Sister Camille Beck Tacoma, Washington: 2017

Hey Everyone!

Well it has been a great week but also a weird week.... so um this was my last week and all I can say it that's weird...

But it has been super fun! It started off with Going to Zions Camp as a mission. We did different ropes courses to build unity and apply principles of when you hit a wall or need to get over one or how in life you need to be strong when you feel weak, well a lot of other things! It was also weird to have a zone conference and get excited to try new things and then realize um for this week? But that I'll learn it to help my brother Tanner who will soon be on a mission... I also learned a lot to be able to apply to my life back home to continue to stay on track and continue to progress and not back track.

I also got to go to the temple with all of the missionaries going home with me and It was an amazing experience and the spirit was really strong. we also went to Cafe Rio for lunch and it was super good! I haven't been to Cafe Rio since I was back in Utah... the Cafe Rio isn't in the mission so it was really good!

Then we went on exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders and I was able to go with Sister Romney which was fun to see her again! Well I have really loved my mission and I am a different person because of that! Thanks for all of your support and prayers! It has meant a lot ! Keep on serving the Lord and that is how you will be happy!

Also everyone is invited to my Homecoming talk June 25th at 9am and it will be at:

880 North 700 East

Lehi, Utah 84043-1324

Thanks again! Love you all!

(Let me know if you can't view it too)

--

Sister Beck

All of us going home for Temple trip!

At the temple with President and Sister Blatter!

All of us sisters.

Fun pic!

With Sister Blatter!

Sister Pen and I at Cafe Rio! it was Sister Pens first experience and she loved it!

All of us eating(well the elders were at a different table)

In front of it!

Half of the mission at Zions camp!

Close up of me.

Doing the trust fall.

Doing this one .... not sure what it is called.

Having to get from A to B and can't touch the ground ....it's lava.

Eating!

The actual zone conference part.

Reporting on how we are doing as the Elma Zone!

Singing "Hold on the Light will Come" for it.

Burning our "weapons of war" we wrote down!

All of us again.

I love this picture of us taking a selfie ....

Us Sisters.

Pic 1 Roasting marshmallows with the Petersons!

Pic 2 with our smores!

Pic 3 the exit crew( just missing Sister Cox)

Pic 4 Sister Tueller and I with our cool shirts

Pic 5 Sister Pen and I on our way to the temple!

Pic 6 Sister Pen getting her Cafe Rio!

Also this is my Final Report of my mission:

Final Report for Sister Camille Beck

“My Road to Happiness”

“And this is the account of Sister Beck and her brothers & sisters, their journeyings in the Land of Washington, their sufferings in the land, their sorrows, and their afflictions, and their incomprehensible joy, and the reception and safety of the people in the Land of WA-TAC. And now may the Lord, the Redeemer of all men, bless their souls forever.” Alma 28:8

This about sums up my whole mission! I feel like I went and saw it all . . . from getting in a car accident and having my backache all the time to bad stomach issues. Then to the knocking on doors and people not being the nicest. But then having joy come out of it realizing that doing this makes me happy! I love seeing people feel the spirit. I love reciting the first vision and the spirit that comes when I do. I love seeing the light bulb when it clicks and having the desire to be baptized. I love wearing Christ’s name on my heart and being able to just go and serve. I love The Blessed land of the WA-TAC and these memories and friends I’ll never forget!

Faith is the Power

On my mission, I have learned that Faith really is a powerful thing. One of my favorite books in the Book of Mormon is Enos. One time my district Leader, Elder Leber, had us think of any question, any at all and promised us that as we read the Book of Enos together it will be answered. (And if not we would choose another chapter). So we read it and it answered my question. Well one time I did this not so long ago for a question that I just wasn’t clicking what the answer should be. So I felt like I should read it and so I did and what stuck out to me was Enos 1:12 “And it came to pass that after I had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of thy faith.” Then I realized that okay as I continue to be diligent in working hard it really will happen because I had the faith that it will.

