Monday, October 7, 2013 "Keep Smiling"

Well hello there my wonderful family!!

 

I am doing so so well and 1000 times better having heard those amazing conference messages. I don't think that I have ever been that alert and awake during a conference. I seriously was on the edge of my seat taking notes the whole time haha. Those talks on missionary work were amazing and I think the work here in Gex is really going to pick up. Okay, so we can totally live in Gex, in fact one of our companionship's might be moving there next transfer. The only reason we live under the family is because they probably get a good deal on the rent. We don't always work in Gex though, there are a ton of little towns all around us, so we actually only spend about one day a week in Gex. We are in a really strange area because we have one of the biggest wards because everyone moves here to work in Geneva, but there is literally no one on the streets, so we drive out to a little town for the day and knock doors. We have been having some trouble finding people at home. Usually we go together with the other companionship though because it is a lot easier to go to the same city with the car. Gex is only about fifteen minutes away from us though (by car). There are no buses around our city though, so we kind of have to have some kind of transportation, whether that be with the bikes or the car. So for Switzerland we can go in, but we have to be really careful tracting, the rules are really strict and I think we are supposed to have our passports at all times just in case we get stopped. The rules are really really strict over there.

 

Speaking of going to Switzerland. . . We got to watch conference in Geneva! It was so awesome! There is an English ward there, so we were also able to watch the conference in English. We spent all of Sunday watching and seriously it was amazing. The only thing that was lacking though was being with the Wells family and all of the brothers, I missed that so much. I am with you on that one, I hope that they never stop doing that tradition. But, don't worry, my pockets were still filled with life savers so I kept that tradition alive haha.

 

By the way our investigators showed up for conference and it was soooo awesome to see them there!!!

 

We had a cool miracle this week where we randomly called an old investigator that was dropped a long time ago and he agreed to meet up with us and learn more, then randomly one day we were contacting in a random little ville and at first we didn't see him, but out of the corner of my eye I saw someone coming out of a building so I quickly turned to go and talk to him. It turns out that was the guy that we were meeting with in a few days! He totally remembered the time and date of our RDV! It was so awesome. That was such a relief because I was kinda bummed out after not seeing much success. . . but, every time that you continue to push forward in FAITH the Lord will bless you. If we would have kept walking we never would have talked to that awesome guy and had our day completely flipped upside down.

 

Well family I love you so much! I hope that Bubbas birthday was amazing, it looks like he had a lot of fun. That is really nice what Brock said, I hope that I can be half the missionary that he is. Have fun at the dance Caders! With the thermals it might be easier to send them, but if you can't find room I can go without them and if I really need them I can go buy some, but we don't have a lot of time to buy things out here. . .

Thanks so much :) I am going to be really excited to get the package!

 

Keep smiling and have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Beyer

Monday, September 30, 2013

Hello family!

 

Ahhh hahaha where on the earth did you hear that? It started out in the MTC because Jace told my companion and my district and then it just spread like wildfire, and now sadly enough it is starting to spread in the mission too. I am not too happy about it, but it is kinda funny too. It will never die :( It sounds like you all had some amazing weeks! The real Hot Beyer was looking mighty fine with his skinny tie and his date, and little Hot Beyer was looking good all suited up. I am happy to hear that all of the games went really good this week.

 

I honestly cannot believe that Bubba's birthday is this week and that he is going to be turning 14! That blows my mind. I have no ideas for you, maybe just take him and all of his friends up to the cabin or up to Bountiful and do some shotgun shooting. I hope he has an amazing birthday though!

 

So this week honestly flew by, there were a few days that were a little slow, but all in all I swear I was just in this chair writing you yesterday. This week was a really good week and we were able to spend a lot of time working with the members. The members here are seriously so incredible and I am so blessed to be in this ward. This ward is honestly as close to a Utah ward as you can get in France. Not to mention there is so many young adults! It is so much fun! Oh, and by the way I don't know if I told you last week but we live under this Italian family who is seriously so awesome! The parents are so awesome and have fed us multiple times and the two daughters are really cool and both planning on serving missions within the next few years.

