Transfer 13 Week 5 - September 22, 2014

Hey family! things he are going well.

This week we were able to go on an exchange with our leaders. That was fun. Upon returning we went to the temple site with the sisters in our relief society to give cookies to the construction workers as they came off the site. I always look forward to going to the temple so

just be on that ground! It truly is such a special place and I know that we should pattern our lives around that!

The area is continuing to progress and we were able to have a few more of our investigators at church this week! I know that as we help these people understand the power of the Book of Mormon that they will see how true the gospel is. It truly is the key stone of our religion. I

love it and I love the message that we share!

This week we really were focusing on teaching a lot of our investigators about the plan of salvation and keeping the sabbath day holy. I love both of these topics. First the plan of salvation. We are truly trying to help others eclipse the Saviors mercy at the day of judgment. I know that the plan Heavenly Father has for each of us is real. I find so much comfort in that plan and it really hurts my heart when others reject it. But I do know as we'll that it is so amazing in just being able to show people what is truly important. It helps them see the purpose of their lives and that they are not alone! I just want to show everyone that! Jesus Christ is our savior and redeemer!

He lives and he helps us each and every day! I know that he is the son of God and that our father loves us so much. I know he gives us the Holy Spirit to bless us, comfort us and guide us through the fiery darts that life through so our way. Which comes to the other important

topic of this week. The sabbath day! Oh how I love that holy day! How do each of you feel when you reflect on the ordinances of the sacrament that you are able to participate in weekly? I know that is where we can truly come to remember our savior and the things that he does for us. President spencer w. Kimball once said “When you look in the dictionary for the most important word, do you know what it is? It could be remember. Because all of you have made covenants--you know what to do and you know how to do it--our greatest need is to remember. That is why everyone goes to sacrament meeting every Sabbath day--to take the sacrament and listen to the priests pray that they ‘may always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them.’ Nobody should ever forget to go to sacrament meeting. Remember is the word. Remember is the program”

I just love that so much and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to remember my savior! In 3 nephi 18:25 it says "come unto me, that ye might feel and see." I hope each of you are able to have that same experience as your read, pray, and go to church that you can truly know Jesus Christ!

I love each of you so much! I wish I could express the changes the gospel has done for me but if I started then I would t be able to finish this email. I just want each of you to know that each day as I place on my name tag that it is a sacred experience for me. I think of it how Christ would when he placed his robes on each morning to go out and serve the people! It is so special for me to wear my Saviors name.

I am grateful for the opportunity to represent him and to stand in his place and say and do what he himself would say and do. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the most important thing to me. I know that it is the key to happiness. It doesn't mean that the trials will stop— in fact there is always another taller mountain to climb— but it is the greatest peace we will find, the best way to overcome sorrow, to withstand the temptation of the adversary, and the direct path to live

with Heavenly Father!

I wish I could stay here forever. When I was home last I discovered how much I love God and how I have desires to serve him the rest of my life! I now look forward to my future back at home because of the hope that I can continue everyday as I have here. I know the greatest

happiness I will find is building family relationships that are centered around this message and working everyday to get there! I look forward to seeing each of you and rejoicing together as we know we are striving for this same cause! Hurrah for Israel!

Love you!

Sister Chalet Beames

Transfer 13 Week 3 - September 8, 2014

Hey family how is everyone doing? Things here have been so good and
I'm loving everyday!

