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! :)
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Hmm. Letter from Last Week that I Never Put ON! Oops.
Letter from 7-12-10:
Hello everybody! This week has been WAY long and hot and tiring. We had maybe 5 or 6 teaching appointments (the work here is going really slow and we have like zero gators (investigators :P) right now) and they all fell through. That means the rest of the time we were out trying to find new people to teach - tracting. It got super hot; the heat index was somewhere between 100 and 110 with the humidity. Because of all the tracting we've been doing, we have decided we are full time "tractors" so you can just call me John Deer. We had 279 contacts (people you talk to and at least let them know we are sharing a message about Christ), and knocked probably somewhere around 900 doors.
Ok, I just inserted some pictures and they are from the MTC with my district, and then my two teachers (Ashleigh Adkins and James Carlson). They are so cool so if you ever have the chance to meet them (Mindy, they are going to BYU so keep an eye out) tell them Elder Beckett says hello. Alright this time I really will send another email with more pics so I can show just how great it is here =]
So Saturday night was pretty crazy. We decided to go out tracting like normal, and it was ridiculously hot. By the way I am in love with sunglasses - I went for about an hour without them and decided never to go back. That means I'm probably going to get a sweet sunglasses tan (my watch and ring tanline are already coming along) in no time. Anyway, we were walking up a driveway when we heard two vehicles come flying up a road. The first was a white car, and there was a green Dodge Dakota right on its tail. This was a residential area obviously, and so it wasn't hard to tell they were racing or something. The car in front suddenly turns into the driveway where we are and so we move out of the way and stand on the grass. There is a lady in the car with the window rolled down and she is crying and yelling out the window to us, "HELP! HELP! My abusive boyfriend has been following me and won't leave me alone! He's been trying to run me off the road!" The truck behind her slowed down, glared at us, and then sped off around the corner. In the front seat of the lady's car (her name was Amy Casada) was her little 4 year old named Nathaniel. I felt really bad that he had to go through all of this. Her car was packed full of stuff, so I don't know if she was moving out or what. We called the police and waited with her, then we had to fill out a witness report and everything. As she was backing out of the driveway to move her car, she ran out of gas right there. It's a good thing she found us! Apparently her boyfriend had been pretty abusive and broke her cell phone and would sabotage her car and was just being terrible. Six police cars ended up coming total (3 Leesburg police, 3 sherriffs) and there were some buff dudes that you could tell not to mess with. They were seriously like movie cops; reminded me of Jason Bourne. After we tried to comfort her for a bit and she felt safe with all the police, we left her and her son with a passalong card and got back to work. I was glad we were able to be there and help though.. who knows what would've happened. Elder Brown and I were all pumped up ready to defend her from her idiot boyfriend, but he took off so that was that. After that the night went pretty average with tracting in the area - there were some nice houses right on the lake.
Ok, so if I haven't already said it a bunch of times, Florida is weird! The people, climate, everything. Ha ha in church yesterday the High Counselor spoke and he was wearing a bowtie. I have never seen that in church before. The bugs are terrible... I'll send some pictures. Every day we come out of the house and there are at least 20 spiders around the doorway. We kill them so often I seriously have no idea where they come from. It's gross. The mosquitoes are also plentiful, I have learned that scratching the bites only makes it worse. They aren't always out though, so when they are I just make sure to use spray. There are these huge spiders here called banana spiders (at least that's what we call them) and they get HUGE. Like the size of my hand. Their webs are everywhere, it's gross. We have to mow our lawn and that was just nuts. There was a huge swarm of mosquitos following us everywhere we went, and all sorts of bugs and snakes crawling throughout our lawn. Lizards are everywhere, they are kind of fun :)
This week was probably the hottest I have ever been, and I have sweat more than every before! You are just drenched, and there is no getting around it. Dri-lux or not, all of your clothing gets soaked (ha ha soaked in the rain, or soaked if it's dry!) My skin is always somewhat sticky even though I shower twice a day. Oh yeah, one evidence of the craziness of sweat are the salt stains you get. It's pretty gross. I'll send a pic of one of my socks or something!
I bought a set of haircutting clippers; I'm going to learn to cut my own hair today. How exciting! Hope it goes well... ha ha. I figure I'll save tons of money that way, and then I can just do it whenever I need.
Hey, can you make copies of all the music I left on my iPod? I deleted everything but mission-appropriate music before I left, and iPods are not allowed I recently found out. It's a good thing I left it home I guess. If you could send me a burnt copy of the MoTab and BYU cd's I had on there that would be awesome! And also the Gibson's cookbook they gave me last year; I left that home on accident. Thanks!
Alright I'm going to send the pictures now to make sure I have enough time to do that but I'll write more in the next email :) Love you all!
