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."