Monday, May 5, 2014 "This week flew"

My dearest family!

I am diggin' the photos of Bubba playin' ball. He seriously looks like such a stud out there. Keep those photos coming and make sure that you are filming some of his games. . . Caden's included. . . So that I can watch them when I get home!

Hahaha that story about Kim is so funny. I bet she was such a great sport about it. Andrew and Steve are seriously so funny. When I offered the prayer at their house, that was a funny night. Stephen, being the oldest man there was put in charge to call on someone and he said Carsen, would you like to say it? I was like yeah no problem. Kim was like, you can't pick on the guests! Pick someone else! Stephen then responded and said, no I am choosing Carsen. That just kept going on and on and then Stephen said, "Mom, I am sure that Carsen is completely capable of offering a prayer" and then we all started laughing, and Kim looks at me with an apologetically look, and I said it. It was really funny. Tell Stephen that I will say them in french for him in a little while! Also. . . That it goes without question that he is coming on Sunday. . .(Call at Mother's Day)

As for the baptism. . .

C.... was Baptized!! It was seriously one of my favorite experiences on my mission  I will tell you all about it when I talk to you this Sunday, but it was pretty sweet.

This week we have interviews with President after conference that went really well. Conference was awesome and then during my interview I was able to talk to him about goal setting and planning out you life. . . and accomplishing the things that you plan out. . . I will tell you more about the interview this Sunday because he said some really nice things.

So this last week for us was absolutely crazy. After we got done with our conference it was chaos because the members that were making a meal for another zone completely bailed so Elder Taylor and I offered to help out. We went the day of the baptism and made food for the other conference and then afterwards cleaned up the huge mess. It took us so much time that we were there all up until the baptism at night.

The baptism was such a success though. C..... was really excited and she even showed up a little early for her baptism. We all changed up into white and she was able to meet Sister Roney and all of the other missionaries there which was pretty exciting. She was really nervous, but all went great. Elder Taylor and I both gave talks and then I baptized her, and then we went back in and I was able to play that Hie to Kolob rendition that I played at Brock's homecoming that she really, really liked. So all went well.

This week flew by though! I honestly cannot believe how fast it went by. One minute we started the week and the next it was over. I am having so much fun right now and I am loving being with Elder Taylor. He is an incredible missionary and he always keeps me laughing. I really, really hope that we get to stay a couple of transfers together. . . But we will see. . .

For the photos that you are going to send yeah 30 would be perfect. Make sure there are some copies or something like that just in case they get lost in the mail. . . I don't know if you can make copies though. . . 

By the way, that package that you sent me was seriously amazing. Everything inside was top notch! Elder Taylor and I have been loving eating the candy when we are walking around. 

Well my dearest family, I love you all so very much and I am so excited to be able to talk to you so soon! Yes, I will probably only have one hour so like you said, come prepared. . . Also, we are going to be calling around 5:00 our time! So be ready. I hope that doesn't interfere with church. If it does I am sorry. . . We might call a little earlier or a little later and I am not sure if the family that we are Skypeing with has two computers or not. . . So I will try and send you and email next Saturday or Sunday if possible to clear out some details, but I am not positive if that will be possible.

Bises à vous tous!

Elder Beyer

Monday, April 28, 2014 "This week was interesting"

Hi ya family!

This week was such a great one and I can't wait to tell you about it! I loved hearing about your weeks and just so you don't feel alone. . . It rained everyday here as well haha. Gotta love the weather. I honestly was so excited when you told me about Cody's mission call! I am soooooo stoked for him! Send my love his way and tell him I have met tons of member here who have served there and I have heard nothing but good things about that mission. Hey I am loving with the idea about the yoga! We actually had a member today that invited us to go to yoga with him as well and teach his friends after. . . so, we might be doing some yoga as well :) Hahaha, I am with you mom! I think it is going to work!

Okay, so this week was interesting.

Lyon was awesome as always and to answer your question real quick, no we don't get to talk to him at all :( He is too busy. . . Sometimes we don't even get to interview with him on interview tours because he is so busy. . . 

Anyways, we left church on Sunday with our investigator telling us that she didn't want to be baptized this Saturday. She said that she didn't feel ready at all and that she didn't think that she knew nearly enough. We were pretty sad, but we kept moving along. When we got back from Lyon (PS. . . we had to take two early morning flights where we had to get up at 4:00 and no, we don't get to make that sleep up) we immediately called C.... our investigator. She said she wanted to meet up and that she had a surprise to tell us.

