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