Just a few more Picks!!!

Chelsi~Shellie~Toni~Lori
Jack & DarbiBrittany and Chelsi Eli and Parker Jaxon, Tyler, Eli and Stockton

Elder Beckstead and Carlie Gohring Signs made by Debbie Wardell

Mandi and Mitch

Mitch and mom

Best Birthday hug ever!!

More Homecoming pics!!!

Colby and Mitch
Toni

Chelsi-Parker!! Terri

Jack Moser holding sign and Peyton, Stockton, Jaxon, Blaize, Colby, Eli, Parker and Darbi

His flight was # 1288 from Atlanta!!

Mitch returned from his mission on my Birthday May 17th 2011. It was a very exciting day for all of us. His flight did not arrive that night until around 10:30 pm. We were excited to have friends and family come to welcome him home at the Salt Lake Airport. Besides his sisters and their husbands, all the nephews and his niece Darbi that he has never met, we had cousins, Shellie and her family, Terri, Mom , Deon and her girls, and two friends from Arizona-Chris and Michael Kirkegaard. Rina Carver showed up and took some pictures and I shall post them. . . . It was so neat to see him for the 1st time in 2 years.

We stayed at my moms house that night and Mitch was able to visit with Grandpa Wood the next morning before we headed home to see all the family and friends from Clifton. It was great!!!

My Mission ended Perfectly:)

Hello everyone. This is E Becksteads last e-mail. He is right, I am baggy. May 13th was his year mark, so we are in the 3rd year now. I am ready to see him again. It's all been for a very good purpose. I want to thank everyone who supported him and remembered him in their prayers. That is what kept him safe and helped him with his success. A mission is a great work and I am greatful that he was blessed with good health and strength to have the opportunity to serve.
Thanks again
Love
Lori

Haha! WOW my Mom is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO Baggy!!!
I guess we deserve it cause its all about over, what an experience right??? This week has been great, I ended my mission perfectly. In church we had a total of about 65-70 people, not too bad for a new branch right?? Then as I left all the people from the community came and shook my hand, haha some even gave me hugs and stuff. I know I'm not supposed to hug but I would try to avoid the hug and they would give me one anyway, so I didn't know what to do. My week with Tyler was awesome, I realized that I have changed quite a bit, but he says I'm still pretty normal so thats a good thing.
Oh and I cant wait to tell you about Hno Mario, he's a guy I baptised this weekend, he came running out with tears in his eyes and gave me a huge hug and told me to make sure and visit him soon. haha I love that guy!!!! I dont have much to say but tomorrow we'll have a good ole fashion chat there at home, don't even worry.
Just make sure everyone is safe and sound. I love you all and can't wait to see you tomorrow.
Elder Beckstead
I gave the treats you sent to everyone, they loved them!!!!!! It brought tears to the eyes of a very poor family that we baptised. So thank you, they sent you something too.
Love YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH
Elder Beckstead

A lot of work to do-Tyler will be there tomorrow!!

haha mom dont worry, i'll send you an email, but why do you want an email, if you wait just a few hours more and ill be there telling you face to face what happened. (I told him to e-mail me Monday and tell me about his last week)
As of right now im thinkin about going to El Triunfo and Iberia and probably just hanging out a lot in Cedeño cause we have a lot of work to do there and I would like to find a few more people for after I'm gone to to help out my comp a little bit. So yeah were not too set yet with everything but I'm sure he's(Tyler) gonna love it, well I hope, we'll see if he likes the missionary lifestyle for a few days, and there will be three, two families this weekend getting baptised, Hno Mario and Martha and Hna Bertha and Ramon, and a lady named Pazita and another little girl that is Marios grandaughter. It's gonna be crazy here in a few hours. It's weird cause I know that as I write this Tyler is getting ready to come here, hahaha cazy, but yeah I dont know what to tell you cause I talked to ya all last night, but todays pday was wayyyy cool. We got to play basketball with all the missionaries here in the south again for one last time and it was a blast. Really it was a good way to end. So yeah I had a great unofficial last pday. Heres a cool story, Hna is from El Salvador, hes been trying to get baptised for a year now and nothing, because he had to go to El Salvador and bring his papers, but we finally got him set up with the help of some member lady from there, El Salvador, he got the papers ready and now this weekend hes gonna get baptised. I'm really excited cause its going to be my last weekend too. So yeah it will be a great week-.Love you all

Elder Beckstead

The Other Side of Heaven!!

Hey there fam!!!

