WEEK 76

SALUT LES ENFANTS! Comment allez-vous?? Cette semaine, elle était très bon et je vais vous dire que je l'aime Namur :) haha ​​cette semaine jeudi, je commence mes 6 mois à sexy et si cela signifie que je dois me préparer pour les filles, donc je ne suis pas un grand vache quand je rentre chez moi lol. Je ne voudrais pas faire du sport .... mais quand même ... je dois trouver une femme ... donc je faire l'effort pour elle !!! Lol ceci est ma semaine!  (HI CHILDREN! Are you okay?? This week, it was very good and I can tell you that I love Namur :) haha this week Thursday, I began my 6 months to sexy and that means that I have to prepare myself for the girls, so I'm not a cow big when I get home lol. I do not do sports ... but when... I have to find a woman... I'll make the effort for it! Lol this is my week!)

LUNDI SOIR

So tonight we were told that we were going to have a meeting with our ward mission leader. This man isn't super motivated and so I was like ok cool he wants to have a meeting with us so we get to the church and he walks in with 2 other member families to come into the rdv and so I was all ok like why didn't you tell us more people were coming? And then during the whole rdv he was telling me and elder Nelson that we need to step up our game and get things down on paper and bring them to him.....honestly he made us look TERRIBLE in front of all the members...so I was a little mad cause yesterday he told me that he had been ignoring us and our calls cause he was hoping to get released......it was a little hypocritical....but we learn from our mistakes. We went into FHE after that and had a good time with the members and shared a good night together. We had a member share a spiritual thought and she had this fiction story book that took facts from the bible but made them into little stories that weren't necessarily true but had principles taught from Jesus in them, if that makes any sense at all? Like it followed stories from the bible but added in some stuff to make a story. It was cute. Then we came home for the night

MARDI

Well it's like super funny cause we told everyone all weekend and we've been super excited for this week cause we had plans up the wazoo! But they went and changed district meeting on us til tomorrow and so today was a little slow and filled with lots of busy work;) but it was good none the less, just not what we'd planned for the week. We got up this morning and had some studies and they went really well. Then right after we had our weekly lunch appt with Patrick and that was fun like always;) he's such a nice man. He was telling me today how I'm gonna get home and get married within 6 months. HA! NO DUDE THAT MEANS SOMEONE WOULD HAVE TO LIKE ME. LOL. I got a good laugh out of it;) then after lunch we headed home and did a little bit of paperwork to be able to give it to brother Chung (mad last night for not having it and so we went home and did them all for him) and also plugged in some less actives to our map app and then went out and killed the afternoon doing that. We contacted and searched for less actives for a good 2 or 3 hours I'd say and so it was a good chunk of time. We talked to some really interesting people but there was nothing too incredible that happened. It has always surprised me how open people are with us as missionaries. Like honestly think about it. If you were just some random person and this snot nosed 19 year old came up to you and wanted to talk about God, would you just tell him your deepest darkest secrets and problems and let them know your true feelings towards life and God and all that?? It honestly shocks me how much people are willing to share and just proves to me that the spirit guides our conversations and so when we know what is going on with someone in their life, we can try to help them apply the gospel in their lives with what we know. It has been a cool experience for me to see this happen. It makes me think, would I be willing to share stuff like that hoping maybe someone could help me?? So anyway we then made our way to this one lady's house cause we met her on the road a few days ago and she told us she wanted us to come to her house and talk there. So we got to her apartment and then she let us in and we talked...it was an interesting rdv and from what I got out of it, she was more interested in US and not talking about GOD so we finished up our little discussion and then prayed and headed out and headed to our dinner appt. We had been invited over by a member named Claudine and she had also invited the Chungs over and so that was a fun night...;) haha we ate some Chinese soup which was super good and then we all talked and had a good night with them and then headed home. We had to make taco soup for district meeting tomorrow and so we were doing that for a while and it actually turned out super good! We used lots of stuff to improvise...but we did it! It's funny so I'm gonna tell you, we added some pasta sauce in cause we didn't have tomato soup or juice don't worry it tasted really good still.

