People I love!
Today is such a beautiful day here in Gouda! This past week has been cold and rainy, so today is the perfect P-day treat. I hope it stays the rest of the week, though people here say it's going to get cold again tomorrow. People here talk about the weather ALL THE TIME. It's such a popular topic of conversation. I feel like in America we do it just if there's nothing else to talk about or if we're trying to change the topic. Here though it's like the most normal thing ever. Great way to start converstations on trains. :)
How are you all doing? William-good luck finishing up school! You can do it! Thank you so much everyone for your cards and emails. They mean a lot to me, and the letters always seem to come just on the right days. This week has been intense! Awesome though, so many things are happening! It's so funny the way things go up and down. The Lord is at the head of this work; it's great.
So with finding we are still struggling a bit. We've been faithful in getting out there and just knocking on doors, talking on the streets, but we're still waiting to see the fruits. That's ok though because the investigators we do have are doing so well! And we keep seeming to find people through other random ways. I feel like if you show the Lord that you're willing to just go out and knock and talk that He blesses you with investigators, even if they'don't come from those hours.
Mevrouw Idema is amazing! She's making such great progress. We had a lesson with her on Wednesday about the gospel and SHE was the one asking all the questions about being baptized and authority and everything. She wants to be baptized, she feels the Spirit so strongly when we come, and when she reads and prays. She just wants to keep learning a bit more before she sets a date. She is great though; I know she's going to act soon. Baptism for the dead and the temple came up, and she was so touched and got all emotional when we told her that her husband who died a year ago could get baptized too, and that they could be sealed together in the temple. We have another lesson with her tonight and the bishop''s wife is coming on joint teach. Have I mentioned that we have the best members here in Gouda? Well we do.:)
Our other miracle investigator of the week is an amazing woman named Neda. She's from Iran but has lived here for 18 years and speaks great Dutch. She was raised Muslim but converted to Christianity 3 years ago. She found us! She's friends with a member, and after talking to her she decided that she wanted to know more about what the Church is all about. We went and had an appointment on Wednesday, and then on Saturday she came with us to a baptismal service in Rotterdam, and then came to church in Gouda on Sunday with her sister! SHE LOVES IT. All of it. She loved the baptismal service and started crying and said she felt so much love when we were singing. Yesterday at church she kept talking about how she wants to tell everyone about the Church and how great it is. She said, “It’s like I've been looking for this forever, but just never knew where to find it.” YES!
In other news, Noah's ark has come to Gouda. Yes, it's gotten that bad here -- we're taking drastic measures. Ha. No but really, it's an imitation Noah's ark and it's big. We're going to go visit it today. Apparently the inside is a Christian book store. And funnily enough, it came last Monday and it's been raining all week.
Oh other big thing that we just found out today -- there is a big, strict Protestant college here in Gouda and one of the religion classes was assigned a research project on our church and they're giving the presentation to everyone this Wednesday night and they want representatives from our church to come and do a Q&A session after. So guess who's going? Zuster Perry, our ward mission leader, the institute teacher, and me. Ahhhhhh! Talk about awesomely intimidating. I'm super excited and yes... maybe a little nervous. But faith and fear don't go together right? It's going to be great! If God be for us who can be against us? I will definitely let you all know how that goes. :)
Well dears, you all are geweldig. I love love love you and pray for you all the time. Never forget, ok? Things here are great. :)
Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein
Oh and give my love to Karina, Lindsay and Greg! Congrats to them all! Missions are the best.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Hurrah!
Dear Family!
