Before I begin, big shout-out to my awesome little brother Reedie who today is having his "verjaardag." Happy Birthday, Reedie!
There were a couple of really awesome miracles that we experienced this week, and they all sort of collided together at the end of the week. Saturday we went off to Bronno's house, our Ward Mission Leader, for our routine weekly counsel. He's a person who you'd call an idea man; he loves trying different ways to get the word about the gospel to the world, and I really appreciate all of his efforts for the missionary work here in Amsterdam. Anyway, we talked about a number of things, and he really wants to just blast Amsterdam with flyers and all sorts of other publications, to really get people curious about the church. So, we headed off as a group of missionaries and flooded a market in North Amsterdam – just good old fashioned contacting. Afterwards, my companion and I continued for a while longer, but even after a full afternoon filled with great gospel-orientated conversations and piquing peoples' curiosity, we ended up with very little actual potentials. On the train ride home I was thinking of what we could do. I had been working my hardest, more than ever in Zaandam, but the numbers and results just didn't seem good enough. And as I was thinking about this, I heard the "beep" of our phone going off, indicating a new text message. I pulled out the phone and there it was, a referral from church headquarters. It was a man named Jacob Vis, a resident of Zaandam, who wanted a Book of Mormon. It was just a gentle reminder for me that as long as I do my best, keeping the commandments, being obedient, and just doing my best, blessings will come one way or another. (We called him that evening, and he agreed to a lesson for the next day! More on that soon).
The following day was Sunday and, man, it was a cool Sunday. I'm not even sure where to start. This African guy from Nigeria showed up and told us he just moved to Zaandam for the next five years and was looking for a good church to join (too good to be true, right?) So, yeah, we had an investigator at church that wasn't even technically an investigator. We have an appointment with him soon, so I'm looking forward to that. After the church service we did a movie and lunch thing where all the members were invited to stay after the service to watch the new Bible videos about the Life of Christ that came out recently. I loved watching them and want the DVD so bad, now! For those that haven't seen them or heard about them (you probably have, though, I'm most likely out of the loop) they are amazing, and I would recommend watching them online.
That afternoon after church we taught that Jacob Vis guy I spoke about earlier. I was a little nervous when I first saw him waiting at the doorway for us, pulling a long drag on his cigarette. But luckily he warmly greeted us and invited us in. Apparently he's really into the Youtuber who's Mormon, named "shaytards" and a number of other popular Mormon people like Lindsey Stirling and her father (who's supposedly an author, which I never knew). He showed us a couple of YouTube videos and told us all about this "shaytards" guy, which from my understanding is a just a V-log following a Mormon family. It was really cool to see how just people on YouTube had enough influence to get him curious about the Mormons even enough to order a Book of Mormon. He's a really funny guy, early 30s, and he's a postman delivery guy. So, yeah, we taught him the first lesson, and he said he had a really good feeling about it. Super cool!
Overall, I'm experiencing the sweet fruits of my labors right now, and I hope we can all say the same at some point in our lives, despite disappointment and hardships. I really do find joy in this gospel and would invite everyone else to also discover that for themselves. I wish I had enough time to talk about this past P-day, but I'll just give a two-word hint: ice skating. Have a good week everyone, and don't forget to shoot an email to me whenever you feel inspired to do so!
Love,
Elder Andrew
Ice skating
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