The Work of Salvation

Week 3

June 27, 2013

The apostles, first presidency (supposedly), and the mission presidents have been here this week to train the new mission presidents. I heard Hermana Hansen say on the way to our room, "maybe we will seen an opossum." Or at least that's what I heard. Really she said, "Maybe we will see an apostle." Sunday Hermana Coffey and Hansen spotted Elder Christoferson they thought, but I missed it so I just saw the back of him. Because they have been using building 1M for training the mission presidents, we have been eating most of our meals in the gym. I won't go into too much detail, but I never thought I would be so happy to return to eating regular MTC food in the cafeteria. The best part of the the mission presidents being here, though, is that I GOT TO MEET MINE! The missionaries here at the MTC going to the Peru Cusco Mission met with President Harbertson and his wife. I love them a lot. Something interesting is that my mission president and his wife don't even have their visas yet. They are going to Peru July 1st on a tourist visa I think is what it's called. There are 100 MTC graduates serving the US waiting for a visa to go to Peru. 75% of the missionaries in my mission are Latino, and about half of those missionaries are from Peru, so good chance I will get to be trained by a native Peruvian. He also said that Cusco is just like the quaint city we think it is. It is as awesome as we are imagining! Our mission has 11 zones. The lake Titicaca area with the floating islands has a dedicated chapel on one of the islands built out of reeds. Then he gave us some awesome advice. It made me really excited to get to Peru!

 On Sunday we got to go to the worldwide broadcast. It was kind of stressful at first because everyone kept hinting at some huge announcement. We were told of the "historic announcement" that was going to be made. That made us crazy because our imagination was going wild with all our guesses of what it could be. Are they opening China? Are they going to let sisters serve 2 years? At the beginning of the meeting we were just going nuts with anticipation. Well, the announcement wasn't nearly that big, but still very cool. I'm not sure how quickly the internet will get to Peruvian missionaries, but we see. I think the church tours are going to be really cool too. I am really excited for missionary work to become even more effective as missionaries and members work together better. I also had the wonderful opportunity to be in the huge choir. I watched our song later, and you could see Hermana Coffey teeny tiny in the background. I was standing right next to her, but my face was covered with a larger (on TV), much closer up person. The apostles weren't facing us, but it was fun because they would turn around and watch sometimes. I especially love love love Elder Nelson for turning around and waving at the missionaries with his cute smile on his face. I also really liked when Elder Scott looked right at me and gave me a thumbs up. Okay, maybe not right at me, but maybe so. It's hard to tell.

Quatro Quadro is going well. We played with our district and it was super fun. It gets intense. Someone told me it looks like I'm doing like a tennis stroke while I play. So that's probably why I'm doing well at it. I am also very pleased with the term-"You just got Becksteaded" that I have heard used a couple times. Four square makes me very happy. Not as happy as the gospel, but it's definitely up there.

      Welp, I love you all a lot. And I love your emails and letters and dear elders! Please keep letting me know how things are going for you! I love hearing about it!

Love you!

Hermana Beckstead

I love the gospel!

 Mormon messages are the best.  Tell everyone to watch them!

Really good quote from the broadcast: "As we act in faith, the blessings are different than we expected, but better than we imagined."