Sup

Hey hey hey everybody! 

So this week...where to begin... It was more a busier week but also very exciting. Our investigator Mary and her 4 sons are getting baptized this Saturday which is really crazy. When we set the date it seemed like a long way away but now it's here and we're kind of freaking out about it. There's just so much to do. 

And then next Saturday we have another investigator getting baptized and then on the 23rd we have another one. Half of this transfer will be spent preparing for baptismal services - which can be a little overwhelming at times but in a good way. I'm grateful we're kept busy. 

Nothing super crazy happened this past week - just working. We haven't really gone anywhere the last few p-days because we've just been worn out by the time Monday comes and we just decide to take a little bit easy because we do so much during the week. 

Yesterday I gave my first talk in sacrament meeting - I was so nervous! But it went pretty well. People told me they liked it...maybe they were just being nice ;p It was about missionary work. It was kind of funny because the branch president called me on thursday asking me to give a talk this sunday and usually they give you about 2 weeks before you have to speak and I had 2 days - anyways...when he told me my topic i was a little panicked and though to myself - "Oh, no missionary work! What do I say?! I don't know anything about missionary work!"

And the light bulb went off and I took a deep breath and said, "Oh yeah, I am a missionary - so it won't be that hard - right?" It wasn't too bad. In fact it was really good for me because I ended up speaking about 3 things that I thought made a successful missionary. 

They were: 

1. Your example 

2. Humility 

3. Your personal Testimony 

It was one of those things that as you prepared to talk about it you and learned a lot. Really quickly - since I'm running out of time - I just talked about how you must live what you believe or it's worthless. Humility means setting aside your pride - not the kind of pride where you think you are better than another person - but the pride where you think you know better than God. 

I know, personally for me I can kind of be a brat when things don't happen the way I want them to. It takes a lot of patience and practice with humility to be able to sincerely say to God - "not my will but yours be done." Sometimes I want something to happen in a particular way and when it doesn't I get extremely frustrated - humility has been something I've been having to learn over and over again (which can also get annoying). 

Advice that another missionary gave me when I asked about having to learn the same lesson over and over again - she said, "sometimes God just wants you to learn it deeper."

The last one - personal testimony - in order to be able to be humble you have to have a testimony that God really does know what He's doing. That testimony only comes through diligent work on your part. This gospel and everything that God has done for us has been for our benefit, not His. It's our personal choice and responsibility to take part in those blessings or walk away from them. 

Sorry I'm  stopping but if you write me individually I can go more into it if you want. But I have to end here - my time is up. 

I love you all! Hope you have a good week. 

Do something that's fun. 

xox

My 4th Transfer

It is the start of a new transfer today! AND I'm hitting my 6th-month-mark NEXT Wednesday! Yikes! It's weird because every six weeks feels like a new mini-life because I always got a new companion but this time I'm staying with Sis. Fleming for another one so...it's going to be interesting... Just kidding - I love her! We have so much fun together. We've gotten to the point where we treat each other like we're sisters - it's a good and bad thing. lol 

We kind of egg each other on. (Well, it's mostly me that does it...) Last night she threw a lemon at me (twice). I told her to do it because she told me that she heard that if you get hit with a orange or a lemon then you won't bruise. Of course we had to test it out for ourselves. 

Result: Don't know yet. On the point of initial impact it hurt (REALLY BAD) but after few minutes it was okay. Still no sign of a bruise yet either. We shall see in the coming days... 

Because we do something every single hour of the day it's hard to write down, let alone remember, all that has happened. But the most of amazing things that have been going on have to do with our investigators. All of them are so incredibly diligent and committed. I've never seen anything like it. Sis. Fleming and I are just dumbfounded some days because of the some of the things they tell us and how excited/anxious they are to be baptized. 

Mary and her 4 sons are going to be baptized on May 2nd and she's announcing it to everyone she talks to; it's so funny. Sometimes she'll run up to us to ask about particular details about what's going to happen, when it's going to happen and things like that. Last week we taught her the word of wisdom. When the lesson was finished she, with a sad but determined face, says whispers something to her son, Stephan. 

He comes back a few minutes later with this newly bought jar and she says, "Here. [she gives it to us to take it with us] I only drink it once in the morning before work...not even on the weekends." Yesterday when she saw us she said, "You know, it's really really hard but I'm going to do it. Now, in the mornings I only drink choco-melk." (chocolate milk) 

It's really cool to see the determination in people when they want to change because they believe something is right. One of my favorite things about missionary work is that you just get to see God's hand work in other people's lives. I'm pretty convinced we don't really do much but teach them some things. The change and the willingness to become better comes through their own personal relationship with Heavenly Father. 

That's all I really have time for. I can go more in-depth with my stories when I get back a year from next week lol. I love you and I hope you have a great week.

Just a little something that's funny, that I've been thinking about the last few days - I don't know which one will be worse - a missionary tan line or the terrible tan lines I got from India. (just something to make you smile...hopefully) 

Salutjes! 

Transfer Week

This week was so weirdly incredible. So many things happened that I don't really know where to begin. We had temple conference on Wednesday which was really nice. Afterwards we all got to go to Keukenhof! It was so much, we (sis. Fleming and I)  were just with two other missionaries of the 80+ group of missionaries - Mensen 4! 

As we were walking throughout the park, Sis. Fleming and I had a hard time trying to figure out a mini adventure we could do until about 5 minutes before we had to leave. As we were walking out, we were looking all around at our options and finally we came across this maze/mini-labyrinth. 

Once we saw it, we looked at each other - knowing what the other one was thinking - in our now 3 mins. left we, at the exact same moment, just booked it and ran through the maze as fast as we could to make it to the lookout tower and take a picture. Our adrenaline was pumping and we were just laughing the entire time trying to figure out the maze. 

I would say the most amazing part of my week happened on Friday and Saturday. Friday afternoon, we were taking the bus (Sis. Fleming's condemned bike finally broke down) at one our appointments and a woman came up, smiled at me and sat down beside me. 

Every now and then, I get this fear of talking to people. So for about a minute or so I was just telling myself, "You can do it. Just open your mouth and speak. Just do it. Just do it." (You need your occasional pep-talks on your mission). I finally opened my mouth and began to ask for help in pronouncing a word in Dutch that I needed to use in my lesson. 

At one point (I'm not exactly sure when) she had randomly asked, "Where's your church?" I handed her a card with the address and our number on the back. Before I could say anything else she immediately replied, "I can't come to church this Sunday." I was little shell shocked because I didn't even invite her yet. Then the bus stopped and she said, "Oh I have to get off here." I had my planner in my hand and she took it and wrote her name and number in it. 

For about 5 minutes, I was just sitting on the bus completely confused at what just happened and realizing, in gratitude, that we don't really do much for a miracle to happen. Her name is Senaj and we have an appointment with her on Wednesday. This transfer has full of people just coming to us and wanting to learn. It's so cool. We have so many people that it's becoming more and more difficult to fit everyone in each week to teach them. 

But I'm so excited for this next transfer. We have so many things going on. So far we have about 7 people on date to get baptized in May and then we might have more this coming week after we teach them. We got two new families we're teaching and they are just amazing people. Really sweet and really eager to learn. 

Then on Saturday, we went on splits because we had so many things to do, so the Sis. Training Leader and her companion came from Antwerp to come and help us. Sis. Fleming and Sis. Thomas did our scheduled appointments and Sis. Young (my MTC companion) and I did the Easter Campaign Referrals and taught of the referrals the first lesson. 

Gladys (the referral) was probably the highlight of my week. It was such a great lesson. You could feel the spirit there so strong. I love being a part of this work! Most of the miracles I've seen on my mission has been of no consequence of my doing. We do work as hard as we can but all of the people that we are currently teaching have just come to us out of nowhere. It's truly amazing to see. 

As one elder said, in his dying (last) testimony on his mission - "Work as hard and you can and then stand still and see the salvation of God." I'm so grateful to be able to see it; to see the light that comes back into people's eyes as they are reminded of who they are - children of God. He wants us all back. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have done everything They have done simply because They want us to come back to Them. 

I am so grateful to be out here and have had the chance to meet all the people that I've met. Oh, and we got our transfer calls last night. Sis. Fleming and I are staying together for one more transfer!!!!! It's going to be so much fun! We already have so much fun together. And when you're with someone 24/7, you either get to really like the person or really dislike the person. 

We've become such good friends - but we decided we're becoming too much alike; which is kind of scaring the both of us. We laugh the same and there will be moments (several occasions throughout the day) where we will say out loud something and it will be what the other one was thinking. ah! Who knows who we'll be after another 6 weeks together! 

I love you all! Hope you have a great week! 

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 

Finding Joy

Hey Hey Hey my loves!

This week was a bit strange. The weather was not so great and I've been a little sick. But overall I would still say it was a good week. Sis. Fleming and I found a perfect title for this transfer. We named it "Chocolate, Rainstorms, and Running for Buses." Let me explain...

We have an Easter Campaign (https://www.lds.org/church/news/watch-and-share-because-he-lives-easter-video?lang=eng

)  where people can share this video on social media and/or order DVD's from the church. We (sis. Fleming and I) have gotten over 20 referrals from this campaign. Exciting, yes, but also very overwhelming.

Most of the referrals are in dorpjes (kind of like little villages in the country) which takes a long time to get out there. Sometime it's a joke where a friend of their's ordered it for them and they have no interest or they just have no interest beyond watching the DVD. 

Anyways, what we decided to do when we go out to these dorpjes is we would stop at a local chocolate shop and buy a piece of chocolate. (The rainstorms and running for buses seem pretty self-explanatory). 

On one particular day, this past week, it was pouring rain and we had about a 30-45 min. walk. We were soaking wet and I was freezing and already a little sick. As we were walking ,and the rain AND wind seem to be getting stronger, my companion says, "this is character building," (a sentence we often say when something seems hard). 

My reply: "I don't want to build anymore character. I'm fine where I am." I was half joking and half serious. The thought that immediately came to my mind was, "Why should I be fine where I am?" Why do we get comfortable where we are instead of wanting to be just a little bit better everyday. 

That has been something I've been working on, just a little bit more gratitude goes a long way. I want to get to the point where I enjoy correction because it makes me more humble and more aware of the potential happiness that is available to me if only I were to be searching for it.

I realize that my letters don't seem as long as usual. I'm sorry, I have to end here. It seems like every monday gets more and more busy. 

I have to end here. We're going to Brugge today - to a chocolate museum! 

Love you all! 

Hello Hello

Hey errrbody!

I've had a little bit of trouble trying to figure out what exactly to write you all this week. Nothing super crazy / life-changing has happened to us...yet. I'm not sure anything can really top my knee/ emergency room story. But after writing that sentence I probably just jinxed myself (and maybe my companion - sorry Sis. Fleming in the future). 

We had a really great Sisters' Conference, which basically consisted of the 40 sister missionaries that are in our mission. It was really nice to see my old companions again...and kind of weird. Every transfer feels like a completely new chapter in life so seeing your former companions was like going into the past even though it hasn't even been that long since I've seen them. 

In the second half of the conference we had all the sister training leaders speak to us. All were really great. They all talked about various subjects that we all experience on the mission. There was the occaional joke - "I feel like a cow in tall grass standing in front of you today - utterly tickled." The motivational/ inspirational quotes - "Ships are safe in the harbor but that's not what ships are made for." and "The task ahead of us is never as great as the power behind us." 

But the one that stood out to me the most was given by my sister training leader (the Antwerpen Zone), Sister Thomas. She talked about the story in Matt. 14: 24-29, where Peter walked on water to get to Christ and how we needed to have that desire to be able to walk on water (figuratively) to follow and walk the way Christ did. We can't swim to Him and we can't stay on the boat; we need to walk in His footsteps.

And the story in verses 16-24 about the 5 loaves and 2 fishes. How Christ took something that was inadequate and made it enough. We are the 5 loaves and the 2 fishes. We will always be inadequate but He will make us enough if we would only come to come. He doesn't expect perfection, He only expects progression. 

Oh, I just remembered something cool (tone change - sorry). We were riding our bikes and just happened to look up and we saw the solar eclipse on Friday. Luckily it was so cloudy that we were able to look at the sun. It was so awesome but we couldn't get our camera's out in time to capture the moment... jammer (bummer). 

Since it's our P-Day we're going to the castle and cathedrals today! I'm excited to see them all. I love being in a old city! I hope you all have a great week! I'll just leave you with a missionary joke that one of my MTC companions told me - Why do missionaries have such big blatters? - Becasue they only have one P-day a week. (bah dum bahm chah) 

Love, 

Zuster Begazo 

First Full Week

I realized in my last email that I didn't actually talk about Gent. I LOVE it here! The branch and people are amazing. Everyone is so loving and nice. It's so much fun being in an old city again. My companion, Sis. Fleming, and I have so much fun together. We joke around all the time. My whole knee incident was a good bonding experience for the both of us. lol 

Although now, she's gotten into this habit of introducing me to everyone we meet. It goes something like this - "This is Zuster Begazo, she's from New York and she can beatbox. Go ahead, do it for them. She's really good, go on, their waiting." One time, she did that to me in Brussels as we were surround by about 15 other missionaries. 

So in our companionship inventory (a thing we have do to make sure we are communicating) I told her she's not allowed to do that anymore lol. Her response - "No, I like doing it." My response - "Fine, then I'm going to introduce you." Sis. Fleming - "Okay. But I'm still not going to stop introducing you. It's fun." 

Last night I told Familie Geens (members from the branch) at dinner last night that she could fit her whole fist in her mouth. We both discovered her hidden talent, she could almost do it. Just wait, I'm going to get her to do crazy things this transfer. ahahhah

Anyways, Gent is so much bigger than Lelystad. I would say that the cities are nearly polar opposites. Lelystad is one of the newest cities in the mission and Gent is one of the oldest. The work is completely different as well.

 I'm teaching more lessons instead of finding; so it's an interesting experience developing my teaching skills. I'm still working on understanding the vlams (flemish/flement) accent. My goal is to acquire that accent because it sounds pretty. Even though there is rivalry between Belgium and Nederland. 

I think one of the reasons why I like vlams so much is because they use French words, which always gives me a nice reminder of my time and friends in France (whom I miss very much). Although sometimes, they don't use the French words the way French people do. But nonetheless, I still like it and it's fun to hear a French words slip in the conversation and I can understand. 

This week went by so fast, I don't even know what happened. But it's been so much fun getting to know and meet new people. Yesterday at church, everyone kept asking me about how my leg was doing. They were all really nice, but now I'm worried that I'll be remembered as the missionary who walked with a limp. lol But hey, at least I'll be remembered...I guess.

I really hope I get to stay here for 4 transfers (about 6 months). I'm excited to see what this transfer will entail seeing that it's only been the first week and so much has happened. Anyways, I love you all. See you next week!