August
7th 2017
This
week has been insane!
Let me give you a little
run down of what has happened recently.
So on Tuesday i went in,
dropped off my companion, and anxously waited 3 hours at the mission office to
find out who my trainee would be.... long story short, His name is Elder
Richardson! He is an amazing man, and we are getting along great! He kinda
scared me at first though. He was very quiet, and i got really worried,
everything came to mind, except for what it really was. It turns out... he was
a new missionary! So he was just adjusting to his new surroundings! I was
relieved.
In the mission field,
there are of course ups and downs. Usually they last weeks, transfers, months,
basically pretty long. But with all this responsibility, everyday is a
rollercoaster! I get really happy, and really worried, and really excited, and
really confused like every 5 minutes... Its great! Haha it was crazy being
called the district trainer at first, and the days were just like i described,
but im starting to get the hang of things now, so im more relaxed :)
Well... I thought i was
getting the hang of things. I had district meeting last Friday, and i think it
went really well! We did perfect time-wise and the district seemed to like it.
That was the first relief is passing the first district meeting and having it
go well. But... I found out next week President and his kids are coming to
visit my district meeting. It's actually the 3 districts in our zone hes
visiting, but one of them is mine. And ive never seen him at a district meeting
before, until its me the one leading it haha. So im kinda nervous for that. But
i have a good excuse if anything goes wrong, im a brand new district
leader!
The work here has been
kinda slow. This week we didnt find a lot of success but we were able to have a
lot of things prepared for the future. We might be teaching a short message to
20-30 non members every thursday so thats exciting! We have been working
though! Training is scary though! I want him to learn everything hes supposed
to, but im always scared im gonna mess up. But its all good lol, the Lord will
provide a way! He is a great man though, were getting along great, and hes
opened up a lot.
About the driving... i
have been doing a lot of it, and i think im getting too comfortable with it
lol. It's really easy here since theres only deer and trees to run into, so
there is nothing to worry about.
Overall with the whole
week, it has been great, i was very nervous/excited/anxious in the begging of
it all, but im starting to calm down, and i know the Lord will qualify me for
this calling.
I hope yall have a fun
time in Hawaii! And is Ash excited to drive? Is it weird for everyone else to
think thats shes old enough to drive? Haha i hope yall have a great week!
-Elder Beaulieu
August 14th 2017
This is
so wierd! I'm old now!
This week was very
eventful! So I will begin to tell you all the events. And good news! I have
pictures! So lets start this:
Choking Story: Pretty big miracle. So apparently, my companion
has a small throat. We were eating roast beef at a members house, and he got a
peice stuck in his throat. It wasn’t enough to block his airways, but it made
it so he couldn’t swallow. Even spit. So he had to step out, and had to keep
spitting up, since it wouldn’t go down. Skip to when we get home, he was still
spitting up, so we called the mission nurse. She said the nearest urgent care
didn’t open till the next morning, so he was told he had to sleep and just
drool all night. But since we are eagle scouts, we were devoted to find a way.
long story short, I was
just like, hey, why don’t you drink vinegar? And we tried it. After a few
seconds, a chunk of roast beef comes flying out of his mouth, then a couple
seconds after, so does the rest of his food. Boom, miracle.
What is the most common
food we are eating?
So you would think being
in the South, we have deep fried barbeque everyday. In Albemarle, this is not
the case. This past week, we have had eggrolls everyday, lunch and
dinner... eggrolls. There are a ton of Hmong people here, who make
amazing food. But they all cook the same thing. So we have tons of leftover
eggrolls we've been eating, and then we go to dinner with a member to get more
lol.
Barbara: In
the last 2 days, i've driven 200 miles. Today was for zone activity and
yesterday we went to the bottom of our area. We had a bible referral down
there, nd we were able to contact her! She was super nice, and my companion
extended his first baptismal invite! She said yes of coarse because Elder
Richardson is that amazing. It was a great experience.
So thats all the main
events. Last week was the hottest and most humid I’ve felt since I’ve been
here. Really makes me appreciate having the car! The Bugs are also everywhere
now! Its kinda cool but creepy, but I’m no longer scared of bee's anymore! The
ones here are bigger than at home and everywhere, so I’ve become accustomed to
them.
Other than that
everything is going great! Going on to my 3rd district meeting tomorrow which
is exciting, and I think Elder Richardson is turning out ok! I hope yall have
fun at Hawaii!
-Elder Beaulieu
Woah!
I just saw the eclipse! Elder Richardson’s mom
sent us some glasses so we could see it! It was amazing! But also kinda creepy
haha. Were ya'll able to see it? It made for an amazing end to an amazing
week.
Last Tuesday we had interviews with the mission
president, which are always great! But he was kinda behind so it was a little
rushed, but it was still great! Afterwards we went on exchanges. I went with
the zone leaders, and they live in Charlotte, so i finally got to serve in the
city! Highlight of that exchange, I was able to conduct my first baptismal
interview!
