Answers to Questions, Christmas in July, More Investigators.

Hey,

So we had a pretty good week, it rained a lot, which we were really grateful for because it meant that it wasn't as hot. Thank goodness. We didn't celebrate pioneer day, but we did celebrate Christmas in July. We even set up all the decorations the apartment had and cut out paper snowflakes and everything. It was pretty enjoyable. You have to do something to make July not the worst month of the year. 

We had a couple of really cool appointments this week, although no one at church, because everyone is still on vacation, but that's okay. Last night we had an appointment and brought a joint teach, and it turns out that the investigator totally knows the joint teach's family, so that was cool. They bonded instantly and had a great time together, so that was fun. 

Yesterday we were out tracting, and this random old Muslim guy let us in to teach him about the Book of Mormon. Then he insisted that we eat dinner with him and we're like uh... no, thank you  But he still made us eat a lot of random things. And we're like no really, it's okay, then he made us schedule an appointment to come back to meet his son, haha. The things that happen as a missionary. but whatever, if the Muslims are the only ones who let us in and are willing to be taught, I'm okay with that. Actually, weirdly, the majority of people we are teaching right now are  Muslim. Although we are also teaching two Dutch people, which makes the branch happy, so yay.

On Wednesday we had zone training, and I had my exchange in Leeuwarden. nothing too exciting happened. Zone training was long and hot, but I did get my package, so thank you. 

1. I printed off all those questions you asked last week, so I could answer them this week. For service, every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday we go walking with Bernadette, and buy groceries with her. She got your card btws, so thanks for that. Also, last week I made an apple pie for her, and you know I don't even like pie, but it was delicious, I think I should have been a pie maker.
2. The hardest time of my mission was definitely my second transfer in Lelystad. mainly because it was the beginning and we were opening and there was no one to teach and it was hot and awful. Plus, psychologically, you re still trying to figure out how everything works and you're still trying to beat the mind game that a mission is. So yeah. 
3. What I love about the people in the Netherlands is that they are really hospitable. Even if they don't love their country, they want you to love it and experience everything in it. With Belgians, I like that they are more closed off, because once you crack them open, you're their best friend, it's great.
4. Sister Woodbury and I do get along. In fact, she wants me to live with her after the mission. I might, because she lives a lot closer to Provo, and I'll probably be looking for a job there, since that's the mecca of psychology jobs. We actually don't have much in common. Except that we both love scary movies, and we both have the same attitude and philosophies about missionary work, which makes it really easy. Oh, and we're the same age, and we're both really ambitious. So it's fun.
5. The people in the district are Elders Cook, England, Bean, and Ames. no, there is not anyone from the MTC district.
6. Our apartment has two bedrooms, a living room, shower room, WC, study room, and kitchen. It's fairly large, at least a lot larger and nice than Antwerpen. It also has a really nice balcony, so I spend a lot of time out there at night, since it's so much cooler than the hot stuffy apartment.
7. For my last 12 weeks, I'm working on courage, and savoring the moment. courage for this coming transfer, and savoring for my last one. Mainly because  I think I need to look towards the future with more hope and courage, believing that things will work out and that they'll be taken care of. And savoring because it's easy to just want the last couple weeks to be done, but I really want to enjoy them. I would still like to serve in Mastricht, but I don't think I will.  But, transfers are next week, so we will see what happens.

I think that's all for this week. I love you and I miss you.

Love, Karoline

Another Great week, Another Heat Wave, A Progressing Invesetigator

We had a good week. We finally got an investigator progressing! he's been taught since the sisters first came to Assen about a year ago, and he's never even prayed before. I can't believe he was never dropped. Anyway, we got him to pray this week, and it was awesome. Then afterwards, all of a sudden he invited us to his family bbq. so we went on Friday and met his family, and it was super cool, because all his kids are grown up with their own family, but he wants us to teach one of his daughters who is interested in all things religious. Plus, we got on his "wife"'s good side, which is great, because previously she was very against the missionaries, but now we're apparently great friends, so that's pretty cool.

Yesterday, we only had one hour of church because it was so hot. They decided that making the members sit for 3 hours in a building that was 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 Fahrenheit) for three hours was just going to be torture so they  just had sacrament meeting and then let us go. It was great. We also had an investigator come to church, on her own free will, our appointment with her fell through this week, but she decided to come to church anyway. And her daughter loved it. she's 8, and she sat perfectly for the entire meeting and actually listened. it was cool. And then yesterday evening the best thing happened. It rained, and hard. It was such a relief from the awful heat. Nederlanders don't know what to do with themselves when it gets into the 90s. they have no place to turn to where it's actually cool, so the rain was much needed. We just sat and enjoyed it. It was so nice. 

