Amazing Sacrament meeting! 

Hey Y'all,

 I hope things are going well for y'all. Hopefully you were able to survive finals or whatever else was thrown at you right before the Christmas break.

 

Things are going pretty well here in the Palm Harbor area. One of the greatest things that happened this week is we had an awesome time doing a service project with the young men on Wednesday at Chad and Kris C's. It was super awesome since we were able to have a lot of young men come and fellowship the son CJ and invite him to mutual. We were also able to teach Chad and Kris C about the doctrine of the Godhead and explain to him and Kris C the promise of the Book of Mormon. Chad already believed that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are 2 separate beings which was really cool. We are excited to see them again and help them continue to receive the restored gospel.

 

We were also able to go to mutual that night and Cyrus and his cousin Daniel came. They both seemed to enjoy it. We played basketball with them and it was super nice. This week Patrick is going to come to the Book of Mormon Study class so we are super excited for both of them.

 

One funny thing that happened is Elder Mainor and I were just going down this street and all the sudden we hear sirens in the distance. That is pretty common here so it didn't bug us much until they kept going for the next 30 minutes on and off again. It turned out to be that Santa rides around in a firetruck through the neighborhoods of Tarpon Springs. Because of that we were able to see Santa in one of the most terrifying, funny times of my life. Later we saw him in a parade in Palm Harbor later that week.

 

Then Sunday was a day of miracles. We were able to go there and we had a couple of people that we were hoping might come to church this week. The first people to come were Patrick and Cyrus and Cyrus's mom. It was really cool to see them. They are wonderful and loving the Gospel. I hope that they will accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ into their lives and receive all the gifts that Heavenly Father has in store for them. We also had Neil Demers come. That was super awesome since we didn't even know he was in town, so it was completely his choice to come to church. We are going to be meeting with them this week and I am so excited to help him and his family become an eternal family.

 

Two other random cool things that happened this week was Elder Mainor and I got to go to Clearwater beach to give someone a blessing. We got to see one of the top beaches in the world and it is super nice. Elder Mainor and I also got to see a few manatees. Apparently in the winter a lot of Manatees swim into the Bayou in Tarpon Springs because it is warmer there than in the ocean. It was really cool.

 

Other than that it was a normal week. I am so excited for the Christmas season. It truly is a great time of year, especially as a missionary. I am so excited to use this time to bless the lives of those I taught and share more about what Jesus, the reason for the season, does for us. I hope y'all have a great Christmas.

 

God Bless!!!

 

Elder Beard

 

Isaiah 9: 16

"6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

 

Clearwater Beach as seen from the road.