Week # 93
Super cool miracle

Hey y'all I had a super good week! Let me fill you in...

Weekly Update!

Monday nothing too big happened, just like normal -pday. We had a FHE at the church, no members came (again) but we did have 3 amis there which was legit! We played uno and ate chips then the sisters shared a spiritual thought. 

Tuesday was a good day, we were in Paris the whole day. We woke up at 5h00 in the morning in order to get to Paris on time so I was pretty tired that day. We had zone conference! The formations that were given were pretty good... (not my personal favorite but they weren't bad) then we gave a formation on finding people because we felt like that's what our zone was lacking the most is good finding attributes. Later we had interviews which was a lot of fun, it was my favorite interview with both the Babins, they pretty much just made me feel good haha. Then we took a train and headed home and hit the hay because we were exhausted. 

Wednesday we didn't have too much to do, in the morning we went and did some contacting, we found some cool potentials. We tried to check some stuff off our bucket list. Then we taught a cool guy on bridge but he lives in Reims. Right after that Elder Gee started feeling sick (he kinda had a rough week) so he took a nap and I called some people. Then we knocked on some doors. 

Thursday was an awesome day! One of my favorites. In the morning we went down to the train station to go pick up Elder Omohandro from Kentucky because we were doing an exchange. And this exchange was so much fun, we went to the church to have our DMP meeting, but he actually ended up canceling 10 mins before... so we went back home and ate lunch then headed over to a members house who then gave us a ride to another members castle! Then we just chilled at this castle and the family was awesome and super nice, they made us real French Toast and we played bouchée ball and it was super fun. Then we went home and went contacting. 

Friday was a pretty weird day - we finished our exchange, then we changed our clothes and did a service project for a family. We just painted their kitchen.  Then we just went home after that and did some weekly planning.

Saturday we visited a recent convert and he has a electric guitar so I got to play for him, expect he loves like metal so our tastes of music were a little different, but it was still fun playing on a electric.  We taught this recent convert how to teach the Restoration because he wants to go on a mission some day. Then we had a super cool miracle, a family that we found on the road a week ago we passed by their house and long story short we found their son on the road (by luck) asked him if he knew the family we were looking for, he said ya that's my family. So he took us to his house because Elder Gee messed up on the address and they were super excited to see us and we had a super good RDV with them. Then we went contacting and found a lot good people. 

Sunday was a super good day as well. We went to church and we taught Sunday School class (on the spot I chose the topic and pretty much taught it on the spot because the teacher just didn't show up) and after that I had to give a talk! But actually the talk went really well, it was the only time ever I

've ever wanted more time to talk and I already took 20 mins. Then a lot of members wanted to see us after the talk so that was the part that made me the most happy. Then we went home and had to do Zone stuff, and then went out proselyting and we passed by a less active guy from Brazil and he was super nice. Then we came home and did our weekly calls. 

Today we went and saw a castle in our sector in a ville called Chenonceaux! Its was suuuuper pretty, I will send some pics of it. But honestly it was amazing! Then we ate a nice restaurant it was an awesome pday! 

Love you all! 

-Elder Beck

Pics - Zone Conf, Chenonceaux, and the members castle! 

Week #92
Tours Religouse

Hey guys! 

I had a great week! Monday we had a normal p-day, nothing too special happened. We had a FHE at the church, but only 2 people came and they were both amis...one is super solid! We gave the spiritual thought on Charity then played some card games - then our ami gave us a ride home. 

Tuesday was a pretty fun day, we went straight to DM in Le Mans. I fell asleep in like 4 minutes on the train! Then we had our DM and it was pretty fun it was on "Real Intention", and after we played that game Mafia and it was pretty fun because I haven't played that game since I was a kid. Later that day we did an exchange with the Elders of Alencon in Tours. I was with Elder Vance and Elder Ashcraft. It was my first time ever being in a 3 sum since Charleroi, and it's pretty awkward not going to lie! We looked liked the Mafia! We went contacting, and we got to see the Cathedral in Tours. We ate at the famous "Tours Religouse" it's pretty much like a giant ball version of an éclair. We got to teach some people too, which was cool. 

Wednesday finished our exchange with the Alencon Elders first thing in the morning, their train was super early. Then we packed for our next exchange with the APs in Paris. Our train got there at like 3h and then we headed over to Versailles. I was with Elder Amaya he's a good dude we had a lot of fun. We taught some guy on the road and then went to an RDV with someone that was recently baptized that I actually got to teach before she was baptized so that was cool. Her dad isn't a member so the lesson was more centered for him and it went really well. Then we came home for diner - we played Monopoly Deal and it was super fun. 

