Light the World (week #5 Transfer #12)

Hey everyone! First, thanks for all you do and I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.  I'm really grateful for my family and friends, you all mean the world to me.  It's so amazing to know I have the chance to know you all.  I love you guys and hope your week was good :)   My last week went well, having some trouble seeing our Amis but Dominique has made insane progress, we saw him and he was saying how he'd quit smoking by January, then Elder Richmond bore testimony he could do it then and there. Then Dominque said "why not".  So we got him some gum and he's been doing great!  Not quite there but nearly!  I'm pumped for him and for when he quits and is baptized :)  Abraham should be baptized this Saturday finally, we are going to get everything planned tonight :) Anyway, things are going well here in Toulon. We got to climb a mountain today on the coast, super cool, here's a picture.

Climbing mountains in Toulon

Well, my little thought today is to #LighttheWorld :) This December the Church has a program inviting us to go and serve someone every day.  Each day before Christmas we have an activity or two we can do to help others, and a small video to watch that goes along with it to make Christmas a greater experience as we turn outwards to others. It's at www.Mormon.org where you will kick off for the season starting December 1.

I love how much happier I am when I am focusing on others, and I think the program they have is super fun. Love you guys and I hope you all have a great start to winter :) again I am so grateful for the Christmas season, and also for this beautiful world God has given us, nature is always a testimony of Him to me, and I love this worlds natural beauty. I'm grateful to have had a chance to see such beautiful sights today. Have a great week! 

Love,
Elder Laney

Hey! (week #4 Transfer #12)

Hey everyone! This week was great :) Literally so many blessings.  Abraham had his baptismal interview a week ago and should be baptized this Saturday!  Gotta confirm the date is good for his family, but normally it should be good.  I'm super excited.  He's so awesome. Also Dominique and Azam are both doing awesome and approaching their date in 2 weeks, and we're going to work really hard so that this works out, I know through God all things are possible.  Anyway, they are all doing great, Didier and his mom too, I believe he might be making plans for baptism soon too if all goes well, he's changed so much and is so much more positive now.  I'm really excited for all that's going on.

Ping Pong Tournament

This week was great though, Monday through Thursday included seeing Azam and some other people from the Ward, a lot of planning for our festive conference on Saturday, including a honey glazed ham which Elder Richmond and I were really proud of haha:)  Conference and interviews went really well, the rest of the zone made some really good food and it turned out great, we all did some skits too which was really funny.  I played David in our skit and Elder Tehahe played Goliath.

We played ping pong and I hit it at his head to win, that was the real story of David and Goliath.


Fun stuff. Good week though, the coolest part was after church on Sunday (Azam and Dominique came :) ) we went to see Abraham, turns out his sister who is having a really hard time is living with them now for the moment, but we went over to see him and met her, she stayed for the lesson, and it was so cool because during the lesson her mood changed and by the end she had changed from tears to a more positive mood and to follow God, and said she trusted Him. It seems that Abraham's family is coming unto Christ. 

Zone Conference

I know we can trust Him and he never lets us down.  Have a good week and happy thanksgiving!!!!!  Write down what you're thankful for and share it with someone, I'm really thankful for so much. 

Lots of love,
Elder Laney

Learning to make croissants with Christopher, a member here in Toulon

The fruits of our labors.  They may not look professional but they tasted spectacular!

Positivity (week #3 Transfer #12)

Hey everybody!

This was a good week once again, a lot of cool things happened.  Highlight of the week, Abraha passed his baptismal interview!!!  He's so prepared and really excited to be baptized soon, we'll be doing the baptism as soon as his sister and brother-in-law are back in town to come to it.  Besides that we got to see Dominique again who is doing great, he's made so much progress and has so much faith, he's willing to do what he needs to be baptized and it's really cool.  He even came to church yesterday for the first time!!  He has been telling us for a long time he would come and our rendez-vous on  Saturday he said he had been saying and saying he would, so he had to.  Then he did!  And he liked it too. We should be seeing Azam this week and hopefully Jean Yves, but it seems things are going forward with their progress which is really cool.  I believe Dominique will really make his baptismal date.  Didier is doing really well too and his mom came to church for the first time too!! So cool.

The week went well anyway, we got to go to Lyon for a meeting with all the zone leaders and it was really inspiring as any meeting with President and Sister Brown is.  Had zone training and got to meet the zone, all great guys and our sisters are really cool, had a ping pong tournament during lunch, looks like I need to step up my ping pong, really fun though.  We got to take our initiative from the missionary leadership conference and share it with everyone, we are focusing on part member families and working with members to help them receive and strengthen each other in the gospel.  Met with bishop Durant (my first bishop in the mission lol) on Sunday and he's on board, I'm really excited to work with him and all the awesome members we have here.

Good week, started the next one off with some hot chocolate and American sized croissants and pain au chocolat, I believe we found where our two cultures meet:

American sized pastries...

Love to you all and have a great week!!

Elder Josh Laney

The House of the Lord (week #2 Transfer #12)

Hey everybody! We had a fun week. We got to see Azam like 3 times and he came to church!  He's doing really well.  We didn't get to see Abraham like the whole week, he's from Africa and super cool; we should be having his baptism soon, but we got to see him yesterday which was great.  Turns out he's been reading a ton in the Book of Mormon, he's all the way to Mosiah!  So crazy.  We also have a new Ami/engage named Vikram who is also from India!  He's super cool too, haha but he speaks English and zero French (where Azam is a fluent French speaker and knows some English).  We've been really blessed to see  a lot of progress with our amis and to have so many people here to teach, they are all really prepared which is cool.  Got to make a quiche with Didier and his mom, he moved here from French Guinea a year or so ago and he's basically a member, he's so cool, came to church too! Also got to meet the district which was fun, great missionaries and we had a fun time.

Authentic quiche lessons.  

One highlight of the week was a rendezvous with our DMP (Ward mission leader in French) Frere Sassi at his friend's house.  His friend Rene has been an Ami for years but hasn't really made progress. 1st up Rene's friend was there and we got to teach her and set up a return appointment with them both.  She's really interested to find out more about what we teach as missionaries.  Then, after she left, we talked about genealogy and family history with Rene.  We ended up saying very little as the Spirit took over while Frere Sassi shared his testimony about temple work for the dead.  His experiences were powerful and we all felt the Spirit really strong.  I shared a bit how I know it will be joyeuse to do temple work for my ancestors later.  I know that works, I really felt so during the rendez-vous and invite you all do research, and to help out those we love to receive baptism.  It's really cool and I'm going to do my best to be more  involved, I've always had fond experiences and in this meeting I learned and felt so much of it's importance.  Rene afterwards agreed he wanted to know more and go to the temple, he felt the need to help in temple work for the dead as well, and he is going to be taking the lessons more seriously I believe. I know this church is true and the only one with temples where we can give our loved ones who have passed on the chance to be baptized and receive the same blessings we have when they cannot do so for themselves.  I testify of that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

The daily commute, Toulon style!

Have a great week and love you all!

Elder Laney