Greetings from The Great Ohio,
Due to the
fact that my time e-mailing was cut short last week, I will try and
recount the many things that happened since then. . .
Transfers . . . Elder Hill's first day . . . . I hope I mentioned
before but we are now in a bike area so the moment our new companion
arrived we hopped on our bikes and had the entire evening scheduled
until . . .FLAT TIRES! Almost at the same exact time Elder Jensen and I
both got a flat tire, we were 3 miles from any sort of store to buy
repair supplies so we walked to a less active member's home, this guy
named brother Mikel who is this single guy who loves the missionaries.
We spent a couple of hours before we could get back to work because we
first went to Walmart and bought some of that green goo repair stuff,
but our tires had these big holes in the tube so that didn't work. We
ran back to Walmart and bought the wrong tubes, so after three trips to Walmart we were able to fix our bikes and get back to work. Elder Hill
had a heck of a first day . . . poor guy.
Since then, much has happened. Our little trio is
becoming well known in Xenia since we are always on bikes. Elder Hill
has enjoyed all the other days besides the first and my goal is to train
him so that he can be a trainer after 6 weeks because that is what
happened to me. President told us that I need to be teaching 30 percent
of the time, Elder Jensen needs to be teaching 30 percent of the time,
and Elder Hill needs to be teaching 40 percent of the time. Sometimes it
is hard to just let your companions teach when they are new because you
never know what is going to be said, but that is how they learn.
On Thursday this last week was interviews with
President and a temple trip. I didn't get rebuked too bad by president
which was good, he simply told me to have Elder Hill teach more and to
do more effective role plays in the mornings. The temple trip was
awesome, I did not want to ever leave that place because it will be a
while before we can go back. I went in with lots of questions that
needed to be answered about how I can improve in training and as a
missionary and I received the answer "just keep doing what you are
doing" Which wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear but it works. New
movie by the way is awesome!
The greatest part about missionary work is completing a
family in the gospel. We are teaching the Sheridans who are a less
active/part member family who have two younger children who are not
baptized. However, they want to be and they committed to come to church
and take steps in that direction. We took a member out teaching with us
and he just dropped the bomb and said hey so when are you guys going to
be baptized? and they were just like . . . how soon can we be baptized.
We have some great members in our ward.
Never take for granted the environment you live in in
Hurricane Utah. Here there is a great division between those who are a
part of Christ's church and those who are not. Everyone seems to fight
against this great work, but "no unhallowed hand can stop the work from
progressing but the work of God shall go forth boldly, nobly, and
independent" It seems that every religion out there is fighting against
our church. Just as we were walking into the library today some baptist
guy came up to us and tried to tell us we were a cult, which I never
understood, and that we don't know how to get to heaven? What many do
not realize is we do essentially what all other Christian churches do
and more. It is a huge witness to me of the divinity of this great work
because of how hard the adversary fights against it. We never try and
belittle other religions but only build upon people's faith in Christ.
The adversary is there and he does everything he can to stop people from
being a part of this gospel, literally everything. It is ridiculous how
low people's lives get just before and after they are baptized. Satan
is so powerful, but not as powerful as this great work is. As
missionaries we are ridiculed daily especially since we are riding
bikes. The members here are constantly under the fire of other
religions, just the word Mormon seems to be taboo. Pastors and people
from other churches have been visiting the people we are teaching in an
attempt to "save them" from our cult and trying to anti-them with all
manner of false doctrine. But amid the strife and the Devil's mighty
winds stands the rock of our testimonies, which strength comes from
submersing yourself in the scriptures and having a personal relationship
with your Father in Heaven. How blessed we have been to live in an area
in Utah where much of Satan's greatest weapons are hard to find or are
weakened. I know that this is real, and that this is the work of God,
the opposition is a grand testimony of that. I know that this is how we
can be Most happy in this life, and I know that this is not the church
of a man, but the Church of Jesus Christ.
I love you all very much and hope you have a great week. Stay strong!
Elder Beutler