Hello. :) I love you all. In case I don't tell you enough. Zuster Perry and I were talking this morning about families and the importance of the gospel in them, and we both are pretty convinced that we have the best families ever. Thanks for all your hard work in raising me with the gospel! Best thing ever. So many people we meet say, “Oh you know, I don't want to force my children to believe, so I just don't say anything and let them take their pick.” Bahhh -- no people, no. There are too many evil influences in the world, they have to get the good from somewhere. It's so important to start teaching children about Heavenly Father right from the beginning. I have no experience, dat weet ik. But I've just seen it so much here. Kids really are so close to the Spirit. We will approach families all the time and even if the parents say no the kids always look back when they are walking away and say things like, "Mommy, who was that? What did they want? Why don't we talk to them?" I seriously think those kids recognize that we come from the Lord! In any case, I'm so grateful for the wonderful way that you have raised me. I hope to be able to do the same.
So this week... SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED. Oh goodness it was such a week of ups and downs and everywhere in between. I love it. We always end on a high. So first the sad news -- Joeri dropped us! :( We went on Wednesday, and as soon as we walked in I sensed that something was wrong. He said he just doesn't have time right now, and that he needs to get some other things in order first before he'll have time for God. He said he just needs 2 months or so. No Joeri, it's the other way around. It was really heart-breaking because he's made so much progress, and to see him just stop. He said that we could still contact him every week or so, but that he can't have appointments right now. We testified, prayed, and read from Het Boek van Mormon, and I felt peaceful when we left. He'll come back, I totally believe it. Everyone has their time.
That was the big disappointment of the week but the Lord blessed us in so many other ways. Mevrouw Idema is another one of our investigators and she is doing so well! She hasn't committed to baptism yet; she's had a lot of negative experiences in the past, but she's loving everything we're teaching, and she's praying. Even out loud, something she never used to do. We asked her how it made her feel and she said, "warm van binnen" "warm inside.” She is so so sweet and I am really praying for her.
We also went to go visit Ester, that woman with the flowers from last week, and they invited us to come over for dinner to teach them. What kind of people do that? Awesome ones.
Mom, I really am trying to learn a little bit of Portuguese. We have an investigator from Portugal and she taught us how to sing Happy Birthday! Haha cool. Maybe you could email me your testimony and I could give it to her? That would be awesome!
Funny moments -- my bike is dying. It just needs to hold in there! My right brake popped off completely, so I now have to start braking 60 seconds in advance. And going down hills is fun. Also, the Gouda Ward can NOT sing. It's so great. Yesterday we were singing “I Stand All Amazed,” and it was so off it was hilarious. Brother Hoornweg was sitting in front of me and he turned around to show me a tuner while we were singing and it was going every which way. Haha, I love it. Plus for the most part, the Dutch have this tendency to always pick the hymns that no one knows. So that doesn't help. I love this ward, they are incredible.
Thanks for the cards the letters, the prayers, the faith, the emails and everything. Did you know that you can send free letters straight to the apartment from dearelder.com? I never knew that, but Zuster Perry gets them a lot. Haha just so you know. Just kidding, you all are doing great!
Hurrah for life. I'm happy. :)
Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein
Hello. :) I love you all. In case I don't tell you enough. Zuster Perry and I were talking this morning about families and the importance of the gospel in them, and we both are pretty convinced that we have the best families ever. Thanks for all your hard work in raising me with the gospel! Best thing ever. So many people we meet say, “Oh you know, I don't want to force my children to believe, so I just don't say anything and let them take their pick.” Bahhh -- no people, no. There are too many evil influences in the world, they have to get the good from somewhere. It's so important to start teaching children about Heavenly Father right from the beginning. I have no experience, dat weet ik. But I've just seen it so much here. Kids really are so close to the Spirit. We will approach families all the time and even if the parents say no the kids always look back when they are walking away and say things like, "Mommy, who was that? What did they want? Why don't we talk to them?" I seriously think those kids recognize that we come from the Lord! In any case, I'm so grateful for the wonderful way that you have raised me. I hope to be able to do the same.
