October 21, 2013

Dear Everyone,

Another TRANSFER!!! 

First things first. The Progress in our area has been a little slow this week. Especially since two of the days we had to move out of our apartment by ourselves, into the (previous) Senior couples place. We also had to clean like I have never cleaned before! It was gruesome and exhausting. I am really thankful that is all done with. On top of that we (Elder Wood and I) had to make 130 Navajo Tacos for the youth Super Saturday. We got volunteered because Elder Wood is a pretty good cook and used to sell fry bread back home! So we spent all day Saturday making Fry Bread! I still smell like those dang things!

 

So when we did have time to do "real" missionary work we had some pretty good success! We taught our most progressing investigator and it went really well. She has agreed to fast and pray about setting a date for baptism! So I think we will be having another baptism sometime this month! I am super excited for her! Her name is Jessica, she is Polish and has had some rough times, she is in the process of separating from her husband with her two boys (5 and 7 yrs). She is very sincere and knows the Church is true! I really can't complain about not having success because I have been blessed so much since I have been out here. Success is a Gift from God, given when we prove ourselves worthy of it. 

I also had a lot of crazy things happen this week. By crazy things I mean Miracles. One of the miracles was while I was on an exchange with Elder Ivie. We were trying talk to a member about setting up a time for dinner that day. Of course the service on the Rez is terrible so it dropped our call! So we pulled into the first driveway we found, to turn around, and as we were about to flip around some man starts walking toward us. My initial thought was "great we chose the wrong driveway! Now we get to get yelled at by some big Indian." Well that was not the case! We rolled down our window to hear what he had to say. The first words that came out of his mouth were "Elders! I knew you would come!" Haha talk about a shocker! We just kind of went along with it and said "oh yeah, of course!" We asked him what his name was and found out a little more about him. It was a very interesting conversation considering the fact that he thought someone had told us to stop by or something like that. It was the strangest thing. As we drove away Elder Ivie and just started laughing at how we were both scared that we would get yelled at. It just goes to show that we really should not judge people, the Lord works in very Mysterious ways, and that when we are on the Lord's errand we have nothing to be afraid of! It was a powerful experience!

This week was the last week of this transfer! I can not even believe that I am on my 6th transfer! We got the transfer calls last night and I found out that I will be getting a new companion! Elder Hadley. I guess he is from Mesa, AZ? I guess President wants to keep the Arizona boys together to keep them safe from the Utah boys haha or something like that....

Along with this transfer "thing" that is happening I am a little nervous (more unsure than nervous) about how things will go without Elder Wood, my indian peacemaker with me! Elder Hadley has only been out for 1 month! So it is going to be an interesting but awesome experience! 

We are supposed to get our first official snow this week as well! I am trying to be optimistic  :) it will be easier now that I have my big winter Jacket! (Thanks Mom and Dad!) 

Well keep praying for Missionary Experiences! They will come and you will be blessed! 

Love

Elder Bevan

October 15, 2013

Dear Everyone,

It has been a hectic week for me. I have had a lot of events that were very irregular. One of these irregular events was an exchange with the Zone leaders. I am not sure if the purpose of these exchanges are for my benefit or for my district but I sure needed a break from my regular routine. I believe  this exchange was refreshing for me because I was not having to be the sole motivator and could really just focus on doing missionary work. I sometimes get a little overwhelmed when it comes to my companion not wanting to dig in. However, after the exchange was over there was a new attitude that attended our companionship. It was such a blessing for me. 

Preparation Day - Fishing at a members house

I have been studying a lot this week about breaking off your sins/weaknesses through righteousness. I even had this great district meeting planned out and everything but like I said earlier this week was a fiasco. Our senior couple goes home tomorrow and they were part of the problem when it came time for district meeting. They have been really awesome and helpful but boy were they trunky! It was almost hard to be around them because they were so ready to go hahah. That is something I do not want to be like when it comes time for me to go. 

We had another funeral this week...everyone is dying! There have been about 12 deaths within the past month! Maybe this is the Lord preparing some people to hear our message? That was another "thing" to add to this week since We...the missionaries...are the worker bees of this branch. Ryan told me that he was always helping people move...well we are always burying people!! 

Aside from all of this the missionary work is going along at a slow pace. We are working on a few people right now to get them into the waters of baptism, but however much I would love to spoon feed them everything that they need. I can't. I am just praying for their hearts to be softened unto repentance! The important thing is that we keep teaching and finding!

Palmyra Temple Grounds

I did not even tell you half of the craziness of this week but to add on to it I will be finishing up my exchanges with my district this week! I get to go down to Gowanda. I am really looking forward to it! There are a lot of challenges that come from leadership positions but the joy comes once we are able to minister and to serve those that we are responsible for. Keep me in your prayers :) I am so grateful for all of you! 

Love,

Elder Bevan

October 7, 2013

Dear Everyone, 

I hope that I will be able to say all that I have in mind to say and that I will also be able to answer any other questions you may have.  The weather here is very inconsistent, it is really cold and windy one day and hot and muggy the other, this goes along with the people as well. 

I have been asking myself what more can be done to move this work along. After many experiences this week I have learned to be grateful for the little battles that are won. I will tell you of the little battles that were won this week. The first battle that I had to over come was District Meeting. I have not yet mastered the art of feeling 100% comfortable with teaching. However, this is a good feeling because it humbles me and then I am able to have and feel the Spirit work through me. It was a good district meeting I know this because I was jotting down mental notes as I was teaching and testifying. 

