Easter!!!

This might be a quick one due to some miscommunication between us and the elders about who was emailing at the church, but I'm going to do my best to say all that I want to say! We had a great week and there really is tons to say!

First of all, Fa. has a new lawyer now and has been told that she should know about her status in about a month. This lawyer is super optimistic about her situation and thinks they have found something that will help her case. So that's good news! Also good news is that we shared the Plan of Salvation with her and she LOVED it. We came back the next time and asked if she had read the pamphlet about it and she said "Yes, I did! I loved it! It was so cool!" So, naturally, we loved that. She also loved learning about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and is looking forward to her baptism.

Jy. is MIA this week. He has no credit on his pay-as-you-go phone, so he can't call us, and everytime we've called, he hasn't picked up. We're hoping that he's just been working when we've called him. We're going to do our best to get in contact with him this week. We're praying for it!

A couple of super cool new investigators this week. The first is Ja., who Sister Djoukeng and I found on exchanges on Wednesday. She's from South Africa. We had a great first lesson with her this past Friday where she accepted a baptismal commitment with, "Yes, of course." We'll be seeing her again in a couple of days!

The other is Hd., who is just a miracle all around. On Monday night we'd had a dinner appointment set up with an inactive member. We called to confirm it and she had forgotten it was supposed to be that night. Well, we had a couple back-up plans but nothing super great, so we visited Fa. with some cookies and then headed to look some former investigators up. There was one address that we'd tried to find a few times previously, but with no success. We ended up finding it this time - it was a refugee camp. I'm fairly familiar with refugee camps, as I've taught many refugees in other cities, and one thing I know is that it's never a permanent thing - the odds of this former being there were not super high. We weren't feeling terribly hopeful, but we went inside and asked the man at the front desk if she lived there. He looked her up and said that she didn't, she must have found somewhere to live. We were pretty disappointed, because we'd felt pretty inspired to go there. Well, there was a little middle-eastern man who had been talking to the man at the desk when we walked in, who'd walked outside to take a call. We walked out to our bikes, and he came up to ask if we'd found who we were looking for. Then he asked who we were and what we do. We explained a bit, and he mentioned that he was a Christian. We talked a little bit about the Book of Mormon, and ended up setting up an appointment with him. We left feeling on top of the world - we hadn't been led there for nothing!

We had our appointment with him on Saturday. The Zone Leaders had come to work with us a bit and came with us. We were all completely amazed at this man and what he's been through. After speaking to him about the fruits of the Spirit, we asked if he'd ever felt any of those things. He said yes, last year, and proceeded to tell us his incredible conversion to Christianity. We shared the rest of the first lesson, and the Spirit was incredibly strong as we asked him if he would be baptized when he receives an answer of the truth of our message. He didn't just say yes, he promised us. He said, "Ik beloof jullie. Nee, ik beloof Hem." ( I promise you, No, I promise Him.)  And pointed upwards. He's amazing! He came to church yesterday as well and the ward already seems to love him.

Well... There are other things but that's about all that I felt NEEDED to be said, other than exchanges have been going well! It's been neat so far to work with these sisters that I know and love and to learn from them and hopefully help them a bit. I was able to work in Dordrecht on Tuesday with Sister Thorley, and it was neat to work with a previous companion in a previous city!

Easter was incredible. I read the Easter story in Luke for my personal study and I just loved it. The atonement is real :) In church a high councilman talked about how we should strive every day be worthy of the suffering that Christ went through for us, and I thought that it was a beautiful thought. Then, last night, we had the opportunity to sing in an Easter Concert put together by Igor and Vesna Gruppman. That woman is a saint. She's incredible - I don't know how she did it all. But UGH it was so good. And felt so good to sing again. You all should look up "Gethsemane" by Sally DeFord. It's beautiful. We closed with "This is the Christ" and I got choked up and it was just overall amazing.

I love you all so much! 

Okayyy think that's it. Love you all!

Zuster Anjewierden