Monday, May 2, 2016

Hey Guys!!!

So this week was kinda fun! Let's see... it started out on Monday when me and Elder Leigh headed to Brussels to have a P-Day with the Rest of our District. This last District has been the best on my mission. These guys guys all hold a special place in my heart and I'm going to miss them soooo much. But that's mission life I guess. Anyways, it was a pretty busy day where we take a lot of trains and trams to get around to see everyone and then we finally arrived back home. Then we began to clean and in Elder Leigh's case to pack! It was sooooo tiring. But we got it done and then had some well deserved sleep.

On Tuesday was Transfer Day and you know what that means..... that travel is not on time or doesn't happen at all!! Satan definitely knows how to annoy the Belgium/Netherlands missionaries and that is by messing up travel on Transfer Day. On Transfer day there's a ton of missionaries trying to reach their new cities and there are missionaries waiting to receive them at different stations and when trains don't come or aren't on time it messes up EVERYONE'S schedule. But we make it work. Plus, it's a day where you get to see other missionaries so that's never such a bad thing. Anyways, Elder Troumbley happened to be on a train to Brugge when the train declared it wasn't going to Brugge, but to Antwerpen. And that there was going to be a 3 hour delay getting there.... yeah, that sounds fun right? So I had to pick him in Antwerpen instead. Anyways, by the time we got home we had only time ot unpack. But it was a nice day. It was pretty sad saying goodbye to Elder Leigh but it's a good thing he only "dies" one transfer before me!

On Wednesday it actually wasn't the best day, at least for Elder Troumbley since it was his first day. Basically we had 6 teaching appointments set up and 2 were joint teaches.... and no one was home... at any of them!! It was sorta of disapointing. But We didn't let it get us down still managed to have an awesome day! We talked to a lot of people and managed to have some pretty funny conversations. One in particular with an African Lady who ended up inviting us to go have food at her house sometime. Ans because we LOVE food, we couldn't say no! ;)

Thursday we had an ok day. The most interesting thing was that we had ward council that night where were are now starting to create a new ward mission plan and that's pretty exciting. It's so awesome seeing the members being sooo willing to move the work forward!

Friday and Saturday were pretty normal working days. On Saturday we had the opportunity to do some service for a lady we found on the street and we now have a teaching appointment so that's awesome!! 

Yeah, that's pretty much this week!!!

Which brings me to my new companion Elder Troumbley!!!!!!!
So, Elder Troumbley is from Idaho. He moved around in his youth which he thought was pretty awesome. He's going to do robotics when he goes back to Uni and he's an extremely funny guy. These last few days have been really awesome. He's a really neat sort of guy so the apartment has never been sooo clean!!!!

Anyways, That's it for this week!
Loves
Elder Serra



Elder Troumbley... looking fly!




Best Photosss Everssssss!!!!



Hey Guys!!

Well, this week was pretty good actually. On Monday we were in Gent with most of our District and we walked around the city, which was really nice plus it's always awesome to be with the Brussels Business District! On Tuesday we had the last District Meeting of this transfer which was really sad. This transfer has been really awesome and I really am going to miss this District as it was this transfer. But I'm sure the next District will be just as awesome. Anyways, after that we went back to Brugge where we had a lesson in the park with our most positive investigators. They're 3 Phillipino women and they are a hoot, it's so much fun to be with them and they're really awesome! 

On Wednesday we had to go to Oostende where we had 4 lessons planned. However, 2 of them cancelled which was sad but me and Elder Leigh made the most of it and ended up having a fun day talking about a whole bunch of things. I'm sooo glad that I got to spend this last transfer with Elder Leigh. He's sooo awesome and really is one of my best friends here in the mission. Anyways, later that day, we met a lady on the train from Nigeria and we got to talking about food and the thought came into mine and Elder Leigh's mind to dinner contact. Dinner Contacting is the theory brought to us by Elder Roberts, that you try to get in with potential investigators who aren't incredibly interested by asking them about their culture and their food and then you ask if you can have dinner with them. Then, if the dinner appointment goes through, you share a message at the end and see what comes from it. Anyways, we tried and it didn't work but it was pretty fun so I think we'll probably do that again. 

Thursday we worked in Oostende again because we had a whole load of referrals there and we decided to look all of them up. As we were doing so, we were contacting people here, there and everywhere and we ended up setting up 7 appointments for next Wednesday alone! It was a great day and if they all go through I don't know how we'll keep track of all our investigators! So that was a great day!!

Friday we had Weekly Planning and we got a lot done there. Then on Saturday we had a great day travelling along the coast to look up referrals and also to contact a few potentials. Unfortunately none of them were home which was kind of disappointing but We found this one guy called Ryan and he was SUPER positive so that was a day well worth it. 

Sunday we had church and we figured it was going to be Elder Leigh's last Sunday and so we spent some time taking pictures and saying goodbye. It wasn't the most interesting day until we got... TRANSFER CALLS! So we found that that I'm....................... STAYING IN BRUGGE. And my new companion is Elder Troumbley, who you guys don't know but I'll tell you more next week! Anyways, after that we finished up the day and went home and me and Elder Leigh just had a nice talk about how much we were going to miss each other.

That's it for this week
Loves
Elder Serra

Sister Majors, looking happy!!!




Me and Elder McKay, the two best looking elders anywhere in Europe!!




Oh sorry, I think that's me and Elder Leigh! sorry McKay...




Hey Guys!!!

Well, this week was great! It started on Monday when we had a great P-day. Quite a few missionaries from the zone ended up coming to Brugge for their P-day (totally unplanned) and so we met up with a few of them. It was pretty fun having them all there and it was great to spend time with the district considering that we haven't had a lot of district meetings due to terrorists... But it's all good now so it's awesome. 

On Tuesday we had two member present lessons which were pretty good. The first was with a really Catholic lady who wasn't so interested after the lesson but it was a nice lesson anyway. The second was with our best investigators. So over the last few weeks we've been having lessons with Venus who is a Phillipino lady with 3 kids. When we started teaching her it was just her. However, over the last few weeks she's invited two other women from her work to take the lessons. Which brings us to Emmy and Cristina. So we've been teaching them and it's been going ok and then there were a few weeks were we couldn't get in contact with them but now it's back to normal. Anyways, Emmy couldn't make it to the lesson on Tuesday so it was just Cristina and Venus and we taught them about Sabbath, Prayer and Scripture and it was awesome, the two of them were really attentive and willing to put those things into their lives. Cristina works on Sundays and she was worried that she wouldn't be able to keep the Sabbath as we were asking but we were able to teach her that it's a time where we try to turn to God and to our families and we committed her to try to spend some more time with her 7 kids individually and see the blessings that would come as she tried to concentrate on her family more and less on work. Hopefully we'll hear some good things next Tuesday. 

Anyways, then on Wednesday we had quite a bit of time where we knocked doors and withing that time we were able to find 3 really positive potentials and we have lessons with all of them this week so it should be pretty fun. Then we made the 5 hour trip to Utrecht so we could sleep there so we could attend the temple on Thursday it was a long trip but we got to talk to a lot of people on the train which was pretty fun. 

Then on Thursday we woke up pretty early to get ready fro TEMPLE!!! It was soo nice to be in the temple again after the last 6 months. There's a special serenity in the temple that you just can't beat. I also had the opportunity to read my Patriarchal blessing while I was in the Celestial Room and it gave me some cool highlights into what I could be doing better and I hope to be able to incorporate that in the next few weeks. It was also pretty cool to go to Keukenhof. It was soooo fun to be with other elders and sisters and just spend some time walking and enjoying some nice flowers. Plus, I got some pretty cool pictures so my mum will be pretty happy about that. It makes me pretty excited to go next year. 

On Friday we had weekly planning and began to plot things on a new map that we bought so now we can finally organize all of our inactives and former investigators so we know who we can visit in which places. 

Saturday I woke up and I was pretty ill, we ended up going to a little village in the morning with a member and proselyting there but when I came back I was pretty out of it so Elder Leigh suggested I sleep while he made some calls. It actually worked out for the best because when I woke up I felt a lot better and Elder Leigh had gotten a hold of a few people and made a few appointments. 

Sunday was Stake Conference so we again got to see a lot of the elders and sisters we saw on Thursday so this week has just felt like a big missionary reunion. It was pretty cool though and I got some pretty cool insights from one of the speakers who talked about it not being easy after you get started on the path to Heavenly Father. 

Loves
Elder Serra


Elders and a Dutch Clog.... of course!



Keukenhof!!!! A bit late but here it is!!!!






A windmill, as is the custom in Nederland!!