Christmas is coming!

Hey everyone! Guess what!!!!

S IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!!!!

Like for real this time! Everything is getting all set up, the ward is totally on board and S is literally counting down the days! I AM SO EXCITED!!! It is so great to see the excitment and love that is happening. What a cool experience for S to get baptized right while we are all celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!!

Pretty much, this is going to be the best week ever.

I don't know if we did much more than plan for that this week...

S on the other hand... pretty much dumped us this week. His girlfriend doesn't appreciate us teaching him the law of chastity, and well, doesn't want us to meet anymore... He agreed to another apointment for this week, so I guess we will just have to see how that goes.

We had Zone conference this week with President Teixeira? or something like that from the 70. It was AMAZING! I love the spirit that comes with a whole bunch of missionaries getting together. I learn so many new things every time and feel SO blessed that I get to be a part of this. So cool!

We got to meet our new ward mission leader this week! Totally wasn't what we were expecting when we went over to eat with them, but we are super excited. He is definitely the guy for the job, and Dordrecht is going to see some miracles through him.

Other than that we are just trying to do a lot of contacting. Dordrecht had a HUGE Christmas market this week through basically the whole city. (That means a lot of traffic.. and not with cars. People.) It was pretty exciting to go see, and we passed out flyers for a Christmas concert that will be this Sunday. People are at least a tiny bit more open when its Christmas time!

I am sad to hear things didn't go through this week for the girls (update on girls:  We are leaving Dec. 27 to pick them up)
, but I know the Lord has it in his hands. We've come this far. I am excited for when we DO get them, and will continually be praying for that!

Thanks for all of your love and prayers, ik hou van jullie!

 

Liefs, Z Packer

Holiday Emailing

So, a lot of people remembered I'm on a mission and emailed me this week.. So I am a little bit short on time! It's ok though, because I can't really even remember what happened this week!

We will start with So. We had only one lesson with him this week, and he started it out sharing the strongest most powerful testimony I've heard in a long time about the gospel and how he knows it's true and that he is ready to be baptized as soon as he can! We were SO excited about that and it was so great to hear. However, that was right before we taught the law of chastity. Which he completely understands and agrees with, but isn't sure what to do about his girlfriend... They can't get married yet because of some complications. So we aren't really sure what to do to help him.. Ah :/ it was so heart breaking to have to tell him he needs to wait to get baptized until he can follow that law. But I know things will work out for the best.

Sa announced to us Saturday that he wants to be baptized this week! WHAT? That was pretty spur of the moment. We talked to our ward leaders and compromised with him for 2 weeks so we can get everything put together. Yikes! My first baptism!!! We are super excited for him and scrambling to put everything together! Wish us luck!

This week was Sinter Klaas!!! It was a pretty good day. We visited a lot of members, and had dinner at oone of their homes. After we had eaten dinner we were helping clean up so that we could make some speckulaas... And we had JUST talked about the tradition of sinter klaas when we heard a knock on the door. Zr Aston and I were just sitting there wondering why they weren't answering the door when the wife comes out and says. "you should reeeeeally go see who was at the door!" Oh! we finally got it. Sinter Klaas had come to their house with gifts for us! It was so sweet! That made for a really fun evening. The next day we had a sinter klaas party at the church for the kids, and there was a kind of after party for the adults that we got invited to. Basically just a white elephant game. I don't remember what they called it though.

That's about all of the excitement from this week! Our new district is pretty much the most awkward thing in the world, it's pretty great. And We are SUPER excited for Zone Conference this week with a general authority! I'd tell you who but I don't remember his name. So we are pretty stoked for that!

I am praying and praying. I hope everything goes well this week! Ik houd van jullie allemaal!!!!

 

Liefs, Z Packer

We are known to get lost

Taylor's Mom and Dad were happy to see Elder Mower (rt)
 at his Homecoming today!

This week has been a crazy week of weird emotions! so after my email last week we got a call telling us that Elders will NOT be coming back to Dordrecht this transfer... WHAT??? It was super weird, and we aren't sure how we feel about it.. But I guess it's the Lords choice, not ours. Also. They have torn our district apart! So... It is completely new now. We are alittle bit scared to go to district meeting this week, but I'm sure all will be well!

After the Elders left this week we went to their apartment to collect the area book and such so we could follow up with everyone they had talked to... We also discovered what a disaster they left it! Elders... It's ok though, because we are nice sisters and cleaned it up for them. Mostly because we didn't want rotten food all over the place. The ward is super sad that Elders are gone again.

I also forgot to mention last week that we participated in the annual Belgium/Netherlands Turkey bowl! I have been sore all week from it... There is a reason I don't play football.  Ow. Don't worry though, I'm still in one whole piece!

Zr. Packer and Elder Mower

Things are going SUPER well with S! We have made it so we are now meeting with him twice a week, AND He made it to church this week! I am so incredibly excited for him!!! We had an appointment with another joint teach and she was SO great! He even brought his girlfriend to the appointment to listen in. It was SO cool and the spirit was so strong. I have a feeling in time she will be open to it. :) It is really cool to see his faith as well, since he tells us every time we extend a  commitment (such as the word of wisdom) He tells us as long as it brings him closer to God, then why wouldn't he do it? SO great!

We had another day of raking up leaves for a couple in our ward. They were surprised that we finished as quickly as we did! What do you know the sisters can do labor without the elders help ;-) It would have been nice, but at least they know we can hold our own.

