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
"God created Fiji on one of His happiest days." -Elder Glen L. Rudd
Elder Beilman
Wednesday
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
Monday
Sept. 21, 2014
Hey Everyone!
This week was good! Well, we didn't get to proselyte as much as a
normal week because my companion had a training on Wednesday that was
about 3 hours and he was sick for a couple of days which really killed
our proselyting time. So we didn't get to teach a ton this week and
had some fall through. And we had to go to a baptism that the sisters
had in our area. So we didn't get to teach much.. But we had gotten a
referral from one of the Return Missionaries in our ward and we went
to the house with the RM on Sunday night. Turns out one of them, Adi,
is a less active member and her 2 brothers are interested in taking
the lessons! Way cool! It truly was a blessing for us because we don't
have much investigators right now. There are a lot of Less Actives in
the ward that we are trying to get back to church and through them, we
are finding investigators. So hopefully as we work with less active,
we can continue to find more and more investigators.
Oh yeah, something weird happened the other day. So when people speak
Fijian, there isn't an accent like in Spanish or French. So the other
day my companion and I were doing studies or eating lunch or something
and we get a call from a number we didn't have in the phone and they
asked for me(which I thought was weird because I had only been in the
area for a week). So they started to talk to me in Fijian and then he
tells me he is from the Richfield stake! His name is Chase Nay. He
served here in Fiji a while ago and he was taking his wife to his
area's on Vanua Levu. He wanted to take my companion and I to lunch,
but he wasn't able to get our phone number for a while and his plane
to Vanua Levu was leaving soon. That was kind of cool though.
Sorry I can't send any pictures this week! The computers haven't been
reading my SD Card for some reason? So I've been unable to get the
pictures on to the email. I hope everyone has a good week!
Loloma Levu!
Love, Elder Beilman
This week was good! Well, we didn't get to proselyte as much as a
normal week because my companion had a training on Wednesday that was
about 3 hours and he was sick for a couple of days which really killed
our proselyting time. So we didn't get to teach a ton this week and
had some fall through. And we had to go to a baptism that the sisters
had in our area. So we didn't get to teach much.. But we had gotten a
referral from one of the Return Missionaries in our ward and we went
to the house with the RM on Sunday night. Turns out one of them, Adi,
is a less active member and her 2 brothers are interested in taking
the lessons! Way cool! It truly was a blessing for us because we don't
have much investigators right now. There are a lot of Less Actives in
the ward that we are trying to get back to church and through them, we
are finding investigators. So hopefully as we work with less active,
we can continue to find more and more investigators.
Oh yeah, something weird happened the other day. So when people speak
Fijian, there isn't an accent like in Spanish or French. So the other
day my companion and I were doing studies or eating lunch or something
and we get a call from a number we didn't have in the phone and they
asked for me(which I thought was weird because I had only been in the
area for a week). So they started to talk to me in Fijian and then he
tells me he is from the Richfield stake! His name is Chase Nay. He
served here in Fiji a while ago and he was taking his wife to his
area's on Vanua Levu. He wanted to take my companion and I to lunch,
but he wasn't able to get our phone number for a while and his plane
to Vanua Levu was leaving soon. That was kind of cool though.
Sorry I can't send any pictures this week! The computers haven't been
reading my SD Card for some reason? So I've been unable to get the
pictures on to the email. I hope everyone has a good week!
Loloma Levu!
Love, Elder Beilman
Sept. 14, 2014
Hey everyone!
That is really good that you were able to fix the small problems on
Taylor & Kara's SUV.
This week has been really good! It was definitely a lot different from
a branch to a ward. They have 2 wards that go to the chapel that we go
to. One is English speaking(Samabula 1st) and the Fijian ward(Samabula
2nd)-which is the ward I'm in. I've had some pretty amazing things
happen in the short time I've been here. If I wrote all of it, it
would be super long though, so I'll just write down as much as I can.
On Saturday, we went to teach these investigators-Nina and Epraama,
they weren't progressing a lot and we were going to share with them
why we come and teach them. This was the first time I met them by the
way. So when we went there, Epraama was gone and there was 3 other
people there. One of them is also named Nina(who is cousins with the
other Nina). So we shared with them our purpose and and a little about
Joseph Smith and the first vision. Nina #2 then asked if we had an
English Book of Mormon so she can read it, so we gave her one. Then
they wanted us to come back on Sunday, so we did and we shared from 2
Nephi 31 about the doctrine of Christ and really emphasized baptism.
Then after we read and were discussing about it, Nina #2 said she
hasn't been baptized yet. And went on to say she isn't ready for
baptism yet, but maybe in a month she will be ready! But that she will
need to change some things in her life before that. It was amazing,
its kind of hard to explain completely. But we made sure to tell her
that we don't want her to get baptized just to be baptized, but to be
baptized because she knows that this church is true. Then another man,
Moepe, asked about baptism as well! It was truly a great experience.
Ican't wait to go back and share with them!
Sorry this is all I can write right now, I don't have much time.
Loloma Levu!
Love, Clayton
That is really good that you were able to fix the small problems on
Taylor & Kara's SUV.
This week has been really good! It was definitely a lot different from
a branch to a ward. They have 2 wards that go to the chapel that we go
to. One is English speaking(Samabula 1st) and the Fijian ward(Samabula
2nd)-which is the ward I'm in. I've had some pretty amazing things
happen in the short time I've been here. If I wrote all of it, it
would be super long though, so I'll just write down as much as I can.
On Saturday, we went to teach these investigators-Nina and Epraama,
they weren't progressing a lot and we were going to share with them
why we come and teach them. This was the first time I met them by the
way. So when we went there, Epraama was gone and there was 3 other
people there. One of them is also named Nina(who is cousins with the
other Nina). So we shared with them our purpose and and a little about
Joseph Smith and the first vision. Nina #2 then asked if we had an
English Book of Mormon so she can read it, so we gave her one. Then
they wanted us to come back on Sunday, so we did and we shared from 2
Nephi 31 about the doctrine of Christ and really emphasized baptism.
Then after we read and were discussing about it, Nina #2 said she
hasn't been baptized yet. And went on to say she isn't ready for
baptism yet, but maybe in a month she will be ready! But that she will
need to change some things in her life before that. It was amazing,
its kind of hard to explain completely. But we made sure to tell her
that we don't want her to get baptized just to be baptized, but to be
baptized because she knows that this church is true. Then another man,
Moepe, asked about baptism as well! It was truly a great experience.
Ican't wait to go back and share with them!
Sorry this is all I can write right now, I don't have much time.
Loloma Levu!
Love, Clayton
Sunday
Sept. 7, 2014~ Transfer to Samabula (Suva)
Hey everyone!
I'm kind of sad.. I'm getting transferred to Samabula(Suva). I'll be
in a ward there, but I really love Rakiraki. Rakiraki is really
difficult and trying, but it has a special place in my heart. There
were times where I just wanted to explode, because it was really hard
but I have learned so much from being here in Rakiraki. I really hope
to see our investigator, Ani, get baptized. Her husband is a member,
Rusi(he is inactive). I think I've told you about them already. But
Ani is doing so good, she has been keeping all of our commitments and
came to church on Sunday with her husband and kids. I can't explain
how happy I was to see them all come to church. We invited Ani to
baptism after the 1st lesson and she said if she comes to know that
its true she will. She will be baptized. I don't want to miss that,
but my work is finished here in Rakiraki. Hoping the next elder will
come and give them Heaven.
People used to ask me after my baptism if I was going to go on a
mission. I always told them "I don't know, we'll see" they always
replied "it was the best 2 years of my life". This truly is the best 2
years. I know I haven't been out for 2 years, but it has been amazing!
I don't regret coming out here for anything. My mission has been
changing my life. Its funny, when I was baptized my life changed, now
on my mission, my life is changing again. Not quite sure how that
happens... I love it out here though.
Well that's about it for this week!
Take care!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
I'm kind of sad.. I'm getting transferred to Samabula(Suva). I'll be
in a ward there, but I really love Rakiraki. Rakiraki is really
difficult and trying, but it has a special place in my heart. There
were times where I just wanted to explode, because it was really hard
but I have learned so much from being here in Rakiraki. I really hope
to see our investigator, Ani, get baptized. Her husband is a member,
Rusi(he is inactive). I think I've told you about them already. But
Ani is doing so good, she has been keeping all of our commitments and
came to church on Sunday with her husband and kids. I can't explain
how happy I was to see them all come to church. We invited Ani to
baptism after the 1st lesson and she said if she comes to know that
its true she will. She will be baptized. I don't want to miss that,
but my work is finished here in Rakiraki. Hoping the next elder will
come and give them Heaven.
People used to ask me after my baptism if I was going to go on a
mission. I always told them "I don't know, we'll see" they always
replied "it was the best 2 years of my life". This truly is the best 2
years. I know I haven't been out for 2 years, but it has been amazing!
I don't regret coming out here for anything. My mission has been
changing my life. Its funny, when I was baptized my life changed, now
on my mission, my life is changing again. Not quite sure how that
happens... I love it out here though.
Well that's about it for this week!
Take care!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
August 31, 2014
Hey Everyone!
This week was really good! We started teaching this inactive and his
wife like 2 weeks ago and they are really good! The father, Rusi, has
been inactive for a long time, and his wife is methodist(I think). But
we shared with his wife, Ani, about the Plan of Salvation on Saturday
night, it was so good! We asked her about Adam and Eve and if it was
good that they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and
evil and immediately she said bad. So we turned to 2 Nephi 2:22-25 and
shared with her about how it was good that they ate the fruit, because
if they didn't, we wouldn't be here. After we shared about it, she
seemed like she was really happy about it. She told us she understands
it well now and how it makes sense. Its amazing that all the other
churches teach that it was bad, it was part of the plan! Our Father in
Heaven knows everything, he knew that they would partake of the fruit.