There have been a lot of awesome highlights this week and I'd love to
share a few with you.
1. I love Mexican food but am getting tired of it already with eating
it three times a day. We definitely bought some pizza this week to
change it up when I was going crazy.
2. It has been super humid! Sister Ballard has these huge glasses that
she wears cuz she is blind but also they look kind of hipster. But
every time we go outside they fog up. It sure does give me a good
laugh! 8-)
3. This week was zone training so we had some great lessons prepared
for us by our zone leaders! It was really great to follow up on our
goals and things that we want from our mission! I had to bear my
testimony at the end as a departing missionary which was really hard
but it was good for me to do.
4. We had interviews with our mission president this week. Such an
inspired man and I love his counsel that he gives.
5. Sister Anderson is challenging the mission to read Preach My Gospel
as a mission by the end of the year. This was cool because this was
something that I was wanting to do anyways. So I was actually thinking
that we should do it as a family. I know that this will really bless
us in ways that we never knew possible and also help our missionary
efforts. So will each of you do that with me? Start today at the
beginning and just a few pages a day an de will be done by the end of
the year! I'm looking forward to it!
6. We went to the Washington, D.C. Temple this week! That was such a
powerful experience this week to be there and to feel my heavenly
fathers love for me! I am so grateful to know that the work I have
been able to do has been accepted by him even from the very beginning!
:) Also that temple is beautiful and I am just so grateful for gods
home and that I am allowed to go in there and feel that peace that
comes!
7. This week was baptism week. In working with my companion we set a
goal at the beginning of this week to have someone with a date by the
end of the week so we decided to make it a goal to invite someone
every day! At the beginning of the week in our studies I was going
through the training program with sister Ballard and I asked her if
there was anything that she felt like she didn't have a testimony of.
She said that she did and so I asked her if there was something she
wanted to have a stronger testimony of. She said fasting, so I bore
testimony to her of the power of fasting and challenged her to fast
for something specific this week that would help her testimony in that
area grow. She said she would let me know when her prayer was
answered. It ended up being when we returned for the second lesson
with the Diaz family that I told you about last week. Their daughter
accepted the invitation to be baptized. It was such a neat experience
and the spirit was so strong. I'm grateful for fasting and I know god
hears and answers our prayers! :)
8. There was a mushroom festival here in Kennett! Since this place is
the mushroom capital of the year the first weekend after Labor Day
every year they have a festival. It starts Friday with a parade and
then Saturday and Sunday they have vendors all through the Main Street
for about a mile and everything is blocked off so we park the car and
walk all weekend. It was great. I tried one mushroom at a mushroom
exhibit! It was disgusting so I immediately spit it out! I felt bad
because I did that but couldn't help myself. Who likes eating fungus
anyways??
9. I shared my testimony during sacrament meeting. Sacrament each week
here is like stake conference! This ward is huge and seriously think
they should split it! Nuff said!
10. I had dinner with a family this week with the last name costa. The
man actually was a foreign exchange student from Brazil and had
graduated from valley in 95'. I took a picture with him and his year
book and where Brannon and Miranda were in there and also where
Miranda had signed his book! Crazy right! Small world in Kennett
Square!

Well headed to Philly! Gonna go do something crazy and adventures!
Love you all! Pray for miracles everyday and read your pmg!
Love Sister Beames

Transfer 13 Week 2 - September 1, 2014

Hola Familia!

 

Things here are going awesome! Man I love Kennett Square soooo much! This place is just so great! I love the people here they really are so amazing and it is great to see how each of them are children of our Heavenly Father and that he loves them so much! I really feel like everyone here is so prepared to here the message of the restored gospel. As we take the opportunity to open our mouths to everyone that we come in contact with we are able to see miracles! :)

 

We have absolutely been trying to talk to everyone and this week I am so excited for the appointments that we have lined up and the people we are planning on seeing!

 

I had so many new favorite experiences this week! One was the opportunity working with members. I have really been trying to talk to people at church even though we were work in a Spanish area, I introduced myself to many of the women in the RS. It was really great when I ask them if they would ever be interested in coming out teaching with us they seem surprised that I asked as if they can't go because they aren't in our area, they don't speak Spanish, or else they have never been invited to go out teaching before! One individual, Sister Clay we invited to come with us to a lesson. The lesson ended up falling through but we knew several potentials that lived on the street. So we decided to stop by and she ended up telling us that she thought she had a friend that lived on the street as well. So we knocked on some doors and talked to people until we were led to her friend. It was a lady she had worked with in an office at the school. Both her and her son were there as well and we were able to teach them the message of the restoration! I loved it so much! The spirit was so strong and this family is super prepared! Sister Clay had actually told Anna on several occasions that she is living a Mormon life and doesn't even know it! In the past she had also given a BOM to Annas mother-the grandmother- before she went back to Mexico! The daughter, Viviana had actually told us that her grandmother said it was really good and for her to read it and to get her mom to read it! It was incredible!

