Brussels

Week #9

   Brussels

Happy Holidays everyone!!! Hope you all had a good Noel! My week went a little something like this... on Noel Eve we went to the church to study and its like a 45 minute walk and it was pouring rain! We finally got there and the computer that we needed was broken so that was a huge bummer. But they we got the chance to visit this super humble guy who couldn't afford heating so we went and dropped off a heating thing at his house that one of the members wanted to give him! You could see your breath in his house!!! We ate dinner at a members house Patrick. He made us really good food and gave us root beer, which is like impossible to find here! We watched Ephraim's Rescue. That movie is really good everyone should watch that! After that we went to bed and woke up and it was Noel!!! We got to sleep in. I slept in till 9 which felt like forever! I immediately opened all my gifts in like 1 minute. I got a lot of sweet stuff. I am blessed to have so many people who care about me! But I got to skype my family and Cabrina. It was so awesome! It was only an hour ,but it felt like 5 minutes. It was not long enough! On Noel you get to watch Disney movies and stuff we watched Mega Mind and Tangled and Prince of Egypt and some other ones that weren't that good but it was great getting to watch some good movies! It was a really good Noel I have come to find the best way to celebrate Noel is the real reason why we celebrate it.. the birth of Christ. I hope you all knew that. A lot of people here don't. The day after we taught a recent convert Genealogy and he loved it! This was a pretty crazy day... so we were getting off the Metro to finish the day and there was a bunch of cops at our stop. So we got off and this huge German Shepard almost attacks me! And the cops are holding down this guy who is screaming "I didn't do it, trust me!"  Then they walked him into a cop car and a cop walked away holding a bloody butchers knife! haha it was freaking crazy!!Elder Bates has been sick, so we have been pretty much been taking half days. We ate with a member the next night and it was really good! On Saturday we did a companion exchange and it was great! We taught a bunch of people and sang a Noel song to a family that we knocked on.. yeah you have to do weird stuff on a mission.. I wouldn't normally sing a Noel song to a stranger. It's still really awkward though haha.   I have to go but I went to Brussels today for legality reasons so that's where all these pictures come from. It was great!!! love all of you guys!!!

Elder Beck

PS I saw Herbie. I forgot that even existed, but people love him here.

Week #8

Week #8

Noel

Week two is over! On Tuesday I went on a split with the zone leader! We got 4 new investigators! It was great! It was a bummer though because none were in my zone! But I gave out a BOM on the bus, which is super scary! On Wednesday we had zone conference in Versaille it was so awesome! I got to see Elder Karl and some other people from my old district. It was getting to see some people from my MTC district. We pretty much just talked about how we are going to contact because its Christmas.  They gave us a temple recommend with the France temple on it and a quote in it by President Monson and a message from them it is really cool! Then me and Elder Karl while we were waiting for our train got to go and contact some people it was really awesome! Thursday was really normal, we tried the new way of contacting and had zero success... We got a pipe bomb thrown at us, that was really sketchy and those things are so loud! And just went porting! Friday it rained like crazy! No one was on the streets so we did a lot of area book contacting and we did weekly planning! We taught some people with a member and that's pretty much all that happened that day! Saturday was crazy! We helped some non members move that that's was so hard having to fit stuff through the tiny hall ways I wish I had taken pictures! I got beezed!! That's when someone comes up to you and kisses your cheek. I'm sure you have all seen it before ,but your not allowed to do that and a girl my age came and did it to me out of nowhere (sorry Cabrina) but it was so awkward!! After that we ate at a members house and it was really good! Then we taught a lesson to a Romanian guy. Then we had a Noel party at the church and it was honestly so fun!  Next day was Sunday it was good, we taught some lessons and just went porting! Today is P day!! We went to this really old catholic cathedral in the middle of the woods that you have to take a bike on rail road tracks to get to. It was super awesome!! Sorry this email is so quick I have to go but I love you guys. I hope you all have an awesome Noel. Remember the reason we celebrate it! It's really easy to get caught up in all the crazy stuff that's going on, but I know if you focus on the real reason we celebrate it will be the best Christmas every! The only way you can feel real joy is by making others happy! Read Mathew 1:21  good Noel scripture! Love you guys!!! 