Whats up, here everything is good. I am having a good time makin fun of my comp, this is his first time for him here in the south and his skin is not taking kindly to the change, oh and the mosquitos are loving the new white flesh.. hahaha good times!!

But yeah this area is doing better now that Semana Santa is over, we had a good asistence yesterday...well an average attendence, but we were pretty happy, and yes the marriages are going to be going through which is something that will be super awesome, in the end we are going to have three, so we are really excited. everything is starting to work out so we're pretty pumped about that.
So fill me in on the US, whats new there??? Am I going to walk into a new world or what? I'm not gonna lie, im a little nervous.
I'm excited for Tyler to come too, dont worry were not gonna do anything stupid MOM. haha
We were going to do some really cool things like go to Copan and stuff, but now we can't cuz we have too much work to get done in our area, so we'll probably spend quite a bit of time in my area, I'm gonna teach him how to contact. haha hes gonna love the area,
Have you ever seen the other side of Heaven?? It's kinda like that here, but the people aren't huge Samoans, instead they are really small Latins that spend all their time fishing and finding ways to survive and feed their families. It's a pretty intense experience really. I've never seen people this poor in my life. It's not uncommon to see a passed out person in the street from too much of the beer.
There are palm trees everywhere too, and coconuts, haha i have a cool video for yall of a guy climbing up a tree to get us some coconuts to eat.
So things are going awesome and i'm super stoked for Tyler to come next week.
Love you all and have a great one
Elder Becktead

Eating Steak with Pres Chaverri/Some baptisms coming up!

Hey whats up fam??
Well things continue to go well here in Honduras, Semana Santa(Holy Week) is finally over which means once more our investigators are in the house and waiting for us, this should be a really really good week.
So Im pretty excited for this week, first its my birthday so thats gonna be pretty sweet, and second, were going to Teguz for a ZL consejo and so I'll be able to celebrate my birthday with all my friends there and have a great time, and hna Chaverri is definately gonna buy me a cake cause shes awesome like that. So I'm really stoked for everything, and then next week we should be having some baptisms so that should go very well also.
Im really excited anyway. Then the next week Tyler gets here and me and him are gonna do some work and have some fun too and show him the places where I've been and stuff, I think hes gonna love it.
Keep me updated on the Stake President thing there and when I can get released. IM pretty excited for everything but at the same time im nervous to leave. We'll see what happens eh, I still got plenty of time.
So sounds like softball is off and rollin now so thats pretty cool.
Here me and Elder Parker are having a blast, really were working really really really hard and having a lot of fun, Me and him have a lot in common. Im pretty sure we would have been good friends before the mission. Im having a great time anyway, I'm just really tired.
So this is our presidents last consejo here in Teguz so hes gonna take us all out tonght to eat at a steak resaurante called Asados Del Gordo, o man its a really good place to eat and I love it. Im gonna be eating good meat for the first time in years haha. and for my b day!!! WOOOOO im stoked.
so it shoiuld be a couple of good weeks
Well Love you all K, have a great times there waiting for me and well see ya in three
Elder Beckstead

Hondurans headed to the beaches again!!

Hey there family, whats going on there in the states, I was very happy to receive your email this week, it made my day, haha guess what, only 4 more emails to go and i'll be home talking to you all face to face instead of by email. haha i bet that makes you all happy.
So whats new there?? I'm guessing track is well underway and stuff,
Things here are getting pretty hard all of a sudden, here we are in spring break and during spring break all the people in Cedeño head off to the beach and work and sell stuff, so there are literally no people in the street here in our area and nobody can come to church because of this huge problem. Im pretty sad about it but oh well, we just have to tough it out, but we had a baptism this weekend of a man. His wife was already a member and we just baptised his kids and he finally accepted to be baptised, so we are really excited about all this. He was really really excited too about everything so I'm pretty content about that.
So thank you soo much for the money, i'll try not to spend it all, but its for marriages and stuff and I think were gonna have several so yeah.
What else is new there in the US? I dont have much time today so i gotta roll, but I love you all and have a great week ok.
Elder Beckstead

Last Changes are really really good!!

