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"Lesson Learned" from another Awesome Week!

11/10/2014

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Can't believe I live around such beauty... whatt!!!! it's gorgeous
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Dearest lieverds (haha)

We had another awesome week! There is a girl we will be teaching because her boyfriend and his parents are really good at being member missionaries and are just great examples to her. We're so excited. She had a lot of questions and is just so positive.

Last wednesday at the senior folks home, Zr F and I visited a lady. She is either 98 or 89... she wasn't sure ^_^ But she's really religious and we had a great time talking to her about Christ and just had a really cozy visit with her. The Elders were down in the lunch area and had a better opportunity to talk to lots of people. It sounded like they had a great time explaining some of the misconceptions of our church to some of the residents and workers. Super cool experience.

So it turns out that a lady we met last week was actually baptized when she met the missionaries years ago in France! It was such a happy moment when we discovered that! We're working on getting her records transferred here. She is just so friendly and her faith is so strong. She hasn't been to church yet because she was sick and it's a far bike ride from where she lives to this part of A'dam, but we're trying to get a member who lives close by to give her a ride. She's just such a lovely person.

Zr F and I are doing a new thing this transfer during daily planning called our "lesson learned". We do it along with our wonders and grapjes and it's already been really cool! It's so wonderful to look back on the day and acknowledge the miracles, funny experiences, and the lessons that you learned, and it really is helping me get more excited to write in my journal, because I'm really not the best at consistent journal writing. 

My favorite one from this week was from Thursday. We had dinner with a member and our investigator. She brought a friend from her church. He was very curious about our church and was really confused about polygamy. haha that's always a funny one. But at one point we were talking about the second coming and they were talking about how they thought that Christ would come again as a little baby, like as in he'd be born, again. Zr F testified that with the doctrine of the resurrection, that wouldn't make sense. Anyway, the lesson learned was that the spirit TOTALLY always testifies of truth. The whole time that they were talking about how they thought He would be born again as a child, it just didn't feel right. I'm so grateful for the clarity of the gospel, and that everything just ties back to the simplest of doctrines. It's so cool. I think I'm going to write lessons learned for the rest of my mission. ^_^

The elders gave us blessings yesterday and it was just another sweet experience that totally confirmed to me that Heavenly Father is there and that he knows exactly what we need to hear. He is wonderful. Sometimes my heart just swells up and the words to "how great thou art" play in my mind. I love it. 

I have a little cold and on saturday when we were biking home from a family’s home I got dizzy all of a sudden and veered off of the fiets pad and ran into a log..... haha it was so funny. My right knee is a little banged up, so I'm a gimp for now haha, but it's already doing a lot better. Definitely only bruised. Funny how many times I've run into things, you'd think I'm related to elder caden watts or something.... haha :)

My favorite scripture this week is Alma 34:40-41. We need to have patience in our afflictions and know that through Christ we will rest from our afflictions someday. If we truly believe (in) Christ, we need never EVER fear. I strongly suggest studying the Patience section under Christlike attributes in pmg! So many great scriptures. Also do the attribute activity. It's awesome.

ik hou van jullie!

zr what (bc wat is what in dutch, little kids and old people think my name is funny)

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Windmills, Cheese, and Poetic Surprises in the Scriptures

11/3/2014

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PictureZaanse Schans!
Last Monday, we went to Zaanse Schans! It's this place just north of Zaandam that has a bunch of windmills, and it's gorgeous. We took a ton of pictures. There's a place that they let you sample all sorts of cheese. My favorite was this green cheese that was apparently pesto cheese. It was so fun!

This week we went to follow up on a volunteering opportunity at this old folk's home in Duivendrecht (south amsterdam) The people there were really excited that we had come because we're young, and one of the bewoners was asking for religious people to come visit her. They asked if we had any other ideas of what we could do and when I mentioned I can play the piano a little, they freaked out and were so excited. I am really hopeful that this will be a great opportunity to show people more about mormons and to just really represent our faith.

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We taught a referral this week who is just so nice! All of the people we meet from Ghana or Uganda are just the kindest, most loving people ever. They are all willing to talk about God, and are all so open. It was probably my favorite Restoration lesson ever. It was also in English, which helps :)

We biked from Diemen all the way to the west side of A'dam last Thursday, which took about an hour, to teach our friend. She's so lovely and we sing hymns with her before and after every lesson. She's so sweet. Then we biked another hour to the other side of A'dam. It was insane. But I love love love biking, so it's great. My legs and knees were a bit sore by the end of the night though.

Friday was the busiest day of my life. We went in the morning to a park (west side of a'dam) to meet a lady who referred herself. She's from France but she speaks perfect english. She had been going to church years ago in France, but stopped when she moved here to Nederland. We had the best talk ever about God and why we believe in Christ, and she is just one of the sweetest humans I've ever met.

We then went all the way back to where we started to have a birthday party for a recently baptized girl. We watched the video "Finding Faith in Christ" and ate speculaas cookies and sugar waffles and it was just a super gezellig time. 

Friday night we ate with the Nti's who are from Ghana. They always have all of the missonaries over all at once and they make us eat so much African food. Broeder Nti tells us "this is an Africa house, so we eat the Africa way. We don't use spoons or forks or anything but our hands because God gave us hands for a reason." It's awesome. We had a rice ball with peanut soup and a chicken leg in the soup. They just give us so much food, I woke up the next morning still full! Not even kidding. They are the most loving people.

Saturday we went to eat with a ward member, and she had also invited her friend & her husband and their kids to eat with us as well. We had a really good discussion with her about church. She said it’s been so long since she has been to church. A lot of people we've talked to feel that way, and every time we just testify that the church is for imperfect people. There's a scripture in th eBook of Mormon and I think it's in 1 or 2 Nephi that says something like "he forbids none to come unto him." Christ wants all of us to come to him! Don't ever feel unworthy to pray or to come to church, because nobody else there is perfect either!

It was funny at the end of the night, the son was choosing who would say the closing prayer, and he did a little dutch version of eeny-meeny-miney-moe and ended up landing on the husband--the only nonreligious person in the room! It was so funny. His wife said it for him, which was SO COOL.

The girlfriend came to church agian this week! We were so happy! And we're meeting with her tomorrow. We're so excited about her.

Primary program is next week, and I'm playing the piano for them, so pleas pray for my fingers to remember the notes. As a missionary the practicing time is very very limited, so I'm feeling pretty nervous about it haha. The kids are so cute and excited though. good luck D with your primary program next week! I'll be thinking of you the whole day!

My favorite scripture I read this week was Jacob 7:26. Jacob is so funny. Throughout the whole book of Jacob he's saying that he's just so anxious and I just feel so bad for him, but this verse he says that their lives passed away before them "as it were a dream" I don't know why that stood out to me... probably because I'm a weirdo who likes reading and that just seemed incredibly poetic, but I started looking at the footnotes and it cross referenced to James 4:14-15, where it says,

 14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

 15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that."

We need to realize that our lives are short and that we need to do all we can NOW to prepare for the next life. I just love the poetic surprises in the scriptures. So good

Love you all and hope you have a good week.
sorry for the spelling errors. This computer is in dutch and everything is underlined in red so I just don't even know anymore
zuster watts

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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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