December 1, 2014
Geliefde Familie:
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| Achter-op adventures |
So we are luckily
emailing at the church today. We tried to go to a spin class with the Elders
this morning, and we knew the trains would not be running because of strikes,
but after 20 minutes of waiting in the cold and dark at a bus stop, we also
learned that the buses weren't going between Lokeren and Sint-Niklaas either.
So after a series of miracles, some members came and brought us to the church.
These people are wonderful. We've probably ridden in their car too much this
week. I shall tell you why.
Friday night. We
were with the district leaders in Lokeren so we were walking everywhere. We
were all going to meet at the WML's house so we could go with his wife to visit
him in the hospital, but we (Zr MB and I) had to run home to get something
before we got there. So we ran, got what we needed and then came downstairs to
our bikes so we could ride to their house faster. Well. Zr MB's bike key was
gone. Luckily, I got my brakes fixed last week, so she could ride achter-op,
and we made it on time. But after searching EVERYTHING, even the path we took
while running to our apartment, we still couldn't find the keys. So we were
doing everything on Saturday with one bike. Luckily, Lokeren is small
so we can walk most places, but in the evening we went to go look someone up
who had referred herself that lives like 15 minutes away on the bikes.
Someone was home, but
they didn't answer the door! Frustrating. But we decided to just knock in the
area for a while before moving on. So after knocking the street, we went back
to my bike and as I was searching my pockets for MY bike keys, I said,
"Ha, it'd be funny if I also lost my key." Lo and behold.....it was
gone. Unbelievable. We looked all around the places we'd been, I emptied out my
bag...nothing. HOW?! We basically felt like Job. Just kidding, but seriously,
TWO BIKE KEYS LOST WITHIN 24 HOURS OF EACH OTHER?! Amazing. We just had to
laugh, cause, like...what's crying going to help? So we put my bike against a
fence and decided we'd tell members about it at church the next morning and see
what to do. Then we walked home and talked to people along the way. I kept
thinking, "There has to be some sort of purpose for this. Obviously we are
going to see people we would not have seen and we're going to need to talk to
them." There weren't really people outside though...But we knocked a
little bit as well. I was just bewildered by why it was happening. Then I was
looking back at all of the things we had to do because of our bikelessness. We
saw some real miracles! First, we ran into Comfort and her mom while walking
home. That was a huge miracle because Comfort really, really wants to come to
church every week and activities, but her mom wants her to go to her church
every other week and stuff. And her mom usually leaves the room when we come
over to teach Comfort, so we were discussing ways to get a better relationship
with her and then BOOM, we had to basically walk home together. It was good to
just talk to her and let her see that we're normal.
Also we ran into
Cassandra, a potential investigator; Marc, a new investigator who offered us a
ride; and another potential's mom. We talked to all of them and confirmed
appointments. I guess that must have needed to happen.
So we got to church
because a member drove us and we told one of the members that is the go-to guy
for bike issues. He came by last night and cut Zr MB's chain and then drove us
to my bike and took it with him, will cut my achter-slot, and is going to bring
it back with us when he takes us today. What a doll.
In other news, it was
my last zone conference this week. I think it sort of hit that I'm going home.
It was so weird, like, everybody kept asking me how I'm feeling and stuff and I
just haven't really thought about it that much that seriously. But then we had
to give dying testimonies, and as I was sitting up on the stand during a
musical number, I just felt so weird. I didn't like it. Then I was all nervous
and dumb as I was giving my testimony, which is lame cause I had actually sort
of prepared. But oh well. We got to sleep over in Dordrecht that night. It was
so cute. I'm kind of Holland home sick. Plus, I got to see Zr Watkins. Anyway
President talked about how loving the people (and motivations in general...I
got a shout-out because of a zone training I’d given a couple transfers ago
about the same thing...ha), obedience, and faith are all related. It's so true.
If we're not happy, we need to be throwing ourselves into the work more. I love
that about missionary work. If you want change, work harder and you'll see
positive change. I really loved zone conference. Elder Moreira of the 70 came
too. His wife only speaks Portuguese and I saw her in the bathroom and said something
I remember hearing when Spencer had those CDs in the car before his mission
haha. She liked it. Pretty sure it was "how are you" but you can
never be positive. Elder Moreira talked about a lot of stuff, but what stuck
with me was the story of Portuguese sea men that basically broke all of the
self-limiting beliefs in the world. We are the only ones that limit ourselves.
Heavenly Father wants to help us so bad, we just have to be willing to let Him.
We decide how we're going to work with our circumstances and make them
better.
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| Zone conference |
Also, at zone
conference, President came up to me and goes, "Your extension papers have
been processed." Then I laughed and told him that my mom would kill me and
then he responded with "No, she'd kill ME!" Probably true.
Just so you know, I'm
emailing to the tune of...the Elders screaming at each other in ping pong.
Oh my goodness let me
update you about Eline! She's amazing. We have lessons with her every Monday
night, and she asks the best questions. Last week she asked us if her inactive
boyfriend would have to be re-baptized before he could baptize her. The best
part is that the inactive boyfriend has a very active sister and we teach them
in the sister’s house! They came to church yesterday and really liked it. We were
freaking out because they came late, but they MADE IT! There's nothing better
than having investigators at church. When the chapel smells like smoke like it
did yesterday, you know the missionaries are doing something
right...well...kinda. It means people want to change!
I only have to weekly
plan one more time in my life. Halle-freaking-LUJAH.
I'm just going to be
working on making sure I stay strong until the end. I have to start
packing...yesterday I made myself put 20 things in my suitcase during dinner.
That was a good plan. Ugh.
IK HOU VAN JULLIE!
Liefs,
Zr Heilner
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| Some members gave us a tree. We were sooooo happy! |
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| It was SO cold yesterday. Getting on the train was so nice. |
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