 

We still don't have too many investigators right now, but there are a couple who are getting really close to setting a baptismal date. All of the investigators here have been taught for a really long time, so hopefully we can give them that little push they need to commit to be baptized. President Roney sent us all a challenge for the next few months, he had us count up how many baptisms we think we can get before Christmas and then make a commitment to the Lord that we will do all we can to obtain our goal to give it to him as a Christmas Present. My companion and I agreed that we want to have 7. . . So we have got some work to do, but we are going to make it happen.

 

I am so glad to hear life is so good right now. You all sound so amazing! For me I am doing so so good right now and I am so happy to be out serving a mission. It is still incredibly hard, but the blessings outweigh the difficulties a million to one. I love your blessing book that you have been doing, I think that is such a good idea because if we show our gratitude for the blessings that the Lord has already given us it just makes him that much more happy to send us some more!

 

I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week! Happy birthday Bubba!

 

Love,
Elder C. Beyer

Monday, September 23, 2013 "Heaven on Earth"

Well hello there my wonderful family!

 

You all sound so amazing! I am glad that you already found out who my companion is and that you were already able to talk to his family! He is such a stud! I love being with him, and especially in the apartment with the two other missionaries too. It seriously has been so much fun so far. The other two missionaries are Elder Crawley and Elder Holding, Elder Crawley was in my MTC group and I was honestly so excited when I found out that we were going to be living in the same apartment. We have sooooo much fun! Elder Crawley reminds me a lot of Bryton Wells haha. Kendal sounds like he was an amazing missionary and that is an awesome story, cutest babies ever, Caden looks so sick!, and Bubba is still as cute as ever. . .

 

Okay, so where to even being talking about Gex. . .

I think first off I will start by saying that I think I was sent to Heaven on Earth. I am truly in one of the most beautiful places in the world. We live right up by the base of a mountain underneath the most amazing Italian family in the world! They are so funny and they have had us over for dinner a few times now. We see that family all the time now. Living in an apartment with four people is a huge change too. It is really small, but man is it fun. Especially with Elder Crawley haha. So, I said that we live in the most beautiful place in the world, yeah we totally do, we are surrounded by mountains and from our house we can see Geneva :) We are seriously as close to Switzerland as you can get as an American Missionary (because we can't live inside because of visa issues). All of our district meetings and zone conferences are in Switzerland as well.

 

Also, for the moment we have a car :) That has been a huge change from walking around a little tiny ville with not much transportation. They said they might be taking the car from us though :( We are very sad about that and hope that they really don't take it.

 

So right above our house is a ski resort! Crazy awesome huh?! We are going to see if we can take it up on a P-day and do some awesome hiking. We are going to go and do some hiking today up by our house in the mountains today as well.

 

So, as for the ward. That is right, I said ward! We have one of the biggest wards in the mission full of young single adults, young families, and just an all around awesome variety of ages. About half of our ward speaks English and there are quite a few people who have served missions in either the US or England and there are a few people who are American in our ward. Everyone comes to our ward and lives in the area because it is a lot cheaper to live here and they work in Switzerland. . . So we are basically in a little American/French/Swiss mountainous ward. It was awesome because the Stake President of the ward stood up at the start of the meeting and said, We have such a blessing to have these Elders in our ward so start taking advantage of them and inviting them over. After that about five families came up to us and invited us over. Not too shabby. . . huh?

 

This week in my letter to President Roney I said the only problem that I am going to be having in Gex is that he is not going to be able to get to me to leave haha.

 

That is so incredible that you were able to talk to my last DMP, those things that he said are seriously so nice. He was one of my favorite people in the world and people like him is what keeps the church growing here in France. My DMP in this ward is a returned missionary who just got back from his mission in Canada last summer!

 

Life is so wonderful right now though, I love being a missionary! I know 100 percent that this gospel is true and I have the greatest calling in the world to tell people what we know every day!

 

Love,

Elder Beyer

Monday, September 16, 2013 "Transferred"

Family!

You all sound so amazing and it is so good to hear from you! Ashton is going to be a great missionary, that picture of Kole is so disgusting hahaha, I cannot believe that my little brother is 17, and tell Bubba to start working out so much. . . Have fun at the dance Caden!