Here is where the subject line comes in. We had to go get a legallity card for Zr. Aston and well... Got lost. So we were on trains the whole day. And when we got home found out I have to go get mine as well.. So. Well, that happened.

MEXICAN Food!

Missionary Food

The work is still going pretty good, I just don't know what else to say this week! Oh except we had an appointment with one of our favorite families this week! It was just as hilarious as every time (the one that proposed to me) and they want us back before they go on a trip to Scotland for Christmas! Woohoo! It is so cool to see that just our visits can help. I have so much faith in this family! 

Not sure what this is???

Success with the adoption stuff this week! I have never prayed so hard for something in my life! I am so very excited. Ik houd van jullie!!!

Liefs, Zr Packer

GUESS WHAT!!!!  I GET TO STAY IN DORDRECHT FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!

That's right! Zr. Aston and I get another transfer together in this beautiful city, and we get to be together for the holidays! I am so excited words can't even explain. However, our Elders are getting white washed... Elder Mower is going home this week which is probably the saddest thing in the world, and Elder Rauma is going.. somewhere else. I forget where. So still lots of change, but at least I get to stay!!!

This week has seemed super fast with not a whole lot that actually happened. We discovered how to best help M. She just needs to figure things out for herself! We are going through the commandments with her 2 at a time and we just talk about them till they click for her. It is actually really helpful for me too, because I get a lot of new insights. S is probably my favorite person in the whole world right now. He told us in our last appointment with him that he wants to get baptized!!!! He said after we taught him the plan of salvation he prayed about it and just felt good. He loves church and loves what we teach so he wants it! S testified to her that he knew it was true and he was going to do everything to follow Christ, so that was amazing. I am so excited for him!

P had us over for dinner a few days ago in his new house. It was definitely a man made meal, but it was tasty and a super good time. He is really working to quit drinking and I think we are starting to see some progress with him. He relapsed a few times, but it hasn't been bad. I am really proud of him, I actually kind of feel like a proud mother.

We spent a lot of time helping the members this week as well. An inactive family is moving back to New Zealand so the wife wanted to get rid of anything and everything. Our job was to organize and disperse. Basically, the 4 of us have a lot of new cd's we can't listen to, some movies, and funny clothing. We were pretty excited, and she loved that we helped and had us over for dinner the next day as well. We also helped with the ward dinner that the young womens organization was putting on... you know, our ONE young woman. So we volunteered our services and ended up cooking the entire day and cleaning  afterward. It was pretty fun though and a great time with our ward.

So that is about it! I am SO excited about the girls! I hope everything goes according to plan so they get here on time! I can't believe I am going to have sisters!!!!! Good luck with everything and I am praying for all of you! Have a great week everyone! Ik houd van jullie!

 

Elders Mower and Rauma

Liefs, Zr Packer

NOVEMBER 18

Hello Beautiful people that apparently read my letters every week!

I was approached this week by a member in the ward and informed that their family had found my blog and loved reading it. So, I guess you could say this is a sort of shout out. :)

This week we spent a lot more time with P than usual. I don't know if I mentioned he is working on moving into a new house, but he is. We have been pretty slackish in helping him, but have tried to step it up a bit this week. We went by his new house for an appointment and he has done a  VERY nice job with the place. He has done all of the flooring and painting on his own and furnished it himself. I was very impressed. Our deal is still going strong. He has now gone a week without alcohol and I've gone 2 without buying candy. Ugh. It is totally worth it though. We ran into P on exchange day and he mentioned needing help cleaning out the rest of his old house. So I volunteered ourselves and the Elders to go help. We threw a lot of stuff out, Zr Juchau (Sister training leader) scrubbed down the kitchen counter and I packaged his dishes. Oh, and I found a cupboard full of glasses for different kinds of alcohol...

And destroyed all of them...

I may or may not have had a bit of fun with that one. P allowed me to do it though, so he can't get mad :) We went back a day or so later and biked a whole bunch of stuff over to his new house. Yes, that is how moving works around here. you bike it.

We had the MOST AMAZING appointment with one of our newer investigators S! He is so ready for the gospel I love it! We finished teaching the plan of salvation to him and asked what he thought. He said he felt relieved more than anything about the 3 kingdoms becuase he had been taught hardly anyone can make it into heaven. SO COOL. The spirit was so strong and he said he was excited to come to church...

And guess what?

SOLOMON CAME TO CHURCH!!!!! AND LOOOOOOVED IT!!!!! Oh my goodness I can't even explain how giddy I have been about that.

It just keeps getting better too. He is already doing missionary work! he is trying to get his girlfriend to come listen to us or read in the book of Mormon, and we didn't even know he had a girlfriend! HE IS DOING IT ON HIS OWN! Yeah, basically the church is true.

Pretty much that is the most exciting thing that happened this week. This week just flew on by so I am having a hard time remembering much else. Oh, but Sinter Klaas came into town this weekend! So we watched the parade, and I was pretty impressed with the festivity. The Zwarte Piets come and hand out these candies called kruidnoten and pretty much they are delicious. one filled my hood with them when I wasn't looking. Thank you! So yeah, I have a lot more pictures this week, so enjoy!

I hope you all have a great week! I am glad everything is going well at home, and I wish everyone success! Thanks for the love and support!

Liefs, Zr Packer