Nicholas Fernhout in the Belgium/Netherlands Mission: Week 37: Ik ben NAT

Well, this was the week of rain! There were 72 hours of almost straight rain... Kinda nice but at the same time not when you are wearing nice clothes and have to bike in it. We stayed mostly dry though. This one day we wanted to look up this referral we were assigned to look up. Only problem was they lived 2.5 hrs away by bike... or we could take a bus 1 hour closer and then rent crappy bikes from there and bike an hour. Either way it was going to be an adventure. They lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere. So we decided to bus then bike. Emmen was pouring rain but after we got a ways out of Emmen it was nice and no rain. We rented the bikes, you can look them up if you want they are called OV fiets, and we set out. The only map or directions we had was a little paper we printed off of google maps... took us a bit to find our way out of the city and into the country but from there on it was mostly smooth sailing. We had a little bit more difficulty finding their house but not too bad. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. The bike through the country side was super nice though and I loved it. There was a bunch of weird things out there on the farms. Things like egg vending machines, which I took a picture of, and also a fresh milk vending machine… cool other farms and houses. The person we were looking for wasn't home but her son was and he told us to come back Monday... we told him we live so far away and we exchanged numbers. Kinda of a let down for such a trip. So we turned around and biked to the city where we rented the bikes. In total we biked 35 km, not bad. Right when we got to the station it started to POUR rain. Super hard. It was funny cause there was a train that came and all the people were running out of it to find cover from the rain. We then hopped on a train home and there was this young couple behind us arguing in dutch. The gf was getting mad at her bf saying that he had a weed addiction. Then he said he didn't and she said she knows what an addiction looks like cause her dad had an alcohol addiction. Then he said “if you eat an apple everyday it doesn't mean you are addicted to apples!” I just thought that was pretty funny. Only in the Netherlands.

Friday morning we went to the market to look around as well as street contact. In Emmen they have a market every Friday morning and so we wanted to check it out cause we haven't yet. It was cool, lots of cheese and fruit stands as well as a bunch of random clothing and music ones too. I was looking for a fresh stroopwafel stand cause I haven't had one yet! but I couldn't find one... did find a good Turkish place though and we got a kapsalon. Even though it was raining at the time there was still people all over the market, it's like they don't even notice the rain.

I think it was last week when school started here. Emmen has a few colleges and other little schools and there are sooooo many students about. Emmen went from a quiet place to busy with young people! The buses are way busy as well as the train. I kinda like it though cause it makes Emmen feel less sleepy.

We had dinner with this one family and they gave us this cabbage casserole type of thing and it was great! It reminded me of some of the delicious cabbage dishes you would make, like that soup! Also I found this super good yogurt company called Danio. The yogurt is like the texture of whipped cream cheese. So good. The banana split is great.

Questions of the week:
1. Have you had any Dutch cheese? Which is your favourite?
2. Is there a regional food in your area?
3. How did the missionary work go this week? Did you teach many lessons?
4. How is the finding going?
5. What do you do for service? Since you live with a lot of older people, I imagine there might be opportunities to help right where you live.
6. Did you have any funny experiences this week?
7. How was church?
8. Did you travel anywhere this week? Where do you meet for district meetings?
9. Your Dutch sounds so good ( I heard a little bit in the goat video). So awesome! Is the language progressing?

1. Yes, we have a chunk in the house that we use a cheese knife with to cut pieces off. It is gouda, which I think is the best.

2. Not really, they eat random things. Fish a lot, even though they aren't on the coast.

3. Decent, and a few...

4. Finding is still a struggle here, but it’s going all right I guess.

5. Just what we do for Tea. She bought a new garden so it will need some work. We like never see the old people in our apartment, I don't think they leave it...

6. I said that God has a body of flesh and legs instead of God has a body of flesh and bones... the Dutch words are pretty close to each other, beenderen and benen.

7. I love that vacation season is over. There are members who we have never seen come back now. This one family we met moved here from Miami 2 years ago. They are cool! ER and I also got to bless the sacrament which is always nice.

8. Zwolle and a little place called Stadskanaal and also Hogeveen which is where we rented the bikes. We meet in Zwolle.

9. Oh, haha, I didn't realize I spoke Dutch in that one haha. Ya, it's coming.

Word is arm, which means more, haha. You say it just like the English way.

Okay love you lots bye. hou doe.