blog:
some of the keys do not work on this computer so im sorry for the lack
of punctuation and hopefully i dont need to use numbers for anything
haha oh the ghetto life of antwerpen.  but im soo happy and excited to
still be here. this was an amazing week and i expect nothing but
greatness from here on out. i loovee being trainer and i LOVE my new
comp. she is from utah but i think we are the same person. we are
having so much fun together and i love her greenie energy, weve seen
soo many miracles this week because of her excitment and our hardwork.
its been a crazy busy week but it feels very good to work this hard
and diligently. ive inherited a very lovely new wardrobe from her so
im super happy about that too :) i could go on about her forever, shes
just fantastic. shes already a friend for life, if we both never get
married well just travel the world together :)
soo much happened this week because of the big changes with transfers
that i dont even know where to begin. wed we were in the netherlands
to pick up our new comps and to have some training and that was so
much fun. i got to say goodbye to my trainer (she went home) and pick
up my trainee :) it was also sinter klaas here (netherlands holiday)
so i got to spoil my greenie with some of the typical treats. there
rest of the week is a blur of miracles. we have our baptismal date
back and have found new investigators in the coolest ways. during
training president mentioned something random about helping people
quit smoking and it stuck with me for some reason. so thurs we were
riding bikes and i saw a man and had the impression to pull over and
asked him if hed like to quit smoking.. i didnt really want to do it
because not too many people would want some girl calling them out on
their bad habits but i did it and the man was so shoked and so excited
it was unbelievable. my comp thought it was a joke because he was so
excited haha but we set up an appt to teach him how faith in christ
can help him overcome his addictions and to use the quit smoking
program we have here. everything this week just seem to work out
perfectly and we had fun doing it.
saturday we had our ward christmas party and it was soo awesome. our
ward mission leader turned out chapel into a cruise ship (it really
looked like it too) and we went on a cruise through all the different
cultures in our ward learning about their christmas celebrations and
eating food from all over the world. it was delicious to say the least
:) and there were six inactive members and two nonmembers there that
we really bonded with. i had a great talk with an inactive lady for
most of the night and she invited us over for the holidays, im really
excited about this and i know it will make her active husband very
excited as well :)
enjoy the holiday celebrations
love zuster j

this morning i had my first belgian snow fall! it was so beautiful and
i was really hoping to have snow to play in to take christmas pictures
but by 12 it started raining and now the snow is all gone :( maybe
tomorrow.  but that is not my exciting news! i will be staying here in
antwerpen and becoming a trainer!  its going to be a crazy transfer
but im excited :)  i was actually surprised i was staying but im
excited to really impliment the ideas i have now and see what can
really be accomplished here.
theyre trying really hard to find us a new appt right now because no,
we still have no hot water and our sinks are still clogged.. oh the
joys :) they are hoping to get us out of here by the 15th but its
really hard to find places to rent here. so still have all mail sent
to the mission office for now!  we did get to take 2 hot showers last
week though! we went to the mission home for a girls day of service
decorating the mission home and getting the christmas bags and cookies
ready for our christmas zone conference and we called president before
to ask if we could come early to shower.  they of course were happy to
help and let us stay the night in the mission home because they were
driving out to belgium the next day. it was so wonderful to be able to
spend some extra time with president and sister robinson and enjoying
their amazing hot rain showers :)
other than that there is not too much to report from last week.. it
was a difficult one missionary work wise and we lost a couple of my
favorite investigators so that was not fun for me but it just means
that the greenie and i will have a fresh start and lots of work to do!
im excited to get the chance to get to know the ward even better and
im especially excited to be here the next 2 weekends for the ward
christmas party and the young adult christmas missionary day (were
going to sing carols and have an ask a mormon booth with wrapped joy
to the world dvds and other missionary cards in the university part of
town).
love you all and happy holidays!
zuster j

"rain drops are falling on my head.." (sing as the song goes) this has officiallly become the theme song of my mission because its been sung while were tracting more than any other song.. but its just normal for me know. the rain doesnt really bother me anymore at all, i think ill actually miss it when i get home. maybe :)

so lets see.. highlights from this week were thanksgiving, a new baptismal date, and a funny african meal with the elders.

we went out to familie sherlocks home in a small dorpje (town) that is surrounded by farms and green. i love this area, makes me think that i could maybe live here forever. (dont worry, im coming back). but we spent the day cooking, doing service, teaching a part member fam and knocking on some beautiful homes (i found a bed and breakfast to come stay at in the future:)). we then ate a delicious thanksgiving meal with the fam and the elders. i successfully accomplished making declicious sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, glazed carrots and pie without american kitchen things! haha accomplishments! it definitely didnt feel like real thanksgiving but we made it fun and im so grateful that we had  family to celebrate with!

we set a new baptismal date for december with Pepe. he has had a lot of hard times recently but has found all of his strength through the bible. now he is adding the book of mormon to it and while it is difficult for him to accept new things, he is finding that it all supports what he knows is right and is hoping that this is the right path for him :) the bishop and some of the leaders already love him so he will become a great new addition to the ward!

saturday one of the african families in our ward made lunch for us and the elders.  only for us. they led us into a room in the house with a table set up for the sisters and a table for the elders with tonss of food and bowls of water with soap and towels to clean ourselves up. then they left us there for an hour to enjoy the meal. we came out of there soo full it was difficult to work all day haha but it was fun and delicious. 

thanks for you support! start enjoying the holidays for me!

love you all! zuster j

New Pics!

