Hola mi familia!
How is everybody doing? I hope thanksgiving was lots of fun. I celebrated thanksgiving too! Sort of...lol We were at an investigators house and they ALWAYS give us something to eat. That night, they gave us pumpkin juice! And it tasted like blended up pumpkin pie. So I just imagined that it was pumpkin pie and that I had just eaten a bunch of turkey and potatoes and It was like Thanksgiving! lol It also made me think of Harry Potter...they always drink pumpkin juice, don't they? I always wondered how it would taste...and now I know lol.
I can't believe that today is the last day of November! Tomorrow is december and the month of Christmas! I hope the tree is up...or going up soon :) I want a pic when It is all decorated, please :) I sent a package with a little christmas present for everyone today...it SHOULD be there before Christmas...I hope haha.
So...what was the temperature here in Babahoyo on Saturday the 28th???? Cause I have NEVER been so sweaty in my life! lol It was a brutal day lol. But that's part of the fun of being a missionary....i guess :) haha
There is this drink here called Avena Polaca. It is made with quaker oats and milk and some other stuff...I'm not sure what else. But it is SOOO good! People walk around selling it all over Babahoyo. Supposedly it is pretty healthy...but It tastes kinda like sweetened condensed milk lol. It is the same texture as that too. You guys should look it up on the internet and see if you can order it. Cause it is so good.
Well, I found out yesterday that they DO have Primary Programs here in Ecuador! You can imagine my excitement when I found out that it was Primary Program sacrament meeting..cause they are always awesome back home lol. But wow, it was a letdown here lol. The kids actually give talks and they are all reverent and nobody screams when they sing! haha What's the point of Primary Programs if there's not one kid screaming the songs, or crying, or yelling their part into the microphone?? lol. But it was still fun (sort of) :) lol
That's all the news that I can think of for this week....I love you all TONS!!!!!!!!!
Love, Elder Beck
Monday, November 30, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
No Power Yesterday
Hola mi familia!!
So, sorry I couldn't email yesterday. We went to this place called Montalvo. With waterfalls, rivers, rainforest-y, and it was really cool! (picutres coming) But, when we got back to Babahoyo, there was no power in the whole city cause they're doing power cuts. They didn't get much rain last year, so they cut the power for a few hours every day (at different times in all of ecuador). It's pretty annoying. And I was bummed that I didn't get to email yesterday. But I'm glad that Presidente Gamboa said that we could email today!!!
So, this week is Thanksgiving! That means nothing here! haha But HAPPY THANKSGIVING to everyone in the United States!!! Make sure to eat ALOT of turkey and potatoes and pie and Reba potatoes and everything else that we eat on thanksgiving :)
I've already decided what we'll eat first when I get back home in 2 years lol. Want to know?? First, Cheesecake Factory. Next, Barro's BBQ Chicken Pizza. Last, Nielsen's Chocolate concrete with Peanut Butter and cold fudge. hahaha Those are the things I crave the most I think :)
Maybe all of you already know this, but I just found this out this week. Babahoyo in English means 'slobber hole.' haha Kinda fits with the way parts of this city look :) lol
Something random and funny, but that made me kinda excited....The other night Elder Auccapuclla told me I was talking in my sleep lol. Guess what language I was speaking?!?!?! SPANISH!!! hahaha I haven't been able to remember ANY dreams here so I wasn't sure if i dreamt in spanish or english, but apparently they're in spanish lol.
On sunday i spoke in church for the first time :) I gave a 10-min talk about prayer and it went well. That was kinda fun... but not really lol.
So we had interviews last week with Presidente Gamboa in Guayaquil on Wednesday. No problems there, everything went well haha. But Pres Gamboa asked me to help Elder Aucca learn English. So this week I have been teaching him Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer lol. It is so funny how he pronounces the words. It reminds me of those chinese guys that sing in the restaurant in A Christmas Story hahahahaha.
Something not so funny....lol. Last week we were in San Juan and this member named Mariana was accompanying (is that a word?) us to some lessons. We were walking along the side of the highway and she fell!! It wasn't funny...but the way she fell reminded me of Louise at Waimea Bay the first time we went to Hawaii, and THAT was funny lol. Mariana is about the same size as Louise and she fell and kinda rolled down the side of the highway lol. She scraped up her knees, but she's ok now :)
That's all for this week. I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving and that everyone eats a little bit extra for me :) haha I Love you all SOOOOO much! Keep praying and reading the scriptures and doing all those 'little' things! They make a BIG difference :)
LOVE YOU ALL!!
