week #77 Monday, August 25, 2014

Well it's been another week everyone.

     Ya, so this week has been pretty awesome. Elder McCulloch is pretty cool. We get along really well actually. I feel like 80% of the time we are laughing our heads off. He's a super funny guy. He has been on his mission about 20 months. He heads back December 24th. He has a ton of personality. It's super fun on the streets we talk with everyone. We have been able to do a lot already and it's only been a week. 

     Last week our entire district changed....most of the zone changed. We gained a senior couple companionship in our district, and another Elder Companionship in our zone. Also an area on the southern tip of our zone just got a third companionship. So our zone now has 16 companionships, or 33 missionaries. So I became very busy very fast. Our english class was super great. We were able to have a great discussion on families and how to help our familes be better (through the gospel). 

     We were able to find some cool miracles this week. First was a family, Elder Mcculloch served in Fengshan (an area bordering ours) a long time ago (he was trained there). There him and his trainer found a family through English Class. The family was super cool, they met with them, shared all the lessons, then they realized they lived in a different area. qianzhen's area....well they reffered them over, Elder Mcculluch kept there info, and then got sent here (the area where they live). We went to go visit them. They were super excited to see him, they became too busy last year and stopped meeting with the missionaries, but now they are super willing. yay!

     Ya loving the mission. Sorry my letters lately have been lacking umph... But I do want to let everyone know that it really has been amazing. Every day I wake up, study, and go and contact, meet with people, and It is amazing. Every moment is a miracle. I wish everyone could experience this, because you can't get this growth, experiences, closeness with God anywhere else. This is the best time of my life. I love it

with love,

Elder Bean

week #76 Monday, August 18, 2014

Wow Another movecall blew bye,

     Hey everyone. It's been a crazy week. We started off the week going to a memorial for the Gaoxiong bomb explosion. A lot of religious leaders and representatives were there. We had 20 missionaries there and it was really interesting to see a bunch of other churches in their way of worship. They had Muslims, Presbyterians, Catholics, Budhists, Daoists. It was really cool.

     Then we went on exchanges, had a really good dtm (district training meeting). Wednesday came, we had a cool english class. We did an English party, the theme was game show. Elder Gummow and I had Jeopardy. It was fun, we had an awesome spritual share. It was on leap of faith. We had a student stand on a board (she was blindfolded) we had a missionary stand near her, as elders lifted the table, the sister missionary squated. Even though the board was only 2 inches off the ground, The student felt like she was super high up in the air. Then we asked her if she would believe us and do what we said. She said ok. We told her to jump and she did it to her suprise found the ground was only an inch away and she survived ok. 

     This weekend we worked a lot. Elder Gummow wanted to be as busy as possible. So it was a great week. Although there was a crazy moment. On Thursday we were at an investigator's house. In the middle of the lesson, Elder Gummow get's a call from his RC (recent convert) who was waiting for us on the other side of our area. We end the lesson. Head out, booked it for 20 minutes, Then Elder Gummow turns to me and asks, "hey do you have the phone?"........"no..."We search ourselves, then realize we left the phone at that investigator's house. So we booked it back, then re rode back to where we met Elder Gummow's RC. It was a busy day. Other than that the week was pretty normal. Elder Tolman is training someone named "Elder Coleman" So that's pretty funny. Last night we got movecall. My new companion is an Elder MCCulloch. He's from Canada he's like a movecall and half older than me. I don't know him that well yet. I'm gonna pick him up in a few hours. Elder Lieske is in this zone, he's out in Gangshan, I'm trying to make plans to go on exchanges with him this week. We'll see. 

 

with Love,

Elder Bean

week # 74 Monday, Aug. 4, 2014

Answers to the general public. No I'm not dead. Yes there was an explosion Thursday night. Just so family at home can all be at peace, I'll start with this story. Thursday Night Elder Gummow and I just got back from MLC (Mission Leadership Council) and spent half the day dragging a broken suitcase weighing about 60+ lbs. So we were exhausted and went to bed, only to be woken up around midnight by a call.  We ignored it and we heard a few text messages ring on our phones (we are in a 4 man and both phones were getting messages). We continued to sleep. We wake up the next morning to have a few calls/txts from the YSA members in the ward/stake. One saying something like "there's been explosions, it's like the movies, super scary, it's hit the city's main streets, stay inside!" and then we called a member to find out that the night previous in our area there was some gas explosions down near the dream mall, yixing road, and sanduo road. He had been evacuated from his house, that entire area's gas has been shut off (so Bishop cancelled having us over that night, I'll say he had a good excuse). Then I call Shizhong elders to double check they are ok (their area borders ours) then I called Elder Sumsion (the assistant) asked him what he knew, he knew nothing, so he told me we should be fine. Then in the middle of personal study, Elder Sumsion calls me back to tell us President has recieved a lot of calls asking about it. So they had us call each companionship and ask if they were ok (which was kinda mafan, we were in the area it happened in and we were fine, we called anyways.)Fun conversation:Elder____are you and your companion alive" "...yes.....is everything ok?" "Well last night there was an explosion you'll probably hear about it today."

