We Are Training Our Replacements

Dear Family and Friends,

Last month when we had couples' conference in Trinidad,  our mission president, President Mehr informed us that there were 10 couples from our mission leaving within the next 6 months and only 3 coming to replace them.  Since we were part of those leaving, we were concerned about how the finances, apartments, elders, etc. would be managed if there was no one to replace us when we left.

Then a couple of weeks ago, our counselor in the mission presidency, President Goodluck suggested that there could be a Guyanese couple serve as service missionaries that could do that.  Last Sunday a couple was called, the Surujbans, and set apart to serve in that capacity.  We are excited.  They are eager to learn and we have 7 weeks to teach them before we go.  They manage apartments and are well aware of the needs of our young missionaries here.

Sister Surujban is the district Relief Society President and her husband has been in a branch presidency and is currently an elders quorum president.  The type of business which we took weeks to learn, they already know about because they have lived here all of their lives. We think that the transition will be very smooth.

We want to encourage any of our friends who are in good health to consider a mission to a third world country.  It is truly a life changing experience.  The couples are so much needed here.  If for no other reason than to teach people, especially young couples, that marriage can be happy and last for eternity.

We enjoyed the week.  We had a new converts night in the Georgetown Branch which we thought was going to be a failure at first because there were only 2 converts there when it was time to start, but within an hour there were probably about 50 people show up.  There were so many children running around, that the elders took them outside and played night games in the parking lot so that the parents could enjoy watching a video of the Restoration.

Yesterday was district training meeting.  I taught the Primary presidents about the Faith in God program and Elder Beutler taught the Young Men's presidents about the Duty to God program. Neither of them have been functioning.  In fact there were no young men's presidents in any of the branches until this year.

Today we went to Linden to train there.  We have an exciting celebration coming up next year.  The 25th anniversary of the church in the West Indies.  There are going to be 3 shows during the next year where young people can display their talents and compete in the fields of painting, photography, jewelry making, handicraft, dance, musical instruments, speech, poetry, stories, singing,  and culinary arts.  They are so excited about the competition.  If there is one thing about Guyanese youth that is readily apparent, it is their ability to perform on stage.

Elder Beutler took his camera to Linden to take a few pictures. With the fact that we will only have a few more weeks to spend with the saints here, we realized that we need to make a few memories in the form of photographs so that we don't forget them.

We were sad to hear about the passing of Helen Robbins and Ron Alexander last week.  That makes three from Dayton, with Odell Andrews at the first of the month.  It will be quite a different neighborhood to go home to with several of our dear friends gone.  We are so thankful for the knowledge we have of the reality of the resurrection, that we will be able to be with each other again.

May the Lord Bless each of you,  Love, Elder and Sister Beutler

Zone Conference and Suriname

Dear Family,

This week has flown by.  We had zone conference on Monday with our mission President and the AP's  I mentioned that one of the AP's is Elder Creech.  He lives in Cornish, Utah.  He grew up on a dairy farm.  When he first came out on his mission last August, he used to go the the neighborhood dairy every week and visit the cows. He really is a great missionary.

His older sister, Mandy,  married Jason Gunnell  and she taught science at the West Side middle school for several years.  It seems like some of you children had her for a teacher.  Also, Elder Creech's older brother married Erin Olson, who is Jason's first cousin, so their children are both first cousins and second cousins.

On Tuesday, we woke up early in the morning and headed to Suriname to renew visas for two of the elders. Unfortunately, we had to go again on Friday for one elder who we missed getting a visa for.  We just didn't read our records right.

We met two interesting people from the Republic of Czechoslovakia on the first trip.  They were driving a big motorcycle all over the world.  They had plans to tour every nation in the world during their lifetime.  Unfortunately, they had three children ages 15, 8, and 3 who were left at home with Granny. We asked them how often they went home and it was seldom.  They would tour for a couple of months, then go home for a few weeks and then be off again.

I told them about how important families are, that children are the greatest gift we can get from God in this life, and advised them not to spend too much time away from them.  I don't know how parents could justify that kind of separation from their children when they are so young.

On the second trip home from Suriname, we met a tall American man, Randy Spegel, who was traveling alone.  He saw our missionary badges and immediately began asking us questions about our religion; how it was different from other religions, and what were our basic beliefs.  Since he was traveling to Georgetown, we gave him a ride to his hotel and had a great visit on the way.  Come to find out, he was actually a member of the church when he was a small boy. He remembered going to the church farm and picking fruit in the Los Angeles area.  He remembered little else. 

He said that his parents divorced when he was about 12 years old and he never went to Church again.  He has spent the last 15 years working on computer software programs in Hong Cong.  He is now looking for a change in his life. He would like to get married and have a family.  We hope that he will look into the church once again and benefit from the blessings of the gospel.

