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Psych Wards and Caroling and CHRISTMAS

12/29/2014

SECOND CHRISTMAS

Well, This week was probably one of the less productive ones I've ever had as far as missionary work goes, but that's because of the holidays and we did our best. We just skyped, so I feel like there's not much to tell. haha

On Christmas Eve, we delivered a Christmas card to our friend, and she lives right by a prison. The prison is surrounded by a moat, and then there are high walls topped with barbed wire. Some of the buildings are taller sky-scraper types of buildings, probably 13 floors. So we're walking and there was this lady standing on the banks of the moat yelling up to some guy in the prison! That's not the first time I've seen someone doing it, but it was just really sad and interesting. We weren't sure whether to laugh or be really sad. But yeah. That happens.
For Christmas eve we were with Gerphil and Annika and we played this really fun card game called Munchkin. IT WAS AWESOME

Christmas day we were with a member for the morning, and she was so awesome! We went caroling to her neighbors and actually got to talk to some of them for about an hour about baptism and the church. It was super cool. The mom is from Suriname, but she went to school in America and speaks PERFECT english, so that was awesome, and her children both spoke really good english as well. But we all talked in Dutch for the most part because our member friend doesn't really speak english. Anyway, the point is, we had a really cool spontaneous moment of unexpected missionary work because a member was awesome! I love when members do stuff like that :)
She made us wear Santa hats while we were doing it, so it was really funny.

We had Christmas dinner by the Bishop's family. Super fun evening. There's a 13 year old here who's the only member in her family, and her father is really against her coming to church because he thinks it's a cult, but she comes every week because she loves church. She was at the Bishop's house so I got to know her a little better, and I just love her! The young men and women in our ward are so awesome and I have so much respect for each of them! They really have to work hard to keep up their faith.

We had a great dinner and played charades with everyone. I got to learn some cool dutch words like
gorgelen, to gargle
oksel, armpit
uitvinden, to invent

So that was a cool night. :) We have such a great ward!

Here in Nederland they have...... SECOND CHRISTMAS. It's the day after Christmas, and it's also a national holiday, so everyone gets work off, and none of the stores are open. We went to Haarlem as a zone and did some solid caroling in the centrum by the big cathedral. It was really fun :) We had four people going around contacting while everyone else sang.
That night we had an appointment with this super cute newly-wed couple in the ward and all the other elders. Sara, the wife is from Portugal, and Tim is from Nederland, so we ate a portuguese soup, and a sort of stamppot (very dutch food) with kale and potato and a worst on the side. It was delicious! They're both returned missionaries, and we love them!
There's a cute pasgedoopt (recently baptized) girl from Taiwan and she came as well, and brought her friend! It was super cool. We had a really fun evening!
Second Christmas is the best idea ever and I think everyone everywhere should do it.

Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY Grammy! Love you!

Right now there's a facebook campaign going on here, where people see a link from which they can order a Joy to the World dvd for free and then their information comes to us and we're supposed to follow up with them and make sure they got the dvd, and hopefully teach a lesson. So we got one this week and were finally able to go to look her up yesterday. Zr K's bike is kapot so we had to walk, so we're walking along and the street seems to be this business, warehouse district and the most residential-looking building was surrounded by a moat, so we thought maybe it was a prison because the other one is surrounded by a moat. So eventually I just called the phone number after we had walked around a bit because it was starting to feel like a creepy place and it was 5 pm but it was dark like it was late at night. The lady answered the phone and we talked for a few minutes. She said she hadn't received the dvd in the mail yet, so we set up an appointment to come by and bring it to her. Right at the end of the conversation she says, "oh by the way, I live in a Psych ward, so you'll have to come to the office first"......... What!? It was so funny. We were dying. We'll definitely go during daylight next time! ah

There was a double baptism yesterday! The Zaandam elders investigator and the A'dam elders' investigator were baptized. One lady’s husband was recently reactivated and received the priesthood last week, so he was able to baptize her! They have a little son, and they are just an adorable family. Another lady has had a really cool change come about her as she's investigated and it's just been super cool to see. I played a piano piece, and it was just a super wonderful day yesterday.

