Hey there!
You've made it to the beginning of transfer 7 of my mission! I'll be staying in Brussels again with a companion named Elder Wood. Elder Smith is off to train a blue missionary in the city of Reims in France, so it looks like his time in the promised land has come to a close.
Along with Elder Wood, I'll be welcoming another companionship of Elders into our area. One of them just finished his third transfer, and one is a brand-new missionary just coming out of the MTC. Basically, I'm only in my seventh transfer, but I'm currently older in the mission than the other three Elders coming to my apartment COMBINED. Huh? Also, I'm the only one out of the four of us that knows anything about Brussels. What an adventure.
On Tuesday of this week, Elder Smith had to go to France to do legality, so I was left with two other Brussels Elders for the day. We met up with the Brussels senior couple in the morning to unload all of the furniture for our new apartment. Fortunately, it was pouring rain, so all the new furniture was nice and clean for us to use. I needed a second shower as well. After we finished up unloading, the three of us headed over to a member's house to help her move out of her apartment. Basically, by the early afternoon, we were physically exhausted and decided to reward ourselves with ice cream cones. Here's a shout-out to Elder Gutelius for buying me two scoops of almond milk ice cream. You're the best.
Apparently we had some self-control issues this week, because as
four other Brussels Elders and I were eating fried chicken later that night, an
ice cream truck poked around the corner and stopped a few meters in front of
us. We got some ice cream, for the second time in one day. It was only a euro,
okay?! For the record, that was the first time I've ever purchased ice cream of
any kind since I've been on my mission.
The day after (that would be a Wednesday), I went on exchanges in the metropolis of Nivelles. It's a pretty quaint little place with a huge monastery/cathedral in the middle of the city. Not having any lessons scheduled, we took the Chevy Cruze to a city in the area to do some tracting. It was the famous city of Waterloo, where Napoleon lost his final battle. They have a big monument with a lion statue in Waterloo to commemorate the battle, which was a pretty cool thing to see. I'll shoot you some pictures.
The next day (Thursday. See? You're catching on.), Elder Smith and
I went to the Brussels legality building to help all the young missionaries get
their Belgium legality done. Well, I say 'young missionaries,' but I just did
mine two transfers ago. Again, it was raining (welcome to Belgium, everyone),
and we had a grand time ushering people through the metro between the legality
building and the train station.
There's a missionary tradition of doing something called a flan
suck. Basically, we get cheap flan desserts that come in little cups, put them
on a plate, and see how fast we can suck them up and swallow them whole. Yes,
you can shake your heads, because it's stupid. I'll have you know, however,
that I'm also very good at it and earned some respect at district meeting this
week with my flan sucking skills.
Add in two ward barbecues and a bunch of IKEA furniture building
(again. ha.), and you pretty much have our week. Oh, and we even had some time
to teach people in between, too. We've still got a lot to do before the three
other missionaries come in two days, so we'll see if we can get it all done.
Here's a second shout-out for the week. This one goes to Anne,
Elder Smith's girlfriend. Thanks for sending us all those Kool-aid packs all
transfer. Good choice on the dinosaur socks too.
Have a brilliant week, everyone.
Elder Wilson
The number of transfers we have been out
My District
The Brussels Zone
Sister Stanford is "dying" this transfer
Single adults and new converts in Brussels
