3/24

heyyyyyy SUPER good week!

 

so seriously, things are really good. Well the danger level is on the regular, but that's normal, but in terms of awesome things going on... a new record.

 

We have been working with a super cool family. The dad works Sundays at a shelter for troubled youth.  So that's pretty important, but also his son is nine years old and last yeah he didn't get baptized. The water was too cold for him and he was traumatized, but since then they've moved into our ward. We had a rdv with the bishop and his 8 year old son who just got baptized and it was reallllllllly good. The 8 year old kid was sooo baller. He testified to the other kid and it was just money. Well that family came to church (late) but it was still really good.

Also, we made friends with an AWESOME family. They just starting to come back to church the first Sunday I was here and they are super cool. They moved from Mexico 10 years ago, but they've been super nice. We are having a FHE with them this week. I hope it goes well and they said they are going to make the spiciest food I've ever eaten... I don't think they've eaten Hmong food...

So prez came out with his brand new idea... its kinda hard to explain but its totally something I brought up to him a year ago. When I was in St. Omer... a member came up to me and handed me a little piece of paper that the missionaries 60 years ago (or something like that) put in his mailbox. It said, "hey, in a couple days there will be 2 missionaries knocking on your door, please listen to them. -love the mission prez" and he said it made him prepare for when the missionaries came and when they came he was ready. Now he is a sealer in the temple. He said, "show this to your mission president so you can do this".  So I did annnnd nothing happened, but this week president came out with this super inspired idea to put flyers in peoples mailboxes about Easter and then in a couple days go pass by and see if they are interested. Best idea ever huh? Now I'm really excited about it and I think he's totally doing it right. Easter is a big deal over here because they love their holidays. 

i see bees and those huge pigeons all the time. and i see a lot of huge bumblebees all over, but no one has kicked them at me for awhile. so that's really good.

Right now I'm reading in Alma. I'll be reading in Alma for awhile....

A couple other missionaries sent me stuff for my birthday.

Today Elder ***k got a haircut by an Italian guy. He looks like an Italian guy now. Later on tonight we have a FHE with some investigators and members and then we have to make a meal for our district.

OHHH! Elder Christofferson came. I don't want to complain that much, but I was kinda let down.  Most of the time was a Q&A and I thought that the missionaries asked rather bad questions. They were pretty ineffective, but then once he started talking for reals it was really good. He asked me where I'm from and he said he knows where Chico is.

 

I'm really excited to room with Jefferson.

This week we had ward conference... so there was a lot of people there. People had to stand outside... well in the foyer.

pictures!!!!!!

 William turned 21 today.  One of his friends in Belgium had him over for dinner, cake, and a present.  AND sent me photos!  I love him!!!!

his shoe "exploded"

3/17

sooo I already told everyone that today is my birthday. Tonight we are going over to our ward mission leader's house for cake and stuff. He's nice and helps us out a lot. Birthdays are way different in 4 mans and on pday instead of on Sunday. Today we went bowling. It was really pathetic how bad we were, but we all laughed and had a lot of fun.

 

I got your card this week and also the questionnaire. 

This week wasn't really that bad. A lot of people didn't show up to the appointments, but we found cool things to do and taught a lot. We're teaching several families. I'm really excited about that. All of my mission we have been trying really hard to find and teach families. So it's really cool that it's finally happening. 

At church we had 4 amis there. The ward was pumped. We also have a bunch of appointments set up with many less active and part member families so its good. The ward is trying really hard to help us. 

Last transfer there were elders and sisters in this ward, but this transfer its just us. And we have to pick up all the slack that the sisters left behind... which is a LOT!

That's is really scary whats going on in the world and also about Sister Anderson.

This week we talked to a man who wanted us to teach him how he can get to the celestial kingdom without dying.... I've never  had that thought cross my mind. He legitimately thought that our church teaches that doctrine but we only reveal it to people who are high up in the church and that its a secret we don't tell investigators. He was set on that and it did not matter what we said, he wouldn't back down, but he still wants to learn more and come to church. So we don't really know what to tell him. I told him that if we have enough faith, we can do anything... is that wrong?

We play frisbee in the mornings with the frisbee that jenifer norris gave me. It's pretty fun.

Belgium is pretty similar to France but its a lot poorer and less pretty. France people make fun of Belgium all the time, but its really not that bad. There is a lot of crime though and last night the air reeked like vomit everywhere in town. I've been having pretty bad allergies but I got some allergy medication from a pharmacy and it works fine.

We have heard the ice cream truck every night no matter where we are for 5 nights in a row. It was pretty scary because no one is going to run out and buy ice cream at 8:30 at night... right?

I like the saying that you said "if you cant dunk... use the backboard." I cant really think of a specific example of how to use it, but I'm sure there's a lot of them.

I gave our ward mission leader the website to your blog. He tries to get really involved in missionaries' lives.

