Ok, you do it greenie

Beck Family!

Hey, so whats up everybody? This aint gonna be that long, cause you know, ill be talking to yall in like 5 seconds on christmas. But still, last week was super good. We have just been biking all over and tearing it up. We had members out teaching with us every day last week, which was super good, and it helped out our investigators a lot. Me greenie elder L is holding up good to the work. I make him do lots of stuff. People are walking down the street, i just whisper 'you contact him.' Middle of a lesson i whishper 'you teach this and ask her questions about it.' Nightly planning 'ok, you plan for the 7 oclock hour'. I am making him do  lots of stuff, and its making him learn quick, cant baby em. But life is going really good. I am finding it really good for me and really rewarding to just keep working hard. I tried last week to re-study how to contact people. You might think that after all this time i would have contacting down, but the truth is it is something we can always get better at, and so i studied it to learn how i could do it better even now. And the more i make those efforts to continuously improve, the more rewarding every day of this experience is. And so that is what i just keep trying to do, to work, to learn, and to never let off the gas. I have noticed in this last week how i can truly feel like a successful missionary every day. I feel that as i continually give it my all, and work as hard as when i was a zone leader, as hard as i did a year ago, as hard as when i was with elder stone. As i keep trying, and dont let myself get content with where i am, i constantly feel like i am doing what God needs of me. We have a great night ahead of us today of teaching, and great things set up later in the week. Im excited to missionary work, i honestly love being a missionary. Cant wait to talk to yall in a couple days, see ya soon, love yall.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

LA temple, bad puking moments, investigators dropped, then the week turned around :)

Beck Family!

So this morning was temple morning, so i am running on 4 hours of sleep and doing great. Man the 530 session is so good, best session of the whole day. The LA temple is so great, for real, gonna be one of my favorite temples. Its a in yo face type of temple. Cause its just in the middle of Babylon, and the church decided to build like the biggest prettiest building possible. Thats just like 'what up LA, do something bout it.' The church dont play, and i think the LA temple is proof of that.

But it was awesome, and so was most of our weeek. Well our week acutally started terrible. Like we had 3 days of life just blowing up in our faces. All the lessons fell apart, our very best investigators dropped us out of nowhere, which was a huge shock and just terrible, and we had to drop a lot of our other invetstigators, brining us down to 3. We reduced our teaching pool by 4 times in a matter of days. Also i got sick, and was throwing up all tuesday night. But i didnt take any proselyting off, or really any time at all, i just got up the next day and worked through feeling super sick. I havent taken a single sick day or hour on my whole mission, and i sure aint gonna start now. So that made it look like this week would be less than memorable. But then things changed around. We started finding, we found new investigators, and we had an old former come out of the wood work to be a great investigator now. We have people progressing, and we are having lots of success with our less active familys as well. We had lots of less actives come to church and the christmas choir activity this last week, so we are seeing good things happened. We ended up teaching a lot in the last couple of days, it serisousl all happened right at the end.

Also, really cool moment. We took a member out with us to go to a lesson. When we were done we asked themember if there was anything we could do for them. One of the members said she would like  a blessing of comfort and counsel. We went to their home, and she asked me to give her the blessing. I said a little prayer, and then started. 2 amazing things happened. 1. my spanish became flawless, absolutely perfect for the next couple of minutes, as i was able to fluidly and fluently express even the most complex thoughts i had. But the 2nd thing was even more amazing. I was speaking, then took a short break and paused, and i had such a clear and suprisingly distinct spiritual impression. In almost audible words i head 'she is struggling with self worth.' I then started the blessing again, and i realized that the spirit in the room changed as the blessing started adressing her needs that were whispered to me. I felt her begin to cry, and i knew that God put that idea into my head, because He knew one of his daughters was hurting, and she needed help. It was an incredible experience, and i also realized that much of the things that i said were also meant for me and i should apply them to myself as well. It was a really cool moment of spirutal revelation.
Also, this last week we had elder Baxter of the first quorum on the 70 come visit us. We had a zone conference with him yesterday. IT was good, i liked it, andi feel blessed that this is the 3rd GA to visit our mission during my time here. But in all honesty, my favorite part of the conference was when our mission president got up and talked, he just conveys the spirit in such a strong way. It was another thing that made this last week so good.

Also, we had a christmas conference, and i watched the christmas devotional, which was great, liked that. Prophets just get it.

this is what happens when missionaries get busy

sunset over Long Beach

don't even know if you are supposed to eat this

Best Sunday ever!!! UNCLE AARON dropped by!

making some Salvadorian food

LA temple visitor center

visitor center

Anyways, great week. I know that as i focus on feeling the spirit, that i feel sucessful about my mission. Way to much of the time i feel self critical and self defeating about everything, i hold myself to a nearly impossible standard. And that gets me down lots of times, like really down. But i know when i focus on feeling the spirit, i can connect the feeling of the spirit to a feeling that God is happy with me, and even though im not perfect, if im still trying as hard as I can, then he is happy with my progress. Its just true, i know it is. Love yall, take care.

Beck out,
Elder Beck

Overall crazy...making that greenie tired!

Beck Family!

So this week has been crazy good, and just overall crazy.

So first off, its been raining. Say whaaat?! It doesnt rain in california, like hardly ever. But this week is has poured, for days, and it finally stopped on Friday. But that was super weird, the last time i saw the rain was in February. Its literally only rained like 3 times, including this week, in my whole mission. But this week it rained a lot, and that was a great way to introduce my greenie to the mission.

My greenies name is elder L. He is from  Utah, he is half samoan, and fresh out of highschool and 18 years old. He went to the mexico mtc, so he has way better spanish than i did when i got to the field, so ive been using him since day one.

