6/10/2013

 

Hello Everyone,

So this has been one hectic week. Not too different from all the rest however. We are starting to wonder about transfers! They are a week away and I am hoping and praying I will stay in Lewiston. I am really loving it here. However I will go wherever I am needed. It is a little stressful in that sense.

 

There was some really great things that happened this week. I will tell you about One experience in particular. It is about Bonnie. I told you a little bit about here and how we found her by visiting less actives. She is the one that ran away to Utah but anyways. We had not heard from here for a while just because her husband has been a little turned off to us. We finally did one of our usual surprise visits. Those are the best. We were able to sit down with Bonnie and her husband  and get to know one another. It was just what he needed. We set up a time to have a lesson with both of them. We were teaching the plan of salvation and it hit them like a ton of bricks. The Spirit was so strong! The words where just flowing out of my companions and I's tongues. It was an awesome experience. We answered some of her concerns that were holding her back from baptism and we were also able to touch Larry's (husband) heart. By the end of the lesson you could see he was touched and he was even acting like he did not want us to leave. We are so excited to continue meeting with them and being an instrument in bringing the Spirit into their home. I will keep you up to date on any more excitement. Just know I am working hard and changing a lot. Thanks so  much for all you do!

Love

Elder Bevan

6/17,2013

 

Dear Everyone,

So I got transfer calls and guess what! We are staying as is. I am very excited about that because I have been feeling like I still have some work to do here. 

So this week has been another great week. We had some really good lessons with our investigators and they are slowly starting to progress more and more. We had our Strawberry Social this last Friday which turned out to be a great success. we were only able to get two of our investigators to come which was disappointing at first but there was nothing we could do. Our one investigator (Ashley) who is getting baptized brought one of her friends along. He has been wanting to meet with us and learn more about our religion! So we met and talked with him at the social which was awesome. He seems very interested and loves the way our church is run and the people that are in it. We found out after wards that one of the members asked if he was a member and he said "No, I am not but I will be soon" !!!!!! I was like what???!!!! Ha it was pretty funny. So we are super stoked about talking with him (John) and teaching him so that he can become a member.

Another awesome experience happened after church yesterday. So we are running low on miles and are really trying to not drive at all! So we have been hitch hiking with members and basically anyone. Anyways after church we were talking with one of the Senior couples in our ward about some of the people they have been meeting with and we asked if they would like to come and meet Bonnie with us? (we needed a ride haha) They said of course so we went out there and no one was home except for their son Charlie. We were a little down and started to drive out of their driveway and then Bonnie her husband Larry and there friend Regina (from Utah and LDS) pull in. So we hop out and begin to talk and eventually get inside. It was a great visit and it was definitely inspired to bring the Senior couple. They meshed so well and now they will feel even more comfortable when they come to church. It is pretty crazy some of the connections we have been making. I guess Bonnies brother John is from Mesa. He is a stake president or bishop and is coming up soon!!! She is so ready to except the Gospel now and her husband is slowly desiring to come back. We are pretty excited to be a part of this and are really praying that all will work out.

Thanks for all of your support I could not do this without you.

Love,

Elder Bevan

Hello Everyone,

Well this passed week has been pretty great! We had some really great experiences finding people. We also had some not so great times. The week really did not start off as well as we were hoping, because our most promising investigator's husband (a less active member) told us to hold off and wait a while. We were disappointed because she is so prepared and really wants to be baptized. It is really frustrating when people allow satan to harden their hearts. We will for sure keep trying to meet with her but all we can really do now is pray that their hearts will be softened.

 

Aside from that we had awesome success finding people that wanted to hear about the gospel. We found them through tracting and by visiting former investigators. One day we decided we were going to go visit all of the former investigators in Ransomville.  So we started visiting with the people that we found in our records and immediately found success. We visited this house where a lady that the missionaries had previously been teaching had died and now her daughter and her family lived there. They stopped investigating because they saw a negative video, but because of the recent death of their Mother/Grandma their hearts have been softened and they are excited to learn more about the church. Later that day we ran into another former investigator who for some reason or another just got dropped. He said the missionaries just stopped coming by. We are going to do some investigating to find him because he is living on the Indian reservation.

 

We are really excited for what is to come. We are working with a four investigators to get dates for baptism. I will for sure keep you up to date on those. The last cool experience this week happened when we were out tracting in a pretty affluent area. We were have no success whatsoever. We started heading back to our car when a teenage kid yelled at us and asked if we had knocked on his door. We said we had and then we told him why. He was surprisingly interested and for some reason he kept staring at me. He asked me after we had finished talking if we had met before. I told him I was from Arizona so probably not. You could tell that it was really bugging him and he was really trying to figure out why he felt like he knew me. This has happened to me twice so far and I am pretty sure it is no coincidence. I know I am here for a reason and I have really gained a testimony of this and come to know who I really am and what my purpose is for being on this Earth.

Love

Elder Bevan

 

Wow! What a crazy week. Everything was so intense I can hardly believe that Monday is here again. The big change at the beginning was my new companions. It is now obvious why we as missionaries experience so much change. It has required me to grow and mature constantly.

So my companions and I hit the ground this week in a full sprint. We had some really great experiences thanks to some hard work and lots of prayers. We taught a ton of people and found some choice people. It was awesome to be able to feel the Spirit work through our efforts. We committed 3 people to baptism and now we need to set a date. I am so excited for the work that is ahead of us even if it is a lot of service. Service is one of my favorite things to do. Recently we have been doing tons of yard work. My favorite is either mowing with a riding lawn mower or using a roto-tiller. The people really appreciate service and we find it is one of the best ways of softening hearts.

It was great to be able to talk to some family on Mother's Day! I feel energized and ready to start over for this week. However there was an unfortunate event that happened after talking with everyone. We were on our way home just cruzing along at a good 50 mph (that is as fast as it gets over here) when out of the dark a skunk comes jogging into the road right in front of me. I had no time to swerve, stop, or anything. SO it got smashed and now our car smells like skunk, inside and out. It is the worst!!!!!!!!!!! I was so mad. Anyways if you have any suggestions on how to get the stench out of our car please let me know!

Thanks again for all your support and it was awesome getting to see and hear some of you yesterday. I hope you are all doing well!

Love

Elder Bevan

April 29, 2013

Dear Everyone,

   This week was tough but very successful. It was probably our most successful week in Lewiston, even  though two of the days my companion and I were both gone. Companion exchanges are like a said last week very insightful....This week was a really great week, not so much in progression with our existing investigators but with finding people that are ready to be taught. In the beginning we were looking for just about anyone that would listen to us. The people we found are great people but are not quite ready to accept the message of the Restoration, so we have been looking for those that have already been prepared and we found some this week. 

   We found that the most receptive in Lewiston are those that are not "set". Obvious I know but we had a hard time finding these people. We were able to find them this week by visiting tons of less actives and getting referals. We had a cool experience with this while we were out visiting all our less actives in Wilson. We were in the process of doing some investigating for the Bishop. We had a list of names that he knew nothing about, as we were walking up to one of the houses some lady ran up to the door and swung it open and yelled "missionaries come on in". My companion and I looked at one another and were a little startled by her hospitality. We went in and started to learn more about her and her family. Come to find out she had just returned from Salt Lake City. She told us that she had run away from her family for four months and just got back the other day. She kept talking about our church and how awesome it was and how she had done some research on it and wanted to learn more (this is not usually what happens when people research the Church out here). So we asked her if she wanted to take some lessons and she said Yes! It was quite the experience and made us reflect on why we had not come sooner! After thinking about it, we had planned on coming by the past three weeks but for some reason we kept forgetting! It was cool to see that it was not us forgetting but the Lord putting it off until she had come home and could accept our message.

   We have been blessed with a lot cool experiences and are looking forward to some more in the future! We are excited to get to do some work on the Indian Reservation this week. We got a few referals from a native and really think the work will flourish as it talks about in 1 Nephi 15 when it talks about the seed of Lehi will receive the Gospel in the Latter Days! Well That is about it thanks for all you do! Don't forget to be missionaries to all those around you!

 

Love,

Elder Bevan

4/22/2013

Hey Everyone

   It has been a good week up in New York. I had a lot of learning experiences and walking this week. I have been going on companion exchanges a lot since the end of the month is rolling around and my companion is the Zone Leader. It is good for me to go out and experience how other missionaries do missionary work (whether good or bad). I am starting to learn that patience is a virtue and you get a lot of practice out here perfecting that.

    I had the opportunity to give a talk this past Sunday. It went pretty well at least I think it did. The topic I was given to speak on was being anxiously engaged. I am not sure if it was the Lord telling me to work harder or what! I did however learn a lot from it and am grateful for some of the chances I had before my mission to experience this.

    I did have a unique experience this week. My companion and I got invited with another companionship to go to this bible study in the ghetto. It was held in this unfinished basement that had pit bulls running around. We (the missionaries) were the only white faces down there. At first I felt a little uncomfortable and out of place when everyone started yelling AMEN! But all the missionaries were invited to go up and bear testimony. It was cool to be able to add insight to their beliefs and share a little more knowledge that they did not have. All around it was a really neat experience and we gained a lot of new friends.

   I just wanted to thank everyone for all their support and encouragement it really helps me keep working hard and pushing along.

Love Elder Bevan

 

Elder Bevan's New Apartment

                                   

                                                  Palmyra Temple