WEEK 90

Bonjour à tout le monde et bonne fête des mères à tous mes mamans!! J'espère que vous sachiez combien je vous aime, car il y en a beaucoup d'entre vous qui sont mes mamans;) merci pour tous ce que vous faites pour moi. Bah qu'est-ce qu'il y a de nouveau cette semaine? On nous a dit que je resterai ici à Namur une mutation de plus!!! ÇA c'est une bénédiction!! Je suis très heureux de rester ici à Namur. Umm j'ai pu appeler chez moi pour parler avec ma famille et ça c'était chouette! C'était bien de les voir encore. J'espère que vous aimeriez ma lettre cette semaine:) (Hello everyone and HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL MY MOMS! I hope you know how much I love you, because there are many of you who are my mums;) thanks for all that you do for me. Bah there what's new this week? We were told that I will stay here in Namur for this transfer! It is a blessing! I am very happy to stay here in Namur. Umm I was able to call home to talk with my family and it was great! It was good to see them again. I hope that you'll like my letter this week :)

 

LUNDI SOIR

So tonight we had a great family home evening!!! After we finished up with emails me and elder Anderson went back to the apartment to get a little something to eat and then we went out to catch the bus back to the chapel and right when we walked out of the apartment, the bus passed.... So we called up the Badoux's and asked if we could make our way to their house, which was about a 15 minute walk from our house, and ride up with them. They told us yes and so off we went. When we got to the chapel we had a good meeting really fast with brother Chung and then we had family night and tonight we talked about the family proclamation and the 9 key steps to a successful family. Does anyone know them?? 'Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.' I know that one thanks to mom;) it was a good night that ended with some UNO and needless to say, I won;)

 

MARDI

Well today we had district meeting and it really sucked cause today there was another grève going on in Charleroi. For those of you who don't speak the celestial language #NAMETHEAPOSTLE grève means strike and so we got into Charleroi and there were like 3 buses running......so sadly district meeting took up like almost our entire day...bummer eh?? So we got up this morning and since I've decided I'm fat, and that I have no butt, and since I have just less than 90 days until I get home, I am going to work out and try to lose 10 more pounds until I get home. So I got up this morning and did some very basic workouts (squats, push-ups...) and it didn't seem to be doing a lot but we have to start somewhere! So when we'd finished and it was time to leave, we went and caught our train and got into Charleroi to find the grève and we had to wait for forever for a bus and then got up to the church and had to wait for forever for the other missionaries to get there as well....AH. WAITING IS SUCH A WASTE OF TIME. LOL But really. I was like dying. Anyway we listened to a talk from elder holland for district meeting and it was good. It was a talk on missionary work and the atonement that he gave in the MTC and it was good and touching. Anywho then we ate and then cleaned up and went to go and catch a bus to get back to the gare to catch our trains and we were sitting there waiting for our bus for a good 30 minutes and nothing came and so I just decided to start walking and when I left, everyone started to come with. I got to have a really good discussion with one of the missionaries in my district. He'd been having a rough few weeks and so he was just talking to me and let me know how he was doing and it made my heart hurt. Some people are just rude. But it was a good talk and I'm glad he had the confidence in me to tell me the things he did and that I was able to help him. When we got to the gare we were able to catch a train right away and we were able to make our way home into Namur, which just so happens to be the most beautiful ville in all of Belgium. We're pretty spoiled as missionaries here!;) when we got home we hurried and ran to the apartment and planned out a spiritual thought that we wanted to share for a dinner appt that we had for the night and then we went out contacting until we were supposed to get picked up by the member but we got a phone call from the member about 10 minutes before we were supposed to be picked up and he was telling us that he had locked himself out of his truck today and was stuck at work and he wouldn't be able to come and get us...so sadly we didn't get to go:( instead we decided to take the next bus and go out to the neighborhood and go porting. So this bus took us to this random little neighborhood in the middle of this valley which looked over Namur and it was just so peaceful and beautiful. AH! I WANT YOU ALL TO COME HERE. IT SERIOUSLY IS MY FAVORITE PLACE EVER. So that's how we finished our night.

