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