Week 48 - In Flanders Fields

Love these Zusters!

Flanders Field museum which I really enjoyed.

Mom you would've loved this video reenactment of the enemy soldiers' Christmas Eve peace treaty, I almost teared up- they all told their stories/ sang in their native tongues (with subtitles).

History on every corner

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  a little history:

In Flanders Fields 
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) 
Canadian Army

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

McCrae wrote "In Flanders Fields" on May 3, 1915, the day after presiding over the funeral and burial of his friend Lieutenant Alex Helmer, who had been killed during the Second Battle of Ypres. The poem was written as he sat upon the back of a medical field ambulance near an advance dressing post at Essex Farm, just north of Ypres. The poppy, which was a central feature of the poem, grew in great numbers in the spoiled earth of the battlefields and cemeteries of Flanders.

More museum photos (found on the internet):

Week 48 - End of Transfer 7

Cheesin' hard ha. These Elders are great guys, we've really enjoyed working with them.  

So transfer calls...

Hoi hoi Familie O'Riley happy St. Patrick's month! So first of all here's something scary- last night after being gone all day for 12 hours we got home to a pitch black house with a locked gate but a wide open door.. ah but I'm still here e-mailing so don't be worried now we are safe ha but anyways the news I'm sure you're curious about- I'm going to Zoetermeer as STL! I'm really sad to leave Turnhout- an amazing place I've loved from the start and just grew more attached to with time- and " Mevrouwke Castdaddy" (she calls me "Mevrouwtje" or "Riles"), but it is exciting because new adventure/ new people aka the VanderPuts!

Speaking of which, Broeder VanderPut is President Robinson's new assistant and spoke at zone conference last week, and while introducing himself he said something along the lines of "to some of you I'm the guy who inspected missionary apartments.. or did this & that.. or to Sister Riley here, I'm Elder VanderPut from the senior couple who served a mission 12 years ago in Bury St. Edmunds, England.. senior couples don't always get too many dinner appts, but the Riley family always took good care of us" and I was sitting in the back- next to Zuster VanderPut, actually- just beaming because they make me so happy. (:

Wow, speaking of being happy, yesterday at church we counted a total of 15 non-members present.. a compilation of our visitors/ the Elders' visitors/ friends and family visiting a baby blessing. Among those was A (a woman she met on the bus)!  It was so great talking to her again in person, and she was welcomed so warmly and participated and said she had a great experience. E is doing so well- plowing through reading the BoM and coming to each lesson with great questions (ie about Gentiles/ the great and abominable church) and his gf who he was living with has been in Portugal due to a disagreement and may not come back.. of course I didn't dare suggest this to him, but a blessing in disguise? He wants to be baptized and not being married to S was preventing him.

On Wednesday we were doing a lot of contacting in the rain, and a really sweet middle-aged lady was so friendly and sincere and told us that she admired our courage, seeing as what we do must not be easy, and her kindness really just warmed my heart standing there in the cold rain, aw. L is getting baptized this Saturday, along with E who is taught by the Elders- I'm so excited for the both of them. We had a cool "RaD" (Restoration and doop challenge first lesson) with J, a 28 yr old Belg who bought us fruit juice at an Irish pub (while he sipped something more fitting for the location) and he had a lot of questions (a lot of which were answered through our simple but beautiful message) and is open to the idea of there being a God despite a rough childhood and said he knows this is going to be a process but wants to learn more.

I love this place so much- so many good people. I've seen 3 companions and 5 Elders in this branch during my 6 months here.. and now I'm out, weird. Talk to you next week (vanuit Nederland!) and love you all!

Veel liefs,

Zuster Riley (: 

Familie K!

A got a haircut

St. Pieterskerk ft. de zon

GemeentehuisTurnhout

So we took the bus to look up a potential investigator, and ended up in this beautiful city..

Which apparently contains the Belgium/ Netherlands border! 

So we of course had to document the moment.

Cool elfenhuis, eh? They live down the street of some new investigators, and the lady who answered the door was this cute young mom with bright blue hair who bakes and sells vegan cakes (no free samples helaas) and is down to chat another time- she was cool!

