D&C 45:62 - "For verily I say unto you, that great things await you."

Dear family and friends,

This week was great. We started off with a busy Tuesday working with Harry Van de Sande. Harry is an 86-year-old full time missionary. He works a lot with the elders in Eindhoven (where he lives) but was able to take some time in Tilburg with us this week. He is such a good man and I loved working with him and getting to know him better, and he's hilarious. We had two lessons that day, both pretty interesting, and talked to some really nice people. Harry is a great teacher and is very good at explaining different aspects of the gospel with clarity. I have a lot to learn from him. We were in this dorp, Goirla, for part of the day and were able to visit the boarding school that Harry attended there when he was 17. Super cool. I'm glad that we were able to walk down memory lane with him for a little bit.

On Thursday morning we had zone training in Eindhoven. It went pretty well. It was centered around the Book of Mormon and we were able to introduce the Book of Mormon challenge to the Eindhoven Zone (I mentioned the challenge in last weeks e-mail). They all seemed pretty excited about it and I have really enjoyed it so far. It's a lot more reading in the Book of Mormon per day than I have ever done and it really does make a difference. If you don't feel that you have time to read six or seven pages of the Book of Mormon every day, I would invite you to at least read six or seven verses a day. It will make a difference in you life, I promise. President Ezra Taft Benson said, "There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. The scriptures are called the 'words of life' (D&C 84:85), and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance"

Saturday to Sunday were spent traveling to Brussels for Stake Conference on Saturday night (we were able to snag a ride from our Branch President and his brother), traveling to Gent after Stake Conference (we didn't arrive until midnight...), sleeping until 5:30 and then traveling back to Brussels for the rest of Stake Conference. It was great. I love Belgium and was thankful to be able to spend a little bit of time there. It has a very different feel than the Netherlands and I love Vlams! Vlams, or Flemish, is the language of northern Belgium/Vlaanderen. It's just Dutch with a French accent sort of. It's great. Elder Herland, an Area 70, spoke and presided at Stake Conference. He is from Norway and was just called as an Area 70 about 6 months ago. One of my favorite things that he said was something like, "this church is for people who have something wrong with them... as we come close to Christ, He fixes the things that are wrong with us." It think that is really cool and true. We all have problems, but as we come closer to Christ we can find the support and peace that living His gospel brings.

On the way back from Brussels on Sunday, Elder Sosa and I got on the wrong train and had to wait in the city of Mechelen for a little bit. We decided to check out the centrum and ended up contacting people along the way. One guy we stopped and talked to is a Belgian celebrity! Dimitri Leue. He is an actor and does some other stuff. He met missionaries a year ago in Antwerpen, where he lives, but he isn't very religious or spiritual. He believes in people... One of the nicest guys I've met though. It was funny because a bunch of people passed as we were talking to him and asked if they could take a picture with him or said "Hey, I know you!" 

Working in Tilburg this week was fun. We did a lot of finding, trying to look for people to teach and for investigators. We were able to find some really cool potentials. One is named Amber. She is a very nice 18-year-old girl. We knocked on her door and showed her the Dankzij Hem video, after which we had a conversation about God and prayer. She was very open and told us of how her dad is religious and she goes through periods where she is religious and isn't. She does believe that there is a God though and seems to find prayer important. We had been talking to her for about ten minutes when all of the sudden her mom walks up from her car and says "Sorry to cut you of, but I have food and am going to close the door." I love Dutch people. We asked Amber really quickly if we could come back another time and she said yes. We stopped by on Saturday morning to try and set up an appointment and her mom answered the door. She was very nice though, which was a relief, and just said that Amber was working and we should try sometime next week. I'm excited to keep working with Amber and pray that her parents stay chill. 

That's about it. Everybody have a great week!


Houdoe!
- Elder Wright


Pics - Dimitri Leue, Harry at his old boarding school (now a library), sick tram stop in Brussels




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