Hey Everyone!
This week was much better than last week! I wasn't sick and we were able to get about double the lessons we were getting in the previous weeks, so that was really nice. It was really good! We have this less active member, Nancy, and her step dad is a muslim and he wouldn't let her go to church while she lived with them for like 5 years. But now she is staying with her grandparents and we have been visiting her about 2 or 3 times per week. She has a way strong testimony! Every time we go and share with her, I feel like she is teaching us. She's been through a lot in her life and its so amazing to see how much she has changed! Before, when the elders came to the house, she would leave through the back door and hide at somebody else's house until they left. But now she invites us to come over all the time! Its just amazing! She now wants to serve a mission! She has her papers and she is trying to get all her health stuff figured out and wants to turn them in during February! It has been so great to see how much people change, when they are willing and when the Spirit touches them.
We went on exchanges with our Zone Leaders(Elder Tanoa'i-who by the way is going to play football for the Utes when he returns from his mission, and Elder Tenney) on Wednesday and my companion and Elder Tenney went to visit one of our new investigators and she was telling them how her uncle or someting is a member and always shared about Joseph Smith and gave her pamphlets and a Book of Mormon. So Elder Tenney invited her to baptism the very first lesson with her, and she accepted! It was such a miracle! We are going to see her on Thursday this week to start teaching the lessons to try to strengthen her testimony and make sure that she knows that the church is true and received that answer from the Spirit. Its been kind of a common thing for people here to get baptized and after a while fall away or start going back to the church that they were going to before. And the leaders, including the area 70 have been trying to emphasize retention with the converts and making sure that they are willing to endure to the end. Which is good. But anyway, I hope you all have a good week and had a good holiday season!
I love you all!
Elder Beilman
Elder Beilman
Wednesday
December 28, 2014
Hey,
Sorry I don't have much time.
But I didn't get to skype on Christmas because I was sick on the 26th(Christmas day for you guys) which was when I was going to skype. But that is okay. I'm asking my Mission President if I can skype on Monday next week. Hopefully I can, but I'm not sure. He will be on an island called Tuvalu because he has some things he needs to do there, and he wont be able to email while on that island. So I'm not sure if I'll get to.
We had a really good week though. We did a lot of finding, and found 5 new investigators. That was really good. We were running low. Sorry again this is super short!
Thanks for everything! Merry Christmas(late) and Happy new year!
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman
Sorry I don't have much time.
But I didn't get to skype on Christmas because I was sick on the 26th(Christmas day for you guys) which was when I was going to skype. But that is okay. I'm asking my Mission President if I can skype on Monday next week. Hopefully I can, but I'm not sure. He will be on an island called Tuvalu because he has some things he needs to do there, and he wont be able to email while on that island. So I'm not sure if I'll get to.
We had a really good week though. We did a lot of finding, and found 5 new investigators. That was really good. We were running low. Sorry again this is super short!
Thanks for everything! Merry Christmas(late) and Happy new year!
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman
December 21, 2014
Hey everyone!
This week was really good! On Tuesday we had our Zone Conference in Nadi and it was one of the most spiritual days on my mission! President Layton shared about the sacrament and how we need to always remember Jesus Christ. I learned so much that day! About the Plan of Salvation and everything that people shared about Jesus Christ and the things he did, and it was just a phenomenal day! After which we had some amazing ham for lunch. Just an FYI, there isn't a ton of ham here in Fiji so it was great! We then played some games as a zone while President did interviews. We got to watch a movie after! It was Frozen. And let me tell you, that was a great movie!
We came back to Tavua on Wednesday morning. We got stuck in Ba when we were coming back from Nadi on Tuesday, so we just stayed with the Elders in Ba. But we had a pretty rough week. Didn't have many lessons. But it just drove us to find more people and we were able to talk to some members and they gave us 5 people to go visit. We also went through the former investigators and found like 3 people we plan on visiting. So we are excited to see where that goes. Hoping to have a better week this week, but not really sure with Christmas on Thursday. We are going to spend christmas with our bishop in the morning and for lunch(we are doing service with him, since our service day is thursdays). We are going to help him make a lovo(an earth oven). That will be cool! I'll be sure to take pictures.
Thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
December 14, 2014
Hey everyone!
I'm sorry this one will be super short again. We don't have a ton of time. We are doing well here though. We had kind of a rough week. I got sick on Wednesday-had a small fever. But on Thursday I was good. We have Zone Conference tomorrow which should be really fun! Looking forward to it! Thanks for everything!
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman
I'm sorry this one will be super short again. We don't have a ton of time. We are doing well here though. We had kind of a rough week. I got sick on Wednesday-had a small fever. But on Thursday I was good. We have Zone Conference tomorrow which should be really fun! Looking forward to it! Thanks for everything!
