Week #68

Teaching a nun

What up everyone!

 I am still at the visitors center here in Paris! I have some interesting stories that have happened this past week. We are teaching some super cool people! It's awesome because everyone that comes into the Visitors Center is already (somewhat) interested so that's better than hearing "NO" all day:) #BienvenueàFrance. 

We are teaching this cool Italian (that I kind of already talked about so not going to go into huge detail about him) He is supposed to be getting baptized soon. Probably after I leave, so hopefully I stay in Paris so I can see his baptism. Also we are teaching a Catholic Nun (yeah, that's right a nun) It's great though because she is SUPER interested. She also expressed to us her desire to get baptized after we taught her the first lesson. We have seen her 2 times already this past week and she is super solid. We are also teaching a cool young couple as of yesterday. 

A presumed crazy member walked in to the visitors center and tried fighting my companion and me, as well as taunting the sisters. No punches were thrown (close though) everything got resolved and there are no problems! I went on an exchange yesterday with an elder from Taiwan, it was interesting because he barely speaks English and NO French..so it was pretty quiet. Today we went to some really cool museums in Paris - we went to Musée D'Orsay with all the Van Gogh paintings it was awesome. Then we went to the Palais de Tokyo that was a little crazy haha. After we went to Les Invalides and went to a WW1 and 2 thing it was super rad. We then went to the Opéra house but did not go inside because they were rehearsing. But a super fun p-day today! Thanks for all your emails love you guys!

-Elder Beck

 

Week # 67

Miracles 

Alright I'm going to try to continue to do these weekly update things, but they are going to be kinda dry because nothing much happens at the Visitors Center...

Here was a pretty cool miracle that happened this week. We normally start our shift at 2:00, but we felt prompted to leave about an hour early. So right as we get there we were unlocking the building and a man came up to us and asked if he could enter. We told him yes of course!  He started looking at all the pictures and then told us he was on his lunch break and that he wanted to pass by at this time because he has been studying our church and he knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet.  We were just like super shocked and didn't really know what to do so we just ended up teaching him and then invited him to church it was super sweet.

I got to see the Poznanskis this week. They came in and talked to us for like 1hr30mins it was super sweet. I miss those guys. We just have tons of members and people who come in here and just want to talk. Which is fine! 

 

This Pday we went to the Eiffel Tower and played football underneath it. It was super fun then we went to bridge from a famous movie. I will send you pic and who ever gets it I will give you a high five. 

Church this week was pretty cool. There were like 20 tourists and amis class was insane. The ZLs brought this ami who was legit crazy who was just yelling the whole time until he got asked to leave haha. Our ami came who is super nice. We had a ward lunch after church and he brought 2 cakes imported from Italy. He's a super cool guy. He should be getting baptized soon! Like I always say nothing big happened just keep on keeping on. Love you guys! 

-Elder Beck

Week # 65

Transfer to Paris Visitors Center with Elder Moffitt

Bonjour à tous! 

Yes I know I have been terrible at writing lately...sorry I have just been super busy. I will fill you in (kinda) with all the stuff that has been going on. So I'm sure you have all heard about all the shootings that went down in Paris. When that happened I was 1 metro stop away on a Paris exchange. After the shootings (because there was multiple shootings literally one everyday for almost a week) people were EXTREMELY closed and targeting religion, mostly Islamist, but as well Christianity. So we were told by SLC to kinda take it easy for a week. That was like around Jan. 7th by the way... At the time I was still in St. Ouen we were teaching a super awesome family of 5 who all wanted to get baptized and we had other amis also with dates. I've been having problems with my foot so I was sent to the American Hospital in Paris. After several appointments in Dec and Jan, I went there on Jan  21st they put this giant needle in my foot and injected me with some fluid to see if that would help...and then told me to stay off it as much as possible for 6 weeks. So I told Pres and Sister Babin and they had a task for me in mind. So they told me to start packing up my bags. The night before I left I had an RDV at one of my favorite members house at La Defance with one of my favorite amis - so that was super fun! His name is Louis we still talk. Then the next day the office Elders came and picked me up at the apartment and drove me to my new apartment in Bussy St Georges - still in Paris. Now I work in the Visitors Center in the heart of Paris across the street from the George Pompidou, which is also our proselyting area when we are not at the Visitors Center. It's super fun and I love my new companion, his name is Elder Moffitt he is from Cottonwood Heights, he is a snowboarder too and super fun. So Elder Moffitt and I opened up a new companionship in Paris (this is my second time doing that lol!) It's pretty fun though. So we help people out and give people tours, it's a lot of fun. I also got surgery recently so that's another reason why I have been bad at emailing. We are in the Paris Ward and it's a lot of fun, there are a ton of sweet members and pretty much everyone speaks English. I got my legality done with for the rest of my mission so that's really nice. On transfer day I got see all my friends - Elder Alexander and Elder Watts were both on their last day so that was really sad but we all hung out so it was chill. We have an ami named Marco who is from Italy who is super cool and normal who has come to church for 3 weeks now! But yeah that's about it you guys! Love you all!

-Elder Beck

NEW ADDRESS 

Elder Beck

6 Avenue André Malreaux 

77600 Bussy-Staint Georges

Pics:

-Last appointment in St Ouen

-E Moffit and me view of the city

-My friends at the train station on transfer day

Week #64

As we are sure you all are losing sleep over hearing updates from Mr Josh, I thought I would send a quick update on his behalf:

-He was transferred recently to Paris Centre Ville - meaning he now proselytes in the 1st - 7th Arrondissements which are what most people know as "Paris". The 1st-7th are where all of the well-known monuments are located (also exactly where Charlie Hebdo offices are located...yikes).

-He was previously in Paris, however, he was in the 16th - 18th Arrondissements (Sacred Heart, Montmartre). He could visit the well-known monuments on p-days, where now he will be proselyting in those actual neighborhoods. Also located in his sector is a small LDS Visitor Center so they spend a few hours a day there as well - this visitors center will be moved to Versailles once the Temple construction is completed. Sometime in 2016 so we hear...

-He has been busy which has made his emailing very limited, so we haven't had a formal weekly update in a few weeks. He has sent a few emails to Stacy and I so that we don't get him arrested, but other than that he is working hard and pushing for continued success. 

-He had to have surgery on his foot at the American Hospital in Paris this past week, but it all appears to have gone well and he is already in his new apartment with his new companion. He loves that he is still in Paris!

Thanks

Alex and Stacy