HAHA Colten and Whitney are already married then huh?? wow that was pretty quick. they are the perfect pair, and always have been. neat!!! I got changes this week and I received Elder Parker, yeah I was pretty darn excited and so far we have been working extremely hard. It has been good. So yeah this week has been super awesome, we have a baptism of a 40 year old guy that is getting married to his wife who is a member and then getting baptised on Thursday so pray for him that everything goes really, really well. I'm really excited this guy is awesome, and he's really really well off so hes paying for the marriage and stuff. This Sunday we had a great day in church so were really excited. the only problem was the Primary President did not come so we had to take care of the kids, and what a PAIN in the behind, those kids are terrible, loud, obnoxious, and everything. It was worth it cause everything ended really well, im really excited about my comp, he's from Las Vegas, he's a tennis player, one of the best in the country in his age group and he is going to go to Harvard and play tennis there and study, he's way smart and super fun and so far we have worked out every morning and im loving it, the perfect way to end my mission, working and having fun, Tyler is gonna love it here!! So are yall pretty baggy yet? haha i was thinking about it right now and im thinkin that were gonna have to make a taco bell run when I get home too, I love taco bell!!! so were gonna have to see about doing that too. or maybe there will be one in the airport, so well see about all that. haha i love making you all baggy!! ISU sent me an email telling me that they want me to go there and play, they said that they will be waiting for me to start in the summer workout stuff starting june 6th, haha that would be pretty sweet. But well see what happens. So whats new there at home, how about track and everything??? I hope things are going pretty swell!! WEll love you all and keep up the good work K!!!

Elder Beckstead

A little nudge from the spirit!

This is from Mitch this week. I thought I would add the scripture that he is referring to. Bruce R McKonkie taught; "unless there is darkness, there can be no light, unless there is vice, there can be no virtue; unless there is hate, there can be no love" 2nd NEPHI 2:11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness ;could not be brought to pass, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility. WOW you all think that God wants me to get married really fast after my mission or what??? Holy cow, about everyone in the conference lineup talked about that. CRAZY, tell dad sorry but im gonna have to heed the words of the prophet. haha Hey so whats cooking there in the states??? hows the battle there in Idaho, WOW talk about yet another amazing conference, and my last one, HOLY CRAP I cant believe my time is almost up here in the mission. This Wednesday im gonna be going into my last change and my last 6 weeks of the mission, and from what I hear they are the fastest weeks of the mission, so we will see about that. So this week has been a really really busy one. on Thursday we had to go to Teguz to a ZL conference, which was pretty sweet, I love president Chaverri and his family, they are so polite and nice to me. Presidente Chaverri really does love the missionaries and the Lord. How incredible. So we had a baptism on Thursday too, it was awesome, We had it planned out since last week but then the guy decided he did not want to get baptised and was too nervous to go through with it. So Wednesday morning I went and talked to him about some things, I remember that while taking to him I felt a nugde from the spirit telling me to share with him 2 nephi 2 11 about opposition and stuff, so I did. It was weird cause it really didnt have anything to do with the lesson that we had planned, but I shared it anyway, the guy sat there silent for a few seconds and then just kept talking. I was LIKE NOOOOOOOOOOOOO I thought that was from the spirit and that for sure he was gonna change his mind, but he still wouldnt accept. I thought I had shared that scripture in vain. SO we left and ran an errand in chluteca or something and when we go back around 7 he was outside our house waiting for us, He came up to us and just asked us, so what time are the baptisms tomorrow cause im gonna make some covenants with God. haha so he ended up getting baptised and eveything. Its was soo cool. I know that that scripture was the scripture indicated by the Lord because I felt the spiritual witness and I know that that scripture is exactly what he needed to hear. It was pretty sweet. But other than that and conference, a pretty normal week. Love you all have a great one there in the USA Elder Beckstead

Success in Cedeno

hey there family: Whats up, Im not gonna lie, im really tired of writing emails. haha its a lot easier just to call and say whats up. I guess this is the only way we can do er here in the mission. Everything went well this week, I'm pretty happy cause Bertin, a guy were teaching was there in church and his pilas. He's one of the chosen ones, the guy knows the Bible like the back of his hand and has been searching for a church to attend for years, and then we arrived and now he is in love with the church and says its the only true one and that its what he has been waiting for. I'm really excited about him, he's getting baptised here really soon, the only thing is that he is a little crazy. This week was awesome, two of our converts here in Cedeño gave talks on Sunday, they did a really good job too. I was sooo happy, me and my comp just looked at each other and smiled at how amazing they did, We are helping both of them get prepared for the temple right now. Next year they both will be headed out to the temple one to be sealed to her husband and the other to take out her endowments, ha I dont know if you remember Alonzo but the other day I heard that he is getting ready to make his first temple trip here pretty quick. I'm not sure when, but here pretty soon. Im soooo excited cuz he going to be sealed to his wife that died a long time ago. or something like that. IM really excited about it. But yeah sounds like everything there is going really really well. IM stoked about our area still and it sounds like everything should be gettin better. So I was looking the other day and there is a chance that I could stay in my area and recieve an Elder Parker,I dont know if you remember who he is, but when I first started you sent me this news article, Hes the one that that plays tennis and goes to Harvard, well IM not sure if he'll be my comp but I hope so, that guy is a great elder and it would be sweet cause hes one of my good friends here in th mission. So yeah that might happen. Love, Elder Beckstead

