Hope (Week #6 Transfer #6)

Hey everyone,

First I want you all to know that all our prayers from the Lyon Mission go out to those affected by the events in Brussels this week, including those missionaries of the Paris Mission injured. It is amazing how God protects us and I know they will be alright, even if there are horrible things happening in the world we can make sure that more good happens than bad. I know through God all will be fine and we will all be safe. My prayers once again go out to those affected.

This wonderful Easter weekend gave me the chance to reflect upon the Savior and all He did for us, and the glorious fact that He lives today.  I want to all share with you my personal testimony of this truth.  He is there for us in all times and all things.  It's so wonderful to have Him in my life and the fact that He went through all we go through means He is there and can help us through anything.  I really just reflected on that now and in church on Easter and it's so great to have that comfort.  I invite you all to think of the Savior and how He can help you in anything.  Really, in all things it's amazing.  In the picture below Christ is saving Peter after he walked on water by his faith while looking at Christ and then looked at the tossing waves and doubted and fell.  

I too have turned away from Christ at times and by doing so let doubt take my heart, causing me to fall, and in doing I have seen time and time again how Christ will pick us up if we call out his name, and grasp His hand so ready to catch us from our fall.  He's always there for us and He will never give up on any of us.  We can always have hope in Him since he's always there and I find that so cool. Even with the stuff going down so nearby I know hope and love conquer all fear, so that's all we need.

I wanted to share a scripture this week too, on gratitude again, something I found shortly after sending my last email and one I love. D&C 59:7 states:

 "7 Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things". 

I love this commandment because like with all commandments it is give to help us not just because God wants us to thank Him haha :) with finding grateful feelings and some things I've been doing to improve that I've found that the more I attribute to Him, which I need to attribute everything since I don't do a lot, it's really all Him, but the less I focus on myself and on others, and the more love I find for God and His son Jesus Christ. So in my invitation to ponder on Christ (Alma 7:11-13) also ponder your gratitude. I promise you will see a monumental change in your perspective, average joy and love in daily life.

This week was also transfers and I'm staying with Elder Strong!  We had a great transfer and I'm excited to work here in Manosque and continue the work to do here. President told us we are going to see a lot of miracles and I'm excited to work as hard as I can with Elder Strong and do our best to let every good thing really come to pass here in Manosque.  I love the people here and it is a privilege and a blessing to serve the French people of the provincial country.  I leave you all again with my testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ. I know He lives and loves us and me and you so much, and He is there to help us, and He will bring us His light in our lives if we need and seek it, and as we all need this I know all we have to do is look to Him and ask for His help. His hand is out reaching to us and all we have to do is grasp it and love Him. I know He lives, and so this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Cool mountains near Manosque

Love,
Elder Laney

Incense from a local Chinese herb shop - makes a missionary apartment smell great! #dontneednofancyholder

Another Good Week (Week #5 Transfer #6)

Hello family and friends,

To give you a recount of this week I'll start with our conference in Lyon. We all got to go to Lyon which was fun and we were able to meet Elder Christofferson, one of the members of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. He was cool and I got to shake his hand for like 4 seconds - haha.  He told me it was a pleasure to shake my hand. I don't know, my hands are always really cold which is what the French tell me, so anyway it was fun to meet him for a sec!  He and one of the members of the 70 and their wives and President and Sister Brown all talked to us and gave us some cool inspiring messages. What stuck out to me was that if one reads the Book of Mormon they will receive a witness of its truth by the Spirit of God, and they'll feel and know it's true.  I know this to be true, but I just loved how matter of a fact that became when I heard it from an apostle.  Some people may not act on it he said, but they will have a witness. I love the Book of Mormon and it helps me so much each day, the stories and the accounts I can read and learn from every day. I thank God for the blessing of scripture written by his prophets and am so happy to share that and have that with me daily. Its really amazing, I always learn something when I read the Book of Mormon.

Lyon Mission Conference with Elder Christofferson

The rest of the week we spent trying to find some new investigators as we haven't had the chance to see any of our current ones for a long time. We started teaching Malo; I've been playing soccer with him and our member Jonathan since last transfer. He's so cool and it was amazing to see how prepared he was as well to hear this message. I met some other interesting people during the week and just made a bunch of new friends in town. It was fun, got dinner with a man we met who knew missionaries before.

