Catch Up -- His emails from the past month

It has been forever since I have written and I am sorry! A couple of new developments!! OCTOBER 5th is when Dereck comes home. I don't think he is too excited about that, but I haven't even told him that we know the date yet. He hasn't chosen to share that date with us either although I know he knows! Little stinker! I guess he just doesn't want to think about it and that is all we CAN think about! I also found out that Sister Beck (the President's wife) has been keeping a blog http://calledtoservephoenix.blogspot.com/ There are some fun pictures on that site as well as some more indepth info on the missions.
I have included some of Dereck's past emails.

August 9 2010
We have had a very eventful week. After a butt chewing from president for a little bit of lackadaisical work on the part of our zone they all rose to the occasion. It was wonderful. They came back and wanted to prove that we are the best. It was very nicely done. We have so far in the zone 5 baptisms. And we have another 30 scheduled for August!! The lord is definately blessing our fine missionaries. It is wonderful to see.

We destroyed people in the badminton tourney. Davis be afraid very very afraid....

Dereck is in the funky yellow and pink T-shirt that was a gift from Elder Burris...yeah, thanks for that Burris!! His companion, Elder Kennington is next to him in the Wyoming shirt. I had told Dereck that Davis has been practicing his ping pong and badminton skills and is ready to take him on when he gets home. I guess that is why he is telling Davis to be afraid - or is it because of the shirt that he is wearing?

We had to put a year report together in a day basically. It was crazy. My fingers havent flown that fast in a long time. for sure. its was just nuts. the stake president and the mission presiident and our area president had a meeting and so President Hettenger needed all kinds of info and really quick but it was really good we deffently were able to gain some more trust with him for it it was great.

We are depolying the new curriculum to all the missionaries and that will start on wednesday. we have a really sweet zone meeting planned. it will be so cool. and will the things that we will be implementing we will be able to continue to set even more dates and we will be even better teachers. its going to be really good. i cant wait for that day to come. its just going to be so cool..

we also are going to start doing some more training in all the wards and with all the ward mission leaders. it will be focusing on the five names that the brotheren have come out with it will really pump up the stakes but it will deffently be something diffrent to the old way of doing things. man i never knew how much missionary work has changed of the years untill i start having train a bunch of old people who are really stuck in their ways. it is difficult. you really have to prove things to them. it comes back to how to be humble. for sure. it just comes down to that its the hardest thing to do is to be told your wrong especally when you have been doing something for so long one way and it has been so effective in your eyes. then somehting else comes along then man we are talking something completly diffrent.

August 2 2010
Hey Family

well this past week wasnt to bad. there was lots of clouds so it was just really humid but it only hit 100 one time this week. and it rained alot for down here that was really nice!!

Well this week we had zone confence. it was great it was an intro to the new simplified cooriculom.... everything is focused on that.

we went on two exchanges this week with the district leaders. i took the younger missionaries. man what a great time of there life. it deffently made me think a little more about where i have come from. and how much i have learned.

the zone has secduled 29 baptisms for august. but man our numbers are so poor everything is going to the toilet. and so we had a very interesting talk with our district leaders last night. and even more interesting talk with president beck. so we will be making some changes to some of the way we do things. basically we arent very happy at the moment with the way things are panning out.
July 26
All is well here in the hot state. we actually had a baptism this last weekend. it was really nice. President and Sister Beck came to that baptsm and i still get intimidated when i have to present in front of them for some reason. it's not like i havent done it many times before. but o well its good for me it keeps me on my toes. the guys name was pete. he and his wife have only been married for about 2 months. but its really cool.

we now have no more dates but we are planing on setting a few more soon.


this last week my brain became mush. we had a sweet experiance in our mini mtc. the new simplified corriculum is going to be so cool. the missionaries will be learning skills that are so much more important in there. itwill be a bummer that i wont see them come out to implement thoughs things. we used them a lot this week and man who knew that pausing would cause the sprit to really jsut jump people. it was nuts. its some really good stuff.


