Pictures, a Visit to the Doctor and someone "hit" on her!

so, I'm guessing you have heard of that missionary in Guatemala who was in a car accident, and then died? They're from Canada? That is the brother of one of our APs. Super super sad. For everyone. So if you could keep him and his family in your prayers that would be nice.   I also don't know if I've told you before, but I haven't been able to sleep through the night since I got here, and I'm exhausted. It sucks. :(

So Hindu church was really interesting. It was also really really long. They also lit a fire, in their house. I thought for sure we were going to burn, but we didn't so yay. After Hindu church they had this big feast thing and it was great, everything was delicious. Also, apparently with that kind of thing, they dont use utensils. So, one of the things we ate was this type of curry thing, and we definitely had to eat it with our hands. It was interesting.  (Picture below is of her district.)

This past week, Zuster Raun and I also won a pie, because contacted the most people out of our district. Pie is different here. It had Vla in it. I don't know if you know what that is though 

(NOTE:  I did not know what Vla is so,  I did what any other person would do and checked Wiki..  It sounds like it's a custard type filling.)

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vla

. Last week we also had to go to the doctor, because on sunday, Sister Raun somehow managed to get a metal sliver in her eye. That night when we got back, she was complaining that her eye hurt, but she couldnt see anything in it, and the next morning, I noticed there was something in there and we couldnt get it out, like it was under the membrane of her cornea. Anyway, she refused to go the doctor because it was Pday, so we waited til tuesday, but by the time we got back to Lelystad it was after hours time, so we went to a sketchy doctors place. And it is ridiculously hard to go to the doctor here, and expensive. there is a ton of red tape. Anyway, this doctor didnt even wash his hands before touching her eye with his hands. So nasty, and this was after he had shaken our hands and everything. Anyway eventually he was able to get it out. but I pretty much refuse to ever go to the doctor here. Also, Z. Raun has been trying to get back at me for scaring her, and I told her that if she scared me, I would scream. Apparently she didnt understand, because she jumped out at me one night, and I screamed, of course, and then that in turn scared herself. So she ended up in a ball on the floor almost in tears. Yep. 

There's a member in the ward, Ronata. She's awesome she's always inviting us over and feeding us, and she gives the best hugs. She said you guys can stay with her if you ever come out to holland lol. On Sunday, they made me say the opening prayer in sacrament. I hated it. Also, one of the members came up to me, and said "Sister, are you gifted?" And like the gifted person I am I replied "Uh... you mean like smart?" ha. But I guess the way I speak Dutch is highly unsual for someone who just got out of the MTC. Like it's intelligent or something I guess. But she said she's thought I was a genius since day one but hasn't had the chance to ask me yet. Okay. 

Yesterday, we were walking down the street, and some guy starts talking to us, and it was totally weird, because I could tell he was talking about how I looked, and that he was hitting on me sort of thing. And then he's like oh, you're from America! And then he switched to English, and said he was looking at me, and he said there was something different about me and wanted to figure it out what it was. Then we told him we were missionaries, and he's like why havent you ever invited me to your church? So he said we can teach him. He also said thank you to me, for looking so nice and friendly, and that he has a lot of connections for people who want to learn more about Christ. Anyway, see, Sister Missionaries need to not be frumpy, because if I was frumpy and uggo this guy would have never talked to us. ha. That's what he said in english pretty much. Because we're like well will your wife be there, and he's like oh no, I'm single single, which is why I was looking at you. Yep.  We have 6 investigators, he's not included, because we haven't taught him yet.  

That's pretty much it for this week. Love you.

Karoline

 

New Investigators, Mission Growth, a Sari and Fun with Her Companion. (and no offense to my European friends intended)

It's always fun to be online when the kids send their emails each week. This week I found myself laughing at each exchange and we're happy to see that Zuster Western is still Karoline.(as always, the usual disclaimer for spelling, etc.  Time on the computer is spent communicating, not correcting!)

So, I wasn't transferred, and Sister Raun and I will be staying together for another 6 weeks. :) They just split our gigantic zone, so we now have 5 zones in the mission, I think. Since I am sure you are curious, Sister **** (her MTC Companion)  will be staying in Breda with her trainer, and Sister Nelson, who is a sister from our MTC group.

