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!

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