Lieve Familie,
I
guess I will start with the transfer news.. I will be leaving Kortrijk on
Wednesday and heading back up to Nederland (Northern Nederland). I will be
saying goodbye to good'ol Belgium and the beautiful Flemish language/ dialect-
and saying hello again to the Dutch culture and the Dutch language. The city I
will be serving in is called Emmen and yes I am very excited, but at the same
time my heart is crushed. Last night was extremely hard for me to receive
the news and spent a lot of time on my knees. Kortrijk has a VERY SPECIAL
place in my heart and it’s hard to leave Holy and Sacred ground. Today and
tomorrow I will be saying my goodbyes to the members and I will do my best to
stay strong. I truly do hate goodbyes.
Well family since my time is up here in Kortrijk I would just like to share a
story with you all over one of the biggest reasons (I truly believe there are
many reasons) why I got called to serve in Kortrijk. First off the biggest
reason was because this is what I needed to finally learn for myself what it
means to have a testimony. I know now that I have a true and strong testimony
of the Gospel because I cannot deny how real it has become to me. How real
Heavenly Father truly is. It blows my mind and I am so grateful for this. But
what I would like to share is actually how I have felt that I have been an
instrument in the hands of the Lord. I have wrote a lot about Giselinda and
James (the family with 7 children that we are teaching) in my emails, but
never really gave you guys the story of them. Well here ya go.. Elder Cook is
going to try to do his best.
" -It was the second or third day that Elder Argueta and I were in Kortrijk and
we found a couple names in our area book to go look up. We both had no idea
about this area and the surroundings of it (the little cities, parks,
neighborhoods, etc) So we just left the apartment one day on our
bikes with the street name typed into our little map to start these look
ups. After a long time of biking and getting lost we found that right
street, or at least we thought. We knocked on the house and no one was home. So
we decided to just knock the rest of the street and see if anyone knew this
person or had some interest. After knocking a couple of doors, we came across
Giselinde and she gave us the typical "I don’t have time right now, but
come back another time". We both thought okay there is a potential but not
so strong. Well we back a couple of days later and no one was home, but we
always left a card behind. We did this 3 or so times and finally we came to the
conclusion.. Okay this is our last time and then we aren’t going to look this
"potential" up anymore. Well we knocked.. Giselinda opened and
let us right in. My response to her saying "come
inside" was.. "Wait really?". She let us in and that
was the first time that we met James. "
Family I wish I could continue this story but I just cant because I don’t
have enough time and it truly is a story that you need to just hear all
the details of it. However I will let you all know that the person we first
went to go look up on that second or third day of being here in Kortrijk
actually lived in a different city. About 45 minutes away with the bike. Many
Streets here have the same name but they are distinguished by the city that it
is in. Just like in Utah with: SLC, Sandy, Weber, etc. We had no idea of that
until later on. So in other words there is no coincidence that we found them.
It truly is amazing and one of these days I will have to give you all the full
story.
But I do want you all to know that yesterday we had our
appointment with them (my last one) and I have never born
testimony so strong in my whole life. I am just so amazed even at
myself of just how convinced I am that Heavenly Father truly is there
and how real the Gospel Of Jesus Christ is. I am still the same old
Jason who loves to party like is hot and do all that stuff, but I also
truly do feel a change inside of my heart.
My testimony has grown. I am grateful for this sacred ground that I have
in Kortrijk and the many things I have learned here. It is such a privilege to
know how real prayer is and how real it can be for everyone; as
long as you truly do search and pray with meekness and
humbleness. As I think about Kortrijk one of my favorite scriptures
comes to my mind -
"Yea,
I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will
not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do
all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for
which we will praise his name forever." (Alma 26:12)
I love this place and I love my mission.
You all are in my heart and prayers. I love you guys.
Be Safe and make good decisions:)
Love,
-Big Dude
Enjoy To The End
Ps: here is my new address:
Landschaplaan 194
7824
BV Emmen
Nederland
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| Here are all my pants i have ripped since being here in Kortrijk due to all the biking... |
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