Hey, all you people! I have so much to talk about!
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| Brothers from 36-B CTM! |
First, last Tuesday, we had a special mission conference with Elder Craig Christensen of the Presidency of the Seventy. It was really cool and I learned a lot. More about that later. I also got to see Elder Petersen, Elder Lago, and the other elders from my district in the CTM! And a quick shout-out to Elder Hermansen: Dude! We miss you, man! You gotta write—we don’t know your address! Love, Your brothers and sisters from 36-B J
So, it was great to see some familiar faces again. I also saw and talked with Irma DaSilva, an instructor from the CTM. It was crazy awesome to actually be able to talk with her haha! It made me realize how far I’ve come. Whoo, God is good to me, to you, to all of us.
Some of the things Elder Christensen talked about:
It is crucial that we align our wills with the will of the Father. We can do this by studying and understanding the character, desires and actions of the Savior: “Not my will, but thy will be done.” When we are aligned, we can perform miracles with our faith. Also, he talked about how by ourselves, we are absolutely nothing. The answer is in the Atonement. The Father gave His Son, the Son gave His life, what are you willing to give?
I had the thought, that there are so many principles of the Timpview Marching Band that are principles of the Gospel. More than half our problems as missionaries would be solved if people just followed the first rule of band: Show up. To church: just show up. In prayer: just kneel. For reading: open the book. Just show up. Also being drum major helped me here a lot, because on the mission, we need to help everyone with all their different struggles, trials, etc to all have success as a team. It’s a good work and good times... in the past and ahead.
So after the conference, I met a lot of missionaries who are “older” than I am—one of which was my “great-great grandfather” Elder Manning! Yep, we got a picture of 6 generations of trainers and trainees: “fathers and sons” here on the mission. I’m pretty sure we broke a record or something.
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| Six generations of trainers and their trainees: "fathers" & "sons" among missionaries. |
Okay...what else?
It was Tifany’s birthday on the 26
th, and we took her some American candy and a picture of her baptism.
It was really nice, and we were able to help make her Birthday special.
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| Cluster of blisters! Eww. |
Also, the day before, I had some really bad blisters on my feet that made it really painful to walk, and at night I prayed that the next day I’d be able to walk. Just wanted to be able to keep working, and the amount of pain—no problem—I accept the pain, but I prayed for help to just have the ability to walk. So after this prayer, I went to bed. And in the morning, my blisters had healed over night, like completely, and I didn’t have any pain the whole day. J Remember, our God is a God of miracles. And He loves us. We are important to Him, even little things like blisters. God is good, He supports His servants.
And another thing, I found out today I have more time here in Osasco. I will not be transferred. It feels right! J
About the title of this post: I still have the plastic Tupperware of some “dropped” investigators. I carry it in my back pack every day in the hopes that we’ll be able to have an excuse to go back and teach them. They are super cool, a mom, dad and little daughter, but they don’t understand how our message is so important to them yet. And oh! My anguish is killing me! I love this family, and I know how much the Gospel could bless their family. Oh, man, it’s rough. My companion wants to not go back, and frankly I agree with him, but—ah! They need this! I feel like these pieces of cheap plastic dishes are the only reminder that this family exists. These dishes are the only way we will teach them again. So I feel that their souls are resting on some junk-Tupperware. I don’t want them to be forgotten. I’m trying to save souls here. I wish I could help more.
For interest’s sake, I’ll share what a regular day in the life of Elder Bean is like.
First, wake up at 6:30, and half-fall, half-crawl out of bed to turn off the alarm. Pray. Write in my journal (’cause I probably didn’t have time the night before) while my companion exercises, I take a shower, then he takes a shower. I eat a banana. We start personal study at 8:00am, then at 9:00 we read three pages from the missionary handbook and some scriptures about faith, then we talk about what we learned from personal study and study together things that will help our investigators until 10:00 where I receive my “training” on how to be a good/effective missionary. At 11:00, study the language (usually I do this hour of study alone). At 12:00 we lock up the house (after prayer) and walk to lunch at a member’s house. After eating and giving a short message to thank them, we start our preaching work. Usually we teach a majority of our lessons, but always we’ll have a few appointments fall through. We work and walk and work and walk until about 9:00pm. Then sometimes we buy pizza on the way home (pizza here is so good!) enter our house and pray, read faith scriptures again and plan for tomorrow (sometimes really fast because we want to eat the pizza!), then we write down our goals, and what we want to study tomorrow. Pray, feed, go to bed and... over and over. But it’s so good. I love life! Just wish I could help the lives of others more...pois e.
O-ookay! I seriously can not stop thinking about my twin Emily! I’m so excited for her to also serve a mission! She gave her farewell talk yesterday. I just knew it was great, and ahh, way so cool!
Missions are the best. You’re all the best! J Till next week.
Love, Elder David Bean
