Nikki's email from March 23rd!
"there's a ferris wheel by centraal station! We're going on it today"
"the missionaries in Antwerpen have a health plan for the transfer, and our reward for doing it this past week was getting a waffle--kinda ironic, yes, but delicious :)"
"Sister Van der Scheer! The first one is kinda funny--one of the sisters tried to take a video but ended up taking a picture."
"Sister's Conference! With my MTC sisters"
"MTC companion Sister Whittington"
"Sister Training Leaders and Sister Robinson"
"Beautiful Belgian Sunset"
"The Antwerpen Elders"
"Antwerpen Elders and Sister Young"
"Me with Sister Fleming and Sister Begazo!"
Hallo iedereen! Hoe is het?
This week was amazing and filled with so many great things!
On monday we had a zone p-day--we played soccer, which was super fun. I got to see three elders from my MTC group which was really fun. After that we had a lesson with Lynn, a super prepared investigator. We had a great lesson with her about obedience and receiving the strength to obey. We also found a super cool swing at a park. That was great.
Unfortunately I got pretty sick on Tuesday--fever and stomach stuff, but I'm better now! And Wednesday totally made up for that--we had a miracle day on Wednesday. We had a great lesson with Agnes about the plan of salvation, then contacted in the centrum and found a few people that were interested, and then we went to our lesson with Nathalie. I LOVE Nathalie--she is so excited to learn about the gospel. We talked with her about the plan of salvation as well, and she loved it. She was so happy to know that we believe that families can be together forever. The spirit is always strong in lessons with her.
After Nathalie we had our first lesson with Hichom (we still don't know exactly how to pronounce his name). He actually contacted us on the tram last Monday, and we gave him a Book of Mormon and got his information. We taught him about the Restoration, and he had already done research about the Church and had great questions. After Hichom, we had dinner and a lesson with Ann--Ann is AMAZING and so sweet. She made Thai food for us (super spicy, but good) and we taught her about the Restoration as well. She is so sincere and has a heart of gold. She has come to church every week and is so giving and friendly to everyone. The members love her!
We had a good lesson with Natasha this past week about how faith leads to action--we had a great discussion about what we can and need to do with our faith so that it can grow. She is very wise and has great faith.
We had dinner and a lesson with Dirck and Krystal--less active members--they are very kind, humble people and it was really nice to get to know them. Krystal had had some foot problems, but she said that they can come to church now--they weren't there on Sunday, but hopefully next week!
On Friday we travelled to Zoetermeer (!!!) because we had Sister's Conference on Saturday morning at the mission home. We got there just in time for a dinner appointment with Zuster Van der Scheer!!! She knew that two other sister missionaries were coming, but she didn't know it was me! She was so surprised and it was such a wonderful reunion. She kept saying how happy she was to see me and I kept saying how happy I was to see her. It was wonderful. And we got to stop by Zuster Uljee to say a quick hi and give a spiritual thought. She hadn't been coming to church lately I guess, so it was good to be able to meet with her for a bit.
Sister's Conference was wonderful. Sister Robinson gave a great talk on being courageous and kind, President talked about listening to the Spirit and the APs talked about being self critical and also confidence versus pride. All of the talks were wonderful and hit topics that the sisters in our mission really struggle with. After lunch the sister training leaders spoke.
At Sister's conference, I spoke about how we can't invite others to come unto Christ is we haven't come unto Christ and continue to come closer to Him. We have to have accepted the invitation ourselves before we can extend it. We read through the story of Peter walking on water, and I talked about a couple different things:
1. Why did Peter want to walk on water? Simply because he wanted "to go to Jesus." He loved Christ and knew He loved him too. He had a relationship with Him and was focused on Him.
2. How did he know he could walk on water? We read earlier in the same chapter (Matt. 14) of Christ taking 5 loaves and 2 fishes and making it enough to feed 5,000 men (not counting the women and children there). I think Peter may have made the connection that Christ does the same with us--we give him something that is inadequate--5 loaves and 2 fishes--and he makes it enough. Peter knew that he could trust Christ. And we can trust Him too.
3. We read the part when Peter starts to sink. For whatever reason, he lost his focus on the Lord, but he cried out to the Lord and asked for His help. The Lord didn't tell him to swim. He immediately grabbed hold of his hand and lifted him up. The Lord knows that we will have sinking moments, but He will never tell us to swim. He will lift us up and help us to keep walking on water.
Anyways, I went more in depth with each of these points, but I really learned a lot while preparing my talk. One quote I used that I really loved was
"The task ahead of [us is] never as great as the power behind [us]."--Brad Wilcox
I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
Liefs,
Zuster Thomas
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