Elder Beck
So, sorry I couldn't email yesterday. We went to this place called Montalvo. With waterfalls, rivers, rainforest-y, and it was really cool! (picutres coming) But, when we got back to Babahoyo, there was no power in the whole city cause they're doing power cuts. They didn't get much rain last year, so they cut the power for a few hours every day (at different times in all of ecuador). It's pretty annoying. And I was bummed that I didn't get to email yesterday. But I'm glad that Presidente Gamboa said that we could email today!!!
So, this week is Thanksgiving! That means nothing here! haha But HAPPY THANKSGIVING to everyone in the United States!!! Make sure to eat ALOT of turkey and potatoes and pie and Reba potatoes and everything else that we eat on thanksgiving :)
I've already decided what we'll eat first when I get back home in 2 years lol. Want to know?? First, Cheesecake Factory. Next, Barro's BBQ Chicken Pizza. Last, Nielsen's Chocolate concrete with Peanut Butter and cold fudge. hahaha Those are the things I crave the most I think :)
Maybe all of you already know this, but I just found this out this week. Babahoyo in English means 'slobber hole.' haha Kinda fits with the way parts of this city look :) lol
Something random and funny, but that made me kinda excited....The other night Elder Auccapuclla told me I was talking in my sleep lol. Guess what language I was speaking?!?!?! SPANISH!!! hahaha I haven't been able to remember ANY dreams here so I wasn't sure if i dreamt in spanish or english, but apparently they're in spanish lol.
On sunday i spoke in church for the first time :) I gave a 10-min talk about prayer and it went well. That was kinda fun... but not really lol.
So we had interviews last week with Presidente Gamboa in Guayaquil on Wednesday. No problems there, everything went well haha. But Pres Gamboa asked me to help Elder Aucca learn English. So this week I have been teaching him Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer lol. It is so funny how he pronounces the words. It reminds me of those chinese guys that sing in the restaurant in A Christmas Story hahahahaha.
Something not so funny....lol. Last week we were in San Juan and this member named Mariana was accompanying (is that a word?) us to some lessons. We were walking along the side of the highway and she fell!! It wasn't funny...but the way she fell reminded me of Louise at Waimea Bay the first time we went to Hawaii, and THAT was funny lol. Mariana is about the same size as Louise and she fell and kinda rolled down the side of the highway lol. She scraped up her knees, but she's ok now :)
That's all for this week. I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving and that everyone eats a little bit extra for me :) haha I Love you all SOOOOO much! Keep praying and reading the scriptures and doing all those 'little' things! They make a BIG difference :)
LOVE YOU ALL!!
Elder Beck
Monday, November 16, 2009
Pictures of Baptism
The 4 of us Elders and the 5 that got baptized
Fernando Abraham Justillo Diaz and I
WOOHOO!
Hola mi querida familia :)
¿Comó están todos?
So this week has been another busy week that went by really fast. I like weeks like this though :) Last week I had the opportunity to give a blessing for health to a member of our ward....in SPANISH! To be honest, when he asked me to give it, I was really nervous. But after I said the part that you have to say at the beginning, I waited a few seconds, and then I felt really calm and I started to bless him. I don't really remember what I said, I just know that my mouth was filled with the words I needed to say. It was awesome. And a couple days later we went to check on him and he wasn't there because he was all better and back to work! It has been awesome to see the Priesthood bless people's lives.
Well, I ate my first DISGUSTING thing here this week. Actually I didn't really eat it, but they served it to us lol. It was COW FOOT SOUP. The soup part was really good..minus the part that there was a cow foot floating in it. I think they expected us to eat the cow foot too, but I wasn't about to try and eat it. It was a big bone with like a mixture of fat and cartilage on it lol. So that was lots of fun :)
Last week I saw Snickers' twin..I miss Snickers. How is she doing? Wait, let me guess, she's sleeping? lol
Also last week, Elder Arellano (our zone/district leader...yes he is both) invited me to go on a split to Guayaquil with him. He had a zone leader counsel thing and I don't know why he invited me instead of his companion but I'm glad he did! lol We were just there for like half the day. When we got to the church where the meeting was I went with 2 other gringos to work in their sector close to the church. Guess who one of the gringos was? ELDER WALKE who has a blog that I think I bookmarked on our computer! lol (Aby I think you said you've read his blog?) Anyways, I told him that he has blog-stalkers in our family :) lol It was pretty random and funny. We tried to teach a few lessons but nobody was home, ate lunch with a member, and then went back to the church. And guess what was at the church when we got there???? PIZZA HUT!!!!!!!!!!!! haha They invited us to eat....and I ate 11 pieces hahahahahahaha. It's been too long since I've had american pizza haha. It was so good though.
