More Investigators, Sheep and Another Near Miss on Her Bike.

This picture is a picture of me and Sister Rosenlof, and to answer your question, she is from California, Ridgecrest. Speaking of companions, no, neither of us got transferred, and this week for district meeting, we had a newly wed game type thing, companion style, and we killed it. I mean no one else was even close to touching us. So yay. No, we never made it back to that little town, we did a lot more traveling this week out to more of the seaside towns. 

At one little town, there were a bunch of sheep on the walking path right along the ocean, and theres benches to sit on a long the way, and sister rosenlof and I looked over, and there was this one sheep using the bench to scratch its butt. It was so funny because it was going on for about ten minutes and sister rosenlof and I are just laughing so hard. Sister Rosenlof got a video, but it's too large to attach, so I will be excited to share that one day. Ha makes me laugh just thinking about it. 

                                                                 John 10:16

Oh, the lady from Siberia. She may or may not have been kidnapped by the Russian Mafia, and escaped before being taken over the Belgian border. I know. This was about a year ago. Anyway, I'm excited to meet with her. 

We are not still getting those large groups of missionaries, I think those will return when the summer time comes around again. Yes, we have doubled the size of the mission.

Tomorrow is temple conference, so Sister Rosenlof and I have to travel down to Den Haag tonight. Yay another three hours on the train.... 

                                            (The temple in den Haag is located in a park.)

At church yesterday, we had a visitor from a different ward, and he came up and said that he assumes I'm american because I'm a missionary, but he wanted me to know that had I not been wearing a missionary tag he would have thought that I was dutch, and that I look very european. It was super nice. That has been happening a lot lately, it's nice to not always have people assume you're american when you open your mouth. We also had to teach the sunday school lesson yesterday... ugh.

Have I told you about the old lady that we go sing for whenever we are in that part of friesland? Anyway, it was her birthday the other day, so her family asked us to come sing to her, so we stayed there for 30 minutes just flipping through the hynm book and singing whatever she wanted. She just turned 87. And shes confined to a bed, but she's sweet. 

Sister Rosenlof has been really sick, and I'm not sure what to do. We can;t stay inside all the time, and I know she's trying, I jsut don't know what to do.Basically, she's nauseous all the time, it used to be just when she ate, but it's been getting worse and wose to the point where she's basically trying to not give up. It's really sad.

We got two new investigators this week.  One of them we promptly gave to the Elders because he creeped me out a little, and he was also a little... uh, off. He said he would accept out book of mormon because we wouldnt come into his house. And then wouldnt let us pray because he was sure it would invite the devil. Anyway, he was the one who flagged us down and wanted us to go talk to him... but sister rosenlof and I will not be the ones going back.

The other day it was raining really hard, and we were on our way home, and we pass the guy on our bikes and we may or may not have almost killed eachother because the passing space was super small but anway, then he yells out "Sisters!"so we stop, and it turns out it's this former investigator, who moved, but just moved back to leeuwarden and wants us to  come meet with him again, so thats cool. Then we were teaching our investigator from Vietnam, and she had a friend over, who    also wants to meet with us again. yay.

Yesterday we sister rosenlof and I show up to the church at 9 to open it, and theres this lady standing out in front, and we're like hello? Anyway it turns out that she met the elders last week, and they invited her to come to church, and so she showed up. Theyve never taught her, she was merely a contact.Anyway she really liked it and is planning on coming back, so that's nice. 

Yesterday night we made halloween cards for the elders. We made jackolaterns that look like them. I myself thought it was pretty crafty. 

Hmmmm something interesting happened this week. So I 've been dreaming in dutch for a long time, probably since the first transfer or so, but the other day, I had a dream in Dutch, French, Russian and English. Which means all that french I learned before my mission, and the little bit of Russian I picked up before coming are still in there somewhere. That was pretty exciting.

That's about all for this week, I can't think of much else.

Hope all is well. Miss you. Love you.

Karoline

"Farmy", Trying to learn Russian, Great Mission Experiences.

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

A Bike Accident, Mi Casa es Su Casa and General Conference.

I think this is one of my favorite emails from Karoline.  The first line says it wasn't eventful but as I read it, my heart was full of joy for the experiences she is having and the way the Spirit speaks to her and her companion as they do the work.  I am so happy she was able to watch conference!  My dad would definitely say something to me because she didn't know the full extent of Elder Gifford Nielson's history with BYU :)  And,  I'm so happy to know that Karoline was asked to sing. Her voice is beautiful and pure and that talent/gift can definitely be used in missionary work. 

So, Sister Rosenlof and I have had a not so eventful week. Bleh. But that's okay. Tracting all day is just a little boring, but something interesting about this city is that most people, when you talk to them on their door, they are not happy with just one of the pass along cards. Most people ask us if we have pamphlets, so now we get to carry around all the lesson pamphlets in Dutch and English. I think it's interesting, because no one ever wanted them in Lelystad. Also, Friesland, to a lot of people, I think gets a stigma kind of like the south in the US. Their like oh, Friesland, you poor thing. And I don't know, I think it's pretty here.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but we are the only young people who live in our building. As in the only people under 70. The other day we were coming in from our p-day stuff, and this lady was holding the door open so we just walked in. Then she asked us where we were from and what we were doing here, so we explained it all to her. Right as we are in our conversation with her, this old guy comes down one of the stairs, yelling at us is Dutch about how we are not welcome to come into the building without belling someone, and that we should leave and all these things. Then this old lady was like they're American, and hes like oh, you're not understanding me? Then he went on and on in English. And the whole time we have our own keys in our hands, and sister Rosenlof is at the mailbox trying to check the mail. So finally, I just reply to him in Dutch, I'm just like hey, I understand you, but we live here, and have been living here for almost five months. I wish I had a picture of his face, because he was just so shocked that there could be young people living there. It was funny. Then he told us that we were welcome anytime then, and we're like uh yeah thanks. Anyway, we are the total gossip of the building.

