My Goals Or Desires For the Next 5 Months

First of all, I just want to thank my brother for his awesome spirit! I love his letters every week and highlight things to remember and try in our work here in the Philippines! Your the best Trevor! 

What a great week to be a missionary! Even though it was extremely busy, (I forgot to add last week that all those meetings were on top of our proselyting time...) We really saw amazing miracles. It's incredible how much the hand of the Lord is in our daily lives. 

So firstly, you asked  a while back what my goals were about this coming year. After much thought and prayer, I have concluded on the following list of what I call, "My 5 desires". These are the top 5 desires of the next 5 months of what I want to accomplish in the mission. 

1. I want to be confident that I am a consecrated missionary with an eye single to the Glory of God. 

2. I want to finish like it's my first day, with all the missionary fire we start with. I want to leave it all on the field. 

3. I want to better come to know my Savior and use his atonement daily. 

4. I want to leave every person and area better than I found it. 

5. I want to bring one more soul unto Christ, a.k.a Help at least one more person unto the waters of baptism. :)

So there you have it! My goals for the last few months of my mission. 

Last week Mom asked me how I feel about  my batch going home and I'm still in the mission. Honestly, I'm so relieved. I can't go home that soon!!!!!! I'm so incredibly grateful for the extra time that I have to serve God and to be his missionary. I also have seen recently an unexpected gift that Heavenly Father has given me out of it. Because my batch is going home, I have had the chance to talk with them about their fears and uncertainties about it all. I understand how they feel and what they are going to feel because I already went through it before. I have been able to counsel them on the things that will be most helpful and the things that they can look forward to and expect. It's a wonderful blessing that Heavenly Father has given me to be able to understand and reach out to everyone in my batch. I feel like everything is switched now, and I'm encouraging them, haha! 

So I just want to record some really cool miracles this week! First, We have had a lack of intrest lately as we've street contacted people and most people are more interested in my nationality than getting a lesson. My companion and I put our heads together and prayed hard this week and last week that we would be able to have some interested potentials from oyming. Well, prayers work! We talked to 18 people one day and 17 of them accepted lessons. It seemed like everyone in our path was prepared and realdy for some lessons! How cool! 

Second, there was a lady on this jeep one day that I really felt like I needed to talk to. The only problem was, she was too far away and I could get to her. I kept looking at her and feeling the need, but I didn't know how. Finally I just prayed that I would be able to have the opportunity to talk again, if it was the will of God. Incredibly, she was sitting next to me the very next jeepney ride! Almost 3 hours later, we boarded the same jeep. Can you believe it? Even cooler, she accepted lessons. Heavenly Father answers our prayers. 

Well,

Mahal kita! 

-Sister Beaumont 

My Area, My Companion, My Schedule

The area I am in now is really big and it's a city. Almost all the houses are nice comfortable homes and it's really a big contrast to Barra. I've found that I'm more comfortable when we enter into a home with dirt floors than with tile... but I'm happy to be in the city again. We have a progressing area and a lot of investigators. It's nice to be in an area where everyone welcomes you into their homes so easily. The members here are really great! I love one family in particular and have become really attached to this area. I hope with all my heart that is my LAST area. I've decided I'm not a fan of transferring so much. It's hard to try to get to know new people every three months! But like I said, there is a family here that I love. The father is a painter and has the most incredible paintings! Many of his artworks have been displayed in the Church History Museum in Salt Lake. He is sending in another beautiful painting of the Savior at Galilee and I hope that it will get in! (They have a contest.) He has 6 children, (all grown with families), one is our bishop, another is a bishop in another ward, one is a cook, and one is sculpter. It's so fun to see their house. Unlike anything I've seen her in the Philippines. It's so artistic and has a feel of design to it. They have a tree growing right out of there kitchen, through the second floor, and out onto the roof. It's awesome! 

Second, My companion.

We haven't had much time with one another because of how busy everything is, but we get along really well. She is more quiet and reserved and sometimes I think I can be a little intimidating to her. I've developed a rather outgoing personality throughout my mission. However, we have been coming really close as we've talked and gotten to know one another better. I love her and I'm so grateful for her as my companion! She's exactly what I needed. 

Third, Schedule. 

Whew. That's definitely where the story is at. We are so busy all the time, running running, that I feel like my head just hit the pillow each night only to get up in 5 minutes and do it all again. I'm lucky if I have time to shower each night, let alone write in my journal! However, I love it! It's so great and it's exactly what I need to keep my on my toes these last months. So this past week we had Zone Meeting on Wednesday. We gave a workshop, reported on the news from our President and gave a talk called, Rise to your Call. Afterward, we rushed home and did our weekly planning, finishing just in time to rush off for another exchanges. Sorry, no pictures. I don't trust this place, haha. But anyway, she's from Australia, her name is Sister Tzanis, and it was so fun! I love her fun loving personality and I learned a lot from her. Then we came back on Friday night just in time to start our second exchanges. This time I was with Sister Leung-wai from Hawaii. She was really fun. She is only 4 weeks into the mission, so I had to do a lot of the teaching. It was so crazy and made me a little grateful that I've always had a companion to support me in teaching, but I really loved our exchanges and learned a lot from her! She is so fun and awesome! Then we had more meetings and I'm just grateful that its another week. Although I'm dreading it also. Here's what we have ahead of us for this week! :)

Monday- Zone P-day (We provided games and food)

Tuesday- Exchanges

Wednesday- Evaluations of Exchanges, District meeting 

Thursday- Zone Interviews and Weekly Planning

Friday-Zone interviews and meet for Exchanges

Saturday- Exchanges and evaluations 

Sunday- Ward Conference

Whew, so there you have it. Wish me luck! 

