April 14, 2014

Dear everyone, this has been the craziest week of my mission. All I have to say is that I am glad to be back in buffalo. It really is the promised land. The stake out here is booming and the people are prepared. We drive a lot but not as much as they used to since we no longer have unlimited miles. My companion and I work really well together ( elder bailey). He kinda reminds me of penili. Not too much work was done with numbers because of our half week but we have a good feel for our area now.

Aside from all that we had the best p day ever today. We went out to a field and I taught our whole zone how to play touch rugby...out in the rain. I will send some pictures of the aftermath. All in all I am learning lots I am working hard and I am having fun. What else is there to missionary work? Thanks for your love and support!

Love y'all

Elder bevan

 

 

 

April 7, 2014

 

 

Dear Everyone,

I hope you all had a chance to feast on some of the amazing words that were given this weekend, because they were definitely meant to help you through whatever you are going through. I have a personal testimony of this. 

I love sitting at the feet of our beloved Prophet and his Apostles and hearing God's word for me. Pretty incredible. On another note I have some pretty unexpected news. After serving in Irondequoit as Zone Leader for two transfers I will be leaving and serving as Zone Leader in the Buffalo Young Single Adult Branch. I have to say that was very unexpected and I can't lie I have absolutely no clue what to expect. We cover nearly half of our entire mission and travel at least 3,000 miles a month (for some missions that is not a lot) but it is for sure going to be quite the change in work methods. 

The good thing about this "change" is that I am leaving happy and satisfied with the work that I did while I was here. I truly feel that I did all that I came here to do, especially with some of the last minute things that came up, I now feel that I can say I have done all that was required of me. This is a good feeling. I am really grateful to be a missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ.

A quote that inspired me this week says, "When the tide comes in, every ship in the harbor rises", as members of this church we are truly what keeps this world afloat, so let's bring in that tide and lift where we stand by following the promptings of the Spirit. 

Love you all,

Elder Bevan

 

 

3/31/14

 

Dear everyone,

I heard from kaleb  that they also got some snow this Sunday. We got hammered with some really thick slushy stuff it was quite the surprise considering it is supposed to be spring time. So it was good to hear that we are not the only ones going through this.

We had a good week this week, we worked hard and did our part.

However, it can get kind of depressing when you are trying your hardest and not much is happening. I feel that things are going to change soon. I say this because we had our fifth Sunday meeting on missionary work. It was obviously directed at the members. Something cool that was said was,"if you feel guilty in any way about doing missionary work don't do it!". It may sound sort of counter productive but it is the truth. We should never do missionary work out of purely "duty" or because someone said we had to. Those may seem like good reasons, however they will not last and usually are what lead to many members being afraid to do missionary work or someone getting offended. It is only until we can invite someone out of love that we should begin to invite. I believe that this directly relates to the hastening the work of salvation. I say this because in order to hasten the work around us we must first hasten the work of our own salvation!

 (Alma 60:23). This was inspiring for me as a missionary.

Thanks for all your support I love this work!

Love

Elder Bevan

 

 

3/24/14

 

Dear Everyone,

What a week. This was probably the fastest week of my whole mission. I have no clue why? Maybe because it has been the first week of real missionary work in a while, without all the meetings. We have some good things going on in our area. We are finding people and are actually teaching people now. I feel like a real missionary again. For a while we were pretty depressed in our investigator category. We still have a lot of work to do but we know that we are going to be blessed, whatever it may be. We have two investigators that we are getting really close to setting a date with them. (the basketball guy and his family). We are really trying to get the ward members involved. Member work has been the hardest work on my mission. It takes a while to win their hearts and that is the very first step in getting them to listen to you and keep your commitments. I have a good success story this week. The young girl that I just baptized now has a calling, is faithfully going to church, has a lot of member support, and just got accepted to UVU!! I was so excited for her because right now she is going through a lot and has to deal with a very rough family situation. She has a big life changing event ahead of her. 

There have been so many great things this week. However I just want you all to know that it is all true!  

Sorry its short this week.

