Monday, January 27, 2014 "Flying to Lyon"

Hello there wonderful family!

 

It is so good to hear from you! You all sound so amazing and Coulter and Landon both look so good, it seems like they just left yesterday. . . well two days ago because it seems like yesterday that I left. Hahaha that is so funny about Elder Einerson and you thinking that I was going to be a white trash zone leader. Well, I guess I kind of might be that in a way as well. . . Honestly though, I loved being with Elder Einerson so much. He is just being modest, he was one of the hardest working missionaries that I have ever seen, but the thing that I loved the most was that he always, always had a positive attitude. He is going to do great things on his mission and before too long he is going to be taking my place as a zone leader. So I am really a white wash zone leader, so neither me nor my companion were here last transfer so we are starting from scratch. It has been a ton of fun though. This last week we just contacted like crazy and we talked to so many people on the trams and the buses. It is a lot different than my last couple of cities because there are actually people on the buses and trams.

 

Okay, so being a zone leader is quite a bit different. I feel like I was getting too comfortable in Gex so I had to move and get some change. Right now I feel like I am learning how to do missionary work all over again. It has been a lot of fun but man has it been exhausting. There are literally people everywhere in this place and we are always talking to someone. At nights as soon as 10:30 hits the clock I am passed out in my bed. So far there hasn't been too many things different, except for we do a lot more interacting with the other missionaries. We do a lot more time talking to them on the phone and seeing how they are doing which is something that I really like doing. We are pretty blessed because we have some awesome missionaries in our zone. Another thing that we are going to be doing this week is that we are going to be teaching a zone conference this week which is going to be a ton of fun. Today we are flying into Lyon to be taught by President, Wednesday we have an exchange with the Assistants, and Thursday we are teaching our zone the things that President is going to teach us. I am very excited and it is going to be a really fun week.

 

Okay, so this week was a lot of fun. We spent almost the whole time riding trams and talking to people. We have spent a lot of time finding and talking to people, it has been awesome, despite the fact that it has rained every day since we got here in Bordeaux. But, it is still the most amazing place that I have ever served. When you think of old, old France, this is exactly what it looks like.

 

One funny thing that happened this week was that there was this old guy on the bus that was wearing aviator sunglasses and he was just a total stud. So we got talking to him, got him laughing and then told him we loved his sunglasses. He smiled and then I said, I bet you are a lady killer with those things on. The whole bus full of old ladies just started cracking up and in between laughing he said in broken English, haha, "Nope, only one, one is good for me." It was really funny and we told him that we liked he way of thinking. Although he wasn't interested in our message he was a very nice guy.

 

I am super excited to be in this new area working with my new companion. He is seriously a stud. He talks to everyone! And it seems that he always has someone laughing. He has been teaching me a lot by his example and just loving everyone around him. This transfer is going to be a blast and I think we are going to have a lot of success together.

 

Oh yeah, I met someone in our ward whose name is Anna James and she is really good friends with Blake Beyer's wife Annie! She told me to make that connection! Crazy huh?!

 

I don't know one of those Elders, but I met Elder Crossman! He was an awesome missionary and we were all sad when he headed home.

 

Thanks for sending the stories of the ancestors and the recipes, I will have to read those this week. I would love to know more about my ancestors.

 

Well my dearest family, thank you so much for being the amazing people that you are. Keep smiling and keep spreading the Love that you have with all those around you :) 

Avec beacoup d'amour!

Elder Beyer

Tuesday, January 21, 2014 "I Moved"

Well hello there amazing family!!

Okay I seriously have some crazy news for you. . . I moved! I was honestly so shocked to be moving. On Friday we were all talking about where we thought we were going to be spending the next six weeks and I was sure that I was staying and that Elder Crawley was leaving. . . man were we wrong.

