Finding and Teaching Some Great Investigators - Lunar Eclipse was Cool!

It was an amazing week full of the Spirit changing people’s hearts!

Wednesday we did an exchange with some missionaries. Some missionaries had to go to Twin Falls, so we got an extra Elder for the day. Elder Velazquez was with Elder Taylor and I, so it was cool being in a little trio!  We had a solid day of visiting our investigators and had a super good dinner with the Maugers!

Jeremy (who we found last week) is progressing, and we are teaching his dad, Tim, now too! Both are set to be baptized on October 24th! Some things we have to work through first, but we have faith that it will happen! 

Thursday evening we did splits with 3rd ward and I went with Bishop Nelson and Elder Taylor went with Thane Nebeker. They visited the Carter's and taught about the Book of Mormon and 3 of the kids are excited about it and we have another appointment for this week!

We committed Steven J. to baptism and it was a neat moment. The Spirit has opened his heart more and now he is going to think and pray on it. 

Also Hayden, another investigator that lives with the Blunts who are the recent convert family, is thinking and praying about a baptism day too! 

Saturday we went to Fairfield at night and visited the Shorts. We got to see their pig give birth!! It was pretty interesting to watch ahha. (Fun fact: momma pigs are called sows, and she was HUGE). Then we went to the wedding reception of Erica and Josh! It was cool to see them and they looked super happy! 

Yesterday was a great day at church and in our meetings got a lot accomplished. Went to the Pattons for dinner cause it was Jaelynn's birthday! (Josh's oldest daughter who turned 7). She is awesome little girl and I love going over there cause we are related through marriage (David and April) so it feels like family!  Going out to visit people with Josh is a lot of fun too, he is a cool guy and great missionary! 

Got to cut Elder Taylor's hair last night at the Hortings which was neat (it was pretty good haircut too ahha) and saw the lunar eclipse!

Anyways, Take care! Love y'all!

Elder Bean

Brother Horting shooting a potato gun

Lunar eclipse

New Companion - Elder Taylor

IT was a good week! 

Got Elder Taylor on Wednesday, he is from West Jordan, Utah.

We went up to Fairfield with President Turner that night and made some good visits! He is a neat guy and fun to talk to on the ride to and from Fairfield. 

We were pretty busy the rest of the week with seeing a lot of people! Met this guy, Jeremy, on Friday while walking and on Saturday we taught him! He came to church Sunday too! He is partially deaf so it is hard to tell if he understands, but the Spirit can still influence beyond those barriers!

Helped the Young's move, and they now live in 1st ward so we are passing them off to the Sisters. (along with their baptism date lol). Went to a baptism for an 8 year old kid, Everett, on Saturday! His cousin, Briten, came home from his mission in North Carolina that same night and the baptism ended up being 30 minutes late because his plane was delayed! That was pretty cool for him to do that because he was not released yet! He gave a good talk on Baptism too, about how our outward appearance/actions are a reflection of our inward commitment. 

Had a Stake Missionary Meeting last night and learned a lot of great things. Found out our Stake is highest baptizing in the mission, and our ward is at 15 year to date which is highest in the stake! We have some good tools and plans to increase that even more too!!

I love y'all!!!

Elder Bean

Elder Amezcua, Elder Rosales, Me

With Elder Swanson and Marquez

New companion, Elder Taylor

Helping the Smiths pick pears

Transfers, Staying in Gooding and Getting a New Companion

Transfer Week! I am staying in Gooding and getting Elder Taylor as my new companion.

It has been a good week though! I will miss Elder Edmonds and hope he does well in his next area. 

Last Monday was a great day! Played pool with these potential investigators and they are super good. We had more appointments at night than we could do ourselves, so we split off. Ended up getting 3 new investigators that have been prepared! Hope to help them progress. I went with Josh Patton and taught the Carr's. Elder Edmonds went with Bro. Horting and taught the Minters. The Spirit was pretty strong in the lesson with the Carr's and it was a neat experience. 

Tuesday I was in Hagerman on exchanges! It was pretty good day! Got to meet some cool people that know a lot of people in Gooding! It was cool because we were in a trio for the exchange. 

Had a super good lesson with Jared and Kyleen on Wednesday with Josh Patton. Taught on Eternal Families and Prayer! They are neat family and I hope to see them continue to progress!

Sad day in Fairfield, helped Stew, one of our progressing investigators, move out of Fairfield... He still wants to continue meeting with missionaries though!

It was Stake Conference weekend and it went great! Only had 2 hours of church instead of 9 :) so that was a good thing :) Had more time in the day to go and talk/visit people!

