Pour commencer aujourd'hui, j'aimerais bien vous remercier pour vos prières! Cette semaine j'avais un peu dure de persévérer lol. Il y avait pleine des fois quand je voulais arrêter, mais mon collègue était inspiré de me rassurer de tout les bénédictions que l'on voyait. Alors merci pour votre confiance en nous! Et merci pour vos prières d'emmener les bénédictions envers nous. J'étais fortement touché cette semaine par votre foi! J'ai bien reçu mon itinéraire pour rentrer chez moi cette semaine aussi! Alors ça c'est chouette aussi! Cette semaine qui vient, je vais avoir l'occasion de renouveler mon recommandation pour le temple. Et j'ai hâte pour cet entretien avec Président Babin. Déjà ça fait 2 ans que je suis allé au temple....WOW!!
(To start today, I'd love to thank you for your prayers! This week I found it a little hard to persevere lol. It was full of times when I wanted to stop, but my colleague was inspired to reassure me of all the blessings that we saw. So thank you for your confidence in us! And thank you for your prayers to bring blessings to us. I was strongly affected this week by your faith! I received a copy of my itinerary to go home this week! So it's good also! Coming up this week, I'll have the opportunity to renew my temple recommend. And I look forward to this interview with President Babin. Already it's been 2 years since I went to the temple... WOW!)
So today was also another holiday here in Europe. Haha I remember from last year, almost every other day in May is a holiday and so since it was a holiday, we spent almost all of our PDAY at the church. We finished up emailing and just chilled waiting for all the members to get there for family home evening and playing around with the ping pong table and stuff. When everyone got there, we pulled out jungle speed and we played some jungle speed with some of them and Frere Mazy LOVED it haha. A little too much in my opinion! It was funny to see him playing that. We had a good lesson tonight on the importance of the hymns and how they can speak to us and Soeur Pironnet had us all go around sharing our favorite hymns. It was good:)
MARDI
Well today flew. Legit it went by so fast. But days like that are good! It was such a fast day! So today we woke up this morning and we got ready and headed out the door to make it to district meeting. To be honest, we weren't really looking forward to going because we got a new district leader and we'd heard only bad things about him...so we were a little hesitant on going. He'd already told us that from now on we weren't allowed to have a meal at district meeting anymore and so we were all a little confused. His reasoning was the fact that it takes up too much time, but if you think about it, we still have to take an hour for lunch no matter what....so we had decided that we were just going to go out to eat after with the elders from Braine l'Alleud. We got in this morning and found out, after 3 transfers of me being here, we can take a train that gets us in a little bit later, but allows us to catch a bus DIRECTLY around to the church and gets us there on time for district meeting still. So we're going to start taking that one. When we caught the train, the other elders met up with us there and we all rode up together and got to the chapel in Charleroi, even before the missionaries from Charleroi got there so we had to wait for them. We just sat there quoting movies while waiting and then when they got there we went in and started. Sadly to admit, the rumors of our district leader were true....he kept mentioning how he wanted us to pretend that we were our own mission, and not pay attention to the Paris mission, but become part of the Nivelles mission.....haha he was telling us how the other district here in Belgium have 7 baptismal dates and how we only have one and how he knows we can do better, so we needed to..we were all just kind of like ok....he seems to be a 'if you don't have good statistics, you aren't a good missionary' missionary...which is sad, cause if I'd based my whole mission on that, I would be a failure haha. Anyway, once he'd finished we walked out and we headed into downtown Charleroi and found a kebab joint and sat and talked about getting married and to be honest, I felt the spirit more during my conversation with these guys in the kebab shop than I did during district meeting. Haha! It was honestly a really good conversation. Then we went and caught a train home and we went grocery shopping since it was a holiday yesterday. I love going shopping when everything is cheap! It's seriously the greatest to walk out with your bags full of stuff! Haha when we'd gotten home and dropped off our groceries, we went and contacted until we had our dinner appt. Chung, his wife and Soeur Pironnet invited us over for dinner and games tonight and so when we needed to go catch the bus, we did and we went and ate and played Yahtzee with them for the night. It was super fun! I hadn't played Yahtzee in forever! And I sucked it up and lost by like a million points but it's ok! Haha we had fun.
