Blijf maar zwimmen

Hello family :)

Thank you so much for the emails this week! I think that was the most I have ever gotten - haha. But really, I appreciate your love. I have gotten cards from Mom, Dad, and William so far but it doesn't really matter to me when they come. I've been saving them for Wednesday and I'm excited to read your beautiful testimonies. Thank you for your examples of faith.

So this week: the best word to describe it -- WET. Oh my goodness it rained every single day non-stop I think. Yesterday was the first day that we had seen the sun in a while and it was a nice break. We came home every night soaked. Good stuff. My new best friend is my big bright blue poncho. A member here gave it to me and it has been a life saver. I have to admit I look quite ridiculous, especially since it says IKEA across the back, but it keeps me dry. The weather has made finding this week a little difficult though. People have been staying inside, and knocking on doors is not very effective. Honestly, it was a bit of a hard week. That's ok though; that's missionary work, it happens sometimes. And I've learned a lot, something that always happens whenever the work is hard -- trials come to everyone too. Our investigators are all struggling too. We receive no witness until after the trial of our faith, right? DelRoy is doing well with not smoking, but other things have been hard this week. But with prayer everything will work out. The Lord is definitely in control and I'm letting that bring me peace.

As far as miracles go, we have been blessed to meet with a lot of amazing people this week. We were able to contact a referral from Temple Square, a man named Ger. He is amazing! And just a thank you to the sisters on Temple Square, they really did a good job teaching him. When we came he knew a lot about the Church already and had been reading in the Book of Mormon already. He wasn't ready to set a baptismal date but he wants to keep learning and he wants us to come to his Bible study group to teach a lesson. That should be interesting -- definitely pray for the Spirit for that one. We also had one of our French speaking investigators finally come to church yesterday! His name is Christian (appropriate) and he loved it. Unfortunately he is moving back to Africa at the end of this week. But he says he knows where the Church is and wants to keep going.

Personally, I am almost done with the Book of Mormon again. Yay! That's been exciting. I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON. Ok, it sounds lame and cheesy, but it's so true. I love trying to picture the stories. I actually think I've been getting too into it because last night I had this dream that it was this big mortal combat and we were all fighting with swords and things, and yeah... it was intense. Anyway, I'm grateful for the precious principles of the gospel we can learn from studying and reading the Book of Mormon. And, as another side note, I also love the Bible. I came to this light bulb moment this week. So Vili, one of our investigators, speaks Bulgarian and Dutch but Bulgarian is better for her to read in. And unfortunately, they don't have a Bulgarian Bible. So all we can teach out of is the Book of Mormon. That is nice, but I really realized this week -- we need both. TOGETHER they teach the gospel. I mean we tell people that all the time, but it really is true.

Well lievers, I love you all. Happy my birthday on Wednesday. Wednesday is wijketen, a big ward dinner, so we'll be eating there. Should be fun. I'm praying for miracles! Hope you can feel of my love! Blijf maar zwimmen.

Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein