Le Champ Blanchit Deja Pour La Moisson

Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 4:38 AM

Family and friends,
Another week has walked it's path and yet a new is on it's toes.

I desire to express to you the incredible power of the Holy Ghost in this work.  Us, the missionaries, truly do nothing, we just obey what the Lord has asked of us and work in our weakness and God gives us the greatest reward... the ability to see the Gospel of Jesus Christ change lives (1 Corinthians 9).

So, I want to recount to you a few incredible and life-changing experiences that I have had with the Spirit just in the last few days.  So remember how I told you how we would be teaching a student from China, who came to church for the first time EVER last week.  He had next to NO religious background whatsoever and even less so of a knowledge of any Christian knowledge.  So I had the opportunity to teach him with the man who introduced him to our church.  It was a very basic lesson on our relationship with God and Jesus Christ.  It took nearly an hour and half because he has so many questions and wants to know so much!  The Spirit was in the room for every moment of the lesson, especially when we watched a film about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ the Savior.  He had a firm understanding of how sacred the topics we shared with him were.  It was pretty funny, after we showed him the film, he asked if it was OK to make documentary films on things as sacred as the Son of God.  We had to explain to him that the film was to teach us and to help us to feel the Spirit, but that, YES, it was sacred.  At the end, we taught him about prayer and invited him to say the closing prayer.  It was the first time I've ever heard someone say their first prayer aloud.  Quite an incredible experience.  Then, just yesterday he was at church again, which he LOVES.  It was super funny, in Gospel Principles class we were talking about how the family and how if it is founded on the principles of the Gospel it can be strengthened against the evils of the world.  At one point in the lesson, he got up in front of the entire class and told all about his family.  He said that even though he didn't know anything about Jesus before, in China, his family was super important to him and they tried their best to live good lives.  He's a rock star.  We'll be teaching him more this week, you'll be updated.

Geotta!  I want to tell you about Geotta.  She is from the country of Romania and speaks very little French.  We met her through her friend, who was taking the missionary lessons, but stopped progressing.  Geotta is a very pleasant, pleasant person.  She does so much good for her family, but lives a difficult life.  Her husband is in and out of the hospital, so he can't work.  She works throughout the week to support herself, husband, children and grand-children.  It has been quite difficult to see her just because she is SO busy with all.  But she loves the missionaries and the gospel.  This week we saw for the first time in a while.  Althought there is the language barrier, we have seen miracles with her and the Spirit.  She read ALL of the Pamphlets that we gave her in Romanian, and understood it all.  When we teach her, we have our pamphet in French and hers in Romanian and we follow along with her and STUDY.  She understands it all and eats it up.  She loves Joseph Smith and the message of the Restoration, but she still hasn't received a spiritual confirmation, so she won't commit to baptism.  She knows that the gospel has the power to change her life, she just needs to start having deep, personal, spiritual experiences on her own.  We are helping her along!  It is so much fun to watch her progress.

So Elder Tulley and I will be resting her for another 6 weeks together!   We're really excited because we have so many great things coming up... all the students are back and this week, we'll be teaching some who we've already met.  Pilar is getting ready for her baptism.  Nicolas is back in Aix and we get to see him this week!  Should be an excellent transfer.

Thanks so much for all the prayers and all the love.  I have a family incroyable.  Have a magical, marvellous and magnificent week and we'll catch up soon.

L'amour,

Elder Kunzler

Whoa!~~~ Miracles!

Mon, Sep 3, 2012 at 3:17 AM

Dearest family and friends,

I have SO many miracles that I wish to unlay to you at this time!  The work here is incredible and God is truly gathering in his sheep, building his Zion!

