Missionary Monday - Moville Week 7

Que pasa? 

This week was awesome. I got a call from President on Monday and he asked if I would train, I happily said yes. Later that night he called again to tell Elder west that he'd be going to Kensington. So Elder Beck lives to see another transfer in the Gaithersburg Spanish ward. Other than that not much happened that I can remember.

Tuesday I had to go to a training at the mission office to be a trainer. That was alright, nothing special, basically what I took away from it was "Don't be an idiot". After that we went to district meeting and Hermano Colindres was there to do a Facebook live of all the people leaving. That was cool. With Transfers my district got a lot smaller, but a lot stronger. Now we have the traveling AP's (Elder Chugg & Elder Omdahl), The sister training leaders, and 2 former sister training leaders. So I'm excited to see how this goes. After that Elder west packed forever and took EVERYTHING. He has acquired a lot of stuff living here for the last 5 months and I thought he'd leave behind some stuff for Elder Beck but instead he packed his suit cases, 5 big boxes, 2 crates, and a laundry bag full of stuff :( I'm over it though. We had a dinner appointment with the Avalos family and they were pretty cool. Allegedly Hermana Avalos almost played professional basketball in el Salvador, based off of the quality of the WNBA, I can't imagine what a foreign women's team is like... However she was wearing some of LeBrons shoes so maybe she is the real deal😂

Wednesday was transfers, said goodbye to Elder West for a second time. I had to be there an hour early for the trainers to meet their trainees but was late because Elder West spilled his cactus in the trunk. (Long story) but it took forever to clean up. I walked into the relief society room late and sat down (Trainers on the right half of the room Trainees on the left half) And it was a crazy feeling. It felt like just yesterday I was on the other side. Not that it's been that long but still. They wait till the end to announce companionships but I knew the second I sat down since I was the only Spanish Trainer and there was only one brown Elder on the other side haha. My trainee is Elder Castillo, he was born in Mexico but moved to Maryland when he was 6, went to byu for a semester and got his call there, and he got called back here 😂 Not only is he from Maryland, he's from Frederick Maryland, which is about 30 minutes from our apartment. We pass road signs that say "Frederick ➡" Probably 5 times a day. He doesn't seem phased but I'd probably go nuts. And the bishop of our ward was the president of his branch when he was baptized. And he's met quite a few of the youth before, it's pretty weird. But so far he's awesome. After we got back from transfers we had a lesson with a refferal at the Chapel and it went awesome. The man is from Venezuela and has 3 months left in the country. Everything we taught him clicked and he accepted to be baptized, for only being together for a few hours Elder Castillo and I taught with really great unity. Everything went right.

Not much to report about Thursday minus one cool experience while street contacting at around 11. We were walking through a parking lot and this guy that was sitting in his car opens the door as we pass and says "My brothers! Come here" And I was like uhhhh. So we talk to him and he's from Brazil but speaks Spanish and English too. He said he stopped us because we had a light surrounding us. He showed us his ID so we could get his address to meet 😂 He lives in the same complex as us! We haven't been able to meet yet but hopefully we can change that. Then that night we had dinner with Jose Cruz and Alondra (RM and Recent Convert couple) Alondra was sick and asleep so he took us out to some hondurian place and got us "Balliadas" Which are like the main thing from honduras. They were a lot better than I had anticipated. Then after that we went to the family history center to find a name for Patricio to take to the temple.

Friday we had lunch with Hermana Nieto, it was papá wankayina again (Not sure how to spell it but that's how it sounds) That was good. Then later in the day we had dinner with the Hernandez Family. They made Chinese food which was surprisingly really good. Other than that it was just a ton of studies, since Elder Castillo is new we have an extra hour of studies for 12 week. I was excited when I found out he was a native Spanish speaker cause I thought he'd be able to help with grammar and stuff but since he grew up speaking it he just knows how to speak it but he doesn't know why it is the way it is. I'll ask him why something has to be said a certain way and he's usually like "Hmm, that is pretty weird, good question I don't know" 😂 

Saturday we had lunch with a member and he took us to Sardis (the chicken place everyone loves) Then for dinner a family invited us over and guess what it was? Sardis. I guess it's a Peruvian based restaurant and both members were Peruvian. While we were eating this guy that looks like hes from the cartel (tattoos on his face, fancy alligator skin looking shoes, bald, etc.) walks in and is kinda like "sup" and the members are like "Hey! come talk to the missionaries!" And he's like "Yeeeah maybe later" Then he went into the basement. The members said that he's from Mexico and has been living with them for 3 months. We kept talking for a few minutes and then the guy comes back up and takes a seat and he's like "Alright nevermind I'm ready". We got to know him a little and found out his situation with his family is pretty rough, they don't want much to do with him cause he's been drinking for "5 years straight" So we taught him and he cried basically the whole time and we invited him to church and gave him a book of Mormon with Alma ch. 36 marked. It was awesome. 

Sunday we had correlation and church and that went well, Brian and Juan Carlos came. Oh! We had to teach the youth for Sunday school cause the teacher was sick and I didn't have high expectations for the class but I couldn't have been more dissapointed. All the adults in the ward are Converts and all in, but it does not rub off on the kids. They couldn't have cared less. When they would answer a question whether it would apply or not it would be "Go to church, read the scriptures, pray" I was getting tired of that and started to call them out for sucking but they weren't phased. I think I feel your pain dad with teaching the young men. That class put a real damper on my Sabbath. 😂 After church we ate with the Monroys like usual, that was really good. Then we went out and talked to a million people on the streets. 

Today we went to the dry cleaners, bank, target, Walmart and got haircuts. So now the rest of the day is looking wide open...

I did a lot better on pictures this week.

Can't wait to hear from everyone!

Elder Beck

Pictures

The old the new and Elder Gregson.

Part of the ward mission mission plan, translating it would be worth the time, its worth the time.

The new ward super team.

And the old district.