November Greetings from the French Riviera

Dearest family and friends,

It is still summer in Southern France.

I am doing missionary work in paradise.  So this week went really well.  We are at that time in missionary work where we just have to back to the basics and find people to teach.  I'm not sure why, but it feels like every time I arrive in a new sector, I find myself in this situation.  I love it.  I feel a bit like one of the Elders in the book of Acts, testifying of the Resurrected Savior to every living soul in confused world.

We found a few miracles this week.

There was one evening that my companion and I were discouraged.  We had visited a brother in the Elders Quorum who had fallen away from the church.  He had been heavily influenced by the Jehovahs Witnesses, deny his testimony of the Book of Mormon and dismissed Joseph Smith a prophet of God.  We left with heavy hearts.  None of the people that we were contacting wanted a part of the happiness that we offer in inviting them into the fold of God and to have a knowledge of Gods plan of goodness.  Nothing.  Then, just before retiring to our appartment at the end of the day, we were crossing the street when we saw a woman on the other side who had been following us and who was kind of looking at us interestingly.  When we got to the other side, she cried out, "LES ELDERS!"  ELDERS!  with this huge smile on her face and tons of enthousiasm.  She explained to us that her sister was a Sister missionary!  She explained to us at a lightning fast speed that she came from Portugal, her sister served in Cape Vert, her mother is also a member, the church has brought so much to her family, she looked for a church in Nice when her sister was here visiting but they couldn't find one, she recently went to Holland to attend the baptism service of her brother in law, she has been living in Nice for 7 years and hasn't crossed the missionaries ONCE!!!  She was SO excited.  We have no idea why it had to be at that moment in time and in that place, but the Lord was reaching out to her.  She is going to be coming to the ward activity this weekend and will be visited by the sister missionaries here this week!  SHE WILL BE BAPTIZED!  It was a huge testimony to me that the testimony always comes after the trial of our faith.  The Lord wants to bless us with miracles, but we have to exercise our faith first.  RADICAL!

Another cool experience.  My companion and I were walking on a very busy street (Mark 5:24-34) and we heard a small older French woman say, "Ah, the Mormon missionaries, they will help me carry this."  I don't know how we heard it, it was a very small busy street.  We went over and helped this woman carry her heavy bags to the train station nearby.  She explained to us that when she was 20 years old she nearly got baptized into our church.  This was over 40 years ago.  She had lost contact with the church, been through many trials in her life, including the loss of her son due to a motorcycle accident.  We testified and served.  We helped this woman to feel the love of our Heavenly Father.  We passed the information that she gave us to the sister missionaries in Toulon, where she lives.  Excellent!  The Spirit guides.

Many other wonderful things happened this week that I will not have the time to tell you about.  One of which being teaching a woman who is going to BUILD the kingdom of God on the earth.  She just needs to read the Book of Mormon and feel the Spirit.  Her name is Pascale.

The church is true.  I've never been more convinced.  The members of this ward are celestial. Our ward mission leader is an atomic scientist who works for the UN who is determined to save the world both physically and spiritually.  Our bishop has missionary work instead of blood that runs through his veins.  There are ward missionaries who have read Preach My Gospel more times than I have.  The conditions are right; miracles will follow.  I love this work and I love you.  The Lord loves us really a lot as well.  Really a lot.

Avec amour,

ELDER KUNZLER

PS.  I get to go to my bleu ville, Aix-en-Provence, for the first time in over a year today. Quelle joie!

Miami, France

Dearest family and friends,

I'm sorry for my lateness.  I'm assuming that you are assuming that I am transfered because I did not write you yesterday.  Let your hearts be comforted, your assumptions are correct.  Elder Powell will be staying in Dijon to receive a new companion, and I have been transfered to the city of Nice.  I will be a Zone Leader again with Elder Smith, who comes from the wild plains of Utah!

Nice is like the Miami or San Diego of France.  This morning, my companion and I took a run on the BEACH.  The beach.  I am currently wearing a short-sleeve white shirt.  I feel luckier than a lucky charm.  A bird that has flown South for winter.

