Saturday, February 23, 2013

Half way at the MTC

Beck family!
So, i am halfway through my time in the mtc, and the time is just flying. We haven't had an apostle or the prophet yet come to a devotional, but i am still holding out hope. I am teaching 2 investigators every day now, and am studying my butt off in the Spanish, but its still really hard. Learning another language in just a few weeks is suddenly a much harder task than i had previously anticipated. The one really interesting looking elder is one of the funniest cats I have ever met. He is the one with the dark hair and the goofy face. His name is elder White, and hes from Tennessee, and he has the greatest, thickest, southern accent i have ever hear. When he says his own name every time it sounds like elder Wyatt. Now i know you are all going to try and figure out how White turns into Wyatt, but just say it in the most southern accent ya'll have, and you will figure it out. I have continued my crushing reign at volleyball here, and there are very few now who dare challenge me. that is, until i start playing with all of the college volleyball players, then it becomes a little more exciting. I have also started a little work out routine at night with some of the more athletic missionaries around me in my hallway. I am trying to reverse the effects of the endless buffet and chocolate milk, because the food here has done me no favors. Everything is going great in here, lost of spiritual experiences every day, being exhausted all the time from constant class, and my brain just hurts from all the learning. literally, i get headaches from spanish, but that is my life now. Well i hope to keep hearing from yall, and hope you get the pictures. See ya'll later

Elder Beck

Beck Family!
So I have a few moments since i finished my branch presidents letter, so I will send you all a quick one right now. Just got back from the temple, super cool as always. I have come to learn that P day, really is not what you think it is. It just means that there is alloted time to do laundry and go to the temple, and that is it. I still have to go to class today for 5 hours, orientate the new district that is coming into our zone today, and teach an investigator. p day is a myth, it is really just laundry day. Also, today i was told for the first time in my life that i look like Ben Aflek. Please respond and tell me if that is a good thing or a bad thing, because i can not picture him, or any celebrity from before my mission, in my mind at all. Today someone tried to talk to me about who the best offensive player in the nfl is. And i could barely keep the conversation going, i am loosing my sports smarts by the day in here. and all of the valuable precious information is being replaced with spanish verb congugations. I am also at the point where throughout the day i will realize that I can not speak english or spanish, i am degrading in all languages. But for real it has been great here. Also, I have a mtc card that gets me into all of the buildins and stuff, and i also get 6 bucks put on it every week for me to buy stuff. So dad, when you were talking about guys always buying pringles, well that still does happen. We buy pringles and hot pockets and chex mix outta those veding machines like you wouldnt believe. Well, once again, it is time for me to go. I hope all is going well back in the outside world. Keep me posted.
 
Elder Beck

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Flat Dallin can Party!

Well, what better place to take a piece of paper( I mean a real boy) to a swimming pool!  You were keeping the place under ninja control!


 
Here is most honorable Flat Dallin at Cole's (his cousin's) birthday party at the pool in Kamas.  Watch out Flat Dallin, I have my eye on you!

Cole turned 8! 

Um, yea, this is me taking a picture of you Flat Dallin...and that awesome bobcat statue 

My playmate, Marianne

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Week dos


Here is Dallin's Week 2 in MTC letter! 
 
So, in case you don't know, i have now been in the mtc for 2 weeks. Its totally distorting my sense of time. i cant tell if i was born and raised here, or if i just got here. It is clinically crazy what this place does to your mind. but it is the good kind of crazy. As a ZL, i have to do quite a bit of extra stuff. I conduct every meeting i am in, even if there is a member of our branch presidency. I have to interview everyone in the zone, and resolve all of their conflicts, which are plenty. and i get to give tours and orientation to all of the new districts that come in. Yes, one week after i got here and received my tour and orientation, i got to do the same thing for the new incoming missionaries. I barely just learned what i was doing here, and then i had to explain it to someone brand new. no worries. I am also started to loose my love for the endless buffet here. I basically ate myself sick in the first week, and now i hate the cafeteria food. Also, i finally stepped on the scale for the first time yesterday, and was mildly horrified at what came up. I guess an endless buffet, bottomless chocolate milk, and 12 hours a day sitting in a class room have their consequences.

