Carnival is Over

Hola mi querida familia!!!!!

How's everybody doing this week?? Everything here in Ecuador has been great. The big news this week was the earthquake/tsunami in Japan. It caused a really big scare here in Ecuador. In the morning on the news they were saying that gigantic waves were coming and that at 530pm they would hit the Galapagos and probably wipe out EVERYTHING on those islands. And they evacuated everybody from those islands and from the entire coast of Ecuador. People were especially scared in Salinas. Salinas didn't have enough buses to get everybody out of there, so they sent the city buses from Guayaquil to Salinas to get everyone out of the coast for free. They completely filled up the inside of the buses, and some people even climbed on top of the buses cause they were desperate to get out of there. They said that the waves were gonna hit Ecuador pretty hard. There were a few people that refused to leave their homes, and everybody was saying that they were crazy and that they were going to die.

But, it turns out that the people who stayed in their homes ended up being the smart ones...cause almost nothing happened lol. Out on the Galapagos, there was some damage and flooding..but NOTHING like they had said it was going to be. And on the coast of Ecuador (at least from what I've heard) almost nothing happened. Just some boats tipped over when the waves came in to the harbors. I haven't heard of any damage done on land. But it scared a lot of people pretty bad...hopefully they'll take the decision now to work on emergency preparedness, cause that pretty much doesn't exist here... Here in Duran, Guayaquil, etc. everybody was fine and calm. Just some people worried about their family members that live in the beach-parts. We haven't heard anything about if they evacuated the missionaries from the beach sectors or anything.

Like I wrote in the Subject, Carnival is over. If you remember from last year, that is the holiday where the people throw basically any kind of liquid on other people in the streets... Last year, we got pretty lucky and nobody got us wet. But this year, we weren't quite as lucky.. We went to teach a family, and we always sit outside on the porch, cause inside the house it is even hotter than outside. We sat down and the kids came out with buckets of water and poured them all over us lol. But we grabbed a couple of buckets from the smaller kids and got the whole family wet too. After they got us wet, they came out with baby powder and covered us with that... And that's basically what people do here to 'celebrate' Carnival lol. Finally the kids calmed down a bit and let us share a lesson...covered in water and baby powder ;)

Last week I was super-excited about the 9 investigators that came to Church..but this week I was even MORE excited!!! This week 14 investigators came to Church...that has got to be some kind of record!!! lol And almost all of them came by themselves (members didn't have to go by their houses to go to Church with them). So, we've got a few people that are progressing well :)

And yesterday a member from the ward named Alejandro presented us to 2 of his friends. Alejandro is married with 4 kids and the family has recently started coming to Church again. Right now he can't really participate in Church cause of some stuff that he did when he was inactive (what is the word for that in English????? I only know what they say in Spanish lol). But he is super-excited and working hard so that he and his family can be sealed in the Temple. And part of that hard work is helping the missionaries :) He shared his testimony with the 2 friends that he presented us to and it was really powerful. His testimony strengthened my testimony of the atonement, repentance, and forgiveness.

Well, that's all the news for this week. I hope all of you have an incredible week in the Northern Hemisphere. Don't do anything TOO fun for Spring Break...save it for this summer when I'll be home ;) haha I love each and every one of you SOOOOOO much!!!! I couldn't ask for a better family. Thanks for all of the support and love. I LOVE YOU!!!!

Love, Elder Beck

Pics

"B" Week

Hola mi querida familia!!!!!

How is all the fam doing this week? This week has been a "B" week here in Ecuador....but not because it wasn't good enough to be an "A" week, but because a lot of the things that I did this week start with "B"

:)

Bowling. Last Monday, as I wrote in the email last week, we went bowling in Samborondon. It was WAY fun, even though I'm not that great. I don't get why I was so good at WII bowling, but I can't bowl in real life? lol But, the 2nd game I DID break 100, so I was pretty happy about that. Elder Laub made all of us look like beginners though....just cause he took a bowling class in college haha.

Burgers. Before we went bowling, we ate burgers at McDonalds...and that was really good. Pretty much anything that doesn't have rice is good with me :)

Baskin Robbins. Yes, in Samborondon there is a BASKIN ROBBINS!!!! As soon as I saw it I had to eat it lol. Elder Laub and I both bought Brownie Sundaes...and Elder Garcia and Elder Elias only wanted to buy ice cream at McDonalds. They obviously don't know what is good lol.

Needless to say, we were happy with our Baskin Robbins...they had cookie dough ice cream! ;)

Boxes. This week, I got 2 birthday boxes/packages. First, the one from Trevor and Nicole...Reese's Pieces, Jamison and Gavin art, pics, money, skittles, Cheez-its, fruit by the foot, sour candy. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!! And the one from Mom and Dad.... Reese's cups, Happy Bday banner, 'I Feel Good' Birthday card, money, Al Bball pic, Red Tie, Sour Candy, Reese's Bar mix, Church News, granola bars, Peanut butter, Reese's dark cups, Jeff's wedding announcement, and letters.

