Baptisms and chickens - can life get better? =]

Hey family! I love you all! And I've almost got a tape filled up both sides... so it will be coming in the next while. This past week has been great! The weather is beautiful here as well. It's actually starting to get a little too warm possibly.. it was up in the 80's this past week. I am loving the blue skies and green everything =]

Ok. Guess what. Are you ready? L and M were baptized on Saturday! It was SO neat. Definitely one of the very best days of my mission so far. Baptisms are the best! It always pumps me up and gets me super excited to go out and find more elect people. I saved a program to remind me of the great day. Afterwards they (L and M/the Bs) took us out to eat with them at Osaka's. It is a Japanese steakhouse like Tepanyaki's! I was thinking of you guys when I went there and was like, "Cool! Now I got to try it out like my family too ha ha even though we are on different sides of the country." The food was fantastic though and we brought home TONS of leftovers. Oh, something kind of funny - we got there early to fill up the font, set up chairs, etc. Well, after the font was filled like 5 inches or so, we felt the water coming out of the faucet and it was cold. We ended up boiling a huge pot of water in the kitchen and carting it down to the font, as well as filling up like ten pitchers with hot water and making probably 7 trips from the kitchen to the font (the kitchen water heater was separate from the font one). The water ended up being just perfect! Leesburg's baptism went well too! Our district has had an awesome transfer so far; the Lord has really blessed us. We had the baptism in their building because Sumterville's building isn't build yet, and the one we are using doesn't have a baptismal font. I will have to take some pictures of it to send. Also, Elder Stock and I were able to confirm M and L in church, which was another spiritual high.

I really love the Ss. They are such wonderful people, and I continuously thank the Lord that he gave me the privilege to see them accept the gospel. Sunday they came to church and L asked me who he gives his tithing to. No reminders or anything, they just remembered and willingly paid! That is when you can tell someone is really converted - when they start taking things into their own hands, don't need reminders or constant follow-up, and are happy about it. :) We will be coming back to visit them for sure! Oh, and the best part of it all is... that in a year from now they can receive their endowments and be sealed in the Orlando temple, and Elder Stock and I will both be able to go! YES! That will be the best! It's always great to have something to look forward to.

Hey, thank you so much for the Valentine's package! I loved it and the letters and talks and little quotes and everything! I keep the quotes on my desk and change through 1 a day. You guys spoil me. Thanks!

You asked what I would like for my birthday? Hmm.. honestly I don't really need anything. I might once my year mark gets closer, or after this coming summer, but for right now I'm doing just fine. You could send me a tie or two if you want (polyester is best so the rain won't ruin it). Really though please don't get me anything because I'm just fine. One thing I would love from you is to... find someone to invite into our home and have the missionaries teach =] That would be so cool! You would all be such a great fellowship family and could help teach and testify. So, that is what I would really like from you is to just hear back that you have found someone to have the missionaries teach in our home. The Hs would be a great family! You could pray and fast for them, or just for whoever the Lord has in mind, and then He will lead you to find them. It may not be who you expect either! But I've seen it all the time here as members really have a desire to do the Lord's will and share the gospel. They pray and fast and do everything they can to find someone, and then they do! Even if people have said no in the past, it won't hurt to try again. That is what Brother B did to his sister, and after 20 years of saying no she finally said yes! The Lord can work miracles. Oh, and I'm sure you know, but sometimes it can be a really slow process. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. It may just start with having them over for dinner or something like that, but it will grow into a lasting friendship if you let the Lord do His work! But that is my invitation - over the next while to find someone who is ready to hear the gospel. Also, it doesn't need to be a non-member (do they have those in Utah?). It could be rescuing a lost sheep and bringing them back to the fold. It's all the Lord's work :)

We actually had a neat experience this past week where the Lord led us to some wonderful people who had been members of the church a long time ago, but left because they were offended. It always breaks my heart to see people who have fallen away because of that. They are definitely prepared though to hear and accept the gospel again, and I can't wait to see where things go! It was interesting how we found them... we were out tracting one day, and got a return appointment with a guy. Well, when we showed up the next night for our appointment he wasn't there. His neighbors were though, and they weren't home when we'd been there previously tracting, so we decided to talk to them. A lady answered the door, and we'd actually met her before. It is amazing how the Lord places people in your path. We went in, talked with them for a while, and left them with a prayer. They are wonderful people and are super positive about everything! Great examples to me of the attitude I should have about life. Oh, and they are excited to have us come back.

Oh yeah! Chickens. Ok, so this past week we had a service project. Some members asked us to help them out with their chickens. By chickens they meant 7 roosters in a coop (as you can see from the pic). Well, this was definitely an interesting service project! We climbed in the coop, caught the roosters, and then beheaded them on a chopping block with an axe. I'm pretty sure they knew what was coming, because they sure didn't like us coming into their coop and grabbing them one by one to take them away. They were pretty resistant and would try to peck and scratch us. Sometimes they'd back each other up too, but we triumphed. I don't like killing things, and so I prayed that they wouldn't be in pain or anything. I don't think they were; it was a pretty quick process. I guess it was a good experience to have? I learned what to do if we ever need to raise and eat chickens now. My shoes need to be washed. Life in Sumterville is the best =)

Well, have a great week! I love everyone. Also, I can't believe it is week 5 already. Crazy. Sauce. Aaaah.

much love,

Elder Andrew John Beckett

Poor thing.

Catching the roosters! :)

L and M's baptism!
Ha ha. Funny side story:

The first is of me and "The Whipper." His real name is Isaac, ha ha, and he is T's dad. He is 91 years old! Elder Stock and I went to teach T one night but she wasn't there, so we just decided to talk to I for a while and teach him. If I already sent these pics and told the story sorry.. Anyway he told us a story about how back in the day he used to get in fights a lot. So much that people started calling him "The Whipper." He'd be walking up the street and they'd say, "Watch out! Here comes the Whipper! You better stay out of his way!" Here is a story he told us (warning, it's a little violent):

"One time I was shootin' dice with some guys. There was a big guy that I was playing with. I won, but when the game was over he wouldn't give me my money. I got real mad and walked away thinking what I could do to get him. I found a broomstick close by, and I tip-toed real quiet up behind him. He was still kneeling down playing dice on the ground. Well, I got up to him and hit him as hard as I could on the back of the head! Then I told him never to do that again and left."

"Wow I, so did you get your money back then?"

"No, it was just fifty cents."

Ha. Ha. Wow. Lol We were laughing our heads off and couldn't believe it. Anyway, he is quiet the character.