Bom Dia!!
Tudo Bem!?? I’m doing a lot
better and starting to get use to the missionary lifestyle. Brasil is sooo
hot!! All day haha. In Santo Antonio do Descoberto (Saint Anthony of the
Discovery) it is super dry!! I miss y'all like crazy!!!
We had a mission conference
on Saturday! It was awesome. We heard from a General Authority and his wife. We
got together with all the missionaries in this mission except for the zone that
is 13 hours away. They don’t come down here ever except for transfers.
So the talk was in Portuguese
I only understood a few things but Elder Grisham translated a lot of it for me
in English, which was awesome! Got to see Elder Kesler, which was way cool! We
are in like the same boat. Having the same struggles. Our birthdays are both on
October 12 except he is two years older!!
I’ve realized that the work
here isn’t what is hard. Walking miles and miles and miles everyday, struggling
to speak to people and understand, always hungry, and getting rejected. I mean
that stuff is super hard but it really isn’t hard compared to missing home.
That is the hardest thing. Knowing that I still have 22 months from seeing y'all
is so hard to think about. Missing out on y'alls activities, watching y'all
grow and be with each other. It is so hard putting all that aside for two
years. And knowing that I won't be an 18 year old kid anymore when I get home,
but 20 years old. And that so much will have changed by the time I get home.
Being away from y'all is the hardest thing. I have gained a greater
appreciation for those little moments in life that don’t seem big, but now they
seem ginormous. I have been blessed with the most loving and supportive family
and friends. I truly am so blessed. I pray for y'all everyday. I love y'all so
much!
On Wednesday, we went to
teach Danilo. He is 22 years old and way cool. He just showed up to church last
week and said someone had invited him a few weeks earlier. I know God had a
hand in guiding him to church. So after our first lesson
with him, after the closing prayer, I felt such a strong feeling and inspiration
in my heart to invite him to be baptized. It burned within me. So I looked at
him and asked when he knows for himself that these things are true, will he
follow Jesus Christ's example and be baptized by someone with the priesthood
authority of God! (in Portuguese off course) He said he would!! He committed
to being baptized on Saturday October 12!!! It was awesome. We even committed
his mom to be baptized last night! Heavenly Father has so much love for Danilo
and all of his children here on Earth.
Right after Danilo´s lesson
we taught Messias and committed him to be baptized as well. Messias is about 60
and is married to a member. He agreed but said he would be out of town for the
12th but wanted to do it sooner! So we planned for the 28th!! It was so
awesome!! Such a spiritual night. But on Friday when we went back to
teach Messias, we felt inspired to teach Laws and Commandments. We found out
that he isn´t married yet to his member ´wife´. He is still in the middle of a
divorce. We can’t baptize him yet though because he isn’t married. We can’t
baptize a couple unless they are married if they live together since they would
be breaking the Law of Chastity.
We were sad for him, but
they are planning on getting married right when the divorce is finalized. He
will eventually get baptized but just not now.
That is one of the biggest
problems in this area, people are together but not married. They call each
other husband and wife but aren’t legally married. It is hard when we find
those elect people that are ready but one of the persons in the
relationship doesn’t wanna get married.
It will all work out
though. My testimony is strengthened everyday here. It isn’t easy being away
from home. Satan knows where I am weak. He constantly makes me feel like I am
not a good older brother or son, because I am here and not at home with y'all.
But I pray and I feel Heavenly Father´s love and I know that even though it is
hard, this is the place I need to be. I think about y'all every day, and how y'all
are doing. I think about the Friday night games I am missing, and just life at
home. That stuff is so important to me, and means the world to me. But
furthering the Lord´s work, and bringing others unto Christ and letting them receive
the blessings and happiness I have received from it and how much it has blessed
my family is what I want to do.
I left my family for two
years, so other families can be together forever. True love and happiness here
on Earth, and into the eternities in the life to come.
I love y'all so much and
miss y'all more than everything!! Y'all mean the world to me
Families are forever
Love,
Elder Bean
They haven’t had a baptism in Santo Antonio do
Descoberto in almost 9 months!! So we are super excited about the investigators
we have committed to dates!!!
Thanks for all the love and
supporting words of encouragement.
It is always hot here. Ha. Hot
and dry. We have to wear our suits to
church every Sunday and to certain meetings with the mission. It kinda stinks
cause it is a 40 minute walk to the church in a suit in the heat. I swear the
sun is bigger and hotter here... haha
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| P-day in front of apartment |
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| Sunday at Church |
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| Out tracting |
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| With Elder Kesler at a Mission conference |
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| Typical streets with houses crowded together |
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