Serving in Lelystad

September 22, 2014

HI FAMILIE!!!!

This week has been amazing! It's so good to hear from all of you! I'm so happy for Cierra and all of the great things that are going on in your lives! The Lord has blessed me and my companion sooooo much this week! We have been knocking lots of doors and doing a lot of finding/contacting. There are so many great people in Holland and I love it here. We bike a lot and I may get a free bike from a member. Not sure yet, but if I don’t I'll get a bike. I love you guys so much and it's so good to hear how everything is back home.

Europe is so different and I have to get used to it a little bit. My collega is awesome and he's really knowledgeable. I've learned so much! During the flight here I sat next to Elder Hirsche. It was an 8 hour flight, I think. It was so awesome to look out the window and fly into Europe. The sunrise above the clouds was so cool. We stayed at a hotel the first night, and it was awesome. I've never been so tired in my life, but I love it!

We went contacting for the first time while we walked to Leiden to get legality things done for Belgium. It's so European looking here and it's really cool. The language is soooo hard! I'm starting to understand what people are saying but it's the hardest thing I've ever done, trying to understand Dutch people all day. We went to a family’s house for dinner from our ward and they're awesome. Their son is serving in the US right now. The culture here is really cool and it's fun to talk about God with people here. Many aren’t interested but they think it's really weird that we would believe in God. There's also a lot of Catholics in Leiden or Lyden. Not sure how it's spelled. We've been so blessed with finding willing people who want to listen to us. It's really diverse here and there are people from all around the world. We are teaching a guy right now who’s from Suriname. He's had a really tough life but we're teaching him and the Spirit is sooo strong in our lessons. We also found a ton of new people this week who want to hear more and we scheduled appointments with them. 

Church was awesome and we have a pretty good sized ward. It's not like the size you guys have, but the Spirit is there and they're such good people. A family came to church because their church was closed and we taught them later on in the day. It was awesome. The Lord is giving us so many blessings. I gave my testimony in church and introduced myself in Dutch. I don't know how well I did, but everyone smiled and it was nice. Everyone asks me if I'm Dutch because of my name, but they all say there is an extra T at the end. Kinda cool. The name must have gotten changed when our ancestors came to America. Also, when people find out I've only been here for a short time, they're really impressed and surprised and it's a great conversation starter. We also have a ton of service work and it's awesome. I love you guys so much and I love hearing how things are back home. I know this is where the Lord wants me to be.