Week 30: de Geest

January 6, 2014

Geliefde Familie: 

UFO!

This week has been really good for me. Spencer told me I should try praying better, and that's what I did. It made the biggest difference, and I didn't even know I wasn't praying well before. 

As an aside, Mom, you told me to pray in Dutch as much as possible because it would show Heavenly Father that I WANT the gift of tongues. I only pray in Dutch. Since the MTC, I've done my best to express myself in as much Dutch as possible in prayers. I've seen that it's made such a difference. Some people don't do that. For some people, that's not the answer, but I know for me, it makes a difference. 

Anyway, all week I've been praying really hard. Especially that our investigators would come to church. I was fasting for it and everything. Also, on Saturday night, our bus cards weren't working, so I was praying with the same amount of effort that we'd have a miracle there. So Sunday morning. The bus comes, and the checking in thing didn't work, so the driver just let us get on and ride for free to the station. WUT?! Miracle. Prayer answered. Got to the station and contacted someone. I always feel better when we get to see a little success before church. So yay. We were waiting for our investigator that said she'd meet us there and she never showed up. I was kinda bummed, but then I thought she might have gotten on from a different place so she'd just meet us at the other station. Wasn't at the other station either. Alright, maybe she's already at church. Nope. YET AGAIN we had no investigators at church. UGH. So I was sitting next to a familie and after Elder Hunt bore his testimony, they waved goodbye and LEFT. WHAT. Why was this happening?? I had been praying so much that we'd have a lot of people at sacrament meeting. What am I doing WRONG?! Heavenly Father had answered my prayer about the bus, so why not this prayer too? Anyway, at the closing song, we were singing "Did you Think to Pray" and Elder Hunt sat by me so we could share the book. He was like, "So did I scare them away or did you?" and then he could just see that I was disappointed I guess so he goes, "Julia's here this week!" trying to encourage me, ya know? I HAD NO IDEA! I had a mini freak out of excitement complete with a fist bump, and then got back to the song. The line we were on was, "prayer will change the night to day," and I just felt so strongly that THAT is what Heavenly Father wanted me to know. If I want investigators at church, I have to be praying HARD. I can do that. Thanks, Spence. 

So we're teaching Dutch to this family from Sri Lanka. It's hilarious because they have pictures of their Hindu gods all over their house, and even though they know we're only there to teach Dutch (and give them a good view of the Church) they never fail to show us a YouTube video of Sri Lankan Hindu temples and tell us they're not interested in changing their religious views. It is kind of sad how they got here though. Sri Lanka is scary. 

So transfers. Elder Hunt is how I stay sane. He's leaving. And E Price is coming. He was just in Utrecht, which is where Zr GW also started. Zr GW and I are staying, but I've been given the assignment of Sister Training Leader. I'm really excited for this opportunity to get to serve and get to know the other sisters better. It's gonna be crazy and a lot of fun. And a lot of trains. The best part is that I get to see Sister H on the 17th for mission leadership training. 

I have learned that I really want to marry an American with as much wanderlust as me. 

Oh mom, you were wondering what happened last week. So everything was closed in Maastricht because it was in between Christmas and New Year’s, so we had to email at the church at district meeting. We had to be home by 4 though, so in order to make our train, we really only had like 45 minutes to email and get back. But I'm going to take a little time today and try to send pictures so yaaaay

Nancy and Pfortladies, thank you SOOOOO much for the package! I love you ladies so much and I am praying for you always! Thanks for thinking of me:)

You people have fun. Go do something crazy for me this week.

Be like Gideon's small force of 300. Stand strong in your own place.

I LOVE YOU

IK HOU VAN JULLIE (ha, gotcha Spence)

Love,

Zr Heilner

Love her!  I get to see her for mission leadership training!!

Harry Potter wand. The Elder wand. I was in heaven. Courtesy of Angelika Brauers (she's GERMAN!)

Week 29: Oude Nieuw!

December 31, 2013

Happy New Year!

Sorry I didn't get to write yesterday.  It was a holiday and everything was closed.  

So this stinks, but I have to go early...UGH. 

We have to be in by 4 today. We were going to have a sleepover and go to the beach tomorrow, but it got cancelled. I am so sad! But it's okay. Now I can write you a letter! Okay friends, before you go on a mission, figure out how to talk to people on the phone. 

I already hear fireworks outside. I have since like 9 am. Come on people, you can't even see the fireworks!

IK HOU VAN JULLIE (Spencer, I love you guys.)

Sorry this letter is soooooo lame. Oh something cool--we met a really cool guy who we made an appt with after we had to leave an appointment because the guy thought we were hookers and didn't speak Dutch or English. But Heavenly Father led us to this other guy and I'm SO excited to meet with him!

LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU!

See you this year! Wut.

