Dec. 30, 2009

hello family!

well it was good to talk to you, those that i didnt talk to i really really wanted to but that would have been presque (almost) impossible (i thought about it and we should have just stayed on the call all together...), and congratulations to Keshia for your call. thats way cool!

well so basically this week has been fairly fun. like i dont know what all to really tell you because like... nevermind. well so what happened is that last week was Christmas! on christmas eve we went to the Family Jacquet's home. (thats who called mom, and it was my companion that translated for her) anyways so we hung out there and had hamburgers and sandwiches and stuff for dinner. then we went and played a little down stairs where they had a rock climbing wall (just a little one) on two of their walls in their garage thing. then we went and sang and they gave us some presents which were like swiss things and it was a lot of fun.

so then the next day we were at home for the morning and we played risk and then went to the church and were kind of having a little party with some of the single people in the ward but basically all of them were not available and only one came! so we played some ping pong, uno, and some other games. then that night we went to the Family Coutino's house and ate and thats where we called home and stuff. so all and all it was a pretty good christmas.

umm so after that we have just been finding and passing people and so on. we have actually found a couple of people the last week to teach which is cool. and then like the other thing that has happened is that we are actually in Geneva right now because we had an Exchange Yesterday with the Assistants. It was with elder Sorenson, who i've gone on a bunch of other exchanges with so it was fun. we had a good time and all.

so today we were playing ping pong here at the Mission Home and well what happened was that i won, decided to do my victory dance on the wet grass, and on the first step i slipped and thats what that one picture is... so ya. basically i got owned..
ummm like other than that i could not tell you what i'm going to be doing and ya... so hope that you have a great week! and love you!

Elder Laws

Dec. 24, 2009

Hey yo! how's the Family doing?

So this week has been pretty fun BUT... i'm not going to explain everything because i guess that i'll be talking to you. now i wont have a ton of time to talk to my sisters... sorry!!! but i think that i'll be calling around 6h30 ish at night which should be 10h30 ish in the morning chez les parents. and i guess calling Amelias house it'll probably be around like 1ish so ya.

Anyways so this week was Zone conference and it was way good. me and my companion had to teach a little but it wasnt anything stressful haha! so i'll survive. anyways so we talked about Christ and our favorite Prophecies of his birth etc. and i really dont have a favorite but i really like Mosiah 3:5-11.

Oh and on Sunday we went to a little city about 15 minutes away and while we were walking and passing people it started to Snow... and it snowed and snowed and snowed... it was fun i guess. then we went back to renens where it was also snowing, we spent dinner with a Family, it was good (horse meat... dont hate me i had no choice, its really good though). then after that we went and were passing a less active and on the way out the building we get a call. so were just standing there in the staircase and i look out the window and this fox goes running by. it was so cool. and since it had just snowed... and it was sunday, it left its tracks forever! and we followed them, it was pretty cool. way fun.

Anyways as for the pictures the first 2 are of us after we had been walking around in the snow, without hats or umbrellas. the third is of the ward Christmas party i think, the fourth is a church we saw thats up on the hill. umm then the last one was at Zone conference and its a picture of me and like all my companions that are still in the mission field. pretty cool stuff (oh and i didnt ask them to pose like that....)

other than that i guess we'll talk to you tomorrow! Love you all!

Elder Laws

Dec. 16, 2009

Hey Family!
this week has been pretty fun! so of course i am in a new area right now. with a new companion. Renens is a really nice place, and its got a ward of about 100 people so its quite different from my last area haha... (branch of 25). My new companion is elder Trejo. He is from Austin Texas and has 6 siblings. he's a pretty cool guy and we have been having a lot of fun.
So basically saying goodbye to all my newmade friends was a bummer... but i'm excited for the next little while that i'll be here. we have seen a couple of really cool miracles actually. the first or maybe not first... one of the days we went porting and this lady opened her door and didnt really speak french but she got her son, and the first thing he says is come in. then the next thing he says is what church are you from, then the next thing is ok cool i'll come sunday... way cool. so he came sunday to our church with his friend and they invited us to come to theres... which... well it was a brazilian evangelical church... so it was a new experience i guess is the best way to put it haha...
it was out of control, but i learned a great lesson... that is that our church is true haha! its just so hard to feel the spirit when someone is yelling the word of god and when their hymns are like Rock songs with a full band, 3 guitars, a bass, drum set, back up singers, etc.... it was just weird.
so that was fun haha.
ummm what else happened this week. oh we were in line at a store and this guy was in line too and he said he wanted to come to our church and that he was going to once and he lost the address. haha pretty crazy. just like random people telling us to come by or that they want to come to church. not something that is very common here so its pretty cool.
umm... so i guess other than that. oh ye had zone leader council which was saturday. which is basically just a meeting where we talk about what we need to focus on in the different zones and share ideas etc. it was a great meeting. i've heard a lot of different people say that its there favorite meeting on their missions so what a treat for us. its funny though because it honestly does not feel any different being a zone leader, we basically are just missionaries but weirdly it feels like we never have time to relax...kind of stressful.
so right now, we are acutally in Yverdon on an exchange. i went, yesterday, with Elder Borges and it was pretty good. we had a couple rendezvous with some members and they were pretty good. we also were porting and this guy let us in and he gave us some water, which I then proceeded to knock all over myself... turning a freezing cold day into well... a freezing cold day with water all over myself... which was just peachy....
It just so happens that in this area it likes to be really cold and windy, and its right on a lake and so its terrible... its been "snowing" the last week (just a little) so i'm not looking forward to these next couple of months. a car would be nice, but the transportation is really good here so ya no problem there. ummm but i think that thats all for me.... ya... thats it, have a great week! Love you!
Elder Laws
ps if you could get me phone numbers that would be sweet! and also Congratulations to Kelsey i would imagine that she told everyone but if she hasnt then you can ask her yourself!!

Dec. 08, 2009

Dear Family!

How are you all doing? Well so this week.... i got one email from you guys!!! whats going on? just because its christmas does not mean that i dont want to hear from you! it actually means that i would like to hear from you more!!!

This has been a pretty weird week for the most part. we had District Meeting on THursday and then did our exchange with Annemasse. Which was fun. I went with elder Williams who is actually a different elder williams than the last one i went on an exchange with and he's a cool Elder so it was fun. Then!

Sadly we both got sick with the Flu or something like that and were both miserable for a day! thought that i might sneak through the holiday season without being sick... guess not! anyways so then on saturday we went to Bellegarde and visited a member that lives there (an hour away from annecy) and then went to Geneva for Stake Conference. We got (were forced :P) to sing in the first session that night. Oh and Elder Kopishke was the Presiding authority there. Pretty cool stuff. He gave some great talks. It was cool.

Then sunday we had stake conference and then came back to Annecy and did some Finding that night and finished off the day like that.

Monday morning! was transfer calls... and i'm leaving annecy. And going to Renens in Switzerland, Which is right next to Lausanne. which is on Lake Geneva. so ya. Pretty cool. oh and i get to stress out more because i'm going to be Zone LEader. No i'm not really stressed, not yet at least haha! i'm excited though, it will be a great experience. so yesterday was spent packing a little and visiting people to say goodbye. it was good. I guess we dont really realize how much we love something until its gone right! I really enjoyed my time here in Annecy. I feel like i've grown a TON! which is great!

umm so i guess that is all. I'll be leaving Tomorrow so i guess next week i'll let you know how things go! Love you all!

Elder Laws

Dec. 02, 2009

Hello all!

This has been a pretty good week and it was alot of fun too.

Last preparation day we just relaxed and stayed in Annecy and it was much Needed haha. After that we just went to work and got to teach a lot.

On thursday we taught a lady at the church that we have been teaching for a while. She has been coming to church for the last like 4 monthes and she really needs the gospel in her life. She doesnt want to commit to baptism though because she wants it to be her choice and she wants to decide. I think that a lot of times people dont understand why we are here. They think that we are trying to force them or that we are asking them to become members of our church when really all we do is invite them to follow Christ.

anyways lately we have been writing notes to the members to get them thinking about missionary work more often. so we go around and put them in their mailboxes and also share spiritual thoughts with them so that has occupied part of our time this week. we were invited to eat with the Branch president and his family. they're way cool they have 4 kids all younger than 11 but not like babies and so its funny. they are really outgoing kids and well they do funny stuff. we also went and did service.

