Week # 29

Phillipe's baptism

Hello everybody,

 This week was pretty cool! Tuesday was super sweet. We had our last district meeting, so we all took a picture and held up our transfer numbers. On the way to District Meeting a "famous" artist stopped us in front of the super nice art museum (I forget how to spell it) and asked if he could video tape us.  We were like yeah sure. haha. So he just filmed us walking away. Not really anything important, just weird.  After District Meeting we had enough time to go to the Eiffel Tower! We went to the very top is was soooo amazing. When we got up there, there were a bunch of monks.. so we had to get a picture with them. They didn't speak English or French so we just asked some random person to take a photo for us and Voila there is a photo of us and a bunch of monks at the top of the Eiffel haha. Classic. Wednesday was bittersweet. We made this document for Philippe so his "caretaker" could sign it.  We just dropped it off. He was supposed to have it signed by the time we came back. Then we went to go teach this guy, but he was a no show. So we went went to teach Phil and he didn't have the paper signed and he can't get baptized with out it. He said he would do it tomorrow. Then we taught this awesome lady named Tsiry and her two cute little boys. Next time I teach her I will try and score a photo. He taught the Plan of Salvation. It was really good. Then after we bought kabobs they were the best I have ever had. Thursday was strange. It was supposed to be Philippe's baptismal interview, but we heard him wrong and he actually wasn't open that day so our DL just came to our house for like 4 hours then left haha. Phil still didn't have his paper signed and said again he'll for sure have it done by tomorrow. Friday was crazy. I had no idea the adversity he would face to be baptized! We picked up our DL again at the train station for Phils interview for baptism.  Elder Watts called his "caretaker" and asked if she will sign a paper saying he can get baptized. She didn't want to.  She said she wasn't even his caretaker and we would have to ask a higher authority so we had to call a judge and ask. He also said he didn't have the authority and gave us a number of another judge. Pretty much no one knows what's going on at this point. Phil passed the baptismal interview with flying colors so that's good! We got a Kabob after  from the same store haha. We called president after and we're like what the heck do we do?  He said just do it. But we wanted to be 100 percent sure he knew ALL of the situation so we did more digging during weekly planning. Also our shower broke so we had to fix that. And our Apartment doesnt have AC or a Fan. So we bought a fan and it feels like heaven. Saturday comes along. Still don't have the document signed. So we go over to Phils house again, start calling people to sign this paper and everyone is telling us no and we're terrible people for trying to get him baptized into our church. So it wasn't very effective.  Phil is just like just baptize me already! So we have no clue what to do. So we just called president again and we're like just talk to Phil. So they talked on the phone for like 5 minutes, then president talks to us and is like ya for sure do it and throw away the document! IT WAS THE BEST FEELING EVER! Not having to worry about that anymore! Phil was so happy! He gave us high fives and knuckles! And we got permission to drive to Troyes by the APs! It's like 2 hours away. So we called the branch pres. and told him that the baptism is for sure going to happen. Then that night we just went porting. It was a pretty cool place and the people were really nice! Sunday was awesome! We went to church and the less active family came to church again! Not the parents, just the kids! They are so awesome! After that we all drove to Troyes to baptize Phil because that's the closet baptismal font. When we got the church in Troyes it was super stressful because the other Elders were suppose to have everything ready, but they didn't do anything! So we had to set up everything in like 10 minutes! When the meeting started I just felt so good! Then Brother President Judas baptized Phillipe Quille it was great! The water was freezing cold so I felt really bad for them haha. After I gave a talk about the Holy Ghost. I kind of winged it because I didn't write anything because I wasn't sure that he was going to get baptized until the day before haha. But yeah that was the last day of my 4th transfer! Pretty epic. Today was transfer day. I'm staying with Elder Bayer. Same ol, same ol. They split up our district though. Super sad because they made it so Elder Alexander isn't even in my same zone anymore! So yeah that's my life! Love you guys thanks for the emails. 

