A few weeks and we are skyping! How cool is that? I know
that we'll be skyping on December 25th here in Nederland but I can't tell you a
time yet. Plans have changed here in Hengelo. One of my favourite
memories is when the family would all meet up on Christmas Day and just hang
out. I remember playing hockey during the day and then going to Van
Bruggens at night for family Christmas dinner. Heck. I remember when
Jeff Sutton called while he was on his mission and Uncle Steve talking to him
on the phone in the computer room. That must have been a ton of fun to
get to spend time with your older sister and then a surprise from Alena and Dan
and their baby. Man.....how cool. Christmas is awesome! It's
another excuse to hang out with family and friends and to enjoy all the good
things we have been blessed with. Hard to think that I'm now looking at
''the lasts'' of my mission. For example, this'll be my last Christmas in
Europe as a missionary, I just had my last Sinter Klaus, I'm about to begin my
last winter.....Dang. Last year I remember being in the MTC enjoying the
festivities and now....it's all happening. Sinter Klaus was
awesome. It was so fun to experience a Sinter Klaus in the home land
whereas last year our teachers were celebrating it and trying to tell us about
it but it's different hearing about it than experiencing it. The world
has so many cool experiences just waiting for us. haha that would have
been so cool to have seen the photos of the kids shoes filled up with
goodies! Did they get chocolate letters and peperknotjes? It's such
a fun holiday! I can't wait to celebrate it at home. We learned
some Sinter Klaus Liedjes got surprises in our shoe, and bags just given to
us. It was fun and it's nice to start seeing the Christmas trees and
Christmas lights come up.
This week was, yet again, a blur. So much to do and so much done
it's hard to separate the days. On Monday, we had our P-Day; ended up
doing service so it was also a tad postponed for the next day, then ate at a
members house who treated us to a Sinter Klaus Experience. Tuesday we had a
really good district meeting, we talked about becoming persons of experience,
we finished P-Day and then got to enjoy an evening with a recent convert family
and then went on exchanges. Wednesday I got to serve with a Canadian
Elder in Eschede.....we ended up working on a project with our Ward Missionary
Leader to help us create missionary plans for the ward members and then
got to spend the evening with a really cool member. This man has class in
what he collects. Man. Seeing his collection really makes me think
what it is that I want to collect as I grow up. Thursday I got to go on exchanges
in Deventer where we lost the phone...looked for the phone...turns out we left
it on a bus...had to wait for the bus to arrive at the station.....and then got
to go and plant a less-active member’s garden! We were given permission
to design her tulip garden however we wanted : ) Man...we probably
designed the coolest garden in Nederland...Keukenhof is now number
2. I can't wait to see what it will turn into. After the service we went
to eat at a member’s house in Apeldoorn. This man is a really smart man.
He is a self-learned man. He noticed that there was no book written
concerning the history of the Church in Nederland....so he wrote one.
haha. I heard about the book and had seen it in some missionary
apartments...I asked if I could get one and his wife said that they were all
gone. I was devastated. Gelukkig, he said that he had found one as
he was going through stuff so I got to buy his last one for super cheap!
He even signed it for me! We exchanged back that night and my companion
and I finally got a day to serve in Hengelo with each other. Friday we
ended cleaning our apartment a little, doing some weekly planning and then took
a bus for a long time in order to see a couple in the ward. They are so
cool. They treated us to a delicious meal and a Sinter Klaus surprise.
Afterwards we traveled back home and that was our day. We started
traveling at 4pm and got home at 9pm! Crazy. Saturday gave us time
to go out and about serving the people in Overijsel. We had a fulfilling
day. I had read a text wrong and got the days mixed up with a friend who
we are teaching. They weren't too happy because they are busy so we
brought them some cookies as a peace offering. They loved them and we
ended up teaching them. We saw 3 members/families and then taught a
really cool couple that we are teaching. To top it all off...we got a
surprise cadeautje in our bags from Zwarte Piet and we had 2 of our friends
come to church on Sunday. It was a nice week and a good way to end off my
time in Overijsel.
Turns out that this was my last week serving here in Overijsel. 1 hit
wonder. 1 and done....1 and not 2 or 3. I don't know what else to
write and I can see that it's getting pretty cheesy really quick.
Yup...It was a shock when we the call Sunday evening. Elder Hulet and I
figured that we were going to be serving another transfer together. He
got here 3 weeks before me so we were both really new. While we were spending
time with members Sunday evening President Robinson called us and shared the
news that the Lord would have me serve in Rotterdam. We didn't know what
to do. It was sad because I didn't say goodbye to people at church...I
was pretty positive that I was staying. I never thought that I would leave
a city after only one transfer but...there is a first for everything.
I'll be riding back over to the other side of Nederland and serving in
Rotterdam. A fun fact...my companion is going to be one of my older
companions. haha Turns out I'll be serving with Elder Krebs again.
haha He was my second companion in Belgium while I was serving in Genk.
haha He joked around saying, ''I guess we didn't do it right the first
time.'' It’s going to be fun. I'm a little nervous and shocked but
I know there is a purpose for everything and where the Lord would have you go
is the best place to be. I've experienced His help in accomplishing the
things he would have me do and I know that he helps us all when we are in
need. He's good like that. This is why I can't tell you what time we can
Skype. I'll probably let you guys know next week the times available and
what-not.
This week I saw a lot of cool things happen from small and simple
things. Like when we brought cookies to our friend to apologize for our
mistake, bringing cookies to members to show we appreciate what they do for us,
saying hi to people on the street, taking the time to speak to those you feel
the Spirit would have you speak with, complimenting someone for the good that
you had seen them do; there's a lot but the most important thing I have seen
this week was being the one to say sorry and acknowledge your fault. When
we had received a text from our friend saying that we missed our appointment
and that they didn't have time to be waiting around for nothing while they have
so much other stuff going on....I was upset. I felt like I was not the
one who was wrong. I was so positive that they were the one who mixed up
the date that I allowed myself to get a tad frustrated. This caused me
not to look at the text to see what day we agreed on. I blinded myself to
searching for the truth - usually that would be the first thing one would do, to
look at the text but I was so sure - that I allowed my frustration in trying to
defend myself to blind me from searching and being open to the truth. Then
after a couple days I cooled up and wanted to know what happened with our
miscommunication; turned out...I was the one who was mistaken and I was
the one who was at fault. I felt so bad haha. I felt bad for
missing our appointment and having them wait for nothing, I felt bad because I
was frustrated at them and they did nothing, and I knew that it was going to be
resolved If I ''rose up and took the fault on me''. We decided to
make soft cookies to soften the hearts of those that we have been asked to
serve. Turns out...we make really good cookies. We wrote an apology
letter. Stating that we were in the wrong. We resolved the issue
and everything turned out great. It's so easy to get upset, frustrated,
angry, sad, or disappointed towards someone. Especially when we start
feeling a little self-defensive. It's not a good feeling be responsible
for something that went wrong. Being self-defensive is a dangerous thing
and to me, a disguise for another word; the word, ''selfish''.
Selfishness leads to blinding us to reality. I didn't want to see that I was
wrong so I didn't search to see if I was wrong. Sometimes...the lesson we
are to learn is to say...''I'm sorry, it was my mistake.''
It was a good week and a lot of good experiences here in Overijsel. Next
week I'll talk to you all from Rotterdam. Where are you guys going to be
on the 25th of December? Love you all and until next week!
Elder Holt
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