Thursday we finished up our exchange with the APs. I got to see Elder Karl in the morning because he was in Paris doing his comps legality. We took a train home, we didn't get there till later because it takes a long time to get to Tours. Then we planned out our training that we are going to give our zone and set up all our interview times. Our training is going to be on finding and so far it's looking pretty good. 

Friday in the morning we went out contacting and taught some people and it was cool because almost all of them started out being super negative towards us, but in the end we were praying all together so that was cool. Then we taught this lady that we found at a park with the Sisters because we were passing her because she lives all alone. Then we ate lunch...and something happened...I'm not sure what but Elder Gee and me both got some minor food poisoning! I went to bed a like 8-ish. 

Saturday I was feeling pretty sick, but Elder Gee was feeling a little better. In the morning we saw our ami who has been progressing a ton lately! He is praying for a date and our next RDV we are going to try and fix a date with him, it's super cool too because he has been an ami for like 8 years now and he's finally progressing. Then we got flaked on twice, but honestly I wasn't that mad because I was feeling sick so I slept for like 3hrs. When I woke up I felt a lot better but Elder Gee got worse haha. We just kinda sucked it up though and went finding and it was awesome because we found a normal french family! Also we taught a guy on a park bench and it was super awesome. He said he'll come to church. Then we went and got a kebab with a guy that was recently baptized in Tours. He moved after being baptized, but now he's moved back and he's a cool guy too. He plays guitar so I'm hoping we can jam sometime.

Sunday we went to church and there were so many Americans there it was crazy! There was a family from Pleasant Grove, plus all the other Americans that are part of our ward had family over it was cool. Also there were a lot of students there from Sweden and Germany who speak English, so it was legit. Then we went home and just planned for the week nothing special then went out and did some nightly contacting! 

Thanks for all your love and support you guys rock!

-Elder Beck

Week #91
Max

Monday I had my first p-day in Tours! Sadly we didn't get to do much sight seeing, but there are a lot of castles in our sector so hopefully I will be able to visit some pretty cool things. We just went shopping for a bit. Elder Gee, Elder Player, and Elder Powelson have all bought the same suit as me now! We went to the church to do some emails, but the wifi wasn't working so I barley got to email anyone so that was a bummer. 

Tuesday was fun we had district meeting in a ville called Le Mans. We had to wake up at 5h30 to get there which wasn't fun. Then we had our district meeting - it was on fixing goals and it was well done. Then for our zone we created a "finding bucket list" personalized for companionships in our zone, we are hoping that it'll be successful and help them stretch. If anyone is interested in seeing one of the bucket lists let me know I can forward you one. Then we went on an exchange in Alencon and there are 3 Elders there for the moment. I went with the district leader ,he is a good dude and our exchange went super well. We contacted 3 people the whole time and taught every single person and got all their phone numbers and with some return appointments. Then we called a potential investigator after dinner and he said we could come over and meet with him. He goes by Lil' Charles and at first we were kind of like "we don't really know what to think about this guy" but he ended up to be super cool. He is from Nigeria and he raps haha (in English) but he is also super spiritual and interested. We invited him to be baptized (on the fist rdv) and he said he would pray to ask Heavenly Father what day he'd like him to be baptized! Which is super awesome because Alencon hasn't had a baptism in 5 years! I was really glad to be apart of that.  

Wednesday we finished our exchange with the Alencon Elders and took a train home right after our studies. When we got home it was about 2-ish and we took lunch then we went out contacting. We found a sweet new ami, he is a professional dancer and was super nice. Then we took dinner and after that did some pass-backs and porting. 

Thursday we went to Blois district meeting in Orleans. Orleans is a super pretty ville, I was amazed! We were in a pretty big hurry though, so sadly we didn't really get to see anything other than the chapel haha. But the district meeting was good. The district leader is from Kentucky and he is a pretty funny guy. Then we headed home and we just did some finding and tried checking things off our bucket lists. Then at night we tried seeing some less actives but no one was home!

Friday was a super busy day. We had a RDV right after our studies, but we tried going to the train station to catch our train there because he lives about 30 minutes away from Tours, but there was a problem and we missed our train! We just returned our tickets and got new ones and we are going to visit him later. Then we visited that guy we found on Wednesday he was super cool! The RDV went super well. Then we had our DMP meeting. After that we headed straight for the church because we had an RDV and the guy that we were suppose to meet there (after we confirmed with him twice) cancelled 1 minute before... so then we took a bus home and did a little contacting. 

