3rd letter from Leuven, Belgium -- Week 9

Elder Benjamin Steenblik
In Town Square, there was a huge picture made out of flowers and it was as long as a football field.

Elder Benjamin Steenblik
I got WET!!!!!!!

This is our ward house here in Leuven, Belgium

This is our chapelToday is my 2 month mark of my mission! Wow.  I feel like it has gone by so fast but at the same time, I feel like I haven't seen any of you in years.  Missions are a time warp. 

Any-hoo,  what another great week it has been here in Belgium.  This past week was pretty crazy because I did 2 splits and also a "Blitz."  Last Tuesday, after our district meeting, we blitzed Leuven and what that means is that our whole district did missionary work here in Leuven for a couple of hours.  We had 14 missionaries in one city and it went very well! We got like 20 referrals from it. 

After that, I went on a split with one of the Zone Leaders so I went up to the beautiful city of Antwerpen for the night.  It was fun to be in a new city just to change things up for a day.  The best part was, Antwerpen has a car so we drove everywhere.  That actually kind of sucked because on the way back to Leuven the next morning, we sat in traffic for 2 hours.  Good gravy!!!!! That is one thing I don't miss about the "real world" is traffic. 

On Thursday, I went on a split with Elder Elkins in Genk.  Genk is a 4 man apartment so it was super fun. That is where Elder Andrew is so it was cool to see him again. 

The first thing I noticed about going on splits, is how nice their apartments were.  Apparently Leuven has the oldest apartment in the whole mission and it's pretty ghetto!!  I have a strong feeling someone got stabbed in our living room a couple of years ago.  We don't even have an oven. They ordered one about a month ago, but we haven't heard anything about it.  The mission office called the oven place the other day and they told them that they had delivered it.  NOT!! They basically gave our oven away to some random dude!

This week, I experienced my first Belgium rainstorm on a bike! It was a clear blue sky and then like 5 minutes later it just dumped, hardcore . My pants literally felt like I had just jumped in a swimming pool.  You can see in the 2nd picture above. 

So, day to day we basically do everything that missionaries do.  We knock doors, contact, place Books of Mormon, lessons with less actives, teach investigators, the whole 9.  We have a big list of investigators, but it is hard because it's really hard to make and keep appointments.  It is so frustrating when people just keep cancelling on us.  We get to their house for the appointment and they are busy or they just don't even answer.  We have a lot of lessons scheduled this week so hopefully they will all work out.  At church yesterday, we also got a lot of the ward members to come with us on joint teaches so it is gonna be a good week. 

We are also working a lot with the less active members of the ward.  There are quite a few of them so they keep us busy as well. 

The missionary work out here is so hard, but I have loved every second of my mission so far! It has been a roller coaster, but that's what makes it interesting.   I have gotten more middle fingers than I can even count, and cussed at everyday, but it is good to be a missionary! Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave.

This is not easy work, but it is the Lord's work.  I see His hand in it every single day.  Ladies and gentlemen the church is true and God loves you! 

                                                               Elder Steenblik 

Just in case you were wondering --  Leuven is pronounced low-fen with a British accent.