Hey Everyone!
This week was pretty great! We had a lesson with a less active named George Wedlock on Tuesday. He has been a member his whole life pretty much and he is probably 24 or 25 right now. But he has been less active for quite a while now. We shared about the Plan of Salvation with him, only about the first 3 principles- Pre-Earth Life, The Creation, and The Fall of Adam and Eve. He is really smart, so he knew a lot of it already, so we pretty much planned on doing the whole thing. But we spent a good amount of time about families and God's plan for us, and I can tell you it was probably the most spiritual lessons I've had on my mission. The Spirit was so strong in that lesson and it was just amazing. We already had a pretty good day on Tuesday, then when we got out of that lesson, I was so happy! He told us that he would come to church on Sunday, so we offered to pick him up, because his house is on the way to the chapel, and he said yes. We came to his house Sunday morning, and he was sleeping. So he didn't come to church, we are planning on seeing him Tuesday again, but we might not because of transfers. I can't wait to sit down with him again though. I really feel that he will become active again soon.
We have another less active we are working with, Nancy. she is awesome. She wants to come back to church really badly! We sat down with her on Friday and we asked her to end the lesson with a prayer, but she is kind of shy about things like that because she lived with her mom and Step dad for 5 years and her step dad is muslim, so she had to do all the muslim stuff. and its been a while since she's prayed or shared her testimony or anything like that. But at the end of the lesson, she said she will share a scripture from the Book of Mormon, her testimony and pray the next lesson we see her! We are planning on seeing her tonight, so hopefully that works out!!
One more thing, my companion is getting transferred to be a Zone Leader in Nausori(close to Suva) so I'm getting a new companion. I'm pretty excited. I'll be training him, so that will be a new experience. Leading an area and training. Looking forward to it! Sad to see Elder Hancock go, he is the man! But Oh well, The Lord needs him in Nausori.
Thanks for everything!
Love you all!
Loloma Levu,
Elder Beilman
Elder Beilman
Wednesday
Sunday
November 23, 2014
Cola Vina! (Nadroga dialect for Bula Vinaka)
I've been learning a little bit of the Dialect here in Tavua, and man... Its not just a dialect, its a completely different language! If you want to say 'I want to eat'(which is the closest translation for I'm hungry) you would say "Au via Kana" in the Bau Dialect which is the dialect that everybody knows. In Nadroga you would say "Qi mata Kana" but you say the K's differently, its just ridiculous.
But! This week was crazy! Tuesday after our District meeting, I went on exchanges with Elder Carter(From Australia, in my intake) who is currently serving in Rakiraki! So I got to see a lot of people from Rakiraki again! It was one of the best days I've had on my mission. One of my Recent Converts, Buka, is taking people to church in a van that he is using to drive people to Suva. On Sundays, pretty much nobody works, except for some Taxi drivers, and Bus drivers. But he is off on Sunday so he picks up investigators and members on Sunday to take them to church! That was so good to hear! Its just amazing to see how the area is going after I left. I'm just super happy to see that he is still coming to church and helping others come to church as well! And they are planning on Baptizing a man named Ratu Luke who my first companion and I started teaching back in May! It was amazing!
We had a funeral for one of our members on Saturday morning, which was kind of sad. He had stepped on something and it got infected really bad, so they took him to the hospital in Lautoka and they said they would have to cut his leg off from the knee down or something, so they didn't want to do that. They came back and he didn't really do anything because he was getting sick and his diabetes didn't help either. He passed away on Monday last week. We are planning on visiting the daughter and mother and try to strengthen their testimonies of the Plan of Salvation and try to help them come back to church again. We had visited them about once a week since I've been here, so hopefully we can see them soon and more often.
Transfers are this week, we'll see what happens. I feel like my companion might train here soon. He finished in April. But we wont know till Saturday night. Hopefully we both stay!
Vinaka valevu na loloma kei ne ka kece!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
I've been learning a little bit of the Dialect here in Tavua, and man... Its not just a dialect, its a completely different language! If you want to say 'I want to eat'(which is the closest translation for I'm hungry) you would say "Au via Kana" in the Bau Dialect which is the dialect that everybody knows. In Nadroga you would say "Qi mata Kana" but you say the K's differently, its just ridiculous.
But! This week was crazy! Tuesday after our District meeting, I went on exchanges with Elder Carter(From Australia, in my intake) who is currently serving in Rakiraki! So I got to see a lot of people from Rakiraki again! It was one of the best days I've had on my mission. One of my Recent Converts, Buka, is taking people to church in a van that he is using to drive people to Suva. On Sundays, pretty much nobody works, except for some Taxi drivers, and Bus drivers. But he is off on Sunday so he picks up investigators and members on Sunday to take them to church! That was so good to hear! Its just amazing to see how the area is going after I left. I'm just super happy to see that he is still coming to church and helping others come to church as well! And they are planning on Baptizing a man named Ratu Luke who my first companion and I started teaching back in May! It was amazing!
We had a funeral for one of our members on Saturday morning, which was kind of sad. He had stepped on something and it got infected really bad, so they took him to the hospital in Lautoka and they said they would have to cut his leg off from the knee down or something, so they didn't want to do that. They came back and he didn't really do anything because he was getting sick and his diabetes didn't help either. He passed away on Monday last week. We are planning on visiting the daughter and mother and try to strengthen their testimonies of the Plan of Salvation and try to help them come back to church again. We had visited them about once a week since I've been here, so hopefully we can see them soon and more often.
Transfers are this week, we'll see what happens. I feel like my companion might train here soon. He finished in April. But we wont know till Saturday night. Hopefully we both stay!
