One article can change your entire day!

Hello one and all!

Not much has gone on this week (ok, well, of course, a lot has gone on, but nothing too out of the ordinary), but I did have an experience the other day that I want to share with you.  Yesterday morning, I was dead tired.  I wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep, and since it was Sunday, and we don't really exercise in the morning, I was trying to decide what to do.  I was on the couch, kind of falling asleep again, when the thought came to me that I should read an Ensign Article.  At first I tried to dismiss the thought, claiming that it was too early in the morning to do anything, let alone try to focus on an article in the Liahona.  But the thought came again.  Finally, exhasperated, I picked up one of the many Liahonas, and flipped it open.  There was an article from Elder Richard G. Scott that talked about our capacity to make choices, and our responsibility to make good choices.  He talked about the decision to follow Christ, and what it means to simply make the right choice.  It was so powerful!  Seriously, I turned to Sœur Hunsaker, and was just like, "This article is amazing!!!" I know I can't do it justice here, and I don't have the name of the article nor the Liahona from which I got it at hand, but it changed me entire day.  Throughout the entire day, I would think back to that article, and the spirit I felt there, and think about how incredibly simple (yes, albeit hard sometimes, yet nonetheless simple) it is to simply make the 'right choice' during all circumstances.  Obviously, we all slip up, if we didn't we'd be perfect, but that's where repentance comes in.  How amazing is that?!  We can ALWAYS improve.  That's what life is always about!  I love it!  One other quick story.  Elder Fuller is serving here in Charleroi with us.  He is a contacting machine!  He always seems to have someone that he and Elder Stoker have found, and decided that we should have (because she is a single woman or something like that).  Such was the case the other day with a woman named Audrée.  We tried to call her after they gave us her number, but she didn't answer, so we sent a text.  Then a few days later, on the métro, Sœur Hunsaker and I both saw a cute girl in her 20s or so and we both felt the impression to contact her.  But before we had a chance, she came up to us, showing us a text, and asked if it had come from us.  It HAD!  It was Audrée!  She had simply forgotten to text us back, but then, upon seeing us, decided to talk to us.  We had SUCH a great conversation.  We have a RDV next week.  It was such a great miracle.  And Elder Fuller was pretty stoked to hear about it also.  Well,I got to go, the Church is true!  And that's all we need to know!

     I love you!

           Sœur Bracken

Birthdays all around!

Bonjour tout le monde!  J'espère bien que vous avez passé une bonne semaine!  So, this has been a crazy wonderful week for us!  Last Monday evening, Sœur Mataalii and I got to do an exchange together!  Say what?!  SO great.  We laughed and talked about the MTC the entire time (also we did missionary work).  We happened to run into the Elders at the Gare, which was wonderful, because it just so happened to be Elder Fuller's birthday.  We were told we couldn't play games at the ULTRA MEGA FAIR that is in town right now, so I told him I wouldn't be able to win him a prize, but he was touched by the gesture, anyway.  Also, Elder Stoker confided in me that it was his birthday the next Sunday (as in yesterday), so I logged that away in my head for things to remember.  This week consisted of us running around like crazy, trying to get things all sorted out for the baptism on Saturday.  Wednesday had us going up to Liège for District Meeting, and Thursday the Mons Elders came to give the baptismal interview.  Haha, it was Elder Barr's first baptismal interview.  We had told Madame Afiwor that it would probably take all of half an hour for everything.  But... they had some questions during the interviews, and Elder Barr likes to get to know people, so... 3 1/2 HOURS later, all four of us finally left.  We were there FOREVER!!!  After about 45 minutes, Sœur Hunsaker, Elder Willden, and I ran out of things to talk about with Forgive, and then we had to go through the same awkward situation when it was Forgive's turn to be baptized!  We tried not to be disobedient, but Shrek 4 was playing on the TV while we were there (in order to help keep the attention of the little kids there), and we also found our attention be directed over there.  So funny. In the end, we decided to postpone Afiwor's baptism, but move ahead with Forgive's.  It was an absolutely amazing service.  We had been told that there would be no hot water, but then randomly, the day of the baptism, we were told that it was fixed!  The water was almost TOO hot!  The ward members came and were so supportive, they loved the Beignets that Mme Afiwor brought, and were so excited that they would all be able to get together again in a few weeks to celebrate Mme Afiwor's baptism.  Forgive is so cute and was so happy.  She loves the Book of Mormon.  It truly was another birthday, as it was so incredible to Watch Forgive go down into the Baptismal font and be born again.  Here is the picture of us!  I can't think of a better day for my beautiful baby niece, Katherine to be born on!  Now August 17th will be such a wonderful, meaningful day for me.  Also, yes, on Sunday, I saw Elder Stoker and wished him happy birthday.  :)  Well, that is our week.  This week is looking a little calmer, but we're hoping to fix another date with Mme Afiwor and also our amie, Bernadette.  Pray for us!  I love you and pray for you!

        Have a wonderful week!

                     Sœur Bracken

 

 

Bonjour

Hello everyone!
This should be a big week if everything goes as planned. Forgive is almost certainly going to get baptized this weekend.  She's so cute.  I'm a little concerned for Madame Afiwor, though.  She is willing to get baptized, and she keeps the commandments, but because of the language barrier, and lack of reading skills, she is having a hard time acquiring a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  She says she listens as Forgive reads it, but I don't think she really listens, or if she does, she doesn't really understand.  And because of language issues, she has a hard time understanding the importance of the restoration and everything.  Elder Barr will be coming to give them both their baptismal interview this week.  We hope she passes, but I've prepared myself in case we are told she should wait.  It's been hard, I've been praying with all my might over the past couple days that the Lord would help her understand, that He would touch her heart and help her be able to understand that this is true, and what that means.  Then today I had an interesting experience, I was once again praying about this, and during the middle of my prayer, which consisted mostly of, "Please Heavenly Father, help her.  Help her understand.  Help her realize why we have the Book of Mormon, and that it's true.  Help her be ready for baptism.  Just help her.  Bless her with a testimony.  Bless her kids that they will be calm so we can teach her better.  Please, just help her be able to be baptized."  Anyway, it was during the middle of another one of these prayers, that all of a sudden, I thought to myself, "Well, what does Heavenly Father want?  Of course he wants her to be baptized, but He would not want her to be baptized without being properly prepared.  He wants her to be baptized exactly when she needs to be."That didn't give me an exact answer to my prayer, but it helped me to realize that I need to focus less on myself and my wants and more on Madame Afiwor and her needs, and especially more on the Lord, and His will.  Elder Barr will interview them Thursday, and let us know if she's good to go.  If she's not, there may be some reprecussions from the Ward (some of the members tend to overreact to late notice things like this), but I'll know that it's what the Lord wants and that the day she does receive that testimony of Joseph Smith, she'll be able to enter into the sacred waters of baptism to join Forgive.  So, tune in next week to see what happens.

    As for less heavy news, yes, Elder Stoker is here in Charleroi with me!  He replaced Elder Stucki here.  We have seen each other only once so far, but we'll see each other soon.  He's always asking me over the phone, 'What's Crack-a lackin' Sœur Bracken?' which makes me laugh (His trainer would always say that to me, so I'm pretty sure that's where he got it from).  The weather has been crazy here.  We still sleep on the living room/kitchen floor, because we're too scared to tempt the heat up in our loft where our beds used to be (this has been our living situation for about the past 3 weeks).  But now it's starting to cool down just a tad.  Oh, by the way, tomorrow we're doing exchanges, and I will be here in Charleroi with Sœur Mataalii!  I'm so stoked.  I've had a little bit of news from Court, which is great.  Also, some other crazy news, Melanie is going on a mission!  She just got her call.  She is going to Hermosilla, Mexico!  Crazy!  She leaves Dec. 18th.  That reminds, me, I've done a lot of thinking and praying, and I think I'm going to prepare to come home the 11th of December.  So I guess you may plan accordingly.Love you!

             Passez une bonne semaine!

                        Sœur Bracken

New favorite day of the year? August 17th!

Bonjour tout le monde!

  First of all, here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.  The first is me with Mme Afiwor's sons, David and Daniel.  Daniel is 6 and is such a good listener, he loves when we come over.  David is 4 and is...fun.  The other picture is from my District this past transfer. Back row- Elder Staples and Elder Willden (Mons), Sœur Hunsaker and yours truly.  Front frow- Elder Fuller and Elder Stucki (Charleroi 1), Elder Anderson and his son, Elder Haskell (Charleroi 2).  Great group.  Well, this week was crazy for us.  I had to go to Lille do start my second year legality, so that took about a day.  We started off on our train ride there without problems, but then, just across the french border, at a city called Ascq, the train stopped abruptly,and we were informed that there was a problem, and we'd have to take a bus, then a metro, to get to Lille.  Great.  It took forever.  And so much waiting!  But, all finally went well.  Best news of the week, we fixed a Baptismal date with Mme Afiwor and Forgive!  If all goes well, they should be getting baptized the 17th August.  How wonderful is that!  I don't have much time now, but I just wanted to let you guys now that I love you, and that I know this Church is true!  How marvelous it is to serve the Lord!

                     Que Dieu vous benisse!

                                  Sœur Bracken

PS- We just got transfer emails!  Sœur Hunsaker and I are staying together!  How great is that?  We're so excited! 

Men wearing shirts is vastly overrated

Bonjour tout le monde!

Pensée Spirituelle?  Alma 26.  Seriously, all of it.  It is AWESOME.  Read it with a missionary perspective, and you'll see that anything is possible.  I love and feel the spirit when I read of love that Ammon has for the Lamanites.  It's incredible.

I hope everyone has had a splendid week.  It has been a little cooler here the past couple of days, but still very, very hot and humid.  Sœur Hunsaker and I still have our beds down in our kitchen where the floor is a little cooler, albeit there is more light coming in from the Windows- you win some, you lose some.  We have had an awesome week.  We went and visited Mme Afiwor and her family.  They are doing very well.  Our elders went down to Paris the other day, and I made it very clear to them that when they returned, they were to have a Book of Mormon in Ebu for us, to give to Mme Afiwor, so that she can understand it better.  Unfortuntately, it was to no avail.  Elder Fuller tried his best, but I got a text from him while he was in Paris saying that he'd found one in Igbo, citing that 'it sounds similar, and looks african'.  I told him it wasn't it, but to bring it up anyone, that it might be fun to add to our collection.  I did some searching, turns out, they speak Igbo in Nigeria, but Mme Afiwor is from Ghana.  So, the hunt continues.  Nonetheless, Afiwor, Forgive and their family are great.  They even came to Church yesterday!  We're not quite sure what they thought.  Afiwor's two year old, Favor, was crying a lot of the time, so it was a little stressful, but hopefully they felt the spirit and will want to return.  We also finally saw Sylvie again, who was an amie from before I got here.  She is amazing!  She believes the message, she wants her and her daughter to be baptized, but she sometimes has a hard time keeping our rdvs, so it requires a lot of work and time.  We also saw Bernadette, who is long time amie of Char 1.  She is doing well.  She is reading a lot, and believes she will find answers to her questions.  We also had a rdv yesterday with the woman named Fanny that we met last week.  It was great (she's a talker!)  She is catholic, but searching for the truth.  Well, that just so happens to be exactly what we have up our sleeves!  We're excited to see what happens!

  This week, I get to go back to France for a day!  I have to go to Lille to do some legalité, so that I can legally stay in France after my one year mark in the field.  Crazy how close that is to coming up!  I love my life, and I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord.  I know His hands are everywhere. Que Dieu vous bénisse!  Je vous aime!

                        Sœur Bracken

PS-Title of the email?  When it's hot outside, ALL the men walk around shirtless, and I'll tell you something, it's not hard to see that a lot of their diets consist of frites (french fries), and Jupiler (a really populer Belgium Beer).  Eww...

Charleroi- the ORGINAL Brick Oven

Degemer mad! (throwback to Breton/Quimper for you all),

So, this has been a hot week for us here, in every sense of the word.  When I first found out I was coming to Belgium, I imagined me having my first somewhat cold summer, and when I first arrived, sure enough, it was still a bit chilly!  But as of 2 weeks ago or so, that has ALL completely changed!  Oh my, it's so hot!  In our apartment, Sœur Hunsaker and I have a little loft that we sleep on, but the past couple of nights have been so hot, that's it's really been affecting our sleep quality.  Sometimes I feel like Char is one giant oven, a brick oven to be exact.  Anyone who's studied a little chemistry should know that matirials such as asphalt and brick don't really absorb heat, they just reflect it, making everything around them just seem hotter, and then at night, they become cold again, because they never absorbed any heat during the day, hence the reason every night, we feel like we can't stand the sweltering heat, but every morning I Wake up with my covers on, because I'm cold.  I want to buy a thermometer so I can really know how hot it is.  Haha, but anyway, it's good.  We complain about the heat, but really, most of the time, Sœur Hunsaker and I just laugh about it.  Oh my goodness, Sœur Hunsaker makes me laugh SO much.  She is so funny!  She understands my sense of humor perfectly.  She is 21, from Idaho Falls, and is majoring in European studies at BYU.  Over the course of my mission, I've lost the ability to hold a straight face whilst saying something funny/witty, but she hasn't.  She's always making the perfect comment to make me laugh and also communicate how I am feeling at the same time.Mom, you wanted to know why Charleroi is like Chicago, stating that that made it seem a little scary.  Haha, I read that line to Sœur Hunsaker, and she was like, "Well, yeah, it's scary, THAT'S why it's like Chicago!"  Don't worry, it's not that scary, but it just really has a Chicago look to it.  Maybe Google images of Charleroi?  Actually, there is a sign in Charleroi, that has a picture of the american flag on it, with the name Pittsburgh next to it, so we think they may be sister cities. 

   But really, we've had a great week.  Yesterday, was a great day.  All four of us missionaries (Elder Stucki- American Fork, Elder Fuller- some cornfield in Kansas, Sœur Hunsaker, and I) spoke, AND we sang.  What the?!  That's the last time I let Elder Fuller volunteer us for something.  But it went well.  Then we went and taught Mmd Afiwor, who went to the last bit of Church at Char 2 with the other Elders (Elder Haskell- St. George, Elder Anderson- some ranch in Texas).  Then we taught her, and it was INCREDIBLE!!! Best lesson ever!  She and her daughter, Forgive, are so ready to accept the gospel.  We're going to fix a baptismal date on Wednesday.  The spirit was so strong, and they understand and want to be a part of this Church, I'm so excited!  I lovem them so much!  Well, I've got to go, but I've attached a classic picture of Charleroi, and also a picture of me with Sœur Hunsaker after our awesome lesson with Mme Afiwor (and she gave us popsicles!)  I know I look angry in the picture, but it's supposed to show how awesome the rdv was.

      Avec amour!

          Sœur Bracken

"OK, So maybe we WON'T have you lick the Eiffel Tower!"

Bonjour toutes!

*I will be throwing in some random french words for fun*

Sœur Hunsaker and I have had quite the week here in Charleroi aka Belgium's version of Chicago.  Last lundi night, we ate with the Bishop of Charleroi 1, at a Tex-Mex restaurant.  It was so fun!  It didn't taste exactly like home, but pretty close.  Then, on Tuesday, after a great Réunion de District, I had an échange with Sœur McGhie!  It was so dandy.  We taught a recent convert, and our lesson went really well.  We also had some gelatto, Ferrero Rocher flavored.  I happened to study Alma 17 that morning, which is AMAZING!!!  All about missionary work.   I loved it.  It shows that there is suffering in missionary work, but that through it all, the Lord is there and will buoy us up.  I know the Lord is preparing people here in Charleroi.  It's amazing.  I'm not sure if it's just the Belge culture, but I honestly feel like people are just a little more open.  I love it.  Also there's a small chance I'm getting fat (unlike the chance of me getting small, which, ironically enough, would be very fat (aka, fat chance!).  On Wednesday, after DMP meeting, Sœur Hunsaker et moi did some visites with Sœur Ypersier, which was awesome.  On Thursday, we went and saw our amie, Gertrude, who is way cool.  She listens to what we're saying, and I think for the most part she accepts what she hears.  We're trying to get her to ask more questions and realize why we're different from other churchs.  On Friday...  such a crazy day.  Sœur Hunsaker and I had to go back to Paris to do her légalité for France.  We had an early morning train to go straight there from Charleroi.  So Sœur Hunsaker and I waited very early at the Bus Stop for the bus to go to the Gare.  We waited, but the first bus never came (at 6:27), so we waited more, and again, the 6:50 bus never came!  The bus company is called TEC, and it drives us crazy!!!   So finally, we called a member, who drove us to the gare, just in time to see the train pull away!  We were SO ticked.  So, we caught a train that went to Bruxelles 20 minutes 
later, and there we caught a train to Paris (luckily, I had enough money saved up on my missionary account to buy us two tickets to Paris, you can believe that it cost a pretty penny), so we only ended up being an hour late to the légalité and training.  While all of our bleus were out doing everything they needed to do, we trainers were given the fun task of doing some contacting/a scavenger hunt at the same time.  While they were reaing off the list of things that we had to do, Elder Hall, one of the APs, said "Well, I really wanted you guys to do it, and yesterday we had the other group do it, but... mabye we WON'T have you lick the Eiffel Tower."  Haha, dang, that would have been fun.  Nonetheless, Sœur Stapley and I had a good time contacting people, as well as taking pictures, playing the piano at the gare (a man from Romania recognized when Sœur Stapley played 'Sweet hour a prayer' and came over and talked to us.  He's an amie, how cool is that?!).  Then we finally got home at 9:30, luckily we actually MADE the train home with the elders.  Saturday, we had an AMAZING lesson with a woman s'appelle Madame Afiwor, from Ghana.  So incredible.  She and her daughter, Forgive, are so ready for this gospel.  We also visited a less active named Cathy, who has, to put it nicely... a lot of pets.  But she's sweet!  It was also the baptism of Stéphanie Wéry, an amie of the Elders, so that was wonderful.  She's already married to a member, so it was an especially beautiful occasion.  Then yesterday, Elder Fuller received a call from a woman named Laura, who wanted to see the sister missionnaires, so we went over and visited her.  She is a less active who moved to Charleroi in avril, and decided she wanted to become active again.  We talked with her and asked her what we could do for her, and she said, "They used to have envelopes that people could put their tithing in, I would like to pay my tithing again, so will you bring me one next time?"  I was just shocked, and so moved.  We're so excited to work with her.  She reminds me  a little of my dear friend Sarah, at Nogent.  And so, here we are.  Haha, hope you liked my week!  It's been great.  I love this Church, and this ever-shortening time that I have as a missionary.  I can't believe I hit my one year mark last week!  I feel like I'm such a different person.  I hope everything is going well back in the states, and that you guys get some rain soon!  Love you!

     Avec amour,

       Sœur Bracken

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