So I first want to tell you about the unreal experience that I had on Thursday.  It was my first Zone Conference.  For those of you who don't know what a Zone Conference is, it's where the mission president and his wife come to visit all the missionaries that are within the stake to hold a day of rejuvenation and training.  We had the lucky opportunity of being able to hear from a Seventy, Elder Texiera and his wife.  Elder Texiera is from Portugal and speaks beautiful Portuguese, English, French, Spanish, and probably every other language known to man since the Tower of Babel.  It incredible to hear a man speak with so much power, authority and conviction on the topic which he knows so well: missionary work.  He gave us some new tips, made some powerful promises and taught with power.  At the beginning I got to shake his hand, he pronounced Kunzler perfectly and said I have a beutiful German name.  What a compliment!  Haha.  The best part was at the end, when President allowed me to go and meet with him.  President Roney is like a father.  It was incredible to pray and hold a one-on-one conversation with one of the Lord's leaders in his work.  He told me to tell you... ROFL... that you've brought up a sharp tool in the Lord's hands (I didn't want to, but he made me promise).  He made me some incredible promises and we had a very sacred conversation which will always stay with me.  At one point he said...."Most people don't have this opportunity, but I want you to have the opportunity to ask any question to a general authority of the Lord."  It was ultra cool.  We talked about the eternities and beyond.  I have a firm testimony that the men who God is calling to direct his work have the keys to speak in his name.  Very powerful stuff.

So, in other news... we had an incredible miracle this week.  The night of the zone conference, we were on spiritual FIRE.  We went to the home of a recent convert and it just happened (NOT CHANCE) that one of long-time amis was there.  Her name is Pilar and she has been investigating the church for almost a year.  She started when her friend, (Irma) started.  Irma is a recent convert with an excellent testimony.  Pilar has a great testimony, she knows its all true, and she comes to church every week, but she won't be baptized because she can't commit to pay tithing.  So, after diner, we started by sharing a spiritual thought on the topic of MIRACLES.  The Spirit was really strong. Everyone in the room started sharing experiences in which they have seen the hand of the Lord.  Then the attention moved to Pilar.  She bore an incredible testimony of all that she knew to be true.  Elder Tulley invited her to be baptized.  She said no.  She started talking about all of her concerns, financially, material, etc.  We did our best to help her understand the laws of obedience and blessing, etc.  The Spirit was still there, and we could see it working in her, but she was afraid.  I looked her in the eyes and said, "Pilar, I am a representative of Jesus Christ and I have the power and authority to make sacred promises to you.  I promise you that if you will you get on your knees and pray right now, asking the Lord if you ought to be baptized, you will get an answer here and now."  I had never heard her pray before, but this prayer was the most sincere and moving prayers that I've ever heard.  The Spirit inspired and touched every word that escaped her lips.  She began by sharing her desire to come unto Christ, the Spirit then moved her to ask for an answer, then the Spirit asked her to pray for courage and strength.  When she ended, there were tears in the eyes of everyone in the room.  She'll be getting baptized next Saturday!

So our ami pool is filling up.  I want to share an experience that I had yesterday.  It is a testimony to me that the Lord puts those whom he has prepared into our hands.  There is an American, from Orem, UT who joined our ward a few weeks ago because he is studying international business here at the university in Aix.  This week he brought some friends from school to church.  They were from China and had NEVER gone to church before.  Any kind of church.  They didn't know anything about Christ (other than that he died for sins) and they didn't know who God was.   I had the opportunity to translate for one of them (thanks to the wonderful gift of tongues).  His name is Lion.  He is a lion.  I did my best to explain what was going on, throughout the meetings and to teach him, very basically about Christ, scripture, God, etc.  At the end, he told me that he felt like he was at home.  I helped him realize that it was the Spirit confirming to him that all that he was learning was the truth.  He committed himself to reading the Book of Mormon, coming to church, etc.  We look forward to teaching him more this week.

I love being a part of this work!  Thanks for all the prayers and the support.  I love you all with my heart and soul.

L'amour,

Elder Kunzler

P.S.  There's a snake in my boot!

