It's flipping hotter than satan's steak house!

Hello Family!

I can't sleep right now so I thought that I would write a letter to you. I can't sleep because it's flipping hotter than satan's steak house in here! Also, it sounds like someone is firing a cannon outside my window. The rain and the thunder is crazy! I have never seen so much water being poured out of heaven. The thunder makes you jump and shake. It's so loud it shakes you and you can feel it in your heart. It's okay though. People here will wake up at 1or 2 am just to pray and read their bible. Sometimes I get up and do the same, you should try it, it's really nice and quiet well except when there is a cannon outside your compound!  My English is is degrading since I've starting speaking Krio and find it hard to say things properly though. People here sell fish and crab, they carry it around on a plate balanced on their heads. There is no such thing as refrigeration here so the crab and fish smell really nasty! Smells like nasty fish guts! I think the people here buy it and deep fry it and feed it to us. I'm doing well and I'm having such a good time out here sharing the best message ever! I'm glad I came out on a mission and I think everyone should go! There is nothing more satisfying or more fun than missionary work and the things you learn are incredible(this was a note he sent before he was moved out of Bo last week).

Skies of Bo

This week has been a lot different than the weeks past. On Tuesday I just sat around and prepared to leave to Freetown. The drive to Freetown from Bo was about a 4 hour drive. On the drive you pass a bunch of villages, that you would imagine in Africa. The road was really fun, dad would love to drive his car on this road, besides the occasional pothole. As soon as I was dropped off I could tell things were going to be a bit different. The streets are really busy here, there are more cars than in Bo so we aren't allowed to ride the motor bikes (taxi's) here.

Motor Taxi's

 There is no more supermarkets here to buy Oreos, or snacks anymore. So I will be eating a lot less and really only eating rice. The apartment I stay in now is nicer than the one in Bo, but it is super small. We only have 4 elders in this apartment, which makes the apartment very quiet. This new apartment may have nice tiles on the floor and nice painted walls, with no spiders or cockroaches and a real a toilet, but it is missing some things. We don't have a tank of water at this apartment. So we have to go to the well to get water for anything we do, including, showers, flushing the toilet and water to wash dishes and drink.  There is no light here for some reason, yet there are power lines everywhere and we have lightbulbs but we get at least 2 hours of light every night because we have a generator. Well with this new apartment I will get jacked from pulling water from a 30 foot well but will get sweet night vision and I will feel the spirit more. 

So my new companion is Elder Flament. He is from England, and he sure does sound like it. He doesn't even have to speak Krio because the people can understand the British accent here. He has been on his mission for 16 months and he is a really caring guy. We get along fine. At first it was hard to relate to him, I just didn't really know what to talk about with him, but I started asking questions and he is a cool guy. The only difference we really have is organization. I don't know if you will believe me but I am really organized here (YES! finally!! ....amazing what 3 months will do to an 18 year old boy in Africa!). I like to keep my things in their place and keep my area clean. Its not quite the same with Elder Flament, but we are getting the room cleaner, so there is progress made.  Anyway, we are good together, we really have the same teaching style, and we really yield to one another. 

Kossoh Town. Its much different than Bo. Everyone here has big compound walls, everyone has big houses  and there is no food. I was pretty disappointed at the beginning of the week because we only had about 10 progressing investigators and 3 of them were baptized on Saturday but we have really done a lot of contacting and it has payed off. We have found some sweet families in some weird ways. So our area is pretty big, and we were on the far end of Ourarea, by the mountains, and we were late for a lesson. The roads here are pretty rough so cars go pretty slow. A 4 runner comes cruising along, blasting some sweet beats, and as he passed I asked for a ride, hoping he would let us hang on the side but he said we would have to come inside, and I am glad we did. We got talking with him and he has lived in England, so Elder Flament and him went off on England, so we were really able to relate to this guy. Anyway, he has a sweet family so we will be teaching them.

 The branch here is so sweet. We have church service inside a remodeled house here, and we fill the chapel with people, I even had to stand outside it was so packed. Anyway, this branch actually works with the missionaries, we had a PEC meeting and we were able to talk about how the missionaries and the branch auxiliary leaders could work together, and how we can retain the recent converts. So that was really cool. The people here seem to grab onto the gospel more than in Bo. The people are really excited about the work! 

Today has been sweet and will get sweeter. I got a package from Grandma Neecie and I got sweet candies, Uno cards (we have already played it ..we were so stoked) and some Christmas presents that I am very tempted to open.

This week I have seen some pretty funny stuff. The people here wear really tight clothes and beanies. All the ocara drivers (motorcycle men) wear snow clothes as their bike gear, even though it is 1000 degrees here. I have seen a woman open a Coke bottle for me with her teeth. That was really cool and I am very tempted to try it.

Welp that's all folks!

I love my family, I love my God and I love my mission!

Love the African man,
Elder Beckett