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.
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| Local Paper |
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!
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| Guards at the Metro |
Have a safe week. God bless!
Elder Hein
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