Monday, January 27, 2014

Monday, January 27, 2014 "Flying to Lyon"

Hello there wonderful family!
 
It is so good to hear from you! You all sound so amazing and Coulter and Landon both look so good, it seems like they just left yesterday. . . well two days ago because it seems like yesterday that I left. Hahaha that is so funny about Elder Einerson and you thinking that I was going to be a white trash zone leader. Well, I guess I kind of might be that in a way as well. . . Honestly though, I loved being with Elder Einerson so much. He is just being modest, he was one of the hardest working missionaries that I have ever seen, but the thing that I loved the most was that he always, always had a positive attitude. He is going to do great things on his mission and before too long he is going to be taking my place as a zone leader. So I am really a white wash zone leader, so neither me nor my companion were here last transfer so we are starting from scratch. It has been a ton of fun though. This last week we just contacted like crazy and we talked to so many people on the trams and the buses. It is a lot different than my last couple of cities because there are actually people on the buses and trams.
 
Okay, so being a zone leader is quite a bit different. I feel like I was getting too comfortable in Gex so I had to move and get some change. Right now I feel like I am learning how to do missionary work all over again. It has been a lot of fun but man has it been exhausting. There are literally people everywhere in this place and we are always talking to someone. At nights as soon as 10:30 hits the clock I am passed out in my bed. So far there hasn't been too many things different, except for we do a lot more interacting with the other missionaries. We do a lot more time talking to them on the phone and seeing how they are doing which is something that I really like doing. We are pretty blessed because we have some awesome missionaries in our zone. Another thing that we are going to be doing this week is that we are going to be teaching a zone conference this week which is going to be a ton of fun. Today we are flying into Lyon to be taught by President, Wednesday we have an exchange with the Assistants, and Thursday we are teaching our zone the things that President is going to teach us. I am very excited and it is going to be a really fun week.
 
Okay, so this week was a lot of fun. We spent almost the whole time riding trams and talking to people. We have spent a lot of time finding and talking to people, it has been awesome, despite the fact that it has rained every day since we got here in Bordeaux. But, it is still the most amazing place that I have ever served. When you think of old, old France, this is exactly what it looks like.
 
One funny thing that happened this week was that there was this old guy on the bus that was wearing aviator sunglasses and he was just a total stud. So we got talking to him, got him laughing and then told him we loved his sunglasses. He smiled and then I said, I bet you are a lady killer with those things on. The whole bus full of old ladies just started cracking up and in between laughing he said in broken English, haha, "Nope, only one, one is good for me." It was really funny and we told him that we liked he way of thinking. Although he wasn't interested in our message he was a very nice guy.
 
I am super excited to be in this new area working with my new companion. He is seriously a stud. He talks to everyone! And it seems that he always has someone laughing. He has been teaching me a lot by his example and just loving everyone around him. This transfer is going to be a blast and I think we are going to have a lot of success together.
 
Oh yeah, I met someone in our ward whose name is Anna James and she is really good friends with Blake Beyer's wife Annie! She told me to make that connection! Crazy huh?!
 
I don't know one of those Elders, but I met Elder Crossman! He was an awesome missionary and we were all sad when he headed home.
 
Thanks for sending the stories of the ancestors and the recipes, I will have to read those this week. I would love to know more about my ancestors.
 
Well my dearest family, thank you so much for being the amazing people that you are. Keep smiling and keep spreading the Love that you have with all those around you :) 
Avec beacoup d'amour!
Elder Beyer

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Tuesday, January 21, 2014 "I Moved"