Our sector is pretty epic.  Our ward has the reputation of being one of the best in all of France.  Angelic members.  I've already had the opportunity of meeting a few, and I must say that I am impressed.  There are members that live in Monaco, which is a little kingdom 25 minutes outside of Nice (where the Casino Royale and the Grand Prix Formula Track are).  I will probably be going this week.  We live 4 blocks from the beach.  I feel spoiled.  A great priviledge to call this beautiful city unto repentance.

I really like my new companion, he is just one group younger than me, so we met each other in the MTC, but haven't really seen each other much since.  In the MTC, he gave me a Harry Potter club T-Shirt from his high school.  I shall never forget this gest.  He is a very consecrated missionary with a great personality.  He was trained by Elder Emal, so he has some of his stellar qualities.  We are going to tear it up here.

Last night, we had a pretty cool experience.  Not too long after I rolled in on the train, we had a lesson with a family that we are teaching.  This family is amazing.  They come from Manila, the Phillippines (shout out to Matt) and they are very strong Christians.  The father is good friends with a member of the church, who comes from the same place, and it was him that introduced his friend to the missionaries, just last week.  This was our second lesson with him, and it went really well. He pretty skeptical about the Book of Mormon, because he can not imagine there being more of the word of God, only the Bible.  We answered questions that he had and bore testimony.  He is engaged to reading the Book of Mormon and said that he will be baptized once he knows it is true.  Unfortunately, we were not able to teach the entire family because the wife stayed in the kitchen to prepare a stellar meal, which we feasted upon afterwards.  Our goal is to teach the whole family together next time.  Joy!

The mission is the best.  I can not believe that I am still in France.  I feel like I am in a California where people speak French, but its cool.  The Church is true and Christ lives!  He is going to help Elder Smith and I in our efforts to find, teach and baptize here in NICE (yellow, new, nice).

I love you!

Avec amour,

ELDER KUNZLER

My dead father, Elder Tulley, crossed him in the gare at Lyon yesterday.  On a plane to the states today.

Dead Elder Emal, on the same plane.  Came and did his last exchange with me in Dijon.  Love that man.

Friends from Dijon before departing

en tout temps, en toutes choses, et dans tous lieux

Bruno baptized by Brother Gimenez

Dearest family and friends,

There is a scripture somewhere in Doctrine and Covenants that says that in ordinances, one can see the power of God.  I was a witness of the power of God this weekend. (Brother) Bruno is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He has been cleansed of his sins and been reborn... without having to go back into his mother's womb.  He will be received the Holy Priesthood of Aaronnext sunday and has an entire life of service and discipleship ahead of him.  Good man.  The poor guy, however, got a pretty gnarly wack to the head in the baptismal font.  He didn't really bend his knees, and there is not a ton of room in our chapel's font, so when the Brother who performed the ordinance lowered to immerge him, his head when straight back into the wall and made a big THUD sound.  Ouch.  Maybe it was meant to make him forget all his past.  Who knows.

We are very happy about Bruno and seeing him come unto Christ gave us an even greater enthousiasm to go out and find more people to help come unto Christ.

Before the purification

We taught an American named James about the Restored Gospel.  He comes from California and came here to study hospitality or hotel management I believe.  He is very Christian and already knows quite a bit about the Mormons because he took a course called "American Cults" at the ultra-protestant university that the he attended.  As you can imagine, the kind of questions that he had mostly came from anti-mormon sources, but it made for a very interesting lesson.  He wanted to know, for example, about the kingdoms of glory, the nature of Heavenly Father, why Joseph Smith tried to escape through the window in Carthage Jail (a question I had never heard before).  We tried to focus on the simple message that through reading, meditating and praying about the Book of Mormon, one can know that God has restored, through the prophet Joseph Smith, truthes about the Plan of Salvation, which includes the simple Gospel of Jesus Christ.  James wants to see us again after All Saints holiday.

We are no longer teaching Regis, Flora, Houda, nor Natalia.  I am sure that they will all have another opportunity to accept the Restored Gospel in the future.  I am very grateful for the opportunity that I have had to teach them.

Le temps est très court et le jour déjà baisse.

