Support Details and Updates April 18, 2011

Business:

Thank you for going on the pants search. I love those pants. also, if it's not too late and you feel so inclined, my white button up shirt with the mandarin collar and tie in the back would be mighty handy too. I've been sweating buckets and I'm finding that I need more clothes that are a little lighter weight.

Thanks for supporting our local missionaries! You will be blessed :)

I AM getting the family newsletter and it makes my week every time I get it! It's so beautiful!

Don't worry about Pammy's address, I got it :)

Hooray for Hannah! I sure love her. She's great.

I absolutely adore you, mom and dad. You are such shining examples to me and I hope you know highly I think of you.

 

Updates:
 Craziness...transfers are happening again but I have no clue where these last 6 weeks went. But I get to stay! hooray! We really weren't sure what would happen, but I think Hermana Waite and I are really starting to make the most of our companionship so I'm excited for a fresh start with her. We had a TON of big changes last transfer, so not a whole lot changed for this one. Our district is mostly staying the same, except that Hermana Gerhartz (one of my first companions for the first few weeks) is going home. I'll sure miss her; she's such a great example to me and actually reminds me of Lauren in a lot of ways. There are about 23 missionaries going home in 6 weeks, so there will be some mighty big changes then, but I'm super happy for now.

Our investigators are doing quite well. One man named Elhy is going to get baptized on May 1 and we're out-of-our-minds excited. He's already doing member missionary work and sharing the cool things he's learning about the gospel with his coworkers. We had prayed and fasted for a number of our investigators to be able to get work off on Sundays so they could come to church (they need to come a minimum of 3 times before they can be baptized). Elhy was the only one who actuallyconverted his hope to faith by trying to ask his boss. He had a whole plan to approach her to ask for sundays off and was just looking for a good mood opportunity to talk to her when SHE asked him if he was happy with his schedule. He said "Well, actually, I need sundays off so I can go to church." She said she would try to arrange something for him, so we're 90% sure it'll work out for him :) AAAAHH!!! I love miracles! He's in the middle of the Isaiah chapters of 2 Nephi, but he's studying so so diligently and always has great questions for us.

We started teaching a family this week, the first family I've ever gotten to teach. A member in the English ward has been their good friend and basically guardian angel for the last 10 years or so. The father can't find a job and it's taking a great toll on his happiness and their family as a whole. They are such sweet, kind people and their 14 year old daughter has been trying really hard to find friends with high standards. Guh. She's so good. Hermana Waite is AMAZING at helping their 7 year old son to be involved in the lessons. It was so cool: we sat down and chatted for a just a few minutes, and then the kids ran off to the bedrooms, only to emerge a few minutes later with 4 copies of the Book of Mormon. We taught them about the Restoration and it went pretty dang well, I think. We had the father say the closing prayer, and it was just the most beautiful feeling to be kneeling with a family and seeing and feeling their faith and love for each other and the Lord. Oh my gosh I almost cried.

We have another investigator whose parents are super evangelical and they're always amazingly kind to us. His parents were listening in yesterday to our lesson and even sang along to "How Great Thou Art" when we sang it to begin the lesson. To be honest, the lesson didn't go all that well, mostly because our investigator insists that he doesn't want help to be happier, that he's afraid to make any effort, really because he rthinks that the higher to climb, the farther you can potentially fall. It's a front, I'm pretty sure, because otherwise he wouldn't allow us to keep coming and constantly tell us how good he feels around us and how glad he is for our friendship. I think it's another case of thinking too much and not acting enough. He won't come out of his house and interact with other people and shift his focus off of himself and onto others who may need his help. Anyway, the lesson was going in a really negative downward spiral, so I thought about what mom told me this summer about how thanking Heavenly Father is one of her very favorite things to do, so we went around the room and each listed 3 things we were grateful for. It completely changed the mood of the lesson and sour frowns were replaced with smiles and laughter. Awesome.