  (In case you don't remember Sister Nelson,  here's an excerpt from one of her MTC emails.  And she's also the one who liked to pick out everyone's outfits each day in the MTC and loaned the sisters in the district her cute skirts and my brother Darin was her bishop at BYU.

Sister Nelson

Sister nelson talks and laughs in her sleep. So most nights we wake up to either one of those three talking or laughing, or screaming. She laughs all the time and loves Zumba. She went to byu provo for one semester and is majoring in how to be a mommy-those are her words, i wouldnt say something like that. She has three foster sisters who work here, they are all handicapped and like 60 years old, but one, Nora, drew us all pictures, it was super cute.)

I will be able to pick up the package next Friday when we have zone training.  Also, I'm going to Brussels, on the 7th? I think. Anyway, it's to get my Belgian ID, so that should be fun. yes, I'm glad I'm not going back to school, but it feels weird, because I've been starting school every august since like forever.

Let's see, this week we found two new investigators! One, we just found door to door, and she answered, asked if we spoke english, because we speak dutch, and then she ran inside and grabbed some crosses for us, and handed a handful of them to us. We're still not sure what we are going to do with them. Anyway, she wanted to know about polygamy, and then she went on and on about religion, and then asked if we could meet again. We were on her door for 40 minutes. Shes a cool lady. Shes tattooed up and down and has a lot of piercings, and is from Malaysia. Shes lived in a dozen or so countries, and she's just interesting. Anyway, the next day she met us in the centrum, and bought us icys. We are going to be meeting with her again this week. She asked if she could make us lunch, and we agreed, so that should be interesting. The other one is  young woman, the elders met her at her door, and they gave us to her so they wouldnt have to find joint teaches all the time. Anyway shes Dutch, and shes already convinced the book of mormon isnt true. Basically she loves the bible. She even said she believes that joseph smith saw what he said he saw, but that doesnt mean he wasnt deceived by satan. So anyway, we're working with her. Hindu church is this weekend. I'm pretty excited. Anyway, those investigators, we were meeting with them last week, and she asked us to come up stairs, and she starts pulling out all these Saris. you know, those indian dresses that are all jeweled and super pretty and stuff? If not, look it up. anyway, she told me to try one on, and i wasnt sure i understood correctly, but the she practically put it on for me, so i tried it on, and then she asked if i wanted it. like forever. so she just gave me this Sari. And it is gorgeous. it's blue with gold beadings and lots of sequins and such. I have a picture if i ever get to send one. then she went through her drawer and started giving me jewelry, so anyway, i went back to the apt after that lesson with a bunch of stuff.

Our district is getting two new sisters tomorrow, they are opening Almere-Buiten. So they will be part of the Almere ward. Something really cool this weekend happened.  The other day, we were tracting forever, in the heat and humidity, and it is terrible btw. at least yall have air conditioning, no one here has AC. Not even the church. I thought we were all going to die on Sunday, but we're alive. Anway, every one is on vacation right now, and no one was answering their door.  We literally must have knocked on 30 doors, and only 3 people answered. But! All three of those people wanted to talk to us, and have us come back, which is really cool. One of them was the malaysian lady. So, right now we have 4 investigators, and about 5 potentials with the people we found last week. So thats pretty cool. Oh, and no, they didnt come to church this week, because hindu church is like ridiculously hard to prepare for, we're actually doing our service hours with her this week helping her to prepare for that.

Also, we do the exchanged with the sister training leader about every other week. I dont know what it will be now though, since our zone is small right now. 

  

Another thing. I think the church should have one of those humanitarian projects here. These people need real deoderant. Especially because theres no air conditioning anywhere. Oh it's so nasty smelling. yuck. Thank goodness for still having real deoderant. Our apartment doesnt even have a fan, so that is on the list to get this week since the church will reimburse us.  i can't really think of anything else too exciting to share.... 

This is where I got to ask her:

So just the two of you?  no new missionary to train? Great news on the new investigators.  That’s cool you get to go to Brussels!  So you have to get ID there even if you’re not assigned?  Sweet.

Yeah, we all get to get belgium and netherlands IDs super fun. Nope, no one new. We were hoping for a third one, because finding joint teaches is terrible. also, this is something i just wrote katelyn that i forgot to tell you, but I think I'm funny.