Gotham's White Knight and Lamanite

Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 2:52 AM

Bonjour from Provence, one and all!

I want to start out this e-mail by just telling you how inspired of a man our mission president, President Ronney is.  I get the opportunity to be in the first group received by him.  This means that he is kind of using us as guinea pigs in training us to be the missionaries that he wants to use to change the mission.  I also get to see how the changes that this man has made are bringing miracles in the work.  He is pushing us to be more amiable, more obedient, more productive, effective and Christlike missionaries than ever.  And those who are nearing the ends of their missions are seeing how his inspired direction is changing the mission and moving the work forward, even in new directions.  I'm so grateful to be under the head of such an inspired man.

So this week Elder Tulley have been focusing our efforts on finding.  When I got to Aix, our pool of investigators was pretty shallow, and there wasn't a whole lot of progression.  We've decided to go get the hose and start filling up that pool, while at the same time using that rake, pool-cleaner thing to scrap out any muck and to get our pool looking shiny and gold.  We had a successful week in finding.  I want to tell you a bit about someone who we're going to start teaching... LAURA!  Laura is remarkable.  The first time I met her, she was walking with a stroller with her three young children.  She just had this glorious smile on her face.  We stopped and talked to her a little bit, complimenting her family and getting to know her.  So she was a potential investigator of the Zone Leaders here, they had set up Rendez-vous, but she had a hard time following up with them and they never really got anything together.  Then we met her.  She had had a great experience talking to the other missionaries, but she didn't really know much about what we do.  We told her a tad about our church and then the Book of Mormon.  Her daughter was actually the one who prompted this discussion.  She saw that I had the book in my hands and asked what it was.  I told her and then showed her some of the pictures at the front.  She asked if Moroni was God.  Haha.  Laura became really interested after we testified of its promise.  She said that she would take it and read it with her daughters and give us a call if she wanted to learn more.  Then we didn't hear anything for about a week.  We saw her again at almost the EXACT same spot and talked with her again.  She had READ!  She had lots of questions and sincerely wanted to know (specifically about how it applied to her and her life) we were a little pressed on time, so we set up a Rendez-vous and we'll be teaching her this week!  We're really excited to get to know and to help this beautiful family.  Her daughter even invited us to her upcoming birthday party... YES!

We've had a few other miracles in our finding efforts.  When we walking from an appointment, an injured African man called us over from a nearby bench.  Elder Tulley recognized him as someone they had met last transfer.  He yelled us over and looked at me and asked, "What's the news from the Bible?"  He may or may not have been joking, but I think I said something like "the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ!"  He was a potential ami with the last companionship, but he got injured in his job working for bank security and they lost contact with the missionaries.  But now he's prepared for the gospel and we'll be teaching him this week.

We'll also be trying to meet with some sincere truth-seekers who we have come into contact with just on the street!  That is my FAVORITE thing about being a missionary in Aix.  Standing in the center of this beautiful city with 3 other excellent missionaries and talking to people about how the gospel of Jesus Christ can improve the quality of their lives, how the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and how we have marvelous truths that have been brought to the earth through a prophet of God!  Speaking of which, I want to leave a quick shout-out to Chen... I hope that your lavender journeyings have brought you peace.... continue onward!

We didn't get to see a whole lot of Nicolas this last week, becuase he was out of town (he's been having some difficulties with the family... keep him in your prayers). But we will be holding a fellowshipping FHE with him at a wonderful family here in the ward.  Have I already told you all how glorious the ward here is... a big extended family who edify each other and show their love (not just by kissing each other on both cheeks).  I love being in their presence.  They're such a great help to us missionaries here.  They give us great support.  It's just a little tough because less than half of the ward actually lives here in Aix... but they do all they can for us!  And they give us glorious sweets. I don't think I've ever eaten more chocolate, grapes, breads and cheeses than I have consumed in the last 3 weeks.  I also don't think I've ever had better chocolate, grapes, breads and cheeses than I've had in the last three weeks.  Viva la France!

