March 12, 2013 - Grenoble, France

May my heart be turned to pray

dear famille,

Bon soir!! how art thou? today was soooo awesome!! just got back from zone conference!!!!!! so basically this email will be all about that. sorry. first I'll tell a bit about grenoble, then on to words of wisdom from incredible people!!

SO! we have the baptism of dan on SATURDAY!! oh my goshhh he is so great and so willing and just full of faith and the desire to serve others!!! last week we asked him why he wanted to be baptized and he said that he wants the chance to serve the people in the church like they serve him and love them and others like they love him, and I was just so touched and shared with him mosiah 18:8-11:

8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon(for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; 

9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—  

10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?  

11 And now when the people had heard these words, they clapped their hands for joy, and exclaimed: This is the desire of our hearts.

It was so incredible having that come to my mind as he spoke basically these words. He didnt even believe in God or know who he was before the missionaries met him! And actually it was Soeur Marker, my comp in Nice, who contacted him in Grenoble (she was there before Nice) and her and her comp asked him what he loved, and he was holding a basketball, and he was like, uhh..I like basketball.. lol. et voila, quoi! the rest is history! He is so great and LOVES children!!! our dmp has 4 little boys and ones a baby and he speaks english and dan just loves being with them. Its great. and hes really getting well integrated into the ward!! not just our dmp's family!! everyone loves him and we will be having his bapteme on saturday evening!!! I'm giving the talk on the Holy Ghost and singing "savior, Redeemer of my Soul', so pray for me!!!!!!!!! ahh!!!!! Vaber isnt doing super great, he is just losing faith in his wife changing. So please pray for dan to have a great baptism and for vaber to continue in faith and for his wife's heart to be softened. Thanks!!!

Okay, not much time, but zone conference was incredible!!!! one of the best ones in a while, I must say. President talked a LOT about going about things with FAITH that those things will happen, that we all will or have come to the point to deciding to follow faith or logic, and that through having faith all things are possible. He talked about how we need to take advantage of our planners even MORE and to set great goals and gave us a format of how to set goals and accomplish them and how it will benefit you the rest of your life! and coming from President Roney and considering his history in goal setting and his work and his position as our mission president...I'm definitely taking that advice. We got "standards of excellence" that we should be living up to, and we had soeur roney talk to us about when they had ELDER HOLLAND talk to them and a group of other mission presidents in Germany last week, and how he loves us so much nad that he wants us to cherish and love and immerse ourselves in the scriptures and I LOVE this!!! oh sooo great! and that a mission can change your life forever and it can continue to do so! let your mission be the time to become your best self and just continue on that progression! ahh so much more but I dont have time! And we had our stake president speak to us, and he said, "where do we first create our answers to our prayers? In our heart and mind!" and that we can continue to strive for having miracles as long as we believe and EXPECT them! And we have miracles all the time and they will continue as we progress and continue having this faith and  continue reading our scriptures and continue to recognize the importance of our missions, as representatives of Jesus Christ. On Sunday we had sooo many non members for a family thing at church and our incredible bishop basically taught them the first lesson for his talk during sacrament, and then he had us missionaries stand up and announced that we were there to help them and to represent Jesus Christ and His church. It was incredible!!! Soeur Addis cried. it was a very spiritual moment. Needless to say we attacked them spiritually and afterward approached them and introduced ourselves. It was really great.

Okay, I have to fly, but I LOVE yall so much and am so grateful for you. I feel so blessed to be in a family that has the gospel of Jesus Christ and that we are sealed for eternity. What an incredible blessing. Wow. I love yall and I will talk to yall next week!!!!!

Love always,
devano

soeur addis being super clingy

soeur addis and I getting off topic during planning. she dared
me to eat all those mints. I accepted. she joined. they're altoids!!
our mouths burned for 30+min after

me and eldersssss!!! left-right; elder dean, elder gruber, leduc,
?, elder sanchez, and assistants-arnold and jensen
elder arnold and I have a history! been my zl since i got to pau, then
we both left and he became assistant so hes been to every zone
conference i have ever had. lol. and all but 2 of the zone trainings.
elder sanchez is in my ville! love all of them!!!