I love my calling.  I love the Lord.  I love writing e-mails on a French keyboard.  It is the last week of the transfer and I do not know if I will stay in Dijon.  I love it here.  I would not rather be doing anything else, with anyone else, for anyone else.  I testify that it is the Lord who leads this work.  I see his hand in it on a daily basis.  I testify that it is ALWAYS in small and simple ways that he accomplishing his work.  And it doth confound the wise.  We can all get closer to the Lord in small and simple ways in the small choices that we make on a daily basis.  I know that it makes all the difference.  I love you and wish you an excellent week.

Avec amour,

ELDER KUNZLER

Winter Choco Softies... mmm

Ne persévérerons-nous pas dans une si grande cause?

The pals (Elders Petersen and Smith, whom I lived with d'autrefois)

Dearest family and friends,

L'hiver vous acceuille.

I live as a missionary for baptism services.  They are the times on my mission when I have felt the Spirit the strongest and been able to truly rejoice in the fruit of my labors.  I have no doubts that Bruno's service this saturday will be no exception.  He is so ready.  Yesterday at church, he came up to me after the meetings and asked if everyone who was supposed to be on the program was already informed, etc. Then he said that he had already told everyone.  I think that he asked just so that he could tell me that.  It made me really happy, because he is so enthousiastic about what he is going to do this weekend to change his life forever.  He is going to come unto Christ.  Jesus Christ invites all to come unto.  He said multiple times during his earthly ministry... come, follow me... come unto me all ye that are heavy laden... follow thou me... come and see.  He says it again today.

The Swiss village of Orbe is preached to

I'm sorry that my letter will be short today.

Elder Powell and I had an excellent week that involved:

1 Eating double decker cheeseburgers in Geneva, Switzerland.

2 Mission our train back to France... In order to be able to preach the gospel to a few Lamanites in Switzerland!

3 Teaching a man that said that he wanted to fight me (even brought his brother along) but was then softened by the Spirit and agreed to be baptized next month.

4 Preaching the Gospel in a small Swiss village where everyone knew everyone and they were probably the nicest people on the planet, next to Texans.

Other good things happened as well.  Trust me.

I love you much family and I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve in the Lord's vineyard.  The time is short, but it is being enjoyed and used to it's fullest.  I love you much and thank you for your love and your support.  Stay dry and warm et que les éléments ne vous blessent pas :)

Avec amour

ELDER KUNZLER

Conquering the Holy Cowboy in Geneva Switzerland

lève-toi, prend ton lit et marche!

Dearest family and friends,

I would like to share with you a few miracles that have taken place in this sector this last week.

1.  I told you about Madame Rose and her daughters last week.  Her teenage daughter said a very inspiring closing prayer.  The husband didn't show up to the lesson, because he was held back with some previous engagements.  WELL, at the end of this last week, the sisters here in Dijon were with a member of the ward here, on the way to a lesson or something when a man cried at them and said that he wanted to hear more about Jesus Christ.  The sisters thought that he was mocking them, so they simply tried to ignore him, but the member boldly approached him.  The member walked back to the sisters with a phone number, an address and a rendezvous arranged.  So the sisters showed up to this RDV with the same member.  They were surprised, when they walked in to see that the man was holding an open copy of the Book of Mormon.  They asked how he got it and the man explained that the weekend before two boys in suits had come and taught his wife and daughters!  It was Madame Rose's husband!  When the sisters told me about this, I was flabbergasted!  Hehe.  So we passed this family to the sisters and they will be teaching them from now on!  Cool little miracle.

2.  About a week and a half ago we contacted a man who was walking his cute little daughter home from school.  We told him about a book that we wanted to give him that would change his life and bring him much more peace and happiness in the family.  When we went to this man's home we were received with such a warm welcome.  He had a wife and three beautiful daughters, and they were all immigrants from Kosovo in Eastern Europe.  They are Muslim of origin, but not very practicing.  The middle daughter, who is 14 has a cancer and is currently going through chemotherapy, but is just a smiley and happy little girl, even though she is going through this tough trial.  We taught a bit of our message and left them with the Book of Mormon in Albanian, their native language.  The next time we came and taught them, we found out that it was mostly the 14 year old who had sparked the curiosity and read into the Book of Mormon.  She loved what she read, and it is amazing to me the way that God reaches out to his children.  It is amazing to be a missionary.  There is nothing quite like it.

