Christmas Week

Hello everybody!

This week was fairly slow for missionary work because of Christmas but
we had a wonderful time nonetheless. 

On Wednesday we went back to  Waterloo with a lot more missionaries to see the legality doctor
again. We went to McDonald's afterwards and it is amazing how much more class the McDonald's here in Europe have compared to America.  They even bring the food out to you at the table. It is amazing. 

On Christmas Eve we went to an old folks home to sing some Christmas carols. It went really well. Old people are just so funny. One woman was dipping her crackers in her Coke. Haha. That night we went to a members home for a nice dinner and a movie. We watched Big Hero 6 and I was really surprised about the quality of that film. 

Christmas Day we opened presents and spent all day at the Norby's home. I took a glorious nap. In the evening we went to the Albacite's house and they fed us a nice meal. 

On Saturday we planned for the week and had pizza.

Sunday night I got sick so we didn't do much then. I hope everyone got what they wanted from Santa. 

Stay safe this New Year's Eve. God Bless

Elder Hein
Sent from my iPad

Christmas Week!

Another wonderful week in the mission field has passed! 

As far as the terrorist stuff goes, Brussels is becoming more normal. This past week
I saw a lot less military men out and about. I don't know if I should be worried or pleased...ha. 

Wednesday I went to Waterloo to see a
doctor with Elder Palfreyman and the Norby's. The Belgian government might need us to provide health papers from a Belgian Doctor, and since we are the "Guinea Pigs" of this whole legality issue, we went
just to be safe. We are gathering all the papers possible that the government might need so when we turn them in they can decide which
ones are necessary.

Elder Madsen taught Gaspare this week while I was in Waterloo. He said it went very well. Elder Madsen and I are trying to be patient with
him and his readiness to get baptized. He is at the finish line. He just can't make that last step of commitment. On Friday night we had our monthly PPP activity with the young adults. It was really fun.

Saturday we set up all day for the Ward Christmas Party and it turned
out to be a wonderful success. Gaspare showed up and really enjoyed
it. I was able to participate in a little play as the Angel who talked
to the shepherds. I will be expecting an Oscar for my performance.
God bless and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Elder Hein

Yep, Got Spit At!

Hello!

This week was nothing but less active work. I don't know if I have
explained this yet but there use to be a church building in downtown
Brussels in addition to the one we go to now(Strombeek). Earlier this
year, the building downtown was closed so a lot of the members just
decided to stop going instead of coming to the church in Strombeek. So
Elder Madsen and I have been trying to get these people to start
coming to church again. 

We have the ward Christmas party this weekend, so we have also been extending invitations to that as well.  As far as our investigator Gaspard goes, he has been doing well. We were able to meet with him on Wednesday. He read the chapter in the
Book of Mormon we told him to read and he really liked it. We discussed the importance of the sacrament in an attempt to get him to
church. He says he will come to the Christmas Party. He doesn't want to get baptized because he thinks he doesn't have enough faith. Something I have learned through life is that faith comes through
action. The more we act on our belief in God, the more our faith grows. We have been trying to help him understand that.


On Friday we went to Paris for a special 3 zone Christmas conference. It was really fun to meet up with missionaries we haven't seen for a while. I met the new AP, Elder McBride. He is from Canada but his family moved to Frisco a month before he left. He is super awesome,
and he loves hockey so it was fun to talk about how good the Stars are
doing.


We got greeted in Brussels by the flem of a drunk Muslim man. We
walked out of the Metro train and got on an escalator heading down.
Another man walked out of the metro and started to yell at us for no
apparent reason. We kept heading down the escalator and then I see him
leaning over the ledge of the escalator ready to spit. Well I
skillfully dodged the flem as it zoomed past my face but Madsen was
not so lucky. It hit him in the back of the arm. The man repeated this
act but this time we were ready and it didn't hit any of us. There is
nothing quite like missionary work. It's truly a once in a lifetime
experience. His friend then followed us and apologized. We had a good
conversation about how people should respect other religions.


Today we went to the Christmas Market in the center of town. It is so
amazing! I'll attach some pictures.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week. Please try to keep in mind why
we celebrate Christmas.
God Bless

Elder Hein

Government, Lawyers and Me

Hello everybody!

