G'day family and friends!

This week was quite the treat, we had a mini missionary with us for 4 days! We had some amazing things happen while he was with us!

 So first off, Elder Matautia and I thought we were going to be getting 2 mini missionaries, so we organized with members last Sunday to have at least 2 dinners a night, but most of the nights we had 3 dinners, so when we got our mini missionary ( Brother Winter) we were triple booked on dinners for the rest of the week!! So on Friday, we decided to go on splits so we could still have some of the dinners. So I went with Ford to the G's while Elder Matautia went to the K's to have dinner and a lesson with M and her daughters.

Ford and I had some cool experiences, we finished our dinner appointment a little early, so we decided we would go contacting while we were waiting for the other elders. We went walking down this street, and no one was there, but then on our way back to the car to go pick up the Elders, Ford saw a massive cargo ship container in someone's front yard, so we pulled over and talked to the people loading stuff into the container. It was a bunch of African people from Sierra Leon.

They were loading it full of TV's, suitcases, fridges, washers, car parts, and everything you can think of. So we talked to them for a bit, and then the father of all the kids there kind of went into bible bash mode, but then I cracked a joke so he backed out of it, and he said we could help him with service! Nice!

Meanwhile, Elder Matautia and Brother Winter set Mimi and her daughters on date!!! They all three want to be baptized on Feb 20th!! Super exciting. Brother Winter was the one who was able to extend the date too! Then we went to the N's recent convert family and had ANOTHER dinner and lesson, and we were sooooooooo full!

Ford got to share his testimony and was loving it! It was a good experience for him.

 We went back to Jeebe's house to do service on Saturday and on Monday. One of the kids was suuuuuuuuuper funny. They really appreciated our help, and they said they'd call us when they got another cargo ship container :)

On Monday I also got to go on exchanges with Elder Jackson. We tracted the ENTIRE day. He is a very diligent missionary. We talked to this lady who lives in a three story house on the coast. We committed her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.

We had a ton of awkward contacting moments together that day, because Elder Jackson literally runs people down on the street, and he runs from door to door to save time! So it was quite the treat ;)

 This week was awesome! I learned that everyone needs to be heard out so they can trust you. Listening, observing, and discerning is key to teaching by the spirit!

 Love,

Elder Beeson

 

Dear family and friends, This week was smashing! (in a good way) :) We had a few pretty amazing experiences. I will tell you them!

On Wednesday we were biking the whole day and our area is basically all hills. We went to the S's house and we knocked on the door, and of course I had no idea what to expect because I have never met them before, but a little girl answers the door, and we are talking to her, but then she goes and gets her mom, and her mom comes, and then Elder Matautia starts asking all of these questions, so I started to assume it wasn't sister Stratford. So I catch on to that, and anywho this lady is actually from south Africa, and she just moved into the house. 

 

We then gave our little spiel on our purpose and stuff, then she told us to stop wasting our breath because she was already converted! hahaha geez that was funny though. So we asked her if there was anyone nearby that we wouldn't waste our breath on, so she pointed out a few neighbors, and then she said that there was a family from Papua New Guinea next door, so we decided we would knock on this lady's door. 

 

So we knock on the New Guinean's door, and this lady answered the door, and she had this terrified look on her face! haha it was because we were so sweaty and out of breath ( all the hills) so she invited us in and gave us some water! We were just talking then we went on to tell her about who we were and laying down our purpose, then she opened up and told us that a goal that her and her husband have this year is to look for something that will keep their family focused on the most important things! Then she started crying and said that she was so overwhelmed and happy that we knocked on her door because she has been praying for help, and she hasn't told anyone other than her husband! 

So we just took that opportunity to testify of the Saviour and how much hope and clarity he will bring to her life, and the spirit was sooooooooooooo strong!!!! :)) She said she wants us to come and teach her family as soon as we can!! The crazy thing is that she just so happened to be home that day only because her daughter was feeling a bit sick. She usually works like all day everyday! So we are suuuuuuuuper excited to go back this week. her name is Sandra.

On Friday we had MLC so I got to see Elder Miller! What a treat. The training there was really good, they emphasized the importance of inviting people to be baptized on the first lesson. We were a bit bummed that we didn't do that with S, but we were excited to do it to the next person we taught. 

 

So later that night, we went to the K's home, and earlier in the week we invited them to invite a friend over for dinner so we could have a lesson with them. So they set it up and we met M, their next door neighbor. She is from Jakarta Indonesia. She made some AMAZING spring rolls. 

Then we had a lesson. Before the lesson we laid down our purpose and made sure she knew that we were going to invite her to do a few things at the end of the lesson. So we had an object lesson on trials, and she understood it very well. We had a good discussion on how we can overcome hard times. 