I love you all! Have a wonderful New Years! (HOW is it January already?! What on earth?) We have to be inside at 4 pm because the fireworks are so dangerous here.... haha I've heard that they're so loud they wake you up!

The whole, "talk to you next year" is also a joke here. Dutch people are so funny. For some reason it sounds funnier when dutch people say it. It just gets annoying in english haha

tot volgende jaar!
Veeeeeeel Liefs! Zuster Watts

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Fijne Feestdagen!

12/22/2014

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Adam Friends

Dear family,

This week was so much fun and I just can't believe that it's Christmas already! ah

The freakiest thing is that I've been a missionary for 4 months already, and the next thing after Christmas is New Years, and I just need time to slow down and relax real quick! haha But really though.

Zuster Karlson is a joy to be around. I love her so much. She's just so kind and so funny, and she helps me not worry. It's no coincidence that we're companions.

This last week we went and visited this lady who's a member of our ward, but she's been in the hospital for the past couple of months. When we left to bike there, it was cold, as usual, but not too bad, so we just kept going, but as we were traveling, the rain started coming down harder and harder and the wind was blowing, but we somehow made it to her hospital on the other side of town. The whole way, we just kept saying, "We're coming, Astrid! Don't worry!" haha Zr K is the best. We had the most lovely visit with her. She is from Suriname and was just so kind and loving and positive. Her belief in Christ is so strong and it just was so lovely to meet with her.

Our Italian lady is doing really well... as far as we can tell. I just really wish I could speak Italian! But she is like my Italian Grandma, she gives us oranges and bananas every time before we leave and she is just so loving and adorable. We gave her a Christmas card that we wrote in dutch, so hopefully her daughter will translate it.

Herbal Tea Heaven

We met with someone this week and she's doing really well. She is still trying to figure out what her relationship to God is and how Jesus Christ fits into that picture. Something I've seen so far is that people who were raised with an Asian background have a hard time with Jesus Christ, because they feel so guilty that anyone would have to take the consequences for them. And I definitely think that we need to be ready to take what we earn, but if one gets caught up in that thinking too much, they forget that Christ is the perfector, and not they themselves. We can't become perfect by our own efforts, that's why we need a Savior. She's so sweet and she's definitely making progress. We love her.

The ward Kerst Activiteit was on Vrijdag! So much fun! We made roast potatoes for the potluck, mom, and everyone loved them! They were gone before I could get to them at all. haha
We have the best ward. But I forgot to take pictures.... I'm sorry!

Being here is such a blessing. I love the people of Amsterdam, the ward, the investigators, the people at the retirement center, I just love it. It's definitely not easy and sometimes I feel very incapable or like I don't know what to do, but the minute I do that, I think of the scripture that says, "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty..." God loves each of His children and He knows what we are each capable of becoming. Don't ever feel like your best isn't good enough. There's another scripture that was Zuster Frandsen's favorite, in Mosiah 2:22 that says, "All he requires of you is that you keep his commandments." God only wants us to do our best!

I love you all, and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Liefs, Zuster Watts :)

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New Companion!

12/15/2014

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Welcome Zuster Karlson!

Three generations

Lieve Familie,

This has been the most crazy week so far of my whole mission ever. It went by so fast and I can hardly even believe it!

Last Monday was just super strange, packing and getting the house cleaned and ready for my new companion. We went to a couple markets and got Zr F's family some souvenirs, so that was fun. But it was just super weird.

We met with our friend and taught her het Heilsplan, and it was just a really good evening. She was so cute, and brought out these party hats sinds het was de laatste keer that Zr F would be there. We taught the plan of salvation with party hats on. haha Karlijn is adorable. I love her!

Wednesday was just the weirdest thing. It didn't feel real, but we took Zr F's suitcases to Leiden and met everyone and all of us trainers were just sitting in a room for a couple minutes before they came in and got us. President and Zuster Robinson came in and shook everyone's hands, Zr Robinson hugged us Zrs, and when she got to me, she said something really cryptic like, "Your companion is a real miracle, and we're all going to know in a minute how cool it is that you two are together."

So I was really excited when we finally went into the other conference room and I got to see that my new companion is..... Zuster Karlson!!!! My brother is currently on a mission in Korea, and his current companion is Elder Karlson, the younger brother of my companion. Apparently President and Zr Robinson had no idea or didn't remember that we had brothers on missions, and the transfer

Elder Karlson & Elder Watts

calls just happened that way. So it makes it extra super cool that we're companions now! I just feel like Heavenly Father knows that coincidences are super funny to me, so he keeps throwing those at me, first with Zuster Bush and I in the MTC and now Zuster Karlson.
She's 21, from Colorado, and super sweet, so we're having a lot of fun!

The weather has been pretty nice lately, still cold, but clear skies. So that's been a blessing.

We went to our Italian friend's on Thursday, and it was an adventure...
So we didn't have any Italian restoration pamphlets, so I brought the gospel principles book in Italian. We'd hoped that her daughter, who speaks Dutch would be home, but she wasn't, and it turns out that she also speaks Romanian, because her Book of Mormon and her Bible are in Romanian. We just had her read the chapter in Evangelie Beginselen about the restoration in Italian and then I'd try my best to ask her the questions in Italian (just reading from the book) haha it was ridiculous, but it worked! And she said she couldn't come to church (I think) And we're just really hoping that a less active member who speaks Italian and Dutch can come on joint teach tomorrow, because we have an appointment with her on Tuesday. haha It's a really funny situation. But it was good and she gave us oranges and sap and these little jacket things that she put around our shoulders while we were there. She also has a dutch-romanian dictionary, so she's learning dutch! Which is super cool. She's just such a loving lady and I wish I could communicate with her better haha

We had Stake Conference this weekend, and were lucky enough to be here in the Netherlands for when they got a new stake president called. That only happens once every 10 years, so it was a special meeting. It was really good.

Our investigator CAME TO STAKE CONFERENCE! AGH It was the happiest day of my life. I called her on Friday to make an appointment, and she said, "I'm coming to your conference with Liz on Sunday, we'll regel an appointment then, ok?" and I just died of joy. Liz is my new favorite. She's a member that's been driving her to church, and it's just helping so much. We definitely need to make her cookies. :)

Training is hard, man! I'm being stretched and pushed more than I have been so far combined, but it's also just a lot of fun. I'm really excited to see what this transfer will bring. I'm already relying so much more on the Lord and my faith is being stretched and strengthened. "I am Zuster Watts and I can do hard things!" is something that I say to myself often. It helps that I had such a good trainer, and that my baby is really awesome :) The elders are helping a lot as well, and I have so much support, so that's nice. I love being a missionary and it's been so cool the past couple of days to have been able to look back on the growth that I've gone through in 3 months and how much I've learned. I believe in Christ, so why should I fear?

I love you all and hope you have a good week!

Zuster Watts

Goodbye Zuster Frandsen

Welcome Zuster Karlson

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Toevallig Encounters, "Killing" my companion part 2, and CHOCOLATE

12/8/2014

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Well people, My companion is going home on Wednesday! Freaky!

But this last week was full of miracles and wonders! It's suddenly gotten a LOT colder in the past two weeks, and today it was hailing and raining on and off. You know in movies when sometimes the rain just starts out of nowhere and it's coming down real hard and you're just thinking, "yeah that would never happen in real life" Well, apparently it does in Nederland. haha It's so fun.

Miracles from this week in no particular order:

1. We got a Christmas CD from the office elders this last week at District meeting (because they're in our district and we made them cinnamon rolls) and we've just been listening to it all week long at night and in the morning as we're getting ready. It's been lovely.

2. We met with familie Gonzales, who are members originally from Ecuador and the parents only speak spanish, but their kids speak dutch, so the 14 year old son translated our family night lesson. It was amazing to me that I could remember even just 3 or 4 words in spanish for when their son didn't know the gospel term, I could guess. I don't even remember right now what those words were, but I know it happened and I'm just really grateful for Heavenly Father's help, because I definitely know it wasn't me!

