Elder Beckett's Letter from 7-19-10

Hello my family! I hope you are all doing just great! I have been keeping you in my prayers constantly =] This was another crazy week... but even better than the last! On Tuesday night we had dinner with the Scotts (a family in the ward). The guy is like a master seafood chef, it's awesome! We had Tilapia (I had it at Jim and Kristi's once and it was awesome), coconut shrimp, vegetables, and some awesome mexican food thing. It was really good. They took a picture of it and emailed it to you Mom; I'm not sure if it went through though or what. Oh, hey, congrats to Ben and Nadja and Nyah! How exciting! :)
This week we met some interesting people while out tracting. There were these three guys probably in their early twenties, sitting around smoking when we walked up to them. People sometimes seem like they are just going to shoot you if you walk up, but then when you talk to them they are cool. We left them with passalong cards and they asked us to pray with them before we left. Apparently they were having a hard time right now and had been making some bad choices in life (that's what they asked us to pray for them about). Another family asked us to pray with them and just grabbed our hands and stood in a circle. It was very interesting ha ha.
When we came back and just the men of the family were outside, they were smoking marijuana and offered us some. We said no. Another huge ripped guy named Lateef (from Nigeria) had us over, but unfortunately he wasn't able to meet with us right then because his daughter had just been checked into the hospital from an asthma attack. He shook our hands and we left... after wiping the beer from his hands off. Yuck. Something I am really coming to see on my mission so far is just how much the Gospel of Jesus Christ really affects our lives! It's incredible. It also makes me really sad when people just don't even care about what we have to share with them, when they have no idea how much they need Jesus Christ in their lives. Through Him we can be changed, and our whole purpose and perspective becomes more eternal. Things in this life fade in importance as we learn more of who Christ was and is, and in turn who we are and can become. He gives me so much strength each day, and as I think about Him and what He did for me, I am reminded about why I am here and filled with more energy and light to carry on the work! I love being a missionary.
Ok so let me tell you about yesterday (Sunday). We woke up and went to our pantry and opened it up to find... ANTS! All over. There were hundreds. We grabbed what food we could and moved it to our table, and started doing what we could to clean them out. This was at 6:37 in the morning, and we had to leave at 6:40 to make it to a meeting at the church. Gotta love sunday meetings... ha ha I'm feeling more and more sympathy for you dad. Anyway, I sprayed a shelf covered in ants with bleach mix (I got a bottle like we have at home - YEAH!) and that seemed to slow them down a bit. We didn't really have anything to fight them with, and started vacuuming them up but our vaccuum is lame and overheats after about two seconds. Didn't work out so well. No worries though, this morning at Walmart I bought some ant traps and set them up so hopefully they will be dead and gone soon! They have also been invading my shower. Florida bugs are much more plentiful than in Grantsville. I think if I killed as many bugs in Grantsville as I do here, the spiders and mosquitoes and whatever else would all become endangered species there.
So after we did what we could with those, we headed off to the church. I love the mornings there after the meetings, because I just get to sit and practice hymns on the piano while Elder Brown studies. I learned "High On a Mountain Top," because Elder Brown and I figured since my ancestor wrote it I should know how to play it :) That was fun. Music is one of my favorite ways to feel the Spirit! It's amazing how different hymns bring back different spiritual experiences and memories throughout my whole life! I played "Families Can Be Together Forever" and remembered how we sang that on the day I was dropped off at the MTC. Talk about a bittersweet memory! Wow, that kind of hit me hard, but it helped me realize how amazing the Gospel of Jesus Christ is, and what a blessing that no matter what we can be with our families eternally! Even if we must be separated sometimes in this life. I love that song. It really strengthens my testimony.
Church here is very different from Utah church. There is often a lot of confusion and even false doctrines occasionaly taught... gotta be careful. I can only imagine how I will feel when we have an investigator come with us. I am learning to love the ward more though, there are some really great people here. Interesting, but great.
After church we had dinner with the Larios family - the mother is from Peru and the dad from Nicaragua. They are awesome. We had tacos, watermelon, and icecream. They are an awesome family, but moving to Miami soon. They had an 11 year old who totally reminded me of Nate! Man I miss my bros. You guys are awesome, keep it up! You are all awesome! Family, friends, ward members - everyone I have ever known I feel like has helped me get to be where I am today. Thanks for being great influences on me and patiently helping me.
After dinner we kept tracting, but we were getting somewhat discouraged from the heat and lack of investigators. To try and stay postive, when we came to the next house I said to Elder Brown, "Elder, are you ready to find an awesome investigator? Here we go!" (just kind of half-joking). I knocked on the door and this man answered and invited us in out of the heat. That never happens, usually people just slam the door in our face or don't even answer.
Anyway, he and his wife (Roy & Betty Hicks) invited us in and talked with us for an hour and a half! We tried to a couple times but couldn't leave... ha ha but they were really nice. Betty gave us water bottles and granola bars, and apparently they've had missionaries over before, but not for a long time. At first I thought they were members by how friendly they were! It was great. We have a return appointment next week. They are in their seventies, and have 8 children (all grown up). Oh, and Roy was in the Navy for 25 years, was raised in Okeechobee on a farm, had a modified car in 1968 that could go 242 mph (apparently, but he sounded dead serious) with 5 inch pistons bored, and had tons of other crazy stories. I'm excited to bring the Gospel into their lives, they seem really ready for it! Running into them was such a nice tender mercy because we were already hot, tired, and discouraged. Plus while we were in there it poured rain outside and we stayed dry :) God blesses us so much everyday, we just have to watch for it. Ha ha and when we were walking back to our car after that there were some little girls outside (probably around 8 years old) and one said to me, "Hey, I like your tie!" then, "I don't like your tie, I like your face!" It made me feel good to know that someone thinks I have a likeable face =]
Well, my time's about up but this is going to be a crazy week! Elder Brown is gone to Orlando for training Tuesday-Thursday, so I'm going to be running the area with Elder Moultrie (another greenie from my MTC district). AAAAh. Ha ha it was already scary enough going on exchanges and being the senior comp with the Zone Leader (Elder Tinker) on Wednesday. You really get thrown into the work, but I am loving every minute of it and wouldn't have it any other way! Alright well I love you all a bunch, thanks so much for the letters! It is wonderful to hear from all of you. The church is true, and God loves us all so much! He wants us to be HAPPY! Remember that, and be what He wants us to be. We have the Gospel in our lives, so let's just live it! It's simple. Not necessarily easy, but simple. Love ya!


Hmm. PS keep reading down because I also just added the letter from last week! :)