First Week In Breda

Church was grewat. Bishop let my comp borrow one of his bikes and he let me also borrow none too while he fixes mine up

My creativity is out this week. So much go go go, not enough time to muster energy. So since these computers are way slow, and we have so little time, I will just go through this last week. It was actually a really great week, I have gotten to be a lot more comfortable with the Nederlanders and although I feel my language isn´t getting better, my fluent companion (Her name is Zuster Nielson, by the way) says I am, but I dont feel it. Hopefully she´s right. Did I tell you guys she goes home after this transfer? Yeah. I am so young in the mission compared to her.

Well this week was great. Last monday we had a dinner appointment with one of our progressing investigators. She is just the absolute most sweetest woman. She wants to get baptized but she is having a difficult time quitting smoking and there are problems surrounding her living situation with her boyfriend and not being able to get married right now because of issues. There were so many things that I wanted to say but I didn´t know how, so I just cried while she talked about her feelings and struggles. Then Ether 12:27 came to mind and I pulled out my scriptures and flipped there and had her read it and she started crying and then in very broken dutch I told her that through the enabling power of the atonement, we can recieve strength beyond our own and that ¨nobody´s weaknesses are greater than the strengths within him/her, because each of us are children of God with his divinity and diving potential woven into the very fabric of our souls.¨ It was so great. Love her.

Then on tuesday we saw so many miracles. First off, we went to visit one of the older ladies in our ward who wants the lessons again (the one who called me a princess) and she lives in an old folks home and we went into her room with her and what is coming from her stereo? MC Hammer, ¨Cant Touch This.¨That´s what´s up. So we start giving the lesson (it´s my turn to start so I do) and she interrupts me midsentence to tell me that I don´t speak good dutch. Thank you...I know. After that we were walking..somewhere...and my companion goes up to a lady who´s obviously Hindu who is taking her two boys to school and tells her that we have a message about eternal families (a lot more eloquently than I just typed it) and she told us to come with her to get her boys to school (the school was right there) and then she took us back to her apartment, her husband was there, and they sat and talked to us and we gave them a book of mormon, and their mother language is Tamil (which we conviently have a copy in that language in our apartment) and we made an appointment with them for this wednesday and we´re bringing the Tamil copy. Sweetness. Then we dropped by an old investigator who went back to Africa a while ago to sort out legal stuff (I think?) and he wasn´t back yet, but his 5 kids and wife were there. We talked to them and asked if they´d be interested. She said she´s just so busy with the family. Well, good thing the chuch does this thing called FAMILY HOME EVENING. Yep, we made an appointment to come do one with them on July 4. Rock on. Tuesday was just rockin.
Wednesday we did exchanges with the sisters serving down in Genk, Belgium. That was a lot of fun. I couldn´t rely on my companion to know my city, though, so I had to step up to the plate and lead the way. Did we get lost a lot? You bet. It was awesome. then we had shoarma for dinner. there are shoarma places errwhere here. 
Thursday was good. We went up to the mission home (all the sisters in Antwerpen zone) to spend the night so we could go to zone conference in Leiden the next day. That was so much fun. Then Zone conference was uh-mazing. Loved it. And Genk couldn´t get back to Genk in time to catch a bus home, so they stayed in Breda with us that night...party. I love the missionaries in this mission.

I was talking to this sweetheart of a sister, Zr. Brown, who is serving in Genk, and she was telling me about how the first around 9 months of the mission is like going through the refiner´s fire. She told me a story about how there were these women who wanted to know how silver was made, so they went down to the balcksmith or whoever makes silver place and had the man show them. He said ¨when I put it through the hottest part, that´s when I watch it the closest, and I only  take it out when I can see my reflection in it.¨Ugh how perfect. Love her. Love stories like that.