3. Our ZHV (relief Society) president in wijk amsterdam is just so sweet! She gave us pannekoeken on Wednesday.

4. We saw all 6 of the elders every day this week at various member appointments! I'm a bit missionary-ed out! haha just kidding

5. We got a text with a referral from headquarters on Wednesday, and we had time to look her up on Thursday, so we headed out. It took a bit of time to find her building because it was a long street and we walked a little ways down before deciding to take the tram and had to backtrack to find it. We finally found her apartment building and went to bell her up. The system was super confusing. It was this wheel thing that you had to spin clockwise to scroll through the addresses and counterclockwise to scroll through names, and then once the one you wanted was highlighted, you push on the turny wheel thing. It was so confusing and we accidentally belled her neighbor at one point! We belled her finally, and nobody answered. So we belled a couple more times just for the zekerheid, and nobody answered. We were trying one last time as a cute lady was walking out the door. She stopped and stared at the screen as we pushed the wheel again and she told us that it was her we were looking for! So SO SO cool that she was walking out just as we were there!

But then it gets even better: she only speaks Italian. We had a really interesting time trying to communicate with her, but we did our best to pull out what we could. It was weird because I could pick out a couple words that were similar to spanish and french words. We gave her a card with the church's address and our phone number on it, and she pulled this pink piece of paper out of her bag that had a ton of information on it about our ward: the bishop's name, the address, time of meetings, everything! So that was also intriguing, but we couldn't really figure out how she had gotten that.

She said she would text us her phone number, or at least that's what got communicated, and then she just hugged us and kissed our cheeks while holding our hands and saying something that sounded really sweet in italian. :) It was a really funny experience.

The next day we looked online at our referrals system thingie and it had more information on her: She was baptized LAST WEEK in Italy, and had to move here to Nederland to help her daughter. And wouldn't you know, her daughter speaks dutch! So we're going to meet with her now to teach her the new member lessons and hopefully it'll all work out. She was possibly the sweetest lady I've met on my mission so far! Love her.

Sister Nichols, Zuster Frandsen, & Yi-Naun

6. We made an oatmeal/spice cake with Sister Nichols and Yi-Naun. It. was. delicious.

7. SINTERKLAAS! So in the Netherlands, instead of doing gifts on the 25th of December, they do it on the 5th. Sinterklaas comes up from Spain on a boat with Zwarte Piets, and little kids leave their shoes by the door with carrots in them for Sint's horses, and if they've been good they get gifts in their shoes. Typical treats are Chocoladeletters (chocolate formed into a letter-shape) and kruidnoten (kindof like gingerbread, but BETTER) The chocolate covered ones are the best. I have gotten 5 chocoladeletters from various people over the past week! So. much. chocolate.

We celebrated on Friday with all of the other elders and Bronno, our ward mission leader, and Roos, a really really lovely member that I want to be like someday. She is so awesome.

We also celebrated on Saturday with everyone at Sister Maureen Janssen's house. She invited two of her colleagues that us zusters had met before, along with her niece. It was super cool to be able to celebrate while also talking to them :) We did a white elephant and it was just super fun. I got some of those fererro rocher chocolates, and another chocoladeletter, so I'd say it was a successful night.

8. Our lesson with our investigator this week was really great. Bronno came on joint teach and he helped a lot. I've heard from other missionaries that he's the best ward mission leader they've had, so I'm really grateful for him. We are trying to get our friend on a baptismal date right now, because she's going through a lot of things right now and we just know that it would be an incredible help to her to be able to have the gift of the Holy Ghost. We're having so much fun teaching her, and she's such a lovely lady. Her belief in God is beautiful and her testimony of Him is so strong! I love her

9.We taught Gospel Principles on Sunday! In dutch! (usually it's in english) It was super fun, and it went really well.

Through teaching as a missionary, I’ve found it can be hard because some people are comfortable with the way things are right then with their relationship with God, and don’t think anything could change depending on where they get baptized in the end.

