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
Monday, May 18, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
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
Monday, May 4, 2009
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
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
Monday, April 27, 2009
Apr. 27, 2009
hello family!
hows ya'll doin? haha i cant believe i just typed that haha!
well so this last week has been pretty fun. our Preparation day last week was spent just like shopping for ties and clothes and a camera for one of the other elders. we also played ping pong and it was way fun. my companion is a tennis player so he's good and we have some good battles! (matches...rounds...you get the picture right? my english vocabulary is going down i think...so yeah..)
its good to here that you are all doing good and i hope that i didnt umm... erase any of your emails that you sent before i read them... because i think i might have.... i'm not sure... because i had to delete a couple emails that just said that my mailbox was almost full... so i hope i didnt but yeah. anyways.... that was a good side track...
ummm. we basically havent had anyone to teach really this last week soo... yeah. but the week has gone really well and we talked to a LOT of people that were really cool and nice. We went on an Exchange with our Zone Leaders this past week and it was fun. Elder Chan, who i was with, is from China... hong kong. but he's funny and it was fun. right when we started the Exchange we went and talked to this guy from Eygpt and then we were like we have an Institute just right here if you have a couple of minutes to talk. and so we went and we taught him and it was good. and the rest of the day we talked to cool person after cool person. it was great! and since then it has been the same and so this next week should be good because we have a couple rendezvous fixed and yeah. it should be good.
one of which was this lady that we talked to and she was like talking about her kids that were going to catholic school and how her son wasnt interested in church now and she was soo amazed at how we were interested at such a young age. and the fact that we were doing it for TWO whole years was just incredible to her. so we were like well can we come over to your house and talk about this message with you and she was like yeah i think that would be a good idea. so yeah. just a little miracle and we see what will become of it. its so FUN being a missionary, except in the times when no one listens... but other than that its great haha!
ummm lets see what else. oh this sunday i taught the gospel principles class and it was a lot of fun. at first i was like okay people its time to wake up and start talking back... haha but after a few minutes we had a good discussion going. the Theme was Honesty... it was honestly fun... haha.
what else... well so right now its pretty cloudy and its raining a little bit. me and my companion got up this morning and for our morning exercises we went and threw a football around this little field thats across the street. it was fun and i fell and it was wet... its been a long time haha! it felt good! i miss hanging out with friends and playing football and basketball... and getting all dirty. i also miss a mommy who does my laundry too because i have to do it now!!!! (its been a couple years since mom did my laundry..)
oh and yesterday we got to drive a car..haha, well my companion drove and i was in the passenger seat. its an interesting story actually... we were going to have this thing at the Mission Home last night and it was for the Recent Converts of the past year or something. so we were going to meet ours there. but when everyone else showed up he did not. so we called him and he was like well can you meet me at the church so we were like ok. and so we took the Office elders car and went to the church....got lost on the way, but we got there anyways. then we waited for him and he came and we went back to the Mission Home and we were like late and only got part of the things but it was good. the food was good and there actually just happens to be a Belgian office Elder right now and he made some Belgian waffles.. he called them gallettes because they were thinner but they were waffles... and they were good. cool stuff.
another thing... i think that this week we talked to people that spoke: russian, french, english, spanish, german, korean, chinese, slovakian, and umm.... i think some others... its crazy how diverse geneva is. its cool
and umm yeah.
Hope you have a great week!
Love You!
Elder Laws
hows ya'll doin? haha i cant believe i just typed that haha!
well so this last week has been pretty fun. our Preparation day last week was spent just like shopping for ties and clothes and a camera for one of the other elders. we also played ping pong and it was way fun. my companion is a tennis player so he's good and we have some good battles! (matches...rounds...you get the picture right? my english vocabulary is going down i think...so yeah..)
its good to here that you are all doing good and i hope that i didnt umm... erase any of your emails that you sent before i read them... because i think i might have.... i'm not sure... because i had to delete a couple emails that just said that my mailbox was almost full... so i hope i didnt but yeah. anyways.... that was a good side track...
ummm. we basically havent had anyone to teach really this last week soo... yeah. but the week has gone really well and we talked to a LOT of people that were really cool and nice. We went on an Exchange with our Zone Leaders this past week and it was fun. Elder Chan, who i was with, is from China... hong kong. but he's funny and it was fun. right when we started the Exchange we went and talked to this guy from Eygpt and then we were like we have an Institute just right here if you have a couple of minutes to talk. and so we went and we taught him and it was good. and the rest of the day we talked to cool person after cool person. it was great! and since then it has been the same and so this next week should be good because we have a couple rendezvous fixed and yeah. it should be good.