MERCREDI

So today we didn't have a ton of time in the apartment so we didn't get any studies in. We woke up and did our morning routine and got all ready and then headed out the door and caught our train out to Charleroi for our district meeting. We got out there and met up with the other elders and made our way to the church. It was super good today! We had a lesson given to us on repentance and how we can help our investigators understand how to repent and how to best use it. It was super good and not only did I take it and apply it to my investigators but I also applied it to me. It was really cool! After the lesson, the other elders were talking about a missionary who just came home from his mission in their ward and I asked his name and they go, 'Elder Snickers.' And I freaked out cause I met Elder Snickers in the MTC and we hung out and talked a lot and I even have a picture with him! Haha we talked about that and apparently he just came home! So I told them to tell him hi for me and see if he remembered me;) then we all went and ate our district meeting meal. Haha the taco soup went really well;) I'm glad I got to make it!! Even with the nasty spaghetti sauce we were getting all those compliment thingys;) it was fun and I took some pictures that I'm going to send you! So we were eating and then since it was our district leaders birthday, we all sang happy birthday while they brought out the cake and the piñata. Haha it was a really weak piñata and he broke the bat while swinging! So that was super funny to watch. After district meeting had finished we all headed back to the gare and caught our trains back to our normal villes, even though me and Nelson didn't stay for too long;) we got home and then called Chung to see if he could come to see our recent convert with us cause we need a member to come since she is a woman...be he told us that he was already there visiting and so we went and met up with him there and taught her the rest of the restoration. It went well, she is just a little older and so she doesn't really remember a ton of stuff and so it's hard to really know how much she understands. She is super sweet though and she always tells us how she is proud to be a Mormon:) so it's cute. After our rdv with her we had to head home and pack our bags cause we were going on exchanges with the district leader so we went and packed and headed out the door to catch our train into Nivelles. We got into Nivelles and were planning and going to the Pizza Hut to eat a birthday dinner with elder McDonald for his birthday but didn't know how to get there so we were aimlessly looking at the bus lines and then all of the sudden I heard from behind me, 'is that the missionaries??' So I looked and some people in a mini van started to freak out and I was all hi! And they were all we're members and I was all oh we're trying to get to Pizza Hut and she goes get in we'll take you! So as we were climbing in I was all who are you?? And they go, 'The Snickers Family!' AND I FREAKED! I looked at the kid and immediately recognized him and said, 'DUDE! WE MET AT THE MTC. REMEMBER WE WERE LIKE BFFS?!' And he goes, 'I KNEW I RECOGNIZED YOU FROM SOMEWHERE! Dude how are you?!' We talked the whole way there and it was so fun to see him again! Haha he was super dope. He was super cool and I found my new best friend;) lol jk but like how crazy is that?! I ran into him outside of a random gare and he gave us a ride to Pizza Hut;) haha it was great. We got to Pizza Hut and met up with the other guys and for some reason they all decided they wanted dominoes instead and so we all piled in the car, with elder Nelson in the trunk, lol, and headed for Dominoes and then brought it home to eat where we quoted hot rod the whole night;) #SUCHAFUNNYMOVIE anyway nights spent with the missionaries are always fun!

JEUDI

So I totes had the funnest exchanges OF.MY.LIFE. lol like in all seriousness today was just great. So we woke up and had our studies...you know even when you're doing exchanges things are still the same. After our studies we planned out the day and how it was going to go and since we changed how like almost everything works in the mission lol, we changed how exchanges work. We do 1 exchange and during the exchange the district leader goes with both of us. So this morning I was going to be with McDonald and later I would be with his companion, elder Ashcraft. So we split off this morning and me and macdo went contacting;) haha we walked and talked to lots of different people and it went well. It was a good morning but there was nothing super crazy that happened. We went to go and look at train times for me and Nelson to get back to Namur and because of the schedule and what we were going to be doing with our time, we were going to have to take the train tomorrow morning. So after we found that out we went and met up with the other guys at the friterie for lunch;) we got kebabs and fries and then made it back to the apartment to eat. They were delicious as always haha so no problem. Then we hopped in the car and headed to a part in their area named Mons. There is a little branch there but because it is on a military base, there aren't any missionaries there for the moment. On the car ride down I plugged in my USB, turned on my iPad and set it on the dashboard to record us while we danced and sang. Honestly it was so funny to go back and watch all the videos! Being in the car with three other dudes singing to Disney is pretty fun;) we then got to Mons and dropped Elder Nelson and Elder McDonald off and me and Elder Ashcraft went and made our way to our rdvs.....we followed the GPS which led us to the freeway and you would not BELIEVE how bad the traffic was! Honestly it was terrible. I couldn't believe it. We were stuck, in park, on the freeway for 2 hours! We were just sitting there and listening to music and talking and not moving on the freeway for 2 hours.....jk we moved a little bit a couple of times, but it was so long haha we were so bored that I found a Book of Mormon in the car and we started to prophesy out of it. Literally it was that bad lol. We got to know each other pretty well though;) when we finally got to an exit we took it and found ourselves back in downtown Mons where everyone else, who didn't want to be in traffic went and made more traffic downtown! So we were stuck in traffic again! And so I pulled out the iPad and opened up this map app that we have and found the first lady's house and found some crazy back roads to get there. So off we went! We went through some crazy country sides and were flying to get to this lady's house, when we entered a forest. I kid you not. This road turned into a 1700's road made of cobblestone and had dips and potholes bigger than you can imagine! Be it was legit in the middle of a forest! Haha so we were going through this forest flying through mud and puddles when finally we found civilization again haha we got to this lady's house and gave her a blessing. She seemed super happy to see us! Then we went and had to get to the other lady's house and this time we took the freeway cause the other direction was the one that had the traffic. This next lady was an excommunicated member who is trying to get re-baptized but has a smoking problem. So we went to eat with her and discuss her smoking problem and try to help her make a program. It went well and she told us she is trying to stop and that its just going to be slowly done. Then we left and went to get the other guys and headed home making some more singing videos of course;) it was a crazy fun day!

