Nicholas Fernhout in the Belgium/Netherlands Mission: Week 29: Koksijde, Ijs, and .... France

So some things about the week... We had a great appointment with a less active and his non-member girlfriend who sat in. She is interested and then yesterday, he came to church! He called Sunday morning and said he wanted to come and wanted me to see if anyone could drive him, so I figured it out quick and he was there!

We were biking through the centrum and there's this spot where we are often spotted by tourist members. We had just finished a dinner appointment and we wanted ijs, so we decided to go get it at our favourite place. We drove past the corner where we are often spotted and sure enough we hear "hey, elders." It was an older couple standing in line at another ijs place. So we stopped and talked and right when we got up to them the husband turns around and fiddles with his wallet and then comes over and shoves money into our pockets. I looked later and he gave us each 30 Euro! So nice. Oh and they also bought us ijs, haha! They were super nice people.

We had apartment checks this week so we made the apartment all nice and neat for the inspection. It didn't take much time though cause we live pretty clean, EF and I keep it nice. We passed it just fine.

We were door knocking one day and were getting kinda sick of it so we went to the near by basketball court to see if anyone was there and there were 3 people. I was nervous to ask but I know when something is scary, something good ends up happening and there's nothing to be afraid of. Besides EF is good at basketball. So I went and asked and they were like "ya, sure." We played a few different games that we knew, then 2 of them left and we played bit longer. Another tall dude came and he asked where we were from and after I told him Canada he said he used to live there. I asked where and he said Edmonton, Alberta! Haha, so cool. He was cool and we exchanged numbers so we can play again. It was loads of fun.

There are these stores called Kringloop Winkels that are like thrift stores and are super cool; you can get some good stuff there. I got a cool mug that you stick in the freezer; now when I have a drink I take it out and it's so nice! Right now is sale season here. I don't know if it's all of Europe but in the mission area the 2 countries are only allowed to have sales 2 times a year for some reason, so right now is one of them and aaaaalll the stores are 50 or more percent off. So this is the time when missionaries buy a lot of clothes. I have some good stuff but might get something, idk. It ends at the end of the month.

Questions:
1. question about a picture from a couple of weeks ago: why are you holding up a huge sign with the Church’s name on it? It looks like you are making the missionary work fun over there, I'm glad :)
2. Google drive says only 979 MB of 15 GB have been used, shouldn’t you have lots of room left?
3. what did you do this week? any funny stories?
4. how is the work coming along? have you found any new people to teach?
5. how is the ward in Gent? do you ride with members to get there or take public transportation?
6. what was the best thing about this week?
7. what was the worst thing?
8. any dinner appointments? is it easy to grocery shop in Belgium?

1. haha, we cleaned out the Brugge church and we saw that and asked if we could take it and put it up in the apartment so I had to carry it on the bike home. Thought I'd take a funny picture with it first. It's a parking sign, btw.

2. no trust me it's full!

3. we went to France hahaah. We had a refferal to look up in a city that is a 15 min bike to France so we took our bikes with us and off we went. I took a few photos but can't upload them now, will do it tomorrow though! We kinda got lost and ended up getting stuck in sand with our bikes in the middle of nowhere and then my chain fell off and it was not fun but we got through it and it actually was fun.

4. nope haven't found anyone new in weeks.... jammer genoeg. we teach a decent amount though.

5. good, we had a munch and mingle yesterday after the service so that was fun. we take the train and tram.

6. France, or the members we met or our dinner appointment with the ward mission leader, or golfing in Koksijde.

7. not knowing where the freak I am going next transfer and the possibility of getting a bad comp... but I'm confident I could make any companionship work. Some just take more work than others. Also, the work was not that great this week... real sloww.

8. the dinner appointment with our ward mission leader and one other where we had a pannenkoeken party. Our ward mission leader is from Suriname and all the other missionaries say Suriname food is the best so I asked him to make it for us and he (and his wife) did and let me tell you it really is super delicious! The dish we had was called roti and it's really simple but so good. I must learn to make it! It made me jealous of the Suriname missionaries. Ya shopping isn't too bad. It's a weird feeling to walk into the stores here like it's a normal thing. I know all the products just fine and all.

Oh, I am gonna miss being able to wear the badge! [responding to a comment I made]

Word is alle which I think is French actuallly but they use it all the time, like alll the time, it's hilarious. It's a filler word you use when you forget something or mess up a sentence or someone cuts you off biking or anything really. It's awesome. They say you speak Flemish when you use alle properly. Pronounced ah-lay.

and this belgian computer blocks that dutch website page, haha.

Loves Elder Fernhout