep moving forward with a steadfastness in Christ!!! With a pefect brightness of hope! Everybody needs a little bit more hope in the world!

Forever and Always,

Elder Beddes, Coco, Colteyboy

Pete and my companion Elder V at his baptism!! I'm so proud of this guy!

preparing for pete's baptism!!!

Decided to go to a Thai Restaurant! The workers there say hi dad! Told them all about you! It was good mussimon! ;)

I love this Mexican guy haha

tracting with the boys

me and Buddha

Niagara at Night

This is how you are supposed to dress up when you go tracting. ;)

My home boy Elder B

January 13, 2016 Keep Giving it My All (Handwritten)

I miss you all so much! Sorry I haven't written in a long time, it's been really busy here in Stoney Creek! My goal is to inform you guys about the little things that I haven't yet told you guys. There's been a lot obviously because there's' a lot that happens on a mission! I guess I should start with how I've been doing. I've been doing pretty good! The whole Laura and Manny thing was kind of heartbreaking but I've moved on. With them out of the lop though our teaching pool is definitely not at its finest! We dropped 3 of the investigators out of the 6 I came into the area with. We call them Eternal Investigators (I don't know if you guys called them that or not Dad on your mission). Basically missionaries have been teaching these guys for a long time. I really don't know why they kept them. I assume for the numbers though. We have Jenka who is from Czechoslovakis and is married to a less active. He was baptized when he was eight and never really went back to church. Oops I said, married, they are actually not married. So we are trying to teach them and get her baptized! She actually at one point was close but she came across the endowment video online so it spooked her out. Kim is another investigator who has been investigating for a year and 2 month. She really wants to be baptized really bad but she is waiting for the government to approve their divorce papers, and so it's been a long process(it's been about a year and they haven't received it).So it's been a waiting game with her, she'd going to get baptized as soon as she gets them. I talked about Pat a little bit in my emails home, she was the one who started crying when she was saying the prayer after the Restoration lesson we had with her at Tim M. We haven't been able to meet with her since. She kind of just disappeared. Just like all of our other investigators we found this transfer!  It kind of sucks but other people have their own agency. We teach such short powerful lessons so I would have thought people would want to learn more! So we've been teaching and contacting a ton in this area just trying to build up the teaching pool! The only new converts we have are the S's. They got baptized 4 months ago and then moved over her 2 months ago! They've  been doing pretty good, we've been trying to get them out to church a lot more then they have been. Our returning members are Brother G and Sean S. Brother G is an older guy probably 65 ish and he comes to church every Sunday but doesn't take the sacrament and Bishop says that he's been having some problems so that's why he hasn't been taking it. He hasn't received his endowment and I will tell you how we know that haha. We went  over to his house to teach him a lesson. He opens his door and he's shirtless with suspenders and he's probably 200 lbs overweight so it wasn't pleasant at all. So that kind of freaked us out a little bit. He was expecting us over too…. so it was definitely one of the more weird lessons I've been too! Sean S has an addiction with cigarettes. He smokes a pack a day which is nasty and is drinking coffee. He knows that its wrong and he feels guilty every time he does it. He just can't stop and he's tried in the past many times. So we've been trying to work with him and trying to help him out and teach him addiction recovery stuff. So there's the whole teaching pool right there! We've been trying to meet with the 70% of the Ward who are inactive or less active but we've been getting a lot of no's and doors shut in our faces haha! This is for sure the hardest area I've been in so far but I've been learning so much. I truly have. I think about how much disappointment and heartache the Savior had/has to go through trying to get people to do good and it warms my heart and has given me such a stronger love and respect for Him. Yeah sometimes life sucks and can seem like a drag and we all come across disappointment and sorrow sometimes in our lives, but it's nice to know that the Savior of the World had to go through something beyond my own comprehension and can relate to anyone in this world. The last thing he wants us to do is to get down on ourselves and quit! So, I'm going to keep giving it my all despite the dips in the road. I'm so glad that I have you guys as parents who have taught me that there are going to be hard times in my life and have shown me how to react and to proceed in life with my head held up high, so can you! Elder D is doing good. We butt heads sometimes but it's to be expected. He's one of the more trunky missionaries I've been around. He talks a lot about girls and music a lot. He talks about how much time he has left on his mission all of the time and what he'll be doing when he goes back, haha but he still works hard. It definitely feels like I'm the senior companion!  lol but that’s alright. It's starting to get cold up here! It's been about 2 degrees on average this past week. It's supposed to be -13 Monday so I'm excited for that! We have a huge district. I think 7 companionships are in it. I wasn't ever supposed to be in this one apparently because I was going to be in Sister C's district and somehow the AP's new about the whole situation so they put us in the other district! Most of it came from Sister C. I feel like she's been telling a lot of people, but oh well. Anyway, I hope I was able to fill you in on a couple of things! I love the gospel! I love being a missionary here in Canada! I know the gospel is true and I love declaring it to people, it brings me happiness! I know the Savior loves me and loves you guys so much! I miss you and love you guys so much! I think about you every day and I hope everything is going alright back at home! I pray for you guys every day and will continue to do so. PS- thought you guys would like to see some of my talks from when I was a kid! So many memories!