Things are going well!! Love y'all!!

-Elder Bean

Temples are so Important and Crucial to God's Plan for Us

It was a good week! Already starting to feel like fall with some nice cool weather!

Last Monday since we were like out of miles we just went and played pool with this old guy, Mike, at this apartment complex and he was so good. Made crazy shots and would play 5 shots ahead and determine how and where he would hit and the spin he would put on the cue ball. It was a lot of fun.

Had a lot of good lessons this week and people are making progress. Went out with Thane to visit people the other night and we set up three return appointments! Thane is a neat guy. Served a mission and was a great missionary. He knows his stuff! 

In Fairfield this week we talked with two families at the door and both welcomed us back eagerly! Which was pretty cool since they are both part members. People in Fairfield are just so kind and genuinely nice! I could live there someday haha.

We are starting to really involve the members more and commit them to do missionary work in simple ways. It has been a good thing and we hope to see some fruit come of that!

Really cool thing is happening with the Maugers! They are a neat family and have so much momentum in the gospel right now. They have changed a lot and come far and we are all hoping to help them get to the temple soon! :) It will be such a blessing in their life. We watched "Temples are a beacon" with them and "The Blessings of the Temple". Committed them to have a goal to go to the temple and experience how great it is and how much of a strength to their family it will be.

Temples are so important and CRUCIAL to God's plan for us. It is the one way that we can be given the greatest blessing we could ever receive: an eternal family. Not to mention it allows those that have died to receive necessary ordinances for salvation, like baptism, and to be sealed to their families! It is God's "no child left behind" strategy in a way! Only those that choose not to follow Christ will be left behind, and that is because of their own choices. WE must choose to accept Jesus Christ and believe his teachings and the truth that has been restored today; That we have a prophet on the earth. That we have the authority of God to administer the church and perform ordinances. That the Book of Mormon is Another Testament of Jesus Christ and contains the fullness of the gospel and supports and clarifies the message of the Bible. 

I love this Gospel and being able to share this great and wonderful message with everyone. 

Love y'all,

Elder Bean :)

Tandem bike someone in the Ward gave us

We're taking advantage of the nicer weather and using the bike.

Thiemann kids

How Has Christ Changed Your Life

Dear family!

I love y'all and hearing such good things every week. Our week here in Gooding was pretty sweet. Tuesday we had such a neat experience with Ben and Mayda! We started off with the Mormon Message "Waiting on the Road to Damascus" By Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, and we watched that on a projector on the wall outside haha. It set the tone and was great. We moved the lesson inside due to mosquitos and the Spirit was so strong. It led the conversation and the questions and Ben, the husband who is a member, did such a good job answering Mayda's questions and the Spirit spoke through him so well. 

Funeral for little Cash Bingham was on Wednesday. 600-800 people were there... The church was filled all the way back to the stage. The Spirit was so strong at the funeral. Bishop Jensen (Cash's grandpa) spoke and so did the other grandpa. Both of them used the scriptures and gospel teachings so well in their talks and did such a good job.

In Fairfield we met Stew's neighbor, Blake, and he is one of the nicest, most genuine guys I have ever met. Brought out cold waters for us, had great conversation and even offered to take us fishing the next day, we had to decline because it would be Sunday and we had so many meetings, but we have his number and we are going to go one of these Mondays! 

We both spoke in church in Fairfield, our topic was "How has Christ changed your life". The meeting was great. Spirit was there. Elder Edmonds talked for 5 minutes (he thought his would be longer haha) so I had 30 minutes to go when I got up, but only managed to use a little over 25. Luckily the song and prayer took the other 5 :)  

So many other wonderful things happened this week, and too many to put into one email! I am so grateful for the experiences I have and the opportunity to meet and touch so many people's lives.

    I want y'all to know how much I love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I love him more than anything. I know He lives. I know He guides us today through a prophet of God. I know that His love is real. He suffered and bled so much for us. We are forever indebted to Him because of that. Nothing we do can repay it, but we can show our love and appreciation through obeying his one request: Follow Thou Me. That is the only way I can show my love to the Lord, that is why I am on my mission right now, to share this great message with God's children because I love the Lord and I know what He has done for me and continues to do. To share with the world that Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live and love us and because of that they have restored to the earth so many precious truths that we NEED in our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love y'all,

Elder Bean

Mormon message "Waiting on Our Road to Damascus

Mayda and Ben's kids, Brooke and Johnny

Crazy rubix cube a member gave me and I have solved half of it

Gooding County Fair and Rodeo - Missionary Opportunities

It was a busyyyy week! 