 

Then president called us and asked us to stay in our apartment until 1:30.....most boring time ever!!!! we just wanted to leave, but we stayed inside. Then we got the call we could leave, went and ate then went on exchanges. 

 

Cool rest of the week. So we have been having a hard time meeting with our investigators with baptismal dates, please pray for them. This week on Thursday we had Mission Leadership Council and it was such an inpiring day. Even though we had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning. We headed over, we discussed how our zone was doing, what we could do to do more. It was interesting as we discussed the way our zone was headed. Lately our zone has increased in a lot of the key indicators. This month we ended with a low amount of baptisms. But as we talked to each companionship, there were a lot of people who were looking good to baptize. So we set a reasonably high goal. But the cool thing was other zone leaders also set reasonably high goals. The zone is looking to double last months numbers. President gave us a lot of cool trainings on finding, the way us zone leaders can be better leaders. It helped me feel a lot more prepared to go and serve my zone down here in Gaoxiong west. Elder Gummow started calling our zone "The New Gaoxiong West" it's been catching on and everything. Ya it was pretty good. We've been finding quite a bit, found some really solid people this last week. I'm excited for this upcoming week, Elder Gummow and I get to lead a Zone Training Meeting. It'll be good, we are gonna show the new Mormon message. 

 

That's really all for now. Love you all.

 

Elder Bean

week #73 Monday, July 28, 2014

Dear Fam and friends,

     This week was awesome! So last week we started strong, we found a lot of new investigators. We headed to Gangshan for exchanges. That's right, Gangshan. I got to go there with an Elder Galura. It was so much fun. We saw a few of my recent converts over there. I got to attend a ward meeting and see some members. It was a crazy blast from the past. Then Friday, Taiwan got hit with a typhoon. But unlike most typhoons, nothing really crazy happened. We just got hit with a lot of rain, no crazy wind or flying cows. Nothing. So Elder Gummow and I just went and visited some members, investigators, etc. 

     Thursday we got fanged (stood up) a lot. But we were able to find a lot of cool people. One of the things we did was we got a board, wrote on it "Does God know you?" Then we went around asking everyone what they thought. Most said no, and so we would tell them why we believe God knows them, share a bit about prayer, then try and get them to meet with us later. I was amazed at some of the answers we got. "no, there's to many people" "no, I don't know him", there was one family from China that said "yes, he created us, of course he knows us." It is so crazy running into people from mainland china because we learn how prepared they really are, despite the fact that they don't even have religion. 

     Later that night we also had a crazy experience. We got called by our investigator to come and meet him over in the city, near his work. So we rode over to try and see what was up. He was waiting for us, he brought us into his work where we see a bunch of older people dressed rather nicely. He leads us to a table where there is probably 6 or 7 people waiting for us “哇你带外国人的朋友，他们会国语吗？”(so you broght foreigners, do they speak Chinese?" We answered "会“（yes we do) then they started talking to us, apparently they were working for a company named mirandana (I think I'm not sure) the founder of the company is from Utah, he was a missionary a long time ago. But here is the funny part. They are a pyramid scheme, and our investigator was trying to get us to buy under him. We told them we weren't interested (even if we were, we wouldn't have the money, but they don't seem to understand missionaries are broke). Elder Gummow feels like all the crazy things seem to happen while we are together as companions. 

     Friday we went on exchange with the Xiaogang elders. Which meant I was with Elder Tolman, who worked at little caesers with me back in Highland. We had a blast, we contacted a ton, went and met with some solid investigator's. It was really weird to see how much we've changed in the last 2 and half years. He's a great missionary. Love working with him. 

     That's basically the week. we're doing great, loving the work. We are keeping Elder Gummow super busy, never giving him time to think about home, I feel like this move call will finish and he'll finally realize he's going home. Life is good, the work is great, I love it!

with love, /爱

 

Elder Bean

week #71 Monday, July 14, 2014

Hey Everyone,

 

Well this week was crazy, full of adventures, lets see if I can get them all. So first off, it is super fun being with Elder Gummow again, it seems like I time traveled 9 months ago and we are just continuing on from where we left off. I'm super glad I get to be with him again this move call. It's funny at the end of the last move call we were together, I told him, I don't think you're leaving, I feel we still have another move call together, I was right. 

