Lieve Familie,
Thank you all so
much for the love, support, encouragement, motivation, friendship, continuous
care, and the prayers. Really it humbles me every week to open up my email and
see/feel the love from you. I feel so blessed to have such great people around
me. The Lord is so mindful of each and every one of us. I appreciate you all
and am extremely grateful. You guys rock!
This last week was great. Seriously can’t
say one bad thing about it. Being back in Rotterdam Zuid has just been eye
opening and I really am loving the atmosphere here. It’s just my type of rough
and tough work. The people here don’t like to waste there time and are very
straight forward so it gives us the opportunity to just talk to people straight
up; or in other words- to just be bold. I love it! Since we have no car and we don’t
have to travel nearly as much as I had to in Eindhoven, we get more time on the
street just walking around and walking some more and then just walking a little
more (we walk a lot) and talking to people. It’s been back to the basic
missionary work that I have truly so dearly missed (knocking doors, talking to
peeps on the street, in the trains, in the trams, teaching lessons, etc). It’s
great! I believe mastering the basics is what it’s all about- in life and
also in the Gospel. Elder Holt is a homie! He is a great example of
sincerity and Christ-like love. I have a lot to learn from him and I am very
grateful to be serving with him.
Last Wednesday we gave our 4-hour
training that I thought went pretty well. It’s always a long week of planning
and figuring things out the week before so I am glad that it is all behind us
now and that I can just put all my focus back on doing missionary work.
Cool story...
Last Saturday we challenged some kids to a
soccer match out on the streets. (Elder Holt is also a great soccer player) We
ended up playing in this huge cage right outside of the big shopping mall here.
We made a wager with the homies, that if we won.. They would come to church the
next day. Well Elder Holt and I played in our white shirts, the other two
elders in our area showed up also (however they were in their sports clothes)
and we played some 4 on 4 voetball against these kids. Yea we dominated. Won
the whole tournament and next thing you know we had quite the audience watching
us -no one expected a bunch of white dudes, 2 in white button up shirts and
slacks, to put up a fight. Great proselyting activity;) Anyways after the hour
and a half of playing all these kids in voetball we called it a night. Sunday
happened and your never going to guess this... we walked into sacrament and
BOOM! There they were.. The four kids sitting there waiting for us. They were
all between the ages of 13-17 and they joined us for church. They took the bus
and everything and got to church completely by themselves. WHO WOULD HAVE
THOUGHT?! hahaha it was so great and so awesome. We now have it set up that
everyday Saturday evening we will be playing these guys and there friends. Who
knows maybe we'll just get the whole gangsta neighborhood in the church:)
Familie and friends if there is any type of
spiritual message I could give to all today, it would just have to be the basic
fact that life should be fun. We are here to Enjoy and not endure. Of course
there are many things in life that come our way that force us to endure, but
there are so many opportunities, especially during those enduring moments, to
dig deep and find joy in life. Attitude and perspective are everything. We stay
positive and have an eternal perspective, we find joy.
“Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they
might have joy.” It’s our choice to be happy and have joy.
Soooo make the right choice and follow Him.
Life good. God is great. I have a testimony of the Restored
Gospel that continues to grow everyday. Christ is my Savior. I am enriched
daily by his endless love, mercy, and patience.
I miss you all so so SO so so much and love you even more!
Enjoy to the End!
Love,
Big Dude
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