Last Transfer - Baptisms!!

First week of the new transfer! We had an awesome end to the week with 3 baptisms!!  Leo, Tiago, and Marcela.  Tiago and Marcela are siblings! There was a lot of support from the members at the baptismal service and the spirit was super strong. I felt privileged to be asked by Leo to baptize him and it was an incredible experience, as well to confirm him a member in church on Sunday. His mom and his family and family friends were at the baptism and church on Sunday as well. He is a stud!!   It was great to see them baptized and see the light of Christ shining from them. They all felt the Spirit confirming to them that the decision they had made was the right one!  Man it is awesome being here and being a missionary!!

We had a ward missionary activity at church on Saturday that we planned. We made popcorn and watched "Meet the Mormons"  (Conheçe os Mormons).  There was a decent turnout but not even close to how much we expected. We didn’t realize until earlier that day that the activity was planned at exactly the same time as the Brasilian soccer game. Brasil vs. Paraguay.  Brasilians sure do love their futebol and so many people didn’t go because they stayed home to watch the game.  Can't blame them ;)   But the activity went great and was really spiritual as well!

Since me and Elder Duarte are going home at the end of this transfer, we have two new companions stayin with us who we are training and will take our spots when we leave. So I am with Elder Batista, and Elder Duarte is with Elder Xavier. It was a blast this week with us four. It has been a ton of fun and good making plans for what we will do this transfer to help out the mission.  We will make a plane trip to Palmas again July 20th until the 23rd for a mission conference there and then on the 28th (3 days before I go home) we will have a mission conference/training for the entire mission, except for those 40 missionaries serving in Palmas. We are really excited about it and it will be a blast to do it, especially right before I leave. 

We had an awesome time today in the mornin playing futebol. I’m gonna miss playin futebol every week with the Brasilians. 

I’m so grateful to be here and for the time I have left here. The Gospel is incredible, and one of the best parts of it is seeing the change and difference that it makes in other people's lives. 

I hope y’all have a great week!!

com amor,

Elder Bean

Baptisms: Leo, Marcela and Tiago

With Leo and his family and friends

Ran into Leandro at the church building Saturday. I haven't seen him since I left
Santo Antonio!!  It was an awesome reunion!! He's preparing to serve a mission!!

Having some fun taking selfies

Me and Cleiton

Celebrating Elder Batista's birthday

So so Busy!! Last Transfer!!!

I am havin a blast and lovin it!  Me and Duarte stayed as APs and the two new guys we are trainin are Elder Xavier and Elder Batista!! It is gonna be an awesome transfer. Elder Batista is my companion but us four are always together.  We will end up flying back to Palmas this transfer to do a mission conference there on the 21st of July and then on July 28th we wil have a mission wide conference in Brasilia (except for Palmas). 

Us four get along really well and its been a blast!!

Elder Ribeiro, Raimundo and Me 

Padre Bernardo

Learning how to make "pão de queijo" (cheese bread)  when I was in 
Padre Bernardo doing a trade with the missionaries there. It is at an investigators 
house. We had visited her and her husband the day before and she invited us to come 
over at 7 in the morning the next day to make cheese bread before the bus for 
Elder Duarte and I left for Brasilia!  They are awesome.    

With Elder Clark and Kesler

Selfies on Sister Rowe's ipad

A few days ago at lunch. the elders from Aguas Claras came to 

do our baptism interviews. we will have 2 hopefully 3 this weekend.

Speaking at transfers, reading off the list of where
they will go and who their new companions are.

Room full of missionaries!

Picking up the new missionaries at the airport.

Elder Roberto, Santos, Vera, Dobner, Bean, Batista, Xavier

Welcome lunch for the new missionaries.

Eight new missionaries!!

Met Some Super Faith Building People in Paracatu, An Area We Will Open Soon to Missionaries

Had a great week down here in Brazil :). On Monday night we had a family home evening at Patricia's house. We brought Elder and Sister Rowe with us as well and Marcelo went too.  Patricia and Marcelo are both recent converts. They are incredible and awesome examples! The light of Christ shines from them and it has been so great to see their progress since before their baptism until now. It has been so great having Elder and Sister Rowe here! They work in the office with us and attend our ward at church. They are awesome. Elder Rowe is hilarious and Sister Rowe is so sweet and kind. They treat us like their own grandchildren and it has been great getting to know them. 

