Elder Lofton Q Bean : 5 Months in the Mission

E aí!!!!!!! :)

Woww I cant believe it is already almost Christmas!!!! It came up so fast. Gonna be Natal in two Days!!!! I miss y’all a tonnnn and so stoked to get to skype!!!

Como está?? :) I am doing good. This week was awesome!!! On Wednesday we had our Christmas Conference for the mission. Even the missionaries in an area 15 hours away came down. It was the first time in 3 years all missionaries were together in the whole mission. I got to see a lot guys I haven’t seen in a while which was sweet, got to be reunited with Elder Sales!!! haha

The mission conference went awesome. It was way cool singin in the choir. Had a lot of good speakers and then there was this world known pianist (i forget his name) from Hollywood that came and played the piano for us! He was born in the U.S. and his parents are Brasilian. He served a mission in Brasil so he knows Portuguese but he speaks fluent English. He is in his 70s I think, but he is way cool!!! Elder Kessler almost broke down when he heard he was playing for us, guess he is super famous. haha. But after he talked he jumped on the piano and played a bunch of Christmas songs and everyone was just singing and havin fun. I got to talk to him afterwards, and he said he feels bad for us Americans cause Christmas is his favorite holiday, and it doesn’t feel like Christmas at all here. I miss it, but i guess its just a sacrifice for two years :) All is good.

After the spiritual stuff, they had a lunch all set up for us!! Wayy good food. They had a slide show from pictures of the mission and Christmas music playing. Good times!

I got 4 packages!!!! Gosh I was sooo happy, I couldn’t stop thinkin how lucky I was and so grateful. I tried my hardest to wait until Christmas but I couldn’t help it :) haha I opened them all but left some stuff still wrapped in each box to wait until Christmas! It was Awesome!!!!

We have a baptism date marked for the 29th, this Sunday. His name is Nilson, a 16 year old awesome dude!! His girlfriend is a member. He has already come a few times to church and loves it. His parents are even happy that he is wanting to get baptized. They think its great! He talked about it with them before we even brought it up. We committed him last night!! You can tell that he wants to be baptized for himself, not just cause of his girlfriend which is way sweet!! Its so cool seeing this guy just want to follow Christ and change his life for the better. Such a stud.

On Saturday we had our Ward Christmas Activity at the Church. We had a blast. Like 15 of us guys in the Ward did a "flashmob" to a remixed version of Silent Night. It was awesome, they had us all wear blue bow ties and blue Christmas hats. haha. Then the kids did the nativity and afterwards had a bunch of food!!

Today for Pday, we went down to Taguatinga with everyone from our zone. We made pizzas at the church and hung out since on the missionaries in our zone is leaving after this transfer. This transfer has seriously flown by!!

I got alot of good stories but I’m gonna save them for skype ;) hahah

I miss y’all a ton!!! sooo much. I am so grateful for all that I have been blessed with. I am grateful to be a missionary and to be serving our Heavenly Father. I know its where I need to be for these two years. My testimony has grown so much, and I can already tell the difference in who I am from reading my journal at the beginning of my mission. It will be 5 months on Christmas Eve.. wow! The Lord has blessed me with so much. The least I can do is give Him these two years of service. I know y’all are being blessed at home too. I love you, and see you on SKYPE!!! :)

Love,

Elder Bean :)

{ We got to speak with Lofton via Skype on Christmas. It was awesome!!! He looks so good and sounds great!!! He had to keep reminding himself to speak to us in English as he kept slipping into Portuguese. :) He is loving his mission and the opportunity to serve Heavenly Father. We miss him sooo sooo much but we couldn't be prouder of him!!!}