April Happenings

 Josh and Darby had their baby this weekend. Josh wanted an April fools baby and he got it. They actually induced his wife the day before but she had the baby after midnight so he got his April Fools (April 1st) baby. His name is Carter Jones Beaulieu. They are very proud and happy. Jolene and Tahna are going up to stay with them for a week next week. We actually went over to Steve and Tahna's to play games last night for a little bit after conference. It was fun. 

April 17th - Yesterday I taught Young Women's but I had a busy week all week and family staying at the house and I hadn't really prepared my lesson. I knew I wanted to focus on Easter but there wasn't a lesson already prepared for that so I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I woke up in the morning thinking I'd better figure it out. I thought instead of looking online for ideas I should read from the scriptures. I actually read in John all about the end of Christ's life and week leading up to the cross and that did the trick. I finally felt the spirit of Easter and my lesson was taking pictures and explaining about what happened that week. I think some of the girls hadn't even heard parts of it. I don't know why I didn't do that before! It ended up going good. 

So we ended up having Angela's family over for the weekend and we hosted our Easter dinner and egg hunt again this year. We had over 30 people come but its not the same with some of the family missing. (like you) It didn't help that dad and Taylor had a migraine so they weren't very social. It was fun anyway. The kids really like the Egg hunts and all. 

Here is a picture of Ashley at mutual. They had quite a group that night.

We got to go to the Ellen show this month. We brought Jolene with us and she loved it. 

We got to go to her QVC taping back in October after you went to Ellen and that guaranteed that we would be able to go see a taping of Ellen later in the season. There wasn't anyone that we really knew on it that day but it was still fun. Jolene was excited and bought some Ellen sunglasses and a phone case, and Ashley got a hat. 

They were excited to be there together and had fun. It was kind of good because Jolene had just gotten back from a trip up to see Josh and their new baby and they spent most of the trip packing, helping them move to a new place and then unpacking. Their flight had gotten cancelled the night before and so they flew in early that morning and Jolene had just gotten home 1/2 hour before we picked her up to go to Ellen. 

Taylor is turned 21! We celebrated with a nice dinner at Duane's at the Mission Inn.  It was pretty pricey but it was fun to go to a fancy restaurant as a family. Taylor said we don't normally do much for his birthday so he was happy.

He's still studying physics in school and is set to graduate next year. Taylor also started a research position. It doesn't get paid but if he keeps with it it will look good on his resume and will hopefully help him know what direction he wants to go when he graduates. 

    

 We went to Vegas for the annual Cheer competition. It's a long weekend. We brought Ashley's friend Anna with us so she could hang out with the girls. 

 We ended up staying in a ghetto Travelodge that had free breakfast but the breakfast was Raisin bran and Cheerios, toast and danishes. One day we grabbed Jack and the Box and the other day we just ate there but the girls didn't eat anything, ha ha.

We had to check in at 7:15 in the morning and then we weren't done until 2 (which was an hour late). I'm sure it was a long day for Anna but I'm thinking she was still glad she came. 

They did great!

Of course the mascots won first place...especially since they are the only ones.

Give them Ice Cream and they are all happy.

I found out that 3 of Ashley's friends had never been in downtown Vegas so we took them around a bit and went to the Variety show that we've been to a few times. 

Checking out the soap in Lush at the underground mall

The Variety show!

The mall in Cesar's Palace!

We hosted Vanessa baby shower this month. Her friend put it on and we were just the house. We are so happy for her!

There were a lot of presents and food and games. This was the girl's favorite game. Sucking juice out of baby bottles. 

Tasty!

And news from Jacob this month...

April 3, 2017

Hello Family! 

This week has been pretty amazing! We have a solid guy who came to conference and he's been progressing greatly! He said that he want's to get our emails too once we leave so we can keep in touch, which i think means he likes us! Sadly he's the only guy we're really teaching right now, but this upcoming week, me and Elder Olson are going to do some major finding! 

Oh Yeah! I also got a new companion! Which you guys have already hear, but we're getting along great! I love him and the members love him, and even though he's a bit younger than me (mission age) i still have a lot to learn from him! We've been getting along great, and by the end of this transfer we're going to having Danville as the most successful area in the mission! We're going to really try and focus on members, and helping them do missionary work, since we've found here in Danville, going door to door, you talk to lots of people. But not a lot will want to change. But i think its so amazing, because it forces us to look for more creative ways to find people! So far we've been sharing the Easter initiative with members, and encouraging them to share it with their friend, so i could see some amazing things happening with this in the near future.

