Sunday, December 2, 2012
More Pictures
First- big church in Antwerpen. They have lots of beautiful churches here, but no one really goes to them anymore except for tourist...sad
Second- This is us with Sara, our friend who was baptized beginning of Sept. I don't think pictures are supposed to be taken in front of the baptismal font, so you probably shouldn't share this one.
Third- trio!
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PHOTOS! - Oct. 29th
The first is of my with a giant Antwerpen hand in central train station
The second is with the A for Antwerpen in central train station
The third is of a man throwing the cut off hand Antwerpen is named for
The last is a street in Antwerpen. I take a lot of pictures of buildings because I think the architecture is beautiful but I figure you would get bored of looking at a bunch of buildings so instead I decided to send you just one picture with several included.
The Best Week of My Life- Oct. 22
Echt waar! This last week has been so amazing, full of inspiration and miracles.
Monday we went to Brugge with some other missionaries for P-day where we ran into some members of the church from America, a kid Zr. Jones met last week on the train who not only recognized her but was so excited to see her that before she could stop him he ran over and gave her a huge hug haha, and one of the senior couples in our mission who ended up taking all of us out for fresh waffles, mmmm!
Tuesday we had a lot of really great Atonement focused lessons and we made contact with a friend we haven't seen or heard from in weeks! We set an appointment right then :) Haha also another man hugged my companion...
Wednesday was our temple conference so we woke up early to head to the Den Haag Temple. There we met up with all the missionaries from the Antwerpen and Appledorn Zones and all the senior couples for a session and afterwards we traveled to Leiden for a zone conference and lunch. The temple was so beautiful and being there with so many missionaries was so wonderful. Zr Jones and I are the only sisters two sisters in both zones so it was really cool to be there with so many priesthood holders. Awesome actually. At our zone conference we heard several "closing testimonies" of a group of elders that are leaving this week that I have been privileged to work with. I'm going to miss those ones. Also, I got a package in the form of a bottle, clever :) Haha the elders were so excited for me and suggested I send it back filled with Dutch goodies, like a message in a bottle type deal. Haha we'll see, but keep your eyes open ;) Oh and so you know Mom, the goodies you sent were DELICIOUS! Thanks :) There's a lot that could be said about this day, but basically it was fun, spirit-filled, and just what I needed.
Thursday we got two new investigators, had a great appointment with a less-active family who committed to come to institute and seminary this week, where able to be an answer to someone's prayer when another appointment fell through, and a member took us out for Chinese food! I ate a duck, yum!
Friday we had a great appointment with some friends over how to recognize the spirit after which they told us they could feel it, a little girl told me I was her best friend :), our weekly planning took forever because we have so many friends and lessons to plan for, and we had a really great lesson with a family over how we are all children of God.
Saturday everything went through and ran smoothly. We were able to make all our appointments, do some service, and go to the Saturday session of stake conference where President and Zuster Robinson gave amazing talks, both in Dutch! I was blown away by how well they did and the spirit they brought.
and...Sunday was Stake Conference in Brussels so not only did we get some awesome spiritual nourishment from our stake, but we also got to see a beautiful new city! Also, someone one else told us we were an answer to their prayer and after meeting members of our ward and seeing us interact with our stake, President Robinson told us that this next transfer Zr. Jones and I get to stay companions here in Antwerpen!! I am so excited! Not only is this the longest I'll have been with one companion, but I LOVE Antwerpen and was afraid I was on my way out, thank goodness I'm not!
"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, have amiracles ceased because Christ hath ascended into heaven, and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to bclaim of the Father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of men?...Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that amiracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of bunbelief, and all is vain."
After reading this he used examples from the scriptures and his own life to show how faith is a principle of action and that as we exercise our faith we can assist the Lord in bringing about miracles. I would like to add my testimony to that I know that miracles continue, I see them everyday. I know as you all excercise your faith, you'll see them too :)
I love you all!!! Have an amathing week!
