Lofton's Pday (preparation day) is Friday while he is in the Provo, Utah MTC. He can read and respond to email on that day. His address is Lofton.bean@myldsmail.net To get him a message any day you can go to www.dearelder.com and fill out a "letter" to him, his unit #258.
These are two emails that we got from Lofton today:
Family,
Oi from the mtc!!! I miss
yall so much. Friday is my Pday so I can use email and do all the laundry which
I just finished. Everything is going good here!! The spirit is so strong and my
love for this gospel and my Savior has only grown since I got here. Everyone
told us when we first got here that the first couple days until Sunday would
feel like eternity then it would start to fly by. They were right! It felt like
seriously 2 months over just 4 days. So much information is being given to you
and thrown into the fire starting day one. But since Sunday the time has flown
by. Getting in the rhythm of things. We started learning Portuguese day
one, and had to teach our first investigator as a companionship on our first
Friday in only Portuguese!! We just finished our 5th lesson with
"Marcos" and are about to receive two more investigators. I am
starting to understand more and more of the language each time and I can now
speak without relying on my notes.
I can now hold
conversations with ease and bear my testimony in Portuguese. I have memorized a
couple scriptures and our missionary purpose as well. I can say a simple
prayer, but I’m almost to the point where I can mix it up each time.
So here at the mtc you are
split into districts, which is like your family. You do everything with
them. Then several districts make up a branch. That’s who we all meet with
on Sunday for sacrament meeting.
My district is very unique
and different. First of all we have no sister missionaries in our district.
Most have at least 6 or more. We just have 14 elders. (which means we get
distracted easily). The sisters have a special spirit and are able to keep the
elders on task. Also, everyone is from somewhere other than Utah which is
pretty cool! We all have similar experiences. 6 of us are straight out of high
school and the other 8 have either one year or are almost done with
college. The oldest guy in our district just turned 26 yesterday.
My companion is Elder
Smith. He is from Minnesota, 21 years old, and went to BYU-Idaho for
two years.
In Portuguese
"Smith" is pronounced "Smeetch". So I call him "Elder
Smeeeeeetch". haha.
He is a good guy who loves
the gospel and has a strong testimony. He is a little socially awkward and
doesn't show emotion so it is frustrating at times but he is a great guy. He is
always focused and trys to speak the language all the time. It helps me out
cause I get distracted easily but he helps me stay on task. He never smiled for
the first few days but now he laughs occasionally and smiles sometimes haha. He
doesn’t like hugs but I’m trying to break him in.
The district is awesome and
the MTC is full of spiritual powerful guys. I actually ran into and talked with
Trevor Anderson and Braden Call from Logan if yall remember them?
Its good hearing from yall.
We get our letters each night besides the emails so it is awesome when you get
one or a few ha!
I love you all!!!!
Love,
Elder Bean
So me and my companion just
got done teaching our investigator, Marcos, his last lesson. As we were talking
about baptism, he said he didn't want to because his mother believed in a
different church than him and she would be upset and hurt. He knows the church
is true and that Jesus Christ is our Savior. He just couldn't get pass that hump.
So I started bearing my testimony. Using broken Portuguese to help explain
things and hand signals but the spirit was so strong in that room. The Spirit
was so strong. He started to tearup and cry. I started to tear up as I
explained my purpose and why I was on a mission. And how I left all my family
and friends behind in the U.S. so I could bring the gospel to him and him have
the true happiness that comes with it. I told him it would not be easy, that it
would be hard. But to have faith and he would receive blessings and his family
would be blessed. Through his tears and mine and invited him to follow the
example of Jesus Cristo and be baptized. The Spirit testified
to him that it was true.
He accepted the invitation
to be baptized. It was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life.
This has opened my eyes to
why I am here. I felt such a deep love for him and knew that by being baptized
and having faith, everything would work out and be ok.
I truly do know now why I
am here and what my purpose is.
Afterwards I celebrated
like I had just thrown a TD pass.
Not because I got a
baptism, but because he decided to take a leap of faith and follow in the
footsteps of his Savior, Jesus Cristo.
And Espirito Santo (Holy
Spirit) testified to him, that what we were teaching him was true.
Love,
Elder Bean
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