HELLO from GENT, BELGIUM!!!

Hello family and friends!!

 

Wow this has seriously been the craziest, weirdest, scariest, most exhausting week of my life!! if you have been watching the blog you will have seen all of those pictures of us arriving at the Airport and of me receiving my call! The jet lag is REAL! Today is the first day that I really feel awake. Around 10 or 11 in the morning here my eyeballs hurt SOOO bad and I just want to sleep all day long. haha But it is getting better so that is all fantastic. I know you all have lots of questions so I am going to try and answer them all the best I can.

 

I am with two companions this time, Zuster Djoukeng and Zuster Morris. They are both so great and have helped me alot. Especially with the language. President and Zuster Robinson are such an amazing couple. They are so sweet and nice and I cant wait to get to know them better. I am trying to learn Flemish now which is super super hard. You basically just have to tune your ear from dutch to flemish. We had church yesterday and I seriously had no idea what was going on the whole time. haha I have never loved it so much when someone spoke to me in English but I am slowly starting to understand more and more everyday. Just so everyone knows....my new address of my apartment is:

 

Helene Dutrieulaan 7/201            

9051 Gent

Belgium

 

It is SOOO humid here. I stepped off the plane in Amsterdam and just about died. They have also been having some of the hottest days they have had in years. Its almost like the humidity sticks to your body because it is sooo hot. That has definately been something I have needed to get used to. The thunderstorms/rainstorms here are absolutely INSANE. The tram we take everywhere was acting like a boat this past week one day when there was just rivers/streams everywhere you looked. Good thing I dont mind rain too much :) We are not on bikes in this area because Gent has an extremely advanced transportation system which is really nice. We take trams and ride buses everywhere we go.

 

The members here are soo awesome. We have a dinner appointment every single night and yes i have already eaten some interesting things. We had this one member make us this chicken dish one night but Belgians dont believe in cutting the fat or basically anything else off of it which was super gross so me but I ate it anyways. haha We also had noodles in milk, with brown sugar on top. It was actually really good but really weird. Our branch is really small. Probably half the size of our relief soceity at home. We are trying to re-activate as many of them as we can and we are already seeing huge success in doing that so that has been awesome! Everyone is so great and nice and it has been super comforting to know that.

 

We have lots of progressing investigators and I already love them so much. Two of them will probably be getting baptized this August so I will already have my first baptisms :) :) We taught this guy named Patrick and he speaks French so  I am already using my French here in Belgium which is so crazy and awesome to me.

 

Our apartment is SOO nice. It is really modern and up to date. My trainer said not to get used to something like this because in other cities it isnt quite as nice. No matter what though we are taken care of. They also dont belive in air conditioning here because usually it isnt nearly as hot as this so in the morning I literally wake up drenched in my own sweat. haha sorry if that is gross but it is true. It gets so hot and humid that you are just disgusting.  I miss that part about Utah's summers- the dry heat. But my skin and nails absolutely love it. They have this ice cream stand that I love to go to and they have this flavor called Smurfens. It is SOO good. I couldnt even tell you what flavor it is but I am addicted already.

 

I love you all so much and keep me in your prayers and write me often. That address will be good at least until August 24th or something? Exactly six weeks from this past wedensday whatever that was. I will keep you updated on that but remember you can always send things to the mission office- I just only get those things about once a month so it is kind of a bummer. It has been a challenge adjusting to a new culture and life here in Belgium. I miss my MTC companion like none other but I am loving my new ones. I love you and miss you all. Hopefully I answered most of your questions- I will be writing letters today too so I will try and include all of those in them. Thank you for your love and support! this church is true and I love it with all my heart!

 

Love, Zuster Brophy

 

I will be sending lots of good pictures next week :)