Elder Beck

Zone Conference

C

 Week #7

Charleroi Belgium

Ok so before I start this I want to clarify that the key boards are super different here and really hard to type on.  I only have an hour here, so sorry if I didn't get back to you. It takes forever to type an email. So I have been here for almost a week now and its crazy. I forgot my journal sorry so I might not tell every detail. We landed in France at like 11:00am.  We waited about an hour for the mission president to come. Then we left for the church in Paris. It is super cool! It's the 2nd most expensive church owned site! We were interviewed by the president,  ate some food and then we split up.  Some stayed in a hotel and some went to the mission presidents house. I got to go to a hotel it was pretty nice! I slept a lot! Then we got up and went to this place in Paris where we could see all of France. It was so awesome we wrote down goals and I felt the spirit so strong. We left that place and headed back to the church where we met our companions and where we are assigned. My companion is Elder Bates  from Utah.  I was assigned to serve in Belgium. Our bus to Brussels didn't leave till 4 so we went to Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower it was soooooo awesome!  Then we missed our train so we waited for an hour, got on another train and it was dark so I didn't get to see any of the town I'll be serving in. Then I unpacked and tried to sleep.  I slept for maybe an hour got up and went to go talk to some people. No one was interested except for some guy who doesn't speak french but a little bit of English it was funny. Charleroi, it's a lot like Pittsburgh.There is a member here named Patrick, he is such an awesome man. He is the ward missionary leader and he is so helpful. He probably spends 2 hours with us a day and always cooks for us! It's pretty hard learning the language here because no one wants to speak to us but I practice a ton. The members here are really nice they made us crepes this morning and we are eating at a members house tonight! We taught a few lessons, a lot of the people are from Romania. This man named Iano reads the pamphlets in Romanian then just says (Problem Ici) which just means problem here and we just have to guess what he is talking about. Another person we are teaching his name is Darios he is an awesome 18 year old kid. He has a baptismal date and loves us. But no too much happened this week.They said that's how the first week is ,but thanks for all your guys support means a lot :) got some pretty cool pics this week.

Elder Beck 

December 12, 2013

Arrival

To the Family of Elder Beck

Sister Poznanski and I were delighted to welcome your son , Elder Joshua Taylor Beck , into the France Paris Mission on 10 Dec 2013. He and his MTC companions were enthusiastic and all arrived in good health.  He spent his first day eating some good food, visiting with me, contacting non-members in the heart of Paris, and sharing testimonies.  We enjoyed his spirit.

The next morning, after a mission orientation, Elder Beck left for his first assignment to work in the Charleroi 2 Area with Elder Bates, who will be his trainer.  Their apartment address is:

1A, rue de la Marine, n°022
Jumet, HE 6040
BEL

Any packages or letters you would like to send will reach your missionary at this address.

We feel very privileged to work with your him.  We also realize the responsibility we share with you to help him continue to grow spiritually as he faithfully performs his duties.  May the Lord inspire us all to sustain him in this challenging and exciting assignment.  We hope you will join Sister Poznanski and me in praying each day for your son , his companion, investigators, and all of us serving in the France Paris Mission.

A positive, supportive letter from home every week does wonders to sustain a missionary’s morale.  Proverbs 25:25 states:  As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. If you have any questions, or if we can assist you in any way, please contact us at our office (001-331-3480-0483) or home (001-331-3976-8402).

Sincerely,

Franck Poznanski

President, France Paris Mission

December 4, 2013

 Josh had the privilege of being Dakotas host as he entered the MTC to go to Seoul South Korea. Dakota and Josh have been buddies since they were in 7th grade.We were all excited that it worked  out. 

Week #5

Weekly update

So this week was pretty weird. On Monday I found out that Elder Karl needed to get his wisdom teeth out! His dentist said that they would be fine, but they grew in crooked! So he got them out this Wednesday! I will come back to this don't worry. On Tuesday we had our normal devotional, a guy named Bro Teh came to speak to us. So on Wednesday the class room next to got into a huge fight, like almost a brawl I guess. I don't know all the details all I know is that they all almost got sent home! So after that Elder Karl and I got into a shuttle and drove down to Provo right across from that gas station next to Grandma and Grandpa Becks house. I got out and I waited there while Elder Karl got his teeth out. It was super nice to get to see the outside world again even if it was just for an hour. When Elder Karl was done getting his teeth out he was sooooooooo funny!   He didn't believe the people that they took his teeth out, forgot his name, thought he was at home, pulled a fire alarm, and said  "Ill step on your toe" it was so funny. The best part is was that I got it all on video. I wish there was a way for me to send it to you guys!  We had a lot of down time so I got to play the guitar a lot! But after that me and Elder Sanchez got to walk to the Pharmacy to grab his pain killers that was super fun. We got some weird looks when we were leaving the MTC, people thought we were like escaping or something. We got all of our flight information. I leave December 9th and my plane leaves at 5:05 pm. I get to the airport at like 12:00, so I'll be there for like 5 hours at Cafe Rio if you want to find me! So I'm sure you're all wondering what Thanksgiving was like here. We woke up and got to see an apostle, it was Russell M. Nelson.   Then we had lunch and it was pretty good! We got to eat stuffing and it was actually really good and so was the pumpkin pie! Then we packed our own sack lunches for dinner.Then we did this super awesome service project. We made like 350,000 meals for kids! It was just like working at syner-g again there was sealer and everything. Our table was the fastest one, done by like 10 minutes because I was team leader :) Finally syner-g became useful for something! But then we watched a movie called Ephraim's Rescue, it was really good you should all watch it! We had substitute teachers this week because they were all gone for the holidays. For the most part they were all pretty cool! It was fast Sunday again I thought I was going to die again. I almost faked being a diabetic so I could eat something! But I stopped being a baby, and it was all good! Even though the dinner was chicken and rice again :( I LEAVE FOR PARIS IN ONE WEEK! Sooo crazy I can't wait! One more P-day here then I'm out PEACE! 

Love,

-Elder Beck

PS Sorry I didn't really take any pictures this week.. I will try and send videos!