January 30, 2012 "2 Nephi 3:4"For behold thou art the fruit of my loins"

Bonjour Bonjour!

How was your week? Ours was FREEZING!!! Apparently global warming is a rumour and Belgium still gets to be pretty cold...well its not that cold -just  cold enough that scenes from the movie The Day After Tommorow when people start to freeze instantly flashes through my head ...I wish I was exaggerating...please bless the groundhog sees his shadow this week (or not? Whichever means spring is coming...)

This week has been full of some pretty funny moments. On friday night we had some extra awkward time in our night, so we decided to just ride around on the metro and do some metro contacting...well we quickly learned that the metros on a friday night are probably not the best place for missionaries to be...but being human as we are we forgot and decided to try again on Saturday night. So there we are sitting, and this young 20ish girl sits next to me. We start talking, and across the isle there is this lady leaning over listening in. Well, then this guy sits down across from her, and he looks like a Jehovah's Wittness ( you get pretty good at spotting them as a missionary) and before we know it somehow the lady and the guy start yelling at each about what qualifies as a cult and a religion...so that scared our young friend and she got up and left. Well then two more girls sit next to us (meanwhile our lovely religious neighbors are still yelling...)We were all kind of nervously looking at each other and laughing...when one of the girls asked if we were with them (meaning the yelling people) we quickly said no and she was like 'oh good, things of God should be peaceful'....hah YA. We invited them to church, and once they got off the metro we realized we were surrounded by Muslims, two people yelling about cults, and some lovely smelling homeless people...and decided it was time for us to get off as well. I think we will stick to daytime metro contacting from now on...

I've been slowly making my way through the New Testament during my mission and just finished Acts...its a pretty cool book to read as a missionary because holy cow Paul was the missionary to beat all missionaries! I wish we could have Zone Conferance with Elder Paul...I can just see the training 'and when people beat you up and lock you in prison...no fear! Angels will come save you....or when your ship is about to sink and it feels like the end of the world...don't worry you'll land on an island inhabitated by savage people who will be impressed by the miracles you perform"...hmm Im just working on getting people in the metro to accept my little pass along cards...baby steps I suppose.

Kedinnetse continues to do amazing. She now brings a backpack to church because she carries all of the books/manuals we give her haha. We would stop giving her them, except she reads them and loves them! Its just tender to see her on the metro with her backpack ready for church! She told us this week that she is learning so much and loves it! Its so amazing to see someone come to know their Savior and change because of this knowledge.

But it also gets pretty entertaining. Every night we talk to Kedinnetse on the phone and ask how her reading was. Well one night she said she had a question, so we were expecting some sort of doctrinal question (she is amazing- when she doesn't understand something she cross references it to the bible, and really searches for her answers- so when she doesnt understand something its because she has already done her research and still doesn't get it) But this time she asked us what the word 'loins' means. We were both a little confused....and then she explained that she reads the Book of Mormon with a dictionary because english is her second language, and Nephi kept talking about the 'fruit of his loins' and she looked up loins and couldn't understand what Nephi was trying to say. hahah...we quickly explained what it meant in this circumstance...and then got a pretty good laugh. I've really never thought about how wierd that term is...

Im just excited for her upcoming baptism and the fact that we both will be here to see some 'fruits' of our own!
I hope you all have a good week and I love you!
Soeur Smith

January 23, 2012 "Missionary Iron Chef"

Bonjour dearest family!

 

I dont even really know where to start with this week. SO Ill start at the end. We had another record week of teaching. It felt so good! I dont say any of this to be bragging or boasting...can I be cheesy enough to quote Ammon and say I dont mean to be bragging in my own strength, but brag of the Lord and how much he has blessed us in our abilities to get into homes and soften peoples hearts. Honestly- three transfers in one place with one companion has just enabled us to get a good stride and really know how to be effective...its great!

 

This week we've had some...curious experiences. We had one lady confess her use of black magic to us...some strong testifiying of Jesus Christ I think cleared that up. Its just so sad when you can tell people are just searching anywhere and everywhere for the answers to their problems...and we tell that we have the answer...except our answer involves work. Unfortunately not everyone feels keen to accept that answer... ANYWAYS had some more ventures chasing buses and finding our way through dutch country...makes me feel like blue again because I have no idea what people are saying around me. We had a second lesson with a family...and well last week our lesson wasn't the best. We got lost and so were late to the lesson, and then had to keep it short because we had another rendezvous just after...and ya...so this week we were excited to have a good strong lesson with them. Well then we walk in, and the father, whose name is Picky..ya..tells us that he is Muslim and his wife is Christian and they've decided they dont need to change religions again. So we tried to clear up that we are Christian also and we just want to add to the goodness they already have blah blah blah...it ended with him reading an entire chapter of the Book of Mormon, very slowly, outloud...declaring that it teaches the same thing as the Bible and Koran..and him telling us he would pray to Allah to know if we are good...and him asking if we were allowed to explain to all of his Muslim friends what we believe. haha...yes we are now planning on starting the first muslim branch of the church. Just kdding...but what started as a very intimidating lesson I think ended pretty well. He even gave us oranges as we were leaving...and Soeur Murray has lovingly named them our Muslim Oranges...hopefully that means they bring good luck!

 

We had a pretty cool experience with finding this week. Soeur Murray and I decided we needed to some porting one night this week...and so we were keeping our eyes out for a good street during the week. Well we found one and decided we were going to try praying the night before to soften the hearts of the people on that street. President Posnanski also gave us the idea that before doing finding in an area we should go over to a member's home who lives in that area and just pray with them...so members are involved in missionary work and we get extra prayers! Well we tried all this and it was really cool- we didn't get into any homes but more people than usual were willing to talk to us and at least take reading material...yay for soft hearts!

 

Church was very entertaining this week. So we have this portugese ami...that can't speak english or french. His mom is a member and his sister has been our ami for awhile. He just moved in with his mom, and has been sitting in on our lessons and we have just been giving him reading material in portugese. Well he came to church this week, without his mom or sister! So we had to find someone to translate...luckily but not suprisingly we have a pretty decent portugese population in our ward who were willing to welcome him and translate for him. BUT that means ami class was pretty curious. We had amis there who speak english, french, dutch, and portugese. Class was pretty funny...we had people translating into dutch and portugese...and then a francophone elder and I were in charge of translating into french and english. The frustrating thing is the teacher switches between the two...so the Elder and I were literally trying to guess who would translate which sentance...and then sentances would come out like 'please read in le livre'...to many many langues for my brain haha.

 

And today I hit eleven months as a missionary- which means you all have to suffer through some of my serious reflections...well at least my attempts to be serious.Soeur Murray and I were discussing one night this week what we should eat for dinner. We decided being a missionary is kind of like being on Iron Chef (I think thats the show)...everynight we have several curious items in our fridge and cupboards...and we have to try and make something out of them. This game only gets more exciting towards the end of the week. Well I've decided that being an effective missionary is kind of the same. We have all these tools to find people- the area book, porting, members, talking to people throughout the day, etc.We have tools for teaching- the spirit, our scriptures, preach my gospel, etc. And you just look at your area and think...well lets make something good out of this! I have alot of imperfections and weaknesses...but I've decided this week that it is through obedience and consecration that the Lord really does manage to do some good with our work.

 

 I found this quote this week by Elder Neal A. Maxwell. He says "consecration is the only currender which is also a victory". I've been thinking lately about how I love being so consecrated to this work...and how scary real life sounds because you have to start balancing real life things like a job, school, your clothes actually matching, listening to more than just MOTAB music,AND being consecrated. But this week we were talking to a member (Im sorry my reflections are coming from all over the place) and he asked us if we know why we love the people we serve so much on our missions? My answer...well ya you give your heart and soul to them! And he said yes...but then what happens...his answer...we being to feel a tiny piece of the Saviors love for those around us.

 

Sorry you have to sit through me ranting about how much I love my mission- you can skip to end if you want. But I only get to be THIS obnoxiously spiritual once in my life..I've just felt so blessed to feel the Saviors love for his children, members, non-members, muslim, and black magic users. To be able to have this experience...and to have so much time left (dont go counting the days yet mom!) Really, this time in life is so special.

 

Im just one lucky missionary!

Love you and miss you

Soeur Smith

 

January 16, 2012 "Trees and walls and other scary items

Bonjour dearest family!

Wow this week has been absolutely insane! This week was a record for number of lessons taught for my entire mission! And it felt SO good...wierd how once in a while things really do work out...people show up for thier lessons and keep their commitments...strange feeling...

We had a miracle week this week with Kedinnetse! So as you know she has been wanting to wait until she gets back to Africa to get baptized. Well this week we thought it might be a good idea to introduce to her a little thing we like to call personal revelation. We asked her to pray about it and decide when she should get baptized; here sooner, or there later- and we really emphasized recieving the Holy Ghost and how that could help her now. Well, the week was naturally long and dramatic with all forces of hell working against us...ok maybe a little extreme...but it certainly feels that way sometimes. Her boss told her she wasn't allowed to visit with us anymore and then made impossible for her to attend a baptism on Saturday...and so we were feeling kind of discouraged. Then she came to church on Sunday and a recent convert ran up and asked her 'so when are you getting baptized?' and Kedinnetse responded 'sooner than later'....ya we were freaking out! So after church we sat down for a lesson and asked her "so how are you feeling?" and she responds "I would like to get baptized at the beginning of Feburary!"...........YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! So after getting over initial shock and stopping my self from jumping up and down...we fixed a baptisimal date!!!! We are so happy and proud of her!!! And Im learning a lesson about waiting upon the Lord and understanding that we sometimes have to go through very dramatic weeks for everything to work out! (plus that makes my emails a little less dry for you, right?)

So over Christmas we had dinner with the Stake President and asked him if he felt that the missionary work had changed in Brussels when the Brussels mission was disolved and became a part of the Paris mission. And he said absolutley! I didnt know this...but Brussels was the highest baptizing country in Europe at one point...and this stake was the highest baptizing stake...but when the center of the mission was moved to Paris everything changed and Brussels started to feel like an afterthought to Paris. So we asked him what we could do get that fire going again...and he just said "success breads success"...well that only kind of helped us because we were like well great...how do we get that initial success going? Well to spare you from all the boring details that goes on behind the scenes of missions (fixing number goals and lame stuff like that) this week was a success for us, the zone, and the entire mission (I guess we've been focusing on numbers alot lately since its the beginning of the year and we had interviews and everything this week...) SO the point of this ramble...is that I love Brussels and we are so excited for how things are going here! The snowball is starting to role...

This week we had interviews and the Posnanskis have chosen Nehemiah 6:3 for our mission theme for the year. It says "we are doing a great work and cannot come down" (well it roughly says that). Anyways...slightly ironic because when the Posnanskis first became mission president they told us we needed to break down the walls between us and members...but this year we are focusing on building up a wall haha...not literally...but building up the work and refusing to lower our standards. It was inspiring...and this week we just felt that work being built up. Well as well this week a recent convert we teach with told us that she has a sore back.(just wait, I promise the two stories are related) The funny thing is that she is african...and I'll tell you from experience that africans always seems to be "mal au dos" (hurt back). Well she explained to us that its because Africa is a very dangerous place. Not because they have tigers, or malaria, or eat fish heads. But because they have trees. Yup, trees. And then the kids fall out of the trees. And then they are 'mal au dos' for the rest of their lives. Very dangerous place that Africa. So this week I've guess I've been thinking lots about how the world is a very dangerous place. We have to very careful to never fall off of walls or out of trees...figurtively and literally. I know my mission has made me want to be so much more firm in my standards...and to never 'come down from this great work'. Because...really...how lucky are we?! Why would we ever want to come down and be "mal au spirit' ? bad joke...I know...

Point being...be happy and proud of the gospel! Its so great...

Love you and miss you

Soeur Smith

January 9, 2012 "Weekly report from Brussels"

Bonjour!

Well this week I don't feel like I have much to report. It was transfer week...but since Soeur Murray and I are both staying...we barely felt any change. And our entire district is staying the same...so life just keeps on going here in the Strombeek Brussels ward.

This week we had a wonderful week with Kedinnetse (Tom). She is absolutely amazing. The first time we taught her this week she told us she knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet! She is even starting to talk like 'a memeber'...she kept saying how she's always wanted to obey all of God's laws but didnt know about the 'latter day saint church' yet and in her prayers she always thanks Heavenly Father for the sisters! Its tender. But we were called to repentance a little bit...she told us she had been waiting for us all Christmas to pass by..But with transportation strikes and everything we just weren't able to make out to her. So the second time we saw her this week we brought her gingerbread cookies (thank you Shannon for the mix!) and we taught with a YSA from the ward. It was amazing...we taught her about prophets and asked her if should would follow the prophet. She replyed and told us she would keep any commandment we could give her. We then asked if we could tell her how we found her...and told her about being the last house on the street on a long  and freezing night. She also told us it was a miracle that she had been home alone with the kids that night...Because if her bosses had been home they would have answered and not been interested. It made me so grateful for the miracle night we had...and strengthened (gave me) my testimony in knocking doors. The Lord knows when, where, and how we need to find people. We haven't been able to fix a baptismal date with her because she really wants to wait till she is with her family in Africa to get baptized...which is frustrating because she doesnt go back for another two years...so we're trying to think of good way of telling her now is the time. Pray for her!

