Fun times (week #1 Transfer #12)

Hey! So this week was really fun and really awesome. I looove Toulon, it's super cool and such a beautiful town. A port city on the edge of the Côte d'Azur, actually the home of the French naval fleet which is pretty awesome. We take a lot of buses so a lot less walking than I'm used to :)

Toulon view from our apartment

Anyways it's been great weather, I'm still using a short sleeve dress shirt, and we've been having a great time here. My new companion is Elder Richmond, from Texas, and in his last transfer. We are also in a 4 man apartment with Elder Steadman and Elder Tehahe, it's a blast. Some highlights of the week were first finding our new Ami Azam. Elder Richmond sat next to him on a bus this week and met him, and we started teaching him the next day and have basically seen him like daily it's so  cool, he's super interested and learns sooo fast it's crazy. Besides that we got to see a lot of our other amis which was great, all progressing really well, we saw a lot of cool changes in all of them.  At one point during the week we were waiting for an ami and this man stops and tells us we are "sons of God" so he has a present for us. Turns out he's an actor and puts on shows with his cats, calls himself cat man. Haha such a weird guy but it was
super funny to meet. 

Josh with the Cat Man of Toulon

Another highlight was taking boats!! The boats here are like the buses, even use the same card. We use them every other day to go out to see an Ami or member. we also got to see a member cellist and her colleagues practice at the church for a concert, soo cool.

Commuting on the Côte d'Azur by water taxi

Anyways I hope you all have a great week! I learned once again this week how much God does for us. He helped us out so much this week. One rendez-vous we  went to help an Ami who is having a really really hard time. We prayed and did all we could and couldn't come up with a lesson, then right before the lesson Elder Richmond thought to pick a talk from the sessions we missed from General Conference. Then in the lesson he asked our Ami to pick it instead out of that session we all had missed (them too). He picked the same talk, and when we watched it it was exactly what he needed, and he told us that he believed he might be able to repent, which for him is the biggest step he has taken in soooo many years, he's never said that. It was such a great miracle, I can see how the Lord works through little things. Do your best and ask the Lord for help, He'll make up the difference, I know He has for me so many times.

Have a great week!

lots of love,
Elder Laney

Côte d'Azur by night

To the Côte d'Azur (week #6 Transfer #11)

Hey!  So we got transfer calls this week, and now I'm off again!  Headed to the Côte d'Azur, or at least the very tail end of it as others say haha, but such a beautiful place and I'm super excited.  I'm going to Toulon where Elder Richmond, my new companion, and I will be opening a new zone leader equipe for the new Toulon zone!  Woo!  Aix zone is shifting to be the Toulon zone now, so I'm so exited to be back with this zone!!  Super pumped.  Anyway, I've only heard good things, turns out to be where the French naval fleet is stationed including the Charles-de-Gaullist sometimes, their aircraft carrier.  Also lots of beaches and amazing hikes; I've been on a train with Elder Steadman who I knew at the beginning of the mission, we'll be in a 4 man with their equipe.  Also it's going to be in a ward!!!!!  My first Ward, soooo many changes and I'm super excited. 

Say hello to my little friends!

It was a great week anyway, best part was Monday night where we got to see Marie-Claude.  She's doing well, still hasn't cracked open the Book of Mormon, but she says she's going to get right into it and she loves seeing us.  Super awesome and I know Elder Skousen will take great care of The Mont with his new comp Elder Hoffman (from Belgium).  We got to also visit an outer ville mimizan and our bus driver on the way home turns out to be a member baptized in Pau in the 70s!  We also got to do some service for one of our members who is moving in town which is super cool since he'll be able to come to church now!  So many great things happened this week, after a fun exchange with the zone leaders and a lot of goodbyes and then a great bout of contacting and then packing on Sunday I've said goodbye to The Mont for now. But I will return someday...  Love those people all so much, I know Elder Skousen will do such a good job with all of them. 

Saying goodbye to wonderful members in The Mont

I learned so much in The Mont about diligent and hard work in the face of small results, and perseverance through it.  I know that as we do so, as we give our best, God does the rest. 