Cool story. Get ready for this. On tuesday, the day that elder L got here, we began teaching. The very first house we went to was G house. She was home and let us in. We then taught her and her son angel, and it became a very spirutal lesson. We ended up teaching about the plan of salvation and espescially how they can know it is true. After about 30 minutes of talking, i looked over to my greenie and said 'invite them to be baptized.' He looked at me with the 'you sure bout that' look, but then looked back at them and invited them to be baptized. They both nearly in unison said said without hesitation. They accepted baptismal dates for the 28th of this month. It was incredible. When we left there i told me greenie "when we have faith and we show it, it equals miracles like that." It was the very first house and person he visited in his mission, and they set a really firm baptismal goal. How cool is that? Just in case you were wondering, that is not how my first day went, i do remember where i ate, i remember that i ate something incredibly spicy at the salsedo home, and i remember just feeling so tired. I asked him how he felt the next day when he woke up. He said 'good but im pretty sure we were only asleep for 2 hours, cause im still exhuasted'. That means we are doing something right if he feels exhausted for these whole 6 weeks. We did lots of walking in the rain, talking to everybody, so that was pretty fun to.

Also, yesterday at church i got to confirm J Q. He is the 13 year old kid that we baptized last week. I got to confirm him yesterday, and it was a great experience. It was so cool, to recognize the spirit just say what was specific for him. and the coolest thing that i think happened was in the confirmation i felt the distinct impression to tell him to prepare to serve a mission, because there would be more people like him prepared to recieve the gospel from his testimony. It was super cool, and i know that if he does what he needs to,he will grow up to be a missionay and change other peoples lives.

puddle jumping in the rain!

We got it all in one trip!

yea, we have never seen this sign before!
 

Thanks for everything family, love all of you, have a great Christmas! Try and share the spirit of christmas with as many people as possible. We can do so much good in the world, it just takes a little effort from us to make a big difference!

Beck out,
Elder Beck

He is the gift

Beck Family!

This week has been straight crazy. So busy. So crazy. Full of miracles. Let me break it down.

To start, we have been teaching la familia q for a while. They have been coming to church, and were introduced to church by a friend taking them to the LA temple visitors center(great first impression). We have been teaching them consistently, and this week, the 2 young boys got baptized. They father/boyfriend is actually the member that introcuded the family to the gospel. The 2 youngest kids are below 8, and the mom is going to be baptized on the 14th of december. They are so cool. The mom, L owns a zumba studio and is a zumba instructor. So we often teach her at her zumba studio in downtown Compton. Zumba is a very foreign culture to me, its crazy. The women that attend these zumba classes worship those zumba instructors like goddeses its crazy. But they had 2 thanksgiving dinners at the zumba studio before thanksgiving that we went to, so we got to meet a lot of people there while we taught L and her family. This family is just awesome. The kids are super funny. We got J 13, nl 9, d 7, j 6. So cute, and these kids say the funniest things. This was a conversaition that d had with his mom.

'i say the toothfairy when i lost my tooth.'

'what did he look like?'

'it was a girl.'

'What color was her skin?'

'She was mexican.'

'Was she short or tall?'

'Short.'

"was she skinny or fat?'

'Fat"

Lupe then looks at him with that mothers glare.

'Uhh... i mean skinny, she was skinny."

So funny. great family. Anyways, they passed their bapsitmal interviews, and they kids got baptized yesterday, and that was awesome. It turned out to be a great baptism. Elders S and C baptized them and Me and another elder are going to confirm them next sunday. And the mom is gonna be baptized in 2 weeks, keep praying for her!

Also, i dont know if you heard anthing about the protest/riots that have been going on, but they have been going on in compton. something about a police officer killing a young black kid. Anways, when we were teaching the quintero family on tuesday night i think, we got a call from the APs saying that we and every other missionary had to evacuation Compton immmediatley cause things were getting out of hand with the protest. So we all left and worked in paramount for the rest of the night. Compton is crazy.

Also, i have more crazy news. So i am entering my last transfer of my misison, meaning my finaly 6 weeks. And i have been called to be a trainer of a brand new missionary. Normally the training program is 12 weeks long for a new misisonary, but the APs called me on thursday night and told me that i would be training and that i would need to finisht the training program with him before i go home. So it is gonna be crazy. I am so excited though, we are going to work so hard, and i am just gonna kill him and love him. Its gonna be a blast, i am so excited to end my mission like this. I have never heard of another elder training in their last 6 weeks, so its pretty unique, but its gonna be great. I pick him up on tuesday, and then we get right to work.

Thanksgiving was great, we had 6 dinners, 3 of those with investigator familiys. I didnts want to eat after the first 2. But i pushed through, and made everybody happy. I felt terrible, but happy at the same time. Great holiday, and now its time for the chrismas music.

Anyways, love all of you, take care, have a great week, and look up HE IS THE GIFT and share the video.

Beck out,

sweet hawk

looking cool on Thanksgiving

pitbulls run this town

baptism is the way back

Elder Beck

I'm in a tri again

Beck Family!

Family, with no lie, this has been one of the craziest weeks of my mission, filled with so many ups and downs.

I am just gonna lead off with this. On Thursday, at 6 in the morning, my companion elder C had to go home. He needed to go home to seek medical attention, for something he had been struggling with his whole mission. It was one of the hardest things I have had to go through, seeing him go home. It happend to fast. on tuesday we met with the president, he told us to come back the next day. on wednesday he told my componion that he was going home the very next day at 6 in the morning. so we literally had less that 24 hours notice. The only reason that i am telling you all this is because elder C was an example i think we can all learn from. In no way did he want to go home, that is why he had gutted it out for 13 months here in the field. He loved his mission, and he loved the chance to serve. I can not tell you the amount of times that he said how much her loved our investigators, how nearly every member was 'his favorite member.' He loved his mission, and he had such a testimony of the Atonement and how it strengthened him, and that is what kept him going all of this time. He didnt take his mission for granted, and he gave it everything he had. But in the end, God plan was for him to get better. It was very hard to swallow, he didnt want to leave. But we went and talked for a good while, and he began to see that our missions dont just end when we go home, that in reality they last out whole lives. He realized that just cause he was going home didnt mean that he still didnt have a responsibitly to serve others or help others or invite others to come unto Christ. In reality, our missions arent just a set apart 2 years that come and go, but rathers its a kickstart foor how we should live the rest of our lives. For the rest of our lives we should live and apply the things that we take from the misison, we should be different people forever becaseu of it. And with that calm reassurance, he went home, not want to do it, but understnading that the Lord had a plan and that this really was part of it. He was one of my favorite componions, and good friends. I know that it was the right thing for him.