I GOT PACKAGES THIS WEEK MOM AND DAD AND ALEXA!! Thanks so much! Alexa your jokes made me laugh hard lol. It was fun to read Elder Beatty, Calderwood, and Shoemakers letters. I'm excited to read church news. Thanks for the sour candy, JELLY BEANS, CAKE MIXES (can't wait to make those), sunscreen, shoe polish stuff, and the bookmarks :) The one with the missionary laws-all of that is so true! lol
Now the good part. Guess what?!?!?!?! WE HAD 2 BAPTISMS THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Carla and Fernando got baptized on Saturday and it was great. I baptized Fernando (he asked for the "grandote" or "the really big one" to baptize him lol...at least he didn't just call me the gringo haha). It was really awesome to have some baptisms finally and see the happiness in their faces as they were baptized and the following day were confirmed. We did the baptism with the other elders that we live with, too. So altogether 5 kids got baptized. And all 4 of us elders were dressed in white. The pictures look awesome :) I was thinking about Zack and all of you guys as we were getting ready and baptizing. It was really neat :) Congratulations Zack!
The family Ochoa also committed to get married this friday, so we are praying that all goes well and they can get baptized on saturday! That would be 5 more :)
Happy Birthday Grandpa Beck!!!
Well that's all for this week I think...I'm sending the pics in a separate email :) I LOVE YOU GUYS SOOOOOOOOOOOO SOOOOOOOOO SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!
Love, Elder Beck
¿Comó están todos?
So this week has been another busy week that went by really fast. I like weeks like this though :) Last week I had the opportunity to give a blessing for health to a member of our ward....in SPANISH! To be honest, when he asked me to give it, I was really nervous. But after I said the part that you have to say at the beginning, I waited a few seconds, and then I felt really calm and I started to bless him. I don't really remember what I said, I just know that my mouth was filled with the words I needed to say. It was awesome. And a couple days later we went to check on him and he wasn't there because he was all better and back to work! It has been awesome to see the Priesthood bless people's lives.
Well, I ate my first DISGUSTING thing here this week. Actually I didn't really eat it, but they served it to us lol. It was COW FOOT SOUP. The soup part was really good..minus the part that there was a cow foot floating in it. I think they expected us to eat the cow foot too, but I wasn't about to try and eat it. It was a big bone with like a mixture of fat and cartilage on it lol. So that was lots of fun :)
Last week I saw Snickers' twin..I miss Snickers. How is she doing? Wait, let me guess, she's sleeping? lol
Also last week, Elder Arellano (our zone/district leader...yes he is both) invited me to go on a split to Guayaquil with him. He had a zone leader counsel thing and I don't know why he invited me instead of his companion but I'm glad he did! lol We were just there for like half the day. When we got to the church where the meeting was I went with 2 other gringos to work in their sector close to the church. Guess who one of the gringos was? ELDER WALKE who has a blog that I think I bookmarked on our computer! lol (Aby I think you said you've read his blog?) Anyways, I told him that he has blog-stalkers in our family :) lol It was pretty random and funny. We tried to teach a few lessons but nobody was home, ate lunch with a member, and then went back to the church. And guess what was at the church when we got there???? PIZZA HUT!!!!!!!!!!!! haha They invited us to eat....and I ate 11 pieces hahahahahahaha. It's been too long since I've had american pizza haha. It was so good though.
I GOT PACKAGES THIS WEEK MOM AND DAD AND ALEXA!! Thanks so much! Alexa your jokes made me laugh hard lol. It was fun to read Elder Beatty, Calderwood, and Shoemakers letters. I'm excited to read church news. Thanks for the sour candy, JELLY BEANS, CAKE MIXES (can't wait to make those), sunscreen, shoe polish stuff, and the bookmarks :) The one with the missionary laws-all of that is so true! lol
Now the good part. Guess what?!?!?!?! WE HAD 2 BAPTISMS THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Carla and Fernando got baptized on Saturday and it was great. I baptized Fernando (he asked for the "grandote" or "the really big one" to baptize him lol...at least he didn't just call me the gringo haha). It was really awesome to have some baptisms finally and see the happiness in their faces as they were baptized and the following day were confirmed. We did the baptism with the other elders that we live with, too. So altogether 5 kids got baptized. And all 4 of us elders were dressed in white. The pictures look awesome :) I was thinking about Zack and all of you guys as we were getting ready and baptizing. It was really neat :) Congratulations Zack!
