Go Seahawks!

I will start off this way... GO SEAHAWKS! SO SICK! Well, I hope you all had a great week. I woke up to a text from one of the sisters in my district at 6:30, telling me that she got a text saying the Seahawks railed the Broncos. I was so pumped! I'm so glad that Chad, Darren, Grandpa, and the Millers can't rub it into me now that the Broncos won ;) I'll stick witht the favorite team of Andrew and Preston... :) So pumped! Well, this has been a good week. We had more lessons, and had some fun! Testimony is growing, and seeing a lot of cool things in the amazing counrty. I think I told ya'll what I did last week for PDay, so I will start off with Tuesday this time!

Tuesday - Exchanges with District Leader Kemp. Pretty fun! Went to Zaandam and worked there for the day! We had district meeting in the morning, then did contacting until about 5. At 5, we went to an inactives house and just talked to him and invited him to church. We had a lesson with Eric that night and I was sooo pumped! We were going to teach the plan of salvation, which is my favorite to teach, but he had to cancel! WOWWWW. Just like last weeekkk. haha. Oh well. We just did more contacting and had fun. Good day. Elder Kemp is very interesting!

Wednesday - Went on Exchanges with Zone Leader Bishop in Alkmaar. I love him so freaking much. He is literally making me almost want to go down to SUU for school cause that's where he lives and is going. He is so tight and I'm so glad that we've gotten to be great friends! He will be here for another year too so that will be awesome! We had a great day. We went to a members house in his ward and ate and helped her move stuff from her attic to the front yard to get taken off by the city. She is 80 and her husband is 86. They are from Indonesia, well born there, but have lived here for like 65 years, so yeah. They are pretty dutch! Her husband has Alzeimers, or however you spell that. It was a lot of fun talking to him. He told us over and over how he was a sailor and sailed and lived in Australia. Over, and over, and over. It took everything I had not to laugh, but they were good laughs. I love that guy! We ate amazing food, then helped her move the stuff. She gave us two rugs, Elder Bishop got cool church shoes from her, then she said "do either of you wear size 42?" I said yes, then she brought down the steeziest shoes I've ever seen. She gave them to me and told me they are French and she paid 300 euros for them. That is like 470 american dollars! So tight! I was so pumped hahah. Great night, then we looked up inactives in his ward. It was unreal cold today, but it was nice to have the ZL's car!

Thursday - Cold day again! Exchanged back with Yocom. Wasn't with him for two days and I thought I was going to have a heartattack! ;) We had a lessons planned with Danny, but that didn't go through cause he didn't have anymore time. We rescheduled it to Saturday. We found, then went to dinner with the AP's to a members. Very fun dinner! Then did investigator look ups after dinner! Fun day!

Friday - Studied, then  went to Luma and Ana's. They are so fun to visit! They kept showing us places they wanted to visit. I want to go to Brazil! They showed me so many cool pictures of Brazil and they love Curitiba where my parents served! I want to go there! Luma and Ana are doing great. Ana is getting surgery for her cancer on the 6th. Hopefully that goes well! She is such an amazing woman and does so much for us. After this, we went home, ate lunch, then weekly planned. Good weekly planning session. Then went to Gerphals and Annickas. Gerphal moved from Germany to Annickas this day. We had to help him move in! He is the crazy video game fat guy. So funny. Love him so much. He brought us a bunch of German Chocolate. So good! Great day, we got home late cause he asked for a lot of help, but it was fun being with him!

Saturday - Studied, then we were supposed to meet with Brian, a referral from Indiana, but he canceled at the last minute. We have an appt. with him this week, so that will be great. We went to Dannys to teach him the second lesson. He picked us up at the Amsterdam Centraal and we went to his beautiful house in his great little dutch neighborhood. So cool! He had his kids this week and we had a lot of fun with them. Perfect time to teach about families being together forever! Such cute kids! This was a great lesson. Danny is a serious invesetigator who poses great questions. The spirit was unreal strong. I have made it a goal to find and teach better with the spirit, and wow, it is paying off. I honestly don't do anything, but in our lesson, Elder Yocom and I were in great unity with the spirit. Elder Yocom is a great teacher and an amazing missionary! We had a great lesson and have another appointment with him next week. He also told us that he plans on moving to Bountiful with his girlfriend within the year! SO FREAKING SICK. CAN'T BELIEVE IT! After Danny, we went to William. He is an inactive member and we asked him if we could come over and eat. He is black with steeze dreadlocks and is like jamaican. Well, he is from Aruba so that explains it! But, in the appointment, we asked him if he can rap. I started beatboxing and he rapped so hard! Found out he loves the NBA and he knows so much about it. We talked a lot about that and he is so funny. The sisters were there too. Such a fun night! Then we went home and did our nightly routine there!

Sunday - Fast Sunday. Great day! Church was amazing, and of course, the spirit is always strong. Danny didn't come to church cause he was throwing a party for his sons birthday. That is ok! We need to do better at getting other investigators to church though. We have good plans set up to do this! We had a good day. After church, we went with a man in our ward to the hospital to give a blessing to his friends dad. His friends dad fell the other day and broke his neck in two places and is paralized. I literally was in tears after the blessing. Life is so fragile, and it is unreal to see how fast it can change. The blessing was amazing, and the man's spirit is so strong. This man isn't LDS, and neither is his family, but they felt the spirit as well. The man cannot talk either and it was so sad to see him try. I smiled at him as we left, and he smiled back. Literally heart breaking! I'm so grateful for the experience though. It helped me realize some things about a mission and what I'm supposed to do here. I love it. This was a good week. My testimony is growing, and getting stronger and stronger by the day. Missions are hard, but worth it. I loved life in Utah. I had a great life and had a lot of fun, but this is better. I didn't think it could get better, but it did. I'm so grateful for it. I'm grateful to serve with Elder Yocom. We only have 2 more weeks together, but we will make them count. I've learned a lot from him. He is a great missionary. I want you all to know that I have a burning testimony of this church, and of missionary work. This is a real thing out here. Miracles happen every single day. I don't believe in coincidence. Why? Because this many coincidences don't happen. I love you all so much. Miss you guys like crazy, but this is going freaking fast! I hope that you all have a great week. Love you all!

Elder Elkins