We watched conference at the church which was a lot better than at the MTC, since the chair were comfortable and we got to spread out, and we could control the temperature. I tried taking notes, but I've learned i am not an audio-learner. I got the main ideas and big spirit-packed statements, but it was hard to get it all. But luckily it will be out on gospel library pretty soon which is very exciting! And i'm gonna study them a little deeper then. One thing i absolutely loved about conference was that our investigator Derek was able to come! We tried to stop by 3 times between sessions on Saturday, and he wasn't there. Then Sunday morning we stopped by and invited home to the afternoon session, and he said he might be able to come, then he made it! What was so great, was that the 70 that spoke (he was the one that visited my classroom in the MTC out of the many classrooms around campus and gave me a hug! :D) and told his conversion story and about talking with the missionaries,i think really helped him! And it was really something he could relate to! It was pretty much the perfect talk on what he needed to hear. And i think it was so inspired that the one he was able to make it to was the one with that talk! 

One cool little thing, so my journal keeping has been sub-par. luckily my new comp writes in his journal and encourages me to, so i now have a voice recorder so i can have a journal on that! :D So i will now keep a better journal! 

I look forward to seeing the miracles that will soon happen in Danville, VA! I love you all and have a great time getting your wisdom teeth out ash! 

-Elder Beaulieu

April 10, 2017

Hello Family! 

So ma! I see you heard about our talks on Easter ha ha. Elder Olson wasn’t too excited so I gave him the easier talk. He's talking on the atonement and I have the Resurrection. Oh! And to answer your question I am senior companion! He came out with Greg, and he is the best! 

So the area of Danville is very tough. We have one solid guy we're teaching but it's very difficult to find here. My faith has not faltered though, since this companion is very humble and relies on the Lord so much. We're looking forward to giving our talks because it will really help the members to trust us more! The members here are pretty great, they really love Elder Olson too.

So you probably see that I have mentioned my companion a lot, I love Elder Olson! We are getting along great! Our personalities are very similar, and he is ready to work! We're gonna turn Danville around and get this work booming here! 

I love the pictures! I just wanna know, who's screams were real and who's weren't? (when we went to Disneyland) I hope you all have a great week! 

~Elder Beaulieu

April 17, 2017

And Then There Was 10

Hello Family!

Good news! Today we didn't have as much going on so we have more time to write emails! We were invited to go play disc golf with some other Elders but we wanted to relax today. So we got to take a nap! Which was pretty great! So before I answer any Questions let me just tell you about this week, before I Forget. (mostly just the highlights)

Tuesday:

We had Zone meeting, learned about no slack. They compared it to Trek and how the ones with the rope in the front, they can pull, but sometimes they're just walking if theres slack. So we as missionaries must always pull, with no slack, whether the cart is barely moving, or if it's full speed, there can be no slack. 

Wednesday:

We were able to do some finding this day! We got to talk to a lot of people which was great because it seemed like Danville was going through a dry spell for a while. We taught one of our investigators, they only real solid one we have right now, the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom .The lesson went great but sadly we havent been able to get in contact with him, so hopefully he didn't take those lessons to hard.

Thursday:

Always a tough day because we spend hours planning for the week. Its great for the rest of the week because we have a lot planned already. So we usually take lunch in between it. First, a little background. on our porch we have tons of spiders. We kinda have a truce because they eat a ton of the bugs. But this day we realized how many there were, so we started killing them, and they all started falling down from the roof, it was kinda creepy, but we got them! Another Great day though, talked to a lot of people. 

Friday:

Did some Service at the Animal Shelter. Went out with a member, dinner we saw the missionary parody of Hello, and it describes missionary work so well xD

Saturday:

Highlight of the day! A random guy we befriended, who isn't interested in the Gospel, loves what we do as missionaries. So he gave us a lb of chicken salad and a lb of pulled pork, with a bunch of homemade rolls and cinnamon rolls. Which was pretty amazing! 

So first off, Everything is Green again! This week all the trees turned from dead to Green and it's beautiful! The only problem is, the reason it's so green is because it's Hot and Humid! And let me tell you, it is the beginning of summer and I'm already sweating so much! And the AC in the house only works at night. Its actually not too bad though, I'm already starting to get used to it, and I'll be burning a lot of fat off! 

