King's Day

Hey everyone!

So before I say anything else, I'd to say two things.  One is that I'm not apostate even though I'm emailing on a Saturday, and two I'm sorry I let nobody know that my P-day was going to change from Monday to today.  This is because it's going to be Koningsdag (King's Day) on Monday!  

[It took me a little while to realize that
the King's profile is overlaid on the Netherlands flag.]

Koningsdag 2014 in Amsterdam
picture from http://www.oranjewinkel.nl/nieuws/koningsdag-2014/

Koningsdag is a holiday that is huge here in the Netherlands.  It happens every year on the king's (or queen's) birthday, and everyone celebrates by dressing up completely in orange and having a giant yard sale and partying all day! (At least that's why/what I've heard happens, don't call me on it, I'll find out on Monday!)  Because everyone will be out, the mission leaders decided to switch our preparation day from Monday to today so that we can take advantage of that.  We're going to go and set up a booth somewhere here in Almere, probably in the Centrum and hand out Book of Mormons all day, so that will be fun!  I'm super glad I got to be back here in the Netherlands for Koningsdag because I've heard its just so much fun!

Almere Centrum.
I hope that Elder Lott sends us pictures next week
 of this place full of people dressed in orange, maybe something like this:

Koningsdag in Amsterdam 2014
picture from http://www.scanbaltexperience.com/kingsday-in-amsterdam

This week has been a wild one.  We've been seeing a ton of success in finding people, getting a new teaching pool so that is exciting.  I know it is a blessing of our being willing to work day in and day out.  I've also still seen such a blessing in a continuation of my growth and comfort in the language.  So cool.  I say it has been a wild week though because I'm very bumped and bruised right now.  On Wednesday I crashed my bike, just being stupid and messing around.  I was going pretty fast though, I slid across the ground for a quite a ways.  I put quite a few holes in my rain jacket, my pants, my favorite sweater, and myself.  My knees were pretty scraped up, and I have really bad road rash on my palms.  I have pictures but I don't think I'll send them home, they are pretty graphic.  I cleaned myself up though, and everything seems to be healing fine, and I didn't break anything so that is good.  I was able to save my sweater with that sewing kit mom sent, and we'll see about everything else.  Crazy thing though is that my bike is still alive!  Even though I've had to do so much work on it in the time that I've had it, it is still going, haha what a good bike.  Another miracle from this though was that I didn't hit my head or slide along my face, which should have happened with the way I landed.  Just another blessings from above, even if I was being stupid.  Haha and then I re-sprained my ankle today playing soccer at a zone p-day.  So much fun!

I've been thinking a lot about the Book of Mormon lately, because that is our focus in the zone for this transfer.  From talking to others, and through my own thoughts and the spirit I've learned a ton.  When we think about the Book of Mormon, we tend to give it a lot of roles.  Such as it is how we come to know that this church is true, just to name one.  Which is true and good, but at its base, the Book of Mormon's main role, the reason that the prophets who are in there wrote in it was to help the reader come unto Christ.  You can see from the many scriptures that are given during the book that talk about the reason the writer wrote the things they did, and it is almost always, if not always, so that they can please God and to bring the reader unto Christ.  This is so powerful. The  Book of Mormon is such a powerful witness of Christ, his divinity, and his gospel.  That is why it has been said that a man can come closer to God by abiding by the precepts of the Book of Mormon, and that it is more correct than any other book.  That is my testimony, and that I leave in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Request a free copy of the Book of Mormon here.

Love you all so much!

-Elder Hayden L. Lott

ps I'm excited for double emails in a couple weeks ;)  also, in your next package if you send one mom/dad can I have some more fluoride toothpaste? And some more sticks of deodorant, you can't get either here.  Thanks so much!