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!

Voice recording, transfer, and a week in Guayaquil

Forgive me for not posting the last few weeks. Brandon sent a voice recording instead of a letter 2 weeks ago. It was all in Spanish (which is excellent by the way), and I don't remember lots of what he shared. Much of it was jokes that only make sense in Spanish and a list of things he needs for his birthday package.

The following week, he had a transfer so spent the day traveling and moving into his new place.

We got a great letter today. So here goes:

We live in a really messed up part of town. theres always dudes smoking pot and crack outside our house, but theyre 100 percent chill with us. always like wassup elders hows it going? its crazy awesome here.

next week we talk, and thatll be cool, bring cooper along lol

Tuesday: It is too hot. We walked around our sector and got to know some of the members. Everybody is super nice here. They all like talking to me and giving me good food. It's so freaking awesome! I ate too much today, and now I'm dying!

Wednesday: Still hot. Got to know some of our investigators today. They're cool. We also watched an inactive play uncharted 4, so that was sweet. I can just smell the potential of this area. It's awesome.

Thursday: Wilmer accepted a baptismal date for next Saturday the 13th. He's a 16 year old who's really small and really amazing! He's excited for his baptism.

Friday: I showed up to our district meeting to a surprise. Elder Fourcade got transferred into my zone. He's cool. As for today, we finished teaching Wilmer, so now we just need to get him into the water.

Saturday: Elder Inuma got really sick so nothing happened.

Sunday: We had a meeting with the Stake President today about a missionary invasion. Should be interesting. We also had lunch with the coolest family, Familia Salizar. It was a good day.

ALSO SOME LADY SHOWED UP AT CHURCH AND ASKED TO BE BAPTIZED! LIKE WHAT!!

-Elder Beech

Week in Santa Rosa

Tuesday, April 4

We had a crazy day today. I had an appointment with the doctor for my eyeballs. Herman Moreno scheduled it for me. I was having trouble reading and it annoyed Elder Coello so we went to the doctor, and now I have reading glasses. Then we had a lesson with Tatiana, who was baptized a year ago. She's an inactive member. She quit coming to church because of personality conflicts with someone. After that lesson, we went to Santa Rosa to spend the night.

Wednesday, April 5

I spent the day in Santa Rosa with Elder Bowser and Elder Hurtado, both younger than me in the mission. It was a hot day, and nothing much happened, but we ate pizza. I also got my Easter package. Thanks for the Duck!

Thursday, April 6

We came back from Santa Rosa and I got sick. So I spent the day puking. So that was fun.

Friday, April 7

We went back to Santa Rosa for Zone Training. We're going to Guayaquil next Saturday to meet Elder Christofferson! That should be fun. We had no lessons today.

Saturday, April 8

The day started off like Friday, nobody was home. But at 5:30 we had a lesson with Franklin Rayes, who is a new investigator. He's old and cool. He lives in the middle of nowhere. I found a really cool goat as well! He's a really cool dude. After that, we just looked for new people and found none.

Sunday, April 9

The Miracle. Nobody answered our calls or the door when we went to invite them to church. We felt we'd put up another 0 for investigators again this week, but we showed up to church with 5 investigators. They just came. It was amazing. The rest of the day was calm, nobody at home again, but it's all good.

Monday, April 10

All is good here. I ate ribs today, so that was nice. I am a super nerd, but it's all good. We are going to baptize soon, I hope. Miss you and love you! This week was boring.

Updates on Monday, April 10

buenas tardes hermanas y padres,

this week was exeptionally BORING. we did a lot of traveling and i taught a lot of animals. We lost our super cool old guy investigator, so that was sad, but he´ll come around one day. Guayaquil was cool, all 3 missions were there and i saw elder Toledo. I also found Ecco in my comps package and stole it. jajajajajajajajajajaja. All is good around here, were having incredible success with investigators and everything. Its looking really bright here in piñas!

how is everybody? 🙁

keep your nose up
-Elder Beech

Two weeks of updates!

Updates from the last 2 weeks:

March 20: I spent my whole day in Santa Rosa. Elder Coello got into Santa Rosa at about 7:40. We're staying the night with our zone leaders, Elder Roberts and Elder Gomez. We should head back around 6 or 7 tomorrow and get into Pinas around 10 or 11. I will be so dead tomorrow. Elder Coello is a cool guy.

March 21: We left Santa Rosa at about 6:40 this morning and got into Pinas at about 11:00. The back route got blocked too. As for the day, nobody was home. We spent the whole day searching for nothing. We found a new investigator, 17 year old Karla, who's sister is a member in Italy. She's cool. Elder Coello is dying. These mountains were never made for men like him. He's super awesome. He's chill.

March 22: Elder Coello is absolutely going to zonk tonight. He has 20 months in the mission, all in Guayaquil, which is super flat. I cannot describe how steep these hills are. We actually had lessons today. With George and Ibies and their family. Wonderful family. Walked around a bit, had a lesson with Jessica, and then hit up a less active, then walked into the mountains, and nobody was home. Solid day.

March 23: It was a good day. Freezing day with rain (cold for Ecuador). Once again nobody was home. We also got a call from the zone leaders last night. Pinas is its own district now. District Leader - Elder Beech.

March 24: I was super sick today. Ugh.

March 25: Still sick, but I left the house finally. Nobody was home, but it was a good day.

March 26: Church was good. I slept pretty much the rest of the day. Really sick still. Excited for General Conference!

