Week 39 ~ We're PREGNANT??? and I'M HALF WAY woot woot

This week was oh so good. We went to Brugge on p-day! I'm obsessed with Brugge. It's so cute! Plus we got waffles with my favorite--speculoos. I'll send pics :)

It was raining and a bus came around the corner and through a huge puddle and I got soaked. I thought that only happened in movies haha.

We went to this teeny little dorpje (village) called Daknam and looked up some potentials we found in our area book and knocked a little bit. Not only was it absolutely beautiful out there, but one of the potentials was so positive! We talked to him on his door a little bit and he started out kinda saying he doesn't have any interest, but as we continued to talk to him, he opened up a bit and shared his ideas and thoughts. He has read a bit in the Book of Mormon and basically told us he knows it's true. What?! so cool. We got his number and are excited to go back and teach him and his wife :)

We got frites for weekly planning this week and we literally ran home because we were so excited to eat them and had been waiting all week for them haha.

Saturday was awesome. We had our final lesson with Benny and Amelia and they both passed their baptismal interviews! They are so cool and so ready!! I'm SO excited for their baptism on Wednesday. Our last lesson with them was really cool. Benny retold us his experience when he decided to get baptized so I'm gonna share it with you guys. :) He had been coming to church with his family and investigating for a while, but wasn't sure if he was going to get baptized. A member in our ward passed away and he went to the funeral, and it changed him. He really started thinking about life after death and he saw how much the church was like a big family. The member who passed away had only one mission in his life--to convert one person. He had said if he could convert one person to the true gospel, his mission on earth was complete. When Benny was at the funeral, he realized that that one person was him. He decided to get baptized :) I know that Benny and Amelia are both making the right decision and I'm so happy for them! I know this gospel is true and brings so much happiness to individuals and families!

OKAY AND ALSO. We got a phone call la​​​​​​st night from President... and WE'RE PREGNANT!! We're getting a greenie on Wednesday, right before the baptism! Her name is Zuster Spijkerman and she's from Zwolle, Nederland. She's going to Suriname on her mission, but she will be visa waiting with us for a couple weeks or months.. however long until she gets her visa :) So we're literally giving birth on my 9 month mark. Hahah kinda toevallig. I'm excited! We're gonna have a party trio. :)

I can't believe it's already my half way mark. The time has FLOWN. I'm so grateful to be here and to have the opportunity to serve the Lord! I love missionary work!

Love, Zuster Fordiani

BRUGGE

1-We had a district photo competition... let's just say Zr. Winkel and I went all out. The theme was comp unity. Eenheid means unity in Dutch. We won... nuff said

2,3,4-Adventures in Daknam

Week 38 ~ John Baptist's Head

We met this super cool guy, David, last week doing bell ups and we got his number and told us we could make an appointment with him. So we had our first lesson with him in this little cafe around the corner from his apartment and it was one of the best first lessons I've ever had on my mission! He's searching for a church and the truth, and he was so open and asked tons of great questions. It was amazing! He had already read a little bit of the Book of Mormon we had given him on the door and had done some research on our church ON THE CORRECT WEBSITE WE GAVE HIM. That never happens. Usually people go to some random websites and then tell us they read all this stuff about our church. Stuff that's not even true. Smh. That's like trying to find information for a paper in school and then using Wikipedia. It doesn't work people. Not a good source. But David, this little baller, went to mormon.org and looked up some stuff about our church! So cool. He also was really excited when we told him we teach more lessons and we also help people prepare for baptism. So we're going to go back and teach him again and he wants us to teach his girlfriend too! I'm really excited.

On Saturday, we tried to go visit a member's wife in the care center. He's this little old man and he asked us to go visit her. So we went got off the bus and found the building, but could not find the entrance anywhere. After we had finally found the entrance and wandered around for a bit, we found the front desk and asked where her room was. She told us that they didn't have a patient with that name... we were so frustrated because it had taken us forever to get out there and we had just been having an unlucky day so far. So we went out to the bus stop and were complaining and guess who happens to show up at that exact time and sit down a little bit away from us? Brother V! The member whose wife we were trying to visit! He could have been there ANY time of the day and he just happens to walk up and sit down next to us. It was such a wake up call from God. I could just hear him saying, "Don't you trust me? Where's your faith?" We were able to ask him where she was and go visit her (she was in a different building). She was so happy that we visited her and the next day at church Brother V kept thanking us over and over and saying, "God bless you." And he was telling everyone in the ward that we had visited her. It was so amazing to be able to help Brother V and his wife. I'm so grateful that God is aware of us and will help us in times of need!

Yesterday after church we were knocking some doors and some guys were walking towards us on the street. One had a Raiders hat on and Zuster Winkel is a huge NFL fan so she asked him about his hat and then told him what we were doing here. He didn't have any interest, but his friend was kind of listening. But then they both left. So we keep walking down the street and then the friend appears in front of us again from the opposite direction he was walking in. We were super confused. He came up to us and we were able to tell him more about what we were doing and get his number and address! We are going to make an appointment with him soon. We walked away and then we realized that he must've ran around the block super fast to talk to us again. It was super awesome to see how much interest he had in learning more! God truly does put prepared people in our path!

Zuster Winkel and I also found three spiders in our hair this week.. EACH. They were only babies.. but still. So nasty. I got super paranoid so I vacuumed our whole house and beds and couches.

This muslim guy tried to convert us to islam and we read a little bit out of the koran. But we ended up giving him a BoM and were able to share the Joseph Smith story with him! People are so much more open if you just listen. 

We were able to give out a bunch more Books of Mormon this week and have a lot of good lessons with investigators and people on the door and bus! It was a great week. 

AND next week we have a baptism on March 1st of two of our investigators, Benny and Amelia. It's a father and daughter who are part of a part member family. We're almost done with everything with them. We just need to get their interviews done and plan the baptism. They will be getting baptized on Amelia's 10th birthday. I'm SO excited for them. It will also be my half way mark so yay :)

I love this gospel!! and 

I LOVE YOU ALLLLL

Love, Zuster Fordiani

​​​​​​​​​​I love Gent! the third picture is of john baptist's head??

1,2,7-We love Belgium

3,4-Nastiest candy in the world

5-lekker weekly planning

6-bunnies in lokeren :)

Week 37 ~ transfer six

Super short email... I'm sorry!!

Highlights:

A member gave me a pair of shoes for free! Yay

I sent Zr. De Souza off to Den Helder and got Zr. Winkel! She's awesome. She's from Colorado!

Aaaaand we basically knocked all week. But we saw some crazy awesome miracles! We gave out so many Books of Mormon this week in tons of different languages. A couple in Dutch, one in Polish, one in Turkish, and one lady wants one in French. Pretty cool! We found a bunch of potentials and two of the girls even gave us waffles on the doorstep. Yesss

We are almost completely out of food in our apartment and so we ate some of Zr. De Souza's left over gluten free pasta for dinner one night... let's just say I'm really glad I'm not gluten free. It was like playdoh! Haha sorry de suzie

We also met a 17ish yr old guy on the street who kept following us around and waiting for us while we were knocking doors. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he had some interest?? maybe?? He asked us if we could have a boyfriend on our mission and if we had kissed someone before and how it was... and then kept asking us to give him a hug. Hahah so weird. At least he has a BoM though right?

I LOVE YOU GUYS

Love, Zuster Fordiani

1,8- waffles in Antwerpen centraal

2-frites for life

3,4,5-Lokeren!

6,7-cutest little bakery in Lokeren

Week 36 ~ transfer calls

Transfer calls were on Saturday night and... I'm staying in Lokeren and getting Zuster Winkel! Zuster De Souza is heading up to Den Helder. I'm excited to spend another six weeks in teeny little Lokeren :)

On Monday we went to Ieper! It was BEAUTIFUL. We saw a bunch of World War One sites and were able to go to the trenches. The Kortrijk members are awesome and gave us a tour and drove us around to the different sites. So we got a tour from the locals in flaams! So cool. Also. Tolkien came up with Lord of the Rings while he was in the war in those freaking trenches!! Pretty amazing.

One day we left our apartment and a lady pulled over in her car and told me that my skirt was tucked up.. I looked back expecting it to be only a bit up and it was ALL THE WAY UP. Thank goodness I was wearing tights...

We met a guy on the door and he gave us his number!! We were really excited because that doesn't usually happen. But then LITERALLY five minutes laterwe get a text from him that says, "hey." Ummmmm no that's not why we're here hahaha. Then again and then another that says, "Kun we praten." Hahah then we invited him to church. He didn't come. Jammer.

Friday was MLC. I love Nederland. And Zuster Merz. Afterwards, we met a drunk lady on the street who absolutely loved us hahah. I gave her a flower.

Sunday we had four investigators show up to church! We were super pumped!! Benny and Amelia (father and daughter) are still super excited and progressing towards their baptism date of March 1st! I'm so excited for them :)

Ik hou van jullie allemaal!

Zuster Fordiani

1,2,3-trenches

2-ieper!!

3-no coat weather baby!

4-the yw :)