What does consecration mean to you?

This week we had a great zone conference.  It was cool for me to see how the call to consecration in our mission has affected so many people, missionary and non-missionary.  It made me realize  however, how sterile my approach to sharing about our mission goals has been in the past.  It's like I had this mental block between your life and mine because I'm a missionary, and I apologize for that.

I am going to invite you to join in on the growth I have been experiencing in the past three months.  There is a talk by Tad R. Callister called "Becoming a Consecrated Missionary" which has been the catalyst for the progression we have had in this mission.  In it, Elder Callister talks about what it means to consecrate ourselves to the Lord.  While it is directed at missionaries, I think there are many ways that members, who also have a charge to do missionary work, can apply these principles in their lives.  I would encourage you to read the talk and see what you can do to become a more consecrated member.  I know that this principle has brought my companionship and our mission incredible blessings, and that it will bring them to you and to your family as well as you start (and continue) to live the law of consecration in ways that you may not have thought of before.

After you do that, tell me about it!  I want to hear what you are doing to be a more consecrated missionary.  Feel free to write me an email, comment on the facebook link or blog post, write a letter, or even just post it on your own facebook page.  Consecration and missionary work are inseparable in my mind, and both bring incredible blessings that we can't even imagine.  So try it out!  Let me know how it goes.  I am excited to hear all about it. :)

Just in case you were wondering, New York continues to be the best place ever, and the trees are more and more beautiful every day.  Thank you, East Coast autumn, for making my life better.

Love,

Sister Beer

To be brief...

Chinatown is still here, we are still doing missionary work, and the pork buns are still delicious.

Do I need to say more?

Okay, maybe I'll say a little.

We have been contacting SO MUCH recently, and it has been awesome.  I think we have been on the streets more in the past couple weeks than I was my entire last cycle.  Hallelujah!  We are finding people who are interested in learning about the gospel, which is great, and we have seen some pretty awesome miracles as a result of our diligence.

Including yesterday, when I went up to the dentist with another sister who needed some work done and had a half hour long conversation in Spanish with a wonderful Peruvian man.  He was patient with me, and I was surprised by how well we communicated.  He even took a mormon.org card at the end of our conversation.  Next step: meet missionaries that actually speak Spanish.

We have had our fair share of awkward missionary moments as well, including an acupuncturist that I contacted massaging my ear in the middle of the sidewalk because I was "too cold" by her definition.  Yep. That happened.

Despite the crazy moments, the Lord loves His children.  That's about what I've learned in the past few weeks.  And He always will.

Love you!

Sister Beer

In Which the Chinese Missionaries FINALLY Arrive.

They are here. :)

Yesterday Sister Lee and I went up to the mission home to welcome the
arrival of Sister Chan, Sister Chen, Sister Astle, Sister Palmer, Elder
Atkinson, and the ASL Elder Anson.  It was awesome.  I was so happy to see
the 陈s again, and the new missionaries are fantastic.  It was special for
us to see them come out of the terminal and welcome them to the mission.  I
love Sister Astle already, and I am super excited for her, Sister Chan, and
I to start doing missionary work together.

I can't let this week go by without saying something about General
Conference.

It was amazing.

Also, I loved how in Russell M Ballard's talk he challenged the whole
Church to invite at least one person to come unto Christ before Christmas.
What an awesome invitation!  We get to help someone that we care about, be
it a friend, a family member, or anyone else we know, feel a little bit
about how we feel about our Father in Heaven and His plan for us.  I'm in,
how about all of you?

Today is a short letter (lots to do!) but remember how much I love all of
you.  We are so loved by Heavenly Father.  He wants the best for us, and
for you.  Don't forget that.

Love you!

Sister Beer

We use these little bags from a store called Muji to store
contacting materials, and I bought new one last week because the one I got
when I arrived in Chinatown was starting to break.  Also, it may have been
a bit dirty.  Oops.

New Sisters!  From left: Sister Chan, Sister Lee, Sister
Palmer, Sister Astle, Sister Beer

And you thought LAST week was good....

Man, life here just keeps getting better and better.