The rest of the week has been the usual, paying the bills, taking care of the Elders and teaching piano.  

With less than two months left to serve we are going to begin training a couple in the Georgetown branch to serve as office missionaries to help with the bills and the apartments and cars.  They are also busy in the district.  The wife is the district Relief Society president and the husband is the Elder's Quorum president.  They have a 16 year old son at home, so they will have to budget their time carefully in order to get everything done.

We enjoy all of your emails and skype visits.  We hope that you are all happy and doing your best to serve the Lord.  We pray for all of you every day and love you very much.  

Sincerely,  Mom and Dad

Cooking Up a Storm

Dear Family,

This week has felt a lot like home. On Monday, we had apartment inspections because it was transfer week.  We usually give the Elders a treat when we come, but I hadn't had time to bake anything, so I promised them something at zone meeting on Friday.

We always feed the in-coming and out-going missionaries on transfer day, so myself and Sister Beecher made food on Wednesday. 

On Friday the branch president of Linden and his fiance got married and she asked for a wedding cake,  I made and decorated a small cake, using a star tip and a writing tip and ziplock bags to hold the frosting.  It was a bit of a challenge, but she appreciated it and shared it with her family members.

I also made lasayna and oatmeal cookies for the starving elders for the zone meeting.  They worked so hard to have clean apartments this time around, I figured they needed something extra.

Then on Saturday, I taught the sisters how to make cinnamon rolls.  I made enough dough for four pans of rolls and it was fun to watch the sisters take turns rolling out the dough and putting toppings on it before they baked it.  There were about 25 of them gathered there in the church kitchen trying out this new skill. I felt like I was back doing 4-H cooking again.   

Finally, today, we went to Linden for church and Sister Beecher and I made 4 cakes to share with the branch members to celebrate the marriage of their branch president and his new wife.  And tomorrow we are each making a pan of brownies for dessert for zone conference with the mission president.

Needless to say, we are pretty exhausted tonight, but the week has just flown by. We hope that the rest of our mission will be busy and productive for us.  It makes the time go faster and before we know it, we will be back home with all of you!

Love, Grandma and Grandpa Beutler

Conference Weekend

Dear Family,

We have had a glorious weekend with the saints in Guyana.  Instead of watching conference on the internet, we watched it at the church house with the big circuit TV.

It was good to be able to listen to the Prophet and the Apostles.  We especially enjoyed sitting with James, our Chinese friend.  He came to all 5 sessions and seemed to really enjoy it. He looked up all of the songs they were singing and read the words while they were singing.

We asked him if he understood the words that the speakers said and he said that he didn't understand it all, but he will watch it on the internet in Chinese this week. He also stayed and helped clean up and put away the chairs after conference.  He is turning into a great member of the church.

We invited some dignitaries to our Sunday morning session of Conference and then had a dinner for them after.  It was interesting to hear their comments from Elder Oaks talk.  They were happy to hear that the church has such strong feelings about preserving the basic family unit.  

In Guyana right now, the Gays are trying to pass a bill to allow same sex marriage.  Of course the religious leaders are all trying to fight it because of the impact it could have on what is taught to the children at school.  i am sure that it would impact much more than the school.  

Amy,  guess what!  Remember Elder Creech.  He was just called to be a new assistant to the President.  He is a great elder.  He was in Guyana for the first 6 months of his mission and then he spent the next 8 months in St. Vincent.  Now he will be in Trinidad at the mission office.  We have zone conference on the 15th of October, so we will be able see him again.  The people in Berbice just loved him.

We love you all and will talk to you later.  

Love Mom and Dad

Time is Moving Too Fast

Dear family and friends,

September is flying by.  We went on our last trip out of Guyana this time two weeks ago for couples conference and had a great time with the other couples there and even went a day early to Tobago for a chance to see what the blue ocean there looks like. In Guyana the ocean is a very muddy brown!

We enjoyed snorkling, hiking, and visiting a humminggbird refuge in Trinidad, during free time when we weren't training with the other couple missionaries.  It was a fun vacation for us, especially since the training was pretty easy because we knew a lot of the things already because of our 15 months of experience already on our mission.

We had a great week, this week.  We had 4 baptisms last Saturday, and 3 more yesterday.  6 of the seven were young men who will be a great addition to the Georgetown branch.  There are not  enough worthy Priesthood holders and these young men are excited to be a part of the branch.

One of them is Raddison Charles, our prize piano student.  For the past two weeks he has come prepared to play the hymns for Sacrament meeting.  He is not quite 26 years old and he is already excited about going on a mission in a couple of years.  

Another one is Liu Xiang, our friend from China.  He is the first man from Mainland China to be baptized in Guyana.  He was called today to be a family history consultant.  That will be a great challenge for him to do his own family history work and prepare his ancestors names for the temple.

