Eliza has an official release date: September 29 ~ she will be home this OCTOBER!
Beautiful walk to the church! / I reached and grabbed this avocado out of the tram tracks (we were on our way to district mtg and we have to cook chili for everyone so why not?) haha
The awesome Hatcher family! Br. Hatcher is the WML in wijkwassenaar, and the kids are just the best li'l member missionaries- ie Elly brought two friends to church last Sunday to hear her speak.
Ethlyn!
Smelling everything hahaha / Gas masking Z. Hopkin's coconut cookies
Met Matheo and Zr. Rol
3 missionaries and 2 bikes is not necessarily a problem
From the Romigs' FB page: Three sister missionaries surprised us on P-Day with a delicious chicken and rice candlelight dinner. They put coconut in with the rice. It was delicious. That is just one of the many reasons why we love our missionaries. The sisters are Sisters Riley, Lemich and Hopkin.
Oeps, sorry dat het al Dinsdag is
Hallo Familie Riley, (:
It didn't work out for us to all email yesterday (a computer broke and it already takes longer because there's three of us), but don't worry- I'm alive and well and just emailing a day later. (:
To quote Elder Riley writing home from Ukraine a few years back, "it's interesting how a week that feels so remarkably monotonous most of the time can sound so eventful when you condense it into a few paragraphs of highlights. It can be fairly encouraging to review a week with the benefit of hindsight." Yes, we talked to lots of people on streets/ doorsteps/ trams, many of whom weren't interested (so they claim- they must not understand the security and peace that comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ, which interests anyone interested in families/ lasting happiness/ personal satisfaction) in what we have to offer, but on to the eventful stuff:
So, Sunday morning we ended up having to take the tram partway and walk to church because of a flat tire on my bike, and we barely missed the tram we were hoping to catch, and after a few minutes of waiting for the next one, a lady with her 14 yr old son approached us and informed us that she'd overheard us talking about church and explained that she was late to her service she normally attends, and wanted to know what time our service was at and ended up coming with us to Wijkwassenaar (luckily she understands English perfectly- I wish they would've been able to stay for Wijkzoetermeer though for her son's sake) and basically had a lesson/ church tour afterwards.. they're great Christian people, strong in their Protestant church, but took the BoM and had lots of questions about modern-day prophets/ temples in the Bible, and we'll definitely be meeting again- in fact, we're going on a "Geloofswandeling" around Zoetermeer with other Christians from various denominations that she invited us to this Saturday. It was a tender mercy, because all three of us had been praying very hard that our investigators would come to church, and then we literally got asked by two new ones if they could follow us to church!
R and C also came, and R loved the talks and lessons- now that we have established such a good friendly, trusting relationship, we want to openly discuss his feelings on baptism (for C- why he's apparently so against it, but also for himself) during our weekly lesson tomorrow, so please pray for us that we will be able to follow the Spirit and help him understand that we are not trying to 'diminish his religious tradition or life experience; rather, we want him to bring everything he has that is good, true and praiseworthy (and he has a lot), and see if the restored gospel of Jesus Christ enlarges and enriches that which he knows to be true' (to quote E. Bednar).
So, Sunday morning we ended up having to take the tram partway and walk to church because of a flat tire on my bike, and we barely missed the tram we were hoping to catch, and after a few minutes of waiting for the next one, a lady with her 14 yr old son approached us and informed us that she'd overheard us talking about church and explained that she was late to her service she normally attends, and wanted to know what time our service was at and ended up coming with us to Wijkwassenaar (luckily she understands English perfectly- I wish they would've been able to stay for Wijkzoetermeer though for her son's sake) and basically had a lesson/ church tour afterwards.. they're great Christian people, strong in their Protestant church, but took the BoM and had lots of questions about modern-day prophets/ temples in the Bible, and we'll definitely be meeting again- in fact, we're going on a "Geloofswandeling" around Zoetermeer with other Christians from various denominations that she invited us to this Saturday. It was a tender mercy, because all three of us had been praying very hard that our investigators would come to church, and then we literally got asked by two new ones if they could follow us to church!
R and C also came, and R loved the talks and lessons- now that we have established such a good friendly, trusting relationship, we want to openly discuss his feelings on baptism (for C- why he's apparently so against it, but also for himself) during our weekly lesson tomorrow, so please pray for us that we will be able to follow the Spirit and help him understand that we are not trying to 'diminish his religious tradition or life experience; rather, we want him to bring everything he has that is good, true and praiseworthy (and he has a lot), and see if the restored gospel of Jesus Christ enlarges and enriches that which he knows to be true' (to quote E. Bednar).
N and A came to yoga and enjoyed it, and we had a cool lesson with A about God's plan for families, specifically addressing her concerns with SSM. It went well, and was very applicable to our own current trial of faith/ trust in Priesthood leaders as we missionaries come to grips with the newest official missionary rule (straight from SLC to our mission) that now applies to our mission again (our mission was exempt for the past few years)- we have to wear HELMETS. Haha I think the members we've mentioned it to are more appalled- it's really not in the Dutch culture to do that. Haha the morning after the announcement at zone conference, Z. Hopz, Lemz and I kept cracking up during personal study as we'd come across a way too applicable scripture- ie Eph. 6:17 ("And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God"),
Alma 53:2 ("...this Lehi was a man who had been with Moroni in the more part of all his battles; and he was a man like unto Moroni, and they rejoiced in each other’s safety..."),
D&C 41:5 ("He that receiveth my law and doeth it, the same is my disciple; and he that saith he receiveth it and doeth it not, the same is not my disciple...")
... (:
Alma 53:2 ("...this Lehi was a man who had been with Moroni in the more part of all his battles; and he was a man like unto Moroni, and they rejoiced in each other’s safety..."),
D&C 41:5 ("He that receiveth my law and doeth it, the same is my disciple; and he that saith he receiveth it and doeth it not, the same is not my disciple...")
... (:
I love this work and this area, and we are filling up our schedule once again with people to teach, which is so great. I know that this gospel contains pure intelligence, wonderful joy, and heavenly peace- something interesting to everyone. Love you all,
Zuster Riley (:
...Narrow is the way / With Elder Hunter (aka "the Scottish Elder who recently sang a solo in Gen. Conf.") ha he's great
Missionaries in the moment at a bbq
We love the markt! Not the first P-day trip there. (: We end up getting lots of free samples (and cheap & delish produce for the week) and even some potentials! Like this guy Erton who sells the juiciest nectarines and who wants to meet up next week and talk about his thoughts on God and learn more about our beliefs.
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