Church was great yesterday, frst time meeting with the Tillburg Branch and they have about 20 members. It´s so great. So much work to do in that area. So exciting. Bishop gave my comp a bike to borrow and mine ended up having a hole in the tire so he gave me one too to borrow while he fixed mine. I love ward members, they are just so helpful. Yesterday was actually my first day riding my bike...ina skirt...AND it was raining. I was unnaturally happy. It was awesome. And I´m almost positive if I wasnt on a mission I would not think that is cool. BUT IT WAS.
My companion is great. She made me breakfast this morning. Those pannenkoken things or whatever they´re called...the dutch pancakes? yeah. she also introduced me to belgian chocolate this past week. Yeah I like her a lot. :)
Well there´s the scoop for this past week. Life is great, beer is against the word of wisdom, and people ARE crazy. The Lord has plans for The Netherlands:) Im thankful I get to be a part of them :)

xoxo

Zuster Hoff

That IS the language they taught me in the MTC!

I know you were all worried, but have no fear, Dutch is in fact the language they speak in the Netherlands, and the language they taught me in the MTC. However, I only know gospel dutch, so I speak a lot of Neder-engels and I smile and nod a lot. It´s kinda awk sometimes.

So the flight here was riddikilik long, but not as bad as I expected it to be. The hotel we stayed at the first night was the one connected to the Schipol airport. DANG. That was one NICE hotel. I definately also blew out my hairdryer because I did not check the voltage on that thing. Dang. I caused a power outage in the room. But the lights came back on, thankfully. I said a fervent prayer of thanks for that one. My roommate was even in the shower when that happened. "Zuster Hoff..." I hear apprehensively from the bathroom. "wat doen je?" Hahah.

The first day we went into Leiden to do legality stuffs and we had lunch there. Swordfish was an option. I am sorry to say that I did not eat the swordfish. However, the following morning we had the most leukste breakfast ever. It was so eurpoean and it was a buffet I swear I died and went to heaven.

So this week has been crazy. Between jet lag and being sick and travelling EVERYWHERE and not knowing where I am and freaking out and y´know, adjusting, I don´t even know anymore.

I am serving in Breda, a small town south of Zuid Holland and it includes Tillburg and Roosendaal. So much of the time here is spent travelling. The ward just split on sunday and now we´re in two wards and that just means--THERE IS WORK TO DO. I am excited but totally freaked out. I´m in a foreign country and I dont know what I´m doing!

My companion is the sister training leader in the zone, so she has to go on splits with everyone in the zone means that I get to go on splits with all the sisters in the zone, too. Sweet. Last week I went up to Gouda because she had a meeting to go to with the sister training leader in the Appledorn stake and so I worked in Gouda for the day with another greenie and it was awesome. I was so impressed. We met a lady who was interested and then we basically taught the whole first lesson to a man in the park, it was so cool. People say that Europe is such a hard place, but it´s wonderful. It´s all about who you are, I think. I mean, people are people everywhere. Back in the MTC I said something about people bugging me, and Broeder Hulme said that there were going to be people out in the field and I said not the same kind of people, and he said There is only one kind of people. Gods children. TRUTH.

So We had our first lesson with an investigator....she didn´t want us coming back :( she liked coffee. I think she was catholic. I wish I could´ve said something but words just aren´t coming to me.

the wward is super sweet and I got a free bike from em. There was a really old lady who was just adorable who told me I looked like  aprincess and wanted to be my friend. I didn´t even say two words to her. But she was adorable.

We have next to no time here for emailing so I shall Tot Ziens to ya. I love you guys! Byeee!

xoxo

Zuster Hoff

Rule Number 1 of the MTC is...

 

DON'T GET SICK! Everybody and their mom (okay, so only the missionaries that I met) told me to not get sick on the mission. I tried. I tried to be healthy, I used my sparkly hand sanitizer, I commanded my body not to get sick. And then it did. GAH. That's okay, though, because I busted out the stash of pills my mother sent with me and just took a junk ton of vitamins and other sorts of health stuff and I ate a lot of oranges and grapefruit (which...people actually LIKE grapefruit? not my fruit. Fer sure.) So I've gotten healthier. But soo many people have gotten sick while here. I don't know what it is--probably the change of the seasons. Yep. Now my companion has a nasty cough :(

 

That being said, there are so many other things I wish I knew before I came to the MTC. And other things that I should've done differently. and then some things I did do well that I'm glad I did.