I am teaching 2 investigators every day, for 30 min each, in Spanish. I don't even know Spanish yet, but i still am trying to teach random people about the gospel in a language that i do not understand. Brilliant. the Spanish is just requiring a lot of work, and constantly speaking it all day long. The spirit is so strong here, it kind a just puts words in your mouth when you really need it. The devotionals are incredible, and our zone if freakin the best. My comp is so cool, we get a long great and are total leaders of our zone. this last week we had to say goodbye to a lot of the elders that were here before us. most of them had been here for 10 or 12 weeks, waiting on their visas to Mexico and Argentina. in just the last 3 days, all 12 of them got their visas, and so they are all out. they were all real cool guys, and were basically our mentors. so now without them, my district of 2 weeks old is now the oldest group of kids in our zone. and were are now the mentors to all of the newbies, even as we are just getting the hang of everything ourselves. Kinda crazy the operation they got going on in here. The moose jerky was quite delicious, and did me and my roommates some good. also, i got the picture of dads corner of guitars. I cant even believe how cool that looks. i wish i could play guitar every day here. lots of the time i will find myself just air guitaring or air drumming, i think it is a symptom of the with drawls. well my laundry is finally done, and there is a huge line of people waiting to email their families, so i guess i better share the computer. Love ya'll

 

Elder Beck

 

p.s. those chocolate chip cookies were much appreciated.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

First week at the MTC--Elder Beck


Beck Family!

Just for the record, i can only check my email once a week, and i was quite suprised to see that i had like 12 letters from yall. Just for the record, if you use dearelder.com then i get a physical letter everytime you send me something, that way i have more time to read them all, and can hopefully give better responses.

It is absolutely crazy here. I am in class the entire day, literally, for

12 hours of the day. I really do need that 50 min gym time to work out some of my wiggles, espescially after being stuck in a class room for that long.

My companion is great, he is a football player, and a hard worker, and we get along great. Still havent figured out how to email pictures, i will work on that before next wednesday. Also, right after i sent that letter to you explaining that i was called to be a district leader, me and my companion were called as zone leaders. My branch president says it is the fist time he has called 2 brand new missionaries to be zone leaders in the

4 years he has been a branch president. So just when i learned what a DL was, i had to forget everything and start working on learning what a ZL is.

Also, tell samuel that there is also an endless ice cream bar next to the endless chocolate milk. like endless ice cream sandwiches, drumsticks, and crunch bars. It is literally heaven inside the lunch room.

I will write more, just send me the physical letters, so i can actually read them and respond, cause i only get 30 minutes on the computer a week, and that was just enough time to read everything you guys sent.

See you all soon,
Elder Beck



Here is Dallin and our college friend Scott Jacobs

I just met Dallin! His MTC classroom is in the same building where my office is located. He is looking good, and is learning a lot. I asked him how he likes the MTC and and particularly how he likes the food. He loves the MTC and loves the food! He is learning a lot and is enjoying it!
Let me know what your email address or your cell number is and I will send you a couple of pictures I took. What a fine young man you have raised. He is going to be a great missionary!
I told him I was Shawn's room mate when you both fell in love ... what a great time that was. I also told him that Shawn was my favorite roommate while I was at BYU-- he introduced me to Hard Rock-- He said "hey me too!"
Hope to talk to you later.
Scott
 
 






Saturday, February 2, 2013

Our first LETTER!

YEA!!! I went to get the mail today and there is was, OUR FIRST LETTER!  I was on my way out running errands, so I had to wait till I got home to read it with everyone!  That was an hour of torture!
So, I let Shawn open the letter and read it to us!  It was short and he said he would write more on his P-day which is on Wednesday.  He says he is good and everything is great.  He has been talked to nearly in all Spanish!  And that he is a District Leader too! Everything is very exciting and things happen very fast!.  Good food and it is endless! ( I think he likes that for sure!)  He is hoping for some gym time because he's in class 12 hours a day! 
OHHH can't wait to hear more!

Flat Dalliln

February 2, 2013--Groundhogs Day
Dont' know if he saw his shadow but we all want more winter here!


Thanks to the inspiration of Dallin's 7 year old cousin Ashlee, we made a FLAT Dallin to take with us on our adventures! So be on the look out and see where he pops up in the next two years! Who knows, he may go on an adventure with you!
So Flat Dallin makes his appearance on Herriman Hill.  We love hiking this little hill which is 2 miles from our house.
Hyrum and Samuel have been begging for a snow hike and of course that means some sliding down the hills!
We all took turns and got SPEED!
 
