More Pictures :)

1-thanksgiving dinner on sunday with three families at the wright's home. these were the ladies! and a few babies. :)

2- lourdes! elder fox was opening his umbrella right above my head to get me wet, hence my eyes being closed; haha. check out the size of the candles you can buy!!!!!!! CRAZYYYYY!!

(I tried and tried, but Blogspot will not correct the image orientation)

 3- where they light a lot of different sized candles. ariel in the white skirt, the elders heck and fox behind her.

4-being all artsy-check out the reflections! and the yellow against the dark!! love itttt.

Pictures :)

1-I dont remember which photo  pressed, so...me and something!

 2-soeur raney, soeur waldron, soeur bayles and I at our zone meeting/thanksgiving fest. they are the other soeurs in our zone; they're in Eysines area, which is in bordeaux.

3-Petite Sarah ready for her baptism!!!!

November 26, 2012 - Pau, France

au JARDIN!!

bonjour, ma famille!

okay! so today we went to Lourdes encore!! soeur raney and elder heck hadnt been there, and the elders in bayonne didnt want to come, so we had ariel come with us! the american student here for the semester. she is AWESOME! (and reading this) lol. but really. anywho! we had a good time, but almost all the stores were closed and the resturaunts and it was raining and cold but we had FUNNNN!!! and took a bus to lourdes which took 40 min (double to time it takes to get there by train), but it was worth it! we had lunch with the elders and saw the crazy church and got some holy water for yall (dont drink it or you'll need a blessing) and took lots of photos. :)

this week was great!! we had thanksgiving in bordeaux with the whole zone, we finished teaching alex all his lessons, and he has his interview in bordeaux with the zone leaders (he works ther during the week) on wednesday night, and he's totally ready for baptism!!! we went through the questions TWICE and he  was like, yeah we're all good! and yeah. hes sooo solid I'm SOOO HAPPY FOR HIM!!!!!!! and Soeur LAVIE!! Eternal families!!!!!!!! o my goooooodnesssss soooo great. his baptism is on SATURDAY, the second to last day of the transfer! and he's gettting the gift of the holy ghost on sunday! how great is that??! so yeah. dont have lots of time, but I do have some photos from lourdes so I will post them for yallllll!

OH, yesterday we had a dinner with three families in the ward at the Wrights and had a thanksgiving of our own!!! we didnt have turkey (supperrrr hard to get here), so we had rooster. mais c'etait bon!! vraiment!! donc oui. it was awesome. and it was soo cute. court, you would have died.

okay, gottttta goo, main stuff taken care of? oh! and yesterday soeur raney gave a talk and I bore my testimony, which is always awesome to do in another language, and shared doctrine and covenants 128:22 I think. Joseph Smith, Jr. it was great! someone even asked me afterward for the scripture reference! we have had a great week!!!!!!

okay! passez une bonne soirée! je vous aime!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love always,

devaneaux

p.s. will send photos after fhe!

November 19, 2012 - Pau, France

famille,

this has to be superrrrrr short, so sorry! quick run-down of this week:

-SARAH GOT BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY AND CONFIRMED ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!! YEAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! she is the cutest little thing.

-Monday night for FHE we went to the Wright's, an American family (well, she's originally from english speaking-Canada) and we had dinner and made caramel apples! it was so fun, cause we made the caramel from melting caramel in the microwave because we didnt know how to melt it in the pot. lol

-We called president and are allowed to go to Marie and Roger's wedding on December 1st!!!!

-we FINALLY got ahold of a woman who soeur bertolio and I contacted who was really interested in the church, and we have a rendez-vous with her this week!!!

aaaaaaaaaand yeah! things are going great here!!!! people are becomming receptive to the gospel! we have rendez-vous all this week! life is GREAT!!!!!!! We will be having a thanksgiving dinner thing at our zone meeting this thursday in Bordeaux, and then another on Sunday at the Wright's. I was told to bring a pie! :-D

I love this gospel, and I know that our Heavenly Father loves us!!! The Book of Mormon is truly the word of God!

Have an AWESOME Thanksgiving!!!!!!!! Say hello to the family for me at the reunion!

I love you all so much!!!!

love,

devaneaux

November 12, 2012 - Pau, France

Jésus-Christ, Sauveur du Monde, en ton coeur donne un abri!

ma famille!

BonJOUR!!!! How are you??! okie dokie, first things first, yesterday I met an APOSTLE of the LORD!!!!!!! Second things second, we had EXCHANGES!! HOLLA!!! So we'll start with the latter.

