So yes, I finally got to see Matt! I was at the church early to shovel snow and then all of the sudden I see down the street Matt running towards me and I ran and gave him a hug. It was just really chill and nice to have a little piece of home. We sat with each other at the conference and we did good at not talking the entire time, we paid attention. I hope Prez saw that we could contain ourselves, maybe he will put us closer, haha. We talked a lot during lunch which was weird cause we talked about all the people we both knew. So weird. Of course we took some photos which I will upload! Oh wow, that is super nice of the Bishop and his wife!!! Thanks!
A bit about my week... we had a dinner appointment with this one family. We had never really talked much to them, at church so we wanted to get to know them at the dinner. They are a super cool fam! Both parents served missions, France and Japan. Their kids are super cute. A really funny thing happened. We were all eating and 2 of their boys were calling each other names, one said stupid, the other said dumb, then one said homo and the parents were both shocked and were like, don’t say that! Then the younger daughter says “what does homo mean?" It was just such a funny moment.
We had a good appointment with F., an investigator of ours. She is really soft spoken and kind and finds it difficult to have faith. I was talking to her and explaining how faith always starts small and then all of the sudden she interupted and said that she will come to church. So we told her we would meet her at the tram stop and walk with her to the building. She said okay and we agreed on a time. Fast forward to Sunday and we went to pick her up and there was no one there. We waited and nothing... super sad, we really expected her to be there. Disappointment was kinda the theme of the week. We had a ton of appointments with people however almost every single one of them fell through.
One appointment that did go through was with our cool Turkish family we are teaching. We get there and they are having a bday party with like 10, 14 year old girls all over the place. So we had to cram into the tiny kitchen to have a lesson. The wife had made us soup, homemade soup just for us! It was so so nice of her to do that, even though she was so busy with her family and kids. They all left into another room so we could go into it. The husband doesn't speak very good Dutch or English and was really happy we had the BoM in Turkish. He really wanted more church books in Turkish. There aren’t too many but then we realized that he could download the Gospel Library and change the language and then see what's there. So we downloaded it for him and there was a lot of stuff, Liahona articles as well as conference talks and other resources. It was great for him. He loves to read, loves to read. He read so much about Mormons on the internet and knows a lot of our church history, and from what he was saying it was all accurate. I just feel good knowing that now he has the app so he can read the accurate info about us. Something else cool is they had a friend there helping with the party and she joined the lesson. The husband and wife took a moment to tell her what they knew and what we taught them to teach her. They did it in Turkish, so now she also knows about the gospel. She even tried to point out flaws and they defended us! It was so cool. She asked why we don’t drink coffee and before I could answer the wife said because it was addicting and that she thinks it is a good idea. She herself is addicted to coffee, haha. She wants to stop. It is just really cool to see them progressing. Once they come to church they will be golden. They want to come but it snowed a foot so they didn’t, understandable. I just love them so much though!
We had a baptism here. It was one of the sisters. It was really really beautiful. The convert has been investigating for a while. She has great member support. She actually planned the whole service herself with lots of musical numbers. Everybody loved it and she looked so happy the whole time. Echt een geestelijke ervaring.
We also got called by the temple Prez to come help do baptisms at the temple in case anyone came. So we go over and started talking with the temple prez. He is a really cool guy. No one came but we had to wait so we ended up talking with him for 2 hours. He told us really cool stuff about missionary work and about the gathering of Israel and, wow, he knows so much about a lot of things. It was super cool to talk with him one on one. He served his mission here, then came back on a couples mission, then served as mission prez here, then served another couples mission here, then got called as the temple prez here. So he is actually American but can speak Dutch well and pretty much seems Dutch.
I think I forgot to mention this, but on Sunday last week one of the office couples came up to me at church and told me that I have been assigned as the new “Ikea Elder” which means I get a car and I help out when apartments need new furniture or when things need to be moved or thrown out. Elder Steele was the old one but then he died [ie. finished his mission]. So now I am it! I really wanted to do it cause it is fun. I’m excited. Also, they usually have the strong elders do it, haha. So at zone conference I had to do a driving test with Elder Van Der Put, him and his wife are the office couple in charge of apartments. I drove with him so he could see if I am a good driver, I passed. The assignment is mission wide, so I could be driving to Belgium.
Questions:
1. How was the weather this week? Is there still snow on the ground?
2. Do you know yet what the Dutch do for Christmas?
3. How was the work this week?
4. Did you have dinner appointments?
5. Tell me about Zone Conference? Did you get your parcels?
6. What are your plans for Christmas Day?
7. Does the snowy wet weather make it difficult to get around?
8. Is there a Gospel topic that you have been studying lately?
1. cold windy rainy, wet, dark. the usual. no more snow left.
2. vieren... uh idk. the usual stuff like we do back home.
3. good, besides the dropped appointments. we have a cool new investigator. she really liked the plan of salvation.
4. one. but this next week we have 4 so it'll be fun!!!
5. twas good. yes I did thanks!
6. idk
7. no, it's not too bad. just annoying getting wet all the time.
8. het heilsplan! I love the plan of salvation and I think it is really relatable to people and that people have interest in it. I always try to lead it back to the BOM in contacts.
#LightTheWorld 2017
(link to the 25 days advent calendar at https://www.mormon.org/christmas/25-ways-25-days)
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| some good looking snowelders! |
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Elders Fernhout and Balthar
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