Well my friends! After a full day of organizing, cleaning, and planning things to get ready for the elders in Arras, and another full day of trains, suitcases, and waiting around in gares (a total of 5+ hours waiting in various gares) I have finally arrived in Bruxelles!! And I am PUMPED!!!
This city is so cool. I haven't seen very much of it yet, but it is beautiful. A lot of the smaller older streets look a lot like Arras or other French cities, but some of the bigger areas look like New York or Boston. Today we visited Grand Place (the main square that is just in front of the town hall) as well as some of the cute touristy shops around there. We also got some great Thai food and my first gauffre!! It was SO GOOD!! I can see many more in my future :)
But my new companion, Soeur Peterson, is even cooler!! She's from Hyrum, Utah, and she is the fourth of 7 kids. She's studying history (score! She tells me about everything) and she's a reading fanatic like me :) She is super sweet, very organized, and speaks great French for her third transfer. I feel so lucky to be her companion. I just get to follow her around and learn the ville at my own pace, and it's super relaxing. We already get along really well and have established the seeds of a really trusting companionship. I'm so excited for the next 5 weeks!
We've already had some really cool lessons with several of our amis. We taught Yvannie the very first night over some excellent frites (although Soeur Peterson said they were only so-so, I have yet to try the really legendary ones) and we chatted about our faith in God and invited her to watch General Conference. We also taught Dou a lesson about the Book of Mormon. She is Buddhist, but she pored over the pictures in the front of the Book of Mormon with great interest. I could just tell she was feeling the Spirit. Finally, we had a wonderful impromptu lesson with a less active member Bernadette. Our conversation naturally turned to the blessings we receive when living the gospel (D&C 130:21), and I felt inspired to challenge her to begin living the commandment of keeping the Sabbath Day holy by coming to church. She said she would!
We also had General Conference this weekend, which was INCREDIBLE! Quick reminder: twice a year, we have the opportunity to hear from our leaders, the prophet and apostles, who speak in a conference in Salt Lake City. It's then rebroadcast all over the world! So far we've watched the Priesthood session at the chapel, Womens Conference and Saturday Afternoon at our apartment, and Saturday & Sunday morning at the senior couple's apartment, the Christensens. Every time a new conference rolls around, I find myself to be more and more "thirsty" for the word.
One of my favorite talks from conference was President Uchtdorf's talk from the women's session. He talked about how we can choose how we react to different situations in our lives. He said, "You cannot allow circumstances to make you sad. You cannot allow them to make you mad. You can rejoice that you are a child of God. You can find joy and happiness in the grace of God and in the love of Jesus Christ. You can be glad"
I love you all and hope you have a very "glad" week!!
Soeur Rogers
1. The Park de Cinquantenaire (built to celebrate Belgium's 50th anniversary)
2. A pretty church in the center of Belgium
3. Soeur Peterson and I our second day together!
4. Grand Place
5. We had a combined rdv with all 4 soeurs to teach Frank, a recent comvert.
We met him at the military hospital where he works and took this fun picture!
6. My first gauffre! Ft. Caramel and WAY too much whipped cream
7. We found berets at ZARA and tried them on :)
8. Us in front of l'Église Notre-Dame de Laeken
9. My beautiful comp made French toast for conference breakfast
10. Fun street art in the city of Tintin!
