Familia!!!!

OLAAA!

Como Vai!? Primero quiero resposta as perguntas de Mai. The first night we stayed in a hotel porque there were so many of us, and the Missao casa would not fit us... haha It was really cool, and the hotel we stayed in was where the first Church meeting was ever held in Portugal! President Fluckinger is awesome, and his wife is great too! Ya he came around and talked to all of us that first night, and he is really motivated to prepare the people of Portugal for their temple, and so are we! this is a very exciting time to be serving in Portugal. My trainer has been out a year and we both like basketball a lot so we are going to head over and play at the park right after these emails! haha podemos receber pesquisadors por meio nos abilidades para jugar basket... tu nunca sabes! haha YES I feel really tal here, and people keep shouting American at me like I donºt already know that I am, or they just like stating the point... haha either way itºs kinda of funny. The plane flight over was really sweet just because right after they fed us I was out until we were 45 minutes away from England, and I only woke up because they were ready to serve me breakfast which was a treat! haha England was pretty awesome, and we were only there for like 1 hour... but it was still cool to see things there for a minute, and continue to Portugal. When we flew into Portugal it was incredible. SUCH a beautiful place, and I know that the Lord has a work in store for this área. One thing I donºt like all that much are the trains! TRAINS Everywhere! haha the only way to get around... but I am getting to like them more, it just isnºt fun to drag your luggage from train to train... haha Dad, tu sentir mesmo o no? But we have also been out teaching and out of no where WE GET dumped on by massive rain storms, and honestly we may as well be standing in a pool... hahah but Itºs AWESOM! I thinke my shoes are still drying out from thursday! Gumeraes is so incredible, but we are White washing the área which means we have no leads, except the ward list, so we have only been here three days, and have no idea where anything is, but each day gets better, and we have a plan for this week which I will tell you about next week if it goes well! haha We only have 6 investigators... but also there are a lot of innactive members in our ward who we will try to teach aswell. I feel like I am understanding more and more each day, and I have crossed some people who speak english which has been cool to use at times as well. WE have BBAL today which is sweet!!! Oi Pai! Serio esse lugar eº muito incredivle, e eu somos gratos para servir aqui em Gumaraes. Os pessoas podem difícil para falar com, porque estão ter diferente areditas para eu amo os pessoas de Portugal. Sei que Deus tem um plano com esse povo. I know that through Christ we can do all things, and we will be able to do whatever we are meant to do here in Gumereas. Thats really cool Butch served really close to here.. Iºm sure he will agree it is the setting of the Lord of the rings, or something epic like that! haha I love you all so much! thanks for everything, and love you forever!!!

TE Amo Muito!

Com Amor, Elder Beckstrand. Gaurdar A FE!

WOOOO!!!!

Familia!!

I am in Portugal!!!! This is insane and so amazing" haha I am serving Guimaraes, and itºs sooo amazing here!! Holy Cow"!!! I love the people here so much, and there have been already been so many cool experiences its unreal<"!!!! My language is a little rough but thats understandable, beause everyone talks so fast here, but holy cow Dad this is a great place, and we have a lot of work to do today, and i love you all so much!!!! Congrats on Ash catching her toad, and all that! haha looks pretty large, We have a sweet balcony where me and my companion are staying in and from the balcony we can see 3 Castelos!! ha QUE FIXE eh! itºs a little frio aqui para esta bom. I know that this is where Iºm supposed to be and my Trainer is awesome, his name is elder Tucci an Austrillian!! haha Que Fixe.

I love you all so much, have an amazing week! plus my pday is on monday!

Thanks for this Grandma!! This is seriously amazing!!! I love you so much and know you are doing amazing things in Germany! I cant believe I only have three weeks left in this hallowed ground of the MTC!! love ou Forever! Thanks Again for EVERYTHING!

Love Elder Beckstrand

TO ELDER JADEN BECKSTRAND

The organ is softly playing

Each Life That Touches Ours For Good

We reflect upon your life

And know you helped all you could.

You reached out to the friendly,

The unfriendly and friendless,

You, indeed, made a difference

To the last, the least and the lost.

 

You’ve arrived at your day of “farewell”,

A day of reflection, of contemplation,

A day both bittersweet and happy,

A day of commitment, of determination.

 

Today While The Sun Shines

Work with a will!

Today While the Sun shines

Your duty fulfill!

The words of the opening hymn

Are sung loud and strong

As you look at the congregation

You see family and friends in the throng. 