I am so grateful for the Plan of Salvation, so many people in the
world don't know about this amazing plan that we have been given. I
feel really blessed to have this knowledge, because I know what I need
to do to get back to our Heavenly Father. Really grateful for the
opportunity to share about this plan with others to give them the
chance to know the truth!
Transfers calls are this Saturday, I'm wondering if I'll stay again.
Maybe like Sister Jeffery and stay for 8 months in my first area. I
would be okay with that though, I love it here.
I was reading in Jacob last week in Chapter 1 the last verse says-"And
we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the
responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if
we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore,
by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our
garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we
would not be found spotless at the last day." And I feel like this
scripture really applies to missionaries. We need to magnify our
calling as much as we can and labor with our might to teach people the
gospel. One of the missionaries in my District, Elder Tonumaipe'a(he
is Samoan) shared at district meeting about how when we are judged of
our works, and our missions included, how we will respond if the
Savior asks how we did in the area we were given to serve in. If we
will be able to look up to him and say I worked with all my heart,
might, mind and strength and stand blameless before him.
This week has been good, trying to find those prepared!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
This week was really good! We started teaching this inactive and his
wife like 2 weeks ago and they are really good! The father, Rusi, has
been inactive for a long time, and his wife is methodist(I think). But
we shared with his wife, Ani, about the Plan of Salvation on Saturday
night, it was so good! We asked her about Adam and Eve and if it was
good that they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and
evil and immediately she said bad. So we turned to 2 Nephi 2:22-25 and
shared with her about how it was good that they ate the fruit, because
if they didn't, we wouldn't be here. After we shared about it, she
seemed like she was really happy about it. She told us she understands
it well now and how it makes sense. Its amazing that all the other
churches teach that it was bad, it was part of the plan! Our Father in
Heaven knows everything, he knew that they would partake of the fruit.
I am so grateful for the Plan of Salvation, so many people in the
world don't know about this amazing plan that we have been given. I
feel really blessed to have this knowledge, because I know what I need
to do to get back to our Heavenly Father. Really grateful for the
opportunity to share about this plan with others to give them the
chance to know the truth!
Transfers calls are this Saturday, I'm wondering if I'll stay again.
Maybe like Sister Jeffery and stay for 8 months in my first area. I
would be okay with that though, I love it here.
I was reading in Jacob last week in Chapter 1 the last verse says-"And
we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the
responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if
we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore,
by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our
garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we
would not be found spotless at the last day." And I feel like this
scripture really applies to missionaries. We need to magnify our
calling as much as we can and labor with our might to teach people the
gospel. One of the missionaries in my District, Elder Tonumaipe'a(he
is Samoan) shared at district meeting about how when we are judged of
our works, and our missions included, how we will respond if the
Savior asks how we did in the area we were given to serve in. If we
will be able to look up to him and say I worked with all my heart,
might, mind and strength and stand blameless before him.
This week has been good, trying to find those prepared!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
This is the family I was talking about.
Here is a picture of where we were walking the other day, we were
trying to find a short cut to the village, we didn't end up finding it....
trying to find a short cut to the village, we didn't end up finding it....
August 24, 2014
Hey Everybody!
Yeah, I emailed my mission president and told him that a truck would really help us out here, but he told me there is a limited number of trucks that they can have and that they are all in other areas. But there is one in this area called Ba, which is like 2 hours away where our District leader is and they have a truck, but its a lot bigger of a town than Rakiraki. I think they could do without the truck there, and most of the roads are paved there and almost all of them here are gravel. They should put the bicycles there and give us the truck, but its okay. Its all up to the Mission President on that. Oh and the bridge is still out. Its been out for over a year now.. They don't plan on finishing it till December next year.. They are working on it right now though.
This last week was really good! We are working with less actives more now that we have been. Our goal for them is to go to the Temple because a lot of the less actives haven't been to the temple yet. So we sat down with our Branch President's brother, Rusi, and his wife 2 times last week. On Thursday, we shared a little about families with them. Rusi was planning on going on a mission, but he got a job at one of the hotels nearby and unfortunately that took him away from going to church. He was going to seminary and everything! Way sad! He hasn't been in 12 years.. But we are going to start teaching them, his wife isn't a member but we are going to invite her to baptism soon! They have the cutest little girl! She is kind of bad sometimes though. There is some gravel close to their house and she grabs the rocks and throws them at the house sometimes.. But she is so funny. Every time she sees us she says "Elda!" and wants us to shake her hand, its so funny.
On Saturday, we went to visit out 1st counselor in the Branch Presidency and we had dinner over there, and this is what we ate, its called "Qeqe" I was pretty hesitant to eat it at first. When she brought it out, I thought to myself "no!" But then I just told myself to eat it, if they eat it, it has to taste good right? So when I tried it, it didn't taste too bad. I ate the whole bowl of them. The funny thing is it kind of tasted like bacon.. I know, crazy, but it did. That or I just forgot what bacon tastes like because they don't have bacon here.
Well I hope everyone is doing well! Take Care!
Loloma levu!
Elder Beilman
Yeah, I emailed my mission president and told him that a truck would really help us out here, but he told me there is a limited number of trucks that they can have and that they are all in other areas. But there is one in this area called Ba, which is like 2 hours away where our District leader is and they have a truck, but its a lot bigger of a town than Rakiraki. I think they could do without the truck there, and most of the roads are paved there and almost all of them here are gravel. They should put the bicycles there and give us the truck, but its okay. Its all up to the Mission President on that. Oh and the bridge is still out. Its been out for over a year now.. They don't plan on finishing it till December next year.. They are working on it right now though.
This last week was really good! We are working with less actives more now that we have been. Our goal for them is to go to the Temple because a lot of the less actives haven't been to the temple yet. So we sat down with our Branch President's brother, Rusi, and his wife 2 times last week. On Thursday, we shared a little about families with them. Rusi was planning on going on a mission, but he got a job at one of the hotels nearby and unfortunately that took him away from going to church. He was going to seminary and everything! Way sad! He hasn't been in 12 years.. But we are going to start teaching them, his wife isn't a member but we are going to invite her to baptism soon! They have the cutest little girl! She is kind of bad sometimes though. There is some gravel close to their house and she grabs the rocks and throws them at the house sometimes.. But she is so funny. Every time she sees us she says "Elda!" and wants us to shake her hand, its so funny.
On Saturday, we went to visit out 1st counselor in the Branch Presidency and we had dinner over there, and this is what we ate, its called "Qeqe" I was pretty hesitant to eat it at first. When she brought it out, I thought to myself "no!" But then I just told myself to eat it, if they eat it, it has to taste good right? So when I tried it, it didn't taste too bad. I ate the whole bowl of them. The funny thing is it kind of tasted like bacon.. I know, crazy, but it did. That or I just forgot what bacon tastes like because they don't have bacon here.
Well I hope everyone is doing well! Take Care!
Loloma levu!
Elder Beilman
August 17, 2014
Hey everyone!
I love getting your emails, they always make me laugh. You guys have a roller coaster of a life it seems like haha, but that's okay makes it interesting. You could probably sell him Daagels motorcycle to him too, if he wants it. He could probably sit on it though, just do a couple of repairs.
Oh no, school starts soon! Enjoy it, because it goes by quick! Especially Curt, this year will fly by.
You'll probably be starting your mission in less than a year too.
But everything here is great. Zone Conference was really good, we talked about a new focus on missionary work, less actives. I heard it's worldwide so now we won't just be focusing on baptizing, but going to teach the less actives the lessons and prepare them for the temple, and receive the priesthood if they need to. I'm really excited about that, we've already started it here in Fiji and I've heard a couple of stories about how when they get the CMIS list they have the most referrals they have ever gotten. We are going to get ours soon. The printer at the branch doesn't work so we have to get ours from the stake. And our branch president said he will go with us on Saturday to go visit some less actives! I'm way excited about that because I feel like the members don't visit each other, but we don't have home or visiting teaching either so it kind of makes sense. And I think the less actives need to feel the love of the members and not only the missionaries. Because every time we go there they really appreciate it, but I feel like they don't feel loved by anybody at church so
they don't want to go.
There is a couple named Sulu and Miti which were baptized in 2006 I think, but they are going to another church now. We sat down with them once and they seemed a little excited to see us and
showed us the pictures of the missionaries that baptized them. They just didn't seem too excited to come back which is really sad. Hopefully we go there with our Branch President on Saturday and they will be able to feel the Spirit again.
Oh! and we met a former investigator named Marika, he was on date to be baptized last year around this time but something happened and he didn't get baptized, and I guess he was gone for the longest time, but we saw him on Saturday and we are going to start reteaching him. I was really excited about that because I saw his teaching record and I really wanted to meet him, and I finally got to meet him! I've been praying that we will be able to have those who are ready to receive the gospel in our paths and I'm sure that Heavenly Father put him in our path. As well as another former investigator that I taught when I first came here. He was gone for a long time too and he told one of
our members that he wanted us to come over. I'm pretty excited to see how it goes with those two.
Hope you all have a good week!
Loloma levu!
Elder Beilman
I love getting your emails, they always make me laugh. You guys have a roller coaster of a life it seems like haha, but that's okay makes it interesting. You could probably sell him Daagels motorcycle to him too, if he wants it. He could probably sit on it though, just do a couple of repairs.
Oh no, school starts soon! Enjoy it, because it goes by quick! Especially Curt, this year will fly by.
You'll probably be starting your mission in less than a year too.
But everything here is great. Zone Conference was really good, we talked about a new focus on missionary work, less actives. I heard it's worldwide so now we won't just be focusing on baptizing, but going to teach the less actives the lessons and prepare them for the temple, and receive the priesthood if they need to. I'm really excited about that, we've already started it here in Fiji and I've heard a couple of stories about how when they get the CMIS list they have the most referrals they have ever gotten. We are going to get ours soon. The printer at the branch doesn't work so we have to get ours from the stake. And our branch president said he will go with us on Saturday to go visit some less actives! I'm way excited about that because I feel like the members don't visit each other, but we don't have home or visiting teaching either so it kind of makes sense. And I think the less actives need to feel the love of the members and not only the missionaries. Because every time we go there they really appreciate it, but I feel like they don't feel loved by anybody at church so
they don't want to go.
