Oh, the fam!

Merry Christmas and Merry 2nd Christmas to all! This Christmas was probably the best ever, we started off the day with presents (which is always fabulous - Thank you Oma, Michael and Kerstin and family!)  We had quite the array of chocolate (glorious delicious chocolate) and had chocolate-y breakfast-seriously all we had was chocolate and chocomel:)

Zuster Dobler enjoying her glorious Christmas morning!

Zuster Voss happily celebrating Christmas Morning too!

The Christmas spread, these sisters are well loved!

Then we got ready for the day and went to go visit some people before getting on the train to Groningen for a de Jonge family Christmas party.  We decided that we would visit people that we pretty much knew would be alone and so we had made a list the day before, but Zuster Voss, in all her wisdom, thought it would be a good idea to visit an inactive brother in our branch who we weren't sure would have family over (at least not on 1st Christmas). We got there and gave him a Christmas card and some chocolates and we talked for about 15 minutes.  He told us that he had prayed that morning for God to show him that life/the world was beautiful and then he said "Here you sisters are!" *ah* and then he asked if we could pray together before we left (um...yes) and he thanked Heavenly Father that and I quote "Thank you Heavenly Father that I was not completely alone on Christmas" *heart melt*.   So, we went away basically floating on Christmas spirit:)

We traveled to Groningen and spent some time with the family and other missionaries that they had invited and then we got a ride over to Appelscha where the wonderful Loorbachs live and had "een echt gezellig Kerstavond". The Loorbachs are THE best family here; they are so sweet and they're basically the "mom/dad/brother"unit whilst I am here in Assen; just the best.  No more words can be said.  So we got there and while Z. Voss skyped, I showed my family pictures, and they showed me two huge albums of family pictures, which was so great:)

Loorbach family loving our sweet sister missionaries!

Then I got to skype too!! Yay! So great to just talk to jullie and talk about nothing in particular:)  Your faces were a sight for sore eyes:)  

Her dad took the picture while she was talking, so no posing smile!

After skyping we had dinner (the first food I had had all day...besides chocolate). Zuster Voss made aardappelpuree (mashed potatoes, Dutch people) and we also had rotkohl(!) and it was all delicious:) Then, dun dun dun! We watched Frozen!  At least Z. Voss and I did; I'm pretty sure the Loorbachs just watched us sing and quote the entire thing (we weren't lying when we said we knew it all). Then we had family prayer *another heart melt* and we went home relishing every aspect of the day.  There wasn't one part of the day that wasn't absolutely glorious (David Archuleta-best song ever).

Pure Joy watching Frozen!

And Ice Cream!

The next day was second Christmas.  Okay, there doesn't seem anything really special about second Christmas day, no special Dutch tradition or anything, it's seriously just an extra day of whatever.  So, 2nd Christmas we were invited over to one of our onderzoekers for traditional Suriname food, which was amazing and delicious and then just 2 hours later we went to another investigator to her in-laws for Christmas dinner.  It as THE fanciest meal I think I've ever eaten-like 6 courses of crazy fancy things. So we spent a good 4/4.5 hours with them and that was awesome too:) So yes. Christmas was amazing!

Oh! On Tuesday we went over to this guy's house who we had only talked to once and had been trying to meet with again but his work schedule was all crazy and this was our 4th time trying to visit him-we rang the bell and nothing.  Then I decided to try 1 more time and he answered!  He said that he was kind of dozing off and he hadn't even heard the first bell (persoonlijk inspiratie!)  So we got to talk to him and shared the first part of the Restoration and the reasoning why God just has to exist!  Ah-mazing, but it wouldn't have happened if we hadn't tried to ring the bell a seond time.

This Sunday we both gave talks in Sacrament meeting, which got a little stressful because we had absolutely no time to prepare and we were working on it Sunday morning and a little bit in between classes, but we never really finished. But leave it to Heavenly Father to make up the rest:)  I was supposed to talk for 5 min and Z. Voss for 10 and I ended up speaking for 15 (no notes!) and she did about 20. So we were pretty proud of ourselves and oh so grateful that Heavenly Father helped us out even though we hadn't really prepared:)  

We also got a new investigator yesterday!  The sweetest old man in a rest home ordered a "Joy to the World" DVD and we got the referral and we went and visited him; he bought us hot chocolate and told us that he enjoyed talking with us and that we were basically family now.  We shared a bit about the Restoration and why God gives us trials in our lives. So overall, just a wonderful week, besides the fact that in part of our apartment we are living in literally darkness because a light bulb decided to burst out spontaneously...okay. But no fear!  Our singing and happy demeanors bring light into those dark places:)  Plus it's always an adventure showering in the dark:)

Exploded Light Bulb!

So excited for New Year, I do not want to turn 20, but we'll deal with that as it gets closer. We have to be in our apartment at 4pm on New Years Eve because apparently you can buy hard core fireworks here and yeah, so we'll be inside watching fireworks, eating popcorn and watching 80's seminary videos:)  Have a wonderful week and an amazing start to 2015 (crazy...) Tot ziens to ya!

Zuster Dobler

Mini Dobler Fam, Christmas 2014