 

You partake of the sacrament,

Renewing your covenants with Him,

Remembering the Atonement

He paid the price for Sin.

 

Your Bishop has you come forward,

He presents you with a tie,

Remember all of us back here,

We’ll pray for you…is that a tear in your eye?

  

 

Now it’s time for your thoughts…and…

Your testimony….you know this work is true!

You know you’ve been called of God….

This is what He would have you do!

You have been called to Portugal--

To speak your own “Pork n’ Cheese!

You will be blessed with the gift of tongues…

Through the Spirit you will testify with ease!

 

 You say Amen….but your adventure is just beginning!

You sing the final hymn.  A message in song:

 You have work enough to do

For yourself and kindred too.

You must speak the loving word,

You must let your voice be heard!

As you journey on your way

God’s commands you must obey.

Before the sun goes down.

 

I am Elder Jaden Phillip Beckstrand

I am a Son of God on High!

A Captain in His army

I Hold His standard to the sky!

My shield of faith, My sword of truth!

I’ve learned the gospel in my youth.

The Battle’s here.  It has began.

I’ll stand and fight!  I’ll never run!

 

Onward and Upward!

This is the Father’s Plan!

We love you and pray for you!

You are our best Elder Jaden!

 

Love you forever,

Elder and Sister Andrus aka Gpa and Gma

OLA FAMILIA!!!

ESSE Semana foi muito BOM!! Well every week is a lot of fun, but this week was amazing! Time is seriously flying so fast, and its crazy to think that in 2 weeks we will have our flight plans to portugal!! Plus just a heads up on this letter I cant do any pronunciations because the key board is set to some weird language äääöö. as you can see... haha It has been so good to hear how everyone is doing back at home and Elder Beckstrand doing work in Japan as always!! Thanks for everything Bro! I really am loving the MTC... Its weird because the first few days feel longer than the past 3 weeks... haha and the spirit is so strong here and so many people from BYU pile in every Wednesday we are seriously going to overfill! Theres no other way we would want it tho! The work is pressing forward with haste, and It is such a fun experience to be riding the wave as its happening!! I love the portuguese language! It is like the coolest language, and I dont know why everyone doesnt speak it! haha Im sure Jacob feels the same about japanese and Dad with portuguese. Also that was so cool to hear about how Cory is back down in St. George and hoopin it up a little bit with ash and them! Tell him to get the MTC ASAP! haha I second what Elder Beckstrand said when he was here, that it is the most spiritual place a young man can enter, and should be a goal for every young man to have the opportunity to enter the MTC. Even though at times it is a glorified college campus that we are not allowed to leave, there is one distinct difference. The spirit and the feeling that is ALways here! It is amazing! Also thanks for the chips and salsa mom those were amazing, I forgot how much I missed chips and salsa and so did our district and zone! haha we put good use to that in a matter of minutes! We were all talking the other day realizing that our time left here is so short... it is kind of sad. We all have grown really close together, and it will be sad when we leave but very exciting to began the next stage of our Mission in the hallowed ground of PORTUGAL!! haha Just a little up date on a few of our pesquisadors.... they are doing well, and one committed to baptism, now we just need to teach him the commandments and make sure all is good there! It was also really good to hear about Ashleys basketball tournaments, and how things are going there! Keep up the awesome work! The yard seems like it is doing well, and it would only seem fitting that dad gets someone to take care of the yard after me and Jacob are gone... didnt see that one coming! haha JK no, Im excited for pictures too see how things are looking. Thanks for the letter mandy it seems like your doing well as always! Keep up the great work, and learn lots and play hard! haha The Zone is doing really well and we welcomed in 2 new Districts last night! 25 NEW missionaries! All waiting on VIsas for Brazil... Crazy stuff!! THey are all awesome missionaries and we are excited for them! We went to the Temple this morning and it was awesome as always! After our session it started sinking in that we only have 2 more temple sessions for likely 2 years...! Wow! But we have a new teacher and he recently returned from portugal and he goes nonstop about how amazing of a Mission it is and how jealous and excited he is that we will be there in a short time! I would encourage Dad to brushin up on his portuguese, and I will try to learn as much as I can so when I come home in 2 years we can speak fluently to eachother without others understanding what we are saying.... haha. And also just because it would be cool. David took off to Chile a few days ago... and that was a cool experience seeing him off. The weather is really getting a lot nicer, and today is amazing here! The sun is shining, and this is the first week we didnt recieve any snow! I think we finally found out why it was snowing so much, it was because a missionary in our district is from Arizona and was secretly praying for snow behind our backs... and he finally told us he was one day when we were talking about how we want the sun! hahaha it was pretty funny. Basketball in the MTC is quite the experience! You never know what your gunna get, and our GYM time is intense! haha We have a couple new Elders here from Hawaii who can hoop it up and we have had some awesome games! The other day we had like 40 Elders watchin our game and it kept going back on the forth, because you play to 7 by ones and twos and the final was 17 to 19, we lost on a blown play but it was still inspiring! haha I love you all so much! and Thanks to everyone who has sent me letters, and packages. Also thanks to the 8th Grade Girls Boarder league team for sending me that sweet package! You girls are awesome! Keep up the great work and good luck with everything! Also, thanks to Roo and Emily for the awesome cookies and the Glassfords for the package! Tell Tyler to update me about his namurada... or gf. haha I love you all and hope you have an amazing week! Keep the faith and Love God. I will try to send picutres later as I do not have my camera on me and it is about to die... haha

