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

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

Week #99

Last zone conference

Hey y'all I had a killer week! Read up.

Monday was fairly normal just pday stuff and FHE at the church after

and we had some amis there and a less active lady came so it changed

up the scene a little bit!

Tuesday was mostly just a day of finding. We taught people on the

street like normal then Elder McBride was in a ton of pain and told me

that it was his leg that he recently had broken. He broke his leg

playing soccer in his last ville and they never fixed it so he thinks

the bone is growing in the wrong direction or something so he called

the office and got a doctors appointment set up.

Wednesday we mostly just got our training all set up for zone

conference which was the following day. Also because McBrides leg hurt

so bad we couldn't do a whole lot. Our training is on how  the "recipe" of

Christ's church using the New Testament as the recipe. So we made a

batch of good tasting brownies that followed the recipe and then made

some super gross brownies that were missing ingredients or added

ingredients. We did that because it shows how our church uses all the

ingredients and how big of a difference a missing ingredient can make.

Thursday was the "big day." I had my last zone conference, and went

out with a bang! I presided the meeting, gave my "dying"

testimony, gave a training to my zone, and finally gave a clothing

training to all the Elders who were there in the four zones. They all

went well too so I was happy :) I used in my dying testimony Dieter F.

Utchdorfs talk "Lord, is it I?" just emphasized how important it is to

judge yourself before others. I invited everyone as well to take a

step back with the work they are doing and ask themselves "is this

really what the Lord wants me to do? Is  this really the most

effective thing I can be doing right now?" because I feel like

missionaries often fall into ruts and just follow the motions. I

talked about other stuff that I'll save for my homecoming talk though.

;) Then the meeting went way too late and we missed McBrides doctors

appointment sadly.

Friday we weekly planned and called a bunch of people to fix RDVs for

the following week. We worked as well in the area book. Nothing

special happened that day though. We saw a recent convert that night

and he is doing good.

Saturday we did Saturday Sports for the first time in Tours. We played

basketball with our ami and the recent convert came and the less

active lady who are all about the same age which was awesome. It was

funny playing because none of us play basketball haha. It was still

lots of fun though. McBride just watched poor guy.

Sunday we went to church and had 2 amis there! But it was super

frustrating because one of our amis was suppose to have an RDV with our

branch pres but the guy didn't show up which normally wouldn't be a

huge deal because we would just ask his counselor to do it... but he

didn't show up either. So he came but didn't get interviewed and he

was kinda mad about that. After church we taught some people and then

helped our ami with his English homework which at first I thought was

going to be a huge waste of time, but we actually ended up fixing a

baptismal date with him so that was awesome!

Love you guys i'll see you in 3 weeks! Keep it real!

-Elder Beck

Week #98
Chambord

Monday we had a super fun pday. We visited a castle in Blois sector called
Chambord and it was super beautiful! Then we came back and had a FHE with
the single adults like we do every week.

Tuesday we had district meeting in Le Mans, then directly after we did a
finding day in Le Mans as well. It was Elder McBride and me together and
neither one of us had ever gone proselyting in Le Mans so we ended up
getting pretty lost and in a super ghetto neighborhood. But it was pretty
fun.

Wednesday we went to Blois in the morning and it was pouring rain like
crazy. And there was a crazy lighting storm going on too and we took
shelter under a tin building (which was not our best idea) so I was
convinced we were going to die so we took flight and bailed and just walked
in this crazy storm until we got to the apt. Then I went on an exchange with
Elder Williams, I lived with him when i was in St. Ouen. It was pretty fun
we just did a bunch of work in the rain then went to seminary because they
had an investigator there.

Thursday we went to district meeting in Bourges. After we did a finding
day. We worked in Bourges for like 4 hours straight of contacting then we all
went and got some dinner. Our return train was around 7ish, so we all walked
to the train station and it says our train is cancelled... and it was the
last one leaving Bourges (because it's a pretty small city) There was
another train that was suppose to come in an hour but it also got cancelled... so
10 missionaries (4 being Sisters) were stuck in Bourges and there was only
1 missionary apt. We tried looking for taxis but they were all crazy
expensive. So we ended up staying a night in a hotel in Bourges haha.

Friday we checked out of our rooms and headed to Tours. Once we got to
Tours we had to do some planning for the up coming week and for the
trainings that we will be giving soon. After that we got to see our ami Max
who is super awesome. We talked to him about repentance to prepare him for
baptism.

