Salut! (Week #4 Transfer #7)

Hey!

This week went really well! It went by so fast haha, I'm not really sure what happened. So basically we went to a little town called Oraison and taught a new ami with our member Giorgos, who's from Greece and is 18, he loved it and it was fun. It was funny because they were both named George, just the French version for our ami and the Greek version for our member. 

P Day in Aix-en-Provence

Did an exchange in gap, most diverse group I've ever been in, I'm from California, Elder Battezato is from Sicily and Elder Aitcheson is from England, so that was really fun with them! Awesome guys and great missionaries.

Elder Strong is a sushi pro

Got to see Patrick and Malo this week as well as Pascal at church. All our rendezvous with them all in the last 3 days went really well as well as a fun activity we did for all the elders in the branch. And today was fun for pday too! We all as a zone went to Aix for a zone pday and ate lunch while watching "Meet the Mormons" and then got to go bowling, I got a strike with a backwards granny roll! Highlight of my week.

French sushi!  Who knew??

I want to just borrow off of Nick's message a bit :) and ditto his thought, I know how life we can all live it happily, and even if things don't go perfectly we can plan to do better, let those go, and move on positively! Hope the next week is as beautiful and sunny for you all as it is here! Been in the 70's all week with plenty of sunshine, I'm loving it! Ready for summer :) à bientôt!

Love,

Elder Laney

Il Faut Profiter! (Week #3 Transfer #7)

Salut! If you want to make a French person happy just tell them that and they'll be like "Whoa!  They know how to say hi like that!"  It's a friendlier hello anyways.

This week was fun, spring started finally and every day has been beautiful with the sun out and everything all green and blossoming, and has been an even 70-80 degrees each day. Perfect weather really, makes it so nice to spend time out all day. We visited a beautiful  town called Oraison and meet a member from Greece who lives there and can't make it to church because of work;  anyway, it was a good time with him and we even did a tiny bit of porting in the spare time before the rendezvous and found a man who was interested! Same name as our member there too haha, both George. Just the version for their country (Giorgos and Georges).  :) 

Elder Strong and Elder Laney in Oraison

I later got to do my first exchange in Aix, that was fun, beautiful city and it was fun to spend some time with Elder Szutch. We also had district meeting  which included elder Strong's biscuits and gravy! So good, I ate like 8 or something, me and Elder Szutch were real tired beginning our exchange after that meal haha. Biscuits strait from a Kentucky man are delicious, thank you elder strong once again! Haha I was actually looking forward to those biscuits all week, we have them every few weeks. So a good week! Got to see Patrick too! He's doing so awesome, he's running again and getting ready for competitions and he's making a ton of progress in the gospel and getting towards baptism, so cool!  Big miracle with him this week in his progress.  I just wanted to let you all know I love you and wish you to have the best week!


 We studied a scripture this week, 2 Nephi 2:25 which states: 

"25 Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." 

I know that this life is meant to enjoy in the best ways possible, so in this spring season go Profitez du soleil!! (take advantage of the sunshine!) and have an awesome springy week, make sure you go out and take advantage of the sunny days! In his life we have too little time not to enjoy every minute of it, il faut Profiter (we gotta profit/take advantage of what we got!) Make every day good and spend it with family and friends in good wholesome fun, and when it's sunny go take advantage of the sun! Fun is super important!  So I invite you all to go have a fun week :)

Avec beaucoup d'amour
Elder Laney

Ps: This is a double rainbow from this week!!!!

Double rainbow over Manosque

Panorama of Oraison

Measure success by your heart (Week #2 Transfer #7)

Bonjour les Amis!

This week was good and pretty normal with a bit of a crazy weekend. We got locked out of our  apartment and after some failed tries to open the door we just left and got a kebab for lunch instead, made by a certified "master kebabist" and it was the best kebab I've ever had! Haha the rest of the day went well and after a broken lock and then a locksmith we were back in our apartment with a brand new dead bolt!  The next day was a bit tough with a lot of tombez-vous (an appointment that fell through, tomber means "to fall" so voilà :) ) but then we had English class and a man named Boris comes! No idea who he was but after talking with him I remembered I had called him and told and invited him to come, and he showed up and found our church!  So we then taught a really fun class with him and our member and he's really cool.  So anyway we're growing English class petit a petit! (bit by bit) haha!

A horse of course!  In the park???

I learned a cool lesson this week: after having a bit of a hard time, I was led in my studies and by others to learn a valuable lesson. I learned that we need to do our best and not get discouraged when we cannot see the grand view, and in our small perspective it may seem we are unsuccessful in this life.  But we are if we are doing our best, on the inside. It is there where it is important. We need to change and do all we can ourselves.

Also,  I don't need to be too serious, and just need to enjoy the journey. I just need to do my best and I don't need to stress out.  It's true that God will give us challenges:" 

11 And I give unto you a commandment, that ye shall forsake all evil and cleave unto all good, that ye shall live by every word which proceedeth forth out of the mouth of God.

12 For he will give unto the faithful line upon line, precept upon precept; and I will try you and prove you herewith." 

But As we do our best and choose good, and we take life step by step we will be given trials, and even when it's hard we know if we are doing all we can God is trying to help us to grow and giving us what we need. And as the last note last week, we can do so with a smile along the way :)!!We need to enjoy the journey of this life and there are too few moments given to us to spare. That's my lesson this week haha, I hope it can help you in your everyday lives. Love you all and I wish the best of weeks for you!

