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

Mar 21, 2011 "It Rained and Our Testimonies Grew"

Awesome week! I'm afraid I don't have a ton to talk about this week, but we were super duper busy and happy and having a blast. So good. Also, I'm finally getting some bike muscles so I'm not dragging my raggedy ol' butt all over our area. I love being on bike! It's also wonderful right at about sunset when it's that perfect lighting and the air is nice and warm and all of the flowers are so fragrant...I think every apartment building and house in NoHo has at least 3 rose bushes, some lilies, a mountain of what smells something like honeysuckle, a billion and three birds of paradise, and so many others that I can't even identify. Oh my goodness it's gorgeous.

     It rained buckets all day yesterday and a little bit again this morning. thankfully we got a ride to and from church and dinner yesterday so we didn't have to ride in it, but this morning wasn't all that bad. I think if we had tried to ride our bikes to church yesterday we would have gotten washed away. We had at least 4 of the members and our investigators start asking us about the end of the world and such because of all of the craziness going on all over the world. Oy vey!

Our district of missionaries is way fun and we're continuing to have weekly soccer games early in the morning and we've added in volleyball..hopefully I won't stink so bad at both by the end of my mission. I love seeing the dynamics between all of the missionaries and realizing how inspired those companionships are. For example, Elder Zundel and his companion Elder Banuelos are just about the most opposite individuals you could ever find, but because they have the same goal of sharing Heavenly Father's love with others, they make an amazing teaching team. Banuelos is super funny...he learned English from popular music, so pretty much anything we say he turns into a song that he has heard and accompanies it with some hilariously sarcastic remark while he dances to the music in his head. He's pretty short, particularly compared to Zundel, so the other day Hermana Waite commented, "ya know, Zundel...it's like you've got your own personal dancing Santa that follows you around..."

    Sometimes Banuelos starts singing songs that aren't terribly appropriate, so we'll usually try to counter it with a hymn or a primary song. The other night at dinner, I interrupted his rendition of a Katy Perry song with "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam." Elder Castro misheard me and said " Jesus wants me for a zombie? Why are you talking about Jesus being a zombie? You are so blasphemy!" Best moment of my life! 

The other night we were running from one appointment to another and this lady  (who was a little tipsy) stopped us and asked if we were Mormons.. of course we responded in the affirmative so she said "I really like you guys. Can you come by sometime and teach me?" Pff awesome! Hello every missionary's dream! She followed it up with " But I drink a lot, is that okay?" ".......ummmm....well......we can sure help you stop!" " Oh yeah yeah, I want to stop drinking.  O,k so tomorrow then?" We called her yesterday for our appointment but she was a little too under the weather to meet with us. Hopefully soon :)

   In other, more spiritual news.... We have 3 investigators who have baptismal dates!! Jose is getting baptized this Sunday (I'm so freaking excited!...we had a really excellent Law of Chastity lesson with him...I hadn't ever taught it before, but I think it may be one of my favorites, strange as that may sound...), another woman named Emilia is getting baptized the 3rd, and Carlos (a really sweet, wonderful guy from Ecuador who rents a room from Milagro) is getting baptized the 10th (well...if he can come to church 3 times....he works as a physical therapist and has a patient right at 11 every sunday....so if you could pray for him so that he can get a better schedule or even a better job, that would be marvelous) !! I am just so excited to see all of these amazing people open the door to greater blessings for their lives! Carlos just seems to have such a sound understanding of what the gospel is and why we need it in our lives. He remembers everything we teach him and just....gets it. I told him I like his brain and he really appreciated that. He kept bringing it up throughout the rest of our lesson and even in others.

I think that may be all for now....just remember always how great you are and how much Heavenly Father loves you and how great I think you are!

Love you more than all the blessings that come from living the Word of Wisdom AND the Law of Chastity,

Hermana B

Monday, March 14, 2011

Hermanas Strong, Beauchamp, Busch, Gerhartz at Los Angeles Temple

2/19/2011

Hi my wonderful parents,

Thank you so much for the letter about Israel! It was so glorious to read about all of your incredible experiences, although to tell the truth, I think I must need to practice my Hebrew because I only recognized about 3 words of all of the ones you used, Mama. I'm so so glad to hear that (cousin) Vanessa is doing well! I surely miss her!

Also, you made me super hungry.

Thanks a pantload!

I know you're praying for us, I can feel it, and thank you so so much. I feel so privileged to be your daughter. You are such incredible people. I got to tell Milagro (one of our investigators) your conversion story, Mom. I told her what you said about wanting to just hang out around the tree of life and partake of the benefits without having to actually join and sacrifice something, but she was listening intently to the part about "Look, this is either all true, or it's all a lie. If it's true, it's the most remarkable thing in the world." After that we had a really great lesson about the principles of the Gospel and why they are necessary. 

