Hola, world. Happy June to everyone.
Since we only had one and half days between the transfer email and transfer day, Tuesday was a mad packing day for Elder Walton and me. We hung out and sifted through our clothes and bags while trying to say goodbye to as many people as we could. We got to go to the Cabys' house for dinner Tuesday night. They both got home from missions within the past year, so they told us everything we need to know for the end-of-mission time. They're sweet.
Wally and I woke up early on Wednesday morning to get all ready to go, then we dropped him off at the train station to go to his final resting place. As usual, some Soeurs were late for the train, so after seeing them sprinting down the platform with all their suitcases, we threw them on the train, then went back to the apartment for mine. Transfer day sure requires some heavy lifting.
I had a train ride to Brussels without any problems, and the Brussels Elders had already told me they would be at the train station to pick me up. I kind of assumed they would be at the platform to help with luggage, but after waiting for a few minutes alone, I decided to try to make it on my own. The unfortunate part was that I way miscalculated on the space I had for packing and ended up shuffling across the station with three large suitcases, a side bag, a large plastic bag full of things, a full-sized military backpack, and an umbrella. Oops. I talked to some cool Americans on the way, but I eventually found everyone else sitting around the station.
I waited for Elder Price in Brussels for three hours or so, then we hopped on a train to Namur. Between his bags and mine, we took up almost an entire train car. Once we got to Namur, we walked through the city and were pleasantly surprised. It's pretty cool looking, there are always tons of people walking around, there's a university, and we live across the street from a big 15th century citadel/castle we see from our window. We ran up to the top of the walls one morning for exercises and almost died.
There wasn't too much going on in Namur as far as investigators go, so the name of the game this week was finding, finding, finding. There hasn't been a baptism here all year and President told Price and I that our job is to step things up. We spent most of our time walking around and talking to people. We got a good number of potentials, but the coolest guy we found was a college kid named "Q". We went and knocked some houses in a really nice neighborhood, and he answered the door. He ended up talking to us for twenty minutes or so in his front yard and was really liking everything. He thought we were super cool and promised to read the Book of Mormon, wanted to watch the Joseph Smith movie, and planned to come to church. He invited us into his garage hangout to talk some more, but as we were on our way out, his dad came in. "Q" quickly said, "uh ... hey, dad. I just met these cool Americans and invited them in for just a second." It was clear he knew his dad wouldn't approve. The dad asked a few questions, then saw that we had given him a Book of Mormon. He didn't like that very much, so he took the book from his son's hands, gave it back to us, and basically kicked us out. And that's Satan with an interception. It was a bummer, but we're hoping he'll seek out the church some other way.
Let's see. Other than that, we shut down some 18 year old girls that really wanted to talk to the cool American boys and I got kissed on the hand by a grown man on the street who wanted to thank me for coming on a mission to his country. Too bad it wasn't the other way around, right? Joking. Our ward threw a party after church on Sunday to end the fast, and we all got some more Belgian fries in a cone for lunch today. Looks like we'll have to run up the castle to work that off again.
There you have it. RIP Trey Walton.
Elder Wilson
(editor's note: Trevor told me today that his camera broke in February which is why he has not been sending any pictures. I was wondering why. Too bad because he had a nice camera and he sent pretty great photos. He is trying to remedy that and hopefully we will have more photos soon!)
