You too Marley! :) You'll be a great mother someday.
So much happened this week, I'm not sure where to start...
There was this former investigator that we looked up, and she let us in. We had a really cool first lesson with her. She's from Iraq, and is Christian, came here to escape persecution. She loves the Bible and had a beautiful copy in Arabic. (That language looks like magic) She told us about her difficult life experiences, and that every time she thought she couldn't go on, she would get a dream that she was sitting next to Jesus and that he would be telling her, "Don't be afraid"
The spirit was so strong! She is really incredible. We are excited to meet with her again this week.
Another incredible thing about conference was that we were able to use the thought from Elder Christofferson's talk in two lessons the same day we heard his talk. It was incredible, and just totally resolves one of the biggest excuses/concerns I've come across on my mission. It was amazing. I love the modern day prophets. They are seriously inspired.
Funny quote from a less-active Surinamer man we meet with: "Ik ben geen bad people" (the nederengels is strong with this one.) I love when dutch people throw in random english words in their sentences.
We had an awesome lesson with this investigator family, about tithing and fasting and offerings. To illustrate--and to try to get him to participate in the lesson more--we gave the husband a bag of 10 pieces of candy. Then Zr Jones asked him to give one piece back, & he said "yes of course!" Then he taught himself about fast offerings by throwing a piece to me and his wife because we didn't have any. It was like, "ok, the lesson's done everyone!" haha So Awesome. :)
We went out to Enkhuizen, (it's across the dike) for some lessons with our investigators over there. There's this family we are teaching out there, the husband is from England, and the wife from here, and they are just super cool. She loves Halloween, so the house was decked out with decorations. I told her about Mom's ghost tours and she thought that was super cool! They are so awesome.
There's another investigator, who is from Somalia, and he's on date to be baptized in November, but he had to cancel our appointment this week. We were a little bummed, but then on the phone he told us "I know this is true and I am so grateful for this book. I think you sisters are angels God sent to me to tell me the truth." Let's just say that we were smiling after that :)
MOM. I met some real-live South African ladies this week! They were so pleasant and lovely. I liked their accent a lot. :) There's a lady in our ward, who's from South Africa, and this week Zr Jones felt prompted to bring cookies over to her and just share a quick scripture. When we got there, her mom and her sister were there, so we just had a cozy little cup of tea and cake with them. The mom & sister aren't members, but they were all excited to hear that you had served your mission there. The sister lives in Port Elizabeth currently, but the mom and member live here in Lelystad. It was such a blessing. I love South Africans! (also, zr Jones' little brother is going on his mission to South Africa, leaving in December. I will ask which mission)
There's nobody in our branch who plays piano, so everyone was SUPER excited to find out that I can. :) It was funny how excited the Relief Society was when I told them. This ward is awesome, and I'm just loving them so much already.
Temple conference is this week, and I'm just SO beyond excited. To prepare, president asked us to read this article in the Liahona from Sept 2015, called "The temple and the Natural Order of Marriage" IT WAS SO GOOD. Please read it. It will prepare you for the temple, whether you've never been, or have been going for several years now. It was amazing.
I love you guys so much!
Have a great week!
Zr Watts