Saturday we had another RDV in the boonies first thing in the morning at a place called Chateaux du Loir, its amazingly tiny. The people we visited are eternal investigators and they were interesting to say the least. They didn't really want to be taught so I think that will be the last time I go over there. Then after that we visited our ami Max who is super sweet. He had some pretty difficult questions we had to answer (about Brigham Young, Kolob, DNA evidence of the Book of Mormon, Plural marriage) things like that... We didn't get to teach him what we wanted, but our RDV still went really good because we answered every single one of his questions and it went good and he told us he wants to be baptized so hopefully that'll happen soon! 

Sunday was a good day. I got to meet one of my Aunt Jenna's friends named Rachel. Her and her husband, are super cool. I am really excited to get to know them. We had a lot of visitors this week at church. An American family came to "visit" but it turned they actually own a Castle here in Tours!  They said they'd invite us over to come eat with them before they leave so I'm really looking forward to that! The rest of the day was pretty boring just weekly planning and zone stuff! 

Thanks for all yours emails everyone! Thanks for your prayers and your support it means a lot!

-Elder Beck

PS Yes i am aware that my pictures suck this week, I was scraping at the bottom of the barrel because I didn't take any. I'll get you next week :)

Week #90
Tours with Elder Gee

Monday was pday. It was my last pday in Amiens but we didn't do anything "special" for it because I still needed to do the normal pday stuff. Later that night we went to the FHE at the church. I gave the spiritual thought. It was on that Mormon Message about the farmer who cuts the plant so it can grow I don't know what it is called in English, but it's really good. Then just said goodbye to a bunch of people. 

Tuesday was technically my last day in Amiens. We were suppose to get a haircut on Monday, but they rescheduled it for Tuesday so we got a haircut first thing in the morning. The lady cut mine pretty short buts it's all good. A bunch of members wanted to fix RDVs so that I could go by and see them, but we didn't have too much time, so we just saw two people, one of which fed us so that was nice. Then we went home and got changed because some other members wanted to take me bowling! So we went bowling and played a little bit of billiards and it was a lot of fun. Super fun way to end it in Amiens. Then I packed and it wasn't fun LOL!

Wednesday we woke up at 5:30 to catch our train, we had to go to Lille first with all my luggage. But it wasn't too bad because a member picked us up from our house with all my bags and drove us to the train station so that part was awesome.  Some other members went to the train station to say bye. Elder Powelson's new companion was in Lille so that's why I had to go up there. I took a TGV alone with all my bags to Paris, then took the RER to Chatlet where all the missionaries meet up.  I met my new comp Elder Gee and we took another train to get to Tours. In total I did 6 hours of train rides... Then right as we got home we put my bags in the apartment and left to go to a DMB meeting (the branch missionary leader meeting) it was good we seem to have a good DMB!

Thursday we woke up at 5:30 again to catch our train going to Paris for the Mission Council.  I got to see some of my good mission friends like Elder Johnson and Elder Powelson and some other guys. The meeting was good! We missed our train, got on the next one around 5pm.

Friday was an interesting day. In the morning we went out contacting for an hour. Then we had to pick up some Books of Mormon at the post. Then we came home and ate. The branch asked the missionaries to clean up the chapel last week so we deep cleaned the chapel all by ourselves and that took a while. Then a member wanted us to help him "recycle" he said over the phone. So this guy shows up to the church, he is in his 70s and he has 3 shopping bags completely full of old papers and 16 boxes number from 1-16. He goes on to explain that he has a bunch of brain problems and that he needs to be organized and all these papers have been bugging him lately and he wants them all organized into these 16 categories. He is also a hoarder and wanted to read and give a brief story behind every single paper before we kept it or threw it away...and the whole time he is freaking out and having a bunch of mental breakdowns. Elder Gee didn't tell me anything about this guy and this will for sure be the last time we help him "recycle" because it was the biggest waste of time. Then we went home and planned our training for the DLs.

Saturday was a pretty fun day. In the morning we went over really quick the formation we were giving our DLs and then went and picked up all our DLs at the train station with all their comps. All those companionships are in a 3-sum. We went and got kebabs with everyone and then split up and all the DLs comps went out contacting. We gave our formation and it went really well. I'm trying to create a bucket list for each companionship in our zone to complete before the end of the transfer. I hope it'll be a lot of fun. Then we went out and did some missionary work and I got to see Tours a little bit. 

Sunday we went to church and it was nice. The branch was super small today though because everyone was on vacation.  There were roughly 20 people there including a big family that was visiting from anther branch. We had the Sunday school lesson it was on Acts 1-5 about testifying. It went surprisingly well for winging it, because they didn't let us know that we were doing until the night before. But the branch seems to really like me so that made me feel good! They were all super stoked that I'll be finishing my mission here. They seem like good people. Then we got home and did some transfer planning and weekly planning. We tried to see this guy that we found that lives super far away, but he wan't there so that was a bummer. Then we went home and did all our call-ins. 