Another tender moment this week. A couple weeks ago we gave a young women in our ward who is struggling a copy of the book of mormon and asked her to write her testimony in it and then we can give it away. This week she gave it to me at church and it was the most tender testimony. She described what it felt like to feel the spirit when she reads. Her mom came up to me later and told me that her daughter was the one pushing them all out the door to get to church that morning. I just thought that was so cute! Im glad once in a while young women give us a chance to be their friend rather than think sister missionaries are really wierd (like I did..oops).

So experiences like that are make Soeur Murray and I really excited for this transfer. I love this ward and just feel like they are my little family that Im here to serve. I dont know to explain it...but I love it here!

So voilà quoi...wierd how at the beginning of every email I feel like I have nothing to say...then I manage to spit something out. Thanks for bearing with me.
I love you! I hope you have a great week!
Soeur Smith

January 2, 2012 "We sacrifice for those we love"

Hello family!

 

How are you! It sounds like your vacation week has been great! Our week has been pretty crazy. The missionaries here are switching around apartments...and so we have been living with the other sisters in Brussels for a week and its been pretty crazy. In addition the apartment we were staying in for the week's water heater and heating system broke...so its been a very cold week involving lots of hair washing parties with boiling pots of water on the stove...and nightly planning in front of the open stove.

Because of all of this apartment craziness Soeur Murray brought up what it would have been like to be some of the first missionaries who didn't even know where they were going to sleep that night or what they were going to eat. But they always had the faith to just keep going. Although this week at points I wont lie, I got pretty worn down,  exhausted and pretty lacking in faith and opptimism, the Lord still took care of us. We had three new amis this week and they are amazing!

 

One couple is named is Norah and Dizzy. Last week Soeur Murray woke up and felt like we needed to go contacting on a certain street. We went there and Norah was getting stuff out of her car. We stopped to talk with her and she invited us back for this week, after Christmas. When we got there this week, not only was she actually there, but her husband was there waiting for us as well! The rendezvous was amazing, they are really open to everything and it was so exciting! And they have three adorable little girls. We are so excited for this family!

 

This week also had some disappointments. We saw the part member family that we've been working with for the first time in two weeks. And something has happened to the dad. He was completely back to the beginning and told us he never felt the spirit with us, it was just his emotions playing tricks on him. It was heart breaking. Keep him in your prayers.

 

Because this week was pretty crazy I didn't really have time to think about New Years and everything. But then New Years Eve we were all sitting around the open stove wrapped in blankets and I had one of those "never in a million years did I think I would be here" moments...and I thought about how amazing this year has been...and how excited I am for this one to come! Our stake president's wife bore her testimony this week and she spoke about her son who just got home from his mission and she said that as he bore his testimony she asked herself "why do I love him so much?"...and she realized that its because she has sacrificed for him. And as she thought about that...that we sacrifice for those we love...her thoughts turned to the Savoir...and all that He sacrificed because he loves us. Well that turned my thoughts to my mission...and all that Ive sacrificed.

 

This week I sacrificed good nights of sleep, warmth, and showers...but just had to just keep working through it. I realized these are not big things...and people are often asked to sacrifice so much more, but this week it just felt like alot. And the harder this week has been, and the more I felt like I had to give just to keep going, the more I honestly felt the Savoir picking up my slack. He's helped us somehow still have little miracles this week...maybe like helping people to not be scared of us even though we haven't showered in a week, or even just having the courage to get out of bed in the morning in a freezing apartment. And when an investigator has completely rejected those spiritual experiences you know he has had, you still have hope for him.  If you cant tell Im in one of those exhausted, rambling moods. The summary is- I love my mission. I've sacrificed. I've asked my family to sacrifice...but because of this I love it here. I love the people...and right in this moment I don't want to be anywhere else. I hate to think in 2012 my mission ends, rather than begins like in 2011...but I know I have so much more to do and learn...so we won't think about those ending moments. 

I'll just think about all I have left to still give!

 

Love you all!

Bonne Année!