Dec 30, 2013

Familie en vrienden!

 

This past week has been absolutely amazing! I just love the Christmas season and all of the joy it brings! Because so much has happened, I will just begin now with a detailed (or at least as good as I can do) description of the past week.

 

Maandag

Voorbereidingsdag! P-day! We actually didn't get to do much that day because our emailing got pushed back later, and our dinner appointment got moved up earlier. We never even did our weekly grocery shopping. Fortunately, we had enough appointments for the week that we didn't really need to buy any food. Actually, we had a record amount of appointments! Six dinner appointments and one lunch appointment! We were super excited because normally we only average about three dinner appointments a week. Anyways, after we did our emailing, we went to an indoor voetbal (soccer) arena rented out by a member and played some voetbal with a few members and nonmembers. It was super fun! After that we went home and changed in record time to get to our dinner appointment. We had dinner with Familie Jonkheer, a super awesome familie! They also invited us to watch a Disney movie with them, but we declined because President Texiera (of the Seventy) told us at our last Zone Conference not to watch movies.

 

Dinsdag

We started the day with our weekly District Bijeenkomst (meeting). It was really well given by our District Leader, Elder Cooper. One of the announcements in the meeting was that our mission president allowed us to watch a Disney movie with a member if they offered without us asking. So yeah, we found out a day too late. We missed our only chance to watch a movie. But that's alright! Being a missionary isn't really about watching movies anyway! It's about walking out in the cold wind and rain trying to find people who are prepared to hear the Gospel, haha! :) After District Bijeenkomst, we had lunch as a district followed by Correlatie (correlation) with the Antwerpen missionaries. Later we had dinner with Familie Cannoodt! They're a really cool familie who gives of lots of food, haha! We had gourmet for dinner. Gourmet is when there is a grill on the table and lots of meats and vegetables and everyone picks what they want and cooks their own food right in front of them! It's a super cool experience! Familie Cannoodt also lives close to the American Store, so they bought some A&W Rootbeer for us! After not having rootbeer in over five monnths, it was really lekker (delicious)!

 

Woensdag / Kerstdag

First thing Christmas morning my companions and I opened our packages and gifts! It was kind of cool to see some American brand food, haha. Following our studies, we proceded to create individualized Christmas cards which we then took around to a few members, less-actives, and investigators. After that, we went to Familie Evans. The mom is inactive, the dad is not a member, and their second oldest son, Phillip, will be leaving a mission next month. They had three laptops that they let us use for our Skyping. It was pretty handig (handy) for all three of us to Skype at the same time. After Skyping, we had lunch with them, and we ended up staying with them for about three hours (not including Skyping)! Immediately after leaving their house, we went to the home of Familie Schiltz. They're practically like the missionaries' grandparents! We have dinner with them every week! By the time we got home, we were super full, haha! It was indeed a wonderful and Christ centered Christmas! Oh, and for those who may be wondering, since most homes here aren't stand alone and are connected to other houses on each side (and often a different familie lives on each floor), people don't decorate the outside of homes to much. Very many Christmas trees can be seen inside though, and the city does a lot of decorating in the centrum area and in Centraal Station.

 

Donderdag

We started our day by heading to the train station to send Elder Harvey to the mission office. It's crazy to think that he's home now. Shortly after that the entire zone (which covers all of Vlanderen, or the entire top half of Belgium) came together in Antwerpen for a zone service project. We went to some nearby rest home where we sung carols to the patients there. It was super fun! Elder Bean and I then did a little bit of contacting in the centrum and then we went to Zuster Van Laere's home for dinner. All of the missionaries were there as well as some of Zr. Van Laere's familie. We had gourmet that night as well!

 

Vrijdag

We went on exchanges with our District Leader. I went to Sint Niklaas (a city just southwest of Antwerpen) with Elder Denny. While there we attended a funeral of a recently passed member. After that, we went on the longest bike ride of my life! We had to contact a referral (which actually turned out really well and an appointment was made), and drop of a plethora of Christmas cards for the Sint Niklaas ward. When we were biking home at the end of the night, it was dark, windy, rainy, and cold. And we had hold a flashlight in one hand because there were no street lights on the bike path. It was quite the adventure, haha! When we were home at the Sint Niklaas apartment we looked at the map and realized that with the distance we biked we could have biked all the back to Antwerpen (when normally we would travel there by train). We were tired to say the least, haha.

 

Zaterdag

We exchanged back in the afternoon after our studies. We had a lesson with an investigator (Guido) that fell through. After Elder Bean and I went home for lunch we went with Brother Schiltz, the sisters, and the other elders to go do some more caroling. Once again we were out for about six hours and only visited two people. This time though it was because we stayed with each one for several hours just talking. The first man we visited was super nice. He leaves close to Centraal Station and his home is an apartment which is no bigger than 30ft x 30ft. While there he gave us a little bit to eat, including a cactus. Yes, a cactus. He cut it up into bite sized pieces and then we dipped it in tomato sauce and ate it! Surprisingly, it's not to bad. I'd probably eat it again.

 

Zondag

We went to church, and unfortunately, Guido din't come (like he said he would). After church there was a Doop Dienst (baptismal service) for one of the sisters' investigators. His name is Eugene and he got baptised at 91 years old! The Gospel truly is for everyone! He's a wonderful example to remind me that I should never be afraid to talk to anyone! After the service, I had the opportunity to give Sister Aldous (one of the sisters here) a blessing because she has had really bad neck pains for the past week. The Spirit was really strong during it. After that we received a phone call from Guido. He told us he wanted to return the BoM and that he had lost his faith. Needless to say, we were extremely dissappointed. We had our weekly planning session at the church. After we started with a prayer, Elder Bean received the spiritual impression to call Guido again. After a 15 minute conversation over the phone, Guido agreed to meet with us one more time. We gave him much encouragement and support. We now have an appointment set up for this Wednesday. We aren't going to plan much of a lesson. We're just going to share the Restoration video and follow the guidance of the Spirit. We ended the day with dinner with Familie Taselaar. They live an hour away by bus. The sisters were also there for dinner. When we left there house we went to the bus stop and realized we had just missed the bus and the next one wouldn't show up for an hour. So, we stood outside in the dark and cold for an hour. When we finally got on the bus we took it to Merksem, where the Zone Leaders live. We ended up staying the night with the Zone Leaders, because it would have taken us another hour to get home and it was already past 10pm.

 

Well, that's the week! It was quite an adventurous one! Now one to the rest of our p-day. Oh, and just something interesting. In our mission, New Years Eve is to dangerous to do missionary work, so we all have to be in our apartments at 4:00pm and stay in the rest of the night. Here's President Robinson's exact words: "This week is oude nieuw.  Please be in the apartment by 4:00 pm on 31 Dec 2013.  Stay in the apartment for the rest of the evening eating, studying, catching up on journals, trying to sleep, watching fireworks out your window, listening to fireworks through your window, wishing you were outside setting off fireworks, etc.  There is a real safety need to do this and there are no known ways to effectively and safely do missionary work that evening in our Mission."

 

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year!

 

Groentens,

Elder Fowkes

Belgium Update (Dec. 23 2013)

Okay, now, last weeks events! Mostly, we just did contacting as usual, but here are the thing more worth mentioning. On Wednesday, we went with the other Antwerpen missionaries, and a ward member (Br. Schiltz) and we went caroling to a few older women in the ward. We spent about six hours going around and caroling. We sang to a grand total of three women! I know what you're thinking. "You only sang to three women in six hours?" Well, that's what happens when the ward boundaries are huge. We spent a lot of time traveling. We were even in a car. One of the woman lives in Essen, which is on the border by Nederland. It was a super cool experience though! On Thursday, we had an appointment a new investigator. His name is Green. Or rather that's his English name. He comes from Taiwan! He's super cool! On Saturday we had our second lesson with Guido. When we first walked in he had his laptop on and some video was playing. We heard the guy in the video say something about Utah and all three of us were like, "Uh-oh." As we sat down, he turned the monitor towards us and said he had quite a few questions. Just as we had expected, he had run into many anti-Mormon videos on the internet. Fortunately, we were able to resolve most of his questions, but in the end the most we could do was direct him to lds.org, the official church website and also to the only source of all truth, Heavenly Father. The rest of the lesson went pretty well. He is certainly an honest truth-seeking man, which is good. It shows that he really is sincere about learning about the church. Saturday evening we went to the church to watch Het Kerstverhaal (the Christmas Story). It was a simple play and musical performance about Christ's birth. It was really well done! The best part about Sunday was that Guido came to church! He seemed to really enjoy it and the members really took him in! He stayed at the church for six hours! There was a ward Christmas feast dinges after church which he not only stayed for, but even helped clean up! Well that's all for this week!

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! I encourage you all to make it a Christ-centered Christmas! May you all have much joy, happiness, and laughter! As for me, there is no better Christmas than one spent in the service of Christ himself! :)

 

Gelukkig Kerst, iedereen!

Elder Fowkes

December 16th Update

Familie,

That's super cool Dad that you were able to meet Elder Holland and Elder Clayton. I guess that's your reward for missing Elder Holland every time he visits our ward, haha.

First and foremost I just want to say that we have a very loving and caring Heavenly Father who looks after us and blesses us according to our works! As you know, we have spent much, much time contacting people. This past week we have certainly seen the fruits of our labors. By last Tuesday we had made five appointments with potential investigators. Our list of potentials has grown significantly and we are continuing to make appointments! We had our Zone Conference last Thursday in Amsterdam. Since it started so early in the morning, and Amsterdam is a country away, we left Wednesday morning. On our way up we stopped in Den Haag so Elder Bean could take care of some Dutch legality. We then stayed the night with the Den Haag elders. I actually had the opportunity to go on splits with the Den Haag elders and we went to a dinner appointment on Wednesday night. The man we ate with was super friendly and super strong in the gospel. It was an interesting appointment though because it was all in Nederlands (Dutch) and I speak Vlaams (Flemish). Fortunately, the transition from Vlaams to Nederlands is fairly easy. It's much more difficult the other way around. At the conference we were able to here from Elder Texiera (I think that's how you spell it) and his wife. He is a member of the Seventy and is in the presidency over the European Missions. They gave us some really good council and Elder Texiera even gave very specific advice to me and my companions concerning our upcoming first lessons. Which then leads into the miracle of the week (probably even the biggest miracle of my mission)! We received a referral from Sarah de Castro, a member in the ward who has recently become reactivated. She referred us to an old friend of hers who is searching for the truth. His name is Guido. We met with Guido on Saturday afternoon for our first lesson. We started our visit using the exact method that Elder Texiera had taught us. And basically, the next thing we knew, we had a return appointment set up and a baptismal date set! Yes, that's right, a baptismal date! Even before we began the actual lesson! His baptism is currently planned for 26 Januari. Guido was super positive about everything and at the end of the lesson the Spirit was very strong. Yesterday we had an appointment with Rehema, an African woman who I contacted in the centrum. It was also a really good lesson. She even had a friend there! Unfortunately, she's less enthusiastic about baptism, but she is willing to invite us back, so that's good! Now we're going into this week with many first lessons set up and even more potentials! I'm way excited! The work here in Antwerpen starting to grow into something amazing!

