Week #3, Transfer #5 - Manosque, France

Bonjour! We got to see all our Amis this week!  Started off seeing Jean-Luc finally who we haven't been able to see yet, haha, so then we saw him 4 times this week! He's doing so awesome.  He's taken a lot of steps to change his life and says he's happy for the first time.  He saw some miracles in his life while we couldn't see him and all the sudden he's ready and prepared for baptism! He's so pumped and we've seen God blessing his life left and right haha, so many blessings it's crazy!  We're so happy, it's so cool, so we'll be having his baptism at the end of the transfer!  I'm super excited.

Another gorgeous sunset in Manosque, through the apartment window

We got to see Patrick again yesterday, had a good lesson and he was as cool as ever.  Haha gonna keep them shorter - he seemed to lose attention after 50 min, always working on improving my teaching so good learning experience!  We also got to see Hervé who had a lot of good questions, he's super cool and one of the few people I've found shorter than me.  He's so cool, he looks like he stepped right off a cartoon and is super funny.  So it was a cool week with Amis!

It snowed in Provence!!!  Had to bring in the heavy equipment to deal with it...

My favorite part this week, besides teaching all of them, was the Worldwide Mission Conference, a broadcast with a lot of the leaders in our church to all missionaries in the world, which took place right in Salt Lake City where Nick is.  Anyways it was really cool and while I was in Aix to watch it I met a lot of cool missionaries in the moving companionship who deal with moving missionaries to new apartments, including Elder Carlson from my MTC district, Elder Keller who was in Rodez by Albi semi recently and Elder Tindel-Biscaut from Malaga Spain who is in Albi now after some emergency transfers got figured out.  Elder Omohundro is doing better which is good to hear, I don't think he's in the hospital anymore, and turns out a promise I made to our ami Brigitte in Albi really happened. It was something I honestly felt inspired to tell her right before I left, all I know is God really does work through us. It was amazing.  To explain, we feel what we call the spirit in the church, who can help us in life by peace and aid in decisions (I pray a lot when trying to make a good decision!) and by good thoughts and feelings we can be inspired to help others.  I felt so recently and it's powerful to see the results; sometimes we don't see them immediately, but like this week with what I heard, it really works! It's so cool.

For my mom.  Just to remind her what she's missing there in California...

Also make sure to eat some good food and happy MLK Jr Day!  Had no idea that happened this week, thanks Nick for the update haha!  A little detached from the US right now. Tell me what cool things are happening back in the homeland! Love you all lots!

Avec amour,
Elder Laney

Week #2 Tranfer #5 - Manosque - Fun stuff!

Hey everyone!! This week was amazing as usual! We have been working very hard and with some new inspired direction from President Brown and working in the right direction too. Really awesome!  This week was cold, the mistral, a wind that comes from the Swiss alps comes in and it is freezing! This week we started off with some shopping in Aix on Monday.  Soldes, a 6 week period where all the shops drop most prices below minimum 20% and many to 50% off, have started, so I bought a little, but not too much, and I'll try not to spend all my money!

Manosque is in the hills of Provence

We found a lot more people and even engage Patrick, our new ami from Kenya, to be baptized!  He wants to know its true, but every time we meet with him it's so cool. He's so happy and we even found 1 Book of Mormon in Swahili for him that was in our apartment.  Who knew! Anyways, I'm really excited for him and all our other Amis.  It's so cool how hard work and strict obedience immediately will bring about wonderful change and so much in our lives.  I've really been working on this and acting in faith to do what God needs me to do for these people here in France, and were finding those who are ready and helping them along the way, and it's so cool. Haha, Patrick told us again he was "very happy" and was so cool, we're seeing him later this week.

If you look REALLY close you can see the Alps in this photo!  Where the white meets the blue of the sky, toward that top of the photo, that is the Alps.

I also got to hold what I believe might have been a violin worth several thousand dollars this week at a members house, they wouldn't say how much it was worth, but it sounded beautiful when their daughter played it, though I was too afraid to try it.  I will give it a go next time, haha, I'm not good at violin and started a year ago and am out of practice, but it's fun anyways!

Manosque is so picturesque, even if it is freezing right now!

Below is my favorite scripture, I wanted to share it with you this week. It's Helaman 5:12 in the Book of Mormon. 

".. remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, ...because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

I love this verse and it has given me strength in the past and continues to do so now. 

This is a painting that just works with that that I found this week. It's really beautiful.

Have a wonderful week! Love you guys and I miss you all so much. Lots of love et

Avec amour,
Elder Laney

Some French fun!
Baguette literally means "stick"
So guess what "baguette pour manger" means?  Manger means eat, so I thought it meant a beaguette for eating, so you know the bread you eat. It means a chopstick! Because it's a stick you use for eating. I find that really funny and ironic. 

Week #1 Tranfer #5 - Hakuna Matata

Hey everyone!! This week in Manosque was great! I will tell you it was the hardest working week I've had so far haha. Literally the entire week every day all day we contacted people on the street and went porting (port-a-port which means door to door), and so I was a little exhausted but that's all right. Me and Elder Garside are having a fun time together, similar work ethics and we get along great, so no complaints haha. We're going to make his last transfer a good one, that's our goal! Manosque is a cool little city, hahaha much like Tarbes, I walk everywhere and the church is a 30 min walk from our apartment so basically the same. Lol. It's a gold mine here though, as Elder Garside put it. We met so many cool people and are meeting a ton of them this week!