Random Extra little notes he wrote: Crazy dog story - we were walking up a street one day and this truck drives past right next to us and next thing we know we are staring death in the FACE. Two huge Rottweilers right at face level in the back of this truck were looking and barking like crazy at us! The truck was driving somewhat slow and the dogs just about jumped out to eat us. Not a cool thing. Dogs hate missionaries, and nearly every single house here has anywhere from 2-7 dogs. Weird people... lol
One last cool story, my time is about up. We met a lady named Keneta who is awesome! She was really sincere and looking for truth. I love when people are like that. Anyway, we went to take her a Book of Mormon and were talking to her about what it was and how it was a record of the ancestors of the Native Americans, and how they knew about Christ as well. She mentioned how they knew Him as "the Great Spirit" and I was like, "Hey! That's what they even call Him in the Book of Mormon when King Lamoni is being taught!" I pushed the thought out of my head though, but it kept coming back. I pushed it away again, and then I decided to just at least find out which chapter it was. I flipped open my BOM and it fell exactly to Alma 18, where my eyes immediately read the chapter heading. Check it out :) At that point I figured it wasn't coincidence and so I shared it with her and told her to read that chapter along with 3 Nephi 11. I don't know if anything will come of it, but it was a cool experience. I'm still working hard to teach more by the Spirit, and rely on inspiration. The Spirit is key in everything! If we don't have the Spirit then we can't teach (D&C 42:14). Well, my time is up but I love you all lots! Keep writing; I love getting letters! P.S. please tell Courtnee she needs to send me an invite asap ha ha (and any of my other friends/family who may now be getting married). Thanks!
Love, Elder Andrew Beckett
More bugs, More gross!
Ha ha ha. Sweat stains from all of his hard-core sweating.
His creepy looking (at least to me) house...
His little weight room
His bedroom.
OrLaNdO Temple! :)
Plane-ride there...
Mtc teacher--Brother Carlson
District...
Mtc teacher--Sister Adkins
District...
Hello everybody! This week has been WAY long and hot and tiring. We had maybe 5 or 6 teaching appointments (the work here is going really slow and we have like zero gators (investigators :P) right now) and they all fell through. That means the rest of the time we were out trying to find new people to teach - tracting. It got super hot; the heat index was somewhere between 100 and 110 with the humidity. Because of all the tracting we've been doing, we have decided we are full time "tractors" so you can just call me John Deer. We had 279 contacts (people you talk to and at least let them know we are sharing a message about Christ), and knocked probably somewhere around 900 doors.
Ok, I just inserted some pictures and they are from the MTC with my district, and then my two teachers (Ashleigh Adkins and James Carlson). They are so cool so if you ever have the chance to meet them (Mindy, they are going to BYU so keep an eye out) tell them Elder Beckett says hello. Alright this time I really will send another email with more pics so I can show just how great it is here =]
So Saturday night was pretty crazy. We decided to go out tracting like normal, and it was ridiculously hot. By the way I am in love with sunglasses - I went for about an hour without them and decided never to go back. That means I'm probably going to get a sweet sunglasses tan (my watch and ring tanline are already coming along) in no time. Anyway, we were walking up a driveway when we heard two vehicles come flying up a road. The first was a white car, and there was a green Dodge Dakota right on its tail. This was a residential area obviously, and so it wasn't hard to tell they were racing or something. The car in front suddenly turns into the driveway where we are and so we move out of the way and stand on the grass. There is a lady in the car with the window rolled down and she is crying and yelling out the window to us, "HELP! HELP! My abusive boyfriend has been following me and won't leave me alone! He's been trying to run me off the road!" The truck behind her slowed down, glared at us, and then sped off around the corner. In the front seat of the lady's car (her name was Amy Casada) was her little 4 year old named Nathaniel. I felt really bad that he had to go through all of this. Her car was packed full of stuff, so I don't know if she was moving out or what. We called the police and waited with her, then we had to fill out a witness report and everything. As she was backing out of the driveway to move her car, she ran out of gas right there. It's a good thing she found us! Apparently her boyfriend had been pretty abusive and broke her cell phone and would sabotage her car and was just being terrible. Six police cars ended up coming total (3 Leesburg police, 3 sherriffs) and there were some buff dudes that you could tell not to mess with. They were seriously like movie cops; reminded me of Jason Bourne. After we tried to comfort her for a bit and she felt safe with all the police, we left her and her son with a passalong card and got back to work. I was glad we were able to be there and help though.. who knows what would've happened. Elder Brown and I were all pumped up ready to defend her from her idiot boyfriend, but he took off so that was that. After that the night went pretty average with tracting in the area - there were some nice houses right on the lake.
Ok, so if I haven't already said it a bunch of times, Florida is weird! The people, climate, everything. Ha ha in church yesterday the High Counselor spoke and he was wearing a bowtie. I have never seen that in church before. The bugs are terrible... I'll send some pictures. Every day we come out of the house and there are at least 20 spiders around the doorway. We kill them so often I seriously have no idea where they come from. It's gross. The mosquitoes are also plentiful, I have learned that scratching the bites only makes it worse. They aren't always out though, so when they are I just make sure to use spray. There are these huge spiders here called banana spiders (at least that's what we call them) and they get HUGE. Like the size of my hand. Their webs are everywhere, it's gross. We have to mow our lawn and that was just nuts. There was a huge swarm of mosquitos following us everywhere we went, and all sorts of bugs and snakes crawling throughout our lawn. Lizards are everywhere, they are kind of fun :)
This week was probably the hottest I have ever been, and I have sweat more than every before! You are just drenched, and there is no getting around it. Dri-lux or not, all of your clothing gets soaked (ha ha soaked in the rain, or soaked if it's dry!) My skin is always somewhat sticky even though I shower twice a day. Oh yeah, one evidence of the craziness of sweat are the salt stains you get. It's pretty gross. I'll send a pic of one of my socks or something!