The evening after I last wrote you all, I received a call from President Morgan.  I have been released as a Sister Training Leader and called to be a trainer in Chinatown.  I am going to train again!  Her name is Sister Astel, and I am SUPER excited for her to come.  What's more is that Sister Chan is coming back from Temple Square and will be the third in our happy tri-panionship.

"Why isn't she here today?" you might ask, "isn't today transfers?"  

Yes, it is transfers today, but the MTC didn't want to let Sister Astel and her companion out of the MTC a week early, so they are keeping them and instead Sister Lee (who is also training) get to be companions for a week while we wait for them.  AND we get to go to the mission home to pick them up.  My life is awesome.

We did say goodbye to Sister Woo today, which was hard.  I love Sister Woo and am incredibly grateful for the example she set for me through her service.  I learned lots from her while we were companions.  With her leaving I am now the senior sister in Chinatown, which is a rather strange feeling.  When did I get old in the mission?

The other incredible thing to happen this week was the baptism of seven incredible people into our ward.  I was reminded of Doctrine and Covenants18:10,15-16 as I saw them enter the waters of baptism and make a covenant with God.  I have never been so happy for anyone before!  I know the change that many of them have gone through to follow Christ, and I admire them for it.  Being a member of the Church is not easy for many of the people we teach, but the people that are willing to make the sacrifice receive incredible blessings as a result.

To avoid the risk of going to long and becoming uninteresting, I will leave off here.  Missionary work is the best.  I am excited for the future with my new trainee, and for the avenues that the Lord is opening for us to progress with His work.  I love you all, and will write again next week!

Love,

Sister Beer

BYU Theaterites.  We're pretty awesome.

One day Sister Woo and I bought matching shoes.  Also, this looks like it belongs in a wedding album.

...And then sometimes you have the BEST WEEK EVER.

So... it was a pretty fantastic week.

Thursday I went on a split into my old area with Sister Toronto, and it was awesome. She is great.  And a fantastic missionary.  Are we surprised?  No.  Not in the least. 

Also, we ate mooncakes together, because it was Mid-autumn festival.  We found some pineapple ones that were far superior to lotus paste.

And then there was Stake Conference, which was just great.  (Here's the view from our Relief Society president's rooftop.)

Something I learned this week about New Yorkers: they all love to talk about the city they live in, and to talk about it really, really fast.  Faster than any translator would ever want them to.  I know, because I was sitting right next to her as she did it.  (Sister Khong did an admirable job, by the way.  But we are still requesting the speakers give their talks to us beforehand next time.)

Perhaps the best part of the past week, however, is the Mission Conference we had on Monday with Elder Bruce A. Carlson of the First Quorum of the Seventy.  What an incredible day!  He talked with us about the difference between being justified (having stopped sinning and repented), and being consecrated (actively working to do exactly what the Lord wants us to, or Alma 53:20-21).  Other topics for the day included what it means to be successful (even though many of His converts fell away, I think we can all agree the Savior was successful, right? He opened His mouth and followed the Father to do what was required of Him), how to "be of good cheer" in the midst of a storm, and what it means to be a leader.

All in all, it was a great day.  And a fantastic week.

Being a missionary is the best.

Love,

Sister Beer

BONUS:

So our P-day activity today was making pretzels for our Sundae Sunday night this week. This is living proof that cooking adventures can indeed happen on a mission.

Next step: dipping potato chips in chocolate. :)

Love you!

Sister Caitlin Beer

Missionaries... on Facebook?!?

Yeah, you read that right.  I am officially approved as an online proselyting missionary.  That means I can use Facebook, email, Skype, and other technology as proselyting tools.  That means that you all will soon see me posting almost daily to my Facebook account about gospel subjects and other fun, missionary things.  This is an incredible step forward in missionary work, and we are one of the first missions that has been approved for online work.  There are some rules, and I figured I should let you all know some of them.

1.  Facebook and other internet based sites (like Skype) are to be used as proselyting tools, not as social mechanisms.  I still won't be able to respond to messages, posts, and such until I am no longer a set apart missionary.  But I still love you, I promise.