Vinaka valevu na loloma kei ne ka kece!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
November 16, 2014
Hey everyone,
This week was the best! Elder Haleck from the Seventy came for our mission tour. We got to go to Nadi on Tuesday last week(which I might add has one of the only 3 McDonalds in Fiji, so we went to McDonalds right before it started and had some breakfast). But he gave a great talk/discussion on how this time as a missionary shapes you for the rest of your life. It was way good! He talked a lot about being exactly obedient and how it will help/bless us when we return from the mission field. It reminded me a lot of a talk that Jessica gave me called "The Fourth Missionary".
So because we had to be in Nadi on Tuesday, we weren't able to proselyte on Monday or Tuesday in our area. But that's okay. We have this one investigator named George(Joji is the Fijian name) but he is a Rotuman man in his 50's probably. He is awesome, he wants to be baptized but he needs to get something figured out with some court case that is in the beginning of December. But he has been coming to church every week for like 4 or 5 months. He isn't 100% there mentally, we have to make things really simple for him, but he is really good.
We have a lot of less actives we are working with right now. And we've been able to have a lot of success with getting them to church, which is really good! We don't have a lot of investigators, but we have 2 good ones we are planning on inviting to baptism soon! Praying for them!
Anyway, Thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
This week was the best! Elder Haleck from the Seventy came for our mission tour. We got to go to Nadi on Tuesday last week(which I might add has one of the only 3 McDonalds in Fiji, so we went to McDonalds right before it started and had some breakfast). But he gave a great talk/discussion on how this time as a missionary shapes you for the rest of your life. It was way good! He talked a lot about being exactly obedient and how it will help/bless us when we return from the mission field. It reminded me a lot of a talk that Jessica gave me called "The Fourth Missionary".
So because we had to be in Nadi on Tuesday, we weren't able to proselyte on Monday or Tuesday in our area. But that's okay. We have this one investigator named George(Joji is the Fijian name) but he is a Rotuman man in his 50's probably. He is awesome, he wants to be baptized but he needs to get something figured out with some court case that is in the beginning of December. But he has been coming to church every week for like 4 or 5 months. He isn't 100% there mentally, we have to make things really simple for him, but he is really good.
We have a lot of less actives we are working with right now. And we've been able to have a lot of success with getting them to church, which is really good! We don't have a lot of investigators, but we have 2 good ones we are planning on inviting to baptism soon! Praying for them!
Anyway, Thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
Monday
November 9, 2014
Hey Everyone!
The new area is great! I don't know if they are doing this everywhere, but we have been focusing on Less Active work just as much as we are baptisms. there are a lot of less actives here in the area, so we visit a lot of them! Anyway, we had about 16 or so less active members come to church this week! It was amazing! When my companion and I walked into the chapel, we had to try to find a find a seat, because it was almost completely full! The chapel isn't by any means the size of a chapel in Utah, but its not small either. We have a lot of work right now, which is really good. Its not very fun OYM'ing or tracting. I don't think I've done much tracting at all. So its just really nice to be able to have people to work with whether they be inactive members or investigators. I love going out and teaching. when I'm busy time just flies by, but when I was in my last area, it was kind of harder because we didn't have as much lessons as I had in Rakiraki or in my new area.
Before I was baptized, I never read anything from the Bible. And even after my baptism, I read pretty much only from the Book of Mormon and D&C. But I was able to continue reading the New Testament after we did the Gospel read starting in August? Well anyway, I was able to finish the New Testament the other day, and I loved the it! Hopefully I'll read it again before I finish my mission in 2016. But, to the point, I still haven't been able to finish/read much from the Old Testament. But we have this book that has stories from the Old Testament in it. And I read about Job and how he lost everything, but still worshipped and thanked God for everything he has been given. some things that have been happening back home just made me think about how God tests our faith sometimes, and if we put our trust in him, we will be given so much. Maybe not immediately or even in this earthly life, but for sure in the Celestial Kingdom, because he promises us everything he has. We just have to trust him and do what he asks. Just something I've been thinking about a lot lately.
Thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
*Oh, and I'm pretty sure they don't celebrate thanksgiving here.. I haven't heard anything about it anyway.
And I'm learning how to play the piano! My companion is teaching me! I'm pretty excited about it.
If you send me another package, could you send a CD with the Piano Guys? I want some of their songs. Mainly the Waterfall one, and the other cool piano one.
Vinaka! (Thanks!)
The new area is great! I don't know if they are doing this everywhere, but we have been focusing on Less Active work just as much as we are baptisms. there are a lot of less actives here in the area, so we visit a lot of them! Anyway, we had about 16 or so less active members come to church this week! It was amazing! When my companion and I walked into the chapel, we had to try to find a find a seat, because it was almost completely full! The chapel isn't by any means the size of a chapel in Utah, but its not small either. We have a lot of work right now, which is really good. Its not very fun OYM'ing or tracting. I don't think I've done much tracting at all. So its just really nice to be able to have people to work with whether they be inactive members or investigators. I love going out and teaching. when I'm busy time just flies by, but when I was in my last area, it was kind of harder because we didn't have as much lessons as I had in Rakiraki or in my new area.
Before I was baptized, I never read anything from the Bible. And even after my baptism, I read pretty much only from the Book of Mormon and D&C. But I was able to continue reading the New Testament after we did the Gospel read starting in August? Well anyway, I was able to finish the New Testament the other day, and I loved the it! Hopefully I'll read it again before I finish my mission in 2016. But, to the point, I still haven't been able to finish/read much from the Old Testament. But we have this book that has stories from the Old Testament in it. And I read about Job and how he lost everything, but still worshipped and thanked God for everything he has been given. some things that have been happening back home just made me think about how God tests our faith sometimes, and if we put our trust in him, we will be given so much. Maybe not immediately or even in this earthly life, but for sure in the Celestial Kingdom, because he promises us everything he has. We just have to trust him and do what he asks. Just something I've been thinking about a lot lately.
Thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
*Oh, and I'm pretty sure they don't celebrate thanksgiving here.. I haven't heard anything about it anyway.
And I'm learning how to play the piano! My companion is teaching me! I'm pretty excited about it.
If you send me another package, could you send a CD with the Piano Guys? I want some of their songs. Mainly the Waterfall one, and the other cool piano one.
Vinaka! (Thanks!)
Sunday
November 2, 2014
Hey Everyone!
Tavua is great! Even though it is really really close to my first area, I love it! During Sacrament meeting on Sunday, I went to bear my testimony but I wanted to introduce myself a little before that. So I told everybody that I served in Rakiraki before and I used to come to Tavua every Tuesday(for District Meeting) and said if any of the members from the ward ever saw me before that is why. And as I said that, I saw a couple of people looking over to the person next to them smiling and talking to the other. It was kind of funny. But its great in Tavua, we have been really busy! We were teaching this girl named Meredani(she has been taught since April) and she was supposed to be baptized on the 18th of Oct. But she missed the Baptismal Interview. Anyway, she has been going to church with her brother who used to be a bishop in Lautoka(2hours away) and when we saw her on the 25th of Oct. She said that the Zone Leaders were going to baptize her in Lautoka on the 1st of Nov. But we had no idea about it. So we called the ZL's in Lautoka and they said they didn't know anything about it. We called Meredani the next day and got it all figured out. But she was set on being baptized on Nov. 1st(her birthday) so we had about 5 days to plan a baptismal interview and everything else. Everything went smoothly and she was baptized. Her parents(nonmembers) came to the baptism. It was great! I'm really praying that her parents will soon want to take the lessons and her whole family can get baptized. But what ever happens is in the Lord's time.
Well, I don't have much time!
Love you guys! Thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
Tavua is great! Even though it is really really close to my first area, I love it! During Sacrament meeting on Sunday, I went to bear my testimony but I wanted to introduce myself a little before that. So I told everybody that I served in Rakiraki before and I used to come to Tavua every Tuesday(for District Meeting) and said if any of the members from the ward ever saw me before that is why. And as I said that, I saw a couple of people looking over to the person next to them smiling and talking to the other. It was kind of funny. But its great in Tavua, we have been really busy! We were teaching this girl named Meredani(she has been taught since April) and she was supposed to be baptized on the 18th of Oct. But she missed the Baptismal Interview. Anyway, she has been going to church with her brother who used to be a bishop in Lautoka(2hours away) and when we saw her on the 25th of Oct. She said that the Zone Leaders were going to baptize her in Lautoka on the 1st of Nov. But we had no idea about it. So we called the ZL's in Lautoka and they said they didn't know anything about it. We called Meredani the next day and got it all figured out. But she was set on being baptized on Nov. 1st(her birthday) so we had about 5 days to plan a baptismal interview and everything else. Everything went smoothly and she was baptized. Her parents(nonmembers) came to the baptism. It was great! I'm really praying that her parents will soon want to take the lessons and her whole family can get baptized. But what ever happens is in the Lord's time.
Well, I don't have much time!
Love you guys! Thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
Monday
October 26, 2014
Hey everyone!
I only have a minute and the computer will kick me off. Sorry, all is well here in Fiji.
I got transferred to Tavua by the way. Long story, I'll tell you next week!
Love you guys!
Love Elder Beilman
I only have a minute and the computer will kick me off. Sorry, all is well here in Fiji.
I got transferred to Tavua by the way. Long story, I'll tell you next week!
Love you guys!
Love Elder Beilman
Friday
October 19, 2014
Hey everyone!
This week was really good! I'll start with Conference. So we finally got to watch General Conference this Saturday and Sunday. It was really good! I think I liked the April General Conference a little better, but its still General Conference. You can't go wrong with that. I loved the talk that Elder Jorg Klebingat gave called "Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence". It was a really bold talk, but I loved how straight he was. I kind of like to be bold with people when we teach, because I want them to know that the things we teach are really serious.
Here is a part that I really like:
Embrace voluntary, wholehearted obedience as part of your life. Acknowledge that you cannot love God without also loving His commandments. The Savior’s standard is clear and simple: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Selective obedience brings selective blessings, and choosing something bad over something worse is still choosing wrong. You can’t watch a bad movie and expect to feel virtuous because you did not watch a very bad one. Faithful observance of some commandments doesn’t justify neglecting others. Abraham Lincoln rightly said, “When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad” (in William H. Herndon and Jesse William Weik, Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, 3 vols. [1889], 3:439).
Also, do the right things for the right reasons. The Lord, who “requireth the heart and a willing mind” (D&C 64:34) and who “is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (D&C 33:1), knows why you go to church—whether you are present in body only or truly worshipping. You can’t sing on Sunday, “O Babylon, O Babylon, [I] bid thee farewell” and then seek or tolerate its company again moments later (“Ye Elders of Israel,” Hymns, no. 319). Remember that casualness in spiritual matters never was happiness. Make the Church and the restored gospel your whole life, not just a part of your outward or social life. Choosing this day whom you will serve is lip service only—until you actually live accordingly (see Joshua 24:15). Spiritual confidence increases when you are truly striving, for the right reasons, to live a consecrated life in spite of your imperfections!
I like how he talks about a willing heart and a willing mind. I read a talk called the 4th Missionary by Lawrence E. Corbridge and in it he talks about serving because you want to serve and not because its what you're "supposed to do." We should all be willing and wanting to keep all the commandments because that is how we will find true happiness and blessings that we would receive because we want to keep the commandments.