We weren't quite sure what the surprise was going to be, she has given us a few shirts with Joseph Smith's face on them so we thought that they would be something like that. . . so we walk into the church and she is there and she holds up her finger and says. . . I am getting married! We start freaking out and we are like, but you weren't even dating anyone! Then she says, just kidding! So at that point we were like, that was a lame surprise. . . 

We then started the lesson and after the prayer Elder Taylor says, Okay C...., you know that we are having this RDV so that we can re fix your baptismal date and make a calendar so that you can be ready for your date. . . She then looks only at Elder Taylor and says, I need to talk to you and you only, with slightly watered eyes. . . There I am right next to him freaking out, in my head I am thinking, oh no. . . she is going to drop us and she is too scared to tell me because I had been teaching her for so long. She finally convinces Elder Taylor, who is equally as scared, to go into the corner of the room with her so that she can talk with him alone. I am sitting there still with our member freaking out in my head. . . Then then come back and sit down. Elder Taylor says, C....

would no longer like to talk about her baptismal date and a calendar, and before we start she wanted to tell Elder Beyer that she wants to be baptized!! And she wants him to do the baptism!! 

At that point I went from being so scared to the happiest I have been on my mission. My jaw dropped and I didn't even know what to say haha. So, we decided to move the date back one week to be sure that she is ready and knows everything and this Saturday at 4:00 we are going to be holding her baptism! I am so excited and I will let you know how it goes!

We have had a few lessons with her since then and all is going really good.

We had another cool experience the other day where we were working the whole day with no success at all. . . It was getting close to the end of the night and it was freezing so we were ready to go back in haha. . . We were knocking one of the last doors and this cute little boy with bright blonde hair answers the door wearing an ironman gadget on his hand. We ask if we can see his parents and he runs and gets his mom. She then comes to the door and it turns out that it is just those two in their little family and they were so cool! I said to her that she was lucky to have ironman to protect the house then and that got a good laugh. Anyways, we got to teach them about eternal families and testified to them and at the end they told us that we could pass by and see them sometime. . . So we are going to go and teach them this week :)

Well I am loving my new companion right now. We are having so much fun together. I think this transfer is going to go by a little bit too fast though haha.

I can't wait to talk to you and see your beautiful smiling faces in two weeks! Yeah, it will probably been in the morning for you. I think we will try and do it around 5 here if we can. I will let you know next week for sure.

Also, could you please send me a bunch of photos of the family, us doing things together, sports, etc. . . so that I can show people that we meet. Find some awesome ones like the ones that you email me! Thanks!

I got a letter that the package arrived and I can go pick it up tomorrow!

Love you lots,

Elder Beyer

Monday, April 21, 2014 "Flying to Lyon"

Bonjour!

Hey there most wonderful family! It is so good to hear from you! That is awesome that Caden got the job! Make sure that he is watching everyone swimming. . . not just the pretty girls :) As for being with Elder Taylor it is so much fun. I am loving every second of it. He is seriously just like Josh Gee and has been cracking me up as soon as we got together. Yeah, he was a zone leader over in Lyon before we got together. Crazy about Elder Strom though huh? Haha. . . Yeah, he is one of five missionaries out there. I really want to go out there and serve there eventually in my mission. That is where they send missionaries when they no longer want to be in contact with them. . . haha jk!

Geezzz Bubba! What are you doing waking up early and finding your basket before picture time?

Okay, so this week was a great one.

We started out with a really cool RDV with that Muslim Family that I told you about the other day. They gave us a call and they were like, "Hey, can you meet us in the city around three?" We were like yeah for sure. So we went out and it turns out that they wanted to take us out to lunch! So sure enough they took us out to eat at a really good pizza parlor and we had a nice meal on a really nice day. After we finished eating we went and took a seat in the nearby park because they said that they had some questions about the Book of Mormon! So the RDV went awesome because the mom read half of the book in one week!!! Amazing huh?! She had a lot of really good questions and she explained to us that she knew it was true as soon as she started reading because it has a message of love.

Next up we had a few meetings with C. Everything is going really good right now, but the sad thing is that she is not going to be ready for her baptismal date :( We were pretty sad because it was going to be this week. . . That is okay, she said that she does want to be baptized and she is understanding really well right now, the only thing is that she said she doesn't feel ready yet. . . so we are going to re fix the date this Wednesday.

