Monday, August 25, 2014

Monday, August 25, 2014 "The Football Spirit"

Hey there!
 
Can you believe that it is already time to go back to school? It seems like we were just starting last years school year. I love hearing that the family is tearing it up in football this year! You all look like serious studs! Tell Troy good luck with this upcoming year and I want a  BYU Hinds Jersey when I get back :) As for school, I am not sure. . . I was thinking about that the other day. I really want to go back up to Utah State for a little while I think, and then maybe after my associates switch on over to BYU. Although, I have no idea. (It wouldn't be a bad idea to maybe fill out an application. . .) I heard that the BYU applications take forever though. So, I don't know. I think that my release date is actually February 2nd. . . crazy, huh? Tell Stephanie hi!
This week there was not too much crazy stuff that happened.
I feel like I am starting to get boring. I write the same things every week.
We are still teaching the same people and they are all doing awesome. Sadly, one of them is moving. . . to the other ward's sector in Lyon. . . So, our investigator named S.... who is totally going to get baptized is probably going to have to be passed to another companionship. But, I think maybe if we beg President he will let us keep teaching him. . . We will see.
Elder Dalton and I have been having a blast. Almost too much fun actually ha ha. This last week has been awesome and it has seriously flown by.
We had a teaching appointment with this 12 boy who just came back from his vacation break that went really well. He is so ready to be baptized and he finally got the OK from his dad. . . so now it is just a matter of finding the right day and time for the baptism. His name is Jonah and he is really, really cool. He knows so much about the gospel it is insane!
This last week when we were teaching the little African kid named Neson he said that at church he kind of feels strange because he doesn't have a white shirt and tie. We told him not to worry about that and that we would take care of it. So, on Sunday we slipped a shirt and tie in our bag and when we saw it we popped it out. . . He was seriously so excited! He face was ecstatic! He had a big smile on his face from ear to ear and when he got on that white shirt he was looking pretty classy.
Carine from Bordeaux was in Lyon this week and she gave us a call and we were able to meet up with her and have a quick little RDV that went really good! She is doing so well and it was so great to see her!!
This week is going to be a crazy busy one because first off we have our Mission Leadership Council tomorrow. Definitely my favorite meeting as a missionary. Then, we have our zone training meeting on Thursday. Also another one of my favorite meetings! It is going to be a blast.

Today there is not much going on so we are going to head down to the big park and try and get some football going on. We have the football spirit down here too, but we can't get any Frenchies to join us! I guess they don't like this sport. . . lame. . .
Life is great though and I am happy as can be! No need to worry! I love you all!
Passez une très bonne semaine!
Love,
Elder Beyer

Monday, August 18, 2014

Monday, August 18, 2014 "All day at the gare!"

Hey there wonderful family! 

I love the pictures and I love hearing how you are doing and what you are up to! You all sound so great and you all look like you are having a blast! I am so glad to hear that the football game went so well this weekend and that you have a big one coming up soon! Good luck Caders and nice work Bubba with playing so well! Brockster!  Nice new haircut Stenny. . . 

These last few days have been crazy! So, on Friday I got a call that I was really not expecting. President called and said I was staying, but that I was receiving a new companion! I was shocked because Elder Powell and I were sure that we were staying together. Anyways, my new companion is Elder Dalton! Someone that I came into the mission with! Ahhhh I am seriously so stinkin' excited to be serving with him and we are going to have so much fun this transfer. I have been wanting to serve with him for so long. He is from Portland, Oregon!

This last week was pretty crazy. President Roney came out with some new standards of excellence intended to raise our faith and get us to push ourselves even a little bit harder. So, to put this into perspective. Elder Powell and I thought that we were teaching a ton over the past few weeks, but when we read the new standards of excellence we were seriously shocked! He raised it so that we needed to start trying to have 20 lessons per week! How crazy is that! I had never ever taught that many lessons in one week on my whole mission! With that being said, Elder Powell and I took it as a challenge and we decided that we were going to get that many lessons. Day after day we worked hard and we saw so many miracles. We taught so much every single day until we arrived at Sunday with two more lessons to go. After three RDV's fell through we found ourselves not knowing what to do. We just ran all over the place looking for people to teach and in the end, we were seriously blessed! We found two people on the street who we met, started and finished with prayers, and taught them about the gospel! It was seriously incredible! Such a miracle. The last lesson was late Sunday night and we barely got there in the last hours of the week! It was so amazing to see that if you give it your all to accomplish a righteous goal the Lord will provide a way to accomplish what is before you. We truly saw so many miracles, and above all we saw the fruits of our teachings with 3 investigators at church and 5 with baptismal dates. So, keep praying that all goes well with them!

