Heerlen...week 8

Hoi familie!

Hoe gaat het met alles? Cool pictures I got to see that dad sent me, Arizona looked pretty.. warm ;) But actually the weather has been really great the past week.. We can now go biking without coats.. so that's nice.. Really starting to see the beauty of this place, and also now that we're biking so much (didn't bike with Elder Robert because of bike problems) Really starting to see how Hilly this place is.. wow.. There's a town that is in our area called hoensbroek.. and to get there on bike you have to go over a few hills.. good size ones.. and well.. when you have to do that every day, a person gets a little tired.. Last night I just passed out.. So tired.. probably the most tired I've been on my mission so far.. which is good.. I think that when I have that feeling that means I was working pretty hard during the week =) ...and what a week we had.. lot's of up and downs.. Karel the person I talked about last email, we had our appointment with him, and it was one of the best appointments I've ever been apart of.. really neat, set a baptismal date with him.. committed him to come to church, and meet with us three times every week.. it was amazing.. our joint teach said he had never had seen someone so prepared for the gospel.. so really riding an emotional high after friday with the lesson.. it was great because we had quite a few potentials we found the previous week drop us this week.. so it was much needed.. but of course.. stuff happens, Karel didn't show up to church on sunday, and then we get a text later in the day saying he wants nothing more to do with us.. yeah.. a pretty hardcore drop.. been dropped by plenty of people but this was pretty unexpected, pretty heavy.. but work goes on.. we found success in going through the area book, and so we have a number of appointments lined up for this next week.. including a couple of Americans. We went finding on a street where an american family lives.. so it's a street for american's and we made a couple of appointments to come back.. one guy his name is Äsh Henry" is pretty intense, but a cool guy should be a good experience going over to his house.. it's amazing how much more religious military people are.. a lot of people we talk to in the ward and outside that are apart of the military say that the experiences that you go through during war or what not, really makes a person come to the realization that there truly is a god, that there is something more out there.. back to this guy named Ash, he didn't believe that we were americans ha ha He said a few times, you two aren't americans, where do you really come from.. made us think.. wow is our english really getting bad? I guess that's a good sign right? It's a weird thing to be able to understand a person and one moment.. and then they switch the topic and you can't understand anything that there trying to say.. that's where I"m at right now.. talk about the gospel and I'll talk to you for a while.. but talk about anything else.. it's a struggle.. but getting better.. In my planners I write "line upon line, precept upon precept"so that has helped keep a positive attitude and not get discouraged..
Another neat experience, we were making plans and we decided to stop by this one member's home to ask if he could be a joint teach or something, when we went in, I was talking to the wife, and she was saying how we showed up at the perfect time, because she has been going through a lot of stress with everything, and it had finally taken her toll on her.. so we were able to give her a blessing, and she asked me to give her that blessing.. it was neat because after I was finished she said that I said a line in her patriarchal blessing.. so yeah, really neat.
So summary of this week, lot's of highs.. lot's of lows.. spiritual experiences and not spiritual experiences.. had my first appointment with Jehovah witnesses the other day.. it's not very fun being preached too and being told that everything that we believe is false.. so.. yeah fun eventful packed week I just had.. Really excited for Conference.. It's going to be good.. The super bowl of missionary's I remember my MTC teacher calling it.. so looking forward to that..
Love you all.. pray for you all.. thanks for all the emails and letters and love and encouragement and info about your lives.. it's appreciated ;)
Elder Joseph V. Mohrman