We also had a wedding of two returned missionaries,last evening,Naomi Fraser and Keon Taylor.  They have been in young adults this past year and it has been fun to see their romance blossom.  We don't have any pictures of the wedding, but they are a very striking couple, both of African decent.

We are happy to hear that Deonna and Neil Fuller made it home safely from their mission. We wish them well in their future plans together.  Thank you to Lois and Joel Palmer and Carolyn and Wayne Smart for their updated mission activities.  We really enjoyed reading their letters. 

Amy, we are praying for the people of Pohnpei and for your sweet little companion, that she can continue to learn English and Pohnpein so that she will be a successful missionary.

Love from Elder and Sister Beutler

PS the picture of the couples are the six couples serving in Guyana.  Two of the couples are Guyanese.

 

 

One Last Trip

Dear Children and Grandchildren,

We have had a delightful week in Trinidad and Tobago.  We had seniors conference with all of the other senior missionaries, plus, we went a day early to Tobago to see the sights with the 3 other couples from Guyana.  

On Tuesday, Dad and I took 3 hours to go in the ocean in a glass bottomed boat, where we stopped in 15 foot deep water and did some snorkeling for the first time. It was so fun!  I thought I needed a life jacket to swim, but the water was so salty that it just held me up without the life jacket.  There were lots of tropical fish in the area and guess what, I found Nemo!  I actually saw many of Nemo's relatives.

The conference was great.  It is always uplifting to see the other seniors who are on the other islands. Half of them are there alone with the young missionaries, so they don't see other missionary couples nearly as often as we see the other three couples in Guyana.

When we returned home last night we went to the best baptism ever.  There were five people baptized and two of them, Dad baptized.  One was our Chinese friend, Liu Tiang, who we call by his American name, James.  He just glowed today when he received his confirmation and the gift of the Holy Ghost.  

The other one was Radisson Charles, a 15 year old who has been our piano student for the past year.  they both have many friends in the branch and we feel that they will continue to be fellowshipped by the members.

Our Georgetown branch is growing fast.  We had 160 members in attendance today.  Last year at this time, there were about 60 to 75 people each week so it has doubled.  I think the difference has been that the branch president is having branch council meetings every month and the members are beginning to do their home teaching and visiting teaching more faithfully. Also, the new converts are given callings quickly after they are baptized, so they feel wanted and needed.

Well, enough about us.  We want to know from Deborah and Jacob, what they did for their birthdays this week.  Also, thanks Esther for sharing your trip to Nauvoo with us.  Amy, we so much love your letters.  We will be interested to know if you get to teach Yuline any more lessons.  Becky, we enjoyed the tour of your new home.  Isn't it nice to have so much more space. and the yard looks like a little boys paradise.

We love all of you and are working hard to get everything done we want to do in the next 90 days.

Love, Mom and Dad

The Transfers Just Keep Going On

Dear family,

This past transfer has been like no other since we have been in Guyana. We had yet another missionary transfer out of the country on Saturday morning.  This time it was a Guyanese elder who had been working in a threesome because we weren't able to get a temporary missionary to work with him and we couldn't have anymore full-time foreign missionaries in the country because we had reached our limit already. 

We were actually really excited for him.  His name is Elder Andy Anderson.  He is from Linden, and he has spent his entire 20 months in Guyana.  It will be good for him to go to Grenada and meet the people there during his last 4 months of his mission.  I always like to kid him about his name.  I would tell him that Anderson was my mother's maiden name so we must be related.  When we dropped him off at the airport, I told him that we hoped he would come to Idaho and meet his Anderson cousins, someday. He has only been a member for about 3 years and he is a really wonderful elder.

Another highlight of the week happened today.  One of our piano students, Radisson Charles played all of the music for church today.  He had prepared 4 hymns and he did very will.  he kept up perfectly with the music leader.  He played them our of the Hymns made easy book.  

Besides being prepared to play the piano, he is also prepared to be baptized.  He has been investigating the church for a couple of years now, but because he is only 15, and none of his family are members or investigators, the missionaries had him wait to be baptized until he was older. Now they feel that he is mature enough for it.  We are also planning to see our Chinese friend, James, baptized this Saturday also.  

We are going to Tobago and Trinidad this week for couples conference tomorrow, so we won't be near a computer until Saturday evening.  We look forward to this trip.  It is always so uplifting to meet with the other couples, and this time we are going a day early to tour Tobago and do some snorkeling in the blue waters.  This will be our last outing and we are looking forward to it.

Becky,  We read that you are in the new house.  We hope that you will post some pictures so that we can see what it looks like.  Esther, write and tell us about your trip to Nauvoo.    

Love to all of you,

  Mom and Dad