Manosque from my apartment window

Favorite part of the week comes in 2. 1st, I read a letter to a missionary by his dad known as the Ricciardi letter. I believe this may just be changing my mission. The perspective I now have includes the change I can have on all people, including myself. That's what a mission is for, by following Gods guidance by the spirit and doing our best when left to our own, we find and baptize those who are prepared and ready, while changing ourselves in ways we could never have. Try to go into every day with the mindset that it is full of opportunities to grow, enjoying the journey and learn and improve and help others as you try to do so, in every day life!

Manosque at night

Second favorite: We met 2 people yesterday after church who both are new Amis now! We had to skip the ward lunch, which here is uncommon and looked sooooo good, because we had scheduled a rendezvous at 2, and an hour after church people were still talking next to all the food and hadn't prayed and started eating yet (France lol) so we had to skip it. We were also didn't think either of the rendezvous would happen since both the people we met showed the typical signs they wouldn't show, one even gave us the wrong number. But we went anyways and tried to find some faith on the way over. 7 minutes after the scheduled time we were waiting on a bench when we saw who we thought was Patrick, a man from Africa we had met during the week and who we were waiting for. Turned out to be him! So he came over and we had the coolest 1st lesson ever! ( the first lesson is where we share the story of Joseph smith's vision and how we can know God is there and if what we are teaching is true) At the end when we were finishing he told us in his heavy Kenyan accent "I am happy!" He had already fixed another meeting with us and it was so cool to see how happy he was after our message, I just knew he felt the spirit as he said those words, I had felt it strongly in recounting the vision that Joseph smith had of God the father and Jesus Christ. We had another slightly less doubting experience meeting our 2nd new ami Adil who came too and is interested in learning more and wants to find the truth! So cool. And the Best part, speaking to Patrick it turns out he speaks multiple languages including English, a little French, and Swahili. So my companion elder Garside asked him to teach us some. First he taught us habadiako which means hello, and then said "here's anatha, I don't know if you know this one, you may have heard it: "Hakuna Matata." It means "no problems!"" Haha, just like saying "no problem", I had no idea that was a real phrase! Me and Elder Garside loved it. Haha he and Adil are so cool and I'm so excited to teach them!

I hope you all have a wonderful week, My invite is to go do something nice and when someone tells you thank you or asks you to do a favor you can reply with Hakuna Matata :)

Public restroom here are a little TOO public!

Also our beautiful faces in case I forgot to share with you a pic of me and my new companion! 1st pic with elder Garside last Monday. In Aix trying not to spend all my money today. All the sales are in full swing, soldes as they call it in France.

Elder Laney and Elder Garside

Week #6 Tranfer #4 - On the Road Again

Surprise! I'm moving again! I'm currently at the Toulouse train station waiting to take 2 more trains and a bus to get to my new ville, Manosque, which is a little north of Aix en Provence, so I'll be in Provence! 

Lavender fields outside Manosque

I've heard it's beautiful. Also my new branch president is the best friend of President Bernardi, branch president of Albi.  Haha the connections between French Mormons are crazy. I'm finally leaving the Toulouse zone, it's been fun and I'm really going to miss it.

here's a little castle on the hill along the way...

 I've seen all the villes and met a ton of super awesome men and women, and it will be sad to leave, I'll especially miss Albi, it's been such a blessing to serve here and I'll miss everyone and my basically 4 comps as we spent so much time with Rodez :) I'll also be leaving Elder Zhu who I've been with the whole mission since I got dropped off at the MTC in Utah!  He's going to a French companionship in a different zone too to learn French though so that will be cool.

The amazing Elders of Rodez and Albi.  Gonna miss these guys...

I will say it has been an eventful week!  Besides getting transferred half way across the country, Elder Omohundro has not been eating like anything recently so we got him checked out and it turns out he has gall stones, so we spent half the week with Elder Wall while he went to the hospital and today Elder Wall is coming to Toulouse to pick up Elder Omohundro's 2 new companions while Elder Omohundro goes to the hospital with Elder Woodward from Rodez.  Oh ya, by the way Elder Robards got transferred too, he's off the Jex which is right by Switzerland, quite a different climate to where I'm headed.  Anyways, should be an interesting day. Pray for Elder Omohundro and that he gets better, he may have to undergo surgery but I think that even if he'll be alright.

Anyways this week was pack full of member visits and some super cool miracles. My takeaway: when you see something good, or identify a good cause, go for it. Yesterday our ami Bridgette couldn't come to church due to some grave circumstances with her family, so we got a call from a member suggesting we see her. I thought it sounded like a good idea, so we put packing to leave Albi on hold and me, Elder Robards and Elder Wall , (Elder Omohundro wasn't feeling well) drove 40 min to her house hoping she was there. After we said a prayer and got out of the car, as soon as we got to the door Brigitte opened it and got super surprised, but super happy to see us. She and her friend Eric were on there way to go to help with her situation and we had walked up exactly as they we leaving the house. Haha her friend Eric, who we know and is super cool and who had been super gung-ho for her baptism even though he's not a member, anyways as soon as the door opened he pointed at us and told her "c'est une signe!" (It's a sign!). Haha he thought it was so cool we showed up at that moment. We talked for some time and she was feeling so much better afterwards. We were able to help her know that no matter what situation God is there to help us. And when we got home we were able to pack in time too! Haha so it all worked out.  From all this I know God works through us to help others
in trials.

New year service project!  Stocking the woodshed

I hope you all Have a great week and I love you all!

Elder Garside, my new companion!

Avec amour,
Elder Laney