The reason that I emailed so late today was because I was at the gare all stinkin' day! Haha, but what was cool was that when I was there Sister Witt's mom showed up and I was able to talk to her! She is like one of the nicest people in the world haha! She came up and she started talking like an old time friend and then she took us all out to lunch at subway and throughout the whole day she kept talking people to go and get sandwiches through out the whole day! It was awesome!

I would love to hear that talk from President Hinckley!

Sorry I don't have too much time so that is why this email is really short! Just know that I love you! I am happy and that I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. 

Grosses Bises,
Elder Beyer

Monday, August 11, 2014

Monday, August 11, 2014 "I am grateful to be a missionary"


Hey fam!!

Thanks so much for the recipe! The member that asked for some carrot cake is seriously going to be loving life, and after we give him the cake I would guarantee that he gives us at least a couple of names who are ready to hear the gospel :) The family who asked is the Vanaquer family and they are seriously one of my favorite families that I have met out here on my mission. . . they are so much fun and they remind me a lot of our family. There is never ever a dull moment when we are with them. 

Tell all of the returned missionaries that they are amazing and I miss and love them all so much!

Everyone looks amazing in the pictures as well!

Okay. . . 

This week was another really good one that flew by. This week we were able to do an exchange over in Clermont-Ferrand. . . and let me tell you, that place is seriously amazing! It was so pretty. . . we were completely surrounded by green hills, and all around the city there are beautiful white buildings with red brick roofs. It kind of looks a little bit like St. George except for the buildings are a little bit bigger. There was also a couple of really cool churches that we saw that are actually constructed out of lava rock!! How cool is that. It is funny though because it has the exact opposite effect of the temple. . .

We had a really cool activity that we did this week with all of the missionaries in Lyon and with a bunch of members as well. We did a big family history activity and we just tried to see how many people we could get into the building to do the activity, play the games, and eat some American cookies. In the end Elder Powell and I were able to get three people in and of these three people we got their numbers and set up a return RDV. . . the only problem is that there will not be any cookies at the return RDV, so we are not sure if they are going to show up ;) As usual, it was a blast being with all of the other missionaries. I think that is why I love the big cities in doing missionary work, there is just a lot of energy and it is always more fun working together with a bunch of other people.

We had a cool little miracle this week. We had just finished up with an appointment and we were just getting ready to leave the institute when all of the sudden this member showed up with one of her friends. She was like, hey, would you maybe have a little bit of time to teach my friend?? Luckily, we had just had our RDV for the night fall through, so we had a nice little opening. We were then able to teach her friend a quick little lesson, invite him to read and pray, and when he came to know if these things were true for himself be baptized. . . he said yes. Since then we have had one more lesson and he came to church! Right now his date is set for the 27th of September so be praying that all goes well with him! This week we are going to help him to stop smoking! His name is Sebastien!

We have another really cool guy that we are teaching, well more like a kid, he is only 16 years old. He is a cool African Refugee who seriously has the craziest story in the whole world. Lets just put it this way, he was lucky to make it to France still living. He is the coolest person ever and we have been having so much fun teaching him. The only problem is that he doesn't know how to read, so it is kind of difficult to give him reading assignments. . . So, we have started teaching him how to read! Haha, we decided that that would be a great service to offer him. . . so every other teaching appointment we are going to teach him how to read so that he can read the Book of Mormon. He is such a stud because he said he wants to learn so that he can understand the teachings of Christ and then go and teach others what he has learned. Too cool!

Saturday was a lot of fun because a few weeks ago we started a sports Saturday. . . so every Saturday at 11:00 we play soccer with a bunch of missionaries, investigators, and members. The first week we didn't have too many people, but this last week we had like 7 investigators and about 5 members and a bunch of missionaries! Not too shabby huh?! I think that it is going to be a great tool in the future to find people to teach. Not to mention afterwards we always share a thought, so it is well worth the time. The only problem is that I really don't like soccer, and I am terrible. . . Oh well haha. . .

At church this week we had 4 investigators come and we taught 10 lessons again! Hopefully this week we can top that!

Everything is going great and I am so grateful to be a missionary. I am not going to lie, some days I am really, really tired, but I know that if I keep trucking along we are going to see some miracles out here. I have already seen so many miracles on my mission that I know every single second spent in the service of the Lord blesses us eternally. I love this gospel and I know that it is true.

Have a great week! Can't wait to hear from you soon! 

Love,
Elder Beyer



Monday, August 4, 2014

Monday, Monday, August 4, 2014 "A round of applause!"






Geezzzz!!!