There hasnt been any way cool break throughs. but its been good to just teach people about the gospel. I love it! one of the greatest feelings in the world is to have the spirit working through you touching the hearts of others. it makes it all worth it.

Lately I have been thinking about Graditude! Thanksgiving was last week! we didnt really get to celebrate it but it was a good time to just think of things we were grateful for. During interviews last week Sr. Murdock asked us to share something we were grateful for, this next District Meeting is on graditude. When we are grateful to the lord and realize his hand in our lives we are SOO blessed and cant be prideful... its like impossible.

haha that last paragraph doesnt make a ton of sense but i think you get what i'm trying to say.

One of our investigators that we have been working with for a little while has started to read the Book of Mormon. its really cool to see how much happier she is now and how much she has already started to grow. We can tell that she is "feasting upon the words of christ". Now its her thats asking US if theres someone that can come pick her up and take her to church! It's amazing how the spirit can work in someone. She even has started to defend our beliefs! its way cool!

Well so thats all i have for now. hope you have a great week!

Love YOU all
Elder Laws


still have some time left today.

This was Lunch!
Love You
Elder Laws

Nov. 25, 2009

Hey Family!
It was good to hear from all of you and to know that everything is going good!
Also the fact that I'm going to have another nephew is pretty cool. (no more of this niece stuff k?) Congratulations Jesse!
This week has been great and the weather is slightly cooperating. It has rained I think for the last Month like every day. But so far no snow which is apparently not normal so i guess we're lucky, because my companion is from Southern California, and i'm from St. George...(it doesnt get too cold either place.) transfers are the Ninth of December so hopefully i'll stay more towards the south (or go back to valence haha) for winter... and out of the mountains.
If i havent told everyone my nose isnt that bad now swellings down and no bruising and its straight and i can breath so all is well. Although there is part of my nose that is moving that i dont think it should but it doesnt hurt so i'm not going to worry about it. Just the thought of another surgery makes me say that its fine no matter what shape it would be in right now. haha.
I'm glad that Those mission papers are finally on their way otherwise i'd probably call up the bishop myself :). no i'm just kidding but that's cool that he finally got around to it. i'm glad that he maybe didnt have the easiest time, we dont get callings because we are qualified for them but to help us grow and learn. Just like why we are here now!
Anyways so this last week has been good. after playing soccer in geneva again (which i'm officially sick of) we had a great activity in Annemasse with the Young Men there. We taught them and then they taught us something from Preach My Gospel. Its kind of interesting to think that i probably acted about how they did... completely "uninterested" or more interested in other things. haha. i wasnt like that was I? Then the next morning we all went to Annecy (all seven of us, i'll explain that next) and we went and did service at the place we go to every week. We brought everyone because we were loading a Semi-truck with sacks full of clothes and it was a ton of work and a ton of fun. Anyways when we showed up they had already started and been working for a little while so they were taking a coffee break... and there was like 6 of them... there was a TON of bags.. so they asked how many we were and we said 7 and the look of like relief in their eyes was priceless. It was way cool.
After that we had DIstrict meeting which went well but at the same time we were all SOOO tired so it wasnt the best but ya.
So back to the reason why there were seven missionaries. On tuesday night we went up to Annemasse to stay over night then spend preparation day with them and like they were supposed to pick us up (they have a car) and take us to the apartement but they were way late. And when they show up it was 2 completely different missionaries and so we were really confused. It turns out that one of the missionaries had some family/ personal stuff to take care of so he went home..
So now we have Elder Asay (who i we were with in Geneva) elder Williams (who was already there) and Elder Anderson (who got into the mission field the same day and if from Norway) in annemasse. Its really cool and fun.
anyways so this weekend we got to see some of our investigators and it was great, some came to church which was way cool because we hadnt seen her for a little while. then monday we had a great day and some good miracles. We taught this lady who is the mother of 2 kids and you could really tell that she felt the spirit which was great and then we had an exchange with the Elders IN chambery. Which was good. We went and ate at a members house. it was SUCH good food haha. so anyways. Then Yesterday we had interviews with president murdock and it was really good. and ya... thats about it!
Hope you have a great week!
Love you!
Elder Laws

Nov. 18, 2009

Hello All!
how is everyone doing today? how was everyones weeks?

so this has been an alright week for us. turns out my nose isnt too badly injured haha but i had to ice it for a little bit and ya. i think its broken still but its straight and i can breath so all is well.
We have been having a hard time seeing our amis lately because a lot of them have been sick and i think that one of them might have got the Grippe A... or just a normal Grippe (the grippe A is swineflu grippe is just like flu i guess... not completely sure though). so like its been tough but on sunday night we actually taught this couple that we had contacted a while ago and it went really well. they are way nice and we got the fact that we are polygamist cleared up for them haha. it was fun.
Then like yesterday or the day before we had this great contact with this italian guy that had lived in colorado for 4 years and he just loved everything we told him and like was really impressed that we are here to invite and not like tell them how it is sort of thing. sadly he is from italy so we arent going to get to teach him but thats ok.
ummm other stuff... idk if there is anything else thats going on really. we are in geneva again today to play sports... hopefully not just soccer because i am getting really bored of it haha. never really been my forte. my companion tries to tell me that i am good (i think its just in the effort to try and get me to play more haha).
Other than that the language is good, its starting to get cold in annecy, (mountains and all) and the branch is doing good.
Hope you have a great week! love you all!
Elder Laws
ps i need your addresses

Nov. 11, 2009

Hello Family!
So this week has been great! so i guess that we can start with wednesday we just like hung out and played piano and stuff. then thursday we had the opportunity to do service at this place that we go to every week. its great and a ton of work which is a good switch from like walking and stuff haha. we also tried to find some places to do some porting but basically we didnt so it was alright but could have been better.
on friday we do our Weekly Planning session, set goals and stuff, figure out what we are working for etc and then we went and passed this less active member. a couple of weeks ago he actually stopped drinking and so he has a ton of energy (i told you that already i think) and so its hard to even like share anything with him but we manage to. he's a great guy and they always give us a ton of food when we go over.
Saturday was a pretty good day and we got to do some great things. we saw our investigator and he's doing good. Not especially progressing but recently he got jumped and they broke his nose... oh and he's in a wheelchair.. pretty messed up huh?
We also got to see some of our Members and we ate with one of them. Its a family with 3 kids and he is the ward mission leader. its fun to be with them and see that our family wasnt the only one with fights teasing disobedience great parents etc.sunday was alright but like all of our rendezvous fell. it was good though. ummm ya. and lately i've been having to practice the piano because i got a call from one of the assistants who wanted me to play the piano for Zone conference haha!
now since monday is no longer preparation day we had an exchange with the zone leaders it was way good. i went with elder brady and elder mason went with elder lepretre. we both had a lot of good conversations and found some people who said that we could pass by again. after that we went up to geneva for the rest of the exchange and because the next day was zone conference. It was SOOO good haha! i felt that spirit way strongly and well got a bunch of good ideas of what we should do.
we did one activity where we took a map and both members of the companionship picked roads according to the spirit..(thats like way french english haha) and then we compared the list that we made individually (5-10) and we had roads in common yay! so this thursday we are going to go check it out! and to add onto that elder mason got a package and he got fortune cookies, and one of them said be on the lookout thursday for a special opportunity. so it should be cool.
that brings us to today... which is preparation day. we came up to geneva to play some sports and we played soccer and well it was fun... and halfway through i like got my nose blasted.... its not sure that its broken or not but i think that it is possible haha. we'll see. i will keep you updated haha! i just got a head to the nose but anyways it was fun except that like all the french/spanish soccer player people were on the same team and then started to get way too cocky.... and then we scored like 5 goals in a row haha! it was funny... anyways (pride cycle anyone?) sorry... that wasnt very appropriate. umm so ya. but thats all for me! so i hope that you have a great week!
and i Love you!
Elder Laws

