This week Sister Rosenlof and I learned a little about our
endurance. We spent three hours trying to bike out to this little tiny village
called Westernijskerk or something like that. Anyway, it was starting to get
super dark, and so we decided to head back. I don't know how to describe this
experience besides, "farmy". There are sooooo many farms, and
basically sometimes bike paths will be through peoples fields, so you're biking
and hearing all these cows, or there's corn around you, and there's no lights
but the one on the front of your bike. It was very interesting, but we never
made it out to the place because we ran out of time, so we will try again
later. On our way home it also started to rain, so we were freezing when we
finally made it back to the apartment. But anyway, I guess it's good to know
that we can ride our bikes for so long now without getting sore. Also, I can't
remember if I wrote about this last week or not, but there was this guy I was
speaking too, who is an echt nederlander, and he thought I was Dutch. That's
pretty much the nicest compliment you can get if you can fool a native.
Especially because they are quick to point out your accent. Last week we
also bought these "American-style cookie mix", because we
wanted cookies, but you can't really find the things here to make them. Like
I've never seen baking soda, i have seen baking powder, but it's also
expensive. And shortening, for a tiny little tub, get this, is almost 8 euros.
Ridiculous. Anyway, these cookies, were clearly not real American cookies. They
turned out to be more like muffins. So whatever.
This week we also had our quarterly interviews with
President and Sister Robinson. President Robinson said he admired my work, and
wasn't worried about me, and told me I had the keys to success here, so I
suppose those things are compliments. :) They're cool people. They must have a
very difficult job.
We did a service project this week for some investigators
the Elders have, which they want to give to us because they are two ladys.
Anyway, we cleaned their house. It was..... interesting. We spent most of our
time cleaning their only bathroom. Fun! But they're very nice, the 15
yr.old son even invited us to his birthday party. We couldnt go though, because
we had something else.
We did a couple area book look ups this week, trying to get
some new people. One of them was in this really far away place by train, so
then from the station we had to walk to his house, and it was pouring rain, but
he let us in, so that was really nice. They're Africans, and speak swahili,
dutch, and french. When we went in there, the wife wouldn't shake our hands,
she had us shake her wrists. It was super weird/awkward. I've never had that
experience with Africans before, so maybe she was just a germaphobe. Anyway, we
taught this guy a lesson, but he is still stuck on the experience he had with
the last missionaries, and will absolutely not be baptized again ever, and will
not allow any of his family to do so either, even though his daughter is
interested. Anyway so we won't be going back, but it was nice to get out of the
rain.
On saturday, we got to spend the majority of the day at a
relief society activity. It was like this boutique thing. All the sisters brought
all the stuff they didnt want anymore, set it up in like a store fashion, and
then everyone swapped things. I got a couple little things, like an Aladdin
lamp that was hand carved in India. Haha. I don't know what I'm going to do
with it, but it's sitting on my desk acting as a book end. Anyway, free stuff
is always fun, and then we got random things for the apartment, mainly because
people kept shoving things at us, with the words "for the
apartment"and we're like uh... okay. I can't remember what else I got...
well, one person owns some kind of like cosmetic company/amazon rain forest
product seller thingy. I don't know. Anyway, they gave out a whole bunch of
stuff they collect, like hand made table clothes, bags , journals,
tea sets things like that. They're pretty interesting looking.
We were served an interesting dinner at our weekly
appointment on saturday too. It was a type of fish, that was definitely scaly
and had its fins, and all the bones in it still. But it tasted good, actually.
But the problem was that I had a migraine, so I didn't really want to eat or
really do anything, and I was feeling queasy already, but I ate the fish and
the dinner, and then it came to the lesson part, and I turn to sister Rosenlof
and let her know I'm going to throw up, so she does the quickest member lesson
ever, and gets us out of there. I was then sick the rest of the night. But it
wasn't the foods fault, but I will probably associate it with that fish anyway.
Actually, all the fish I've eaten/ been served here, has been really good.
There is an inactive lady in our branch, who is from Russia.
She was the first person to be baptized in Siberia. She's super awesome. Anyway
I was talking to her, and she's going to teach us Russian. She made the
appointment for us and everything. Actually, she said shes going to focus on
teaching us to read it, because she feels like thats the most important thing
in learning a language, and if I know how to read it then I can continue to
learn it once I'm somewhere else. She doesn't speak English I dont think, so it
will be learning Russian through Dutch, so that will be interesting. She's so
nice though. She's been through a lot, and only doesn't come often because she
lives super far away, and she has some other troubles at home and such. One day
I'll tell you more about her, because she has an incredible story. Also she let
us know that this mission is even much harder than Russia because at least the
people in Russia are Christians, while people here dont believe in anything.
So I thought that was interesting.
On Monday, we officially dropped the investigator that has
been here since this area opened. It was really sad, because he told us that
he's not at peace with his decision, but he feels like his heart is just not
leading him to the church. I mean what are you going to do? Tell them their
heart is wrong? So we're giving him time to chill, but he said he still going
to keep trying for a different answer. He's a really nice guy. All guys should
be like him, he's chivalrous to the max. Anyway it was really cool experience,
it's like one of those mission changing experiences I think. Like those ones
you look back on and you can remember the feeling of the spirit. Like There I
was, as he walked us to the bus stop and then waited with us, just testifying
under this little bus stop light in the middle of this old village. It was
cool.
Other than that, we just have our one progressing
investigator, the student from Vietnam who met the church there. She's reading
the book of Mormon every day, but she's not coming to church yet because she's
too busy with school stuff, so we're working on that. So we shall see. There
are a couple others who arent really progressing yet, but that doesn't mean
that they wont ever.
Also, I was wondering if I could get some recipes please,
like the one for sugar cookies, and chocolate chip cookies, and if you know
substitutes for shortening and such, or if I can just use butter? And recipes
for other things.... I dont know. Delicious things. :)
Other than that, there's not much else. I hope Arizona is
nice and warm, because it's freezing here :) Also, we were supposed to get
transfer calls last night, and neither sister Rosenlof or I got one, so as far
as we know we are both staying, but it's possible sister rosenlof can still get
one sometime today, because they arent finished. I think that's all. Love you.
have a good week.
Karoline
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