Week 21 (Dunkerque)

Surprise again! Still in Dunkerque!

To explain quickly, I'll be staying here the rest of the transfer. Elder Poulson's staying in Évry as a trio with Elder Ballard and his companion, so I get to stay here with Elder Koshiol.

We had Zone Conference on Tuesday, and that's actually when Président told me the news. He said, "I have an assignment for you." So I guess that made it official. Zone Conference is always really good. We talked about different ways to go about approaching people on the street, which is really helpful. We also focused on charity a bit. We talked about how the two great commandments are to love God, and love our neighbor. And that's what we're out here to do. You can't be a missionary (or a good one at least) without loving the Lord enough to serve His children, and then loving them enough to share the restored gospel with them.

One approach we discussed in Zone Conference was using the family. So we decided to try it out one day. Elder Koshiol had a picture of him with his grandparents on his tablet, so we went around showing it to people to pique their interest. Then we were able to transition to talking about the gospel. It was actually really effective! People respond well to pictures and stories, and that's what we were offering.

I also had my birthday on Friday! That means I'm no longer a teenager. I'm two decades old, and for whatever reason, 20 sounds a lot older than just 19. It was a good birthday though. To celebrate, the Branch President and his family took us out to dinner at this place called Flunch. It was great because we got a free cake for my birthday! It's a little weird thinking that this was my first of two birthdays on the mission, it makes it sound like it's going faster than it really is. I guess it's just a reminder to live in the moment sometimes. You can never return to the present, so make the most of it now! But don't forget to plan for the future as well. That's kinda important...

Au revoir,
Elder Wood

Weekly food photo: "Happy birthday to me!"

Wearing the new coat he just bought, "Nice and warm now"

His companion, Elder Koshiol. "We made applesauce with some wild apples a sister in the branch gave us. It turned out pretty well."

More food: "An XXL O'Tacos, so much food!"

A slice of his birthday cake

Yet more O'Tacos

Week 20 (Villeneuve-d'Ascq/Dunkerque)

Bonjour de Dunkerque !

Surprise! I'm not in Lille. Or Villeneuve-d'Ascq for that matter. I've been moved to Dunkerque, a little branch on the northern coast of France. It's an exciting story.

It all started with the first exchange of the transfer. We were over in Valenciennes for the day, and it was great. Elder Crockett and I did some Parc Contacting™ and we got to talk to some really cool people. We talked to people sitting on the benches, they talked to us while we were sitting, it was a great time.

The next morning we got a call from Président Sorensen. He told us that there was a missionary who just got his visa, so he was coming the next day. And Elder Abegg was going to be training him. But what about me? I'll be in a trio with them. So in a way, I'm training too! Cool right?

Then that afternoon, we got a call from Elder Koshiol. He told us he and the bleu he was with, Elder Ballard, were coming over to Lille that night, and we were going to switch companions. I'd be headed over to Dunkerque with him, and Elder Abegg would go to Bleu Conference with Elder Ballard. We were super confused. What about our trio? Did Président lie to us?

So when we got home, I packed up all my stuff to be ready to go to Dunkerque. And when everyone else finally got there, we started comparing stories. We were able to piece together exactly what had happened (as far as we know). You can read the whole story (aka The Legend of Dunkerque) below, but what's important to know is that we found out that I would be returning to Villeneuve-d'Ascq after about a week or so. But in the meantime, I'm here in Dunkerque!

It's been great here. The apartment is apparently the nicest in the zone, so that's a huge plus! And the busses here are free too, it's practically the promised land! It's just unfortunate that the church isn't very strong here, there's only a branch. But that means there's a lot of room for missionary work, right?

There was also Stake Conference yesterday, which meant I got to visit Lille! We slept over the night before so we could get there on time. There were some really good talks, and an area Seventy was there, Elder Helmut Wondra. He didn't speak French, so when he spoke, he took turns talking with a translator. So it was nice to get to hear his talk in both English and French! He talked about a lot of good stuff, but one thing I liked is how he shared an experience he had as a stake president. He would spend so much time planning presidency meetings and such, but never took the time to plan his family's Family Home Evenings. He said he decided he had to get his priorities straight, since what really matters at the end is family. That's what will last throughout the eternities.

