Bonjour toute le monde,

 Holy crap this keyboard in French really really sucks, so this sucker is going to have beacoup de mistakes in it. Oh well just wanted to let you know from the get go.

 I am in a town called Namur, Belguim. It is south of Brussels about an hour or so by train. The first few days were super nuts: So we got the the airport last Monday with only ten minutes to spare because we left late because of this sister missionary going to Ukraine or something like that was late and then had to go get something that she forgot--super annoying nes pas? (Isn't it?) So; we got to the airport and had to hurry to get through security and everything and everyone was ticked because we didn't get to call for very long but luckily for me I had the cell phone so I got to call everyone I needed to. We then started our 11 hour flight to Paris: Talk about a long flight when you cant watch the in flight movies-- especially since one of them was "We Bought a Zoo." I only slept for about  15 minutes on the plane because I could not for the life of me get comfortable oh well.

The first day after you get here they take your bags and take you proselyting which was super scary. But they give us a senior companion for the activity and the senior comp is called your mom. So we went out and my mom and I actually got a guys number which was exciting for the first day. By the way my mom's name is Elder Taylor. So after that we went to the mission home and had interviews and supper which was pretty good. Then we went to bed and the next morning we went to Consecration Hill which is a hill that overlooks all of Paris and we all say a prayer to dedicate ourselves to the Lord. Then we go and we get assigned our first companions or trainers and they are called our dad. My dad is Elder Adams. This is a funny tradition because your "mission genealogy"  is super important so eventually at a mission conference you take pictures of you ancestors and what not-- pretty fun stuff. So after that we got to go tour Paris for a bit before our train to Belgium. I got to go to Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower they were both super cool! 

Later we jumped on a train to Brussels and then to Namur. That night we went to a members house for dinner there names are Henry and Mei they are Tahitian and Vietnamese. Henry speaks English because he lived in Vegas for a few years but when I got there he pointed at a statue of Buddha and bowed to me kinda scary when you have no idea who someone is and they are pointing to Buddha and speaking super fast to you haha! But they are super nice and are my new buddies here in Namur. The next day we had four rendezvous=appointments. I didn't talk much but had a fun time. We are super busy in Namur. We have about ten investigators we are focusing on and another ten who have not kept commitments and are not progressing but we still visit on occasion. We have a lot of investigators from different places. We even have two from Iraq and one from Iran.

The Belgian people have a bit of a funny accent so I have struggled to understand but I learn more and more everyday. We have a ward of about 80 people and so we eat at a lot at members' houses. I have only had to cook dinner once so far. The chocolate is tres bien=very good here and the goefs (spelled something like that) are super delicious. Every week we also have lunch at a pasta place with a guy named Patrick. He is a convert for about 7 years now and works in Namur so he likes going to lunch with the elders and it is now a tradition. We also eat dinner at the Badouxs every Thurday and Beebees every Sunday so i get plenty of food. I think I have lost a little weight though because we eat small breakfasts and lunches and walk a ton so that is good.

So far Europe is a bit of a culture shock! We live about a women's clothing store if you know what i mean and there is no such thing as modesty here. Also tons of sketchy advertisements so a bit of a shock after two months in the MTC. I have already started to like sparkling water though-- its not too bad and they drink something a lot like sprite all the time. I MISS ICE SO BAD but am getting use to luke warm water. Everyone here smokes too- I have second-handed at least two packs by now so hello cancer, but oh well like Brother Wardle used to say-- the best smell in a chapel is the smell of cigarettes.

Well that is it for now this keyboard is making me frustrated and I still have to write my mission president.

je t'aime, Elder Lerdahl