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
Elder Beilman
Monday
Friday
October 19, 2014
Hey everyone!
This week was really good! I'll start with Conference. So we finally got to watch General Conference this Saturday and Sunday. It was really good! I think I liked the April General Conference a little better, but its still General Conference. You can't go wrong with that. I loved the talk that Elder Jorg Klebingat gave called "Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence". It was a really bold talk, but I loved how straight he was. I kind of like to be bold with people when we teach, because I want them to know that the things we teach are really serious.
Here is a part that I really like:
Embrace voluntary, wholehearted obedience as part of your life. Acknowledge that you cannot love God without also loving His commandments. The Savior’s standard is clear and simple: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Selective obedience brings selective blessings, and choosing something bad over something worse is still choosing wrong. You can’t watch a bad movie and expect to feel virtuous because you did not watch a very bad one. Faithful observance of some commandments doesn’t justify neglecting others. Abraham Lincoln rightly said, “When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad” (in William H. Herndon and Jesse William Weik, Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, 3 vols. [1889], 3:439).
Also, do the right things for the right reasons. The Lord, who “requireth the heart and a willing mind” (D&C 64:34) and who “is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (D&C 33:1), knows why you go to church—whether you are present in body only or truly worshipping. You can’t sing on Sunday, “O Babylon, O Babylon, [I] bid thee farewell” and then seek or tolerate its company again moments later (“Ye Elders of Israel,” Hymns, no. 319). Remember that casualness in spiritual matters never was happiness. Make the Church and the restored gospel your whole life, not just a part of your outward or social life. Choosing this day whom you will serve is lip service only—until you actually live accordingly (see Joshua 24:15). Spiritual confidence increases when you are truly striving, for the right reasons, to live a consecrated life in spite of your imperfections!
I like how he talks about a willing heart and a willing mind. I read a talk called the 4th Missionary by Lawrence E. Corbridge and in it he talks about serving because you want to serve and not because its what you're "supposed to do." We should all be willing and wanting to keep all the commandments because that is how we will find true happiness and blessings that we would receive because we want to keep the commandments.
We have a new investigator, Niko, and he is really awesome. He is 18 years old and plays rugby with a member on Saturdays(how he got in contact with the church). So the member playing rugby with him invited him to take the lessons and had us go over and visit him. He seems really interested and is way nice.
We have another investigator that hasn't been really progressing lately, and we were thinking about dropping her, but we felt like we needed to invite her to baptism-and she accepted it! It was really amazing. She started reading the Book of Mormon and I think that is what really changed her. I'm grateful for that book and I can't wait to help her progress towards baptism.
Well thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
This week was really good! I'll start with Conference. So we finally got to watch General Conference this Saturday and Sunday. It was really good! I think I liked the April General Conference a little better, but its still General Conference. You can't go wrong with that. I loved the talk that Elder Jorg Klebingat gave called "Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence". It was a really bold talk, but I loved how straight he was. I kind of like to be bold with people when we teach, because I want them to know that the things we teach are really serious.
Here is a part that I really like:
Embrace voluntary, wholehearted obedience as part of your life. Acknowledge that you cannot love God without also loving His commandments. The Savior’s standard is clear and simple: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Selective obedience brings selective blessings, and choosing something bad over something worse is still choosing wrong. You can’t watch a bad movie and expect to feel virtuous because you did not watch a very bad one. Faithful observance of some commandments doesn’t justify neglecting others. Abraham Lincoln rightly said, “When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad” (in William H. Herndon and Jesse William Weik, Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, 3 vols. [1889], 3:439).
Also, do the right things for the right reasons. The Lord, who “requireth the heart and a willing mind” (D&C 64:34) and who “is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (D&C 33:1), knows why you go to church—whether you are present in body only or truly worshipping. You can’t sing on Sunday, “O Babylon, O Babylon, [I] bid thee farewell” and then seek or tolerate its company again moments later (“Ye Elders of Israel,” Hymns, no. 319). Remember that casualness in spiritual matters never was happiness. Make the Church and the restored gospel your whole life, not just a part of your outward or social life. Choosing this day whom you will serve is lip service only—until you actually live accordingly (see Joshua 24:15). Spiritual confidence increases when you are truly striving, for the right reasons, to live a consecrated life in spite of your imperfections!
I like how he talks about a willing heart and a willing mind. I read a talk called the 4th Missionary by Lawrence E. Corbridge and in it he talks about serving because you want to serve and not because its what you're "supposed to do." We should all be willing and wanting to keep all the commandments because that is how we will find true happiness and blessings that we would receive because we want to keep the commandments.
