Another Week! Holy cow. It goes so fast here! I can't believe it has already  been a week. Everyone said it starts going fast, and it already has! I guess the statement ' Time flies when you're having fun! ' really is a true statement. I'm so grateful to be here. The Netherlands is so gorgeous, and is so amazing. 

Enschede has been really fun for me and Elder Alston. It is a student city, and really modern, so its nice. The ward is incredible. The people in the ward are so fun and I feel like they could make a funny movie about it. They feed us so much and that is really nice. The kids here are so cute and typicall dutch kids haha. Our Church is really small, and has about 50 active members. We are really working with the members because thats the most important part of missionary work. The MEMBERS! Dat is jullie!!! jullie zouden de zendelingen moeten helpen! I'm so grateful for having a fun ward and how much they feed us. I will get fat, so expect the old Austin to return home in two years :) Chubbbbby. It's well worth it. Watch out girls ;) 

Our investigator Esther has been really fun. We have taught the first 3 lessons to her and she really loves it. We will continue to teach her this week. Her and her husband came to church yesterday. We plan on teaching her Prophets/Obedience and Word of Wisdom this week. She loves drinking coffee and tea so we will see how she takes it! Its the spirit that speaks so it will work out! She wants me and my companion over on Saturday so she can make us a ton of African food. They love making african food for missionaries here. I'm excited but nervous! I hope she continues to progress.

We have another investigator that me and a zone leader found on exchanges. Her name is Lillian and she is from Dominacan Republic. She only speaks spanish, so its been hard to talk to her. We are going to have a lesson with her this week with a lady in our ward who speaks Spanish. That will be really nice! I'm realizing that Dutch isnt that important... haha. Jk it is, but Esther speaks English, and Lillian is Spanish.. haha. It's going to be fun teaching them! 

We have been having a hard time doing real real missionary work. We always find ourselves having to do things that we didnt plan to do. Its great because we know that what were doing is what the Lord wants because we are being blessed for it. I'm really grateful for that. We have had some very amazing experiences, and I love it. I can't wait for more!

We went to a members house on Saturday. His name is Melvin. He is from SierreLeon Africa, and so is his wife. He came here 6 years ago, and almost died on his ship. He got baptized a year later and now is a member. His wife isnt a member so we will work on her. He is an incredible guy, and sooo musically talented. He reminds me of Alex Boye. His dream is to save money, move to Utah, and join the MoTab. He wants it so bad. He is so jealous that I live in Utah. If I'm successful when I'm older, I will fly him to Utah :) His wife fed us african food and it was amazing. Rice with meat. She is going to make more for us later. We watched his wedding video and it was so funny haha. 

Elder Alston and I have a great time. We have decided to focus on gaining a christlike attribute this transfer. We both felt inspired with Hope. It has helped us so much. We decided to make it a ward goal to study and have hope because they need it here. We have found a lot of joy in doing this. So much, that we have dance parties to church music. It's a great time. You are all really missing out. We move into our new apartment on Oct. 1 hopefully. It will be nice, but I love our mensen vier apartment. We have a lot of fun. I will send home pictures! 

I look forward to getting your emails this week. Thanks for everything you have all done. You guys are incredible. I feel so blessed to be here, and I know this is where I need to be! I challenge you all to have hope in all you do :) It's amazing what we are capable of doing as long as we hope, because hope is just faith and action combined. Thats really all it is. We surprise ourselves if we do this. So do it! Ik hoop dat jullie een goede week hebben! Ik hou van jullie, en ik heb jullie gemist! I'm excited to tell you about my next week! :)

Elder Elkins

 

     

Another week!

First full week in Nederland! I still can't believe that I am here. It is so different! At first, I felt like I never really left America, but everyday I am reminded of differences between here, and America. The language is usually the easiest reminder... haha. Dutch is very hard, but it will come! I can't let it be a stress, because I'm not here to learn this language. I just need to remember that :)

I have had a great experience being here. Me and my companion, Elder Alston, are opening a city called Enschede. Just over 5 km outside of Germany. We have been to Germany for service so that is really fun! Since we are opening, we had no investigators when we started. All we do is find, look up, and what we are really trying to do is gain a really good relationship with the members. Missionary work is impossible without members and I didn't realize that until I got out here. Help out the missionaries :) Anyway, we still dont have investigators really, because It has just been a crazy week. A lot has happened that has kept us from only working. We have had to do a lot of office work and traveling around. We train everywhere so that is really fun. We find quite a bit of success as we street contact. There are so many religions here it is insane. I think the biggest religion is Islam, then Muslim, Catholic, Baptist, Atheist. There are sooo many different people here too. People flow into Netherlands to live and work. I cant believe the different cultures here. It is amazing! Everyone is so different, and we get different reactions every time we talk about the church. It's definitely a hard mission, but I have learned so much already! 