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman
December 7, 2014
I don't have a ton of time right now, because we have to go to Lautoka today.
So this will probably be pretty short! Sorry!
This week has been pretty cool! I stayed with Elder Carter in Tavua on Tuesday night because his companion was getting transferred too. So we had a good time. He was in the same intake as me, so it was pretty cool. But I have my new companion. His name is Elder Tuinamoala. He is the man! I love him. He is Fijian, in particular from the Lau group. But he served as a ward missionary for 3 weeks about a year ago. So he has a pretty good understanding of the lessons and everything, which helps out a lot. But really though, I have nothing bad to say about him. He is fantastic. I'm really excited to be working with him and helping him to become the best missionary he can be.
Thanks for everything and the support!
I love you all!
Love, Elder Beilman
So this will probably be pretty short! Sorry!
This week has been pretty cool! I stayed with Elder Carter in Tavua on Tuesday night because his companion was getting transferred too. So we had a good time. He was in the same intake as me, so it was pretty cool. But I have my new companion. His name is Elder Tuinamoala. He is the man! I love him. He is Fijian, in particular from the Lau group. But he served as a ward missionary for 3 weeks about a year ago. So he has a pretty good understanding of the lessons and everything, which helps out a lot. But really though, I have nothing bad to say about him. He is fantastic. I'm really excited to be working with him and helping him to become the best missionary he can be.
Thanks for everything and the support!
I love you all!
Love, Elder Beilman
November 30, 2014
Hey Everyone!
This week was pretty great! We had a lesson with a less active named George Wedlock on Tuesday. He has been a member his whole life pretty much and he is probably 24 or 25 right now. But he has been less active for quite a while now. We shared about the Plan of Salvation with him, only about the first 3 principles- Pre-Earth Life, The Creation, and The Fall of Adam and Eve. He is really smart, so he knew a lot of it already, so we pretty much planned on doing the whole thing. But we spent a good amount of time about families and God's plan for us, and I can tell you it was probably the most spiritual lessons I've had on my mission. The Spirit was so strong in that lesson and it was just amazing. We already had a pretty good day on Tuesday, then when we got out of that lesson, I was so happy! He told us that he would come to church on Sunday, so we offered to pick him up, because his house is on the way to the chapel, and he said yes. We came to his house Sunday morning, and he was sleeping. So he didn't come to church, we are planning on seeing him Tuesday again, but we might not because of transfers. I can't wait to sit down with him again though. I really feel that he will become active again soon.
We have another less active we are working with, Nancy. she is awesome. She wants to come back to church really badly! We sat down with her on Friday and we asked her to end the lesson with a prayer, but she is kind of shy about things like that because she lived with her mom and Step dad for 5 years and her step dad is muslim, so she had to do all the muslim stuff. and its been a while since she's prayed or shared her testimony or anything like that. But at the end of the lesson, she said she will share a scripture from the Book of Mormon, her testimony and pray the next lesson we see her! We are planning on seeing her tonight, so hopefully that works out!!
One more thing, my companion is getting transferred to be a Zone Leader in Nausori(close to Suva) so I'm getting a new companion. I'm pretty excited. I'll be training him, so that will be a new experience. Leading an area and training. Looking forward to it! Sad to see Elder Hancock go, he is the man! But Oh well, The Lord needs him in Nausori.
Thanks for everything!
Love you all!
Loloma Levu,
Elder Beilman
This week was pretty great! We had a lesson with a less active named George Wedlock on Tuesday. He has been a member his whole life pretty much and he is probably 24 or 25 right now. But he has been less active for quite a while now. We shared about the Plan of Salvation with him, only about the first 3 principles- Pre-Earth Life, The Creation, and The Fall of Adam and Eve. He is really smart, so he knew a lot of it already, so we pretty much planned on doing the whole thing. But we spent a good amount of time about families and God's plan for us, and I can tell you it was probably the most spiritual lessons I've had on my mission. The Spirit was so strong in that lesson and it was just amazing. We already had a pretty good day on Tuesday, then when we got out of that lesson, I was so happy! He told us that he would come to church on Sunday, so we offered to pick him up, because his house is on the way to the chapel, and he said yes. We came to his house Sunday morning, and he was sleeping. So he didn't come to church, we are planning on seeing him Tuesday again, but we might not because of transfers. I can't wait to sit down with him again though. I really feel that he will become active again soon.