There is a couple named Sulu and Miti which were baptized in 2006 I think, but they are going to another church now. We sat down with them once and they seemed a little excited to see us and
showed us the pictures of the missionaries that baptized them. They just didn't seem too excited to come back which is really sad. Hopefully we go there with our Branch President on Saturday and they will be able to feel the Spirit again.
Oh! and we met a former investigator named Marika, he was on date to be baptized last year around this time but something happened and he didn't get baptized, and I guess he was gone for the longest time, but we saw him on Saturday and we are going to start reteaching him. I was really excited about that because I saw his teaching record and I really wanted to meet him, and I finally got to meet him! I've been praying that we will be able to have those who are ready to receive the gospel in our paths and I'm sure that Heavenly Father put him in our path. As well as another former investigator that I taught when I first came here. He was gone for a long time too and he told one of
our members that he wanted us to come over. I'm pretty excited to see how it goes with those two.
Hope you all have a good week!
Loloma levu!
Elder Beilman
These are some pictures from our 2nd counselor that he emailed me.
August 10, 2014
Hey Everyone,
Sorry, I don't have a ton of time today.
We are having Zone P Day in Lautoka(about 2-1/2 hours from my area) and zone conference tomorrow in Nadi, so we are in Ba with our District Leader Elder Johnson and his companion Elder Banks. They are both from Utah, and they are awesome.
This week was really good, we found some new investigators. One of
them, his name is Lepani(which in the Fijian Book of Mormon Lepani is Laban) I thought that was way funny. But he was awesome, we gave him a restoration pamphlet on Wednesday, and saw him yesterday. He read the whole thing and had a ton of questions. we will be seeing him again on Thursday.
Sorry again that this is short!
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman
Sorry, I don't have a ton of time today.
We are having Zone P Day in Lautoka(about 2-1/2 hours from my area) and zone conference tomorrow in Nadi, so we are in Ba with our District Leader Elder Johnson and his companion Elder Banks. They are both from Utah, and they are awesome.
This week was really good, we found some new investigators. One of
them, his name is Lepani(which in the Fijian Book of Mormon Lepani is Laban) I thought that was way funny. But he was awesome, we gave him a restoration pamphlet on Wednesday, and saw him yesterday. He read the whole thing and had a ton of questions. we will be seeing him again on Thursday.
Sorry again that this is short!
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman
Thursday
August 3, 2014
Hey everyone!
Well I think each week is going by faster and faster. We've been trying to get some new investigators because unfortunately, we will have to drop a couple of ours soon. On Friday, we had 3 appointments that we planned that all fell through, so we decided to just OYM (open your mouth) some people at the Hart(kind of apartment like things for people who are having a hard time) and we sat down with this older man Romulo, he is super nice. He wasn't feeling well, so we gave him a blessing, and shared a little about the restoration and told him we would come next week to talk more about it. We also talked with another woman over there and we are going to see her next week as well. It is actually super easy to get inside the door here in Fiji, mainly because its the culture. If they see somebody walking down the road, they invite them to have lunch/dinner/drauni moli/ or to just rest. Every now and then, we will say alright and just sit with them for a minute and share a little bit and ask if we could come back another day, almost always they say yes. But the hard part is knowing if they are actually interested. We just need to help them recognize the things they were taught in our pre earth life and bring them into the light of the gospel.
Au via wasea noqu ivakadinadina, au kila ni dina na lotu oqo. Au vakadinadinatake ni parofita dina o Josefa Smici kei Thomas S. Moson. Au vakadinadinataka e lomani keda kece na Kalou. Koya vinakata keda meda lesu tale vua. Au lomani kemudou kei Jessica tale ga. Au wasea na veika oqo e na yaca i Jisu Karisito, emeni.
Thank you guys for everything you have done for me and allowing me to serve a mission. I will be forever grateful for these experiences.
Much love,
Elder Beilman
Well I think each week is going by faster and faster. We've been trying to get some new investigators because unfortunately, we will have to drop a couple of ours soon. On Friday, we had 3 appointments that we planned that all fell through, so we decided to just OYM (open your mouth) some people at the Hart(kind of apartment like things for people who are having a hard time) and we sat down with this older man Romulo, he is super nice. He wasn't feeling well, so we gave him a blessing, and shared a little about the restoration and told him we would come next week to talk more about it. We also talked with another woman over there and we are going to see her next week as well. It is actually super easy to get inside the door here in Fiji, mainly because its the culture. If they see somebody walking down the road, they invite them to have lunch/dinner/drauni moli/ or to just rest. Every now and then, we will say alright and just sit with them for a minute and share a little bit and ask if we could come back another day, almost always they say yes. But the hard part is knowing if they are actually interested. We just need to help them recognize the things they were taught in our pre earth life and bring them into the light of the gospel.
Au via wasea noqu ivakadinadina, au kila ni dina na lotu oqo. Au vakadinadinatake ni parofita dina o Josefa Smici kei Thomas S. Moson. Au vakadinadinataka e lomani keda kece na Kalou. Koya vinakata keda meda lesu tale vua. Au lomani kemudou kei Jessica tale ga. Au wasea na veika oqo e na yaca i Jisu Karisito, emeni.
Thank you guys for everything you have done for me and allowing me to serve a mission. I will be forever grateful for these experiences.
Much love,
Elder Beilman
July 27, 2014
Dear Family,
Alli, I want to hear a 5k under 20 minutes.... that would be really
good! I know when I ran cross country, I tried to get under 19 minutes
every race and to be faster and faster each race. Its kind of hard
sometimes, I'll admit, but it's way cool when you get a personal
record.
Jane, I want to hear about you spiking the ball by the end of the
season. You should be tall enough be then anyway haha.
I'm glad to hear everyone is doing well! This week was good. I'm
staying in Rakiraki! We went to see one of our investigators Wise and
his Granddaughter Karaline, and we gave them a baptismal date of
September 6th. They accepted! I was really happy about that. The only
thing that they really need to do is come to church. That, I think,
will be the hardest thing because they live far from our unit and the
bus won't pick them up on Sunday in the Village they live in. So we
are really trying to figure something out with our members to see if
there is anything they can do to help them.
Our second counselor's son Xavier(I think I've told you about him
before) wants to go on a mission. So I've been really trying to
encourage him. His dad is a convert and became the Branch President
then was released and is now the Second Counselor. But both of his
older brothers are inactive and he doesn't really have a good example
to look up to except his dad and us. I've been telling him how much my
mission has blessed my already, and I've only been out for almost 6
months. He feels that he doesn't know enough scriptures or anything,
but I told him to just focus on his testimony right now. I love that
family, they are awesome!
Sorry this is kind of short! I don't have much time left.
But take care everyone!
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman
Alli, I want to hear a 5k under 20 minutes.... that would be really
good! I know when I ran cross country, I tried to get under 19 minutes
every race and to be faster and faster each race. Its kind of hard
sometimes, I'll admit, but it's way cool when you get a personal
record.
Jane, I want to hear about you spiking the ball by the end of the
season. You should be tall enough be then anyway haha.
I'm glad to hear everyone is doing well! This week was good. I'm
staying in Rakiraki! We went to see one of our investigators Wise and
his Granddaughter Karaline, and we gave them a baptismal date of
September 6th. They accepted! I was really happy about that. The only
thing that they really need to do is come to church. That, I think,
will be the hardest thing because they live far from our unit and the
bus won't pick them up on Sunday in the Village they live in. So we
are really trying to figure something out with our members to see if
there is anything they can do to help them.
Our second counselor's son Xavier(I think I've told you about him
before) wants to go on a mission. So I've been really trying to
encourage him. His dad is a convert and became the Branch President
then was released and is now the Second Counselor. But both of his
older brothers are inactive and he doesn't really have a good example
to look up to except his dad and us. I've been telling him how much my
mission has blessed my already, and I've only been out for almost 6
months. He feels that he doesn't know enough scriptures or anything,
but I told him to just focus on his testimony right now. I love that
family, they are awesome!
Sorry this is kind of short! I don't have much time left.
But take care everyone!
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman
This is an ibe. we sit on them when we visit people. I had asked one
of our investigators to make me one. The FS is supposed to be FSM(Fiji
Suva Mission) but she forgot the M. Oh well. I still love it.
of our investigators to make me one. The FS is supposed to be FSM(Fiji
Suva Mission) but she forgot the M. Oh well. I still love it.
Monday
July 20, 2014
Hey everyone!
This week was really good. We have this investigator named Wise, but he lives kind of far from the closest church and he is 78 so he can't walk really well. So we talked to him about getting on the bus, but the busses on Sunday aren't really reliable so they don't stop in thevillage he lives at. And it costs too much for him to hire a taxi or a carrier(truck that you ride in the back of, the bed) but he really wants to be baptized. He is awesome, I'm really praying for something to work out that enables him to make it to church!
My Fijian is improving! Which is really good, at first, I didnt really focus on learning it because most of the people here know english, but I've been really trying to learn it lately. Just trying to talk to our
investigators has really been helping. My Companion said I've been doing a lot better with it since he first came here.
Transfers are on Saturday. I might be going this time. I've been told that you typically don't stay with your second companion very long. But I'd be happy if I stayed here. I love it here in Rakiraki.
I've been really trying to encourage our Second Counselors son, Xavier, to go on a mission. He is 17 and he was less active before I came here. He just received the Aaronic Priesthood 2 weeks ago and he has been able to pass the sacrament and bless it. So that is really good. I'm really happy that he wants to serve a mission. I told him if he does serve and serves in the U.S. I would try to visit him when I get back, haha.
I love it out here. Well I have to go now, I'm out of time.
Love you guys!