So this week... SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED. Oh goodness it was such a week of ups and downs and everywhere in between. I love it. We always end on a high. So first the sad news -- Joeri dropped us! :( We went on Wednesday, and as soon as we walked in I sensed that something was wrong. He said he just doesn't have time right now, and that he needs to get some other things in order first before he'll have time for God. He said he just needs 2 months or so. No Joeri, it's the other way around. It was really heart-breaking because he's made so much progress, and to see him just stop. He said that we could still contact him every week or so, but that he can't have appointments right now. We testified, prayed, and read from Het Boek van Mormon, and I felt peaceful when we left. He'll come back, I totally believe it. Everyone has their time.
That was the big disappointment of the week but the Lord blessed us in so many other ways. Mevrouw Idema is another one of our investigators and she is doing so well! She hasn't committed to baptism yet; she's had a lot of negative experiences in the past, but she's loving everything we're teaching, and she's praying. Even out loud, something she never used to do. We asked her how it made her feel and she said, "warm van binnen" "warm inside.” She is so so sweet and I am really praying for her.
We also went to go visit Ester, that woman with the flowers from last week, and they invited us to come over for dinner to teach them. What kind of people do that? Awesome ones.
Mom, I really am trying to learn a little bit of Portuguese. We have an investigator from Portugal and she taught us how to sing Happy Birthday! Haha cool. Maybe you could email me your testimony and I could give it to her? That would be awesome!
Funny moments -- my bike is dying. It just needs to hold in there! My right brake popped off completely, so I now have to start braking 60 seconds in advance. And going down hills is fun. Also, the Gouda Ward can NOT sing. It's so great. Yesterday we were singing “I Stand All Amazed,” and it was so off it was hilarious. Brother Hoornweg was sitting in front of me and he turned around to show me a tuner while we were singing and it was going every which way. Haha, I love it. Plus for the most part, the Dutch have this tendency to always pick the hymns that no one knows. So that doesn't help. I love this ward, they are incredible.
Thanks for the cards the letters, the prayers, the faith, the emails and everything. Did you know that you can send free letters straight to the apartment from dearelder.com? I never knew that, but Zuster Perry gets them a lot. Haha just so you know. Just kidding, you all are doing great!
Hurrah for life. I'm happy. :)
Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein
Monday, May 16, 2011
Miracles Everywhere
May 16, 2011
Hey hey hey. :) How is my wonderful family doing?
I finally got a card from Mom earlier this week. I don't know why they've been taking so long, probably just the mail here. You never know. But no worries, I feel your love. Thank you everyone for the pictures! I'm surprised you got mine so quickly. Everyone looks great! William -- YOU LOOK SO OLD. When did that happen? Do you have pictures from prom? I would love to see them. What about John and Britt? I would love to see pictures of them too. I'm glad to know that the weather in Kentucky is doing about the same as here. I don't know what happened to our lovely spring weather, but it is gone! The past few days have been coooold. Luckily they’ve been sunny. Today is raining as well, but it's not too bad. I'd rather have it rain on P-day. Everyone says that it's supposed to get warmer on Wednesday. I'm crossing my fingers.
So it's been a great week! Hard in a lot of ways with finding and things, but overall great! I think I've had more doors slammed in my face this past week than I ever have before. Haha – dang; sometimes finding people is just hard! But still good, no discouragement here. I think it's funny more than anything. Some people freak out so much when they see us on the door and I think, really? Like do we look THAT scary? If I had two beautiful girls come to my door I think I would want to know what they had to say. Haha kidding. But you know what I mean?
Anyway, despite the door slams we are seeing miracles left and right. We have found so many new investigators just out of nowhere! Sometimes I think that's the whole point of going along the doors. Just to show our faith. And it always puts us in the right place at the right time to meet someone who will listen. For example -- we're going along knocking on doors and Zuster Perry and I just started to talk about how much we love flowers and how nice it is to get them. And then, all of a sudden, I see a woman walking down the street carrying a big bunch of flowers! And I thought, she has to be a nice person. So we went and approached her and she accepted us right away! She even knows where the Church is, and she let us walk all the way to her house with her, and told us we could come back to teach her and her husband! Eternal marriage anyone? Yes! Awesome miracle. Oh and the flowers ended up being for her neighbor who just got back from vacation. Nice, huh? :)
Other miracle -- A woman just walked into church yesterday and announced that she has been investigating the Church for 7 years, was in Finland for the last 10 months, but now wants to start meeting again and possibly prepare for baptism! We were like... ummm... okay. Yes. That's possible.
Oh and then today, we're on the train up to Amsterdam (oh yeah, I'm writing from Amsterdam, we had to come and pick up some legal papers), a woman calls us who is a friend of a member and she said, "So I hear you give lessons to people, and that this is the true church of Christ. When can you come?" So we have an appointment with her on Thursday! We're so busy I'm almost afraid to be excited about it (haha) cause then we might lose everything. It's all been great!
Things with Joeri, our baptismal date are also going super well. He loves the gospel! And he's really changing. I love love love LOVE the light that comes into people's faces when they start to learn about the gospel. It totally fills that dark hole in them. Last night we were going around taking cookies to some of our investigators -- daily contact you know -- and we went and took him some. They were double-double chocolate chip and when he saw them he said, "You brought me chocolate pancakes?" Haha it was so funny. They don't even sell chocolate chips here; we had to break up a chocolate bar. I guess it's really an American thing.
Other things are also going really well. We started working with another less-active woman this week. She's actually an American, married to a Dutch man and she's pregnant. The only thing is her water broke... last week. So everything is crazy now. Luckily the ward has been on it helping her. We went to see her last night and she was super happy, and told us she's been praying again! We're planning on starting to teach her and hopefully her husband as soon as the baby comes which could be very very soon.
So yes -- I'm super happy and even when I'm not or things are hard, it's still okay. :) Life goes on, and there is always a little miracle waiting around the corner of some funny moment.
I hope that you all are doing well, and I pray for you all the time! I love you!
Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein
Hey hey hey. :) How is my wonderful family doing?
I finally got a card from Mom earlier this week. I don't know why they've been taking so long, probably just the mail here. You never know. But no worries, I feel your love. Thank you everyone for the pictures! I'm surprised you got mine so quickly. Everyone looks great! William -- YOU LOOK SO OLD. When did that happen? Do you have pictures from prom? I would love to see them. What about John and Britt? I would love to see pictures of them too. I'm glad to know that the weather in Kentucky is doing about the same as here. I don't know what happened to our lovely spring weather, but it is gone! The past few days have been coooold. Luckily they’ve been sunny. Today is raining as well, but it's not too bad. I'd rather have it rain on P-day. Everyone says that it's supposed to get warmer on Wednesday. I'm crossing my fingers.
So it's been a great week! Hard in a lot of ways with finding and things, but overall great! I think I've had more doors slammed in my face this past week than I ever have before. Haha – dang; sometimes finding people is just hard! But still good, no discouragement here. I think it's funny more than anything. Some people freak out so much when they see us on the door and I think, really? Like do we look THAT scary? If I had two beautiful girls come to my door I think I would want to know what they had to say. Haha kidding. But you know what I mean?
Anyway, despite the door slams we are seeing miracles left and right. We have found so many new investigators just out of nowhere! Sometimes I think that's the whole point of going along the doors. Just to show our faith. And it always puts us in the right place at the right time to meet someone who will listen. For example -- we're going along knocking on doors and Zuster Perry and I just started to talk about how much we love flowers and how nice it is to get them. And then, all of a sudden, I see a woman walking down the street carrying a big bunch of flowers! And I thought, she has to be a nice person. So we went and approached her and she accepted us right away! She even knows where the Church is, and she let us walk all the way to her house with her, and told us we could come back to teach her and her husband! Eternal marriage anyone? Yes! Awesome miracle. Oh and the flowers ended up being for her neighbor who just got back from vacation. Nice, huh? :)
Other miracle -- A woman just walked into church yesterday and announced that she has been investigating the Church for 7 years, was in Finland for the last 10 months, but now wants to start meeting again and possibly prepare for baptism! We were like... ummm... okay. Yes. That's possible.
