Can't Wait to Serve

September 3, 2014

Hi Familie! 

This week was great and we are leaving so soon! Can't wait to get out into Belgie and Nederland and serve the people there. We had a really good devotional last night about converts and how half the people in the Church are inactive. It's so important to reach out to everyone and show them the love of Christ and let them know they are our brothers and sisters. Everyone in the Church should have a friend they can hang out with outside of Church in the ward and they should be asked to speak in sacrament so they can feel that it is their church and they belong. There was a bunch of great stuff he talked about. Elder Amos, who just left for Denmark, sent me some pictures from there and said it looks a lot like Holland and it really amazing. He lives in England and I think he's been to Holland before. I think we do have an iPad mission and yes it's okay to send me world news. All of our Swedes and Nords left this week and we are getting 36 new missionaries today!!!! Our zone is going to be soooo big. It's going to be awesome. We're also getting some more Surinames. Suriname is in South America but they speak a mix of Dutch and a native language. It's really cool. “Fawaka me brada” means “What’s up brother.” It's great to hear about everything at home! We also talked to an elder who is in the MTC and lives in Rotterdam! We got to talk to him and it was pretty sweet. I finally got to hear what a native Dutch speaker sounds like. He is going to Suriname. He only goes to English classes because he already knows the language, so we see him around campus sometimes. We got Amid to commit to baptism!!! We have had really great lessons with him and we feel the Spirit so strong each time! He is actually Brother Lewis. We have another investigator, who is acted out by Broeder Klippel, but it’s really hard to teach him. He's really uninterested and sad all the time and he falls asleep on us when we teach him. I think Broeder Klippel is just trying to give us a hard time, but it's probably realistic how some people are there. He shared some stories with us about people he met in Holland and he said he cried in public the first three weeks he was there because the people are really blunt and truthful. He said he taught a lady on the street and then she told him he was wearing the ugliest tie she's ever seen. Haha. I guess we have to learn to love the people there though, no matter what they say to us :) He also told us he made life long friends on his mission there, and once you become friends and show the people you really care about them, they open up to you. I really liked the quotes you sent this week about the port of Heaven. That's so awesome that Aunt Mary helped out the elders and talked to them! Ik houd van jullie! Love you guys so much and I pray for you every day! Ik weet dat de Kerk is vaar en ik weet dat Hemelse Vader houde van ons. Not sure if that is correct but it means "I know the church is true, and I know that Heavenly Father loves us". Do you know what number I should call when I'm at the airport? Mom's cell, dad's cell, home phone? Can’t wait to talk to you next week! I'll be on at around 10:00-10:30ish, if you want to e-mail back and forth. I'll take more pictures this week!  Love you guys!