I feel like a real missionary!

Beck Family!

So how is life? Things are pretty sweet here, except that my baptism got postponed until the 7th of june. It was a really hard couple of days, cause she basically had a real breakdown about tithing. and it took a lot of prayer and a talk from the bishop to get her back on track, but now she seems even more solid than before. I guess there are always gonna be these little tests that come up, even when the finish line is in sight. This week we are working a ton on finding new people, cause we have basically had to drop a lot of our investigators because they wont come to church. It really makes me stretch my Spanish to just stop and talk to people on the street, cause you never know what you are gonna say until you start talking. My visa waiter is still here, apparently argentina is a hard one to get into right now. Now, for what I spent that 40 dollars on that grandma sue gave me. I heard about these things the day I got her letter with the money, and I heard that these things were 40 bucks, so I figured it was fate, so I just had to buy them. They are leather scripture cases, and they were 40 bucks for both of them. We get them from an elder here who is from Guatemala, and his family back in Guatemala are the ones that make them. If you tried to buy these things in the united states, they would be over 120 for each of them. But that is the beauty of 3rd world countries, everything is dirt cheap! And I got to pick the picures that went on them, and they are personalized with my name and mission. They are so sweet looking, for real, I feel like a real scripture wielding missionary now. Also last night at our Stake Priesthood meeting, the missionaries got special permission to go, because the stake president completely chewed out the entire stake, and then made everyone covenant to spending atleast 1 night month to going out with us. He totally railed on them, and then had the kahonas to make them all commit to helpoing us. it was awesome. but that was pretty much my week, still working hard, life is still awesome, and being a missionary is still the best. I love ya'll, and have a good one.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

Temple Trip

Beck Family!

So yes, it is a tuesday and i am emailing you. But that is because  today i went to the temple, so they changed out p day. I went to the newport temple, and it was so awesome. We got a ride with some members, and afterwards they fed us and gave us some referals. They are freaking awesome. But the temple is so cool, it is kind of a brown/cream color so it totally looks like the beach front temple that it is.  They are the XXX family, and they are sweet. I also made some Flan, that is what the pictues are of. I think you could literally send that into a food magazine, cause that thing looks professional. The person we made the Flan with is the wife of one of our investigators. The wife really didnt care for us much, but after that night, we are definitely on her good side. So much good stuff has been going on out here. Like i was saying on the phone i have a hard scheduled baptism for this sunday, so next week i oughta have pictures of that. I am so freakin excited, she has been someone that I have been teaching since I got here. And she has been an investigator for 10 years, so to be the ones to get her in the water is pretty sweet. And actually right after this email time i am gonna go do something else pretty sweet, so i will hopefully i will send some pictures of that next week to. I am still loving every single day out here. There are just so many things that i felt like i could have talked to you about on the phone, honeslty that was probably the fastes 40 minutes of my life. I could have just talked for hours, trying to remember all of my note worthy experiences in just my short time out here. So many things have happened out here, yet i can hardly recall them to type. I still love you all, i miss you all. You all have a good week.

Beck out,

Elder Beck

oh that's Sandra Bullock's house

We made some Flan

Newport Beach temple

I love tacos!

Beck Family!

How has it already been another week. So I have been in a trio for about 2 weeks(i think) and it is super fun. Honestly, a trio is like a party all the time. Kind of. But for real it is really fun. Last week i learned how to make real authentic mexican tacos. Oh. My. Goodness. I will literally blow you minds out the back of your heads when i make those when i get home. Holy crap, they are delicious. And the trick to it all is, calories are an after thought. If it can be made to taste better by upping the calorires, then my goodness add the calories. I love the mexican culture.

They do not sacrifice taste for health, it is just the kind of mind set that i can really get behind. For real, i will make those tacos when i get home, and then you will understand that toco bell just isn't quite right. I am pretty excited to call home this sunday, you should pretty much just be ready all day for my call, cause i dont really know when it is gonna be.

And on sunday when i ate at the bishops house, it was just the entire table full of prime authentic mexican food. I would slap my companion in front of the pope for more of this authentic mexican food. We have been working our butts off just trying to find and contact and teach people. I am just having a blast out here. Today i am gonna make philly cheese steaks for lunch. There is a store right next to our apartment called the meat palace.

so today we are gonna put it to the test and try to make some philly cheese steaks. Right now we have a hard set baptism set for MAy 19th, and she is really committed. She has been telling all of her friends and family about her baptism, and she is gonna go through with it. It is gonna be sweet. I also got the cool little journal cover, that thing is sweet. Honestly, that thing is awesome. Well, i hope ya'll have a good week. Keep the dirtbiking riding up, and keep on writing me.

