Halfway Point

August 27, 2014

Hallo Familie!

The Danes left on Monday but new ones are coming in today! We finally made it to the halfway point and there's only three weeks left in the MTC! I'm going to keep in touch with Eldste Amos who just left for Denmark. He's from England and we became pretty good friends. This was a really good week. One of the Seventy came to speak for devotional. We are teaching Amid as an investigator and he is Atheist. These lessons have been the most fun to teach and I've felt the Spirit the strongest during them. I want to get out into Belgie and Nederland soooo bad so I can share the Gospel with the people there. I already love them and I really realized it when we were teaching Amid. There are going to be so many people like him and it's really amazing to care about them because they are children of God. Becoming like Christ has been so important for me. It's so important to love everyone and see them as they could be and their full potential. I'm on my mission to help others reach their full potential which is what God wants for every one. The language is really hard and I feel like it's going to be impossible to learn but I know the Lord provides a way for every missionary while we are on His mission. I got my bag and my card and everything you sent. Thank you! Kaylee sounds like she is enjoying her mission and Caleb and Dalton are having great missions. Dalton already tore two pairs of his shoes because he walks so much in Brazil and I can't believe that Caleb is almost done! People in northern Nederland are really strict with schedules and they don't invite people in their house if they're not expecting them. They also speak really gutturally and it gets more relaxed in the culture the more south you go. People in Belgie are more relaxed and speak softer and it's a whole different dialect. It rains about 275 days a year on average in Nederland and on the coast it rains 300 days a year. There's also a lot of biking, but there is more walking in Amsterdam and Den Haag because they're cities. When we leave I may get a phone card to call you guys or do you want to send me a go phone? The Icelandic missionaries also left this Monday and there are only 6 of them in the world! It was pretty cool that they were in our zone. They were all really smart and awesome guys. They had to stay here for nine weeks because the language is really difficult and ancient. The grammar for Dutch is really different and the phrases and vocab are really tough. The grammar is like Yoda. I would say, "We are to the church going" instead of “We are going to the Church.” In Dutch it's, “Wij zijn naar de kerk gaan.” Ik houd van jullie! (I love you guys!) The MTC is making me crazy but the days go by so fast. I love the work and I know I'll love my mission. Thanks for the quotes! Can you send me news from the outside world and sports news and stuff? And can you get more people to send me dear elders and packages? I also got assigned the New DL (district leader) so I have a lot of meetings to go to and I get the mail now. The best part is the mail. The meetings can get boring, but they are also uplifting.