Week 15

Hey Everyone!

 

We had a pretty normal week here in Namur. It's the last few weeks of vacance so people are still out of town but it is getting better. This week we were able to meet with Stephan, he is from Tongo and has been meeting with the missionaries for forever. He knows everything really well but just gets hung up on the stuff you have to just accept and take on faith. We read Alma 32 with him and I think we finally got through his head the importance of acting on faith. I am excited to have another rendezvous with him this week. I am using a little bit of personal study each day to try and find scriptures and talks to answer all the things he has concerns with.

Last Tuesday Odette's brother died. It was pretty expected but it was weird cause the week before when he was in the hospital she was talking to us about how he is super faithful and believes in Christ and everything. I gave her a photo of Jesus Christ to take to put in his hospital room. Well she told me last Thursday while we were at like a viewing thing that she put the picture in the coffin with him. I thought that was interesting but she was happy about it and kept just talking about how grateful she is for Heavenly Father and for the Spirit that she feels all the time. It is nice to see that she is really holding strong and she is doing a lot of missionary work with her friends and family. I hope we get to start teaching some of them.

So last Thursday we went to the Badoux's house for dinner. They are a family in the ward who are super cool and have been having the missionaries over for dinner every Thursday for 20 years. Well anyways I was talking to Alexendre who is like 13, he went to another members house to do some gardening and stuff to make some money. Well he ended up helping to take care of the horses that day and I asked how many horses the family had. He told me they had two horses and one ass (donkey). Right after that his grandpa who is like 80 yells, no they don't when you are there they have two asses! It was the highlight of my day so its definitely email worthy this week.

So on the upside, this week I did not get robbed but I kinda wish I had something excited to talk about like that Matt!  I am glad they did not steal your camera, Matt, that would suck. We were not able to go to the refugee center this week. Kabba is in Bruxelles so we are hoping to go this week.

So last Wednesday we had a leak in our bathroom. The water line that goes to the toilet was leaking due to a bad seal. I called the guy in charge of our apartment and he told me if I thought I could fix it to go for it so we went to a hardware store called Brico ( its like a Homedepot  and it felt so much like home in there ) and I bought some plumbers tape and a seal. We went home and I was able to fix it. I was super happy because we had a working toilet again and I felt rather accomplished haha!

Tomorrow we have an exchange. I am staying in Namur with Elder Reed, our district leader I am super excited! We have a lot of good rendezvous planned and Wednesday we are painting a room in Beebee's house. I love doing service-- you just feel so good about yourself afterward. Speaking about service I am teaching family home evening on service tonight so that is cool!

 

Well that is it for this week:

 

Elder Lerdahl

Week 14

Hey everyone!

 

So it has been a really weird week here in Namur!  It is vacance right now so everyone is on vacation and so it has been super hard to see all of our ami's. It also has been weird to kinda lead the ville. Elder Harris doesn't know all the members and amis so I have been working double time trying to help him get to know everyone. We also have done a ton of contacting, President has asked us to make the first two weeks of each transfer "finding weeks" so we have been in the process of doing that.

This week was actually pretty decent contacting wise but we had two cool experiences in particular, last Wednesday we had a pretty cool experience. We left the apartment and went out to do some contacting.  We stopped in a park and after an interesting conversation and just thinking for a few minutes we then said a prayer together. After, we just started walking and I contacting the first lady I saw. She was carrying groceries and was struggling with her two bags so I offered to help her. We grabbed the bags and starting walking with her meanwhile presenting our message. We got to her place and gave her a restoration pamphlet but were not able to get her number she was pretty strong protestant but i felt good knowing we helped her with the groceries. (I heard a statistic that on average people have to be exposed to the missionaries 7 times before they will listen to the message - so there is one of 7 for her ha!) Anyways we left and I contacted the next person I saw. We ended up talking for like 20 minutes. We got her number and gave her a Book of Mormon. She had a lot of questions so I am super excited to see what comes of it!

