Last Email from the Mission!

Hey Y'all!

I honestly don't know what to say in this email knowing it is my last. I am honestly so stoked to see y'all this weekend! I love this work though, so I have to grind for 4 more days :)

Haha I guess I will share about yesterday! We went up to church in Sun Valley and the Stake President found out it was my last Sunday so he put me on the agenda to share a brief testimony. Wellll there was almost 500 people that showed up and Elder Hamula of the Seventy came! Talk about nervous! It was good though and after the meeting a lot of people came to talk to me, I kinda felt famous haha. Met some great people! 

There are so many great people I have met in this area that I am going to miss a lot! One of them is the Torelli family! They are so close to my heart. I love going over there and yesterday I shared with them a very tender experience from my mission and I shared it in almost all Spanish and I thought it would be not as good because my Spanish is not advanced, but the Spirit was still there were tears in the room. I love the Spirit so much. It does not matter the greatness of the language, because the language of the Spirit speaks to all and will testify of all truth. 

I love y'all! I love this work! There is no greater Spirit than the Spirit that comes from missionary work and it just fills you up with so much joy and love. This is everything to me and I am excited for the future, but I know that these 2 years will always be the closest to my heart because of the good that it has brought my life and the opportunities I have had. I cannot describe enough how amazing it is to be a servant of the Lord and make a difference in someone else's life. No other feeling like it. 

Much Love, Elder Bean

La Familia Torelli

Davis family from Carey

Elder Bunker and I

Yo Amo Español!

Hey y'all,

I am not sure exactly what to put in the email this week! We had a lot of things happen and every week is so filled with excitement. I guess I will dedicate most of this email to some Spanish work! We talk to at least one or two Spanish people daily.

We met with a less-active part member family last night that speaks Spanish and pretty good English. I just LOVE Spanish people. They are so fun and welcoming. Also there is just a great Spirit with them. We talked to the mom, Mayra, about going to the temple! She wants to prepare for that, and we also talked to her boys about serving missions (they are 18 and 17). They are going to look into it and I really hope they decide to serve. The 18 year old seems pretty serious about looking into it.

We meet with this one active Spanish family from Costa Rica and they are just TOO awesome. We get to speak a mix of Spanish and English there and I just love it so much. Mi español es mejor ahora ;) 

Intercambios con Elder Willis fueron viernes! Tenemos mucho divertido. Estabamos en Shoshone y Dietrich. ( Elder Willis and I went on exchanges Friday! We had a lot of fun! We were in Shoshone and Dietrich.)

Overall another solid week in the books. Looking forward to another one.

Love y'all, and see y'all soon

Elder Bean

Teaching the Prepared and Famous!

Where to even start? So many amazing things happened this week and words cannot fully express the magnitude of it all.

One of the most amazing miracles this week was when we knock on the door of this lady, Amy. She answers the door and only manages to say in a shaking voice "They knew to come, the missionaries are here" into the phone up to her ear. Amy was on the verge of taking her life and was telling that to someone on the phone the very minute that we showed up. The Spirit filled the room with peace and Amy felt it as she said "I know now that God loves me". I will not forget that experience very easily! Being led by the Spirit to go see someone to save their life brings a feeling like no other.  God really does love us and is so very aware of us. I know that.

4th of July was great and very busy last week! We met this lady at the parade, Courtney is her name, and she is from Hollywood, California! We gave her a church tour on Saturday and we taught her about faith and repentance and the sacrament and the Atonement of Christ. The Spirit was very strong and you could feel it so clearly. Especially at the moment that she accepted to be baptized. It was very neat, and she is very prepared for the gospel. She loves the idea of taking the sacrament each week to receive a remission of sins. She goes back to California in a couple weeks and the baptism will most likely happen there! Btw she is an actress in Hollywood ;)

Many many experiences I could share from just the past 7 days. That would take forever though! One last thing to share is that on Friday I was on Exchanges with Elder Willis and we went up to Ketchum to walk around (only thing I can compare Ketchum to is Market Street in the Woodlands, but better). Talked to a lot of cool people, and even some famous ones because of Allen and Company (billionaire summer camp up here).  Met this girl that had obviously been drinking, but we sat down and had a nice conversation and discussed some scriptures with her. Right smack in the middle of downtown! (good publicity for us right?) Hopefully she has some recollection of things we talked about when we meet with her again!

Love y'all! Don't wish me home too fast. Still lots to do here :)

Elder Bean

Elder Willis and I in Ketchum Idaho with the Strong family

Exchange with Elder Willis

Grandpa and Grandma Bingham!! I love them dearly,

we helped them move to Ashton Idaho.

Happy 4th of July + Miracle

I don't even know where to start! So many things happened this week.

We had a great lesson with this investigator named Charlie (20) and he fasted and came to church this Sunday! It was his first step of actual progress and it was neat to see. The ward fellow-shipped him well.

I got to use a lot of my Spanish this week! We taught a lesson to the Ruiz family on the El Libro De Mormon in Spanish and read from 1 Nefi 1 ! I actually did a little teaching and we had a member that spoke Spanish so he translated what I couldn't say. I am getting pretty good at contacting people in Spanish and getting a return appointment. Then we just bring someone to help translate haha.

Miracle of the week! : While out visiting on Thursday I was out with one of the young men that is in high school and we contacted this family that was out on their porch. Turned out to be one of the best contacts I have ever made. His name is Ryan and hers is Regina. Ryan is way cool and we had a good discussion about Jesus Christ. At the end he was like "Yeah you know I would like to learn more." Then, the next day he texts us a super long message about how he looked into our beliefs after we left and found a lot of the same things he already believes. He said that he found differences in belief/lifestyle, but those differences are things he has been wanting to change his whole life. He told us he wants to come to church next Sunday as well! I cannot even explain how much joy I felt as I read that message. Ryan is so prepared by the Lord to accept the gospel! His family too! I am so excited to be able to teach them and it was a blessing/miracle that we found them. This truly is the Lord's work and He led us to them for a reason.

Cool note of the week: Went up to Sun Valley to greet people as they came to church, and there was 517 people that came! Tons of people on vacation for the 4th of July!

Love y'all!  'Sweet is the Work'

Elder Bean

P.S. Also yesterday we ate lunch with a family in Carey and they had a lot of people over. One of them was this guy that is Youtube famous for playing the violin! His name is Rob L??? Can't remember his last name. He was super cool though and we talked about violin since I used to play, he graduated from Rice University in Houston in fact!  Best part: He played for all of us! It was the most legit violin playing I have ever heard. He played Radioactive, Hello, Thunderstruck, Thriller, James Bond, Hallelujah, some others and finished with How Great Thou Art. Also played Ghostbusters! and he releases that video this Wednesday, so we got the sneak peak.

The Land of Happiness

Soo hence the title; people actually call this place the land of happiness. And I know why: Beautiful mountains, scenic drives, lots of trees, great lakes, and plenty more. The cost of living is pretty high here which sets it apart from the rest of Idaho. To best describe it, it is like mini-California! (Cade and I get to be in the same place after all haha)

I really love this place already and sweet is the work here!

We had such a bomb lesson with Justin/Janelle on Monday. We were super bold and just told them how much we loved their family and then invited them to progress in the gospel. We ended up having a great discussion and the relationship we have built is really good! This is a family that I know I have made an impact on. Not just because they have said it, but because I can see it!

Soo after being in Carey, I started to miss people. In a town of 800 you meet or hear about everyone pretty quick. Moving up here has just confirmed that I really was missing people! We went tracting many times and it was a breath of fresh air to just knock on some doors and proclaim the gospel! I love the gospel and the Savior greatly. I feel myself draw nearer to Him each day, and I know He lifts me and helps me all the time.

One of the greatest things I have learned on my mission is LOVE! Love from the Savior to all of us, and the ability to feel that same love for others. It is amazing to be able to look at people and love them no matter what. Because that is what the Savior would do.

Love y'all,

Elder Bean

Moving to Bellevue, ID!

Hey! just another solid week in the ITFM :) soon to be IBM next week!

Transfers are this week! I am staying in Carey, but we are picking up 3 more wards. Hailey 1 & 2, and Sun Valley wards. We now cover the towns of Carey, Bellevue, Hailey, Ketchum, and Sun Valley! My new companion is going to be Elder Bunker.. again! I served with him over a year and half ago. It will be great, Sun Valley especially is a big tourist spot. It will be neat to see what goes on this summer up there!