The family Ochoa also committed to get married this friday, so we are praying that all goes well and they can get baptized on saturday! That would be 5 more :)
Happy Birthday Grandpa Beck!!!
Well that's all for this week I think...I'm sending the pics in a separate email :) I LOVE YOU GUYS SOOOOOOOOOOOO SOOOOOOOOO SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!
Love, Elder Beck
Monday, November 9, 2009
Pictures of Life in Babahoyo
district for the first change.
sunsets.
a nearby cathedral.
Elder Auccapuclla & Elder B
sunsets.
a nearby cathedral.
Elder Auccapuclla & Elder BMonday...my favorite day
Hola mi FAMILIA
Wow..another week has already passed and it's monday again. My favorite day of the week. We cleaned the house this morning [always nice to have a clean house...at least for a few hours haha] and now I get to email my family...my favorite part Ü And we'll probably eat pizza after this..another good thing haha.
Well this week went by really fast and things are going great with Elder Auccapuclla. We taught SO many lessons this week and he really likes talking to everybody so we have lots of new investigators too. And I already feel like my spanish has gotten alot better just in this week. We try to talk alot and I am actually communicating in Spanish Ü haha. It feels good to get more comfortable with the language.
So, this Saturday when Zack is getting baptized, we should be baptizing 2 kids too Ü Fernando and Karla...they are 9 and 11 years old and there mom WAS inactive. Now she is going to church though and her kids have wanted to get baptized since the first time we talked to them lol. We just had to teach them the lessons and get them to church..which we have done and now they are ready. Interview thursday, baptism saturday Ü We are praying for them alot and fasted yesterday for all of our investigators again. I feel like we're going to have lots of success this change. Also, 2 couple committed to get married within the next 2 weeks...one step closer to baptism Ü Lot's of good things happening in Babahoyo.
So, I got a bunch of DearElders [7] last week as well as a letter and some pics from Nicole and some pics that J&G drew so that was alot of fun to see and read those this morning. I love getting letters and everything from the family, so keep it up Ü
So I felt my first 'earthquake' this week Ü I say 'earthquake' cause it was like 5 seconds and tiny. It almost just felt like a really big truck drove by our apartment lol. But still...i can now say I've felt an earthquake. But hopefully I don't ever feel anything more than that haha.
Well...there's not really any more news...but I love you guys. Dad, yes I am eating lots of fruit. The mangos here are SOO good and the bananas are way better than in the states lol. Also, here you ask for 25cents worth of bananas and they give you like 12 bananas. Fruit is so cheap. Members give us fruit pretty often too. So most of what I eat is fruit and rice.....and ramen at night sometimes lol. I'm definitely not hungry haha.
I love you all SOOO much Ü
Until Next week..
Love
Elder Beck
Wow..another week has already passed and it's monday again. My favorite day of the week. We cleaned the house this morning [always nice to have a clean house...at least for a few hours haha] and now I get to email my family...my favorite part Ü And we'll probably eat pizza after this..another good thing haha.
Well this week went by really fast and things are going great with Elder Auccapuclla. We taught SO many lessons this week and he really likes talking to everybody so we have lots of new investigators too. And I already feel like my spanish has gotten alot better just in this week. We try to talk alot and I am actually communicating in Spanish Ü haha. It feels good to get more comfortable with the language.
So, this Saturday when Zack is getting baptized, we should be baptizing 2 kids too Ü Fernando and Karla...they are 9 and 11 years old and there mom WAS inactive. Now she is going to church though and her kids have wanted to get baptized since the first time we talked to them lol. We just had to teach them the lessons and get them to church..which we have done and now they are ready. Interview thursday, baptism saturday Ü We are praying for them alot and fasted yesterday for all of our investigators again. I feel like we're going to have lots of success this change. Also, 2 couple committed to get married within the next 2 weeks...one step closer to baptism Ü Lot's of good things happening in Babahoyo.