 

For example: I wish I understood that I didn't really need to buy a new toothbrush for this...I could have brought my nice, better one. For some reason I thought the MTC was some kind of camp...or something. And I'm the kind of person who will stare at the cracker section of the grocery store trying to figure out what kind of graham crackers to buy for s'mores and then end up buying and going home with oyster crackers. That being said, in efforts to buy the cheapest toothpaste, I have been brushing my teeth for the last six weeks with Colgate kids! brand, bubble fruit flavor. Not even complaining, I love bubble fruit flavored toothpaste. But between that and my Little Mermaid bed sheets, nobody takes me very seriously. It was especially awkward when a sister asked to have some toothpaste because she had left hers back in her room. Yep...I'm a really cool Zuster.

 

Anyways:

1. Just don't shop at Downeast unless you want to have the same exact clothing as every other sister here. I understand that's like the only modest store in a lot of cases...so....you could also opt for shopping there, getting here, and then coordinating to match with sisters, like I did. Zus Packer from district B and I totes rocked our matching skirts on mint wednesday. We got both the dutch districts to wear mint on that wednesday. It was a beautiful day.

2. Make sure you write everything down in your journal. Even if you think you'll remember--you wont. I cant even remember what happened yesterday. ....OH yes I do. but that took some time.  Luckily, I wrote it down.
3. Use your time wisely. There is a lot of time in the day that the teacher isn't there. It's so easy to not do personal study because you're only accountable to yourself, but do it. They say you don't come to the MTC to learn the language. You get a fundamental of it, but that's all. You come to the MTC to learn how to be a missionary! And that involves INTENSE STUDYING. You will be just fine as long as you use your time effectively.

4. Be humble. It is a lot easier coming into this thing humbly than having this place humble you. unfortunately, I had to do the latter. I tried being humble, at first, but...I had to be more humbled, I suppose.

5. Time goes by SO scary fast. Ridiculously fast. So if you have a problem with someone--a district leader, a companion, a branch president, a teacher---either talk about it if it's a huge deal or just get over it, because life is like a basket weave--oftentimes you'll never meet the same people again, but their strand of thread crosses yours at a perfect moment of time and then they're gone. So tough out the hard times that make you appreciate the good ones. Or better yet, just make all the hard times good ones, because otherwise you're just wasting time. Someone said something that offended you? Don't take offense. "A fool is one who takes offense when none is intended. A greater fool is one who takes offense when it is intended." Anger is a useless emotion. Unproductive. Just makes you feel bad. Same with frustration and discouragement. Don't let the devil use his tool of discouragement on you.

6. Dont sit by the ice box on the first day--because then it's your spot for the next however long you're there and you and your companion FREEZE.

7. Make friends with everyone. Seriously. You meet the darndest people in the MTC bathrooms. One of my favorites, Sister Naked (Sister Boone, but I called her sister naked and she called me sister garden. Why? Because the first time I met her she came in to the bathroom and started talking to one of her roommates about how some sisters came and knocked on her door and she thought they were her friends, so trying to be funny she called out "I'm naked" and turns out she didn't know them at all. and then my last name means garden, we've been over this) left for Boston today on her reassignment. She was supposed to go to Peru. But see, friend for life because of the MTC bathroom.

8. Seriously pack smartly. Just do it. You don't need to take that much stuff. And you should probably consider good shoes. before a month.

9. Just listen to your mother. She may nag you a lot, but if you don't, you will probably end up like me thinking "I should've listened to my mother." About everything. You're mother is a genius, that's why her name is mom.

