We had interviews with President and Soeur Babin. I love them so much! We talked a lot about how I was here in Namur to help out Elder Anderson and this district. There have been some problems in this district the last couple transfers and they both mentioned how much they trusted me to be able to get things changed. President even referred to me as Elder Anderson's trainer haha :) Also, they just recently hit their two year mark, so I brought them a gift. Right before I left Evry I was talking to their daughter Melanie and she told me that their favorite dessert thing is a classic chocolate bar, but it had to be dark chocolate with hazelnuts...milk chocolate wouldn't fly ;) haha So at the end of our interview I gave Soeur Babin some Belgium chocolate and wished them a happy anniversary, she thought it was the funniest thing that I talked with their daughter about that!
Last Monday I taught the lesson for FHE. We were talking about pioneers and how each of us was a pioneer because we are Latter Day Saints. If you haven't looked at the first presidency message for this month, I suggest you go do it. It's a real motivator! We started teaching a guy that we found my second day here named Allal. He's from Morocco but moved to Belgium when he was 20. That was over 55 years ago haha :) He's been all alone for the last 6 years and when he came to church the first time he was so happy. He was crying with some of the members during our priesthood meeting. He said that he felt at home and he would come every week from now on (which he has so far). This last Tuesday we were invited to eat dinner with our ward mission leader, his wife, a single sister who lives near them, and the Badoux family (ward missionaries). We had an appointment with Allal right before and we taught with brother Chung (wml) and at the end of the lesson he invited Allal to eat with us. He was just so excited! He couldn't stop raving about the food and how grateful he was to be with our "family".
Thursday we had exchanges in Nivelles which were pretty dope. I was with Elder Lucas the DL for the first half of the day. With us was a 17 year old member who has a nonmember dad and who has been kind of unsure about things recently. So the elders convinced him to come out with us to a couple of appointments. It went super well! He was super excited by the end and said "whenever you need me give me a call and I'll come work with you." :) When we were together we also found them 3 new investigators. Two of them were African ;) It's so hard to find my frères here in Belgium.... But one of them, Jacqueline was super interested by our message and is from the Congo....I love the Congo! Haha. Then that night I visited a member family with Elder Merritt. It was the Snickers family....yes that is really their name haha :) I met one of their daughters while she was on a mini-mission a couple months ago and apparently they have a niece who just arrived in the St. George mission! So he told me to go say hi when I get back.
This Saturday we went and did service for a neighbor of brother Chungs and Claudine (the single sister who we ate with). Geraldine p just bought the house next to her mother(which is right next to Claudine) and is doing major renovation so we went with brother Chung and: ripped out drywall in a couple rooms, moved furniture and a giant heater she bought, opened up a boarded up door, scraped up carpet and glue off of some stairs, and then I had to literally chisel off baseboard tile in the entire house.... I'm pretty much qualified to be a stone sculptor now haha :) We were there for about 5 hours working nonstop. I walked away cut up, sore, and exhausted as could be but we made a huge impression on this lady. Claudine told us at church the next day that Geraldine had said that we were the most respectable, hardworking men she had ever met.
Sunday after church we went to Ruben Dewagne's house to help him clean out his new apartment and move a bunch of furniture. Ruben is getting married this week, and he couldn't find anyone to help him get the stuff ready for after the wedding, so he called us. Fortunately two of his nonmember buddies ended up showing up to help, so we got to work with them and chat a little bit about the mission, school, etc. Also this week it was our turn to clean the church! So it felt like I was wearing jeans and a T-shirt more than my white shirt and tie this week :)
So with all the attacks that have been going on, we've been doing emergency drills so that everyone is prepared in case something major happens. Well last Tuesday we get a text right before studies saying we need to pack up a 48 hour bag and get to the church (what we are supposed to do in case of emergency) So we did that super fast and the assistants wanted a picture of what we brought .
Today we have family home evening like we do every week, but unlike every week we will be going to a carnival after to get funnel cake type things! I'm pretty excited haha :)
Love you all so very much!
Bronson
A warning never to cross the train tracks....Belgium is gory....