 

MERCREDI

Well today was a long solid day of finding! We went walking all day long and talked to a ton of people, but no one wanted to really talk to us....it was a little sad but we kept on walking and going and I even got a little bit sunburned from all the sun that was out shining! Because of the fact that we were out contacting all day and nothing really happened, I don't have a ton to share, but I will do my best to entertain you! Last night we got a call from Chung telling us that there was a semi-active member who was having a really hard time and needed a blessing and he was wondering if we'd be able to go and help him out, so we told him we could be to the church at 1. So we were supposed to be having lunch with Patrick today, but he canceled cause it was too busy at work and he wasn't able to leave, so instead of going to lunch with him, me and Anderson just went and found a small little kebab shop and we went and got lunch there and then we went and waited for our bus up to the church. We got a call from Chung saying that he had been called into work (I don't even think he has a job....) and so he wouldn't be able to be there but his wife would be there....which is kind of breaking the rules cause we aren't supposed to be alone with women....but it was for a blessing so we went. We got to the chapel and the reasoning behind this lady needing a blessing kind of made me laugh. Lol I'm sure there was a longer and bigger story behind it all but she said that yesterday her friend sent her a text saying that she needed her to come and get her stuff out of her friends apartment. She said that when she got the text, she'd had it up to here and she called Chung asking for a blessing. Haha so we gave her a blessing and after the blessing she just started to cry and cry and cry! Chung's wife came over and started to rub her back like a massage and she was just crying and then stopped and said, I'm sorry but when I cry I cry and it just needed to happen. So we just sat and listened to her for a little bit and then we left and we went contacting. That was one of the more interesting blessings that I've taken part of as a missionary haha! We then went contacting and walked around a good portion of Namur and then went in for dinner and language study and then headed out porting for the night. There wasn't anything too special that happened while we were out tonight, but we went to this one area up by the church that was at the top of a hill and looked out over the whole ville of Namur and I was just looking at it thinking of how wonderful it really is here. Namur has been my favorite area, by far!

 

JEUDI

So today, I got a sunburn on my sunburn! Haha and you know why?? Because we were outside all day walking again! It's not a problem though haha this way I have evidence that even though people don't want to stop and listen to us and it probably looks like we aren't doing anything, we were really outside working today! Haha nothing like getting a double sunburn to try and prove you're working right?? Lol so we got up this morning and realized that it was a holiday (like Ascension or something?? Haha I think Jesus went up to heaven today? Idk ask a European.....) and so the buses weren't running as often and we didn't have a ton of things to do today and so it automatically became a finding day:) #TantMieux so with everyone being outside and with two missionaries with no investigators, today sounded like it was going to be a great success! I'm sad to admit that today was still just a bummer! I am getting really frustrated as to why we can't find any new investigators and its really bothering me that no one wants to listen. But we're going to find someone soon and I'm sure of it. Right now we just need to keep on keeping on and the Lord is going to bring the elect souls to us when they are ready, even if we already are;) we woke up this morning and went contacting on a road that I'd never been to before and we actually talked to one guy, who let us pray with him and he told us he was going to come to church this Sunday, so that brought my hopes up just a little bit! Well just have to see if he ends up coming or not. When it was time to come in for lunch we ate and then we were talking about where we wanted to go contacting for the afternoon. We had a dinner appt and so it was going to be for the rest of the afternoon that we would be outside. So we thought about it and at the same time, we both thought to go up into the citadelle, the big castle thing in front of our apartment. So we didn't know why at the time, but now we are pretty sure we know why Heavenly Father wanted us to go up there. First off, the citadelle is HUGE. Like we were up there all afternoon and still hadn't seen it all haha! It was ginormous. But while we were up there walking around, a random lady, across the other side of a parking lot, who we had never seen before started yelling out HELLO! Hello! And so we went over to see who it was and she turned out to be a member from Romania and she wanted to say hi and said she was here for 2 weeks and wanted to possibly move here. So we gave her our card and she said that she would most likely be coming to church on Sunday! So that would be cool to see her. After we walked around mostly the rest of the afternoon in the citadelle, we decided to try climbing down, which didn't end too well...haha it was a dirt path and elder Anderson slipped and got his suit all nasty and DIRTy hahah but we did have fun as we were climbing down but Anderson was so dirty at the end that we made our way inside so that he could clean up a little! We then took language study and then went and met up with brother Istace and we headed up to his house for dinner! Tonight we just pretty much sat and talked for the night and got to know each other. The Istace's are a fun family! They were asking me what I was gonna do when I got home and telling me that I was homesick and wanting to get home....haha I was like, 'well if you make me talk about it, then ya I'm gonna sound kinda homesick hahaha' we shared a little message on hope and then brother Istace brought us home.

