Easter time is the best time

Beck Family!

first off my space bar doesn't really work, so please correct any of these errors before putting this on the blog.So frustrating, i know, but there is nothing I can do about it.

This ast week was super good. WE had 5 investigators come to church yesterday. It was 3 full families that came, with5 of them being actively taught. IT was so good to see. One of the guys name is J, he has been investigating the church since his wife and kids got baptized 3 years ago. And now, he is going to be baptized this Saturday. He finally made the decision to be baptized, and he is going through with it. He set his own baptismal date and is doing it on his own time, but we are so excited for him. We have been working with him a lot, and now he is going to join his family. ON saturday one of the members that comes with us to teach him took him and his wife to the LA temple and visitors center. They both loved it and made it a goal for them to be married in the temple. How cool is that. There are such prepared people in this area, i really am so blessed to be here.

Another guy that came to church is also pretty legit. His name is D, and him and his wife fasted together yesterday so that they could know what to do so he could be baptized.

Also, pico rivera is a  pretty cool place ,somebody just got shotup in our favorite trailer park.

arentpubliclibrariestheworst?

I will send some pictures to makeup for his.

Loveyouguys.

Beckout,
ElderBeck

The members are so wonderful to us!

Helping hands

Early morning Easter devotional

Temple Tuesday

Beck Family!

So this last week was pretty great. We had lots of super bomb lessons with people, and did lots of good teaching. Last Tuesday we woke up at 5am to go drop elder K off at the airport. That is way to early for a missionary to be awake. The next day we saw a video at a members house of his homecoming and when he saw his girlfriend. It was crazy. He went home and me his girlfriend, who has waited for him the whole 2 years, out front of the st george temple. Crazy. His family filmed him seeing her for the first time. Not going to lie, it made me not want to go home, i just want to be a missionary forever. But that is not the only early day of my last week.On friday we also had a zone conference, those are always great. Cause any chance i have to hear Pres. Tew speak, that just makes everything a great day. It was about improving our teaching skills so we can teach more simpley and bring the spirit better. Great meeting. then on Sunday we woke up at 4:30 am to get to an early morning easter sunrise devotional. It was put on by the city of whittier, and had lots of different local pastors and preachers give prayers and read scriptures about the resurrecion. And our stake president got to be the keynote speaker this year. It was incredible the difference in feeling as he spoke as to when the others spoke. Nobody, i mean nobody else there brought the spirit. But when stake president powell gets up there, everybody felt something. Then we had a great church service and had some investigators come. One of our investigators even set his own baptismal date, so cant complain about that. And on sunday night i got to go see the baptism of T. He was somebody that me and elder H found and  started teaching 3 months ago. We taught him so much, literally biking hundreds of miles overall from his house to our apartment. He was the one that had a baptismal date that fell through 4 hours before the service, even after he had passed the interview. but on sunday he was fully ready, and he made that covenant of baptism, and he understands what is really means. So good to see, so good to see someone who means so much to you make that step of baptism. Aint nothing like it. And now today, tuesday, i woke up at around 4:330 to get to the LA temple. The LA temple is so cool, i say that everytime, but for real, its legit. I loved it, such a spiritual place. But incase you havent been keeping track, i have spent 3 days in the last week waking up at 5am or earlier. that is unprecedented on my mission, and i am fully exhausted. I dont have those hours to give up. But for all of the things i woke up for, i guess they were all worth it. But im flippin tired now.

Beck out,
Elder Beck

The ZL trio

Awesome group of Elders + one awesome investigator!

Baptism..bam!

The elders are expert movers!

And they love, love,love Temple Tuesday!

Pico Rivera...# 1 in drive by shootings

So beck Family!

