A New Companion, Progressing Investigators, and an entry which I edited down, a lot, "just in case". A glimpse into the Realities of Mission Life

Hello,

Yesterday was transfer call Sunday, and Sister Aldous is getting transferred to Amsterdam, and I will be getting Sister Wood.  She's very much one of those sisters that the Elders like a lot because she "works hard" and feels guilty if she even eats lunch. Whatever. Sister Aldous thinks I'm getting her to teach her how things are and teach her how to have fun. 

 

We still have our two baptism scheduled for April. One, for the girl on the 13th, and the other for the investigator who got married a couple weeks ago on the 27th. The girl who came to church last week is super super awesome. She's the easiest person to teach ever, and the ward is more willing to help her out because shes Belgian. :) So that's at least good, because whenever we teach someone who is not Belgian, it's impossible to get some support. We taught her a couple times this past week, and tonight we will teach her the last lesson, and then finish some commandments. 

 

I haven't been feeling well lately, and haven't really been able to eat without getting a sick feeling since I came to Belgium,  and we had a dinner appointment this week where they had made us spaghetti, and I walked into the apartment and I thought I was going to throw up and just die, and the guy was dishing up my plate and he's like how much do you want sister western, and I looked at him and I'm like uh, 2 noodles. He looked at me and was like okay... and gave me too noodles and a bread crumb, then he just let me chill out while they all ate dinner. It was really nice of him because a lot of members would be offended but he's just like okay, and carried on. If I had had to eat a whole bowl of spaghetti I would have lost it for sure.

 

We had zone training this past week, and I found it to be a little boring. Like, my only wish is for the leaders to use a different talk everytime. Instead we hear the same subjects over and over again, and we're just sitting there for 5 hours like, come on when is this going to be over. 

 

On Saturday we had an appointment with the other investigator who has a baptismal date, and he is progressing a lot better. Last week we weren't sure if he was getting baptized for the right reasons, but this week, it seemed more genuine. Also his new wife is interested in hearing the lessons. The problem is that she does not speak Dutch, or English. She speaks I think Russian, Georgian, and like some weird language thats close to Turkish but I cant remember what it's called. So we're not really sure what to do with that. She also speaks a little french, like just basic conversation stuff, but nothing that would be okay for us to teach her in. So we're just not really sure what to do. I mean I could read the Russian book of Mormon aloud with her, since I learned to do that in Leeuwarden, but that's not really teaching her, so we'll have to see what happens with that. 

 

The zoo was eh. I would definitely not go again, so I hope sister Wood doesn't want to go this transfer. They didn't even have Polar bears or pandas. Like, even Hogle zoo has polar bears. 

I feel like that's about all for this week.

Thanks for everything. Love you and miss you!

Love, Karoline

Investigators: New, Delayed, and Questioning the Reasons. Pictures Scattered in Between.

The week was okay, and yesterday we had a cool experience. This girl walks into church and we assumed she was the elders investigator because they just took her over so we're like okay whatever, then sister aldous sat next to her and is talking to her during relief society and then the girl is like, I want to get baptized, how do i do that? And we talk to her and find out she isnt really with the elders. She had just met them through a friend in the ward, and she wants us to come teach her. So that's how we stole an investigator from the elders. Shes cool, because shes actually Belgian, so the ward will like that. And she wants to get baptized on April 13th which is super fast but if that's what she wants, then thats what she can have I suppose. 

We had another lesson with the kid we found last week, we went over the restoration, and he accepted the invitation to be baptized, problem is he's moving away for 6 months. Belgium has a lot of weird laws, and this kid has a weird situation, but for some reason he has to go to like a special school type of thing for 6 months and live on his own without help from family or friends. Super weird and he just found out about it last week and has to go this week, so that sucks. But it's okay.

Antwerpen Groenplaats

Our investigator who was supposed to be baptized last week still wants to be baptized, we just arent sure if it's for the right reasons. We met with him this week and he is talking about how he wants to make everyone mormon and then he thinks he can create a better welfare program than the church already has. Mainly for people in like Turkey and Syria and we're like uh, thats not going to happen. so we are still working with him, but his date is pushed back to the end of April.

