Christmas Skype with Elder Beilman

We had a great Skype with Clayton on Christmas evening.  

He sounded happy and looked good.  It was great to get to talk to him.

His return date is coming fast- Jan. 30th he'll be at the S.L. airport
and his homecoming report at church will be Sunday, Jan. 31st.
Everyone is invited to come!

Clayton's 2015 Christmas Letter to the Missionaries

*Here is Clayton's Christmas letter that went to 70 missionaries serving missions from the 2 Richfield Stakes.  (Each Mom collected letters from each missionary's mom at a luncheon to send to her son for Christmas.)  Each missionary got a packet of letters from missionary friends in the Stake to hear about all the missions.

 _____________________________________

Elder Beilman here, I'm serving in the Fiji Suva Mission (if you don't know where that is, its a small island close to Tonga-I know just about all of you have seen "On the other side of heaven" so its similar to that. Not so much bush though). It is October 19th as I write this which mean I've been serving for about 20 months now.

One thing I've really liked to eat is ika vamiti(fijian word for fish with this coconut cream stuff with tomato onion) Oh and Fijian lovo(an earth oven thing). The worst thing I've had to eat is probably sea cucumber-not so much the taste, but the texture, its like eating a chewy muscle cartilage.

The most memorable experience that I've had so far is finding this family that is prepared to come back/get baptized. I was going through our membership record a couple of weeks ago and looking for names of members and where people stay and organizing it by area(it was organized by last name). And addresses are not a thing here in Fiji. But we were able to find this less active family that was baptized about 20 years ago, but since then had fallen away and even went to a different church for a while. But one day we had some time planned to find them. We found the house, but they were busy when we went, but we came again a different day and they received us gladly. They had told us they wanted their son, Vili, to be baptized because he wasn't baptized yet. They have about 5 others that arent members and a couple more of them want to be baptized. They've been coming to church since the first week we visited them. They are amazing. Not all of them are members and a couple don't want  to be, but they sit down with us anyway. But a couple of lessons ago we finished teaching the lesson, then invited them to share something they learned or if they had any questions. Then everybody at the house ended up sharing their testimonies. It filled the house with the Spirit. A couple of members that live nearby had told us that they are a lot happier now that they have been reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church. Its amazing. The hardest thing I've had to overcome physically is waking up every day at 6:30 am.

If I could share one thing with newer missionaries it would be to love the people. No matter what they do to you, whether they swear at you, or kick you out or anything like that. Just love them. And love those who do let you in.
Probably the most important thing I've learned on my mission is that the Lord will never put you through anything that you cannot handle. Everything that he does will be for your benefit. Though you may not think it will, it always does work out for you.

My testimony(in fijian)-
Au via wasea noqu ivakadinadina, ni'u kila tiko ni dina na lotu oqo. Dina na matabete, na ivakavuvuli ni lotu, na parofita kei iratou talega na iapositolo. Se bula tiko na Turaga Jisu Karisito ka lako mai vuravura me mate e vukuda me vukei keda lesu tale ki vua na Tamada Vakalomalagi. Koya talega na colata na noda icolacola, ka bokoca na noda ivalavala ca kevaka keda na vakabauti koya ka veivutuni. Au sa vakavinavinaka vua na Kalou me talai au ki Viti me'u wasea vei ira na kosipeli oqo. Au lomani ira kece sara na kai Viti. Sai ira na noqu vuvale.

My testimony(in English)-
I want to share my testimony, that I know this church is true. The priesthood, the teachings of the church, the prophet and apostles are true. Jesus Christ is still living, and came to the earth to die for us to help us return to our Heavenly Father. He will also carry our burdens and take away our sins if we believe in him and repent. I'm thankful to God to send me to Fiji for me to share to the people here this gospel. I love all the Fijians here. It is them who are my family.

Au lomani kemuni kece!
I love you all!
Loloma Bibi,
Elda Beilman

2 Baptisms! Kula and Ruci

Dec. 13, 2015- 2 baptisms!

Hey everyone!

We had 2 baptisms on Saturday! Kula and Ruci, they were prepared to hear the gospel and it was such a blessing to be able to be the missionaries that got to teach them. Our ward also had a christmas party on Friday and that was a lot of fun! Our investigator Kula played Mary in the Nativity drama, and they didn't have anybody to play Joseph, so they asked me if I could play Joseph. So it was pretty fun. We had a lot of non-members attend so that was really good. We also had a lot of food to eat! But here are some pictures from last week. 

Loloma Levu,

Elda Beilman

Dec. 6, 2015

Hey  everyone,

We had a way good week!

Elder S. Gifford Nielsen came for mission tour, it was amazing!

we are planning on having 2 baptisms this week!

Love you!

Loloma,

Elda Beilman

November 29, 2015

Well first off, I just received your package! Thank you!!
This week was great!!! I had the opportunity to go to a different island to go on exchanges and do a baptismal interview. So the island is named Ovalau, but I went to the town called Levuka. It is the old capital of Fiji. It was way beautiful out there! We took a boat at like 4 pm on Tuesday and arrived in Levuka around 7 pm. We stayed with the two Elders on the island, Elder Kubera and Elder Young. They are doing really good! They had 2 baptisms on Saturday so they are working hard out there. There is a tuna packaging plant there in Levuka town, so it smelled really bad in town all day. After a while you kind of get used to it, but if you leave town and come back, it hits you really bad again. But we stayed until Saturday morning. We had to wake up at like 3 in the morning to catch a bus to the jetty(dock) that takes us to the main island. It was a lot of fun.
This week we are having a baptism on Saturday and having Mission Tour on Wednesday! I'm really looking forward to having a good week this week. The only bad thing is I think it will go by really really fast!
Well I have to go, Thanks for everything!
Love you guys!
Loloma,
Elda Beilman