Want to hear something hilarious? Zr. Raun scares easily. So, the other day, she was talking to me while falling asleep, so i slowly scooted down the bed, so my feet could touch the end of her feet and scare the crap out of her. It worked, and it was hilarious. then, the other night i was doing something weird and i reach down to put something under my bed, and im like hmmm i bet i could fit under there, and sister raun was still in the bathroom getting ready for bed right? so i move the stuff under her bed and hide  in the little spot i made for myself while shes in the bathroom, and the lights off, right? so she cant see me, and she thinks im in my bed, so she kneels down to pray, and i just reach out and stroke her leg. and she starts screaming, not even in english, but dutch, about how it's not possible, and shes like sister western! because she still didnt realize it was me. ha so funny.

Anyway, love you.

Karoline

Not much news but I wish I'd had her apartment!

 Yes, we did teach the lady and her husband this week. They also  came to church this past Sunday, which was awesome, because we weren't really sure whether they were going to come or not. so that was a nice surprise. We haven't found anyone else yet, and no, we don't have any member referrals. no, we don't know if we are getting anyone else yet. We won't find that out until Sunday when the President does transfer calls. Everyone, including Sister Raun has pegged me for training next transfer, and President has asked me about it, but I don't really think so. That would really be quite the surprise. Plus from what I've heard, we have ten less sisters than they were originally planning on, once upon a time, but who knows. Rumors are rumors. Speaking of rumors, this week I learned that this is the highest marrying mission in the world. So yeah. That's that. Oh, and in dutch it would still be missionaries for both elders and sisters, so it was bless the missionaries, and the sisters too. :) Sister Raun's name rhymes with Fawn. haha.It's like Ron.

Our apartment-It is not a studio. It's a two bedroom. So one bedroom is really small and we have a wardrobe thingy and a drying thing to hang our clothes up to dry on. I really miss a dryer. My shirts are getting too big and stretched out and stuff. It's uncomfortable. Anyway, then you have our bedroom, which has our two beds, and our two wardrobes. Then we have a laundry room, with just the washer. then the bathroom. In our apartment, the shower and toilet room are together, but that hasn't been the case in any other missionary apartment i've been to, or any house I've visited. Anyway, then there's a door that we can close to close that part off. For some reason the Dutch really love their doors. Every room has a door so you can shut the house off. I don't know, I think it's a little weird. Anyway, then there's the big open room with our tables, we have three, plus a kitchen table. We also have a fairly nice sized balcony. Not a small one. And our kitchen and stuff like that. It's a really nice apartment. We even have a dishwasher, which hardly any one has. Yes, I still get mail, and I have heard from a few people from the MTC.  I hope dad's leg starts feeling better soon. :) And it sounds like that pocket session thingy was cool.

This week, we had exchanges with the Sister Training Leader person. So I got to go to Zoetemer or however you spell it, to work with her companion since I stayed here last time. Anyway, it's close to Den Haag, and this is the city where the temple is. We rode our bikes right past it, it's super tiny.  The bike the sister training leader has is terrible, and I had to work super hard to go anywhere. My bike spoils me apparently. It's good to have a good bike. :) Especially because her bike is ghetto, and I never want to do that again.

There's a family history center in the church in Amsterdam. There might be one in Den Haag but I have no idea about that kind of thing.  Our district has 6 elders, and then us two sisters. Our zone, is huge. It encompasses quite a large area, but I dont know how to describe it. i have seen a lot of Amsterdam. Mainly on district meeting day, and only if we take a tram and train instead of taking a long bus ride, but it's a beautiful city. We don't do much for pday. theres pretty much never time to do anything, not even write letters. So yeah. Anyway that's pretty much it for this week. Love you.

Karoline

Stinging Nettle and "Bless the Missionaries and also the Sisters".............

So, not knowing what a :"coffee house" was I asked.  She answered and it's not what I thought.  Although I'm sure they sell coffee too.  And,  a validation that she is my daughter!  Read on!

