Je suis amoureux avec la Belgique. Franchement, c'est le meilleur! Et les frites sont bien aussi!!! Cette semaine c'est comme un rêve. Lol je suis parti du ghetto et je suis arrivé à l'hôtel Marriott! J'habite dans un château. Des fois je me perds dans l'appartement lol. Mon nouveau collègue vient de finir d'être un bleu donc il ne parle pas beaucoup le français mais quand-même j'essaye de parler le plus que je peux! Je n'ai pas parlé beaucoup en français cette semaine! :( Mais ma semaine était vraiment super! Laissez moi vous expliquer un peu!! Voici mon adresse:
Elder Tanner Libby
Namur, Belgique 5000
so tonight ended super well. Like it was awesome! We had spent the day in St Omer and so around 4 we caught a bus home to Dunkerque and then once we got back we went shopping cause we decided it would be nice to have some food. So we went and got some food and then ran home and changed and headed over to the Deslypper's for dinner. One more time with them and it was great. I love them so much and I have been super blessed to have been with them. Just like every other time we ate lots of food and it was delicious and then we sat and talked and then I asked if I could share a thought for my last time and I shared D&C 31:3 and then told them thanks for everything and brother Deslypper told me to NEVER change. He told me that he has seen my progression in the last few months here and he knows that my trials had strengthened me. He told me that I would be blessed for what I was doing. They then gave us some little presents and mine was a model of the Beffroi in Dunkerque, which is this clock tower and Soeur Deslypper told me that she got it for me because she wanted me to remember the time that we climbed to the top with them. It was so cute. They then took pics with me and we headed out and they gave us a ride home and the night ended with a big hug from Frere Deslypper and me trying to finish up packing my bags.....YAY
MARDI
Today was CRAZY. Like seriously it was so busy and we were LEGIT running all day long. At the end of the day, elder Sorensen asked me, why wasn't every day like this while we were together?....haha so it started out with some studies, which for me consisted of some packing....lol but then we had a rdv with the ward clerk cause he had some questions on a list of members and less actives that me and elder Sorensen had worked on while we were together. So we headed out to the church and made our way to the rdv we had with him. So we got there and spent the next little bit with him explaining the list and what everything meant. We were supposed to have a lunch rdv with Mike at macdo but he called us and told us that his school schedule was changed and so he wouldn't be able to meet up with us for lunch. So I talked to him and it was a good talk with him. He's such a good kid. He will do great things. #NAMETHEMOVIE so then we went home and took some lunch for a while and I continued to pack my bags until we went to Mado's house once more so that I could go and get a note from her that she wrote for me and stayed and talked to her for a little bit and had to go and get Jean Paul for our rdv with Miguel...........so we went and did that and Miguel took us in and he gave me a Belgian flag and told me that he was so excited that I was going to 'his country' and that he might come and stop by in Namur and say hi to me.......... Anywho we then went for one more rdv with Jean Paul!
honestly it was one of the saddest things ever. He told me he'd prepared a message for me and went on his tablet and pressed tons of random buttons til he got to this one page randomly in the 'Adjusting to Missionary Life' pamphlet in gospel library and read a little section on praying often and told me that as long as I prayed and stayed close to Heavenly Father that he knew that He'd watch over me and bless me and lead me to the people ready to be baptized. He then told me he loved me and we took some pictures and then had to leave :( I LOVE JEAN PAUL. THERE I SAID IT. We then went and headed out to Jean Bernard's house one last time and spent some time with him and shared a little message with him and took some pictures. Then we headed home and made this crumble that we'd promised to make for the Golding's one last time and so we made that and then RAN over to their house and spent the night with them. It was so good to spend some time with them. They are such a great family! We took some pictures and played some monopoly deal and then we had to run home for the night. It was a great night! I then finished up what I could on packing.....YAY
honestly it was one of the saddest things ever. He told me he'd prepared a message for me and went on his tablet and pressed tons of random buttons til he got to this one page randomly in the 'Adjusting to Missionary Life' pamphlet in gospel library and read a little section on praying often and told me that as long as I prayed and stayed close to Heavenly Father that he knew that He'd watch over me and bless me and lead me to the people ready to be baptized. He then told me he loved me and we took some pictures and then had to leave :( I LOVE JEAN PAUL. THERE I SAID IT. We then went and headed out to Jean Bernard's house one last time and spent some time with him and shared a little message with him and took some pictures. Then we headed home and made this crumble that we'd promised to make for the Golding's one last time and so we made that and then RAN over to their house and spent the night with them. It was so good to spend some time with them. They are such a great family! We took some pictures and played some monopoly deal and then we had to run home for the night. It was a great night! I then finished up what I could on packing.....YAY
MERCREDI
