Prier (Week #4 Transfer #9)

Hey everyone,

First I want to acknowledge and wish courage to all those affected by the events in Nice this past week. Our prayers go out to you and I ask everyone to keep these people kept in their thoughts and prayers. It's horrible to see the things that keep happening nearby, but I know the French are stronger than such tragedy, and we are not disheartened. I know it will all be well.

This week went really well. It was really cool, since Tuesday, every day this week we found someone with real potential who wants to see us again and learn more about the gospel. It was so cool, and we met them in a variety of ways in finding them, be it meeting them in the street, calling an old ami (who just showed up for church for the first time on Sunday! So cool!) or porting into them, Heavenly Father really lead us and put people in our path this week. That was so cool and I know it will lead to baptisms and the advancement of the Lord's work. We taught 12 lessons this week, which was a record for me.  One of those was on the street where we shared our testimony with this lady, Catia, who is so cool and we answered a lot of questions for her.  At the end I felt like I should ask her if she believed what we had taught her, she's pretty religious in her own faith, but I did and she said yes, that she felt what we said was true. She accepted the Book of Mormon we gave her and she gave us her #s so we can see her later.  Just one of the many cool miracles we had this week!!  So awesome, what a cool experience.

Happy Birthday Elder Laney!

You know last week felt like 2 weeks of work put into one, it was so successful, and good thing too since we'll be gone all the next week!  Off to Toulouse at the moment, and we'll be doing a zone finding day tomorrow and then we're off to Pau for the rest of the week due to the giant party going on in Mont-de-Marsan this week. Not the best circumstances for missionary work, and members have been helping
missionaries to avoid this for the last few years since it's not a very safe situation for misisonary work (these French people party pretty hard haha)!

Service activity 

Anyways I'm excited for another week and it'll be a fun one!!  Well then get in contact with all those we will see in a week and it will be cool to see so much progress and teach so many cool and prepared people. I really was so grateful for everything this week, and Elder Nelson reminded me of that.  Something I thought was so cool was how if we had an awesome experience, or weren't feeling good Elder Nelson would stop and say "we need to say a prayer". So if you really see God help you, take some time and thank Him, and if you aren't feeling good, just say a prayer and ask Him for some help.  He's always there to help us and you'll feel your love grow for Him in gratitude for all He does, and he'll even bless you with more peace afterwards.

I wish you all a good and fun and safe week!! Miss you all and bonne semaine!

Amicalement,

Elder Laney

Service and Love (Week #3 Transfer #9)

Hello everyone! How was your week? Summer has tried to hit us here in the south-western corner of France but it hasn't quite succeeded, a few hot days but honestly a lot of just cloud cover without rain and its felt great! Haha I feel lucky.  However next transfer is a year from when I came into France and I remember how hot it was then so... I'll just enjoy the cool weather while it lasts :)

On exchanges in Mont de Marsan centre ville

Besides we had a great week!  I love all the time we can spend with other missionaries, especially all the exchanges.  As District Leader we have an organization of the mission into zones which are split into districts, so our district includes Pau Elders, Bayonne Sisters, Agen Elders (where Elder Robards is now!) and Tarbes Elders. 

The District

All awesome missionaries and I feel really lucky to be able to help them in any little way I can.  I really enjoy just being able to help them - it's cool.  Leadership really is service, I don't do a whole lot of leading haha. Anyway, all exchanges are now in our area except when we do exchanges with Toulouse zone leaders in Toulouse. But we had 3 this week, one with Pau, one with Agen, and one in Toulouse (got to be driven there by them in their car!  Cars are the best..).  It was awesome to work other missionaries and help them out while they helped me out and our area a lot, and to see what I could learn from others.  

Dinner and exchanges with Cadeau family

And Elder Nelson is seriously just killing it, he would just be like alright new comp, lets go contact! And he'd be off already teaching his first solo lesson on the street and taking conversations all by himself.  Man he's learning fast!  So cool. 

