Family FAmily FAMily FAMILY!!!!
Hi everyone. How are you all doing? SO this has been a pretty good week i would say. Picked up Elder Sones on Wednesday (and got my package thanks mom!) from the gare. then we went and did some work which is pretty normal. In the mission we have really decided to start focusing more on getting members to fulfill their role as Missionaries also. So thats what we are doing. we've been doing a lot of finding and other things also. just normal missionary work.
other than that on saturday we went to Geneva for a meeting with President Murdock, the Assistants, and the other Zone Leaders where we discuss different focuses for the Transfer, Zone conferences, etc. and it was way good.
i guess that on monday was my birthday..... we didnt do much to celebrate though. I went to the bathroom during studies and when i came back my companions sang happy birthday to me haha... but thats about all! it was a good day though and we went and ate at a members house (luckily they didnt know it was my birthday!) and as usual it was amazing! umm... ya also we played lotr Risk... which is fun!
Then On yesterday (ya thats not really english) we went to Martigny to do exchanges with the Elders there. it was fun...cold... and not a lot of success but it was good anyways. I went with elder Tracy who is from Georgia...which by the way we have 3 elders in our district from the south... and there is only 4 in the mission... anyways it was fun.
umm other than that i dont have much to say so lets see if we have any unanswered questions...
ummm nope! (i'm going to give the card to them this sunday mom.) and thats all! have a great week! Love you!
Elder Michael Laws!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Jan. 19, 2010
Hey Family!
Hows everyone doing? thanks for all the emails this week i feel really spoiled!
i dont really know what to start talking about haha. so this week on preparation day we went to the church with us and the lausanne elders and the martigny elders and we went to the church and played ping pong and other stuff all day and it was fun. kind of crazy because while we were doing it it was just snowing and snowing and snowing.... (more snow than i've seen in my life at least...) so that was pretty intense. but other than that we have been just working and finding people to teach.
as of right now... the snow is all melted and it is really nice. it's easier to be enthousiastic about going and talking to people when its a bright and shiny day. so thats good.
Sunday was the only day that really is worth especially talking about. (the other days were good too!) Starting with Church it was really funny. We start with priesthood and then sunday school then Sacrament meeting. In Priesthood, we talked about the plan of salvation, how we're all brothers and sisters, how we have free agency etc... which was good. Then in Sunday school (gospel principles) I got to teach the lesson and it was on the Creation and how everything that god does for us shows that he loves us. Then LUCKILY!!! THe subject for the talk that i was supposed to give was on The importance of free agency in the plan of salvation... it felt kind of like i didnt need to even give it at all! it was great fun.. Oh and in Gospel principles(you know basic doctrine) i think that someone mentionned how god lived a life as a man, and i think we also talked about where god is supposed to live (not in depth at all!) and about kolob and it was fun... probably the worst lesson that i've ever taught in my life haha!!! it was great! glad all we have to really understand is the plan of salvation, faith repentance baptism, gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end... its great!
umm anyways so then that night there was a baptism of one of the SIsters Investigators. she's really cool adn she gave an amazing testimony during the service... better than some members even! it amazing to me to see how much of an impact the gospel can have on people. She was so happy!
Also just yesterday we got transfer calls and i'm receiving a new companion. Elder Sones, he's from mississippi and it should be fun. (idk why i get to serve with all the mississippians...haha) so that also means i'll be here in renens for at least 6 more weeks probably more.
well that's all for me! umm.... wait was there any questions...
My Favorite Muppet is the Cookie Monster
I like Renens and the French, i might learn spanish at least a little because the other elders in the apartment both speak!
Oh the Talk went well according to my companion.. it was good.
ummm i guess the Main idea was that we're here to learn to make the choices that God would make in our place and that we can tell which choices those are by Moroni 7:12-13 umm ya basically that. so thats why agency is important because if we were always forced we wouldnt learn which choices were good for us but would be forced to do it.
so thats it for me! Love you all have a great week!
Elder Laws
Hows everyone doing? thanks for all the emails this week i feel really spoiled!
i dont really know what to start talking about haha. so this week on preparation day we went to the church with us and the lausanne elders and the martigny elders and we went to the church and played ping pong and other stuff all day and it was fun. kind of crazy because while we were doing it it was just snowing and snowing and snowing.... (more snow than i've seen in my life at least...) so that was pretty intense. but other than that we have been just working and finding people to teach.
as of right now... the snow is all melted and it is really nice. it's easier to be enthousiastic about going and talking to people when its a bright and shiny day. so thats good.
