Mom, glad to hear that the shower is fixed and that Ryan's room is happily gray now. If you'll recall, you and I got paint on my ceiling, too, and no one ever seemed to notice, so it's probably fine. Haha, I can just see your face though when you walked in, and also when Abigail said that you made her pumpkin. It makes me happy. Naturally, Dad failed in his duties to send me a copy of his talk, but I would really appreciate one since it got such a high stamp of approval from both Ryan and Abigail in their emails. You make me laugh sometimes when you say what you need to improve on, because you are always so good at helping people and being a real friend to the people you visit teach, and always being willing to serve, and especially in doing the things that you're supposed to every day. I've appreciated the example that you and Dad have always been to me more than ever since being here. It is so much easier for me to do the things that I'm supposed to and have a good attitude about it since I've watched you and Dad do the same thing my whole life. As for your questions: My companion is kind of hard to describe. She's not bubbly, but she's not exactly shy either. She claims Virginia, but was military and moved a lot. Her family is actually in Germany right now, and she gets letters almost every week as well as several packages for her birthday, so you're welcome to send stuff, but you probably don't need to worry about her feeling forgotten. She has a desire to follow the rules, but she and I sometimes have different ideas about what that means exactly. I am doing good with everything. Sometimes it hard, and sometimes I don't feel like I am half of the missionary that I should be, but I have already grown a lot in 6 weeks, and I know that the Lord is helping me become the missionary that He needs me to be. Most of the time I'm pretty patient with myself. The language is definitely coming. It's hard because we mostly teach in English here in Antwerpen (that is not the norm in this mission), so when we do teach in Dutch it's like starting all over again, but I realized this week that I understand almost everything people say to me on the door now and a fair amount of small talk. I still don't understand the talks in church or anything, but I realized that I've actually improved a lot in the last transfer. I definitely do not want an ice tray, because the heat is long gone, and the bigger concern is figuring out how to turn the heat in our apartment on. Our apartment is apparently the most ghetto sister apartment in the mission, but it's not bad at all, just a little small. It's above a pizza shop. I hope that answers some of your many questions. I'll try and answer more next week.
Dad, I don't mind when you call me Zuster Cluff, because I can hear the slight sarcasm in you voice when you say it. I would love a conference ensign. English is great, but if you happen to see one in Dutch, I certainly won't say no. I hope that you had the opportunity to share that miracle in stake conference. I'm sure that would greatly strengthen the testimonies of all those within hearing. I have even considered using it as a door approach this week, because who wouldn't want to join a church that brings that kind of blessings??? I hope that my great enthusiasm is evident enough to warrant a picture of the fruits of your discipleship. That's really cool that you got to talk to a church lawyer. I can't believe you didn't send me a copy of your talk, but I'm sure that mistake will be rectified next week. I love you lots!
There is not much to tell from this week. The weather changed, and it changed fast, which led to pretty much everyone (Zuster Burnham and I included) getting sick, so we couldn't see some of our investigators this week. Unfortunately, missionaries don't have the same luxury of just avoiding the world when you're sick, so we got to brave the cold and go to work. It was good week, and we talked to some cool people.
We did get a new investigator named Zoey. She is really cool and has had some incredible experiences that have led her to have a real relationship with Christ. She is afraid of the Book of Mormon for some reason, but really likes the rest of our message. We will keep working with her on that. I know that it can bless her life so much if she will just read it.
Our transfer focus is the Book of Mormon, and our mission has been challenged to read the whole thing before the end of the year, marking every time Christ's name is used and keeping a list of every title given to Christ and a tally of how many times it is used. If you all would like to join us, I think that would be awesome! It is about 6 1/2 pages a day, and I have already learned so much about how central Christ is to God's plan. I am in chapter 14 and I am already running out of room for my list and tallies. The Book of Mormon is truly a testament of Jesus Christ.
I will take this kind of boring week as an opportunity to tell you all some interesting things about Belgium: 1) They love American politics. Like, more than Americans. They love giving their opinions on the election and who will be the better president, and I'm pretty sure they're better informed than most actual voters, which is kind of funny. 2) They're really scared of missionaries, but also really love to help people, which leads to this inner conflict in them when we ask for directions. When we walk around with a map, people yell at us from across the street to see if they can help us get somewhere. Then they see our tags and get this look of struggle on their faces as they try to reconcile their instinct to give us directions and their instinct to avoid eye contact with all things religious. It is kind of funny to watch. 3) Belgium pride doesn't exist. If you ask them if they like Belgium, or what the best thing to do here is, or what their favorite Belgium food is, etc. they get this really confused look and then say something along the lines of, "There isn't really anything (to like, to do, to eat, etc.)" That is a strange concept for my American brain.
That is all I have for today. I love you all!!!!!
Veel liefde,
Zuster Cluff
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