Yesterday morning we took a bus up to Bordeaux with our lovely ward of Pau-ee-ins (I have no clue what they call themselves, definitely not that, but whatevs), and we went to stake conference! it was great!! And in FRENCH! ha, of course! But I saw so many members and I remembered all their names and was like, ADAM! Soeur Toumazou! othernamesofpeople!! It was crazy. And I was like, wow, I LOVE these people! and they LOVE me!! It was a great experience. And the Leang family picked us up from our appartement to go to the church to get on the bus to GO to bordeaux, and he had told us that one of the missionaries who baptized HIM would be there and he was so excited to see him!! and after conference we were waiting on the missionaries so we could head over to the stake center for zone conference and elder arnold, one of our zone leaders (he's been zl as long as i've been in pau!) was like, soeur gardner! and I was like, huh? and there was this couple standing there and the man asked if I knew frere leang, and I was like, yeah! and he was like, I'm one of the missionaries who baptized him! and I was super excited and I ran around the conference center trying to find him!! I asked people, I was everywhere, and at last, I FOUND him!! and I was like, the missionary who baptized you is over there!! and I led them to each other and they both were glossy-eyed and embraced and it was beautiful. Oh my. I get teary-eyed thinking about it. Such a magical moment. And knowing the Leang's!! Theyre such a great family!!! His son is in the stake presidency! and he is the nicest man and he has the missionaries (us) over EVERY week for dinner!! they are SO incredible!!! It was like a "what you'll feel like in 20 years" kind of moment for me. So! I got to see all my friends (minus soeur harris and soeur bertolio) in the mission!!!!! It was sooo cool!!! And we got to have Elder Neil L Anderson speak to us!!!!!!!! holy cow, it was soooo incredible!!! what a boost!! Spiritual boost needed: accomplished ten-fold. seriously. wow!!! so great!!!

Things are great here in pau! once last week, we were going contacting, and we prayed specifically to find a man, between 20 and 30, searching for the truth, and literally right after we finished the prayer we turned to walk on to the sidewalk and I stopped a guy about to walk past us and was like, hi, we're missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ. We have a message about the goal of life. are you interested? and he was like, oui! and we were like, whoa! hahaha. it was CRAZY!! and he gave us his number and we set up a rendez-vous on the spot and he actually walked us to his apartment to show us where he lived (right aroun the corner), then literally the next guy we contacted was around 25, and he looked at our name tags and was like, wait are you all mormons? and we were like, yeah! heard of us? and he's like, yeah, actually I wanted to know more about what you believed! it was psycho. like the good psycho that gets you amis. MIRACLES. it was incredible. we taught him the first lesson on the spot. And I taught almost all of it! and he understood! gift of tongues. it was crazy. Miracles happen all the time.

okay, exchanges, I was with soeur taylor again in toulouse, and it was a lot of fun! we taught 3 lessons in one day, and asked one to be baptized on dec 15 or something and he was like, bien sur! do you really think I'll be ready by then??? and we were like, uhhh YEAH!! it was so great! And yeah. things were so cool. we contacted these two guys who are totally athiest, and it made me so sad. we had a long discussion with them, me with one named pierre, and soeur taylor with this other guy, and he was so set on the point of life is no point. which makes no sense. and it just hurt my heart to see someone so far away from the truth, so hard-hearted. he was a cool guy and was nice and respectful, but he was just completely set on his way and when I gave him the book of Mormon, he wouldn't take it. I started that off with asking him if he liked to read, and he's a super philosophical guy, so he's like, yeah, I love to read, so I was like, okay, well here's a book, and I pulled it out and he laughed and he was like, I wont read that. and I was like, what philosophers do you want me to look up and read? and he started naming all these guys and I was like, okay, I'll read them if you read this, and he was like, I wont. I'm sorry. and it was just so incredibly pathetic. for him, for everything. And I was just like, okay. I find it very interesting how you find us close-minded because of our beliefs, but how I will read your books and you wont read mine. I shouldnt have said that, but I did. and he was like, yeah, I'm sorry. but yeah. that was interesting. He was a very intellecual guy, around 25 or so, clearly went to university and knew his stuff on philosophy. What really struck me was how we need to have a solid testimony of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have to be able to stand up against every Pierre in our life who tries to tell us we are wrong or that we are dumb for believing in something so incredible. We need to be able to handle this situation. Luckily I came away sad for him, not questioning my testimony. This was a trial of my faith, and it really held true. I know that we have a purpose. and that we have a loving Heavenly Father who wants us to return to Him again. MIracles happen every day, if we just notice these things in our life!!

