Week 76 - Groningen

Transformation Tuesday from my pre mission pics haha?

Z. Karlson!

Groningen

Groetjes

Hey family!

Wow, P has been putting us through an emotional roller coaster this week.. He's been struggling with overcoming addictions but ended up passing his baptismal interview (the district leader felt very strongly that he is ready and that the desire is there) but stood us up when we swung by his house to pick him up for church yesterday morning but we still ended up seeing him last night when we swung by and he seems to be doing pretty well so we'll see how the appt.s this week go- he wants to be baptized next Sunday...! Ah so much happened and ah everyone here seems to be so positive and wants to be baptized but all have boyfriends and so much happened this week but the awesome Romigs are taking us to Gietshoorn (the "Venice of the North") and we have to go so hopefully I can send more tomorrow! Love you all((((: have a great week! Are you getting excited to come here!? Wish us luck esp. with Peter ah we´ll see him tonight and it´ll be pretty deciding..

LIEFS,

Zuster Riley (:  

At the Markt with Swapna and Shea´s friends (from Spain, Poland, Spain, S. Korea), so fun, I love them all, and Swapna had fun getting to know them, too!

Giethoorn with the Romigs yesterday! SO BEAUTIFUL as you are about to see from the pictures. I really wish you could experience it, it was so peaceful and magical and breathtaking and quaint and fairy tale like and Dutch.

Service at Fam. De Jonge

Former Den Haag zone missionaries!

At the Pannekoekenschip with Shea last P day.. Shea is this super cool Arizona native YSA who is studying Psychology here for a year and is super friendly & fun, and hooking it up with the referrals aka her international roommates who we went to the Markt with and who are pretty interested in learning more about our beliefs (ie M, from Poland, is coming to church in 2 weeks.. she´s an active Roman Catholic and had tons of deep questions about our views on repentance and confession, and also really wants to get together and make pierogies.. haha now that I´m the expert thanks to S in Den Haag (; ). Shea´s a really good example to me of a member missionary who naturally talks to others about the gospel because it´s a part of who she is and it makes her happy.

Arrggghh

 Cooking with Z. Jaramillo.. she worked at her mom´s Surinamese restaurant in Aruba so knows all kinds of Caribbean secrets in the kitchen / Squeezing into an elevator with the district (District Mtg was at the Romig´s appt. with the beautiful view)

Beautiful statue, eh?

We went over to J´s and basically had a tea party and got to know her while she bore her testimony of the truthfulness of the Restoration and how this church/ gospel has come into her life at the perfect time and answers questions her evangelical childhood church didn´t. She´s praying about a baptismal date, but I don´t think she realizes how ready she is.. she´s so busy though, it´s really hard to meet with her now that school has started, but she is so good! And German. (:

Groningen

Familie Sprott! With some of the 8 kids. (:

Authentic Indian food with E, S, and M! They are so great, and it seems to be our thing this transfer to accidentally have new investigators offer to cook for us (tonight 17 yo new investigator who we taught last week V´s mom who is from Colombia is cooking for us. Ah V and G are so cool.. G has some questions about the necessity of rebaptism but had heard the story of Joseph Smith before and believes it and wanted to make sure V understood it, and V said a really sweet prayer thanking Heavenly Father for the new things she was able to learn). But back to E and S.. the food was delicious (and everything was eaten with our hands, even the daal soup and rice with isn´t pictured.. ha it´s awesome and totally opposite than the Dutch fork and knife always in each hand!) and it was neat learning more about Hindu temples and prayer and sharing our own beliefs on these topics and S and I have so much in common ie we love being cheapskate barterers at the Markt and smelling spices and ask people what their favorite fruit is as typical first get to know you question. E was pleasantly surprised with how open and comfortable everyone was at church in comparison with his experiences at church when he was younger, and they´ll hopefully come again.