Beau Arrives Home

Beau will fly in Wednesday night at 11:00 at the SLC airport. His homecoming will be Sunday the 16th of August at his ward building in Orem 500 South and 500 West. Geneva Height Stake Building. He will be leaving for AZ right after the Service. There will be a Pre-reception at 11:00 at his house.

Final Letter from Italy

It has been a roller coaster ride. Right now i am feeling bitter sweet feelings. I know that this is the next step of my life and i am facing it with hope and full trust in the Lord. For my final interview with President Acerson I was asked to write 3 things: a list of 30 blessings that have come from the mission, Leaving a Legacy and a letter to myself that i will receive in a year. I want to include in my email today the first 2, the blessings and Leaving a Legacy. THE BLESSINGS THAT I RECEIVED DURING MY MISSION During your mission you have developed talents, characteristics, knowledge and your testimony. Please make a list of 30 of these talents here below. 1. A stronger realization and personal testimony of the Atonement 2. The ability to work in 2 and in groups rather than doing it all by myself) 3. I'm better at planning and organizing 4. Patience with myself and with others 5. A testimony of the power of prayer. Blessed with powerful and edifying prayers 6. The ability to endure to the end and being diligent 7. Greater developed leadership skills 8. Learned what it truly means to forgive 9. Learned how to get along with and love men my age. 10. A great desire to serve and help others 11. Greater love and respect for church leaders. 12.How to recognize the promptings of the Spirit and to act upon them. 13. A comprension of the miraculous power of repentance 14. The ability to overcome fear with Faith! 15. The gift of the language. 16. Overcome my weakness of judging others 17. A strong relationship with my Heavenly Father 18. The ability to recognize miracles. 19. Faith in the Lord and being able to trust in His will rather than mine. 20. Preparation for being a husband and Father. 21. The ability to not stress our nor worry (as much as before :)- ) 22. To trust and confide in my companion, leaders and the Lord 23. Testimony of how important it is to take advantage of every opportunity. 24. I'm much more grateful. 25. The gift of teaching with the Spirit. 26. Greater love for the scriptures and talks from general authorities. 27. Ability to build strong relationships with others in little time. 28. The ability to be more decisive and sure of myself. 29. The difference between humility & weakness and Pride & confidence. 30. Boldness--not being afraid to be bold when i need to be. There are many more that i didnt have time nor space to write. I am so blessed by the Lord to have served in this mission, serving these people and being with these missionaries. The Lord knows what we need and He gives it to us. It's like a parent who knows that their child needs food, not just any food but good food that will give them strength and keep them helthy. We ask kids often want candy and junk but our parents know that that will do us no good and just damage us so they give us what we need. When we eat it at first we may not like it but at the end we realize that it was perfect for us and that it has a good impact on the rest of our day. The same is with our Heavenly Father. He is not going to give us junk. He knows what we need even if we dont want it. When we try it with faith we will eventually see that it was what we needed to get the result that we wanted. Our Heavenly Father is so wise. He knows... so why do we trust in ourselves rather than a Powerful God who can do all things? This last letter is a letter to the new missionaries that come to the mission. It is put into a book that they can read their first night in Rome. Dear New Missionaries, You are servants of God in the perfect mission for you. Please realize who you are. You are called to certain cities ofr a reason. There are many people that are waiting for you and your companion. Love you companion. You cannot do this work alone. You need them and they need you. In order for miracles to happen you must be united and then the Lord will bless you and "you will not have room enough to receive it." You are called of God. Please remember that! When you truly realize that you will not fear but rather invite all around you with great love. The best thing you can give them is your sincere testimony that is ful of conviction. Always keep that strong desire to share the gospel with everyone. You will bless may lives as you do your part and invite every person you meet to come unto Christ through a missionary invite. Families are waiting for you. Believe! Dream! And you will move mountains! When you stop dreaming and believeing you're just going through the motions. Realize that you don't have to be perfect. You can't be. Give your all and Christ will make up for the rest. He will use you to do a great and marvelous work. Miracles are waiting for you. Make a little miracle book and each day write a miracle that happened that day. It doesnt have to be huge-- you'll see that the little miracles make a great impact in many lives. Italy is about to bloom. You will love the people and have to leave them... like what's happening to me right now. Sincerely: Anziano Beau Brewster Date: 22 Luglio 2009 Ps. INSEGNA CON FEDE, FORZA, E FUOCO!

