Monday, October 12, 2015

Week #101

Grand Finale

Well guys all good things must come to an end. These past two years
have been some of the best and hardest years of my life. But the good
always outweighs the bad. I've learned so many things these past
couple of years I cannot write them all down but here are a couple...
I would probably have to say patience was one of the hardest, but most
useful things I've had to learn on my mission. I always thought that
patience just kind of meant sitting around waiting for God to do it for
you. I learned later on though that patience is working the hardest
you can and thinking about this goal or this "something" that you want
and being patient for God to grant it to you.
Understanding as well that every decision we make, good or evil has an
impact on someone. The result of this action might not be immediate
but there is always an impact wether it be in 5 mins or 10 years down
the road. As well as making decisions knowing that if you have the
Holy Ghost with you everything you do is inspired. I will share
experiences I had on my mission during my homecoming talk.
I also liked a quote that was given this General Conference, "Your
direction is more important than your speed." As long as our spiritual
sights are focused in on the right things the rest doesn't matter, nor does it
matter what everybody else says. I realized the importance of setting goals
on my mission too.
Also life will always have its ups and downs, but the way you handle
these moments is all that matters. God never said it'd be easy but it's
possible. I liked a quote by Jeffrey R. Holland that says simply
"Salvation never was easy.” He then goes on to talk about Jesus and
was it easy for Jesus? I'll let you decide ;)
Like I said I've learned a million life lessons on my mission, these
were just some I felt like sharing with you guys.

Weekly Update: (I might skip some days because I've already written a lot!)

This week we had a zone activity Elder McBride and I "created” - I
guess you can say...we took our zone bowling. We created this super
sweet gift bag filled with junk we found in our apartment (a white
belt, dragon tie, old tie die shirt, a mug, coin jar, etc…) and people
won prizes during bowling it was a lot of fun! We also went porting
and found an African family who is super interested and found 3 new
amis because of them! We went back and taught them about Joseph Smith
and it was super awesome. We also got an apartment inspection and
passed. The next day the lady below us told us she's sueing us
because our apartment is leaking water and ruined her ceiling... (I'm
glad to get outta here haha) We played basketball with some amis and
members. Max, one of our amis told me he's coming to Utah and wants
me to baptize him and he wants to get married in the SLC temple which was cool.
Sunday we found a guy while we were walking to church, he told us he was
actually looking for church! He came to all 3 hours and gave us his
address and phone number super nice guy. Good week to end the mission
:)

Thank you all for all that you have done for me these past two years.
Thank you for every prayer, email, letter, or package that you ever
sent to me - it really did mean a lot. I hope to see everyone of you
soon and catch up on old times :) Keep it funky.
Love,

Elder Beck



Monday, October 5, 2015

Week 100

Lasts

Hey everybody! Days are going by fast, a little too fast to be honest
(It's scary!)

Monday first thing in the morning we took a train to Paris to have our
p-day there because Tuesday morning my companion needed to go to the
hospital to get an Xray. We met up with Elder Johnson and Martin to
pass a P-day together. We went to the Sacre Coeur mostly for E. McBride
because the rest of us have already seen it multiple times. It's always
fun going there because there is always these illegal immigrants who
sell "gucci" bags and Eiffel Towers who just get chased by the cops
all day it's so entertaining. After McBride went on an exchange with
Martin to go eat at a members house since he can't walk a lot because
of his leg and I went with Johnson and we contacted in Paris it was
super fun.

Tuesday we headed straight to the doctor. E McBride got an Xray, but the
doctor couldn't see any problems with his leg right away so we stayed
there for like 3 hours waiting for the doctors to come up with
something…they decided to schedule an appointment for an MRI.
After that was over we took a
train back to Tours and visited a recent convert that night. Talked to
him about repentance.

Wednesday we had district meeting in Tours. Our DLs formation was
pretty much just a scripture search in the New Testament, which just
so happens to be my jam, I won every time;) After that we were in the
apt and called a million people in the Area Book.

Thursday I went on my LAST EXCHANGE with Elder Omohundro. It was a
super fun exchange. We taught this guy for the first time who is
recently divorced. He has lots of potential. After we had an RDV with
this guy who didn't show up so that was kind of a bummer. Then we
visited this less active for the first time who is really nice. The
only weird thing was at the end of the RDV he started asking super
weird questions about like "evil spirits" and other stuff. Pretty much
claimed he can see dead people so we'll have to see how that goes. We
got a steak dinner which was awesome! Then we visited this guy we
called in the Area Book who wasn't super interested, he just liked
Americans. It was a super fun last exchange though!

Friday we ended our exchange and I picked up McBride in Blois. We came
back to Tours and went contacting until his leg started hurting. Then
went back to the apt did some weekly planning. #SuperFun. But it was
weird doing weekly planning for the last week of my mission.

Saturday we had a bunch of RDVs lined up, but only 1 went through. But
it was still a good lesson. It was with a guy from the islands. His
mother is in the hospital right now so we really needed us to stop by.
We taught him the Plan of Salvation. Then we watched the first session
of General Conference it was super good!

Sunday was just a whole lot of conference. It was lots of fun, and really
like all the talks by the new apostles. Thanks for your emails guys!
Love you see y'all soon!


-Elder Beck