Week 60 ~ BREDAAAA

This week was bittersweet. Saying goodbye to members and investigators is the worst! But the sweet part is meeting the new ward that I get to serve and the new investigators I get to help progress towards baptism!

On Wednesday, July 26 at 12:02pm (ongeveer) I GAVE BIRTH to a tall, black haired, absolutely gorgeous, hilarious baby. Hahah. Zr Klenk is from Nova Scotia, Canada (but grew up in Utah) and we are so pumped to work in Breda! 

Transfer day was insane. There were about 30 missionaries coming in, 30 missionaries training them, and 30 missionaries going home. All in the office on Wednesday. It was crazy. But I gotta see Zr Merz, Zr Cathers, and Zr Winkel!!! I love them. I´m gonna miss them and Zr Wilkinson so much as they abandon me here. Haha it´s fine. I´m not salty at all. Lol but I´m actually super glad I don´t have to go home yet and get to stay in the best place in the world! Okay now picture this... Zr Klenk and I with five suitcases, a backpack, two bags, and a bike with NO CLUE where we are going. We followed some elders for a while, were lead astray (we got off at the wrong stop), got back on track, and hauled tons of crap in and out of trains until we finally made it to Breda. I locked my bike up at the station and then we were able to take a bus and find our apartment! We live across the street from the church and down the road from the grocery store. It´s super netjes. 

Okay flash forward to Friday... Zr Klenk and I went to knock doors for the first time. The first three doors get slammed in our face haha and THEN a man comes out and starts yelling at us and telling us he is going to call the police on us unless we leave NOW. Hahah i felt so freaking bad because it was Zr Klenk´s first time! I promised her that´s not how it always is haha. 

Saturday we had an appointment in the evening so we looked up how to get there and thought we would be okay.... well we ended up having to run to the bus stop which turned out to be not in use right now. Soooo we wandered all the way to the station and were able to find the bus to our appointment. Afterwards, I thought it´d be a good idea to bring my bike home. Well my bike is getting old and my seat got ripped off during transfer day (it was already half ripped off), so I balanced the seat on there and told Zr Klenk to achterop (sit on the back). It was going okay..... until Zr Klenk freaking fell off the back straight onto her butt hahaha I was dying. So funny. Zr Klenk ended up riding my bike and I just jogged along the side. Then we just walked. 

White washing, ya know? It´s an adventure.

AND YESTERDAY WAS THE BEST. Our ward is HUGE!! Two branches, Tilburg and Turnhout, were recently closed so they were combined with the Breda ward and there are so many people! It´s awesome! There are even some Americans in our ward! Really weird. We also have NINE missionaries in our ward. It´s a big change compared to last transfer with just Zr Elggren and I haha. After church we went out proselyting and met the coolest people! We gave a Book of Mormon to a guy in the park and got two other new investigators as we were knocking doors. One lady, Badia, was AMAZING. She is kinda muslim, kinda Christian, and kinda Buddhist. She had been praying that Heavenly Father would send her the answer she needed because she is going blind and just got divorced. She told Him that she´d accept anything He sent her way. She had the feeling that she needed to go home and right when she got home we showed up! We had an awesome conversation with her and she accepted the Book of Mormon. Zr Klenk opened her mouth and testified and said an amazing prayer and we all felt the spirit so strong. We all hugged and Badia took a selfie with us and told us she was going to write about us on her facebook page and told us to make sure our tags were showing and that we are angels. She´s amazing! As Zr Klenk and I walked away, neither of us could remember what we had been said to her and I know that the words we (especially Zr Klenk as she testified and prayed) spoke were given to us by the spirit and were what Badia needed to hear. We´re super excited to go back and teach her and her children next week!

See you people in FOUR MONTHS! ahhh

Zuster Fordiani

1-3 Last days in Kampen/Zwolle

4 I found tennis racquets in our new apartment...

5-7 yeah i don´t know

More pictures:

Week 59 ~ EDSON

THIS WEEK WE MET EDSON.

Edson is a member referral from a member in Groningen. We called him and made an appointment for the next day. He's from Angola and his first language is Portuguese, but his Dutch is really good. When we met with him we were blown away. He is the most prepared person I have ever met. He is humble, repentant, kind, and completely ready to change his life. He cried as he told us how he wants the pain from his mistakes to go away and how he wants to follow Jesus before it's too late. He had been checking the doors for the church because he wanted to meet with us so bad. He told us he's ready to serve in the church and pay money to help the church. He wants to give up alchohol and bad friends and drugs. His member friend in Groningen gave him a Book of Mormon and he had already been reading it, watching videos on the interent, and reading about our church. We have already met with him a couple times and when we were talking about the celestial kingdom, Edson said that he read about Joseph's brother Alvin who passed away and asked if that is where he would be. He came to church and wore a nice button up shirt and he looked so good. He also has a sister in Angola who is a member and a member cousin in Portugal. They have been testifying to him about the Book of Mormon hard core! It's so awesome! He remembered the scriptures we had shared with him and marked them in his book. Edson is amazing!!! And he accepted the invitation to be baptized on August 12th!!! We are so so so blessed to have the privilege of helping him prepare for baptism!

