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

WEEK #14 CEIBA IS NIFTY

Greetings everybody. Its suuuper weird to think that its snowing in utah and that its almost thanksgiving! ha nothing feels different here..in fact its getting hotter. I'm in a strange world. Sometimes we'll be walking and we'll see a 30 foot christmas tree its mega random. haha Christmas is pretty big here. It's different though cuz they just party and eat tamales all month and set off firecrackers. Crazy catrachos...hahha. Sounds like Ty's wedding was pretty sweeet! That's so awesome that he is able to be sealed now. The Atonement is so great! Probably a pretty cool experience. I wish I could go to the Temple soooo bad. I feel like I have forgotten everything I learned and it really would give me a boost right now. 

Me and Elder Measles are working hard and we're seeing God's hand in the work. This area has been super dead for a long time and it's starting to get going again. We are finding a lot of new people to teach and they are all super accepting. We've got 4 people set for baptism in December! I am excited to do a baptism and experience that. There are a lot of people ready here to change their lives! Our area is seriously sooooo siiiiiiick! We went from being in like the most rich and safe part of honduras to super poor and a bit sketchy....We have like everything in our area though. And it is exploding right now! We had 6 people at church and the members are starting to work harder. We have 4 people ready for baptism in december too! A 15-year-old, a dude named Ange (reference from the other two missionaries taken out, and al y elia (also references from the other two)! I am excited to baptize and to experience that. I feel like I don't really know any of these investigators though ha. I just sit there and talk when it's my turn and ya. The work is progressing a ton though and that's all that matters. Jorge is still doing alright. We don't really know what to do with him though. And Karla is still just super unsure. She knows she has to but can't committ herself right now. She thinks it would be better to start off next year with the baptism but she is ready right now!!! ha. 

[Experience from Elder Measles] Last night we went into the hospital to give an investigator a blessing. We walked in and it was so disgusting it just looked like a jail. Bars on the windows, paint peeling from the walls, no lighting, and just really dirty. We walked into the back to where Jeny was and it was the saddest little room. She is like a big tough police lady and the only thing in her room was a nasty matress with a sheet falling off of it it was sad. Tiny bathroom. No medicine cuz the government won't give the hospitals money and it was just disgusting. Through all this disgust we were actually able to have a really spiritual experience in there last night. Really cool experience actually. 

As for spanish it's getting better but I still struggle big time. I can't wait for the day when I can understand these people here and just say what I wanna say haha. But it will come! The gift of tongues is real because I've seen it here on my mission already. I have never been a good learner but God is helping me A LOT. I am grateful for all of you and for all your love and support. Your prayers make a great difference in this work!! 

Things are going good though. I love you all so much. I show lots of people here our family pic and they all just freak out and say we are a perfect family haha:) All the little honderenos think you are super pretty too mom!! and ali and larissa. And I guess dad too. and....Tanner sure. heh heh:) I'm glad things are going great at home! Sounds like you are all busy and having fun! I saw the pic of my package. That's soooo awesome! I'm stoked out of my mind! Our zl's are strugglin with bringing the Ruta out here but it should come soon I hope. I am gonna be sending home a christmas package too so maybe that and my old package will come at the same time haha. Oh ya also I am eating soooo much food out here. It's unhealthy. I am always hungry!!! The people here think it's so funny and bring me out so much food. Imma get fat!! I love rice and beans and fried or boilded guineos and platanos! And I love oatmeal! I eat it everymorning with water and white sugar hahah. It's my favorite. And then I go to a pulperia and buy me a chocoleyde:) and semitas. It's just bread with this super good coat of sugar. Dad probably knows. Also dad I ate and drank my first coconut the other day! It was different than I thought but I like it:) Well I've written way more than I thought...lol...but I love you all soo much! Thanks for being the greatest family ever. I wouldn't be here without you guys. I pray for you everyday! Have a great week!:)

Elder Beeston

ps. I hope you all have a great thanksgiving!! I'll just keep eating rice and beans!

p.p.s. thats sweet that ellen was able to talk to that missionaries mom (was it his mom) last week about the inactive convert named Dino we found! I was gonna tell you too mom but I forgot haha. 

Pics from last week's p-day...

