It's always sweet calling home!

Its always sweet calling home. After the time is up I always want to call back. Christmas sounds sweet at home. Yeah when I say I am good, it means every things going well. YeahI am only thinking of extending if I can go back to Sierra Leone. I will talk to my mission president about it. The pics look pretty fun. I miss that ocean. And seeing Catalina in the horizon.  I have a few pics I will send to you today. 

We went to the MTC for a Christmas Party this last week. I thought that we would never go back to see that place. We got to go inside and watch "Meet the Mormons". It was fun seeing the US in the movie, and some things looked strange about home.

It seems like we keep running into problems here in Teshie. Elder Garcia went home this week, and it left an uneven number of elders in the mission. So now we are having 3 in our district. Which would not be so bad if we were attending the same ward, but the ward was just split, so we are three elders trying to do missionary work for two wards. We are trying to go on some splits so that we can keep up with the work. Sunday we attended two wards (5 hours of church).

I dont have much to say, I just talked to you so my mind is blank.

elder beckett

"Let us make Christmas a time of rejoicing and celebration"!

Hitchin' a ride from Elder Garcia

This was the Thanksgving dinner that we made ...Fried Chicken and even a little bubbly!

Bed and bikes - Elder Garcia

My shoes that Sister Farrell gave me before I left

The week was full of exciting things.

First thing is that our area has doubled its size which is not all that big, but will be bigger than we are used too.Tthe stake is trying to split, so they put 2 new units in the Teshie area making 3 units into 5 and by thend of next year they want to make a stake.. so I took over half of one of the areas right next to ours and it has doubled our teaching pool. So big things are happening.

Also, we did some service this week. We were able to join in with an organization to help some kids have an enjoyable Christmas. There was about 90 missionaries or so and 1500 kids. The kids were just off the street, the first 1500 into the program would be the ones to enjoy. So we had games and shows and bounce houses and food. It was really good for the kids. They had one of the most exciting days of the year Its pretty weird to think though, most of those kids just live on the street, and the fun they had will end but at least we were able to have fun with them. Another cool thing was that at the service project was all of the Salone missionaries that you sent Christmas gifts for. I love talking to them and Sister Kailie made me my favorite dish, Kasava leaf! So I have been enjoying that for  the past few days. It made me feel like I was back in Salone, people love to feed us there!

The packages that you sent have arrived. Elder Nyelenke, Elder Charles and sister Kailie have seen theirs and Sister Stevens should get hers tomorrow. Wow you should have heard these three missionaries call me the day they got them!  They feel so loved and happy. Elder Nyelenke said he wanted to email Jana to thank her for the gifts (he did and its posted below), and said that our family will always be close in his heart. Elder Nyelenke is a really cool guy, always happy and greatful for everything. Sister Kailie was so thankful. She had been praying for a way to get a camera, she wanted to get one but couldnt, so she was so happy! She loves everything that Grandma and Aunt Pam sent for her. She said she wants to call on Christmas to thank the Anderson family. Elder Charles was also very appreciative. He is a very quiet guy, but very grateful. It was so cool to see them light up like that, Thank you! You really made them feel very loved.

Well I call you on Christmas with more!

love elder beckett

Sister Kailie on the left and Sister Stevens on the right

Thank you email from Elder Nyelenke to Jana:

Dear Sister Beckett,

    I am so grateful to our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ for the privileged I have to write you this mail. How are you doing? I hope you are doing well and fine with all ur day to day affairs in the U.S.A I know that you will be so surprised to received an email from someone that you never knows well my name is elder Gassimu Nyelenke I am a Sierra Leonean by nationality serving mission in Ghana your brother met me in Ghana whiles they were evacuated from my country because of Ebola he is a great missionary he loves people so much he never knew me but the day I met him for the very first time it was fun he can even speak our country language very well I was so surprised at him like said within myself what a white man speaking my country language. 

Compliment of the season in advanced I  just wanted to share this small thought with you. "And the angels said unto them, fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people". "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a saviour, which is Christ the lord" Luke2:10-11.

Lets us make Christmas a time of rejoicing and celebration, a time to share the marvelous truth that Almighty God sent His be gotten son, Jesus Christ to redeem the world! May the joy of that knowledge be with you this Christmas season  and throughout the coming year. 

Thanks for the wonderful Christmas gift that you sent for me may the good Lord continues to open the windows of heaven and pour out more blessings for you and your family where there shall not be enough room to receive it. You will always be in my heart I hope we shall continue to get in touch with each other. Thanks for reading and accepting my mail. 

