Rough weeks are good for missionaries

Beck Family!

So hopefully today i have made up for 2 rough weeks of email in a row.

Today we havent done anything crazy for p-day, just tried to recover a little bit, because we are aboslutley trashed. For real, im exhausted. I hear from other elders that being a missionary is the hardest thing they have done mentally and spiritually, and i agree, but i could also qualify it as the hardest physical thing as well. And if nobody agrees with that, you should come be my companion for a week. Its not like any single activity we do is the hardest thing ever, but it is the complete consistency of the activities we do that is aboslutley draining the very core. We bike lots, we bike hills all day, we often have a 4 mile bike ride sprint every other night to get back to the apartment on time. That makes me go to sleep really quickly. We run hard in the morning every morning.

And for every single moment we spend outside of our apartment, we spend it with purpose. Whether it is biking or walking or contacting or teaching, everything we do has a distinct and specific purpose. There is no time to relax or to just wonder what we should do next. i believe that since every day is so purposefully planned that is just draining. Recovery time does not exist, rest is a distant memory, and laziness does not exist in the terminology. I love it. We are sustained completely by Spirit energy, and i know that the fruits from our hard work will follow. Maybe it isnt the hardest physical challenge i could imagine, but i have never been more tired in my entire life. Ever. I hope that i sent enough pictures to make the new digital picture wall, choose some good ones. We have this investigator right now that is doing really well. He has a bap date and is moving well to make it. He keeps all of our commitments, and is just an accountable little bugger. Also, he is the guy with roosters, so thats cool. But we have had a lot of good lessons with him, and he really like church when he came. Good things will happen, our hard, but smart, work will turn into things i know it. Me and my comp just yell at each other all day 'Cant Stop! Wont Stop!" Thats the attitude, and we are rolling with it.

Thanks for everything family love ya'll.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

Elder Beck does look incredible :)



The rooster on a leash

Welcome to my lair, Mr. Bond

Who knew there was a light house in Long Beach!

So this is a way for missionaries to make contacts with people.  They ask them about their pepper plants and then try one!  I think the people are more impressed with these gringos!

Dallin and his comp. got to go to this Budda temple

Great place to study

Stone face

Pres. Day and all other Monday Holidays :(

Beck Family!

Yep thats right, it is another federal holiday that falls on monday. So what does that mean? It means that all of the libraries are closed, and that if any missionaries want to email they must use the family history centers inside the stake centers. And we all know what levels of computers these places have, stone age! And of course the stake center has to be shared by 2 zones, over 45 missionaries, so we all get aproximatley zero time to read or respond to emails. Not cool at all. But whatever. and because of that i also will not be able to send any more pictures today.

Booo.

So we had transfers this last week and i am staying here in Whittier with elder H for another transfer. Im actually really excited. I have really liked working with elder H and we get along so good, we are just having a blast out here every single day. And we still do not have a car, so we will continue to cover the largest and hilliest area in the mission solely by bike, cause we are to hard core for anything else. My entire district is also staying the same, which is super rare. Remember, i have 10 elders in the district, and not a single one of them moved during transfer, so we are all still together working in whittier. We are working with the ward super good now, and members have been coming out with us and it makes out lessons so much more powerful. Also, i will never send an email that says do not send me stuff, espescially jerky. Im a man afterall, there is no threshold for jerky, so send me all of the stuff you desire, i will never complain. Thanks for everything family, i love you all, and i have loved the handwritten letters from you. Thanks for everything.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

Shark week

Beck Family!

This is going to have to be a short letter, because i have had an awesome P-day and have gotten to the library super late and we still ahve to shop.

This morning we went down to long beach to the aquatium of the pacific.

Garrett would have gone bazerk. It was crazy awesome, ive been touching sharks and rays and seals and jellly fish all morning. Super cool, and the aquarium is right on the beach, so you get all the ocean view with light houses and everything. Super cool morning, but it has left me with little time now. I will send more pictures later, because believe me, i ahve taken a lot. This last week we had some investigators come to church and accept baptismal dates, so we are working a lot with them. We have been working so hard, we are doing everything in our power to see miracels happen. We are out working all the day long, talking to everybody and trying our very best. It feels good to know that you are giving it your all, and that is what we are doing. me and elder H.

have a great time everyday, we work awesome together and are just killing it together. Love you Family, thanks for everything, ya'll have a good week.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

 

P.S. at the aquarium touching sharks. my life is awesome

Good thing the Lord knows me!

Beck Family!

So i have sent a billion pictures to you this week, hopefully that paints a good picture of what is going on in my life. So, this last week has been pretty great. We were able to find new investigators, which we really needed, and we even had an investigator offer us to take us with them to Mexico. They were totally serious, if we had said yes they would have done it and i would be in Tijuana right now. So the fact that i am emailing you today is proof that we said no, and decided to stay in the states. They really do love us, and always are feeding us and giving us stuff. And now they said they will take us to Mexico if we ever want, so that is a bonus.

I love teaching cool people like that, people that like us, but also really like what we are telling them. The husband Jose is so funny, and has committed to baptism and is progressing well. He actually bore his testimony to his wife in our last lesson, so that was a really cool thing to see. An investigator who before did not know anything about our church being able to tell the ones he loves about the truthfulness of the gospel because he has seen it bless his life. Cant beat that. My pictures hopefully explain my ordeal with the flat tires and the rain, that made for a crazy week. Also, right now my companion has strep throat. But its awesome, cause he absolutley refuses to stop working. So we have continued to work, just like we were before, excpet now i get to do the majority of the talking. For real, i love being with a guy with such a 'cant stop, wont stop' attitude, that fires me up. I got somebody who likes working as hard as me, that is a blessing and we are just gonna keep on going. But you probably shouldnt tell his mom that, she would probably freak out if she found out that her son is biking in the rain when his throat is covered in white dots. I think his mom would overreact to that. Anyways, have a great week family, thank you for all of the letters that you all write every week. I might not get to respond to every letter, but i read every letter ayou all send and i love em, they really do help me keep going. Thanks again, love ya'll

 

The screw

My nemesis!

I can't even explain this!

When Cali fasts for rain, well it pours!

Kinda looking like a worn out missionary

Keeping it real...in the rain!

 

 

 

 

 

  Shawn asked him a question about his sleep:

its definitley still lights out for me. When i decide to go to sleep, i go to sleep quickly. I could sleep anywhere i wanted to, i am firmly convinced that i could put my head down anywhere at anypoint of the day and be asleep within 5 minutes. I just dont let myself do that until 10:30 at night. But i dont hardly ever, i mean ever, make it until 10:35. Sounds like a super fun band concert, i bet its cool to have all of them in one show. And as for it already being a year, i dont even know what to say. This is the greatest time of my life, i feel like i learn so much every day out here.

And that he's been out one year!

 

How can it possibley be half way done? it worries me, but it also drives me to soak up every single moment i can, to become the very best that God can help me become. Im sure that there are great years to come, but for now it is hard to imagine myself not being a missionay. I feel like it is my entire identity, it is my entire character to be a missionary here. I just have to trust that if i continue to try my best out here that everything will eventually work out and be even better afterwards. I really do love it out here, this is the best. Thanks for everything dad.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

 

oh my goodness, that was my 2nd superbowl i have missed. It sounded super fun, defense wins championships. I didnt see a single second of the game, no mexicans were watching it while we visited them. So i didnt even get a honest glance at the tv to see the score, I guess God knows what tempation is to much for me.

Beck out,

Elder Beck

I'm a biking fool

Beck Family!

So this last week has been pretty good. We have been doing lots of biking, like a ton of biking. Like so much biking that i feel like i  belong to the class of serious bikers. For real, when you are putting hours a day on the seat, i feel like you get to claim that title. So that has been crazy. It is still a perfect 80 degrees here in california, nothing better than watching the sun set on these perfect pollutin skies. For real, pollution makes for great sunsets, but unlike utah you can actually enjoy them here because it is warm.