Right now we are actually in Lyon just so you know! We headed out for Leadership Council, we had to take a really early flight out so we have been here all morning and we are going to be here for a couple more days. We are going to hit up the city and maybe go and play some sports with the Elders that are here. We will see. The cool thing about our flight over was that they guy that was sitting next to us was actually a professional soccer player at Bordeaux! We got to talking with him and he was the coolest guy ever! He had a little beautiful family and as we got talking. . . he explained that his father just joined our church in Spain!! Crazy huh?! Anyways he was such a cool guy and we got his number, but one of the coolest parts is that in three weeks they are playing the biggest game of the year and he said he would get us tickets if we want them. . . Is that sweet or sweet??! So, all we need is the okay from President :)

Easter was great though, you are not going to believe it mom! I gave a talk to! Hahaha. I am sure your talk was way better though if it was about Grandpa Gene! You should send me your talk :)

After church the Tate family, from the states, invited us over for dinner so we had a good old fashioned Easter dinner after church. Not to mention they spoiled us with french pastries!

Well family!

I love you so dearly! Have a wonderful week! 

Elder Beyer

Monday, April 14, 2014 "Life is so good"

Hey wonderful family!

Ahhhh I have three brothers again!! For a little while there I wasn't quite sure. . . Haha jk! But seriously, I am lovin' the new hair style Caden! It is lookin' really, really good. Hey now, don't let Brock start growing one of those moustaches again. . . That is awesome that he is working so hard though. Is he still planning on studying Psychology? As usually, Bubba looks like he is living the life.

Hahaha dad! I knew that you wouldn't be able to hide your excitement about Caden's new hair style haha. 

Hey they can have the Hot Beyer Title, I never felt like I deserved it anyways.

That is crazy about B. I am so sad to hear that. You are going to have to go and give her a huge hug for me and tell her hi :)

Okay. . .

So the crazy of all crazies has happened.

Elder Strom is leaving, going to Corsica. . . I am staying, but guess who I am getting.

Elder Taylor! Nuts huh? He is the Welling's neighbor and one of Kenzie Beyer's really good friends! Right now I am just waiting for him to come in, but I am so stoked, we are going to have so much fun together. We have been joking around for the past couple of transfers that we were going to be serving together.

This last week was a great one though. We were able to teach a lot of investigators and we had some really good RDVs with Carine. She is still doing really well, but she was so sad that Elder Strom is leaving. Right now we are just trying to get her out to all of the institute activities so that she can meet all of the cool youth in our area. She is super, super cool. Right now she is making us t-shirts with Joseph Smith's face on them and she is making us ties with spikes on them. . . I will be sure to send home photos when I have them.

At church this week we had 3 investigators! It was so awesome because it has been months since we have had that many investigators there. . . with all of the missionaries combined haha.

Life is so good right now though. I am happy as can be and it is starting to be absolutely amazing outside. The sun has been shining which makes people a lot happier so that has been pretty awesome.

Oh, this week we went to our sweet African investigators house, she is from Ghana and she is in charge of a church here in Bordeaux. Anyways we had a quick lesson with her that went really good and she told us that if she likes the Book of Mormon she will share it with her little congregation of 11 people. . . So we are going to convert all of them :) Right after the RDV she made us an amazing African dish so we were really lucky to be able to eat some good food.

Also, we had our neighbors invite us over for dinner two nights ago. They are seriously so cool. They are a french family of four and they are super Catholic. The coolest part is that the mother actually lived in Utah with a Mormon family for 3 months and went on trek with them!! Crazy or what?! I haven't even been on trek ha ha! Anyways they are super amazing and we love them. . . and they love us :)

Well my dearest family, I love you all so very much!

Remember, in the words of Elder Holland,

"Christlike love is the greatest need on this planet."

Je vous embrosse!

Elder Beyer

Monday, April 7, 2014 "Loved Conference"

Hey fammmmm!

What in the world is going on over there in K-Town?! I am not sure who is looking more gangster, Bubba with that Kings hat on or Caden with his hair haha. I am sure that Brock is keeping them in line though so there is no need to worry :) Okay about Sister Hulme, yeah I see her all of the time, the ward that she is serving meets in the same building as my ward, so I see her every Sunday for sure and usually multiple times throughout the week. 