WEEK #13 PRESS FORWARD

Hey everyone we don't have much time to write today because we were at an activity yesterday and didn't get home in time to write. So we only got a little bit of time to write today. We went to one of the prettiest places in the mission all day and played soccer and stuff!! It is called Trujillo and it's like 4 hours away. We left at 4 in the morning and got back at night. It was super super sick tho. It's the most beautiful beach in Honduras besides roatan and we went and chilled there all day. I got a huge burger and french fries!!! hahahaha but I like tejadas better:) I got so burnt haha but it was awesome. I'm gonna send all those pics next week so don't worry there's a bunchy. I aint got no time today. 

Austin's First Year Celebration

This week was tough but we found a lot of new people to teach in our new area! We're working mega hard and are being led to a lot of new people! Especially in that new area Barrio Igles. [We found 11 new investigators and had two days straight where we taught 7 lessons each day. It was awesome. Really getting this area going.] Also we have a couple people on date for baptism this next month. I am excited for them and hope it goes through!! 

This week has really been a roller coaster though. I have never been so mentally and emotionally exhausted in my life! ha but it's not supposed to be easy. Everyone has weaknesses and the only thing you can do is admit you have them and rely on the Lord and our Heavenly Father for strength. Christ has already paid the price for every single one of us and all we have to do is literally so simple. Just come unto him. As a missionary you literally have to lose yourself and that's somethin I'm really trying to work on. Also humility and charity...and PATIENCE. ha Knowing what Christ has done for me...serving a mission and giving everything I have is nothing. It's the least I can do. So you gotta just keep pressing forward and trying to be better each day. I love singing the song I Stand All Amazed. It gets me through the day! Love you all and really appreciate your prayers and support. well....cya

Elder Beeston

P.S. Dad make sure to work on your spanish!! Read the spanish B of M every day cuz how cool would it be if me you and doofy Tanner could talk to eachother and make a trip to Guatemala, Honduras and Riverside!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know you're up for that. Also any day I have am having a rough time I wear your Guatemala tie and it gives me power!  

WEEK #12 THE ROLLER COASTER

Heyyyyyy everybody. This week was alright. Its been a roller coaster! haha. One second everything can be so great and you feel on top of the world, and the next you feel like you just got ran over by a herd of horses. That has literally been this week. So many ups and downs ha. One up is that we went out to the new part of our area and the sunset was suuuuuper pretty and out super far out into the sea there were tornadoes! I guess these tornadoes come like once a year I have no clue why and they LITERALLY suck up fish and there is a city named lloro where it rains fish every year. I know. I didn't believe it but it's true look it up! haha so awesome. Another really cool experience I had this week was the other night I was just having a super hard time and just wasn't feeling it and I went to bed really upset. I woke up in the morning on sunday and got down on my knees and prayed. I prayed as hard as I could for strength and help and that morning was one of the best mornings ever!! The Spirit was so strong and everything just went from being so bad and frustrating to soooo good! Sometimes it's hard to get on your knees and pray when satan is throwing everything at you and you feel worthless. But if you can just find the strength to pray to our Heavenly Father and tell him how your feeling and ask for forgiveness and pray for strength, I promise you will feel so much better. I have a strong testimony of prayer because of many times where I wanted to just give up and felt so low, but through prayer was able to feel like a new person. 

We are still working with Karla towards baptism, but she is having a tough time. We are working with her though. Pray for her! Also our other progressing investigator Jorge (crazy dude) is starting to be a bit flaky. We're gonna work with him a lot this week to try to help set a date for baptism. He is trying to get his book big here in Honduras and is just really stressed out. But we found a guy this week named Dino who fell away from the church a long time ago after being taught by two missionaries. We wrote the missionaries on facebook and told them we found Dino again! And he's coming back to church!! He knows it's true he was just a little lost. Cool experience though cuz we just walked past him and said buenas, and kept going. Then we felt like we should go back and so we did and he told us he knew God put us there. He knew we were gonna come back. He is a little embarrassed coming back to church but he said it was a great experience
coming back.

Well, that's all I got for this week. Spanish is tough and I really struggle with it but it's getting better. Just a little bit each day. Elder Measles is doing great. He is a great leader and is super smart in this Gospel and I learn a lot from him. Also something else super crazy...the other two elders in our area got taken out and so now Measles and I have to cover that area along with our area which just got expanded for a whole month. We walk like 20 miles everyday. I love it:) Well have a great week!

Elder Beeston

p.s. Dad I was at lunch the other day and saw on tv......Utah vs. Oregon on Espn. I freaked out hahah. It showed travis wilson it was nuts. I had to look away though and try not to think about it haha.

