What Does The Voss Say?: Mountains and near misses

Another wonderful week here in Assen! A wonderful week out of the many in past days and the many to come; we got transfer news- Sister Dobler and I will both stay here for the next 6 weeks!

It's kind of a crazy feeling. This means that in total, I'll spend 6 months in this little city in Northern Nederland. No one else from my MTC group is still in the city they started in- they'll all have served in at least two cities starting next transfer. While I'm looking forward to someday serving in other cities, getting to know other wonderful people, I'm thrilled that I'll get to spend so much time here in Assen! I feel truly at home here, and I'm a homey person, so it's nice to stay- and more than that, I love this city and these people. Drenthe province is just beautiful, and I feel blessed everyday for the opportunity to work here. And, I love Sister Dobler- I'm so excited to spend another six weeks as her companion! We are going to work our hearts out and have so much fun here together.

Picture with President and SIster Robinson when they came to do interviews with us last week. I love them so much!

This week was excellent. We had interviews with President and Sister Robinson, which only happen every three months- it's nice to get to speak with them one on one!

We also had an incredible ward council here in the Assen branch. All the leaders of every organization in our unit all gathered together on Tuesday evening - we sang "High on the Mountaintop" and discussed how from a mountain, you can see both from where you've come, and look forward to where you want to go. After praying for inspiration, we discussed our goals for this branch over the next 1-5 years. I'm amazed by the faith of these members and I'm excited to help make their vision a reality - this branch will grow into a ward, their young men will serve missions, they'll retain the special, loving atmosphere that I have already so strongly experienced. It was an honor to participate and I'm so excited to continue getting to serve these members and help them with their misisonary work!

Wet snow in Nederland! Our first snow in Assen. Exciting- but you can see how it soaked our coats!

On Wednesday, it snowed. It started as rain, then it became wet snow, huge flakes of freezing water whacking us in the face as we desperately biked to an appointment we were late for. I must say, it was beautiful, and I enjoyed seeing it softly falling once I was inside - but biking cold and soaked through wind and snow is certainly an adventure I hope to not too frequently repeat!

Snow selfie with our lovely Marjon :)

We had some ups and downs in the work - investigators we had to drop, investigators who dropped us - but we still see miracles every day and I know that there is still so much work to do here in Assen, in Nederland, in Europe! People with prepared, open hearts are seeking truth, and I consider it an honor and a pleasure to search for those people and share with them the truth that has brought me such incredible happiness.

A funny story as my last note: We were walking under some trees with Bernadette when bird poop fell from above and almost hit me - it missed by like an inch and plopped in front of my boots. We all stopped and looked at it and Bernadette said, "Hemelse Vader heeft je weer beschermd!"(Heavenly Father has protected you again!). It was a pretty close call. There was definitely some divine intervention involved to spare a poor sister missionary the indignity and mess of being pooped on by a bird. Another small miracle I'm grateful for.

I was feeling pretty netjes (classy) on Sunday and realized I didn't have a picture yet with this new bike Zr. Keuter gave me. So here I am with it in Marjon's garden!