I love you, all!  Have a wonderfully summery week... you've only got a couple more!  Thank you for all of support and for all your love. It makes the days that much more wonderful.  I know that this work is the work of the Savior, because if it wasn't, I wouldn't be so happy all the time!  Keep your smiles (3 Nephi 19:25) and stay close to the Lord.

L'amour, 

Elder Kunzler

P.S. I guess no pictures this week... The attach file thingy isn't wanting to work on this comp... Desole

P.S.S. James, what's yer e-mail? I have things to tell you...

1 Nephi 3:7

Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 6:12 AM

One more little picture that I just took at a place called called the Pavillon de Vendome.  The title of this picture is 1 Nephi 3:7 (in honor of the Elder Kunzler tradition).

Hello from Aix-en-Provence!

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 5:25 AM

Chers family and friends!  This keyboard is extremely difficult to write on and gmail is saying that I'm spelling every single word wrong!  But I'm in France!

I'm being trained by Elder Tulley in one of the most beautiful cities in Southern Europe.  Apparently Aix (pronounced X-on-prohvonce)  is one of the most coveted cities to work in in all of the mission.  My first week has been great, a lot of adjustments and a lot of learning.   They're seeing a lot of progress in the ward here in Aix.   We have a golden ami (investigator)  with a baptism date for the end of the transfer!  I am having an extremely difficult time writing this e-mail... haha its taken me 10 minutes already...

Lyon was beautiful...  We spent Tuesday there (running of no sleep... it was a lot of travel).  President Roney took us up to a big Catholic Cathedral which overlooks the whole city... it was incredible!  We took pictures, i'll try to include them.  Then we went back down and did some contacting.  We went to some of the most beautiful parts of the city (on the river and near a square with a dude riding a galloping horse) and did some contacting.  We did something called "street-boarding"... apparently its a pretty popular contacting method here in Europe.  We take a board that has some kind of theme, whether it be faith, family, Jesus Christ, Book of Mormon, and just stand in front of it and enlighten people.  It was pretty exhilarating.  There are so many interesting people here.  And there are also many who are looking for and are receptive to the truth.  I placed my first Book of Mormon and got my first phone numbers there in Lyon.  That night we ate a glorious feast at the mission home and had our first interviews.  The next day we had transfers, got our companions, were trained for a while and then headed out to our areas.

So Aix, often referred to as "Little Paris" is a beautiful ville in the rolling wine grape hills of Southern France.  It is pretty hot and humid here.  Elder Tulley is a Lamanite from an Indian Reservation in Nothern Arizona.  He has been here 10 months.  I'm am trying to do everything I can to learn this language so that I can help him a little bit more with lessons and with contacting.

The first thing I did here in Aix was taught and English class with Elder Tulley.  Twas full of laughter.  Only a Syrian man and a Chinese man were there.  The Chinese man might be interested in taking the discussions.  By the way, Aix is a big university town, and it is vacation time right now, so a lot of our potential investigators and people who we'll be working with are out of town this month.  It's good because it gives me some time to learn their language before I teach them the truth!  After the english class, I had my first rendezvous with Nicolas (the golden).  Guess what it was?!  The law of Chastity!  Twent swell.  Hahah.  He's committed and stoked for his baptism.  He has an incredible story.  He was truly prepared by the Lord before he even began taking the discussions from the missionaries.  He put away alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes before he even met us.  He's only 18 years old, and he's had a tough background with a father who abused him and committed suicide and a rough social life.  But if you met him, you would never think it, he is so nice and happy.