one of which was this lady that we talked to and she was like talking about her kids that were going to catholic school and how her son wasnt interested in church now and she was soo amazed at how we were interested at such a young age. and the fact that we were doing it for TWO whole years was just incredible to her. so we were like well can we come over to your house and talk about this message with you and she was like yeah i think that would be a good idea. so yeah. just a little miracle and we see what will become of it. its so FUN being a missionary, except in the times when no one listens... but other than that its great haha!
ummm lets see what else. oh this sunday i taught the gospel principles class and it was a lot of fun. at first i was like okay people its time to wake up and start talking back... haha but after a few minutes we had a good discussion going. the Theme was Honesty... it was honestly fun... haha.
what else... well so right now its pretty cloudy and its raining a little bit. me and my companion got up this morning and for our morning exercises we went and threw a football around this little field thats across the street. it was fun and i fell and it was wet... its been a long time haha! it felt good! i miss hanging out with friends and playing football and basketball... and getting all dirty. i also miss a mommy who does my laundry too because i have to do it now!!!! (its been a couple years since mom did my laundry..)
oh and yesterday we got to drive a car..haha, well my companion drove and i was in the passenger seat. its an interesting story actually... we were going to have this thing at the Mission Home last night and it was for the Recent Converts of the past year or something. so we were going to meet ours there. but when everyone else showed up he did not. so we called him and he was like well can you meet me at the church so we were like ok. and so we took the Office elders car and went to the church....got lost on the way, but we got there anyways. then we waited for him and he came and we went back to the Mission Home and we were like late and only got part of the things but it was good. the food was good and there actually just happens to be a Belgian office Elder right now and he made some Belgian waffles.. he called them gallettes because they were thinner but they were waffles... and they were good. cool stuff.
another thing... i think that this week we talked to people that spoke: russian, french, english, spanish, german, korean, chinese, slovakian, and umm.... i think some others... its crazy how diverse geneva is. its cool
and umm yeah.
Hope you have a great week!
Love You!
Elder Laws
Monday, April 20, 2009
Apr. 20, 2009
Hi everyone!
how are your lives going?
Congratulations to Amelia for the baby girl who will be shortly with you. Congratulations to Keshia who's almost done with this school year. Congratulations to Kelsey who is still alive and still manages to keep up with her kids. Congratulations to Mom and Dad who will be celebrating 30 years tomorrow! and Congratulations to Jesse and Justin who will be celebrating 2.
you guys have a lot of cool stuff going on! haha
well my life has been a basic missionary life these last few days. get up eat work eat work eat sleep... haha umm and also yeah. We still dont have very many people to teach but we just have to keep working to find them i guess. we are teaching this one guy. he doesnt really understand or remeber things but he is a way nice person and so hopefully we can find ways to get him to understand better. what else has happened this week... i cant really remember anything way exciting or special for me personnally, but there was a baptism on sunday. so i guess that is special haha!
i was asked to play the piano (i guess people just force you to use your talents sometimes) so i had to practice a little bit and learn the songs. we also (we being my companion and me) were asked to give a little teaching while they changed out of there wet clothes. i thought it went well the spirit was definately present and yeah it was great.
oh another thing, we had umm... Zone Conference this week too. it was really good and President Peterson taught us about obedience as a means to receive blessings (baptisms) for the mission and how we are blessed as a mission, for the collective effort of each missionary. Also how obedience is the first law in heaven, how when we are able to be obedient to the rules that we have we are given new commandments to live by to strengthen us, and when we can live by those we get new ones and so on and so on. we follow the rules already and are sent on missions where we get new commandments not a few (d&c 59: 4-5). anyways it was great.
time running out i'll write another email to finish k?
love you
Elder laws
hopefully you got the first part of this email. sorry my time was going to run out and yeah it was complicated but here i go to finish it... its like this. as a mission the last couple of quarters of a year we have had a goal that was to have 45 baptisms, one in each companionship. but because the lord will bless us on our collective efforts, we have a goal for this quarter to have 45 baptisms in the mission. if that makes sense. so that makes it a unified effort. so thats really cool!
umm well as far as i'm concerned i think thats about all for me. i hope you guys have a great week! love you
Elder Laws
how are your lives going?