I bought a set of haircutting clippers; I'm going to learn to cut my own hair today. How exciting! Hope it goes well... ha ha. I figure I'll save tons of money that way, and then I can just do it whenever I need.
Hey, can you make copies of all the music I left on my iPod? I deleted everything but mission-appropriate music before I left, and iPods are not allowed I recently found out. It's a good thing I left it home I guess. If you could send me a burnt copy of the MoTab and BYU cd's I had on there that would be awesome! And also the Gibson's cookbook they gave me last year; I left that home on accident. Thanks!
Alright I'm going to send the pictures now to make sure I have enough time to do that but I'll write more in the next email :) Love you all!
Random Extra little notes he wrote: Crazy dog story - we were walking up a street one day and this truck drives past right next to us and next thing we know we are staring death in the FACE. Two huge Rottweilers right at face level in the back of this truck were looking and barking like crazy at us! The truck was driving somewhat slow and the dogs just about jumped out to eat us. Not a cool thing. Dogs hate missionaries, and nearly every single house here has anywhere from 2-7 dogs. Weird people... lol
One last cool story, my time is about up. We met a lady named Keneta who is awesome! She was really sincere and looking for truth. I love when people are like that. Anyway, we went to take her a Book of Mormon and were talking to her about what it was and how it was a record of the ancestors of the Native Americans, and how they knew about Christ as well. She mentioned how they knew Him as "the Great Spirit" and I was like, "Hey! That's what they even call Him in the Book of Mormon when King Lamoni is being taught!" I pushed the thought out of my head though, but it kept coming back. I pushed it away again, and then I decided to just at least find out which chapter it was. I flipped open my BOM and it fell exactly to Alma 18, where my eyes immediately read the chapter heading. Check it out :) At that point I figured it wasn't coincidence and so I shared it with her and told her to read that chapter along with 3 Nephi 11. I don't know if anything will come of it, but it was a cool experience. I'm still working hard to teach more by the Spirit, and rely on inspiration. The Spirit is key in everything! If we don't have the Spirit then we can't teach (D&C 42:14). Well, my time is up but I love you all lots! Keep writing; I love getting letters! P.S. please tell Courtnee she needs to send me an invite asap ha ha (and any of my other friends/family who may now be getting married). Thanks!
Love, Elder Andrew Beckett
More bugs, More gross!
Ha ha ha. Sweat stains from all of his hard-core sweating.
His creepy looking (at least to me) house...
His little weight room
His bedroom.
OrLaNdO Temple! :)
Plane-ride there...
Mtc teacher--Brother Carlson
District...
Mtc teacher--Sister Adkins
District...
Monday, July 5, 2010
Letter #4! Yahoo!
Hello my awesome family! Wow, this has been a really long week with me not having a P-day and all last time. Sorry about that. I'm glad I get to write you now though; you have no idea how exciting this is! Plus this is on a high quality keyboard that doesn't insert little dumb things and stick and other frustrating things like this. I'm typing on this bad boy at like 85 wpm. At least ha ha.
Alright so these pictures I'm sending are of me freezing in my room at the MTC (they always had the AC on and you couldn't change it. My alarm's thermometer said it was around 62 degrees most of the time), Elder Beckett and Elder Beckett =], and me and my awesome bedmaking skills. I'll send some more pics in another email, but the max is somewhere around 5 pics at a time I believe.
Alright... so I have tons to say ha ha. Here goes:
Tuesday morning we were up by about 4:15 finishing up our packing, getting ready for the day, grabbing some cereal from the MTC cafeteria (the whole building was pretty dark and there was us and one other group going to Canada in there), and then we headed to the travel office to turn in our locks, keys, and swipe our blue card one last time. It was weird but really exciting to be leaving! They had a nice bus waiting for us that we loaded all of our luggage on and then headed out. We drove right past Wyview and I told everyone, "HEY I lived there last year and that's where my sister is going to live! Awesome!" It was pretty fun seeing that area. We arrived at the airport and that was just CRAZY. Nobody really knew exactly what we were doing, it was our first time in public as missionaries, one of the sisters hadn't weighed her luggage before we left and so she had to repack a bunch of stuff right there on the spot which took like an extra half hour, and there were people in lines all around as well. I would say it was less than ideal. However, we did make it through security and finally got to call home which was SO GOOD to talk to you. I hope everyone is doing super, and that Dad and Nate got off to scout camp alright!
On the plane I got a window seat, and there were missionaries all around me so I didn't really get to do much converting. It was still a good plane ride though and I got in some good scripture reading, PMG studying, and a nice little nap. We arrived in Florida and had to go on a shuttle to pick up our luggage. When we stepped off the shuttle is when the humidity really was noticeable. It's definitely different than Utah ha ha. It hasn't been terrible yet though, it mostly just feels like I forget to breathe sometimes, and then I'll take a few deep breaths and realize that it is because of the humidity. I'll get used to it eventually. The heat is probably the worst though, and it's not even that hot yet! I'm getting used to being sweaty and walking around in the sun all day long. Except for when it's rain-tracting time. I'll tell you about that in a minute though :) So at the airport we were met by President and Sister Hall! They are so nice. They met us and took us to go get our luggage, where we happened to run right into Jerry Sloan, coach of the Utah Jazz. It was pretty cool. He was wearing a John Deer hat ha ha! The AP's came to pick us up and take us to the President's Home where we stayed for the night. It was way nice and we had an awesome meal.