 

Ok so update on mission life: I already told you about my new companion, but she's turning out to be even better than I could have imagined. She's super motivated, full of energy, very organized, rocks at Spanish (despite whatever she may say about it), and is an incredible teacher. She told me that this is really the first time that she's gotten to share equally in a lesson because with her first companion she didn't speak Spanish yet so all she could really do was bear her testimony about the Book of Mormon at her companion's prompting, and her second companion was a very take-charge Latina who was quite accustomed to teaching and conversing about the gospel by herself. We both feel really good about our companionship and it's totally showing in the work itself.

We've begun knocking doors to try to find more investigators (it's funny to run into the Jehovah's Witnesses....everyone's very nice, it's just super awkward) and that has yeilded some satisfying benefits, our investigators who (I think I told you last time) are starting to progress are progressing faster and really starting to grasp why they need the Gospel of Jesus Christ and why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has the authority to perform the necessary saving ordinances, and we had 6 people at church yesterday!!! AAAAAHHHH!!!! I'm so excited! We set a baptismal date with one guy named Jose, but the problem is that we suggested that date to him like 3 weeks ago, assuming that he would tell us a little quicker if he felt good about it so we could plan better, but we haven't taught him any of the commandments (law of chastity, tithing, Word of Wisdom, etc) or even officially about prophets, so we'll have to change that date. He's such a great young man, though. He wants to change his life for the better. It's so great.

And Mario! We FINALLY had a lesson 2 (plan of Salvation/ Happiness) with him... we just dropped by one day and he happened to be home. We had prayed in our morning planning session about who we should visit and what we could teach or do for them, and we felt good about going to see him. He LOVED every aspect of the plan that we drew out for him and said that he knows it's true and he feels like this is something that he needs to be doing/ will do with his life. The most amazing part was when we got to share with him that he can be with his mother again. He loves her so much and to know that she is not only happy and busy doing great things on the other side, but that he can one day be sealed to her forever made him so so hopeful.  I know I started out this letter lame, but we're super busy and super happy. I promise. Even though I'm starting to see the discouraging parts, I know this is the most important thing I've done with my life so far.

I love you all immensely!, more than peanut butter and jelly. Believe it.

Love, Hermana Camposbonitos (I've picked up a couple of other nicknames this week--Baby Bobo and Biker Baby....huh.....)

 

 Los Angeles Temple 2/19/2011  Our District

 

Allison in CA, Parents in Israel March 7,2011

Holy travel jeebies batman! Tel Aviv sounds AMAZING and I can't wait to hear about your trip into Old Jerusalem. And I loved that half the letter was from my seester...I sure miss you Lauren! I walked past someone here in the library a little while ago and she smelled like vanilla and coconut and I started to miss you so so much!

   So much has happened I don't even know where to begin.... we got our transfer calls on Saturday morning (well, they kind of begin on Friday because anyone who will have a leadership position gets called then). One of the APs was supposed to go home this week, but I guess he's buddies with one of Elder Holland's relates so Elder Holland called President Martin and told him that Elder Wilhelm needs to extend his mission for another transfer. Who's going to question an apostle?

They readjusted boundaries and put in all new companionships all over the place, so it's been a super exciting couple of days, figuring out where everyone is going, who is going to be Zone leader, district leader, who is going to train, etc. One of the elders in our district, Elder Castro (the one from Ecuador) hasn't had any kind of leadership calling thus far (he's only got about 7 months left) but he got called to be a zone leader. Crazy! Thankfully, he'll still be in our district and the other zone leader, Elder Torres from Colombia will be his companion. They'll be awesome together.

   And my new companion..........Hermana Waite! She was actually born in North Hollywood 5th ward int he bike area (meaning she started her mission here) so she knows the streets and even some of our investigators (we have some major progressing issues....but we're working through them) so it'll be awesome to put our brains together. She's from......can't remember where, Texas. It's somewhere between Dallas and Texarkana, so she knows where New Boston is. She's super cool and seems like a really hard worker. I've picked up some bad habits this transfer so hopefully she'll be able to help me be a more obedient missionary.

