Charleroi Belgium

 After a stressful day of travel Jonah made it to Charleroi Belgium.  He is in apartment with 4 missionaries; Elder Smith, Elder Gambee and his companion Elder Zollinger.  He said it's a really nice apartment.  They have an upstairs with weights where they can work out and a living room.  He said one of the missionaries that left messed up the plumbing somehow so he wasn't able to shower for the first couple of days.  He said he took a bucket out on the balcony and cleaned himself off the best he could out there.  

It's always fun to see the pictures he posts of what he is seeing.

It looks so pretty.

He said it's been cooler than while he was at the MTC so that is nice.

They get around on public transportation.

He used a big chunk of his first missionary allowance for a metro pass.

The guy behind Jonah is Patrick.  He is a member who is always working with and driving the missionaries around.  Jonah said he took them out to have "the best fries in the world."  Patrick drives them to member lessons and picks them up for church so they won't have to take so long to get there. Jonah said he is awesome.  He also fed them at his house one night too.

Jonah had his first P-Day today.  He called us right when he woke up at 6:30 AM Monday morning his time and 10:30 PM Sunday our time.  Sawyer came over and played games and stayed to talk to him with us.  We talked to him until 1 AM!  It's so fun to talk to him and hear about his day.  He is good about asking everyone how they are doing and talking to each person.  Hallee got to show him her new room and Wyatt got to show him his birthday gifts.  I asked Jonah what his typical day looks like so far and he said they get up and have personal time and study time in the morning and then they go out into town to find and talk to people until lunch time.  He said he looks for Africans to talk to because they are always nice, he said the white people are not nice, ha! After that they go home for lunch.  They do more studying after lunch and then hopefully they have appointments or member visits.  He said they had four member meals scheduled this week.  He said he loves hanging out with the Elders in his apartment at the end of the day.  He said church was great yesterday. The branch only had about 40 people there.  They had him introduce himself and share his testimony.  He said he is giving a talk in a couple of weeks. He said he has moments of missing home and feeling overwhelmed with how long two years feels, but that it's not constant and he's doing well.  He's always so positive. He said they were going to go shopping that day and take matters into their own hands and snake their drains themselves.  He was happy to report later that they fixed the drains and he was excited for a real shower. Jonah told me to let him know when I was getting ready for work so I did and he called again and I got to talk to him alone for thirty minutes.  It was great.  He told me more about his day and asked me how I was doing. I talked about my mom a lot and how hard that is and he was so sweet.  He has been worried about grandma and grandpa and always asks how they are doing. 

He posted a picture and some videos of them making huge bubbles today. 

They went to a members house who had a ton of animals. Jonah said the bird kept biting him during dinner and they just let the bird fly around. Jonah bought that sweater vest today and he was pretty excited to show me.  He said they have huge sales in July and January and things are really cheap.  Luckily I sent him with some cash so he could use the money to buy some things while he waits for the new credit card.  

Jonah loaded a video of him and his companion trying to add a bounce each time they through the ping pong ball back and forth. I got this picture from Elder Zollinger's album.

Jonah sent out an email today and this is what he said:

The subject line said, "Made it to France?"

SIKEEEEEE your boy made it to Charleroi Belgium! It was unexpected but oh man this is a cool area. It was the only possible area that the new missionaries could have gone outside of France, so I guess I'm special or something. The Munns are incredible mission presidents! 

 I was assigned to a freaking awesome trainer, shoutout Elder Zollinger! He's taught me so much already. It is a blessing to be amongst such a king. 

Traveling to the mish went well, we landed and immediately got to meeting people on the metro. It was super cool to meet people, it made me so excited to get started. I cannot wait to learn French. It's frustrating that it's taking so long to come to me but I have seen the gift of tongues. Tis true.

We are in a 4 person apartment with another 2 kings. We have a GREAT time here (and we work hard so don't worry). At night we always sneak in a good game sesh. We've played Skull King, Monopoly Deal, and Katan. It's refreshing and feels like a reward after a long day of working. 

The apartment is SUPER nice and one of the best you can get on this mission. We have 2 bathrooms which is nice too. We just had a slight problem-- for some reason an Elder who was here before tried putting a plunger to a shower drain, and clogged it, so we've had to shower with a bucket out on the balcony every night. That has been an absolute blast. The plumber was a big liar and never came to fix it, so we took matters into our own hands today and fixed it! I am looking forward to my first real shower today. 

Anyways, church was a great experience. Our ward is full of kings and queens. They were all so nice and welcoming. On top of that we had 5 friends show up, 1 of them hadn't shown up in forever so it was super cool! I'll definitely be on the lookout to serve and do whatever I can for them. 

Sister Munns challenged us to study the BOM and highlight every single reference to Christ. It's made me realize how much it mentions Christ, and how much I would miss those details. Always remember that Christ is in the details of the BOM, and our lives! I promise there will be ways to think of him and bring him up every single day, I invite you all to do that. D&C 6: 36

EVERYONE email me please

jonah.loosli@missionary.org

Je vous aime.

Elder Loosli

Happy Birthday Wyatt-15 Years Old

Wyatt is 15-years-old! I say this all the time, but time goes so fast!

Wyatt is such a fun kid.  He loves to laugh and have fun. 

Wyatt has been loving fishing lately.  He loves to go to Utah Lake because you catch more fish there than on the river trail. Keith went with Wyatt one evening and they had a great time.

Wyatt is looking so grown up.  He has grown a lot and just looks more like a man every day. His voice is deeper and his hair is getting curlier. 

Getting his braces off completed his glow up.  Wyatt is a deep thinker and thinks about spiritual things a lot.  He reads and researches his questions and I love when he talks to me about them.  He just got put in as the teachers quorum president. The activities aren't his favorite, but he is always willing to serve. 

