Baptism is how we accept God into our lives and start new!

Week #11 3-3-14

This week we have been totally focused on our goals. Sorry if this email is less entertaining, but we have been really focused on the people we are teaching, and im probably going to talk about investigators a lot. But dont stop reading now!

Well last week we had our first lesson with Maria on monday. She is 19, has two kids, the oldest is 6, so ill let you do the math. She is a perfect investigator. We first met her through a member and she went to church with them before our first lesson. When she gave the closing prayer that lesson, she cried at the end. She actually does the readings we leave with her in the book of mormon, and really loves the gospel. We have had 3 lessons with her this week, and she is planning to be baptized on the 15th. So she rocks.

On Tuesday we had a fun run in with a drug addict. We were on the porch of a members home, talking to them and he came up. He was really under the influence, and asked us what we wanted. We said nothing and left to avoid any conflict. Then we went back because we had left our phone with them and he was still there. We took off a little bit later and he was following us. The two boys from the family caught up and walked with us. they are 12 and 14. We turned around in the street, because my companion said he wanted some water. We stopped at a store, but they didn't have water. The drug addict asked for some bread and some popsicles, so we bought him some, it was less than 50 cents, so i didn't care. Then he was standing there eating it and asked for one of our watches. We just kind of stood there and gave reasons why we needed them. We said we were going to go look for a watch, so we went back to the members house. We just sat there until he got bored and left. So that was interesting. I was really sad for him, because the drugs had totally robbed him of his good sense and awareness. It was sad to see. 

Another cool experience- we saw some people moving bricks in the street so we stopped to help. There we met Humberto. We quickly learned he had 11 children, with 6 different women. So that was funny. He only lives with one, so we will see hpw it will all work out. He is super receptive. He invited us over and we had a powerful first lesson, despite him and his girlfriend/wife fighting in the middle of it. He is a christian and is open to ideas, and she is catholic and believes pretty strongly in it. He came to church sunday. At the end of Church he said that he needed to read the Book of Mormon more and bring his wife and daughter to church next week. It was so cool finding him. I really think we are finding the people who are ready to accept the gospel.

The Toro-Chaus family is doing well. In my last email I told how we gave a blessing to the daughter in the family who is recovering from cancer, well she has had a few exams this week and they all went well. She is getting a lot better! its so cool to see. 

Time is just about up. Sorry this email has been kind of short. Today we went to the river here and saw some of the sights. We went up in a big lookout tower and saw all of neiva. It was super cool. 

I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and baptism is how we accept God into our lives and start new. I love being a missionary. I know the Book of Mormon can help everyone grow closer to God. 

Thanks for reading!

Pictures: Sorry this wont be in order, but - pictures of Neiva, the scenery, The tower, my district, the new sisters in Manzanares, the prehistoric museum we visited and some weird statue. Some pictures of it raining here. It rained a lot.

I love being a missionary!

Week #10 2-24-14

This week flew by. 

I had an interview with the mission president Tuesday, and it went super well. While we were at our interviews, Sister Lozano(president´s wife) went to our house and looked inside. She said it was clean, but super disorganized. My interview went super well! It felt great talking to President and he comes back in 2 weeks, so I cant wait! 

We had zone conference on Wednesday and it was really good. An Elder Woosley said something I really liked, 'Every time you pray, give a peace of your soul to God'. We talked about our goals for baptisms in March and we are going to set a new goal as a district. With Elder Macias, our goal is 14. We are meeting a lot of new people, and are going to have first lessons with quite a few people this week. 

I went on exchanges twice this week. One was with Elder Perea, from our zone. An assistant to the president went on exchanges with Elder Macias and they took all of our appointments, so we just contacted new people. 

Then I went on an exchange with the zone leaders. They have bikes, so that was a super fun day. We were in the center of Neiva, and that part is quite a bit nicer. Most all the roads are paved. It was really weird being in an unfamiliar area. I am really glad to be in Manzanares.

