Dearest family and friends,
It is cool to see that we work under inspiration from the Lord. Being able to be so close to the mission president has allowed to see how truly inspired of a man he is.
At the beginning of this transfer, President Roney gathered all of the Lyon missionaries together into a bit of a council. He was going to use all of us as his guinea pigs in a magical experiment. He explained to us that on his mission, he would use a little questionnaire of four questions in his contacts in order to get people to open up. He gave us all little questionnaires and invited us to try it out and then we would get back to him about how it went. IT IS MAGIC. French people love to be asked their opinion on things, and even though they aren't too keen on religion, the questionnaire provides for a very neutral question and answer session that can open people up and allow for missionaries to testify of certain aspects of the restored gospel! It works so well!
In our Zone Training meeting last week, the questionnaire was implemented throughout the entire mission, and it's been awesome to see the impact that it has already made. This week I was on an exchange with Elder Kiser from Sherwood, OR and we were doing some door to door tracting (porte à porte) in a pretty chic neighborhood near Grenoble. On the first person to open up to us, we used the questionnaire and began to have a conversation with this woman. We come to find out that she is a very believing Catholic and that she is very curious to know more about what we know. Eventually she invited us to come in, but we explained to her that we couldn't go in to teach her alone, and she told us that her husband was up working on the roof. "Fiddling" with the roof :) Ha. We continued our conversation on the porch, but not too long afterwards he came down and we were able to go inside and teach them the message of the Restoration. They were very attentive and they asked some great questions. At the end we gave them the Book of Mormon and bore our testimonies, inviting them to apply Moroni's Promise! It was the first time I've ever been able to teach a first lesson on the first person to open up! For Elder Kiser it was the first time he had ever been let in! And that is only one of the many miracles we've seen with this questionnaire in our zone this last week!
I love the story of the Resurrected Savior inviting his discouraged disciples to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. Sometimes the Lord asks us to exercise our faith and to adjust the way that we are doing things and if we obey, we can see incredible results! I love having the assurance that this missionary effort is being led and guided by prophets and apostles as well as mission presidents who are called and qualified of the Lord! This week in Zone Conference in Geneva, we will have the visit of Elder Lund of the 5th Quorum of the Seventy. He came to our ward yesterday and it was a pleasure to shake his hand and hear his testimony in Sacrament Meeting.
In our sector this last week, Elder Taylor and I saw some really cool things happen. We are focusing our efforts on working well with members. We are both relatively new here and we want to take advantage of being in such a large ward (for France) which is very unified and missionary work-oriented.
We also met a great new investigator. His name is Ibouni and he comes from some islands off the coast of Southeastern Africa, I believe they are called the Comoro Islands in english. He is a very smart guy, here studying economic principles. We had a great lesson with him and he said that he is on a quest for the truth and is willing to commit himself to live by it if he finds it! We'll see him again tomorrow.
Also, remember Marie? The woman that I told you about last week? Well, we had a great conversation on the phone this week. She told me that she has regrets in her life and some things that she wants to overcome/forget from her past. I asked her how she could do it and her response was baptism. We talked much about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. She asked some excellent questions and we had a great conversation. We engaged her to read of the conversion of Alma the Younger. She is progressing, but very slowly. I have confidence that she is going to decide to follow the Savior.
Many other radical experiences (dérouled) this last week! Kinda like how all the books in the world couldn't contain all of the things that the Savior did, all the books in the world (or maybe just a large number of big volumes) couldn't contain all of the wonders that are seen on a mission. The Lord truly guides this work, I can testify of it! I love you all! Till next week!
Avec amour,
ELDER KUNZLER
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