Grand Place Christmas Tree

This week was exciting! We focused a ton on less active work and saw a lot of blessings as well. 

On Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders here in Brussels. I got to go with Elder Empey. He is a super chill guy who knew a couple of my friends that I met at BYU!   On a sad note, we have heard nothing from Simon. He did not pick up his phone this week and was not at his house on Wednesday. We will keep trying this upcoming week. 

On Thursday we met up with Gaspare and he told us that he believes everything to be true.  He believes in the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and the Restoration. When we asked why he will not get baptized he gave really lame excuses. So we will be working with him later this week to understand baptism and its importance. He is currently our most promising investigator. 

On Friday I had a very unique experience I will probably never have again. The missionaries in Belgium have been having a very difficult time gaining legality. To make it worse, these terrorist attacks have made the government slow the process down even more. So on Friday I was chosen, with Elder Palfreyman and the Norby couple, to represent the church legally to a Belgian government official. We got with the lawyer for our Church that represents this part of europe and had a meeting to discuss what was going to happen in the official meeting. I felt like such an adult haha. The lawyer was preparing us with things to say and do. It was very intense. haha. When we finally got to the real meeting everything went really smooth. It looks like we will be able to stay in Belgium for a long time. 

Saturday and Sunday were not as nearly exciting. All we did was alot of pass backs to non member homes. Our main focus is to invite them to the Ward Christmas party next week.  

On an unrealted note: Sorry if my personal emails have been short for the past couple of weeks. Elder Wheeler accidentally took my ipad to Cherbourg on transfer day thinking it was his. I will be getting it back by the end of the week. 

I believe I agree

I hope y'all have a good week. God Bless!

Elder Hein

Gold Turtle

Not to many pictures because we have been locked in all week but here is the man riding the turtle. Haha

Hello everybody! 

This week was fairly unproductive due to the terrorism, but it was fun nonetheless. 

Monday through Wednesday we stayed in the apartment and only got to leave 3 times. We went to the Norby home, a dinner appointment, and the train station. The metro system was down until thursday so we had to hitch rides from Elder Norby. 

On Thursday we were suppose to go to the Norby's home for Thanksgiving, but unfortunately the Zone Leaders thought it would be a good idea to send us to Namur until Brussels was safe. So we got cheated of a scrumptious Thanksgiving meal and instead we ate a mitraillette. Which brings me to an embarrassing story about my competence. Me and everyone in our apartment had been calling these sandwiches "meat triads" because that is what every missionary has called it and it is kind of an secret item that everyone serves. It is never on the menu. In reality it is called a mitraillette which means machine gun in french, and it is famous here in Brussels. Please excuse my idiocy. Thursday and Friday we spent in Namur. It is a really small town with an awesome castle on a hill. There is this huge gold turtle too. I will attach pictures. It is really bizarre. 

Saturday we got back to Brussels late, and made calls to set up appointments this upcoming week. On Sunday we had an awesome experience at church. A random man walked in and stayed all three hours. His name is Simon and he is a diplomat for Central Africa. Recently he was drinking alcohol on a plane and someone showed him a scripture in the bible that talks about how God judges people by there actions. So he decided to change his life and stop drinking. For the past week he kept passing by our church feeling like he should go inside. On Sunday he finally got the courage and he absolutely loved it. We get to go teach him on Wednesday. 

The Lord definitely prepares people for the gospel. It is amazing. 

Sorry I didnt have much this week. I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving. Time to put up those christmas trees!

God bless

Elder Hein  

Nothing but Police Sirens…….

Hello everybody! 

The Elders of Brussels

We had another hectic week here in Brussels, nothing but police sirens in the background…ha ha. 

Tuesday we had district meeting in the forest where Elder Holland dedicated the grounds of Belgium for missionary work. It was a super cool spiritual experience. 

Wednesday we went to institute to help invigorate the missionary spirit within the members. 