Dallin has been here before on the hill overlooking Herriman, but I wonder if he's ever felt light as a feather?

Thanks Dallin for coming on your first adventure!






The MTC day

January 30, 2013
12:30 drop off time
Provo MTC

Welcome snow storm!  Well, it snowed a got 4 inches at our house so what better way to start your missionary service hours that by shoveling!  Shawn makes a great companion!  And Dallin got to wear his service clothes.  I had to take Sierra, Hyrum and Samuel to school for a few hours before we went to pick them up at 930 so we would have enough time to make it to Provo by 12:30 and not be rushed at all.  Never know about the traffic!


snow at our house
 

Dallin by "his" truck.  It's now really Sierra's truck


This is where Dallin decided we would all go out to eat

Yummy yummy!  The Big Kalua sandwich, pulled chicken  sandwich, and Lula pork nachos!

Shawn and his missionary

perfect snowy day with my family

ohh we only had 5 minutes left Dallin at this point

all paths lead to the Temple

can we do this???tears coming!


OK Dallin looks like a giant in this picture.  We officially measured him this morning and he's 6ft.  Sierra has actually grown and she's 5'7" Maybe Dallin's on his toes

Ok so this exchange took maybe 2 minutes!  It is super fast!  We all got out of the van, Elder Hansen was there to meet Dallin and get him where he needed to go.  We all got a good hug from Dallin.  Good wrap up with Shawn

Momma hug!

Rum hug, samo got a hug too!  Then it was time.  Elder Hansen started rolling the first bag away


So there goes my Dallin, my missionary, my son

And now there is goes!  See the green tags on his bags...


and he's gone and he didn't look back




This is where we dropped him off

And this is where his shoes will stay while he's gone!
 

Getting set apart as a Missionary

January 29th  7 pm
Stake Center
President Ollis set him apart
So our evening went something like this...the kids came home from school and Hyrum and sierra had to decided some classes for registration.  Dallin convinced Sierra that taking concurrent classes are way awesome...college credit now!  And Hyrum to take classes at the JATC his senior year!  On-Site construction class sounds just like Hyrum's style.  Dallin decided we would watch UP for his last movie night here.  That movie always makes me cry...and even more now!  We wrapped up the movie at 630 then got dressed to go over to the stake center.


Elder Dallin Shawn Beck
His picture will be on this wall soon.  Lots of missionaries from our Stake

Look at my handsome guys.  Two more missionaries in training.


Ahh, sweet bean and mom and Elder Beck

Dallin is an official missionary now.  Mission rules apply from here on out

Elder Beck


his is where the adventure begins,  we are parents of a missionary

So after the setting apart, we made milk shakes, butterfinger and oreo and played Yatzee and Outburst.  We love playing games together.  We looked up at the clock and realized that according to the little white bible, Dallin said it was time to get to bed, 10:30 mission rules!  OK  Wow! what a day!

Friday, February 1, 2013

Monday night FHE

Monday Jan 28, 2013
Last FHE together

So we did most of the packing on Monday and got the few more items he needed.  Like an alarm clock, mouthwash,  journal, and a watch.  Then I got to sew up his white pants that were way too long and do the final packing.  It all fit and even has room for the stuff he's going to be getting at the MTC.  3 suit cases doesn't seem like enough stuff for 2 years!

Later, our last FHE night all together went something like this... We had some awesome stakes for dinner via  Dallin request, and even the peas!  We only have steak on a very special occasions like this!  Next time we eat steak will be when he comes home... No, Shawn says we must find other occasions to eat steak!
.Dallin was in charge of the lesson for FHE and he taught us about the little white bible and some of the things he's going to be doing, things he should not to, when he wakes up, goes to bed, what P day is really all about and other great bits of info for our family to know about missionaries.
We then followed up the lesson by a classic game of Scattergories!  We love that game.  Everyone has a wonderful time trying their hardest to think of something someone else doesn't have!  The best is when we all miss the obvious!
Dallin said our family prayer and felt like he wrapped it up well.  Tomorrow he's an elder!