Christmas time pictures!

This is Akiyama Kyodai. we love this guy. He has a baptismal date too, and we are super excited!

He is always super happy and super nice. He cant talk because of throat cancer, and that is hard for him, but he always takes it well.  

​This is just what Japan looks like for the most part in the neighborhoods

Our Christmas Tree

We had a Christmas meal at the Senior couple`s home. It was just Kentucky fried chicken, but it was tons of fun, we played games and had a good time. The Japanese kid here is Yuji. He has a baptismal date, and he is just super prepared for it we are super excited for him!

This is our recent convert Nakano Kyodai

Christmas 2014

​I wish there was a better picture, but this was Christmas day dinner. This is the Patriarch`s home. They fed us until we couldn`t eat any more, and then they brought out three cakes! It was crazy, but they are so wonderful! I got to sit next to the grandma of the house, who is a very talkative. She commanded us to eat at the end of every sentence, and told us about how we were so handsome....

Anyways, I hope you like the pictures. This was such a great Christmas. we got up early to bring presents to a less active, and were busy the rest of the day. I love these people. It was so good to talk to you too!

Thank you for all you do!

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is God`s Church. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know that our leaders are inspired of God. I know this is where I am supposed to be. I know the Savior lived, died, and rose for us. I am so thankful for that great sacrifice for me!  

With love, Elder Bevan

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Ok, this week we saw tons of miracles.
This is a part of the letter that I sent to Kaicho this week:

"My responsibility to represent the Lord is a big one. I hope that I can fill that great calling to some extent. I have recently realized that forgiveness and repentance will need to take a bigger part than I have been recognizing. I love the God that would give me forgiveness and allow me to take part in His supreme love, even though I have made mistakes. I am so thankful that He affords me forgiveness.
I am trying to work hard, and I believe that the Lord is pleased with my work. I think that he has seen our faith and our efforts, and is blessing us. Actually I know it; there is no other way that we could have seen the miracles we did this week...
This week we met our goals for 2 baptismal dates, 3 sacrament meeting attendances, 2 member present lessons, and 2 progressing investigators. We met standard of excellence for new investigators, but not our goal. We are working, and doing our best. The Lord will need to make up the rest. I pray that we will be able to make standards by this Sunday. I hope my investigators are blessed with that. "

In case you didnt catch that we have 2 baptismal dates. The first is Akiyama San's, he is the one who has no voice because of throat cancer. We had some awesome visits with him this week and I am really happy for him. I got a picture with Him but that will have to with until next week. I dont have my camera ready. 

The second date is a college student's, named Yuji. He is sooo prepared. we met him on the street. did a lesson at the church(where we set a baptismal date) and he came to all of church and a recreation activity at the church. He is so Ready! I am very confident he will be baptized and I am glad, because he seems like such a great guy.
On other subjects, Christmas is coming!

The big thing down here is new years. The new years here last three days and before new years apparently everyone does a giant cleaning (like spring cleaning but for the new year instead). We will be having meals with members for three days. At the new year. Christmas is still uncertain. We will have a ward party and of course Christmas becomes p-day. We will be 

Call me at my 9:00, 25December2014 through Skype

the account is

luetta.koberstein

Make an account and friend the above person.  

The next time I hear from you will be on Christmas so Merry Christmas! If I had any gift to give you it would be for you to be happy, and to know of Gods love for you. I cannot think of any gift greater that the love of God. It is taller than any mountain, and deeper that the ocean, It reaches through the deepest stretch of the universe and touches the smallest bird. I know God lives, and as He lives He loves us. What great love Jesus the Christ showed, when He condescended to our plane and took our pains on his shoulders! What great love that He yet extends His mercy and forgiveness! 

Pictures!

This is one of the great members of Nagamine Ward, for their Fourty day fast we are going to all the members who fast and sharing a message. She was one of the miracles we are seeing here. Her mother will be coming to the Christmas party if all goes well. Her name is Sister Makino.

This is send off for Lee Choro.  He went up to Hiroshima.

First pictures together. It is getting a little chilly.  Elder Bevan and Elder Hunter.

We had a special training in Fukuoka as a mission. This is me with Elder Malen, his new "green bean" and mine, Elder Hunter. Our new companions were companions in the MTC. It was great to get to see Elder Malen again...

