Why on earth would I think it's a good idea to start a blog?

     So. Where to start? Maybe a good place to start would be explaining that I have been back in the good ole United States of America for almost four months now. FOUR! I didn't even know that until I just wrote that, wow! Along with that, I am no longer a full time missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Kind of a big adjustment there! Perhaps some of the biggest changes from being in the US and being a "normal person" have been: flushing my toilet paper down the toilet( love it!!), seeing my family more, not walking up mountainsides to go preach the Gospel anymore, not speaking as much Spanish, and not worrying about being bit by rabid dogs every time I round a corner while running, as well as many others. So how has it been? That's a tricky question to answer. IT'S BEEN SO GREAT. American food, talking to my family on the phone whenever I want, living with the infamous Sam aka Hermana Coffey, etc. But also sometimes really hard when I miss my sweet Peruvians. And discouraging when I wonder things like, "Have I done any good in the world today?" Like, truthfully? Because the grade I just got on that microbiology test is not going to be helping anyone anytime soon( except for the people I just created a curve for;you're welcome!!) But anyways, things like that.
     I don't like to be sad( you don't say?). And as of late I have been trying to study about joy and being happy. I love some great talks out there! Check out President Uchtdorf's Forget Me Not talk https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/forget-me-not?lang=eng and President Monson's Finding Joy in the Journey. I've been trying really hard to be happy happy. And think happy thoughts. But somehow I've found myself down a lot these last couple of months. BUT before you quit reading this because I sound so whiny don't worry, I found a solution( and by me, I mean God put one in my brain)!
     I had just finished watching the talk Finding Joy in the Journey. And while I had been studying, my dearest sister Cammilla Capybera sent me a text telling me she sent me something in the mail!!!!!MAIL=CHRISTMAS! That is one thing that has not changed from the mission. I ravenouslyopened up the envelope she sent and I found this.

     Uhh, does anyone else realize how awesome this is? I hadn't told Cammie anything about what I had been studying. AMAZING( by the way, Cammie makes lots of super awesome stuff https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheWordsmithGallery?ref=search_shop_redirect). I love it when people follow the promptings of the Spirit. Here's a picture of the sweet lady herself. 

      So that just helped re-affirm that God really wants me to work on this! I have been pondering on it a lot and the answer I got may be a little disappointing given my lack of graphic design skills and that fact that Spanish seems to have wiped out all of the adjectives from my writing, but the answer was a blog. On my mission, lots of discouraging/bizarre things would happen but it was easier to think about them in a humurous/awesome light when I got excited about sharing my experiences with my family. For example, that one time I saw a cow's organs being harvested as we were trying to teach some people, I could have been absolutely horrified but it was such a novel experience I couldn't help but get excited about sharing it( http://hermanabeckstead.blogspot.com/2013/08/week-6-july-22-hola-im-in-peru-es-cierto.html). So that's the goal. NOT to see more cows being butchered, but that I'll be able to see the seemingly terrifying/discouraging/mundane events in my new life under a new light. I'm hoping that seemingly mundane tasks will become inspiring and hopefully humorous too( although if you want a really funny blog, you need to visit my friend Alex's blog http://alexostler.blogspot.com/ . But for reals. Read it. All of it. It'll make your life better.). So really, this blog is pretty selfish. But if some of you out there could just act like you read my blog that would be awesome! Sharing is good. With that in mind, please share your experiences on here too, I'd love to hear them! 

So here's to seeing if I can keep up with this thing. :)