Sister Aldous and I were out finding the other day when we found an abandoned military base. It's now like a park type of thing. It was super cool though. 

Antwerpen

I can't really think of anything else that happened  this week. It was just normal.

today we are going to the zoo, and I think it's stupid and I don't want to go. Especially because it costs like 11 euros. But whatever. But I don't want to pay that kind of money to go look at animals in cages. whatever. Also, I'm completely out of contacts. Did you want me to look into getting some here? They sell them over the counter. i think they're like 40 euros? Not sure, I can look into it if you want though. 

I think that's everything.

Love you and miss you!

Love, Karoline 

Some Pictures, Some Service and a Wedding!

First, I'll answer the questions. The diamond thing is with a member, the one who takes us out to eat all the time, and is a diplomat for the congo. By the way, if you ever want to take a trip to the Congo, we can get Visas from him haha. Andy, the joint teach, is an RM. He found the gospel when he was 21, and a year later he went on his mission to England. Super cool story. Yes, we still work with him a lot, and it is definitely nice to have the help. 

We work with other sisters 2 times in a transfer. You go on exchange with the sister training leader once, and then her companion while your companion works with the sister training leader. Although technically, the sister training leader is supposed to be with a sister training leader companion, but we don't do that in this mission for some reason. Actually thats a lot of drama, and a story for after the mission about some people thinking that sisters shouldnt be in a leadership position and whatever. 

 I didnt ever get my bike, it's still at the station, We check on them sometimes. I think it's really annoying though, because  I like using bikes, and now we just sit on trams getting fat. I dont know if we will stay together for another transfer. I can see it going both ways. Our area is just in the city. The actual area is a lot bigger, but there are 3 sets of missionaries in this area, so the ward split it up into 3 sections, and we got the city, and one of the sets of elders got the smaller places and some country. 

Yesterday, we were supposed to have a baptism, but we knew last week that it was going to be postponed, which is good, because on Friday he called us saying that he wasnt going to be in church on sunday because he was getting married, and we were confused because his dutch isnt like fantastic so we're like uh no, you mean youre going to a wedding, and hes like no, sisters, I'm getting married on sunday and I want you to be there. And we're like uh, what? You weren't even in a relationship last week. So After Church yesterday the zone leaders gave us a ride down to Mechelen so we could attend his wedding. And it was in this big old cathedral, so that was super cool, and obviously I've never been to a catholic wedding before so that was exciting. Lots of standing and sitting though. Then, they even had us be in the wedding pictures. It was definitely a lot of fun. 

 

And he introduced us to all his family so that was cool too. They were excited to finally meet "the sisters". 

We had the opportunity to do a lot of service this week. With one couple, they are recent converts, they were baptized the week before I got here, and we've been trying to let them get us to help them forever, but the husband refused because it was "mans work" so I'm puhleaze. So finally they called us telling us to come help. So we went and moved a bunch of long wooden planks up some stairs to another room. Seriously, I dont know where all this wood came from, but theres enough to build another house. Then we did some framing in their bathroom for  new tiles. So sister Aldous and I got to use a drill and an electric saw. It was pretty exciting. Not the safest service project, but we had a lot of fun. We also cleaned someone's house for them this week, and that was nice. It's always nice to do something other than finding.

We were at a less actives home sharing a message this week, when one of the people living at her house, he's like 15, and  hes not her son, but thats  a long story, came in and she asked if he had questions for us and hes like yeah actually. And then he had a lot of questions about life and death and stuff, so we ended up teaching the plan of salvation to him, and then he asked us to come back and teach him again, so thats fun. And he's super honest and sincere. Like we were talking about faith and the seed and such and hes like yeah, but I dont have the ingredients to grow a faith seed. and then we talked about that, and it was super cool, and the spirit was so strong. Awesome. 

Antwerpen Castle

That's about it for anything that really happened.... we were at the tram station the other day, and we were late getting home so it was a little after ten, and there was this drunk kid, saying totally stupid things to us, but whatever because it was also hilarious because all of a sudden he just started making random animal noises, and was trying to see how loud he could meow. So funny. Wish I got a video of it. But that's why we dont drink. 

