Et il n'y avait point de méchanceté parmi eux

Me and my pal Elder L'homel.

Dearest family and friends,

I have some good news and I have some even better news.  The good news is that we got our transfer calls and Elder Powell and I will be staying together in Dijon, at least until the end of October!  Dreams come true.  The better news.  Hm.  I didn't actually have anything in mind when I wrote that, it just sounds better than just saying you only have good news.

Young Ruffians (Elder L'homel and I)

The mission is changing!  About a year ago the prophet announced in general conference that missionaries would be able to leave at a younger age.  A year later, when we really see the effects of that, it is stunning!  Little James is now in the MTC preparing to serve the Lord with all his soul.  20 young men are coming into the mission tomorrow to serve the Lord with all their souls.  I am currently the District Leader in a district in which Elder Powell and I are the only Elders.  5 companionships of Sisters and 1 companionship of Elders.  We're feeling strongly outnumbered.  It is amazing to see how the Lord is hastening his work!  In other news, my last companion, Elder Johnson is going to be serving on the island of Corsica, the first American missionary there in ages... literally... years and years.

The Dijon gang

I don't recall how much I've told you all about Dijon, but I'm going to take this opportunity to tell you just a tad more about the place where I'm serving.  Dijon is the further north in the mission that you can get.  It is also currently the coldest and rainiest, which I don't mind at all.  It is technically in the Northeast of France, only 2 hours from Paris by train.  It is the cleanest and the best preserved of all the cities I've served in.  The people in the north are just a tad bit like their weather, a tiny bit colder, but they're great, like all French people.

What missionary work does to cheap French shoes!

This last week had its ups and its downs.  Elder Powell and I have been a little bit disappointed in our ami Regis.  He has so much potential.  He is really intelligent, asks excellent questions, has great faith and understanding, says he knows its true.  But he is not bringing forth the fruits.  He still has yet to come to church, even though he says that he is going to every time.  He used my bad handwriting as an excuse to not read the chapter that we gave him in the Book of Mormon.  We really want him to progress because we know the happiness that it will mean for him and his family, but in the end it is his choice, he has to but his foot forward.

Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland

Nevertheless (néanmoins), there was a pretty cool miracle that took place, resulting from our diligence in trying to help Regis come unto Christ.  On our way to Regis' apartment, Elder Powell and I contacted a woman who was with her kids, we talked to her for a minute about our message and did our best to help her feel the love of Christ.  She was very kind and said that we are doing is great, but didn't want to learn more or exchange numbers, so I just left her with a card with our number.  Then, in our appointment with Regis, she tried calling me twice, but I wasn't able to respond.  I tried calling after the rendezvous, but she didn't respond.  Then the following day, we were doing some missionary work with an excellent recent convert.  We had just passed by a lady who told us to come back, but she wasn't at home.  A little bit disappointed, the thought came into my mind that I needed to try calling that woman again.  I called and she answered.  She said that she had some questions that she would like to ask and that we could come over right away.  We went to her apartment with this member, and she immediately just started firing questions.  About the after-life, how she can better raise her children, how she can increase her faith, etc.  We had to tell her to hold the horses a little and we prayed and tried to get to know her situation a little bit better.  We found out that she had just gone through a tough divorce and that she had gone through a lot of suffering.  We didn't teach much, but we just testified and the member we were with was PERFECT.  She prayed at the end and felt the Spirit very strongly.  She said that she left like sa vide a été comblée, her emptiness had been filled.  She said that she wishes to be baptized and will be baptized at the end of next month.  She also said that she wants her daughter to get baptized next year when she turns 8. :)  We are very happy that we were able to be tools in the Lords hands that even to extend the comfort and peace of the Lord to this woman.  Her name is Flora and she is of Indian origin.

Bruno is progressing well and so is Roland.  I don't have the time to tell you about their progression, so you'll just have to believe me! :)

I love you more that dragons love the fire that comes out of their nostrils!  Have an excellent week and stay close to the Lord!  I know that He lives and that he loves all of His sheep!

Avec amour,

Elder Kunzler

Drinking from les Bains (the baths) muahaha

My planner cover with 2 Cor 12:7 written on it

Avec Dieu, tout est possible

Mes chers,

This last week was the fastest week of my life. And I am totally convinced that this week will be even faster.  The mission flies by faster as you go on.  And whats more is that it is already the last week of the transfer!  It feels like I just arrived in Dijon.  Elder L'homel wrote me this morning, telling me that he's already started his studies in medicine up in Nancy, and it's unimaginable!  It feels like we were just together! Elder Powell and I hope to stay together for the next transfer.

The Lord blessed our efforts.  Even with a hurt foot, we were able to teach 10 lessons this last week, the most I've taught since Toulouse.  We are seem some really cool progress in our sector.  The ward here is excellent and we're started to feel a pretty cool missionary spirit. Yesterday, the stake president, a French-speaking Swiss German, came and talked about missionary work.  He taught from Preach My Gospel.  He reminded us abou the talks Elder Nelson has given the last two general conferences.  It was just what this ward needed.

Our investigators are progressing well.  This last week was a turning point in the conversion process of Bruno. We had decided to teach him in the home of a recent convert who has gone through some of the same difficulties as him.  This member had overcome cigarettes and bore a powerful testimony of the power of the Atonement.  Then on Saturday, he received a priesthood blessing from another wonderful brother in the ward.  He is very motivated and has already reduced a lot.  Our goal is to have him completely off cigarettes by the end of next week.  We moved his baptismal date to the Saturday after general conference and he is very determined.

Regis is doing well as well. He is very busy and it is difficult to see him and he didn't come to church yesterday because he got to bed really late.  We are praying that he will find more time to see us and that he will come to church this sunday.  We gave him a calendar with things to read and study on a daily basis, which should help him to progress even though we don't get to see him on a daily basis.  He has a lot of faith, had questions about blacks and the priesthood, but it didn't shake him at all.  He's already got a strong testimony.

I finally got to meet the Fèvre family (the one that I called and that got taught while I was confined to the apartment).  They are wonderful!  They have 3 little boys that are adorable.  They had tons of questions because they had read a pamphlet about the Restoration and the entire intro to the Book of Mormon.  Unfortunately, they had also looked on the internet to see the opinions of the enemies of the church, so they had questions about polygamy, tithing, prophets, etc.  But they are very open and very sincere.  We taught about the blessings that the gospel can bring to a family and how in God's plan, a family can be eternal.  The father said the prayer at the end of the lesson and I was very, very touched by his prayer.  He prayed that he would be able to fulfill his role in the family and that his family would be blessed.  Joy!

The work of the Lord is going on and no unhallowed hand is stopping it.  I'm not exactly sure what that means, does Satan have a hallow hand? In any case, Satan does all that he can to stop it.  But it is amazing to be able to be a represent Jesus Christ and do the same things that he did. I can testify of the power of prayer and the principle that faith plays.  Sometimes as a missionary you feel like you are on the frontlines with the Lord's battle against sin, evil and wickedness.  It can be difficult sometimes when you see how vast its influence is.  But I testify of the that light.  That light that came into the world and the world did not recognize it.  That light that shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not.  That light is the infinite light of the Savior.  It is there.  It is real.  It is powerful.  I know it.

I love you family and wish you the best in whatever you are doing!  I love you so much!  May the Lord bless you in your school, studies, mission, etc.

Avec amour

ELDER KUNZLER LE FRANCAIS

PS.  News on the foot:  it did get infected, but aparently it is normal because there are surely tiny little pieces of wood still in the foot.  These foreign bodies will eventually find their way out of my system somehow.  I will be going to the doctors today to see if I need to get back on antibiotics.  Thanks for your prayers. :)

Me Voici, Envoie-Moi

Dearest family and friends,

The tides are turning.  There is a change in the wind.  There is wind in the air.  The seasons are changing.  Literally though.  The summer was really short in Dijon.

So I'm walking!  That's pretty miraculous!  At first I started walking like a zombie because the muscle in my foot was still torn apart and hadn't formed back together, but now I walk a little bit like Golem.  No, just kidding.  But I could really feel your prayers and spiritual strength and now I'm walking... BETTER than I was before (because I have a robot foot.)