2.  My Facebook account must be missionary appropriate, which means removing or hiding any non-missionary appropriate pictures, posts, etc., so if something that you put on my timeline disappears, it's not because I don't love you, it's because I'm trying to help spread the gospel.  I promise.

3.  You can still communicate with me through email or through regular old snail mail.  It is still true that missionaries love to get mail.  Time and new technology have not changed that fact.

That's pretty much it.  We live in exciting times, my friends.  Missionaries on Facebook... who ever thought that would happen?

There are other big changes coming to happy Chinatown family, including the introduction of what is called the Model District, a program that lowers area boundaries and allows missionaries to work as a unit, not solely as separate companionships.  We are the third district in the mission to start this new program, and I think it makes a lot of sense in a place like Chinatown where there are so many missionaries in one ward.  This allows us to pool our resources teaching investigators and members, as well as helps us to improve our unity as a missionary force with ourselves and with ward leadership.  A huge focus of the Model District is doing exactly what the ward, specifically the Bishop, asks us to. And that is exactly what we are doing.  Big changes are coming to Chinatown, I can feel it.

Amidst all of this, Sister Khong and I continue to go on splits, teach lessons, and find people wherever we can.  It is times like these that I think about what an awesome opportunity it is to serve a mission, especially where I am and when I am.  Recently I have reflected on my life and noticed very clearly instances where the Lord has provided experiences that would help to prepare me for what I am doing now.  Sister Hinckley once said that "Everything you are doing now is preparing you for something else."  That is incredibly true.  I have seen it in my life, and I continue to see it as the Lord gives me new challenges and blessings here in the mission field.  It almost makes me wonder what he is preparing me for next!  But we'll let that adventure come when it will.  For now, missionary work.

I love you all!  Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Beer

I think I can I think I can I think I can I think I can...

If there was a book that described my life right now, it's probably The Little Engine that Could.  This week has been crazy, and it's only through moments of "Okay, I think I can get through this next day, hour, minute" that it has been possible to get as much done as we have.

It has been awesome.

Last Friday we had a Mission Leadership Council where President Morgan talked about ministering to the people we work with.  Our mission has a goal right now of being consecrated to the Lord, and connected to that goal is another one, for every missionary companionship in the New York, New York North mission to bring someone into the Church through baptism in the month of September.  We set this goal back in August, and September has now arrived.  As a result, President has challenged us as leaders to take a more invested approach to working with all of our people.  (In Sister Khong and my case, that is all of the sisters on the island of Manhattan.)  For this week that meant meeting with each of them face to face and talking about the areas they are working in, along with seeing what we need to do to help them and their investigators progress.

As we have met with each companionship of sisters (nine in total) we have seen miracles that have been happening in each of their areas.  People are popping out of nowhere who want to be taught and learn about Christ.  And not just any people, really, really prepared people, who are ready to make a covenant with God by being baptized.  I am amazed at how much Heavenly Father is blessing us for being consecrated and focused on this work!

Sister Khong and I do have someone we are helping prepare for baptism.  She is a lovely old Hakkanese woman who doesn't really speak any Mandarin and communicates with Sister Khong in Cantonese.  It's been fun teaching her.  I have actually learned a little more Cantonese, which is great for freaking people out when contacting. :)  That language is ridiculous.  This woman's name is Sister Liu, and she was raised on a farm in China so she can't read.  That makes reading the Book of Mormon rather difficult, and since there is no Cantonese recording of the book we got permission to record it with some members of our ward.  It's been a crazy project, and we have about half of it done now, which is awesome.  We taught Sister Liu to use a CD player this week, too, so now she can listen to it on her own.

Through all of this, the scripture Jacob 4:6-7 has been on my mind again and again.  It talks about the faith that is given to us by learning about the Lord through the scriptures, but then reminds us that it is only through the grace of Christ that we are able to see and experience these miracles.  The weakness that we experience by being people is normal and actually necessary to our eternal growth, because it helps us remember who it is we rely on for salvation.  It is one of my favorite doctrines, now.

I invite anyone who reads this letter to remember our mission in your prayers.  Your added faith will bring blessings to the people living in New York in ways you cannot even imagine!

With love,

Sister Beer