September 15, 2014

Well hey howdy. Hey everybody it’s been another week. Can you believe it? It seems like weeks just fly by when you are doing missionary work. Well to start off… On Monday we had a super fun p-day. Patrick picked us up right after studies and he drove us to a city just 30 min by car. It’s called Dinant and it was so cool. We had a blast! When Patrick picked us up it was really foggy and on our way up he drove the long way through little villages and stuff. We could see more and we saw some cool castles and even some ruins. It was cool with the fog. When we get to Dinant and the fog cleared up we could see the Citadelle and everything. It was really cool. First we went and saw Aldof Sax's home. He was born here in Dinant and he is the inventor of the saxophone. That was really cool to see as I was in band. The city was covered in cool saxophones. Then we went and saw the Citadelle which is a military building with its primary focus to protect a bridge. At the time bridges were really important and in fact we even got to learn about its history. It played a major role in the First World War, and in the citadelle there was even a really cool exhibit. It was a bunch of Disney characters and stuff all made out of sand. It was really cool. They looked like ice sculptures but sand. Then we went and saw the big church in town. We came home and did emails. Then we passed by some old investigators that night to see if they were still interested. On Tuesday we had our Zone Conference in Bruxelles with president and his wife and it was really good but really long. We started at 10:30 in the morning and we were finished around 4:00. It was long but really good. After that we hurried to the gare (station) where we caught our train and headed back to Charleroi. Patrick picked us up and we headed to our dinner appointment with the Van Hulst family. They are a really cool family from the ward and diner was super good. We ended up sharing a spiritual thought from the Liahona, well I guess it’s the ensign back home. On Wednesday we had our second lesson with the Miracle Man from the post last Monday. It turns out he does not want to change he just wanted to learn more about us and stuff. He said it was mainly educational. So that was sad. He told us that he learned all he needed and did not want to meet with us anymore. After that we ate lunch and then we did some contacting the rest of the day till diner. For dinner we had dinner at the bishop's house. It was so cool. While we were at the table we got to talking about our lives before the mission and I told them that I loved watching tv series and movies, and Disney. The bishop's wife got intrigued because she loves tv series as well. She asked what my favorite was and I told her Once Upon a Time and she flipped out. She got super happy and said she loved that series as well and that she was just watching it before we came over haha. I told her not to tell me anything. I want to catch up when I get home. It was such a fun night and we really bonded with the bishop and his family that night. They gave us a family name to pass by so after diner we went and passed by. They asked us to come back next week. They were really busy so that was really cool. On Thursday we had a lesson with Abraham, a less active, and that night we had our meeting with the bishop and his counselors and our ward mission leader. The rest of the day we were either talking with people or eating and it was great. Not a whole lot of people super interested but we still talked to some really cool people. Then on Friday we normally do weekly planning but today we were way to busy which was really cool. In the morning we went and taught Darios, a recent convert. Then we had a lesson with an old investigator named Margaritta. Now we know why they stopped seeing her. It is because she does not really speak French. She speaks Romanian. Then we had a lesson with Jean, a less active. After that we headed to Patrick’s house and we headed up to Jacques and Chantal's house. We talked about the priesthood. After the lesson, we went and saw another old investigator, Jean-Pierre and his wife. They were really cool and after the lesson we all three felt that they could be ready for the gospel now. Then we went home and ate dinner. Saturday we did some contacting in the morning. Then we had lunch with Patrick. After lunch we went and saw a less active family and some of our investigators. That night we ended up just doing porting and nobody answered. It was a very long night. Then on Sunday Elder Turley gave a talk. It was really good. After church we ate lunch with Patrick again. Then we went and saw some more less actives. After that we ate dinner. Then finally we did our weekly planning, and that was our week. It was really crazy but super fun.

Missionary in Belgium

Dinant is the City which Aldof Sax is from the inventor of the saxophone, here is me and his statue

Me and his very first sax!

Here is me and a Sax, along this bridge there are saxophones all over from different European Countries that for an art project made a saxophone, this is from France.

Here is Adolf Sax's house.

The saxophone from Belgium.

Us in the citadelle where a fight broke out inside between the French and the Germans in the World War 1. A bomb actually blew up so this place is all lopsided. It's fun!

Me at the top of the Citadelle with Patrick, our ward mission leader.

Cannons were placed at the holes to shoot at the enemies.

The City of Dinant, so we went into that big Cathedrale which as the Dome top, and what they called a citadelle which is an old millitaty base used during wars and to protect a bridge, and this one was hit very bad in world war I so we get to go in and see a lot so the next pics will be of it.... The citadelle is at the top of the pic with the flag flying from it.

