NOooo Tiiime!!!!

We have the cool opportunity today to go shopping with an inactive member! :) She's really cool and we're really thinking it will help us to build up a better relationship with her. It should be lots of fun, but we also don't have tons of time before we leave so this is going to be pretty quick!

The sisters are doing so well! I've really seen a difference in the last couple weeks. They're more hopeful and they're working super diligently to find and maintain investigators. And to help them progress! I had a great couple of exchanges this last week - Tuesday with Sister Rosenlof and Wednesday with Sister Thorley. Both went super well and I think I'm figuring out how to help the sisters in Rotterdam zone a little bit better.

It's crazy, I really wasn't in Utrecht for a lot of this week! And the days that I was... Were really weird. Lots of bike issues, creepy men, terrible humid heat, and just straight up crazy things. Luckily Li. is still doing well, Jy. and Hs. are even better than they have been, Me's mom says she can be baptized, and we found a couple of new investigators - Mn., Re., and a potential, Ay., that I found with Sister Clement on Friday.

We had a really cool sacrament meeting yesterday! There was a lot said about the plane scandal in Ukraine, and a lot said about the Plan of Salvation! The Spirit was super strong. And then we sang the EFY Medley with a couple of the jovos and it brought the Spirit really strongly as well! Really neat.

I'm really looking forward to Zone Training on Wednesday. It should go well - we're excited about our plans! Focusing on the Savior and on Preach My Gospel.

LOVE YOU

Sister Anjewierden

Fwd: News Letter #29

:)

Walking through lakes and such

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

Happy Fourth!

Time flies, I feel like I was just writing last week's email! I feel like that's how time is out here - it just gets faster and faster. Even though I always think there's no way it can continue getting faster! Glad to hear your fourth was fun, mine was pretty un-America-y, haha. :)

Well, this week was another preparation sort of week. We had lots of good plans but many fell through and our backup plans weren't super great... So this week, that's changing! BUT we were able to see a lot more inactive members this last week, which was AWESOME. And we scheduled return appointments so we're meeting with them all again this week!

Li. is doing super great. She couldn't make it to church because of visiting family but should be there next week! We met her husband. He seems really nice! We're just praying and praying for his heart to be softened.

HS. CAME TO CHURCH. It was amazing! And he loved it! And he wants to come again! It's amazing to me how far he's come since I met him in April. Truly amazing.

We set up two appointments with Jy. for this week, and they WILL go through. I'm going to pray so hard for that. I know he's so close! Just has to get serious.

Our musical number was forgotten yesterday, which is a bummer because we got JoVos in on it to help us! (Diederik and Ronan) and it was going to be great! We'll just do it another time. :)

Not tons of time... Let's see here. Sister Verdegem and I are starting to truly become great friends. We were working together, and it was going all right, but wow, it's amazing now!  ALSO. This was the most successful Speak your Language week I've ever had. It helps to have a Nederlandstalige companion. :)

I read Elder Holland's talk from the Saturday Morning session of last conference for my study this morning and wow. I feel so privileged to be out here and to "[suffer] it" just a LITTLE bit like Christ did. What a great talk! Go read it or watch it, it's SO good.

 

LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

 

Zuster Anjewierden

 

Eating turkish food (doner) with Ronan

Fourth of July outfit

 

The Madness!

We were also happy to hear that Nederland won both matches this week, though I was a bit sad to hear that the US was beaten by Germany. But it'll be interesting to see if Belgium or the US wins tomorrow because that's our companionship. Hahaha. A member brought that up. But I'm also really glad that we're not allowed to watch the matches because that's gotten us out of some weird situations! Anyway.

 

Well, another week has flown by! I can scarcely believe it. Actually, not a ton happened this week. We decided that it was due to a lack of unity and planning last week, and we've repented and are working (HARD) on both things!

 

Li. continues to be an amazing miracle. She also continues to terrify us with the way that she brings things up! She went to the doctor this week and was told she's overstressed and so she's telling us this and all I can think is that the next thing she's going to say is "So you should probably stop coming." But she didn't, she just told us her plans to lessen the stress and told us that she was planning on taking the bus to come to church on Sunday (two buses, actually). She's so full of faith. She just continues to surprise us! Pleasantly! Gi. is also loving church and talking to us, which is so neat! Especially because he's so young! Six years old and he loves talking to people about Jesus. What a good kid. :)

 

Got back in contact with Jy. He was really upset that his baptismal date had passed. We were secretly happy because we're thinking that should help us to help him see that he has to take this all seriously if he wants to be baptized. He needs to meet with us, and come to church, and keep his commitments. They're not suggestions, they're important to his salvation! Ah!

 

Hs. is also progressing beautifully! He couldn't come to church yesterday but he's coming next Sunday. We have a lift for him and everything! He accepted the law of chastity and tithing and fasting beautifully!

 

Oh! We went to the relief society activity on Wednesday and several sisters commented on how much they loved that we came. It was cool because we were able to build up our relationships with a couple of them! A couple were even inactive so it was really neat to be there. :) We're looking forward to the Ward BBQ in a couple weeks for the same reasons!