Here is the better letter that i promised you. So this last week has been super good for us. Even though we had a lot of our time taken up for dumb little things. On tuesday we had an entire day of meetings. Literally the whole day. That is jsut part of the Zone leader life is now i get to go to a ton more meetings. And for the last 2 days we havent left the apartment except for sacrament meeting because elder W has been super sick. Just puking his guts and blood out. Yep, gross. But he will get better. I even got to go to walmart at like 11 at night to buy him some medicine. it was approved by president so nobody freak out. But he is doingbetter today. But even with all of that we had a really good week. We were able to teach double digit member present lessons this week, which is always a great thing. The members here in this ward are super good, maybe the best i have seen at coming out with the missioanryes. They actually look for ways to come out with you, not the excuses of why they cant. For real, never give missionaries excuses for why you cant come out with them. You can always come out, even if it isnt the exact time that they asked you to, volunteer that you can come out a different time, or actually move your life a little bit to go out. For real, it is the most annoying thing in the world when we ask a member to come out with us and they tell us that they cant because they have to do the laundyr at that time, or that thye have to cook dinner. those things can be moved, salvation, can not. Sorry, that was dramatic. But that is what i love about this ward and these members, they look for the ways to become available to come out with us, andbecause of it there is a lot of super good things happening in this ward. We had 3 investigators come to church this week, and they all stayed for the classes too becasue the members fellowshipped them and stayed with them. That is the difference that members make, we need them to help people really get the full church expereince.

So tomorrow i am going to drop off elder K at the airport. His 2 years are up, that means im gonna wake up at 5 am to get him to his flight on time. I might collapse with exhaustion. I have everytime ive done this i nthe past. I have loved being in our zone leader trio, its been super fun. But its time for him to go home. Its all good though. Me and elder W are gonna keep good things happening here, and we are going to see good things happen. I got the jerky, me and my companins have loved it. This is an exact quote from elder K  "I have tried a lot of jerky in my life, but this is easily the best jerky that my mouth has ever tasted. I would pay you for it, but becasue you are my companion i know you will just charitabley share it with me."

So well done on the jerky family, well done.

The library i am at will not allow me to send pictures so that will have to wait, sorry family, i know that i really like pictures too.

I went on exchanges with the AP this week, it was super good. But the thing is everytime i am with my mission president or with the AP's i realize how crappy of a missionary i am. My mission president is just so good, soo goooood, that everytime i see him i realize that i am so far being being that good. But it is ok, i think im still taking my baby steps forward.

Oh, and this week, i heard that Pico Rivera was rated  the number one place in the nation for drive by shootings. Now the only reason i would belive that is because one of the recent converts in this area was just shot this last week. It went right though his kidney and out his stomach. He was shot with a rifle from a car,classic drve by. He is doing just fine now(priesthood blessing) but it makes me think that maybe it is real about the drive by stat. Somebody should check that for me, i want to know if that is true.

Love you family, take care.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

New Area..Pico Rivera

Beck Family!

 So im not sure how much time i am going to have, it might be a short one today. Basically my life is awesome right now. I am in the Whittier West zone, in the city of Pico Rivera. I would have to guess that the area i am in is 90% mexican or higher. It is super hispanic, i havent seen a white kid since i got here. I love that and i am super excited to be here. My companions are elder K and W. I am in a zone leader trio until next week when K goes home. For now it is awesome, and we are going to have a lot os success teaching this week. I am super happy. General conference was great, and i really love everything that is happening. I love you family, i will write more next week. take care.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

EARTHQUAKE!

Beck Family!

This last week has been absolutely crazy. Let me drop it on ya'll.

So monday we went to the buddha temple again just cuase there were some elders that hadnt gone yet and wanted to. But then on Monday night my companion elder h got called to be a trainer. So yes, as soon as i finished 'training' him, he immediately got called to train. We picked up the greenie on Tuesday, because for some reason this transfer the greenies came in a week early. So for the last week i have been in a trio, and elder h has been sleeping on the floor. Always sucks. Then on thursday night elder h got a call from the AP, who called him to be a district leader! So when you get called to be a district leader you have to go down to the mission office to get trained on how to do your new job. So we went there early the next morning, and while we were there, president asked if he could talk to me. Oh no right. He called me in to his office, and then asked me to me a zone leader. Oh no right. He then told me that we would be having a 6 hour mission leadership meeting right then and there and that i should stay. Oh no right. So then i stayed for that meeting and met up with my companions later in the day. super crazy. And then that night it got even crazier. We were planning at about 9:15, when it sounded like there was this monstrous crash upstairs. Then we were shook right out of our chairs, and right then it started to click with me that we were having an earthquake. And not just the whimpiest of earthquakes either. I then took cover next to a heavy dresser(and not under my desk cause that is the wrong thing to do) and waited it out. My companions did not handle it so calmly.

The greenie, elder W, just stood up straight and just stood there in shock and did not move a muscle. Elder H gave me the funniest moment of my mission so far. He bolted out of his chair, rain to the corner of the room, realized he couldnt run any farther, then looked up to the ceiling and ran in circles, not really covering his head, just with his hands out like he was ready to catch something. Funniest thing i have ever seen, it was pure instinct reaction, im laughing just thinking about it.

