I'm sleeping on the floor!

Beck Family!

So this last week has been crazy, and did not go at all as expected. So right after i got done emailing ya'll last week, we got a call from the AP's that my new companion is not yet in the mission. That is all that they know about him. They do not know where he is coming from, if he is coming straight from the 'MTC and i am training him, they only know that is is supposed to get here on the 8th of january. So for this last week i have been thrown into an improv trio with my old companion elder R, and elder A. remember, elder Rs had basically just moved areas, but had stayed inside the district. So i packed up enough stuff to last me a week, and i have been living at there apartment since then, and we have been working both areas. I have literally been sleeping on the ground, casue that apartment only had 2 beds. Like no joke, on the floor with my blanket, that has been my life for the last week. I feel right at home. But its all good. Hopefully i will get my new companion this week, we havent heard anything since that first day, so hopefully he is still on track to come. That turtle that you all got also looks pretty cool, i hope he is still there when i get home, i wanna see him eat a fish. Thanks for everything family, hopefully you all have news resolutions that in some way involve missionary work. Cause there is no better time to start than right NOW. Love ya'll, and have a good one.

 

Beck out,

The missionaries out caroling on Christmas

Family Skype!

Dallin's Christmas haul!

And their stockings were hung by the door...with care

What's not to love about this fine message?

Elder Beck

the End of 2013..thanks family

Beck Family!

 

What a great week it has been. Christmas was one of the best days of my whole life. It was so great to see all of you and to actually skype with you. Like i said we were told about that tuesday morning, so it was a hectic day to get that all set up. Also dad, very good job with your spanish, hermano cruces was impressed that you still got it. I told him that you speak spanish, and then i was really hoping that you still had it in you, and you came through for me, well done. Christmas was aweseom, we opened our gifts at 9'30 at night. Because there wasnt any time earlier in the day to do it. We were oout in dinners and with members and investigators the whole day. Wasnt hardly a day off at all. But today i am in the oldest slwoest family history center ever, so i can not send pictures of all of my cool christmas stuff. Sorry, hopefully next week. I ahve now completed 1 transfer in Whittier and i am going to be staying here for atleast 1 more. But crazy thing, my companion is going to get moved to another area in Whittier, and i am going to get a new companion named elder Halford. I have no idea who he is, but its kind of sad to leave a companion after just 1 transfer. But that is how it works, lots of crazy things our of our control. I loved all of the things you sent me for christmas, i loved all of the thoughtful gifts. Love you family, have a good week.

 

Beck out,Elder Beck                                                                          

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*

It's way hilly up here in Whitter!

Here are all the answers to all of Mom's questions:

1. I am still very much on bike. I am on bike so hard. My area is one of, if not the, hilliest area in the mission. SO many hills, and they are all massive, and could pass as mountains in eastern states. My legs are getting jacked. No lie, from the hips down i will be yoked in no time.

2. My companion is Elder R***. He is from Smithfield utah, up by logan.

He runs cross country is super fast and impssible to keep up with in the morning.

3. I am actually living with members right now. We live is a small room they have that also has a bathroom and small closet. Technically it is all we need, but it is a lot less space than I had. It is just the 2 of us that are living there.

4. Job as district leader is basically to keep everyone in my district accountable and safe. There are 11 elders in my district, and we all work in the same ward named La Esperanza, which is the spanish ward up here in Whittier.

5. I am still emailing at a library up here, but you only get 1 hour here instead of the 2 that i was enjoying down in Compton, so I am typing really fast. for that please excuse all typing errors.

6. Thanksgiving plans are to eat as many dinners with as many member as humanly possible. I heard that at the end of the day you want to throw up.

Bring it on.

7. The members do a pretty good job feeding us. I think we usually get 5 member dinners a week up here, which isnt to bad.

8. I get mail probably 2 a week. Really it is whenever someone makes a trip down to the office and brings it back.

More info about Whitter:   It is the hilliest city i think i can possibley imagine. And we are doing everything on bike. Yeah. On Thursday my back brakes went out, so i H ave been going since then with out brakes. So to stop at the bottom of all of these monster hiils, I am just using my foot and scraping against the ground. Today i will buy some new brake pads, because i dont want to have to get new shoes.

This last week in my first week of being a district leader, I got to do a baptismal interview for an investigator of one of the other companionships. It was such a cool experience to feel the holy ghost confirm to me that this young woman was ready for baptims. In my first week in this district, there has already been 2 baptisms, and the work is really progressing out here. Whittier has a stigma of being a hard place to work, but i think that we are proving that it all depends on you attitude and how hard you want to work. Thanks for everything family, love ya'll.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

spelling really isn't their thing