Week 43

This last week was pretty awesome! I'll start from the top so that it all makes sense. haha

Patrick, our ward mission leader, took us out again on his last Monday of vacation haha he's a super nice guy! He took us to some caves! They were awesome! They were kind of like Carlsbad caverns, minus the crying part (only a select few will understand that reference, so if you don't, you can ask around hahaha)

Editors Note:  I'll fill you in because I know what he is talking about.  One summer we went to Carlsbad caverns...and it had been a particularily long couple of days driving out there.  On the day we went to Carlsbad caverns, all the kids wanted to kill each other.  Ermmmm....were TRYING to kill each other.  By the time we got out of the car to go to the caves pretty much everyone was in tears and ANGRY.  There are pictures to prove it.  If I had them with me, I would post...sorry.  End of Note.

Here are some sweet pictures from the caves!

I'm not gonna write captions for them haha they explain themselves I guess haha they're rocks!

During the tour, everyone in the tour, except for us, spoke dutch. The tour guide spoke both french and dutch, so it wasn't a problem, but what was cool was that they referred to us as francophones, or french speakers. I don't know if I would count myself as a fluent french speaker, but it was nice of someone else to tell me that haha. I learned a lot during the tour too!

After we got back from the caves, we did our emails, where a surprise was waiting! We received a referral from the church website! And it gave us an address, phone number, and a little message that said (In french) "I wish to be put in contact with the Mormon missionaries because I wish to become Mormon. Thank you." Does it get better than that?! I was pumped! We have been working and working and not understanding why we hadn't been having much success, but someone had seen our work and brought the people to us! We got in contact with the referral and went and taught him! His name is Romuald, he is 28 years old, from Togo, and he is very interested in our church! We're really excited about him, and he said that when he knows that the church is true, he will be baptized! That was definitely an exciting part of the week :)

I also went on exchanges this week with one of my old companions haha that was a little weird! It was only weird because it took me back in the day haha the exchange went well! We met a lady, taught her, and she accepted to have us come back, so the other companionship will be in charge of that haha it was a good exchange!

My companion and I got let in porting the other day too, and the man told us that he had seen something on the TV about our church and wanted to talk to us to see if it was really true. He had also seen us around town all the time and asked himself why we would do such a thing, so he let us teach him. He ended up not being interested, but we were able to clear up a lot of his questions, so it wasn't a failure!

That was my week! I also found a few pictures that I forget to send the last couple weeks, so here you go!

Check it out! Root Beer!

It was delicious. There is a military base in another city in our district, and the elders there brought it for me. It's all about the people you know! And yes, I shared it with everyone haha.

 This is Bernard! A less active that we would visit that has been coming to church for the past 2 months now!

So I like poopies and light tan, what about it? This was at a less active's house haha

I hope you all have an awesome week! Oh, and for a little scripture study, read Helaman 10 and 11 and check out how much patience Nephi has!

Keep it real!

Elder Daniel Anderson

Week 42: Vacation!

So, vacation times hasn't been super kind to us over here haha I know "Vacation" is usually a time for celebration, but not when all of your amis leave town for 2-4 weeks haha but it's okay, that has given us some time to find new ones! So hopefully we'll find some pretty soon!

One experience that we had this last week was that we had been out all day long contacting people in the road and knocking doors, without much success. Then a super nice car pulls over in a neighborhood and a 30 something year old guy is leaning over wanting to talk to us. I wasn't too surprised, because people ask us for directions all the time, but this guy asked "Do you know Elder _____ (I don't remember the name). I want to know if he's still in Belgium or went back to Italy." I replied that I didnt, but asked how long ago he had met him, and he said that it had been 10 years. So, I told him that he was most likely in Italy. He was a little bummed but still talked to us for a minute. Turns out he wants to get in contact with this missionary because this guy used to be homeless, and the missionary would give him some food to eat every once in a while. They had talked about religion and the importance of changing ourselves in order to change our lives, and he wanted to thank this missionary. He assured us that he was able to change his life and make money legally, but that he really appreciated what that missionary had done for him. Now this guy has a family, good job, and a super nice car haha. He said he was interested in doing geneology, so we'll see how it goes!

