2nd letter from Hengelo, Netherlands -- Week 38

Elder Ben.... Just clowning around

After 4 LONG months, Elder Ben eating a delicious Belgian waffle

Elder Ben's big apartment in Hengelo, Netherlands

Yooo,

We started this week off with a District Meeting.  In our district it’s kind of weird because we have district meeting in a senior couple's home.  It’s literally in a living room on nice big fluffy couches.  I guess it is better than at the church, but it is just so different! It is pretty easy to fall asleep as well.

After district meeting, we went on splits with the Enschede Elders in Enschede.  We spent the day looking people up and contacting with them.  Enschede is a super old town on the German border.

On Wednesday and Thursday I was on an exchange with the Daventer Elders.  We spent the day working in a city called Zutphen.  It was a super cool city! We walked around for hours and knocked on doors.  We had a little lesson with some black pastor of some local church who basically told us we were of the devil.  Greeeat!!

On Friday we took a road trip down to Belgium! I had to go to Brussels to submit my papers for a driver’s license.  I miss Belgium so much! Just the cool buildings, the smell of waffles, the fries, the chocolate and everything.  We spent a couple of hours in Brussels afterwards walking around and eating lunch and what not.  We got huge freakin’ Belgian sandwiches that were covered in fries and just greasy deliciousness.  We were all so full, but we were in Belgium so you must be crazy if you thought I wasn’t gonna get myself a waffle.  I got a nice big sugar waffle covered in whipped cream, chocolate, and strawberries.  I was so full it hurt, but it what a great feeling! We had to drive back and then take a train home.  We left at 6:30 AM and didn’t get home until 9:30 PM.  It was a super long day, but a fun road trip.

Sunday we had church.  One of our investigators named Belloh came and she thought it was great.  She is from somewhere in Africa.  Right after church, we went straight to look up a referral that we got.  They live super far away so we had to take a train and a bus.  We got there and were thrilled they let us in.  Turns out, her sister is a member.  We taught them the 1st lesson and it went really well! They had a ton of good questions and were willing to read the Book of Mormon.  We made a follow up appointment with them for this Thursday so we are super excited for that.

We had a great lesson with the Torosian's this week.  They are from Syria and only speak Arabic.  We were able to set up a translator via Skype and teach them some of the Plan of Salvation.  We didn’t get too far in because our translator had to go.  The Torosian's are both so loving.  We can’t really communicate with them very well, but they are truly amazing.  I can’t wait to find them in the next life and talk with them.  They always use the few Dutch words they know to tell us how much they appreciate us and love us. They are great people!

Well, my first week in my new city and I was gone for 4 days.  This week we will have lots of time to work here in Hengelo.  The weather is getting warmer which is just lovely.  Things here are great!

Houdoe!

                                              Elder Steenblik