Voilà Quoi!

Caught up with some friends at the train station!

Dearest family and friends,

I guess there was a bit of a historical event for the church in France that took place in Lyon just yesterday.  The boundaries for all the preexisting wards in Lyon were changed and a fourth ward was created!  It was a bittersweet occasion for the members and missionaries of Lyon as they said goodbye to some of the leaders and members to whom they were habituated.  The Ecully ward, which I am in, moved from being the strongest, possibly largest ward in the mission to being an average French size ward of 80-100 members.  It's still an epic ward, though!  I will be finishing my mission in this ward.  In about an hour I will head to the train station to pick up my new companion who will serve with me to the end!  His name is Elder Palmer, he is from Utah and he is in the same group as Elder Powell, so he's been out on his mission for just a bit longer than Elder Kunzler in New York.  Voilà quoi!

This last week of the transfer had some really cool experiences!  First of all, Elder Taylor and I meet a lot of Chinese students here in Ecully because most of them go to the IM Lyon Business school, which is recognized as one of the best business schools in all of Europe.  Early this last week, we met a really kind and intelligent Chinese student on a bus.  We had a really interesting conversation about God and Jesus Christ.  She told us that she was too "scientific" for religion.  But apparently she felt something in the conversation that we had, because the following day she took us up for our invitation to have a tour of the church and to learn a little more.  We gave her a quick tour of the chapel and then talked more about God and prayer.  She prayed for the first time in her life.  I think that I've said it before, but I think that this is my favorite experience in the mission, to hear someone communicate with God for the time.   It's kind of like the scene in the Truman Show when he meets with his father again.  Except that was fake.  And this is real.  She said a very sincere prayer and is opening her heart up to faith in a supreme and loving creator.  Oh, the joy that he will bring to her life!  Radical.

Then there is Margaux.  This is actually a pretty funny story.  I don't have a ton of time to tell all in detail, but I'll do my best.  So it actually begins back in the beginning of the week.  We spent some time with the old ward list, going and visiting some less-active members that we had NO information about.  One of the last ones that we visited actually didn't turn out to be a less-active member, but a student whose records were in the Ecully ward, but who actually goes home every weekend and goes to church in her homeward in the Paris mission.  We didn't know this.  So you can imagine that it was a little awkward when we show up at her student residence, expecting a less-active member.  She is way cool though, and didn't make it awkward!  She was actually with a non-member friend who was studying with her and we ended up sharing a spiritual thought with the both of them and answered some of her friends questions.  But this is not the miracle that I wanted to share with you!  Just a couple days after having met her, we actually ran into her on the street! We got to know her a little bit better and then find out that she wants to go on a mission.  After chatting with her, we did some contacting in the area and met a really cool girl, about her same age and very similar to her in personality!  French people!  We ended up teaching this girl, Margaux, on Saturday with the member, Jessica!  They hit it off and it was one of the best lessons I've had in a long time!  It was a tiny little tender mercy that the Lord was willing to send us the perfect member to teach with just before meeting the person that the Lord had prepared.  Epic.

I am out of time!  I love you all!  The Lord loves us more than we can imagine.  Literally!

Avec amour,

ELDER KUNZLER

GOODBYE Elder Taylor!  I love him.