That was a great experience to have! However,
she spoke very little English, she spoke mainly French, so we had to have a translator
in there with us. But good thing is she passed! She should be getting baptized
this Thursday which is so exciting! While I was there, I got these ear candle
things that you stick in your ear, light it up and it pulls the earwax out of
your ear! It was pretty sweet and it worked pretty well!
This week I have really appreciated having
full car! It was crazy hot and crazy humid! It really drains you, weve been
exhausted and we still have the car! Yesterday, we went out and walked for 3
hours, about 6 miles, which was fun! Luckily, we did it from 6-9 so it was a
bit cooler.... just a bit.
The work here in Albemarle is really starting to
pick up. It seems like all of the members are having missionary experiences and
calling us about different people! It really great to be a part of this ward
while the member missionary work is increasing like this. I think its Elder
Richardson, and his childlike faith! We've been getting along great, I'm glad
to be his companion! It's been real fun while also working hard! I love you
family and I hope Hawaii was great! And good luck in Sophomore year ash!
-Elder Beaulieu
Welcome back from Hawaii! oh, and I did get the
birthday card! Thank you! It was cool to hear from the family. It's weird to
think that ash is already starting her sophomore year! Time is going by too
fast.
These past few weeks with
Elder Richardson have been so much fun. He is a great man, and I could tell he
prepared well for his mission. We've been getting a lot of work done while also
having lots of fun. Luckily the heat is dying down, it’s probably only
temporary, but it's nice to have some cooler weather to walk in.
It's weird to think that
I’ve been a district leader and a trainer for almost a month now. I've seen a
lot of change and had a lot of growth. And it's also very humbling. I've been
able to love for these people and serve them, and that’s a big blessing.
So, I’m kinda exhausted
right now so the only big exciting thing i can think of right now that happened
last week, was we got fleas! We had just given a lady a blessing and it turns
out her dogs have fleas. As soon as we found them, we drove home, ran into the
shower, and washed our clothes. Kinda put a little detour on the day, but
luckily we didn’t have any appointments that night.
And that is a great
question! I love the Book of Mormon! My advice for her, is to study something
specifically out of it, or at least have a purpose behind it. If you don’t
really know why, it will be harder to get a lot out of it. I have seen a lot of
the power that comes from the Book of Mormon. One thing I learned that helped
me understand why commitments are so important to extend to these
investigators, especially concerning the Book of Mormon, is the %95 of these
people’s conversion happens when we (the missionaries) aren’t there. Kinda
shows how much work the spirit does.
But aside from
investigators, reading from the Book of Mormon everyday has made a huge
difference in my life. I'll just share a couple quotes that I know to be true:
"I implore each of us to prayerfully study
and ponder the Book of Mormon each day. As we do so, we will be in a position
to hear the voice of the Spirit, to resist temptation, to overcome doubt and fear,
and to receive heaven’s help in our lives"
-President Thomas S. Monson
"Search the Book of Mormon and the words of
the living prophets every day, every day, every day! It’s the key to spiritual
survival and avoiding deception. Without it, we are spiritually lost."
-Elder Kevin W. Pearson
So i guess my commitment to you Ash, and to
anyone else who wants these blessings, is to read the Book of Mormon everyday.
Especially when you really don't want to, that is the most important time to do
it. As you do that, then you will see these blessings fulfilled in your life. I
love you all! And I hope that helped!
-Elder Beaulieu
Excerpt from Elder
Montandon’s email
Tuesday I went on
exchange to Albemarle again but this time with Elder Beaulieu's Trainee and so
I got to drive the brand new Malibus that they have and I will say that I do
like the Chevy Malibus so we got there planned and took off on the bike for the
rest of the day and we got to see and find alot of people and they are
currently teaching a Jehovah Witness lady and it's pretty hilarious because her
only concern is that God's name is Jehovah but she is a very smart lady she
spoke Spanish but said English is her first language which I thought was weird
because she is 100% but she is very smart. Then we go and visit a couple of
people who had been interested before and so we stopped at this one guys house
and he was getting ready to mow his lawn and we show up and start talking with
him and share the Plan of Salvation with him and he breaks down crying so I
gave him a hug and he was just crying because he just lost his mom and his
brother and I shared a powerful scripture Alma 40:11 (check it out when you
have the time) but it was amazing how powerful the scriptures really are. We
ran into alot of people and I got some deep quotes that just blew my mind so
I'll share those with you...
-"Once you know God
you know who your enemy's are"
-"The easy part is
falling down the hardest part is getting up"
-"Knowledge is
Power, Power is Control"
Wednesday we returned
from the exchange after an amazing district meeting by Elder Beaulieu