 

VENDREDI

Today was WARMMMMM! Haha lots of sunshine but I am not complaining! I love the sun, and I'm so happy that it's almost summer again. I remember when I was in Reims last year during the HOTTEST SUMMER OF MY LIFE. Like that was crazy hot. I remember all the members saying that it had not been that hot in YEARS and of course it was that hot when I was here. Lol fun stuff. But ya the sun is starting to come out and starting to warm everything up. So today went by pretty well and I didn't get sunburned again so I guess that's a plus! Today we had a lunch appt with a less active member who had just found out that it was my birthday a few weeks ago and so she felt bad she hadn't known before and wanted to take us out to make up for it;) it was good fun. We started out with some contacting and we went into this park just down the river from our apartment and we talked with a sweet lady named Danielle and she told us that the story of the restoration really made sense and that the only thing that she wasn't 100% sure on with us was the fact that we didn't follow the pope...so she said she was going to look into some things and then she'd give us a ringy dingy. Then we went and met up with Dydy and her son for lunch. She works at this little restaurant behind our apartment and she wanted to take us there and I got this little shish-kabob of beef with a side of frites cause she knew I loved frites haha so when we'd finished up lunch with her, we went and had our little weekly planning session which was really short because of the fact that we really don't have any investigators for the moment to plan for. But elder Anderson had bought a volley ball this past Monday and so in the middle of planning we got a little side tracked and ended up making a home made bowling alley in our hallway with his volleyball and my empty Coke bottles and that entertained us for a good 5 minutes. We each rolled a strike and a spare so I guess you could say that we're champs?? Haha after we finished planning we prayed to know where we could go out to port for the night and elder Anderson felt that we should go out to this neighborhood that we had only 2 passbacks and so we went and they both told us no, but we started knocking on more doors and this one lady opened and told us that she was Muslim so she wasn't going to pray with us, because she'd been suffering with depression for a while. She was grateful to see us because it made her happy and remember that God loved her. It was a tender experience. Anywho we then went and made our way home and this weekend in Namur is a little festival going on called Namur En Mai and it's just a huge fair pretty much and there's tons of people and food and stands and it's really fun! So we went and walked through it and may or may not have stopped for some ice cream and this stand with some Moroccan wraps that were DELICIOUS in case you were wondering. Oh man, I LOVE NAMUR!!!️️️️🤗🤓🤘🏻🇧🇪🇧🇪🇧🇪🇧🇪🇧🇪🇧🇪🇧🇪🇧🇪

 

SAMEDI

So today was just like the rest of the week haha lots of walking in the heat. I'm starting to realize how lucky I am cause my only problem in life right now is not having any investigators where in a few months my problem could be anything else haha but we are trying to find those people, and even if our numbers show otherwise, I know that Heavenly Father knows I am trying my hardest. Elder Anderson asked me a question the other day saying, 'Why am I so happy? We walk around all day, we have yet to find an investigator, and our numbers make it seem like we don't do anything. But yet, I'm still happy! Why?' And it made me smile. NOTHING COMPARES TO SHARING THE GOSPEL. IT JUST MAKES US HAPPY. ️ Mosiah 2:17 so anyway. I love this work. And even though it's hard, and sometimes discouraging, and the last thing I want to do is walk out in the heat for 3 hours to try and talk to people on the road, I am so grateful my Heavenly Father has helped me to be here to do it. I wouldn't be anywhere else than here right now. When we got up this morning we had studies and then we went out to look up the transfers and when we found out I was staying, I CANT EXPLAIN MY HAPPINESS!!! Haha I am so glad to be staying!! I love this place a little too much. So we then went out contacting and nothing too crazy happened before we went in to take lunch and then after lunch we went out contacting. We went to this one part of Namur that I haven't spent a ton of time in and we were just walking down the road and contacted this one lady named Maryline and she was super nice to us and let us talk and explain why we are here and what we do and our goal in being missionaries and then told us she wouldn't mind meeting again cause she knew that she needed to grow her faith. So it was super cool to be able to hear that! We will be calling her on Monday to try to fix an appt. We spent the rest of the after noon out contacting and then we went and took a little break and decided that because of huge festival that is going on in Namur and because almost all of Namur was downtown for that, we were going to go and do our porting in this little town called Andenne. So we went and caught our train and we headed out there and went porting. I've noticed that all the super strong members in Europe come from big families that were found while they were young and living in apartment buildings and so I've been trying to do that lately cause I want to find a huge strong family again!! But we went tonight and nothing happened sadly....so when we needed to leave, we headed home and I wanted to go past the festival cause I wanted to see if I could get a tshirt so we went and there were none left:( but as we were walking out, there was a group of college students that were sitting at a table drinking and sitting there and yelled at us MORMONS to come over. That's like the only reason that we went cause everyone and their dog thinks that we are Jehovahs witnesses and so we went and sat and talked with them and they told us that one of them was a religious instructor and didn't know much about Mormons and wanted to know more and so we sat and pretty much just answered questions and stuff while they drank and during this, I only got one beer dumped on me!! so I counted that as a blessing. It got on my arm so that's all but it was fun to be able to actually talk to someone interested for once;)

