WEEK #19 I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!!

First off it was sooooooooooo freaking awesome to see you guys!!!! Man that was the best ha. President Klein only gives us a little time but I could have talked for days! I always freez when I'm talking though and never know what to say! Haha it was quite strange but super great and I felt so much better after it! It was just weird cuz it feels like yesterday we were skyping Tanner and I was with the family. Didn't feel real at all haha. Feels like a dream. Well my whole mission feels like a dream right now. Thanks again for the gifts you sent me! Both pairs of socks are soooo siiiick and all of the candy and food was perfect and the rudolf nose and everything!! Thanks a ton. I woke up and the first thing we did was open presents and I was freaking out ha. Also I'm happy to hear you finally got my package from the MTC ha. I will be sending home a Christmas one soon. Ceiba had tons of cool stuff there but here we're in the trash of Honduras ha and we don't get to go to central of San Pedro very often. But ima find some nifty stuff to send heh heh. 

Man sounds like you guys had a blast in Mexico!!! Thats so awesome! I wanted to ask you guys more about it haha I just got all flustered. How many days were you there for and was that a different house than the last one they were at? What did you guys do everyday? That's soooo awesome about Grandma and Grandpa! I was laughing and just loving it. They are living the dream right now!! Mexico city is insane haha. Only grandpa could be able to drive there. It's ridiculous but so awesome! I'm glad it was a great trip and I can't wait to do that in 2 more Christmases! 

Christmas here was great though. We didn't eat as many tamales as we thought we would be we sure did eat a lot of pig...greasy, fatty, slimy pig. My heart hurts. The fireworks are still going too. It's nonstop till after New Years. Everybody here gets super pumped for New Years cuz they are all ready to just start a new life and do all these things. We all know how that is. Then after a couple months it just gets too hard..hahah. There are some who stick to it though!

Things are starting to pick up in the area and we were able to comit a lady named claudia to baptism! And we did divisions where i went with a youth in the ward all day and had to take control of the lessons and did it!! We had a lot of lessons that day too. Elder Oliveira and I are working together a little better and both try to lift eachother up a lot. 

On to the questions for dad...

1. Did you get packages from grandma B.?  She wanted to know.

Yes I got the package from gma and it is awesome!! Super sweet tie!!

2. Besides a jump rope is there anything else we could stick in a package for you?

All the kids here want chocolate and sour gummy worms hah and I told them I'd ask you guys. Maybe like some Hersheys Kisses and Kit Kats and M y Ms haha. But for me just a jumprope would be so awesome! Gotta keep my speed up ya know?

Former Elder Mejia
(Served with Justin Higgins in Peru)

Yep, he ate all three!!

3. What is your favorite kind of beans you eat?  I always liked the black bean log with fresh Pan. 

My favorite beans are the black beans too with rice and tortilla. I can't decide whether I like bean spread or just a bunch of little beans better. I sure do love beans though!

4. Who cut your hair?  Did a great job.  You looked great!

There's a bunch of barbers here and some young guy with a goofy hair cut did it. It's hard to explain to them though hahaha!

I love you guys so much and hope you have a great new year! Thanks for your love and support I can't tell you how grateful I am for you. I know what I have to do and we all know that this is conquerable. I ain't ever been scared of satan. Ya this has been so dang hard, but this mission is awesome and I wish you guys could see how cool and foreign it is here and just how crazy everyone and everything is! I know this is not supposed to be easy, but I know the reward is great. I have had some good experiences too so we'll just take that and keep going! Loves for everyone!

Elder Beeston

ps. I sent home the postcard me and Elder Measles made. I will give you more deets next week. Just be ready.

pss. They said my other package with the credit card is in La Ceiba so it got here! They just have to send it to me!

psss. Thanks for the addresses mom!

pssss. Tell Kona to feel better and to stop being a baby!

psssss. Stoked you're in the primary dad!!

pssssss. Whet got called to be a ZL in his mission. Only 18-year-old...barely! So siiick!

psssssss. Go utes!

pssssssss. Not much more to say.

(One of Derik's friends from Honduras texted the picture with the pizza to Tanner Monday night. And Justin Higgins texted us the picture of Derik and Elder Mejia. Apparently Justin was his Zone Leader in Peru where they served together. The former Elder Mejia is from Honduras. So fun to get random pictures from random people! Ha!)