Antwerpen Cathedral

This is a picture of a castle in Antwerpen.

Have a nice week! Love you and miss you!

Love, Karoline 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A Favorite Food, Getting the JOVOs (YSAs) to Class and Pasty White Legs

This week was good, nothing too exciting, but it wasn't bad either. We finally got a new phone on Friday, and it's a lot nicer than our other phone, we should have lost that one ages ago. Oh, I thought of a Belgian food I like, since I couldn't think of anything when you asked the last time. There are these croquette things, and every other time I've tried them I hated them, but here theyre different. Instead of some kind of weirdo  meat surprise soup thing in them, theyre like fried mashed potatos. Theyre great. And we were served them three times this week, so that was delicious. 

We are still teaching the family that you talked about, but not super regualarly, they have a weird schedule, and it's hard for our times to match up. We had so many appointments fall through this week. Ah, so many. It was getting ridiculous, and then on Friday, when we got our phone back, it was crazy, because then we all of a sudden had a week's worth of phone business to do and had a bunch of messages to listen too. Ah, it was way less stressful without a phone. 

Yesterday something funny happened to us. After sacrament we were standing outside the chapel talking to some members, and the teacher of the YSA young adult class was like, "Sister Western have you ever thought of attending the jovo class?" and I was like uh... no, we just always go to the investigator class. And he was like "okay, well, here's the thing, the jovo class, (YSA class) is only young men, and they don't like coming, so I asked what they needed to come to class, and they said that if we could  get you to come, they would come too." And I just stood there and laughed because he was so serious! They wanted to use me as bait to get the YSAs to come to Sunday school, so I told him we would come, and so he went and told them that he got us to go, and sure enough, all the Jovos showed up to their proper class. And after he's like"see, the men just need the proper motivation, and their female counterpart and they're willing to come." Then he asked  us to come next week, so we will go there when we don't have investigators at church now, which is fine by me, because in the class we normally go to, it was about the law of chastity but in the Jovo class it was about Gods convenant with Abraham and the trials of our life, and how God knows exactly what it is we need to go through to bring us on our knees and closer to him, and personally I  found it a lot more uplifiting than a chastity talk, so woohoo. 

Oh, I was also offered a job in the diamond business this week. That was pretty exciting. Someone is willing to fly me back out here and then pay the $10,000 for the diamond school thing and then wants me to work with him. And I'm just like uh, my degree is in neuropsychology,and he's like  I don't care, I just want you to come work for me, so I'm like uh, I'll think about it. That could be interesting, and I could make lots of money. You get the weirdest opportunities on your mission. 

We did a lot of finding this week, mainly just talking to people on the street, because I think knocking doors is stupid. :) It's my least favorite way to find people. And we did find a couple potentials and made some appointments, so we'll see what happens. 

This week the weather was super nice. We were able to ditch the boots and tights, and it was glorious. Of course my pasty white legs were blinding people, but I don't care, that's normal. Yesterday it was in the upper 70s. It was getting toasty in the mid-day sun. And the members who had us over for dinner just had us sit in the sun and roast for a bit because they thought we would enjoy it. It was nice, but I don't think people understand how easily I sunburn haha. But it was great weatherwise this week, and I think it's supposed to continue on that way. things are always better when the winter gray goes away and you can actually see the sky again. 

Our baptism was scheduled for march 16th, but hes having some trouble with some commandments, so we are going to postpone it a couple weeks. Plus here, the ward has this stupid rule where you have to come to church three weeks in a row to all the meetings, and if you  miss one hour or one week you have to start all over again, and the last time he came, a family member died while he was at church, so the ward is making him start the whole three week process all over again. It's so stupid, but whatever. 

I feel like that's everything for this week. Love you and miss you lots!

Love, Karoline

 

Mission Fun and Sparkly Leggings, Mission Work, Mission Friends.

Sister Aldous and I are both on the mend, and we didn't really have to stay in this week. There were some rough parts this week when we both started feeling sick again, but we were able to go out everyday, which is really a blessing, because I have no idea what to do inside.