-Elder Beck

Week # 28

Elder Snow

What is up everyone?! I had a pretty good week! On Monday it was just normal P day jazz.  It rained like CRAZY, like dumping buckets status. Tuesday was fun, we had exchanges in Troyes it's a super pretty ville right above Auxerre. I was with my District Leader his name is Elder Watts, he is a cool dude. We taught and found a new ami right off that bat, it was really cool. Then we got bailed on twice but we landed on our feet and just taught a recent convert and she fed us so it was a win win situation. We stayed up all night and told ghost stories haha. Wednesday we fished up exchanges! But I got to teach Claire in the morning. She is so tight, she rolled up to the scene with roller blades on haha! It was so funny. She has a lot of interesting views on things. Then after we went around Troyes and she showed us all the cool stuff to do and took our pics in front of stuff haha. Then we went home and we taught Philippe. We taught him stuff then watched the restoration it was pretty powerful and I feel like he has a lot better understanding now. Then we taught a recent convert and she made us food. African food is interesting. Thursday we had apartment inspections. We passed with flying colors haha. They were so impressed about how clean our apartment was and they gave us poppyseed bread and it was really good. Oh btw the people who do apartment inspections are senior couples. They are so nice! And then we remembered that we needed to do weekly planning because we will be in Paris on Friday, so we did that. Then after we went contacting and taught the first guy we saw he was super cool. Then made stuffed peppers for dinner and they were super good. Friday we went to Versailles to hear Elder Snow of the 70 speak just to the Paris Zones! He did a super good job, I was really impressed! We had to run to our train to get there too! We got on as the doors were closing, it was like Indiana Jones status. Me and Elder Alexander found out that we are BFF's that day too. After the conference we got dinner at a really good restaurant right by a tourist attraction called the Grande Arch, it was super cool. It's in a place called Modern Paris. Then after that it stunk, we had to ride all the way back to Paris on a train with no seats.... just sweating to death!  Saturday... DRUM ROLL... 200th day of the mission! Pretty wild! It was a pretty busy day too! We taught Philippe first thing in the morning. Then we taught some lessons contacting. And taught a new ami that me and Elder Lloyd found on exchanges her name is Darena. She is pretty chill, just really quiet so lessons are kinda awk. After that we had a lesson with a old ami named Joseph. He told us he dropped us because he watched a Mormon Documentary. There is a Documentary here that's on the FLDS church, but they just say it's the Mormon so it destroys missionary work. So we had to answer his millions of questions. Sunday was awesome! The Branch President and his wife came home from their vacation! And also a family that we are trying to reactivate came to church! So we were in the double digits woot woot! And we had a good church meeting even though sacrament ended 35 mins early haha. Taught Philippe again. Then after that we went porting all day! So there is my week in a nut shell! Hope you all are doing well! Love you guys!!!!

-Elder Beck

Week # 27
Mother's Day

Bonjour everyone! So let's get this thing started. Last Monday we taught this dude named Gwenal...the lesson started out super weird he like started begging for money...then we told him we're not allowed to do that. He never brought it up again and we taught him the Restoration haha. Tuesday was pretty cool we headed off to Paris first thing in the morning and had district meeting. Walked passed Notre Dame - no big deal ;) it's really not anymore its kinda sad haha. But then I went on an exchange with Elder Lloyd and we straight killed it together! We taught 4 other lessons and found 2 new amis! And one of them loved me because I play guitar so that made me happy:) Then there was this CRAZY DRUNK dude in the park with his fore head cut open. We had to help him. I tried taking a picture, but it was too intense. People called the Ambulance for him - if we didn't help him I guarantee he would be dead right now because he was right by the river! #SavingLives! Wednesday we finished up the exchange with Lloyd. We taught the COOLEST lady that contacted us because she heard us speaking English! Her name was Claire, and she lived in England for 2 years so she was fluent in English! It was so awesome I am teaching her again this Wednesday. She lives in the other Elders area and they are letting me teach her again because she really liked me! I will try and get a picture. Then we visited less active people for the rest of the day. Ok so miracle time - we taught Philippe the Word of Wisdom and then came back to check up on him the next day and he quit smoking and all that stuff 100 percent! It was epic, he had us throw away all of his bad stuff! It was also a French holiday. Then we taught this really old Ami and we actually had a good lesson with her so we will see how that goes! Friday we taught a super cool lady from Madagascar (props to Elder Payne!) She has a family too #Winning. Then we made orange rolls which were delectable, the we did Weekly Planning. Saturday was cool, we started off the day by teaching an American dude who is a missionary for his church and has been for like 25 years...he made us root beer floats! But he thinks he knows our church inside and out, but he doesn't. I liked him. Then we taught Philippe again the Law of Chastity. He doesn't have one problem with that. (phew) Sunday was MOTHERS DAY!! I got to talk to my family, it was the best day of the year haha! NO joke! They are so awesome I love them so much! Thanks to everyone that came! But also  on Sunday we taught Philippe tithing. He wanted to pay it right away. He is a cool dude. I gave the priesthood lesson. Then after that we had dinner and went contacting. People were wondering why we were so happy haha. But honestly super fun week! I hope all y'all had a dope week too! Love you guys! Thanks for all the emails! Stay cute;) 

