Lake Reams Reunion @ Bumby

(Hahah. This is Allie...sometimes I think he forgets to mention what the title of his letters has to do with his actual letter. He forgot to mention!!! :])

Happy Day, right Al-Bal? Ha ha I love when you say that. How is my family? Hope you are great! This Sunday C will be getting baptized! He is 20 years old and a part-member family. Normally a 20 yr old would go to YSA, but this is a special circumstance. C is great =] It's cool because he will be able to be confirmed on his birthday! It has been a miracle seeing his Mom and little brother come to church faithfully each week, and do their best to live and learn the gospel! C is so funny. I will share a couple of quotes.

We were sitting in gospel principles class a couple weeks back and the teacher was like, (hmm, maybe I shared this one already) "If you haven't already, get baptized!" C just kind of says under his breath, "Uhh... I hope I don't drown!" Ha ha it was so funny. When we were teaching him about the Spirit world he was like, "That sounds nice, but can you fly in the Spirit world? Flying sounds fun to me. I hope we can fly!" When we began to teach him about Adam and Eve - "Why did they eat the fruit? Were they hungry or somethin?" I love C. He has shown so much faith and taught me so much as we've been able to work with him. That is one of the miracles of a mission - being able to see others learn and grow and exercise their faith. I feel so faithless sometimes when I see the steps people take to come closer to Jesus Christ; they are great examples to me.

Pres. Shill, the Stake President, spoke in church yesterday (it was ward conference). He is such a good man, and the Spirit was very strong. I am thankful for inspired leaders who help encourage, lift, and inspire us to be and do better.

I had the privilege to go on exchanges with the Haitian-Creole speaking Elders in the ward this week! We were sitting in a members house. I couldn't understand anything, but she was making us food. She brought it out and we had this huge plate of rice! Then there was this sauce stuff with bits of meat in it and a bean sauce. It was really good. Elder Major was talking to the member in Creole while we ate, and all of the sudden he got kind of a funny look on his face and kind of gulped down his mouthful. He muttered under his breath to me, "Well, this is a new experience." I just hurried and ate the rest on my plate, and smiled and said thank you. I am amazed at the kindness people show to missionaries; they have hardly anything yet they are so willing to share what they have! Well, we got out and found out that the meat in the dish was actually chicken intestine, liver, and kidney. Mmmm =]

Another fun experience from the week:
We had been trying to contact this former investigator. Well, the spanish Elders ran into him on the street and called us from his phone. We set up an appointment right there to meet him at a bus stop at 6:30 that night. We were at the bus stop waiting, and he never came so we started contacting people. We were telling this 17 year old kid about the Restoration when this car with dark tinted windows pulls of the road. Two guys get out, one is black and the other Latino. They both had on these solid black combat type boots, and one was dressed completely in black - cargo pants, shirt, shades, bandana, and hat. They walked over and kind of just stood off to the side looking at us with that nice ghetto look you sometimes see here :) Could they be interested in the gospel? Maybe... "Hey, what's going on? I'm Elder Beckett. What's your name?" He was like, "I'm K, and we just wanted to hear what you guys had to say."

"Awesome, we were just teaching about the gospel of Jesus Christ!"
"What gives you the authority to do that?"
Anyway... long story short he just wanted to prove us wrong. We just smiled, shared our testimonies, and invited him to learn more. Unfortunately while we were talking to him his buddy pulled our friend away and we are pretty sure he got antied. Thankfully nobody got shot though! That's the good news. It was kind of sketchy. He said something about belonging to the Israelite Nation group... ever heard of them? I'll tell you about them sometime.

Well I sure hope Grandpa Beckett is doing ok! I am sorry to hear that he fell :( You are all in my prayers each day, and will continue to be. Thank you for your examples. I know this work is true, and it is how we can be happy. God loves us =] I love you!
love,
Elder Beckett

Isn't that a great name for a place to live? Here are some pics of the ghetto of ghettos here ;)

Fyi yes, people really live there. No worries, we don't really hang out there or anything. Elder Charbadze just snapped these pics one day driving through. You don't wanna forget some things, you know? :P I love my family!