POT HANDLES -- DECEMBER 15, 2014

Another week has come and gone and it was not quite as eventful as anticipated because I am staying here in Antwerpen for another transfer and will have Christmas here! I'm real excited about that though because I love the members so much here.

So much so that this last Thursday night we had an appointment with Familie Taselaar almost all the way in Nederland. Brother Taselaar seems to be the bigshot for a pot handle company that has monopolized and scathed the world. So we talked about pot handles for an hour and a half over dinner hahaha but it was awesome actually. Zuster Taselaar is from Brazil and made awesome chili which is always a hit.

Had to take a picture of this

This last week we have begun our reboot phase because we have had 2 recent baptisms this last transfer which is basically unheard of in the mission. I am so blessed to have been here in Antwerpen for it to happen. Because of the recent baptisms, we are doing a lot more finding and look ups because the bulk of our lessons and time spent was on Eric and Gerald to help them progress toward baptism. So we are talking to new people and hoping to get some to listen. Really. Everyone ignores you here or yells haha so you have to be courageous.

Saturday in a stretch of 20 minutes we literally contacted in French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, and Twi. All different nationalities haha that is how Europe is. Twi is the language in Ghana and Eric is from Ghana so his family has been teaching us things like Udu wa saya fufu? which means Do You Know How To Make FuFu? which is an African dish that is extremely popular and so when we ask in their own language they love us haha. I pulled back a little Spanish skills and contacted in Spanish and got the point across in Portuguese. French was not so good but I have heard enough that we were able to give him a pamphlet.

Sunday Gerald was confirmed in sacrament meeting which was really neat, but now he is on vacation with the rest of the country and is going to London for a few weeks. Everyone leaves Belgium for Christmas haha. We had the primary program this last sunday and if 20 little Belgian kids singing Love Is Spoken Here and A Childs Prayer in Dutch doesn't melt your heart then nothing in this world will. It was the best.

Transportaion

These next few weeks will be pretty eventful with preparing for Christmas, zone training, Christmas, New Years, and exchanges. That's good though because I really hate it when everything is stagnant and boring. Zuster Bush was transferred to the north in Leeuwarden which was weird because we had been in the same district since day 1 in the MTC and now she is somewhere else. But Zuster Young is the new greenie here and she is super cool and wants to be an ESPN broadcaster. super cool.

We have plans to carol around to members this week and im looking forward to visiting many members and hopefully building good relationships with them all. Antwerpen has been notorious for bitter missionary-member relations but it is warming up a lot more now.

Our lesson with Gerald this last week was one of my favorites. We retaught the Restoration as his new member lesson and brought a member named Andy along who has been a member for 4 years and went on a mission to England. We was able to testify to him how he came to know the truth and how important it is to recognize authority through the Priesthood. Gerald got it really well and told us how a prophet must be ordained from God and how when you have the truth you gotta stick to it because nothing else matters. It was way cool. He has read through 1 Nephi now so I was able to liken what he said to the iron rod in Lehi's vision and it really helped him to see how we can liken the scriptures to ourselves.

I'll be honest, it is always super dark here and pretty bleak but things should turn up. It's Christmas. Come on. I have met some really cool new missionaries and we have a big Christmas concert this Saturday for the stake here. The Antwerpen Stake has Belgium and the Netherlands in it haha that's how spread out it has to be.

I hope you all have a great week and are feeling the Christmas Spirit! Go see the new Mormon message He Is The Gift if you haven't already.

I have almost finished reading Jesus the Christ and it is so amazing. It's like reading scriptures for the first time again with new insights.

I testify of the importance of having a prayer in your heart. That is where hope will bring forth miracles.

I love this Gospel so much.

Liefde,

Elder Reese