We found a guy from Africa this week, french speaking, but his dutch is fairly decent, so we just speak french with key words, when he doesn't know what it is in dutch or if he doesn't understand then I'll quickly explain in french. Anyway, there's not many Africans in Assen, so that's fun. But, we were ringing bells, and he just buzzed us up and then let us right in without even asking who we were. Then he let us come back the next day, and he was finally like, so how do you guys know me? And we're like what do you mean? We were ringing the bells in your apartment and you let us in. Apparently he thought we had met before and just forgot about our appointment haha. 

Random story of the week: a couple weeks ago we saw a wild hedgehog and were watching it when all of a sudden a guy with a bucket and gloves comes and scoops it up, totally ignoring us, and walks away. weird but whatever. then this week we hear someone yelling at us "Dames! Dames!" (ladies) and we're like what? and then we realize it's the hedgehog guy who proceeds to give us a full account of what happened to the hedgehog and that it's doing better and that it's with an animal care place and we're like um... okay. it's was the weirdest thing. we were trying not to laugh while he was talking to us.

We did know about the plane thing. An investigator told us all about it. there's not really anything different, but you can tell everyone  is just really uneasy because no one wants world war three to start. 

Okay, I have to go. I love you, miss you.

Love, Karoline

Summertime in Europe

Nothing too exciting really happened this week. Just a lot of sweating and pulling sticky clothes off your skin. :) My favorite are the sauna days, where it's like threatening to rain all day, so it's really humid, but it's warm, so you feel like youre sitting in a sauna. It's a nice feeling. 

We had an investigator at church yesterday, and also a family visiting from Hungary. Anyway, it was such a contrast from the experience we had last week. We were a little disappointed with the members this week. They didn't really talk to our investigator, and she needed help while she was leaving to take her stroller down the steps, and the members didn't even volunteer to help, they just stood at watched her. They were all too busy talking to the family from Hungary, which is nice, but they're members, and they just totally ignored our investigator. Ugh. It's okay, she said she'll be back next week. Also, I translated for the family from Hungary, and it was the weirdest thing. I would translate to the dad and the older kids in English, and then he would translate for his wife into Hungarian. They were nice people. One of the members gave a super strange talk. She just stood there for a few minutes, and then went really weird... maybe she was just nervous. But it made her talk a little hard to translate haha. Anyway, the investigator we had a church is the one we've been teaching a while who we always have super awesome lessons with, and she's looking for a better relationship with God and everything. She asked us to teach her word of wisdom this week, because in a talk another member mentioned how we don't drink coffee and she was like wait what? So that should be fun. 

Other than that, it was just the normal stuff. We taught some lessons, not as many as last week, but still.We didn't find anyone, but we still had a good week. 

There was no partying or celebrating with the world cup this week, because they lost. 

oh, yesterday we watched the Restoration DVD during a lesson with one of our investigators, and it was pretty cool. Like I usually think that the DVD is kind of meh and don't really like using it, but we used it yesterday, and the guy was just so engrossed. and the spirit was super strong. Like even I had a moment when I'm like what the heck is this feeling, and then I'm like oh wait, I'm the missionary I know what this is. But the guy, he's actually Muslim, and at the end of the lesson he's just like well, I can't say that this isn't true. But I'm going to have to make sure I find it out for myself. And we're like cool, you do that. Considering that's what we tell people to do. But it was a cool lesson. And a nice way to end the week. 

Assen has felt like a ghost town this week. It's kind of creepy actually. Everyone is on vacation. And everyone goes at the same time. Like businesses are even closed, and no one answers the door and we just knock doors for hours with like 3 people answering. It's so weird. I also don't know how Dutch people can afford to go on vacations for weeks at a time, but whatever.

That's about all for this week. Love you and miss you.

Love, Karoline

Awesome week with a lot of lessons! Awesome friendshipping in the Little Branch and.....pictures!