Thursday we accidentally found ourselves searching for a referral in a super Muslim neighborhood. After we got jeered a couple times we decided to leave. While we were there we saw two cop motorcycles flying down this city street making way for these two undercover Audi and BMW cop cars. They must have been going 90 mph. They were followed by a group of regular cop cars filled with police and military men. It was unbelievable. Something important was definitely going down. That evening we went to Paul's house. We taught a lesson and did some calculus. He has started to come to church more regularly! 

On Friday we met up with the Dutch elders and had a meat triad. Afterwards we went and taught an investigator we found in the area book, Gaspare. Immediately after we got texted by our bishop to not go near grand place or Gare du Midi because of bomb threats. He is a Canadian colonel that works for NATO so he helps to warn us of things. That evening we organized an event for he young adults called PingPong, Pancakes, and Pensée Spirituelle (spiritual thought), aka PPP. We taught a lesson at the beginning, followed by pingpong, and finished with pancakes. It was an idea Elder Madsen had from his other cities. The purpose of the activity is to help the young adults invite non-member friends. We ended up having a great turnout, and I think everyone had a great time!

Now time for the crazy stuff. Saturday morning we got a text from our Bishop followed by a call from our Zone Leaders telling us to stay inside indefinitely. Brussels is under a stage 4 (the highest) terrorist threat level. The metro system is shut down and the city is deserted…ha. Church  on Sunday got cancelled by the Area 70. School and main shopping areas were closed on Monday. We were told to wear regular clothing if we leave the apartment. The only reason I got wifi is because the Norby's came and took us to their apartment in their car. I doubt we will get to leave our apartment until they find these terrorists. That's all I know. Hopefully we will get to go outside soon. I can only take so many naps… 

As far as transfers go, I'm staying in Brussels with Elder Madsen, the new District Leader. Our roommates are leaving and getting replaced by Elder Palfreyman and a new Missionary. Palfreyman was already in Brussels in the other apartment. They are changing that apartment to a Sister missionary apartment. I'm excited because Palfreyman is a really good cook and so is Madsen. I will be eating well, haha!

This picture indicates the number of transfers we have each been a part of.

My Lebron James leaf throwing!

My companion drew this picture on his iPad.  It is of the Elders in my apartment.  I am the one on the right.

Out of boredom, I made a hockey stick out of a broken umbrella and cardboard.

My GQ pose after district meeting.

At a young single adult activity.  Ping Pong, Pancakes and Spiritual Thought

More pics from the forest.

I hope you have a safe week. God Bless

Elder Hein

Nothing Short of Insane

Hello! As you can imagine this past weekend has been nothing short of
insane. Before I give you the rundown, I will try to quickly summarize
the week prior to the shootings. 

So this week was super busy with members. We had 6 meal appointments! On Tuesday we got fed by a young adult member who is home from his mission in Leeds due to health problems. He is waiting to get sent back out so he is super excited to do missionary work with us. That is such a blessing to find someone in the Ward who is willing to go out with you whenever you call them.  I've found that a lot of the young adults here are super willing to help us contact and teach. A local member's testimony of the church is always a great tool in teaching. We spent a lot of Wednesday at the Norby's (the senior missionary couple) home in Brussels getting to know them better. They use to be the mission president of the Côte d'Ivoire mission, and Elder Norby served his mission in Belgium along time ago. Anyways they are the nicest people! They always are checking up on us to see if we are ok. They are like my local grandparents. Haha. The rest of the week was really smooth. On Friday I had my first zone conference. It was super fun to be back with a lot of the missionaries I haven't seen in a while. The mission president introduced an activity we are doing for the 40 days leading up to Christmas which started in Saturday. We are trying to get a new investigator for each of those forty days. We started with a fast on Saturday and will pray at least once every hour for the next forty days. It's going to be a hard challenge but anything is possible through the power of the Lord. Monday we went to Liege and had a really fun zone activity.

Local Paper

The WEEKEND:
So Friday night we went to bed not knowing about the events that had
transpired in Paris. Saturday morning, right before we were about to
leave, we got a text from the APs describing the events of the evening
prior followed by some instructions from the president. The rules were
we could not leave the apartment for the rest of the weekend unless we
had a previously scheduled appointment. If we were to leave the
apartment, we weren't allowed to take our bags with us to prevent any
bomb suspicion. So Saturday and Sunday we just chilled in the
apartment sleeping, eating, and playing games. I took a 4 hour hour
nap each day. We left the apartment twice. Once for an appointment
Saturday night and for church on Sunday. As of Tuesday, everything is
back to normal missionary wise. We just need to carry our passport
with us everywhere we go in case some police officer stops us.

JUST A FEW CRAZY THINGS AND MIRACLES:
So I don't know if you guys heard or not but some of the terrorists
were found in Brussels. they had planned a lot of there Paris attack
here in Brussels. If I'm not mistaken they were found in molenbeek,
and if you look at a map that is within a stone throwing distance of
where I live. As soon as we cross the park in front of our house we
are in Molenbeek. Me and my companion have been contacting there a
couple times and due to the demographic have remarked, "wow they
should just rename this place little Syria". Turns out Isis had a
little compound there. So needless to say we probably won't be
contacting over there for a long time. On Saturday night when we went
to our appointment we passed by a metro stop that was near molenbeek.
When the metro stopped it was the most eerie thing I have ever seen.
The station was completely empty except for two cops/military men who
were holding huge assault rifles with menacing German shepherds on
leashes. It was super scary. I felt like I was in a Jason Bourne movie
or Call of Duty. It was an experience I will never forget. Now for the
miracles. 

On Friday night in Paris there was a group of Mormon young
adults who had just finished a church activity. They had all planned
to go to this restaurant after the activity but when they got there
the waiter told them it would be a 1 hour wait. So they decided to
leave. Five minutes later, one of the terrorists arrived at the same
restaurant and started shooting people. If they would have decided to
stay they most likely would have died. Miracle number two. There was
another member in Paris who had a ticket to go to the concert that one
terrorist massacred. Earlier in the week she got a call from her home
teacher scheduling an appointment right over the concert. She decided
to forgo the concert and instead meet with her home teacher. Thanks to
the fact that she acted on a prompting for the Holy Ghost and stayed
home, she was most likely saved from death. The final miracle is short
and sweet. Not one missionary was injured or killed. All missionaries
were safely in their apartments by the time the shootings began.
This weekend has been super sad. Please pray for all the people of
Paris that they may feel comforted in their time of need. Don't worry
about me. I am protected by the Lord. By the off chance that some Isis
member does decide to start something in Brussels, they will be
greeted by my flaming fists of freedom. 'Merica!

Guards at the Metro

Have a safe week. God bless!

Elder Hein

Short and Sweet

Hello everyone!

I don't have a lot of time this week, so I will just touch on some of the highlights. 

This week my companion and I focused on working with the ward. We visited a lot of less active members and visited many of the other members. My companion baked a lot of cookies and we brought them to the inactives. It was a great way to get in the door and try
to figure out some of the problems they were having. 

We met with Janet again on Friday and taught her about the Book of Mormon. She seemed to take it well but we are starting to wonder if she is understanding us. So we found a member in our Ward who is from Rwanda like Janet, and she is going to come teach with us sometimes. 

We picked up another investigator this week but it seems like she just wants to bible bash, so we will see how that turns out. 

On p-day we went to Ikea, had some Swedish meatballs, and walked the store. Even though it's a European store, it somehow reminded me of home. Haha. 

We went on exchanges in Braine l'allelud on Tuesday and that was quite the experience. It is so much different than Brussels. No one is walking on the streets, so it is really hard to do contacting. We waited an hour and 15 minutes in line for some fries on Friday while we did our weekly planning.  They were absolutely amazing. I don't know if it is because we waited
so long or if they are actually that good, but I was genuinely surprised as to how good they were. According to locals, the place we went has the best fries in all of Brussels. 

Some weird European advertising going on here!

Anyways I have to get going. We are about to go to Paul's house for some more calculus
problems, haha. Have a great week. 

Love y'all.

Elder Hein

First District Meeting

LATE POST - BLOG WRITE UP FROM 11/2/15

Hello everybody! This week was fantastic! 

Tuesday I attended my first district meeting. The meetings are held at the Senior couple's homeand they cook us a nice lunch. It was super refreshing to have a home
cooked meal from an experienced mother rather than my companion. Haha.

Later that day we saw the fruits of our area book labors. For the past
week or so we have been calling and leaving messages on the phones of
people we have found in the area book. Up until Tuesday we hadn't had
much success, but that soon changed. Within a span of like 2 hours on
Tuesday evening, we kept receiving call backs from all these people we
had called. It was quite funny, our usually silent phone kept ringing
and ringing. Anyways we were able to set up a lot of rendezvous (meetings)  for
the rest of the week. An unfortunately funny incident happened that
day too. I was standing on the right side of the escalator and I began
to transition my left hand to rest on my hip. As I was doing so this
super old lady was walking past me on he left. I absolutely nailed her
in the face with my elbow. It was super unfortunate and not the best
first impression she got of the Mormon church. Haha. 

Wednesday we contacted all afternoon and in the evening some members invited us
over for an African meal. It was definitely different than American
food but it was great! Earlier that day, we were just standing in the
park across our apartment and this Muslim man came up to us and said
America will melt by 2027. So watch out everyone. 

Thursday we attended the funeral of a member who is from our ward. I didn't know her to
well because I had only been in Brussels for 2 weeks at that point,
but judging from the attendance it seemed she had touched a lot of
people's lives. We had a rendez-vous that fell through later in the
day, so that was disappointing but that's the life of a missionary.
Haha. 

On Friday, we celebrated my one month mark by going to get a meat triad and some pastries. That evening we had two rendez-vous with
investigators. The first one didn't go so well. He just wanted to fight with us on everything we said. Haha. But the second one was with
our only progressing investigator, Janet. She is doing great and our lesson went great. She fed us some Rwandan food. It was absolutely
delicious! 

Saturday a member cooked us some phenomenal soup and crêpes
for lunch. That evening we had another two rendez-vous, and yet again
one of them fell through. After our rendezvous, we invited the other companionship over to our apartment for a Halloween party. We carved
pumpkins and ate lots of candy. On Sunday, everything went smooth with
the new ward changes. That evening we met with an inactive and it was
such an awesome experience. We sat down and he asked if we liked mathematics. Next thing I knew, I was solving derivatives and
integrals for an hour. Haha. He is so smart; he has even created a
couple calculus theorems that he wants to publish. I never thought I
was going to use calculus in the mission field but shout out to
Mr.Greider for teaching me so well. 

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK: On P-Day we went to the Neuhaus chocolate factory, and they had all you can eat chocolate for free. It was absolutely incredible but now I feel
horrible. As a direct result of that we started running up the metro
stairs rather than taking the escalators in an attempt to work off the
calories we just gained.
This week my testimony of area book work grew tremendously. As a
direct result of all the work we put in, we were able to go from 1 to
6 rendez-vous in just one week. Time goes by a lot quicker when you
aren't just contacting all day, so I'm thankful to the Lord for
providing us all these opportunities to teach. I love y'all! 

Have a great week.

My Comp is an artist!

Happy Halloween!

Bonjour

Bonjour! 

I hope everyone had a great week. Belgium has been awesome.
This week I was able to master the metro map. Haha. After I sent out
emails on Monday, we went to the grand place for some sightseeing. It
was so beautiful. Then we got some Nutella covered Belgian waffles.
They were absolutely delicious. 

Monday evening we had dinner at Sister Noël's house again. She is a super nice lady. Tuesday morning I stepped on the scale and to my surprise I had gained 10 pounds in 10
days. Haha! So I need to lay off of all the pastries I have been
eating. By the end of the week I had lost 5 of the 10 lbs, so I think
things will be back to normal soon. 

Tuesday was a fairly busy day. The General Young Women's President, the General Relief Society President, and Elder Kearon of the 70 came and talked to our zone. It was nothing
short of amazing. One of the main points they had was to not give up
on investigators. I could definitely feel the spirit they brought when
they were talking.

On Wednesday, we spent the entire day deep cleaning our apartment. We swept, we mopped, and we washed every little corner of our apartment. Thanks mom for teaching me how to do those things. Haha. 

The park outside our apartment

Thursday, I went on an exchanges with Elder Rafanomezana. He is
from Marseilles but his parents are from Madagascar. Thanks to Jessey,
we were able to talk a lot about Mada and have a good time together.
That evening as we prepared for bed we took part in a Paris France
mission tradition. It is called the flan suck. Flan is a desert
popular here in Europe. It is kind of like Carmel jello with a thicker
consistency. Anyways they come in these little jello-like plastic
cups. When you open them up, you flip it over on a plate and they plop
right out while maintaining the shape of the cup. The flan suck is
when a missionary sticks his mouth over the flan and enhales it in a
matter of milliseconds. It is quite amazing. I wish I could send you a
video. Well my first flan wasn't too good but by flan 3 I had become a
pro. 

Anyways, on Friday, because me and my companion are new to the
area, we went through the area book. In total, we went through more
than 350 investigator sheets, and got rid of 257 super old ones from
before 2010. 

Saturday was nothing but contacting. Every missionary's
phones haven't been working for the past couple days. We can't set up
any meetings or confirm anything so it has been a lot of contacting. I
think someone forgot to pay the phone bill at the office. Haha. 

Sunday we got some pretty big news. They are switching up the ward structure.
Previously there were 2 wards in Brussels split based off location. As
of next week there will be one ward that has all the French and
Spanish speakers and one English ward. The English ward is going to be
part of the Antwerpen Stake so it's now out of my mission. Sunday
evening we ate at a member house they were really awesome. Other than
the dad, they all only spoke Japanese, so it was a little hard to
communicate but it was still fun. 

And today, we got groceries, and Nutella covered waffles again. We went to the capital building (I think) and it was super cool but there was a slight problem. A while
ago they were going to refurbish the outside, so the set up
scaffoldings on the outside. Well when they finished the refurbishing
the scaffoldings had rusted on to the building, So they couldn't get
them off this beautiful building. It's quite a shame. 

My companion and I were only able to teach one lesson this week. The work is
hard here. Her name is Janet and she has been facing some trials as of
late, so we hope that she can really latch on to what we are teaching.
Anyways this week I have gained a strong testimony that Jesus is the
Savior of the world. I know without a doubt that he performed the
atonement and was resurrected. His sacrifice applies to everyone who
ever walked on this earth. I love yall. Have a great week!

Elder Hein

Brussels!!

So this week went well. 

On Tuesday I left with 3 other missionaries to
Paris. The flight only lasted 2 hours but it was so uncomfortable.
Anyways, we arrived in Paris airport at about noon and met up with 10
other missionaries coming from the Provo MTC. One of the kids coming
from Provo is 7'2". He is absolutely huge. Anyways, from the airport,
we all headed to the mission office in Versailles. We met President
Babin and his wife. They took us out for dinner at an Asian buffet. It
was absolutely delicious in comparison to the MTC food. 

That evening we slept at their home. The next morning they took us into Paris but
we only had time to go see Notre Dame. While we were standing outside,
at least 20, 40-year old Asian tourist women started to giggle at us
missionaries and take pictures. It was so strange. They just came up
to us, grabbed our arms, and then their husbands took photos. We had
no idea what they were saying. Haha. We just smiled for the pictures.
After that crazy experience, we went to the main church building in
Paris. That is where I got my area and mission companion assigned to
me. I am starting my mission in Brussels! I'm so excited! My
companion's name is Elder Madsen. He is super cool. He has been on his
mission for 21 months, so I will be his last companion. He is from
Orem, Utah and he is so funny. He is quite the artist as well. 

My companion and I eating a famous Belgian Meat Triad

We then took the TGV (an extremely fast train with no stops) to Brussels, where we were greeted by 2 elders who we share an apartment with.  Their names are Elder Wheeler (from San Fransisco) and Elder Smith (from Morgan, UT). Elder Wheeler plays hockey for BYU, therefore we have had some fun hockey conversations these past few days. 

Thursday we went to a member's (Sister Noel) house for dinner. She is awesome and likes to talk a lot. Haha. Friday night, we went to a Halloween party put on by the church. It was really fun because we got to meet a lot of the members. I have a bad feeling that my French won't improve
here because the majority of the members speak English. The same is
true for the entire city. Everybody speaks English! I think it's
because Brussels is the capital for the EU and NATO, so there are a
lot of government workers who learn to speak English in order to
communicate. Anyways, Saturday we pretty much just proselyted all day.
It's tough but the city is absolutely amazing so I can't complain too
much. Haha. Sunday we went to church and afterwards went to the Hatch
family's house for dinner. They literally live in a castle. It's is
amazing. The dad is an American diplomat for NATO so they have all
this American food and candy. I enjoyed it, but not as much as my
companion.  He hasn't had some of that stuff for 2 years. 

The park our apartment looks out on to.

Beautiful Brussels

Currently it is P-Day. We will go to the Grand Place and eat some Belgium waffles soon. It is so cold here. Everyday I have to wear a winter coat. I have seen the sun for 30 minutes. I can't imagine what it will be like in December and January. Haha. This first week has been tiring but quite amazing. On a daily basis I feel the blessings from our Heavenly
Father. I know he loves me, and loves each and everyone of us. I hope
everyone has a terrific week.

Elder Hein

First Blog Post

NOTE:  Cody has arrived in Paris and was already assigned to work in a suburb of Brussels, Belgium.  We should get photos and hear all about it from Cody on Monday.

 Hello everyone! This is my official first blog
post, and I am already leaving the Missionary Training Center for
Paris tomorrow. These past two weeks have been an incredible
experience. 

The first day at the MTC here in Madrid, was quite
exciting. I was suprised to learn that I was only going to be at the
MTC for two weeks. They thought my french was good enough to skip the
language study. Therefore, 6 weeks quickly turned into 2 weeks. 

My companion´s name is Elder Nagloo. He is so funny! He grew up in
Mauritius but has live in Belgium for the past 3 years. We have had
such a phenomenal time together. There are 4 other elders in my
district. They all speak french fluently so it is sometimes hard for
me to understand them. My french in general has been increasing
exponentially. Everyday I get a lot better than the day before. I am
still no where near fluent though. Haha. 

I lived with 4 Russian elders in my room. They were so fun to be around. Every night they'd teach me new russian words and folk songs. haha. There are approximately 66
missionaries here and we have class on the 4th floor, sleep on the 5th
floor, and eat on the 6th floor. The majority of the missionaries are
Americans learning spanish, and going to serve somewhere in Spain. So,
if I ever get tired of speaking french I can just talk with them. 

The food here has been surprisingly good. I am always tired though. We go
to sleep at 10:30, wake up at 6:30, but use every minute of the day to
do something. I have never been more productive in my entire life.
Haha. We have an hour to play sports evey day and so I usually play
soccer. My stat sheet has been amazing, through 4 games I have 6 goals
and 7 assists. These europeans can't keep up with me. hahaa. 

On Saturdays we go proselyting in a Park in downtown Madrid. That is
really tough because I dont speak spanish, but it is a good experience
nonehteless. On P-Day, on Thursday, us French elders went to Real
Madrids stadium. It was absolutley incredible. We got to go to the
trophy room, walk on the field, sit oon the bench, walk through the
tunnel, sit in the press room, and finally walk in the locker room.
The seats on the bench are the most comfortable things I have ever sat
on. It is honestly like a cloud. 

One of the elders had appendicitis so that was quite the experience. We got to go visit him in the hospital and everything went well in surgery. 

In summary, the MTC has been one great experience. I have grown so much in the gospel, and made memories I will never forget. I know that what I am going to preach
for the next two years is true, and I know God loves us all. He has a
plan for each of us individually. 

I will write next week from somewhere in France/Belgium/Luxembourg. Sorry, I don't have any pictures. These MTC laptops don't allow it, but next week I promise there will be some.
I apologize if I wasnt able to respond to your personal emails. We
have a limit of time at the MTC for emails. Once I am in the field I
will respond to everyone. Thank you so much for them though. 

Have a wonderful week. Elder Hein