Missionary Monday - Berwyn Heights Week 12
I forgot to post Dakota's final email last week, so here you go :)
Good morning!
While I still have your attention I just wanted to briefly share my testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, 2 years ago before I left on my mission I knew it was true, and I'm even more convinced now. I've been questioned about my faith almost every day and it's only strengthened it. I know that God is my Heavenly Father and that he sent his son Jesus Christ to atone for our sins. I testify that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith in a grove of trees and that he was called to be the Prophet of the restoration. I know that is true because of the powerful witness of the Book of Mormon, the Book of Mormon has given me a testimony of Jesus Christ, and also of the calling of the Prophet Joseph Smith. And because I have gained a witness that these things are true I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lords kingdom once again established on the earth. I type this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
So last Tuesday we had a pretty cool lesson with Marycarmen. She was the one who was like "Come back in a week" and then the next week she said "Come back in another week I don't have time". So this week was the week after the second time. She was like, "come in, but I only have a few minutes" Oh great. But she had this guy there named Roberto. We had never met him before and he was pretty much like "Whatcha got for me? I've heard stuff about you guys and I'm curious". So we told him about the book of Mormon and what it means for him and he was super into it. Like super excited about reading it. He surprised us and Marycarmen haha. He said several times he couldn't wait to start reading it. So as of right now he has more potential than she does... We asked her about reading and praying like she said she would and she kinda just shrugged. Hopefully she can catch on to Roberto's excitement. At night we had my "Death meal" with a family that always cooks ribs for missionaries that go home in exchange for a tie, so that was pretty cool.
Wednesday I was on exchanges with Elder Basso in my area. It was a good exchange, it was nice to do some finding with a native Spanish speaker again haha. For lunch we met up with some other missionaries at Buffalo wild wingsas a one last goodbye, it was good to see everyone, I'll miss them. Hopefully that's not the last Ill see of them. We also had a lesson with the Mosso family about obedience, prophets, and keeping the sabbath day holy. It went well. We finished the night at correlation.
Thursday we had cleaning checks by a senior missionary, everything went good except he made us take down a picture of Alex trebek that has been stuck to the mirror with an American flag sticker for at least the last few years, so it was sad to see him go. No one really knows where that picture came from but everyone knows about it so it's kinda an end of an era. At night we taught the Mosso family again and explained all the details of their baptism, both of the daughters are still on track for the 27th so hopefully I can Skype into that 🤞🏾 After talking about the Baptismal service we taught about the word of wisdom, no one has a problem with anything except the atheist daughter that isn't on date. But she's super cool cause shes going to stop drinking coffee and tea to see if it helps her on her search for God. She has more faith than she thinks.
Friday was district council, the last one. After we had flan that the sisters brought, but it turned out to be more of a cheesecake texture and tasted like string cheese. 🤔 But it's okay they said it was experimental. We had dinner with Hna chicas, that was the usual. Then we went and talked with a less active teenager. I talked about him a few weeks ago, he's the one who is inactive but wants to come back and maybe serve a mission. He's a really cool dude and wants to come back so bad, he just needs to do it! After that we stopped by Rogelio to see what the deal is with him (investigator) We shook his hand and then he almost fell over, he had to run to catch himself. He was drunk, like super drunk. So that was a bummer.
Saturday was super hot. So we were sweaty messes tracting. It was supposed to be 100 but I didn't check throughout the day so I don't know what the "feels like" temperature was but it felt like an oven haha. We were supposed to teach josue but he canceled because he went to game stop with his mom 🤦🏾♂️ Then we had a lesson with Sandra again. We taught the plan of salvation, it started out good and then by the end it was kind of a mess just like the last two lessons. She couldn't get over that we didn't have a definition for the word Telestial other than "the lowest kingdom of glory" She was convinced it needed a definition outside of that and couldn't wrap her mind around that it didn't matter. So that kinda took away from everything she learned before that. But it's okay, I didn't learn it in one lesson either, she has time.
Sunday, Sunday was a whole lot of goodbyes. At church I said goodbye to the Mosso family who part of them will be baptized this saturday. Then after church they had the despedida aka goodbye party for Elder Skouson, Elder Peterson, and I. I said goodbye to everyone else there. Tomas came which meant the world to me, I wasn't sure if I would see him before I left. His life seems to be falling into place, blessings. And then after that there was the event Why I Believe where the new mission president and his wife spoke. They did an awesome job even though the power went out right before it was their turn to speak. Because of that everyone pointed their phone flashlights at them haha. And at the end I said goodbye to a bunch of missionaries. Bye bye bye.
Today I am going to play 1 on 1 basketball with Melvin Barrera from the ward. He is like 40 and super tight with all the missionaries but also talks a lot of smack. Apperently he hasn't lost in a long time, but he also hasn't played me 🤷🏾♂️ And then after that I'll be in DC all day so sorry if I don't respond to any emails but trust me they will be read and appreciated! I hope you all had a great week and I'll see you soon.
Good morning!