Today was super good! I got up to Belgium and my new apartment is like a mansion. I kid you not. I moved from a shack into the Marriott. I can't get over it. This place is so big that I get lost sometimes. And my new area is beautiful! I've tried taking a couple pictures but they just don't do it justice so I guess you all will need to come here sometime and discover for yourselves! So this morning we got up and I FINALLY finished up packing and then we got a text that was from the assistants that said, 'Missionaries going to Belgium, all you need to board your bus this afternoon is you ID. please be sure to have it.' And I was like DIE. We had to take a bus from Paris to Belgium because of a strike going on and there were no buses. Like honestly, it was so long haha. So my inner self was just complaining;) we got on the train and headed out of Dunkerque and while leaving I got a phone call from Soeur golding telling me goodbye and a text from Soeur Deslypper telling me 'Good Mick. (<-- that was in English but the rest was in French!) We love you! Love Alain and maryse' and then 2 seconds later another text that said, 'good LUCK! Not mick!' Haha it was funny. We got into Paris and we were chilling in the gare and I called president Duez to say goodbye and in the background I could hear Soeur Duez screaming, 'Bye Elder!! We love you!!!' It was cute and tender. So I was just chilling in the gare and heard that we were coming back to Paris next week for a conference and then that it was because of a strike that we were taking a bus to Belgium tonight.....gah. So after the allotted wait of time we made our way to the new gare to catch our bus to Belgium. We still had a long time before we would be leaving so we waited and guess who showed up?! SOEUR CLAWSON! It had been forever since I'd seen her! So we caught up on good times. I can't believe that her and all my other soeurs are going to be 'dying' this transfer....I'm gonna be so lost without them when they go home! So anyway when the bus finally got here we went out and got in line and I was waiting to get on the bus when I turned around and who did I see?!?!?! LISA ROYER!!! Pauline's cousin and Gilles' niece from the Metz ward!! I may have freaked out a little cause she was standing right in front of me with a MISSIONARY BADGE ON!!!! She and I were buds when I was back in Metz and she is going to St George on her mission and waiting for a visa in Belgium! So I was freaking out when I saw her! It was so fun! We caught up on good times and then boarded the bus to Belgium. It was a long ride...like 4 1/2 hours....bleh but we finally made it to Brussels and we met up with the Norby's and all the other missionaries and got to the car and they drove us home for the night! Me and elder Nelson got to our apartment just around 9 and we planned and I spent the rest of my night unpacking and getting all settled in to my new mansion. I kid you not, this apartment is HUGE. I LOVE IT HERE!!
JEUDI
today was a marvelous first day here in Namur. We did some good work. It was really funny to see elder Nelson running around today. He is all alone in this area and he is just so young that I think he's freaking out a little trying to remember everything and everyone. I know how he feels and I know it's a little bit stressful! But it was funny to see him like that. So I was told that here in Namur it's usually beautiful weather and that I was in for a change! But this morning we woke up and there were clouds all over and just about a half hour before we walked out, it began to rain.....so needless to say, I brought the nasty Dunkerque weather with me! That little town doesn't want to leave my heart!! So we had a lunch appt with a member and I guess it happens every Thursday for lunch we have a member named Patrick that takes us out for The World's Best Pasta. (Congratulations guys!!!! You did it!!!!! World's Best Pasta!) #NAMETHEMOVIE and it actually was really good pasta! And Patrick is a nice guy too. We spent about an hour with him getting to know each other and talking about the ward and all that fun stuff and then we got going. We went to go and get my bus pass for here in Belgium and then went home to grab elder nelsons and then had a rdv with one of their investigators here! His name is Luis and he is from Peru and they've been seeing him for a while and today we went in to re-teach the restoration and he was super nice! I just think that from what I saw we need to go slow with him and make sure that he understands clearly everything. It was fun to see elder Nelson saying how he thinks he's gonna get baptized soon;) his bleu fire is so strong!!;) so after that we headed home to look at the ward list to see where we should go next and we found this one less active that elder Nelson said he'd remembered the bishop had asked him to go see sometime and so we found her address and which bus we needed to take to get out to her house and we did that! We got out to the area and found that we had a long way to walk and we went up this MOUNTAIN walking through this road trying to find this less active. Not going to lie, I felt like we were in a scary movie running through a scary forest road lol I had no idea where we were going and I was just following this map on my iPad and it was so deep into the woods! But we finally found the address and....she had moved...lol so we found this ghetto bus stop and decided we'd see if a bus stopped there so we ported around in the scary neighborhood until the bus came and we took it back home. We then were contacting around when we got a call from someone in the ward asking us where we were and if we were still coming. Haha we were all huh?? And she goes we had a dinner appt and I have your food. LUCKILY, we were like 5 minutes away from her house but we were like an hour late for dinner and so we ran over to her house and she let us in and she had made some fish for us and so we ate with her and spent the rest of our night with her. I felt so bad but she was just laughing saying everything was ok! But neither of us knew about it so the old elder must have forgotten to tell us! Haha so that was interesting.