We have a new investigator, Niko, and he is really awesome. He is 18 years old and plays rugby with a member on Saturdays(how he got in contact with the church). So the member playing rugby with him invited him to take the lessons and had us go over and visit him. He seems really interested and is way nice.
We have another investigator that hasn't been really progressing lately, and we were thinking about dropping her, but we felt like we needed to invite her to baptism-and she accepted it! It was really amazing. She started reading the Book of Mormon and I think that is what really changed her. I'm grateful for that book and I can't wait to help her progress towards baptism.
Well thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
Sunday
October 12, 2014
Hey everyone!
Last week for P Day was way fun! I attached a couple of pictures. Don't worry, we didn't go in the water! I made sure to walk out on the sand in the picture when the wave was low. But we played touch rugby on the sand and then I played some volleyball with no net. It was a lot of fun. I want to go there every P Day.
But this week was a little tough. We had tried to contact 3 potential investigators and I'll let you know what happened...
The first one is a man named Mosese- who was OYM'd just outside the Temple at the bus stand by a member. The Assistants gave us his number and information. So we gave him a call on Saturday or Sunday last week and set an appointment to meet him at the Family History Center(right next to the Temple) on Tuesday at 9 am. But he never showed up. So we are going to try to contact him again.
The next one is Ralulu- We met him while walking through a settlement(kind of like a village, a little smaller) that is in our area. He stopped us and we talked for a minute. We got his number and said we would call him if there was a day that we could come visit him. So we called on Friday to set up a day to see him, and then found out he lives in a different area. About 15 minutes away-but in a different zone. so we will have to give him to a different set of missionaries.
Another man we met on the street on Wednesday had stopped us on the sidewalk and Kerekere'd(kind of like asking, please) us to come visit him. So we went to our member's house where he had been staying on Friday to find out that he went to jail for a year... So that was a big slap in the face.
And on Friday right before we went to go contact that man that went to jail, we gave 2 of our investigators to the sisters in our area(serving in the English ward- Samabula 1st) because we thought it would be better for the investigators to go to the English ward.
So it was a pretty tough week. And I got sun burned for the first time on my mission, because we spent most of the day walking on Saturday. But its good that we have hard times- I read these verses the other day(I think I read them because of the week we were having) its 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
I love verse 10. I've been thinking about my thoughts when I'm going through something really hard. But Paul says that he takes "pleasure" in infirmities and it taught me that my attitude towards trials is really important because if I'm just going to sit and complain the whole time, I won't learn much. but if I try to figure out why I'm going through it, that is when we learn. That is when we are made strong.
Thanks for everything!
Love, Elder Beilman
Last week for P Day was way fun! I attached a couple of pictures. Don't worry, we didn't go in the water! I made sure to walk out on the sand in the picture when the wave was low. But we played touch rugby on the sand and then I played some volleyball with no net. It was a lot of fun. I want to go there every P Day.
But this week was a little tough. We had tried to contact 3 potential investigators and I'll let you know what happened...
The first one is a man named Mosese- who was OYM'd just outside the Temple at the bus stand by a member. The Assistants gave us his number and information. So we gave him a call on Saturday or Sunday last week and set an appointment to meet him at the Family History Center(right next to the Temple) on Tuesday at 9 am. But he never showed up. So we are going to try to contact him again.
The next one is Ralulu- We met him while walking through a settlement(kind of like a village, a little smaller) that is in our area. He stopped us and we talked for a minute. We got his number and said we would call him if there was a day that we could come visit him. So we called on Friday to set up a day to see him, and then found out he lives in a different area. About 15 minutes away-but in a different zone. so we will have to give him to a different set of missionaries.
Another man we met on the street on Wednesday had stopped us on the sidewalk and Kerekere'd(kind of like asking, please) us to come visit him. So we went to our member's house where he had been staying on Friday to find out that he went to jail for a year... So that was a big slap in the face.
And on Friday right before we went to go contact that man that went to jail, we gave 2 of our investigators to the sisters in our area(serving in the English ward- Samabula 1st) because we thought it would be better for the investigators to go to the English ward.
So it was a pretty tough week. And I got sun burned for the first time on my mission, because we spent most of the day walking on Saturday. But its good that we have hard times- I read these verses the other day(I think I read them because of the week we were having) its 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
I love verse 10. I've been thinking about my thoughts when I'm going through something really hard. But Paul says that he takes "pleasure" in infirmities and it taught me that my attitude towards trials is really important because if I'm just going to sit and complain the whole time, I won't learn much. but if I try to figure out why I'm going through it, that is when we learn. That is when we are made strong.
Thanks for everything!
Love, Elder Beilman
October 5, 2014
Sorry I don't have time to write today!
I'll try next week!
Love you guys!
Elder Beilman
I'll try next week!
