Almost like a "ta-da" moment

I'm glad to know it's okay to get treasures.  In that case, treasures ho!

Speaking of treasures...

We went to Haarlem for Koningsdag (King's Day) with a group of other missionaries.  Silly Elder Giles and I came dressed up in our work clothing while everybody else was wearing shorts and a T-shirt.  Derp.  The city had changed into one giant market.  It was super awesome.  We walked around the city for 4 hours or so, while everybody picked through the yard sales strewn everywhere.  One Elder walked away with a sword he had picked up for Five Euro.  I might have helped him decide to get it.  He slung it in my backpack so I looked as though I belonged in one of those vampire/werewolf movies where they wear scowls and trench coats and chopped all sorts of heads off.  I myself scooched out of the market with a gameboy game, a Coldplay CD and two Lego motorcycles.  SICK.

We went later that evening to a member's house to watch some of the events. Every big name in the Netherlands participated.  They had actors, opera singers, regular singers, rappers, Olympic sports teams, and whatever other popular people you can name perform.  All for the King.  At one point, there was a boat filled with every big-name author in the Netherlands.  It was a super crazy event.  Filled with fun and emotion.  This event was literally from sun up until sun down--the first half being the crowning itself.  Elder Giles (as a super proud American) had been pointing out how the Netherlands seems to have little to no national pride.  Watching only a fragment of that event, he was put to silence.  Aha.  The irony.  Nothing like that could have been organized in North America.

Then, the next day was transfers.  I had to go pick up my legality card, so most of our day was spent travelling to Den Haag to get it.  3 hours of train ride to show up at this place, hand them a piece of paper and get the card in return.  It was about a 30 second process.  Arg.

Despite the 3 days in a row of little missionary activity, we had a surprisingly successful week.

We met a guy named Denny not so long ago and we waltzed in his friend's house to discover six people chilling there.  It was a stressful appointment because they kept picking at our religion and doing relatively little listening.

Understandably, I was a bit apprehensive to our return appointment, but decided to follow Elder Giles advice and calm down a bit.  Me?  Having to calm down?  Weird.  Anyway, the appointment went very well.  At one point, Elder Giles sort of shut down and realized that he couldn't quite follow what was going on.  Though, he thought, Elder Burgess does.  So he said a prayer.

During that lesson, my heart was pumping, but after a pause, I gathered my thoughts and calmed right down.  Almost like a "ta-da" moment, I said something like, "Well, you guys have your own doctrinal opinions and so do we.  Every difference we have all boils down to one point.  Prophets, priesthood, church organization--it all depends on if the Book of Mormon is true."  They all agreed, that was indeed the case.  Preach My Gospel pretty much yells it at you, but it is all too true that our religion hangs on the Book of Mormon.  Aha, every comment they had after that, I would just hold up the Book of Mormon.  "Comes back to here.  You just have to read and pray about it."  Wham.

Plus, later, I found scriptures in the Bible that deal with every single idea they proposed.  Turns out, people quote the Bible and form doctrine out of certain scriptures--but if you read two verses after the very same scripture, it denies or corrects the very same thing they claim.  I'm excited for our next visit.

Things are going pretty well with Zr Boutee.  She's having crazy problems with her daughter.  The daughter is indeed reducing the amount she smokes and she's has a wicked determined to stop, so I'm very hopeful.  Good steady contact will help a lot.

The Salazars were inactive, but now they're pretty much active again.  We went over there for a party yesterday and it was a tonne of fun.  Tim and Solymar were there too.  They had all gone to see Iron Man 3 the previous night.  Apparently, it's cool beyond belief.  Apparently, I'm going to explode when I see it.

We also taught Mvr Maazland this week.  She's a friend of Zr Dee (David's mother), that we've been doing yard work for.  She's very interested to follow the lessons.  Weeew.

Well, despite a lunch of fries and horse/mystery meat, I'm still hungry.

Tot volgende keer,

Elder Burgess