We have a new investigator, Niko, and he is really awesome. He is 18 years old and plays rugby with a member on Saturdays(how he got in contact with the church). So the member playing rugby with him invited him to take the lessons and had us go over and visit him. He seems really interested and is way nice.
We have another investigator that hasn't been really progressing lately, and we were thinking about dropping her, but we felt like we needed to invite her to baptism-and she accepted it! It was really amazing. She started reading the Book of Mormon and I think that is what really changed her. I'm grateful for that book and I can't wait to help her progress towards baptism.
Well thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
This week was really good! I'll start with Conference. So we finally got to watch General Conference this Saturday and Sunday. It was really good! I think I liked the April General Conference a little better, but its still General Conference. You can't go wrong with that. I loved the talk that Elder Jorg Klebingat gave called "Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence". It was a really bold talk, but I loved how straight he was. I kind of like to be bold with people when we teach, because I want them to know that the things we teach are really serious.
Here is a part that I really like:
Embrace voluntary, wholehearted obedience as part of your life. Acknowledge that you cannot love God without also loving His commandments. The Savior’s standard is clear and simple: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Selective obedience brings selective blessings, and choosing something bad over something worse is still choosing wrong. You can’t watch a bad movie and expect to feel virtuous because you did not watch a very bad one. Faithful observance of some commandments doesn’t justify neglecting others. Abraham Lincoln rightly said, “When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad” (in William H. Herndon and Jesse William Weik, Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, 3 vols. [1889], 3:439).
Also, do the right things for the right reasons. The Lord, who “requireth the heart and a willing mind” (D&C 64:34) and who “is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (D&C 33:1), knows why you go to church—whether you are present in body only or truly worshipping. You can’t sing on Sunday, “O Babylon, O Babylon, [I] bid thee farewell” and then seek or tolerate its company again moments later (“Ye Elders of Israel,” Hymns, no. 319). Remember that casualness in spiritual matters never was happiness. Make the Church and the restored gospel your whole life, not just a part of your outward or social life. Choosing this day whom you will serve is lip service only—until you actually live accordingly (see Joshua 24:15). Spiritual confidence increases when you are truly striving, for the right reasons, to live a consecrated life in spite of your imperfections!
I like how he talks about a willing heart and a willing mind. I read a talk called the 4th Missionary by Lawrence E. Corbridge and in it he talks about serving because you want to serve and not because its what you're "supposed to do." We should all be willing and wanting to keep all the commandments because that is how we will find true happiness and blessings that we would receive because we want to keep the commandments.
We have a new investigator, Niko, and he is really awesome. He is 18 years old and plays rugby with a member on Saturdays(how he got in contact with the church). So the member playing rugby with him invited him to take the lessons and had us go over and visit him. He seems really interested and is way nice.
We have another investigator that hasn't been really progressing lately, and we were thinking about dropping her, but we felt like we needed to invite her to baptism-and she accepted it! It was really amazing. She started reading the Book of Mormon and I think that is what really changed her. I'm grateful for that book and I can't wait to help her progress towards baptism.
Well thanks for everything!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
Sunday
October 12, 2014
Hey everyone!
Last week for P Day was way fun! I attached a couple of pictures. Don't worry, we didn't go in the water! I made sure to walk out on the sand in the picture when the wave was low. But we played touch rugby on the sand and then I played some volleyball with no net. It was a lot of fun. I want to go there every P Day.
But this week was a little tough. We had tried to contact 3 potential investigators and I'll let you know what happened...
The first one is a man named Mosese- who was OYM'd just outside the Temple at the bus stand by a member. The Assistants gave us his number and information. So we gave him a call on Saturday or Sunday last week and set an appointment to meet him at the Family History Center(right next to the Temple) on Tuesday at 9 am. But he never showed up. So we are going to try to contact him again.
The next one is Ralulu- We met him while walking through a settlement(kind of like a village, a little smaller) that is in our area. He stopped us and we talked for a minute. We got his number and said we would call him if there was a day that we could come visit him. So we called on Friday to set up a day to see him, and then found out he lives in a different area. About 15 minutes away-but in a different zone. so we will have to give him to a different set of missionaries.
Another man we met on the street on Wednesday had stopped us on the sidewalk and Kerekere'd(kind of like asking, please) us to come visit him. So we went to our member's house where he had been staying on Friday to find out that he went to jail for a year... So that was a big slap in the face.
And on Friday right before we went to go contact that man that went to jail, we gave 2 of our investigators to the sisters in our area(serving in the English ward- Samabula 1st) because we thought it would be better for the investigators to go to the English ward.
So it was a pretty tough week. And I got sun burned for the first time on my mission, because we spent most of the day walking on Saturday. But its good that we have hard times- I read these verses the other day(I think I read them because of the week we were having) its 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
I love verse 10. I've been thinking about my thoughts when I'm going through something really hard. But Paul says that he takes "pleasure" in infirmities and it taught me that my attitude towards trials is really important because if I'm just going to sit and complain the whole time, I won't learn much. but if I try to figure out why I'm going through it, that is when we learn. That is when we are made strong.
Thanks for everything!
Love, Elder Beilman
Last week for P Day was way fun! I attached a couple of pictures. Don't worry, we didn't go in the water! I made sure to walk out on the sand in the picture when the wave was low. But we played touch rugby on the sand and then I played some volleyball with no net. It was a lot of fun. I want to go there every P Day.
But this week was a little tough. We had tried to contact 3 potential investigators and I'll let you know what happened...
The first one is a man named Mosese- who was OYM'd just outside the Temple at the bus stand by a member. The Assistants gave us his number and information. So we gave him a call on Saturday or Sunday last week and set an appointment to meet him at the Family History Center(right next to the Temple) on Tuesday at 9 am. But he never showed up. So we are going to try to contact him again.
