Week 8: Bleu Fire

Hey everybody.

So this week has been crazy, and last week was crazy and it's all basically crazy -- but it's a good crazy! 

This week we had a bleus (brand new missionaries) only exchange and got an Engagé! (Someone who has a baptismal date) 

So, first off - the bleus exchange was where all of our trainers went to a leadership training and we were by ourselves proselyting for most of Tuesday and it was terrifying. The other sisters were all terrified but they kept saying it's okay -- there will be miracles -- and that was a lot of pressure for us because literally everyone would say that -- but after that day -- I believe!!  

But for real -- they call it the bleu fire because miracles just happen around bleus, without fail, every transfer. So ours this week was on our exchange. There were four of us sisters and we went and taught a man named J and that was fun. Then we went back to the institute to study. 

While we were there the bell rang and one of the Chinese speaking elders got up to answer the door -- since they were the veterans -- they were at the institute teaching a lesson.  The Elder comes running into our room and asks us if we are supposed to have an investigator show up?! and So I go running down to the door and standing there is a lady who had found the church online about twenty minutes prior and wanted to know if she could do genealogy here since the institute has a genealogy center.  

And so, I said "of course" and took her to the genealogy center and it was just crazy to talk about the church with an absolutely random ami (an investigator)! We were just amazed that she was there and went back to our studies when not even five minutes passed and then the doorbell rings again and the exact same thing happens again.

The Chinese speaking elder goes to answer it, runs in asking if we are expecting an ami, but this time it's a random man who met the elders in the street like five minutes prior and was told he could do genealogy here and so he came! It was absolutely insane -- just crazy! 

So that was our first crazy bleu miracle. 

Now on to our engagé  her name is N and she used to be a member, but through a series of events took her name off of church records because she wasn't ready to be a member, But she's been seeing the missionaries again for a long time now and we just stopped by to see her. She pulled us in and after like a two hour long meeting with her -- where we talked and prayed with her -- she picked a baptism date in August -- which is far out, but it's a goal that she can lead up to and it makes it seem smaller than a mountain -- because for our amis it's like this giant decision and it scares them. We call her every morning to pray to start out our day and it's crazy and great.

So this transfer, and probably the next one or two, I want to read the Book of Mormon with one of my goals in mind -- to let go of fear -- because it's really easy to let the fear of getting hurt or rejected or denied take over and then it can become debilitated -- but there's so many things in the scriptures about prophets and people being scared, and why, and how they overcome it, or if they don't overcome what happens to them. 

Reading the scriptures with this in mind makes it really easy to read through the Book of Mormon because I'm searching for a specific answer and am lucky to find some other answers to my other questions as well.

Sometimes, especially before my mission, it was difficult to just read the scriptures -- but reading with a purpose makes it so much easier. 

One of my friends, Sister Robb is so cute. She is another bleu and she made a transfer goal to finish the Book of Mormon before the end of the transfer (it's partly what gave me this idea). In her district -- her District leader's transfer goal was to help everyone in his district with one of their goals and so he called her the first Sunday and asked her what her main goal was and she said he almost died on the phone because the best way for him to help her with this was to read the Book of Mormon with her at the pace she needed to finish it before the end of the transfer! 

She said the phone was on speaker and his companion was just laughing real hard that now he has this big task to fulfill his bigger task of helping each person in his district -- but he said he's going to do it so that is just amazing! 

My French is coming along okay, although at ward council I maybe understood two words of what our bishop said, which is nice (not really). It's really easy to just get a headache, but I'm trying really hard and I am getting better each day. I can't wait for the day that I can understand everything that's going on in church! 

Our DMP (ward mission leader) is an American who is here in France working and he is great! We get to have the meeting in English and it is so wonderful to understand everything! His name is Brother Z.

This week we also had zone training and that was super stressful because my companion is a sister training leader -- but she couldn't do her presentation all by herself, so I had to help present, me! a bleu! to the Assistants to the Presidents (who are in our zone) and the office Elders and like eight other people -- who all go home within the next four transfers -- and that was scary.  I talked about having Godly love and letting go of fear and pride and just focusing on loving people -- because if you want to love someone -- God will help you. I think it went well since no one corrected me or anything -- so I'll take that as a good sign. 

One last funny, awkward, strange thing that happened, me and my companion were travelling around Vieux Lyon (Old Town Lyon) and it was gorgeous. We were taking pictures of all these gorgeous cathedrals with some intimidating gargoyles and we paused in this one spot to take a picture -- no one else was around because it was early -- and this van of French army soldiers with their giant guns and uniforms rolls up near us and were making motions and we got real scared real quick and started fumbling with our bags to get our passports -- because we weren't sure what we did but we must've been in trouble! As we started towards them, they started driving away, laughing, and as they started to drive away the soldier in the passenger seat blew a kiss at us!!! 

