Week 24: There is Sunshine in Liege Today, So Glorious and Bright!

I feel bad for all the people that still have snow at their houses, because it is spring here and the weather is beautiful. We changed our clocks forward Saturday night, it was a bit of a brutal adjustment, but it is light outside until 8 now, so can't really complain.

Family Home Evening last weekend turned out interesting, Ewoma the girl in charge of FHE called us an hour and a half before it started and asked if we could do the game and the lesson because she was sick. Of course we said yes, we tried calling the Zone Leaders but they were going to a member's house for FHE. So, we ended up doing the Lesson, the game, and refreshments. Our numbers were small, Manu, Jacqueline and Maurice showed up, and Beauty came after we had finished everything. We decided to give the lesson on gratitude and used President Monson's talk from the last conference, it was short but I felt alright about it. We all shared the things that we were thankful for.  I love hearing what other people are grateful for; it helps me remember even more things I am grateful to have. We played charades for the game, and ate our cookies. We had so many left over, we made chocolate chip cookies and chocolate chocolate chip cookies so our resolve not to eat sugar this week was killed before it even began.

We had a really good lesson with Christiane on Tuesday, we've been reading the book of Mormon with her almost every night for the past three weeks, so we wanted to see if she had seen a change in her life and if, with the change she wanted to try to stop smoking again. When we asked her if she thought reading the Book of Mormon together was helping her she said, no not really. She doesn't have the motivation to do anything and she reads the Book of Mormon because she knows she is supposed to and because we call her, not because she wants to. She went on to explain her problems and how she was feeling. She said she has questions she is looking for the answer to but doesn't know where to look. I shared with her the card experiment that we learned about in training, to write a question down on a card and then got to church looking for the answer with a sincere heart. I testified that Heavenly Father loved her, and that He was waiting to answer her as soon as she turned to Him. The Spirit was really strong and we asked her how she was feeling. She said, "I am feeling more appeased than I was." I think that is good, or at least a start. We had another lesson with her Saturday night, she was pretty sick. She was kind enough to make us dinner that we didn't want but ate anyway. Sausage cooked in a lake of butter, mine wasn't cooked all the way, mushrooms which were actually pretty good, bottled peas and carrots, and mashed potatoes from a mix. Christiane is so nice and well intentioned, but her cooking is something else. She was feeling well enough to sing us several songs in Wallonese. Liège and the surrounding areas have an old dialect called Wallonese and there is a lot of cool culture and history about the Wallone people. It sounds a bit like French but its spelling is apparently crazy, and it is hard to read. I am searching for books about Wallone, because I think it is very interesting. Christiane didn't come to church but we are going to see her this week and commit her to come to hopefully all three sessions of General conference that are broadcast in French.  

Wednesday was a bus stop disaster of my own making. I was in charge of the Map Book, which means I get to figure out where we go in what order and how we get there. This includes when we get off the bus. We started the day by going to Ougrée to follow up with Josephine, and finish the pass bys. Alphonsine called and said she wasn't going to be there but come by next week, we ended up dropping a note in her mailbox with the time and address of the church, she didn't come, but we are going to try to see her again this week. Anyway, We are riding the 25 to get to Ougrée and we are talking and enjoying the lovely day, and a miss the bus stop we are supposed to get off at. We get off three or four stops later, and we have to walk a bit of a ways to get to where we wanted to be. No one ended up being home and Josephine said that she was in the middle of something so come back another time. We went home had an early dinner and got on the bus to Jupille to find 2 young single adults that live out there. The bus to Jupille only comes once or twice an hour, and Jupille is much more countryside-like, meaning fewer bus stops and more space in between. We were riding along quite nicely until I realized that yet again I had missed our stop, this time by only 2 but the distance was significant. Luckily it was a beautiful evening. We started walking back along the side of the road, there weren't really sidewalks and the ground was uneven. Soeur Williams ankle started hurting about the time we reached the next bus stop. We still had a long ways to go until we got to the street and the house number was 7 hundred and something, and we weren't sure which end of the road the numbers started on. So after discussing our options we decided to head home so that we didn't make Souer William's ankle worse, because she still needs it. It  wasn't the best sort of day as far as work goes, I think it might be a good thing I only have the map book every other day.

Friday we went to Brussels to do Soeur Williams' Belgian legality, we were a little confused as to why I wasn't doing mine too, but it was just her this time. Brussels is only an hour train ride away so we left at 9:48  and met the group from Paris at the Brussels-Midi train station. There were a bunch of missionaries from our MTC group, including 4 of the Elders from my MTC district. It was a happy reunion, it was a lot of fun to see everyone. Soeur Larsen, Soeur William's MTC companion was there too. Belgian legality is lots easier than French Legality, you go to the commune and sign a paper and you are done. We made it back to Liège with enough time that we didn't need to cancel English class, yay!

On the bus back from Church on Sunday an interesting thing happened, we were contacted by a lady instead of us doing the contacting. She was standing next to our seat and looked very intently at our badges.  She then asked if we had a brochure we could give her, to which we said "oui!" She then asked if we were Jehovah's Witnesses, after assuring her that we were not in fact Jehovah's Witnesses and we were Christian, but not Catholic, she seemed okay; and asked if she could gives us her number and we could talk. We said, "oui!!" It was really quite amazing, she seemed like a normal person, and I am excited to talk with her, we gave her a pamphlet on Joseph Smith, so we shall see how it goes.

Today, we wanted to have a picnic for lunch again, but it was a bit too cold, so we spread a blanket on the floor and ate our very French meal on the floor, we didn't have goblets or juice, so we used grape Crystalight, it was the first and probably the last time I have grape Crystalight, yeach. We went shopping and I bought a very lovely scarf. We draw people at one of the major bus stations, Place St. Lombert, it was so fun. I am glad that Soeur Williams likes drawing too.

I am so excited for General Conference this weekend!!! You all better watch it, and tell me about it! The prophet is going to speak to us so pay attention.

I love you all,

Soeur Gaelin Turney

Week 23: Our Mother Left Us But We're Doin' Okay

Happy First Day of Spring!!!!

Well, Soeur England has gone the way of all the earth and left Soeur Williams and I to fend for ourselves in this charming city. It was transfer week this week and Soeur England hopped on a train at 6:40 a.m. Wednesday morning never to come back again. She successfully finished her mission in one piece, we are going to miss her. I don't know if it was the early morning but our parting was a lot less tearful and dramatic than anticipated. Which was alright by me; lots of hugging and crying on train platforms are better left for the movies. Though the walk back to the apartment was a quiet one, it was a little bit like being dropped off at the first day of school, exciting and terrifying at the same time. But Soeur Williams and I have survived!!  District Meeting on Thursday was really good and we met our new zone leader Elder McQuay, he seems like a very good sort of fellow. I am excited to get to know him better Other than that our district is the same sans Soeur England.

 

Friday was a super busy day and we got a lot of work done, go team! After lunch we took the 25 to a town called Ougrée. Our first two passbys were unsuccessful but the third one, two kids answered and said that their dad wasn't home. It wasn't much but it was a start, we at least know that they still live there; we will stop by this week later in the day and hopefully catch the whole family home. A family to teach is every missionary's dream, I hope they work out. The next place we tried was for a guy named Ano, he wasn't there but a woman named Josephine answered the door, we talked with her and gave her a Book of Mormon, and made an appointment for this Wednesday. A couple of houses down was another woman named Alphonsine who was also home and interested in talking to us. It was very exciting to have to prospect of new amis. Ougrée is very hilly, so we did a lot of hiking but it was definitely worth it.

 

Ougrée is famous for its steelworks. Image via Wikimedia.

Sunday was an adventure. Two weeks ago a member of the branch Presidency gave Soeur England a peice of paper with the assignment to give a 10 minute talk on Sunday, March 20th. She shrugged and said, sorry, I won't be here, and handed me the paper. So, yesterday I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting. The subject was Jesus Christ.  You'd think it would be easy to come up with things to say, but where do you start with a subject like that? I finally decided to talk about who Jesus Christ is to me. He is my Savior and Redeemer; He is my friend and my brother. I know him because I have spent time with him through prayer and reading the scriptures and He has healed my heart and given me hope when I had none. I know that He lives! I think that it turned out pretty well. The start was a little shaky, literally my hands were shaking, but I was able to calm myself down by the end and finished strong. I think it was for the most part comprehensible. Jacqueline also gave a talk, her first one ever, she did wonderfully. I was so proud. Sunday School was really good this week, and I understood what was going on. Usually I am totally lost, but I got it this week! The lesson was on the parable of the sower in Matthew 14. The part I liked best was about the good ground. The seeds, or the word of God that falls onto the good ground takes root and begins to grow. The good ground is those people who understand or "comprend" the word. The teacher said that "com" means to ones self and "prend" is to take. So, the people who are the good ground take the word of God into themselves. I love the scriptures!  It is so cool how reading the scriptures in another language adds a whole new level of understanding. The difference in word choice brings an new way of looking at the stories.