One example of this as a missionary was when I was with Sister Kramer. We wanted to baptize a family and thought that if we specifically pray for it, it will happen. So that’s what we did and started to pray for a family of 4. Well there was a recent convert named Juan that we were working with and he was going to be ordained to the office of priest. So his sisters also moved into their home around that same time and came to support him. Well young women, Olivia, was awesome and invited them to class and make them feel so welcome. We talked to Juan about them and they said that we can come by sometime to share our message. Well it never really worked out with Juan getting deployed overseas for military and other stuff. Well Juan’s wife, Victoria, told us one night we can’t see them because it’s a good day and they need to mow the lawn. Well I love mowing the lawn and asked if we could help and they said that we could! So after we got the yard done, we were finally able to go inside and teach them the restoration and give them a Book of Mormon. After that we would take Olivia to the lessons with us and Rocia finally committed to baptism. Alondra wanted to wait until her mom came in December. Well we didn’t want her to wait that long. Olivia was so excited though and kept jumping up and down with excitement and that made Sister Kramer and I excited too. Well, the next lesson we were talking about baptism again and finally Alondra just said, “Well just watch, I wait for my mom so we can get baptized together and then she decides not to so then I probably won’t . . . so I’ll just get baptized with Racio.” All of us were so happy. They were finally able to get baptized soon after that and I know it had to do a lot with Olivia’s faith and Sister Kramer and I praying for it and working hard to get it. I know we weren’t doing it alone – that’s for sure!

Love is the Motive

So, before the mission I would hear all the time, “Missions are really hard, but you will love it” and I knew it would be hard but I guess I didn’t realize to what extent! When I came out on the mission I thought my testimony was pretty solid, but in the mission world some days it was hard! I remember when I was with Sister Adams and Codling and this person was pretty mean to us. If I remember right, Sister Codling just wanted an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie and so we went to the Bishop’s home and his wife had them sitting there for us! It was the best. But ya sometimes the things others would say would make me question it all, but after I would pray for help and/or read the scriptures. I would just feel so much peace and comfort that – no this is right. Also when we went to the temple as a mission, the spirit being so strong and knowing this is true. So when I begin to doubt, I hold onto those feelings of peace of knowing the Book of Mormon is true and then those moments of fear go away and turn into a true love of what I do! When I see someone’s prayer answered when we show up at their door, or when they are baptized, even to turning a frown into a smile. I always tell people that I would not be out here away from my family, away from school, being make fun of or brought down unless I KNEW the church was true! I do know it is so I have learned to love being here and having fun and smiling because that is what truly motivates me . . . I love seeing people have what I have!

Obedience is the Price

My mom sent me this quote that I love, “Worrying does not take away tomorrow’s troubles, it takes away todays peace!” This is so true . . . as you are obedient, I have found that that is truly when you are the happiest and loving what you do. Then when you choose to do something you want to do rather than what the Lord wants you to, you feel guilty. Or you worry about it and instead of feeling peace you feel sorry and guilt. That’s not fun at all! Even though rules are rules and maybe some are harder than others. They are also there to keep you safe and protected so you can more easily focus on what the Lord needs you to do. I know when I maybe wasn’t disobedient but not focusing on what I should or found myself not doing the best, then the Spirit would leave me and Heavenly Father wouldn’t bless me. Or maybe wouldn’t have anyone open a door or be nice . . . because I wasn’t in a frame of mind to be blessed. When I paid the price to be obedient, the Lord blessed me and others and I have realized it’s no price at all!

