Week 31 Almere Netherlands

My district before transfers

 I found my street! It's ryan path!!! 

Gardening with sister laurens

This past week was great.  We meet with our investigator Farley at the start of the week and we were planning on teaching everyone’s favorite lesson which is the law of chastity but then as we started we both felt like we should read a chapter out of D&C so we did that instead of the lesson plan and then he just opened up and told us that he was really struggling and all this stuff and he didn't want to set a new baptismal date and he was thinking about not meeting with us anymore but then after we read in the scriptures it was just what he needed and instead of dropping us he decided he wants to meet with us even more! So now we have been meeting with him just about every other day and reading in the book of Mormon with him.  He's a super cool guy and he came to church on Sunday!!!  Finally!!  It was pretty bomb!  On Saturday we did service in the morning in a members garden and then went from that straight to the ward volleyball activity.  It was like the best day of missionary work!  Service then volleyball then dinner!  It was a super fun day and we were really sad that Farley didn't show up but then he called us and said he was sorry that he was actually out of town visiting his sister and then on Sunday he told us he went up to talk to his sister about his baptism and he invited her and all that good stuff so it was super cool!  Another thing that happened this week was during district meeting a young like Romanian couple came in and asked if they could pray in the church.  So of course we said yes and then got their number and they said they would come to church but then they didn't come... I'm getting pretty used to that by now but it was still a cool experience.  Last night we had a dinner appointment with a member who has been on vacation for the past like three months but now that she is back she signed up to feed us every single week and some weeks twice a week!!  She has a catering/cake decorating business so she makes amazing surinam food!  Also she is like super tight with buddy from cake boss!  I know that will make Lindsey jealous but she is going to visit him in a few months. I think they are like family friends or something.  Super cool!!

 

Elder Hulet

Week 30 Almere Netherlands

 Random picture in Amsterdam

Me and my comp on our canal boat tour

My amazing American Style bacon burger!

So Transfer calls came last night and turns out I get to stay here in Almere with Elder Schmidt another transfer! I'm super excited! 

Not a lot went on this week.  We had zone conference on Wednesday and we were with the Rotterdam zone so It was so awesome to see all of my buddies from Rotterdam!  The conference was super good and it got me excited for the work.  I wish we could just have one of those every week.  Also the Hilversom elders had a baptism at our church this week so we invited farley to come and he loved it!!  After it was over he was like well I guess I'm up next! haha it was super cool but then he didn't show up to church the next day and he has been avoiding us.. He was super sick thought so I guess that's a good enough excuse.  Oh yeah and we were also asked to fill up the font for the baptism and they said it probably takes about 2 hours to fill but turns out it takes about half of a day so we were running buckets of water from the kitchen and the bathrooms for a while and the baptism service had to start a little late.  We felt super bad but now we know!  We invited farley again to volleyball on Saturday with the ward but we couldn't get a hold of him so we just decided not to go but then Broeder Van Vliet called us and made us come and it was super fun!  There were only 3 other people there so they needed us!  I kinda suck at volleyball but I still had a lot of fun!  Today we had a district pday and we traveled to Amsterdam.  We checked out the Anne Frank house and then took a boat canal tour.  It was so dang cool!  The anne frank thing was kinda boring but the canal tour was awesome!  We got on free because the driver was a member.  Another good thing about being a Mormon.  Then we went and ate a place called the burger barn.  It was the most American tasting burger I have had here!  I will try to send pictures later but it was super good!  Well It was a good week!  Oh yeah and they also through the Sunday school lesson on us again this week!  Broeder Kat our ward mission leader was really good about commenting though so it went great!  I love the ward here!  I'm so excited to stay for another transfer!

 

Elder Hulet

Week 29 Almere Netherlands

Me and the sisters. A member made us spagetti and she made
 me wear this thing so I wouldn't spill on myself. haha The sisters
couldn't stop laughing at me so they made me take pictures...

Wearing basketball shorts during lunch. We do that all the time
while our slacks are in the dryer because of the rain. 

So this week was kind of weird.  We started it off on Tuesday with a lesson with a lady named Mariesai and turns out she doesn't speak English or Dutch. only lingala and swahili! haha so That was a super interesting lesson. Then on the way home from that a couple of kids got in a fight on the bus and one started beating the other one with his belt. haha I have seen the weirdest things on busses here. 

