We had exchanges last Thursday with the Zusters te Apeldoorn and I was here in Groningen with Zr Hansen. She and Zr Kimmons and I were all in a writing class together at BYU, and then Zr Hansen was just with Zr Hopking in Dordrecht, so it was incredible to get to work with her for a day :) Zr Hansen is an awesome missionary. We saw so many miracles and it was just a super cool day. We went to this lady first who is a potential investigator referred by an investigator family down in Dordrecht. Zr Hansen knows and taught that lady in Dordrecht so it was really toevallig that she came to Groningen with me for our first appointment with her! I love it when something cool like that happens without any plans on our part. She's a really cool lady and we're so excited to be able to teach her!
Then we went and taught Marjan one of the new member lessons, Missionary Work! She's so good and so ready to stand for her faith.
We were biking to a park afterward to do some contacting there, when I remembered that we hadn't been to see a former investigator in a while. We stopped by real quick to see how he was doing and if he wanted to meet sometime, but it was just really sad. He was very closed off and had received so much misinformation about our church and refused to call us Christians, which was really sad. We had so much hope but all we could do was just try to explain with love and bear our testimonies about what we knew to be true. I hope he opens up with time. :)
After that we went to the park and contacted there and had some really cool conversations! There was one woman though, that just looked at Zr Hansen and basically yelled in english, "Oh my gosh, Jesus Christ? Really?...... Really?" in this accusing voice and it was super shocking but also funny so I just complemented her on her hair and we said goodbye. She was a super sassy lady haha
That night we had dinner with a member and his friend came over afterward to talk about her questions about the gospel. It was super cool! I love members who do that! She had a lot of great questions and we had a cool discussion. She was super excited to get a Book of Mormon from us, so we loved her instantly!
Exchanges are so full of miracles and I'm loving it. It's so good to be able to get to know all of the sisters and I love them so much. :D
For the past couple weeks I've had this sticky-note where I have the words "supporting, encouraging, listening, accepting, trusting, respecting, negotiate differences" written on it and I put it on the current day's page so every time I pull out my planner I have a reminder to be more filled with Charity. It's been a really cool reminder and I've seen that it's been making a difference! I just really love what Nephi says in 2 Nephi 4:21 that God has "filled [him] with His love, even to the consuming of [his] flesh," That just sounds like such an overflowing of love and I want that more in my life and in my interactions with others.
I love you guys and I hope you have a great week! Mothers Day is coming a lot sooner than I expected.... crazy!
Love, Zuster Watts