Taking Over Antwerpen

Hallo iedereen!!!!

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

I'm Staying In Antwerpen

Hallo hallo!!!

Mom!!! Your letter made me laugh really hard. I am not in the least bit concerned about the package. Even if I didn't ever get it, my life would be just fine, so please don't worry about it. I'm actually going to be blijven in Antwerpen for another 6 weeks, so it will probably be just fine. They only tell you to send it to the office so that we don't have to pay all the customs fees when we pick it up, but the post office is like a 20 minute bus ride from our house, so it really will not be a problem. You are welcome to send something to the office, but I will not feel bad if I don't get a present at their party thing, so don't stress. Yay for the book fair! I miss those things. And books. Also, as a missionary it is super awkward when no one talks at dinner, and really exciting when people just talk to you and laugh with you like family, so I'm sure it was much appreciated. Also, as a missionary I have realized that our ward is pretty supportive of the missionary effort. We're still working on that one with our ward here. I didn't realize how much of a difference the members made until I wasn't a normal member anymore. The whole biking trail thing sounds super fun except for the Abigail part. But your Thanksgiving one should be good. 

Mr. CLUFFY. I am choosing to not comment on the diaper musings and let you draw your own conclusions. Haha, I miss Sunday nights with pantless protests, dumb challenges, kids crying, then you getting mad at them for crying, then the crying increasing. I can see it all so clearly in my head. Glad to know that some things never change. Then Belgians are very concerned about the whole Trump thing. Nathalie texted us saying that she was praying for us, and that we were just going to all have to stick it out together for the next 4 years. I swear, from the way the Belgians talk, you would think that they were the ones living in American with Trump as their president. They keep saying how they're just going to have to live with the results, etc. etc. I almost want to tell them that they don't have to live with the results, because it's not their country! But I'm a missionary, so I don't. I do remember the Bacher's! That's really cool that they're active again! 

Alright folks, transfer calls are in and I am blijven here in Antwerpen! I am going to have to say goodbye to Zuster Burnham, though, who is headed up to the netjes land of Gouda. Zuster Berret is my new companion though, and she is actually in my district now, so I know her and am excited to get to work with her. 

The zone leaders decided to play a really mean prank on us and gave us fake transfer calls. They told us that we were being whitewashed out, and I was going to Apeldorn and Zuster Burnham was going to Amsterdam. I may possibly have shed a few tears at the thought of leaving Antwerpen so soon, so I was very glad (and mad) when we got our real calls and I found out I was staying!

Never fear though, Elder Turner (one of the zone leaders) left his bag at one of our appointments, so we took it home and tinfoiled everything in there (including keys, coins, etc.) to get him back. It wasn't really a mean prank, but it was kind of funny. 

This week was temple conference!!!! We were all challenged to bring our own name, so I did a little family history and saw that our lineage is traced back past Abraham on one line. Also, there is a lot of work to be done on our line. (hint hint) Anyways, it was a really powerful experience, and it made me feel really good about my Dutch, because I understood almost everything! (More from memory than actually understanding the Dutch, but still...) The Spirit was so strong. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much, and has such an incredible plan for us!!!!

Zuster Burnham and I had a lot of appointments fall through this week, which is a little frustrating, but we did have a few really good ones. We meet with an inactive lady named Susan. She has terminal cancer and is really struggling to have faith in God and His plan for her right now. When we were there, I felt very strongly prompted to tell her as a representative of Jesus Christ that her Heavenly Father loves her and the atonement is for her. I was a little hesitant, because this lady does not usually appreciate things like that, but I did, and the Spirit was so strong. I could almost feel my Savior there with us. It was a very humbling testimony to me that I have truly been called as a representative of Jesus Christ. I have been called to be His hands and mouth on this earth at this time. It amazes me that He uses weak and imperfect people like me to do His work, but I am doing my best to live worthy of His trust. 

His gospel is real, His love is so very real, and I love being His servant. 

I love you all so much!!!!! I feel like that sounds like a repetitive line, but I really do!!!!

zo veel liefde,

Zuster Cluff