If you still can, I want to  be roommates with jefferson chandler. and either of the carraige dorms if fine, but if its too late, no big deal.

I'm really excited because we're going to see elder christofferson tomorrow in Brussels. Hopefully the trains are ok. but we have to get up early because it starts at 830.

And N*****'s baptism was last week... I don't know if I told you or not.

Pictures

His favorite family on his mission

this is Elder Guymon and his newest companion

3/10

yeah.. that is my address. Jumet is a neighborhood in Charleroi. The zip code only has 4. I haven't gotten a birthday card.

The transfer was pretty good. Its kinda hard hauling around 2 heavy suitcases in the Paris metro, but we got it all done and I got here. I rode a train from Reims to Paris and then Paris to Brussels and then Brussels to Charelroi.

My new companion is super cool. He is from American Fork. When I lived in Lehi he was like less than ten minutes from me I bet. He looks a lot like Payton. Like facewise its exactly the same.

So the rumors are true about the city of Charleroi. Its not very clean or pretty. There's a lot of hobos and stuff, but i really like it. Belge people do not have the same grumpy french attitude. They are pretty nice. The tram and bus system is just as janky as last time I came up here though. Today there is a strike and there's no transport. Also sometimes the buses just dont come.

N***** got baptized so its all good. I'm happy about that. like super happy. I'll get elder E****** to email me some pictures.

Every day so far has been sunny and nice. I've broke out the short sleeves. We've already found 2 new amies and already lost 3. soooo....

The ward is pretty nice. Some of them talked to me. I think the bishop loves me already... He is a super chill guy. So he greeted us at the door and he was like "soooo elder geeeemo, you're FRENCH?" and I was like yep and then he got super excited and was like "FINALLY!" When I finally told him I'm american he threw a fit, but it was super funny and he's a good guy.

so everyone says that missionaries who serve in Charleroi get fat. I'm not about to tho. I had my first belgian waffle today. It was pretty good but it tasted kinnnda weird. The ones that we made my junior year of seminary were just as good.

so I got an email explaining release procedure. In mission terms I got my "trunky papers" They asked which airport I want to fly to. Chico right?

I'm pretty much loving the mission. I'm not going to lie and say i dont want to go home, but i really really like being out here. Its kinda hard to think that there are only 3 months left. idk how that's going to work.

I am really considering dropping either america and the enlightenment or astronomy, but we can just do that later right?

idk what I could do for work... is there anyone who need french translation in Chico? prob not, right? Does bishop chamlee need anyone for rice researchers? The only problem with working for Dean would be that its Yuba.

There's a cover story about our mission on lds.org.

3/4

sooooo I thought you'd like to know.. I just got transferred to Charleroi, Belgium. Word on the street is that it is voted the ugliest city in Europe, but pretty much every missionary who has served there LOVES it. So I'm not too unhappy. My new comp will be Elder B***. Never heard of him, but I think he's in his 3rd transfer, so that'll be my 3rd comp in a row in his 3rd transfer.

 

sooo also, I found out this week that Quasimoto and Esmerelda (the people in the Hunchback of Notre  Dame) actually lived in Reims.

sooo in other news- the other companionship had a baptism on Saturday and the guy doesn't speak french at all, so the service was in English. It was pretty funny because I translated it back into french for all of the members. An old lady said it was super funny to see french people speaking English and  an American translating it into french. Its usually the other way around.

 

so N***** is the bomb. Its a super big bummer that I'm outta here. I really wanted to have a pic at the baptism. She was super prepared to accept the gospel. We pretty much just had to answer a BILLION questions. It was good tho. She had been praying and worrying about how she was going to tell her son about getting baptized and finally she told her son and he was like, "umm ok". so that's really cool that he didn't freak out or anything because that would have been a real bummer. so that was a small but big miracle that a lot of people have been praying for.

 

There is also a guy who we started teaching again named C***. He told the missionaries to not come back because they tried to force him to get baptized. Well, we didn't know that because those missionaries didn't write ANYTHING in the area book, but we invited him to come to the baptism on Saturday (the one in english) and I'm pretty sure he liked he. He said we can come back and talk more about baptism now. boom goes the dynamite.

so I've been thinking about having 16 credit hours.. I'm starting to think that that might be a lot. Maybe even too much, because it would be hard to get an institute class now with soccer and all. 

 

so on the 18th of march, there is a special conference with Elder Christofferson (apostle) with only 3 zones. My new zone will be one of them. That's cool because the last 3 times apostles have came I didn't get to go. It was super lame.

 

That's cool about Jonathon Spector. Have you talked to him or Olivia lately?

That's cool about Bradley going brute, but he still wont beat me.

I honestly dont know about getting a job when I get home because remember when I signed up at will call right before I left and they were like ok.. we can give you a factory job baking cookies in Gridley from 1am to 6am. I dont think something crazy like that would be good, but maybe like answering the phone at Glende...

I think Melanee should name her baby Benson Farnsworth.