Elder Chase Player: Week 14 - Vacance, Members and 3 Month Mark

Bonjour Toute le Monde...

Another week in Bruxelles and my 3 month mark. We heard a lot of, "We'll be back in a couple of weeks?" but it's still great to be a missionary!

After shopping last Monday we went to a row of high end shops. Tiffany's, Louis Vuitton, Hugo Boss, etc. It was crazy, since we couldn't afford any of it, but they treated us like we could, which was fun. We grabbed a Kebap on our way home with some frites and were off teaching for the night. We taught the Johnson family. Once again he had food for us, even though we know they can't afford it. He had been in the hospital earlier that day but was still taking care of us. Amazing! With our durums and soda we were off to our next lesson with Kingsley and Marsella. We used a story from the Ensign about going forward with faith even when you might not receive an answer. Heavenly Father will always step in and guide us when we most need it. They liked it and realized that they need to move forward with faith and do their part. That was great to hear.

Tuesday we had a lesson with Bithos, who has a book that is coming out in a few weeks, titled, "Le Dieu de Mon Pere". (The God of my father) He was really interested and has 3 children who are on vacation. He took a Book of Mormon and when we talked to him later this week he said he'd read a lot of it and had questions. Hopefully, we'll talk to him more this week! We had the usual tombes vour, or fall through appointments, but we had dinner with the Hatch Family that made up for it. Brother Hatch works for Nato and is the controller for the national missile defense sector for America - Ya, crazy! As we were driving from the metro to his house he asked, "Have you been here before?" We replied, "No." He told us he lived in a chateaux. It was amazing! It has a lake, private road and lots of property. The government owns it and they live in it. Sounds like a good deal to me!

Wednesday we received a call and were asked to go give a blessing to Brother Johnson. He still wasn't feeling good and they were leaving for Switzerland that night. I gave my first blessing and it was awesome! I'm so thankful for the priesthood and the power it has. After that, we went contacting with a priest in the ward. His name is Raphael Wendo and he is 16. Both of our appointments had fallen through so we knocked on doors. Kurt, another priest went out with us this week too. The priests here are awesome and we hope we can help them want to serve missions. Who knows how many lives these 2 missionaries will change.

Thursday was quite uneventful and everything fell through. People here go on vacance until the middle of September so it's hard to catch them home. We had an awesome district meeting about acting on promptings of the spirit. Never question if you get a feeling to talk to someone. We've been working on that this week! On our way home, the bus got stuck in traffic because of a car accident. We ended up walking back and it took about an hour. Thank heavens it wasn't raining.

Friday was our first time with Frere Fracken. Frere Fracken is a member and a retired Belgian marine. He lost his arm in a helicopter accident. He's taking us out to lunch every week and always has some great stories to tell. The rest of the day was contacting and then a lesson with Kingsley and Marsella.

Saturday and Sunday involved a church tour, dinner with a member family and two referrals from them for family in Paris and London. We gave a Book of Mormon to her. They fed us a great dinner of fried rice with squid, fish and something else I couldn't identify. It was amazing. Church was great and I've come to realize what an awesome ward we have. It's different, having two plus languages, but everyone is great and the families are so fun to be around.

Elder Davis and I have watched people carefully this week and have asked, "Do these people look happy?"
It's sad to see that many of them do not. I know the gospel can give you that happiness and light in your eyes. The gospel is so amazing and I'm so grateful to have it in my life!

Today we are off to see the Royal Palace and next week we are planning on going to a chocolate factory. Thanks you all for your letters and emails. I love hearing what's going on in your lives.

Some quick facts...
$5.06 for a gallon of gas
We can shop for a week for four of us on 80 Euros ($107)
McDonalds and Quick are the only fast food places here

Till next week...

Love, Elder Player