Sunday was the only day that really is worth especially talking about. (the other days were good too!) Starting with Church it was really funny. We start with priesthood and then sunday school then Sacrament meeting. In Priesthood, we talked about the plan of salvation, how we're all brothers and sisters, how we have free agency etc... which was good. Then in Sunday school (gospel principles) I got to teach the lesson and it was on the Creation and how everything that god does for us shows that he loves us. Then LUCKILY!!! THe subject for the talk that i was supposed to give was on The importance of free agency in the plan of salvation... it felt kind of like i didnt need to even give it at all! it was great fun.. Oh and in Gospel principles(you know basic doctrine) i think that someone mentionned how god lived a life as a man, and i think we also talked about where god is supposed to live (not in depth at all!) and about kolob and it was fun... probably the worst lesson that i've ever taught in my life haha!!! it was great! glad all we have to really understand is the plan of salvation, faith repentance baptism, gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end... its great!
umm anyways so then that night there was a baptism of one of the SIsters Investigators. she's really cool adn she gave an amazing testimony during the service... better than some members even! it amazing to me to see how much of an impact the gospel can have on people. She was so happy!
Also just yesterday we got transfer calls and i'm receiving a new companion. Elder Sones, he's from mississippi and it should be fun. (idk why i get to serve with all the mississippians...haha) so that also means i'll be here in renens for at least 6 more weeks probably more.
well that's all for me! umm.... wait was there any questions...
My Favorite Muppet is the Cookie Monster
I like Renens and the French, i might learn spanish at least a little because the other elders in the apartment both speak!
Oh the Talk went well according to my companion.. it was good.
ummm i guess the Main idea was that we're here to learn to make the choices that God would make in our place and that we can tell which choices those are by Moroni 7:12-13 umm ya basically that. so thats why agency is important because if we were always forced we wouldnt learn which choices were good for us but would be forced to do it.
so thats it for me! Love you all have a great week!
Elder Laws
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Jan. 13, 2010
Hey family how are you!?
so this week has been farely good. we've been working a lot on trying to find out whether we know all the people on our member list and where they live and stuff and we have been able to pretty much figure everyone out which is great. its nice to be able to say that i'm not really lost anymore!
Yesterday we had an exchange with the elders in Martigny. I went with ELder Schmidt who was one of my old companions so it was a blast! we had a lot of fun and one way sweet rendezvous.
We called up this old amis in our area book and fixed a rendezvous. it turns out that this guy like basically grew up in the church and wasnt ever baptized. so like we asked him about what he remembered about joseph smith and he like told the whole story quoting James 1:5 and like it was cool. Then elder Schimdt was like here let me show you a scripture (in his like triple combination) i really like and he opened up to it and it was marked and the guy just kept talking about WE as in the members of the church and like how he defended the church back in Ghana and like all this stuff. He was like basically a member but not it was SO cool. so that was fun.
hmm other than that we have found a couple people but like not been able to teach them more that once which is a bummer but its alright. i dont have a ton to say this week. so ya.
for studies i've been reading the book of mormon everyday for like 20 minutes i guess and i realized this morning that if i didnt start with that my studies werent that good. so i read some and then i worked on this talk that i'm supposed to give sunday at church. The topic is Le libre arbitre est important au plan du salut, or Moral Agency is important to the Plan of Salvation. i really like the topic and i've had some really good insights that i cant remember right now haha! too bad i guess. anyways so ya.
Oh ya another thing that we did is, well to give a little backround. We have this Amis who is from Pittsburgh. He has been here for about 6 years and he is in charge of the Museum at the ITTF head quarters (international table tennis federation). anyways so a little while ago we had a church activity at the museum and it was way good. this last week we went and did service for him and we moved a bunch of boxes of coaching manuels for him. it took forever but the best part was that he made Cinnamon rolls.... THEY WERE SOOOO GOOD!!! haha... it was great!
oh and this past week it has just decided to snow and snow and snow..... the bus we took this morning jackknifed as it pulled up and almost crashed, they've got good drivers though so its ok.
well any other random things...??? i dont think so... oh well! have a great week! LOve you!
Elder Laws
so this week has been farely good. we've been working a lot on trying to find out whether we know all the people on our member list and where they live and stuff and we have been able to pretty much figure everyone out which is great. its nice to be able to say that i'm not really lost anymore!
Yesterday we had an exchange with the elders in Martigny. I went with ELder Schmidt who was one of my old companions so it was a blast! we had a lot of fun and one way sweet rendezvous.
We called up this old amis in our area book and fixed a rendezvous. it turns out that this guy like basically grew up in the church and wasnt ever baptized. so like we asked him about what he remembered about joseph smith and he like told the whole story quoting James 1:5 and like it was cool. Then elder Schimdt was like here let me show you a scripture (in his like triple combination) i really like and he opened up to it and it was marked and the guy just kept talking about WE as in the members of the church and like how he defended the church back in Ghana and like all this stuff. He was like basically a member but not it was SO cool. so that was fun.
hmm other than that we have found a couple people but like not been able to teach them more that once which is a bummer but its alright. i dont have a ton to say this week. so ya.
for studies i've been reading the book of mormon everyday for like 20 minutes i guess and i realized this morning that if i didnt start with that my studies werent that good. so i read some and then i worked on this talk that i'm supposed to give sunday at church. The topic is Le libre arbitre est important au plan du salut, or Moral Agency is important to the Plan of Salvation. i really like the topic and i've had some really good insights that i cant remember right now haha! too bad i guess. anyways so ya.