3.  Bruno is a non-smoker.  He has not touched cigarettes in 10 days today!  We know that it is because of his faith, courage and will that he was able to do it.  He is truly a changed man.  I remember the day that we met him, a little over 2 months ago, Elder Powell and I's first morning in Dijon.  He seemed a little hopeless, unhappy, like he'd been through a lot of difficulties in his life, and he has.  But now he is smiley, funny, spiritual and faith-filled.  He is also one of the most prayerful investigators I've ever taught.  He will be baptized next weekend and he are so proud of him and excited for his future!

4.  A new investigator came to a session of general conference with her son.  She is someone who comes to english class every week and my companion and I have played soccer with her son in the past.  She received a Book of Mormon already from a family that she knows in the ward.  We were so happy to see her show!  She came to the session in which Elder D. Todd Christofferson talked about women and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland talked about depression.  She has recently separated from the boy's fathers, so I think that she was able to really receive some great council.  The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Those are just a few of the many miracles and blessings that Elder Powell and I saw this last week.

I love you much my family and I love this work!  Let's do our best to be doers and not only hearers of the word!  Go out and apply the things you heard and felt in general conference.  Pray for missionary opportunities and then act!  I know that this gospel truly is "the penetrating light that pierces through the obscurity of darkness"!

Avec amour,

Elder Kunzler

Vous pouvez faire tout ce qui est utile en moi.

Chère famille et mes chers amis,

Une oeuvre merveilleuse est sur le point de se produire parmi les enfants des hommes.

There are good things happening in Dijon, the forelorn village of the east.

Bruno will be baptized on the 19, two weeks after general conference this saturday.  This last week we went over to his apartment with an empty garbage sack and we left his apartment with a garbage sack full of coffee, cigarettes, tobacco cans, lighters, ashtrays, lighter fluid, etc.  Everything.  I have a pretty cool picture of me grinning in the midst of all these poisons.  Bruno is a non-smoker!  We are so proud of him, he has so much courage.  He will be on a special program to turn of the bells that trigger his desire to smoke all this week (a program that includes the use of grapefruit juice and cinnamon mouth wash and prayer).  Friday we will going over to his apartment to celebrate with him his grand feat!  It is not at all easy, but avec Dieu tout est possible!

E.P. and I had a really good week in which REGIS (who we thought we were going to have to drop) CAME TO CHURCH FOR THE FIRST TIME!  We were so happy to see him in his Sunday best with his Bible and Book of Mormon in had walking into the chapel right on time!  We had seen him once during the week and he said a beautiful prayer, expressed his sincere desire to have a testimony and then promised that he would come to church!  He shined through this week.  He really is started to show forth fruits meet for repentance, which is epic.

We also have 5 new investigators, who are all really solid.

First there is Natalia.  Natalia saw us contacting one evening, and she came and contacted us.  She explained that she had met and been taught by the missionaries in the past when she was studying in Frankfurt, Germany about a year and a half ago.  She is Russian.  She didn't have a number or a way to get ahold of her, so we could only give her a card and she said she would call us back.  Sure enough she called a few days later and we fixed a RDV.  To her RDV she brought her Russian Book of Mormon, which was pretty well marked up.  She also had some old brochures that the missionaries had given to her in the past.  She told us that she had already read the entire Book of Mormon in 5 days... and that she knew it was true!  The only thing keeping her from getting baptized is the fact that her parents are traditional Russian Orthodox and her husband, an American, isn't too into the chruch.  She will be going back to Germany in a couple of weeks to start a new semester, but she will be watching General Conference with us, a pretty cool miracle!

We are also now teaching a wonderful family from the Congo.  They are very strong Christians and such excellent people.  It is a husband, wife and two teenage daughters.  Unfortunately, the husband was not there for the first lesson, but it went really well.  They are very sincere, and we will be meeting with them regularly.  The older teenage daughter said the prayer at the end of our message about the restoration and it was one of the most heartfelt I've ever heard.  Good things.

