Antwerpen Adventures!

Hallo mijn familie!!!!

I don't have much time, so this will have to be short, and I forgot my camera, so pictures will have to wait till next week. Sorry!

Mom, yaaaayyyyyy on finishing your class! Let me know how it went! Sorry the email was late, but I'm glad you have found a mom support group, I guess... We don't actually have ipads, but you don't need to worry about shipping stuff to me.

Spidermonkey, I'm sorry about autocorrect, Sir Halfsquat can be Zuster Burnham for now, your Antwerpen story is the same one I've heard, though your telling was far more animated, I am very proud of your soccer heroics, although I hope you are conscious of your advanced age when contemplating such antics. Remember that I'd appreciate you being alive when I get back. Woohoo with the Book of Mormon! We're tied now (these Belgians are rather stubborn, but I'm pretty sure I can be more stubborn, so hopefully I'll pull ahead next week). Tell Nato we can never be friends.

This week! First of all, turns out that sleeping on those planes is hopeless, so I just went 35ish hours with 3 hours of sleep, so that is why I looked gross and tired in those pictures you got, but all is good! So, Monday our little caravan of missionaries carrying way too much luggage paraded on and off trains and through the airport onto our plane where we said goodbye to the US for the next 18/24 months. We landed in Amsterdam where the APs and President and Sister Bunnell met us. From there, our little procession managed to make it around Amsterdam and onto some trains to Leiden! Leiden is a literal storybook!!!! It is so pretty- there are canals running all through it, and people just ride boats up and down them all day, and the buildings are all really old and quaint, and in a lot of parts there are no car streets, so everyone just bikes and walks. We got some legal stuff taken care of, interviewed with the president, and then ate panakoeken, which are basically huge, delicious pancakes that can be savory, sweet, whatever. 

The next day I met my trainer, Zuster Burnham (who is super sweet and kind and we get along well), took care of some more legal stuff, and spent the literal rest of the day trying to get all of our (the 5 missionaries heading to the Antwerpen area) luggage and bikes and stuff to Antwerpen. By the end of the day, I was pretty exhausted. 

The rest of my week has been working here in Antwepen! First off, Belgians don't speak Nederlands, they speak Flams, which is a crazy dialect of Nederlands, so it literally isn't the language I learned at the MTC, but everyone keeps telling me, "Het komt" (it comes). Our area is crazy big, so it is kind of hard knowing exactly where to focus, but we're doing our best. We've worked a lot with inactives or recently baptized members this week. I love them all, and it has been really good getting to teach them. One of our inactive members (Grace) committed to coming to church next week, so that is good! We've also knocked a fair amount. A lot of people open the door, see our nametags, say "Nee" and shut it before we can get a word in, but I know there is someone in this city who is ready for our message! We have had a couple people say we could come back next week, so we're going to look them up in the next couple of days. Saturday a lady threatened to call the police on us (the mission record for having the police called is 7, so I think I'm off to a good start), but we talked to her and she softened up, so I guess maybe I'm not so close to breaking the record.

In church, I got to bear my testimony in Dutch, which was good. I love our ward! Antwerpen is kind of split between traditional Belgians and lots of immigrants, so our ward is half stubborn Dutchmen and half African sisters wearing colorful dresses, which is kind of funny, but I love then all. and they have all been super kind to me! Gospel Principles was funny, because the teacher is an old Belgian who only speaks Dutch, but the investigators were Asian, Israeli, Turkish, and African who speak English as a second language and next to no Dutch, so the teacher taught in Dutch, Elder Turner translated into English, and they all read out of Book of Mormons from like 5 different languages. It was cool to see, and it was kind of funny because sometimes Elder Turner would translate and then add his own stuff to clarify/ simplify for the investigators, and there were two older ladies in there who spoke English and Dutch, and they would give him the funniest looks every time.

So, things that Americans take for granted (or at least this American did): 

1) ice and air conditioning- they don't exist here, and apparently this has been Beligium's one week of summer. It is so hot and humid, and you never cool down because there is no air conditioning!

2) free bathrooms and drinking fountains- drinking fountains don't exist anywhere, so if you forget your water, you're out of luck. You pay to use the restrooms here, so if you don't have coins with you, you just have to hold it

3) dryers and dish washers- yeah, the Belgians believe in doing things by hand.

 I'm so grateful to be a part of this work! It is the work of God, and I know that it is for everyone (even if the people here don't know it yet). I'm excited to be a part of hastening the work here in Belgium. I love you all!!!!!

Veel liefde,

Zuster Cluff