In the field #7

Bonjour mes amis! Well all is well here in Strombeek! This past week we had a few activities with the ward and that was nice. We went to an activity with the young men and young women and we actually had 3 non members show up so that was good! They really enjoyed themselves and got to know the people in the ward. They definitely feel more comfortable now with the people in the ward. And then we also stake conference with all the wards in beglium. It was crazy how many people were there! Its great to see how many member there truly are in Belgium! We had a few investigators show up with us and really had a good time! Doris is getting very excited for her baptism and really got along with the members from our ward! She also is making plans to move to Chicago next year. So I will be able to go visit her after the mission because she will not be too far. We also did belgium legality this week so I was able to see all the missionaries from the MTC. Its always an uplifting experience to be able to talk to those I am serving with.

Well the news is is that I will be going to Arras. Its an area in Paris Nord! My companion will be Soeur Covington who was in the MTC with me. I will keep you posted!

Love you!

Love Soeur FInneran

P.s. Congrats Ashlyn on getting married soon! Love you!

In the field#6

  BONJOUR!!! :) Comment ca va tout le monde!?  Well things are great here in Belgium! Transfers will be here next week so I might leave but more than likely I will stay here. But I can't imagine them leaving me and Soeur Thibault together. Which rips my heart out a little bit because she truly has become one of my greatest friends. But I will try not to think about being seperated from her. 

   BUT!!! DORIS IS GETTING BAPTISED!! :) The woman I wrote about last week...she has accepted to be baptised on the 6 of July! We are so excited! We taught her a few times this week and explained more about the restoration and the need for that and then we asked her to be baptised and she said yes! she told us she has been praying and waiting 3 years for us to bring her this message. She truly has been so prepared to receive the gospel. Its just such a testimony that no matter where you are in the world, the Lord is preparing people to accept His gospel. What a wonderful thing this is! :) I love Doris to pieces!  And all my other invetigators too! 

    Another story...This past two days we have not been able to get to our appointments on time. Supposedly twice a year they have these great big yard sales in the streets for like 2 days so thats what was happening. THe bus' weren't working sometimes and it was just crazy. But it ended up being perfect because evertime that happened our investigators told us that it was a good thing we were late because they wouldn't have been able to talk to us really if we would have showed up on time. The Lord knows exactly what needs to happen and He makes it happen! :) And also He places people always in our paths that we need to talk to. Yesterday when we were on a bus (finally after waiting for like 25 minutes) we walked on and stood next these two other people. The guy looks at us and is like.
"OH! Hey!!! OH hi missionaries! Hows it going!?" (in english - welcome to Belgium). He then began to tell us that he is Belge but had been in new york for the past 5 months and met with the missionaries there. He said that he loves the missionaries and is so grateful for their efforts. He said that it truly has made a difference in his life and he has been able to find God again and he is so much happier than he was before. He will be traveling lots for the next year or so but we encouraged him to continue to learn about the church and promised him blessings. And he was also with this girl from Spain. She was so awesome! She told us that at this moment she is living in belgium but really has lost her way spiritually. She even started crying a bit on the bus. We told her we would love to share our message with her and she accepted gladly and gave us her address and phone number. We are really excited to get to know her better! And then we got off the bus and parted ways and walked into the wrong direction and walked into a big group of kind of sketchy men...haha whoops but then we kept walking and this guy (in english again) stops us and says, "HEY! Where are you from!?" We told him U.S. and Canada and then he started asking us if we were there to teach him about relgiion and help him get back to church and stuff. He also asked if everybody was invited to church. we said of course and gave him the Elders phone number. :) 

  The lesson honestly that i learned really strongly I think this week is to not judge a book by its cover. There are people all around us who are in need of the gospel and who have their own struggles, but if we are judgmental we will never be able to help them. 

   I love this gospel and this work! Its not easy but it never was meant to be easy. Salvation truly doesn't come easy. It wasn't easy for Jesus Christ, and as His representative right now, I know that it will not be easy for me. But all in all, there are miracles everyday that help me to see the big picture and it truly, in the end, is all worth it. Every single second. So make it count!  :) I love you all!

Love Soeur Finneran

P.S. ALISON NIXON! If you could please give your email to my sister... I would LOVE to hear whats happening in your life! And also JEANETTE!!! Seriously gurl what are you doing!? Get out of your little BYUI bubble and send me a quick note! OK much Love! :)

In the field #5

Bonjour mes amis! Well the sun is finally shining here in Belgium! I heard from Kendal last week and she said that it was so hot in germany and i was really confused because I looked out the window and it was pouring rain here and really cold! I heard yesterday from the Finnish family in the ward that Finland is actually 20 degrees warmer than in Belgium...Its an odd place here...but I love it! :) But today I actually didn't have to wear a coat! And for that I am super grateful! :)

First things first! The work...This week has been difficult with lessons because people sometimes cancel on us or just not show up to lessons. C'est la vie. BUT we met this one woman named Emma! She is from Camaroon and a little bit older. We walking down the street and decided to talk to her. She said it was ok for us to come over the following day! So we met with just barely on Saturday and we talked about the Restoration. She thought it was very interesting and she was really open to the idea of God's true church being restored in its fullness. We left her with a pamphlet to read. So Soeur Thibault accidentally left her scarf at her appartment so the following day (yesterday) we went over to get her scarf and we thought, why not teach a little something something. So she was super happy to see us and she told she studied the entire pamphlet. She had questions for us about Adam and a few other questions that we were able to help her understand. She was happy with our answers and said she will pray more about it. We gave her a book of mormon and she said she would start reading it for the lesson that we have with her today! She also said that she will for sure come with us to church next week! :) She told us that normally she just takes the metro home but she felt instead on friday to take the trams and buses. She then told us that that is why she was able to meet us and that we were all suppose to meet each other! :) :) :) And then we asked her to give a closing prayer and in her prayer she mentioned how she knows that we knew our Father in Heaven before we were here on this earth. Guess what we are teaching tonight...? Thats right plan of salvation! HECK YES! :) We will also commit her to being baptised! We are more than thrilled to have the incredible opportunity to teach her! She is the definition of a golden investigator!

Funny story... So we were walking around finding people to talk to and these three guys come up to us and ask us for directions. They were defs italian. Its funny how you can here accents no matter what language it is. They actually all spoke english better so we talked to them for a bit. One lives in New York and actually saw the play the Book of Mormon so we talked to him a bit about that. We also gave them a mormon.org card and tell them to read the actual book because its even better than the play. haha but they actually did invite to go clubbing with them that night too...three times. We also told them more than three times that we are missionaries and we are here to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. haha but overall they were pretty nice! Sometimes i wonder why missionaries get hit on so much...We wear long skirts and modes blouses, etc...and we get hit on all the time. Everyone loves them a good missionary I guess! :) haha

Well I love you all and good luck with everything you got going on! OH and seriously...go teach with the missionaries! Hardest thing in my life is trying to convince members to come teach with us! Don't be one of the difficult members! I promise that you make such a huge contribution to missionary work! My scripture for the week. "Be still, and know that I am God." Take a moment to be still this week. You won't regret it! Bisous!

Love Soeur Finneran

In the field #4

Bonjour mes amis! So this letter will not be long just like all the other ones. My bad. haha Sorry they don't give us a lot of time! But Just to update you with Belgium...Its still really cold here! It has rained the entire week, all day every day. I still wear tights, boots and my winter coat! But I heard that is just what beligium is like! Haha but its super green here so that is a definite bonus of all the rain! :) We meet lots of new people everyday and we are continue to have lessons every day too! Here is a fun little story! So we were on the tram and we looked over and saw a woman who we for some reason had a picture of in our area book... We recognized her so we got off at the stop that she got off at... haha i know super creepy whatever! But we followed her for like 2 minutes and then we just started running for her and we yelled, "Madame we have a question for you!" haha she stopped and we ended up talking for like 40 minutes in the road. She is supposedly a member and she has been inactive for years and years. Her husband and daughters are not members but maybe someday she will let us go to her house to teach them! We ended up teaching a lesson right there in the road too and had a prayer and everything! haha in every way possible it was probably super awkward! BUT it was what needed to happen and I am glad we followed the spirit to go and talk to her. I read a quote that I wrote from one of the apostles in my scripture study this week. It said, "A true friend is someone that makes living the gospel easier." Its so important to be that good and true friend! I love you all and miss you!
Love Soeur Finneran