This is a picture from the mini MTC --

July 19 2010
Well we had a sweet week!

Sage got baptized this week. It was really neat. The hot water heater breaker was flipped so the water was freezing. It was so cold. We filled up the font half way just thinking that we would have to deal well some one came and opened the breaker box. And we got hot water well we had the top foot hot and the rest was freezing. Elder kennington baptized him. And it was a good thing it was a 115 outside cuz it would have been bad if it wasn’t.

Elder Kennington and I Stayed!!! We are like brothers basically!! Its good stuff it didn’t take long to gel. So now we are working on training both stakes on the five names. It’s quite interesting.

So this week Tuesday though Friday we will be having a training for all leaders and trainers. I guess the MTC is changing their curriculum throughout the world. So we have to be ready... basically for the next four days we will be back in the mtc. President will be training us and we will be relearning lots of things. Its neat.
we now only have interviews once every 3 months.
we are supposed to stay in areas 9 months. zone confrences are now once every 3 months. once a month we have a specalized trainin session with president beck. and zone leader councils will stay at once a month. its way cool!! we are very excited about the new changes. i am bummed though cuz i wont really get to see the long term effects of them. and the actual change in the mtc wont happen untill May 2011

Gila Valley Dedication

Dereck was able to watch the new Gila Valley temple dedication via satellite. He said it was hard to tell the investigators that there would not be church, but they managed ok. :) "The best part of the dedication was President Monson. He is such a funny man. After calling himself a ham, he went on to tell us about how President Kimball was in attendance for the dedication. He said it with a look that I have never seen him have before. It was a look of I am not really looking at any of you people that I can see, rather a look of I am looking at all of these little children who will be sealed to their families and all the parents tha will be sealed to their children in that temple. It was really neat to see."

They have been trying something new that the mission president gave some instruction on. They try to have all of the first lessons in members homes or in the chapel. They want it in the chapel as tey give a tour of the building and after the tour extend adate to them after the tour is given. He said that they tried it on Sunday. The spirit was so strong! It was amazing to see how the pictures in our churches even have a specific place and reason for being there. Just check it out. You can follow all of lesson one just by looking at the pictures in the hallway. "Cool stuff!"
His companion of the past 8 months, Elder Burris will be heading home on June 1st. It will be interesting to see, or hear how that goes, and what is next for Elder Wesche.
Our sweet primary had a missionary appreciate day activity. They made the misssionaries these aprons. Love it! So did he!










Dereck was able to attend the sealing of his past companion, Elder Jensen to his bride in the Mesa temple. He was so excited and was able to do a session before the sealing with Elder Burris. I love that he loves the temple! The man in the middle is Bro. V. (Yep, that is what is written on the back of the picture.) He drove them to the temple


Beekeeper Dereck! -- Again with the thumbs!

Mothers Day Phone call

What a wonderful talk we had with our son on Mother's Day. It was great to hear his voice. He is doing very well and is loving his time as a missionary. We found out that his companion, Elder Burris will be returning home on June 1st. He has been Dereck's companion since September; a crazy long time. He said that once Elder Burris leaves, he will become the senior ZL of the area. He issued a challenge to read 3rd Nephi and to pick one principal out that is being taught - whichever one the spirit whispers to you -- and really live it. "It will change your life forever!" It is amazing to be taught by your children. He says hi to all of you and thanks you for all of the support you give him.
His jaw is healing nicely and doesn't like to be reminded that he has to go to his follow up visits. However, we do have the President on our side, and he WILL continue to have his check ups. We can't thank our family and friends enough for all the prayers and fasting that was done on his behalf. He is in Phoenix for a reason ~ Heavenly Father wants him to be there, many miracles occured so that he could continue to serve. So thank you for your faith.

Playing catch up ...

The following are excerpts from the last couple of emails that Dereck has sent.

