Elder Beck with Elder RodriguezWednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
A letter from Babahoyo, Ecuador
¡¡¡HOLA MI FAMILIA!!!
How is everybody doing? I made it to ecuador and I am in a city/town/place called Babahoyo :) And it is hard to type on this keyboard cause the symbols are all in different places lol.
So, I got here Tuesday night at like 1030 and the Pres Gamboa and his wife and the APs were there to greet us and help with our bags. They took us to the AP's house where we ate McDonalds lol. And they told us what we would be doing on Wednesday. Then we went to bed downstairs where they had 11 matresses all over the floor for us 4 white guys and 7 Latinos who arrived earlier that day. They got to go to the temple but we didn't :( And from what I hear we won't get to go to the temple...that stinks. So wednesday we woke up and played kickball at a field across the street from the house (gringos vs. latinos....I think we won lol) Then we went back to the house and got ready and went to the church. There, we met with Pres. Gamboa and we learned a bunch of rules and stuff. Next, we went to Pres. Gamboa's home (which is way nice and there's a pool and stuff) and we ATE and ATE. I was SOOO full lol. We ate a fresh fruit cocktail with all kinds of fruit, some sort of breaded chicken/turkey thing with mashed potatoes and carrots, and a banana pie with ice cream. And they had this really good juice, too. I thought I was going to pop cause I was so full! lol
After that we went back to the church and had a quick interview and met our companions! My companion is Elder Rodriguez and he is from Mexico. He speaks English pretty well though, thankfully lol. He's been out for 13 months. So after I met him we got in a taxi and rode to a bus station. The bus station kinda reminded me of a ghetto Union Station (like the one Alexa made everyone evacuate lol) So, we took a bus to Babahoyo. It was about 1- 1 1/2 hours with no AC, just open windows. And yes it is pretty sweaty here during the day, but not unbearable. When we got to Babahoyo we dragged my suitcases about 1/4 mile to our apartment. The apartment is 2 rooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, and like an open area. It isn't TOO gross, but I wouldn't mind if it had an "Extreme Makeover:OCD Edition" lol. It's all good cause we wear flip flops all the time.
So after we dropped of my bags, we bought a few groceries. I bought a dozen eggs, bread, jam, cereal, milk, juice, cookies....for $8.34 lol. Most things are sooo cheap, but like a little jar of peanut butter is like $4 haha. After that we went to a few houses and taught lessons.
All of the houses are pretty small here and either have cement or bamboo/wood floors. Some houses are made of bamboo, others are made of like bricks or cement. VERY humble houses...but they almost all have a flat screen LCD TV and a DVD player hahaha. It's interesting.
So this week we've been walking ALOT and teaching. On the 10th of October we are planning on 2 baptisms! Lucia, and Raul. There's this family, the Ochoas, and they have 5 kids that are super smart and remember everything we tell them. People here speak really fast and most of them are missing teeth so that makes it even harder to understand lol. I am catching on more and more though.
On friday night I "knocked" my first house (we don't actually knock..we stand outside and say "¡A VER!" haha) So I talked to the lady a little bit and asked if we could come in and she said....YES! haha It was awesome. She also told us that she already believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet...so that was interesting lol.
Sunday we had church, and only 2 investigators came. :( Elder Rodriguez told me that it is like a tradition here to lie...I am learning that that is true lol.
Today we took our laundry to the laundry Mamita and we pick it up on Wednesday. We don't have a cooking Mamita, but we do have lunch appointments every day (except Pday). They feed us ALOOOOT lol. Mostly rice with a little bit of chicken. Yesterday, though, we started off with some jello, then some chicken with pasta stuff. Everything I've eaten has been edible, and it's all pretty good. They put catsup on like everything lol. Today for lunch we're gonna eat lunch at a pizza place...the pizzas are like 12-14 inches and are $2.50 :) Earlier today I bought a "satchel" ....kinda like a 'murse' haha.
So..i gotta write to Pres Gamboa now. But reply and I'll try to reply too! All is well here in Babahoyo, Ecuador. We're workin hard! I LOVE YOU GUYS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!! Seriously :) Keep praying for me!
Love,
Elder Beck in Ecuador
How is everybody doing? I made it to ecuador and I am in a city/town/place called Babahoyo :) And it is hard to type on this keyboard cause the symbols are all in different places lol.
