Contacting! And More Contacting!

Hoi!

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Now for the past week! Contacting! And more contacting! The joys of opening a new area, haha. On Tuesday, we got to meet our new district. It´s twice the size of my last district. It consists of the Gouda Elders, Gouda Zusters, Utrecht Elders, Utrecht Zusters, Dordrecht Zusters, and us. Tuesday was also the day we found our first potential investigator! We gave her a BvM and set up an appointment for two days later. On Wednesday, we went on splits with the Zone Leaders. That means that they came to Sliedrecht and we split up and we all went contacting in our area. We were able to find a few more potentials from it. On Thursday we had exchanges with the Gouda Elders. Elder Lyman (the District Leader) came to Sliedrecht with me. We had our first lesson with the lady we found on Tuesday. Her name is Linda Koppelaar and her husband, Johan, was also there. They´re a young couple with two little boys. They´re super cool and already religous. They believed everything we told them, including the fact that the BvM is true. The only thing they didn´t quite understand was why we were the only ones with the authority to baptize. Maar het komt goed! We also had a lesson with a member who´s trying to quit smoking so he can go to the temple. It was a really cool experience for me because while we were talking with him, the impression came to me to tell him that if he smokes one cigarette less each day, then he can quit. All of the other missionaries kept suggesting ideas to help him, while I was just kind of staying quiet. The influence of the Spirit wraught stronger in me as I sat there. The impression was getting more and more powerful that I should tell the member the thought that came to my mind. It literally felt like my entire insides were quaking. Finally I shared with him what I was prompted to say. He really liked the idea. We then made a schedule for him to be completely done with is addiction to smoking by 8 Febuari. That was the first time in my life that I felt the influence of the Spirit so strongly. I learned that as long as we desire to help those we teach and remain open to the promptings of the Spirit, Heavenly Father really will tell us what we need to say. There is no greater feeling than following the Spirit to help with the needs of others. Thursday we went finding,Friday we went finding, and Saturday we went finding. We had a few dinner appointments with members. On Sunday we were determined to make a lot of appointments with members (since it´s also our transfer goal to work with members) and we ended up making six appointments! I´ve only ever beat that once on my mission (and it was for Christmas). This coming week looks very promising! I love you all!

Elder Fowkes

Sliedrecht Area

Familie,

 

First to answer questions. Last trasfer was amazing! It was probably the best transfer I´ve had yet! We were able to get the work moving in Antwerpen and it was super cool to see it progress! I also loved all of the support from everyone. I did bring all of my stuff with me. And yes, we do our emailing at the church.

 

Well, it´s been a really interesting week! Last Tuesday was my last full day in Antwerpen. It was a good day to end on. We had an appointment with a new investigator, Frederick, and we set a baptismal date with him! He´s going to get baptized on 16 February! On Wednesday, we met at Antwerpen Centraal at 10. I had to take a train to Rotterdam where I first met my new companion, Elder Goff. From there we took a train to Dordrecht and then from there we took another train to Sliedrecht. Yeah, we ride trains a lot, haha. The apartment we have is super nice! It´s a new apartment so it´s in pretty good condition. It´s a little bigger than my last apartment. My favorite part is the kitchen. The only bad thing about the apartment is that since it´s new, all of the walls are bare and there´s not much character to it. It´s just kind of dull. But still nice, haha. We attend the Dordrecht ward, but it´s pretty small, almost a branch. So far, from what I´ve seen I really like the area! It´s much smaller than Antwerpen, and the people speak Dutch, but it´s kind of a classic traditional city. We´ve mostly just spent that past few days trying to learn the area. Nothing too exciting really. The ward seems pretty cool, and we actually have a few dinner appointments for this week. Actually, for the appointment tonight, we have to take a waterbus to get there. Anyways, there´s not much else to say. I´m sending home a package today. There will be an SD card in it with a ton of pictures.

 

Tot ziens!

Elder Fowkes

Elder Bean and myself looking a little "007" in our European suits

(just fruit juice in glass)

A more fitted European suit

(I like Euro fashion!)

Transfer Time

Familie!

 

This past week has been great! New years was a blast! We actually spent the night with the Zone Leaders and ate gourmet with them and just chilled most the evening in front of their fireplace. Unfortunately, New Years is pretty lame here in Belgium. I didn't see or hear a single firework. Mostly, the people just go get drunk or something. Elder Bean and I have been doing a lot of work to really get the work in the area moving forward. We had a few lessons. We met with Guido on Thursday and helped clear up many concerns that he had. We didn't have much of a lesson plan. We mostly just focused on Guido and following the Spirit to best help him. We showed him the Restoration DVD and he really felt the Spirit. He's now back on track and I have no doubt that one day he will become baptized! We also met with a man named Willie on Saturday. He's older man, but he's really cool and super intelligent. It's a bit difficult to teach him though because he constantly cuts in with some pointless fact that he knows. Most of our Saturday was actually a bit discouraging. We had five appointments set up (the most that I've ever had) and four of them fell through. It was a long day. On Sunday, this Antwerpen Sisters had a baptism! It was the baptism of Dirk Rousseeuw. You may recall the name from some of my emails in the past. He was at one point our investigator, then he dropped us and a month later he resumed the lessons with the Sisters. It's been super cool to see how he has progressed over the last several months! Also, durning church, we were introduced to a man named Frederick, who is from Suriname and wants to take the missionary lessons and be baptized! We have our first appointment with him this Tuesday! Yesterday, we also had an appointment with a woman named Rehema. It was our second lesson with her. We just review the Restoration with her because she has a problem understanding why the Book of Mormon is important and why we're the only church with authority to baptize. It was an alright lesson, but unless she puts in her part, I'm not sure what will happen. So, all in all, it was a bit of a rough week, but was definitely one of growth and expeience, which is why I consider it great!

 

Okay, now for the big news. Transfers! I'm getting transferred to Siledrecht in the Netherlands! My companion will be Elder Goff. He's in my group, so we will be a co-senior companionship! We will actually be opening the area. Just like I did with my area now. So yeah, I've spent the last four and a half months building up Antwerpen and we finally are getting good investigators and baptismal dates, and now I get to go to an area and start all over again with nothing. It will be another adventure! :) I will certainly miss Antwerpen and the people here. I love Antwerpen a lot and it will be a little hard to go, but the Lord has much more in store fo me! And here is my new mailing address:

 

Elder Trae Steven Fowkes

Sperwerstraat 2

3362 EM Sliedrecht

Nederland

Dag,

Elder Fowkes

December Zone Conference (three zones)

Zone Conference Christmas meal

Het Steen (the stone) a castle in Antwerpen.