Yes, I generally get along with the missionaries in the district, theres not really anyone i can think of from my time that i havent gotten a long with, or anything like that. Usually theres only one set of sisters in a district, but actually in Lelystad and Leeuwarden, there were two. Here, we have us, Antwerpen elders, the Antwerpen zone leaders, and Sint Niklaas. So theres 8 of us. 6 of us usually hang out together, because other wise sint niklaas has to pay to travel here on pday. But it's always really fun when the members invite all 6 of us over for one dinner appointment, because things always get really interesting. Every transfer, they get together as a zone and play soccer, last transfer it was just normal,  but this transfer Sister Aldous and I decided that we  needed to get the district to wear something matching, so we took the elders last week down some ghetto african street and we all got matching sparkly black leggings for everyone. We were surprised that they were all excited to wear them. They were only 3 euros, so thats a good deal. 

A couple weeks ago you asked something like if we have a sort of Mardi Gras thing here. We do, and it's getting up to its peak. On Friday we were in centrum, and it was like 930 but we couldnt get home because our tram wasnt riding, so we were waiting for the bus, but it wasnt coming for like another 30 or so minutes. So we're just chilling out waiting, when all of a sudden all these drunk guys dressed up like Tellitububbies were running by. It was so weird. And then a whole bunch of drunk people in costumes ran by. So that was an experience, and eventually we made it home. 

Our baptismal date is still on track, and we met with him this last week, and ate some freaky fish. We are almost all the way done teaching him the commandments, and we were teaching law of chastity, and he's like no sisters, everyone has a sin that they cant give up and I'm not going to be able to do that and we're like blah blah blah. And then we read ether 12:27 with him about overcoming your weaknesses and he stops us, and he's like oh, this is good. This is true, like God can make things better for us. And then he's like ah, my chest is burning, and then hes like rubbing his torso and hes like what is this? And we're like, "the Spirit", and it was super cool to see the look on his face when he put it all together. 

Trushna, the member I was super close to in Leeuwarden, she's the YSA who is from St Maarten? Anyway, she was down in Antwerpen this week, so we got to see each other and eat lunch together on Thursday, which was super cool. 

On Saturday we made soup for the homeless with some ward members again, and that is aways fun. Then we lost our phone.... Sister Aldous checked it and took it out of her bag at 12:12 when we were getting something to drink, and then we never saw it again, so that sucks, and it's definitely weird not getting a ton of calls and messages a day, but it's also way less stressful knowing you're not going to be having to talk to anyone in Dutch on the phone. We should be getting a new one in the mail tomorrow or Wednesday.

It poured a couple of days this week, and it got a little colder some days, but it's back to being warm and sunny today, which is great. We had a relief society activity, which by the way is called ZHV here, where we all got together and played games. Someone brought Can't Stop, so I taught some people how to play.  (This is one of our favorite family games, Dwight has had it for years. We've never seen it anywhere else.) Oh my gosh. They do not teach you how to explain games in Dutch in the MTC, and it's not anything I've had to do before, so that was a fun langauge challenge.

We picked up a new investigator this week, who doesn't think it's important to know if theres a true church or not, but then she invited us back, so we're a little confused but we will see where it goes.

The sisters in our mission are dropping, and they aren't really expecting any new sisters to come in. Someone was saying today that by like August, they're hoping to be able to keep just 6 sister cities open, which is sad. Did I tell you they closed Lelystad last transfer because there weren't enough sisters? And three more are leaving this transfer, including Sister Raun. Oh yeah, I saw sister Rigdon on Saturday and Sunday. She came with her mom and sister to a member, and the member also invited us over to eat dinner with them, which was really nice, then sister Rigdon came to church with her family. It was weird, I don't think it's something I would like to do. Like, you just sit there awkwardly and everything is weird, I don't know how to explain it but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like it. I asked sister Rigdon about her homecoming, but she didn't know the church address or anything, and she's having a really hard time going home so she wasn't really there. But I will try asking sister Raun so you can go to that one. 

We are going to the temple in April, I believe. That's something to look forward to. Hmm I think that's all I can think of.

Love you and miss you.

Love, Karoline