You once again get the weekly letter on Saturday as tomorrow
we will be doing the Lords work ALL day:) We attend the Amsterdam Ward
from 10 till 1 then jump in the car and head for Gouda for the JoVo
Dienst that goes from 3 till 6. Gouda is about an hour and a half drive
away, so when we finally get home, it has been a LONG day for us old
folks. Tomorrow we have been asked to furnish the meal for the JoVo's, so I am making Sloppy Joe's for 80. Thursday
was Zone Training and I made Sloppy Joe's for 40. This is a simple
meal that feeds lots, and costs little Euro. The kids love them.....we
add cucumbers, that the Dutch kids love as well, carrot sticks, and
cookies, and we are set to go. Two months ago all this would have 'put
me over the edge', but now it is just 'another day in the life of a
Missionary':) Elder deLeeuw ,Opa, is getting so good at slicing
cucumbers he can do it with one hand behind his back. He is also
fabulous at pushing a grocery cart as I push another, he getting food
for the joVo's while I shop for us. He also has to bag ALL these
groceries as well. I am SO blessed to have him as my Companion. We
laugh as transfers come for the Elders and Sisters and I tell him he
can't look forward to a Companion change. Speaking of Elder deLeeuw. He
blessed the Sacrament a couple of weeks ago in the Dutch Language. He
speaks the language very well and I am trying to encourage him to speak
MORE.
Weather report of the Netherlands: Can you believe
that in some parts of Holland it FROZE this past week. We have a couple
days of sun and semi warm temps, then it clouds up and rains and stays
cold. I had my LONG, WOOL socks on this past week. When it does warm up
we will be complaining of the heat and humidity,so we will enjoy the
cool while it lasts.
Missionary work is amazing. We are having
experiences we never thought possible. This week being Zone Training we
hear the Testimonies of the Elders and Sisters that will be going home
next Transfer. What Strong testimonies they bear. They express how
fast their Mission Time has flown by and how they have LOVED serving the
Lord. We see 'little boys and girls' come into the Mission, and watch
them grow into young men and women. We LOVE having the Elders and
Sisters so close to us. We chuckle as we prepare food for the JoVo's on Monday and Wednesday.
The Elders just seem to know when the cookies are coming out of the
oven:) We have learned why some of these Missionaries are serving. One
Elder told us that a couple of years ago he had a friend that was having
some problems. One day this Elder had a very strong impression that he
needed to call this friend. He did not. the next day the same
impression came that he needed to call his friend....this went on for
several days and the Elder did not make a call or visit. The end of the
week came and he learned that his friend had committed suicide. He
blamed himself and said if he would have only called this friend maybe
he could have prevented the death. He had doubts about serving a
Mission, but after this he told the Lord that he wanted to serve and
help as many people as he could. He is one we have watched grow from
'boyhood into a young man'.
We have a darling young woman in our YSA's that came
from Poland a couple of months ago. She is 21 years of age and has
been a member of the church since she was 17. We ask her to write her
Testimony for us, which she did. We literally sobbed as we read her
story. Long story short....her dad is in prison, her mother is an
alcoholic and has has several children with several different fathers.
Dorthy raised a half brother she so loved, but he was taken into foster
care. With permission from Dorthy I want to write some of her
Testimony: "I was angry with God, I even said that there is no God, and
even if he is, he doesn't mean anything to me. I blamed him for
everything that had happened in my life. I know I blamed not the right
person, because all of the bad things happened because of Satan, but
that time I was totally against God. When I went to holidays I met
Jehovah's Witness. She was such a nice lady, but she always wanted talk
to me about religion(this is written in Dorthy's Polish language). But
even if I weren't interested that topic, I listened to her. She said to
me about different religions, she mentioned Mormons. I haven't hear
about Mormons before and I started to be more interested in, but she
didn't say much about them. When I came home I started looking on the
internet about the Mormons. I even asked my Ethics teacher who are
Mormons, and he said that they are a cult/sect. I also find out in the
internet that Mormons are dangerous sect so I left it, and I did'nt want
to know more about them. Maybe a week after that I started to look on
the internet about the Mormon again, and I found out the official site
of the church. First thing I found out was that the Mormon are the
members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I was
reading all the information that I could on Polish Offical site of LDS
church. There was a place to write an address and you could get your
own Book Of Mormon for free. I didn't think about the consequences. I
just wrote my name and home address, and I didn't really know why. I
just did it and I forgot about it. Maybe a week somebody rang to my
doors, I opened it, it was two young, but older than me then, men, and
they said hello we are the Missionaries of the LDS church. I remember
that day was a Hugh storm and they were all wet. They asked if they can
come in, I was home alone with just my little brothers so I said no
because I was a bit scared. So they asked me about my cell phone number
and I gave it to them. After that they went away. Next day they called
to me, and ask if we can meet, and I said yes. I really think that
wasn't me who answered to them because normally I wouldn't care for them
like I don't know them and they want to talk with me about religion and
I wasn't really interested in it, but God gave me words to my mouth.