Other cool things:

We looked at our map for a new area to knock and prayed about a street and when we got there it was next to a GIANT church hahaha. Normally we aren't supposed to proselyte by other churches too much, but the Holy Ghost led us there sooo we decided to do it anyway. And we've already found three new potentials, taught a lesson, were let in to a couple houses, and have a return appointment! Super cool.

Zr. Leman took Zr. Elggren and I on the spirit animal journey... and I am a cheetah. Zr. Elggren is a tortoise hahah.

TRANSFER NEWS: I am leaving the beautfiul city of Kampen and am white-washing into BREDA, Nederland with a greenie!! I'm super excited!

I LOVE YOU ALLLLLLL

Zuster Fordiani

1-ik hou van KAMPEN

2-our door was randomly painted haha

3,4-smores on bread?

5-I started a sketch book :)

6-goodbye zwolle

1-kampen

2-babies!

3,4,5-goodbyes!

​​​​​​1-ice cream

2-Robert, our investigator from Ghana

3-best day ever--after our first lesson with Edson

Week 58 ~ the greatest work there is

This week RAINED. and rained. and rained. I swear it's winter here again. But it's better than dying of heat with no air conditioning. And when Zr. Mangum and I were on exchanges, we prayed that it would stop and it did! And every time we went outside that day, the rain stopped. :)

We ate some really yummy African food this week from a cute little Eritrean family. And a Domincan Repbulic meal from one of our investigators! We also had some baklava. I love how much of a mixing pot it is here.

Buuuuutttt today I just really wanted to share how grateful I am to be out here. We get to assist in the Lord's work every single day and it is such a privilege! We are yoked with the Lord and he works right along side us. He lets us witness how much the gospel changes lives. We get to help people discover and experience the joy that comes from living the gospel of Jesus Christ and feeling the peace the Atonement of Jesus Christ brings. I am forever grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Christ helped me get through some of my lowest times when I thought I couldn't see the light ever again. The gospel has brought so much joy to my life! I am so happy to have the opportunity to share that joy every day! I love the Book of Mormon. I love giving it to people and seeing them love it. We assigned one of our investigators, Roy, to read Mosiah 18 before our next visit. When we came back the following week, Roy told us that he hadn't been able to finish yet, but he had lots of questions and told us what he read was "intense". We were curious to hear about what he found intense and then we realized he thought we had assigned him to read all of Mosiah! So he had read Mosiah chapters 1-17 and LOVED it! He went on about Abinadi's courage and King Benjamin's speech and how he felt for Alma because he had to go into hiding. He was so excited to find out what was going to happen next. It was cool hearing him talk about and love that section because it is my favorite part of the Book of Mormon! It has been such a privilege to teach him because he has never been religious before, so he is hearing this all for the first time and eating it up. We also committed him to live the Word of Wisdom and he looked pretty somber at first, but looked at us with so much faith and a look that said he was willing to do what it takes and he said he would do it. I am so blessed to be here in the Netherlands participating in the greatest work there is! And the sun is even shining today too! How blessed are we!

I love you!!!

Zuster Olivia Fordiani

1-kampen!

2-knocking adventures...

3-the market

4,5,6,-art exhibition in an old church

Week 57 ~ hey

Sorry I didn't email last week! We had a 4th of July barbecue with the zone and then the library closed like right after we got there...

Highlights from last week:

-We took a school class of 16yr olds on a tour around our church!

-We only had like 15 min left of our day after dinner and we were already in our pajamas but we knew we needed to go out... so we changed our clothes, my zipper to my rain coat got stuck, and our door wouldn't shut, and so we knew Satan was trying to stop us and that we were gonna meet someone cool. Haha. We went in the centrum and the first person we met was Job! He's a student and we got his number!

-We met another cool lady in the centrum named Hedie. She didn't have interest.. she used to believe in God, but doesn't anymore because of all the sad things that happen in the world. We were able to share some scriptures with her and our testimonies and she cried, hugged us, and thanked us for coming on her path. Super cool experience.

-We had a fireside at the church about Joseph Smith and his personal life and background and our investigator Mark came! Also, our ward mission leader had put an ad in the newspaper and two other women showed up as well!

-We were working at the food bank and a cute little old lady noticed Zr. Elggren's name tag and leaned in and said, "I'm a member too." She's a less active and hasn't been to church in a long time and said she wants to come back! She asked us who the prophet is right now and the bishop in the ward. She's so cute. It was such a blessing we met her there!

This week:

-We had some killer lessons with Roy, Etty, Mulu (new investigator from Ethiopia), Tewel (another cool, young new investigator), and a couple of our other investigators. We're so lucky to work with such amazing people and have the opportunity to teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ!

-We had a ward picnic and played an intense game of volleyball with the ward

-We did more yard work and have just been busy, busy, busy!

I'm so grateful to be a missionary. 

Zuster Fordiani 

1-comp in her natural habitat

2-achterop!

3&4-...please remind me to never dye my hair

5-clay courts!!