"Look at Your Life through Heaven's Eyes"

Happy March everyone!  Oh, how time flies when you're preaching the Gospel all day, er' day:)

This week is transfers and the lovely Zuster Voss is taking a sabbatical from Assen to let her light shine in that grand city of Den Haag and a certain Zuster Jensen is coming up north to join me in the lovely Drenthe countryside; wildflowers are beginning to bloom everywhere and the sun is coming up earlier and earlier each day!

This week was oh so busy; on Tuesday, our Zone Leaders, Elder Bean and Elder Robbins, came up and worked with us for a few hours which was great.  We had a few lessons with them and knocked a few choice doors:)

Zone Leaders visiting Assen

Grumpy ol' Cats in Nederland

By the way, there's probably more cats in Nederland than there are people...seriously, for every neighborhood that we go to, there's a grumpy ol' cat judging us. Like, find something constructive to do, cat! (rant over;)

On Wednesday, we had Zone Conference which was absolutely lovely in every way possible; it's so fun to go and get majorly pumped up and then come home and apply ALL the principles and tactics that we learned.

Thursday, the fated herring happened.  I know I've been talking about it for weeks now-I've got such a big mouth and this week it was quite securely shut as I ate herring, Dutch-style.  It doesn't actually taste all that shabby, my real qualm with the whole "spiel" comes from the fact that no matter how "okay" it tastes, it's still slimy, raw fish that you're holding by its webbed tail.  No thank you.  One Gollum moment is quite enough to last me a lifetime.  Plus, the smell of the blasted fish will follow you until you bathe in lava and salt...but otherwise, herring, check!

The Herring, Dutch-style, experience

 

Once in a lifetime "Gollum" experience

Hema Stroopwaffel sundaes make everything better!

Oh, and weird people/man-things.  One too many creepy weirdos talk to us; it's not everyday and it's not all the time, but I'd say even one is sufficient enough to worry about the future of mankind as we know it.  

Bijvoorbeeld, (For example) we were walking up the steps to a member's apartment the other day and Zuster Voss started singing Mary Poppins and so naturally, I joined in; well, at the top of a flight of stairs were some dumb ol' ragamuffin ruffians who think they are clever and were all like, "Oh, you sing really well, can I be your manager?"  and that sort of yada-yada.

Well, we also had the chance with an investigator family to "hard core American them out" by making them dinner: enchiladas, chocolate chip cookies and apple pie.  The mom wanted us to teach her son how to bake chocolate chip cookies and so we got to teach him how as well as have family dinner with them:)

Mexican Fiesta, courtesy of the Voss Family's care package:)

Mexican Manna sent from Maryland!

On Saturday and Sunday, we had Stake Conference, which gets a little crazy, what with the stakes being so spread out everywhere: Saturday evening session was in Apeldoorn (which is about 2 hours traveling time) and Sunday was in Zwolle (around 45 min away). We had a seventy come (Elder Price) and it was interesting when you're listening to Dutch speakers and then all of a sudden English comes into it and you're fine listening to either one.

The Wartan family sharing love with our sister missionaries!

One of our lessons with an investigator this week reminded me of something; his progress is slow and small, but it's still progress. Each person deserves to be taught the Gospel clearly, simply, and personally.  progress, no matter how simple, should be celebrated and not take for granted.

For example, with this investigator, we read a scripture that talked about how we need to be baptized and repent in order to be prepared to be comfortable to stand before God and he was confused (mostly because of the language - Dutch, why?) In Dutch, "repentance" and "conversion" are the same word and so when he read the scripture he thought that it meant converting to a new faith/church (to some extent, yes), but because of that, we were also able to explain the deeper meaning behind conversion, that it's a change of heart, a change of our desires and the realigning our lives to the will of our Heavenly Father.

The progress of an individual may not always be strikingly obvious, but each person, as a child of our Father in Heaven, deserves to be taught lovingly and given the opportunity to apply the Gospel in their lives.

Each of us deserves to know that someone cares about them-we as missionaries (whether full-time or member), convey that through sharing what we know to be true, and most importantly, we're helping people realize that not only we care about them, but that a loving Heavenly Father cares about them as well.

Life is grand and it's even more glorious if we know that God, our literal Father in Heaven, is rooting for us and is doing everything in His power to help us succeed, if we let Him.

Prince of Egypt says it perfectly, as a sultry black man sings, "Look at Your Life through Heaven's Eyes"...As we keep the eternal perspective in mind, it's impossible not to be grateful and to be excited for the wonderful days ahead.

Make all the days special:)
Liefs, Zuster Dobler