Elder Lofton Q Bean : I Love Doing the Lord's Work and Helping People Everyday

Bom Dia do Brasil!!!!

This week had a lot of crazy and awesome experiences. We found some new people that we have started teaching. One of them is Nathalia. She is 17 and awesome. We planned to teach her at her mom´s burger restaurant. We brought Gabriel and Elicya with us to teach her. We thought it was going to be just her but we show up and she has 4 other friends that she brought to hear our message. One was her age, and the other 3 guys were older who worked at the restaurant. So we had like a party going on teaching the gospel haha. The restaurant hadn’t opened yet so we were able to have everyone´s attention. It was way awesome though. I was so happy when Elicya, who was baptized last week, even bore her testimony and talked about how she decided to be baptized!! It was way legit. The bonus was we got free burgers after :) But they were all really interested. We are teaching them again tonight. So this whole week we went by Sandra´s house everyday. But she was never home. We ended up talking to her neighbor who said she works a lot and stays with her sister a lot who is going through a hard time. We are going to keep going over hoping to find her. We have been teaching Sarah, familia of Sabrina and Carol. She is doing great and we had a way cool spiritual experience with her this week. Really Spiritual. She is progressing well and has a baptism date for the 15th of Fevereiro. Her mom as well!! Another investigator of ours, Atila, was progressing really well and he loved our messages and believed in what we taught him. He could feel it was true. We met him during one of the English classes that we teach on Wednesday nights. We were planning on marking a date for baptism with him for the end of February, But he moved last Friday to live with his dad in a different state until July.

Me and Elder Tippetts have been having a lot of great experiences teaching together and being companions. I’m never stressed and I love being here in Gama. We are able to trust each other very well during lessons and when one of us goes on about a different part or something, we both trust in each other that the spirit is guiding what we say. The dude is a stud and has helped me grow a lot as a missionary.

The other night we were on our way home, when we rounded a corner and saw a crowd of people gathered. We walked over and there was this little old lady just lying on the ground. We asked questions and found out that a car hit her, clipped her right in the hip and she flew in the air before landing on her back on the side of the road. The car just drove off but someone saw the license plate number (even though police never do anything here..) I got down and started talking to this young dude who was comforting this woman and taking care of her. I thought he was her son or something, but he happened to just see it happen and ran over to help. The guy was such a stud, the way he was helping and comforting her. I looked at him and realized that a lot of people probably judge this guy, thinking he makes bad decisions or just doesn’t care about anyone. He’s covered in tats, and has several earrings all over his face, just pierced up. But yet he was the one acting more Christian to her than any one else. He was on his knees the whole time by her side. I asked her husband and the guy if I could give her a blessing, the husband was kinda shocked and out of it but the young guy said, Yes! So in the midst of this huge crowd of people just standing and watching, I put my hands on her head and gave her a blessing. I felt prompted to tell her she would live and everything would be ok. It really humbled me and I felt the Spirit really strong. We stayed with her until the ambulance came (they did a crappy job of loading her onto the ambulance). One of the ladies was a member of the church but in a different area. She came up and talked to us and to explain what happened.

I have the phone number of the husband of Maria (the little old lady) so I’m gonna call today to see how she is doing.

I’m doing great though!! love doing the Lord´s work and helping people everyday :) it truly is so rewarding and I can feel myself changing into a better person and having a greater love for everyone. It is so awesome being in lessons and really feeling true love for these people and just wanting to help them. I love being a missionary, and I am so grateful for all of you at home supporting me and continuing to write me and show your love for me. It really keeps me going and wanting to be better. I Love you all so much!!!! :)

Love,

Elder Bean!!