We have another less active we are working with, Nancy. she is awesome. She wants to come back to church really badly! We sat down with her on Friday and we asked her to end the lesson with a prayer, but she is kind of shy about things like that because she lived with her mom and Step dad for 5 years and her step dad is muslim, so she had to do all the muslim stuff. and its been a while since she's prayed or shared her testimony or anything like that. But at the end of the lesson, she said she will share a scripture from the Book of Mormon, her testimony and pray the next lesson we see her! We are planning on seeing her tonight, so hopefully that works out!!
One more thing, my companion is getting transferred to be a Zone Leader in Nausori(close to Suva) so I'm getting a new companion. I'm pretty excited. I'll be training him, so that will be a new experience. Leading an area and training. Looking forward to it! Sad to see Elder Hancock go, he is the man! But Oh well, The Lord needs him in Nausori.
Thanks for everything!
Love you all!
Loloma Levu,
Elder Beilman
Sunday
November 23, 2014
Cola Vina! (Nadroga dialect for Bula Vinaka)
I've been learning a little bit of the Dialect here in Tavua, and man... Its not just a dialect, its a completely different language! If you want to say 'I want to eat'(which is the closest translation for I'm hungry) you would say "Au via Kana" in the Bau Dialect which is the dialect that everybody knows. In Nadroga you would say "Qi mata Kana" but you say the K's differently, its just ridiculous.
But! This week was crazy! Tuesday after our District meeting, I went on exchanges with Elder Carter(From Australia, in my intake) who is currently serving in Rakiraki! So I got to see a lot of people from Rakiraki again! It was one of the best days I've had on my mission. One of my Recent Converts, Buka, is taking people to church in a van that he is using to drive people to Suva. On Sundays, pretty much nobody works, except for some Taxi drivers, and Bus drivers. But he is off on Sunday so he picks up investigators and members on Sunday to take them to church! That was so good to hear! Its just amazing to see how the area is going after I left. I'm just super happy to see that he is still coming to church and helping others come to church as well! And they are planning on Baptizing a man named Ratu Luke who my first companion and I started teaching back in May! It was amazing!
We had a funeral for one of our members on Saturday morning, which was kind of sad. He had stepped on something and it got infected really bad, so they took him to the hospital in Lautoka and they said they would have to cut his leg off from the knee down or something, so they didn't want to do that. They came back and he didn't really do anything because he was getting sick and his diabetes didn't help either. He passed away on Monday last week. We are planning on visiting the daughter and mother and try to strengthen their testimonies of the Plan of Salvation and try to help them come back to church again. We had visited them about once a week since I've been here, so hopefully we can see them soon and more often.
Transfers are this week, we'll see what happens. I feel like my companion might train here soon. He finished in April. But we wont know till Saturday night. Hopefully we both stay!
Vinaka valevu na loloma kei ne ka kece!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
I've been learning a little bit of the Dialect here in Tavua, and man... Its not just a dialect, its a completely different language! If you want to say 'I want to eat'(which is the closest translation for I'm hungry) you would say "Au via Kana" in the Bau Dialect which is the dialect that everybody knows. In Nadroga you would say "Qi mata Kana" but you say the K's differently, its just ridiculous.
But! This week was crazy! Tuesday after our District meeting, I went on exchanges with Elder Carter(From Australia, in my intake) who is currently serving in Rakiraki! So I got to see a lot of people from Rakiraki again! It was one of the best days I've had on my mission. One of my Recent Converts, Buka, is taking people to church in a van that he is using to drive people to Suva. On Sundays, pretty much nobody works, except for some Taxi drivers, and Bus drivers. But he is off on Sunday so he picks up investigators and members on Sunday to take them to church! That was so good to hear! Its just amazing to see how the area is going after I left. I'm just super happy to see that he is still coming to church and helping others come to church as well! And they are planning on Baptizing a man named Ratu Luke who my first companion and I started teaching back in May! It was amazing!
We had a funeral for one of our members on Saturday morning, which was kind of sad. He had stepped on something and it got infected really bad, so they took him to the hospital in Lautoka and they said they would have to cut his leg off from the knee down or something, so they didn't want to do that. They came back and he didn't really do anything because he was getting sick and his diabetes didn't help either. He passed away on Monday last week. We are planning on visiting the daughter and mother and try to strengthen their testimonies of the Plan of Salvation and try to help them come back to church again. We had visited them about once a week since I've been here, so hopefully we can see them soon and more often.
Transfers are this week, we'll see what happens. I feel like my companion might train here soon. He finished in April. But we wont know till Saturday night. Hopefully we both stay!