Since that happened on thursday, i have been put in a trio with the zone leaders elders S and C. And we are working both areas, which is huge for us. And so i feel like i am basically a zone leader again for 2 weeks until transfers. I did not want to get called back into zone leader life, i was loving so much just being a regular ol senior componion. But its all good, its been super fun being with them, they are some of my favorite elders. We had a crazy successsfully 4 days together. In those 4 days we reached what our mision calls the weekly stnadard of excellence. that is 12 member present lessons, 3 new investigatrors, 2 at church, and 20 total lesosns. We achieved more than all of those numbers in just the last 4 days, so we work really good together, and we should be seeing more good things coming up soon. The work keeps moving along. thanks family for all you have done, love you all so much, good luck on your talks, leave me something to talk about later! kidding, luv you.

Beck out,
Elder Beck

mission pranks

good one elders!

Missionaries at work

Unique week

Beck Family!

So this week has been unique.

but also pretty crazy.

Missionary work wise, it felt like we were getting kicked in the face a lot. Not much good happened, we got dropped by some of our best investigators who have come to church and had really cool spiritual experiences. So that was no fun. We werent able to find a lot of our investigators, or make contact with them, so that made teaching harder, didnt have as many lessons as we like. And it was just generally not the best week in that aspect.
But in the aspect of a companionship, it was a great week. Me and elder C have been getting along super good, and its been cool to see that as we get along and are more open with communication, that it really does change the atmosphere with our investigators. For real, things are going great.
And I have done something pretty interesting family that i would like to share. Back in the beginning of october, i heard of something really interesting. It was refered to as a 40 day fast. It is meant to be a thing that helps in the process of santification. This is what i did. I first made a vision of what i want to become, related to my personal progression. I made the vision 'To Burn all The Ships in The Harbor.' That is refering to i want to burn everything behind me, everything holding me back, that can take me back to the way i was before the mission. I then set specific goals. The main goal was to do a 40 day fast of the things that are holding me back. I then set specific plans. Those plans including making a detailed and honest list of things that i do that i know i shouldnt, or things that i dont do that i know i should. This list included i should not even glance at the tv when we eat at a restaurant, i should not even hum music that isnt mission approved, i should not ask younger missionaries about movies that have come out. Just simple things like that. I then made this list and then prayed that i would be able to give up every thing on it for the next 40 days. That started on october 5th. Since  then i have noticed how those things seemed like even more of a temptaition than before. I realize that none of them are very large bad things, but they were just little things that i needed to change if i wanted to enjoy the company of the spirit always. I had to fight like a lion in this sanctification process, and do everything possible to be constantly focused in on the missionary work. Around day 30 i started to notice that it wasnt that hard to give up those things, that i didnt really even want to. I finisehd the 40 days this last week, and i can honestly say that i have seen a change in my nature from doing this. I seem to notice even the smallest things that drive away the sprit, every little thing seems to have an effect on me. I feel much more sensitive to the spirit and to its promptings. And i have seen that help me in my personal life and with helping other people. It has been incredible. I feel like it changed some of my most basic desires and habits. I know that change is possible. I know that we can become who God expects of us. I know that we can have confidence to be in front of Him if we are doing our very best. Cause if we are doing our very best, then we are doing enough.

Thanks so much family, love all of you, take CAre!

Beck out,
Elder Beck

 

Ok that is what fell out of the toaster!!! 

Us

Exterminator = most of them dead!

Beck Family!

Pretty average week.

Since when would you believe that? Not, it was crazy and awesome. So im gonna get started here. We celebrated elder C b-day this last week. I threw him a suprise b-day party. I had called up various ward members and given them assignments of stuff to bring and told them all where to meet up at. Then after ward correlation, we went to the partk, everything was already there waiting for us, elder C was actually suprised, and it was legit. I did all of the planning when we were on exchanges, or else it would be pretty hard to throw a suprise party for someone that you are constantly with. And we smashed his face into the cake, pictures to come of that great moment.

This last week we also did a big service project at a methodist church. The church really wants us to be doing more service, to be getting out into the community and doing more stuff like that. Adn this was a cool opportunity we had to do that. We broke down furniture, sweeped and mopped and cleaned their 'sunday school,' And we destroyed lots of stuff to fit it into the dumpsters. It was a methodist church, but definitly it is mostly and islander church, all of the church members there that were helping us were tongan and samoan. And those people are so big and so strong, its just intimidating. Then they fed us lunch, cause islanders, like mexicans, dont get together for any reason and not have food. I literally saw a tongan eat an entire pizza in minutes, and it didnt even slow him down. this guy probably weighed over 330 pounds of just man. big human. Really fun, fun to do service and to get together with the whole zone.

Also, incase i havent mentioned it, our apartment is infested with roached, like pretty dang bad. Everytime you turn on the lights when we come in at night you just see them start to scurry and try to hide. They are everywhere in the kitchen and bathroom, and then they made their way into our dresser. So when they started nesting in my running clothes, that is when i had to put my foot down and say something had to change. We had an exterminator come in on friday and poison and fumigate our apartment. It worked. I know it worked cause when we came back to our apartment that night we saw dozens, literally dozens of dead big o'l roaches all over the floors and counters, the poison is supposodley gonnna kill them for the next 3 months. Hey, thats long enough for me. But now hopefully we are the only living things in our apartment. WE had to  empty our cubbords and put all our food in bags, but now, there are no more. Except i did kill one in the shower this morning. For real, nothing freaks me out more than seeing a roach mid shower, cause i feel like its really hard to run away, so you just have to hold your ground, stop screaming like a girl, and kill that little varmint with whatever you can get your hands on. In the case of this morning, i ended up using my comps shampoo bottle. He has no idea that i killed a roach with it this morning, and im not gonna tell him. Its sometimes better when we dont know.

Anways, thanks for everything family, love you all so much, take care.

