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