Everyone here is flakier than a southern biscuit

I asked Jonah if they are teaching any new people and he said no, they get referrals and people say they will come to church, but they never do. Then he said, "Everyone here is flakier than a southern biscuit."

Jonah has loved serving in Charleroi with Elder Zollinger. They only have a few more days together before Zollinger leaves.  You can only stay in Belgium for two transfers.  Elder Zollinger was a great trainer for Jonah and he is going to miss him.

Jonah has been telling us that he is worried about money when he comes home.  He said he wants us to just put money in his savings account for all birthdays and Christmas presents while he's gone.  Jonah hasn't been taking very many pictures so I messaged him and told him that I had a great idea and I'll pay $1 for every picture.  He immediately loaded a few pictures.  Smart boy!

On P-day the elders went mini golfing with Patrick.

Jonah said it was a lot of fun and he took second. 

Grocery shopping.

I think Jonah has eaten a ridiculous amount of waffles in the past few weeks.

Jonah said they spend two to three hours on the train every day. He said it’s really hard because there are a lot of drunk people on the trains. He said they get yelled at a lot by the drunk people and one lady tried to spit on them. 

This is the view from the church. 

They went to a barbecue for a member meal and had a really good sausage and chorizo on a banquette. 

They went to district council in Nivelles Belgium. 

Here is their District.  Elder Gambee, Elder Smith, Elder Loosli, Elder Zollinger, Soeur Mills and Soeur Sharpe. 

They walked through the town on their way and Jonah said the buildings were all really cool.  

This building is a helicopter pad, Jonah said it's cool to watch them land on there.

They helped some members repair their fence.  Wilson is from Columbia and Jonah said they made them the best dinner after. He loved the authentic Mexican food. 

They had to take the train to go do service for Wilson. He said they always have at least a 45-minute train ride to go anywhere. 

Jonah said they usually have dinner with the Cox's on Sunday night.  When they left last night they saw this beautiful sunset and rainbow. 

He said the sunset with the rainbow were amazing.

He told us about a miracle they had this week.  They met a man named Thomas when they were finding.  He is from The Congo and was fascinated and impressed that these two young Elders left their lives and came across the world to teach people about Christ. He gave them his number and said he was interested in learning more.  They called him multiple times and the call wouldn’t go through and they realized they must have the number wrong.  They decided to try one last time and the call went through and Thomas said he had been waiting to hear from them. They asked about his number and they did have it wrong and they got the right one so it was a miracle that the call went through and they were able to reach him. 

Patrick made this really good lunch for them today, but Jonah was fasting with us for Caitlyn, so he didn't eat it. He said it was hard!  It meant a lot to us and Caitlyn that he did that. 

While we were talking to Jonah tonight he sent Wyatt this song and told him it was their missionary pump up music. It has clips of  apostles talks with pump up music in the back ground. It’s pretty funny.  The best line is Elder Holland saying, “Feed my sheep.”

Missionary Life

Here is one more picture of Elder Loosli and Elder Mier in Brussels.

Jonah wasn't sure what this was at first, but he figured it was something iconic so he took a picture of it. This is the Atomium in Brussels. It was built for the 1958 Brussels Worlds fair. There are nine interconnected spheres and they are each 59 feet in diameter.  One of them has a restaurant in it.  Jonah has seen these a few times now. 

Jonah is loving the Belgium waffles.  He has always liked waffles and he says they are so good there. He told us he has been using the cash I sent with him for extra things until the new credit cards come.  I asked him if that has been enough and he said, "yeah except I didn't have enough for a train ticket."  He went on to explain he did have enough, but he stopped and bought a waffle on the street and then he didn't have enough. He went on to tell us that there was a miracle because a lady approached them and said she bought two extra tickets and sold the tickets to them cheaper so Jonah was able to afford his waffle and his train ticket. Ha!  Same old Jonah. 

Apparently they have really good Chinese buffets in Belgium.  They went to one for Elder Gambee's birthday.  Patrick drove them there and paid for Elder Gambee.  Jonah said there is a special place in the Celestial Kingdom for Patrick.  He does so much for the missionaries. 