Basilica of the Rosary, Lourdes

Have an awesome week everybody! My challenge this week is to be happy! I notice we can really choose to in our life to let different things influence us, so if we let ourselves notice the good and not the bad, and focus on what's important and what promises and blessings we know we have we won't have to be sad, but can be always happy. A scripture I love is 2 Nephi 33: 6 which says

 "I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus for he hath redeemed my soul from hell."

I love this scripture and what my Book of Mormon class professor at BYU taught us about it: how life is simple, and its our truths we can rely on and when we put our glory in things our happiness is based on that. So if we glory in Jesus Christ, who is our Savior and perfect and will never fail us, we will never fall.

Elder Laney and Elder Strong beneath the walls of the castle in Lourdes, France

So every time you get a negative thought this week or a complaint (I have too many too often) remember Christ and how He's there for you, I promise you He is.  Also try what I've tried: say 3 things immediately related to the negative thought or complaint for which you are grateful. I promise you your outlook will change dramatically and immediately as you do either or both of these things. 

Love,
Elder Laney

The Grotto of Massabielle is a sacred Catholic site of St. Bernadette's visions of the Virgin Mary in 1858. The Blessed Virgin is said to have pointed out a previously undiscovered spring in the grotto and instructed Bernadette to drink from it. The spring water from the grotto is believed to possess healing properties, and the Roman Catholic Church occasionally officially recognizes miraculous healings.

Week #4 Transfer #6 - Adventure!!

Hey everyone!! This week was a bit of an adventure and the next will be more so. We got to start the week off hiking the mountain of gold! Haha that's the name of the little hill overlooking Manosque, Le Mont d'Or. It was so beautiful to see the view from there though. We then got to travel this week to Pau for Elder Strong's legality in France and I got to pass through Toulouse and Tarbes! Fun to see the villes a little if only for a bit, and we got to eat the amazing kebab at Toulouse and even visit Lourdes for a little bit. We ended the week with a great time at church and a lesson with our ami Pascal who is doing so well and making so much progress.

View from Mt. d'Or

This week I was so touched by the beauty of the earth and the blessing we have to live here. I love to just watch the beautiful creation of nature and see what We are so lucky to experience and live on, on this beautiful planet. There is a scripture in 1 Corinthians 10:26:

" 26 For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof."

I know this is true, we are given so much and as I reflect on the beauty I am so lucky to see in this beautiful country of France I become more grateful for all we have been given of our Heavenly Father. He helps us out so much and nature is just great!  As I think of the beauty of this world and all the wonderful views we can experience I also recognize the spiritual adventures we can experience as well. So I invite you all to make the most of what we have.

Manosque from Mt. d'Or

Tomorrow I get to meet one of the apostles of the Lord in Lyon and I'm so excited. Not only am I so blessed to serve in a beautiful place on earth but now I can meet one of Gods chosen servants and learn what he'll have to teach us. I hope you all have a wonderful week. To speak on making the most with what we have and have been given, In words
Elder Christofferson shared in the October 2010 general conference:

 "As a youth I visited the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City. One of my favorite stops was the LDS Church pavilion with its impressive replica of the Salt Lake Temple spires. There for the first time I saw the film Man’s Search for Happiness. The movie’s depiction of the plan of salvation, narrated by Elder Richard L. Evans, had a significant impact on many visitors, including me. Among other things, Elder Evans said:

      “Life offers you two precious gifts--one is time, the other freedom of choice, the freedom to buy with your time what you will. You are free to exchange your allotment of time for thrills. You may trade it for base desires. You may invest it in greed. …

      “Yours is the freedom to choose. But these are no bargains, for in them you find no lasting satisfaction.

      “Every day, every hour, every minute of your span of mortal years must sometime be accounted for. And it is in this life that you walk by faith and prove yourself able to choose good over evil, right over wrong, enduring happiness over mere amusement. And your eternal reward will be according to your choosing.

      “A prophet of God has said: ‘Men are that they might have joy’--a joy that includes a fullness of life, a life dedicated to service, to love and harmony in the home, and the fruits of honest toil--an acceptance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ--of its requirements and commandments.

      “Only in these will you find true happiness, the happiness which doesn’t fade with the lights and the music and the crowds.”

I know how true these words are and I can't wait to see what life has for us all.

Love,
Elder Josh Laney

Week #3 Transfer #6 - Continuer Fort (Stay strong!)

Hello friends and family!
 How was your week? I hope it was great! Time's flying as usual and should fly even faster with the next few weeks, including a trip to Pau for Elder Strong's legality this week (I get to stop in Tarbes for 10 min and visit Toulouse!) and then our conference in a week to see Elder Christofferson! What an amazing opportunity we have to meet one of Christ's apostles living today, I'm super excited and we're gonna go find our 2nd engage this week! Please pray for Selene and her progress and for the 2nd person we are meant to help, thanks so much for all you do and all your prayers everyone! I miss you all tons and love you even more. 