July 23, 2009

I cant believe that next week is my last week to email. That is so crazy! The time sure does fly. I am excited, looking forward and ready to come home but at the same time i am going to miss the mission and the many blessings that come from it. I love my mission and am so very blessed to have worked with the Lord to bring his people back to his presence. The work is moving forward! I love this ward. They have their challenges and difficulties that they need to work out but they are such hard working and faithful saints. Half of them are south americans and they are absolutely wonderful. We prayed our first day together to find 3 families that we could work with and ask them for referals. While we were looking through the list the Aranda family stook out in our minds. It was nice that they were at the beginning of the list! We set up an apointment with them, had a great spiritual thought and invited them to bring to our next appointment friends s that we can share our message with them. They agreed. We met on Monday and there they had Her sister's husband and daughter that arrived 2 day prior from Peru. They didnt speak any italian, so we bore our strong testimonies while Sister Aranda translated and then we watched half of the Testaments. We hope that they liked it and understood it. They were exhausted so they were doozing for a little bit of it, but i am sure that they felt the spirit. They are coming to our ward FHE on Wednesday. That was 1 miracle. On Saturday we had the Baptism for Marilena (Stella) Spagnolo. She is the fieance of our ward mission leader Fabrizio Salza who is incredible! By far the best ward mission leader that i have ever had. I love that man. The baptism was so spiritual. The theme was trials, tempests, afflictions and through the Lord we can overcome it all! It does not mean that the trials wont come actually it means that more will come but we will be able to withstand them and not give into them. There Omar (a new convert) brought a friend Fernando from Mexico who is amazing. Sad to say he lives out of our boundaries but the Rome 3 elders are working with him. Sunday at lunch we had a great apointment with Jacquelin who is a new investigator. We taught her the plan of salvation. She is great. She is the only one of her family here in Italy. She has been here for 2 years and is great friends with the barrocal family. They have been friends for short time but have made a great friendship they seemed like life long friends. She came with us after to the once a year sacrament meeting in spanish. It was incredible. I have to learn spanish when i get back. I am going to try to take a class in college. Last night we had a breaking box correlation with all of the leaders. We have a lot to change in the ward and with Fabrizio we are able to do it. I just love Rome. Every day i run into someone i knew a year and a half ago. I have loved seeing the members again. I am so surprized that they remember me and that they love me, i sure do love them. The mission is incredible! I love the Lord and know that He prepares us for what we need to do. Love, Elder Beau Brewster

More Pictures

Pictures from Sardegna

July 15, 2009

Well, President is doing transfers a little differently. Instead of calling us all MOnday morning he is now calling wednesday morning and then transfers are the next day for the main land and that night for the island. Today he didnt call. We waited and waited until the assistants called us and told us that transfers were sent as an email. So we ran to get them at 1130 about. We had to call all of the zone and pack and say goodbyes in little time... but it was a fun adventure. I am going......... any guesses? .................. NO, not Napoli zone.......................no, not in the north.......................................................yes, Rome is correct...........................no not in ROME 2 where the president is but where my Babbo was born.................ROME 1! I am going to be with Elder Rogers. I have heard great things about him. I am taking over Elder Sponseller's spot and Elder Starkweather's spot (the transfer before). I am very excited. They meet in the same building that Ostia meets in so for these 3 weeks i will be able to see all of my members that i love! I am so blessed. I have had a great week saying goodbyes and bearing boldly my dying testimony to them! We have had more or less than 2 meal appointments every day for the past week. We have been able to do great member and inactive work. We had a great appointment last night with the Landis family. Angela and Agostino are in their 50s. They have 2 daughters one of which is handicap... who was born normally but then towards age 18 or so became handicap. Angela has been the sisters investigator for a while. I have been over there 3 times or so. We have built a great relationship with the husband. Angela is blinded by the catholic church. Last night i was given the spirit and the boldness to tell her the truth. I told her the many things that are false with the catholic church and we bore powerful testimony about the Restoration. I love that family. Because i love them so much i was able to be bold because it came out with true love only for their benefit. Agostino is interested in our stop smoking program and will come to church with Angela and Valentina this sunday or the next one. I am so grateful to the Lord for that spiritual experience. I love you. May God Bless you until we meet again. Love, Elder Beau Brewster