I'm going to miss Zuster Frandsen so much!

10. Zuster Frandsen is the best companion ever! I'm going to miss her so much! It's been such a fun 3 months with Zr Frandsen, and I couldn't have asked for a better "mom" :) She has been such a great example to me and we've had a lot of fun together. I'm definitely going to miss her. It's going to be weird. We've been hearing rumours ever since we got here that the sisters in my MTC group will have to train because there's a huge group going home, and it turns out that the rumours are true....... so I get to pick up my greenie on Wednesday! (say the W’s with a V sound ;) Wat in de Wereld?! I'm excited to see how the rest of the next 18 months goes. Missions are just so crazy and fun

Love you all so much and thanks for all of your support. I hope you have an incredibly wonderful week.

Zr Watts

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Turkish Grandpa/Guardian Angel

12/1/2014

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A'dam and it's gorgeous!

Haarlem Street - it's the prettiest city ever!

This week was so packed and so much fun!

We biked to Haarlem and it was beautiful and so wonderful, but then we got our bikes after going to the cathedral, and Zr Frandsen's back tire was kapot, so we went to the Haarlem Centraal station to get it pumped up, but turns out the inner tube was broken. We had to take the trains back to a'dam. To get to the train platform though, you either have to take an elevator (which always smell like urine) or just walk it up a ramp, which takes arm strength. Zr F is a lot stronger than me so she was just powering up the stairs while I was doing my best. She got on the train and turned around to help me, only realizing that I was still coming up the stairs, and she yelled, "meet me at ...!" as the doors closed. It was so so so funny! Don't worry, I caught the next train to ... and we took the metro home.

I don't remember if I've told you about our turkish opa (grandpa) yet, but one day we were with the elders walking to the tram and we saw this old man waving to us out of his window, so Zr F and I went there a few days later and found out that his Dutch is not so good and his english is nonexistent, so we ordered a turkish Book of Mormon and brought it by the next week. He mentioned that he fixes bikes and we didn't think much of it. But then, Zr F's bike broke on Monday and we thought we'd bring it to him. We went by to ask if we could bring it on Thursday morning and he said it'd be fine. So we got there thursday morning and he was waiting in his back yard with his jacket on! The bike was fixed within an hour and he even gave her a new kickstand. Zr F asked how much he wanted and he said only 5 euro! She tried to just give him 10 but he gave her a 5 back. It was the sweetest thing ever and now we call him our Turkish grandpa/ guardian angel. There's a language barrier that makes it hard to communicate, but he said something along the lines of "I read your book with my family and we liked it." So we're going to see what we can do!
(Apparently I look like a turkish person, according to Elder Tjong-Ayong.... Not sure what that means, but you decide. haha)

We taught the restoration to an investigator this week and it was just the best lesson ever. All of her questions lead perfectly into the plan of salvation, so we're really excited. Our next appointment is the day before Zr F goes home, so that's weird!

Another of our investigators is doing well. She said she couldn't make it to church when we met with her on Saturday, but then when I walked into the chapel on Sunday, who did I see sitting there? Our investigator! Zr F had left her camera by accident, and so a member that lives close by, who knows her, was going to just pick it up. But when the member went by to get the camera, she was all ready to go to church and came along with her! They also picked up another minder actief lady, so it was just a great day! After sacrament, this super cool guy, who's only been a member for about a year came over and talked to her, and I was just so grateful for how eager he was to fellowship her and make her feel welcome. I love the members here in A'dam!

Heavenly Father definitely is doing all the work, not us! haha Sometimes it feels like I'm just here along for the ride. I love being a missionary!

On Friday we ate FUFU with all of the missionaries with a family! Not sure how to spell it, but it's a Ghanian food that's.... interesting. It's like this potato but it's the texture and consistency of playdough and it's rolled into a ball and they serve it in a soup. You eat it all with your hands and swallow it without chewing. It was super fun. And then the next day we went to our appointment with this a past investigator, and suddenly he said, "I will make fufu and we will eat it togetha" in his cool african accent, and we were like "wait what?" And before we knew what was happening we had fufu in front of us again. It REALLY made us appreciate the Zuster’s fufu. We just prayed that Heavenly Father would help us eat the fufu. It was a painful couple of minutes haha, but we did it! I thought of Boston on his mission saying, "I'm Elder Watts and I can do hard things" and then I went for it.