One day after we bought an arepa, we met a man on the street whose name was Willian or William. He was super cool, it was great talking to him because he was so open minded. He is an agnostic, but was very open to our message. He lives right by the chapel, so we are going to try to contact him soon. I loved talking with him. 

We also have a new family, the toro-chaus family. They have 4 kids, the youngest is recovering from cancer. The dad had to leave his job in construction when she was diagnosed and collect recyclables now for work. We have been saving all of our bottles, trying to help him out. They also attended Church Sunday, which was awesome! They are very serious and I have a hard time telling how interested they are. My companion says this week we will see if they are willing to progress in the gospel. 

I have been thinking a lot about being bold when I teach. Sometimes we just let people say no. I read a really cool quote from Elder Holland in preach my gospel this week. He says that this is the work of eternal salvation and that we need to do all we can to give people the opportunity to make an informed decision about the church. I really want to try to be bolder in my teaching and preach a little more. I think it will help people realize how serious we are about all of this. 

Yesterday when we were walking down the street, we passed a mom and her 2 little girls on their motorcycle. They were talking to someone on the side of the road. Just after we passed, the 6 year old girl yelled at us, 'kiss my ***' It was hilarious. i was a little bothered at first, but then started laughing. Its funny, but also kind of sad what parts of our culture show up here. 

Yesterday in church a bird was in the chapel. So that was pretty funny. 

Not much more to report this week.

 I love Colombia. I love being a missionary. I love the Book of Mormon and I know it changed lives, it changed mine. 

Thanks for reading, 

Elder Beck

So fun food things: 

Sardine pasta- I hate fish, so that was tough to eat. It had a bunch of little bones in it too. Its been the most difficult dish so far. 

Pancakes- when I was on exchanges with the zone leader, he made breakfast in the morning and it was SO good. Wow.

Pizza- last Monday we had pizza for lunch, the pizza is different here, but super good.

my Colombian ID (super cool)

 and a bunch of fruit I bought for only $3.50, which was pretty ridiculous

 a cool little soccer ball we got

 all of the church magazines we have in the house

 my first Colombian haircut

Third week in Neiva, I hear I could be here a while!

Week #9 2-17-14

This week was super fun. It started with my companion´s birthday. Elder Prince and I got up early and made him a Mexican breakfast with egg tacos and guacamole. It was super good. We also made horchata, and it is amazing. We are starting to make a lot of it. The rest of Tuesday we helped with 2 moves, first with members in the ward moving across town, and then helping move in the sister missionaries. That took our whole day, but it was nice to spend a day in normal clothes, working. I read a really cool scripture in personal study. Its Doctrines and Covenants section 31. It really motivated me. 

So our investigator Johana is still here, she was supposed to move last week, but is still here. We don't know when she will leave. But, people in the ward are going to help her boyfriend find a job, so she will probably move back in about a month. So that's really cool. Its amazing to watch her accept the gospel and how happy it makes her. Elders Prince and Amaguaña had a baptism Saturday. Her name is Yensi and she is 12 years old. Her dad is a recent convert and she really loves the church. After Elder Macias interviewed her, I went in the room and I could feel the spirit in there. It was really cool.

It rained a lot this week. Thursday to Saturday, at one point each day it started pouring. On Saturday we were just leaving a house really far away from our next appointment and it started pouring. We stayed under a shade structure and talked to the security guard. he was really cool. We left him our number, so we will see if he calls. 

We also got to give a couple priesthood blessings this week. Two to Johana and her little sister, and another to the mother of a recent convert. It was really cool being able to help those people. The sister missionaries are really making progress with our old investigators, I know they are supposed to have that area. We also went contacting for the first time this week. We talked to like 6 women in the street, interchangeably. A few of them were quite interested. It was really powerful when I got to bear my testimony to them, telling them how the gospel has changed my life and really how happy I am in this church. Being a missionary is such a great blessing. President Holland says it is, by definition the most important thing we can do. 