Oh yes, by the way, I was in a bike accident this week. No big deal, but I'm bruised and cut up, so that sucks, but I'm alive. Also, I will have to buy a new bag, because mine got ruined in the accident. Luckily, sister Rosenlof and I were on rented OV bikes because we were in one of the areas far away from Leeuwarden that we bus to, so my bike wasn't the one that was ruined. The accident wasn't with a car or anything either, just with sister rosenlof, because we were running late for our bus to go home and it was the last one that would get us home before 1030 at night, and anyway, people are crazy here, and bike like insane people, so I had the choice to either hit sister rosenlof, or hit a bus, so I chose her. :) Good times. Oh, we made the bus too. And I went into return the bike, and I'm like bleeding and such, and I'm trying to talk to the guy and ask him for some bandaids and he's just staring and me, and I'm like pointing to my hand that is all scraped up, and finally he understands. And puts a giant bandage all over my hand. Then sister Rosenlof and I went home and cleaned me up, and she insisted on using straight up alcohol wipes on my scrapes and cuts. I screamed like a baby. That hurt way worse than anything else. Then she asked me why I was laughing, and I had to explain that I laugh when I'm in pain. Anyway, all is good now. (This is true....she laughs, a true laugh, when she is in pain.  She tore ligaments/bad sprain in her ankle one year at track practice and the doctors at the ER would not believe she was hurt because of the laughter. I can't wait until she's having labor pains some day.  anyway....back to her.)

The other day, we were in Drochten, for a dinner appointment, but we ended up getting there early so we decided to go tracting while we waited for dinner. Of course, while we are out doing our thing, the members that we were supposed to be eating with see us, and they tell us to go look up these people. So we're like okay. The problem is, they gave us the wrong house number, and described them as "darker people". so we're like well, if a white person answers we've got the wrong house. So we go to the house they told us, but it's a white person. They specifically told us 166 so that's where we went. then we decided to just knock every 66 in the neighborhood. So we did 66, 166, 266, 366.  As we walk up to 266, sister Rosenlof goes to read the name plate things that everyone has by their doors. The problem was this was not a name plate. It was merely saying mi casa es su casa.  Sister Rosenlof reads it, looks to me, and says well, Micasa sounds like a black persons name, so this is probably it. I'm like uh no, that's not their name, it's saying my house is your house. And shes like oh.... Anyway, those are the right people but they weren't home. So we went back to the house for dinner, and the mom is talking to someone in the driveway as we walk up, and this is most natural way I have ever seen someone do missionary work. She turns to her friend and says hey, these are some sisters from my church and they have a beautiful message to share with people. would it be okay if they shared it with you? Shes like of course I would want to hear it. Boom, golden referral. So we are teaching her next week. See, missionary work doesn't have to be awkward unless you make it that way.

The other day we were at a less active appointment that we meet with every other week or so, and she insists that we always meet with the elders. I'm pretty positive that she has a crush on one of the elders. She sits as closely to him as possible and stares at him the whole time, and like pats his leg. It's hilarious. This is also the elder's first transfer, so he has no idea what shes saying. It's probably one of the regular appointments we have that I look forward to the most. It's always a good time. Although she is really hard to understand because she is Friesian so her Dutch is weird. But shes a sweet lady who is trying to go back to church.

We also had a really interesting meeting with one of the investigators that we have been thinking about dropping. Basically, I told sister Rosenlof that we really needed to go see this guy, but it's a pain because the bus hardly ever comes, and it's too far to bike. But we catch the bus right away and as we get off and are walking to his house, we run into the investigator walking around. And he felt like he was going to run into us that night. Interesting. And then we go back to talk to him, and hes like hey I'm sorry but I have no food, can we run to the store really quick? So we walk to the store with him, but it's closed. And we both turn to him, and we're like uh this is really weird, but we both felt like we needed to put food in our bags before we came to see you. So we gave him the food that we had brought because he had seriously nothing. Anyway we were talking to him, and he begged us to give him another chance, because he wants to do the right things in his life. While we were coming back, sister rosenlof and I were discussing it, and both feel like he is going to be baptized. I don't know if it will be us, but I know one day he will be totally ready for it, and I think that's really special.

We do not get $400 a month. We get 150 euros a month, and It's fine if you budget nicely. The $400 that we pay is used for everything like bills and insurance and such and such. Our mission is one of the most expensive that the church has and costs well over the $400 that we pay. In the MTC they told us to thank the people who get sent to the poor south American countries  because theirs is so cheap, and it makes missions like ours possible. So yeah.

By the way, I was asked to sing in church this Sunday with sister Rosenlof. I'm pretty sure they didn't know I could sing, so that was quite a  gamble on their part. Luckily for them, I'm not tone deaf. Oh yeah, and when we eat with that one family I was talking about earlier, they have us sing for their grandma. She is confined to a sick  bed and has got to be over 90. Shes like just bone and is blind and a little uh, not their. But shes sweet. 

We did watch conference, 3 of the 4 sessions, we will watch the Sunday afternoon session this coming Sunday in church I think. I really liked elder Hollands talk, and that one guy who was a quarter back once upon a time and he had a really animated voice. The one who the kid thought was president Hinckley on the phone. We have not gone to the temple yet, that is this month because we are having temple conference at the end of October, and then again in april. We usually have zone conference or training the second week of transfers, so it is either at the beginning of the month or at the middle. I don't know. there's no set date.

Anyway I think that's all for now.

Love you! Have a good week.

Karoline