Well, I will try to get this off before the evening ends. Tomorrow
is another very busy day, so thought if you were going to get "the
Missionary email", it better be tonight. Sorry about last week, I had
vertigo and the world was spinning. Elder deLeeuw had to do FHE by
himself, so the JoVo's got Pizza and he is their hero.
Will start with a good joke Elder Calkins emailed us
the other day. Why are all the other churches so poor? Because they are
a "non Prophet" organization!! Cute huh.
Well, the weather has finally warmed up and we are of course complaining
of the heat and humidity. The past two days it has been cloudy, with a
few sprinkles, so that only adds to the humidity. Here in the
Netherlands in the last month, we had 300% of normal rainfall, so you
can see how much wet weather we had. Even the ducks in the canal were
complaining. One other thing we are noticing is the daylight hours. It
was not getting dark until 11:30 pm, but in that last week it is dark now by 10:15 pm, and not light until about 5:30 am.
Because we are so far North we have been told that the daylight hours
drop fast when they start. Won't be long until we will be complaining
about how early it gets dark......are we never happy:)
We lose two of our Senior Couples in the next two
weeks. It is so sad to see them go, but they are ready to see family and
friends again. A new couple will come the middle of August and another
one in October. There are two JoVo Centrums that need Senior couples so
the quicker they come the better. This week is transfer week for the
Missionaries. A Sister and an Elder will go home this week, and in the
next few transfers we lose 6 Sister Missionaries...but 4 new ones are
coming. The joy of being in the Mission Field.
This next week will be an adventure for us. We are
going to JoVo camp. The camp is about a two hour drive from Amsterdam,
and as we understand, it is in a Forest setting, with dorm like
accommodations. We have heard there are about 180 YSA's that have
signed up to attend. They have workshops, special speakers, dances,
games,and the last day is a Testimony Meeting. YSA's come from all over
Europe and even Canada and the USA. The Senior Couples that went last
year tell us it is really fun. We help serve the meals, transport the
kids to their different activities, seek out the 'loners', chaperon the
dances, and of course bake cookies. Yesterday I baked 4 large batches of
cookies to take...they need enough to have 300 plus. Next weeks email
will be all about the week. Pray for us that we survive:) We have also
been told that the JoVo's don't sleep much during the week. They say
they are adults and can do what they want! This will be an adventure for
sure:)
Well, now on to all the Missionary work we have been
involved in. Last week we had Levi and the Elders here for dinner.
Levi's one daughter is very interested in the church, so we were hoping
she could come to dinner, but she had to work. Levi just glows she is
so happy to have found the gospel. Her youngest daughter has had some
struggles with life and choices she has made....but she has moved back
in with Levi and has made a change. Levi said: "the devil wants to
take my daughter, but I pray to God, and God will win." We so hope that
Levi can come to Utah some day so you can meet her. She is an amazing
woman. Last Thursday we were invited to Haarlem to have dinner with
Fabiena. She is the young woman from the Ukraine the Sisters are
teaching. She is not happy with her life, so we are encouraging her to
read the Book of Mormon, Pray, and feel the love of the Savior. We have
also been joint teaching a man from Ghana, Simon, who will be baptized next Saturday.
He is a Bible reader and quotes from that all the time. Today we went
with the Sisters to teach him and he was struggling because he has
already been Baptized twice. Once with sprinkling, and another by
immersion into the Baptist church. He told us that he loves God, keeps
the Commandments, and does not know why he needs to be Baptized by
immersion again. We asked him if he knew what the Apostasy was and what
he knew about Priesthood Authority. Dad had taken his Priesthood Line
of Authority to show Simon. By the time we left we had answered his
questions, encouraged him to do more reading from the Book of Mormon,
and pray. He knows he is being taught by the Sisters because he made a
comment the other day:" I am here being taught not by accident, but by
the will of God". The Sisters were glad dad and I were there to go a
little deeper into the answers. We have also been with the Assistants to
visit Daniel and Zsanett. They are the couple from Hungry that need to
get married so they can be Baptized. The legal system here is so
complex and the cost to get legal papers is expensive so the Elders
don't know when all of this will happen. Here in Holland when a coupe
wants to marry, they have to go the the city they live in and get a
"temporary" license. Then after a week they can get married. Temple
Marriages are NOT recognized as legal marriages, so couples get married
first at the city building, then they can go to the Temple and be
sealed. The cost is about 700 Euro for a Marriage License, so that is
why couples live together rather than marry. We hope legal papers will
soon arrive because this couple is so ready to be
Baptized.....Missionary work is what it is all about!!!!!!!!! Dad and I
were talking today about the people we have been privileged to
teach.....Jenny from England. Levi from Suriname. Riaz, parents are from
Suriname but he is Dutch, Simon from Ghana, Fabiena from Ukraine,
Daniel and Zsanett from Hungry, and last, another Baptism today for your
dad...Doop is the word for Baptism in Dutch, so the Elders and Sisters
are calling dad the "Dooper". Madina, a beautiful young lady from
Somalia, was at the Baptism when Riaz was baptized by dad. She was so
impressed by dad, that when the Sisters that have been teaching her,
asked who she would like to do the Baptism, she said Elder deLeeuw. We
had never been to her home for a joint teach, so Friday
we went to Haarlem and had a wonderful lesson with her. She asked dad
if he would bless her home so she could feel the Spirit of the Lord and
feel peace. What an experience. Today as she came up out of the water
she hugged dad and said: "I am new!" Dad told her to just stand there
for a minute and experience the feelings she was having. Tears were
running down her face, and she was just beaming. WOW, this is what the
Gospel is all about for sure. Hard to express in words.Madina Ali Geedi
is her name. I will send pictures. So, here in Holland we are being
able to teach many of "Gods Children" from all parts of the world. We
are so blessed to meet these wonderful people and have them be part of
our lives. WE LOVE BEING MISSIONARIES!
Well, it's taken me forever to type this. Have had a
couple of phone calls, and the Elders stopped in for their "cookie
fix." We love you all. Just a parting note....we love to hear news from
home. We as Senior Couples CAN read emails ANYTIME, and emails are our
link to home. PLEASE send us a note and tell us what is happening in
the Ward and neighborhood! Cheryl, we are proud of you for taking 4
minutes off your running time..you go girl. Lauren, get some sleep, and
we hope you loved Wicked. It is playing in Den Haag right now as
well.Travin, drive with both hands on the wheel. Elisha, enjoy each
minute with your family. Aubree, keep dancing. Emily, stay 'bone break
free'....Shelby, compose a Baptism song....Ethan, have fun at
camp....Syd, keep cooking so when we come home you can cook for Oma!
Dylan, sack the quarterback:) Laren and Sarah, quit getting older:)
Corey, get straight A's...Brittany, just stay beautiful....Cameron and
Alexis thank you for taking care our home and Polly. Oh, and Cameron,
grandpa has used his Priesthood Line of Authority twice already.
We love you all. We love the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we are thankful to be serving him as Missionaries.
Elder and Sister deLeeuw
Opa and Oma
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