week #59 Monday, April 21, 2014

Well another week has flown by!

     Hey so this week was filled with miracles. We've been pretty busy, when you lose an hour and a half to studies (every day with a new missionary) you have to pick up the slack to do the same amount of work that you were doing beforehand. But it has been so great. This week we've been trying to help Elder Faddis work on the first lesson and how to begin teaching. It's been great, we've had a lot of practice. We started off the week by going to DTM (district training meeting), it was led by Elder Cao, I got to practice translating. Then after that we raced back to our area to find out we got stood up, 3 times that day, it was kinda a hard day. But Wednesday we went out and found a lot of success. We met with some investigators, RC's (recent converts), LA's (less actives). Even though Elder Faddis doesn't speak fluently, he's not letting that stop him from participating, I've had him lead lessons. He's done great. 

     As we were getting to the end of the week I was getting a little worried because we hadn't found any new investigator's. I was worried we would end the week with maybe 1 new investigator, but I didn't let that stop us. We went out, contacted, tracted, did what we could, then on Saturday night we tracted into an awesome family. It was such miracle. It was actually pretty crazy, started off pretty normal, *knock knock "Oh hello we are missionaries" "Sorry I'm a devout budhist" "That's ok" "I believe all churches are good" "we do too, we just want to help others learn more wisdom and truth" I gave her the family tract, it has a scripture, I invited her to read the scripture then she said "ok come in".  Her family was there and at first they didn't seem interested, but after we said a prayer, they were so interested, they were begging for more. It was soooooo cooool!!!!! Great miracle to help our companionship keep working hard. 

So Sunday was pretty great. Chen Jiemei got a calling, she's YSA rep, they also gave a calling to a LA (less active) we've been working with which means she's rescued. The ward had 70 people at church yesterday, so if we can keep this up, and get 10 more we'll have 80. We're so close!

     It's been a great week, even though yesterday Elder Faddis and I completely forgot it was Easter yesterday. We both got on our e-mails and we start reading and I looked at him, and I say sorry I forgot it was Easter yesterday, and he looks at me and says "I forgot too".  It's funny how that happens when your in a place where no one celebrates Resurrection day. Elder Faddis is super great about being diligent, he has been pushing and pushing to try and have success and yesterday he got 2 people to write down their numbers, he's great. Love working with him, even if he is picky and puts his nose up to all the dishes here in Taiwan.

     Well It's been a great week. I've really seen the amazing power of working on the Lord's errand. I've seen the blessing of serving, helping others. We are seeing miracles. Elder Faddis is an awesome missionary. I love the work.

Elder Bean

week #58 Monday, April 14, 2014

Hey everyone,

 

       Yet another week has passed and it's been filled with learning. Elder Lieske (from St. George) and I tried to end the move call by having as much happen as could be happening. We were handing out invitations to be baptized. Confirming people for church. Visiting as many people as we could. We had a great Zone Training Meeting to start off the week. Wednesday we did our English party, the theme was Jeopardy and they loved it. 

      Other than that, not a ton happened until Friday. So Friday morning we woke up early, headed to the train station in Tainan. Elder Handset and I went up to Taizhong to go pick up our new missionaries. We sat down, President talked to us a bit, then we got ready to meet the new missionaries. We greeted one (not knowing which one we were gonna be with) We grabbed one, greeted them and sat down. We sat through some training. President had us talk about preach my gospel, we watched some videos about how the companionship study would be. We discussed a bunch about what's coming up. Then they said it's time for the suprise (us trainers knew that they'd be picking who's going with who, but the new missionaries had no idea). They showed an introduction video of the mission to the new missionaries. It quoted a lot of talks about missionary work, it showed pictures from our mission of missionaries contacting, teaching, baptizing. As it was going on they showed some clips from the Dan Jones Activity they did the night before, as they're showing this montage it shows some clips of some of the missionaries contacting, as one of them got put on the screen, I felt a rush of spirit and I was like, "he might be my new missionary....maybe...well I don't know" Then they had the new missionaries take a red envelope and open it and read who was their trainer. Elder Faddis (the one I saw on the screen) got up and as he opened it I was already getting up. and sure enough He read off "Elder Bean, Guiren" I went and greeted him. We spent most of that day traveling, we met with an investigator in the evening. Then this Saturday and Sunday I watched conference for the most part, he was super jet lagged and had already seen conference, so he had some great Lehi Dream moments.;p

     Elder Lieske is headed to Qishan. Our district is changing quite a bit, Elder Gassman from my generation is coming down to be our zone leader, that'll be fun. Elder Faddis is from Sandy, Utah, graduated at Skyline. He's the youngest of 4. He has an older brother who served in Korea. He did tennis in high school, he's 18, He'll be turning 19 in June. He's the blonde one with glasses, I'm not sure if Sister Blickenstaff has put up pictures at all but...ya. 

So training has proven to have some challenges, like not having a companion who speaks a ton of chinese, hasn't used a phone before, never contacted someone before, however; we are seeing miracles. We are running into people who are prepared, some who want to buy the Book of Mormon from us because they see the value. Some who have been wondering their entire life why there are so many different churches and how to know which one is true. He's a great Elder, He's still a little jet lagged but I think he'll make a great adjustment once he gets the hang of it all. 

         Ya so all is going great. Elder Faddis is awesome, he's still a little shy and trying to get around the language barrier but I know he'll come around soon. 