It was so awkward and terrifying because we thought we were in trouble but we laughed because it was funny and we were so relieved we didn't have to show our passports or anything like that! 

Later today I'm going on an exchange with a Tahitian sister who doesn't really speak English -- so wish me luck!

Love you all, 

Soeur Beatty  

So many of the buildings in Lyon/Ecully are painted in this 3 D style.

Ecully.

Ecully.

Mikayla is loving the food in France! 

Zone conference with all the trainers and their bleus.

Strange hair doings. 3 buns in one like the girl from Mulan.

The French and their tea.

The elevators are so tiny - stuffing three Bleus into one was quite a feat. S. Long, S Beatty, S Louder.

Potatoes and French Cheese. They are enjoying cooking as well.

Sister Long was presenting at the Zone Conference and so Mikayla was too.

Ecully.

Dinner Appointment with M. 

Fried Plantains.

The sisters spend PDay exploring Old Lyon - Vieux Lyon.

Mikayla loves all the patisseries. 

All the adults ride Razon scooters. 

Shoes!! 

Lunch out.

Week 7 - Transcript - Audio Letter

Hi Everybody.

My trainer is Sister Grant. She is from Utah. And fun fact, she is also a quarter Asian.

We’ve been having a lot of fun.  Sister Grant is awesome and has been out for almost one year. She will go home in about six months. She will hit her 6 month mark this transfer.

We serve in Ecully and we have the best apartment in the mission. It’s got this awesome shower with crazy nozzles and jets. It’s awesome.

Sister Grant plays the paino, but I haven’t heard her play yet. Sister Grant is amazing.

France is different. It’s old. Dad and Mom probably know what I’m talking about. It’s an Old World country, so they have nice things, but it’s just old. The houses are old, the buildings are older, the sidewalks are broken, because they are just old. It’s been so fun.  France is gorgeous.

Oh! The patisseries are amazing. We have had a bunch of  tarts and a couple different baguettes and an almond twisty thing - I can’t say the name yet.

My mission president’s wife is named Tracy Brown - she used to be Tracy Bruce and she grew up in Huntington Beach, California. She knows where you grew up. Did you know her?

There are mirrors everywhere. I don’t know if it’s like this in Paris, but in Lyon, there are mirrors everywhere. There’s mirrors when you walk into a building, and out of a building, and in all the elevators. And the elevators are tiny. You can fit like 2 people and a bag. When we had my suitcases we barely fit in the elevator.

Our apartment is huge. We have an apartment with three extra rooms with tons of beds.  We have an apartment near president, so when the sisters come for Christmas conference  and other things, they come and stay in our apartment.

We bought food this morning, which was awesome! We haven’t had food this week, so we’ve been eating scraps out of the cupboard. It was like half way through the week and we were supposed to have all these dinner appointments, but then they didn’t happen. It’s all good. We still got to porte.

La Porte is the door, so we say we are porting - it means we are going door to door. Street contacting is still the same. That’s what we say.

The city is awesome. The fire hydrants looks like little petite iron mans. The ward - there are a few kids in the ward, but mainly it’s older. They are all super sweet and everyone does bisous - which is like kissing on the cheek - but we shake hands with the brethren. With all the sisters  though we bis.

All the sisters are cute and little. There was one lady, she is tiny. She is smaller than Becky. She is so small, when she walked out I said, “Oh, i’m so tall!”  She was so cute. I’ve got to get a photo with her before we leave. She was just adorable.

They are all so small and speak really fast French, and I don’t speak fast French. Well, I can speak fast French, but I can’t understand fast French. But hopefully that will get better.

We have a few investigators that we are seeing. I’ll write more about them next week.

I might drive here, and I’m terrified. It’s scary. People don’t stop for anything or follow traffic laws. It’s waaaaah!!!

We do MANGOs in the morning. It’s an acronym for our morning routine (including exercise), so we stay charged and are good about it.  

Two pieces of advice that was given to me by one of my teachers. You need two things if you’re going to come on a mission. You need to believe that you can do hard things and when things get bad, you need to know where to turn.

If you have these two things, you’re good. When life gets hard, it will seem even harder when you don’t know what to do and you are thousands of miles from home. Make sure you believe in yourself and know you can do hard things, and that you know where to turn when it’s hard.

We got tombe vous a lot. Tombe is the French word for fall. It doesn’t make sense, but it basically means that people stood us up. It’s French missionary slang.

Have a good week.

