an answer to prayer

back by popular demand(and some complaining) i once again am writing a longer letter. so last week my prayers were answered and i got an american companion and even better than just any american companion, i got elder willis!!!!!!! so thats pretty sweet. he and i came to the conclusion that we were the same person in the pre-existence and that they decided that together we would either conquer the world or be the laziest person ever, so we were split into two. anywho so last wednesday we were out teaching and what not. and i have a random thought to go see nanay and tatay reyes. so we go and see them. tatay has chicken pox and a fever. so we talked with nanay. anyways we ask if he's had a blessing and he hadnt. so we give him one and share a short message about prayer....come to find out that nanay had prayed for priesthood to drop by...we were like whoa. next day we were out and about and we stop by and share a message with sister jemma. come to find out that she had also prayed for us to come by. we had stopped by tuesday night cause elder talal wanted to say goodbye, but she wasnt home. she was sad so she prayed for us to come by and see her. twice in two days! so this week was fun. hopefully chuckles will send on the pictures, we think theyre amusing. well thats about the cool stuff for this week.

mahal ko kayo
elder b

Happy Sunday Morning

sounds like all is good and such and youre enjoying your vacation in az.sounds like all is going good with the extended family. mom lezlie wrote me last week and i wrote back, she seems good. anyways, nothing exciting happened this week. went to the temple on wednesday. transfer day is next wednesday, so dont freak out mom. we can always hope that the long winded one will be released...i am so bad. let me know what happens.anyways to answer mom. i dont know whats wrong with me. i just go through ups and a lot of downs. i just guess thats how missions go. i really don't know what to tell you. like president has told us, he's very satisfied with my work and progress. i just get easily frustrated and impatient...thats kinda the way ive been my whole life. like youve mentioned to me many times, ive never worked this hard in my life. im incredibly tired. so i dont know what else to tell you or what you would like to hear. like i said last week and several times before ether12:27.

mahal ko kayo

elder b

The "F" word game

This was a pretty boring week, but had a few highlights. so we went on exchanges with the zone leaders and i got to work with elder willis in his area. it was so freaking fun! i forgot how much fun it is to have a companion that you share a culture with. anyways it was way fun. we got punted royally, but amazingly fun. we went to this lesson and waited for seriously like 45 minutes for this family to finally get done eating and what not...it was ridiculous for a 2 minute, non spirit filled lesson. but afterwards. wilis and i are walking out and he say, i want to say an f word... thus the beginning of our game. he says a word that starts with f(not the= bad one, something like freak or something) and i respond in turn. we went about this for like 20 minutes as we walked. one of my favorites e. willis said to this punk kid bothering us...i will fart in your face! so awesome. i think that the best one was friday night feature films, by e.w. but i had some good ones in there too. but anyways that was cool and what not.

we baptized 4 people, that was cool.i dont really feel that attached to them, they kinda just fell into my lap as i arrived. we had interviews with president on monday. i walk into see sister howard with no tie on. she's like where is your tie?! i just say i didnt want another one cut off. she repeats the question and i say its in my bag. i go into the car and put the one that she cut off on. she wasnt too pleased. she was like elder beckstead where is your real tie?!?!? it was in my pocket and she approved. interviews were just kinda business like to me. i really didnt have that much i needed to say. anywho thats about it. hope all is well.

mahal ko kayo
elder b

half a tie

Greetings from the isles of the Philippines. Its been quite an interesting week. First of all I had to pick myself up off the floor and get my head back in the game. But, don't worry, I'm doing fine. I found my greatest cure for depression is just working hard. So that's what I've been doing. Let's start with zone conference it's so inspirational as always, but Sister Howard had a very interesting object lesson. So she starts off looking around the room at all the elder's ties holding a pair of scissors. She has been saying that they just aren't conservative enough. She sees mine and let me tell you, this is a gorgeous tie! Its light green and yellow stripped just look at the picture. Anyways its between mine and a purple tie for which gets cut and its mine. I so try to protect my tie, but no use; cut in half. I was so mad!!!! I just bought that tie last transfer. I wouldn't even talk to her afterwards. She did give me another, more expensive tie, but I was still mad. Whatever it's just an awesome story to tell. I really want the picture that elder Petersen took of us; he sent it to Tatay Sorensen. But anyways, had an awesome talk with Prez as always and then we were about to leave. But I just had to talk to Sister Howard and say we were cool. Sister Howard and I are tight. Anyways Friday we had the zl's come out for a baptismal interview and afterwards we were eating lunch. Elder Willis and I get to talking, which we usually do. And I mentioned that I was having some problems and that President says that he prays for me more than any other missionary in the mission and he said that president said that to him too. Then he said something that almost made me fall off my chair laughing. He said, if we were catholic, there'd be a statue of Elder Beckstead in President's office and he would pray to it everyday. It was so freaking funny. Oh, so we were walking to the palangke to text the zl's. As we walked we saw a woman angrily walking and shouting at somebody with no shirt on or even a bra. Right in the middle of the street! How wild! So that's kinda the fun and interesting stuff that's been going on. Have a good week!

Mahal Ko Kayo

Elder b

High on the Mountain Top

I have seen the top of the mountain and it is good...sort of. my area is beautiful! its sooooo quiet to cause there are no people. im definitely out in the province. but there are some serious hills all over this area. once youve summited or descended from one, there seems to be a more gigantic one waiting for me next. my legs were so sore this morning i could hardly move...not fun. and to top it all off ive been sick pretty much since ive got here. also not fun. i swear my body loves to run a fever...i guess it enjoys it or something. cause i dont. its really not fun not having the desire to eat and stuff. or feeling like youre going to throw up a lot of the time. oh man its been good times. i think ive been worrying my companion to death. we took friday off cause i was still running a fever, but that fever seems just to come and go as it pleases so thats pretty fun. i think he's worried when he walks with me cause if i fall or get really sick, there is no way he can support me. gotta love having filippino companions; big hearts, small bodies. and way thats about all for my usual sickness every transfer, i guess we're getting it over early this transfer...hopefully. but yeah so we've got like 12 baptisms that are lined up for november, so thats pretty exciting. other than that not much is going on. just kinda working everyday..as much as possible. so yeah have fun doing what you all are doing and ill talk to you next week.

mahal ko kayo
elder b

ps. if you send a dear elder please put a date in there somewhere. most of the time i have no idea how long ago it was sent to me.

Transferred

so sorry i havent been sending a whole ton of pictures home, it just takes forever and a day just to try and attach them..we have a photo shop here in my new area, maybe ill just send a disk home for christmas. oh btw for christmas i would like more socks, black and brown; more ties are always nice cause i like to have a variety; and what i would really like is a waterproof camera to carry around with me cause it tends to rain expectantly here and i dont want to get my camera ruined. kay so thats my requests for christmas. i probably need to send a pair of orthadics home to be refurbished cause ive been doing some heavy duty walking. oh btw i was transfered to my new area!  in the san gabriel zone in the cavite province. im with my 4th companion in my 4th transfer and it should be good times. elder talal was my first district leader when i got to signal 2. so yeah thats kind of the exciting stuff for now. i really dont know what i do in my day to day here so thatll have to wait for another day. hope all is well.

mahal ko kayo
elder b

happy friday

the work is still the work, i get up every morning and continue. i still try my best. my language skills are ok...the zone leaders and president both said i worry too much about the language, but im pretty sure that its a pretty important thing to worry about. it was way sweet to watch all of conference! there was an awesome spirit there, even though i froze my butt off! it was so cold! anyway remind mom that transfers are next wed so dont freakout. we transfer by bus or taxi, no one in the philippines has a car.

well cya later
mahal kita
elder b