Beck out,
Elder Beck

Service project days

Surprise b-day party

Teaching in the hood

Halloween = Cockroaches!!!

Beck Family!

We had a super good week this last week. We got tons of teaching ton, and had some really powerfull lessons. We were able to find some investigators for the first time in a long time, and they were just so ready. Some of them came to church, we set lots of bap dates. Things are great here, i love this missionary work.
So Haloween is the worst day of the year for missionarires here. Why? Cause socal is crazy. So crazy that one of the most popular costumes that people werar on halloween is that of a LDS missionary. And so on haloween night there are dozens of 'missionaires' outside asking for candy. So for the safety of us, and cause we really wouldtn be able to get anything done, it is the one day of the whole year that they keep us inside. From 5-9 we are inside deep cleaning our apartment. It is the worst night of the year. And oh boy did we clean our apartment. And in the process we came to know how truly infested our apartment is with cockaroaches. It is so bad, i have never lived somewhere this bad. There are in the dressers, they are nesting in our clothes, they are in the sofa, under the sinks there are hundreds and so many larvas, its so bad. We killed dozens, but it probably only put a dent in the roach army that is stationed in our apartment. We cleaned so thouroughly, cause we think that if we clean really good that they wont have any more food and so they will die. False, roaches can live anywehre they want to live, and it dont matter if they are hungry. So disapointing to see. We have an exterminator coming this friday. Until then we are sleeping wit hthe lights on, cause i do not want them crawling on us in our sleep, that would be so gross it makes me wanna scream. Whyt is the ghetto so full of roaches?

Our mission is doing some really cool things for the end of the year, we are all reading the book of mormon by thhe end of the year, and pryaing daily to see miracles. wE are realling kicking off this last two months and are gonna go all out. And that is awesome cause there is so much potential here for great things.

cool moment this last week. WE were teaching a lady named G. We were teaching here the plan of salvation. WE taught the whole thing and she understood it really well. But right at the end she asked us some questions about the different kingdoms. She then asked us what happened to people that took their own life? It then got really quiet, and then she began to tell us that one year ago her little brother committed suicide. And that is is the biggest burden that she carries around, not knowing if she will ever get to see him again. We opened up the scriptures to alma 40, very popular for the plan of salvation, and taught the true doctrine  that touched her heart. She began to cry, and as we testified that God was aware of all of our struggles, she began to feel that it was true. She said 'i know that i can help him in your temples, and that is what i want to do, i want to help my little brother.' It was a moment where her conversion deepened, and the spirit was felt. She is working towards baptism. I believe she will make it, she felt something strong that day.
Thanks for everything family, love you all so much, have a great week.

Beck out,
Elder Beck

Hey greenie, "now teach prophets"

Beck Family!

This last week was so crazy, like just nothing went down like life shoulda gone down. But still fun, like crazy fun.

I went on exchanges this last week with elder C. He has been out for about 7 weeks, and i went with him into his area. His area is the very down town of long beach. it was a pretty fun night. Guess what, at 7 weeks you might not know that much spanish, if like any. So basically i was just getting to talk to all of the investigators and try to teach them without having any real knowledge about them, and basically doing it without a on of help, based on the whole spanish issue. but we did get into one house at about 8 and we started teaching the restoration to this potential. I started, got up to the point that we talk about prophets, and then stopped talking, and looked at this greenie and said "now teach prophets," With a little fear of God and can do attitude, he then taught about prophets with all of the spanish that he knows. And the investigator completely understood everything he was trying to say. I dont believe that if i had taught that point he would have understood it any better than when this very young missionary still getting a hold of the language taught it. God makes up for what we can not do. It brought the spirit, made me realize that the spirit is often in a response to our faith, and our willingness to act on our faith. REally cool moment.

Also, just cause i am back in the ghetto, here is a ghetto story. We were going by an investigator at 8 at night. As we are knocking on his 2nd story apartment door, we see a police helicopter come zooming in down low and start circling the neighborhood where we are at, spotlighting the streets. Well this type of stuff happens literally, without exxageration, every night, so we dont really think a lot about it. But then the next day as we are passing by a member that lives cloes by to where we were, she asks if we heard any of the gunshots from the night before at about 8. She said that there was a large gunfight in that neighborhood the night before and 2 people were killed and that the police had come around talking to everybody if they had seen anything. Just saying, long beach is the hood. Adn just saying, this has to be proof of the divine protection that we have as missionaries, cause we are right around this stufff everyday, this stuff is almost constant. But never hfave i felt afraid of someting happening to us, we just do the right things and everything works out, we get guided out of danger. Cool right.

Me and elder Cm are gearing up to have a really good week. WE want to have what we call a perfect week, totally sanctified and obedient and time effective. It is one thing that i do not want to happen, i do not want to loose my fire at the end of my mission., In fact, i want to keep pushing hard, even pushing harder than ever before. I want to give it all. As coach Wilson would say, i want to leave it all out on the field. That is my goal, and this week sure is gonna do that, we are just pushing each other to be better, and we know that as we do this we are going to see miracles in this area, things are just going to explode here. Well love you family, thank you for everything that you do. take care.

Beck out,

Elder Beck

I'm back in the HOOD!

Beck Family!

Hope ya'll liked my letter last week, i thought that would be funny. but afterall, the hood really is my home now, im gonna be straight outta compton for the rest of my life.

But for real, leaving pico rivera was one of the hardest things i have done my whole mission. I loved that place so much. The ward was my favorite i have ever served in. all of the people that i met, the people we taught, it just truly became my home and i loved it, i was legitmately 'home sick' for days. I think more homesick than when you dropped me off at the MTC. It was hard, but i know that God has moved me here for a reason. And to be honest, of all places to go after leaving pico, back to the Long Beach 16th ward has to be a pretty good place. My area right now is just below the area where i was once serving, so its the neighboring area. It is super cool, all of the same type of crazy stuff, lots of one way streets and hood life. super familiar, and awesome. My comps name is elder C, not gonna like, he is a super good guy. I really like being with him, we just get along really good, and we are both focused on workinghard cause there is so much potential here. Its gonna be a great transfer together.

