4th letter from Eindhoven, Netherlands -- Week 52

Graffiti here is actually good.  Look how dang detailed this guy is!

Elder Ben

My boii Harry and I

Hey Jongens,

Holy schnikes, it has been such a crazy week! We literally had an exchange or splits every single day this week.  It’s the most tired I have been, ever! I fell asleep every time I sat down.  Haha

On Tuesday I got to go on an exchange with one of my best friends on the mission, Elder Morrell in Amersfoort.  We had a super good time and taught a cool lesson to an African woman about prayer and scripture study.

Wednesday I was in Nijmegen with Elder Wolchijn.  Elder Wolchijn is so sick! He has had a crazy past. He was born when his parents were only 13 years old and his life has been full of gangs, drugs, street racing, fights and what not.  He converted to the church and ended up coming on a mission.  I have so much respect for that kid.

Thursday I was in Den Bosch with Elder Bean.  We looked up a less active woman from Brazil and she let us in and it turns out that her husband wants to be taught!  We got to know them and had a lesson with them and the Den Bosch Elders are going to start teaching him.

On Friday I was finally back in Eindhoven! I was on the road for 3 days straight days and it was nice to be home.  I was on an exchange with Elder Reynolds and it was kind of hard because I have barely even worked in Eindhoven because I am always gone to another city and I am still getting to know the city.  We had another appointment with Genzeer, the less active guy from Sudan.  

One bad thing about always being away on exchanges is using other missionaries bikes.  They are always way too small for my body and super ghetto.  My bum was feelin’ it by the end of the week! But the good news is that I am building up a leather hard callus.

Saturday morning, we went to Breda to work with the sisters there.  Their ward had a service project that day so we helped them do a deep clean on their church building.  Afterwards, they had a nice ward barbeque.  There was a woman there who told me that her Father´s family was baptized by an Elder Steenblik years ago, but she couldn’t remember the first name.  2 very old women there had gotten their patriarchal blessing from a Steenblik, so that was pretty cool! After the barbeque we came back to Eindhoven just in time to catch our ward picnic.  We have a ton of youth in the ward who all love soccer, so we played a soccer game with all of them.  Our Saturday was basically spent ward party hopping.  Haha

We have 2 young men in the ward who are preparing for missions, so we are working with them a lot bringing them on joint teaches to help them prepare.  Our ward mission leader, Brother Stewart also likes to come with us.  He is from Ireland and everything he says is hilarious! It’s even better because he sounds like the Lucky Charms leprechaun.

Next week we have another busy week full of exchanges, but I am super pumped.  Exchanges are always fun because you get to go to a new city and get to work with other Elders, but man alive are they tiring! Happy Father’s Day yesterday to all of the fathers out there.  

Loves,

                                                  -Elder Steenblik