Lunch with Elder Nelson

I got to give a district meeting too which was fun, had 12 missionaries there total which was fun and it went well! Also ended it early to give my first baptismal interview, a little new but the spirit really helped us find out where he was ready, and after he had his 2nd interview looks like he's all set for baptism in 2 weeks! So cool, and I think I'll be in Pau to see it, Pierre is a really stand-up guy from what I just learned from him in our short encounter. I notice how my love for people grows as I serve them. And that's my spiritual thought this message, A little scripture on true joy: 

" 12 And now, verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good—yea, to do justly,to walk humbly, to judge righteously; and this is my Spirit. 

13 Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy;"

I know as we do good, especially as we serve others we start to love others more, and as our love grows we find a true joy, something not fake or temporary, but a real lasting joy and we are happier in our lives as we improve those of others.  I invite you all to serve somebody this week and I know you and they will be both happier :) 

Lots of love,
Elder Laney 

Requisite Pastry shot

Set the Example (Week #2 Transfer #9)

Hey everybody, we had another good week here in Mont-de-Marsan. It was a bit of a slow one with plenty of travel once again, but not too much.  We had the chance to teach Felix in the beginning of the week, and he's making progress.  

Toulouse Zone Conference

We got to go to Toulouse later for zone training, and that was cool to see the new plans for members and missionaries to work together and other things President had us learn from our zone leaders.  And another change - from now on we will be having exchanges with missionaries in Mont-de-Marsan each time so that will be interesting since we won't be leaving the ville very much this transfer, just receiving lots of other missionaries which should be fun.  

I did get to see Tarbes for the first time since I left!  I've passed through a bunch of times, but picking Elder Nelson back up after our last exchange we got to get the Oasis kebab there -- felt just as crummy afterwards like it usually does, so worth it though :) and I even ran into this random guy we knew a little bit while I was there who was a little crazy,  we both recognized eachother.  It was cool, and the elders there are doing a great job, they are both really cool.  Everyone in the district is really awesome and good missionaries and really hard workers, so i'm happy to work alongside them and help them out where they need it.  

Kebabs from Oasis Kebab with the Tarbes Elders

The rest of the week we got to finally go back to church in our branch after having Stake Conference last weekend, and Elder Nelson met the whole branch minus a few who were absent.  And the Ecuadorians are back! Love that little couple, and now they are here with their son and daughter-in-law. The daughter-in-law at least speaks some French and English, the rest only Spanish.  It was fun to see everyone Sunday! It feels like one big family at church :)

Cactus flower in bloom

A lesson this week I learned was on loving care.  As a trainer I've seen how important it is to raise someone right starting off in the mission field, and sometimes I realize I have already been negligent!  But as I keep working hard and try to really do my best to help him become the best missionary he can be, I know Elder Nelson will be trained well.  I feel like I need to make sure to be the very best example I can be to show the way, and as we do that for others in our life we really help them to see the right things to do and help them make the right decisions. Leading by example is so much better than just expecting people to listen to what we say. 

Anyway, I wish you all a great week, and happy 4th of July!!!!!!!!  My recommendation, don't celebrate it by eating pig tripe with a French man... just look up what tripe is..

lots of love,
Elder Laney

An interesting note:  This is an old French Book of Mormon where they use an asterisk * in the place of the phrase "and it came to pass"

A fun beginning. (Week #1 Transfer #9)

Hey everyone! This week was interesting and also very different than my normal one.  So first off, I am now training my blue!!!  His name is Elder Nelson, and he's from Canada!  Southern Alberta, so my 3rd Canadian companion!  I was trained by a Canadian, I finished a Canadian, and am now training a Canadian so now I guess I just need to be finished by a Canadian to complete the circle of my mission life.  Haha fun stuff.  He's so cool and so fired up, he's really excited for the mission and I'm excited to train him and work with him! 

Elder Laney and Elder Nelson - on the Mont!!

So consequently I spent the week in Lyon, headed up Monday (10 hours of trains) and the next day we did some contacting in the streets for Lyon and had a really cool discussion on training where we all shared ideas and were given some advice that President Brown had prepared for us. Finished the day with some really good pizza, all the trainers together.

Pizza and training.  Training and pizza.