Nov. 15, 2015

Hey,
Things have been a bit rough lately. Well, just trying to find the investigators the sisters were teaching and also finding the members has been really difficult because they didn't really leave a good map to find them. But we are getting there slowly. We have had a couple of miracles lately though. Even though we've been super busy trying to find people and working with all the members of the zone, we are receiving referrals and finding really sincere investigators. So things have been really good. We had 4 investigators come to church on Sunday, and one of them has a baptismal date for the 28th of November. So yeah.. Doing good here!
Loloma levu,
Elda Beilman

Nov. 8, 2015

Hey everyone!
Sorry, this will be super short.
Things are good, we are white-washing, and we had 2 new areas open so we've been crazy busy these past couple of days! Driving everywhere. Our mission just got bigger so they split a zone into two zones now and I'm one of the Zone Leaders for the Northern Zone. My companion is Elder Sterr. He is the man. From Arizona. We are going to do work here!
I was pretty excited to hear that the Royals won the World Series as well. Its been a while!
Planning on just coming back and living with Warren till I can find a job before school starts again.
Thanks for Everything!!
Loloma levu,
Elda Beilman

November 1, 2015~ 2 baptisms

Sorry I didn't write last week! I was actually not feeling too well. I was running a fever so we ended up just staying in the flat all day. But I was better on Tuesday! I think it was just something that I had to eat on Sunday. All goods now though.

That week we had 2 baptisms, Vilikesa and Sereseini. They are way good. We are pretty close to Vilikesa's mom, Eta. She is way nice, we end up just calling her mom. They are just way happy that we found them and started visiting them. Transfers are this week, not really looking forward to it because the 12 week training program is over which pretty much means one of us or both of us are getting transferred. We'll see how it goes though.
I'm pretty sad about this out-take this week though. Elder Fiso, he came to Fiji the transfer before me, but I've known him for a long time on my mission. He is the reason I was Emergency transferred to Tavua about a year ago. He was the one that cut his shoulder really bad in the truck accident. But he is finishing this week, which is really sucks. I'll definitely miss that Elder. But after this week, my intake will be the oldest intake in the mission. And they are making another zone this week as well. There are more missionaries in the mission now than there has ever been before, so we are seeing history as they are splitting one of the Zones into two zones now.
Too fast..
Loloma Levu,
Elder Beilman

October 11, 2015

Doing good! Many miracles!
We've found another investigator that wants to be baptized. Way cool. This family that we found using the membership records was prepared! its pretty amazing, the mother is way happy that we came over to their house and found them. She tells us all the time. Then, while eating a members house last night, they were telling us that they are so much happier now at home. Before, they would always argue and what not, but now they are doing so good! The gospel changes people!
We also got to listen to our area seventy speak yesterday at stake conference, that was pretty cool. Our mission president also spoke. So it was way good to have 2 spiritual giants talk to us!
Things are just great!
Loloma levu,
Elder Beilman

October 4, 2015

We had another great week. We are just seeing a lot of blessing!
We had 3 investigators attend church on Sunday and they are all planning on getting baptized this month! Their names are Peni, Vilikesa, and Sereseini. They are doing way good. Its pretty amazing to see how they have been able to progress in the gospel.
This work is definitely the most rewarding thing I've ever done. I received a call from the mission office today telling me that they were preparing my flight plans for when I have to come home. And an email from my mission president letting me know about my outtake. A lot of missionaries are now talking about what I will do when I get home and all these things. Its frustrating because its making me feel like I don't have much more time left on the mission. Four months is going to go by super fast.
Its interesting how the Spirit changes us. I've wanted a tattoo since I was 18 years old, but the only reason I didn't get one is because someone told me to wait 2 years and if I still want it, then I should get it. But by the time 2 years came, I was a member of the church-so I didn't get one only because the Prophet and Apostles told us not to. And out here on the mission-I've still wanted to get one-but I knew that if I go home and got a tattoo after being a return missionary then that would look pretty bad for me the day that I stand before God and he asks me "why did you get a tattoo?" I've been thinking about it lately and been looking at other peoples tattoos and something this week changed me. I'm not sure what it was, but one day I saw a tattoo and I thought to myself "that doesn't look good."  I'm really grateful that the Lord changed me, because now, I don't want to get a tattoo. I thought about how if someone came to the temple and sprayed it with graffiti it would not look good. So I'm really happy now that I don't want a tattoo anymore.
Just thought I'd share that with you all.
Vinaka Vakalevu!
Loloma bibi,
Elder Beilman

September 27, 2015

Hey everyone!

Sorry if I didn't write much last week.
But we've been seeing a lot of miracles this past couple of weeks. We've found like 5 new investigators and like 3 of them are way good! I'm just super happy right now because of all the miracles we've been having. We had 2 investigators come to church yesterday and we had 4 come to church last week. When we first got here, we thought we had a lot of good investigators, but we couldn't find them or couldn't sit down with them. So we decided to try to find some more people and we were blessed with finding people through the ward membership list and a referral. Its been great!
When we first got to the area, we were having like 7 lessons per week, but every week for the last 4 weeks we've been improving on that. We had 14 this week with having less actives coming to church and investigators. Its been quite a different change from my last area, it was really hard for people to come to church because everybody lived so far away from the chapel that they had to either walk/hitch or they couldn't come. And if it was raining, it made it even harder. But I'm just on top of the world right now with my area and my companion and my district.
We have a new area that re-opened this week and they put 2 elders in it.  Elder Faamoe and Elder Gray-who both happen to be from...... MISSOURI!
What the heck?! And they are in my district, so that is pretty cool. finally someone who understands about Kansas City in the Mission.

