Monday, August 13, 2018

Women's Conference May 2018


It was our anniversary and we celebrated 25 years this year! We look like babies when we got married!












 


This year Virginia and I flew up to Women's conference to meet the ladies. We had quite the group and we all stayed at my aunt Elaine's house and enjoyed her hospitality and her company. 

It's been great to stay connected with these ladies over the years. We've been through a lot collectively and it's nice to have friends that know your history and have known you for a long time. 




Virginia and I always love doing the crafty stuff for volunteering when we listen to the talks. 





The flowers were gorgeous up there...had to get a picture. 





We found out that Penny needed a traveling companion at all times, ha ha. She was having heart palpitations when she would walk too much. She's been to the doctor and they can't find anything wrong, they go away after a few minutes but she had to take breaks. We all took turns being on Penny patrol ;)




Lots of walking through campus to get to classes but who better to walk with...




Over the years we have realized that life isn't as simple and just doing all the Sunday School check lists doesn't get you the results you might have expected in life but thats OK. In the end you can hold onto faith despite what comes your way. Coming to Women's Conference helps remind of us of this. 





We got to meet up with a lot of great women who were there the same time as us! 




Virginia and I loved getting to hang out with Aunt Elaine more and getting to know her better.



It's great sharing the experience with Virginia too!




This is a recreation of a pose we did in the past. We found a neighbor working on his house down the street and got him to come over and take this picture, ha ha. 




Here is a recreation of the last time we were at Aunt Elaines...it's been a lot of years. 




Penny gave us all pearl bracelets and we wore them and remember the strength sisters can provide to help us get through life. 






Update from Jacob...


May 7th, 2018

Hello Everybody!
      Thank the ward for the package! I loved it! It was the perfect snacks. I've really come to love trail mix on the mission, after a long time of not so good snacks. I have been figuring out how to be healthier, and the meals are my strong suit, but snacking is my weakness. 
      And happy almost Mothers Day! 3:00 your time would probably be a good time for the call. I Will have a member here text you if things change. And since it is our last call, I would love to keep it to just y'all again, it's nice to see the rest of the family, but I feel like I already don't have enough time with y'all. It's crazy this is the last one! 
      The weeks have been flying by now! It is a lot harder now in some ways! I think of it like working out. The last few reps of the workout are where it's the toughest, but it's also where you grow the most, as long as you stay consistent. So that's what I'm trying to do, is stay consistent! I've learned to really love music a lot on the mission, it helps a lot! It brings the Spirit and also helps me relieve stress. My thoughts have been getting a minor in music, because it's something I've found I really love. I just wish I would've practiced more on the piano haha. The branch here has had me play a special musical number once already, and I'm playing again in a couple weeks! It's been fun too serving others through music. 
      This week! It was a good one! We took out one of the youth with us who just turned 16. He is a really great kid, and will be an amazing missionary. We met a few really nice people that let us right in! We out in the way country, and that's where you find the true southern hospitality, notsomuch in the city. They seem to be pretty set in their ways, but they will always offer food or water, and one told us to come back and he'll cook his famous chicken! It's people like this that makes me really love the South! 
      The next day we took that same youth down, with a member from New Zealand driving us down, to a service project. It's a house that is very nasty with tons of trash everywhere, and everything overgrown. This was the 3rd time we came down there to help and luckily this time was mostly just lawn care. Previously we took about 8 truckloads of trash bags out, so it was nice to just focus on the lawn. There are some scary bugs here in the South! And the bees and hornets here are huge and abundant! I loved seeing him though.
      I was also blessed to see some of the young adult devotional yesterday. And it talked a lot about ministering, and service! It gave me peace, because he talked about return missionaries. We spent 2 years fully in service of others, and we feel the peace that brings in enormity! What is tough for missionaries when they go home, is when they start to focus on themselves too much, and they lose that peace that comes from serving. So that is the key! Finding the balance between meeting your needs and meeting the needs of others! I am very excited to be a part of the ministering program when I get home, because that is really just missionary work to members. I love y'all so much! Talk to you soon! 

- Elder Beaulieu 













May 14th 2018

Hello Family!
      It was so great to be able to talk to y'all yesterday! Glad to see that everyone is doing well! It was good to see JJ too, sad to see that he'll be leaving soon. 
      It's weird to think that the time is apporaching! I've been out for 20 months as of today! I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing haha. I've been in this area now for about 3 months, but it seems like the whole town already knows me. We went through Walmart today, and a couple people stopped us and said theyve seen us around Lancaster, which has happened most frequently in this area. We have spent a lot of time walking recently, but now that it's getting super hot, not too sure how much walking we'll do. 
     There are usually lots of thunderstorms in the spring time, but it didn't happen too much this year. However, there is supposed to be 4 days of straight thunderstorms the next few days, so that's exciting! It will be fun while it lasts, but then the humidity will spike and that won't be too fun.
      I think the branch here likes us! We've been taking more of the members out with us, mostly because they have been asking to come out with us. In our teaching with the members, we've been leaving them with a copy of the Book of Mormon, and inviting them to pray as a family to identify someone they could give it to. It's worked really well! Either the family already has someone on their mind, or they report to us regularly that they are still praying to find who to give it to. 
      Things overall just feel weird with all these changes coming up. President Alexander will be leaving soon, and then I'll be leaving soon after. Also! I just found out that he is coming to my district meeting this week! It will be really good, because he came to my 2nd district meeting, and it didn't go to well. So this is my chance to redeem myself! I will also be able to talk with him afterwards and that's always nice. 
      One thing I learned from one of the missionaries this week, is about feasting! He expounded on the scripture to "feast upon the words of Christ." Now this missionary is 26 and used really big words in his training, however I think I caught the gist of it. He explained the body, how when food is taken into the body, your stomach breaks it down to provide nutrients to your body. That exactly what we gotta do in our studies! We need to break it down so we can understand all that the scriptures are trying to tell us. Sometimes, i feel like studies can be like corn. In and out of the body, and it stays the same. But we need to really break it down! As i've been keeping this in mind, my studies have been so much more meaningful! 
      I love you family! Have a wonderful week!
-Elder Beaulieu 

























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