Me and Elder Strom

So you are probably wondering why it took me an extra day to write you back. Well, that is because I crossed the whole mission! Crazy huh?! I headed back over by Perigueux and Mont-de-Marsan. . . but this time to serve in the big city right next to them! I am going to be the new Bordeaux Zone Leader! I am very excited because I have heard some amazing things about this new place and from what I have seen it looks like it is going to be so amazing. It looks more French than any other place that I have ever served in and there are people EVERYWHERE! After spending a year in small places it is blowing my mind seeing people everywhere. My new companion's name is Elder Strom and he is from Canada. He is awesome and seriously one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. It has been so much fun already walking the streets of Bordeaux and talking to people.

I was absolutely shocked to be leaving, but I am so so so excited to be here.

Bordeaux!

Wow! I had no idea about Riker! That is so awesome! Wish him luck for me and send my love. Tell Caden to stop living like a pig and tell Bubba to stop eating so much! He needs to be smaller than me when I get back! Wow, I can't believe how fast time goes by. It seems like yesterday we were walking through Cabelas celebrating dad's birthday :) It sounds like you guys were living it up on the town the other night! That is what I am talking about!

Thank you for sending the Recipes! I am for sure going to be made famous :) Thanks mom!

Okay, so I don't have many updates. The only is that on Sunday before I left I ate THREE meals back to back to back. . . Man I thought I was going to die when I was leaving. We started with a raclette, then it was a lot of rice and potatoes, then we finished off the night with some lasagna. . . The thing that you need to know as well is that the French people have three courses for every meal as well so we had a huge dessert to go along with that as well.

I spent the whole day yesterday traveling across the mission by train and now I am just living the good life in Bordeaux. I remember when I was a young missionary I did some exchanges here and I always thought, man I would give anything to be in this city. And now I couldn't be happier :) I have got a lot to do now though and I have a big responsibility on my shoulders, but I am very, very excited.

Well family, life is wonderful right now. I am so happy to hear that you all are still doing so amazing. Keep smiling and having lots of fun. (Oh by the way everything is on sale right now, literally everything, so if you want anything cool and french ask me and I will try and find it and send it home). I am not going to be needed a new coat anymore by the way!

Avec beaucoup d'amour!

Elder C. Beyer

Monday, January 13, 2014 "Push up contest"

Well hello there family!

 

Crazy to hear the big news huh?? My new companion is a really cool kid from Toronto, Canada. He is a stud soccer player and he played semi-professional before he came out here on his mission. He was converted about two years ago and he heard about the church through his girlfriend. He was actually taught for two weeks straight by Brock's mission president and was baptized two weeks after taking the missionary lessons. Cool huh?! He is going to be a great addition to our mission.

 

District Meeting!

Bubba and Caden! What style! I am liking the new coats! Ohhh myyyy goodnesssss I cannot believe that Landon is home. I don't know why, but that seriously blows my mind. He looks really, really good and I loved the story about the little kids. That is so funny. Tell him hola for me and give him a big old hug!

 

Okay so the thing that held up my companion in the MTC was his shoulder that got dislocated playing volley ball and yes he did have surgery. . . About a week ago he got the clearing to go and right after they shipped him off on his way!

 

Hawaiian Haystacks!

Lyon this past week was seriously so much fun. After picking up my new companion we got to head on over to President Roneys house and hang out with him and his family and we had an amazing meal cooked by his wife which consisted of rice a roni and Hawaiian Haystacks! I was so excited when she brought out the food. It was a lot of fun to get to spend some time with them without a million other missionaries.

 

Our Zone Leaders Dog. hahahah

Another really cool thing that we were able to experience this week was that we were able to go and do an exchange with our Zone Leaders out in Lausanne. That was seriously such a blast. In the morning they took us out on the metro and we rode down all the way to lake Geneva. We contacted everyone on the way and we tried to contact the whole metro! It was crazy! One we got down to the lake we were able to walk around and take some pictures and man it was seriously so beautiful!!! After we contacted around the lake we hopped back on to the metro and headed back to the city to eat some lunch. They had told us about where we were going to eat the night before, but we had no idea really what to expect. . . They took us to a real American burger joint!! It was seriously so good and was one of the best hamburgers and fries that I have ever had. . . It was this place called Holy Cow and it was so legit that about half of the menu was written in English. The place was packed with young adults and it looked like a really fun environment to meet up and hang out with your friends, it was like the cool version of club chev!