The Castle!

This is called Kumamoto Jo. That just means Kumamoto castle. Samurai lords lived and fought here. The Samurai Era didn't end until around the beginning of the 1800s. It was way cool to see this. It was way, way cool.

This is the entrance we came in. When you finally get to the top of the walls you find yourself in a garden. It is hard to describe.... sorry. The walls are way cool though. The whole time I was thinking of ninja climbing up them.

Answers... for Mom

Mom,
Yeah we had turkey with the senior couple that lives here. It was good.

Christmas is not a big deal at all, there are some decorations and things up but not really anything big. I don`t think that many people get work off.

New years is the really big thing. Everyone goes home to celebrate and it lasts three days. I am excited for both though.

Temple is two hours away and so it is just about like similar places in America. I think in this ward they try and go once a month. Hopefully I will go soon. 

Actually I am just loosing muscle and turning it into fat I think. ( i havnt gained or lost any weight) biking is usually what we do.

 Love you! sorry about the pics!

To Dad

First on the list, Happy Birthday Dad!!!!!!!!

Since I don`t think I have a ton of time and there is no way that I can get all that I want to get done on time I am just going to write this to Dad, and then say that everyone else can read it if it is ok with Dad.

First of all, thank you so much for you letters! I love your writing and you ideas... i even especially like the ones where you just write your thoughts down in a stream of conscious type thing, they`re hilarious and touching all in one. Thanks! 

Are you still only wearing white Tshirts?

I especially love to hear how all of my brothers and sisters are doing, that makes me so happy! Also, news on friends is always a pleasure. How is Suzy and everyone?

Before i forget. (maybe more for mom here, sorry) Did a Rachel Sanford used to play with me in the U student housing? when I was like four. I think that she might be in my mission. I saw her birthday come up in the mission news with a picture. 

News from the mission. We worked hard this week finding. We met with Akiyama San and he needs all the prayers that he can get. Please pray for him. Mt. Aso erupted this week and left ash all over everything. It is like an hour away and I don`t think anyone was hurt. On Saturday I got a call asking for me to come to trainer`s training. I went on Monday (yesterday). Today is transfer calls, so we will find out where we are going to be. If I am getting a new missionary (a Bean chan) I will find out who it is on Wednesday evening.

I am trying hard to do my best. Your (our) motto, "Work hard and keep the rules" is always running through my head. 

Also, because I have not been writing very good letters I have determined to try better. I am not sure how I will do it, but i will try. 

What did you do for your birthday?

I hope it was good.

I have been looking for your painting, and I think they have them, but I do not know where to look... I have found some really old stuff but not in good shape.. I`ll keep looking.

Also i will try and get our family rules all written out in 書道 (calligraphy).

Anyways I love you. I want to please you, because I know that you want what is right. I want to do what is right. I am going to work hard, I love working hard, and I love praying hard, and I love this work so much. I know that the book of Mormon is true by the power of the Holy Ghost.

I believe this is the Church of God because of the fruits of it.

Love you Dad.

Last district picture before the transfer.

Elder Bevan

Mission Stuff

Ok, so Dad gave me the low-down. My letters are not good enough. 

Well, since I am obviously out of practice in writing good letters I am just going to write what comes to mind. First off, my companion is going home early. That stinks. I love Him so much, and it is the second time now. Dang, it stinks. 

I don`t really know what I could/can do, He is leaving for Fukuoka today, I found out yesterday night, everyone else in the Apartment knew before me because they are all mission leaders. I don`t know why the Lord would have me do these things. I would much rather see all those around me succeed than fail. It is hard.

I know that what I am feeling is nothing next to what My companion is feeling. He has been in this area, with the same companion for almost six months. They whitewashed in together. They are the rocks of this area. I love Him! 

I am so sad to have a friend go. Elder Kirkham is defiantly one of my favorite companions, It was easy to joke with him and keep the mood light when everyone rejects us, and he teaches well too, and He easy to get along with and i just like him.... he is like me, He likes science and math, and he is quite sometimes and he has a sense of humor like me. I had no idea that he was leaving...

