New Companion

Emilee didn't explain these photos so I am guessing she found these on a wall in their apartment or in a book somewhere?  I will have to ask her about them.  I just thought it would be fun for these missionaries to see that they are still there being read by current missionaries.

Emilee and her new companion Sister Finau.

Dear Family, 

You'll never guess. I have a new companion.... and she is Tongan! Again! I love Tongans so so much and when I found out I was going to have my third Tongan companion, I was literally jumping up and down with joy! 

So, her name is Sister Finau (Fee-now) and this transfer is her last transfer. I'm going to "kill her" as we say here in the San Pablo mission. She is a very, very social and outgoing person. She is very humble as well and loves everyone. I have done more service with her in these last 5 days than all my other companions put together. If she ever sees anyone carrying buckets of water, or doing laundry, she immediately drops her bag and starts doing it with them, whether we know them or not! She promised me that she will NOT get trunky this transfer and I believe her completely. I wouldn't know she was going home this transfer because of her hard work, enthusiasm and diligence. 

I had an interesting dream before she became my companion. To both the Tongan and Filipino cultures, dreams are a really big deal and they often foreshadow things that will happen. So, of course, after 11 months in the Philippines and 3 Tongan companions, it's about time I have one! I dreamed that Sister Vaka and I were proselyting, just like a normal day, and then suddenly Sister Vaka turned to me and said, "It's time to go." So we went to get her luggage and once we had everything packed, we got into a tricycle. We dropped her off and I picked up my new companion. I didn't see her face in the dream, but I knew she was shorter than me. ;) Haha. Anyway, as we were getting into the tricycle, I looked back and there were 3 Tongans waving at me. Two of them were Sister Feinga and Sister Vaka, and the other was my new companion! Cool, right? 

I also wanted to share with you an amazing story that Sister Finau shared with me about her life. She told me that she always wanted to serve a mission, but when she got into high school, she started to become "pasaway." (Disobedient in tagalog.) She never did any serious sins, but she ran away from home and for 6 months, she never came home. After 6 months, she went back to her house to get something in her room. The door was hard to push open, but when she finally did, she opened it and found so much food everywhere. On her dresser, on her bed, everywhere. She was really mad, because some of it was rotting and stunk. She turned around and went into her room to confront her parents. When she came in, she found her dad, lying in his bed, nearly dead from illness. She said though, that it didn't really faze her and she demanded, "Why is there all this food in my room? It stinks!" Her mother, in a quiet voice said, "When are you going to come home? When are you going to come home? Every night we save you some food and put it in your room, hoping that you will come home." She said she immediately went outside and told her friends to leave. From that day until her mission, she never left her parents. I loved that story and cried when she told me it. 

Well, we've had a really successful week. We have a new investigator, who is the husband of one of our other investigators. Commonly, we have a problem where the wives are really interested, but the husbands are super against us. But in this case, the husband is so interested! Yay! He had many questions for us. His son, a 15 year old is a really hard debater and really knows the bible. He often uses it to try to make us trip up in our lessons. But his father had so much confidence in our message, despite anything his son was saying. After his son pulled out scripture after scripture trying to prove that there couldn't be prophets today, his father just shook his head at him, and then told us, "I believe we still need Prophets. Why would they just stop after Christ?" Anyway, I can't wait to teach him again! We left him a book of mormon to read and pray about and I'm excited to see how it went! 

Also, our very first investigator here in Barra finally came to church. We've been struggling each week to get her to come. Despite it being sort of close to her house, she hasn't been able to come because of one reason or another. But this Sunday, right in the middle of passing the sacrament, she came! Sister Finau and I both rejoiced when we saw her! Missionary work is so wonderful!!!!!!! 

This week, I wondered who the Happiest person on earth was. I realized, of course, it would be the most perfect. Jesus Christ must have been the very happiest person on earth and his whole life, everyday was spent in the service of others. Let us all strive to be like him and follow his example! 

I love you! 

Remember to share the gospel with everyone through your example! 

Fear is not worthy of a child of God! :) 

With Love,

Sister Beaumont 

11 Months In The Field

View from our apartment

Me and My Companion

An awesome restraunt we ate at which is filippino traditional native food and culture! 

It played michael buble music and I was at home! I loved it so much! :) 

So, another month mark is coming up! Tomorrow is my 11 month mark in the field. I can't believe time has gone by so fast! I feel like it's only been weeks! I remember my first week emailing home, feeling like, "This is the beginning of 18 more months!" Now I feel the end is coming! I just want to be a missionary forever! Maybe I'll extend, haha! :) 

Well, I have some great experiences to share with you from this week! 

First we have 2 baptismal goal dates now, not just one! Yahoo! We are so happy!  We have 6 investigators instead of the one we started out with. All in all, a happy ending to this transfer. We are so excited to see where things will go here in Barra! 

Well, This week we had stake conference.  Saturday night nobody really showed up. It was 20 members and the missionaries. For the whole stake! So Sunday morning, we weren't really thinking and left at 9:20 when it started at 10. We got there to find the place packed! We found a member to sit by and she said that she had been their since 8 but she was clear in the back! 

We were in the overflow, on the 4th row to last. We were okay though, because we could still see... but as soon as the meeting started, we realized the speakers in the back didn't work, so we couldn't hear a word. After an hour of members chitchatting in the back and children running around like crazy because there was no sound, they set up huge speakers. So then we could hear and just in time too, because our President was next to speak. Before they let him speak though, they took the mic attached to the big speakers and tapped it against the puplit speaker. It was so loud and we all laughed. What a crazy experience! 

