Week 8 (Charleroi)

It feels like just yesterday I was doing this, so I guess 2 years will be what, a couple months?

Anyway, it's great here in Belgium! The work is going well too, we have two baptisms scheduled as of now, one for the 11th, and another for the 25th. It's great to see the Lord's work happening out here.

On Thursday, we had a "Bleu Conference" which meant all the new missionaries (or bleus) went to the mission home in Paris for some more orientation information. We had to stay with the Assistants to the President the night before because we're so far away. We had a nice sleepover.

The problem is that we weren't sure what time it would end, so we had already bought train tickets that left too early. We didn't want to be rude and leave in the middle of it because it was such a good conference, but eventually Elder Mendoza realized it wasn't ending and we had to go. We hurried to the train station, but we weren't going to make it on time. So we called the mission office and they switched us to a later train, except there weren't any with open seats until much later. That meant we got to stay in Paris and talk to people on the streets for 3 hours or so. We actually got a few phone numbers of people who were interested in hearing more! We finally got to Brussels at like 10:40, so we stayed the night with our Zone Leaders who live there and made it back home the next morning. It was exciting to get to be out so late in a big city!

We also got to go to a baptism this week! My first one of the mission! Elder Mendoza taught him a few lessons, so we got to go to Brussels for his baptism. It was neat to see, and Elder Mendoza and I talked about what we liked and what we didn't to prepare for our upcoming baptisms.

The rest of the week we've done a lot of finding, which mostly includes walking around Charleroi talking to people on the street. A lot of people don't even want to talk to us, and even some of those who do aren't interested in hearing about the restored gospel. But there are also those who are interested, those who are sincerely looking for truth but just don't know where to find it. That's why I'm out here, to bring the truth to them and help them find the joy the gospel of Jesus Christ brings. This is God's work and His glory, so He's with us every step of the way. Even you all at home, if you look for opportunities, you will find them, I know it!

Bon courage!
Elder Wood

With his companion, Elder Jonatan Mendoza

"Our photoshoot with Jimmy, a stray cat we met"

"Some of the San Fran Squad": Elder Birch, Elder Wood, Elder Bunker, Soeur Begay (aka Ivy), unidentified sister

"Frère Roubicek is the best MTC teacher!"

Elder Poulson and Elder Wood on the FrontRunner (public transport to SLC airport)

On the escalator at Salt Lake airport.

"Our mission for France: Eat pastries, change lives"

Belgian Waffle!

From the baptism they attended in Brussels. Elder Mendoza with Sister Aburto from the General Relief Society Presidency and he thinks her daughter.

"Weird reverse lady bug". He likes bugs, I think.

"Our apartment while swapping couches"

"Our apartment kitchen/bedroom view"

"My desk as I try to sort through all the pamphlets from transfers past"

Week 7 (Charleroi)

Well, it's sure been a while since I've done this. I hope I still know how.

This week and 3 days has been super busy, and a lot of stuff has happened. I hope I can remember it all! Here goes:

I honestly don't remember too much of what happened the last couple days in the MTC, that was forever ago! I just remember that they were both hectic and relaxing somehow. I think it was mostly Monday that was hectic, trying to finish packing, but Saturday and Sunday were nice being to say goodbye to everyone (and not having to plan for any more lessons).

Getting to France was a lot simpler than the trip to San Francisco. The plane ride was actually really comfortable since the back of the plane was like half empty. We could spread out, and some people had entire rows to themselves.

When we arrived in Paris, we met our Mission President, Président Sorensen. He, his wife, and his assistants gave us some lunch and drove us to the mission office where we got briefed on important matters such as how to be reimbursed.

Then the Assistants to the President took us out to go street contacting. We hadn't been in France for more than a few hours, but we were already expected to talk to everyone and share the gospel! It went well though, and afterwards we got to go to dinner at the mission home. It was delicious. Then we spent the night in a hotel, and Elder Bunker and I forgot to set an alarm somehow. So we woke up to the sound of the other Elders at our door, and we had literally no time to get ready and eat breakfast. Oops.

Luckily we were quick and left for the temple on time. When we got there we took a tour of the visitor center with the senior couple in charge there. They told us that the temple is an amazing tool for missionary work, that whenever people come they can always feel the Spirit testifying to them. After the visitor center, we were let loose in the gardens to ponder. They're really nice, and even have some symbolism to Lehi's Deam, which is really cool.

After that we took the metro to go meet our new companions who would be training us for the next few months. Of course, the Sisters who were leading us there had us talk to people on the metro. More contacting with no French experience.

When we finally got there, Président Sorensen had a whole PowerPoint presentation he used to present the companionships and their areas. It felt almost like some of weird game show. Anyway, my trainer is Elder Mendoza, and we were assigned to serve in Charleroi, Belgium! We spent most of the rest of that day traveling there and moving in to the apartment.

The apartment situation is interesting, there are 4 of us living there: the missionaries assigned to Charleroi wards 1 and 2. (I'm in ward 1 by the way) also, the last missionaries who lived here weren't the best at keeping it clean, and one of them finished and went back home, so he left a bunch of his stuff all over. We spent a good portion of today cleaning up, but we didn't get to everything. The other situation we have is our contacts. Apparently there were only 2 missionaries in Charleroi for one transfer period, so all the contacts from both ward are on both companionship phones. We were calling each other's Amis de l'Église for a while, I think some of them are really confused.

I'm loving it out here in Belgium, missionary work is really happening. I was surprised how many people are willing to talk about the gospel. Our first day of contacting people on the street, we got five phone numbers! It just goes to show how the Lord is hastening His work.

Je vous aime! Merci pour tous vos emails!
Elder Wood

Aimee here: Unfortunately he didn't get to a computer to upload photos (he typed all of the above on a phone) so I only have the one that the mission office took at the temple, plus one he took with the phone and sent to me today.

"A beautiful morning spent at the temple before they head off to their first villes!" Elder & Soeur Woods (the directors of the visitors' center), Elder Wood, Elder Bunker, Elder Poulson, Elder Calabuig, Soeur Petersen, Soeur & President Sorensen

"We're doing some shopping and found all your favorite things!" (He knows his mom likes games!)

Arrival in France

From Aimee:
Michael has arrived in France! We received an email from the mission office with the following note and pictures.

From the mission office:
Dear Parents,

We were thrilled to welcome your son to the France, Paris mission today. As you can see, he arrived safely. Thank you for sharing him with us for two years. We look forward to working with him.

Elder Wood with President and Sister Sorensen, who will be leading the mission while Michael is there

Michael's traveling group - Elder Calabuig, Elder Wood, Elder Poulson, Elder Bunker, President Sorensen, Sister Sorensen, and Soeur Petersen

Journey to France

Aimee here:
Michael is on his way to France! I got to talk to him on the phone today while he was at the airport, and also received a photo from a kind stranger who saw him in the airport. Michael is very excited to finally be heading to France, and it was so nice to talk to him. He sounds great!

I loved the poem he sent in his last blog update - it rhymes better in French, but the sentiment is still wonderful in English. Basically it says that we don't recognize our own potential, and only by leaving our comfort zone will we discover how amazing we truly are. For those who don't speak French, I thought you might like to read a translation.

"Come to the edge."
"We can't, we are afraid."
"Come to the edge."
"We can't, we will fall."
"Come to the edge."
And they came.
And he pushed them.
And they soared.

Soeur Petersen, Elder Calabuig, an unidentified elder, Elder Poulson, Elder Wood, and one more unknown elder - in the SLC airport waiting for their flight.

Week 6 (MTC)

Bonjour, tout le monde!

This will be my last post from the MTC, on Monday I head to France! Finally! Unfortunately, one missionary in my district doesn’t have their visa (other than Elder Ellsworth, he was never going to France). Sœur Andreasen got reassigned while she waits for her visa. The great thing is that she was reassigned to the Oregon Portland Mission! (For those who don’t know, that’s my home mission)

On Saturday, our district had an “English fast.” We spoke nothing but French the entire day. To be perfectly honest, it was kinda difficult. Which isn’t good seeing as how we’ll be in France soon. I’m hoping being totally immersed in the language will help. Also Le Don des Langues. That’ll help too.

This morning we served in the Provo Temple, and it was really cool. We worked for 3 and a half hours ripping out carpet, and it was really hard. My arms and legs are super sore, but it was a lot of fun. Totally worth it.

For Tuesday’s devotional, Craig C. Christensen spoke. He’s in the presidency of the 70, and his initials are CCC. One thing that stuck out to me was that he said, every time you invite someone to change their life, you are calling them to repentance. Which is exactly what missionaries are called to do.

