"You are my Sunshine"

Well, I have experienced (and survived) my first transfer-thank goodness I wasn't the one being transferred!  And this also means I am officially no longer a greenie; high sailing from here:) Or whatever...

Anyway, I began the week and ended my time with Zuster Voss visiting and saying goodbye to the many people who love her.

Drenthe sweatshirt picture with Marjon:)

Swan Desserts!

I also managed to remember this week in the most appropriate of ways: hardcore "eating it" on Sir Fiets-a-lot Van Gogh, so essentially I fell. But what makes this fall so much more than just a "casual day in Assen" fall was that I acquired the most peculiar and vivid bruises that I have ever been privy to-so, hip-hip to new experiences!

But, really, I'm fine; my pride is the only other victim, but I suppose that always could use a bit of shaking up:)

I have enclosed a picture of the wound and the wounded at first glance-be aware, it is not for the faint-hearted (I used flash, just the thing to make everything a little more vivid:) So, that was that.

My little accident...who decided that this was a
biking mission anyway??

 We had our last district meeting together. 

Final District Meeting Together

Wheelchair is a prop...

I received my second and unfortunately last Dundie award last Tuesday and I'm pleased to say I won the "Teenage Angst Award" seeing as my trainer is flying the coop and I am now a regular missionary (as far as regular goes, of course).

Receiving my Dundie "Teenage Angst Award"

So much honor and laud in one ceremony

Well, on Wednesday we had transfers and so we loaded up all of Zuster Voss' stuff onto the train and headed to Utrecht Centraal where we made "the switch".  It's almost like "wife swappers" or whatever that show is-I come in with Zuster Voss and leave with Zuster Jensen:)

Zuster Voss with all her missionary possessions on the train

Naamboordje swap:)

Sad it's over...Glad it happened

I ended up waiting in Utrecht for awhile because Sister Jensen was coming up from Maastricht, but in the meantime I saw some pretty wacky pigeons; some were just freaks, unfortunately. Whenever you look at a pigeon, always check their feet; there's usually always something amiss.

Moving on, I met up with Zuster Jensen and we are now both here in Assen, living the life and enjoying the amazing 12-15 degree weather (Celcius, naturally) and continually finding lovely wildflowers springing up in the most random of places.

Well, I came upon some scriptures this week that I would love to expound upon, thus I shall begin. Hope.  What is hope, but the looking forward to something, the optimism for a better world-generally and individually.  Knowing that there is a happier, better something that is attainable.
In Romans 8 it says, 

24 For we are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 

25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it

26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Hope is the beginnings of faith-faith is merely hope in action. As we hope for (have faith in) Christ, we hope for a better world (Ether 12:4)- a world free of guilt and full of light, both in this world and in the life to come. In verse 25 it states, however, that if we have hope, that desire and trust, then, "do we with patience wait for it."

We must have patience with Heavenly Father, to give us what we actually need in His time, but also patience with ourselves. Christ preaches that we cannot be given meat until we have first been given milk; we are not always prepared to receive "all that the Father hath", thus, we must be patient with our spiritual progression and also Heavenly Father, as He will reveal things to us according to his time and his perfect individual plan that He has established for each of us.

Patience is the ultimate display of trust-we trust our Father in Heaven knows what is best for us, thus we are patient as he gives us, morsel by morsel, what we can handle.  Verse 26 conveys beautifully the role of the Spirit-It intercedes on our behalf as we sometimes can't say what we need to.  Or perhaps it gives us the things that we didn't even know we needed. "And Jesus listening can hear the songs I cannot sing." (There is Sunshine in my Soul Today).

He knows our hearts and our minds-the deepest and simplest of our desires, so why would we not have hope in Christ? Having hope in Him allows for the black night of the world to slowly, but surely diminish as light pierces through to reveal the grandest of sunrises. And like sunlight, the hope that we have in Him illuminates everything and our lives become maybe not easier, but brighter so that we can find our way.

My life is continually illuminated by the ethereal light that is hope in my Savior Jesus Christ and I am all the happier for it. I wish y'all the happiest of weeks filled with lovely sunshine, literal and figurative, as we all try to let in a little more light.

Liefs, Zuster Dobler