Yachts in Toulon Harbor

So here now with Elder Richmond my new companion and then Elder Steadman and Elder Tehahe our other equipe! :) gonna be fun.

Left to right: Elder Steadman, Elder Richmond, Elder Tehahe, Elder Laney

I really love The Mont and I will miss our district. However I'm also excited for new adventures!  Have a great week and love you all!

Love,
Elder Laney

Rolling forth (Week #5 Transfer #11)

Hello everyone! I can't believe it's week 6 already... This transfer just zipped by in about 2 seconds. Amazing how time flies!

Frenchman in progress...

This week flew by extremely fast since we were mostly just on trains for a good bit of it, but.. I finally got my legality!  We have to renew our visas after a year, and after a long arduous process it is finally in check and we went down to Aix to pick it up.  Great to be in that region again, got to stay in Nimes with Elder Aitcheson (who I did an exchange with when he was a blue in Gap) and Elder Little (who I also met when he was a blue).  Man, they grow so fast... 

Plaza in Nimes

Besides that though I really enjoyed the beginning of the week where we got to have zone conference!  What an inspiring message, President Brown was really on fire and it was just a super cool experience. We all learned to better follow promptings of the Spirit and how we can be  more courageous as missionaries.  I really was impressed by Elder Skousen's example following this later that week; I felt like we should pass someone and I doubted as sure, and then Elder Skousen told me "Well, let's go!  No sense in doubting it, you know what Sister Brown said. Trust it and go for it!" So we went and on the way ran into a neighbor of a member, and they have had some disputes and it was cool to talk to him and we had a really good encounter. Elder Skousen has been a really good example to me of just following the Lord.

Nimes Colloseum

We were able to see Vincent and Kael this week, and though they are having a hard time I feel like they will come back later, that they just need some time.  It is sad to have those you care about decide not to see you anymore, but I really don't think it's the last time, they do want to see us later, just not right now. But while we wait we will focus on those who are ready right now. Which is a huge miracle as far as Sunday goes, we had 3 amis at church!  Mind you, they all came and went at different times haha, Jaqueline was at Sacrament meeting which was cool, Janine came for the meal after and Frere Bernier's friend Gladness came half way and stayed the whole time!  So it was really great to get to know all of them and we should be seeing some other member's friends this week and getting a family home evening activity for the branch going as well as English class next transfer.  So things are moving and though its a bit slow, its going forward :) I want you all to have a good week, and remember that sometimes things can be a little hard in life, or trials may seem slow and to last longer than usual, but as we persevere patiently with trust in the Lord, and in ourselves and our families, all is well. And after a time, great things happen and it is so cool. I've learned how much good there is in life even when at times the bad seems so present, and how we can always focus on the good. We had a good week, and it was really fun, and I hope you all have a happy and a fun week too! Make the most of it!

Love,
Elder Laney

ps: transfers are next week so i'll let you know what happens

Captain ..France? One of our new friends in town

A Great Week (Week #4 Transfer #11)

Bonjour tous et toutes! I hope you all had a good week. This week was a fun one, we got to go out to Pau and do 2 exchanges which is super fun, with Pau and Tarbes, and had district meeting with Agen and Bayonne there. Super fun to see all the missionaries, and we'll see even more tomorrow at Zone Conference! So cool! and apparently we'll be using this new app for missionary work which I am super pumped for to help us keep track of everything. 

The District

My favorite part this week (besides teaching Felix and his mom, which was super cool), was actually this self reliance program the Church is doing that we were introduced to which helps people search for and start their careers, aiming towards being independent and self-reliant temporally (money and stuff) and spiritually as well.  Such a cool program and we will be trying to help our amis get going to it, that will be really cool to be able to help them in their search for careers and such through these groups. I even got to look a little into a future job for me when we were all at the presentation. Sadly our amis didn't show up but we'll be able to take it to them to help them out. 