Seriously though you all sound so good. I loved what you said at the end of your letter about just being grateful, truly just a little gratitude can change your entire outlook on your situation and it is just like happiness, we are just about as happy as we make our minds up to be.

Okay. . .

So you are not going to believe what is happening to me this transfer. . .

I am moving. . . I am opening up a new companionship. . . I am going to be serving in Gex which is right by Switzerland, but I am going to be living in Crozet. . . I am going to be living in a 4 man apartment with another kid from my MTC group. . . and we are both training new missionaries!!!

How is that for crazy?

I am so excited it is not even right. My whole mission is seriously going to change so much this transfer. Not to mention I am moving to one of the biggest wards in the mission. It is going to be all kinds of change and I am kind of nervous, but I am so happy.

The rugby game was awesome this week though! They lost though. . . And we didn't get to talk to the players after because we had to hurry home to make it in on time. Not to mention it started pouring right after the game was over so we had to run home ha ha. But, it was such a cool experience and one that I was really lucky to have.

The guy in Perigueux that was baptized we found by looking through the old area book so he had been taught a long time ago by the missionaries, we knocked on his door, he let us in, we taught him and helped him to try and quit smoking, committed him to baptism, and just a few weeks ago he was baptized!

The language is still really tough for me. It is getting better though! I am starting to understand more, and I think this transfer is going to help me a lot because I am going to be thrown in the deep end.

So, I am leaving here on Wednesday, going to Lyon to pick up my greenie, and then off to Gex!

Crazy!

I love you all so very much and wish you the best week ever!

PS. . . for my last week the entire Portuguese family came to church and the Taukafa family came!

Love,
Elder Beyer

Monday, September 9, 2013 "Hello Family"

Well hello there family!

I am so glad to hear that you are doing so wonderful and that Caden and Bubba are still tearing it up in football! I was just thinking about that religion class the other day too and how much I loved going to that haha. I wish I would have gone to those classes every single day before my mission, I feel like I don't know anything sometimes out here haha. Oh well, it gives me more things to learn while I am out here!

Okay so about the rugby game and the scoop on what is happening today.

So, we did just walk by the game and take pictures, but in one of our family home evenings the Tongan family invited us to go to their rugby games. . . so we called president and he said YES!!!!! So, today we are just doing our emails and right after we are going to get out and go to work, and on Saturday night we get to go out to the rugby game here in town! I am so excited it is not even right! It works out great too because we are going to find way more people out today than we would find on Saturday night because seriously everyone goes out to the games. I will make sure to take lots of pictures!

So, you are going to be happy to hear that all of our family nights went according to plan, we had all three and they were all awesome. Not to mention the food was seriously amazing! The Portuguese family cooked us a really good chicken dish, one of the Tongan families took us out to a buffet and the other Tongan family made us some sushi and it was really, really good.

This week was a really good week because with all of those family nights and meeting random people on the streets we actually had a lesson every single day! It was such a miracle! It has been so long since we have had a week like that! Man does time fly when you are actually teaching people.

Everything is going really good right now though. I am really happy! I am also really happy that this week is transfer calls! I am very excited to see what is going to happen next transfer. We have 25 new Elders coming to the mission so it is going to be really interesting to see where President is going to put all of them.

Can you send me a letter this week through the mail that says the things in my setting apart blessing again? I really want to read that again. 

Also, this week I started laughing really hard when I remembered that I have been baptized twice. . . Random, but funny.

Well life is good when you are living the gospel! Alma 37:44-46

I hope that everything keeps going as well as it is at home and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder C. Beyer

Monday, September 2, 2013

Family!

What?! Cabin fever! That sounds like a blast and I hope that you had such an amazing time up there. What? Jenna is getting pushed back again?! That is terrible and so frustrating.

Hahahaha Don is such a goofball, I love him so much. Tell him to keep smiling and keep laughing and all will work out. Good old Bubby, keep working hard and try that teacher out for a couple of weeks and then you can switch out if you need to!