The Spirit is the Key

I loved Elder Rasband’s talk from the last April 2017 General Conference about “Letting the Holy Spirit Guide” and how he quotes the hymn: “Let the Holy Spirit guide; Let him teach us what is true. He will testify of Christ, Light our minds with heaven’s view.” When I have listened to the Spirit, it truly does guide me. I always say that I really am nothing without the Holy Ghost being my guide because without him I would not even know how to talk to someone. Sometimes I can’t talk, but it is also a comfort to feel like someone else is with me, helping me out when I’m lost. He has also taught me things that are true. When I had a question about something or something has been troubling me . . . The Spirit is able to confirm the truth to me. I had heard from someone that Heavenly Father answers with a yes, no and a not right now. I have been able to recognize these things as I have pondered and I guess the hardest one to accept is the not right now or I can’t tell you yet. I have learned that most of the time it is because it has to do with someone or even my own agency (side note, sometimes I really hate agency! When you, for example, have an investigator who can totally be baptized. They know it is true and they know the Book of Mormon is true. Their mom anti’s them and so they won’t talk to you anymore, but you hope someday it works out. But until they decide they want it, you can’t do anything about it. Then I realize that that is probably how my Heavenly Father feels even with me when I choose something else even if I know the other thing is right. Anyways . . . But ya the Spirit can only tell us the truth, pretty awesome stuff!!! The Spirit also testifies of Christ! I loved being able to bear my testimony about the Savior and all that he is/given us to be able to return to our loving Heavenly Father. It just always amazes me when others can see the light of Christ! I love the last part of the verse, “Light our minds with Heaven’s view.” It’s like Elder Rasband’s story of how he was talking to someone at the door on his mission and as she was shutting the door the spirit prompted him and he thought it was crazy! But then they ended up getting baptized. So ya, I have also had times when I feel like I might be crazy following prompting, but when I do and it works out – it amazes me! When I was with Sister Pike, we were trying to find this less active’s door. We knew she lived in these apartments so after a dinner we decided to pray between 2 options. We could knock the apartments to find her or this other road. We both felt like we needed to find these apartments. Well as soon as we pulled up we started to pray. I had this icky feeling that we needed to be somewhere else and I looked down the street. To the right was where we needed to be! So then there were 2 teenage boys walking down the street. Sister Pike started to talk to them and invited them to our church/mutual. We low and behold found out that one of them was the oldest son of the less active we were trying to find. He was able to tell us the right apartment letter. So I mean we could have knocked those and might have found them, but Heavenly Father’s view was much greater. It amazes me what can/does happen as we follow the promptings of the Spirit and that the Spirit really is the key to God’s work!

The Restoration is the Message

“No matter where you serve or whom you teach, center your teaching on the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Lord will bless you as you teach the message of the Restoration to a world that desperately needs the gospel of Jesus Christ.” (Statement on Missionary Work, First Presidency letter, 11 Dec. 2002) Preach My Gospel page 6

I love this quote and it is so true too. Every concern someone has can be resolved with the Restoration! Everyone! One experience that recently happened when sharing the restoration was with the Crane family. So we had already taught the husband the first 2 lessons and then we felt prompted to go over. We just so happened to go when the wife and rest of the kids were over. We explained what we do and that we invite people to be baptized. Surprisingly after that she asked if we want to come in and share more. It sure surprised us she let us in and started to share her background with religion and jumping to different churches. She was just baptized in a non-denominational church last year. Well Sister Tueller asks her the question, “Have you ever wondered why there are so many churches on the earth?” She had wondered and as we started to talk about the great apostasy and the first vision, the Spirit filled the room. It was so strong and I know the Cranes both felt it, felt the truth of it, and promised to read the Book of Mormon and ask God. Then she quickly changed the subject because we think it scared her how strong the spirit was. But it was a testimony to me of how powerful the spirit is as we share Joseph Smith’s exact words of “I saw a pillar of light” . . . and that light or Spirit sure does fill the room and witnesses it each time to me of its truthfulness each time I hear or say it! It is true, I know it is and the feeling I have right now even as I’m writing this down testifies so strongly that it is true and this feeling is filled with light and light and darkness can’t be in the same room. I am so thankful that this is the message we share every day and all it takes is to follow Moroni’s Promise of praying with real intent to know if the Book of Mormon is true. In so doing, knowing Jesus Christ is our Savior, Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints is truly Christ’s only church on the earth.

