Christmas time in the Mission

Beck Family!

 So how in the world is it already christams time? Christmas is super different as a missionary, you get into a whole different type of christmas spirit. You get a lot more focused on what it is all about, and not what is in the nexst package that mom is going to send. By the way, i have loved all of the packages, they have all been excelent. I ilike the jerky, the fudge, espescially the carmel corn. All of it, it has done me well. Since it has been in walmart i have been buying a carton of egg nog every week. I am like super poor, and i dont really ahve the funds for the egg nog, so im near starving the rest of the week, but the egg nog is so good and worth it. I ahve gone through 5 cartons so far, and i bought myself another one today. Good stuff. And im not really starving, not with all the goodies you send me. Things have been going really good here, we have been doing lots of good work. we have been teaching a lot lately, and that is good, because teaching missionaries are happy missionaries. I hope you all enjoy the presents, i tried my best with the limited time and funds available to a missionary. And mom, i promise you that i got you someting. But it is out of my control when it gets there. Please, i did not forget you, i just wanted something really special, and it has taken longer than i anticipated. This week i got 2 flat tires, one up front and one in the back. That is no fun, i still need to fix those. Whittier just destroys bikes, all of the hills are incredible and it just wears out bikes super fast. but its all good, im just having to learn bike repairs and maintanence really fast. Beign a district leader is really cool. I get to go on 24 hour exchanges with every elder in the district and those are always fun. I get to work other areas and be with new people, so that keeps things fresh. Well Beck family, thank you for everything you have done, and for all the Christmas spirit. Keep the real reason for Christmas alive.

Love ya'll.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

rainbow cool in Cali



Dallin and his comp in Whitter

try and find him

Baby it's cold here...Dallin is now a wimp!

Beck Family!

 It has been another great week. It warmed up a little bit, it was crazy cold here for a couple days. One day it even dropped below 50. I thought i was going to die. But i didnt. But i thought i would. I have become such a wimp now to the cold. Im not hard core at all. I suck. SO i opened the sweater as soon as ai got it. That is much appreciated, thank you. This last week we had a great week. We were able to have lots of lessons, which is crazy hard up here in whittier. And we set a baptismal date with an investigator we met within 3 days of talking to him in the street. That was really cool. We are teaching lots of cool people right now, we have done a lot of good finding. This area was notorious for not having any investigators, so it makes us feel really good that we were able to find all of these knew people, about 10 in the last few weeks. Good things are happening.  Our district overall is killing it, we have had 4 baptisms this month so far, and have a few more planned before the month is over. As a district leader i get to give a district training every single week in district meeting, and i have gotten much more comfortable at doing that. i think i even like it a little bit, giving 1 hour long trainings. It makes me study a lot, and that is a good thing. yesterday we had Elder Acosta visit our ward. He is a 70, and he was freakin legit. He spoke the most perfect spanish I have ever heard. It was a little intimidating, because he came to our ward council, which is where I as the district leader give our weekly missionary report. So i had to give my report to a general authority, infront of the entire stake presidency. Da pressure was on. But we pulled it out. He gave a super goood talk on real growth and the critical role of the priesthood, i just loved listening to him. And this last week i did 2 more baptismal interviews, which have become some of my favorite experences. The spirit is so strong during those as you really get the confirmation that this person is ready for baptism and to make this change in their life. Well have a good week family, keep the packages a rolling in, it really does make my day when i get something in physical mail. Love ya'll.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

 

P.S. This was on the outside of a door. needless to say we knocked. He was not amused.

I'm up in the mountains!

Beck Family!

