Awesome week!

4

Hola mi querida familia!!!!

How is everybody doing this week? I'm guessing every body is doing well...cause it seems like everybody is always doing well ;) I'm great, too!! This week was a really good week. I just don't get tired of the mission...I love it more and more as time goes by. And when I love it the most, it will all have to finish...but the commandment is only 2 years, and that's ok with me ;) haha

One reason I love the mission is because we get to help so many people...members and non members. This week, we went to our first appointment after lunch, and they weren't there. So, we went to our backup plan, who wasn't there either :P So, we thought for a second about where to go and decided to go visit a member family. We both still don't know why we decided to go there, because they are active and strong in the church and they didn't seem to have any problems. But we just felt like we needed to go there. When we got there, just the dad was there with their baby. He told us that when he said his prayer for lunch, he asked for help because he felt overwhelmed and things weren't going so well with his wife. And he said that within 10 mins my comp and I arrived. He told us all of this after we had shared a scripture about trusting in God and being able to overcome trials and temptations. And he said it was exactly what he needed. So, I guess that's how the Spirit helps us, right? That's why it is so important to follow the Spirit in all that we do...especially as missionaries. I love the mission.

Another reason love the mission is cause this week we went to the big city of Guayaquil for a huge conference with ALL of the missionaries from Guayaquil North and South. There were about 400 missionaries there. And Elder Walter F. Gonzalez from the Presidency of the 70 was there and Elder Hooker (an area 70). It was an AWESOME (and super-SHORT) conference. Elder Gonzalez talked the whole time about the importance of teaching Christ's doctrine, especially as taught in 3 Nephi 11... He pointed out that the first thing that Christ did when He got here was ordain people and teach them how to baptize. He really stressed how important baptism is..I think in chapter 27 is when it says, more or less, "If we are baptized we will saved. If we aren't baptized we will be condemned." It's very simple, we all need to be baptized as Jesus taught and showed by his example. It was a really good conference....but only 1 1/2 hours :P I wanted more haha.

I also love the mission because THIS WEEK WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!!!! A 10-year-old boy named Elián Jared Mendoza Muentes was baptized on Saturday night. His mom is a member and his brother is on a mission in Mexico...his dad is not a member and doesn't live with them anymore. His mom always said that he couldn't get baptized cause he was too young and he wouldn't understand what he was doing (she was inactive until about 4 months ago when her other son was about to leave on his mission...now she's super active). Elian always said that he wanted to get baptized. Finally, one day we went to visit them and said "Elian is going to get baptized on May 28th" and she just looked at us and said "OK!" So, on Saturday night at the baptism, she bore her testimony and thanked us for being very direct and helping her realized her son needed to be baptized. She said that when we said that about Elian's baptism date she just felt that it had to be that day and she couldn't say no. The Spirit was really strong in the baptism service. A priest from the ward baptized Elian..it was his first baptism ;) Elder Pinza did the same musical number from the last baptism, so there isn't a new video this week.

I love the mission because yesterday there were 53 INVESTIGATORS in Church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, 53!!!! It was SOOO awesome. Yesterday was the Ward Conference and the Bishop said that all of the members needed to bring at least 1 investigator or less active member. Elder Pinza, our Ward mission leader, and I did a small meeting last week just for the ward leaders to get them excited to do missionary work and invite. And it all paid off. The members worked hard just for one week, and there were 53 investigators! And the total attendance was 230....on a good week about 130 usually come to church. It was SOOO great!!!!! Now we just need to help the members realize that it was because they were actually working...and help keep them working ;) But we need a new ward mission leader, too, cause our ex-WML is now 1st counselor in the Bishopric ;) haha

Well, I guess that's all of the news for this week!!! I just LOVE the mission...in case you couldn't tell haha. There's so little time left and so much work to do!!! Especially with all of those people that came to Church yesterday. And I'm ready to keep working...even more now that I've written to the best family ever! I LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love, Elder Beck