"Lose yourself in the Work"

Hey There Family:
Whats going on today? Today has been a really really great day. First of all we left from here and went to Choluteca and had an amazing p-day and played basketball all day long. I realized that I am kind of getting out of shape. Haha!I am going to need to start running here soon. It was a BLAST!. So it's good to hear about things getting better there in the states and at home. You better have everything in tip top shape for the day I get there. . haha! This week has been a crazy one. Elder Martino came and talked to our mission and then had a special ZL conference with all of us ZL's. It was pretty intense. And by the way I shared my last testimony in the mission. Crazy huh? It is something we do every zone conference and this was my last zone conference so I gave my last testimony. CRAZY HUH! I spoke of the mission and the decision I made to come and about how hard it was to make the choice. I did something kind of bad. I mentioned a song that I used to love before my mission sung by Eminem. A song called "Lose Yourself". That is the advise I gave to all the new missionaries. They need to lose themselves in the work and work their hardest in this work. Thats totally true.
Well it is good to hear from Jaxon too. It sounds like he is tearing it up in basketball and that he gets a lot of steals. Thats pretty darn impressive and that Hawk hit 3 threes in the tan poco tiempo. Tell them to keep up the good work. Well my time is up and I have to get going.

Love you all
peace out
Elder Beckstead

Short e-mail/Learning patience!!

Well all is well here in Honduras, dont worry about the tsunami and all that, nothing even touched us. So we're safe here. I hear Japan has some serious problems, so I think we should all be worried about them and how they are going to get better and stuff.
So this week has been really lame, the first lame week in a really really long time. I ran into a little sickness here and couldn't eat or swallow all week, I was sick in the throat area. That was pretty crappy but I got better and now i'm back to eating the normal routine. Seriously I was sooo tired of being sick this week. I know that God just had that final push to test my patience and I feel like I more or less passed so thats good. It was brutal though, it was some kind of infection in the throat and I had open sores all in my throat so thats what was weighin me down.
Well whats new there at home?

I talked to president and he told me that I could make my next phone call on the last week of March, so thats when I be calling yall, ill fill you in with more info in these coming weeks but just know that I will be calling in this month. President is sooo awesome. You know I got really really lucky having this guy.
well the keyboard here on this computer is terrible so your all gonna be mad at me, this email is gonna be a short one.
Sorry
Love you all
Elder Beckstead

Wallet Stolen in church/ Letter to Mom!!

Hey there family, whats going on?
Well yet another week has gone by here in the mission and im still pretty darn happy here in Monjaras. I love my area still even though we're starting to see a few obstacles. We're still having a lot of success and i'm lovin it. This week was great too!!! other than the whole my wallet being robbed thing, some kid snuck into church and grabbed my wallet and ran out without me knowing, then he returned the wallet but it was missing the debit card, so thats what Friday's e-mail was all about.
Sorry about that, the truth is, that it was all my fault, I left the wallet out on accident and here in Honduras things like that happen all the time, you have to be really, really aware always and you really have to take good care of your stuff. But don't worry Im fine, I just am going to have to learn how to budget my money a little bit better. Which is a good thing so in all reality its an opportunity.
So sounds like the boys HS Basketball team did alright, its too bad, they should have won it all but they beat Soda so that is whats important. I do not like Soda or Aberdeen very much. In my time in high school Malad never posed too much of a threat so I was never to worried about them therefore I dont hate them as much.
So sounds like everyone of my boys are doing good, hopefully. I can't wait to see them and give them all a big huge, hug. I think Im gonna give them the first hug, Probably Peyton, That kid is soooo strong and I miss the crap outta him.
So this week i've been really working hard to contact, before we had some references that we were working with and were always busy with, but now we have a lot more finding to do, our best investigator was attacked by a bunch of catholics and no longer wants to get baptised, which is really really sad cuz she is awesome. But we'll see. We've been contacting like crazy this week, it hard cuz my comp hates to contact and stuff but I make him, hahaha he always goes into the houses totally quiet and doesn't talk much, but thats ok, I can do it just fine, besides he always ends up teaching with me before its over anyway, its getting him into the house thats the problem. But I love the kid, Hes had a lot of challenges in his life so its cool to see the change in him and the blessings he's bringing to his family. I love joking around with him and stuff.