Kebabs with the old group

Got to do service for Jean-Louis' ami and Jean-Louis is awesome. His friends had some questions about the church, so Jean Louis just starts sharing the gospel and all about the start of the church with them, so they seemed interested and we'll try to teach them more soon. Our other member Frere Riviere taught some of the plan of salvation to a friend and we'll be helping introduce the Book of Mormon to her soon.  So our members are just doing so much cool missionary work and sharing the gospel to all their friends!

Kebabs with the new group!

One miracle this week was with Felix's mom. We dropped by to pay Felix a visit and he told us his mom was awake so we could say hi to her too. We did and after a bit we asked if she needed help with anything. As usual she said no, but then we kept talking and before we left I asked again. This time she said she needed some help with the yard, so we fixed a rdv to go rip some acacia's out of her yard with Felix. But something was telling me to ask if she wanted another blessing, so after a bit I brought up the blessing the last time, asking how her health was, then she said how when I was asking if she wanted something she actually was thinking about that blessing and really wanted another one. So I asked if she would like one there and she said yes. I then asked who, and she said "I don't understand him very well (pointing to Elder Skousen)... I want him to give me the blessing." So Elder Skousen got to give his first blessing in French!  It was really cool, and he talked a lot about opportunities with the gospel. So I thought about if she would want to learn more and asked, and she said she noticed that in the blessing and was curious, so she said yes!  We got to teach her 2 times that week; I think we were able to touch her and that she will want to learn more.  It was really cool and its important to follow our feelings, the Holy Ghost can know exactly what the desires of someone's heart really are :)

Love you guys and I hope your week is good! God bless.

Love,
Elder Laney

French freeways...

A Time to Learn (Week #3 Transfer #11)

Hello everybody!  Bonjour I mean, I should include more French in these emails.

Exchanges with Elder Jacobson

Well another good week went by, especially good with our amazing weekend of General Conference!!  So cool, we got to hear from the prophet and many of the apostles and be edified and learn so much. I got to watch 3 sessions in English too!!!  best part haha. Also got to watch it in French with our members across the street which was super fun, got to eat Raclette with them too! It's that time of year again and I love the hot meals.  

Merci pour le fromage!

Our week went well, we were able to see Kael at the start which was great, he's doing really well and loving the Book of Mormon, ran into him doing groceries today which was fun, he's super awesome. We got to see a new ami Marie-Claude who is really nice, and though she wasn't sure why she was meeting us we got to just share and connect on a lot of terms and different points in the gospel, and then she was talking about how she loved beautiful buildings and Cathedrals and the like, so we were like "Hey we know about a beautiful building that's going to be in France soon" and then we showed her the Paris temple and the "Strength Beyond My Own" video in French.  She was so happy and kept going "Oh c'est beau!!! (oh its beautiful!)" and was asking for the music after haha. Great video in every language I really recommend watching it, you can find it on lds.org. Anyways she was super touched and afterwards was open to meet again so I'm excited for the next time we can meet.

Ping Pong on P-Day.  We dominate!

So things are happening! I'm happy to be here to help and its really a great experience. Today we got to help Jean-Louis and his friend with some service, we ate at his friend's house after. Jean-Louis of his own accord just basically taught his friend about the first vision during dinner and it was really cool to share about the church with them. Great food too (his friend and his wife used to be chefs). Great week, great weekend, great p-day, and we're just going to have more great times ahead. 

One thing that stuck out to me in conference is how to have a great time almost all the time. I was really touched by a talk by Elder Hales on prayer and coming closer to God and His will. I realized at this moment how important it is for us to just open ourselves to God's will and put our trust in Him. Easier said than done, but I came to a different and a fuller understanding. Basically if we open ourselves, and with some effort change our desires to a standpoint saying, "thy will be done", and if we just kind of open to the work there is to do, we won't care anymore about ourself, and we will want to help others. Our love for them will grow when we serve without complaint and without restraint or a desire not to, having opened our hearts to let them in, and leaving our own selfish desires behind. So let us all serve one another, I tell you you will be happier. 

Love you guys and have a great week; Make it one :)

Love,
Elder Laney