The next morning we got up, ate and got ready, had a meeting, and then headed over to the mission office to meet our trainers. After sitting through some long orientation things, our trainers all walked in (except we didn't know who was who and which one was our trainer). They had us guess, and I was I think one of only 2 who didn't guess theirs. I guess I wasn't feeling the Spirit or something.. lol jk. Anyway my trainer is great! His name is Lancaster (cool huh?) Joel Brown from Kaysville, UT. He is very tall - 6 foot 7! And he still wants to grow. He is hilarious though, and even more than that he is a great missionary! He is the District Leader and really works hard and is obedient. I was definitely blessed to have him as my trainer. After we met our trainers we went out to the shed to see if there were any good bikes for sell. There was one in there and Elder Brown called the owner to see how much he wanted and he said that I could just have it! Sweet huh? But my area right now isn't a biking area, so we just drive everywhere anyway (thankfully). Although that doesn't mean I won't be using it later on. Mom, can you still leave some money on my card? I still will need to get a couple things like some new tires, hand grips, a helmet, and a light, and I'm not sure when I'll be buying that.
We left the mission home and before we even went to the house we went out tracting! My first door was pretty scary... but after that it was SO much fun! I love telling people that we are representatives of Jesus Christ and have a message to share with them. It's really cool even though some people get mad and tell you to go away. One lady was way ticked and I had no idea why and she was swearing at us and yelling stuff we couldn't understand and then Elder Brown told her what church we are from and she apologized and calmed down. She thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses. A lot of people get mad at us when they think we are from there, and are a little nicer after that. You get some of the funniest excuses though about why people can't talk to you. It's very entertaining.
After that we stopped by Walmart to grab me enough food to last until P-day (Monday). Our house isn't super nice... I was pretty hesitant and let the better side of my clean-freak self get to me for a bit. We have tons of spiders and mosquitoes and all sorts of bugs around the house (outside luckily). Inside isn't too bad. I've heard sirens outside every single day so far. It's much nicer than some of the other places we could be living. I think it was just kind of a big change coming straight from the mission home. I'll send some pics if I have time.
That night we got to go on a temple tour, where a guy named President Herzog taught a little presentation at a church right by the temple and explained all about it. It was really neat and the Spirit was powerful! We attended with a less active member named Barrett Brown.
The next day (Thursday) was my first rain-tracting experience. We were out knocking doors and it was cloudy, and then it started to sprinkle. We looked up and saw... THE WALL. The wall is when you can actually see a gray wall of water (rain) coming towards you. It's way intense. It's coming, and then WHAM you are in it! It was worse than if I was showering with all of my clothes on.. I think within about 45 seconds of that I was soaked completely. After that it was way fun and I just kind of laughed and looked at Elder Brown like, "Seriously?" And he just laughed and was like, "Welcome to Florida Elder! You have now experienced rain tracting." That was fun and it actually felt pretty good :)
Dad - you said I shoudl get a multivitamin or something? What kind? Is a "mature complete multivitamin" an ok type? Lol who knows maybe I"ll just not get vitamins. What do you think?
Darn... I only have five minutes so I will try to quickly send some more pics. I love you all and love being here! It was hard and slow and really discouraging at first but now that I'm getting more used to things it's a little better. I really do love the work and it makes me super happy! It is so fun talking to people about Jesus Christ and His restored church on the earth today. You get to meet all sorts of different people, yet they are all God's children. I'm really trying and praying to see people with more Charity, to have sight like the Savior did. It helps me be much more sincere in preaching the Gospel. We met some cool people, I'll tell you more next time. One man was named Darnell, he had gold teeth, and tear drops tatooed under his eyes on each side (two on each side). Isn't that like a gang thing where however many tear drops is the number of people you killed or something? I don't know maybe that was a rumor. He seemed way cool though! We brought him a book of mormon and he was really interested. Anyway I love you all and the Gospel is true! I haven't gotten any mail here yet; I'm assuming it just takes a while. It takes longer to go through the mission home - while I'm here (I'll let you know if I am transferred) you can just mail it to:
1615 Michigan Ave
Leesburg, FL 34748
Love you!
- Elder Andrew John Beckett
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
He's in FLORIDA! :D
Hello family! I have arrived! It is nice and warm here, and the air is very moist. My P-day isn't until monday so I won't be able to write you until then. They just let us get on real quick tonight to let you know so that you don't worry about us. We saw Jerry Sloan at the airport. President Hall and the two AP's all had Goldtoe socks ha ha. Ok talk to you later, I'm so excited! Tomorrow is more orientation. I love you all and it was good talking to you today!
-Elder Andrew Beckett
p.s. Florida is beautiful! Also, I hope this picture doesn't look funny because I haven't seen it yet :P
Woohoo! Letter #3 :D (With Pictures and Captions from Elder B. Himself!)
