IN THE MIDST

I hope you have tuned in to the world news lately because on Thursday I was in the midst of it. We had a surprise trip to Brussels to pick up our identification cards and it was the day of the opstaan or resistance protest riot against the government. right? from the moment we got off the train there were MD-40s and firecrackers going off everywhere with people wearing blue red and green as the protested the streets of Brussels. It was the best. I kid you not people were waving flags from the windows and blowing whistles and blowing things up everywhere. And Brussels is french speaking (also outside mission boundaries but that's another story) so I felt as if I was living a real life Les Miserables movie. Loved it. Car bombs are pretty cool in real life.

BAPTISM

ERIC. Yesterday Eric was baptized! We have waited so long for this and he was finally able to do it with his mom here. It was really great, they came to church and she loved sacrament meeting and gospel principles very much and relief society more with the teacher being from Ghana as well. The service was after church and about a third of the ward was there for him. I was able to play the piano for intermediate with the songs i brought and everyone said they liked it. It was neat to see the ward and bishop emphasize his family here in the ward. that's what he needs because he was alone for so long. it really helped him a lot. we should be teaching his mom this week too which doubles as a recently baptized lesson and a member present lesson with Eric there. She isn't a member (yet) but she wants him out on a mission in 2 years like us. So cool.

That's the real big news. Baptism and bombs. Welcome to Europe. We had 7 investigators in church yesterday which is unreal. A girl contacted US on the escalator to a tram stop and so we gave her a Book of Mormon and her FAMILY came to church yesterday. In an essence it worked as buy one get three free. haha. and Gerard is our super solid guy that i loveeee teaching because he wants to go to the sun heaven. he is playing soccer with us again today.

We have 3 baptismal dates for the 7th of December too with Gerard and his sister Almina and a super cool guy named Kjelt from Belgium who had a heart problem, had an operation that failed, and a termination date. He went to church just after that and prayed in a Protestant church and when he returned the doctors were bewildered and he was completely healed. He is very close to God and loves hearing our word because he is so new to religion and wants to know how he can give back for that miracle. He is studying now to become a heart surgeon. 

Brussels riot at its calmest 

I went to Sint-Niklaas again this week with Elder Bernier which was great and that was after Brussels and we got lost in Gent but again, another story. We don't usually mean to but we accidentally travel all over Europe on a mission here. We had a dinner appointment about an hour from the station and we biked there but accidentally went too far and went to Nederland. European Union problems.

Anyway, things are really great and our zone leaders and district leaders are impressed with how many investigators we are retaining and finding and teaching all the time. Elder Shelton and I are always travelling and teaching which is AWESOME. This is definitely not one of those European stale contacting missions. At least not if you make it that way. Faith is a choice. Christ makes it all possible. Alma 22:14 helped so much this week with the sting of death being swallowed up in the hopes of glory. Hopes of glory. That's what i want.

Have an amazing week. Sorry its not a lot we have to go play soccer with Gerard haha as if that's a burden.

Elder Trevan Scott Reese