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| Brugge Belgium |
Last Sunday was very spiritual and we saw a lot of success. We had a great church service, and afterwards we went to visit a recent convert who just moved to Amsterdam. She wasn't able to make it to church for some personal issues, so she asked us if we could come by and give her a blessing. Her friend was there too. He is not a member and doesn't believe in God, but he is interested and came to church with her the week before. We taught him after we gave her a blessing, and it was very spiritual. The Spirit was present and he felt it. We invited him to pray after the lesson, and he was very nervous at first and didn't really want to because he wasn't even sure if God was real or not. We walked him through it and taught him the importance of prayer. We told him that he needs to communicate with God and find out for himself if he exists or not. After we explained it better, he agreed to pray. He said a very good prayer and closed in the name of Christ. We all lifted our heads after and he began to cry. The Holy Ghost was testifying to us all that God really does live, and not only does he live, but he loves us and listens to us. That is my favorite part of missionary work; helping others develop a relationship with God. It was incredible, and it is moments like that where I never want my mission to end. The sisters will continue to teach him because we simply don't have time. I wish we did because I really like him, and I am confident he will be baptized, but it doesn't matter who teaches him, as long as it happens. That will be a cool experience for the sisters anyways. After our lesson with him, we drove to our other potential investigator. We taught her the Restoration lesson and it also went really well! She has some different ideas, but she understood our message and why it is important. And she is willing to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She also wants to come to church. She really likes us too and wants us to continue to come over and teach her. It was nice teaching a couple lessons after church that day.
Monday was our office day, and I was lucky enough to have access to a computer and follow the whole process of Meleese having her baby and seeing pictures right away. Shout out to Kevin for keeping me in mind :) That was all I could think about that day. I shared dad's jerky with the office staff and they all loved it. We met with President and Sister Robinson and talked for a LONG time about the coming transfer. We were all there until dinner time so we got some Mcdonalds together after our meeting. They are such great people, and I am lucky to be able to spend so much time with them, because I have learned so much from them. it was a long day in the office though, but we still got a lot done.
Tuesday was the beginning of our Belgium excursion! We woke up early that morning and I drove from Amsterdam to Brussels. We made it to district meeting in a little city right outside of Brussels called Leuven. We attended the district meeting there and then went on splits with the Elders in Leuven. That is so close to the french speaking side of Belgium that we taught a restoration lesson to a french speaker and we had to bring a joint teach who could translate. It was a KILLER first lesson though. He was a practicing catholic, and we blew is mind haha. We had scriptures to prove it from both the Book of Mormon and the Bible, and he loved it. It was probably the cleanest, most thorough restoration lesson I have been a part of, and the Joint teach did a great job translating. We stayed a little over an hour and told him we needed to go when we finished the lesson. He didn't want us to go. He loved talking with us and we set an appointment for that same week. He told us we need to stay an hour and a half next time haha. When we were leaving he told us that he was gonna go straight to mormon.org to study some more. It was a great experience, not only for me, but also for Elder Steenblik. He is a greenie and that was the first restoration lesson he taught. I am glad he was able to be a part of it. We had a fun day in Leuven with the Elders there, and the best part about it... I got to sleep on a lumpy air mattress that was half full that night!!! Haha it was awful, but I was so tired it didn't even matter. I fell straight asleep.
We woke up the next morning and continued our trip to Brugge! Yes, I went back to my favorite city! It was awesome too. I swear it was even more beautiful this time than it was last year. I can't wait for you to see it. We spent a lot of time looking people up, which was a lot of fun for me personally because I got to see some familiar faces. We stopped to get a waffle at my favorite stand, and this will give you an idea of how often I used to go there. When I showed up, the guy remembered me and gave me a discount for my waffle haha. That was a year ago, and he still remembered me! We visited the C family, and they were doing great. We will be staying with them when we visit Brugge our last couple days. We also visited the S family. They are also doing really well. He is the ward mission leader there and we talked about a lot of people. He brought up the Caroma family and asked me if I knew them. I told him about the miracle I had with them right before I left. I told him that we were on the coast in a tiny city looking up a referral. It was the only time I had been to that town. While we were there, a lady pulled up in her car and stopped us. She told us that she was a member of the church but hadn't been able to find it since she moved to Belgium. We got her information and gave her the church information. I left Brugge shortly after that, not knowing much about what had happened with them. That happened almost a year ago. When I told Brother S that story he was happy to tell me that she has been coming to church regularly since I left, and she brings her 4 little kids with her. Two of her kids have been baptized since they started coming back, and the other two will be baptized when they are old enough. What a miracle! The primary tripled in that small little branch with those 4 kids, and the branch loves them. That goes to show that we never will really be able to see all the fruits of our labors in this life. I was lucky enough to see some of mine when I went back to Brugge almost a year after I left, and the joy was almost overwhelming. I was SO happy to hear that. That night I upgraded from a lumpy, half-filled air mattress to a small, leather, couch!!! haha once again, I was too tired to care, and I fell straight asleep.
We woke up the next morning and drove to Antwerp for our last exchange of the week. I was with Elder Bosco in Antwerp. It was cool being with him, we are very similar people and we had a great day together. We taught a couple lessons and got some belgian fries. They were super good and it was a lot of fun. Antwerp is a really cool city too. It was so nice being back in Belgium for the week.
The next morning we woke up and drove until we went to sleep that night haha. We had to interview all the Zone Leaders that day and follow up on things and introduce things. We went all around the country, and we were dead tired that night. It was a killer week with a lot of great experiences, but I was still soooo ready for a P day! We will probably go to a museum today and then take it easy the rest of the day until tonight. We got some people we need to get ahold of and then we need to prepare for Elder Ballard coming on Thursday! It will be another crazy week next week, but it will be a once-in-a-life-time experience.
I told you how I want these last 3 months to be my best 3. This week was a great start, and it is looking like next week will be too. Of course missions aren't always just fun and enjoyable. They are hard and stressful and tiring too. But your attitude plays such a huge role in your mission. You can choose to be happy even through the hard times. You can choose to be positive and look for the miracles, big and small. If you do that, then you will love your mission, both the good times and bad. I know that because I LOVE my mission. I haven't seen the most success, and I have had big trials out here, but I choose to be happy, so I am happy. I am more happy than I ever have been in my life. I am happy for you guys too, with the arrival of a new family member. I love you all so much and miss you more than anything. I can't wait to hold baby Mia in my arms. I hope you all have a great week. Remember, choose to be happy!
Groetjes,
Elder Bishop
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| Brugge |
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| Brugge |
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