Another cool experience is last Sunday we were walking down the road and it was right about at the time to head in for dinner. I decided to just give it a few more to contacts instead of being a few minutes early to head in for dinner. I stopped a guy and he said he was interested in learning more. We got a rendezvous set up but he was reluctant on giving out his number. I didn't want to be pushy so I just took the rendezvous. Well yesterday we went to the park that we were supposed to meet at and I honestly was expecting for this guy to not show up because it had been a whole week since we set the appointment. I kept telling myself to have faith and about 3 minutes later he showed up and even brought a friend! The rendezvous went pretty well and we got his number and set another rendezvous with him and his friend.

 

One other thing that was cool is the other day we were walking to an appointment and a guy walked past us turned around and asked if we were the Mormons. I said yes.  So anyways after we talked for a while we found out that he is a member but has been inactive for like 15 years. He just moved to Namur because of a divorce and when he saw us figured he would talk to us. We set a rendezvous up and went and read the Book of Mormon with him. It was really cool and we are gonna work on getting him integrated with the ward.

 

Things with our amis have been pretty slow: People keep committing to go to church and don't show up: It is disheartening when the people who have the means to get to church don't want to the and people that want to go don't have the means. This week should be a lot better we have been able to set some rendezvous up for the next few days and a few of the guys from Elders quorum have offered to come teach with us and help us out so that is really excited. Hopefully we can use the members to invite the amis to church and offer rides and stuff like that.

 

Last week we were not able to go to the refugee center but I am super excited to go this week and see how Grace and Kabba are doing. We also have our rendezvous with the guy I contacted and we are gonna try and set some up with the other people we have been contacting too!

 

Well that is about it for this week. It was definitely a week of finding. The last thing I'll talk about it we are working with Andy (Beebees son) to quit smoking. He is a little handicapped from a car accident so it is slow progress but he got emotional about the word of wisdom and promised to try and quit. I am super excited for him. Just working with him on little things has been one of the best things about Namur. We have a good friendship. He prays for an elder that served here before me every prayer and the other day he told me I am his favorite along with Heavely Father and that other elder. Sure enough the next prayer he prayed for me and the other elder. It was pretty funny. He also reads the Book of Mormon and every time it says God, he substitutes Heavenly Father-- it is awesome!

 

Well hope you all are doing well

 

Elder Lerdahl

Week 13

Sorry for not getting these out sooner everyone! Cory and I have been in Florida at Disney World and his grandparent's place. Sorry for the delay on the last two weeks!
Love you all!
McKenzie

Hey everyone!

 

So this week was pretty interesting with Elder Adams leaving and Elder Harris coming in. Last monday was the start of many goodbyes but it was good because we saw a lot of people. Last Tuesday we had our last district meeting. The last district meeting of each transfer we mostly just talk about the lessons that we have learned that transfer and then the missionaries who are leaving the district bare their testimonies. It was weird to have Elder Adams and Elder Barney (district leader)  give their testimonies. Luckily they still have a while left in the mission so I will see them again soon.

After district meeting we all had lunch together:. We had foo-foo which is like this African dough stuff that you dip in a sauce with onions, hamburger, and peppers--lots of peppers. I didn't really like it because of the dough stuff but it was fun to experience what all the African missionaries in the Congo must experience. It was also super nice to have lunch all together to celebrate the end of the transfer. Elder Reed, one of my favorite missionaries in our district, is our new district leader. I am super excited to have exchanges with him and his blue Elder Glover who I knew in the MTC and get along with really well.

After district meeting we caught a train back to Namur and started going to everyone's houses to say goodbye. It was a crazy day! We saw five different families and I swear each one has a dessert or something prepared. We went to the Istace family's house for dinner and had Tacos which is one of my favorite things to eat here. We have only had them three times and it's always with people who served missions in the US so it makes me feel more like I am at home.  After we hit up all the families in the ward we went to see Beebee, man that was a rough goodbye. She pretty much has nobody else here in Belgium except the ward and the missionaries so each Elder she gets really attached to. She did pretty good and only cried a little saying goodbye to Elder Adams. It was so funny though cause we got saying that we needed to go and she was bargaining with us ha! She is always asking for us to stay another 10 minutes. After Beebees we went back to our house and started getting everything ready for the next day. It was a weird night.

