Nikki's email from last week, February 2nd!
"On the tram!"
"A pretty windmill by the Robinson's home"
Hey Everybody!
Guess what? I'm back in Zoetermeer! It's great to be back.
This past week with the Robinsons was really good though--I've learned a lot from them and we got to know each other really well. They are truly amazing. It was great to go to so many zone trainings and learn from the missionaries from different areas of the mission. I confused a lot of people though, being a sister missionary without a companion (well, Zuster Robinson was my companion). We went to Eindhoven last Sunday, where President and Sister Robinson both spoke--some of the members thought they had finally gotten sister missionaries, so I had to explain my situation to a lot of people--some people thought I was the Robinsons' daughter. We went to Zone trainings in Amsterdam, Den Haag (my zone--I got to see Zuster Faasavalu and Zuster Westland--my Dutch companion--came to the training! It was good to see all the missionaries from my zone), and Eindhoven. The trainings were all on Chapter 10 in Preach My Gospel, which is about teaching skills.
On Friday I came back to Zoetermeer--I'm only allowed to do half days right now, but we can push it out a little farther each day. I'm also not allowed to bike until my head pain is gone, and we're going to try to find a helmet today. It was great to see all of the members yesterday at church--I've really missed all of them. And we had a bunch of investigators come yesterday! Irek, Irene, Zuster Ehrari, Lucie and her daughter--it was wonderful. Wouter got a new suit and tie, and apparently last week he blessed the sacrament! The people here are so amazing--I love them so much.
On Friday/Saturday, we did a lot of contacting/look ups (look ups are when we look up former or potential investigators), and we found a couple of really great potentials. One woman, Ilsa, is a really fun woman from Suriname and she teaches zumba. She invited us to come to a lesson one day and she told us "there are a lot of cute young men there, so you should really come!" it was pretty funny...Anyways, we'll be meeting with her this week. We also met a nice man name Erwin on the tram--he was wearing a bunch of New York Yankee clothing, so we talked about baseball and such, and then we had a great chat about faith--we're really excited about him, we should be meeting with him this week too.
Also, we had a lesson with Medhi, the really cool man we met a couple Sundays ago--it was a great lesson--he is just looking for something in his life to help him feel less lost--it was a really great opportunity yesterday for us to testify to him of the healing power of the Atonement and of God's love for him.
So you're probably curious about the title for this week. Well, I was reading in John the other day about when Christ suffers in the Garden in Gethsemane and soon after, a group of people come to take Christ away.
10 Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.
11 Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?
Peter didn't fully understand all that was going on and the reasons therefore (sorry, I don't know how to properly say that in English)--he just knew that He loved Christ and didn't want these people to take Him away--he wanted to protect Him. But Jesus, knowing that all these things needed to happen, and knowing why they needed to happen, told peter to put up his sword and explained to Peter that this is what God has sent Him to do. He then heals the servant. I think we are all a lot like Peter sometimes, when we face a trial or difficult circumstance. We don't want the change, we don't want this hard thing to happen--but we don't see the reasons for that hard thing--we don't understand. But we need to put up our swords and trust that God knows what He is doing--that the lessons learned and strength received from that trial is worth all the pain and anguish we face in trials.
I love you all, thank you for your prayers and support. I still have pain, but I'm just grateful I get to go out and work, and I am grateful for the miracles I've seen. I'm so grateful that even though I can't do as much as I normally could, the Lord is blessing us with opportunities to find and teach the people here.
Ik hou van jullie!
Zuster Thomas
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