Q&A and First Baptism

Kia Ora Mother,

It is a good thing I payed for an hour and a half today because i don't know if I wouldn't gotten through this whole email. Just kidding. Thanks for all the things that you do and i love reading your emails. Especially the jokes you send here and there.

Ok, now for the answers to those questions.
Q. Is there anything you need or want?
A. I don't want or need anything I can think of at the moment.

Q. Would you like pumpkin chocolate chip cookie mix with cans of pumpkin or would it be something you would never use or enjoy?
A. I would enjoy that a lot and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are my favorite.

Q. If you would like it, do you have a cookie sheet to use?  If not, would you like me to send one?  I am almost positive your investigators and probably companion at this point will have never tasted anything like these cookies because in New Zealand you can NOT buy canned pumpkin to use in a dessert.  They eat pumpkin all the time, but only as a squash.  Is that still correct?
A. No, I do not have a cookie sheet so if you sent one with that family then great but don't send it by mail because it will cost heaps. I don't know about the pumpkin. I have had pumpkin pie twice which was a great surprise but I don't know if they have it in a can or not.

Q. Did you buy a muffin  tin?
A. Yes i have bought the muffin tin and i always make muffins for district meeting. Everyone has loved them so far and I have one batch left for this week before transfers. Then I will have to get creative if i stay in Te Awamutu.

Q. Did you also buy oil? You will need oil for the cookies if we go that route. I refuse to send any chocolate this time around believing you probably haven't finished the last batch.
A. We had oil in the flat and I can get more if needed. We still have heaps though. The only thing I haven't eaten or shared is the fudge and i haven't yet made the fondant into chocolates yet. Haven't had time to but they are still there if I do find time one day.

Q. Have you made french toast or pancakes yet?
A. No, I haven't made french toast of pancakes here yet.

Q. Do you need any mapleine to make syrup with?  I'm thinking you have now been there long enough to start creating food memories with the members and investigators.
A. I can buy syrup in the stores here. They only use it for dessert though which is kinda funny. Again, I might do it one morning if I have more time and more energy :)

Q. Did you ever make the chocolates?  If not, put the ingredients in the freezer and make them for valentines day - February 14.
A. No I haven't. One day soon I hope. I think that has changed because we never have time to bake things. We only have an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner every day and a lot of the time that is shortened due to appointments. I wish I had time to bake more. That would be fun but unfortunately I don't. We just have time to buy things for our investigators.

Q. Do you want anything from LDS distribution, seagull book and tape, or Desert Book - and yes!  I have your ring and will send it to you!  I got a size 12 this time, hoping it would fit better.The 13 was really too big. You haven't gained weight in your fingers have you?  Tell me quick if you have!
A. I would really like a Reflections of Christ dvd for Deseret book, and a Book of Mormon presentations DVD. They are the seminary videos for the Book of mormon. I can't wait for the ring either. I have missed wearing one.

Well, I hope I answered all your questions.
Now for my week.
But before that I will mention that the presidential interview went really well and also the trade off with the AP.
Ok, this week we had tradeoffs with the ZL's and that went pretty good. We had one investigator enter the waters of Baptism and one that didn't because of smoking. We have another investigator that quit smoking and 2 that are trying.
A cool thing about the baptism was that I actually got to do it. My first one on the mission. It was a really cool experience and I beat Xane to it. Only by two weeks though. He is catching up to me in all that he does. Shane, who was baptized also got confirmed and got the priesthood yesterday in church.
We also were able to get eight people at church yesterday which was awesome.

People to pray for: Natasha and Shannon especially. Also Robert and Dave as well.

My goodness. Transfers are here again and I might be moving. I will let you know next week if I actually do. I hope not. I have too many people that I enjoy teaching here. I will leave it up to the Lord to decide.

Love you tons, and I thank you for all that you do for me.
Elder Beckstead

The one with spiky black hair is Paul at the Baptism of Paul on the 15th.

Two sisters and companion on our hike up mount Pirongia.

Investigators at the temple.

Shane's baptism.

Paul's Baptism and Hiking

Kia Ora Mother,

This is a short emailing session today because I have to go hiking. Can you believe it? Anyways, thanks for the updates on the family. It sounds like everything is going great. Tell the Raynes sorry for me and that I will miss Bro. Raynes awesome council. The baptism of Paul went fabulously this past weekend. 1 down and 3 to go for january. Some other updates include President interviews and splits with an AP this week but I will tell you more next week. Tell dad my companion is from Wellington and that the area is good so far. We had 9 new investigators last week and most are progressing which is awesome.

I gotta go but know that I love you and appreciate all that you do.

Elder Beckstead

Missionary Spirit

It sounds like a very eventful week. Tell Xane that he will get his chance in a few years. It is exciting being on a mission, I admit. Lots of interesting things happen that you wouldn't think about before hand. Anyways, missionaries are always up for interesting meals. It is part of the nature of a missionary I suppose. I havent had anything too weird yet in Te Awamutu. Just curry.

Anyways, I have a few experiences that I thought you would enjoy. The first being that of last monday after p-day ended. We had an awesome lesson at the visitors center in Hamilton with an investigator. We watched the Joseph Smith movie which was of course wonderful. After that the spirit was so strong in the room that we set him for baptism. He wouldn't give us a date though so we had to wait until tuesday. Monday night we had a trade off and of course I was in Te Awamutu taking the lead. It wasn't too bad and we did set our investigator for the 12th of February. His name is Dave and he is in his forties I believe.

Anyways, the week went on and we had a lesson on thursday with two people we already had set. We asked the cousin along and she came to. We had an amazing lesson on the atonement and we set the cousin for baptism as well. Her name is natasha and she is set for the 29th of January. To end off the week yesterday, we had 9 investigators at church. All five that were set plus 4 others. It was awesome. Then after church we met with two girls (8 and 9) that were a referral from the sister missionaries in Hamilton. They are awesome and have been to church twice before in Hamilton.That means we have four other people that are available to be set for January and if not January then definitely February.

The work is moving along and it is as exciting as ever. Mission President Interviews are this Wednesday so I hope all goes well with those. I am just hoping to get out of there without a hint of leadership next transfer. There is always hoping right.

Love you all tons,
Elder Beckstead

New 2011

Happy New Years mother,

Last year truly was an insane year. Can you think of all that happened with me and also with the family. It is just insane. I hope that life slow down heaps for you back home and that it goes good for me as well. I will pray for the family every night like i already do but I will also pray that life will slow down for my ever busy mother. Thank you so much for the soccerball. I can't believe how much I missed it and I use it every morning for exercise. It is great. Thank you also for all of the christmas presents that you sent. I haven't used the rain pants yet because we have a car but when winter comes they will definitely help the wardrobe.

Shannon and Paul are doing well. We also have a new one set named Shane who is Shannon's older brother. We are also trying to set more this week for the end of January. I hope that we can do it and actually I know we can. Now that everyone is back from holidays we can actually teach people again. It will be great. We also talked to over 200 people this week on the streets or in peoples houses that weren't lessons. That is insane how many people we talked to. It will be interesting to see if we can keep that up.

Well all is good down here in the South and you are all doing everything wonderfully. I wouldn't change anything. Thanks for being the loving family that you are.

I love you tons mother and thank you again for all you do.
Elder Beckstead (Your favorite Trevie)

P.S. The pictures are of my companion and I on christmas day. One with shannon and the Hamilton temple.