At the end of the lesson I told Sister Ballard to invite them to be baptized! When she did they were thinking she meant right then lol! But we cleared it up and we could see that they were so prepared!

 

This morning as we were at the laundry mat we were studying and I was going over some of Sister Ballards 12 week training. We were discussing commitments and invitations to others to be baptized. I told her that when ever I felt the thought in a lesson about baptism, or even if I started doubting if we should ask them to be baptized then, or if maybe the thought comes that we should wait until the next appointment usually means that we need to extend the invitation right then! I told her that the adversary doesn't want Heavenly Fathers children to make those sacred covenants and so when ever that special word comes into our mind, we must invite!

When I was telling her this, her response was that was exactly what was going through her head in the lesson about if maybe we should invite and wait until the next visit, but then I leaned over and showed her a scripture with the word baptism as an indication for her to extend the invitation and she knew that she had to do it! As she shared those thoughts with me in the laundry mat we both had tears come to our eyes as we felt the Holy Spirit testify to our hearts that this was true. We both know that is our sacred privilege and responsibility to help our brothers and sisters make these sacred covenants!

 

Another great experience was with our investigator Manuel. We were following up on his commitments this week to read from the BOM. He hadn't done it and so we decided to read with him. There were some really special moments in this lesson. We had asked him what he felt like he was searching for and he said peace just as the book had mentioned. At the end of the reading session we asked him what it would mean for him to read and pray to know the truth. He said he feels like these things are beautiful but he didn't know if it was something that he would be able to do. We testified to him that if he made time for God, then God would help him make time for everything else! It was super powerful and it just makes me realize how much we truly need God! He is the source of everything and when we distant our lives from him then our lives don't go the way that they are supposed to!

 

Finally there is this couple that we have been working with lately! They had gone less active in the past and it has been such a blessing to be able to teach them. Sometimes I get so sad when these individuals share their testimonies with us but then fail to understand how important and necessary it is for them to act on them. There may have been people in the church that you have been offended by or things that made you downright angry, but never, and when I say never I really mean it- never withhold yourself from partaking of those sacred covenants which are renewed when you partake of the sacrament! It is the only intelligent thing for us to watch for the safety of our souls and to turn to our Heavenly Father and Elder Brother Jesus Christ for that daily nourishment!

 

I love this gospel! I'm so grateful for how it has changed me and that I can share it with others around me! I plan on changing the world because of it! One Kennett Square at a time!

 

Love always,

Sister Chalet Beames

Transfer 13 Week 1 - August 25, 2014

Hola familia!
Buenos Dias! La misión esta llenado muy bien! Está es un nueva
transfer y nuestra un para un aventura!
Ok... Why the heck am I speaking Spanish in this letter? Oh yeah
that's right... My mission president transferred me to West Chester
speaking Spanish for my last transfer. Not to mention I'm also
finishing training a new missionary! Crazy right? Mi compañera es
Hermana Ballard. Ella es de Arizona.

Well we live in Kennet Square. It is the mushroom capital of the
 world. The whole city smells of mushrooms—I don't even like
mushrooms. We even have some growing in our bathroom! Not on
purpose!..our shower is just really gross! So let's just say we are
having some good times!

Ok so the area is kind of crazy. We border the edge of our mission and
we are right near Amish country too! One of these days I'll snap some
pictures of some buggies that they ride.  :) the area here is
beautiful though. I feel like most of the time we are driving though
the jungle! It is nuts—super green and so vegetated. And every road or
even the highways seem to be through the forest. I haven't experienced
this on my mission yet so it is something new!
But this week has been super amazing. I never knew much Spanish nor
did I ever have much desire to learn, but it is funny how Heavenly
Father always makes us stretch! For which I will be forever grateful.
My companion grew up speaking Spanish. Her father was originally from
Mexico but then they also lived in Arizona, Hawaii and Texas. She
knows Spanish but not gospel Spanish! So we are learning that
together. She speaks it and I read it because I am better at reading
it than her. So we compliment each other muy bien!