I love you all! Thanks for your support! 

-Sister Beaumont 

Time Flies When You Are Busy

Well,

First off, Happy Birthday Tanner! I love you so much! Hope the day was special! And happy birthday Grandpa Warby! I love you too! 

This week seemed to come and go in a matter of 7 hours instead of 7 days. It was so fast! Time can really fly when you are busy! 

We had exchanges this week- my first one of the transfer. I still have 8 more to go! :) I'm so excited. The girl I went with was Sister Kerr, I sent you a picture of it. She is going home in Jan 30 so she had a lot to teach me. We worked really hard and saw amazing miracles in her area. On such miracle was that we got introduced by a member to this man who is slowly going blind. He used to be atheist, but since going blind has come to believe in God and spends everyday reading what he can about God online through his big screen. We shared Ether 12:27 with him and he started crying. He said that he has had several missionaries from other religions come to his house, but none have had such an effect on him as us. He said there was a power from God that he could feel. He asked us to read the scripture again. Then he said, "God has answered my prayers." Then we asked him to close with a prayer and he said in his prayer, "Father, the Sisters said they want to come back. Please help them to come back." It was the first time I had ever heard that and I started crying! Then after the prayer he said again, "I felt it again! This is truly something better than all the missionaries before had to offer." It was a reminder to me of the special message that we carry as missionaries. It is better than anything the world has to offer! 

I got to attend MLC, missionary Leadership council this week. It was an amazing meeting and it completely changed my life! I think this has been my favorite meeting out of all the meetings on my mission. I learned so much about Christ and his Enabling power of the atonement. One thing that I liked especially was something that our mission president said. "You are the limiting factor to how much the Lord can magnify you. His enabling power and magnification is limitless." 

We got to teach a FHE lesson to the A. family this week. We sang a hymn from the tagalog hymn book and the spirit just rushed into the room. We sang love at home and I really could feel the love that God has for each of his special children and especially how important it is to him that families are forever. At the end of the lesson I shared with them about how I had been a member all of my life, and how the church helped me through primary, young women, and relief society. I also shared the blessings it was in my family and how strong my family was as we attended each week together. It made me really realize all that the church has done for me! How grateful I am for the blessings I've received. 

For the funny corner, We were teaching a lesson this week and suddenly, this woman's 2 year old son came running in and peed right all of her book of mormon and pamphlets. He then turned and aimed for us.  Luckily Luckily Luckily Luckily Luckily Luckily Luckily Luckily Luckily Luckily Luckily Luckily inches. (Kids hardly wear pants around here so that can happen sometimes.) It was so funny! Those moments, haha.

Well, I love you all so much! 

Have a great week! Remember Heavenly Father loves you! 

-Sister Beaumont 

Living In the Lipa Hotel

Emilee's new companion Sister Dadivas

Dear Family, 

What a crazy week this has been! What with Sister Finau going home and transfer day and everything else :) .... It's kept me on my toes, that's for sure. 

Well, first off, Transfer Day. I was put in charge of 3 new sisters, it being their first transfer. I helped them make it to their destinations along with making it to my own. It made me feel so old in the mission. They kept asking me all these questions and I realized that I am in fact, 1 year into the mission now. Crazy how fast time has flown by! 

 I was transferred to Lipa 1 ward. It's so weird to be back into the city again after the province life of Barra. I really miss small fishing village life! And I really miss the people of Barra. It's weird to see cars everywhere, and to have more than one place to shop and eat each week. I've gotten so used to seeing Petti-cabs. (It's like a trycycle but it's on a bike instead of a motorcycle) Being in Lipa reminds me of my first area. Lipa is really close to Batangas and they are similar in look. The ward is really friendly and seem to be pretty fired up about missionary work, so I'm excited. 

My companion, Sister Dadivas is so cute. She is a filippina and is so much fun to be with. I love her sweet spirit. She is striving to be a good example and leader and she is exactly obedient in all things. I'm really happy to be her companion. I sent you a picture of her, and also of our new apartment, which is sometimes called the Lipa Hotel. 

I learned very quickly why it is so named. Their are 6 sisters in our ward because our boundaries are so big, but four sleep in our apartment and two sleep in the other. Unfortunately, two were locked out of their apartment and needed to spend the night with us. Thankfully the Lipa Hotel is rather big and fancy, and we were able to house them comfortably. We have two bathrooms, ps. Hurray! I felt especially bad for one of the sisters, who was new and didn't understand that they were locked out, or anything else because we had all been speaking in Tagalog. I forgot what it's like to be new in the mission! But she is quite the trouper, even though their sink broke, they were locked out twice, and many more, she is still going strong! 

My new housemates are Sister Kerr and Sister Taufa. Sister Kerr is going home and Sister Taufa is Tongan and goes home the batch after me. I love them so much and of course, happy to have another Tongan in the house. 

Well, New Years was pretty bland. We just went out to work, had an early curfew because of all the drunks about, and came back to sleep. I unpacked and listened to all the kids outside blowing their toy horns all night. Seriously, every kid had the same toy... It was pretty hilarious actually.. I'll try to send a video next time. 

Lastly, we are teaching a family- for the first time in my mission. It's such a differnce teaching a family all together and I love it so much. (The A. Family....) They share one Book of Mormon and have diffent colored markers to mark their place. It's so cute. I love them. We are focusing on trying to get them to attend Church as a family! 

Well, love you! That's it for this week! 

-Sister Beaumont