Week #81
Stirred 3,000 liters of soup

Dat Weekly

Monday we had a pretty sweet pday. We did all the norm (shopping, cleaning, emails). Lately we have been playing ping-pong at the church its pretty fun. Powelson is pretty good. Then we went to a members house and had a FHE they invited some friends and we invited some amis and they all came so that was pretty awesome! We taught the Plan of Salvation using a puzzle that Aunt Jenna gave me which works super well. They all really liked it then we got their friends phone numbers and we are going to try and teach them.

Tuesday was a good day too. We went to Arras first thing in the morning to go to DM but this week it was a little different because we actually went in normal clothes because we had to clean a old missionary apt. so that what we did when we got there. Then we ate a subway and had a DM at the Arras chapel. Then our train wasn't until 5ish so we had some time to kill and since we were just in normal clothes we didnt really want to go contacting so we just looked around in Arras so that was nice. Then we went and taught a recent convert. 

Wednesday we went on a exchange with the Elders in St. Quentin but we did the exchange here in Amiens. I was with Elder Jones again it was a good exchange. We visited a less active talked about the spirit. Then we mostly just went contacting... taught a lot of people. Then we went porting met this lady who is super awesome who is a English teacher and lived in New York for a while she invited us over again later i am pretty stoked to go see her and her family again. 

Thursday we finished our exchange. Then we went out and did some missionary work. We have a member who owns a African food store and we have another ami who owns a African food store too so lately we have been passing by their shops and talking to them and the people in the store, and bringing proselyting materials to their stores and putting them next to the cash register so that people can contact us. So we did that and just contacted. Then we made some flyers for an activity that we are setting up.

Friday was a pretty awesome day. We stopped by that African shop again in the morning and talked to some of our people again it was great. Then we started getting everything set up for Zone Conference. Then we had to do a baptismal interview for the missionaries in St. Omer so we spent the night over there. Its about 4hrs away from Amiens. We had a 19 minute layover in Lille, we literally sprinted to Burger King snagged a burger ran back to the train station and managed to catch our corresponding train with 2 seconds to spare. It was glorious. Then we met up with Elder Gaulle and Elder Nord and played card games and he gave me a hair cut. 

Saturday we did a baptismal interview for that guy in St. Omer which was super cool because that was the first baptism in St. Omer in 10 years! Then we took a train back home that took pretty much all of the day. We got back around 7ish and saw a less active guy. 

Sunday was a pretty crazy day. We went to church it was interesting like every time. One of the youth got a bad stomachache and someone called the police because of it.. i thought that was interesting. Then we got out of there and took a train to St. Quentin because we did mini exchange with them for a service project that needed to be done there. And it was awesome! Every year there is a big festival and they ask the mormons to serve all the people soup. So they make this soup in this giant bowl. They asked me to stir it for a little bit there was 3,000 liters of soup in there it was so heavy haha. Buut it was so much fun! Then we took a train home the same night. 

This is the address of the new mission office:

Mission Francaise De Paris

131 Blvd. Carnot

78110  Le Vésinet 

Thanks for your emails!!! Love you guys!

-Elder Beck

Week #80

FHE with Rahamandimby's

Salut!

I hope you all had a good week! I know i did!

 

Monday we had a normal p-day. Then we fixed a FHE with a family in our branch that is super awesome. They have the hardest last name to say ever its Rahamandimby. They are from Madagascar. But we invited some friends and they invited a less active. We had a super good night with them our lesson was on how to teach/taught the restoration. It went super good we pretty much just went through the Bible and it worked! Their friends were blown away it went way better than expected haha.

Tuesday we had to wake up early to go to DM in Arras. Then we went on an exchange in Arras - I was with E. Orton. It went pretty good. The people there are generally a lot nicer than the people in Amiens so that was a nice break. Then when we were done we all played UNO!

 

Wednesday did our studies in Arras. We all went to a kebab place that was pretty good. After we took our train home to Amiens. Went out and did some contacting for like 3 hours. It was kind of a bummer because literally nobody was out - it was crazy. It came down to contacting the joggers haha we were that desperate...

 

Thursday we had a pretty fun day. It was actually a holiday in France...there are like 10 holidays in the month of May in France, no joke. So all the buses were messed up because of the holidays, so that was kind of a bummer. We went contacting but it was POURING rain, probably the most it's ever rained my whole mission so contacting was pretty ineffective. So we did some area book work and fixed some RDVs for the week. Then we had an RDV with a guy named Jean-Francois he loves to talk so we were there for a while. Then walked home in the rain!