So this last week was excellent!  I got to go to Switzerland for the first time.  We had interviews with President and since we are in a Swiss zone in Dijon, they were held in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland.  It was very, very beautiful. They truly have the best chocolate and yogurt in the world.  The landscape reminded me a lot of the Willamette Valley, but it is much more hilly and there are many more cows.  And everyone dresses a lot more European.  And there are ton more banks everywhere in the cities.  It was good to be in tune with my Swiss roots.  I told everyone that I was pretty much Swiss and they honored that.

Our investigators are doing great.  Bruno has come to church twice now and will be coming to a big FHE at a recent convert's place this evening.  He has significantly reduced the amount of cigarettes that he smokes.  At the beginning, when we first met him, he was smoking about 20 a day. Now he has reduced to about 6 or less a day.  He has moved onto the electo cigarette things to help him quit.  It is not easy, but he is really motivated because he really wants to get baptized in September.

Regis (the old ami who I called up while I was in the apartment) is doing really well as well.  Unfortunately he wasn't able to go to church yesterday (which is unfortunate because we watched that old 80s church film about missionary work Labor of Love, in French.  Even the cheesy 80s songs were translated to French) because he was at a marriage in Paris. Our rendezvous with him was really good this last week.  He asks lots of sincere and deep questions like about authority, the Book of Mormon, why Joseph Smith, etc.  He is really searching for the truth.  He is willing to act and we know that he will get his answer soon.  His kids are SO adorable.  His little son came up and cuddled on his lap when God was testifying of His Son to Joseph Smith in the Restoration video.

Last week we got a coordonnée from the chruch.  When I first contacted him, he said that his sister had sent in his coordonnée and that he actually wasn't super interested.  I told him that we would love to teach him even if he was just curious to find out what our message is.  He said no thanks.  The next day he called me back and told me that he had thought about it and that he actually did want to find out what our message is.  We saw him at his home out in the country and taught him on his porch overlooking the vineyards.  He was probably the Frenchest man I've taught my whole mission.  His name is Remy, he was wearing a casquette the whole time, he is a non practicing Catholic and he worked in the vineyards for the 30 years.  He is now retired and divorced and he told us that he came to discover God just in the last year or so.  He told us that he is on the horizon of a new time in his life.  We told him, Of course you are.  You're listening to mormon missionaries right now.  He wasn't able to make it to church, but he is going to be seeing us more often, reading and praying.

Elder Powell is making lots of progress with his French!  He really likes contacting, which is also one of my favorite things about missionary work.  So we have tons of fun doing it and daring each other to do certain things in contacts.  Him and I have laughed a ton together and I really hope that we to stay together next transfer.

The work of the Lord is true and the Lord is all-powerful.  I'm glad to be in His vineyard.  I don't know how he said it in English but in French he said, Faites de toutes les nations de la terre des disciples.  I think that he mostly talks in French.  I love you family and I love him.  A quick shoutout to my little brother James who will be entering the MTC in a couple of days!  He is already a better missionary than I could ever be. I love you James, good luck, usurpist.

Avec amour,

ELDER KUNZLER LE FRANCAIS

Une écharde dans la chair

Dearest family and friends,

So, I've got some good news and I've got some bad news.  The bad news is that they had to amputate the foot.  The good news is that they actually replaced with a robotic foot that is stronger and has more stamina than a foot of flesh and bones.  It will allow me to serve the Lord at a higher capacity.

No, the foot is doing well.  On Saturday the took out the wire drains and the stitches and cleaned it up a little bit.  The nurse was a little bit worried because the place where the splinter entered into my foot had not completely healed and still revealed my flesh.  So she bandaged it up and said to start walking, but very lightly and that she would come back on monday to check on it.  This morning after I took my shower the wound started spitting out some thick orange liquid.  When the nurse came by, she told me that it was normal.  She also said that if there are any mini splinters or pieces of wood remaining in my foot that they will eventually just find their way out.  This is comforting information.  I talked to President Roney this morning and we got to laugh about it.  He told me to be easy on it.  My companion hates walking next to me on the street because I have this cane and I look like I might be incompetent both physically and mentally.  The foot is healing!