Sorry there wasn't any captions to go along with these ones but enjoy the new pics! (click on each to enlarge or view as a slideshow)

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Hallo! and happy early thanksgiving! i just got back from playing some good ol american football with the zone and eating some pumpkin pie! and mcdonalds... good american day! haha it was so much fun though seeing all the personalities of the elders really come out. and i got to be the secret weapon for my team (since elders cant touch sisters) and scored 3 touchdowns! haha it was a great day.  i will spend thanksgiving cooking at a members house and teaching them how to celebrate an american holiday! were really looking forward to it! 

 

this week was so full i seriously cant even remember what i could tell you.. my comp just reminded be that we went on exchanges wed! i got to go up to haarlem in the netherlands with the greenie and it was so much fun! it was my first time working with someone so new and it was fun to see how everything worked out. it was especially fun to be able to really use my language because i can understand everyone in the netherlands! here in antwerpen is another story.. haha the flemish accent kills me sometimes. we went to a dinner appt friday and my comp and i just looked at each other half way through the dinner and started laughing because we both knew we were only understanding half of what they were saying.  it gets frustrating but the only thing we can do is laugh. 

 

we are starting to find a lot more work in the nicer family areas of our city and our ward is super excited about that! we had a joint teach at every lesson this week which makes everything more fun for us and the investigator.  we even got to go to institute with an investigator this week which is always great!  i really feel like a part of this ward now and that everyone loves us just as much as we love them. i love being a part of this church and knowing that wherever i go i can have a loving family in a matter of a few weeks.  ill probably be transferred in 2 weeks now.. but then the process will just start all over :) 

 

i am so grateful to be here in belgium on a mission right now and so grateful for the support i receive from my family, friends and the lord!  have an amazing thanksgiving!!

love you all!

zuster j

 

ps. PLEASE SEND ALL MAIL TO MY MISSION ADDRESS IN THE NETHERLANDS FOR NOW!

 

Sister Jennifer Lynn Jones

Belgium/Netherlands Mission

Schipholweg 66

2316 XE Leiden

Netherlands

 

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its a girl!

i became an tante (tia or aunt) yesterday morning! sara, our new member from september gave birth to a beautiful baby girl earlier yesterday morning! she was on joint teach with us saturday night till 9pm and since we knew she was going to pop at any moment we kept the phone by our heads and she called at midnight to tell us she was heading to the hospital.  our relief society president picked her up and even got to cut the cord :) yesterday after church we headed to the hospital and got to hold Sam (we got special permission) and enjoy some special time with sara.  as i was holding this tiny thing it really hit me that heavenly father knows what he is doing and that he has a special plan for each one of us.  3 months ago sara had no one, no job, no money to fix her apartment let alone buy food and was praying for help.  then we came into her life and with her incredible faith she now has everything. in the past week we have turned her apartment into a home and she had company with her at the delivery and has visitors often.  she got a job and now has four months of paid time to spend with her daughters.  and this little baby now has a whole ward family to help raise her.  yesterday was a beautiful special day.  we ended the night eating crazy african food with our friends faith and victor and listening to some good african gospel music.  i love it :)

this week was full of all sorts of great things! sunday i got to teach sunday school with i love and saturday we had a stake womans day and we got to teach the woman how to role play giving out book of mormons.  it was a lot of fun and i felt confident in my language which felt fantastic :)  friday we had zone training where of course i was in the kitchen again so i missed some of it but the part of it i was there for was so amazing.  these 20 year old men are so impressive and inspired, i love being around them.  we also had a miracle after training.  sister hinchcliff and i were the last 2 in the church building and the phone at the church rang.  i answered it and a man asked me if this was the mormon church and he wanted to know where he could find a copy of the book of mormon.  he had been reading about the church and had been searching for a book of mormon but couldnt find one.  good thing he was talking to the right people :) so we made an appointment to take one to his house and he came to church on sunday! sunday morning we also received a call from a man we had met on a tram and he told us he was coming to church.  he came, loved it and will be back next week, had already read on his own in the book of mormon and had questions that hes excited to get answered at our next appt where he said hed have a few friends with him.

love you all!

zuster j

blog:

November is here! and its cold! back to 2-3 layers of tights and scarves/hats and gloves.  i love this time of year, just wish it would stop getting colder :)

ok not toomuch time to write tonight because i got my hair done.. those silly girly things i have to do drive me crazy sometimes but i was starting to get comments so i thought i could sacrifice some time and money so i look a little better haha.  it was a great week though! i really dont know what to tell you though.. i felt like there wasnt enough time to get anything done this week but now that i look back it was a successful week. we found some great investigators, did some service, talked with our 90 yr old nazi friend who gave us his father in laws award winning speculoos recipe (belgian cookie), had funny appointments with our very hormonal about to have a baby new member, stocked the wrong mail man because we havent gotten any mail lately (nope still no package), made lots of pumpkin things for members/investigators, had a hilarious dinner appointment with our ward mission leader and his wife where his wife taught us to say things about farting in dutch..(the elders just loved repeating this), and taught an hillarious 95 yr old inactive member who acted like a 1 yr old kid.  sorry for the run on sentence but thats all i really have time for today.

