Sister Victoria Beeny France Lyon Mission

I accidentally added all the pictures up top - there is a pretty cool blog down below the pictures telling about her snow shoeing and birthday experiences -- sorry -- Victoria's Mom...

This week was another thriller. Our English Fast continues and our French is at a whole new level! My comprehension has increased remarkably, and we are starting to strengthen our vocabulary and the speed at which we speak. It has been so cool to see the Gift of Tongues manifest itself within the last two weeks... why didn't I do this before? I am trying to figure out if I will ever speak English willingly as a missionary again!!

FHE every Monday night has been dwindling... a lot of our amis aren't available anymore. We are thinking about inviting all of the single adults every week and making it a good way to integrate the few amis that have been involved recently. We still have a great time playing UNO though... Hahahaa, French people are huge cheaters! But it is so funny. they're quality people for sure.

Tuesday we had nothing planned during the day, so we went to find the lost sheep in the branch. We walked a lot and took many buses to find these "so called members" that we had never met before. It was fun to contact along the way and meet some nice people. Its funny how the Lord will send you on a wild goose chase to find someone you have never met before, and when you arrive you find out they don't even live their anymore, but you have met so many nice people along the way. I hope that those simple contacts, even if they didn't give us their number or beg to be baptized, felt the Love of the Lord and the sincerity of our invitation to come unto Christ. That is one of my favorite parts of being a missionary; the opportunity to meet a variety of people in the world. So we found 6 sheeps homes... but 3 of them had moved and the other 3 didn't answer the door :( bummer. The last home we went to, we called the sister to find out if her number still worked... well it rang, and her husband answered. This woman stopped coming to church because her husband is not supportive and against any forms of religion. So he answered and when I asked to speak with his life he went off on me!! He said that she had left him just a few weeks ago, and that it was all the churches fault... he screamed, and yelled, and quite honestly he was in such hysterics that I didn't understand 72% of what he said. What I did understand was that he kept saying he was going to take his own life that very night because he was so upset. I was wide eyed and shocked, and I had no idea what to say!! I tried my best to calm him down. All I could really do was testify of the love of God and of the miracle it was that I called him in that moment. I testified my guts out and I told him that I was a sign from God of His divine love for him.... The call lasted about 13 minutes, and by the end he had stopped crying. He suddenly spit out the phone number of his wife and told me he had to go and hung up. We tried to call him back, but he didn't answer. I had a strong feeling that everything was okay, and that he was probably just going a little crazy, or maybe even a little drunk. I guess I qualify for the Suicide Hotline now... Fill out the application for me mom. Write down I can also work my magic in French. So that was the weirdest phone call of my life...

We were able to meet with a few less actives this week, including Soeur Tabka. She is always a little happier when we see her. She still isn't open to coming back to church, but we invited her to do service with us and to visit the sick members who are in the hospital. She is open to it and we are excited to get her back integrated with the members! We saw Daniel a few times during the week, which was awesome! He even came to church. He has such a strong spiritual base. We are so excited that he has started reading the LdeM every day. Its the small things that will bring great things!

We went snow shoeing this week with our DMB!! We did our weekly meeting with him during it, haha. It was so beautiful! It was the perfect weather too... We took off our coats. We had a snow ball fight, in the French Alps. We made a snow man, in the French Alps. And we even made a snow angel, in the FREAKING FRENCH ALPS! So much fun!! haha, I love the sisters here... It makes me sad that the transfer is almost over, because they are so fun and I dont like leaving people.

We had a great exchange with the Sister Training Leaders in Annemasse. We taught so many lessons and saw so many miracles! The second we arrived their, a potential ami walked up to us and asked to set a RDV! Five minutes later we ran into an ami and she invited us over that night! We visited a member who is literally 95 years old, and the cutest thing I've ever seen. We got to teach a lecon zero to a man named Cedric, and he accepted the LdeM as the word of God before even reading it... He said he would still read though. We set huge goals for the next day to contact 150, get 5 phone numbers, and set 3 RDVs... I thought Soeur Hills was crazy, but its incredible to see what the Lord can do when you're diligent. We didn't
have plans other than to look for less actives and old amis... in one building where an old ami lived, we met a man with his son. We talked to him and he was so excited to see us! He had gone to church 15 years ago and wanted to go again. After setting a RDV with him, I told him I lived in Chambery, and he said his sister lives there! So he gave me her number and even told me how to talk to her and how to invited her to English class... She has a family. We got a coordonnee!! It was good news for both equipes. We contacted a couple as well, and they were shocked to see us. They studied with missionaries in the past and were overjoyed at the idea of meeting with us again. We set more RDVs and got more phone numbers. It was such an incredible day. Soeur Hills is an animal. I am so grateful for the STLs. I learn so much from them. We ended the day with a delicious patisserie :)