Love, Clayton
P.S. Thanks for the crepes recipe, I'll try to make some soon.
This week was really good. We have this investigator named Wise, but he lives kind of far from the closest church and he is 78 so he can't walk really well. So we talked to him about getting on the bus, but the busses on Sunday aren't really reliable so they don't stop in thevillage he lives at. And it costs too much for him to hire a taxi or a carrier(truck that you ride in the back of, the bed) but he really wants to be baptized. He is awesome, I'm really praying for something to work out that enables him to make it to church!
My Fijian is improving! Which is really good, at first, I didnt really focus on learning it because most of the people here know english, but I've been really trying to learn it lately. Just trying to talk to our
investigators has really been helping. My Companion said I've been doing a lot better with it since he first came here.
Transfers are on Saturday. I might be going this time. I've been told that you typically don't stay with your second companion very long. But I'd be happy if I stayed here. I love it here in Rakiraki.
I've been really trying to encourage our Second Counselors son, Xavier, to go on a mission. He is 17 and he was less active before I came here. He just received the Aaronic Priesthood 2 weeks ago and he has been able to pass the sacrament and bless it. So that is really good. I'm really happy that he wants to serve a mission. I told him if he does serve and serves in the U.S. I would try to visit him when I get back, haha.
I love it out here. Well I have to go now, I'm out of time.
Love you guys!
Love, Clayton
P.S. Thanks for the crepes recipe, I'll try to make some soon.
Sunday
July 13, 2014
Hey everyone!
Tucker is looking like he is doing well! That's really good.
One of our members just had a baby yesterday. The Father Bro. Sevai(our branch clerk) had asked us to come to the hospital to give the baby a blessing, so we went as soon as we could after we got done with church to see her. Unfortunately Bro. Sevai has been working on Sunday's because he works at the Sugar Mill and right now they are cutting all the cane(which there is a ton of it everywhere) so they have them work on Sunday. But normally nobody works on Sunday here in Rakiraki. He was able to get off work when his wife went into labor, but he had to go back soon after. He is way nice though, Bro Sevai is the man.
It's pretty hard to think that I've been out for 5 months. In 3 weeks, I will be 1/4 of the way done with my mission. I didn't think it would go by this fast. It's kind of sad to see how fast its going by, but that just tells me that I'm enjoying my time out here serving our Heavenly Father.
I can't believe that Jessica has been out for almost a year! It seems like yesterday I was with all of you dropping her off at the MTC.
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman
Tucker is looking like he is doing well! That's really good.
One of our members just had a baby yesterday. The Father Bro. Sevai(our branch clerk) had asked us to come to the hospital to give the baby a blessing, so we went as soon as we could after we got done with church to see her. Unfortunately Bro. Sevai has been working on Sunday's because he works at the Sugar Mill and right now they are cutting all the cane(which there is a ton of it everywhere) so they have them work on Sunday. But normally nobody works on Sunday here in Rakiraki. He was able to get off work when his wife went into labor, but he had to go back soon after. He is way nice though, Bro Sevai is the man.
It's pretty hard to think that I've been out for 5 months. In 3 weeks, I will be 1/4 of the way done with my mission. I didn't think it would go by this fast. It's kind of sad to see how fast its going by, but that just tells me that I'm enjoying my time out here serving our Heavenly Father.
I can't believe that Jessica has been out for almost a year! It seems like yesterday I was with all of you dropping her off at the MTC.
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman
July 6, 2014
Hey everyone!
That's really good that Tucker is doing well. Sounds like you have been pretty busy, as always haha.
Everything here is going really well. We got our new Mission President, President Layton, he is awesome. We got to meet him on Tuesday and he said he wants to come out to teach with us some time, if he can. I was really excited to hear that, I think it would be way cool to have your mission President come to some teaching appointments with you, even if they don't know the language really well. He will soon though, he had taken language lessons at the MTC with one of my teachers that I had.
We had a baptism yesterday! We baptized him in a cold river! But I didn't really feel the cold once we were about to perform the baptism. His name is Buka, and he really wants his family to be baptized too! His wife isn't really interested in baptism right now, but she said she supports him. They have 3 kids that are all under 8, the oldest is 7 I think, but I'm really praying that the Branch can hold on to him and support him as much as possible that way he stays active and his children can grow up in the church and be baptized as well.
Many of the converts that are here in this area have fallen away, so we try to hold on to them for a while after they are baptized to keep them strong. But the Stake is really helping the branch so hopefully everything starts falling into place.
I'm so grateful for this experience as a missionary, my testimony has grown so much since I've been on my mission, and I want to challenge you guys to increase your testimony of Joseph Smith. I want you to read the Testimony of the Three Witnesses as well as the Eight Witnesses and D&C 135. And if you really want to, read Elder Jeffrey R. Hollands talk called "Safety for the Soul". When I read that talk, it just blows me away. Its really powerful.
But I hope all is going well!
Thank you for the prayers and support!
Love you guys,
Love Elder Beilman
That's really good that Tucker is doing well. Sounds like you have been pretty busy, as always haha.
Everything here is going really well. We got our new Mission President, President Layton, he is awesome. We got to meet him on Tuesday and he said he wants to come out to teach with us some time, if he can. I was really excited to hear that, I think it would be way cool to have your mission President come to some teaching appointments with you, even if they don't know the language really well. He will soon though, he had taken language lessons at the MTC with one of my teachers that I had.
We had a baptism yesterday! We baptized him in a cold river! But I didn't really feel the cold once we were about to perform the baptism. His name is Buka, and he really wants his family to be baptized too! His wife isn't really interested in baptism right now, but she said she supports him. They have 3 kids that are all under 8, the oldest is 7 I think, but I'm really praying that the Branch can hold on to him and support him as much as possible that way he stays active and his children can grow up in the church and be baptized as well.
Many of the converts that are here in this area have fallen away, so we try to hold on to them for a while after they are baptized to keep them strong. But the Stake is really helping the branch so hopefully everything starts falling into place.
I'm so grateful for this experience as a missionary, my testimony has grown so much since I've been on my mission, and I want to challenge you guys to increase your testimony of Joseph Smith. I want you to read the Testimony of the Three Witnesses as well as the Eight Witnesses and D&C 135. And if you really want to, read Elder Jeffrey R. Hollands talk called "Safety for the Soul". When I read that talk, it just blows me away. Its really powerful.
But I hope all is going well!
Thank you for the prayers and support!
Love you guys,
Love Elder Beilman
Buka's baptism:
Here is one of the older style Fijian houses:
Monday
June 29, 2014
This week was really good! We walked a lot... And rode the bikes a
little bit. I can't stand riding on the gravel roads, the gravel roads
are terrible here. I think we will be getting a truck here soon
though. Which will be so nice to have. sometimes we have to wait
anywhere from 10 minutes to 3 hours for a bus to come when we are out
in a village far from our flat. So it will help a lot if we can get a
truck here. If not, oh well, walking is fun too. We went to this
village called Namuaimada. Before, my old companion and I only went
there one time, and it was for a wedding that we got invited to. When
we were there, we sat down with this man named Wise and he really
wanted to learn about the gospel. The only problem was that if we went
out there, it would have to be on a Saturday because that is the only
day we could make it out there. and it would be really hard to
schedule more appointments for Saturday because we have to wait on a
bus and we don't know what time we will get picked up. Some of the
busses just pass us. but we never went out there again until Saturday
this past week, I really wanted to see Wise. When we got there, he
wasn't home so we talked to some people selling fish by the highway
for a bit and he came home after about 15 minutes. So we were able to
sit down with him and this other woman that is about 30 and they both
really want to learn. They told us that people in the village want to
take the lessons now! Way cool. Considering last time missionaries
were there, they got ran out by some people in that village. So I
think we are going to start going there a lot now. We have a baptism
scheduled for Saturday. His name is Buka and he is awesome! His wife
isn't interested in being baptized, but he is really hoping that she
will one day. She said she is supporting him though, which is really
good. Shaayal, one of our recent converts, told us that her husband
wants to take the lessons! I'm really happy about that because before
he was totally against her being baptized. It is mainly pressure from
his mother though. She is a really strong catholic. But I'm really
excited to start teaching him.
My new Mission President, President Layton, arrived on Saturday! I get
to meet him tomorrow. Pretty excited for that, sad that President
Klingler left though, he was really good. That's about all for this
week.
Much love,
Elder Beilman
little bit. I can't stand riding on the gravel roads, the gravel roads
are terrible here. I think we will be getting a truck here soon
though. Which will be so nice to have. sometimes we have to wait
anywhere from 10 minutes to 3 hours for a bus to come when we are out
in a village far from our flat. So it will help a lot if we can get a
truck here. If not, oh well, walking is fun too. We went to this
village called Namuaimada. Before, my old companion and I only went
there one time, and it was for a wedding that we got invited to. When
we were there, we sat down with this man named Wise and he really
wanted to learn about the gospel. The only problem was that if we went
out there, it would have to be on a Saturday because that is the only
day we could make it out there. and it would be really hard to
schedule more appointments for Saturday because we have to wait on a
bus and we don't know what time we will get picked up. Some of the
busses just pass us. but we never went out there again until Saturday
this past week, I really wanted to see Wise. When we got there, he
wasn't home so we talked to some people selling fish by the highway
for a bit and he came home after about 15 minutes. So we were able to
sit down with him and this other woman that is about 30 and they both
really want to learn. They told us that people in the village want to
take the lessons now! Way cool. Considering last time missionaries
were there, they got ran out by some people in that village. So I
think we are going to start going there a lot now. We have a baptism
scheduled for Saturday. His name is Buka and he is awesome! His wife
isn't interested in being baptized, but he is really hoping that she
will one day. She said she is supporting him though, which is really
good. Shaayal, one of our recent converts, told us that her husband
wants to take the lessons! I'm really happy about that because before
he was totally against her being baptized. It is mainly pressure from
his mother though. She is a really strong catholic. But I'm really
excited to start teaching him.