Here there are a lot of naked babies, everywhere you go there is a naked baby standing there staring at you, haha. So here we play a game where, every time you see a naked baby, you punch your companion. So he gets hit a lot. Its pretty fun and it keeps our spirits up. I just cant imagine going to a place in the states and seeing so many naked babies! It's pretty funny actually.
Well so thats what's new here in Honduras, you all know im not way good when it comes to writing long letters, but im trying to get better.
Love you all take care of my boys and have a good weekend.
Elder Beckstead



Hey there Mom
just wanted to send you a quick letter telling you about how much I love you and am thankful for everything you are doing. A mom from here that has a kid on the mission just walked in and had me help her print off a paper of his last letter to her, She was soooo excited I wish you could have seen her happy smiley face after recieving that email. Thats kinda how I picture you when you get my email, all giddy and crazy about it. haha well at least I hope.
Its sad, that lady really doesnt have much, well in all reality all she has is the gospel and shes really, really happy. Why can't other people learn??? Why is it soo hard??? You know, it was hard for me to gain a knowledge of this gospel due to my ignorance, but now that I have one, it will be hard to lose it.
Love you
Elder Beckstead

Still in Cedeno-Setting up the Church!!

Hey there fam!!! whats up?
Hows everything going there in the US??
Everything here is great as usual. Were still havin a great time and the zone still looks really really great, weve been concentrating on finding familes recently cause were looking to turn this district into a stake here within a few months, but we need a lot more families. This place is chosen of God therefore we can do it, seriously if a missionary comes into this zone and just works hard, he has a lot of success. I love it here!!
So we had changes, Elder Brown left unfortunately, but a pretty good Elder took his place so were not too bad I guess, but it was an amazing change other than that. We lost a lot of the trouble makers and gained a ton of amazing missionaries!!! Im really excited, I didn't have changes though, which is OK cause I really like my comp and my area, but im thinkin I'll end my mission here in this area, well about 90 percent, if not ill be training and opening another area, but well see what happens. I think ill be staying which is ok.
So Tyler seems pretty excited, Im pretty excited too, Now I just got to get everything taken care of here and work really hard so we can have some baptisms and he can see what its all about.
I know that he's gonna love it here. This place is really, really cool.
So other than that nuttin much is happening here, just doing our best to find the hidden families that need and want this gospel. So far we've been pretty lucky, we have some amazing members here now so im happy, haha its weird cause everyone we baptise gets a calling right away, which is how its supposed to be. But we've had to baptise the presidents in every organization and their counselers, hahah so weve been doing a lot of training meetings and stuff, Its really fun though to see what its like to be setting up the church here for the first time. I really enjoy it but at times is easy to lose patience.
Well I love you all ~Take care of yourselves and well talk next week.
Elder Beckstead

18 Baptisms in the new Zone-A day with E Marecos!

About 9 of us missionary moms with sons in Honduras met together in SLC on Friday

We enjoyed a session at the temple and had lunch at the Joseph Smith Building

It was a great experience. The temple officiater told us that our sons would be blessed

because of our attendance. It was awesome!

Left to Right-Lori, Paige, Jody, Sherry, Linda, Renee, Robin, Rina and Bernice
Left to Right: Bernice, Sherry, Robin, Renee, Linda, Lori, Jody Paige and Rina
The four ladies on the Left have sons in San Pedro Sula and the four on the
Right have sons in Tegucigalpa!!!