"Found this in my soup at the bottom"

WEEK #18 ALMOST CHRISTMAS!

Dad your email was awesome! I loved it!! I had the biggest smile on my face reading it. And of course yours too mom!!! Thank you again for the packages. I'm gonna open them super early Christmas morning just like the good ol days heh heh. I'm so stoked about Utah. That's crazy! This WOULD all happen when I leave ha. Good to hear that though. I can't believe how good they're doing in basketball! Things are not going too hot here right now ha. We had zero investigators again at church and it doesn't seem to bother my comp one bit. He is soooooooooo layed back. The area I'm in is supposed to be the glory land according to all the missionaries. The members are great and normally baptisms flock here. I have to find a way to animate my comp so that we can get this work going. This area really is super awesome though. I am still struggling with this light headedness and have been talking to hma Klein and we're trying to figure out a time for me to go into San Pedro to see a doctor. It's been like this everyday for 3 weeks straight hah. We're gonna fix it though. Gotta be positive. I am so dang jealous of you guys right now! hahah and now you know what it's like to be in a spanish sacrament mtg!! It's the woooorrrssssttt! They still bore me out of my mind and I can't understand. They never were too fun in English either hahha. naahh I'm jk. But that's so funny about Ali and Larissa. But I bet tanner is having a blast just talking with everyone!! That would be so much fun. I hope we make that a tradition!! Keep having fun and I hope you all have a great Christmas expericence there. Ok I'm gonna answer the weekly questions from dad....

1. What is your favorite food in Honduras?

My favorite food has to be baleadas. I wish you could taste them. They are so goood! Fresh doughy tortillas only made in Honduras. It's a diff type of brand with bean spread and this super good cheese. Hard to get used to at first but once you are.......mmmmmmmmmmm.

2. What is your favorite scripture to teach with?

2 Nephi 9:50. Soooo money. I aint too good with the scriptures yet though hah.

3. How does your bathroom and shower work? Warm water? 

We dont use a bucket in this house. Just a super nasty shower that is cold like always. No hay warm water here in honduras heheh. I like it though. Toilet is nasty. Well...everything is nasty. Super awesome.

4. What is your favorite fruit?

My fav fruit here right now is the bananas but once mango season comes...oh freak. I'm gonna get sick of mangos.

5. Have you given a talk or testimony in church? 

I have yet to give a talk....thank goodness....and I've born my testimony once my second week in Honduras hahha. I know I got a lot coming though. I hate talking in front of people.

6. Have you received the small package from the Relief Society that I put your new debit card in?

I still haven't gotten that package, no. But it should come!!

I love you guys so much and hope you have a great time in mexico!! Thanks again for all you do. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful family!! I don't know how I got sooo lucky. I am looking forward to talking with you and seeing you. I hope all goes well. I will tell you all the other stuff I gotta ask when we skype! Love you!

Elder Beeston

WEEK #17 WELL HEY! FROM LOS LOMAS

Well I'm probably having the the biggest test of patience in my whole mission with this super awesome computer right now that doesn't want to do anything. I guess it's not its fault cuz when I was sitting down I knocked it off the table....luckily it didn't break. I really didn't know what to say to the computer shop worker man cuz I don't speak much Spanish and I'm just some random dude who knocked his computer off. Haha it was silly. It's probably gonna take me like 2 hours to write this email but oh well. Gotta love technology here!

Elder Adams!!

My new area is super awesome!! It's called Las Lomas. I've really just been confused and in another world all week but today was our first p day and I saw how cool this area and zone really is. There are only elders here, no sisters, so that's super fun. There is also an elder named Elder Adams in my zone and we went to the same elementary school and were the biggest goof balls. Today was the first time I have talked to him since 6th grade. Haha it was quite strange but also cool. We also played basketball today...full court...at the new stake center here in San Pedro which they just built. It's huge!! Two floors! haha It felt good to play basketball. Haven't touched a ball pretty much since the MTC ha. Getting a little tired of fuuuutbol...mainly cuz the latinos are just super try-hards and go harder than they need to ahah. I'm still adjusting to the area and a new companion but things have gotten better. He's a pretty cool dude. He's a good missionary. He's super super nice and uplifting which is always nice. This week we're gonna work super hard and start getting this area going. Super sweet members here which are willing to help us which is awesome cuz in La Ceiba we didn't have that. We just really gotta utilize them here! Things are getting better though. I'm learning everyday and am finding new things to improve always. I'm not too smart or good at Spanish or anything but I'm improving...I guess that's all that matters heh heh. The only problem I'm having right now is that I've been light headed 24/7 the past two weeks and I called the nurse and she said it could be a worm but we'll have to see. I gotta just keep drinking water. They say it's the best medicine so I'll give it a try. I miss Elder Measles, but I really did get blessed to be in such an awesome area and zone! God knows where we need to be and I'm happy to be working here now! I feel like this area is gonna be a big changer in the mission and I'm stoked and feel happy here! It's dangerous but I feel comfort always! Just gotta be smart haha. 

