Elder Lofton Q Bean : Testimony Keeps Growing

Boa Tarde,

I hope all is well at home in Texas!!! Its going good down here in Brasil! Super hot everyday but loving it! I miss you all so much!!!

This week nothing super exciting happened. My first official week of my second transfer in the mission!! It seems sooo long ago that I got here yet so fast at the same time. My boy Elder Sales got transferred, but most of our zone and district stayed. Tuesday´s are really fun here. We head up to Taguatinga every Tuesday and do our personal study at 8:00 at the Church building there with everyone in our zone. We then either do a zone meeting or split off and do our district meetings. I love getting to see everyone in our zone at least once a week!! Grown really close with those guys. We now have 4 sisters in our zone as well. Two of them are in my district. One is from Paraguay and the other is brand new from Chile. Pretty cool. The other two are Americans.

I’ve never realized how much Spanish I actually knew until I got here. Ha. I always thought I never learned anything at school. But I actually get a lot of words mixed up, saying them in Spanish instead of Portugûes.

Two guys from my district at the MTC got their visas last week!! We had a mission conference with everyone in the whole mission on Thursday. So I got to see Elder Kesler, but also Elder Magana and Darke. Those guys are studs. Mission conference was awesome!! We heard from Elder Snow, first quorum of the seventy, and his wife. They spoke in English and then had a translator for the Brasilian missionaries. It was so nice hearing something in English. haha. Their talks were awesome, I felt like each said something directed at me.

Afterwards, we had a testimony meeting. I wasn’t planning on going up but towards the end I decided to go up. It was one of the most powerful experiences I have ever had bearing my testimony at church. The spirit was so strong and everyone felt it.

Meu nome é Elder Bean, ou Elder Feijão. Eu sei que, Eu não falo portugues mutio bem, não perfeito. Mas Eu tenyo testemunho A Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Ultimos Dias é verdadiera. O livro de Mórmon é a palavra de Deus. Palavra de Pai Celestial. O Nosso Pai Celestial. Você pode por você mesmo, O livro é verdadiero Eu sou muito grato por meu opportunidade a servir a missâo aqui em Brasilia, Brasil. Eu sinto falta minha familia e amigos e futebol americano muito, mas Eu estou aqui. Nos estamos aquit, por 2 anos porque nos sabemos A Igreja é verdadiero. Nos queremos todos as pessoas. Todo Familias ter o nosso felicidade.

That is a little bit of what I said. Everyone was really impressed and felt the spirit really strong. I am so grateful to be a missionary here in Brasil. To bring these families what my family has. Love, peace, happiness, and a knowledge that Jesus Christ is our Savior, God is our Heavenly Father and that we can return and live with them again someday. And live with our families forever.

After Mission conference, we got to all go out to eat together before taking a bus back home.

On Friday, I had to go get registered with the police.. ha. So now they have my finger prints and mug shot on file.. dang it. ha.

I ended up teaching the guy taking my fingerprints a lesson. He spoke fluent English so we just talked in English. He actually started the conversation saying he was an atheist and saying how he knew I was a missionary and how could I believe in God? It was a really cool opportunity. I offered a pamphlet and Book of Mormon but he said no. He wanted something written by a scholar about religion. But 15 minutes later, He asked to have the Book of Mormon. ha. It was so cool.

Its moments like that where we have opportunities to represent what we believe and who we are. Who would of thought it would of come up during me getting my finger prints taken. It worked because I respected his beliefs and he in turn respected what I believed. It was awesome.

Danilo is doing awesome!!! I love that guy. He is so strong and loves the Gospel!! We taught a lot of families this week. It all went really well.

My testimony has been strengthened so much for serving a mission here. I truly know that God lives, as well as our Savior, Jesus Christ. I feel so honored to represent him on my name tag and in my heart everyday here in Brasil. To share with these people a message of happiness. Of strengthening families, and bringing them closer together, of bringing your family closer to Heavenly Father.

There are people here that don’t like us. Get made fun of sometimes. Some guys called at us "Hey Jesus Men, come save us", and just started laughing. You just got to smile and say all is well. I’m doing great. And then they are shocked. I’ve had a lot of cool experiences that I know I will cherish and remember forever.

I miss y’all so much!!!!!! I love you!!!!! I miss you like crazy but I know it will all be worth it in the end. I know this is where the Lord needs me. Serving his children in Brasil for two years.

I love you!!!!

Families are forever.

Familias são Para Sempre

Love,

Elder Bean "Feijâo"