Cracking open a cold one with Ezekiel

Dang, son.

This week was pretty fun. We ended last P-day with a sprint in suits and ties to make our train for Paris to go to Bleu conference, after a day of climbing through the trou's and chateau's of Belgium. 

We ended the night at the Trocadero Gardens in Paris and sat at the Eiffel Tower for forever. We took lots of pictures and we met this guy who is a "Professional Eiffel Tower Photogragher... the sœurs payed him to take a photo of our group while the lights were going off. This scrub... didn't even center the picture and cut off the top of the tower and in most of the pictures that he took... the picture is of us and not the tower. Bro I know what I look like, i need to remember what the tower looked like... ahh WWARD.... He was a very nice guy and we talked about the Church for a while and who we are, we gave him a book of mormon and some of our favorite scriptures to read.

WWARD = What would Amy Rhodes do?

Oh yeah, so the title of this email. So for the entire time i have been in Namur we have been studying Ezekiel in the Old Testament in Sunday school. so not only do i just not understand because it is in french... it is the old testament... Frère Kahne is a very very nice man, he translated Jesus the Christ into french, but he is very old and very monotone and The whole English to french to old testament translating I have to do to be actively engaged. But i am not the only one who struggles with staying alert and attentive during Frère Kahne's lessons, one of the members cracks open an ice cold pepsi in the middle of sundays school every week and it is the funniest thing ever. 

"Can everyone turn to *keeeraackkkkkk* ezekiel chapter 23?"

On tuesday we ate some patiseries by that church named after one of those college football teams that last I heard of was like 3rd in the nation or something, Notre Dame. It was a very beautiful morning and the Chapel in paris that the wards meet at is very close. Bleu conference was good, nothing really special but we got accustomed to what other conferences in the mission will be like.

After Bleu Conference we had to head back up to brussels and so we spent another like Hour in Gare du Nord in Paris. But this time instead of playing games we saw a piano that had a sign that said "venez et jouer"  or "come and play" so we went over and Sœur Hawks played the piano and the other 7 of us sang some Christmas Cantiques in the gare, It was a very very cool experience and I love how we can always find an opportunity to be missionaries and to turn our lives towards Christ and focus on Him and all the blessings we have because of him.

One other cool experience we had was at our Mangezvous with Emmanuel and Claudette, they are a really cool member couple and they have an awesome son Yannick who loves Pokémon and he runs around and is wild. They are not sealed in the temple as a family yet. After dinner we shared a message and talked about the blessings of Eternal Families. I felt the gift of tongues as the words were just flowing from my mouth as I testified of the blessing that my family has been in my life and how important the Family is to our Heavenly Father's plan for us. 

Yesterday I spoke in Sacrament meeting, that was a very cool. Like usual i waited till the absolute last minute to prepare my talk, so I didn't really have time to think of what I wanted to say in english write that , translate it, so I just wrote it in french. The only thing I butchered was the pronounciation of my sisters name in french so I would say that it was a success. ( for the record i know how to say my sisters name, we call her Eme LINE and the french would call her emeleen with the same spelling). But our ami Morgane showed up to church, so that was great. She showed up in a Pink fuzzy hoodie with a unicorn horn and face on the hood and the words on the front said "UNICORN SQUAD" in english on the front. It was super funny.

I hope everyone is having a good week and enjoying the christmas season. It is a great time to be a missionary. I haven't been really discouraged as I took the attitude of " i am literally walking door to door offering people the chance to be happy, as happy as I am and happier, all the blessings and things i have recieved in my life stem from the gospel of Jesus Christ. I literally go door to door offering a pot of gold." and if they don't want it then thats okay. But the pot of gold and happiness will always be there when they decide they want it.

Je vous aime,

Elder Bélanger

ab

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