Saturday we packed our bags and headed out to Paris. Once we got to Paris
we took the RER to Evry and we had a stake conference meeting and only the
ZLs were allowed to go in that stake so it was just us and two other
missionaries. After that we met up with Elder Johnson and his comp
and ate at a Chinese buffet and stayed the night at their place! It was so
much fun!

Sunday we woke up early in the morning in order to go back down to Evry for
the Sunday morning meeting. After that was over we took a train back home
to Tours. And the train was forever long. When we got back we ate and did
our phone calls.

Voila that was my week thanks for your emails guys! Love you!
-Elder Beck

Week #97
4 ami's in church

Monday we had a normal p-day. After we did our emails and stuff we had a FHE at the church and the sisters gave the spiritual thought. 

Tuesday in the morning we headed over to Le Mans to have our district meeting. After that they organized a service project for a member in Le Mans who lived in the middle of nowhere. Then they asked the sisters to pretty much remodel their dumpy house and asked us to pick up all their garbage outside then build a fence with like no tools haha it was interesting but it didn't look half bad! Then after that we drove with the Alencon Elders in their car back to Alencon because we were doing an exchange over there. I was with the district leader and again we had to do service so I pretty much wore normal clothes the entire day. They have this ami who is opening up a soap shop and he's asking them for help to set it up and stuff and make soap…it's interesting. 

Wednesday morning we left Alencon super early in the morning in order to make our train. Then when we got to Tours we met the APs at the train station because we were doing an exchange with them that day but this time in Tours. I was with Elder Lattin it was my second time doing an exchange with him. The 1st time I was in my 6th transfer and he was in his 4th so a lot had change since then! We contacted for a while and did some missionary work, after that we had branch council. We have some people that want to be baptized and the branch acts like that's a bad thing. They're an interesting group of people. 

Thursday we left again super early in the morning in order to go to the other district meeting in Orleans. After the meeting we took a train to Paris to do Elder McBrides 2nd year legality. But the legality place is only open in the morning which we already knew, so that meant we had to sleep over at one of the Paris Elders apt. so we had some time to kill in Paris and that was fun. Then we went to the Torcy Elders apt where Elder Johnson is serving and stayed the night over there and it was super fun. 

Friday we woke up early so that we could do Elder McBrides legality. We got to the place and we were the only white people there haha. It took about 2 hours of line waiting and then we headed out to La Defense and got Chipotle it was so good. Then we took a train back home. When we got home we didn't have to much time so we just went porting.

Saturday in the morning we had to give another training to our DLs to reteach them how to correctly be a DL and help them magnify their calling. It went pretty good. Then we had to plan for the week and we had to talk about the trainings that we'll be giving because we have zone conference, stake conference, and President asked Elder McBride and me to make a training teaching missionaries how to dress so we have a lot of stuff to prepare for! Then we visited a less active/ part member family who are from Brazil I love them a lot it's just kinda hard working with them. 

Saturday we went to church. We had 4 investigators there which was huge for Tours. Then we ate a meal as a branch, we made brownies. We have a new family here who is from Sweden they are super nice. Then we went out and worked. During our lunch and dinn

er break we took pictures for the training that we are going to

give on clothing then did zone stats.

 

Thanks for your emails guys love you see you all in a month!

-Elder Beck

Week #96
Super huge miracle!

Monday was just a normal p day nothing special. After we had our FHE at the church. We had a good amount of people there. It was super nice and fun! I gave the spiritual thought.

Tuesday in the morning we had an RDV with a guy we had never met. He was found on the big zone finding day. The RDV was at the church, so the guy comes and we give him a quick tour of the church then we sit in a room and start talking about our church. He starts telling us that he's been investigating the church for about 10 years now and he knows it's true, he's read the BOM multiple times and he wants to be baptized! So super huge miracle! The only problem is that for his work he's hardly even in Tours and said he can never come to church in Tours... (big problem) but I'm sure we will find a solution. Then we headed over to a less active families house, he's from Brazil. They fed us and it was a good RDV. Only the husband has been baptized and they have a family of 5 so we are hoping that they will start to be interested but we will see. They've been working with missionaries for about 20 years. Then we had an RDV in Tours with this guy that speaks Lao (I forget where he's from) it was pretty difficult because he speaks about as much English as a 5 year old and about as much French as a 4 year old... so communicating with this guy is impossible. After that we went and got a kebab with our recent convert. Overall it was a good day!

Wednesday was transfer day so we got up early so that we could head to Paris. When we got to Paris we chilled there for about 4 hours. But Elder McBride's train was late because some one jumped in front of the tracks committing suicide. We actually ended up missing our first train because his was late. Luckily there was one shortly after. We got to Tours and saw a recent convert and he actually brought one of his friends to the RDV so that was cool. 

Thursday we didn't do anything really exciting. In the morning we had DMB meeting. I gave the guy back his guitar so we no longer have a guitar in the apt :( then we came home and just planned, planned, and planned some more. Then after all that planning we headed out to see that recent convert and his buddy again to teach them because they wanted to know more! 

Friday we went to Paris for mission council. Mission council was about putting the words of Christ in action. After mission council we went to the Eiffel Tower because we had 2 hours until our train and Elder McBride had never seen it. Took some cool pictures and then headed to the train station and waited for our train. When we got home we started planning out our training that we are going to give the following day to the DLs.

Saturday morning we picked up the DLs at the train station then we all went out to eat together. We gave them the training on what the zone and mission goal was this transfer. Then we went out contacting for about 4 hours and it was fun because I got to show Elder McBride around because it was his 1st time contacting in Tours and we had plenty of time to do it. We found some cool people. Then we planned out an activity that we want to do with our zone at the end of the transfer then knocked on some doors. 

Sunday was normal we had some RDVs with some of our amis after church! This morning we fixed a baptismal date with one of our amis! :) 

Love you guys thanks for the support...I'll see you soon!

-Elder Beck

Week #95
Played my guitar in church

Monday was pretty fun, but I am pretty sure I already informed you guys that I went bowling with some of the youth, our DMB and the sisters. Then after we had a FHE at the church and not too many people were there this time just us, the sisters, and two amis. 

Tuesday was super cool. We went to the train station and gathered all the missionaries from our zone then took them all to the church in Tours. Then we had separate district meetings. We left a little early so that we could pick up the pizza. Then we ate lunch together and played some games and shared some pictures and videos it was really fun. Then we made a stand in the middle of Tours and half of us worked at the stand then the other half went out and contacted then half way through we swapped. We had a ton of success, in 2 hours we taught 50 lessons gave out over 300 cards and gave out 20 Book of Mormons it was super cool. Then the Elders from Bourges stayed the night with us because they were going to Paris in the morning for legality. 

Wednesday in the morning we had to go give a member a blessing. Then we went and visited a recent convert and he brought his friend to a lesson, but his friend was higher than a kite haha so it was interesting teaching him. Then we are playing a song at church this Sunday so we practiced it with the sisters at the church. Then we did some pass-backs and ended up teaching a less active guy that we saw on the bus. 

Thursday we had DMB meeting in the morning and that went well. We are trying to work with members more in Tours because the members never do missionary work in Tours (I feel like I've had to do this in every ville I've served in). Then we had a ton of phone calls we needed to make from the finding day and other things. We updated the area book. Then went out contacting and ported near our apt. 

Friday we did some weekly planning and made a bunch of phone calls because people from the day before told us to call today and a lot of people didn't answer. After that we went out contacting. Then we tried passing by some of our amis houses but none of them were home but then we got lost trying to find this ladies house and got home a little late.

Saturday was a super fun day. We stayed busy throughout the entire day. In the morning we practiced the song that we were going to play in church. After that we got the transfer list and I am getting a new companion and I can't wait because he is super cool and I like him a lot! Then we had a RDV at the church it was decent I think we are dropping this guy though he never keeps his engagements. Then we  taught our other ami at his house, he's a professional dancer and I like him a lot he actually gets it. Way better than the lesson before that. Then we had another lesson with a family that we found it was just our second lesson with them. We taught them the restoration and it was awesome! They have tons of potential After that we ate at a members house and I love them so much they are easily my favorite family! 

Sunday we played our musical number and it went really well. Then we after church we taught our amis. Then we headed home and changed and did some finding. After that we visited our American neighbors and taught the husband a little bit of the Restoration. Then we made some brownies for some members that were going through a hard time. 

Thanks for all your love and support. Peace out.

-Elder Beck