September 26, 2016 Even Until the Fourth Floor, Last Door

Holy cow! I thought those pictures were sweet!!! Happy Anniversary guys! xoxo you are the best, those dating pictures were awesome!! So young! I can't believe the ward got split!! I was thinking the other day what if my ward got split or something like that? haha and lo and behold you tell me this! I'm going to miss those guys so much! It's going to be weird going home and having them not be in my ward! I'm sorry about the car crash that sucks! But it sounds like everyone is doing well! thanks so much for the emails they mean a lot to me! My week was a good one! As usual!! So much to say in such little time! Some funny things happened this week! In district meeting we had it Smith Falls this time because the senior couple there wanted to make tacos for us (blessed saints). They were so good! Anyway, the district meeting was very good, everybody loved it! It was such a revelatory experience! The AP, Elder H came to it as well. It was nice to have him there, he put in some nice input. He's a nice guy to, great missionary. But what I wanted to get to was right after district meeting, we were packing up to go get tacos and i did my whistling thing to make it sound like birds were chirping. I don't know if it's something that I picked up on the mission or if I did it before my mission. And the whole district were looking for these mystery birds in the relief society room. Everytime i would chirp i would look up into the arches where the birds could have a nest and me and elder ha would act like we were confused about the birds. We had everyone tricked in the district! hahaha we told them at lunch that it was just me! They were all so shocked, they all thought there were birds in the room! haha It's weird that the transfer is already over! The transfer news is..... we are staying together in Napanee! I'm pumped about it, we are having a lot of fun! We are going to the temple for all new missionaries this week, so i am excited about it! I haven't gone to the temple in a year!! Elder Hafen is legit! I've learned so much from him! One thing that I admire about him is that he really knows and loves the people. He is involved in every convo and knows the background info about the people. Just goes to show how much he cares about the people and the area. He takes initiative, even as a new missionary!! It's fantastic! Our most solid investigator Angie is doing really well! She went to church for all three hours again yesterday! She's progressing so much!! She's been taught a lot so far and she loves it! She had prayed about her own baptismal date since that was what she wanted and she came up with Dec 31. So we are going to see if she can have earlier cause she is solid! I just think she feels like she needs to know everything before she can get baptized. She's been working on some word of wisdom problems which is really the only thing that is holding her back. But she has done so well with cutting down with some stuff! She's amazing, definitely one of the most golden investigators I've ever had. I can see her getting baptized really soon! She says that is pretty sure that this is the true church but is still learning so that she can get the final and for sure yes! We've had some powerful lessons with her and she is absolutely loving what has been happening and what she has been learning and feeling! Yesterday was testimony meeting and you could tell that it really touched her. I love what's been happening here in Napanee! So for testimony meeting, I went to go bear my testimony! I've made it a goal to never pass up an opportunity to bear it to other people! I shared the experience about battery exploding in Elder hafen's face and how it blinded him for a short period of time. Hahaa everyone got a good laugh about it, and I was able to relate it to the gospel! Sometimes we want to experiment with some things that we probably shouldn't experiment with. And satan, and in this case me tempting Elder Hafen to do it, was me! I told him hey it could explode in your face but it probably won't but you never know. And it did! haha and he suffered the consequence. He was "spiritually blinded" for a little bit because of what happened! But he regained his vision after awhile and we both learned from that mistake! Same as the mistakes that we make or the trials that we go through! Repentance and applying the Atonement in your life is key and so important! Good times, everyone was talking about it all of church! haha we've been finding investigators and new LA's which is pretty sweet! We've been able to get some LA's who haven't been coming for the past couple of years! So that's sweet how God is preparing those people to come back to church! We ran into a member who didn't even know that there was a church in Napanee and hasn't got in many years. She's so nice! We are going to see her in a couple of days, i'm excited about that cause she seems solid! She has a couple of kids that haven't been baptized and her husband as well so we will see what we can do! It's cool how God just placed her in our path as we were just having a lesson with Shelley(another LA) and she saw men with black tags and she asked Shelley if she was mormon! Shelley was excited cause she thought she was the only mormon in all of deseronto! haha so it was a miracle and i'm excited about that! The branch is doing amazing! All 25 of them! They are being really good friends with Angie which does my heart good! She's totally going to become a member of this church! She's excited about General Conference and so am i! I can't believe it's already that time! I made it tradition to go bulk barn and get tons of candy to watch it! Look forward to it cause it's a very spiritual time! I love conference and i regret not taking it as seriously as I did before my mission because it's literally God speaking through his chosen Servants! Lots of questions will be answered if you come prepared and ready! Momma sent me this quote that i absolutely love, "Dieter F Uchtdorf excerpt:

Earlier this evening I spoke about how faith comes to the humble, the diligent, the enduring. It comes to those who pay the price of faithfulness.

As I mentioned earlier, this is demonstrated in the experience of two young American missionaries who meant a lot to our family. One day, they decided to approach the residents of a well-kept, four-story apartment building. They knocked on each door of the first floor. No one would listen. The same thing happened until they came to the last door of the fourth floor.

When that door opened, a young girl smiled at them and asked them to wait while she spoke with her mother. At first her mother didn’t want to listen, but the mother finally agreed, and the missionaries left her with a copy of Book of Mormon to read. The mother did read this sacred book, and directly thereafter she and her two daughters entered the waters of baptism.
When the small family attended our local ward in Frankfurt, Germany, I was a deacon and noticed the beauty of one of the daughters. I thought to myself, “These missionaries are doing a great job!”
The beautiful young woman—the one who had pleaded with her mother to listen to the missionaries—is Harriet, my wonderful wife, the sunshine in my life.
How often have I lifted my heart in gratitude for the two missionaries who did not stop at the first floor! God “rewards those who earnestly seek him,” but that reward is not usually behind the first door. Dear friends, keep knocking on God’s door. Don’t give up. Seek God with all your heart. Exercise faith. Walk in righteousness, and have trust in our Heavenly Father. I promise that if you will do this—even until the fourth floor, last door—you will receive the answers you seek. You will find faith. And one day you will be filled with light that grows “brighter and brighter until the perfect day.” #LDSconf"

You never know what lives you could touch. I've seen miracles after miracles because of the faith that me and my companion had just because we "knocked on the last door"  per se. And not literally a door but went the extra mile and didn't give up despite what hasn't been working our way or the criticism we get as missionaries. Don't give him up! "Give it your 110%"(- Dad). And expect miracles! I loved the emails that I got from my sister Brooke and my Aunt that I haven't heard from in a very long time, Meggin! Shout out to them! haha you two are awesome and I absolutely loved the emails they meant so much to me. This is what they said, and hopefully they don't mind that I share. 

Brookes-"Hey Colten!! I can not believe it's already been a full year! That means only one year left! I love hearing about all the lives you've been changing! The Canada mission seems pretty tough especially the people there are pretty tough to get the gospel across to but I can tell that you've been praying hard and been wanting to find people that truly need to have the gospel in their lives. You have set a great example to me and have helped me decide on whether to go on a mission. You have a pure desire to serve others and truly care for others and I know that when you come back from the mish you'll find "the one you've been lookin for!" I love you soooo much and I hope that you know that what you are doing is changing lives whether you know it or not and people really take into consideration what you are teaching and saying to them even though it's hard to see sometimes people will be listening to someone even though it seems like it is going in one ear and out the other. People need you in their lives and have been waiting a long time for someone to come along and set them on the right path.

So whats your new favorite food?
Have you grown taller than 6 feet? Seriously Colten people wanna know

Are you sill planning on going to byu Idaho? We could be college buddies!   

Meggins-

Hey colters!!!! I've been reading all your emails since you've been in Canada. Sounds like you're having an amazing time! It's been fun reading all your stories. You're such a good kid! Always been one of my favorite nephews. So glad you're happy and growing so much on your mission. That story about the 50 year old lady rolling down the hill off her chair was funny. Glad she wasn't hurt and laughed it off. People are great and I'm so glad you're getting these sweet experiences. It all helps you grow in so many ways. Well just wanted to say hey and let you know I read all your emails and enjoy hearing about it all. Can't wait to see you again! Keep up the good work!

Love ,
Meggin

You two are people I look up to and are an inspiration to many lives including mine, whether you know it or not. 

Love you all and thanks so much for the kind emails! 

Forever and Always,

Colters, Elder beddes, coco

Smokes Pouterine! Best poutine in all of Canada! Good place

 

 

 

good ole tracting 

Angie let me borrow her jacket at night. she knew it would match my tie! haha  it's getting pretty cold here! leaves are fallin! 

