Oh la vache!!! Une semaine c'est fini encore?! Ça m semble comme c'était hier que j'ai fait les e-mails....comment c'est possible que les semaines passent assez vite? Mais cette semaine c'était bien passé et nous avons eu beaucoup des choses qui sont bien passé. J'aimerais bien d'entendre comment c'est passé votre semaine:) j'aime bien les e-mails! Ça me fait sourire chaque fois que je reçois un nouveau mail!:) "Holy cow! Another week finished? It's like it was yesterday that I did my last email... to how it is possible that the weeks pass so quickly? But this week it was well spent and we had a lot of things that are going well. I would like though to hear how it went your week :) I like email! It makes me smile whenever I get new mail! :)"
Well as soon as we had finished emailing me and elder Nelson went and bought some new shoes...my shoes that I've had since the beginning of the mission, finally gave up the ghost last week...:( it was hard to see a part of my heart go with those guys. (I actually am going to try to keep them.....#ALLFORTHEMEMORIES) so after we had finished that we headed home and changed and then headed off to the church for our family night. We played some ping pong and then elder Nelson shared a thought on testimony. Like what it is and why it is important and we had a super good discussion on it with everyone. Then we had some chocolate cake and chilled with everyone. It was really good!
MARDI
Today was straight up a finding day. Haha I've been trying to work on my complaining and I've been trying to get rid of it, but it's not really working out as much as I would like it to lol. We had a ton of time for working and finding and I feel bad but you know those days you have when you just don't want to do something like at all? Like it is literally the last thing you want to do? Ya that was finding for me today...we woke up this morning for studies and....I FINISHED THE NEW TESTAMENT!!! I was so happy! There was a ton that I didn't understand, but it was really great to finish! It was the first time ever for me! After studies we headed out the door so that we could make it to our weekly lunch appt with Patrick at the Worlds Best Pasta. We were walking in the bitter cold and in my head I was just complaining up a storm but I was forcing a smile as hard as I could haha it honestly was a struggle. I was trying my hardest to be happy and talk to everyone and I can honestly tell you that faking it DID NOT work. Haha there was almost no one that stopped to talk to us and I know it was because of my attitude. My mom sent me a quote the other week that said, if you want to be happy, you have to be happy on purpose. You have to decide what kind of day you'll have. And I'm really sad to say that today I was really not that happy
so I know it was my fault. We got to lunch and had a great time with Patrick and we laughed and talked and ate and got warm so all the essentials were checked off! Then we headed out. We decided that it would be a good thing if we had our coats and gloves and so we headed home to get those and tried to call and set something up with a couple investigators and stuff but none of them answered and so I just decided that this is what we needed to do today and so I went out and did it with a smile. No, my attitude didn't suddenly change, and no nothing crazy incredible life changing happened, but I was able to do it and talk to people and try my hardest to serve others. And then the phone rang! It was a member telling us that she could come to a lesson with the recent convert that they just baptized the week before I got here! It was a tender mercy of the Lord for sure haha I can't explain to you how cold it was! So she came and met up with us and we headed to the recent converts house where we started the after baptism lessons. It seems to me that me and elder Nelson have taught the restoration lesson almost everyday since I've been here! Haha and with this lady, she likes to talk A LOT! And so we didn't even get to finish. Once we'd spent an hour or so with her and discussed a lot, we headed out. The member had parked her car right on an ice patch and so when she tried to get going, the car would not move but instead slid back into the ditch cause we were on a hill! So we spent the next 5 or so minutes trying to get out and then finally me and elder Nelson got out and pushed the car out of the ice haha it was funny. She then dropped us off not far from the gare where we contacted until our apartment and went in and took our dinner. After dinner, elder Nelson wanted to go out to a small ville outside of Namur to find some less actives and so we caught a bus and headed out to do that where we found the less active, and she told us she wasn't interested in talking to us anymore
so instead we just ported around her neighborhood and we got 4 people that told us we could come back!! One was a Protestant priest, one a Muslim family, one an African family, and one a French family! Haha quite a diverse night lol so anyway we made our way back to the gare to catch our train home and I called the Deslypper's just to say hello and I was on the phone with them for a good 20 minutes. They are such an amazing family!! Frere Deslypper told me something that hit me and that I wanted to share...not to brag or anything but just because it made me feel good
he said, 'Elder Libby, don't think you were here in Dunkerque for such a long time for no reason. You left behind blessings that are now coming into action. The Dunkerque branch is growing, and it is because of you.' It honestly got me a little teary eyed! Anywho I talked to them and then we headed home for the night!
