A Christ Centered Christmas...

I am so thankful for the opportunity to be here in Nederland for the Holidays. 

It was probably the most Christ centered Christmas I have ever had. 

It was a gift for me to be able to share the 

Gift of the Savior 

with so many people that day.

 On Christmas Eve we spent the day in Franeker 

and all of these other little towns outside Leeuwarden.

We visited less actives, and we used the day to contact referrals. We most definitely took advantage of the fact that it was Christmas, and tried to share the "He is the Gift" video with everyone we came in contact with. It was a beautiful day outside with the sunshine and we all had so much fun together.

Christmas Day was perfect. I am so happy to say that I talked with 21 nieces and nephews and all of my seven siblings and their spouses AND my parents. I'm a lucky missionary. After skyping with you crazy kids we ate a huge Christmas feast at the Geertsema's. A senior couple from Den Helder was also there, and we sang Christmas carols afterwards, and watched a few Mormon Messages. It was a gezellig- (I used that word for you Aaron)- night.

New Slippers!

Also... we got Frysian slippers from the Geertsema's! 

They have the logo of the Frysian flag on them. 

The members here are so sweet to us and we felt so blessed.

Zuster Doxey, Zuster Kimmons and Zuster Bush

We spent our Tweede Kerstdagen (2nd Christmas, yes we have two here) on a train for exchanges. We got to work with Sister Kimmons while Sister Greenwell went to Appeldoorn. Sister Doxey and I had a cool experience of talking with somebody on the bus later that night. We did splits for a min and Sister Kimmons was with a ward member.  We ended up contacting this man on the bus, and It was crazy to be able to communicate with this man in Dutch and tell him about what we do as volunteers for the Church. It is really amazing that Heavenly Father qualifies us for his work even though Sister Doxey and I have only been out for 2 and 3 transfers.

We celebrated 2nd Christmas with a part American, part Dutch family and we ate Turkey Turkey Turkey. It was fun to be able to celebrate Christmas with different families. We are so grateful for the love that everyone has for the missionaries here!

Also... I SAW SNOW this week. It was snowing in Zwolle the day after 2nd Christmas, and we were so excited because apparently Leeuwarden is not like the North Pole and it doesn't snow here in the North. It snows in the South. Whaaaaaat.

Oh... and.... Do you remember the story I told you about the lady who was asking me a ton of questions at the Library while I was trying to email, so I gave her a card, and she asked for another one because it was bent? Yeah. I was starting to get really annoyed with this lady, but I am thankful for her becauseeeeeee..... we have a new Investigator because of her! Sister Greenwell was sitting across from me and started helping me to answer these random questions. She was responding with how we were representatives for Jesus Christ.... and it got the lady sitting next to her really involved too. She said... "Wait.. Jesus Christ?!" - really loud, and was interested to know more. We met with her a few days later in the library cafe and she asked us many questions about how we found our faith, and what the Book of Mormon is. We have an appointment later this week to teach the Restoration to her. We are so excited, and thankful for the other lady who wouldn't take our bent Mormon.org card! Stay tuned for more of her story :)

Well... I better be done for this week. I love you all and appreciate your support! I am in love with that Book of Mormon Abridgment that you all made for me. I value your testimonies so much, and I love to hear how you all describe the Book of Mormon stories in your own way.  Also I should tell you that it was okay that we went a little over with skyping. I have no clue how long we skyped for haha but I am SO thankful I was able to pray with you and bear a little testimony. I hope you save those recordings because I sure am!

Have a Happy New Year!

Gotta run! !

Liefs,
Zuster Bush