You'll go a few weeks of one particular thing happening over and over during a 2 week period. For example, in Eindhoven when people thought I was Turkish. For particular occurrences, I feel like it must be God telling you to learn something, but it's hard to know exactly what. Lately, the theme has been appointments falling through. We're super excited to meet new people, but it seems when we get around to trying to teach them, they're simply not available. It's always some force beyond our control too. I won't bore you with the details, but we were supposed to have a zillion appointments this week. Not many of them actually went through. I suppose this is missionary life. I remember back home how many appointments went through when I went on joint teach with the Elders. I will say, however, it makes the day worth it when you do get to teach and when it turns out great. But enough of that.
We had a Zone conference this week. We went all the way to Leiden. It was super cool being back in my Greenie city, taking the same bus we took every Sunday... I picked a sticker to commemorate the occasion. President gave a great (though somewhat abstract) training. He used mountains as an analogy, saying that our relationships with others, ourselves and with God should have mountain-like qualities. Like being sure, strong and true. It took a while to get the picture he was painting, but once you did, it was actually pretty interesting. We all got rocks too. They are from Utah--which probably has more meaning to a Utah person than me. Dad would probably like my rock. He likes rocks, right? Oh maybe Angus...
So Tauelen, the Portuguese girl, came to church last Sunday. I decided to call and invite her to a dinner appointment we had with our Portugese members. She couldn't make it, but she invited herself once again to church. It was funny, because we also called Rosario, a former investigator who also speaks Portuguese. Investigators class was really interesting. Tauelen requested that we speak as much English as possible to help her learn it, Rosario speaks fluent Dutch, and we had our Portuguese members there as well. It was a great smish-smash of all 3 languages, with scattered translation here and there. Adventurous. Our ward is having a picnic day on Saturday and Tauelen really wants to come. Teaching her directly didn't seem to work out before, but it appears as though teaching her indirectly is working far better.
We met with Frank and Beatrice again (the previously mentioned eternal investigators). He had read in the Book of Mormon again, which was great, because truth be told, we hadn't prepared much of a lesson. He had more questions, which we gladly answered. We concluded by reading another chapter from the Book. I'm really hoping all this sparks a deep interest in the Book of Mormon; he asked quite a few questions that would be better answered by the book itself. I hope he realizes this too.
We had a zone P-day today. We bussed down (I hate buses) to Antwerpen and met most of our zone to play sports. The things you gave me were a huge hit. We played foetbal for a bit, then it pretty much turned into people throwing my frisbee, foxtail and whistling football around. It was a fun time.
Also, the weather has taken a drastic change. Elder Moscon and I took shelter under a 1 by 2 foot overhang while the sky poured it guts out. It's still slightly sunny, but it looks as though the summer is well on its way out.
Simon and his buddies (his "crew") are pretty much our best friends now. They chill and smoke weed all day, and wave when we go by. We had an appointment with him at four, but when we began talking he said, "yeah, we'll meet at four, no worries." "Simon, it is four..." "Aaaaaaaah..." Hmm... We'll see. They're all friendly enough though. We change our route often now though, just in case. I doubt any of them actually know which house is ours. You can't see it from where they hang.
We met Dirk in the market. He's crazy. Too crazy to sum up in a paragraph. He had needle-wounds on his arm. And was drunk. He's crazy.
I am thoroughly convinced drugs are a direct offspring of the devil. They absolutely destroy you, in almost every sense of the word. They melt your mind, corrupt your spirit and taint your body. They are utterly evil. Their effects are permanent too. It's like putting a giant scar across your brain.
Stay as far away from them as possible.
Elder Moscon's bike died this week. Her head fell off. It was too old to salvage, so we brought her out back with a rifle and finished off her misery. Now her corpse rots in front of our house. Poor Lenaya. On the bright side, Bro Germann happened to have a new steed for him. He's willing to sell it cheap too--the price of 2 bags of barley.
Well, bye.
Tot volgende keer,
Elder Burgess
Zone conference
post script
How's Elly doing in the Book of Mormon? Is she reading the right book yet? I realized today how much I don't tell people about my book. It doesn't come up that often anymore. Almost always somebody else tells somebody else about it. I should change that...
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