Almost Four Months... What??

[Guys. I am laughing because this was like… two months ago. BAHAHAhahwwwWAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!]

Carnival, twelve buses in one day, and zone conference...OH MY!

So, fun fact, Mardi Gras doesn't just exist in New Orleans. Which makes sense the more I think about it, but anyways. Here it is a full week called Carnival. It is even a weeklong school holiday. It ended Saturday with a big parade and people dressed up in crazy costumes. Other than that, I don't actually know what else they do. I didn't see much.

Tuesday, we went on a less active hunting adventure with the Redds, our Senior Couple here in Liège. We spent about two hours driving around Grace-Hollogne and Jemeppe. We set out looking for five people, and we found one! Yay...that is actually really awesome because we usually don't find anyone. People are always moving around here, not many people stay in one place for very long. We also had a couple other lessons that day a recent convert, less active, and nonmember. We pretty much covered all the bases that day.

Wednesday was the day of twelve buses. That doesn't even seem possible to me, but somehow we ended up taking twelve different buses from about 11am-9pm. We had a mangez-vous with a member who lives in the middle of nowhere where the buses don't go, so she picked us up at the Gare. By this point we had taken 11 buses, and we said that if we had to take another bus, we might throw up. We were so happy that the member would be taking us home after dinner. We had an awesome rendez-vous! Her husband is a non-member. We watched the Testaments in French (super funny by-the-way), we were only able to watch about 30 minutes and then we ate, and then we had about 5 minutes for the pensé spirituelle. We did a little thought on feeling the spirit, and it went really well. So, then it was time to go home, and she dropped us off the Gare, meaning we had to take one more bus home, making it 12 buses in one day. We just had a good laugh, and then decided we never wanted to get on another bus again... until the next morning at least.

Thursday was zone conference!! We took a train in to Bruxelles at 8 in the morning and didn't get home until 7:30 that night. It was super awesome! We learned a lot about working with our ward and branches... It's kind of difficult from time to time, but ça va! We had a really good lunch and then we had interviews with President and Soeur Babin and watched Meet the Mormons! The interviews went really well! They were all in French, and I understood everything and was able to talk to them! Soeur Babin even complemented me on my accent! Woohoo! She told me she was impressed with my French and that I am learning quickly. That is always good to hear. I have been working so hard on learning the language. I LOVE FRENCH!!!!

The rest of the week was pretty normal. I just have two more funny stories:

We walk through this little tunnel-ish thing almost every day. In this tunnel is a little shoe shop (SUPER expensive). There is this little man who owns it and is there every day. We have started waving to him and saying hello as we pass. He always gets this huge smile and waves back. The other day, we were walking through, and he was out of his shop. The first thing he does is try to come up and bisous me! AWKWARD! That is the second time I have been bisoused by a man. Oh la la.

The other story is just that Soeur Clawson and I had to ride an elevator the other day with two men dressed in full out drag. The best part, we had a totally normal conversation with them. As soon as they got out of the elevator, I cried I was laughing so hard. It was the strangest thing in the world!

Anyways, I have been studying a lot about the spirit recently, and trying to recognize it in my life. I know that the spirit leads and guides us. He tells us what to say and what to do. He keeps us safe and helps us know the needs of others. The spirit is the most important tool in missionary work! I hope we can all strive to recognize the spirit in our lives and learn how he speaks to us. I have to come to notice that often, the spirit speaks to me through music. I have found so many answers to prayers through hymns and spiritually uplifting music. It is amazing!

Je vous aime tous! Passez une bonne semaine! à la semaine prochaine, alors :)

[Have you noticed that I’ve given up translating the French? If you want to know, you’ll google translate it. Also, if the two months late blog posts show anything, I’ve been a tad… just a tad busy. Selfish reason, really. But there it is.

[The final picture is of the largest cathedral in Lèige called the Basillique St. Leonard. According to Soeur Chisholm, it is, of course, not open on Mondays. But the building right next to it in the picture is apparently supposed to be normal sized.]