Week 12 ~ Transfers and Tiny Miracles

Crazy week! First of all, I got my first transfer call! I'm staying in Utrecht with Zr. Merz :) She will be the sister training leader now, so that means I'll have to go on a lot of exchanges! It'll be fun to work with different sisters and visit all the sister cities in our zone!

Last p-day we climbed the Dom Toren! It was a lot of fun! It is the highest tower in the Netherlands and we could see literally everything because this country is as flat as a pancake. We could see Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Den Haag all in the distance from the top! It was a pretty sketchy climb because the tower is who knows how old and the steps were super narrow and steep. But we climbed all 450 stairs or so to the top, and the view was so beautiful!

I also went back to Brussels to get my residency card. It was a really fun trip. We got to stay for a couple hours this time and see more of the city! We saw the beautiful town square and a famous statue of a little boy peeing?... We got Belgian waffles and sandwiches again too. 

This week was a little rough with appointments.. we got cancelled on a lot, but I know that God truly has a reason for everything. When we don't have appointments, that means knocking. So because we were knocking all week, we found five new potentials! Seriously we see so many small miracles every day. I challenge you all to look for the tiny miracles you see every day, because it truly helps to recognize and appreciate God's hand in your life!

Lastly, my sister returned from her mission on Friday! It was tough not being able to be there, but her example really inspires me to keep working my hardest on my mission. I love her so much!

Ik houd van jullie!

Zuster Fordiani

The photos are of the Brussels trip and climbing the Dom Toren!

Week 11 ~ Miracles!

Hallo iedereen! 

This week was crazy! As usual. So last week we couldn't get in contact with Emiliano. We showed up for his lesson and he wasn't home and wouldn't answer our calls. Bummer. But then this week, he called us and asked us if we were coming for his lesson. Uh sure! So we hurried over there and had an AMAZING lesson about the Word of Wisdom. Emiliano is really addicted to coffee and has problems with his lungs from smoking. We were really nervous to share this lesson with him, because we didn't know how he would take it. I prayed for courage to say what he needed to hear and he totally accepted everything we taught and he told us he would give up coffee! Wow! Then the coolest part--we asked if we could set a baptismal date with him as a goal to work towards. Then he told us that God has a sense of humor because after he came to church with us, he thought that he should get baptized! So cool!!! So we set a date with him for October 8th :) 

We also planned a movie night at the church and Emiliano and our other investigator Aisha showed up! I wasn't there (I was on exchanges in Gouda), but we definitely saw plenty of miracles this week. 

I tried harring this week! I'm a real Nederlander now... I'll try to attach a video. Also, after 19 years I can finally ride my bike with no hands. Yessss. Last p-day we tried to climb the Dom Toren with a recently converted family in our ward, but it was closed for a wedding so we're going to go again today. We did get to go inside the Dom Kerk though and I got some cool pictures from that. Dom Toren translates to Stupid Tower by the way.... hahaha I love Dutch people. Anyway, I know this church is true and I hope you all have an amazing week! 

Ik houd van jullie!

Zuster Fordiani

1-Dom Toren

2-Inside the Dom Kerk!

3-Apostles flashing gang signs..

4-In the gardens with the Dom Toren in the background

5,6-Frites :)

1-Harring!

2-Beautiful Maarssen

3-Us and Rachella :)

4-Frites!

5-The gardens

6-All of us!

7-I ran into Elder Steele from high school!​

Week 10 ~ Brussels, castles, and knocking--All day erry day

Hallo!

This week was crazy to say the least! Zuster Cathers got emergency transferred to Enschede! A sister had to go home so Zuster Cathers was transferred to be the other sisters companion for the rest of the transfer. She was great and I really miss her! But Zuster Merz and I still have a blast working together. I love Zuster Merz! 

I also went to Brussels this week! Our MTC group met in Leiden and then took a 2 1/2 hour road trip in a van down to Brussels to do paperwork. We only could stay for an hour-- just long enough to get Belgian waffles, frites, and do paperwork. It was a lot of fun though! We get to return in a couple weeks and stay a bit longer to sight see. 

On P-day we went to a castle with the elders in Utrecht. It was so beautiful! We also knocked one day in the centrum and it was so fun because all the buildings are beautiful!! There was one building with a sign that said it was from 1583!

We met some awesome people knocking and gave away four Books of Mormon! We also visited some less actives and did service :) Sunday was the best when Debbie and Peter, two less actives, showed up to church! Yes! One of our investigators, Francis, has been on vacation for the past couple weeks in England. It's crazy here because in the summer literally everyone just picks up and goes on vacation for a month. It makes missionary work a little more difficult. Anyway, we got a text from Francis saying that he visited the LDS center in London! We were so excited. 

Missionary work is seriously the greatest thing in the world. It can be hard sometimes, and it's a lot of work, but it is the most rewarding. Helping others come unto Christ is the best! You can just see the happiness it brings into their lives. 

I hope everyone has an amazing week.

Ik houd van jullie!

Zuster Fordiani

1-4 The castle we visited last p-day!

1- Belgian waffle babay!

2,3- Rainy/blurry pictures from Brussels. Sorry not sorry

4,5,6- Knocking in the centrum! Utrecht is beautiful!

Week 9 ~ Pretty sure it's my two month mark.... but who's counting?

Hey everyone!!

This last week has been great! I finally saw some clay tennis courts and it was awesome. We were on the bus though, so I didn't get to go touch them. We had exchanges this week, so Zuster Merz and I got to work with Zuster Dixon for a day in the POURING RAIN. Hahah it was a blast. The weather has been crazy this week! Last week was so hot and this week it has just rained and rained. The weather here might even be more bipolar than Utah... maybe. ;) 

One cool thing that happened while knocking was we found a man while knocking who wants a Book of Mormon! He is Chinese, but he wants it in English so we're going to go back and give it to him and hopefully teach the Restoration lesson as well. It's pretty rare when someone wants a Book of Mormon so we get really excited :) We also have a new investigator! Her name is Aisha and she is so amazing. We gave her the first lesson and she was so accepting of everything we said and she had so many questions. She had studied the pamphlet we gave her and even asked if she could come to church with us! Uh... YES you can come to church with us! She wasn't able to come this week, but we are really hoping for her to be able to come this upcoming Sunday :) 

Something funny that happened this week is we decided to skip dinner hour and just work through the day and then get Domino's on the way home. So that's what we did, but we have to ride our bikes home holding the pizza boxes... so anyway after only a couple feet Zuster Cathers crashed and dropped the pizza and it fell on the ground hahah. We all just stared at it for a second and then we picked it up and went home and ate it anyway. Hahah we always have a good time :)

I hope everything is going well for everyone at home! I love you all!

Zuster Fordiani

1-Bus rides!

2-Bringing banana bread to church for the potluck :)

3-I don't even know hahah

1&2-A theme from this week is asses I guess

3-I finally got a helmet so I had to take a thug pic

4-Soaked