Vinaka valevu na loloma kei ne ka kece!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
November 16, 2014
Hey everyone,
This week was the best! Elder Haleck from the Seventy came for our mission tour. We got to go to Nadi on Tuesday last week(which I might add has one of the only 3 McDonalds in Fiji, so we went to McDonalds right before it started and had some breakfast). But he gave a great talk/discussion on how this time as a missionary shapes you for the rest of your life. It was way good! He talked a lot about being exactly obedient and how it will help/bless us when we return from the mission field. It reminded me a lot of a talk that Jessica gave me called "The Fourth Missionary".
So because we had to be in Nadi on Tuesday, we weren't able to proselyte on Monday or Tuesday in our area. But that's okay. We have this one investigator named George(Joji is the Fijian name) but he is a Rotuman man in his 50's probably. He is awesome, he wants to be baptized but he needs to get something figured out with some court case that is in the beginning of December. But he has been coming to church every week for like 4 or 5 months. He isn't 100% there mentally, we have to make things really simple for him, but he is really good.
We have a lot of less actives we are working with right now. And we've been able to have a lot of success with getting them to church, which is really good! We don't have a lot of investigators, but we have 2 good ones we are planning on inviting to baptism soon! Praying for them!
Anyway, Thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
This week was the best! Elder Haleck from the Seventy came for our mission tour. We got to go to Nadi on Tuesday last week(which I might add has one of the only 3 McDonalds in Fiji, so we went to McDonalds right before it started and had some breakfast). But he gave a great talk/discussion on how this time as a missionary shapes you for the rest of your life. It was way good! He talked a lot about being exactly obedient and how it will help/bless us when we return from the mission field. It reminded me a lot of a talk that Jessica gave me called "The Fourth Missionary".
So because we had to be in Nadi on Tuesday, we weren't able to proselyte on Monday or Tuesday in our area. But that's okay. We have this one investigator named George(Joji is the Fijian name) but he is a Rotuman man in his 50's probably. He is awesome, he wants to be baptized but he needs to get something figured out with some court case that is in the beginning of December. But he has been coming to church every week for like 4 or 5 months. He isn't 100% there mentally, we have to make things really simple for him, but he is really good.
We have a lot of less actives we are working with right now. And we've been able to have a lot of success with getting them to church, which is really good! We don't have a lot of investigators, but we have 2 good ones we are planning on inviting to baptism soon! Praying for them!
Anyway, Thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
Monday
November 9, 2014
Hey Everyone!
The new area is great! I don't know if they are doing this everywhere, but we have been focusing on Less Active work just as much as we are baptisms. there are a lot of less actives here in the area, so we visit a lot of them! Anyway, we had about 16 or so less active members come to church this week! It was amazing! When my companion and I walked into the chapel, we had to try to find a find a seat, because it was almost completely full! The chapel isn't by any means the size of a chapel in Utah, but its not small either. We have a lot of work right now, which is really good. Its not very fun OYM'ing or tracting. I don't think I've done much tracting at all. So its just really nice to be able to have people to work with whether they be inactive members or investigators. I love going out and teaching. when I'm busy time just flies by, but when I was in my last area, it was kind of harder because we didn't have as much lessons as I had in Rakiraki or in my new area.
Before I was baptized, I never read anything from the Bible. And even after my baptism, I read pretty much only from the Book of Mormon and D&C. But I was able to continue reading the New Testament after we did the Gospel read starting in August? Well anyway, I was able to finish the New Testament the other day, and I loved the it! Hopefully I'll read it again before I finish my mission in 2016. But, to the point, I still haven't been able to finish/read much from the Old Testament. But we have this book that has stories from the Old Testament in it. And I read about Job and how he lost everything, but still worshipped and thanked God for everything he has been given. some things that have been happening back home just made me think about how God tests our faith sometimes, and if we put our trust in him, we will be given so much. Maybe not immediately or even in this earthly life, but for sure in the Celestial Kingdom, because he promises us everything he has. We just have to trust him and do what he asks. Just something I've been thinking about a lot lately.
Thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
*Oh, and I'm pretty sure they don't celebrate thanksgiving here.. I haven't heard anything about it anyway.
And I'm learning how to play the piano! My companion is teaching me! I'm pretty excited about it.
If you send me another package, could you send a CD with the Piano Guys? I want some of their songs. Mainly the Waterfall one, and the other cool piano one.
Vinaka! (Thanks!)
The new area is great! I don't know if they are doing this everywhere, but we have been focusing on Less Active work just as much as we are baptisms. there are a lot of less actives here in the area, so we visit a lot of them! Anyway, we had about 16 or so less active members come to church this week! It was amazing! When my companion and I walked into the chapel, we had to try to find a find a seat, because it was almost completely full! The chapel isn't by any means the size of a chapel in Utah, but its not small either. We have a lot of work right now, which is really good. Its not very fun OYM'ing or tracting. I don't think I've done much tracting at all. So its just really nice to be able to have people to work with whether they be inactive members or investigators. I love going out and teaching. when I'm busy time just flies by, but when I was in my last area, it was kind of harder because we didn't have as much lessons as I had in Rakiraki or in my new area.