 

This week has been a good one, I am so glad that Soeur Williams and I get to stay together. We have very similar interests. We did transfer planning this week, and one of the rules we made was a mandatory 30 minute drawing session/sitting and thinking or doing nothing session every p-day. We also rearranged the apartment so the table is next to the windows so we can look at the view while we are eating. On Thursday we turned the lights off and ate dinner in the dark so we could see out the windows better. She is just as crazy as I am, or at least is willing to put up with my eccentricities. We had a picnic in the park across the street from our apartment for lunch today, baguettes and cheese, apples and yogurt. We felt so European. It was a pretty calm uneventful p-day, we did make cookies for FHE and found an art supply store. I think I know where my new favorite place is, I love art stores so much, I bought some brown pens and a couple colored pencils.  I think art supplies are one of the few things I impulse buy. Good thing there aren't too many around. 

 

I feel so lucky and so blessed to be here in Liège, yesterday was my 5 month mark, it is strange to think that I am almost a third of the way done, I have only just started! It is motivation to make every moment count, and I think that Soeur Williams and I are going to do that. This transfer is going to be legendary!!!

 

All my love,

 

Soeur Gaelin Turney

Week 22: Liege, Still the Place I Call Home

Bonjour *kiss*

 

So, the transfer email is out, Soeur Williams and I are both staying in Liege together. Which means I am going co-companion in my third transfer, whooooo. It doesn't really mean anything other than I no longer have a companion who knows what's going on any more than I do, as she has been in the mission as long as I have. Soeur England is getting ready to go home, it has been one very long goodbye starting about last Wednesday. I am gonna miss her, but her time has come.

 

Tuesday was Zone Conference in Brussels, we got a ride from the Skousens, it is tricky getting 3 sisters in the back of a European car, and even more difficult to be in there for an hour, but we made it there all right. Soeur Staheli started and she said something interesting. She told us to think about the think that we wanted more than anything else in the world, and then to think about yesterday. She asked us whether what we did yesterday brought us closer or farther away from what we want. It is a good thought provoking question. The choices we made yesterday effect the choices we have before us today and the things we choose today effect what we can do tomorrow. I wish that I could remember that all the time, I think that I would make my life much easier if I did. There is a tradition at the last Zone Conference before a missionary goes home they give their "dying testimony." Souer England gave hers, she said that a mission is a time where you don't have to think about anything else but everyone else. I think that I am going to make that one on my mottoes for my mission. The more you give yourself to the service of others and let yourself be lead by the spirit the more effective and the better the missionary you will be, I just have to figure out how to do it now.

 

Tuesday night we had dinner at Rita's house. It was Mardi Gras and apparently it is a tradition in Belgium at least to have cabbage on Mardi Gras. So we had a pork, and a cooked cabbage and potato dish, it was actually really good. It was made with the big green leafy-ish kind of cabbage. Don't worry we survived carnival without incident though it is supposedly this week that all the college kinds have their drunken initiation thingies. There are a lot of young people wandering around in lab coats that are very dirty and written all over. They also have chain-sash thingys and go in small groups asking people for money so they can buy alcohol. It makes my very sad to see them, and that there are so many of  them around. It is such a stark contrast to the life I am living, and really none of them look happy. As the scriptures say wickedness never was happiness.

 

I got to meet Christiane's kids on Wednesday, she had us over for lunch and it is carnival vacation for school. Ismael and Sabrina are so cute. Christiane sent Ismael to the store for some things for lunch and while he was gone Sabrina asked if we could read in the Book of Mormon like we've been doing over the phone. We are really excited about Sabrina's interest because while Ismael is baptized Sabrina is not. Her father is Muslim and she has been leaning a bit towards that. But she seems excited about reading and she volunteers to say the prayer all the time. We have continued reading the Book of Mormon with Christiane every night over the phone, there truly is a difference in her. I wouldn't say it is dramatic but it is a definite difference. It is a testimony to me of the power of the Book of Mormon. Especially in reading it everyday, I think that is the key to unlocking the power in the Book of Mormon, reading it every day with a sincere desire. We only read a chapter with her, but it makes a difference and a change of heart, even if it is just a little at a time.

 

Maurice is doing really well, he came to Family Home Evening last Monday, and to English class and Samedi Sports. He came to church on Sunday but he went to the other branch I think he had something to do to because he left right after, but he came!!!! We are so excited for him, and the members are being good with him, Beauty in particular. Beauty is one out our recent converts and he and Maurice have a lot in common so they talk a lot, I hope that they will be friends.

 

There have been a lot of lasts for Soeur England, her last district meeting, her last English class, her last Sunday, her last p-day. We've been trying to keep her busy so that she doesn't get too trunky, but we've had a lot of fun too. We went out for pizza on Saturday with the Skousens and Elder Duarte and Elder Weber, it was a lot of fun, and a nice last hurrah. Plus the pizza was amazing! It was a little weird to do weekly planning without Souer England this week, but we managed well enough on our own. She has done a great job getting us ready to be on our own, and I am excited for this new transfer and for all that it will bring. I am glad that transfers happen every 6 weeks, it gives me a way to recommit myself to being the best missionary, it is like having a New Year every month and a half. It is really helpful to have a time that is set to reflect on how I am doing and what I need to do better. That is why we are here on this earth, to progress to change, to evaluate and do better to become what we need to be. I think that is why missions are so life changing, they are a concentrated time where all you think about is how you can do better so you can do the Lords work better.  Wednesday begins my 3rd transfer and Sunday is my 5th month as a missionary. It is strange but that doesn't change the work, I am excited for my new responsibilities and that I have Soeur Williams to work with, we are gonna rock this town with the gospel!

 

I love you all so very much, until next week,

 

Soeur Gaelin Turney

Week 21: This Mission Thing Isn't What I Expected But I Like It

Hello everyone I hope you are ready for yet another installment of the crazy life that is mine as a missionary in Belgium, because it's crazy! Tuesday morning we hopped on a train to Valencienne, a tiny town in northern France, for exchanges.  Soeur Barros and Soeur Didier picked us up in their car. Valencienne is the only sisterville that has a car, their area is huge and they have a lot of tiny towns so the share a car with a set of elders in the next area over. On the way from the train station to their apartment we saw GI Joe. There is a man in Valencienne, known by most of the missionaries as Superman, who walks around in costumes of super heroes. Superman, Batman, and GI Joe are his specialty. He is apparently married and has sometimes been seen in normal clothes. Soeur Barros said we were very lucky to get to see him and that it was his best GI Joe costume yet. All five of us visited a member who lives so far away that she can't really come to church, we read scriptures with her and she fed us cake, she had a charming dog that wouldn't leave me alone of course. But it was good.  Soeur Barros shared a scripture in Alma 38:2-4.  She changed the word son to daughter and put in the woman's name and read it like it was God speaking to her. It was really special. Wednesday we came home, we had about 45 minutes between trains in the city of Lille so we went in search of a bakery because we were in France and Belgian bread is good, but French bread is better. It took us 20 minutes but we finally found one. I bought 2 loaves of 6 grain apricot bread, it was divine, I made french toast for breakfast with it the next day.

Soeurs Williams, Barros, and Turney in Valencienne

We had a meeting with the Branch Mission Leader Wednesday night, we talked about our branch mission plan, I am excited.  I think it is going to be really good. They invited us to stay for dinner, so I got my first taste of African food. Pretty much everything was fried, there was cordon bleu, chicken or beef, fried breaded cheese thingys, frites (french fries), and a string bean bacon onion dish that was also cooked. It was good food, it was just a lot all at once.

Elder Duarte made us Portuguese food for district meeting on Thursday, seafood, rice and Camel Saliva for dessert. The rice was so good, kind of like cioppino with rice in it, I have missed seafood so I was quite happy.  I think every one burned their tongues, because it was really hot.  Soeur Williams was not so excited about the seafood part, she is apparently terrified of fish in any form, even goldfish in little glass bowls. She has never eaten fish in her life because it scares her. She can eat goldfish crackers though, so it is not totally out of control, though I am afraid we gave her a rather hard time of it. Dessert is a little hard to describe, it is literally called camel spit and it looks like camel spit but it is wonderful to eat. It is a pale yellowy color and has the consistency snot, it isn't the sort of thing that wins prizes for presentation. It is made from sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks, I am going to try to get the recipe from Elder Duarte because it was so good.

The lesson in district meeting was on being a consecrated missionary. Elder Christofferson gave a really good talk titled "Reflections on a Consecrated Life" that we talked a lot about. It helped me refocus, and I was excited to go out and work. We had 2 rendez-vous after district meeting, Christiane and Isabelle. We left district meeting with just enough time to get to Christiane's if we caught the 17 bus at the bottom of the hill from the church. Just as we got off the 13, the 17 drove by, we signaled to the bus driver but he just kept on driving, so we were going to be 20 minutes late to Christiane's we decided to call and see if we could move Christiane to later and go see Isabelle sooner, which we did. We had just enough time before the train to Isabelle's that we decided to make cookies because it was Isabelle's birthday. We only had one paper plate, a small Christmas dessert plate that only fit 3 cookies on it. But I figured that since she was blind and lived alone she wouldn't mind the Christmas plate with only three cookies. We just barely caught the train to Visé, and there were quite a few people on the train. The train ride takes about 20 minutes, when we were about 8 minutes from Visé the train stops and the speaker comes on and says there has been an "accidente personne" which I think means someone got hit by the train, and that we couldn't go any further and that we needed to wait in the train and don't try to open the doors. I couldn't really see anything but there were ambulances and police cars and flashing lights. We ended up waiting on the train for about an hour and a half, and then outside the train for another 20 minutes while they brought us a bus to take us to the Visé gare. Because of the accident we didn't have time to go see Isabelle so we had to call her, she was so disappointed and it was her birthday. I felt so bad but after we hung up with her we each ate one of the cookies and that made me feel better. 


The bus ride to Visé and then from Visé to the Liege gare was one of the most exciting and scary of my life. We were packed into the back of the bus, and I only had one of the overhead hand hold loopy things. They are not really that helpful when your bus driver takes hairpin turns at 45 and Soeur England runs into you and you run into the kind old gentleman in the Newsie hat behind you. But we made it out all right in the end with only a couple close to awkward encounters. We managed to get to Christiane's on time and she made us dinner. It is very strange, a lot of times Europeans don't start cooking dinner until you get there so our 90 minute allotment for mangez-vous are taken up by them cooking, which was the case with Christiane. Dinner was interesting, boiled potatoes, canned peas and carrots, canned mushrooms in cream, and sausage cooked in butter, with yogurt for dessert. It tasted alright, but I think I prefer not knowing how things are cooked. Christiane loves to talk so we didn't actually get to the lesson part, and we had to run to catch the bus. At the end of the day we didn't get a lot of missionary work done, but we tried really hard to consecrated missionaries, it just didn't seem to work very well.

Maurice had a really bad week. He is having problems with his parents and school and work. He was really low at the beginning of the week, he called us while we were in Valencienne so we talked to him a bit and did what we could. Then Wednesday we check in to see how he was doing and he asked if we could talk to him about God, which we did. We met him in the park by our house and read parts of D&C 121-123 with him, he said it really helped and gave him the strength to keep going. We talked to the branch president and he said that he could talk to him Friday or Sunday. There was a nationwide transportation strike so he couldn't go on Friday, which means he came to church on Sunday!! It was good, he came for Sunday School and Sacrament meeting, and there were quite a few people who talked with him. After church he talked to President Stumont, when he came out he looked different and he looked a lot better. He said they prayed together and President Stumont gave him some council and that he should come to more Young Adult activities regularly. I am so glad. We were talking with Elder Skousen about it and he said that Maurice has hit the bottom and because of that he is turning to God, I think that he is right and I am so glad. I and so grateful that Maurice trusts us enough that he called us when he felt all alone. This has been a big week for him and I hope it is the turning point that helps him take the step towards baptism. Please pray for him, things are hard for him right now and he needs all the help he can get.

Today we went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of vegetables. All of us were feeling the food we were fed and decided to counter-attack with produce. There is a big old really long set of stairs in downtown Liege, I don't really know what the significance of them are, but we saw them and walked up them and took pictures of them, I don't really know why though. I am glad we did though because the view from the top was awesome. The sun was in the wrong position to get really good pictures but it was amazing to look at. We wandered around the top of the hill and found a little path and a paddock of sheep and goats and an orchard it was so picturesque. 

We also went to Saint-Jacques Cathedrale. It is the most complete cathedral in all of Belgium and has parts dating back to the 1300s of something crazy like that. The pipe organ is blue, which is pretty cool. There was a man there that gave us an impromptu tour, he showed us all kinds of cool things, like the confessional that had hearts carved into the doors, "for confessing your love, bahahaha" and a cool double spiral staircase that twists around each other and doesn't have and supports.  It was pretty cool. I feel so lucky to get to spent time in place like Liege, that I didn't even know existed before 2 months ago. Now I get to have all of these amazing experiences and meet amazing people and learn so much about so many things. I am so very lucky and so very grateful. Thank you for your prays and thoughts and letters. 

Saint-Jacques ceiling via Wikimedia

Saint-Jacques nave via Wikimedia

Love,

Soeur Gaelin Turney

Week 20: Three Little Hot Dogs in a Narrow Alley

Happy Monday everyone!

 

Whew, this week was crazy busy but wonderful. Tuesday we saw  Christiane and talked with her about the Book of Mormon and how it can help us every day and build our testimonies. She was having a much better day and the the spirit was there, we've started calling her at night and reading the Book of Mormon with her, even in the past week there has been a difference in her reading and what she learns. Then we took a train to Visé, it is a cute town. We did some contacting. It was the first time I've actually done it, and it was a good experience. It is weird to stop people though, I don't know if I will ever get used to it. Contacting really isn't that scary as much as it is awkward, but that's missionary work. One of the teachers at the MTC said, "A mission is just one big awkward moment, embrace it."  So that's what I'm gonna do, embrace the awkward. Then we visited a member named Isabelle, she is blind and her husband died about 6 months ago, so we go and read conference talks with her. She is so sweet and is quite lonely I think. We read her Elder Bednar's talk about tender mercies and we sang a couple of hymns with her. I hope it helps, there is only so much we as missionaries can do and I hope that it at least helps a little. Then we hopped on a train back to Liege and went and had dinner with Rita. She got home just before we got there so we had hot dogs, Belgian style. First of all, hot dogs in Belgium come in jars, I don't know what the liquid that they are swimming in is, but with processed meat things I 've learned its better not to think about it. She heated the hot dogs in a pot with sauerkraut and little bits of bacon. This is then placed on a baguette and eaten with the optional mustard, Dijon, of course. It was my first experience eating sauerkraut it was pretty good, plus I really do like hot dogs so I was very pleased with the meal. 

 

Wednesday Soeur Williams had her French legality appointment, so we had to go to Lille to get her papers done. She and I are now legal in France but not yet in Belgium which is the country we happen to be living in, go figure. Lille was fun though, there were two other missionaries who had legality appointments at the same time so we got to talk, while we waited. There is a patisserie called a Brazilian that you can only get in a patisserie close to the gare [translation: station] in Lille. All the other missionaries I have met say that that is the best patisserie in all of France. So, of course we had to go and get one. Personally I wasn't that impressed with them, they were good, but not my favorite. It tasted a little like a donut. When we got back to Liege we had our first DMB (Dirigant de Missionnaire du branch) meeting with our new branch mission leader. He was called on Sunday, Liege 1 (that is the branch that I am in) hasn't had a DMB for about 7 transfers at least, and this is the first one I've ever had. Frère Kapapula is going to be wonderful to work with I can tell already, he shared with us his testimony of missionary work, and that he really likes the sister missionaries, so there you go.

 

On Saturday we went and visited Sidoni and she introduced us to a girl who also happens to be named Sidoni, Sidoni the younger just arrived from Camaroon and is living with the Sidoni the elder. She talked with the missionaries once and has a Book of Mormon but didn't really know anything else. We taught her a bit about the restoration and Joseph Smith, and we will be meeting with her again this next Saturday. She said she was raised and baptised Evangelical but that she is looking for the truth. She was a complete surprise, but we are so excited. She came to church yesterday as well. We had a really good rendez-vous with Maurice Saturday evening. We didn't really plan anything to teach him because we wanted to find out where he was spiritually and what he wanted to get out of meeting with the missionaries. He is our most progressed ami, so we are trying to figure out what is keeping him from getting baptised. He has a lot of things going on in his life and he really wants to serve God, but he is having a hard time putting God first. He wants to make changes to his life but is having a hard time starting, I think. I think we made some good progress and I think we have a better idea of what direction to head in with him at least. He said he would try to come to FHE tonight, so we shall see.

 

Today we discovered a new thing that I think is so far my favorite P-day activity. We decided to go wandering in downtown Liege and found these street-alley ways that are called impasses. They are little narrow streets that are sort of hidden by the surrounding buildings. They are only wide enough for one or maybe two people to walk down at a time, they are dead ends or u-shaped with 2 entrances. They are the kind of streets I always imagines Europe to have, there are doors and little garden areas that are crammed together. They are so cute, if I were going to live in Europe I want to live on an impasse. We also went to the Red Church, also known as the Church of Saint Barthèlemy. It has a baptismal font with 12 oxen around the base, it is for baptising infants and is really small, but still cool. 

 

I love you all,

 

Soeur Gaelin Turney

Gaufres, Etc.