So, a coffee house is the place where people buy pot :) I can't really think of anything too particularly interesting that happened this week. Hmmmmm nope. Although we did have interviews last week, and that was fun. If you send a package it is probably best to send it to the mission office. I think. Unless it would get here on a Monday, or if you can tell it to be delivered at a certain time. The mission name comes first, then mine. And yes, I have to pay fees if the package worth is over 40 euros. So if the stuff inside the package is worth more than that. Also, I'm going to need prescriptions refilled. I'm almost out of those, and those you can send to the apartment i bet, because they will probably fit through the little mail slot for our mailbox, but otherwise I won't get them until like 3 weeks or so until our zone training. Although, this week since I had to go to the office for Legality again, I did get to pick up any mail that has been sent to me  while Í've been here, so that was nice. I haven't had any problems with sore feet. The only reason I had to do that legality again was because they changed immigration laws on the 9th, and we got here on the 10th. And their lawyer just told them about it. So yeah, it wasn't really that big of a deal for me, except the trip to get there just to sign some papers. Oh! Aloe Vera gel. We haven't been able to find any here, and the sun has been nice and shiny this week. Such a nice change. Except now it feels super hot, even though, yes, I know it is only like 70ish. Yes, I think some recipes would be nice, especially for baked things. We usually eat together. Sunday night we sit down and plan a menu so we know what we need to buy on Monday, and what we are eating during our dinner and lunch hours through the week.

At church this past Sunday our branch had a record breaking 90 people there. Seriously, the past couple weeks there's been about 40. And that was actually pretty nice because the same day, our branch president person decided to show the missionary broadcast to the branch during the sunday school and relief society hours. All of the branch was there except, guess who? Me, and Sister Raun, and the branch president's wife. We were volunteered to work in the primary. I mean, I personally thought it was pretty stupid to not have all the missionaries there for the missionary broadcast, and just because we're sisters we have to watch the kids? I mean really? But I guess it was nice so that everyone in the branch could be there. Oh, and the other day someone said a pray for the missionaries and it went ,"Bless the missionaries, and the Sisters too" what? Hello people, we are missionaries, but that's okay.

This past week I learned to ride a bike with no legs. That's pretty talented if you ask me. Now, you may be asking yourself why I had to learn how to do this. Basically, we were riding through the forest to get to an area out in the middle of nowhere, and I put my leg down, and I stepped in a giant bush of stinging nettle. Also, it is good to note here, that not only does it have the regular effects on me, but I am super sensitive to it. Sister Raun was talking about how they were the biggest welts she's every seen it give anyone. I thought I was going to die out in the middle of that forest. But anyway, luckily sister raun knew what plant to go look for to get rid of all the stinging. But after, it was super hard to move my ankles, and it would have literally taken hours to walk back, so I had to develop my talent for riding with no legs. Pretty tricky. We like to call it no feets on my fiets. Because thats the dutch word for bicycle, and it's pronounced the same as feets.
Our schedule:

630 get up and exercise

7-8 get ready

9 personal study

10 language study

11 leave the apartment

2 lunch

3 12-week ( this is a program all the new missionaries do for their first 12 weeks, so they are able to train in after 12 weeks, but in our case, it might be 6)

6-7 dinner

9 come home or 930 if we are teaching

1030 bed

so yeah, we don't leave the apartment until a little after 11 since we have the whole language study thing, which is why if you send a package to the apartment instead of the home, we might possible get it if it is delivered in the morning. the NS card is what we use on public transit. Here, you have this thing called an OV-chipkaart. You tap on and off at your stations and it deducts the money from it. Whoever said public transit is cheap is a liar :) Anyway since we have business cards now, the church gets a bill at the end of the month instead of the missionary paying for it everytime we have to go somewhere and then sending in reimbursement forms. But since it's expensive, if we can bike or walk to it within half an hour we are asked to do so, and we never use the trains unless we have to go to another city for like district meeting or splits or such. We do splits every other week. So that means it's going to be this weekend. I did get to see a little of Den Haag, but we will have to come back when my Netherlands ID comes in, because you have to pick it up in person there.

We did teach our investigators last week, and it was really nice. It was a good meal. Actually, we were fed curry 4 times last week. Oh my goodness, I can't do that again this week. Anyway our investigator said we were the first people she's invited to her house in over a year, and the person they've shared a meal with in over a year and a half, because they only want good people in their home, and she could see that we were good people. It was really sweet, and it was sad at the same time. Anyway, she invited us to go to Hindu church, and we get to go since it's not on a Sudnay, and that''s in a couple weeks, so that will be fun!