July 8, 2009

For the past two days we have been doing ZSRs which are zone status reports. We write about each missionary and then on each companionship. I love seeing such unified companionships that arent ''all stars'' but when they work together their fruits become ''all star'' fruits. We are nothing alone but together the Lord makes us great. About ZSRs... ha ha we had some trials. Hence the subject heading "Challenges build us up and teach us great lessons." We started on Monday and started off on a slow start. We left at about 9 that night and we were about 1/3 done. We came back yesterday at lunch time to finish up. We were doing a great job and getting almost to the end when members in our ward were trying to fix the electricity and find out where the problem was. They turned off the electricity about 5 times and luckily it saved almost everything we typed up. The 6th time we went back thinking all would be well when it deleted everything that we did. 2 whole days worth of work was gone. I am very impressed with how we reacted to it. We tried to find it but when we realized that it was a lost cause we started from scratch. I was given great help from the Lord. I was able to do it in less time and also word it fairly well. After i wrote about 2 missionaries it turned off again and earased everything. I didnt let that get me down and we started from scratch. The members listened to our plea and stopped working on the lights. I love our members! I sure will miss them. We finally finished at 11:10. We went out to catch the bus home and realized that the last bus passed at 11:15 and we got there at 11:19. We had no other choice but to walk home. Ha ha ha We finally got home at 12:10. I am exhausted today... and i thought it would be overwith but actually 20 minutes ago i got a call from the assistants and they said that the email did not go through. We have to go back today! ha ah aha But i am grateful for this challenge because i learned patience, enduring to the end rather than making excuses and giving up, and trust in the Lord with of my heart. I had a good time last night with Elder Stanfield. He is so calm and supportive. With anyother companion i would have gone crazy. The Lord works in mysterious ways. I know that it was for my good. We had a great lunch with a man named Gianni, his wife Maria and his daughter elenora and her boyfriend Marco. He loves us and is so kind. He came and picked us up after church and then drove us home after the appointment. He fed us so well. I feel like i gained 10 lbs just from that meal. They are new investigators. They wife seems interested. Gianni isnt religious at all but he will change when he feels the spirit. He already was really impressed by the members that he saw at church. I am so glad that you got the shirt and your fathers days stuff. Sorry that it is so late. I love you Dad. I am so blessed. Yesterday we saw so many miracles in the morning! Everyone that we talked to knew the missionaries. The Lord knows what He is doing. He is guiding this work! Love, Elder Beau Brewster

July 1, 2009

If you could pray for us to find a family that would be great. We have a few family contacts but we need strong family investigators. Cagliari needs strong active families. They will be such a great ward some day and Sardegna will be an amazing stake... they just need to step it up. The members need to do their part. It's a lot easier than they think it is to share the gospel with their friends. Giovanni is doing great. He passes and prepares the sacrament. His hometeachers are teaching him all of the after baptism lessons. He is doing a little missionary work with a friend. I love this man to death. He will be a great leader of the church. Carlos is doing well spiritually. Physically, not so well because his knee is broken in 5 places and is hurting him preety badly. We had a great lesson with him and his family last week. It was on patience and the spirit was beautiful. I sure love that family. I love the mission with all of my heart. I am so blessed to be in this mission, at this time with this mission president as Zone Leader in Cagliari, with my companion. The Lord is blessing me so much. I am truly grateful for everything that he is giving me. This morning we went to the devil's saddle again. I love that place. It is my revelation spot. I feel so close to God when i pray and read my scriptures there. I had a great exchange with Elder Rogers yesterday who is the sr. Assistant. It was a blast and we saw many miracles. We got 3 new contacts and talked with elect. I am so very grateful. I learned many things about myself yesterday. I realized that i need to trust in the Lord so much more. I need to not stress nor worry for that puts full reliance on myself and not on the Lord. We had a couple in church that became new investigators on Saturday. They are interresting and have made mistakes in their lives. In fact a few members were scared when we brought them into church. But they enjoyed it and felt the spirit. I want to help them change their lives. Isnt that going to be great? We also had a miracle right after they became investigators. We went to Massimo's house to say hi and to leave him a note. He is an old investigator that we havent seen for a while. He wasnt there so we wrote a note and left it for him. I wanted to go to another part and find people or stop by people but it didnt seem right. It felt right to stay in that area. So we prayed to know where to go and we both felt that we needed to stay there. So we knocked that palazzo that we felt impressed to knock when we found Massimo. He was the 1st one that answered 2 months ago. Since then we never wrang the other houses. So we did it and on the 4th floor one man was on the phone and said to come back in 10 minutes. We returned in 10 minutes excited for the chance to present our message rather than having them see us and say right away, sorry, i cant or it doesnt interrest me. He let us in even though he didnt have a lot of time. Come to find out. He went to our english class with a handicap kid that he would assist. They gave him the Book of Mormon and explained our message. He forgot a lot about it because it was a long time ago. He did read half of the Book of Mormon though. We gave him a new one and taught him. We set up a follow up appointment for when he returns in 2 weeks. He is an airplane worker so he is gone often. Talk about a miracle. I love the mission. Love it, love it, love it. Love, Elder Beau Brewster