Zone hike in hills of Marseille

This week was fun, we got to meet a lot of cool people through soccer and I've seen how serving members and spending time with them will spark them into just doing tons of missionary work and trying to help you out tons! it's so cool. We also got to do a hike in Marseille on P-day with the zone which was beautiful and fun! So cool, looked just like my favorite movie "The Count of Monte Christo" which takes place in Marseille!!  Can't wait to read that book in its original French version someday :) and visit le Château d'If. 

Cliffs above Marseille France

So my message this week is on service and loving one another, and using prayer to help you do that. This will help you overcome challenges by helping others :) I will reflect the words of the scripture I shared two weeks ago: Matt 22: 37-40:

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God [, and second]...Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets"

I've been focusing on this recently and have seen a huge change.  Sometimes you just need to think of others more and how you can help them. And so something I've been doing is trying to say one nice comment or something kind to uplift someone else for every person I meet each day. I have found I'm just starting to love others way more and it's so cool, and it started with making some decisions to further consecrate myself to love God.  But I found out how to do this from our Heavenly Father, which is by prayer.  So just remember prayer and its primary goal, to help us just talk to our Heavenly Father and know Him and His will for us. So pray and ask Him how you can better love Him and love others. My invitation this week is for you all to do  something nice or say something nice to someone every day!  It's brought such a difference for me, and in a paraphrase of a quote I once heard, in one act of kindness you may find joy, but the person you helped may hold your name in esteem forever.  So go help others!  It'll make them happier than we can imagine and mean so much, and it'll make us all happier as we help :)

French Coast near Marseille

Love,
Elder Josh Laney

Week #2 Transfer #6 - Des Grands Miracles

This week was just awesome. I'll start with a really cool story.

President and Sister Brown and the missionaries at Stake Conference

We were talking to people on the street on Wednesday when I recognized this one lady in her 20's, but couldn't figure out how I knew her. We started talking to her and I asked if we had met but she didn't hear the question so we just kept going on with our questionnaire on the family, and decided to teach her a lesson right there when we asked if she had some time. She'd been to Manosque for 3 weeks and turns out she had lived in some other places recently, including Tarbes. I thought that was cool and shared that I lived there recently too. We started the lesson about the restoration of the church and half way through she says she recognizes me and after a minute I remembered that I had done the family questionnaire with her in Tarbes my first few weeks in France!!!!  So crazy, I even remember where we had contacted her and how she hadn't really been interested and me and Elder Ambursley talking about that conversation after. So we continued the lesson and I felt like she was one of the two engagés (amis with a baptismal date fixed) that we were going to get before our conference with Elder Christofferson, a goal that President Brown had fixed for every missionary to find one new engagé.  Anyway, I sent out a text for our district to pray for us as we asked her to baptism, and we continued the lesson. We explained the Book of Mormon, and then had her read the promise in Moroni 10 about how if we read the Book of Mormon and pray about it we will receive an answer that it is true. She paused afterward and after a minute told us a few times before I understood, "I'm going to go buy one of these books." Super confused I just sat there and then asked her "Why do you want to buy one?" She responded, "Because it's true. .. I feel that it's true and know it."  Haha! Elder Strong and I were so surprised all we could say was "... Uh... Oui!" We explained how that was the Spirit telling her it was true and she agreed. A few minutes of discussion later Elder Strong gave her the invitation to be baptized and she responded with a firm yes, without hesitation. I then followed with asking her if she would be baptized on the 26th of March and she responded with with a decided and happy yes. It was so cool. I know God puts people in our path when we work hard and if we are lucky we will be able to help people in awesome experiences like this.  I followed a lot of promptings and direction from the Spirit, including sending that text and planning then to invite her to baptism, and I know the Lord guided Elder Strong and I to do this.  But we really didn't do much!  Haha, she just was there and ready. We taught her the next day and she even came to the Stake Conference broadcast on Saturday.

P-Day soccer in Manosque

Anyway, our week was awesome and full of miracles, Patrick is doing better than ever and we should be seeing Jean-Luc and Cassandra this week.  Man, I'm so lucky to be helping all these people it's so cool.  Anyway, we also got to play a huge game of soccer against Dignes a town nearby, our member's friend got together a huge group and we got to play. It was so fun! Also, with Stake Conference and our Mission President and his wife sharing some really cool messages with us it was one of the best weeks ever.  Invitation for you: follow the spirit. That's when we get to be part of miracles.

