Goodbye, Farewell,and Amen

"The nearer I approach the end, the clearer I hear around me the immortal symphonies of the world which invite me.  It is marvelous yet simple.  For half a century (or 18 months)....I have tried all but I feel that I have not said a thousandth part of that which is in me. When I go down to the grave I can say like many others, 'I have finished my day's work' but I cannot say, 'I have finished my life's work'... my day's work will begin in the next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley.  It is an open thoroughfare. It closes in the twilight to open in the dawn.  My work is only the beginning, my work is hardly above its foundation.  I would gladly see it mounting forever. The thirst for the infinite proves infinity" - Victor Hugo

So, I know this is a little dramatic and I'm not literally dying and blah, blah, blah, but I have come to the all too clear conclusion that my mission has set me up to now be the best missionary I can be.  These past 18 months was the MTC for my life, giving me direction, understanding, self-control, and love and now as strange as it is to say/think/feel/taste(?), I am all the more ready to now come back and be the consecrated person I want to be.  My mission isn't over because, as Victor Hugo said, "my thirst for the infinite proves infinity."

I don't know everything, but I know God is there and by receiving glimpses of the divine and feeling the presence of heavenly power as I've sought diligently for it, has set me on the path to achieving the infinite.  It is here in Belgium and the Netherlands, as smelly and free-thinking as they are, that I have raised mine Ebenezer and will always be able to look back on these 18 months as a source of strength and hope to know that if I can talk to some bot Noord-Hollanders about God, then I can basically get through anything:)

Well, this is crazy, but I suppose that's my life and now it won't be documented by weekly emails, but that's okay.  Let it be known that I love this place and all the random people that live here!  I know that everything works out for the good of them that love God and what a privilege it is to love Him! My heart is content, if not beating just a little slower, what with all the Nutella, waffles, Belgian fries and what not:)

Well, I'll see ya'll on the other side!
Liefs, Zuster Dobler

P.S. I've been planning this email title for months now, shoutout to MASH:)

Tulips and Temples

"Going to the temple...not to get married"...So anyways, we got to go to the TEMPLE:)  and KEUKENHOF.  Needless to say, it was a wonderful week and I wish I could replay Thursday over and over again. We began our week by going on fabulous exchanges with my favorite Zuster Hanny and her comp in Lokeren, where we were able to look up a potential that I had found the last time I was on exchanges and she let us right in and we had an amazing time together. She had a Pug named Joey and he bit my scarf. No, Joey.

We went up to Nederland a day early because Zr. Majors needed to pick up her verblifsvergunning, identify card ofzoiets, for the Netherlands and then worked with Zoetermeer sisters the rest of the day, which proved to be quite exciting because their ward was having a youth missionary activity to simulate the MTC/mission field for the YM/YW.  I was able to act as an investigator while they "knocked on my door."  And then we got a lift on over to the mission home, where we slept over for Temple Conference the next day.

The temple is oh so beautiful and makes me happier than ever. The Den Haag temple is especially beautiful and so Dutch, you'd be wise to go:)  After the temple, we made our way to the church building where I gave my DYING TESTIMONY, my last words, my last given testimony as a missionary in front of our missionaries, if you want to make it sound less dramatic. But it totally happened and for a minute or two, it hit me and the eyeballs cried and now I'm back to reality and I don't actually think it is all happening!  Still trying to decide whether that's healthy or not....

And then we went to Disneyland, except this Disneyland doesn't have tea cup rides, characters, or anything of the sort, but tulips and buttloads and buttloads of them! It was the perfect day and I didn't fall in the water this time! Redeemed.  And then, that evening, we went our merry way down south, the 5ish or so hours of train rides were accompanied with exhaustion and happiness, no never fear:)

We got back to reality the last few days of the week after floating around in tulip heaven, and had some really awesome lessons with some of the most amazing people I've ever met (sometimes I think God might love them a little more, just cause they're that great:)  And we also had Stake Conference this week in Brussel; I got to see all the lovely people of the Maastricht/Heerlen again and I've still up in the clouds daarover. I love those people:)

Well, as you can see, it was indeed a "full rich week" as Hawkeye would say. Typical.They make one of the last weeks the best just so they can rub it in your face that you don't get this for much longer.