So, I think that after this last week I can testify with conviction that the Lord works in mysterious ways. Ses voies sont mystèrieuses.  The last 3 weeks we have been living with Elder L'homel (French) and Elder Dieduksman (Dutch).  It was the last week of their missions this last week and they left yesterday because they will be starting their studies next week.  So between the 3 of them, they switched off to have someone always in the apartment looking after me while the other two went out and worked.  At the beginning of the week one of the Zone Leaders had called me and asked what I was going to do in the apartment to be a productive missionary.  He proposed reading the entire Book of Mormon in French (which I have already done).  So I started that, and got through the Testimony of Joseph Smith.  I also cleaned the apartment.  I organized.  Eventually I felt like I need to find something to do to feel like I was a productive missionary.  So I started looking through the Area Book.  I have never been one to work a ton out of the Area Book on my mission.  Ling Liu, who Elder Tulley and I baptized at the beginning of my mission was found in the Area Book, but since then I haven't done a whole lot of Area Book work on my mission.

I started to look through some of the old investigators.  I read probably 30 or 40 sheets.  I decided to take the phone and call all of them.  I just started from the beginning and called every single person, explaining that we were the new missionaries of Dijon and asking if they would be interested in learning more about our message.  For all those who did not answer, I left a message.  Once I got through the old investigator sheets I started on the potential investigators sheets, calling every phone number that wasn't crossed out.  I started feeling like a missionary again!  We say some pretty cool miracles out of this.  One of the old investigators, a man named Regis who was taught back in May, who was actually a referral from the church, accepted to meet with us.  Elder Powell and Elder Dieduksman taught him and he accepted to be baptised in October, we will be teaching him twice a week and he plans on coming to church this Sunday.  He was on a sincere search for the truth.  Another number that I called was just a woman who was contacted on the street in the spring of 2012.  She hadn't been called once since the missionaries contacted her and got her number.  It was actually her husband who answered.  I explained who I was and asked if their family would be interested in hearing a Christian message for the family.  He said yes, but that he wanted to talk to his wife before setting up a RDV.  He told me he would call me back.  This made me a little nervous because when people say that they're going to call you back, it's pretty rare that they do.  Two hours later he called me back asking if Saturday at 11 would work.  Elder L'homel and Elder Powell taught the entire family, husband, wife, and three boys (9,3 and 1).  They're a great Catholic family that was not at all practicing, but wanted religion in their life.  The husband said the prayer at the end and apparently it was very sincere and came from the heart.  We will be teaching them again tomorrow and they plan on coming to church this sunday.  I have a testimony of Area Book work.

It was hard to say goodbye to Elder L'homel and Elder Dieduksman yesterday, they are good friends.  Elder L'homel and I were Zone Leaders together so we say each other all the time and after the mission I'm going to visit him and his family in Nancy (just two hours north of here).  It's crazy how fast the mission flies by.

I love you my dear family!  Thank you for your prayers and care.  My foot will heal fast and soon I'll be out there calling the French people unto repentance. ;)  Have an excellent week and find joy in the journey!

Avec amour,

Elder Kunzler

PS.  I got to eat frogs legs for the first time on my mission!  They have the texture of crab but taste like chicken!  YUM!

May the Scar Remind Me of the Crucifiction

Dearest family and friends,

I assume that you have already noticed some of the grotesque pictures that I have attached.  Let your eyes feast.  I lived an experience on my mission this last week that made me LITERALLY more Christlike.

So on Friday morning we went out to a village where our Elder's Quorum President in the Dijon ward lives to go and join in a service project.  We were clearing out some old wood and debris from his front yard, loading it up into a truck and going to the dump to empty it.  I'm not exactly certain what happened, but I was walking over a pile of wood and I think that my foot got stuck and slipped a little, but kept myself from falling.  Next thing I know, I look down and see a hole in my shoe.  At this point, I wasn't super suspicious, I just thought that maybe I had a big sliver that got stuck in my shoe, so I took off my shoe to take it out.  Then I saw that there was also a hole in my sock and I started to get a little bit more suspicious.  I quickly removed my sock, revealing this beautiful peace of art sticking in my foot.  It wasn't very painful and it didn't bleed at all... it was just... WEIRD.