Wednesday we were up bright and early to finish getting ready to leave. We then left and went to catch our train. We had to go to Bruxelles to meet up with another elder and then all three of us were taking a TGV train which is one of the world's fastest trains to Paris from Bruxelles. We all got to Bruxelles early so we decided to take an earlier train to Paris we went and talked to the ticket person and there were no more available seats but the cool thing is first class was only 2 euros more so we jumped on the opportunity and got to ride first class. We enjoyed complimentary drinks and snacks for the hour to Bruxelles. It was fun to be living the first class lifestyle for a little bit. We then got to Paris and had to take a few metros to get to the church. Turns out metros with a bunch of suitcases is not the funnest thing! I don't get how people go on vacation and use metros here to get to the airport. We eventually got to the church and there was a pleasant surprise waiting for me, a package from Aunt Charisty and the rest of the family! I was super stoked to have some more peanut butter and some drink mixes. I then checked the mail bin and finally got my pants (for some reason they were super long but Beebee hemmed them for me so they are perfect now thanks mom for sending them). Then i found Elder Harris and we took of back to Bruxelles and then to Namur.

Elder Harris is from South Carolina he has been out on his mission for 17 months and is a pretty quiet guy. It's been interesting to work with him so far because he is a lot different from Elder Adams but its good. I am learning a lot still and we are getting some good work done.

Thursday we went to dinner at Beebee's house so she could meet Elder Harris. She did really good the first time I was there. At first, every time she saw me she cried thinking of the last elder that I replaced haha! So this time was better and she didn't cry at all. It was also a good time for us to see each others teaching styles a little more. Friday we went to the Red Cross Center and saw our boy Kabba and Grace his buddy. Kabba is working on getting train tickets figured out so he can keep coming to church. Grace is one of my favorite amis we meet him through Kabba and I was the first missionary to really teach him because when we are at the center we kinda split up and one of us teaches Grace and anyone else who wants to listen and the other one teaches Kabba the new member lessons and stuff. Grace is super christian and quotes the bible all up and down on me but in a good way and so I always show him that the Book of Mormon is the same and even expands on the bible! This last week we read 3 Nephi 11 together and talked about the importance of the priesthood and having the authority to baptize and lead Christ's church. He committed to read and he already prays so I am super stoked to see where things go. At the end of the lesson he gave an awesome prayer and I just got fired up about doing missionary work!!

Later that night we had ward counsel and that went well. Saturday we had a BBQ with a bunch of the members at the Badoux house and they even invited some neighbors that were not members so that was awesome.  Saturday we went and had a lesson with Badia and Raphael J. Raphael is a member and his wife has gotten some of the lessons but has not really been progressing the last transfer. We watched the restoration and just answered questions and shared our testimonies. I was stoked when the next day Brother J. was at church for all three meetings: Badia didn't come but getting Brother J. there was a huge step, he hasn't been in a long time!

Sunday was a pretty good day! There were two missionaries who served in Namur who came back to visit. So church was super happening. Elder Harris is a little shy so he didn't talk to a ton of members at church and stuff but luckily the members are super friendly so he is making good progress with getting to know the members. After church we went and saw one of our less actives who wasn't at church. She was offended by some of the ward members so now she refuses to go. It was a crazy rendezvous. I was surprised by how bold I ended up being. I told her that she has a testimony and she has made a  covenant with Heavenly Father so she needs to continue to renew that covenant and that that trumps her problems with the members. Luckily I get to hand that one over to the bishop which I am glad about. I don't want to deal with Namurs own little version of Jersey Shore. Just kidding.

 

All in all it was a pretty good week. I was forced to talk a lot more and I am so grateful for the gift of tongues. I feel like I was able to really talk clearly enough for people to understand and then the week went well and that we had some awesome lessons. Today we are mostly just chilling and getting all the little stuff down like laundry and grocery shopping. It will be nice to relax since the last couple pdays where filled with all kinds of different stuff. I have been getting mail now so I get to write some letters today too. It should be a chill day and tomorrow its right back to work:

 

-Elder Lerdahl