Keeping On:)

Dearest all, well, we're keeping it exciting to the very end I guess. So, we had a more interesting week than normal, got a phone call on Tuesday morning all about the bombing in Brussels, but everything is coming together, as far as I know and we're keeping on. 

So, we had some interesting encounters with people this week; Guy, one of our investigators who's on the more interesting side, has a cat, we found out and so when I ask him what his cat's name is, this is what I get, "I can't tell you. It's a secret." And what's crazy is he actually meant it! To this day, I still don't know that blasted cat's name. Didn't want to know anyway, Guy...Also walked past some Belgian youth on Friday night rocking out to "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me" at the bus station, oh those fun and fancy-free days:) 

We had a really great Easter (2nd one "op zending"-can't believe it!) It was really special to talk to people all week, emphasizing the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and being testimony of it. I think, especially now, we have all the more reason to turn to the Savior for hope and understanding. We see more and more a need for something lasting in these days, something that won't fall apart, that can't be touched or changed, and that's why we need a Savior in our lives. Thomas S. Monson said, "May we have a commitment to our Heavenly Father that does not ebb and flow with the years or the crises of our lives. We should not need to experience difficulties for us to remember Him, we should not be driven to humility before giving Him our faith and trust." 

Committing to God in the good times the same way one does in bad times is the sign of our personal conversion to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We don't just need him on Easter, Christmas and the days when the world seems to be ending, but everyday because those days are the ones which will determine our Christmases and Easters. 

My mom (shoutout to you:) sent me a talk by Jeffrey R. Holland about the "inconvenience" of the Gospel and "Christ's way" I guess you could say. The point of life, though, is simply just that. It's not about our way, we've seen what "our way" can escalate to, it's for us to give our will over to Christ and do it, not always the easy way, but the right way. And while easier said than done, I want to work on walking the talk I so confidently talk. That's my goal and something I've learned this week amongst all the hullabaloo around the world. 

Liefs, 

Zuster Dobler 

The Things I learn, see, and hear...and eat:)

Do you ever see the same middle-aged men sitting at the same bus stop everyday listening to Jessie-J's "Domino" from mini speakers and drinking a bottle of Coke?  If you do, then we're probably in the same place...I just try to imagine Dad doing that and I start laughing because it's just a little too far-fetched:)  Thanks Dad, for not listening to music at a random bus stop and not doing anything in particular.

This week a Belgian lady, who's so obsessed with African culture, that she married a guy from the Congo, made us FuFu, which is as African as you can get (I think...) what with eating with your hands and all, it's quite the experience; to think once upon a time, we all used to eat with our hands. Crazy, right?

Got to go on exchanges with my favorite Zuster Hanny in Lokeren this weeks as well, so fun to see her again and weird to think that it was 6 months ago that we were together! And now we're both down here in Belgie:)

Conference, from what I've seen of it, (blasted time zones) was amazing and I am more and more grateful for a living day prophet each time we have it!  I've been reading in Jesus the Christ and have been learning about the apostles of old and as I watch Conference, I try to imagine Holland, Uchtdorf, Christofferson, etc. as Paul (Holland's definitely a modern-day Paul:), James, Peter, and so forth. It's a blessing to be able to share Conference with investigators and members alike, testifying of and sharing the message that we have apostles and prophets today, to tell us exactly what we need to hear, exactly when we need it.

One thing stuck out to me from Elder Rendlund's talk, was his quote by Elder Holland: "We can either have what we want or we can have something better." There is more in store for us than we can imagine and more available to us with Christ that we could ever give ourselves.  A popular idea here is that you believe in yourself and yourself alone; while it's good to be confident, we must always remember where that self-confidence should stem from: we can believe in ourselves because Heavenly Father believes in us, but that doesn't mean that we can do it on our own. God is good:)

Well, I'll save more for another time, hmmmm, maybe next Monday?  Same time, same place.

