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