VENDREDI

So this morning we got up and out of the apartment to catch our bus home from exchanges! It felt like it had been forever since we'd been home and so it was good to get out and make our way home. Got home at a decent hour and were able to catch a bus straight to our first appt! Today we had so many appts and so we were crazy booked for the whole day, which is tiring but that is the best thing to be tired from haha. It makes things go so smoothly. So we caught a bus to go and teach the lady that lives just right next to the church that we met porting a few weeks back. She remembered that we were coming and let us right in to talk! We sat down and got to know her and talked for a while about all her questions, like who we were and what we believed. We answered her questions on prayer and a living prophet and all that fun stuff and the lesson was going really well!.....then her husband walked in. He shook our hands and then walked into the kitchen and 5 minutes later came into the room and said, 'Look, my wife is too shy to say it, but none of this interests us. Sorry thanks.' And so since we he just had such a nice conversation with his wife, where she had directed it, and asked us questions, or in other words, WAS INTERESTED, I just sat and stared at him. It was kind of funny cause I knew that that remark was supposed to make me feel uncomfortable, but because I just sat and stared at him, he went red in the face and laughed and looked pretty uncomfortable and asked his wife, 'What, does this interest you?' And her response was the best. She said, 'well if it didn't, I wouldn't have invited them back over!' And he goes, 'OK well it doesn't interest me.' I could tell that she was a little upset at him and he was a little upset that we were there and so we just decided to leave. We told her that she could always call us and that she was always welcome at the church and she told us she would come one day and when we told her there were classes for kids as well, she was like oh cool! So I hope to hear from her soon. Then we went to our rdv with our investigator Luis from Peru and today we just read in the Book of Mormon with him cause we don't know how much he is understanding when we teach him so we read and he said he understood 1 Nephi 1 and so we encouraged him to keep reading! Then we ran over to Emmanuel and Claudette's house!!! THESE TWO ARE SO GOLDEN AND AMAZING. I LOVE THEM. AND THEIR BABY. The last time we were there they were asking all those questions on baptism like they'd never been asked to be baptized and so that's what we decided to talk to them about today. We talked about their questions and shared Mosiah 18:8-10 and told them that if they want to get baptized it really only is them holding themselves back and it was such a great rdv and then we had to get going to make it to the next rdv and so we asked if we could come back tomorrow night and talk more and they said yes! So we told them that we wanted them to take a piece of paper and write down all their questions that come while they read the rest of the chapter in Mosiah and then we asked them to pray for them and for us as we prepared to answer their questions. We then went to catch a train to a less actives house when we missed the train and so we called her and she said to just come and see her another time...so we just went out porting for the night.

