Week 68: Trials of Faith

September 29, 2014

We were in Schiphol and took a picture by the "I Amsterdam" dingus

Geliefde Familie:

This week was tough, I'm not gonna lie. We saw a lot of miracles in the beginning of the week, but it just was rough. I got flipping sick again! I hate food poisoning! But, it was really cool because we've been learning about how we need to have improved studies and make really tailored lesson plans and once studies started, I was feeling fine. Then we had the lesson that we had planned for. It was so good! It didn't go exactly as planned because we planned on sharing a video that we couldn't get to work on her TV, but we talked about eternal families and being sealed. We asked if she believed she could be sealed to her family forever and she said, "I don't know, but I want that." So that was cool. The Spirit was strong. Then we started biking away and I got feeling so sick. Zr AA was raving the whole bike ride about how cool the lesson was and I was just praying that I wouldn't throw up. Then we got to our next lesson, and miraculously, she couldn't meet. WHAT?! It was okay though because we are getting another appt with her. It was positive. Then we went home and I was siiiiick, but I started feeling better so we could go to our next appt (this was a really busy day). So, basically, the rest of the day was kinda rough, but it worked out because I think we REALLY needed to be at that lesson with M. She's from Ghana and she told me that my Ghanian name would be Katherine Mame Adjoa Heilner. Do you think we can change that on my birth certificate?

My companion sang me Phantom of the Opera this week. All I Ask of You. I loved it. It made me miss Alyssa--she LOVES Phantom.

Zone training was great! I got to see the WML from Den Haag. He bore his testimony there. He's the most Christ like man I've ever met. He is the epitome of "turning outward."

My watch also broke this week. Ugh.

So we had a lesson with some really cool investigators on Friday night.  Anyway, we were teaching the plan of salvation and we were able to answer all of their questions. Long story short, the lesson was intense, but I liked it. It was challenging, but we had a comeback to every one of their issues. I thought we taught with clarity.  But I don’t think we are going to be able to continue to teach them.

After this very rough week, I started reading my patriarchal blessing and praying and then I was reading a talk from Pres Eyring called Trials of Faith. It's a devotional that he gave at Ricks College, and I can't find it right now, but it basically says that we need to be humble. It also says you'll understand that some of those days when you thought things were going badly were a great blessing. You might not have sought them, but if you react to such days by recognizing your dependence on God, you could actually be in a better situation that if things had gone extremely well. I really needed to hear that.

I miss you guys a lot. This is never easy, but it's okay because I didn't sign up for easy. And neither did any of you when you chose to come to earth. I love you all and I am thankful for the love and support.

Spence, CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOUUUUU!

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!

Liefs,

Zr Katherine Heilner

We were challenged to do a bunch of weird things together, one of them was take an upside-down picture

Week 67: Crazy Week!

September 22, 2014

Geliefde Familie:

First, Mom, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I love you, and there's a letter in the mail for you.

So this week at church, I translated all three hours. My tongue is actually sore from rubbing against my retainer so much...pathetic? Yes. I never realized how much people talk. Usually I get an hour break in between sacrament and RS for Sunday School (which is usually taught in English) but I had to translate all three hours. Why, you ask?

BECAUSE WE FINALLY HAD INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH! HALLELUJAH. F and his mom, C. They are two of three members of the B family that we teach. They also invited one of their friends to take the lessons with them. It's amazing. F especially is so ready to learn. C has a lot of interesting views about spirituality, but I think she liked church. She said it was kind of distracting how loud the children were...shoot, welcome to Mormonism. We have another appt with them on Friday, woo!

C was sick this week, but we still met with her once. She is doing well. We love it. She's so humble and willing to learn.

A, the African I told you about last week is SO COOL! I love teaching him. He has the BEST questions and is SUCH an honest seeker of truth. He wants to know.

