Bikes and cultural events

Beck Family!

So how are ya'll doing? I have had yet another great week down in the hood. We have been working our red-zoned area more recently, just more time in the ghetto of ghettos. My bike is the only bike that has been holding up to these Compton roads. My companions bikes are being put through the ringer. We are fixing flat tires every single day at lunch, and we have to make weekly trips to the bike shop on P-day. The roads in Compton are less than ideal for bicycles. So many thorns, all the glass, the garbage just stays on the road forever. But my bike has been handling it really well, i havent had any real problems, and i dont get flat tires. So wahoo, i count my blessings. Someone did however try to steal our bikes this last week. We chain our 3 bikes up with 3 bike lockes, mine that goes around all the bike frames and the pole we are chaining too, and the other 2 locks go on the front and bike tires to lock them all together. Because if you just chain you bike to a pole, people will still come by and take you tires. If they are really despereate they will take you handle bars and seat to. So to help prevent that i have put super glue in all of the sockets for my handle bars and seat, so they cant fit the alan wrench in there. these are just some of the safetly measures we have to take to keep out bikes safe. I have put super glue in nearly every socket on my bike, which would make it a huge pain if i ever had to change my handle bars or something. But its what we have to do to keep thievs from stripping our bikes clean. I have also taped and spray painted my bike a little bit to make it look really crappy so people dont want to steal it. But anyways, when we can back to our bikes friday morning, some guy riding by told us that some people had stopped in their truck, gotten out with bolt cutters and had tried to steal our bikes. But i bought a really expensive german made bike lock that is made to withstand Compton. So they just ended up scratching my lock, then driving away. If i had gotten a cheap lock they would have taken all 3 of our bikes. They are constantly trying to steal our bikes, not the gangs, just the low level thugs that probably just want to sell it for enough money for another hit. The good news is the gangs will "take care" of anyone they catch trying to mess with our bikes. This last week we had a ward party that was huge. It was a party to celebrate all of the different countries that the members of our ward come from. So for the activity all of the people from the same countries got together and would have a little booth on their country. They would have authentic food, and native stuff from their country. And for the activity each country had a turn to do a native dance and or song, all with the native clothing. It was freakin legit. I tried authentic food from pretty much every country Mexico and south. They got some good stuff, but i think i still like Mexican the best. Their food is the spiciest. It was also an awesome activity for getting investigators and less actives to come to. we had around 22 investigators come and a ton of less actives. Some of them even participated in the dancing and brought authentic food. So it was really awesome. We have some awesome investigators, and should be having a few baptisms coming up. Our recent converts are on fire, and they are inviting all of their friends and family to come listen to the missionaries. They have the recent convert fire, and it is doing wonders. We had even more lessons this last week than the week before, we are putting all of our emphasis on member present lessons, and the results are certainly coming from it. WE had 12 member present lessons this last week, which for me is a personal best so far. But i dont see why we cant beat that this week if we keep doing what we are doing. Thanks for everything family, you are all the best. Love ya'll.

Beck out,
Elder Beck

Cool eh?
 

Habanero challenge!

Beck Family!

So it has been another great week. We have been teaching with members a lot lately, and there has been great success with it. We try to get a different member out with us every day, and it has been working really well. We have had lots of member present lessons, more than in my last area, and it is just cause we are taking the time to make lots of calls to get them out here. This last week I ate an entire Habanero. And because it was my great idea, we decided to do it without eating or drinking for 3 minutes. So for 3 minutes the fire of the habenero just sunk down into my cells. It was intense. My companion elder stone didnt do so well, as you can see from the picture, it took a heavy toll on him. But my whole trio did it, and because of it I believe we have earned a higher level mancard. It was crazy, and the next day was even crazier, in relation to the spiceyness. We call it the Icey-hot sensation. Cause that is about what it feels like on the way out. pretty intense. My daily schedule as a missionary is kinda like this. I wake up at 6;25 every day, so that we can be running by 6;30. And i run my companions hard. We dont just do a boring run, i incorporate into it buddy cares, frog hops, lunges, sprints, wall runs, everything i can think of. We get he most out of the 1/2 hour. Then studies start at 8. Personal study at 8, comp study at 9, then language study at 10. After that it is time to go out to work. Usually we have lunch at 1, dinner at 5, always done by 6. We try to spend out whole nights teaching, cause that is the best time when everyone is home. Our daily goal that we have set in our companionship is to teach 3 lessons a night, and we hit that goal this whole last week. Thats the basic schedule that vaires just a little bit every day for the days plans. But its tpretty standard every day. Life is still going great out here, and i still love being out here in Compton. I love this city, but goodness gracious i would never visit without a white shirt and tie, Im not thug enough for that. Love ya'll, and take care.