Yours Elder Nyelenkeh.  

Elder Nyelenkeh

Modern day prophets can do more than tell us bible stories!

Before Leaving Sierra Leone

Well my week went quickly. I didnt get to work to much in the field this week. I have been needing to stay home with an elder who is sick and has needed my help. As I am looking back on the week now I am struggling to remember what has happened. I feel like I need to stop and look around more on my mission. I get caught to much in working that I dont take time to notice all of the wonderful things happening around me. 

So, a few blessings this week:

1) Talks by modern day prophets. A lot of the personal struggels I have and things that I need to work on to be more like Christ can bother me, but when I read the Liahona or any of the talks you send me it seems as if they were directed, directly to me.  Modern day prophets can do more than tell us bible stories, they can receive revelation about the gospel of Jesus Christ, so we can receive all the blessings of the atonement into our lives. 

2) One Salone woman I met here made me ginger beer this week. Ginger beer is a drink that they make in Salone, its pounded ginger mixed with water, sugar and lime. Its way good. Also the two sister missionaries from Salone are making me Kasava Leaf and Kren Kren, two sweet dishes from Salone!

Christmas is coming soon, I cant wait to talk to you all. Will Jeff be there? 

Welp talk to you soon!

The sweetness of the pudding is in the eating!

Miore beach

Cody didn't give any explanation but this beach is obviously the local dump! 

Dad happy birthday! Also, from the pics it looks like you have had a great Thanksgiving. My new companion is Elder Sibeko, he is from South Africa. Yes everyone loves fried chicken here, its the best.

Wow, you really went all out on the Christmas for those missionaries. They will be really happy. Dont worry about others being jealous.

Actually last week Monday I recieved all 4 packages and a few letters. I got a few from you and one from Chad. The Christmas stuff is awesome, I love all the letters and food. The Christmas music is sweet, but not all will play. So I will change them to mp3 so I can play them. For Christmas the mission will give me a sim card with credit to call you, so I will just call you guys this time.

The talks that you sent me about dicipleship were awesome, they were exactly what I needed this week!
Elder James E. Faust - Discipleship
Elder L. Tom Perry - Discipleship
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland - The Cost and Blessings of Discipleship

 There was a man who spoke at church Sunday and he was referring to the gospel when he said " the sweetness of the pudding is in the eating." So it is with the gospel, when we can show the faith to do what is right and most importanly to follow what Christ asks us we recieve a sweetness in our life that would otherwise not be there and if you haven't felt that sweetness than you can try it and see!

Sorry that this is so short. Elder Garcia (in our district) has been sick for a long while and we have to go take him to the doctor.

love you, see you soon!

I still wear the shoes that Sister Farrell got for me!

Hey Dad,

The river sounds nice, I hope that I can see some pics soon. Yeah it will be strange coming home to Zac almost as old as I was when I left.  I still wear the shoes that Sister Farrell got for me, I had the bottoms resoled and they should last my whole mission (Sister Ferrall was Cody's seminary teacher his senior year. She has a tradition of buying each of her students that serve a mission, a pair nice shoes for them to take - Thanks you Sister Farrell...you're amazing!!).

Hey Mom,

This week went by really fast! I dont know what it is, but so far the second year of my mission is going by really fast. I have 9 months left and I feel that it will go by too fast. Does it seem like my time away is going fast or slow?

Elder Sibeko and I have been working super hard, sometimes the work is very dificult. We have a lot of recent converts in the area that we still dont know because we cant get a hold of them and al ot of the recent converts dont know about alot of the gospel.  It seems like the past missionaries didn't teach everything or really prepare anyone for their baptism. Its kind of sad because they are falling less active and they didn't have a full knowlege of what they were doing, but small small we are teaching them.

Elder Krofuah making us a local dish called banku. It tastes good now, but I didn't enjoy it when I came. Its more thick than potatoes, its like play dough.

My companion Elder Sibeko and I

At the temple after stake conference

In our ward we have 411 members and about 120 ish come to church or are active. So our bishop spoke in the third hour of church to a combined class. He talked about reactivation, and missionary work and retention. He made it sound like he really trusts us, which is a really big help, because the members have had some experiences with missionaries in the past that have caused them to not want to be friends with us. So we are really trying to get to know the members so that we can help the less actives and have a stronger ward. That evening we recieved 3 referrals and 2 less actives. So the members are coming along.

Well we have been so busy that I can't even recall everything. I am really loving my mission. Ghana is becoming better in my eyes, but it will never match up to Salone. I am happy and time is flying!

Love ,
elder beckett