The next one is Ralulu- We met him while walking through a settlement(kind of like a village, a little smaller) that is in our area. He stopped us and we talked for a minute. We got his number and said we would call him if there was a day that we could come visit him. So we called on Friday to set up a day to see him, and then found out he lives in a different area. About 15 minutes away-but in a different zone. so we will have to give him to a different set of missionaries.
Another man we met on the street on Wednesday had stopped us on the sidewalk and Kerekere'd(kind of like asking, please) us to come visit him. So we went to our member's house where he had been staying on Friday to find out that he went to jail for a year... So that was a big slap in the face.
And on Friday right before we went to go contact that man that went to jail, we gave 2 of our investigators to the sisters in our area(serving in the English ward- Samabula 1st) because we thought it would be better for the investigators to go to the English ward.
So it was a pretty tough week. And I got sun burned for the first time on my mission, because we spent most of the day walking on Saturday. But its good that we have hard times- I read these verses the other day(I think I read them because of the week we were having) its 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
I love verse 10. I've been thinking about my thoughts when I'm going through something really hard. But Paul says that he takes "pleasure" in infirmities and it taught me that my attitude towards trials is really important because if I'm just going to sit and complain the whole time, I won't learn much. but if I try to figure out why I'm going through it, that is when we learn. That is when we are made strong.
Thanks for everything!
Love, Elder Beilman
October 5, 2014
Sorry I don't have time to write today!
I'll try next week!
Love you guys!
Elder Beilman
I'll try next week!
Love you guys!
Elder Beilman
September 28, 2014
Hey Everyone!
This week was amazing!
On Saturday, I went on splits with one of my Zone Leaders-Elder
Cashen(he is from Arizona)(he is the man). We had originally planned
on going to the Family History Center right after lunch to help one of
the recent converts(Alavena) to find the names and do the work for her
mother and father, but we found out that its closed on Saturday. So we
had about 4 hours of time that we didn't have anything planned. But I
took the CMIS list that has all of our members names and addresses and
went to find all the members starting from the bottom name going up.
My companion has already visited some of them so we started from the
last page figuring that they started from the first. So it was like
one of the hottest days on Saturday since I've been here and we were
just walking around trying to find our members and update the list. A
couple of people moved and another changed back to his old church and
a lot of people weren't home. It was hard. But it was totally worth it
because we came in contact with about 20 people that aren't members.
Our Mission President told us that it takes about 7 good contacts with
nonmembers for them to want to start taking the missionary
discussions. We even sat down with these 2 former investigators(we
were looking for a member and just asked them if they knew them and
they invited us in. Apparently 2 sister missionaries used to teach
them) but they are super nice! The man, Josefa, lived in California
for like 3 years! And the wife was super nice. She is a Sunday school
teacher at one of the Methodist churches. But we just shared a
spiritual thought with them from Matthew and after the lesson I had
asked if they had a Book of Mormon. They said they used to, but didn't
know what happened to it. I gave them the one I was carrying around
all day and just bore my testimony with them that I knew the book was
true and that it could help them in their lives(I wanted to give a
Book of Mormon to at least one person that day, so I made it a goal to
put it in somebody else's hands by the end of the day and just carried
it in my hands all day until we sat down with that family). We were
getting ready to leave their house when Josefa asked us where we would
be for Christmas so we told him we would be here in Fiji. He then
invited us to come over for lunch on Christmas Day haha. They also
said to come over whenever we want. Not sure if they are super
interested, but they are super nice.
Then on Sunday we had 113 people come to church! Which is really good,
we normally have about 60ish people come. A lot of less active members
came to church. Hopefully we can just help them see the need to come
every single week to partake of the sacrament. Really grateful for my
mission and the time I have to serve, it truly has been an amazing
experience so far and I've learned so so much. Can't wait to continue
to learn and grow!
Take Care, Loloma levu!
Elder Beilman
This week was amazing!
On Saturday, I went on splits with one of my Zone Leaders-Elder
Cashen(he is from Arizona)(he is the man). We had originally planned
on going to the Family History Center right after lunch to help one of
the recent converts(Alavena) to find the names and do the work for her
mother and father, but we found out that its closed on Saturday. So we
had about 4 hours of time that we didn't have anything planned. But I
took the CMIS list that has all of our members names and addresses and
went to find all the members starting from the bottom name going up.
My companion has already visited some of them so we started from the
last page figuring that they started from the first. So it was like
one of the hottest days on Saturday since I've been here and we were
just walking around trying to find our members and update the list. A
couple of people moved and another changed back to his old church and
a lot of people weren't home. It was hard. But it was totally worth it
because we came in contact with about 20 people that aren't members.
Our Mission President told us that it takes about 7 good contacts with
nonmembers for them to want to start taking the missionary
discussions. We even sat down with these 2 former investigators(we
were looking for a member and just asked them if they knew them and
they invited us in. Apparently 2 sister missionaries used to teach
them) but they are super nice! The man, Josefa, lived in California
for like 3 years! And the wife was super nice. She is a Sunday school
teacher at one of the Methodist churches. But we just shared a
spiritual thought with them from Matthew and after the lesson I had
asked if they had a Book of Mormon. They said they used to, but didn't
know what happened to it. I gave them the one I was carrying around
all day and just bore my testimony with them that I knew the book was
true and that it could help them in their lives(I wanted to give a
Book of Mormon to at least one person that day, so I made it a goal to
put it in somebody else's hands by the end of the day and just carried
it in my hands all day until we sat down with that family). We were
getting ready to leave their house when Josefa asked us where we would
be for Christmas so we told him we would be here in Fiji. He then
invited us to come over for lunch on Christmas Day haha. They also
said to come over whenever we want. Not sure if they are super
interested, but they are super nice.
