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! :)
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