Zr Heilner

Christmas jammies!

Pajamas that are HEAVENLY from the Pfortmillers <3

New Year"s Eve. We got permission to have Andera (former Zr P) over! YAY

Christmas Day Skype!!!

December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas!!  Skyping with our missionaries is always the best Christmas present we can imagine.  We were able to visit with Katie for about 45 minutes.  The time flew by, but it was great to speak with her and see how happy she is.  She is doing well.

She hasn't changed!

She is a very happy missionary!

So fun to see her!

Week 28: Prettige Feestdagen!

December 23, 2013

Geliefde Familie:

That means "Happy Holidays" Because I'm not 100% sure how to spell "Merry Christmas" in Dutch. Prettige Kerstdag? Maybe? It might be Kerstdagen because they have two Christmases. In any case, MERRY CHRISTMAS! Almost. I'm out of my miiiind excited to Skype you. 

This week was good. I went to Brussels again to get my Belgium ID finally! They gave us like 40 minutes to sight see and eat lunch, so that was fun. We saw the statue of the little boy peeing that's so famous for some reason. On the way to Belgium, I contacted in Russian! Not really, but I said. "I know that He lives" and pointed to Christ on a pass along card and got his number for the missionaries in his area. So that was exciting. 

Brussels

For Mark!  Valkenburg Caves

So we went to Christmas caves last week! Yes, Christmas markets inside caves in Valkenburg. It was pretty cool. And not cold! People keep telling us that it's not even cold yet and it makes me a little worried. But I'm okay for now, and you sent me toe warmers that I haven't really needed yet, so we are going to be fine. Also, I have the faith that Heavenly Father will NOT let one of His missionaries get frost bite. If any of you have heard of missionaries getting frost bite, do not tell me. The bishop's son, who is 14 and one of my favorite people in the ward, in between correcting my Dutch, he told me that he still bikes to school in shorts. #crying

I really love you people. Nobody is perfect. Everybody is important. Everybody. I'm trying to see people more as God sees them. It's really hard sometimes to remember to do that, but it makes it easier to know that God sent us all here for a reason. He loves us so much that He sent his Son for our imperfections. What a wonderful time of the year it is to be a missionary. You be missionaries too. 

IK HOU VAN JULLIE! See ya around 5 or 5:30 my time. Look pretty, I'll be judging you. 

Love, love, love,

Zr Heilner

Week 27: Crazy Week!

December 16, 2013

Geliefde Familie:

THIS WEEK. Was crazy. My companion was sick for TWO DAYS. I was dying to get outside, but she needed the rest. We also did a lot of traveling. We had a Zone Conference with Elder Teixeira of the 70 in Amsterdam so I got to sleep at Zr Hudson's house!!! And I got a lot of good advice from her. We stayed up until like 11:30 but I really needed to talk to her, so I was happy. Elder Teixeira is from Portugal, and he had a lot of really good things to say. Apparently he sort of chastised the other group though. He just taught us a lot. But since we were inside for two days (well really only one because both days we just went home early because we called Zr Robinson because Zr GW was not feeling well later in the days) we were really motivated, so we had an AWESOME week. Not that numbers are everything, but we got 4 new investigators. BOOM.

One of the assistants to the president called me on Monday asking if I could do a part of the opening exercises at zone training. He told me they're trying something new and reading two pages from the white handbook; so I got to prayerfully choose what to read.

I was just telling my companion that it wouldn't feel like Christmas this year because I don't have caramel, but then I GOT CARAMEL! You beautiful people. Thank you, thank you! I kept all of the other things in that package wrapped, I will open them on Christmas. 

Thank you for sending me to a good school so I know that you can't end a sentence with a preposition. I probably break it all the time, but at least I know it's wrong. And it helps Dutch too!

I sent you guys a letter on Tuesday with more details. Hope you get it soon!

We had an appointment with a member fall through on Saturday, so we went door knocking and got let in to this family's house from Sri Lanka! Only the dad speaks English, and basically no Dutch, but we taught them and they said we can come back! We even found the Tamil BoM online for them so they can read it. Miracle! And we didn't have to stay all night in the freezing, so that was definitely a plus. 

I CAN'T WAIT TO SKYPE YOU! Send your info to Sister Kitchen. She speaks English. I'm so glad you saw the picture on Facebook! Brother Mraz called me on my first day here and told me he knows Sister Casey. That was so cool. 

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!

Annie, good luck with the gifts. Spencer, I hear you're a lady killer. Mark, you're just the best ever. All of you, good luck on exams. I will talk to you soon :):):):):):))))))

Love, love, love,

Zr Heilner

Week 26: Winter Wonderland! See you in a year!!

December 9, 2013

Maastricht WinterWonderland

Geliefde Familie:

AHHHHH I don't have a lot of time because our ward mission leader wanted to take us to some caves today, which was really cool, and I have sweet pictures, but now P-Day is over soon so I gotta hurry.

Last Monday, I went to the centrum of Maastricht where they had a winter wonderland (Christmas Market) and a Ferris wheel which was basically as high as climbing the clock tower without having to go on the stairs, so score. 

What's your Skype information? I have an appointment with Familie Kitchen on Christmas and they need it so we can Skype you people!! :):):)

Can I have my good camera back? I really miss it. This one is not fantastic. 

So we hardly ever bike here compared to what we did in Groningen. But we do have hills. I'm really thankful for the extensive biking I had because now I have strong enough thighs to do anything, but my companion got mad at me for going too fast one time...Mom, thank you for having a great sense of direction. Let's just say my companion didn't learn Maastricht, so I've had to, but I have learned it pretty fast so it's going well. 

I was reading about Samuel the Lamanite fortelling Christ's birth and I remembered Dad in a loin cloth over his clothes at the Crespo's that one year. Lol.

So we have to go on a lot of trains because we are far away from EVERYTHING. AND the trains are sometimes not reliable. It took us like five hours to get back to Maastricht from Breda...haha. We are getting pretty good at train contacting. 

I GET TO SEE SISTER HUDSON THIS WEEK. I'm sleeping in A'dam on Wednesday because we have mission conference with a member of the 70 and we do NOT want to be late, especially because you never know when the trains are going to have problems. 

Can you send me some of those toe warmers? You know those? They're flatter than hand warmers. My toes get really cold and it makes missionary work a lot less optimistic. 

Sorry this email was kind of lame...there's so much more I want to write.... But it's good...

GUESS WHAT, my release date is 9 Dec 2014, so...see you in A YEAR OH MY GOSH

IK HOU VAN JULLIE.

Zr Heilner

Week 25: This is Pretty Different

December 2, 2013

Maastricht

 Geliefde Familie: 

In good and bad ways. Good ways: I basically live in Germany. It's BEAUTIFUL oh my gosh. We ride a lot of trains (yussss) and I love seeing the hills and cute little towns everywhere! Of course, it's also giving me a lot of time to brush up on my train contacting skills, which, for the last six weeks, have not been used that much. Another good thing is my companion. She and I were in the same MTC group, and we seemed pretty different, but before I got to Maastricht, I made up my mind that I was going to love her with my whole heart no matter what. We are indeed very different, but she is so easy to love. Her mom is Brazilian and her dad is American. She's the nicest person. I think our trainers were pretty different, too. Another cool thing: my first morning here, Zr Kohlert called me on the phone!!!!! I almost died. It was the second time I got to hear her beautiful voice since we'd been away from each other. I was so happy. She's still in Antwerpen. I have big plans that after this transfer, she'll come join me in Maastricht. That'd be so fun. My apartment is super close to the centrum, like a 10 minute bike ride, which is beautiful compared to Groningen. Here's the address:

If you would like Katie’s new address, please email me (Rosemary) at rheilner@gmail.com (Katie would love letters for Christmas!)

Bad ways: Idk what it is, but it's just a really different attitude here. Like...we do NOT have very many appointments. And that's, like, fine with my companion. Not really fine with me. President said if we're doing our best to have two appointments every day and talking to at least ten people every day about the restoration, we can be having one baptism a month. We were pretty much at that point in Groningen. We're going to get Maastricht like that too. The shower can't decide if it wants to be hot or cold, and we have to reset the water every time we shower haha. I really do like it here a lot though. Especially since I am already seeing improvements in our numbers. Phew. 

So I'm not claiming that my Dutch is great or anything. In fact, it should probably be a lot better. But I feel like I should thank German again for being so beautiful. I feel pretty confident about Dutch, and it's because of German.

So apparently you guys did something right with the Gouts. When I told them I was being transferred, Broeder Gout said, "WHAT?! We wanted to have you for Christmas!" and they said when you guys come to NL to visit, you can stay at their house. We will be taking them up on that offer. I love them. He gave me a hug that night too...hahaha. Missionary life. 

Spence, there's a member here from Portugal and he talks JUST LIKE YOU. It's so weird. He's got the nasally thing, and his humor is even kinda like yours. And his mannerisms and everything. It's so cool. 

I had 3 American Thanksgivings this year. And one Filipino. Beat that. 

Fambam, I know this is the most important work in the world. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be here. It's really hard and sometimes I don't like it, but it's so worth it. Chris sent me the greatest email of my life today bearing his testimony. IT'S WORTH IT. I know the Book of Mormon changes lives. I know it makes even the happiest people happier. I know it's true.

IK HOU VAN JULLIE,

Zr Heilner

Maastricht