Thanks for all your love and support you guys are the best!

-Elder Beck

Some images of Tours its a tres belle ville :)

Week #89

Transferring to Tours

Hey Friends! I had a super good week! Pretty much the highlight if you don't want to read this email is that I got transferred to Tours - I leave this Wednesday.

Monday we had pday just the usual stuff. But it was the 14th of July Eve (the 14th of July is like the 4th of July for France) so we were suppose to have a FHE for the single adults... but then no one showed up. So we ended up just having our own FHE haha. Later we went home and there was a bunch of fireworks and we watched them from our balcony and it was pretty legit.

Tuesday was the real 14th of July and apparently there was suppose to be terrorist attacks so our president sent us an email about it and to be cautious....but there was NO ONE on the roads so like missionary work was pretty much dead that whole entire day. We went to the church to try and find something to do... pretty much the day was just busy work, nothing interesting and there were some minor fireworks again. 

Wednesday we had district meeting in Arras then we did an exchange with the Elders there. I was with the elder with the hurt knee, so we didn't get to do to much... We went to an RDV and the guy was really cool, we talked about St. Paul and the story of Saul it was great. Then we had to go back to the apt. because his knee hurt. For the last hour of the day we went out side and just walked to the train station to get times for a train.

Thursday we were pretty busy, first thing in the morning we took a train to Amiens and right as we got home we dropped off our bags at the apt and then we headed straight back to the train station again so that we could take the train to an RDV in Montdidier - that's like 30 mins away from Amiens. A member from Korea lives there and his less active wife. It was pretty short because the only train leaving there was 2 hours from when we got there. Those members there are awesome, I really like them!

Friday in the morning we did most of our weekly planning until we had an RDV with a guy who is a less active, we talked about repentance because he did some bad things... Then the ville was super dead for some reason, there was no one on the roads so we tried passing by some of our amis and noone was home. Then we went porting and had no luck. 

Saturday we had a super fun day. At 9h30 we went to the chapel to help set up for an activity. We had a branch BBQ. It went really well actually there were 8 non members there and a bunch of less actives!   I guess when you bring food anybody will come haha. But it lasted forever the BBQ. Also we got the transfer email and I am transferred! I am going to a ville called Tours, still a ZL. We ended up leaving the BBQ early because it was just taking so long. Then we started going home and there was a big party happening in the ville so the busses were so behind. We went home and changed, then went back to the church, because a member and his girlfriend who is a less active wanted to eat with us. She is a professional patisserie maker and it was super good. It was like a mini FHE.  

Sunday was my last Sunday in Amiens (which felt really nice) I'm super ready for a change. Church was interesting as usual... Elder Powelson has given 3 talks this month! He gave his third this week. Then we taught our ami who came to church for the last time. My allergies were super bad, I could barley keep my eyes open. Then French medicine doesn't really work for me. Then we went home and did some weekly planning. Called a bunch of people. Then we just had to do zone stuff because I am out of here!

Thanks for the email everyone you guys are the best! Love you all!

-Elder Beck 

PICS. My eyes look so squinty because my allergies were terrible

 

Week #88
Tour de France

Monday was a very normal pday, we just did our thing - went to the church and did our emails then played some ping-pong. Then we had our FHE and the member who was suppose the give the spiritual thought decided not to show up...again. So then last minute we made one and it was about dependencies, mostly on pornography. Then we played a game and stuff like that. It was a blast.

Tuesday we woke up and went to district meeting in Arras. It was good. There is this new missionary in our district, he has been here for 2 weeks and a little ahead of himself if you know what I mean;) Then after district meeting we headed straight to Paris for our exchange with the APs. When we started to get on the train we noticed that the lady who orders tickets ordered them wrong...so we had to repurchase on the train. Then there was no place on the train after we payed a ton of money to get on it! Anyway we got into Paris and headed over to Versailles and this time I was with Elder Lam who finishes his mission in 2 weeks. We had 2 planned RDVs set up but both people cancelled. So we ended up just porting and contacting all day and night. It was still decent though and always fun being back in Paris.

Wednesday we woke up and did our exchange inventory then headed out to get our train at Gare du Nord - my least favorite train station in the world - that's also where my phone got stolen 3 months ago.  We were a little early so we went to McDonalds and got a smoothie. Then we headed home to Amiens, right as we got home the Tour de France was passing through our city. We speed walked home and left our bags then went to go see the Tour de France. Apparently there was an accident of like 30 bikers or something so we ended up waiting an hour and while we were waiting a bunch of cars drove by and threw free stuff into the crowd, I caught a hat so that was cool! We saw the bikers for like 5 seconds, it was super fast, but hey at least I can say I saw the Tour de France pass right?

