Wow how time flies. I can't believe I've been here in Strombeek for almost three weeks--at once I feel like that's too long and too short. I feel like I've lived a lifetime of experiences but at the same time I feel like I've hardly gotten anything done!
I feel like I've been here forever, but I guess really not because we spend so much time getting lost! It's a good excuse to talk to people though, especially Muslims, since we really like to talk to them but we're not allowed to proselyte to them, we always stop them when we're lost and they're super nice about helping us. I didn't realize how well the Muslim community knew us though until the other day when we were looking for an ami's apartment and we had a couple people say hi to us and one guy called out, "Ca va, les soeurs? Vous etes perdues?" (You all right, sisters? Are you lost?) Haha. It made my day, being recognized. I feel legit now.
I have another good story about being recognized... one of the first days I was here we started talking to a guy who was throwing out wine bottles. We told about the restoration and testified of a living prophet while he just threw out bottle after bottle. He was getting a kick out of us and laughing his head off, asking us if we were serious. Serious as a heart attack! He just laughed and walked away. Fast forward two weeks, who should we see sitting at a sidewalk cafe with a bunch of his friends? None other than laughing wine bottle man. I wondered if he would recognize us and sure enough, he looked up and busted up laughing again. Les missionnaires! I wish that story ended in a really cool way, but I have no doubt that someday it will. For now it was fun to feel memorable.
This week was so crazy and so confusing and humbling. I think the phrase, "Well, now what? This is stupid." May have slipped out of my mouth. Once or thrice... It just was so weird. We got lost way out in Dutchland looking for an ami that just moved there. We got up at 5 am on Friday only to miss our train into France for Sister Judd's legality appointment, so we took the next train, showed up only to be told that it was too late and we'd have to wait four weeks for another appointment, then we waited another hour for the next train out of France... I'm still not exactly sure what we were supposed to learn there. It was all made better that evening though, when we had two awesome lessons! The first was with Mireille and Paula, two amazing women, and we taught the best first lesson I've ever had! They had so many good questions and Paula kept reaching across the table for my book of mormon and flipping through it. She calmed down when I told her she could have her own copy :) And then they asked, how do we get baptized? How do we get to go on missions like you? Haha. Golden! We'll be seeing them again tonight. And then we had a lesson with Annejea, an excommunicated member and her investigator boyfriend. They have a super complicated story and when they had called and explained earlier in the week I remember freaking out and just thinking, this is not my job! I don't know how to deal with this! I went into the lesson just praying and praying and then I just felt this deep calm and we knew what to say. The lesson went very well and Didier, the boyfriend, was touched. I love how simple the gospel is! It's the answer to everything. Phew. Good thing my job really isn't as complicated as I sometimes let myself think it is.
Oh, crazy story, we have one ami who is just as golden as the sun. She's the sweetest person ever and she LOVES our lessons and she loves the Book of Mormon! She was reading it and called her dad, who is a pastor in a Protestant Church down in Chad, and told him about it, and now he wants one! With any luck he'll get so excited he'll start sharing it with his whole congregation :) But, opposition in all things. You can't have an ami this golden without Satan taking notice. She's been wanting so badly to come to church, but the last two weeks she got called into work (she's a nurse). This week she talked to her work and made sure she'd be free Sunday and we talked to her Saturday evening and she was good to go and super excited. Sunday morning we get a text saying that the POLICE will be dropping her off at church because her husband (who is trying to divorce her) SET FIRE to her apartment. Um, what? And then business with the police took longer than she thought and she never made it to church. Opposition like this makes it obvious how important she is! We're fighting for her! But I really don't know what I can do to avoid crazy men getting in the way. Stupid crazy men. Be careful who you marry, folks. Aren't you glad I'm learning such good life lessons? Haha.
Um, I feel like I had a lot of other stories to tell you but now I can't think of them. I got to study the scriptures for 6 hours this morning, that was fun. This was while Sr. Judd was coming out of her nyquil coma. She was sick yesterday and our super nice ward mission leader and his wife and the bishop came over last night with nyquil, chicken noodle soup, ritz crackers, tissues, mint oreos (for me) and a priesthood blessing. So, mom, we're pretty spoiled over here. Oh yeah, the relief society lesson was on missionary work and they talked a lot about the blessings for the missionaries' families and what our DMP's wife calls "missionary kharma" and I cried like a baby. I hope you guys are getting the benefits of missionary kharma over there. Sounds like Daryl is, anyway :P Haha, sorry D.
We have leadership training this wednesday! I'm so excited! There aren't many things I like more in the world than getting together with other missionaries and learning how to be better missionaries. Yay! Partay!
So how are you all? I told Jaime to get everyone's orders before I sent you guys a package but I didn't hear anything back. So you guys are just getting speculoos and belgian chocolate. Just to warn you, you won't be able to eat normal chocolate ever again. I hope Daryl's not in too much pain. Crutches are the worst. At least he got a good date out of it :) Kelly's the best! And she looks bee-you-tee-full in the pictures! And I'm super jealous about Dad and Jaime and everyone going to Capital Reef. I miss camping! I think that's going to be one of the first things on my list when I go home.
Oh last funny story, before I forget. We have an ami named Monica who is from Slovakia and speaks very little French (our conversations are so FUNNY, I wish I'd remembered to tell you about them on the phone). Her French really is terrible and includes lots of hand motions. So, she's great, and loves us and loves church, but guess what? There's no Book of Mormon in Slovakian. And she doesn't understand it in French. So we've been teaching super simply, with lots of pictures and facial expressions, but there's only so much you can do with an ami like that. So we've been praying and praying either to find someone who speaks both Slovakian and French who can translate, or for the Spirit to just enlighten her so she gets what's going on. We go over to visit her a couple days ago to teach the plan of salvation (we figured it'd be ok, since it's very visual) and she tells us about how she's had all these thoughts coming into her head all week as she goes walking, and then she basically explained to us the plan of salvation! Sister Judd and I just looked at each other in shock. I really wish you guys could just see her explain it, it's so funny. "Moi, marche marche marche, Dieu, dans ma tete. C'est quoi ca?" Hahaha, oh man.) She's still progressing slowly, but she has also committed to be baptized and is understanding more. She prays every night and reads the Bible in Slovakian, we're still trying to figure out what to do about her testimony of the Book of Mormon. But hey, baby steps. And prayers are answered!
Wow this email got long all the sudden. Well I hope you guys are all doing great. Oh tell Ashley I got the announcement and it's the cutest thing ever! And I got a nice long letter from Grandpa, that was wonderful. Oh and I was wondering if you guys wanted to do a sort of testimony exchange with the young women in our ward and the young women in my ward here, at girls camp? It was a suggestion that came up, the girls here would think it was super fun to get some of the testimonies and maybe a picture of the yw over there. There's only like 6 young women in the ward here, and about 15 in all of Brussels. How are all the camp preparations going? I'm so jealous! I want to come. What's the theme this year? When is it? And when is trek? Trek was the coolest thing ever. Besides this mission, of course...
Ok I really am done now. For reals. I love you!!!
Oh, ps, I'm still in serious need of recipes. I really want grandma's carrot soup recipe...
If anybody has recipes they would be willing to share please comment so that we can pass them on to her.
Thanks!
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