Elder Lofton Q Bean : Quem servis, Por Que servis!! Who you serve, Why you serve!! Our mission motto.

So just wanted to start out by saying that I’m doing great and love doing this great work!!! Truly a blessing to me to be part of this!

The highlight of the week was Saturday when we had a visit from Elder Neil A. Anderson, an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was seriously awesome!! He and his wife visited, along with Elder Mazzagardi (Area Seventy of Brasil) and his wife. It was definitely an experience I will never forget!! When they entered the church we were already set up and all of us were welcoming them in with this powerful hymn. It isn’t in the English Hymn book, only the Portuguese. I could truly feel the Spirit so strong, and the presence that entered as he came in. We all had the opportunity to shake their hands but because of time and he had other meetings, we weren’t able to get a personal picture with him. The meeting was just with us missionaries!!

His wife gave such an incredible talk to us. She spoke an introduction in portuguese then spoke the rest in English and a translator translated to portuguese. She talked with so much love for us and love for the Lord and respect for her husbands calling in the church. She related a story to us about many years ago when their kids were young, she wanted each child to have a copy of the talks in the Ensign for Family Home Evening each week. She went to the copy store to make copies. Then she told us that she regrets so much, that when she saw that the total of the copies cost more than 50 dollars she felt sick to her stomach, that it was a lot of money. Then she thought, What is the cost of our Salvation? What is the cost for the opportunity to have each child have a copy of the words of the prophet and apostles and gain a love for the Lord. She bought them!! She is really amazing and really showed her love for us! Then we heard from Elder Anderson. He spoke mostly in Portugues which was incredible to see. He spoke English only a few times and had a translator translate for him. It was awesome cause he also walked around and talked to us and asked us questions and had us talk as well. I was sitting on the edge of the 2nd row on the side, and so many times he would stop walking right next to me and like look me straight in the eyes as he talked!! it was seriously incredible. The presence of the Lord was so strong and my testimony grew of the Savior and the Gospel. The focus on the talk was about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and how when we better our knowledge of what the Atonement is, we have more desire to share the Gospel and help others know what we know. I know that he is a man called of God!! That he truly is an Apostle of Jesus Christ. It was an experience I will never forget.

This week, we have been teaching like crazy and brought a lot of members of the church to lessons with us. The testimonies of a member during a lesson to an investigator is so crucial and many times more important and powerful than what we say. Cause our investigators see them as normal people and they see us usually as "pastors" haha. or a German. haha "Ehhh Alemão, fala Inglês!" (Hey German, speak english!) Many people say that on the street to me and it makes no sense hahah. I feel so confident in speakin portugues now!! It is just part of me now, it is so cool. I feel the spirit so strong testifying to people that what I know is true! I have really sought out for Gods help the past couple weeks. I have really seen, that my reading and speakin in Portugues is so much better and powerful and just flows when I have the Spirit with me. If I go into a lesson without it, it’s not the same. The gift of the Holy Ghost is real and can be our constant companion as long as we don’t do things to drive it away. Sunday morning was a little sad, cause we had a member with us to pick up some investigators in his car. The first investigator really really wanted to go, but her husband wouldn’t let her. He got ticked off and was yelling at us from a distance. He was always fine when we had visited to teach the days before, he just was quiet and watched soccer on tv but Sunday morning he was ticked. I tried to get him to come out and talk to us face to face and explain but he wouldn’t. I got a little heated and told him to come out and talk to me man to man, probably crossed the line on that one. But the night before, I tried to show him respect and ask him if his wife could go to church with us. He didn’t want her to but she begged and begged and said how much she wanted to go. She had already received an answer about the Book of Mormon. He ended up saying we could, but the next day I guess he changed his mind. But she is awesome and we went over again that night hoping things had calmed down. It hadn’t, but she came out and talked to us. She was so sincere and asked us to pray and pray that her husband’s heart was softened. I told her to apologize to him if we had disrespected him and that we were here only to help. We will visit again later this week. But Dino went to church and loved it!!! It was great to have him there.Raimunda will probably get baptised this weekend!!!

I have so much love for the people here! Especially the kids here! They are so humble and loving! I love being a missionary and serving the Lord!

Quem servis, Por Que servis!! Who you serve, Why you serve!! Our mission motto.

I know that Jesus Christ lives and is our Lord and Savior. He is continually reaching out to us with His loving arms. He is there for us continually. He wants us to use this "gift" (the atonement) that He has given us. We need to show our faith and love and appreciation for Him and his "gift" by following Him and Keeping his commandments! I love yall so much!! have a great week and say hi to those you see and smile, it might just make someones day!

Love,

Elder Bean