MERCREDI
So last night Meï Chung told us that she's learned to become a massage therapist and some other type of thing that has to do with that kind of stuff...lol I don't really remember the words, but she wanted some help with what she's doing. So she asked if she would be able to practice on us today, cause she wanted to practice on some people who are stressed, busy, need help yeah yeah yeah and she said the best example she could think of were the missionaries haha so we told her yes and she told us to meet her and Chung at the chapel at 11:30. So this morning we got up and we had studies and then we changed into our comfy clothes and we headed up to the chapel, not really knowing what we were getting ourselves into haha when we got there, her and Chung were there setting up and we just walked in and she pulled out some yoga mats and told us to get comfortable. So we laid down and she told us that she was going to take our spirits into our consciousness and all this stuff and I was just thinking, sweet! I get a free nap lol! This is the best service ever! Haha so we started this inner journey, and I'm pretty sure that I just fell asleep but after we finished and she'd woken us up, she told me my results, and with the 'journey' we took she said she got out of it that I was definitely in the 'unconscious zone' during the session and that she found out that I had a hard childhood and that the person that was directing me throughout my journey was someone that did something bad to me as a child, and that is what is causing the most stress in my life right now. Now you're all gonna laugh at me, but the only thing I could think of was........Michael Jackson's Thriller. LOL. YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW MUCH THAT SCARRED ME AS A CHILD!!!! Lol anyway. It was super weird. She said it was the first out of 3 steps...so we'll see if we do more! After that they'd brought pizza for us and so we sat and ate with them and then we got up and headed home and changed and then headed out to go contacting until language study. We were invited to the De Lauw's house tonight, but they live out in the booneys and so we had to take a train that left around 4:30 so we went out and contacted until we came in for language study. After that we went and caught our train out to the De Lauw's house and it was such a fun night! They have this big beautiful house out in the fields, just 500m from the French boundary! It was fun to be with them. They have a huge movie collection in their house and I saw it and went to go look at it and found Mean Girls and was asking them where they got it cause I'd been looking for it and Frere De Lauw goes, just take it! My present to you. HAH! I was so happy!!! So we ate with them and talked about movies and had a really fun night with them. To end the night, Frere De Lauw gave us a ride home and we were talking all about getting married during the entire ride home. It's hard for me to believe that that is going to be my next step in life....Weirddd
JEUDI
I'll tell you, after today was over, I was done. Haha seriously, I was just so dang tired. It was a long day. But I personally had a really cool experience today. It's after these little experiences that I know Heavenly Father really does listen to every prayer, even the ones that go unspoken. Today we got up and had our studies and then we went out and contacted our way to lunch with Patrick. That pasta is so dang good. It is going to miss me so much when I am gone!!! I love it and it makes me sad that soon I'm going to be having to give it up. Maybe they'd give a loyal customer the recipe?? I've already got the frites recipe;) get ready for some Belge frites all you Utahans!!! So lunch today was good and we had a fun time with Patrick. He keeps telling me that he is praying that after I finish in Namur, I can go die in Charleroi, so we'll have to see if his prayers for that get answered! I'm secretly hoping not cause Charleroi is not a pretty ville......lol anyway when we'd finished with him, there was a nice little breeze that was going through Namur that made it just a little bit chilly and so we made it back to the apartment and got my jacket and then we went out finding. We walked all over, we ran a couple errands, and we even talked with like everyone that we walked by, but no one wanted to stop and talk. Ok, one person sat and listened to us and took a card, but it didn't seem too promising so we'll see if anything happens. But then I was just starting to feel really down. I just wanted to someone to talk to and know that the Lord really did put them in my path, so I just started praying and singing hymns in my heart and we were walking and stopped this older lady and I felt prompted to tell her about prayer, so I did and she went on to explain how prayer means so much to her, and how grateful she was for it and how much she is thankful that the lord wants to talk with him. We talked for a good 20 minutes and then when we asked to pray with her she said yes and at the end of her prayer, she said this, and I quote, I'm very thankful you had the courage to stop me and talk to me. You did the right thing to talk to me. Thank you for what you do. I knew RIGHT then that the Lord had placed me there for her at that time. It was a cool little confirmation for me to know that Heavenly Father has a plan. He listens to prayers. And right now for some reason, he needs me and elder Anderson out all day finding. I got a (little less than) pleasing phone call from our new district leader today wondering why our numbers were so low last week and what he could do to make them higher this week. He told me he wants me to get