Week 67 ~ toeval bestaat niet + milk free cookie douggghhhh

Hey fam.

I went on exchanges this week with one of the new missionaries, Zr. Pomales. It was so fun! Zr. Pomales tried to ride Zr. Klenk´s tall bike and crashed into a parked car (luckily no damage) and then fell off a couple minutes later. We switched bikes for the day hahah. We also discovered edible (egg free) cookie dough at the ice cream shop... and the best part is.. IT´S MILK FREE!!! This is a dangerous, glorious discovery people. I was so pumped. Anyway the real miracle from our exchange was we found a new investigator! His name is Erik and he was a previously contacted dvd referral and was marked as a potential, but I think the missionaries lost contact with him or something. So we looked him up and he is super interested! Zr. Pomales did a great job sharing about Joseph Smith. I´m always super impressed by the greenies and their Dutch and readiness to share the gospel!

The BEST thing happened on Wednesday. So a couple weeks ago, we belled up one of our look ups and these two guys were standing by their car and they said something like, "Hey good job. You guys do good work." We thanked them and started to walk away and then I turned around and was like, "Actually, we share a book with people about Jesus Christ. Do you guys want one?" One of the guys, Toga, was super interested! He´s muslim, but read the bible for the first time when he was in prison haha and now is super open to learning about other religions. So we gave him Alma 32 to read. Toga´s wife is spanish and apparently Alma means soul in Spanish so he thought that was a coincidence that we were there and gave him that chapter because he told us he had just blurted out, "Alma" the other day. I said, "Toeval bestaat niet!" which means that there are no such things as coinicidences haha. Anyway we tried to get his number but he told us he´d just call us if he had more interest :/ So we were thinking we would never see him again. BUT HE CALLED US on Wednesday and said he loved Alma 32!! He then asked US if we could set up an appointment to talk about it and asked for another chapter to read before then. BIGGEST MIRACLE. So cool. The Book of Mormon testifies of itself! Booyaaaa. We´re super excited to meet with him this week.

This week we just saw lots of miracles and gave out tons of Books of Mormon!! It was really cool. One of the books we gave out was to this little old 80 year old lady and we asked her if she wanted a book and she said, "Ja, leuk!" Haha so cute. We also bike contacted a guy named Omar who is super interested in our message! We gave out seven book of mormons to interested people and contacted two positive referrals. We´re really excited to work with all the cool people we´ve been finding! 

God is good! Read your scriptures. Do something nice for someone. Choose to be happy.

I love you!!

Zuster Fordiani

1-HEMA HOTDOGS are life

2,3,4-ice cream and cookie dough with Zr. Pomales

5,6-Breda centrum

1,2-language study on the playground

3-langs de deur

4,5-we had fun watching this hot air balloon pass over us... and we realized all the teeny tiny people were waving at us so we frantically started waving back. I love humans

Week 66 ~ no appts... but MIRACLES nog steeds

This week, literally EVERYONE cancelled their appointments with us. So we had LOTS of time to tract. We did lookups, knocked, street contacted, bike contacted- the usual.

We found some cool people though!! The first person we found knocking doors is Ray! He took a Book of Mormon and we have an appointment with him this Friday. The second person is a young guy (maybe 25ish yr old) named Guido. We walked into a neighborhood and he was stopped on his bike. I had the feeling that we should talk with him and later I found out that Zr. Klenk had the same feeling. But right after I had the thought to talk to him, he started getting ready to leave so I thought we wouldn´t be able to talk to him. But then he looked behind him and did a double take and started waving at us! We were like ummmm hi! No one ever waves at us haha. We asked him what his name is and he told us and then said, "It´s been a long time since I´ve seen mormons!" Apparently he met with sisters in Zwolle three years ago and then he lived with a mormon family in South America for a time so he loves mormons. He is not super religious, but is super nice and open. We got his number and we hope to meet with him soon :) It was actually super funny because we asked him to write down his number for us and he was like, "Sorry guys, I know you guys don´t do this, but it´s the weekend and I can´t write because I´m stoned." Hahah we were dying.

We also got two referrals! One is named Conrad and he stopped the Roosendaal elders in the Breda park and is super interested! So we met him once briefly and set up a new appointment for this Friday. He´s searching for the right church for him! We also got a referral from the Zoetermeer elders.. His name is Fari and he just moved to Breda and wants to come to our church! We haven´t gotten in contact with him yet but we´re excited to meet him! I´m really happy that we´re finding some more people who are ready to learn about the gospel!

Hahaha Thursday was a torrential downpour literally the whole day. And all of our appointments got cancelled so we were soaked and outside freezing all day. We were so cold that we bought ice cream just so we could sit inside for a little while. We also biked through like foot deep water. It was crazy. We only had about seven mental breakdowns combined. It´s cool.

And on Saturday we went to Belgium!! It was my first time back since I left in March. There was a stake meeting for all the relief society, primary, and young women leaders and they needed translation for some of the English speakers and help with lunch so we got to go! It was super fun and I got to see a ton of the women from the Sint-Niklaas ward! It made me so happy!

