Finishing up in Saint-Omer

 

This picture is from an old zone conference. 

Sister Munns wrote this about their Christmas Zone Conference:

We had 2 big Christmas Zone Conferences each with half the mission on December 10th and 11th! On the 10th we celebrated with the Bruxelles, Paris Est, Paris Sud, and Rennes Zones. We talked of Christ, His birth, had many beautiful musical numbers by our talented missionaries, gave a gift to Him for the year (written on papers put in a pretty gift box that was put under our tree) to help us keep our focus on Seeking Him ALL year, played a trivia game about Christmas, watched “The Christ Child”, made missionary clothespin ornaments like Elder Gong mentioned in his 2023 Christmas Devotional talk, ate good food together and we shared our family tradition of wearing Christmas pins (brooches) during December. Everyone got one to share Christmas cheer with all who see them! We all committed to share the message of the Savior and to spread the joy that comes only from Him in this season that we celebrate His birth! We love these missionaries so much and are so grateful for them!!🎄🌟

On December 11th we gathered with the Paris, Nancy and Lille Zones and had a wonderful time doing the same activities as the day before and enjoying the talents of these amazing missionaries!! They are so full of light and joy and are blessing so many lives as they share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!🎄❤️

He loves to gather with all the missionaries and see his friends. 

The Reeds, a senior couple in the mission did an apartment inspection. Jonah said it wasn’t a big deal because they keep their apartment clean. 

After that they took them to a restaurant.  Jonah and his companion picked Indian food.

Jonah said the food was so good!

They went for a District PDay in Lille. 

He said they just walked around and looked at shops. They were hoping to go bowling, but it didn’t work out. 

They found some cool shops. 

He took this picture because his shadow looked like Batman. 

It was hard for Jonah to be away from home for Christmas. He is always very positive and says he is fine, but he did admit it was hard. 

They spent Christmas Eve with the Dupre family. They have three returned missionary sons that Jonah really likes, so he enjoyed spending time with them.  He said they had a huge meal. When they are celebrating they have a big meal with over five courses. He said they would eat one course and then sing some songs and then eat the next course. 

They also invited Bro. Masinski over and he played the saxophone for them. Jonah said it was a fun night and they ended up being out too late.

On Christmas Day they went to lunch at Sister Pruvost’s.  He said it was really nice and they were happy to have them. 

Jonah said there is a stray cat that hangs out around their apartment. One day the cat got in the apartment and Elder Grayson had to catch it.

Jonah was anxious to hear about transfers on January 3rd.  He found out he is going to Nantes. It is a big city in Western France. He was very excited to be going to a big city and back to a four man apartment.  He went to Nantes on January 7th. 

Saint Omer has been a hard area for Jonah.  He hasn’t been able to teach many lessons.  The friends he did find always ended up not responding. He did a lot of finding, which is hard because no one wants to talk to them. It was hard for Jonah, who is very social, to feel isolated.  He gave it his all and never complained and he met some great people and had some good experiences.  He said he will miss the ward, especially the Clabaux’s and the Dupre’s. He cooked a lot and I was impressed to hear he makes pizza dough and cinnamon rolls.  I'm constantly impressed with Jonah's positive attitude and his ability to enjoy the good things and not focus too much on the hard things.