Also I got all my other packages!!!!!!!!! The utah bag and the christmas package! In this zone we get the Ruta like every week cuz we're a lot closer to the mission office. We never got in out there in La Ceiba. But thank you sooo much!! I GOT A FOOTBALL I'M SO PUMPED! THANK YOU!! I haven't picked up a football since Utah haha. Everyone was so stoked to see that too cuz futbol gets old ha. I am so excited just to throw it around next p day! Ahhh that's literally made me so darn happy! I'm not gonna open the Christmas packages til Christmas though. We're gonna put all our packages around the super mega awesome tree you made on Christmas eve and then open them on Christmas!! That tree is soooo sweeeet! Oh mooooommmm haha you are too creative. And that poem!? Who wrote that! That was too cool and really comforting actually haha. Thank you so much! I am so excited to talk to you guys on Christmas. I know I keep saying I'm gonna find out about the skype but I'm really gonna find out this week. I will let you know next week on email! 

Here's the answers to the weekly questions haha...
1. Who is living with you in your apartment besides your companion? Did you know any of them?

We have 4 people in our house and it's a super cool house! For honduras haha. I finally have a refrigerator and even a microwave!!!! But....there's no light so we're still working on that. The two other elders are named Elder Harris and Elder Flores. Elder Harris is from Bingham and played football there 2 years ago so ya.....hahah we just don't talk about that haha. But he's stoked on the football too. He's a good missionary. He's got 1 year and a half in the mission. Elder Flores is from Tegucigalpa here in Honduras waiting for his visa to Mexico. And I finally know how to spell my comps name. It’s Oliveira haha.

2. What's your favorite part of teaching?

Fav part of teaching is when I actually feel the spirit take over and my spanish flows and I see in their eyes that they can feel it too! Doesn't happen often but when it does you really feel it. Im starting to get the lessons down though.

3. Do you drink your sodas or juice out of a bag or a bottle?

You know we drink everything out of bags!!!! hahahah its so awesome there are like no bottles here. You just bite of a corner of the bag and drink away so rad. 

4. Is there purified water for you to drink? 

We buy big jugs of purified water every week so don't worry about that. I haven't drank tap water once yet...I hope.

5. Have you had your shoes shined yet?

I've gotten my shoes shined once hahah. I need to do it again cuz they are diiiirrrtttyyy. It's fun though.

6. Do you love fresh bread or tortillas? 

I love both fresh bread and tortillas and I eat way too much of it!!! hahah It's sooo addicting! I swear they put something in the bread here hahah. It's so good I wish you guys could try it. I'm gonna bring some home when I come home hahah. I could eat 50 tortillas in one sitting if they would give em to me ha.

I don't got more time we gotta get out and work tonight but I am so excited to talk to you guys! Ill let you know everything next week! Also I'm freaking stoked that ali already got an offer!!!!! (Southern Virginia University). I am trippin out haha. And that is so awesome about the Utah/BYU game and how they are doing !!!!! (Utah won!) I was laughing my head off about that dude talking with dad hahah....and that pic of dad!!!!! hahah too good. Thanks so much for your emails and for your support. I feel ready to go this week. It's a process and I feel like I have taken a step forward this week in this work. Love you so much!! I will have pics next week. This computer is handicapped and I don't got time. Hope you all have a great week! Thanks for your love alwaayyyyyzzzzzzzzzz!

Elder Beeston 

BYE LA CEIBA. BYE ELDER MEASLES:((((( HELLO SATELITE.