So for right now that is what is on my mind the most, I don`t really know what else you would be interested in. The nights are getting cold here. I know that it is not as cold as Idaho right now but it is cold for me. The other night we rode out (on our bikes) and I thought my fingers would freeze off. It was really chilly.

Riding bikes is a great deal of our time here, Unlike Nago there are no really big hills to climb or anything like that. I am defiantly not in as good shape as I was in Nago. But It is no problem. It is nice to have everything flat. 

On Thursday night Elder Lee and I went down to Yatsushiro to "junkai" (companion splits. As is usual here, both of us went down to the area and worked there with the elders in that area. They had just barely had an emergency transfer there too, and so none of us had bikes. We walked for nine hours. My legs were killing me by the end of it. The Elder I split with was Elder Gerrard. He is a tall guy and so we were both able to keep up with each-other`s fast paces. During the first hour of work we found two new investigators (young Mothers) and then (after quite a bit of walking) we found a woman who was just as humble as you could be. She said that she would be in the hospital for the next week, We ended up giving her a book of Mormon and planning on coming back as soon as possible. What a gook "Junkai"

I don`t know a lot, and i have a lot of mistakes, 

I suppose that nothing I do is as good as it should be, but I love this work. I am very often at wrong, but by Christ we will be made whole. By Him we are made clean and pure, We have reason to have hope in Him. 

Anyways I am basically out of time. I hope this was an improvement. I hope that everyone has an awesome week!I am working hard and keeping the rules. I`ll try and get some pictures today and send them next week. 

Love to all!

Elder Bevan

Open House and Etc.

I figure the meat of what I want to say is in my letter to President Gustafson, so here it is:

Kaicho,

The first things that I am to report to you on are: my responsibilities to represent the Lord in our area, and to obtain His direction in carrying out my assignments and blessing the people here.

We had an open house this week. Ten non-members came! Thank goodness for good members, and a great bishop. It really was a great success because of their hard work and love of the Lord and the work. 

On another topic, Elder Lee put in a talk from Elder Holland in the MTC during lunch  a few days ago and it got me started thinking about how we (as a companionship) need the Spirit to be with us. It is a great talk, and the night after we listened to it we had a lesson in which to apply the things we had learned. I felt the spirit guide us in that lesson, and was grateful to see Gods hand in our work. What great blessings! I hope I can be better at representing the Lord by teaching through the Spirit.

I also gave a talk in sacrament meeting and took that as evidence that the ward has some trust in us, I am so grateful to be serving in Japan! I love to work with these people.

The next things to report are the status of the work and my personal progress.

The work is going. Not a ton of new investigators this last week but we plan on fixing that. Also we are working with some really great investigators right now and I have some great hopes for them. 

I am trying , as always to work hard, and to be the kind of servant that Jesus Christ would have me to be. It is hard for me to see my progression all the time, but I do feel like I am progressing and I feel that the Lord is pleased with the way things are improving. 

I love to serve here! I want so deeply to return with honor, knowing that I have served the way that I should have, having given all that I have.

Thank you for all that you do, thank you!

We love you!

Working hard and keeping the rules,

Elder Bevan

In addition to that, I don`t know what to say. I know the Savior lives and He loves us. I know this church is His church. I know the Book of Mormon is true by the power of the Holy ghost. I love that book. I love the companionship of the Spirit. I am grateful for prayer. I know through prayer we can communicate with God, our Father in heaven.

Love to all, 

I think you are a boss Bryan!

Happy Birthday Jerry!

love Elder Bevan

Nagamine

Hey Everyone!

This week in Nagamine was awesome! Lots of small miracles. 

We visited a sister investigator and it was awesome! I think that the lord provided what was needed in the lesson by our various abilities. She explained that her husband and her kids were hesitant to come to church because they had not really had the chance to be around that sort of environment before, so we set up something where she could introduce us through English Class... by small and simple things! We will see how that goes. 

On Thursday we had Zone Conference and the Spirit was so powerful! We had a testimony meeting, more training on using Family history, and a training on the Sacrament. What a privilege it was to learn and talk of the Savior and His work! During the testimony meeting I was touched by the testimonies of the Elders and Sisters who will be leaving the mission soon. I determined to think more about the people I am serving, and about the God that I am serving, than about myself.  

