Friday 8 December 2017

Week 49: Zoetermeer in December is vochtig

This week we did not have very many appointments or anything so we had time to set up stuff and find people. So now this next week should be really good. We got a lot of really good potentials and also a few new investigators and even a decent amount of member dinner appointments. So I'm looking forward to a good week. It has gotten really cold here. Everyday I wear long sleeves as well as a sweater and my thickest coat and then a scarf too. It’s hard to explain but it feels way colder than back home, it’s because of the humidity. It’s usually like 0 everyday but it feels like -15 or colder. I wore all thermals for 2 days, haha, crazy. So ya we have been surviving that, then it will rain which makes you really cold and then the wind and there is no sun. Its dreary but I really don’t mind it.

We have found a good system Elder Ballard and I. There are these huge apartment buildings and we wait till someone lets us in, then we knock the doors inside the building. So we stay covered from the rain and there are a lot of people to hit up who all live close together. It works pretty well, we have found a lot of people and no one gets mad that we do that cause it's kinda normal to go inside those buildings and sell things door to door. We found this one guy from Suriname. He is really cool. We knocked his door and he opened and wasn't really havin it then we told him about the BOM and what it is and stuff. We gave him a copy and he said ok wait a second. “Watch!” he said. Then he went inside his house and came back with a 5€ bill and said that if what we say about the book is true and he learns something from it then he will have to give us money for it because he wants to feel free, haha. We told him we couldn’t take it but that it was worth sooooo much money. We set up a return appointment to teach more about the book and gospel. I'm excited for it!

I really like serving in a big ward. There are sign-up sheets and things for the upcoming big ward Christmas dinner party. I’m so glad our ward does stuff like that! I can’t wait to go. Also, next week is stake conference! So that’ll be fun with the hundreds of members.

Funny thing I found AW Rootbeer in one of the stores here! It’s been almost a year since I've had that! Real good stuff. Ya, we are doing Light the World and are working hard with members and investigators to do it. We use it to find new ones too, well trying to. Ya, we share it with everyone and just encourage people and tell them about it. What’s cool is that it’s not even really church related, it’s just being a good person and being a light in someone’s life.

Questions:
1.  What do the Dutch do for Christmas?  What is happening for Sinter Klaas?
2.  Have you received any parcels from me?
3.  Did you travel anywhere this week?
4.  How was church on Sunday?  Do you help out in anyway?
5.  How are your investigators doing?
6.  How is the weather been?
7.  Are you getting many dinners?  Do you cook much and what do you eat?
8.  Can you try to take more pictures of Zoetermeer?
9.  Have you been asked to go to the temple lately?
10.  Did you go to the Farm this week?
11.  Have you seen any Keeshounds or Alaskan Malamutes?

1. Lots, at this point everyone is focused on Sinter Klaas. It is a sin here to talk or prepare for the 25th before Sinter Klaas. So ya because there are 6 missionaries here in Zoetermeer, us and the ward mission leader, Dave, are doing Sinter Klaas with each other. We all drew names and which ever name you get you have to make a present for them then put a present inside with a poem. I’ll explain. So, for example I got Elder Ballard, which is hard cause he is my comp and it’s a secret. Anyway, he likes basketball so I will make him a big bball out of cardboard and stuff, then inside I will put his real present, which I have to get today…  and you are supposed to write a poem that talks about the present as well as Piet and Sint. Should be fun tomorrow. I'll take pics.

2. I haven't no. Zone conference on the 12th, I’m thinkin.

3. Den Haag, but no where else.

4. Good, we are now covering 2 wards, the English and Dutch so we go to the first 2 hours of English then the 3 of Dutch so a lot of church, ahha. But the English members are real cool and I enjoy it. Really weird to have it in English! I also fasted yesterday so it was a long day. I passed the sacrament and gave a prayer in the English ward.

5. No news on J. A., we need to get an appointment with! Other than that we have a lot of potentials we made appointemts with and will hopefully get them to investigator status.

6. Not good, but good.

7. Decent, we make wurst a decent amount as well as pizza and uh Brazilian food and burritos, we eat a lot of cereal and sandwiches too.

8. Ya, I’ll try!

9. Ya, haha, we did, I forgot! We just went this past Wednesday! I got to do baptisms. I was the baptizer which was a first for me! It was really cool cause these 4 members came from Haarlem, with 200 names. Which is a lot! I had to baptize this big tall old guy and I did it 57 times…. my arm was so sore, haha. but it was cool to do in Dutch and also I can pronounce the Dutch names which I thought was really cool. Also, now I can say I baptized on my mission! 57 people, and all in one day! That was really cool though!

10. Always, this time we did the normal scoopin and stuff and feeding the cows and we also added new hay to the young cows and fed milk to the 3 day old calf which was super super cute. He also got a bunch of new cows, like 7, so we had to take care of them as well. It was a good time. Although it was super duper cold. Our hands were cold but there are barns that we could go into to warm up. 40 cows in one barn makes it really warm inside!

11. Not one! I am on the lookout though!

Word of the week is 'vochtig' pronounced foh - ggg - tih - ggg, the g’s are the hard gurgley Dutch g sound. It’s really fun to say and it means 'humid'.

hou doe

elder fernhout

"This is the weather pretty much every day"
Part of the district

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