Like I've mentioned before, we've been doing a lot of work with less-active members, and it's been working pretty well! One man we had gone to teach, and he told us about how his life was in shambles. We shared a message about prayer and how we can get responses to prayers at church. Well, we saw him in the road a week or so later, and he appraoched us, all excited to tell us how he has been praying a lot more lately and how his life is all in order now! It was awesome! And the icing on the cake? He was at church yesterday!

So, last week our ward mission leader took us to see another sight! It was an American Military Cemetery from World War II. The stories that they shared with us were incredible, and it made me realize just how brave and heroic those soldiers were.

The cemetery

A great quote in the memorial

 An unknown soldier

All of us at the cemetery

My feet on American soil!

It was a great trip, and a very memorable one!

This week our ward mission leader also taught us some french proverbs haha one is "Les chiens aboient et la caravane passe", and the meaning behind it is basically "Haters gon' hate" haha people are gonna say stuff, but we gotta keep on rolling! Life goes on! So no matter what, do what you know is right, and don't worry about what people say! Choose the Right!

One more cool pic I took this week in a members backyard haha

I hope you all have an awesome week!

Elder Daniel Anderson

Week 41: Another Travel Week!

So, this was a big travel week! And it's still going! Well, now that I'm back from a little travel today, it'll be a little calmer for a bit.

Last P-Day, our ward mission leader took us to do a cool activity! It was a bicycle rail riding thing hahah the pictrues will make it easier to understand haha basically we rode a bike contraption on a railroad track! It was awesome!

This was our weapon of choice.

And this is how it went haha

We saw some cool stuff along the way!

This is where we ate lunch.

This house is for sale! So if there are any takers, let me know! haha

It was an awesome day! Patrick, our ward mission leader, is great! It was super nice of him to take us!

Then the next day, I had exchanges with Elder Stucki, one of the other elders that lives in my aprtment, and we were working in my area. It went really well! We taught a few lessons and I had a great time getting to know Elder Stucki!

This is nearby where Elder Stucki and I knocked some doors haha

On my mission, I've given the Church's How to Stop Smoking Program to 2 people. And the two people have taken it different ways. It was interesting to see how one took it, read it, understood it, but then decided to only do and follow parts of it. The other person took it, read it, understood it, and committed to follow it exactly. The first person is still struggling to quit, while the second person has been going strong for 2 weeks and even has introduced the program to their neighbors and is quitting with them too! When I compare the two examples, it's obvious that it's the same with everything in the Gospel! We're given the guidelines, and whether we really apply them or not is how we end up with the results that we get! It was a really eye opening experience for me!

This week I also went to Paris, because my companion had to do his legality, so while he was doing that, I paired up with another missionary and we had been given a missionary scavenger hunt to do by the Assistants! So we headed out into Paris for the day! It was awesome!

No big deal.

Eiffel Tower

Me again

Some weird monument...

My mission!

It was a really exciting day! And it was amazing how many Americans and members of the church that we met! We're everywhere....haha

I have to wrap this up, but we've been doing a lot of less active work lately, and we've been seeing miracles! I'll write about them next week! People are just coming out of the woodwork and it's awesome!

I hope you all have an amazing week! Keep being awesome!

Elder Daniel Anderson

Week 40: Voyager

I hope everyone had an awesome Fourth of July!! We definitely had an exciting one here! No one even knew it was happening here. Oh well! A few members realized it when we mentioned it, but that was all haha. I wore blue-ish pants, a white shirt (of course haha) and a red tie, so I tried!

