10-30-17

Hello hello! 

The big news for this week is... We set a baptismal date with our ami Meredith! Remember, the one who is polytheist? We got a call from her friend on Monday night informing us that she had turned to him during sacrament meeting and said, "I want to be baptized!" We had a great lesson where we explained exactly what it means to be baptized. She was on board, so we set a date for Dec 15! We are so excited for her :) We saw her again on Friday and on Sunday for church, and she was telling everyone that she was going to be baptized on Dec 15. She is the cutest and we're so excited for her!

Speaking of baptisms, Saturday was the baptismal service for Albert, the elders' ami. Albert has a really cool story! On General Conference weekend, we decided that we wanted to go to the church to watch the priesthood session (because duh, the priesthood session is super cool). As we were walking in, a man followed us in. Thinking that he was a member (it was my first weekend in Bruxelles, okay?) I struck up a conversation with him and quickly discovered that he was not a member; in fact, he had never been to church before and lived clear on the other end of Bruxelles, but had decided to come that day to discover what it was like. The elders soon arrived and helped him to feel at home. He watched General Conference with the missionaries on one side and the stake president on the other, and in his first lesson later that week, they set a baptismal date for October 28! It was a mad rush to teach him everything he needed to know before then, but he was on board from the beginning, and the day of the service, he was all smiles. Everything went off without a hitch, he was confirmed yesterday, and next week he will recieve the Aaronic Priesthood. Albert's story was a miracle for all of us here in Bruxelles, and I was reminded of the words of Elder Anderson, "When one baptizes, we all baptize."

Let's see, other things we did this week... We had a super awesome Halloween activity on Friday evening, complete with cute kids in costumes, cookies decorated like spiders, an arm in the trashcan, a hallway of terror, and even trunk or treat! The members weren't super sure how to organize a trunk or treat, so the Christensens had to help out a bit :) We also got to know the less active family that we bumped into last week. Chatou LOVES the church even if she hasn't been for years, she was singing hymns and everything! We met her 4 kids, who are all young adults and are all baptized except the youngest. We invited them to come to JA soirée and the oldest said, "I surely will avail myself this coming friday" and yes he actually said that. So we get to go to JA soirée next week! Woohoo!

Last night we headed over to the Christensens (senior couple) to celebrate 3 special birthdays-- Elder Christensen, Elder Eyring, and Soeur Biggs! It was a super fun party and Soeur Christensen made some incredible cake :) One of our favorite things about Elder Christensen is that he writes these adorable funny stories about when he was younger, growing up with his siblings and all mistakes made and lessons learned. So us four sister missionaries wrote our own little stories about Elder Christensen and read them out loud at the party. It was so fun to put together that little present for him, and he was obviously touched. 

So, voilà, that was my week! There are only a couple more to go! I'm so happy to be out here serving the Lord and meeting all these incredible people. I know that I have been an instrument in the hands of the Lord throughout my mission, and I know that as I continue to be faithful and obedient, I can be the kind of tool that He WANTS to use to accomplish His purposes.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Soeur Rogers