Thanksgiving was this week and it was super fun! A member threw this big celebration at the church and he invited all of the missionaries and some american families in the ward along with some of his friends from work, so we even got some potentials out of it! He is from Germany and his wife is Dutch, so it wasn't quite the typical Thanksgiving (we had chicken instead of turkey), but it was so wonderful! We just had a fun time together. I don't know if I could have asked for anything better.

The holiday season is starting here in Nederland! We've got Sinterklaas this week and yesterday at wijk raad they were talking about the Christmas plans, and I just really really hope I don't get transferred! I love Amsterdam and the ward is just wonderful! :)

I finished reading in Mosiah this week and can I just say that I love that book! It's so amazing. There are so many people who get baptized and who become children of Christ and it's just so interesting to see their various paths and journeys getting to that point where they are converted to Christ. You have the people of King Benjamin that are taught and accept it. Then the people who followed Alma and were baptized were put in bondage, but kept their faith and because of it were blessed, and then the people of Noah/Limhi that were humbled and brought to believe after they were put in bondage. It is so interesting to see those patterns. I love the scriptures!

Go watch a mormonchannel.org message about Christ and be happy you're not freezing in Nederland. I'm up to 3 pairs of tights now. haha

I love you all and I hope you have a great week! Stay safe :)

Zr Watts

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Changes, Preparation, & Open or Closed Minded

12/1/2014

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How is it already week 4 of this transfer?!?! Man. Zr Frandsen is going home in like less than 20 days. Freaky!

Last week was awesome.

There are 8 missionaries that come to A'dam ward, and right now we're all working with some of the same people. There are various activities throughout the week that we have at the church: monday-FHE with the Yovos, wednesday- institute with the Yovos, Friday- Sports night. And the other days of the week, we are all going and visiting and helping. The elders taught someone last week and he told them that he wanted to be baptized! It's just so cool to see how much his mom loves him and that the gospel is helping him! I love being able to see that.

Tuesday with a member family. The elders ended up having an appointment, so it was just us zusters this week. We had a super fun time and we made an apple tart with the mom. It's funny, throughout the night she would just hand her baby daughter to me and say "hold her" So I felt like a little mommy the whole night. I was wearing a black sweater and the cute little baby ended up spitting up on my shoulder. I took off my sweater, and we ate dinner and went to sit and do the lesson. The other children had gotten little yogurt cups and were eating them throughout the lesson, but as little kids do, one of them got tired of it about halfway through and just set it on the couch, where it promptly spilled....... all over my black sweater! haha that poor sweater was so beaten up by the time we got home. Zr F and I were laughing about how being a missionary is just preparation for being a wife and a mother. I'm so excited for when my own children will spit up on me and pour yogurt on my black sweater. haha just kidding, but really. It's so fun to be with families.

Mozart played here!

We did a lot of lookups this week, which can feel a little discouraging or long, just because it's a lot of biking and walking and they're not always home or they're not always interested, but we had some really cool conversations and gave away a couple Book of Mormons. Often we talk to people who are atheist and we talked to a guy this week who was just NOT open to any ideas outside of "science". We tried to explain how we believe that science and religion complement each other, but he would just not have it. It was so sad because we could see how sad he was inside and how much he really needed the healing power of the atonement. It's just so painful to be on the side where Heavenly Father is letting you see how much He loves that person and how much He wants to bless their lives, but the person just doesn't want it.
I also think it's ironic how people in the world say they're really open minded, but they're incredibly closed to anything religious or spiritual.

Turkey Bowl was this week and it was awesome! We had a lot of fun.

We're biking to Haarlem today! it's going to be about 2 hours to get there, and I'm sure it'll be gorgeous. We're going to a cathedral there that has one of the biggest organs in europe, and MOZART played on it once upon a time! So that's cool.

