Paris

 

Jonah was transferred to Paris! He has been hoping he would get to serve in Paris.  There are a five zones in Paris and they all get together to play sports and sightsee on P-day.  He's really been looking forward to this.  He is in the Aulnay district, a suburb of Paris. 

This is his companion, Elder McDonald.

They are the zone leaders.  Jonah is excited and nervous for the responsibility. 

Jonah said they hit the ground running as soon as he got to Paris. He said Elder McDonald is a hard worker and he was excited to jump right in and get to work.

They are teaching a lot of people.  Barec is on the right with his thumb up and Valdez is the other guy.  Valdez is a member and they are teaching Barec.  

He loved his first P-day.  They played sports and went to a museum and had a good lunch. 

They got the font ready for baptisms.

I love to see how they make everything fun. 

They had three baptisms on Saturday. 

Lisa, Lavonia and George were all baptized. 

Bishop Valdezio baptized George. 

Elder Loosli and Lisa. 

One of the things he was looking forward to was playing basketball by the Eiffel Tower.  He was able to do that on his last P-Day. 

It's still crazy to me that he is living in France!

This is Nadia, she is Romanian and they met her and her family on the street.  They were very interested and thought the missionaries were sent by God.  They have a 17-year-old daughter, Maria,  who has two kids (she was married at 13 and is now divorced) and she is very interested.  She came to church and had already read a lot of the Book of Mormon.

They did a dance for a zone challenge. 

We got to talk to Jonah on his birthday.  Cody came home so they got to talk for a while. It's always fun to hear them talk . 

Jonah's birthday was on P-day again.  

They played spike ball by the Eiffel Tower. 

They had a member meal the day after Jonah's birthday and the Elders brought Jonah a cake and they all sang to him.

They do a lot of exchanges as zone leaders and Jonah really likes that.  He had one with Elder Francsen last week.

Sister Liebard posted pictures from their zone conference this week.

They combined Paris and Paris Est zone conferences. 

Elder Loosli and Elder McDonald presented about preparing your friends for their baptismal interview. Jonah said the conference was centered on helping your friends become truly converted. 

On Sunday Maria made the missionaries a Romanian meal. Jonah said it was so good!

For P-Day today they decided to run a half marathon. They started at the temple and ran to the Eiffel Tower.  It was supposed to be 13 miles, but they had to do a longer route to stay in the mission boundaries so it ended up being 15 miles. 

Elder Donat shared this photo.  They made it and were all ready to lay down!

Jonah said it was one of the hardest things he's ever done in his life and he's never prayed so much!

He said the accomplishment feels great though!

I love that Jonah always dreams big and is never afraid to try hard things.

It has been a hard adjustment to leave Mulhouse and start over in Paris.  He said it's been an adjustment, but a lot of fun and he has grown a lot. 

I'm so proud of him for giving it his all even when it is really hard!

Finishing up in Mulhouse

 I found some pictures in Elder Murphy's album.

He wrote: "Call with Gregory at Sautrons."

Jonah held up this sign while they were waiting for the sisters, so they would feel like they had a chauffer. 

 Lunch in Colmar at zone council.

They joined the choir to sing at Stake Conference.

They sang in the ward too.

They did a virtual temple tour with Candice.

Soeur Meredith made this picture.  Jonah said she likes to tease him about his height because Elder Murphy is so tall.  They had a bet for the Michigan, Oklahama game this past weekend and since Michigan won Sister Meredith had to do push ups and say different things like, go big blue, Bryce Underwood owns me and sorry Elder Loosli between each one. She sent the video to the district.  They sure have a fun district. 

If you look close this bag says, "Jacquemus" on it.  Jonah said the other missionaries started calling him that.

They went into Paris for a special devotional with Elder Cziesla from the Area Presidency.

Jonah loves his district.  He said they have so much fun together. 

Elder Loosli and Elder Murphy at the Notre-Dame Cathederal.

Soeur Liebard posted this picture and said, "First tour of the Paris North Mission with Elder Cziesla, second counselor of the Central Europe region. A week full of inspiration and exchange! Thank you to Elder Cziesla for the depth of his teachings and to all our missionaries for their positive spirit and interactions!"

This picture made me laugh.

On Saturday they did a service project at Pyerlin's house and then ate dinner together. 

District lunch at KFC.

Bro Foucher wanted a picture with Elder Loosli at church.  Jonah got transfer news on Saturday and found out he will be leaving Mulhouse and going to Paris.  He was hoping to stay because he loves the ward so much.  He said they had him bear his testimony and it was really emotional for him.  He said these are the hardest goodbyes he has said on his mission.

They had their last district council and then had lunch at KFC. Elder Murphy, Elder Loosli, Soeur Wilde, Soeur Meredith, Soeur Furlano, Soeur Foster.  These were more hard goodbyes, Jonah said the district is a family! Jonah has been a great district leader for this group. They worked hard and had fun doing it!

 A group in the ward planned a last minute activity Monday night with all the young adults to say goodbye to Jonah. Jonah added some videos of them doing Just Dance, those were fun to watch. He is always the life of the party. 

Lucy gave Jonah a stork as a goodbye gift.  Mulhouse is in the Alsace district and the stork is the emblematic bird for that area so they are all over souvenir shops. 

Elder Loosli and Pyerlin.

Elder Loosli with Teahi, he is from Tahiti.

This is Lael, he just got home from his mission and married Charlotte in their ward.  Jonah has loved spending time with him!

This is the bishop's daughter, Anna.

Charlotte, Emilie-Rose and Alice.

This is Emma, she is getting baptized next week.  She asked Jonah to baptize her, but now he won't be here.  He is so sad to miss it.  He said he is not worried about her though, she is solid and ready to be baptized. 

It's been a fun transfer with Elder Murphy.

I love this picture, you can tell they all love him so much and he loves them.  He is so sad to say goodbye to this group. He told me how much he loves this group.  He said they are all so kind and inclusive and there is no drama.  It would be amazing if every ward in the church was like this. 

For his last P-day they went with the Belfort sisters to a members house for lunch.

They enjoyed their time with the Mapuhi's.