So, Sister Woodbury and I had an awesome week. We taught more lessons this past week than we did the entire last transfer.  It was great. We also found three new investigators, so that is a lot of fun. We found two of them ringing bells, and the other one, we have seen in this shopping center type thing a lot. The other day we were sitting on a bench with a member and he comes up and asks if we are the sisters from Utah. So I said yes. Turns out he was a former investigator from like 6 years ago, and still had some questions about the church. So we invited ourselves over, because that's what we do. Anyway, we met with him the other day, and he's just awesome. I really like the investigators who question what you say and really think about things. It means that they're actually investigating, not listening. Plus, this guy has an observant personality, and he's been watching us for a while, not in a creepy way, but like, in a curious "who are these people" way. Anyway, we're excited for our next lesson with him. 

Our investigator who speaks Arabic was in church yesterday, and we are super proud of our little branch and the way that they took him in. Like, everyone was super nice to him and whipped out their iPads to speak to him using google translate. It was really really cool. I've never seen a ward or branch take someone in like they did to him.Also, he had a great experience at church. I don't know how someone who doesn't speak a word of Dutch and is sitting in a stiffling hot building for 3 hours with complete strangers can have a great time, but hey. Good for him. :) We also taught him again this week and he really really wants to be baptized. the problem is that he's from Iraq, and there's still the chance that he could at some time be deported back, and in that case, we arent allowed to baptize him because he will be killed for converting to Christianity, so that's rough, but we are doing all that we can. 

We had another great lesson with the lady that we taught last week. We taught a lot about prayer. It's cool, because she trusts us.  who would trust these weirdo 22 year old girls wearing skirts? I don't know. But she like asks us about personal life problems, and then wants to know how the gospel can help her life and help her with the problem. Yay people seeing the personal application of the gospel. it was great. 

Sister Woodbury and I have been trying something new recently. Basically, I was tired of writing finding or contacting in my planner, so this week, I'm like forget this. And so we started to write teach a lesson, in place of finding or contacting, because at the end of the day, that's what you want to do. It's had great results. We are going out in the morning fully expecting to not just find someone, but actually give them a lesson.

There was one day this week and we only had 15 minutes, but we hadn't taught the lesson we wanted yet, and we're like, well, we can do it. So we kept ringing bells, and someone let us up, and we taught him about the Book of Mormon, and he invited us back. We taught him again last night. He's originally from Sierra Leonne.or however you spell that. And he's Muslim. But not like real muslim. Anyway, we were teaching him last night and he's like well sisters, I'm going to keep reading this book. I have the feeling it's pretty important. It is a good book. Hope that's okay with you guys. And we're just sitting there like uh, yes, please keep reading it.

Our investigator who speaks that weird Asian language can only meet every other week, so we will teach her again this week. Should be fun.

No, you do not have to send insurance info or money or anything like that for the hospital visit. It was covered by the missionary insurance thing, all I had to pay for was my antibiotics, and I get reimbursed for that through the mission office, so you don't have to worry about anything like that. And my leg is doing soooo much better. I wish I had taken pictures, but my skin was too white to get anything good besides my (end of sentence, no idea what she was going to say.)

No, I don't think that I will finish my mission in this city. I think this might  be my last transfer here. Or maybe I will do one more. But I don't think that I will do two more. Can you believe that I only have 2 transfers left?

So I forgot to bring my planner, so I can't remember what else I was going to say, but yeah. We had a great week. Today we are with members and we went on this nature walk thing where there was sand everywhere, like a desert. i've never seen anything like it, it was nice. It's not as hot today which is good, because it was super humid and sticky this week. But it was only hot like 2 days out of the week. Yesterday being one of them. I just don't understand how there's no air conditioning in this country but okay. 

Zuster Woodbury and Zuster Western on today's nature walk

Zr. Western and Bernadette

Zr. Western and her previous companion Zr. Packer

Zr. Western in Dordrecht several weeks ago.  (This was a work over combined with a Zone Conference in Rotterdam. Interesting fact, we have found a family line, many generations back, who came from Dordrecht!)

4th of July--Zr. Woodbury got a  package which had jello!

Anyway, so I think that is all for this week. Love you, miss you!

Love, Karoline 

Best Lesson Ever! Best Pday Ever! and a trip to the ER.

