Transfers

 Jonah went into Paris this week for transfers to pick up his new companion. They were there for a few days so they had some time to sight see.

His new companion is Elder Drake, he is from Idaho Falls.  Jonah said they are hitting it off well. 

Jonah had to get a physical for his Visa so they stayed an extra day to get that taken care of.  Elder Pelaez was also in Paris for an extra day so the three of them went sight seeing together. 

They wen to the Arc De Trimophe. The Arc De Triomphe was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 to honor French military victories, it is an iconic symbol of French nationalism featuring engraved names of generals and battles, with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath its vault. This is a picture Jonah took inside of it. 

This is the view from the top of the Arc De Triomphe. 

The Cathedral of Notre Dame looks pretty cool at night. 

This is Lafayette, a fancy mall in Paris.

Jonah said it has all the very fancy brands, like Armani and Prada. 

You can go on the roof of the mall and see a great view. 

Here is Jonah on the roof of Lafayette. 

He ended up being stuck in Paris for an extra day because the train tracks flooded. 

Jonah was excited to see Elder Pelaez at transfers.  They had fun sightseeing in Paris. 

This is the view at the top of  Arc De Triomphe.

Elder Loosli and Elder Pelaez at the Louvre.

This is Dodd Osmond, he lives in Saint Nazair. There isn't a church in Saint Nazair so the members have to drive an hour to come to church in Nantes. The four missionaries went to visit Dodd and help him do service.  They told Dodd he was just like them with his missionary work so he wore Jonah's tag for a minute. Dodd has a car so he drives everyone to church, Jonah said he is a great guy. 

They visited a member and she made them dinner and sent them home with a lot of left overs. 

They met with Francois and gave her a spiritual thought.

The first sleeping picture of the new companion. 

They took some pictures at church. The lady on the right is the one they did service for the day before and Jonah gave her a blessing.  Jonah said he has been asked to give a lot of blessings on his mission. He said one Sunday he gave five!

Elder Anderson, Elder Housley, Elder Loosli, Elder Drake. These are the four elders in the apartment this transfer.  Jonah said he really likes all of them.

Jonah loaded a video of him singing in the train station.  Elder Erikson played a Adele song and Jonah sang, it was pretty funny.  I love seeing videos like this, I know the mission can be so hard and Jonah is so good at making things fun and finding ways to laugh. He actually has a really good voice. 

Jonah loves Elder Housley. I'm glad they get another transfer together. 

Jonah told us about an experience he had a few days before transfers.  There was a family that had just moved from Tahiti and the father got in an accident on his moped, he ran into a pole going pretty fast so it was bad.  They are new converts to the church and the wife wanted the missionaries to come to the hospital to give her husband a blessing. He was in critical condition in ICU so the doctors didn't want to let the missionaries in, but they she kept persisting and they finally let them in. Jonah said it was pretty intense being in there because he was in such bad shape. His name is Joe Michel Mote Etillage. Jonah anointed him, he said Tahitian names are really long and it's hard to remember them all for the blessing. Anyway, they gave him a blessing and his wife was very grateful.  Jonah said his wife had incredible faith and believed that their blessing could heal him and even though he was in really bad shape she said she knew he was going to be okay because she had just received her patriarchal blessing and was told that they would be sealed in the temple. Jonah saw her at church the next week and she said he was doing better and she knew it was because of their blessing. We have added Joe to our prayers and it helps me feel closer to Jonah to pray for the people he cares about. 

Elder Causse came to visit the France Paris mission. The church news filmed it and he posted a video on his social media. 

It was so fun to see Jonah on that video. The missionaries were singing when he and his wife walked in. It was really cool.

Here is the whole France Paris Mission with Elder and Sister Causse.  In the video Elder Causse talked about how meaningful it was for him to visit this mission where years ago missionaries found his parents and taught them the gospel. He talked about how grateful he is to those missionaries who are sacrificing their lives to share the gospel in France. Jonah said it was amazing to listen to him speak. 

After their meeting with Elder Causse Jonah and Elder Drake missed their train because Jonah was accidently scanning his ticket from the week before and couldn't understand why it wasn't working. 

When they finally figured it out, they had missed their train so they had to wait for the next one. 

They went over to the Eiffel Tower while they waited for their train. 

Last week Cody was staying with us when Jonah called so they were able to talk for a bit.  It was fun to just listen to them talk.  Cody asked Jonah a lot of questions about the mission and I think it was nice for Jonah that he could relate to him and understand what he is going through.