So I think this is what you want to hear about though, 

Easter: 

So we gave our talks today! I apparently brought my habits of procrastination from home onto the mission, because I started studying for the Talk a couple days before I gave it xD. I was very confident until we got on the stands, and we were singing the song before I was to go up. Oh, and btw, I kinda forgot about the recording thing before we went up.

So while I was studying, I learned a lot about the Resurrection! I split up the talk into 4 parts, Prophecies, The Story of the Resurrection, Why it had to happen, and How it affects us. It was pretty great, because when I went up, the Spirit completely took over! It was crazy, I didn't even do anything, I just opened my mouth and it filled it! It was amazing! I hope ya'll are doing great! and I hope you do great this weekend Ash! 

-Elder Beaulieu 

Oh! and the reason for the Subject, is that out of the 15 people that came out with me, 5 of them are already home! I just found out a couple days ago that my MTC companion went home, right after he was with Elder Montandon. It's so crazy! It makes me sad, but it gives me motivation to work even harder for them, keeping them in my mind. So, its sad, but hopefully the rest of us will stay it through the whole mission!  

Oh! Last thing, I promise. So I saw a member of the ward who is putting in his papers soon, get ordained to an elder. And he invited me to be a part of the blessing! It made me feel so special to be invited into the circle, that I was able to make a good friendship here already, and hopefully help him for his mission! just wanted to say that before, but I forgot so now here it is. Happy Easter!

And a tidbit from Jacob’s companion Elder Olson’s letter...

We saw a big old dude this past week while looking for a Bible Referral, and while I was asking him and all of his friends (it looked like a frat house) if they knew her, he seemed kind of confrontational. So, I thought, "Alright Big Guy, that's enough." But then he came down and asked something along the lines of,

"Are you Mormons?"

"Do you have a Book of Mormon that I can read?"

​That was pretty cool. He's not even Christian, so that will be interesting to teach too. Normally we say, God is good, and they say, "Amen!" And then we say, "Jesus died for you," and they say, "Oh Jesus saved me, I love Jesus" and then we say, God speaks today through Prophets and he's called one today, and they agree (I don't know why they do, they must not really be listening 😂), then we ask will you be baptized, ​and then they say, "I've been saved." So this was refreshing.

His companion also had a tick this week! Jacob hasn’t had any yet…that he’s told me about at least.

April 24, 2017

Hello Family! 

   Haha that's pretty funny about the cheer thing, those things do feel like a gimmick. And those days of the competitions are always the longest! They're fun for a little bit, but then it gets to be too much. And how was Ellen? Honestly, it kinda let me down, it felt really worldly, but then again, being on a mission makes everything feel worldly 😅 but for right now, me and my companion are getting along great! And we're seeing miracles here in Danville! There aren't a lot of solid people that will keep their commitments, but we found a couple that are different then the rest! And it all started with the members! 

   So on Sunday a member invited his friend to church, and she loved it! She said it felt like home as soon as she walked in! We were able to teach her and another friend on Wednesday, they had a lot of questions but committed to be baptized! We taught her again last night and she said she already knows this church is true, from the love she got and the difference from the other churches. But we're gonna try and get here to gain that spiritual witness. Since that fire will take her only so far, she needs that solid foundation that this church is true! 

   So weather wise, we've had some hot and humid days, which are rough, but they're not even at the bad part yet. But luckily for 4 days straight it's been raining which is a tender mercy. And there's a lot of thunderstorms here! It's so sweet! We got caught up in a big storm, we were out walking, and we got a weird feeling, so we went back and drove closer to home. It was crazy but it was sweet! 

Oh! And I discovered that another person from my MTC group went home! He went to Chicago, but it's crazy that all these people are going home! Don't worry though, I'm staying! There is almost nothing that will get me to go! Luckily I've only had a few headaches, but it's been regular ones, where they medicine fixed it! So hopefully that'll last the rest of the mission! This companion definitely helps with that, we're having much fun together! Lol the only thing is we're both kinda new, so there are things we're still figuring out on our own. 

So all the members have this DoTerra thing, that's apparently really good for you! The members say to have me ask ma for some, because they help with a lot of things. They said the essentials are Peppermint, On Guard, and lavender. So that

 Would help with things I think, at least according to the members 👍

I hope yall have a great week, and that Taylor has fun being 21.... But not too much fun. And I look forward to seeing you guys on mother's day! Is it gonna be just you guys this time or other family too? Love you! 

-Elder Beaulieu