 It was really fun, Elder Carlson is training too!  And a lot of other elders I know, it was so fun to see them all there. Spent the next morning in anticipation for our blues, then we finally entered the office room and sat down as president brown called them up one by one as they each opened their call letter to their first area and who their trainer was. Haha I kept flipping out since the elders were trying to pronounce the French town names, and they kept saying "mont..." then hesitate with the pronunciation.  And then they'd finish saying "Montpellier" or "Montaubon", haha, so I kept thinking they would say Mont de Marsan.  Anyway, I got my blue and it was so fun, we've had a good week since, already introduced him to a French butter and ham sandwich, French Burger King (amazing), kebabs and Roquefort. Haha he doesn't like Roquefort.  

I think it's great, but at first I hated it too I guess. He's so cool though, so fired up with bleu fire and doing awesome, he had no shame in contacting and just goes for it even if it's his first week in France speaking to French people it's so awesome. I wish I could have been as courageous at the beginning! He'll do so great :) 

We also got to got to Stake Conference, and I got to hear some awesome messages, my favorite were from President Brown, Elder Nelson said so too since he said he could understand him (he's had quite the introduction to the French language, at least 8 hours now of meetings in only French poor guy, haha, man I had it a lot easier when I started without a Stake Conference and a branch council my first week in France!) I really liked a message from President Brown on Saturday, he was explaining this story of the experiences he had with helping someone who was lost and wanted to find more but was just living a kind of crazy life, anyways he was making the whole crowd laugh and it made me happy to see e joy we can find in life having fun experiences with others and helping them.  It's always touched me the cool and funny experiences I have with people here.

Love you all and miss you and wish you the best of weeks! Go have some fun and crazy experiences with others :)

All the trainers!!

Love,
Elder Laney

Going to... (Week #6 Transfer #8)

Stay! We got transfer calls on Friday and Elder Robards is leaving me and going all the way to Agen! (Our sectors share a border haha, right next door).  And I will be receiving a blue! (A "blue" is what we call the brand new missionaries) I'm super excited to train and will send you all pictures of the new blue and me next week! 

Last moments for Elder Robards

Today we went  to Toulouse where Elder Robards went back to Agen and then I'm in Lyon until Thursday since all the new missionaries usually come in tomorrow on Wednesday.  I'm super excited and pumped for this next transfer and hopefully I won't teach my blue too much bad French, unless he is French and in that case he can just teach me French :) on vera! (We'll see what happens!)

Hanging with the Pau Elders

Anyway, this week was pretty fun.  Felix is doing well; we had to move his date for when he's ready, we're trying to help him quit smoking, he's really awesome and if he hasn't yet I know he eventually will be able to.  He's super funny haha, Elder Robards goes to give him a hug goodbye and he has this confused look on his face since he has no idea what Elder Robards is doing, then afterwards is like "oh! C'est un épaullade !" Which is what I heard, not a word I can find but that would mean something like a shouldering...  Haha, he then proceeded to give me an awkward hug/tap on the back twice saying we needed to do this epallade thing too.  Lol different cultures, Felix is so funny.

Celebrating my One Year Mark with pizza, chocolate and cheese - perfection!!

We also got to teach our ami Lena who's a young mother and has seen God reach out to her in her life, and is interested to learn more about our message.  She's awesome and we taught with Jean-Louis who's our member, he talks so much haha but it was awesome to see the friendship formed between a 65 year old man and a 27 year old young mother.  So cool, and we all had a good lesson.  I'm happy to meet so many people and get to be friends with all of them!  It's so cool. 

Got to spend a day in Geneva Switzerland!

I'm excited to see the next transfer and how things go! The whole mission structure got shaken up, the Lormont Zone is no more and we are now in the Toulouse Zone so that's fun!  I'll update you all on everything next week!

Love,
Elder Laney

Homemade croissants... AMAZING!!

SOOOOOOO many chocolate choices!!

Priorities when entering Switzerland:  Chocolate FIRST, legality later...

June 10th, 2016! (Week #5 Transfer #8)

This week was quite something!  We started it off with a small 2 day trip to the border of France and Switzerland at Gex, France, which is a tiny town right by Geneva. Took a plane from Bordeaux Tuesday and on Wednesday Elder Robards picked up his legality!  Haha the prefecture there had it since March.  Anyway, the trip was worth it, and I may be seeing a trip out to Aix soonish for my own legality :)  (we have to renew our visas after 1 year and as we move so often in the mission, often it's started on one side of the country and then we have to return from another side we were transferred to the week after; haha, that's my case anyway).