The ward here is incredible.  Everyone is so bright and happy.  The French aren't too keen on religion so those in the church are just super strong.  It is often said that the French are like their baguettes, hard on the outside, soft on the inside.  This is often true, but the members of the church are more like their croissants, soft, delicious and wonderful!  Yesterday afternoon I got to meet and enjoy getting to know many of them.  They have such incredible stories.  Many of them speak English, so I was able to have some radical conversations. We were invited to eat lunch with the missionaries who were returning to Aix with their families to visit the ward that they knew and loved.  It was at a members house and we had a huge feast of French cuisine out in the French countryside.  Twas a glorious sight for these old eyes.  The French people love to just eat, chat and laught. Those are things that I love to do as well.

A little miracle happened yesterday as well.  So Elder Tulley and his previous companion here have been teaching the daughter a woman in the ward named Irma.  She's from Honduras and she lives here with her younger daugthers.  They had been teaching Jennifer, who is 15, pregnant, and very very shy.  She came to church yesterday so I set up a Rendez-vous with them for in the evening.  When we went over, they were both there, along with Jennifer's older sister Erica, who had been taking the discussions but was dropped becuase she lost interest.  I did not find this out until after the rendezvous.  We were teaching about the Holy Ghost and they were are very, very difficult to focus.  At one point she asked why I was a missionary in kind of a light way.  At that point, I bore a sincere testimony of Jesus Christ in broken French and after that she opened up to us.  She said that she was having hard days and she wants to belong to a church, but doesn't know where.  We committed her to read the Book of Mormon and pray.  We set up a return rendezvous and we'll be able to see how she progresses! This weeks going to be a killer one!

I don't know much about the work here in Aix... Elder Tulley tries to rely on me to make a lot of the decisions and it's difficult because I don't the amis, or the area, or the language.  He was here last transfer, but I don't know how diligent they were.  I'm trying my best to make this work to progress and to just trust in the Lord.  If you could pray for me and for my companion it would be glorious.  This is the most difficult thing that I have ever done, but thankfully it's all in the Lord's hands, and with him everything is possible.

I love you family and thank you for all you have done to prepare me for this.  This work is truly the work of angels, I've only been here for 6 days, but I can see it.  The Lord truly guides us when we really on his arm.  He established his church on the earth 2000 years ago, he paid for our sins, he restablished his church nearly 200 years ago, and now he's guiding his work.  The power of Atonement is forever and infinite!  I love you, family and friends, forever and always!  Keep being the incredible people who you are.

L'amour,

Elder Kunzler

PS. Send mail to:

Les Missionaires

Résidence le Felibrige Bât B

Apt. 26, 4 Place CoÏmbra

13090 Aix-en-Provence

France

PPS.  If someone could send me some Book of Mormon audio CDs in French, twould be a miracle!

Week 2 in the Wonderful Ville of Aix!

Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 3:38 AM

Moi et mon premier patisserie

Chers Amis et Famille,

I hope that the lovely summer is treatly you so well!  This week was a magical week full of learning and cool missionary experiences.

I would like to start by bragging a little bit about my secteur. Aix is honestly one of the coolest cities in the world.  My favorite part of the city is in centre ville, with the classic European narrow cobblestone roads, beautiful fountains, Catholic churches, boutiques, patisseries, and LIFE!  Aix is a university town, but it is currently vacations time so there a lot of tourists and just people visiting.  Elder Tulley and I run this town with the Zone Leaders, Elders Ormond and Fitch.  One of our favorite things to do together is set up our huge sign, which reads "Nous sommes heureuse!" (We are happy!) and just has a big huge yellow smiling face and just talk to people.  We do it right in the smack dab center of centre ville at a place called the Rotonde (you should all look it up on Google Maps, its ultra cool)The French people are AWESOME!  Most of them look down on religion, because they see it more as destructive than productive (because of the religious history here).  Also, most of them think that we're an Amish sect, or some kind of a cult.  But when they see us smiling and being really nice to them, they open up a little.  We've even gotten some Rendez-vous out of it.

