Transfer 4 Week 1 - May 20, 2013

Hey family, friends, neighbors, children of God,

 

What's crackalackin?

 

So this week has been super good. I have really enjoyed everything that has taken place. I have been trying to write in my journal more and I have been able to look back everyday and count many miracles. This was a blessing because before I did that I was sitting thinking about everything that took place here this week and I really didn't feel like we had been much help.

But the Lord works in mysterious ways. Just have to be patient, do everything that you can, and then stand still and watch the way he works.

 

Overall we have been working with a lot of less actives this week. There are a lot of people that have made covenants with God but they just need their testimonies rekindled.

 

We have been trying to be super bold this week (and loving). We know that as we give people commitments and we ask them to do things that when we are bold it is a way of showing that we love them. We are asking them to do these things because we want them to be happy and to be able to partake of all of the Lord's blessings!

 

And then when we were meeting with the Fales family (Mike) we had a really good lesson with expressing those feelings. We have been talking to them a lot about church, praying, reading, and keeping the word of w. But it always seems that they pick and choose which days work best for them or doing it when they think they have enough time... So we focused on John 10:15 If ye love me keep my commandments. We know that when they are doing these things because they love the Lord and because they want to be together forever then they need to make those certain steps to make it possible. We then expressed how we aren't going to be there forever and they aren't doing it to just make us happy. It really won't affect us at all whether or not they do it, but it will affect them, and so they should do it for the right reasons! It was an overall good lesson. I could feel the spirit and I could see the changes in their faces as they considered what we said and were trying to make it applicable.  

 

But man, I just love all these people. I wish I could make them do it. Sometimes I get frustrated that we have agency, but oh how much sweeter it will be when they develop that testimony for themselves! I love learning more and more about what my purpose is as a missionary and as a human being each day. The gospel is so great! I am so greatful that we can all partake of all of its blessings.  

 

Take care everyone! Do something good today! Miss and love you.

-Beamers

Transfer 3 Week 6 - May 13, 2013

Just to clarify to everyone because I had Brannon confused, in the title where it says the number of transfers, I am not saying how many times I have been transferred but I am saying the number of transfers I have been out here. So this week is my fourth transfer which means I have been out here for 18 weeks (each transfer is 6 weeks), or in other words I have been out here for just shy of five months. I am still in my first area.

Talking to everyone yesterday was great! I loved hearing from everyone and talking to each of you. I think my favorite was when I Miranda gave the phone to Whitney and she was trying to ask me if I sang the same song as she did at church, and then she told me that she was going to put me in the oven(referring to the telephone). I was like "nooo Whitney! give the phone back to mommy! That's when Cameron came back on line lol.

Everything here is going great. We had an amazing day yesterday at church. One of our investigators (Ellda) came to church. It was so great the spirit there was so strong. She was referred to us by a member in the YSA branch, and so it was really cool. I love seeing examples of members participating in the missionary work. That member is really awesome. Even though she isn't in this ward she is referring her friends to missionaries all the time and then she even came down here and went to church with her for the first couple hours before she had to go to her own ward to give a talk. It was just really cool and a testimony builder on doing missionary work outside of missions.

One of our other investigators (Mike) I really wanted to talk about last week but forgot. He is super cool. His girlfriend (Lisa) is a member, and they have been together for four years. Even have a kid, but are working on getting married. I love seeing him progress and the spririt work in his life. About two weeks ago they went up to the sacred grove and did some church touring. Lisa expressed that she thought he was going to be super bored the whole time and uninterested but the change that he experienced since being back is amazing. He started taking his scriptures with him to work and has been reading and we were really nervous about teaching him the law of tithing and fast, but it happened to be just what he needed. I told him about different things that he could fast for and gave an example of how when I was younger I remembered the whole family participating in a fast for Uncle Kent when he was sick. Mike ended up coming to church on fast Sunday without Lisa (because she had to work) which was amazing, and then he told me that he fasted for his grandpa who was sick. He said it was something he had never done before, and it was difficult because he usually eats a lot, but he could feel how it was special.

I love seeing the change in people. I can just see it in their eyes when they feel the spirit and they begin to recognize how it is important. Which is why the mission is so important. I have been reading the bom again but trying to always apply the situation to my investigators and what we are teaching them. I want to share the most recent one with you. It was in 1 Nephi 11. The role play was with our investigator Dean who we are trying to help him understand because he always says how cool it is that we know these things but he doesn't understand. Everyone pull out your scriptures now so you can follow along. Read vs 1-3 

Now changing it to Dean it goes a little something like this. "I Dean had desired to know the things which the missionaries knew, and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, I sat pondering in my heart and I started to feel the spirit. As I was pondering I felt the spirit whisper to me 'what do you want to know Dean?' And I said, 'I want to know what the missionaries know.'"

pretty cool right

but now if you continue reading Nephi is shown everything and has the opportunity to see it all. So if and when Dean is taught specific things we read in vs 21 the spirit ask Dean again what it is that the missionaries know. vs 22 the response is "it is the love of God!"

This is what we know. This is what I experience everyday in my life. And this is what I look forward to sharing with others.

Love you all. Hope you have a good week. Look to the scriptures and try and apply them in your life as well.

Sister Brightly Beames

Transfer 3 Week 5 - May 6, 2013

This week started off with me getting Facebook. This mission is a test missions for Facebook to see how missionaries do with it before it is used by missionaries throughout the whole world. So it is kind of exciting because it is something that we are able to use to share messages with people that we would have trouble talking to them other wise. To be honest, at first I really didn't want to get it. There probably are a lot of missionaries that get on there and waiste tons of time. But as I have remembered my purpose it has already allowed me to connect with some less actives that we haven't been able to get to, and surprisingly our investigators check their messages on FB more than they do on their phones. Anyways, that is something new and exciting that I get to be a part of. Hope you all are looking for ways to share experiences with others in your every day activities!