 

We've started to plan zone training and I'm really excited to see how everything will turn out. We're focusing it Christ and on using Preach My Gospel with members. I'm really getting super excited for everything we're planning for this transfer!

 

I found a cool scripture this morning. Doctrine and Covenants 95:11. "If you keep my commandments you shall have power to build it." The Lord is talking about the temple, but it really hit me about the fifth stake. If we are obedient, we'll have the power to build it! I loved that. And it's true! And it totally applies to the rest of life as well. If we're obedient, we'll be okay. And as Mosiah 2:41 tells us, we'll be blessed and happy. :)

 

I love you all so much!

 

Sister Anjewierden

Hup Holland Hup!

 

How's the US doing in the World Cup? Nederland is doing pretty well, I hear. Haha. Everything is decked out in World Cup decorations over here and it's super fun. :)

 

WHOA there's a lot to say and I've got like NO time. Which really just means I will probably end up not saying half of it. But here we go!

I'm excited to be staying here in Utrecht with Sister Verdegem. I'm excited to become better friends with her and to really get the work here moving! :)
The biggest and greatest news of this week is that Li. came to church!!! With Gi. and La. :) Which was a big deal, because her husband continues to not be supportive, and he's the one with the car, so she biked, and the Muurlings saved the day and picked up La. and Gi. She said the most sincere prayer after Gospel Principles - lots about how she was so glad that she chose to come and she hopes that her husbands heart will be softened so that they can be unified and go to church as a family! She's amazing - I am constantly in awe of her faith. Gi. is doing much better, luckily. Apparently he has sickle cell attacks like every three to four months, so while it wasn't nice, it wasn't anything new for them. He's the cutest kid. He loved church! Especially primary, but even sacrament meeting! He's one of the coolest 6-year-olds that I know :)
Ha. would like to come to church, which is a big deal, seeing as the first time we asked him he was very lukewarm about it. Something along the lines of "I'll think about it... Maybe..." But now he wants to come! We've found him a ride for this coming Sunday and are praying that everything will work out so that he can get there! He's still got tons of questions, but we re-invited him to be baptized and he paused before saying "Yes, if I know it's true." So his progress isn't quick, but it's definitely there!
Jy. has disappeared again. It's really frustrating to try and get ahold of people who have no credit on their phone to call you with, because the only way it'll work is if they answer when you call! So. Crazy. We're still trying.
Sister Verdegem and I did a musical number this week - "My Soul Hungered", which is a Seminary song from the Book of Mormon year. It's about Enos and it's so good! On the note (haha) of Enos, my prayers have been drastically better this week. But still need to be better! Still working on it. Also, we're working on getting the members to read Preach My Gospel and I'm convinced that it's going to bring about MIRACLES here!

I've decided that I need to magnify my calling better this upcoming transfer. I've been coming up with some ideas as to how I can do that and I'm excited to implement those with the sisters! It's really going to be a great transfer, I can feel it. :)

SO MUCH LOVE! :)

Zuster Anjewierden

Sister Hoff and I got egged....Really.

Sister Brophy and I made banana bread while stuck in our apt. during the world cup game.

Progress

Fammmmily. :)
Sometimes weeks come that look really daunting from a distance (two, three weeks before), but then they're actually really fantastic, and not even as jam-packed as I thought previously! This week was such a week. With Mission Leader Council and Zone Conference and other stuff, I wasn't sure how we were going to do it all! But we did, and it was really wonderful!
Sister Verdegem's birthday was this week and the ward was SO great to her. :) We got a dinner appointment the day of! It was super neat. It's been really interesting to have a companion who's a native speaker. We switch back and forth between Dutch and English day in and day out! She's a really incredible teacher, and she's amazing with the members - I'm so glad to have her here!
BIG NEWS - We're invited to ward council! We asked about it yesterday and the bishop said we could come! That's really great. :) It'll be really helpful, I think!
Li. wasn't able to come to church yesterday because her son Gi. is in the hospital :\ He has sickle cell anemia and had an attack last week. We went to go visit them there, and Li. says she'd love for him to have a priesthood blessing. I am so amazed at her - she's really incredible. An acquaintance of hers tried to anti her this last week and she handled it so well! She's still just as strong as she was before - stronger, I'd say. We're going to have to reschedule her baptismal date, but I know she wants this. And needs it. :)
Jy. is getting closer but he has all of these random questions all of a sudden! Mostly things that aren't terribly important, about word usage and such things - He just needs to read and pray about the Book of Mormon! It's amazing how literally everything comes back to that wall of faith - if the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the same church that Christ established, restored to the earth. Ha. also needs to pray about that. He told us on Friday that he finished the Book of Mormon, but still hasn't prayed about it! We made him promise to do so. :)

Zone Conference was amazing! Elder and Sister Boom taught me so much in the few hours that we had to listen to them. I'm super excited to start applying it all!

 

My goal this week is to have better prayers. I pray a lot (mornings, for study, meals, when we leave the apartment, in lessons, etc) but I want to have more meaningful prayers. That's how we really use the Atonement, and I'm currently... Not really using it! So. Wanna work on that. :)

 

Love you all so much!

 

Sister Anjewierden

With my comp. and Elder Castillion.

With Elder Knudsen (also from Bountiful).