Forever and Always,
Colten, Elder Beddes, Coco, Colteyboy

Brooke- I hope everything is going alright! Hope your grades are up and are enjoying high school. Do you ride the bus or get a ride from someone? I hear you're doing good in basketball! Glad Farnsworth isn't making you do a lot of ladders. I remember him making us run around  the baseball field as fast as we could, they were called triangles. It's weird that you are going to be a senior when I get back from my mission, my sisters grow so fast! Anyway, short but sweet, just know that I love you very much and I'm proud of you!

Amber- I hear you  are doing good in sports! Keep up the good work! I had a dream last night. I was teaching a lesson to some random family, and I looked down and I noticed that I was only in my underwear! It was terrible. I've been having a lot of dreams of me being a missionary. Elder D told me 2 or 3 weeks ago I was talking in my sleep and I was talking about church and ' awesome and fun it is". Haha anyway I love you so much!

Maleah- How are you today? I drew you a picture of my favorite movie! How is school? I hear you're doing good in sports, keep up the good work! Have you watched Ponyo or Fox and the Hound lately? What about our favorite movie to watch, All Dogs go to Heaven? Those are such good movies. I hope you are getting along with Spencer! I love the pictures and emails you send me! Thanks so much for being my best friend. I sure do  miss you. We are going to play so much and watch a ton of movies when I back, K?

Love you Coco

January 11, 2016 I Have Felt a Snippet...

Hey Guys!

haha I don't miss Harmons at all! Good ole Colton still working there. Is Big John still there? If you see him, tell him to email me. Thanks for the Gloves I really appreciate it! Should I wear the Italian shoes? How expensive are they? I can't believe you saw Elder Bednar that's so cool!! Did you talk to him at all? A wave? Way to go momma with basketball, you are such a good basketball player, and I mean it!! Well this week has gone by too fast! It was a fun week especially with Elder Vargus coming into the companionship! Elder Vargus is from Mexico City and he is a convert to the church. He got baptized about four years ago and he is a English speaking missionary. He honestly the funniest person I know!! He totally reminds me of Nacho Libre and you know how much I adore Nacho haha!! His Mexican accent just makes everything he says ten times better!! The time I spent with him made my whole transfer a lot better, I haven't laughed this hard and this much for a long time so I'm very grateful for him. He's been out for about 10 months and is a great missionary. He is serving in St. Davids (Niagra Falls). He just got called to District Leader. Oh yeah we got transfer calls yesterday!!! Drum roll please............ I'm staying in Stoney Creek. Elder Ditty is leaving and going to Chadum and I'm getting a new companion. His name is Elder Brand. I know absolutely nothing about him haha so I guess we'll see how it goes! Seems like yesterday I was just explaining Elder Ditty to you, time flies! Well since Elder Vargus was with us, we were running both Stoney Creek and St. Davids!! So we were using a ton of k's driving back and forth!! It was fun though. We were able to teach Pete three times. I don't know if I've explained him to you guys yet but he is about 70 or so and he was getting baptized this last Saturday but when the zl's came to his house to do the baptismal interview he was drinking iced tea!!!!!! ahhhhhhhh so frustrating, it was an honest mistake though. He had just forgotten and he said wasn't thinking so we have to push the baptism this Saturday!! He's a stud though and I love him. He's so funny and sarcastic! He is such a strong fighter!! He had the biggest addiction to smoking but he has been enduring to the end and hasn't smoked for about 2 weeks! We have such powerful lessons with him, and the spirit was so very strong when we were teaching him! I don't know if I'll be able to make it to the baptism or not but I'm so very grateful to be able to teach him and to see him progress towards baptism!! Not much success with Cindy. She was sick all week apparently so we weren't able to meet with her. We were able to talk with Dan!! We taught him the Restoration and he really enjoyed it! We weren't able to meet with him since but we are going to be teaching him the POS in a couple of days. It really is a blessing to see people get interested in what we are teaching cause it really is the spirit that does all of the work! To see the Spirit touch their hearts is one my favorite things as a missionary to experience! We found two new returning members this week who wanted us to come and share a message with them! I love it when people who haven't gone to church for a very long time start to realize that they are missing something very big in their lives and want to start meeting with the missionaries and start going to church! I love being a missionary!!!!!! I can't wait for this upcoming transfer!! It was a slower week but it's more motivation to find more people this week. I've learned so much this last week! I was able to talk to a lot of people this past week tracting and contacting and though we were rejected it taught me a lot of what the Savior went through. I love to talk about the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ because it truly is the most important thing that happened. Christ was rejected so much and words can't describe how much pain he must of felt. My testimony has grown so much of the Atonement and of Jesus Christ as I have felt a snippet, a little bit of what Christ had to go through, as people reject the messages that we share to people. It saddens me. I can't tell you how much care I have for these people and how much I know that the gospel truly can bless their lives. I'm so very grateful to be born into the Gospel and to have goodly parents who have taught me so much. :) I sounded like Nephi right there haha! I love you guys dearly and hope you have a good week! 

Forever and Always,

Elder beddes  

January 4, 2016 -13 Degrees and Loven it!

ahhh I feel so bad for Grandma! Tell her sorry it's my fault! lol how did you like the Canadian food? haha I actually like the ketchup chips and the Cadbury chocolate is my paradise here! Looks like you guys had fun in the snow! I loved that hill we used to go to! I remember running over momma and giving her whiplash. The stupid things I did that I didn't think beforehand about lol. That whole L thing gave me the chills. I don't want to think about marriage right now at all!! It's weird to think that that is the next step... ugh. well this last week has been a ton better. the laura and manny thing was disappointing but I didn't let it settle with me. We had a great lesson with Cindy that new investigator that you were wanting to know about. We taught simply and powerfully and she loved it. She said that she will pray to know if the things we talked about were true! She's an amazing lady and wants to know the truth. We are going to meet with her this week sometime since she is coming back to her house in Stoney Creek. She said she wants to be baptized and wants to continue on this path which is sweet!!! Her son isn't talking to her, but hopefully he'll start talking to her since she has been meeting with the missionaries. It's a weird way to get her to talk with the missionaries.... but I guess he gets  it done. lol I went on exchanges with Elder Lao the other day, he's from hong kong. His story is really cool. He met missionaries about 3 years ago and got baptized in hong kong. He was a member for about a year before he came out on a mission. He's been a missionary longer than he's been a member of the church. He didn't know English very well at all when he came to the mtc. He is an inspiration to me and to all of the missionaries in this mission. he's soo spiritually strong and is such an example!! we went tracting all day and placed some book of Mormons and got a couple of potentials but no one let us in. But that's alright, I love planting seeds!! We met with Dan our new investigator that we found and had a wonderful lesson about the restoration! He is starting from ground zero. He doesn't know if there is a God, what a prophet is, never prayed in his life, and so he wants to know and he loved the lesson! he's in old trucker guy that has a big heart! He's going to go to church with us next week and is going to pray to know if there is a god! He's such a nice guy!! We have been doing a ton of tracting and contacting  lately, I'm enjoying the cold actually. I think people will be more willing to let us in if it's negative something out there. ;) For New Years Eve we went to a members house to have dinner it was really good. But we had to go back to the apartment at 7 to weekly plan. I woke up at 12 with the fireworks going off! New Years Day, it was a ghost town here in Stoney Creek. Everybody was sleeping in and hung over! lol so we tracted for a little while then we went to Bishops house and played some games over there and had dinner! :) do you keep in touch with Sister Hobbs momma? Just wondering. Well that's been the highlight of the week. Oh yeah.. we are going to be in a tripan this week with Elder Vargus who is a chubby Mexican and is hilarious haha is coming into the companionship! His Elder is going home early so we will be running both Stoney Creek and St. Davids this week, so it'll be fun!! :) Apparently there might be someone who could potentially get baptized this week in St. Davids. So we will be meeting with him and teaching him a couple of lessons before Sunday. He has to stop smoking and then I think he is set. That's all I heard though. So it'll be pretty cool if we taught him and baptized him! lo I love you guys so much! I miss you and hope everything back at home is going good!

Forever and Always,

Colten, Coco, Elder Beddes, Colteyboy  


*** Colten asked his Dad for advice and I wanted to post his response:

Here are my thoughts:  I didn't have the opportunity to reactivate anyone on my mission like you have.   I think the Lord rewards us for everything we do on our mission to bring souls back to him and that includes reactivation work and temple work.  

My first four baptisms were not mine they were the hard work of my senior companion.  Then I went probably four months or so without another baptism.  The lord then rewarded my companion and I for keeping all the rules and working our butts off and having faith.  I know really good people that did the above and did not have a baptism all mission or only 1.  

You have already helped many people and like we talked about last week you will probably never know the fruits of your labors until you reach heaven and receive your reward.  Missionaries get frustrated and throw their hands in the air and say it's not worth keeping all these rules and working hard like this.  It's so much more fun to just have fun.  Don't be like them.  Even if you don't baptize a soul you have already made large positive effects in many people life.  If the son of the Bishop goes on a mission because of you, you will have served a beneficial mission.  

