.....because I couldn't think of anything else.
So I got pranked again. This was a good one too. We are the mail-checkers, so naturally we checked the mail one day and I was stoked to get a letter from Cassie! We sprinted upstairs, exchanged some words with the other Elders and I opened the letter--to get a big picture snipped from the newspaper. WHAT?! AGH! We had stuck the same thing to Elder Andrew's bulletin board a week earlier. Those snakes copied Cassie's handwriting, removed a stamp, placing it on a new envelope and shoved it into our mailbox. Goshdernit. They got me, got me so good. I've got a killer prank lined up though. I'll let you know when it comes to fruition. I'll have my revenge.
As far as investigators...
Sentina is doing well. Unfortunately, she was sick this week, so both appointments with her fell through. She's got a few concerns right now. Her testimony is strong though--she reads in the Book of Mormon often and even discovered the Liahona (Dutch Ensign). She mentioned during our lesson in church that she already knew the Book of Mormon is true. The biggest concern I have right now is that her parents won't agree with this path she's chosen. It doesn't seem like too much of a problem, but you never know... She could get stuck in another Isa situation. Hopefully not.
Caraline is hard to keep in contact with. It seems she's never home when we call her! If she's still reading in the Book of Mormon, however, everything should work itself out. We need to get in contact right away though. Caraline was one of the four ladies we met when we contacted those two ladies drinking in the street.
Vicky, the 82-year old is super difficult to teach. She told us at the beginning of the lesson she would never change because she believes in JW beliefs. She feels the Spirit strongly every time we meet, but is too blinded by the doctrines of the JW church. She goes off in tangents too, but she's too adorable to chastise and for us to her to get back on topic. This is her thought process: "Oh yes, that reminds of Autumn. We used to live on a farm and every Autumn, we'd get all sorts of apples and make pies out of them. I like pies. They're so tasty. We'd also make pumpkin pies. Do you like pumpkin pies? I like pumpkin pies. They must be my favourite kind of pie. They're so delicious. I wished they made them all year round. Do you...?" AH! Stop being so adorable and stay on task! We'll see how things go with her. She needs to open her mind if we are to progress though. She feels it in her heart, but her head is not letting her realize it's truth. Sigh.
That's super cool about all the miracles on your end. I'm glad Daddy-O has taken the challenge seriously. I'm also glad to hear about the missionaries swinging by Marissa's. I hope everything goes well in that regard. I pray for my family and friends elke dang dag ( every dang day), and that they'll be willing to accept the gospel when it's presented to them. Keep that in mind.
On Thursday, we scheduled an entire day of just service with Jesse. We met up at around 11 and when to Zr Knights, a sweet old lady, and help yank out a super deep-rooted bushtree. After an hour and a half, the thing came free, we ate stampot (stew) and then went over to Broeder Borsboom's house. Have I told you about him? He's a hilarious old guy with a crippled foot. He's got a scooter that's--in his own words--"pimped". He's pretty much our Harry van de Sande of Lelystad. We can call him at almost any time of day and bring him on Joint Teach. He makes delicious Indonesian food too. Super cool guy. Oh yeah. We went to his house with Jesse and cleaned up his front yard too. After this marathon of service, we finally ate dinner at Jesse's with Chaim there as well. Jesse is closed about what he believes right now, so the night's discussion was pretty much 2 hours of World of Warcraft talk. I felt like I was drowning in nerd. The way he talked about it, you'd think he was the leader of a top-world-class business corporation--instead of a digital guild earning digital and thus useless money. It was kind of sad. Still, it was a great day.
When conference rolled around, it seemed as though everything fell apart. Saturday evening, we went to go watched the first session of conference, but then our train was 40 minutes late! It turned out okay because we got some prank ingredients (which were on sale,... yes!) and we talked to a Dutch-born Canadian. Anyway, then we finally got to Lelystad and Elder Shoemaker crunched my hand taking his bike down from the rack. Then, I noticed my tire had a flat! Agh! AND there was bird poop all over my bike! Double agh! We swung by and got some air from a member, then finally showed up almost an hour late to our appointment with President Hoola to watch conference.
Then the next day, the Priesthood session went haywire. For reasons too complicated for me to explain, the projector system didn't work. Arg! So we missed all of priesthood. Because we left our bikes in Lelystad overnight, Elder Shoemaker and I had to ride our two spare bikes. One doesn't have working brakes, and the other has no derailer. That means the chain was dangling down uselessly. After the chain fell off for the third time, I ditched that sucker by a building and hopped on the baggage rack of Elder Andrew's and we achteropped the rest of the way. We were stuck with the dangling chain on the way back.
BUT
Miracles. Elder Shoemaker and I had to watched the church for two hours between the afternoon sessions. About an hour in, he had a feeling that we must go outside and bring somebody back in to watch the last session. We did a round with nothing but rejection. BUT as we were heading back, a gaggle of boys called out to us. "Wat zijn jullie (What are you)?" We told them we were the missionaries, from the church just around the corner. "Oh, we've never been inside before. Can we go right now?" Wha? OF COURSE YOU CAN. So right then and there, we guided five boys, from ages 11-14 back to the church and four of them (one being Muslim) came inside and watched President Eyring's talk. It was super, super cool. The eldest (and loudest) of them asked me at one point, "So, I want to come here every week. Do I have to bring my parents, or can I just come alone?" That question blew mah mind. BOTH! He whispered to his friends at one point that he liked our church, and it was close to his house, so he wanted to attend ours instead." I would have never expected that the person(s) we were suppose to get would be children! It's amazing they trusted us to immediately to follow us into a strange building in the first place. I suppose they, being young, were more receptive and trusting of the Spirit that we hold. That was a neat experience.
I hope my letter wasn't too short this week.
Conference was awesome. There's such a strong Spirit when the Prophet speaks. He is truly an inspired man.
What do we see when we look out the window? The top of McDonald's directly below (with a permanent wet-looking spot where Elder Andrew's stained the rocks with fritesolie (fries oil)), a medium-sized square where the occasional oliebol (donut) stand rests, the tall library splitting the concrete into two paths: one leading to the gentle-inclined strip of stores that comprises the centrum (center); the other leading eventually to a nearby lake or inlet with roads and parking in between. Lights, water, rain. And people. There was also a car show this week. All sorts of old cars and stuff, filling the above-mentioned square. We took a quick ramble around. Nice cars--and lots of them too. Not sure if it was larger than the one in Vernon though...
Well, op=op.
Tot volgende keer,
Elder Burgess
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