Missionary Life

The Elders went thrift shopping on P-Day.

This is Manneken Pis.  It's a famous landmark in Brussels.  Online it says it symbolizes the city's independent spirit and humor. 

Apparently they change his outfit a lot and they have a museum with all of his outfits. 

The Elders checked out the museum on PDay. 

The Atomium at sunset.

This picture was for Sawyer. 

When the senior missionary couple was helping them move, Elder Poulsen offered to give them all  haircuts.  Jonah was excited for a free haircut, but he said he told him how he wanted it and he did the opposite. He cut it really short in the back.  They all spent the evening trying to fix each others hair!

Elder and Sister Swenson with Elder Lewis. They ate lunch with a few of the senior missionary couples and Jonah said it was so fun. They all shared their proposal stories. 

Elder Swenson grabs ankles instead of shaking hands. 

Jonah said he's taking more pictures of scenery so we can get a feel for the area. 

Patrick came to Brussels so he asked Jonah if they could get together.  They met up for lunch.  Papi Rousselt came with Patrick.

 They went to the Grand Place.

Jonah was thrilled to see both of them.

They spent a few hours with them and had a great time. 

Jonah said it was so good to see Patrick and it gave him a taste of his first transfer and how far he has come. 

They went to the dog pis statue. Apparently Brussels loves their pis statues.  

Jonah said Papi (they just call him that) is hilarious and kept lifting his leg and pretending to pee on poles. 

This is cathedral and you can pee on the side of it.  Jonah said it is nice because you usually have to pay for a bathroom. 

This is the garb, the train station.  This is where they held the Padel tournament over the last couple of weeks. 

Padel is a newer sport that is a mix between pickle ball and racquetball.  They are having some kind of world tournament in Brussels so they have courts set up in train station and games constantly going. Jonah and Elder Lewis have been spending their lunches watching. He said it's been so fun. 

Today they played basketball for P-Day, Jonah loves basketball so he was thrilled. He borrowed Elder Goyes' shorts. Elder Rodrigues is behind Jonah in this picture, he calls him DG. It sounds like the four of them are having a great time together. He said they always stay up late talking and laughing. 

Brussels

It was transfer week.  I can always count on Elder Zeedik to take a picture with Jonah at transfers. 

Jonah's new companion is Elder Lewis. He is from Saratoga Springs and this is his last transfer. Jonah loves him and says he has already learned a ton from him.

Jonah went back to Belgium.  He has been out of Belgium long enough that he can go back for two transfers again.  He is in Brussels this time. 

He said Belgium is beautiful, especially in the Spring. 

He is loving Brussels.  He loves the big cities.  He loves that there are so many more people to meet and talk to. 

They went to the plaza to study.

Elder Lewis and Elder Loosli enjoying a beautiful sunset. 

An ice cream cone that looks like a rose. 

Elder Lewis's parents were in town so they got to spend their P-day with them and do some sightseeing. 

This is park Cinquartenair.

It's crazy that he is surrounded by so much beauty and history. 

He was really excited to go to the car museum. 

Elder Lewis's parents paid for him to get in and Jonah was so grateful because he really wanted to go, but it's really expensive. 

They also took them out to a nice dinner. It was a cool restaurant area where they had food from all different cultures. Elder Lewis picked Indian food and they shared it.  Jonah said the goat was actually good.  Jonah picked Mexican food and loved his Burrito. 

There are so many amazing cathedrals in Europe. 

This says drink, eat and piss. Oh Jonah!

They had to move apartments in Belgium too! They are moving to a nicer apartment and had to buy all the furniture from IKEA and put it all together.  The new apartment is brand new and so much bigger. Jonah loves it.  He said the old one was dirty and small and when they were cleaning it out they found rotten eggs behind their dryer.  I guess that would explain the smell! 

They took the train to Lille for zone conference. 

Sister Petersen knows Paul so she wanted to take a picture for Jonah to send to him. She said Paul was her favorite teacher. 

Sister Munn's posted pictures from zone conference. 

She said, "April 9th was Zone Conference in Lille for the Bruxelles and Lille zone. These missionaries are amazing and are doing such life changing, hard things that will bless their lives and so many other lives forever!!! Their faith in Jesus Christ is very evident and helps them build faith in Christ in others. They are sharing this most important gift with all those the Lord has prepared at this time (& that number keeps increasing)! The hastening of the Lord's work is very evident in the France Paris Mission!"

They are making a B for Brussels. 

President Munns asked Jonah to take the zone conference selfie. 

Elder Loosli and Elder Mairo. Jonah said it was a great zone conference and they talked a lot about Faith and putting their Faith into action.

Elder Du Toit, Elder Loosli, Elder Wilstead, Elder Mecham. 

They did rock, paper scissors to see who was going to teach first. 

All of these missionaries came into the field together and  they hit 10 months last week so they took a picture. 

Sister Garlock knitted a hat for Jonah.

She made matching ones for him and Elder Lewis. 

Elder Bornenan, Elder Slade, Elder Polder and Elder Haubrich all went to dinner at a member's house. 

She fed them sausage and this smashed spinach.  Jonah said it was really good. 

Here they are with Sister Grandfilst.  That was so nice of her to feed all of them. 

This is the Atomium, the giant ball structure in Brussels. Now that Jonah lives there he is able to see them all lit up at night. 

This is one of their friends they found on the street. Jonah said they had a great conversation, but then he messaged them and you then he wasn’t interested. 

Jonah and Elder Lewis went into this virtual golf place to talk to the owner and check prices and the owner let them play for free and gave them some lessons.  Jonah said it was really cool because the guy played in the PGA tour so he was really good!