What a week!!! I've been in the Netherlands for one whole year!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Hello everyone! How are you all doing? Are you enjoying the beautiful fall weather? It is wonderful here! Thank you so much for your e-mails...and for the AWESOME package! I got it on Saturday and I just love all that you sent! I wore the skirt and orange sweater yesterday, along with the adorable brown flower and the cute goldish dangly earrings (Brooke, I think they were not too "bling bling" and I just couldn't wait 5 months to wear them so I hope they weren't too much!)! The pictures were so great...you all look fantastic and it was so fun to be able to have more of a clear picture of all that you have been doing over the past couple of months. Thank you so much, Brooke and Mom, for putting that together. That was sooo thoughtful and I am really looking forward to wearing all of my new things this week. Spices up the work a bit!
Well, we saw lots and lots of miracles this week! As I was reading in the Book of Mormon this morning I found myself in Moroni 7:33-37. It’s all about faith and miracles and it made me think about this past week. God is a God of miracles and miracles have definitely not ceased! No matter how great or small our faith is, as long as we have a little we will experience miracles! We went to teach Vitalis on Tuesday with Victoria but he got stopped with his tram and wasn't able to get home on time for our appointment and we had to leave for the next appointment. Victoria was so kind and agreed to accompany us as we went to teach Brigitte and Bernard. We always try to teach the two of them at Brigitte's house when her husband Roger isn't home because he is not too fond of us or the church (we've actually had some pretty scary situations with him). Brigitte had said that he would be gone to work but when we got to her home he came walking up at the same time. We all became a little tense but had faith that things would work out. He was super friendly from the beginning and welcomed us in. He got drinks for all of us and was making some nice conversation. We just kind of went along with it. We felt like the Spirit was telling us to stay. When we started the lesson he was in the kitchen but he immediately came in to join us. We ended up putting "The Restoration” DVD in and he stayed and watched the whole thing. The lesson ended up being focused totally on him. He was answering questions and really getting involved and in the last five minutes of the lesson I pulled a baptismal calendar out to ask him to be baptized. I looked at Zuster Pierson and her eyes told me that she thought I was crazy but I quickly mouthed to her, "pray for me!" I then invited Roger to take the lessons from us and prepare to be baptized. I just let the words come from the Spirit because I was too scared to spit it out. He said YES! I have never witnessed a greater miracle in my life and I think that we were all speechless when he actually said it, especially Brigitte! Now setting appointments will be a little tricky because of his work schedule but we hope to teach him a couple of times this week! Miracles happen!
We have also been able to teach Vitalis, Elisabeth, Natali and Esra this week. They are all progressing and really learning a lot through the Spirit. The members are so busy doing missionary work and it is just a super exciting time here in Den Haag. On Friday as we were finding we were not seeing much success. But in the last 15 minutes we knocked on the door of an 85 year old widower. He was very kind and listened to us. He then began to cry and said that he would love to have a copy of the Book of Mormon. We gave it to him and he looked at us with tears in his eyes and promised us that he would read it. The Spirit had touched his heart. I called him last night to see when we could make an appointment to teach him more and we will be going back next week! He has already read a good chunk of the Book of Mormon and can't wait to meet with us!
Man, my mind is so scattered right now because I just want to tell you so much but I am out of time! I hope that you can feel the happiness of the experiences that I have shared (and that they make sense).This work is awesome and better than I could have ever imagined! The Lord truly does love every one of us and cares so much for us! I hope that you can constantly feel of His love and know that through him we can return to Heavenly Father...as a family! I love you and pray for you! THANK YOU for all that you do for me! Have a great week!
Love, Laur