Faaaamily. :)
Well, we were pretty bummed that Nederland lost to Argentina, but I will also say that we were half asleep by the time the penalties were kicked so we were kind of just glad the game was ending, even if it was terribly sad. I think I was sadder the next day! I don't know how people in regular day-to-day life function on less than eight hours of sleep. I'm not sure how I did it myself at home! But I definitely have gained a greater testimony of our schedule as missionaries. And it's certainly not like it's hard to go to bed at 10:30 - we're exhausted by then anyway!
Our week was kind of crazy, actually. I feel like we just barely had last week's P-day, but then yesterday it was Sunday and I thought to myself, "Whoa, wasn't I just here?" The time! It goes so quickly! Especially with exchanges and interviews and everything this week. Our relationships with members continue to grow, we're getting increasingly more appointments with our less-active members, and our investigators continue to progress! Sometimes I feel like we're doing that spinning plates on sticks thing. And we just keep running back and forth trying to keep everything spinning. Haha. :)
Well, we had our first exchanges of the transfer and they were fantastic! On Tuesday I went to Capelle aan den Ijssel with Sister Kohlert. We've been on exchanges before, but we just had an especially good one this time! We found out that we've had a lot of similar experiences in our lives. I'm so amazed at her though - she and Sister Brophy are on fire! They've really been seeing some incredible miracles in Capelle. :) I think it's really come a lot because of their unity. They're basically living the law of consecration over there - it's like nothing I've ever seen before!
Wednesday was Sister Verdegem's 6-month mark. It was weird to look back on my 6-month mark and remember where I was. And how long ago that was. But it feels like it just happened! Anyway, it was a super busy day. It rained a ton and we had a couple of appointments with inactive members, and then I managed to get us incredibly lost for over an hour. It was nuts. But! Our new Buddhist investigator from last week, Pa., remembered our appointment, and his 17-year-old daughter El. sat in on our lesson! She's super sincere and asked tons of questions. We like her a lot. Hopefully she'll be there this coming Wednesday at our next lesson!
We finally had another appointment with Jy. He had some issues happen with the bank (he tried to take money out of an ATM and not all of it came out and they're taking a long time to give him the rest of it) that made him really frustrated so he wasn't super focused in our lesson. But! We're having another one tonight, after which he should be back on date to be baptized!
Elder Giles' district meeting during interviews was fantastic. He had a bunch of different missionaries share their own experiences and testimonies on what it really means to have success on a mission. The spirit was very strong! I'm grateful he's our district leader. He's one of the most passionate missionaries I know! I also appreciate his input at District Leader Council every couple of weeks. Which has been going very well, by the way! It's helping SO much. I really feel like we actually work together as leaders now instead of setting goals at the beginning of the transfer and then forgetting about them because we rarely talk to each other. It's been a real blessing!
Sister Jones and I had a fun experience on Thursday evening - we went out to teach Hs. in Doorn, which is forever and a half away. Well, we got there and it looked like it'd been raining, which was weird because it was super hot in Utrecht, but didn't think much of it. Halfway through our appointment with Hs. we hear the loudest thunder I've ever heard. And then we realized it was pouring! And hailing, too. At the same time. Walking back to the bus stop we had an umbrella but we still got soaked, and we were walking through 4-5 inch puddles of water! Luckily it was the last thing we were doing that evening. Crazy!
Oh! Almost forgot! I'm crazy. Li. is back on date! She also came to church yesterday and it's basically just like she's already a member. She'll be getting baptized on the 16th of August. :)
It's crazy to think that this coming week will be even more jam-packed with stuff! I'll only be in Utrecht for three days this week! Nuts. Exchanges and Mission Leader Council!
I love you all! Have a marvelous week. :)
LOVE
Sister Anjewierden
PS My planner
Getting soaked with Sister Jones
