Nicholas Fernhout in the Belgium/Netherlands Mission: Week 17: Brugge, Den Haag, and Oostende

Hello!

Ya it was really great! [Keukenhof flower festival] Super beautiful! Ya he [Elder Matt Nielsen] went a day before I did. Ugh I would have loved to go to the Harry Potter parts of the park!!! Ugh butter beer!!! What no way you saw them!!! [The Evans Family at Universal Studios] haha that's so weird…

Anyway my week was pretty great, kinda slow but I am just loving being here which makes it go by fast. I ran out of journal pages and I am now writing in another journal I had brought with me. I haven't missed a single day yet of writing in it! This week we went to Den Haag, ER had a meeting he had to go to and I tagged along. We left at 9 in the morning and didn't get back until 10 at night haha. It was a long long day of travel but I really enjoyed it because I got to see and experience more of the Netherlands which is all new to me. It takes about 3.5 hrs one way. And we took trains to get there and back. I was able to understand all the people there so so so much better! They speak so much clearer than all the people in Belgium. I can’t wait to go to the Netherlands, don't get me wrong though I love Belgium too. We got some Suriname food while we were in Den Haag which is super good stuff. It was a frybread stuffed with chicken curry and wow it was good. On the way back home we lost our phone on a train, and didn't realize until we were almost home. We tried to get it back but it looks like we are going to have to get a new one. And hopefully it comes soon! We have to go to the church to make calls…

We were walking down the street of the Centrum in Oostende and it was really busy and there was this big black dude with dreads walking down the middle of the street pulling a box of puppies. It was so weird, like the box didn't even have wheels or anything and had about 9 pups in it. They were so cute, I think he was probably doing it to get attention from girls. While we were in Oostende we went to this old less active lady to teach here and she is French but speaks decent English. It's really funny though because she mixes up the words terrific and terrible which makes for really funny conversations about really awful things. For example our joint teach brought up the subject of genocide, thanks a lot for that, and she said it was terrific. I had to try so hard not to laugh.

Mum, I am only gonna say this once haha. I wish I would have stuck with piano... Ugh I play it all the time here. I am practicing hymns and I actually still remember a decent amount from lessons. I was able to practice a hymn good enough to play for district meeting. 2 hands and all. It's so fun now! Anyway ya I'm gonna keep practicing that.

Cool miracle this week. We were in Oostende after already having a great day and we went to catch a bus to the train station. It pulled to the stop so we started to run towards it but it left. So we began to walk to the tram halte, or stop, and we saw it pull in so we ran to it really fast and would have made it but the road in front of it blocked our path. So we began to walk back to the bus halte and another bus was pulling in so we sprinted and the driver noticed and waited for us. We got on and this old couple was eyeing us. They told us to sit with them and they talked religion with us and they speak not great Dutch because they are from Armenia. Really cool people who gave us their address so we could come by sometime with an Armenian BOM! It's gonna be great!

Scripture this week is 3 Nephi 13:19-22 these have been my favourite ones for a while now. Shows you what’s important in this world and where to put your heart to find true happiness in life.
Word of the week is DIER which is pronounced deer and it's funny because it means ANIMAL so I call all animals deer now haha.

Questions:
1. Has your branch closed down now and how is the church in Gent? How many members, is it a branch or ward?
2. You didn’t finish your answer last week on the most common type of dog that you see there ….
3. Did you do anything fun for Easter? How do they celebrate it there that is different than home?
4. Have you gone back to teach O again?
5. Do you think Elder Richards can leave you his helmet when he goes home?
6. You look like you have lost weight, have you? Is it from all the biking? Elder Tanner is looking thinner too!
7. Is there anything specific that you would like me to include in my prayers for you?
8. Did you go anywhere this week? What are your Pday plans today?

1. We have one more week of church left in Brugge then to Gent. It will be a new ward of about 130 people! It'll be like back home almost!
2. Oh ya sorry, it's a Shiba Inu.
3. Heck ya! we went tracting!!!!
4. No we lost our phone which makes it hard to arrange things and also he got sick, but soon!
5. That’s what we planned.
6. Ha I hope so but it’s hard with so many people giving us treats to eat and crap.
7. To be happy! Don't get me wrong I am happy but can always improve.
8. Den Haag! Also we went through Delft, Matt's area and it is really pretty, so is Elder Cameron's area which is Dordrecht. We made plenty trips to Oostende. Not much for today though, might go to Antwerpen for a zone Pday but we'll see.

Okay love ya bye