Que La Terre Soit Dans L'allégresse

Nos cravates de Noel

Dearest family and friends,

I love Christmas.  I love it.  Yes, my favorite part is feeling the Spirit of Christ.  But I also love the lights, the trees, the smells, the stars, the gifts, the food, the family, the decor, the love!  The Christmas spirit is real!  Even French people can't deny it.  I love using that in contacting.  Even though the majority of the people here don't believe in God, they believe in the Spirit of Christmas and it's magic.  I think that it is very closely linked with the Spirit of Christ.

Good things are happening in Nice.  The theme of this transfer, I think, is charity.  The Lord is really trying to help me to understand at this point in my mission that the most important thing that I can do as his ambassador is to love all of his children... unconditionally.  I was actually talking about this with one of our new investigators this week.  How the only way that one can tell if they have this unconditional love is by putting it to the test.  God will sometimes send us trials to see if we will still love Him and have faith in Him.  We have experiences that test our loyalty to and unconditional love for our loved ones.  We are here on earth to learn how to develop charity, the pure love of Christ.  And I am grateful for the experiences that I have this transfer that are helping me to develop this Christlike quality.

We have an investigator named Moise (this is the French rendition of Moses... pretty epic).  He comes from La Martinique in the West Indies.  He is really faithful.  Sometimes he starts speaking and I literally cannot tell if he is really just Moise from La Martinique or the Moses who parted the red sea.  He has lived many experiences in his life that have truly formed his character and he has compelete confidence in God.  He showed up early to our first meeting and had read the chapter about the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we had invited him to read.  He came to church yesterday and loved it.  There was actually a pretty huge miracle in that he turns out to be really good friends with a recent convert of two weeks!  Moses plans on being baptized and he will be strong!  Might even lead the House of Israel out of bondage and be their Spritual leader in the desert for 40 years.

Another cool person that we have started teaching is Mina!  Mina is Chinese, but has lived in Nice for over a decade and speaks impecable French with a cute little Chinese accent.  She is also a very faithful person who has recently gained a strong testimony of the principal of forgiveness and it's liberating power.  She is currently going through a divorce and some family difficulties, but she faces these with a smile on her face.  We gave her a Book of Mormon in Chinese yesterday when she came to church with us and by the end of the meetings she had already read the introductory parts and gotten into 1 Nephi.  She even called me in the evening simply to thank us for the amazing experience that she had at church.  Such a good soul.

Wanna hear a pretty cool Christmas miracle?  So while we were waiting for Mina to show to her appointment, we were doing a bit of contacting and we gave a Book of Mormon to a cool young student and when I took his number, I accidentally dialed the wrong number.  Lucky he was right in front of me so he was able to correct it on the spot, and I got his right number.  Then, during the appointment with Mina, the person who I had accidentally called tried to call me back 3 times, left a message and even sent a text, desirous to know who had tried to contact him.  To be polite, I decided to call him and just tell him that I had dialed the wrong number.  He turned out to be this super nice guy who lives up in the north of France.  I explained to him that I was a full time Christian missionary and I asked him if he would be interested in hearing a wonderful Christian message, and he was just like, "Yeah, why not!".  So he will be taught by some missionaries up in the Paris mission.  Hopefully he will be baptized and confirmed and serve God for the rest of his days!  Only time can tell.

Family!  I love you!  I look forward to beholding your beaming faces this Christmas day.  Thank you for the Light of Christ that you radiate.  I know that Christ the Lord was truly born.  I am grateful for this testimony!  I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to bare this testimony on a daily basis.  Let us spread Christmas cheer by singing loud for all to hear (and serving, loving, giving, cheering, warming the souls of God's children)!  Preach the gospel always and when necessary use words.  I love you much and wish you a JOYEUX NOEL§§§

Avec amour

ELDER KUNZLER 

C'est un Miracle de Noel!!