Wham, don't hate me for saying it but holy man, do I miss you guys. Sometimes I'll do something, or say something, smell something or something makes a strange noise. Then I am reminded about my friends and family and all the crazy adventures we had an I am slightly sad. Well, sad? Not so much. More like... Hmm..... miss-ful? Yep. I miss you guys.
But hey, pictures! I finally have a way to send them. Not much of the Netherlands so much (so busy!) But I'll improve that, don't you worry.
Life here in the Netherlands is going great! I love it here, it feels like home already! Elder Frahm and I get along pretty well. He's a happy guy and a great cook, so there's nothing to complain about. I usually do the dishes afterwards so I don't feel guilty about him doing most of the work in the kitchen. There's one thing I got to say right now: our apartment is freezing! Most of the time. Our water heater thingy is malfunctioning--it turns off after about 15 minutes--and because all the radiators in the house are warmed by the water heater... It's awesome when you're taking a shower and the hot water suddenly turns off. Fun times. But we had a guy come look at it today (forced us inside for 3 hours while we waited for him) and he's going to replace it or fix it or something. Can't wait for that!
As far as the work goes, we received 3 or so new investigators this week. I'm not sure who've I've mentioned before, but we're now meeting with Sarah, Antoine, Steven and...2 other people I met just yesterday. Antoine we found by accident as we were searching for another guy. Turns out Antoine now lives where said otherguy used to live. He's interested in hearing from us, but I'm not sure how much he's getting in. He's a very distracted fellow--very concerned with his home country, Burundi. I'm very hopeful that we'll be able to go a long way with him.
We also met with this guy named Hanz Franzen. We met him last Saturday to deliver a Book of Mormon he ordered on line. When we met, he said something like he wanted to reconstruct our faith or something. We were expecting a bible bash with him when we met him on Saturday, but it turned out to be quite an interesting meeting. Turns out he's actually very interested in our faith because he wants to start an organization to help people. The premise of this organization is to help people who recently had a member of their family die (or other crisis). His organization--as he explained--meets with these people and delegates them to other groups or religions so they can receive comfort. His interest with us was to learn what we believe and if we would be interested in taking part in his organization. So we told him how the Book of Mormon came to be and he promised to read it and pray about it. Wham, that simple. He wants to meet with us again in a lofty 3 months or so. Ah! Hopefully I'll still be around. He gave us pie.
Buuut yeah. I'm not sure if I told you, but my bike seat was super wobbly. So I bought a new one--problem solved! But now my gears are slipping like crazy. What did Elder Frahm say? 'Congratulations, you just bought yourself 2 years of bike problems!' Hmm, indeed.
Finding is still a difficult thing for Elder Frahm and I. He's having a difficult time re-adjusting to it and I'm having trouble with EVERYTHING bout it. I wished I had Dad's uncanny ability to walk up to any human being on earth and spark a lofty conversation. It's sometimes difficult with people here. Dutch people are extremely against religion. A lot of people have straight-up said no when we've asked if we could ask a simple question. Many people just blow us by. I don't mind, really. What's one rejection in the long run anyway? Not like I'll see them again likely anyway. It's just...hard to get motivated to talk to strangers, especially with Dutch like mine. I think--and hope--I've improved.
Most of our investigators--in fact, I think all currently--are actually from countries in Africa. The Netherlands is very multicultural and people from Africa are usually more open to religion. (Dad would love it here. I talk to people from different ethnicity almost every day!). I really love religious people as well. I think I mentioned this last time, but they're so friendly. Whenever we discover a person who already attends church, they always wish us the best of luck. I really appreciate them. I think it's completely fine if somebody rejects us if they already go to another church. If it makes them a better person, and brings them happiness, then by all means, keep going to church. I'm not here to tear down anybodies faith, but here to build upon it.
That's my spiritual thought of the day.
Man, I wish I could respond (in email) to the letters I get. It kills me not to be able to, it really does. I'd write so differently to each one of you. It's hard to hand-write letters as well because I have hardly any time and hand-writing takes forever! If I had a computer, all the work I've got done in my novel that I'm writing would be at least tripled.
Speaking of which, people are super impressed with my novel-ness. Yep, ah. I'm awesome, I know, I know.
Check spelling button? Since when? Ah! I better not use it.
Holy man! The mini-Whibs are priests now? I don't know if I believe that! (Did I read that right, anyway?) A flock O' Whibleys up there at the sacrament table? Whoo, that's something I gotta see! I'm super proud of you shorties! All of you, keep it up!
By the way, I've been doing so much daydreaming lately. Hooboy. Hold yer horses, it's not during anything important. Biking is pretty...monotonous, so my thoughts go h'everywhere. And, not going to lie, in church as well. I've (unfortunately) trained myself to begin daydreaming as soon as a talk begins. Whups, I'll have to change that.
Love yah lots! Tot volgende keer,
Ik houd van jullie!
Elder Burgess
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