Congratulations to Amelia for the baby girl who will be shortly with you. Congratulations to Keshia who's almost done with this school year. Congratulations to Kelsey who is still alive and still manages to keep up with her kids. Congratulations to Mom and Dad who will be celebrating 30 years tomorrow! and Congratulations to Jesse and Justin who will be celebrating 2.
you guys have a lot of cool stuff going on! haha
well my life has been a basic missionary life these last few days. get up eat work eat work eat sleep... haha umm and also yeah. We still dont have very many people to teach but we just have to keep working to find them i guess. we are teaching this one guy. he doesnt really understand or remeber things but he is a way nice person and so hopefully we can find ways to get him to understand better. what else has happened this week... i cant really remember anything way exciting or special for me personnally, but there was a baptism on sunday. so i guess that is special haha!
i was asked to play the piano (i guess people just force you to use your talents sometimes) so i had to practice a little bit and learn the songs. we also (we being my companion and me) were asked to give a little teaching while they changed out of there wet clothes. i thought it went well the spirit was definately present and yeah it was great.
oh another thing, we had umm... Zone Conference this week too. it was really good and President Peterson taught us about obedience as a means to receive blessings (baptisms) for the mission and how we are blessed as a mission, for the collective effort of each missionary. Also how obedience is the first law in heaven, how when we are able to be obedient to the rules that we have we are given new commandments to live by to strengthen us, and when we can live by those we get new ones and so on and so on. we follow the rules already and are sent on missions where we get new commandments not a few (d&c 59: 4-5). anyways it was great.
time running out i'll write another email to finish k?
love you
Elder laws
hopefully you got the first part of this email. sorry my time was going to run out and yeah it was complicated but here i go to finish it... its like this. as a mission the last couple of quarters of a year we have had a goal that was to have 45 baptisms, one in each companionship. but because the lord will bless us on our collective efforts, we have a goal for this quarter to have 45 baptisms in the mission. if that makes sense. so that makes it a unified effort. so thats really cool!
umm well as far as i'm concerned i think thats about all for me. i hope you guys have a great week! love you
Elder Laws
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Apr. 14, 2009
hey family! so this is tuesday.
i couldnt write yesterday because everything else was closed so yeah! i hope that everything is going well for you.
i guess i can start telling you about Geneva now...
basically we didnt have any amis.. so we have done a lot of finding in the last week and have managed to have a couple of rendezvous and a couple more scheduled so thats way cool. there are a lot of missionaries here in geneva with the four of Us in our apartment, the zone leaders, 2 sister equipes, the assistants to the president, the office elders, like 4 senior couples, and well President and Sister Peterson... so we see a lot of people. there is also an institute where we go quite often for rendezvous and meetings and actually the couple that works there is Elder and Sister Jones from Blanding, Utah. Who actually is the Brother of Cory Jones (dads old basketball coach)... and coached a baseball team with asa and hart on it.
so thats cool... ummmm other than that...
i'm in a ward that is full of spanish speakers so every other talk that is given is in spanish, just throwing another rock in the path is all haha.... it is fun though i have to say. we had a ward activity that was "organized" by the high priest group leader, a man who speaks only spanish, and it turned out that apparently us as the missionaries were supposed to do everything idk.... all i remember is 6 missionaries running around trying to get everything worked out haha.
it was fun
lets see... so then yesterday we went and did a lot of stuff for preparation day. we went to this park that has all sorts of cool stuff, then went to the jet d'eau, and well it was cool and you should have pictures so yeah...
um idk what else to talk about... oh i got the package mom thanks! and it was only one day late for easter. from now on i think it will just be better to send anything to the Mission Home because we never know whats going to happen.
well i guess i dont really have anything else to say... its been a lot of fun so far here and i'm excited for the coming weeks...
i couldnt write yesterday because everything else was closed so yeah! i hope that everything is going well for you.
i guess i can start telling you about Geneva now...
basically we didnt have any amis.. so we have done a lot of finding in the last week and have managed to have a couple of rendezvous and a couple more scheduled so thats way cool. there are a lot of missionaries here in geneva with the four of Us in our apartment, the zone leaders, 2 sister equipes, the assistants to the president, the office elders, like 4 senior couples, and well President and Sister Peterson... so we see a lot of people. there is also an institute where we go quite often for rendezvous and meetings and actually the couple that works there is Elder and Sister Jones from Blanding, Utah. Who actually is the Brother of Cory Jones (dads old basketball coach)... and coached a baseball team with asa and hart on it.
so thats cool... ummmm other than that...
i'm in a ward that is full of spanish speakers so every other talk that is given is in spanish, just throwing another rock in the path is all haha.... it is fun though i have to say. we had a ward activity that was "organized" by the high priest group leader, a man who speaks only spanish, and it turned out that apparently us as the missionaries were supposed to do everything idk.... all i remember is 6 missionaries running around trying to get everything worked out haha.
it was fun
lets see... so then yesterday we went and did a lot of stuff for preparation day. we went to this park that has all sorts of cool stuff, then went to the jet d'eau, and well it was cool and you should have pictures so yeah...
um idk what else to talk about... oh i got the package mom thanks! and it was only one day late for easter. from now on i think it will just be better to send anything to the Mission Home because we never know whats going to happen.
well i guess i dont really have anything else to say... its been a lot of fun so far here and i'm excited for the coming weeks...