more member present lessons and I told him that that wasn't going to be possible for the moment, cause we need investigators to be able to have those. He didn't seem to like my response haha am I sassy?? After we finished up contacting this afternoon, we went in and took dinner and language study and then went out porting in this little town outside of Namur that I'd never been to to work in. It was good tonight and we got one little lady to let us in to pray and she took our card and told us she'd call if she ever needed some service done! So this little town called Wépion just outside Namur is said to have the best strawberries in the world. While we were out porting there was a little stand and I told myself that I was going to stop and buy some on our way out and when we got there it was closed.......I was sad, but it'll happen sooner or later! Apparently they are like life changing. Haha I'll be sure to take pics of that life changing moment;)
VENDREDI
So today was spent mostly doing just weekly planning. Haha it wasn't too eventful and it was spent mostly in the apartment planning, but was good none the less. We got a random phone call today from a random number only to hear the voice of a familiar Frere Adams, who is a well known teacher at the MTC telling us that he was in Namur today and wanted to know if he could come and meet up with us to buy us Gaufres. He served here in Namur a good 3 years ago and so he was back for a visit. So that is always exciting when random members ask to buy you some snacks! (It's the reason why I'm gaining so much weight.......seriously I look like a blimp) anyway we got up this morning and we had our studies and then we went and contacted for the morning hours. The sun is really starting to come out and make things warm so that's always a good thing! We then passed by chez gaby and I realized that it had been maybe a week since I'd eaten frites and so we stopped and I got some frites to eat for lunch and made our way back to the apartment and ate. On our way up, I checked my email to see if I had anything and I did. I GOT MY TRAVEL PLANS! Crazy!!!! So when we got upstairs I called elder Orton to see if he'd gotten his as well and we ended up talking for a while. We then sat and planned for our new investigator that came to church last week cause we have an appt with him at a members house tomorrow and so we planned really well for that and also for the rest of the week and it went well. When we had finished we went and did some contacting to end the night and there was nothing too special about tonight that happened.
SAMEDI
Today was a hot and long one. Haha I was POOPED at the end of the night. Honestly, you never know how much just walking around will get you. Haha I was seriously so dang tired. But it was good none the less and elder Anderson reminded me at the end of the night, that we did see a super amazing miracle! Heavenly fathers hands were in our work today. Well like I mentioned I was pooped at the end so that tells you that just like the past month, we spent all day outside working! Haha we walked and walked and walked some more. We did however start off with some studies and then we left. As we were walking around outside, we heard a cry, 'Elders!' So we turned to look at where it was coming from and saw that it was again Frere Adams from the MTC! He hadn't left quite yet but was on his way and was so happy to find us cause he needed to call a couple last members from the ward. So we lent him our phone and we were talking to his friend who turned out to be super cool! He is going to need school to become a surgeon! So we talked a lot cause funny enough that's exactly what I want to do as well! He was super cool. They needed help getting to the Pizza Hut so that they could meet up with a member that he wanted to see one last time before he headed out and so we took them out to the Pizza Hut and then we left them and made our way in for some lunch. When we'd finished eating we made our way out into the blistering heat and we walked and talked and talked and walked and then did it again and still there is just not one person that really wants to talk to us! I don't think I'm that ugly....but I have been wrong before. We went walking on a ton of different roads that I'd never been on before and so I didn't know if they'd be good or not and it just took us to this one lookout over Namur that the Mazy's took us to once and so we sat and looked at that for a while and we even found a new area where we can go porting again sometime so that will be good! We then we're just walking and trying to navigate our way out when we found ourselves in downtown Namur, right next to the McDonald's in the heat and so we decided that we were going to stop for a mcflurry. Haha! I don't know if you all remember or not, but last year, we went to McDonald's like daily to get mcflurries cause it was just so dang hot and so this reminded me a lot of last year. We got in and got our mcflurries and then made our way home for language study. When we'd finished that up, we went and made our way to Dydy's house cause she'd told us that we could invite our new investigator Romuald, who came to church last Sunday, and we could have a lesson there with him! So we got there and not only did we have a lesson, but Dydy had gone and bought a lasagna for us to eat! It was a great night and we kind of got to know Romuald and he told us a little bit of his back story and then we taught him all the way up to Joseph Smith in the restoration and he told us that he thought it could be true, and that all he was hearing was sounding good to him. So we'll have to see how this works out with him.
DIMANCHE
Today went well for the most part, except for the embarrassing fact that I was just so unmotivated! Like legit all day the only thing I wanted to do was curl up in my bed and sleep. I didn't want to do anything and it took almost everything in me to just get up and get out of the apartment today. It was hard. Long story short, I am excited for Sunday naps again! Today when I first woke up I was laying in bed and for some reason, I couldn't stop thinking of dads cocoa cake haha (for those of you who don't speak Libby, cocoa cake directly translated in Libby is Coffee cake. Dad makes it for us every Sunday back at home, and every Sunday when it's fresh out of the oven we hear through the intercom in the house, 'Cocoa cake is ready when you are!' It's kind of like our bribe for getting ready haha) but anyway I was thinking about it and decided to get up and make some. So I did! And as I was sitting there eating it I all of the sudden realized that I wasn't ready for church and I was eating the cocoa cake....haha looks like the 18 years of practice didn't really work all that well. Anywho we headed off to church once we got ready and we walked in and had a good turn out today where Romuald and his son came! So that was a bonus! We had some good meetings today and during the gospel principles class, they were all trying to figure out what lessons that they could teach that would easily go along with the lessons we teach Romuald during the week so that was awesome. I got a little worried when Frere Badoux just out of no where looks at Romuald and goes, are you ready to commit for the rest of your life to this?? I was like WOAH! We haven't even asked if he wants to be baptized yet! Haha but Romuald answered just saying he wants to know more before he makes any decisions. So that calmed me down! After all the church meetings we made our way home and got some lunch down, but the whole time we were just sitting there like ehhhh what to eat..? Haha we were just really unmotivated for some odd reason. But when we finished lunch we watched the 12 week videos that we needed to watch and then once they'd finished we forced ourselves to get dressed and up and out of the door to go and work. Haha it was hard but soon enough we were outside in the rain walking and talking. We kept getting stopped by a bunch of drunks that kept asking if we were Jehovahs witnesses and they kept asking for some money from us and all that fun stuff, so when we'd had enough of contacting, we went to the gare and caught a bus out to go porting. When we got off we just started knocking and we knocked on this one lady's door who told us she knew who we were and she already had a Book of Mormon and that she wouldn't mind if one day we came back and shared a little more! So that was cool. When the night came to an end, and it was still raining, we made our way home and did some paper work to end our night.
Alors j'espère que vous avez aimé mes expériences cette semaine! Il y avait pleine des hauts et aussi pleine des bas, mes en tout cas, j'ai survécu et je sais que j'ai le soutien de continuer. Alors cette semaine j'aimerais bien vous souhaiter une belle semaine, rempli de tout les bonnes choses, et j'espère vous pouvez partager votre témoignage avec au moins une personne! Ça changera votre journée. Merci pour tous ce que vous faites! Keep on keepin on yo! (So I hope you enjoyed my experiences this week! There was full of highs and also downs, anyway, I survived and I know that I have the support to continue. So this week I would like to wish you a nice week, filled with all the good things, and I hope you can share your testimony with at least one person! It will change your day. Thank you for all that you do! Keep on keepin' on yo!)
Elder Libby:)
No comments:
Post a Comment