We went to two more zones this week with President so he could do interviews and we could talk with each individual district and see how they are doing. We have just one more zone to visit this week and then we will have finished. On Thursday, me and Elder Duarte went on a road trip with President to the state of Minas Gerais. We went to "Paracatu",  it is over 3 hours from Brasilia (It is 5 hours away from the city where Jared Eaton is serving in a different mission). It is a city of about 100,000 people and the church isn’t there yet, and President is planning on opening it up to missionary work in a month. It was an awesome experience to be able to go visit. We stopped first in a city called Unaí (an hour from Paracatu) where there are four missionaries and a church branch. We picked up a member from the branch and took him with us to Paracatu.  When we got to Paracatu we visited 3 of the 4 members of the church that live in the city. They are incredible! One is a lawyer, one teaches school, one is at medical school, and the other is an incredible lady with a powerful testimony of the gospel. She has been driving an hour every week to go to church in Unaí. When she discovered that there was a returned missionary who had recently moved to Paracatu to study at medical school,  she decided to get into contact with him. She only knew that his name was Tiago and that he studied at medical school. So she camped outside of the medical school for three days, talking with everyone until she found him!  She is so awesome and treated us like her own kids just right after meeting us. The members there have been praying that a church group could be started in the city and that missionaries would be sent. They have such faith and are willing to go over and beyond to help spread the gospel and to help the missionaries that will end up serving there. We stayed for just a day but it was great. Got to see another part of Brasil and meet some super faith building people. 

On Friday I had so say goodbye to my bud Elder Preator who returned home. (Dallas, TX). It was hard saying bye to him but its great knowin that I’ll see him after I get back home. I’m so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to gain some incredible lasting friendships here on the mission with people from Brasil as well as other missionaries. Their testimonies have strengthened mine and has made this two year experience even better! 

The Gospel is true! I know Christ lives and loves each one of us. Faith in Jesus Christ is the first principle of the Gospel. When we have faith in our Savior, we will desire to choose the right, keep His commandments, and Follow Him. Our desire to serve others will grow and we will reach our divine potential as sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father. I am so grateful that we have a Savior who is always there to help us along the path and that we are never alone!

Much love to you all from Brasil!!! :)

com amor,

Elder Bean

Our visit to the Câmara made it onto the Mormon news website in Brasil, pretty cool!

Working late at night getting all the numbers for the week.

With Elder Hoese

Elder Duarte had fun taking pics on the drive to Paracatu,
sometimes you just have to catch up on sleep.

On the way to Paracatu

Just cold enough for a sweater

Brasil m&ms Elder and Sister Rowe brought the office from the U.S.

Goodbye lunch for Elder Preator, with all the office missionaries,
President & Sister Lundgren and their son Wade.

Goodbye for now Elder Preator

Family Home Evening at Patricia's house

Visiting Marcos and Raimunda's family,  ate pão de queijo  (cheese bread), sooo good!!

Sunday dinner

Some Good Visits this Week - New Missionary Couple Arrives

This week we received three more missionaries from the states, and also an older missionary couple that will be working in the mission office, Elder and Sister Rowe. They are awesome and bring a great spirit to the office. They are helping a ton.  The week went by really quick!! I did a baptism interview in Aguas Claras and we stayed the night there with the zone leaders. It was good to be able to catch up with them and see what we could do to help them and their zone. We had a great lesson with 3 teenage guys that are recent converts and have been going a little inactive from church. We taught them at the church institute building and it was a really great spiritual experience. We had a scripture study and had each person (including us) choose a favorite scripture verse or story and explain about it. By the end of the lesson, all three of them were feeling the spirit really strong and wanting to go to church every Sunday and to renew their baptismal covenants by partaking of the sacrament. I was able to learn a lot from that lesson as well and felt inspired to try to do more to help others come to know Christ, and to continue strengthen my own testimony. 

We had a great visit with Scott and Cris this week, we took Elder and Sister Rowe there so they could get to know them. It was great! We always feel a ton of love in their home and they take great care of us. Scott and Cris are some of the best member-missionaries that I have known!

This week an elder got sick from a far away city that didn’t have a hospital so they came down to Asa Sul. They had been there for 5 hours already and it was getting late and so we decided to go meet them so they could stay with us in Cruzeiro. I took Elder Ellis who is from Texas as well (Cypress area)  out to eat while my companion stayed at the hospital with Elder Fonseca. When he got released from the hospital, they told him to return in two days so they just stayed with us until he had to go back. By Saturday when they went back, I was feeling super sick as well so we all went together. ha. I got a shot and some medicine in an IV so I was all good to go! :)  

I’ve been hearing a lot about the flooding going on back home! I hope everyone is ok and know that y’all are in my prayers!

Much Love from Brazil,

Elder Bean

Me and Sister and Elder Rowe, they are from Cottonwood Heights, Utah.

Futebol!!