Jonah said the food was so good.  He wrote, "Wait, maybe this whole mission thing is ok?" on this picture. 

This robot delivered food.  Jonah said it was pretty cool.  He set up obstacles with chairs and the robot was able to go around all of them.

Jonah was really excited to go to the zoo last week on P-day.  It is in Brussels.  Patrick drove the elders there and they met a couple of sisters.  Pairi Daiza is the biggest zoo in Europe.  Jonah said it was huge and they had a ton of every animal.

Here wrote "Moto Moto" on this one.

They decided to wear their mission clothes and Jonah was not excited about that, he said it was so hot.

Elder Loosli and Elder Zollinger.

This is a screen shot from a video of Jonah and Elder Gambee laughing because the deer wouldn't lick them so they were joking that they smelled bad. 

Jonah had his first zone conference last week.  He loved it.  He loved meeting with his mission president and all of the devotionals they had.  He said he was asked to share his testimony a few times.  For pday they all went to Brussels and played volleyball. Jonah loved that, he said blue team is the best!

He added some more beautiful sunset pictures.

A sunset over water is the best.

I think this past week has been a hard one for Jonah.  He is still feeling homesick and there is a lot of things at home that he is sad he is missing out on.  He added this picture to his google photos this week. Last Sunday he spoke in church.  I asked him to send me his talk and he sent me the English version of it.  I'm so impressed that he was able to give this talk in French.  I'm so glad he shared it with me. It was so good! Here is what he said:

Hello brothers and sisters! I am excited to speak to you all today. I will try and make this so that you guys can understand what i am saying. My French is still coming along very slow. 
About 500 years ago, a man named Hernan Cortez took 500 men, and they left their homes in Cuba to travel to Mexico. They were commanded by their governor to go and attack the Aztecs in Mexico. They wanted to have more land. But, when they got there, they saw that there were a lot more Aztecs than they thought. The men were scared to fight. A lot of the men complained to Cortez. They wanted to go home. They thought they were going to lose. Sometimes, I feel like these men. I feel like the battle of life ahead of me is too much to handle. I think that all of you have experienced this. 
So what did Cortez do? He commanded his men to destroy the boats that they sailed in. He made sure that the men had no choice, but to go forward and give everything they had to complete their mission. This was a big risk, but, it ended in victory for Cortez and his men! 
That must have taken a lot of faith. Sometimes God gives us challenges that seem impossible to complete. But, because of his perfect plan, we can find our potential. We can learn so much. One of the best ways to understand our potential, is to strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ. 
Mosiah 5: 7 reads, "Et maintenant, à cause de l’alliance que vous avez faite, vous serez appelés enfants du Christ, ses fils et ses filles ; car voici, aujourd’hui il vous a engendrés spirituellement ; car vous dites que votre cœur est changé par la foi en son nom ; c’est pourquoi, vous êtes nés de lui et êtes devenus ses fils et ses filles" 
I love this scripture. We need to grow our faith, so that we can learn. We can't expect any blessings if we are not acting in faith. Cortez was a great example of this. There are many other prophets the scriptures who acted in faith, leaving no way to return. Lehi had to leave Jerusalem with his family forever, and give their lives to the lord. And when Nephi had to go back a third time to get the plates, can you imagine how much faith that took? His brothers were all ready to quit and go home, but the angel that appeared to him told him that the Lord would deliver the plates to him. The Lord never breaks his promises. Nephi is a great example. 
It is clear that acting in faith is never easy. While this is true, it is necessary to show god that we love him. If everything was easy, how do we learn? Believe me, sometimes there is nothing i want to do more than to be at home with my family and not complete this mission. This mission is full of hard things. But I have seen the Lord bless me more than anything before. I know that being out here is helping my family more than being there. Faith is also the best blessing for us. I promise that as you choose the right, even when its hard, those choices will come easier over time. Your faith will grow. 
Now, how do we strengthen our faith? It always comes back to the small and simple things. The lord loves effort. That effort starts with praying, reading the scriptures, and trying to strengthen our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That is how we find the joy in everyday, AND how we see our own potential. We all have the power to be like Cortez in our lives. You are never too far from the light of Christ. His hand is always extended out to you. 
This last week, I was struggling with the life of a missionary. I had a hard time getting the motivation to do things, and I felt too disconnected from Jesus Christ, and a little too connected to home. Thankfully, in my meeting with my mission president, he reminded me that I need to work every day to give my all to strengthening my relationship with Christ. Since I started doing that, everything has become easier. I've destroyed my boats!

President Eyring gave us a great promise. He said, "que nous comprenons et croyons que notre Père céleste entend chacune de nos prières, et que nous nous efforçons d’obéir aux commandements, notre capacité de recevoir la révélation continue grandit. Le Saint-Esprit peut être notre compagnon constant. Nous conserverons une sensation de lumière, même quand le monde qui nous entoure s’enténèbre." (As we understand and believe that our Heavenly Father hears our every prayer, and as we strive to obey the commandments, our capacity to receive ongoing revelation grows. The Holy Spirit can be our constant companion. We will retain a sense of light, even when the world around us grows dark.)  I have seen my faith grow, and my life get better when I act in faith. The Lord loves effort. I know that we have everything we need here on this earth to return to our Heavenly Father. If we destroy our boats like Cortez, we will see the lord give us the blessings.

 

We had a great call with Jonah this week.  Caitlyn joined from her apartment.  Hallee and Wyatt talked for a bit and then they went to bed.  Jonah started sharing some thoughts on the Book of Mormon and things he has been learning and then we all shared some thoughts.  We talked about how we can have peace and joy no matter what is going on in or lives.  Jonah talked about President Nelsons talk, "Joy and Spiritual Survival." I have been reading that talk a lot over the years as we have been going through hard things like job loss and losing my mom to Alzheimer's.   It was nice to have that discussion with our kids.  I heard something this week that helped me, a lot of the time we think our prayers will be answered by alleviating our discomfort and making us comfortable, but more often than not we are just given strength through Christ to persevere.  The thing we are all learning is we can have peace in the middle of our trials, not just when they are over. 

Two months as a missionary

We officially hit two months as a missionary this week.  It has felt very long! Both Jonah and I are hoping time starts speeding up more. We all miss him.  We miss his sense of humor the most.  He brings so much fun into the house.  We look forward to his calls every week.

 Last week Jonah told us that he was going to go on walk/hike to an abandoned house on P-day after he talked to us.  He said it was a nice walk that reminded him of the Provo River trail. He said it was nice because it felt like home.

There was an abandoned castle as well.  He said some battle took place there. 

They had fun walking around the empty house and castle.

I told Jonah he looked angry in this picture and he said he thought it was funny.  He had a rough week with missing home.  He said it's really hard when he can't understand the language.  He said he will zone out and think about home when he can't understand the conversation. 

Here are some more pictures of the broken castle.

I love that he takes so many pictures of pretty flowers.

They sent a video to President Munns while they were pointing to a Buttress, apparently President Munns always talks about Buttresses at every meeting.

They had fun exploring.

They found a mini golf course near the castle.

Swinging with Elder Gambee.

Jonah had fun making himself into AI characters on his phone.

This week Jonah said they spent hours cleaning a house for one of their friends, Amelie.

Jonah said the are in a sketchy area and the apartments are not very nice.  This one that Amelie moved into needs a lot of work. They worked for three hours taking off wallpaper and he said they will go back this week to clean more. 

Jonah loves Patrick. He is always with the missionaries and drive them all over. This is one of their friends Priscillia who they are hoping will get baptized.  She has a lot of people in her life that are discouraging it and she wants to strengthen her testimony more before she gets baptized. She goes to church every week. Jonah said she is amazing and is more ready for baptism than she realizes. 

Jonah said they see a pretty sunset every night while they are walking home.  They go finding for a few hours every day.  He said he likes talking to people, but most people won't talk to them.  They also do a lot of member lessons and then the members feed them.  Everyone tells him to enjoy this area because it is the best for member meals. He said he has been eating really good!