Week 65 - Zoetermeer

Coca cola is clever in Nederland!

 And a cute li'l Dutch urban cupcake place we passed.

 With Anja!

Haha you could say that Charlita loves America!

  (from Bb Koko's cam) - Caught me in action  

 Cool inventions for smelling sauces- perfect for Z. Lem and I who smell alllll of Z. Nyakoh's food- haha the other day we rode past a "Spicy Grill" and she said, "look, a place where I will eat and you can smell!" hahaha so funny. /  Mmmmm 

 Girls day out for P-day, aw.

Yay sales! Doesn't make too much of a difference for my window shopping haha, but this is the inside of the store Zara, a missionary favorite. /  Red with Z. Koko

Sales and selfie / This nice tram conductor wanted a pic with us.

  

Dag Familie Riley,

The open house on Saturday was neat- yes, we had 80 visitors in comparison with the 1,100 visitors who showed up last year, but it was cool being able to have personal conversations during and after the church tours, because it was slower. It was sooo hard to get info/ set up follow-up appts though.. so many really cool and interested people who got a positive impression of our church and associate it with Christ and families and want to study the BoM, but also wanted the ball to be in their court and said they'd call/ come when they had time/ questions- but still did manage to get a few, and either way, they hopefully left with church materials/ resources and curiosity and good vibes. 

One of the coolest parts of the day was that L, an inactive lady whose daughter we'd been teaching but eventually decided to take a break with regularly visiting because they were not keeping commitments, came and stayed for hours... she was really touched by a song that a member sang about the lady who had the faith to touch the Savior to be healed, and told me that it's time for her to take a step and reach out, like that lady, in faith and come back to church (she's going through a hard time right now- nasty divorce). Sure enough, she came to church the next day for the first time in years and even brought her boyfriend and was explaining things to him, really wanting him to have a good experience. 

Alexandra came to church (finally people are coming again- wow, some of the happiest, and most spiritual experiences on my mission have been sitting next to investigators during sacrament meeting) and in true Dutch fashion, we picked her up on our bikes. I was so happy biking along the canals to the church with this sweet fellow 20 year old who believes in God and wants to learn more- there are certain controversial topics that she does not agree with the Church's stance on, but I really believe that as she gains a testimony of the Book of Mormon and modern-day revelation, and her relationship with Heavenly Father and the Savior increases, she will understand certain doctrines in faith and trust. 

There's this super cute older lady named Peggy (she's at least 50 but is beautiful and looks so young) who lives in our apt building and who we've run into in the elevator/ walking her dog a few times, and turns out she's friends with a member, and she agreed to meet with us at a nearby cafe to get to know each other/ hear our stories. Based off of what the member said, we were planning to keep it chill and not necessarily teach a whole lesson/ scare her off, but as we sat down, Peggy pulled out a Book of Mormon and said she had lots of questions but was sure we had something planned, and we ended up teaching her the Restoration and lots of the PoS, and when we'd given her two recommended chapters to read, she asked for a few more because she loves studying. She is so polite and intelligent and kind, and it was a really cool surprise in-depth lesson! She has 2 children- twins, actually- and I when exclaimed "me, too!" and pointed to a picture of Madi on my scripture case, she was surprised that I had such an old daughter! I clarified that she was my sister, and she said that made a lot more sense. 

We had a cool back-porch-side chat with N, the sister of a nice member whose house I ate dinner at on exchanges in Den Haag, and she was so friendly towards us, and kept defending/ supporting us when her husband G muttered antagonizing and mocking comments at us. She said she can tell there's something beautiful and true about the temple and the work that goes on in there. 

All in all a great week, meeting lots of cool people, and Z. Nyakoh bb Koko is with us until the end of the transfer actually, yay, that would've been sad without her! (But of course that's the second disappointment with her visa for her.)

Love you all!!!

Liefs, Z. Riley (:  

 The Den Haag zusters won the daily BoM trivia question competition last transfer, so I treated them to a treat as promised. It was so intense, both companionships took it pretty seriously haha.

Exchanging!

    

 Heyyyyyoooo!

Modern Dutch architecture..

 .. and older Dutch architecture. / Rotterdam is beautiful!

 Baby Koko got her some free fresh garlic from a friendly gardener neighbor in the elevator / We love the Asian winkel! Check out these red bean desserts that we will have to try one day..

 Roy (Charlita's dad) hard at work- teaching us the secrets of Surinaams cooking.

Roti! So delicious, and he even made a vegetarian option (with chickpeas- coongries or something in Surinaams tongo dialect). It was a really cool appt. because R and their other daughter N who weren't always so pleased with A joining the church are really opening up to us and we had a great, uplifting time, I really love that family!

Zuster Van der Scheer's cat and Z. Nyakoh do not get along.