Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 12:02 PM
Dear friends and family,
We'll sing of his goodness and mercy!
Well the last 7 days of my life have changed my life forever. I hope that I can communicate to you the things that I learned in a manner that you can feel the spirit of my week.
I've had at least one train ride every single day for the last week. We've had very little time to work in our sector... but my, oh, my have we seen miracles. Tuesday we were in Lyon on an exchange with the assistants. Thursday I went to Montauban (a very charming little Catholic town not far from Toulouse) on an exchange with Elder Frandsen (from my group, knew him before the mission!) Then on Saturday night we left for Bordeaux for our incredible experiences with the apostle which took place yesterday.
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| Montauban |
Yesterday was amazing. We got to go to the stake conference for the Bordeaux stake. It was the 20th anniversary for the formation of the stake, so they brought in Elder Anderson, who was mission president there at the time of the formation of the stake. Elder Forin (the British seventy who shared the story about scorpions last general conference). Oh, glory what a stake conference it was. Elder Forin talked about ACTION. He said that when we leave very spiritual conferences ON FIRE, determined to blow a trumpet and cry repentance to the corners of the earth, this fire usually doesn't last past the next Tuesday. He talked how it's nice to have great spiritual experiences and to think about things you can do to improve the quality of your service to the Lord and your personal discipleship, but in the end it all comes down to ACTING. It was really powerful. Elder Anderson spoke about Miracles. He talked about some of the miracles that took place while he was at the head of the missionary efforts in France at his time and what we can do to ensure that miracles continue. He gave a lot of love and assurance to these incredible French saints who really love him. He spoke entirely in French and didn't even use many notes!
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| Happy late Halloween! |
After the conference addressed to the entire stake, we had another mini-conference with these general authorities. We had half of the missionaries in our mission gathered together into a chapel and we were taught by the hand of some of the men who in the closest communion of the Lord on the earth and who speak FOR HIM. It was an incredible spiritual experience. Elder Farin taught us all how to help our investigators to recognize the Spirit, the peace of God which passeth all understanding. Elder Anderson helped to look at our missions from a temporal and even eternal perspective. He had invited missionaries who had served under him 20 years ago and he had them tell us things that they wish they would have known back in the day, or just reflections on how their missions have effected their lives. He was trying to help us to avoid short-sightedness and to see that the mission is never about you, but the Savior, and as you learn that you will be happy and find incredible success. The rest of the meeting he talked about the Savior. He is an incredible, incredible, who radiated love and light. He had a great sense of humor and was very full of life. We all got to shake his hand and some of us (including me) got to sing for him. Very radical experience that's gonna stick with me for a long time afterwards. It really changed the way I see my mission and even my life.
So what happened in the work this week? Well we only got to work here in Toulouse 3 days this week, but we sure saw some miracles. We taught the message of the Restoration to another person who was very, very ready to hear it. His name is Jhonny (and no, I didn't misspell that) and he comes from Guyan, a little French-speaking county above Brazil. Elder Petek met him just outside the institute building when I was in Montauban. He's had a Christian background, but just couldn't find any church where he felt like he had all of the truth... he even investigated the Islam religion a little bit. But luckily he was on his search when we found him. We taught him on Saturday morning and my, oh, my was he receptive to the Spirit. He recognized us as servants of the Lord and was very attentive to our message. At the end the lesson, he offered a beautiful and humble prayer in which he asked to know of the truth. After the prayer, we were all in tears the SPIRIT WAS SO STRONG. He accepted to be baptized after he's done a little more investigation.
Goodness, I have more miracles that I'd love to share, but no time. Utile is progressing very well. We didn't get a chance to see Elsa and David this week, but David came to institute and they're doing well. Jacques (I don't know if I've talked much about him yet) now has a baptism date! A miracle for another day.
I love you all! Know that I know that Jesus is the Christ and the head of his work being done on the earth today.
L'amour,
Elder Kunzler
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| France is full of very strange statues! |
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