so I know it was my fault. We got to lunch and had a great time with Patrick and we laughed and talked and ate and got warm so all the essentials were checked off! Then we headed out. We decided that it would be a good thing if we had our coats and gloves and so we headed home to get those and tried to call and set something up with a couple investigators and stuff but none of them answered and so I just decided that this is what we needed to do today and so I went out and did it with a smile. No, my attitude didn't suddenly change, and no nothing crazy incredible life changing happened, but I was able to do it and talk to people and try my hardest to serve others. And then the phone rang! It was a member telling us that she could come to a lesson with the recent convert that they just baptized the week before I got here! It was a tender mercy of the Lord for sure haha I can't explain to you how cold it was! So she came and met up with us and we headed to the recent converts house where we started the after baptism lessons. It seems to me that me and elder Nelson have taught the restoration lesson almost everyday since I've been here! Haha and with this lady, she likes to talk A LOT! And so we didn't even get to finish. Once we'd spent an hour or so with her and discussed a lot, we headed out. The member had parked her car right on an ice patch and so when she tried to get going, the car would not move but instead slid back into the ditch cause we were on a hill! So we spent the next 5 or so minutes trying to get out and then finally me and elder Nelson got out and pushed the car out of the ice haha it was funny. She then dropped us off not far from the gare where we contacted until our apartment and went in and took our dinner. After dinner, elder Nelson wanted to go out to a small ville outside of Namur to find some less actives and so we caught a bus and headed out to do that where we found the less active, and she told us she wasn't interested in talking to us anymore so instead we just ported around her neighborhood and we got 4 people that told us we could come back!! One was a Protestant priest, one a Muslim family, one an African family, and one a French family! Haha quite a diverse night lol so anyway we made our way back to the gare to catch our train home and I called the Deslypper's just to say hello and I was on the phone with them for a good 20 minutes. They are such an amazing family!! Frere Deslypper told me something that hit me and that I wanted to share...not to brag or anything but just because it made me feel good he said, 'Elder Libby, don't think you were here in Dunkerque for such a long time for no reason. You left behind blessings that are now coming into action. The Dunkerque branch is growing, and it is because of you.' It honestly got me a little teary eyed! Anywho I talked to them and then we headed home for the night!
MERCREDI
Today was super good!! It just seemed to kind of be a waste....haha I'll get into that later but let me just say that we spent the day in Brussels and didn't get almost any work done :( and it was all President and Soeur Babin's fault!;) no I'm totally kidding. It was no ones fault. It's just easier to find someone to blame than to explain;) haha I'm literally kidding, it was no ones fault. So we woke up this morning and didn't have time for studies cause we had to go and catch our train into Brussels for our district meeting. From now on, I guess they've changed things for some reason? From now on we only have zone conference like every other transfer and what they are doing is coming to our district meetings now and having interviews there and spending time with us there. So it's a good thing! We get a little one on one time with president and Soeur Babin! So we got into Brussels and met up with the other missionaries and then headed to the chapel. In Brussels they have the French speaking missionaries from our mission, but they also have the Dutch speaking elders from the Netherlands mission and so we got to the chapel and it was locked and so we rang the doorbell and some missionaries came to the door that I didn't recognize and then all of the sudden he goes, 'Oh your the FRENCH missionaries...' 
haha it was hilarious. It was fun to talk to them for a while. Then president and Soeur Babin showed up and we had interviews and mine were really good! I had some really cool conversations with them today. They were a little too personal so I don't really feel like I need to share, but let me tell you that I'm really grateful for them and for the friendship that I have with them! President Babin told me today that my French is really good too! Haha he told me that my accent is great and that I'm doing a really good job and gave me a few pointers on how to better it and you wanna know what he said to do?? He told me to play the Book of Mormon in French on my iPad and follow along reading and try to pronounce like the man that speaks on my iPad! Haha so I'm gonna start trying that. Then we had district meeting and it was good. The chapel was freezing and it was freezing outside and so all day I was in my thermals and coat and gloves...haha even during my interviews!!! So during district meeting I just snuggled up to a heater. Then we ended and got all ready to leave and headed out into the bitter cold and made our way to the gare to head home to Namur. We caught our train and the heaters WERE NOT ON. The whole ride home was freezing cold cause there were no heaters...so I was legit trying not to die haha when we got back to Namur I had to buy a warm gaufre just to warm up haha! And it was delicious so don't worry:) we got home and hurried and warmed up and drank some hot chocolate and then headed out to go porting for the night. Nothing too crazy happened. We then came home for the night and I got a call from Jorgy. Sadly he had received a call from president Babin telling him that his grandpa had passed away. He and I have been through this once before and he just needed to talk. We had a heart to heart and he's is doing ok. I got a couple laughs out of him:) Keep him and his family in your prayers!
haha it was hilarious. It was fun to talk to them for a while. Then president and Soeur Babin showed up and we had interviews and mine were really good! I had some really cool conversations with them today. They were a little too personal so I don't really feel like I need to share, but let me tell you that I'm really grateful for them and for the friendship that I have with them! President Babin told me today that my French is really good too! Haha he told me that my accent is great and that I'm doing a really good job and gave me a few pointers on how to better it and you wanna know what he said to do?? He told me to play the Book of Mormon in French on my iPad and follow along reading and try to pronounce like the man that speaks on my iPad! Haha so I'm gonna start trying that. Then we had district meeting and it was good. The chapel was freezing and it was freezing outside and so all day I was in my thermals and coat and gloves...haha even during my interviews!!! So during district meeting I just snuggled up to a heater. Then we ended and got all ready to leave and headed out into the bitter cold and made our way to the gare to head home to Namur. We caught our train and the heaters WERE NOT ON. The whole ride home was freezing cold cause there were no heaters...so I was legit trying not to die haha when we got back to Namur I had to buy a warm gaufre just to warm up haha! And it was delicious so don't worry:) we got home and hurried and warmed up and drank some hot chocolate and then headed out to go porting for the night. Nothing too crazy happened. We then came home for the night and I got a call from Jorgy. Sadly he had received a call from president Babin telling him that his grandpa had passed away. He and I have been through this once before and he just needed to talk. We had a heart to heart and he's is doing ok. I got a couple laughs out of him:) Keep him and his family in your prayers!
JEUDI
Well today was kind of like yesterday...haha we spent our day in Brussels and we didn't get a whole lot of anything done. Sadly:( we had to go into Brussels cause we had doctors appointments for our legality here in Belgium. Cause you know, no one is ok with just having LDS missionaries here for free. We ALL have to be legal. It was funny though cause elder Norby was telling us today, 'who wouldn't want the Mormon missionaries in their country? Honestly we bring life into these countries I thought that was funny. So we woke up this morning and got some studies done and then we headed out the door so that we could catch our train into Brussels. I saw that there was a little store in the gare selling Gaufres and hot chocolate for 2,50€ and so I decided that could be fun for breakfast;) we got on the train and into Brussels and met up with the Norby's and then we had to go to this little machine to take some passport pictures for a portfolio that we had to make for this legality process. After we headed to their apartment and as I was sitting at their table, I opened up my folder that I brought with all my legality papers from my whole mission, (yes I have kept them all;) ) and guess what fell out? A roll of passport pictures that me and my trainer went and took my first day in France!