We asked his dad to give the closing prayer, since he mostly joined our lesson for the last bit anyway. He had expressed his gratitude for Hermana Waite and I coming to teach about the gospel, but then he said something like "Well, I guess I should pray since Paul taught that women ought to learn in silence. "

Wow, sir.

Dang misinterpretations of Bible verses.

Anyway.

You are all immensely precious to me and I love to hear from all of you

Be good! Happy Easter!

Love you more than all the machismo in the world!

Hermana B

 

Bike Wreck, Armenian Angels April 11, 2011

Hi fam!

So I had my first bike wreck...but don't worry, all I got were a couple bruises and a scrape.... I was following Hermana Waite down the street and a woman who was holding her 2 year old grandson wasn't looking my way and stepped out right in front of me; unfortunately, I ran right into her and all of us toppled. I think she hurt her knee, but otherwise she looked relatively unscathed. Thankfully the baby was fine, too, but they wouldn't let us help them or even really talk to us. I felt so so bad, but after they had left, Hermana Waite was making sure I was okay and we discovered that I had a cut on my leg. There was an Armenian family who had been watching the whole thing from their balcony and they beckoned for us to come up and drink some water. We headed up and the mother took care of my leg, gave me ice, they even gave us water and juice and Armenian goodies, but they only spoke about 10 words of English. They taught us how to say "how are you, I'm fine, you are beautiful and I love you" in Armenian. It was quite an adventure trying to communicate. They finally understood that we were teachers, but we tried I don't know how many languages to say God. I always forget how effective basic hand signals are. Pointing up always works :). The poor mother kept apologizing because she was sick and couldn't do more, but they were so gracious and sweet and I just wanted to hug all of them. We did, actually, and they even gave us kisses on the cheek. Man, I love Armenians. We have a plan to go back with a plate of cookies and all three of the church pamphlets in Armenian we could find.

 

Our investigators are progressing slowly but surely. I keep looking back to conference and wishing that so many more of them could have been there, but I'm so grateful for the Liahona and church websites. Speaking of church publications, I started reading this month's Ensign, and as per usual, it's phenomenal. There's an article called "Faith and Infertility"...totally not applicable to me and my situation right now, I know, but I learned some really great things. First off, they discussed the importance of sharing your burden so others can help you and so that you can help them too. Hermana Waite and I have had multiple discussions about our personalities and how to make them work together effectively. She and I are very different but we work really well together and as I've learned to open up to her and share my concerns openly, we've made a lot of progress. We're seeing that with one of our current investigators as well. We know from her best friend who is a member that she's having a really hard time right now, but we had to talk to her about communicating what her concerns and needs are so we can actually help her. She lives a ways away and we don't get to see her very often, but we've been encouraging her to tell us what she needs and when. We likened it to prayer in that we sometimes need to ask for specific things in order for Heavenly Father to bless us. Of course He already knows what we need, but if we don't ask specifically and then look for those blessings, our faith in those small miracles will never grow. We'll just chock it up to chance or good fortune.

The other amazing thing I found in the article has a lot to do with the talks from conference about trials and adversity. I really like what one of the general authorities said about how we need to be careful to not resent the opportunities to grow and be a little more like Heavenly Father. One of the women in the article wrote "When someone has an ailment or an illness and they are healed as a result of a blessing, their faith is being strengthened. But for those who aren't healed but continue faithful, their faith is being perfected. The first is a faith- promoting experience, the second is faith perfecting."

I really love that.

I love that Heavenly Father knows more than me. I love that He has a plan for us and that He shows His love to us every day through little miracles.

I love you more than all the Armenian I don't know,

Hermana Beauchamp

General Conference! April 4, 2011

THERE"S GOING TO BE ANOTHER TEMPLE IN COLORADO!!! AAAAAAHHHHH!!!

 

I may or may not have had a little freak-out session in my seat when President Monson announced it. (Ft. Collins)  Thankfully I was surrounded by missionaries who know I'm from CO, so they weren't alarmed.