 

Friday in the morning we tried finding the mail thief because he is still stealing our mail and noone is doing anything about. Then we taught this guy named Kofi. He is super cool he was baptized in Africa about 3 years ago, but doesn't really know a whole lot about the church so we are teaching him about it. Then we tried teaching our ami named Linda, but she just didn't show up and we brought a member so that was a bummer. Later we got cancelled on again by a member but he rescheduled so that was cool...we just weekly planned instead. 

Saturday in the morning Darios called us from Belgium. He just wanted to check up on us, he's super cool and nice. Then we visited some less actives the first one being a crazy dude and a less active who might give us some referrals which is awesome. Saturday we taught a recent convert, then took him to come teach one of our amis with us named Christelle we talked about the parable of the 10 virgins with her, it went pretty good she promised that she would come to church.

Sunday we went to church, it was good because Christelle came. After church we taught her. Some professors from UVU passed by for some WW1 event. Then after church we visited a lady who owns an African Food Store and we proposed her the idea of putting missionary supplies in her store and she accepted. We are going to put a bunch of supplies in there. We are praying that something cool will come from that.

Thanks for the emails love you guys!!

-Elder Beck

Week #79
Calais

Hey everyone!!!

This week was pretty awesome. Monday was just any normal p day. Every Monday we have a big family night for all the single adults. But this week was a little different because we got invited by a family from Madagascar to have a family night with them, they hoped they could bring a friend for us to teach.  So we get there and their friend didn't show up... so that was a bummer but we had a pretty good night anyway, we shared with them James 3:5-10. They really liked it.

Tuesday was the start of the crazy week - 2 district meetings (I say crazy because for ZLs we have to attend all the district meetings in the zone) we started this week in St. Quentin. That DL gave probably the best formation out of all them, it was good. Then we took a train back to Amiens. We missed our train going home, so we got to see a little of St. Quentin...there wasn't much to see though. When we got home we saw a recent convert named Celine - she is super solid.

Wednesday we went to a DM in Arras. All the training went well. We ate lunch with them. Each time we have a DM everyone is assigned food assignments  and everyone brings something different. Then we got on a train headed back to Amiens, when we got there we saw this guy who is a less active ... can't go into too much detail though. Then we knocked on some doors.

Thursday we went to DM in a ville called Calais, it's pretty close to London actually, so we were right on the ocean so that was super cool to see. When that was over we went on an exchange with the elders in St. Omer. I was with an Elder in his 2nd transfer, Elder Nord, he is nice. We met a member to go teach this ami, but then she ended up just not being there...par for the course at times! Then we just ended up going contacting.

Friday we originally planned to go see a bunch of less actives...but then the president of the elders quorum called us and asked if we could help do some spring cleaning at the church, they last minute bumped up the date. While still on an exchange we head over to the church and the second we get there all the members are like 'oh good you're here, then they just left...so we had to clean the church all by our selves... those french members! Luckily we had 4 elders or we woulda been there all day. Then we just weekly planned. After we visited an old lady who is alone and lives in our appt. building. She is like our French grandma she always feeds us and is super nice.

Saturday was pretty crazy! That morning was sweet we contacted and taught a bunch of people. Then we went home and noticed that every single day this week someone has been stealing our mail and the building director has done nothing about it. So we decided to take matters into our own hands and just went strait to the cops. The cops aren't much help here for stolen mail. So pretty much we just ended up asking them like legal stuff like what if we were to catch this guy..? What would happen? LOL. We have some funny ideas to catch this guy we will keep you posted.

Sunday was a pretty crazy day. Church was good. After we are together as a branch. Then we went home and changed and got ready to go skype the fam which was super awesome. Pretty crazy seeing everyone. Well thanks for all your emails everyone love you!!
-Elder Beck

Week #78

Valentin SLC South

Bonjour! 

Alright so sadly we still  have not yet received our iPads so I am still emailing at this awful cyber café. Here is a quick summary of my week.

Monday-iPad conference (with no iPads)

Tuesday- Pday and Elder Player wanted for his last night to go contacting and porting.  We did that, it was great. 

Wednesday- Took a train to Paris with Elder Player, it was nice talking to him. Then we got there and walked to the St Merri church and dropped him off. Said au revoir then said bonjour to Elder Powelson - I love this guy. If there was anyone I could have chosen to serve with, it would have been him. Then we just went back to good ol Amiens and did some missionary work with the little time we had.

Thursday- Contacted and bought Elder Powelson a buss pass, then went home and ate. Later we took another train to Paris to go to the mission council (zone leader meeting) in Paris which was on Friday. Since Friday was a french holiday, the buses weren't working, so we had to go on Thursday. But we got there, went on the Champs Elysées - it was great. Stayed the night in the Nogent appt.

