Sorry I don't have time to write today!
I'll try next week!
Love you guys!
Elder Beilman
Elder Beilman
Sunday
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
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