Liefs, Zuster Dobler

The many thoughts of Zuster Dobler

Well, we're down to 37 days, people!  Please stop freaking out; I'm doing enough of that for us all, I think.  To be honest, I don't really think I'm almost done with my mission...pretty sure it's just a joke that President and the office ragamuffins are playing on me. But I guess we shall see what we shall see.

Training gives me a whole other thing to deal with (in the best way possible, peoples).  I'm really grateful that I get to do it and learn to grow my last transfer.  Pretty sure my eye twitches when I'm stressed (but that doesn't happen often). It's definitely helping me work to the very end, to be a good example, and always willing to learn.  I'm trying to work on a Christ-like attribute each transfer and for this one, my "dying" transfer, I have decided to concentrate on diligence; to be diligent to the end, and not just the end of the my mission, but the end of my life...which also technically never ends, so I guess my plan is to always be diligent?  yep, that's the plan, I guess.

I was reading in the Book of Mormon the other day, thinking about, sometimes, the blasted pride that some people have I myself included) and then I read: "And now, my beloved on, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God."  (Moroni 9:6)  Hmmm, yes.

We've had a pretty crazy week what with all these referrals we've been receiving from this Easter initiative and The Lamb of God DVD.  It's got us traveling to the boonies and outskirts of Belgium, but we've seen some really awesome things happening with it; so far, each time we look up a referral, they themselves aren't interested, but then as we're leaving we stumble upon someone else that's just amazing and looking for something in their lives. It's really awesome to experience being in just the right place at the right time that Heavenly Father wants us to be:)

I also went on a sort of exchange with Zuster Hanny!  While our greenies were in Brussel for some legality stuff, she came here and worked with me and we taught our investigator together.  It was probably one of the best lessons I've ever had; this guy, Freddy, is amazing and is willing and wanting to find out for himself what in the world we're talking about:)  We watched the "Hallelujah" video with him and that spurred an amazing discussion about our personal responsibility and decision to follow Jesus Christ and to accept that love that He wants to give us. He mentioned that he loves the spirit that we bring each time and told us that he knows we're good people and he admires our faith and wished he could have it.  He's a gem and he bakes cake for us everytime we're there:)  #gezellig

I've been reading Jesus the Christ, trying to finish it, but it's so fitting that I am now reading the accounts about His last few hours on earth; Him being betrayed; Him suffering, the Sacrament, His last declaration of love for His apostles, and His final act of love and submission to His Father's will. Easter is on the way and I am really working on being able to truly appreciate the love that Jesus offers us.

Liefs, Zuster Dobler

Happy last transfer, ya'll:)`

Okaey-dokey!  BAH!  Things have been turned upside down and I'm still a tad confused, but that's okay...I'll probably figure it all out right in time for it to be all over. Well, it happened.  I'm training!  Dear Zuster Majors has come to me straight from the sky blue heart of Montana and now we are wandering around Belgium:)

Introducing Zuster Majors to the glorious Stroopwaffels

It was definitely crazy this last week, getting Sister Lemich out that door and sending her on her merry way.  I'll definitely miss her.  Said goodbye to Zuster Twiggs, Jensen, Manning, and Lemich:)  It was also freaky to see all of the missionaries from the group ahead of me leave because we all know what that means in 7 weeks time!  My mind is going to blow. I don't think it'll even settle in, so I'm just gonna keep moving and let it all wash over me.

Sad it's over, glad it happened!  

Goodbye Zuster Twiggs!

We had some really great lessons this week with some amazing people.  Haha One of them, Guy, he's a little strange, I'll admit, but super smart and willing to learn, has taken his BOM studying to a whole new level.  He referred us to a BYU website where we can get study guide materials for the BOM and so when we got to his house, he had sheet-covered outlines of King Benjamin's speech and an explanation of the several "chiasmus" in the BOM.  He loves it all, so I just let him run free. Whatever floats your boat, right?