My new Mission President, President Layton, arrived on Saturday! I get
to meet him tomorrow. Pretty excited for that, sad that President
Klingler left though, he was really good. That's about all for this
week.
Much love,
Elder Beilman
June 22, 2014
Hey everyone!
Sorry about last week, I was trying to email everybody I could and didn't have much time to write you. But no I didn't get transferred, my trainer got transferred to Suva, his dream area. So I got a new companion, his name is Elder Ravutaumada. He is from Taveuni which is known as the garden island here in fiji, I want to serve on that island someday. But he is awesome, he only has 4 months left on his mission, so Rakiraki might be his last area. Everything here is really good. Unfortunately, we had to move one of our Baptismal Dates that was set for the 28th this month back because he didn't come to church yesterday. But that's okay, it won't be too long. We have 3 investigators with baptismal dates! Really good. We just need to teach them everything, 2 of them are really good and the other one is a former investigator who 2 years ago wanted to go on a mission. We never really taught him much since I've been here so we didn't know that until I went through the area book and saw his name. We saw him 2 saturday's ago and asked if he still wanted to go on a mission, and he said yes. So we talked about baptism and the reasons why we are baptized and everything. It was really good. He just needs permission from his family and come to church. But he is really good. The other day, we read in Preach My Gospel and it said something about praying for unexpected things to come into your path(something along those lines) and it really struck me. So before we started proselyting I said a prayer that we could have some unexpected things happen throughout the day, and we had one. It was really good, we went to visit a less active in this village called Vatuse(we don't go there often, I've only been there 2 times since I've been here) and she took us to the house of this other former investigator that really wanted us to come over and take the lessons again. It was great, we are going to visit him again on Friday.
That is crazy that the baby is here already! I feel like it was yesterday that you were given the Christmas present that said how many weeks till you are grandparents. That's good that he is doing okay though!
Thanks for the updates!
Love you guys!
Elder Beilman
My trainer that got transferred to Suva on the left(Elder Leota).
My new companion on the right(Elder Ravutaumada).
June 8, 2014
Hey everyone,
That's good that you're having a good time in Kauai.
Fiji is a little different, well at least in the West. It doesn't rain everyday.
I heard that Suva gets rain more often than it does here. But that's okay.
We had a really good week. Had some awesome lessons with 4 new
investigators. One of them came to church yesterday and we only sat
down with him once. He was a referral from one of our members. We are
going to try to have a baptism for him on the 28th of June. Our
mission goal for this quarter is 220 baptisms. I guess we are pretty
behind as of right now, but hopefully my companion and I can help with
2 more baptisms. We were going for 5 baptisms each in our district,
but we only had 2 investigators come to church this week and the
quarter ends this month. So hopefully they will be able to enter the
waters of baptism this month. But its not our timing, but Heavenly
Father's. We just have to find and teach the ones who are prepared. We
are going to Nadi tomorrow for our Zone Conference, which is good, but
it puts us out of our area for 3 days, which kind of sucks because we
want to see our investigators sooner. We came to Ba yesterday after
church and going to Lautoka for Zone Pday and going to Nadi tomorrow.
Crazy week.
I can't believe how fast its going by. It has already been 4 months
since I've been on my mission. 2 more months and I will be 1/4 of my
way through. I knew it would go by fast, so I'm trying to make
everyday worth it and work as hard as possible. But that just makes it
go faster. So I don't know what to do there. Well I hope all is well!
Take care!
Love you all!
Elder Beilman
That's good that you're having a good time in Kauai.
Fiji is a little different, well at least in the West. It doesn't rain everyday.
I heard that Suva gets rain more often than it does here. But that's okay.
We had a really good week. Had some awesome lessons with 4 new
investigators. One of them came to church yesterday and we only sat
down with him once. He was a referral from one of our members. We are
going to try to have a baptism for him on the 28th of June. Our
mission goal for this quarter is 220 baptisms. I guess we are pretty
behind as of right now, but hopefully my companion and I can help with
2 more baptisms. We were going for 5 baptisms each in our district,
but we only had 2 investigators come to church this week and the
quarter ends this month. So hopefully they will be able to enter the
waters of baptism this month. But its not our timing, but Heavenly
Father's. We just have to find and teach the ones who are prepared. We
are going to Nadi tomorrow for our Zone Conference, which is good, but
it puts us out of our area for 3 days, which kind of sucks because we
want to see our investigators sooner. We came to Ba yesterday after
church and going to Lautoka for Zone Pday and going to Nadi tomorrow.
Crazy week.
I can't believe how fast its going by. It has already been 4 months
since I've been on my mission. 2 more months and I will be 1/4 of my
way through. I knew it would go by fast, so I'm trying to make
everyday worth it and work as hard as possible. But that just makes it
go faster. So I don't know what to do there. Well I hope all is well!
Take care!
Love you all!
Elder Beilman
Here is a picture of our branch!
June 1, 2014
Hey everyone!
This week was really good, had a lot of lessons. That's the only bad
thing here in my area, its really spread out and we usually have to
walk pretty far to get to our lessons. Sometimes we are pretty late to
the lessons because of that. Hopefully we can get a truck or something
soon. The bikes don't do much because most of the roads are "gravel"
but really its a dirt road with boulders. Well not that bad, but the
rocks are baseball sized in a lot of areas. Its hard to walk on, too
actually haha. Thanks for the Ecco's. These sandals are awesome. They
will last a long time here. My companion went threw like 6 pairs of
sandals that he bought here in Fiji. But they are all leather, or fake
leather not really sure, and they don't last long. So I'm really
grateful that I have these sandals. I have a tan line on my feet(from
the little holes on the sides) that looks pretty funny when I take my
sandals off. That's probably the only down side haha. I also have a
sweet tan line from my watch, I guess it's bound to happen here in
Fiji though, can't really help that.
Yesterday was really good. We had some good food. At the unit we cover
in Nakorkula, we had Roro and Dalo/Kassava(which was alright, I can
eat it) but Sunday night, we had Fish and Chicken and Dalo. The
chicken was so good! Best chicken I've had since I've been here. They
don't take out the bones in the chicken for the curry, so it sucks if
you ever want to get chicken curry at a restaurant, but this chicken
was boiled, I think, and it was the chicken breast so it was really
good. The fish was good too. We had a lot to eat. That's the good
thing here if you can get used to the food, the Fijians will keep
feeding you until you can't eat anymore haha. Well, I hope all is
well! Thanks for the email and the support!
Love you guys!
Elder Beilman
This week was really good, had a lot of lessons. That's the only bad
thing here in my area, its really spread out and we usually have to
walk pretty far to get to our lessons. Sometimes we are pretty late to
the lessons because of that. Hopefully we can get a truck or something
soon. The bikes don't do much because most of the roads are "gravel"
but really its a dirt road with boulders. Well not that bad, but the
rocks are baseball sized in a lot of areas. Its hard to walk on, too
actually haha. Thanks for the Ecco's. These sandals are awesome. They
will last a long time here. My companion went threw like 6 pairs of
sandals that he bought here in Fiji. But they are all leather, or fake
leather not really sure, and they don't last long. So I'm really
grateful that I have these sandals. I have a tan line on my feet(from
the little holes on the sides) that looks pretty funny when I take my
sandals off. That's probably the only down side haha. I also have a
sweet tan line from my watch, I guess it's bound to happen here in
Fiji though, can't really help that.
Yesterday was really good. We had some good food. At the unit we cover
in Nakorkula, we had Roro and Dalo/Kassava(which was alright, I can
eat it) but Sunday night, we had Fish and Chicken and Dalo. The
chicken was so good! Best chicken I've had since I've been here. They
don't take out the bones in the chicken for the curry, so it sucks if
you ever want to get chicken curry at a restaurant, but this chicken
was boiled, I think, and it was the chicken breast so it was really
good. The fish was good too. We had a lot to eat. That's the good
thing here if you can get used to the food, the Fijians will keep
feeding you until you can't eat anymore haha. Well, I hope all is
well! Thanks for the email and the support!
Love you guys!
Elder Beilman
Here is a picture of roro(in the bowl) and dalo on the plate:
Sunday
May 25, 2014
Hey everyone!
This week was amazing! Saturday was full of miracles, pretty much the whole day was a miracle.
We got invited to a wedding in this village called Namuaimada and it was the first time we've been to this village because we didn't have any work out there. But when we got there, my companion told me that the last elders that were here in 2011 were ran out of this village! Crazy! But when we were there, we got to meet a lot of people and even had an intro lesson with a man named Weis.
Another man had a lot of questions, but we were unable to sit down with him because we needed to go back to the flat and do our studies. So we just gave him a restoration pamphlet. I think we will be going back there in a couple of weeks. Probable take it slow with that village. But while we were waiting for the bus back to town, we had this woman come up to us and ask us if we were LDS and we said yeah, we are the missionaries and she was talking about another woman in the
village that was wondering where the church was. We were able to meet the one who was looking for the church and she told us she is currently living in American Samoa for work, but she was just baptized at the end of April!! Crazy! When we were talking to her, a bus came, but we still needed to talk to her and the bus wasn't going to wait, so we decided to stay and talk to her and the bus left. When we finished talking to her, we saw 2 men that were at the wedding that we talked with a little and they offered us a ride back to town(about 30 minutes away). When we got to town, we stopped at the market to buy some bananas so we can have pancakes with them and we paid $1.50 for like 50 or 60 bananas, we thought it was too much so we gave some away to some people that we know, and we still had like 20 or 30. When we were walking back to the flat we got another ride from this Fijian man that we always see when we walk to the bridge that is out. He gave us a ride in a really big truck that is used for carrying rocks and dirt and stuff. That was really nice, then we tried to give him some
bananas, but he wouldn't take them! He told us that picking us up and dropping us off was a blessing. Hopefully one day we will get to sit down with him. We are just way busy! But thank you for the email and everything! I got the package about 2 weeks ago, but my district leader still has it.
