Heh heh, almost forgot to send a general email, so now I gotta do a quick one... sorry! But Carly asked how many baptisms I've had and I forgot to tell you guys I guess, sorry!! So there's Viola from Hengelo, then after I left, a few weeks later a little 9 year old girl I had only taught twice got baptized. So I don't know if I really count her as one of ''my baptisms.'' But whatever. Then, after I left Amsterdam, our investigator Nick got baptized a couple weeks later. So I wish I could've seen that, but things didn't work out that way. Oh well. I'm super glad though that he got baptized, he's an awesome young Dutch guy.
For this week, we had a pretty crazy experience. Our most solid baptismal date for several months is this really nice Bulgarian lady. She's like 45 and has a VERY different culture. Kind of a stressful situation. Anyways, the crazy part is that she really really wants to be baptized and she's so guided by the Spirit sometimes, BUT she's living with her boyfriend (who she had a son with like 16 years ago) and her boyfriend is Muslim (not practicing though) and is married to his cousin. So the huge problem about that is that Johanna loves him and considers herself ''spiritually'' married with him already, but she can't get legally married to him because he's in a marriage with his cousin, whom he can't divorce or else the Muslim family will attack him or his family. So, Johanna is then breaking the Law of the Land in one way or the Law of Chastity if this continues on.
So Elder Giles and I prayed and fasted the day before the lesson that everything would go well to teach her the Law of Chastity. Then, things changed with exchanges and stuff so that I was with a companion from another city and two sisters from another city as well... Stressful situation. But, it turned out being a miracle. I have no doubt that we were the perfect four people to teach her that lesson at that time. It couldn't have gone any better. Unfortunately, Johanna isn't ready to make any changes in this way yet, and so we have to drop her. But it's a blessing to know that she at least understands it all and that her choosing not to follow the Law of Chastity isn't our fault at all. Huge miracle for us. The Spirit was just really strong during that lesson and we taught really really well!!!
So I was pretty broken when Johanna shot down what the Lord was trying to tell her. It sucks that a big change would have to happen in some way for her, but Heavenly Father knows exactly how she can get the most happiness out of life. I wish she understood better how we're trying to help her achieve that, but it's her choice and there's nothing else we can do for now. So the Spirit's really been helping me out with that a lot, thank goodness.
Anyways, there's the experience for the week. I'm glad to hear that everybody's got some good things going on for them =) I love you all a ton! Have a good week!
For this week, we had a pretty crazy experience. Our most solid baptismal date for several months is this really nice Bulgarian lady. She's like 45 and has a VERY different culture. Kind of a stressful situation. Anyways, the crazy part is that she really really wants to be baptized and she's so guided by the Spirit sometimes, BUT she's living with her boyfriend (who she had a son with like 16 years ago) and her boyfriend is Muslim (not practicing though) and is married to his cousin. So the huge problem about that is that Johanna loves him and considers herself ''spiritually'' married with him already, but she can't get legally married to him because he's in a marriage with his cousin, whom he can't divorce or else the Muslim family will attack him or his family. So, Johanna is then breaking the Law of the Land in one way or the Law of Chastity if this continues on.
So Elder Giles and I prayed and fasted the day before the lesson that everything would go well to teach her the Law of Chastity. Then, things changed with exchanges and stuff so that I was with a companion from another city and two sisters from another city as well... Stressful situation. But, it turned out being a miracle. I have no doubt that we were the perfect four people to teach her that lesson at that time. It couldn't have gone any better. Unfortunately, Johanna isn't ready to make any changes in this way yet, and so we have to drop her. But it's a blessing to know that she at least understands it all and that her choosing not to follow the Law of Chastity isn't our fault at all. Huge miracle for us. The Spirit was just really strong during that lesson and we taught really really well!!!
So I was pretty broken when Johanna shot down what the Lord was trying to tell her. It sucks that a big change would have to happen in some way for her, but Heavenly Father knows exactly how she can get the most happiness out of life. I wish she understood better how we're trying to help her achieve that, but it's her choice and there's nothing else we can do for now. So the Spirit's really been helping me out with that a lot, thank goodness.
Anyways, there's the experience for the week. I'm glad to hear that everybody's got some good things going on for them =) I love you all a ton! Have a good week!