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!