I finished the Book of Mormon in Tagalog this week! All 777 pages of it! Whew! Now I reading Moses in the Pearl of Great Price. I'm finding that I understand most of what is said now I'm pretty happy! :) 

I also taught Sister Vaka Yoga and Singing. As if I know how to do either of these, haha. But she asked me to teach her what I knew, so I did. It was fun and we sung the Sound of Music song to learn. (We got rained in one day and because it was flooding in Barra we were stuck in doors almost all day so that's how we spent it.) 

This week I read Jesus the Christ and learned that Christ also had to go through the veil of forgetfulness! He, just like us, had to learn through the spirit and gain through the spirit the knowledge of who he was before. He was tested and tried just as we were, but unlike us, he never made a mistake. It's more incredible to me now than ever that he came to this earth, and although he had the veil of forgetfulness over his mind, he preformed the atonement! I am so grateful for my savior and his perfect life and example for all of us! 

There are many cultures here on this earth! ( Philippino, American...) But we all share one common culture- the gospel! Christ is our savior and through him, we can be perfected and return to God.

I love you! Keep smiling and sharing the gospel through example and word! 

-Sister Beaumont 

3 New Investigators

My dear family.  What a week! We've had some crazy experiences here in Barra! Somethings have been really good and others have been really weird to say the least. 

The good news, we have 3 new investigators! We are so happy for them. They are all former investigators and we are so happy that they are opening their hearts up to us. One is this wonderful family. They have been taught 3 times before, in each of the places they used to live before moving. They are now in Barra and we have found them! I fell in love with them as soon as the mother said, "I believe that your church is true. Why else would God keep putting missionaries in my life?" We are going to follow up with them about praying to receive an answer. I'm so excited to see their progression. 

We also found another former investigator that just shines with the light of Christ. I love her so much and I can't wait to see her growth in the lessons. She invited us in before she even knew who we were and immediately fed us. I remembered what you told me dad, about the house of Israel. I looked on her porch and sure enough, flowers! So that's exciting! Her husband is less active so we might be able to hit two birds with one stone. 

Our first investigator is doing great as well. She is clear in Mosiah! I'm so happy that she loves the book of mormon! She reads it everyday while her children do their homework. Our only challenge is getting her to come to church. She feels overwhelmed with her children and her husband. (He doesn't like the church but allows her to go and is okay if she is baptized.) Anyway, we hope that all will go well with her and her family. 

Well, like I said, we had some weird experiences as well. We arrived in Barra on to find EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE at the basketball court. One of the popular radio stations here in the Philippines was doing a big raffle, singing contest event. It kind of put a damper on our plans if you can imagine. No one was at their houses for us to teach. We finally sat down on a ledge and started to talk about what we should do. That's when a woman came up from behind us and said, "Mormons?" We were so excited. This was an answer to our prayers! Or so we thought. We started to talk with her a little and she asked us what we believed. Even more eager, we began to share. She seemed really receptive, until suddenly we realized she was crazy. Like, literally, she was crazy. She tried to show us a mark on her leg by pulling down her pants and kept talking about how beautiful I was because I looked like the people on tv. Then she ranted about Elizabeth Taylor for a while and told us her whole history. Every once and a while she would laugh like some insane woman. 

I guess Heavenly Father knew we just needed a laugh. 

Anyway, I love you! Thanks for your support and emails! 

I pray all is well with you back home! 

With Love,

Sister Beaumont 

Halloween in the Philippines

Hello my dear family! Sorry about the short email last time... I can always trust my mother to remind me when I need to make my emails a little longer. 

Well, Halloween here in the Philippines is a very different experience compared to America. 

I felt like I was walking through a marte grade parade all day long. 

There were tents and canopies all over the cemeteries and people were literally having picnics ON TOP of the tombs of their loved ones. 

I guess it's some sentimental way to share lunch with the dead. We set aside that day to contact people only because we had an early curfew. 

Some people were really chill and nice, others were a little irritated. The main road was closed down and there were dozens of souvenir stands everywhere. 

The only taste of American style Halloween that I saw was a booth that was set up to look really "Halloween-ish" with people that held axs and sceletons. 

People would pass by, take a picture at the booth and then move on. All in all though, it was a good day. 

We were actually really grateful for our early curfew, because on the way home, the other sisters in our apartment saw someone murdered. 

It was really scary for them. (In case I haven't told you before, the two other sisters are Sister Japus and Sister Oldem. They are both Filipino and really cute! I love them so much!) 

In answer to your question, I have been switching off with another girl who plays out of the easy hymn book. 

She is learning piano and she does really good! I almost taught piano once, but the appointment was cancelled because they never showed up. 

I have never taught English but I always wish I could. It's sounds so fun! 

Well, this week I saw many miracles in the work.

We found some wonderful investigators and one even came to church and brought her husband with her! It was such a happy surprise. 

We also got to have a special meeting in San Pablo with Elder Robbins from the Seventy. 

He talked mainly on taking responsibility. He said that if we have 100 percent agency, then we also have 100 percent responsibility. 

It was so great to have him in our mission! We also got to see a broadcast with Dallin H. Oaks where he spoke to the whole Philippines. 

He talked about how the Philippine Culture is wonderful culture of Beautiful smiles, Modesty, and family centered beliefs. 

It's all very true! Everyone is so friendly here and smiles at you, even if you are strangers in passing. 

They are very modest and hardly ever do I see cleavage or other parts of the body that should be covered. In fact, if ever a girl bends down, 

she will hold her shirt to her chest with one hand just to make sure nothing shows. 

And despite the attacks on family in many parts of the world, the Philippines is so strong in their desires for a good strong and happy family! 

I just love these people! 

Well, that's it! Times up! 

Love you all! 

-Sister Beaumont