I'm Not Dead, Just The Internet Is

Hallo mijn familie!!! (Hello, my family *exlamation points- usually intended to show enthousiasm or heightened emotion*)

First things first: I am alive, but the church internet across Belgium died last week, and they still haven't gotten it to work, so they finally arranged a way for us to use a library in Sint Niklaas after district meeting, but I'm not technically a Belgium resident yet, so Elder Le Duc is very kindly letting me use his time, so I can't take too long. Sorry for the heartattacks Mom, but it was out of my hands and I thought about you a lot and sent good vibes your way. 

Mom, everything you write is exciting, because it's from home, and I don't get homesick, so I really love hearing everything- you don't need to edit to keep me focused on the work or anything. Also, you're welcome to use my first name. I still remember it. That's so cool that the refugee lady talked to you. I did not really understand it until coming here- now it is so real to me, and there is so much need. I'm so glad the church is taking a part in helping. I don't take the rejection personal. I know that the Lord works with every person in His own time, so I don't feel bad when they tell me know, I just hope that their time will come in the future. We usually try to teach our investigators once a week, but sometimes we do more, it just depends. I like the mummed phrase, and I think you should make it a thing. Thanks for the Brigham Young quote, I loved it. I didn't get to watch women's conference, but I'm glad it was good. I'll have to read it sometime when the internet is back. Ummm... as a missionary, I really like hearing any news from home, but it's also really cool when people tell me things they've learned from their scripture studies or experiences, but I've mostly realized that when all of those missionaries annoyingly said they like hearing anything- it's true. 

Dad, echt het spijt me voor de Nederlands, maar ik vind het niet zo moelijk om Goodgle translate te gebruiken. I'm glad that you have educated Tyson and Justin in your manyly tire-changing ways, and Dave's Need for Speed sounds super fun! I really idd feel bad about the lack of emails, but I really didn't have any other choice! As far as Mom goes, I'mjust glad she didn't call the President.  If the worst that happened was irrealistic scenarios shared, then I think she took it pretty well. Thank you for the stories and advice- I really do love reading it. Be safe with all of your travels this week!!!! (Also, how's the Book of Mormon challenge going???)

So, the last two weeks in very short review: We have been working really hard to find more people to teach, and the Lord has really blessed us. We have started teaching five new people, one of which is Nathalie, who is a really sweet lady with two precious kids who I just really love teaching. She is one of the few people who we teach in Dutch, which is good, because it is practice for most of the areas in this mission, but also reminds me that I don't really speak the language yet. We have had some really spiritual experiences with her though, so it has been really good. 

Crazy story of the week for you: So we invited Reuben to family home evening (we have an FHE with single members of the ward, recent converts, and people we are teaching). We picked him up at his house and went to get on the tram towards the church, but he said, "Oh, the bus is faster." We decided to trust him, so we got on the bus, but when we got off, we were in Merksem (where the church is) but had no clue how to get to the church from the bus stop. So, we started wandering, hoping to find something that looked familiar, when this woman stopped us and said, "Hold on, are you two real?" Not quite sure how to respond to that, Zuster Burnham and I gave a very confused, "Yeeeesss?" She said, "Ï've pinned you on pinterest. Your outfits. Oh look, you even have the tags and everything." Still confused, we started talking to her, and it turns out that she followed a bunch of sister missionary boards on pinterest, because she wanted to dress more modestly without looking like a grandma, but she had no idea that Mormons were in Belgium. Reuben invited her to come with us to FHE. She said, "Oh, I'm not Mormon," to which he responded, "Neither am I!" So, she decided to come along. She had a very weird perception of who Mormons are and had a LOT of questions, but we wandered through Merksem, eventually found the church, and went to FHE. Everyone she was at the church she would ask us, "Are they a real Mormon, too? NO WAY!" It was so funny, but also a cool experience.

Funny moments the last couple weeks:

-We taught and did some service for an inactive member named Irma, who is very old, and speaks a horrible dialect called Antwerps. She yells at us a lot, but she winks at the other one the whole time, so we're pretty sure she actually likes us. Sometimes (most of the time) we don't understand what she's saying, so when she asks us a question, we have to say "Wijblieft?" (Come again), at which point she yells, "U verstand nix! Terug naar Amerika!" (You don't understand anything, go back to America!), but then she says something really sweet, so yeah, I think she likes us, but anyways, she's old and walks at a 90 degree angle because of back problems, and the whole time we were there, her skirt was tucked into her underwear as she's walking at a 90 degree angle, but she's not really the kind of person you can tell, so I just tried not to laugh the whole time.