I LOVE THIS MISSION! I would not trade even the worst day here for a day home, not even close. 

On Saturday we met a young man (probably early twenties) who let us in his apartment to talk. It was pretty apparent he had a little bit of a mental disability, but he was kind and really innocent. We asked him if there was anything he would like to ask God in prayer, and after taking a moment, and looking a little shy, he said he would like to talk to Samurai. We all smiled. :) 

Sunday was awesome. In the morning the Ward had a special prayer to start off a forty day fast. The members put their names down on a calender to take their turn fasting for the Christmas party the ward will be having in December. We hope to see much good come of it. This week followed a Stake conference, so we did not have the chance to take the sacrament last week, and this also became fast Sunday. Heaven knows that I need the Sacrament. I was so ready to be cleaned of my faults. I was also able to bear my testimony, and was afterwords asked to give a talk next week. 

Yeah! That always makes me feel like the ward is beginning to trust me! I am so grateful for that chance! Also, we had a meeting with an awesome bishop about an open-house we are holding this week. What a great privilege it is to work with such great leaders!

I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the church of God on earth. I know that it has the keys of the Priesthood, the power and authority of God on the Earth. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, by the power of the Holy Ghost. I know anyone who will seek it out, will find out the same thing. I know that God loves us, and I know that Christ Lives.

Love to all! 

Elder Bevan

べバン長老   

ps.

I love my companions

Zone Conference

My Week

Last monday:Elder Lee went with a member and taught an awesome investigator while Elder Kirkham and I tried to figure out my bike situation... The lesson was awesome and my bike is expensive... and won`t be able to be fixed for a month or so. (Had to order abnormally large rims) Then just P-day things.

Tuesday:Worked on getting my bike figured out. Had a lesson with a struggling new convert named Nakano. "Dendo"ed (proselyted). Met with a less active who taught himself English by watching TV and gave himself an European movie-star accent. Helped him prepare for a TV interview. We listened to him play the piano and sing. He has a killer singing voice... really impressed. "Dendo"ed. Had a meeting with the other missionaries in the Ward about an Open house.

Wednesday:Had a funny lesson where Elder Kirkham and I taught a new investigator (long story) and Elder Lee taught the same guy he did on Monday. He accepted the invitation to be baptized. Then prep for English class. Another lesson, and English class.

Thursday: Zone Training Meeting, really awesome. Dendo for a really long time. Ate a "Tonkatsu Burger" at MacDonalds. Had  another meeting about the Open house.

  

Friday: Dendo. Weekly planning (always too long). Dendo. Played Basketball with some young people in the area.

Saturday:Visited a less active. Dendo. A member present. Choir practice. Stake confrence with an investigator!

16 Elders Stayed in our apartment! Crazy! Elder Harvey (my trainer) and Elder Oshima (my breaker) were both there. As well as Elder Iordachescu from the MTC!

Very fun.

Sunday: Stake conference. Three referrals from a member! (not for out area though) Attended a Funeral (great Experience, I hope I die faithful to the very end!). Borrowed a bike from Bishop! No more walking! Dendo. Talked to a young less active. 

That`s pretty much it! 

Love you all,

Thanks for all you do!

Love, Elder Bevan

Pictures!

I have been studying The Book of Mormon for Selflessness and Love over the past eight months or so. I took an English copy we had, and read it from the beginning. This morning I read Moroni 8 and glanced over the rest of the it at all the notes I made. I was astounded to see what I had learned! When I went over those things I could hardly believe I was the one who had written those notes; they all seemed so new to me. As I read, the Spirit was really there. What a wonder of a book that is! I know The Book of Mormon is true!

Anyways I don`t have a lot of time! 

This Week we had a way awesome lesson with the son-in-law of one of the members here and on Saturday we had a Halloween party where we met another referral and I talked with him all night! What cool miracles and a cool introduction to the Kumamoto Nagamine Ward!

Back in Nago:

Elder Jameson

 Leaving Nago 

  Nago From the Plane

  On the bus coming to Kumamoto 

My desk....

Its made out of wooden poles and rope from the 100Yen store.

