Mom, sounds like jullie will have a great Thanksgiving! Tell everyone hi for me! Sounds like your San Antonio trip was about on par with the previous ones, but I'm glad everyone got the experience. Haha, glad to hear that my Taco Bell legacy has left a mark. Cute photo booth! Where'd you get the saddle? I'm assuming that by the time you read this, your big mama bike ride will be over, so I'll just congratulate you for not dying!!! Yay for you!!! That sounds kind of miserable, but I hope you had fun. I just read those Alma chapters this morning! I felt so connected to them. It's funny to see that missionary work has not really changed in a few thousand years. The struggles are definitely the same, but the joy is the same, too. I'm so grateful for the Book of Mormon. It has gotten me through these past few months. Sorry about your Sunday School class. That's never a good feeling, but I think Tyson's wrong. I've learned a lot from Sunday School, and I think that if anyone can reach that group of kids, you can! (That sounded less cheesy in my head than when I typed it, but, yeah...). Also, thank you so much for the Christmas tree! I love it, but I sincerely hope that you did it for all the missionaries and didn't make your Sunday School class write notes to just me. That would be super awkward.
Father Cluffy, haha, glad to know that the inmates haven't lost control. Thanks for checking out the clubs for me. That will be useful information when I get back. I will be very sad if Justin has outgrown his utter embarrassment on behalf of our family by the time I get back, so glad to hear that he's still holding strong. I'll throw out a courtesy WOOO in Antwerpen today. That Angry Birds movie looked dumb, but I'm glad they got a good laugh our of it. Did you let Ryan win, or did you not play Risk? I'm a little unclear as to how the game went down. Also, I heard that you have once again pawned off the responsibility of giving the boys the puberty talk on mom. What's that about? I feel like you and Ryan could have had some real bonding moments!
First off, a super big thank you to everyone who wrote me such sweet notes for Christmas! It made my day, and it makes me happy every time I walk past the tree with all of your ornaments on it. I feel so blessed to have such amazing people in my life!
So, this week the Antwerpen crew officially died. It's super rare to have 7 missionaries stay together for 2 transfers, so no one was really expecting a third, but it was still sad to say goodbye to people. I had to say goodbye to Zuster Burnham as she spread her little Nederland wings (she had been in Belgium 9 months, which is SUPER rare). I expected to miss Zuster Burnham, but it was a lot harder than I thought. You just go through so much together, and it was so weird not to have her there anymore, Plus, Antwerpen is a pretty big city to take over, but so far I haven't gotten Zuster Berrett and I too lost. Zuster Berrett is pretty great, too. She is from Las Vegas, has been out 9 months, was serving in Lokeren before here (also in our district). She is a little quiet, but she likes to laugh, and I think we're going to have a good transfer together.
This week was a little strange because Antwerpen was hosting an inter-faith event that the missionaries were invited to help with for four days, so we couldn't teach as many lessons as usual, but it was kind of fun to have a change of pace. Truthfully, a lot of this week was nothing to write home about, so in honor of Thanksgiving, here's my gratitude list for this week.
Ik ben heel dankbaar voor:
1) Heat, hot water, filtered drinking water, non-leaky pipes: all things that I took for granted, but our now missing in the Antwerpen appartment. Alles goed though, it has been a fun adventure, and hopefully it will be fixed this week.
2) A lovely woman named Joy who we teach. She if from Africa, and I brought Zuster Berrett there for the first time this week. Zr. Berrett made the mistake of telling Joy that she (Zr. Berrett) can't cook. Joy then went off on a long rant about how all women can cook, European and American mothers just don't give their children opportunities to be in the kitchen. She said "With faith, you can move mountains" and then went off about how if you believe you can fry a plantain, you can do it. She is going to teach us to fry plantains next time we go over. She said, "You teach me about the word of God, and I'll teach you to cook." It's a pretty good arrangement. Zuster Berrett and I laughed a lot about that exchange.
3) People who come to church! We had three of our investigators come to church this week! I have learned so much about the importance of partaking of the sacrament and thinking about Christ's atonement each week.
4) Mijn familie. Jullie zijn echt de beste.
5) The gospel. It is just so important. It is not just an important thing in our lives, it is the whole reason that we were given lives. We were given life on this earth to progress and become more like our Heavenly Father through His gospel. How silly is it that we sometimes think that we don't have time for it. It is what time was given to us for.
6) A merciful and loving Father in Heaven who knows our weaknesses and foolishness and loves us still. Not only that, but He has given everything to help us find joy in our weakness and imperfection and become like Him.
I love you all! Have a great Thanksgiving!!! 
Liefs,
Zuster Cluff
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