V is ALSO an honest seeker. He's a little bit...well, he's going to be difficult to get to church, but it'll be okay. We can do it. He has a crazy story, involving people having a weed plantation (I don't think that's the proper term, but it's okay), but basically he needs the gospel and he knows it and he loves reading the BoM.

We made Surinam’s food this week. Roti, one of my favorite things I've had op zending. I'll need to learn how to make it without the packets you can buy at the grocery store so that I can make it for you guys.

Well, I love you guys. I love learning about the Pre-existence. You know, we chose each other because we knew we'd be what we needed to get through this life. And to learn from each other. We all developed very very different gifts before we came here, and so now we're better equipped to help each other. I love you and I'm so grateful for your examples. Post a Mormon message on Facebook this week.

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!

Zr Katherine Heilner

Some pictures of Den Haag--Familie Scherf. On Zr GW's last day.

Week 66: The seeds have been planted.

September 15, 2014

Geliefde Familie:  

MTC district!

We didn't get transferred.

Oh so Mom, James' area in Hamburg is right next to where your's was. And he loves it. He's like, "I bet I'll meet people that your parents know!" So that's pretty cool!

I had a pretty interesting talk with Zr Robinson after Mission Conference. She told me that there's a reason that I'm here in Lelystad. She also told me that the more leadership positions she's held, the more her circle of influence increases, but the lonelier she feels. Sure, she's got President, but who's to say that his day was any easier? It was really interesting. She said at the end, "You're a good missionary, Zr Heilner. And you're a good woman." It was good to know that she really believes that I'm here for a reason.

So want to hear something cool that Elder Ballard shared with the Stake and Ward leaders of the Europe area? He told them to speak their mission language for 20 minutes a day because you never know when you'll get called to use it again. COOL. I hope I use Dutch again.

C: she's doing great. We had a bit of a scare when she told us her parents don't know we meet, but then she told us that she did get permission, so phew. It's going well. We introduced her to more ward members and she loves them. 

We found a ton of new investigators. A couple of weeks ago, before we were told not to go door-to-door, we found a really cool African, and we'd been trying to follow up for weeks and we taught him last night finally. He gets it. We were talking about why he can't just keep going to his church and reading the BoM. Why he needs the Priesthood. 

One of the members who was on a mini mission two years ago took us to look up a family that he had taught. They set up an appointment, and we met with them this week. The mom has some really interesting ideas about Spirituality and reincarnation, but the son is REALLY open and cool. He wants to know everything about all the churches, but he committed to reading in the Book of Mormon and praying about it, so I know that in time, he'll come to know that it's true.

Mission conference was awesome. I got to sit by Ethlyn and Zr A. I miss her so much. I realized the importance of surrounding myself with people of like mind and testimony. Zr A leaned over and said to me, "Is this what the Celestial Kingdom will feel like" haha...she has six weeks. 

I learned a ton and got to sit by them at mission conference <3

Well, sorry this is kinda lame, but I love you guys and I know that sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. We have a lot of new investigators and we're going to be working really hard to get them to progress. Seeds of faith have been planted and I hope they grow into huge trees. 

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!

Zr Katherine Heilner

I don't think we've ever taken a normal picture but he's (Elder Muse) dying in two days 

She’s got four weeks! This is such a Heliner-Hudson moment! (I don't even remember who caught it.)

Week 65: OUR FIRST BAPTISMAL DATE

September 8, 2014

Geliefde Familie: 

 

Woo a'dam!

Oh my, oh my goodness. This week was fun. We left Lelystad a lot, actually. We went to Amsterdam last Monday and toured around a bit, which was lovely (I'll send pictures in a sec), and we went to Enkhuizen (across the dijk in Noord Holland), which is a super old and beautiful little town to look up a bunch of inactives, and I went to Zoetermeer on an exchange with Zr Watkins and GW! It was a blast and we talked a lot about squares and how we never want to marry one or become one. 

Enkhuizen is so cute and it's only like 30 km away from this hideous place, I don't get it.