Hiking in Marseille on P-Day

Love,
Elder Laney

Our view from the hike above Marseille

Week #1 Transfer #6 - Love is the key

Bonsoir!!! It is nighttime for you all right about now so that's how to say good evening!!

My first week with Elder Strong was really fun! And just great. We got to see almost all of our Amis and taught them all and it's so cool to help others to know Christ and begin this path for themselves!!  Because that's what we do, we invite and they commit themselves and discover God. That's my invitation, to come to know God's love for us all for yourself, and that He loves you.

Another gorgeous Manosque sunset

I had a good week and really got to see awesome things. Our ami Jean Luc has a daughter (who we recently found out from him) has been listening by the door to our lessons each time we would teach Jean Luc.  Haha, so we invited her to sit in recently and she did; she told us she was interested and wanted to know what we were teaching.  So we started by teaching her to pray and though it was a simple lesson it was one of the best I've had.  She's really coming to follow the example of her father and has seen how his life and joy has improved so drastically and taken a 180 degree turn and it is so cool and makes me so happy to help her find this happiness too.  She's already started to recognize the spirit in our lessons. I'm so grateful to God to serve in such a wonderful area and to meet such awesome people and get to know them all.

I want to leave my message this week with a scripture on love. In Matthew 22 a lawyer asks Christ "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" Christ responds as follows:

" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

I know that this is true because it's been my experience these last 2 months.  I have been studying and trying to know how to love God because I know it's so important. As we try to love God by following His commandments He'll help us and we will start to love everyone else too.

Our mission motto is:   " Love is the key "

I know it is and no matter what walk of life you are in or follow or situation, love is the answer to everything, all we do that is good will come of this and I know it's true. May we all love God, and love everyone as we try to help people all the time. We will want to help others when we start to love everybody, no matter who they are well make that right choice in any situation if it's out of complete unselfish love for them and their eternal well-being.

Beautiful church in Manosque

I invite you all to help someone this week! It doesn't matter in what but just be a helping hand and I knew you'll be so happy and so will they. I love it whenever I get to help someone because it's just awesome. Have the best week everyone!!

Love,
Elder Laney

Week #6 Transfer #5 - New beginnings

Hey everyone!! I had an interesting Monday and after a train ride to Lyon and back I am now with my new companion!  Haha, it was fun, turns out the office sent me to Lyon but my companion ended up getting into Marseille way later and I just went to Lyon and back just for fun. 

Always a good time on the trains...

But now Elder Garside is off on a plane to the Canadian homeland and I have a lot of free stuff he left behind :)  haha, anyways it was so cool to serve with him and I know his mission not only blessed the lives of so many others but also his own life immensely and how much he has changed for the better. I'll miss him a ton, he's so cool.

Snowy train journey

This last week with me and Elder Garside here was fun and awesome though, a really great way for him to finish off the mission.  We taught our ami Hervé and we both felt like we should just let him keep talking instead of interrupting to start a lesson, and eventually he opened up and shared how his faith was starting to grow, it was so cool, and then we got to eat dinner with him and his wife and share the message about the restoration with them.  They were both very touched and it was such a cool experience.  I asked on the ride home if he felt the spirit and he immediately responded with a big "yes." And it was so cool.

Gap, a village in the French Alps

We taught Jean-luc and this time invited his daughter to the lesson, she was really interested and afterward wanted to come to church the next day.  They both came and they both had an awesome time!!!  We'll be teaching them as a family now, it's so cool to see how lives are touched and changed for the better by the message of the gospel.  Jean-luc during our lesson started teaching his own daughter and it was so neat.  I just see how the work here is growing and how grateful I am to know such awesome people and be able to serve them all. 

The sights you see from a train in France.  Random volcano...

I hope you all have a wonderful week, below is a picture of me and Elder Strong, who is also from Kentucky just like Elder Omohundro!  So that's my second companion from Kentucky haha.  Awesome guy and I'm excited to work with him!!  He reminds me a bit of one of my favorite actors Michael Cera so that's really fun. We have a lot of similarities and are getting along great so far after 23 hours and 50 minutes.  Anywaysn have a great week everyone and have fun! Also, happy belated Valentine's Day!!

Elder Strong and Elder Laney

Avec beaucoup d'amour,
Elder Laney