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SNOW

1/30/2015

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PictureMy Baby! Zr. Watts w/ Zr. Karlson
Liefe Familie,

This week was such an amazing one! Transfers are weird, but I made it here safe and sound. It was a good couple of hours on the train, but we made it alive. 

A dear investigator met up with us on Tuesday to say goodbye and we talked a little about how she has been doing with prayer. She said she loves praying because it is a great release for her and she feels more comforted when she prays. That was super cool to hear. It was really hard to say goodbye. The ZHV (relief society) president, Zr Zwaan, had us over for dinner Tuesday night, and the whole time it just didn't feel real that I was leaving. She and her husband showed us a video that goes through the various dialects throughout the netherlands and Gronings was ridiculous! It sounded like grumbling and I could pick up a few words here and there, but it was mostly just funny. haha I haven't heard any yet, but I'm excited for this transfer.

We were in Ijburg on Tuesday to teach this girl, but the appointment fell through. She lives right around the corner from a family I love, and so I thought, what if we just pop by really quick to hug the Zuster and say goodbye? but they weren't home. So we were checking the maps to get to some other lookups in the area, when they suddenly walked up! It was such a blessing to be able to see all of them real quick. WE talked for about 5 minutes, took a picture and then left, and it felt like a part of my heart was being tugged... that sounds so cliche but really. 

I miss them so much! They felt like my little cousins and I just love them so much!

Picturede nieuwe! Zr. Hopkin w/ Zr. Watts
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

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Goodbye Amsterdam!

1/20/2015

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PictureLast Sunday in Amsterdam
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


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Dedication & hard Work

1/12/2015

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PictureElder Tjong Ayong is back in suriname now! Ah so weird!
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.

PictureI kinda find my name everywhere
Our ward mission leader is the most dedicated, hardworking guy ever. He went contacting with us on Saturday, and we went with him in the evening to a less active member's house. We found out later that he was at another less active family in between those two appointments. He's just a wonder!

Dutch is the most wonderful language ever and I just love it so so so so SO much! I'm learning a lot and it's only getting better. I'm definitely seeing the help from my Heavenly Father in this language.

We've gotten a lot of rain lately.(seeing as it is winter) The wind is also incredibly strong. Sometimes we're biking along and  we 

PictureWe went to China Town last week and there's a Buddhist temple in A'dam.
think the wind is blowing hard, but somehow it gets a gust that just comes and comes about 10 times harder than before and pedaling gets extremely difficult, but it's just funny and we have fun singing "there is Sunshine in my soul today" in the pouring rain.

Transfers are next week and it's basically all I can think about (not really) but I'm just really nervous about being transferred! I'll have been in Amsterdam for almost 5 months at the end of this transfer, and I just don't want to leave! ah, well we'll see I guess!

Veeeeel liefs :)

zuster watts

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Gelukkig Nieuwjaar! 2015

1/5/2015

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PictureMuseum in Centrum mix of fabric glued onto an old painting.
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!

Picture"Hope for a better life" Because our hope for a better life is by coming to Christ!
We finally met with our Italian grandmother and with a member, who speaks Italian. It was nice to finally put together the puzzle pieces from what we have been able to pick up (surprisingly more than you would think) and get to know her more. We were worried that she was getting bored with our visits because we can't really communicate in the conventional way, but she told him that she really liked us just coming over and reading with her! So that was really sweet of her. It's amazing how much you can love someone even when you literally can't speak each other's languages. But we just love her so much!

This week was kind of sad because there was a very sudden and sad experience that caused the bishop to ponder. Yesterday the bishop gave his testimony in church for fast and testimony meeting, and he quoted a scripture that has actually been coming up a lot in my studies and in church lately: John 6:66-68 (v 52 & 60 also add a lot) It's the story where many of the followers of Christ turn away and decide not to follow Him anymore, and He says to His apostles, "Will ye also go away?" Peter responds, "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life," Bishop De Jonge bore a powerful testimony of this scripture.
(sidenote: I love the words of the scripture in Dutch: "tot wie zullen wij heengaan?")
Christ is our redeemer. He is the only one who can help us and lead us back to our Heavenly Father. He is the only way to eternal life and eternal joy. I've seen it over and over in my life and in the lives of other people back at home and here in Nederland. 
But anyway, I just have loved that scripture this week. 

I love you all and I hope you are doing well. It's crazy to think that for the whole year of 2015, I will be a missionary and will be serving my Heavenly Father and the people of Nederland (and possibly also Belgium) :) My heart is just so full of happiness when I think of that and I just couldn't think of any place in the world I'd rather be than right here right now! 

This year will be a great one! I hope you:

Smile more
Give each other more hugs more often
Kiss your Mom on the cheek
Buy some flowers from a flower stand for no reason (I'm totally going to do it someday)
Put whipped cream on every dessert (not frosting, because whipped cream is better)
Ride your bike instead of driving
Try a little bit harder to be a little bit nicer, especially if you don't feel like it
Eat some nice chocolate
Say your prayers and be a little more grateful

VEEEEEL LIEFS,
Zuster Watts

Pictures are from our pday today, a member took us all on a walking tour of the centrum of adam
the painting/multimedia art was in a museum and it was BEAUTIFUL a painting with sewing trim glued onto an old painting and I just thought it was gorgeous.
The second is of a doorway to this church that has all these skulls and a skeleton and in english it means, "hope for a better life" Because our hope for a better life is by coming to Christ! Thought that was beautiful as well.
Also we had macaroons that were DIVINE.

K. BYE FOR REALS

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    AUTHOR

    Belgium Netherlands Mission: Sister Aubrey Watts is serving an LDS mission in the Belgium/Netherlands from  Aug 2014 to Feb 2016.
    This blog includes her weekly letters as well as contact information & pictures!

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