 

This week we had a Senior couple come and inspect our apartment and during the inspection it came up that the Husband said he does 100 push ups every single morning and he is 69 years old! We were so shocked and he was like, do you want to see right now? Or better yet do you want to have a push up contest?? We were like yeah! Hahaha so Elder Crawley and I had a push up contest with this older Elder who seriously did 30 push ups in a row and almost beat us! It was insane! I am proud to say I didn't loose, but still. Right after we finished I told him that he was just like my grandpa and that my grandpa is still stronger than me and that gave him a laugh. You better still be as strong as you were when I left Grandpa Bob!

 

As for my District Leader and Zone Leaders, they are all so awesome. I love my Zone Leaders the most, they are always doing something fun and they always have one of us laughing.

 

For my birthday you can send me whatever you want, but I was thinking maybe a small cookbook with your really good recipes. I don't really need a lot of anything though. I will keep you updated. Maybe some more of those zebra pens!

 

In our mission they are making a mission cookbook so mom I really want to have the Beyer name in there so next week can you send me some of your amazing recipes that will be published in the book? Maybe oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. . . you know the good stuff :)

 

I love you all so much and hope that you have an amazing week!

 

"Life is full of difficulties, some minor and others of a more serious nature. There seems to be an unending supply of challenges for one and all. Our problem is that we often expect instantaneous solutions to such challenges, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required."

-President Thomas S. Monson

 

Love,

Elder Beyer

Monday, January 6, 2014 "It's a boy!"

Bonjour ma chère famille!

 

BUBBA! Stay away from all of those girls! They seriously all have cooties! Mom you need to up that price to 1000.00 :) Hahahahaha I was laughing so hard about that story with Caden :) Hahahahahahaha, that is seriously so funny. . .

 

As for Gex, it is doing amazing right now and I am absolutely loving it :)

 

Okay. . .

I have news that is going to blow your mind this week. So last night we were sitting in an appointment with an investigator and all of the sudden Elder Crawley got a call. He stepped out and took the call and then he came back in like nothing had happened. As soon as we finished the RDV and got out of the door Elder Crawley says, "Do you want to know who that was?" We were like, "Ummm, sure." Then he said, "It's a boy!" Hahaha. . . He was like that was the assistants and tomorrow we are going to be heading into Lyon to pick up your new companion! Crazy huh?! So today we are driving into Lyon, picking up my new companion who is on the plane right now, eating with the Roney family at the mission home and then we are staying in Lyon for the night. We are all really excited and it is going to be a ton of fun. So the thing that is cool about this missionary coming in is that it is the missionary that left from Brock's stake in Toronto! He is super cool and he is a recent convert of about a year. I am so excited. But, I am very sad to be leaving my other two companions because it was a lot of fun being with three missionaries and I was certain that Elder Einerson was my son in the mission because we are so much a like. . . but Elder Crawley was the real father. . . That is something weird about missions, when you train a missionary he is your son and you are his father and when you enter the mission you are "born" and when you leave the mission you "die."

 

There was a few awesome things that happened this week. One of them was that we decided to go and check out an area of our sector that we had never seen before. It is just on the other side of the mountains. We thought it was going to be a small town so we decided to go on a Saturday when we thought there would be the most people. We made the trip out and it took about an hour. So we made it around the mountains and at about 30 minutes into the drive we start driving up next to the mountain and this huge valley/river started to become apparent in the middle of the two mountains on both side of us. Up in the distance we saw a huge bridge connecting the two mountains and it was seriously one of the most amazing things that I have every seen. These towns on the other side of the mountains are these incredible skiing towns that are situated up on the side of the mountains. We continued to go further in and we crossed the bridge connecting these two mountains and after driving along the side of the mountain we arrived in this little village called Champfromier. You are going to have to google image it. . . If there is one place that we need to come back and visit together it would have to these little villages in the alps that are surrounded by the ski resort and right in the middle of the village there was this huge catholic cathedral. Something you are going to have to see someday.