10. You'll hear it 17 thousand times while you're here and even before you get here, but BE OBEDIENT. Obedience is the first law of heaven, or something cool like that. "Obedience brings blessings. Exact obedience brings miracles."

11. Dont get lazy before you come in. I know the wait is excruciating, but if you get slothful with your studies or motivation, it's...not good.

12. PRAY ALL THE TIME.

 

Okay so there's that. Now: overview of past week:

 

1. We had mission conference on Sunday. District President Jenkins was our "special speaker" and he came to OUR DISTRICT afterwards for our district meeting. We talked about the Atonement. It was INTENSE. I learned so much though.

2. My companion's graduation from college was on saturday and she didn't get to be there because she's here, doin the work, so Elder Corsini, our district AND zone president, put on a little ceremony for her. and invited the WHOLE ZONE. It was hilarious. She wore a sheet as her gown. He wore his bathrobe as his. Oh man. Hilarious.

3. We got baptismal commitments from our two "investigators" yesterday. Yeah, two committments in one day.

4. We got a new dutch district! 8 elders going to Suriname! We also got more Sweeds.

5. One of our teachers reverantly talked about how much swagger Ammon had for boasting of his God.

 

This being my last P-day in the MTC is cray. I think if I had to say what I learned the most about it would definately be repentance. Repentance=change. Change for the better. And we all need to change for the better. And it is through Christ and His Atonement that we can turn away from an old life and an old self and become someone new and better. Some people will never let you forget some things you've done, but once you repent, Heavenly Father doesn't remember it anymore. Ever. At all. It's like that super cool thing that takes all the inaapropriateness out of movies. And I may have said this all before but the purpose is to invite others to recieve the gospel through faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, and enduring to the end. Repentance seems so daunting. So severe. But it's not. It's a gift. An opportunity to stop being someone we dont like and become someone we love. I just love that a lot.

 

We got our travel plans this past week! WOOOOO!!! We leave on Monday the 10th to go to Amsterdam! It's a straight through 13 hour flight. From Salt Lake to Amsterdam. Yeah whatup. So excited.

 

Well, Tot Holland!

 

xoxo

 

Zuster Hoff

May 28th- All is Well. All is Well.

 

 

We sang Come Come Ye Saints at devotional on Sunday with the recording of MoTab. Yeah, it was rocking. "Why should we mourn and think our lot is hard? Tis not so. All is well."

This week has been...pretttyyy uneventful. Our Norweigians in our branch have left us, so now the Sweeds, Danes, and Norweigians have left and there's only the Dutch. We're next! Two weeks! Tomorrow we get more Sweeds and more Dutch, but these Dutch are going to Suriname. We have two of those right now. They leave next week.

Sydney, or now known as Sister Williams, came in on wednesday and I got the pleasure of seeing her cute face. And taking a picture with it. With her camera, though, so...yaya!

Anyway. Let's see. This past week has been crazy fast. They just keep getting faster. And you want to know what's crazy? My release date from missionary service is October 28 2014. Today officially makes me 1 month down, 17 to go. CRAZY. I feel like I'm wasting time! But there's still so much to learn and so much to take in, so I will chill out (even tjillen, as the Dutch say) and just do all I can to make myself as ready as can be for my trainer that I'll be meeting in TWO WEEKS.

On Sunday, we watched Sister Monson's funeral. :(  How sweet. I am so thankful for the Plan of Salvation and for knowing that the end of mortality is not the end of life. I love the comfort we can find in even the most sorrowful times and I am thankful for how thin the veil gets when we have that much pain. I'm thankful for Christ's atonement, knowing full well that He decended all the pains and sins and sorrows of life and has overcome them all, even the world, that we too can overcome trials and tribulations through Him, our Savior and Redeemer. I am thankful  that Christ suffered alone so that we never have to and I find comfort in knowing that every trial we must face is necessary for our salvation. Christ suffered the most pain of all and He was the only begotten of the Father.  The nail wounds in His hands and feet are evidence that pain happens to even the pure and perfect and that trails are not evidence that God doesn't love us (I got that from Jeffery R Holland, so...yeah he's a genius.) I love this gospel. I love my nametag that puts my family's name and Christ's name engraved the grandest so that I never forget who I'm representing. And I'm thankful for learning dutch, even though my english has been suffering because of it.