Hello my family! I love you all. This week has gone by much faster than the first week, and I am loving it here. Alright, so here is a cool tender mercy story that happened yesterday... We went to the Bookstore to get some things, and I was just walking up an aisle looking at stuff when all of the sudden I get to the end and look up and right in front of me is Elder Josh Beckett (going to Asuncion Paraguay, so I knew it was him) printed on a bag! It was the very first thing I saw too. Anyway, that was neat because even though I wasn't able to be a host I still found his bag and snuck him a little note inside :) Oh man, this keyboard is driving me nuts. Theeee program here is ridiculous (point in case with the "bad" typing on my behalf ).
Another cool experience happened the other day in class with Brother Carlson. He is an awesome teacher! What he had us do was teach him as himself (rather than role-playing an investigator). So first we got to know him for a bit, but he's pretty much a celestial person already from what I can tell so I had no idea what I could teach him. He left the room for ten minutes and let us prepare, and I just thought of two things - a scripture in 2 Ne 31:20, and temple attendance. I thought they were kind of random and stuff at first, but I had no idea otherwise so I just went with it. Anyway, he came back in and those were spot on things he needed to hear! Apparently he goes to the temple weekly, and this week he had missed ha ha. And he had been studying that scripture recently, and told me he felt like the Lord had been trying to teach him through it recently and that he needed to remember it. He had even changed one of his passwords for something a few weeks ago to be that scripture. It was just a neat experience that showed how even if I have no idea what or how to teach something, the Lord does and can show me through the Spirit.
One thing I have found interesting while here is that we haven't really been taught the lessons out of Preach My Gospel much, hardly at all in fact. I guess they just expect you to study and learn it mostly on your own, which is good. I am grateful I read through it a few times before I came, that has really helped me. One thing that we have learned a lot about though is teaching to an investigator's spiritual needs. Brother Carlson told us they are continually working on better ways to teach missionaries so that they will be more effective, and having us teach to needs is doing just that. We have watched a lot of clips from sixbillion.org
, I guess it is a website by PBS or something that went out and interviewed hundreds of people from all over the world about some of the deep life questions we all may have. From the videos we would talk about their spiritual needs, and how we could see God's hand in their life preparing them to hear the Gospel. It was really cool.
Six days and I will be in Florida. Hopefully they will have decent computers there. I'm not a fan of the Dells they are using here ha ha. Hey, could you send me my camera cord if you see it? I don't think I brought it with me. I also forgot one of my pens if you happen to see it =) Thanks. I saw the Boy Scout Rap main guy here and went up and asked him if it was him; it was. It's cool to see so many people from BYU and just everywhere really that are going on missions.
Oh I forgot to mention about Elder Beckett (Josh) who is arriving today. I tried to happen to be walking along the arrival area around 12:45 (that's when he was coming right?) "looking for a place to eat my lunch" ha ha but I didn't see him. I got there about 12:46 and didn't see him, and headed out about 12 minutes later :/ I'm sure I'll run into him at some point while I'm here though.
Ok funny story... you know how there was the whole window experience with Wesley when I lived at Wyview? The one where I looked out my kitchen window, saw him changing because he had his bedroom window open, laughed (not in a mean way or anything, it was just awkward), and then he got all mad and did some mean things before closing the blinds? Well I've felt bad about that and never had the chance to apologize to him. I did see his roommate in the bathroom on my dorm floor though, right as he was going into a stall. It was probably the most awkward convo I've had with someone, but I told him that was me and asked if Wesley was way mad at me. He said no and that him and Wesley's other friends were all laughing and thought it was funny, and that he wasn't mad at me. So thankfully the shirtless wonder got over that little incident :)
I saw Eric Hales this week, I guess he teaches English as a second language here. Sunday was interesting, each week they tell all the missionaries to prepare a 5 minute talk on a subject, and then they randomly call on a couple missionaries to speak. They don't announce it until halfway through sacrament meeting, and this week I was called on. I spoke on virtue and it went well. Sunday night for the movie my companion and I went to a talk by Elder Holland called "Missions are Forever." It was SO good! I love Elder Holland. It was really powerful. One of my favorite quotes was "Salvation isn't easy because it isn't a cheap experience. It wasn't easy for Him, so why should it be easy for us?" And "The road to Salvation passes through Gethsemane." Basically we all shouldn't be expecting easy lives, and don't think that just because we are members of the Church that doesn't mean all our trials are taken away. I was thinking about that and I'm wondering what I have coming... I hope nothing too bad. I feel I have been really blessed in life so far, and haven't had a very hard life. We'll see what the Lord has in store for me :) I am so excited to be serving a mission, and I can't believe this next Tuesday I will be going to Florida! Aaah! How exciting :) I love you all, thanks for your letters and everything else. Please keep them coming, it's wonderful to hear from you! My time is about up, so now I have to go. You are in my prayers, and I sure love you! Also, please send me Nolan's address; I haven't heard from him and I don't have his address. Thanks! - Elder Beckett
Me Pointing at the Y
Elder Drake (a Ute) pointing at the Y. I said something like "show me how much you really love the Y by your smile" ha ha
Our district. All to Florida except bottom left 2 sisters and Elders Drake & Smith
Elder Hales & I! :)
Me and my comp @ temple
Me with on e of the signs all over BYU (this was on the way to the temple. I miss BYU too.)