I love you all! Be safe and don't get hurt

liefs,
zr watts

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3 Weeks to Live

12/1/2014

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What a week! This last Tuesday was Sint Martin's: the dutch equivalent of halloween... kindof. The kids make a paper lantern and go door to door singing songs and in return they get candy. But they don't dress up. We didn't see any lanterns though :(

We taught our investigator, who came from a referral, the plan of Salvation and it was just super cool. He just gets it! We're hoping he comes to church next week though....

Thursday was a crazy day. We went home for lunch after doing some lookups and just left our bikes in the front of our apartment. When we came out, Zr Frandsen's bike was gone! She only has 3 weeks left to "live" (be a missionary) and of course her bike gets stolen! It was so sad! So we've just been taking public transport and walking the past couple of days. Another sister who was reporting home this week gave us her bike though, so we can go by bike again. Hallelujah!

Earlier in the week we had contacted this guy on the metro and when Zr Frandsen showed him her mini Book of Mormon, he thought she was giving it to him and he took it! Luckily he gave us his address, so we went back to his street to try to get it back on Thursday. He wasn't home though, so we were walking along to this neighborhood that was close by and were just contacting as we went along. Zr F stopped a lady who looked a little bit sad and we just talked to her for a second. She opened up really fast about how she was just coming back from the doctor's office where she found out that she has cancer. It was really clear how scared she was and how uncertain her future was. She didn't want to give us her information to contact her later, but we gave her a mormon.nl card and I just bore my testimony of God's love and His calming power. We invited her to pray for comfort and for guidance and the spirit was so strong. I hope she's okay. It's amazing how short our contact is with people sometimes, but yet how much you can see that God LOVES them.

Further down the street I stopped this lady who, toevallig, happened to have been in contact with the elders years and years ago, but for one reason or another stopped. She was super interested and took het boek van mormoon. That was cool.

Then just a little further down the street, there was a man who was handicapped in a little scooter with a basket on the front which was full of roses. We thought he was selling them, but then he took one of the red roses and handed it to Zr Frandsen! It was so sweet and she semi-jokingly said "Heavenly Father told him my bike was stolen and he sent him to give me a rose to make me feel better!" There are little miracles everywhere if you just stop and smell the roses. Get it? hahaha
But really though. It was a pretty cool moment.

We also met a lady who is from Iran. She moved here a few years ago to escape persecution in Iran. She's not Muslim, but also not christian. It was interesting to hear about her religion. I'd never heard of it before. It sounded like they worship John the Baptist and all of their ceremonies have to do with the water and with immersion in the water, including marriage. She was super sweet and invited us inside to talk for a moment. She gave us water and these little snacks that she'd just baked. Her mother joined her from Iran a few years ago just as things were getting really bad there. Their story was so tragic and sounded like they'd been through a lot. I know my trials have been different, but it made me so grateful for the safety in which I have always lived. It's moments like those that you really realize how much you appreciate your circumstances. Not that you didn't appreciate them before, but just that you really ponder about it.

It was a day full of miracles and really cool moments.

And guess what?!?!?!! An investigator CAME TO CHURCH! We were so happy! We've been trying to get her to come since General Conference, and she finally came! She only came to Sacrament meeting, but it's a start. I just love her so much!

Sunday night we ate with an american family who have two little kids. They are so so so adorable! Every couple of minutes the little girl would latch onto one of us and say, "I love you sister missionaries!" She's the most energetic, adorable little girl ever. It was a great night. We talked about faith, and it's amazing how much those two little kids already understand. They're both under the age of 5, but they already understand the concept of faith. The gospel isn't only for those who understand everything and can explain it super well, it's for anyone and everyone.

In Testimony meeting this past month, the little girl said, "I believe the church is true because I believe in God. And I need a way to get back to Him." That was something she just came up with all on her own! It was such a simple, powerful testimony. Christ's church gives us the way to get back to our Heavenly Father.

I love you all so much and hope you're doing well!
Love,

zr what

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