Week 11: SOS SOS SOS

I'm training next transfer! I'll be training for the next 13 weeks...I have only been on my mission for 11.  So yeah I can't hold a normal conversation in French but I am about to take over a ville with a Bleu.  Oh la la, heaven help.
I got a call Thursday night and I haven't stopped crying or praying since.
I don't know what French is yet and I have a stomach ulcer but I am excited...or something like that.
Me and my Bleu are about to have one crazy adventure together.
"But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word." Acts 6:4
And that's all I have to say about that.

We had a ward BBQ on Saturday and it went so so well. I love our ward so much! The members brought friends and some of our amis came, everyone had a good time. It was such a feel good night. I'm so glad I will get to spend 1/3 of my mission in Nivelles,  It's the best place for a new missionary to train a new missionary haha. :')
Super going to miss my mom Raj, especially listening to "I'll make a man out of you" as I change her gauze every night. Hahaha. But I am super excited to meet my daughter and show her La Vie Belg.♡

Sœur Nay

Transfer 2 ✔ 

Peaches and Tuna

Charlette (recently returned from her mission)

Deborah (Charlette's little sister)

Flan Suck (look it up)

Mikayla

(She keeps cropping Myla into her pics)

Week 10: NIVELLES 🇧🇪

Heyyyyy,

It was a week.
Raj got cut open and the result wasn't as planned.  All is good though, she is a tough one.  And God is preparing me to be a nurse. I clean the wound and change her gauze everyday. She finds out tomorrow how long she can stay before getting the actual surgery for her Pilindal cyst.

We had exchanges and how I love Soeur Jackson! So cute, she reminds me of lil Kaycee. They came to Nivelles to help us since Soeur Raj was still recovering. We had a really cool rendezvous outside a bar and he bought us refreshing Cokes and was just so interested. Jean Claude, what a guy.

Saturday we had a zone activity in Liège. That gare is amazing...it's where they filmed one of the first scenes in Guardians of the Galaxy. We went to a World War II memorial and had formations about the talk "Band of Brothers" by Elder Wirthlin. Then we went and played football and I caught it with my face. It was a really good day!

Sunday...a Sunday from heaven. It was our missionary Sunday we organized with our DMP.  Elder Melanson and I gave talks, a few members shared their conversion stories and the high councilor over missionaries spoke. Us four missionaries sang hymn 73, Je sais qu’il vit, mon Rédempteur. (I wasn't nervous because French people cannot sing so I knew I wasn't being judged.) The congregation joined in on the last verse and the spirit was so strong. It was so cool. My talk was right after the song so I had a shaky cry voice.  I talked about being a Christlike example.  And I shared about Gail in my talk so yeah I was set up to cry.

Christianne is not baptized. But it's good. It's better this way, we are setting another date with her and will continue seeing her every week and she will continue coming to church.  Christianne loves the Book of Mormon. She knows it's true. She wants to be baptized. But it's scary and she definitely was right to not this week. She is alone, her very mature 11 yr old son isn't going to attend her baptism. She just stopped teaching the Catholic class...it's just too fast of a switch. But maybe by the end of this month. She has already met a lot more members and is already feeling a lot more converted.


The Desmedt's have twins, Charolette just got home from her mission (probably would be my best friend if she were chez moi). Charolette did this cool thing since she didn't really have a homecoming, she had a picnic after church and then everyone went back inside and she had a slideshow about her mission. Sadly, we couldn't stay for all of it because we had a rendezvous with a new ami who just vented and cried the whole time. It's cool though how people trust us. Then we went to Nanu's. :') That's Soeur De Lauw, oh I love her and Frere De Lauw. We have a good connection and he picked me the best berries.

I'm super nervous, this is our last week of the transfer and I don't know whether I am staying or not. Usually Blues stay to be polished in their blueville, but white washing makes that different sometimes. If I leave I think I will go to the Paris Zone, if I stay my companion will be Soeur Robertson who is training someone from my group right now. That's my guess. I find out Saturday at 10:00 am. I really want to stay in Nivelles, but even if I do, who is my companion! What if I get a call Saturday morning to train 😮
I just love my ward and Belgium and I am so glad I was born here. Pray for my nerves. Pray I don't have to pack. Pray I can fit everything if I do.

HAGS

Nurse Kennady

Random bird building 

Guardians of the Galaxy Gare

Pday in Liege

Frere De Lauw and Soeur De Lauw 

Soeur De Lauw in the yard

Reception Center in Namurs

Christianne

Nancy and family

Turtle .. in Namurs

Week 9: Nivelles 🌻

I honestly thought this week I would just send pictures BUT we had Sœur Conference on Saturday and it was probably the most spiritual couple hours of my missionary life. And no it wasn't a "girl power, we should have the priesthood" kind of thing haha. It was a really good discussion about why we came on a mission, what keeps us here and how we can be better and it just really hit home. Oh ..and Sister Dalton just popped right in.  She is wonderful and seriously helped me so much.
She talked mainly about how the Lord directs our paths and I don't really know how to explain what I learned but it really gave me a feeling of divine purpose. She talked about how we might feel weak and simple, but the Lord delights in weak and simple things and He can help us become who He wants us to be.
She talked about how right now, we might not see miracles. We might not see why what we are doing is important but in a few years, we will see the fruit of our labors and those things will become clear to us. But yeah "In the strength of the Lord, I can do hard things."

We met this guy from Nigeria last week named Soloman. He grew up in Nigeria, studied and worked in Moscow, married a Russian girl and is now working here as an engineer. We had a rendezvous with him yesterday and we ended up taking a nice Sunday walk with his family. He is so cool. He didn't know the church's official name, so when we said the "The Book of Mormon" he was like oh my I know you guys! My best friend growing up in Nigeria was a Mormon, great family, his dad was amazing. And I met some girls like you back in 2004, we would play sports with them. And my company is based in SLC so a lot of my coworkers have been Mormon. And then we gave him an English version, and his wife a Russian version. (She only speaks Russian, I thought of Alex) he was like "I'm so excited to tell my friend back in Nigeria I am reading one of his books!" Anyway, its cool how many connections he has and the walk was beautiful. Yesterday was a Sunday from heaven. We only had that one rendezvous set up but somehow at the end of the day we had had 4. Members came in clutch and invited us over for lunch and dinner. What a great ward.

Also, look at me being a Belgian Soeur and eating too much chocolate and baguettes. I hate myself haha. We went to Bruxelles today with the Braine Elder's ami, William. He was definitely very very drunk but we trusted him to be our tour guide through Bruxelles. Standing at the top of the Basilica I felt like I was in Ferris Buehler's day off, seriously sooooo cool.

Christianne is getting baptized on Saturday. We are so excited. :') This week is going to be nuts. Soeur Raj is having a surgery on Tuesday, we have exchanges on Wednesday, we have a Zone activity on Saturday day and her baptism at 6 p.m.. Yeahhhh here we go ♡

Baguettes and Belgium Chocolate :)

Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Brussells

Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Brussells

Belgium Chocolate Factory

View of Brussells from top of Basilica

Soloman and family on Sunday walk

Pday adventures

More Pday fun

Sister Dalton :)

:)

Les Missionaires
Soeur Kennady Nay
2 Chemin Coparty, Boîte 34
1400 Nivelles, Belgium's
Sœur Nay

Week 8: Nivelles Belgium

Nicholas
On Wednesday we were fruged one too many times and people weren't nice and it was just one of those days and then the member we were having dinner with that night texted and said "Oh hey our friend is coming tonight." How the Lord blesses :') His name was Nicholas. And he is a scientist, who works and grew up with our member. They are basically brothers. Ahhh what a cool guy, there was a special spirit there that night. And look at these members fulfilling promises from the Dedicatory Prayer. 

Gaëton
2 weeks ago we gave him the challenge to keep the Word of Wisdom for 1 week and he did...for 2 weeks and said he will for forever BECAUSE he has no doubt Joseph Smith was a Prophet. And..his girlfriend that is not a fan of religion somehow found and joined this new social society here in Nivelles that are going to give up drinking. He is so happy he isn't doing it alone. 

Mojgan
We met Mojgan last week finding in Waterloo. When we called her to set up a rendezvous she was like my friends would love to come and listen to you, I'm going to invite them! Whatttt?  So yeah exciting until we realize she lives in Bruxelles haha. But since no one from that sectre could go, we were able to drive to Bruxelles and teach her and her friends. It was one of the most amazing lessons I have been a part of and I am so sad we can't continue teaching these (6) amazing people. They are Iranian, they were either originally Buddhist or Muslim but they all became Christian, and they love and are so thankful for Jesus Christ. I can't even explain how much joy they have in their Savior. There was no bashing, it was just so good. So good. Mojgan just has a light about her. People are amazing. 

Friday we had Zone Conference, our last one with President and Soeur Babin! It was so great and it just renewed my excitement of being on a mission. Sœur Babin shared Helaman 3:35 and it really stuck with me because it's time for me to work past homesickness and continue to turn to the Lord. And I can see that each day as I work, I grow in faith and strength to do hard things. I also got to meet my Grandma, Sœur Buchanan :') 

President Babin will be in the quorum of the twelve one day. He is one of the greatest men I have ever met! He's so kind and his formations are inspiring yet so funnnnny.  His English is amazing because he served in Tooele. He loves us missionaries so much and it really shows, everyone respects him and Soeur Babin so much. She's cute, her English isn't too great but it's cute when she tries. She served a mission here in Belgium. He is more of the dad and she is more of the teacher and business lady. My interviews with her have been with a white board and marker learning french. He is very friendly, and VERY well known. Anyway they will be greatly missed, they are seriously a power couple. 

I hit my 3 month mark and finished the Book of Mormon for the first time here on Thursday. I love it. One year ago I graduated high school and never did I ever think I would be where I am now, Teaching about our Savior and His Restored Gospel in French to Buddhists, Protestants, Evangelists, Jehovah's Witnesses etc. etc. 

No AC anywhere in Europe. But it's already cooling down so we good.
Yes I'm driving this transfer! I love it. We accidentally set up that rendezvous in Bruxelles...that was scary. Like imagine parking in...somewhere Satan is in charge of.  But yeah driving is great.

When we were walking down the street we passed this lady opening this gate to a trail with gardens on both sides. We were like what's that? And she was like its a community garden, everyone has little fenced off areas, want to come see mine? So we walked through all these gardens and got to hers and there were like 10 cats we helped her feed then she picked some strawberries for us to eat. We became good friends with Fabien. Haha then she was like "You guys actually knocked on my door last week" she was so embarrassed to tell us that. It's just funny, people like us when they get to know us but our tags definitely scare them off.
This week we have been working on giving people "Second Chances" so when they decline we keep talking. IT WORKS. Our new ami from today did the basic no I'm not interested go away thing and then we started talking more and her heart literally changed. We talked for a good 45 minutes. The dedicatory prayer has been the biggest blessing to hit Belgium.
Here's Mojgan and friends. Iranians are my new favorite group of people. They are so loving and laughy. Mojgans dad was Communist so her mom would only talk about God outside the house. She escaped from home (don't really know story) but she said more than her friend did who refused to even admit she had a family before. Kind of sad. Mojgan is in the darker tank top.

Life is good. Have a great week everyone ♡ 

Les Missionaires 
Soeur Kennady Nay
2 Chemin Coparty, Boîte 34
1400 Nivelles, Belgium

Sœur Nay

Beautiful Backyard

Garden behind the gate :)

Bruxelles Zone

Majgon and friends

My Mom and Grandma

President and Soeur Babin

Soeur Jackson (my STL) love her! She reminds me of Lil Kaycee