THANKS SOOO MUCH FOR THE

PACKAGES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BIRTHDAY!!! This Sunday was my 21st birthday!! :) We went to Stake Conference in the morning...and 9 investigators went too! What a great bday present, right? :) The Conf. was really good...they talked a lot about the family. The temple pres. said 'Everything we do in the Church has to do with the Family and with Jesus Christ.' And that is so true..the family is so important. And I'm so thankful to have a family like you.

After conference we went to a family's house (investigators that went to Stake Conference) because they invited us for lunch and for my birthday. They sang happy birthday and we ate spaghetti....with a volcano of rice ;) And we taught a couple of lessons. And in the night we went to the Acuria family's house (the family that I mentioned is like my Ecuadorian family). They made us dinner and the mamita made a chocolate cake. It was really yummy. It was a great day ;)

Today we went back to that mall in Samborondon...but this time we just went to eat SUBWAY!! It had been way too long since I had eaten Subway and it was really good.

Almost everything that I wrote about has to do with food....I must be a Beck! LOL! That's the news for this week :) I love every one of you SO much! I'm thankful for all of you...thankful for everything you do.

Thankful for your letters, prayers, pictures, packages....everything!

I LOVE YOU ALL TONNNNNNNNSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love, Elder Beck

Last week of February=Normal Week

Hola mi querida familia!!!!

How's everybody doing this week? All of you always have lots of stuff to write about in your letters that you send to me each week...but this week there isn't much to write about from the Southern Hemisphere. But, I'll write about the few things that happened this week :)

Yesterday I was sick....sick enough that I couldn't go to Church :P I'm pretty sure it was something that I ate on Saturday, but I'm still not sure what it might have been cause my companion didn't get sick. I wasn't dying or anything..just the normal sickness in Latin America..... you know, diarrhea lol. And I threw up 3 times in about an hour and a half :P It just kept me in the house all day yesterday...a good chance to catch up on some much-needed sleep, I guess. But no worries now, I'm all back to normal...just in time for P-day! haha

On Friday we had a Zone Conference in Guayaquil. Only the 2 zones from Durán went...Durán Norte and Durán Sur..so there weren't a lot of missionaries there. Pres. Gamboa had written us all last Monday saying that it was Zone Conference week and that the Conferences would be full of practices...and he said that the 'new' missionaries would have a lot of chances to learn from the 'old' missionaries. So, Elder Garcia and I were both prepared to be called on alot..since we're both 'old' missionaries lol. But, it turned out that Pres. Gamboa changed his mind and we almost didn't do any practices and he talked most of the time. That was fine with me cause I love listening to him talk. And Hermana Gamboa gave an awesome talk about the Atonement. Almost any talk about the Atonement is a good talk, but I really liked this one. She used a talk from 1985 and I think it's called 'The Purifying Power of Gethsemane' (or something like that) and I don't know who gave it. But it was a really powerful talk. I am eternally grateful for the Atonement. And they also talked about the need for us to be refined, and not ordinary, in everything we do as representatives of Jesus Christ. The way we talk, the way we dress, the way we comb our hair, even the way we brush our teeth ;) haha. It was a really good time to reflect and think about things I want to improve.

And I guess something that's kinda exciting is that this week is MY BIRTHDAY!!! Feliz Cumpleaños a mí :) lol I can't believe I'll be 21!!!! Time flies... (I think I've said that before haha). We'll be celebrating my birthday this Sunday in Stake Conference. I got lucky cause they changed Fast Sunday to the NEXT week cause of Stake Conference ;) lol

Today we're gonna go to this part of our zone that is the richest part in ALL of Ecuador. It's the zone leaders' sector..and there are some rediculously huge houses there...it reminds me of the States haha. I think that part is called 'Samborondón,' but sometimes they call it 'La Puntilla' too (but sometimes they call Salinas 'La Puntilla' too). But we're going there to go BOWLING!!!! I'm super excited..even though I'm not so great at bowling, it will be lots of fun :) The 4 from our house are going.

Well, that's the news for this week!!!! Not much, but hey, that's what I got :) haha I love each and every one of you SOOOOOOOO much!!! I'm thankful for everything that you do for me. Thanks for supporting me in every way possible. Thanks for all of the letters and pics! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!

Love, Elder Beck

PICS

Elder Beck with 2 of the things he's gonna miss most from Ecuador. Plantains--ripe, and not-ripe.

Elder Beck sweating and dying from mosqutio bites...by the bamboo houses waiting for some investigators to go to Church with us.