As for Caden in football, in the end all will work out. You cannot see the field when you are standing on the field, it is when you take a step back and look at the big picture that you can see the purpose behind everything. Don't worry, this first part of the season is turning you into the hardest working player on the team and if you keep working hard and pushing through the adversity, you will be the best starter in due time. I remember when coach told me I wasn't going to be playing in my last game as a senior because he wanted to try a new defense I came home and started crying, I was devastated. All of my hard work gone, just like that. Brock came gave me a big hug and said it would all work out and really talked me through it and in the end I ended up playing the second quarter and on and it ended up being one of my best games that I had played all season. It will work out.

Okay so this week was a really good one! We were able to have an awesome lesson with the Tongan family and they want us to start coming on a weekly basis to read scriptures with them! I am so excited. Not only that, but the other New Zealand/Tongan/Australian Family was able to meet with us and we had an amazing little talk with them about building your foundation on Christ in this difficult world so that your kids have a good base to lean on when they encounter hard times. It was incredible! We are going back Wednesday to have a family night with them so I could not be more excited!

We have three family nights in a row this week! One with the Portuguese Family, and the other two with the Tongan rugby playing families! Gosh I am so happy I cannot even describe it. It is going to be an amazing week. Every single hard time that you ever have on the mission is swallowed up when you can see people coming unto Christ and finding joy and more happiness than they have ever had in the teachings of his gospel. Every time I think of that I really think back to the story of Ammon and his brethren and even though they were only able to convert one soul, How great was their joy?! And then if their joy was this great, imagine how great it would be to bring many souls unto repentance?

I love being a missionary! One thing that President Roney taught us recently is that one of the first things we should teach people is repentance through Christ, many people look at repentance as a bad thing, but it is the greatest blessing that we have in this life. We can repent and become clean again every week :)

Well wish me the best of luck this week. Pray your hearts out for these families! I love you all so much and remember to have fun this week!

Love,

Elder Beyer

Monday, August 26, 2013 "Blair is married"

Family!

Ohhhhh my goodness! I cannot believe that Blair is married! That honestly blows my mind. I don't know how I am going to focus on missionary work this week. Now how are we going to go fishing everyday in two years? Huh? Explain that one. . . 

Troy, stay away from girls! But, I think he is really going to like it down there :) And I really like the socks.

That is awesome for Caden and Bubba for football! Hahaha that picture of Caden was hilarious, for a minute there I thought he was wearing a wig. . . nope! Hahaha.

Okay! So this week was really good! Our investigators invited us over for dinner so we had an awesome dinner appointment with them. They are out of town now though so it has been about five days since we have seen them. Everything is still going pretty good, so hopefully we can keep teaching them. Also, another lady that I contact about a month ago that I gave a BOM to agreed to meet us at the church and we had an awesome lesson with her and our branch president so hopefully all keeps going well with that and she will want to learn more!

This week was amazing because we got to go to our zone conference in Bordeaux. It was such a good conference and honestly I left that meeting happier than I have ever been. I had a really good interview with President Roney too and it really boosted my spirits, he explained what he wants me to become during my mission and what he has in store for me, he said to keep doing exactly what I am doing and I will become that missionary. After that conference I got to spend a few nights in Bordeaux on and exchange with Elder Visser. It was awesome! I love Bordeaux! It was really nice to kind of mix things up a little bit and I had a blast with Elder Visser hustling around and talking with EVERYONE!

Another awesome miracle that we saw this week was that we had met one of the less active Tongan family's friend when we first got into M-de-M and walking home the other day we ran into him! He invited us in for drinks and we got to meet his awesome family! They were so cute! Anyways, long story short we were in his neighborhood and decided to pass him really quick to see if we could stop by another night, he was so happy to see us and was like, Yeah! Of course you can, come back on Wednesday! So Wednesday night we have a lesson with him and his family! I am so excited and man to I love Polynesians :)

This week was really tough at times, missions are not easy! But I have learned more in these times of struggle than I could have ever imagined before. The Lord gives us trials so that we can learn, grow, and in the end be even happier so I know that all of these hard times are going to be well worth every second in the end. I love you all so much and hope that you have an amazing week!

Love,

Elder Beyer