   Last week we helped one of our investigators paint his house, which turned out to be super rewarding and he really appreciated our help. Mario is just so sweet and humble. He just needs some free time to dedicate to reading the dang book and get into it. He and two of our other investigators (Milagro and Carlos) all live in the same house. We see Milagro most consistently, but she's had a really tough time progressing. She loves our visits, but hasn't really wanted to take the time to read the Book of Mormon, despite that we emphasize every time we're with her that everything we say depends on whether or not the Book of Mormon is true. I guess she and Carlos had had quite the tiff this week and it took a toll on her. We invited them to come to a baptism that was actually for the adjacent ward, but we thought it would be good for our investigators to see what we mean and have them hear the talks about baptism, the Holy Ghost, etc. We called every one of our investigators and about 5 said they would come, but we weren't very optimistic. As it was fast sunday, President had asked all of us to fast to be able to use study time effectively to become powerful missionaries, that the members would work more actively in giving referrals, and that we can meet our baptismal goals for the year. I didn't even think about the connection until later that night, but miracle of miracles, Milagro and Carlos BOTH came to the baptism! I got to sit next to Milagro and while the family who got baptized were getting dressed, there were a few elders who provided musical numbers, the first one being a song that a former missionary wrote about baptism, and the second one being the spanish version of "We Thank Thee oh God for a Prophet." At the end of the first verse which is all about modern revelation via a living prophet, Milagro leaned over to me and said, "I did my reading in the Book of Mormon, and I love it!" She told me about how God does everything for a purpose, and He made it so that she couldn't drive so that she could have time on the bus to read the book of Mormon and have time for the "Palabra de Dios." She read 2 Nephi 2-6 and just loved every bit of it. before, she had always talked about how she just had a hard time reading it because she was just too accustomed to the Bible. We spent at least 6 or 7 visits explaining what the Book of Mormon is, why it works WITH the Bible, why certain parts of the Bible are contained in the Book of Mormon, why she didn't recognize the names of most of the prophets mentioned, etc. She acknowledged that and she told me how silly she had been to just keep pushing more of Heavenly Father's counsel for us away simply because she loves the bible so much. She also told me how she had patched up her relationship with Carlos because she made a concerted effort to see him as a child of God, and then lo and behold, she found scriptures relating to that very topic in the Book of Mormon!

Oh my gosh I almost cried when she was telling me all this. She kept saying things like "you know, when I read this, I feel Heavenly Father's love. It's from Him." I kept thinking "I KNOW! Isn't it wonderful!!!!" All I could do was just beam down at this tiny woman and hug her. I'm so excited for her! I love when people feel the same Spirit and love of heavenly father that I feel when I read the scriptures!!

 

Oh and! I'm finally gaining an incredible appreciation for the Ensign. It's amazing! This month's, I am quite certain, was made specifically for our investigator, Daniel. Thank you thank you for your prayers. This last time we met with him, it was completely different. He had texted us and asked us for a commitment that would help him be more worthy for baptism ( he was angling more for word of wisdom things, but we assigned him to write down specific questions he has about life, relgion, God, families, etc, and then look in the Book of Mormon for the answer.) Beyond that, he just seems so much happier and he seems to have so much of his confusion cleared so that he can finally move forward and understand the message about the Savior that we're trying to share with him. He's so sweet. I just love him!

I heard yesterday though, a member expressing impatience with him and another investigator because they have been meeting with the missionaries for so long. A vast majority of the members in our ward were absolutely golden investigators who just grabbed the gospel message and ran with it, so they have a hard time understanding those who need a little (or sometimes a lot) more time to grasp concepts. It's true, there are a lot of people who are ready for the restored gospel, but just because someone doesn't get baptized within 3 months should never disqualify them from continuing to meet with missionaries. What matters is if they are progressing. As long as they are making those efforts to grow their faith in the Savior, apply the atonement to their lives, and keep searching the scriptures for their answers, they deserve the time to fully comprehend the covenants they'll make.

Oh gosh, there are just so many things I want to share with you! 

Hermana Strong is leaving tomorrow and I'm so so sad for her to leave. I just love and care for her so much and I'm so blessed to have had her as my trainer. It's pretty heartbreaking, really.

Ok, before I have to go, here are a few little stories.....

I got a horrible migraine yesterday from fasting, and then we ate a member's home where they feed to til you pop, so the nausea from the pain coupled with nausea from eating too much was just horrible. I had Hermana Strong call elder Zundel (our district leader) to come give me a blessing, and by the end of the prayer, I had no headache whatsoever, and whatever residual nausea I had went away within 10 minutes. Yeah Priesthood blessings for healing the sick! 

 

And last one to send you off with a smile, we were talking about wishes and Elder Castro piped up with "Ees like dat one movie with de lion and de doll and de robot..." We spent a good 5 minutes trying to figure out what he could possibly be referring to until his companion said "Wait, are you talking about the Wizard of Oz?" "Yeah yeah! Dat one!"

