Thank you for all of your support with my decision!!!

Monday, August 09, 2010
Dear Family,
I just can't tell you how happy I am with all of your support with my decision to come home in February! I don't think you know how much easier that makes it! I just get almost giddy every time I think about coming home in February...because I know that I will have the time to spend with you that I have wanted to have for the past 4 years and just haven't had with school and work and my mission. We are going to have so much fun and it just couldn't feel better!!! Thanks for the e-mails, and most of all for your love and strong faith! I couldn’t do this without you!
Well, did you have a good week?! I have gained such a strong testimony of small and simple things amounting to great miracles! I want to share with you one of my favorite experiences and miracles of the week. On Tuesday we had a young woman from another city come and spend the day with us so we could go on splits. As the four of us were riding our bikes from the station to the church I saw an African woman and really felt like we should stop and talk to her. I jumped off of my bike and the other sisters followed (probably a little intimidating for the woman) and walked to her. I told her who we were and what we were doing and she said a prayer and made an appointment with us to meet again. Her name is Patience and she has two little daughters, Divine and Precious, and a husband. She was really positive and gave us her address but couldn't remember her new number. We were so excited! Well, our appointment with her is tonight, but Tuesday night we realized that we couldn't find her street on the map. We were devastated, me especially! I prayed and prayed and after looking through almost all of the streets in Den HaagI found one that was pretty similar to it. We set aside time on Saturday to go and look her up just to make sure the street was right, before our appointment today. On Saturday we went to the house and no one was home. We stood for a bit and talked about what we should do and right then a car pulled up with Patience in it! It was her house! And she was still planning on our appointment! We felt richly blessed and we decided to do some finding on her street before going to our next appointment. I felt a really strong impression that we should go in a certain direction so we did and after about 20 minutes we ended up knocking on the door of a member, Hob, that we didn't even know lived there. He invited us in and we had a nice visit with him. We left feeling like we had done what the Lord wanted us to do. But, the story doesn't stop there. Yesterday we went finding with all of the Elders and two members, Jesi and Anna. We prayed beforehand to pick a street and Anna felt really impressed that we needed to go to a certain area. Zuster Harrington, Jesi, and I went together and Anna and Zuster Reber went in the other direction. We decided that we would meet back by our bikes at the end of the hour. We had some success but nothing to great. When we went back to our bikes, the other sisters weren't there yet and I started to get that feeling again that we needed to continue knocking on some doors in a specific direction. After 10 doors that amounted to not very much we knocked on the door of an older woman who was so excited to see us! She welcomed us in and started talking to us like she knew who we were. I was a little scared that she was a member and I just didn’t recognize her so I just tried to ask some discrete questions to figure out who she was and how she knew who we were. Finally we discovered that she was a friend of Hob's and that she had attended a baptismal service and a church service a couple of years ago. And then, she told us that she had read the whole Book of Mormon! We just couldn’t believe it! She had actually talked to Hob Saturday night after we were at his house and heard how excited he was about having us there that she thought that he had sent us to her. But we explained to her that it was purely through guidance of the Spirit. She was in just as much shock as we were! We were able to share a little lesson about prayer with her, as well as pray with her, and she said that we are welcome to come back and teach her more. Janike is her name. As we walked out of her home all of the little details of the situation played back in my mind. It was so perfectly planned out by the Savior. Meeting Patience...getting an unclear address...searching for the address two days earlier than her appointment...her pulling up late in her car...finding on her street...knocking on Hob's door...him calling Janike about it...the sisters being late getting back at the end of finding...knocking on Janike's door...many miracles to come!!! I am so thankful that the Lord loves each one of us so much that he uses us in such small ways to bring about His great and eternal plan! I love Him and I love this work! I love you all and pray for you always! Know that the Lord loves you too! He is aware of your circumstances and will always prepare a way for you to come closer to Him and help others come closer to Him through you. I hope that you have a great week!
Love, Laur
P.S. Mom, I am so sorry about the mix up with Nadeline's e-mail address. It is nadelinevlainic@hotmail.com. I hope that it works this time. I don't know if they already made other plans but I think that sending the e-mail would still be good. Sorry! Thanks for being so willing to welcome them. I love ya!