Tue, Sept 27, 2011 at 1:34pm

Email #52 – La Grande, OR

Dear Bevell family,

  I will begin by answering your last questions. Yes, I did get Kenton's letter and I will be writing him. I just can't not respond to a letter cause I really do apreciate it when I get them. lol. Carsten and I have been writing back and forth since he can't email me from the MTC, but he will once he is out in the field. He sounds like he is having a blast! Im really excited for him. I also responded to Teasha, with my last envelope actually. lol So snail mail will be on hold till next month.. Also, as to Libby not calling you yet we found out that she has laryngitis. lol.

Transfer calls come this Friday and I really Really REALLY hope I do not get moved! I still feel like I have stuff to do here and that there are people who need my help and fellowship.  Which brings me to the past week! This last week has been a really good week. We have been passing out "family mission plans" to the ward members to help them help us. We checked up on a few of them on Sunday and I was pleased to hear that most of them have some people in mind all ready. The members really like this plan, I will send you guys one as soon as I can. I'm getting ready to mail a package home to you guys. ;)

  We also have some new investigators! The first one is Vern. Great guy, he's met with missionaries in the past but doesn't remember to much from before.  We taught him the restoration yesterday and the spirit was strong. We told him about how Christ set up his church while here on the earth, called twelve men and gave them Priesthood authority to do miracles in his name. How after those twelve men were killed or disappeared that the Priesthood was no longer on the earth and important parts to Christ's gospel were lost, and needed to be restored, and that it was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. We then watched the Restoration DVD. Afterwards, we bore our witness that Jesus is the Christ, that his church has been restored to the earth once more and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I love having so many opportunities to bare witness of the Savior, and watching as the Holy Ghost touches those peoples hearts. This truly is the greatest work in the world.

  The second new investigator is Brian (unpronounceable last name!!) lol. We met with him briefly to set an actual appointment, he seems very cool.

  Now about you guys, Izaak, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! Wow, my little brother now holds the Priesthood. That is so cool man and I am so proud and excited for ya! The power that you now have will be a great tool in helping you grow. Always seek little brother to be worthy of that power, you may not understand it fully now (and I sure as heck don't understand it fully as well) but it is one of the greatest gifts your Father in Heaven can give you. Welcome to the ranks!!

  I too am very excited for Conference this weekend! We are planning on watching the Saturday morning session at a member’s house where we will be provided with breakfast! That is all we have planned so far. lol. It's going to be fun. To prepare my self for conference I went on lds.org and printed off a talk by President Uchtdorf titled "No Ordinary Blessing". In it he tells us three ways we can prepare for General Conference. I am very excited to read it and encourage you all to do the same.

 Now Breck, don't think I have forgotten you. You GO girl! I don't think I sold that many entertainment books when I was in high school and I definitely didn't sell them by going door to door! Now you have an idea on how I feel when I work! lol. I am very proud to hear that you handled it so very well. It can be hard, especially when you KNOW that what you have to offer can truly help that person. Way to go sis!

  The temple trip sounds like so much fun. The Boise temple is under renovations and won't be open again for probably a YEAR! The last time I went to the temple was when I was in Twin Falls! I really want to go but being in La Grande, there is no way we can make the trip. I'm making it a prioritiy to go as soon as I can. You guys have fun, and I look forward to hearing how it goes.

  I loved the pictures! It makes me laugh as I see the ones with Braylon in them. He looks like a GIANT compared to the rest of us. (That’s cause he is!!) Especially Dan! lol I am still a little baffled on how they ended up together. I did not see that coming. I remember coming home one night and I see Dan sitting on the couch and Braylon sitting next to her with his arm around her, and I was thinking "What, are you doing in my home next to my sister?" lol. Know though Braylon that I am very glad to have you in the family now.

  Well Golly gee! What more can I say? I love you all. I miss you all. I pray for you all. And I think of you all often. Thank you for all your prayers and support, and your love. Take care, and stay cool.

                                    -Elder Bevell-

p.s. I got to see Elder Jones today, my companion from the MTC!

