Christmas in Belgium

Fijne feestdagen iedereen!  Kerst, en nu het is tijd voor de niewe jaar!

[Happy Holidays, everyone!  Christmas, and now it's time for the new year! ]

 

Well, Christmas is over and the new year is coming.  I have to say though, it doesn't seem like Christmas even happened.  It's not quite the same as a missionary.  It's still very good don't get me wrong, just not the same without family.  Plus, out on the mission Christmas is a work day just like every other day.  Christmas morning we got up and opened presents. I was super pumped about every last thing you guys sent, but I really enjoyed the cereal (one of the only foods I miss from the states), U of U drum and feather slippers, and letters from my friends out on missions, and your letters of course.  Tell Grandma (Sister) Yeoman I really enjoyed her poems she sent, especially the masters touch one.  I loved all the other letters and cards I've recieved as well.  Thanks everyone!  After that we ended up baking, or mostly Elder Cockbain baked I guess.  It was a South African tart/custard thing that was super good.  We took those and a couple of cards around to some members that live in Leuven during the late morning/early afternoon.  After that, we hopped on a bus and rode out like an hour to the family we spent Christmas dinner with, the Dexx... Dekx... yeah I don't know how to spell it but I know how to say it, so that's the most important part.  The first thing they did when we got in the door was ask if we wanted to skype then because dinner wasn't quite ready. They didn't have ask me twice, I was pretty excited.   Even though President Hank's setting apart blessing is holding through in that I'm not homesick, I was still super excited to see my family.  It was super cool, and such a blessing. I will say though I'm glad we skyped when we did, because even just a little later I would have been a liar.  During skype I told you a couple of things. One that it wouldn't snow, two that the brewery doesn't stink, and three that I wasn't sick.  Well within the next couple hours to couple days, all three happened.  First, actually I was sick when I skyped but more on that later, then the brewery stank and has been stinking the last couple days, then in snowed... so reverse order.

 

Elder Lott poses for a picture during his Christmas call

As my family knows, Elder Denny has been pretty sick this whole week.  He's still doing pretty badly, even though by now I've made a full recovery.  Cool experience though with my sickness:  Elder Cockbain is going home in a little over a week, which is a sad day because he's been one of my favorite companions so far, him and Elder Chantry.  He's been wanting to go hard this last part of the mission, and I've really wanted to be able to help him do that.  So we've been sticking Elder Denny at Bishop's house with Bishop so he can recover better while we go out.  But then I've still been sick.  Normally sickness isn't something to really stop me, but I'd been feeling really pretty bad, not sure the last time I was that sick.  But though the power of prayer, I was able to get through the week and work.  Also through the power of prayer, I was able to have an enjoyable time and feel pretty good while we were at members houses and skyping during this past week.

 

Power of Prayer

This week was one of tons of potential as far as setting some baptisimal dates.  The bad news is that a lot of our appointments got dropped, and we still don't have anyone on date.  But the good news is that we didn't lose anyone, so that same potential still remains for this week!  Also, that miracle of a referal from an investagator is turning out to be golden!  We've met with her three times already, and we just met her a week ago!  She's a really cool lady.  She is from Iran, and is Muslim but is looking to convert to christianity and is just looking for which church to join.  She is accepting a lot right away, and is very willing to seek confirmation for the things we teach and also for the Book of Mormon through prayer.  She has even still investigating after having a super deep doctrinal discussion with some members we brought her to on Christmas Eve.  (In his defense, she was pretty much directly asking questions and he did a good job of directly awnsering them. But we were freaked out for a couple days how she would take it until she came to church on Sunday!)  It just gives me a greater testimony of the Holy Ghost, and it's power to testify truth to the honest seeker.

 

Good week. Hopefully better to come.

 

Love you guys!

 

Elder Hayden L. Lott

 

ps sorry no pictures this week, the library computer is about to kick me off, some week you'll get a stack.