Oh my gosh I love missionaries so much!

I love you more than all the tabouleh in the world! (ps mama, stop getting hurt! you're too precious!....speaking of precious, I found Ryan and chelsea's christmas card.....such a tender mercy!)

---Hermana Beauchamp

February 28, 2011 North Hollywood, CA

(Speaking of wordplay - a favorite hobby of the Beauchamp clan:)

This week we were actually talking to an investigator about "stupors of thought" for when we're headed in the wrong direction, and I had your voice pop into my head saying "stupid of thought!" with a little chuckle. It was a precious moment. I love you, mama.

 

Speaking of investigators. This week we actually had training every day but one, so at least half our day was spent discussing how to be better missionaries. I kind of felt like I was back in the MTC....talking about missionary work all day but never actually doing it. The main topic of most of our training was how to involve members in missionary work.  Presidente used velocity x mass=momentum in which velocity represents how hard we work, how obedient we are, etc.( i.e. our own efforts). Mass represents how many missionaries there are and momentum is how many progressing investigators we have that are having quality conversions (meaning that they don't get baptized and then just drop off the face of the earth--or get baptized but never confirmed, which incidentally has happened twice in the last year in our ward.....lame.)

So they figure that we're working pretty dang hard and we can't really request too many more missionaries, so according to our stats, we're working at full capacity and the missionary work can't get a whole lot better than this. 

 

False.

 

You know how you always say "work smart, not hard"? In something as important as this, why not work hard AND smart? We can multiply our mass by a bajillion times if we involve members in our lessons and they talked about how many more quality conversions there can be if investigators have a friend (or more than one, even better) to relate the gospel to daily life. Yes, we as missionaries can share personal experiences, but since this is our full-time job, it often doesn't seem to carry as much weight as when a member is there teaching and testifying. Also, it seems like a lot of our lessons get stuck because of the language barrier. We speak just fine, but either the little tiny mistakes are super distracting or the fact that we're whities is sometimes just too much to take in, combined with our message which is soul-shaking, ground-breakingly amazing.

 

So this week we put in just a little extra effort to call members of the ward to come with us to our teaching appointments. We told them what we were going to teach, asked them to share a few specific experiences from their lives and their testimonies about certain principles, but more than anything to  listen to the Spirit, since our lessons rarely go according to plan, and then let them go for it. The members in our ward are absolutely incredible. I'd say about 80% are converts of 5 years or less and so they still have the "this is something new and exciting and it's changed my life, please oh please let me share it with you"  fire and it's so cool!! We have quite a few investigators who were starting to get into the perpetual investigator slump of either knowing quite a bit but just being afraid to act on their knowledge or were just having the hardest time understanding principles. Like Erick. We brought a recently re-activated member with us to one of our lessons, and it turned out that they had so much in common and they got along amazingly well (we actually had this member as a last resort because he's a bit older than Erick, but Heavenly Father is just so dang smart. I love His micromanaging skills.)  Another man named Beto just doesn't seem to understand quite a bit of what we say, but we brought the Relief Society president's husband with us. We didn't have time to even tell him what we were going to teach or what commitment we wanted him to extend to Beto, but he was paying such careful attention to what Beto's needs are that he pretty much took care of the lesson for us. I love members of the church!! So please please please ask to go out with the missionaries. And start begging them to have lessons at our house. It's SUCH a blessing to everyone involved.

 

Here's how you can help us:

please pray for Martha. She's just the sweetest woman and we started teaching her a while ago, but she works nights and never has a set schedule. It's taking a toll on her relationship with her family and she wants to make more time to meet with us, so we've talked with her about asking for a more fixed schedule or maybe even a better job.

 

Also, maybe a couple prayers for Daniel would be appreciated. Sometimes I just don't know about him. He KNOWS it's true and he wants to build that relationship with the Savior and he knows he needs to get baptized, but it feels like he's holding out for attention's sake. You know how there are some people who want to be kind of martyrs in that they feel like their beliefs are so strange? My reaction:  Get over yourself, man. Just do what God wants you to do. I got so frustrated with him last night on the phone because he kept insisting that he's not worthy to be baptized. I went over Mosiah 18 with him at least four times. I kept asking "Are you willing to do these things?" "Yes." "Then you're worthy" Just enter that gate, man!! Jeez louise!

Anyway, he's great, really. Just frustrating.

 

Things are awesome. I gotta run, but I love you bunches, family and friends.

Love you more than all the oranges in NoHo

 

Hermana Beauchamp  (also known as Al)