Well hello there amazing family!!
Okay I seriously have some crazy news for you. . . I moved! I was honestly so shocked to be moving. On Friday we were all talking about where we thought we were going to be spending the next six weeks and I was sure that I was staying and that Elder Crawley was leaving. . . man were we wrong.
Me and Elder Strom
So you are probably wondering why it took me an extra day to write you back. Well, that is because I crossed the whole mission! Crazy huh?! I headed back over by Perigueux and Mont-de-Marsan. . . but this time to serve in the big city right next to them! I am going to be the new Bordeaux Zone Leader! I am very excited because I have heard some amazing things about this new place and from what I have seen it looks like it is going to be so amazing. It looks more French than any other place that I have ever served in and there are people EVERYWHERE! After spending a year in small places it is blowing my mind seeing people everywhere. My new companion's name is Elder Strom and he is from Canada. He is awesome and seriously one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. It has been so much fun already walking the streets of Bordeaux and talking to people.
I was absolutely shocked to be leaving, but I am so so so excited to be here.
Bordeaux!
Wow! I had no idea about Riker! That is so awesome! Wish him luck for me and send my love. Tell Caden to stop living like a pig and tell Bubba to stop eating so much! He needs to be smaller than me when I get back! Wow, I can't believe how fast time goes by. It seems like yesterday we were walking through Cabelas celebrating dad's birthday :) It sounds like you guys were living it up on the town the other night! That is what I am talking about!
Thank you for sending the Recipes! I am for sure going to be made famous :) Thanks mom!
Okay, so I don't have many updates. The only is that on Sunday before I left I ate THREE meals back to back to back. . . Man I thought I was going to die when I was leaving. We started with a raclette, then it was a lot of rice and potatoes, then we finished off the night with some lasagna. . . The thing that you need to know as well is that the French people have three courses for every meal as well so we had a huge dessert to go along with that as well.
I spent the whole day yesterday traveling across the mission by train and now I am just living the good life in Bordeaux. I remember when I was a young missionary I did some exchanges here and I always thought, man I would give anything to be in this city. And now I couldn't be happier :) I have got a lot to do now though and I have a big responsibility on my shoulders, but I am very, very excited.
Well family, life is wonderful right now. I am so happy to hear that you all are still doing so amazing. Keep smiling and having lots of fun. (Oh by the way everything is on sale right now, literally everything, so if you want anything cool and french ask me and I will try and find it and send it home). I am not going to be needed a new coat anymore by the way!
Avec beaucoup d'amour!
Elder C. Beyer

Monday, January 13, 2014

Monday, January 13, 2014 "Push up contest"

Well hello there family!
 
Crazy to hear the big news huh?? My new companion is a really cool kid from Toronto, Canada. He is a stud soccer player and he played semi-professional before he came out here on his mission. He was converted about two years ago and he heard about the church through his girlfriend. He was actually taught for two weeks straight by Brock's mission president and was baptized two weeks after taking the missionary lessons. Cool huh?! He is going to be a great addition to our mission.
 
District Meeting!
Bubba and Caden! What style! I am liking the new coats! Ohhh myyyy goodnesssss I cannot believe that Landon is home. I don't know why, but that seriously blows my mind. He looks really, really good and I loved the story about the little kids. That is so funny. Tell him hola for me and give him a big old hug!
 
Okay so the thing that held up my companion in the MTC was his shoulder that got dislocated playing volley ball and yes he did have surgery. . . About a week ago he got the clearing to go and right after they shipped him off on his way!
 
Hawaiian Haystacks!
Lyon this past week was seriously so much fun. After picking up my new companion we got to head on over to President Roneys house and hang out with him and his family and we had an amazing meal cooked by his wife which consisted of rice a roni and Hawaiian Haystacks! I was so excited when she brought out the food. It was a lot of fun to get to spend some time with them without a million other missionaries.
 
Our Zone Leaders Dog. hahahah
Another really cool thing that we were able to experience this week was that we were able to go and do an exchange with our Zone Leaders out in Lausanne. That was seriously such a blast. In the morning they took us out on the metro and we rode down all the way to lake Geneva. We contacted everyone on the way and we tried to contact the whole metro! It was crazy! One we got down to the lake we were able to walk around and take some pictures and man it was seriously so beautiful!!! After we contacted around the lake we hopped back on to the metro and headed back to the city to eat some lunch. They had told us about where we were going to eat the night before, but we had no idea really what to expect. . . They took us to a real American burger joint!! It was seriously so good and was one of the best hamburgers and fries that I have ever had. . . It was this place called Holy Cow and it was so legit that about half of the menu was written in English. The place was packed with young adults and it looked like a really fun environment to meet up and hang out with your friends, it was like the cool version of club chev!
 
This week we had a Senior couple come and inspect our apartment and during the inspection it came up that the Husband said he does 100 push ups every single morning and he is 69 years old! We were so shocked and he was like, do you want to see right now? Or better yet do you want to have a push up contest?? We were like yeah! Hahaha so Elder Crawley and I had a push up contest with this older Elder who seriously did 30 push ups in a row and almost beat us! It was insane! I am proud to say I didn't loose, but still. Right after we finished I told him that he was just like my grandpa and that my grandpa is still stronger than me and that gave him a laugh. You better still be as strong as you were when I left Grandpa Bob!
 
As for my District Leader and Zone Leaders, they are all so awesome. I love my Zone Leaders the most, they are always doing something fun and they always have one of us laughing.
 
For my birthday you can send me whatever you want, but I was thinking maybe a small cookbook with your really good recipes. I don't really need a lot of anything though. I will keep you updated. Maybe some more of those zebra pens!
 
In our mission they are making a mission cookbook so mom I really want to have the Beyer name in there so next week can you send me some of your amazing recipes that will be published in the book? Maybe oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. . . you know the good stuff :)
 
I love you all so much and hope that you have an amazing week!
 