5/17/10 -- Well everything here is great!!! We are really focusing on finding in our area. We are seeing lots of people progress but we are trying to see that we have people to follow up in there foot steps.
In the YSA there is a young man named Kam. He has been around missionaries who push and push for quite some time so he is a little frustrated with them right now. But we were invited over to help him with his yard. So we dug out a tree stump and the whole time he wanted to talk about the gospel. So we talked about the gospel! Now we are teaching him. Also we get to do yard work again!!! I love it.
Well I thought I had seen it all.. Well I was wrong. I got flashed for the first time by a guy today... it was really disturbing.... I was talking with President Morris on the phone out on our porch... well there was this guy who was standing out there a little suspicious. He was walking around in a towel. But we are in Phoenix its a little normal to see things out of the ordinary. Well. I get done with the call and go back inside practicing my golf swing, waiting for my turn to enjoy a nice relaxing shower.. Well I hear this hey coming from outside. Well I went out side and there was this kid asking if I had seen his cat well no cuz they are everywhere in our apartment complex so how was I supposed to know if it was his. Well then he goes well I have a question and then there went the towel... man I wish I had a golf ball in my hand. It would have been no longer in my hand and would have thrown right at him. Anyways, a funny story.
5/3/10 -- We had zone leader council this week. It was really good. Our baptisms as a mission were really low. President Beck just got back from a presiden'ts council with area mission presidents. I guess that missions are teaching the first discussions in ten minutes. Well elder Burris and I had the outline for it, but never actually did it. I had a sweet experience this week. I went on an exchange with the assistants. We tracted for 6 hours that day. We only talked to about 5 or 6 people the whole time. Basically the entire area could be compared to all the big houses in North Farmington, maybe even bigger. It is difficult to be able to actually find people
who want to listen because the people all go to a local church (who teach false doctrine about us by the way). We knocked on this one door, one of the last ones. The guy was raised LDS until he was like 6 than something happened and his family left the church. He now belongs to the big local church like the rest of the people in that part of town. Well, he let us in. Elder Carver, one of the AP's just started into the 10 minute thing. It was good. Then we just kept it going. As we finished teaching about Christ's earthly ministry he caught were it was all going. He realized why we felt there needed to be a restoration, then we got talking about baptism. He felt that it was just to show commitment and only if you wanted to do it. We helped him see in the bible, which I don't know very well by the way, how important baptism is and that you need to have the gift of the holy ghost by the laying on of hands. It was really cool . I was shaking like a baby rattle, but the spirit was really strong. It was one of the first times one of these types of things didn't turn into a bash. We will see if anything came of it. Who knows!
4/26/10 --We had a zone meeting this week. In our zone meeting we talked about setting goals, not only setting goals, but how to accomplish them. It was great. I have been learning more of the aspects of setting goals. It has to do with the things that we desire, what we are willing to do, and what we want in life. I was reading a talk from Elder Ballard. He said something was very profound to me. He said life is like a river that we are trying to walk up. Why do we spend so much time watching the water run DOWN hill? Why are we trying to walk up backwards and watch the things of the past while we run into the things we weren't expecting? If we will just turn our heads and focus on the future and not the past, than we will be able to find where to go and will be able to see where the shallow parts of the river are. We will be able to see where the holes are, where the currents to take us back are. If we will look forward with our goal setting than working to accomplish them we will be able to overcome a lot of the trials and problems as we focus on the more important things. I know that this is true. I have seen it and applied it in my life. It has blessed me immensely.

Some excerpts from his March letters

I love my mission. It is truly changing my life and shaping me into what I truly want to be. Elder Burris and I have been trying to do something. We are both really good at picking out our own faults and so we are trying to go 24 hours without saying one negative thing. So far we have got to 7 hours but that was because we were sleeping. Hahaha! It is difficult. You really have to think hard about it. We are doing a whole thing about it for the zone. Yesterday we trained 4 ward councils on the mobilizing missionary program. Talk about stressful! But it went will and now they all understand it at least.