Thursday first thing in the morning we had to visit some less actives because we couldn't really see anyone else at the beginning of the week from all our exchanges. Then we tried seeing our amis, but the weren't there so we did some pass backs.
 
Friday Powelson and I both got letters, so we went to Jean-Francois's house to go pick them up. We also taught him while we were there; he's been difficult lately he's kinda picky about what commandments he thinks that he should follow. It's an interesting perspective, and he knows it but he has his agency. Then we ate at Subway which was a nice change. Later we went contacting for a bit but it started raining so we changed plans and knocked on some doors. We ran into the bishop of Arras which was cool because we were going to Arras the next day, he was super nice.

Saturday we went to Arras because of that Elder who hurt his knee we try and go there every week so that his companion can leave the apartment. Arras can be an interesting place at times. We got invited to go inside this guys house while we were porting, but we didn't go in because I promise you he was a serial killer! That exchange mainly consisted of contacting then we headed home just in time to go to bed!

Sunday we went to church and it was good, it's progressing which is good to see. I think there were 20 people there including our 3 amis. Then after that we went straight to an RDV, the guy wasn't there so then we went home and weekly planned and made a bunch of zone phone calls.

There ya go that's my week I hope ya'll had a good one! Keep on keeping on. Love you guys
-Elder Beck

Week #87
Alaska

Hey everyone! Hope ya'll had a greaaat 4th of July and a good week in general. Here is a summary of what happened this week.

Monday as I've already let you guys know the biggest thing that happened was that all the iPads were stolen, which is probably going to go down in history as like the craziest thing that's ever happened in this mission. Other than that nothing that big happened. We had a family night at the church, the guy who was suppose to give the spiritual message bailed 5 minutes before is started...so we quickly put together a spiritual thought. We had a less active member come so that was great :)

Tuesday we had our district meeting in Arras, the DL gave us about a 5 minute training on why working with members is important. Then asked (before hand luckily) for Elder Powelson and me to take 30 mins and explain how to work with members. Then we headed home.  We had an RDV with a part member family. BTW I would write people names and send pics if I could, but we don't really have the right anymore... But we passed by their house and all the non-member children were there. And they are AWESOME. There is a 16 year old girl, a 25 year old boy, and another older brother. We invited them all to be baptized and they all said yes! So that was probably the best day so far in Amiens, and we had a super awesome member with us and he helped a lot because the mom is also less active. We didn't know her, but he was the old Branch President knew them and really helped.

Wednesday we took a train to St. Quentin to do an exchange, I was with the DL Elder Bigelow, he's a super nice guy. ITS BEEN SOOOO FREAKING HOT HERE. And luckily they had absolutely nothing fixed...so we were out side in 100 degree weather alllll day. If the whole summer is going to be like this I'm going to pack up and go finish my mission is Alaska because this sucks haha! But during the evening we went and knocked on doors in big apt. buildings, there were about 6 buildings and we got let into everyone of them so that was nice. Later that night we gave a member a blessing.

Thursday we came back from St. Quentin we luckily had a direct train which only takes about 1hr, if we don't catch that one it's about 3hrs by bus normally, without air conditioning. Then we got to Amiens, dropped off our bags and walked to an RDV because Elder Powelson forgot to renew his buss pass. We had an RDV with the Elders Quorum President's wife.

Friday was a pretty funny day. We were suppose to go on an exchange with the Elders in St. Omer...but they ended up ordering the freaking wrong tickets haha so they just didn't show up... Later we passed by a members house and gave a little spiritual thought. We invited him to come teaching with us and it was pretty fun. We taught our African amis, they have a hard time understanding so it's actually hard to have them progress. That evening we had a little chit chat with our Mission President about the branch.

Saturday... was... THE 4TH!!! I hope you all had loads of fun!!! In the morning we had an RDV in a park in the middle of the city and our ami ended up being 40 minutes late so we bought some ice cream and it was chill (get it...haha) We taught her when she showed up, and she brought a friend! Later we were supposed to help one of our amis with service to help her move...then she ended never showing up even after we called and confirmed in the morning. Impressive. Then we went to a members house to celebrate the fourth. kinda...but it was good! Gave a spiritual thought on reaching our full potential.

Sunday was a very interesting day.   After dinner we went out contacting the weather was great!

Thanks for your emails love you guys!
-Elder Beck