I thought I should include here all we have received from Sam now that he has been out over a month and then from now on I will try to put his emails on here when we receive them weekly. Here we go (In order of oldest to newest):
December 5, 2019 – I’m Alive
Hey momma i made it! I have SOOO much to learn and i really wish i had spent more time studying spanish and less time on my phone. no one here speaks english and there are only 8 white elders haha. Its great tho also getting here was a hassle ill tell you the whole adventure next tuesday when im allowed to email fully. tell ervyone i say hi.
Love Elder Beckwith
What’s going on guys? First of all these computers have english keys on a spanish keyboard so sorry about my lack of good english. I miss you all so much and i hope you all are doing well. My First week at the CCM was honestly the best. the CCM is in a nicer part of bogota so its not terrible and theres only 50 elders hers so its a tight nit group. Of everyone here about 15 people speak english (13 are elders} so im learning pretty fast. Even the spanish teachers only speak as little english so its kind of sink or swim. i would be fluent already if i wasnt constantly hitting my head on doors, bathroom stalls, lights etc. Everything here is miniature which has been fine except that my feet hang of the bed by a good foot. Latinos make up 90% of the missionaries here but there all super cool so its good, my latest project has been teaching all of them the phrase “was poppin” which was fine until one of them said it to the CCM president. I love the spirit here and im truly feeling the spirit helping me learn the language and the gospel. My companion is super rad and has great spanish so thats been super helpful. Also the basketballl rims here are like 9 feet so ive been poning missionaries right and left, its been a blast. Anyway i dont want to be one of those missionaries who sends massive emails so you better read the whole thing also i have like 30 minutes to email and lots of soccer to play. In conclusion, I love the food here almost as much as gospel. The church is true and i cant wait to get into the field and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Elder Beckwith
December 10, 2019 – My Dearest Boy (My Email)
How was your first week? I keep thinking how relieved I am that it isn’t last week at this time! It was such a heart wrenching night! All this week I’ve been thinking, “Last week at this time we were doing ___________ with Sam (fill in the blank with some activity). After tomorrow I can move on and think about all the adventures you are having. How was your first week? How was church? Did you attend the temple there yet? How is your companion? Are you will Elder Shaw still?
Well, we are in full swing with the Christmas holidays now. We went to the Lexi Walker/Nathan Pacheco concert at the school which was mind-blowing! Those voices! Lexi seems so much more mature sounding than she used to be and I really felt the Christmas spirit during the concert – especially when Nathan Pacheco was singing O Holy Night. He is an opera singer with a powerful voice. While he was singing the song he was overwhelmed by the spirit and couldn’t sing. He stood there with his eyes closed and head bowed and both hands on the microphone. At that point the orchestra seemed to know they need to step up and the music swelled and took over the room. I noticed such beauty in the instrumental part while Nathan wasn’t singing and then, he composed himself and came in at the chorus, “Fall on your knees…” with such power and conviction that he received a standing ovation. I had chills everywhere!
Mom
December 10, 2019 – I Got the Green light (My Email)
I just finished at my appointment with the surgeon. He gave me the green light to ski! But only because you are not here to ski with me. No blacks, no jumps, no bumps, no quick turns, NO FALLING!!!! Anna is going to love it. Sorry to email you so much.
I love you,
Mom
December 10, 2019 I Got the Green light (Sam’s Email to me)
mom!!!! how are you!! i miss you so much. Also we cant call because the internet is trash so i guess ill have to settle for email. Congrats on being able to ski!! im so jealous of you. Getting here was awful and i had to hangout in the houston airport for 24 hours from there we got sent to Puerto Rico where we spent a full day and then finally got to Bogota the next day at 1200 am. theres barely anyone here so theres its a ton of fun and you get to know anyone. my companion is super cool and hes quite possibly the smartest guy ive met. he can be a little cocky sometimes because hes very aware of his intellect. i love him tho. I love the gospel and i cant wait to teach it also we wont be able to call on christmas but i can call on the 24. i loooooovve learning spanish so much and im so so excited to be fluent. im almost out of time. ill try and call next week. i love you and dad so much i miss you guys and tell the fam i say hi.
