I don't think I have done anything so satisfying in my life!

Rice, rice, rice, rice, all we eat is rice ... with different sauces! For breakfast I will eat either pancakes, french toast or something called solution. Solution is a mixture of Cassava root smashed into flakes, water, milk powder and sugar. Its like African corn flakes and sometimes we will eat porridge. So that is about all we eat for two years! You can find chocolate here, but it isn't that good. In the supermarket you can buy American food, but it is kind of expensive so I just go with rice and the other things.

I have only had like 3 mosquito bites, they really aren't out too much. Its either too hot for them or too cold. So at sunset is usually when the bites come.

It wasn't me that got in the crash, it was my companion Elder Hales. He was on another motorcycle in front of me, we were going about 25 mph when another man T-boned him. Luckily Elder Hales has been riding mountain bikes for years so he knew how to fall. He just ended up with some road rash, no one was seriously hurt but I am scared to get on the motorcycles now, most of the guys here don't really know how to ride (Motorcycles are the taxi's in Sierra Leone). 

 I love my mission and love the people! Its so fun to be here sharing the gospel!  I am having so much fun here! I don't think I have done anything so satisfying in my life. I would strongly encourage everyone to go on a mission. If you struggle with knowing if the gospel is right or not, read the first 15 chapters of the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it testifies of Jesus Christ. Mom, tell your seminary students to listen up, and everyday they need to go and share what they learned with a friend. Tell them there is no shame in knowing that the gospel is true. I wish I payed more attention in seminary. Even when I was in seminary, Sister Ferrell said that her son, Elder Ferrell said the same thing about seminary, but I just ignored it.  Tell them if they don't I will come and beat them with a cane! 

I love packages and I do love hearing what the family is up too!!

 Okay for Christmas, can you tell Santa that all I want is a military issue of the standard works That is all of the scriptures made really small.  That is all I want, and if you want to send anything else its cool with me. I don't need more sandals and I can buy them here if I need them and there is no where to buy a nativity (mom's request to send one home). There are a few supermarkets in town but nothing where I could buy a nativity. If you are going to send money send it in bills over $20 because I exchange them on the street (black market) and they wont take small bills. Put the bills in some kind of church book, no one would steal that, or taped in between two pictures of the family. I haven't yet found a post office here, I am still looking. When I find one I will send something home. 

I haven't seen General Conference yet, it wont come for another month or so. They will send it over on a DVD or something for the branch to watch.  I can't wait to see it though. I really want a cinnamon roll (cinnamon rolls are a Beckett family tradition for conference weekend). That sounds so good, there is no such thing as a cinnamon roll here. Haha!

The African's lives here can be hard, but for the most part, they are fine. It is not like the commercials you see on TV, those are a bunch of crap! The thing you don't see in those commercials are the gardens they have here just out of shot of the TV cameras. Only a few live day to day.

I love you 

 Elder Beckett

PS - The Dear Elder letters take about a week to get to me! So keep sending them!

The Solution cereal that Cody eats is made from this Cassava Root 

Cassava is the third-largest source of food carbohydrates in the tropics, after rice and maize. Cassava is a major staple food in the developing world, providing a basic diet for over half a billion people