Love you Forever!

Elder Beckstrand

Dear Familia!!!

Como VI!? The MTC is awesome and we seriously have an amazing zone and our branch presidency is amazing! So first off, our Pday has been changed due to summer schedules and cordinating teaching times with our teachers! So good to hear how Elder Beckstrand is doing in Japan, and I love how he just gets down and goes to work! That's awesome and I will definitely try to follow his example while I am on my mission! Keep it up Bro! It seemed like your week was amazing and that's so awesome to hear about Ashley and her basketball tournament!! A big Congrats to all the Girls and especially for Beating Cedar at CEDAR!!! WOOO!! so sweet!! That is the best way the season could have ended! That's crazy to think that it's already all over for them! It feels like I was just coaching the first practice a few weeks ago.... haha! It sounds like Dad and Grandpa were quite the coaching Crew together!! I wish I coulda been there but The MTC is a pretty good place to be! haha The Language comes a little more everyday and we become more comfortable speaking it to each other and it's actually really fun! We all make the joke that because we are speaking Portuguese so much that our English is getting worse because it messes with our sentence structure.... So now we are just in trouble because our Portuguese is Bad and our english is worse! HAha! just messin but sometimes it feels like that and the important thing is just to forget about yourself and realize why you are here! The only reason we are learning Portuguese is to be a tool in the Lords hand for the people of Portugal, and when you take that into consideration there is NO way we can fail! We had an amazing Sunday Night Devotional about how we are literally at war with the Adversary and that they will do all they can to stop the work from progressing, and when we realize the reality that we are at war with Satan it makes us anxious to get to Portugal and fight him everyday with our testimonies and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that we are on the winning side, but it's our responsibility to help as many as we can join the ranks through the power of the holy ghost. On another note, I was doing TRC on saturday, and for those who don't know who TRC is, it's just talking to members who come to the MTC and speak their mission language with the missionaries. Anyways.... We were talking and I thought she was married becuase she was talking about children and had a couple of rings on her finger... and at the end of the lesson I asked her how prayer has blessed the lives of her children... and she got really red and then we just lost it! HAHA Lesson learned never assume anything! and it was all in portuguese of course, but it was super funny, and it all worked out! Also thank you so much for the awesome treats you send me! your so sweet! With Pday being on tuesday now we only have 1 more until we depart for Portugal!! how Crazy is that!? haha so not the next time, but the time after that I will be emailing you from the hallowed land is Portugal, RIght Dad?! haha Also, our new Teacher is from Lisbon and returned a few months ago! He's so cool, and he knew Butch! his name is Elder Whitaker, he said they were never companions but said they knew each other pretty well. David, and Bry are out in the field and are loving it! Also Kevin seems to be really doing well! Strong they are in the Gospel. Investigators convert they will. .. haha our teacher said to try speaking like Yoda because that's similar to portuguese Sentence structure! other than that it's really fun! Thanks for all the pictures it's amazing to see how good everyone is doing, and that was a really sweet Trophy! haha Also, thanks to the Barkers for their letter this week! that was really sweet of them and it was awesome to hear how they are all doing! i'm sure mandy is still having good times with the tramp and the grass hasn't died yet because dad hired a guy! haha that's awesome! Keep up the awesome work back at home! To answer Jacobs question about if I am allowed to call him or not... i'm not sure but I will ask and find out by next tuesday for sure! Also thanks for dad writing a little back in portuguese it was fun to decipher what it was! haha Keep the Faith and love you all forever!

Love,

Elder Beckstrand