Blijf Maar Geweldig

Dear Family!

Sorry for the no time yesterday. And actually I don´t have much time today either! Haha life is so crazy! It´s awesome, but also a bit exhausting. I feel like my body is breaking down a bit, I´m always so tired. No worries though, I´m sure it´s just the change in the weather here.

Things with everyone are going so well. Here are the updates. I gave a talk in church on Sunday about happiness and it went really well. It was a cool experience for me. I had actually planned on talking about unity and charity, and had written my whole talk. But then on Saturday morning I was reading it, and I just didn´t like it. It didn´t feel right. So I prayed and said, “Heavenly Father, I really don´t have time to write another talk or to come up with something else. But if you want me to speak about something else, can you please let me know and help me?” I prayed and then sat there, and then all at once it was like someone just pushed my brain and all these words starting coming into my head, and scriptures, and I started writing but couldn´t write fast enough to get all the words out of my head. It was so cool! I felt so led by the Spirit, it was awesome. I don´t know if my talk touched anyone specifically, but I know that I was really touched and I learned a lot. I´m so grateful for moments like that.

Things with the investigators are going great! I LOVE THESE PEOPLE. Have I told you that before? Neda is still on for baptism on the 9th, and the only thing that will hold that up is a couple of Word of Wisdom problems. She got a blessing on Sunday though, and we are praying for miracles. It´s going to be great, no matter what. Mevrouw Idema is wonderful too. She´s working so hard on the Word of Wisdom and has learned so much! It´s amazing how prayer and the scriptures and the Church can really help people overcome addictions. It is such a testimony to me that there is a higher power that can help us overcome everything.

Well... that´s all the time I have. We´re at district meeting and the elders forgot to get stuff for lunch so we have to go figure that out... you gotta love them. :)

I love you all! Blijf maar geweldig.

Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein

Progress!

Dear Family,

It's June 15th and I'm still wearing a shawl. Is that even possible? Haha -- weather is crazy! I got a card from you all saying that KY was in the 90s. The weather here still switches from day to day. Yesterday was beautiful though. :)

Things are going so well! Being honest, the past few days have been kind of rough, but not too bad, and we're seeing so many blessings. Number 1 -- this morning we got a text from Joeri! He’s our old investigator who was supposed to be getting baptized this coming weekend. Anyway, he texted us and said, “So I've been starting to read in the Book of Mormon again, and I just wanted to let you know. I pick one scripture everyday from that jar you gave me. Today I read Mosiah 2:22." Wahoo! That was the BEST text ever. He's not ready to start meeting again, but he is reading and that is a huge step. I know it's going to help him to start progressing again. So that's great.

But I get ahead of myself -- Happy Father's day Daddy! Almost Father's Day. I wish we could call, but I hope that my (somewhat late) card and present make up for it. I love you, and am so happy that you are my Daddy. I brag about you and Mommy all the time. I'm convinced I have the best family. William, you leave Friday? Good luck kid! That's going to be so much fun. Make sure to take lots of pictures and enjoy every minute. What's your address? I would love to write you a letter.

So the other miracles of the week. We had a lesson with Mevrouw Idema on the Word of Wisdom and ... she totally accepted it! 100%. She smokes and drinks coffee, but she's willing to stop and she knows it's a commandment from God. She also came to church again this past Sunday and she was participating in all the classes. She kept raising her hand and volunteering -- so great. We also proposed July 16th as a baptismal date for her and she said she would pray about it. That's one year from the day that her husband died which would mean that 2 years after he died they could be sealed in the temple. I learn more and more every day that baptism really is just the first covenant that we make. The temple keeps us progressing; that's what we're aiming for. I'm praying really hard for her, and if you all could too that would be great. Opposition always comes, so she needs our faith. :)

Neda is also doing really well. Every Sunday she comes to church she brings someone else with her. Unfortunately no one has been interested, but she has such a great opinion about it. She always says, "Hey I just have to offer it, right? Then let them choose." What a good little missionary. We also went over on Saturday and helped her clean out her "junk room." Oh my goodness Mom, you would have died! I don't understand how people can accumulate so much stuff! It was fun though and good to help her.

We have a lot of other good investigators too who are progressing slowly but surely. This past Thursday we had dinner with Ester and Jako, the Dutch couple we met a few weeks ago. It went so well! They are amazing people. They’ve been all over the world doing humanitarian aid things, and they were really impressed with the work our church does. We talked about faith during the whole meal, and then toward the end I pulled out the Book of Mormon to give to them. Jako looked at me and said, "You know that THAT book is the one problem people have with your religion." We said that yes, we knew that. He asked us if we knew why, and we got talking about Revelation supposedly saying there can't be anymore revelation. What was great though was that he wasn't doing it in an attacking way; he really just wanted to know. We explained that God loves all of his children. That he is the same, yesterday, today and forever, and that the Book of Mormon is another testimony of Jesus Christ. We bore testimony of the powerful effect it has in our lives, and then we got to read Moroni 10:32-33 with them. The Spirit was so strong! They totally accepted the copy, and we are going to do an exchange -- you come to my church I come to yours -- in a few weeks. I just loved how open they were.

