It's Official... I'm Dutch!

Officially Dutch

Sooo the colors of the Dutch flag are Blue, Red and White. They love Orange because of the King, but everything else here is Blue and Yellow. The NS trains, the playgrounds, the rental bikes, EVERYTHING. Well, we had a series of unfortunate events where my companion had to rent an OV fiets.- a bike- and we were biking to the station to get to district meeting and I realized I was matching the bike completely.

All Aboard!

I got made fun of the entire day 

for working for the trains, 

and it was too funny. 

That's what happens when you try to wear something different 

out of the couple of items you own as a missionary :)

Anyways... this week was a week. Weird things happen here, but one thing I can say is that God loves to bless his missionaries when they work hard and have the desire to see success. Once again we had another week of lots of finding, but the only difference about this week is that it is Ramadan for the Muslim Religion. The neighborhood we live in- Zuilen- is full of lots of Muslims. It was kinda cool though because some of them were still pretty open to letting us share the Book of Mormon with them, and we even go to deliver on in Arabic. We made some good friends, and we're invited back in a month after Ramadan :) (They fast for a month and only eat at night)

We've been given the chance to share the Book of Mormon with a lot of people this week though, and it has really helped to strengthen my testimony as well. We use the pictures in the front of the book to explain a bit of the history of the book, but I think the most powerful thing we can do as missionaries is share our testimony of the Book and how it has helped us personally. I am so thankful for the Book of Mormon!

Ward Members in Utrecht

We had a ward BBQ last Saturday, and it was cool to see the difference in a Dutch BBQ vs. an American. The BBQ was at the Relief Society president's house and her neighbors showed up and we got to talk to them a little bit. They bought TONS of meat and it was a free for all to grill your own. People would throw their own meat on the grill and would have to flip it and grab it before someone else took it. Lets just say we were all over the meat because I think we are deficient in protein right now. We don't buy enough of it for the whole week.

Zuster Karlson

It was a super fun night 

with really cute Dutch kids running around everywhere. 

This ward is so diverse with young and older families.

After the BBQ we had to hop on an hour bus ride home to get to an appointment with our friends from New Guinea. We didn't know if they'd remember the lesson, but actually called us when we were 5 minutes late. It was the best lesson ever! Still working on getting a French speaker to come, but in the meantime, we are teaching these guys using google translate and a french pamphlet. Whenever we leave they seem to have a good understanding, and they ask us really good questions. We were explaining to them the different lessons we teach to people before they get baptized, and helping them to choose a baptismal date. They don't have a specific date yet, but they really want to work towards being ready. They keep telling us that it will take a bit more time with them because they are slower with the language- we speak to them in Dutch- but that they want to learn. We invited them to Church and they were worried because they thought it was like 30 minutes away from their house. Buuuuuut.... on Sunday night we were biking home and we got into our neighborhood, and the New Guinea guys were outside at this local neighborhood social gathering place sitting by a fire, and they flagged us down to say hi. We told them that they were literally 1 minute away from our church, and one of them got soo excited and borrowed his friends bike to bike over with us and see it. Such a funny experience, but really cool because now we have proof that the church isn't too far away, and now he'll be able to come and find it on his own.

That's about it for this week... We have a really full week next week with appointments, so hopefully we will make these potentials into investigators.

We get a new mission president next week and President and Zuster Robinson will be going home. We are sad to see them leave, but exciting that I get to be here to experience another leader over this mission. Change is good!

Special Delivery

I saw Sister Wood's uncle this week! 

He works with Br. Thomas who was here to drop off the package you sent home. 

Small World!

Whatever persuadeth men to do good obviously comes from God and Jesus Christ. 

  Ether 4:11-12

I know that to be true! 

Love you guys!

Zuster Bush