🙄I laughed and showed elder Norby and....ya...I'm stupid. Haha so now I have like 8 passport photos and I don't know if I will ever use them haha. We then got in the car and headed to the doctors office and met up with the other missionaries in Waterloo. I guess it's like a pretty historical city?? Like Napoleon fought there or something?? Does someone wanna fill me in on what happened there?? Lol it was super fast though. We walked into this guys house he looked at us took a few notes and signed a few papers and then said thank you next please lol so we were in and out pretty fast. After that the Norby's took us all to lunch at macdo and it was a fun time with all the missionaries:) Soeur Norby took some fun pictures of us and then she sat down next to her husband and held up her phone to take a selfie and it was just the cutest thing ever. To see these 65 year olds taking a cute macdo selfie. I'm gonna go to macdo with my wife when I get old just to do that. It was cute
then we hopped in the car and elder Norby was driving us back to the gare to catch a train home and we LITERALLY got 2 minutes from the gare when he said how about we just drive you home? Haha so we were like if you really want to? And so he turns around and takes another hour and a half to drive us all the way to Namur! I love senior couples. The whole way there we were talking about their mission in Côte d'Ivoire and how different is was there than here and how they lived it and hearing all their stories and it was fun to talk to them for the drive home and spend the day with them. It always makes me feel special when I spend time with a senior couple. Their kind of like my grandparents I guess?;) when we got home we went for a walk to contact cause we had a while before our next appt. We contacted a man named Emmanuel and he told us he loved to talk about God and he'd be to the church at 5PM tomorrow to talk with us! So that was cool! We then went to our dinner appt with a member named Dydy. Dydy has a son who is less active and we wanted to get to know him. We got there and they had fries and meat for dinner! So we are really well;) we spent a fun night with them and got to talk about him and his situation as well! We shared Because of Him and then left him with the challenge to start to pray and see if it changes his life. He was only a year older than me so it was a lot easier to connect and understand him:)
I thought that was funny. So we woke up this morning and got some studies done and then we headed out the door so that we could catch our train into Brussels. I saw that there was a little store in the gare selling Gaufres and hot chocolate for 2,50€ and so I decided that could be fun for breakfast;) we got on the train and into Brussels and met up with the Norby's and then we had to go to this little machine to take some passport pictures for a portfolio that we had to make for this legality process. After we headed to their apartment and as I was sitting at their table, I opened up my folder that I brought with all my legality papers from my whole mission, (yes I have kept them all;) ) and guess what fell out? A roll of passport pictures that me and my trainer went and took my first day in France!🙄I laughed and showed elder Norby and....ya...I'm stupid. Haha so now I have like 8 passport photos and I don't know if I will ever use them haha. We then got in the car and headed to the doctors office and met up with the other missionaries in Waterloo. I guess it's like a pretty historical city?? Like Napoleon fought there or something?? Does someone wanna fill me in on what happened there?? Lol it was super fast though. We walked into this guys house he looked at us took a few notes and signed a few papers and then said thank you next please lol so we were in and out pretty fast. After that the Norby's took us all to lunch at macdo and it was a fun time with all the missionaries:) Soeur Norby took some fun pictures of us and then she sat down next to her husband and held up her phone to take a selfie and it was just the cutest thing ever. To see these 65 year olds taking a cute macdo selfie. I'm gonna go to macdo with my wife when I get old just to do that. It was cute then we hopped in the car and elder Norby was driving us back to the gare to catch a train home and we LITERALLY got 2 minutes from the gare when he said how about we just drive you home? Haha so we were like if you really want to? And so he turns around and takes another hour and a half to drive us all the way to Namur! I love senior couples. The whole way there we were talking about their mission in Côte d'Ivoire and how different is was there than here and how they lived it and hearing all their stories and it was fun to talk to them for the drive home and spend the day with them. It always makes me feel special when I spend time with a senior couple. Their kind of like my grandparents I guess?;) when we got home we went for a walk to contact cause we had a while before our next appt. We contacted a man named Emmanuel and he told us he loved to talk about God and he'd be to the church at 5PM tomorrow to talk with us! So that was cool! We then went to our dinner appt with a member named Dydy. Dydy has a son who is less active and we wanted to get to know him. We got there and they had fries and meat for dinner! So we are really well;) we spent a fun night with them and got to talk about him and his situation as well! We shared Because of Him and then left him with the challenge to start to pray and see if it changes his life. He was only a year older than me so it was a lot easier to connect and understand him:)
