What Does The Voss Say?: Gratitude

This week in Leeuwarden was pretty great. as always, of course! We had some cool experiences.

Snow last week!

Oh yeah, it was Thanksgiving! We had a great day, I made apple pie and we had a cultural exchange with the family we ate with - they made a dutch dinner, we brought the American dessert :) Mostly it was just cool throughout the week to share a spiritual thought about gratitude. It is always nice to take a moment to appreciate everything we have been given. A thought that hit me is that while many Americans try to be grateful on Thanksgiving, do we really consider Who we are grateful to? Do we express that gratitude to our Father in Heaven, our family, friends, and co-workers? We are so blessed, and it didn't come from nowhere. I read a great talk from President Monson this past week that really emphasized that point. "Again, my brothers and sisters, our Heavenly Father is aware of our needs and will help us as we call upon Him for assistance. I believe that no concern of ours is too small or insignificant. The Lord is in the details of our lives." We truly do have a loving Heavenly Father who cares and takes care of our concerns. I know that because I have felt His love and seen Him answer my prayers and the prayers of others! I am thankful for that :)

I made American apple pie on thanksgiving. a must :)

Making antillean krokets with a member under the direction of zr Jaramillo!

My signature onion cutting pose, because if I'm standing then the onions really make me cry. and I cut a lot of onions because zr J is a master chef :)

Me with my cupcake fondant creations after the ward talent avond

Yesterday we were doing an FHE style lesson with a family and our invitation was for them to begin to try to do family prayer every night together. I bore my testimony about how much I loved and was strengthened by family prayer every night as I grew up, the unity and security that it brought me- and as I was testifying, it just hit me so powerfully. I love my family so much. I am so grateful for everything my parents do to provide a solid spiritual foundation for us kids. I'm grateful to be on a mission. I consider that some of the fruits of their righteous labors. I am honored to associate with the noble spirits in our family and grateful that because of my parent's choices and the covenants they are striving to keep, we can be together forever if we do our part as well.

We had exchanges on Tuesday, so I got to work with the lovely Zr Jensen. We were accidentally wearing almost the same outfit. That was pretty fun! We also taught a great lesson together and enjoyed getting to talk and get to know one another. Exchanges are awesome.

We had some other miracles- we looked up a family of former investigators and they let us in, and we were able to do a short lesson/activity with the kids, and they said we could come back. We started talking to a man outside the train station, and then went by his home the next day to bring him a Book of Mormon. We taught a short lesson, made a new appointment and he agreed to come to church. We had a special service for visitors/guests on Sunday, and one of our investigators came for the first time, and she loved it! And the members loved her. I am so grateful for church. It gives me such a lift for the rest of the week.

The ship casually passing by in the canal behind our house when I looked out the window

Crazy Christmas light display with a cool story. I was distracted by it and stopped to take pictures, and then the owner of the house came out, we talked with him a bit and set up an appointment to meet next week. So that's pretty awesome!

Selfie with the elders. Leeuw means lion, so Leeuwarden is the place of the lions! Or the lionhearted missionaries, we hope :)

Climbing on a playground with zr jaramillo, bush and jensen at zone pday :)

The work presses endlessly forward. We are working hard, we achieved more than 23 hours of proselyting time this week, and we are seeing the blessings. The Lord truly prepares people!

Have a great week everyone!

Love, Zuster McKinney Voss

PS. Last Sunday, the organist was sick and there is no one else in this branch who can play piano well enough to accompany, so they asked me to play the piano during sacrament meeting. I was so nervous! But they let me choose the hymns, I picked simple ones I was comfortable with playing, and I can testify that Heavenly Father magnifies our abilities. With no major hiccups, the songs went pretty smoothly forward, and it was definitely better than a congregation singing a cappella, probably. :) I'm grateful for music! For all those learning to play the piano: keep practicing. It's worth it!