So, I got here Tuesday night at like 1030 and the Pres Gamboa and his wife and the APs were there to greet us and help with our bags. They took us to the AP's house where we ate McDonalds lol. And they told us what we would be doing on Wednesday. Then we went to bed downstairs where they had 11 matresses all over the floor for us 4 white guys and 7 Latinos who arrived earlier that day. They got to go to the temple but we didn't :( And from what I hear we won't get to go to the temple...that stinks. So wednesday we woke up and played kickball at a field across the street from the house (gringos vs. latinos....I think we won lol) Then we went back to the house and got ready and went to the church. There, we met with Pres. Gamboa and we learned a bunch of rules and stuff. Next, we went to Pres. Gamboa's home (which is way nice and there's a pool and stuff) and we ATE and ATE. I was SOOO full lol. We ate a fresh fruit cocktail with all kinds of fruit, some sort of breaded chicken/turkey thing with mashed potatoes and carrots, and a banana pie with ice cream. And they had this really good juice, too. I thought I was going to pop cause I was so full! lol
After that we went back to the church and had a quick interview and met our companions! My companion is Elder Rodriguez and he is from Mexico. He speaks English pretty well though, thankfully lol. He's been out for 13 months. So after I met him we got in a taxi and rode to a bus station. The bus station kinda reminded me of a ghetto Union Station (like the one Alexa made everyone evacuate lol) So, we took a bus to Babahoyo. It was about 1- 1 1/2 hours with no AC, just open windows. And yes it is pretty sweaty here during the day, but not unbearable. When we got to Babahoyo we dragged my suitcases about 1/4 mile to our apartment. The apartment is 2 rooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, and like an open area. It isn't TOO gross, but I wouldn't mind if it had an "Extreme Makeover:OCD Edition" lol. It's all good cause we wear flip flops all the time.
So after we dropped of my bags, we bought a few groceries. I bought a dozen eggs, bread, jam, cereal, milk, juice, cookies....for $8.34 lol. Most things are sooo cheap, but like a little jar of peanut butter is like $4 haha. After that we went to a few houses and taught lessons.
All of the houses are pretty small here and either have cement or bamboo/wood floors. Some houses are made of bamboo, others are made of like bricks or cement. VERY humble houses...but they almost all have a flat screen LCD TV and a DVD player hahaha. It's interesting.
So this week we've been walking ALOT and teaching. On the 10th of October we are planning on 2 baptisms! Lucia, and Raul. There's this family, the Ochoas, and they have 5 kids that are super smart and remember everything we tell them. People here speak really fast and most of them are missing teeth so that makes it even harder to understand lol. I am catching on more and more though.
On friday night I "knocked" my first house (we don't actually knock..we stand outside and say "¡A VER!" haha) So I talked to the lady a little bit and asked if we could come in and she said....YES! haha It was awesome. She also told us that she already believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet...so that was interesting lol.
Sunday we had church, and only 2 investigators came. :( Elder Rodriguez told me that it is like a tradition here to lie...I am learning that that is true lol.
Today we took our laundry to the laundry Mamita and we pick it up on Wednesday. We don't have a cooking Mamita, but we do have lunch appointments every day (except Pday). They feed us ALOOOOT lol. Mostly rice with a little bit of chicken. Yesterday, though, we started off with some jello, then some chicken with pasta stuff. Everything I've eaten has been edible, and it's all pretty good. They put catsup on like everything lol. Today for lunch we're gonna eat lunch at a pizza place...the pizzas are like 12-14 inches and are $2.50 :) Earlier today I bought a "satchel" ....kinda like a 'murse' haha.
So..i gotta write to Pres Gamboa now. But reply and I'll try to reply too! All is well here in Babahoyo, Ecuador. We're workin hard! I LOVE YOU GUYS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!! Seriously :) Keep praying for me!
Love,
Elder Beck in Ecuador
Monday, September 21, 2009
Week 9- LAST MTC WEEK
HEY! I can't believe my time at the MTC is done! But I am ready to get out of here..if you didn't already know haha. This is the last time that I will be emailing from the US for TWO YEARS!!! Kinda crazy haha. I'm excited to talk to everybody tomorrow on the phone :)
Sooooo...something exciting actually happened last week! Crazy, I know.. haha But guess who was here on Tuesday night?!?!?! We were hoping that it would be Pres. Monson, cause he spoke at BYU earlier that day...but it wasn't him. But, it was ELDER HOLLAND!!!!!!!!!!!! It was SOO good :) I'm not gonna lie..I was a little nervous he would yell at us or pound the podium or something like I've seen him do before lol. But he stayed pretty calm the whole time. He was funny, spiritual, and it was just a great talk. And his wife spoke too and she was really good and she said that seeing pics of him still takes her breath away lol. It was a great last devotional :D
Half of our district left this morning to Paraguay...kinda sad but exciting! They don't get there till like 10am tomorrow lol. They have a 12 hour flight from Dallas to Buenos Aires, and then they go back up to Paraguay.
Something kind of sad...this past saturday was the FIRST DAY (besides sundays and labor day) that I didn't get mail! lol Thanks for writing me so much all of you! It has been so great to have letters every day...i'll miss that in Ecuador! haha
Lately, I've heard to enjoy the food in Ecuador because it is GOOD. So that's exciting. I've also hear they have really good juice and rice. Can't wait to try that stuff....and Guinea Pig haha. I've also heard that you can eat Iguana down there..so maybe I'll get to try that lol.
Excited to talk to you guys tomorrow!