I´m also the worst comp and made Zr. Klenk give a talk in church instead of me hahaha but our deal was that she wrote it and gave it and I translated it for her beforehand. It went really well. It was cool to see that I could like translate a freaking talk into Dutch! Sometimes I don´t realize how crazy it is that I can speak Dutch after only 15 months.. the gift of tongues is real!

Ik hou van jullie!! Houdooeee!

Zuster Fordiani

1,2-clay courts

3-usss. happy fall

4-gewoon mooi

5-little old church

6-zr. klenk tried harring for the first time. these aren´t harring but we appreciated the tongues

7-on the border! two places at once

me. before and after the torrential downpour. 

​​last one sorry-- the missionaries in our ward last transfer with our ward mission leader, Rocky

Week 65 ~ inspiratie en dingen

This week flew! I can barely remember what happened haha. Just lots of missionary work!

We did lots of lookups and contacting and taught some awesome investigators. Jaqcueline is really progressing and we´re excited for her to be baptized on the 14th of October! She is amazing. We are teaching her daughter, Claire, as well. 

One cool experience was that as we were waiting for an appointment, I saw a lady in red and thought that I should talk to her. But I didn´t. And I felt really bad so I said a prayer and asked God to send her back. A couple minutes later, she came back! And I got the chance to talk to her. I was really grateful for God giving me that second chance to listen and obey. God is a merciful God and He always gives second chances.

We found a bunch of potentials this week and are excited to get some new investigators the upcoming week!

The best thing that happened this week was that I got a phone call from Zr. Lodders in Utrecht! I sent her a birthday card and she called to say thank you and I got the chance to talk to her a bit. I LOVE HER and miss her so much. I feel so blessed to have met such amazing members here. They are so strong!

I brought my notes from the conference with Elder Sabin! Here are some awesome quotes from him and his wife:

Instead of asking "why?" ask "what can I learn from this?"

Isn´t it liberating and wonderful that we can choose whether to be exalted or not?

I don´t know where the sword of Laban is. I´m a general authority, not a specific authority.

It doesn´t matter how deep the water is, if it doesn´t get in the boat, it won´t sink.

There´s no way to fail with missionary work unless you don´t try.

He taught us that every time you share your testimony, it is a success, even if people don´t accept it. He also taught us about the power of gratitude. "When you are ungrateful, it puts a governor on your happiness." Gratitude is essential to happiness. He said that if you are feeling down, make a list of blessings. Then make a list of nevers. Like "never forget who you are" and "never forget the worth of a soul." 

I learned a lot, and am super pumped to finish out my mission strong! I come home really soon!! Don´t know how that happened...

MUCH LOVE. HOUDOE

Zuster Fordiani

1-Breda centrum

2-ice cream break in Etten-Leur w/ Roosendaal elders

3,4-we found the BEST slide in the park!!

5,6-the planners that the elders made for us haha

1-another old pic from Efteling

2-after MLC a month ago on the balcony of some members apartment in Den Haag

3-last photo of all the missionaries in our ward last transfer with Bishop and Emmanuel

4-Elder Sabin conference

5,6-district pix minus the zone leaders

7-our investigator Jutland, Emmanuel, and I

Week 64 ~ Elder Sabin conference

I´m doing a lot better this week. My throat is still a bit itchy, but I feel loads better.

The best part of this week was our zone conference in Zoetermeer on Wednesday. Elder Sabin and his wife came to visit us. Their message was very uplifting and was mostly about personal conversion and becoming the person God would have us be. I left my notebook at home with all my notes, but maybe next week I´ll share some cool things I got out of the conference! The Eindhoven sisters and we did a musical number as well. Friday was super cool too because it was mission leadership conference so I got to go up to Leiden for the day. Elder Sabin and his wife were there too. They are amazing. It was cool to hear from them again and get even more insights.

We also met with Jasmine this week. She´s a member we´re helping right now and she is THE BEST. She has helped me a lot and she said we´ve helped her a lot. She´s 26ish and is a hip hop teacher. She´s soooo cool! I definitely know that I was sent here at this specific time to meet her. I received a letter from one of my friends who is going through a hard time and then the next day Jasmine told us about one of her friends who had a VERY similar situation. I was able to give her advice and we talked about it together. Jasmine also convinced me to either join or start a tap crew when I get home. hahah so I´m pumped about that.

MLC was super fun and afterwards, our crew hit up the ikea for dinner and then drove home with the windows down. Best night. It was good to kinda let go for a second and remember that I´m a person and need to relax sometimes too. Take a lil moment for yourself every once in a while. That´s my invitation for you guys hah :)

Soooo we got transfer calls and Zr. Klenk and I are staying together in Breda for another transfer. Whooo. It´s crazy to think that I only have one transfer call after this one. SEE YOU IN 12 WEEKS BABY.

have a wonderful week! enjoy my fav holiday (labor day)! eat some bbq.

houdoooeeee!!

zuster fordiani

1-I ran into sister Christensen at the zone conference from back in my Utrecht days :)

2-frog friend

3,4-inside the grote kerk in the centrum of breda

5-another pic from bowling a couple weeks ago

​​​​Us with our investigator Jaqcueline and one of our fav members, Emmanuel! He´s going on his mission in a month to the alpine german speaking mission.