We declared war this week.
We walked into our apartment one afternoon to find dozens of huge flies swarming around the kitchen and living room. Apparently this has been a problem before, because we also found an electric, battery-powered fly killing racket in the corner. We took turns and went to work, making a big pile of burnt dead flies on the table. The same thing happened the next time we walked in, and the next. And the next. We cleaned the whole place, but they're somehow getting in through the windows. Are we in the jungles of Africa?
But Namur really is a nice place, apart from the heat and the rain this week.
We had a big zone meeting on Tuesday, so we got to take another train and see a new city. It has probably the coolest train station I've ever seen. Your assignment is now to type in "Liège train station" under Google images and see what it looks like. Go ahead, I'll give you some time right now. I'll wait.
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Still here. While we're still on the subject of train rides, we took another one to Brussels on Saturday afternoon for stake conference. It was fun seeing all the Brussels sights and the people I knew in the ward from when I was there a year ago. We stayed the night with some Elders in Brussels, then went back to the church the next morning for a broadcasted meeting from Switzerland. Elder Anderson and President Uchtdorf spoke, which was fun to hear. It was at least more fun than sitting on the return train next to a passionate couple.
Thursday, we were invited to eat at a member's house, and they were nice enough to drive us the 1/2 hour to get there. In the car, I found out that the husband is a professionally trained chef that started a catering company which has now become the biggest one in the country. He cooked us a fantastic steak meal while his wife was enjoying her private equestrian lessons behind the stables next to the indoor swimming pool, spa, and training gym. Missionary work is pretty tough sometimes.
Really though. It is. Besides the highlights I've given you, Elder Rodriguez and I have been trying to find new investigators from morning until night every day. The days are full of contacting in the city during the day and tracting at night. We've been finding a decent number of people who say we can teach them, but we haven't been able to get ahold of them on the phone or schedule anything with them. "I'm working the weekdays," "I'll just call you," "Wait to call me until July," and "Sorry, I can't make it today" were all common phrases this week. We got really tired one day after tracting for a few hours, so we took an ice cream break. It was dang good ice cream.
Friday, we were supposed to have a meeting at the church with a member of the bishopric at 6. After waiting for him for 20 minutes, we called and found out that he actually wasn't coming until 7. The church building is in the middle of absolutely nowhere and is surrounded by fields, but we decided to go out for a half hour and see if we can find someone anyway. We hadn't gone any further than 10 steps out of the building before we ran into a couple who had driven to the church to find out the hours. We chatted with them for a bit, and they ended up asking for a Book of Mormon and expressed a desire to come to church. They would have found a dark and locked church building without any hours posted had we not left at the wrong time. Good stuff!
The cherry on top of the week came last night after we got in bed. Like I said before, our window has a great view of the river, the castle on the hill, and a good chunk of the city. Right after 10:30, a huge city firework show started outside our window, as did a lightning storm in the distance. It was cool to watch fireworks on the left, a lit-up castle on the right, and streaks of lightning right in the middle, all reflected on the river. I'm sure my Provo apartment will be equally well placed.
Our mission president is leaving at the end of the month, so we have some cool "goodbye" conferences coming up soon, quickly followed by a "welcome" conference with the new president. It'll be an exciting two months!
Elder Wilson
