Moving Apartment not Area

Hey Fam,

It has been great to hear how life is back in good ol Utah!

As for me, I have been doing well here in Missouri (well, minus the
moving, which has been cutting into our schedule, and still isn't done
yet, by the way. Elder Sagers keeps saying we need to be doing other
things as missionaries, but I keep saying we need to get moved, or
were going to be an inconvenience to the Members.) The area we are
moving into is rather nice, the apartment is a two bedroom, two
bathroom (yup, 2 bathroom. The man who came from the mission office to
help us get through part of the moving process told us that we each
had to choose a bathroom and put our names on the door, so that anyone
inspecting our apartments would know who has a clean bathroom, and who
doesn't) and has a dishwasher (which is a welcome addition). The only
problem is that now we have to either haul ur laundry to another
companionship's house to do laundry, or use the pay to use washing
machines in the basement of the complex we are in.

Conference this month was awesome! All of the talks were very good,
and it was a different experience watching conference on my mission. I
ended up taking a lot of notes, and it was a great learning experience
that I was able to learn much from for both myself and my
investigators. Some of the talks I was able to learn the most from was
Elder Holland's on mothers, Elder Uchtdorf's talk on Daniel and his
faith, and Elder Renlund's talk. President Monson's talk was also
good, and certainly helped me, but those three talks stuck out to me
in particular.

Tell Nate to keep praying for people I can talk to, because just
this week we got two new investigators, and a number of strong
potentials we have met!

Love you guys!
Elder Beelek

First Baptism

Well this week has been both amazing, and boring. We had a baptism this week which was exciting, but it was really the only thing we had. The baptism was a bit stressful to prepare for, because me and my companion had no idea how to prepare for one, because it was our first time, and we forgot some pretty basic things (i.e. a jumpsuit that fit our investigator, to tell our investigator to bring a change of underwear, to make sure that our investigator didn't have any physical ailments that would prevent her from being dunked backward in the water) which did end up being a problem, so the people in the font had to dunk her four times before someone in the congregation present had the idea to dunk her forward. But eventually we did manage it, and when my companion did the confirmation on Sunday, we didn't have to do that four times, thank goodness. But besides that, it was pretty uneventful. 

Although, we still have been finding new investigators because of the area book, we have been finding some very strong potential investigators that previous missionaries stopped visiting for who knows what reason, so Nate's prayers are still working, just maybe in a  different way than I expected.

We are in the process of transferring our paper area book records, to our digital area book app. We have to do that for 2 hours every day, and so it has been cutting into our proselyting time. It is a good system, and I can tell it will boost our effectiveness after the transfer is complete, but right now it is kind of painful. Ah well, I guess it is all part of hastening the work.

As for the weather here, I guess it is about the same temperature wise as Utah, but it is way more wet out here. I was unaware it could rain as much as it does out here (see, so much that the vast majority of houses don't even have sprinklers) and really hard, in two short rainstorms in 1 day we got over 2 1/2 inches of rain. And as for the tornado warnings, we get none of that. I guess they will only inform us if there is an actual funnel cloud forming, which is comforting to know. Though I suppose there are tornado warnings out here all the time, so getting every one would only worry people. The weather I am interested to see out here though comes during the winter, the Ice Storms. Apparently this region of the US is far east enough to get some big ice storms, were everything gets coated in large sheets of ice. Don't know if there will actually be any while I am here, but I would like to see at least 1. Though with weather like this, it makes me wonder how so darn many insects manage to survive. 

First Week in Missouri

Dear Family,

Well the first week in the field has been going pretty good so far! My companion/trainer Elder Sager is nice (a bit quiet like me, which does make communication a problem, but nice) and he is the District Leader, so that has been an interesting experience.  We also live in a member couple's home and they are really nice.

This week has been pretty cool as a have met the people that are working with the missionaries, and people that are recent converts, and their stories have been awesome to hear and learn about. One investigator we have, Crystal, has been amazing because she gave up both smoking and coffee before I came, and has a baptismal date set for the 22nd of this month (August)! She really has a testimony that what she is doing is the right thing and that the gospel is true!

I have really seen the hand of our Heavenly Father working out here, and it has been awesome (though a bit humid) and it has been a great experience that I am glad I got to become a part of. I can't wait to see what else is to come. Also, I have somehow lost 5 lbs... I'm not sure how, but I guess that is what going from giant meals every day, to 2 eggs for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, and the only decent sized meal being dinner from the members does to you.

Love,

Elder Beelek

MTC Week 2

Dear Family,

Things are Awesome, and thanks for all you guys have been doing! The packages have been arriving and the Lemonheads have been great! I feel ready to go out and preach the Gospel to the world and to help those who don't know about it to come closer unto Christ! Though one thing that is kind of upsetting is that I wont be able to even walk into the grass because one of the sisters going to our mission told us about a bug called a chigger which bites you just for walking into the grass. Not fun. 

Thanks for the blog! I was able to pull it up on the MTC computers and it looks pretty awesome! I cant wait to give you guys some material to put on it, but right now I'm afraid I can't give you any MTC pictures, because of some error with the computers here where they wont read Nikon cameras when they are plugged in (checked with some of the other Elders with Nikons and they are having the same problem). 

I will be able to call from the airport on my way to Missouri but the only time window I can give you is sometime between 4-7am.  Sorry to be so vague but we find out our final travel plans later.  I am travel Elder so I am responsible for making sure everyone gets there and no one gets lost.

The MTC has been great but I am ready to get going!

Love,

Elder Beelek

MTC

Dear Family,

Well the MTC has been awesome, and I am so happy to be here, the spirit has really blessed my life as I have felt it these past few days. My companion, Elder Hunt, (who I will hopefully be sending a picture of soon, I just need to wait for a camera cord from one of the Elders in my District who also has a Nikon) has been absolutely awesome, and I am so happy that the Lord placed me with him, he has been such a big help in my life as we go about our daily routine (though he is a bit more athletically oriented than me.) He loves movies though so we have been able to relate somewhat on that point, though I have a feeling the number of movies he has watched are vastly greater in number and mostly of a slightly different subject than the ones I watch... scratch that, I KNOW that they are different because he and the class clown of our district (Elder Smith) are constantly making references to them. But all in all, it has been great hanging out, and learning the gospel with them.

And so far, the entire District has been awesome, and it feels like I have known them forever, despite only knowing them since Wednesday. Though, that may be attributed to the fact that one day in the MTC feels like a small eternity when it's happening (don't get me wrong, they are all fun and it is awesome how strong the spirit is, but the days just drag on forever and ever, especially after dinner is over.) But we have been able to do so much, and we have already gone through some role playing investigations which have been awesome (it's were our teachers act as an investigator they taught on their mission, and are often still in touch with, so they will forward anything they feel that their investigator needs, that we taught, to their investigator.) and so far, we have felt great with one investigator, who the teacher actually let us have an intimidate return lesson with his investigator, Jordan, and we got to the point where we seriously offered him Baptism (he refused, but we feel in a few lessons we might get him to say yes, although sadly it wont be the real Jordan).

We also had an awesome first Sunday, we got to hear a talk form someone from the quorum of the 70, and he was really funny, and had an awesome talk, and is now my favorite of the 70 (Brother Allen) and we were able to see a talk by Elder Bednar that just blew me away (sadly you cant see it outside of the MTC, but for all of you my younger siblings who still have yet to go on a mission, when you get here, SEE THE TALK BY ELDER BEDNAR, LIKE WOW, AMAZING, and you can only see it here, so make sure you see that one your first film night on Sunday.) 

Love,

Elder Michael Beelek

Testing One Two Three

Hey!

I'm on a mission!