A mission is so much different than what I thought it would be. It is better than I thought! I didn't realize the background part of it. Members play such a role in it, and the missionary unity is amazing. I love all the missionaries I have met so far. 

We still live in Hengelo, and train to Enschede everyday. On October 0st, we move into our own apartment in Enschede. That will be nice. Me and Elder Alston have had great experiences so far. I love people staring at me because of our clothes and our nametags. I looove it. Everyone knows we are American and thats funny too. They tell us how Europe is so much better and I just nod my head knowing that they have no idea. I love this place though. The food is good. They eat  a lot of Indonesian food and have this Turkish food called a Doner. It is literally heaven. It is a toasted flat breat with lamb meat in it and you can put lettuce, tomatoe, anything else in it, and this special sauce. So good. I hope I dont get too fat haha. Also, Vla is a dessert here. It is a more liquidy version of a pudding and it is so amazing and cheap. Stroopwaffels are the devil. They are too good. My comp buys so many of them in the apartment and all we eat them so fast. America would love them I guarantee it. Members feed us quite often. They are so nice here too. They all know I can't speak dutch, so they encourage me and all of the other greenies here. So funny :) Its fun to see all of the older missionaries who are really good at the language. One day, that will be me :) 

We have been praying for a miracle, a good experience lately. This week, we got a call from Elders in Den Haag, which is on the other side of the country below Amsterdam. It was a referral from them to us about a lady who really really wanted the church. We called her up and she was freaking out and way excited. We finally went to her house yesterday and taught the first lesson. Her name is Esther and she is from Nigeria and speak English, her husband is from here and speak Dutch. The lesson was amazing and she was really excited. We challenged her to be baptized on October 12th, and she accepted! Her husband is really accepting of it, so we will see what he does with it! She is really cool, and I look forward to getting to know her. God really blesses people. We did absolutely nothing except for work hard, and God gave us this opportunity to teach. He did all of the work. It is so amazing what He does for His children. Esther has family that live here too, and it was her brother who told her about the church and gave us the referral. The African culture is so amazing here. When I was saying the opening prayer, she was praising halleluja hahaha. Like I said, so many cultures. I look forward to other great experiences. The kids here are so cute. They all speak different lanugages and they are such stereotypical dutch kids with cute faces haha. I love it! The people here are really amazing.

I love this church, and I'm grateful to be a missionary. Especailly here. I'm so blessed to have been raised in this church with a great family. I realize that very easily by being out here. This is the true church, and God knows all of our situations. He is so amazing, and we are absolutely nothing without Him. 

I love you all, and look foward to hearing from you. Have a great week!

Elder Elkins

First week in the mission field!

Here's his first email in the Netherlands folks!

First week in the Netherlands! It is so crazy that I am on the other side of the world, with so many different people. My trainer is Elder Alston and he is from South Jordan. He has only been here for 6 months and served all of his past 6 months in Belgium speaking Flemmish. So we are both really learning Dutch. Dutch is crazy. It is so hard to open your mouth and speak it! We got called to Enschede which borders Germany. This is a student city so there are a lot of Chinese and African people. I have ran into people from like 8 different religions. It is amazing how many different people live here. We are opening this area so we dont have any investigators yet. We are contacting people a lot and trying to find investigators. The members here are really great. We have had a bunch of dinner appointments and have a few set for this week! On Saturday, we went to a members house in Germany to do service. This is such an amazing family and they have 4 kids under the age of 12. So cute to hear them speak and try to have conversations with them. I'm excited for more experiences these next 22 months. I can't wait to speak Dutch and just get good at it. I love you all, and will write letters when I can! 

Have a great week. 

Elder Elkins

Welcome to the Netherlands!

Austin finally made it to the Netherlands! Can you believe it? We can't. Time is flying. Sorta :/

Monday morning, Elder Elkins called from the airport and it was so good to hear from him. He is so happy! He was there with all his friends, and lucky him, got to sit with them on the airplane! While we were talking to him, he was telling us about a lady at the airport that was sweet enough to buy all the missionaries a Jamba Juice! He loves being a missionary.

He told us about his hair cut experience in the MTC because he misses his sister (me) cutting his hair. The guy was so grumpy and cut it so short that when he went to class after, he teacher stood and saluted him when he walked in. We all laughed way hard. They called him General Elkins because of his haircut. My husband of course laughed because he remembers that man cutting missionaries hair in the MTC.

The last night in the MTC, all the buddies got together and had a giant sleepover in Austins room and I'm sure that's something he will never forget, especially because he's out in the mission field now, probably far away from his buddies.

He is so happy and having so much fun and we are so excited to hear from him and follow him on his next journey!

(and I don't know if all of you know this, but my husbands aunt and uncle are the mission presidents)