Yesterday at church was awesome cause i got to see lots of the members from the last time i was here. Including Hermana C!!! yes i am back with my 3rd grandma, and it is awesome. She says she wants to make me a blanket, that just seems like such a grandma thing to do, she is the best. But i also got to see lots of other people as well, which was really cool. This last week we tauaght a ton of lessons, but had a hard time getting the members to ocme out with us and help us teach. We are gonna focus more this week on getting members out with us every day, cause we are teaching a lot every day here. There is a lot of potential with this area, me and elder carman and just gonna see it explode here.

Funny thing that happened this last week. We talked to this big scary looking black guy at 8:30 at night. He asked a couple crzy questions, just wasnt interested in anything we had to say, so we offered to just give him a mormon.org card to take with him. WE give it to him, he looks at it and starts walking away. As he is walking away, he looks back at us and yells "so its Mormon.org right?" we say yes, he then looks at the  card again, and then opens a big blue US postal service mail box that is next to him, and throws the card in and yells back " No worries brudas, ill remember it."     Back in the hood.

This is at the top of our morning run

Pretty sweet mural!

We are a happy Family

Elder America

We also had some really spiritual expereinces this last week as we taight. We really set expectations with a lot of people and found out who really wants to act and who just wants our company. As we found those that really want to act, we invited them to make big changes in there lifes, and the spirit was just confirming everything we said to people. I believe we have a lot of potential for this upcoming transfer, miracles are happening here among the people. Love you family, take care.

Beck out,
Elder Beck

Goob Bye Pico--this is sad!

Beck Family,

I am very sorry to have to say this, i honestly never thought this would happen. It was so unexpected, and i am so sad that i have to tell you guys this. I got a call from the mission President on Friday night releasing me as a zone leader. He wouldnt tell me why, he just said it had to happen. Next thing i know the on saturday the Assistents are telling me that i am going home. I was speechless, i honestly didnt think it would happen. But they said that i am going home on Tuesday, and that i need to start packing right now and saying goodbye. I couldnt believe it, I still cant believe it. I said goodbye to lots of people in Pico cause i will probably never see them again. I am so sad, in all honesty, more sad than i have ever been on my mission. But i cant change what President has said, i really am going home. That is right, this Tuesday i am getting transferred back to Compton! Thats back to my old hood that I call home. 

Oh my goodness, this is not an exxageration this week guys, this last week was crazy. Straight up crazy, let me drop it on ya'll.

So first thing, we found a family of 4 to teach this last week, we picked them all up, and they are looking good. We got to them from contacting the kid in the park. For real, we talk to everybody, cause you just never know who is ready to accept you.

But back to the first paragraph. Yes, i really have been released as a zone leader. I have been one for 7 1/2 months, and right now i am the oldest zone leader in the mission. And president has said that he doesnt want us dieing in leadership positions, that he wants us to return to the field and normal work before we go home. And that is what i am doing. And yes, i am also going back to the long beach 16th ward, and i am going to the area right below my old compton area. So i am pretty excited for that. That is probably where i am going to finish out my old mission. Going back to my gansta hood is one of the only things that makes this worth it. Because i am going to be leaving Pico.

In all honesty i am more sad than happy. I have never loved an area or a ward like this before. i love it here so much, i feel like i have grown so much being here and that working here has really changed my life. I know the whole city so well, just all of the people, i love it. This is my favorite ward i have ever been in, the members are just so good, literally everybody is just so loving and happy to work with us here. I have made such good friends and have learned from such good examples here. I started saying my goodbyes on Saturday, and it has taken me the whole weekend, and will take me all of tonight to say goodbye to everyone here. After 7 1/2 months you really get to know a lot of people, and they mean a lot to you. So sad to leave here, to not live in a 4 man pad anymore. 

The one experience i will share from this last week was on sunday. On sunday at church during sacrament meeting i told B that i am getting moved and that i leave in a couple of days. Her eyes immediately welled up with tears, and then she started to cry. It hurt me in my heart. She said "but you and elder Wahlen are my angels, what am i going to do without you?" I simply told her that in reality i never really did anything, all i did was try to represent somebody that really can help  her, who is Jesus Christ. She cried the entire church service. I bore my testimony during testimony meeting, and during it i felt choked up to say goodbye to everybody. I could see through my own tears many of them crying as well. This is what i have learned this week, that we really do have an impact of peoples lives when we represent Jesus Christ. That as we do what he would do at all times, we really do help and uplift and become important to other people. It was amazing to me to see that i meant a lot to this ward, which is full of people that mean a lot to me. I am never going to forget being here, these people have forever changed me. I am going to go say goodbye to a couple more people tonight, including B

, and i am probably gonna cry like a baby. Leaving these people hurts more than it has leaving any other group of people, and i think that is because it has taken me this long to start to try and understand who is jesus christ and how he would act. Cause when we do that, we naturally feel a love for people that is so strong. I am going to carry that back into my Compton area, and i will work relentlessly hard for my last little bit. I am gonna keep giving it my all, because these people deserve it, and because i have felt so much of this same love that Jesus Christ has for me. I love you all family, have a great week.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

 

I got to "Meet the Mormons" first!

Howdy Beck Family!

Alright alright, let be break it down for ya'll this is what went down dis last week.

To start, I went on exchanges with elder N this last week. You remember that guy right? He was my companion, one of my favorites ever, we were together for a transfer, and then he got called to be an assistant? Well he came back to pico with me for a day, cause the APs go on exchanges with all of the zone leaders. It was super fun, honestly loved it. That guy is da best, reason that he is the AP. Anyways, our day was super good as we went and visited some cool members and investigators back from when he was here. Super fun day. We taught a ton at the first days of the week, super effective, and just good missionary work. One Thursday we had zone meeting, so that is basically a meeting that us ZLs run and make for our zone, we give trainings to them that we got at the last mission leadership conference. ITs super fun, and it went really well. I gave a training on being bold with ourselves. That was my 6th zone meeting that i have done. Not gonna lie, i feel really comfortable with them, it just doesnt freak me out to get up and train any amount of missionaries anymore on anything. The training went well, like i said it was about boldness relating to ourselves, and how we need to have our expectations of ourselves meet Gods expectations of ourselves.