Next Tuesday our new mission president, President Bartlett comes into the mission! Sad to see President Curtis go. Him and his wife have been so great and like family to me.

We had a good exchange this week, and I actually went to Sun Valley for that! Got to know the area a little bit ahead of time haha. 

We had sweet lesson with a family this week and their niece was in town! She blew me away with how composed and mature she was for 14! She wants to be baptized, but lives in Twin with her grandparents who are not members. She said she is waiting to get baptized when she can actually fulfill the commitment and come to church every week and stick with it. That was way shocking to hear how well she understood that being baptized really is a commitment to follow the Savior in all ways. She taught me a lesson of how there are great and chosen youth that have things figured out, and that I can be a lot better at understanding what I am really committed to.

Overall great week and had great experiences! 

Love y'all,

Elder Bean

The exchange in Sun Valley, Elder Aamodt, Elder Bunker, Elder Wihongi, Me.

OH yeah we don't cover Richfield anymore unfortunately.

This is one of the Telford families from Richfield!

Run in with a Snake!!

Had such a great week here and it was full of joy!

Started the week with a hot dog roast up Road Canyon for Pday! It was all great other than the close run in I had with the rattlesnake :) Luckily I was not bit. 

That night we had a great lesson with Justin / Janelle and the Spirit was really strong as we taught the Restoration. We left them with a commitment to read the BofM and they accepted. We have developed a good relationship with them and they are neat family. I just look at their family and know how much this gospel will bless them if they accept and live it. Sometimes my heart breaks because I want these people to be so happy in the gospel and they don't see it that way. I hope that Justin can really help his family take the steps they need to.

Tuesday I went up to Salmon to be with Elder Edmonds and Reamer for an exchange. It was cool to serve with Elder Edmonds for the day since we were companions almost a year ago. Had a great time up there! It is a very beautiful spot in the mountains and the people were great. It will probably be the last time up there since that area will be going to the Idaho Falls mission in July.

Friday we helped this nonmember family set up for their out of school water party they were throwing! It was fun to help and we stayed at the party for a little bit. There were many kids there that we knew (pretty much all of them actually) and when they found out that we were there they soaked us with water guns! Haha it was great though. The family that we helped is so awesome. I really want them to just accept the gospel and we are going to meet with them this week! 

Yesterday Elder Driscoll of the Seventy (Area authority) came to Richfield with our mission president and it was a great meeting. Heard them both speak three times and learned some great things. Elder Driscoll was very down to earth and spoke a lot about obedience to what the Lord asks of us! Had my last interview with my mission president, President Curtis. It was great and I am going to miss him a lot! He goes home at the end of the month. He is a great man that loves the Lord and he definitely loves his missionaries. I have a close bond with him and I feel and see his great love.

Overall a great week! Found some promising potentials in Picabo that we will work with this week as well.

Love y'all! See ya soon

Elder Bean :)

The rattlesnake, dead but was coiled and ready to strike!

 

Loving the people in Carey!

Hello from Carey, ID! It was an awesome week with some great weather. Got up into the 90's and that felt good! 

It was a busy week in Carey with graduation and we made it to some of the celebrations. We got in with a lot of new families and we have appointments this week with them! Gosh I just love the people here. Almost every day Elder Wihongi and I get back to the apartment with big smiles because of how great the people are here.

We taught those people from Spain this week! They leave on Wednesday so we don't have another appointment. We answered some questions and the girl said that she understands what we taught, but isn't sure if she is ready at the time because she doesn't fully feel that God is real. We left her with a Book of Mormon and she committed to meet with missionaries when they get back to Spain!

Looking forward to another busy week! My last interview with President Curtis is this week. I love that man. He has taught me so much and we have a good bond. It is sad to see the Curtis' finish their mission, but they have done so much good here in Idaho. He is a legend as the only mission president in the ITFM! 

Love y'all and see y'all soon! :)

-Elder Bean

The very last Carey Zone meeting ever to be held!

Transfer Week - Staying in Carey!

Hey!

Transfer week and Elder Wihongi and I are staying in Carey for at least 3 more weeks.