Nov. 04, 2009

Hey Family!!!
So this has been a LONG 9 day week since i heard from you haha.... well actually i was just fine, pretty normal stuff going on.
umm so one monday we went up and played soccer in Geneva and it was way fun i guess.... i decided that i would just play with a good attitude and stuff and i slayed everyone.... not really but the WORLD WILL REMEMBER MY NAME!!! hahah... dunno where that came from! it was fun...
so then on Tuesday we just had basic like missionary stuff going on and we got to see one of our investigators. her name is Michele and she speaks english and is way funny... we've seen her a couple of times since then and watched the restoration with her and normally she likes to talk a lot(ton) but during the film she didnt say a word... she was really touched and she said that she would read every day from the Book of mormon! Which we have been trying to get her to do all along haha! she is also quiting smoking right now because she got brochitus and could easily have died.
Then we have been working with members and visiting them and its been fun i really like them! they are way too nice to us sometimes! oh and i'm still district leader so yesterday we've had 2 meetings and they went well. this last one we were talking about how we could speak better french and we invited some of the members to help us and it was really good! its always nice to have people that are from the country because they have different mindsets... and they speak the language haha!
We visited this lessactive member that is like the favorite person of all the missionaries who serve here and he used to be kind of a big drinker so it was kind of funny when we went there... but now he is stopping... and he has so much more energy its ridiculous. it was hard to get a few words in before but now its impossible haha (10 points to the Word of Wisdom testimony haha!)
On sunday we did some porting and a man let us in and we were talking about the restoration and like then he asked us how long we were here and like about our families and stuff and he said to tell our parents that On November 1, 2009 at 5:45 that Didier (52 rue de l'agouleme) said that. vos parents pourrait etre fier de vous (our parents could be proud of us) haha! He was a way nice guy and we're going to stop by and see him again pretty soon. he told us to tell our parents that! i'm not trying to be prideful or anything....
Umm... other than that this last little while i've been reading Jesus the Christ a ton and the Book of mormon too and i was just overcome with...sadness. The complete unrighteousness and illegality of the Trial and Crucifixion is completely ridiculous! the Jews acted against practically every law that they were so scrutinously protecting, and charged him of something that he DIDNT EVEN SAY or do!!! I love how talmage says it... they accused the one person on this earth that could not blaspheme of blasphemy.... or something like that... It really maybe so much more appreciative of the sacrifice that christ made for us. (10 points to atonement testimony!)
Anyways it was a great week... And i hope that you all have a great week, and I love you!
Elder Laws

Oct. 26, 2009

Hello Family
so basically i dont have much time because we are going to geneva pretty soon so hopefully i'll be quick.
Today was transfer call day and we didnt get one so we're staying together which is sweet! i love it here so thats cool. Sadly it seems like the rest of the world this weekend both me and my companion we sick and didnt want to get our investigators sick so we just stayed inside and slept and stuff. but other than that the week was great!
on tuesday there was a train strike so we had district meeting then did another exchange with the elders in Chambery and it was great. i was with elder Williams who actually started his mission here in Annecy so we went and saw a few people that he taught and it was cool. Day went really well.
other than that we have just been hanging out (not really) and talking to everyone. Trying to see investigators and members and just like teach them the gospel. We saw a less active member this week who actually stpped drinking recently and had TONS more energy (imagine that.. :) ). it was way cool. Follow the commandments and get bless... odd concept no?
Well so basically today we are going to play sports in geneva which is way exciting! i miss beign able to play basketball so often.. hhaa
ummm... oh someone asked me for a christmas list so here goes.
- New Scriptures
- Ipod/Music
- absolutely NO CANDY haha...(i guess you can send traditional stuff)
- Letters!
- Church Books
- Oil Vial (last one got lost)
- Piano Music
- Photo Frame (electronic one...)
Basically i dont need any of this stuff but it would be cool... i realized when i was thinking of all this stuff that i really dont need anything (its a great feeling!).
i also need your addresses and if someone could send me a picture of the entire family (or as many people as possible) that would be sweet
ANyways i gotta go hope you have a great week!
Love YOU!
Elder Laws

Oct. 19, 2009

Hello people....!
how is everyone doing?
so basically this week has been a lot of fun!
on tuesday we went to chambery for an exchange and i went with elder Walch and we actually had a sweet miracle. this lady stopped in her car and called us over (as we were contacting) and she just asked us what it was all about so we explained the restoration quickly and then she asked if we had a church in Chambery and we were like ya and so we gave her the address and the times and stuff and she was like cool i'll see you sunday then and then left. so thats cool (sadly she didnt go but ya)
so then we went and ate lunch and stuff we had a rendezvous with a less active then went to this little town called aix les bains in their area. and worked there for the rest of the day. It was fun because well my companion doesnt really care about sports and he likes sports and stuff and so we talked all day about it it was fun (sadly he's a new england patriots fan so i had to put him in his place but we quickly got past that conflict and got the spirit back haha!)
but it was fun. The next day we came back to annecy and had our district meeting that morning. it was good and i hope that it helped out the district.
Other than that we've just been teaching people. On sunday we had church and there were a few visitors from the stake and things like that and after church we had le repas de branche (ward meal) they do it every 3rd sunday of the month. (which was really good because we didnt go shopping this week and had like NO food haha... a little but ya...) after that we had a rendezvous with this family from nigeria. Mom and dad and two kids. it was fun and we are going to see them next sunday and show them the restoration. oh and they speak english which is pretty cool. i prefer to teach the gospel in french now but it should be fun anyways!
its been a great experience to be here in annecy and i LOve the people here (even when some of them arent nice...) all of our amis are great and the members here rock!
oh ya and so like... our ward mission leader wanted us to show this film to one of our investigators (the mediator) but he didnt know where it was and we didnt have a dvd player and all that jazz but then we were at the church one day looking at the videos that were there to see if we could use any in teaching (because there isnt a dvd player there) and we found the mediator so we were like cool lets try it out to make sure it works (it was an old video cassette so you never know right?) so we go to make sure put it in rewind it a little push play and its working so were like cool lets try to find the video we want to see (because there was more than one little video on it) so we were rewinding it and pressed play and then it broke... and so now there is a vhs... stuck in the vcr and its kind of annoying... it doesnt work... it wont eject... it wont do anything... so we opened it up (the back) and couldnt figure out how to get it to work... its still all wound through the machine but its just doesnt realize there is a video in there.... something always happens...
But so ya... the end of that has not yet been established...so i'll keep you updated.
ummm other than that i'm doing really well and its been good to hear from you all!
Love you and have a great week!
Elder Laws

Oct. 12, 2009

Hi Family!
How is everybody doing?
This week was just a little bit crazy...thats all. It started out with being in geneva for preparation day. We went and played soccer (thumbs down...) which was fun (even though i would have preferred basketball). and also after that we went back to the mission home and played Risk which was pretty uneventful and i think that i pretty much lost... even though we didnt finish... it was still fun though. After that we had an exchange with the zone leaders that started that night and went until tuesday. I was with Elder LePretre who is from Paris. It was a lot of fun and we had some cool miracles where we found this family that they could teach and also we taught this guy who was WAY cool. it was a lot of fun. After that we FINALLY got back to annecy haha. but we couldnt get too confortable because on thursday we had Interviews in Annemasse... and then did an exchange with the Elders there. IT was good and fun. so basically that means that we were in our area for a grand total of 3 whole days yay!!! haha... but yesterday when we were porting we found this family that said that we could come back next week and talked to a TON of really nice people. Also Church was way good and we talked about JOseph Smith and what he was to each one of us... The evidences (physical and spiritual) are just WAYY too overwhelming to deny the fact that he was someone special. The book of mormon in itself is too crazy for someone that was only a young uneducated farmboy to have written. Its hard to think that people dont believe.. if they took even 1 hour to just study his life and works there is NO way that they could think that he was just a really smart young kid... Anyways i had a really great week and thanks everyone for writing me! I love YOu and have a good day and week!
Elder Laws
ps Congratulations Amelia!