We have a zone conference on having a divine companionship. It was all about having unity with your companion and the Spirit. I sill really love the word unity. It just has had a powerful impact on my life. I am now just trying as hard as I can to get as unified with the spirit as possible.
Jackie ( a young lady they have been teaching) was baptized. It was wonderful! Her non member sisters came and that was huge! Elder Burris performed the baptism and as soon as she came out of the water she looked completely new. She looked so peaceful it was a wonderful thing to be able to witness. Afterwards, I was able to give the missionary lesson with Elder Kennington. Jackie's sisters felt something there. They couldn’t deny it. They knew it. They just sat there bawling with a huge smile on their faces. It was crazy! Yes, job done! Got girls to cry!

Dereck with Jackie and Elder Burris. Anjuli is a good friend of Jackie's who arranged for the missionaries to teach Jackie.

Jackie with Elder Burris and Wesche at the Mesa temple (I think it was an Easter pageant -- or something like that.)

Welcome 2010!!

I have waited a really long time to be able to say that my sweet baby gets to come in this year, I don't care that it will be towards the end of the year, it is still THIS YEAR!! Yeah!! I know that it has been forever since my last update, not a lot has changed. He is still with his same companion, Elder Burris and is still a ZL in Phoenix. In our email today he said that at the end of this transfer (another 6 weeks) they will have been companions for nine months. Considering he has been out for 15 months, give or take a few days, it seems really odd that they have been companions for over half of his mission. They seem to work really well together and get a lot done, so I guess President Beck's thought is, why mess with something that works! He talked a little about the big storm that has hit Arizona, and said it was over done. It was bad, but not the end of the world that everyone was making it out to be. He said that they had fun tracting and driving in the rain. It was like he was mudding again. The washes are full and they had to shut down the road into Flagstaff and that they were hauling snow out of there because they had no where to put it. He is crazy busy with month and year end reports. Here is an excerpt from one of his email of January 4th:
"I learned a lot this week about Growth. It always comes. These are things that I have seen before because of wrestling, and times when I am struggling. The Lord does something cool. He pushes you to your limit and then wants to see if you are willing to trust in Him. So he puts a little more to do then when he does it he just POURS out the blessings. Here is an example. This week we had to do over 50 hours of stake reports and other things. We really had no time for tracting. and really were struggling finding people. All of our members kept bailing on us for lessons so things were getting very frustrating and down to the line. We had to set the standard of what to do. Well this all happened through out the week, actually rather depressing, knowing the Lord wanted us to grow. We just pushed looking forward to the blessing having no clue where or when they would come. We knew they would come because of the scripture in the doctrine and covenants. (D&C 130:29) well we found them. Our meeting with the stake on Sunday was extremely good. They actually taught themselves and we also learned all about how to better work with ward and stake leaders. Then we went to our family ward and low and behold someone just shows up that is an investigator that moved and came to church and wants to be taught. Then our next meeting with the YSA we had a member that brought a friend, who "couldn't deny the feelings he felt there" so we are just all pumped for the next week!!
This week he also talked about how they have been working on a training session regarding Chapter 13 of Preach My Gospel. He says. " with the help of the Spirit and the Lord being patient with us , we finally have a plan and presented it to the mission presidency. They loved it and it opened their eyes to how simple and correct it is. So they made a slide show out of it. We get to train the Glendale Stake Presidency and bishops on Thursday, and then the Phoenix North Stake on the 7th. I never would have thought that I would be training STAKE PRESIDENCY'S! It is amazing as I have worked with these wise men. They are so humble and they are willing to listen to a bunch of 20 year old punks telling them how this will work. It is amazing. The only way I can see it working is that it is true. The principles are true and the Lord wants us to help. How blessed we are." Doesn't he look fabulous!! His companion Elder Burris on the left. President Beck is the gentleman in the back on the left -- that is all I know!!
I will wrap this up with a quote that he sent us today that he loves. "Your world is in your head, Get your head right and your heart will follow."