We were able to use our street board finally and a crazy African man yelled at us for like 9 minutes straight. He said "You killed the Indians and then you enslaved my people! BLAH BLAH BLAH LIES LIES LIES". People started looking at us strangely, and we were packing up to leave, when our recent convert Arsene (who is African) walked up. I swear I have never been happier to see him in my life. GOD SENT US ARSENE! The crazy man literally jumped back in shock and demanded "Why are you with them? They killed our brothers!" Arsene looked at him and said "Yeah I'm with them. you're crazy! They didn't kill anyone! they're doing good in the world!" haha. GOOD TIMES.

Well my birthday was pretty great. We had a beautiful branch conference. Inspired talks and an incredible spirit. We went over to Edouardos house during the afternoon and ate 2 cakes.... then we went to the church and met up with Daniel and ate another cake :) Then we ate Kraft Mac and Cheese, Spongebob shaped, that the Zone Leaders bought for me at the American store. All in all, quality day. We ended with some classic porte à porte.

The Lord is there! TRUST IN HIM! I love you all :)

Avec tout mon amour,

Soeur Beeny

This week was kinda really great. It was really nice to get back into the normal flow of missionary work and to teach our amis who have all come back from vacance. We also started our French Feast of only speaking French ALL THE TIME! And we succeeded with great success! We are speaking so well and we cant wait to see how well we can speak at the end of the transfer.

We were able to go teach Edouardo and his family this week. Edouardo and his family are from Congo. He comes to English every Saturday and randomly brings members of his BEAUTIFUL family. They love us and invited us over for a while. They really got to know us and why we are here as missionaries. Their 16 year old daughter LOVES us. She loves One Direction, and The Vampire Diaries... You can only imagine her reaction when I told her I was in an episode of TVD. She just about lost it. To sum it up, we had a great time, and they invited us over for dinner... we are thinking it will the 12th for my birthday! YAY! We also found out something SO shocking about them... Christian, our awesome ami with girlfriend and baby from Congo, is their son!! WE FREAKED OUT! So our two families we are teaching, are just one big family. We cant wait to help them become eternal. Pray for us to help them progress and accept the gospel in their lives.

Odile came to FHE last week, which was such a surprise, and such a joy to see her again. Pray for her to recognize the absence of the gospel in her life and to desire to return. We were able to spend Mardi with Daniel for his birthday!! He is such a great ami. He is so much fun... Did I tell you he is from Iran? He loved being with us... You may have received some pictures from him over email, haha. He has such a tender heart. Pray for him to keep his engagements and commit himself to baptism. For New Years we were invited over to Marie Christine's, our ami who owns way too much crap. Literally. We helped her again this week. She owns like 120 sweaters. She has like 38 pairs of pajamas!! THATS NOT NECESSARY! We love her anyway, and she made us a great steak dinner for New Years. She also fed us Foi Gras (duck liver, very popular here) and while she was cutting it, she cut her finger. She started to bleed... and yet she continue to cut the food!! She got blood on the food and Soeur DO was seriously going to pass out... well Marie Christine went to the kitchen and Soeur Richardson prayed that we wouldn't get HIV or something crazy... but she came back after wrapping up her finger and it turns out that she just got blood on the cloth around the foi gras. WE WERE SO RELIEVED! Pray works. It was a fun night to say the least!

Mecredi we spent the day searching for missing less actives... and we sadly didn't find any. We had fun still though! Our new favorite thing to do is directly translate English songs into French and then sing them out loud as we walk down the streets of Chambéry!! It is quite hysterical and a great French exercise... A few of our favorites were Un Cuillère Plein de Sucre (A spoon full of sugar), Bébé tu es un feu articifice (Baby you're a firework), and Je resents 22 (I'm feelin 22). I highly recommend trying this sometime. We also made a beautiful new street board this week! Its a big wooden panel that we put stuff on and then we set it up and we contact people with it... The one we made is covered with pictures of families, and we put the words A Jamais across the front, which means Forever. We will find our families and teach them!! Our street board will pull them in :)

We went to Annecy this week for District Meeting. It was quite entertaining. We went and visit two members that are in the hospital right now, the usual Soeur Charrut, and another widowed sister Soeur Orban. They are both so great and such spiritual strengths for our little branch. I love the members here... I feel the love of God SO strongly when I am with them. We were also able to see Soeur Tabka, the inactive sister whose son died a few weeks ago. She was doing better, and we feel like our relationship with her is sturdy. We feel like she is on the brink of coming back, s pray for her to have a desire and to recognize what is missing in her life.

