HAPPY 2011!!! ....y cambios

Hola mi querida familia!!!!!

Happy New year!!!!!! I hope that everyone had a fun holiday and I hope that this year is amazing for all of you :) New Year's Eve was a lot of fun hear in Guayaquil...but I have to tell you what happened before New Year's Eve first :)

On Monday, we played soccer, like I told you in last week's letter. It was a lot of fun....and my body was hurting like 2 hours after playing lol. Those aches and pains lasted a few days, worsened slightly because I got a little bit sick.

On Tuesday, I woke up with a little bit of a cough, but I thought nothing of it and got all ready and we went to our weekly District Meeting. The APs came to visit us in our District Meeting and it went really well and we did a lot of practices and learned a lot. But the whole time I just kept feeling worse and worse. By the end of the meeting everybody was asking me what happened and why I didn't look so good and I just said that my stomach was hurting a little bit (partly true..lol). But when we got home, I pulled out my thermometer and I had a fever of 101.9 and Sister Gamboa has told us that if we have a fever higher that 101 that we should call her. So I called and told her what was up and she just told me to take Tylenol, drink lots of water, and rest. So I took a pill and slept from like 1:30pm until 7:30pm and when I woke up I felt a little better, but still not very good haha.

On Wednesday, I didn't have a fever so we decided to go out and work. On Thursday morning I had a fever again so we didn't go work until the afternoon. And then on Friday I felt better, except a cough and a runny nose, and we worked all day. The same thing on Saturday. But it seems like Sunday was what helped me get better. On Sunday, we were in the Church from 10am till 5pm because we have 2 wards and they changed the schedule with the new year. After being in Church all day I felt a lot better :) And today I feel just about perfect ;)

Yesterday, I played the piano in Church. Some parts, just the right hand.....but hey, I played piano :) Mom, you owe me big time! lol JK It felt good to play after not playing for so much time.

Friday was New Year's Eve and it was crazy at night!!! Nobody invited us to dinner, so we bought some big hamburgers and a bunch of french fries and ate dinner at home with the 4 that live there. It was fun :) And we went to sleep at 1030pm, like always, but we woke up at about 1155pm to the sound of explosions haha. I think I mentioned on the phone that it is illegal here to buy firecrackers and fireworks, but it is very obvious that the police don't do anything here lol. Every family burns an año viejo or 2 (the paper mache figures) and most of the people pile up a ton of them, cover them in gasoline and firecrackers, and then burn them. I think the biggest fire I saw was more than 4 stories tall....and I thought I was going to be deaf with all of those firecrackers haha. We could see a ton of the city from our 3rd-floor window and it was really cool......and smoky lol.

Now, the big and unexpected news for this week is CAMBIOS!!! Last night I received a call and they told me I needed to be in the Terminal with my bags at 745am this morning. What a surprise!!!!!! I really wasn't expecting that....I was hoping to 'kill' Elder Barrientos lol (this is his last transfer). But, apparently that's not what the Lord had in store for me. Now I am in a place called Durán (it's across the huge river from Guayaquil, but it's still part of Guayaquil, I think.) The zone is Durán Norte and my sector is called Los Rieles (in English= the Rails ....like on a railroad). My companion is Elder Romero and he is from Bolivia. We were both in Salinas, so I already know him :) We also live with Elder Elias, from Guatemala, and Elder Laub, from St. George Utah. Mom, I'm pretty sure he's the one you recently found when you were NOT blog-stalking ;) haha

THANKS SO MUCH TREVOR AND NICOLE for the package that I received last week!!!! 2 Ties, giant sticky hand, Cheez Its, Mints, Family pics (those are AWESOME), money, and sour candy. Thanks for everything! I love you!!!

So, that's the news for the week!!!! I hope you all enjoy this new week of this new year ;) I love each and every one of you SOOOOOOOO much!!!!! SOOOO much that I can only describe it with CAPS LOCK and lots of !!!!!!!!! haha. Thanks for being awesome. SMILE :D Read the scriptures. Make goals for the new year...and work to reach them ;) I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!

Love, Elder Beck