I'll pick it up tomorrow. Thank you for everything!
Oh and we had a baptism in the ocean yesterday!! Yawa(far out) hahaha
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman
This week was amazing! Saturday was full of miracles, pretty much the whole day was a miracle.
We got invited to a wedding in this village called Namuaimada and it was the first time we've been to this village because we didn't have any work out there. But when we got there, my companion told me that the last elders that were here in 2011 were ran out of this village! Crazy! But when we were there, we got to meet a lot of people and even had an intro lesson with a man named Weis.
Another man had a lot of questions, but we were unable to sit down with him because we needed to go back to the flat and do our studies. So we just gave him a restoration pamphlet. I think we will be going back there in a couple of weeks. Probable take it slow with that village. But while we were waiting for the bus back to town, we had this woman come up to us and ask us if we were LDS and we said yeah, we are the missionaries and she was talking about another woman in the
village that was wondering where the church was. We were able to meet the one who was looking for the church and she told us she is currently living in American Samoa for work, but she was just baptized at the end of April!! Crazy! When we were talking to her, a bus came, but we still needed to talk to her and the bus wasn't going to wait, so we decided to stay and talk to her and the bus left. When we finished talking to her, we saw 2 men that were at the wedding that we talked with a little and they offered us a ride back to town(about 30 minutes away). When we got to town, we stopped at the market to buy some bananas so we can have pancakes with them and we paid $1.50 for like 50 or 60 bananas, we thought it was too much so we gave some away to some people that we know, and we still had like 20 or 30. When we were walking back to the flat we got another ride from this Fijian man that we always see when we walk to the bridge that is out. He gave us a ride in a really big truck that is used for carrying rocks and dirt and stuff. That was really nice, then we tried to give him some
bananas, but he wouldn't take them! He told us that picking us up and dropping us off was a blessing. Hopefully one day we will get to sit down with him. We are just way busy! But thank you for the email and everything! I got the package about 2 weeks ago, but my district leader still has it.
I'll pick it up tomorrow. Thank you for everything!
Oh and we had a baptism in the ocean yesterday!! Yawa(far out) hahaha
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman
May 18, 2014
Hey everyone!
Thanks for the email and the pictures. Unfortunately, I haven't heard from my mom in a while.
She hasn't e-mailed me back for about a month or so. Don't know why. So I only got to skype my dad. That was really good though. I'm really happy I got to do that. I think it really helped him too.
But everything here is going well. My companion and I didn't get to proselyte much this week. Lots of things happened. Monday and Tuesday we were in Ba which is like 2 hours away from our area. But we were there so we could skype. On Wednesday I was sick as well as Thursday.
Just a sore throat and a bad cough. I still have the cough, but its slowly going away.
On Friday, we got to proselyte for about 5 hours and that was good. We went to visit our Second counselor's, President Besetimoala, son Xavier. He is awesome, he is really thinking about going on a mission. Hopefully he does, that would really help his family. They are all less active. We had dinner with them and shared a little bit of the gospel. It was really good. Then on Saturday, it rained all day.
And it rained a lot. Town started to flood and we had to go back to the flat. We couldn't proselyte anywhere because everywhere we would/could go was getting flooded. And we didn't want to put
ourselves in any danger. Then on Sunday we had church cancelled because of the flood/weather, but we went to visit one of our investigators, Shayal who was supposed to be baptized yesterday, and
town wasn't flooded anymore and all the water was gone. So I'm not completely sure why it was cancelled. We could have had church in my opinion. But it's not up to me. The worst part is that Xavier walked an hour to church yesterday to come and we had to tell him it was cancelled. Hopefully he comes next week though. Thanks again for the e-mail! Hope all is well!
Love you guys!
Elder Beilman
Thanks for the email and the pictures. Unfortunately, I haven't heard from my mom in a while.
She hasn't e-mailed me back for about a month or so. Don't know why. So I only got to skype my dad. That was really good though. I'm really happy I got to do that. I think it really helped him too.
But everything here is going well. My companion and I didn't get to proselyte much this week. Lots of things happened. Monday and Tuesday we were in Ba which is like 2 hours away from our area. But we were there so we could skype. On Wednesday I was sick as well as Thursday.
Just a sore throat and a bad cough. I still have the cough, but its slowly going away.
On Friday, we got to proselyte for about 5 hours and that was good. We went to visit our Second counselor's, President Besetimoala, son Xavier. He is awesome, he is really thinking about going on a mission. Hopefully he does, that would really help his family. They are all less active. We had dinner with them and shared a little bit of the gospel. It was really good. Then on Saturday, it rained all day.
And it rained a lot. Town started to flood and we had to go back to the flat. We couldn't proselyte anywhere because everywhere we would/could go was getting flooded. And we didn't want to put
ourselves in any danger. Then on Sunday we had church cancelled because of the flood/weather, but we went to visit one of our investigators, Shayal who was supposed to be baptized yesterday, and
town wasn't flooded anymore and all the water was gone. So I'm not completely sure why it was cancelled. We could have had church in my opinion. But it's not up to me. The worst part is that Xavier walked an hour to church yesterday to come and we had to tell him it was cancelled. Hopefully he comes next week though. Thanks again for the e-mail! Hope all is well!
Love you guys!
Elder Beilman
Wednesday
May 12, 2014
Hey everyone,
Snow in May?! That's kind of crazy... but there wasn't much snow during winter anyway, so maybe it will help. Sounds like you are still pretty busy. Yeah, I got the email with the PIN number, thanks. I still haven't got the package from Easter. It's probably in Suva right now. The Zone leaders are probably going to pick it up soon and I'll get it at the end of May. That's the only bad thing about living away from Suva. But oh well. As long as I get it.
We had a really good week this week. The whole mission set a goal for 220 baptisms this quarter (April, May, June.) We get our new mission president in July, so it's supposed to be a little going away present for President Klingler and a Welcoming present for President Layton.
So we set a goal as a mission to get 6 new investigators last week and invite them to baptism after the 2nd teaching appointment. We got 7 new investigators! It was so cool. We had service on Wednesday last week and we were finished early so we were looking for another man's house that said we could help him anytime we need service, but we wer looking for about 45 minutes then we walked by this house that had this young woman and a little girl that said "Bula" as we walked by, and I was prompted to go over there and OYM them. But at first we just walked by, but all I could think about is talking to them. So we went back and set up another appointment. When we came back, the young
woman, Vani, seemed really excited to see us come back. We are going to see them on Wednesday. Way excited. Grateful to be here.
Anyway, I don't have much time.
Love you all,
Elder Beilman
Snow in May?! That's kind of crazy... but there wasn't much snow during winter anyway, so maybe it will help. Sounds like you are still pretty busy. Yeah, I got the email with the PIN number, thanks. I still haven't got the package from Easter. It's probably in Suva right now. The Zone leaders are probably going to pick it up soon and I'll get it at the end of May. That's the only bad thing about living away from Suva. But oh well. As long as I get it.
We had a really good week this week. The whole mission set a goal for 220 baptisms this quarter (April, May, June.) We get our new mission president in July, so it's supposed to be a little going away present for President Klingler and a Welcoming present for President Layton.
So we set a goal as a mission to get 6 new investigators last week and invite them to baptism after the 2nd teaching appointment. We got 7 new investigators! It was so cool. We had service on Wednesday last week and we were finished early so we were looking for another man's house that said we could help him anytime we need service, but we wer looking for about 45 minutes then we walked by this house that had this young woman and a little girl that said "Bula" as we walked by, and I was prompted to go over there and OYM them. But at first we just walked by, but all I could think about is talking to them. So we went back and set up another appointment. When we came back, the young
woman, Vani, seemed really excited to see us come back. We are going to see them on Wednesday. Way excited. Grateful to be here.
Anyway, I don't have much time.
Love you all,
Elder Beilman
This is what I had for dinner the other night. It's called Duruka.
It was pretty good. Looks way gross though, haha.
Sunday
May 4, 2014
Hey everyone!
Sorry, I don't have much time again.
But that's funny that Jane's clogging thing at Lagoon and Curt's State tennis is the same time again. That was a lot of fun last year! I can't believe that was almost a year ago already. Time is flying by. But that's good that Curt is doing really good again in tennis and got to go repelling. 5:40 Mile-Alli! Whoa, I think that is faster than any of my times, that's way good. Nice photo bomb, Jane, haha. I miss you guys haha.
We are super busy. Everyday. I can't believe that I'm tired before 10 pm every single night. We walk so far. The other day, it was around 7-8 miles. I always tell my companion there isn't enough time in the day. I wish we could see everybody more. Right after studies and lunch, we proselyte and then it seems like 30 minutes later we are back at the flat, even though its like 8:30 at night. We have permission to get back at 8 because we never have dinner appointments. Nobody can afford to feed us. It's kind of sad. Sometimes our 2nd counselor in the Branch Presidency feeds us but that is usually it. We walked about 3 miles to get to this village to visit a less active on Friday night. She called us the night before and really begged us to come and visit her. She is about 60-70 years old and really really nice. When we got there it was dark, and she had made us food. But there wasn't a man in the house so we couldn't go inside. We had asked her if it was okay if we could sit outside (which is what we do a lot if there isn't a man in the house.) At first she was confused, but we had to explain to her we can't come in if there isn't a man in the house. We were able to sit on the "porch" of somebody else's house. And we got to visit with her for a while. She hasn't been to church in over a year. A lot of people ask if there is transportation to get to church, because a lot of people say they can't come because of that. I wish it was different here and everybody in the village had a car- that way they don't have an excuse like that, but most of them don't even try to come. We are really trying to get more people to come to church, it would help out so much. Hopefully they will realize soon how important it is to come to church to remember the Savior.
I hope you all have a good week! Thanks for the e-mails!
Love you all!
Elder Beilman
Sorry, I don't have much time again.