Also, on Friday, we had a zone conference. That is a big meeting with multiple other zones and the mission president comes too. IT as 7 1/2 hours long. So long, so many trainings. Thankfully we didnt have to give any this time. It was really good, and I still really love anything that our mission president says, he just has the presence of being an inspired man. Then suprise happened, we all got to watch 'Meet The Mormons.' Apparently it is a big movie/documentary that the church  has made that will be in the theaters. They First Presidency asked that all the missionaries see it before it comes out so that we can use it as a proselyting tool. So the very first pre screening of a movie in my whole life has happened on my mission, did not think that would happen. It was really good, and the part of the movie where it shows some clips from a college football game were enough of a tender mercy to make me boast of my God. For real, that was great, i really liked it, really well made, and clears up SOOO many misconceptions that SOOO many people have.

Then, the rest of the weekend we spend watching general conference. IT was all so good. I was watching it with some specific questions, and it was amazing as i felt i was getting the exact answers to the questions that I had. I love the conference, so of my favorite talks were Pres. Uchtdorfs priesthood session talk, and the russian/ukranian guy whose name i cant remember. But trust me, i liked his talk. And by some miracle after saturday and sunday conferences we were guided into lessons that we didnt have planned that just happened to have members there and ready to help us teach. I think it was a reward for listening hard to general conference.

This last week i was feeling pretty down on myself for 1 night. I was refelcting back a lot on my time as a missionary. It got started from this from the training that i gave in zone meeting, about being bold with youself. I think i took it to far, because very quickly i wasnt just being bold with myself, but i was breaking myself down for every single imperfection i have. I was suddenly only seeing all of the things i have done wrong on my mission, and the things that i continuously do wrong. It suddenly got me very discouraged, and i alsmost never really get discouraged, but it happened. I starting to think that i hadnt learned everything i was supposed to in my time as a missionary, and that i had let to much time pass by without fully using it, and that now since the time was gone i wouldnt be able to fully grow to who God needs me to be on my mission. It was terrible, it was a huge self critical mess. That is something that i know i do to myself a lot, i am my own worst critic. But another missionary gave me some very wise words and comfort, and then through prayer and general conference, a very powerful answer came through all of this. IT was that we are probably meant to struggle while in this life. Disappointments and trials and mistakes are a part of mortality. It doesnt make them fun, but it makes then necessary. And so i shouldnt be to suprised if i look back and find lots of those, even within my mission years. I am not lowering my expectations of what i want to do and become on my mission. It simply helped me accept that we are not perfect, that i am very much not perfect, and that improvement is a hard process, so i shouldnt kill myself for my mistakes. I still need to improve, i still need to get better, but i know that the process is more that just a 2 year process, it is in fact a life time process. That is what i had to accept, that im not going to reach perfection on the mission just cause i am a missionary, but that in reality it will take lonnger and it will take more from me to get there. That was what i learned this last week, it changed me.

Thank you for everything family, love you all, have a good week.

Beck out,
Elder Beck

P.S. this is me and a lobster that i ate with mexican hot sauce. i did not pay for this lobster, got it from some members. crazy good, proablay cost a lot. it was even better with the cheap hot sauce that i love.

Also, nobody freak out, but i got bit by a little dog this last week. the first time i have actually gotten bit. you have no idea how many dogs i have kicked on my mission, the one time i dont kick a dog the little sucker bites me. not gonna happen again muchachos.

Elder Beckhas become chili and lime kinda missionary! on FIRE

Beck Family!

So this last week was super good. We have in our mission what is known as a standard of excellence. It has to do with the key indicators, which are like our numbers that we use to report our missionary work. The standard of excellence is 12 member present lessons a week, 3 new investigators a week, 2 investigators at church, 20 total member present lessons, and being completely obedient and having perfect mornings. This last week we reached the standard of excellence. To be honest, most weeks we always teach and find enough to make it, but we have needed to get back to getting over 10 member presents a week for a little bit. But this week we got it and it was not to hard, just took some planning. We found some really good new investigators this last week. Its these two brothers C and F, they are in their 20's, and pretty cool. They are super funny cause they take anything that we say and act like that is what they have believed for their whole life. Like we were teaching about the atonement and we taught about how they can receive forgiveness for their sins only through the atonement. After we explained that C is like "well of course man, its only through Jesus Christ that we do anything, and man that is just so true, I try and tell people that all the time that its all about Jesus Christ, and that he died for us and because he payed for our sins that is how we actually get rid of our sins, man it just like i say, its just so true." This was funnier in person, cause they act like anything we say has been their belief the whole time, even though neither of them have gone to church like at all in their whole lifes and when we met them they had no real beliefs in God. Its like teaching a kind Lamoni, they basically said I will believe anything you 2 white guys say. They have baptismal dates.

I also went on exchanges this last week into the english area of a district leader in our zone. For real, working in a white are in a white ward with white people is super weird. I am gonna have to culture adjust just to the whiteness of my own family when i see ya'll again, being with white people is just weird to me now. Like we ate dinner with a family and the food was probably good, but it just seemed so bland to me cause there was no lime or salt or chile to add to it. and the conversation was just different, like about America and the Korean war, it had nothing to do with soccer or eating spicy things, so i didnt hardly know what to do. White culture is gonna be a shock for me, i think i forget how to be with white people. I am pretty much recognized as a Latina by a lot of people here, if it werent for my blue eyes i could just fully assimilate into their culture. But the blue eyes are a give away, everybody knows im truly white because of them. But on the flip side, they all really really do love my blue eyes, those money makers get noticed all the time. Hispanics love colored eyes.