So, I got a bunch of DearElders [7] last week as well as a letter and some pics from Nicole and some pics that J&G drew so that was alot of fun to see and read those this morning. I love getting letters and everything from the family, so keep it up Ü
So I felt my first 'earthquake' this week Ü I say 'earthquake' cause it was like 5 seconds and tiny. It almost just felt like a really big truck drove by our apartment lol. But still...i can now say I've felt an earthquake. But hopefully I don't ever feel anything more than that haha.
Well...there's not really any more news...but I love you guys. Dad, yes I am eating lots of fruit. The mangos here are SOO good and the bananas are way better than in the states lol. Also, here you ask for 25cents worth of bananas and they give you like 12 bananas. Fruit is so cheap. Members give us fruit pretty often too. So most of what I eat is fruit and rice.....and ramen at night sometimes lol. I'm definitely not hungry haha.
I love you all SOOO much Ü
Until Next week..
Love
Elder Beck
Monday, November 2, 2009
Change #2 : Day #1
Hola mi familia!!!
So change #1 is done and it flew by. And now it is change #2...and I have a new companion! His name is Elder Aucapucllo (Ow-cuh-pook-yo) and he is from Peru. He only has 4 1/2 months in the mission..just a little older than me haha. Also, he doesn't know english.......so this should be a change full of learning for me haha. I'm hoping my spanish gets way better with him. Elder Rodriguez is now a Zone Leader in Guayaquil. I'm gonna miss him..we got along really well and had fun and worked hard...and we had a bunch of baptisms planned for this month that he won't get to see happen :( I guess that's when transfers happen though..when things are going well haha. Oh well, that's the life of a missionary :)
So, the past couple weeks we've had some opportunities to give people blessings for health. I've done the first part in all of them. We had one really neat experience though with a little girl named Yaxeli. She was really sick and had been in bed for 2-3 days and could barely eat anything. We gave her a blessing and the next day we went by to check on her and she was walking around the house and eating a little bit. And the next day, she was outside playing soccer with her friends! It's really neat to see the power of the Priesthood work and heal people.
Saturday was my first real 'holiday' in the mission, Halloween. It was quite the letdown compared to halloween in the US lol. People here just get drunk, dance, and some teenagers wear masks and scare little kids lol. It definitely wasn't the same without chili and homemade doughnuts! haha It's all good though...only one more Halloween in the mission! lol
We have 10 people with baptism GOALS for the 14th of November! That will be really exciting if they all follow through :) We're praying hard for them and Elder Aucapucllo and I are going to be working really hard this change to make sure they're ready. I'll keep you all updated on what happens with that... :)
That's all for now...I hope everything is going great with everybody back home in the US! I love you all SOOOOO much!
Love, Elder Beck
So change #1 is done and it flew by. And now it is change #2...and I have a new companion! His name is Elder Aucapucllo (Ow-cuh-pook-yo) and he is from Peru. He only has 4 1/2 months in the mission..just a little older than me haha. Also, he doesn't know english.......so this should be a change full of learning for me haha. I'm hoping my spanish gets way better with him. Elder Rodriguez is now a Zone Leader in Guayaquil. I'm gonna miss him..we got along really well and had fun and worked hard...and we had a bunch of baptisms planned for this month that he won't get to see happen :( I guess that's when transfers happen though..when things are going well haha. Oh well, that's the life of a missionary :)
So, the past couple weeks we've had some opportunities to give people blessings for health. I've done the first part in all of them. We had one really neat experience though with a little girl named Yaxeli. She was really sick and had been in bed for 2-3 days and could barely eat anything. We gave her a blessing and the next day we went by to check on her and she was walking around the house and eating a little bit. And the next day, she was outside playing soccer with her friends! It's really neat to see the power of the Priesthood work and heal people.
Saturday was my first real 'holiday' in the mission, Halloween. It was quite the letdown compared to halloween in the US lol. People here just get drunk, dance, and some teenagers wear masks and scare little kids lol. It definitely wasn't the same without chili and homemade doughnuts! haha It's all good though...only one more Halloween in the mission! lol
We have 10 people with baptism GOALS for the 14th of November! That will be really exciting if they all follow through :) We're praying hard for them and Elder Aucapucllo and I are going to be working really hard this change to make sure they're ready. I'll keep you all updated on what happens with that... :)
That's all for now...I hope everything is going great with everybody back home in the US! I love you all SOOOOO much!
Love, Elder Beck
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