Its just part of being a three-man. :) 

 Elder KirkhamElder Lee 

Transfer Calls and Bike Wrecks

A ton happened this week (including getting hit by a car :), don't worry I'm fine) so, I'm not sure I will have time to write all that I want to write but regardless, this week was awesome! From last Monday until now we have seen a lot of good things. This is the letter that I wrote to President Gustafson this week

Kaicho,
This week was awesome! Lots of good work, and lots of miracles. Mostly just finding, but inspired finding.
We worked with the Spirit and found many prepared people. The one example that sticks out to me now is a new investigator we found on Saturday. We had fifteen minutes before we had to head home and so we decided on visiting one of three different apartments through prayer. The first door we came to was a very prepared mother named Nishikawa. We met again last night before the crash and it was a great lesson.
We are also teaching families that were found in the recent weeks. One of those families is named Kobashigawa. We met them on Sunday, and, although we both felt our teaching could have been much better, Elder Jameson and I were really impressed with the family. I have no doubt that they are prepared to hear the gospel.
I just finished personal study. I read from the beginning of Moroni 7 and one of the things that I noticed was how Mormon gave credit to the grace of God the Father and Jesus Christ, and to the "gift of his calling" for the opportunity to teach.
What a lesson to me! What a blessing it is to be able to serve God! What a blessing!
I am so grateful for the chance I have been given to serve God in this work. I hope that His grace will continue to abide with me.
I'm glad I got to talk to you this morning. Thank you for always working with such zeal for us!
Truly, Elder Bevan

The crash happened last night at about 8:55, on our way to the apartment. Somebody just didn't see me and drove out form a street and hit me. It wasn't fast or anything and I feel like I really was really protected. I only have a couple of scratches on my leg, and that is it. My tires are pretty bent up though so I am going to have to replace them. The lady was way nice and way worried, and Elder Jameson and I both invited her to our Halloween Party. What a cool way to meet the missionaries right! :) I hope she gets baptized. 

This morning we read over the rules that our mission has about wrecks and realized we needed to call President, so I called him and he took things very smoothly and kindly, and since today is the day we hear if we are transferring or not, he also gave me my transfer call. I am transferring to Kumamoto into a trio companionship!
Yesterday was also splits with the district leader Elder French and that helped me to feel good about leaving Nago in other missionaries hands. I love this work! I am so glad I got to work here in Nago!

Finally I wanted to answer this letter from Grandpa Ashby:

Hi Elder,       We had a very nice Sabbath day today.  Your grandma gave a great lesson on honesty in our gospel principles class and sacrament meeting was just what we needed.   The speaker quoted the following:  "Help thy brother to bring his boat across the water and lo thy own boat has arrived at the shore."    What a great and true statement. "         The Savior said it this way, "He that findeth his life shall lose it, but he that loseth his life for my sake and the gospel shall find it."                    So?   How much have you lost? 

I think that I have a lost a lot. Not in any way enough, but a lot. Over my time in Nago I have lost pride and blinding misconceptions or excuses that I put on myself. I have lost face in front of people I really care about, and esteem in front I people I would have wanted to impress. I have lost a lot of faith in myself, and I have gained the world instead. I have gained strength in place of disabling excuses, and faith in the Savior in place of Faith in myself. I love the Savior. I am so glad to serve Him.

I love you all!

Love, Elder Bevan

From Elder Jameson's blog:

After, they had to go home early, we went to visit N. Man that lesson was epic. But what was pure revelation was the prep and what happened before the lesson. Elder Bevan knew so well what to teach her. We got there and she wasn't there. We were so sad. We prayed to know what to do next. We were standing there. and I prayed 3 more times. I wasn't getting anything. I turned to Elder Bevan and said, "I don't know. I don't feel like we should anything around here." So we waited and were about to pray again when she pulled up. She got out and we talked. A great lesson. A really heart felt lesson. All about purifying hearts because she said that is what she likes the most. She said in the lesson, "we teach the same thing. When I read the scripture (Moroni 7:45) we teach the same thing." Then later she said "your faces are glowing and I can see that your hearts are pure" We said to that "it is because of the message. We promise you if you apply this message to your life, you will receive this too." A little while later the husband came out and yelled at us to leave because it was late, but she told us to come again and wanted to learn more.

