Elder Beard

I. love. referrals.   Hey Y'all, I hope things are going well for you. I hear it is finals week in most colleges. That is definitely a stressful time. I wish y'all the best of luck with your finals and hope that y'all pass. For those of you not in college, I hope that your classes or lives are going well for you.   Things are going pretty well here. We started off this week by going to zone conference. This time we learned about using the Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet to teach repentance and repentance in general. We also got new tiwis in our car that have a female voice instead of a male voice like the old tiwis. That has been interesting to get used to. For those of you who don't know what a tiwi is, it is a little box on the front of our car that keeps track of our speed and driving and if we go too fast or brake too hard, the device speaks to us. (such as saying "check your speed") I enjoyed it.   I was then able to go on exchange with Elder Lewis in the...

Happy late Easter y'all   Hey Y'all   Happy belated Easter!! This Easter was a lot different than any other Easter I have had before, but was probably one of my favorite Easters yet.   This week started off really well. We started off by going to our friends the Deleonardi's family. We have been visiting them for a while, but this week we were able to teach them about the Book of Mormon and the beginning of the Restoration. It helped them to feel comfortable with the Book of Mormon. We are excited to see how they enjoy it the next time we go over there.   Then on Wednesday we were able to visit our friend Ted. He has a desire to be baptized, but has not kept many of the commitments we have left with him. We were able to set up a time to help him with today. We are excited to see if we can help him be baptized in the near future. We also met with our friend Francisco. He is also doing o.k. We are trying to help him recognize the importance of church. We are hopeful th...

Another Jam packed Week Hey y'all, Man this was a jam packed week. A lot has happened and I am excited to tell y'all about it. I hope that y'all have as cool adventures as I have been able to.   We started out this week with a really cool miracle. On Tuesday we were biking to the other side of town and, to save time, I suggested that we eat at a restaurant. When we got there we decided to go to Taco Bell. Right when I ordered my food, the cashier asked if she could sit with us for her lunch break and talk about God. We found out her name is Victoria and she just moved here and has some trials she is going through. We were able to talk to her about church and the Book of Mormon and it really seemed to help her. We haven't been able to get in contact with her again yet, but hopefully soon we will be able to.   Then on Wednesday we had a few meetings. First off we had our correlation meeting with dinner before. Our correlation was really inspired and we were able to come u...

Great conference Weekend   Hey y'all, I don't know about you, but this was one of the most cool conferences I have listened to. There were a lot of amazing talks that helped me learn what I could do better at. I am excited to keep studying these talks and hope that y'all enjoy them just as much. This week went pretty well. One tender mercy I saw came from applying some council given to us in the Florida Tampa mission by Elder Stanphill a while ago. Elder Case and I have been struggling to find a lot of people to teach each week. What Elder Stanphill taught us was to pray to call down the powers of heaven and be very specific in our prayers. Because of that I prayed twice that we could find someone to teach and both times we were able to find someone Heavenly Father needed us to reach out to this week. I am glad that Heavenly Father is willing to do that for someone who is as foolish and prideful as I am.  We also got to spend 2 days in the city of Brooksville this week. The...

The time my companion and I caught a rag on fire!   Hey y'all, I hope things are going well for y'all. I imagine that it is and if it isn't I hope that it will soon. Things are going pretty well here in the Brooksville area. This Tuesday I was able to go on exchange with Elder Eisele. He is one of the missionaries that I served around at the beginning of my mission. (At this point I have served around him and one other missionary in the same district for more than a quarter of my mission) I really enjoy  how funny and smart he is. He helped me learn a lot especially about how to look up scriptures quickly. Then on Wednesday, Elder Case and I were able to meet one of the referrals we received over 10 weeks ago. His name is Lou and he is sweet. He has some verry old dogs which are pretty well trained. He has a desire to read the Book of Mormon and come to church so that was amazing. Then on Thursday we helped the Sanetra's move again. They were going to have a moving comp...

Exchanges and Referrals   Hey y'all, I hope things are going well for each of you. Down here in Florida, It is hard to complain if the weather is always 80 degrees. Hopefully the snow isn't bringing you to the despair that cabin fever inflicts upon even the most hardened Utahn or Idahoan fall victim to. On Tuesday, I was able to go on exchange with Elder Murray. We were able to work with our recent converts Sherman and the Fasting Family. Elder Murray made a good impression upon both of them and I got to learn a lot from his humility and good attitude. Then on Wednesday we were able to have an awesome lesson with Michael. He has been coming to church for a while and has a really good relationship with a member named Brother Nielson. We had a lesson at the Nielson's house and were able to address a lot of the concerns that Michael. He told me that he had a giant weight lifted off of his shoulder. I am glad that Heavenly Father was able to give us his doctrine that lightens o...

Tis the season of moving.   Hey y'all, I hope things are going well for you. It is spring break here. Hopefully y'all can enjoy spring break whenever it comes for you. This week was another great week in the Spring Hill/Brooksville area. On Tuesday we met with our recent convert Sherman and he made us Padogi. It is like dumplings and it tasted really good. He is always kind and has food for us when we go over. Hopefully he continues to do well and improve in the gospel. Then Wednesday was a crazy day full of a lot of really cool events. We started out by having district council. Recently our mission has made a big push to improve our member work. We have received some training from the mission department about how to do this better and I am excited to try it out soon. Then we had President's interviews which are always great. I love President Cooper and how he cares for his missionaries such as me. He gave me some great advice about how to study the scriptures and I am exci...