        Well that's all, I love you all I loved conference, had some great talks. I know that President Monsen is our prophet, he leads and guides in these days.

Until next week,

Elder Bean

week #57 Monday, April 7, 2014

Hey,

 

So it's been another week. It's been crazy filled with miracles. First off on Monday, we went tracting, trying to find some investigator's, but we weren't having any luck. Then we just happened to run into a Philippino house. Had a lot of people from the Philippines (I obviously have no idea how to spell that). Well long story short, one of them came out and said "Elder, I've been looking for you" It was a Philippino that I ran into my first day in Guiren. He's a member who got to Taiwan the same day I got to Guiren, he's a return missionary, he'll be here for 2 years. He lost my number and he couldn't find the chapel, so we exchanged numbers, I told him to meet us at the McDonald's. Such a crazy miracle, I was so excited after that. 

Tuesday we went out met with one of our investigators who we haven't seen in a while, he's gonna be ok. Then after the lesson Elder Lieske went to grab something at a 7 as we were waiting there, my phone started ringing, I looked to see it was President Blickenstaff. I thought it was weird, then I thought, oh he might be coming to DtM today ok. I answered "Hello this is President Blickenstaff" "Hello this is Elder Bean from Guiren" "How have you been lately Elder Bean?" "Pretty good" "Well Elder Bean I was calling to let you know that you're going to be training this move call"......WHAT!!!! ya so I'm training. We had a DTM on talking with everyone, it was super fun. I felt like I was really able to help the other Elders and the sisters in our district, this week their new investigator's increased a lot. Elder Lieske keeps commenting on it. I focused on making sure to get a contact number and talking about baptism in a contact situation. I guess it worked. I went on exchanges that day with  Elder Cao. We saw some crazy awesome miracles including tracting into a family!!!! that was an awesome moment, the spirit was strong. I hope they continue investigating. 

Wednesday we started setting up for the Family History event that would be happening this week. We had a pretty good English class. Thursday we helped the Family History thing some more.... a lot of time this week was there, about 24 hours worth of time.....but it was fun. Friday we went to the train the trainers meeting. It was super great. First, it was fun to hang out with other missionaries for a bit. But also Elder Handset helped me set goals for training, and the meeting was a super relief. I feel so much more prepared than I did beforehand. Saturday we had 2 really great lessons with new investigator's both accepted a date to be baptized in May. Sunday we had a pretty busy schedule because all the members wanted to say bye to Elder Lieske. It's gonna be sad to see him leave here. We were doing great together, but I'm confident he'll do just as great in his next area. 

Well That's pretty much all for this week. Love ya all. I know the Lord prepares those whom he has called. I know that this work is going to keep growing. I know that the church is true and these moments are what's going to affect the rest of my life. I love my savior and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

Elder Bean

week #56 Mon. March 30, 2014

Sweet so here's the low down for the week.

     So first off this week's Tuesday I led the DTM we talked about helping our investigator's rollover and continue progressing towards baptism. It was a really good day for me. I read and studied about how we can help our investigators. I figured there are 2 keys, they need to be more excited for baptism, we need to help them better understand how awesome and great it is. In order to do that we help them better understand that they really do want it. We need to help them see the blessings that come from the commandments they are living in order to help them continue to grow their faith. The other thing is we need to help them know what they need to do in order to hit there goal, so I challenged everyone in our district to better understand the commandments, help their investigator's see the blessings they are experiencing, and also to lay out what they need to be doing in order to receive baptism. It was a really good DTM. From listening to my own advice we've helped each of our baptismal candidates become more excited for baptism. 

     Our English class was super fun, Elder Lieske and I co-taught the lesson and we were just playing off of each other, we think everyone loved it. It was really good.  

     Friday we had that musical activity, I played All of me (John Schmidt), Elder Lieske sang I know my Redeemer lives. It was way fun, a lot of our investigator's came and enjoyed it. We are still getting comments about it. After the activity I did an interview for the Zone Leaders investigator and then Elder Handset and I went to his area for exchanges. It was way fun. We learned quite a bit. Then came back and Saturday Chen Jiemei got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Such a great baptism. Font was filled on time. She came ready. Great service, they told me right before I would be giving a talk.....so I did, I shared about the first vision and how because it happned that night's baptism would be done with the proper authority. I think it went ok. Then after the baptism. Sister Chen shared her testimony and it was so professional. Her testimony was shared just like a talk, everyone was super impressed. Then after the service the Bishop asked if we knew we were giving talks in Sacrement meeting....NO we didn't. They told us that we'd be speaking for 15 minutes and to prepare it on Faith. So that's what we did. And after all the comments and the spirit was there, I think Elder Lieske and I did pretty good.

     Yesterday we saw a couple really cool miracles, but one that was amazing was we met with a guy we contacted on the street. After meeting with him and discussing the first we taught him how to do prayer, and we invited him to try it. As he did it, we felt the spirit and then he said "amen".  We opened our eyes and he just had the biggest smile, we asked him what he felt like and he responded "I...I feel like He heard my prayer" SAFDKAPOGHAPJVNSAPODI SUCH A COOL MIRACULOUS MOMENT!!!!!!! He's gonna be great, I'm excited to meet with him next week. Ya that was this week.

Well I gotta jet we're are hanging with the zone Leaders and the District, 

Love ya all!

Elder Brandon Bean