Week #3 Transfer #4

Hey everyone!!!!

This week was a fun one and a tough one lol, we had a lot of rejection on the streets but also the most successful day of contacting people on the street that I've ever had! 

Christmas lights in Albi

Our beginning of the week we had a really good visit with our ami Brigitte and our less active Eda, some super fun member visits, including with Soeur Delouche in her harry potter house (the inside is covered in well tended plants and ancient books, literally looks like something out of Hogwarts, so cool, and she gives me a Coke while i'm there so highlight every week). 

Soeur Delouche's amazing Hogwarts-style plant-filled apartment!

The rest of the week Thursday through Saturday we spent the whole day talking to people on the street about Christmas. Our first day of that, Thursday, was the coolest contacting day I've had my whole mission! We met multiple people that we could seriously start teaching, our first contact we got to share the video with them and well meet with them in a week. We then met a man from Africa who had more energy than I've ever seen someone use to talk!  Haha, anyways, he had had a near death experience that was super cool he shared with us, and he believes we are their to help him find the path he's been searching. Later Elder Omohundro met a lady who wants to learn more too. Then while walking I stopped a french couple with a baby to ask if they'd like to do the questionnaire and it went really well, they want to hear our message seriously and even are making us a traditional french snack tomorrow!

We are in the midst of developing the perfect pizza!

The rest of the days we didn't find anyone but we tried anyways!  Haha, it was good though, still got to pass our cards and share the video and brighten others days, as well as do card tricks for people that our district leader is doing for fun to spice up our conversations with people.
 So cool. 

Beautiful French countryside near Albi

The Christmas season is full under way and lights are everywhere so its super beautiful here! Rodez has the coolest lights, something resembling a river flowing down the cathedral made out of blue and white Christmas lights that move. The lights in Albi are also super pretty. I'm so psyched Christmas is in only a week!!!! I'm going to watch some Disney movies as we're allowed to on Christmas and i'm so excited to Skype the fam and to celebrate Christ's birth. It'll be super fun, different away from home but we'll make the most of it! 

I wish you all a wonderful week and that you have a ton of fun with your friends and family! 

Avec amour,
Elder Laney

Week #2 Transfer #4 - Albi, Toulouse

It's starting to feel like Christmas! Christmas is my favorite holiday by far because it's the best, so I'm psyched!

Bridge over River Tarn in Albi

This week we started off with P-day in Toulouse!  Haha, it turned out a kind of a nightmare, we tried to find the mall we were looking for so we went to a KFC near it. Turned out to be the wrong KFC, so we ate there and went to another.  Still wrong, so we selected a bowling alley in the mall, turned out to be the wrong bowling alley!  So we went bowling and had a lot of fun and even got the 3rd game free because the lady there was super nice! Super fun p-day quand meme (still). 

Righteous Bowling

We had an exchange with our district leader Elder Woodward who is super cool, and we met a ton of the people who work in Albi including an artist who has some amazing paintings!  It's so fun to just meet tons of people. 

We had our zone training and it was for Christmas!  We all got santa hats with "Toulouse" on it, which made for a stunning zone Christmas photo.

Toulouse Zone Christmas

We then got a bunch of cool stuff to share with people on Christmas including these new cards sharing the church's new video which is super awesome. Here's a link, its only 2 minutes long if you have time: https://www.mormon.org/christmas

Elders Robards, Laney and Omohundro

We then had the best lesson with our ami Brigitte and our recent convert Eda than we have ever had with them!  So cool, we helped them understand a lot that they had always had questions on.  Brigitte we are refixing her date for baptism and she's super happy with the progress she's made.

Berbie Palace Albi

We met a cool less active family who are all super nice too! They haven't seen missionaries in a while and were super cool and friendly and we all had a really good time together.  Then we finished the week with an awesome Sunday where both Brigitte and Eda came to church and lol Brigitte knows everything!  She answered all the questions in amis class and had all the answers, haha she was super happy to realize she knew so much. 

Berbie Palace Gardens in Albi

Anway, so psyched for the Christmas season!  Joyeux Noel tout le monde! (Merry Christmas everyone!)

avec amour,
Elder Laney

3 of 11 Week #1 Transfer #4 - Albi, Ambialet, Rodez

Hey Everyone!

Staying with Elder Omohundro and Elder Robards is funny because it still feels like the same transfer! Haha I keep referencing to last transfer meaning back in Tarbes and forgetting I was in Albi, still feels like transfer 3 but extra long. 

Elder Omohundro and Elder Robards in Ambialet

On P-day we got to visit this super cool city called Ambialet which is really beautiful. We took a ton of cool pictures. Bonus to having a car! Today we are off to Toulouse for shopping. 

Church belltower in Ambialet

This week we got to see a lot of less active members and both of our amis, which meant lots of driving for me! I almost ran over some people, they're crazy here,at any moment they'll just run out from in between all the parked cars in the streets instead of using the crosswalks like 30 ft away. Lol i just drive very slowly and carefully, but i'm feeling a lot more relaxed now and it feels more normal. My favorite was Friday driving b/c on an exchange with Elder Wall from Rodez we got to go see a member who fed us a ton, and even though i spent 4 hours driving that day, 2 of them were in the beautiful countryside south of Albi with a speed limit of 90 km/h which is roughly 60 mph which is way too fast for those roads so i get to choose my speed. I drive safe though, but its fun! 

River Tarn Ambialet

I got the chance to give 2 blessings this week to the sick. I just know God helps us and gives me the words these people as long as make sure I'm prepared and its so cool. This is my testimony that blessings and the priesthood are real gifts of God. 

Ambialet

I wish you all a happy beginning to December this week and the Christmas season! We finally broke out the Christmas music in the car and all the Christmas hymns at church so I'm pumped b/c Christmas is my favorite time of the year! Maybe we'll get a little snow at some point to make it even better. I also had a great thanksgiving to kick off the Christmas season, we ate and played cards with Soeur Delouche on Thursday and then spent the night with Rodez where Elder Wall cooked us a delicious thanksgiving dinner that was amazing. And the next day on exchange with elder wall the less active we saw prepared an even bigger thanksgiving dinner!! Elder Omohundro and Elder Robards were unhappy to find out the exchange landed on that day, but we ate great muahaha. Haha they had a good meal with a member in Rodez too, just not as good. Even tried some very fancy French ice cream that looks crazy, and is slightly less good than the stuff at home. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that this next week is great!

 

Elder Laney in Ambialet

 
Je vous souhaite une bonne semaine pleine de joie et l'esprit de Noel. Je vous aime tant!

(I wish you a great week full of joy and the Christmas spirit. I love you all so much!)

avec amour,
Elder Laney

Bridge into Ambialet

Week #6 Transfer #3

Transfer over already, and I'm staying in Albi! In fact, we all 3 are!!

Bridge in Rodez

We got transfer calls on Friday and it looks like me, Elder Omohundro and Elder Robards are ALL staying together here at Albi. Only change is that I'm the new designated driver!  Drove for the first time in months to the church today and I'm a bit afraid of driving now due to the insanity of French jaywalkers and drivers but I believe we'll be good!  Anyway, even Elder Wall at Rodez is staying too, but sadly Elder Swanson is leaving to Nimes. Us 5, all being in the same branch have been having a party together and it's like losing a comp for Elder Swanson to go, but we'll accept Elder Woodward with open arms and have fun.

Driving through Rodez

This week was packed.  We visited 12 members, active and less active and it was really awesome!  We only had to prepare 2 meals all week with our 8 manger-vous and a visit to Macdo where we got half off from a member that works there!  We even had an early Thanksgiving at the Branch President's house with the Rodez Elders in case any of us got transfered.  They made turkey, sweet potatoes and even stuffing!!  And pumpkin pie!!!!! It was so good.  Haha, this is highly abnormal for a mission like ours, so I was psyched, and I feel extremely spoiled but hey I'll take it :)  I have gained.... a lot of weight this transfer hahaha  but I'm doing my morning mangos/workouts so it'll turn out for better rather than worse lol! 

Thanksgiving Dinner with the Bernardis

We also had some really cool lessons with our members and even visited a recent convert, Eda, who had friends from Paris visiting.  We had a good lunch with them and they were so cool, and then shared our testimonies at the end along with Eda on prayer and Christ, and her friends loved it and the spirit was there strong.  I know they felt it because they were so happy after and gave us both of their numbers and an email, so we'll be passing their information this week to the Paris missionaries!  So cool.

