Week #34

 Soldes

Hey peeps!

     Tuesday was super cool. We had district meeting in Paris! We did a district meeting activity after and we all went to Notre Dame and ate lunch at a place right next to the Cathedral, it was super fun. There was a guy running around in a mask scaring people.  I got it on video but can't send it! I then went on an exchange with Elder Johnson. I just showed him around Auxerre in the night and we went contacting. 

     Wednesday we were still on exchanges. It was the first day of "Soldes" - which is like this giant thing where all the stores sell their clothes for super cheap. Elder Johnson and I went and hit that up. I bought a new brown suit and I love it:) Then we ate at a kebab shop and took a train and met up with the other elders. We taught Tsiry and her two boys. We fixed a baptismal date with her for the 13 of July! Later we contacted some people at the park, and then went and tried to see Marc but he wasn't home. Like a million little kids swarmed us and we talked to them for an hour, it was awesome.  

     Thursday we played soccer with Landry. After we went and saw Marc and tried to start a 'Stop Smoking' program with him...he didn't act too excited about it. Then went and saw Mirae and taught her the Restoration. We came home and tried to work out rides for a BBQ party on Friday. 

     Friday was really fun. The kid who was here before me in Auxerre had to come back to pick up legality stuff. His name is Elder Wells and the other missionary's name is Elder Cramer. They were a lot of fun! We went out contacting for awhile, then after that a member invited us to his house to have a BBQ party with his neighbors. He said like a lot of people would be there...it was us, them, the Judas family and one neighbor - haha. It was super fun though! And really good! 

     Saturday not a lot happened. This big concert thing was going on all week, which made it really hard to contact because it was super loud and it was in the middle of Centre Ville... So we did weekly planning. 

Transfers are next week! We went porting in this random ville and it was really fun!  

     Sunday Tsiry came to church. I got to wear my new suit haha. After we taught Tsiry really quick with some members. We taught her the 10 Commandments and some other important stuff. Then we went home and finished studies. We went and saw Marc again because he didn't come to church. He is still trying to stop smoking... That's pretty much all that happened this week!

This next week is looking like it will be a lot fun! I meet the new Mission President Babin and his family on Friday! Cant wait! Love you guys have a good week! 

-Elder Beck

Week #33
Farewell President and Sister Poznanski

Hello peeps,

      Let's start with Tuesday shall we. Tuesday, so we had to go print out pictures for the Poznanskis because they asked that every person would send them a photo and a little note. Then we made cookies for our members and amis. After that we went contacting forever and our branch president dropped off a package for me at the night time and it was super awesome, made my night!

     Wednesday some french people in the morning came to inspect our church or something.. still not exactly sure what happened. Frere Judah just called us and asked us if we would wait there for them. They asked us a 1050410 questions and measured every thing. Hopefully they aren't taking our church away haha. We contacted some super religious man on the road after that for like an hour. It was super long and he wasnt even interested he just wanted to bible bash. We had Kraft Mac N Cheese for dinner though! 

     Thursday before I forget, I had escargot for the first time! It was SUUPER good! We had a church meeting and Sister Judas made us super good food! She is an amazing cook. After that we played soccer with some of our amis. I'm getting pretty good over here. They call me Beckham haha. After that we did weekly planning.

     Friday was a sad, but really good day. It was Zone Meeting and it was the Poznanskis last one.  We were an hour and a half late because of a strike that's happening with the trains.We got there just in time for lunch. The Poznanskis gave their testimonies at the end and it was SO powerful!  We all got to hug both of them at the end! I'm sad they're leaving, but happy they get to live a normal life again! Also there was a free coke thing going on in Paris and I got 3 free cans!!! After we got Kbobs,they are my favorite thing!

     Saturday in the morning we just went contacting and all that fun missionary stuff. We found a new ami named Allen, he was super cool. Didn't come to church though. Then we ended up playing soccer again. After that we taught a good lesson to an ami named Landry. He said he's coming to church next week. We were suppose to have a lot of RDVs but they all canceled.

 

     Sunday we went to church and it was normal. No amis came though. A less active family came but their son is crazy. He is 11 and literally tried cutting Elder Bayer with scissors.  After church we all piled in a tiny french car and went to the Family Judas house and they fed us again! It was even better this time! We had a BBQ kinda thing!  Bayer got car sick after on the way home. I didn't, and I was sitting in the middle.. 

That is pretty much my week! Today we just taught our Polish ami named Paul, he is super tight. He was so happy when we found a Polish Book of Mormon I wish I could've gotten in on tape. Thanks for all your emails love you guys!

-Elder Beck

Week # 32
Happy 19th Birthday!

Hey peeps,
      Sorry I don't have a lot of time this week, and I forgot my Journal. So this one is going to be quickie! 

Tuesday was my Birthday! It was pretty awesome! We were in Paris for pretty much all of it. The first part we just had District Meeting. My DL made me a super good birthday cake and gave me a super cool journal! Then we just went shopping in Paris! It was really cool. 

     Wednesday kinda stunk, we had 3 RDVs scheduled but every single one cancelled and we could only reschedule with one of them. So pretty much the whole day we just went contacting... it was so hot! Then we taught a recent convert who is going to Germany for a month! 

   

     Thursday we pretty much just contacted the whole entire day. But we also tried contacting church referrals. They were all fake though. So just a waste of time.

 

     Friday we had to do Weekly Planning and just went contacting aaagggggaaaiiiinnnn. We taught a Muslim man, he had a lot of good questions. That night time we had a super fun family night with a family in our branch. We played Ping Pong and taught a lesson on faith. They fed us too and it was all super good. They are my favorite family!

 

     Saturday we taught our ami Tsiry with a member! First real member present lesson since I have been in Auxerre. They drove and hour just to come! Members here are really nice people! Then just contacted all night.

 

     Sunday was really good. Tsiry came to church. A member gave her a ride! There was only 2 members though at church for 30 minutes.. so it was super awk. After people started coming and it was a lot better. Sacrament was good. After we taught her with a member who is 19 she is super awesome. It's the girl I was playing ping pong against. She helped us out a ton!!!!! Then we did Language Study after church. And went porting in the night time! That's pretty much my week! Thanks for all the emails you guys! Love you all!

Elder Beck

-Elder Beck

Week # 31
Stake Conference in Paris

What up everyone!

      Coming at you live from the second story of company's building AKA true church of God. I had a pretty interesting week though! 

     Tuesday we went straight to Troyes in the morning! I went on a exchange with a kid from Pleasant Grove his name is Brandon Johnson! He is SUPER cool! We are super tight homies now. We love all the same things, so it was a super fun exchange! Then we found out that we knew each other before the mission which was super cool! He is one transfer below me. We taught a lesson to a lady and her non member family and she made us food! She told us she wants to go inactive because someone hit her kid at church... so that was an interesting first night. 

     Wednesday we had week 2 district meeting! (which is like a big deal) we just had a million meetings. Me and E. Johnson missed our train on the way to Paris, but we taught a lesson in the train station who was pretty cool. We had Subway for lunch ;) Then at night we had a family home evening, it was super fun! The member was really nice! And she lived in such a nice house! We didn't get home until 10:20 haha. 

     Thursday we were still in Troyes and I was with the district leader Elder Watts. He is really cool too. We did passbacks in the morning. And went to a park and climbed a tree and picked cherries! They were super good! Cherries are really expensive in France! And we ate at a members house! When we got back home this crazy dude kept calling us who got our number from the Mental Hospital!!! And he is SUPER creepy and calls us every night! Idk how this dude got our number! 

