First of all.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CARLY (today) AND HAILEE (in two days)!!!!!!!! Hope they go well and that everything's awesome! I'm trying to decide if there's anything cool I can send home in a package... Or how much it's gonna cost to send that package.... I don't know... Tell me what your thoughts are Money Watchers alstublieft (please)! Okay so first off, I'm gonna try and send my SD card home soon I think. Or should I wait until after Christmas? I don't know, let me know. Next, the reason why I haven't been sending pictures home through emails is for one very good reason: These computers we use (in a library) literally will not let me even look at, let alone upload, photos from my camera. Maybe when I get to another city I can do that. But for now, I apologize =( Okay so I got my second companion, making us a trio in Hengelo! He's pretty cool and super chill. His name's Elder Nielsen and he's from Utah as well (one of the smaller cities a little north of Salt Lake City, I can't really remember which, oops!). Anyways, his dad owned a car dealership and just sold it for a lot of money, so Elder Nielsen likes to go out and buy lots of nice stuff... Luckily, I trained myself before my mission to be pretty thrifty or else I would be losing a lot of money between Elder Huff and Elder Nielsen! Elder Nielsen's your pretty average cool kid, got a super cracky and kind of raspy voice, went to Utah State for a little while, did swimming in high school, doesn't mind cooking and doing dishes, did pretty well with the ladies before his mission, likes long walks on the beach, etc. Ha ha. Anyways, we all get along well and teach pretty well together. Elder Nielsen's Dutch is pretty good, he's on his 5th transfer now. He can understand people quite well, but his pronunciation and Dutch in general is actually kind of close to where I'm at... He's admitted that he wants to work on the language a lot more this transfer, and so it's perfect that he's here with Elder Huff because Elder Huff has great Dutch. He's a good teacher for it and I've definitely been helped a lot by him. The only thing I'm afriad of, is that Elder Huff is leaving the day after Christmas (on his birthday), and then it'll just be Elder Nielsen and I. Woo hoo. It's gonna be difficult sometimes with the language, but I think we'll do pretty well.
Anyways, the work in Hengelo is exploding. It's awesome. We've gotten a bunch of investigators and lessons this past week. It's amazing. Wait, let me pause there! It's amazing for us here in the Netherlands. Maybe not so great numbers for Africa, South America, or America. But it's awesome for us! We're super pumped. I really think I'll probably have some baptisms coming up in January maybe. That's where we're trying to set some goals. We've only been able to get in soft baptismal invites though, because everybody here is just so wary of change in their lives. I'm thinking Viola, the Phillipine woman will probably be our first baptism. We've had the first 3 PMG lessons with her, she's been to church twice now, she prays by herself at night, she freakin loves us (especially me I think, in a son kind of way, it's funny), etc. We just gotta explain the commandments to her and then hopefully she'll feel ready to accept baptism, because I'm really quite sure that she already knows the Church is true. Uitstekend (outstanding). Anyways, we've been getting some awesome new investigators, had some awesome lessons, and I AM SO FREAKIN GRATEFUL FOR THE SPIRIT AND FOR THE GIFT OF TONGUES!!!!!! There was a couple lessons this last week where I just felt like it wasn't really time for me to speak yet, I would pitch in a little every once in a while, but then I would just sit there and pray to help me to help our investigator. Then I'd just wait for when I felt it was right, and open my mouth (with a lot of courage), and the Spirit would totally speak me through me. Yeah, my Dutch still limits me during those moments, but the Spirit helps me to at least express the things that our Heavenly Father wants them to know. It's amazing. Or another time at a member's house, we were trying to explain to this great member family about making their family mission plan (a stake thing), and it just wasn't going well. So I was praying, and then I'd try to say what should be said, but it just wasn't going well. Then another Elder in our district, totally changed the situation around for the better. I realized, that not always is it going to be me who helps somebody, but all that matters is that that person got help. Power of prayer definitely exists.
So I'm getting pretty proud of my cooking skills (even though it's all pretty basic still) and am definitely grateful Momma for all the cooking skills that I apprently retained from you teaching me somehow. Oh there's another thing I'm not sure if I told you guys, I have been eating SO FREAKING MUCH since I've been here. I'm not gaining any weight, I don't think I look fatter, but I eat more than my other companions usually. I heard it will fade with time, but for now, I feel like a pig. Which is really weird, because you guys always made fun of me for how little I ate before my mission. Well now I'm a fatty. Cruel world.... Just kidding, but I sure hope I'm not fat. I still feel like I'm pretty in shape when I'm playing sports here.
Whatever. Okay so here's some more things about the Netherlands: Most stores (except restaurants and bars and stuff) all close at like 6. Pretty much nothing is ever open on Sundays. BUT! Every city chooses a night called Koop Avond where all the stores stay open a lot later (I'm not sure exactly how late). And there's also a Koop Zondag once a month where the stores are all open on that Sunday. Oh, I got stopped by the cops the other day because I didn't have a light on the front and back of my bike (they're broken). Other missionaries have gotten tickets for that, but I think the cops we're in a rush, so they just told us that we had to walk. It was only 3 bucks for some lights though, so now I'm good. Um I'm supposed to be going to Belgium soon to go get legalized in that country, but we still don't know when. I don't know. But I heard it's awesome. Ummm.... I'm super excited for my Christmas package! Thank ya much! Yeah, I'm sure it'll probably get here on time, but if not, it's fine.
Hmmm........ I don't really know what to write about now so: Peace =) Oh wait, maybe I'll teach you guys some Dutch, even though you probably won't pronounce it right.... No offense =)
Anyways, the work in Hengelo is exploding. It's awesome. We've gotten a bunch of investigators and lessons this past week. It's amazing. Wait, let me pause there! It's amazing for us here in the Netherlands. Maybe not so great numbers for Africa, South America, or America. But it's awesome for us! We're super pumped. I really think I'll probably have some baptisms coming up in January maybe. That's where we're trying to set some goals. We've only been able to get in soft baptismal invites though, because everybody here is just so wary of change in their lives. I'm thinking Viola, the Phillipine woman will probably be our first baptism. We've had the first 3 PMG lessons with her, she's been to church twice now, she prays by herself at night, she freakin loves us (especially me I think, in a son kind of way, it's funny), etc. We just gotta explain the commandments to her and then hopefully she'll feel ready to accept baptism, because I'm really quite sure that she already knows the Church is true. Uitstekend (outstanding). Anyways, we've been getting some awesome new investigators, had some awesome lessons, and I AM SO FREAKIN GRATEFUL FOR THE SPIRIT AND FOR THE GIFT OF TONGUES!!!!!! There was a couple lessons this last week where I just felt like it wasn't really time for me to speak yet, I would pitch in a little every once in a while, but then I would just sit there and pray to help me to help our investigator. Then I'd just wait for when I felt it was right, and open my mouth (with a lot of courage), and the Spirit would totally speak me through me. Yeah, my Dutch still limits me during those moments, but the Spirit helps me to at least express the things that our Heavenly Father wants them to know. It's amazing. Or another time at a member's house, we were trying to explain to this great member family about making their family mission plan (a stake thing), and it just wasn't going well. So I was praying, and then I'd try to say what should be said, but it just wasn't going well. Then another Elder in our district, totally changed the situation around for the better. I realized, that not always is it going to be me who helps somebody, but all that matters is that that person got help. Power of prayer definitely exists.
So I'm getting pretty proud of my cooking skills (even though it's all pretty basic still) and am definitely grateful Momma for all the cooking skills that I apprently retained from you teaching me somehow. Oh there's another thing I'm not sure if I told you guys, I have been eating SO FREAKING MUCH since I've been here. I'm not gaining any weight, I don't think I look fatter, but I eat more than my other companions usually. I heard it will fade with time, but for now, I feel like a pig. Which is really weird, because you guys always made fun of me for how little I ate before my mission. Well now I'm a fatty. Cruel world.... Just kidding, but I sure hope I'm not fat. I still feel like I'm pretty in shape when I'm playing sports here.
Whatever. Okay so here's some more things about the Netherlands: Most stores (except restaurants and bars and stuff) all close at like 6. Pretty much nothing is ever open on Sundays. BUT! Every city chooses a night called Koop Avond where all the stores stay open a lot later (I'm not sure exactly how late). And there's also a Koop Zondag once a month where the stores are all open on that Sunday. Oh, I got stopped by the cops the other day because I didn't have a light on the front and back of my bike (they're broken). Other missionaries have gotten tickets for that, but I think the cops we're in a rush, so they just told us that we had to walk. It was only 3 bucks for some lights though, so now I'm good. Um I'm supposed to be going to Belgium soon to go get legalized in that country, but we still don't know when. I don't know. But I heard it's awesome. Ummm.... I'm super excited for my Christmas package! Thank ya much! Yeah, I'm sure it'll probably get here on time, but if not, it's fine.
Hmmm........ I don't really know what to write about now so: Peace =) Oh wait, maybe I'll teach you guys some Dutch, even though you probably won't pronounce it right.... No offense =)