VENDREDI
Tonight we saw a miracle. Honestly it was pretty cool! Haha I'm pretty excited with where it looks like we are going! We started off our day normally. We got our studies up and out of the way and then headed out first thing to go contacting. We went to a few different places and talked to some really nice people and got some really good discussions in but it was just another contacting session. We found a lady on the road that we contacted that told us she knew who we were and that she was even baptized into our church and that she lived in the other ward. So we talked with her for a while and she told us that after all the trials in her life she'd just come to the conclusion that there isn't a god because it was too hard. That response always makes me sad. I ALWAYS ask myself after a conversation like that, 'what do they think about the good things in life? Where do they come from?' That's just such a sad response to me...so anyway we slowly made our way around town and then into the apartment for lunch. Elder Neslon made me Italian Poutine which is fries and spaghetti sauce and cheese and it was good but I prefer original poutine from Canada with gravy please;) #SOGOOD. I've considered moving to Canada just for that. Then we had a rdv with our Peruvian investigator Luis. We got to his house and he was telling us how he'd had a hard few weeks cause of this and that and so we let him vent for a while when he goes, ok I've talked enough. Your turn to talk. So instead of us venting;) we finished up the restoration! Haha it went well, it was just a super weird rdv. He was telling us all about how he saw a video on FB where a woman gave birth to satan and how it was down in South America and how he was telling about the end of the world and then disappeared and the woman died....? Huh? Haha so I got the spirit back and we talked about the restoration instead;) then we left and got a call from another investigator named Alex. He's been investigating the church for 10 or so years and is something we call an eternal investigator hah we got to his house cause he was on lunch break for work and talked to him while he ate food. We talked all about his questions about life on earth and after death and it was well! Then he dropped us off at the gare and we caught a bus to the church where we were supposed to be meeting the really cool guy from last night. He had called today and confirmed so we waited for a while... After 45 minutes of waiting and calling he called and said that because of the rain he wasn't going to be able to come:( so we left and just went porting in the neighborhood next to the church to finish up the night before the bus came. We taught a doorstep lesson to one lady and then the miracle happened. We knocked on someone else's door and she said come in! So we went in and explained who we were and she knew who we were because of our church being in the neighborhood. She let us pray and then she told us we could come back next week while her kids were in school cause she wasn't sure if there was a god but she wanted to learn more!! So we left her with a prayer and headed out and we are going by next week! Honestly it was a miracle cause of 2 reasons. 1) they live right next to the church and they are a family! 2) that kind of stuff never happens. Busy moms do not like to let random people in to pray! Haha it was a miracle!! Then we came home and made some calls to finish up the night cause of the rain.
SAMEDI
Today honestly felt like one of the most successful days in a while. It was such a good day and I feel so happy about the work that we did. Days like today make it so easy to lay down in bed and sleep cause you know you just worked your hardest and it's just the best feeling. Maybe there is another missionary who knows how I feel?? Hahah we got up this morning had our studies and then we got out to work! This morning we didn't have anything to do so we just went contacting and I decided I was sick of nothing happening during contacting so I went HARD! Haha I literally was stopping everyone. Moms, dads, couples, bikers, everyone! And honestly not a ton of people listened, but I handed out quite a few cards, some brochures, and I even got some numbers and appts fixed for later days!! There was an older lady who knew we were the Mormons but didn't have a ton of time so she asked for a paper and wrote down her name and address and said come here on Tuesday night and we'll talk! Haha so that was a sweet and tender mercy of the Lord. We taught a lesson to this young college couple and they said, well more she than he, that they would like to meet again and learn more! I have a testimony that when we put ourselves out there and try to make our purpose known that the Lord will put the people in our paths who need it! Whether that be in missionary work or anything else! We will be able to help someone when we are doing something out of the ordinary:) then we headed in for lunch and then right back out for a rdv that we had with our Rwandan investigators. Today we had a really good and interesting rdv. We re-taught the restoration and they asked lots of good questions