Even the Hard Times Become Blessings

Hey everybody!

Sounds like everything went pretty great back home with the marching band! It's always sad to have a season come to an end, but it makes it a lot easier when you come off with a win! From the pictures, it looks like Tyler, you really had a pretty great experience with it all. You kind of got some of the best 4 years ever to be in the band.

The River Alzette, Luxembourg

As for my week, it was a pretty good one, but pretty normal overall. We took a little tour through the old part of Luxembourg city, in the bottom of the valley here last P-day, and were finally able to see some of the prettier parts of the city, but not all yet. We'll keep working on it. :)

Tuesday and Wednesday turned into some of the harder days of my mission. We had a bunch of rendez-vous set up, but, hour after hour, it seemed like everything kept falling through. We made our way an hour away to our evening rendez-vous on Tuesday night, and they ended up not being there. Since Tuesday was our last day showering at the Oliver's house, Wednesday we were finally able to go back to a normal morning schedule. Let me tell you, those few hours we have in the morning to get ready for the day make such a big difference. Like Tuesday, Wednesday started off great, with a lesson with a less-active member and his girlfriend, who were so nice. But, also like Tuesday, things went downhill from there. To make a long story short, we ended up stuck in France, around 9 at night, with our options being paying for a train to Metz and spending the night there, or walking to the nearest member's house and asking for a ride home, which would take over an hour out of her evening as she was trying to put her children to bed. In the end, we chose the member, who showed so much kindness to us and took us back home without even hesitating. Anyway, it was kind of a rough night for us, but in the end, it really helped Elder Gomez and I become closer and set some really good long term goals.

But, I don't really want to focus on the negative, so I'll move on to Thursday. We met Ramiro, and taught him (well, mostly Elder Gomez, since I still don't really speak Spanish). It went really well, and he really seems to feel like we're the path that he should take.

Friday, we met Lewis, our Elders Quorum president for lunch (italian pizza) and talked a lot about how we hope to help the ward progress and grow, specifically through home teaching. He's a really business oriented guy and we were able to set some really good plans for the ward that will hopefully come into play in the next few weeks. That evening, we saw our 9-year-old ami, Steven, who is just sweet. His family always feeds us SOOO much, but it's awesome. :)

Saturday we met with Daniel, the body builder guy, who just won the national competition here in Luxembourg. He's SUPER buff and just as nice. We talked a lot about how to get buff, and then talked about how to help him come to church. It was a really good talk, and we hope that he'll be able to make it soon. That even we had our rendez-vous fall through, so we ended up just doing some pass-backs to finish up the night.

And yesterday we spent most of the day with members. After church, we went to the Rodriguez' house, our Stake President, for lunch and his littlest son's birthday. Another crazy language experience as their kids spoke Spanish, French, Luxembourgeois, and German to each other. It still blows my mind every time I hear that... Then after that all finished up, we pretty much went straight to the Oliver's for dinner, so, needless to say, we were pretty full by the end of the night. A great way to end the week, at least from the perspective of an Elder. :)

And, that's pretty much it. It was a week full of ups and downs, a few more downs than usual, but that's alright. It's in the hard times that we learn. Lately I've been reviewing my day at the end of the night and trying to see if I've grown, and if not, what I can do better to make it. It's pretty simple, but it makes a big difference. Even the hard times become blessings.

Well, I'm about out of time, so, until next week! Keep workin' hard and havin' fun!

Elder Bigler