Herman Beck's Weekly Emails - Burnt Toast and Shattered Dreams

Well, tuesday came and went and we still did not recieve transfer news, President Wu was running behind. Travel day was Thursday, so Hermana Velasquez started packing her bags anyway. She'd been in Hospicio for 6 months, so we knew she'd be leaving. Wednesday was business as usual, except for when the Relief Society president had me try on a wedding dress she had lying around her house, and we got fed lunch twice (that was awful🤢) That night we baked a cake and bought a tub of ice cream and headed down the street to the other Hermanas' house to watch with them.

The way transfers work in our mission is we all hop on zoom, sing a hymn, and listen to a quick devotional from President Wu. Then he shares his screen and shows us a picture of each missionary individually and their assignment, one at a time, starting in the northern most part of the mission and ending in the south. It takes about an hour to get through everyone. But when he started way north in Arica, and my picture popped up on the screen, my heart dropped all the way to my toes. I didn't hear a single word of the rest of the meeting.

A whitewash in our area. My mind immediately went to Paola. How are the new missionaries gonna know that she needs a phone call every day or else she gets anxious? That she wants to be baptized on her birthday? I thought of Diego Atto, a man we've been teaching since December who's progress is slow going because he was raised in an Incan pueblito that worships the sun, we taught him who God is and how to pray. How will the new missionaries know that he works 24/7 in an almacén and is only available from 2:30 to 3:00pm each day? I thought about the family of girls living in las tomas. How will the new missionaries find their house when the streets we've been taking to get there don't exist on the map? I thought of a dozen other friends and members and their needs, and the fact that I didn't get to say goodbye to a single one of them. Writing letters to my friends/converts/members at 1am was a different type of heartbreaking. 

The next day we scrambled around getting everything done and were ready just in time for a member to pick us up and take us to Iquique to catch our busses. Only, that member showed up 30 minutes late, and I missed my bus to Arica. I got a new ticket right away for another bus, but that bus ended up being 6 hours late. Poor Hermana Newlon had to wait those six hours with me in the Iquique bus station, in direct sunlight, zero shade, unable to go anywhere because we kept being told the bus would arrive "any minute." When the bus finally came, I said goodbye to Hermana Newlon and boarded alone. As if to rub salt in the wound, the bus drove straight up to Alto Hospicio, stopping in the middle of my sector for gas. I may or may not have cried. I got to Arica in the middle of the night. 

Anyway, now I'm serving in Los Olivos! I had gotten so used to Alto Hospicio, that getting here literally gave me culture shock. It's BEAUTIFUL! Compared to the trashy streets of Hospicio at least. There are TREES with flowers everywhere, and grass, and I haven't seen a single dog that wasn't on a leash. And the sidewalks are flat and intact! They even have Walmart here! I'm also serving in a ward instead of a branch, and the members seem to actually be faithful! I'm tellin ya, night and day differences here. My companion is Hermana Marcelo, she's from Peru and she's finishing her mission this transfer. I'm 4 for 4 on companions shorter than 5 feet tall. Will I ever not feel absolutely enormous in these 18 months? Who knows. 

We're white washing this area, and it is a DISASTER. There are zero green dots in our area book, which means there isn't a single person being taught here. We've been knocking doors like crazy all day every day and every single door has been a rejection. I went from teaching 10-12 lessons per day to zero. All those lessons I'd been learning last transfer about patience are being put to the test. It's been very challenging, but I have faith that we'll be able to find someone to teach soon. And if not, I'll just pack up and head to Bolivia like all my friends. Or Peru. Peru is 30 minutes away.

Now that you've read this dramatic, too-long email, here's my photos!

Going with the flow (or trying to at least,)

🫒Hermana Beck