Wow, Wednesday night was so cool- we went to our appt. with A and brought Z. VanderPuppet as a joint teach, and A is so intelligent, kind, and prepared. He did a lot of the talking and basically gave us his life story- he grew up in Curacao, came here to study, went back to Curacao to work as a medical director and for the Parliament, has a son and a daughter who live nearby, his wife passed away after 40 years of marriage, he currently gives some sort of inspirational speeches to college students, and he has incredible faith in Christ- so many things he said highlighted truths we also cherish. When he finally sat back and asked us to share why we'd come and asked some questions about temples, marriage, church, it was getting late and unfortunately we really had to be going (we'd planned on teaching him the Restoration but ended up giving him a chapter to read in the BoM after briefly explaining the book), but luckily he wants to meet and learn more and come to church. Really such a miracle, he is so good and is going to eat up the message of the restored gospel. Btw, he's the guy we met a few weeks ago handing out flyers in the centrum for the church open house (we'd gotten some pretty nasty rejections and prayed that we would meet someone open and interested- then we saw A, and he invited us to talk to him about who Jesus Christ is for us personally on a bench with him while he waited for his taxi).
I was pretty bold with R at our lesson, and while we were talking amongst ourselves at the end he mentioned how he felt the spirit at church and admitted that he does believe the BoM is the word of God, and I asked him why he actually wasn't a member yet (this is the same guy who was very against his recent convert wife even going to church/ having missionaries over a few years ago), and after some thought and reasoning about how he likes to really understand things and observe, he said that was a sharp question and did agree to even think about a baptismal date to work towards . I felt strongly that I needed to be loving but direct, and tried to emphasize a lot of the points Bednar makes in his talk "Come and See," and hope he doesn't feel pushed, rather realizes not only how much the church could enrich his life, but how much he could enrich the church.
We had a lesson with a sweet less-active sister who rationalized why she couldn't pay tithing and therefore hold a temple rec, but it was a powerful lesson and she agreed to pray about it and said at the end that she could definitely at least start with paying fast offerings.
S, a super smart and cute and friendly Polish pregnant mom came to yoga and to church, and is great! She is moving to Den Haag, though.
On Friday, both of our member present lessons with solid investigators and our dinner appt. cancelled, but the next day we taught sweet Ilsa (she's Dutch, but friends with some of the Wassenaar YW) at a member's home, and it was so cool! She's so ready and stopping cussing/ trying to dress modestly and will be at FSY (international EFY) in Germany all week and if that's not an uplifting and spiritual experience, I don't know what is. These youth are great li'l examples here.
So, last night we had a really neat experience with a new investigator that confirmed my testimony of priesthood blessings and the power of the priesthood, I'll tell you more about it in person one day.
There was a crazy wind storm on Saturday- we got stranded in a random Subway because some trees fell in the tram tracks.. but we survived to tell the tale.
Such a good week though, we're picking up some great new people and teaching lots more, and are excited to finally set some baptismal dates again this week hopefully.
I love you all, have a great week. (:
Liefs,
Zuster Riley (:
boksen
We went to a boxing class with Naomy and Anja today (Naomy's a regular there), it was intense and cool- but I'm pretty sure my hands permanently smell like sweat.
Shops in Den Haag
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