Love,

Elder Bevan

 

3/17/14

 

Dear everyone,

What a week. The weather here really needs to stop! On Tuesday it was 55 degrees and sunny, and then Wednesday rolls around and we get a weather alert that says New York is in a state of emergency and that we are not allowed to go out and travel around. In one day we got over 2 feet of snow! It was madness! However the work must go on! 

So I guess I hit my year mark sometime this week? It does not even seem like it. It was pretty suiting that on my year mark I had to give a Zone Conference. Never would have guessed I would be where I am at now. Our Zone Conference went really well. We gave our training on Promised Blessings, and Bearing Testimony. Before my mission if someone would have asked me to train for an hour I would have died. Come to find out an hour is never enough time. 

I want to include in this email a very inspiring story that I heard yesterday from one of the people we are working with. We asked him if we could share his story and he said that it would be ok. I will use Fred as his name since we are not supposed to use people's real names. We came in contact with Fred yesterday. We heard about him from a member who passed us a note during church. I guess the member heard of fred from another member out in Newark who had asked him to send the missionaries over to see Fred. We had no other info on Fred, so we were kind of going in blind. Anyways, we went over to see Fred. He lives in this half way home for recovering addicts. We knocked on the door and this big black man answers and lets us in. We are introduced to Fred who is no small guy (one thing we had heard from the member that referred us was that he was a big teddy bear). We found a place to sit down and began to talk about his life. Come to find out he was a member. He was born and raised in the church and all of his family are members. However he chose not to be active and got involved in a lot of bad things which eventually led to a serious accident that happened back in July 2012. This accident resulted in a coma that lasted for 5 months. After 5 months of nothing he miraculously woke up! He began to tell us some of the things that he witnessed while he was under. A lot of it is very sacred but in short he saw Jesus Christ who began to ask him if he wanted to stay or if he wanted to go home and change his life around. Fred told Him that he wanted to go home and try again. It was a very powerful testimony to me that Christ lives. He said after this happened he woke up and new that his life had been prolonged. I believe this is true because of the witness of the Spirit and the teachings of the scriptures especially in 2 Nephi 2: 21. 

I know that Christ lives and that he loves us!!

Love, 

Elder Bevan

 

3/10/14

 

Dear Everyone,

What a week. The biggest news is that it is starting to warm back up. We finally are above freezing. It feels like a year since we have had it this warm. I hear however that it won't be long before another snow storm rolls in. This, however, has had little to no effect on me. I am having a good time, warm or not. For example. The other day we were walking down the hood on Laser st. in the freezing weather (wind was howling) and we saw these guys shooting a basketball in their backyard. So naturally we walked up to them and challenged them to "throw down". They accepted and it was game time. It would not be hood ball if there was no dunking and since the guys we found were white the rim was a solid 7 foot high :). The throw down began. Just imagine 4 guys on a court 12 feet by 8 feet. There were lots of elbows and alley oops. It was really fun and no one got hurt which is a good thing. The best part was once we finished, we started talking about our missionary work in a casual friendly way. This lead to one of the guys opening up and telling us that he wants to start coming to our church. This is nothing too strange in the rough parts of our area, but this guy has some Real Intent. It was a tender mercy given to us for having our line in the water at all times. I heard a cool quote about this the other day. It said, "There are no miracles, only to those who are ignorant. A miracle is supposed to be a result without a cause, but there is no such thing. There is a cause for every result we see; and if we see a result without understanding the cause we call it a miracle".  We all know God works through us, but he does this best when we promise to be who we are (faithful members) and reach out wherever needed. I have learned for myself that this is what it takes to see miracles and trust me it really works! 

 

In our week this week we also were able to go to the temple. That is my favorite place in the world. I do not know why anyone that could go would not! It is a refuge from the evils of this world and boy is it refreshing. We also had our monthly MLC (mission leadership council). I am starting to become more comfortable at these and actually enjoy them. It is always nice to have a meeting that you do not have to give a training at! 

Well that was pretty much my week. I hope you are all doing well. Before I go I want to share my tip for you this week. It is something I learned from President Francis. He said this when someone asked, "how long do you read your scriptures each day?". His response was, "I read until I feel the Spirit, then I read a little more" what an awesome piece of advice! I have learned this applies to everything spiritual in our lives! Try it out!

