The Sun Came out and I Can Prove it

The sun came out on Saturday. I took a picture to prove 

Crazy week this week with the bombings and everything. We invited a recent convert to come and have lunch wit hthe district after district meeting on Tuesday morning, and she was the one who told us about the bombings. It was quite a surprise, especially since our mission covers that area and we are just above the Belgian border here in Breda. However, we did not have to do any emergency procedures, and nobody from our mission was actually hurt. Unfortunately, the Paris France mission can not say the same. Jammer.

The less active that we invited is awesome. Her name is Jasmine and she is a dancing coach here. She is american, and met the sisters on the bus a few months ago and was baptized in December. She moved here from the states when she was little, and she has a super awesome story and it is going to be published in the Liahona soon. 

I went on exchanges with Elder Van Fleet that day, the one who met Aunt Emily on the plane. He is super funny. He waves to everybody he sees to give off a good impression. There was bad traffic that day and he did not stop waving to people in cars fro a bout 30 minutes straight. 

On Wednesday, I got to take a trip up to Leiden to get the last bit of immigration stuff taken care of. I did not see Elder Mackay or Elder Steele, but Elder Gemmell was there. He is still in Amsterdam with the same companion, but I think everybody else in the MTC group changed. We also saw Sister Maughan, who is now in Gouda. There are only sisters in Gouda, which kind of stinks because I think it would be a super cool city to serve in with all of the Gouda cheese. I traveled up to Leiden by myself because the rule is that we can travel on trains by ourselves as long as we enter and leave the train station with other missionaries. It felt really wierd, but I found a Winnie the Pooh book in Dutch on the ground on the way to the station, so I had finished most of it by the time I got back to Breda. Leiden is a beautiful city.

Some Sweet Dutch Art

On Thursday, we did our weekly planning so we did not get too much done, but we did get a lesson with an investigator that we have not had contact with in a few weeks, and it went really well. We used Jasmine for a joint teach and she wants to watch General Conference. Later that night we played cards with some of the older ladies in the ward to build better relations with some members that we have less contact with, and it was a good dutch lesson too. We played with the grandmother of the member that moved to Chandler and her daughter. They were happy because they miss the little kids. 

Friday we did service in Bergen op Zoom. It was raining and we were planting bushes and weeding. I did not know so many worms existed in the world, but they are everywhere here. When it rains, it is almost impossible to avoid stepping on them with every step. It was a good opportunity to share some Easter cards with the neighbors in the area that were helping out as well. 

The next morning we went to DLC in Eindhoven. On the way back we started talking to these ladies on the train who were willing to let us practice our dutch on them. When they found out that we were missionaries, they kind of asked us to tell them what we would tell somebody if it was our first time talking to somebody. We got to talk to them about the restoration, it was a miracle. The Roosendaal elders stayed over at our apartment that night. 

Yesterday we went over to Rocky´s for breakfast. He had a bunch of croissants and rolls, and all the toppings like ham, cheese, jam, butter, etc and chocolate milk. It was super good. CHurch was a little more normal that I expected, but it was great. We had correlation and then did a little contacting, and went over to the Murtons for dinner. He forced us to wear his old army jackets when we left because it suddenly started pouring outside. Pretty normal Sunday.

We are currently preparing Angkea for baptism. She is doing incredibly well and recognizes that knowledge of the truth comes from a spiritual witness. She knows the church is the only 100% true church. It is not a belirf to her anymore. People have been hitting her with anti material, and she is still going strong. We finished the last lesson with here today and she is going to be interviewed on Friday. Her baptism is next Saturday and she is inviting everybody to it. She said that her doctor is going to come, and is going to ask if she also wants to take the lessons from us. She is a golden investigator. 

What I have found is that recent converts, while not the most knowledgeable, are the best member missionaries. They are so willing to offer that change to their friends because they know how happy it has made them. They always want to come on joint teach lessons and are so eager to help the missionaries out. If we all acted as the recent converts did, then the missionaries would be much too busy. 

From Elder Stanger: 

Thee´s a store here called Albert Heijn, and every time you spend 15 euros, they give you a tiny little pot with soil and seeds, called a moestuin (pronounced moose town, means fruit and vegetable garden), so we´ve been growing those in our apartment, along with a mint plant we named Ginger. It´s the little things that make the best memories.