I’ll leave you with what I learned from Elder Holland’s recorded devotional I watched on Sunday. He talked about astonishing. He quoted a scripture about how the people were astonished, and because of that they were converted. He told us we had to be astonishing out in the mission field, and honestly, I felt like he astonished us. It felt like the Spirit had punched me or something, but I guess that’s just what happens with apostles. He also quoted a poem that was written in French, but he of course read the translation. He used it to say we had to go to where the magic happens. If we stay where we are, nothing’s going to happen. Get out of your comfort zone! Obviously, I had to look up the original French, so here it is:

«Venez jusqu’au bord.»
«Nous ne pouvons pas, nous avons peur.»
«Venez jusqu’au bord.»
«Nous ne pouvons pas, nous allons tomber.»
«Venez jusqu’au bord.»
Et ils y sont allés.
Et il les a poussés.
Et ils se sont envolés.

Au revoir,
Elder Wood

Elder Wood and Elder Bunker with new haircuts before they head to Paris. (Haircuts in the MTC are free, by the way.)

"The French flag was right next to America's. They change postitions every day, so I tried to get a picture whenever I saw France."

He likes to send us pictures of his care packages. This one was from Aunt Pam (thanks!)

Week 5 (MTC)

Week 5 means only one week left! Not sure how I feel about that yet...

The MTC is great, I’ve learned a lot about being a missionary. It’s a lot of work to teach the two lessons a day we have now, with the weekly TRC lessons. Teaching Resource Center lessons are where we teach a church member instead of someone (acting as someone) investigating the church. They’re usually returned missionaries, but this week we taught someone in France via Skype. It was really cool to talk with a native speaker.

We also celebrated the Fourth of July. And Canada Day; we have a few Canadians in our zone. It was weird being in the MTC for it, but we were able to watch some fireworks from BYU’s Stadium of Fire. We also watched a video on religious freedom just before the fireworks started. There’s actually not as much to talk about as I thought, it was a pretty normal day other than the fireworks.

Last a Sunday was a sad day, though. Our Branch President, President Newell, was released. He’s amazing, if I remember correctly, he was a US ambassador and worked with President Ford, and he was just an outstanding Branch President. Many tears were shed as he bore his final testimony in sacrament meeting that day. Our new Branch President is President Adams, and he seems nice, but I haven’t had an opportunity to get to know him yet.

We also had to say goodbye to the missionaries who left for Montreal Tuesday morning. It was sad to see them go, and some of us are realizing how close we are to leaving. A lot of missionaries actually can’t wait to head out into the field. I am too, but I feel like once we get out there, we’ll wish we were back here.

The good news is that we’ve gotten a lot of new missionaries these past two weeks, and no one else leaves until we do. Last Wednesday, 8 missionaries headed to Tahiti came, and this Thursday (just yesterday) we got 12 new Montreal missionaries. I should probably mention, I think there is/was one missionary in each Montreal group that’s serving in Arizona, and one Sister in the Tahiti group is serving in Barbados. Another fun fact is that of the 12 missionaries, there were how many Elders vs Sisters? Go ahead and guess. There are eleven Elders and a lone Sister. Pretty crazy, right?

I also love the devotionals here, they’re super spiritual and give a lot of good insights. Every Sunday, they also show videos following the devotional. They have some recordings of devotionals where Elder Bednar and Elder Holland spoke here at the MTC. Those are sometimes better than the live devotional that night, mostly because they’re apostles. For anyone heading to the MTC, I’d be a terrible missionary if I didn’t recommend that you watch all the apostles’ videos while you’re here. I’m not sure how many there are, but again, all the ones I’ve seen have been amazing. For anyone not going to the MTC, I’ll recommend reading (and rereading) President Nelson’s latest Conference talk about revelation. I’ve lost track of how many times it’s been recommended that we read it, so I can’t imagine that the same doesn’t apply to all of you.

It’s weird how true it is that the days are like weeks, and the weeks are like days. At the end of every day, I can barely believe things from that morning were the same day, but at the same time, I just got here yesterday, didn’t I? I wonder what it’ll feel like next week, when I only have a few days left.  Regardless, I love being a missionary.

À plus tard,
Elder Wood

Elder Wood, Elder Ellsworth, Elder Poulson, and Elder Bunker with their outgoing branch president, President Newell

He likes to send pictures of the temple - it is pretty stunning with the mountains in the background

Elder Poulson on Canada Day (July 1)

Happy 4th of July!

Fireworks from the Stadium of Fire, nearby at BYU's LaVell Edwards Stadium

The care package box we sent him - he wanted to let his dad know that 1) It took 5 minutes to get the box open with all that tape and just a key available to cut through it and 2) That was a lot of packing peanuts!