Missionary Monday
Jackson with his companion Elder Shaw
Jackson with Elder Hayes Hicken
Jackson and Hayes played football together at Highland HS
Hey! Where to start? The MTC is packed. Pretty much half of the population are sisters and the 21 year olds seem a little bitter that they had to hold out. The first day in the welcome meeting we sang Called to Serve and everything and that was good, but we sang Armies of Helaman at the end and I have never felt the spirit so strong. I could only sing a few words here and there because I spent most of the song trying not to cry. I am doing really well so far though. I just can't stress about the Portuguese. It'll happen. I really like the other Elders in the district. Most of them are guys I would have been friends with at home. There is 14 of us, which is huge for a district. Our room gets pretty bad with all of us in there. I love spending time as a district. I have a girl teacher and a guy teacher. They both speak Portuguese about 90% of the time. I like the guy though cause he is from Brazil and I get a better feel for the pronunciations. On Sunday after a district meeting one of the branch presidency counselors stopped me and asked if I was related to the Becks in Brazil. I said yeah, and he went on and on about how awesome they are. He kept saying, "It's a great missionary family". So that was cool.
The Dear Elders get here about a day earlier than normal letters, but I don't have a preference. Just don't send me anything with glitter on it (mom). If I could make a suggestion for your morning PMG study it would be to do role plays. We do a ton of those here and that is how I learn the most. (I am awesome at them by the way.) Just have mom or dad be like an investigator the kids just met. If dad could just pretend to be someone he taught in Oklahoma I think that would work best. Have a lesson a few times a week and take them through the whole process. We have done 4 already with a guy named "Elliot", in Portuguese and everything. I really like those. They get me fired up. If someone could get me a scripture from the bible about how the priesthood was taken from the earth after the apostles were killed that would be great. I can't find a good one.
I am sure I am forgetting things. If you have specific questions I'd be glad to answer. Thanks for everything. I really like the watch. Oh, and I appreciate the gum but they have a no gum rule. So breath mints would be nice. The next people I meet that have a visa will be the first. Everyone is getting reassigned after their 6 weeks are up till it comes. The latest group got assigned to Montana or New York. I'd be cool with that.
Till next week!
Elder Beck
The Dear Elders get here about a day earlier than normal letters, but I don't have a preference. Just don't send me anything with glitter on it (mom). If I could make a suggestion for your morning PMG study it would be to do role plays. We do a ton of those here and that is how I learn the most. (I am awesome at them by the way.) Just have mom or dad be like an investigator the kids just met. If dad could just pretend to be someone he taught in Oklahoma I think that would work best. Have a lesson a few times a week and take them through the whole process. We have done 4 already with a guy named "Elliot", in Portuguese and everything. I really like those. They get me fired up. If someone could get me a scripture from the bible about how the priesthood was taken from the earth after the apostles were killed that would be great. I can't find a good one.
I am sure I am forgetting things. If you have specific questions I'd be glad to answer. Thanks for everything. I really like the watch. Oh, and I appreciate the gum but they have a no gum rule. So breath mints would be nice. The next people I meet that have a visa will be the first. Everyone is getting reassigned after their 6 weeks are up till it comes. The latest group got assigned to Montana or New York. I'd be cool with that.
Till next week!
Elder Beck
I was hoping for one picture and I got three! So I'm pretty happy about that.
To translate for those who don't know what PMG stands for, it is the book Preach My Gospel. It's kind of a Missionary manual they study in addition to their scriptures. Our family started studying it a couple of months ago along with our scripture study in the mornings. Estabon says no way is he doing any roll playing. We'll see.
The "glitter" he's apparently talking to me about must have been on a card I sent him. Won't make that mistake again :)
Jackson mentioned the Brazil missionaries getting reassigned after their 6 weeks were up. I missed the memo that he would only be in the MTC 6 weeks. I was thinking 8 or 9 weeks! When Kevin went on his mission to Oklahoma almost a quarter of a century ago he was in the MTC 3 weeks. Now the missionaries who go stateside are only there 9 days. Such an exciting time to be a missionary!