The second battle came as we were teaching this lady who has a lot of questions and concerns. After applying the Preach My Gospel section on Concerns she was finally able to move on. This principle was put perfectly into words when President Thomas S. Monson quoted Abraham Lincoln about winning someone to your cause! (Check it out). The third battle came while trying to resolve problems with my companion...I had a lot of questions on what I should do and even more on how I should go about doing them! Lets just say things happen at a certain time for a reason.I say this because after all these challenges arose I was able to sit down in a monthly interview with President Francis and he gave an assignment to look for answers in Conference. Well this not only resolved my questions but it built my testimony of the power of inspiration given to those that speak at General Conference. I had written down 11 questions or concerns I wanted to have answered and all of the questions were addressed individually. It was just perfect. 

I have so much to say about conference, I would even go far enough to say I have too much to say! The over all theme that I felt kept coming up throughout all of the sessions was love. Whether it was love of God or of all mankind. It made me think about Jesus Christ and how he overcame the world through love and isn't that why we have Apostles and Prophets? They are here to help us in our path home by overcoming the ills of this world! I can tell you that they have shown me the way and the way is Jesus Christ and His Gospel. After one of the sessions I was reading the scriptures and pondering about one of the messages and I thought of this little saying that I have heard so often "It does not matter what you know but who you know" I thought about that and it is so true. That person that we need to know is Jesus Christ! So I took the liberty to add to that saying, "It does not matter what you know, but who you know, and what you know about Him". If we can just understand this more deeply what this really means to "learn of Him" we will never depart from the path home and our burdens truly will be taken away.

As for those that I am teaching we are having little progression, but like I said before you have to learn to recognize the little victories in order to really be prepared and worthy for the big ones. We have a lot of hope for one of our investigators. Her name is Jessica and she is in a tough spot with her husband. They are separated but now back together/separated again. It is tough, but she watched conference on Sunday and Loved it! The coolest part was when she was listening to the Prophet. Since she is a Jehovahs Witness she knows a lot about Prophets. After hearing the words of a true and living Prophet she was dumbfounded (for lack of a better term). She told us afterwards that she did not want conference to end and that she wished President Monson would have spoke more. She is making big leaps towards following Jesus Christ. We are so excited for the Faith and Testimony she is gaining! 

We may not be making a big difference when it comes to outward appearance but I have learned that not too many people wear their hearts on their sleeves especially in a world that we live in now. It is important to never get discouraged and to be steadfast in the Faith that we have. This Church is so true we must begin to plant the seed of Faith into the hearts of those around us and be patient and let the Lord succor His people. 

Well Cattaraugus is doing well colorful leaves are in no short supply. Trees are the most abundant resource Western New York has aside from dead opossums :) ahaha the leaves are falling and winter is coming. I am pretty excited to shovel the snow :) 

Thanks so much for all of your emails and letters. I am so lucky and have never felt without support! I am so blessed.

Love,

Elder Bevan

P.S. Mom we did watch Conference at the Church. And nope we did not get a dinner appointment but we went around bugging the members till they fed us ahaha :)

9/30/2013

Dear Everyone,

There is a lot going on right now in the Cattaraugus Branch! We have just about picked all of the apples out of our orchard. Talk about a lot of work especially because when we picked them it was pooring rain! However all the work was well worth it because from it came a lot of good. We are working with quite a few Less Active members and are really doing our best to get them involved and this event was perfect. 

We have been stirring a lot of pots (figuratively) and doing our best to get a lot of the stagnant members back into the circle of activity. To this point we have been without a lot of success but we had an awesome specialized training from President Francis which was just what we needed. It was centered on the Atonement but what really stood out to me was an analogy of a basketball player measuring his success as he went along practicing and how with each shot he would "see it go through". That was exactly what we needed to hear and do. 

We have been talking to a lot of people and working really hard but people don't change overnight and they definitely won't change if they are not held accountable. If you can't tell already, as a missionary you learn some really great life lessons in a shortened period of time. These two years are in a way an incubator for growth if we take advantage of it. I just want to let you know that when you do take advantage of it, it can be extremely rewarding. It is always the little things that are the most motivating. For example the other day we were teaching an in active, part member family who is investigating (re-investigating) the church something really cool happened after we taught...the inactive member (Nadine) said " I want to meet and learn more, sooner, because a week is too long to wait". Little things such as that just keep your fire burning. These little moments only come through our Faithful and Diligent efforts. We have to do the small and simple acts of obedience consistently in order to receive the blessing the Lord has promised us which is that He will encircle us in the arms of His love. These are the moments that I live for as a missionary. Whether they come after a long day of hard work and only one lesson to show for it, or they come after we have prepared ourselves Spiritually  to partake of the Sacrament and then feeling an overwhelming feeling of love, comfort, and peace, they always come! They lift us higher than life itself. 

I had a definite "first" this morning. A member of our branch passed away this weekend and since our branch lacks a lot of committed members, a lot of the responsibilities fall on the missionaries. So we were in charge of this funeral that was going to take place. This morning at about 8 o'clock I had to go out and plot out a grave site in the grave yard behind our building (our building has a graveyard instead of a baseball diamond) so this way the back hoe would know where to dig because last time they dug back there they accidentally dug up two graves.... I was also asked to dedicate the grave site at the Funeral which was a pretty cool experience I must say. All in all this area has been quite interesting when it comes to the things you are asked to do. I have learned a lot in these few weeks that I have been here. Probably more than I could have learned in my last area! So I can now see a little bit of the big picture of why I am here! I am so grateful for the hard times I get to have because boy do I learn a lot from them. I just pray everyday that I can keep this attitude :) 

Thanks for your prayers in my behalf I really do get the blessings!

Love,

Elder Bevan