Bike Problems Bring Blessings

First week of the new transfer is over and time is going by just as fast as it was before. All the missionaries in Utrecht stayed the same except Elder Bourne "died" and went home and now Elder Petersen is gonna die here too. I served with them both in Antwerpen as a Groentje so it's pretty funny.

We had a cool little miracle on the way to District Meeting this past week. My bike chain has been coming over every other day for pretty much no reason other than it might've been too long... So I would fix it in 2 minutes and continue on my merry lil way. Well it decided to bend the chain this time a couple minutes from our house on the way to the station, so we had to walk it back and take the bus. That made us take a different train to Gouda than usual, and so it was just the 2 of us in a 4 seater. A lady came and sat down by us, and most Dutch people aren't super friendly, but she was friendly right from the start. Super chatty and asking me about my last name of course. She assumed Z. Karlson's name was German, and then Z. Karlson corrected her and said it was Swedish. The lady was so nice and said, "You're right, I'm totally wrong." This lady didn't seem Dutch at all! We assumed she was from England, but then she started speaking Dutch and we had a cool conversation with her about Family History. She was on her way to some appointment to figure out information about her ancestors. We shared our website with her and she said she's already been using that website. Cool to meet a lady who loves Family History! If my chain wouldn't have broken we wouldn't have met her... I'm pretty convinced that is why I keep having bike problems :)

Another cool person we met was this guy from Suriname. We were knocking doors on Sunday and the next door was a house with super loud music and it looked like there were a ton of people inside. We almost didn't knock it, but had the feeling that we should. This guy was celebrating his 62nd birthday with his fam and let us in because he was so excited for this "present" that he had received for his birthday. 2 "Dames" from the church who brought the Holy Ghost. He was awesome and offered us soda and wanted to know more about WHY we were knocking on peoples doors. His older brother came in and he was even more excited. It was funny to see the loud music get softer and softer the longer we stayed in there and talked to them. They were pretty energetic and lively people and it was soooo fun. We have an appointment this week, and we were so thankful for the excitement that we had because knocking doors all day can get pretty long when you live in Nederland...

We had a pretty intense lesson with a couple of Muslims this week. We were doing bellups in our favorite neighborhood and met a guy outside of the Apartment at the same time that we had pressed another bellup, so I was telling him about the Book of Mormon while Z. Karlson was talking to the person over the intercom. She must've heard me explaining to this guy about The Book of Mormon becuase she yelled over the intercom, Ik wil een boek!- I want a book! We went upstairs and it turns out that it ended up being more of a- here is my religion- what is yours- type of thing because her brother came and they were some pretty intense Muslims, but it was a good experience for me to put my faith to the test. The biggest question was why do we think that Jesus is the Son of God? It was cool because I've been reading a lot about that lately in Jesus the Christ, and I'm in 3rd Nephi right now when Jesus appears to the Nephites. I am LOVING studies right now because I'm really strengthening my testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ and our need for him.

Helaas moet ik ga nu.---- ahhhhh Dutch just comes out.

Unfortunately I have to go now.... but here is a real good thought to leave you with.

"A Redeemer and Savior of Mankind is beyond all question essential to the realization of the plan of the eternal father, "to bring to pass the immortalitly and eternal life of man" and that Redeemer and Savior is Jesus the Christ, beside whome there is and can be none other."

Some food for thought. Why do YOU personally need Jesus Christ in your life?


Love you all!
Z Bush

p.s. I just realized I didn't even take any pics this week but this random one that was written on a college apartment building. Funny thing was that we dropped by on a random Surinamse birthday party a few minutes after.

Emilee's Mom: Can't load any pics, on vacation at a public computer. Will add pics once we get home.