 

DIMANCHE

So today was great in the fact that I got to call home!! I can't believe it was my last time and that the next time I see my family it will be as I am coming down the escalator.... That is so weird to me! How can my mission be coming to an end so quickly?? Anywho, it was a good phone call. It was weird being able to call and talk all about home and school and a car and all that fun stuff....it made me realize how when my mission is over, I don't want it to be haha! Anyway, this morning we got up and we got all ready and headed out to catch our bus to church. We got to the chapel and everyone started coming in and all the Sisters were all dolled up and got all pretty for their special day. It was fun to see the spirit so bright and happy during our meetings today. As soon as everyone saw us, they all came running up saying, 'you get to make a special phone call home today don't you?? Please tell your family hi for me!' So that was fun. We had some fun meetings today, and the spirit was definitely there. I'm so grateful for the spirit and the feelings of peace that it brings to me. I love being able to sit in the congregation of church, listening to the speakers and their messages and have the spirit speak to me. It's an amazing feeling and it really has helped me to realize how much of a delight the Sabbath and church attendance really is to me. So during priesthood, Pierrot's dad came and sat by me and told me that me and Anderson were invited over to their house this afternoon for lunch and that Pierrot and Annabelle would be there as well to bring us to their house after so that we could skype home. So after church we went and got in their car and headed to their MANSION. Haha Frere Paulus used to own the biggest catering business in Belgium before he retired and has a HUGE house! It was fun to spend the day there and plus, during dinner him and his wife told me that when me and my family come home, we'd each have a place to sleep:) so far I've got me a place in every ville! We ate some dinner, and remember how I told you how he owned the biggest catering business in Belgium?? His food showed it! It was incredible!! So after we'd eaten and laughed and had fun, we all got into Pierrot's car and headed off to their house to skype! Like I said, it was good and fun to talk to my family. I'm still in disbelief that that was the last time. But after we finished up skyping, I went downstairs and Annabelle had made us dinner and so we ate and then Pierrot gave us a ride to the gare and we caught our train home. We got home a little late, but I think talking with our families is an ok reason to get home late;) all in all it was a good Mother's Day for me!

 

Et voilà! J'espère que cette fois-ci c'était rempli des détails pour vous et que vous avez pu vivre un peu dans la mission avec moi cette semaine. Pour les uns d'entre vous qui sont en train de considérer de faire une mission, arrêtez de penser et FAITES-LA! Honnêtement, la mission vous changera. Vos yeux seront ouverts. Le choix que j'ai fait de servir mon père céleste pendant ces 2 années c'était le meilleur choix que j'ai jamais fait dans ma vie. Vous ne le regretterez pas. Je vous demande de faire tous ce qu'il faut pour que vous puissiez servir notre père céleste dans cet œuvre merveilleux. J'espère que cette semaine, ça ira pour vous, et que vous puissiez faire tout ce que vous devez faire en sécurité. N'oubliez pas que ce Belge vous aime et qu'il prie pour vous! Je vous aime!!!  (And voila! I hope that my letter was filled with the details for you and that you may live a little in the mission with me this week. For some of you who are actually considering to do a mission, stop thinking and do it! Honestly, the mission will change you. Your eyes will be opened. The choice I made to serve my heavenly father for these 2 years it was the best choice I've ever made in my life. You will not regret it. I ask you to do all what it takes so you can serve our Heavenly Father in this wonderful work. I hope that this week, it will be good for you, and you can do what you need to do safely. Don't forget that this Belgian loves you and that he prays for you! I love you!)

 

Elder Libby