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!)