Hello again!!
How is everyone doing? Well youll be glad to hear that everything here in Belgium is going absolutely fantastic!! Okay, so I have two stories from my subject line. The first happened while I was in the city of Liege. I was on my very first exchange. Liege is about an hour away by train from Strombeek, which is funny because it only took about an hour to get to Strombeek from Paris..I guess it all depends on the train you take. So I was with Elder VT in Liege. And that night we decided that we were going to go porting. Porting is just knocking doors and ringing bells..just so you know. So a lot of people actually dont answer their doors here, they just stick their head out the window to see who is at the door. So we were at this door, and this guy pops his head out of the window. Elder VT says something to the effect of "God has a plan for all of us."
That's when the guy says, "I've actually seen the devil."
In which Elder VT responds, "You've already seen the devil?"
In which the guy says, "Yes, and I think he is more beautiful than God." That's when we were like, "Well, as fun as this has been, its time for us to leave." Haha, so that was my first weird story. It was pretty funny actually.
So my next story comes from when I was back in Strombeek, also while porting. We had just stopped at a row of doors, when this man, probably in his 50s started walking towards us.
Thats when he says, "I am a demon, straight from Hell. How are the guardian angels this evening?"
We told him we were pretty good, then he shook our hands and left.
We were super confused and we wondered if that had actually happened. We laughed about it. There are definitely some interesting people here! Haha! Okay, now its time for a really cool story, that you should all be inspired by. So this happened Friday night. A rendez-vous had just fallen through, (happens a lot, unfortunately) and we had no idea where we should go or what we should do. So we just started wandering, trying to think of something we could do. We found ourselves in the metro and we thought we should get on and maybe just ride a few stops and start porting. We got on the metro, and there was only like 2 other people on the entire thing, and they were a ways off.
We sat down, when one of the guys, maybe 16 or 17, came over and asked in French, "What are you guys?"
We told him we were missionaries. Then he came into our seats, sat down, and said in English, "Okay, tell me what you have to share."
We were so amazed! So we started teaching him about the Restoration, and he just loved every bit of it. He told us he felt exactly like Joseph Smith, how he really wanted to know which church was true. He told us he had to get off, so we just went with him. We weren't going to let someone this perfect get away that easy! So we walked with him for a ways, and continued to teach. He said he wanted to learn more, but that he was moving to England to play some type of big league soccer. (no big deal). We got his number, and told him that we would get it to the missionaries in London!! So cool!
We started walking back to the metro, and decided to contact the one woman on the street. She spoke French, but you could tell it wasnt native to her. We asked what language she originally spoke and she said that it was Romanian. Now here's the best part. I just happened to have a Romanian Book of Mormon in my bag! I had put it in there on accident the day before! So she was interested, and we gave her a Romanian book of Mormon. It was a cool experience! The Lord always knows where we are, and will put prepared people in our path!
Okay, on to questions time. I've been told that our apartment is one of the nicest in the mission, but I dont know for sure. There are four of us in the apartment. It is pretty big, considering that Ive lived at the MTC for 6 weeks before here! I actually have space for almost all my stuff! Our ward is pretty big, but the missionaries are still asked to participate occasionally. We just never know what language we will have to participate in, because they want a balance between French and English!
We walk so much, but we also take a lot of buses, and the metro. And for food, we get food as companionships and cook together. He loves vegetables, so we have about a million different types in like every meal! So I just eat. Haha, I dont know if its all the vegetables, or all the walking, or a mixture of the two, but youll be surprised to hear that Ive lost about 15 pounds since Ive been in Belgium. Yeah. And Im pretty sure my calculations are correct. Technically we are in Brussels proper, which means we are in the city, and the other mission surrounds us. We are in the French speaking part of the city. I was glad this past week to have my very first waffle, fries, and mitraillate (which is like a kebab, but bigger and a mixture of everything)! So this week was great! Thank you so much for all that you do! You are amazing!
