A Peak at Brussels and the Welfare Side of "Welfare and Self-Reliance"

Phil and I are called to work with Welfare and Self-Reliance in the France Paris and Netherlands Belgium missions. Most of the time we help people in wards and stakes set up self-reliance groups. The topics of different groups include mental health, personal finances, getting a better job, and creating and growing a business. Before this mission, I helped my stake in Salem, Utah for three years by setting up groups. The Church has a great curriculum for each of these subjects, and most people learn practical new skills as they collaborate with others. We also help teach English.

But this weekend we got to participate in the “welfare” part of our missionary call. “Welfare” is another word for humanitarian work. We drove to Brussels, Belgium to help the young adults do a service project for the homeless in the city. The project was planned entirely by a few young adults in Brussels, and I wrote the proposal that helped get funding.

Phil and I drove to Brussels on Friday and helped all day on Saturday making sandwiches for the volunteers. Living Legends, a performing group from BYU, joined in the service project and taught the participants several dances.  This group has been in Belgium for performances at a festival. They kindly joined the young adults to put together hygiene kits for the homeless in Brussels. And they performed dances from Bolivia, Samoa, and tribes in North America and taught us dances. 

Phil and I sat in the chapel reminiscing about our separate times in this Belgium chapel.  Phil went to meetings at the Brussels chapel as a missionary in 1973, and Delys attended church there in 1971 when her family visited the places her father served as a missionary.

We love how each row has hymnbooks in Dutch, English, French, and Spanish. Belgium is a fantastic country, and Brussels is an international city, with the EU parliament and NATO. The two languages in the country are Flemish and French, but everyone seems to know English, and, in fact, kids talk to each other in English rather than learning the language of the other.

We spent time with the Parkers (senior missionaries serving the young adults in Brussels and who are famous for making American cookies) and the Binghams (Jean was the previous General Relief Society President), who are ambassadors for the Church at the EU and all the embassies in town.

Besides having a great time helping with the service project, Phil and I walked around Brussels, eating true frites (the Belgians invented French fries and they double cook them to make them crispy and yummy),

gaufres (Belgium waffles–ours were covered in sliced strawberries) and Belgian chocolate (because who can resist?  No one),

seeing the murals from Tintin on walls and walking around the Grand Place.

We stayed in a funky old restored grand house and had to park 15 minutes away.  

Sunday morning we went 30 kilometers south to Nivelles and attended la Reunion de Sainte-Cene (sacrament meeting) and stayed the second hour. Phil got to meet Soeur De L’eau, a ward member who fed him and his companion many times and who treated Phil wonderfully 50 years ago. They were both moved by this reunion.

We are privileged to have visited this beautiful country once again. We are excited that the Church just announced the first temple in Belgium will be in downtown Brussels.