"Life is full of difficulties, some minor and others of a more serious nature. There seems to be an unending supply of challenges for one and all. Our problem is that we often expect instantaneous solutions to such challenges, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required."
-President Thomas S. Monson
 
Love,
Elder Beyer

Monday, January 6, 2014

Monday, January 6, 2014 "It's a boy!"

Bonjour ma chère famille!
 
BUBBA! Stay away from all of those girls! They seriously all have cooties! Mom you need to up that price to 1000.00 :) Hahahahaha I was laughing so hard about that story with Caden :) Hahahahahahaha, that is seriously so funny. . .
 
As for Gex, it is doing amazing right now and I am absolutely loving it :)
 
Okay. . .
I have news that is going to blow your mind this week. So last night we were sitting in an appointment with an investigator and all of the sudden Elder Crawley got a call. He stepped out and took the call and then he came back in like nothing had happened. As soon as we finished the RDV and got out of the door Elder Crawley says, "Do you want to know who that was?" We were like, "Ummm, sure." Then he said, "It's a boy!" Hahaha. . . He was like that was the assistants and tomorrow we are going to be heading into Lyon to pick up your new companion! Crazy huh?! So today we are driving into Lyon, picking up my new companion who is on the plane right now, eating with the Roney family at the mission home and then we are staying in Lyon for the night. We are all really excited and it is going to be a ton of fun. So the thing that is cool about this missionary coming in is that it is the missionary that left from Brock's stake in Toronto! He is super cool and he is a recent convert of about a year. I am so excited. But, I am very sad to be leaving my other two companions because it was a lot of fun being with three missionaries and I was certain that Elder Einerson was my son in the mission because we are so much a like. . . but Elder Crawley was the real father. . . That is something weird about missions, when you train a missionary he is your son and you are his father and when you enter the mission you are "born" and when you leave the mission you "die."
 
There was a few awesome things that happened this week. One of them was that we decided to go and check out an area of our sector that we had never seen before. It is just on the other side of the mountains. We thought it was going to be a small town so we decided to go on a Saturday when we thought there would be the most people. We made the trip out and it took about an hour. So we made it around the mountains and at about 30 minutes into the drive we start driving up next to the mountain and this huge valley/river started to become apparent in the middle of the two mountains on both side of us. Up in the distance we saw a huge bridge connecting the two mountains and it was seriously one of the most amazing things that I have every seen. These towns on the other side of the mountains are these incredible skiing towns that are situated up on the side of the mountains. We continued to go further in and we crossed the bridge connecting these two mountains and after driving along the side of the mountain we arrived in this little village called Champfromier. You are going to have to google image it. . . If there is one place that we need to come back and visit together it would have to these little villages in the alps that are surrounded by the ski resort and right in the middle of the village there was this huge catholic cathedral. Something you are going to have to see someday.
 
We had a few really cool things happen this week. We have been really looking for families to teach and that is what we focused our fast on. We have found four new potential families now and I am seriously so so excited! I hope that we can teach them this week.
 
There was one family that we contacted last transfer and we re passed their house this week to see them. We show up and the dad invites us right in to have something to drink. We talked to him for about ten minutes and I don't know why, but we were just crackin him up and we had him seriously laughing. Next thing we know his wife and two daughters show up and the same thing happened, we had them really laughing. He started to then say well thanks for coming by to see us. . . we knew he was about to send us on our way before we started talking about the gospel when all of the sudden we said, well we want to explain our message to you. He responded in saying. . . ahhhh, you want to convert me to be a Mormon. . . I smiled and said, yeah :) You are exactly right haha. You and your family! He started laughing because I don't think that he was expecting that and said but we already have a Strong family. . . I then responded and said, I know, that is why you will be perfect for our church!
 
We then started to explain the Proclamation to the family and family night and asked him if we could come over Monday night and show him how to have family night. . . Keep in mind this guy is very, very catholic. . . We asked him and he was soooooo close to saying yes! So close! He thought about it and said that he couldn't promise to anything, but he would try and find sometime to read the brochure, but he would have to thing about meeting with us the next week. . . That just means now we are going to have to work through the families that he knows in the ward :) We are going to send them on his case to invite him to a family night :) Hahaha. . .
 
Lets see, so for New Years eve we were at a members house from about 7:30 to 8:30, where we got to eat a lot and celebrate for about and hour. . . but then we had to go home. So new years was a little bit different this year, but it was still a lot of fun :)
 
Well family,
 
I love you all so very much. I am so grateful to know that we have an eternal family through the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that I am on the Lord's errand right now so I could not be happier :)
 
I found a really cool scripture the other day,



 
 D & C 88:63. . . Check it out!
 
Love,
Elder Beyer