 

In other news...I have been trying to work a lot more on setting good goals. I want this area to start booming. There is so much potential but there are a lot of people that don't believe there is any work to be done here. An idea that me and my companion talked to our Branch President about yesterday was an activity to get the youth and their leaders more involved. We decided to call it "Gumballs for God!" What this includes is when the members hand out pass-a-long cards then they get 3 gumballs. 5 for giving someone a book of mormon. 7 for inviting someone to a church activity or FHE. 12 for inviting someone to church, and 15 for inviting them to meet with the missionaries. And during this activity they are going to collect the gumballs in jars to see who will get the most. It is race. Except the prize is someones salvation ha. Our purpose in doing this is to get people involved and to help them to see how missionary work is something that should become part of their lives and then to just make it fun!

 

As for other goals. I really am wanting to work with getting the less-active members here back to church. It seems like over half of the ward is less active but they just really need encouragement, friends, and some good lovin' from sister beames. ;)

 

Finally. Have I ever told any of you how much I love pancakes?? Well let me paint a picture for you. This one time for my 18th birthday Connor made me pancakes. They had colored m&m's in them so they were a funny looking color, but then they had peanut butter on top with some syrup and cool whip. They were freaking bomb. And I say to myself...mmm I love pancakes. I can eat pancakes everyday. So here I am in Cape May NJ, and I have a great idea at 10:00 at night when I am hungry that I will let my Samoan companion who has never had pancakes try one. So we make them, minus the chocolate and cool whip. But then when my companion sees the syrup she is afraid of it. Has no idea what this sticky goodness is. So she decides to skip over it and only have peanut butter on it. That is still ok but not complete without the syrup. But yet, she takes her first bite and she doesn't like it. So what does she do? I'll tell you! She ruins a completely perfect pancake by putting salt all over the top. Not a little salt. But a lot of salt. :( What is the world coming to?

That's all folks. Be good and look for ways to help others in the world today! Share a good pancake with someone that would appreciate it! Better yet, share the gospel!

Love always,

Sister Brightly Beames

Transfer 3 Week 4 - April 29, 2013

Hey fam,

This week has overall been pretty good. It is interesting how when we pray for specific things the Lord will help provide situations for those things to occur. 

For starters, I was hoping to work on developing more patience this week. An opportunity dropped in like a ball dropping from the sky. I wasn't really quite expecting it to happen so fast. So here I was studying it in the Christ-like attributes of Preach My Gospel on Tuesday morning when our investigator Linda just so happens to give us a call. Right when the phone was ringing I knew that she wasn't calling to confirm our appointment for later that day but rather to cancel. Especially seeing how she wasn't at church the previous Sunday, when she had told us there would be no reason for her to show up. 

Surely enough, she said that she had gone to a different church and that she had been praying really hard like we asked her to do and she received an answer that our church wasn't meant for her. My heart felt like it stopped when she was telling me these things and she probably noticed because she asked if I was still there on the line. I told her I was, and then I thanked her for letting us know, but then asked her if we could set up a time to come see her one last time (with the hopes of understanding the situation a little bit more). She said yes and we set up a time for on Friday. After the phone call ended I felt saddened and because I didn't really know what to do or say I just continued studying. The first scripture that I read was in Alma 31:31 "O Lord, my heart is exceedingly sorrowful; wilt thou comfort my soul in Christ. O Lord, wilt thou grant unto me that I may have strength, that I may suffer with patience these afflictions which shall come upon me, because of the iniquity of this people."

This scripture seemed to fit the situation quite well. So all I could do was get on my knees and pray for this patience to understand the situation. The immediate response the spirit gave me was so calming and assuring to not worry and that everything would be alright. Because just as I had been reading prior to this was the story of the sons of Mosiah where even though they had many difficulties and though there will be people that won't accept this message, the Lord will still grant success if we endure with patience and faith. 

So how did the final meeting go? Linda told us that she knows the BoM to be true and she loves everything we have done for her because we helped her to have a relationship with God, but she believes there are other books like the BoM for other religions so she wants to continue her studies. 

I had left her a letter with my testimony written inside and though I probably won't see her again while in this area, I still know that if she continues to read the BoM as she promised that some day she will feel once again what she is missing just like she had when she initially started meeting with us. 

Lastly, everything else is going well. We are finding many more investigators. We even had a lesson with a girl this week who mainly believes in Zeus, and was all about Earth day this past week! There is so much potential in this area. Some of the members are what make it difficult I think. Several have recently expressed how people always have the same sad story and they aren't going to change and then expressed how the Ross's(senior couple) are just a break from them having to get too wore out. This was very discouraging to hear and so because I don't want to have to be frustrated with their attitudes all I can do is continue to love and serve and hopefully through our efforts they will see how this area is just booming with potential.

Oh quick story.  So we were at a lady members house for dinner one night and she pulled out like 4 different containers of ice cream for us to have dessert. She was dishing it up, but because my companion being from Samoa and all doesn't always know what to choose, and so the member was going to give her some of the chocolate mint. I was like, "don't give her that one she won't like it." And the member lady says, "how do you know? it's fine!" And I say, "because she is my baby girl. I know what she likes!" (but mainly cuz I don't like that kind. I think people are very weird for thinking chocolate and mint should go together. it just isn't normal!) So then surely enough my companion starts eating it and has this really funny look on her face. The member lady then asks her if she likes it. Sister M then responds in her Samoan accent, "NO! It taste like my colgate toothpaste!" lol we just died. Good times. Good times.

Take care every one.