Then on Sunday we had 113 people come to church! Which is really good,
we normally have about 60ish people come. A lot of less active members
came to church. Hopefully we can just help them see the need to come
every single week to partake of the sacrament. Really grateful for my
mission and the time I have to serve, it truly has been an amazing
experience so far and I've learned so so much. Can't wait to continue
to learn and grow!
Take Care, Loloma levu!
Elder Beilman
Monday
Sept. 21, 2014
Hey Everyone!
This week was good! Well, we didn't get to proselyte as much as a
normal week because my companion had a training on Wednesday that was
about 3 hours and he was sick for a couple of days which really killed
our proselyting time. So we didn't get to teach a ton this week and
had some fall through. And we had to go to a baptism that the sisters
had in our area. So we didn't get to teach much.. But we had gotten a
referral from one of the Return Missionaries in our ward and we went
to the house with the RM on Sunday night. Turns out one of them, Adi,
is a less active member and her 2 brothers are interested in taking
the lessons! Way cool! It truly was a blessing for us because we don't
have much investigators right now. There are a lot of Less Actives in
the ward that we are trying to get back to church and through them, we
are finding investigators. So hopefully as we work with less active,
we can continue to find more and more investigators.
Oh yeah, something weird happened the other day. So when people speak
Fijian, there isn't an accent like in Spanish or French. So the other
day my companion and I were doing studies or eating lunch or something
and we get a call from a number we didn't have in the phone and they
asked for me(which I thought was weird because I had only been in the
area for a week). So they started to talk to me in Fijian and then he
tells me he is from the Richfield stake! His name is Chase Nay. He
served here in Fiji a while ago and he was taking his wife to his
area's on Vanua Levu. He wanted to take my companion and I to lunch,
but he wasn't able to get our phone number for a while and his plane
to Vanua Levu was leaving soon. That was kind of cool though.
Sorry I can't send any pictures this week! The computers haven't been
reading my SD Card for some reason? So I've been unable to get the
pictures on to the email. I hope everyone has a good week!
Loloma Levu!
Love, Elder Beilman
This week was good! Well, we didn't get to proselyte as much as a
normal week because my companion had a training on Wednesday that was
about 3 hours and he was sick for a couple of days which really killed
our proselyting time. So we didn't get to teach a ton this week and
had some fall through. And we had to go to a baptism that the sisters
had in our area. So we didn't get to teach much.. But we had gotten a
referral from one of the Return Missionaries in our ward and we went
to the house with the RM on Sunday night. Turns out one of them, Adi,
is a less active member and her 2 brothers are interested in taking
the lessons! Way cool! It truly was a blessing for us because we don't
have much investigators right now. There are a lot of Less Actives in
the ward that we are trying to get back to church and through them, we
are finding investigators. So hopefully as we work with less active,
we can continue to find more and more investigators.
Oh yeah, something weird happened the other day. So when people speak
Fijian, there isn't an accent like in Spanish or French. So the other
day my companion and I were doing studies or eating lunch or something
and we get a call from a number we didn't have in the phone and they
asked for me(which I thought was weird because I had only been in the
area for a week). So they started to talk to me in Fijian and then he
tells me he is from the Richfield stake! His name is Chase Nay. He
served here in Fiji a while ago and he was taking his wife to his
area's on Vanua Levu. He wanted to take my companion and I to lunch,
but he wasn't able to get our phone number for a while and his plane
to Vanua Levu was leaving soon. That was kind of cool though.
Sorry I can't send any pictures this week! The computers haven't been
reading my SD Card for some reason? So I've been unable to get the
pictures on to the email. I hope everyone has a good week!
Loloma Levu!
Love, Elder Beilman
Sept. 14, 2014
Hey everyone!
That is really good that you were able to fix the small problems on
Taylor & Kara's SUV.
This week has been really good! It was definitely a lot different from
a branch to a ward. They have 2 wards that go to the chapel that we go
to. One is English speaking(Samabula 1st) and the Fijian ward(Samabula
2nd)-which is the ward I'm in. I've had some pretty amazing things
happen in the short time I've been here. If I wrote all of it, it
would be super long though, so I'll just write down as much as I can.
On Saturday, we went to teach these investigators-Nina and Epraama,
they weren't progressing a lot and we were going to share with them
why we come and teach them. This was the first time I met them by the
way. So when we went there, Epraama was gone and there was 3 other
people there. One of them is also named Nina(who is cousins with the
other Nina). So we shared with them our purpose and and a little about
Joseph Smith and the first vision. Nina #2 then asked if we had an
English Book of Mormon so she can read it, so we gave her one. Then
they wanted us to come back on Sunday, so we did and we shared from 2
Nephi 31 about the doctrine of Christ and really emphasized baptism.
Then after we read and were discussing about it, Nina #2 said she
hasn't been baptized yet. And went on to say she isn't ready for
baptism yet, but maybe in a month she will be ready! But that she will
need to change some things in her life before that. It was amazing,
its kind of hard to explain completely. But we made sure to tell her
that we don't want her to get baptized just to be baptized, but to be
baptized because she knows that this church is true. Then another man,
Moepe, asked about baptism as well! It was truly a great experience.
Ican't wait to go back and share with them!
Sorry this is all I can write right now, I don't have much time.
Loloma Levu!
Love, Clayton
That is really good that you were able to fix the small problems on
Taylor & Kara's SUV.
This week has been really good! It was definitely a lot different from
a branch to a ward. They have 2 wards that go to the chapel that we go
to. One is English speaking(Samabula 1st) and the Fijian ward(Samabula
2nd)-which is the ward I'm in. I've had some pretty amazing things
happen in the short time I've been here. If I wrote all of it, it
would be super long though, so I'll just write down as much as I can.