Elder Your Favorite Beck

-Photos-

--First is Phil's garbage can with his coffee and cigs stuff in it! That's how you know I'm not lying haha

--Second. Cool cathedral we found. 

--Third. That's the kid from Ephrium's Rescue. I like him he is a cool dude-in my District.

Week #26

Phillipe

Bonjour every body! I had a super awesome week this week! On Tuesday we woke up bright and early and headed over to Paris! We had an awesome zone conference and interviews with president! After we had 3hours until our train came, so we just bummed around in Paris and went site seeing it was soooo cool! We saw Centre Pompidu, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame  and kinda saw Le Tour Eiffel all in one day! Then we came home and taught a recent convert,she is super nice. She gave us a referral and walked with us in the pouring rain to show us where she lives! Wednesday was my 6th month mark!!! I can't believe I have already been out here for 6 months. We started off the day SO right by fixing a baptismal date with Philippe - the 25 of May!  He is so excited! Went contacting, then visited a less active family that I have never met and they are really cool! My goal is to get them to come back. They were so amazed when I told them I snowboard. We showed them videos on youtube they thought it was so cool! Thursday nothing big happened just normal missionary stuff. Friday we taught Philippe again. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with him and taught the Plan of Salvation, he seemed really happy and was excited that he would see his wife again. Saturday they called and asked if we would teach Priesthood class. So we had to plan that out. Then we visited a less active guy named Marc who never comes to church. We did some service for a sick lady in the ward. Then we played soccer with Marc and his friends! It was so much fun and we found a new ami through it - his name is Laundry haha. He is 17 from Africa. Cool kid. I feel like doing stuff like that (playing soccer) is just as good of missionary work and porting or whatever else never works. It's good to show people you can still respect Jesus and be normal. And it works obviously. The Priesthood lesson turned out to be for the whole branch so we had to change that really quick. It was good though. It was on the Come and Rejoice with Us talk by Dieter F Uchtdorf. It's one of my favorites. It was testimony meeting and Marc came to church AND he bore his testimony which was really cool. In our branch everyone has to bear their testimony for it to go over 10 minutes...all 6 of them haha. Then after we all broke our fast as a branch, they made food for us which was nice. We all drove up on a hill and prayed for Auxerre. We then taught that Landry kid about the Book of Mormon. That's about it! Thanks everyone for all your emails. Please pray for Philippe so that he can be baptized! Love you guys!!! 