Love ya'll Beck out, Elder Beck

 

I got to finally see the beach

So, i have had another great week in paradise. This last week my companionship turned into a trio. We got another new greenie, who is actually waiting on his visa to go to Argentina. But since the mtc is so full, they cant keep visa waiters there, so they temp send them to a US mission. His name is Elder xxx, he is really cool, and was actually gonna go play football at Dixie state, so he is pretty good. This last week i did something that i haven't done since the plane ride here, i went to see the ocean. Yes, i finally got to go the coast part of my area, and i saw the ocean. I have a small section of Highway 1 in my area, and we "had" to drive on highway one for a little bit. It was so nice. Endless beautiful beach and  palm trees everywhere. And then i saw the biggest homes i have ever seen in my life. Literally, i saw a castle. A 6 story tall home on the beach that was a castle. It had a gate, big watch towers, and a astin parked out front. Someone literally had the dream as a little kid to live on the beach in a castle, and now that they have enough money to do that, they really did it. It was massive, and crazy. When we were driving through the rich part of hunting beach, the coast, i was just looking around at all of the nice cars. There were enough porches to make them look like economy cars, there were bugotis, locust, ferrari, bentlys, astin martins, audi r8s, lambos, literaly every car that is over 100k. It was insane. Cause then we drove back inland to where we do most of our work, and then we are back to the ghettos with low riding hondas and full sized vans. The coast was so incredibly nice i couldnt hardly believe it, i wanted to go swimming so bad, it was just mind blowing. It is technically in my area, but there arent exaclty any spanish people there. No lie, even the landscapers there were white. Thats what you call the rich part of town. I also have a yahct club in my zone that i drove past, saw a harbor full of yachts bigger that our house. Honestly, there were like private cruise ships. Still doing good out here. Had lots of super tireing days. I am getting slightly more comfortable with the spanish, in that i can atleast slaughter the lessons a little bit less. I have just stopped worrying about messing up and just try say whatever i am thinking of. Cause since i am white(and with stunning blue eyes) they are all so cool with me making mistakes when i am talking to them. They are usually just happy that i atleast try to speak spanish to them all. So they let go a lot of my mistakes, and actually help me out when i mess up. Like i get tons of spanish help from total strangers on the street that i am just trying to talk to. So no, i am not great, but gosh darn it i am trying what i know. These are some pictures of what we make for lunch, and that is some real good fried rice. Home made. Mind blowing good. Also, that is my posterity tie from my father(trainer) which i have to wear atleast once a transfer, and will eventually pass along to my

son(trainee) It is probalby the most hideous tie you have ever seen. But someday it will be someone elses problem. 
Well have a good one ya'll, love everybody.

Beck out,

Elder Beck

This is the awesome fried rice!

Me and my comp. and that fabulous tie!

It's blue eyes

Beck Family!

I have been here for a whole transfer. What the heck, where is all of this time going? That means I am halfway through being trained. Its already been 6 weeks. Thats just crazy to me. I have gotten every package that you have sent, so please, it is ok to send me more. Dont not send me stuff cause you think im not getting it. I am getting it all and enjoying it. That jerkey was really good, and it is a good test for my taste buds to reach in to the bag with my eyes closed and just pick out a piece of meat and eat it. I then try and tell what type of meat it is, either moose, pork, or beef. Its a great challenge, and i am pretty sure that i have been 100 percent so far. My carnivore taste buds are as highly tuned as ever. I love the camelbak, that thing is a life saver. It is so much more comfortable than that other bag i was using, and it doesnt hurt my back, so i think it is gonna become my go to bag. I also have hung up my california flag, it looks good. It hasnt rained once since I have been here. I didnt know that california was more of a desert than utah, but all the missionaries say that it hardly ever rains here, even in the spring, and that I will be lucky if it rains at all in the next couple of months. Right now me and my companion have 5 baptismal dates set and we are working our tales off to make sure that they all go through. I have been helping one of our investigators by helping him get his GED. So i have been tutoring him in writing essays and stuff, and in return he lets us teach him. And he actually said that he wants to get baptised the day after he marries his "wife." So we are also helping him with the legal stuff in getting married. That is kind of the tricky thing here, everybody calls each other husband and wife, even if they are only boyfriend and girlfriend. And unfortunantly it is almost always boyfriend and girlfirend, even when they have their whole lives together. Cause to get married, you have to be legal. And, well, that just isnt all that common. But we work with them and we are making sure that they will be all good for baptism. There is this one street where we work a lot, cause it is where all of the spanish people live. It is called La Pat, and it is just so ghetto i love it. There is always loud gangster rap coming from low riding cars driving by, people just box and fight each other in the driveways, and there are always ice cream trucks there. And that is where a ton of our investigators are, so we spend a lot of time there. And something crazy, i just realized this last week. I just looked around me throughout the day, and i realized that I was the only white guy in sight. Literally, when we work in the northern part of our area, I am the only white guy around. But everybody does like when i try to talk to them in spanish. Cause when they see me they immediatley assume that i dont speak any spanish. So when i simply say "todo bien" after they ask whats up, they are always taken aback, and are just like "whose this white guy?" Then they assume that i am fluent and just start rattling off an entire conversation, which i just kinda sit back and listen to, then turn to my companion, and ask what did he say? Also, every body loves my blue eyes. Apparently that is a pretty big deal with mexicans to have blue eyes, and mine are just the bluest they have ever seen. So when i say like 3 or 4 words in spanish, and they see my blue eyes, everybody loves me. These eagle peepers are earning their money. A lot of them when they meet me try to say something in english to me cause they assume that it dont understand spanish, so they are just suprised when i start speaking spanish back at them. They all assume that i like american football (which is true) and that my favorite food is a hamburger (which is close) and that I am from Utah (which is also true). So i am a very classic white man, that is why they are just so suprised that i (try to) speak spanish. But it is awesome out here, i love working out here with everybody. And tomorrow, i am actually going to be turned into a trio. There are so many missionaries that my trainer is going to start training a new missionary with me. He is a visa waiter, but i dont know anything else about him. But for the next transfer i will be in a trio, so hopefully i like they guy. Well i cant believe that Dad ran a marathon, cause now that means that I have to run one. I am not excited. But gosh darn it I will do it. In 2 years or so, I will have to run one to joing the marathon club. Well done Dad, well done, the bar has been raised. Well have an awesome week everybody, and recover.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

