Monday 11 June 2012

A strange week

This week was a busy one.  A bit strange too.  Our list of potential investigators is getting pretty long, while our straight-up investigators is...declining slowly.
Our appointments with Raychel, Sheka and Joan all fell through.  Technically, we're supposed to drop the two former, but I'm not quite ready to give up on them yet.
We had some miracles, and also some strange-ness-s.
So we were looking somebody up and this girl opened the door.  We introduced ourselves with a reply along the lines of  "Oh, I know all about you guys."
Uh...  You do?  Probably somebody who looked us up on line or someth--
"l'm a member."
Say again?  By what some would call a fluke coincidence, we found Mirielle, a member of about 4 years.  She comes from Surinam and has been here for about a year, but never made an attempt to reach the Church.  We made a return appointment and got to know her a little bit better.  She was excited to know the Church is about 2 streets away from her house and we gave her a Book of Mormon right there so she could begin reading it again.  Also, we're going to start teaching her the lessons, to kind of jump-start her back into Church.  The whole situation is just unbelievable.  Super cool.
And Isa!  She's doing great.  Everything is coming together nicely for her baptizm.  We've been calling her everyday to make sure she's on-track.  She had a long friendly discussion with the Bishop just the other night.  We're still very excited for her.
Also!  I lent Harry my book so he could read it.  He loves talking about it (though he mentions all-too-frequently the mistakes--- daarin).  He comments often how 'spannend' it is.  He usually goes to bed pretty early, but one night he stayed up until 11:30 reading it.  He's finished the first book already--within 3 weeks.  I'm going to lend him the second one today.  
So guess something else.  I have discovered that I like asking Muslim people where they come from.  In our area, they seem to come out of Turkey.  But when I asked a Turkish person that the other day, they kind of squinted at me with a smile and asked "Do you come from Turkey too?"  AH!  What?  No!  Apparently, I've just got that face.  I guess I've got more sun lately than I thought.  Okay, whatever though.  Just one comment, right. Nope.  I had a second Turkish person ask me the same thing.  GAH!  Goshdangit.  Isa only corroborated what they said.  "Yeah, you do kind look a bit Turkish." That's three separate people.  
Gerald--in a roundabout way--dropped us.  We showed up for our appointment, but a lady opened the door and told us he wasn't feeling well and he wouldn't be up to meeting with us again.  When I tried to push why, she only sent us away.  Hmm, okay...  Bummer.  He really seemed interested too.  Maybe we'll phone him and ask further.  I want to hear it from him.
We had dinner with the Knudsons yesterday.  Guess what they made us?  A full turkey dinner.  Stuffing, yams, smashed potatoes, the works.  It was unbelievable.  I've never had moister turkey.  Hot diggety was it good.  They told us too that they'd like to have us over at least once more. Hey, I'm not complaining. They will be moving back to the States soon.
Oh, and I got a new camera!  It's very nice.  If any of you back home want a decent camera, I could probably send the old one your way.  Gotta let me know right away though.
So the European Cup started.  We were heading towards the centrum when we saw a lot of people wearing orange, flocking towards the stadium.  It wasn't hard to figure out why.  Yep.  Needless to say, the rest of the night was essentially fruitless.  I've never seen the city so dead.  It was almost eerie.  The Netherlands lost too.
We went to Belgium!  It's certainly a different place.  There is a literal line between the two countries--in the road.  They don't take good care of their roads.  We got a ride from a member and as we approached the border, he said "Get ready for the quiet to go away..."  BRAAAAAAA.  Like going off asphalt onto gravel.  Ooo.  We went to Antwerpen for Stake Conference.  It was fun.  President Iring and President Nelson spoke.  The emphasis was on raising children in the Gospel.
By the way, it lifts my heart to hear that Braden is doing well.  I'm glad he's coming to church again.  I pray for him a lot.  I sent him a letter today.  He's like a brother to me.
Anydoodle.  Best of luck to you all.
Send me some love!
Tot volgende keer,
Elder Burgess

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