Building up the teaching pool!!!

Monday, August 30, 2010

Hello Fam! How was your "back to school” week? Carli and Corbin, you are officially seniors now! That is crazy!!! I hope that you had a great week and that the Lord has continued to watch over you and guide you in all that you have done. He sure has blessed us here in the city of Den Haag!
It was pouring rain the whole week here! Den Haag got more rain in the past couple of days than it normally does in a whole month, so we have been soaking wet...but that hasn't stopped us! We spent a lot of time finding and visiting members this week and we were blessed with so many little miracles. On Monday we had a consecrated finding hour in a highly populated Muslim area. Since we are asked not to proselyte among Muslims, we didn't really know how our finding would go. Instead of knocking on the doors, we decided to walk the streets in the area and just talk to people that we ran into. It was so amazing! We could literally feel the Spirit guiding us as we were led to many who were interested in talking to us. One of them, Vitalis, a man from Nigeria, has even become a new investigator and we are going to set a baptismal date with him tonight! Please keep him in your prayers because we know that this will be a big step for him!
On Tuesday we went and had our first appointment with a woman named v/d Linde. She is from Aruba and she has a husband and four children. I actually found her a month ago on the street and it was not until now that we were able to make contact with her. We also committed her to follow a baptismal calendar and she was so excited to learn more about the restoration and let us come two times in the week to teach her. Zuster Pierson, under direction of the Spirit, asked her if along with teaching her, we could teach her whole family all together. She thought about it, and then happily agreed! Our first appointment was scheduled to be on Thursday night but that got called off so we have another appointment with her tonight. We hope that she hasn't come in contact with some anti-Mormon material...please pray for her too!
On Wednesday, on the way to one of our appointments, I saw a young woman walking along the street and felt a strong impression to stop her. She reacted really positively to us and, because she was in a hurry, gave us her number and asked us to call her again to set up an appointment. We called and she met with us on Saturday morning. She is so cool! She is 22 years old and comes from Curacao. She goes to a Methodist church right now but is still searching for the true church. She is a student living here all by herself and really wants to come closer to God. The Spirit was so strong during our lesson as we testified of the truthfulness of the gospel, the ways it will bless her life, and how much Heavenly Father loves her. She had a lot of questions, as anyone should after hearing Joseph's experience for the first time. We were able to discuss a few things with her and then made another appointment. We are going back on Wednesday with another young single adult. She is really a miracle!
Thursday, we went and taught Natali and Esra, our little Greek family. We have changed our approach with them because Natali cannot speak Dutch or English. We just teach Esra in Dutch (she's 8 years old) and she translates for her mom. They just love reading in the Book of Mormon. Esra has come to church by herself for the past 2 weeks and the children welcome her and befriend her. We found someone who lives in Zoetermeer who was on a mission in Greece and he is going to come and help us teach them. It's amazing to see that the Book of Mormon is so simple that even a child can understand!
We have got a busy week to come, teaching all of these people! We feel so blessed! I am looking forward to updating you next week!
I love you so much! Thanks for all of the e-mails! I hope that you know that you are always in the prayer of my heart and that I think of you often! Have a great week!
Love,Lauren