Elder Beck

Week # 25

Auxerre, France

Hello everyone! Sorry I didn't email you guys yesterday. I will explain what happened later. Let's start on Tuesday shall we... Ok that was my last day in Charleroi ;(..  Bitter sweet kinda. So we started off the day by eating with a family in the ward they were really nice to us and made us really good food. Then I kinda started to pack after that. I up ended having to give away like half of my stuff to Elder Guymon because nothing would fit haha. It made his day though, he goes home in 20 days! Then we went to another families house for dinner. They were probably my favorite family. It was the Hoffman family. Then made us a super good dinner! After that we had a family home evening and talked about Easter. They showed us a super good video on LDS.org. It was called "Because of Him" it was suuuuper good!! I hope you all watch it! When we came home people from the ward were waiting at our house and they gave me a present, they are super nice! Wednesday was nuts! It was TRANSFERS. I had no idea that they were this crazy! Lugging around those two giant suit cases through Paris and subways was like the hardest thing I've had to do haha. But on a good note, on the way to Paris we get on the train and people were sitting in our spot and we were like "yo that's our spot" and they guy who was in charge of seating people was like "it's all good just follow me" then he sat us all (like 10 missionaries) in 1st class!!! We got free breakfast and everything it was awesome! When we got to Paris I met my new companion his name is Elder Bayer. He is a really cool kid. We just chilled in the Metro in Chatlet with like 50 other missionaries. I met a lot of cool people. When we got to Auxerre I was so happy to see our sweet car waiting for us! Ya that's right I have car now! Its a 2014 with a built in GPS. Pretty cool. When we got to the room we left immediately because we had a lesson lined up with some people that were visiting from Belgium. They were super cool and they loved me because I just came from Charleroi. Funny story on the way home Elder Bayer was driving.. and.. he got a ticket haha. He was accidentally going like 5 over and a radar took a picture of our license plate. Oops. Good first day. Thursday was a pretty good day. We started off the day by visiting a super old ami.  Then we visited a less active dude named Mark. He seemed really cool, but he smokes like none other so that's kind of a bummer. He worships 2pac so that made me happy haha! Then we taught a guy named Joseph he rolled up 30 minutes late. But we had a good lesson with him. Then we drove 40 minutes out to go visit a recent convert to get the baptismal sheet singed. Then just went and did contacting. Friday was really busy. We taught that Joseph guy again. We taught him the Restoration and he told us that he gave his buddy his Book of Mormon and asked for more so he can give them to his other friends so that made me happy. Then we did Weekly Planning and got flaked on 2 times. We then went contacting for about 2 hrs and only found 2 people to talk to. Auxerre is kind of a slower city. Saturday we taught a guy named Daramdass he is pretty cool. We almost fixed a baptismal date with him, but he wants a little more time. Then we just went contacting and porting. Sunday was Easter!!! And my first Sunday in Auxerre. I met the branch. There are only 8 members. It's pretty slow! The branch president is a really cool guy, but his daughter is getting married in Utah so he is leaving for a month.  I will only see him 2 times this whole transfer haha. So there goes 40 percent of the ward. The branch is really nice though they are all really old. No amis came to church so that was a huge bummer. I blessed the water in French for the first time. And it was on the spot so I was kinda scared! Then we came home I kinda started feeling sick so we called people in the Area Book. There were only like 5 people though. Then we went and did some porting, but no one let us in. Then I just came home and passed out because I felt so bad.  When I woke up on Monday I was soooo sick I couldn't even get out of bed! So I slept in for a little. But we had stuff to do so I got ready to find that every store was closed because it's Easter. We just came home and slept and that's why I didn't get to email yesterday - I'm not feeling good at all! We later tried to go to some RDVs, but they bailed on us. Then we went contacting just for 30 minutes because thats all i could do. We came home and i watched 17 Miracles for the first time it was really good. I'm still sick,but i'm doing better today. Thanks for all your emails guys! Love you hope you all had a good Easter!

-Elder Beck

New Address:

Elder Beck
18 rue Louis Richard °219
89000 Auxerre France

Pictures.
--Me kinda by the Center of Town

--Took this from the car it was just a random pretty ville. 

--This is our church haha. We are the second floor. The one with the fist on it! 

 

Week # 24

Friday...best day of my mission

 This week was AWESOME!!! Ok so on Tuesday it was District Meeting! The DL told us to get on the wrong bus so we got lost for like 2 hours haha. In the biggest rain storm I have ever seen! Then we had the Meeting and it was only 10 minutes long... After it was an elder in our districts birthday so he bought everyone Domino's Pizza!!! It was so good! Then we came home and went porting and had a door step lesson with a dude that has a beard down to his pants and he was only like 26... its was crazy. Wednesday Elder Guymon wasn't feeling too good and neither was Elder Bailys companion.. So me and Elder Bailey went on an exchange! We taught a lesson to an 11 year old girl who got baptized on Saturday! Then Guymon started feeling better so we left with Patrick and visited less active people. When we went to one families house they looked out the door and she yelled at her husband to hurry and put out their smokes! haha. So sneaky. We visited another family after them. We talked about the resurrection with both families. Thursday we went and did porting for like 2 hours.. Everyone was mad for some reason! Then we went contacting and it was the same thing.. idk why. Everyone was just in a bad mood that day! Then we had DMP meeting so we fixed a bunch of lessons with people for the next week! And Elder Guymon gave Patrick a hair cut! Friday was a really cool day! We got a call from a lady in France who used to be in this ward asking if we could go to the hospital and bless her father! So we did and we talked to him for a while and he said he had read the Book of Mormon all the way through!!! And he said we wants to go to the temple someday! He was a super cool guy! He wants to start coming to church after his surgery! Then we just did good ol' weekly planning!   After that we realized that we are all going to be leaving soon! So then we all went and ate out at this Chinese Buffet place and it was really good!!! On the way home we saw a GIANT drug bust!!! There were soooo many police officers! The picture I got though was terrible. Saturday was probably the best day on my mission! So we started off the day by going to Patricks.  There is an RM staying with him right now. We was a pretty nice dude. We all ate lunch together! After we went to a families house named the Mulongos! They are a really cool family and the dad speaks English! Long story short they both want to be baptized ASAP. They asked if they could get baptized that day! It was so cool! We gave the wife a blessing! The spirit was so strong! Then we taught the family with the 9 year old who isn't a member. He just straight up asked if he is ready and wanting to get baptized. He said YES!!! Asap as well! But only with him and his brother, dad, bishop, and us. Which is totally fine! So 3 people asking to get baptized in one day! Not bad right?! Then we went to an actual baptism and both of our amis families came!  After the baptism we got picked up at the church from a family that we reactivated. We ate at their house and taught allll of their huge family! They are my favorite family to teach they are sooo awesome and funny! Sunday was another awesome day! It was fast Sunday and the first 2 meetings were normal nothing special. But the testimony meeting was awesome! The girl that we reactivated bore her testimony. She said that when she came to church that we were really nice to her and stuff and that we set a really good example for her and now she is starting to prepare for a mission! And as of 6 weeks ago she hadn't had contact with the church in like 3 years!!! It was so cool! After that we talked to one of our amis that came to church. His name is Piempie he is a funny old dude!  After that we just went to Patricks and ate then went porting for long time! BUT coolest part of this email!!! Drum Roll....... I GOT TRANSFERRED!!! To Auxerre France!! I leave Wednesday morning! My new comps name is Elder Bayer! I heard he is really cool! Can't wait to go!! Love you guys thanks for your emails!!

-Elder Beck

 

My district

Found some graffiti 

Little girl biting my hand.

Week # 23

LeBron and Jordan

Yo what up everyone. This week my camera decided to stop working so I don't have any photos so sorry! Right after I got off emailing last Monday I walked out of the internet cafe to find a cocaine dealer who was convinced I was his friend trying to play a joke on him and tried giving me bags of coke.. it was scary in all honesty! Tuesday was April Fools day! They celebrate it differently here. They tape pictures of fish on peoples backs... not as funny! So we did it to the other Elders we live with.  Then we tried to do some pass backs, but none of them were home. Later we ate again at someones house! They were super nice to us and just told us how awesome we were for like 2hrs, so can't complain haha. Wednesday we went to Namur for district meeting. Same as always just did the meeting then played some b ball. When like all the sudden three teenagers show up and ask if they can film a documentary on us... we were in Namur so they are filming the other Elders, but they seemed pretty cool. Then we taught a less active family that we reactivated. She brought her non member sisters family and we taught a really good lesson! The whole family like worships us! Thursday I went on a exchange with the district leader. He is French his name is Elder Mahieu.  Also we had a apartment inspection! drum roll.. we passed! When I was with Elder Mahieu we just did normal missionary stuff and then had a ward meeting. Friday we ended the exchange and we handed out flyers in the morning! Then Guymon came back home and we just did weekly planning. We went to a Genealogy Party at our ward. Also the youth were playing basketball so we just switched back and forth. I thought I sucked at b-ball. But here me and Guymon are like Lebron and Jordan. It's so funny.  Also the trams were on strike so we had to walk home. Saturday we taught Piempie the word of wisdom that's always interesting. It went decently well though! Then we were going to fix a baptismal date with the 9 year old... but they weren't home. That was frustrating.. Then we RAN no joke RAN to the church to make it to conference on time, we made it! We got to watch it in english and a lot of people we invited showed up! Sunday we got to watch ALL of conference again in english! Only one ward was playing it in english so like elders and sisters came from everywhere to watch it!  We were all together watching conference it was really fun!  We stayed at the church for 10 hours! We didn't really do much other than that though! Conference was really good though! I really liked President Monsons talk about the airplane and Ballards talk when he told everyone to get a Preach My Gospel! We went bowling again today. That's really all that's going in my life! Sorry again about the photos I will send double next week! 

Love you guys! 

-Elder Beck