This last week we also went to MLC, or mission leadership conference. its for the zone leaders and president and the assistants, and a couple sisters go to. It was all about being bold. About being bold with investigators, and about being bold with members, and about being bold with yourself. I took it as an opportunity to reflect on being bold with myself. I tried to think about the things that i have learned as a missionary, and how i have grown. The biggest thing that comes to my mind is the attitude of looking out for other people before yourself. This was re-enforced to me during this last week. We were teaching a man named R. At first he was a little heard hearted, and only really let us in cause we had taught his daughters before. But that night cause his daughters werent there, we decided to try and teach him. We shared a scripture with him, watched a mormon message with him just to warm him up and see where he was. Then out of nowhere he opened up to us. He said how he blames himself for the way his daughters have grown up doing bad things, that he blames himself for the choices they have made. He broke down, in absolute distress, not knowing anymore what to do and how to find any help. Turning to the scriptures we shared a very populare scripture in 3 nehpi 27;20. that is the on the cover of PMG. We shared it ,becasue it mentions how if we follow jesus Christ, we can truly be held guiltless and spotless before God at the last day. WE also shared the last verses of matthew 11, about the yoke of the saviour. AS we shared this, suddenly the spirit started teaching R. Suddenly he began to feel something, and wanted more. He said that he would come to church on sunday, and bring his daughters, and that he would meet with us to show them an example. He got it. This was while I was on exchange in the english area, but it was still powerfull, because before we walked into his house i literally knew nothing about him. I didnt know who we would teach or what to teach them. But because i had studied that morning, because i had used my time to prepare for others, and not just study for myself, i was able to to let the spirit help R. Studying in the morning is what we like to call 'paying the price.' We have to put in the effort and study in the morning to be able to help people that day. The attitude of helping others before yourself is perhaps the greatest lesson i have learned on my mission ,and am still learning , and will no doubt keep learning for the rest of my life. even in something simple like our morning personal study, just studying for another person made all the difference in the lesson that night. If i had wasted the time cause i was tied (cause i am constantly exhausted) or if i had tried to find the answers to some deep doctrine question that wouldnt have applied, i wouldnt not have been able to help him, and our companionship would not have had the spirit like it did. We are here to give everything to others, and I love it so much. Love you family, have a good week!

Beck out,
Elder Beck

Mom's mistake!

Ok blogger world,
It looks like I missed two posts from Dallin!  They were stuck in my draft section of the blog and I didn't get them posted! So forgive!  And now they are out of order so sorry again for that!  Just keep on reading about the adventures of my Dallin.

I'm in a TRIO again, 6th time for my mission(July 28th)

Beck Family!

S last week of the transfers this last week. Pretty good. Crazy thing happened. My companion got called to be the new AP! Elder N who has only 8 months in the mission is going to be the new ap, which basically means he is going to be my boss. he had only been a zl for 1 transfer with me, and now he is off. Crazy. He is the most charitable person i had ever met, for real, this guy jjust radiates kindess and love. Crazy, probably going to be an apostle. But because of that we had to go to the office 5 seperate times this week for various ap related things. Crazy busy. But we got it all done.
We have also been teaching a father and son named D and J. I used to teach them my first transfer here, but we then dropped them, but just recently picked them back up because a member told us to go by them. We did, and found that they have been super prepared for the gospel, its been awesome. They have baptismal dates for the 17th, and they are really strong. They have come to church 3 weeks in a row, and are doing great.

We had a ward missionary activity on saturday at a park. We played soccer and had a carne asada bbq. It was a great activity and a lot of people came and had a good time. D also came with his family, and they got to play with the ward and meet everybody and they just fit in perfectly. Afterwards, the member that told us to go by them offered to take them to the temple right then and there. They said yes, so immediatley after the ward activity they went to the LA temple and to the visitors center there and did all of the fun stuff. They watched that movie that makes everybody cry about eteranl families, and had another really spiritual experience. He is already talking to us about how excited he is for his baptism. The work is just going so good here.

I am staying in Pico for another transfer, i am getting a new companion named elder L, and another companion named elder G. yep, trio time again for elder beck. incase you are counting this is the 6th trio of my mission. I'm gonna be training elder L as a zone leader like i did elder N, and elder G is not a zl, so it is going t obe interesting. God does everything with a reason. gonna be super fun. Anyways, i love you family so much, take care, keep sending the pics, and still have fun!

Beck out,
Elder Beck

Pretty normal week... NOT(Aug 22)

Beck Family!

This last week, pretty average...

NOT!

Since when has any week of my mission been average? Since when have i started an email with average? Never! and this week kept up the crazy.

Me and elder L had a crazy lesson like 2 days ago with this guy. He is a pentecostal christain. What that means is that he is the type that jumps up and puts his hands in the hair at church and yells hallelujah. Now i have taught lots of pentecostals before in my mission, and i have had some of my funniest moments trying to teach them in a spiritual way when all they want to do is "Praize da Low'rd"

So we are teaching him

 the restoration. We are going along, when suddenly he says, 'you know how i got my testimony?' He then proceeds to tell a 20 minute story that i kid you not what absolutley without reservation completely crazy. He started with how he crossed into the states, about how his coyote left him to do, about how he drank his own urine, about how he got tear gassed, and eventually in the states how he decided to return to mexico to get his family, and repeat the whole process again, then cast a demon out his grandaughters boyfriend, and finally learned how to make authentic fish tacos. Now try to imagine this magnitude of a story with the frequent jumping out of the chair and shouting hallelujah at the top of his lungs. It was frightening the first time he did that, it was then flippin hilarious every time after. Man, the people i get to meet, foreal, sometimes i wonder how i have met so many crazy people. Everybody seems to just be all the way crazy here. Not half way crazy, but full blown crazy.

But in the spirutal   sense we also had a great week. On Friday we found and began teaching a family that just got here from el Salvador 2 months ago. People that have just got here from central america are gold, because they have been unpolluted by the many religions here and they are just accepting of everything and genuinly nice people. By inspiration we began teaching them about the eternal nature of the family within the first 5 minutes that we met them. Out of nowhere the lady said that her father had just passed away and that she had so many question about it, but she felt that God had helped her through it all. Man, the gospel is true, and inspiration is real, and if we listen to the spirit and act immediatley on its promptings, it will always guide us to how we can help and uplift those around us. Have a great week family, love ya'll.

Beck out,

Elder Beck

Ride on family, Ride on!(Sept 25)

Beck Family!

