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