December 7, 2009: I'm Staying in Zwolle!

Good morning! Another week has come and gone and I just found out....I am staying in Zwolle for another transfer!!! YAY! Yesterday evening and this morning were so intense, just hoping that the President or Assistants didn't call to tell me that I was going to another city. It was so hard at church yesterday, not knowing if it would be the last time I would be there with the people in the branch, or if I would still have another couple of weeks (maybe couple of months) to stay! I had some members here, Sister Knarren, Spijkermans, Tineke, Sister Walle, praying for me so I think it helped! No, but really, I know that I still have work to do here and I am so thankful for the tender mercy of the Lord in letting me stay in this amazing and wonderful city where I love the people so much! Before I jump into the miracles of my week, how was yours?! Your letters from last week were so wonderful and just boosted my day! Oh...and the Christmas tree!!!! That is so amazing!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE IN THE FAMILY! I think that that is the best Christmas gift I have ever received in my whole life! Your little messages made me laugh and made me cry and brought me such a feeling of love and gratitude. I can't imagine the work that went into making that but it just made my whole Christmas and it is something that I will cherish forever! What a special surprise! I had the most amazing week ever! So many miracles and so many things to look forward to! Monday night we looked someone up who was a Church Headquarters referral. He wasn't home but his mom was and she welcomed us in and we ended up having a great chat with her. He actually called us back yesterday and him and his girlfriend want to meet with us this coming week. It is very hopeful, especially when they make contact with us! We then had an interview with a young man who we met and wanted to learn more about the Mormons because he was writing an article about us for a class at school. He ended up taking a Book of Mormon and was really impressed that we are as weird as he thought we would be...horns, multiple wives...I love clearing up the misconceptions! We are going to have contact with him again this week! Tuesday we had lunch with a member in a little city called Dalfsen. She helped us pick out a street to go finding in her area and we had such great success! An older lady, Dickie, let us in and we talked to her about the Plan of Salvation. We don't have any contact information for her but she was the sweetest lady ever and hopefully she will have a desire to learn more and look us up! Tuesday night we headed to Amsterdam, to be a little closer to Den Hague for Zone Conference. It was fun to have a little bit of a slumber party with some other sister missionaries! Wednesday was Zone Conference and it was sooo amazing! It was wonderful to be back in the temple again and especially great with President and Sister Brubaker and 80 other missionaries all dressed in white. The session was wonderful and then we had a delicious lunch and conference afterward. The focus of the conference was on finding and I am so excited to change my view of missionary work. Zone Conference got me so pumped to recommit myself to being a better missionary! Thursday we did some service for Charrise, a woman who has been investigating for 30 years, did some finding, and had dinner with the Relief Society President and the 1st counselor in the Branch Presidency. Our appointment with Nanda fell through Thursday night so we found ourselves home a little early. I had a strong feeling to organize an activity to make fleece blankets but Zuster Wieland was not so excited about the idea because of the work of organizing it. I got on the phone and started calling the Branch President, RS president, and other members of the Branch, and despite my poor Dutch, the activity is going down this coming Friday and Nanda is driving us to the activity!!!! We are so excited and so are the branch members! Friday was another great day, and we made contact again with Mehrdad! Saturday was Sinter Klaas and we had a huge party with Familie Spijkerman! THey even had 2 Zwarte Pieten come! We received some gifts and just had a wonderful night. They take such good care of us! Sunday was amazing, as always. Willeka came to church and we are teaching Mike again tonight! The work is progressing and I am so excited! I love you so much and I pray for you! Love, Zuster Sharp