First things first, i went to the temple this mrning, that means that i woke up at 3am to get to the 5:30 session. so im pretty tired, so forgive me for parts of this email that just dont make sense, that is just me going in and out of consciousness.

Our last week was pretty darn good. We actually just had a pretty cool lesson last night with some member referals. first off, member referrals are the prefered and best way to do missionary work, its the way it is supposed to be done. So we were teaching this member referals, a father and son, and we end up having on the craziest lessons, as in people just walking in and out and trying to yell/talk over each other as everybody tries to put their 2 cents in about everything. We had so little control over everthing, the conversation was all over the map. But, somehow, it got quiet and everybody focused when we shared the first vision with this man named Gabriel. We then invited him and his 10 year old son to be baptized on the 12tth and they accepted. Somehow, the spirit penetrated that crazy room of just opinions and near fighting of words and touched this guys heart and confirmed to him that he needs to be baptized.
Also, we had our big ward party this last saturday. You might remmber that i experienced a similar party last year in the LB16th ward. it was the party of fiestrias patiras, which goes along with mexican independence day. The party goes like this, everybody in the ward makes some authentic food from their respective country and brings it for everyone to try. And their is also live cultural dancing and singing going on the whole night. and add to that that hispanics are some of the most social people on the planet, and it is just a straight up party that never could happen in a white ward. so much fun. literally the best. i took lots of videos of the dancing, it was pretty cool, there were 6 different groups that danced including an aztec dance that was legit. The only music was this big buy with a big drum, and he just went crazy, and so did the dancers, super legit, super fun night. And G came to the party and got to meet just bout everybody in the ward, which was awesome. And we talked to everybody there, cause a lot of nonmembers came, and we got lots of addresses and phone numbers of people to go visit now. so it was super successful and fun. loved it. loved spanish ward, honestly more disfunctional but more fun that white wards.

thats the jist of the week, life is still good, take care Beck family!

Beck out,
Elder Beck

p.s. someone made the comment this last week that i say 'ride on' a lot. i didnt realize it, but then it hit me that it came from motorcycles, then it made so much sense. ride on beck family, ride on.

This little dude tried to hijack our car

Yes, this is what I mean by PARTY

Celebrat-ion-time--Come on!

Dallin is trying to teach the art of not looking at the camera to his comp.  Well, it is an art.

My comp. reminds me of Hyrum!

Beck Family!

Howdy family, how is everything going? Life is good here, still got craziness as part of the daily piece but dats all good.

So this last week, we have been so crazy busy as ZL's helping our missionaries. LIke i have have never been busier trying to keep on top of all the stuff that was happening. Just lots of people with problems, lots of people not feeling happy, it was and has been exchausting. But still really rewarding.

Transfers are now known, i am going to be staying in Pico Rivera for another transfer! that means this is going to be my 5th transfer here in this area and ward. I am super excited, this is my favorite ward i have served in and i love the area.  That is going to bring my total time in this area to 7 1/2 months by the time i am done. Super happy. I am also staying here with elder L. Let me say it right now that this last week i have figure out who elder lestarpe reminds me of. He reminds me of Hyrum. I shall explain. At one piong i remember we got a txt that had some bad news, and it was like the 5th bad news txt we had gotten in a row. Out of nowhere he let out a teradaktle(flying dinosaur)  scream that so instantly gave me de ja vu of hyrum. it was hilarious, then i just started picking up on tons of other things he does that reminds me of hyrum. He has the same type of humor, its super funny. i think thats why we get along.

Our area is still doing good, still teaching a lot, still really happy. I have noticed that recently a large part of my time has been dedicated to helping other missionaries. i think that has been the single biggest blessing of being in leadership, has  been the opportunity to help and uplift struggling missionaries. Its something i just wouldnt have learned anywhere else. really cool, i still love being a missionary.

Thanks family for everything, and agian happy b-day to samo. luv ya littlest of brothers. take care!

Beck out,
Elder Beck

Eating some yummy Japanese candy!

It only took me 19 months...

Beck Family!

So its labor day, i think. or atleast some holiday that closes the libraries and packs all of us missionaries into this ancient family history center to email. point being, i got like 5 minutes here. didnt even read all of your emails, that sucks. i will catch up next week. 

This last week was nuts. So many things going down in our zone, like not great things that me and elder L have had to work with. We have been running around trying to help out these other elders, its been crazy, sometimes i just wonder why cant everybody just be on their missions for the right reason. then they wouldnt act this way. But that is why i am here, i need to learn from them as we try to help them.

This last week we did some crazy service, i was sore for 2 days. Our whole zone of 14 people got together at this investigators house that the sisters are teaching, adn we cleaned up his back yard for him. IT took 3 1/2 hours, and it was crazy dirty. My job, cause i always take the hard jobs, was to pack all of the branches and leaves into this hauling truck. We had to pack it down so tight cause there was so much crap to clean up. I ended up breathing in a ton of leaves and dirt and junk. It sent me into the first asthma emergency of my mission, and in the last 2 years. But we got it done and it was a tone of fun to do some good hard work. But then i rushed home, found that inhaler that my mom made me take, took 2 puffs, then finally could breath again. I could feel my left lung just being stabbed by the huge amount of stuff i had breathed in. sucked, i couldnt run for 2 days after that. But now i'm good, and i can breath just fine. And im not gonna take that inhaler any more. cause that is what is refered to as "cheater puffs."

And i aint no cheater. Yesterday i talked in sacrament meeting. I talked about our purpose as missionaries and members to help others come unto Jesus Christ. B was at church as she cried during nearly my whole talk. It was really spiritual, to again just see the spirit that we bring as missionaries touch other people. I did prepare for my talk with studying for it, but i didnt write anything down. I just got up there with my Preach My Gospel and started saying all of the things i had studied for, in spanish. It was good, cuase i guess i really do feel comfortable with spanish now, enough atleast to give a talk without notes. Man, that only took like 19 months, oh my goodness. But its all good, life is still great, and being a missionary is still the best thing i have every done. Love you family!

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck