dearest family - well, i dont have copious amounts of time today because i guess i am a slow reader/ i write a lot to mom. haha...also, today is the great kickoff of charity week 2013. we have an awesome pday planned for our district and an entire week of goodness coming up. getting ready for valentines day. it will be a riot. i am sure you will recieve photos next week. okay. i will quickly run through the happppppps.

 

monday - wandered about a cold cathedral with the elders. we got in free. because we are missionaries! sweet. it was beautiful. the colors of the stained glass were bright. umm...yeah. also - i laughed a lot that day.

 

tuesday - quality district meeting. quality lessons. our time was used efficiently and well. we also enjoyed a piece of kosher jewish marble cake. HAVE I TALKED ABOUT THE JEWISH BAKERIES YET!??!! seriously. they are great. let me just say....they are so expensive. because they have to pay the rabbis so much cash to bless it and make it kosher. but it is worth every penny. friday is the established night of the cake. shalom.

 

wednesday - miracle! here it is. we had to go to brussels for legality for z juchau...it was gonna be sweet! ...we had purchased the tickets the day before...GUESS WHO FORGOT TO ASK FOR THEM FOR THE NEXT DAY. what i am trying to say is that the date on the ticket was for tuesday. it was wednesday. rookie mistake! AHHHH. i talk and talk and pray and try and convince them to help me out. i keep trying. EVENTUALLY they say...okay well we will try something i guess but you still need to go to the conductor and see if that will fly if not you have to buy new tickets. seriously!?!?!?!? alright. we book it to our train which is about to leave. i race after the conductor and plea our case. turns out she laughed at my name and then kindly let us on! GLORY BE!!!!!!!!!! totally awesome. we spent the rest of the day in downtown brussels and saw that awful statue of the small child going to the bathroom, we ate machine gun sandwiches, we laughed, i took a photo with a mustached sculpture man and laughed a whole lot. then we came home to antwerpen and had a GREAT LESSON WITH A MEMBER PRESENT. what a great day.

 

thursday - great day. strange. ended with a great lesson being translated into spanish. i wish i spoke spanish. i don't. i want to. i should. ahhhh. our translator is our good friend javier who comes on joint teach at least three times a week. also - the weather was SO NICE.

 

friday - super cool lesson with our dear russian madina, she invited us in and served us herbal tea and we watched the restoration. she is golden. OH. another miracle? okay i must hurry. haarlem sisters called me... they said...you will NEVER guess who just called for you. i literally couldn't. i had no clue. it was JEMARI AMBERSLEY. the canadian soccer player who decided to serve a mission whilst i was in haarlem. he called them looking for me....and said that he is almost done with his papers!!!! are you kidding me!??! that is so amazing. i was so pleased. what joy filled my sould. if i didnt tell you that great story about him, let me know and i will tell you next week.

 

saturday - this day was full of insanity and also not. SO MANY LOVELY PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD. man i am using so many capital letters today . i guess i am excited. there was one lady. our last appointment. sister willems. she is a lovely human. wow. that was a quality moment of my life. she served us a healthy and simple food because she doesnt think we eat enough vitamins - her love for people just eminates out of her being. we ended the evening cracking walnuts with an old school nutcracker and discussing the gospel. she is a wonderful woman.

 

sunday - church. on the tram there...members got on at EVERY STOP. we had about 15 total by the time we got there. that was pretty cool, eh? well yes, it was. we had threeeeeee inactive sisters that we are working with, come to church. wow. my heart was happy. then we had a baptism of a great brother that the elders taught. he calls me akwia (my african name). it was a great day. there were other great things but really i must depart.

 

family, friends, dearest ones. I LOVE YOU. this world is beautiful. God is so loving and forgiving. He desires that we live a simple beautiful life and continually seek for clarity and truth. that i know. He desires our success and happiness. Jesus Christ not only died for us, but lived for us to. Christ gave us all the answers for an ABUNDANT life. we praise Him because he showed us how to live. He was happy. He was positive. He knew how to laugh. He was calm in crazy times. He saw each soul. I am so grateful. i love you all, i am grateful for you all. thank you for EVERYTHING. much much much love.

 

- z. stout