Blessed, another investigator, came with his entire family to church!  His wife is a less-active member, so it was so good to see the whole family there!  He is planning on getting baptized at the end of next month as well!

So many great things are happening in this sector, sorry I don't have the time to tell you about all of them.  The Lord is really blessing our efforts as we do our best to stay close to him through prayer, follow the Spirit and be obedient and diligent and effective with all the time that he has given to us to serve him with all our energy.  I love this work so much!  I love you family and wish you an excellent week!  Que Dieu vous bénisse :)

Avec amour,

ELDER KUNZLER (EN FRANCE)

Le Roi Perplexe

Dearest family and friends,

I have so much to tell you about and so little time to tell it!  En bref, the first week of the transfer was really good.  Like I told you about last week, we have quite a bit of potential at this point in time, but at this point we are kind of going through a weeding process.  We're trying to sort through or investigators so that we can focus our efforts on those who are truly sincere and are really going to progress.

Bruno is sincere.  He has a sincere desire to come unto Christ and to follow him for the remainder of his days.  He has a huge obstacle to overcome: cigarettes.  To him it is quite daunting, but he has already made a ton of progress.  When we first met him about a month and a half ago he was smoking about 200 grams on a daily basis, and now he is at about 60 grams.  He is stuggling though with the idea of just completely quitting.  So Elder Powell and I decided that we need to make a stand.  So we took some time yesterday evening to make a fake box of cigarettes with little colorful rolled up inspiring scriptures inside.  The packet has images of the Savior on it.  We are going to give him that to help him with the habit of having something between his fingers (which is apparently a difficult habit to overcome) and then we are going to lay out to him a week long plan that involves mouth wash and grapefruit juice that is designed to couteract the triggers of the tabacco temptation.  We hope that this will help him to get off cigarettes completely.  He really has the desire to be baptized next month and we know that it is possible.

Regis is slightly slipping. He is not putting the Book of Mormon or Jesus Christ as his major priority in his life at this time.  We might have to drop him this week, and give him some time to prepare a little bit more.  I know that he will be baptized someday, and I would love to be there for it, but he has quite a bit more preparation to do, and he isn't finding the time or the desire to do it right now.

Flora is someone really special.  She has had a lot of opposition.  She is in the middle of a nasty divorce.  Her mother, a traditional Catholic, told her false things about us and prohibited her from continuing to meet with us.  This is competely normal.  In France, whose culture is strongly influenced by tradition, it is difficult for family members to see their loved ones turn away from these traditions.  But Flora cannot deny the Spirit that she felt with us.  We haven't seen her since, but I've had some lengthy conversations on the phone with her and she has a great desire to read, ponder and pray.  We hope that some of the situations in her life will change so that she can start meeting with us more regularly and prepare for the baptism that she still has the desire to do.

Those are the people that we have been focusing our efforts on the last few weeks.  But I think one of my favorite things about being a missionary, and the things that I don't tell you enough about in my weekly emails are the little tender mercies of the Lord.  The times on the mission when you really really feel like the hands of the Lord and you get to act for him on a daily basis.  I do my best to record these experiences in my daily journal, but there are so many of them that it is difficult to always keep track.

For example, this last week my companion and I were just doing some contacting in downtown Dijon.  We met two English speakers, a Canadian boy and a Scottish girl who were backpacking across Europe. They had just come from Paris and they decided to stop in Dijon instead of Lyon because they were sick of the big city.  We were some of the first people they met here.  We explained who we are and got to know them a little bit.  They told us that they had taken this journey to Europe to meet people and to come to know themselves a little bit better.  We were able to leave them with 2 books of mormon in english and our testimonies.  I don't think I'll ever see what happens, but it gave me so much joy to just be a tiny tool in the hands of the Lord to help these two people in their spiritual progression. Radical!

I love you much, and I wish you the best!  Good courage, as the French would say.

Avec amour

Elder Kunzler le français