Doing well...

very nice very nice; We had to push Pierres baptismal date to the back of June; I'm sure he will eventually be baptized; he wants more time to tell his family; who are all catholic, so i probably will be transfered out of here by then; so its sad; but as long as he gets baptized; its all good.

 

Yesterday we got confronted by some jehovahs witnesses... i smashed them to the ground.  I then felt somewhat bad (for them); do they not think they i have studied the history of their church; and know how to destroy their efforts to disuade us!  Muslims; jehovahs witnesses; catholics; bhuddists; atheists; and protestants; but now I have ceased :-) ; it is a distraction; and in the long run it does nothing; but sometimes it just gets to me; and i cant help it

 

We had some more brazilian bbq yesterday; twas great as usual, however we were late getting home; its funny because you really start to understand why we have the be back at the apartment at 9:30 rule; because theres that quick switch right when the sun goes down, the metros turn crazy; and theres parties going down everywhere ha; absolutely nuts; so yeah that wont happen again

 

We saw a lady get her necklace stolen the other day; we would have chased them down, but the time we got up to the corner; they were long gone; and judging by all the kebabs ive been eating lately; i probably would have just wound up humiliating myself, two arab boys... of course, talked with the lady after; turned out it was a 500 euro necklace; kind of gives you a new point of view on Aladdin, i dont think i could ever watch that film again and not become enraged by a street theif arab

 

We are seeing paul tonight; a less active albanian man; i have told you about him before; the bouncer; im pretty sure hes in the mafia ha nah jokes; but seriously.. we are going through the lessons with him; he loves it; and i look forward to them every week

 

We had the best numbers in the zone this week, not that its about numbers; buuut just sayin, and then i read a passage in a book about how many lessons and investigators a missionary in peru gets; annnd that brought me back down to earth ha

 

We have a seventy coming this wednesday; i cant help but think that hes going to spiritually "smash" us; Elder Teixiera or somthing like that

 

Anyway; thanks for everything, thanks for the package thats coming; its finally sunny over here; and the metros are just sweaty and disgusting and it smells like africa

 

much love

Going Well...

ah man it sounds like an absolute party back there in the land of milk and honey, spring time is just too good, school ending; rugby in full swing and shlobus still being a shmeegal ha.

thats much respect to United, I think thats legit; before i forget; do you think the national chamionship will be in rio tinto when i get back?  Anyway, so zach threw up from nervousness; ah man thats too good; i cant wait to come back and watch them play.  and play with them some day; that will be too fun.  BYU well deserved indeed; thats so cool; thats too bad that Cal had to drop down; it would be sweet to beat them in the national chamionship; but thats still really cool.

I would love to coach the backs at united some day as well; maybe even when shlobus is grown up a little and playing; ha but by then i think i will be around 33, so thats a ways away. much much respect to United; what a perfect team; they were more than a team when i went there; it changed alot of guys lives and keeps them on the straight and narrow; something great to work toward; give coach colin my thanks.

before i forget; if you want... before you send my package off; i hope you havnt sent it yet; could you chuck a quotes book in there; just any cool book with some quotes in it; i think we use to have a little; something like that.

We set a baptismal date with Pierre, a great guy who i have been teaching for a while, i hope all goes well and he will be baptized on the 9th of June, what a great pre birthday gift ha.  Something great happened a few days ago; during fast and testimony meeting at church; Sister Dravie, an african woman in our ward got up to bare her testimony, she got baptized a couple years ago. she lives alone,  She talked about how she was going through a really hard time; bad health and other things; one day she prayed really hard; she missed the missionaries; she hadnt seen them for a long time and thought they forgot about her, she wanted help.  in her testimony she said that right after her prayer she heard the doorbell ring; she opened the door, it was Elder Webber and Elder Dicataldo, we were just finishing off our list of recent converts we wanted to go see; and her name was next; it wasnt until many weeks later; during her testimony that i knew her prayer had been answered and that we were lucky enough to be a part of that, anyway, she was so excited to see us; weve seen her many times since; i gave her a blessing last night; things are going great. So i guess thats my spiritual thing for the day ha

Many weeks ago me and elder D contacted an african woman in the street; we came to find out she was less active member; we got her number and talked to her for a while, we passed her number on to the sister missionaries; yesterday we found out that her three daughters and her nephew are taking the lessons now and they all want to get baptized; all from a 2 minute contact on the road; pretty cool

We had dinner last night with a family from Goiania Brazil;, i dont know if i spelled that right; we ate some brazilian bbq; i thought that was pretty funny

anyways much love, thanks for the letters and package, tell the bros good luck with rugby; mariah good luck with track and soccer; and Aaron good luck with school and opionionology haha

adios 

Transfers,... But staying (with a new comp.)

thats funny about joseph; what a shmeegle.  Cool to hear that both
united and byu are doing pretty good; thats legit; does zach play 12?

we got the transfer information; and im staying in Bruxelles, thats
what i wanted; i get a newer guy who just got finished being trained;
finally im not junior comp; geeeeeze louize, i see so many
missionaries that are older or have "leadership" positions (my italien
comp) that are just noobs, sometimes i really wonder whats going
through their head; meeeh maybe im just getting tested for my
patience.

