An Even Warmer Week (Week #2 Transfer #14)

This week went really really well. Getting a lot warmer, lots of rain but it's nice the water isn't freezing now! I'm liking it. We got to see a lot of tender mercies and cool miracles of which I am always grateful. I find as we always work hard we see miracles every week. This week we started with a P-day, where I finally bought myself a good jacket, a nice wool one that will keep me nice and warm. We then had an exchange with the Besancon Elders, Elder Lanteires (who was in Toulouse zone when I was in Albi!) and Elder Shirley who's a bit newer in the mission. I was with Elder Lanteires and our exchange involved a lot of passing members and others who we hadn't seen in a while, and though no one was home, the bit of finding we did yielded a new ami, Mpiti, who is so cool! And hopefully another soon who was a really nice man. The other elders had no success contacting but tons while passing less active members so it worked out! Wednesday we got to drive out to a ville in the outskirts of town and see some members, she had like 6 cats and 4 dogs so it was fun haha.

Authentic Dijon Mustard from Dijon! Super good :) 

That night we had the WorldWide Missionary Broadcast, where we received much advice on our direction of preaching repentance and baptizing converts, the theme of the broadcast last year. Interestingly, we were given some changes in our schedules which allow us now to be a bit more free as missions and missionaries in using our decisions to plan things as they work best, which is really nice. Our mission has a new schedule which I believe will help us all to be more productive, effective, and relaxed at the same time without too much stress. Some really cool changes anyways.

Dijon divided by trains

Thursday we saw Souer Cuisiat and helped her in a really really difficult situation, but the spirit directed us to change our planned lesson instead to Ether 12:27 (me and Elder Perez had thought of the same exact scripture as we were listening to her and talked about sharing it after, it was really cool) and she was beaming by the end. What an amazing experience. We also helped her neighbor with a super heavy couch, and they gave us a pull up bar in return! I thanked them a lot and told them it would serve missionaries in Dijon for a long long time. The next day we had an exchange and I was with Elder Arne (came in with me! first time we've been together in our whole missions) and Elder Perez was with his companion Elder Walton. Had a great exchange, taught Mpiti and showed him the church, he's really taking this seriously which is cool, we should be seeing him next weekend. We then taught Nomena our recent convert which went really well. The next day we saw a member who hadn't been to church in a while and it was really cool to meet him, he was super grateful for our visit, and we taught Poe. Him and Tatiana should be married in April and then he wants to be baptized the day after! So cool! I'm super super excited for them both. Finished the week off with church, I gave a talk and then we both left since I wasn't feeling well but I'm doing much better! So it was a really great week in all. Lots of miracles. Love you all and I hope you have an awesome semaine and have fun as always, life is awesome :)

Love,
Elder Laney

A Cold Week full of Warm Experiences (Week #1 Transfer #14)

Warm greetings from Dijon,

So I'm starting to get used to the weather up here. I've been down in the south this whole time, spoiled with tons of sunshine and warm weather so I guess it was about time I experienced a little cold, haha!  This week was freezing, but it was good.  The first few days Elder Perez and I went contacting and porting outside and I don't think I've ever been outside for so long in such freezing weather, and I didn't have a winter coat either... but that's ok! I bought one today :) It's been getting warmer now so things should be a little less icy.

Got to see Elder Robards before he headed home!

Thursday we got to see our ami Poe with his girlfriend, who's a member. She helps him a lot in the lessons and he's progressing tons, so cool. They are planning their wedding soon and his baptism after which will be a great experience, I hope I'm here in April to be there to witness both!  Anyway, Friday we were finally able to see our ami Agnes since she's been pretty busy, but wow did we have a great rdv. She told us how she had done as we had asked and knelt and prayed if the Book of Mormon was true.. she explained a warm feeling she felt, one of peace. It is always amazing to see a beginning to someone's testimony.

So many beautiful churches and cathedrals here in Dijon!

We then saw Luc, an old ami who is interested, he is a nice man and I hope we can help him. We also got to teach Nomena our recent convert of only a few weeks, she takes tons of notes during the lessons and is very engaged, a great student and a cool person. Then got to also make a lot of plans with the leadership in the ward here to be able to get the work going with members and missionaries.  After a great Sunday and a great P-day of soldes shopping (I am a fan of french jackets), we are off to a good start to another week.  I ask only for your prayers that our elders and sisters in our mission are supported in their efforts to prepare the people in France before the dedication of the temple, it will be dedicated on May 21st, an event I am so excited to participate in, I believe our mission will have the chance. The very first temple in France!! It's going to be an amazing event. Also the cultural celebration I'm sure will be superb. 

Voilà a typical northern french street in an older town

Anyways I hope you all have a great week, this year is off to a good start for us and I hope it is for you too. Make those resolutions and make little goals to stick to them :) I find weekly goals to be very helpful. Have a happy week and I'll see you all real soon.

Lots of love,
Elder Laney

below: one of like 5 huge cathedrals here in Dijon, there's a lot of awesome architecture here as well as TONS of really really cool churches. Quite the sight. 

Cathedral in Dijon

To the North (Week #6 Transfer #13)

Hey everyone! So this transfer I'm finally off to the northern parts of France, (not really, our mission is the south, but it is the northernmost sector of our mission and I've been in the south the whole time with Tarbes, Albi, Manosque, Mont-de-Marsan and Toulon), so this is exciting! I'm now in Dijon, France (yes, where all the spicy mustard comes from) and I'm super psyched, my new companion is Elder Perez! From Salt lake, so that makes my 2nd Utah companion while in France, and he just finished Elder Robards so voilà, ran into Elder Robards when we switched in Lyon, so crazy he's going home. Well I'm excited for new things :) anyway, Dijon is a pretty ville with snow and is not far from Switzerland, we actually go there a few times each transfer which will be fun (Swiss chocolate!) and we also have a car!!  Last and most importantly the members and Amis here are great according to Elder Strong, Robards, and Perez so it should be awesome. Starting off with a good mangezvous tonight.

