Oct 25: ONE YEAR MARK!

Sam's email from Oct 25:

"Dear Family,

Thank you for your amazing Emails. I am very glad that everyone is doing well back home. Please continue to take care of your guys health.

Yes it is very true that now i am past a year. It actually doesnt feel like i have been out that long. The 23rd of October was a pretty awesome day. It started off with an awesome baptism. We Baptized a women named E and her niece named F. I really wasn't the one that taught them, but it was still cool to be there. Both these people have been waiting a long time to be Baptized but were having to wait because of a few problems. After the Awesome Baptism Elder Jones and i went to a way nice American type restaurant called ZuZu and i got a delicious cheeseburger with fries. It was very nice and enjoyable. After the delicious meal i went out and proselyted the rest of the day. At the end day i decided to go and get a hair cut. WE saw a nice hair cutting place and went up. There was a Rasta guy working there and i asked him if he knew how to cut white man hair. He responded" i got no ****ing problem, I can cut your hair if you ****ing want." I decided maybe a hair cut isn't such a good idea today. I didnt do anything like burn a shirt or something, just that knowing i have been a missionary for 1 year was good enough for me. I actually did save some real live American water that i bought in the airport before i left that i was planning to drink at my one year, but sadly i forgot. I think i will drink it today.

That day we went and taught a man named J. It was Saturday and we really wanted J to come to church the next day. We sat down to teach him and even before we could ask him he said to us "i hope you know i am coming to church tomorrow." We were like "um yeah" We had a great lesson with him and left him thinking for sure we would being seeing him the next day. So the next morning we got up and even called J to see if he remembered. On the phone he sounded very excited and told us he would be at church. We went to church and 8 o clock rolled around and no J, the 8:15 rolled around and no J, and then pretty soon church was completely over and still no J. After Church was over we tried to call him, but we didn't get an answer. We were unable to go and see him, but were planning to go and see him Tuesday to see what the problem was. The reason i tell you this story is because i really thought he was going to come. If i was a gambling man, i would have put money on this guy coming to church. Well i hope there was no serious problem, and i truly hope that we can get him to church this up and coming Sunday. I will be sure to let you know what happens.

The week was also pretty good. We are teaching a woman named I. She is a very nice lady. We invited her to church last week and she came and brought her Neice and Nephew. They all enjoyed church very much. Her nephew A, said that he would never go to any other church again. This week we were going to teach her and both my companion and I really felt like we should extend her a baptismal Date. I was really nervous about it though. When we arrived i started to feel very nervous about it, but i still felt strongly that we should do it. So we sat down and read in 2 Nephi 31 and talked about baptism. As we taught her we asked her if she would be Baptized. And it was amazing when she accepted. I was so happy and after the experience i was thinking about it, i really feel like the spirit was telling us we need to extend that date. And i am so glad we did.

As for everything else i am doing great. My mission is half way over and it feels like it is moving too fast. Mataheko is going good. I am really getting used to it. The missionaries before me really didn't have that many investigators, so elder Jones and I spent almost the whole week finding. I think our Area will start to grow as we continue to work hard. I love you all. And i hope you have a awesome week.See you in 1 year!

Sincerley Elder BECK"