Monday, December 29, 2014

Sunday, December 28, 2014 "Grateful for this experience"

Hey family!!

It was so great to hear from you for Christmas! You all looked so great and sounded so happy. Thanks :) I am going to miss being able to share with others my testimony in french.  It sounds like you had a wonderful time for Christmas! We watched some movies as well. . . we ended up watching Frozen in french for the one Disney movie that we could watch for Christmas.

I think you are right. I am going to be grateful for the experiences that I have been having for the rest of my life. I have had some of the greatest laughs, cries, and amazing experiences out here. I know that these experiences have truly shaped me to the person that I need to be in the future. Elder Taylor is a great guy. I am really happy to have this opportunity to serve with him again. We all have been having a blast together. Yeah, I don't know what that crazy girl is thinking! Haha. She is going to do an incredible job though and I am really happy for her.

Since we talked on Christmas we had a few crazy experiences. We drove down to Avignon to pick up a washing machine. It was great because I got to see two old companions. Elder Ambursley and Elder Liechty. Both of them are doing really great and are really happy. After that we headed down to Toulouse and dropped off the washing machine and did an exchange with the Zone Leaders down there. It went great despite the fact that it rained literally the whole time! Haha, it was freezing! Well I guess not literally or we would have had snow.

The trip back was really tiring. We made another stop by Avignon to drop off another washing machine that we had picked up for them. It was awesome because both times that we stopped through Avignon they were eating with members and the members begged us to eat with them a little bit. So the first time we ate some amazing cake, and the second time we had lasagna with one of the families. It was not too shabby! The next morning we got up at 5 and headed back to Lyon to make it to church on time! We made it!

Everything is going great right now. I am really happy to be serving the Lord.

I know that as we learn to follow the Savior and trust that he knows better than us, we are blessed. Often times my mission president says that our job is to learn everything that Christ taught and obey it, because that is what makes us happy. I know that this is true. There is no better way to learn what he said than to feast upon the scriptures everyday. Let us all make some great resolutions to not go a single day without reading from these wonderful scriptures that we have been provided with.

I love you so much!

Have a wonderful week!




Love,
Elder Beyer

Sunday, December 21, 2014 "Crazy Week"

Hey family!!

I know! Can you believe how quick that has come! I am so excited to see all of you and hear how all of you are doing! We will be calling around 5:00! I think we are going to try and do it in the office, so hopefully the connection is good. Also, I did get your packages! The sweaters are so sweet!! Hahahaha, we were loving them! A senior couple in the office took our photo and said that they were going to send it to you, so unfortunately that is the only photo that we have and the sweaters are back at our apartment, so you might not be able to see a photo until next week! Sorry! Okay, come on here! Last year I was totally joking about opening my package! I totally waited and opened it up on Christmas Day!! Haha. . . However, I did start opening up some of my presents for this years package :) Don't tell anyone!

You're dream sounds interesting mom! Sorry that I wouldn't give you a hug, I hope that you don't hold it against me on Christmas! Maybe a bunch of missionaries are going to show up to your house this week wanting to eat, so you better be ready!

Nice! Haha! Cali again! I hope that you had lots of fun and that you were able to fill up a book of all of the Disney Characters signatures for me! ;)

The Christmas parties that we had this week were incredible. They were some of my favorite conferences that I have had since I have been out here on my mission. I asked Brock if he could let you know, but I am not sure if he did. We had David Archuleta come to our mission and sing. It was seriously so amazing. His singing sounds the exact same live as it does on the Cd's.

The whole week was a crazy one in preparing for the conference. We had lots to do and we found ourselves running around the whole week. The conferences were held Thursday in Lyon, and Friday in Bordeaux. Correct, there was only two. There were about 130 missionaries in Lyon, and 110 in Bordeaux. Thursday we had a crazy schedule getting everything ready. We were flying back and forth getting everything set up, running to the store to help pick up food, doing all sorts of other things, etc. It was a really fun, hectic experience. The conference, like I said, was amazing. David did an incredible job. He is so talented and gifted, but so humble. President, Sister Roney, and us all presented, and after each one of us David would sing and say some things. The spirit was so strong when he was singing. Our mission president says often that music and love are the two Heavenly things that we experience here on earth. 

After the conference on Thursday we loaded up the Christmas packages and everything we needed for the conference and headed down to Bordeaux. It took us a good while to get there. We rolled into Bordeaux around 3:00 in the morning. When we got there we had to unload everything at the church, so we ended up getting to the apartment around 4:00. We got a little bit of sleep and then headed to the airport to pick David, his guests, and the Roneys up. We gave them the van and then met them at the church. Once again, the conference was incredible. Our presentation went pretty well as well. We talked about the birth of the Savior and how like the Wise Men we need to lay some gifts at his feet this Christmas season.

