Joseph came to church!!

Folks, this is the haps:

Joseph was able to make it to church for the first time yesterday. Zuster Holbein and I could not have been happier to see him pull up in the tram, completely dressed for the occasion. He made a dozen new friends - wijk Antwerpen rocks. And he's totally getting baptized in three weeks. He loves the Book of Mormon, knows it’s true and what to do.

There was a special musical fireside last night in Gent and Lauren van Bever invited her friend, David. It was awesome to see him show up (even if he was late) and introduce him to some of the Belgian jovos. Lauren is a champion missionary - I absolutely adore her. And, we slipped a Book of Mormon in David's rather large pocket. ;)

Our other baptismal dates, Moni, Adella, Liliane, and Mercy, are all progressing beautifully.
We are teaching a ridiculous amount of jovos (young single adults) which is awesome because we're starting up a jovo centrum here in Oktober. And every single one that comes our way comes miraculously and with much confidence. Pray that they'll keep a-comin'.

I love and miss you all, but I'm so much in love with life as a missionary in Belgium and the Netherlands. I love hearing about all the amazing things that are happening in your lives with graduations, missions, marriages, babies...it’s unbelievable how time changes so much, eh?

But one thing has not and will not change: the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation. The Book of Mormon is truth and if one can receive that witness, everything else falls perfectly, yet not flawlessly, into place. I love this book, I love sharing it with others. I encourage you all to share it with someone as well.

al mijn liefde,
me

meet Joseph Mendy

Bonjour my lovely friends,

Would you believe that Antwerpen could produce any more miracles? I say it can and it has! ;) Zuster Holbein and I have our hands full teaching five investigators that will be baptized in July and August.

We switched our preparation to Saturday to attend the Long Ship's Races with the President and the office missionaries. I have never experienced a hotter day on my mission, but at least we were on the waterfront with a breeze. Grace, Joseph and baby Benjamin joined us along with Andy, whom the elders are helping prepare to be baptized. It was a memorable day in Antwerpen.

Jospeh is our brother from the Gambia and we actually met him through another Gambian investigator, Baks, (whom we later found out was Muslim) but Jospeh showed up at an appointment with him and practically taught the lesson about Christ being our mediator. I think Zuster Holbein and I both received the spiritual confirmation at the same moment that this was an elect and prepared soul that looked good in white. I have never seen anyone so passionate about the gospel, so sincere in asking if the Book of Mormon was the answer he has been praying for.

Wow.
Jospeh Tunde from the ward has taken him under his wing and they're totally clicking. I love joint teaches. I love teaching the gospel to people like Joseph of the Gambia ("the Smiling Coast of Africa")

I've never felt so blessed and so happy in my entire life, no lie.

hello

Hello everyone,
I serve in the best mission in the world.

love,

me

4th of July and zuster exchanges

Happy 4th of July!! Here in Belgium, we celebrated Canadian and American and Caribbean style at Katie's and watched the tour de France go by after cake and ice cream, so not too shabby of a holiday I’d say.
I seriously cannot believe its coming up on one year, it’s ridiculous. This week was such an amazing one for too many reasons but we had Zuster exchanges and it rocked because my friend from BYU, Zuster Amber de Groot, was one of my collegas, echt waar. We're totally serving together someday, I feel it.
It’d be useless to try and explain the dozens of miracles that happened in an email but if you ask me about it when I’m home, you'll get some sweet action stories. ;) I love love love Zuster de Groot and we are counting on being companions because how could two fabulous girls like us not be? Hehehe. We taught so many lessons on the street and in the trams and several of the people are pretty promising, including Barbara (a young woman from Brazil), who in a moment of divine intervention crossed our path for the second time. She is Zr. de Groot's miracle story.

We also have Zuster Stapleton with us for the week - she's getting on a plane home to the Caribbean Thursday and I have learned SO much from her example. What a pro. Zuster Holbein and I are hesitant to let her go. She taught me diligence and positivity among so many other things.

The work is so unbelievable here. We’re helping Adella and Joseph to baptism and there are SO many more waiting in line. I love this work, never want to stop.

Zuster Holbein and I are staying in Antwerpen for another transfer, about which I couldn't be more happy. And now that I feel a bit more acclimated, I’m setting a goal to seriously try to learn Flemish, echt waar. :)

veel liefs
Zuster fritz

Book of Mormon finding

This week the Rotterdam zone leaders came down to work with our assistants here in Antwerpen and we decided to all do a consecrated hour of finding together...Best Two Years style where we take a box of Book of Mormons (or is it Books of Mormon??) and get them out of our hands and into others'. Zuster Holbein and I gave away several copies of the book or Mormon (there, I think that’s the correct term) with krachtig getuigenis but the most memorable and promising contact was a young man named Wouter. (way to go for the jovo's - they are so super open). We talked to him for quite a while and he was so grateful and so interested and excited to begin reading. We're following up with him today. Zuster Holbein and I have a super positive feeling about this one.

Favorite moment in missionary work: watching people handle the book of Mormon for the first time.

It’s priceless.

love you all,
Zuster fritz

a succession of good days

Monday: incredibly unbelievable appointment with Sebastian and his wife and four kids. This was the Jehovah’s Witness man who stopped us after our crazy tram occurrence. We watched the restoration DVD with them (which magically played with Dutch subtitles even though we didn't have the remote for the player...that just doesn't happen) the spirit was one of the strongest I’ve ever felt in a lesson. Angels were in that room. They are making us dinner for our next appointment and follow up on the Book of Mormon.

Tuesday: taught a man named Joseph from Gambia at centraal station. It was a lesson on very short notice, but he was so excited about getting his own copy of the book of Mormon. I love seeing people handle the book in their hands for the first time.

Wednesday: brought newly baptized Marie Theres to our appointment with Marie Christine. Both are middle-aged Belgian women and completely clicked. Marie Christine took notes the whole lesson and was excited to come to church to meet the rest of the members. She wants to prepare for baptism. And there have to be a few lifestyle changes, but she's up for the challenge.

Thursday: had a lesson with brand new mom, Adella. She had the missionaries teach her 10 years ago in Jamaica and feels more ready now to get serious. She even stole our thunder by asking us to be baptized before we could get the words out. It was super awesome.

Friday: delivered a book of Mormon to a Belgian man who ordered it from the website. He lives just around the corner from us and happens to be the chief of police in Deurne. He is interested in studying religions and wanted to assure us he doesn't want to become a Mormon right away, but he invited us in and we had a beautiful discussion with him about the book. He really felt something special, that was obvious.

Sunday: great morning at church. Love this ward. Ate dinner at our ward mission leader's home and taught his 15 year old granddaughter who wants to believe in god but needs faith. That was incredible.

How can I not love being a missionary?!?

veel liefs, me