We had a great week, and I am just so grateful for Lelystad. Last P-day we went to Amsterdam eventjes in the evening after Enkhuizen and it was so fun! We got Falafel and walked around. I love going back to Amsterdam :) Zr Hopkin is staying with Zr Ramirez in Amsterdam and is going to be our STL so I'm going to get to go on exchanges there!!!! Ah I'm so excited. Also exchanges with two of my old companions. :D Sorry. I'm just really excited.
It was super misty this past week. The fall is really here and it's been so cool to see. It's my favorite season for sure. The leaves and the colors and the cozy feeling. It's just lovely.
We had a lesson with our investigator and she is just making so much progress. We had to move her baptismal date so we've all been praying this week and we'll pick the new one. It was cute, after the lesson we walked with her to pick up her kids from school and scheduled the next appointment, etc. When we got to the school, her daughter asked "Mom, when can we go to the church?" It was so cool :) We're hoping they will come soon. She is an incredible person and we love her so much!
That night we had an awesome dinner appointment with some members. Their son is on a mission in Nebraska and the mom is just so cute and misses her son so badly. They are both just the most Christlike people, and I was just really struck with how grateful I am for the examples of the members here. Lelystad is amazing.
At district meeting last week, we talked about goals and looking forward, always making progress. I really like this quote from Anthony D. Perkins: "You will experience greater progress in life when you wholly commit to your decisions and strive to excel in your current circumstances even while you have an eye open to the future." I think being on a mission has just really opened my eyes and helped me see how much the gospel helps us live our lives on purpose. To truly live aware of all our actions and why we are doing the things we do. I'm really grateful for those lessons I'm learning here.
We have a new investigator this week. She is an artist and is just a lovely deep thinker. She came to the branch activity on Friday and was just talking to all the members on her own. It was incredible. She's so cool :)
The Friday activity was so fun. We did a halloween themed activity. At 5 it was the primary activity, and then at 7 the branch activity. Zr Jones and I dressed up as Omas (grandmas). We put flour in our hair, wore button up shirts and put a piece of paper over "zuster" on our nametags that said "oma" it was so funny and a member let me use his cane. I really got into it and at one point one of the cute little girls in our ward was saying to me "geef het op! Ik weet dat je gewoon een zuster ben!" haha (give it up! I know that you're just a Sister!) It was funny. :)
We went to our cute South African friend again this week, and watched President Uchtdorf's talk from women's conference with her and her mother. It was the cutest talk ever! I've been thinking about that topic a lot this past week, and it was just a lovely talk. I really like when he said "Now is part of Eternity. Forever is composed of nows. I don't want my life to be composed of sad nows." (paraphrasing) But it really touched me. I think that was kind of a theme this past general conference: that happiness and joy are for this life also, not just the next life. It was so good. I'm going to definitely listen to/read it again and again. I also loved it because it reminded me of storytelling :) Love you mom :)
I hope you guys remember to choose to be happy this week. When you find yourself becoming upset, think of a hymn or your scripture you're ponderizing for the week ;)
Loves
Oma Watts