- We knocked on a door, and a sweet 12 year old answered. He went to get his mom for us, but stayed at the door when she came back. We gave our speel about being missionaries, and her son said, "Ummm... wij zijn een klein beetje Muslim." (We're a little bit Muslim). His mom gave him that dangerous mom look that transcends cultures and said, "Klien beetje?!?! Jij bent Muslim, of jij bent niet Muslim, dar is geen ''klein beetje!'" (You are Muslim or you are not Muslim.There is no 'little bit') It was almost Southern accent, and it was just really funny (I realized typing this that it is not as funny in Enlgish), but we actually had a cool conversation with them and set up an appointment for this week, so hopefully that goes well.

Anyways, I have really learned the past couple of weeks that when we come to the Lord in humility, He will show us how we can improve, and He will help us to do it. It is only when we approach Him in humlity, willing to change and accept correction that He can truly make us into the person that He wants us to be and the tool in His hands that He needs us to be.

I really love you all, and I am truly sorry about the email situation, but I have been thinking and praying about you all especially these few weeks since I haven't been able to talk to you.

Zo veel liefde voor jullie allemaal,

Zuster Cluff

Long Days and Miracles

Hallo mijn familie!!!!

Ik hou van jullie zo veel!!!!!!! 

Mom, I am definitely starting to get used to it, and the language is coming, but it is a little bit hard, because most of our lessons are in English and most of our contacting is in Dutch. I know lesson, prayer, testimony Dutch fairly well, but don't get to use it a lot, and I know very little everyday Dutch, which we use a lot more, so I still have a LOT of learning to do, but it is coming. And although I can't believe you've become one of the facebook moms, they're right, we don't really have a lot of time to email here, so I do my best. It sounds like your callings are going good! I'm really glad that the SS party was fun. I'm super glad you got to go to the temple! I miss it so much! It is hard not being able to go, but we don't really have time for it anyways. Also, I don't think that I would be too much help with Tyson's physics. Does he have Mr. Pratt??? I will try to send my pictures different, but I don't know if I can.

Dad, I am truly sorry about your MFFEMTMIMU, but I thoroughly enjoyed your second one. I will send of pic of the Shield, but I'm pretty sure some elders rescued it from the garbage. The creative approaches were more along the lines of: selfie contact, tattoo contact, Ik weet wat je denk, en het is niet zo, wij zijn hier om u te bekeren, what is the best Belgian food, etc. Yours sounded cool though, and I'll suggest it for the next list. Sounds like Saturday was a bad dad day all around. Tsk tsk tsk. I'm sure Justin was happy to get some new cleats out of if though, and I'm glad their games have been going so well. I've been thinking the same thing about the refugees. It's amazing how the Lord works, and I'm glad I get to see it up close, because hearing about it back home, you can't really understand it. I definitely have a different view of the world after just three weeks here. 

Well, this week was crazy and long, but also really great. So last Monday we had a zone P-day, where this member in Ieper took us around to all of the WWI sights and talked to us about it (a lot, and in Flams, so I didn't get much out of that part). There's this whole sight of trenches that have never been filled in, so we got to walk through those and hear some stories about the trench warfare, which was pretty cool. Also, because of that, I had like 25 minutes to email, so I apologize to the people I didn't email back last week. 

Our day to day work kind of varies. We work with a lot of less actives and recent converts, who I just absolutely love, and we also do a lot of finding (mostly knocking doors and street contacting), which is kind of hard here, because a lot of people see your nametag and refuse to talk to you. (For example, we had to go to Nederland for some legal stuff and decided to buy peanut butter while we were there because for some strange reason it is like three times more expensive in Belgium. Anyways, we stopped a lady and asked if she knew where we could find a store that sold peanut butter. Her response, "Sorry, I have no interest." A lot of people literally see our nametags and a) tune us out, b) say no before you can say anything c) keep walking and pretend they don't hear you). Oh well, I love them anyways, and there really are people here prepared for the gospel. 

So anyways, we had some really long days of no appointments (we had a LOT of appointments fall through) and getting turned down this week, which is kind of discouraging and exhausting. BUT, we saw some really cool miracles. We found four new investigators this week, which is a very large number for this mission. We started teaching two sweet ladies from the Phillipines, who talked and talked and talked without taking a breath and put piece after piece of cake in front of us, but who we had a good discussion with about God's love for us and His plan for our lives. 

Also, we started teaching Reuben. We were early to an appointment one day, and so decided to knock some doors, and we found Reuben, who told us that he was busy, but we could come back later (usually that's a blow off), so we came back this week when we were in the area for an appointment, and he let us in. We talked to him for a bit, but had to leave for our appointment, and he told us that he really wanted to meet with us again, so we set up an appointment. We brought a less-active (Katia) with us to joint-teach him, and when we showed up, we found that he had brought his girlfriend (Ann) who wanted to be taught, too. We had a really powerful lesson with them, and he had all of these amazing questions, and he invited himself to church next week and kept asking what changes he would need to make to become a member of this church, and the Spirit was super strong, and afterwards, Katia told us that it was incredible and she wants to serve a mission! It was amazing, and I just feel like he has been so prepared for the gospel. He has a long ways to go, of course, but he has such a desire to learn, and I'm so excited to get to teach him and help to find the peace that he is looking for in his life. 

Last story, yesterday we taught Janko about the plan of salvation, and he had some really great, deep questions, and told us that he wants to come to church every Sundayfrom now on, and he wants to help translate for us if we teach people who speak Arabic or Farsi. He has had such a hard life, and I so badly want for him to have the peace and joy of the gospel in his life. After Janko we taught Grace, an inactive member. We talked about temples, and she got so excited. She didn't know you could go to the temple before you were married or that she could do work for her family, especially her brother who passed away this year. She said she really wants to prepare to be worthy of that.

Sorry for the long email, but the Lord has really blessed us this week, and seeing miracles like those make the long days of doors literally slammed in your face so much easier. I know that this is the Lord's work. Oh how He loves each one of His children! He knows us so intimately and has such a great plan for our individual lives!

I love you all. I think about you and pray for you all the time. I hope you have a great week!

Met zo veel liefde,

Zuster Cluff

Hallo Iedereen!!!

Hallo iedereen!!!!

Ik hoop dat alle met jullie goed is! Ik hou van jullie zo veel!

Well, I made it through my first whole week here in Belgium! It was good, but a little hectic! We went on exchanges twice this week, since my companion is the Sister Training Leader and Mission Leader Conference was this week, and yeah, so I got to work with some different people, and I also got to work in Locharan, a gorgeous little town not too far from Antwerpen. The big theme of this week was contacting. Our zone had a contacting contest, where we had a list of 60 different contacting approaches and you got a point for every new one that you successfully used and extended a commitment with. Some of them were kind of weird, but it really got us talking to a lot more people and using more creative approaches. We had some pretty cool conversations with people and even got a couple of appointments for next week. You will be proud to know that our district crushed it and won the Shield of Antwerpen!

My personal highlight of the week was finding a new investigator! We were proselyting, and a man named Janko let us in. His life story is crazy, and I really feel like he needs the gospel in his life right now. We've had a couple of appointments with him and are meeting him again this week. One of my favorite things about being here is hearing people's stories. There are so many refugees here, and I have gained a completely different view of the world. Just in the last couple of weeks, we've talked to a woman who's entire family was killed by the Taliban, a man who had to leave Afghanistan because his girlfriend's family was trying to kill him for getting her pregnant, a woman who was kidnapped from Nigeria when she was nine and was brought to Belgium where she didn't find her family again for 30 years, and countless, countless people who had to leave their homes and families because of war and bad governments in their countries. It has made me realize how blessed I am, and also how much this world needs the gospel. People are legitimately suffering; they are lost and confused and hurting, and they need the peace and joy that the gospel brings. They need the knowledge that a loving Heavenly Father has a plan for them. Not all of those people are willing to listen to us yet, but I'm grateful for the opportunity to share it with those who are ready. 

Funny moments of this week:

- The elders in our city are teaching a woman named Joy, who is a legitimate hoarder. Ever since meeting with the elders, she has had a desire to clean her house, so we went and did some service hours helping her clean. Afterwards, she fed us an authentic African meal, which is a stew with ALL parts of a cow, including the stomach, brain, tail, skin, etc. I didn't know this before I dished my plate, so I couldn't be on the proper look out, so I ended up with the skin and something that I am pretty convinced was the brain. In case you're wondering, cow skin is like chewing on a huge chunk of fat, and brain is best when you cut it into small pieces that you don't have to chew. 

- When I was on exchanges in Locharan, all trains between Antwerpen and Locharan were stopped because a hot air balloon crashed on the tracks (we eventually made it home, but it took some maneuvering)

-We took Broeder Neins (our ward mission leader, who is very old and only speaks a horrible Flams dialect) on joint-teach with us, but our appointment feel through, so we went and taught Janko (who lives really close) instead. The problem being that Janko speaks mostly English and very little Nederlands, so Sister Burnham was trying to translate for Broeder Neins while I mostly talked to Janko. Broeder Neins would hear something that Sister Burnham translated and then jump in with a really random comment (in Flams) about it, but the conversation had already moved on, so it made for a really interesting lesson and was kind of funny, but also kind of horrible. 

Anyways, I love you all and miss you!!!!!

Met liefde,

Zuster Cluff