Marit. We had a great lesson with her too. She broke up with her boyfriend, who was not good for her at all. We went in and read 2 Nephi 2 with her because she hadn't read it. She was asking amazing questions throughout and at the end of the lesson, she told us that she was planning on dropping us, but that chapter made her curious and want to learn more. We then were able to testify about how the Spirit works when we actually read the Book of Mormon. She promised to come to church, and was even on board when we texted her Saturday night, but didn't show up. Jammer genoeg.Back to the subject line. CHARLIE. She is amazing. I love teaching young people! They're so smart and so teachable at the same time. I love it. We were talking to her this week about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. The first lesson was awesome. She totally got it. Some people don't get why tea is bad, but we explained to her that it is addictive and she got it really fast. My favorite quote of hers during that lesson was after Zr AA said "Studies have shown that members of the LDS Church are some of the healthiest people in the world." She goes, "I'm becoming a part of the healthiest clan in the world?" So yeah, from there it was pretty easy to set a baptismal date. We have to wait until she's 18, so I'll already be home, but that's actually not that far away and hopefully I can Skype in. We are praying that she'll be able to find strength in this time that Satan will definitely be trying her faith. 

I need to explain something about Harry Potter. In your last few years at Hogwarts, you basically start thinking about what you want to become, and Harry decides in book 6 that he wants to become an Auror. An Auror is someone who is trained to fight Dark Magic. Basically, you have to pass some tests and prove yourself--much like getting a real degree in our Muggle world. So, as I sort of start to think about what I'm going to do with my life, I feel a lot like Harry. He wants to be an Auror so that he can best prepare for fighting Voldemort. Now, listen, I am sure most of you know how much I love HP, but this is serious! Satan is just as real for us as Voldemort was for Harry. Harry knew that he'd come in contact with some scary things in his life. We are just the same. The adversary is out there and he wants to destroy us, so we have to make sure that we are becoming Aurors too. Whatever I study, whatever I DO really, it's either preparing me for the challenges ahead or not. That said, I still don't know what I'm going to do with my life. But for now, I guess I'm building up my Spiritual protection pretty well, so I'll just keep finding, teaching, and baptizing. 

MISSION CONFERENCE WITH ELDER BALLARD THIS WEEK IM STOKED OMG

Grammy, thank you, thank you, thank you for that package! I love it! The necklace is so pretty and of course, a girl can never get too many Reese's. Bless your soul. And ironically, the morning before I got it, I was thinking about how I wanted more notebooks, and then BOOM, two super cute ones just showed up at my apartment. I can always count on you to read my mind. 

Adventure of the week: burned a tortilla in the oven, so we opened the back door to let it air out. The smoke alarm went off and everything haha. Anyway, later that night as we were shutting the door (yes, it is a two person job...) my companion screamed "SISTER SISTER OH NO OH NO OH NO" So I'm like "WHAT DID WE SMASH YOUR FINGER" but she then whispered that the neighbor was naked on the balcony smoking. I was like "OH NO, did you see...?" She goes, "YES I SAW HIS HAIRY NAKED BUTT" in a whisper scream hahahahahah Poor thing. She was pretty affected by that trauma.

I've been thinking a lot about what President Uchtdorf said about gratitude being the catalyst for all Christ like attributes. When we think about Spiritual Gifts and how we need to first develop Christ like attributes before we can have them, it makes me realize how necessary it is to be grateful. It just took me like 30 seconds to think of the word 'necessary' in English. Oh no. 

Mom, do we know when we're going to be in Utah over the break yet? 

Well, IK HOU VAN JULLIE! Have a great week!

Liefs,

Zr Heilner

Rijks Museum in A'dam

Familie Lub that took us to Enkhuizen. It takes 20 minutes to drive across the dijk.

Week 64: Serve to Convert?

September 1, 2014

Geliefde Familie: 

My companion taught me econ! We wrote it on our miracle wall too since I’m such an econ retard.

So after I email, I usually am exhausted just because of all the high-intensity haha but last week I was sort of feeling like something was missing and then I realized that it was because I didn't give a Charlie update!! She's our 17 year old investigator that LOVES the Spirit. Every time we have a lesson with her, we can be really open. She trusts us a lot. I love teaching youth! We ask her how she's feeling every time she's with us and she gives us this amazing explanation (well...idk if amazing is the word...usually she fumbles around for words that are things like, "happy? excited? nervous? loved?") of how she feels the Spirit so we just get to testify that it's coming from God and that He's happy that she's taking these steps. Her foster mom isn't exactly jazzed about her coming to church, so she's not allowed to until she's 18, but that's in January. So she'll be baptized then! It's kind of a long buffer period but I hope that we can just keep giving her bi-weekly spiritual bombs so that she'll have to stay on the right path.

This week was super fun. We had a ward activity (well...really a birthday party for a member, but the DL said we could go) so we went mini-golfing! It was so weird. We had one of the really old members there, Ben, he's so sweet. He was helping me haha. He was like, "okay, you wanna aim for that wall so that you can bounce it just right" and I actually did alright! 

So a really cool miracle of the week: We had a free evening, so we decided to go look somebody up. We both felt pretty good about one address, but it was kind of far away and in a really rich area. So we went, and it turned out to be a business, so that was confusing. But we chose a random street to go door to door for the rest of the night. We started asking people if they needed service, then giving them our card and telling them they could call if they ever needed anything or knew anyone that needed anything. And then we would ask them if they'd ever heard of our church. But one door, the lady actually told us about how she'd JUST gotten off the phone with the bank talking about how she'd have to sell her house because she couldn't afford it anymore. But she needs to fix up the yard and everything. She was at first really hesitant to receive help, but she needed it so she even called us angels and gave us a huge hug right there at the door. We went to help her on Saturday and it was really nice. We talked about our beliefs. She's really spiritual and cool! And I hope that more service opportunities come. I love being the answer to somebody’s prayer. She told us how she was thinking before we showed up that she didn't know how she was going to do it all, so when we came she knew we were sent to help her!

We had zone conference this week! It was great. They first hit us really hard with how true the Book of Mormon is. And, since this will be read to the ward, I'd like to expand on that. The Book of Mormon is true. I know that. It's written FOR US, so everything that is in the Book of Mormon is something that we can use. Heavenly Father only let them write things that could be applicable for our time--He KNEW it would be buried in the ground until our time. I have been changing my studies recently, making sure I ask myself what the importance of every passage is for ME and how I can learn from it. It's really enhanced how I look at the Book of Mormon, and I challenge you all to do the same. Even when you’re thinking that SURELY it has nothing to do with your life, dig a little deeper (Like the Tongan, Dallace Leota taught my class) and find the meaning. It's there, and it will probably open a huge channel of revelation. I've been able to have some really humbling experiences through this process, and I'm definitely still learning, but I know it'll become more natural and that Heavenly Father will want to give us more knowledge once we really use what He's already given us. The Book of Mormon strengthens families. I know that as we read it individually and as families every day that we will be able to withstand everything the adversary throws at us. He will make it hard for us, but we can be prepared.

So I'm on so early today because we're going to Amsterdam today! Sisters trip woo! 

Dad, I'm so jealous that you’re going to the Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia! That will be so cool! Make sure you eat saute sauce when you go to Indonesia. It’s so so so good. We have a ton of Indonesians here because it used to be a Dutch colony. I'm so excited for you. You and your super star lifestyle..I can't believe it.

Well I should probably get going. I love you so much. I know that Christ's church is back on the earth through the efforts of a prophet. I'm so grateful that we have so many things on the earth to help us throughout this journey.

Oh, also, I talked to Lucy and she said she'd sing at my homecoming, so make sure there's room in the program for that, thanks.

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!

Veel liefs,

Zr Heilner

There were so many people in church on Sunday from 

Den Haag! Marije--she's wonderful!