Our area is more water than land and if any have taken the time and diligence to read previous emails, you are only beginning to understand the wrath that is Zeeland. This week we had rain again, not too badly, but others forms of overwhelming and frankly ridiculous situations have left myself, as well as anyone else wanting to know, water you waiting for?
Let me just dive in
head first.
Monday night we run
into our investigator on the way to our appt. who is swiftly biking away to be
with his mother so we reschedule on the street for Wednesday where we were able
to bring a member along. Before any further details, this lesson can only be
accurately described as one attempting to hold back a tsunami with only their
two hands, thus contributing to the inspiration of the subject title above.
After our member brings up the subject of ISIS during our Gospel lesson in
regards to forgiveness, I begin scrambling to pick up any prior principles to
tie the lesson back to the Gospel but before we know it (Elder Bruneau is still
trying to follow with the language let alone the mayhem) we have plunged into a
dimension topic of sorts and how things in the Bible denote certain phenomena
and feelings in the which Bruneau begins testifying of love through baptism
(random but the greenie and gift of tongues save the day) wherewith our
investigator expresses his desire to be baptized when he receives an answer of
the truth. Next lesson Bruneau teaches alone because he can get it to work
ha-ha
Quick occurrence: same
day we visit a sort of investigator and teach the first lesson after which he
asks for help fixing the speakers on his computer. So as I work and fix them it
becomes time for his Muslim prayer which he performs on an old mattress while
we diligently and silently search for a good Mormon message to leave him with.
Elder Bruneau is scarred as my greenie.
We contacted a kind
Dutch woman who laughed at us with helmets (sigh) who we later talked to and
she invited us over for lunch this week with 2 ladies from the branch so that’s
exciting and she loves Nederengels so that’s right up Bruneau´s alley.
Other than that we had
rain and sun and water and heat. Thursday it poured on our bike ride
to Gravenpolder and we had to end up changing clothes midday again so people
wouldn’t laugh and mock when they would sea us. See the picture below of our
schedule ha-ha I got a little bitter from being wet all day from the Zeeland
tsunamis.
We were in Breda for a
time this week to support the sisters and had interviews with President and
Sister Bunnell which was great. I love being able to talk to them and Sister
Bunnell is an incredible marathon runner so we basically talked Nike our entire
interview ha-ha
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| Schedule |
To top it off,
yesterday was the most spiritual Sunday of my mission. I have had
incredible Sundays being a part of the music group thing but yesterday was
incredible. For so long I visited units and got shallow relationships with so
many incredible people, but being able to fully invest in the 27 active members
here is a blessing I will never forget. I could write an email just about them.
AHHHH I love them so much ha-ha soooo freaking funny so solid of testimonies so
willing to help and all they want is the branch to GROW. They are as great as
we bring investigators to church and love to have us over. Testimony meeting
was spectacular, nobody can believe how good Bureau’s Dutch is already and
apparently my testimony went well also but I don’t really remember what I said.
Spirit swept me away like a tsunami.
I had a cool moment
(well not just one but one of the many) where I took a step back and looked at
what we are doing and working with here. When we got here we had little to
nothing, 1 eternal investigator and the member relations were somewhat stagnant.
Looking at our plans an area book now, we have 4 progressing investigators, a
full list of top 10 people to work with, members who LOVE to be with us and
will make you cry laughing with families being a major focus and drive for the
branch and area. Our 3 highest guys right now were found by us on the first
weekend when we had nothing and went finding all day every day. It’s easy to
get discouraged and that was how elder bruneau started his mission was only
finding, but we see the rewards. Looking at it now, where things were, are, and
will go is super neat. We have been able to build this city in a space of 3 and
a half weeks. With crazy experiences haha but we have built it through the
blessing, direction, and help of the Lord. It was cool to look back on. As a
whitewashing, district leader with a greenie in the middle of nowhere, I was
able to do this with divine help. And only through that divine help did it work
this way. The hardest of times become the best of times.
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| Whaat? |
Vlissingen is so much
fun. I am not lying either when I say that when I think about the members and
investigators here and what they mean to me I almost cry. It will be
excruciating to leave later. But luckily we don’t have to think about that for
a while :) I think multiple times a day how excited I will be for my own
parents to come and meet these people and see this place later on.
Logan will have just
an awesome farewell. he will love Europe. He will be such a great missionary as
well.
Good news as well: I
got a new camera so these nutso weeks also have visual aids.
I had an incredible
prayer answered this week about the reason that we receive blessings.
We receive blessings
to provide support and protection through our personal or family trials.
But why else?
Why does the Lord bless
us in His own time, little by little or prosperously?
Think on your
baptismal covenant. You committed to stand as a witness.
As we experience
blessings we must testify of receiving, enjoying, and benefitting from them.
Are we not all witnesses of Christ?
Are we not all
expected to testify of His resurrection?
There is more than one
side to the reception of the Lord´s mercies.
Keep that in mind.
Love
Elder Trevan Scott
Reese
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