Soeur Beatty 

Week 7: I'm Not Green, I'm Bleu

So Monday/Tuesday was just weird with all the sleeping I did on the planes, but we all got here with only two pieces of luggage missing -- which, for all 17 of us was pretty good!

My mission president and his wife are awesome. They are so loving and caring and a nice reminder of home. He is from Utah and she is from Orange County, California.

This week was crazy! I met my trainer Sister Grant and she is great. She's from Utah and speaks amazing French and is an awesome teacher!

We do lots of studies everyday, which is tiring, but good, because we need to be prepared.

This week most of our dinners and rendezvous (appointments) cancelled, but it was still great. My ville (city) is gorgeous and I loved walking around it and seeing all the cute French architecture. And the boulangeries (bakeries) and patisseries (cake shops) are everywhere and just soooo good -- and soooo much better than the MTC!

The ward is wonderful and I bore my testimony yesterday in French and it went pretty well. My accent isn't terrible, but understanding what people are saying is so hard, but it'll only get better with practice!

This week, really the only bad thing, but even then, not really, was we ran out of food -- so we ended up eating out of strange cans with strange food things inside of them. But we only had to do that once because our sweet Zone Leaders gave us some of their own food since we couldn't go get more and it was so nice! They're the best. Our Zone Leaders are Elder Mauss and Elder Berri. They both go home soonish.

In French -- Berry and Beatty sound similar - so all the ward members kept coming up to me and asking if we were somehow related -- which was funny.

Everyday is different but I love all the possibilities and just meeting new people. French is terrifying but it'll come. I just need time!

My trainer is a sister training leader and so tomorrow we are going on a split and I'll be with another brand new sister -- so wish us luck that we don't get lost or hurt! Haha. It'll be an adventure that's for sure!

Love you all and I'll hopefully have more for you next week.

Sœur Beatty

[Mikayla's Mom: In the mission field, new missionaries are called greenies. But in France, missionaries are blue, not green.]

Day 1 in Ecully, Mikayla's first area

Mikayla with Sister Grant, her trainer and first companion

Mikayla's sweet companion made her a beautiful planner. It made her so happy! 

Mikayla getting settled in her apartment

Photos around Ecully.

S Grant

S Grant

Homemade bruschetta with olive bread - sure beats the MTC

Mikayla was so happy to be cooking.

Curry vegetables and rice.

They ran out of food and had to open the cans in the apartment.

Sad meals. They are in desperate need of groceries.

The Elders took pity on the sisters and gave them some food to make it to pday.

It's amazing what you can make from just a few ingredients.

Mikayla is so happy with the food in France.

The Sisters went to do service on Saturday.

1st Sunday in Ecully.

The sisters went shopping and had their rolling bag to get everything home on the bus.

Week 6: Mission Office

Hello.

So I'm sitting here in the mission office and for the life of me, I can't remember emails or photo numbers. It's so hard to remember things.

But, I'm here safe and sound and exhausted. My stuff is all here an i'm very grateful for that. It's funny, all the senior couples are so excited because i'm from Virginia and because of that I can drive longer here in France.

It's funny being in France because right now there is still a lot of English because we're still in the city, but once we leave it'll be more French-like.

I've had my first contacting experience, and I talked with five different people and out of those had a real conversation with two of them and was only able to bring up the gospel once, but for only like 30 minutes. Not bad, but this is going to be very interesting (like the next 195 contacts).

I love you all and I hope you are all doing well. I think my mission will fly by.

Love,

Soeur Beatty

Week 6. She is Here.

Dear Parents,

We are happy to let you know your missionary arrived safely in Lyon this morning. She was met at the airport by President and Sister Brown. After arriving at the Mission Office she had lunch, her picture taken, took care of paperwork, and had an individual interview with President Brown.

Tonight she will have dinner with President and Sister Brown, as well as the other missionaries that arrived today. She will stay in Lyon tonight.

Tomorrow she will meet his new companion, who will be her trainer. Then she will have training with President Brown and the Assistants to the President.

After the short training she will leave with her companion to go to her first area. We will send you her address and companion’s name tomorrow.

Thank you for sending us such a fine young woman. We will take good care of her.

Soeur Sweeney (from Alpine, Utah)
Secretaire Mission Française de Lyon

New Missionaries in France - Lyon Airport - with President and Sister Brown.

Mikayla with President and Sister Brown.

Week 6: um, je suis mauvais avec les lignes de sujet (Um, I'm bad with subject lines)

So this week was something that's for sure.

To start off I'm in a trio now for the last days here because it was time for a sister in my district to go home because God needs her there. 

It's something that we've all been thinking about a lot, but in all seriousness, until you're here, in this position, it's so hard to realize and so easy to judge when we don't understand. 

There are so many things that are hard here (in the MTC) and I won't lie and say that I haven't thought about coming home because the MTC is hard -- but there is no way to describe what it is like until you're here. Everyone says it's hard, but no one tells you exactly how, and they don't really want to because it is a deterrent to come. 

A mission is a good thing, a really good thing, but an extremely hard thing. When you think you're prepared -- you're really not, and when you don't think you're prepared, then it's scary. To those missionaries that go home -- it takes courage and strength to make that choice, and to those missionaries who push through the judgement and pain and stay faithful to the Lord -- they are some of the spiritually strongest people in the world. 

God knows us inside and out and he knows the choices we're probably going to make. So, when missionaries go home or request a change of mission, for whatever reason, God knows and is ready for them. And most times I think God needs them where they are. 

There are opportunities everywhere that he has given us and he will work with it and just wants us to be happy. That goes for both Elders and Sisters. It doesn't matter why they go home, they are where God needs them and he will help them figure out the best path for them.

Okay, sorry for my hopefully not too much of a rant, but it was so painful to watch this sister struggle medically and finally make this decision to go home, right after another Elder had to go home for the same medical issue -- the almost fear they had in going home was awful. God gives us all different trials but some end up with stigmas in the church and being on this side of it, where I was with this sister constantly because we are always all together, it was terrible and just made me so sad. Those who go home need love and we are charged to love them, not judge them.

Yesterday was in-field orientation and I'm so excited and so nervous. It's a wonderful roller coaster to be on. (Hear the sarcasm, haha) 

Ah, we leave Monday and then it's France!

I am so not ready, but I'm about as ready as I'll ever be because these last few days especially, but these last few weeks, I've felt like I've plateaued because we can only do so much here and the field will be so different -- but I'm excited and I'm praying for my trainer and hopefully me and her will mesh.

So my funny moment of the week was when another sister in our zone was walking up these bleacher steps after choir and she lost her shoe, so her companion goes, "Who are you Cinderella?" and at that very moment a random elder was like, "In 2 years sister," and it was sooooooo funny.

Right after that we went up to this sister to laugh about it and my district sisters were joking that she should write her email on the bottom of the shoe (because we've gone back in time and now it's - ASK FOR THEIR EMAIL). As we turned around to walk out of the door, the Elder was still there who had made the comment and he was so red. He felt bad though and apologized to his companion and was just like, "It was so perfect I just had to say that." The elder had gotten stuck because there was a traffic jam at the door, but we hadn't noticed because we were laughing so hard, it was so funny. 

Not much else happened this week, it kind of flew by! Tomorrow morning is my last normal day and then everything is crazy! 

Sunday we are doing a "music in the spoken word" (meaning there would only be music during sacrament meeting and no speakers). I'm basically playing or accompanying the whole time because there are so many in my branch that are leaving with us that have musical talents - which is just crazy. My sight reading skills are insanely improved since I've been having to play all these difference pieces that just get set down in front of my face, I love it though:) 

And Sunday night me and Sister Robb are playing at a devotional which will be awesome! I'm also teaching Relief Society on the ordinances of baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost, which I have come to realize, you need them both together -- baptism by water and fire -- and you can't have one without the other or else it doesn't count. 

I also loved our Tuesday night devotional from Elder Dube. I just loved his talk and everything he said was so kind and full of love and it was just wonderful:) He was great and talked about our purpose, but applied it in a way I hadn't really applied it, which was to myself. I need to help others come unto Christ, but I need to help myself come closer to Christ too. He also said if we are ever doubting our effectiveness to just go, "Mister Devil, it is none of your business!" and move on because we are disciples of Christ. We are missionaries of Christ, and He has our backs. He will fix our mistakes and always provide a way.  

Think that's about it, love you all

Sister Mikayla Beatty

Study session with branch president. S Beatty and S Long

Making Valentines Cookies for each other.

S Robb and S Beatty Making Valentine's Cookies

Mikayla the Lamanite (with S Long)

Dress Up. Haha. Too much time on their hands.

S Long.

Fog at the MTC. S Thompson and Mikayla

Mikayla and the Fog. 

Mikala said it was like walking to heaven.

Hello in the Snow.

Mikayla and S Trost from CV Stake.

Mikayla with the Tahitian Sisters - S Sanchez and S Ladd

Elders in the Zone.

Sisters in the Zone.

Mikayla and Soeur Echols - her MTC teacher.

Mikayla, S Long, E Lutu, Sister Echols, E Johnson, S Thompson, S Kelley and S Wadsworth

 

Mikayla's favorite color. She loves these tights right now.