have a good week! dont forget about the addresses for christmas cards!

zuster j

this week was amazing! zuster hinchcliff and i felt like we reached
our goals for this transfer and it felt so good this week to really
feel like we have helped make a difference in peoples days/lives. we
had stake conference sat night in antwerpen and sunday in brussels
that was just amazing. i love these people and love being able to
serve with them.  president robinson spoke at both sessions of
conference and everyone told us that we are so lucky to have a mission
president and wife like them. we are very well aware :)  we went to
the temple on wed with 2 zones and it was another experience that i
will always cherish. at one point i got to sit in one of the front
chairs (small temple and probably 50 elders, 2 sisters and 6 couples
makes a very packed session) and see the faces of everyone of my
favorite missionaries. the temple worker next to me leaned over and
said, "isnt it beautiful?". it was a great moment.  so many times this
week i have fallen in love with this mission all over again. i wish i
could describe it to you better.
we found 2 wonderful new investigators this week that we are really
excited to teach! and one of them was a referral from sara, our new
member. she is loving doing missionary work and were loving seeing the
miracles that come from her faith.  the referral is a man from india
that has lived here for 17 years and his life has been quite the
roller coaster.  saras car broke down last week and this man "just
happen" to be in the right place at the right time and was able to
help her. she had her bible and book of mormon in the car and he
started asking questions and she told him how "her sisters" helped her
change her life around with the gospel of jesus christ. sara said he
was in tears and said he wanted to meet with us and hear more about
this gospel.  she called soo excited, it was great! and now this man
has a baptismal date and it ready to change his life!  ill keep you
updated on how things go with him.
funny story from last monday.. we were in brugge and were in line to
get fresh wafels when i hear some guy yell "hey mormon girl!". little
back story, i met a 23 year old guy from england on the train from the
netherlands to belgium about a week before and we talked for the whole
ride.  so i see this kid running up to me arms open...he says "so
crazy to see you give me a hug!".... did i mention that im a sister
missionary standing with 6 elders and a senior couple... i pulled my
arms in and said "ah i cant hug you!" he was so surprised and i said
"remember im a sister missionary!".. this was all said while i was
awkwardly standing there with my arms pulled in and he was half
hugging me. the elders were all freaking out/laughing at this
extremely awkward exchange.  the guy said a few choice words and then
pulled away and we continued with a normal conversation but i dont
think hell ever forget that moment. he said he'll be posting pictures
of the "mormon girl" on facebook for all his mormon friends to see
that he meets us everyone. no coincidence right? :)


did i already mention that this week is transfers and that we are both
staying in antwerpen? we were so scared this week that one of us would
be leaving and so was our ward haha some of the members pleaded with
the president after conference to keep us here.. that is always
awkward but we got early confirmation from president that we werent
going anywhere. we love this city and are so excited for our plans for
this coming transfer.  this week one of the members came up to us and
another member and said to the member, "because of these two girls our
ward has so much more love for one another" and a few other nice
things. that was exactly what we had planned as a goal for last
transfer (spreading the love) and it felt good to know that our goal
was being accomplished and recognized :)

some of our favorite elders leave to go home this week so were off to
spend some last quality time with them!  i am grateful for so much
this week but most of all that i have the knowledge of the restored
gospel in my life and that i can live peacefully knowing that i am in
good hands :)
love you all!
Zuster Jones

 

happy halloween!

today we had a zone halloween party! sister hinchcliff and i hosted it here in antwerpen and it turned out so fun! i made pumpkin feest with fresh pumpkin soup and pumpkin desserts and then we carved pumpkins together. i wish i could put up a photo of the fun pumpkins/pineapple/melons that we carved. yes i said pineapple and melon.. it is not easy to find "normal" carving pumpkins here so some of the elders just bought things that they thought they could carve. i bought a big pumpkin this week and spent all my free time cutting away at this thing to puree it for everything. i am very grateful for canned pumpkin haha but everything turned out soo delicious and im happy that i got to celebrate with 18 of my fav missionaries :)

the week itself.. was good? i dont even remember haha we definitely had our ups and downs since lots of appts did not go through but we still kept very busy and have some wonderful people we are working with that make this work worthwhile.  and the members, i love them. we had an hilarious dinner with a phillipino woman and her daughter on tuesday night where we just died laughing the whole time and ate soo much good food. it was one of the elders last day on his mission and the woman kept making predictions for his future wife while the elder was trying to teach a spiritual lesson. he was not happy. poor guy, none of us could contain ourselves. and the other day we stopped by to visit an older couple and she had knitted us little pigs and mice and had us come in for soup.  no other time in my life will i be welcomed into everyones house with food and gifts.

have a safe and happy halloween!!

zuster jones

 

ps. the mail system here can sometimes take forever so i want to start collecting addresses now to send out christmas cards! if you want a christmas photo card please send you address to my mom!directkelly@gmail.com

 

Just FYI

We got Jen's address a little wrong the first time.  Fortunately the post office has usually been able to sort it out but here is her correct address just in case:
Alfons Schneiderlaan 172
Bus 2
2100 Deurne
Belgium

Pictures!!!

