Finishing up in Nantes

This is Garrett Graham, he and his wife are in France for schooling.  They had the Elders over for dinner. 

The Elders moved apartments.  Their apartment lease was up and they decided not to renew it and to move them to an apartment thirty minutes away. They were happy about their American fridge. 

Jonah said it took so long to move.  A senior missionary couple, the Woods, brought the mission van and drove them back and forth. He said it took two full days to get it done.  He likes his new apartment, it is a lot bigger.  The downside is that they are thirty minutes away from the church now. 

The Wood's took Jonah and Elder Drake to IKEA to get things for the sisters that are coming into Nantes next transfer.  This is the first time they have had sisters so the Elders were helping get their apartment set up.  They bought and built the furniture for them.

Jonah was really excited when Elder and Sister Woods gave him pancake mix from home. 

Here is Elder Anderson, Elder Drake and Simone. They did a service project on Saturday, where they were bundling sticks.  Jonah only has his nice shoes and his Nike shoes so he wore his Nike shoes and luckily someone had boots he could borrow because they were working in mud and rain. He said once he accepted the fact that he was going to be dirty it was fine and he enjoyed it. 

Jonah is excited that Spring is close and that they are getting some sunny days.  This winter was very long and wet!

He has loved getting outside and enjoying the sunshine. 

They went to some Japanese gardens on their P-day.

Elder Loosli and Elder Housley. Jonah loves Elder Housley, they get along so well.

Shane met them at the Japanese Garden. He is a convert from Elder Housley’s old area. 

Jonah met Sahil shortly after he got to Nantes and he has been coming to church ever since.  They meet up with him a lot and teach him.  He is from India and loves the church, but isn’t sure if he’s ready to convert. Jonah said he is really going to miss him, but Sahil is planning to come visit him in his new area. 

Nelly and Yoann wanted a temple tour so they did one by zoom with the sisters. 

On Sunday Jonah baptized Nelly's son.

Joann picked Jonah to baptize him.  

Jonah said it was cool to baptize Joann and the whole thing went smoothly. Joann bore his testimony after and Jonah said that was cool. 

Jonah told us that finding is going really well. They had fifteen friends at church last week! Two of them stayed for the baptism. He said things are going really well with three specifically, Armel, Fidel and Florent, Jonah referred to them as his holy trinity. Two of them have set baptism dates. He said he connects with them really well and he's nervous he will get transferred.  Transfers will be before their baptism dates. Fidel had them over for dinner last week. Fidel wants to go finding with them and help teach people.  Fidel loves the plan of salvation, but he hasn't quite accepted that he needs to be baptized yet.  Jonah thinks he will get there though.  

They met up for district council this week. 

The Bellions made them a yummy lasagna dinner. Jonah said they had fun singing songs with them and playing ping pong. 

This is their friend Sarah and the Lacey and Garrett Graham joined them to teach her. 

Jonah sent Wyatt a picture of his breakfast.  He and Elder Housley have been focusing on bulking a lot.  They eat a lot of eggs and peanut butter toast. 

Elder Loosli and Elder Anderson.  Jonah is sad to say goodbye to Elder Anderson, Elder Drake and especially Elder Housley. 

Jonah got transfer news on Saturday, he is heading back to Belgium for his next transfers.  He will be going to Brussels this time.  He has mixed emotions about the transfers. The work was going really well in Nantes and he has a lot of friends that he is really close to who are progressing and two baptisms coming up.  It's hard for him to leave people he loves.  He is excited to go back to Belgium and he's excited about his new companion.  Jonah is so good at having a positive attitude and focusing on the good things.  

Transfers

Jonah went into Paris this week for transfers to pick up his new companion. They were there for a few days so they had some time to sight see.

His new companion is Elder Drake, he is from Idaho Falls.  Jonah said they are hitting it off well. 

Jonah had to get a physical for his Visa so they stayed an extra day to get that taken care of.  Elder Pelaez was also in Paris for an extra day so the three of them went sight seeing together. 