March 27: We went to the cross today. For the first time in a long time, I had a real P-day. I also may be able to recover my photos tomorrow. We'll see. For district meeting this week I'm having all the missionaries write talks about the atonement and their lives (or just the atonement). Also super pumped for General Conference! It'd be cool if next week you could all send me your favorite talks BEFORE Monday. Thanks.

The roads in and out of Pinas are closed, so we're trapped in Pinas in case I get sicker. LOL.

We finally had a lesson with Hermana Esperana, a 16 year old investigator. It was alright.

March 28: Today was not so good. Everybody is super sick, busy, or not home. A lot of our investigators have problems with listening to us because their parents don't want them to listen to us.

March 29: We have no money, and no food. Rough day.

March 30: We went to Portovelo today, which was cool. I think we might have some success here.

March 31: Nobody was home again today, but we had a branch activity, so that was fun.

April 1: Conference was good.

April 2: We had to hang out in the house after general conference ended because of elections. We had 0 investigators show up to conference :(

Sorry, I haven't been too good about updating the blog. For starters, Brandon had a transfer to a new area. His Pday was spent on the bus all day, so he didn't have a chance to email. The following week was Carnival, and they were housebound during the Pday, so again no email. Then we were out of town for Spring Break, and I didn't have service so was unable to update the blog. So here are his notes from the past few weeks.

Feb. 20:

This week was not too good. Between losing my scriptures and everything I had studied, along with my copy of my visa and pasport, and several photos. We had little success.

In all honesty its hard here. For P-day, we cleaned house for 5 hours. No break. Im exhausted. We also have carnival this weekend so we'll be stuck in the house from saturday until wendesday. Please pray for me and my companion, and this sector. Its rough.


March 1:

Well, staying in the house is rough. Being sick is even rougher. But its all good.

I ate cuy like 4 weeks ago and I forgot to tell you guys. I also at a giant ciqueda this week. Maybe thats why im sick.


March 6:

We are hoping and looking forward to a baptism on Saturday, if she passes the baptismal interview. She a bit old, and really crazy, but she has desires to do whats right.

All that she has told us:
The mafia wants the gold under her house, and has killed her husband, and is torturing her son to get the gold. Her neighbors are devil worshipers and somebody keeps throwing toxic gas into her house. She wants us to wait with her as we fill up the pila bautismal for 3 hours on saturday. Also satan keeps talking to her. She's really cool.

As for the rest of the week, we started off by losing our golden family on wednesday night. Too much extended family pressure to stay catholic. So they kindly told us to leave. Elder Schillen got really bummed by that, but I told him God will bless us as Job if we have patience. We didn't get a 10 fold reward, but looking back, we do have a 3 fold reward. 3 new golden families.

We also had a REALLY old investigator (hes 16 but got dropped 3 months ago) show up to church randomly, and so he's back and progressing. He's a cool guy.

Also we lost another investigator because she died. But she was at least infinity, and was accepting all that we taught, so shes all good.

I still do not have my package, but I feel it will arrive in my hands on Friday.

Attached are some pictures of me with the catholics, me with Elder Vegas and Elder Arroyo.

Church is true, Jesus died for you, and Ecuador is too rainy.

March 13:

I hope the pictures are loading. I saw an Iguana this week, and Hna. Rosa drank cofee and was not baptized. Also spent about 22 hours in Machala for a zone conference and it was calm.

All is well in the work here in Piñas, not much to report on. I hope all is well with you all in Texas. I have no good stories for you guys, but maybe next week when I can send my weekly letter. Yes I am writing them.

Love you,
-Elder Beech

Updates from Ecuador

I know the updates have taken a while. Please forgive this missionary mama! Here are the highlights from the last few weeks.

-They had a 2 hour broadcast from Salt Lake City to inform them of the new mission rules that are being implemented worldwide. The 2 biggest ones that will impact Elder Beech are that P-day is 2 hours longer starting at 8:00am, and they are allowed to go to bed at 9:30pm instead of 10:30 pm.

-Solid work going on in Catamayo. Lessons taught frequently but slow progress with his favorite investigators.

-Went on splits with his District Leader, and they ate lots of tamales.

-Priesthood Conference in Loja. Got back to Catamayo late because the bus broke down.

-Received a letter from our Ward Primary. It was mailed before he even left the MTC! He loved it! "It made me happy"

-He's been sick for the last little while, so he hides his meals of bananas and rice in his socks when he just can't eat it. I guess this is better than appearing rude to their members or investigators.

-He had his first transfer. He is now in Pinas with a new elder from California. Brandon is the senior comp. That was a tough Monday for us, since he wasn't able to email at all.

"My testimony is strong still, despite getting rejected a ton. Church is true, book is blue, Jesus loves you. Gospel changes lives, and the Book of Mormon is cool."

Highlights from this week:

He got sick early in the week. Then the rest of his apartment mates started getting sick too. He had a good attitude and pushed through working as missionaries do.

He ate lasagne on Friday!

He gave a talk on Sunday.

"This week was one of the hardest of my life. But why do we have trials? To learn. It's all for our experience. I've had a stomach bug for almost a week and an allergy rash on my back that hurts worse than Harambe's death. But guess what? I've learned so much, and I'm infinitely a better missionary because of it. Life is not meant to be easy. It's a state in which we are to learn and have our faith tried. I invented a word this week: zapatomirador. A zapatomirador is a shoe watcher. Someone who always has their head down Someone who won't lift their face or their voice to their Heavenly Father in their times of need. Nunca ser un zapatomirador. Always look up, and look for the good in everything. See the blessings"