WEEK #11 MEGA WEEK

Well this week was siiiiiiiiiiick:) It was probably the coolest week so far. We started off the week in a trio with another white kid haha. His name is Elder Criddle from brighton. It was so crazy cuz president never puts gringos together (except for me and Elder Measles ha), and then were in a trio with 3! So awesome. He is our DL and is a great teacher so we just felt unstopable together. Literally everyone in the street stopped to look at us cuz it was just so random. Just 3 white dudes in white shirts and ties walking around. Probably was pretty dangerous ha. We only had two beds in the house two so we had to Super Bed. 3 nights in a row. And we only had two chairs in the house so one of us had to sit on a bucket to study. Mostly me cuz I love buckets.

So on Thursday it was just me and Elder Meas again. We were able to find a new family this week who is soooo catholic but they are awesome. Give it some time and there is no way they are not getting baptized. They made us some baleadas the other night that were the best ones ive had my whole mission so far and we eat them everyday pretty much. Another one of our investigators who we thought would be getting baptized this week told us she is having trouble with the law of chastity and that really punched us in the face. Were gonna keep working with her though she is so ready. So another guy we are teaching named Jorge...well I don't even know what to say about him. I found out that I literally know nothing about doctrine after teaching him. He probably is the most interesting man in the world and I have not met a smarter person on planet earth. He knows everything about the

doctrine. Everything. He knows how to just stump you and then he just smiles. He wants to be able to know the truth but he thinks he can only get it from our "wisdom." We bear testimony to him everytime and tell him we are not perfect and are only instruments in God's hands. We testify boldy of pure truth and he says he feels it. He tells us he only keeps us around cuz he feels something good about us. Well Jorge...Get Baptized!!! We tell him the only way to know is to ask God because we cant convince him. He can only know if he will read and get on his knees and ask God. That is the only way anyone can receive a real answer. Go to your Heavenly Father FIRST. 

On Saturday we were able to travel back to Elder Measles old area (where he thought he would be training me) in Progresso! Its about 4 hours from Ceiba.

We got there in 2 1/2. In a bus. Crazy hondurenos. lol. So president came out with a rule that missionaries are not aloud ever to go back to their old areas but made an exception for us because the family only wanted Elder Measles to do it. Or they werent gonna do the baptism haha. So we woke up at 3:30 in the morning and got on a bus at 4:30 to progresso! It is an aweosome place. We were able to go around and visit the people Elder Meas used to teach and had grown to love. Every one there loves him! haha it was so funny to see their reactions when they saw him. We went into Centro, which is crazy, and walked all around seeing his old area. super mega sweeeeeet:) The baptism was great. It was quick too. And after the baptism we were back on a bus to Ceiba. I slept the whole way home and all I remember is some little old lady at the bus stop for probably 20 min staight saying...quiere leechas??? leechas leechas quiere leeeeeechas??? (lichas are fruits here and they are wayyy good). I totally would have bought some from her too if we weren't fasting ha. I could not get her voice out of my head though I'm gonna have nightmares about it. 

Well so ya that was our week. It was quite the adventure. It's been raining errrrrrrr single day and we just give up and walk through the flooded streets cuz we aint babies. Its awful after though and we realize we should have just tried to stay dry..heh. Some rain boots would be a good investment. Well I hope you all have a great week and know that I am doing fine out here. Also Elder Measles and I found out we are staying together for another change at least! mega stoked. Also just got a new part added to our area, and we now have the beach! I´ll send some pics next week. We forgot the cameras today heh! Hasta proxima semana! 

con amor,

Elder Beeston

p.s. oh ya also...I SAW THE BIGGEST SPIDER I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE IN MY HOUSE. Almost had a heart attack. I about started crying no joke. Scariest looking spider I have ever seen. Measles took care of it though. Ahhhhhh.

p.p.s. (Joe asked Derik how he liked platanos and little yellow bananas) I love platanos!!! Ahhhh I want some right now. But ya they were weird at first. And the little guys are awesome! I have either boiled guineos, fried platanos, or fried tehadas which are also bananas...every single meal. And rice and beans. You were absolutely right, dad. I love it though. Sometimes. But there is always someone outside saying GUINEOS GUINEOS!! Haha it's so funny. But the best one are the sweet fried platanos. And ya we might be heading to buy some rain boots today! And we're gonna head over to our new area. Super dangerous. We're not allowed there at night. But it's good during the day. It's called Barrio Ingles right by the beach.

"SOMETIMES WE GO TO MEETINGS"

-Elder Measles