This week was really awesome. Egawa finally got baptized!!!!!! It was great! before that we had some trouble with relations in the branch and were worried about whether or not we were going to be able to do it at all, but everything turned out all-right. 
I really learned a lot about the Atonement and how much the Savior cares for us. So many of you helped my by your letters and emails. Thank you! I really felt God's love by your support and words. Thank you! 
I know that the Savior knows and loves us. I am so grateful for His infinite Atonement.


This is Elder Jameson, Egawa Etsuko, and I just before her Baptism! We had a lot of trouble getting her to this point but it was so awesome to see her finally be able to be baptized. 

Letter to President Gustafson

Dear Mom, 

I am sorry that I haven't been sending enough detail. I am not good with that sort of thing.
Here is this weeks letter to President Gustafson. I don't know whether or not you would want to share this, but at least maybe you would like to read it. 

"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.
"This week I was able to baptize Egawa Etsuko Shimai. It was a great experience. I really had so many people to help me. It was really rough to get this all together, but it is finally started and I feel like I can say that we have done the right thing. I really do love Egawa Shimai and hope that she will stay true for a long time, so that we can meet again in the faith after I have left here. I am so blessed to have been here to help her! I think I will always remember the words I said as I baptized her. What a great blessing!
"The next things to report are the status of the work and my personal progress.
"I have gained a greater testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. As we struggled to know what was right and wrong, and as we worked to find out the will of the Lord, I was really stressed. It was hard for me to have the opposition that we had, but the Savior knows us, and knows how to succor us. In this time of great stress and trial, the Savior gave me support by good friends who care for me, good branch leaders, and even by friends and family back home. I did not know what power and what meaning could come from the loving hands and words of the people around us. Thank you for your support too Kaicho. Most of all, to feel the Savior's approval and love by them and through the spirit, was a blessing without measure. Partaking of the sacrament was so much needed.
"The work will continue here. I have a hope that it will speed up from here on out. I really have felt directed by the Spirit and am excited to know where we will be led.
Thank you for all you do.
Working hard and keeping the rules, love,
Elder Bevan"

Besides those things, I would like to ask if you might be able to send me a filled out "My Family" booklet, for showing investigators about fam. history.. That would be great.
Anyways, love you Mom. 

Aug. 31, 2014

Quick Update On Egawa:
She really wants to change her life and be baptized. We have needed to work patiently with her and slowly, but she really is a joy to be around. She literally gives us food every day. Tons of it. We have to bike it all back to our apartment everyday, and we are constantly having to rearrange the fridge to fit it all. :) She is great.
She often says she hears voices, and before we began meeting with her she believed in a thing called "Yutaa", which is like a religion or belief that teaches that people can communicate with spirits and with God. That was kind of a worry this week, her baptism was delayed, but we think it will be OK. She is doing well.
The best thing about being a missionary is working hard, doing well, and coming home utterly exhausted because you worked as hard as you could all day. The worst is the times when I don't know what to do, or we get sick or something and have to spend time inside, not doing missionary work. I HATE that. I was sick yesterday... I swear, I cannot stand that feeling. Sometimes, all I have to go on is the knowledge that the Savior will pick up the slack, and that He knows my burdens and mistakes, and that is what keeps me moving.Jesus Christ is faithful to all of His promises and all that He has said. The blessings of Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost, of the sacrament, of the Priesthood (and all that includes), and the blessings received in the Temple are so aparent in my life. He is merciful to the overcoming of all of our weakness if we will turn to Him. I know that those blessings are absolutely, truly, real.
Love to all,

 Elder Bevan

This is zone p-day... with real live American style Hamburgers!

                                      This is also zone p-day, feeding each other M&M's with chopsticks

Staying Focused on the Work

This week I have been thinking a bit about goals, and since it is a big part of our lives I guess I'll write about how the Lord helped us to achieve these goals this week. I really feel like they have helped me to focus on what I ought to focus on and given me something to work for. What a blessing it has been!

The first goal on our weekly list is baptisms and confirmations for the week, usually it is empty.

The second is baptismal dates, our goal for last week was one, and it was filled! Sister Egawa Etsuko finally decided that she wanted to be baptized! We have met with her almost daily for a long time now, and she has been such a blessing to us. Even before this week we had decided on a date that we thought she could make. We set that date with her on Wednesday (for this coming Sunday) and went over the baptismal interview questions with her. I think that she is ready! We do have a little bit to teach her but that will be Ok I think. One of her big hurtles has been coming to church and she committed to keeping the Sabbath day holy by Saturday, and kept that commitment yesterday. 

That is the third goal: sacrament-meeting attendance. This week our goal was two, and it was also filled. Sister Egawa and Brother Sato were the ones who came. Sato was the boy (he is nineteen) that came last week in the rain. He kept his promise and came again this week. It was wonderful. He could even stay for the full three hours! They were both taken care of by wonderful members.

The fourth goal is lessons taught with members present. We have wonderful members that help us so much but I think mostly by my fault as a senior companion we did not fill this goal. We will need to be working hard to get that goal from now on. I think it is important for the progression of those we teach. 

Our goal for other lessons taught was filled.

We are working on others, things like referrals and new investigators and such. We need to work hard for these things and we are so blessed to see success!

I think that making and filling goals is one of the biggest lessons I have learned on my mission. It is a great blessing to see the Lord help us to fill them. I am grateful that He does so. I am so grateful to See the Lord's hand in this work. I know that this is His church. It is His gospel. I have asked and received that answer. What a blessing that is!  I love this work!

Love to all,

Don't be afraid to write! :)

Elder Bevan :)

Food is fine. Sister Egawa has just given us so much food that we cannot keep up with her :) Church members don't really feed us. 

We get about 280$ a month. Money is fine. 

Thanks for caring! 

Japanese  school is year round, but they do get a summer break... i'm not really sure about schools here, their school system is completely different than ours. 

Love you! 

Us "young" missionaries in Nago

We see miracle everyday. We are not very good teachers and we are not good at Japanese, and Elder Robinson and I are still pretty young in the mission (between us we don't even have ten transfers total, sixteen transfers is a two year mission), but we still see miracles.  This week we got all of our goals for lessons taught, sacrament meeting attendances, new investigators, and member involvement visits. One of the investigators that came to church we met on the street. He said he had interest in religion (what!), we shared the first vision and invited him to church. He said he would, and true to his word he came in the pouring rain. Wearing a white shirt and tie none the less! The other investigator was Egawa Etsuko, who we have been working with for maybe a month or more now. (She has been basically our main source of food since we met her. She never sends us away without some food.) What a blessing! We have wanted her to come for so long! It is so wonderful to see the Lord working in us to fill our goals. I feel like if we can keep up the good work and continue to rely on Him we will see success. 

It is pretty hard on Elder Robinson, the little things that get at all of us sometimes are hard for Him. We have been working hard though and he is improving dramatically. His Language has gone from un-understandable to passable (a huge jump). He has improved in so many ways. It is so good to work with him and see him work so hard on things. I love all of my companions, and couldn't be happier :) 

I love the Mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know this is the work of Jesus Christ, the son of God, the Savior.

With love to all,

Elder Bevan