I love the sunshine!!!

Monday, April 26, 2010

How are you all doing!!!? Are you enjoying this wonderful spring weather? Can you believe it is almost May? Yesterday as I was sitting in Primary during Singing Time a little boy asked if we could all sing "I Love to See the Temple". As we were singing I started thinking about how long ago it was that I went through the temple for the first time and that was exactly one year ago yesterday. That really hit me how fast time is going...and I don´t think it is going to slow down!
Thank you so much for your e-mails! Mom, I got the package on Saturday! Oh my goodness!!! THANK YOU! First of all, I just had to laugh with the camel! That is so cute! And then all of the piano lesson stuff! On Saturday night we went to a dinner at the church and I saw Familie Fridsma and Gabriel and told them all about the things that you sent! They are so excited too. They wanted me to thank you from them as well. Piano lessons are going to be really great this week! THANK YOU!
Well, I survived the week! It was a little bit hectic but everything went down really well and it was very enjoyable. For the institute dinner we did end up having to just do scones because we couldn´t find the ingredients for all of the other recipes. Everything was going well with the preparations on Thursday until I started cooking the scones and they just did NOT work! I started to panic a little but we made a quick decision to send someone to the store to buy tortilla chips and do a taco salad instead. Joanne was willing to go and luckily dinner was ready to be served right on time. It tasted really good too! We served ice cream and American chocolate chip cookies for dessert and we even had Berber come for the dinner and the lesson! It was a really great night!
The Primary lesson and talk went really well too! Thank you so much for your prayers...they helped so much! I wasn´t even nervous about either of them and I just had to trust that the Lord would help me to say and do what He wanted me to say and do. Now that it is all over I am feeling a little project less so I am already thinking about doing a primary activity or mutual activity...I´ll let you know what is going down!
We set a baptismal date this week!!! Emily called us up and said that she wanted to start meeting with us again! We went over on Wednesday night and had a really amazing lesson about The Plan of Salvation. She had a lot of questions but she is really sincere. She really does want to know for herself. At the end of the lesson we invited her to be baptized on May 29 if she receives an answer that the Book of Mormon is true. She accepted and agreed to do that and she even prayed at the end of the lesson and asked Heavenly Father to help her prepare for that date if it is His will! We will be teaching her again this week! On Friday morning, Joanne, our most recent convert, called and asked us if we could come to her apartment to have lunch with her. She also called the Elders and invited them as well. Luckily, the Elders were able to find an inactive young adult, Marco, to come with them and we were able to switch around our schedule a little bit to make it all work out. We had a wonderful and spiritual lesson with Joanne and Marco about the importance of the Sacrament. When we left Joanne´s we were in a little bit of a hurry to be on time for our consecrated hour. We were biking really quickly and I just had a feeling that I needed to stop and give a card to someone. I pulled over and saw a lady and gave her the card. She thanked me for it but didn´t seem to have much interest. I started to wonder why the Spirit had prompted me to do so, or if it really was the Spirit. Anyway, we hopped back on our bikes just in time to see a progressing investigator ride by on her bike. We called out her name and she stopped and talked to us for a little bit. She explained that she had been in Africa for a couple of weeks so we hadn’t been able to get in contact with her for a long time. She told us that if we called her she would make an appointment with us. Last night we gave her a call and we have an appointment for Wednesday night! It was another experience for me to teach me how involved Heavenly Father is in this work. The Spirit prompted Joanne to invite us over for lunch so we would be biking in that area at just the right time. He prompted me to stop and give the card. His timing is absolutely perfect and He knows exactly what He is doing. I just need to be constantly ready to listen and act!
Saturday we played in the Volleyball Tournament that included all of the members of the church throughout the Netherlands and Belgium. We and the elders here were the only missionaries that were allowed to play because it was held here in Groningen! It was so much fun and my volleyball skills are getting a little bit better! My team won one match and lost the other three. Better luck next year! I was able to see so many members from Zwolle and that was such a blessing! It was really fun to be able to talk and visit with them for a little bit!
We were planning on going to our appointment with Swinda but she had to cancel right before because her son was really sick and she wasn´t feeling too great either. Luckily, she went with a member, Zr. Sprott, to a RS activity this week and also spent one other day with her. The members are just embracing her so she has a lot of contact with the church. We have another appointment scheduled with her for Wednesday!
We have been really blessed here in Groningen with the work! Miracles are happening all of the time! I know that Jesus Christ lives! I love you SO much and pray for you continually! Have a great week!
Love, Laur