Before I was baptized, I never read anything from the Bible. And even after my baptism, I read pretty much only from the Book of Mormon and D&C. But I was able to continue reading the New Testament after we did the Gospel read starting in August? Well anyway, I was able to finish the New Testament the other day, and I loved the it! Hopefully I'll read it again before I finish my mission in 2016. But, to the point, I still haven't been able to finish/read much from the Old Testament. But we have this book that has stories from the Old Testament in it. And I read about Job and how he lost everything, but still worshipped and thanked God for everything he has been given. some things that have been happening back home just made me think about how God tests our faith sometimes, and if we put our trust in him, we will be given so much. Maybe not immediately or even in this earthly life, but for sure in the Celestial Kingdom, because he promises us everything he has. We just have to trust him and do what he asks. Just something I've been thinking about a lot lately.
Thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
*Oh, and I'm pretty sure they don't celebrate thanksgiving here.. I haven't heard anything about it anyway.
And I'm learning how to play the piano! My companion is teaching me! I'm pretty excited about it.
If you send me another package, could you send a CD with the Piano Guys? I want some of their songs. Mainly the Waterfall one, and the other cool piano one.
Vinaka! (Thanks!)
Sunday
November 2, 2014
Hey Everyone!
Tavua is great! Even though it is really really close to my first area, I love it! During Sacrament meeting on Sunday, I went to bear my testimony but I wanted to introduce myself a little before that. So I told everybody that I served in Rakiraki before and I used to come to Tavua every Tuesday(for District Meeting) and said if any of the members from the ward ever saw me before that is why. And as I said that, I saw a couple of people looking over to the person next to them smiling and talking to the other. It was kind of funny. But its great in Tavua, we have been really busy! We were teaching this girl named Meredani(she has been taught since April) and she was supposed to be baptized on the 18th of Oct. But she missed the Baptismal Interview. Anyway, she has been going to church with her brother who used to be a bishop in Lautoka(2hours away) and when we saw her on the 25th of Oct. She said that the Zone Leaders were going to baptize her in Lautoka on the 1st of Nov. But we had no idea about it. So we called the ZL's in Lautoka and they said they didn't know anything about it. We called Meredani the next day and got it all figured out. But she was set on being baptized on Nov. 1st(her birthday) so we had about 5 days to plan a baptismal interview and everything else. Everything went smoothly and she was baptized. Her parents(nonmembers) came to the baptism. It was great! I'm really praying that her parents will soon want to take the lessons and her whole family can get baptized. But what ever happens is in the Lord's time.
Well, I don't have much time!
Love you guys! Thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
Tavua is great! Even though it is really really close to my first area, I love it! During Sacrament meeting on Sunday, I went to bear my testimony but I wanted to introduce myself a little before that. So I told everybody that I served in Rakiraki before and I used to come to Tavua every Tuesday(for District Meeting) and said if any of the members from the ward ever saw me before that is why. And as I said that, I saw a couple of people looking over to the person next to them smiling and talking to the other. It was kind of funny. But its great in Tavua, we have been really busy! We were teaching this girl named Meredani(she has been taught since April) and she was supposed to be baptized on the 18th of Oct. But she missed the Baptismal Interview. Anyway, she has been going to church with her brother who used to be a bishop in Lautoka(2hours away) and when we saw her on the 25th of Oct. She said that the Zone Leaders were going to baptize her in Lautoka on the 1st of Nov. But we had no idea about it. So we called the ZL's in Lautoka and they said they didn't know anything about it. We called Meredani the next day and got it all figured out. But she was set on being baptized on Nov. 1st(her birthday) so we had about 5 days to plan a baptismal interview and everything else. Everything went smoothly and she was baptized. Her parents(nonmembers) came to the baptism. It was great! I'm really praying that her parents will soon want to take the lessons and her whole family can get baptized. But what ever happens is in the Lord's time.
Well, I don't have much time!
Love you guys! Thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
Monday
October 26, 2014
Hey everyone!
I only have a minute and the computer will kick me off. Sorry, all is well here in Fiji.
I got transferred to Tavua by the way. Long story, I'll tell you next week!
Love you guys!
Love Elder Beilman
I only have a minute and the computer will kick me off. Sorry, all is well here in Fiji.
I got transferred to Tavua by the way. Long story, I'll tell you next week!
Love you guys!
Love Elder Beilman
Friday
October 19, 2014
Hey everyone!