Friday-  It was great went to the conference. It was mostly on planning. Then we peaced'out and went back to Amiens, but before we went to a café with Karl, Johnson, Bayer, Powelson, and some other mission friends. 

Saturday- We gave a training to all our DL's on what President talked about yesterday. Those are always crazy because they give us 3 hours to plan a training. Then we did some missionary work and visited a less active and a recent convert. Taught a guy on the street as well.

Sunday- My favorite youth in the ward, Valentin got his missionary call to SLC south mission! He leaves about when I get home so that was super exciting. I will get to take him out to lunch and stuff, pretty cool. Then we got home and weekly planned. Later went out contacting. 

Today, P-Day there is nothing to do in Amiens on pday compared to Paris, so that's why I never include Mondays anymore. Thanks for your emails love you guys!

-Elder Beck

Week #77
New companion Elder Powelson 

So bad news I can't really email today...no time! Here is just a quick update of the week and some pics. We got pick-pocketed on Friday so we didn't have a phone (they only took our phone) but we got a new one on Monday but it's an awful phone... We didn't get iPads on Monday they are coming later this transfer. 

Good news, I got a new companion, his name is Elder Powelson. I freaking love him, we entered into the MTC at the same time. We are already super good friends - he will be my comp starting tomorrow. I saw him yesterday at the "iPad" conference where we didn't get iPads;) I will attach his picture. Other good news....our mission had 15 baptisms this month which is huge! 3 of them were from our zone! woot woot. We went to St. Quentin for a baptismal interview - here is a pic. Thats all the time I got! Thanks you guys - love you! Sorry if i didn't write you back I still love you!

Elder Beck

Week # 76

Miracles

Ok so I did a super bad job of writing in my journal this week and I don't really remember all that happened! I will try and give a nice a summary...

We had District Meeting and something happened with the sisters - a last minute emergency and they didn't show up so it was just us four Elders. We ended up watching a talk by Elder Holland called "Feed My Sheep" it's one of my favorite so if you haven't seen or read it, go hit that up! Then I went on an exchange in a ville called Arras it was a pretty good exchange...lots of walking, not enough going on there. After the splits we went home and we had to do our zone leader confidentiality reports for the zone and that took almost the whole day! 

We did a lot of teaching and contacting this week! We ate at a members house on Saturday, she made us really good food! One of our amis dropped us, but he kept the Book of Mormon so that was good. On Sunday we had a cool miracle - we contacted a dude on the road who was atheist, and he was going through a hard time so we talked about prayer. We ended up praying with him on the road. He felt the Spirit and told us that he felt a lot better and invited us to come over on Wednesday to pray with his family. He also asked us to pray for his sick kid. Super cool guy. 

Pretty crazy next week, but hey I will be emailing through an iPad when we get them next Tuesday...I cant wait! All is well, and I love what I am doing and I love you guys! 

-Elder Beck

Week #75
I saw the ocean

This week was super awesome, but I don't have a lot of time today so I've got to cut it short!

 

Tuesday we visited a District Meeting in Arras, we played pingpong it was super chill. Then we came back to Amiens and taught some of our amis. 

Wednesday we went on an exchange in a little ville called St. Omer, it's an interesting place. We found a French family in a park there, and the elders in St Omer taught them twice last week. Then we taught their ami. He was HAMMERED when he answered the door and he has a baptismal date for this week (interesting) but the best part was he was completely NAKED and stayed that way the whole time it was awful. Sadly I don't have any pics for you guys...next time though;)

Thursday we finished up our exchange then went and saw an old cathedral that was blown up in WW2. Then we came home and stopped in Calais, the place that has the tunnel that connects France and England so we got to see the ocean!! It was so cool. Just the smell was awesome.

Friday I don't really remember that much, but we went porting in a college dorm place it was pretty interesting. We met this girl form Spain and spoke a little bit of Spanish to her...after we were done praying with her my comp. meant to say goodbye, but he said "see you hell"- it was so funny! She was super chill about it though. A recent convert from a ville called Rennes moved down here for an internship, she is really cool. We have to teach her all the RC lessons.

Saturday there was a baptism for a little boy in the ward in our chapel so we had to prepare for it, give talks and all that jazz. The family is half Korean and have African so their kids are really cool looking. Then after that we helped this lady put up wall paper...again. Then ate at a really nice members house. 

Sunday church was good. We went on a split after and taught our amis. We have an ami who really wants to get baptized but he can't because he can't come to church so that's a bummer. Then we taught 3 people contacting so that was awesome! Thanks for all your emails!!! Love you guys.

-Elder Beck