Beck out,

Elder Beck

yes Mam!  he ate that that whole thing

That is what it looks like after you eat it!

trying to be tough...it didn't last

Dallin and his comp

Service project...taking down the ceiling

Wow, September is one hot month!

Beck Family!

Sounds like ya'll had a fun summer, not as cool as my summer I got to say, but still pretty fun. Did you know that in Souther California September is the hottest month of the year? And also that we lost our car the day the Elder xxxx went home. So as soon as it  became the hottest it will be the entire year, i got permantly switched to bike for this area. It is flippin hot here, and its not the driest heat either. It is comprable to the devils moustache. And we are biking all over the place, our area is really big, and since we talk to everybody we see, we are out in the sun, talking to people, and biking, for much of my waking day. I now have to eat for real, i have an actual calorie deficit to make up. Eating isnt just for fun anymore, i gotta eat and drink for real and replenish everything im loosing. Lunch is not longer a break, eating is serious business when your biking in this heat. But its super fun, cause when you talk to everybody you see in Compton, you run into some characters. And by characters i mean people that were too crazy for the Asylums. Now i am back into a trio. One of the elders from the other Compton companionship went home, It was really sad, cause we had to drive him to the airport, which was a place i was sure i would not return to for 2 years. so the elder still here got put with me and Elder xxx. I already knew him cause we have been sharing an apartment for 7 weeks, but now it is just us 3 covering all of Compton. And that is a large area. We have to keep moving to get anything done. But we are teaching like crazy, so its definitley all worth it. We have been finding new families, and have some investigators that are right at the edge of baptism. The work is going good out in the hood. Something new that we have been focusing a lot on with our new mission president is achieving our goals. He says how to many times we set goals merely to be inspired by them, and then dont achieve them. He has stressed how we should achieve what we set out to do, that we should be inspired not from setting goals, but from achieving goals. I have taken this mentalitly to heart. We are achieving the goals we set as a companionship,and that is awesome. We are working hard to make sure that we we say we are going to do something, that we then do everything in our power to do it. It gets me pumped, and makes me want to teach the living crap out of this place. I still absolutely love being a missionary. Have a great week family, love ya'll.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

Biking in Compton

Beck Family!

So it has been a crazy week. Oh yes, i am emailing you on Tuesday, because yesterday was labor day and our library was closed. So we got permission to email ya'll today. So im just hoping mom didnt freak out in the last couple of hours waiting for a letter from her missionary, just stay calm mom. This last week has been awesome. Elder xxx  went home Tuesday, and he was actually realesed to his father monday night, so that was the last time i saw him. For the last thing we did together, we went to the swap meet, got lots of really cool stuff for dirt cheap( if you are a good money talker) and then we destroyed all of his letters he still had from the girl that dear johned him one year into his mission. He took a baseball bat to that stuff and held nothing back. Then we each burned some letters for him, letters from her that said how she wanted to be married in the temple and all that stuff, we burned it all. Then i disconnected the fire alarm cause that went off, and i know how. Then we left, and did not come back to our appartment until night, because we made everything smell like smoke and didnt want them to know it was us. But it really isnt a big deal, every single one of our neighbors smokes weed every night, so you couldt even tell we had burned stuff. My new companion is Elder xxx, and he is awesome. He is just as old as me in the mission, and a gringo too. So they thought it would be a good idea to put the two of us together out here. We are on bike now, and i now realize how dirty the streets of Compton are.

There is broken glass, garbage, and frikin thorns every where. No lie, In the last 3 days we have gotten 5 flats, and then blew a tube while trying to fix it. This is a bikers nightmare out here, im thinking about getting solid tires, not kidding, or i will be fixing tires every lunch for the rest of my time here. 2 nights ago when my comp. got double flats at

9:15 on our way back to the apartment, that really put a damper on our night. We started walking the bikes home through the heart of Compton, which is a less than ideal place to be at that hour. The sounds of gunshots were just enough to encourage us to walk faster and get to a main road ASAP. We got home without incident at about 10:05. I really dont want that to happen again. Yesterday the ward did a party for labor day, and since it was our P-day, we got permission to go. So we went and played soccer and volleyball with all of the members, it was super fun. Then we came home, and got a start on all of our bike trouble. Thats kind of whats been going on in my neck of the woods, fun stuff as usual. Keep me posted on all the stuff about home. And yes dad, i can not wait to watch football again, but i guess ill just have to make do without it for now. But you can atleast let me know if Herriman and the Cowboys are winning. Thanks for everything, love ya'll

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck