Tender Mercies

Family, family, family. Oh goodness, what to even say? I love you all! I love this gospel! I love my mission.

This has been a very overwhelming week, but in the best kind of way.I feel overwhelmed with the blessings the Lord has been giving to us here in Antwerpen. I feel so close to my Savior and I love it. I know He lives. I know that God is my Heavenly Father and that Jesus Christ is my Savior. Without them I honestly can't do anything, but with them, oh man it's cool. :) I know that Joseph Smith did restore this gospel again in its fullness. How grateful I am for the priesthood! I love the quote you sent Dad.

Thank you all for your letters, emails, and support! I am always so happy to hear how well things are going at home. William, I am so happy you loved EFY. They are doing it here in Belgium in a few weeks and all the youth are so excited. Thank you for your sweet testimony. You are going to be an amazing missionary!

This week was great! The tall ship races last week were incredible! Oh my goodness the ships were so big. I took tons of pictures and I'm going to send them all home soon. I wish it wasn't so expensive to print pictures. Oh well. Anyway, we got to go with the elders in our district as well as the Tibbitts and President and Zuster Brubaker so it was a party! We got to go on one of the ships and people kept thinking that President and Elder Tippets were the captains because they look so official -- haha.

It was weird having P-day on Saturday but worth it. Monday we had interviews in Brussels. I love Brussels, it's a beautiful city. I think it's so crazy though because no one there speaks Dutch. It's only about 45 minutes away, but everyone speaks French. So many languages in such a small country! French sounds hard to me; it makes me grateful I speak Dutch. I can say the name of the Church in French but that's about it. Interviews went so well. I love President Brubaker! He is so inspired and I love getting his advice. We talked a lot about service and ways that we can show our love to the people we work with through service. I'm working on it a lot.

So miracle of all miracles -- we now have 5 wonderful, amazing people who all are going to be getting baptized in October! Five! I can't even believe it sometimes. It's not even the number that matters. They are all just such wonderful individuals and I LOVE LOVE LOVE watching them learn these things, apply them in their lives, and change. I'm watching these people become happier. I love teaching! They get this light in their eyes. They've known all this before. They chose this plan before. How wonderful to help them choose it again. We have Lillian, Joseph, Adella, and now Moni and Mercy. Moni is 34 and a member referral from Grace and Joseph Tunde. She was actually the one who made us that fish! Haha so see, you eat fish -- people get baptized. And for your information, since that appointment I have eaten shrimp and a whole lot of other crazy fish things. But yes, Moni is a doll and SO prepared. We gave her a talk in the conference report to read and she ended up reading the WHOLE THING. We came back to our next appointment and she was quoting stuff from it to us. Yeah! Then we have Mercy. She is 22 and from Ghana. She's very quiet but so sincere in wanting to follow Christ. She came to church yesterday and loved it. She said she felt the Spirit in her heart. She's great. So things are crazy busy here! But the best kind of busy EVER.

We had zone conference on Thursday and honestly it was one of the best ones yet. I have never felt so much peace or love in my heart for the gospel and for the people I serve. This gospel amazes me. I LOVE IT. Oh and other amazing news -- Elder M. Russell Ballard is coming to speak to us in September! I am beyond excited. And... President may want me to play my flute when he comes, so if you could send it that would be great. I think it's in Utah.

Yesterday Zuster Fritz and I taught Relief Society. We gave a lesson on the organization of the priesthood and it was a lot of fun. We got everyone up and moving and a lot of the women said it was a really helpful lesson. I love this ward.

Our funny story of the week was contacting into a man who has written 9 books on the 2012 world ending theory. He was very convinced that everyone in Belgium and the Netherlands is going to die. We told him we were from Utah, and he told us if we got into the mountains we might be safe. But if we didn't want to do that he also said that he and I could get married and he could be Adam and I his Eve. We tried sharing the Book of Mormon with him but he didn't want to talk about that sooo... we left a pass along card. Oh the craziness.

Please tell Sisters Bell and Quick thank you. Can you send me Lisa Bell’s address? Tell everyone I love them. The Church is true, wonderful, amazing and saving. It is everything.

Met Liefde,
Zuster Holbein
(July 19, 2010)