2/10/14

 

Dear Everyone,

This has been an eventful week. I think the first and biggest event would be our new IPADS. These things are crazy. Of course they are very secure. For good reasons. The only things that we can use on them are Facebook, email, gospel library, and some other church websites. They have already been way useful in our missionary work (we have used a few mormon messages in our lessons). The worst part right now is transferring all of our Area book into the data base. Aside from that they have been pretty exciting. Hopefully we will be able to buy them at the end of our missions.

Another cool thing that happened this week was that I was able to go on another exchange with the Henrietta District Leader (who just happens to be my trainer). I thought it would be a little bit strange. However it turned out to be a very spiritual experience. We were able to find a new investigator and teach him very powerfully. There is no better feeling than teaching people and they just get it!. So I guess all is well that ends well.



We also had our mission Leadership Council this week (that is where all the Zone leaders and Sister Trainers get together and council on certain topics that the mission President assigns). That experience right there was a very interesting one. I have never really been on a council before and had to discuss "certain" topics. It was a great experience but I can not say that I am super comfortable with the idea of it yet!

This week we have really been working our hardest to "Find a Family". This has been the emphasis of our mission President. We have of course been working with our normal investigators still. Who, by the way, are doing really well...however we have not yet had a chance to meet with dad's referral again. They have been playing hard to get but that is ok because I am pretty persistent and they are pretty sincere just way busy. 

 

Anyways. My companion and I have been given success this week. I believe that it is mainly because Heavenly Father is very merciful to us. The reason why I say this is because we have been trying our hardest to find "effectively" (in other words...working with the members) and it just is not working. So we made the decision to go back to the old way of Banging our heads against the wall aka tracting but with a twist. I call it member tracting. We basically go to every members neighborhood and knock on their door and tell them we will be tracting their street and that they should point out a few houses. Turns out we were able to find a family! We basically had to beg the members to give them to us but a referral is a referral. I have learned that referrals out here are earned not given :) It was a great experience for us and also for the member. 

Important lesson for this week. "Sometimes action proceeds the desire"

Thanks for all your support! love ya

Elder Bevan

2/3/14

Dear Everyone,

I hope you are all doing well. I, on the other hand, am Happy! There are a lot of reasons to be happy, but being a missionary you have them all! It has been something I have observed with everyone I meet and especially within the church. Those that are keeping the commandments and doing what they are supposed to are happy, but the families that are the most happy to the point that they are glowing, are the families that are anxiously engaged in doing missionary work.

There are some pretty cool highlights for this week. One of them has to do with that miracle that I shared last week. I was able to finally meet with Dad's referral! She and her husband were very nice. Yes...she is married which is amazing for Western New York. They are both way nice and have a definite interest in learning about our beliefs. They are both immigrants from Ukraine, He has an accent she does not. The meeting that we had with them was awesome. We approached the meeting in a very friendly manner not wanting to be forceful or anything. Which turned out to be the best way. After a while they began to ask all the questions which led us to teaching them about the Restoration. It was a very pleasant experience. We will be meeting with them again next Sunday. 

Another highlight took place while at Pep boys. We had to go get new tires for our Subaru Legacy (pretty sweet :) it has the flappy paddle shifting) and of course it takes pep boys 3 hours to change tires out. So we had three hours to walk around in the -20 degree howling wind. It was brutal. We found some bitter sweet success as we were walking around doing OYM's (open your mouth) but the real success came as we stumbled upon one of the sister missionaries investigators. He is a thug (remember this). He recognized us and started to talk to us and tell us that he had some bad news. He told us that he was going to "drop" the sisters. Come to find out. The reason why he wanted to "drop" the sisters was because they took him to a choir concert and he HATED it. Hahaha My companion and I started laughing at the thought of this guy at a choir concert. Anyways we told him "Don't worry about it...they won't mind" (don't feel bad for the sisters because this guy is technically in our area:). So we invited him to come play ball at the church with us, of course he accepted. I have a feeling he is going to become a pretty solid investigator eventually. 



There were only a few low lights this week and a good majority come from having 4 elders in the same apartment. Nothing bad has happened. It can just be hard to get everything done. I think my roommates are almost as bad as girls :) 

Thanks for all your support.

Love,

Elder Bevan

1/27/13

  

Dear Everyone, 

I had better start writing really fast because there is just so much to say. This has been a week to remember. I can say this because one day took up 4 pages in my journal...literally. Well I will just have to write some of the significant events that took place. The first and most significant event was a miracle that happened Saturday afternoon. It has to do with another referral. I am starting to realize how significant referrals are in missionary work (so I encourage all of you to start thinking of someone you know after you finish reading this letter.). 