The brethern gave me a priesthood blessing (which our dear Elder's Quorum President was not able to join in on because he was lying on the floor in his living room, extremely pale and freaking out a little bit).  Then I hoped in the car with a wonderful frere who was kind enough to drive me the entire 30 minute drive out to the Dijon emergency room.  He even spent 4 hours in the hospital with my companion while I was seeing the doctors.  So what they did is they numbed me up locally, cut my skin off about an inch along the splinter and then tried to pull it out.  Failure.  The splinter broke.  So he had to cut about another inch of skin off.  And he succeeded at pulling the little tike out.  All of this happened while I was totally conscious, just watching my foot getting dug into. Yes.

After the intern cleaned it up, he wanted to get the surgeon's opinion on it, so there I was on that hospital bed, waiting for a French surgeon to come and look at my foot.  I ended up waiting on that bed with a big bloody hole in my foot for over an hour and a half.  And guess what I thought about?  I thought about Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ literally got stakes (if not the same size as mine, if not bigger) driven through not only one foot, but both and his hands and wrists.  He didn't get a nice anesthesia treatment, he refused the cheap alcohol that was offered him.  He got vinegar when all he asked for was water.  He didn't get the stakes carefully removed from him, instead he got a gash in the side with a spear.  He didn't even have the company of the Spirit and it's warmth and comfort, instead the Father temporally left him so that he could descend below all things.  Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the Chosen Son, the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings, the Supreme Creator of the Universe.  He descended below all.  It pleased the Lord to bruise him.  His soul was made an offering for sin.  I know that.  I thank him for what he did.  I am grateful that he took it all upon himself so that we don't have to suffer, I am grateful that he died so that we might live and live more abundantly.  I love Him.

I will be alright.  I am grateful for this experience.  I cannot serve the Lord in all the capacities that I would like to because I am confined to my apartment with my foot elevated and an icepack for the whole week.  But I am grateful for this opportunity that I have during my mission to come a little bit closer to my Savior.  I am proud to be able to carry the same scar that he carries :).

The work is going REALLY well in Dijon.  It's relatively easy to find people to teach here, but it's going to be hard being on standby this upcoming week.  We have a new ami named Jules who comes from Cameroon in Africa.  His great grandparents are voodoo sorcerers.  I don't know if I should be revealing this information to you... He came to church and we're going to be able to teach him every single day.  He is really prepared for the restored gospel.

Bruno is doing well, the other missionaries went and played soccer with him this morning.  He is going to have a difficult time giving up smoking, but that is something that Christ can help him with.  He is really coming closer to God and getting into the habit of praying daily.  He also loves the Book of Mormon.

A tender mercy of the Lord took place yesterday when one of my absolute favorite families from Bordeaux took a detour from their vacation trip in Italy to stop by the chapel in Dijon during church and surprise me.  They were the ones to be surprised when they say me stubble over on a cane and shoe them the grotesque picturest that you now have before your eyes.  It was wonderful to see them.

I love you much family!  Don't worry, about me, I'll be just fine.  I have an evaluation on Wednesday at the doctor's and I have nurses who come to dress my wounds every single day and then I have ministering angels (at least I think I do?)  Thank you for your prayers!  I wish you a wonderful end of the summer and a joyful transition into school season!

Avec amour,

Elder Kunzler

PS.  Every single missionary in the entire mission (over 225) has seen the picture that you now see.  Elder Emal posted it in the weekly email that the Assistants send out every single PDay.  Thank you my dear old companion.

PPS.  I got to see Elder Petek one last time!  He is a travelling assistant and he came and did an exchange with Elder Powell and I this last week.  He finishes his mission in a month, so I probably won't get to see him again, until after the mission.  But it was really great to see him one last time. :)

Babylone enfin chancelle

Bonjour, mes chers!