This week was really good! I'll start with Conference. So we finally got to watch General Conference this Saturday and Sunday. It was really good! I think I liked the April General Conference a little better, but its still General Conference. You can't go wrong with that. I loved the talk that Elder Jorg Klebingat gave called "Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence". It was a really bold talk, but I loved how straight he was. I kind of like to be bold with people when we teach, because I want them to know that the things we teach are really serious.
Here is a part that I really like:
Embrace voluntary, wholehearted obedience as part of your life. Acknowledge that you cannot love God without also loving His commandments. The Savior’s standard is clear and simple: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Selective obedience brings selective blessings, and choosing something bad over something worse is still choosing wrong. You can’t watch a bad movie and expect to feel virtuous because you did not watch a very bad one. Faithful observance of some commandments doesn’t justify neglecting others. Abraham Lincoln rightly said, “When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad” (in William H. Herndon and Jesse William Weik, Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, 3 vols. [1889], 3:439).
Also, do the right things for the right reasons. The Lord, who “requireth the heart and a willing mind” (D&C 64:34) and who “is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (D&C 33:1), knows why you go to church—whether you are present in body only or truly worshipping. You can’t sing on Sunday, “O Babylon, O Babylon, [I] bid thee farewell” and then seek or tolerate its company again moments later (“Ye Elders of Israel,” Hymns, no. 319). Remember that casualness in spiritual matters never was happiness. Make the Church and the restored gospel your whole life, not just a part of your outward or social life. Choosing this day whom you will serve is lip service only—until you actually live accordingly (see Joshua 24:15). Spiritual confidence increases when you are truly striving, for the right reasons, to live a consecrated life in spite of your imperfections!
I like how he talks about a willing heart and a willing mind. I read a talk called the 4th Missionary by Lawrence E. Corbridge and in it he talks about serving because you want to serve and not because its what you're "supposed to do." We should all be willing and wanting to keep all the commandments because that is how we will find true happiness and blessings that we would receive because we want to keep the commandments.
We have a new investigator, Niko, and he is really awesome. He is 18 years old and plays rugby with a member on Saturdays(how he got in contact with the church). So the member playing rugby with him invited him to take the lessons and had us go over and visit him. He seems really interested and is way nice.
We have another investigator that hasn't been really progressing lately, and we were thinking about dropping her, but we felt like we needed to invite her to baptism-and she accepted it! It was really amazing. She started reading the Book of Mormon and I think that is what really changed her. I'm grateful for that book and I can't wait to help her progress towards baptism.
Well thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
This week was really good! I'll start with Conference. So we finally got to watch General Conference this Saturday and Sunday. It was really good! I think I liked the April General Conference a little better, but its still General Conference. You can't go wrong with that. I loved the talk that Elder Jorg Klebingat gave called "Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence". It was a really bold talk, but I loved how straight he was. I kind of like to be bold with people when we teach, because I want them to know that the things we teach are really serious.
Here is a part that I really like:
Embrace voluntary, wholehearted obedience as part of your life. Acknowledge that you cannot love God without also loving His commandments. The Savior’s standard is clear and simple: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Selective obedience brings selective blessings, and choosing something bad over something worse is still choosing wrong. You can’t watch a bad movie and expect to feel virtuous because you did not watch a very bad one. Faithful observance of some commandments doesn’t justify neglecting others. Abraham Lincoln rightly said, “When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad” (in William H. Herndon and Jesse William Weik, Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, 3 vols. [1889], 3:439).
Also, do the right things for the right reasons. The Lord, who “requireth the heart and a willing mind” (D&C 64:34) and who “is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (D&C 33:1), knows why you go to church—whether you are present in body only or truly worshipping. You can’t sing on Sunday, “O Babylon, O Babylon, [I] bid thee farewell” and then seek or tolerate its company again moments later (“Ye Elders of Israel,” Hymns, no. 319). Remember that casualness in spiritual matters never was happiness. Make the Church and the restored gospel your whole life, not just a part of your outward or social life. Choosing this day whom you will serve is lip service only—until you actually live accordingly (see Joshua 24:15). Spiritual confidence increases when you are truly striving, for the right reasons, to live a consecrated life in spite of your imperfections!
I like how he talks about a willing heart and a willing mind. I read a talk called the 4th Missionary by Lawrence E. Corbridge and in it he talks about serving because you want to serve and not because its what you're "supposed to do." We should all be willing and wanting to keep all the commandments because that is how we will find true happiness and blessings that we would receive because we want to keep the commandments.
We have a new investigator, Niko, and he is really awesome. He is 18 years old and plays rugby with a member on Saturdays(how he got in contact with the church). So the member playing rugby with him invited him to take the lessons and had us go over and visit him. He seems really interested and is way nice.
