Monday, December 8, 2008

December in Charleroi

Hey there everybody... so this week was a great week and we saw some sweet miracles. One of them was Elder Musters (my trainer) baptized the man I contacted on my first night in Brussels with President.. he wrote about it so you can read it..

"Sisters and Elders – Although all of the baptisms are not yet reported for the week, it looks like we had 5 strong baptisms this week which is a great beginning to a miraculous December. I want to tell you about one of the baptisms this week. Elder Craig along with two of our new Dutch speaking Elders on their first night in the Grand Place contacted a young man. Because he only spoke French, they called over Elder Palomaki and two of our brand new French speaking Elders. They taught him parts of the first lesson and set up a return appointment. Then, one of the teams in Brussels took over the teaching responsibilities. On Saturday night, he was baptized and today was confirmed and received both the Holy Ghost and the Aaronic Priesthood. He is 19 years old and invited many of his friends to the baptism. During the service, he bore his testimony telling his friends that they could come to know that Jesus Christ lives and that He is their Savior. He told me today that he would like to serve a mission for the Church. 

We have many people who have committed to take the first step of baptism on the way to their Salvation during the month of December. I encourage every team to pray and work with faith that they may bring one or more people to baptism this month and prepare others for baptism in January. As in November, I feel strongly that the Lord desires to bring 35 or more people into the Kingdom this month. Please invite the members to join us in prayer and faith for these people."  (President Woodland)

Anyway...so ya, I refound him with Elder Musters and we tried to teach him many times but he always wasn't there...but that was pretty cool. 

As for the work here in Charleroi.. we are doing sooo well. We finally got to see Cyr after about three weeks. We reset his baptismal date for the 17th of Jan. that was sweet. Esther and Dylan are doing very good and Charles is coming along. He came to church but he is having many problems with visas and his legal papers so he is very focused on that and doesn't find more time to focus on God and us. One miracle that Elder Reynolds and I had was.... We went to visit a member who isn't super strong that the Bishop asked us to go visit... and when we got there and started talking with the family, the mom said, "hey... my daughter decided that she wants to be baptized..." and we were like... uh.... OK!  Apparently she is not baptized.  She comes to church very often and I thought she was a member. She is about 23 and has four CUTE kids.. It was such a straight up blessing from the Lord. So we picked up a new investigator with a baptismal date for the 3rd of Jan. That will be an amazing day. Our district here in Chaleroi is sooo amazing and strong we now have 9 baptismal dates for our district. the Lord is just preparing tons of people. 
So last night we went clear out to a little town called Huy. It was soooo gorgeous... it was sweet... we went with Patrick to see some members that live out there. There used to be a district there but then it closed.. so now it is very far for them to come to Charleroi or Liege. So.. ya and they are older ladys but man they are strong members... 
So sorry about not giving any pictures of Belgium I have a card full and have started another one.. but I am scared to send my card and loose the pictures.. even though they are kinda crappy... but I will try to get some to you soon... love you a lot. I dont have much else to say... I don't think that anyone wrote me an email or else I didn't get it... but take care... thanks for the letters... 
Chao 
Elder Simonson

No comments: