Elder Austin Elkins

Hello again everyone! I hope you all had a great week! This was a very interesting one here in the Netherlands! It has been so warm, actually, very abnormally warm. They were saying that this winter was supposed to be the coldest and snowiest in forever, but actually, we broke heat records last week! It got to 60 degrees on the 4th (I think I told you all that) and that was insane! Felt so good. It is starting to get colder and colder every day though. Today was probably in the 40's. Not bad still! We had a very interesting week. Numbers wise, it was very, very average, but productive wise, it was very productive! We worked a lot with the members this week to get them fired up to reach the Ward Amsterdam goal of new members and to help with missionary work. We had a lot of appointments fall through with investigators though so that is always a bummer. I'll give you my week now!

Monday - We went to Ajax Stadium for P-Day! So freaking cool. I remember railing all my friends and Chad, Todd, Darren, everyone in FIFA in that stadium ;) We then did some shopping, found great stuff, but of course I didn't buy it. Very hard for me to make up my mind with all this great clothes and sales. At night, we went and looked up some former investigators and did some contacting. Very good day. 

Tuesday - We had District Meeting in the morning. Great district meeting and I learned a lot. We have a lot of fun because two districts meet in the Amsterdam Ward Building. You get 20+ missionaries in one building, it's a riot. So fun! There are a lot of fun missionaries here in this mission. It is so great. We then went and looked up Revalino to get an appointment with him, he wasnt home though. We weren't able to meet with him either this week because he was too busy with work he said. Bummer. We then went to go look up a Referral, but they weren't home either, but we knocked a door across the street and here comes this guy with long hair and looks like a bum to the door. He saw who we were, then asked a little about our church, then instantly could tell we were Americans so of course he wanted to talk politics. I don't know anything about politics and quite frankly, I don't care. This guy invited us in to talk to us and right off the bat he asks who we would've voted for in the last elections. We didn't say anything because we weren't there to talk about that. Then he remembered that Mitt Romney is mormon and railed on Mitt so hard. I couldn't believe it. He lived in California for a while and just said some of the weirdest things. Very interesting appointment. We eventually brought it around to the religion and tried to comfort him because he's having a hard time. It ended up being good, but we won't return haha. We then had a great dinner with Familie De Nijs. They make the lekkerste food. Then our appointment with Eric after fell through as well. 

Wednesday - TRANSFER DAYS. But we both stayed here so NORMAL DAY! Had our studies, then we went to Denny's. He is an inactive who we work with. It takes 40 minutes on the bus to get to his house. He, of course, wasn't home. We then did some finding for a bit, then went home to change to normal clothes so we could go to Gerphals and Anickas. The weird video game german guy. He is so sick though honestly haha. We helped him sand his walls to paint and then ate dinner with them. He is really a great cook. So good. Then we traveled home cause it was real late by the time we were done. Today, as a mission, we also started our 90 day feast. This is a whole mission wide thing and we are all reading the Book of Mormon as a mission in 90 days. It is all about Christlike Attributes too so we have questions to answer in our journal and it is going to be great. 

Thursday - Studied, then we went to Luma and Annas house. Anna has breast cancer. I cannot remember if I told you all this yet. She wanted us to come over and just comfort her and have a great time. She is so positive about it and so amazing. Luma is great too! She is reading in the BoM and asking a lot of questions. Such a strong member already! We told Anna about hunting in American and she freaked. She honestly didn't know that it was a huge sport. So funny. She railed us about it too. We did a lot of finding and look ups after, then went to familie Zoneveld for dinner. Great day, then had a lesson with Aspacia. She is from Curacou and Surinam. We taught her about the BoM cause we didn't have a lot of time. She loves Jay-Z so much and also other rap so of course we had a great time there. We have another appointment with her this week! 

Friday - Studies, Look ups, then we had a lesson with Marcel. We taught him the word of wisdom cause he smokes one after the other. We had Daniel come with us and this was great. We finally got Marcel to decide to think about baptism and he said he wants to quit smoking if we can help him. WHAT A MIRACLE! We have an appointment with him on Friday to make a Quit Smoking Plan. This will be so great. I'm so pumped! Then we had to go back home to do Weekly/Transfer planning. This always takes a while, but we made some killer plans and have great goals. I'm excited!

Saturday- Studies, then went and did a look up, We then had to find service to do for someone who we don't know. We were challenged by our District Leader to do so. We couldn't find anyone, because everyone doesn't want help or something haha. Then we went to Daniels to make homemade pizza and make him a missionary plan.

Sunday- Great day. I love church! We had a typicall sunday of finding and look ups. Felt the spirit strong and had a good day. 

This past week was a good one, minus all the fall throughs. I am so grateful for everything I have experienced on my mission to this point. I love it so much and I honestly don't think other missions live up to this standard ;) This next week will be incredible and I have a lot of personal goals and things that I will change about me, to help the people of this mission better. I just need to be the best me, then the Lord can use me at my full potential! I'm so grateful for you all, and I look forward to getting your letters and emails this week! Love you all so much. Have a great week.

Elder Elkins