Belgium Netherlands Mission

But, this new city has potential! haha just kidding, it's amazing! I'm loving it so much already. My new companion, Zuster Hopkin, is on her second transfer, but you wouldn't know it, because her dutch is AMAZING and she's already got the hang of things. She's from Ohio, is an art major at BYU (AH! So cool) and is basically the funniest, cutest person ever. Loving it here already. We had a super cool weekend here. There was this address that they couldn't find a few weeks ago, but we found it finally, and it was a really cool meeting. This super sweet dutch lady already had a Book of Mormon in English and was super open to having us come back with one in Dutch. 

We were knocking doors in an area and this guy answered the door in his underwear..... haha we died. He said he'd be willing to have us come back, but I think we're giving that one to the Elders.... 

It snowed on Saturday! And the canals are starting to freeze over! Zr Johansen that I'm almost going to be able to walk on the canals! (I got the ward Christmas package a while ago, but I keep forgetting to tell Zr Godwin, Lamoreaux, Brunsdale, Johansen, and Curtis thank you for your notes! It was super sweet and full of yummy things)

The ward here is super awesome! Everyone I talked to and told I was going here told me that it was their favorite area and that the ward is awesome, and I totally believe it!

One of my district leaders, Elder Strikwierda, went to Lone Peak, so it's been fun to talk about people from High School. In our ward we have, Elders Strikwierda, Schmidt, Losee, and Woltjen, and then we'll meet the rest of the district tomorrow at zone training. 

Hope you all have a great week, and remember that I love you!

VEEEEEEL Liefs, Zuster Watts

It's Monday again?

heh?*to be read like a nederlander*

Well folks, I'm being transferred out of Amsterdam! Which I kinda saw coming but is still a bit scary/sad I guess. But I'm so excited also. As you can tell, mixed feelings on the subject. haha

I'm going to one of the northernmost cities in Nederland, and my new companion will be Zuster Hopkin. It's super cool because Zusters Bush, Voss, and Dobler are in my district! Ah!!! Dreams really do come true! haha
Everyone who I've talked to tells me that city is gorgeous, and just a super cool area/ward in general, so I'm excited.

Things I will miss from Amsterdam:
the ward
Muchu
Zuster Karlson
everything!

Things I will not miss:
weed
weed souvenirs everywhere

just kidding, it's really not that bad unless you're right by the coffee shops, it's just funny to joke about. :) Amsterdam has been a wonderful place and I've learned so much!

Our ward has had some really hard blows these past couple of weeks, and it has been a trying couple of weeks for us all. But I'm so grateful for the examples of the members who do their best in a place where it's not easy to be a member of the church. Their living testimonies have been such a strength to mine and I can't imagine a life without having known them all. The Dutch members of the church are so inspiring to me and I'm grateful beyond words for their diligence and love. It's amazing to me how much I care about them, because 5 months, looking at it twice, isn't really that long of a time, but I just feel so much love for them.

I'm looking forward to the rest of my mission though, and I'm very excited to serve up north with Zuster Hopkin.
Zuster Karlson is a natural at missionary work, and I've been so blessed to be her companion. She is so patient and easy to get along with. But above all that, she's so humble and willing to share what she knows with others. 
I've got a lot to learn and I'm so grateful to be here!

My favorite scripture this week was 1 Peter 4:8 "And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity‍ shall cover the multitude of sins." The footnote is a JST that says "preventeth"--Charity preventeth a multitude of sins. If we have charity, we avoid many mistakes. A few I can think of (because I see them in myself) are selfishness, impatience, refusing to forgive, greediness, and probably a billion others. I just thought it was a nice one.

I love you all and I hope you have a great rest of January! Because next week is February.... Ah! hoe kan dat?!

Love, Zuster Watts

What an interesting week. I don't have a whole lot of time, but this week we went all the way to Rijswijk (a city south of Den Haag. About a 2 hour travel time) to get Zr Karlson's visa, and they told us to go to the IND in Amsterdam. Which was super weird because every missionary goes to Rijswijk. So that took a lot of our time that day. But it was funny nonetheless.

There's a lady who lives close to the church building. She's not a member, but she comes and asks us for help sometimes. On new years eve something happened to her where she can't speak anymore, but can understand what other people say to her. So we have to guess what she means and she writes things down and acts things out for us.

Liefe Familie,

New Years is crazy here! We've been hearing fireworks all month randomly, but they were definitely becoming a little more frequent as the days got closer to new years. Here, they have fireworks that are really pretty with the lights and everything, but the focus is more on the sound, apparently. It was scary the first time we heard one go off nearby, but it just got to be a normal thing after a few days.

New Year's Eve was the weirdest day EVER. We did studies and went out like it was a normal day, but then we had to be home at 4 pm. It was about 3:30 and we were waiting for our tram to come and it wasn't coming. Sometimes on holidays the public transportation system doesn't exactly come on time, but it came about 8 min late and we were still in on time. But while we were out, everyone we saw was buying fireworks..... and.... alcohol..... 

That's prolly not the best mix ever.. haha

But we went inside and sat down and Zr Karlson and I played a couple rounds of UNO and then we did this 1000 pc puzzle of a painting of Salt Lake City that we found in our apartment and we made cinnamon rolls, and homemade-from-scratch pizza. We had a good time :)
We went to bed at 10:30 like normal, but then at 11:50 pm the fireworks woke us up! We went up to our attic which is on the 3rd story and watched from that window, which looks out on the back side of our house into a mini garden/alleyway/ the rest of the city. If you know what the finale of the Stadium of Fire 4th of July show is like, imagine that, but just spread about evenly across the city. It was the loudest sound I have ever heard. Zr K and I were joking that it sounded like we were in a war zone! 

And then midnight hit and everything went crazy.

Our next door neighbors were shooting some off right in the street in front of the house that were super loud and we could see the fireworks over the top of the house. haha 
I took a video, but my camera turned off automatically after 20 minutes... so not sure how to upload the whole thing. But the fireworks lasted pretty strong until well past 1:30 am
One of the members told us yesterday that it wasn't even much this year because the economy wasn't too good this year, so past years there have been even more fireworks! Super crazy.

Earlier this week, we were walking to look up a former investigator, when we passed this guy on the fietspad (bike path). He looked at me like he wanted to ask a question, so I stopped and talked to him. Turns out, it was him! He was a guy that back during my first transfer, stopped Zr Frandsen and I as we were biking past in that exact same spot on the fietspad. He had met the missionaries in Italy when he was living there, but didn't have his Book of Mormon anymore, and so we had tried to call and meet with him but it just never really worked out, so we weren't sure what else to do with him, when we "toevallig" ran into him again this week IN THE EXACT SAME SPOT as before. Ah!

I didn't recognize him at first, but he said, "do you remember me?" and suddenly my mind switched on or something and I realized it was him! We talked for a few minutes, and he said to call him on Sunday. We called him after church yesterday, not really expecting much, but then he said he could meet that night at 8 pm! We couldn't get a joint teach on such short notice, so we were very grateful that he was really understanding about how we couldn't just come to his house. Some men get offended when we explain that we can't come over when it will just be us two sisters and them (the 3rd man rule). But he was super nice about it :) Blessings. I'm telling you.

Anyway, we had a short meeting on this bench just inside of a supermarket and brought him a Book of Mormon. He moved to the Netherlands 8 months ago. He didn't remember a lot from when he met with the sisters in Italy, but he was very open and very kind. We gave him the Book of Mormon, and he asked, "is there a chapter you would recommend that I read first?" 

And I was like, "you perfect human being!" I didn't really say that,haha but I thought it. It was so awesome!

At the end I was about to ask him if we could close with a prayer, but before I could say it, he said, "we need to close with a prayer, don't we?" And if I weren't a missionary I could have hugged him! haha just kidding, I was just so so so happy! The whole way home last night we were just so excited about how awesome he is! He also mentioned that next time we meet we should bring someone (because he's awesome and remembered about our rule) and go by where he lives because he said "I'm sure there are many people who would be willing to listen to the word of God" He is such a Blessing!