Bonjour a tous!!
How was everyone's week this week? Mine was very good!! I feel like so much has happened, that I can only hope to be able to write about everything that has happened!! So I will start right into it!
This week started out with an exchange in Liege. And you all know how much I love Liege! It is a great city, and they were starting to feel for the Christmas spirit! They had decorations up all around the city, with little booths and other little Christmas decorations!! That, plus the bitter cold made it feel so much like Christmas! It was great.
So in Liege, we went to see an ami who was named Etienne. He was a super nice old man, who had no teeth! He was super nice like I said, and I enjoyed that opportunity to meet him! A funny story about Liege..so they had a strike last Monday, so everything was closed. That being said, they weren't able to go shopping for food, like at all. So for my one night stay in Liege, we kinda struggled for food. We were able to scrape by, but I did have to buy a Liege waffle..darn. Haha, supposedly the Liege waffles are the best, but I didn't really tell a difference. And this week the strike has moved here, so we will see if we get to shop today or do anything for that matter!! Our district leader said we could take time tomorrow to do that if we couldn't today.
We have also started Christmas contacting, as well as Christmas coeuring. The only difference in those is that we start talking about the Christmas season..and when we are coeuring, we offer to sing with them!! That's pretty fun, because we get to carry around our little cantique books, and I usually just end up singing a bunch of Christmas hymns! Pretty great.
This week we also had a super fun experience with Fran*. It was supposed to be the other Elders week to go with him to lunch, but they had to go to Paris for the day for Elder S* companion to do some legality stuff. So we got to go again! Woohoo! So we made it to the place where we usually eat, but he said that he wanted to go someplace better this week. So we hopped in his car for him to take us somewhere else to eat! Now that was an experience all on its own. He is a crazy driver! I'm pretty sure that we almost got in about 4 wrecks, and almost hit a guy! But the thing is..he has never got in an accident in his entire life.
Now remember that Fran* is the man with only one arm! Anyways, on the way there, he got lost where he was going, so we drove around searching for this restaurant that he wanted to go to for like 40 minutes. When we finally made it, we ate at this restaurant called The Break. He didn't know what Break meant, so we had to explain it was an English word, and translate for him. I just thought that interesting..haha.
We walked into this restaurant, and I was suprised..it looked like a bar! We both thought it was interesting. We sat down, and then the servers just started bringing stuff. I was super confused, and wondered why we didn't order. But then I later found out that I just had missed them talking about the menu.. awkward. But the food was super delicious, and luckily they didnt serve us any beers or anything like that! Whew! We finished eating, and walked outside, fearing the drive back! We told Fran* that we could find a metro and get home alright! So we walked to the nearest metro and took that home! And Fran* didn't get in an accident! What a man.
Then on Friday, a big part of our day was spent setting up for the Christmas party!! They went all out on this Christmas party, and it had great decorations. Then Saturday evening was the actual Christmas party, which was fantastic!! I was so glad to be here in this ward for that!! It is truly a fantastic ward! Saturday was also the day we heard about transfers! Its weird to think that I am already in transfer 4, even if this next transfer is 8 weeks long. And the news is..I am staying here! By the time this next transfer ends, I will have been serving here in Bruxelles for 6 months!! Nothing in our apartment is changing. Then last night, we had a Christmas concert at our ward building. Let me just say, "Oh my." To be able to see the variety in all of the performers was amazing. It was our entire stake, which is basically all of Belgium. There was amazing talent! I was so happy to have been able to be there for that concert. Talent from all over the world! Plus that we were able to perform in it! When I say we, I mean the missionaries. We sang two different songs, which was fun.
Now I get to the story from the title of my email. We were on the tram heading for the church, when I see this old lady struggling to figure out how to get the tram door open. I quickly try to make my way towards her to help her, but I was too late to press the door open button before the tram left..I was kinda disappointed with that, as I headed back to where I was originally standing. There was this guy outside the tram looking in at me with a strange look as he walked by. I smiled and nodded at the guy. Then I turned around to see this middle aged African woman looking at me also. I smiled and gave her a nod as well. That's when she said, "Ca va, Elder?" It took by surprise! She said it so naturally, like she had to know who we were and what we do.
So we started talking to her, to find out that she was a less-active member! She was baptized 20 or so years ago in France, but her family got mad at her for joining the church, so she went back to being Catholic! And the funny thing is this. She was baptized by a missionary's father! Did that make sense? A missionary came here, baptized her, went home, had a boy, and now he's in the mission. Was that clearer? I hope so. Anyways, I really enjoyed that experience, and realized that all it took for that lady to talk to me was for me to smile at her!
Well, I think that that is all for this week! I sure hope that I got everything! Thanks for all that you do!! You are all amazing! I love and miss you lots! Until next week!
