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