Then M opened up and started crying said that she has had some rough times lately and that whenever she wants to pray she doesn't know what she can say. So we testified about prayer, and the lesson after that was all over the place. It wasn't confusing, but we covered quite a few topics, so normally in a lesson like this we would save baptism until the next lesson. But then Elder Matautia starting talking about commitments again, and he mentioned baptism, so I took the hint and invited her to be baptized! She said......................no! haha she was already baptized. But then we explained Authority in a very kind yet bold way, and she accepted to be baptized!! :) She even said that she wanted her three daughters to be baptized as well!! what the heck?!! soooo cool! it was such a good experience because the K's were bearing very powerful testimony as well. So we are going to see her on Friday again with a meal :)

There was one more time where tears were shed this week. It was actually when Elder Matautia was on exchanges with Elder Baca, and they contacted this former convict on the street, then he just started crying! I also starting crying at a lesson we had with a less active on Thursday! So many tears were shed this week :')

I love the work here in Merriwa! Good people here. There are so many just waiting for an invitation to change their lives, and it is so cool to see people putting the invitation to the test and trying things out! They become so much happier and blessed :)

I love you all ! choose the right!!

love, Elder Beeson

 AFDL Buddies.  Elder Tyler Miller and Me!

 The bad haircut:(((

January 10th

 
 G'day friends and family, This week was all over the place! There are a lot of interesting experiences that happened this past week. haha you will know what I mean.

> So last week right after emails, Elder Tapumanaia and I went to this barber shop because they day before we were tracting, and we met this Iraqi dude who said that he would cut our hair for free, and he would make it look good. So Elder Tapu really wanted to go, so we went, while we were waiting, Elder Tapu was on the phone, and so the dude said he would just trim my hair a bit ( I didn't even want a hair cut) but I did it just to be polite. So while he was cutting my hair, he just said, " oh, I will just make it look good" next minute after zoning out for a bit, he pulls out the razor blade, and gives me the tool line in my hair!! It's like my normal haircut but with the really defined bald line. I look like a tool!!! The worst part about it is that we had Zone conference this week and I'm the new Zone leader, and it totally looks like I'm trying to show off. But I'm not I was just being polite. Anyways Elder Tapu got the same haircut, and he hated his too. So he got another hair cut. I didn't want to pay for another one so I'm just praying my hair grows faster.

 
 Zone conference went really well. We split up for a zone meeting right before lunch and Elder Tapu and I did some training on conversion for the zone. It went really well. It's always really fun going out to find right after we come from zone conference, so that's what we did. We went tracting for a solid 3 hours, and had some success! We taught a lesson to this shirtless aussie on the nature of God. we didn't get a return appointment/ invitation though.. hhaha. Then we met this guy who looked like he was thinking deeply while leaning against this truck, so we talked to him, and he looked like the typical heartless aussie, but he kept talking to us, and we ended up talking about how we can find God. He was really intrigued by that. We taught him how to pray and that if he prayed with his heart he would UNDOUBTEDLY  get an answer to his prayer. It was cool to see him go from a depressed looking to see him joyful. He told us he has been married 18 years, and that they don't have religion. We asked why he has been married so long, and everything has worked out. He said it was because he communicates very well with his wife and kids. So we tied that back to communicating with God through prayer, and he was blown away! It was awesome!! We got a return appointment, and he was eager to have us come again to teach his family :)

 Here's the catch though... I got emergency transferred to North Coast zone to be a zone leader there instead. So I was only with Elder Tapumanaia for a week and a half. We got a call from President Fife on Saturday morning right as we were about to go out the door to start our day, and he said that Elder Tapumanaia would be staying to train a new zone leader, and that I would be going to north coast to replace the zone leader up there who just got called to be AP. The ONLY reason I'm here is so I can drive, or else I would still be in Lockridge! hahah So yes, I'm driving the car, and it's so scary on the other side of the road too!! But yeah, my new companion is Elder Matautia, he is a samoan blooded aussie. He's the best!! He's been out a year on Friday.

 We also this week went out with President Fife's son on splits. He was here for a few weeks to visit his parents. His name is John. We went and did potential follow ups the whole time. We went to this Indian person's house who the Karratha elders found while they stayed one night at our flat during transfer week. So they let us in and we started teaching the restoration. They were born again!  The wife gave us tea and these pastry indian biscuit things, they were really good!

 It was so awkward turning away the tea though. It''s really confusing here though because Tea has two meanings here, 1) is dinner time or a meal 2) is tea. So they said we can come in for some tea so we never know what that actually means. haha this time it meant actual tea. But right as we got to teaching about the Book of Mormon, their pastor from their church walked in. He was 
Indian as well. We kept teaching, and all three of us just bore our testimonies and got out of there before he pastor could say anything. He didn't get to say anything :) So that was fun

Sorry this email is all over the place, but that's basically how this week was haha! I learned that it is sooooo important to have the gift of discernment to know what people need rather that what we want to teach them. It works so much better using the spirit then by trying on our own!

 love you all family and friends! do the right things :)
 
 love, Elder beeson

Dear family and friends, 

This week was probably the longest yet shortest week of my mission so far! It's weird because it also just so happened to be new years in the middle of the week. Sooooooo much happened. 

So on Tuesday we picked Elder Miller ( Tyler Miller ) up from the airport and we got to be companions for the night!! it was soooooooo fun!!! haha S took us to nandos, then we had a lesson with him. After that, we went to the S's to say goodbye and have a lesson on faith! Elder Miller was such a good teacher! We caught up on old times and stuff, but we worked hard all night and it was such a treat!

I never realized how busy life was when you have a car! haha, all the missionaries always want rides to places! There are so many errands we have to run, and I don't like it! I just want to work all day everyday! my companion is SUCH a good missionary! His name is Elder Tapumanaia. He is from Asau, Samoa he's 23 and he knows how to work hard! the first night I was with him, we did heaps of contacting and investigator visits. I have already learned so much from him! haha it's so funny because whenever we are riding our bikes, and we pass someone, we both say hi to the person, then he slams on his breaks and turns around and talks to them. It's so awkward, but he makes it funny, and so he can get away with doing it. haha He also always pretends he doesn't know how to ride a bike. But yeah, he's the man!!! 

We had to go on an emergency exchange with the North Perth district leader on Saturday. He's been a little stressed out with opening up a new area, being a district leader, and training a missionary. I went with his companion, Elder Daniels in my area for the day and we just went finding for the entire day! it was sooooooo fun! We met this old dude with no teeth from Yugoslavia who invited us in, and said we can come again this next week! what a treat! We also met a Fijian/Burmese lady who had statues of mother mary outside her house who said we can come back and teach her and her family! what Super cool stuff! Elder Daniels is very enthusiastic! He's the man!

We had a cool experience on Saturday night. So in the middle of planning I remembered we told this less active that we were going to get a ride for them on Sunday. So we tried calling this lady, but she didn't answer. So we felt prompted to go visit her even though it was 10:00. So we went to her house and she was outside on the phone sitting on her car. There was this aboriginal dude right next to her trying to talk to her while she was on the phone. He left when we walked up, but yeah she told us that he has been creeping on her for a while. Anywho, we asked if she was still good to come to church if we had a different person drive her there rather than another lady who we told her who would give her a ride. She said she didn't want to go if Sister B didn't drive her. But then she was telling us about how she was struggling sooo much financially, and that she tried to kill herself on new years eve. I felt prompted to ask her if she wanted a blessing right after that. She accepted, so Elder Tapumanaia gave her a blessing, and the spirit was SO strong. She said we came at the perfect time because she was feeling down, and that creepy dude was just hanging around her. The cool thing is that she came to church the next day and was happy to be there! But yeah, I learned from that, that we HAVE TO act on every prompting we get. A lot of the time we get promptings through "gut feelings." I feel like I have had that kind of feeling quite a few times on my mission. 

I love it here in my new area! it of course takes quite a bit of adjusting, but I can see why I am meant to be here. I really feel like the only reason I am here is to learn from my companion. That's all I 've seen so far as of yet! I am so grateful for his good example of hard work. 

That's all for this week :) Hope you all had a nice, sober new years ;) I sure did!! ;)

love you all! ctr and dtr! (do the right) ( I totally just came up with that, no big deal ;) )

love, Elder Beeson

On Saturday the Kenwick sisters in our district had a baptism. We didn't even invite L to come to the baptism, but he just showed up with Br. C. I have been teaching L the whole time I've been here.
He has been taught by missionaries for years. Then during the middle of the service, he just turns to me and says, "Why don't you baptize me?" We have never invited him to be baptized because he is a minor and a foster child, but I realized that he had turned 18 this month. So I said, "We can get you baptized next month if you come to church and read your scriptures." he said he would, so he committed to January 16th to be baptized!!
The Thornlie sisters also had an investigator commit to a date while we were at the service!! Crazy!!  Then on Sunday the sisters committed another lady to baptism, and so did the zone leaders! Things are just going soooooo well.

   Buuuuuuuuuuuut I got a call from President Fife right after Church on Sunday. I'm being transferred to Dianella to serve in Lockridge to be a zone leader. I honestly thought I would either be here forever, or that I would go to one of the country areas. Elder macki is staying here with Elder Arrieta, a Phillipino. My new companion is Elder Tapamania from Samoa.

 I just knew that as soon as things got good that I would want to stay but I wouldn't be able to. And that's what happened. But last night we went to the C's and I told L I was leaving. He was sad. But we had an AMAZING  lesson with him. Each lesson I've had with him is kind of all over the place because we all go on tangents, but this lesson was soooooo good. The spirit was so strong that you could just cut it with a knife. I was quite teary and so was he. I've never seen him be as engaged in the lesson as he was last night. He was crying during the closing prayer. I'll be able to come down for his baptism though!
 I'm going to miss Canning Vale but I'm ready to see who the Lord has prepared for me to teach in a different area.

 Until next year everyone, ;) 
 Elder Beeson