On Saturday, we went to teach these investigators-Nina and Epraama,
they weren't progressing a lot and we were going to share with them
why we come and teach them. This was the first time I met them by the
way. So when we went there, Epraama was gone and there was 3 other
people there. One of them is also named Nina(who is cousins with the
other Nina). So we shared with them our purpose and and a little about
Joseph Smith and the first vision. Nina #2 then asked if we had an
English Book of Mormon so she can read it, so we gave her one. Then
they wanted us to come back on Sunday, so we did and we shared from 2
Nephi 31 about the doctrine of Christ and really emphasized baptism.
Then after we read and were discussing about it, Nina #2 said she
hasn't been baptized yet. And went on to say she isn't ready for
baptism yet, but maybe in a month she will be ready! But that she will
need to change some things in her life before that. It was amazing,
its kind of hard to explain completely. But we made sure to tell her
that we don't want her to get baptized just to be baptized, but to be
baptized because she knows that this church is true. Then another man,
Moepe, asked about baptism as well! It was truly a great experience.
Ican't wait to go back and share with them!
Sorry this is all I can write right now, I don't have much time.
Loloma Levu!
Love, Clayton
Sunday
Sept. 7, 2014~ Transfer to Samabula (Suva)
Hey everyone!
I'm kind of sad.. I'm getting transferred to Samabula(Suva). I'll be
in a ward there, but I really love Rakiraki. Rakiraki is really
difficult and trying, but it has a special place in my heart. There
were times where I just wanted to explode, because it was really hard
but I have learned so much from being here in Rakiraki. I really hope
to see our investigator, Ani, get baptized. Her husband is a member,
Rusi(he is inactive). I think I've told you about them already. But
Ani is doing so good, she has been keeping all of our commitments and
came to church on Sunday with her husband and kids. I can't explain
how happy I was to see them all come to church. We invited Ani to
baptism after the 1st lesson and she said if she comes to know that
its true she will. She will be baptized. I don't want to miss that,
but my work is finished here in Rakiraki. Hoping the next elder will
come and give them Heaven.
People used to ask me after my baptism if I was going to go on a
mission. I always told them "I don't know, we'll see" they always
replied "it was the best 2 years of my life". This truly is the best 2
years. I know I haven't been out for 2 years, but it has been amazing!
I don't regret coming out here for anything. My mission has been
changing my life. Its funny, when I was baptized my life changed, now
on my mission, my life is changing again. Not quite sure how that
happens... I love it out here though.
Well that's about it for this week!
Take care!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
I'm kind of sad.. I'm getting transferred to Samabula(Suva). I'll be
in a ward there, but I really love Rakiraki. Rakiraki is really
difficult and trying, but it has a special place in my heart. There
were times where I just wanted to explode, because it was really hard
but I have learned so much from being here in Rakiraki. I really hope
to see our investigator, Ani, get baptized. Her husband is a member,
Rusi(he is inactive). I think I've told you about them already. But
Ani is doing so good, she has been keeping all of our commitments and
came to church on Sunday with her husband and kids. I can't explain
how happy I was to see them all come to church. We invited Ani to
baptism after the 1st lesson and she said if she comes to know that
its true she will. She will be baptized. I don't want to miss that,
but my work is finished here in Rakiraki. Hoping the next elder will
come and give them Heaven.
People used to ask me after my baptism if I was going to go on a
mission. I always told them "I don't know, we'll see" they always
replied "it was the best 2 years of my life". This truly is the best 2
years. I know I haven't been out for 2 years, but it has been amazing!
I don't regret coming out here for anything. My mission has been
changing my life. Its funny, when I was baptized my life changed, now
on my mission, my life is changing again. Not quite sure how that
happens... I love it out here though.
Well that's about it for this week!
Take care!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
August 31, 2014
Hey Everyone!
This week was really good! We started teaching this inactive and his
wife like 2 weeks ago and they are really good! The father, Rusi, has
been inactive for a long time, and his wife is methodist(I think). But
we shared with his wife, Ani, about the Plan of Salvation on Saturday
night, it was so good! We asked her about Adam and Eve and if it was
good that they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and
evil and immediately she said bad. So we turned to 2 Nephi 2:22-25 and
shared with her about how it was good that they ate the fruit, because
if they didn't, we wouldn't be here. After we shared about it, she
seemed like she was really happy about it. She told us she understands
it well now and how it makes sense. Its amazing that all the other
churches teach that it was bad, it was part of the plan! Our Father in
Heaven knows everything, he knew that they would partake of the fruit.
I am so grateful for the Plan of Salvation, so many people in the
world don't know about this amazing plan that we have been given. I
feel really blessed to have this knowledge, because I know what I need
to do to get back to our Heavenly Father. Really grateful for the
opportunity to share about this plan with others to give them the
chance to know the truth!
Transfers calls are this Saturday, I'm wondering if I'll stay again.
Maybe like Sister Jeffery and stay for 8 months in my first area. I
would be okay with that though, I love it here.
I was reading in Jacob last week in Chapter 1 the last verse says-"And
we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the
responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if
we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore,
by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our
garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we
would not be found spotless at the last day." And I feel like this
scripture really applies to missionaries. We need to magnify our
calling as much as we can and labor with our might to teach people the
gospel. One of the missionaries in my District, Elder Tonumaipe'a(he
is Samoan) shared at district meeting about how when we are judged of
our works, and our missions included, how we will respond if the
Savior asks how we did in the area we were given to serve in. If we
will be able to look up to him and say I worked with all my heart,
might, mind and strength and stand blameless before him.
