Sunday, November 30, 2014

Sunday, November 30, 2014 "Thanksgiving"

Hey there family!

To quickly answer your question. . . we didn't eat any turkey for Thanksgiving! I will explain a little bit later why not! We were able to spend it with an American family though!

Haha I bet that that was a hilarious sight seeing Bubba tearing it up the side of the hill and you on the back trying to balance the pie crusts! I am very impressed that you didn't drop them! Haha. Ah Brock. I was hoping that in my time out here he would find his patient side and he would be getting into fly fishing to hit it up on the river with me when I get home. . . but I think that might take just a little bit more time ;) Haha, I understand where he is coming from. After a few hours all of the trees seem too look the same and they all seem like they could be the perfect one for the house. Geezzz. . . everyone is looking huge in those pictures! The only person that I am going to be taller than when I get home is mom! I sure hope that I start growing soon! I am glad to hear that the cabin was such a blast!!

I am really happy that Grandma Connie enjoyed the photos so much! I thought that she would like them!

I don't know if I have any really good photos haha. . . but, I will start looking!

Ah come on Caden! Missionaries are fun! Hahaha.

As for this week. . . it was a really good one again. It went by really quick, just like every week lately. We did a few exchanges here in Lyon though and that was a blast! Other than that we did one exchange in Yverdon, Switzerland, and we went to the district meeting of a smaller district in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was a great time being with all of those missionaries. Both of the Elders that I was able to work with are studs. One is named Elder Baldwin, he is from Logan, and the other is Elder Schalk, he is from Frankfurt, Germany. Thursday for Thanksgiving we were at the district meeting in Lausanne and although we didn't eat regular Thanksgiving food we had a feast where we ate raclette. (a french dish with potatoes, a little bit of meat, and cheese). 

Downtown Lyon
Friday we celebrated Thanksgiving for real with an amazing American family, the Heras Family. They are the greatest people ever. They had us and a bunch of other missionaries over to celebrate and they made us a feast. The thing is that they are vegan though, so they don't eat any meat or dairy. . . so we didn't eat turkey, but the food that they made us was really, really good.

Our new car
The last few days we have spent a lot of time preparing for transfers. There is a lot that we have to organize so that everything goes smooth and all of the information is organized for President when we get to his office. I really enjoy transfers. I think that it is such a spiritual process and it is very interesting. You are right though, this week will decide where I spend my last transfer! I sure hope that I stay. I would love to stay with Elder Elvidge, but the odds are not really in our favor.

Last night we were tired of working on stuff for transfers, so we grabbed the guitar in the office. . . took the office Elders and went to a really busy area and the other Elders played the guitar while the rest of us either sang or contacted. It was a lot of fun and we actually saw some good success out of it. There was only four of us, but next time we are going to try and do it with all of the missionaries in Lyon!


I fell upon a couple of great scriptures that I thought you would really enjoy this Christmas season. The first one is in 1 John 4:16 which says that God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God. The next one teaches a little bit more about the importance of Christlike love, it is found in Ephesians 3:19 and it says that to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. . . The reason that I shared these is because the focus of Christmas and everything that we do is, or should be, centered around love. There is no knowledge more important than to know the love of Christ. . . and as we serve others, look for chances to better the lives of those around us, and help others to know that we care, little by little we begin to dwell in God.

Je vous aime trop!

Passez une bonne semaine!
Elder Beyer

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Sunday, November 26, 2014 "Locked our keys in!"

hey mom my favorite companion is elder Dalton. give him a lot of Christmas presents! (Elder Dalton wrote this when I had to go into the other room hahaha)

Dearest family!

Hahaha, that story of Elder Dalton is hilarious isn't it?! He was so funny that whole night! It is a blast still being in the same area as him and Elder Taylor, we have a lot of fun together. Mom! I am so impressed with your diligence with the shopping! I would not have lasted for even one hour! Every time we go shopping here on P-Day I only last about ten minutes before I am sick of it and want to go run around or play a sport. Crazy about the flight plans huh? I can't believe that I actually got those this week. 

