Elder Austin Elkins

Hello everyone! Well, this was a busy week with a lot of things happening! I love weeks like these, although, I also experienced the longest day of my mission haha... It is starting to get colder here, but that is ok! I didn't know that the winters here drag on this long, but they are the coldest in February, March, and April. That will be interesting! I'm ready though, hopefully it won't be too bad! Winter has been really good on us up to this point. Well, Thank you all for the letters and Christmas cards that keep coming ;) It really honestly helps us missionaries to get letters from home. Keep um coming :) I'll give you my week now!

Monday - PDAY! Phewww. Needed this one! We had a lot of fun things planned today. Elder Yocom and I set up a Zone PDay activity in Amsterdam at Hard Rock Cafe! This was a blast and I love my zone! We had a great time and ate some incredible AMERICAN food. With free water, never ending. That is very, very rare here! Before Hard Rock, Elder Yocom and I went to the Anne Frank house. That was an experience that I will never forget! It is an incredible story and so cool to see the house that I remember studying about it 8th grade! I love Amsterdam! Except for the marijuana and other crap everywhere, but it usual makes it fun to people watch :) Great Day, great to hear from family and friends via email too!

Tuesday - Studies, District Meeting, then President Interviews! I love President Robinson. We have a lot of fun and we talk about a lot of fun things! He always tells us that he wants to go hunting with Yocom and I back in Utah so we will do that for sure! He is a big hunter and loves his ranch. He is great and I'm so grateful for him as my President. After Interviews, we went and did some look ups, knocked some doors. We taught a lesson to our investigator Marvin. He isn't really progressing, he just likes to learn about us, which means he will baptize ;) We did a lot of finding, and more contacts throughout the day. Pretty typical day!

Wednesday - LONG DAY! No specific reason either. Just dragged on forever! We studied, then went to Anna and Lumas house. Anna has cancer so we went over there for a while to bring her some talks from Eyring about things that will help here. We had a great conversation and she will be going through Chemo and maybe surgery this week. So sad, but she is a champ about it! We went home and ate lunch, then went and looked up two people who we met on the street, but neither were home, then we did some other crap, then Wijk Eten. Ward Dinner every other week. This is very fun and it is fun to mingle with the other 6 steeze missionaries in Amsterdam ward and the members. I enjoy it!

Thursday - Studies, then we went to Ibrahims to teach him the second lesson, and to review the first because it's been a long time since we taught him! We got to his house, sat down, and just started talking and catching up. We didn't end up teaching about the 2nd lesson, because he had a lot of questions about the first and other questions. THE SPIRIT LED THIS LESSON! He had a lot of questions, and I feel like we were able to answer to his needs and he felt the spirit as well. At the end of the lesson, we shared scriptures about baptism and what it means. He told us that he knows everything we teach is true. EVERYTHING! This is so amazing. This doesn't happen in this mission. Incredible. We asked 'What would it mean if you got an answer through prayer?' and he said "aansluiten" which means " to Join ". WOWOWWO. We were blown away, and made a baptismal date for Feb. 23rd :) After this, we went to a headquarter referrals house. His name is Danny. He has a girlfriend who lives in Bountiful, and she told him about our church. He visited her for the holidays, and now we were finally able to meet with him. He lives in Landsmeer, outside of Amsterdam, so we bussed to this land of the unknown, and it is soooo beautiful. We got the bus stop cause he said he would pick us up there. We were joking about how he better pull up in a steezzeee BMW or Audi cause nobody drives those here except the rich and steeze guys. He pulled up in a black pimp BMW! So awesome haha and we were dying! He lives in a beautiful home with a gorgeous scenery. We sat down in his house and he said "one sec"then went to grab something. He came back with a Leather Triple Combination with his name on it and he said his girlfriend gave it to him for Christmas. This guy is golden! We had a great lesson, then he wanted us to meet his girlfriend over skype! This was incredible and we both found out she lived in Kaysville just between me and Yocom for a year! Small world. We went home, ate dinner, then were supposed to have an appointment with a new investigator but she wasnt home. Jammer! Still the best day on my mission.

Friday - Studies, then contacting for an hour, then lunch, then weekly planning. Boring, but very necessary! Then we went and gave book of mormons to potentials, then went to teach Marcel. He is a weirdo. He first said he would maybe get baptized, but his brain blew up during the lesson and just went straight pyscho. We told him to call us if he wanted us to teach him more. Thats all haha. Then we were supposed to have dinner with Anna and Luma, but they couldnt so we rescheduled that to Saturday. 

Saturday - Studies, then found. We did a lot of inactive member look ups today but didnt have any succes. Oh well. That always sucks though! We got an appointment with Soraya, Sher, and Latisha though! They used to be 3 baptismal dates but have been really busy, so hopefully they will be again this week! We went to Anna and Lumas for dinner and she cooked Brazilian food for me. She loves the fact that my parents speak portugues and went on missions to Brazil! She bashes on it though about all the bad things there, but it can't be worse then the Netherlands haha. Great day! Such a fun dinner appointment and we always talk about the funnest stuff. I love them! 

Sunday - Church, then the sisters had a baptism after church! Sooo fun! Daniel, our friend in the ward, was able to baptize her! His first baptism! Such a cool experience. We stayed at the church forever to help and stuff, then we went to a dinner appointment with a cool family in the ward. After the appointment, we finally went back to Zaandam and taught Aspacia the first lesson. This went well, and we took a joint teach with us. His name is Vincent and he just go home from his mission a year ago in France. He is a killer teacher and a very cool guy. The lesson went well and we were able to commit her to baptism when she finds out its true. She told me at the end of the lesson that I look like the "TinTin"movie character. I don't even know that movie hahaha. Oh well. I wonder if thats good or bad ;) Fun day! I love teaching!

Well, this was a great, busy week. We did a lot, but also need to be doing more! We are working hard and have a great week this week! Today for PDay, we did a mission wide clean day in our apartments. We have to scrub everything!!!! It took us 5 hours, but was well worth it. Our apartement is gorgeous :) We put all 4 of our beds on the floor, and now we call it the legit BEDroom cause the whole room is beds and soo fraking comfy. Love it haha! This past week was a big growing one for me. I have been able to learn a lot and apply a lot of new things to missionary work. Elder Yocom is a great missionary and I'm so blessed to be able to work with him. I really love being here and just being able to help others change their lives. I am absolutely nothing without the lord. I love telling investigators that when they ask me why I am here. It is so true. None of us our. There are bad things and bad people here, without the gospel. I'm so blessed to be in this position. I love you all so much and I hope you all have a great week! Tot volgende week!

Elder Elkins