Nov 5, 2012 “The Greatest Adventure Is What Lies Ahead!”

[We finally got Elder David's long-awaited "blog" letters! The more recent posts have been excerpts from his  family letters.  So...the dates are going to be out of order, going back in time a bit, while we get caught up.  Here's Elder Bean's blog letter dated Nov 5, 2012]

This is it folks.  Tomorrow I head out for... the field!! (cool sound effects)!!!  I’m a little scared, but that’s life.  Life is a little scary.  I’m mostly excited though. And! This week we were officially the oldest group here.  Crazy weird--and awesome.  It is so great to include, help, and befriend the blue dots (the pointo azulls).  Okay, my mind is so crammed full of stuff and preoccupied with “o campo!” that I can’t think of how to organize this letter. Baha! So here’s a whole bunch of random stuff. 
1) Halloween was last Wednesday.  Nothing happened here.  Lame?  Yes. J
Hope y’all had a great one. To celebrate, I bought a 2-liter bottle of guarana (and drank it all in one night. Bad idea).
2) For our mission conference, we sang “Consider the Lilies” in Portugues.  Muito molho de legal. 
3) I got letters this week from Opie, Elder Aaron W, Aunt Jody and Uncle Mark and, of course, Mom. J You’re all the best and I’ll write/send out responses as soon as I can. 
4) We had an “orientation day” yesterday.  It was 100% freeway speed Portugues.  But by some miracle, I understood most of it.  As always, I’m grateful for God’s goodness.
5) Also, one more time, I want to say just how great my CTM district was: each person--so unique, so special.  I will remember these people, and they have a special place in my memory as my first district. It’s going to be hard saying goodbye tomorrow morning.  I’ve learned so much from them. Things like what I want for life, understanding myself better, patience and many other Christ-like attributes.

6)  I also want to write a little about what I’ve learned from each companion. The credit goes to Andrew Woodruff for this idea.  Entao, Elder Barton.  I learned from him how to better be courageous in this work.  He was a great example of this when we were on the street.  Also, he wouldn’t ever complain.  Just patiently help, and continue on.  He helped me a lot with Portugues.  Best of luck to him!  

7)  I also learned so much from our instructor Irmao Ricardo.  He’s a great guy.  I can’t possibly write all the things he taught, so I’ll just say that the most impactful thing was he taught the importance of loving the people, and a close second, that sacrificing is worth it.  Some experiences with Irmao Ricardho this week: We taught a few times this week where Irmao Ricardo role-played himself as the investigator--as his non-member self at 17 years old!!  He’s a convert, and was simulating his own conversion!  Legal!  Also, a big confidence boost when he said we did as good as the real missionaries who taught him!!!  J  WHOOHOO!!!  Also, our district and Irmao Ricardo had a final testimony meeting together. We've had about five already this week with other groups of people--oh my, yes, I am spiritually and emotionally exhausted.  All in Portugues.  We have all grown so close here, like a family, and Irmao Ricardo is (as DF would say) our sergeant father!!  Baha, but really, this testimony meeting was so special.  And very wet. J  After our testimonies, Irmao Ricardo said the closing prayer, and prayed for each of us specifically by name.  It was really special, kinda like getting a blessing.  We’re his first American district and I think he’ll miss us too.  After saying goodbye, I was a little moist. J  

Well, a few last things:

8) My final interview was a miracle, because the Presidency member (without knowing) addressed every worry I had about the field, exactly.  Was amazing. God loves me. 

9) After packing like crazy today, we sang (for the last time) the Brasil National Anthem which we do every week.  It was muito legal!  My first week, I couldn’t sing one word of this fast paced, crazy anthem.  But, just barely, I sang every word!!!  So cool.  Such progression now that I look back.  It’s important to stop for a second every now and then and recognize how far we’ve come.  Loco.  Muito bom.  Well, I gotta go.  Gotta sleep for tomorrow’s big day.  So long CTM, so long English, so long District 36-B.  I’m heading out to Sao Paulo North on my mission!!! And so... It begins.  The greatest adventure is what lies ahead...

Love, Elder David Bean