Oh and then today, we're on the train up to Amsterdam (oh yeah, I'm writing from Amsterdam, we had to come and pick up some legal papers), a woman calls us who is a friend of a member and she said, "So I hear you give lessons to people, and that this is the true church of Christ. When can you come?" So we have an appointment with her on Thursday! We're so busy I'm almost afraid to be excited about it (haha) cause then we might lose everything. It's all been great!
Things with Joeri, our baptismal date are also going super well. He loves the gospel! And he's really changing. I love love love LOVE the light that comes into people's faces when they start to learn about the gospel. It totally fills that dark hole in them. Last night we were going around taking cookies to some of our investigators -- daily contact you know -- and we went and took him some. They were double-double chocolate chip and when he saw them he said, "You brought me chocolate pancakes?" Haha it was so funny. They don't even sell chocolate chips here; we had to break up a chocolate bar. I guess it's really an American thing.
Other things are also going really well. We started working with another less-active woman this week. She's actually an American, married to a Dutch man and she's pregnant. The only thing is her water broke... last week. So everything is crazy now. Luckily the ward has been on it helping her. We went to see her last night and she was super happy, and told us she's been praying again! We're planning on starting to teach her and hopefully her husband as soon as the baby comes which could be very very soon.
So yes -- I'm super happy and even when I'm not or things are hard, it's still okay. :) Life goes on, and there is always a little miracle waiting around the corner of some funny moment.
I hope that you all are doing well, and I pray for you all the time! I love you!
Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein
Monday, May 9, 2011
Thanks For Being So Great
Hello lievers. :)
Long time, no talk. Haha, really it was SO good to talk to you all yesterday. It's funny because now I think, wait but we just talked about everything, what do I email about? Which is actually probably ok because we have an appointment in a bit so we don't have much time to email. It was lovely to hear your voices! Give Brittney my love; I missed being able to talk to her.
It's great to know that you all are doing well -- so much is happening it seems! Thank you for your good examples and faith in the Gospel. Zuster Perry and I taught Sunday School in church yesterday and we taught the talk "Vertrouw op God, ga dan heen en doen" from President Eyring, "Trust in God, then go and do" in English (I think). We talked a lot about how it takes such faith to trust in God because so often we can't understand where He is taking us, or why we need to suffer the things we do. I have such a strong testimony that everything that we experience here in this life has a purpose. I know that's true with all my heart. This life is a molding process. But it always produces the best results -- the best us. Talking to William in Amsterdam on the phone after his baptism the other night just proved that to me. It's amazing to see the changes that the atonement can bring into someone's life. It's all so real!
Well family, I love you all. Ik hou van jou -- remember? :) Keep on keeping on.
Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein
Long time, no talk. Haha, really it was SO good to talk to you all yesterday. It's funny because now I think, wait but we just talked about everything, what do I email about? Which is actually probably ok because we have an appointment in a bit so we don't have much time to email. It was lovely to hear your voices! Give Brittney my love; I missed being able to talk to her.
It's great to know that you all are doing well -- so much is happening it seems! Thank you for your good examples and faith in the Gospel. Zuster Perry and I taught Sunday School in church yesterday and we taught the talk "Vertrouw op God, ga dan heen en doen" from President Eyring, "Trust in God, then go and do" in English (I think). We talked a lot about how it takes such faith to trust in God because so often we can't understand where He is taking us, or why we need to suffer the things we do. I have such a strong testimony that everything that we experience here in this life has a purpose. I know that's true with all my heart. This life is a molding process. But it always produces the best results -- the best us. Talking to William in Amsterdam on the phone after his baptism the other night just proved that to me. It's amazing to see the changes that the atonement can bring into someone's life. It's all so real!
Well family, I love you all. Ik hou van jou -- remember? :) Keep on keeping on.
Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein
Monday, May 2, 2011
Groeten van Gouda!!
Dear Family!
Thank you for your prayers and love and support and just being so wonderful. I hope I let you all know enough just how much I love you. The longer I am here the more I realize how blessed I am.
Soo... I'm in Gouda! And I love it! Seriously, I was really worried about the transition, and while it is SO SO different here, I love it already. I have met some amazing people, and we've already seen so many blessings. There is a lot of work to be done here but Zuster Perry and I are up for the challenge. And no, she is not related to the PERRY Perry, but she does have an uncle named Tom. Zuster Perry is an absolute doll, just like I thought. She's 23, from Utah, but has lived in Southern California for the past few years. She's got so much love for the work and the people here and she speaks great Dutch! We've already had a lot of fun together.
So Gouda... it's tiny! Like really, really. It takes us about 10 minutes to fiets from appointment to appointment and we live in an apartment right across the street from the church. It probably takes us a total of 30 seconds, not kidding, to get there. We are blessed. We have a big area, and our ward boundaries are actually the largest of any ward in Western Europe. We do most of our finding here in Gouda because that's where the church building is, but we travel down to Rotterdam and the surrounding areas a lot to visit members, less actives, things like that.
The ward is amazing here! It's still a pretty international ward and there are several Belgian families here. It makes me so happy to hear Vlaams again! Last night we went to a music fireside and a big group from Antwerpen came up and it was great to talk to them all. It was weird though, I had to switch my brain to be able to understand them -- I had forgotten how different Vlaams and Nederlands were! Anyways, the ward. We have the best bishop! I haven't even been here that long but he's already been on joint-teach with us several times and had us over for dinner. Apparently we eat with him and his family every Tuesday -- that's incredible! I've loved all the bishops that I have had, but this is unheard of here. I am so so so grateful. There are so many loving members here. Everyone seems to have the attitude of "we want to be your family while you're here!" Love it.
Yesterday was such a great day at church. Zuster Perry and I were asked to teach Sharing Time and it was so much fun. We helped them memorize the 6th Article of Faith, and then we talked about the apostasy and restoration by doing a cool activity. They loved it, and one of the little boys got up during sacrament meeting and bore his testimony about how grateful he was to have sister missionaries to help him learn.
It's cool being the only missionaries in the ward too. I've always served in a city with elders and senior couples and all that. I thought I would miss it, and I do a bit, but it's cool to just be here by ourselves. Us and Gouda. And the Spirit and all that of course. :)
Zuster Perry plays piano, and so yesterday we did this beautiful arrangement of "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go" in sacrament meeting and it went really well. The ward is small but very sweet. Investigator-wise things are going well but we do have a lot of work to do. Most of our investigators are referrals/part member family members. Almost all of our finding is done going along the doors because there isn't really a lot of opstraat stuff. Which has been good for me cause I've spent most of my mission just on the streets talking with people.
And another big difference -- EVERYONE HERE BELIEVES. I was so used to A'dam where NO ONE believes and people curse God. I tell people here I served in A'dam and they say, “Oh yeah, the Sodom and Gomorrah of Nederland.” It's true -- haha. Anyway, almost everyone here goes to church. Everything is closed on Sunday. It's totally the tiny, little Dutch town where people sit outside telling kids the stories from the Bible. On the one hand it's awesome, and on the other it presents some problems. I've never met so many people who are so concerned for my soul. Haha -- we've met a couple of very intense people who swear we have been deceived and told us to go fast and pray about the salvation of our souls. We told them we do and we will. It's funny. There are so many open people though. It's time to be bold! Everyone already goes to a church so we frequently ask people why they think there are so many churches and then go straight to the restoration; it's great!!
I really am loving it here so far and I feel confident that we are going to see miracles. We fasted yesterday as a companionship for them. Once again, it's time to call down the angels!
I love you all. Thanks for everything.
Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein
P.S. "Survivor" by Destiny's Child is playing in the cafe. I thought that was funny and applicable.
