It's Snowing Here!

Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 11:19 AM

Yes, as the title indicates, there are frozen drops of water descending from the heavens in Toulouse France.  Elder Petek and I didn't even notice them until we hopped onto our bikes (public bikes that we are now using... way fun) to head into town.  In southern France, it does this... it'll get freezing cold after a fairly mild end of the year for just a few months and then it'll go hot again.  I'm excited to make a snow angel.

Elsa and David

Dear family and friends, Elsa and David were baptized this last saturday and were confirmed the following day.  Oh, was it a day that they are going to remember.  The French members were so, so good to them.  Even they don't speak the best French, and they're a little bit shy, they really reached out to them, showed them a ton of love and made it a really memorable experience.  The actual ordonnance was quite special.  David was baptized first, by Elder Petek, and since the faucet ran out of hot water, we had to turn it off early.  It wasn't all the way full, and as a result he had to baptized on his knees and had a hard time getting all the immersed.  That made it quite memorable.  But they both said that it was such a powerful experience and that they felt pure in coming out of the water.  It was a similar situation with Elsa, she had a hard time being immersed, but she loved the experience.  I even got to say the prayer in Chinese!  You would be proud, Manita!

Our friends with us

Yesterday, they were both confirmed and Elsa got up in sacrament and bore her testimony.  Her French was incredible!  She was a little shy at first, but then she really started to show some emotion.  She talked about how she had only been in France for 4 months and that she never had imagined in coming here that her life would be so changed for the better.  She said that she had always wondered why Jesus Christ was so important to westerners, but that now it all just made sense.  She talked about how faith in Jesus Christ has brought  hope to her life, and that it gives a lot of meaning and that it brings peace.  The both of them are truly converted... well, on the right path toward continual conversion, rather.  They are in such good hands in this ward here in Toulouse!

Elsa and David with the flowers and paintings that were given to them as gifts by the members

I have some good news and the bad news....  I'll proceed first with the bad news. The following transfer, because of the changes at the MTC and in the missionary program, will be short, only five weeks instead of six.  This means that my mission will be cut short for one week, which really saddens me because I won't be able to physically be a part of all the miracles that will take place that week at the end of May next year.  But the good news is that Elder Petek and get to stay together for the next five weeks here in Toulouse!  We are mighty content because of all the good things that we have going for us here and because of our friendship.

This e-mail is going to have to be another shorty, because we need to leave in a few minutes to the train station (where we will spend most of the day, receiving and sending off missionaries since it is transfer day).  But I just wanted to quickly update you on some cool things... Alexis is doing magnificently.  Came to institute on Wednesday night, met some Young Adults and quickly became a part of the family.  He even went to a movie with him afterwards.  Yesterday he came early to church and afterwards we taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time.  He was very in tune with the Spirit in the lesson and is ready to put his life into God's hands and to come unto Christ.  He is a very humble man who was really, very well prepared by angels.  I am grateful that they trusted us to help him in his conversion.

I'll also be telling you about Alfiya next week.  Be excited.

I love you my family and my friends and you are in my prayers.

L'amour,

Elder Kunzler