Love,
Elder Josh Laney

Origami lessons with Andi's mom.  Andi is a local cafe owner and a really amazing guy.

Made a swan!

Great Week (Week #1 Transfer #7)

Hey everybody! 

At our chapel in Manosque

I hope your week was good!  Ours was really fun, we got to start it off helping our member, Jonathan, move to  Paris, where he recently got a job as a translator for the Church.  I'll miss him a ton but am so excited for this new opportunity for him! Anyway, the rest of the week we got to teach a lot of people and just have some awesome lessons!  We got to teach our friend Thien Van at her Asian goods shop and she was so thankful and was so pumped on all the cool ideas she had afterwards haha. I also bought some really cool chopsticks from her which I've been improving in using.  And she gave us some incense for free, so our apartment is super chic now, and smells great! Haha the random things you do as a missionary...

Nifty new chopsticks 

Anyway, we also had a super cool lesson with our ami Hervé in which at one point he just tells us "je resent l'esprit!" (I feel the spirit!) which is so cool because he's been trying to identify it and he was super touched and pumped during the lesson. And then today got to teach Jean-luc! It's been about six weeks but he's doing great and despite hardship is moving forward with tons of faith, it's so admirable I've never seen someone so set and so motivated and awesome in their desire to choose the right. We also ran into Patrick today on the street!  So God is just helping us see all our Amis again and I'm so grateful, it's been hard not seeing a lot of them recently but this makes me so happy.

This weekend we got to watch General Conference where the prophet and apostles and other church leaders give talks in awesome subjects and how we can improve our lives. It was great and I learned a lot, even though it was in French :) but then we also had our ami Pascal come with a friend as well as a recent convert from Portugal so it was really awesome to watch Conference with others. My favorite part was when we were listening to the Saturday afternoon session as they announced the statistics for the church this past year,  and I suddenly realized (as I saw another member there recognizing this too)  that the French translation was Jonathan's voice!  Haha, he's right at work it seems and he did a great job. It was cool to also hear another talk later translated by him. So cool.

Elders Laney and Stong with Jonathan, who is now a translator for the Church in Paris

Anyway, something I learned this week from Conference I wanted to share was actually from an old conference talk I read! "A Summer with Great-Aunt Rose" a talk everyone has been telling me to read and the which I finally did read, shares this peace of advice on life and on finding joy that an aunt, Great-Aunt Rose, shares to her great-niece Eva:

 "Aunt Rose smiled. “I discovered faith. And faith led to hope. And faith and hope gave me confidence that one day everything would make sense, that because of the Savior, all the wrongs would be made right. After that, I saw that the path before me wasn’t as dreary and dusty as I had thought. I began to notice the bright blues, the verdant greens, and the fiery reds, and I decided I had a choice--I could hang my head and drag my feet on the dusty road of self-pity, or I could have a little faith, put on a bright dress, slip on my dancing shoes, and skip down the path of life, singing as I went."

So faith and hope bring us happiness when life itself is hard. As she continues she explains how we don't just have to be happy for things in the future but we can be happy with now.  She continues to share something more:

"Eva thought about this for a moment and said, “But surely being busy isn’t what made you happy. There are a lot of busy people who aren’t happy.”

“How can you be so wise for someone so young?” Aunt Rose asked.  "You’re absolutely right. And most of those busy, unhappy people have forgotten the one thing that matters most in all the world--the thing Jesus said is the heart of His gospel.”

“And what is that?” Eva asked.

“It is love--the pure love of Christ,” Rose said. “You see,
everything else in the gospel--all the shoulds and the musts and the thou shalts --lead to love. When we love God, we want to serve Him.  We want to be like Him. When we love our neighbors, we stop thinking so much about our own problems and help others to solve theirs.”

“And that is what makes us happy?” Eva asked.

Great-Aunt Rose nodded and smiled, her eyes filling with tears. “Yes, my dear. That is what makes us happy.”

I've seen how much love, even this pure love of Christ (or charity) is essential in this life, and I know that as we follow God's commandments and do all He asks of us for our benefit, to change us for the better, and to grow our love for everyone else.  As we do our very best to be good people, we will have our desires change as we serve others, and our hears will turn to them and to God, and we will want to help them and be happier and for the better.  I've seen a little of this so far and it's amazing. Love is the best.

I know in selflessness we find pure joy.  I know the greatest joy comes from loving others and I've tasted a few times on this mission the joy that comes from this.  I leave you all with my love and the hope that we can all make this world a better place through our love for others.  I really love you all so much, and miss you!  And I can't wait to see each other again.  Until then I wish and incite you all to foster love for others and serve others, of which I was once told will grow our love for those we serve.  I know that's true haha, it's the best.

Anyway, have a great week and be happy!  And being happy is not always easy, but there is a time and a place for everything and being happy and smiling has a time and a place pretty much all the time :)  I had a hard week being happy but I know that as we count our blessings and realize all God has done for us, and all the great things in life there  is nothing that should render us sad for more than a passing moment.  I invite you all to think about the things you have in your life, whenever you are sad and smile at this beautiful world around us, and love it and everyone here with us :)

Love, Elder Laney

French Flan!!! In a crust!  YUM!