Hey Everybody!
So this week has been another stressful, but rewarding one. We had to travel a lot this week to get Elder Higham legal, going anywhere from
Den Haag and
Leiden to
Brussels to get his residency cards. We also blitzed (went out contacting and looking for new investigators with a lot of missionaries)
Tilburg as a district after district meeting to help get the elders and sisters there some more to work with. Fun stuff. With all that and traveling all over for dinner appointments we didn't get in nearly as much work as we wanted to in our own area, but we'll fix that this next week. We also had an investigator drop us this last week, Lxxx. It was super sad to because it ended all happening in French between Elder Higham and him so I had no clue what was going on... well I kind of knew but I couldn't really help, so he had to deal with his first dropped investigator alone for a little while. Sad day. He bounced back though and is doing just fine. We had another appointment with the lady we found in
Bergen op Zoom, Axxx. She is so golden! We ended up not even being able to give our planned lesson because she has already read so far in the
Book of Mormon and had so many questions that we just answered those. She can't meet this next week because she is going on a 'worldly fast' where she doesn't talk to anybody, doesn't look at media, or read or watch anything worldly. But she said that during her fast she would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. I know she is going to get an answer. She also asked us to pray for her husband, that he would be open to hearing about spiritual things, even being open to listening to us. Seriously, so golden. Jxxx is doing good as well. She has stopped smoking and is receiving professional help now to stop. We shared a message with her this week about the story of Moses, when he went up to the high mount and was taught by the Lord. He first saw the Lord and was taught about his true identity, then Satan came and told him to worship him. Moses was able to gain strength from his knowledge that he was a Son of God to overcome temptation. Hopefully she can gain strength from knowing she is a
Daughter of God, having received that witness from the spirit, to overcome temptation. I think that is a lesson we can all learn and apply actually.
(Moses 1, Pearl of Great Price).
We're headed to go bowling today as a district. That will be fun.
I love you guys!
-Elder Hayden L. Lott
Question of the Week: We've heard of some unique Dutch idioms such as:
Be caught in dog’s weather or hondenweer. You wouldn’t send your dog out in it.
See a monkey appear from a sleeve. Daar komt de aap uit de mouw. means Aha! Now we know what’s really at the bottom of this.
Be as healthy as a fish, or zo gezond al seen vis.
You can also have butter with the fish – boter bij de vis – which means you pay for goods and services straight away.
Have you heard of these or any others?
Answer: To answer the question of the week this week is that I don't really know any Dutch sayings, or maybe they just aren't coming to mind. Maybe I'll add that to my language study. Quick thought on that. I feel like I was reminded a lot by the Lord this week that I need to serve under His power and will and not my own. I've been putting off language in place of studying and planning for other things and I paid for it. My ability to speak Dutch definitely took a hit, like more than is normal for not studying well for just one week. The gift of tongues is real, and is very much a gift that we need to work for though. Also, I ignored a few other promptings and paid the price for that as well. So dumb of me, always follow promptings! There is always room to apply the atonement though.
