I am sitting in this wonderful library
to email, and I begin to type. I realize how many typing errors that I
was making, and it quickly reminded me that I was in Belgium. The
keyboards here are in French. A bunch of the letters on the keyboard are
in differenct places than the English ones: Jammer! I will do my best,
but if I make mistakes, than pardon my French (keyboard) :)
Beglium
is gorgeous! Especially in the Limburg province, where I am. We live in
Genk, but our area actually covers the entire Province. We work in the
second biggest area in the mission, and that is insane! Here, it is
normal to ride busses 2 hours away, everyday! I'm not used to that, but
I'm definitely going to learn. It is a very foresty area, and anyone
knowing me, knows that I love that. The dialect that they speak here is
called Limburgs. It is indeed Flaams, but they what's a little different
than normal Flaams is that they actually kinda sing while talking, as
well as do random twists to pronunciation. I have developed a super hard
Dutch accent out here, and everyone here instantly tags me as a
Nederlander. It makes for super intersting conversations, and it makes
me feel good that not everyone instantly tags me as an American or
Englander after I open my mouth for the first time haha.
The
branch is great! This is my first time serving in a branch, and I know
that I am going to love it. There are 20-25 active members, hopefully,
ever week. I have served in two big wards out here, so being in this
branch is completely different. Our church is two hours, because we
don't have any purpose in holding a third class, because there arent
enough people to hold the callings and enought people to have enough
class students. So weird!
My new
companion is 24 years old, and from Canada. His Missionarywork style is a
lot like mine, and we are going to get along just fine! He has been out
for 6 months or so, and this is his 4th transfer in the mission. He
served in San Diego for 3 months prior to coming here because of visa
issues. We live in a 4som in a super nice apartment with a dishwasher,
two seperate rooms, and a clothes drier. Super spoiled are we. My
roomate is Claflin, and he is an MTC friend. We are enjoying it.
We
spent a lot of our weekend planning, and deciding how we were going to
do 4 Elders here. It was rough to plan, but necessary. I'm just glad
that it is over. We had a baptism for two women in their 20's on
Saturday! Super Special, and this upcoming Saturday, two more! Benjamin
and Aleksander. They are 9 and 11, and super fun. They love us and asked
me to give a talk at the baptism, so that will be exciting! This place
is on fire!
Well, I'm out of time,
and losing my patience on this keyboard, so I'm going to leave it at
that. I'm sorry for not writing anybody back, but I'm going to focus on
letters while in Belgium, because we only email an hour here, so I have
no time to respond to anyone. Write me if you care, and I will write
back! I promise :)
Testimony is growing, the field is white, and we are harvesting. Love you all, and I wish you all a great week!
Groetjes uit Belgie,
Elder "van" Elkins
No comments:
Post a Comment