I love the gift of tongues. I can gage how present and strong the spirit is in a lesson according to how well I can find words. Those days that I can say everything I want to and it all comes smoothly--those are the days that blow my mind. It's awesome.

I really love dutch.

In Relief Society on Sunday, the first councilor in the relief society presidency was supposed to come talk to us. Yep, she never showed up...so I hope she's okay.

I seriously never get time to think so I dont have a lot else to report about what else happened this past week. I can remember what I did today. ----laundry. Hurrah for clean clothes. Can I get an Amen?

OH! I got a letter from my girl Sister Nordgren last week. It was a prank letter. Glitter all up in everything. What up. Finally gettin back what I've been dishing out. And I love it. My companion/district? Not so crazy about it. But I think it's hilarious. Please send prank letters. I got another one today from Sister Hendricks. Confetti in that one. I love sister missionaries.

Here is a quick overview of my district sisters/roomies:

Zus Schwab: she sings a mean alto line. She is hilarious. She wants to be a elementary school teacher and believe you me, she would be fantastic. She's kind of like me in that she is like a 6 year old in a 20 year old's body. She has an awesome relationship with her scriptures and she lights up my life.

Zus Aston: Pretty quiet, but really funny and sweet when she talks. Just about the cutest sister missionary. she's pretty small. She just turned 19 in March. She's just wonderful and I'm thankful for her and her perspective.

Zus Nelson: Pretty much the nicest person ever. First week I said I thought I forgot socks and she gave me one of her pairs. She's given me cute skirts because she's the sweetest. Always smiles. always happy. Always positive like I want to be. Always cute outfits. And she's passionate about the work which is refreshing.

Zus Aldous: A world traveller. She's been to 22 countries and she's fluent in German (so this dutch thing is a walk in the park for her. she just needs to add more phlegm. She is pretty tiny. She's 21 and she's so sweet and postivie and she with Nelson is a Sister Training leader for the branch. So Perfect, they make the best team.

and then we have my comp, Zus Western: She's beautiful. She is graduated from college with a degree in neuropsychology (so look out we have a genius here) and she is fairly quiet (so you can imagine how much she loves her companion) and she sings like an angel. We sing together and it's magical. She has a beautiful smile (perfect teeth without braces or cavities ever. how do you do that?) and...she's actually pretty funny so we laugh a lot. I love laughing, so that's good. OH, and she's way popular and gets like 12 letters a day.

Look out Belgium/Netherlands, we're coming for you. We gon find you. and you can run and tell that,  homeboy. (10 points to anyone who understands that reference)

 

That's my week and my district.

I would say write me...but that hasn't proved effective in the past. Hahaha

Love you

xoxo

 

Zuster Hoff

 

 

May 21st --We're all on the Lord's Side

 

Our jersies are our nametags, whether they're pinned on our shirts or painted on our hearts, and a victory for the one is a victory for the Lord.

 

Imagine you are up in heaven with 2000 people. There are two men standing to the side and one asks to the other "what's going on here?" The other says back "Jehova is coming to pick one of the 2000 to be his personal representative on the earth and his/her job is going to be to go down there and explain what happened up here." Jehova comes, and out of the 2000, He picks you. You are in awe. How lucky are you.

 

How lucky am I to be able to wear this nametag, with my name next to Jesus Christ's, being His personal representative, and of all times and places, He sends me here, now. How lucky am I to be able to be a part of His work and labor is His vineyard. Pretty dang lucky. Or, as I like to call it, blessed.