and then we got on the topic of baptism and the wife was holding their newborn baby (#SODANGCUTE) and she asked if we could baptize her baby when he turned 8 and I was all BAH OUI! And then I asked if they had ever considered being baptized and she goes well we already have been and we can't get baptized again can we?? And so I explained that baptism is essential in the Lords plan and that the baptism that they had done was a good choice and that them wanting to follow the example of Christ was great but that without that authority of the priesthood, it didn't really do anything and they looked at each other like it finally made sense! Then they asked why the Book of Mormon replaces the bible and so we had to clarify on that as well. That the book of Mormon and the bible compliment each other and that they both have the same goal, to testify that Jesus is the Christ, and that neither replaced the other. It was like another light clicked! We had to get going cause we had another rdv but they asked if next time we could talk about baptism. DONT WORRY I WAS ALREADY PLANNING ON IT. Haha! We then went to our rdv that we had with the man from the other night. We met him at the bus stop just next to where we met him and took it to the church and on the way up to the church he said, 'I randomly got on this bus last week and saw your church and told myself that I wanted to get to know what you were all about.' GOD IS SO GOOD! We took him on a church tour and explained our goal in being there as missionaries and that we are not there for us but for him and he said that he would love to learn more! So he left and me and elder Nelson stayed and cleaned the church a little bit cause it was nasty....we vacuumed and mopped and then headed out to come home and do weekly planning. We got home and did that and it went really well and we had a ton to plan for cause of all the new people we met and it was a great planning session:) then we had an hour left for contacting and so we went out and did that and stopped by the friterie on the way home and grabbed some frites and a metraillette...it's kind of like a kebab but not really....don't worry. I still like kebabs a lot more! These weren't that good...Belgium is just known for them and so I had to try one;)
DIMANCHE
Well today went well! Sunday's are always a great day. It went by super fast today and there wasn't a ton that happened....it was good though! Haha we woke up this morning and got ready for church and then headed out the door and caught our bus. We got there and waited for everyone to come. People started showing up and there were so many! I'm still trying to get used to having more than 15 people in church haha it's crazy. So we were sitting there and just welcoming people in when all of the sudden, an investigator that we taught just the other week walked in! Jean-Claude! It was cool! We didn't even call him or anything and he just came in and stayed for all 3 hours of church. So that was a mini miracle! During sacrament meeting there was a lady in the ward who gave a talk on keeping the Holy Ghost with us at all times and it really touched me. I don't know why but it was a really good talk! Then we had a lesson on prayer when we got into gospel principles class with our investigator and recent convert and that went well. I like the gospel principles class cause it shows just how simple the gospel can be. I really enjoy it. Personally I would love to go to the Sunday school class and learn all about the Book of Mormon but that's ok, I'll wait:) then after all our meetings we were around talking to all the members for so long that we missed our bus! So we had to walk home and about halfway home a member drive past and saw us and offered a ride the rest of the way. So we got home and ate lunch and then we went to do paperwork...cause we had a ton of it haha honestly I am not the best area book keeper;) and with this fancy iPad we are supposed to have the area book app but because of European regulations... We don't. So it's all still paper for the FPM:) France Paris mission. So after we'd finished up all that crap we went out and did some real missionary work. We went out and contacted for a while and then made our way out to this one area that we had a rdv with some potential investigators and ported and then headed to their place for our rdv and they totally just didn't even acknowledge us...they were walking around inside and we were knocking on the door and they wouldn't answer...so that was a bummer. We then just continued to port and talked to some really nice people but in the end it was just us knocking on lots of doors.
Et voilà une semaine est passé....ça me fait peur franchement...mais c'est la vie et ça va toujours être comme ça. J'espère que vous avez tous passé une bonne semaine et que cette semaine ira pour vous aussi. Merci pour tous les prières et pour tout ce que vous faites pour moi. Je suis très béni:) on se parlera bientôt!! Ciao:) "And here my week is spent... it scares me frankly... but this is life and it is fast like this. I hope you have all had a good week and this week will go good for you also. Thanks for all the prayers and for everything you do for me. I am very blessed :) we will speak soon! Ciao :)"
Elder Libby
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