Gelukkig Nieuwe Jaar!

Gelukkig Nieuwe Jaar, iedereen! I hope you all had wonderful New Year's celebrations, but I doubt they were as exciting as mine! This country goes hardcore, and everyone buys their own fireworks, so at midnight on New Year's Eve (and the two days before and after, actually) the city explodes! New Year's eve was actually a special experience, because we had to be inside our apartments at 4:00 for safety reasons, and were invited by President Bunnell to join in a mission-wide goal-setting extravaganza. I got to ponder and set goals for the next 3, 10, and 25 years, and I must say that while it was cool to see where I'm going, it was also a bit intimidating, and that's how I fell asleep for the little nap we took before being awoken by the fireworks at midnight.

Baby Cow!

However, as we gazed from our eighth story height at the panoramic spectacular display, the sky lit up by beautiful colors and designs non-stop for at least thirty minutes, my heart swelled in excitement for the coming year, for the future in general. Witnessing the exultant joy of everyone celebrating the new year, a new chance, a new day renewed my hope and perspective as well. As a cool lady we recently met just told us, "Ï don't know what the future holds, but I do know Who holds the future." This coming year might be full of change and growth, and I don't know what's coming, but I do know that as we trust in God, He will guide us and help us to reach our potential. I can't possibly describe the fireworks in any way to do them justice, and the videos and pictures don't do it either. I'm just grateful I got to experience that. Nederland knows how to ring in the New Year in style! Happy 2016!

We had some miracles this week. We went back out to an area (way in the middle of farm fields) where we had received several referrals, to someone we had made an appointment with there. We decided to bike instead of take the bus so that we could talk to people along the way which was part of the cool experience- we met several kind though uninterested people, one of whom was a woman who spoke only Fries! Which is a completely different language. We could understand each other but we really had to open our minds to her accent and vocabulary. Still, it was cool, and once again a beautiful area. 

New Years Eve!

The aftermath...

We finally got to our appointment on the dairy farm, and it was incredible! He had absolutely no religious background, but was so open and searching for the truth, for peace and happiness. We were delighted to tell him where he could find those things and how, and shared our own testimonies and experiences... 

He asked the perfect questions.
How can I find peace and happiness?
through prayer and developing that relationship with God and Christ.
How do I pray then? (we explained it) Okay, I'll definitely try it. How can I recognize an answer?
through the Holy Ghost, etc.

We are excited to keep teaching him! That is a golden area. We ended up biking over 35km that day, but it was so worth it.

The weather here has been chilly, but actually relatively warm for this area at this season at this time for the past few weeks. However, at the end of this past week it got dramatically and suddenly colder. So this morning, Sister Kimmons and I woke up to a winter wonderland of snow! It was delightful, and we made a snowman. However, yesterday it was cold, and Sister Kimmon's bike broke, and we wouldn't be able to get it fixed until today. So we braced ourselves to a day of walking, and saw more miracles! We talked to people on the way and knocked doors as we walked, and that led to us meeting a wonderful woman named Harriett. she is also super christian, let us in, gave us hot chocolate to warm up, and we were all able to share our testimonies of Christ with each other. God bless these good people!

Snow!

We named him Olaf.

We saw miracles in this tiny dorpje!

On New Year's Day we had an appointment with a sweet lady we had met on the bus, and we not only got to teach her and her husband, but other friends kept coming by to wish them a Happy New Year, so we got to talk to and get to know a lot of other people as well, through them. Blessings! Heavenly Father puts us in the right place at the right time to reach a lot of people!

This week we also had interviews with President Bunnell. I know he is inspired of God, and his counsel is always exactly what I need to hear.

Also, our zone leaders Reese and Hosea came to work with us, helping us with a lesson and sharing a bit more about the zone vision. We appreciate their support as well. :)

Hema Hot Dogs Together

Eating traditional olliebollen (fried balls of dough covered in powdered Sugar, mmm) on new year's Eve!

I love you everyone! Hope all is well and that you are all equally excited for this new year. It is going to be full of adventure!

Liefs,
Zuster McKinney Voss

With the zone leaders