Driving through the French countryside

Last P-day we were stir-crazy out of our minds, so we went to a mini golf course which turned out to be abandoned, haha, so we played on all the playground toys until it got dark to spend all of our energy and just went crazy and made what we could with what we had. Today should be better though, we're heading to Ambiale which we drove through this week on accident, it is a beautiful town in France over a river on a mountain and I had seen pictures of it before I came to this country!!!  I never thought I'd get to see such a beautiful place and it turns out were right by it here in Albi!!!!!  So psyched, Ill send pics to my wonderful mother or post on the blog. Thanks to Carla Laney for making such an awesome blog and updating it all the time for me and Nick, you're the best mom ever!!!!

So easily entertained...

Excited for another transfer with this crazy equipe, we have a ton of fun and I'm excited to work with our Amis as we help them approach baptism!

Gros bisous (fat kisses but it's more like "see ya" in French)
Elder Laney

PS: It snowed !!!  It's super cold now but now it's snowing in Rodez, not quite in Albi yet but I imagine soon!

First snow in Rodez!

Week #5 Transfer #3, Albi, Rodez, Bordeaux

Hello everyone,

After this weekend I want to express my care and support for all of those families and individuals effected by the events in Paris on Friday.  My prayers are out to you. Thanks so much everyone for your prayers and love, and support for France in this tragedy.  It's been amazing seeing how much love has been expressed for the people here.  Here in the south things are all right, we are all safe and fine, and life has gone on pretty normally so far. We are going to be cautious, and I know the Lord is with us and keeps us safe, and we will make sure to listen to His warnings by the spirit we will be kept safe from harm. God will help us where we need it, and I believe we can do much good here.


This week was actually a really fun week with a ton of mangervous (meals at members houses)!  We started off seeing the cathedral finally in Albi! 

St. Cecile Cathedral Albi - the largest brick building in the world

So cool, and the rest of it that you normally have to pay for we showed we were missionaries and they waved us without hesitation to see the whole thing! Thanks dad! Another one of your Europe tips that came in handy, looks like it works in France too. We got to see a lot of people we've been meaning to see and it was cool. I also bought a super warm scarf that is very soft and found out I love to wear scarfs! My neck apparently was always cold. 

New coat and scarf!  Très chic

At the end of the week after the certain events we were advised not to focus on contacting on the street on Saturday, but we were still able to go visit our branch presidents house. Far out in the country of France we had a really fun day where we were far from harm and safe, and got to try some archery, he had a bow. 

Practicing my longbow skilz... 

Anyways we had a really good time and I love the branch president and his family, they are so cool. On Sunday we planned to see a lot more members and they are so awesome and nice! I also feel sincerely blessed with these much more than just tender mercies, and kind of like I'll get transferred because this is too good haha. We'll see this Friday what happens since this is the last week of the transfer and so we'll be getting transfer calls to see who's going and who's staying. Anyways I've felt really blessed with how kind everyone has been and how they really appreciate our messages, it's made me feel a lot more wanted and welcome.

Modern day shepherd

I've noticed this week how the spirit guides us all thorough spiritual promptings to help others. Our president committed our mission to have 200 Amis last week, twice than normal, he did so out of a prompting. The mission had 218 Amis come to church!!!. Our ami Brigitte came and we helped her understand a lot she didn't understand that we didn't know about and it was cool. I witnessed 2 blessings this week where the spirit helped elders say exactly what was needed. I've witnessed Sunday the spirit testify though me of the truth of us needing faith to be healed. I know that if we do not have faith nothing can happen, but if we do, miracles will come to pass. I've witnessed that so far
and it's amazing.

Love you all and have a wonderful week! I pray for you.

Avec beaucoup d'amour (with much love)
Elder Laney

Elder Legolas...

PS: Thanks for all the support and love, this was a cool picture I found.  All the support that everyone has showed for France is so awesome.

Week #4 Transfer #3 - Albi, Rodez, Bordeaux

Salut tout le monde! Ça va?
(Hey everyone! How's it going?)

I had a lot of fun this week and spent half of it away from Albi. We got to meet our ami Birgitte like normal and help her out and then we saw an ami from last transfer, Moise, for the first time in 4 weeks!  He was in Italy randomly and out of town and we thought he had moved, but he may move to close and even in the town of Albi instead!  And what was so cool is that he has been reading the Book of Mormon, even on the train, and sharing with his family this whole time. He says he "knows it's the word of God!" In his manly African French each time we talk about it.  He's so cool, I'm always happy coming out of a rendez-vous with him.

Cool little town on a hill somewhere on the way to Bordeaux

I ate out 3 times this week, got Macdo (McDonalds) twice and even KFC! McDonalds is so funny here, it literally looks like a high end restaurant and is so nice, the foods about the same and twice as expensive but hey!  At least I get a taste of home.

Little village on a river somewhere on the way to Bordeaux!

We spent the latter half of the week 1st in Bordeaux getting up at 5am to head out, and had a cool zone conference there.  President Brown is like a bow expert turns out, uses a longbow and even goes hunting with it, and we got to see some of his mad skills as he taught us to "take the shot" or in other terms act on our promptings right away when the opportunity presents itself.  Cool message and a fun time.  We then came back and headed to Toulouse the next day and stayed overnight to see both sessions of stake conference.  Elder Morera of the 70 (a leader in the church) spoke, as well as our beloved mission President and his wife.  Super cool to hear all of their messages. What stuck out to me the most was what was shared, how the first presidency's (the prophet and head apostles) focus at the moment and for the next 2 years is keeping the Sabbath day holy.  The Sabbath day in our church is Sunday, and is a day of rest and to dedicate to the lord.  I believe it's really important, something even that has been misunderstood or misused, I know I share in not keeping the Sabbath day very holy in the past.  So I challenge everyone to go and spend time with your family on Sunday!  It's a great way to make sure we all enjoy time with our awesome families.  Members of the church remember to make this day a sign to the Lord of your love for him, and keep it holy and a day to focus on your families and Him.

Toulouse Zone

Love you all! Only 2 more weeks in the transfer already which is crazy.

Je vous aime tous!!!!

Avec amour,
Elder Laney

Awesome Elders of Rodez/Albi

Week #3 Transfer #3, Albi France

Hey everyone,

This week was super fun. We got 3 manger-vous, I was super stuffed after each one, but I'm making sure to do my morning mangos (what we call our morning workouts) so I'll make sure not  to gain tons of weight, or gain some muscle hopefully... We'll see what 15 min a day can help me avoid.  Haha, anyway I tried French chocolate!  It is terrible.  It tasted like a stale Hershey bar and cost me 3 whole euros.  So I'll try some more types to see if I just had bad luck, but i did try some Swiss chocolate and it is literally the best I have ever eaten.  So Lindt (maker of Lindor chocolates) is a great brand and Swiss chocolate wins at the moment.  France does have wonderful pastries and cheese at least.  And quiche.  Seriously excellent quiche...

Quiche perfection

We spent a lot of time with the Rodez elders.  Rodez is just an hour away, and we all go to the same branch here in Albi, though most of the members are from Rodez. Pretty funny since we have like 5 elders and only 30 people there in total.  And 9 members from Albi came to church!!!!  Super cool since soonish we believe the branch will split so all the Rodez members don't have to drive so far, and Albi will be able to continue growing if we have enough members.

Tree tunnel on drive to Rodez

We got to spend Halloween night at a member's home and even trick or treated their door!  Sadly Halloween isn't very popular here, but we did see a huge group of 50 kids with their parents all on roller blades on costumes and it made our night.  Also while yelling happy Halloween to everyone on the ride home from the car one very excited teenage boy yelled it back super excited.  So Halloween is starting to catch on here at least.

Rodez Cathedral - new building dating from 1276 (The original was built in 516 and parts still remain)

Each night as asked by Elder Adler of the Seventy at our last mission conference, we as companions bear our testimony to each other in French for 30 days straight. I'm at 28 and almost done but it's been a really cool experience to see how my testimony grows each time I bear it and how it is changing.  The Spirit really does testify through truth , and I feel the truth and a reaffirmation of what I know whenever I bear my sincere testimony of Jesus Christ.  And so I invite you all to do that this week, bear your testimony to someone you know, or at least about what you do know if it's not a lot, but just be sincere.  It only matters that we mean it, and that's how the Holy Ghost will speak to us.  For friends not in the Church don't hesitate to ask any Mormons you know about their testimony, we love to share
what we believe and it helps us reaffirm our faith too :)

District - Albi and Rodez

Also my French improved dramatically in speech this week.  I don't know why, but I have been praying for help in the language, and my conversational ability has improved a lot and I can really converse with people now, it's super cool.  I understand so much more and am really grateful to the Lord for all the help He gives us. Anyway, Have a great week and love you all tons!!  Have a fun week and I hope you all had a great Halloween!

Good times in Rodez

Avec amour,
Elder Laney

Ps: mangez-vous means a rendez-vous which means a visit to a member's house, but manger means to eat so it's a play on words meaning a meal at a member's house :)