Well thanks for the email!
Loloma bibi
Elder Beilman

Sept. 20, 2015

Hey everyone!
Thanks for the email.. sorry this will be super short, I don't have a ton of time. We are busy today..
But we had a way good week. 4 investigators came to church on Sunday and we found 4 investigators as well this week. so we are receiving a lot of blessings.
Thanks for everything!
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman

Sept. 13, 2015

Hey Everyone!
We had a great week this week! We now have a baptismal date for our investigator, Peni. He is great, he loves it when we come over. We struggled a bit to find the investigators that the Elders before were teaching. We tried calling them, and going to their houses-but we either couldn't find them or we couldn't sit down with them. So we've been trying to find new people to teach and we've had a lot of opportunities given to us. We found these 2 former investigators and just did a how to begin teaching/intro lesson with them on Wednesday, the wife then asked at the end of the lesson what to wear to church and what time it starts. Then Elder Foaeva felt that we should go back to the house on Saturday to drop off a Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet for her to read(because she wants to learn more about Jesus Christ and Baptism). They weren't home so we wrote a note telling them that we stopped by and we invited them again to church. Then on Sunday-they both came! That was such a big miracle! The wife was reading the L3 pamphlet that we dropped off on Saturday during sacrament meeting too. It was really rewarding to see them! We also had a couple of Less Active members come to church as well.
Oh, and Darrin-Since the stake presidency has changed in the stake and now that you're the bishop, I think I was supposed to let my mission president know about it. So would you be able to email me the email that you would have my mission president use, as well as the Stake Presidents. Thank you!
Vinaka vakalevu nomudou loloma.
Au lomani kemudou yaduadua,
Loloma, Elder Beilman

August 30, 2015

Hey everyone!
This week was better, we are still recovering from being sick. But doing a lot better.
The baptismal date we had for our investigator Kelera has been changed. She went back to the village for a while and we don't know what day she will be coming back. So that kind of sucks, but we just keep praying for her. We haven't been able to sit down with much of our investigators lately because just about every time we schedule an appointment with them, something comes up. So we struggled again to teach, but we tried really hard and that is all that matters.

Here is a picture of me with my new companion, Elder Foaeva. He is from an island called Niue which is in-between Tonga and Samoa. We aren't in the same zone as the temple, but we are really close. We had our zone conference at the mission home, then we went took this picture. As you can see they are still working on the temple. All the crate things are full of things for it.
Well Love you all,
Loloma levu,
Elder Beilman

August 23, 2015

Hey Everyone!
I don't know if I've sent this picture to you yet or not. But this was about 3 months ago. Sorry for it being kind of old. But the computer isn't reading the pictures that I've recently taken.
I'm all good here, my shoes have been taken a beating, the strap on my left sandal has been cut off. A dog in my first area bit it and it was really really lose, so I ended up cutting it off about a month ago.
But this last week was pretty good. I went on exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders- Elder Maliwauki. He is the man. Helped me know what my responsibilities are as a District Leader. But we have an investigator with a baptismal date for next month, her name is Kelera. She is doing good, plan on seeing her today. But on Thursday night, during the exchanges, I got kind of sick. I was running a fever, but I'm all good now. My companion still isn't 100% yet. But he is improving slowly.
Thanks for everything.
Loloma levu
Elder Beilman

August 16, 2015

Hey everyone,
Sorry about last week, I thought I emailed you. I guess not.
Busy week aye?
This past week was a little crazy. I got transferred to Suva 2nd ward. I'm not training again, and became district leader. things are good though, our Ward mission Leader is the man! he has helped us out so much! He has been showing us to the members and everything. My new companion is Elder Foaeva, he is the man too! We actually had a baptism on Saturday, our second day in the area, so things should go forward pretty fast. The ward is really strong too. But I don't have much more time left, sorry.
Loloma Levu,
Elda Beilman

Aug. 2, 2015

Hey everyone!
Life here in Fiji is just fantastic!
So tomorrow is our Zone Training Meeting in Lautoka(about an hour and a half from our area) and we usually come up to Nadi(30 minutes from Lautoka) and email here on Mondays so we can have P Day with the whole zone. And I was planning on seeing my last companion, Brother Vuli at our P Day. But we were leaving Sigatoka and stopped at The Hot Bread Kitchen(popular bread shop) to get some breakfast before we left this morning, and who do I see? Brother Vuli! He was taking the bus, but the busses always stop in Sigatoka for about 10 minutes. He was going to Suva to get his Mission stuff all figured out. He received his mission call and is going to serve in the Papua New Guinea Mission beginning in November. I was so happy to see him again. He was definitely one of my favorite companions.
We've been visiting a less active a lot lately, Ricardo, he is 15 and was baptized in New Zealand with his mom a couple of years ago. But he is now living with his sister and uncle here in Sigatoka. His sister, Cathy, is Catholic and we share with her every now and then but she wasn't really interested. But she just randomly showed up to church with Ricardo on Sunday. That was pretty cool. So we plan on visiting them again this week.
Our District Leader had committed us to pass out a Book of Mormon every day last week so we tried a lot of that to find some new investigators. Praying that someone will be willing to take the lessons from that.
Well, Love you guys!
Loloma,
Elder Beilman

July 26, 2015

Hey everyone,
Things were good this week. Our 2 baptisms that we had 2 weeks ago were confirmed this week. That was good. We went to the house that we went to last friday, but they were busy. So we plan on going back this friday. But we were supposed to get the truck fixed last week, but the people at the dealership didn't get it done. They are taking forever. So the truck still needs repaired, but we are waiting for the go from our leaders, and the dealership. We are struggling a bit to find new investigators, but our Zone Leaders came today and gave us some tips on what we could do to help strengthen our members and gave us some ideas on finding more people.
But I haven't heard about the My Plan thing. Sounds like a good idea though. One of my worst fears is going less active. After learning so much, then to go home and change back to my old self is not what I want. So having something to help a return missionary would be way good. I think that would be really good for Fiji. Unfortunately I've met many Return missionaries here that are now less active or inactive. Its really sad. But we are doing all we can to help them come back.
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman

July 19, 2015

We had a good week this week. We haven't had much people to teach recently, so we've been trying to find more and more people. On Friday, we were driving back from this area towards the interior- Nadrala. To get there, we have to pass through this village, Naroro, and on our way back, from Nadrala, I had the feeling that we needed to stop at Naroro and talk to someone. So we are driving down the mountain and that is all I could think about. When we get to the village, I look at my companion and tell him "one day, we are going to OYM here". To which he replied "okay". We kept driving down and it hit me again "turn around and OYM there". So I look at my companion again and tell him lets OYM today. We turned around and parked the truck and started to walk. We walked toward a house where there was about 4 men sitting outside on their porch talking and one approached us. So we started talking to him and he took us inside his house. We then shared about us missionaries and just got to know them a bit. We left a restoration pamphlet at their house and set up a return appointment. Only 1 problem- I'm not sure if we will have the truck at that time... Because we are supposed to take it in for repairs today and I don't  know how long it will take to fix. We didn't find out that we were going to take the truck in until after we told them we were going to come back next Friday.. So it will be interesting to see how this week goes.
Other than that, it should be fun!
Love you guys!
Elder Beilman

July 12, 2015~ Baptisms!

Hey everyone!
We had a good week! 2 Baptisms! Tuni and Tevita, they are both 10 years old and they are doing great! We had the baptism at a river that leads into the ocean. It was really good. Tuni's little sister Amelia(8 years old) was baptized as well. Everything was just easier to have them all done at the same time. The father of Tuni and Amelia performed the baptisms for all 3 of them. Which was really great, I would much rather have the father of them perform the baptism than one of us.
I've heard a bit about the Supreme Courts decision. That is really unfortunate considering that the United States began because of religious reasons-then to have the supreme court to go against that. The world truly is getting further and further away from God. As long as we are doing what we are supposed to do and continue pressing forward, we can avoid the world. Like the Savior's teaching to be "in the world, but not of the world".
Hope all is well!
Loloma Levu,
Elder Beilman

July 5, 2015

Hey Everyone!
Thanks for the email!
We had a crazy week. First, we had zone p day, so we weren't in our area Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday was our Zone Training Meeting. Also got a call from President telling us that Brother Vuli(the ward missionary I was working with) is getting transferred to Tavua(My last area). We were both pretty sad, I really loved working with him, we had a lot of fun together. And we worked way hard. Then on Thursday, we were driving to an appointment and we got into a accident with a horse... Yeah, a horse. We were going about 35km/h(20ish mph) and a guy was chasing a horse to go back to his land. Well, the horse was getting wild and started running. and it was running at an angle that I wasn't able to see her.

___________    l
Driveway           l
 horse     ^ ** lu l
    ->    ^    ** ls l     
        ^          l   l
      ^            l   l
The asterisks(*) are bushes
This is kind of what it was like. The horse came from a field on the left running almost parallel with us until it came to the driveway  then tried to cross the road. So there wasn't much I could do. I slowed down as much as I could, but it hit the left headlight and quarter panel. put some good dents in the truck. We were both okay, just the truck took a beating, about $2500 worth.
Then on Friday, we had to go to Nadi to get my new companion(Elder van der Linden, from Australia) and then had to wait about an hour and a half to get a quote for the truck.
But we are planning on having a couple of baptisms on Sunday this week! Looking forward to that! Still doing well!
Thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu
Elder Beilman

June 28, 2015

Hello everyone!
Its crazy to think that Curtis is starting his mission. I hope he enjoys missouri. do you know what his email is? I'll have to write him soon. I'm curious as to where his first area will be.
But things here are good, we are looking forward to about 3 baptisms soon. Just getting the interviews and everything done for it. The father wants to baptize the kid we are teaching, but he has been gone for training for the military for a couple of weeks. so he needs to get his interview first, then we will have the baptism.
Our other investigator, Cama, is doing way good! We talked about the Book of Mormon in our lesson on Thursday. We asked him what his thoughts were about the Book of Mormon and he smiled for a second and said he was scared. So we sat there for a minute and after about a minute of silence he looked up again, smiled and said "its true". That was one of the happiest moments on my mission. He has such a strong desire to do what is right and wants to learn. He is the man! He currently lives with his grandparents, and they are pretty strong methodist. So they aren't too happy about him coming to church. His grandfather was in the hospital last week, and Cama had asked if we could give him a blessing. So we went up there and gave him a blessing and now he is doing well, so that is really good. Hopefully it softened his heart a little bit.  I'm so grateful for the priesthood and the power that comes with it. Heavenly Father truly has given us much.
Thank you for everything!
Love you all!
Love, Elder Beilman

June 7, 2015

Hey!
The truck has been helping a lot! We've been able to get a lot of lessons now. it has been great! We just started teaching a 10 year old boy, Tuni. He didn't get baptized when he was 8, so we should have a baptism soon. And our other investigator, Maggie, we are just praying that she can have the chance to come to church. She always goes to Naboro, about 2 hours away to visit her husband and kids.

Things are going well here, we just got a member from another island, Vanua Levu, that moved here last week. She is a return missionary from the Salt Lake City South mission. She is great! She had asked us for a Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet at church yesterday so she can give it to a friend of hers. Said she'll let us know when we can go and visit them. Her and her mom are the only members in her family, and they are super strong! They will be awesome here in our area.
We have zone conference this week! I'm really excited for that! President Layton is great! I love learning from him.
Thanks for everything!
Loloma,
Elder Beilman

May 31, 2015

Its been exciting these last couple of weeks. Haven't had a baptism for a while, but we are working with a lot of less active members to bring them back and trying to keep the recent converts active.
I'll be driving a Toyota Hilux(truck) next week. Right now we have a Toyota Yaris(car).
Last week we have 17 lessons, 10 of which were less active lessons. the car helped a lot! But my companion is great! Brother Vuli, he is waiting for his mission call. I'm so excited working with Fijian companions, they are a lot of fun! Missions are amazing, and when you have a companion that you can connect with and everything, just makes it so much better. I'll try to send some pictures!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman

May 24, 2015

Hey Everyone!
This week was good. My companion Elder Kanongata'a got transferred to Taveuni(another island). So I have a new companion. He is a ward missionary from Suva. His name is Brother Vuli, he is the man! I'm excited to be working with him. He is actually related to one of my last companions, Elder Tuinamoala. Sorry this is short, we have a busy day today! We are going to go to the sand dunes and take some pictures and yeah.. So I'll try to send the pictures next week. Oh and we have a vehicle now!! I'm driving a toyota yaris. I'll try to send a picture of it next week, the computer I'm on today wont let me do it.
Vinaka valevu!
Loloma levu
Elder Beilman

May 17, 2014

Hey everyone!
I got the Birthday package! Thank you so much! I like The Piano Guys CD, its way good! I like the shirt too! Richard(the one with cancer) is the one who lived in Germany right? But now he is in Texas. I think that is him, is he doing well?
Tell Curt to catch a lot of fish for me too. Man, I'm kind of sad I wont get to see Curt before he begins his mission. I wanted to go fishing with him again before he left. That's alright, I guess I'll just go with Darrin when I get back right Darrin? But it will be kind of cold still when I get home, so maybe not. We'll see.
We had a good week, skype was really good this time. I got to talk to my dad and his wife Kim for a while, then I was talking to my brother Bryce. That was really nice, I got to see my nephew as well, Bryce Jr.
Tuesday was good. We had district meeting and our District Leader, Elder Day, made a cake that was actually really good. I haven't had cake for a long time. but I ended up getting a cold that day as well. I'm still coughing but its going away. just taking its time. the weather is cooling down a lot lately. Last night was pretty chilly, but good thing I have a blanket. Our study room is almost outside, it has a big screen around it and a ton of windows, so the wind blows in really easily, and it gets cold, so we do studies on our beds inside sometimes.
Our investigator, Maggie, has been really busy lately so we haven't been able to visit her in like 3 weeks. Hopefully we can see her soon.
Well I hope you all have a good week!
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman

May 10, 2015

Hey Everyone!

I'm 22 already? Man, time flies...

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY JULIE! And all mothers who end up reading this post!
Today was really good, I was able to skype my dad and brother. That was a big highlight for me lately. It was really nice to see my dad and his wife Kim, and then my Brother.
We had a good week this week, on tuesday we went to lautoka for our Zone Training Meeting. that was really good! I then went on exchanges with my District Leader, Elder Day. He is on of the Airport Elders, and it was crazy! We had to go to the airport to pick up and drop off missionaries all day! Because all the missionaries in this area, all fly through Fiji. So when someone from one of these islands goes to america, or new zealand, australia, kiribati, fiji, christmas island, tonga, samoa and some others, they have a layover in Fiji, and sometimes they have to wait a couple of days, so they stay in a hotel, or with some of the missionaries in Nadi.
We are looking at some new investigators this week, so that is pretty exciting! We need some new ones, we have a couple of referrals from members so that will be good.

Well, Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman

May 3, 2015

Thanks for the email, I appreciate it.
Right now, they are working on the temple, last year, it had got rain damage. They plan on re-opening it sometime next year, but I don't think I'll be here for it. But that's okay, I came here so that others can have the opportunity of going there.

I was in the service council in St. George in my YSA ward, and we were responsible for helping the people with disabilities to have sacrament meeting for one month. That was a great month!! I loved it, and seeing the people come and sing and do what they could was just an amazing thing to me. I felt for them, and saw them as our Heavenly Father did which enabled me to love them, even though I didn't know them very well.

Thanks again for the email!

Love,

Elder Beilman

April 26, 2015

I hope all is going well in the States!
We had a good week here in Sigatoka, we have a baptismal date for May 16th, her name is Maggie. She is way good. She came to church on Sunday too. We are really excited for her! Her mom and sister are members, but she never got baptized when they did. Her mom and sister are converts from about 2007. They are really strong! But we are planning on seeing them a lot this week and the next couple of weeks to strengthen her testimony.
Its really hot right now, we are moving from the wet season to the dry season, which means it will be cooling down as well. Which will be kind of nice. Good thing I have a blanket. The area I'm in is really beautiful, there are a lot of nice beaches and resorts. There is a man made island called Shrangri La. Its pretty nice, every time we take the bus to one of the villages we go to, it drives on to the island and picks up and drops off people working there. Sometimes tourists too. But a lot of people think I'm a tourist, I don't like it haha. But that's okay, at least they are super nice.
Thanks for everything!
Elder Beilman

April 19, 2015~ Transfer to Sigatoka

We had a good week this week. I'm now in Sigatoka, which is on the same island as my last area, just on the opposite side. There was a car here, and now its gone to suva. Which has made things a little more difficult. The area is really really big! One of the biggest areas in the mission. It makes it a little hard to get back at night haha. We have to hitch sometimes, but most fijians are super nice and will pick us up.

But all is well here in Fiji!
Loloma levu!
Elder Beilman

April 5, 2015

Hey Everyone!

This week was really amazing! Its amazing to see the hand of the Lord in our lives' each day. This week, was one of the most rewarding weeks that I've had so far on my mission. George was baptized on Saturday. That was just so amazing. The service was good and it was just great! He wanted it so badly! And finally, after 8 months of taking the lessons he was able to partake of the waters of Baptism! He was confirmed on Sunday. Then we had a really special Fast and Testimony meeting. It was one of the most powerful meetings I've been to. And I had to go and share my testimony as well, transfer calls are tomorrow and I'm thinking I'll be leaving Tavua. Which I don't want to go. This area has put a big impact on my heart. My first area as well. But at 6 months, I was ready to leave. But Tavua, I could stay here the rest of my mission, and I would be 100% happy as could be. I've grown to love this area a lot. The people here have made all the difference. Its not an easy area, and having the members we have, it helped out so much. There are a couple of members here that I will never forget.