I really saw the contrast when just a few days later we were let into a house with a lovely family, and when we pulled out the Book of Mormon the husband freaked out and wouldn't let us read from it with them. It broke my heart! People don't know. There is such power in the Book of Mormon, we just have to open our hearts and let it in. I pray for these people.

So in het algemeen everything is going really well. I love it here. And I love Zuster Perry -- she's the best. We have a lot of fun together. She is always willing to talk and listen and help everyone. The Lord has really blessed me with good companions. The Lord has just blessed me all around.

I love you! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DADDY!!! Safe travels William! Work hard, be smart, love yourself, love the people, serve the Lord, and everything will always work out.

Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein

Gratitude

Dear Family,

So last night Zuster Perry and I are sitting on the floor after doing our planning, listening to EFY music (something I have come to appreciate more being a missionary I think -- haha), eating frozen grapes, and just chatting waiting for phone calls to hear about transfers, and obnoxiously texting everyone to see if anyone had found out, when all of a sudden it hit me -- this was my last phone call when transfers would have anything to do with me! WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?! Haha -- needless to say I had this “whoa” moment. So the news is the unstoppable Zuster Perry and Zuster Holbein are staying here in Gouda ready to rock another transfer. Yeah! I'm so so happy.

I just have to state, I love my mission. I do. When people ask me: Name? Zuster Holbein. Preferred language? Dutch. What do you do all day? Invite people to come unto Christ, ride my bike around beautiful Gouda, have crazy epic adventures, knock on lots of doors, get yelled at by half the people, work with the most amazing members in the world, go out to a pizza dinner with the recent 62 year old convert Sjef, pretend like we really biked to Italy, teach the most precious of God's children, pray every day that it won't rain, sing hymns while biking, and watch the gospel change people's lives. Do you have the best life ever? YES. :) Really, to Karina, Greg, Lindsay, EVERYONE who may be wondering about a mission -- it's worth it. 100%. Even the hard times.

This week has been awesome. So much happened. Wednesday we went to the Protestant school ... wow. I was nervous; not going to lie. But it went so well. The students actually did pretty well. The only 2 things they missed were 1) Actually Jesus Christ IS the center of our faith, and 2) we don't allow 10 wives. After their presentation we went up and they were like, “Okay, say something.” I was like, “I thought you were going to ask us questions!” So we just both bore our testimonies of how we came to know the gospel was true and what it means for us, and how Jesus Christ is the center of our lives. After that they asked all these questions about how we learned the language, if a mission was required, and why we need the Book of Mormon, oh and if only Mormons go to Heaven. The Spirit was with us, thank goodness. We were able to give pamphlets out to everyone, and presented two of the teachers a Book of Mormon. Yeah! :)

Other cool miracles -- Tuesday we were doing a consecrated hour and it was not going well. I was tired, honestly, it was at the end of the day. Then all of a sudden, this woman starts yelling and waving at us from the street parallel to us. We thought, okay, not weird, people yell at us a lot. But then she started yelling for us to come. We went over and she asked if we were Christian, and she let us come inside and told us that last night she prayed with God to help her find a way to have a better life, and then when she saw us she felt something. Yeah ... amazing! So we taught her a basic first lesson, and made a return appointment for tomorrow night! Wahoo. :)

Oh and Neda set a baptismal date on Wednesday! She's getting baptized July 9th and she is so excited. She is giving away Books of Mormon to everyone she knows. And she's going strong through hard stuff too. Her family who at first was all supportive gave her some anti-info. She called us right away and we went over and discussed it, and she decided by herself to throw it away because it didn't make her feel good inside. Love her.

Mevrouw Idema came to church yesterday for the first time yesterday and loved it! Oh she is so sweet. I want her to get baptized more than anything so that she can go and be sealed to her husband in a year. She's going to do it, I know it. She loved fast and testimony meeting, and asked if she could write something down and then next month say it. She is so sweet. I love the spirit when we teach her. Especially when we talk about eternal families. I've never felt the Spirit so strongly. I just know that Rob is waiting for her on the other side to accept this. I never feel Heaven so near than when I talk with people about eternal families. It's beautiful. After lessons like that I swear my bike feels like it has wings.

Thank you all for being so good to me. I pray for you all. Thank you, thank you, thank you for supporting me as a missionary. I studied gratitude this morning and I was overwhelmed with everything that God has given me. To quote our African brothers and sisters here, "God is good." Haha -- oh the joys. Love you all!

Met Liefde,
Zuster Holbein