Oh, and I have another story that I forgot to tell last week! We saved a bunny! SO we were waiting at a bus stop, and I look across this busy street and a little white bunny starts hopping towards the road. Well, that's not good! So my companion and I cross the street, scoop up the bunny, and start knocking doors to find the owner! Eventually we talked to an older man (who was a little nervous to talk to us at first because we're missionaries, but then saw the bunny and relaxed haha) who had seen it before. Then his neighbor came out of their backyard and was super excited to see the bunny! So, one bunny saved. Now we just need to find a few more souls! Which we are definitely working on!

This last week we headed to Liège, Belgium for our Zone Conference. It was really cool! And I learned a lot!

The train station (gare) in Liège

We also have started to see a lot of less active members in the area, because in the Church's broadcast "The Work of Salvation," they talked about that. And we have seen fruits from that labor! Last Sunday, 2 of the people we visit came to church, and one of them even brought a non-member friend! You can't ask for more than that! Sometimes people forget about less active members, but we should never let them think that we've forgotten about them! Christ will never forget about us, so we can't forget about others! Also, we got to see some cool stuff at their houses when we visited haha

Baby Chihuahua! haha

This is the symbol of Charleroi!

I also went on a big adventure today, and that's why I'm emailing a little later than usual, but I'll explain next week!

For next week!

Also, a scripture that hit me this week was Alma 58:40. READ IT. No matter what we've gone through or what injuries we might have, we can't give in! Just keep moving forward with faith and you will see the hand of the Lord in your life! It's not me who promises that, it's Him.

Have an amazing week!

Elder Daniel Anderson

Week 39: Old/New Roomie

Well, transfers came and went. Elder Meyers is gone, and he got replaced by the second companion I had on the mission, Elder Fuller! It's pretty crazy that that worked out, because we both came to Charleroi from Poitiers. So, now we live in the same apartment again! Small world...especially when it comes to missionaries in France and Belgium haha.

We've gotten a couple new amis lately, which has really been a blessing! One of them is named John. He had a really bad accident a couple months ago and life has been hard for him. He lost one of his hands and his back is not the same either. When we went to see him for the first time, he told us how he knows that he needs to change his life and that he really wants to. He already belongs to another church, but he is interested to see what our church teaches. We explained the Restoration to him and also the Book of Mormon, and he said he would read it! Before the lesson was over he started asking if he could read it from the start, so that was awesome! Hopefully things will go well for him!

Our Ward Mission Leader also introduced us to one of his neighbors. He was a super nice Muslim guy, and super open to discussing the Gospel. We have different beliefs, but he is a very open guy and he is willing to read and pray about the Book of Mormon!

Our other ami, Jean-Pierre, is doing a lot better! We went to teach him and check up on his progress, and we could feel the difference! He is doing a lot better and I think he is really starting to apply the Gospel in his life. It's amazing to see the change that the Gospel brings!

This week we also watched the Church Broadcast of "The Work of Salvation", and it was INCREDIBLE. You should ALL watch it! And also, there were a few people in it that I know! haha that was cool to see too. The broadcast is amazing, and it really shows how amazing of an impact members of the church can have on missionary work!

This weekend the sister missionaries here had a baptism. It was great! It's awesome to see the increase of baptisms in the area, I'm lucky to be here and get to be a part of it!

This week we also visited an inactive member of the ward here. He is a very scientific guy and had a lot of questions and doubts about doctrine. I shared with him Jacob 4:8-10, and he understood the scripture right away. We discussed it a bit, and we both admitted that sometimes we look a little too far for the answers to questions, when sometimes we just need to "walk by faith." (2 Corinthians 5:7) Not everything is explanable right now, and we have to just work with what we have, and do the best we can! Trust in the Lord!

I hope you all have an awesome week! Here are some pictures from this last week haha

oh, bt dubs, it's cold again here in Belgium. When we dropped Elder Meyers off at the train station last Wednesday, it was 44°. Whyyyyyy haha it warms up during the day though.

We use the trams all the time! But they're a little newer than this one haha

This is one of our most frequented tram stations haha

 Today! They finally turned on the fountain in centreville now that it's summer! But it's cold again haha

Keep it real, and keep it classy!

Elder Daniel Anderson