Monday, March 27, 2017

Week 43 ~ This email is coming to you... straight outta KAMPEN

This week was TRANSFER WEEK. so that equals crazy. 

On Monday we went to Antwerpen and said some goodbyes. Tuesday we had the coolest lesson with Violet about the plan of salvation. She LOVED it. She said if everyone knew our message there would be so much more hope in the world!
Wednesday was transfer day. That means trying to transport three suitcases and a bike on five different trains and rolled on cobblestones. Not fun. But fun at the same time. I'm back in the Netherlands!! I missed this place. It's so clean and organized. And BEAUTIFUL. Plus I got to overstap in Utrecht Centraal station and see Zr. Wilkinson and Elder Roberts right before he flew home. I missed that place and those people. 

We got to Kampen and it is SO CUTE!! There's lots of water and cute old buildings and sailboats. I love it. Our apartment is HUGE. It's the biggest in the mission hahah I was shocked when I saw it. We live in the centrum! My comp is Zr. Musgrave from Mesa, Arizona :)

On Thursday on the way to a dinner appointment, we were talking to eachother in English and the people sitting across from us on the bus starting talking to eachother in Dutch about our name tags and who they thought we were. Haha little do they know we speak Dutch :) So we called the girl out and asked what she wanted to know. Turns out she's a Theology student and had never heard about our church. We had a cool conversation with her about how we have a living prophet to guide our church. :)

We got a new investigator, Roy. He's super positive and I'm really excited to work with him! We also got to do a bunch of service this week which made me really happy. I love service. We picked up trash for this place where they are going to let sheep graze and then after we helped Tineke with her garden and planted flowers :) I also got to meet Zr. Spijkerman's fam haha small world.

IT WAS A GOOD WEEK. I miss my homies in Lokeren though--I LOVE YOU Zr. Winkel and Zr. Spijkerman!

Also you guys get a joke this week... Do you know what's intense?... Kampen.
Get it? In tents? Camping? I'm really lame ok i'm gonna end this now love you bye

Z Fordiani

1-My favs!
2-district
3&4-goodbyes




1-Antwerpen
2-more goodbyes
3-the homies
4-my people!
5,7,9-Kampen!
6-Our apartment is the red brick :)
8-Zr. Musgrave :)
10,11,12-Me and my bb swagging it up before I left​










Monday, March 20, 2017

Week 42 ~ TRANSFER CALLS....... and miracles

Heeeeyyyooo

Zuster Winkel asked President what she could do better and he said, "Get five new investigators this week." That's more than I've personally ever had on my mission. New investigators are hard! You have to teach a lesson and then make a return appointment with them. Zr. Winkel mentioned what President said, but we kinda forgot about it and got to work. Then one after another, our potentials turned into new investigators! We taught four people the lesson of the Restoration and made return appointments with them! We remembered what President had said to Zr. Winkel and decided to try to get five! Sunday morning rolled around and we still had four. We went to church and then started walking this way and that across Lokeren looking up potentials. NONE of them were home. We were getting pretty discouraged. We had one more potential to look up (Cyrilla) before our appointment in the evening with Priscila and Chasidi. I was pretty discouraged. But then I thought, "No! I have the faith that God will help us reach our goal and Cyrilla will be home." And SHE WAS. She let us right in and we taught the Restoration. It was such a testimony to me about goal setting and having the FAITH to accomplish goals with the help of God!

We also had super good weather this week! 15 degrees celsius or for normal American lil homies, like 60 degrees fahrenheit. It was so nice! We had a lesson with two of the new investigators in their backyard and we made freshly squeezed orange juice! We We also jumped on the tramp with Chasidi. It was SO FUN. I love and miss trampolines. We showed her how to play dead man and she loved it.

On Saturday we knocked for almost seven hours straight. Another record for me on my mission. But it was really fun! I love my comps and we met a couple really cool people. We were talking about how cool it would be to meet someone who is searching for something in their life. THEN WE MET ANANA. She straight up told us she was searching for something right now! We gave her the Book of Mormon and have a return appointment with her next week! 