I love you all!

Elder Fowkes

December 9th update

Familie,

It's been a super fantastic week! It's also been an extremely tiring week! We have been finding and contacting people like crazy! We're super determined to reach our goal of contacting 3000 people in four weeks. Fortunately, we only had two dinner appointments last week, so we were able to spend more time out finding. Our current total of people contacted is 851! We were getting a little behind last week, so on Saturday we went crazy and contacted 294 within only a few hours! It was pretty much non-stop talking with people. We definitely can see the rewards from our efforts. We're starting to build up list of potential investigators. We're currently averaging about one potential investigator for every 100 people we talk to. It's hard work, but there are prepared people out there! In fact, we had a miracle just yesterday. We stopped by the home of one of our potential investigators, one who Elder Harvey contacted and gave two french BoM's to (one for him and one for his friend), to see if he had read the book at all. Luckily he was home and when he saw us he got super excited. He said he hadn't read the book yet due to school exams, but he was planning on starting to read it this week! And even more cool, he asked us if he could have an extra Dutch BoM so he could give it to one of his other friends! We then set up an appointment with him for next Saturday! It's our first appointment of the transfer!! Well, since we pretty much only did contacting last week there isn't much else to tell. The only other interesting thing was that we got stuck in our elevator on the way up to our apartment last night. We literally got stuck just three inches away from our being able to step onto our floor. We had to call the emergency number in the elevator for help. They sent a technician out to help us. So basically there were three of us in a super tiny elevator for about an hour. And we were all tired and needed to use the restroom. It was quite the adventure, haha. We even ended up doing our planning in the elevator, haha.  Also, it's super cool to hear about what you're all doing for that family. That's the way Christmas should be done: in the Christlike service of others. I love you all and your wonderful examples! 

Met veel vreugde,

Elder Fowkes

Three Elders stuck in tiny elevator

The Work Is Moving Along

Goeie dag iedereen!

Well, it's getting colder with each passing week. This morning it was 4 degrees Celcius, but now it's much warmer, about 11 degrees. I did here about that typhoon. It's good to here that Stephanie is okay. I have not yet recieved my bike, maar hopelijk vandag, haha! I believe I've already told Tiara everything that I would like, food wise. However, there is one thing I do want. You know that clicker thing that you click and it counts up? We've had competitions before to see who can click the most in a minute. I want that dinges! I want to try something. I want to keep track of how many people I contact and share the gospel with. So yes, that would nice, thanks!

Now for the past week update! Unfortunately not too much happened. We even had a few appointments that dind't go through... Elder Wayman and I did talk to a lot more people than normally! Which is always good! I was able to by a new jacket as well. Now I look like a stylish European, haha! We had the opportunity to go the Brussel last Friday for some of my legality stuff. We took the train, naturally, haha. I really like riding on trains! We were able to look around the centrum area for a while and eat. I ate my first Döner, too. There's really no way to explain it. Basically it's a piece of bread (sort of similar to a pita) stuffed with "meat" and salad. The reason it doesn't exist in the States is because it most likely wouldn't be FDA approved. It's good though! It also rained A LOT this past week. On Saturday we left our apartment and we were soaked to the bone within seconds! It was worth it though, because we stopped by an investigators home (Stef), and we were able to make an appointment with him for this week!
This week we actually have a lot of appointments! We almost have one every day! We have four member meal appointments (which is almost a record), a less active lesson, AND our lesson with our investigator, Stef! YES!! The work is growing!!

With much enthusiasm,

Elder Fowkes!

Now I look like a stylish European

It's Great to Be A Missionary!

Familie en Vrienden!

This past week has been a blast! Last Monday we had a Zone p-day Halloween Feest! It was a blast! We went to Turnhout for it! I feel like I have spent a lot of time on openbaarvervoer the past week. I mean, a LOT of time. That's what happens when we have such a HUGE area. Fortunately, I will be getting a bike for free today from a member which will make traveling makelijker! It's definitely starting to get colder here! Yesterday it was way cloudy and raining and was ongeveer 7 degrees Celcius! So here are a few of the major events of the past week:

We've been working a little bit with an inactive familie, a mother and her two teenage children. We had a lesson with them combined with the Sisters at a members home. After the lesson, we gave each of them a blessing. I gave the blessing to the mother. It was my first blessing ever! And it was in Dutch! I was super nervous but as I started speaking I felt the Spirit really strong and words just kind of came to me. It was a super celestial experience!

On Saturday, Elder Wayman and I were looking up a few potential investigators from previous weeks in the last hour of the night. We stopped by the home of a guy named Ali. He's from Iran (I don't remember if I've talked about him before). Elder Gomez and I had given him the first lesson but he said he would call us after he read het Boek van Mormon. However, when we stopped by he was way nice and we set up an appointment for this Zaterdag! And that's not even the best part! He also said he was interested in seeing the church, so we will be giving him tour of it and he might come to the services on Zondag! And the even bestest part is that he will have a friend in town and he wants to bring him along!! It's so geweldig!!

Well, I will leave you with the wise words of a member that we met with last night:

Keep laughing. It's the best thing you can do. :)

Elder Fowkes

Me eating FuFu (an African dish)

look up video on YouTube

A lot of foggy days.

Zone p-day Halloween party!

A Quick Note!

Familie!

 

Mission Conference was super cool last week! The temple is super prachtig! We had to get up way early to make it to our 9:30 session. We got up at 4:30, denk ik. It took us three trains, a tram, and half an hour of walking to get there! And natuurlijk the session was in Nederlands, which made it a bit moeilijk, but enjoyable nonetheless! And I only remember them taking one group picture at the conference. Unfortunately one of our investigators dropped us. On the plus side though, we were able to get back in contact with Raphael, our investigator from a month ago whom we lost contact with. We now have an afspraak with hem this week! And of course I've had Belgium chocolade! And yes, it is super lekker!! I think my language is improving, I'm certainly understanding a lot more! I just need to keep working at expanding my vocabulary. And talking to strangers really isn't that hard. Well I'm in a huge rush, sorry! Have a fantastic week!

 

Elder Fowkes

Temple Zone Conference

The work is moving quickly!

Hallo Familie!

The transfer went really well! Although we were up at 4:00 and were at the Antwerpen station until 16:00. It was a very long day. But my new companion is great! His name is Elder Wayman, from Minersville, Utah. He's 21 and this is his last transfer of his mission. We're still in Wilrijk. Last Thursday and Friday were extremely long and tiring. Elder Wayman didn't have a Buzzypazz yet so we did a lot of walking. A LOT of walking. We als found that it takes about an hour and 15 minutes to walk from Wilrijk to the Antwerpen station. We also gained a new investigator! His name is Stef! Elder Gomez and I first met him on a tram. He was super drunk and just started talking to us. A few days later we saw him while we were waiting at a tram halte and started talking to him. We asked him if he remembered us and he had no memory what so ever of our previous conversation. We gave him our card and told him a little bit about our church. A few days later we saw him on the tram again! That time we talked to him more about the Boek van Mormon and exchanged contact information. About a week after that we called him and set up an appointment! When Elder Wayman and I went over he was super interested in the Boek van Mormon. He even did a little bit of research online about our church and what we do as missionaries. He was super open to our lesson of the Restoration and when we committed him to baptism he said that if he knows it's true then he will! He said he would come to church. Helaas he didn't come yesterday but I feel confident about him! Our other investigator, Dirk, is doing really well! He's taking the lessons excellently and has been coming to chuch each Sunday! He will definitely be ready for baptism on 7 December! The work is moving quickly! 't is geweldig!!

Elder Wayman and I actually had to give the les in Priesterschap yesterday. Well, mostly Elder Wayman, haha. And yes, Elder Gomez is now my Zone Leader! It's kind of strange, because I still see him very often since we are still in the same district. It's fun though! Well, that's it for this week! I love you all!

Tot volgende maandag!

Elder Fowkes

My new companion, Elder Wayman

Oct 14, 2013 Update...

Goede dag!

 

The work has been going absolutely fantastic! The man I told you about who says he knows he needs to be baptized is Dirk Rosseeuw. His wife has been a member for two years. We had two lessons with him last week. Week committed him to be baptized on 7 December and he accepted! We will be teaching him twice a week until then! It's so wonderful! So yes, I am most certainly doing great, and am indeed LOVING my mission! It's cooling down here too. Actually, it's really cold. I mean... it's REALLY cold. And it rains. A lot. When we stayed at the Zone Leaders' apartment this past weekend it was super cold. They haven't figured out how to work their heater yet. I slept in my thermal garments, my pajama pants, and a long-sleeved shirt, and I was still really cold! It's great though, I love it! I do always travel to the church to email, because it's the only place where we can you free computers. For going to church, we get a ride from the Zone Leaders because we always stay the night at their place on Saturdays. Living on my own is going well. It's pretty easy actually with mission circumstances. Most things are taken care of for us. We just have to buy and cook our own food. And we usually have dinner appointments, so we don't even cook that much. As for pictures, you can send me anything! It doesn't matter. This week is transfers! I will be getting a new companion. Elder Gomez will become a Zone Leader here in Antwerpen. My new companion will be Elder Wayman, I haven't met him yet. The transfers happen this Wednesday. Elder Wayman will be ending his mission with me, so I'll be getting another new companion next transfer as well. I'll let you know more about him next week. As for now, my time is up. I love you all!

 

Fijne week verder!

Elder Fowkes

Pictures from Antwerpen...

Familie!

This past week has been glorious! Last p-day we went with the other Antwerpen missionaries on a self tour of downtown Antwerpen (as you could proabably tell from the photos). The architecture here is stunning! We had many member dinner appointments which was good. On Friday, we went to an African family's house and had a fufu party! Fufu is one of the strangest things I have ever eaten! But, surprisingly it is pretty good! I'd attach a picture of it, but I left my cord at home. Basically, it kind of looks like soggy dough. You tear little pieces off with your fingers, then dip it into a meat-type-stew-or-soup, and then put in your mouth and swallow. You don't chew it at all. You just swallow the piece of fufu whole. It's quite a strange experience! It's also all eaten without any utensils. All with your hands. To eat the meat soup stuff you just have to kind of cup your fingers. It's actually really fun! For conference, we have a very strange schelude. We watch the Saturday Morning session as a live broadcast at 6:00 Saturday evening. We watch a recording of the Priesthood Session at 11:00 Sunday morning. We then watch a recording of the Saturday Afternoon session at 2:00 Sunday afternoon. We ended our Sunday by watching the Sunday Morning session live at 6:00 in the evening. We have to watch the final Sunday Afternoon session on our own time on p-day (which we still have to do). Today for p-day, we got together with many other missionaries from our zone. There were 18 of us all together. We all got Nerf guns (I bought one with my birthday money) and played Zombies in the church building for about three hours! It was a blast! Apparently, it's a common thing to do in this mission.

This past week has also many spirtiual experiences! On Thursday, we were taking a bus out to member's home for a dinner appoinment. When we were on the bus, I man tapped me on the shoulder and said, "You'll have to excuse me, but I haven't seen a Mormon in nine years." He wasn't a member, be he had some extended family that was. We had a very long conversation with him. He's an amazing guy. It felt like were on the bus talking to him for at least 30 minutes. He happened to live in the town that we were going to. We had no idea what stop we needed to get off of. He helped us out and actually walked us to the member's home. He knows a lot about our church and Christianity in general, but he himself isn't relgious. Nonetheless, he is a wonderful man with a family and high standards. It was such a miracle that we met him because we never take that bus that direction and it was also the first time in three months that he left his house (since he's a writer). When he let us into his house (so he could look up where it was we needed to go) he said, "I'm only letting you in because I know you're Mormons..." Hopefully we had a positive influence on him and he becomes interested later on in the future.

One more really cool experience was when we were on another really obscure bus heading to a far out city to look up an inactive member. When we were sitting on the bus, I lady a few seats in front of us kept looking back at us. She probably did this five or so time before I finally said hello. We started talking with her and found out that she herself is an inactive member. She was baptized in the Netherlands and over time became inactive. She later moved to Belgium and nobody knew where she was. She said that she still held to the faith though! While we were talking she said that when she saw us get on the bus, she immediately felt the Spirit! SO COOL!! She kept saying, "Ik had om iets te zeggen! Ik had om iets te zeggen!" Meaning, "I had to say something!" It was so amazing! We gave her our information, and she said she'll call us when she's ready!

Oh, during the week we also met a member from Oregon who was on vacation, gained a new investigator who knows he needs to be baptized, found 13 potential investigators, and contacted well over 120 people! The work is moving forward with full force! With the backing of the legions of Heaven and the Holy Ghost as our silver bullet, we will bring the knowledge of God's restored church to all the world, especially those in Antwerpen, Belgium!

Love,

Elder Fowkes

The first three pictures are in the Netherlands

 28 New Missionaries

 My first windmill

 One of many train stations (Netherlands)

Antwerpen Central Train Station

 A view out my apartment

Yes, cobblestone roads

 Zone conference (Mission President back right)

Elder Losee and Elder Fowkes

 Lunch at Pizza Hut

Stunning architecture

 What can I say? Here I am.

Cathedral of our Lady, Antwerp, Belgium

 

 The Grote Markt (Great Market Square)

 The Antwerp Town Hall (Stadhuis)

 All forms of transportation

 Antwerpen Central Train Station

Trae's doing great, but still no pictures

Hallo Familie!

 

Thank you for the talks and the birthday wishes! I train for 12 weeks (two transfers), so I have 7 weeks left I believe. Transfers are every six weeks. Our next transfer will be on 16 Oktober. The language is slowly getting better! It's getting easier to understand people which is good! I still have a lot to learn though!

 

So my companion is pretty awesome! He loves basketball, which throws everyone off because he's really short. His parents are from Mexico, but he was born in Texas. He lived in a small town called Big Lake which had a branch of 25 people. He grew up speaking Spanish, learned English in school, learned Dutch for the mission, and in his last area he was called to learn Portugese as well. So now he speaks four languages. It's interesting when we go contacting and we run into someone who only speaks Spanish or Portugese. Elder Gomez just starts talking to them and I just stand there and have no idea of what's going on! haha  He is also the district leader and is really good at it! He will turn 21 on 16 Oktober! I hope that's enough!

 

Last week we had Zone Conference! It was our zone (the Antwerpen zone) combined with Eindhoven zone. So I was able to see and talk to Elder Losee! He's doing well! We heard from the President and his wife and from the Antwerepen Stake President! It was a wonderful conference! We learned about having a total mind shift. Completely changing they way we think to be more centered on truly desiring to help the people come unto Christ. It helped give me a new perspective on how to go about the work.

 

Guess what else happened last week?

We got our FIRST INVESTIGATOR!!!!! His name is Raphaël and he's 18! He plays the guitar and is studying computer programming! He's super cool! He was raised Hindu, but has attended a Catholic school. We gave him the first lesson about the Restoration. I invited him to baptism! He said he had to think about it because he still had strong Hindu influences. BUT, he invited us back!

 

Well, it's time to head out. Tot volgende week!

Elder Fowkes

Sorry for the late post from Belgium

Hallo Familie!

 

This past week has been fantastic!! Last Tuesday, I went on exchanges with Elder Cooper in Sint Niklaas. It was a blast! We rode bikes around the beautiful city and contacted people. Towards the end of the day it was raining quite a bit, and we were soaked! It was a great experience! The last half of the week we had several dinner appointments with members. The food has still been lekker (delicious)! And I've eaten a ton! The worst thing I've eaten so far is just some mushrooms that were in a gravy type sauce. One interesting thing about here, is that all the cups everywhere are way small! People here  just don't drink as much as Americans. The biggest cup I've seen so far is about the size of the small glasses that we have at home. It's slightly frustrating just because I finish the drink so quickly and then have to refill it again. All the other missionaries have the same problem, haha. Every Saturday night, Elder Gomez and I stay the night at the Zone Leaders' (Elder Armstrong and Elder Thueson) apartment. We have tons of fun! This past time we had a wrestling match type of thing! 

 

 We're on the sixth floor, which is actually on the roof. We have to take the elevator to the fifth floor and then walk up two flights of stairs. This past week they were doing maintenance on the elevator so we had to take the stairs up the whole building. It was quite exhausting, especially when we were carrying bags of groceries. But it was an adventure! And that is the church building that I go to!

 

We still don't have any onderzoekers but we have a lot of potentials! One man, Raphael, is actually pretty cool! We contacted him op straat and gave him a Boek van Mormon. We got his contact information and have been texting him over the weekend. We now have an appointment with him tomorrow!! Here's last weeks miracle:

 

Elder Gomez and I contacted a Russian woman, Victoria, in the Wilrijk centrum. She didn't speak much Dutch, but she was interested in het Boek van Mormon. We got her information and told her we would get a hold of a Russian copy and give it to her. On Sunday, when going home from church we were waiting at a bus stop, and we decided to walk home instead of waiting for the bus. As we were walking we passed another bus stop and guess who we saw? Victoria! We gave her the book and she was super happy and said we could call her later. Her bus came just after that. If we hadn't walked home instead, we would have never found her! And if we had walked any slower we would have missed her. I have no doubt that we each received a spiritual prompting to walk, even though we may not have realized it at the moment. So long as we are righteous and obedient the Lord will use us to fulfill His will. I know that to be true. I love the work and I love my calling! :)

 

Elder Fowkes

2nd Week Info...

Hallo Familie!

I love Antwerpen! It's such an amazing place! There are so many cool people too! It's also a massive city! Right now my companion and I just walk and take public transportation everywhere. I'm planning on getting a bike in the next week or so. The Zone Leaders (who also work here in Antwerpen) have a car and sometimes give us rides. Unfortunately, most of our appointments fell through. We do have one tomorrow though which is looking pretty good right now! We have almost given out a Boek van Mormon a day! However, we still don't have any onderzoekers (investigators). But we're working hard and we will find them!! Elder Losee and I are not in the same zone. But he's not to far. I believe he is serving somewhere in southern Nederland. Unfortunately my companion has not found his bag. He's been positive about though, which is great!

The weather here isn't too bad. My first few days here it was actually way warm, and we wore short sleeve shirts. But, the seasons change very quickly here, and it has pretty much been cloudy and rainy for the past week and will continue to be so for the next several months, haha. The temperature has been around 16 degrees Celcius (I'm not sure what that is in Farenheit).

The Antwerpen wijk (ward) is fantastic! There are about 130ish active members who are all amazing! We have a lot of work to do though, because there are like 300 inactive members here in Antwerpen. I love the food here! I have yet to eat anything disgusting. Everything I've thus far eaten has been delicious! There are a few strange things they do though. For example, the milk comes in like 1 liter bottles that have a very long shelf life when NOT refrigerated. When refrigerated, the milk spoils faster. Because of whatever it is that they put in it, it tastes a bit different. Okay, actually, it tastes a lot different, not like American milk at all. Most elders don't like. In fact, I'm the only person I know of who doesn't mind it! I drink glasses of it just like normal milk! Most elders hate it and can only stand it when it is used in something else.

For finding, we pretty much do everything! Since we have no onderzoekers we do a variety of contacting. Op straat (on the street), langs de deuren (along doors), and member referrals. My Nederlands (Dutch) is slowly improving! I can do the initial contact for people, but then my companion has to help me out. Members are easier to understand, so I can talk with them a little more. There are a lot of people here speak English! Actually, yesterday, our entire priesthood meeting was in English!

This past weeks miracle:

My companion and I were heading home from a dinner appointment with a member. It was pretty late, but we set a quick goal to try to find someone and place a Boek van Mormon. We got of the tram and walked over to the bus stop. We had just missed the previous bus, and since it was late, the next one wouldn't arrive for another 15ish minutes. We decided to just walk home and talk to people along the way. As we were walking down the street, it was pretty dark, houses were locked up, and there was no one on the street. After a few blocks we saw an African couple walking. We contacted them, and the next thing we knew they each wanted a Boek van Mormon and we got their contact information and set up a return appointment!! Hopefully it'll work out! They were way nice and accepting!

That's all for today!

Tot ziens! :)

Elder Fowkes

One Week In The Field...

Well the past week has been pretty insane! The plane flight went really well, but it was extremely long! When we arrived in Amsterdam, we immediately picked up our luggage and met our Mission President and his wife. Even though I was only in the airport for a few minutes, it didn't take me long to decide that nearly every American airport was lame. It was such a cool airport! When we walked outside I immediately noticed that about a good 80 percent of the people were smoking. We put all of our luggage in a big van and then we all took the train to Leiden where the mission office is. We went to a nice hotel across the street from the office. We had some orientation stuff and then we ate lunch (by the way the food here is amazing!). Following lunch we split into groups to practice contacting. It was incredibly terrifying at first. But the more I did it.... okay, actually it was still kind of scary, but it did get a bit easier. A little later I had the opportunity to go contacting again! Since it was my second time, I helped the others who were just learning. I went with Elder Losee and Elder Lindstrom. We (and by that I mean me...haha) talked to quite a few people. There was one guy that I had a particularly long conversation with. I was so excited that I could actually talk to people and understand what they were saying! After that, I became really excited to contact more people! We then went back to the hotel and got a three hour nap in. We had a really fancy dinner followed by an extravagant dessert. It was one of those four or five start restaurants that gives you a big plate with the entire meal in a tiny pile in the middle with some fancy garnishes. It was really good though! After dinner we all bore our testimonies and then opened our letters that told us our first area. I'm serving in Antwerp, Belgium!!!!!!!!! My trainer is Elder Gomez! He speaks English, Dutch, Spanish, and Portugese! It comes in handy! He is also the District Leader. I love him! We are actually opening our area! Which means we are starting from scratch! On Wednesday, we had some more orientation and took care of legality stuff. Which took forever! And I ended up missing lunch because of it. We then took a train to Antwerp. Somewhere along the way Elder Gomez lost his duffel bag which had all of his books, notes, and journals. The Zone Leaders gave us a ride to our apartment which is actually pretty nice. We have some great views! We live in Wilrijk, which is just south of Antwerp. By the time we got to the apartment it was like 20:00 (8:00pm) and we were starving. Unfortunately, since were the first missionaries in the apartment, there was absolutely no food! And neither of us knew the city, so we had no idea where a store was at. We ended up skipping dinner and just unpacked, planned, and went to bed. The next morning, we still had no food so we skipped breakfast. By the time we ate lunch that day, I had gone 28 hours without an actual meal! I was starving! Haha. The people here in Antwerp are amazing. It's so hard to understand them though, because here everyone speaks very strong Flemish. I'm so used to Dutch, that it's very difficult to communicate with people. But I know I'll get it! We don't have any investigators yet, but we made our first return appointment last Friday with Pieter, I guy I contacted on the street! We also made another return appointment with Jamila, an Islamic woman! This week we have a ton of dinner appointments with members! I'm so excited! The work is amazing and I love all of you! As soon as I figure out where a post office is, I'll send an SD card with pictures!

Tot ziens!

Love, Elder Fowkes! :)

P.S. If you have faith, miracles happen. In fact I just saw one like 20 minutes ago. My companion and I were walking to McDonalds to get some lunch. It was like 2:00 and we just finished playing a game of soccer, so we were starving! The church is about a block away and as we were walking past it on the way to McDonalds we somehow decided to finish emailing first and postpone lunch for an hour (honestly, I thought it was crazy because I was starving, but I agreed nonetheless). When we walked into the church, we found an inactive member inside. She has been going through some rough times and decided to go to the church in the hopes of feeling some comfort and peace. She then asked for a priesthood blessing! It was so perfect! And now we have an appointment with her this Friday! God truly does look out for and bless His children. We all happened to be at the Church at just the right time! Normally we never would have been there at that time! She really needed that blessing and since we are new missionaries and are opening the area, we need appointments! It was perfect! :) Well, that's all, but now I really am going to eat! haha Tot ziens! :)

Elder Fowkes Has Arrived in the Netherlands

Looking pretty good after a very long day of travel.

Group of 28 Elders, Elder Fowkes on right by Mission Presidents wife.

Elder Losee first row left side

First meal in the Netherlands

 Listening intently to their training.

(Elder Losee, Elder Fowkes front row left side)

Very excited to be in the Belgium/Netherlands Mission!

Elder Fowkes opening and reading where his first

place of service will be and who his trainer will be.

(Antwerp Belgium)

Elder Fowkes with trainer Elder Gomez

My District With Brother Vai Sikahema

Brother Vai Sikahema was the devotional speaker

on Sunday August 18, 2013

Just in...Update!

Hallo Familie!

     I'm sorry I didn't send an email off last week. Last p-day was crazy busy!
The temple re-opened, and we were in a scramble to get everything done so that we could do a session and still make it to choir practice. I absolutely love the new endowment video! You all know that I'm a sucker for high definition movies. Haha The Provo Temple is SO beautiful! Elder Richard G. Scott was the speaker at the Tuesday Night Devotional last week. It was so good! I love listening to the prophets of God! This last Sunday Night Devotional was by Brother Vai Sikahema (I don't know if you know who that is or not). He played football at BYU in the 80s with my companions dad. He actually mentioned my companion in his talk. He had a powerful message. He helped us understand that we need to seize every opportunity we can to tell/teach others about the church. That goes for regular members too (that means you guys, haha). I found out that Brother Sikahema was pretty much like an uncle to my companion, so after he spoke we went to a back room to talk with him. There's a picture of us with him on the camera I'm sending back to you. It's crazy to think that Elder Leavitt and Elder Austin have already left the MTC! I feel like they just got here! I know that they are going to be wonderful missionaries, though! Elder Bosco and I are getting better at teaching with each other. Our most recent lesson yesterday went fantastically well! It's so cool that after just a month we can meet with an "investigator," talk with them, answer their questions, and give them a full 15 to 20 minute lesson. Completely in Dutch!! And without reading anything! Recently I have completely memorized our purpose, the first vision, Moses 1:39, and Moroni 10: 3-5 all in Dutch! The Lord truly does bless us with the gift of tongues if we are righteous and obedient. I forgot to mention that it also helps that Elder Richard G. Scott gave all the foreign missionaries at the MTC an apostolic blessing of the gift of tongues...TWICE. It was so powerful. Tomorrow our entire district has been requested to be hosts for the new missionaries. That'll be fun! And sometime this week we are supposed to receive our travel plans!!! I can't wait! I want to go to the Netherlands so bad! Thanks to everyone who has supported me and sent me letters!! Send me more! Haha I love to see what's happening in everyone's lives and in the world! Aunt Niecia, I don't know if I can really help teach you Dutch, but here's my testimony for all to enjoy!

Ik wil mijn getuigenis met Jullie delen. Ik weet dat God is onze Hemelse Vader. Wij zijn zijn kinderen. Hij houdt van ons. Gods zoon, Jezus Christus, voor ons is gestorven. Ik weet dat door Joseph Smith, God hersteld zijn waar kerk op de aarde. Ik weet dat het Boek van Mormon is het woordt van God, en als wij het lezen, kunnen wij openbaren door de Heilge Geest krijgen. Ik weet dat Thomas S. Monson is een waar profeet van God, en dat hij zijn kerk in dit tijd leidt. Ik zeg deze dingen in de naam van Jezus Christus. Amen.

Ik houd van Jullie! Tot ziens!

Elder Fowkes! :)

I LOVE YOU ALL!! :)

Non-Stop Studying!

Elder Losee really getting into the scriptures!

Friends and Elders Spanning the Globe..

The Four Musketeers!

Elder Austin, Elder Leavitt, Elder Fowkes, Elder Whitehead

Another Familiar Face!

Elder Trae Fowkes and Elder Chris Austin

A Familiar Face!

Elder Whitehead and I! This was his first day here!

He's staying on the floor above me.

My Companion

Mijn collega, Elder Bosco, en Ik!

Elder Losee in mirror!

Some Details...

Sorry you haven't received much from me yet. I have just been super busy. Tuesdays are my p-days, so that's why it took a while for you to get my first reply. I know I can write during the week but it is very difficult to find time. I'm constantly learning and studying. Any spare time I have I usually use to practice my Dutch. Ok, so now for some details. My companion, Elder Bosco, is Robbie Bosco's son. He gets that a lot. In my district are Elder Besendorfer (our District Leader) and Elder Womeldorf, Elder Losee and Elder Bean, Elder Sudweeks and Elder Elkins, and Elder Peterson and Elder Lindstrom. Everyone is 18 except for Elder Lindstrom who is 19. Elder Lindstrom is cool because he has all of the same interests as me! Our entire district is the best best. We have so much fun and have bonded very well. Elder Losee and I see each other more here at the MTC than we did at home. Except for the eight hours when we are asleep we pretty much see each other every second of everyday. In fact, he's sitting next to me right now. Our teachers are Brother Van de Graf, Brother Klippel, and Brother Wells. They are all amazing. It's crazy how much Dutch we have already learned. I've probably learned more Dutch in two weeks, then I learned German in three years. I can say complete prayers in Dutch, bear my testimony in Dutch, and teach quite a bit of the first couple of lessons in Dutch. Recently I've learned a very important lesson: strict obedience. My first week and a half here I was always way tired in classes and struggled to stay awake throughout the day. This was due to the fact that I would get to bed a few minutes late with the rest of the room. After learning and reading about obedience I decided to try something. On Saturday night I prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help give me strength and energy to make it through the day so long as I was obedient to the sleeping schedule. I went to bed about ten minutes early and the following day I wasn't the least bit tired. Even without two meals, I was able to stay awake and focus with ease through over six hours of studying, two hours of mission conference, one hour of sacrament meeting, a half hour temple walk, an hour devotional, and another hour talk/video thing. I strongly believe and know that what they have told us is true: obedience brings blessings, but strict obedience brings miracles. I have applied this to the days following, and I have continued to go about my days without being weary. It's crazy to think that I've already been here for two weeks! I had a friend from school come in on the same day as me, and he left yesterday. It's so strange. I'm already one of the experienced Elders here at the MTC. Well, that's all for now! Tot ziens!

                                                        ~Elder Fowkes

First real letter