Love You!
Elder Laws
Elder Laws
Monday, April 6, 2009
Apr. 06, 2009
hey family!
hows everyone doing?
well so this week was crazy....
basically i was running around all day for the first couple of days to get the apartment ready for the new elders. the start was monday when i received the call from president peterson. it must be said that i will be highlighting things other than cleaning the apartment but it must be known also that all freetime was spent, cleaning the apartment and packing the bags.
so Monday we were in a little town called Crest for the beginning. in crest there is the largest donjon or tower in france so that was way cool to see. but it opened at 2 o clock and we got there at around 11 o clock so we had some time to kill so we did emails (in a bar haha!) and then found some food and then went up there, so thats great. after which we had to run down to the gare to catch a bus or be stuck there until 4:30 ish. we got it and so then went home. that night we went and passed by a little family home evening to say goodbye to some members and that was good, they invited us to eat lunch the next day so thats the next BIG event... it was a good meal as always and was followed (that afternoon) by a trip to Parnans, to say goodbye to Agnes, which was not easy but was really good. ummm after that we went and saw the Meloens because they are sooo cool, we visited a little with them and then said goodbye.(idk if you know but goodbyes arent fun) and that just about wrapped up the night. ummm so yeah next morning we left at 6:22 on a train to lyon, then geneva. and here i am... we only have a small part of Geneva, but it is the down town part so thats nice. the ward that i am in is mostly spanish speaking so that means that next time i am in church i probably wont understand much but thats ok. My companions name is elder schmidt and hes from the salt lake area. hes a transfer older than me so it should be fun. we are in an apartment with 2 other elders so its cool. Elder bergia is from the paris area (yes that makes him french...) and elder Asay is from texas, dallas. (his uncle is the owner of Tahitian Noni).
we dont really have any amis so basically all we've done is finding. we do have a really cool bishop though who is willing to help us with whatever. which is nice. this weekend we got to watch all but one session of general conference (the sunday afternoon one). i really liked elder Hollands talk, and elder Hales, and elder Uchtdorf, and elder Ballards, and just about all of them which is cool. i'm excited to study and look at them more in depth.
Today i think we are going to do some cool things so i guess that i'll you know about them next time.
I Love ya, have a great week!
Elder Laws
hows everyone doing?
well so this week was crazy....
basically i was running around all day for the first couple of days to get the apartment ready for the new elders. the start was monday when i received the call from president peterson. it must be said that i will be highlighting things other than cleaning the apartment but it must be known also that all freetime was spent, cleaning the apartment and packing the bags.
so Monday we were in a little town called Crest for the beginning. in crest there is the largest donjon or tower in france so that was way cool to see. but it opened at 2 o clock and we got there at around 11 o clock so we had some time to kill so we did emails (in a bar haha!) and then found some food and then went up there, so thats great. after which we had to run down to the gare to catch a bus or be stuck there until 4:30 ish. we got it and so then went home. that night we went and passed by a little family home evening to say goodbye to some members and that was good, they invited us to eat lunch the next day so thats the next BIG event... it was a good meal as always and was followed (that afternoon) by a trip to Parnans, to say goodbye to Agnes, which was not easy but was really good. ummm after that we went and saw the Meloens because they are sooo cool, we visited a little with them and then said goodbye.(idk if you know but goodbyes arent fun) and that just about wrapped up the night. ummm so yeah next morning we left at 6:22 on a train to lyon, then geneva. and here i am... we only have a small part of Geneva, but it is the down town part so thats nice. the ward that i am in is mostly spanish speaking so that means that next time i am in church i probably wont understand much but thats ok. My companions name is elder schmidt and hes from the salt lake area. hes a transfer older than me so it should be fun. we are in an apartment with 2 other elders so its cool. Elder bergia is from the paris area (yes that makes him french...) and elder Asay is from texas, dallas. (his uncle is the owner of Tahitian Noni).
we dont really have any amis so basically all we've done is finding. we do have a really cool bishop though who is willing to help us with whatever. which is nice. this weekend we got to watch all but one session of general conference (the sunday afternoon one). i really liked elder Hollands talk, and elder Hales, and elder Uchtdorf, and elder Ballards, and just about all of them which is cool. i'm excited to study and look at them more in depth.
Today i think we are going to do some cool things so i guess that i'll you know about them next time.
I Love ya, have a great week!
Elder Laws
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