Then once the quaking stopped, i ordered everyone to move out side, where then we tried to realize what had just happened. When we went back into the home, we realized that just a few things had fallen on the walls, some glass had shattered, lot of her little crafts and weird things had fallen and broken. There were whole cabinents and shelves that fell in the garage, and more stuff broke upstairs. When the quake was happening, it was absolutely deafing, it was so loud, it sounded like a jet engine was taking off from the living room. And literally it was so strong that it shook us right out of our chairs. The very floor was jolting around, and it was crazy. We found out that it was a 5.4. So it isnt the biggest earthquake ever, but it wasnt the smallest. And the center of it was about 1/2 mile from our house, so we got the strongest effect. So crazy. Then i had to go give some first aid to the other elders in our district that were huirt from the quake. one elder got hit in the head from something falling, so i had to go bandage up his split head. I patched him up good, that first aid kit really has come in handy. When i went tothe leadership meeting i found out that i would be transfered somewhere new this tuesday. I am going tot he Whittier West zone, and to the city of pico rivera. Taht is pretty close to where i am, but it is going to be cool, i ahve heard good things about that place. And i will be in a zl trio for 1 week, and then im gonna be just a normal ZL. Love you family, have a good week, enjoy the pics.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

My Zone

Fun family!

Peace out!
 

Looking tough..but these guys are really sweet!

Elder D...acting like a kid
 

Emotinal recovery, but our bikes still get the most flats ever!!

Beck Family!

This last week has been much better. I am going to be honest, this last week was very tough, if not one of the toughest of my mission. It was so hard, so many things went wrong. We had our baptism that fell through, we were dropped by investigators, our area was in shambles. And things that i never thought would happen happened, as i heard of the passing of Bro Bryge and Bro Coons. It made last week a very tough and trying one. It made me put a lot of confidence and my trust in the plan that we share. It was a very challenging week, and i was very tired. But things are ok, things turned around. That guy that was going to get baptized, T, is still on track. We are still teaching him and we have reaffirmed with him his desire to do this. He is a 28 year old guy that is trying to change his life, and he truly knows that this is the thing that will do it. We just have some things that we need to work through first, things that will just take a short amount of time. But i have no doubt that he will be baptized, i just hope that i am here to see it happen.

We have been biking a lot lately, im starting to count up our miles and not a day goes by that we dont hit 20. Most days are between 25-30. And those are hilly miles. I tried to put on a pair of my companions pants just to see if i could fit into them. My thighs nearly split the seams. They fit me around the waist, and i had lots of room down by my shins, but my thighs straight nearly burst through those pants. It was like spandex. My legs are huge, now i have proof. I'll send some pics of what happens to us though when we bike this much, we encounter many flats. Many interesting flats.

Transfers will be on April First. That doesnt mean that i will be sent out of whittier, that is just the next soonest time that it could happen. And who knows if i will stay a district leader or not, they like to change those up often.

 

And im glad that my letter was good. I really hoped that it helped people just a little bit. I wanted to do the only thing i could to try and help out. And again, i want you to know that i meant everything that i said.

 I had to buy another tube for my bike and patch kit.(you can put this in big family letter) Mom, for real, our companionship has the most flat tires of any living missionary companionship in the world. Kid you not. We can not ride our bikes for more that 8 hours without one of us getting a flat tire. WE then try to go as long as we can before we have to change it, we fill up at gas stations and stuff, but eventually everything goes flat, and we must then fix it. I have used so many tubes this transfer, and they all have been patched many times. Whittier is the place that destroys bikes, worst than compton for sure. I believe iti s the hills, it makes you put a lot of pressue of your tires, so all of the glass and thorns are instant death.

When i see a picture of you, i say "that one is MY momma." For real, you are like the coolest/bestest mom out there. Love you mom.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck

 

Really, Really???

I can't believe what's in the road!

We fix flats, and preach the gospel!
 

 

Tribute to 2 Great MEN!