Love,

Elder Bevan

 

3/3/14

 

 

Dear Everyone,

Another Transfer week has snuck up on me! It is almost surreal how quick everything is happening. Anyways the big news is that I am getting a new companion! I am a little curious how things will go since I have only been Zone Leader for a transfer and my companion has never been any leadership position before...I better figure it out quick! My companions name is Elder Knudson. I served around him in cattaraugus. I am sure you will hear more about him later on. 

A lot of great things happened this week. One of them was that Prince our Recent Convert was given the Aaronic Priesthood! Also, his wife came to church and is now, almost officially, investigating the church! I am way excited for this, it has been something we have been praying about a lot! They are by far my favorite family :) The reason they are my favorite is because they live in the Hood and yet they are so wholesome and spend time together as a family just reading. That is something you never see anymore. 

We have been helping them move out of their house to one just down the street. Their new house is a lot better however it is still in the hood. Some of the things you see down there are sketch...from loose Pittbulls running around terrorizing the neighborhoods to broken syringes...life is very interesting. All of this stuff has just added to the experience :) 

Well I wish we had more time but Transfer days are always crazy for time!

Love,

Elder Bevan

 

 

2/24/14

 

Dear Everyone,

It has been a great week around the board. I have come to love change (at least at this point in time :). My new companion and I get along really well.  We are both "Brand New" zone leaders. I have been a zone leader for 6 weeks and he has been one for 1 week. They pretty much flushed this area and the leadership. I believe it is for the best. We get to start out fresh and not adopt the wicked traditions of our fathers ahahaha. We have a lot of learning to do however especially when it comes to giving trainings. I am still not super comfortable giving them especially at Zone Conferences…I guess that will be my mountain to climb this transfer.

We had to walk a lot this week because the other elders in our apartment wrecked their car and it was getting fixed. This was good because it helped us get to know the area better but boy was it cold!!!! Elder Knudson and I have also had some time to get to know one another, and come to find out he is deathly afraid of dogs. Uh oh because in this area there are pitts everywhere and they just roam the streets. He is getting a good taste of the hood. This is not bad but we have made a goal to find Kingdom builders (aka Families). This area has a good mixture of both nice and ghetto areas and for some reason every missionary that has served here has focused on the ghetto areas. I think they do that just because it is easy to find work. However not much has come from it. This goal that we have is going to be a struggle but we know we can do it with some assistance.

 I found out something this week that I thought was an amazing miracle. So about two weeks ago Elder Haines and I went to give a member's non member husband a blessing (if that makes sense). Anyways we drove over to Rochester General with another member to give him a blessing. At this point is when things started to happen, and I realize now that something great was brewing. We had no clue where to go, but ended up parking in the perfect place where we just happened to catch Sister K leaving. She was so happy to see us even though you could tell she was under a lot of stress, because come to find out her husband was laying on his death bed. He had just overcome cancer but because of the chemo he could not get rid of a fever and had some other complications. Anyways he was not doing too well. However she was full of faith that all he needed was a blessing to overcome this. So we gave him a blessing and that was it, until a few days ago when we got a phone call that he was completely free of the fever that they could not get rid of and was almost completely recovered. It was a miracle and a testimony builder that came at just the right time. We had two of these experiences in the same week! I really cannot say much more than God has a reason behind everything and is doing some good work! I was just grateful to be worthy of being a part of these miraculous healings. 

Well I hope you all are doing well and are nice and warm J

Love,

Elder Bevan

 

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

1/13/14

Dear Everyone,

Well guess what? Transfer week (AGAIN). I totally forgot that Transfers were this week! It is pretty crazy to think that I have been out 10 months today. Time flies when you are where you are supposed to be and are working hard. Anyways...transfers...I got a call last night about 10:47, which I was prepared for, except when I looked down and saw that it was President Francis and not the Zone Leaders. Long story short I have been called to be Zoned Leader of the Rochester East zone. I am a little nervous, not because of being called as Zone Leader, but because my zone has the Assistants to the President and President Francis in it. It is going to be an awesome experience. I will be serving in the Irondequoit area, which is supposedly the ghetto, so that will be a change :) I am really excited about this, it will be a blessing for sure.

 

Steven & his new companion

This news makes this week a little bitter sweet. Mainly because it was a pretty successful week. We were able to help two of the people we have been working with a lot prepare themselves to be baptized the 25th of this month. I promised them that I will make it to their baptism so I am really hoping that I can keep my end of the bargain! I will be taking pictures today of the people that we are working with so you can actually see them :).

One thing that I am not going to miss when it comes to this area is the weather. This week we had to stay inside for two days because of FREEZING COLD weather. It got all the way down to -41 degrees on Tuesday, but guess what? On Saturday it was 48 degrees and raining! I am still in shock. My body is pretty messed up. I get really hot and start to sweat now when our apartment gets over 65 degrees. I guess that is

just how Western New York rolls.

Well I have experienced many miracles this week. I think the most memorable one was last night (maybe because it just happened?) It was a usual night of visiting people and trying to find new investigators. Well, we decided to go see one of our investigators that is working to overcome some addictions. When we got to the driveway of his house we felt like it was not the right time. So we began to brainstorm where to go next, since we knew God brought us to this place for a reason. We eventually thought of this woman who had been referred to us by a member. We drove to her house (which was 3 doors down from where we were) and knocked on her door. She welcomed us in (luckily her son was there so we could go in!) and we began to talk. Well she told us some things that had happened to her this past week and told us that we were an answer to her prayers. We were able to resolve some of her concerns (her main one was, Who Is GOD?) and help her come to know that the Book of Mormon will answer those questions. I am so thankful for my knowledge of the Book of Mormon and have made a commitment to receive a witness everyday of it's truthfulness so that way I can truly testify of it with power. I know that the Book of Mormon gives us answers to our prayers, and through the Spirit, it will tell us ALL things that we should do. I am so grateful for the changes that are taking place in my "outside" missionary life but I am even more grateful for the changes that are happening to my "inside" Spiritual life. God has been good to meI am so grateful for all that I have been given because I have been given so Much. 

I will let you all know my address when I get to my new area up in ROC City.

I love you all,

Elder Bevan

January 6, 2014

Dear Everyone,

Sorry about not getting my last weeks email out. I was slacking. It seems like my missionary life is kicking into another gear as time moves on. I used to have days or even weeks that I felt just dragged by. This is not the case as of now. I feel like more and more responsibilities are being placed on me as time goes on and I am able to find more an more ways to spend my time being productive. 

For example this week my companion and I found two new investigators who are "prepared". In just one week they were both committed to a date this month and have been taught all of the lessons. We are working with one of them on the word of wisdom but aside from that they are both ready to be baptized (our other investigator that was supposed to be baptized last month is working on setting another date, so we have a chance of 3 baptisms this month (fingers crossed)). It was such a blessing to stumble upon them. We also had 10 member present lessons which is unheard of in our area. We are finally learning the principles of teaching for conversion. 

Along with all the teaching and finding opportunities my companion and I were asked to give a training in Zone Meeting on Motivation and Confidence. Which I personally think is weird that they would ask us. Along with that we had to prepare for our monthly Missionary Fireside that we give. It was a little bit stressful trying to prepare enough so that we could feel comfortable teaching. I thought teaching in the beginning of my mission was scary. Well it only gets worse when you are teaching a large group of people.

The biggest lesson that I learned this week would have to be don't pray for humbling experiences if you don't want them :) Our missionary fireside this week was humbling for me. It was humbling because it did not meet my expectations (which I have come to realize those "expectations" were prideful). I wanted it to be something "magical". Something that would shock and awe. Instead it was a simple and humble declaration of truth. This is what humbled me the most because despite how well (or how poorly) we performed the Spirit was still felt. I have a testimony that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass and that feeling the Spirit in this world that we live in is a GREAT THING! I know this church is true because it is moving forward and filling the hearts of the children of men, despite the weaknesses of mankind. 

I love you all thanks for being my support!

Love,

Elder Bevan

 

P.S. We have not had a lot of snow until TODAY!! It has been blizzarding all day long so far.