Thank you for your prayers and love and support and just being so wonderful. I hope I let you all know enough just how much I love you. The longer I am here the more I realize how blessed I am.
Soo... I'm in Gouda! And I love it! Seriously, I was really worried about the transition, and while it is SO SO different here, I love it already. I have met some amazing people, and we've already seen so many blessings. There is a lot of work to be done here but Zuster Perry and I are up for the challenge. And no, she is not related to the PERRY Perry, but she does have an uncle named Tom. Zuster Perry is an absolute doll, just like I thought. She's 23, from Utah, but has lived in Southern California for the past few years. She's got so much love for the work and the people here and she speaks great Dutch! We've already had a lot of fun together.
So Gouda... it's tiny! Like really, really. It takes us about 10 minutes to fiets from appointment to appointment and we live in an apartment right across the street from the church. It probably takes us a total of 30 seconds, not kidding, to get there. We are blessed. We have a big area, and our ward boundaries are actually the largest of any ward in Western Europe. We do most of our finding here in Gouda because that's where the church building is, but we travel down to Rotterdam and the surrounding areas a lot to visit members, less actives, things like that.
The ward is amazing here! It's still a pretty international ward and there are several Belgian families here. It makes me so happy to hear Vlaams again! Last night we went to a music fireside and a big group from Antwerpen came up and it was great to talk to them all. It was weird though, I had to switch my brain to be able to understand them -- I had forgotten how different Vlaams and Nederlands were! Anyways, the ward. We have the best bishop! I haven't even been here that long but he's already been on joint-teach with us several times and had us over for dinner. Apparently we eat with him and his family every Tuesday -- that's incredible! I've loved all the bishops that I have had, but this is unheard of here. I am so so so grateful. There are so many loving members here. Everyone seems to have the attitude of "we want to be your family while you're here!" Love it.
Yesterday was such a great day at church. Zuster Perry and I were asked to teach Sharing Time and it was so much fun. We helped them memorize the 6th Article of Faith, and then we talked about the apostasy and restoration by doing a cool activity. They loved it, and one of the little boys got up during sacrament meeting and bore his testimony about how grateful he was to have sister missionaries to help him learn.
It's cool being the only missionaries in the ward too. I've always served in a city with elders and senior couples and all that. I thought I would miss it, and I do a bit, but it's cool to just be here by ourselves. Us and Gouda. And the Spirit and all that of course. :)
Zuster Perry plays piano, and so yesterday we did this beautiful arrangement of "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go" in sacrament meeting and it went really well. The ward is small but very sweet. Investigator-wise things are going well but we do have a lot of work to do. Most of our investigators are referrals/part member family members. Almost all of our finding is done going along the doors because there isn't really a lot of opstraat stuff. Which has been good for me cause I've spent most of my mission just on the streets talking with people.
And another big difference -- EVERYONE HERE BELIEVES. I was so used to A'dam where NO ONE believes and people curse God. I tell people here I served in A'dam and they say, “Oh yeah, the Sodom and Gomorrah of Nederland.” It's true -- haha. Anyway, almost everyone here goes to church. Everything is closed on Sunday. It's totally the tiny, little Dutch town where people sit outside telling kids the stories from the Bible. On the one hand it's awesome, and on the other it presents some problems. I've never met so many people who are so concerned for my soul. Haha -- we've met a couple of very intense people who swear we have been deceived and told us to go fast and pray about the salvation of our souls. We told them we do and we will. It's funny. There are so many open people though. It's time to be bold! Everyone already goes to a church so we frequently ask people why they think there are so many churches and then go straight to the restoration; it's great!!
I really am loving it here so far and I feel confident that we are going to see miracles. We fasted yesterday as a companionship for them. Once again, it's time to call down the angels!
I love you all. Thanks for everything.
Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein
P.S. "Survivor" by Destiny's Child is playing in the cafe. I thought that was funny and applicable.
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