Transfer calls were this week... I'm going to KAMPEN, NEDERLAND!! It's a little town by Zwolle. I'm super excited! I'm going to Zuster Spijkerman's home ward haha so I'll be meeting her family and her dad is the ward mission leader. Pretty funny. I'm super excited because I've heard it's beautiful up there. Also I'll be in the same zone as Zuster Merz, Zuster Lechtenberg, and Zuster Wilkinson! I'm going to miss Zuster Winkel and Zuster Spijkerman a lot though.

Love, Z Fordiani

1,2-haircuts!
3-face masks
4,5-Lokeren
6,7-froggies!!









Monday, March 13, 2017

Week 41 ~ goat herding say what

I can't even remember what happened this week. I just remember it was good...

Monday we played basketball in the Brussels church with the zone. It was super fun. We also went to the chocolate factory and made ourselves sick eating all-you-can-eat chocolate. so fun haha

I HAD CHEESECAKE for the first time in 9 months. Oh baby

We played ping pong... i still got it. And i beat the elders that have been trash talking me. Sucks to suck.

Saturday: WE SAVED A GOAT'S LIFE. It got out of it's pasture so we chased/followed it back over the fence and then lifted up the gate so it would go in, but the darn goat would not go in! It was just standing next to us so it looked like we were trying to steal a freaking goat haha. It eventually went back in. Then Zr. Winkel's bike broke and we had to walk home from Eksaarde, a teeny little village 9 km away from Lokeren. We tried to fix her bike (unsucessfully) and our hands got all dirty, so Zr. Winkel rubbed her hand on this plant which turned out to be poisonous.. who wudda thunk? We finally got home and did weekly planning with the family pack of frites.. the size of this thing is unbelievable. #heartattack #wefinisheditintwentyminutes #ialmostdiedtho

Our seven-year-old investigator, Chasidi, read ten chapters of the Book of Mormon in a week! That's more than any adult investigator I've ever had haha. She loves the reading chart we printed out for her with stickers to put on each chapter she's read. And she said, "I don't like the Book of Mormon... I LOVE it!" I love her.

Heavy dirty soul by Twenty one pilots came on while we were grocery shopping today!! I was freaking out. Tedere barmhartigheden 

Guys why are my emails always mainly about food?

I love you people!

Love, Zuster Fordiani

1-Us with Chasidi
2-​​familie pak say what??
3-chocolate fountain with speculoos
4-baby bananas
5-goat herding
6-manneke pis
7-frog friend!
8-lamborghini












Monday, March 6, 2017

Week 40 ~ Baptism

This week was so crazy but oh so good. On Monday we spent the day in Brussels! We went to the centrum, saw Manneke pis (the famous statue of the boy peeing), went inside the atomium, and got waffles and sandwiches. It was super fun. We're going back today to go to the chocolate museum (all you can eat chocolate) and to play sports at the church with the zone.

Wednesday was the BEST. I hit my half way mark, we had janky shoarmas and frites, we picked up our new companion Zr. Spijkerman, and BENNY AND AMELIA ARE GEDOOPT!! 

On Friday we went up to Leiden for MLC and the night before we had a sleepover with seven people at the Antwerpen sisters apartment. Partaaaay

I'm don't feel like my words can really describe how good of a week it was, so I'm just gonna send a lot of pictures :)

Love, Zuster Fordiani

"Marshall Mathers." -Amsterdam zone leaders
"Is that a general authority?" -President

1,2-Baptism!!
3-pannekoeken party
4- 9 MONTHS
5-Atomium
6-Bikes for life
7-waffles all day erry day








1-Manneke pis dressed up for carnival week
2-sleepoverssss
3-blurry pic of us all matching with Nikolai
4-kinda screwy panorama of brussels centrum!
5-atomium!
6-part of the berlin wall :)
7-the crew​​
8,9-MLC homies
10-the view from the atomium (notice the clay tennis courts!!!!)​