My Mother Put the Song of Testimony in My Heart

We didn't get to call home for Mother's day here in the MTC (understandably) but I LOVE MY MOMMY! Happy late Mother's day! She is the reason I get to be here. I am so thankful. She, as the title suggests, put the song of testimony in my heart. :)

 

This past week was sweet. For Relief Society on Sunday, Janice Kapp Perry came to speak!!!!! If you don't know who she is, let me explain you a ting. She wrote, "As Sisters in Zion", "Armies of Helaman", "Love is Spoken Here", "A Child's Prayer", and a lot of other really super great songs gosh LOVE HER so glad she came to speak we all sang a medley of her songs and then sang another song to the tune of As Sisters In Zion that she rewrote the lyrics to and a really special one that stood out to me in the rewritten version was "the angels of heaven are walking beside us." Beautiful. We also had a super devotional on Sunday night and it made me so anxious to get out in the field and work! But I know that I still have so much left to learn so I will try to enjoy the rest of the time I have here these next few weeks. (try to--hah! I love this place. Being a missionary is SO FAB.) Then I went and watched the talk by Elder Bednar called "Character of Christ" and it was so. good. He talked about how Christ always turned outward when the natural man would turn inward and THAT was the character of Christ. In his most afflicting moment, he sent ministering angels to John. He suffered alone so that we don't have to and the healing power of the Atonement gives us strength beyond our own. LOVE THAT. Then in class we made a box so that we would "bury our weapons of rebellion" like the Anti-Nephi-Lehites and become truly converted to the Lord because the most important convert on your mission is YOU and he who is converted to the Lord, truly, will NEVER FALL AWAY. Powerful. I love Bednar for that talk. He's also a great apostle otherwise....

 

Dutch Mishap of the Week: We were practicing baptismal invitations and dood is death and doop is baptize and so Elder Nielson said "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and die?"

 

Can you imagine if that really happened? Like "Uh...yeah? But like...how soon are we talkin? I got things to do..."

 

Two Zusters wrote our theme song for our district. It's the cup song from Pitch Perfect with rewritter lyrics. So:

missionary : zendeling

herstelling: restoration

evangelie: gospel

heilsplan: plan of savation

doop: baptize

 

So:

We got a ticket to the netherlands

two zendelingen all the way

and we sure would like to share the good news

but we're leaving tomorrow what do you say?

 

til we're gont, til we're gone

we're gonna teach you til we're gone

we're gonna teach you the herstelling
we're gonna teach you evangelie,

oh we're gonna teach you heilsplan

 

We've got a doopen date planned for you

we'd love it if you would say yes

and we know the Lord will help you through

because we know our message is true

 

(repeat chorus (second stanza))

 

WOOO.

 

So fun fact: I feel like I've been lied to my whole life because we always said our last name was GERMAN but lo and behold, it's DUTCH. Hoff in Nederlands means GARDEN! (Hof with one h but it's pronounced the same.) BUT NOT JUST ANY REGULAR GARDEN. It means like a special garden, like Garden of Eden or Garden of Gethsemane. So I'm like, Zuster super hallowed garden over here. SWEET.

 

My companion gets so much mail. Like, so much. Like, at least two letters a day. Not even an exaggeration. And here I am over here like...yeah...I got a letter last week from my daddy. And then she complains about losing her mail. "Dangit, where did I put my mail?!" #problemsidonthave. So NEWSFLASH! You can write me a dear elder on dearelder.com for free to the provo mtc, box #63, and it will get to me the same day you write it! So...think about it. Make me not so unpopular compared to mijn collega. I'll write you back! Promise!

 

I don't have any time left. So. I will end with--I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! The dutch is coming great and the lessons are going great and my companion and I are getting super tight and my life is just peachy. I love the MTC. Just. Love. The. MTC. But BELGIE EN NEDERLAND IS GOING TO BE OFF THE HOOK!! I can't wait!

 

Xoxo

Zuster Super Hallowed Garden!