LOVE YOU ALL
Elder Beck :)
Sooooo...something exciting actually happened last week! Crazy, I know.. haha But guess who was here on Tuesday night?!?!?! We were hoping that it would be Pres. Monson, cause he spoke at BYU earlier that day...but it wasn't him. But, it was ELDER HOLLAND!!!!!!!!!!!! It was SOO good :) I'm not gonna lie..I was a little nervous he would yell at us or pound the podium or something like I've seen him do before lol. But he stayed pretty calm the whole time. He was funny, spiritual, and it was just a great talk. And his wife spoke too and she was really good and she said that seeing pics of him still takes her breath away lol. It was a great last devotional :D
Half of our district left this morning to Paraguay...kinda sad but exciting! They don't get there till like 10am tomorrow lol. They have a 12 hour flight from Dallas to Buenos Aires, and then they go back up to Paraguay.
Something kind of sad...this past saturday was the FIRST DAY (besides sundays and labor day) that I didn't get mail! lol Thanks for writing me so much all of you! It has been so great to have letters every day...i'll miss that in Ecuador! haha
Lately, I've heard to enjoy the food in Ecuador because it is GOOD. So that's exciting. I've also hear they have really good juice and rice. Can't wait to try that stuff....and Guinea Pig haha. I've also heard that you can eat Iguana down there..so maybe I'll get to try that lol.
Excited to talk to you guys tomorrow!
LOVE YOU ALL
Elder Beck :)
Monday, September 14, 2009
Week 8
Elder Beck's email home this week was to inform us of his travel plans...
He goes to ECUADOR next week!
It will be just one day of travel with enough layovers that none of the flights are too long so he's glad for that.
He's also excited to call home from the airport!
MTC food is made with love, but he's looking forward to eating some fast food at the airport:)
One more pday in the MTC...and...one more email from the MTC.
One quick email said that he would be leaving the MTC on Wednesday to get a filling and it was something to look forward to because he got to leave for a short time!
Also big news for our Elder...another nephew was born last week... so he's an uncle to 7 now!
He goes to ECUADOR next week!
It will be just one day of travel with enough layovers that none of the flights are too long so he's glad for that.
He's also excited to call home from the airport!
MTC food is made with love, but he's looking forward to eating some fast food at the airport:)
One more pday in the MTC...and...one more email from the MTC.
One quick email said that he would be leaving the MTC on Wednesday to get a filling and it was something to look forward to because he got to leave for a short time!
Also big news for our Elder...another nephew was born last week... so he's an uncle to 7 now!
Monday, September 7, 2009
Week 7
So today is P-day and Labor day....not a good combination for the MTC lol. The temple is closed on labor day, and there is no mail on labor day! The 2 best things about p-day...non-existent today lol. And there were no doughnuts at breakfast this morning..whats up with that?! haha But everything is going great here...plenty of time to write letters today! :) I am super excited for the end of this week because we should be getting flight plans!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait for that lol. 1 week from tomorrow we should be leaving :)
So, we had a fireside last week and the wife of somebody asked What is your missionary story? Who was the first member in your family? And I don't know...so who is it? Or who are they?
Have you guys watched the 9/11 YouTube video on the homepage of LDS.org? It is really neat :) I love you all so much!!! :D
This week we got a new branch president. Funny story..every week we write letters to the branch president and then they go in this folder that our district leader gives to the branch pres. This week, Elder Baum put some of those fake bubblegum cigarettes in the folder just to be funny cause our OLD branch president was kind of a jokester.... BUT now we have a new Branch President so we're wondering what he'll think of that...? lol We won't find out till Wed. when he returns the letter. Hopefully he thinks its funny :/ lol
Not much else happened this week...one of my new favorite hymns (in english) is "Gently Beams Our Father's Mercy." A group of Elders sang an AWESOME arrangement of it last night at the fireside A Capella and it was SOOO good. Try to find an a capella version of it online or something... I had never heard it before but now I love it lol.
I LOVE ALL YOU A TON!!!!!!
Love,
Elder Beck :D
So, we had a fireside last week and the wife of somebody asked What is your missionary story? Who was the first member in your family? And I don't know...so who is it? Or who are they?
Have you guys watched the 9/11 YouTube video on the homepage of LDS.org? It is really neat :) I love you all so much!!! :D
This week we got a new branch president. Funny story..every week we write letters to the branch president and then they go in this folder that our district leader gives to the branch pres. This week, Elder Baum put some of those fake bubblegum cigarettes in the folder just to be funny cause our OLD branch president was kind of a jokester.... BUT now we have a new Branch President so we're wondering what he'll think of that...? lol We won't find out till Wed. when he returns the letter. Hopefully he thinks its funny :/ lol
Not much else happened this week...one of my new favorite hymns (in english) is "Gently Beams Our Father's Mercy." A group of Elders sang an AWESOME arrangement of it last night at the fireside A Capella and it was SOOO good. Try to find an a capella version of it online or something... I had never heard it before but now I love it lol.
I LOVE ALL YOU A TON!!!!!!
Love,
Elder Beck :D
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