Well as I was saying..I can always tell if it was a good week on how fast the week went by. I believe that this week past super quickly, so there you go! I have a bunch of stories and things to share, so you may want to sit down, grab a bag of popcorn and a rootbeer and read away!
So this week started out last Monday. That was a great day, full of miracles. So we finished reading and writing our emails, and were walking out the door, when I notice a guy staring at me. I gave him a little nod and kept walking when he yelled out, "Mormons?" I quickly turned around and went back to him. He said that he had met with the missionaries before, but lost contact when he moved houses. He said, "I live just up the street! You need to come by sometime! When you have time on asaturday or sunday, stop on by! Oh, and heres my phone number so you can call me!!" We were amazed! So that was the first story from Monday.
The next comes from when we were out coeuring, going door to door. We werent having a lot of success, and were standing by a door, when we see a man walking behind us. Elder N turns and says, "Are you the friend of this one person we know?" Turns out that he wasn't..but he was a Belgian journalist. And he wanted to write an article on religions in Belgium! Super cool. He was super interested to know who we were, and what we do. He even offered us a famous Belgian beer. We kindly rejected though. Then as we said goodbye, a little bit further down the road, a man let us in! This guys name was F. He let us in, and wanted to know all about us! I may be kinda freaking out about this, because we dont get let into houses very often!! So monday was very good, full of miracles!
Then tuesday was fun, because we had a Pizza Hut party after district meeting! Everyone pitched in a little money, and we had a party for lunch. We were able to have this party because together as a zone, we found over 101 amis (friends) last transfer! So this next story comes from a couple of nights ago. We were home for the night, and we had also finished nightly planning. We were all relaxing when I get a phone call.
Me: "Oui, alo?"
Man with super deep voice: "Are these the Elders from the church?"
Me: "Oui, I mean, yes, thats us!"
So this guy turns out to be an investigator of the church. He is from England on vacation here for a month! He didnt want to stay away from seeing Elders for a long time, so he found our number and called us up! His name was G. Super cool story. Unfortunately he is vacationing in a different city, so we passed his phone number along to the dutch mission Elders. Let's see..next!
Saturday was great. We had our schedule filled with just rendez-vous after rendez-vous. We saw Mr Pl for the last time..because he's moving back to Germany! Sad to see him go, and I hope he looks up the church there! Next we saw Jean-Marie and his fiancé. He is a little skeptical of us, but his fiancé told us she already believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and she's only seen us one time! She's golden.
We also saw a less-active man named F, whom I have never met before. He is from the Congo, and just has had some health issues. Then to finish up the night, we saw A!! He is still recovering well! It was a fun day. We also got to eat at the Kapingas house this past week. You remember them? They are the African family that cooks super well. So that was fun. We got to eat with a bunch of the older siblings I had never met before. Then we ate at Lunch Garden this week..but NOT with Frere F. We had a rendez-vous set up, but the lady cancelled. We had invited Frere D K, the less active man who recently came back, to come with us to the rendez-vous, but when she cancelled, he wanted to take us out to eat! What a nice guy.
Well I think that it is now time..time for the big news. It's transfer week! So Saturday we found out that I would be going to....Lorient, in France! So apparently it is in a little place called Britannia. And I have heard that everyone wants to go there. I don't really know what to expect, but I am super excited. It is all the way across the mission from here. It is on the coastline of Western France, kinda near Normandy. So that's the exciting news!! So all my stories from now on are from that news..on Sunday, I suddenly became one of the most popular guys around, along with Elder S, who will also be leaving. We both got invited over multiple times! Families just wanted to have the two of us over, so we got permission to do a little exchange. So Elder S and I went over to the Hatch family's house, and had a great american meal, and then went to C F, to have a great Belgian dessert. We became quite popular!
It was sad to say goodbye to everyone in the ward, because Ive gotten to know and love them these past 6 months here. When A found out I was leaving, he pulled me in close, and said, "Why?!" right before he kissed my ear. I didn't really know what to do after that..but it let me know that he cares about me! He also invited us over for this next Tuesday! I will be sad to leave, but I am excited for a new adventure in France!! I leave this Wednesday morning, pretty early. I take a train to Paris, then off to Lorient! My address is now the following for at least the next 6 weeks:
Les Missionnaires
Elder Hamilton
1 boulevard de l'eau courante
Lorient 56100
France
I don't think that words can express my experience here in Belgium for the past six months. I love Belgium. It will always have an amazing place in my heart! There have been so many ups and downs, and I'm looking forward to a great new experience in France! Thank you all very much for your emails and your support! I hope that I have included everything that I wanted too.. You are awesome! I love and miss you all very much!! Until next week! I'll write you from France!
