Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg

For P-Day the district went to the Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg.

It's a castle near Colmar, which is a beautiful part of Northern France. 

Elder Grayson, Elder Loosli, Soeur Wilde, Soeur Meredith, Soeur Foster, and Soeur Parke.

The surrounding region of the castle, Alsace France, has the small towns that inspired Belle's hometown in Beauty and the Beast. 

Jonah said the views were amazing.

He loved being in the mountains!

I'm glad they got to get out and do something fun!

Mulhouse France

France is having a record breaking heat wave.  Jonah said it has been over 100 degrees with 60% humidity. He said he just sweats all day, every day.  Most places don't have air conditioning so there is no relief. They had two small fans in their apartment, but one of them is broken. They have canceled church except to take the sacrament because it is so hot. 

They realized that they had bikes in storage in their apartment so they rode their bikes to Costco.  He said it was fun to ride the bike until they got to a big hill!  Jonah is excited to buy some American food from Costco and they love to eat in the food court because it is cool in there.  He bought a big fan at Costco to try and help with the heat in their apartment.  He said it was pretty tricky getting it home on his bike. The sisters have a car so they snapped a picture of the Elders on their bikes when they passed them on their way to Costco.  I wish they would have got a picture of Jonah riding home with the fan.  Unfortunately, one of their bikes was stolen out of their storge so they can't ride bikes anymore. 

This is Dominic a new member.  They were having a lesson with him and he brought them non-alcoholic beer.  Jonah said they drink a lot of non-alcoholic drinks over there.  

There is a big Muslim population in France so they are given the Coran a lot.  Here is Elder Loosli and Sister Park holding up the Coran they have been given. 

Jonah is still district leader.  They have two sets of sisters and the set of Elders in the district. Two of the sisters are brand new to the mission.  Jonah said it was kind of cool to see them taking notes on what he said during their district meeting. He said it's nice to be the veteran instead of the the newbie. He also taught an institute class. He gave a lesson on prophets. 

They all sent a welcome message to their new mission presidents.  I took a screen shot of Jonah's and Elder Grayson's message.  President and Soeur Liebard are from France, their stake is in the mission so they know a lot of people.  Jonah said that will be really helpful for the work. 

The Munns gave their homecoming talks.  I was able to watch it on zoom.  It was so good. It was fun to learn more about the mission.  Their son spoke first.  I had forgotten that they had kids out there with them.  What a huge sacrifice for the whole family.  I'm so grateful to all of them.

She gave a great talk and talked about the three pillars of their mission; we seek to become life long disciples of Christ, we strive for high strength and high skill, and we are a mission of miracles. She spent a lot of time talking about miracles.  She said they give each missionary a journal when they come to write down the miracles they see. She talked about looking for and recognizing miracles no matter how small.  One thing that stood out to me is she said we need to pray for specific things so that when we receive them we can recognize them as miracles. She talked about how much they loved each missionary and how they are each a miracle. She read scripture that said miracles are brought about by faith and said how amazing it is that our faith is powerful enough to bring about miracles. It really shifted my perspective and makes me want to focus more on seeking and recognizing miracles. 

President Munns talked a lot about the hastening of the work.  He talked about how the Lord is preparing the way and hastening the work, he just needs disciples. He said, "the Lord catches fish, He asks for disciples." 

He talked about how Jacob chapter 5 is literally being lived out in Europe right now.  They are finding and baptizing more people than ever before.  He said how important it is for us to be disciples of Christ so we can assist in His work.  The work is happening at a record pace and He needs us to be willing to help in it. He said he has never felt more inadequate in his life, but never felt so much help from the Lord either.  He emphasized that the Lord will help us in this work and we just have to be willing disciples and then we can assist Him in moving the work forward. I'm so grateful that Jonah got to serve with them. He loves them so much and has learned so much from them. 

Here are President and Soeur Liebard. Jonah said they do things very different than the Munns and that will take some getting used to. 

They had their first zone conference on July 3rd. I asked Jonah about it and he just said it was different. 