So we have a four man here in Qianzhen, it's super fun, haven't been in one of those for a long time. The district here are all really great missionaries. We've got Elder Tolman who worked at Little Caesars with me and Courtney. Elder Moore who is the same move call as Elder Faddis. Sister Mancillia is training a sister Voss, then we've got Elder Blacker who has been with Elder Liu for 2 move calls, and has been in this area since he started his mission (4 months ago).

Tuesday we had a good DTM (district training meeting) by Elder Tolman, Elder Gummow and I then went out and found a ton. I forgot what it's like in a city where you run into millions of people everyday. I get to lunch with the same amount of numbers that I would return home with in Guiren. Later that night, we get a call from Elder Tolman telling us that they got locked out of their apartment. I guess they left the keys in that day, and for some reason they decided to get on the roof and then the door shut and then they were locked on the roof. They finally got to our apartment around 10:15, it was pretty crazy. But hilarious. Elder Gummow and I teach Advanced class in English so that's fun, my first time doing that. We have a huge class probably like 15 people. Then Saturday, we had a "Missionary Day" the youth in the stake all came to the stake center and got assigned out to different missionaries in the zone. We got two kids. They were funny, we went tracting, our investigator had a baptismal interview, took the subways both ways, it was a party. oh ya and it was Elder Gummow's Birthday Saturday. 

The people here are so great. I'm excited to serve with them. There are lot's of great investigator's, we are gonna be working really hard on finding in the upcoming. Elder Gummow and I are doing well. Love the work. 

Elder Bean

week #70 Monday, July 7, 2014

Hey everyone,

Don't have a load of time, I'm moving to Gaoxiong in a bit. So I'll cut to the chase. I'm moving to Gaoxiong, I'm going to be zone leader with... drumroll please...................................ELDER G!!!!!!!

I'm so pumped. I'll get back to that later. (Brandon and Elder G were companions in September and October, he is also from Highland, same high school, same school bus to high school, but didn't really know each other then.)

 

So last week we went with the zone leaders to eat shitou(an all you can eat meat place). This week we've been finding like crazy,  inviting them all to be baptized. We were having a lot of success. We were able to get a lot of work done. Tuesday we had ZTM (zone training meeting) and I felt like I learned a lot, we discussed finding, faith, and baptism. We had a lot of opportunities to work with the ward this week. About Thursday I started telling people it was my last day, so everyone was wanting to buy us food, give us treats. So I've gotten pretty fat ;p. I have a thousand pictures I'll send when I'm at a better computer. 

Saturday came around and I had called President Blickenstaff (mission president) to ask a question about whether I could email/write a part member family that has only active sisters in it. He didn't answer thought... Then later that day we were eating lunch and he calls me up. He tells me the answer to my question, then tells me that I'm gonna be zone leader. (tells me all the expectations) then says, I think you're gonna get along great with your companion. But I won't tell you who, you'll find out tonight. Later that night, they call me up and tell me that I'll be with Elder G! crazy!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so pumped. 

 

Well that's all for this week. 

 

Love ya,

Elder Bean

week #69 Monday, June 30, 2014

Hey Everyone,

     Another week, it was stressful for sure, but had it's ups and downs. Started on Monday, we went over to help a family build shelves for service. It was fun. Then Tuesday we had Zone Conference. We had some exciting changes that I think will really help the wards out. We now are only supposed to visit less actives & recent converts if we bring a member from the ward. Basically do Home Teaching, which I think will increase the recent convert retention rate, which will help the growth in Taiwan. Second is we are now supposed to visit 3 active members a week. Which I think  will also help the member missionary work. Overall I just love Zone Conferences, they are a huge spiritual boost. 

     Then later that night, we visited Viviana with Bishop and a sister in the ward. We shared a bit about service in the church (through callings) and then afterwards she asked if she could have a blessing. It was yet another proof about how powerful priesthood blessings are. While we gave her a blessing the spirit was so strong. 

 

     Wednesday, we had an English Party, we did a talent show. There were recorders, piano playing, singing, guitar, improv, handstands, and root beer floats. Great fun. 

 

      Unfortunately,  we did not have a baptism this week. Our investigator was having some reservations about some of the commandments. So we met with him, we thought we'd helped him, we met with him the next day, then called him the following day, he was looking okay. We set a new date to help him be baptized and then he sent us a text saying he didn't want to try anymore. Felt like our church wasn't for him. 

     We've been working hard to try and strengthen the area. It's a possibility I'm leaving next week. If that's the case I'd like Guiren to be as strong as it can be before I leave. So pray that we'll have the energy to work as hard as possible and have success. 

 

     I know that we are lead by a living Prophet. As I've studied General Conference talks this week, I really have felt the power and significance of their words and teachings. I know that they speak to us as representatives of God. They will lead us back to him if we are willing to follow them.

Love ya all,

Elder Bean

豆长老