Z. Castro and Stefaan, our awesome (but soon-to-be-released) branch mission leader who has us over for weekly FHE and teaches us cool Flemish idioms! / I'll miss them all!

A netjes lunch at Stadscafe.

Ieper is a beautiful city! (Ypres is the spelling au Francais)

We took a day trip to bella Italia to get in touch with my roots.. nah gotcha - still in Ieper, 

Z. Castro loved this place!

With K! (K, I hope you're reading this because you're awesome and I'm really going to miss you and your fam- you're definitely one of the reasons I came to Turnhout. We'll keep in touch. (: )

Mom, I love this collega-collage pic you sent me of all the wonderful sisters I've been blessed to work with so far!

Week 47 - Turnhout

This sweet lady from Paraguay threw a party for Elder C, after talking to the Elders for a mere 25 mins! She has a really sweet 17 yr old daughter, 

 The Elders gave a memorable spiritual thought reminding us to put our trust in Christ and not in man (that's raw egg on Elder C)- shout-out to the VanGijsel kindjes photobombing (:

 Sneak preview into the behind the scenes of #Zusterlyfe... love these Zusters! 

 A is a certified cook and made us dinner! His 17 yr old brother was there, as well as his mom and her two best friends (they call themselves "the three witches").. one a ginger, one with dark hair, and she's a brunette- flashforward to Torri and Isabella and me in 35 years haha? Anyways, they were really fun to talk to- met at a ballet academy 45 years ago when they were 12 and have all been professional ballerinas throughout Europe and are still all best friends.. we had great conversations about free-range pork and iPad airs, but they weren't too interested in the BoM. Really gezellig though. 

I tried foo-foo for the first time! B made it for us.. you may think that's a bathroom behind us, but it's also the kitchen (a makeshift portable stove on top of beer crates).. it's boiled cornmeal with a type of sauce.. and in our case, seasoned with lots of tobacco fumes ha he is a nice guy but it was sad talking to him and hearing how in denial he is about wanting/ being able to change his bad habits; lots of rationalizing and self-justification. 

Dear Fam, 

Yep, transfer calls are this Sunday, crazy! We're emailing today because we're about to go to Flanders Field (we got permission to switch P-days). I'm excited. This week we were inside a lot because Z. Castro wasn't feeling well, but here's part of an email I sent to A (cool young girl studying and researching law, met on the bus) (who we will hopefully be able to meet up with later this week- before one of us possibly leaves)-

   "Two things stood out to me in your writing- first of all, I find it particularly noteworthy that you mentioned the purpose of life and the inner good of people. The restored gospel of Jesus Christ has answered many questions I've had regarding these concepts and through studying the scriptures/ words of prophets and attending church and most importantly through prayer, I've come to know for myself that God has a plan for each one of His children- we all come to earth to gain a body and build eternal family relationships, to be tested to choose good over evil, to learn and grow, and through following the Savior Jesus Christ become free from guilt and pain and shame and become worthy to return to our loving Father in heaven. I believe that we are all spirit sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father and we all chose to come to earth and accept this plan and all have a glorious divine potential for good and the light of Christ- or as you called it, inner good- within each of us. (Because Heavenly Father respects our agency- our freedom to choose- unfortunately, some people choose sin and temptation, contrary to God's plan.) 

   “I also liked how you mentioned the power of gratitude- I also believe that being grateful in all circumstances is directly related to true happiness, understanding, and hope. Being grateful is not just something we do after our problems are solved, but it is acknowledging that we do not always understand the trials of life but one day we will. 

   “Hm, my story? In short, I've moved every 2-3 years in true nomadic Air Force family style (my dad is a physician in the U.S. Air Force), often living in places as remote as Guam or Germany (okay, Europe isn't so exotic to you), where there were not many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My loving, faithful parents raised us 5 children in the gospel, teaching us how to communicate with Heavenly Father through prayer, prioritizing weekly church attendance and nightly family scripture reading, and instilling in us good values such as caring for our bodies by living a healthy lifestyle and abstaining from alcohol/ drugs/ sexual relations before marriage, and encouraging us to be honest and hard-working. In my teenage years, I didn't always agree with my parents (as a typical rebellious teenager who thought she knew better than her parents) and seriously questioned a lot of what I'd been taught, and started to wonder if my school friends were right- were my parents and church leaders ridiculously strict, old-fashioned, and even brainwashed? Considering myself an independent individual (I have an identical twin sister and we grew up fighting for "twin civil rights" and independence (: ), I decided I wanted to find out for myself if this church really was the Church of Jesus Christ restored on the earth with the fullness of truth and priesthood authority, and if Joseph Smith really was a prophet of God, and if the Book of Mormon really is the word of God written by true prophets who lived hundreds of years ago in the ancient Americas. After reading in the Book of Mormon one night, I poured out my soul to God desiring to know these things, ready to live my life in accordance to my answer. I felt a powerful, warm, feeling of confirmation and the reassuring thought that I already knew deep down that yes, this book is from God and this Church will bring me lasting happiness and yes, this gospel contains true doctrines.

   “As for coming on a mission, in Fall 2013 I was at college looking into internships/ study abroad programs, thinking about what I wanted to do with my life, and the more I thought about it, I decided that I wanted to take the opportunity to share this joyful gospel with others, and decided to put school/ hobbies/ frequent communication with friends and family on pause for 1.5 yrs to come on a mission. And now I'm here, 11 months in, and it's been an amazing experience. 

   “So, bad news- there's a good chance that I may be leaving Turnhout for a new city in two weeks... but the good news is that there are plenty of opportunities for us to still meet. Church is every Sunday from..." 

anyways, writing that to her was yet another confirmation of how blessed I am to have grown up in the family I have. (: 

   I'll send some pics in a sec- mostly of food appointments ha.  Love you all! Happy Birthday Mom! Liefs, 

Zuster Riley (: 

We taught the youth Sunday School lesson about using music to understand gospel principles ie PoS (Plan of Salvation), and made these for them.. and played a lot of games probably more age appropriate for primary. (: 

Week 46 - Belgium

A Norwegian soldier(ette) agreed to take a photo with us

Pink skies/ moon in Turnhout! 

The Royal Palace! But the royal flags aren't waving so they're not home- no door contact today. 

Some cool EU building 

Mary...                   ...Elis(z)abeth!

Picture the Atomium in the far distance.. apparently you can see it from here on non-foggy days (:

Beste Fam,

This week we swung by Brussels twice (wow, one day I'll look back on this and it'll seem so crazy, being a few hours' train ride from all these major European cities), once for P-day and once for Zr. Castro's legality paperwork, and it's always so fun to windowshop (+ enjoy free samples) in the dozens of chocolatiers and enjoy the beautiful centrum.

On Tuesday, Zr. Castro and I were looking someone up and ended up meeting a friendly older atheist lady who we had a neat conversation with about what it means to be a good person/ how to find lasting happiness and satisfaction/ how important it is to think for yourself (which she encouraged us to "start doing"), but she couldn't wrap her head around two "young, energetic girls with so much going for them who don't want to take a step back and just enjoy life" and we were able to point out common ground and clear up some skewed ideas, and she said we can come back to exchange stories. Coincidentally, her name was Emma de Smith- so we met the Flemish ongelovige Emma Smith. (:

I continue to be amazed by the strength of the members here, and am so grateful for this time to serve the Lord full-time and be completely immersed in the things that matter most. I'm grateful for the knowledge that Heavenly Father has a plan for every one of His children, and that through sending a redeemer, He "bringeth about his great and eternal purposes, which were prepared from the foundation of the world" (see Alma 42:26) - our earthly lives go so much deeper and we are so much more than we realize.

I love you all! I hope you felt some Belgian vibes of love all the way from Turnhout to Niceville, Florida this Valentine's Day. (:

Veel liefs, 

Zuster Riley (: 

Mmm cool flavors

Chocolade