VENDREDI
Well today was weekly planning and it did take forever but also it was super good and we stayed focused like I kid not the entire time! It was awesome. We planned for all the investigators that we needed to and elder Nelson showed me the member book with all of the members of the ward and it was good to see them! I got kind of familiar with them before actually meeting them. It was good. So we woke up this morning and had some studies and then went out contacting and had some good discussions with everyone and it was good and all and then we came in for lunch and then started weekly planning. That literally took such a long time haha but we planned for this transfer, like we do at the beginning of every transfer and we made it a goal to have a fun date night for the Valentine's Day this transfer! Haha I'm hoping that that will work out cause that would be super fun! Apparently our ward is like super out going and so it would be super fun if we could do that to make everyone like a fool out of themselves or whatever;) so after we finished that we had picked out some less actives that we wanted to try and go see for the night and so we went out and caught a bus out to their neighborhood and tried to find them and ported around there and they weren't there or we couldn't find their house. I wanted to share a cute little bleu moment that elder Nelson did today. :) we were porting and someone answered and then saw us and slammed the door shut and he looks at me and goes, does that count as a door getting slammed in my face?? And I was like ya sure and he goes, YES! I can write about that in my journal! Lol!!! I thought it was so cute! Then we went to catch a bus home. The bus system is so much different in France than it is in Belgium....no one knows anything here!! Hah so after we had finished porting we went home and stopped by the friterie not to far from our apartment and LET. ME. TELL. YOU. BELGE FRITES ARE THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD. I honestly am in love. Haha I was dying they are so good. I spent the rest of my night just dying over them cause they were just amazing!!
SAMEDI
Well today was a long finding day. But we made it through! We did a lot of finding and lots of walking. Elder Nelson told me that everyday we do about 10-15 miles of walking but I have yet to walk about 5 ;) today was good though. We woke up and we went and had studies and then went out to go contacting. We walked all around and talked with a bunch of different people and went to a few different areas that we hadn't been before and so we were just walking and talking. Then we came inside for lunch and we were just passing time you know doing dishes and whatever...haha then we went out to work for the afternoon. I wanted to go and see the chapel cause like why not? That gave us a destination to walk to and it was good for me to see everything before tomorrow. So we went and walked and we got there sooner or later while contacting people on the way. It would have been awesome if I was able to say we brought someone with us to the church to take them on a tour but that hasn't quite happened yet....we got there and I looked around and the chapel is almost the same as Dunkerque just flipped around! The big sacrament room and everything else, it was great to see. And to think that all the rooms would be being used! It made me a little nervous to have the big ward again! No thanks....I think I'll stick with the usual 15 each Sunday!;) after we'd finished up there we headed home for the afternoon and took some dinner and then we went out porting to end the night. We were going to go to this one area but the busses didn't work out and so we took another bus to another area and went and found this really nice man named Luc who let us in to explain a little bit. The only problem was, was each time I tried to explain, he'd interrupt and so I didn't get to explain a ton before we had to leave. But I wish all the best for Luc! Haha we gave him a card and a Book of Mormon and we'll see if he comes back to us or not. It was a good night!
DIMANCHE
Today was such a good day! I got to meet the whole ward and it was great. I do have to say that getting to church and just watching the people come in and not stop was super weird! To have more than 12 people at church is weird. I don't know if I am quite ready to come back to Utah....how the heck am I supposed to get to know everyone?? So anyway there is that little rant. We woke up this morning and went out to catch the bus to get to the chapel and here there are some members who take the bus with us and so we got on and the wife made the husband get up and move so that I could sit down right next to her and introduce myself and so that was cute. We got to church and everyone showed up and the bishop asked me to get up during sacrament meeting and bare my testimony. So we went in for sacrament meeting, cause they do that first here and it is awesome, and I had to bare my testimony which went well! And we also gave the Holy Ghost to the new member that they baptized last week before I got here. It was super cool! Then during the investigators class we talked about the fall of Adam and Eve and I was following along in Moses and I just realized how much I miss the temple! Like I think I'm just gonna hop in the car and head out to the temple with some members here!;) it's something that I did not take advantage of while being at home in Utah. It is a special blessing. So we finished up all our meeting today and then mingling with all the members and elder Nelson was all over trying to get a few dinner appts for this week;) haha so I was just walking around jumping in on conversations and trying to get to know some people. I got so many compliments on my French today! And it was from a week where I wasn't only speaking French! It made me pretty happy! So after all the meeting and mingling we headed home for lunch and then once we had finished lunch, it was windy and raining and so since there was no one on the roads and it would have been no good to go out in that, we did some area book work! We went through and called almost every potential investigator and started to clean out the phone and fixed a couple appts during the week. It was great! So that took a lot of time and by the time we'd gotten through a whole section in the area book we looked outside and there were clouds but it wasn't raining and so we went and did some work out there. We went to this random road and started to port. I was getting a little down cause I didn't feel like we were super inspired to go here and so I was like praying and asking for God to bless me to hear the whisperings of the spirit and I just wasn't getting anything! But we just kept going and this one man opened the door and let us in to pray and his family walked around the corner! They were a family from the Congo and they were 5 normal people! They let us pray and invited us to come back another time to meet up with them! It was such a blessing! They were so grateful to have had someone come ask them to pray. So we are going back next week. It was a tender mercy from the Lord.
Voici ma semaine! J'espère que vous allez bien. Je vais essayer cette semaine de parler plus français. Haha mais je ne crois pas que ça va arriver comme je voulais. Je parle souvent en français mais, il faut que mon collègue me comprend, n'est-ce pas?? Je vous aime!!! Et envoyez vos lettres!!!!! A bientôt!
Elder Libby
No comments:
Post a Comment