Nicholas Fernhout in the Belgium/Netherlands Mission: Week 46: Den Haag and Rotterdam Zone Conference and an Early Preparation Day

Well I write to you from a short week cause today is our pday. We are playing football as a zone, should be fun, as long as the rain stops... well not too much has happened this week. We went to the farm as usual which was fun. We went into the attic part of the barn and our job was to clean away all of the spider webs, the cobwebs. I have never seen so many webs before… we had these long poles thank goodness that we used to clear them away but they got so covered in webs it was ridiculous. Also there was mice running around the whole time and we had to make sure we didn't fall through the weak floor onto the cows below haha, but it was fun. We had a good time scaring each other pretending mice were running up each others legs and whatnot. We did the usual feeding cows and scooping their poop.

Something else cool that happened was zone conference. We gathered as 2 zones here in Zoetermeer. My zone, Den Haag and the Rotterdam zone. I got to see Elder Steele, Elder Cameron, Elder White, and a bunch of others. I always love seeing people at zone conferences. It was also really great because we went to the temple. We had to be there at 7:00 in the morning so luckily we live in Zoetermeer where the temple is! We didn't have to wake up at crazy times like some other missionaries. But ya we all met there and did the names we found for people. It was a really nice time. So much peace to be found at the temple. It was just a gezellig time. The rest of the conference was also good. The temple president spoke and so did the APs and President too. Afterwards we all talked and looked at our packages and letters and took pics with each other, fun times. Elder Cameron met a member who loves Canada and they brought back a Tims Horton's peach drink for him, so sick. I was talking with Elder DeRochie from Okotoks about Canada a lot and all the things that the others don’t get like Tim Hortons and coulees and Canadian Tire and stuff, haha, so funny. Oh ya and they sang to me cause of my bday and then I had to stand there for a minute while they all gave me compliments. I hated it, but people said nice things.

We had a good lesson with A. this week and his brother. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and the beginning of the lesson was just decent. We probably were talking too much but it was ok. They weren’t really getting it though and weren't feeling what we were saying. EB and I both knew that something needed to change so we began to testify and use our life experiences and from then on the spirit was more present and the lesson was so much better. Their perspective changed and it made more sense to them, they were feeling it in their hearts and knew that it was not only important for us but for them too. They like to know everything before they do something they said but often we learn a lot as we just go out and do. So we committed them to read and pray and hope and think that they will do it before our next appointment. We met at the church for that appointment and after they offered to drive us home which was super nice of them, because it was really cold and windy and dark and we were not feeling like walking and taking the tram... super cool guys.

Other than that we had random appointments and it was a regular week. We stayed busy doing things. We got the card game Phase 10 last pday so we play that at night. I’m glad the walls are really thick cause there is some crazy moments we have, haha.

Questions:
Is your back still hurting?
1. My back is fine. I did buy a backpack though so that helps, cause it does hurt sometimes after long days with the shoulder bag but I am just seeing if I want to use a backpack full time. I'll have a pic of it for next week.

Did you get to see Matt?
2. Noooo, I was at the church here at the same time as him. I was in a different room and was waiting for his conference to end but we had to leave 2 minutes before he got out. We had a dinner appointment so I never got to see him but we were 10 meters apart from each other in the same building, ahha. Even if I stayed for a second to say hello it wouldn’t have been cool cause then I’d have to go and we couldn't even talk. So we still haven’t seen each other.

How was your visit to the temple?
3. great!

Hou doe,

Elder Fernhout