September 8, 2014

Well hey howdy! Hey everybody. I hope y'all had a great week this past week. My week was crazy full of miracles and fun stories. let me see if I can write them all down, Monday was our P-day. We really did nothing special that day just the usual stuff like cleaning and shopping. Right after we did Emails me and Elder Turley went and I pulled out money to buy our new bus passes. While I was at the ATM Elder Turley was at the door and this guy walked buy and then stood at the entrance. Then he turned around and asked Elder Turley if we were the Mormons and we said yes we are. He asked when can you pass by my house I want to talk to you and learn about your church. He fixed a rendez vous right there. It was so cool! Then we went to the bus place where we buy our bus/metro passes. We got there around 2:00ish and the line was crazy long. It was insane but we need our passes. So we waited and finally after a long time we finally get our passes. By the time we leave it’s nearly 7:00. Yea, it was insane! Almost everybody they had in front of us had a problem haha not fun! That night we had a lesson with an awesome ami (friend) named Emmanel. He is African and really believing. The lesson went great then we walked home. Tuesday we had our District Meeting in Bruxelles and that was super fun because we get to see all the missionaries serving in Belgium now. Then we headed back to Charleroi and did some contacting. That night we did some porting and while we were porting a lot of people were not interested. Of course like you see in the movies or hear from stories the last door we knocked on, the last one on the street this guy answered and we got to talk with him and even pray with him. It was awesome. On Wednesday we got to see our miracle man from the post and I don’t really know his name. He told us but I did not really understand it because it was really weird. Then after him we did some more finding and we even tried to pass by some old investigators and less actives that live in the area but nothing. That night we went to Jacques and Chantal's house and they gave us this really good cake made with SWEET POTATOES! It was really good so I took a picture of the recipe and will try and make it back home. Then on Thursday it was like a day of less actives so we saw Darios in the morning and then Abraham in the afternoon. Then we had some time to do some finding. Then we went to Patrick's house and we had DMP meeting. Then we went to the church and had ward council. Friday we had a finding day with both our mission and the south France mission where every 30 min we said a prayer for everybody in both missions. It was awesome! We really could feel everybody's prayers and we talked to tons of people and got some numbers and even taught some really cool people. Then on Saturday we had lunch with the Tricot family, a family in the ward. Then we did our weekly planning. We just did some finding the rest of the day, porting and contacting. On Sunday we had Church and it was sad. All of our lessons we had fixed cancelled on us so we spent the entire day finding as well. But sadly Saturday and Sunday not a lot of people wanted to talk to us, and that was my week.

September 1, 2014

Well I cannot believe it’s been another week already. They seem to be just flying by these days! Anyways, let’s get to it shall we.... Monday was our preparation day so we did the usual stuff that day but the day was not pretty. It rained all day so we stayed inside and slept and watched some church movies and had popcorn and ice cream shakes. The church movies were like the Restoration, or Legacy, and The testaments all in French of course haha. That night we had a FHE with a recent convert family the Tedesco's. It was super fun! Then we went and saw a less active after that. Tuesday we had our District Meeting and they are now in Bruxelles which is super fun because now we get to see all the other missionaries who are serving in Belgium. It was really fun seeing them all. After district meeting we headed back to Charleroi and did some contacting. Then we went and visited with Abraham, a less active from the ward, and then we ate dinner. Wednesday was a blast! I got some pictures taken of that day. We had lessons all fixed for the day. In the morning we had two with some people that we found the other day, Isabelle was a lesson in the morning but sadly she did not show up so we ended up doing some contacting. It turned out fine we talked to this really cool African Man who just loved Jesus. He like said it every five minutes haha. Then after that we ate lunch then had a lesson in the park with Jean. He is a less active as well but he has started coming back to church the past few Sundays. After that we did some more contacting and we had a dinner with Jacques and his wife Chantal and it was so good. She makes food native from La Reunion and it is so good! Thursday was a day full of finding. We even did some finding with our area book going through old investigators and such. We even went through the phone too! That night we went and passed by less actives homes’ with Patrick. Friday was of course weekly planning but we also had two lessons with some of investigators who live out of Charleroi. It takes a pretty long time to get out there so we spent most of our time on the buses talking with people and going to our lessons. Saturday we had a lesson in the morning with an investigator named Francis. He is super cool and super humble. Then we had lunch with Patrick and he had just gotten a Crock Pot. He heard me and Elder Turlery talking about roast and how good it was on Sundays and he told us he was going to make it. So he tried and it tasted okay but it just was not the same. He asked me to get recipes for him haha. He is such a character. Then that night we did some porting. It’s been a while since we were able to do so it felt nice to see the door slam and stuff and talk to people who were interested as well. Then Sunday was church. We had a great day at church; there were some really good talks. After church we did some contacting and some finding. We talked to this really cool dad and set up a lesson with him and his family. He has 7 kids so that is really cool. And that was my week for y'all.