Yesterday we had some lessons fall through, so we went to one of our members that is a less active that we had seen on Wednesday. He told us that he planned on coming to church, but he didn't come. So we went to see what happened. Come to find out that he was sick and needed a blessing. His wife was trying to get a hold of us, but she didn't have our number or anything so she was just trying to figure out what to do. Then as we walked up to the door, her daughter pointed at the window, but it was dark outside and there was curtains, so she wasn't able to see us. But when the mother came up she saw us and opened the door. Asked for a priesthood blessing, and we gave him one. After the blessing, he seemed a lot better. His wife said he couldn't even really talk because his throat was kind of filled with mucus and it was hard for him to breathe. But he was doing well after the blessing.  I ended up trading him watches. I had the exact same watch, but white and blue.  His was Black with red.  He had been asking me to trade with him for a long time, but now he finally got to. He was way happy! It was really funny!
Really good week!
Loloma Levu,
Elder Beilman

Here is a picture of the Baptism of George

March 29, 2015

Hey Everyone!
I tried to send pictures, but this computer is not working correctly.. So maybe next week.
This week was really good! We have a baptism scheduled for a man named George on Saturday! I'm really excited for him. He has been taking the lessons for a long time! We had stake conference this weekend, that was really good. I was really happy to see Buka, who I taught in my first area-Rakiraki. He is picking everybody up for church on Sunday's in Rakiraki! I was really happy to see him there.
We had a pretty rough week, didn't have many lessons, but we did a lot of finding! And that was a lot of fun! We have about 4 or 5 lessons set for this week to sit down with them. 2 of them are for tonight, so that is really good. We need some more investigators.
We had one hurricane come close to Fiji last month some time. It missed us, but it hit an island west of Fiji really hard. The island is Vanuatu, and we heard that about 11 missionaries we missing, but that was about 2 weeks ago. We haven't heard anything since. We eat a lot of curry! Even the Fijians will feed us curry! Its crazy.
Thanks for the email! I appreciate it!
Loloma Levu,
Elder Beilman

Picture of the Fiji missionaries

This picture was from a Fiji mission blog taken on November 24, 2014.

Clayton is behind and to the side of the lady with the blue shirt.

March 22, 2015

Hey everyone!

Thanks for the pictures! Is Curt still growing? I feel like he looks taller and taller in each picture...

We were safe here in Fiji. the hurricane went to the west of us and hit Vanuatu pretty hard. Last I heard there were 11 missionaries missing from one island. That was Tuesday last week, our Mission President told us at zone conference. Havent heard much lately though.

Last week was really good though. We had a really good Zone Conference on how to become a Consecrated missionary. We referenced a talk given by Tad R. Callister, it was really good. Then we came back on Tuesday night to our area and got to see some of our investigators. Mainly George, who is preparing to be baptized on April 4th! Super excited for him! He wants to be baptized really badly! So it will be a great day!

We were also able to find one of our investigators, Flory, who has been gone for a while! She goes to school in Ba, which is out of our area but only sometimes comes back now. She was staying here in Tavua, but lately she hasn't been able to have the fare to get to tavua. It was like 3 weeks that we hadn't seen her, then we were able to see her on Friday. She is good, but its going to be hard to teach her(she is staying halfway between our area and the Ba elders area but we don't have a truck and it would be hard to visit her there), so we just gave her our phone number and told her to give us a call when she is in town so we can sit down with her.

We found out that one of our really good investigators has received a calling in the Methodist church, and that just kind of made him super busy, so we were told that he will be busy for these next 2 weeks or so. After that, he should be okay. He is really good. He has come to church 2 times now, and has been to mutual a couple of times. Hopefully we can see him soon.
Thanks for everything, I'll try to send pictures!
Loloma Levu,
Elder Beilman

March 8, 2015

Hello Everyone!
This week was pretty amazing! I think it was the first time I've ever had 3 investigators attend sacrament meeting! I was so happy on Sunday. My companion, Elder Barnaby, and I were going crazy. So to start it off, we have this investigator, George, who has been an investigator since July of last year. He had a court case that was supposed to happen in August, I think, but it got pushed back to October, then pushed back to December, then to January, then to March 3rd. When on March 3rd he walked up to the court house, and they just told him his case is over... So, the court case is finally over!! YAY! We talked about baptism to him, and invited him for the 21st of March for Baptism. That was really exciting, I wish I could have got on camera his excitement for baptism. Prayers have been answered and now we just need to talk with him about the baptismal interview questions.
We have another investigator, Anasa. He is 17 years old and he is the man! We've taught his mother in the past, but she wasn't too interested. But she told us she wants her son, Anasa(who was at that time really far away schooling) to be taught and baptized. so We've been teaching him for a couple of weeks. He is progressing a lot! We took a member with us, Brother Tuilawa, and he helped us out so much! We watched the Restoration video with him, and after the video, Anasa and his older brother both said its true! That was so amazing! The spirit was super strong! We picked up Anasa and took him to Mutual on Friday and to church on Sunday! He is doing really well! I'm really excited for him. Planning on extending a baptismal date to him this week!
So grateful to have the opportunity to serve here in Tavua! I love it here!
I hope you all have a good week!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman

March 1, 2015

Bula Vinaka!
This week was really good! We had a lot of lessons, even though we were out of our area for Monday and most of Tuesday last week. I'm just really grateful for the blessings that our Heavenly Father pours out on us as we do our best and follow his commandments. We have a couple of really good investigators right now. One of them, Flory, is doing really well. She's been to church a couple of times already and comes to activities/mutual. We plan on extending a Baptismal Invitation to her tonight! This week I've been really really grateful for all the things I've been learning on my mission. Our Mission President talked to us in our Train the Trainers meeting last month about how if we work hard on our mission, it kind of sets the tone of what life will be like after the mission. I was thinking about that a lot, and how one of my counselors from my first area asked me "how do you know you were a successful missionary?" to which he responded "by the way you live your life after the mission". I've thought about that so much ever since that time. and how in the talk "the fourth missionary" he says if you want light, truth, knowledge, happiness and every other good thing you have to lose yourself and give up everything. then the Lord will in turn give us these things and make us something more than we, ourselves, could ever make of us. We will just be someone somewhere and turn out to be whatever the "fickle" life makes of us. But if we give ourselves to him, he will make us "Gods". I'm so grateful for the gospel in my life and this wonderful opportunity that I've been given to share it with the people here in Fiji.
Love you guys!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman

*Oh, and sorry I haven't sent many pictures lately, I'm scared if I put my SD card in the computer, it will get a virus... So I'm not going to send much.. sorry.
love you guys!

