Yo

So I've realized the not-so-good-ness of my emails the past few weeks. After I was done last Monday I was thinking about how they probably sound kind of lame. In my defense, I wrote those emails at about6:30 in the morning...so my brain wasn't fully functional. Nonetheless, it is about noon here so I have a bit more brain power to write a more cohesive and potentially interesting email. 

Here we go...

Last Monday, as I mentioned, I went to Brugge and it was so much fun. It was me and my companion (of course) and then the Lokeren Sisters. We decided to go to the Chocolate Museum and then walk around in the centrum for awhile. 

Obviously the chocolate museum (Choco Story) was amazing. As we entered and bought our tickets, the woman hands us a chocolate bar and says, "Something for the road." We could also try dark, milk, and white chocolate samples. The Museum itself wasn't too big but was  fun nonetheless. We got to read about the history of chocolate and then see it make its way into fame in Belgium. 

One of my favorite quotes that a Queen or baron said went along the lines of, "if you ever have a bad moment, it can be fixed with chocolate." And "bad company can seem good with chocolate." At the end of the tour we got to see a demonstration of how praline chocolates were made and then of course we got to try the finished product. We also discovered or rather agreed that the best dark chocolate came from Vietnam. 

Before you exit the museum you have to walk through gift shop (a very smart but EVIL tactic) lol Luckily, I resisted the urge to buy anymore chocolate but I did but a chocolate mold that they use in the museum for their chocolates so as to pursue my secret dream of becoming a chocolatier later one in life. 

So that was the great start of my week but I would say the ending was even better with General Conference. It was so great and just what I needed at this point in my mission. I didn't get to see all of it and sometimes the internet had a glitch so it skipped parts of talks. But I would say my favorites so far was in the Sunday Morning Session, Holland and Uchtdorf! All the talks were just great for spiritual tuning. 

I've been thinking / reevaluating my relationship with Christ because I know that I've been lacking on my side. Friday, I gave a spiritual thought using the "He Lives" Mormon message and I came to a realization as I was speaking. I was talking about becoming friends with Christ. 

With my friends, it's easy for me to serve them, to want to be around them, and such. I try my best to be there when they need anything but as I looked on my relation/friendship with Christ and God, I saw that there was so much more I could be doing in just a personal attitude towards things. I had to ask myself, "Am I a friend to Christ?" "Am I there when He calls me to help or to serve Him?" 

Often times we call on God when we need help but once we think we're back in control we kind of tell Him, "ok, you can go away now. I got it." It can be in just the little things that we do. This past Thursday, everything seems to be going wrong. The trains and buses were late or didn't come at all and all of our appointments fell through. It was extremely frustrating. 

At the end of the day, when we were planning, I turned to Sis. Fleming and said, "We were being really stupid. We didn't even think to pray and ask God to know He wanted us to do when all those things happened." Sometimes in the midst of things it's so easy to be concentrated on what you want and what you planned rather than being humble and asking what is required of you in that moment. 

Something else I've decided to work on is have my first instinct be prayer in any situation; in every circumstance as to not get frustrated but be able to listen to the Spirit to know what to do. I have a strong testimony that God knows better than we do, but it's our responsibility to ask to know His plan. Most of the time He's not going to lay it down for us. We have to do the work to get it and understand it. 

Ask and we shall receive. Why in the world don't we ask sometimes? 

I love you all! Hope you have a great week. Oh, and a shout out for my baby brother, Malachi, this Saturday! He's turning 2! That is so crazy! 

Zuster Begazo