Adieu,
Elder Wood

The Legend of Dunkerque

According to the Apartment of Lille, on that day, the 17th of October, of the year 2018
As recounted by Elder Wood

A time not so long ago, Elder Poulson had need of returning home because of a family emergency. He and his companion, Elder Koshiol, travelled many hours, nigh unto Paris, and after having exchanged companions, Elder Ballard journeyed back to Dunkerque alongside Elder Koshiol. They then stayed there for the space of a few days.

And it came to pass that Président Sorensen heard of a missionary who would be arriving shortly, who after having waited at the MTC for the space of a week, had at last received his visa. Thus, Président Sorensen had need of an one who, having much experience as a missionary, could show unto him the ropes. And after having given himself unto much prayer, Président Sorensen called upon Elder Abegg to be the one who would train this bleu.

And now, having an other missionary, it was expedient that Elder Ballard return nigh unto Paris. And since Elder Abegg must soon journey unto Paris for the Conference of the Bleus for the reason of meeting his new companion, it was decided that Elder Ballard would thus accompany him.

And it came to pass that the elders of Dunkerque were informed of this new plan, and they thus journeyed unto Lille. That night much confusion was dispelled, and there was much rejoicing in the land.

And it came to pass that on the morrow, Elder Ballard and Elder Abegg journeyed unto Paris, and Elder Koshiol and Elder Wood journeyed unto Dunkerque.

And it shall come to pass that Elder Abegg will shortly return with his bleu, and the day surely cometh that Elder Poulson will return as well. And at that day, Elder Wood will at last return to the land of his inhabitance. And thus it is.

Fin.

Elder Abegg, Elder Wood, and Elder Ballard in Lille

"Weekly food photo, an O'Taco! Turns out they're really popular with the missionaries. Real French tacos. It's kinda like a giant burrito."

Elder Crockett and Elder Wood during exchanges

During exchanges; "We all got frites from this food truck place. They were good by French standards, but not quite Belgian." Elder Farnsworth, Elder Crockett, Elder Abegg, and Elder Wood

Week 19 (Villeneuve-d'Ascq)

It's been a good half week here in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, but I do still miss Charleroi. I'm excited to get to work here though!

I got here to Villeneuve-d'Ascq on Wednesday, I took a train to Paris to meet up with the other missionaries who were getting transferred to the Lille zone, then another to Lille, and now I'm here! It's been interesting adjusting to the new apartment and city. Lille is a lot bigger than Charleroi, and it's also not half-abandoned. The metro also comes every couple minutes as opposed to Charleroi's 10 minutes. So it's a big change to say the least.

A neat thing that happened is that we were invited to this event at a local university one night, there was a club that was having an American-themed meeting, and they wanted genuine Americans to come and talk about America. Luckily, lots of missionaries are from the states, so I, Elder Abegg, and 2 Sœur missionaries went to help them out. We introduced ourselves, then opened it up for a Q&A session. Turns out they were more curious about us being missionaries than being from the US. Good news for us, we got to talk all about the Restoration as well as clear up a few rumors about us and the church. And we had brought 20 or so Book of Mormons as well as some brochures, so we were able to give a bunch out, and we left the rest there, so someone will end up with them. It was great to see how open they were to the BoMs, I think it was because we'd gained their trust/curiosity in a way with our presentation."

My first full day here, we had dinner with a family in the ward, the Carpentiers. Their friend was in town, so they invited him too. He's not a member, so we were talking to him about who we are and what we do. We explained the restoration of the church to him, and Frère Carpentier took a BoM and started writing what I assume was his testimony. We had to leave before he actually gave it to his friend, but I was surprised by his willingness to share the gospel with his friend. We didn't even ask him. That's a missionary's dream, members who practically do the work for us. So if you ever want to make a missionary's day, invite your friend to hear about the gospel. You'll have at least 4 happier people by the end.

Bonne semaine,
Elder Wood

"The weekly food photo, a kebab. It's like the little brother to the mitraillette. Smaller, with less sauce, and worse fries. They aren't even part of the kebab proper, just on the side. It does come with a drink though. But I miss Belgium." (With his new companion, Elder Abegg.)

