World Cup Mania

Howdy family! 

Glad to hear you're home safe! Mexico sounds like a pretty crazy place. And speaking of crazy places, I will start by telling you what happened last night here in Liège! As you know, the World Cup is going on right now. I feel like it's not that big of a deal in the U.S., but in Belgium it's lyfe. They won their first game last week and it was relatively crazy in the streets, but last night was so much crazier, and we got stuck right in the middle of it! We were knocking some doors by the church, when at about 8 o'clock the neighborhood all erupted at once because Belgium had beaten Russia. Everyone ran out of their houses and got in their cars with their Belgian flags and started speeding around the the streets, honking and hanging out the windows screaming, "Allez les Belges!!" (go belgium) This was in a pretty quiet neighborhood, so we were a little surprised, but we had no idea what was going on down town where we live! There was like a mile of traffic, every car honking its horn and being driven by a drunk person and everyone either standing on top or hanging out the window waving their Belgian flags, and between us and our apartment, there were thousands of people screaming and kicking soccer balls in the air and all the other crazy stuff you do when your country wins a game. So we start making our way through the crowd, and a large group of people surround us and paint our faces with Belgian flags! They were really nice, and I have to say it was pretty fun, but really surprising, especially in missionary mode when all you can do is nervously sing "The Spirit of God" and let them paint your face! But we looked a little more pro- Belgium with the face paint, so we made it through the rest of the crowd and into our apartment safely. Then we all moved our mattresses into the quietest room in the apartment to try and sleep through the party outside that lasted until late into the night. It was so wild. My only fears are if they win again or if they end up playing the states, but we'll see I guess! 

The week before that, however, was one of the best of my whole mission! We've been so blessed with finding and teaching lately, its been incredible! Our ami's are quickly progressing towards baptism! I just had the impression that everything we did this week was done how we were supposed to do it. Especially with some of our ami's we're teaching. They are so smart! It's like they are all already members because the doctrine just makes so much sense to them, and I often think, "how am I supposed to teach these people? What am I supposed to bring them?? They know everything already!" But somehow, they still learn and progress and it's really refreshing to see these people coming unto Christ. I've also learned how great and blessed of a life we have in Utah! The stories that our ami's share with us are unbelievable. This week I heard stories of people trying to kill our ami's, but somehow they made it out, their families still living in danger while they are here working to save them, poisonings and robberies and people losing every member of their family, and fleeing from war torn countries.  These are people that have really had to fight and struggle to survive and somehow they make it here and they meet us, two young kids wanting to teach them about Jesus on the road. So when we start teaching them, I realize that it's not us who were looking for them, but the Lord. It's Him who needed to heal their spiritual wounds and change their hearts and we are just His humble tools. There really is nothing that can slow this work down! They "hope for a better world" just like everybody, and it's such a great blessing to be able to proclaim that possibility to them. 

Also, this was President Poznanski's last week! It was super sad to say goodbye to them and I'm going to miss them a ton! My favorite thing he ever said was "it's not about what you do but what you establish" and they really have established a great mission here that is going in a great direction. Definitely a bitter sweet moment. President and Sister Babin come in on Thursday!! 

This was a long one! I'm super glad your home safe though and I love you guys! Have a super great week and watch the USA soccer game ;) bisous! 

Love,

Elder Wood

photo 1: Last photo time seeing President and Sister Poznanski!  

photo 2: Belgian pride! Thank you, strangers in the street, for ambushing me and painting my face!