It was a solid week here! We are teaching someone new, Emilia, and she is very receptive and open! She has accepted to read the Book of Mormon and then to be baptized when she has received a witness that it is true. We were very excited for this! The night before we had a hard time finding people home and just working, but we stayed diligent and it was great to have this blessing come the next day.

We had many other great lessons, one of my favorites was teaching this lady that has a great love and faith in God. She has so much goodness and light in her and the Spirit was very present as we taught her! Another was teaching 4 young adults that are on a "work-away" program with a member family we had dinner with. 2 are from Spain, 1 from Switzerland and the other from Nevada. The 3 foreigners have not had contact with the LDS church hardly ever! We are going back on Thursday to teach them more. They said in their countries religion is not a big importance. One of the questions that was asked was very simple and basic question about God and I realized that there are many many people who do not know much about God in this world.

On Thursday we did an interview for a guy that got baptized on Saturday. Probably one of the most powerful ones I have experienced. He has a solid conversion, and knows how to ask questions in prayer and receive revelation. When he came to the interview he had long hair and long beard. On Saturday for his baptism he was completely clean shaven! He really knew what it meant to put his old life behind and take upon him this new life of following the Savior, and that is how he represented it.

I love this gospel so much! I know more than anything that this is the true and living Church of Jesus Christ! He is our Savior and He is at the head of the church. And more than anything, He loves us.

-Elder Bean

Crazy Week!

Hey there fam and friends!

This week was a little crazy, but great!

Had a solid Zone Conference on Wednesday about "Follow Thou Me" and following the Savior and creating a good mission culture especially with the mission changes.

Thursday we spent all day in the car! from 12:00 to 10:30 pm. Went right to sleep when we got home haha. Drove 400 miles! We had to install new smoke/co2 detectors in the missionary apartments and had a baptism interview in Challis! The lady is super cool and way converted! A little different but we need more differences in the church so it was great. :)  We drove through Stanley and that is like one of the prettiest places ever. I have pictures as well!

Also this week we helped butcher chickens with a less-active family! It was a lot of fun. I thought it was going to be nasty, but it wasn't too bad! They cut their heads off, then defeathered them, then Elder Wihongi and I did the gutting! We each gutted about 15-20. They did 65 total. We even got our own chicken to go cook up. Good times, but sadly did not get any pictures.

We have some solid things going on in Richfield and the members are really doing good missionary work to help us out. Carey is doing great as well, good families to teach and we have another pretty solid potential that we hope to meet with on Wednesday!

I love this work with all my heart! It can be so stressful and wears you out a lot, but it is so rewarding. When you realize it is not about you, but about everyone you meet, then it becomes special. You stop worrying about how tired you may be, or whatever, and you focus on making other people happy. I really have grown to love these people.

Love y'all,

Elder Bean

Blaine Tingey took us to Sun Valley for P-day last Monday! It was way cool up there!

With Sister Curtis, our mission President's wife, she is like a mom!  We love her!

Pics from our 400 mile "road trip"

Such beautiful land! I was shocked to see so much snow and it is almost June!

Another Great Week In Carey

It was another great week in Carey! :)

So first off news: my official release date is now July 30th, so I will be seeing y'all in about 2 months! Till then!

Some solid things are happening. We are having family home evening with a member family and a potential investigator tonight, then on Tuesday we are going to teach another lesson to that family we found last Monday. 

We met with a less-active guy, John, who is Polynesian and his wife is not a member, but he said we can come back this week and have a family home evening with them!

We went to mutual last week and helped teach. They had 5 stations with members telling about their mission experiences, and then we had a station as well. It was fun to fellowship with the youth and to teach them. We had a great time and I hope that we somehow influenced them to want to serve a mission. As I shared one of my experiences on my mission about the power of the Spirit, I truly felt that the Spirit of God has so much power in our lives and others if we let it. I am really learning to not trust in myself but to really trust in the Spirit. I have seen great things come as I do that.

This week is going to be super busy with lots of driving but it will be exciting :)

Love y'all so much, and I know my time left on the mission is short, but I know more than ever that this is such an important work that goes until the very last day! 

-Elder Bean

Big News!

So first off it was a great week and yesterday we found a new family to teach! This lady and her 5 kids, who are all pretty interested! We are excited and hope that the Spirit really touches them. Also helped this part member family build a fence. It felt great to do some work.

Now the Big News: As of July 1st our mission will be splitting! Part of our mission will go to the new Idaho Falls mission (Pocatello is splitting as well), and part of our mission will go to the Boise Mission. This is to even out the areas and numbers of missionaries in each mission. So because of that I will most likely be in the Boise Mission, which would change my date to come home. It could be as early as July 30th! We will find out more information in the future though!

I love Carey! We are working with some great people. Haha on Sunday when I was skyping y'all, you asked who I was teaching and I just drew a blank, but we are teaching people. We are actually working with 3 different families that do not come to church, but have 8 year old children they want to be baptized. So we are helping them come back to the gospel as a family so that can happen.

I miss and love y'all! Stay great!

-Elder Bean

P.S. The Patterson family fed us a cool meal this week. It is called Rou-Ladin ? (how it sounds, probably not the right spelling) It is a German food, where you wrap thin beef over a pickle with mustard and then fried with flour! It was great :)

P.S.S We drove a lot last week! Went up to Challis and I stayed with the Elders there and Elder Wihongi went to Salmon with those Elders. Then yesterday we went up to Hailey/Bellevue! It is so pretty up there and I think I want to live there someday

 

I Love Serving the Lord

Hey there! Things are going great here in Carey. We were able to go to church in Carey this week and meet so many awesome people. 

So first off some great news!! :

I shared an experience a couple weeks ago about finding that young man on the side of the road and taking him to the church and having a very spiritual experience. Well this week I just found out from the sister missionaries in Twin Falls that he is getting baptized on Saturday! They told me a couple highlights from his conversion that included attending a baptism and feeling the Spirit, and touring the temple grounds and praying about baptism! It was so great to hear such powerful things happening. I KNOW the Lord has been so involved in his life. 

We have been meeting a lot of great people here in Carey. This one Christian couple was so nice and exciting to talk to! We all shared our conversions with each other and the Spirit was there. They have a big log house and they use it as a non-profit retreat for pastors and other people they know that need to get away for a little while. It is in a very pretty spot in the mountains and they are the nicest people ever! She even prayed for us as we left and told us we are welcome anytime. :)

I love this work. I love serving the Lord and having the privilege to bless the lives of His children here in Idaho! They have blessed mine as well. I feel so honored to be where I am and I don't ever want to stop. 

Love y'all,

Elder Bean

Twin Falls group from a couple weeks ago

First Week In Carey!

Things are great here in Carey, ID. We cover the Richfield ward and the two Carey wards which consists of Richfield, Carey, and Picabo.

The work is a lot slower up here than Twin Falls. Due to A LOT less people and majority are LDS! However we have already seen some good things happen. 

Elder Wihongi has only been here 7 weeks so we are both pretty new, which opens up a lot of opportunity!

We received a referral for a lady named Dani, and we went to go see her and her son was outside and he was super cool, then she came out and was very nice! We ended up helping them plant some flowers right there and met her other two kids. We connected well with her and she is open to having us back. She seems very prepared with what we have heard about her from members.

Met this guy named Ken, through knocking the wrong house. He is agnostic and lives on the edge of the world in the middle of nowhere ahha. He agreed to have us come back though! It will be a little different teaching someone without a background belief in God. He threw out some good food for thought though by saying religion causes wars and contention. He is right, but it is not God's commandments that cause that. It is people disobeying God or twisting the commandments or making religion what they want it to be. 

God is God and Jesus Christ is His Son. They have a plan of redemption for all of us to be made clean so that we can come back into their presence. The church and gospel are there for us to prepare to live with God and strive to be like Jesus Christ, thus bringing about the most joy into our lives. That is the truth and what God has intended. 

Funny Exp: Met this Hispanic couple that spoke broken English, and they even let us in. So we communicated with our broken Spanish and actually had a good talk with them about Jesus Christ! They even fed us some food! Love Hispanic people, they are so kind and genuine. We have a couple Spanish people here, so hopefully my Spanish will improve!

Love y'all! Hope It is a great week for everyone!

-Elder Bean

Transfers, Gonna miss Elder Payne

Transfers!

New companion, Elder Wihongi

 

Carey, Idaho