 

Last Tuesday night, Elder Russel M. Nelson came to give a devotional. I got to sing in the choir. It was so neat. Being in the same room as an apostle of the Lord brings a pretty special spirit. I've never been to General Conference, so I was pretty dang giddy. He talked about being happy- "men are that they night have joy--so look like it!" Well. That is definately something to remember. At all times. I've been workin on smiling more lately. My face hurts.

 

Mary Edmunds came and gave the Sunday devotional and it was SO GREAT. Update: for all who don't know who she is, look her up. I think they said she was the second councilor in the general relief society presidency for 11 years and she and her companion were the first two sisters in the Phillipines or something like that. Anyway, she gets up to speak after an INCREDIBLE musical number and says "May I just say 'hubba hubba.'" Hahaha she's so old and just hilarious. She also talked about having joy. "it is not just a suggestion, it is a commandment." She said that when your countenance shines with the light of Christ, people will want to know why. When you have the gospel and you know that it's true, what reason have ye to be sad? Satan, or as Sister Edmunds calls him, "What's his no-face" (cuz he doesn't have a face cuz he doesn't have a body, get it? ha-ha) cant make you have a sad countenance, only you can--so diss him and dismiss him! (Yeah, she actually said that. She is pretty sassy.)

 

She went on to say some other good stuff like turn your life over to God--He can make more of it than you can. And also, when you're on a mission, you have help from both sides of the viel. Aint that the truth. Sister Nelson, last Tuesday, said to pray to find the people whose ancestors are praying for you. I found that interesting. Pretty sweet.

 

I have also been teaching the first vision quite a lot and I was feeling like it was so rote and then Mary Edmunds brought up such a wonderful point: think of all the prayers throughout eternity that were answered that 1820 morning when Joseph Smith went to pray.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, the power of prayer is real. Let me explain you a thing about tender mercies. After a cafeteria line longer than my great-grandmother's life, there was one piece of carrot cake (basically the best part of the entire MTC) left. For me. I testify that God lives and He loves us.

 

So the weeks are going by so fast and I don't even know what to talk about. My sister told me to tell her about my adventures, but seriously it's pretty routine here. I find it so crazy we are already halfway through these 6 MTC weeks.

 

So literally every morning, we get up at 6:30, go to gym, go to Breakfast , go to class, sing, learn, teach "investigators," sing, study, lunch, class, sing, learn, teach "investigators," sing, language study, dinner, more studying (unless it's sunday or tuesday and we have a devotional) and then we go to room and sleep at 10:30. That's the life of a missionary at the MTC. It's really fun but it's not very...adventurous.

Tomorrow we are starting an english fast for the next three weeks. Good luck with that, I say to my entire district. We haven't even made it for a day yet. But hey, I have faith we can do it.

 

I have also been lied to for three weeks. It is not zoo-stir hoff but it's like...z-ehh-ster hoff. Or whatever. We decided that if we say it fast enough it'll sound right.

 

I laugh a lot here. There are some pretty hilarious people and things that happen. The girls in my district are hilarious. Mostly just Zuster Schwab, though. She is one of the most entertaining people I have ever met. I was planning on writing bios for you on all the girls in my room/district (because they're the same girls in my room and in my district) but it looks like I am about out of time. I'll have to sometime, though. They're just too great not to tell about.

 

True to the faith, Brothers and Sisters,

 

Have a wonderful life in the real world.

 

Send letters--my comp is still way more popular than me. Let's even it out, shall we? You can send a letter for free at Dearelder.com (I am a sister...Kiki sent letters to Elder Tyffani Hoff...I still got them though so yay.) And if you're a fan of snail mail, take advantage of my next 3 weeks in the US:

 

Zuster Tyffani Hoff

MTC Mailbox #63

BEL-NETH 0610

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604

 

Off to learn how to bring the world His truth!

 

Tot ziens!

 

 

 

Zuster Hoff