How is everybody doing? Things are going well out here. Where i am at is basically up in the mountains in relation to the rest of the mission. We are higher up and the weather is much more extreme here than anywehre else in the mission. I mean that it is the hottest and the coldest up here in Whittier. Up here it dropped below 50 degrees last night, and it was so cold i almost gave up the ghost. I have become such a whimp, its not even funny. I am freezing my sin off everytime we freaking leave home. And it is barley 50 degrees! I suck, when i come back to utah i feel that i am going to be in for quite a shock. Being in so Ca for this long just kind of does that, it makes you go all soft. Im not hard core at all now. but its all good, cause the area i am in is awesome. Whittier has the stigma of being the hardest area in the entire mission. But we are working hard to chagne that stigma. we want people to be excited to be called to whittier by the time we are done here. And we have all the tools to do it, out ward is really good and we have great leadership. Me and my comp elder R

Dallin and new comp. in Whitter

 

6 month mark---tie burning

have been getting along good, he is still super fast, but now he doesnt leave me as far behind in our morning runs. My schedule is pretty much the same overall, except that i now have a good amounts of meetings sprinkled in there throughout the week. It is so cool cause now i get to spend more time with president Tew, who is a boss. For real, we have the greatest mission president ever. We refer to him as 'Mountain Tew' or simply 'John Wayne' He is that awesome. The struggle up here in Whittier is simply meeting with out investigators, it is just harder to find everybody. We have a decent amount of people we are teaching, it is just the struggle of regularly finding them. But that is why this last week was really good, because we were able to find about everybody we are teaching. I have had to learn how to take care of a bicycle really fast up here, lots of things happen up in the hills of Whittier. I am a lot less dangerous now of a rider, so that should help somebody sleep better at night. We have this really cool investigator now who we are teaching who in our last lesson bore super strong testimony to us about how she knows our whole message is true. She said this after she said that she had sjust finished reading the book of mormon. Crazy cool. The trouble is that she has a live in boyffriend that wont moarry her. I hate those. but we will keep working until she is baptized. Thanks for everything family, and just know that anypackage i get from you i will save until christmas to open. Have a good one.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

Elder Beck is full!

*Beck Family!*

*So how is everybody doing this fine Christmas season. Yes, it is officially they Christmas season which apparently means every Hymn we sing has to be a Christmas one. I dont know if that is a handbook rule or what, but we obey it strictly. It looks like you guys did great with the christmas lights, nice design. This week has been pretty good. But i did think i would die on thanksgiving. For the first time in a very long time, Elder Beck was completley full, and did not want to eat anymore. We had 3 different thanksgiving dinners with members. And everysingle person wanted the missionarires to try everything special that they made. So they would serve us big plates of food, and then just watch us as we ate it to see if we like it. that meant there was no getting out of it, you had to eat everything that they scooped you. And mind you that simply one of these dinners would have been more than adequate, and would have left me comfortably full. Take that peacful, yet full feeling at the end of thanksgiving, and multiply it by 3, and you are kind of getting at what happened to me. The food was good, I cant lie. But by the time came for us to show up to 3rd dinner, i simply wasnt hungry. In fact, i was nearly gorged, because at the last home they made us eat a whole freaking turkey by our selves just split between 4 missionaries. So i really didnt need any more food, for probably a day or 2, but still we went to our next dinner.

There, i found a new level of how far i can dig to not offend a member. I ate everything. And i thought i would die. I can only guess at what my calorie intake for the day was, it must have been outstanding. these were some of the best members in the ward, and they were all so happy to have the missionaries over, and to show them how Mexicans have a great thanksgiving feast, we would have crushed them if we didnt eat it all. So we pushed through, somehow, we found a way. I went to sleep at 9;45 that night, that much turkey practically puts you in a food induced coma. They next day, for our morning excersize, we did the Samoan shake and walked to the stop sign and back. And that was pushing it. It was an intense day, so very grateful that i can say i survived it. I feel like im writing about it the way Bear Grylis talks about when he survives a super dangerous Man Vs Wild episode, but im not kidding it was on par with that type of experience. Now, there are some other things that i must write about.

First, we are getting bigger into fmaily history in our mission, so if you want to send me some cool small storires about grand parents, and great grandparents that would be cool. I just need enough to fill the little family history pamphlet that the church makes. Thank you so much family, i love ya'll, you are the best. *

 

*Beck out,*

*Elder Beck*