America - Made a Brexit Before Making a Brexit Was Cool - July 4, 2016

Mom disclaimer:  Trevan gets home on July 14th.  He is supposed to arrive at 3:00pm at the Boise Airport.  Any friends or family are welcome to join us to welcome him home.  We would love to have you and I'm sure it would be a nice surprise for him.

Prettige Onafhankelijkheidsdag! Yes that is a real word. Means Happy Independence Day. It´s a great day to be an American.

I feel that the news has got to be full of the Brexit back home too, but if not, just know it´s caused a lot of turbulence in the European Union. The Netherlands is offended that Britain would leave and take a large part of their economic dependency with it. Now Britain wants back, Scotland wants to break off, etc. Small countries love the union, big countries end up funding for the union. Perhaps the Union should take a few notes on something called the Great Compromise from over 200 years ago and reconsider. Politics and weather are always the name of the postivie contacting game here.

Stories.

I forgot to mention this one last week. On the way back from zone conference we drove home with the Jansens (senior couple serving here in Den Helder). They also give permission to tell this this story by the way haha. We were in Alkmaar, about 30 minutes from home, at a stop light and we pulled out a sweater to show Zuster Jansen, she looked back, the cars next to us start going so she push the clutch in and went, and rear ended the car in front of us.    .........      Yeah. But when we pulled over the girl in the other car began apologizing because her car had stalled and that´s why it hadn´t moved. So it was all super chill, little damage, And Elder Jansen went to fill out the insurance reports but needed something hard to write on. Zuster Jansen demanded a Book of Mormon HAHA you know where this is going, and as they were filling out the form on the Book of Mormon, Zuster Jansen got cookies out of the trunk and offered them to the couple we hit. Talk about buttering them up. Long story short, they gladly took the Book of Mormon, little damage done to the cars, we have her address on the insurance report and is now a referral for Alkmaar. The Jansen’s are simply stellar people. 

Sonja. We finished all the lessons this week and she is ready for her baptism on Saturday. We ran through the baptismal interview questions before she has her interview, but she had cleared them all already during teaching. We asked if she had ever committed a serious crime (with her you really never know what she has done in the past haha) and she said "Yeah, I have before". Immediately my head started racing because we would have to get President Bunnell to come interview her if that was the case, but then after seeing our reactions all she said was "I was married". No further comment.

There are also more stories with her from this week, but I can´t remember them real well right now...

But her baptism is planned for this Saturday, programs are made, people have agendas booked.

The week was fantastic, running from appointment to appointment in the peanut sized city of Den Helder. 

Also, important note, I´ve mentioned Hossein and Roja having their baby around this time. Well, tomorrow in church Hossein got a call from Roja at home saying her water broke so he and Zr Jansen ran her to the hospital, but she won´t actually have the baby until later today. His name is Sam, an English, Dutch, and Iranian name. His birthday is the 4th of July. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a second generation Uncle Sam on our hands. An Iranian... haha

This week is BOOKED with people to teach and things to do so I know it is going to fly by so quickly. Before I know it I will be on the plane home. Terrifying, exciting, tiring, you name it. That´s the final full week of a Latter-Day Saint missionary.

Love Elder Trevan Scott Reese

A-Typical - June 27,2016

This week was pretty special because a lot of things happened that don´t in a standard week. Such as:

A. Doing baptisms for the dead as a missionary with recent converts

B. Giving your departing testimony in zone conference

C. Some of your favorite members from Apeldoorn come visit for the weekend

D. Eat Thai food and ice cream with a visiting family from British Columbia

E. Getting soaking wet while shopping the Amsterdam couture

It´s been a good one and we´ve stayed pretty busy with teaching this week. We need to get more members out with us to teach because we are hitting good numbers in lessons, but need members to come out and provide the fellowship more. Something we´re working on.

Sonja is doing great. The Jansens had a private appointment with her to talk about how she can could manage the law of tithing and had miracles literally come to the doorstep; a great story for later.

She is still set to be baptized in a few weeks and is very excited for it. We talk to her every day and she fits in her baptismal jumpsuit haha. 

We´ve almost got in contact with some people we had lost in the past which is really nice.

Well. That´s mostly it. In reality these emails are just reminders to look at so I can tell you the stories in 3 weeks. Real life is a lot better than online. Someone put that on a plaque.

Love Elder Trevan Scott Reese

Mobbin with Oma Sonja 

Temple construction - will be finished in August

June 20, 2016

This is gonna be quick. I took pictures with Sonja this week but this computer has no way to upload pictures. Haha sorry.

We are in Almere at the library and have little time for emailing since you have to pay.

We are headed to Amsterdam to shop for a while before working tonight and having zone conference tomorrow. 

Sonja came to stake conference yesterday and loved it. She is great. She's been telling neighbors and friends about her baptism on July 9th. Should be a stellar last weekend of the mission.

We are trying to find new people to teach and keep holding onto ones that have slowed in progression. It's a battle, but in the world anymore, let alone the Netherlands, everything for the Gospel is.

Love you all, no reason to tell all these stories here because I can talk about them with you in a few weeks. 

Have a good one!

Elder Trevan Scott Reese