Dear Family and Ward Family,

Whatever I had to say just feels like it wouldnt be enough to respond to the news that I have recieved today. I will be honest, today was already quite a difficult day for me. Yesterday was already heartbreaking. We were supposed to have a baptism. It was one of the most sure ones i have ever had. He had passed his interview, he was keeping all of his commitments, and his testimony was already very strong. But yesterday at church he was feeling very sick. He was feeling sick because his conscience was weighing down on him. He then took us outside and broke down and told us that he couldnt be baptized. Not everything was as good as we thought it was. It was heartbreaking, we had to call off the baptism at the last second. So I will be honest, this wasnt already the best of mondays for me. We will continue to teach him, and we will help him until he is ready for baptism.

But hearing that news  from ya'll this morning was hard. In fact it brought tears to my eyes, even now as i must try to type this. This has been a trying week for me, but in no way does it compare to what their families must be experiencing.

 

The following is what i sent to the bishopric, but this version has a few more things added. Please make sure that they see this, in both wards. And also, if appropriate, let their families see this. This is the best thing i can do for them now.

 

I am heartbroken.

Those 2 men played some of the most important roles of any people in my life.

More than just good examples to me, they were both friends and mentors.

I can not express how sad I am... truly.

I dont have the words to express myself.

My young mens leaders made some of the biggest impacts on my life, things that they could never have known about.

They changed me and helped me become the person I am today.

Without doubt I can cite them as reasons for my missionary service, for more of my love of the outdoors, and my love of this gospel.

Let me add my testimony of these good men. They both forever changed the course of my life. When I did not want to go to church, or to scouts, or to anything like it, these 2 men were often the reasons that I went. And more importantly, they were often the reasons that I stayed. I can remember many fun activities, many campouts, and many good times. I can vividly remember trying my hardest to throw Bro. Bryge out of the raft at high adventure. I can remember climbing up White rocks with him, and him following me up this crazy crack in the wall just because he couldnt let me do it along. I remember the best capture the flag games with Bro. Coons and him 'recruiting' me for his turkey bowl team. Yet at this time what i remember the most of them were the talks I had with them as we drove to and from these various activities. That is what i remember about these men, because that is what made a difference in my life. When they talked to me, when they inspired me, when they helped me get my head on straight, those are the times that have changed my life. And they were both involved.

To their families, I would just want them to know, that because things like this happen in the world, that is why I am serving a mission. The single most important thing to me that as a missionary i ever talk to people about is the family. My family is the most important thing in the world to me.

Because of that, I am here, sharing a message that will bring other families together forever. Because I can not imagine living without my family, I am here to share that same goodness with others. I do not know why all the bad things happen in the world, I have wrestled over that question for a while. I do not know how things like this fit into the great overall plan. But what i do know, what i do testify of, is that God does not leave us in these times. In fact He is closer to us during these times than ever before. There is nothing I can say that you all as members do not already know. But just know this, that I serve my mission, so that people can have 1 source of comfort in these types of times. People hurt, and God hurts with us. Families weep, and God weeps with them. Their dedication to me as a young man is one of the reasons that I made it to missionary service. Because they spent a little time away from their families to help me, I now spend a little time away from mine, to try and help others.

The good that has, and will, come from these 2 mens lives will never be known. The lives they have affected are many, and with strength I can say that the universe is a different place because of their 2 examples. At the least, I will forever be different because of them. I will never forget them. Neither will any of you. The impact that leaders have on the youth is great. The impact that good leaders have on youth is life changing. The impact that these leaders had on me falls into the latter. And no doubt they had the same type of impact on others as well.

God is so real. His plan is so loving. I will never claim to understand it all, but what I can understand for now is that everything will be made whole again, even families. These men were important to me, but surely even more so to the families that they have left. If it is any peace I can bring, it is this. That because they believed in eternal families they were members of this church. Because they were members of this church, they impacted my life. And because they impacted my life, i now serve a mission, so that others may also believe  in eternal families. Their impact will be felt throughout time and eternity, and it starts with us. Let us all be better people for knowing them, for I am, and i know that everyone else who knew them is as well. My heart breaks because of this, but it is ok, everything will be ok. I know it.

If you can make sure that both wards atleast get this email I would appreciate that.

 

I really dont have anything i could say after that. Nothing else really seems all that important. Maybe if i remember i will tell ya'll next week.

I love you family, truly i do. I love every one of you. And that isnt just something we should say or feel at times like these. Rather, it should be made known by the way we talk and live everyday. My family is the most important thing to me, more important than anything else. You are what matters to me. You, family, are the reason.

 

Beck out,

Elder Beck