Izaak is now a Deacon in the Priesthood.  

Love Tuesday!

Tue, Sept 20, 2011 at 11:59 am

Email #51 – La Grande, OR

Dear Bevell Family,

  To start off, I too like Tuesday! It's the one day when I can just sit back and take a breath before plunging back into the work at 6:00 pm. I love getting to hear about you all and telling you about my week. This week did have some bummer moments but some really good ones too! I will start with the bummer ones. So two weeks ago while looking at our dinner calendar on Sunday I for some strange reason looked at the wrong day and set up dinner with the family who had signed up for the next week. Yeah. So about an hour before we were going to head over we get a call from the people who had signed up to feed us that night asking us if we still wanted to come over for dinner. lol, I felt so ridiculous as I explained what happened. They were really good about it though and just said, "We'll just feed you next Sunday then." Well, next sunday came and we were called up last minute to go to Enterprise because there were some families that wanted to meet with us! (We didn't find out on Sunday but during the week) So we went up to Enterprise and what happens...they all cancel on us!!  Luckily we had caught a ride with some members so we didn't waste any miles (thanks for the small blessings right?) so we just sat and talked with our Ward Mission Leader about what he and the ward could do to help get the mission work going up there. We gave him some family mission plans we had made and also talked about the 555 program which is a program that helps the ward have at least 15 people/families the missionaries can be teaching. Very effective when done properly. So we then caught a ride back to La Grande with some members and worked on planning what we would do the next day. It was then that I realized that I had not called our dinner to tell them that we wouldn't be able to come that night......yeah. I felt even more silly for having missed dinner with the same family TWICE!!! They were great about it. When I called to apologize they just laughed and said it was ok and they would just catch us on a different night. I love the members up here and how Christ like they are. The family we missed are the Bonds, the same bond who does chiropractic work on us Elders every Tuesday!  So that was the craziness of our week.

The good stuff that happened was that we got a call from the Bishop in 4th ward telling us that he had two new people who wanted to meet with us!! And while at one of those people's place we got a third person who wanted to hear the lessons! It feels so good to have new people to teach!  Brendon is doing great. He asked us to move his baptism back to Oct 8 so he could really digest all that we taught him so he could "feel"ready. He's doing so good, and his Dad might even start meeting with us!

  The inspection didn’t happen!! We cleaned the whole place and he didn't come! And on top of that the apartment is a mess again!!!  oh well. I'm just grateful that we have food and a roof over our heads. lol.

  As to tracting, yeah that is the most ineffective way to do missionary work here. Most people are already members, and the rest don't want us knocking on their doors. We use the members to find new people to teach, and that is the best way to do missionary work! Elder Bednar put it beautifully when he said “Missionaries are full time teachers, while you and I (aka the members) are full time finders." Remember that now ok and help out the elders near you!   We don't go on splits to often now, we are actually discouraged to go on splits! President Cannon talked to us on how we can teach more powerfully as a companionship, and that splits should only be used if appointments overlap each other. I like that better anyway cause it's sometimes hard to teach when the person you are with doesn't know how you teach or what the person you are teaching really needs. It can get frustrating at times to say the least. lol.

  Well I am glad you enjoyed the pictures, I loved the ones you sent last week! I'm glad the ranch is doing well and I really do look forward to working with you all there again!  Only 13 months left!!!!!...not that I'm counting or anything. lol. I love you all, I still pray for you every night and I look forward to hearing from you in snail mail! Take care and stay cool!!

                                   -Elder Bevell-

11 Months

Tue, Sept 13, 2011 at 12:55 pm

Email #50 – La Grande, OR

Dear Bevell Family,

  Holy cow!! It looks like a lot of fun happened this last week! And thank you for all the pictures, I loved them. Especially the ones of Izaak asleep! You must have been exhausted! lol.

  So just yesterday Mom, I gave your cell number to Libby Davis. I don't know if she has called you yet but she wanted to get a hold of ya so expect a call. You will love her!! Elder Zerbe and I are still getting a long great, and we are starting to see a little improvement in the work. Apparently there is a family in Enterprise that wants to meet with us, so we are planning on going up there this Sunday. Hopefully someone can give us a ride because we don't have enough miles for that! lol.

  Our apartment is getting inspected today which means that we spent a lot of time cleaning it. Yes it is finally CLEAN!! I have been trying so hard to keep it clean but the other three Elders just don't seem to care if they live in a pig hole! Mom, you have made me somewhat a clean freak! lol.

  So today is my 11 month mark!!! I can't believe it has almost been a year! To celebrate we are going to do some laser tag today! It's only 5 bucks a person and it's PIRATE themed! lol. It's going to be a fun pday.

  Well, we finally set a baptism date with one of our investigators! Brendon! I think I told you about him. He's friends with Trisha Takahashi who was baptized two months ago and is now living in Hawaii. He's been a little tough to teach mainly because he is skeptical of everything. But he finally told us that he knows the Book of Mormon is true, and we set the 24th of this month as his baptism date. Pray that it will happen.  I am glad you are all doing good, I pray for you all every night. I love you all. Take care and stay cool!!

                    -Elder Bevell-

Laboring on Labor Day...

Tue, Sept 6, 2011 @ 12:39pm

Email #49 – La Grande, OR

Dear Bevell Family,

  Once again it is so good to hear from you all. Sorry I haven't written in a while. I have been dog tired at the end of the past few days, lots of work going on. I will be writing you all this week!!   Sounds like a lot of fun has been going on down there at the ranch.  I loved the pictures of Izaak's project. Good job bro! I'm very proud of you and can see that you are trying hard in school, keep up the good work! And I love Dad's new name, Pablo Bevell the bookie! I have a funny for you Dad. One of our investigators is spanish. Her name is Rosa Norwood and I asked her if the word Pablo means anything in Spanish. She said yes, that it is the name of the Apostle Paul! So it looks like I have changed your name from John to Paul.  lol sorry if you don't like it. ;)

  So, Libby is doing good. The funny story with her is... One day I told her that back home I was kind of a video game nerd. When I told her this her jaw dropped, and she asked, "What's your favorite game?" I said Halo. Her jaw dropped even further. "That's my favorite game too!!!" lol, Turns out Libby is a huge gamer!! She loves game systems and even online games. (She is a world of warcraft fan. lol) It was funny to hear how she beat all her grandchildren at all these games that just came out!  I loved it.

    Well I am short on time today. Elder Zerbe and I are getting along just great. We are working hard and things are looking bright! I will write you all this week and my prayers are with you always. I love you all! Stay cool!

               -Elder Bevell-

Pablo Bevell story referenced by Elder Bevell... this is from an email I sent Elder Bevell previously...

So my funny for the week.  It is actually just silly, but it made Dad laugh so hard he had tears.  I was cleaning my office at work last Saturday.  And in the back of one of my desk drawers I found a slip of paper with some names and numbers on it.  

Here is a part of the list -

Hankyshadow   36

Poor Richard  36

Free Booter  48

Cooper Std Black  36

Anyway, I knew it was Dad's handwriting.  And it looked so strange to me.  Then I remembered the movie about the mafia guy and how he used fronts for his bookings.  LOL.  So I thought --- I am going to ask Dad if he taking bets.  What a great cover to use the ranch.... dunt, dunt duhhhh...(that is music sound effects to make my story more dramatic,)  Ok... so here is the best part.  I then decided to Google the first name on the list and see what it was...  have you figured it out?...  go ahead... take a guess... It was... A FONT!  Yep that's right... A FONT.  A type of lettering in Microsoft Word.  It was Dad's list of lettering that he liked for the SLR brand he wants to make for the wood furniture he is building. So what are the numbers?  Yep... the Font sizes he likes.  Oh my, Dad laughed so hard when I had "the talk" with him, to make sure he wasn't part of the mafia.  So as you can see we are all still crazy fun around here and laugh quiet often.  Dad says his new name is Pablo Bevell the Bookie!