Wednesday, January 12, 2015 "I will miss France"

Salut famille!

Right nowwe are on our way back to Lyon. We have spent the last three days in Switzerland, starting in Lausanne, one of my favorite cities in Switzerland, the Yverdon, and today we finished up in Geneva. As you could have guessed the last few days have been pretty exhausting. Up at 6:30 every morning, sleeping on some floors at night, and lots going on in between. We have been having a lot of fun together. The conferences have been going really well and the spirit has been really strong in each one of them. The main focus has been choosing to be a delightful person. As we become more delightful people are more inclined to listen to us and become our friends as missionaries and all throughout our lives.

Our presentation has been centered around the story of the Good Samaritan. He went well out of his way to help that man in need and because of that experience the man's life was changed. We are focusing on how as missionaries we meet different people who are spiritually suffering along the way and as we become more Christlike we become more delightful to the point that our encounter with them turns into an experience that changes their lives. It has been a really fun, cool topic. The missionaries have really seemed to enjoy it and we have had a great time presenting it. Tomorrow, well by the time you get this this might have already passed, will be our conference in Lyon and I am so excited. Elders Crawley, Dalton, Montgomery, Haws and a lot more of my good mission buddies will be there. This is the conference that I will probably share my final testimony. It seems really strange thinking about the reality of my mission starting to wind down. I have so many mixed feelings because I cannot wait to see all of you, but I am going to really miss France and all of the amazing people that I have met since I have been out here.

One of the craziest things has been saying bye to missionaries that I have had the privilege to work with over these past two years. We got to spend two nights in Lausanne where I got to spend about thirty minutes catching up with Elder Elvidge. Luckily I will be seeing him back in Utah, or that would have totally stunk saying bye. It has been that way with a bunch of missionaries over the past little while.

Sunday night about killed us in doing numbers in Lausanne. There were tons of problems with the computers and the software on them so it took us so long. We lost a ton of sleep and it has been brutal running on that over the past few days. Haha, luckily it is starting to get a little bit better.

Other than that the nights have been wonderful. We have spent two of them at the homes of a couple of the Stake Presidents in our mission. We had tons of fun with them and their families. They both had HUGE families, young families with small children on top of that, so we had a great time with them. With one of them we played this game that they play often throughout Christmas. It is a game called gateau des rois. In each cake, more like a pie, there is a tiny figurine hidden inside. Once the cake is cut up and everyone has their piece everyone begins to eat. You have to be careful not to bite too hard because there is a possibility that there might be a small toy hidden in there and you don't want to brake any teeth. Whoever finds the little toy in theirs they become the king and they are given a crown to wear around. There were three toys for about 18 of us and I really lucked out and had one of them in my slice! So, I went home with a sweet little crown that the kids made out of colored paper. That is one of my favorite traditions that they do here in France.

Things are going great right now. I am having a blast. These last few days have been a blast with the Roneys. London has been really funny because he is always hitting us and giving us flat tires, he is 13, but lately he has been counting down the days and hours until I go home hahaha. He is going to miss me :) My joke back to him is that he has a more accurate count than you do mom!

Well, the next two days we will be in Lyon, I love this city, then it is off to Aix! Pray for us that we don't get sick traveling around visiting all of these sick missionaries!

I love you all so, so much!

Love,
Elder Beyer

Sunday, January 4, 2015 "Busy Week Ahead"

Hey there family! 

Well it looks like you all had way too much fun this week at the Cabin! I love hearing that! 

Tell everyone hello for me and that I love them!

Hahaha, funny that you bring up that story about Coloradoing because I was actually telling that to my companions the other day. That was one of the most scary, but funniest experiences ever.

Tell Kenz she made a good choice!

Well, Elder Nadauld was kind enough to email you a little bit and let you know how everything is going and what we are up to. (Elder Nadauld sent us the nicest note)

As you can see we have a pretty busy schedule. (He sent us his schedule for the next month)

We are just finishing up numbers and are probably going to be heading over to the Zone Leaders apt. soon before we are too exhausted before the week even starts.

This week consists of a conference everyday where we will be presenting a little bit. After conference is over we head to the next city and eat there with the Roney family. We then drop them off at the hotel, head to the  ZL's apt. and pick them up the next day for the same thing all over again.

We are going to have a blast, but man is it going to be crazy!

I love you all so much! I wish that I could write more, but we don't have too much time!

I will try and send you updates if I can find some time!

Love,

Elder Beyer

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

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

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

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