They wen to the Arc De Trimophe. The Arc De Triomphe was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 to honor French military victories, it is an iconic symbol of French nationalism featuring engraved names of generals and battles, with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath its vault. This is a picture Jonah took inside of it. 

This is the view from the top of the Arc De Triomphe. 

The Cathedral of Notre Dame looks pretty cool at night. 

This is Lafayette, a fancy mall in Paris.

Jonah said it has all the very fancy brands, like Armani and Prada. 

You can go on the roof of the mall and see a great view. 

Here is Jonah on the roof of Lafayette. 

He ended up being stuck in Paris for an extra day because the train tracks flooded. 

Jonah was excited to see Elder Pelaez at transfers.  They had fun sightseeing in Paris. 

This is the view at the top of  Arc De Triomphe.

Elder Loosli and Elder Pelaez at the Louvre.

This is Dodd Osmond, he lives in Saint Nazair. There isn't a church in Saint Nazair so the members have to drive an hour to come to church in Nantes. The four missionaries went to visit Dodd and help him do service.  They told Dodd he was just like them with his missionary work so he wore Jonah's tag for a minute. Dodd has a car so he drives everyone to church, Jonah said he is a great guy. 

They visited a member and she made them dinner and sent them home with a lot of left overs. 

They helped organize and clean out apartments. 

They met with Francois and gave her a spiritual thought.

Jonah said she had a ton of dolls, like a room full of dolls.

The first sleeping picture of the new companion. 

They took some pictures at church. The lady on the right is the one they did service for the day before and Jonah gave her a blessing.  Jonah said he has been asked to give a lot of blessings on his mission. He said one Sunday he gave five!

Elder Anderson, Elder Housley, Elder Loosli, Elder Drake. These are the four elders in the apartment this transfer.  Jonah said he really likes all of them.

Jonah loaded a video of him singing in the train station.  Elder Erikson played a Adele song and Jonah sang, it was pretty funny.  I love seeing videos like this, I know the mission can be so hard and Jonah is so good at making things fun and finding ways to laugh. He actually has a really good voice. 

Jonah loves Elder Housley. I'm glad they get another transfer together. 

Jonah told us about an experience he had a few days before transfers.  There was a family that had just moved from Tahiti and the father got in an accident on his moped, he ran into a pole going pretty fast so it was bad.  They are new converts to the church and the wife wanted the missionaries to come to the hospital to give her husband a blessing. He was in critical condition in ICU so the doctors didn't want to let the missionaries in, but they she kept persisting and they finally let them in. Jonah said it was pretty intense being in there because he was in such bad shape. His name is Joe Michel Mote Etillage. Jonah anointed him, he said Tahitian names are really long and it's hard to remember them all for the blessing. Anyway, they gave him a blessing and his wife was very grateful.  Jonah said his wife had incredible faith and believed that their blessing could heal him and even though he was in really bad shape she said she knew he was going to be okay because she had just received her patriarchal blessing and was told that they would be sealed in the temple. Jonah saw her at church the next week and she said he was doing better and she knew it was because of their blessing. We have added Joe to our prayers and it helps me feel closer to Jonah to pray for the people he cares about. 

Elder Causse came to visit the France Paris mission. The church news filmed it and he posted a video on his social media. 

It was so fun to see Jonah on that video. The missionaries were singing when he and his wife walked in. It was really cool.

Here is the whole France Paris Mission with Elder and Sister Causse.  In the video Elder Causse talked about how meaningful it was for him to visit this mission where years ago missionaries found his parents and taught them the gospel. He talked about how grateful he is to those missionaries who are sacrificing their lives to share the gospel in France. Jonah said it was amazing to listen to him speak. 

After their meeting with Elder Causse Jonah and Elder Drake missed their train because Jonah was accidently scanning his ticket from the week before and couldn't understand why it wasn't working. 

When they finally figured it out, they had missed their train so they had to wait for the next one. 

They went over to the Eiffel Tower while they waited for their train. 

Last week Cody was staying with us when Jonah called so they were able to talk for a bit.  It was fun to just listen to them talk.  Cody asked Jonah a lot of questions about the mission and I think it was nice for Jonah that he could relate to him and understand what he is going through.