This week started off with transfers and then just coming to get to
know our area. We spent all day Wednesday walking to save some miles
and it was so good to get out. I haven't done as much walking in a
long time, and I don't know what it was from because I work out
everyday pretty good but man my body has been killing me all week and
I can't seem to make it stop hurting. Oh well. But as we were out we
talked to so many incredible people! We went to a family the
Castañedas– we were able to invite their son who is living with them
into the lesson. The mother is a member, and the father is too but he
is in Mexico and one of the daughters is a member. Anyways the sons
name is Manuel. We started teaching him and he had a pretty good
background of what we teach and had such a strong testimony of Jesus
Christ. So we set up another time to go see him. As we went back to
teach him the rest of the restoration it was incredible. Yo pedía
sentir espirito santos muy forte! And I expressed that to him and he
even said several times throughout the lesson how he could feel our
spirits and something more. We testified to him how it came from god!
We also invited him to pray but he was too nervous and said he would
think about it for next time, but he said when he does come to know
for himself he will be baptized!

A couple more awesome people we were able to meet were Jamie- the
brother of a recent convert, and Alicia–the mother of anger by recent
convert. The sisters had never been able to get them to sit in on he
he lessons before but we were able to invite them to come in even when
they had an excuse that they couldn't stay and we told them that we
wouldn't take long and now they have both agreed to learn more! It was
awesome!

And finally there was a lady named Delilah. She is an investigator and
we were able to read to her in Spanish since she can't. It was cool
because she just expressed to us how she loves us coming and reading
and praying with her because she feels something special when we are
there! Man I love this work! I know that The Lord has prepared people
for us to teach! We just have to open our mouths to share with them
this good news!

Espero que todos tengan una buena semana! Yo te amo e yo sé que dios
de ama e te quiere! :)

Ps keep me in your prayers to develop the gift of tongues.
Pss dad I met one of your home teaching companions, and mom was his
primary teacher...brother Sorensen.

Love Hermana Beames

Transfer 12 Week 6 - August 18, 2014

Family! I'm getting transferred! My stay here in Vineland NJ has now
come to an end! It has been a beautiful 6 months and it is going to be
so hard to say good bye! I know I love each area on my mission, but
this place has own my heart once again! I feel like this was an area
where I have seen the most growth in myself! Heavenly Father has
really allowed me to just participate in this work here and see
amazing people each day where I have been able to feel so much love
for them and know them more through gods eyes! I know that each of us
are children of god! I know that each of us can change and that is
possible through Jesus Christ! As we hold to the plow and not look
back we take steps further onto the paths of righteousness to a place
which our father in heaven had prepared for us! What a great journey!
I love you NJ!

This week has been something of excitement! Mostly just talking with
everyone is what I love the most! There is always someone that God
will place in our paths for us to share a message with or to help!
We were able to help out at the soup kitchen as well again this week.
Except this time they switched buildings so we were at a St. Andrews
church. We helped the lady pastor Allen do some things with organizing
food and working in the back. It was cool being in the back room- it
is like they have a ton of stuff just for show! But we got some good
pictures! :)

It rained a ton this week! There was so much rain and many houses were
flooded that Mormon helping hands is going to be doing a lot of
service projects this weekend to clean out basements and places that
were damaged. I took a video where it looked like we were driving
through a flood! It was nuts!

Wednesday was super special. We were helping some of recent converts
do family history work! Vickie, William, and Evelyn, and another
member-sister Parton, who has been a member for about ten yrs-have all
started doing famiy history! It was so great because there is such a
wonderful spirit that comes when they participate in here work of
saving souls especially with family members! —This last Saturday they
all went to the temple for the first time: William was baptized for
his son, his brother and his father! Sister Parton was baptized for
her mother and Williams mother! Oh it was amazing! Brother place who
is a member of our bishopric said when he was confirming William he
knew that his family was there with them! It made me so happy! I know
this day was also the anniversary day that mom and dad were sealed so
there was such a special feeling in my heart and to also know that
these individuals were able to have experiences that will change them
and they will carry with them for forever!

