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?

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!

 

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​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

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

Words

So I don't have a ton of time left and I want to get some things out, so this might be short, but I hope that you liked the pictures. I'll try and send something like that every week.

This Sunday in sacrament meeting we confirmed Egawa Shimai a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Branch president was voice in the confirmation and it was powerful. I do not exactly know how to describe the things that I heard and felt. I love to have spiritual experiences in the Japanese language. By the way that you change the words you can tell how much you respect and love the person to whom you are speaking, and in the same way, how powerful the admonition or command you are giving is.

My companion and I were thinking about the wording of the Confirmation ordinance, and how we might say it, but I was off. The command "receive the Holly Ghost" is translated to "Seirei o uke yo!", the most powerful. command form that I know, and the same form into which the Savior's words were translated when he healed the sick and commanded them to rise or be made whole. 

From then on the Spirit was felt, and I believe that it was received. I love that Spirit.

Do we always follow the Lord's command to receive the Holy Ghost? I hope so, and I'm trying.

Love to all,

Elder Bevan

breakfast...

This is Nato and an egg. I mix this into a cup of rice for breakfast every day. I think it is pretty delicious, but Elder Jameson is kind of a picky eater and doesn't agree.

This is just a random park with a funky cement slide I thought was cool...

everything is cement here!

and this is my companion :)..

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. 

Sept. 14, 2014 New Companion!

Ah! I'm so sorry I forgot my camera!

I hope you will forgive me:).

 

I didn't transfer! but I got a new companion named Elder Jameson. He is from Indiana, has two older sisters (one who served a mission in Malan Italy, the other is married) and one younger sister. He studied for a year at BYU in economics, and plays the trumpet, swam on his high school's swim team and is an all around stud. He entered the MTC on the 26th of June 2013, and is on his tenth transfer. From what I've seen he is bold, faithful, and energetic.

Cool companion.

Elder Robinson (to our surprize) transfered to Hiroshima. I kinda thought that I would be the one leaving, but that is all part of the plan. Hheavenly Father really does know our circumstances and what we need. I am excited to start this new transfer with Elder Jameson, he sure is a blessing. Heavenly Father has also answered me prayers in wonderful ways. I love to spend the first fifteen minutes of personal study in prayer. I love to talk with my Father.

 Love you all.

Truly Elder Bevan