- Sister Beck's Weekly Update

Ola ! 

tudo bom?

On Monday we went to a Brazilian member's home who is actually from Sao Paulo! That's where my brother served his mission. She made us some taaaasty food but insisted we eat until it was all gone. I've never had that type of stomach pain before but it was worth it.  

The trek home was painful, I almost exploded. 

Unfortunately on Monday there was a transportation strike, these happen more than you would like to think here in France/Belgium. It hasnt ever affected us unless its an individual driver that decides to make you get off out of nowhere in the middle of nowhere. I'm not going to go into details about what happened but we could not get home. 

Listen, I love Belgium. It gives off New York European style vibes but along with that comes the fact that it is... a little (lot) ghetto. I've never experienced a place like this. I've also never experienced catcalling/commentary/stares the way we have here. 

Not my fave, but the waffles and fries make up for it.

On Wednesday we went to a Portuguese park in the middle of Brussels. It was the weirdest thing, people were layed out all over the grass in swimsuits/without clothes everywhere. They were acting like it was the beach? It was so weird. No one was completely nude but there were definitely some close calls. 🤕😵‍💫

Belgium man, it's a different kind of weird.

Anyway, we kept walking and heard some latino music bumpin and were like 😏😏😏 bingo. 

We hovered a bit trying to make a completely unnatural encounter be natural. When all of a sudden we saw a lady in an Ecuadorian cultural dress and followed her to this big van full of FOOD. Perfect opportunity. We asked her if she needed any help to which she said yes. 

Turns out she was preparing for their annual Ecuadorian barbecue!?!?!! 

HUNDREDS of Ecuadorians showed up within the hour. It was incredible. What were the chances we go to this park the one day out of the year where all these latinos are gathering for their once a year fiesta? God guides. 

It was so fun. They had volleyball set up, blasting music, barbecuing, and soccer. I couldn't believe it. I have major fomo with that kind of stuff. I wanted to be taken in as one of them so bad. 

We gave our card out and got some names and everything. It was crazy. This goes out to pre-mission me who had no idea what speaking Spanish here would be like: it's good, and there's plenty of work to be done. 

We had a mission conference with Elder De Feo from the 70! It was so good. He talked about the Doctrine of Christ and doing everything in Jesus' name. My favorite saying right now is: More Jesus. 

More Jesus, in everything. It was spiritually uplifting. I also got to see the Willetts there so day = made. 

We went to another Brazilian member's home on Saturday and they also made us eat until all the food on the table was gone?? I'm going to probably gain a thousand pounds while serving here. We had a potato that tasted like those white things in the corn, carrot, greenbean stirfry mix that I know everyone has had at least once in their life. It was tripping me out. We also had a pork meatloaf wrapped in bacon. Wasn't too bad. I don't know all that was in it but I think I prefer it that way. After dinner they brought out a watermelon that was the size of me, hna Gomez and hna Chris' heads all put together. Maybe bigger. Massive 🍉

They had a pet turtle that went rogue during the spiritual thought. Those suckers are actually pretty fast. Hna Gomez finally caught it and it literally slapped her in the face with its weird fin claws😭 

Here's a mini rant you can skip:

I have major beef with the peanut M&Ms here in Belgium. They only put in half the peanut??? As I was eating them I was like why are these so weird? Why are they so small? THEY ONLY PUT IN HALF THE PEANUT. What is the purpose of that? It feels like a dirty trick, a personal attack. It was all of them too. It should be illegal. 

All or nothin. Pic below. Ok rant = over. 

ok é isso, amo vcs 🇧🇷🇪🇨 

Fotos: 

☆For some reason I'm the designated food holder for everyone always. 

☆ hna gomezzzzzz 

☆ pretty sunset w/ ma girls  

☆ the crime. 

☆ Acai 

☆ Cocotts slapping the smile right off Hna Gómez's face 

☆ sister Willett <3