(Click on each image to view it larger)

Restaurant w/ Elders and 2 jovo(young single adult) members

Train ride back to the Netherlands for zone conference

Ghetto shop we do our email at

Chocolate factory where everything is made of chocolate!

CONFERENCE!!

this week was general conference! one of the best weekends of the year for missionaries and we were definitely not disappointed! we got to watch 3 sessions this weekend, 2 at the church and 1 at a members house! on sunday i made cinnamon rolls for everyone and got to sit on a comfy couch with a family i have grown to love!  that made it a perfect mission weekend! 

highlights from conference:

younger missionaries?! so exciting to hear the revelation from President Monson. a little weird seeing that i could be 25 training a 19 yr old but i think this is going to be so wonderful for everyone and cause so many more girls to go on missions! which is definitely needed!  

-"im mormon, i know it, i live it, i love it!" how many times was that posted on facebook yesterday and how many cutsie little plaques will be made with this saying? :)  i think its great. earlier in my life i would have rolled my eyes at this talk but i am happy and proud to say that i have matured and now that i could easily say this to anyone (well i do everyday..)

-Russel M Nelson saying "ask the missionaries; they can help you". looks like i better get studying! i loved this talk over missionary work and that he said that missionaries have a sole hope of making life better for other people.  that is why i am here and i need to remind myself of that everyday!  

-president uchtdorf's talk was just amazing, watch it over and over for me please! :) "its not a race, its the journey". im prepared to slow down and enjoy every moment of my mission now.

-and of course Elder Holland and President Monson were amazing.  i feel more motivated to count my blessings, listen to the promptings of the spirit and go out and teach and testify!

ok those were just some of my notes and things i enjoyed!

The rest of the week.. hmm.. it rained a lot this week but thankfully the day we were going to be out for 10 hours on our bike it stopped raining too hard.. then 20 mins into our bike ride sister hinchcliff got a flat tire.. but luckily we were by a sports store so they replaced the tire for her (yes this happened last week too but that was the front tire). we enjoyed a nice bike ride and visiting people in a small dorpje (townish thing) then went to head to our dinner appt when sister hinchcliff asked me if there was something wrong with her tire. sure enough, i took a look and the brand new tire was once again flat... we had a fun evening trying to figure all that out.. haha thankfully we have great members who take care of us.  

love you all! till next week!

zuster j

this past week i had a bad cold so its all kind of a blur.. but i got through fine besides everyone telling me that i looked horrible haha. the fall weather came fast but i am loving it! the trees are starting to change color more and more and now that we have bikes we are able to soak it all in!  well.. sister hinchcliff already has a flat so we were on bikes.. haha off to the repair shop tomorrow.  we had interviews with president this week and they were at our pday yesterday so i really enjoyed getting to be around them more. theyre wonderful! 

sunday we road bikes a little further than we expected to go to a dinner appt. it was a beautiful ride there but it took us an horur and half to get there and then we only had 50 mins to ride home in the dark.. luckily our appt was with a huge african man that was worried for us so he drove along side us the whole way home which made us bike faster and not get lost. we achieved our goal of getting home in 50 mins but we were dead afterwards. i think well save the bikes for closer appointments or when we have more time :)

pday was an amazing day! we got to see 3 beautiful belgium cities (kortrijk, iepers and gent) and enjoyed taking trains all around. i love that i get to travel on pdays! were planning on going to brugge in the coming weeks, maybe more than once because there is so much to see!

church is true and i love you all!

till next week!

zuster j 

Some older pics from Gouda

 Stroopwaffel Pday w/ our district!

 Euromast!  We went all the way up!

 Rotterdam!  View from the Euromast.

Toothbrush object lesson w/ a member.  So funny!

Dennis' baptism

Zoran's baptism!

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pass out the shovels

We had an incredible week here in Antwerpen and couldnt be more excited to be doing missionary work in this mission! I really feel more and more privileged to be here everyday! So first off, we had 2 baptisms in our ward saturday! Sara had a rough week being fed anti information about the church and then things going a little crazy with timing for everything but she stayed strong and we had a beautiful baptismal service. might be my favorite one so far.  the 3 of us (my comp,sara,and i)  got to share a special moment together in the changing room after she got out of the water and she shared an amazing testimony at the end that left people in tears.  definitely one i will not forget!  I want to send pictures soon but ill have to print them out because i cant figure out how to upload them here.

we also had zone training this week done by our amazing zone leaders! we have no senior couple in this zone and since we work alongside the zone leaders, i became the senior couple.. meaning that i get to cook for all the trainings for all 30 of us. this week we did chili and baked potatoes and no baked cookies. of course on the way our train got stuck so i had 40 mins to prepare everything before the conf started.. but we had so much fun (my comp and a couple elders) working quickly together stabbing potatoes and crying cutting onions.  but.. i went out to check on the potatoes half way through and low and behold, the oven was on the wrong setting and the potatoes were still cold! my comp and i just died laughing in the kitchen and then one of the elders came and said a prayer on the potatoes. and you know it, they were just perfect when everyone was ready to eat. our little funny miracle of that day! 