 

We had a few really cool things happen this week. We have been really looking for families to teach and that is what we focused our fast on. We have found four new potential families now and I am seriously so so excited! I hope that we can teach them this week.

 

There was one family that we contacted last transfer and we re passed their house this week to see them. We show up and the dad invites us right in to have something to drink. We talked to him for about ten minutes and I don't know why, but we were just crackin him up and we had him seriously laughing. Next thing we know his wife and two daughters show up and the same thing happened, we had them really laughing. He started to then say well thanks for coming by to see us. . . we knew he was about to send us on our way before we started talking about the gospel when all of the sudden we said, well we want to explain our message to you. He responded in saying. . . ahhhh, you want to convert me to be a Mormon. . . I smiled and said, yeah :) You are exactly right haha. You and your family! He started laughing because I don't think that he was expecting that and said but we already have a Strong family. . . I then responded and said, I know, that is why you will be perfect for our church!

 

We then started to explain the Proclamation to the family and family night and asked him if we could come over Monday night and show him how to have family night. . . Keep in mind this guy is very, very catholic. . . We asked him and he was soooooo close to saying yes! So close! He thought about it and said that he couldn't promise to anything, but he would try and find sometime to read the brochure, but he would have to thing about meeting with us the next week. . . That just means now we are going to have to work through the families that he knows in the ward :) We are going to send them on his case to invite him to a family night :) Hahaha. . .

 

Lets see, so for New Years eve we were at a members house from about 7:30 to 8:30, where we got to eat a lot and celebrate for about and hour. . . but then we had to go home. So new years was a little bit different this year, but it was still a lot of fun :)

 

Well family,

 

I love you all so very much. I am so grateful to know that we have an eternal family through the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that I am on the Lord's errand right now so I could not be happier :)

 

I found a really cool scripture the other day,

 

 D & C 88:63. . . Check it out!

 

Love,
Elder Beyer

Monday, December 30, 2013 "I feel so blessed"

Hello Mom and family!

Hahahahahahahaha, I was laughing so hard when I saw that picture of Charlie with a cast. Ahh that is seriously so funny. Same with what Caden said. You guys are such a crack up.

That is crazy for Brock. I bet that was so exciting and crazy. That was seriously polar opposite of our scenario because we have known where we were going for Christmas for months now. That is awesome that they finally found a place to spend Christmas. . . From the way he made it sound Christmas ended up being amazing for him and they found some new investigators because of it :) I am happy to hear that Cole is doing so good as well. :) OH come on mom, you expect me to believe that Christmas was quiet with Caden, Bubba, Troy and Blair?!

Okay, as you could have guessed there is not too much new that has happened since we last talked. After we got done with our call we watched Tangled in French for our Christmas present and then we played some card games. The days that followed Christmas went by seriously so fast, but they were really good.

All of our investigators have been out of town because of Christmas, so we didn't have much going on, but this week were are going to make up for all of it and teach twice as much.

We had a couple of cool experiences this week. . . 

So we were sitting at church in our class for the investigators and all of the sudden one of the members brings in this lady who decided to come to church today. The lady sits down and starts to explain her story that about 2 years ago she was contacted by the missionaries on the bus, although she was not interested at the time they handed her a card and told her that one day she would go to church. This last week she was helping her uncle move to Gex and she passed the church at the Gex when she realized it was the same church as the missionaries that had contacted her. So Sunday came around and she decided, why not go to church. She said that she was a little nervous at first but as soon as she walked in she said to one of the members, excuse me, can I come in? The member welcomed her right in and made her feel so happy that she said she knew she was in the right place. That story was a miracle to say the least and that is proof that no effort that we do as missionaries is ever wasted. The only problem is that she doesn't even live near our sector. . . but that is okay because other missionaries in our mission are going to teach her and baptize her :)

We have no idea what this is...Elder Beyer needs to explain!