Love you guys!
Elder Beilman
September 28, 2014
Hey Everyone!
This week was amazing!
On Saturday, I went on splits with one of my Zone Leaders-Elder
Cashen(he is from Arizona)(he is the man). We had originally planned
on going to the Family History Center right after lunch to help one of
the recent converts(Alavena) to find the names and do the work for her
mother and father, but we found out that its closed on Saturday. So we
had about 4 hours of time that we didn't have anything planned. But I
took the CMIS list that has all of our members names and addresses and
went to find all the members starting from the bottom name going up.
My companion has already visited some of them so we started from the
last page figuring that they started from the first. So it was like
one of the hottest days on Saturday since I've been here and we were
just walking around trying to find our members and update the list. A
couple of people moved and another changed back to his old church and
a lot of people weren't home. It was hard. But it was totally worth it
because we came in contact with about 20 people that aren't members.
Our Mission President told us that it takes about 7 good contacts with
nonmembers for them to want to start taking the missionary
discussions. We even sat down with these 2 former investigators(we
were looking for a member and just asked them if they knew them and
they invited us in. Apparently 2 sister missionaries used to teach
them) but they are super nice! The man, Josefa, lived in California
for like 3 years! And the wife was super nice. She is a Sunday school
teacher at one of the Methodist churches. But we just shared a
spiritual thought with them from Matthew and after the lesson I had
asked if they had a Book of Mormon. They said they used to, but didn't
know what happened to it. I gave them the one I was carrying around
all day and just bore my testimony with them that I knew the book was
true and that it could help them in their lives(I wanted to give a
Book of Mormon to at least one person that day, so I made it a goal to
put it in somebody else's hands by the end of the day and just carried
it in my hands all day until we sat down with that family). We were
getting ready to leave their house when Josefa asked us where we would
be for Christmas so we told him we would be here in Fiji. He then
invited us to come over for lunch on Christmas Day haha. They also
said to come over whenever we want. Not sure if they are super
interested, but they are super nice.
Then on Sunday we had 113 people come to church! Which is really good,
we normally have about 60ish people come. A lot of less active members
came to church. Hopefully we can just help them see the need to come
every single week to partake of the sacrament. Really grateful for my
mission and the time I have to serve, it truly has been an amazing
experience so far and I've learned so so much. Can't wait to continue
to learn and grow!
Take Care, Loloma levu!
Elder Beilman
This week was amazing!
On Saturday, I went on splits with one of my Zone Leaders-Elder
Cashen(he is from Arizona)(he is the man). We had originally planned
on going to the Family History Center right after lunch to help one of
the recent converts(Alavena) to find the names and do the work for her
mother and father, but we found out that its closed on Saturday. So we
had about 4 hours of time that we didn't have anything planned. But I
took the CMIS list that has all of our members names and addresses and
went to find all the members starting from the bottom name going up.
My companion has already visited some of them so we started from the
last page figuring that they started from the first. So it was like
one of the hottest days on Saturday since I've been here and we were
just walking around trying to find our members and update the list. A
couple of people moved and another changed back to his old church and
a lot of people weren't home. It was hard. But it was totally worth it
because we came in contact with about 20 people that aren't members.
Our Mission President told us that it takes about 7 good contacts with
nonmembers for them to want to start taking the missionary
discussions. We even sat down with these 2 former investigators(we
were looking for a member and just asked them if they knew them and
they invited us in. Apparently 2 sister missionaries used to teach
them) but they are super nice! The man, Josefa, lived in California
for like 3 years! And the wife was super nice. She is a Sunday school
teacher at one of the Methodist churches. But we just shared a
spiritual thought with them from Matthew and after the lesson I had
asked if they had a Book of Mormon. They said they used to, but didn't
know what happened to it. I gave them the one I was carrying around
all day and just bore my testimony with them that I knew the book was
true and that it could help them in their lives(I wanted to give a
Book of Mormon to at least one person that day, so I made it a goal to
put it in somebody else's hands by the end of the day and just carried
it in my hands all day until we sat down with that family). We were
getting ready to leave their house when Josefa asked us where we would
be for Christmas so we told him we would be here in Fiji. He then
invited us to come over for lunch on Christmas Day haha. They also
said to come over whenever we want. Not sure if they are super
interested, but they are super nice.
Then on Sunday we had 113 people come to church! Which is really good,
we normally have about 60ish people come. A lot of less active members
came to church. Hopefully we can just help them see the need to come
every single week to partake of the sacrament. Really grateful for my
mission and the time I have to serve, it truly has been an amazing
experience so far and I've learned so so much. Can't wait to continue
to learn and grow!
Take Care, Loloma levu!
Elder Beilman
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