Week 12 (Charleroi)

I'm almost finished with my first transfer! It's gone by so quickly.

First off, you're probably wondering if I'm getting transferred. No need to worry, I'll be in Charleroi for the next 6 weeks. Probably at least 12 more. However, Elder Blake, who lives in the apartment with us, is leaving for France. He was the only one who knew anything about this area when the other 3 of us arrived 6 weeks ago. Hopefully we'll be able to figure it out without him!

This week we had another exchange, but this time I went with Elder Ovard, who's only been a missionary 6 weeks longer than me. It was a great bleu exchange! We had to go around Namur trying to talk to people all by ourselves. It wasn't actually bad at all. We had a couple rdvs with people and we were able to teach them pretty well.

Near the end of our day, we ran into this lady who told us she had a spiritual experience with the Bible, so she knew it was true. We were super excited and told her how she could do the same thing with the Book of Mormon! But she told us she knew it wasn't the weird of God. She said that revelation ended with the book of Revelations, and there's nothing else. We tried everything we could think of, but she wouldn't take a book. I'd never felt so badly. If she would have just tried reading it, I know she would have known it was true.

After getting back, we decided we needed to work on preparing for the Venez et Voyez event. It's basically just a normal Sacrament Meeting, but it's geared more towards non-members. So everyone can invite their friends to "Come and See" what happens at church.

To prepare, we started calling everyone on the ward list. There's 300 members in the books, but yesterday I saw less than 50 people at church. That's why we need the members to invite all their friends. But as we were calling, some of them answered and almost sounded afraid of us. They also told us they were not interested. Not at all. I was surprised and confused how someone could be converted enough to be baptized, then turn around and want nothing to do with it.

But we meet with an ami this week who speaks Persian. She's Muslim, but when we meet her the first time, she told us her French professor had given her a book like the one we had. We didn't think it had actually been a Book of Mormon until she showed it to us. It was amazing! I doubt she would have ever met with us if her professor hadn't given her that Book of Mormon. It shows how much of an influence we have on those we meet, and the difference we can make in their lives.

Au revoir,
Elder Wood

Elder Ovard and Elder Wood, in front of a chateau they found during their exchange

After dinner at Sister Fujiko's house. Elder Drumeller, Elder Mendoza, Gustavo (a church member), Elder Wood, Elder Fund

The Brussels Zone Conference

"Elder Mendoza's favorite flower, a bleuet. They're everywhere in France, and he thinks that's why the French army wore blue. They're also in the Paris temple, and the higher up they are, the more opened up they are."

Weekly food photo: "One of the chocolates I bought at the Neuhaus factory. It has cookie dough stuff inside and it's delicious!"

The flyer inviting people to attend their "Venez and Voyez" event

A weather rock they found on someone's house. It's funny in French, too!

Week 11 (Charleroi)

I just realized we hit double digits last week. I guess it's too late to celebrate that now. But there's always triple digits to look forward to!

We had an exchange this week with the Zone Leaders, Elder Drumeller and Elder Fund! We got to go to Brussels for the day. I spent it with Elder Fund, but we all had a "mangez-vous" with a sister there, Sister Fujiko. She's from Japan and makes the best food. Elder Mendoza has been hyping it for weeks. I ate too much, my stomach hurt the rest of the day!

We also had Zone Conference on Tuesday, which meant the whole zone (all our missionaries in Belgium) traveled to Brussels for the day. All the elders came early to practice for a musical number we were singing. We had about an hour to practice, and it turned out reasonably well. Président Sorensen and others talked about lots of good stuff.

Président told a story about a Harvard professor who would give each of his potential students a dead fish. He told them to look. Then he left. Story goes that one student said he'd seen everything about that fish in 10 minutes. But he kept looking. He started to draw it. He stuck his finger in its mouth to feel its teeth. The more he looked, the more he found. It's pretty inspiring if you actually hear the whole story. Président finished and told us to "Behold your fish!" as he showed us the missionary library. The same principle applies to scriptures as it does to fish. The more we look, the more we learn, and that's why it's important to keep reading throughout our lives. There's always more to learn!

À tout à l'heure!
Elder Wood

Photo with pastry (pain au chocolat?)

Week 10 (Charleroi)

Another busy week as a missionary.

We had an apartment inspection this week, so we spent most of that morning cleaning to be ready for it. The senior couple, Elder and Sister Newberry, was really nice, Sister Newberry even baked us some poppyseed bread! It was delicious.

