So I found out in church yesterday it's a very Dutch thing to give "de beste wensen" best wishes to everyone for the new year and everyone wants to be the first one to do it. So about half way through I just made it my goal to beat everyone else to it, but they were too fast... like they just spit it out like they are going to jail if they don't say it first!
Fun thing of the week, we were at a door and we talked to a lady and she said she was too busy to talk, so I asked her why. she was baking oliebollen (amazing dutch donuts that they only eat in December) and she said she would give us some (sent you a picture with them and the elder I was on exchanges with) so we ate and talked to her on the door for like 15-20 minutes about what we do here while dropping gospel points in there as well. She even gave me cough drops because I kept losing my voice after a long day of talking and coughing. Nothing directly came of it, but we got treats and she had a positive experience with the LDS church, so that was great. I've really learned here that sometimes you can't control if someone is going to accept the opportunity to hear the gospel, but what I try to do is to at least is try to help them have a positive experience with the missionaries. That's how I try to measure success in the work
For other things we visited a couple less actives this past weekend and 1 came to church again for the first time in like 4months. Another we looked up and she isn't interested in coming to church because of relationships with people in the church, but we were able to offer her a blessing for her, to help comfort her with a lot of really tough trials in her life right now. And the other we looked up, found out he had moved and luckly a neighbor knew where, so we found him and he asked "hoe ben je achter deze addres gekomen?" basically "how did you find me" haha. He hasn't been in the church for 8 years but we discovered he still has a testimony of Joseph smith and the Book of Mormon, so we will be working with him in the future to help him to come back to activity! He was really happy, and in his prayer he thanked God for sending us to him, those are some of the sweetest words you ever hear (from members or nonmembers) because you know that they aren't just saying that to be nice, but in real sincerity and gratitude for the love of their heavenly father!
Those little moments are what makes door knocking in the rain (and snow this week) all worth it!
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Elder Talyon Anderson Perry
Belgium/Netherlands Mission