BELGIUM IS WHERE I'LL BE!!!!!!! :D
Transfers! Goody will stay in IJmuiden with an MTC pal of mine, Sister Twiggs, and they're sending me to Lokeren, Belgium! I knew it. I never thought about serving in Belgium until a couple weeks ago, and I haven't been able to get it out of my head since. And I just had this feeling that I was going to need to learn Flams, which is a tiny bothersome cuz I was just getting a decent hard Dutch accent going. (Dutch and Flemish/Flams are the same but not. Same language, but like learning a new language, the dialect is so strong. Look it up on YouTube) So last week in beautiful, wonderful, delightsome IJmuiden, but it was a pretty solid one.
We had a lesson with Tinca (woman we met on the train a while back) and she is stellar. Believes everything we do, was baptized by immersion, believes in modern revelation, so is open to reading The Book of Mormon but she is really firm in her religion. Still a cool lesson, and a lovely person.
Finally had a lesson with Frank, our miracle guy that referred himself! And it rocked! It was the coolest, funnest lesson I've ever had. He's pretty young, and "searching," so he had questions about our lifestyle and listened openly to the Restoration. His work is irregular hours, so it's hard to get another lesson with him, but we're gonna try to get him to soccer on Saturdays and church. I'm voting that he gets baptized.
Eli said she'd come to church next week! Man, if we could just get her to church... District leaders were at our lesson with her, and I think that helped, having someone else from the Church other than sister missionaries.
Gave the fastest Restoration lesson the other day. A woman said we could come back and ask about the website, and she let us in, but we only had 5 minutes to give her an explanation of the Church. We maxed at about 7 minutes! Phew we were flying, Dutch words everywhere. Gift of tongues is amazing.
Our mission is doing great! We had zone conference last week, and our numbers are slowly working their way up. Hoping for more continued growth as we keep working harder and longer.
Aw man, I'm gonna miss IJmuiden. Haarlem 4 is no more. :/ It takes 3 transfers to really fall in love. I liked being here before, and I liked the ward, and my companion, and the city, and the people. But now? Oh, this place is just beautiful to me, and no one will be able to understand unless they themselves serve in IJmuiden. After these sorts of experiences, in a place like this, the people and the place and your experiences with them become sacred to you, and you just can't quite convey your feelings. I'm so grateful I got to serve here. It's where I became a missionary. And now I'm grateful I get to go serve in Belgium! Tot ziens!
Liefs,
Zuster Johanson
