dear family, 

greetings. today is monday. here we are at the "handycafe". i learned the name. right now i am trying to figure out the language that i am hearing. i have never heard it before. what?!??! its cool. i can't figure it out. anyway. let me update you on my life. its pretty swell. 

monday: last week i explained that we were having charity week 2013. after emailing we went with excitement and joy to meet with our district. within ten minutes we found out that half of our district would not make it. THEN the last companionship calls and says...our bus broke down! z. juchau and i are standing there in the rain by the camel statue...in absolute despair. our plans and dreams have been squandered. THEN....the elders to turnhout whose bus broke down...greet us by the statue. are you kidding me?!?!!? they totally had us going. they were the only ones who came. so we had our pday anyway. we took them on a cool adventure around antwerpen. it was fabulous in everyway. we ran into some cool street performers a few times and enjoyed their strange music. two saxophones and a drum. we looked at strange statues of giraffes and fountains of eagles. we showed them the cool jewish neighborhood and bakeries. glorious is the only word to describe that day. 

tuesday: district meeting was inspiring and fabulous. we visited many people. talked to people on the street. walked around in the cold. e.mathis (from my mtc brothers) was on exchanges with e.burton (also an mtc bro) in antwerpen. we met them in the centrum and had shoarma at the weirdest place in the world. i forgot to take a photo. hopefully next week. it was INSANE. good times. 

wednesday: great lessons. including a super awesome lesson in the public library. last time we had a lesson there we got in trouble for praying in public. but we did it again. we just went somewhere more inconspicuous. this sister we are teaching just cant meet with us at her home right now and it was the only warm place. i am grateful that the spirit can even be in a library with rules against praying! hallelujah. oh - and we also had the STRANGEST dinner appointment of my life. with the most interesting man in the world. a man from turkey. boyfriend to a sister in our ward. he was something else. had a story for everything and never stopped talking about turkey. he pretty much had us all convinced that it is the greatest land in the world. we will see! 

thursday: in the morning, we had an appointment with an inactive sister - she taught us to make belgian cream puffs. turns out they are the same as everywhere else. it was so fun. what a sweet lady. we brought some traditional dried coconut to our investigators from china...it is/was chinese new year! (happy chinese new year, elise! :)) and then...we had the GREATEST dinner appointment of my entire life...thus far. mark and may schiltz. he is belgian...she is irish. wow. i laughed so hard. so so hard. what a great couple. they are hilarious and sweet and you feel so happy when you are with them. goldenness. i wish i could accurately describe the hilarity. maybe one day i will make a film. that is the only way for you to know. 

friday: i ran out of time. oops. we had weekly planning and did missionary work. 

saturday and sunday: they were great. actually we were sick and so yeah we just kind of went through the day with as much joy as possible and were grateful to survive. 

nevertheless, this week was great. i am grateful to be here. there is still so much to learn and see. i am grateful for the truth and happiness the scriptures bring and that love and forgiveness can heal every pain. seriously. so grateful. i love you all and am so blessed to have such a studly family. LOVE YOU. 

- z. stout