February 15, 2015

Hey Everyone!
I'm actually really happy that Curt is going to Independence, Missouri! I'll definitely give him lots of people to visit that are my friends from there. If he ever gets to go to Belton, I'll be sure to let him know.

But this week was way good! We decided to go and find a lot of people to start teaching. In our District Meeting, I said 20 new investigators, I don't know if we will hit 20, but its definitely pushing us to find as many as we can. But the best part about it is that the Lord is really blessing us with many opportunities to find people. We've been doing a lot of OYMing which I haven't done a whole lot on my mission. But we've been finding a lot of people to go visit because of it. We set up 2 appointments tonight for 4 potential investigators. So that is pretty exciting. On top of that, we were able to get 3 new investigators last week even though we didn't plan on getting that many. We kind of just planned on setting up a lot of lessons with them for this week. But Heavenly Father has been putting them in our path as we try to find them. One of our new investigators, Anasa, is 18 years old. His mom really wants him to be baptized! One of our members, Lusi, was talking to her about why she wanted to be baptized. I guess the mother said that she wants him to be baptized because of the example Lusi is. She saw that Lusi is a really good person and isn't going around doing a lot of the things that other young teens are doing around their koro and she wants her son to be like that. So it is just a really good example of how we can make a big difference by just being good disciples of Christ in all that we do. Setting an example to the world will show the people that we are followers of Christ and will make them wonder what it is that makes us who we are. Like it says in Matt 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
Thanks for everything!
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman

February 8, 2015

Au na vosa vaviti vei kemuni kece nikua!
E dredre valailai na macawa sa oti, ia e vinaka tale ga baleta e solia vei keirau na gauna me keirau plantaka vavinaka.
Au via wasea e dua na ka au a vuli nikua. Au a wilika na ivola i Momani mai na ivola i Alama wase tinikatolu tikina tolu, e tukuna "3 And this is the manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such."
Au taleitaka sara na tikina oqo baleta e digitaki keda Na Kalou ni bera na noda sucu mai. E digitaki au me'u vunautaka na nona kosipeli vei ira na kai viti ko koya e na bula taumada. Kevaka ko na cross reference ki na Vunau kei na Veiyalayalati wase duanadrau tolusagavulu ka walu tikina limasagavulu ka ono "Even before they were born, they, with many others, received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to come forth in the due time of the Lord to labor in his vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men."Au kila ni dina na tikina oqo. Sa digitaki au, Na Kalou, me'u lako mai ka'u vunautaka na dina vei ira na tamata oqo. Au kila ni sa kilai au Na Kalou. koya na sega ni biuti au se kemuni kece.
Au vakavinavinaka vua Na Kalou me talai au ki Viti.
Au lomani kemuni kece!
Vinaka sara valevu nomuni loloma.
Loloma Levu,
Elder Beilman

February 1, 2015

Hey everyone!
Man, this week was just great!
We had Train the Trainers meeting in Nadi on Friday. Where we got to listen to President Layton.. President Layton is the man! You can just tell he is on a different level of Spirituality than most people. I feel like when he speaks, the Lord is telling us what we need to do. Its amazing!
But we took a member, Sister Vauvau, with us to a lesson to a family(Asinate, Sikeli, and their daughter-who is mute). But it was perfect. Because their daughter wasn't schooling because the school that she was going to go to is super far away and the parents didn't know of anywhere else she could school. so Sister Vauvau knew somebody that could get her enrolled to school in Tavua. So Sister Vauvau did everything for them and they took the girl into town to buy her a uniform and everything! it was perfect. The Family was so happy! It was such a blessing!
then Yesterday, after church we saw a less active member who wants to quit drinking kava(Polynesian drink that is not allowed). Yesterday at church, he said to himself that he will try so hard to not drink it for at least one month. so he went home after church and in the evening, he was eating at a friends/family's house and right after that was going to go to a function to drink kava. But we came to his house right at the right time. So somebody called over to him and straight a way he left and came over because he didn't want to go drink. It was a really cool experience! He was so grateful that we came over. And the amazing part about it is that we had a lesson scheduled with an investigator, but it fell through. So it was a really good reminder for me that whenever there is a fall through, I'm supposed to be somewhere else visiting or seeing somebody.
Love you guys! Thanks for everything!
Elder Beilman

January 18, 2015

This week was really good! I got another new missionary! Elder Barnaby, he is from Massachusetts. Two white Elders serving together, and neither of them are from Utah... haha that is rare in the mission..
So my Trainer, Elder Leota, has finished his mission! I'm kind of sad about that. He is the man! I love that guy! I hope to see him again. Only problem is that he lives in Australia. Its making me feel like I'm getting old in the mission. That and I'm training again.
But we had a good week, unfortunately we didn't get to see like 4 of our investigators because they were all busy. There was a super big wedding in the main Koro we visit-Tavualevu. Apparently it was a chiefly wedding, so there were a lot of people from all over Fiji! But we did get to visit some less active families and try to help them come back. I've been learning a lot about the Spirit lately and the fruits of the Spirit. And I'm really grateful for the love that Heavenly Father has for us for giving us the Spirit to help us, not only in his work, but in our lives. Sorry I don't have much more time.
I love you all!
Love, Elder Beilman

January 11, 2015

Dear Everyone,

This week was really good. We had some really good lessons, one of our Members, Nancy, is wanting to serve a mission. She is so good. I asked her if she  knew what Preach My Gospel was, but she said no. So I told her a little bit about it and I asked if she wanted one, and she said anything that will help her prepare for a mission.  So I gave her one of mine (I had 2 at the time) and she is already reading through it. She is awesome!