Oct. 05, 2009

Hello family!
so this week has been interesting and great at the same time! we basically had no time in our area which was kind of bad but we were able to see most of our investigators so its cool! but other than that we came to geneva on thursday for legality stuff and we were supposed to have an exchange with our Zone leaders but then there was a bunch of confusion and stuff and we didnt do it so like thats going to be tonight so on saturday we went to a city called bellegarde which is on its way to geneva and visited a couple of members family! it was fun and we went from there to general conference.
the schedule is a little different here in switzerland because well when its 10 there is 6 at night here. so like thats when the first session is saturday. then the next day they show priesthood session at 11 o clock and then saturday afternoon session at 2. after that they have sunday morning at 6 and then sunday afternoon at 10 To 12 so normally we dont get to watch that one BUT... we were staying at the mission home here in geneva with like the office elders and assistants and president murdock let us come over to his side of the mission home and watch in their basement! so it was WAYYY good!
I loved the talk by elder Holland because lately we've just been focusing on getting our investigators to read the book of mormon. so its way cool. and i also really enjoyed elder Scotts talk a bunch. it was a lot of fun and i went with a question and got the answer like right away. idk if you've ever tried just having a question whenever you go to church or watch conference but its really a great experience. When i was talking to one of the Missionaries in my district (did i tell you i was district leader again?) last night for weekly calls he told me that he had like 20 questions written down and that he got an answer to ALL of them... cool stuff. anyways so we are actually still in geneva because we have the exchange with the zone leaders so we are going to play soccer and basketball with like the entire zone so it should be TONS of fun.
Sorry that i havent sent any pictures in a while but my battery charger was left in neuchatel and i called and asked them to get it to the mission president so he could get it to me but they have just forgotten every time i guess... so i havent had my camera the last 2 transfers...; way sad.. anyways once i get it i will get you some pictures so ya! I love you all and thanks for all your examples! have a great week!
Elder Laws

Sep. 28, 2009

So HELLO all!
This week has been good but also a little slow as well. Most of our investigators have been like.... not there this week. but we still got to see a few people so thats cool.
Umm... We've been really trying to get people to Read the book of mormon this last week. Its amazing how little of an effort that would take but how hard it is for people to just do it. In Preach My Gospel it says to do everything that you can to get your investigators to read the book of mormon, and that the Book of mormon is the most powerful tool for conversion that we have. so like we have this one family that we have been teaching and its a 2 sisters and their Kids and then this guy and like we really just focused our last rendezvous on getting them to read.. so the next time we went one of the Sisters had read and she was SOOO excited to tell us what she learned and she really paid attention to what she was reading and basically told us the story of when Nephi goes and gets the pLates and it was way cool. and she was like ca ma fait du bien (....that me did some good... directly translated haha...you get the point) just like you said it would and so she's going to keep reading and we are SOO excited. it was funny because she told her sister that she had to read some and like it just reminded me of when Lehi sees the vision of the tree of life and he partakes of the fruit he just wants to share it with his family and its like exactly what happened with her!!! so cool.. they invited us to come eat with them this next week (they are from Maurice island... by madagascar) so we're excited. I Know that the Book of Mormon can change lives and i LOVE IT!!! this last little while its just been SOOO good to read i feel like i've learned like a Zillion things in the past week, its sometimes exhausting haha! (maybe thats just waking up every morning at 6h30...maybe thats it..)
ALso this last week was Zone Conference and it was WAY GOOD! and so ya... not really anything specific that stands out to me at this instant but it was great! and its always good to see missionaries together... this spirits always so strong.
umm but I think thats it for me!
I love you all! Have a great week!
ELder Laws

Sep. 21, 2009

so.... HELLO!!!!!
Hows everybody doing this week? i had another great week! so here we go...
umm on monday, basically what happened is that we hung out and Elder Walker packed... BORING!!! anyways so then the next day (tuesday) we went and passed a bunch of people so that elder Walker could say goodbye and stuff. we had a few rendezvous and we were able to teach Louis, Stefanie, Moses and Marie and also see our Branch President and his Family before he left.
So Louis is this great African man that has had a lot of crazy experiences this last little while. A year ago he was in a coma and the doctors said he had less than a one percent chance to live and wanted to just pull the plug but the family wouldnt let him and he came out of the coma, BUT he was blind, deaf, and weighed 30 kilos, which is like 70 pounds or so... anyways so NOW he can see, hear, and he's the Buffest person i've seen in my life... its crazy, he has such a strong testimony of prayer because he knows thats what saved him and has given him back his life.. HE's a great guy. anyways so he has told us his little workout program thing that he did after his coma to become the way he is, and basically it involved him doing pushups until he was doing about 1000 a day.... so i think i'm going to do that!!! sounds like fun huh? haha...
umm but so like we have some great Investigators that have strong desires to understand god better and its way cool.
So then on Wednesday elder Walker left to LYON. I went with him until Chambery because i had to wait with the elders there until my companion got to annecy because he Was in LUxembourg and well... it took him 11 hours to get down here... yikes! so that was our wednesday...
My new companion is named Elder Mason and he's from Huntington Beach, California and is probably the FUnniest companion that i've had. He likes to play soccer and he's a Pole Vaulter and ya its just been way fun to be around him this last little bit. Especially since we have been able to teach so much lately and just been blessed with SOOO many miracles. so its been fun.
umm Yesterday was probably the best day that we have had this week. We went to church and we had 4 amis there and we taught the GOspel principles class on Prayer and it was a great lesson. Then after that and church the ward had prepared a little luncheon thing (they do it after every 3rd Sunday) so we got to eat with them. Then after that we went and started to pass some people because we really wanted to get new amis and to teach people so we passed by some of our amis and stuff and nothing was really going on well so we decided to do some porting and this Old Man let us in and accepted the Book of Mormon and said he'd read it and that we could come back so that was GREAT!!! after that we talked to quite a cool people but then we went and had DInner and we were still a little lower than our goals, so we went out and passed like a bunch of people, one of them this guy that again accepted the book of mormon and said he'd read and that we could pass by again (it was actually his wife that we were going to pass and she said we could come by another time but if he wanted us too come by too that works!) then we passed by Marie again to share a quick spiritual thought on the way to another persons house and her, her sister, and this other guy that lives there were all excited to see us and ALL pulled out their book of Mormons and asked great questions and stuff it was great!!! They're so cool! and like we just felt like we got SO much accomplished on Sunday it was great and now today we are SOOO tired... its great. preparation day always comes with perfect timing haha!
Well so thats about it for me, thanks for writing me! its great to here from you all! Love You!
Elder Laws*
ps have a great week!

Sep. 14, 2009

Hello Everyone!
So i just was writing this email and everything got erased somehow so i will just start again and sorry that it wont be as specific... on monday we had an exchange with another companionship and so they came down during preparation day so we played a little basketball and it was fun. Then that night Elder Sheilds (a new missionary) and I had a couple of rendezvous scheduled and one of the went really well but the other one Got cancelled so we ended up just contacting and talked to this guy, asked him if we could teach him right then and went to his house and saw him.. it was really good and we have seen him a couple of times since then and he came to church so thats really cool.
Another cool thing that happened during the exchange is that we ported into this Lady that we are now teaching and shes really nice.
Then they went home and we were able to teach a ton of other people this week.
The best thing that has happened i would say is that for one of our rendezvous we had a member who brought pizza to share with us and the investigator. We decided to just leave her there with the Investigator and her family and she was there for like 2 hours just talking to them answering questions and stuff. anyways she came to church and liked it and while we were in a meeting they talked and she expressed a desire to be baptized and so like we're going to see her tuesday and we'll see what happens so it should be cool.
Ummm other than that transfers are this week and i'm getting a new companion so i'll let you know how that goes. its too bad because we have had so much going on but Elder Walker like has been here for 6 monthes so thats probably why its changing. But it should be fun.
Anyways I have to go
Love you all
Have a Wonderful Week!!
Elder Laws

P.S. Pass "Happy Birthday" to Grandma Laws for me!
How's she doing?
Hope you have a great week love you!
Elder Laws

Sep. 07, 2009

Bonjour à tous!
this week was amazing.... we were SOO blessed. like i thought that last week was great but this week was even better! we had so many miracles.
We've focused on teaching and so we havent had tons of time to like find people but we still found a ton of people willing to talk and stuff.
On our way to one of our rendez vous we contacted like 4 people of which one wasnt very nice... the others we got there numbers and one of them we have taught like 3 times now and is a way cool way spiritual guy just looking for truths. Just trying to find God. he's awesome. This week we had an Exchange with the Assistants to the President and i was with Elder Sorenson, who just so happens to be one of my best friends so far on my mission and it was great! we had a bunch of rendezvous for both companionships and it was my first time driving a car on my mission! (they drove down) it was fun!
umm.... lets see... also like yesterday (sunday) the first time that we had like really scheduled some finding we talked to a lot of really cool people and stuff and in like the last building of the night we got let in to this families house from Kosovo and they are way cool. They have like 4 kids and its just a way cool family, way nice. and we're going to see them again tomorrow. umm... ya...
like its hard to think of specific things that happened because we had so many miracles, and we were just teaching all week! we are teaching this one African man from Guana and we showed up at his house and he had like some friends over, one of which from England, he was cool adn spoke with an accent. said stuff like brilliant, smashing... it was funny. anyways so his other friend as we were leaving was like i got your book (we had given him le livre de mormon) and he was pretty happy about it. man it was great.
This other lady that we are teaching had her friend over for one of the rendezvous and we saw the lady and she said her friend had started to read in the book of Mormon a little and like after that the problems that she had started to work out a little better and like she wanted to see us again! just so many unexplainable miracles happened this week and neither of us understand because we are just like missionaries basically we do nothing just try and get people to feel the spirit and once that happens its like GAME OVER... but instead of losing you WIN! haha! i'm having a blast.
Also umm..we had an amazing district meeting. the spirit was way strong... it was great....
umm... running out of time... ummm... i know i had something else i wanted to say but i dont remember anymore...
Well i guess thats all for me... Love YOU have a great week.
Elder Laws
ps Congratulations to JESSE!!!

August 31, 2009

Bonjour bonjour bonjour. la famille. comment ça va?

so this week has been SOO good. we had a ton of miracles and we also got to have a zone conference with elder Kopischke of the Seventy. so thats way cool.

He came and talked to us for a long time. like 6 hours. and we talked about all sorts of aspects of the work, finding, getting amis to church, etc. He promised us that if we had 20 lessons, 3-5 new investigators, and 2-5 amis at Church every week that we would baptize monthly. So me and my companion took that counsel very seriously. and we went back to our area and ALMOST succeeded. we only had 19 lessons this week (which is more than i have ever had in a week of my mission) We were SOOO blessed. we can really see the blessings of the lord as we follow his guidance and are obedient. as we do our best the lord makes up the difference. and so like we were SOO Blessed it was a great week.

We had a rendezvous scheduled with this woman and she ended up inviting her neighbor over while we were there. It was a great rendezvous and her neighbor was very open and was very happy to seeing us again. it was great!

We also passed by this man that was a formal investigator and he wanted to see us every day of the week. We have seen a slow change come over him that has been really good. before he had been in a depression for about a year, and slowly i'm seeing him be a little bit less pecimistic, and unhappy, and more open to the gospel. the spirit can work mighty changes is the hearts and minds of people.

Its all around just been a great week. it seems like this week we did more of what we are supposed to do as missionaries and that is TEACH! it is really motivating too. idk if i'm making much sense but yeah. i feel like sometimes i speak french in english. (grammar and stuff) anyways. uhhh... idk what else to say, Congrats to Amelia of course. and yup thats about it... have a great one!

LOVE YOU ALL
ELder Laws

August 24, 2009

hey the family... hows it going?
So this last week has been fairly eventful. We went to Annemasse on Tuesday for our interviews with the president and it was pretty good. we talked about finding families to teach and also about being a better companion. i realized something and that is that like as companions we have to lift each other up and sometimes in a companionship we have hard times or one of the companions cant speak the language as well or something, but like we are all weak. and we cant leave each other behind. like Christ is the only person to come to this earth and he was strong, just imagine what would happen if he left us behind!!! that would be terrible. so like ya, we should always lift our companions up. (mission and eternal).
anyways so the next day we had to go to Geneva for Zone Meeting (which i had to conduct apparently, no one let me know that haha!) and it was way good (i miss geneva haha) we talked a lot about baptism, and finding families to teach again. good stuff.
Then on wednesday we went out to a city in our area called Bellegarde thats like an hour away and there are like 2 buses a day and like 1 train or something anyways we got to visit some members out there and it was a lot of fun. one of the members worked for the church for like 20 years and so he has like a TON of cool church books including a second edition book of mormon in french... way old, way cool. and that was a lot of fun. so like the last week i felt like all we did was travel it was rough. way tiring. ummm lets see. cool stuff that has happened this week.
the other week when we were porting this lady told us that we could pass by another day. So on THursday we went by a few people living in that building with our DMB, Branche mission leader, and we passed this lady and it Turns out, small world, that their kids go to the same school and they know each other. thats way too cool. so like we were able to teach her this past week and we'll see her again this week.
Also we went saw a few other members and it was a lot of fun. It seems like we are always really blessed sundays. We went to church and then after church we passed by this Lady that we are teaching and it just so happened that she wasnt there but 2 of her friends were and we were able to teach them a little spiritual thought and then we went with them to her old apartment where she was and we talked and it was good. Then we went out to the other side of town and we passed a Member (before another rendezvous that we had) and it was really good. he has a way strong testimony and some cool stories.
Then we went to our rendezvous which was with our DMB and his family and we ate crepes and talked and its was way fun. then like we went back to the Amis apartement talked a little bit then we had to get home on time so we rain like all the way accross town and it was fun.
so like my companion has got me eating a lot healthier so i have a lot more energy its awesome. i mean i eat like broccoli and stuff (should make you proud mom haha) its great. umm and then other than that i dont know... what else to say.
Oh, haha i gave a talk this sunday, they asked me like Thursday so idk if it made a whole lot of sense to them but thats what they get i guess... I talked about faith and how its a principle of action, power, and growth. it made sense to me and thats all (well not all, but ya) that matters.
umm... lets see. thats it LOVE YOU have a great week
Elder Laws

August 17, 2009

Hey Family!!!
apparently i need to apologize for last week. i guess you guys didnt get the email that i wrote, and thought i sent. oh well hopefully you get this one.
so this last couple of weeks have been a lot of fun. i got here safe and sound and we went straight to work. we are teaching a few people but sadly most of them have been on vacation so its been kind of slow.umm so ya. BUT it has still been really fun.
i guess i can start off telling you a little bit about my New companion Elder Walker. He is from arizona or ogden depending on who he is talking to and he is about 6'4" or 6'5" i guess and has blond hair. He has been on his mission a little more than 6 monthes(the same as elder diffrient) and he is 19 years old. Ummm Other than that we are both pretty, not that talkative, but its not because we hate each other its just because thats our personalities (we talked about it already). When he was in school he ran cross country and also started the Chess club and the Comic book club with one of his friends, but he doesnt really look like thats what he would be interested in. um other than that idk what to tell you about him... :-) ummm so this last week we had a couple of cool miracles that i thought id share with you. ummm firstly we have run into like 3 member families on vacation that wanted to know the times and address for church, way cool. so like one of these times we were at a bus stop waiting for the bus and twice like the bus was supposed to come and didnt, so we ended up sitting there way longer than we wanted and it was just way annoying. then this man and woman comes up to us asks if were the missionaries and for like the times and address for church. so we give it to them and i swear not like 2 minutes later our bus shows up... that really strengthened my testimony that God really looks out for all of his children and that he knows what is important for us and what we need. so like, God was able to bless the life of this member family, through us, it was way cool.
Other things that happened is like this whole week we just ported and ported and called people, and everyone was on vacation so we just proselyted (contacting porting) all week, and it was really hard, but this sunday we reaped the benefits of our hard work and were able to teach like 3 lessons, have a few amis at church, and it was great. we also found a new amis so its really cool. She is a really nice old lady, who has just been looking for truths, and really just likes to talk about god. its been really good.
Umm as for the Members here annecy is a small branch of 20 active members, and they are all really great as far as i've been able to tell. all willing to help and very spiritual people. its awesome, a little different because, like there are such a little amount of people but at the same time its cool.
ummmm oh another experience that we had is that we went out to this little town like an hour by bus away to try and track down this member family that moved in. anyways this place is Ugine. and uhh... we ended up missing our bus back and had to like stay there for like 2 more hours, it was rough. and its hard too because like we cant go out there too often so if we find people that are interested like they live an hour away and the buses are not that often so it would be tough to teach and hard to get them to church. thats why we need to spread the gospel even more. so that like theres missionaries and chapels in every one of those villes. that would be nice.
thats all for me.
love you
Elder Laws