Another cool thing that happened was that we were going to do a service project for someone behind the church and right as we showed up they were all done. We were kind of bummed out because it was a potential investigator. . . but as soon as we left the apartment we contacted this lady on the street. She explained that about a year ago she had taken the lessons from the sister missionaries, we asked her name and she told us, sure enough it was a lady that we thought had moved out of our sector but it turns out that she is still living here! This lady used to have a baptismal date and we are not sure why the contact was lost with her. . . but this week were are teaching her again! It is amazing to see how the Lord places people in your path, or in other words how he has a a perfect plan that we may not understand at first, but in the end if we keep moving forward with faith things work out better in the end.

I feel so blessed to know about the restored gospel in my life and be able to share it every single day with the people of France.

Have an amazing week :)

Love,

Elder C. Beyer

Monday, December 23, 2013 "See you in 2 days"

Hola!

Well hello there amazing family! I loooooved the pictures that you sent hahaha. They were seriously killing me. Good old Bubby with his cheeks. I looooved the Christmas card. The transit ties are pretty sweet too, so definitely keep mine at home for me to keep it in a good condition. So did he like trade the bus drivers or something??? That is so weird but awesome.

 

Okay, as for the training of new missionaries. Yeah it is the best thing ever. It is by far the most fun thing ever too. You are always laughing about something. It is pretty nice right now because with Elder Crawley and myself we just kind of take turns talking to people and helping out Elder Einerson, but every once in awhile we don't say anything and let him work through it haha. It is the best. He is doing a great job though, he is learning very quickly so before no time he is probably going to be teaching me how to speak French.

 

I am glad to hear that Bubba is still the toughest one in the family. . .

 

Mom! What are you doing doing last minute Christmas shopping? That should have been done months ago!! Haha. As for Christmas day, we are going to be calling at 5:00 our time so 9:00 in the morning for you. Be expecting our calls! Like I said before I am only going to have an hour so come prepared! I will go through my journal and find a couple funny stories to tell as well :) As for our Christmas shopping. . . we don't really do any. The other day we bought a present for our investigator Jie and today we are going to buy a gift for the Pelucchi's and the Fontanella's (the Italian families), but other than that not really. That is too bad for Brockster, I know that if anyone can deal with that it will be him though. That would be so hard if you were a young missionary, but I think it wont even be a problem for Brock. Besides there are some families that he needs to go and baptize back in London that he was not able to baptize the first time around.

 

Keep hitting up the slopes everyone!

Okay, so this week was a pretty cool one.

 

It has been a little crazy because all of our investigators are leaving on vacation. . . but we were able to have some teaching appointments with a couple of them. So the coolest thing that happened this week was that on Tuesday we decided to have a fast for one of our investigators, Jie from China, so throughout the whole day we fastest for him and it seriously went by so fast and we were not really even that hungry. A couple days after that we had our appointment with him and we taught the end of the Plan of Salvation. We testified of the eternal family and how that comes from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ and even though we had asked him to be baptized a few times in the past where he said not yet, the spirit was soo strong so we decided to ask again. It was seriously was of the best feelings that I have ever felt on my mission and he immediately said yes :) So it is going to be tough with his work schedule right now because he is really busy, but hopefully within the next month we are going to able to help our amazing friend to make some covenants with our Heavenly Father.

 

Well, missions are seriously the best, especially over Christmas. People are just happier. A lot more people stop for a second on the street, people have smiles on their faces more often, and all of this is because of our Savior Jesus Christ who came into this world to save us. I know that because he loves us he was born, he died, and he was resurrected. Because he loves us we can change and repent so that we can have joy in this life. I remember an awesome quote that I heard in seminary one time that said, "The best smell in the chapel is the smell of cigarette smoke." That is one of my favorite quotes because sometimes people see change and repentance as a negative thing, when in reality it is a positive thing. . . now that doesn't make it easy, but in the end we will be happier than we have ever been.