Me, Elder Drake and Smith (the Nova Scotia-bound Elders)
Same (as one below) but got cut off for some reason.
MTC Matrix
The classic "point where you're going on the giant map" :)
Stratford, Thomas, & Moultrie in our room
My tag and newbie sticker :)
My district, our first night together. (L-R) Taylor Drake (South Jordan), Harrison Smith (Littleton, CO), Me, Michael Stratford (Rancho Cucamonga, CA) Camron Moultrie (West Point, UT), Bailey Thomas (Montpelier, ID)
Another cool experience happened the other day in class with Brother Carlson. He is an awesome teacher! What he had us do was teach him as himself (rather than role-playing an investigator). So first we got to know him for a bit, but he's pretty much a celestial person already from what I can tell so I had no idea what I could teach him. He left the room for ten minutes and let us prepare, and I just thought of two things - a scripture in 2 Ne 31:20, and temple attendance. I thought they were kind of random and stuff at first, but I had no idea otherwise so I just went with it. Anyway, he came back in and those were spot on things he needed to hear! Apparently he goes to the temple weekly, and this week he had missed ha ha. And he had been studying that scripture recently, and told me he felt like the Lord had been trying to teach him through it recently and that he needed to remember it. He had even changed one of his passwords for something a few weeks ago to be that scripture. It was just a neat experience that showed how even if I have no idea what or how to teach something, the Lord does and can show me through the Spirit.
One thing I have found interesting while here is that we haven't really been taught the lessons out of Preach My Gospel much, hardly at all in fact. I guess they just expect you to study and learn it mostly on your own, which is good. I am grateful I read through it a few times before I came, that has really helped me. One thing that we have learned a lot about though is teaching to an investigator's spiritual needs. Brother Carlson told us they are continually working on better ways to teach missionaries so that they will be more effective, and having us teach to needs is doing just that. We have watched a lot of clips from sixbillion.org
, I guess it is a website by PBS or something that went out and interviewed hundreds of people from all over the world about some of the deep life questions we all may have. From the videos we would talk about their spiritual needs, and how we could see God's hand in their life preparing them to hear the Gospel. It was really cool.
Six days and I will be in Florida. Hopefully they will have decent computers there. I'm not a fan of the Dells they are using here ha ha. Hey, could you send me my camera cord if you see it? I don't think I brought it with me. I also forgot one of my pens if you happen to see it =) Thanks. I saw the Boy Scout Rap main guy here and went up and asked him if it was him; it was. It's cool to see so many people from BYU and just everywhere really that are going on missions.
Oh I forgot to mention about Elder Beckett (Josh) who is arriving today. I tried to happen to be walking along the arrival area around 12:45 (that's when he was coming right?) "looking for a place to eat my lunch" ha ha but I didn't see him. I got there about 12:46 and didn't see him, and headed out about 12 minutes later :/ I'm sure I'll run into him at some point while I'm here though.
Ok funny story... you know how there was the whole window experience with Wesley when I lived at Wyview? The one where I looked out my kitchen window, saw him changing because he had his bedroom window open, laughed (not in a mean way or anything, it was just awkward), and then he got all mad and did some mean things before closing the blinds? Well I've felt bad about that and never had the chance to apologize to him. I did see his roommate in the bathroom on my dorm floor though, right as he was going into a stall. It was probably the most awkward convo I've had with someone, but I told him that was me and asked if Wesley was way mad at me. He said no and that him and Wesley's other friends were all laughing and thought it was funny, and that he wasn't mad at me. So thankfully the shirtless wonder got over that little incident :)
I saw Eric Hales this week, I guess he teaches English as a second language here. Sunday was interesting, each week they tell all the missionaries to prepare a 5 minute talk on a subject, and then they randomly call on a couple missionaries to speak. They don't announce it until halfway through sacrament meeting, and this week I was called on. I spoke on virtue and it went well. Sunday night for the movie my companion and I went to a talk by Elder Holland called "Missions are Forever." It was SO good! I love Elder Holland. It was really powerful. One of my favorite quotes was "Salvation isn't easy because it isn't a cheap experience. It wasn't easy for Him, so why should it be easy for us?" And "The road to Salvation passes through Gethsemane." Basically we all shouldn't be expecting easy lives, and don't think that just because we are members of the Church that doesn't mean all our trials are taken away. I was thinking about that and I'm wondering what I have coming... I hope nothing too bad. I feel I have been really blessed in life so far, and haven't had a very hard life. We'll see what the Lord has in store for me :) I am so excited to be serving a mission, and I can't believe this next Tuesday I will be going to Florida! Aaah! How exciting :) I love you all, thanks for your letters and everything else. Please keep them coming, it's wonderful to hear from you! My time is about up, so now I have to go. You are in my prayers, and I sure love you! Also, please send me Nolan's address; I haven't heard from him and I don't have his address. Thanks! - Elder Beckett
Me Pointing at the Y
Elder Drake (a Ute) pointing at the Y. I said something like "show me how much you really love the Y by your smile" ha ha
Our district. All to Florida except bottom left 2 sisters and Elders Drake & Smith
Elder Hales & I! :)
Me and my comp @ temple
Me with on e of the signs all over BYU (this was on the way to the temple. I miss BYU too.)
