Week twee

Goede dag!

I can't believe another week has already gone by! Time flies here in the "Empty Sea" ;) Lots has happened this week! We taught our "investigator" Juni four more lessons and committed her to baptism! Except she's moving for the summer back home, so we're getting a new investigator tomorrow. And ELDER BEDNAR CAME!!!! It was the coolest experience! He gave a great devotional about how Christ knows us "one by one." And then the choir (which I was participating in) sang a brand new song he wrote called "One by one." It was so spiritual and amazing. Haha I cry so much here at the MTC, because the spirit is always so strong!

We're doing an 8 day challenge in our district where we have to memorize 30 words and 5 phrases every day and a scripture every other day in Dutch. My companions and I have memorized Moroni 10:5, D&C 18:10, D&C 6:36. Today we're going to memorize Moses 1:39 for our lesson tomorrow! My Dutch has improved a lot and it's so amazing how much I already can say and understand! I had to say the opening prayer in Sacrament in Dutch and it went well! Our sacrament meetings are so spiritual and amazing! Because our district is made up of Dutch, Hungarians, Albanians, and Turks, we all sing the hymns in our mission language and it is the coolest thing ever. I seriously love it here.

Magic Tuesday was a magical, horrific, traumatizing experience. Yeah.

The Hungarians left this morning at 4 am for Hungary! It was really sad because they are all such great people. We're getting 15 new Huns this week though, so that should be pretty fun! I'm excited for some new competition in basketball ;) Seriously we play lightning every day during gym time and it is the best. I play lightning with all the elders and it's freaking baller. It's so fun! 

(This is from Olivia's letter to me) "I literally made friends with all the elders in the zone just from playing basketball with them. They all have respect for me now hahahaha because I make a ton of threes and I got Szuch Elder (the King of basketball) out during lightning three times in a row. I also made four threes in a row. It was sick. Seriously lightning is so fun. I randomly got super good at shooting without even practicing I feel like!! Haha I made seven free throws in a row!! so cool!"

Here are some other random, fun things that happened this week:

Elder Tolman forgot to take off his pajama shirt and was wearing it under his white church shirt when he showed up to class in the morning.

I learned that lieveheersbeestje means lady bug, and translated to English means God's little beast.

Elder Voigt cut his face eating a piece of elk jerky and made sure we knew that it was from the jerky and not shaving because in his words, "That would be embarrassing."

Some jokes from Elder Tolman:

How did Hitler tie his shoes? Little Nazis.

The scariest thing to read in braille is "Do not touch."

And a quote from Elder Grondel:

"Rice is good when you're hungry and you want 2,000 of something."

We have a good time ;) But seriously, choosing to serve a mission is the best decision I have ever made. I know I'm only in the MTC, but I already feel so much love for my fake investigators and the people of the Netherlands and Belgium I have yet to meet! My testimony has already grown so much and I am so happy to be a missionary.

Anyway, sorry this email is all over the place.

"The church is true, the book is blue, and Christ suffered for me and you." -Elder Jaunay

Ik houdt van jullie!!

Zuster Fordiani

1- The elders in their natural habitat

2- Temple walk

3- The zone

4&5- Squad photos

6- We love the temple!