Happy Birthday DAD!!!

Monday, June 14, 2010
Happy Birthday (tomorrow) Dad!!! I hope that you have an extra special birthday! I'll be thinking about you! How are you all doing!? Thank you so much for the e-mails! I don't get to tell you enough that YOU ARE ALL SO AWESOME! I sure love ya!
What a week! We had a Zone Conference in Apeldoorn on Friday and Stake Conference yesterday so I am totally pumped and fired up to dive into the work this week and double my efforts! For Stake Conference we had a satellite broadcast from Salt Lake and Elders Packer and Bednar spoke, as well as a man from the Quorum of the Seventy and Mary N. Cook. It was really a special treat to be able to hear from them, especially with what they had to say to the members here in Western Europe.
I have a renewed testimony of the power of goals after this week! I set a goal to do my very best to get a member by every teaching appointment that we had...and it worked! We had four member present lessons this week and that is more than I have ever had in my life! The Lord truly was aware of the desires of mine and Zuster Harrington's hearts and prepared a way for that to happen. We had to work really hard, calling people and trying to arrange everything, and in the end it really paid off. It all started on Monday when Joyce Streuper came as a joint-teach to Emily. We had a lesson about tithing and I don't think that it was by chance that Joyce came with us because she was able to share some very spiritual experiences she has had with paying tithing. Sadly enough we found out that night that Emily is moving back to St. Martin in 2 weeks so her baptismal date is not going to go through. But she wants us to send all of her information through to the missionaries there and she can't wait to get in contact with the church in her own country. I really don't care if she gets baptized here or in St. Martin, as long as she gets baptized! I know that she will become a member of this church in the near future...she is reading and praying every day and I even gave her a Dutch CTR ring and she NEVER takes it off. It is amazing to see how the gospel changes people and makes them so happy! We also had an appointment with Emily on Saturday and Sarah Fridsma came with us. We watched the Restoration film and it was SO powerful! The Joseph Smith story never loses power...IT IS TRUE!
On Thursday we had a church tour with a new investigator, Marion, and our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Dorenbosh was there to accompany us. The chapel was the first part of the church we went to and we didn't make it any further than that. The church really is the house of the Lord and Marion could feel the special spirit there. We shared the whole first lesson and she had tears in her eyes. She is a 28 year old mother with a 5 year old son and she is searching for the true church. She was so excited to hear our focus on families and to receive a copy of the Book of Mormon. We'll have another appointment with her this week!
Later on Thursday we went to Joanne's new apartment to help her cleanup the kitchen before she moved in and her friend, Melissa, was also there helping. Melissa has been to church a number of times and she also attends institute quite regularly. She loved the lesson we shared about having faith and trust in the Lord and hopefully will start taking the missionary lessons. Having Joanne, such a recent convert, there to help us teach would be the most prime situation ever!
We stopped by Zjuleika's yesterday and we are going to teach her tomorrow and hopefully set up a baptismal calendar with her. We just keep pushing on, trying to find the elect! It is such a wonderful and blessed privilege to be able to find them and teach them! Sometimes we don't know why we can't find a lot of them, or they all move away, or they lose interest, but the Lord knows and He is providing for us!
This week we are really looking forward to the many adventures that will come! We are making dinner again for institute and doing the YW activity this week so we always manage to keep our schedule jammed packed (just the way I like it!)!
Your prayers and faith are working miracles! You are doing missionary work in so many ways. Just by being an example, living the gospel, serving others...following the example of Jesus Christ, you are bringing His children back to Him and helping them find their way to the greatest joy they could ever find!
I love you so much! I hope that you have a wonderful week filled with the joy of the gospel! Never forget I am praying for you too!
Love, Laur