We have another investigator that hasn't been really progressing lately, and we were thinking about dropping her, but we felt like we needed to invite her to baptism-and she accepted it! It was really amazing. She started reading the Book of Mormon and I think that is what really changed her. I'm grateful for that book and I can't wait to help her progress towards baptism.
Well thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
Sunday
October 12, 2014
Hey everyone!
Last week for P Day was way fun! I attached a couple of pictures. Don't worry, we didn't go in the water! I made sure to walk out on the sand in the picture when the wave was low. But we played touch rugby on the sand and then I played some volleyball with no net. It was a lot of fun. I want to go there every P Day.
But this week was a little tough. We had tried to contact 3 potential investigators and I'll let you know what happened...
The first one is a man named Mosese- who was OYM'd just outside the Temple at the bus stand by a member. The Assistants gave us his number and information. So we gave him a call on Saturday or Sunday last week and set an appointment to meet him at the Family History Center(right next to the Temple) on Tuesday at 9 am. But he never showed up. So we are going to try to contact him again.
The next one is Ralulu- We met him while walking through a settlement(kind of like a village, a little smaller) that is in our area. He stopped us and we talked for a minute. We got his number and said we would call him if there was a day that we could come visit him. So we called on Friday to set up a day to see him, and then found out he lives in a different area. About 15 minutes away-but in a different zone. so we will have to give him to a different set of missionaries.
Another man we met on the street on Wednesday had stopped us on the sidewalk and Kerekere'd(kind of like asking, please) us to come visit him. So we went to our member's house where he had been staying on Friday to find out that he went to jail for a year... So that was a big slap in the face.
And on Friday right before we went to go contact that man that went to jail, we gave 2 of our investigators to the sisters in our area(serving in the English ward- Samabula 1st) because we thought it would be better for the investigators to go to the English ward.
So it was a pretty tough week. And I got sun burned for the first time on my mission, because we spent most of the day walking on Saturday. But its good that we have hard times- I read these verses the other day(I think I read them because of the week we were having) its 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
I love verse 10. I've been thinking about my thoughts when I'm going through something really hard. But Paul says that he takes "pleasure" in infirmities and it taught me that my attitude towards trials is really important because if I'm just going to sit and complain the whole time, I won't learn much. but if I try to figure out why I'm going through it, that is when we learn. That is when we are made strong.
Thanks for everything!
Love, Elder Beilman
Last week for P Day was way fun! I attached a couple of pictures. Don't worry, we didn't go in the water! I made sure to walk out on the sand in the picture when the wave was low. But we played touch rugby on the sand and then I played some volleyball with no net. It was a lot of fun. I want to go there every P Day.
But this week was a little tough. We had tried to contact 3 potential investigators and I'll let you know what happened...
The first one is a man named Mosese- who was OYM'd just outside the Temple at the bus stand by a member. The Assistants gave us his number and information. So we gave him a call on Saturday or Sunday last week and set an appointment to meet him at the Family History Center(right next to the Temple) on Tuesday at 9 am. But he never showed up. So we are going to try to contact him again.
The next one is Ralulu- We met him while walking through a settlement(kind of like a village, a little smaller) that is in our area. He stopped us and we talked for a minute. We got his number and said we would call him if there was a day that we could come visit him. So we called on Friday to set up a day to see him, and then found out he lives in a different area. About 15 minutes away-but in a different zone. so we will have to give him to a different set of missionaries.
Another man we met on the street on Wednesday had stopped us on the sidewalk and Kerekere'd(kind of like asking, please) us to come visit him. So we went to our member's house where he had been staying on Friday to find out that he went to jail for a year... So that was a big slap in the face.
And on Friday right before we went to go contact that man that went to jail, we gave 2 of our investigators to the sisters in our area(serving in the English ward- Samabula 1st) because we thought it would be better for the investigators to go to the English ward.
So it was a pretty tough week. And I got sun burned for the first time on my mission, because we spent most of the day walking on Saturday. But its good that we have hard times- I read these verses the other day(I think I read them because of the week we were having) its 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
I love verse 10. I've been thinking about my thoughts when I'm going through something really hard. But Paul says that he takes "pleasure" in infirmities and it taught me that my attitude towards trials is really important because if I'm just going to sit and complain the whole time, I won't learn much. but if I try to figure out why I'm going through it, that is when we learn. That is when we are made strong.
Thanks for everything!
Love, Elder Beilman
October 5, 2014
Sorry I don't have time to write today!
I'll try next week!
Love you guys!
Elder Beilman
I'll try next week!
Love you guys!