Hey guys whats going on there in the US???
Everything here is going really well. This weekend was a fantastic weekend, in the zone we had 18 baptisms, which is a pretty darn good number, well i've never seen a number that high before, so were pretty proud of the missionaries here, they are all workin really hard.
It was awesome, we were also fortunate enough to have a few baptisms here in Cedeño, I was really stoked cause I can see this place progressing alot already, it's really amazing how God does everything then just puts two missionaries in to witness the blessings. I'm still loving it.
This is kinda strange, after this week ill only have 11 weeks left in the mission and if you think about it, only 10 because Tyler is coming to get me a week early and that week is gonna fly by.
But yeah, I was able to do divisions with an ex companion of mine, Elder Marecos, this kid is probably one of my favorite comps that i've had too, he's had a pretty rough mission so it was good to go and help him out for a day and work with him. He's a real great guy, I told him that he should come to the states to study and room with me in college. I think he really wants to do it! I thought that was pretty funny but he has the way to do it so well see.
So what else is new there in the states, I guess by this time next week well know if West Side is on its way to state or not eh???
They better be, those guys have too much potental to not make it to the big dance!! So who are the posts they have there?? Tanner and who else??
So it sounds like you had a grea trip to Salt Lake, I didn't know you were such good friends with Elder Moores mom, thats crazy!! he's a real great guy and I bet an amazing missionary there in San Pedro, I do know that he is a ZL and has been for some time now so I imagine that hes tearing it up.
So that paper you sent last week, You should be getting that by today or tomorrow, I think one of the Aps is gonna call you and fax it to you or something, Why did you need that paper again????
And about the seafood, YES Im still lovin it, The fish is gettin a bit old, but its stll pretty good and I think this week were gonna be eatin a whole bunch of shrimp, so that is gonna be delicious as well. I think Im gonna make the mothers day phone call in March like the first week of March, so ill let you know with that one. I wanna talk to ya about all of that and finish it and move on here with the work to be able to finish really really strong. But make sure you apply me for classes there at ISU as well, especially psychology so I can get that class better.
But yeah, all is well here in Honduras, dont worry about me, I'm in a really really safe area and nothings gonna happen and my zone is really safe as well, everyone here loves the missionaries so all is well. Today was a weird day, I only received like 2 emails which has never happened before but thats not too bad. Well have a great day ok. I LOVE the crap outta each and everyone of you all-
Peace out until next week.
and thanks for all the information!!!!
Elder Beckstead

Success in the new Zone!!

Hey Mom,
Whats up? Thanks for everything that your doin for me therein the states.Well this week has been awesome again. Im lovin this area more and more, We had two baptisms this weekend so I'm very content with that. We have a few more for this next weekend too! This week has been really, really crazy, We've had to do a lot of crazy divisons in order to get all our interviews done in the zone and we've had a lot of little errands to do here in the zone.
This week we did get to challenge a few more people to baptism and they accepted:), so im really excited about that. Hopefully all works out. I really love opening areas cause it puts you pretty much in charge of everything. . It's really really intense and everything depends on you, you literally can't fail or the area fails for a long time. So I'm doing my absolute best. I love my comp, his soooooooo tight, really chill andwilling to work. We're getting along great and I'm thinkin that were gonna be together another change before I recieve my last comp here in the mission, crazy huh!!!

Im soooo excited about Tyler coming to get me, I cant believe it. It's gonna be way awesome, he will love it here. Tell him to bring plenty of white shirts and ties cause he will need them haha!!!. It's gonna be wierd having to translate for him too, but its all good, tell him to study some Spanish before he comes to get it down. Also tell Tyler to get the ticket for May 10th and I will be there waiting for him at the airport, but tell him to get to work cause he's gonna need to bring another few hundred dollars to spend on transport and little things like that.Well I love you all soooo much and can't wait to hear back next week.
Peace out and have fun with the other moms ite!!!
Love,
Elder Beckstead

Everything is going great!! Could Mandi be expecting??

Whats up MOM and familia and friends?

Well everything here is great!! So your all killing me, you told that you have good news from Mandi, but I didn't get an email from Mandi. WHAT IS GOING ON??????? I bet shes with child. if I'm wrong let me know-that would be crazy. hahaha!! to get home to a fat Mandi hahaha.So everything is still awesome here in Honduras. I eat fish like everyday and beans still, but im used to it now and I really like them, you know that I can eat with tortillas now, I mean, I dont even need a fork anymore cause here we eat with pure tortillas. Hows neat is that!!!So yeah, Im pretty stoked about everything with the Packers too, I love that team and im soooo happy they beat the Steelers too because thats Jakes team, you should call and give Jake some crap for me. hahaha I hate the Steelers!
So talk more to Tyler about the whole trip, I really do want him to come and get me, See what Shellie says about the whole thing, he would love it, I'm not sure if he would like the food, but he would love where I would take him. Sounds like the boys teams is doing good, How they lookin for state this year,?? They better make it and win too or ill be pretty darn mad!!!!!That sounds pretty tight about going to SLC with those moms, I cant believe your all gonna do it. Your all gonna have a great time I believe. Good for you!!! Well I gotta go cause today im gonna send some college info, so ill talk to ya all later.
Love you
Bye
Elder Beckstead

Still loving Cedeno/Much success!!