Love, Zuster Becky Hinchcliff
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Monday, October 15, 2012
Only on a mission, Oct. 15th, 2012
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Haha so I have had a pretty
fantastic/crazy week filled with experiences that I think are only possible on
a mission. One of those experiences happened as a result of the inspired
referral from a member. Her friend was not interested in the Gospel, but the referral
got us to a BEAUTIFUL neighborhood we'd never seen before. We began knocking
doors, but either no one was home or no one was interested. Jammer. It was
about time for us to head to another part of the city, but Zuster Jones was
inspired for us to walk another way. We turned the corner and found another
really beautiful street and decided to knock a few more doors. The first few
didn't answer, and in a bit of a pleading/exasperated voice my companion said,
"Heavenly Father please let someone open a door so we can at least see
inside one of these beautiful homes," to which I half jokingly added,
"and maybe we could even get a tour!" We knocked a few more doors and
nothing. Then, I turned around and noticed a door we had skipped over. I felt
like it was important to knock there and not only did the door open, but the
first words out of the woman's mouth were, "Kom maar binnen." That
never happens! People don't just invite strangers into their homes, at least,
not on my mission! We naturrlijk accepted her invitation and ended up getting
to have tea and chocolate with her and her adorable 90 year old husband while
we heard some stories from their lives (turns out he was a legit Nazi...thank
goodness for the Atonement!) and taught the Plan of Salvation. As we were
getting up to leave they not only invited us back, but offered us a tour the
next time!! Does Heavenly Father answer prayers or what?! Also, these two have
three married children all with little families of their own, we're really
hoping and praying we're able to be able to teach all of them!
Some other fantastic/crazy things
that happened this week are:
-Eating rabbit (a typical Belgian
dish) and FuFu, fried plantains, and yams (typical Ghanian dishes)
-Had a friend go to the hospital and
in an hour needed to coordinate how to get her daughter home from school and
get her some help. Everything ended up well and although she wasn't able to
walk, our friend has since been miraculously healed through her faith and
prayers and the faith and prayers of others.
-Sister exchanges, I went to
Zoetemeer (a small doorpje in Nederland where the Den Haag temple is) for a day
and got to work with Zuster Omozokpia! She's a fantastic greenie who's being
trained by one of my MTC companions and we had a great time together. I learned
a lot from her in the 24 hours we were together and am super grateful for her
humble, faithful, and fearless example.
Other cool stuff too, but I gotta run
and catch a train now to Brugge!!!
Love you all!!!
Zuster Becky Hinchcliff
Monday, October 8, 2012
These emails don't adequately provide me with means to convey my love for all of you and my joy in the gospel of Jesus Christ
That said, I'll do my best with what
I've got :)
Wasn't conference amazing? I feel
spiritually filled and yet somehow crave more! Isn't so cool to live in the
latter-days when we again have a prophet here on earth and are able to receive
continuing revelation?! Can you believe it, 18-yr-old elders and 19-yr-old
sisters!! AH! I was so excited (and still am) that I could cry! My immediate
thoughts when I heard this announcement were first of Cory and then of Mary.
Daarna, a flood of thoughts came upon me and I had trouble concentrating on the
following talks. Haha I can't help it, I love missionary work! To quote from an
email I just sent Melissa, "This is so great, just think that's four years
more worth of endowed members of the church. What a powerful source of
righteousness (D&C 43:16)! Also, I can imagine for a significant amount of
young men and young women this is going to have a serious affect on their focus
in high school. The gap between the wicked and the righteous is widening making
those who are righteous more defined and distinguished. It's like the gulf in
Lehi's Dream. No wonder the youth theme for this year was "Arise and Shine
Forth."
Verily
I say unto you all: aArise and shine forth, that thy blight may be a cstandard for the dnations;
A standard for the nations,
yeah!!! What an exciting dispensation we live in!" The army of Helaman
just got some more recruits! Oh man, let's flood the world with some truth!! I
wish that I could type out all my notes from conference but considering that it
has taken me a few hours to review them and I'm not even done, I think it's
safe to say that my typing them is out of the question. Just know that my
testimony has been strengthened and I have an even greater resolve to do the
Lord's will and better follow the promptings of the spirit I receive from Him
without delay. One of the promptings I received this weekend was to write
letters to a few specific people, so expect some letters soon :)
I love you all A LOT. Sometimes
that love tries to trick me into thinking that I'm homesick, but no worries,
it's just an illusion :) However, I am really excited for our reunion
heirna (Alma 17:1-4 and Alma 27:16-18).
Love, Zuster Becky Hinchcliff
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Oct. 2, 2012
Iepers
Inbox
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Sorry this is a day late, yesterday we were traveling all over Belgium for a Zone P-Day, so our time was eaten up by travel. We met up with President Robinson and Zuster Robinson and some elders from our zone to have a tour of a litle town called Iepers (I think in English it's Ypers?) were there is a lot of WWI history. The branch president down there gave us the tour and it was a really cool experience. The whole tour I thought of people like Grandad and Grandpa Catlett and the stories I've heard from them over WWII and about Daddy and I just want to say I am really grateful for each one of them and all the people who sacrifice so we can have the opportunities that we do. It's actually really cool that we went to Iepers this Monday because this Saturday Zuster Jones and I celebrated the Fourth of July so we were already in a pretty patriotic mood. At the end of the tour we went to this war memorial with like 55,000 names of lost soldiers inscribed in it and guess what?! Zuster Jones found a Hinchcliff!! E.T. Hinchcliff listed as a rifleman with the Post Office Rifles. I don't know if anyone in our family knows anything about this fellow, but if so I'd love to hear his story!! I took a picture of his name and will send it to you when I find a computer here that sends pictures. I also found a W.E. Hutchings from the 4th BN London Regt. R. Fus. (no idea what that means, I just copied it down) and a Private W.W. Hutchings from the E. Kent Regt. (The Buffs). We also heard a really funny story about the town Iepers from Pres. Willems (the branch president). So once upon a time a long time ago there were a lot of mice in Iepers. It was a really big problem so the townspeople were trying to think of safe solutions to get rid of them all. As they got to talking they came up with the idea to bring cats into the village since they're a natural enemy to mice to take care of the problem. The cats successfully solved their epidemic, but then the villagers had a new problem: too many cats! Rather than bringing in another animal to get rid of them that would eventually reproduce into a bigger problem someone came up with the idea of throwing cats down from the tallest tower in the village. Apparently it was the best idea out there so they gathered together as many cats as they could and threw them off the tower! I guess this went on for some years before they decided it was cruel or something and stopped the practice. Now every year or every three years they have a cat remembrance service below the tower and a man dressed as a court jester throws stuffed animal cats to a crowd of people below. Haha maybe you don't think that's funny but we were all busting a gut when we heard, it's just ridiculous! :) Anyways it was a pretty cool p-day.
This last week started off a bit slow for us because Zuster Jones was sick for a few days, but luckily she recovered pretty quickly and we were still able to have a good week. I think the most exciting thing that happened was we got bikes! For some reason the sisters in Antwerpen haven't had bikes for a few years and relied on public transportation to get around. That's fine and dandy except that Zr. Jones and I really have been trying to visit more dorpjes were families are so we can find, teach, and baptize families and public transportation just wasn't getting us there. When we called President Robinson to ask about bikes he didn't know why we didn't have bikes either so after a week of asking around a member got us some bikes!! We haven't had them for very long, but there's already been a significant difference since we got them. Our first day with the bikes we found two positive new investigators and met a lot of postive potentials. What great!! The work is picking up here in Antwerpen!! Not going to lie sometimes I feel a bit over-whelmed with it all and the significance of what I'm doing here, but at the same time I feel really humbled that the Lord finds me worthy and capable and trusts me with it. The worth of souls is really great, so that's a lot of responsiblity, but I know the Lord doesn't give us anything we can't handle and will make up for what I lack as long as I do my best. I intend to do nothing less.
I love you all and hope you are all enjoying the Autumn!
Love, Zuster Becky Hinchcliff
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