love
elder beckwith
December 17, 2019 (Group Email)
hows it going guys? another week down at the CCM and only 400 to go. Actually its 3 but still seems long. This week was awesome my spanish is getting better unfortunately my soccer skills are not. We have yet to beat the latinos in soccer. theyve been playing football longer than ive been speaking actual words so you can imagine how that plays out. Class here can definitely be a little long especially when we cant leave because of all the protests. My companion is a really cool guy, hes super super productive so its been really good for me especially because im not the most on-task kind of guy. all the guys here are amazing and I feel so blessed to be here. Honestly no real complaints. Everyone hear is sick and the halls sounds like an infirmary, im basically drinking hand sanitizer and i havent gotten sick yet. pray for me. The spirit here is so strong and im really feeling a love for the gospel. I CANT WAIT to get in the field. Hope you all are doing well! I love you all and i hope you have an amazing christmas season.
-Elder Beckwith
December 17, 2019 (My email to Sam)
(Questions for you to answer if you can are in red)
You are my favorite stinker on the planet. You know that right? Today I decided it was time to go back to Vasa. While I was getting ready to go I meant to open my exercise shirt drawer and accidentally opened my swimsuit drawer. And what did I see?????
Anna and William are doing great. They both miss you a lot and pray for you every day. William’s prayers consist of telling Heavenly Father he loves him about five times and then asking for you to be watched over and protected and that you will have help learning Spanish and the gospel. William has been a little moody lately but that is to be expected. He loves your room and I like having him next door. We even broke the room in by having a late night rumble involving Lizzie, William and me and a squirt bottle, some blankets and wrestling. We had been reading a book together that Lizzie wanted to finish but I wouldn’t let her and so William hid it in his room. Lizzie wouldn’t leave his room until she found the book. She ended up leaving after she and all of William’s bedding were soaked.
December 17, 2019 – Email to me
MOOOOM!! i miss you and the family so much! not enough to have me come home cuz i absolutely love it here but alot nonetheless. Im glad you finely found the cans also ive been listenintg to a lot of music on my speaker and it cracked me up to her GLORIUS on the speaker. It got even better when all the latinos in my room fell in love with the song and made me relisten to it 5 times at least. sorry if im not going to be very good at responding your email we are given NO time to talk to our familys so ill just answer the questions in red. The schedule here is crazy we wake up at 630 and finish at 900 and we get an hour for excersice and 45 min per meal. it can be a bit much sometime but my spanish is improving a ton because nobody speaks enlgish here, not even the teacher. i end up staying up late doung push ups and planks so i dont go crazy. I really do feel like im learning soooo much about the gospel. i love the gospel and im really starting to feel the spirit and recognize it. Crazy what 2 weeks of 247 gospel study can do for you. sometimes i get a little fed up of constant classes and stuff but then i read my patriarchal blessing and eat food and i almsot always feel better. My teachers are awesome, even tho they speak very little spanish. its tough with spanish cuz they push you so hard here, i mean it works really well but i always feel like im barely hanging on. the little red book in my pocket is called basic core and its 300 something words and frazes that we were supposed to learn in a week. needless to say its been my life for the past week. i love the food here we basically just eat rice every meal with a mystery meat. my bowels are great cant say the same for half the white elders there including my companion. the Elders in my district are all white so thats good. theres only 7 of them tho. I also just learned this is officially the smallest MTC in the world there is 50 people here right now and im friends with all of them. we leave in 3 weeks roughly also cant wait to call you guys on the 24th. ill figure out pictures soon. feel free to send this email to close family if you want or whoever cuz my weekly emails are mega short. i miss you and dad so much and im so grateful that you guys got me out here. tell the fam i say hi also send my skateboard and my music cuz im soooooooo board. im so voard ive been reading scriptures in my free time ;P. ok for real tho, send my skateboard. Tell anna and william and lizzie i miss them and love them.