Last night we had a really good talk with Jonah. After Wyatt and Hallee went to bed Caitlyn and Jonah were talking and Caitlyn told him that she is struggling with her faith. I was impressed with how Jonah asked her questions and then validated what she was feeling and told her he has had the same feelings.  He then went on to testify about prayer.  He had us look up prayer in the bible dictionary. He said Sister Munns shared it all the time and it really shifted his perspective on prayer.  It says, "Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings." He testified that God will answer our prayers and that he will always answer a prayer for comfort.  He said we won't always get the answer we want, but we can pray for understanding. He also testified that prayer and faith are work and growth doesn't happen when we are comfortable.  It was a really cool experience to hear him testify like he does as a missionaries of things that he has learned for himself. I felt the Spirit while he was testifying and I think Caitlyn did too.  Mostly it made me happy to see my kids love each other and be there for one another. He also told Caitlyn that she should talk to grandpa. He said he has asked grandpa for advice on his mission and he always gives him the perfect advice. Last summer after Keith got the job at Tesla my dad reached out and said he was going to fast for gratitude for all of the blessings Heavenly Father has given our family.  Mom was at the end of her life at this time and we were all struggling with that.  I told dad we would join him in the fast and shared it with Jonah.  That made a huge impact on Jonah. He said when he saw the email, he figured we were going to fast for grandma, but when he saw that grandpa wanted to fast for gratitude he was blown away.  He has referenced that several times and told Caitlyn how amazing that was and how he is a great person to give advice because of his amazing faith. I couldn't agree more.  Grandpa works hard to always have the Spirit with him and he is very thoughtful and prayerful.  I've always felt lucky that I could go to him with my questions and concerns. 

This is Pyerlin, he is in the ward Elders Quorum presidency and went with them to teach a lesson. 

Jonah set a high goal for the district to give 150 invitations to read the Book of Mormon in a week. They reached the goal!  He told them he would buy them Costco muffins, which he did, and he also said he would buzz his head.  He told me he is a man of his word so he buzzed his head. He was excited to get this jersey at Costco.  He has been eyeing it, but it was too expensive, but once France lost in the World Cup they marked the jerseys way down and he was able to get it cheap! 

Finishing up in Brussels

A few pictures from zone conference in April. 

Here are a few older pictures I found from when Elder Lewis was still there. 

Sister Munns posted pictures from their last zone conferences at the end of May. 

She said. “On May 21st we started our last round of zone conferences. We loved learning together and making sure the missionaries knew that like Lehi wanted his family to hold to the rod and make it to the tree of life to partake of the fruit, we want each missionary to cling to the rod and make it to the tree. For each zone conference we make a sticker to remind the missionaries of a theme of the conference and this one was one we hope they’ll keep forever. “See you at the tree” is our hope for this big mission family. We love these missionaries more than we can express in words! We want every single one of them to make it to the tree!!🌳🙏🏻❤️”

Jonah made the sister missionaries some zucchini bread. Jonah likes to bake and does it a lot. Soeur Bates and Soeur Tolbert brought them some bread after that.  They walked over to the Elder's apartment and for some reason they came in bare feet.  They ended up locking themselves out of their apartment so they borrowed the Elder's socks, shoes and sweaters. 

It was getting late and they had to take the train somewhere to get a spare key to their apartment.  Jonah said it's not safe for the girls to be out alone at night so he and Elder Goyes went with them and got them home safe.  It was a late night for Jonah!

Jonah thought it was pretty funny that Elder Olsen was praying under his desk like this.

Elder Loosli and Elder Heiata did exchanges together. 

Soeur Fujiko has the Elders over once a transfer and feeds them. 

Jonah said she makes a ton of food and insists they eat it all.  He said it’s really good, but they eat so much they feel sick. 

Jonah had to go into Paris for a visa appointment.  He got to meet up with Elder Zeedik. He’s sad he is  going to the South mission and they won’t get to see each other anymore. 

The district had one last sports day and lunch before transfers. 

The all bought matching Belgium jerseys.

Steve is a member in the ward. Jonah said they had a great time joking around together. 

Elder Loosli, Alain and Yoga. Alain is doing great since his baptism and helps them teach their other friends. 

Jonah spent his last p-day in Brussels with Elder Zollinger. He only has one transfer left so Jonah was glad they got to be in the same district this transfer.  Jonah loves Elder Zollinger. 

Transfers were extra hard this time because it was the last time he would see his friends that are going to the South mission. 

These are his day one people, Soeur Bargar, Elder Zeedik, Elder Loosli, Elder Snow, Soeur Garlock. 

Jonah found out he was going to the North Mission and every one of his good friends is going to the South mission.  That was hard for him, but he’s done so well at having a good attitude. 

It will be really hard for him not to see these guys again. 

There are so many hard goodbyes in the mission!

I saw this in a missionary mom Facebook group and sent it to Jonah.

It is hard to say goodbye to the Munns! Jonah has loved them and learned so much from them.  He said they just bore their testimony and told them all how much they love them on their last call together. 

 Jonah was transferred to Mulhouse France and will be with Elder Grayson again.  That was not what he was expecting and wouldn’t have been his first choice.  It’s a lot of change and hard things right now. I’m so impressed with Jonah and his ability to adjust and make the best out of every situation.  He gives his all in the good and bad times!