Lots of Love,
Elder Hamilton
How is everyone doing? Well youll be glad to hear that everything here in Belgium is going absolutely fantastic!! Okay, so I have two stories from my subject line. The first happened while I was in the city of Liege. I was on my very first exchange. Liege is about an hour away by train from Strombeek, which is funny because it only took about an hour to get to Strombeek from Paris..I guess it all depends on the train you take. So I was with Elder VT in Liege. And that night we decided that we were going to go porting. Porting is just knocking doors and ringing bells..just so you know. So a lot of people actually dont answer their doors here, they just stick their head out the window to see who is at the door. So we were at this door, and this guy pops his head out of the window. Elder VT says something to the effect of "God has a plan for all of us."
That's when the guy says, "I've actually seen the devil."
In which Elder VT responds, "You've already seen the devil?"
In which the guy says, "Yes, and I think he is more beautiful than God." That's when we were like, "Well, as fun as this has been, its time for us to leave." Haha, so that was my first weird story. It was pretty funny actually.
So my next story comes from when I was back in Strombeek, also while porting. We had just stopped at a row of doors, when this man, probably in his 50s started walking towards us.
Thats when he says, "I am a demon, straight from Hell. How are the guardian angels this evening?"
We told him we were pretty good, then he shook our hands and left.
We were super confused and we wondered if that had actually happened. We laughed about it. There are definitely some interesting people here! Haha! Okay, now its time for a really cool story, that you should all be inspired by. So this happened Friday night. A rendez-vous had just fallen through, (happens a lot, unfortunately) and we had no idea where we should go or what we should do. So we just started wandering, trying to think of something we could do. We found ourselves in the metro and we thought we should get on and maybe just ride a few stops and start porting. We got on the metro, and there was only like 2 other people on the entire thing, and they were a ways off.
We sat down, when one of the guys, maybe 16 or 17, came over and asked in French, "What are you guys?"
We told him we were missionaries. Then he came into our seats, sat down, and said in English, "Okay, tell me what you have to share."
We were so amazed! So we started teaching him about the Restoration, and he just loved every bit of it. He told us he felt exactly like Joseph Smith, how he really wanted to know which church was true. He told us he had to get off, so we just went with him. We weren't going to let someone this perfect get away that easy! So we walked with him for a ways, and continued to teach. He said he wanted to learn more, but that he was moving to England to play some type of big league soccer. (no big deal). We got his number, and told him that we would get it to the missionaries in London!! So cool!
We started walking back to the metro, and decided to contact the one woman on the street. She spoke French, but you could tell it wasnt native to her. We asked what language she originally spoke and she said that it was Romanian. Now here's the best part. I just happened to have a Romanian Book of Mormon in my bag! I had put it in there on accident the day before! So she was interested, and we gave her a Romanian book of Mormon. It was a cool experience! The Lord always knows where we are, and will put prepared people in our path!
Okay, on to questions time. I've been told that our apartment is one of the nicest in the mission, but I dont know for sure. There are four of us in the apartment. It is pretty big, considering that Ive lived at the MTC for 6 weeks before here! I actually have space for almost all my stuff! Our ward is pretty big, but the missionaries are still asked to participate occasionally. We just never know what language we will have to participate in, because they want a balance between French and English!
We walk so much, but we also take a lot of buses, and the metro. And for food, we get food as companionships and cook together. He loves vegetables, so we have about a million different types in like every meal! So I just eat. Haha, I dont know if its all the vegetables, or all the walking, or a mixture of the two, but youll be surprised to hear that Ive lost about 15 pounds since Ive been in Belgium. Yeah. And Im pretty sure my calculations are correct. Technically we are in Brussels proper, which means we are in the city, and the other mission surrounds us. We are in the French speaking part of the city. I was glad this past week to have my very first waffle, fries, and mitraillate (which is like a kebab, but bigger and a mixture of everything)! So this week was great! Thank you so much for all that you do! You are amazing!
Lots of Love,
Elder Hamilton