Doing things Salone style for a little

Hello family! 

Brima Town

Man this week was so fun and it went by so fast! On Tuesday we had a Zone Conference. Zone Conferences are awesome because we get to hear from President and Sister Ostler. We also get to see all of the other elders in our zone plus there is way sweet food that is given to us! An even a bigger bonus is when the Ostler's come to town so does the mail! I got so many sweet letters ... from Abi Galland, Tyler Schoessow, Jordy Zimmerman, I got a package from Sister T, and from you mom! and don't forget Sarah Kraus. The package was way sweet mom! Snickers and M&M's are my favorite. I got the milk powder too. Its real nice. I can get it here though but this one was good quality. I can actually get milk here! Well it is sort of milk, its half cream... I don't really care, I mix it with my Nesquick and I am happy! Thanks for all the letters everyone! (Translation for "sweet " really  means = wonderful, great, awesome, cool, amazing!)

Elder Beckett, 2nd on the left looking a little sleepy at the zone meeting!

Bo Zone Conference
Cody's companion, Elder Manzini standing to the right, is from South Africa.

Anyway, when we were at the Zone Conference, Elder Manzini had a great idea... to take President and Sister Ostler teaching with us. So I went and asked them if they could come and they said yes! So they met us later that day on the street. We got to ride in their sweet brand new Toyota Highlander or something like it, it's a diesel. They took us in the ice cold cabin of the car to the Luseni family. The Luseni family is the one with the Philly boy. We taught a sweet lesson. We had President and Sister Ostler talk about the temple and testify about sealing families for eternity. Then we even had president extend a baptismal date! Hahah... it was so fun to see him teach in such good English (Cody starting to loose his to the Krio language). I think with so many American there in one place, Hindulo (the Philly boy) just opened up. He started talking about where he was from and even that he was baptized back in America (still trying to verify that!) but it was really fun to teach with the Ostler's .. they helped a lot. 

Luseni Family - Notice the boy in the back with the Orem Jazz jersey!
One of Cody's favorite things is seeing American clothing land there in Salone with logos from schools and teams back home. He's waiting to find one of his high school T-shirts there!


So at the apartment, we ran out of propane, and we don't have the district funds to buy more for about a week (so doing things salone style for a little.. so we (meaning I) cooked on coals all this week. It has been pretty  fun using my Eagle Scout powers to start fires and cook! Its really not that bad cooking rice and stew, but it gets old when no one helps. Its okay though, only 4 more days of coals, then I can bake more. I'm getting really good at cooking rice ....I think I finally got it down. 

Eating with Elder Hales and the guys

We have a well inside our compound. We are lucky to have a pump that fills a big tank that sits on our roof. It's like at our river house with the water you put into the tank to drink but our water is not clean here. If our pump breaks then we have to fetch water by hand. I have gotten pretty good at it, while helping people fetch water in their yards. There is no running water in this country like at home.

Shower and toilet all in one - No running water so we use buckets of water from the well

So this week our district was going to hold a baptism, but when we showed up at the district center there was no water in the font. In Salone there is no running water. So our district spent about 2 hours using a hand pump on a well to fill buckets and then fill the font. You would be surprised how many buckets it takes to fill a font. Once we filled it, Elder Manzini had to split, we had people to teach.

This transfer has gone by way fast! In December I will have been 4 months out... wholly rap! Time flies! Next week I will get another companion.... so that is always exciting.

What's happening in America? Government shutdown ... What? Send me the latest and biggest news! Philippians? That's crazy! They had to move the missionaries out? Where did they move them to? I saw the article about Chase Robertson and Aaron Procuiner in the OC news paper, Tyler Schoessow sent it to me.

On P-Day (prep day) we usually go shop, email and sometimes play soccer or basketball and relax.

P-day haircuts!

P-day laundry day

P-day soccer fun!

P-day trash burn - no trash system here

Hi Zachary ... How are you? Keep taking sweet photos, even print them out at Target or Walmart and send them to me. How is high school? What are you learning about in seminary? Haha.. that's weird that you drop him off mom, everyone walks here.... haha start walking Zac!! 

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed the pictures, I'll send more soon and with the year almost over can you send me a calendar? I can't find one here.

The infamous "Goat" mystery meal




Welp, I'm having fun and I am sweating a lot!

                                                             Love Elder Beckett