Hey,

so our week was good. Transfers were crazy, like always. NS (the Netherlands Railroad system) should consider themselves lucky that I'm a missionary and have no access to their costumer service line, not that they believe in customer service here, but whatever. NS has it out for missionaries. Anyway, Sister Packer and I had all her luggage and her bike, and you have to get into a special car when you have a bike and luggage stuff right, and it was a super long train that pulled up and there was only  of these cars, and you have like 30 seconds to get on the train before it leaves, so we take off running with all the stuff towards to train car, and the conductor lady is just staring at us, and then she looks at our name badges, blows the whistle, and  closes the door right on us! We were at the door! So rude. That's never happened before, but we were super upset because we had just waited over an hour for that train and were already running late for transfers, but whatever. The conductor on the train after that was a lot nicer.

I picked up Sister Woodbury and we actually got back at Assen at a normal time. When I transferred up here, I didnt get here until 8, but she got here at like 4, so that was nice. Sister Woodbury is from Lindon, Utah, she's 22 and studies something crazy smart at BYU. I can't rememeber what though.

They haven't started closing all those sister cities that opened last year, and I believe they will be getting new sisters the transfer I leave. 

For my birthday, we had dinner at a member who has us over every Tuesday. I don't know if anyone knew it was my birthday, but I don't really think they cared, either. I haven't been in this city very long, and I don't really have an emotional connection with anyone, except for the less active member, Bernadette that we work with all the time, so that's okay. They're nice people, though.

The Kermis was super fun. I miss rides, it was easily the best p-day i've had on my mission. Also, I would say it was definitely worth the price for each ride, because they keep you on the ride a long time, it was fun. 

No, we don't go tracting on the boats. One day they're there, the next they aren't, and it's not like there's really a way to go ring their door bell or anything. They look fun though, it would be cool to teach someone who lived on a boat. Our next zone conference is at the end of July. 

So on Tuesday, Sister Packer and I taught what was easily the best most spiritual lesson of my mission. It was sooo cool. It was with the member referral that we finally got into contact with last week. She's a young mom with  2 kids, and all she wants is to find out what God wants with her life. During the lesson she just kept asking like really amazing questions and she took notes and everything. There was a point in the lesson where she was talking about faith and how sometimes she just needs a sign, like everyone else. And so we're sitting there talking about faith when all of a sudden she stops us and tells us to look around. And we're like uh? Okay? And then we notice that the room is exceedingly bright. And mind you, this is at 9 p.m. and it's been raining all day. Then she proceeds to tell us about how she's never seen light so bright and that the sun was directly behind our heads and that it seemed like it was noon. It was cool. And then we move on and we ask her to end the lesson with prayer, because that was a big focus for her during the lesson and she was really hesitant, but then she began to pray, and it was just like the most amazing thing ever. She just opened her heart and said the most sincere prayer I have ever heard. And then she started to cry, and I have never cried during a lesson  before, but I definitely shed a few tears during that one. Then after, she was just like, I want what you girls have. I want to know all about your church so we have an appointment with her again tomorrow. She's just so cool. It was definitely a reminder to me that God has prepared people and that what we are doing as missionaries is making a difference. 

On Thursday we also got a new investigator, but there is a huge language barrier, because she speaks some  Asian language. Anyway, Sister Woodbury had the genius idea of using the gospel art book she has to teach the lesson. And it actually worked. Like, we tried just teaching very basically, and reading from the Book of Mormon she has in her language, but the second we started using pictures, it was like a whole different person was sitting in front of us. You could see the understanding click on her face. It was super cool. 

Friday we talked with this guy on the street who thought that he was a creation of Satan instead of God. He also thought he was super human and was never going to die. Really weird, strange, and a little creepy. But even those people are still children of God, and we made sure he knew that by the end. 

Okay, just so you know, yesterday I had to go to the ER. Don't worry, it wasn't anything major, and I'm totally fine now. A few days ago I got a freaky bug bite and assumed it was going to heal. Well, yesterday I woke up, and my whole calve was inflammed, hot to the touch, and swollen, so yeah, totally infected with something. I called sister Robinson, and she told me to go to the ER, so we did. I got some antibiotics, and it's much better now. So, no worries. Thank goodness I'm not serving in Africa. :) Still hate Dutch doctors, but at least I serve in a place where I have access to medicine. Also, the doctor didn't speak english. Really? Everyone in this country except the doctors speak English. So annoying. Thank goodness I'm at the end of my mission and can actually speak with him. haha. But seriously, I'm fine now, so don't worry. 

Okay, I think that's all for this week. Love you , miss you. Hope everything is well.

Love, Karoline