August 3, 2009

Bonjour à tous!
how is everyone doing? so this last week has been pretty full of cool things. Starting on monday...idk if i told you that we went to Yverdon and we spent the day at the beach! it was fun, we rode bikes around and played catch.. we also took some time to catch frogs and it was a blast. way cool.
Other cooll things that we did this last week was that on Saturday we went down to the lake on one of the like "boardwalks", if thats the right word, and we drew the Plan of salvation with sidewalk chalk. it was fun and it worked pretty well. Considering that it was the Swiss national holiday, we talked to quite a few people that were nice enough. Probably wasnt as effective as it could have been but it was a fun experience.
Also on saturday, it being the Swiss national holiday, they lit off fireworks. We had asked our Mission president if it would be ok to stay out later and watch them with members and he said it was ok so we went to The Psota families house. They live in an apartment building up on the hill so we got to see like everything it was great. They shot the fireworks off in the lake off barges and there were SOO many boats in the lake too. just a bunch of little lights everywhere on the lake it was cool. before the fireworks started we played some games and also the Family Psota sang for us, in swiss german, the national anthem of switzerland i guess. it was cool. they were both raised swiss german so thats why they speak it. ummm also we could see like all the other little towns accross the lake shooting off fireworks too it was a lot of fun.
also this week we decided to make these cookies and give them to a bunch of members and so we did... they are oreo cookies i guess. but they are way good!
let me see if i can remember the recipe....
mix:
250 grams of butter melted
4 tablespoons of Cocoa
then add into bowl with:
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla
Mix and add
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
bake at 350 degrees fareinheit (as cookies) for 8-10 minutes.
cream filling:
200 g cream cheese
2 tsp vanilla
4 tblsp butter
3-4 cups powdered sugar
then you just like put the cream in between the cookies and voila oreos... ish its way good though. just thought id share.
anyways when we got to church sunday everyone that we gave them to like made such a HUGE deal about it it was incredible....people like threatened us to not be able to come over without the recipe and stuff like that it was funny... but they had a good enough reason i think haha! they were good cookies!
well other than that the most exciting thing is that transfers are this week. we just got out calls like an hour ago and i'm leaving neuchatel... :(! i'm going to be going to Annecy, which, if i remember right, it the most beautiful city in the mission according to President Peterson... maybe i'm mistaken but i think thats it... oh well... it should be fun.. i'll tell you about elder Walker(my next companion) next week!
Love you! have a great week
Elder Laws

July 27, 2009

bonjour à tous!
How is everyone doing?
Well so this passed week has been not bad. monday we played football with some members for a little while and well it was fun but also silly. because they're swiss haha... it was a lot of fun. then we went to the church and played a little ping pong and well this kid from Nigeria who's a recent convert and like 17 beat me... we had some good games though it was fun.
on Wednesday...or Tuesday, tuesday we went on exchanges with elder uhh... our zone leaders. (i'm really scattered brain you'll have to excuse my horrible English.) and i went with elder Nelson. He's a great Elder and a cool guy too. we had a great time. the NExt day was Zone Conference. We went just stayed where we were because i went to Yverdon on my exchange so it was a nice set up for wake up not earlier than normal and not have to take a train and all that good stuff haha. it was really good and really fun because a lot of my old companions were there and elder Jensen, who just went home this week was there and i got to see him one last time it was cool. (i served with elder jensen in valence..) we had some great teachings from our Zone leaders, assistants to the president, and President and Sr. Murdock. They were all good. a lot of review stuff but its normal i think when theres a new mission president.
umm... still just truckin along, vacation time has come so a lot of people are not around but we are still doing alright. hopefully things go good this week.
but uhh... aside from that i dont have much to say. uhh oh wait. haha. forgot. this sunday we also went on a little exchange with the other elders here in neuchatel and it went way well.. i went with Elder Chapman who is going to be going home soon and whose plans all fell...(sad..) but it went well anyways. we went porting and talked to some way cool people and a few told us we could come back so thats cool stuff.
umm now i think i'm done...ya, i am. haha love you all have a great week!
Elder Laws
we

July 20, 2009

Hello hello hello!
hows everyone doing?
hope all is going well!
so this week has been better than the last... i also forgot that we had some stuff that was fun we did and i dont remember if i told you so i'll do that now... this would be...two weeks ago. We helped this family in the ward move and i'll tell you its way different than in Utah.. haha.. point A) there arent 70 members of the elders quorum that come help B) they live in apartment buildings and C) well... stairs arent fun climbing haha. but it was still a good time, and its always fun to do service! that same night we went over to our neighbors house and helped her put together some like shoe cabinet or something and it was way good. brought back some good memories of work! i really enjoy putting stuff together and it almost went too fast... but at the end of the day we were exhausted so thats great.
so this past week has been alright. elder diffrient was sick monday and tuesday and then we had Interviews Wednesday. It was good to meet the New Mission President and his wife they are really nice people and are excited to be here. They are nothing like President and Sister Peterson so it will be an adjustment but i think that everything should be okay since its a calling from the lord. He knows what he's doing!
Other than that we've just been trying to find new people. On Thursday(To continue the week) we did exchanges with The Elders Serving in Bienne (or biel in german). It was fun i went out there with an Elder Named Elder Whatcott. He's from oklahoma and proud of it. it was a lot of fun and we talked with some cool people. also some people that didnt speak french it was great. i guess thats pretty normal there because there are more people that speak german there than french. there are actually Missionaries there from the Zurich Switzerland mission so its pretty cool. it was fun, we were going to do exchanges (exchange in the exchange weird huh?) with the German Elders but they actually couldnt for some reason or another but it was fun just the same.
Well for those who dont remember my companion is still Elder Diffrient and he's from Mississippi. Hes about as short as keshia, and he's got a funny accent haha. i'll send a picture so you can see.
umm... aside from that other weird things that happened.. we had a conversation with an elder that was asleep for about an hour and a half.. it was fun/also weird and he said some funny things.. the best part was that he spoke in french the whole time and this is his first transfer. way cool stuff. its awesome.
i think thats about all that has happened this week. i hope you have a great week! love you all!
Elder Laws
ps in the picture elder diffrient is on the right love you!

July 13, 2009

Hey family!
Hope you are all doing well.
This week has been basically basic. Just doing the same things, finding, visiting members and trying not to go too crazy haha! its been fun.
This sunday a member invited one of his friends to church but sadly she wasnt too interested past that. she was really nice though. Sundays are always great though because the spirit is just so strong and the members are great.
Other than that today we are all alone here in Neuchatel. The other companionship went to fribourg for the day but we had other things to do so we couldnt. oh well! we should have some fun anyways, doing i dont know what. yay!
umm.... its kind of hard to have much to write about this week because my companion was a little sick the whole time so yeah. we were in and out but it was still an okay week. hopefully we'll be able to get out a little more this week so that my email isnt so bad next time haha! there are other reasons too of course! ummm....
I dont know what else to say SORRY!!
have a great week! Love you all! congratulations Austin, and HAppy Birthday NYah! have a great week!
Elder Laws

July 06, 2009

Hello Family!
how is everyone doing? i hope good.
This week has been basically the same as all the others haha. just trying to keep busy. We saw a lot of members and they are awesome! its a lot of fun to be in the homes of people who are living the gospel and love it. We had a couple rendezvous that we ate in and the food is still good here haha! Another rendezvous that we had we werent really expecting to eat but we got over and the Member had invited a couple of New members, another Member, and a friend of his. It is really cool to see that the ward is trying to strengthen each other, and help others to see find the Truth, and love and joy we have. (he might be trying to find a wife too haha! but thats not important)
The Fourth of July was this weekend too! it was a lot of fun and we started off the celebration with a little football throwing in the morning for exercises. after that we had French Toast (a TON) for breakfast and then Pizza for Lunch. Of course we worked and stuff in the inbetween time, but we also sang all the Patriotic songs in the Hymn book and did all sorts of stuff like that. For dinner we had a FEAST! it was great. We had Hamburgers, Potato Salad, Deviled eggs, doritos, these scone things that our neighbor gave us, and Sprite and Fantas. It was great. .... then i got sick haha! which i guess you could say ended the Night off with fireworks.. (that wasnt very funny i know...) I guess that when you eat so many eggs in one day your likely to get food poisoning (thats what we figured it was at least). Anyways so i got up like 6 or 7 times during the night to use the bathroom and throw up and stuff it was fun... Which kind of made it so i wasnt feeling so good so i had to stay in the apartment all day sunday. (i guess i could have gone out, but that would have been risky you know?) so it was fun. i'm okay now though, i got to eat a little last night and i didnt have to wake up in the middle of the night for anything so i think its all done.
Thats basically been the week. My fellow missionaries tell me that i talk a lot in my sleep and so i was wondering if you ever noticed me doing that before or if its something i picked up on the Mission. I wouldnt be suprised... Just kind of weird.
Lets see. I Think thats about it... no wait i forgot another interesting detail about our Holiday celebration. we decided to see who could gain the most weight in the one day because we knew that we'd be eating a LOT that day. so in the morning we weighed ourselves.... I was at 181 i believe anyways. so at the end of the night right after diner (before i got sick) we weighed in and we basically all tied (except elder Diffrient) and we all gain 5 pounds. so i was at 186... the next morning when i woke up...well the last time at least. i decided that i would weigh myself and i was at 178.... crazy huh? i thought it was funny...
So one thing that i learned this week from studying the Book of Mormon is that Nephi is SOOO cool. I mean, I knew that already, but still it is just great to read and see the confidence that Nephi has in the Lord, and the Strength that the Lord gives him because of it. Its really cool.
Also i read a few of the conference talks (i got the ensign you sent), oh side note, enseigner is the verb in french meaning to teach, cool huh?, anyways I know that the leaders of the church are inspired greatly and that each of the messages given during conference can apply to us. Its such a comfort to know that there are people on the earth that are receiving revelation for us all and better yet, that God is giving it to us. I know that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
I love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Michael Laws