Well.......Elder Measles received the phone call last night. As soon as he answered it he said, "Nooooo wayyyy," and pointed at me. I got changes. Neither of us were expecting that at all! We thought there was no way in the world I would get changed. If anything, we thought it would be him. I thought we would be together for another 8 weeks but the Lord had somethin different in mind and I gotta just go with it and be happy. So normally they tell you if you have changes 2 days ahead so you can go say bye to all the people you have come to love and take pics and write cards and stuff. But, this change pres. changed the rule that you get told the night before. And so I found out at 9:30 last night which gave us like 3 hours to pack and then wake up at 4 the next morning and get out of there without saying bye to anyone! It's kind of sad but there's a lot of disobedient missionaries who may have been the cause of this rule. Funny thing though hahah...Elder Measles and I slept through our alarm and one of the missionaries called and woke us up and said dude its 5:30!!! We freaked out and jumped out of bed. I was about 3/4 of the way done packing so I had to finish packing and then we ran over to the bus. I said bye, gave Meas a hug and I was off. It all happened really fast ha and I felt like I was in the biggest dream ever. I was pretty sad all last night and this morning just cuz I really was starting to love my area. Things were starting to really get going! And I didn't want to leave Elder Measles. But it's not up to me and I'm gonna forever cherish the memories I had there in La Ceiba. 

So my new area in called Satelite. It's a colonie in San Pedro and it's the most dangerous spot in the whole mission! It was Elder Measles first area! It's about 4 hours from Ceiba. Everyone says that if you dont serve a mission in Satelite, you didn't serve a mission in Honduras! haha. My new companions name is Elder Olvediera or something like that ha. He's from Brazil! He had to learn spanish too but he has a year in the mission so he's fluent now. He doesnt talk much and so I have just been trying to spark conversation all day. No more english....heh. My new house is pretty cool. There is 4 of us there which is going to be hard to get used to. 2 gringos 2 latinos. Should be a good experience though! I know that this is where the Lord needs me to be right now. I really loved my last area but I know I will come to love this one also. 

I had the greatest time in the world with Elder Measles and will always remember the memories we made serving together here in Honduras. He is such a great example to me and I look up to him so much. I have learned a ton from him and he really helped me get through those first few months of my mission. I really was blessed to be able to serve with him. We learned to work together and we had a ton of fun! I am sad its over, but am grateful for the opportunity and experiences we had. I am ready to serve here in this new area! I am happy to be a missionary and to serve our Savior our Heavenly Father. The time to prepare to meet God is right now and I am happy I have the chance to help people prepare and make these changes in life. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and remember the true meaning of it! Its the best time of the year! Thanks for all your love and support. chow

Elder Beeston

WEEK #16 GOOD WEEK...YES IT WAS

This week was super shveeeet:) Tuesday I went on divisions with our DL and that was a really good experience. He is a great leader and helped me out a lot. We worked hard this week and were really guided by the Spirit. Our investigator Karla, who has been struggling so much made the decision to be baptized! We have been working with her a ton and she has just been having tons of doubts and everything. Two nights before the baptism she was on the phone with Elder Measles crying and we were just like....well freak. We wanted to just give up on her it was really frustrating. But we got on our knees and prayed that all would go well and that she would make the decision to be baptized. And it all worked out!! Two of our other investigators, Valedia and her brother Roberto got baptized too! It was super sweet. This ward has not experienced baptisms for a long time (the pic of the

bap font will explain) and they were all super excited! It was just a happy day with that and with the Christmas devotional too. Even though it was played in Spanish and I couldn't understand it, you can always understand the Spirit and that's all that matters right:) haha but it was a solid week.

Oh, and so I don't forget, cuz I know I will, I'm gonna answer your questions pops:) 1.We eat at a member's house about 50 feet from our house. We pay the mom 400 limperas a week to cook us lunch. She's called our cocinera. Their name is the Tursios. The crazy little mom makes us rice, beans, fried chicken sometimes pig, guineos or platanos (mostly boiled but sometimes fried:)), and yeah. Then members give us food every night. Lots of Baleadas and pastellitos and more rice and beans and stuff. When I went and did divisions with our DL he took me to burger king!!!!:) So that was nice eating a big burger. I pound food though. It's unhealthy how much I'm eating and I even lick it all off the plate cuz I love it so much!!  2. Don't have a fav drink yet. All we drink is soda!!! They have a banana soda here and it's super strong and hard to drink but I drink a ton of that and coke...yuck hahahaha. Lots of juice too. My fav juice I guess is probably Jamaica!  3. Our white shirts get washed at the same place we eat lunch by another lady there and then the rest of our clothes get washed by another member who is our neighbor. We pay her 50 limps a week. I haven't had to wash my own clothes yet:) hehe  4. We get 2,000 limps every 15 days and we just go to an atm and take it out with the cards they gave us. I haven't had to use my own money yet!:) 5. We love to go get pulperserias at this little place by our house. They come from El Salvador. There are baleada shacks all over that we go to and get 4 baleadas for 10 limps each. 50 cents each haha. I pound them!!!! People here love making them for me cuz they know I eat so much! There you go:) 

