Raining

Sam's email this week:

"Dear Family

Well about my week. I kind of got a little sick this week, but i got through it and i feel a lot better today. We had a baptism on Saturday. We Baptized a 4 people. There names are R, T, L, and of course W. I want to tell you a little bit about all of them.

I will start off with R. R is a Liberian and that i found a long time ago with my first companion. We have been teaching him small small for a long time. It was very hard to get him to believe that the Book of Mormon was true, but we never gave up on him and now he knows its true. I know that R will stay a strong member.

The next person is a young boy named T. He is a 12 year old Liberian, his parents have been members for about one year now. I like T very much, at first he was very shy to Elder Farnbach and I, but as we worked with him he became my very good friend. His father got up and bore his Testimony about him last week. He talked about how he had asked T earlier if he thought the church was true, T told him he knew if was true, his father asked "how do you know?" Titus told him that he could feel it, is father asked "how can you feel it?" T told him he could feel it down deep in his bones. It made me so happy to know that i was a part of helping this wonderful joy come into this family, but there again the spirit did most of the work. T is a great kid and plus his middle name is Eazy, how cool is that?

Well on to L. L is a Liberian that the missionaries have been teaching for a long time now, even before i came. She has almost been Baptized many times, but always decided she was not ready at the end because of her confidence to keep the Law of Chasity. I remember a couple of weeks ago we were teaching her and i asked her if she believed that the church was true. She said "Yes." I told her that i didn't believe her. This made her kind of mad and she asked "Why!" I told her that if she really believed she would be Baptized and she would be strong in keeping the commandments. When we left her house i really thought that she would never be baptized, but the next thing i know she is asking when is the soonest time she can be Baptized. L was very excited to be baptized and she wants to go to the Temple as soon as possible to be Baptized for her Father.

Last but not Least is Brother W. Oh brother W, i don't even know where to start. I have all ready told you a little bit about Brother W. He is a great man, i have been very stressed about getting him ready for Baptism. He is one of the smartest Liberians but has had challenges from war to marriage. With a lot of help form Heavenly father we were able to get him ready for Baptism. He was very very excited on Saturday.(the day of the Baptism) When he got to the church we had all the baptismal candidates up sitting in the front. Brother W was sitting next to R. I was watching him for a second he was looking around very excited and he leaned over to R and said " So um you've come in contact with the Restored truth too?" R looked a little confused and leaned back and said "Yea" and the friendship was born. When i saw that it made me laugh with so much joy. It made me really feel like i taught Brother W well.I had the opportunity to be a witness during his Baptism. After he came up from the water he looked at me and game me the Fist pump, i quickly gave it back. That also made me laugh. I know W will be an awesome member of the church.

The baptism went great. The roof broke open again, but we got it all fixed up before the baptism started. That night though there was a really bad storm, it rained all night super hard. When we left for church we had to walk in water because everywhere got flooded. Because of the storm only R and T made it on time to be confirmed and church. W and L showed up after sacrament meeting. Its crazy how a storm like that can slow down Ghana so much.

Thank you so much for all that you do. I want you all to know that i always remember you in my prayers. I love you so much and i hope you have an amazing week.
Love Elder Sam Beck"

Soccer Sam

Click HERE for a video of Sam playing soccer back at the MTC at the beginning of his mission. He is the one in the front wearing a white shirt, blue shorts, and no shoes. You only see the back of his head and occasionally the side- but it's Sam! I'll take whatever I can get. :)

Marriage Counseling

Sam's email this week:

"Dear Family,

Thank you again for your Emails. What is new at home?

I am loving my mission. I really am, the other day we got a brand new missionary from America. He was walking around the apartment all wide eyed, stunned at this is where he would be living for the next 2 years. He asked what i thought of my mission so far? I told him i was loving it. After i said it i paused for a second and thought about what i had just said. It was the first time in my whole mission that i said that and really meant it, and you know what, its true. I love coming home at night tired knowing i worked as hard as i could that day. It really is the best feeling when you come home and you know you gave that day everything you had.

This week has been a pretty good week. My companion and i worked our butts off this week and got 16 investigators to come to church. It was way crazy. Its amazing how fast the church is growing in Africa.

There is a family we are teaching. They are the W's, they are great. The father, brother W,(i told you about last week) really wants to be baptized. So we have been teaching them a lot to get them prepared, but the other day we got a call from sister W that she need us to come visit them right away. So we went as soon as we could. When we got there sister W told us that we should push her baptism back because brother W and her were fighting and planing on getting a divorce. When she said this brother W interrupted her and said in a very concerned voice "i still want mine right away!" That didn't help the fight but to say in short they wanted us to counsel them on there marriage. I tried to refer them to the bishop, but the kept insisting that we do it. So there i was counseling 2 middle aged people on there marriage. I tried my best, but there again i have not been married before, so i had very little experience. I would have never thought that I would have to do that in a million years before my mission. It is really crazy what i am learning from this mission.

We are having another baptism this Saturday. We are baptizing 4 people.I will tell you how everything turned out next week.

I am really glad that everyone is okay back home. Please keep me up dated on everyone's situations. I love you so much.
Love
Elder Beck

P.S.- I made it to shop right... it was amazing!"

Shop Right

Here is part of Sam's email this week:

"My week has been pretty good, well except i did not get to go to "Shop Right." "Shop right" is basically an American store in Ghana. They just built one not to far from Kasoa, so all week Elder Farnbach and i were planning to go there on Monday. I woke up this morning way excited to go. I have heard about "Shop Right" so much from the other missionaries. They say its a lot like a Fred Myer, but with just all off brands.They say when you walk in its like a little bit of america. So this morning we got up early to go. We went to catch a Tro Tro, but all the Kasoa tro tro drivers were refusing to drive any one. They were refusing because the goverment raised the toll both prices coming out of Kasoa. So in a way all the tro tro drivers in Kasoa are on a strike right now. The worst thing about this strike is that i cant go to "Shop Right." To Be honest though i am starting to think "shop right" is just a legend, but i do have a feeling down deep that it is somewhere out there. One day i may reach that blessed store.

I did have a really cool experience this week though. We were in the camp proslyting and we were invited to come and visit a boy named H. H is a 19 year old boy and his father has been a member for about a year now. We went into there home to teach. Which to be completley honest was a shack, the roof was falling apart, and it was very dark so we had to use a candle to light the room. I was siting there teaching and it started to rain very badly, the roof was leaking all over the place. At this point i was starting to feel sorry for myself. I was thinking " why in the world was i sent here?" Then all of the sudden i just got this amanzing feeling that this was right were i needed to be. I all the sudden was so happy. It was an awesome feeling. I dont think i have ever felt the spirit that strong. I feel very blessed to be called to serve here in ghana. I have learned so much and i know i will contine to learn even more.

I am going to find out probably tonight or tomorrow morning if im going to be transfered. President calls the day before the transfer and lets you know where your going. I wish he would tell us a little sooner, so i would know if i needed to say goodbye to my people. I am thinking and hoping i will stay, but im not sure what heavenly father has in store for me. I hope you all will have a great up and coming week. I love you all so much. Please let me know if there is anything i can do to help.

Love Elder Sam Beck

P.S. Please tell everyone thankyou for writing me letters. Its very hard to be able to write back because the computers here are very slow and i dont have alot of time on them. Thank you."