But that's funny that Jane's clogging thing at Lagoon and Curt's State tennis is the same time again. That was a lot of fun last year! I can't believe that was almost a year ago already. Time is flying by. But that's good that Curt is doing really good again in tennis and got to go repelling. 5:40 Mile-Alli! Whoa, I think that is faster than any of my times, that's way good. Nice photo bomb, Jane, haha. I miss you guys haha.
We are super busy. Everyday. I can't believe that I'm tired before 10 pm every single night. We walk so far. The other day, it was around 7-8 miles. I always tell my companion there isn't enough time in the day. I wish we could see everybody more. Right after studies and lunch, we proselyte and then it seems like 30 minutes later we are back at the flat, even though its like 8:30 at night. We have permission to get back at 8 because we never have dinner appointments. Nobody can afford to feed us. It's kind of sad. Sometimes our 2nd counselor in the Branch Presidency feeds us but that is usually it. We walked about 3 miles to get to this village to visit a less active on Friday night. She called us the night before and really begged us to come and visit her. She is about 60-70 years old and really really nice. When we got there it was dark, and she had made us food. But there wasn't a man in the house so we couldn't go inside. We had asked her if it was okay if we could sit outside (which is what we do a lot if there isn't a man in the house.) At first she was confused, but we had to explain to her we can't come in if there isn't a man in the house. We were able to sit on the "porch" of somebody else's house. And we got to visit with her for a while. She hasn't been to church in over a year. A lot of people ask if there is transportation to get to church, because a lot of people say they can't come because of that. I wish it was different here and everybody in the village had a car- that way they don't have an excuse like that, but most of them don't even try to come. We are really trying to get more people to come to church, it would help out so much. Hopefully they will realize soon how important it is to come to church to remember the Savior.
I hope you all have a good week! Thanks for the e-mails!
Love you all!
Elder Beilman
April 27, 2014
Hey everyone!
Sounds like you had a pretty busy week!
Angels Landing is awesome, I have done it one time. But its beautiful at the top.
We have what is called here in Fiji a "flat" which is what they call their houses. I'll try to send you a picture of it. I don't know if it will work today though. But yeah there are grocery stores here. They are way small though and don't have a big selection like they have in America. In Rakiraki, where I'm currently serving, we have like 3 main stores and they are all about the size of your house, on the main floor of your house anyway. Maybe smaller. But we get enough food. Rakiraki town is really small. There is a block that has a bunch of small stores in a big square and everybody lives away from it. It's hard to explain.
This is kind what it looks like. Just a big square with stores on all sides. But everybody lives away from it. Its a 10 minute walk from our flat.
---------------------------------------
l l
l l
l l
l l
l l
l l------------------------------------------
l l (this is a road going in to town.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
But this week was good. We didn't have much lessons because we have been out of our area a lot this week. We had to go to Suva on Monday which took all day to go there and back. Tuesday we had district meeting in Tavua which is an hour away. Wednesday we had to leave at 5 to come to Ba which is 2 hours away. Well I stayed in Ba and my companion and our District Leader went to Nadi which is 4 hours from Rakiraki. We didn't get back till 10ish on Friday and we had to do weekly planning that day. Had to go to Lautoka(3 hours from Rakiraki) on Sunday morning for Stake conference and we are staying in Ba right now because we have Zone p-day in Lautoka Today and Zone Training Meeting tomorrow. So we haven't even been in our area much this week.
It has been crazy. We had a couple of good lessons though.
Anyway, thanks for the update and the e-mails. I appreciate them!
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman
*Sorry, I can't send a picture today. I don't have to right cord to plug in to the computer.
Sounds like you had a pretty busy week!
Angels Landing is awesome, I have done it one time. But its beautiful at the top.
We have what is called here in Fiji a "flat" which is what they call their houses. I'll try to send you a picture of it. I don't know if it will work today though. But yeah there are grocery stores here. They are way small though and don't have a big selection like they have in America. In Rakiraki, where I'm currently serving, we have like 3 main stores and they are all about the size of your house, on the main floor of your house anyway. Maybe smaller. But we get enough food. Rakiraki town is really small. There is a block that has a bunch of small stores in a big square and everybody lives away from it. It's hard to explain.
This is kind what it looks like. Just a big square with stores on all sides. But everybody lives away from it. Its a 10 minute walk from our flat.
---------------------------------------
l l
l l
l l
l l
l l
l l------------------------------------------
l l (this is a road going in to town.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
But this week was good. We didn't have much lessons because we have been out of our area a lot this week. We had to go to Suva on Monday which took all day to go there and back. Tuesday we had district meeting in Tavua which is an hour away. Wednesday we had to leave at 5 to come to Ba which is 2 hours away. Well I stayed in Ba and my companion and our District Leader went to Nadi which is 4 hours from Rakiraki. We didn't get back till 10ish on Friday and we had to do weekly planning that day. Had to go to Lautoka(3 hours from Rakiraki) on Sunday morning for Stake conference and we are staying in Ba right now because we have Zone p-day in Lautoka Today and Zone Training Meeting tomorrow. So we haven't even been in our area much this week.
It has been crazy. We had a couple of good lessons though.
Anyway, thanks for the update and the e-mails. I appreciate them!
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman
*Sorry, I can't send a picture today. I don't have to right cord to plug in to the computer.
April 20, 2014
Hey everyone!
Thanks for the e-mail! I really appreciate them. We had a good week this week, we were able to have sacrament and we can get authority to preside if it happens again so we will be able to have sacrament. We were watching the Sunday session of general conference and my companion realized that is was Oct 2013's session. The Stake gave everybody the wrong one haha. But the Saturday session was the right one. We previewed it. But we watched the last conference one anyway. It was actually perfect because in one of the talks, it was about the law of chastity, and one of our investigators is awesome but we can't get her baptized until her "husband"(they aren't techinically married, that's just what the fijian's say) gets divorced from his "ex-wife" who I haven't ever met or seen. And he is a member of the church. We met with them a week or so ago and talked about the Family Proclamation with them so hopefully everything can get figured out with that soon.
Thank you for sending a package! You didn't have to do that. It will probably be a while before I get it, it will take at least 2 weeks. So I'll let you know when I get it.
Thanks again! Love you guys!
Elder Beilman
Thanks for the e-mail! I really appreciate them. We had a good week this week, we were able to have sacrament and we can get authority to preside if it happens again so we will be able to have sacrament. We were watching the Sunday session of general conference and my companion realized that is was Oct 2013's session. The Stake gave everybody the wrong one haha. But the Saturday session was the right one. We previewed it. But we watched the last conference one anyway. It was actually perfect because in one of the talks, it was about the law of chastity, and one of our investigators is awesome but we can't get her baptized until her "husband"(they aren't techinically married, that's just what the fijian's say) gets divorced from his "ex-wife" who I haven't ever met or seen. And he is a member of the church. We met with them a week or so ago and talked about the Family Proclamation with them so hopefully everything can get figured out with that soon.
Thank you for sending a package! You didn't have to do that. It will probably be a while before I get it, it will take at least 2 weeks. So I'll let you know when I get it.
Thanks again! Love you guys!
Elder Beilman
April 13, 2014
Hey everyone!
Sounds like you will be busy! Yes that is the correct address. You can just mail the packages to the GPO box #215 if you want, I guess it doesn't matter. My companion got his packages sent there.
So I guess we were supposed to watch General Conference this weekend, but our Branch President is going back to his old ways. Our 2nd counselor is less active again (my companion and the Elder before me reactivated him) because our Branch President doesn't listen to him at all and he is fed up with our president. We didn't even have church yesterday because President Ratu was at work.. and he didn't tell anybody. Our 1st counselor is in a different village looking over a unit that is there in Nakorokula which is about 30 minutes away(by bus). So we usually go there on Sunday's as well to pass the sacrament, but the bus ran late and we were unable to do sacrament because all the men that were in the unit had to leave to go to a different village that some of them live in and help out with the 2 deaths that happened on Saturday. But I guess most missionaries watched General Conference this weekend. Our president was supposed to get it so everybody can watch it, but that didn't happen. We talked to him on Saturday night because we had a lesson with these 2 investigators that wanted to meet him so we told our president after the lesson they want to meet him so we were going to try to set up a lesson that he could come with us and teach them. But while we were there, he didn't tell us he would be working in the morning on Sunday. So its really frustrating here in RakiRaki. I don't want to tell our investigators to come to church if we aren't going to have church. We had a lot well, most people who showed up on Sunday are less active members some walked way way far!! And we had to tell them we can't have church. It sucks! I feel bad for them. They don't deserve to have this bad experience at church. Almost all the recent converts in the area are less active. I don't want to baptize someone and have them go less active because we don't have a good president. There are no callings in the branch at all. Only the Branch Presidency. Its really frustrating. But we'll see, it can only get better from here right? haha. I've been told "if I can survive RakiRaki, I can survive my mission." haha- coming from missionaries and our 2nd counselor who is less active.
Well, I hope things are going well!
Love, Elder Beilman
Oh and yes, I'm adjusting to the food. This is what I had for lunch with some members on Sunday. It was pretty good. There is some gray potato like food called Dalo that is really bland and starchy that I hated at first, but I'm getting used to it. It's not in the picture though.
Sounds like you will be busy! Yes that is the correct address. You can just mail the packages to the GPO box #215 if you want, I guess it doesn't matter. My companion got his packages sent there.
