Monday, June 24, 2013 "I was transfered"

Hello family!!!

That little get away sounds absolutely amazing! What a good idea. I bet dad has been crazy busy this summer, I wish that I could be there to help out, but I guess Blair can fill my spot for the instant. Okay so first off, real quick I am going to tell you the story of being at the train station. . . So, it was the day of our Zone Conference and there were about twenty plus missionaries. After our conference we all were at the train station waiting for our trains. One of the missionaries is literally the best piano player in Belgium and all of us missionaries sat around and sang french hymns while people were all around us watching. It was awesome because we touched more people by the spirit just by singing than we could if we were all frantically running around trying to contact people. Every once in a while I would branch off and talk to someone and they loved what we were doing and we so excited to talk to us. That was an awesome experience that I will never forget!

So. . . Now for the big news! I am no longer in Perigueux! I am now in Mont-de-Marsan! It is so crazy how one day you can be living in one city and the next you pack up your bags to move to a totally different city with a totally different companion. Also, I am not longer with Elder Asay. I already miss him to, Elder Asay was awesome and will be a good friend of mine for life. 

So, I am not too far from my old city! Just a few hours away by train. My new companions name is Elder Robles and he is from Utah. He seems like a really nice kid and I think we are going to have a lot of fun this transfer!

My new city, believe it or not, is actually smaller than Perigueux! Can you believe that?! Hahaha this place is so small! Missionaries have only been in here for about 3 months as well so the missionary work is really just getting started in here. From what I have been told we have about 15 members in our branch and most of them are retired, I am really excited to meet them on Sunday!

Saying by to Perigueux was kind of hard because I had grown so attached to those members and I am really going to miss them. They were all sad that I was leaving and said some really really nice things before I left. Hopefully someday I will be able to go back and visit them!

Okay, so I thought I would quickly tell you about my moving process to this little town. I packed up my bags and because of all of the books I have to study and all of my clothes they were incredibly heavy. We almost missed our train so I had to run with two giant suitcases that almost tore my arms off to catch it. We got to Bordeaux and I met my new companion and then I got on another train that we had to run to catch. After that is was running from bus to bus and then walking down a cobble stone path to get to our apartment. Along the way my big suitcase got hammered by the cobblestone and its wheel broke. . . so I had to drag it. It was quite the experience and man am I glad I don't have to do that again for awhile haha. 

Our new apartment is really big and nice because it used to belong to a senior couple!

Well, I want you to know that all is good and that I love you all so much! These next few months are going to be the hardest ones of my life. . . but I am going to learn a lot!

Love, 

Elder C. Beyer

Monday, June 17, 2013 "Happy Father's Day"

 

 

Family!

Happy Father's Day!!!! Your father's day at home sounded so funny! I loved hearing about all of that and I bet it was so funny. All of those dads are really funny and I am sure kept the kids laughing the whole time. Crazy enough we had Father's Day here too. . . and they totally sang the same songs with the primary in front of the congregation, but obviously it was in french! Haha it was the cutest funniest thing, it was the exact same as back home with the song where they wrap their arms around their fathers and give them a big kiss! I loved it and it made me feel right at home. The primary president gave us some chocolate too because she said that someday we are going to be fathers :) It was an awesome day and one of my favorite days that we have had so far. Not to mention we had 6 investigators at church! It was so awesome, they just kept showing up out of nowhere!

Hahaha I loved every single one of those pictures! Hey! Blair isn't supposed to see the wedding dress before the wedding. . . which I still don't believe is going on. Troy looks like an old man and all of my brothers look really really good! Megan and Ben's baby is so cute!

I guess that is alright if Bubba stays in my bed. . . even though he is totally not old enough yet! Haha I can't believe that he has graduated to the downstairs! He can totally stay down there though, don't let Caden get any bright ideas though about taking my stuff though. . .

I remember those good old days of playing baseball everyday in the heat and getting so sick of it, but one day he will get to the point where he is walking around in a Foreign Country that seems to be twice as hot as back home and you are sweating out of your mind in your white shirt and tie. It has been getting so so so hot! I had no idea that it was going to get this hot over here in France!

Hahaha yeah totally send my picture to the Ensign. . . that would be so awesome!

Okay. . . So everything is going really good right now! I am really happy and despite the trials this week I have been having a lot of fun and I am really happy to be a missionary right now. The french is still really tough and it is the most exhausting thing to walk around all day going from appointments and just walking across town contacting people. After every long hard day that we have had though we have seen some really cool little miracle of finding someone who is ready to make a change in their life.

This week was so amazing because a member of the seventy came out to our mission and talked to us. His name is Elder Richards and he was a heart surgeon at IHC, maybe you know him. He taught us so many amazing things about the gospel, taught us how to have more success as missionaries and how to be happy as missionaries. It was such a good message and I felt so motivated after!

He said that in the gospel, and he had scriptures to prove every one of his points, happiness directly comes from having the spirit with us and that is directly related to CHOOSING to obey the gospel and its' teachings. So, if you want to be happy in this life you will choose to obey the gospel not because you have to, but because you love the Lord and you want to be happy!

