Can you believe that it is Christmas. Gosh. Slow down!
I remember last year, when I was with Elder Yocom for Christmas, we were counting down the days till Christmas, thinking about it a lot, talking about friends and family, and it just seemed so Christmasy, but this year is completely different. I haven't had anytime to even say Christmas it feels like haha. It has snuck up on us, and now we are here. Well, Merry Christmas!
We had a very good week! The busiest part of this transfer is behind us, and now it should be mostly just the normal jazz for the rest of the transfer! We had a great Zone Training on Thursday, and the spirit was there. We felt that it went the way it was supposed to, and the missionaries left feeling inspired, which is the purpose! I had a really cool experience while preparing my part of it. I was sitting down on my bed, just pondering all the experiences that I have had in my life, and the song "Count your many blessings" popped into my head. I immediately reflected on some of the many blessing that I have received in my life and wondered... "why am I so blessed?". It hit me that I needed to study these things. I read some accounts from some of the prophets in the Old Testament. Samuel 7, and Joshua 3. These are two stories of the isrealites that were blessed and experienced miracles. Samuel 7 is about Samuel praying to protect the Isrealites from the Philistines, and God struck the Philistines. Samuel placed a stone so that the Isrealites wouldn't forget this miracle, and called it Ebenezer. There is a reason that they needed to remember this. I also ran into Alma's conversion in Mosiah 27 i think, and read the scriptures about how he said that he wanted to testify of the things that he saw and heard. It suddenly hit me. We need to have faith as we find as missionaries. Sometimes we focus on how we do it, and what we say, but God prepares us to preach the gospel, like he did Alma. We have these blessings, our own Ebenzers, that should encourage us to share it with all the world, like Alma did. I shared some personal experiences, and it was amazing how led by the spirit it was. Elder Torniainen and Zuster Fredrickson also did a great job, and they teach me alot. They are great leaders.
It is nice to have that busyness out of the way. The past two weeks have been full of planning, studying, and more planning, but now we can hit the road and get down to work. We have been very blessed in finding new potentials as well. Elder T and I were able to go finding for about 3 hours last week, and we found 9 new people. What a miracle that is. Last week Sunday, we had Stake Conference where they called a new stake president. That was a huge deal, and just like the last one, he is also in Den Haag ward. We got a call from him the next day, inviting us over for lunch after church to teach their friends. They are huge basketball players, and their sons are some of the best players in the Netherlands, and their coach is interested. We went by after church yesterday to teach them the lesson, and it went well. It is always fun to be able to teach with the members at their own home. It is very special. Lately, I haven't been able to teach much, but the spirit does the talking right? :) It was fun teaching with Elder T as well! He is such stud.
The Zone is killing it. Last transfer, we finished with two baptismal dates, and in the first two weeks of this transfer, we have added 10 more! How great is that? Such a blessing, and the Zone is incredible. We spent the day up in Almere on Friday to work with the Elders there. They were struggling because one of the Elders was sick for two weeks, so we helped them recover. Found new investigators and set a baptismal date! Miracles are just happening right now in Holland.
What a special blessing it is to be able to serve during Christmas. Testifying of Christ is the most important thing we can do, because He is the center of everything we should do in our lives. I feel his love, and I see it everyday. I feel so blessed to have been raised in a situation where Jesus Christ is the center of our lives. Remember your blessing, but also Remember Him! I love you all. I really wish you all an incredible Christmas. Make the most of it, and serve others at this time. Have a great week!
Veel Liefde,
Elder Elkins
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