 

Well my dear family, keep being amazing, keep going to the temple and doing missionary work for our ancestors because it is just as important as the work that the full time missionaries are doing, and have a wonderful next few days! I am soo excited to see your faces. . . Even if they might not be as cute as they used to be Caden and Bubba. . .

 

 

Love,

Elder C. Beyer

Monday, December 16, 2013 "I gave a talk"

Bonjour ma famille!!

 

How in the world are you doing?? CRAZY HUH?! Two companions. Soo, Elder Crawley is from Palmdale, California and he likes longboarding. I am loving being with Elder Crawley now. We are having a ton of fun and it has been awesome to combine all of our investigators. My other companion is named Elder Einerson and he is super cool. He is seriously like my twin from Blanding, Utah. Almost everything that he did before the mission was the things that I did. We have been having a ton of fun together with our 3 person companionship. Elder Einerson looks kinda like Troy Hinds and acts a ton like him too, so I feel like I am hanging out with Troy all the time. The only problem is that we might be having too much fun talking to people on the street now.

 

New companions

Geezzzz. . . Caden is growing up! Mom and dad you are not going to appreciate what I am saying. . . but when his hair is clean it is actually pretty cool. I am likin the vest too, keep the ladies away from him. That seriously blows my mind that troy is getting married. I seriously can't believe that. Tell him that I am expecting a wedding announcement in the mail soon. I am happy to hear that Bubba is still living the life of a little kid and that he is staying away from the ladies. Wow, Brock is coming home soon. . . That blows my mind! And Jenna is leaving soon! CRAZY!!

 

Well,

Dinner at a ward members

life is so great for me right now. I am so happy to be here in Gex. I love being in a 3 person companionship and it makes it so much better with the companions that I have right now. This last week has been a good one. I actually gave a talk in church on the birth of Christ that went really good. I ended up having to give a talk because we asked one of the members in the bishopric if we could help him out with his calling and he said, yeah! You can give a talk this Sunday! :) Hahaha so I ended up giving a ten minute talk.

 

It is cool to be a Mormon!!

My ward right now is seriously the best. They are all so happy every time that we see them and lately they have all been coming up to us to and inviting us over for the holidays. The funniest is the Italian families in our ward the Pelucchis and the Fontanellas. . . They both really wanted us over for Christmas so they came to common ground and now we are all spending it together at the Pelucchi's haha :) I am not sure what time we are going to be calling. . . Maybe sometime in the afternoon. . . around three or four for us. What time does that put you at?

 

Hey I don't know what a transit tie is but sure! Go ahead and send it! If you don't want to risk it getting lost in the mail, go ahead and keep it. By the way I am going to send home some cool ties after Christmas when everything goes on sale :)

 

It was pretty funny this week. . . We were at a door contacting and it was Elder Einerson's turn. . . I am going to tell what happened in English, but this was all in french. He said to this lady who opened the door, Hello Ma'am. And she responded with, Why are you here? And then he said, "Because." Then we all kinda sat there waiting for him to go on and when he didn't the lady said I don't have time right now and shut the door, but as soon as she shut the door we started laughing so hard because for some reason it was hilarious. This transfer is going to be a blast.

 

So right now we are still teaching our amazing Chinese little friend. He has a lot of work so it is tough to see him, but he still loves seeing us. This last time that we went to his house he opened up the door with the biggest smile on his face that I have ever seen and said, "Hey! Missionaries! How are you doing?! I missed you guys!" He is my favorite person that I have taught on my mission, so I really, really want him to follow our Savior and be baptized :)

 

We are also teaching a really cool guy named Remy, he has a baptismal date and for the next little while we are going to help him to stop smoking.

 

Well my dearest family I love you so very much. I could not be more excited to talk to you this Christmas! Make sure you come with a lot of questions because like last time I am only going to have an hour :)

Bises!

 

Elder C. Beyer