From e-mail dated 25 March, 2009Only 5 days until I leave for Belgium! CRAZY!!!
It's been a GEWELDIG (wonderful) week, and I feel nervous to leave, but so excited at the same time. I'm not sure when I'll be able to write again- so I'll try and fit in as much as I can. The next letter you receive will be from Europe!...
So, we got our flight plans last Thursday. We weren't expecting them to come until Friday, so when my District Leader handed my flight plans to me at dinner, I almost screamed! But, we aren't supposed to read any letters or anything in the cafeteria, so we all sat there with our flight plans on our laps and ate SUPER fast then ran out the door so we could look at them. We were basically super stoked for the rest of the night. Sister Spencer came in to teach us and we had all hung our flight plans on the blackboard--but she didn't see that--instead she noticed that we were all antsy and pretty much dancing in our seats. She finally noticed the flight plans on the board, and she DID scream! It was awesome! We are so excited to be headed out. We leave the MTC at 5:00 am on Monday--super early. Our flight leaves Salt Lake at 8:35 am... to Atlanta where we have a 3 hour layover until we leave at 5:15 pm... and we will arrive in Brussels at 8:05 am (which would be midnight here). We are stoked!...
As for a new address for my blog, since it can be seen by anyone, ... it needs to be the mission home address because they don't want people to be able to come track us down or anything :)...
Belgium Brussels/Netherlands Mission
Sister Chantelle Fowler
87, Blvd Brand Whitlock
1200 Brussels
BELGIUM
Okay, so what has happened this week in the MTC? As I said before, deze week was geweldig (this week was amazing!)!
I'm officially moved into the new sisters room and Zuster Ekstrom is my companion until I leave (I'm not sure if I told you that). We also get two new sisters in the Branch today--one is going to Ogden and the other is going to Tacoma Washington.
Thursday was a great day--minus the fact that my teacher, Broeder Bond, was super sick. Poor man. (He's feeling better now though--thankfully). We had some good teaching experiences, and I ran into my good friend and co-worker, Sanita Ley. She just came into the MTC last Wednesday. I absolutely LOVE that girl! We have been able to sit and talk a bit--catch up on people from Freshman Academy as well as share our feelings about the MTC and being a missionary. It has been good for me to have her here.
Friday we had another English fast- but we had a substitute that doesn't speak Dutch- so it was interesting :) We translated for him and basically did most of the things on our own. It was hilarious, but also really good.
Saturday was a good day as well. We had our last MTC weekly planning session- which was CRAZY! We are all trying to speak Dutch AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE this week. It's insane, but awesome. After planning, we had companionship inventory--and Elder Kramer told me that he and the Elders have been talking and that they've decided that the reason they have progressed so fast was because I expected them to act more than 19 years old when they came in to the MTC, and they are really grateful that I had such high expectations for them to reach. I hadn't really thought of it, actually--but they have definitely met and exceeded my expectations. They are wonderful Elders, and I'm so excited to hear the miracles that follow their faith.
Then Sunday was quite the day. Each week ALL of the missionaries in the branch write a talk, and then they announce who will give the talk in Sacrament meeting. So, this week's topic was Charity and Love. I woke up in the morning with the feeling I would be giving a talk, but I was playing the piano for all of the hymns as well as the musical number, so I figured there was NO WAY they would call me up. Well- nonetheless, I was called up to give a talk. It was a good experience for me because I'm really praying every day to have more charity for everyone I come in contact with...
Then, Sunday afternoon we had the chance to participate in the Draper Temple Dedication. Our district got to usher for the dedication, so that was cool. It was neat to feel the spirit of the temple in what is normally the gym at the MTC, but it was temporarily set apart as an extension of the temple, which was cool...
Okay, I only have a couple of minutes left. I've got to run. But I love you all. You are in my prayers every day. I hope that things are going well. Remember that we are all sons and daughters of God. As I was doing my personal study in Preach My Gospel this morning, I read about prayer and then turned to the Bible Dictionary. Read it, and especially pay attention to the paragraph about being a child of God.
Ik houd van jullie!
Met al mijn liefde,
Zuster Chantelle Fowler
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