On the way back last night Elder Bevan was hit by a car. Complete change of story, yeah I know.  But the lady didn't see him. He is okay but his bike needs new tires because they are warped. She was freaking out but Elder Bevan was so loving. She said "you people are good people." I said "to show we have no bad feelings, we want you to come to our Halloween party!" She accepted and said she would come to our party. Who knows? Maybe she needed to hit Elder Bevan to be introduced to the gospel?

Elder Jameson's version of our week and Typhoon VongFong

Elder Jameson wrote:

Tuesday was a weird day. We had district meeting and afterwards we met with E, who is doing great, and another member who's name is Miyagi. They are both awesome and doing well.
We didn't eat dinner at 5 but went to do service with this lady named W. Elder Bevan is good with working his way to gospel topics during things. I'm just blunt and go straight to it. Last week he asked her if she wanted to study the Book Of Mormon. She said sure. Huge miracle because she said she would never study. The Spirit works with people. We had a great lesson but when we showed her the pictures of the prophet, she was upset saying there were no girls. That was super hard to explain in Japanese. It was good at the end.

Monday night we had a good miracle happen during planning. I asked Elder Bevan who we should visit. At that moment I had a feeling to visit a person that we haven't visited in a while. Elder Bevan said that it wasn't a good idea because he isn't home all the time. I looked at him and said "lets pray about it" so we prayed. After the prayer he said we can visit him but on the way back home. Again I had a pressing feeling to visit him but with a exact time of 7 pm. I told him and we made a schedule around that. We went at 7 to visit him. He said he just had returned home.  We talked about general conference and he said he would come to priesthood. (Which was cancelled because of the typhoon but still awesome.) After we left we said a prayer of thanks. He came walking by about 3 minutes later saying he was going on a walk. If we had visited him at a different time, we wouldn't have met him. After that we prayed again to see where to go and we met this couple from Hong Kong. We found out the hard way how to speak to them. They look Japanese so we spoke Japanese back but they spoke broken Japanese with a hard accent. Then we asked in English if they spoke English. They did and fluently. It was super cool and we invited them to visit mormon.org to see how this message can help their life.

Wednesday was crazy. We went out early to dendo because we had a late lunch appointment, which also pushed dinner back and it became a weird day.

But we visited this lady named N. She is basically fluent in English but she has some past mistake that haunts her so she doesn't come to church. She was active for a long time. We are trying to think of ways to help her. We went to eat afterwards and we dendoed around. Things were sparse. We did meet a mom that was concerned for her life after this one. Maybe things will progress with that. We eventually were able to meet the high school student from the other week, M. We met outside McDonalds. He thought hard about the question of a perfect world. He said, "if I kill someone and get a good lesson from that, is that okay?" Not quite. We taught him about repentance and the Book of Mormon. Repentance through the Book of Mormon actually, and the Godhead. He is such a great kid and he is the top student and president of his class. A really smart kid. He invited us to an activity he is planning for the 25th. Maybe this will be good :).

Thursday was filled with weekly planning and visiting E. She has changed so much. It fills me with so much joy to see her changing. She even keeps a daily journal for the things she prays for. How many of us members do that?

Friday, stuck inside planning for things. Then the typhoon started. It wasn't raining and the winds weren't that strong so we got some work done, some return appointments. Yeah! If we don't die in the typhoon!!

Saturday and Sunday were spent in the apartment. A lot of time with Elder Bevan. A lot. It turned out well. Our relationship is great. We worked on the area book and less active book to organize it in a way to be helpful for other missionaries coming through this area.
Honestly being in a concrete apartment is awesome. The storm didn't do anything to us. Completely safe inside. The power went out for like an hour but that was at night.
That was our week. We need to still watch general conference. I'm still looking forward to it!

Typhoons and Things

Hello Everyone!

This here is my companion and Nago's giant pig statue. Unlike the rest of Japan (I'm am fairly sure) pork is part of the traditional Okinawan food. I could be wrong about that though so don't kill me if you find out I'm wrong. :) Below that is a picture of me and Nago's famous Brother Miyagi. He is a way awesome convert of a little over a year ago and we all love him. He overcame a lot to join the church and if I know anything about it he is an awesome example of how the Atonement changes people. He has a little bit of a mental problem, but he is just a ton of fun to be around. He meets us about every week to study from the scriptures and every once in a while we go out to eat together. I love to hear his prayers. You can tell that he is talking to the Father. 

The last picture is this way awesome kid we found a while back. He is just seventeen, but he really thinks deeply about things and is a way hard worker. He is completely determined to become the top of the business world and has thought a lot about what kinds of things he will need to do to get there. He is the top of his school and I think that he is  ahead a grade... anyways he way cool! Hopefully he starts progressing!

 

​
​

​At the end of this week a big typhoon came again. It got here on Friday night and went all day Saturday and yesterday. That wasn't any fun because we were inside the whole time, and didn't get to see general conference. We worked on organizing our records and area book a bit though, and that was good.

I love working with the people here. I love to work with the members and the people we meet on the street! We did some calling while we were stuck inside and I think just about every time I got off the phone I felt great! I don't really know why I love to talk with these people so much but I think it is one of my favorite parts of the mission. I love their voices and their language. I love this mission!

I love the Lord. I know that this is the true and only church of God. I love this church and the gospel that it declares. I am so grateful for the confidence and peace it affords. I love my Savior Jesus Christ.

My love to all,

Elder Bevan

TYPHOON VONGFONG

Dear Parents of the Japan Fukuoka Mission Missionaries,

As you may have heard, there is a Typhoon of considerable size coming to Japan. The Japan Fukuoka Mission has an Emergency Plan and we made sure each area and companionship had a 72-hour emergency kit with water, food and flashlights with extra batteries. They were instructed to stay indoors and we will keep them updated daily if needed. All the emergency precautions took place and all the missionaries are safe. We will notify you again when the Typhoon is past. We appreciate your son/daughter work in the mission and pray for their protection. Thank you for your concern and prayers.

Japan Fukuoka Mission.

日本福岡伝道部で働いている宣教師の御両親へ、

もうお聞きになったと思いますが、かなり大規模の台風が日本へ向かっています。日本福岡伝道部では緊急対策があり、各同僚組みが７２時間緊急キット（水、食料、懐中電灯と電池）を持っている事を確認致しました。宣教師達はアパート内に残り、必要ならば私達が彼らに必要な情報を提供します。必要な準備は全て出来ており、宣教師は皆安全です。台風が去った後、又お知らせ致します。皆さんの愛する息子・娘達の伝道部での働きに感謝し、彼らの安全を祈っています。

皆さんの懸念と祈りに感謝しています。

日本福岡伝道部

pill boxes

From Nate's companion, Elder Jameson's Blog:

We spent some time though to think about our investigators and to better help them. We thought of two families who we can barely meet. "How can they feel the spirit without us being there?" We thought of one of those daily pill boxes for morning, lunch, and dinner pills. We put candy in some and scriptures in others. That way they can have incentive and a way to pray and read the scriptures as a family.

We were able to give them out on Sunday. But that's all the time we had to give. Hopefully we will be able to see some results from daily prayer and scripture study.

Leaders

"Junkai" (splits) in beautiful Nago. The elder below is the Zone leader Elder Jolly.

I'm sorry I don't have a ton of time. I was catching up on conference stuff and the like. We will be watching General Conference next week, because Japan time is ahead of America's. We are all excited for it. 

I hope you all had fun!

This week was good. We had a special training in Naha from President and the Assistants. I got to spend the night with the AP's before we went down there and it was so good. I know both of them and I think that they are wonderful examples. I love to follow inspired leaders and to learn by the spirit. I know that the callings we receive are inspired, and that when a leader is inspired to say something, or to speak on a certain topic, the Spirit can speak through them. I Love to hear the Words that the Spirit directs and never fail to find solace in them.

This morning for personal study I read from Ether 12 about selflessness. (I have been studying the Book of Mormon about selflessness for most of my mission and am almost finished with it). One of the things that I noticed this time was that the Lord, in His ultimate selfless love, will offer us individually comfort when we need it. When Moroni was worried about his weakness the Lord spoke to him the words that would bring him comfort (I'll let you find the specific words I'm thinking about). I hope that I can follow that example in the way I love others.  

I love you all. I love this work!

I love seeing the Lord's work role out. 

love,

Elder Bevan