June 19

I didnt have much time to write last week, so that's why my letter was crap. Perdon me. 

So this week was good, until last night. We went out and worked out BUTTS off. We contacted, asked memebers for help, did a ton of service projects and had a fun time. Elder Chota works super hard, but has me laughing always. I think we make a good pair. We had about 6 baptismal dates by the end of saturday. we were smiling, so proud of all the work we were doing, then came sunday. 

First of all, nobody caem to church. So that was discouraging. Then we went out to get the baptismal permission from the mom of one of our baptismal dates. the mom of 3 baptismal dates. Wilmar's mom in fact, the last baptism here. She said no to all 3 of here kids getting baptized. She said that they were acting bad in the house and doesnt feel they can be memebers of the church of jesus christ. si we left the house shaking our heads. 2 baptismal dates. That night we went to the house of some inactives who are slowly coming back to church and have a 9 year old daughter who is not baptized. When we came by, the family said no, and that they didnt want anything to do with us or joeseph smith anymore. Si we started walking to our only baptismal date, who is a shoe in to be baptized on my birthday.  she said she wanted to be baptized on th 5th of july so that we could celebrate. Shes the daughter of an inactive, and she asked us to be baptized. So we caem by super excited. When we got there, she told me sorry, but that she would rather be baptized on wednesday. So we said, heaven yeah, lets get it all set up. And ran her through the pre-interview. She got frustrated when she told us that she had to have an interview with president, due to certain things she disclosed to us, and told us she would call if she ever had the desire to be baptized again. She doesn't have a phone. 

0 baptismal dates. 

It's days and weeks like these, where you get back to the apartment exhausted, depressed, and in silence. Where you take a showet with your eyes closed and when you tuck yourself in at 10:00, and you don't sleep, because you just wonder what you're doing wrong. Where yopu lie in bed staring at the ceiling and the words of the lord of the vineyard ring out in your mind; "What could I have done more for my vineyard?" Its days like this when you just feel beat. 

We have a lot more references to contact this week, and we're hoping to just start over from scratch. It'll be hard, but we're up for the challenge. God wants to test us, then we can show him that we're not giving up. Like wrestlingf an angel, even when we dislocate our joints, we keep wrestling, beacuse we know how impórtant the gospel is. 

A little background on Elder Chota. His name is Brandy, so we're basically the same person. He was baptized at 17 years old, alone. Nobody else in his family are memebrs, and his girlfriend married his best friend. But he just keeps working. HE's short and talks funny, but he is incredible. 

I hope all is well with you guys, sorry I couldn't include more in this letter. Hopefully, when I have a cmera again, I can write letters every night and give you guys more deatails. 

cuídense! 

-Elder Beech

June 5, 2017

Hey family, 

I GOT ROBBED AND I AM OKAY JUST CHILL OUT. I also watched a little baseball thanks to my buddies here god bless. 

This week has been a good week. two venezualan families moved in to the ward, with literally nothing. they're awesome though. They talk a lot about baseball with me. 

our baptismal date for saturday fell through. His mom told us that until he can learn to behave he cant get baptized. so we gotta mom this booger and then baptize him. ugh. 

AND THE STORY OF THE WEEK; ARMED ROBBERY!

so im just walking home at night, chilling out not being rude to anybody and this UGLY man walks out with a knife and tell sus to give him our stuff. so i was like nah bro, i gotta keep my scriptures cuz im a jesus man, and he was cool with that, but i gave him my money and camera (still have the sd card) because im not trying to die or anything. then the guy was like, okay have a good night, and we said, yeah you too, and we went home and played cards. 

not much else happened this week, sorry about that, but should get better lol love you dudes, 

-Elder Beech

How has it been three weeks??

We had such a great phone call with Elder Beech on Mother's Day. We even had Whitney on FaceTime on another device so we could all talk to each other. It was such a blessing to have everyone together for an hour. Some of the questions we asked him are:

1. What do you do on P-day? play soccer, visit sites, do errands
2. What was your favorite meal from members so far? Ribs!
3. What do you not like to eat there? Rice, rice, rice
4. What do members usually feed you? Rice, rice, rice
5. What was your last service that you did? washed someone's dog
6. How often do you do laundry? There is a lady that does the laundry for us

We asked him lots of other things too. It was great. He bore his testimony to us in Spanish. His Spanish is really good, and he loves speaking it. It was hard to say good-bye, so now we look forward to the Christmas Skype time!

May 15:
hey fam bam slam,

nothing at all has changed since yesterday, so thats alright. we played soccer today with wilmar and all and then ate some cookies from hna. diana who sent a picture to mom last night. lol that family is awesome.

yeah, nothing to report, had a baptism, number 7 and hes super well haha, and Jesus sends some hellos to you all especially whitney. él va a ser mi cuñado.

here are some pictures, hope you enjoy them lol. send more pictures!!!!!!!!!!

love Y'ALL,
-Elder Beech

May 22:

Hey family,

this week in the disney world of the ecuador guayaquil south mission, not much is new. Looking forward to a great week this week, looking forward to working super hard so we can stay better than the zone leaders hahaha.

All has been super boring over here, nothing new to reallly say. we played soccer today, and that was fun. My legs hurt super bad though :(. but all is well. send pics of cooper and your lives pls. I look forward to hopefully sending a letter by hand next week. but we'll see.

ay a vosotros,
-Elder Beech

hello family,

just so you all know, I did write a handwritten, detailed, inspiring letter this week, but lent my camera to the zone leaders today, and so I cannot send the letter :(.

BUT recap of the week, 2 new baptismal dates, almost got robbed and a fish burned me.

so we put a date down for hna nicol who has been baptized before, but theres no registro so shes gotta go under again. and a 13 year old asked to be baptized so that'll be cool.

a high dude tried to rob us, but i said no, and he walked away.

and i HATE FISH SO MUCH THAT I STUCK 2 PIPING HOT FRESH OFF THE STOVE FISH BUTT TAILS IN MY SOCKS AND I GOT BURNED REALLY BAD AND IT WAS STILL BETTER THAN EATING THE STUPID THING.

but yeah, all is good. sunday was awesome, hna virginia lopez had a birthday, so we went to her house to eat, and the stupid zone leaders showed up and ate browines with us. but its chill, they didnt machete or anything. we also had stake conference, which felt ñole being in the plano 5th ward in terms of attendence. but its all good. president was there, and elder espínoza and the temple president (MY GRINGO HOMIE) and it was super beutiful and everything.

hope all is well and that finals turn out to be super hard and you all suffer hasta cooper esta sufriendo lol ñaño. im kidding. but how is that bugger? still ugly?
-Elder Beech

We got this video last week!

And this picture showed up from a sister in Guayaquil!