Love,
Elder Hamilton
How was everyone's week this week? Mine was very good!! I feel like so much has happened, that I can only hope to be able to write about everything that has happened!! So I will start right into it!
This week started out with an exchange in Liege. And you all know how much I love Liege! It is a great city, and they were starting to feel for the Christmas spirit! They had decorations up all around the city, with little booths and other little Christmas decorations!! That, plus the bitter cold made it feel so much like Christmas! It was great.
So in Liege, we went to see an ami who was named Etienne. He was a super nice old man, who had no teeth! He was super nice like I said, and I enjoyed that opportunity to meet him! A funny story about Liege..so they had a strike last Monday, so everything was closed. That being said, they weren't able to go shopping for food, like at all. So for my one night stay in Liege, we kinda struggled for food. We were able to scrape by, but I did have to buy a Liege waffle..darn. Haha, supposedly the Liege waffles are the best, but I didn't really tell a difference. And this week the strike has moved here, so we will see if we get to shop today or do anything for that matter!! Our district leader said we could take time tomorrow to do that if we couldn't today.
We have also started Christmas contacting, as well as Christmas coeuring. The only difference in those is that we start talking about the Christmas season..and when we are coeuring, we offer to sing with them!! That's pretty fun, because we get to carry around our little cantique books, and I usually just end up singing a bunch of Christmas hymns! Pretty great.
This week we also had a super fun experience with Fran*. It was supposed to be the other Elders week to go with him to lunch, but they had to go to Paris for the day for Elder S* companion to do some legality stuff. So we got to go again! Woohoo! So we made it to the place where we usually eat, but he said that he wanted to go someplace better this week. So we hopped in his car for him to take us somewhere else to eat! Now that was an experience all on its own. He is a crazy driver! I'm pretty sure that we almost got in about 4 wrecks, and almost hit a guy! But the thing is..he has never got in an accident in his entire life.
Now remember that Fran* is the man with only one arm! Anyways, on the way there, he got lost where he was going, so we drove around searching for this restaurant that he wanted to go to for like 40 minutes. When we finally made it, we ate at this restaurant called The Break. He didn't know what Break meant, so we had to explain it was an English word, and translate for him. I just thought that interesting..haha.
We walked into this restaurant, and I was suprised..it looked like a bar! We both thought it was interesting. We sat down, and then the servers just started bringing stuff. I was super confused, and wondered why we didn't order. But then I later found out that I just had missed them talking about the menu.. awkward. But the food was super delicious, and luckily they didnt serve us any beers or anything like that! Whew! We finished eating, and walked outside, fearing the drive back! We told Fran* that we could find a metro and get home alright! So we walked to the nearest metro and took that home! And Fran* didn't get in an accident! What a man.
Then on Friday, a big part of our day was spent setting up for the Christmas party!! They went all out on this Christmas party, and it had great decorations. Then Saturday evening was the actual Christmas party, which was fantastic!! I was so glad to be here in this ward for that!! It is truly a fantastic ward! Saturday was also the day we heard about transfers! Its weird to think that I am already in transfer 4, even if this next transfer is 8 weeks long. And the news is..I am staying here! By the time this next transfer ends, I will have been serving here in Bruxelles for 6 months!! Nothing in our apartment is changing. Then last night, we had a Christmas concert at our ward building. Let me just say, "Oh my." To be able to see the variety in all of the performers was amazing. It was our entire stake, which is basically all of Belgium. There was amazing talent! I was so happy to have been able to be there for that concert. Talent from all over the world! Plus that we were able to perform in it! When I say we, I mean the missionaries. We sang two different songs, which was fun.
Now I get to the story from the title of my email. We were on the tram heading for the church, when I see this old lady struggling to figure out how to get the tram door open. I quickly try to make my way towards her to help her, but I was too late to press the door open button before the tram left..I was kinda disappointed with that, as I headed back to where I was originally standing. There was this guy outside the tram looking in at me with a strange look as he walked by. I smiled and nodded at the guy. Then I turned around to see this middle aged African woman looking at me also. I smiled and gave her a nod as well. That's when she said, "Ca va, Elder?" It took by surprise! She said it so naturally, like she had to know who we were and what we do.
So we started talking to her, to find out that she was a less-active member! She was baptized 20 or so years ago in France, but her family got mad at her for joining the church, so she went back to being Catholic! And the funny thing is this. She was baptized by a missionary's father! Did that make sense? A missionary came here, baptized her, went home, had a boy, and now he's in the mission. Was that clearer? I hope so. Anyways, I really enjoyed that experience, and realized that all it took for that lady to talk to me was for me to smile at her!
Well, I think that that is all for this week! I sure hope that I got everything! Thanks for all that you do!! You are all amazing! I love and miss you lots! Until next week!
Love,
Elder Hamilton