Members are the Means

“Now is the time for members and missionaries to come together . . . [and] labor in the Lord’s vineyard to bring souls unto Him. He has prepared the means for us to share the gospel in a multitude of ways, and he will assist us in our labors if we will act in faith to fulfill His work.” – President Thomas S. Monson

I love hearing this quote because us missionaries can only do so much without the member’s help and that is when it makes our work solidify! So I had this investigator, Jennifer, who knew the message was true, but I guess that was it. She came to church and all but ya . . . so when our ward mission leader (who are so awesome to help us!) suggested to have the lesson with Jennifer in Sister Emmott’s home because he had an inclination that they would hit it off, that’s when she truly progressed so much! They actually needed each other to help support one another! They both have had so many of the same experiences and became best friends. Many thought they had known each other for years, but really it had been like a week. She was able to have the help she needed with like Word of Wisdom and because of Sister Emmot, all of the other ward members who took her in. That is how she was able to get baptized and has since been to do baptisms for the dead in the temple. She is doing great all because of the members being the means to make it happen!

Christ is the Reason

So for my plaque scripture, surprisingly enough I put 3 Nephi 5:13 – “Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.”

Alright, so I love this because I am his disciple called to declare the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So another one of my recent converts is Rany, Leakenah and Kevin. They are all Cambodian and their religious background is Buddha not Jesus Christ. But from the first lesson, all 3 of them were almost mesmerized with the lesson and wanted to continue to learn more. We watched the Finding Faith in Christ video in Cambodian and I know that helped for them to have more of a visual! Then it came time for them to have their interviews and so Leakenah and Kevin went first (Leakenah 10, Kevin 8) and when it was Kevin’s turn Elder Joslyn asked about believing in Jesus Christ or something, but I just remember this one word answer in Cambodian. We looked to Sister Pen for what he said and she said, “Kevin said I believe!” We cracked up laughing. He is so cute! Then it came time for Rany and she answered all of the questions correctly, but she still had trouble believing in Jesus Christ and one God rather than a lot of Gods like in the Buddhist religion. So she couldn’t get baptized no matter how hard Leakenah and Kevin chanted to say yes! So Sister Pen and I were pretty sad because we knew she had felt it but we couldn’t force her. We turned to the power of prayer and fasting. Haha but also our ward mission leader said, “She’d rather believe in a fat Buddha guy than Christ?” It was pretty funny. But as we were fasting, all of a sudden we got a call from Rany and she said that she does believe and wanted to be baptized. Christ really is the reason for everything and he is there, he did die for us and was resurrected to overcome death for us.

Baptism is the Way

Before my mission, after doing sealings with my grandparents and mom, since my grandparents also worked at the Jordan River Temple, they saw one of the temple president counselors and told him I was going on a mission. We had just gotten done doing sealings. He told me to remember what goes on in that room because that is the end goal, not baptism! Well after hearing that I had a hard time understanding why all of the missionaries were so crazy to baptize people because yes but we also need to help them get to the temple. I finally realized, yes get them to the temple, that is the end goal but that is never going to happen unless they are baptized with the proper authority and that is the only way. So one of my recent converts, Rose, had a cool experience. She reconnected with her high school sweetheart and started to read the Book of Mormon. Then I moved to Washington and started to teach Rose. I sadly got transferred and David and her got married. Well lucky for me I got to go on exchanges and this is what Rose said of the experience, “In early February the lesson was on baptism. I remember Sister Krebs asking me how my week was going. I told her I was on the fence. That I was concerned about double dipping.” Oh side note, so Rose was baptized a little less than a year again and also as a baby in different churches. Her ex already told her the 2^nd time that it wasn’t a good idea . . . so she was worried about double dipping. “Asking if me being baptized again was redundant, since I’ve already had a full immersion baptism just 6 months prior. Sister Beck explained it was a learning process, that my prior baptism was a beginning, akin to a child learning their ABC, the next step would be to learn words, then read a book. If we just learn the alphabet, but never enhance the alphabet by learning words and reading a book, we would never grow. It still didn’t sink in and I was still clinging to the fence. Then out of the blue she boldly asked me if I believed that Jesus Christ is my Savior and would I be willing to be baptized on Valentine’s Day, February 14^th. I don’t know where the word came from, but with full conviction I was pushed off the fence and said YES. Immediately the room was filled with the Spirit. I looked at David and he gasped and eyes filled with tears. We all were crying and laughing with joy at the same time. A very spiritual moment.” And it was an awesome experience to be able to see how powerful the spirit really is and what it can do! I was able to go and watch her baptism and then I was lucky enough to be able to go and watch Rose and David be sealed in the Seattle Temple at the beginning of April 2017. You see the sealing room is our end goal! Baptism though is the way to get there!

