Bekim

Hey y'all.

Things have been going pretty well here. We have been able to see quite a few tender mercies this week.

The tender mercy that sticks out the most to me from this week is a man named Bekim. His family just moved here a few weeks ago and has had the desire to come out and teach with us. One time when we took him out, all of the lessons we had fell through. Because of that we decided to stop by some people who had been taught previously. The last one was the Clifton family. The son had been baptized a few years ago, but the mom was not prepared quite yet. We were able to talk to them about how Jesus Christ can help them through the hard times they are in right now and Bekim has been awesome at sharing scriptures that give validity to what we are teaching. He is going to be a great missionary.

This week we were able to have lessons with both of the recent converts in this area. This last time with Mary we were able to talk about the Book of Mormon. Elder Reichner also offered to start a reading schedule with her to finish the Book of Mormon by Christmas even though he is going home this next week. We were able to  help Kenny and his friend Curley more about the Book of Mormon by showing them the Book of Mormon Stories Children videos. That was probably the best lesson we were able to have with them. They even cooked us grilled cheese with a tomato in it which was good.

This week has also been a humbling and great learning experience for me. I have been struggling in teaching in general. Because of that Elder Reichner has taken the time in companion study to help me know and be able to practice what I can do to improve. Because of that our lessons have been a lot better. I am grateful that even though he could teach these lessons by himself and is plenty practiced in his teaching, he is willing to help me to improve when he leaves.

We also had a cool miracle yesterday. We had some time to go finding yesterday and so we went to a neighborhood that was on the wealthier side. While we were walking around I saw a taxi cab drive past. That impressed upon my mind to stop by one of our friends we had taught previously named Jeff. After we went searching for a bit, we went and stopped by and it was the perfect timing. When we pulled up he had just walked outside to smoke. We were able to talk to him about the Book of Mormon and  a hard situation he is going through and set the expectation to take the missionary lessons and we are going back on Tuesday.

That's about it this week. I hope that things continue to go well for you. Good luck preparing for the next year of school. Until next time, good luck and God Bless!

Elder Beard

1. We also had a rock painting party. This is what I spent my time painting.

2.We also had a meal and lesson with these people. They are a part member family that we are trying to work with that are super sweet.

3. Elder Reichner and I painted the Plan of Salvation as well.