Hey Everyone! I hope that you all had a
great week. I sure did! Not much different than other weeks, but that's
the reason that is was good ;) I got a new companion, Elder Enslow, and
we are going to have a lot of fun. He is a super good missionary and I'm
super excited to learn a lot from him! We have already worked hard, and
make some great goals for this next transfer. It was way sad to say
goodbye to Elder Yocom. Literally teared up at the Station when he had
to go to Belgium, but I'm almost positive that we will be companions
again down the road. He will do great in Belgium and I am not worried
about him at all! The weather is getting a lot warmer. Today was like 55
degrees and the flowers are beginning to bloom! So much for the
terrible winter eh!? I'm not complaining :) Well, here is my week!
Monday-
PDay, not much done. Just chilled and got Yocom ready to leave. He
didn't want to do to much except shop, so that is what we did! We went
to Gerphal and Annickas at night to have family night with them. That
was a blast!
Tuesday- District
meeting, then it was Yocom and I's last day together! Holy cow! So sad,
but honestly we both feel that we'll be back together so it wasn't to
bad. I'm trying not to keep my hopes up. After that, I honestly cannot
remember what we did, because the weeks get so mashed together, but I'm
sure we found and then went to the De Nijs' at night. They make the
lekkerste food in the world. That was great! Fun day.
Wednesday
- TRANSFER DAY! We had to meet everyone at the Leiden station and meet
our new companions. I said bye to Yocom before he left, and that was
super sad, but I saw a bunch of other friends there so that was great,
and I met my new best friend! My companion, Elder Enslow. I had to wait 3
hours before he came, but it was fine! We got all settled in, then went
straight to work and contaced and looked up a bunch of former
investigators. We had a lesson with an inactive and that went great. For
dinner, we went to the church for wijk eten and ate with the whole
ward. I love those. We do them every two weeks. Good day.
Thursday
- Studies, then throughout the day, we did look ups, and taught Marcel.
He is the old guy who is crazy. We dropped him, but felt that we should
stop by and see how he is doing. We asked if he wanted to quit smoking
and he said that he wants to, so we are going to meet with him this week
to make a plan with him this week. That will be interesting, because he
has been smoking since he was 7. Honestly, who does that...? Oh yeah,
the Dutch!!!! Gosh, oh well. ;) We did other look ups, and found, then
came back for dinner and did more look ups after dinner trying to make
appointments.
Friday - Another
normal day. We went to Anna and Lumas after lunch to see how everything
is going. Anna is still having problems with her Breast Cancer and they
might have to do more surgey because she has a lot of water created from
the wound I guess...? They are doing great though and are always so
fun. They hate the fact that I love to shoot animals aka hunt and fish.
The Dutch honestly have no idea ;) We then had weekly planning. Elder
Enslow and I went so hard and made some great goals to improve our work
and the success here in Zaandam. I'm super excited. Great day. We did a
lot of finding today too, and found a great potential named Muhammed ;)
So many of those here haha.
Saturday
- Normal day, again! :P Nothing too special happened, except we had
some cool conversations on the street with people. We looked up a
potential but they couldn't meet then. I wish I had more to tell you
about today, but honestly, we just did look ups and went around our
whole area today. Still fun! I learn a lot from Elder Enslow because he
loves movie making and history of certain movies. Jaws has a really cool
history. I suggest you all look it up ;)
Sunday
- Church, then did more look ups, then we went to Lucky's for dinner.
These appointments are always fun. She is such a fun lady and we went
with the 3 Amsterdam Elders. They are in a three some for now until
Elder Sosa goes home :'( He leaves next week. I'm gonna miss him! My
Chilean home boy. He makes rap music and beats. He is literally pretty
famous too. DJ Urba is his name ;) So sick! We were supposed to have an
appointment with Aspacia after, but she ended up not being able to and
wij moesten haar afspraak verzetten maar komt goed.
Well,
that is my week. This mission is not easy, as you guys can tell. There
is a reason that the MTC concidered this mission the 3rd hardest in the
world. I'm so grateful for it though, because I have learned a lot about
myself, and others. It is very sad to see all these sad people here in
this country who don't believe in God. Most of these people have no
conception of what a God means or what that idea can do for them in
their life, nor do they care quite frankly. It is hard sometimes to see
that. I had a really cool experience about this. We were walking down
the street and I saw a mom pushing her daughter in the stroller. I stop
her, and ask her " What do you think about prayer... what does that mean
for you?" She looked at me, with a light in her eyes and said "
actually, I prayed for the first time in my life last night, because I
have been having a hard time with my mother lately. " It meant the world
for me, because of my testimony, to be able to respond and tell her
that I know the God heard her prayer, and that everything will be ok.
That was a real eye opener to me about how grateful I truly am to be a
member of this church. Not only to be a member, but to also be able to
believe that God exists and that he listens and answers my prayers. It
is the hardest thing in the world, to get these Europeans to listen to
us, but if I can get one person, every day to listen to the message that
Elder Enslow and I share, then it is all worth it. I love this gospel.
I'm so grateful for it, and I'm grateful to have parents who raised me,
and my family right to be able to share it with other people. Thanks Mom
and Dad! Love you! :)
Well, that
is my message this week. I love you all and I hope to continue to get
emails from you all. Have a great week. I pray for you always!
Elder Elkins
No comments:
Post a Comment