Elder Austin Elkins

Hello Everyone! :) I don't have  too much time on the computer today, so I'm going to keep this one relatively short. I hope you all had a great week! Sounds like life is still going on in America, and that I haven't missed too much. We had a great week here in Zaandam! The work is taking off! :) I'm going to do this one like last week. I don't want to go thorugh the days haha. 

This week started off a little slow, but it was fine. We were stacked with appointments for the end of the week. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. That was nice! On Thursday, We were able to teach Keith. He is the Soccer Player. Gosh! Super amazing. He asked some great questions, and we all felt the spirit so strong. He was supposed to go to Almere on Saturday for the Stake Young Men activity, but he wasn't able to go, so that was a bummer, but it's good! We then went to Ana and Luma's to make dinner for them, along with the Sisters. Ana's cancer is doing good, and she is curing up! So amazing. That is a miracle! This was super fun, and we made good food ;) We then taught Aspacia at night, and decided to make goals with her. Our first goal was that she would come to church, which she did for the first time! That was so amazing. We had other appointments throughout the weekend as well. Literally, on Friday, we had the busiest day of my mission. We rely on public transportation so much to get everywhere, so times can get all jammed up and we rely on bus schedules! That gets annoying, but it seemed to work out this day. After lunch, we were supposed to go contacting, but I had a feeling to go to Amsterdam North, and show up to our appointment 45 minutes early. Before we went to the appointment, we stopped at an inactives. He let us in, and was super frustrated with himself. He has been having it super hard lately, and vented to us. It was a miracle we showed up and were able to help him. He even talked about the harming himself and how he doesn't feel like he deserves anything, because he try's his best to keep the commandments. I felt inspired to share my favorite scripture passage, D&C 121 1-7. This was perfect. He was talking about how God just isn't in his life anymore and how he can't feel his love. This is exactly what Joseph Smith explains in Liberty Jail. That was amazing that we were able to get over there. This kicked off one of the best days of my mission. We then went to Ibrahim, taught the 2nd lesson, and he went off about how the true church needs to have a living prophet.... perfect :) We showed him LDS.org and how he can watch talks from the Apostles and Prophets. He loves it! He watched the Joseph Smith movie like 7 times throughout the week cause he loves it so much. We then had an appointment with Danny! I've missed him! We sat down and talked forever, about Utah, life, his trip, everything! I love that. We went in there with the plan to teach him about BoM heroes like Alma, Ammon, and Enos, and how they are all powerful men, who realized they were nothing without God. Danny is super great, but we didn't know how he was doing with prayer yet cause it has been hard for him to ask God for help. He suprised the heck out of me! He was saying how he feels the Spirit, and how with the Atonement of Jesus Christ, it is possible for him to not have to carry all of his burdens alone. That is progress right there! We then got on topic about Temple Marriage for him and Kim, and we made a baptismal date! Kim will be here in Amsterdam in May, so we decided that we would wait for her. May 11th is his date! So pumped! He told me that he is going to wait for me and Yocom to get back to Utah before he gets sealed with Kim. That would be so cool. He also showed me how he hung up the picture that my mom gave him of Yocom and I on his wall, and then took me to his room and showed me the Christ picture above his bed that my mom gave me. Gosh. This is why I was called here, honestly. We had great dinner appointment later, and our last lesson with 3 new investigators fell through, but we had a great, busy day. I loved it! Saturday, we gave a blessing to an investigator, then had an amazing dinner appointment with Familie Jansen. She collects stamps, and stamped my Dutch BoM with Dutch Stamps! So freaking cool! We had dinner appointments every night this week as well. That was amazing! Sunday, we had church, had two investigators there. Aspacia, and Grace. Danny had to work, and Revalino and Dennis just didn't show up. After church, we had a ward potluck and all watched Ephraims Rescue. I love that movie! Then we went to Luckies for dinner. People are pointing out to me here already that I'm almost at a year! I'm not really, but sort of. That is insane. 8 months! Gosh. Time goes to fast. I would love to provide a spiritual message for you all, but I have no time. I love you all. The weather is lekker here, and the flowers are bloeming. Today for PDay, we went and explored the WWII Bunkers on the shore of the beach with our Zone, then played football on the beach. So tight! You all wish you could be here ;) Love you all! Heb een goede week eh? tot volgende maandag :)