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