I love this gospel. It makes me so incredibly happy and feel so humble because we have the responsibilty  to take this message to everyone here!! It's our duty! I know that we have a prophet on the earth today. I know that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His son, Jesus Christ. If you dont believe this, pray about it. You will recieve an answer if you have an open heart and mind. Read the words of the prophets and the apostles. they are truly the word of God.

I love yall sooo much and I pray for you ALL-THE-TIME!!!!!!

I also looove letterss. :)

love always,

devaneaux 

November 5, 2012 - Pau, France

The Lord is my light! He is my joy, and my song!!

famille,

guess what? I have officially been to a RUGBY MATCH!! Holla!!! and it was soooo cool!!!!! We went to visit the Fekitoa's (husband is tongan and on the pau team along with the Fakalelu's) and they invited us! and got us tickets with them because they're awesome!!!and we were sitting right in the front and got to see the game and it was just super cool. President said we could. and he told us to try not to get into any fights. we made no promises. haha. No, but it was so sweet! And what was also super cool was that I met some of the players who were playing, and some had even kissed me!!! lol. bisous! when I was like, ah! no! anyway! so that was awesome. and its like, professional rugby! so I kind of feel like soeur bertolio and i didnt even realize how big of a deal it was to meet/know players, or teach them! like Saula and josefa! craycray!!! okay. so, we have been asked to study talks by elder neil l anderson because he's COMING TO ZONE CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!!! WHA??!!! No big deal, just an Apostle of the Lord is coming to our zone conference to give us direct revelation. so yeah. we're also making it combined conferences, so we will have montpelier and toulouse there also! which means!!! I'll get to see my friends, elder call and elder kunzler! sweet!! and yeah. so that's super exciting and I'll have a LOT  to say about Elder Anderson's teachings next time. SO STOKED!!!!

So I read one of his talks from conference (2010? 2011? I dunno) and it was called "children". what a great talk. i was like, oh no, I cant read this, it'll make me want children!!" and it did, but it also was perfect to share with soeur Fekitoa, who we went to see that day! so we shared that with her and thanked her for being a mom and had made her brownies like the sister missionaries that we are. haha. We also tried to visit the Fakalelu's a few days later but they werent home and so we left cookies at their door and a note and soeur fakalelu called and was like, I think you made a mistake, we havent done anything...haha. and we were like, no, its just because! she was really touched. it was awesome!! I love showing love!!!!!!! It's the best feeling EVER!!!

I think that is one thing I have learned this week, is the great feeling it is to show love. obviously I have been learning that my whole mission, but with members and everyone, really, it has become more! because soeur bertolio is so good at it, and soeur raney is working on it, so I try to show all the love I have! BIG smile, BIG concern for what others are saying (I'm beginning to understand and be able to speak a LOT more!!! yeahhhh!!!!!!!! hard work beats talent when talent doesnt work hard! lol, random quote that just came into my mind). It's so cool!!! I love it! 

So after we visited soeur fekitoa, we were wondering what to do, and this random guy asked us where a road went and then he was like, oh, your nametag says sister, you dont see that often! and we began to share our message with him and he was telling us a lot about france and the history and we taught him the super summed up version of the restoration! and HE asked to see us again! so we set up a rendezvous with him and it didnt go great. haha. He is a high schoo philosophy teacher, so he was like, talking all about philosophical things and speaking mainly english because "we didnt understand his high, elevated french vocabulary" because he's from the Bourgeoisie or however you spell it, an "aristocrat" by blood. haha. then when we were leaving the lesson, we asked if we could pray with him and he was like, no! no! but you can pray! go ahead! and we were like, uhh...and he was like, go ahead! pray! as he was getting his bike ready to go, and so soeur raney began praying and we hear his bike brake click up and the wheels of his bike rolling in the pebble sidewalk and we began laughing during the prayer because it was just so ridiculous that he was leaving DURING the prayer!! hahaha. good times. when we finished the prayer he was literally GONE!  it was hilarious!!!!!!!

Well, I have to go, but thanks for all the emails! I also love the surprise of finding letters in our mailbox! I know the church is true and am so grateful to be able to share the gospel with everyone in Pau! With a huuuuge smile!! I love yall!!!!!

Love,

devaneaux (for you, dad! lol)

p.s: I invite you all to read talks by elder anderson, also! the trial of our faith was the most recent!!! SOOO good. And "children". what a great talk!!!!! Oh man. Thank you mom, court, everyone who is a mother!! :D 

AND Alex has his baptismal date set for December 1st!!!! the end of the transfer!!!!!! yeahhhhhh!!!!!