other than the cooking, zone training got us all so excited to be serving in this area. we have recieved so much inspriation from authorities lately and have the faith that this area is going to flourish in the next few years.  one experience (and the reason for my subject above) is about moving mountains.  we are planning on baptizing enough members to build a new stake in the next year and we know that kind of miracle takes lots of faith. lots.  so one elders shared an experience from his dads mission.  his dad was a greenie and an older missionary asked him "do you have the faith to move that mountain?" he responded stuttering "uhh umm if its the lords will.. ya"  then he asked the older missionary if he had the faith and he responded "yes i do and i will be the first one at the base of the mountain with a shovel".  So that is what we are going to do. one of the elders quickly responded "pass out the shovels". sister hinchcliff and i build a mountain out of paper in our apartment this week with 2 shovels to remind ourselves that we are going to "move mountains" this transfer.

thats all i have time for now! till next week!

zuster j

 

lets see.. highlights of this week.

its almost really fall!! the weather is cooling down, the trees look like they could change color soon, and the fall clothing is in every store. i love fall. weve decided to celebrate a holiday every week this transfer as a companionship to add a little silliness into our week and to make it feel even more like fall! the members told us there is an american store in the city so were hoping to find some canned pumpkin to start the fall off right :) you know me, i love everything pumpkin!

we started a book of mormon class for the inactive/new members/investigators on tuesdays nights so that has been fun! well see if it sticks but it will be nice to go through the book of mormon on more of a teaching level this time.

were getting bikes!! the sisters havent had bikes in this city for years but sister hinchcliff and i have never heard why. this week we spent 75 mins taking trains and walking to a house that we could have biked to in prob 25 mins. so we called president and asked if he knew why we couldnt have bikes. he thought it so silly that we didnt have them and told us we better go find some! i love this president. so now we can go visit families in the pretty parts of our area and get some exercise while were at it!

lastly, yesterday was a beautiful day. we had a missionary farewell at church and all the young adults sung him the sisters in zion/armies of helaman song and it was so powerful. i love what missionary work does for individuals, families and friends. during church sara told us about a horrible dream she had had that left her feeling very scared for her daughter. she said that her dream ended with her seeing 4 mormon men that she asked to pray for her daughter. i felt impressed to ask her if she wanted a blessing of comfort and she gladly accepted and asked the stake president to do it for her (she had met him at the stake bbq and is really impressed with him and he just happend to be at our ward for the farewell).  now side note: sara wasnt feeling ready to get baptized this weekend so we were going to postpone her date, she just wasnt sure if she wanted to be called a mormon :) so then she received this incredible blessing from the stake president, such a powerful moment and she came out of that blessing walking on clouds. she told him that this dream and the blessing helped her to realize that she wants to be in this church around "mormons" for the rest of her life and she wanted to be baptized sat. she came out of the room so excited to be called a member of the church and told us that she was so sad for the people who think this church is bad and that her heart aches for them. shes already busy doing her own missionary work now.

ok the miracles could go on but i need to write president and go to an appt! oh and maybe eat some dinner.. i love you all and pray for your success and safety everyday!

life here is great though! im feeling a lot better health wise and missionary wise and i really have no complaints. missionary life is the best, so much more relaxing than my old work/school schedule and we get 8 hours of sleep everynight. and my new comp is the one i would run with in the mtc so we get good work outs in and they will get even better now that the 3rd comp is leaving and my ankle is getting strong enough to run longer!  missionary life is also very abnormal but i make sure we do something everyday that makes each day special. we have cultural food days, photo days, buy a sweet day, ect. so life is good :)

 

so highlights from this week! we had zone conference on wednesday with a member of the 70, elder kearen. that was an amazing day! i love the leadership of our church and their brilliant minds and ideas and love for missionary work. this mission is going to see lots of miracles in the coming years as the church in europe grows and im so excited that i get to be a small part of that!

 

we had a lesson on tuesday with a man we had met at his door a few weeks earlier. when we went into his house we say that his brother was listening and invited him into the lesson. then a few minutes later 2 of his friends came to the door and came into the lesson as well. by the end they all wanted to know more and scheduled follow up appts with us! 4 new appointments with super cool people in 30 minutes.. pretty exciting!

we also had amazing indian food with one of our fav indian members and her 9 yr old son we baptized on my first sat here. she kept putting more food on our plates and i was in food coma for hours but it was well worth it. her son is a very quiet but super giggly funny kid so we laughed the whole time. his favorite song is smack that by Akon.. i wish you could have been there to experience us all dying laughing when we found this out. he is a very special kid.

