kales takes paris: expect the unexpected.

CHEZ MOI, quoi de nuef?

Let's just talk about how CRUEL those cruise pictures were as I'm freezing my butt off over here in Belgium. (see photos below, extreme measures have been taken to stay warm)

But seriously, it looked like y'all had the time of your lives. Round 2 Summer 2015? if you insist.

Alright so this week our ami's were using their wonderful gift of free agency to not answer our calls, frudge our rdvs, and not roll out of bed on sunday morning for church.

BUT...we had a really fun week anyways. full of adventures.

In my life, it's my charm or my curse to always find myself in the most random situations, places, and circumstances. Like how I live in the Belgium ghetto right now...let's just talk about how I would have never even dreamed of this...ever.

Here are just a couple that I found myself in this week...

-Last week I made the mistake of getting on the subject of pizza buffets, big judd's hamburgers, and mcdonald's chicken nuggets with the Motulet and Kapypula families. After which they decided to invite us to their semi-annual mardi-foo (some pizza hut deal) family home evening. Well, we showed up and they were like "OK, Soeur Johns show us what you're made of." Hahaha. Can I ever turn a challenge like that down, uhh never. The worst part was that we had already had a HUGE mangez-vous that morning for lunch, but I still...don't know why I'm admitting this...managed to eat about 19 pieces of pizza.

Needless to say...I've been practically fasting every day since.

-I was also able to participate this week in House Hunter's International: Liège. In the next transfer they are planning on putting another companionship of Soeur's into Liège, which means we need a larger apartment. We got to go around on Tuesday with the senior couple touring apartments with an agent. We found two winners. And guess what? They have dish washers. I got excited about it, but then I realized that I would probably be transferred out about a week after the move.

-We got to go up to Bruxelles for Soeur Hilton's Belgium legality. As we were walking out of the Metro station we saw a swarm of missionaries coming towards us and I didn't recognize any of them. Then all of the sudden I was TACKLED by FRAN one of my friends/ relief society president from BYU freshman year. She is serving in the Dutch speaking mission and they had legality on the same day. One of those small world, are we really in Belgium right now experiences. So great to see a familiar face on the other side of the world. After legality, and as tradition goes we were able to go see Grande Place, Manikin Pis, and eat a delicious Goffre smothered in speculoos. Soeur Hilton cried when she saw Grande Place. That place is stunning. Never ever gets old.

-We were blessed to have a family home evening with Sariah Schurch and her best friend, who she just began sharing the gospel with, Oceane. This girl is precious and absolutely golden. We started the lesson by having her read the Young Women's Theme, and literally everyone in the room had tears in their eyes. Including her. The Spirit was SO strong. She agreed to come to church and meet with us next week, as Sariah will be serving a mini-mission with us for a couple of days.

-We found ourselves in the middle of a PARADE in the cutest little town called Visé. They have a festival of lanterns every year to celebrate the fact that they held off the Germans in both world wars. We were invited by our crazy less-active, and seeing that we had a couple of ami's and in-actives to pass by in Visé we decided it would be a great use of our time ;) But seriously, it was incredible and one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

And on the train home, who did we meet? Sandra. An awesome African hipster hand model who decided it would be pretty rad to meet with the missionaries.

YEAH, this week was nuts. really fun. and we found a lot of potential.

I really just have a testimony of not taking yourself too seriously, and LAUGHING. It is so important to let yourself laugh. and to enjoy life. That's my 2 cents for this week.

I love y'all so much. You, especially you Grammy Johns, are always, every night in my prayers. I am so blessed to have you wonderful people in my life. I wouldn't trade y'all for anything else. 9 months. Don't blink.

LOVE YOU infiniment,

Soeur Johns