Thursday, July 18, 2013

I worked on my birthday


Beck Family!
Holy cow did i have a crazy week. For my birthday, nothing happened. I mean i woke up on time, went out to work on time, worked hard the whole day, came home on time, went to bed on time. I did nothing to waste any time that day like going out to eat or taking an after noon nap, it was pure business. And that is just what I wanted to do, keep on working. But i did have a member give me a soccer jersey. Its for Arsenal, which i dont really know anything about, but it looks pretty cool, and it was defintley expensive. So that is pretty cool. But other than that, it was a totally normal day.
 The work is going great out here. We had another person confirmed yesterday, and we had 11 investigators come to church! Some of them were people that we hadnt talked to in 2 weeks, but they just decided to show up yesterday. How awesome is that, this is gonna mean many baptisms to follow. The work is just moving along out here. So things are going awesome. I get to stay in Compton for atleast another 6 weeks and we are just tearing it up out here. My companion  actually goes home at the end of this transfer, so I am going to be the one to kill him. And today we actually say goodbye to one of the elders in our Pad. He has been the one that ive been working out with, and he has absolutley been killing me.  I had to buy a saudering iron to burn to hole in my belt cause im getting so skinny. That is a combination of working out with him, and just walking around all day in this heat. I am still eating a ton, i mean literally a ton of mexican food, but im just getting skinny. I guess 14 hours of physical excersize is what it takes to combat the food from the Mexican culture. But for real, I have already had to burn 4 more holes into my belt.
Mom, dont think that the member arent feeding me out here, they feed us realy good. send you a . Im not sure what I weigh, but i left the MTC at about 204, yeah the MTC did me no favors, and i am definetly a lot less than that now. I am in the Long Beach 16th ward, which is a unique ward among all other wards. In my ward there are 19 missionaries. Yep,19, cause somebody is in a trio. No other ward in the world has that many missionaries in it. Its a few weird circumstances that made this happen, large boundries, tons of inactives, a need to put all the spanish missionaries somewhere. Its pretty fun, but we missionaries basically run the whole ward. We teach every class, that means form primary to elders quarum. We organize every activity, even the father and sons stuff. And we talk in sacrament meetingevery week. So now we are focusing on a lot of re activation, which is working. Church attendence is staring to overflow the chapel, and we are baptizing like crazy. Now we just need some preisthood. But it is a blast. Well love you family, keep enjoying your summer.
 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

This is my area

My ZONE

Here's a look at Compton


And yes, everyone has a pit bull
 

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

4th on July...Compton Style


Beck Family!

My goodness have I had a crazy week. So the 4th of July here in Compton is like nothing else I have ever seen. Or experienced. I imagine it is close to what a warzone is like. From the hours of 9-11, there was a completely constant sound of explosions, not all of them fireworks. We were driving through a pretty sketch neighbor hood on our way to pick up some other elders, and our car got surrounded by fireworks. For real, some guys came in the street and lit fireworks all around our car, so we could reverse or drive forward. Then some others started shooting arial rockets at us from down the street while we couldnt move. They were jsut trying to be funny, i guess, but they were drunk out of their minds, and they accidnetly shot each other, and missed out car. Then we hauled out of there, only to continue to get shot at by other fireworks. And some fireworks sound an awful lot like gunshots, so for moments I wasnt sure if it was just Primo fireworks, or side arms that were being shot at us. We were unharmed, along with our car, but it was crazy. People ran out into the middle of the streets to light of fireworks under street lights at intersections. There was a low lieing cloud of smoke across the whole city, and the entire place smelled like an explosion. It was the most wild night I have had here, and that is saying something for being in Compton for 5 weeks.
 I also went to a quincineta for the first time last week. Some investigators invited us, so we showed up for a 1/2 hour, and man do Mexicans know how to party. It was wild, super fun, and very expensive. And for the highlight of my week, we had a baptism yesterday.
 She is the most prepared person I have ever met. We met her on the street 3 weeks ago, taught her every lesson with a member present, and she was baptized yesterday. For real, that is like on of those miracle baptisms. It was so cool, God has just prepared her so well to hear and recieve us. So that was super awesome. Pictures will be sent, no worries. Thanks for the B-day package, that just made the baptism day all the better. That is a sweet looking tie, and i am really going to look good in it. Thanks for everything family, love ya'll, have a good one.

 

Beck out,

We are called to Serve

Awesome family that just loves us!
Wonderful baptism
 

They are our grandpa and grandma out here
 
Elder Beck

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

I can eat hot things now!

This week has been pretty fun, we got a new Elder In our apartment from Israel.
 I have to let you guys know that my tolerance for spicy and hot things has gone through the roof. Literally everytime we eat at a members house, they always like to test the missionaries, espescially the gringos. They like to test to see if we are really becoming part of the culture. This is usually through making us eat incredibily hot things. I have now moved up from Habeneros, last Monday I tried a pepper that was hotter than a habanero, and it thought it was going to kill me. My mouth was in the fires of Mordor, and im pretty sure I could have struck a match on my toungue. For 30 minutes it took all of my will power to not cry, which I didn't, but still it was hard. The next 5 hours my mouth cooled down a little bit, about to the level of constant tabasco on your tongue. My stomach inside me was on fire, and lets just say the next morning was not pretty.

But since I have eaten all of these crazy hot things now, things that were hot before the mission don't even get me. Last night was eating some Cheetos, and I didn't even realize it until I read the bag that they were the flamin hot kind. They didn't even register on my tongue. I can eat Chili de Arbols like they are candy now, and habeneros I put on everything if I can. My nose is always clear and my system is always running, sometimes a little to fast, thanks to all of these spicy foods. Super fun, a little painful, but mostly fun.

 Also, my apartment is becoming infested. I had a roach crawl out of the shower drain, while I was Showering today!! Not cool, not cool at all! Also there are ants now in our apartment, and the hallways to our apartment smells like you firmly planted your face between the cheeks of a race horse. That is about as poetic as I can put it. But it is super fun still, got to love it all. Have a good week family, take care, and keep cool. Love ya'll.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck



Yup, there's a sweet ride!