Fall

Helloooo everyone. I never know how to start my emails. I feel like I always start with the same things every week. Haha I suppose because they are true. I do love you all so much and I am so grateful for your support, letters, emails, prayers, and all that. Zuster Fritz and I carry pictures of our families around and we show them to people all the time during contacting. Mom and Dad, I also tell people all the time about how you joined the Church and your reasons and everything. Belgium is a very Catholic country and so people find it interesting to hear stories like yours Mom. So thanks for the awesome pioneers you were/are. So baby Rhett is the cutest baby ever! I love the pictures. I pray for him all the time. Did my card come? That's so crazy Daniel Hall is home! I remember when he left. Tell him I said hola.

So I don't have a ton of time to write because today we are leaving Antwerpen to do an exciting P-Day in Brugge. We're going with Zuster Van Wauwe, a member in the ward who's picture is all over the mission blog. She is like our Belgian mother, I love her! I'm excited to go, I'll make sure to buy some pretty lace to bring home. Zuster Van Wauwe's non-member friend is also coming which is super awesome! I'm pretty sure he speaks French, but we brought a French Book of Mormon and she can translate for us. I'll take lots of pictures and send some home next week.

It's been an amazing week! The weather here has turned cooold (apparently not even close to how cold it will get though) and it's been raining a lot. Almost everyday actually. I prefer the cold weather though so I don't mind. I'm all about scarves. :) Zuster Fritz was actually sick 2 days this week and we had to stay inside. She got food poisoning from eating African Fufu at a member’s house. I guess sometimes we need to be careful. She's much better now though and we were still able to get a lot down this week.

So miracle of this week -- we set two more baptismal dates! Wahoo! An old Belgian couple named Juliette and Hendrik. They are a member referral from Br Schiltz. Really, member missionary is the way to do it!!! They're in their 70s but so oprecht and they love the gospel already. They live in a really prominent Jewish neighborhood so we never would've met them if it hadn't have been for Br Schiltz as that isn't an area we would go contacting in. Juliette loves reading everything we give her and is amazed she doesn't have to pay us -- haha. Hendrik is hilarious and goes on the LDS website all the time to look up more information. They really do their homework! The only English Hendrik knows is "How are you?" which he says every time he sees us. The funny thing is I don't think he knows what it means because when we say "We are fine, how are you?" He just laughs awkwardly and goes off in Dutch about something else. I love these people! Really, I didn't know it was possible to care for people so much. This is what makes it all worth it. Their date is for October 10th and I am so happy for them.

We've also met with a lot of interesting people this week. Zuster Fritz and I frequently joke that we teach the CRAZY children of God. We met with a man this week who we gave a Book of Mormon to and though he loves the Book of Mormon and reads from it, he claimed that he is on a special mission from Christ to destroy the world and that he is out to punish God. And he claims to be the original Joseph... yeah, I don't know. He said he wants to come to church, which he is of course welcome to do, but I don't think we'll be meeting with him again. Haha those are the times you just have to put them back in God's hands.

Time's up! I love you all with all my heart. Oh, other quick exciting news -- Elder Ballard comes next week! And it's almost September! Crazy awesome. The work is going on!

Met Liefde,
Zuster Holbein