SAMEDI

So this morning we woke up and had our studies and then looked out the window and it was pouring rain and windy and there was no one outside and we had a half hour until our first rdv and so we stayed in for that half hour and we made some calls and then we headed out into the storm to make it to our rdv. After my studies this morning I was praying and got a weird feeling that I needed to fast...I was kind of against it, but because I felt like I needed to, for some personal reasons and just because I felt like I needed to, I started a fast for the day. Anywho, I'm going to be straight up right now. The rdv was ABSOLUTELY horrible. It was with this African guy who really only wanted to meet with us to bible bash and honestly I was sitting there kind of just letting elder Nelson and him go back and forth trying to contradict one another with bible scriptures. This guy spoke English by the way so that is why I was just letting Nelson go. Needless to say, the spirit was not there, and today gave me a testimony of D&C 42:14: 'And the Spirit shall be given unto you by the prayer of faith; and if ye receive not the Spirit ye shall not teach.' Haha honestly we were not getting anywhere and it was just a super bad rdv and when we presented the restoration he was all no and when we said prophet it got worse and DON'T EVEN ASK how he reacted when we presented the Book of Mormon....when we were leaving he asked us to pray to know if we were in the right cause there was no way God would have a prophet on earth today....so we got out of there and I told Nelson I was sorry but that we were not going to go back and waste our time on someone who just wanted to prove us wrong. So we headed out to the church cause we had a rdv with an investigator from last week and so we got there and he never showed up...we even called and confirmed last night:( so because it was still rainy and nasty outside and we had another rdv in an hour at the church, we just chilled there and put together a list of the less actives that we'd been to and they had either moved or their names were no longer on the house and got that ready for the bishop and his counsellors. Then Jean Claude showed up! We had a great first discussion with him! We taught him all the restoration and he told us he believed that things like that could happen and he even accepted a soft baptismal invite! That means he said he'd get baptized if he came to know the church was true. It was awesome! After that we were getting ready to leave to head to Emmanuel and Claudette's house when we got a text from him saying that some unexpected friends stopped by and they wouldn't be able to have us over tonight. Then he goes, 'we are really sad cause we prayed for you both and have a list of questions to ask. Can you come tomorrow?' Haha they are too good! So we fixed a rdv for tomorrow and we headed home and did weekly planning for the night. It went well and we got it done so thank heavens!!

DIMANCHE

Well if there is one thing that I realized today, it is that my mission has made me come to LOVE Sunday's. I don't even know why. When I was back at home, I really liked Sunday's. You know a day off, relax and chill and all that stuff but like here I've come to realize that Sunday is a special day. It is a day we have to worship our Savior and our Heavenly Father. It is a day that we can concentrate fully on them. For some reason, reading scriptures and all that is a lot more fun on Sunday's too so ya today went great! We woke up and got to the church and people all started to come in and it was a good turn out today! Soeur Halushka, the Ukranian that we ate with a couple weeks ago came up to me and asked me to help her find a chapel in London cause she is going to London for 3 weeks and then said that she hopes I will still be here when she gets back!;) I GOT SOMEONE TO LIKE ME! Haha that made my day. There was a lady in sacrament that gave a really good talk this week. It was on being a witness of God at all times and as she was talking I kept thinking of the talk by Elaine S Dalton that she gave for her last one and it was just really good! Then during priesthood was coming up and I went to go and sit by this couple that I've come to love here, named the Mazy's and before it started I asked them how their week went and the wife goes, 'This week went well but this week is going to be hard. We are getting make it or break it news this week. That's why the ward is having the special fast for us today.' I WAS ALL, WAIT WHAT. SPECIAL FAST? NO ONE TOLD ME. BUT IM ALREADY FASTING. It honestly was so dope. Haha I finally knew what it felt like to be inspired. Haha even though my fast did include some personal reasons, I was fasting cause I didn't really know why. It was so cool!!!! That was super cool. Then we scheduled a few different rdvs with some members for this week and the Mazy's gave us a ride home and we are lunch and then headed out the door to Emmanuel and Claudette's house. We started out by reading in 2 Nephi 31-32 with them and they said that those two chapters answered a lot of their questions, but then they had a couple of questions that they wanted to know. They started with the temple and asked what it was, what we do and why it's different from a church. Claudette thought it was super weird that we didn't let non-members in and asks, 'Why not? Are you guys like naked in there or something?' I died. It was great. Then they asked about the do's and don'ts and like what they'd have to start doing if they got baptized and we answered all their questions. The rdv was a good 3 hours and it was super good. They told us that they do know the church is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that they are going to keep praying and meeting with us before setting a date. It was awesome!! Then we went contacting to finish out the night.

Cette semaine c'était très bien passé:) l'œuvre du Seigneur s'avance! Merci pour les prières, je vais vous demander de continuer de les faire pour moi et les amis de l'église:) merci pour tous ce que vous faites et tous ce que vous êtes. Je vous aime! J'espère d'entendre de vous bientôt! A bientôt:)  (This week was very well spent :) this is the Lord's work! Thanks for the prayers, I'll ask you to continue to make them for me and friends of the Church :) thank you for all that you do and all that you are. I love you! I hope to hear from you soon! Soon :)

Elder Libby