August 18, 2014

Hey Everyone!
I hope that you all had a great week, and that you are staying safe! I had a great week, and Belgium is treating me real nicely. I love it. There are a few things here and there that make Nederland better, but the change is something that I think every missionary needs to experience. They are almost two separate missions! The Lord is providing, and Genk is still seeing miracles, after miracles. It is soo witness and be a part of. The Lord just expects us as missionaries to our jobs, and he provides the rest because of the Faith that the branch has. They want growth, and they are getting it.

Freddy, one of our baptismal dates, is a complete stud. Honestly, probably the next branch president. We taught him twice this week. One, The gospel of Jesus Christ, and the second, we watched the Restoration movie. He loves the Book of Mormon. In the mission, like I said last week, we are focussing on strengthening our own conversion to the Book of Mormon, and helping our investigators do the same. Clement and I are really trying our hardest to help him understand the importance of the book. He absolutely loves it, and told us that he has received an answer that it is true, because he was able to understand something out of the gospel of paul for the first time, because he read it in the Book of Mormon and the Bible. How cool is that? He came to church, gave a lot of input, listens to MoTab, and talks to people about the church. He is a member already, but hasn't been baptized. So cool!

Also, on Sunday, Liset walked into church! She is the one from a few weeks ago that spoke to Elder Holt and I at the bus station. She is wavering back and forth about meeting with us, but had the feeling to come to church. I have been praying for her so hard that she would come, and she finally did! She met a member who missed her train at the train station, and they were able to come together. The Lord does amazing things!

We taught a lot this week as well. Teaching and bearing witness of the Book of Mormon on the door is one of the best ways we can find out here. People cannot deny the spirit they feel when we read special scriptures and personal feelings and thoughts out of the Book of Mormon. We are seeing a lot of success from this. Not only Genk, but the whole district. It is really cool to see! On Friday, we had a ward Barbeque at a members home. It was pouring rain, but that is typical for Belgium. I have recognized that in Belgium, when it rains, it literally all comes down at once for about 10 minutes, then stops. I have never seen rain this hard. Super cool haha. We had a lot of fun at the BBQ. Had two investigators there, and played a lot of board games and cards. This Branch is incredible. I wish wards got this close to each other. The BBQ was actually a changing point in Burts conversion. Burt is our investigator with a date who is struggling a little bit still. He loved coming, and totally surprised me when he accepted our invitation. He made a lot of friends, lost in chess, and did weird Burt things, but that is why I love him! He is a stud.
We had a really good week. We are staying super busy, and that is really nice. I had a lot of time to study out of the BoM this week, and I payed really close attention to my BoM hero, Nephi. 2 Nephi 4 is undoubtedly one of my favorites in the BoM. It helps so much to have BoM heroes, no matter how old you are. Nephi is the best!

I love you all so much, and I hope that you all have a great week. Enjoy the last week of summer, Tyson, keep killing it in football, Parker, I want to hear about big things from you game this week, and Emily, keep being a pregnant/sick wife for Shawn, and Paige, clean up Zoeys poop ;)

Veel Liefde,

Elder Elkins