Week #72
Amiens

Hello everyone! Super busy week this week but super fun at the same time!

I got transferred to Amiens this week! My last days in Paris were awesome. I'm pretty sure I told you guys this already but we ate on top of the Eiffel Tower - it was legit and a nice send-off!

On Wednesday we got to see all the missionaries that were getting transferred - it was super fun. Then my new comp and I headed straight over to Amiens because we had like 4 lessons lined up for that day. We taught all those people, and all with members! My comp is super on top of things - I love it! Then we came home and I unpacked.

Thursday we had some contacting time in the morning, we found a new ami and we had an RDV with him on Saturday...but he didn't show up. We taught a recently baptized lady who is super nice. Then we had like 3 RDV's lined up for that night so we were just on buses and teaching people. It was fun we have some super cool amis.

Friday we had mission council, when all the ZL's go to Paris for a big mission meeting. It wasn't my first time, I went to one at the beginning of the year when I was DL in St Ouen. They invite all the DLs at the beginning of the year. But yeah it was pretty long, but we learned some new stuff so it was good. Then we came home and made a formation for all our DLs.

Saturday we had to give a presentation to all the DLs on what we learned Friday, and present to them all the zone goals. It's pretty crazy, they give us one night to prepare it all. But it went good and we have some pretty cool people in our zone. Then they all missed their trains so we got a kebab with them but we were super rushed because a member asked us to do some service for her. So we took some members over there and all she wanted us to do was move a table LITERALLY 3 inches...I was like seriously? haha. But then we taught some people after so it was good. We taught this less active man. Then we had to go to some leadership meeting at the church.

Sunday we went to church and it was cool.  It was branch council so there were a lot of people there. They forgot to ask me to introduce myself too, that was funny! The members here are mostly all African.  They seem like a good branch. After they had a meal, and we had some amis there and we taught them after. Then we went home and weekly planned and went to a members house for dinner and did a little spiritual thought for the kids, it was fun.

Today no more Paris P-days so nothing to do on P-days besides email...so that's  a bummer! That's my week ! Love you guys thanks for the emails!
-Elder Beck

Week #71

Amiens here I come!

Hey everyone!

This week was pretty awesome - I will just sum it up really quick for you guys. I went on an exchange with the Chinese Elders it was pretty decent. We taught a ton of lessons. Nothing too big happened at the Visitor Center... 

We had Stake Conference this week, that was super fun as it was my second stake conference in the Paris Stake in a row haha....I have been here for a while! It was fun seeing all the members in St. Ouen. 

Here is the crazy news - I got TRANSFERRED!!! I am going to Amiens, it's in the north of France. It apparently has the biggest cathedral in all of France. There is a small branch as well, but not Auxerre small. We also just opened up a new zone this transfer, the Amiens Zone. I have been called as the zone leader. We will see how much fun this will be. Luckily, I like everyone in my zone and there doesn't seem to be any problem children. But ya that's the crazy news. 

My new address is.. 203, Saint Quentin 80000 Amiens France. Hopefully we have a mailbox! Today another Elder and me had lunch at the top of the Eiffel Tower - it was super legit! But ya that's it for me! Thanks for the emails love you guys!

-Elder Beck

-Pics

1. 4 of my companions and me all together

2. Restaurant entrance at the Tower
3. Last time on the Tower for awhile...

Week #70
Tidwells

Yo,

Sorry I didn't do a weekly update last week I got kinda busy. 

Last week Cy and Whitney Tidwell came and visted me. It was super fun. We went and saw a bunch of cool sights like Notre Dame, Sacre Cœur, Champs Elysées, and the top of the l’Arc de Triumph it was super fun. We ate at a super nice french restaurant. The rest of the week was kind of a blur. It went by suuuuper fast.

On Wednesday I went on an exchange with the zone leaders just for fun because they are super cool. I was working in Paris. We taught a ton of people. We taught a movie director, he was super cool. I also got to teach the guy who owns the Nixon store in Paris for a little while it was super cool. It was really brief, but still. But ya the exchange was super rad. 

Then the next day was zone conference and I had to wake up at 5:00am to help the ZLs prepare the food. I had to cook a bunch of bacon. It was pretty lame but it was still fun. The conference was like the best ever it was super fun and really good. I was pretty bummed though because we were suppose to watch "Meet the Mormons" but the APs forgot it!! Who does that? But it's all good, I'm over it. Later we had interviews it was super swee. Ii like them a lot. We were the last ones to get interviewed and by the time they were all over it was 9 45! And we live an hour away haha we got home super late. But ya nothing too much happened this week. Church yesterday was really fun. Today someone walked into the Visitor Center claiming that we stole from his friend and that he's getting the police officers right now because we are all thieves in this church (makes sense right?)  So we offered him a BOM haha. Then he said he's calling the popo we said go for it. Shocker nothing has happened so far. But I'll keep ya posted. Thanks for the emails Love you guys!

-Elder Beck

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