but anyway im way excited; we are going to do alot of good things this
transfer i can tell; so it will be cool.  This past week i broke my
personal record for most lessons in a week; we had 15. yatta. and 4
amis at church.  I remember in Saint Quentin when i would have 2 or 3
lessons a week sometimes; that was really hard; but i look back at it;
and it was good for me.

during some contacting last week we met a young african dude; we later
met him down at "his place" pretty much the ghettos of all ghettos,
this building under construction on the street corner; where all the
African homies would stand around and hang out; on the same road there
are all these big loading garages and every once and a while a driver
or store owner will come and pick a few african dudes to come help him
unload; and they get paid a little; ha; wow its like 18th century
southern USA all over again.  however we started teaching our friend
on the bench and low and behold all the brothas started coming out;
listening in, sitting down with us; and then 4 of them showed up to
church this past sunday; pretty unexpected, awesome.

apartment is getting a bit crazy, with transfers coming up; we tend to
get a little too excited; water balloons all up that apartment; place
turned into a huge; oh good times.  The Italian wasnt happy; thats
only because hes a noob and cant catch so his bed and himself got
pretty wet ha

anyway; thats about all i can think of right now; thanks for the
letters; i shall write back shortly

much love

Trudging Along...

sweeeet haha sounds like easter was pretty funny. shlobus shlobus shlobus.  For our easter we went and had dinner at an american familys place, there are a few american families in the ward and they invited us over; honey baked ham from the army base; mashed potatoes; cheesecake, and sweet potatoes; ah man american food is so much better than european food; do not be decieved by people who say that french cuisine is so much better because its not haha nah it was just cool to eat the classic american sunday dinner. 

All the metros; buses and trams have been down for the past couple of days; because a bus driver got in a wreck with another car full of.... arabs.  and the arabs got out and tried to get the bus driver but he locked himself inside the bus; but a ticket man from the same bus was caught outside making calls and so they beat him to death and ran away, good for nothings.  so of course everyone that works for the transportation in the city of brussels went on a little mini strike; because they are scared little pansies or they are just looking for any excuse not to work, it should all be back up and running tomorrow... classic europeans.. classic arabs. 

so we have been walking everywhere; an Hour and a half walk to the church this sunday. and then back again; none of our rendez vous worked because the metros were down; so it was just a lot of contacting and planning the past couple days. AND now litterally every shop is closed because its easter; so we have nowhere to shop for food; luckily we found a place to do emails because our first three places were closed; laaaaziest continent ever; makes me mad sometimes, its a challenge to try and love these people over here, i think they should re name the mission to African mission located in france and belgium mission.  because those are the people we do most of our teaching and contacting with... buuuuut we shall press on yatta

we have two people that are progressing and doing quite well; first is pierre; he has been coming to church everyweek and we see him every friday, he is reading the book the mormon, really chill nice guy, from Congo, i think hes 40 years old.  And then Roxana a 25 year old Romanian intern; shes doing pretty good, and we meet with her once sometimes twice a week down in place de luxembourg by all the european parliment buildings; theres a nice park next to it.  All the rest of our peeps are kinda off and on; but we've done alot of finding and hopefully it will pay off

anyway thanks for all the news; sounds pretty legit

much love

Movin' Along... (and some (gross) Hijinks)

hello everybody i hope its going great

this week was pretty good; we set a baptismal date with a scientology
guy; and he accepted; but im not too sure that he fully realizes yet
all that he will have to leave behind in order to follow Christ and be
baptized.  Hes a great guy; from Hungary

We just came from our apartment where we made Elder Broadbent a newer
missionary do the milk challenge... yeah he threw up all over in that
piece haha; but no worries i got a great  video of it; which i will
show once home ha.  On friday during weekly planning; i drinking tons
of water seeing how clear i could get my pee; right up to the point
where you would think its water... so i recieved the challenge to
drink it; and i did baby; pretty warm, I did drink it through one of
those "filtering" brita pitchers though; still a little yellow; still
a bear grylls fan; still a bear grylls fan.

Right now we are seeing this guy Théophile; a 19 year old WHITE FRENCH
BOY, wow; i never would have though; and he is super super interested;
he came to church and loved it, after church members were coming up to
me; asking all about him; just a solid solid investigator; i hope
things keep going smoothly

Before i forget; can you get me; Quinns address or the one that works
best for him; that makes me so sad; hes a brother, i would like to
send him a letter.

As for the priesthood class and those hard questions; so so true; we
get those questions all the time; and if you really get into it; you
can find logical answers that confound every bit of them but....
theres really no point; people that ask you those questions and let
those things stop from thinking about what really matters; are
probably the people that you should drop and stop teaching, so yeah

Shlobus climbin the mountains; good times good times; and there is no
doubt about it; thats one of things i look forward to the most;
shmeeglin in the mountains with shlobus, that will be too fun.

tell mariah happy birthday, thanks again for the package; the magic
tricks and bean boozeled; the other guys loved them.

we continue to do tons and tons of contacting; its hard to stay happy
and positive in days like that; sometimes you just feel like going
crazy and youre just wasting your time with people who dont give a
rats bum about God; or even talking with other people for that matter;
but just like we found théo and Atella the scientologist; people are
out there that want to listen

much love, talk to you soon

Walking..., Walking,... Walking...

bonjour tout le monde

first off thanks for the package; i just got it today, and everybody
loved the bean boozeled, they just think its hilarious, luckily they
didnt see the other goodies that wait in store for them; so thankyou
very much for that.

The metros trams and buses were down until wednesday; so still quite a
bit of walking, we measured and its about 7.5 miles to go to the
church and back; add in the other rendez vous we had to walk and thats
came around close to 10 miles of walking a day; no exageration homies,
thats the bad thing about being in a big city; the transportation goes
down and youre pretty helpless; and of course it rained every day that
the metros were down and once they started working it cleared up and
became sunny, sometimes i wonder if God was angry ha no i joke, its
all good

This sunday was soo.... interesting.  An inactive came to church;
first time ive seen him, smelling of cigarettes and a little acohol.
it was testimony meeting and he decided to get up and tell everyone
how he he sold himself to men and did hardcore drugs; oh good gosh;
and most of our investigators didnt show up; thats kind of a blessing
because that would not have been good for them to hear that, and i sat
next to james yamadan; an autistic kid about 16 in the ward who never
stops yelling and touching people, and afterward our ward mission
leader wasnt there to teach the investigators class; so i had to go
find him; only to find he was chilling with with all the young adults;
so we all crammed into a tiny room and had a rather ill prepared and
awkward lesson by our less than stellar ward mission leader, and then
our investigator left early; saying he had "shopping to do" probably
one of the worst sundays of my life; its definitly not a day of rest,
i guess thats why they give us P days on mondays

buuuuuuuttttt, quickly things turned around; we met a vietamese man i
contacted a few days ago for the first time; we met up with him in the
metro stop and walked to the church together, we asked him a few
questions got to know him; he speaks french, he has a family but he is
divorced and was just looking for happiness and a better family
relationship; i took the lead in that lesson baby, im sorry but my
comp is a bit awkward; great guy though, anyway he said when i called
him that he felt good and wanted to meet with us; so we talked about
God our Heavenly Father; and how through His Son Jesus Christ we can
find happiness and peace even in jacked up europe, he loved it; wants
to see us again and bring his kids as well;

i got the address to his Vietemese restaurant that he works at so im
hoping to see him there too (and get a discount on some asian cuisine)

its been a hard week; thinking about a lot of things and alot of
things going wrong; but theres still those really good moments that
keeps us chugging along, tis cool

anyways thats cool to hear about the family; keep me updated; joseph
is a shmeegle and hilarios; mariah congrats on track; that is legit,
when i was your age; i really wasnt that athletic, it wasnt until
around high school that i started passin people up, now i look down at
them and cackle hahahahaha

much love; much respect; happy birthday, and tell zach to answer my email

yatta

A Good Week...

Well that is pretty cool, sounds like zach did prrrretty good, sweeeet.  i assume yall are all back in the states now?  mariah is up to shananigans?? good somebody needs to carry on the legacy ha, In saint Quentin i wrote down all the things i have done in my junior high and highschool days; to make sure i dont forget them, as i started writing i found there was alot more than i thought, setting the neighbors yard on fire, crickets in the timpview bball game, bombing the porta potty, good times good times; but anywho

tell zachary congratulations; thats pretty cool, and schlobus is a shmeegle ha

I look forward to the package, that will be really cool, thanks.  

thanks for the magic trick, i will give it a try

today we had a burrito fete with the stronbeck elders; its a tradition thats been in the mission for years; you just get together, make and eat burritos for hours, good stuff good stuff. i must say my eating habits are not the best right now ha; lots and lots of kebaps, some belgian waffles here and there and then meat back at the apartment; but imma try eating a little healthier; we shall see how that goes.

This week we did alot of contacting again, finding new peeps to start teaching; and we have had a pretty good amount of success? teaching some belge; some french; some africans a russian and a couple romanians, the romanian girl we are teaching is money right now; its going pretty good.

conference was great, i know its hard to believe; but i really did enjoy it; lots of questions answered and very motivational, Elder Bednar beeeaast; Elder Holland beeeeaaast, Elder Eyring beeeeaast, Elder Christophersen beeeaaast, Prophet beeeaaaast

it was very cool, great talks, we ordered pizza and just had a great weekend; of course numbers went down; so now its time to start getting back into it

I would send some pictures but these computers are so jacked up, ive given up trying, so i will have to try and find another way.  there was a pretty big "demonstration" the other day in place de luxembourg; close to downtown; tons of dudes with bright orange turbans running around; we taught a lesson right around the corner from it; for multiple reasons we couldnt really go anywhere else; she didnt have a ton of time; i was gonna take a picture of it and send it to yall but my comp freaked out and said it was a bad idea hahaha ageed; but i still couldve snuck a pic easily; maybe next time

anyway thanks for everything; the emails; the packages; letting me know whats going down over there

much love; talk to you soon