As for conference. . . Was it not the best ever? I felt like I could not write down notes fast enough. I was laughing with my companion because I remembered a few times when you (mom) gave us notebooks and told us to take notes and we complained and complained and said no, and now when conference comes on I feel like my hand is on fire I am writing down so much! I did love the talk about Gratitude as well. One of my favorite ones was the one by President Monson, I also liked the one by Elder Holland, because they both talked about Charity and how important Love is in the gospel. That is what my mission president focuses on as well so those have become some of my favorite topics to listen to. One thing that Elder Holland said that Christlike love is our greatest need on this planet. All of the talks were great though, I really liked the one on obedience as well given by Elder Hales. 

Sadly though, we were not able to watch all of the sessions. We watched them all except Sunday afternoon, with the time change the conference started at 8 for us over here so none of the missionaries had time to watch the conference and get back home. We are going to try and finish it today or next P-Day depending on if we can find any time.

This week was a fun one though. We had our district meeting in Bordeaux, and then we headed up to Limoges to hear Elder Crawley's district meeting! It was such a blast and he did such a great job. After that we got to do an exchange with Elder Crawley and his companion and I let my companion go with Elder Crawley because he was the one that trained him in the mission so he was really excited to be able to do an exchange with him to see how much he had grown.

Our investigator Carine is still doing really good. We are seeing her about 3 to 4 times a week now and she is still set on the 26 of April to be baptized. Fingers crossed! This week there are a bunch of baptisms in Bordeaux  so we are hoping that we will be able to get here to one and that will really get her excited to be baptized herself. Speaking of that, this week I am doing a baptismal interview for someone! First one ever! I am super excited.

We didn't have too much crazy stuff going on this week apart from taking a lot of trains and doing a service project for a member and his non member friend. We helped her move and had a blast. After we finished we didn't have time to stop and eat and we hadn't eaten all day so the member dropped us off so that we would be in on time, ran back to McDonald's to buy us some food, and then dropped us off a huge sac of french fries and hamburgers! It was pretty sweet! We don't eat very often with the members over here in Bordeaux, so it was pretty awesome. 

The castle last week was sweet too! We got to go out with like 12 missionaries and took a guided tour! This week we are trying to go down by the river and play some basketball like the locals, I have been told Americans are really good at basketball, so. . . wish me luck because I am terrible haha.

We need to be playin' some baseball or somethin'. . .

Well family I love you so dearly! Have a wonderful week!

 

 

Groses bises!

Elder Beyer

Monday, March 31, 2014 "Crazy Week"

Fam!!

Oh my goodness!! Everyone looks so big and so grown up! It is literally crazy seeing our family, the frosts, and the argyles all looking so old! (I mean the kids of course ;) ) You all look so amazing and it seems like you are having the time of your lives so keep it up! Hey Bubba and Caden! Start spending some time with your parents!

Caden! Keep tearing it up in lacrosse! That is seriously incredible! I don't think that I could even score a single goal if there was no goalie in front of the net.

As for the conference, it was amazing! I love being able to help set up and be a part of that process because it is a lot of fun, it does get kinda crazy at times setting everything up while doing missionary work at the same time, but I love it.

Okay, so we had a crazy week and we have a crazy week planned so I will try and fill you in real quick. . .

We had a sweet miracle on the bus the other day. . .

So, it was the end of the night and we were exhausted. We had been working and contacting all day and we hadn't really found anyone that would listen to us say more than five words. We were kinda bummed out, but we said to ourselves that we would finish out the night strong. I was like, we are going to make our contact work right now haha. So I turn to this lady and her daughter and start talking to them. It turns out they are Muslim and after a long chat they were interested in learning some more. So we got there number and set up a teaching appointment. . . So yesterday we went over for our appointment and after talking and introducing our families with our photos we started the lesson. Through the daughter as a translator the mother explained to us that she believes that Jesus Christ is her Savior and that he died for our sins, she said that she used to carry around a bible with her but she would put a different cover on it so that she wouldn't get killed for having it. And we thought that we had it hard. . . Haha. So anyways we had the most spiritual RDV ever and at the end she said that the only thing that she doesn't agree with in the Christian Religions is that they believe Jesus and God are the same person. . . Thank goodness for the restoration. They were super excited to hear our message and we are going back to teach them again next Sunday. They were so excited when we found the Book of Mormon in Arabic online and they said they couldn't wait to start reading. When we were finishing up the lesson they said, you can't leave! We made food for you because we thought that you would be hungry! So we ate some amazing couscous type dish with them and some hummus! Pretty cool miracle right?

