De kerk is waar!

Hallo mijn gezin!

Happy St. Patricks Day! Oh my goodness this week has been too
amazing. I definitely can not do it justice in the short time I have
to write. It has definitely been a trying week in a lot of ways, but
I am coming to learn that we really do become more acquainted with God
during hard times. I am so happy to be able to be here on a mission
and to do hard things for the Lord. I have already seen so many
blessings in my life and I know this is just the beginning. I love
watching the gospel change my life and the lives of others. I'm
loving this opportunity to serve!

So it sounds like a ton of stuff has been going on! CONGRATS JULIA
AND JAKE!!! I got your dearelder last night just before choir and I
started jumping up and down. I am SO happy for you! How exciting to
finally know. Jake told me that he told you to take the name
Peter...haha if you wanted it I wouldn't blame you because it is a
WONDERFUL name. ;) Anyways, that is just a blessing for the both of
you and I know you will be great parents. Did you get the letter I
sent last week? I wasn't sure if I had your address right.

Oh and Uncle Bruce thank you so much for your kind email. It brings
me peace to know that your prayers are with me. I love you!

Mom and Dad I am always so happy to hear your testimonies and the
amazing experiences you are having. I am glad that the temple was so
wonderful! The temple is one of the biggest blessings we have in our
lives. I know that I am so spoiled here to be able to go every week.
I actually did work for someone named Jane and someone named Margaret
last week, it was cool. I'm excited to go again today.

So what to say about this week? So much has been happening. We are
now doing all day Engals fasts. Guess what? It's really hard! Haha
the first one was almost exhausting in a really weird way. They're
extremely helpful though and everyone here says that the quickest way
to learn the language is to speak it. So really I guess every day is
an Engals fast. We speak a lot of Neder-Engals. I love this language
though. The more I learn the more beautiful I think it is. I'm
going to buy a big Dutch hymn book here and send it home so that I can
have one in my home. As pretty as I think it is, it is not easy.
Grammar kills me! Dutch grammar is weird enough and now they've
started teaching us Dutch grammar in Dutch haha which makes things a
little more confusing. We also aren't allowed to use notes anymore
when we teach. Then we really have to rely on the spirit! As always
there are tons of funny words that are easy to mix up. I think I have
found the word that is going to kill me because I mix it up ALL the
time and it is a really bad one to mix up. So the word
"keuzevrijheid" means agency and it sounds almost exactly the same to
the word "kuisevrigheid", the only difference is that the first word
is said with a little longer of an "o". The problem is
"kuisevrijheid" means "free chastity" or "no limits on chastity"! Haha
talk about a terrible thing to mix up! So now when I'm teaching the
plan of salvation I might accidentally tell the investigator Adam and
Eve gave us free chastity! Oh my goodness.

Most of our zone is leaving this week. The Swedish and the Danish
missionaries all leave on Monday. I am so happy for them but I'm
definitely going to miss them! I think it's kinda cool because if I
remember correctly Ryan (Aldste Drake) is coming home next week which
means that these missionaries will be replacing him. They are all
excellent elders so he has nothing to worry about. Also, I don't know
if Pelle sees these, but someone needs to tell him that I am going to
make the Danish elders and sisters creep on him. :)

So last night was devotional and we had one of the most amazing
speakers. Every Tuesday there are all these rumors about an Apostle
coming and they are never true. But last night they were! Elder
Quentin L. Cook came and spoke to us!! I can't even describe how
wonderful it was. The feeling in the room is probably what I remember
more than anything else. It was amazing though to hear an Apostle of
the Lord talk to me as one of the Lord's missionaries. I'll never
forget it. He talked a lot about how pleased the Quorum of the Twelve
and the First Presidency and the Lord are with us and the great work
we are doing. I guess he had a totally different talk planned but
when he started talking he said the spirit prompted him to say
something different. He made a lot of promises to us and he gave us
an amazing blessing at the end. The spirit was tangible I swear!
Haha oh I love the MTC.

For choir we sang the most beautiful song. It's called "Behold the
wounds in Jesus' hands." Please look up the lyrics. It might be one
of the most beautiful descriptions of the atonement ever. I was so
happy to be able to sing it in front of an apostle. And the camera
went right in on Z. Pierson and I which was cool. Here are the lyrics
to the last verse. They made me cry while I was singing. "Behold His
wounded hands and feet! Come touch and see and feel the wounds and
marks that you may know his love for you is real. Then as you fall to
worship him and wash his feet in tears, your Savior takes you in his
arms and quiets all your fears." I get goosebumps just typing that.

I really have a strong testimony of the power of the atonement. It is
so real. I love being here at the MTC among so many wonderful people.
The thing is, none of us are perfect but we are all trying out
hardest to bring people to Christ and that is what matters. I feel
honored everyday to be with so many hard working servants of the Lord.
Even when I get discouraged here I know that this is where I want to
be.

A lot is going on tonight. We're teaching Al a really important
lesson on the Book of Mormon. Pray that it goes well! We need him to
gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. Anyways, time's up. I love
you! De kerk is waar!

Doi-Z. Holbein