"My ACTUAL last gaufre, on the train to Paris" 

Week 18 (Charleroi)

Transfers again! Surprises in store!

To get it over with, I'm sure everyone is wondering if I got transferred this time. The big news is: yes. I'm going to France! To be exact, Villeneuve-d'Ascq. Right next to Lille for everyone like me who doesn't know France that well. I'm sad to be leaving Belgium and their delicacies (goodbye amazing frites) but France is good. And it turns out, half of my sector is in Belgium! So I'll still spend some time here.

In other news, there was a grève on Tuesday, which meant there was next to no public transportation. That's no good since we live pretty far from downtown Charleroi. We stayed home most of the day. But then we got a call from one of the members saying that there was someone at the chapel who wanted to meet with us! So of course, we walked the hour or so to get to his house. Luckily, on the way home we were able to catch a train (which were normally running, thankfully) and one of the few busses that existed. But I learned a valuable lesson that day. Strikes are the worst!

We had our last exchanges this week as well. I got to go with Elder Ovard to the small village of Bièrcée. We visited some less active members, but we had to walk 40 some minutes from the train station in Lobbes to get all the way to Bièrcée. We had a nice scenic walk nonetheless. Lots of walking this week I'm realizing.

The best part of the week was definitely General Conference. It's a little weird here in Europe with the time zones though; we watched the "morning" sessions at 6PM. Lots of great talks, of course President Nelson's talk was great, as well as Elder Bednar's and Elder Holland's. President Oaks's and Elder Christofferson's were really good too. But as a missionary I especially liked Elder Soares's when he talked about the needs of recent converts. It's super important to integrate new people, I'm sure they already feel like they don't quite fit in, so they need a friend. And that friend could be you! Don't hesitate, say hi or something! It's the easiest way to be a missionary.

Allez-y!
Elder Wood

Group photo at lunch on exchange day

Exchange photo with Elder Ovard

Weekly food photo: "My last Belgian mitraillette"

"One of my last gauffres"

Week 17 (Charleroi)

Bonjour tout le monde! Another exciting week here in beautiful Charleroi.

We visited Samuel again, our Romanian friend. We talked about the restoration and had a really good lesson. We showed the video of Joseph Smith, at least the part with the first vision. That video is so powerful. When we were wrapping up, his friends or family or whoever showed up. One of them was super anti-mormon. He came in saying, "No, they're a cult!" It was hilarious actually, since we already had a good relationship with Samuel. He asked us about a few things things his friend/father/whoever was saying about us, and we cleared up some of the lies he'd found on the internet, etc. He also wouldn't listen to us at all, which just made it easier for everyone to not really take him seriously. It was easy to tell it was him against the world, trying to get us to abandon our "cult." We had a good laugh about it after we left.

On Saturday we had a service project, les Mains Serviables. The ward had collected a bunch of winter clothes, and everyone showed up to organize and bag them. We finished really quickly, and afterwards they made spaghetti for everyone! But there was a lot of leftovers, so they gave them all to us. It lasted us a good few days, we finally finished it for lunch today with the help of the Namur elders.

We also had a bit of a scare this week. Our ami Ezio texted us, saying he wanted to cancel his baptismal date. Uh oh. We had mentioned that doubt isn't good, that it's the opposite to faith, and he took it the wrong way. In his mind, doubting is good, it leads us to ask questions and find answers. We called him and were able to fix things. We reassured him that questions are good and tried explaining a bit of what we meant by doubt. It turns out that we have slightly different definitions of doubt. So we're all good for now. But it's always good to remember that doubt and fear are bad for our spiritual health. They separate us from God. We need to have faith and trust in Him so He can help us through our trials. They're often the moments where it's easiest to be doubtful, but they're the most important time to be able to rely on His help. And He can only help us according to our faith, so we must "doubt not, fear not."

En avant!
Elder Wood

"The weekly food photo! It's a gaufre I bought in a vending machine at the Gare there"

His district looking tough after a hockey game.

Brussels Zone Conference

Lunch at the Zone Conference

"A really cool picture someone had in their house. It's aluminum scratched to make the picture."