Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Haarlem, Nederlands

My first area is Haarlem, where "The Best Two Years" was filmed!! Haha the people and places in that movie are the people and places I get to see everyday!! Sweet huh?! My apartment is nicer than the one in the film though. Also, the people in that movie are the people in my ward. Double sweet. Apparently two of my MTC teachers, Zuster Christensen and Zuster Ekstrom, served in this city together, yesterday we had a consecrated hour in the area book and we found a family they taught under former investigators. We plan on checking up on them this week and seeing if they are interested in looking into the church again. So as of right now, we have 6 investigators with a baptismal date. 4 we inherited from the elders that were here before and 2 we invited to baptized the night we got here, wednesday. oh yeah, we, zuster moses, my trainer, and i, are white washing haarlem. that means we are both brand-spanking new to the area and know noone...needless to say we've gotten lost a few times for long periods of time. it's kind of frustrating not gonna lie that we don't know the area well yet because that means we have to leave cushion time to get lost so we can get to appointments on time and we don't get to do as many appointments at a time. lame. but the work is still going forward so i really can't complain. there are so many of god's children looking for the truth here, in addition to our 6 invest. with baptismal dates we have quiet a few others and we meet potential invest. each day! i love it!! well mostly...i wish i could stay in a constant state of humilty so the Lord would stop throwing things in my path to humble me. it's a rough way to learn. but at least i am learning and that means progress, right? i wish i could write you longer/more, but alas i am  terrible at dividing up my email time, i will get better!!! know that i love you all and that i am so very excited to be a missionary. i love Heavenly Father and his children and am so excited to share all that love with the people of haarlem. Sister Delap once said in RS testimony meeting that the gospel is a covenant of love. I've thought about that a lot since she said that and know it's right. Especially when I think about the Atonement and that the Savior has done so I can become all that Heavenly Father has planned for me. Pres. Eyring at conference once said that the Savior could have known by the Spirit how to help us out (Alma 7:13) but He chose to know by experience. What love! And even though we sometimes go through rough times too, it's how we are better able to understnad the Savior, through experience. While in the MTC Zuster Christensen ofter said,""We all must spend time in Getsemane to come to know and understand the Savior and His Atonement" or something like that anyway. Isn't it a beautiful plan the Lord has for us?! Learning love by experience. Beautiful. I love you all, have a great week!!!










Thursday, February 2, 2012

Celebration


50th birthday of MTC

So every Sunday before Relief Society we get to watch Music and the Spoken Word and this Sunday while singing they flashed this nature scene that looks just like that painting we have in our house in the big brown picture frame. Know which one I´m talking about? Anyways, it reminded me of home and I thought it was cool to see what might have been the inspiration for that painting. I love all the programs we´re able to be a part of here, Music and the Spoken Word, a fireside every Sunday, a mission conference every fast Sunday, and devotionals every Tuesday.
Sunday one my companions, Zuster Townsend, old stake president spoke and he definitely called us out while he spoke. But it was ok because afterward we got to visit with him and he smuggled us some treats and he is going to try to call you. His name is Robert Swenson, he works in the mission department and is so kind. His wife was with him and it was so nice to get a motherly hug. However, as a result of him calling us out, the MTC president now wants to meet with us...don´t know what that´s all about or if it will happen, but yeah...scary!
Guess who came this Tuesday?! Elder Nelson and Elder Holland!! It was so awesome! And the choir got to sing this beautiful version of, Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer for them! I got to sing for apostles! Sweet! And I didn´t see it, but am told my face was on the screen, so they saw me. Yeah, I´m a big deal. Just kidding, but really. I´m actually lucky I got in, so many people wanted to sing and not everyone got to be in the choir. A lot of missionaries were turned away because there weren´t enough seats in the choir. And then, all these general authorities and missionary board and previous mtc presidents came too, so a lot of missionaries were put into overflow and didn´t get to be in the room with the apostles. I am super doubly blessed. All the big wigs were here in honor of the 50th anniversary of the MTC, the jubille year as Elder Nelson reminded us. So they spoke about the history of the MTC and missionaries and the power of the Book of Mormon and Elder Nelson offered a dedicatory prayer for some buildings that recently had some work done. Elder Holland was the junior companion for the night, so he talked for 5 to 10 min in the beginning about our obligation to act, pray, love, serve, teach, etc. the way we are expected to. No pressure. Haha but it was really uplifting and I just love listening at the feet of the apostles. They are truly men of God.
 
Sorry I can´t write more, I´m already 12 minutes over, dang timer!!! Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!