We were able to teach our ami Josiane this week... she's the one who has been coming to church for 5 years but isn't baptized. I asked her what the Restoration was, and she said the Second Coming... So obviously she comes to church, but she doesnt really understand the church. She isn't baptized cause she isn't ready to keep the big commandments. Pray for her to allow us to come over more so she can really feel the spirit of the gospel in her life, and so she will develop a desire to follow the commandments.

Also, mom thank you so much for sending me that book, The Power of the Everyday Missionary... Actually, it isn't in the missionary reading list, so I didn't have the right to read it out here in the field... So I've had it just sitting in my desk, and I thought to myself last week, Hey I could give this to our branch mission leader Frere Munn, because he's from Scotland, so he speaks English, and he would love it! So I took it to him last week, and he came to our weekly meeting this week and brought it with him... He has read it 3 times already and has EVERYTHING marked up. He went on about how great the ideas are for about 30 minutes and said to tell you thank you for your inspiration to send me the book. It is going to help our little branch really get into missionary work... Look how much good you have done mom! Thank you so much :)

The greatest day of the week was Dimanche. Church was really great. A man rang the door bell during first hour, so Soeur Richardson and I went to the door to find a crazy bearded man wearing leggings, a puffy coat, and a giant fur hat... He told us he was a member and headed up to Priesthood... When he told us his name was Lucien Laurent, we recognized it from the ward list. He was quite funny during our Sunday School lesson, but we didn't think anything of it. During Sacrament meeting I turned to a member and I asked who he was or what he was like... The members response was "you'll see when testimonies begin."... sure enough when the stand was opened up, he got up with a booklet, which was his testimony. He began to read and our Branch President was stifling laughter. He took a menorah out of his backpack and placed it on the pulpit. He said that he had found it in his garbage can last October and knew that it was a sign from God that He was there and present in his life. He continued on saying many crazy things that I don't wish to recount. When he finished he picked up the menorah, held it above his hands with two hands and declared "I know that God lives! For I saw Him when I was 7 years old! In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."... Soeur Richardson and I were in SHOCK!! Hahahaha, it was the craziest thing I've ever seen. And then the meeting continued as if it had never happened... Apparently this happens once a year. Oh the crazies of France. The testimony meeting was great though.

So we did service for Mary Christine again, and then we went out contacting. It was dark outside, so we stayed in the lighted areas of Centre Ville. Soeur Rich and I split up and I saw three young adults walking together. As I approached them and told them I was a missionary for Jesus Christ, they became so excited they put down their belongings and boldly declared they were Christians as well! Of course, I was thrilled and knew it was our miracle for the day... well we began talking and one of them began asking me many questions. As we told them that we believed Jesus was the Son of God, and that He was separate from God, the young man became very angry and started yelling at us that we were crazy! He whipped out his bible and searched for scriptures. He asked if our salvation was secure, and we told him no, but that we are saved by grace after all that we can do. He yelled at us some more and his friends tried to calm him down. Soeur Richardson's tongue was tied by God, because she lost her French, and it was a good thing because she was getting heated. I was just smiling the whole time, remaining calm, and frankly wondering if we should leave or not. He forced me to read scriptures out loud and then demanded me how we could be true Christians and believe what we believe. They told us that it is not necessary to keep the commandments as long as we accept Christ in our hearts. It was actually a very long conversation/him yelling at me. At the end he told me that I didn't believe the bible, I didn't worship the real God, and that I wasn't serving Jesus Christ. I swear he stabbed me in the heart. I burst into tears and sternly bore fervent testimony that I am a servant of Jesus Christ and that I know He is our savior. I wished them a good night and then Soeur Richardson and I returned home. I was so shocked. As I thought about the experience afterwards, all I could think of was how lucky I am to have the TRUE gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. I am so lucky to have the knowledge of a living prophet, the Book of Mormon, and the true doctrine of our Lord and Savior. I was overcome by the spirit. The spirit testified to me that I do serve the Lord. It was a really sad and frankly scary experience, but my testimony was solidified by this experience. I am grateful for the trials of our lives and for all that we learn. The Lord know what He's doing. Always keep your faith burning bright my friends!

I love you all and I hope your have a blessed week!!

Avec tout mon amour,