Then we had to travel to rijswijk to pick up my companions ID card thing and we ran into elder Key! One of my old companions. It was super random but it was fun to hang out with them for a little while. 

So on Saturday we had a ward volleyball activity thing and our investigator Farley wanted to go so he came and it was super fun!  We showed up during the youth volleyball hour so we could play some basketball before is started and me and elder Schmidt played against Broeder Van Vliet. He's the assistant ward mission leader and he's also 72 years old! haha But man he plays dirty!!  I forgot to take pictures, but I will remember next time.  Then when volleyball started I realized I'm not good at volleyball.... Like at all!!  I was probably the only one there who could actually jump and reach over the net because everyone else was super old!!  But Every time I hit the ball it would bounce off the opposite way. I really need to work on my volleyball skills!  But Farley had a lot of fun and he called us Sunday morning and told us he was to sore to come to church.  So the baptism date has to be pushed back again.  Also we were told at the start of church that we needed to teach Sunday school because the teacher couldn't make it.  Obviously the two Americans who don't speak Dutch are the perfect last minute choice to teach Sunday school! haha they do this all the time! It is so stressful!  We had to teach on the fall of Adam and eve.  It actually went alright thanks to the sisters who commented the whole time! So I don't know if I told you last week but Netty, some lady we invited to church on the street, showed up to church last week and then we set up an appointment with her this week.  We taught her and also her son levi.  It was super cool!  She came to church again yesterday and then after church she invited us to go to her church service!  That was a whole new experience for me.  I've never been to another church service before.  It was weird.  Most of the service was just read out of a little pamphlet thingy, and it was also in Indonesian so we couldn't understand a whole lot.  They pamphlet had Dutch translations though so we could just follow along.  The songs were really weird except for one of them was the tune of Jesus wants me for a sunbeam!! haha Also everyone in their church had amazing voices and sung super loud!  One guy was jammin out on the keyboard and two people on the guitar! I felt like I was in a concert It was super cool!!  It was a fun experience but I don't think we will be going back and turns out netty isn't too interested in our church.  She actually just wanted to see if she could use our church building. haha But her church is only once a month so she might come to ours the other weeks!  I really hope so!  All in all it was a good week!  Not a whole lot of teaching this week but some weird experiences.

 

Elder Hulet

 

Week 28 Almere Netherlands

So this week started out not so good! Appointments kept falling through and my bike had some pretty bad problems so I finally caved and took it to a bike shop.  A member family owns it and they had to replace a ton of stuff on my bike.  It was going to cost 110 euros but they gave me it for half price!  I was so dang grateful for that and now my bike runs like a dream! It was also a perfect opportunity to set up a dinner appointment with this family. haha so anyway they took us out to eat at this Greek restaurant and it was super good!  I will send a picture.

I am now serving in the Den Haag stake and they just got a new stake missionary plan.  They have created a new church website just for the Netherlands and they want to get every member a facebook page so they can all like the website.  They did a test run of this down in gent Belgium and I guess it turned into more than fifty referrals in a month.  It is super cool and I can't wait to get it going here.  They will also call a cyber missionary in every ward to get all of that stuff going.

So yesterday right before church started our investigator farley called us and said he wouldn't be coming to church.  We were pretty disappointed and then when we were sitting in the investigators class two Indonesian ladies walk in and sit down by the sisters.  I just assumed it was two of the sister’s investigators, but then after the meeting they came up to me and I realized I contacted this lady two weeks ago on the street and she came to church with her sister!!!  I have never had that happen before.  We invite probably hundreds of people every week to church and finally someone comes!  She loved church and then invited us and the sisters to attend her church service next Sunday so she will come with us to our church and then we will go to hers right after. I'm super excited for that!

So last night we had an appointment with farley and our ward mission leader broeder Kat.  We taught him about what will happen in the baptismal service and also about the priesthood.  We then gave him a priesthood blessing and it was one of the coolest experiences!  This guy is really prepared for the gospel!  He has a hard time making it to church every week but he has such great faith! 

 

Elder Hulet