Bonjour!
I hope all is well in the states! Things are great here. I didn't fall down, scrape, or bruise anything. So it's been a good week! :)
On monday we had a little birthday party for Elder Weber at the church. We had an apple tart with 20 birthday candles crammed on it and vanilla ice cream. We watched "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" and joked that you know you're a missionary when a "party" means watching the Joseph Smith movie. That night, we had Soirée Familiale with the young single adults. After the lesson and the game, cupcakes were served-- a very foreign novelty for the members. we taught them how to say "cupcake" and explained how popular they are in the states. They love to learn about Les Etats-Unis.
On Wednesday we walked all over Liège doing inactive passbys. It was a rare warm day- the first warm day since I've been here. we stopped at a juice stand- we each picked three or four fruits and they put them through a juicer straight into our cups. I got mango-apple-orange. yum.
as we walked through the city streets sipping our juice and chatting in French, i could feel my heart swelling with happiness and gratitude. i looked up at the blue sky and said a silent thank you to Heavenly Father. I am the luckiest little mish in the world.
That evening we had a mangez-vous with Rita. She's such a little mommy to us: she makes dinner for us every week, she makes us take syrup when we're coughing, and she's always worrying we don't eat enough. We LOVE her! She is so very sweet. She made chicons au gratin (chicons is the belge word for endives) it was really good. Chicons are crazy popular here.
Thursday means district meeting. We talked all about testimony... It was so very good. Elder Hall, our district leader, is just awesome. He's really humble and does a great job teaching us every week. At the end of the meeting we had a little testimony meeting and the spirit was tangible! we went out to lunch afterwards to celebrate Elder Duarte's year mark in the mission field. the waiter at the restaurant asked us where we were from. Elder Duarte said "Portugal." At the cash register, the waiter looked at me kind of funny and said, "You're from Portugal?" haha, um no. I'm pretty sure I look the exact opposite from Portuguese.
We taught Beauty on Friday before English class and OH MY GOSH have I mentioned we love him?? He is seriously every missionary's dream. Every time we teach him, we prepare our lesson and he just blows us away- really, he's the one teaching us. We talked about missionary work and he said he prays for missionary experiences and he's trying to get his friends to come to church. He also said he's praying every night he can find a good girl to take to the temple so he can raise a righteous family in the gospel. He just GETS it.... He's incredible!
After english class, we had our usual lesson with Jacqueline. She is going to the temple soon to do baptisms! She got her recommend on sunday. We are so thrilled for her. I sat with Jacqueline on the bus on the way home. We chatted the whole way there, and as we said our goodbyes I realized I had understood everything she said! We were laughing and talking the entire time. I couldn't believe it. It was a big moment for me. When we got home I went straight to my knees and thanked Heavenly Father for that little experience.
On Saturday, we had a mangez-vous with Célia and her mom. we were so excited to be able to teach a lesson with her mom there. You can imagine our disappointment then when she seated us in the front room with Célia and told us dinner would be ready after our lesson and then left us there. We had a fun little lesson with Célia... We taught her a Ten Commandments hand game to help her remember them. She is SO cute!
Afterwards, we moved into the dining area. We had chips and drinks on the couch as Célia's mom played the guitar for us. We sang "La Maladie d'Amour" together and then she sang a silly little song, "On Verra Jamais", with Célia's little brother Samuel. It was so cute and such fun!
After Célia's, we went to the church to teach Maurice. We taught him about the sabbath day and I think it started dawning on him mid-lesson where we were going with it. At the end, I said, "So Maurice, tomorrow is Sunday. Will you come to church with us?" we all held our breath. Then he said YES! We couldn't believe it. We have been trying to get him to come to church ever since I got to Liège.
...And he showed up too :) It was a happy, happy week. Amadou came to church with us too! My cheeks were hurting when we got home from all the smiling I did yesterday. It is so amazing the amount of joy being a missionary brings.
After church, we had a little activity with the Young adults. We watched "The Best Two Years", which was a real treat. It was crazy how applicable that movie is now... Especially because they're missionaries in Europe in the movie. There were some really familiar situations in there :)
a great big merci to all of you for your prayers, love, letters, and support. je vous aime tous!
amour,
la petite missionaire.
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