Still Learning the Language

October 13, 2014

Hi Familie!!!

The pictures from home are awesome!! I'm so happy you guys are having such a fun time back home. The leaves are awesome! It's great that Sears called Cierra back too! I pray for you guys every day and everything is going great here!

We've been working a ton at Mona's and we are almost done building another patio in her back yard. It looks really good, but it's a ton of work. The Lord is definitely helping us. Ik ben so blij van jullie. We went to Naomi and Jos's last night and Naomi said she would get baptized!!! Jos is still looking for his answer as he prays and studies the Book of Mormon and the Bible. So cool though. It's awesome that they're accepting the Gospel and finding out for themselves which is great.

We are teaching a woman who is from Croatia and she has a family, but they don't want anything to do with God. We are really pushing eternal families and hopefully we can meet with the entire family soon. We are going to visit an investigator tonight to see how he's doing. He has a drug problem, but he feels the Spirit when we come over and we're going to try to help him. We're going to the Batavia with the zusters (sisters) vandaag (today), for p-day. I'll take a ton of pics. It's a really old ship that we pay 11 euros to go on and look around. Can't wait! It's getting colder here and I'll get a coat soon. I may get boots, but I’m not sure. I think we get iPads in December.

Love you guys so much! Ik houd van de werk heer en ik houd van jullie so heel vele. Ik weet dat het evangelie van Jezus Christus waar is, en ik ben so dankbar for de gelekenheid om ik heb te dienen de heer. I don't know if my grammar is correct, but it's a simple testimony. I can understand a bit better when people speak now, but I'll understand a sentence and they'll have already said two more sentences. My collega Elder Warner is awesome and helps me out a lot. Funny moment this week: We were “ alleen standing” which is when all the single members in our ward get together. The missionaries come too and I gave a small spiritual message/thought at the end. When I began I said “Ik heb a klein boodschap voor jullie" which literally translates to “I have a small message for you all" but in Dutch it is slang for “I have to pee.” Everyone laughed and I didn't know why. Then Elder Warner told me what it meant. It was really funny.

My birthday was awesome and we celebrated it at a member’s house. The sisters gave me a scarf and sweets, and Elder Warner got me a tie! They're so cool. Love you guys so much!!!! I'll send a ton of pictures next week! 

                                                               

A Week Full of Blessings

This has been such a good week full of blessings and General conference was so good! We went to the Degravs for the first session on Saturday and we also did service at their house. They had a trampoline and we bounced on it for a while after we did service. They're such an awesome family. It felt like we were all at home watching conference. Everything sounds great back at home! I pray for you guys everyday, and Kaylee as well. Kaylee and I e-mail every week. I loved the talks in conference and it's awesome that you've been having the missionaries over for dinner. This week we taught a bunch and have been doing a ton of service. We are pretty much doing a construction project for an investigator. Her name is Mona and she is from North Africa. We took out two trees from her lawn, leveled the ground, placed sand down, and are in the midst of placing tiles down and building flower buckets out of bricks and cement. I'll send you pictures when we are done. We told her that we used cement before for an Eagle Scout project and she thinks we're professionals. We told her we're not but she doesn't care haha. I love you guys so much and I feel so old. I forgot my birthday is this week! We have Temple Conference next week, and we get to go to the temple every six months! I'm really excited about it. I'll be able to see some of my MTC group! The temple here is a lot smaller than Utah temples but a bit bigger than the Manhattan temple. The weather is starting to feel more like fall here! We've been rained on once or twice and got completely soaked. I'll probably get a jacket this week or next. Love to hear about back home! Can you send me pictures of the trees? The leaves here only turn yellow. Love you guys!!!!

P.S. I went on my first exchanges this week too! I went with a ZL (zone leader) and he had a car! I haven’t been in a car for so long! Den Haag is so big compared to Lelystad.