Think along the lines of planting seeds and just helping as many people as you can.  I really think you will baptize some people but don't have mind set of I am not a successful missionary unless I baptize.  You will be miserable.  Count your successes the way the Lord does, one good deed at a time!

Love you Coltey Boy!  Choose to be happy, people will wonder why you are that way and want what you have, which is the gospel.  If you are bummed no one will want what you are selling!  

Dad

Exchanges with Elder Lao from Hong Kong

Cold day here in Canada. -13 to be exact

December 29, 2015 This Mission is Making Me a Man!

Hey Guys!

I wanted to thank you for the great presents that you sent again! It was a superb Christmas! I was so excited Christmas morning to open presents and then to Skype you guys! I loved the letters as well and the money that I received from Family and wanted to thank you for whoever sent me presents and whoever thought of me this Christmas! It truly means a lot!! This last week was a pretty fun/slow week. We didn't get the opportunity to teach as much as we would like due to appointments being dropped and investigators disappearing and also of course the Christmas Season. We did get to have a dinner appointment everyday this week which was very kind of the ward! I think I gained 25 pounds with how much food I've been eating and also the candy that I have! haha and yes momma we give a spiritual thought for every dinner appointment we go to! :) It was so good to see your guy's faces and to catch up on some things! I thought for sure I would go through the whole Skype call with you guys without crying but mom got me at the very end. haha the whole household (a total of like 10 people) were of course quiet so that they could hear me crying haha. We got Sister Hobbs to cry! She reminds me a whole lot of you momma. She tears up every time she thinks of her son going on a mission and is very nervous for him! I am so glad that I was an answer to their prayer, we truly do click. He loves sports and we have some good conversations about basketball. I want to invite some people in the ward to play ball but it's so difficult with everyone being so busy and our p day is always stacked. It also doesn't help with the new rule with playing sports with people, I'm still bummed out about that but oh well. I haven't shot a basketball in a long time! haha the weather here has been of course funky. I showed you guys on Skype a little bit of what I've been experiencing so it's been pretty much warm this past week. We actually got a lot of snow yesterday and it actually felt like I was in Canada for once. I think it was -4!! We received actually some bad news yesterday. We were at the Mandarin with a very kind young family talking about Laura and Manny and how we were so excited for them and their future when we get a couple of text messages from them. The messages were very shocking to us. They explained how they didn't want to continue down this path and how it doesn't feel right. They thanked us for our devotion to God and how much we helped them open their eyes to religion and faith but it isn't right for them. So we of course responded by asking the why's and the what happens. We think they ran into some anti. they were not able to go to Church last Sunday due to some unexpected family showing up to there house to have a last minute Christmas. We were trying to get into contact with them but they weren't responding at all until we got those messages at the mandarin. We think the family scared them and made them question of few things about Mormonism. Manny continued to say that Laura wanted to meet with her Pastor to talk about some stuff. They said that they felt rushed in this whole thing and feel overwhelmed about it. So I'm a bit mad, sad, and confused right now. They said that we could come over tonight around six and to have a conversation about it. So wish us luck tonight! I don't know to much about the Anti that's out there but I do know that Anti means absolutely nothing especially when you have gained a testimony of this church. I know the spirit leads all conversation about the Gospel and me and Elder Ditty will rely completely on him as we try and help Laura and Manny back onto the path to Baptism. Missionary work definitely doesn't come easy! But I can say that the challenges that I've gone through and am going through will be rewarding. Obstacles are there to signify how bad you want something. So WE AREN'T GOING TO GIVE UP!!!! hahah and we are going to keep working hard despite the hardships!! THIS MISSION IS MAKING ME A MAN!!!!   So yeah that's the news of Laura and Manny. Sorry for those of you that are a little depressed about reading that so I'm going to renew that happiness with this next story that I have. So the other day we were out tracting and we receive a message from the zone leaders saying that they found us a new investigator! This woman called the zone leaders crying. They couldn't really understand her so they were able to get her address and they went over to her to teach the restoration. They came to find out that her son was a new convert to the church and was baptized last year and I guess they got into a fight about some things and the son basically said he wasn't going to talk to her until she met with the missionaries! What I just said made it sound like they hated each other but we came to find out that the mother is very proud of her son and his pathway to Christ. She was very curious about the Mormon church and why her son was so happy. So she really excited to learn why her son joined the church and she herself wants to join. She said she's been waiting to be baptized for two years and was hoping her son would become religious! The Zone leaders taught her in Niagra falls cause she was staying for Christmas at her dad's house but she lives in Stoney Creek so we will be able to teach her so we are very excited for that! So those are the big things that happened this past week. There are a ton of little things that I could talk to you guys about that would take 10 pages but those were the biggest! :) Well I love you guys dearly and hope everything is well back at home. I pray for you guys every day and night and  I love the support you guys give me! xoxo

Love,

Elder Beddes

Merry Christmas 2015

Skype with the Fam 2015