Tuesday was Temple day! Love the Temple and everything it symbolizes and the feelings of peace there. 

Wednesday we had a Zone Conference in Jerome from 8:00 - 3:00. Learned a lot about the Godhead and the Recognizing and Following the Holy Ghost.  Went to the Gooding County Fair/Rodeo Parade on Main street! It was cool and talked to a lot of people there! Only got one picture of the airplane in the parade cause you don't see that everyday. 

I was still sick most all week, still worked but it was tough. Thursday was nice cause we stayed in and planned most of the day so I got to relax and heal more. 

Friday and Saturday were good! Both nights we were at the fair. Not the whole night, just some. Hard to set appts this week due to everyone being at the Fair/Rodeo. Friday night we got into the Rodeo and got to see some of it! Also saw a lot of people from Buhl there! Super cool to talk with them again :) 

One of our investigators, Deva, is a cheerleader for Gooding High School and they had a dunk tank so we went and dunked her in that! Haha.

Saturday we also set up return appts with two potentials! We are excited to see how it goes this week. Also did not get to go up to Fairfield, but we are going possibly twice this week and also giving talks in Fairfield this Sunday! 

Yesterday was a good Sunday. Church from 7:30 to 4:00 no big deal right? haha it was sweet but exhausting to say the least. The Maugers got their baby blessed and asked us to stand in on it! They had twins so that was double the blessing! We are working with them and they have been active for about a month and a half now! They are a cool family. They BBQ'd last night and invited us for that and it was fun! 

Also went and saw the Nebekers last night and had a good time talking with Ty and Thane. They are a cool family and always good to visit and help out. 

I love being on a mission. At first I was here because I knew that is what I needed to do. Now I am here because I love the Lord. The most important thing we can do is love the Lord and if we do that then everything else falls into line... commandments, ordinances, scriptures, prayer, church, all of it! If we love the Lord we will submit ourselves to His will. HUMBLY submit, not proudly submitting! And when we do that then we will do all that He asks us to do with a loving and willing heart, which will allow blessings to flow into our lives! 

I love y'all.

Elder Bean

Temple trip with the District

Parade

Gooding County Fair/Rodeo

With Ty Nebeker, I love this guy!

This Week Had its Ups and Downs

This week had its ups and downs!

Went to the Nebeker's last Monday for FHE and had a good time there! They are such a neat family and some of the best people I have met. 

Tuesday we had a lesson with Mayda Hatfield and she brought up some concerns and right now she is 'sitting on the fence'. We are going again this week and hope to help her choose the side she wants to be on! 

Wednesday we had dinner with the Blunts (Ben made such a good pork loin roast) and Deva gave the lesson on the 'Fall of Adam and Eve'! Then we went to Fairfield and taught Erika and her fiance Josh! Took the Rick's with us and shared the Restoration video!

We have been going to the Senior Citizen's center a couple times during lunch and helping Sis. Nebeker (Momma Neb's is what everyone calls her) with serving/preparing food and then we get to eat! It is cool because 80% of those people are not LDS and we get to have good conversations with a lot of them! They have enjoyed us being there so far!

 Yesterday during the Gooding 2nd ward, Dakota Harden gave his farewell talk since he leaves this week on his mission to Bakersfield, CA.. A ton of people were there and the whole meeting was so spiritually powerful. The Elders Quorum Pres talked first and gave a very powerful talk on sacrament, Jesus Christ, and being who we claim to be. All the YM and leaders got up (and us) and sang the Army of Helaman song. IT was powerful. I was fasting yesterday and the spirit during the talks was overwhelming my body, but when we sang I thought I was going to pass out from the Spirit (like in the B of M haha). We were at church from 7:30-3 yesterday... about 8 hours. and usually we stay til 4 haha. But we left early to go to the Harden's place for his open house! 

Strangest thing happened, I met another Elder Bean! Well he isn't Elder now because he has been home 2 months, but he was at church and the open house because his fiance is cousins to the Hardens. He lives in Burley! Kinda cool maybe I will serve in Burley someday and meet all the Beans (I have heard my whole mission that there is a lot there).

Also yesterday at the Blunts, Charlee gave the lesson on the Creation! And Deva and Hayden are doing a combined lesson this Friday! It is cool to have the kids do the lesson and they learn more that way! Their dad still won't let them be baptized...

David's baptism this week is off and the Brown's has been moved to the end of this month or September.

I love y'all and miss y'all a ton. 

-Elder Bean

Elder Edmonds, Dakota Harden, Me