July 01, 2009

Hi Family!
so the reason that i am writing today is because well the churches email site wasnt working very well on monday so yeah... this is the first time that we've really have been able to get over here again so yup.
Umm other than that the week has been really good. Elder Chapman and Elder Leichty got here safe and sound, and its really fun to have them around. Elder Leichty is on his First transfer so its kind of fun to "be the example" and to have some fun. its crazy though because he reminds me a TON of Kollin haha. looks, personality, everything... its bizarre.
well so i dont know if you remember me telling you about a couple that we talked to that said that they were going to come to church well they showed up at church this sunday its way cool. They live in Brazil and are just Visiting for a while but its way cool. We got their number and we are going to see them sometime this week. other than that we have just been trying to visit members less actives amis, finding people to teach and sleepign haha.
this past week when i hit almost 190 pounds (it was only one day...) i decided that it was about time to take that exercise time that they give us a little more seriously and i'm back down to what i usually am. Also sore! haha. Elder Diffrient might get sick of it one of these days but as long as i can i'm going to make him go running with me haha.
umm. so the other day we were all officially completely out of money it was kind of funny because the other missionaries got here and had to buy bus passes and they had no money. thats ok though because we got through it. it was really funny actually. its mostly my fault because i hadnt sent in reimbursements for a while... and yeah... but thats taken care of now. yay! money haha.
umm but other than that i cant think of anything else. like it was a good week and i gotta go so have a good one! LOVE YOU!
Elder Laws

Jun 22, 2009

so hello!
umm so this week has been pretty fun. mostly been doing the same things as always but today we found out transfers. But nothing is happening with me and elder Diffrient. but the other companionship is changing to 2 new missionaries. 1 of which already served there and will be training the other one. cool stuff.
umm lets see. so this week we actually did an exchange with the other elders and it was a lot of fun. umm nothing too crazy different because we are serving in the same city but its still cool. I was with elder terry who at times is a little wierd but at the same time cool.
i really dont have anything to talk about that much... umm on tuesday we had our last presidents interviews with President Peterson. He will shortly be replaced in July and so it was really sad. but it was good because we got some little presents for them and Sr. Peterson was going to cry because we waved goodbye to them as they drove by and everything so sad for them. and me. i really Love them theyre great. hopefully President and Sister Murdock are good replacements... that would be sad if they werent. (of course they will be)
umm other than that like i dont have much to say. we've found a couple of people to teach, one of which i've never seen (they found her on the exchange haha..) and the other is really hard to see. The first ones name is Mme Vuilliomenet which is funny because in the ward there is a Vuilliomenet family and there son is Elder Vuilliomenet in our mission. and they dont live very far away from them so its funny. the Dad is a little less active so we are actually going to try to get him to help us with rendezvous which should be fun. we'll see what happens.
umm i think thats about it. I love you, and hope you have a great week.
Elder Laws

Jun 15, 2009

hey family! how is everyone?
well so this week has been pretty good. we have had a quite a few rendezvous with members this past week its been fun. and there has been a LOT of good food. i havent eaten so well in a while. They just stuff you like crazy! its yummy though so i'm all for it. (kind of making me fat though... haha.)
so umm.. well this week i went on an exchange with our Zone leaders. its was way fun and it started off way cool. We started after our Zone meeting so me and Elder Sorenson (he's one of my favorite, if not my favorite, missionary) went to the trainstation to catch a train to Yverdon. while we were waiting in the trainstation for the train a man walked up to us and asked us to explain a little so we did and he then proceeded to tell us he'd like to learn more. so we fixed a rendezvous and we saw him Thursday afternoon and it was really good. we'll see him again this week.
umm.. anyways so we get to yverdon and go to their apartment and drop my stuff off. Then we go, and since in Yverdon the bus system isnt very good they walk everywhere. and we had a long ways to walk. haha. so we start going and we get into the "downtown" area and then this guy and his friend stops us, and speaks to us in english and says they want to meet with us. haha. cool stuff. He was from Guatemala and had seen the Temple and knew a little and so ya thats way cool.
anyways so other than that things have been basically pretty routine. its been a lot of fun but also sometimes hard. we uhh.. also got another cool miracle yesterday after church. it was great.
we were porting in a little city about 15 minutes train ride from Neuchatel. We got done with the buildings we were at so we went to the trainstation to wait for the next train back to neuchatel and we were just sitting on a bench. then a man and a woman walked up to us and the man asked us if we were the mormons. we replied yes and he then went on to explain that he was from neuchatel but that he had been in brasil for the last couple years and that there were a LOT of churchs there. and then he asked us where the church was in neuchatel. the woman didnt speak french (portuguese... from brasil i'd imagine) but he said that they went to church all the time in brasil and that his friend told him that when he left that he had to come to church here so thats WAY cool. we just happened to be in the right place at the right time (well i mean not just happened but you get the point.) they said they'd come this coming sunday so thats way awesome. The lord is really full of love for his children and knows when his missionaries need a little miracle haha! so cool.
basically other than that nothing too cool has been happening so thats all for me. Hope you all have a great week. Love you!
Elder Laws
ps. i'll find some shoes here so i should be alright dad thanks for the offer though!

Jun 08, 2009

hello family!
how is everyone doing?
well so this week has been alright. we started out by having preperation day which i already told you about but then by having the next day a day long trip to Lyon for elder Diffrients legality. so like that ended up being all day long because we got to the Trainstation and like 2 minutes before the train got there i was like... i dont have my passport.. so we had to go back and get my passport and then go and catch the next train which left an hour later which also made us miss the connecting train in Geneva but there was another one and we ended up getting there just fine and on time for his appointment.
now when we got to the gare the elders in Lyon met us there because one of them had to do legality too. so we did that and then got a patisserie to eat and well we missed our train home that night and ended up on an Exchange with those elders and yeah. so then we came home the next morning and everything was good. Other than that we have just been trying to find people to teach. Yesterday we talked with a lot of really nice people (none were interested...) and we also at church set up a lot of rendezvous with members because its kind of hard to do 8 hours of finding every day without things to break it up a little. so its cool. and i think this week will be the best week of the transfer so far for us. exciting...
umm so like dad asked how it all worked for us so like we dont have to pay any like rent or anything, they give us some money for food mostly and like travel and stuff. but like anything else is basically paid by us, clothes toys etc haha... but ya its nice, i guess like in the passed you had to pay for your own lodging? is that right? but its cool. its nice having a lot of elders because then you dont have to worry so much about spending all of your money because you can get enough for less money per person.
so the picture is of a little valley north of Neuchatel named Val-de-Ruz and it was like the First week that i got here that i took it but i havent been able to send it so i thought that i would since i can. Other than that we have a few recent converts that we are working with, just trying to get them integrated etc. fun stuff. so uhh.... yeah... i think thats about it for me and i dont know if i have anything else or if you had any other questions so yeah.
Have a great week Love you all
Elder Laws

Jun 01, 2009

Hi Family again!
so i'm sorry but this week i wont be able to send pictures either, hopefully next week though because i want you to see this place before i leave it haha. (if i leave it too) umm.. so i guess we can just start uhh at today... Well it started with us getting up and doing laundry. then we played a little spades (which the other missionaries taught me how to play, fun game.) then at 11 we got on the train and headed to Bienne, which is like 20 minutes away because we were going to play Football...soccer.. with the Missionaries serving in the Zurich, Switzerland Mission. and its because they have missionaries in bienne, or biel in german, and we have missionaries there too and so we are both within our mission boundaries anyways it was a lot of fun. and i'm sooo tired. that pretty much took up our day. until now. i also cramped up and almost fell on my face but thats ok, i guess that happens when you play for 3 hours after not playing for a yearish... haha. umm... i dont even like soccer. haha. but it was still fun anyways.
umm then yesterday church was good. they had a little lesson on member missionary work (which idk if you knew but those are the most spiritual lessons usually, not even just because of my biased opinion, but really) because this ward has had a lot of baptisms recently and they need to make sure and retain people. and then like after church i was just like hey i like your tie, to the bishop and hey was like can i offer it to you and i was like ya sure so we exchanged ties, so i have a neuchatel bishop tie haha! its a cool tie.
umm then other than that the work is going ok... been seeing a lot of the Recent converts lately and also doing a LOT of porting. (we dont have any amis they all got baptised i guess...) the Lake here is beautiful and the last couple of days we've tried to contact by it but its too distracting because there are a bunch of sail boats and like people riding sail boards and all this crazy stuff and the lake has these huge cool waves and so i dont think its very effective because, its easy to just look at the lake. and i'd send a picture but i dont have enough time and i also yeah there isnt a usb plug in this thing either so i'll have to do it next week.
Other Things... well i think thats about it but i hope that you have a great week and i LOVE YOU ALL!!!
ELder Laws
Je vous aime, et on se verra dans un an... je crois..

May 25, 2009

so uhh HI
hows everyone doing?
this last little bit has been really good and i dont think i told you but this weekend we had a baptism. I got here and everything was basically set up and yeah. thats that. I thought that maybe i would send you a picture but i cant, this comps not working. So the ladies name is Sr. Cappadona and shes from Maurice Island... by Madagascar, shes like 70 and way nice. it was a good service and the Member that gave us to her as a referal baptised her so we have officially lost our best amis, and other than that we have no one really to teach so yay finding!
umm other than that not much else is going on. there are a lot of people here that speak english though. its kind of cool. weird too though. also a lot of german speakers, and aparently portugeuse also. so yeah. ummm lets see.
we ate at this Member families house and they fed us Porkchops... yum.. those are the first in a LONG time. it was good. and theyre a cool family (old man and old woman haha). other than that i dont really have anything to talk about. aparently there has been a lot of crazy stuff going on with my friends (for info ask mom) and yeah... its crazy how much can change in a couple years...
well umm... thats about it. sorry that the email isnt very good this week but yeah. thats all for me. have a great week.
Elder Laws
LOVE YOU ALL

May 18, 2009

hello the family!
how is everyone?
well so this week has been a lot of fun. on monday we went and played laser tag and it was terrible.... the equipment just was terrible so like when i would normally do good it was really bad.... oh well
then we have on the same day we went up to Mount Saleve that was way cool because we got to see ALL of Geneva. with a nice view of the lake and everything. there was also 8 missionaries in the same vehicle (a van) and so the trip wasnt that bad either. Then the rest of monday and most of Tuesday was spent finding stuff, doing laundry, and packing stuff. we also had our Missionary Coordination meeting (that took me like a minute to think of) and got to say bye to some of the members. there wasnt really anyone who like i was really close to but just the same.
umm then on wednesday My companion and i woke up at 6ish and got ready and went to the Gare... train station. He went to Nancy and we i came here. My new companion and the other missionaries who are here met me at the gare and we took my stuff home etc. got all unpacked (that packing things annoying when its only in the suitcase for a dayish and then you have to take it all out, we need to invent teleporters.... that would work very nicely). and then we went out and worked... this city, is SOO Beautiful, our area, SOO beautiful. its great. and i forgot my camera so i cant send you pictures but next week for sure. We've spent most of our time just knocking on doors but umm i guess last week they had 2 baptisms. and in a week we are supposed to have another so we have spent some time with them the last little while. One is this old Italian man and talking to him (he has a crazy accent but i can mostly understand) makes me wish that i was in Italy right now he is really cool and really nice. the lady who is supposed to get baptized is from by madagascar, and is old too but shes so nice and has a great desire to get baptized so its cool.
My companion is Elder Diffrient and he is from Mississippi. He's cool (a little shorter than me haha 5'3"-5'5") and we get along really well. its fun. This is only his Second Transfer so it should be cool. the other missionaries are Elder Terry, who is one transfer older than me, who is from Plano Texas, and Elder Jolley, who is from Fresno California. suprising that theres only one missionary from Utah and thats only partially true since the parents live in Idaho... haha. its a TON of fun being in the same apartment as another Companionship and for some reason everyone thinks i'm REALLY funny... I dont even do anything and they laugh... its great because we have such a happy fun time.
so last thursday was my first district meeting that i've taught and it was fun but i ran out of things to talk about haha... so yeah haha... i kind of made it up as i went/ i'm almost positive the spirit helped. so that was fun. and since then i'm pretty sure that the rest of the interesting things would have to be only church. although last night we went porting and then missed the bus back to Neuchatel and ended up walking for about 6 km, or 3 1/2 milesish... and we ended up at a members house (recent convert) who we shared a little spiritual thought with, and was kind enough to take us home. it was fun.
ummm..... i think thats about it for me. Hope you all have a great week! Love You!
Elder Laws

May 11, 2009

hey the family hows everyone doing?
i hope that everyone had a HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!! mom, mothers, future mothers etc...
this week has been pretty good and to sum things up we've been finding people to teach yay! we've talked to a lot of cool people and the other day i got hugged by this "crazy" man in the Park. its been fun haha.
Today we got transfer calls and i'm out of Geneva. I'll be going to Neuchatel in switzerland. its a cool place from what i hear and i'm excited to be able to go. theres also going to be another companionship in the apartment so that should be fun. I'll be serving with elder Diffrient (something like that) and i know nothing about him except that he is on his Second Transfer so it should be fun. President Peterson also told me that i'd be the District Leader. should be fun. i'm excited to see the other places in the mission and this will be the farthest north that i've been so thats cool. (sends me south in the winter north in the summer, Good man... :) )
Aside from that uhh... idk last preparation day was basically spent doing nothing... sad. this week should make up for it, we are planning on going to play Laser tag (yay) also to go to Mount Saleve, which overlooks Geneva. then to the United Nations to take pictures so it should be a fun day.
This week i also went on an Exchange with elder Bergia (whos french) and it was way fun. Thats when i got hugged, and we talked to a lot of cool people. so it was good. We also passed by this less active member who just happend to be at his house when we came by. Then He came to Church yesterday so thats way cool. He said that he wanted to get his life in order because lately he has had a lot going with school and stuff but that should be finished soon. so thats really cool.
umm lets see it think thats about it for me. it was good to talk to the parents yesterday, even though mom forgot... just kidding that made it even better. ummm so yeah.
hope you have a great week.
Love You all!
Elder Laws

May 04, 2009

Hey Family!
i dont know if i have a lot to say this week...
umm we have been spending most of our time looking for people to teach and its been mostly fruitless but we have talked to a lot of really cool people. umm lately we have been going to the park to talk with people, trying to overcome fears of talking to people that we normally wouldnt so we go to the park and say ok... who wouldnt i talk to... and then we go talk to them. its been way fun.
this last week we talked to a couple of people who had instruments, mostly younger ages, and we've had our own personal concerts.. haha. we just ask if they'll play something for us and they do so its cool. it also makes it a lot more interesting to contact people.
umm and well so hows everything there... they are making a big deal about the Bird Flu over here. They say that they're on a level 5 of 6. the other elders went to a members house recently who works for the UN and he said that if they go to a Level 6 that the Grocery stores would close down (here in switzerland). crazy huh? guess that we should get some food storage or something. haha.
ummm...well shoot... i have to search really hard to find something to talk to you about. its been raining the last couple of days and its kind of depressing. it kind of zaps all energy... oh well.. i'll get over it.
also lets think... we had Interviews this week with president peterson and he basically told me that i wont be in Geneva for another Transfer and that i'm going to be going senior companion also... I guess the days of going along for the ride are over huh? haha just kidding i'm excited it should be fun.
well i dont have much else to say. hope you all have a great week Love You Elder Laws