Trials Give Us The Chance to Know Him Better

Wow has my testimony grown on that this week.

Also I would like y'all to know that Holland is gorgeous. We had a few days this week where we saw the sky and the sun. The flowers knew it was special and tulips bloom EVERYWHERE. They are like weeds I’m not kidding. It is getting me so pumped for April and May. Seriously every color just sprouts up everywhere. 

This week was a bit of a roller coaster but it ended on such a wonderful note. We started last Monday with an appointment with a less active lady we looked up but my bike tire was popped so instead of changing it we decided to take the bus. Little did we know that our directory map was old and the bus had a new route so we ended up at IKEA and had to take it half  way back then walk 15 minutes to her house and by then it was 8:30. She wasn’t even home so the night was a big bummer. BUT my bike is fixed and rides better than ever which is huge because I just love riding it around over the canals and through the tulips. 

We had a good lesson with a lady named Mevrouw (MRs.) Seelman. Her husband was a member before he passed away and parts of her family are members. But she is so tied to her St. Johns Church in Gouda that she won’t be baptized. Members visit her regularly with her husband being a member and she enjoys having the elders over. We talked about family and the Atonement and look forward to seeing her this week and will share pictures of our families and testify of the plan of salvation. I have never said this because I forget but it has been super cool to testify of the importance of families to people here. There are several Asian’s here, just yesterday we met one, and I tell them about Jaida and how we can live together forever. I love the section in Preach MY Gospel chapter 9 about addressing the importance of families.It is so important and really the core of our faith.

We had another cool lesson with Josh who is my best friend here from Ghana. Seriously Ghanaians are all my best friends’ haha. I’m going to move to Africa. We had a lesson from Mosiah 23:19-22 (I think that’s it) about the people of Nephi prospering in the land and doing that which is good but the Lord still seeing fit to chasten the people. The Lamanites came upon them and war begun but if the Nephites stayed strong in their faith they would be delivered. I was able to testify through the Spirit of how the Lord gives us challenges to remind us that this life is a test. We aren’t here to have a jolly ole time all the time. Although happiness and hope are important (and come strongest through the Gospel) we need difficult times to give us the chance to turn to Him. I love that. He gives us opportunities to get stronger and know Him better. Again, a win win situation. Always is.

The gang at the beach

Yesterday we had a killer day performing in Leiden, and visiting families. We had a fantastic week this week with our project. We hit up the Den Haag ward this week and a couple really spiritual experiences that stood out to me a lot. We visited Familie Prosman last night for dinner and they had a nonmember friend over as well that we didn’t expect. We all read in the Book of Mormon together (a Prosman family tradition) and then gave our presentation for our fireside. We sang and the Spirit was incredibly strong as we talked about how the Gospel blesses our lives and why we want to share it. I think Friso, the nonmember friend, had a really great experience and is planning on coming with them. Unexpected miracles like that are so cool to be a part of.

Also last night we visited Stake President Scheltinga and sang a couple songs for them. Their son just sent in his papers and after we sang we testified of this work and Joseph Smith. President and Sister Scheltinga testified to their family how important it was. The Spirit was tangible in the room and we had several moments of silence as it testified to us. It made for a real special Sunday.

We made great progress with our investigators as well this week and are planning on reestablishing contact with many of them that we have lost for a bit. These next few transfers will bring miracles.

The trains in Delft are shut down for this whole week so that’s awesome. They have been renovating the station for forever and now the trains go underground. Chaos is going on outside our apartment on the stationplaats with people being redirected to buses and trams. Fun. It takes us forever to get anywhere now but we make Leiden or Den Haag in the car :)

Station will be done Friday so I’m pumped for that

Oh yes and we visited a member this week by the beach so we went to the beach for a couple minutes haha

Had a really fun exchange with Elder Elkins this week too in Den Haag and we are real similar so it made for a grand time

REMEMBER THAT HE LIVES. HE IS AMONG US AND STRENGTHENS US IN OUR TIME IN NEED. I hope that somehow we can record our arrangement of Joseph Smith's First Vision so you can hear it. It makes people cry so we are proud haa

Liefs voor iedereen

Elder Trevan Scott Reese

PS the gift of tongues is real. I was definitely reminded of that this week