ALSO I GOT MY PACKAGES THIS WEEK!!!!! YESSSS!!! I WAS SO HAPPY! I LOVE IT ALL! I definitely needed those hi chews and peanut butter and shoes and that jersey is awesome too! So sweet! Tell everyone thank you so much! I love you all so much! Thanks for everything!! 

We have changes this week so we'll see if me and Elder Measles are still together. We both have a feeling we won't be though but whatever happens happens and you just keep goin heh! I just don't know what I will do without Measles. He is a smarty pants and knows how to do everything and I kinda just walk along. So hopefully we get one more change together and I can learn a bit more. I will be lost without him. The rain has ceased to come down for the most part this week so that's nifty. I hope you all had a great week! Thanks for all your love and support! 

Elder Beeston

p.s. Oh ya dad I finally cut my toe nails the other day so I hope that makes you happy. Tell the rest of the family I love them! 

WEEK #15 RAIN

Welp. This week was nuts. Hope everybody had an excellent thankgiving and black friday! Thanksgiving here was.....well....nothing. However we did get invited over to one of our investigators house (George...the most interesting man in the world without a doubt) and they fed us some dry turkey and rice and beans and bananas!! It could have been the best Thanksgiving dinner I've had. The day before Thanksgiving was absolutely insane. It was the biggest rainstorm Honduras has seen in yeeeaaarrrrrsssss. I have never seen more rain in my life. We were just strollin like we usally do on the streets Wednesday morning after doing divisions with our district leader, and then boom it started dumping with out even giving us a friendly warning. And it did not stop until the next day. 24 hours straight of pouring rain! Elder Measles and I figured we were already soaked and that staying in the house all

day would just be boring so we went to work! Earlier that day we were walking by the ocean which was nuts and we were telling eachother how nuts it would be if there was a natural disaster here and we just had to help recover houses the rest of our mission. It kind of came true just for the day haha. The streets were up to our knees and in some spots at our waists and sometimes we would be walking and all of a sudden I'd fall in a sewer hole all the way under the water. It was quite the adventure. We would show up for lessons and the people were just mind boggled haha. They didn't know what to do and so they would just let us in and we would teach em and go swimming again. We finally were walking back home and decided to see how this one family was doing who is really progressing right now and so we walked to their house and it was completely flooded. We helped them for about an hour and then realized our house was probably flooded too and you betcha it was....we opened up the door and there was water up to our shins! All our stuff was on the ground before but the guy who owns our house picked it all up before it got wet. Huuuuuge miracle. All of our stuff got saved so that was good. We then decided to go out and help out all the people in our colony. We were just running...swimming...from house to house helping people lift stuff off the ground so it didn't get wet till 11:30 that night and then had to unflood our house til 2 in the morning...it was craaaazy. We finally got to sleep and woke up the next morning and it was as if nothing happened. hahha it was a cool experience. It has been raining everyday since but hasn't flooded again. 

But apart from all the rain, things have been going great here! Our investigator Val is getting ready for baptism this Saturday or Sunday!! I'm super excited. And we should have a couple more on date in December. This area is awesome right now and our ward is starting to have a desire to help us. We are being led to a lot of people who are prepared to receive the Gospel. This area has been really dead in the past but is starting to really get going now. I am grateful to be able to be here and to be a part of this work. I know this is the work of the Lord and we are His instruments. I know this Gospel is true and my faith grows a little bit each more everyday. There are a lot of people out here who need the chance to receive the Gospel and begin ther path towards eternal life and it's awesome to be able to help them receive it. Have a gnarly week everyone! I love you all!

Elder Beeston