Well, the Easter campaign is up and running an our mission has seen an incredible amount of referrals coming in. People have the opportunity to order the DVD The Lamb of God and then we follow up. We got to watch it a few weeks ago and it tells the story of the Atonement and Resurrection from a different perspective, at least I think so.  It makes me wonder in the midst of all that was happening, who would I have been and what role would I have played in the biggest scene in human history?  Jesus Christ has given us new life and His love and His example is what drives us to be better.  I've talked to a  lot of people who think that we "shouldn't sell ourselves short" by acknowledging our nothingness and God's omnipotence, but the fact of the matter is.  He takes what we are raw, rough, and green, and gives us the perfect recipe to become better. He gives me hope that one day, I can be a better person, that it's possible.  Hallelujah:)

Well, I love you all!  Have a great week and do all the good things:)

On the edge of the rest of eternity:)

Hello, hello, hello:)  My oh my, Miss American pie, everyone! Things are getting real and serious up in Gent:)  Just had my last transfer call on Saturday night, aaanndd...I'm "dying in Gent"! (mission slang for finishing her mission)  I will finish off the last weeks of my mission right here, making my stay in Gent a total of 6 months!  But don't get crazy:)

And to wrap up said mission, I will be training! (a brand new missionary)  So, this Wednesday, Sister Lemich and I will go up to the Netherlands to drop her off and send her on her merry way (home) and I will pick up a brand new sister (we haven't had this big of a group of sisters come since I made my first appearance in the Belgium/Netherlands mission, so this is gonna change e'everythang!:)  I'm really excited for this last transfer, getting to train will definitely be new, but it's the only thing I haven't done and I'm sure having a greenie (brand new missionary) will keep me on my toes for my last transfer:)  We also get to go to the temple in the Netherlands and Keukenhof one last time in April and General Conference!  So we will be busy busy:)

It was sort of a funky dunky week, a couple of our appointments fell through and Sister Lemich got sick, and then we went up to the Netherlands for MLC at the mission home, and Sanaya and Klass from ASSEN came down to Belgium to visit me and say goodbye before I left! That was so crazy to be back with people that I hadn't seen in a year, the baby wasn't even born when I got there is now 14 months old! Gah! So, my mind freaked out a little and had a great time catching up with some of the sweetest people in the world:)

We also got to visit this older sister in a rest home in Scheldewindeke (try to say that 5x) and that could just lift anyone's spirits:) She just turned 91 and so we brought her some little chocolate hearts, cause you know, Belgium, and she was so happy to see us (although she can't really see well). She's just a sweetheart and going there makes me so happy inside:)

We had a really great day at church yesterday:) Najib, our trusty ol' Syrian friend showed up at church and said that he felt that he just needed to come and be at church; he told us that we (and the church members) are the most honest and good people that he's met in his 30 years in Belgium. He said he almost gave up hope that there were still good people in the world and then he met us:)  He's a keeper, that's for sure, and it is so cool to to help him, someone who knows so little about Jesus Christ, really understand who He is.

Jelle, another one of our investigators was able to come to Sacrament Meeting and just loved it.  he talked about how good he felt in the church and how he knew he needed to make this a bigger priority in his life. Last week, when we were teaching him, he talked about how it's difficult to accept certain things because he's a scientist and just wasn't raised with a strong religious background. But seeing him really be touched by the Spirit brought peace to my mind to know that we don't always have to have perfect evidence or have a logical explanation for everything because the Spirit will testify to our hearts that something we cannot with our limited understanding and capacity know to be true.

These next few weeks will be the most exciting ever, I'm sure, and I'm just tickled pink thinking about all the amazing opportunities I still have on my missionary and that it's finally almost General Conference (been waiting for that for 6 months). Well, I love you all!  Have a fantastic week and heaven only knows what'll happen this week!

Liefs, Zuster Dobler