BEAN IN BRAZIL: April 8, 2013 “Pizza, Beer and General Conference"

This week was super fast, and a little tiring. Okay, I actually feel dead. But this week was still good as ever!

We ate pizza with our member friend Fabio in the bishop’s office. It was nice of him to give us pizza. And I don’t know if I’ve talked much about Fabio…well, Fabio is a recent convert to the church, and he’s the man! He helps us out so much, and he does so much to help the church. Fabio is preparing to serve a mission, and I love him. He’s also hilarious, people. But yeah…pizza here in Brasil is really, really good. : )

We carried cases of beer to the bar of our non-member friend as an act of service! : ) Baha. For those of y’all that don’t know why this was a little humorous, I’ll tell you. Faithful members of the church don’t smoke, drink alcoholic beverages, or consume coffee or tea, because a prophet of God received a revelation from out Heavenly Father in 1833, and promised we would be blessed for our obedience (see Doctrine and Covenants 89 – this revelation is called “The Word of Wisdom”). So it was just funny as we were giving this service: two missionaries carrying beer cases over to the bar! The owner was grateful, and gave us some soda there - so there we were, drinking Fanta in the bar…yep. : )

General Conference April 2013

We watched General Conference on Saturday and Sunday! We were able to bring a few people with us, too. I saw Elder Barton in the chapel, and it was crazy to think that we were watching General Conference in the CTM six months ago!!! Time - oh my! I didn’t understand a lot of what was said because the translator spoke really fast and with a heavy accent.

But, I had a miracle talk where I understood almost everything! Yep, Elder Holland. So good! He talked about how we need to “hold fast to what [we] already know,” and that it isn’t the size of your faith that matters, it’s the integrity of your faith: “Be true to the faith you do have.” Oh, so epic. : )

Last two things:

1) I bore a strong testimony to a few non-active members, telling them that it is in the small things that personal spirituality and progression are discovered: waking up on Sunday to go to church, calling the family for prayer, kneeling, opening the scriptures, paying tithing first, keeping the commandments. Ahhh -! It’s so simple: put God first, and everything else will work out!

2) Today, all of our P-day, Elder Lucas and I made a framed piece of art for two of our recent baptisms. It was a picture of all four of us dressed in white at the baptism. Surrounding our picture was a border of pictures of Christ, also dressed in white. It’s beautiful! Anybody who knows me, knows I love making “artsy” things, and I was grateful we could make something special for these special friends.

Hey people, I love you all - like a lot! Okay?! Remember, I pray for you all the time. Do what is right. : )

Until next week! Love, Elder David Bean