Our investigator Carine showed up for church as well! It was amazing seeing her there and she loved it. Not only that but she is progressing really well right now and we re fixed her date for the 26 of April. That is next transfer so hopefully I stay here in Bordeaux.

This week Carine invited us over to her house to have some food from her hometown in Gabbon, Africa. So we went over there and she made us some really good chicken, rice and some kind of hotish plant smashed up. I can only explain it too look a lot like seaweed, but it was a lot harder. . . It was really good though and it was a blast with her and one of the members that she invited to come as well. We are teaching her a lot right now so hopefully it keeps up and she will be ready before the 26!

I was looking through my notes that I have taken since I have been on my mission the other day and I looked to the very first conference where President Roney said the most important thing that you can do on your mission is develop more love and learn to trust the Lord. I think I am finally starting to understand that a little bit more. I have noticed that when we do everything out of Love not only are our missions a much happier experience, but we see so much more success and people wanting to hear more about our message. Trust in the Lord is what pushes us to follow the Savior especially when our mental logic says differently.

Well today we have a great day planned out!

We are going to a castle with our ward mission leader and the other missionaries here in Bordeaux! It is going to be sweet!

Love,

Elder Beyer

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 "Zone Conference"

Hey fam!!

You are all looking so good! That is awesome that you were able to see KG! You are going to have to tell him congratulations for me on making the team! As always he is looking gigantic so I can tell they have been feeding him nothing but protein up there haha. Caden is looking good as well. . . but I can't tell if he is on the right or the left. . . :) Hahaha.

Brock is looking good on the vespa and that is the funniest story ever :) Just wait till he gets on it and he will probably change his mind again.

Yeah, last week was a blast, but I think it is going to be nice taking it easy today.

Seeings how you are probably wondering, I am emailing you a day late because we had conference yesterday. Oh my goodness, it was seriously the best conference that I have ever been to in my entire life. We were blessed to hear from President and Sister Roney and two of their neighbors, Elder Lund (A member of the 70) and Sister Lund, they both know Gordon Brown really well. Our conference went all day long and I think that was the most spiritually mind blown that I have ever been in my whole life.

I will just recap a few of my favorite things that I learned. . .

Elder Lund told us a few stories about President Roney when he was first getting started as the head of Nu Skin. Elder Lund was working as a lawyer at the time and President Roney offered him a job. He took it immediately because he didn't really enjoy what he was doing currently. He said he knew it was the right job when the third week of work President Roney told him, "Make sure you wear a suit tomorrow. . . because tomorrow we are going to be taking our wives to the temple."

He told another story about President Roney. He said that they would be meeting with the heads of companies from all over the world, big senators and city council men, and very important people. He said that midway through the meeting President Roney would give him the one minute finger and hold up his phone. . . He said as soon as President Roney left the room he was never going to be coming back haha. He said that every time he gave this sign he was leaving to one of his kids baseball games or some kind of event of that sort. He said that it set the tone for Nu Skin that if the family is this important to the head of the company than it should be the same for the rest of them. So, President Roney made sure that everyone in his company was spending time with their families.

He told us the coolest stories about how President Roney always put the gospel first, and according to President Roney he swears that that is the reason for his success.

President Roney expanded on the Savior's life by explaining stories from his life and the importance of learning to trust the savior on your mission. The stories that he shared were amazing and I can't wait to someday share the incredible things that I have been learning out here on my mission.

Okay. . .

As for this last week.

It was pretty nuts preparing for conference. We had to purchase all of the food and prepare everything so that it was ready, but in the end we pulled it off and it was an amazing conference.

Our investigator Carine is doing really good right now. She is still progressing fairly well and this week we taught her about the word of wisdom. Hopefully all goes well this week and we can re fix her baptismal date.

Most of the people we are teaching right now are college students and they are all super cool. We spend a lot of time around the institute which is right next to a big college, so we meet a lot of students through out the day.

The night before conference we had about 10 missionaries stay in our apartment and quite a few were kids that I came into the MTC with so it was a blast being able to see them and to talk about all the crazy things that have happened so far.

Well,

I love being a missionary for Jesus Christ. It is the greatest blessing in the world. This conference really helped me out to see how amazing missions are and how much I truly love being out here. Thanks for all of your support and have an amazing week.

With all the love in the world,

Elder Beyer