Love,
Elder Hamilton
So this week started out last Monday. That was a great day, full of miracles. So we finished reading and writing our emails, and were walking out the door, when I notice a guy staring at me. I gave him a little nod and kept walking when he yelled out, "Mormons?" I quickly turned around and went back to him. He said that he had met with the missionaries before, but lost contact when he moved houses. He said, "I live just up the street! You need to come by sometime! When you have time on asaturday or sunday, stop on by! Oh, and heres my phone number so you can call me!!" We were amazed! So that was the first story from Monday.
The next comes from when we were out coeuring, going door to door. We werent having a lot of success, and were standing by a door, when we see a man walking behind us. Elder N turns and says, "Are you the friend of this one person we know?" Turns out that he wasn't..but he was a Belgian journalist. And he wanted to write an article on religions in Belgium! Super cool. He was super interested to know who we were, and what we do. He even offered us a famous Belgian beer. We kindly rejected though. Then as we said goodbye, a little bit further down the road, a man let us in! This guys name was F. He let us in, and wanted to know all about us! I may be kinda freaking out about this, because we dont get let into houses very often!! So monday was very good, full of miracles!
Then tuesday was fun, because we had a Pizza Hut party after district meeting! Everyone pitched in a little money, and we had a party for lunch. We were able to have this party because together as a zone, we found over 101 amis (friends) last transfer! So this next story comes from a couple of nights ago. We were home for the night, and we had also finished nightly planning. We were all relaxing when I get a phone call.
Me: "Oui, alo?"
Man with super deep voice: "Are these the Elders from the church?"
Me: "Oui, I mean, yes, thats us!"
So this guy turns out to be an investigator of the church. He is from England on vacation here for a month! He didnt want to stay away from seeing Elders for a long time, so he found our number and called us up! His name was G. Super cool story. Unfortunately he is vacationing in a different city, so we passed his phone number along to the dutch mission Elders. Let's see..next!
Saturday was great. We had our schedule filled with just rendez-vous after rendez-vous. We saw Mr Pl for the last time..because he's moving back to Germany! Sad to see him go, and I hope he looks up the church there! Next we saw Jean-Marie and his fiancé. He is a little skeptical of us, but his fiancé told us she already believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and she's only seen us one time! She's golden.
We also saw a less-active man named F, whom I have never met before. He is from the Congo, and just has had some health issues. Then to finish up the night, we saw A!! He is still recovering well! It was a fun day. We also got to eat at the Kapingas house this past week. You remember them? They are the African family that cooks super well. So that was fun. We got to eat with a bunch of the older siblings I had never met before. Then we ate at Lunch Garden this week..but NOT with Frere F. We had a rendez-vous set up, but the lady cancelled. We had invited Frere D K, the less active man who recently came back, to come with us to the rendez-vous, but when she cancelled, he wanted to take us out to eat! What a nice guy.
Well I think that it is now time..time for the big news. It's transfer week! So Saturday we found out that I would be going to....Lorient, in France! So apparently it is in a little place called Britannia. And I have heard that everyone wants to go there. I don't really know what to expect, but I am super excited. It is all the way across the mission from here. It is on the coastline of Western France, kinda near Normandy. So that's the exciting news!! So all my stories from now on are from that news..on Sunday, I suddenly became one of the most popular guys around, along with Elder S, who will also be leaving. We both got invited over multiple times! Families just wanted to have the two of us over, so we got permission to do a little exchange. So Elder S and I went over to the Hatch family's house, and had a great american meal, and then went to C F, to have a great Belgian dessert. We became quite popular!
It was sad to say goodbye to everyone in the ward, because Ive gotten to know and love them these past 6 months here. When A found out I was leaving, he pulled me in close, and said, "Why?!" right before he kissed my ear. I didn't really know what to do after that..but it let me know that he cares about me! He also invited us over for this next Tuesday! I will be sad to leave, but I am excited for a new adventure in France!! I leave this Wednesday morning, pretty early. I take a train to Paris, then off to Lorient! My address is now the following for at least the next 6 weeks:
Les Missionnaires
Elder Hamilton
1 boulevard de l'eau courante
Lorient 56100
France
I don't think that words can express my experience here in Belgium for the past six months. I love Belgium. It will always have an amazing place in my heart! There have been so many ups and downs, and I'm looking forward to a great new experience in France! Thank you all very much for your emails and your support! I hope that I have included everything that I wanted too.. You are awesome! I love and miss you all very much!! Until next week! I'll write you from France!
Love,
Elder Hamilton