Joy is the Reward

“Every opposition happens for one purpose only: to give you opportunity to respond by applying in your life the teachings of Jesus. As you do so you are changed to become more like Him.” The Fourth Missionary by Lawrence E. Corbridge

I love this quote so much and I feel like I have had quite a bit of opposition on my mission. . . One of the first things that happened was that I got in a car accident. So the intersection of 9th and Plum in Olympia . . . I was going through the intersection and the light was green. . . . turned yellow . . . and as I was leaving I saw it turn red. Well I was almost out and this car came and t-boned us on the passenger’s side. It almost felt like the movies and how time stops and you look around . . . it ended up being his fault, but it sure messed my back up. I would go to bed achy just to wake up achy and in pain. But I can’t just not work so I would go and do then a lot of companions had struggles and so I would focus on them and help them. In so doing, my pain would go away. Well then it got better but I feel like once like my back feels better then something else hurts like my stomach . . . and feeling pretty sick. So I tried no gluten, no dairy. That kind of helped, but not really. One member said I wonder if it’s your gallbladder and we aren’t 100% sure if it is but knowing that and eating pretty much bread and fruits/veggies has helped. I realized along the way it wasn’t so much that I was sick or in pain but I was able to find strength and feel better, have JOY, as I would look outward and not inward. I loved the talk from Bonnie H. Cordon in the March 2017 General Women’s Session called, “Trust in the Lord and Lean Not.” She told a story about Amy and how she had cancer and was doing chemo for it. She was so tired and told her husband that she was going to give up! So he looked at her and said, “well then you need to serve someone.” So that is what she did in her worst state when anyone would have accepted her to relax and take it easy. She reached outward and served and it made her happy. She was able to experience true joy in its fullest! Well I also had that realization that it doesn’t do anyone any good for me to feel sick and to look inward even if I had a good excuse . . .it sure didn’t make me have joy. But as I decided to choose the road less travelled by and serve and reach out . . . that has truly made all of the difference. So reach out and serve (and if you serve and think about yourself and how hard it is then it won’t work.) That’s how JOY becomes your reward!

Closing

In closing, I have sure learned a lot and it has made me a better person. I just want to testify to you all that I know that my Savior lives and he does walk the streets of the WA-TAC! I know he went through everything for me and everyone in this world. I also know I have a loving Father in Heaven who really does continue to reach out in love to all of his children. I know that Joseph Smith did pray and saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and were able to restore the Church of Jesus Christ in these the Latter Days through the prophet Joseph Smith. And that we still have a prophet today named Thomas S. Monson and I do know he is a prophet receiving revelation for us in our day. I also know that we have the fullness of the gospel on the earth again with the priesthood power that I’m so thankful for. I have loved serving my mission and wouldn’t have traded this last year and a half for anything else.

This is Sister Camille Beck and this has been My Road to Happiness!