There were so many sweet goodbyes that I have said this last week! So
many sweet memories and so many sacred moments filled with the spirit!
I love being a missionary and being able to serve God! Hope all of you
are doing well! Keep pushing forward!
Love you have a great week!
Sister beames

Transfer 12 Week 5 - August 11, 2014

My crazy companion died her hair red this week! She thought it would
be a good idea to look like me, but then today she ate something she
was allergic to which turned her face red as well. Now she is one
beautiful cherry! Unfortunately she says she doesn't like cherries!

Well this week was pretty darn good with many exciting adventures! I
really just love talking to people, and being able to get to know so
many of them!

For our stake we have been trying to work on a ysa out-reach. Which is
to try and reactivate all of them and there are some where around 900
in the stake. Crazy right!? Well there is this one kid that we have
been able to work with here that is super awesome! He is probably one
of the most spiritual young man I have had an opportunity to work
with. He expressed a lot of things about his life and it was just
amazing to see him take our advice and give prayer a chance and to
just see how god was able to work in his life! He really felt the
power of the atonement this week and I know how incredible that must
have been for him and for him to just share those experiences with us
was amazing. We also invited him to come to church. At first he said
no, but by the end of the week he said yes and said he recognized the
need to show his thanks to god! Today we went with him and one of our
members on a trail walk as well to see if we could see some eagles. It
was a good adventure... But we didn't see any.

This week we also were able to see joann. She is a lady that we are
teaching in Bridgeton! We weeper going to go with her to her bible
class but when we got there she said it was actually canceled. Instead
her granddaughters were there. We sang with them and taught them the
song "I am a child of god." It was super great and just to teach these
girls about who they really are was so much fun! They wanted to sing
it again and again and again!

We also had zone conference this last week! It was such a great
meeting once again to be with all the missionaries and our mission
president and his wife. My favorite part was when sister Anderson was
able to speak with us. She shared stories of her life and how prayer
has become something so meaningful to her and how it truly is our
communication with a loving Heavenly Father who knows us and hears and
answers us! She talked about the PPM, and how they can be for Pray
Ponder and Meditate and how as we do these things they can really take
the sacredness of our calling to new heights as we put our trust in
god!

This week was also Williams first time giving a talk in church. It was
super exciting. We tried to help him write it and when he got up there
to give it he said that I wrote it for him, but in reality he deviated
from everything we helped him with. It was super funny because he
talked about his conversion but also how he been able to study from
the scriptures and how he always calls us when he needs help... So
when we originally helped him write his talk he said he wanted to use
a scripture in the bible, but he gets up there and uses 2 Nephi 16:3-5
and then tells me over the pulpit that he didn't really know what it
meant so I would have to tell him later. Ha it was super funny! Man
the Vineland ward is the best! I really love every experience here.

We were going to have three young girl investigators at church this
Sunday but they ended up missing the ride which was lame. We had been
teaching this girl named Salena. She is 16 and super awesome! We
taught her about the Book of Mormon this last week and also church and
when we invited her she was super excited that she went and invited
her cousin, her best friend, and even her younger sister. It would
have been great just things weren't coordinated very well, but she
will come next week!

Lastly there were so many great people that we were able to meet. If
you do what is right then god will place others in your path. We were
able to meet this man at a custard place who asked if we were the FBI.
We ended up talking with him for quite some time and he really has
been through a loop lately. He just got out of a coma that he had been
in for about 12 days and he used to be an alcoholic but now hasn't
touched it since. He recognizes that god may be giving him a second
chance. I look forward to meeting him again in the near future! There
was one other man named jamar that we met in Millville too! W were
headed back to our car after walking to an appointment and I had seen
him when we had first walked past his house, but then about a half
hour later he was still there and we were about to get in the car when
I turned around to go back and talk to him. He was super friendly,
except told us to be careful in that area(something we get here every
day) but then when I asked if he knew anyone that would be interested
in a message he said him and his wife June would be so we are going to
go see them soon!

Well folks! That is all for now! Hope things are going well for you!
Keep pushing forward! Love you all and pray for you always!
Love sister beames