Elder Beilman
September 28, 2014
Hey Everyone!
This week was amazing!
On Saturday, I went on splits with one of my Zone Leaders-Elder
Cashen(he is from Arizona)(he is the man). We had originally planned
on going to the Family History Center right after lunch to help one of
the recent converts(Alavena) to find the names and do the work for her
mother and father, but we found out that its closed on Saturday. So we
had about 4 hours of time that we didn't have anything planned. But I
took the CMIS list that has all of our members names and addresses and
went to find all the members starting from the bottom name going up.
My companion has already visited some of them so we started from the
last page figuring that they started from the first. So it was like
one of the hottest days on Saturday since I've been here and we were
just walking around trying to find our members and update the list. A
couple of people moved and another changed back to his old church and
a lot of people weren't home. It was hard. But it was totally worth it
because we came in contact with about 20 people that aren't members.
Our Mission President told us that it takes about 7 good contacts with
nonmembers for them to want to start taking the missionary
discussions. We even sat down with these 2 former investigators(we
were looking for a member and just asked them if they knew them and
they invited us in. Apparently 2 sister missionaries used to teach
them) but they are super nice! The man, Josefa, lived in California
for like 3 years! And the wife was super nice. She is a Sunday school
teacher at one of the Methodist churches. But we just shared a
spiritual thought with them from Matthew and after the lesson I had
asked if they had a Book of Mormon. They said they used to, but didn't
know what happened to it. I gave them the one I was carrying around
all day and just bore my testimony with them that I knew the book was
true and that it could help them in their lives(I wanted to give a
Book of Mormon to at least one person that day, so I made it a goal to
put it in somebody else's hands by the end of the day and just carried
it in my hands all day until we sat down with that family). We were
getting ready to leave their house when Josefa asked us where we would
be for Christmas so we told him we would be here in Fiji. He then
invited us to come over for lunch on Christmas Day haha. They also
said to come over whenever we want. Not sure if they are super
interested, but they are super nice.
Then on Sunday we had 113 people come to church! Which is really good,
we normally have about 60ish people come. A lot of less active members
came to church. Hopefully we can just help them see the need to come
every single week to partake of the sacrament. Really grateful for my
mission and the time I have to serve, it truly has been an amazing
experience so far and I've learned so so much. Can't wait to continue
to learn and grow!
Take Care, Loloma levu!
Elder Beilman
This week was amazing!
On Saturday, I went on splits with one of my Zone Leaders-Elder
Cashen(he is from Arizona)(he is the man). We had originally planned
on going to the Family History Center right after lunch to help one of
the recent converts(Alavena) to find the names and do the work for her
mother and father, but we found out that its closed on Saturday. So we
had about 4 hours of time that we didn't have anything planned. But I
took the CMIS list that has all of our members names and addresses and
went to find all the members starting from the bottom name going up.
My companion has already visited some of them so we started from the
last page figuring that they started from the first. So it was like
one of the hottest days on Saturday since I've been here and we were
just walking around trying to find our members and update the list. A
couple of people moved and another changed back to his old church and
a lot of people weren't home. It was hard. But it was totally worth it
because we came in contact with about 20 people that aren't members.
Our Mission President told us that it takes about 7 good contacts with
nonmembers for them to want to start taking the missionary
discussions. We even sat down with these 2 former investigators(we
were looking for a member and just asked them if they knew them and
they invited us in. Apparently 2 sister missionaries used to teach
them) but they are super nice! The man, Josefa, lived in California
for like 3 years! And the wife was super nice. She is a Sunday school
teacher at one of the Methodist churches. But we just shared a
spiritual thought with them from Matthew and after the lesson I had
asked if they had a Book of Mormon. They said they used to, but didn't
know what happened to it. I gave them the one I was carrying around
all day and just bore my testimony with them that I knew the book was
true and that it could help them in their lives(I wanted to give a
Book of Mormon to at least one person that day, so I made it a goal to
put it in somebody else's hands by the end of the day and just carried
it in my hands all day until we sat down with that family). We were
getting ready to leave their house when Josefa asked us where we would
be for Christmas so we told him we would be here in Fiji. He then
invited us to come over for lunch on Christmas Day haha. They also
said to come over whenever we want. Not sure if they are super
interested, but they are super nice.
Then on Sunday we had 113 people come to church! Which is really good,
we normally have about 60ish people come. A lot of less active members
came to church. Hopefully we can just help them see the need to come
every single week to partake of the sacrament. Really grateful for my
mission and the time I have to serve, it truly has been an amazing
experience so far and I've learned so so much. Can't wait to continue
to learn and grow!
Take Care, Loloma levu!
Elder Beilman
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