Happy Easter

Hey Guys! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! Easter here in the Netherlands is a lot like Christmas in the fact that they have an Eerste Paasdag, and also an Tweede Paasdag. They have the first on Sunday, then have another excuse of work off on Monday for the second. Typical Dutch eh? ;) Grapje, but it was a pretty good week! I honestly cannot remember half of what happened, but I will try to do my best and tell you some of the cool things that happened. I have been studying a lot lately about the Atonement and also how it applies to our investigators. We have had really cool experiences with Hernandez, our investigator. Last week, we just went shopping for PDay in Rotterdam North. That is such a beautiful city and it looks like a big city in the States. I didn't buy anything, none of us did. It was pretty lame, but some guy tried to sell me the new Galaxy 5, but that just stung ;) At night, we went to Oma Croese. She likes us to call her "Oma" (Grandma) because she loves taking care of us. She is such a sweet lady and lets us ride her Scooter and use her Staircase seat roller coaster. So steeze. She makes the most Dutch food ever, which is usually the same. Sausage, potatoes, Au jue?, Milk, and veggies. For Desert, warmed milk with butter and sugar daarin. Honestly pretty lekker! Tuesday I was on exchanges with Elder Moomey. I love him so much! He went to BYU before the mission. Honestly, I'm going to BYU when I get home. All the mission bro's, except for Yocom, are going there. I don't have the grades, but I will transfer there so we can have our own Dutch branch haha. But going on, we taught Lauwrence. I cannot remember if I told you about him, but he used to be in a satanic cult. He regrets it totally, and wants to change. He is super cool, and love video games like a mad man, almost more than Parker, my bro. ;) He opened up to us, told us some crazy stories that honestly I didn't want to here, and asked really, really good questions. I love when investigators ask really good questions. It is amazing how the Spirit is active in lessons as well. Moomey has been out one more transfer than me, and we speak about the same Dutch, but in this lesson, we almost spoke perfectly. The Gift of Tongues is real. It is funny, because when the Spirit isn't in a lesson, or a contact, then Dutch is 100 times harder and is sucks. It is so important to have the Spirit with you. Especially in a lesson like this, where it is a really sensitive subject and we need to answer his questions correctly. He asked if me and Moomey can be together again for our next lesson, so we scheduled another appointment and exchange for this Wendesday. Lauwrence is taking us out to lunch to ask us "very important questions". Oh boy, this will be good :) Wednesday was very fun. We went to a lesson at 1, but he wasnt home so I called him and changed the appointment. We were looking forward to it! We met him on the street and he told us he was super curious. We rescheduled for the next day, but he wasn't their the next day either! But after this, we went and did service for familie winters. They are my favorite by far in this ward! So super duper amazing. They are remodeling their amazing dutch home, and needed help to destroy stuff. Who better to call than the Elders eh? We had a lot of fun, and Bro. Winters is a ton of fun! Good day, but we didn't get home until late. Thursday Two lessons fell apart, so we did a ton of finding and found a bunch of great potentials. We were walking down the street, and I got the biggest impression to talk to this next guy. I stopped him, and he knew who we were. He has lived here in the Netherlands since 8 years ago, so speaks good Dutch, but is from Portugal. His name is Lonus. He met with the Elders when he was in Portugal but could'nt find us here! Now he found us and was super pumped. We got his number. I called him 3 times yesterday om af te spreken, but he didn't answer. I left a voicemail. Today, he called me and asked for an appointment. Thursday, at 7:30. Super pumped! That is how effective the Spirit is in missionary work! I've decided to keep a Miracle Journal throughout my mission. That will be soo cool for when I go home. Later, we had a dinner appointment with Familie Van Kalken. She is a member, but he is not. Usually the Elders don't eat their often cause he feels uncomfortable, but he loves Childs and I. He set our next appointment and wants us to come every week! How cool is that? Friday was another good day. We had a lesson in the morning with two little girls. Serenity is 8 and Usha is 11. They are the daughters of an inactive member. They called us in the morning to cancel our appointment cause is was good weather and they wanted to play, so I made an ultimatum. They had to come to church, then we could cancel our appointment and meet this week. They agreed, and came to church yesterday! So amazing! We also met with another investigator, gave her a blessing and that was super spiritual, then we met with Hernandez at night. We listened to a talk from General Conference, talked about his Baptism next week, which he is super pumped for, then he had a question about Tithing and told us he is willing to pay it! Super amazing. I loved it! This guys is a brother! We are meeting with him again Wednesday to discuss his baptismal program. Saturday, we went to neverland like an hour away to look up a referall who wasn't interested, but a completely gorgeous city, then weekly planned and then ate with the Zone leaders. Good day! Sunday was amazing. First Easter here. Honestly probably one of the best Church Services of my life! The spirit was super strong. We had 4 investigators at church, and I loved it. Sat next to Hernandez. Br. and Sr. Reinders spoke. They are the old temple presidents. They spoke, of course, about the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Gosh super spiritual. Also, a famous gospel singer sung two songs in our sacrament meeting. That was amazing as well! After Church, we had to eat, then go straight to the Easter Concer with the whole stake and people in the country. There were probably 400 people there. It was very good. We sang as missionaries too. I love seeing other Elders there too who I've gotten pretty close with. After, we rode home with the ZL's and cops were everywhere. We were wondering why, then drove past the Feyenoord stadium, and remembered it was the championship of soccer here. Ajax vs. PEC Zwolle. Ajax was number one, and Zwolle was number 8 in the country and made it to the Championship. They beat Ajax 5-1! Super crazy. Rotterdam was partying cause they hate Ajax hahaha. Super funny. We had a great day. Today, we cleaned a lot, then i went on a long drive with Corsini to pick up my new bike. That will be fun to finally be on a bike! I don't have much more time, but I do want to leave something spiritual.

Easter. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This means a lot to me. I studied it a lot this past week. It is absolutely amazing what is possible "Because of Him". I will give you this link to a very inspirational message released by the Church this past week. I'm sure most of you have seen it, but if you haven't, please watch it. I am eternally grateful for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is with us all, every step of the way through our lives, and as we continue in the next world. Easter is such an amazing holiday. No wonder the Dutch celebrate it twice. What I love, is they also have a day called "Goede Vrijdag". Good Friday. The day Christ was hung on the cross. Easter means so much more to me now that I have had a lot of time to think about it and strengthen my relationship with Christ. The Savior not only died for us, but he also rose from the dead. He overcame the world. "Because of Him", We can do anything. "Because of Him", We can live together, forever. "Because of Him", There is no end. I love you all, so very much. Have a great week. I pray for you all, and hope that you all are doing well. Please watch this video! and geniet ervan. http://easter.mormon.org/

"He is not here: for He is risen" 

Veel Lief,

Elder Elkins