Oh ya another thing that we did is, well to give a little backround. We have this Amis who is from Pittsburgh. He has been here for about 6 years and he is in charge of the Museum at the ITTF head quarters (international table tennis federation). anyways so a little while ago we had a church activity at the museum and it was way good. this last week we went and did service for him and we moved a bunch of boxes of coaching manuels for him. it took forever but the best part was that he made Cinnamon rolls.... THEY WERE SOOOO GOOD!!! haha... it was great!
oh and this past week it has just decided to snow and snow and snow..... the bus we took this morning jackknifed as it pulled up and almost crashed, they've got good drivers though so its ok.
well any other random things...??? i dont think so... oh well! have a great week! LOve you!
Elder Laws
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Jan. 06, 2010
Hello Family!
well to start out, i'll answer some questions.
I really like the Mp3 player that i got for christmas, it works perfectly. I mostly wanted it to get the songs off of the Mission Office computer which has been done already so thats all good.
More like atheletic socks would work best! but either way is fine for me. you can send both if you would like! :P
ok, so this week has been pretty good. While in Geneva we went and played soccer. it was way fun. it had rained a TON and was still raining so everyone was slipping around and like falling everywhere. We got really Muddy and ya it was a blast. The next day was the Ward New years party so that night (wednesday still) we went and helped the members decorate the chapel for a little bit.
Thursday we actually had a couple of rendezvous with members and so that was a good replacement for trying to talk to people all day on a holiday (they dont really like that). That Night we went to the NEw years party for a little bit and then went home and hung out with the other Elders till the NEw Year! it was good.
After that we just did missionary work and talked with some cool people.
On monday we went to DIjon, in france, to do our exchange with the missionaries there. I went with Elder Leichty who ive served around so it was fun. We went and taught this guy and it was way good. after that we passed members and shared messages with them. Its really nice to be able to teach. I love it!
but.... the end was pretty crazy. we had to catch a train at like 5h38 and it was pretty close to then... we were supposed to meet up at 5 at the appartment but that didnt really happen because we were 20 minutes late... then, when we finally got there, our companions werent even there!!!! so basically what ends up happening is that we have to get all our stuff run down to the bus stop take the bus to the Trainstation. where our companions were with tickets etc... but we got "there", to the bus stop by the gare, with like 5 minutes maybe before the train left, had to run up this hill to the gare to the voie where the train was and barely got into the train before it closed up.... it was intense haha!
luckily we didnt get checked for passports crossing the borders either because we forgot them... oh and we got to ride TGV's which are like some of the fastest trains in the world i believe... not the fastest. but really fast.
so now we are safe and sound chez-nous... yay!
Hope you had a great week and i LOVe YOU!
Elder MIchael Laws
well to start out, i'll answer some questions.
I really like the Mp3 player that i got for christmas, it works perfectly. I mostly wanted it to get the songs off of the Mission Office computer which has been done already so thats all good.
More like atheletic socks would work best! but either way is fine for me. you can send both if you would like! :P
ok, so this week has been pretty good. While in Geneva we went and played soccer. it was way fun. it had rained a TON and was still raining so everyone was slipping around and like falling everywhere. We got really Muddy and ya it was a blast. The next day was the Ward New years party so that night (wednesday still) we went and helped the members decorate the chapel for a little bit.
Thursday we actually had a couple of rendezvous with members and so that was a good replacement for trying to talk to people all day on a holiday (they dont really like that). That Night we went to the NEw years party for a little bit and then went home and hung out with the other Elders till the NEw Year! it was good.
After that we just did missionary work and talked with some cool people.
On monday we went to DIjon, in france, to do our exchange with the missionaries there. I went with Elder Leichty who ive served around so it was fun. We went and taught this guy and it was way good. after that we passed members and shared messages with them. Its really nice to be able to teach. I love it!
but.... the end was pretty crazy. we had to catch a train at like 5h38 and it was pretty close to then... we were supposed to meet up at 5 at the appartment but that didnt really happen because we were 20 minutes late... then, when we finally got there, our companions werent even there!!!! so basically what ends up happening is that we have to get all our stuff run down to the bus stop take the bus to the Trainstation. where our companions were with tickets etc... but we got "there", to the bus stop by the gare, with like 5 minutes maybe before the train left, had to run up this hill to the gare to the voie where the train was and barely got into the train before it closed up.... it was intense haha!
luckily we didnt get checked for passports crossing the borders either because we forgot them... oh and we got to ride TGV's which are like some of the fastest trains in the world i believe... not the fastest. but really fast.
so now we are safe and sound chez-nous... yay!
Hope you had a great week and i LOVe YOU!
Elder MIchael Laws
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
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
Thursday, December 24, 2009
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
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
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!!
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!!
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