Elder Beckwith
December 17, 2019 – Email to Grant
dad i miss you so much. I Love you and im so grateful for you sorry i cant respond to both you and mom in length just dont have enough time. so pumped for ahs basketball. sorry to hear about mrs sivert. your an amazing man and im so grateful for the amazing father youve been to me. I have been thinking so much of your favorite scripture. i memorized it in spanish and i think about it every day. My favorite part is MY JESUS *sorry no quotations. its sucha powerful scripture and i love how it personalizes christ while also stating how he is our all powerful redeemer who loves us. im fiding so much joy in the scriptures, and im so grateful to you for raising me in this gospel.
December 23, 2019 (My heart breaks to hear he won’t be calling for Christmas!)
Hey mom how aré you! I miss you and I hope the fam is doing good. theyre giving us An hour tomorrow to call you guys but that’s just a normal amount of time which is kind of lame but that’s ok. I’m wondering if it’s ok if I wait to call you till I’m out in the field. Setting up the calls is weird and I feel like an hour or more like 45 minutes isn’t enough time. Besides ill be out in two weeks hallelujah. Ill still email of course. If you really want me l call let me know. Btw i got called to be zone leader which is cool don’t know if it counts in the CCM but yeah. Love ya lots.
Elder beckwith
December 23, 2019 (My response – aren’t I a good Mom?)
I didn’t know you could email today! I’m sorry I didn’t have one for you. I’m going to leave it up to you to decide if you want to call or not. We understand either way. We miss you like crazy and would love to hear your voice but I can understand it might be complicated or make you homesick. I will tell you one thing (no guilt trip, just to tell you how much we love you), Lizzie told me she is more excited about talking to you than she is about presents! I will write you again tomorrow. If we don’t talk before Christmas, MERRY CHRISTMAS! I love you so much! And congrats on becoming a zone leader. It does “count” and I’m proud of you for living up to your god given talent of being a leader!
With lots of love,
Mom
December 24, 2019 (Group Email)
Whats going on everybody. Merry Christmas! hope you are all doing well im doing really well. News from this week. We got a whole new group of latinos because theyre only here for 3 weeks and there awesome. Also I got called as zone leader. Not sure if it counts here but thats cool.i also got a pretty high fever for a day but that was it and now im great. back to schooling the latinos in soccer )not really) . its gonna be short this week cuz i got to talk to my fam. love you all.
Elder Beckwith
December 24, 2019 (Email from Mom & Dad)
We played the camera game where you set the timer and then have to go and get things and be back in ten seconds.
December 31, 2019 – Last Week in CCM (Group Email)
Hey Guys hope you all are doing great. oh my gatos i have 6 days left in the CCM. im so excited to get into the mtc and i only have 6 days till im free. My spanish is coming along well and im actually teaching full lessons in spanish now. Im really feeling the spirit and the gift of tongues. Since ive been zone leader and had my new companion ive really been trying to work on obedience. my companion is super uptight and the CCM here is super strict so its been good also a little bit of a struggle. Now that the protests are over we can go outside and i just want to contact everyone and their dog. the gospel is true and i cant wait to teach. also we got new gringos one is 6 8 and one is 6 6 so thats cool. Sorry if ive been bad at responding we get zero time here to talk with people. also football update im decent at goalie because my arms take up the whole goal which is nice cuz being good equals instant friends with the latinos which is nice. go skiing and skateboarding for me, also go eat at betos so it doesn’t go out of business while im gone, thanks.
December 31, 2019 – Happy New Year (My email to Sam)
How was your Christmas? I hope it was wonderful! Do you know how amazingly wonderful it was for all of us to talk to you? And to see your face? You look happy and healthy. I am so thankful that you are thriving in missionary life despite the rigors and structure. You are so capable of doing great and hard things! Last night I said the prayer when I was tucking Anna in and just said a quickie. When I ended the prayer she prompted what I had forgotten to say, “And please bless Sam”. Your siblings miss you almost as much as I have (almost). William is bound and determined to take your place as resident tease. I was hoping with a little more “space” in the family now he would thrive more than he has. Instead it seems like he has absorbed all the allotted testosterone for the family and has become a full blown teenage boy, somewhat grumpy, teasing, arguing… I’m hoping this phase will pass quickly. I think he is too since he seems a little bewildered by it. He has grown at least an inch since you have left and is lifting in his room with the bench and weights he got for Christmas. Everyone who sees him right now is commenting on how tall he is all of a sudden.