Elder Perez and Elder Laney

So our last week in Toulon was quite eventful.

So on P-day we checked out some shopping (soldes hadn't started yet so I haven't dropped on anything quite yet..) and watched Elder Thorne run a mile in 5:19.  Like a gazelle (went running in the morning a few times and I'll just say I can't run quite as fast...)  Tuesday we saw Etienne and Soeur Consales, Etienne is doing really good and reads what we give him, he's starting to learn more and get interested in the gospel. We saw Yvette and Didier a few times (Yvette came to church!) and it was fun, it was hard to say goodbye to them Sunday. On Thursday we went out to an outer ville called Hyeres to meet a referrel, Bernard.  Hilarious man, really nice too and super interested, it was funny because he would just go so hard on these big théories and stuff about religion. We left him with a Book of Mormon and though he didn't want to set up a 2nd rendezvous he was appreciative that we were there to answer any questions if he has any.  We saw Dominique as well and he seems to be doing better, still working towards giving up smoking and he's such a strong person.  We got to go visit Christoffer Saturday and I got to take the boat one last time, so fun, I love taking the boat.  It was Super windy last week and absolutely freezing so I was bundled up and wearing thermals even, despite the fact of being on the Azure coast.  Fun stuff. 

LDS Chapel in Dijon

It was a good week, and one of the miracles we had was this epic bus catch we had coming back from Hyeres.  We had come down from a hill from a passback and looked at the time and it was 10:40, we had a bus at 10:45 and were over a kilometer away.  So Elder Thorne tells me "we can make it!" and takes off, so I'm in a sad pursuit but we run all the way in the direction we believed the bus stop was, and as we approach it I see a bus pulling into traffic and yelled to Elder Thorne, and we just barely made it.  Because of that we were able to be on time and have our refs that most likely would have been canceled otherwise.  Haha, it was pretty fun, and we just kind of happened upon the bus stop not at all knowing the ville just the general direction, God can help us out with the small things too :) anyways have a great week and don't get too cold, especially those in Utah I hear it's insanely cold at the moment, so stay warm!

Lots of love
Elder Laney

Dijon France

ReBonjour (Week #5 Transfer #13)

Hey everyone! We had a good week, a little slow as we are still having trouble with seeing some of our Amis, but we've been fixing some rendezvous so things should be going forward a bit more. For example Didier got back from vacation and seems well, and his mom is making a lot of progress, she even read the chapter we gave her 2 times and understood the atonement super well so that was cool. 

Adventures in French travel...

Last P-day we just relaxed and then did a lot of contacting the next few days. One day we got a call from Efoma, Abraham's sister, telling us her sister Joy wants to be baptized and start coming to church with the new year. Such a cool miracle, we went to see them and we have started teaching Joy and Efoma which is really cool, and it's in English so even better! Haha, always refreshing to teach in English. Haha I get thrown off though, not used to it. 

Charles de Gaulle and the French fleet in Toulon harbor

We've also started teaching a less active lady over 90 years old named Soeur Varlet who is awesome, she's super funny and super fun to see. We found her after passing a name on a list I felt like we should pass, she was home and ever since has been telling us how God does his thing and how crazy it is we found her. So cool. Our bishop told us after she is "absolument délicieuse" which apparently In French is not weird to say at all! Haha, just means she's awesome. Anyways it was a good week for that, and we made some calls and should be seeing some new people too this week.

Petrified Bread.  This is what happens when Elder Golightly bakes...

De tout façon I hope you all have a good week! Make sure to follow the Spirit, I know as we do He'll tell us small little things we can do to help people and He'll do it in small ways.  I've learned we just need to follow good thoughts most of the time, but I also know as we follow the Spirit we will come to recognize His voice more and more. That's definitely one of the greatest gifts I've had on my mission so far :)

Avec amour,
Elder Laney

Bonne Année!! (week #4 Transfer #13)

Hey friends,

We had a great windup to the year, just a good week full of miracles and contacting, seeing some Amis and doing work as usual. I always have such a testimony of this work as I go each week, little miracles and things that would never happen otherwise always take place as we work hard, seek revelation and do our best. Miracles are super cool, and we see a lot of small ones on the day to day, and more significant ones as needed. It's really cool, an the mission has already shown me a lot of this and that that is true. As for our Amis, Dominique is doing really good and Azam is learning some which is cool, we found this family who is really cool and needs our prayers, the family Fernandez Gomez, they are having a hard time but are very open an know already this is true which is so cool.

Toulon Bay

Well after 2016 in France it is interesting to reflect on it, it went by real fast, but also it is amazing and incredible to think about how much happened during just a short 12 months and how much I have learned, grown, and changed. It is a great blessing. I encourage you all to reflect on your past year, remember the good memories and then think of this year, think of what you would like to do, goals and adventures you will have and plan on them. I know Planning helps :) (we plan a LOT) but really it is a cool opportunity to reflect on cherished memories and to look forward. I did the reflecting part this morning and it was cool.

Toulon Harbor

Well I hope you all had a great week! Love you lots and I wish you all again a happy new year! Bonne année!!!

Avec beaucoup d'amour et gratitude,
Elder Laney