Elder.Connely.Packard

Belgium keyboards are weird so sorry if the typing is bad. I am safe here in Belgium. We go to church in Turnhout and most of the members live there so we are in Turnhout a lot.  Geel is pretty small but it much busier than Emmen. Belgium is very different. The language is smoother with less guttural. Everything is crappier but better at the same time. It is more industrious and people are not as afraid to spend money so there are cranes and half built buildings everywhere. The problem is that they do not have the money to finish projects so in the same way it kind of feels like a nicer mexico sometimes. But they are apparently willing to start the projects anyways because it make s them feel more industrious. This is right by the mission office and there are so many bikes that you can't imagine. They are filling both sides. Netherlands has the most bikes per capita in the world. Fun facts: NETHERLANDS Vs. BLEGIUM 1. Country of cyclists – Netherlands People: 16,652,

Going to the temple was nice this week. It was like a good drink of water. Unfortunately it took the whole day. We had to catch the  6:15 am  train and we got back home at about  10:00pm . But we had a good conference and I saw most of my group there. They had us split into 2 zones over 3 days. Someone else has the picture. Every conference we all sing the dutch birthday song to those who will be jarig. This time I got to lead the song, but someone else also has the video.  Thank you for sending the rattlesnake eggs. They are making the best spiritual thoughts. We have had a few priceless screams.  As for Trump, everybody else in the world seems to be mourning. Nobody opened their door this week. The funny thing was that the only people that mentioned it to us on Wednesday were really happy that he one. Probably the only two happy people here about it. I wore the Trump tie to the temple, on Wednesday and to church on Sunday. I did not show anybody the back, but I got a few comp

This was a fast but long week. It is hard to remember the beginning of the week and it feels like it has been weeks since last monday. But at the same time, it came around the corner before I even realized it.  We saw some cool things happen when a couple appointments fell through and we found a couple awesome potentials instead. Gave away a few copies of the Book of Mormon. Passed out some cards. Knocked a lot of do ors. Pretty normal stuff. It is getting dark really early now with the change in daylight savings time. Luckily the Gospel doesn't change after dark.  All the leaves are coming down now and there wont be many left in a week. But it is super pretty for now. We had 4 lessons with our Surinamese investigator this week. where is Surinam?  He just likes meeting a lot I guess. He was supposed to come to church on Sunday, but wouldn't answer his bell or phone when we came by to ride

This week was interviews week. If you want to know about President Bunnell, he is awesome. He will be here the whole time that I am here. He was a PA and comes from Utah. He is really focused on everybody in the mission getting a solid testimony of the restoration. That is why we have the Book of Mormon challenge right now to finish the Book before the end of the year highlighting all references to Christ and the Atonement. We also write the names given to Christ in the back of the book. Going good. We had a 3 good lessons with our Surninaamse investigator this week. All went good. He is doing well and we went over the Plan of Salvation with him. It really opens the perspective of life and makes it a lot more comfortable to see more than just what happens on this earth. I read something somewhere this last week that other  than us, there is really only one kind of religion or something that has a clear belief in a premortal existance. Another thing I like explaining is based on

We should have had an awful week here, but things turned out for the better every day. We had actually gotten several lessons planned, about 4 or 5. ON Monday, our appointment went through, but the guy had not started reading the Book yet, so we did not have much to talk about. But it was good to talk to him and he told us if we come back in 2 or so weeks, he will have read some. Tuesday, our lesson did not go through. The guy was home though, because we caught him watching us through his balcony window. It was an old investigator though, so not anybody new, and it was okay. We got let in later that evening by another old investigator and got to teach him a little and make a new appointment. He is from Africa, and said that the next time his friend takes a trip to Africa, he will order us a couple African shirts. Sweet.  When nothing else is on the schedule one can always hunt for hedgehogs  On Wednesday, we had district meeting. Then we went straight out to a far app

This week was better.  We fasted as a zone for solid investigators and we saw some miracles in our district. As for us, we fasted on a pretty warm day. In the morning, we got let in while knocking doors, which is a miracle for Emmen by itself. The guy was saying that if his wife was home we would have no luck, but he was interested and eating lunch, so he had the time. He wouldn't take a Book of Mormon for the sake of his wife, but said we could try back and talk more or with his son who is pretty interested in this stuff as well. We went to contact a referral from headquarters in a small town about an hour bus ride a way later in the afternoon. Luckily he was home so we have a return appointment this week. While we were there, we did some knocking. There was a heavily tattooed lady who opened up the door. We were not expecting much, but she was really happy to get a copy of the book and said that the following month she would call us for an appointment. We all know how

If you want the honest answer this was a really rough week. It was another week without bikes, Elder Stevenson was throwing up over the weekend, I lost my scriptures on a bus, Elder Stevenson lost a backpack full of stuff on a train, none of our lookups were home, joint teaches fell through, investigators did not come to church, and only 1 DA and 1 lesson taught. But it is like what you said about vacation. I really am enjoying working here. Every day is good. But when we tallied everything up at the end of the week, things were really bad. Elder Stevenson and me and no we are not related Don't send anymore selfies. .  The good news, is the nuts that I ordered came in so now we will have bikes again. And somebody turned in my scriptures, so I should get them back in a week or two. We are not sure about Elder Stevenson's backpack. And everybody is finally back from vacation so we got a few DAs.  This week, we were in Grongingen for stake conference, in Apeldoor

This week was very frustrating, but also rewarding. I suppose that is the normal thing to happen week to week as a missionary. The bane of our week was the stolen bike nuts. We spent a lot of time on p day last week looking for a place to buy those, and ran out of time. We didn't want to take time out of our week to look for them but having them seemed like a simple task and something that would ultimately save a lot of time. But the axle of my front tire is not metric, and we went to bike shop after bike shop and 3 hardware stores trying to find just the two nuts that would fit, but no luck. Apparently they do not know what anything but metric is and I am going to see if I can order some with fast shipping. We probably spent at least 7 hours in search of these parts. The worst part was that the first bike shop that I went to sole me a couple metric nuts that obviously did not fit. I did not realize it until we got home and tried to tighten them, and they charged me 4 euro for the

This week was hard . We had transfers this week and Elder Debloois is gone, and now I have Elder Stevenson. He is awesome. He comes from St George. He is super funny, knows how to love everybody and is also a hard worker. We are determined to crack Emmen instead of letting Emmen crack us. This week we didn't see a whole lot of results, but we came home every night tired out and feeling happy. We worked hard and finished every night out.  The District On Tuesday, we had a lesson fall through, and I was super frustrated with every lesson of every week falling through, and I determined that the next person who opened the door was going to get a full force blast of restored gospel in their face. We knocked on a few doors with no answer, and finally a door opened that we have knocked on several times before. An older lady came out and we just started talking to her, sympathized with her interests and asked if we could come back and talk about he nature of God. She said that wa

Sorry that I did not send an email last week. We were super pressed for time, and I got on for a few minutes I the morning, but later in the evening, after my comp was done, it was too late and we had to go home. But last week we had 1 lesson and that was pretty much it. This week we taught 8 lessons, 6 of them being on the door. But we said prayers with all of those people so they were legit. 2 of those people are now new investigators, but their return appointments fell through so we have to chase them down.  A dollar for the person who can explain this Dutch tradition of gulping down slimy herring. Gah! Transfers are this week, and Elder DeBloois is leaving Emmen. He is going to Rotterdam, and pretty excited about that too. He has already been there and he really liked it. My new comp is Elder Stevenson. He is also from Elder DeBloois and Elder Knaupp's MTC group so I will be rolling through that whole group. But there are 23 elders in that group so it is huge. E

This week was slow because everybody is still on vacation, and the people that were not on vacation went on vacation this week so everybody is actually gone now. There is a mass migration from this country every summer I guess. It is already turning into fall. It is mostly cloudy, and rains every day again, and getting a bit cooler.  new haircut, new beat Pretty much the only thing we did this week was knock doors. We did not have any dinner appointments, and only 1 scheduled lesson so it was a good opportunity to really do a lot of lookups and finding. It can be annoying not having dinner appointments, but they can also take a lot of time up if your schedule doesnt have you working in a nearby area. We found a few cool potentials and got contact with a few others this week. You just have to find a lot little things to do to distract you from looking at your watch. But it was a good week. We met one guy who was vaguely familiar with our church and was initially complaining

This week it started raining a lot again. When it rains people have more sympathy for us and they let us in more. The blackberries are getting ripe and I am going to make some jam. They are everywhere and I don' t think the dutch people eat them.  Where's waldo... This week I also bought some left handed hair scissors and gave myself a haircut. I figured it would just save money because unless you can find a turkish place for 10 euro, all haircuts are at least 17 euro. This is not a cheap country to live in.  We went to Germany a couple times this week. The houses are bigger in Germany. Everything is not so neat and tidy, but it is a bit more spacious and it is nice to feel a little more open.  The father in law a potential that we found has come to church the past couple weeks. He is a kind of free range chicken with religion as he kind of just does things by himself. He went to the Philippines or something and baptized 50 or so people there. He doesn't

Thanks for the Bday wishes. They are really weird and i almost decided not to watch them.   the cat that lives by the train station. She is one of my best friends here in Breda. When I call her, she literally runs and jumps on my knee and sometimes tries to give me a hug. Much better than Daisy Anyway, the news is that I am getting transferred to Emmen . Emmen was Elder Deardens first and previous city, and his previous companion is there right now, so my new companion will be Elder DeBloois. Elder Dearden freaked out when he heard I was going there. And I already know Elder DeBloois so that will be good. Emmen is small and right up next to the German border, and some of the branch members live in Germany, so I will be having dinner in Germany every now and then. There are supposed to be a lot of Jehovahs Witnesses in Emmen as well, so I will have to brush up on my biblical scriptures as will. I can not wait to go but leaving Breda is pretty sad. I have been here just about 6 m