Wonderssss!!

What an amazing week this last one was! Seriously, we saw some incredible miracles! I love that the Lord uses the hard weeks to create a starker contrast for miracles. After our struggles last week, everything just went uphill! It was amazing. That's not to say that we didn't have any heartbreak - we definitely have had enough of that in the last few days - but it all seemed to be much easier to take on with those miracles fresh on our minds.

Hd. is okay! After being on and off for the last few weeks, he set an appointment with us for Friday and Sister Top was an angel and came with us. It sounds like he may have heard some anti-stuff or something... Or maybe... Yeah, I'm not sure what happened, but he talked about how the rules are strict in our church - he said he'd gotten that from the few pages he'd read from the Book of Mormon. I feel like he may have gotten it from the internet or a friend or something because he seemed really troubled about it, and we've always made sure to reaaaally focus on the blessings of obedience to God's laws because we know that his past in Iran involves a lot of really bad experiences with rules. He talked about that and about his worries with the church, and said that he thinks we just need to live good lives and have more relaxed rules. Sister Top was a POWERHOUSE and just told him that there's no way to know if they're right or not unless you live them! Which is so true. Then we talked about how he can also know of the truth by reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. We finally gave him a copy in Farsi, which should be great. I wish that it was the full book - selections are better than nothing, and he can read the other stuff in Dutch, but it would definitely be nice if it was all in Farsi. Anyway, we also had an appointment on Saturday, and then he came to church on Sunday and we had a great Gospel Principles lesson on prayer and the Holy Ghost. He seems to be responding better again! :)

Jy. is also found again, we should be having two lessons with him this week which is awesome! He really is excited to get baptized, he just seems to have a hard time understanding that coming to church is part of accepting the gospel. He LOVES the Plan of Salvation, and the restoration, and the Gospel in general, as well as all the commandments we talk about, but he doesn't like that he can only understand like 70% of what's said in church. BUT we invited him to ask his boss if he can have the late shift on Sunday so that he can come before he goes to work (his boss won't give him Sundays off), and he said he will. So that should be great! :)

Li.! Wonder of the week. We were ringing some doorbells and Sister Verdegem and I were taking turns. We came to a big building and Sister V. rang one on the right side. They weren't interested. It was my turn. I just pushed a random one on the left side, which was weird because normally we'd do them in order to remember which ones we'd already done. Nope! Li.'s needed to be pressed. She invited us to come back a little bit later in the day because she had to go pick up her son from school. We came back and had the greatest lesson on the Restoration with her! She said she'd been praying the night before that God would help her to know what to do with her life - her husband isn't very supportive of her beliefs. She said she felt like we were led to her! We said the same - we really were! She's one of the only Christians in that whole neighborhood! So cool. She's from Angola and she has these two beautiful children. I hope we can help her husband to see what it is that we have to share and that his heart will be softened!

 Deeeeearest family -

 

Also we got in contact with El. ! Suuuper cute. I like her a lot. :) We're going to climb the Dom tower with her and her boyfriend, who's also really cool! 

 

OKAY LOVE YOU GOTTA GO BYE!

 

Sister Anjewierden

On the uphill

Sister Verdegem and I are getting along pretty well! I think she's super cool and I LOVE listening to her speak Flemish. I think we'll both grow a lot this transfer. We're very similar in many ways, but we've also got those differences we need to overcome. I'm really glad that we're both willing to communicate and to compromise some things!

This week was really strange, actually. With district meeting, transfers, and both mission leader council on Friday and district leader council on Saturday, combined with the farewell service for Quincy Castillion on Sunday, I feel like last week didn't really even happen! It's crazy how that goes... 

We're struggling a bit here. I think part of it is just how busy last week was, but we were also starting to struggle before that. People seem to be dropping us left and right, whether they tell us about it or not. They just keep losing interest! Sometimes it's hard to remember that when you're down, there's really nowhere to go but up. I'm working on having more fervent, meaningful prayers about that, because the few really good ones that I've had in the last week have helped me tremendously! I just know that this area needs to be an example for others when they come here on exchanges, and also that these members really need new members! This ward wants growth so badly. I just keep reminding myself that the field is white and ready to harvest. It's working so far. :)

We have a lot of really good plans for this week, including some lessons with new investigators! I'm excited!

Love you!!

Sister Anjewierden

Skype and Heartbreak, which are not related

So... I'd say this week was up and down, but really, it was a great week, in which really sad things happened.

I'm going to be totally honest and just say very first that I did not see this transfer call coming. Sister Brown and I were so sure that we were staying together for another transfer that we had even started making a few goals! So strange. I'd be lying if I said that I'm not super sad to see Sister Brown go, though I know that all good things must come to an end. I just hoped the end was a little further off! However, I am psyched that she is going up to Leeuwarden with Sister Clement, one of my favorite people in the universe, and I'm also excited to be getting Sister Verdegem! I've never met her, but I've heard great things, and if nothing else, I'm sure we'll have a love of Vlanderen in common. :)

Another thing, this week was SO good, but it was so hard. It seemed like everything was against us for most of it. We experienced tons of rain, lots of cancelled appointments (for which we already had joint teaches coming), several really hard rejections (as in more than just "geen interesse" or "geen belangstelling"Interpretation: not interested), and some major let-downs with people who used to be progressing. Basically, as far as investigators go, this week was HARD. But as far as members go, it was amazing! We had 5 dinner appointments, which was a miracle in and of itself, but even greater was that through them, our relationships with the members have already grown so much! I love this ward. 

Aside from dinner appoinments, we also got some appointments with less or inactive members in the ward. It's incredible to see that many of these people LOVE the church, they just are afraid to come back or like to sleep in. They're missing out on so many blessings! One of my favorite things to testify about is the sacrament, though. I love to talk about what it's meant to me in my life. I know that the Sundays I didn't have an opportunity to take the sacrament because I was working made for weeks that were much more emotionally, spiritually, and mentally difficult than any other time in my life. The Sacrament really lifts an unseen, spiritual burden. It's real.

So actually... That's one of the reasons that this week was so good as well - I really feel like my testimony of the atonement has grown. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, did not suffer and die just so that we could get through things like deaths of loved ones or big sins or things that are huge like that. This week, I used the atonement for little things. Things that weren't really that big of a deal, but they mattered to me, and they were hard for me. And it worked. I gave them to Him and he took them. And that's been such a relief for me. I feel refreshed and re-enthused about finding new people and working with the ward and stoking the fires of testimony in these Utrechtenaars!

Anyway. That's pretty much it as far as this week goes. In general anyway. I was terribly excited to hear from Sister Mizell that Ma., our cute little neighbor lady from Turnhout, will be baptized this coming Saturday. She's come so far, and I'm so excited that she'll be able to be sealed to her late husband someday afterward! Also, I LOVED talking to you yesterday. Many thanks to R.V.S., one of my favorite members, for making it possible. :)  I sure love you people a lot. :)

SO MUCH LOVE

Zuster Anjewierden

Pictures- Us at Bagels and Beans, This is the only place I've had REAL cheesecake on this continent. SO GOOD. 

Us on the canal eating a broodje (sandwich) from Broodje Mario. The members LOVE that place. It was delicious!

 Sorry, can't get picture to turn.

April showers bring May flowers

What a week! Lots of ups and downs this time around. Though I suppose that's really how it always is!

Started the week off with an exchange with Sister Rosenlof here in Utrecht. We had this incredible lesson with Hs., one of our referrals from the Facebook project. Turns out he's a former investigator from last fall. He said straight off the bat that he doesn't believe there's any one true church. That day my testimony in having effective/inspired studies was so strengthened. We ended up having this amazing lesson about the Book of Mormon. We were able to testify of its power - we told him that if he reads it and prays to know if it is true, he'll get an answer, and that will also mean that this is the true church. By the end of the lesson he was really excited to read it! We'll see him again this week.

Fa. was still sick this week and wouldn't meet... Then we couldn't get ahold of her! Ah! Then we went by her house on Thursday and she was finally home and we set an appointment for the next day... Only to have her cancel it like five minutes after it was supposed to occur. Actually, her friend cancelled it.... Long story. But the good news is that her friend will hopefully be at our appointment with her tomorrow night! Referrals! Unfortunately, as far as she knows, she's still getting baptized on the 17th, and she hasn't been to church yet so we'll have to change it...

Hd. seemed a little out of sorts at our appointment on Friday. We're hoping that he's doing okay. He didn't show up to church yesterday and wouldn't answer any calls or text messages. We're praying hard... That man truly needs the gospel in his life at this time. He needs something that will stay constant through change!

We finally had an appointment with Jy.! It was such a miracle. He seemed to really feel bad for his distance the last few weeks. He set up two appointments for this week, and was really quite sad when we told him we needed to change his baptismal date. But he really loves to talk about the gospel. He's having a hard time at work - he has to work pretty much every Sunday and isn't sure what to do about it.

We met with a lady named Is. who was a potential from Koningsdag. Super neat! She's a Jehovah's Witness and actually has a lot of super similar views. She was excited to read the Book of Mormon!

Ja. dropped us HARD this week. That was really sad. She seemed to think that we were wanting her to report on her reading of the Book of Mormon and felt uncomfortable, though we'd only met with her once and tried a couple times to set up another time. She sent us a long, very harshly worded text message. We sent her a really nice, loving one, hoping to clear up some things that she'd maybe misunderstood. I really hope that she comes around. She's a very neat person!

The temple was incredible. It was actually in the temple that I felt we should keep trying to get a hold of Jy. instead of dropping him. It was so inspired! And Keukenhof was BEAUTIFUL. I loved it there.

I was reading D&C 135 today and it was so beautiful. We had just watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration and it just all hit home. I love Joseph Smith! What an incredible impact he has had on this world. I'm so grateful for him. I know he's truly a prophet!

 

I love you all! Have a great week. :)

 

Love,

 

Sister Anjewierden

Tulips at Kuekenhof.

At the temple!

Mission Leadership Council in April with Sis. Clement!

The whole Council

Companions in the beauty of Kuekenhof!

The whole mission has to go on two days there are so many. Can you find me? Anyone else you know?