Anna is making a New Year’s resolution to only watch movies with the family and not alone. That was an unprompted resolution on her part and I think that will be really good for her. (hopefully it will last longer than most of my resolutions do). She had another run in with the Cobb twins when she was playing at their house and then they got invited to a different friends house and told her she had to go home. Sadly, she had already told us she didn’t want to go sledding with us at Tibble fork so she was home alone crying while we were sledding. I wanted to throttle those girls! I think this might be what was needed for her to make a clean break from them. For Christmas Anna got some hair tools; a crimping iron, curling iron and some scrunchies from Santa and Dad got into the Christmas shopping spirit and got her an acrylic paint set that she loves! She has been painting pictures to decorate her room.
Lizzie finished her personal progress on Sunday and will be one of the last girls ever to receive her award since the church is discontinuing that program. She is pretty excited about it but kind of laughing at herself at the same time. She has been essentially done for about two years but has procrastinated until the last possible moment. She has been spending a lot of time with Rachel and Danielle and has loved having Rachel home these past weeks. It will be sad to have her go back to college. Oh, and Lizzie has been asked to speak at Stake Conference in two weeks so pray for her!
We have been spending a fair amount of time with the Beckwiths while Bethany and Christopher are in town. Last night we all went to see the movie Little Women and then back to the Bennetts for games. I thought I would dominate with Wacky Six since I had the most experience with the game but Dan is a formidable foe! After the kids went to bed we all had a funny conversation with the adults as we compiled a favorite movies list. I couldn’t believe how varied it was. Dan had all the cheesy movies on the list. Bethany had all the quirky ones. We all laughed a lot over the whole thing. (mostly when Dan and Bethany started to quote Megamind almost verbatim and in its entirety.) The Laws are all going to be Megamind characters for halloween next year since one of their boys has a big baldish head.
A question and then a last thought. What time are you usually on the computer on pday? Maybe we can try to be on at the same time and chat? We are headed up to go sledding but will be available later today. And now my thought:
I am reading the book, “In the Shadow of Man” about Jane Goodall, the lady who lived with chimps in africa in the sixties. She describes a scene that caused me to think, I will enclose it here: She is describing some of her early days of watching the chimps before they had learned to trust her. She says, “ I lay down flat and kept still – for often, if the apes saw me on their way to feed, they changed their minds and fed elsewhere. Once they had started to feed however, once they were surrounded by the delicious taste and sight of the fruit, their hunger usually proved stronger than their distrust of me.” I love this because this is how temptation and sin work. If we stay far from the temptation, if we see the adversaries tools for what they are and keep a safe distance we will see clearly what the threat is, but once we are in it, amongst it, with the temptations all around it is very difficult to tear ourselves away. Who knew we could learn from chimpanzees?
I better end now. I love you SO MUCH! I can’t wait to hear anything you want to share about your mission. I heard about the 6.0 earthquake in Bogota this week. I can’t believe you guys didn’t feel it there! I’m glad you guys are ok.
With love and xoxo,
Mom
January 7, 2020 – Made It
Hey mom I made it to Cali!!!!!! its beautiful here and definitely feels much more foreign than bogota. im in the mission office right now and ill know my trainer by tomorrow. Love ya lots, tell the fam i say hi and that i love them.
Elder Beckwith
January 7, 2020 – Exciting Times
You left the MTC! I can’t even wait to hear about it all. It’s amazing how certain times stand out in ones life. I feel like I can tell you every minute of my first day in the mission field. That is after I left the mission home/office – that was all a blur. I could recognize the smell, the feel of the air, the people. It is such an amazing time. I will be interested to hear about your impressions of your mission president. I’m so grateful your time in the CCM was a good one. I’m so glad for your sake that you are so resilient.
Mom
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