Hey there family, well everyhting here is still great, I'm really loving this new zone and my new area, were seeing a ton of success as of right now. This Sunday we had 50 people in sacrament meeting, which isn't a lot I know but its the second Sunday we've had, so I don't think its too bad. I do know that we have to make it better, that is for sure.
I have a few sea shells from the beach already, but its hard to get them cause then we have to take time off to go look for them, so don't be too disappointed if I dont bring you all home seashells ok. Elder MaCallister is still in our last area in the Villa de San Fransisco, He'll be there for a while longer too I think. I miss that kid, we had lots of fun together. But hes doing good from what I hear.
I love my area, I love my comp and I love everything that's going on right now. Its so weird, before in the mission I used to look at my comps and find all the weaknesses in them and just dread on that forever and in the end just dread being around my comps, I've defenitly learned that you always need to look for the good in people, just like you've always taught me mom, So I am working on that. But yeah, this week We had a great week, were finding people like crazy, I swear they are just like falling off trees. haha I love it. Were doing our best to teach all of them. but yeah thats whats going on here.
I got an email today from coach Whitworth, which was really good, he did offer me a full ride scholarship which is really awesome and he did promise me playing time from the get go, So we'll see.
But yeah Whats new there in the yunais. I bet pretty good from what I hear, my Packers are in the super bowl. im pretty excited about that. I hope they win!!!!

So I got my flight plans more or less, I haven't seen them yet, but from what they tell me im going home the 17th of May and I will arrive home at exactly 11 p.m. In Salt Lake City..so I hope ur all gonna be ready, and I asked special permission for Tyler to come get me and My president gave it to me, so Tyler G can come probably like a week and a half before I head home, hahah ill show him what the mission is about and how awesome it really is. Hes gonna love it.Keep working hard there at home and I love you all.

Elder Beckstead

Loves it here the area is Fruitful~ Stung by a scorpion!

haha!! Don't even worry about the pictures, I'm taken too maybe pictures. I have a picture of me holding a hammerhead shark in my hands, It's really legit.
We would baptize in the ocean, but we dont have permission to do it. So were gonna call President and see what happens, maybe if were lucky we'll be able to do it.
So Elder Giron is from Guatemala, im pretty glad he's my comp.. he's way chill and we are working really really hard right now, keeping our minds towards the work.
The house I live in is pretty nice, We have water and stuff like that so im not gonna complain too much. But the other night while I was sleeping I felt a very very sharp pain in my fingers and woke up screaming in pain. I got up out of bed and there was a scorpìon on my shirt. WOW I was sooo scared, the sucker had already stabbed me once, but I thought it was gonna get me again, until my comp came over and knocked it off me and killed it. WOW but talk about an intense experience. Couldn't sleep the rest of the night. I HATE insects. Thats literally the only bad thing that has happened to me this week, everything else has been awesome. We're having tons of success already here in this area, the first week at church we had 33 people there, which is pretty good I think. We just gotta baptise them all now and get them to work. I hope we can get it done. Ive never been in an area so fruitfull!! I love it here.
So sounds like things there are cooling down a bit, I hope thats true, Kevin emailed me, that was pretty cool too, sounds like hes doing pretty good. I really kinda want to go to Utah State now, but like I said, no decisions yet.
I just want to end my mission working really really hard and being perfectly obedient. thats the goal for right now. I just hope I end the mission here in this area, I love it that much.
ha and yeah, Cole sounds really really good, We had a good chat, I forgot to tell you all about Elder Ballard. That was awesome, hes soooo smart and funny. I had a great time there.
Well time is about out and I gotta get going. So I love you all and hope everything is going well for you, keep stayin strong and keep and eye on my boys OK!!!!!!
Peace until next week.
Elder Beckstead

New comp: Elder Giron/Transfered to Cedeno

I had to go read Ether 12. It made me feel better too!! Mitch got some bad news from home last week, and I was worried he would be down and out. Wow quite the opposite!! (this is one happy missionary) I was hoping that he would get to baptise in the ocean-it could happen!!!
To those who sent him uplifting letters and e-mails I thank you very much!!! Thank you for all of your prayers in his behalf. My testimony of prayer has again been strenghtened. . . Love