Divinity

So I don't think I told you guys this last time, but since I'm being trained, my first 3 months in the field will be a little bit different.  I have an additional hour of study with my companion, to be trained, practice teaching skills, etc. and a full hour of language study.  So that's 4 hours of study time, which kind of limits our proselyting time.  But in our proselyting time, we're working with a few wonderful people and also trying diligently to find people to teach.

Nicolas is our golden ami.  He has gotta be one of the coolest guys east of the Mississippi.  He has had a rough background and surmounted some incredible trials in his life.  He is 18 years old and he is working as a photographer right now during vacation.  He is studying literature, loves to read and write, and his favorite thing to do is spontaneously take his dog up to the Alps and LIVE there for a week.  He reminds me of the guy in Into the Wild (which is his favorite book, BTW).  He is set for baptism on the first Saturday in September and we're just trying to build his faith and get him to read from the Book of Mormon everday.

Nicolas the great

We're also working with the daughters of a new convert, Irma from Honduras.  Her daughters are Erika (early 20s) and Jennifer (15).  We love them and are trying to help them to understand who God is and why we need Jesus Christ.  Irma is so solid.  It's hard to get them to keep their committments though, because they have a hard time understanding scripture and they are rather passive.  But we're slowly working the Spirit into their hearts.

This week we met a Romanian family that is interested in the gospel!  We taught them the 1st lesson and we're going to see them again today.  It's rather difficult to teach them though, because some don't understand French or English, and those who do are having to translate it into Romanian.  But they understood the message, had lots of great questions and we're doing all we can to help them come unto Jesus Christ and find rest.

So this week definitely had it's ups and its downs.  On Thursday, I found two girls, taught them about the Book of Mormon and set up a Rendez-vous and got super excited.  Then the next day, we miraculously ran into the same two girls on the street, just hanging out.  We taught them the first lesson just right there.  Then later that day they texted us and told us that they didn't want to learn anything more about our church, but just be our friends when we weren't wearing missionary clothes.  It broke my heart.  But I learned so much from this experience.  I learned that when we teach and don't apply doctrine to each person individually, they are not going to be interested and thirst after further truth.  All that is done in missionary work ought to be done for the Savior and in the manner that the Savior would do it, or else it is of no profit.

Aix

But this week also had it's ups!  Yesterday was one of the most glorious days imaginable. There is a little branch of about 30 members in our secteur, which has no missionaries, so we go and visit once a month.  I went on a split with Elder Ormand, the Zone Leader and had the time of my life.  It's a ville called Manosque in the country (provence country, mind you).  The branch is like a big extended family and they LOVE the missionaries.  THere is one family that is about half the ward: husband, wife and 10 kids.  The sons are the Young Men of the ward and the daughters are the Young Women.  They are so strong in the gospel, it just brings light into your soul to observe!  They had us for dinner after and we ate a very French meal with cheeses, bread, salad, kiche, and meat bread.  I cannot express to you how good the food here is.  It is truly an art. For dessert we munched on sherbet and creme brulee glace (ice cream).   It was an afternoon to remember!

I would like to express to you appreciation for you prayers.  I feel them every single day.  I know that this is truly the work of the Lord becuase if it wasn't, it would not be possible to do.  I am greatful to my Savior Jesus Christ, who suffered for all mankind in order that all might be fixed.  I know that the enabling power of the Atonement is real.  I know that if we will rely on his merits, we can do anything that is expedient in him.  I love him and I love you!

Bonne semain!

L'amour,

Elder Kunzler

A giant piece of literature ourside of our apartment!

MTC Photos

District 46A

In the flowers

Elder Wilson (MTC companion) and I

Elder Johnson never smiles. Elder Ferguson smiles too much.

Elder Malone is just a little guy

Elder Murphy and I

My name

P-day!

Monocles and bow-ties

Forgot to shave

Elder Rellaford and I

Me reciting sweet poetry to Elder Murphy

Diligence

Our ties are really long

I think this one speaks for itself. (Elder Malone and I)