September 19, 2016 We Start With the End in Mind

It's a volleyball fanatic family that's for sure! You are all awesome! I'm glad the home life is going good for you all! I can't believe summer is wrapping up either, the leaves are changing here, and it's about to get beautiful! I love Fall, i really do, it's so pretty and it's my favorite weather. It totally reminds me of Georgetown. Georgetown and Napanee could be twins! My week was a roller coaster ride haha. I was sick for a couple of days. Experienced Liberty Jail in a way. ;) Stuck in the apartment. My illness was funky. I had a constant migraine and my body was really weak. I had random muscles that were very sore for some odd reason. I have a really bad cough. And everytime I stood up and I felt like I was going to pass out!! So it wasn't fun at all. Pretty boring, Elder Hafen hated his life being stuck in the apartment all day for two days. But out of no where my family comes to the rescue and I receive a package!! Orange themed! That was soo nice of you. Thanks so much for sending that to me, especially during the time of me being on my death bed. It was good, those crush pop tarts or quite weird though. hahah me and elder hafen tried them, and they were a no go! haha everything else was so good. It was good to see "reeses" instead of "reese". (by the way mom, i'm going to take some pics today with me wearing the shirts, and send them to you later). We got our hair cuts at this barber shop for men. It was a pretty swag place, and the lady whose name is Angel cut our hair. And i look forward to these moments where the person can't go anywhere when you start talking to them, they are stuck! haha so i was able to have a great conversation with her, and pretty much teach her the whole Restoration while she was cutting my hair. Turned out she was interested and I was able to obtain her number and we are going to see her again and her boyfriend this Thursday! hahah hair cutting miracles! She's pretty sweet as well, i can't wait to start teaching her! Funny stories of the week. I was driving and I was looking at the scenery and I ended up hitting this dead skunk. Didn't think anything of it until we started smelling it very strongly. Me and Elder Hafen were about to puke. Oh man, it smelled so bad. Everytime we got into the car for the couple of days after and I would tell Elder Hafen that it smelled like sudbury because the car smelled like Marijuana! It's hard to tell the difference between the two but it smelled pretty bad. #2 We were going by some of our Less Actives that we had never seen and one of them brought us out about 20 minutes. So in the middle of nowhere and it turned out that this dude lived in a prison for the insane people, I don't know what you call that. haha but we just laughed and said of course. #3 We were teaching a lesson yesterday to Angie and Sister Melhuish came along with us! She's a perfect fellowshipper for her and so it was an awesome lesson! We teach Angie outside of her house and she lives kind of on a hill right in front of this amazing view of a river. And she has this 4 foot drop off into a flower bed. While we were teaching her, Sister Melhuish was sitting on a little chair and you see two legs on one side starting going into the dirt and she starts to tip. And before I could go superman mode and catch her she goes toppling down this short cliff into the flower beds. We all just freak out cause she's like 50 and I jump down in a heart beat and she turned out to be fine. It was pretty funny though cause as she was falling down she was laughing. Hahaha and she couldn't stop laughing about this experience. So we all started laughing and it was a good time. She said that she hasn't laughed that hard in a long time. SO she's ok and it was pretty funny! Angie is doing amazing. She's already more than half way done with the Book of Mormon and she loves it! She's learning so much! She even came out to church yesterday!! I was so pumped. She looked like a Mormon! haha she had her Book of Mormon and Bible out during the talks and reading along it was fantastic. She really enjoyed it too. We've had some great lessons with her as well. She says that everything so far has been an answer in a way. She's in the process of being answered is what she said. Thank you so much for sending me that momma i can't wait to read it and hopefully get some ideas! We taught her the Word of Wisdom, she was a bit surprised about the Coffee and tea but it was resolved. She's going to have a challenge with smoking, but she's already cut down from a pack to less than half of a pack! So she's doing amazing! I can really see this woman getting baptized soon, and she's going to be the most amazing latter-day saint if she does! The lesson yesterday was amazing, Sister Melhuish is amazing, she played such a big part in it. You could tell that it really impacted her! Our less actives are doing really well. Scott and Judy are still working towards that temple, and we are helping them every step of the way! The temple is the place to be ladies and gentleman! Some of the greatest example of temple goers are Grandma and Grandpa Beddes! I commend them for their temple service and their regular attendance. It's such an amazing place to be. I had the great opportunity to go to several different temples with my bishop before I left. And each time I stepped into them, I could feel the Spirit stronger than I ever had. That was special time for me. Me and Bishop going to the temple really impacted my life, and I don't know if he knows that. He's helped me out so much and I love him. We start with the end in mind. Baptism is not the end, it's only the beginning of this great journey! Aim for the temple, have it be on your minds constantly. Ponder the symbolism and beauty contained in the walls of the great temples. It's changed me, and it can for you. Love you all with all my heart.

Forever and Always,

Elder Beddes, Coco, Colteyboy, beds 

Less active family who I helped reactive (the J's) have this hanging on their fridge! haha they said, 

"we wanted you to know that you are a big part of our family. We love and care for you, and we have been so blessed to have you as part of our family for the small amount of time we did. Hoping you are well!"

Love these guys! This is what else they said, "Brother J's and I are doing well. We have decided that we are going to prepare to enter the temple, I believe our date is by Christmas. We will need some strong prayers to help out."
( some elder found it in the stoney creek apartment. then that same elder who is serving where the j's live gave it to them!)

It's a fraud!

 you can't forget bagged milk!

Napanee!

 

Yard work! Doing service for a less active!

Putting on the armor!!

elder hafen loves this humidity haha

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!!!