Dad! I was impressed just by hearing that you got Caden and Bridger out the door, but getting Brock out the door at 7 is incredible ;) Nahh! I am sure that they were all great! Hats off to all of you for going though!

Ah man! What was Brock thinking trying to rough it up out on the field?! Haha, you don't have to worry about. My days of contact sports are over! However, I can't wait for flag football!

Yes I did get the camera! Thank you so much!

This week was a little less crazy than last week. We had a lot of fun though. Tuesday we has Mission Leadership Council! It was great being able to see a lot of my old companions. The meeting went great and it was very spiritual. I think that everyone is really excited and pumped up for working really hard this Christmas season. We have a lot of really cool stuff going on, the main one is the worldwide Christmas initiative called "He is the Gift." Look it up and find out what it is! It is going to be sweet! Wednesday we drove down to Bordeaux to have a little exchange with Elder Einerson and Elder Zenger. We taught some great lessons and we had tons of fun joking around in the apartment that night. The next day we had their conference and shortly after we drove back up to Lyon to finish up the night at the Roney's having a birthday dinner for Elder Elvidge and Elder Dalton. Lots of fun!

Friday and Saturday we had to deal with some crazy exchange and transfer issues so we have kind of been all over the place. 

Saturday was crazy though. It was Elder Elvidge's birthday. I started out in making him breakfast, then after studies we went out the apartment and as soon as we left the apt. we realized we didn't have the keys. . . or the spare keys. So. . . our car was locked in the garage and there was no way that we could get back into the apartment because the door locks automatically. Long story short the office elders saved us and they were nearby so they lent us their car. We took it out to our appointment with the members. Our appointment went great and we ate lots of great food! The spiritual thought went amazing and we talked a lot about gratitude. After we finished up we went to the airport and picked up a missionary being emergency transferred in. Then we headed back to downtown Lyon. That night we had a huge surprise dinner at an all you can eat Chinese buffet provided by our mission nurse, S. Povar, who is an angel to say the least. It was a great day that started out crazy and ended great!

Lately in the mission we have been talking a lot about the story of Lazarus. This is the story where Christ is asked to come and heal Lazarus, but he spends two days healing people and then goes to heal him, and by the time he gets there Lazarus has passed away. The sisters of Lazarus are very sorrowful, but they still show that they have faith in Christ by saying that if he was there their brother would not have died. Christ knew that he would be raised from the dead though, so that isn't the reason that he starts to weep in vs. 35. The reason that he starts to weep is because through him we can do all things and he wants us to have the faith sufficient to believe that. Our lives are spent trying to acquire this type of faith. The vs. that I want to focus on though is 41, the first thing that he does after the miracle takes place is that he thanks his Father. This is something that we need to apply into our lives. We need to always show our Father in Heaven that we are thankful for everything that he gives us. So, have a great thanksgiving doing exactly that!

I love you!
 
Elder Beyer

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Sunday, November 16, 2014 "Elder Dalton's Birthday Surprise"

Dearest Family!

Haha, don't you love our little massage train? We do that just about halfway through every single one of our conferences. It helps us to wake up a little bit. The only rule is that sisters can't touch elders and elders can't touch sisters! Ah Ty is such a stud! I wish that I could have been there for his homecoming. Yeah, Tyson is one of the funniest people in the world. You are going to have to make sure he applies to BYU just in case! Tell him that we are going to have to room together! Hahaha, can you believe Troy not just getting a girlfriend, but a finance! It's true, we did all make that promise with Syd. . . so when I am living as a bachelor at home for the rest of my life you will know why! Haha, Syd is so funny!

Have tons of fun in St. George! You deserve it! I haven't received the camera yet, but I will let you know as soon as I do!

This week was a fun one!

Monday was spent with all of the departing missionaries. We had a blast joking around together and eating over at the Roney's together. Dinner for us is a little bit crazy though. We spend the whole night helping serve the food, take people around, make sure everything is in order, etc. . . so for every minute sitting down we spend the next couple running around doing something. It is a blast though. After a really late night Monday from loading suitcases and a few other things, we made it to bed! After all of the old missionaries were out of there, it was off to the airport to pick up all of the new missionaries. This time was sooooo much better than the last. They came in on time! Hahaha. Yes!! I was so happy because that allowed us to be able to sleep at night instead of picking them up at the airport! 

As usual, it was a blast being with the new missionaries. They were so funny and so energetic. We got to take them contacting for the first time and they were awesome. They couldn't speak a lick of french, but they were fired up and talking to people all around them. Which made for some great experiences.

Tuesday night we got to eat at the mission home again and play some more games with the new missionaries. The best was when we played some around the world ping pong downstairs! However, we didn't play any sting!

The conferences over the next few days went great! We had one on Wednesday and we had one on Friday! The one Wednesday was with the new missionaries and the one Friday was with the missionaries who have been out for a transfer. It is cool seeing how much the missionaries grow just over one transfer. 

Okay, now for the best part.

Saturday. . . It was Elder Dalton's birthday. Elder Taylor planned it out so that we would take him to a really cool American family's house and surprise him. Although, we were brainstorming of how we could get him there surprised and somehow we came to the conclusion that we needed to kidnap him. So, Elder Taylor took them up a small alleyway and we hid behind some cars, ran out, put a sheet on his head, and carried him back and threw him in the car. On the way we fell down and got a few battle wounds, but it was well worth it. Anyways, the car ride was hilarious because we didn't say a word, but Elder Dalton was cracking jokes the whole time and it was so hard not to laugh. We carried him all the way up to the door of the apartment where some random guy just let us in. . . which was kind of strange because he didn't really even ask why we had him bagged up hahaha. We knocked on their door, they let us in and we put him on the couch, and then we took of the sheet and surprised him! He was so funny about it and such a great sport. The night was a lot of fun and we ate a bunch of pizza and ice cream to celebrate. 


I loved that quote that you sent mom! I remember you sending that to me a long time back and it helped me out a lot. The longer that I have been out on my mission the more that I have understood that the harder it gets, the more your faith grows when you get up and keep working. Which is obviously easier said than done. However, I know with all my heart that when the going gets tough, when we make think otherwise, or especially when we don't understand, but we still choose to follow the Savior, we are blessed eternally. I know that throughout our lives we are giving opportunities to show the Lord that we trust him and we show our trust in him when we get up everyday with the attitude that we are going to try again.

I love you all so much!

This week is going to be another great one! 

I promise not to kidnap anyone else! Hahaha.

Love,
Elder Beyer

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Sunday, November 9, 2014 "Transfer Week"

Hey family!

I am not going to have too much time so I might have to keep it pretty short! We are just finishing up numbers because of a few unexpected problems that came our way tonight! As you already know, I am staying with Elder Elvidge! I am really excited and I think that this transfer is going to go by way to fast just like the last one. It is crazy how fast time is going by right now.

The Elder Kearon Conference was seriously amazing though. It was so much fun being with all of them! We have a few fun things planned for the upcoming conferences so I am really excited because we are going to have some really cool experiences over the next few months. Next transfer we have another special guest. . . but this time he is going to be singing the conference to us. . . David Archuletta is coming to our mission! I totally spelled his name wrong. . . but how cool is that?! Hahaha. He is coming December 18th and 19th! So cool!

Crazy that Mark is home! Send my love! To the cute couples as well :)

This week was really special.

Like you know, we were able to do the transfers with President and Sister Roney. It was an amazing experience. Monday after we had a fun P-Day at the Roney's with everyone in Lyon we got to work. The process involves a lot of praying, guidance, and a lot of time in President's office as we move around each missionary to the place that they need to be. It was really interesting seeing from this perspective how transfers work. I found myself trying to put myself in the place of the assistants a long time back when they were looking at my picture and moving me across the mission. It was incredible to see how that worked.

Monday, Tuesday and part of Wednesday were spent doing that. We had the occasional lunch and dinner break, but other than that it was all work!

Thursday we had a quick meeting that morning and then we spent the day doing missionary work and planning for the next transfer. 

This weekend has been spent primarily preparing for this upcoming week that is going to be insane, as the first week always is, and trying to get some missionary work done on the side!