 

yesterday we had an amazing church service and then went to our relief society presidents house to bake with her and her daughter.  weve been having a hard time seeing the love in the ward so we thought it would be a good idea to start a chain of love that could be spread to every member. remember that "boo" thing weve down in the past where you have to put the ghost in the window after someone dropped off goodies and a note? basically same idea but its called "iemand in wijk antwerpen houdt van u" or "someone in the ward loves you". we went to 3 families to start the chain last night and it was super fun and we got to know some great new families! we ended the night eating dessert with one of these families on the back porch of their beautiful belgium countryside home. felt like a perfect day to me :)

 

basically loving life and soaking up the warm weather while it lasts! love you all, have a good week!

zuster

im melting.....
oh my HOT! its been hotter than i may have ever experiencedbecause of
humity here and having to be out walking the whole day. i love
southern california :) im currently melting sitting in the tiny
email/liquor store.

i got my hair done by an african girl in our ward last week. just
asked her to trim it and add some layers.. we got to talking and then
she turns to her husband and says "look hunny, its rhianna!" she meant
the singer rhianna.. her husband replied "grace, shes a sister
missionary!"  i then got up out of the chair to look at my hair in the
mirror. it was cool looking.. one side still long and the other very
short... lets just say I have pretty short hair now since i couldnt
keep it so uneven.. good thing i have 10 more months hhaha
we hqve baptismal dates with 4people right now. my favoritewoman ever
from peru, an adorable chinese couple and a beautiful african woman. i
love these people and love learning their cultures! i learned how to
make this amazing toritilla like bread from suriname last night, we
had quite the feest with all the new members, so fun!
i feel like me and sister hinchcliff (the other sister who came in
with me) are starting to gain good relationships with the people in
the ward now and starting to feel more at home here.
okto end..
my favorite funny moment of the week.. seing alittle african baby
runny around in his diaper with a weave (piece of fake hair) stuck to
his butt. i love antwerpen!

blog: oh antwerpen..
ok on to my week! i dont even remember what as happened.. lets see,
the funny things.. we got stuck on an elevator one day because we
decided to try to be like the elders (they have more fun) and the
elevators here are squares with a normal door that you open yourself
when you get to the floor you want (did i tell you this place is kind
of ghetto?) so when you hit the door the elevator beeps super loud,
stops and then keeps going.. of course we do it to be funny and then
the elevator completely stopped working.. leave it to us. haha
thankfully after 5 mins or so someone pushed the botton for the
elevator and we keep moving.
ohh and funny story 2, we went for a run one morning and came home
with a couch! we saw a free couch and decided that we had to have it
so we carried it all the way home (sat and took a break on our couch
and got laughed at, it was 630am) and took 30 mins to get this thing
in the tiny door up the narrow staircase and then in another tiny
door.. lets just say we are still sore. but now were proud owners of a
nice leather couch that came in handy for me being sick this week!
on a missionary work note, there is a lot going on here and its going
to be a very intense few transfers; one of our investigator, sara is
seriously a gift send from heaven. she came to church yesterday and
was more involved in the lessons than anyone else and she sounded more
mormon than the members! and weve only taught her for a week!
everylesson with her is a spiritual feest and i cant wait to see her
life change even more and to see her change the lives of so many
people here.
life is good! hope to hear from you all soon!!
love zuster j

"Oh Gift, I thought you were talking about Blessing" or "do you hear those sirens, ya, those are for us.."

 

What a week.. were do i begin.. sorry if this is a really long one, but it might be worth reading.

 

Ok so the subject to my letter, "oh gift, I thought you were talking about blessing".. We teach africans. a lot of them. gift blessing faith evidence innocence.. i could go on :) I love them. But we speak english in 90% of our appointments and that is a huge bummer for me.  I love teaching in dutch now and im afraid I'm going to lose it.  but then again, the dutch here does not sound like the dutch im used to.. church was interesting.  i kind of felt like a greenie again but there are 3 of us that are new to the area so at least i wasnt alone in that.  Antwerpen is i think the 2nd biggest 60 in belgium and has i think 72 different languages so we have A LOT of work to do.  We serve with the zone leaders so there are 5 of us roaming these crazy city streets.  and they are crazy.  i dont even know how to describe this place.  some moments i feel like im in france, others barcelona, others san francisco and then others i think im in south america.  It has old pretty buildings but it is not exactly a pretty city.  everyone told me that i was in for a surprise and they were not joking.  this place is NOTHING like the netherlands.  this is a completely different mission.  But it is exciting and were having fun!

 

We met this woman last week who is originally from Peru and is the cutest thing ever! I actually saw her looking at us with interest when we were walking to a tram stop so i started talking to her.  she is really disappointed in religion right now but she really wants to be a "good daughter of her heavenly father" as she puts it.  she is pregnant out of wedlock and thinks shes a horrible person.  We had an appointment with her on saturday and it was my favorite appointment of my entire mission so far.  I loved being able to tell her that her heavenly father loves her and is proud of her desires and that we were placed in each others lives for a reason.  i wish i could describe in words what the appointment was like but the spirit was so strong, we were all in tears and she is soo prepared for this gospel!  she kept saying how happy she was that she met us and i know that no matter what happens this womans life is changed forever.  to this day she keeps saying that her heart is dancing because she just feels like she has found what shes looking for.   