Anyway, holy cow. I love conference. I loved Elder Robbins' talk about "being" and "doing". Also President Packer's talk about letting go of offense and hurt feelings. President Bednar's and Uchtdorf's talks totally blew me out of the water. Those talks in particular were ones that two of our investigators desperately needed to hear, but dang it, neither of them came. Actually, one came but left, telling me he'd be right back.( Thou shalt not lie, Beto! Jeez louise.) Point is: I loved that both of those talks made it abundantly clear that while revelations can and do come in the form of dreams and visions and hearing voices, it is in fact quite rare and we shouldn't expect our answers to our prayers to come all at once, or else, like President Uchtdorf said "we'll be waiting forever on the road to Damascus."

 

I had the chance to talk to a Korean-American history buff who is the son of an evangelical pastor and who lives up to his namesake, Paul. He had a lot of interesting things to say about the history of the Bible and how certain things had been changed, either for mere translation's sake or for more selfish, insidious purposes. I just kept thinking "yes! yes! yes!" So I told him about the Book of Mormon and how it addresses those things that were changed or taken out of the Bible and even examines them more completely. We also talked about where and when our conviction about Jesus Christ came from. I don't know how closely he had listened to President Bednar's talk because he seemed a little unsure of his faith in the Savior because he had't had a defining "aha" moment when he knew for sure that Jesus Christ is the Savior. I told him I hadn't either, but like Elder Bednar had just explained, we don't necessarily need those moments. It is by the small and simple things we do every day that help us to find faith in Christ, like reading the scriptures, praying, and attending church. Each of those positive experiences build our conviction, our testimony tiny bit by tiny bit, almost imperceptibly until we're bathed in the light of truth without even realizing it. Cool. He seemed to really like what I had told him, and he wanted to know more of what they had said that he missed, so hopefully he'll go back and listen or read the talks again. Sometimes I love the internet. 

 

      One of the elders in our zone is letting my companion and I borrow his copy of a compilation of C.S. Lewis' more famous works and I love it to death. If we have time or energy at night, we'll take turns reading to one another. In the first two chapters of  Mere Christianity, he completely rips apart the arguement that there is no real right and wrong, only individual perception. Read it, it's good.

 

      This week for our investigators has been a little.....rough. We've started over reading the Book of Mormon with them. Every time they have a fear or doubt or are just feeling lazy and acknowledge that they should be doing more to be closer to God, the answer is 9 times out of 10, to read the Book of Mormon. Mom, you mentioned the YouTube video of Elder Holland's talk a few years ago about the Book of Mormon and how Joseph Smith couldn't possibly have actually written it. I love Elder Holland. Man. Heavenly Father's just so smart. If we just decide to get over ourselves and listen to what the Holy Ghost is telling us, we'll understand that God's there, He loves us, He has a plan for us, He wants us to take care of one another, and to use the resources He's already given us.

 

Maybe I already shared this story, but it's been on my mind a lot lately....so, when I was in 3rd grade, I had a really hard time following directions. We did an activity one day were we were making "Ants on a Log." The directions were written out on the board and we had all of the materials on our desk. I didn't want to take the time to read the instructions so I went and asked my teacher if she would show me how to do it. She shook her head and pointed back up at the screen. I went back to my desk, grumbling about how she didn't want to help me, but started anyway. I followed the directions and every so often would look over at my teacher to make sure I was doing it right. She would usually give me a thumbs up or if I had made a mistake, she would point back up at the screen. I finally understood why that particular experience had stuck with me for so long and I realized that that's exactly how Heavenly Father works. He's given us scriptures and prophets and families to work with so we can know His plan for us. We can use that direct link to Him as a reassurance that we're doing things His way. He'll give us reassurance and encouragement but almost always refer back to the directions already posted. Love Him.

 

Anyway, gotta run soon. Read and reread those conference talks. They're totally worth it.  Be good!

Love you more than all the conference talks on service!

Allison