Elder Austin Elkins

What a week! Definietly not a typical one. We have been working super hard to fill our investigator pool. We have been seeing a lot of success from it as well! We are being blessed, and Rotterdam South is starting to see the success it hasn't in over a year! I'm really enjoying it, but it is completely different than my other two cities. I promise, this is the ghetto. Actually, I promise, we live in Baghdad. You wouldn't believe it haha. Finding is very challenging sometimes, but I LOVE it. 80% uninterested Muslims, 18% uninterested other, 1% uninterested Dutch, then the other percent is interested people. I'm not lying haha. It has been fun though :) The weather is good! It rained a few days, but what's new? This is the rain capital of the world. With the warmer weather, also come out the European styles. That's right, good looking people. Me being one of them ;) Nah, but it is very dangerous as well. It is very clear why this country is known to be one of the worst countries modesty wise. That is very sad, but honestly it is not hard to avoid. This past week, we had Koningsdag here. Kings Day. This place blows up for that literally. They go crazy. One of the biggest celebrations in the world and everyone wears orange! I really enjoyed it! Kings Day was on Saturday, and we had to wake up at 2:30 in the morning with the Zone Leaders and R'dam North Elders to set up a booth in the Vrijmarkt and save our spot. We did all of that, all wore orange ties, got to our spot, and realized that we had to reserve a spot 2 months ago, so we had to go to another spot and it turns out that we didn't have to wake up so early after all haha. Still a very fun unforgetable experience. The whole mission was to do this on Saturday for Koningsdag. Free Markets is how they celebrate Kingsday here too. They all line up their booths and sell stuff in the cities. We just contacted, and had a booth with Books, Pamphlets, and other things. If this computer wasn't lame, then I would send pictures of ours, but it isn't working :'( Oh well. We got like 30 potentials for our cities and that was really cool. It was really cool to talk to a ton of people. Elder Frisbee and I were buds in the MTC and were able to spend a lot of time together at the booth. We talked to two pretty girls about the church. One of them is going to Idaho Falls in 3 weeks to start a foreign exchange. She wanted to learn about us because she will be staying with a Mormon family. That was a cool miracle! She left, then came back with her friend again and asked us to go get dinner with them. So yes, we got asked on a date ahah, but no, we didn't go :'( We told everyone what happened. The ZL's, the sisters, and the other missionaries, and they all got mad that we didn't go. They were saying it would've been a great opportunity to share the gospel. That would've been hilarious! At least I know that for next time ;) Kingsday was a great experience. I remember hearing about it back at home, but it was fun being here in reality. Such a cool mission. Soccer here is going crazy too. I collect scarves from the teams in my cities, and now I have an FC Twente, Ajax, and Feyenoord. A family in Rotterdam loves me and bought me a Feyenoord scarf for easter. That was amazing. So cool to see the bonds we can make with people, even only being here for 2 weeks haha.

Well, I finally did what I though I would never do.... I bought a bike. I know I know, I'm crazy, but I had to. It is really nice too. Has a speedometer, great locks, and it is very netjes. It was originally 150 euros, but I told them I would only spend 130 so they did that. They did it cause I'm a Jesus Guy. They were all Muslims as well. It's amazing how Heavenly Father works haha. We bike a ton too. We did 100 kilometers in 2.5 days. That is like 65 miles or so. Not too much, but enough to get a sweat on and not feel guilty for eating 5 panekoeken and 5 stroopwafels right after ;) Nah, but I really enjoy it!

We had a good week finding, and able to teach a little. We had a lesson with a new investigator who said he knows more about us, than we do. I got to my skin and made me pretty upset honestly haha. He kept asking questions and interupting me when I would try to respond. Sometimes we get those here haha. We had other good lessons, and it is amazing what is possible with the spirit as well. I'm so grateful for the spirit in missionary work. It is absolutely impossilbe without the spirit. We also met with Lauwrence. He is the old satanist, but is very interested in the gospel. He took me and Elder Moomey to lunch to a really nice french food resturaunt. He had a lot of hard questions. Deep doctrine that were really hard to answer, especially in Dutch lol. But once again, the spirit was there which made everything clear. Hernandez is our Baptismal date. He will be getting baptized this week on Saturday! He had a really hard week last week. His government funding went out, and now he has no income. Well, at least his tithing issue is fixed haha..... not really, but yeah. It is crazy to see how everytime in our lives when we have a big step to make, it usually won't come without a big trial before hand. God knows what we need to experience, that is for sure. He got his drivers lisence though! That was good. He came to church on Sunday, sat next to me in church, then asked me for a blessing after church. I love giving blessings. Especially in Dutch. Nothing more powerful than using the mission language to perform priesthood ordinances.

On Wednesday, we get to go to the temple! Super excited. Already will be my 2nd time our of 4 on the mission. That is insane!!!!! I'm very excited, especially because Yocom arranged it to make sure he would be able to sleep over at my apartment the night before, so tomorrow night. We are gonna have a party. I love him to death! So fun to have him here. Elder van de Merwe will also be there and he is a good buddy from school. They do the temple on two different days in this mission, so I got lucky to go with all my friends this time around. Even from the MTC friends will be there. Everyone except Elder Alston haha, but rumor has it that he will be here next transfer as Zone Leader, which puts him in my ward and living 5 minutes away from me. Super steeze. Just a little rumor though :) I cannot explain in words how excited I am to go to the temple. After the temple, we are going as a mission to the Keukenhof. Big flower garden that is world famous. Tulips, tulips, tulips. It will be so fun to be with buds there as well.

I am honestly loving my mission. This is the best place in the world. THE best mission in the world. Nowhere else I'd rather be, and I can honestly say that. I love it. I have become converted to the gospel as well. I know why I"m here, and I'm doing my best to be as the Sons of Mosiah in Mosiah 28:3. I'm learning to focus on other people and to forget myself. By doing this, I can put my worries aside, and focus on others' worries. I'm grateful for you all and all the support I have received. Thanks for everything! I hope you all have a great week. Tot volgende week!

Love,

Elder Elkins