Prayer is powerful, and prayer is needed

Nikki's email from November 3rd.  Sorry I am still behind, but we finally have pictures from her! These are her pictures from the last several weeks since she couldn't get the pictures to send before. The captions in the quotations are the captions she sent in her email :)

"Sister's Conference with Sister Packer"

"Random selfie.."

"at the Pantophlet's in Almere--they fed us every Friday (btw the Elders did service for them right after dinner...thus the normal clothes."

"Sister Hoff and I (her new companion) at the Trunk or Treat activity" 

"Beautiful Zoetermeer" (her new area where she is)

"ZOETERMEER IS SO PRETTY"

"Our beautiful church building!"

"Irek at the Halloween Institute--this was the first time he's ever carved a pumpkin! He loved it."

"Sister Hoff and Irek with their pumpkins"

"at wouter's farm"

"at wouter's farm"

"I made pumpkin bread! It was lekker"

"My first fresh stroopwaffle!! Yum"

Hallo familie! Hoe is it?

Well, this week was full of lots of new things.

So, for the last couple of days in Almere:
Sister Packer and I went on splits with two older young women in Almere, which was really cool, I was with a sweet girl named Victoria, and we found a potential investigator while knocking doors! Sister Packer and I also said goodbye to a few members--the members weren't too happy with Sisters leaving Almere (they replaced us with Elders, so Almere has 4 Elders now). We had dinner our last night with familie Herrebrugh (the Mother is from Minnesota!).

Transfer day was a little nuts, it was sad to say bye to Sister Packer, but I'm excited for her and all the new adventures in her path. Also, on transfer day I tried this amazing drink from Starbucks--the pumpkin spice latte without coffee--they just made it with milk--it was amazing, you have to try it in America! Also I saw Sister Fleming!! And Elder Cook, who was in my MTC group but didn't get his visa at first--he was in Reno and met Sister Eberhard! Anyways, Sister Hoff and I eventually got back to Zoetermeer, I unpacked, and we went to the Ward's trunk or treat activity! It was so fun--I was really grateful I got to go. And we saw the temple on our way home! I love having the temple here, it's so comforting to bike past it and just know that it's close by.

And I love Sister Hoff. She extended, so she's just here until the 19th of November, so I have no idea what they'll do with me after she leaves. She's wonderful though, we have a lot of fun together. She's from Colorado and is hilarious and really good at contacting.

Also, one of the ward missionaries here does yoga every Thursday morning--she does it for free and it's a great way for members to invite non-member friends and for us to get to know them without there being too much pressure. I love yoga! It's so great. Also, on Thursday night there was a Halloween institute, and it was awesome.

We've done a lot of work here the past few days in Zoetermeer--we're finding a lot of potential investigators and our investigators are doing really well. Wouter, one the people we're teaching, is a farmer--he has tons of cows. We got to sample some raw milk (that's the translation from Dutch...basically it's fresh from the cow milk) and had a great lesson with him. We set a baptismal date with him and we're really hoping it all works out!

We're also teaching a man named Irek, who is from Poland--he is so interesting and really great. He's been working on stopping one bad thing a week (with things like smoking and drugs). He had told the Sisters previously that he couldn't give up drinking because it was such a big part of his culture, but the other day, he told us that he had just stopped drinking. It was amazing. He went to institute with us the other day and he had a great time. A funny quote from him from our lesson on Friday came after I bore testimony about Christ and how He understands us perfectly...he said "Nice guy, Jesus.'' It was really funny with his Polish accent.

Also, I found my new Dutch Grandma.....haha, just kidding...kind of. We had dinner at Sister Van de Scheer's house on Friday (she feeds us every friday). She had Frankie Sinatra playing in the background, and she has tons of books--especially church books. She lets us read while she finishes cooking, and she is just super classy and lovely.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! My subject title is really something I learned more about this week. It was really hard adjusting to everything and saying goodbye to so many people, but as I prayed, I was given energy, motivation, peace, comfort, love and guidance. Also, we've been working with our investigators, trying to help them see the importance of prayer. It is oh so needed, and Heavenly Father wants to hear from us so much.

Liefs,
Zuster Thomas