Courage is the Form of Every Virtue at the Testing Point

This week was exciting! It began with St.Patrick's day, which we celebrated by eating lots of green food. Our whole District wore green, and I was on exchanges with Sister Faasavalu in Zoetermeer later in the day- we made green pancakes and green eggs for dinner. Delicious, and festive! We also went to a Relief Society activity and made candles inside eggshells for Easter. Super fun!

It is easy being green after all!

District celebration

Here's a cool miracle. When missionaries talk to people who are interested in learning about the Gospel but live somewhere else, they pass that information on to other missionaries in different cities. This week we got a referral- from Assen! Someone with interest had approached them in a train station, and asked that they pass the info on to us. It could have come from anywhere, but it happened to be from my baby city! We called and made an appointment with the guy. It was pretty exciting!

A lot of our plans this week didn't go as expected. Nevertheless, we saw miracles in our finding and teaching. We stumbled into a former investigator from 8 years ago who had lost contact with the missionaries and wondered ever since what happened to them. We had an incredible lesson with him, and he was just so happy that we had found him again, and he is so prepared to receive this message. It was completely random how we happened to stumble across his number in our area book. Seeing such miracles always brings me so much joy! And it strengthens my faith that this is the Lord's work.

We participated in a service project as part of NL-doet, a Nationwide service effort on Friday. We had fun painting, sweeping, helping out at an elementary school. We also got to see (and feel, brr!) the solar eclipse!

Saturday was Sister's Conference! All the sisters in the mission- 40 or so- gathered in the mission home for instruction, comfort, inspiration. Sister Robinson's theme came apparently from the new live-action Cinderella film I'm dying to see. have Courage, and Be Kind. She related it to being Christlike. I learned a lot about how I can be more humble and place my confidence in Christ- and not be afraid to do right! That's where the C. S. Lewis quote comes in: courage is not just any virtue, it's the form of every virtue at the testing point! No other virtue matters if we don't have the courage to use it.

Back with Zuster D!

Women's Conference Reunion.

I love these ladies!

Also at the Conference, Elder Bosco (son of Robbie Bosco, BYU's 1984 quarterback apparently) shared a good message, and as part of it he was slowly describing BYU's winning game. But he did it very suspensefully and at that time I couldn't remember what the outcome was. So I was really nervous! When he finally said the winning score, I let out an audible sigh of relief. President Robinson was like, it happened in 1984, ya know!" and they all just laughed at me. I know my poor Dad would be embarrassed by my lack of ancient football knowledge. But I was really relieved that BYU won that game. And the National Championship and stuff.

<Dad Note> Wow, really don't know where to begin on this one. First off, sincere apologies to Brother Bosco and his family. I thought I had raised my children better than this. Rest assured that there will soon be a FHE dedicated to "epic moments in BYU history" that will include such classics as the Danny Ainge last second win vs Notre Dame, The Detmer upset of Miami (which my wife & I attended - 50 yard line, 4th row seats), Men's Volleyball National Championships, rugby domination, victories over the hapless Utes, and of course the 84 National Championship. Just contact me for the lesson plan (don't let this kind of shame impact anyone in your family...)

Pics of Apt for parents - Front Room

Umm, super creepy tiger picture and tight quarters ensure that you don't stay long in the toilet...

On Sunday, unfortunately, Sister Bradley was really sick, so we stayed in the whole day. Strange... Missionaries skipping church? haha. But it was good for her to get the rest she needed to recover. Some members let us borrow Settlers of Catan, which I'd never played before, and she taught me how to play and now I love it. She also got a blessing from our zone leaders, which I think brought us both a lot of strength.

My awesome current companion!

Have courage this week everyone! Courage to be kind, loving, humble, helpful. As we draw on the enabling power of the atonement, we need not be afraid of anything. Have a great week!
Liefs, Zuster McKinney Voss