June 24, 2009

Things are going so well. We were able to do 2 exchanges since i last wrote. I went up to Olbia and had a great exchange with Elder Sullivan and i just got back last night from an exchange with Elder Bowen in Oristano. I had some neat experiences. I was able to see some of the same people that i saw last transfer and even the transfer before that. In fact, my first transfer here i did an exchange with Elder Pepperdine in Oristano and visited a former investigator and her family. We had a great lesson and they invited us over a second time. After that they werent able to see them because they were never at home and never answered the phone. I even went last transfer and passed by but they were not home. Elder Bowen planned for us to stop by them when i was there because he had never met the son nor the husband. When we knocked on their door the son answered and let us in. We had a great lesson with him. He doesnt believe in God and doesnt believe that he doesnt exist. He really doesnt know and didnt know how to ever find out. We told him that he can find out through the holy ghost. Praying and reading brings the holy ghost and answers any question that we have. It was an amazing lesson. The spirit was very strong. Right when we had finished the father walked in and talked with us. He has a great character. He has a dry humor and says jokes/witty remarks with a blank face. I love this man. We talked about the gospel and important principles in life. He is a very wise and God knowing man. We shared the same scripture that we shared with his son previously, Moroni 10:3-5. He loved it and started reading more of the Book of Mormon. He is going to read it, pray to know that it is true and come to church. They will be wonderful members. Right after that we had one of the best visits with an inactive member that i have had. We used Moroni 10:3-5, bore our testimonies and shared our personal experiences. We then asked him how he came to know that the Book of Mormon was true. At times inactive members kind of deny having spiritual experiences that came when asking that the Book of Mormon is true but this man did not. He said that he prayed and received an answer that it was true. He then said that he had to leave one way to follow another. We invited him to church but he could not come this week. He was very kind and showed me how important inactive work is and what a difference it can make. I know that there are more concerns that they will have to resolve with him but it was a wonderful start. He has 3 children and his wife is visiting her parents in sicily for a little while. Oristano only has 7 members so a family of 5 would be such a great strength. I love exchanges because i learn so much from the elders that i serve with. The next day i was able to help a new convert, Alessandro. I was actually the one who gave him his baptismal interview. His testimony was so pure when i gave the interview but now i could tell that a few things were bothering him. He was struggling. We talked about temples and shared our great love for the temple. He was zoning out and asking if we were done. We knew that something was not right. We finally pried it out of him. He is debating on serving a mission or going to school. He plans on going to Torino for school for 3 years but the missionaries challenged him to pray about it to get his answer. He prayed about it but you could tell that he didnt listen because he doesnt want to get that answer that he knows the Lord will give him. We knealed and prayed with him and you could feel the spirit. He his worried that if he goes on a mission and comes back, he wont find a job and it will be hard to go to school. He also doesnt feel that he is capable of serving a mission, that he doesnt know enough. We bore our strong testimonies that the Lord will provide and that as he follows this commandment The Lord will guide him to eternal happiness. I love the mission and would be no one without it. I have learned and grown more in such a little time. I have learned many christlike attributes such as patience, faith, virtue, obedience, hope, diligence and love. The Lord is my Shepherd, no want shall i know! Love, Elder Beau Brewster

June 17, 2009

I love serving a mission. I am learning so much from these experiences. For so long i just taught lessons rather than teaching the people. I am now striving to read them and to discover their wants, desires and concerns. Once we know that we can then help them. That is what Elder Kopischke taught us. We cant connect with someone or teach them without their want and desire so to get that we have to know what their concerns and questions are. Today i am in sassari doing exchanges and then at 1 i leave for Olbia doing exchanges there. Ever since we had zone leader council with Elder Kopischke a lot has changed in the mission which is great. We have switched exchanges so that one ZL stays in his city with the companion of the DL of the other city while the other ZL does an exchange with the DL in his city. This means that we do a lot more traveling because we have to go to their city (3-4 hours away and then come right back). It's better this way but it is crazy. I am exhausted but i love serving this Elders. I loved Zone Leader Council. We each brought up one or two ideas of how we can better the mission and change. He told us that we are the leaders of the mission and it starts with us. I never realized that. I always just thought that it was up to the president but i realized that he cant do it alone, we have to be self reliant and get the things done that we know need to get done. The spirit was so strong. I love President Acerson. He knows exactly what i need exactly when i need it. One thing that is hard for me is correcting other elders and as a leader i have to do it or they will keep doing the same things. He said to me boldly with the spirit, "You are where you are for a reason. Move forward and Do it!" I was able to go to Ostia for my Pday and see Barbara and Carmelo. I am excited to stay with them in August. I was able to sing for them and film a few messages to give to 2 old investigators and 1 inactive member. I love the mission. This church is sooo true! Carlos passed the sacrament last week which was great! Love, Elder Beau Brewster

June 10, 2009

I love our new district. My companion is wonderful. He is so supportive, hard working, and so calm. I am so blessed to have him as my companion. We had a great zone conference with ELder Kopischke. I really wish that you could have been there so i will try to describe things that he taught us. He started by saying that a mission = people. He had such a great love and energy. He taught us on having an eye of faith meaning to dream and picture new investigators that we will meet that day. He challenged us to wake up at 6:29 thinking of the person that we will meet or the family that we will meet that day. I am making it my goal to find a family and baptize them before i go and i know that i can do it. This conference helped me realize the great blessing it is to be called of God and serve Him as a missionary. I cannot get distracted and will not as long as i keep my relationship strong with my Heavenly Father. The spirit was so powerful. He answered our questions with simple principles of truth always based on scriptures. I received answers to prayers that i have had for a while. One of these was to have confidence rather than fear. I asked him the question on how i could overcome fear and have confidence. He answered my question perfectly. I dont remember the answer on the top of my head but i wrote it down so i will have to go back to my notes. I can see the difference in me, before the conference and after. He helped me realize the importance of planning that it is sacred time. He showed the reality tv type movie that we watch in the MTC that is such a great example that really helped us. My companion and i are working so hard to put these things into practice and be the best that we can be. His wife is the most energetic, inthusiastic and loving woman. She helped us realize the importance of our nametag and what we need to think of every time that we put it on our chest. She also helped us realize that we can have a huge impact on those at home that want to hear our great insights, spiritual experiences, and success stories. I hope that i have been doing this well. I am striving to do better at this to inspire all. I know that this church is so true. The spirit cannot lie! I had the great privilege to sing with one of my favorite elders, Elder Cangialosi, "This is the Christ." It was probably the worst musically that i have ever done but it was the most spiritually filled and touching that i have ever sung. The spirit was expanding my heart. I know that this is the christ the savior of mankind and i will bear my holy witness to all of those around me that He lives and this is His restored church. I will invite them to come unto Him and to repent for the rest of my mission and the rest of my LIfe. I will not let the mission end when i go home. I will help my brothers and sisters that i love to come to their Father in Heaven and partake of His everlasting love. I still have time to do it here and i am so grateful for that. I am not letting a second pass me by without striving to do the will of the Lord. I love my mission. Love Elder Brewster