After the inspection, we headed over to Thuin to visit some less active members. It's kinda far away, so we spent the rest of the day there. But when we finished our last rendez-vous, we checked the train times and realized the last train left in 15ish minutes. We were 30-35 minutes away from the station. That meant we had to book it through some sketchy forest trails, trying not to trip on rocks or fall in a creek. And remember, we're doing this in dress shoes! Luckily, we made it with a few minutes to spare. Otherwise we would have been stranded, and that would have been a bit of a problem.

The best part of the week was Alseny's baptism! We've been teaching him since I got here, and apparently he first met the missionaries 2 years ago. And now he was finally baptized! It was a great experience, and also the first baptism of someone I've taught. The best part was that Luc, a recent convert of a few months, was able to baptize him. It was definitely an amazing experience for both of them.

Right now we're at the Namur Citadel, trying to find some caves to explore, but most of them are locked. There's one or two you can go in though, it's pretty cool. Because sometimes the best part is hidden beneath the surface :-)

À tout à l'heure!
Elder Wood

Baptism: Elder Wood, Elder Mendoza, Alseny, Luc, Elder Blake, Elder Johnson

Alseny and Luc right before his baptism

Friends and ward members attending Alseny's baptism (Elder Wood is at the far left)

"The 'train station' at Thuin. There's not much there."

"We got lost in our hurry back to the station and ended up in France :-)"

Pikachu, seen while waiting for the bus

His district visiting the Citadel in Namur: Elder Blake, Elder Mendoza, Elder Ovard, Elder Wood, Elder Ritchie, and Elder Johnson

Missionaries in a tree: Elder Mendoza, Elder Ritchie, Elder Blake

A golden statue seen at the Citadel in Namur

Continuing the food theme - "Dinner an ami made us. It's pasta in this huge dish, covered in cheese and stuff. It was really good."

Continuing the bug theme - "An albino ant we found"

Week 9 (Charleroi)

Another week down, but we're still just getting started!

This week I had my first exchange! For those that don't know, once or twice a transfer, the District Leader will swap companions with each Elder in his district to check on how they're doing. So on Thursday I spent the day with Elder Ritchie! The best part was Wednesday night. The other équipe came and spent  the night so they wouldn't have to travel in the morning, so we had 6 people in the apartment! And for dinner Elder Ritchie made crêpes with his secret recipe, it has vanilla so the crêpes are extra tasty! But it was nice to see how a different missionary works. I've only really had Elder Mendoza's example up to this point, so now I have a few more tricks up my sleeve or something like that.

Yesterday was my first Fast Sunday in the field, so that was interesting. Since we have church at 9:30 AM, we started our fast after lunch on Saturday. For lunch we had these mitraillette things, which I've head horror stories about from the other missionaries. It's basically a giant sandwich with mystery meat and a heaping pile of fries topped with sauce. Apparently, it was too much for their stomachs to handle once upon a time. Perfect for a meal before a fast!

Earlier in the week, we got to go bless sometimes house! One member's mom (not a member) wanted us to come over and bless her house for her. She was worried it was haunted by evil spirits or something from what I could understand, so we came to her house and said a prayer together blessing it. The best part was that her friend was there too, and she wasn't feeling well, so she asked us for a priesthood blessing. It was a neat experience to be part of a blessing in French, and it was my first one in the field too!

Lastly, I learned from some of our rendez-vous this week that it is important to find common ground. We taught a couple people with Christian backgrounds that weren't entirely open to hearing what we had to share. I realized that there's no point in trying to convince them, that's not our job. Our job is to invite them to change and have the Holy Ghost testify to them of the truth. Disagreeing on doctrine isn't going to get anywhere. In other words, we have to agree (in order) to disagree. If we find common ground and are able to agree on something, we can use what we have in common to build trust and invite the Holy Ghost. And in the end, it's Him who does the real teaching.

Passez une bonne semaine!
Elder Wood

Elder Wood and Elder Ritchie

With "Dessert 58", which apparently won a contest for best dessert

Enjoying his Dessert 58

Visiting the Neuhaus chocolate factory: "Delicious chocolate, but we ate too much"

With his mitraillete. The pink stuff is called riche sauce. "Unfortunately it doesn't taste pink. It's not even sweet."

With their ami (friend/investigator) Alseny

Elder Mendoza played a hymn on his violin during a mangez-vous.

A palace in Brussels that they visited today.

Inside the palace. It has apparently been under renovation since the 70's.

A fertility statue in Brussels. "The myth is you can increase your fertility or something by rubbing its arm."