Wyatt loves to research things and learn all about things that interest him.  He has been really into weight lifting and gaining muscle lately.  He has been going to the gym every day for months now.  He has researched nutrition and lifting and has a good routine down.  He still loves dancing.  He is missing break dancing, but the class times didn't work this summer.  He had ballroom camp last week and is excited to have multiple ballroom classes this year at school.  

Jonah called Wyatt on his birthday.  He called at 8 AM.  Wyatt was so excited to talk to him. He loves any chance he gets to talk to Jonah.

Wyatt's birthday was on Saturday this year.  He was excited to open his presents that morning.

He didn't give us a lot of ideas for gifts so he didn't know what to expect. 

Hallee gave him Dr. Pepper.

Wyatt wanted an Apple watch, but he was not expecting one.

I've been checking Facebook Marketplace for a watch. I was able to find one for a good price close by Friday morning. 

Wyatt was very surprised and very excited!

He has loved the watch.

We got him a few other things.  He wanted some texture powder for his hair.  He also got some work out gloves and workout shorts. 

We bought him a mini fridge like we got Hallee.

They only had Barbie ones, but we figured he could paint it. He wasn't sure what to think about the Barbie fridge. 

Caitlyn chipped in for the Apple watch. 

Wyatt decided he wanted to take some friends to the movie for his birthday.  He was glad Rockwell could come. 

Jacob and Rockwell came over to the house for a while before the movie. 

Bennett got there in time to go to the movie with them.

Keith took the boys to see Jurassic World.  They said the movie was pretty good.

I told Keith to take lots of pictures. 

Wyatt loved spending his birthday with his friends.

Rockwell came over after the movie and stayed for dinner.  Keith and I played Jack Box games with them, that was really fun.

Wyatt wanted to spray paint his fridge right away.

He put it out by his gaming stuff. After we took Rockwell home Wyatt ended his birthday at the gym.  I think he had a great day.

On Sunday we had his birthday cake.  

Apparently we had a couple of trick candles and they kept sparking so he moved farther away to try and blow them out.  It was great to celebrate Wyatt.  He is such a kind, funny, hard working and all around wonderful person. We are so grateful he is in our family.

England to Paris to Belgium

Here is the group of missionaries in front of the England MTC the morning they left.

Jonah had to be ready to leave the MTC at 5:45 AM.  Here is the group on the plane ready to fly to Paris.

Jonah was happy that a good group of them were going to Paris.  He said it was hard to say goodbye to his friends from the MTC that weren't in his mission because he knew he wouldn't see them again.

Elder Loosli and Sister Cazer. 

Sister Munns posted some pictures and videos from the airport.

President and Sister Munns picked the missionaries up at the airport. Jonah said he met with them that day and said, "They are incredible! It's going to be amazing to work with them."

The Munn's greeted them at the airport and then they left and the missionaries rode the metro with the AP's to the mission home.  Jonah said they had him go on his own to talk to people and try and meet people.  He said it was terrifying.  He said his French is rough and it was hard to communicate, but he left the conversations feeling like he understood what was said, so that was good.  He gave out two Books of Mormon.  He got to message us when he got to the hotel to tell us he made it.  He told me about this experience and asked us to pray for him because this was going to be really hard to immerse himself and a very big adjustment.  All of the trainers were at the mission home and they got to meet everyone at dinner.  They told them they would find out who their trainer/companion was and what area they were going to the next day.

The mission home is right next to the Paris Temple.

Here is Jonah with President and Sister Munns. 

Sister Munns said it was their biggest group yet, 31 missionaries arrived that day.

13 of them were Elders.

They had dinner at the mission home when they got there. 

I got a Facebook message that night from Sister Hintze.  She told me that her and her husband are missionaries there and she had just had dinner with my awesome son.  It was so fun to hear from her.  They are Sister Munn's parents and he is the mission doctor.  Pretty cool.  She said she loved talking to Jonah and that her and her husband grew up in Provo.  She told me that she would send me a picture of Jonah with his companion the next day.  I got his picture of Elder Loosli with his new companion, Elder Zollinger.  Jonah messaged me in the middle of the night (thankfully I always seem to be awake when he messages in the middle of the night) and said, "Headed to Belgium! With the best companion I could have! I met him yesterday and was hoping I'd be with him." I asked him how he felt about all of it and he said, "It's so perfect, this was a miracle for sure."  I was so happy to hear that.  I had been worried about him, that's probably why I'm up in the middle of the night!

Here are the pictures Sister Munns posted of Jonah finding out who his companion was.  I love his big smile, he was very happy!

Then they told him he would be going to Belgium. 

I'm so glad Sister Munns posted all of these pictures. 

Elder Loosli excited about his new companion.

This is Sister Hutchison.  Her grandson played football for Provo High and told her that Jonah was coming to her mission so she was anxious to meet him and get a picture with him.

Here is the whole zone with President and Sister Munns.

After lunch they left the mission home to take a train to Belgium.

Jonah said they had a little extra time so they walked around the newer part of Paris.

He said he saw the Eiffel Tower from a distance, but not close enough to get a picture of it.

I know Jonah was feeling a little overwhelmed, but he's very good at being positive and taking it all in, the good and the bad.

I was surprised when Jonah called me Friday morning.  He was calling to tell me that he had already been pick pocketed.  He's not sure when or how it happened, but his wallet was in his shoulder bag and then it wasn't.  Luckily he didn't have his license in there, just credit cards.  I was able to call both of them and get them canceled right away.  Poor guy, that is a rough way to start your mission.  It was also very lucky that his mission debit card wasn't in there, so he will have his funds from that.  We will just have to send him a new credit card that he can use for extra stuff.  I was happy to see this picture on his google photos, hopefully the day ended better than it started!