Yummy Swiss chocolate and soda found only in Switzerland!!

Which reminds me, I hit my year mark on Friday!!!!  It has now been a year since I've been on the mission, I entered the MTC last June 10, 2015.  Woo!  It goes by fast :)  I miss you guys a ton but it's been an amazing year with so many amazing experiences, and I'm sure the next will be even greater!  Thanks for all your support once again!  

Anyway, the rest of our week went well. We found 3 new Amis, two of which are families and one of which is actually a pastor of his own church.  He's cool to talk to! Anyway I've seen how hard work pays off and how God really works through us to find others.  We worked really hard and along with our new Amis this week we found many others who we may teach in the future and helped out our other Amis along the way.  Felix has been doing well, and with the fact that all our members are out of town and not many people can make the baptism, we aren't too sure, but we are planning on going with him and President Moulis and our member Hoppi for his baptism which will be a combined service with the elders from Pho and their Ami.  It should be an amazing experience, and I'll let you know how it goes, or if we decide to change so more people can come :) anyway, I'm excited and this week should be really good.

I studied a scripture the other week, Matthew 6:34 (same as 3 Nephi 13:34) which says:

"34:  Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof."

I never understood this well, but then someone explained it to me, how we don't always need to worry about the next day or the next year or always be worrying about the future, and how there's enough to worry about each day, and as long as we are doing it right and doing our best and everything we need to then there's nothing to worry about at all. I read this in French this week to share it, and the translation made more sense than the English!  Haha I love this scripture though and invite you all to apply it, and to do your best and enjoy each day :)

Love,
Elder Laney

Catching Fire :) Week #4 Transfer #8

Haha that's the motto of our mission at the moment with our current goal, and it's so cool to see how that's really happening everywhere in the mission!  We've been seeing a ton of cool miracles daily in helping people and meeting new friends, none of which have turned into new Amis in The Mont but all of which are really cool and who may
start learning more!  We actually have fixed a lot of rendezvous for the next week and plan to make a lot more, so I'm really excited. Elder Robards and I are going to work really hard this week to see these miracles really come to pass!

New kind of superhero...

Anyway, I wanted to share that Jean-Luc was baptized on Saturday!!!!!!!!!    I don't have pictures yet, but a week or two ago Elder Strong called to tell me that he met with our member and threw away all his cigarettes and put up a ton of signs to remember to stop smoking, and he had been and was done smoking from then on!  I opened up our mission newsletter and saw his name under those baptized and I had forgotten he was being baptized Saturday!  I was so happy and am so happy and grateful to God for all he's done for Jean-Luc and all the changes in his life and that of his daughter Cassandra. 

Farmhouse and field in Mont de Marsan

Thanks again everyone for your prayers of support for me and our Amis here, I know God's work is happening and others are being helped :)  Felix is doing awesome and we are getting everything put together for his baptism in 2 weeks.  I'm praying that all goes well and he's so cool, he's made so much progress since the day Elder Strong and his comp at the time ran into him here in Mont de Marsan. He and his grandma come to church every week it's so cool.  I love teaching him!

View from the apartment... at 9:02 pm.  #reallybrighthere

Anyway, we're starting the week off with a fun pday, some porting tonight, and then a trip to Geneva Switzerland tomorrow to get Elder Robards legality here in France progressing!  I've never been to Switzerland so I'm excited, it's going to fun also to take a plane!  So I'll send picture next week of that :) 

The spoils of the weedeating war.  (gotta add sunscreen to my shopping list!)

I'm exited to go hard this week and wish us luck, we'll need as many prayers as we can muster to meet this challenge.  President Brown sent a cool story to us on accomplishing the impossible, called "The Countess and the Impossible", (Richard Thurman, Reader's Digest, June 1958) and it really is true how we can change our mindset and accomplish something impossible with God's help. That's what he told us last transfer with a goal, and I promise you all that if we aim to be the best and break our selfish desires that hold us back, we will accomplish more than we ever thought possible as we give ourselves entirely to the task to do whatever is necessary to do it.  So that's my thought this week, that when life requires you to go above and beyond, take the challenge and give yourself to the task. I know you can do it! Love you all and have
a great week :)

Love,
Elder Laney