Nicholas Fernhout in the Belgium/Netherlands Mission: Week 12: Staying in Brugge

Hey Mum,

The language is coming great so far! I have noticed a lot of improvement lately! Yes I am super pumped for Matt! I don't know when I'll find out, could be really fast could be a while. So when you find out send me a chat about it and I might see it sooner than anything else. I hope he is in my zone or even district! He came at a good time, we have a big conference coming up [in Keukenhof] so I might see him there. It's not all of the mission but a lot of it. I can't wait to hear about his first week. Send me the emails from him. Ya the Paris France mission borders ours but there are a ton of memorials here in Brugge. Statues all over the place for Canada. We were just talking with a familly about this last night actually. The city Eber is also huge on war history. We will probably go there soon for pday. A couple things I have noticed here is the quality of the cars is so much better! There are Teslas all over the place and all the taxis are Mercedes and there are Jaguars and Maseratis all over. It's crazy! The way Brugge is laid out there is a big ring road surrounding the Centrum and along the road is a canal the whole way and we bike it sometimes and it is so cool. There are tons of people running it and I think you would just love to run around it! It's so perfect for running. They have paths for runners too. You should try to google maps it and do a street view of the ring. There is a part that has like 4 windmills right along the canal too. Oh and when I was in Iceland there was this yogurt that i really liked there and it was my favourite ever. Turns out they have the same stuff here too! I have yogurt for breakfast often.

(from the last week)
It's not going to be a lot this week I think but I have a few things. I just finished reading all my friends emails and ugh I miss them all so much. Honestly the day we all get back together is going to be so so so great! I have so many amazing memories with all of them and I am sure everyone is sick of hearing my stories. I kind of have a reputation here and also everyone in the MTC said that I’m a great story teller. I guess I tell a lot of stories but that’s because I have so many to share. It just made me realize how grateful I am for the people in my life and my friends and how they have been such a great influence for me. I am proud of all you guys out on your missions and the ones who haven’t left yet and the ones who are doing other things. I miss you all and I love you all. Love hearing from you and I read your emails! I really love what Brett said in his last email about testimonies I love his goal to bear his testimony every fast and testimony week. It’s a great goal, I’m gonna do it too! I challenge all of the missionaries reading this out there to do the same thing. Good language practice!

Anyway this past week we cleaned the apartment for a few hours. I had to do the shower and also the toilet. It wasn’t that dirty but I mean it just isn’t fun to be doing that. I also did a lot of organizing that’s my specialty haha! Missionary apartments have so much random crap from the past people, a lot of extra clothes that other elders have left behind. So I organized a ton of papers and also some clothing. It was weird to be in the apartment during the day though. We are never in the apartment except for sleeping, eating and studying.

On Sunday last week a guy came in halfway through sacrament meeting and he came with this girl. I talked to him afterwards and he served in the Paris, France mission a few months ago. He is just touring right now but he is in the navy in DC. He was fun to talk to and shared some mission experiences. The girl he was with is a recent convert from Antwerpen, she was just showing him around some cities. He toured Brugge that day and he chose a good day because the weather was super good. I love Brugge, I hope to tour it with you guys after my mission.

More about the exchange I went on last week. I was with an Elder DeBloois from Utah. He was cool and could speak good Dutch which was nice. He’s also great at keeping a conversation going so that was helpful for me and my limited Dutch. We had a busy day like I said last week but we did good. I often had to stop biking and pull out directions because I had no idea where we were going haha. We made it everywhere on time and didn’t miss any trains surprisingly. The weather was great and there were lots of flowers blooming. It was so hot I wanted to take off my coat! It's making me a little scared for the summer, apparently last year was the hottest it has ever been here. About 35 degrees Celsius. I am not looking forward to sitting in hot trams and biking in that. But then I think of Mike and Scott and Jeff and Mosiah who are all in really hot places! But ya we made it to everywhere on time and I realized I can do more than I thought. It was a good experience for me to stay back in my area on exchanges. In Oostende we visited this older lady who grows these beautiful flowers. Zuster Favorin. She’s awesome, she speaks French as her first language but English with us. She is less active but really wants to go to the temple and is working hard to get there. She always gives us apple juice to drink. After that we met Stanely in the library in Oostende and had a good lesson there. Then we took a very full tram that ran along the coast to get to Blankenberge. I love going to the coast for some reason, they have pretty nice beaches here actually. But as missionaries we aren’t allowed to go to them because they are often naked beaches haha. Ah Europe. It's nice to see the ocean though. Also in all of those coastal cities they always have naked statues… people tell me that all coastal cities are like that for some reason. Other than those its great seeing all the boats and things. On the weekends tons of people flock to the coast so its busy there often. And it seems like everyone there is over the age of 60. There is no young people it seems. Anyway we took a bus back to Brugge after our lesson and it was dinner time so we made some pasta. It was nice to be able to relax a bit after that day!

We did some door knocking this week which I feel always leads to an interesting experience. You never know who is going to open that door. It's also fun to learn about people and what they believe. Often we try to make it a sharing experience rather than us just saying our beliefs. We learn a lot about other religions. There is so much diversity here so we have the BOM in about 30 different languages in the apartment. Some languages I have never even heard of! Anyway I love it out here! Mission is going great and time is flying by.

I read a lot this week in the BOM. I am into Mosiah now, which is full of great stuff. But I really enjoyed chapter 16. Mosiah 16 is so good and very interesting you should all read it. I really enjoy reading during my personal study time, I look forward to it everyday!

Dutch word of the week is graag which means gladly. I like it because its fun to say. Is pronounced ggg-rah-ggg the triple g is the throat g sound they do in Dutch.

Questions from home:
1. Any cities with war memorials in your mission? Or are they in the neighbouring mission (is that the Paris mission)?
2. How often do you eat street food?
3. How is the biking going? Are you building muscle?
4. Did you hear about the missionaries in Brazil that were robbed at gunpoint recently and one missionary fought back (all caught on a security camera)?

1. Like I said ya there are lots all over the place.
2. Maybe 5 times a week, but usually it's pastries from the grocery store, an actual meal maybe 1 or 2 times.
3. Ya we bike so much. Yup I am definitely getting stronger but I mean there are no hills here. The wind is the only hard part and it is so so true it is always against you. I don't get how...
4. No! that's crazy! haha ya we are supposed to run away haha, not fight people with guns but that's an awesome story.