This week has been good, trying to find those prepared!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
This week was really good! We started teaching this inactive and his
wife like 2 weeks ago and they are really good! The father, Rusi, has
been inactive for a long time, and his wife is methodist(I think). But
we shared with his wife, Ani, about the Plan of Salvation on Saturday
night, it was so good! We asked her about Adam and Eve and if it was
good that they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and
evil and immediately she said bad. So we turned to 2 Nephi 2:22-25 and
shared with her about how it was good that they ate the fruit, because
if they didn't, we wouldn't be here. After we shared about it, she
seemed like she was really happy about it. She told us she understands
it well now and how it makes sense. Its amazing that all the other
churches teach that it was bad, it was part of the plan! Our Father in
Heaven knows everything, he knew that they would partake of the fruit.
I am so grateful for the Plan of Salvation, so many people in the
world don't know about this amazing plan that we have been given. I
feel really blessed to have this knowledge, because I know what I need
to do to get back to our Heavenly Father. Really grateful for the
opportunity to share about this plan with others to give them the
chance to know the truth!
Transfers calls are this Saturday, I'm wondering if I'll stay again.
Maybe like Sister Jeffery and stay for 8 months in my first area. I
would be okay with that though, I love it here.
I was reading in Jacob last week in Chapter 1 the last verse says-"And
we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the
responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if
we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore,
by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our
garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we
would not be found spotless at the last day." And I feel like this
scripture really applies to missionaries. We need to magnify our
calling as much as we can and labor with our might to teach people the
gospel. One of the missionaries in my District, Elder Tonumaipe'a(he
is Samoan) shared at district meeting about how when we are judged of
our works, and our missions included, how we will respond if the
Savior asks how we did in the area we were given to serve in. If we
will be able to look up to him and say I worked with all my heart,
might, mind and strength and stand blameless before him.
This week has been good, trying to find those prepared!
Loloma Levu!
Elder Beilman
This is the family I was talking about.
Here is a picture of where we were walking the other day, we were
trying to find a short cut to the village, we didn't end up finding it....
trying to find a short cut to the village, we didn't end up finding it....
August 24, 2014
Hey Everybody!
Yeah, I emailed my mission president and told him that a truck would really help us out here, but he told me there is a limited number of trucks that they can have and that they are all in other areas. But there is one in this area called Ba, which is like 2 hours away where our District leader is and they have a truck, but its a lot bigger of a town than Rakiraki. I think they could do without the truck there, and most of the roads are paved there and almost all of them here are gravel. They should put the bicycles there and give us the truck, but its okay. Its all up to the Mission President on that. Oh and the bridge is still out. Its been out for over a year now.. They don't plan on finishing it till December next year.. They are working on it right now though.
This last week was really good! We are working with less actives more now that we have been. Our goal for them is to go to the Temple because a lot of the less actives haven't been to the temple yet. So we sat down with our Branch President's brother, Rusi, and his wife 2 times last week. On Thursday, we shared a little about families with them. Rusi was planning on going on a mission, but he got a job at one of the hotels nearby and unfortunately that took him away from going to church. He was going to seminary and everything! Way sad! He hasn't been in 12 years.. But we are going to start teaching them, his wife isn't a member but we are going to invite her to baptism soon! They have the cutest little girl! She is kind of bad sometimes though. There is some gravel close to their house and she grabs the rocks and throws them at the house sometimes.. But she is so funny. Every time she sees us she says "Elda!" and wants us to shake her hand, its so funny.
On Saturday, we went to visit out 1st counselor in the Branch Presidency and we had dinner over there, and this is what we ate, its called "Qeqe" I was pretty hesitant to eat it at first. When she brought it out, I thought to myself "no!" But then I just told myself to eat it, if they eat it, it has to taste good right? So when I tried it, it didn't taste too bad. I ate the whole bowl of them. The funny thing is it kind of tasted like bacon.. I know, crazy, but it did. That or I just forgot what bacon tastes like because they don't have bacon here.
Well I hope everyone is doing well! Take Care!
Loloma levu!
Elder Beilman
Yeah, I emailed my mission president and told him that a truck would really help us out here, but he told me there is a limited number of trucks that they can have and that they are all in other areas. But there is one in this area called Ba, which is like 2 hours away where our District leader is and they have a truck, but its a lot bigger of a town than Rakiraki. I think they could do without the truck there, and most of the roads are paved there and almost all of them here are gravel. They should put the bicycles there and give us the truck, but its okay. Its all up to the Mission President on that. Oh and the bridge is still out. Its been out for over a year now.. They don't plan on finishing it till December next year.. They are working on it right now though.
This last week was really good! We are working with less actives more now that we have been. Our goal for them is to go to the Temple because a lot of the less actives haven't been to the temple yet. So we sat down with our Branch President's brother, Rusi, and his wife 2 times last week. On Thursday, we shared a little about families with them. Rusi was planning on going on a mission, but he got a job at one of the hotels nearby and unfortunately that took him away from going to church. He was going to seminary and everything! Way sad! He hasn't been in 12 years.. But we are going to start teaching them, his wife isn't a member but we are going to invite her to baptism soon! They have the cutest little girl! She is kind of bad sometimes though. There is some gravel close to their house and she grabs the rocks and throws them at the house sometimes.. But she is so funny. Every time she sees us she says "Elda!" and wants us to shake her hand, its so funny.
On Saturday, we went to visit out 1st counselor in the Branch Presidency and we had dinner over there, and this is what we ate, its called "Qeqe" I was pretty hesitant to eat it at first. When she brought it out, I thought to myself "no!" But then I just told myself to eat it, if they eat it, it has to taste good right? So when I tried it, it didn't taste too bad. I ate the whole bowl of them. The funny thing is it kind of tasted like bacon.. I know, crazy, but it did. That or I just forgot what bacon tastes like because they don't have bacon here.
Well I hope everyone is doing well! Take Care!
Loloma levu!
Elder Beilman
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