It is crazy how much there is to plan when there are twenty missionaries coming into our mission, trainers moving all around to come into Lyon, and all other sorts of crazy things.

One thing that was cool this week was that we asked our Bishop and his wife to pray of a street name where we could go and do some tracting so that we could find a new person to teach and baptize. We didn't have much time in the week to work there, but once we had the name we were able to put a few hours in. We saw some miracles and found 2 new investigators and taught a miracle lesson in about an hour and a half! The guy we taught was a young college student who was super cool and we will be teaching again this Wednesday! Hopefully we can find enough time!

Well. . . 

This week I am probably going to sleep a total of 10 hours haha! Wish me luck!

I love you tons!

Love,
Elder Beyer

Monday, November 3, 2014

Sunday, November 3, 2014 "Trek to Bordeaux"

Bonsoir la famille!

Wow. . . football come and gone. Just like that haha. I feel like time is going by a little bit too fast right now. I am glad to hear that Caders started fast and finished strong :) Nice work stud! Yeah, I can understand what Bubba is feeling, football takes it out of you. I feel like missionary work is like that as well. Haha, when I come home I am probably going to sleep for a week straight so be ready! Waffle bar and parties at the house! Sounds like a blast!

This week was an incredible one. As you could have probably guessed.

We spent the week preparing for the conferences, traveling to the conferences, and going to the conferences. Our special guests this time were the Kearons. Elder Kearon is a member of the 70. They are two of the most amazing people that I have ever met and it was such a blessing to be able to get to know them a little bit more.

Tuesday we made the trek down to Bordeaux. We drove a big part of the day. It took us about 6 hours to get there, maybe a little bit less. It was a really fun ride though with Elders Elvidge, Kirkpatrick and Erickson. When we got there we dropped those two off and headed to the airport to pick up President and Sister Roney. After picking them up we headed over to the hotel to go and pick up the Kearons. We then drove them into town to drop them off for dinner. It was a really fun car ride with everyone joking around. We dropped them off for dinner and then headed down to the river and got something to eat for ourselves. It was so great being back in Bordeaux. I miss that place a lot. 

The conference the next day was amazing. We learned so many things that are going to help us to become so much happier in our lives and become more like the Savoir. One of the things that was a big focus of the conference was something that you actually talked about in your email. The ability to choose.

Something that we forget sometimes is that we can change so much of what happens around us just by changing our inner thoughts. We talked a lot about attitude and how we are going to change this mission based on choosing to do so. It was a really motivating conference.

That night we took a plane back to Lyon. . . but unfortunately our plane, for us and about ten other missionaries, got delayed three hours! So we found ourselves waiting on really uncomfortable chairs wayy too long! Haha. We got into Lyon around 1 and had to take some taxis to get home and had some missionaries come and get the rest of us! It was a crazy experience!

Thursday the conference in Lyon was amazing! Everything went as planned.

We drove to Geneva that night with Elder Kearon and President and Sister Roney. Although, right before that Elder Elvidge and I were able to have a quick interview with Elder Kearon at the Roney's house! It was an awesome experience! When we got to Geneva we were able to all go out to dinner to this awesome Mexican place. It was a lot of fun again listening to Elder Kearon and President joking back and forth giving each other a hard time about everything.

The next days conference was amazing as well! After dropping Elder Kearon off again we went out to eat again and then it was off back to Lyon!

The next few days were awesome because we were able to get some regular old missionary work done and work in our sector! We found a couple of really cool people! One of the cities that we went to and found a really cool person was this city called CHATILLON! How cool is that?! We decided to go and find someone there because we thought we would run into some of our ancestors ;)

One of my favorite parts of conference was the fact that we can change our futures by the way that we act on our missions. It was mentioned often that the harder we work the more value that we add to our family and the more that we love them. I have noticed that the harder I work out here the more I love each one of you. I truly love my mission and I feel very blessed to be here right now.

Another thing mentioned was that faith has a short shelf life. Everyday we need to work to have spiritual experiences to keep us going!

I love you all so much and pray that you have an incredible week!


Love,
Elder Beyer