While I still have your attention I just wanted to briefly share my testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, 2 years ago before I left on my mission I knew it was true, and I'm even more convinced now. I've been questioned about my faith almost every day and it's only strengthened it. I know that God is my Heavenly Father and that he sent his son Jesus Christ to atone for our sins. I testify that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith in a grove of trees and that he was called to be the Prophet of the restoration. I know that is true because of the powerful witness of the Book of Mormon, the Book of Mormon has given me a testimony of Jesus Christ, and also of the calling of the Prophet Joseph Smith. And because I have gained a witness that these things are true I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lords kingdom once again established on the earth. I type this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
So last Tuesday we had a pretty cool lesson with Marycarmen. She was the one who was like "Come back in a week" and then the next week she said "Come back in another week I don't have time". So this week was the week after the second time. She was like, "come in, but I only have a few minutes" Oh great. But she had this guy there named Roberto. We had never met him before and he was pretty much like "Whatcha got for me? I've heard stuff about you guys and I'm curious". So we told him about the book of Mormon and what it means for him and he was super into it. Like super excited about reading it. He surprised us and Marycarmen haha. He said several times he couldn't wait to start reading it. So as of right now he has more potential than she does... We asked her about reading and praying like she said she would and she kinda just shrugged. Hopefully she can catch on to Roberto's excitement. At night we had my "Death meal" with a family that always cooks ribs for missionaries that go home in exchange for a tie, so that was pretty cool.
Wednesday I was on exchanges with Elder Basso in my area. It was a good exchange, it was nice to do some finding with a native Spanish speaker again haha. For lunch we met up with some other missionaries at Buffalo wild wingsas a one last goodbye, it was good to see everyone, I'll miss them. Hopefully that's not the last Ill see of them. We also had a lesson with the Mosso family about obedience, prophets, and keeping the sabbath day holy. It went well. We finished the night at correlation.
Thursday we had cleaning checks by a senior missionary, everything went good except he made us take down a picture of Alex trebek that has been stuck to the mirror with an American flag sticker for at least the last few years, so it was sad to see him go. No one really knows where that picture came from but everyone knows about it so it's kinda an end of an era. At night we taught the Mosso family again and explained all the details of their baptism, both of the daughters are still on track for the 27th so hopefully I can Skype into that 🤞🏾 After talking about the Baptismal service we taught about the word of wisdom, no one has a problem with anything except the atheist daughter that isn't on date. But she's super cool cause shes going to stop drinking coffee and tea to see if it helps her on her search for God. She has more faith than she thinks.
Friday was district council, the last one. After we had flan that the sisters brought, but it turned out to be more of a cheesecake texture and tasted like string cheese. 🤔 But it's okay they said it was experimental. We had dinner with Hna chicas, that was the usual. Then we went and talked with a less active teenager. I talked about him a few weeks ago, he's the one who is inactive but wants to come back and maybe serve a mission. He's a really cool dude and wants to come back so bad, he just needs to do it! After that we stopped by Rogelio to see what the deal is with him (investigator) We shook his hand and then he almost fell over, he had to run to catch himself. He was drunk, like super drunk. So that was a bummer.
Saturday was super hot. So we were sweaty messes tracting. It was supposed to be 100 but I didn't check throughout the day so I don't know what the "feels like" temperature was but it felt like an oven haha. We were supposed to teach josue but he canceled because he went to game stop with his mom 🤦🏾♂️ Then we had a lesson with Sandra again. We taught the plan of salvation, it started out good and then by the end it was kind of a mess just like the last two lessons. She couldn't get over that we didn't have a definition for the word Telestial other than "the lowest kingdom of glory" She was convinced it needed a definition outside of that and couldn't wrap her mind around that it didn't matter. So that kinda took away from everything she learned before that. But it's okay, I didn't learn it in one lesson either, she has time.
Sunday, Sunday was a whole lot of goodbyes. At church I said goodbye to the Mosso family who part of them will be baptized this saturday. Then after church they had the despedida aka goodbye party for Elder Skouson, Elder Peterson, and I. I said goodbye to everyone else there. Tomas came which meant the world to me, I wasn't sure if I would see him before I left. His life seems to be falling into place, blessings. And then after that there was the event Why I Believe where the new mission president and his wife spoke. They did an awesome job even though the power went out right before it was their turn to speak. Because of that everyone pointed their phone flashlights at them haha. And at the end I said goodbye to a bunch of missionaries. Bye bye bye.
Today I am going to play 1 on 1 basketball with Melvin Barrera from the ward. He is like 40 and super tight with all the missionaries but also talks a lot of smack. Apperently he hasn't lost in a long time, but he also hasn't played me 🤷🏾♂️ And then after that I'll be in DC all day so sorry if I don't respond to any emails but trust me they will be read and appreciated! I hope you all had a great week and I'll see you soon.
Elder Beck
Pictures
BW's
"I'm pretty tired... I think I'll go home now"
Despedida
Why I believe in the dark
The picture of the sister dunking on me is my "Death photo" that every missionary takes with their district when they go home, I got posterized.
The arizmendis