Me, Elder Drake and Smith (the Nova Scotia-bound Elders)
Same (as one below) but got cut off for some reason.
MTC Matrix
The classic "point where you're going on the giant map" :)
Stratford, Thomas, & Moultrie in our room
My tag and newbie sticker :)
My district, our first night together. (L-R) Taylor Drake (South Jordan), Harrison Smith (Littleton, CO), Me, Michael Stratford (Rancho Cucamonga, CA) Camron Moultrie (West Point, UT), Bailey Thomas (Montpelier, ID)
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Letter #2!
Wahoo! Wow, I love it here. It is such a great place and I have learned so much! We pretty much live in the classroom, so I have been very creative at finding new ways to sit and trying out different postures throughout the day so that I don't get too sore. I have been having good posture though and doing my best so I can be tall and strong when I see you in two years again ha ha!
So, the first day was just crazy. There was so much to do and it seemed like so little time. It was a completely new experience, and I think I must have been in some sort of shock for a few days. It felt like a dream for about the first three days, and still kind of feels like a dream. Time seems to pass differently here, it feels like I've been here for forever! That is in a good way though :) The first Sunday was weird; it didn't seem much like a Sunday. You really have to set it apart in your mind, and EXTRA dedicate yourself even more than the other days because you are already trying to focus and feel the Spirit strong every weekday anyway. It's really wonderful how much you are just engulfed in the Gospel! I love it.
Sunday nights and Tuesday nights we have devotionals, and on Sunday the MTC administration head spoke to us and Tuesday Donald Hallstrom and his wife spoke. They did great and it was neat to be with so many missionaries at once. We did sing "Called to Serve" and it was pretty awesome! The other night though there was an elder sitting next to me who was singing so loud I seriously couldn't hear myself. I was singing tenor and bass switching off between verses and had the hardest time finding my notes because he was singing so loud (and not on key). I learned a really good lesson though. He was a super nice elder, and I could tell he was excited about being there. Whethere he knew he was singing off-key or not, he was singing loud and praising God! That's how we all should be; never be ashamed or worried about what people think, but do good anyway. We should fear God and not man. There's a scripture in Romans (8:16?) that talks about not being ashamed of the Gospel.
I haven't been sleeping super well; the first night I couldn't fall asleep until at least midnight and woke up at about 5:45 before any alarms or anything went off. I think I had so much going through my head and was nervous about being late and everything and so I didn't rest much. The next night was a little better, except that night I started having crazy dreams. I usually don't remember my dreams, but the majority of the nights here so far I have had dreams and remembered them. They are really weird. I have slowly been improving at sleeping though and am getting more used to falling asleep/waking up here.
They feed us tons, and it's not too bad. We get BYU icecream every Wednesday and Sunday and that's pretty good. They also have freezers with icecream bars in them and you can just eat however many you want at any meal. I'm getting my money's worth. I hope you are enjoying the Blend-Tec, I think it's just great that you bought it the day I leave. ;) No, I'm glad it will be there waiting for me when I get back. I hope you have some good recipes down perfectly so that you can show me the ropes.
My teachers here are really great! Brother Carlson and Sister Adkins are our main teachers in class. They really know a lot. Hmm... I only have about 3 minutes left, so I'm trying to think of the most important things to tell you. There's so much to say and just not enough time! I'm writing a lot in my Study Journal and Mission Journal though, so a lot of my thoughts are recorded then.
I love you all so much, I'm thankful for the letters and packages I have received so far! We get mail twice a day, and the Dear Elder's have been working just fine. They have same day arrival if you do it before noon I think. Anyway, thanks for writing me it really brightens up my day!
I guess I'll just tell you some of what I'm feeling. I am SO thankful to be serving a mission right now and there is no better place I could be! I love it here and there are a lot of good missionaries around me. Our district is apparently the "example district" so that's cool. I love my Savior, this is His church and it is true :) I know it! Please do all you can to share it with everyone around you.
I have to go but know I love you so much!
-Elder Beckett
So, the first day was just crazy. There was so much to do and it seemed like so little time. It was a completely new experience, and I think I must have been in some sort of shock for a few days. It felt like a dream for about the first three days, and still kind of feels like a dream. Time seems to pass differently here, it feels like I've been here for forever! That is in a good way though :) The first Sunday was weird; it didn't seem much like a Sunday. You really have to set it apart in your mind, and EXTRA dedicate yourself even more than the other days because you are already trying to focus and feel the Spirit strong every weekday anyway. It's really wonderful how much you are just engulfed in the Gospel! I love it.
Sunday nights and Tuesday nights we have devotionals, and on Sunday the MTC administration head spoke to us and Tuesday Donald Hallstrom and his wife spoke. They did great and it was neat to be with so many missionaries at once. We did sing "Called to Serve" and it was pretty awesome! The other night though there was an elder sitting next to me who was singing so loud I seriously couldn't hear myself. I was singing tenor and bass switching off between verses and had the hardest time finding my notes because he was singing so loud (and not on key). I learned a really good lesson though. He was a super nice elder, and I could tell he was excited about being there. Whethere he knew he was singing off-key or not, he was singing loud and praising God! That's how we all should be; never be ashamed or worried about what people think, but do good anyway. We should fear God and not man. There's a scripture in Romans (8:16?) that talks about not being ashamed of the Gospel.