On the way back we had to make a few detours. We stopped by Toulouse because we had to drop off a fridge and a washing machine. We then took a long drive along the coast until we finally got back to Lyon that night.

We were exhausted when we got back and hadn't really eaten the whole day, but we got a call from a few missionaries asking if we could help them transport some tables to another church. Once we finished up we headed home and just dropped dead haha. Morning came quick!

Church was great!

I cannot wait to talk to you in a few days! Merry Christmas until I can say it to you in person!

Grosses Bises! Je vous aime tous! :)



Love,
Elder Beyer

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Sunday, December 7, 2014 "Whoooh, I am Staying!!"

Dearest family,

Okay. . . I. . . am. . . staying! Whoooh! I am really excited because I really wanted to finish my mission here in Lyon. I am going to be finishing up with Elder Taylor! So we get to serve together again! I am really excited. However, I am going to miss serving with Elder Elvidge. He is headed off to Lausanne, Switzerland. He is a great guy and will be a great friend for the rest of my life. I have really been spoiled with my companions over the past little while. This next transfer is going to fly by a little bit to fast with all of the conferences and things going on. I am a little scared that before I know it I am going to be stepping on a plane not knowing what happened. I am going to be serving with Elder Taylor. . . however there is a little twist on the transfer. Seeings how neither one of us is legal to drive the car and the church is really cracking down on our mission, we have taken drastic measures. President has called a missionary to be his secretary. Someone who is young in the mission so that he is still legal to drive :) So, we are actually going to have a third member of our companionship some of the time. His name is Elder Nadauld, he is there to help us out with organization and all of the little details that go in with planning things, but he probably won't be there if we don't need the car haha. We are going to have a lot of fun together.

Hey! I think that is a great idea with the online shopping. That would have helped me to do some shopping this year. . . with that being said I am very sorry to tell you, but I was not able to buy any Christmas presents for anyone this year hahaha. Don't worry, I will just bring them with me in Feb!

Keep tearing up the slopes everyone! Oh and by the way, tell Brockster to cut the crap. We all know that they were seeing ducks all day, they just couldn't hit any of them and came home empty handed because they were so rusty. Crazy news about Shelby!!

This week was great! We spend Monday at the Roney's. We played a lot of games with all of the missionaries and had a lot of fun together. Immediately after the missionaries left we started working on the transfer. Just like last time it was a really amazing, spiritual experience seeing how the missionaries move across the mission into their new areas. Most of our time was spend doing that Tuesday and Wednesday. We spent the nights out on the town contacting and we were able to have a little bit of success teaching a couple of lessons. We made another trip to a busy area in the mission where we were able to do some contacting with all of the missionaries in Lyon which was a blast!

Thursday we had a few meetings and got organized for the upcoming week. Friday we made the calls to all of the missionaries. The most exciting is Elder Dalton and Elder Crawley will both be in Lyon next transfer! So I will be seeing a lot of both of them.

Friday night was where it got a little crazy. We didn't receive any pass along cards from the Church for the He is the Gift video like they had told us, so the missionaries were all hyped up and there was nothing to give them. So, President decided to make them on his computer and send it to a professional company and get some of our own cards made up. They showed up Friday afternoon, and the only was to get them distributed in time for all of the district meetings in a way that they heavy boxes wouldn't need to be shipped or carried by missionaries on transfer day was to take them out to all of the missionaries ourselves. So, the office Elders took the West side because they had a little bit more time, and we took Switzerland and Lyon, and we both went around like Santa delivering the cards! We had to pull an all nighter because of our schedule, so Friday night we didn't sleep at all and every time we would get to a city we would call the missionaries, they would come down and get the cards, we would hop back in and then head off to the next city! It was crazy! Haha, not to mention it has been killing us since and we are exhausted!

We didn't have any time to sleep Saturday because we were really lucky :) The senior couples came in for a conference and a little Christmas benefit to see la fête des lumières! If you don't know what that is you are going to have to go and look it up on youtube! So, we had the blessing to have a little conference with them, then after go out to dinner with them and President and Sister Roney, and then lead them around through literally millions of people seeing different light shows. To avoid losing our crowd President bought all of us swords that lit up and we let the senior couples. It was a really cool experience and something that I never would have seen as a missionary, or probably the rest of my life, if I wasn't here in this position. Pretty lucky, huh?

We ate dinner at the Roney's tonight to have one last dinner before Elder Elvidge leaves. It was great being with their family. Also, I was able to have an interview with President that was awesome. 

Life is great right now. Very stressful. Very tiring, but awesome.

I am loving being here and not believing how fast the time is going by!

In honor of la fête des lumières I thought that it wouldn't be fair if I didn't share Matthew 5:14-16. 14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

I hope that we can all be the light for those around us during this Christmas Season!

I love you!

Elder Beyer