Monday, October 4, 2010

It is almost General Conference weekend! That's almost as good as Christmas!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Hello Family! Thanks so much for the e-mails! Dad, I got both today and that was an extra special treat! I am really looking forward to reading all of them and catching up with the things that are going on at home! How are you all doing? Are you excited for October to begin? The leaves sure are getting beautiful! By the way, it is transfers this week...yeah, that means that I have already been with Zuster Pierson for a whole six weeks and...we will be staying together for another six! We are really looking forward to having another transfer together here in Den Haag!
This week was totally awesome! We had some amazing miracles and we were also spiritually fed. We had Zone Conference on Friday in Leiden and Elder Sterri, a member of the third quorum of the seventy and area presidency, was with us all of the way from Norway. He was great! After the Zone Conference, the Den Haag did a musical fireside for all members and investigators. It turned out really nice and the Spirit was really strong! Music is so awesome because it really does bring the Spirit and it is a universal language. I am so thankful that Heavenly Father has given us the wonderful blessing of music. Oh, and I was also on exchanges on Thursday with Zuster Garvin. She is so wonderful! We just had the greatest time serving together and I learned so much from her! It really was one of my most favorite weeks!
I would just like to share a little miracle with you that we experienced this past week. As we picked a consecrated hour street on Monday night I had a very vivid picture in my mind of where we were supposed to go, even before we looked at the map. After sharing my feelings with Zuster Pierson, we decided to go to that place. It was a shopping area really close to our apartment and there were many people on the street. It was about 11:00 in the morning and people were in a big hurry to get to work or school or to get some shopping done. We had a lot of short contacts with people but no one in particular had interest. Then we had the feeling to cross over to the other side. As we were walking there was a man and we felt prompted to talk to him. Turns out that he had talked to me and Zuster Harrington and Zuster Reber a few weeks earlier very briefly. As we began to share with him the message of the Restoration, he really opened up. He said that he had decided a couple of months ago to not go to a church but to strengthen his faith on his own. He had actually stopped drinking and doing drugs two weeks earlier because he felt like that is what Jesus wanted him to do. He said that he would come to our church one time to give it a chance. He gave us his number so we could call and remind him to come, and then he was on his way. We felt pretty positive about him and prayed that he would really show up at church. On Saturday night we decided to call him and remind him to come but his number didn't work. We felt a little discouraged and were lacking that faith that he would really come, especially since the last time we had talked to him was 5 days earlier. But we prayed for him anyway. Sunday morning, as we were walking to pick up a less-active family for church, he came walking in the direction of the church, all dressed up in a white button up shirt, tie, and suit. He had a smile on his face! We couldn’t believe it! The members all welcomed him and he said that he really felt the Spirit during the classes. At the end of Sacrament Meeting we hurried to go and talk to him so that we could get his right number and set up an appointment with him but he was gone before we could get there. We were not sure if he would come back the next week and we were scared that we would never see him again. After eating some lunch, we saw that we had missed a call and had a new message. It was him, Roland! He said that he wanted us to come back and teach him more because he had a really good feeling about all of it. We called him back and set up an appointment for this Wednesday. We are really looking forward to teaching him and especially to share the baptismal calendar with him. He is one of the elect and we feel so blessed!
We are still teaching Vitalis and he is doing well! Your prayers in his behalf are really helping. He is searching for the truth and we have been able to have some very great lessons with him. We taught him three times this week and he committed to come to General Conference this weekend. I know that he will have a great experience as he listens to a prophet of God. Elisabeth threw a curve at us and told us the second that we walked into her appointment on Thursday that she will not get baptized again and doesn't really want to go further with us. After talking with her for a few minutes we learned that she told her pastor that she was meeting with us and he really pulled her away. We are going to have one more lesson with her this week to decide if she is ready and to see if she is progressing. If not, we will give her back to the Lord and missionaries will come in contact with her again when she is ready. We were also not able to get a hold of Roger and Brigitte this past week...we wonder if Roger took a step back again. Luckily we have an appointment on Tuesday so we are hoping that he is still positive! Familie Saragoza, the inactive family that we have been working with, are making huge strides! We had a family home evening with them at the beginning of the week and they asked us if we would come and pick them up for church! They also made a goal to read every day in the Book of Mormon. The oldest daughter committed to go to the Young Women activity (and she did!) and they are experiencing the joy of the gospel again. It is amazing to walk into their home and feel something so different because they are doing their best to follow Christ!
The Lord lives and he loves us. The gospel is the one and only way to lasting happiness and peace. I know that the church was restored through Joseph Smith. I know that the Book of Mormon is the evidence of that. I love this work and I love all of you! Keep smiling and have a great week! Thanks for all you do for me!
Love, Laur

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