HAPPINESS: POSITIEF BLIJVEN

¨Happiness is only real when shared¨

Lieve Famile,

               Where to even begin.. How about the visitors that I received on Saturday.. yup Petra Chardon (the mother from Elder Alade) and Elder Alade's two good friends came and visited me here in Kortrijk!! Gosh it was so amazing and awesome. 

We ended up spending the majority of the afternoon and evening with them eating lekker pizza hut and just crackin good'ol jokes with one another. It seriously was the perfect way to end my week and was something that I really needed. Gosh I love those people and I am so grateful for them!

             But YEAH...This week. Well it was long, hard working, tiring, exhausting, and just full of more change. It’s amazing how much really changes between Nederland en België. You’d think that they would be pretty much the same (there is still a lot of similarities)  but there really is a big change! It’s CRAZZYY! As I said last email the language is now ¨Flames¨ , which is just another crazy dialect of the Nederlands that is very difficult to understand, (and also sounds pretty darn girly if you ask me) but pretty much half the people here speak French also!! So that’s been pretty new for me-hearing french every single day. There is no ward here, just a branch of about 30 active members or so. That was new for me especially coming from Den Haag with a huge Ward. Kortrijk itself is one of the biggest areas in our mission that two missionaries can cover- so we find ourselves biking for hours everyday (the other day 30 kilometers) so my butt gets pretty sore, but I’ll be staying in good shape;). Kortrijk is also the most southern (if that’s a word?) part of our mission. So instead of seeing missionaries like every single day..; the closest missionaries to us are a train ride away and well... we are pretty much just out here chillin alone! Its every missionaries dream let me tell ya!! hahaha.  but it really is such a blessing to serve here and really learn how to rely on the Lord. It's time to really get back to the basics of missionary work and help these awesome members with whatever they need help with!  

     

              As I just said ¨back to the basics¨ of missionary work- Elder Argueta and I have been doing just that. We have been knocking doors for close to 4-5 hours everyday, which isn’t the greatest, but we were told that the only way to get some respect down here from the members was to bring investigators to the church. So doing contacting and finding everyday has been extremely humbling for us and its a good thing though that I enjoy it. The best part about it, besides using ridiculous ways to start a contact, is finding someone who actually lets us in... and that is exactly what Elder Argueta and I found. Family if you could please pray for Siarah. The other day we were knocking doors for hours and right when were about to give up.. we found one who at first didn’t want anything to do with us, but then softened her heart and let us in. I wont get too much into detail, but it was a very humbling moment for me as we had the chance to sit down in a house and teach this Belgium Mother about The Restoration of the Church. It was amazing to give strong testimony and feel the spirit entering into the room. Looking back at that experience I would have gone and knocked another 500 more doors just to have another chance to bear testimony and feel the spirit like I did. So humbling and so rewarding.

             There really isn’t much else to say. We got to find/create a teaching pool around here and build up more relationships with the members. So we got some work to do and people to find. Don’t forget us in your prayers please!

           I love you all so much and miss you guys like crazy. Happiness is only real when shared-- Share your happiness this week people! Share it with each other, with your friends, or just with someone. We all have a reason to be happy. LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

ENJOY TO THE END

-Elder Cook

(Pictures from Gr. Alexandra Brinkers)