This week has been amazing as always!!
Funnies for the week:
- We were at an appointment and we were teaching the Plan of Salvation. We had taught about the Kingdom’s of Glory and our joint-teach asked us to explain outer darkness. I didn’t know the word in Dutch so she told me and I repeated it a few times and the last time, when I actually pronounced it correctly, the light-bulb in the room died…thus, leaving us in darkness.
- We were knocking doors this week and we met this really nice father. We talked to him for probably 15 minutes and at the end of our conversation his adorable 4-year-old son screamed, “Dad, I pooped in my pants!”…Dad got all embarrassed and told us that this never happens.
- We were sitting on the train and Sister Otteson was with me (Sister Robbins was in Den Haag for the day) and she was asking me about the differences between Germany/Europe and America. I started explaining that the toilets were different. We talked a little bit about that and then the man sitting next to us just starts giggling because he thinks it is so funny that we are talking about toilets. We ended up having a conversation with him and giving him a card. I guess I should talk about toilets on the train more often…
- We had one night this week that was just plain weird…we had set up an appointment with a lady and she had given us her address. We started biking to theneighborhood that she lived in and after literally biking in circles for 30 minutes we started to think that the address didn’t exist. So we biked home and grabbed our map. Turns out that the address exists on our really old map but not our newer map. The neighborhood doesn’t exist anymore. We were lied to. But the funny part was that we went to knock doors on a nearby street and there was this seriously eerie music playing somewhere and every time we would walk up to a door the music would get louder. It was seriously a confusing night.
- Last night I had taken off my skirt but still had leggings on. I was sitting on the couch and didn’t know that I was sitting on top of my skirt. Well the Assistants to the President call to get a report that we had done this past week. I stood up to go grab the information and my skirt had gotten hooked to the back of my leggings…so I had a freaky looking skirt tail thing. My companion starts laughing hysterically because it looks so funny. I then begin to laugh and can’t stop. Remember I am on the phone with the AP’s…after about 2 minutes I compose myself and give them the report. It was pretty funny though. The odds…that something like that would happen while I was on the phone with the AP’s…
On to the miracles and experiences of the week.
Our investigator Vivian is doing amazing! We had set a baptismal date for him and this week he decided that he wants to push it back a bit because he has to stop smoking and he isn’t sure about a few things. Plus, he is waiting for an answer that Joseph Smith is a prophet. As a missionary, it is hard to know if someone is ready to be baptized. You want them to be baptized but you also want to make sure that they are ready for the covenant that they are going to make. I think Vivian is more ready than he realizes but I also want it to come from himself. We were going to teach him about this priesthood this week and he ended up teaching us from what he had learned in church last Sunday. It was amazing. We also taught him at a member’s home and he asked us about what happens when the prophet dies and how we know that he is truly called of God. The members explained it so well and I love seeing the gears in someone’s head moving when things finally start to click. Vivian has a little ways to go but he is doing awesome.
A bit of sad news this week, Charlie, our 17-year-old investigator, found out this week that she won’t be able to get baptized until she is 21 because of parental rights and a bunch of other stuff. We were really sad. I love her so much and want her to experience the blessings of the gospel. I pray that something will soften her parent’s hearts.
On Sunday, no one came to church. I was pretty bummed and kind of upset. In my entire time here in Lelystad, I have only had 2 people in church. I just became frustrated. I really want to bless this branch and help them become stronger. I want to bring them converts that can help them stay strong. During Sacrament, I said a prayer and just kind of told Heavenly Father that I just was frustrated that the work never seems to go anywhere and that it wasn’t going fast enough. I explained how much I have been working and just how much I desired for the members to be excited and also to see my investigators progress. Heavenly Father is so merciful. He knows exactly what we need to keep going. I feel like I get to my wits end and then Heavenly Father gives me just enough to keep going and learning. At the end of Sacrament meeting, the two girls that we had met last week in the city center walked into the chapel. I was beyond happy!! Everyone in the branch gave me looks like “Who is that?” Miracle of miracles, the youth Sunday school teacher speaks Spanish and was able to do half of the lesson in Spanish and also translate for them in Young Womens. After church I realized how in charge the Lord truly is. The Young Women’s president came up to me and told me how incredible the two girls are and how the one girl had almost finished her personal progress in one year. She was literally beaming with excitement to have these two amazing young women. The young women in our branch have been really struggling and these two girls have already brought some fire back to the hearts of the members. Everyone was so excited and I realized that sometimes the miracles don’t come in the way we want them. In fact, they never really do. This is the Lord’s work. He knows what his children need and he will place me where I need to be in order to help his work progress. In Relief Society, I shared my testimony about the power of prayer in missionary work and a lady from the Branch came up to me and thanked me for my “beautiful” testimony and then asked me to pray for her non-member husband. So often we do not notice the work we are doing and the lives we are touching. We become discouraged and we begin to doubt our worth. I am so grateful that my Heavenly Father gave me a glimpse into the lives I am touching and the work I am doing. This is his work and he knows what needs to happen and in what order they need to happen. I am learning more and more everyday on what a grand-scale this work is but how incredible significant I am in that work.
Vergeet Nooit hoe barmhartig de Heer is!!
Zuster Adams
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