L'hiver à Bruxelles (Winter in Brussels)

Well things are going very well... I'm glad to hear that Dad wrecked the CAR.. nice.... "Young man, if you aren't responsible enough to drive to work you are going to have to take the bus." haha... just kidding..
Anyway, sounds like things are in a little disorder after the holidays.. but I think that is kinda universal, because that is how I feel as well a little. Things have been interesting. We have started doing transfers and also planning for Zone Conference and trying to balance seeing investigators and what not... It was crazy because we had a new missionary come in just randomly AGAIN. He was sick when the rest flew out, so he came late, but they told us he was flying out like the day before he got here so it made things a little more difficult.. but oh well.. So Monday we had meetings and the new missionary flew in... then on Tuesday we had to take him clear the heck up to the north of Holland.. up to Apeldoorn.. at least it wasn't Groningen where he was going, which is about 5 hours from Brussels or more.... Then on Wednesday we had a cool little Brussels exchange. All the companions got together and switched and then went and had a cool day.. I went with Elder Mitchell, a newer missionary, and it was really cool.  They just had a baptism.. her name is Veronique and she is Congolaise.. and she is sweet.... We taught her about missionary work.  She said she wants to go on a mission (she is 23) but that she thinks she would be too scared and not have courage to talk to people and just that she is too sensitive.... So then we were leaving and she asked us what we were going to do and we told her that we were going to talk to people on the street.. and she said... "CAN I COME?".. and we said "Sure, why not.."  So she went contacting with us and it was SICK... she was running after people and talking to them and she was telling us.. "Oh.. go get that guy, I will get this lady... Oh.. I will try this girl..." it was crazy.. and people were super open to talking to us with her there.. It was a neat experience..
That was one cool thing that happened this week.. another amazing miracle is the referral that Bro. Johnson gave us last week on Sunday. Her name is Blessing Osifo.. she is from Nigeria and she is soooo cool.. We went and taught her the first night with Bro. Johnson and she told us how she had seen a difference in Brother Johnson and his family and she liked how we would come by and help them learn the Word.. so she told us that she wanted to start coming to our church and become a member.  So then we saw her again on Tuesday and we taught her about the importance of baptism and all that, and we set a baptismal date with her for the 14 of February.  She has a lot to learn. She isn't super educated... she can't read and her English is fine, just super African street.. haha.... She always tells her kids, "You people be quiet o' I'll beat you." haha.. it's funny.  She also really likes to feed us.. and we will just say she cooks really African food.  On Tuesday we ate SUPER spicy rice with "schuky" or something like that.. what it is is cow intestines cut open into chunks!  It looked like tongue.. it is really fuzzy and has the same texture as a tongue... it was rough... I almost lost it.   I was forcing myself to finish it.. and I was just invisioning myself on Fear Factor... haha..  But she is awesome and last night we went and taught her and she had a friend there named Mama Blessing.. also from Nigeria. And in fact, her brother is a member back in Nigeria and her brother's wife also... so that is cool... one referral has turned into many.  She is also going to bring her friend Rose to church...
Things are going well... I love you all... I will talk to you later..
-Elder Simonson