 

ok here is the craziest/most embarrassing/biggest blessing story of the week!  We came home last night opened our appartment door and said "what is that smell" (after we had already turned on the lights).  then immediately we all said, gas! went to the stove and heard that the gas was on! turned off the gas, turned off the lights opened all the windows and got out of our appartment.  the scariest part, we live above a restaurant.  we had no clue how long the gas had been on and didnt even know if we could sleep in our apartment so we called the office senior couple and they told us we had to call 112 (911).  so we had to go inform all of our neighbors including the restaurant that the emergency people were on their way. we were thinking ok theyll send one car of people to come check the gas in our house. oh no. first we heard the sirens from one car and then a few more... fireman ran out (A LOT of them) in gas masks and oxygen tanks and then the police showed up and blocked off the whole street.  everyone in the neighborhood was watching of course and the poor people in the restaurant.. so after dying laughing over the craziness of this situation we found out that that our stove was faulty so it had been leaking for the whole day and it was a huge blessing that nothing blew up.  but they just turned the gas off and they let us back in when all was clear.. we felt a little more than blessed that nothing bad happened and we now know our neighbors.. haha i wish i could describe other hilarious things that happened (like our old man neighbor who was yelling that he spoke english dutch french german and swahili and could not understand us) but there is not too much time for that.  we got to bed a little late last night laughing our heads off at what had just happened.  (dont worry, our landlord has already been over to replace the stove). I love my life.   

ok sorry for the length! have a great week and hopefully ill have great stories to share next week!

<3<3 Zuster J

new address for Jenn

Goodbye Nederland, Hello Belgium!

 

yup thats right, im off to belgium on wednesday! now that i got comfortable with the language i am off to a new language (flemish) and a new country! haha im super excited for a new adventure though! and ill be in a 3-some.. that shall be interesting :) i talked to the sister thats already in belgium today and she was telling me that it is a completely different country/mission/everything.  no more biking for a while.. and now im going to the chocolate/waffel capital.. oh goodness :)

 

i just finished my last fresh goudse stroopwaffel...best cookie thing ever.  im trying to pick up all the little things that i can only buy in gouda.  im definitely sad to leave this area, especially my ward and my converts but its time for a change! it was nice to hear how many people dont want me to leave (a couple threatened to call the misson president haha) but i love these people and it feels good to know that they love me just as much :) i will miss it and it will probably take another 5 months to develop these kind of relationships again, but such is mission life..

this week was good! the weather was nice and hot and humid, we had some really great lessons and enjoyed some great dinners with members and investigators.  we found 2 new investigators that im really sad i will not be able to teach.. we were doing bell-ups (apartment sort of buildings where you have to talk into an intercom system) and this man was watching us and then asked if we just wanted to be let in (he thought we just couldnt get a hold of a friend or something).  he thought we were jehovah witness' (there are soo many here) but when he found out we werent then he got interested.. when he heard about the book of mormon his ears perked up and he got really excited.  we gave him a copy, he said hed read and cant wait for out next appointment to hear more. i love the book of mormon. i dont think i really understood what is was before i came on a mission. but it is amazing :) 

Time to go pack up and head to my last night with some of my favorite people! Love you all and cant wait to hear updates from more of you soon!

 

NEW ADDRESS!!

Alsons Schneiderlaan 172

Bus 2

2100 Deurne

Belgium

More Pics!

work is getting slow here now because everyone in europe takes month long vacations.  and they all want to get out of this tiny country so our ward is tiny and there are not as many people out to talk to.  but weve been working a lot on refining our contacting skills and our door approaches. weve had a lot of fun talking to people even if they are not interested.  its so cool to be able to speak a foreign language! weve been out for 5 months now, that is soo crazy to me but at the same time i think ive forgotten what life was like at home.. at least i try to :). 

dennis is getting baptized this saturday and were so excited! i think this is the first baptism that will be adding to the ward since the others were foreigners so the ward is excited too.  hes such a sweet funny man. hes excited to tell his story at the end of the baptism and we have good people signed up to give him the talks so it should be a great night!

the weather is back to being rainy at least a few hours a day and then gets warm and then gets rainy again. but im just happy that i dont have to wear 10 layers yet again. 

sorry for the boring post.. didnt have time today! till next week!

Zuster J

A "normal" week?

I dont really know what a normal week is but looking back on last week I cant think of anything tooo exciting to write about.. but it was a good week! we had zone conference on the 4th of July but no one did anything special (well we did have cake with strawberries and blueberries and zr schwab and I dressed in red white and blue).  then that night our dinner appt cancelled on us so we took the opportunity to go out to eat at a mexican restaurant to feel "american":) that was the first time ive been in a real restaurant since home and it felt kind of strange.. haha but it was delicious! 

We got to know our new mission President and his wife at zone conference and I love them! of course, they would only be amazing people, but i am still amazed every time i meet mission presidents, such humble brilliant successful people.  We finalized another baptism for July 21st and I am so excited for him! He is the most sincere guy and is so excited to have the gospel in his life.  I love seeing the changes this gospel can make in people, even when their life was wonderful to begin with there is still a great change.  I think this week I am just grateful. grateful for a safe beautiful place to live, grateful for the wonderful people that I am surrounded by everyday and the wonderful people who support me at home. grateful for the gospel that I get to share everyday and grateful for my Heavenly Father and the life he has given me :)

I hope you guys have a wonderful summer week! (still weird to me that its july.. summer? dont know what that means.. :) )

Tot volgende week!

Zuster J

Gouda is on Fire! 

We had an unexpected baptism last night! most unreal experience of my life.. let me see if I can explain..

so sister gruppman's (i skyped from her house on mothers day, shes the professional violin player) friend, Zoran, got baptized yesterday. here is the story. they grew up as childhood friends in Serbia but had not seen or heard from each other in 40 yrs.  a couple of months ago, zoran woke up and saw sister gruppmans name in his head and knew that he needed to contact her and didnt know why.  So he searched for her online (and since shes a famous violin player it wasnt difficult to find her) and then they started emailing.  the second sister gruppman saw his name in her email she got a very strong prompting to send him a book of mormon. so two months ago sister gardner and I highlighted some passages in a book of mormon with sister g and sent it too him.  then sister g asked us to contact the missionaries in canada (where zoran was living) and gave us very precise directions on what they should do and say.  we thought she was crazy. But the missionaries went and saw him and taught him a couple lessons, and that was the end. But a few weeks ago sister g told us he was moving back to serbia and would be stopping the in the netherlands for a week and she wanted us to talk to him.  Then friday night we got a phone call and she said, weve been reading the book of mormon together and hes ready to be baptized. now. can you come teach him the lessons? haha uhh yes! So with permission from our new mission president, we taught him every missionary lesson in one evening and then sunday we went over the baptism, he got interviewed by our district leader after church and got baptized and confirmed last night at 7! it was the most crazy unreal, spiritually uplifting experience of my mission so far. some how we were able to teach using the scriptures to teach every single point with no preparation or thought.  my scriptures just opened up to places where thankfully i had marked during my studies and fit perfectly into every lesson.  I love the scriptures.  they are the truth and they bring people closer to the truth everyday.  
So now today were going to go meet up with him to make sure he can get settled into a ward in serbia and get a calling and the priesthood! and we get to go to the conservatory that the gruppmans play at and take a tour with them! So pretty much, im living the life.
No time for other details this week! hopefully pictures soon!
love you all! 
Zuster J

Pictures!

Just a typical day of tracting in The Netherlands...Oh and my new hair!

My new comp is the blonde one w/ bangs.  This was before I cut my hair.

My old comp and me at mission conference!

I speak dutch!

This week was crazy and wonderful! my new comp zuster schwab and I have had so much fun getting into the "real mission" as we call it.  No more letting our companions take the lead, no more worrying about our dutch, we just have to do it! and i love it! It feels so good to be more confident in myself as a missionary and to see Zuster Schwab have that confidence too! (she was in the MTC with me and had a hard time for a while).  The Lord has been with us every second of the day as weve taught our amazing investigators and contacted people on the street.  I dont know how but all of a sudden I can speak dutch! well i know how, i have a little help :) but it feels amazing.  of course it still has a loonng way to go but we are capable of giving lessons in a foreign language without any problems!  people understand us and we understand them!  It really is wonderful not feeling like the baby anymore though, ive never been good at that :)

 

we had wonderful lessons with our 2 baptismal dates that made me even more excited for this work.  These 2 guys are amazing and I cant wait to see them work in the church! Zuster Brubaker came on joint teach with us on Friday and it was so fun! Her and president called us on thursday to see how Zr Schwab and I are doing (were the youngest missionaries theyve put together) and then we tried to figure out a way that we could see each other before they move on thursday.  she came and brought us a beautiful plant and fresh mint for my tea! shes a woman of my heart :) 

Love you all. till next week!

zuster J

Love Love Love.

 

Ok so this week was amazingg! where to even begin.. This week has left my heart exhausted! Too much love! but as President Brubaker tells us all the time, there is always enough love to go around :)

 

We had our first baptism in Gouda!! Hossein was baptized saturday evening and it was a wonderful service! He bore his testimony at the end and it was so wonderful to hear how much he feels the love of his heavenly father during this hard time in his life (he is the one from iran that has no family and no friends (besides the members now) here and doesnt speak dutch or english..) but he is fitting into the ward great now and im excited to see where his life takes him! he should be going to the temple to do baptisms next week too!

 

We also had mission conference with the whole mission this week to say goodbye to President and Sister Brubaker.  i got to see my whole mtc group and it was so fun! We were all just so overwhelmed with love the whole day we couldnt take it! I am so impressed with the wonderful people that i serve with. We really do have the best missionaries in the Belgium/netherlands mission!

 

And the last biggest news of the week... TRANSFERS! i will be staying here in gouda and sister G is off to den haag.  but the scariest part... Zuster Schwab is coming to serve here with me. She was in the mtc with me! She is the sweetest thing in the world and im excited but two sisters that have just barely gotten used to the culture trying to teach all these people in dutch...! i should be wayy more overwhelmed than i am (maybe im just in shock) but i know that now i HAVE to learn this language.  So i will be eating sleeping and breathing dutch from now on so i can continue to see the success that we have in Gouda.  lots of prayers please :)

love you all!

Zuster J