Fun food things this week:

1) Beso de negro. Its a candy here, and translates to kiss of the black woman. It was actually super good. I want another. Oh yeah, we ate them on valentines. so I still got a kiss on valentines.

2) Bacon chips. They have chips here that taste like bacon. They rock.

So that's what happened this week with me. 

Thanks for reading!

Elder Beck

 

 A giant iguana we saw by the side of the road

Some are of my area

  A picture of me with Carlos, who is a priest here.

 A bug bite I got!

We got new Missionaries in Manzanares!

Week #8 2-10-14
Another crazy week. So on Tuesday we went to Ibague to hear from Elder Grow from the 70. He spoke about focusing on conversion, not baptism and how we can set goals better. It was really good. And I got to see Elder Bittner again! My companion calls him Elder Beaner and its pretty funny. 

So our apartment has a lot of ants, so were trying to fight them. I've also collected a lot of mosquito bites. Starting to use my bug spray. Cold showers are my new favorite thing, since its the only time when I'm cold. I'm living in an eternal summer here, a cab driver today says it never gets cooler in the year. So that's fun. Sorry if all this sounds like complaints. Its just the uncomfortable things to me that make my mission mine. I love each one of them. Except the ants. 

Funny Spanish things: so the word for blonde here is "mono" instead of rubio. So everyone calls me a mono, because my hair is lighter and im white. Mono in the rest of the Spanish speaking world means monkey. So that threw me off at first, but now im proud to be a mono. Also, all of the curse words are different here. All of the Mexican curse words are used here casually. Ive heard just about every Mexican curse word this week and it totally throws me off. Its really strange. Apparently the people here learn the words from Mexican movies, but they didn't exist before the movies, so they have no significance. Its funny.

So this week we ran out of copies of the Book of Mormon. We normally get boxes of 36. We had 3 left. We have a difficulty getting them because customs here checks them really thoroughly, because they dont understand why the church sends so many books here for free. So, we had 3 copies left and E' Macis suggested we be careful handing them out. I said we should give them to whoever we think needs it, and when we run out, the Lord will provide more. We got another box 3 days later. It was cool to see. 

We found this great burger place called Mr. Burguer, spelled wrong. Its really good, and super cheap. We have been teaching with the teenagers in the ward and their stories and testimonies really bring the spirit. The 4 or 5 priests we have in the ward are all converts. Its super cool. 

So the week also started awesome, we found about 10 new investigators in a part of our area called Limonar. We also got new sister missionaries, and they took Limonar. So we had an awesome day when we found them and had a lot of lessons. Then we found out we were going to lose them. Its okay though, because they sister missionaries are really good. They are really going to be able to help them. We spent a lot of time looking for an apartment for them too. We found them a really nice place, and we got the papers today. I want to live there.

A lot of days we get home late and end up planning until or past 10. We also don't get dinner a lot of times because lunch is the main meal here. Its okay though, because lunch is always huge, so I don't get too hungry at night. I spoke on Sunday, I urged the ward members to get involved with missionary work. It felt good. 

Last night we went to a member's house. They gave us two arepas, hot chocolate and a fried tube-looking think. It was salty and chewy. I began eating it, because I didn't want to be impolite.  I took two bites and then asked my companion what it was. So I finished it quickly and asked him. I kinda guessed, it was intestine. It had kind of a funky taste, but wasn't too bad. So that was fun. 

I'm so glad to be a missionary. We got to share a bit about our callings as missionaries with some investigators, and I felt so grateful for this opportunity. It is so amazing. I love being a missionary, I love Colombia. I know this church is the true church of God, and that it is the only place one can find true happiness. 

Thanks for reading,

Elder Beck

 We had a pizza night, that rocked.

The soccer field, our zone goes and plays every p day, it was super fun.

 Me drinking Colombiana, one of the sodas here.

  Us eating Mexican food today. Today has been really good.

 Outside where we live.