Now i have some suggestions for my younger siblings. there are a couple of things that i wished i did before the mission that would have better prepared me. One of those things is i wish i would have gone to youth conference. Now for ya'll its not to late. I think it would be awesome if you guys signed up for those. I never did it cause i liked football more, and i thought they were just for  those perfect molly mormons. But looking back i can see that i would have befefited a lot from going to those. So i suggest, not quite exhort, but suggest that you do those. Also, Sierra, if you could do this favor for me i would appreciate it. Basically if brother Fitch still works at herriman seminary, if you would thank him for me, that would be awesome. Ive just been thinking of the things that helped get me on a mission, and his seminary class was one of them. So if you could let him know that i give him a bit of credit for getting me out here i would like that. You can tell him that im a total thug too.

Well family, not to much interesting happened this last week, just lots of good missionary work. I have really grown into the district leader thing, and i really do like being able to go on 24 hour exchanges with the other elders, its feels good to get to know everybody. But i still like my companion, we have a great time and are always laughing and talking.

Missions are fun, they are supposed to be that way, and i am so grateful for it. Have a good week family!

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

We got to go the LA temple again!

Beck Family!

My goodness it has been a while. Again, i am emailing ya'll on a tuesday because today was out temple trip! we went to the LA temple again, which is still massivley awesome, and the whole expereience was as great as ever. We Did the 7am session, which means that we have to wake up at 4am to get ready and to drive there in time. Traffic is crazy here in california, like nothing i have ever seen. But it was still worth it. This last week we started teaching a new family that actually was refered to us by a member that lives in arizona. she called us up after somehow getting out number and asked us if we would give her dieing grandma a blessing. We did that last week, and this week we have continued to visit them, and we always share some spiritual message with them. Since we gave her the blessing the grandma has been awake and talkative with all of her grandchildren that have come to visit her. She is still probably near the end, but they all recognize it as a blessing to see her be her regular self for all of her kids to remember her as. So that has been a cool experience that we will keep working with. We had a good teaching week this last week, and were able to find a couple new people. Me and elder H get along great, we are just tearing it up together. We made home made pico de gallo this last week, and we made it spicy. Like almost so spicy it isnt fun, but still we went through all the trouble of making it that we keep eating it. I am getting tough again with the spicy things. Score 1 for elder Beck. But other than that it has been a pretty standard week, we biked a ton, and we talked to lots of people, and we have been finding more people to teach, and how can you complain when you got all of that going for you. Thanks for everything family, good to hear that things are good bback home. Love ya'll.

 

View towards downtown.  HOLLYWOOD sign back left

What an Elder

Again, what is there to say?

Beck out,

Elder Beck

My blog is famous!

Beck Family!

So this last week has been pretty great. I got my new companion this last wednesday. His name is Elder H, and he is funny. He actually came from the Colorado springs mission, so he has already been out for 1 year, so we get along super good, we are right at the same place. One other thing, he was just reading his email from his mom, and she was telling him that she was looking online for information about the california long beach mission, and she came across this missionary blog that talked about this missionary who just got put in a trio and is sleepingo n the ground. Mom, your blog is famous. Whatever you have done, other people really are reading it and talking about it. Email applause. Nice work. but since he has gotten here we had our car taken away so we have been biking all over the place. When there is no option for a car, and you MUST bike everywhere, we are easily putting on20 miles a day, that is a low ball. So that is sweet, my legs are getting jacked, like im not going to fit in these pants. I think im kidding, but we will see, crazy things are happen with this much biking. We picked up a couple new investigators this last week and actually had something pretty cool happen this last week. We got a random call on Friday from a woman who wanted us to come over and give her grandma a blessing. She was just visiting here from arizona and is the only member in her family, so she somehow tracked down our number to get us to come over to because her grandma only speaks spanish. So we went over and gave the blessing, and it was really  cool cause we got to mee the whole family. We then went back over yesterday to see how they were all doing, and they welcomed us right back in and talked to us for about 1/2 a hour. We are going back there tomorrow because they want us to start teaching them, espescially about the plan of salvation. It is going to be awesome, and we are super excited for the family, good things are going to happen. 

Here is where I was on the floor...looks comfy?

New comp!  good times a head

Thanks for everything family, i love you all!

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck