Monday, March 26, 2012

Mission Car...

Date:  Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 2:34 PM

Email #77 - New Plymouth

Dear Mom, Dad, Breck, Izaak and anyone else reading this email!!
   Hi everyone! My goodness it has been a hard working and fun week here in New Plymouth. But before that I will answer your questions.
   First off Elder Kofoed is fun. He likes to work hard and strives to always have the guidance of the spirit with him. When we pray and talk about what we should do to help the people we teach you can tell that he has a strong love and desire for those people to progress in the gospel.  One funny fact about him though is that he is related to pretty much half the town. (Yes it is a Mayberry town.) Yep, he has aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents here. I'm amazed he was even aloud to come to this mission because of that. But President just told him; if you are with family, make it a missionary experience. So, if you happen to be up in New Plymouth and we happened to meet I would make sure to make it a missionary experience for you all. lol. (As much as I love you though please do not come where I am. I would go nuts and probably try to sneak home with you all.)
   Now the car picture… If you are talking about the red car with the scratch on it, just know that the person we hit is still alive..........JK! I was just too close to the mailbox when we were checking the mail and I scratched the car. lol. That was an annoying time, I had to fill out a whole accident report form and even draw a diagram of the accident. It was kinda fun but more annoying. lol.



   Now that I am in a car area my asthma is doing better, but Boise took a toll on my inhaler. I will need a new one soon, and I am all out of the preventives. My pants are fixed, there’s a member here who was able to do that and they look good as new! I am positive that all the members who assist the missionaries in any way are greatly blessed and I truly appreciate all they do.
   Now seminary was super fun! We taught four classes, and as each class went by I got more and more confident with our teaching. We talked about Psalms 22,23 and 24. When I first read them my thoughts were, "What the heck is this even saying?" But Elder Kofoed helped me out and we quickly saw that all three of these Psalms talked about Christ and His Atonement. So we began by first reading a few verses in Psalms 22, and then watched the Mormon message entitled "An Apostle's Easter Thoughts on Christ" with Jeffrey R. Holland. Oh how I love that video, if you haven't seen it look it up on lds.org under Mormon messages. After that we talked about what thoughts we had as we watched the video and then read Psalms 23. We then turned real quick over to John 10:11-15, which talks about the good Shepherd and his sheep. In verse 12 we read about the wolf that comes and scatters the sheep. Now what do you think the wolf represents in this story? Satan right? Well John Bytheway talked about these verses and he said that he doesn't see the wolf as Satan, he sees the wolf as the law of justice. We have sinned, and the law of justice say's we must pay. But read verses 14 and 15.
   "14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
   15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep."
   Christ is the good shepherd, and he stands in between us and the law of justice. We then talked about how because Christ paid the price for us we are now indebted to him and he has set the terms on how to repay him. Those terms are what make up his gospel. All that he requires of us is to have faith in Him, repent of our sins, be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and endure to the end. And we endure by continually trying to follow Christ, repenting and making covenants with God in the Temple. This is where Psalms 24 came in with the scripture mastery in verses 3-4. We then bore our testimonies and that was the lesson. Needless to say it was super fun, and the kids seemed to really enjoy it all.
   Ok, now about the rest of the week.  Apart from seminary a lot of time was spent introducing me to the members. Specifically the ones we work with most the time. We have some great member here by the way, One that I really like a lot is brother Butler. He is the seminary teacher AND our high councilman over missionary work. We had dinner with him and his family a few nights ago and he is very knowledgeable in the scriptures and in deep doctrine.  We also have Br. Jerry Jones who is a ward missionary. We helped out in his Sunday school class of 9- 11 year old boys. We dressed up as King Limhi and Alma and told their stories as found in Mosiah21-24. That was fun.
   As for investigators we have a few. Dave is one who has been investigating for close to a year now. He's in his late 30's but in his mind he is around 13 to 17 years old. He keeps saying 'If I find out it's true I will get baptized." So we asked him what he was doing to find out the truth. His response was "meeting with you guys." That's good, but not the best way to find the truth. So we talked about the Book of Mormon with him, and shared Moroni's promise in chapter 10:3-5. We then committed him to read from the Book of Mormon every night for the rest of the week. We'll be following up on that this week.
   We also have two older sisters named Renee and Carol. We brought Br. Jones along and watched "Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration" with them. The spirit was very strong. And I always tear up watching that movie no matter how hard I try not to. It's so frustrating!! lol.
   Anyway. On a side note, Elder Kofoed really likes basketball so we have been getting up early and playing basket ball at the church. On Fridays we meet at the high school and play with some members as well. It is super fun and I am getting pretty good if I do say so myself. lol.
   So that's me this week. Busy and having fun! Sounds like you had a busy week at the ranch as well. No surprise there. And I'm with you Mom, I hope you have a slow week this weekend so you can just sit back and enjoy conference. I am so looking forward to conference as well. Do you realize I have only one more conference on the mission after this? This next month I will have only six months left!! (I try not to keep count but it just can't be helped at times. lol.)
 Well, I love and miss you all. Thank you so much for your prayers, love and support. Take care and stay cool!
                      -Elder Bevell-
p.s. Dad. Holy long email Batman!!!! lol. "Fight the good fight" -1Tim 6:12-
p.s.s. Here is a picture of the Boise Temple. Enjoy!


Monday, March 19, 2012

Transfers... Hello New Plymouth, ID


Date:     Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 8:13 AM
Email #76 – Boise, ID


Dear Bevells,
   Hey everyone! Transfers have come and gone and I am now in New Plymouth with Elder Kofoed. I am really excited to be here as it is close to La Grande. I actually saw one of the bishops I worked with today at the transfer spot. He told me that a lot of good has happened in the ward and that he really appreciated all the hard work I did while I was there. It's good to be appreciated.
   So, I don't know too much about the area just yet. I do know that we cover three wards and we live with members. Elder Kofoed seems like a great guy who likes to work hard and be a missionary. I can already feel a wonderful spirit around him. This is also a car area so I shouldn't have much trouble with my asthma.
   Now I am assuming the reason I don't see an email is because of all my emailing on Tuesday in the past. Don't feel bad. I will be emailing on Mondays again here in New Plymouth.
  Another fact I just learned, apparently we teach seminary once a week here! I am so excited for that. This week we will be talking about psalms 1-24. Feel free to read up and talk about that as a family.
   Well I hope all of you are doing good. Is it a busy week at the ranch?  I love you all; you are always in my prayers. Remember, Jesus loves you! Stay cool!
                -Elder Bevell-

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Biffed it on my bike...


Date:     Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 1:55 PM
Email #75 – Boise, ID


Hear Bevells,
   Hey family! Guess what, it’s raining today! I just love the rain when I'm in a bike area!....ok not really but because of the gospel I am able to handle it all with a good attitude!
   So, it started off very good. We had district meeting at 10:30 and the main topic was on Christ like attributes. Specifically faith, hope and charity. I really felt the spirit as we talked about how to gain these attributes. Did you know that all Christ like attributes are a gift from our Heavenly Father? Yep, and the best way to gain these "gifts" is to grow closer to the Savior. It's like any normal relationship, the longer you hang out with someone the more things you pick up from them. You begin to change and grow. So the closer we are to the savior the more like him we become. It really made me want to work harder at being closer to my Savior by reading the scriptures more, praying with greater intent and just being the best person I can be.
   After district meeting we rode our bikes over to the hospital to give some blessings. The first to Daryl, the less active guy we are teaching. He's about to go in for radiation treatments and he wanted a blessing before that. I was really touched when he asked me to give him the blessing. "For some reason I have bonded with you more than the other two." He said. Then looking at Elders Brimhall and Porter "No offence you guys are awesome too!" lol. I felt so grateful to have his trust like that. The next blessing was for an older woman who had a stroke. We didn't talk much there. Just gave the blessing and left, but the spirit was still there.
   Now about the past week! You will probably find it funny to know that I biffed it on my bike for the first time! Man it was embarrassing. We were riding down the road and I went to get on the sidewalk. As I tried to get up on the small slope my bike decided that it didn't want to go up. My wheel just grinded against the sidewalk and I fell over sideways and slid to a stop with the bike on top of me. I wasn't hurt, just shook up. And I also had a bee-ayu-utiful hole in my pants! (That's the picture. =D) So that's my funny moment this past week.



   We also received a lot of referrals as well which we are trying to contact now, we are very glad for something to keep us busy.
   Transfers are this week! We will get the call on Friday so I will be letting you know if I am staying or leaving afterwards as usual. I have a feeling that I might be leaving because of my asthma. As hard as I try I still have to use my inhaler daily. I told president about it and his tone of voice made it sound like he would be moving me.
   Sounds like you had a very busy week at the ranch. Sorry you didn't have a lot of hands to help. But I am proud of you all for working together to get the job done! You all rock! Keep up the good work and I will be glad to help out when I get back!
   Thanks again for all you guys do. I love you all and think of you every day. Apart from the gospel you all are a great source of strength. Thank you. Stay cool!
                       -Elder Bevell-  

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

1 Timothy 6:12 - new favorite scripture


Date: Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 2:24 PM
Email #74 – Boise, ID


Hello Bevells,
   Gosh, this email on Tuesdays is really starting to get annoying and I hope you all are not mad at me for it. We played basketball the other day and we played close to 4 hours!! I was done by hour 2 but Brimhall is just a machine! So of course after that he is very tired and doesn't want to ride to the library to email.
   Anyway we are also teaching someone new. His name is Daryl; he's in his late 20's and has just found out that he has a huge tumor in his brain. We met him for the first time at the hospital where we learned that he is a less active member. He told us that when the doctors told him he was pretty shaken, but he knows that he needs God at this crucial time and wants to strengthen his faith. So we are now teaching him at the hospital once a week. We will be seeing him tomorrow at 3.
   So those are the highlights of this past week. Crazy fun! lol. Once again I am glad to hear you are all doing well. And Breck I envy you on how Mom didn't even wake up when you told her you were home. I never meant to scare you Mom, you just always freaked out! lol.
   I hope you all have a great week! Give my best to Ethan and Shar. I love you all so much and you are always in my prayers. You are the best! Take care, and stay cool!
                     -Elder Bevell-
p.s. OH! Dad, look up 1 timothy 6:12. It's my new favorite verse. lol. Fight the Good fight!