Lieve Familie,
What a week it has beeen! An
exhausting week if I may just add. My motto so far in my last transfer
has been “go off in a stretcher”, or in other words.. FINISH STRONG! I feel
like in the first two weeks of being here in Antwerpen I have succeeded in
that. Elder Wilson and I finally got the bike situation figured out and since
then it has just been worrrkk till you cannot work no more. The other night we
were making dinner and before you knew it I was literally falling asleep while
eating. It was pretty embarrassing. The exhaustion level just keeps increasing
and increasing! But I believe that it is a good thing, to be honest it makes me
feel a bit accomplished in a righteous way for the work we are doing:)
It been back to the basics with LOTS of door
knocking and street contacting- love it! And since we have been going hard
lately, we have seen some cool miracles. We´ve been let in twice on the door
(cool stories!) and probably given out like 3 book of Mormons a dayyy! So since
the white wash we are slowly but surely picking things up and are planning on
leaving this place better than the way we found it. Training has been fun! It’s
pretty exhausting, just because I am stuck to do almost everything and all the
talking, but Elder Wilson is probably the best 18 year old, fresh out of high
school, Son I could have ever asked for. He is just willing to try anything.
The other day I pretended to take a phone call while we were at the Centraal
Station and told him to go give out 5 cards while I was “on the phone”. He was
terrified. But with a simple “If your scared you should probably do it”
encouragement he went out and totally killed it! It was so awesome.
Antwerpen is a cool city. Super ghetto, but also
very beautiful! The ward is cool.. Lots of old people I noticed, but still a
great ward.
I am so excited to be re-united with you all
again. Seriously I cannot wait! But I haven´t been able to accept the fact that
my mission is coming to an end. Living this life for two years and giving all
your time, energy, strength, etc. to it- forces this life to actually become
your life. THIS IS MY LIFE- to be a missionary here in Nederland & Belgium
and to think that in one day it is just going to come to an end.. I haven´t
been able to accept it yet. I just can’t. At least not yet. However I recognize
and understand that I need to accept it. There is nothing I can do about it. I
need to accept the fact that my mission is coming to an end and that one-day I
am going to have to take that nametag off my chest. Man ooh man.. BUT at the
same time, that doesn’t mean that I need to change. That I accept it and never
do missionary work again or that I come home and forget everything I learned on
my mission and just adapt myself to those around me. It all has to do
with a change of perspective and attitude.
NOWW.. This is a life lesson I am learning right now.
Today in the world, there are things that are just hard to accept. People who
do dumb things and or experiences/incidents that happen in our lives that can
be difficult to accept. Some things we don’t have to accept and other things we
need to; much like me and my mission coming to an end. Its time to change my
perspective and attitude about it. After all, the past 23 months have just been
a preparation for the future. Gosh I love my mission.
Well fam and friends. I love you. Love you LOTS. Be safe and
have a great week. See you all in 5 weeks or soooo... ENJOY TO THE END!
Christ lives!
Love,
Big Dude