 Also, yes, I would like some things to read, like Ensigns and such because our apartment is new, so we only have the one liahona from this month. the past couple conference issues would be nice. hmmm so I think that is probably all for this week. Love you.

Karoline

Week # 3.....Food, tracting Aaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllll day and getting lost in a forest.

This week, oh my. I swear it was a month and not a week.  I finally got my NS business card in the mail, so I don't pay for the trains and transportation anymore. Btw whoever said public transport in europe is cheap is a big fat liar. Because it's super expensive. I have been paying for it but that's okay, not anymore.

Monday we taught the Surinam lady and her husband. It was pretty interesting, and she invited us to come back. So we are going tomorrow, and she is going to make us spicy curry. It was also in English, btw. We spend all day tracting and finding. Aaaalllllllllllllllllll day. So pretty much the days are forever long. Sometimes it's street  contacting, and that's what I prefer, but a lot of times it's door to door, because people aren't out, which honestly I feel like is a waste of time, because you aren't giving someone the opportunity to hear the gospel, you're just giving them the opportunity to tell you no, and shut the door. Which is what it always is. And that's hard. It pretty much sucks actually, but whatever. We have done service once, for an inactive lady. It was cleaning out her attic. It pretty much took all day, and it was on the one day that it was actually hot and super humid here. So that was about as  much fun as it sounds :) yeah that senior missionary couple is in the ward. So there are 6 missionaries serving this tiny little branch of about 45. maybe even less. I don't know, i can count on sunday. This week we had exchanges so I had to stay in Lelystad and work with the Sister Training Leader. Lelystad is a big maze, and I don't like to be the one who has to navigate. It's also pretty foresty, so long story short, we somehow ended up in the middle of no where on a bike trail that runs from Haarlem to Groningen. That's like, the whole country. Luckily we noticed pretty quickly, still pretty talented to end up in the middle of nowhere in a forest. I am terrible with directions.

Today was a zone pday because they made us watch the missionary broadcast. So we had to come down to den Haag. It's an interesting city. We actually came down last night, and it took us 3 hours because the train tracks were getting worked on and we had to get a shuttle bus between stations. Such a pain. We also may or may not have gotten to the Den Haag Sister's apartment until after 1030, but the District leader person knew, and wasn't too concerned, so that's okay. Not really something I want to do again though.

For my birthday we went to Einkhuisen, which is adorable. It's a classic Dutch city. And it's actually technically part of the Lelystad area, so we are supposed to be proselyting there but no one told us that. We also have to go down to Amsterdam and take a train up there because there's not a direct train from Lelystad station. But since the Senior couples have cars they just drove us up there. Which is a prety drive because it's in the ocean. They bought us luch at a Turkish place. They have a lot of those here. We had Turkish pizza. So I've tried Doners and Turkish pizza now, and I don't like either.  We were also in Einkhuisen on the perfect day because there was a circus in town. They were selling scarves for one euro, so I got a couple.

This week we don''t have any dinner appointments except for the Surinam lady because everyone is feeding the elders. Basically, everyone thinks everyone else is feeding the Sisters so they all offer to feed the elders, when in reality, we make our own dinners every night :) We did eat with a member last night, which was delicious, but the elders were there too.

Anyway,  yes we do have a microwave, and if you do send a package sometime yes, on microwave popcorn, and boxed macaroni, and somehow if you could send rootbeer too that would be cool, but that is super heavy. Also just remember it has to be under$40 or I have to pay for it. But that would be a super expensive package anyway. Oh, and starbursts and little delicious things like that. Anyway that's about all I can think of. I want to send pictures, but there's no place that we've been that does that. Also, I think next week I will be emailing on a different day, because our library in Lelystad is closed on monday, and so we've been having to go to Almere, and so the president said we can email on a different day so that the church doesn't have to pay for us to email in a different city, and then we don't waste another hour on traveling. Have a good week. Love you.

Karoline

Oh, dutch laws changed, so we all have to do legality again, and my appointment is on July 4. So to celebrate our country's birthday I will be getting legal in a different one :)