My companion Elder Tuinamoala is getting transferred, he is going to Samabula(my last area). He is in a weird situation, he has been set apart as a missionary, but he is a 2 transfer missionary. Which means he is getting transferred to another companion then he will go to the MTC if he is able to serve a full time mission. Its weird. But he is the man. I'm going to be training again! I'm pretty excited! I like training, its fun to teach new missionaries. Its also good to share with them how to become a good, effective missionary. I know I'm not perfect and I have my weaknesses, but I try to help them as much as I can.

But I just skyped my dad and his wife, Kim. That was really nice, its been a while since I last skyped them(i guess its been like 8 months). They were really happy to see me, it was really nice to see them too. They are doing well.

Well, I got to go now. Thanks for everything!
Loloma levu,
Elder Beilman

January 4, 2015

Hey Everyone!
This week was much better than last week! I wasn't sick and we were able to get about double the lessons we were getting in the previous weeks, so that was really nice. It was really good! We have this less active member, Nancy, and her step dad is a muslim and he wouldn't let her go to church while she lived with them for like 5 years. But now she is staying with her grandparents and we have been visiting her about 2 or 3 times per week. She has a way strong testimony! Every time we go and share with her, I feel like she is teaching us. She's been through a lot in her life and its so amazing to see how much she has changed! Before, when the elders came to the house, she would leave through the back door and hide at somebody else's house until they left. But now she invites us to come over all the time! Its just amazing! She now wants to serve a mission! She has her papers and she is trying to get all her health stuff figured out and wants to turn them in during February! It has been so great to see how much people change, when they are willing and when the Spirit touches them.
We went on exchanges with our Zone Leaders(Elder Tanoa'i-who by the way is going to play football for the Utes when he returns from his mission, and Elder Tenney) on Wednesday and my companion and Elder Tenney went to visit one of our new investigators and she was telling them how her uncle or someting is a member and always shared about Joseph Smith and gave her pamphlets and a Book of Mormon. So Elder Tenney invited her to baptism the very first lesson with her, and she accepted! It was such a miracle! We are going to see her on Thursday this week to start teaching the lessons to try to strengthen her testimony and make sure that she knows that the church is true and received that answer from the Spirit. Its been kind of a common thing for people here to get baptized and after a while fall away or start going back to the church that they were going to before. And the leaders, including the area 70 have been trying to emphasize retention with the converts and making sure that they are willing to endure to the end. Which is good. But anyway, I hope you all have a good week and had a good holiday season!
I love you all!
Elder Beilman

December 28, 2014

Hey,
Sorry I don't have much time.
But I didn't get to skype on Christmas because I was sick on the 26th(Christmas day for you guys) which was when I was going to skype. But that is okay. I'm asking my Mission President if I can skype on Monday next week. Hopefully I can, but I'm not sure. He will be on an island called Tuvalu because he has some things he needs to do there, and he wont be able to email while on that island. So I'm not sure if I'll get to.
We had a really good week though. We did a lot of finding, and found 5 new investigators. That was really good. We were running low. Sorry again this is super short!
Thanks for everything! Merry Christmas(late) and Happy new year!
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman

December 21, 2014

Hey everyone!
This week was really good! On Tuesday we had our Zone Conference in Nadi and it was one of the most spiritual days on my mission! President Layton shared about the sacrament and how we need to always remember Jesus Christ. I learned so much that day! About the Plan of Salvation and everything that people shared about Jesus Christ and the things he did, and it was just a phenomenal day! After which we had some amazing ham for lunch. Just an FYI, there isn't a ton of ham here in Fiji so it was great! We then played some games as a zone while President did interviews. We got to watch a movie after! It was Frozen. And let me tell you, that was a great movie!
We came back to Tavua on Wednesday morning. We got stuck in Ba when we were coming back from Nadi on Tuesday, so we just stayed with the Elders in Ba. But we had a pretty rough week. Didn't have many lessons. But it just drove us to find more people and we were able to talk to some members and they gave us 5 people to go visit. We also went through the former investigators and found like 3 people we plan on visiting. So we are excited to see where that goes. Hoping to have a better week this week, but not really sure with Christmas on Thursday. We are going to spend christmas with our bishop in the morning and for lunch(we are doing service with him, since our service day is thursdays). We are going to help him make a lovo(an earth oven). That will be cool! I'll be sure to take pictures.
Thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman

December 14, 2014

Hey everyone!
I'm sorry this one will be super short again. We don't have a ton of time. We are doing well here though. We had kind of a rough week. I got sick on Wednesday-had a small fever. But on Thursday I was good. We have Zone Conference tomorrow which should be really fun! Looking forward to it! Thanks for everything!
Love you guys!
Love, Elder Beilman

December 7, 2014

I don't have a ton of time right now, because we have to go to Lautoka today.
So this will probably be pretty short! Sorry!

This week has been pretty cool! I stayed with Elder Carter in Tavua on Tuesday night because his companion was getting transferred too. So we had a good time. He was in the same intake as me, so it was pretty cool. But I have my new companion. His name is Elder Tuinamoala. He is the man! I love him. He is Fijian, in particular from the Lau group. But he served as a ward missionary for 3 weeks about a year ago. So he has a pretty good understanding of the lessons and everything, which helps out a lot. But really though, I have nothing bad to say about him. He is fantastic. I'm really excited to be working with him and helping him to become the best missionary he can be.
Thanks for everything and the support!
I love you all!
Love, Elder Beilman