April 15th---what the zip flip

Beck Family!

Things are going good out here, Hunting Beach is one of the prettiest places i have ever seen. But i still havent seen the ocean since I flew in. Yes, im working in Hunting Beach, and i havent even seen the ocean. What the zip flip. but its all good cause the saying of the mission is "where the sand begins the mission ends." So i wont ever get to go the ocean, but all i want to do is see it. But it just hasnt happened yet. I have been driving for about the last week, and it has totally sucked. Driving in california is the worst. People are completely crazy, they dont look for lane changes, dont check for bikers, and the dont follow the speed limits, like not even close. Yesterday i totally almost got turned into road kill by a speeding car that took a complelety blind left turn and came about 2 inches from bowling me over at about 30 miles per hour. But its all good, cause i am a missionary, and pretty much nothing can happen to me. Right? I have a new respect for you mother. I have been trying to feed myself for only 123 dollars a month, and it is super hard. California is crazy expensive, so i have been doing a lot of top ramen eating, rice a roni, and balogni and chees sandwiches. I long for your home cooking so much, when i read about you feeding the missionaries baked ziti, my mouth starting to water up. And you gotta understand that that is only feeding me for breakfast and lunch, usually i get dinner at members homes. So yes, i guess i still eat plently. Because on only 2 meals a day i am spending quite a bit of money. I usually do 3 top ramens and half a role of saltines for a meal, If i am trying to cut back and be fast. So yes, i miss you mother, more than you know. And samuel thats to bad about the dog, maybe i will have to put in a good word for you, give you a little help in getting that little 4 legged friend. And i dont have a printer, so i cant send you any pics unless i go to walmart, and there isnt always a lot of time for that. But maybe i will make it there eventually. Well i love your letters and sounds like everything is still going great back home. I am just teaching all the live long day out here, trying my darndest to learn spanish, and studying, like a lot. I am trying me best to get along with my companion, trying to learn everything I can from him, espescially the language. Have a good week, Love ya'll

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

One month veteran

Beck Family!

What is up? Well i have officially been in the mission for a whole month.

So yes, i am now a seasoned veteran. At least that is what i think, but then I go out and try to speak the spanish, and i am humbled all over again. But still, things are going great. General conference was pretty much dabom.com I got to go to see all the sessions, and i actually got some of our investigators to go with us. Right now I have 2 families with baptismal dates, and they are not getting out of them. Another guy is going to get his marriage liscense tomorrow so he can get married, so then we can set him up for baptism. The one lady was flipping incredible. She was just a referall and we went and visited her, challenged her to baptism and she accepted. And then during our second visit she went and testified to us about how all of these things are true, and that she now feels the burning desire to get baptized. What a miracle right. It is just insane to go about working out here and to find people that have been so specifically prepared for us to teach them. I would like the army camel bak if that is possible.

 My bishop here is pretty sweet, and on sunday he had the missionaries over for dinner and grilled us all huge prime cut ribeye steaks. The members feedin us here are great, authentic mexican food is spicy and delicious. However it does have its consequences with the digestive system, but it just tastes so good i cant turn it away. Well, I hope ya'll have a good week, and see ya'll later.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck