Week 62: Schaatsen in Alkmaar

Week was ok. It was very very cold. Every time we talked with someone we knew, like members or investigators this week I always said something like “it's cold isn't it?" and then they always responded well you are used to it right cause you are from Canada! Well ya, but it still is cold outside. Also, it is way more humid here which makes a difference. I also have very thin gloves but still managed to not freeze my hands off.

We had exchanges this week which was nice. They both came to Alkmaar which means that we had to divide up our appointments. Elder Crow took the day app and we took the dinner app. We also had the car though so we decided to use it to look up all the referrals we had. That was nice cause we would get out for like 15-20 mins to look up the referral and then knock around it for a bit. Sadly, none of the referrals were home, however we got 2 new investigators from working in the area. That was nice. I was working with Elder Humphrey from New Mexico so he was especially cold.  It was really nice to be able to head back to the car to warm up. We were so thankful we weren't out the entire day.  Well we had a nice dinner app then came home. The other elders were also just getting home. They had a rough day, Elder Grondel and Elder Crow worked outside the entire day. They found 3 investigators so that's cool but at one point they were biking and Elder Grondel stops and told Elder Crow that he was going to puke cause his hands were so cold. Elder Crow said his prayers while riding his bike were something like this “please don't let me have permanent damage to my skin!" So ya it was cold here. It only snowed the last day, on Saturday I think. That was really cool but then yesterday and today got super warm and it is geweldig!!! There is a 14 degree difference between today and 2 days ago, crazy. Oh probably the coolest thing that came cause of the cold is that for the first time since 2012 the kanaals are frozen and people are outside skating on the kanaals! Super cool. We went out there and walked on them. I wanted to skate so bad. I took lots of pics and videos though. So pretty.

During the week we helped a member cut down a bunch, like a lot, of bamboo stalks in her backyard. That was a fun project. Next time we go over she wants us to build a fence out of them. We had a really good appointment with an investigator named I. We watched the restoration DVD cause he had some questions about Jospeh Smith. He said it was moving and that he felt tears that wanted to come out but they just didn't. We told him that was the Spirit. It was just a really sweet moment. He is super cool guy.

Other fun things is that our heating system decided to stop working this week which was the coldest in years.  We called the mission and they said to go buy new electric heaters. So we set out in the morning to go to the store and the bridge was down for bikers, so we had to take a ferry to get across a 50 foot kanaal. Super cool actually. I took pics. Then we bought the heaters and had the task of biking home with them. It was worth it cause now we don’t have to freeze in and out of our apartment. So we had these two heaters going then all of the sudden they both stopped. We realized we killed the power to our house. Then our neighbour knocks on our door and his power was also out haha. oooops. He said he will fix it and we had to leave, when we came back it was all fixed so that was nice. It was in general a good week and this next one will be great cause it will be warmer!!! And we have zone training and also an exchange to Amsterdam.

That is all,
Elder Fernhout

Questions:
1.  How was the weather this week?  Was it hard getting around?
2.  Did you have zone conference or is that this next week?  (If you had it this week, did you get my parcel?)
3.  How was the teaching this week?
4.  Do you have any interesting topics or articles you are studying to pass along?
5.  Where did you travel to this week?
6.  Did you have any zone or district activities?
7.  How was church?

1. awful, yes it was freezing.  I wore 3 layers of shirts and a sweater and my coat and I was still cold. I also had 3 pairs pants on…
2. next week.
3. great.
4. I am doing a challenge where I go to Jesus Christ in the topical guide and look up every reference and underline it. So that’s a big job but it is great so far, I am learning lots.
5. Den Helder and numerous little dorpjes to visit referrals. Not much more.
6. just district meeting which was our best one yet I would say!
7. great. I was asked to give a talk in 2 weeks.