Elder Chase Player: End of the World Conference

This week has been another great week here in Brussels. We had some fun and interesting things happen.

Last Monday after emailing and shopping we made our way to the Atonium. It's so close and we wanted to get some pictures. We had our usual frites (fries) and got patches at the Grand Place. A lot of missionaries get patches in each of their areas they serve in.

Tuesday we had our usual couple of "no shows" but we had a great district meeting. During the meeting a family we ported on exchanges a couple of weeks ago called and asked if we could meet with them later that evening. They are the Sonal family and have 2 children. They are interested in finding a church that is family friendly. I think we fit into that category. We learned that Henri, the dad, has a PhD in BioChem and works in Chicago doing research. He is here in Brussels most of the time and they all speak French, Dutch and English. We are hoping to teach them again this week and they said they would read in the Book of Mormon's we gave them. After that we went and taught another family we met just walking to the metro last week. They have 2 children that are super cute and are from Romania. They speak French but were so excited when we said we could get them a Book of Mormon in Romanian. They seem super interested and were awesome to teach. Their children are 3 and 8 months old. We taught them again on Saturday and they had us skype his dad who lives in the Ukraine because he liked Moroni 10:3-5 so much.

Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

I love that scripture! we finished the night by teaching Kingsley and Marsella. We got to know them better and found out that Kingsley is actually a prince because his father is a king in Africa. We asked him how many people he was a king over and he said about 100,000. Pretty impressive! We came home and baked a cake out of a cake mix that Elder Davis was sent for his birthday. We made frosting out of nutella, speculos and chocolate frosting. Not very healthy but delicious.

Wednesday we decided to try something different to reach people. We put on our street clothes and offered to do service. We knocked on doors and said, "We are here as missionaries for our church and are here to give service." We explained it was free. We thought people would jump on that, but not so many. One lady, named Jozey, took us up on it. She was older and a widow. She had started to paint the back of her patio but never finished it. We spent three hours and finished it up. She was so happy. She didn't even know our names but hopefully she will look at the contact card we left on the table. You never know. After a day of "knocking and talking" we had dinner with the Curtis family. They have such smart children and it's so fun to be around a young family. Best of all, we ate well!

Thursday was a bit tough but we made it fun. During lunch we had a balloon from Elder Davis' birthday box. We made a big water balloon. It was great and, don't worry, nobody was injured! After a long day we had a miracle. I called Nosa to check up on him and he told us he has a baptismal date for next Sunday!!! We were so happy and left that night to do street contacting with a lot of energy.

Friday we went to lunch with Frere Fracken again. We had tons of food...salad, main course, dessert and a drink. He insists and always has good stories to share. He even gave us advice on marriage. We had a lesson that night with a family in the ward that is preparing to go to the temple. We did a family home evening with them and made chocolate chip cookies. We talked a bout temples and sang. It was super fun and I've never seen two dozen cookies disappear so fast! I cut my own hair again (something I said I would never do) and I didn't butcher it, phew!

The weekend was good and quite entertaining. Saturday we were invited to a conference for the "end of the world" by a friend. Hoping he'd come to church we went to his conference. It was at a very nice hotel. Upon arrival they escorted us up to the front. 10 priests from different countries spoke and took questions at the end. We were the only two white people there. During intermission they asked up to speak about what our church believed. They loved that we came to their conference. On Sunday, the Sylvestre family came to church and Kingsley and Marsella. It was a great meeting and after, Sylvestre asked if we could teach them again really soon! He brought his nephew that is 22 and we are going to start teaching him too. We had dinner with the Glover family. It is always fun to hear their stories about their missions and how they met. He's an accountant at Deloitte so I had fun asking questions about that.

This week we have our zone conference. Tonight we have interviews with President and Soeur Poznanski with zone conference on Tuesday. It should be a great week with vacances (vacations) ending and our new families we are teaching. I know we will see more miracles happen. I'm so grateful for all you and all that you do for me. Thanks for your example and support. I hope you all have a great week, whether at Snowbird, school or at work!

Love...
Elder Player