Well, put your seatbelts on and get ready cause this week I have some really really good news.
So you know how every missionary has this crazy dream of being the cool missionary that gets the really, really crazy calling all the sudden and gets sent to some remote place to open an area and a branch and start the church in unknown lands???
Well Tuesday night I was anxiously waiting for my new change, I previously knew that I would be leaving an area. So after waiting anxiously for an hour or two I finally recieved my change. The assistence told me that I was going to a place called Cedeño to open up the area with Elder Giron. So let me explain to you all a little bit about this change.
Cedeño is a beach here in Honduras, so my new area is the beach, and my job is to open up the area and form the church here in Cedeño, I have a head start though because the branch President from another ward lives out here. So were going to start a branch here on the beach the three of us.. which is a really amazing calling, and suddenly I don't want to go home anymore, not at all. I love my new area!!! The branch president lives right on the beach and that is where we eat lunch everyday, sooooo every day I eat seafood which involves fish, shrimp, crab, oysters and other such things, on the beach while looking out towards the ocean. I think dad would enjoy this area a lot. but it gets even better, and a little bit harder. I'm still a zone leader so I have to manage the zone as well, but get this. Im opening a new zone as well, as in We are opening a zone here in this new area and I'm in charge of managing it and making sure everything goes smoothly. WOW, I was shocked, President told me the next day that he trusted in me Alot, enough to do that. So I have quite a huge responsability, which is good cause of all the fun things that are going on at home, speakin of which. I only want happiness at the airport, everyone and everything that causes drama and problems is not included in that.
So thats whats going on here, I'm not one to boast, but I think you really can be proud of me for this one, Opening an area and a zone is a really big responsability, especially if your area has never had missionaries before. CRAZY.
So thats whats going on here, Its perfect cause Im learning that things change, and sometimes not for the best. So instead of dwelling on these changes, that I can't control, Im just gonna take what I have and run with it. Its what we all have to do, and never forget who we are and what we stand for!!!
So yeah, And thank you soooo much for keeping the contact with all those coaches, I was worried for a while that I wasnt gonna be playin football when I got home, hopefully everything works out.
Well my testimony keeps growing as well here, its true what is said in Ether 12, it only will make me stronger as well as all of us.
Well I love you all and hope that everything is going better there in the states. Peace out and have a great week.
Elder Beckstead

Changes on Wednesday

Whats up family?? Hows goes the battle there in the states??? I'm guessin pretty good cuz the states are pretty stinkin cool.
Well here everything is going pretty well, were still working and trying for success, o hey, just so you know, I sent you a tape that I made in return for the one you sent me so watch for it in the mail, you should be gettin it here any day now.
So wow, I cant believe the Whimpey twins are going to USU to play football, thats kinda crazy. Who knows, maybe I'll end up there too. That would be pretty stinkin cool i'd say. Have you talked to them recently or anything??
Well acceleration sounds pretty good I guess so I'll keep you updated on that one.
So thats too bad the boys lost in Preston, I would probably get pretty mad if I was there!!haha
The weight gainin powder is holding up really well so don't worry about that either. We're good, I actually weigh like 230 pounds right now, so I'm happy about that. I just hope that they don't send me to the south this change, cuz thats where I always seem to lose weight. But if they do, i'll be happy to go.
I'm excited though cuz I will probably be going into my last area of the mission so thats gonna be pretty intense. I never though that would happen, and i've almost officially been away from home for 20 months. WOW it's just crazy, I think it's true what they say about time, it just goes soo fast here in the mission It feels like I just got here a few weeks ago. Its CRAZY
I'm thinkin i'll be home before I know it. WEIRD!!!! but yeah, I dont know what else to say, ill send you a good e-mail next week with some cool news.
I love you all and talk to ya later.
Eder Beckstead

This place is going to Flourish-it's going to be great!!

Hey fam whats up???
SO whats going on there in the states, thanks soo much for emailing that coach for me, its good to know that they still think about me once in a while.
So just let me know about any new results or anything.
So Whats new there in the usa??? Hows my boys doing??? im thinkin pretty good, I hear that the basketball team is tearin it up right now, thats pretty cool!!! Peyton wrote me this week, sounds like he did pretty good in the basketball camp that he went to.
I cant believe its been over a week since I talked to you all on the phone, wow that was a fast week. CRAZY!!!
Ok so Elder Browns MOM might call you and mention something to you about a holey shirt, do not worry about it I have plenty of shirts. Elder Brown is LOCO haha!
So this week has been a good week, its kinda hard cause were in a little district and they need alot of help. Me and my comp are pretty much running the entire district, were trying to teach the leaders here how everything works and stuff but they seem to not care somtimes. So were just pushing along, its hard at times to get work done in our area and stuff, but its ok, were planting a lot of seeds and when the leaders finally figure out whats going on, this place is gonna flourish!!! Its gonna be great.
Well I love you all, and miss you more and more each day.
Peace out and I'll see you in 4
Elder Beckstead