I haven't been sleeping super well; the first night I couldn't fall asleep until at least midnight and woke up at about 5:45 before any alarms or anything went off. I think I had so much going through my head and was nervous about being late and everything and so I didn't rest much. The next night was a little better, except that night I started having crazy dreams. I usually don't remember my dreams, but the majority of the nights here so far I have had dreams and remembered them. They are really weird. I have slowly been improving at sleeping though and am getting more used to falling asleep/waking up here.
They feed us tons, and it's not too bad. We get BYU icecream every Wednesday and Sunday and that's pretty good. They also have freezers with icecream bars in them and you can just eat however many you want at any meal. I'm getting my money's worth. I hope you are enjoying the Blend-Tec, I think it's just great that you bought it the day I leave. ;) No, I'm glad it will be there waiting for me when I get back. I hope you have some good recipes down perfectly so that you can show me the ropes.
My teachers here are really great! Brother Carlson and Sister Adkins are our main teachers in class. They really know a lot. Hmm... I only have about 3 minutes left, so I'm trying to think of the most important things to tell you. There's so much to say and just not enough time! I'm writing a lot in my Study Journal and Mission Journal though, so a lot of my thoughts are recorded then.
I love you all so much, I'm thankful for the letters and packages I have received so far! We get mail twice a day, and the Dear Elder's have been working just fine. They have same day arrival if you do it before noon I think. Anyway, thanks for writing me it really brightens up my day!
I guess I'll just tell you some of what I'm feeling. I am SO thankful to be serving a mission right now and there is no better place I could be! I love it here and there are a lot of good missionaries around me. Our district is apparently the "example district" so that's cool. I love my Savior, this is His church and it is true :) I know it! Please do all you can to share it with everyone around you.
I have to go but know I love you so much!
-Elder Beckett
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Letter #1 :)
Family!
Wow. There is so much going on here! It is amazing. I feel like I've been here for forever already (in a good way:) ) After you dropped me off Elder Fowers walked me to the main building where they have me my missionary tags, bluecard (used for meals, access to housing, and things like that). I went through and then we dropped off in my room and then Elder Fowers had to go back. To save time ( I have TONS to do) I'll just send you my schedule and then comment on important parts. We learned our purpose and our teachers are really cool.
Oh, I was blessed with a great companion! His name is Elder Michael Stratford from Rancho Cucamonga, California. He is awesome. There are two other Elders (Moultrie and Thomas) and they are cool too. Elder Thomas is from Montpelier and knows Uncle Tony! How cool. Oh, and we are all English speaking and going to Orlando! Elder Thomas seems very dedicated to obedience, which is great.
Our teachers are Sister Adkins and Bro. Carlson. Sister Adkins told us right up front that nobody can pass gas in class. Lol it really caught me off guard. :)
After that we had a little devotional with the MTC presidency. So far I've seen Jamie McConnell, Nick Fowers, Bryson Loughmiller, Travis Thompson, Danny Hansen, and Chris Hansen. You can look them up on Facebook if you don't know them.
After the fireside we had dinner and then went to 3 series of teaching demonstrations. The teacher was incredible; he's been back for 2 years and his testimony was solid!
Anyway, I've gotta go and I'll give you more info through email because it's much faster! I am safe and well, and I hope you all are too! I love you so much! :)
-Elder Beckett
P.S. Sorry I'll try and improve my handwriting. :P
Wow. There is so much going on here! It is amazing. I feel like I've been here for forever already (in a good way:) ) After you dropped me off Elder Fowers walked me to the main building where they have me my missionary tags, bluecard (used for meals, access to housing, and things like that). I went through and then we dropped off in my room and then Elder Fowers had to go back. To save time ( I have TONS to do) I'll just send you my schedule and then comment on important parts. We learned our purpose and our teachers are really cool.
Oh, I was blessed with a great companion! His name is Elder Michael Stratford from Rancho Cucamonga, California. He is awesome. There are two other Elders (Moultrie and Thomas) and they are cool too. Elder Thomas is from Montpelier and knows Uncle Tony! How cool. Oh, and we are all English speaking and going to Orlando! Elder Thomas seems very dedicated to obedience, which is great.
Our teachers are Sister Adkins and Bro. Carlson. Sister Adkins told us right up front that nobody can pass gas in class. Lol it really caught me off guard. :)
After that we had a little devotional with the MTC presidency. So far I've seen Jamie McConnell, Nick Fowers, Bryson Loughmiller, Travis Thompson, Danny Hansen, and Chris Hansen. You can look them up on Facebook if you don't know them.
After the fireside we had dinner and then went to 3 series of teaching demonstrations. The teacher was incredible; he's been back for 2 years and his testimony was solid!
Anyway, I've gotta go and I'll give you more info through email because it's much faster! I am safe and well, and I hope you all are too! I love you so much! :)
-Elder Beckett
P.S. Sorry I'll try and improve my handwriting. :P
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