So I guess we were supposed to watch General Conference this weekend, but our Branch President is going back to his old ways. Our 2nd counselor is less active again (my companion and the Elder before me reactivated him) because our Branch President doesn't listen to him at all and he is fed up with our president. We didn't even have church yesterday because President Ratu was at work.. and he didn't tell anybody. Our 1st counselor is in a different village looking over a unit that is there in Nakorokula which is about 30 minutes away(by bus). So we usually go there on Sunday's as well to pass the sacrament, but the bus ran late and we were unable to do sacrament because all the men that were in the unit had to leave to go to a different village that some of them live in and help out with the 2 deaths that happened on Saturday. But I guess most missionaries watched General Conference this weekend. Our president was supposed to get it so everybody can watch it, but that didn't happen. We talked to him on Saturday night because we had a lesson with these 2 investigators that wanted to meet him so we told our president after the lesson they want to meet him so we were going to try to set up a lesson that he could come with us and teach them. But while we were there, he didn't tell us he would be working in the morning on Sunday. So its really frustrating here in RakiRaki. I don't want to tell our investigators to come to church if we aren't going to have church. We had a lot well, most people who showed up on Sunday are less active members some walked way way far!! And we had to tell them we can't have church. It sucks! I feel bad for them. They don't deserve to have this bad experience at church. Almost all the recent converts in the area are less active. I don't want to baptize someone and have them go less active because we don't have a good president. There are no callings in the branch at all. Only the Branch Presidency. Its really frustrating. But we'll see, it can only get better from here right? haha. I've been told "if I can survive RakiRaki, I can survive my mission." haha- coming from missionaries and our 2nd counselor who is less active.
Well, I hope things are going well!
Love, Elder Beilman
Oh and yes, I'm adjusting to the food. This is what I had for lunch with some members on Sunday. It was pretty good. There is some gray potato like food called Dalo that is really bland and starchy that I hated at first, but I'm getting used to it. It's not in the picture though.
My companion(Elder Leota) and I.
April 6, 2014
This is some new missionaries and their trainers. We had a training on Tuesday last week.
Hey everyone!
Thank you all for the e-mail! Before I forget!! Julie, if you send a package, don't send meat including Beef Jerky, I guess customs confiscates it and they have been having problems with that. I don't know why so many people want to send meat through the mail, but okay. I guess they don't have much beef here though.
I haven't been able to watch General Conference yet. I heard we have to wait a couple weeks to get the DVD's then we can watch it.
We have like 15 or 16 investigators right now. They are all pretty great. My companion set a goal of 15 baptisms before he leaves this area, so we are shooting for that. He has had a total of 3 so far. Hopefully we can hit that number. Before I got here, there was a general authority that challenged the mission to find the best month they had for baptisms and double it. March was the month that they were going to try to double it. The most in one month was 50 so we had to hit 100. We had 78 the 3rd week and had to get 22 to hit the 100. I guess we got 42! So we ended up getting 122 baptisms in the Month of March!! Crazy.
My Mission president leaves at the end of June and we are going to try to get 120 that month. So it will be a good challenge. I think we will do really well in our area these next coming months though so that's good. We have 2 investigators with baptismal dates around May, and one hopefully in the next 2 weeks! I'm really excited for them. One of them is Shiyal, she is an Indian woman and really really wants to be baptized! The only problem is her husband's mom, who is catholic. I guess her husbands mom is putting a lot of pressure on her husband because he is catholic as well, but he isn't active. But he doesn't want to get disowned from his parents because of the decision his wife, Shiyal, is making. Its really sad, but I think she will be baptized. Her husband really didn't want to take the lesson's at all and always avoided my companion and the one before me, but the other day, we had dinner with them and read from the Book of Mormon. It was amazing, her husband( his name is Koresi) sat with us and I had asked him if he wanted to read a verse for us from Ether chapter 2 and he did. We just went around the room reading chapter 2 and 3. It was great! But one of our investigators before I came here, was an MJ(Micheal Jordan)-Investigator with a baptismal date. And I guess someone talked to her and the next lesson, she said she had already been baptized and that she will be busy. So my companion didn't see her for a month or so and she went down to a Shaq (Investigator that isn't progressing) But she went up to a LeBron(Progressing investigator) recently and after last week, she became an MJ again. Its amazing! Her name is Vasiti. We have another investigator that is doing really good as well, his name is Isimeli, we are going to extend a baptismal date next time we see him. Its really hard though, because he lives 40 minutes away in a small village and we have to take a bus every time. So we have a 10-15 minute walk to town then we wait for the bus to leave, then when we get there and finish our lessons, we have to wait for a bus to come down the road. Which can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours. so it would be way nice if we had a truck, but that's okay.
Well that's about all that I have for today. Oh yeah, last night, we went to visit our 2nd counselor in our branch presidency, President Besetmuala who was supposed to be in a different town, well we originally went there to visit his less active sons(they are 17, 19, and 21 i think) but he came back last night. And we have to go down this way long gravel road on the bikes and it sucks a lot! The gravel roads here are terrible, a lot of the rocks are pretty big and it sucks when you hit them on the bike. My butt hurts from the seat. I'm praying that we will get a truck soon, that would be so helpful. But if not, that's okay.
Much love!
Love, Elder Beilman
*Oh! and tell Kara happy birthday for me!
This is the bridge now. It was pretty sketchy when I was going over it.
Eating after church with the members. 2 boys that are members.
Some fijian food.
A spider that i had to kill with a 2 liter fanta bottle.
They have pineapple and raspberry fanta here! It's way good!
March 30, 2014
Hey everyone!
Sorry this will be short!
We had a baptism on Saturday. I did the confirmation on Sunday. It was amazing. Our branch president showed up 20 minutes late, so it's amazing that we were able to have the confirmation.
I prayed way hard that he would show up so we could have church and a couple of minutes later he came. It was awesome.
I gave another missionary, Elder Utai a blessing last night because he was way sick. He felt a lot better right after the blessing, but today he isn't feeling too well again. Hopefully he gets better.
We got 2 new bikes finally. But it doesn't help a whole lot because there is a bridge that is out that we have been able to walk/ride in a boat across so far, but there is no way we could get the bikes across.
I got an e-mail from somebody else with my same last name today!!! He spells it with 2 n's at the end though, that's how mine used to be spelled. Way cool! I'll send the email he sent me. Anyway, I love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman
Oh, and I don't eat a whole lot of Fijian food, because they are super poor and don't have enough money to feed the missionaries, but I did have fish a couple of times. It's just in this area that I'm in that the people are really poor. My companion said its the poorest area he has had on his mission.
So the only thing you have to worry about with sending a package, is the postage. I don't have to pay to pick it up. Just probably don't send anything expensive. I talked to my companion and he said he hasn't had to pay anything to pick up his packages up.
*Below is the letter Clayton received from a guy at Dixie univ. with his same last name:
_____________________________________________________________
Bula,
I saw your picture on the wall of the institute in St George and I just had to write you.
I had always thought that the only Beilman(n)s that were members of the church were my immediate family since it isn't a very common name and my dad was a convert to the church and none of his siblings are members. I am interested in hearing about when your family joined the church. I am also into genealogy so it would be great if I could get some of that information too. Even though the spelling is a little different we could still be related.
It is also cool your in Fiji. I was there about 2 years ago. If you happen to end up in the ward in Nadi tell everyone hi for me. They may remember my mom Donna better since she has been there three times and I have only been there once. Too bad you can't go swimming, the waters great all year around. I suppose that is why I got sent to Peoria Illinois for my mission. I probably wouldn't have made it 2 years without swimming (no one wants to swim in the Mississippi river). At least I didn't have to drink kava for two years, it is gross. If you haven't had the pineapples yet go get some, they are the best I have ever had. Go get some strawberry Oreos, too. It is too bad we can't get either in the USA.
Well I don't want to take up too much of you preperation day so I'll stop here. Don't let the fijian's relaxed attitude and "Fiji time" get in the way of the work. That is especially true for the bishop you mentioned. He should know better.
Don't get eaten,
Eric Beilmann
_____________________________________________________________
Sorry this will be short!
We had a baptism on Saturday. I did the confirmation on Sunday. It was amazing. Our branch president showed up 20 minutes late, so it's amazing that we were able to have the confirmation.
I prayed way hard that he would show up so we could have church and a couple of minutes later he came. It was awesome.
I gave another missionary, Elder Utai a blessing last night because he was way sick. He felt a lot better right after the blessing, but today he isn't feeling too well again. Hopefully he gets better.
We got 2 new bikes finally. But it doesn't help a whole lot because there is a bridge that is out that we have been able to walk/ride in a boat across so far, but there is no way we could get the bikes across.
I got an e-mail from somebody else with my same last name today!!! He spells it with 2 n's at the end though, that's how mine used to be spelled. Way cool! I'll send the email he sent me. Anyway, I love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman
Oh, and I don't eat a whole lot of Fijian food, because they are super poor and don't have enough money to feed the missionaries, but I did have fish a couple of times. It's just in this area that I'm in that the people are really poor. My companion said its the poorest area he has had on his mission.
So the only thing you have to worry about with sending a package, is the postage. I don't have to pay to pick it up. Just probably don't send anything expensive. I talked to my companion and he said he hasn't had to pay anything to pick up his packages up.
*Below is the letter Clayton received from a guy at Dixie univ. with his same last name:
_____________________________________________________________
Bula,
I saw your picture on the wall of the institute in St George and I just had to write you.
I had always thought that the only Beilman(n)s that were members of the church were my immediate family since it isn't a very common name and my dad was a convert to the church and none of his siblings are members. I am interested in hearing about when your family joined the church. I am also into genealogy so it would be great if I could get some of that information too. Even though the spelling is a little different we could still be related.
It is also cool your in Fiji. I was there about 2 years ago. If you happen to end up in the ward in Nadi tell everyone hi for me. They may remember my mom Donna better since she has been there three times and I have only been there once. Too bad you can't go swimming, the waters great all year around. I suppose that is why I got sent to Peoria Illinois for my mission. I probably wouldn't have made it 2 years without swimming (no one wants to swim in the Mississippi river). At least I didn't have to drink kava for two years, it is gross. If you haven't had the pineapples yet go get some, they are the best I have ever had. Go get some strawberry Oreos, too. It is too bad we can't get either in the USA.
Well I don't want to take up too much of you preperation day so I'll stop here. Don't let the fijian's relaxed attitude and "Fiji time" get in the way of the work. That is especially true for the bishop you mentioned. He should know better.
Don't get eaten,
Eric Beilmann
_____________________________________________________________
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