     Friday I got my birthday package from my parents! Haven't opened it yet I am saving it :) Then we visted a recent convert, she is really nice but she is going to Germany for a couple of months.. so our branch just decreased by like 20percent... Then we did weekly planning we got a bunch of work done. We scheduled a bunch of RDVs with people who weren't free this week! Then at night we watched Saratov Approach! It was really really good! best movie I have seen on the mission ;) 

     Saturated was pretty cool I mowed a lady in the wards lawn. With a plug in GHETTO as heck lawnmower I am so mad I forgot to take a picture of it! And we just did some hard core cleaning at her house. Then we bounced at 1:00 because we needed to shower because we were taking the train to Paris! It was Stake Conference and president asked us to go! It was so HOT! But it was worth it. It was really good and all the missionaries were there so it was fun! Then a member in Troyes gave us a ride back to Troyes! It was so hot again and it was 5 full grown men in a tiny French car.. it was awful! But when we got there we watched Epraim's Rescue together! It was funny because the kid in the movie use to live in that apartment.

  

     Sunday Stake Conference was being transmitted to the ward. So we watched it on a projector. And was translated into French. It was conducted by Elder Uchtdorf and  Elder Anderson gave a talk. But the French translator was terrible. We could hear what they were saying in English for a little bit. And Elder Uchtdorf was like hello brothers and sisters what a lovely day we have today.. and the French translator just said.. Bonjour. haha it was funny. Then we came back to Auxerre it was a 4hr journey! I was so thirsty the whole time too! 

And that's pretty much my week! Love you guys! Its my BIRTHDAY tomorrow! I'm going to be 19! Can't wait!! I'll be in Paris too! Love you guys! 

-Elder Beck

What up people?
      Hope everyone had a good week! Mine was alright. Monday was just normal pday stuff. 

Tuesday we taught our new ami named Paul. He is sooo cool! Like he takes the trophy for being my favorite by far! Maybe I can score a photo soon! He is Polish! We taught a lot of random things because he kinda knew Mormonism a little bit. So he had a bunch of good/funny questions! He loves the album Joshua Tree by U2 so he like loves me because my 1st name is Josh. So thanks parents. My companion bought pants without a giant hole.  After that we taught Tsiry and her family! We finished the Plan of Salvation! Her and her 2 boys really liked it! They really like us too. We're like their best buds!

 

      Wednesday we taught Philippe we bought him a trip-dict and gave him a photo with our testimonies on the back. He really liked it. Then we taught him about the D&C and Pearl of Great Price. He was wearing a YMCMB hoodie. idk if you know what this is.. I'll explain briefly it's like Lil Wayne Drake Niki.. their gang. Idk where he got this hoodie! Then we drove 45 mins to go teach a recent convert, but they weren't there..... so that was annoying and they didn't come to church so we don't know what's up with them. Then went contacting all night.

 

     Thursday literally nothing big happened, just working all day and all night. Contacting/Porting. We did try and make magic syrup, but it just turned into caramels for some reason haha!

     Friday started off bad. After the bad start we weekly planned. Then we went porting and did this building where we have two amis. But they didn't answer, so we decided to go contacting and we found the kid we were looking for! Super cool! Fixed an RDV for the next day!

 

     Saturday we played soccer with our ami named Laundry he is a cool kid, just really quiet! Then just followed up with the Book of Mormon. Then after that we saw Phil.

 

     Sunday was the 1st of June which means 9 more days until I'm 19!! It was a normal fast Sunday couple of testimonies all call it good. My stomach was growling like crazy haha. It was so quiet, so it was really funny. We all went up to a hill after and said a prayer then we broke our fast in the church everyone brought something it's a tradition here. I really like it! Then we came back home watched French bible videos that we found in the apartment for language study #win. Then we did the car report. Then went porting all night it was pretty fun! But we kinda got lost and stumbled upon some weird building with a water thing in it. So I had my companion take a photo of me mediating hehe. But yeah that's my week! Hope you guys had a good one! Love you guys thanks for all your emails! 

-Elder Beck

sorry about the photos nothing really happened this week.

1st meditating.

2nd me after 8 hours of contacting

3rd a picture of the branch there was visitors so it looked bigger ;) 

 

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