This is my last week of this transfer! I can't believe that! So, do you think that I am going to be staying in Perigueux with Elder Asay for another transfer? Staying here and getting a new companion? Or totally changing up everything on the other side of France?? I find out this Friday and I am so excited! I really hope that I get to move around soon because I am ready to see some change, but at the same time we have some incredible things going on right now and I would like to see them followed through!

Well everyone, I love you all and I know this gospel is true! And, I know if you live the gospel you will be happy and that is the only way for true happiness!

Love,

Elder C. Beyer

Monday, June 10, 2013 "Kneel"

Okay as for the rules of what time we are supposed to be in, yes you are right about nine or nine thirty and that is what time we were going to be back before we missed our train. The time of the next train was at ten twenty four. . . the way the trains work is that the same ticket works at anytime if you are headed to the same place, you just have to get it stamped right before you get one the train. Yes, we were still late, but we did make it in before we were supposed to be asleep at ten thirty.

The zone leaders cleared it though!

Ha ha I have been doing my best to stay positive. It has been hard though, this week was a really long one. Most of our lessons fell through and the people were not there and then when we fixed appointments that we made on the street it was a fake address and we were not able to find where it was. . . but what can you say, it is the life of a missionary and I am sure that everyone goes through very similar trials when they are out on their missions. Speaking of that, like I have said before, missions are hard! You are tired all of the time and it gets very frustrating. The other day I was very frustrated with the language to the point where I just had to get down on my knees for a little bit and ask for a lot of help. One quote that I really liked that I heard in the past was that when you can no longer bear to stand, kneel. Man is that true out here. You get into the apartment after you have walked around all day in the hot sun and basically drop. You understand a lot more about the gospel and the atonement when you come out here.

On that note, I am doing amazing right now though! I am really happy today and after a few hard days this week we were blessed to find some people who are ready to hear the gospel. We set up some appointments with them this week so hopefully everything follows through!

I have still got so much to learn, but man do I feel like I have learned a lot. Missions are cool and I am feel so lucky to be a missionary! The language hasn't really clicked for me yet, but I know that if I keep working hard it is going to soon, and before I know it I am going to be speaking french fluently!

Love, Elder C. Beyer

Monday, June 3, 2013 "Blair's Engaged!"

OHHHH MYY GOODNESS! 

I can't believe that Blair is actually engaged! This is seriously blowing my mind, and if all of you are messing with me back at home I am not going to be too happy with you. . . If not :) CONGRATS! I would like to get a wedding announcement in the mail, and a nice handwritten letter from Blair :)

That is such crazy news! All of that is so crazy! I am so glad that Coach Gladwell came back too, that is the best thing that could have happened to Davis Football.

I truly cannot believe Becca is married, blows my mind! I am starting to get old if my friends are starting to get married!

It sounds like everyone is doing amazing though! I am so glad to hear that. I love to hear that everyone is doing good because it makes it a lot easier to be out here walking the streets of France looking for people to share the gospel with. That is one of my main motivations when I am out here, finding families to give them what we have in our awesome, huge family. As you could have guessed, everything is going really good out here right now. I had some really hard days this week, but at the same time I had some really awesome days this week. We got to experience some really cool things this week, one of which was going to stake conference! It was so awesome! We traveled by train to get there and it was over in Bordeaux. It was really cool to see all of those French members. Granted, in Utah a fourth of France is just a couple of blocks. . . but still! It was so great and it really made me motivated and happy to see all of those latter-day saints. It was also really cool to see members that I have met when I was on an exchange in other cities and be able to talk to them for a little bit.

One cool thing that we did this week was we went out to a members house. This members house is the one that I gave the lemon drops too and they are the ones that own the tattoo parlor. It takes us about 45 minutes to get there by train, so we go out there for the night and stop by their mothers house for about an hour to talk with her and share a quick thought. So after that we head on over to their house, and they have a sweet house! It is an old biker bar that has been converted into a modern home with a bunch of really cool features. It was just like having a meal at home in our house where there is a lot of kids talking and you feel really comfortable. All in all it was just a really comfortable atmosphere. So, about halfway through dinner Frere Canard, (Brother Duck, translation) saw a rat running around outside of their house so he runs into his room to get something. We had no idea what he was doing until he came out with a little handgun. We started laughing because he was going to try and shoot it. The gun looked like it was a little pellet gun, when all of the sudden he shot it and a huge bang rung throughout the whole kitchen. He just shot right out the door! It was so funny and Elder Asay and me were laughing really hard. We didn't check, but there is probably a dead rat somewhere outside of his house now. . . 

Okay, so after that we messed up on train times, so long story short they were driving really fast to get us back to the train stop. We jumped out of the car and ran to the other side of the train station. No train. It was about nine already and the next train didn't come until ten thirty. So we called the zone leaders and let them know that we weren't going to be in on time. At that schedule we wouldn't be back until around eleven fifteen. We didn't want to sit around waiting for that long at the station though so we thought it would be a good idea to walk to the next train station. We got about a half an hour into the trek when we both felt we should turn around. We turned around and as soon as we got to the train station a train shows up out of nowhere. We run over and it was out train running late! We made it there in perfect timing and we made it back by 10:24! Sooo sweet! Someone is looking out for us :)

Well family I love you all! Keep being the amazing people you are!

Love, Elder C. Beyer