Going into Transfer 3

[And if my sarcasm of the last few posts haven’t been clear… It’s definitely not the beginning of her third transfer. That was a few weeks ago. I would apologize, but I’ve apologized enough…maybe. Probably not.]

Bonjour tous le monde! J'espère que vous allez bien! Well, this upcoming week is bringing a lot of changes to Liège and Bruxelles. Soeur Clawson will be leaving to go to Torcy (Disneyland Paris). So she will be in the Paris Est zone. My new companion will be Soeur Walton, and she will be coming to Liège from V'dasque, which is only like a two hour train ride from Liège. She is in the same transfer as Soeur Clawson. So, I'm staying in good ole Liège! And I will no longer be a bleu! And I made it to transfer 3 without training!

So, here is the crazy news of our zone. We used to be the Liège zone with the Liège district, Bruxelles district, and... I don't remember the other one. But, with all the missionaries going home this transfer and not many coming in, they have had to close down a lot of villes. They shut down three equipes in Bruxelles including the STLs. They changed it to the Bruxelles zone and shrunk down the districts and the STLs are now in V'dasque. It was crazy on Saturday when we found out all this news. Also, fun fact, the next transfer day (not the one this Wednesday, but the one at the end of transfer three) will be on my six month mark--April 29.

[Ummm… if anyone totally understood all that, I applaud you. Sometimes, missionary talk is very… missionary-esque.]

So, this past week has been BUSY! (Always a good thing!)

Tuesday, we had some good time to do some contacting after district meeting and before going to dinner at a member’s house. While we were contacting, we were actually having some decent luck, we had two people who talked to us for a little bit, and we were able to leave them with a prayer, and then we were heading to the bus stop to catch our bus. While we were walking, I saw a lady coming toward us and I really felt like we needed to contact her! It was almost like a voice screaming in my head, but I was on the wrong side of Soeur Clawson, and if I tried to contact her it would have been really awkward! I started to panic a little because the prompting was so strong! Then, right as she was about to pass us, Soeur Clawson contacted her! It was like a breath of relief! We did our usual contact stuff and found out that she was not believing at all, but she was super curious about what we were doing here in Belgium! We chatted for quite a bit, and then we asked her if she had ever prayed, she said no, and then we asked her if we could leave her with a prayer today and explained how to pray. She was a little weirded out that we wanted to pray just there in the middle of the sidewalk, but she agreed. She was adorable! She wanted to make sure she was standing right, and she asked if she needed to close her eyes. Then, Soeur Clawson said the prayer, and after Marcella said that she felt like she was in a rêve--she felt like she was dreaming. The sprit was so strong! We then talked a little bit more and fixed a day that we can see her again! Yay!!!

Aurica the amazing Romanian amie.
Soeur Chisholm has no idea why she's wearing this hat.

On Wednesday, our contacting was not quite as lucky. We had some success and met an awesome lady who we hope to see again this week, but I also had one of the most awkward contacts of all time! We were contacting on a bridge, one of our favorite things to do because of the views, and it was a beautiful day, and there are always people walking across the bridges. So, we are walking on the bridge, and I see a lady coming towards us, and I think to myself, “Whoo, she is kind of manly looking, but I'm going to contact her anyway!” So, I contact her........ and she is not a she. She is a man. Holy poop! It was so awkward! It was a man, wearing a skirt and heels and wearing make-up. Basically, after I asked if they were believing, and then they looked at my tag, they said that churches are bad, and then walked away. I stood there stunned for a minute, and then Soeur Clawson and I busted up laughing. Oh my, contacting is so fun!

African pants Soeurs Clawson and Chisholm found one p-day for super cheap.
They are awesome because she will wear them the rest of her entire life.

Also, on Wednesday, we taught Sara. She is 17 and came up to the elders about two months ago and said she wanted to be baptized. However, she is not keeping her engagements, but we are working with her. We had the awesome opportunity on Wednesday to teach with Chelsea a member who is also 17 here on an exchange program for school. She was able to give such on strong testimony on Joseph Smith and the power of prayer! Holy poop, it was so awesome. After the lesson, she told us that that was the strongest she had felt the spirit in a long time, and that she really wants to teach with us again!

Thursday, we made cookies with one of our less actives and talked about obedience. It was such a fun lesson! Our less active loved it! She is started to prepare to go to the temple so she really loved talking about the importance of keeping the commandments, and she had a lot of questions. It was a really good lesson. Then, we went to a member’s for dinner. Soeur Coenan had knitted me a scarf! And a hat. They are awesome! She was still working on Soeur Clawsons. She also gave us some legit Liègeoise recipes! I'm so excited to make them.

The scarf and hat knitted for Soeur Chisholm.

Friday was so awesome, too! We talked about tithing and the law of the fast with one of our recent converts. We were able to do it in a member’s home, which was awesome. The member was able to give such a strong testimony of the blessings of paying tithing! The spirit was so strong, and then we read Malachi 3:10.

Then, we had to run to another rendez-vous. I say run, but I mean run to one bus, catch it, ride it for thirty minutes, then get off the bus and walk another 15 minutes, BUT we were still on time! This lesson was with an amie who was taught back in 2009, and we contacted her again at the end of last transfer I believe. We had an amazing lesson with her about a month ago and then we hadn't been able to see her since. But, Friday, we had a lesson with her, and we taught the retab. She had some awesome questions that we were only able to answer by the help of the spirit--that is for sure. Then at the end, we asked her to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. She said that she would, but that she thinks she already has her answer. She said that obviously God sent us to her, and we are here doing what we do for a reason, so obviously, He must have called Joseph Smith as a prophet. AHHHHH!!! So cool!!!

All Sisters at the "Bye-bye" breakfast for Soeur Clawson and Elder Nielson

Then, Saturday we had a lesson with a lady from Madagascar! She was very impressed that I knew they spoke Malagasy there! Thanks Nathan! However, when I said that I knew they spoke that, she thought I meant that I spoke it, and so she asked me what I could say... and I was like oops, I don't actually know that language. However, she did teach me how to say, “I am a missionary,” in Malagasy, so that's cool.

Then yesterday, I was sooooo sick. I went to church, and by the end I felt like DEATH. I wanted to tough it out though, so we went to our rendez-vous right after church. After that, Soeur Clawson was like, “OK! Time for you to go home.” So, we went home, I got a blessing from the elders, and Soeur Clawson was a doll and made me chicken noodle soup! Then, I slept the rest of the day and all last night, and I woke up this morning feeling a million times better. I still have a sore throat and a little cough, but yeah. I just have a little cold, now so all is well! :)

I hope you all are doing well, too! Sending lots of love from Liège!