Missionary Monday - Movile Week 2 & 3

Merry (late) Christmas!!🎅🎄

Sorry I didn't put out an email last week, Pday was a pretty busy day. I'll give a brief summary of week 2 and I'll try and be a little  more detailed about this last week.

So, week two consisted of going on an exchange with Elder Peterson from the CCM and also first district meeting, the exchange with him was pretty fun, we get along pretty well. I also did my first baptismal interview, that was super cool. It was for the sisters investigator Betty, she's older and has a super strong testimony. Thursday we went to do service at a members house way out in the middle of nowhere which I guess is still in our area, it was a bunch of farms, we ran out at 25 bags and weren't even close to finishing so we'll probably be going back. Saturday we had two baptisms to go to, Betty's and then Alex's! They were both good, it was nice to see everyone from the old ward, and it was awesome to see Alex again. After he was baptized they had him go give his testimony and he thanked "Elder Beck the Russian" That was funny. It was a good day. Christmas eve was good, ended up eating at the bishops house all night, Hispanics celebrate at midnight so they have the food rolling all night. Christmas was awesome, it was crazy being able to talk to everyone and see them live. After the Skype I did my best to recreate a Grandpa Dave Breakfast, it wasn't quite as good 😉 Then we went to a members house, the member lives with their son in law and he has some computer job that must pay a ton cause the house was huge and he had gift bags for us all with ties from men's warehouse and had a bunch of treats with it, the food there was awesome. It was a good day. There was also a mission Christmas party somewhere in there. It wasn't much of a party but we did get shirts that are pretty cool. The missions slogan is "Greatest mission in the history of life" 😂 😂 I think that's a little much but it's a cool shirt.

This week has consisted of mostly contacting referrals and knocking doors. All the investigators are super dodgy and I haven't met with any of them yet. Its pretty frustrating.

Had 2 exchanges this week, one with Elder Mortenson and then one with the zone leader Elder Bennet, both of those were pretty good, I went to Elder Mortensons area and they don't have a car so that part was rough, it's been getting pretty cold here, this morning it was 5 degrees. And then the exchange with Elder Bennett I stayed here and he came here, that was fun. He's big on basketball so we went and played for workout time in the morning. 

The members feed us a ton here, it feels like I hardly eat my own food anymore. However there's one old Peruvian lady that always makes things with fish so that's been a little rough. But she's super nice and fun to talk with so I can man up.

Yesterday was good. It was 5th Sunday so everyone was together 3rd hour. That was an awesome hour. The bishop taught and he went off. In a good way though. He went over the wards goals for last year vs. this year. Last year there were like 28 baptisms and he set this year's at 64. It sounds nuts but if the ward and the missionaries apply themselves it could be done. As a stake they decided they wanted a total of 200 baptisms/reactivations and the bishop claimed 100 of those so we also need 46 reactivations. Which is also totally doable. He also talked about home and visiting teaching, and self reliance. He didn't hold back and basically told the ward how it is and how its gonna be. They also came up with a "Plan of salvation for the Gaithersburg 2nd ward" that they sent home with every family that outlines all the goals and things every member needs to do. Hopefully they all act on it. We also had a meal appointment with the Monroy family at 6 so after church we had studies and then went over there. They made roast beef with rice beans and bread. That was the first roast beef Sunday dinner I've had since whenever the last one of mom's was. I miss always having a nice Sunday dinner. That family is awesome.

I apologize this weekly email was kinda lame. There's not much going in this area as of now and there definitely isn't as much crazy stuff happening to tell stories about like in DC, I'll try to change the nothing going for us part though. We have a lot of referrals that we are trying to get in contact with and a few of them seem pretty interested so hopefully they turn out.

Hope you all had a great week!

Elder Beck