Brock, Caden, and Bridger are all looking way tall. Are you sure that that was really a picture of them? Wow. . .

Haha everyone looks really good though! Caders, keep working hard, and I promise that if you keep a good attitude the coaches will see that and you will get playing time, however, if you start to complain they will never put you in! Try and hustle and be the first one in every drill, always be the one who runs and gets everything that the coaches as for, work your tail off!

Hey! That looks like a familiar face! I am so happy that she stopped by to see you! You all look so good! Haha, yeah Brock told me about that! I was laughing so hard when he told me what he said to her! The backyard looks completely different as well! Brock, you are going to love your college classes! They are seriously the best and they are so much better than high school classes!

Okay, before I forget, I had a member ask if we could make a carrot cake for him. . . so if at all possible could you send me the recipe for the really good carrot cake that you make?

As for this week. . .

Man did it fly by.

There was a funny experience that happened at church. There was an investigator that showed up with the other Elders that are in our ward, and since it was fast and testimony meeting he decided to get up and share with us his testimony. This guy is from China, so in broken french he shared with everyone his testimony. The funny part was that he was telling everyone how grateful he is for the missionaries, and then he said I would like it if we could all give Elder Frost a round of applause. . . for a minute everyone just sat there not knowing what to do and the investigator started clapping. . . We didn't want to make him feel awkward, so Elder Powell and I join in haha, and then in the back of the room there was about 10 young adults who see us and then decided that if we were doing it it must be okay and they erupted clapping really loud. Ah it was so hilarious. . . you see something new everyday!

We had another pretty packed week of finding, teaching, and exchanges. We have been all over the place, and honestly the only time that I feel like I get to relax a little bit is during studies. . . so I love studies :)

We had a cool experience the other day on the bus. We had just finished up with a lesson at the church, and we jumped on the bus to take us all the way back home. We got on the bus and in looking around we see three people not including the bus driver. Elder Powell gets stopped by the bus driver trying to practice his English with him and then I found myself trying to decide which of the three people I was going to talk to. . . one of them is a teenage girl, and the other one was a young couple that didn't look to interested, but I decided to give the young couple a short. Unfortunately they were getting off at the next stop, so I made them promise to talk to the missionaries the next time that they see us, and then I let them on their way. After that there was only the teenage girl left, so I thought why not. . . I went over and started talking to her and she ends up being way interested. She was getting off really quick so she gave me her number and jumped off at her stop. . . a few days later I gave her a call to see if we could meet up with her at the church and talk a little bit more about Jesus Christ. She said that she would love to and the next day before she left on vacation she met us for a RDV. We weren't really sure if she was going to come, and we were kinda of scared that we had a member come all the way out for no reason, but sure enough, she was right on time. . . We walk into our church building and she says, what even is the name of your church? I told her and then another missionary said, we are also the Mormons! She then said no way?! My best friend in France is a Mormon! She tells us the name and it turns out that it is actually the bishop's daughter! How crazy is that?! We then went into the young women's room where there were pictures on the wall of all of the young women, and sure enough her friend was right there! We then went on to have an amazing RDV where the spirit was really strong, and in the end when we gave her a chapter of the Book of Mormon to read she asked if she could read the whole thing while she is on her trip. . . we were like, umm yeah, definitely haha! Sadly, she is going on vacation for three weeks :( So, we wont be able to teach her, but be prayin' that all goes well!

Right now missionary work is kind of difficult here in France. . . Literally everyone is on vacation!!! Half of the ward is gone, and all of our investigators have left or are going to leave.

Everything is going really well with M... and J... right now as well. We are just waiting for J..... to get back from his vacation and for M....to realize that he knows it is true!

Life is great right now though. . . Today we are going to the Ecully chapel to play some basketball with all of the other missionaries. . . so wish us luck!

I love you all so much!

This week in my studies I found something in Luke that I thought was interesting. Right after Christ is crucified there is a story about Joseph of Arimithea and how he shows a huge increase of faith by going and begging for the body of Christ. A few verses later in Luke 23:56 it states that the women prepared the spices and ointments to take to Christ's tomb, but after they prepared them they didn't take them to the tomb the next day on the sabbath, instead they went the day after and that is when Christ was no longer there because he had risen. I really liked that because I feel like they showed an incredible amount of faith in still following what Christ had taught them. Then, shortly after, Christ appears first to some of these chosen women. I believe that them choosing faith and still following the Savior when he was no longer there prepared them spiritually to see the resurrected Savior.

I really like this because it helped me to see that even through times of crisis, when we choose to follow the Savior we are blessed in ways that earthy words cannot describe!

Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Beyer