We had another awesome miracle filled week in Rotterdam. I thought I would Delight you mom, by going in depth about a couple of the miracles. Also to answer your questions mom, no we didn't meet with the ex-Jehovah Witness guy this week because he was sick. Here you go!
Miracle number 1: We were knocking doors in a new area that a person on the street told us about because it was mainly Dutch people that live in that neighborhood. We came across this lady named Meray. She is from Kenya. Side note: Elder Dearden started the contact by asking her i she was a Usain Bolt fan because he thought he was from Kenya. racist... haha :) Back to the story: She happened to be babysitting a friend's children for the day. Her house is in a small town not even in our area so that in its self was a miracle. While talking with her we learned that she lived in America for a year and of all places she could have lived in the states, she moved to a small Mormon community in eastern Idaho, where all of her friends were Mormon and she loved how friendly Mormon people were! She let us in and we talked with her about the Restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith, like we do with most people on the first contact. The lesson went very well. She told us that only a few days before that she had prayed to God saying she wanted to learn more about him and had restarted reading in the Bible. Such a great experience to be lead to someone that we can be the answer to their prayers. She lives outside of North Rotterdam so we passed her along to good Ole Elder Sam Hunter (a friend from back home) and it sounds like they will be meeting with her this coming Friday!
Miracle #2: We went Student contacting this week in a huge dorm-like apartment complex for university students. We just walked into it and started knocking the doors, which I think is illegal but the intercom wasn't working so we just said "what the heck" and did it anyways. :) While doing that we knocked on this girls door and come to find out that in Curacao her best friend was Mormon and brought her to all of the young women activities from 12-18! Super Cool! Her best friend is just about to submit her mission papers, so I think it must have been awesome for her friend as well. She said she wasn't interested, but took a Book of Mormon and a picture with us to send to her friend. So we thought that was it, but then in the middle of the night on Friday we get a text from that girl, I guess she talked to her friend for a bit and decided to start reading in the Book of Mormon! She asked us for a bible as well so hopefully we can start teaching her now that we have an excuse to come back! (won't be for a couple weeks till we get a bible, but still cool)
So among all the many miracles that happened this week, of which those two were merely highlights, I also learned a great lesson. On Friday we had someone do an apartment inspection at our place. The guy was a former Stake President that they hired a couple days a week to inspect and fix all the apartments in the mission. He came and told a story about how that morning he was at an apartment and the missionary kept saying things like "I picked the street out and look what happened" or "I worked so hard and that's why we are having success." Similar thought to what I had after the very successful last couple of weeks. Bro. VDP shared with us a scripture that I'd love to share with you as well. D&C 59:21 "And in Nothing doth man offend God... save those who confess not his hand in all things..." Dang! So this weekend I've really tried to focus on this principle of recognizing the hand of God in my life and in our missionary work. I would say that in general we all struggle with this, showing our appreciation is obviously very important to the Lord, so we really need to make an effort of doing so! Ponder that scripture, write it on a note and place it somewhere that you will see it often, and try this week to recognize the hand of God in ALL things like it says to!
Enjoy!
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Elder Talyon Anderson Perry
Belgium/Netherlands Mission