Bonjour
Well last week was a pretty crazy week--it started of with an
exchange. I went and spent a night in Liège and we did a lot of
contacting. It is pretty funny how each time you contact someone it gets
less and less intimidating. So after the exchange I got back to Namur
and we hit the ground running, it was a really busy week because we had a
ton to do to get ready for Odette's baptism on Saturday. The ward
really pulled through and helped us out a lot. We went on Friday and
spent a few hours getting the church ready and then Saturday went early
to fill up the font. Elder Adams baptized her and after she just kept
saying, "I feel so great and so much closer to Heavenly Father." It was
great and a little tiring. It is stressful when you have your normal
missionary work on top of organizing something and trying to get
everything ready and the ward involved. I was super excited for Odette
and I definitely felt the spirit so strongly at her baptism. It really
got me excited to get back out there! That night one of our Amis took us
out to Chinese food! It was so stinking good after not having Chinese
food for 3 months! It made me miss Hunan Village so bad! Oh well I have
my bread, cheese, chocolate and Belgian waffles.
So the reason I wrote today and not yesterday is because in order to be legal in France you have to have a medical appointment. So yesterday we went to France and on the way our train got delayed for an hour and a half because a different train hit a person. So all the trains were backed up so we finally got to France, ran to my appointment where you have to get a chest x-ray, they check your blood and weigh you. Well I go in to see the doctor for the last part of the exam and he asked for my immunization card so I gave it to him and the first thing he said was "Do you drink a lot of coke?" I said, "I used to." and he said, "You should stop." Then he asked if I exercise and I replied and said sometimes and he said what do you do? So I answered and then he looked at me and said, "Well you are overweight. No more cheese, no more bread, no more soda and no more pastries." Yeah that lasted for about an hour til I got to the gare and bought a coke and a pastry! Haha! But it was kinda funny and kinda rude because after getting chest x-rays and blood drawn and being late because of the trains and all the other stuff for the appointment that's all he said to me. I laughed as I enjoyed my pain du chocolat bread which is like a croissant with chocolate in it and drank my coke. So we missed our train home to Belguim and we went and talked to this lady and she was way cool and hooked us up on a new train for free! I am pretty confident that that was a tender mercy of the Lord cause if not we would have been stuck in Paris for flipping ever!
So the reason I wrote today and not yesterday is because in order to be legal in France you have to have a medical appointment. So yesterday we went to France and on the way our train got delayed for an hour and a half because a different train hit a person. So all the trains were backed up so we finally got to France, ran to my appointment where you have to get a chest x-ray, they check your blood and weigh you. Well I go in to see the doctor for the last part of the exam and he asked for my immunization card so I gave it to him and the first thing he said was "Do you drink a lot of coke?" I said, "I used to." and he said, "You should stop." Then he asked if I exercise and I replied and said sometimes and he said what do you do? So I answered and then he looked at me and said, "Well you are overweight. No more cheese, no more bread, no more soda and no more pastries." Yeah that lasted for about an hour til I got to the gare and bought a coke and a pastry! Haha! But it was kinda funny and kinda rude because after getting chest x-rays and blood drawn and being late because of the trains and all the other stuff for the appointment that's all he said to me. I laughed as I enjoyed my pain du chocolat bread which is like a croissant with chocolate in it and drank my coke. So we missed our train home to Belguim and we went and talked to this lady and she was way cool and hooked us up on a new train for free! I am pretty confident that that was a tender mercy of the Lord cause if not we would have been stuck in Paris for flipping ever!
Alright I am almost out of time but here is a quick story that
brightened my day. So we were getting on the train and finding our seats
and there was an old Australian couple trying to get in their seats and
their luggage put away and they were in the way, so we were waiting
patiently and he looked at us and says, "Is that your seat?" and he
pointed to a seat and we said yeah. He said quickly after looking at our
plaques, "No that is Jesus' seat so you better hurry up and sit down!"
Everyone here reacts differently when they see the plaques. The Africans
nod and say how much they love Jesus. The Belgians avoid you and the
Australians crack jokes! Gotta love life as a missionary! In fact the
other day we were going to do a service project so we had our tags on
but they were not as obvious and its weird now not to have people
staring at you!
Well things are going good! We are going to go out and try and find
some new amis this week because a lot of our current amis have kind of
stopped progressing. I am excited to hopefully find some new people to
teach. Also since we just had transfers the people that entered the MTC
right about the time I was leaving just got here. It is so cool to see
how much you progress in 6 weeks.
Well this letter was scatterbrained and not very spiritual but
things are going great! I am starting to really like teaching and seeing
the amis progress and pray for the first time and stuff. It is my
favorite! Odette is now starting to do missionary work with her family
which is so exciting to see how her example can affect her family! I am
excited to see where things go with her family. Well that is it for this
week.
Love you all
Elder Lerdahl
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