Anyways the story begins 8 months ago when I was in I was in Lewiston. It was then that I received a letter from dad about some lady that he met on a business trip to Texas but her home is in Rochester. He told me about her in a letter (8 months ago) and had given me a piece of paper with her name and number, and said to "visit her whenever you go to Rochester", well after receiving this referral I used the excuses of "I am too far away to contact her and hardly ever make it down to Rochester", or "what would I be able to do way out here to help her?" I did all this to justify my lack of action, even though we are told when we first arrive in the mission field to contact referrals as SOON as possible. Anyways these excuse persisted but not without an occasional mental reminder to not to forget her. It was not until I was moved to Rochester that I could no longer put off or ignore the persistent thought of "CALL HER". This is what finally brought me call her. I have to be honest that before I ever called her I had a lot of fear inside me, telling me that this was going to be a failure and that discouragement would be the only result of this attempt. However I put it aside because of the Spirit of the Lord, which told me "the time is now" and that I needed to repent. The initial result of the phone call was way different than I had expected. It was a pleasant conversation between two friends, all because of the example that dad had set. The real tender mercy happened when she told me where she lived. Come to find out the place where she lives just happens to be 5 mins from my current apartment. Ridiculous! Right? All I can really say is that it was a faith building experience for me just knowing that the hand of the Lord is in our lives and that he is leading and guiding countless people and their circumstances to fulfill His Glorious Purpose. This was an amazing experience that was merely a result of some very small acts of Faith!

Another awesome experience I had this week was that same day. I had the opportunity to baptize an investigator in my last area. She asked me to baptize her however I had no way of making the 2 1/2 hour drive! Luckily I have the best Mission President in the world. He volunteered to drive my companion and I down to the baptism. It was an awesome experience and some good bonding time (he even let me drive his fancy car :) That was another tender mercy. 

The last experience I have to share took place yesterday. I am not sure if I can call this one a tender mercy? haha but it was a learning experience! About 8 o'clock yesterday morning I was asked to speak in church. Of course I was asked during ward council so I could not prepare and would immediately speak after that meeting. Anyways I was given free range on what to talk about but I was asked to speak for ten mins. I was not super scared but I was a little uneasy. This is only something that I had nightmares about before I left on my mission. Luckily I was not left alone up there. I spoke on Faith, of course (mainly because my companion was asked the week before to speak on repentance). It was a humbling experience and one that I will never forget. However, I have already forgot what I actually said while I was up there :) The Spirit was strong and I felt it as I spoke. 

I am so grateful for this "Mission Trip" as they call it in the NYRM. It has been the highlight of my 20 years of existence. I have found some very important things, mainly, how it is that we are supposed to live. I know that the most important thing that we need to do each day is to have the Spirit. If we do, we can never fail. 

Love you all,

Elder Bevan

1/20/14

Dear Everyone,

This has been one of my favorite weeks as a missionary. It has not been without personal challenges, but the greater the opposition the greater the victory. It was quite the experience leaving Cattaraugus and coming all the way out to Rochester.

 

Talk about a change in lifestyle. I actually have to drive in traffic now! That however has been one of the less significant adjustments I have had to make. I already know what the biggest adjustment is that I have to make and it is not going to be a cake walk. Being a normal missionary is easier because you are only responsible for loving your companion (by the way missionaries are harder to love than the people, at least for me). However once you are called to a leadership position your circle of love has to grow. Well at this point I am working on my circle of love hahahah :) It has been good so far and I have had really no problem with it.

 

The zone that I am over is the smallest in the mission, with missionaries and geographical area. However it is the best zone in the mission :) In our district we have the AP's, the Zone Leaders (us), the Sister Trainers, and our District Leader. There is only one missionary without a leadership position and he is a visa waiter. So it is a very interesting meeting when we all get together. I have not yet had the chance to meet the whole zone yet, but I will be giving my first zone training tomorrow so wish me luck or better pray for me :)I hope that covers most of the questions that you might have about what is going on in my new area.

 

I am trying right now to get a ride back to my old area so that I can baptize an investigator we have been teaching. She asked me last week to baptize her so now I am working on finding a volunteer to drive me 2 and 1/2 hours down there and back...this one I could use some luck :)

So I want to share a miracle that happened this past week. It was my first day as Zone Leader. My companion and I were stopped on the side of the road so that we could make a phone call to the sisters to give them a headquarter referral. My companion was on the phone talking and was giving them the information on this referral when all the sudden I had the really bad feeling come over me. I immediately gave my companion the cut it sign and told him to stop because of this really bad feeling I was having. Well he did and quickly told them we had to go and that we would talk to them later. After he hung up I told him what I felt. We talked about it for a little and did some investigating to see what the matter really was. Well come to find out this referral was a fake and was a trap to get missionaries. Anyways. I felt a huge mantel of responsibility come over me after this. I was so grateful for this experience. It taught me a lot and helped me see how important it is for Leaders to have the Spirit. I know that I am unequal to this task but I am qualified through my righteous living. 



 

 

Another awesome thing that happened this week was we had a baptism! It seems like I always walk right into baptisms. Haha I was able to help teach this young man the last few times before he was ready for baptism. It was such an awesome experience. I love this man. He is such a stud and is so ready to experience the blessings of the Restored Gospel Of Jesus Christ! Back to back baptisms this week. You just can not get much better than that :) 

Well time is almost out! 

Love you all. I will work on sending pictures sometime :)

Elder Bevan