We met in the park, the weather was fine and warm, so I went to the
park and I told them that I am not interested to join to their's church.
They asked why. I said them that I don't believe in God, and they
again asked me why? So I said them that if there was God shouldn't let
good people be hurted. They said to me that they see a light in me,and
if I will let them, they will show me a way to God and I said that 'why
not'. We set up for next week and we also had a meeting in the park.
We talked about prayer. They said to me that the best way to
communicate with our Father in Heaven is to pray. I have never prayed
before. They taught me how to pray and they gave me a challenge to pray
when I'll come back home. I should say everything what is in my mind
and hurts my heart. When I came back to home it was the evening and I
kneeled down to the floor in front of my bed and I started to pray. I
started with the words: God, I don't know if you are there, somewhere
and I don't know if you hear me but I have a lot to tell you and then I
started crying like a child. I felt really hot inside like God gave me
a sign and said "I'm here to listen to you" and I started to telling
him that I am really torn inside and I needed a peaceful life. I just
want to know what happiness means. That was my first prayer, from that
time I started to pray everyday. I called to the Missionaries and I
told them that I prayed. They say that makes them happy. They also
invited me to FHE. I went there and it was my very first time in church
building. One of the sister had a lesson about a family. That time I
was thinking that I will not belong to this church never in my life even
if I would like to because all the of the things that I heard about
family was just to perfect to me, and I though I'll never have family
like that. I though it will be my first time in church. I wanted to let
it go, but something did't let me to let it go! The Missionaries gave me
a Book Of Mormon. It was an adventure for me. My life changed already
before my Baptism. I started to believe in God. Before I met church I
blamed God for all bad things, but I started to think that all these
thing happen for a reason. I knew that my life won't be perfect after
Baptism but I knew that it will be easier if only I will keep the
Commandments and obey the rules. I was baptized on 28th October 2007,
and I can surely say that it was the best decision in my life!
Sometimes I was really confused why this happened to me, there is a lot
of wonderful people on the earth who deserves more for being member of
the church than me. I am really grateful to God that he gave me the
chance to decide if I want to follow Jesus or not. I have a great
Testimony about church of Jesus Christ and also the Prophet that he is a
real man, called to be a prophet and to serve to people. I believe in
Jesus Christ from the bottom of my heart. I know that I am the child of
God, and that every single prayer we say is listening by him. I
strongly believe that if I will stay close to church I won't be lost,
and if I will be worthy person to go to the Temple I also will find a
good man to marry and I will have a family in church. Gospel brings me a
light in dark days. It makes me really happy person. I love everything
in this earth. I know that God created this for us and we should
respect this and be grateful him for it. I love people, I wish they who
didn't find out about the church, that they could. I pray for them. I
am happy to be a follower of Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.
This is what Missionary work is all about!!!!!! Pray
for the Elders and Sisters that they will find those 'WHO ARE SEEKING".
We have several more testimonies like this one. Dorthy asked last week
if she could be our daughter. She can't say deLeeuw, so we told her to
call us Elder and Sister deLion. She is as beautiful on the outside as
her Spirit is on the inside. We are SO blessed to be stewards over
these Young Single Adults!
We close with our Testimonies. We are learning that
we are on this Mission, to learn from others, to strengthen OUR
Testimonies. We give thanks each day for what we have. To have had the
Gospel in our lives ALL our lives. To have the family that we were
blessed with. For our Ancestors. For where we live. We have SOOO much
to give thanks for! We LOVE being Missionaries and to be in the service
of our Lord and Savior.
Vader and Moeder, Opa and Oma, Elder and Zuster deLeeuw
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