I would like to start by apologizing about the last week... I spent my entire P-Day crossing the entire country of France, so as a result I had no time to leave you any words.  But yes, I have safely arrived in the city of Dijon!  I was very surprised when I got this call from president... he said something like "Elder Kunzler, I'm sending you on a little secret mission over to Dijon.  It is is an excellent city with a great ward, but there has just never been much that has gone on there, so I want you to go and baptize." oh and... "and yes, at the same time you will training a new missionary".  New things!  I am really excited about the new sector and the new responsibilities, but as you can imagine it was pretty tough to say goodbye to Bordeaux.  Since I didn't get to write last week, I'll fill you in a little on the miracles that we saw my last week there and then I will introduce you to my new companion and how the work is going here in Dijon.

So last week was epic.  We taught more lessons and found more investigators than we ever had in that sector.  Colette, the amazing woman who came all the way from Libourne is progressing really well and reading.  Ludmila started getting into the habit of praying and reading.  The night after I left, the missionaries did a family home evening with her at the home of some members who originally come from Portugal, so I'm sure that this helped her to feel at home and to be able to create some more relationships with members, which is really important.  The sunday was amazing, it was really hard to say goodbye, but the testimony meeting was very powerful and we all felt the love of the Lord together.  I am really going to miss the members there, they are one huge family of super happy, enthousiastic disciples of Christ.  Those are the kind of people that I like to be around.  I love them much.

And now in Dijon!  So I actually spent most of the week in Lyon, to go and pick up my bleu (greenie in French) on wednesday and then we stayed there until friday afternoon so that my companion could do his legality.  I will be training Elder Powell, who is a huge quaterback from Santa Cruz, California.  Seriously, his pectoralus majors are larger than my head.  He didn't study any French before coming here and then only 6 weeks in the MTC, so he doesn't speak a ton of French, but he's ready to be a great missionary.  He is someone with a great testimony, a great smile and great enthousiasm.  We're going to have a lot of fun together this transfer.  He has the the blessing of living with a Frenchman and a Dutchman at the beginning of his mission, so he's going to learn French quick.

Miracles happen in Dijon! We put in some good work together on Friday evening and the rest of the weekend and found two new investigators.  We kind of had to go to the drawing board (like Elder Petek and I did with our whitewashes together in Toulouse) because the missionaries before us didn't leave a whole ton to work with.  We found a 32 year old Frenchman named Bruno, who is looking for a remission of his sins, and we taught him about the joy of the Atonement.  He said that he wants to be baptized without hesitation at the beginning of next month.  We'll be working with him this transfer, he has already dug into the Book of Mormon and is really enjoying it.  Then we are also teaching Marie-Cecile, who is an older French woman who had already met missionaries a long time ago, but had lost her Book of Mormon and was looking to refind her faith in Jesus Christ.  The message of the Restoration really helps in that area!  Elder Powell and I have been really blessed to be lead to these children of Heavenly Father who were spiritually thirsty and we expect to find many more this week!

Dijon is the Frenchest place that I've been on my mission.  It is the furthest north that you can go in the mission, we're not super far from Switzerland, and it feels incredibly European and preserved.  Bordeaux and Toulouse have been pretty modernized, but Dijon feels like your walking the streets of Enchanted Forest on your way to the little old lady who lived in a shoe.  My companion is still pretty stunned, but we found a cool little American shop that sells Reeses Puffs cereal, so we're going there today to soothe him.

I love the mission!  Thank you for your prayers and for your support!  I know that this work is lead by divine revelation and inspiration and I know that I am supposed to be in Dijon, France with a macho man for a companion to protect me.  I know that the Lord is blessing our efforts and I know that He lives.  I KNOW that He lives. I love you much.

Avec amour,

Elder Kunzler

PS.  My new camera is broken, so that's why you haven't been getting any pictures recently.  I'll send it back to you soon. Désolé.  If you want to know what my companion looks like, imagine Superman (the one who has bullets bouncing off of his eyeballs) in missionary clothing. Except twice as ripped.

Update

Hi,

I'm elder l'homel, i'm from france so sorry for my English, but Elder Kunzler ask me to send you a little e-mail, saying that he is now in Dijon, France and he will train a new missionary ! So he is in Lyon with president Roney, that's why he didn't had the chance to use a computer to do his e-mails. Next time will probably be next monday and he will tell you more =)

Best regards,

Elder L'HOMEL