I'm staying in Dordrecht for 6 more weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sooooooooooooo happy. I love love love Dordrecht. woot woot!

I thought i would begin this week with the 3 hardest things for me. Warning: these are not spiritual, they are very temporal, natural man type things.

1. Not being able to dance.

OHHHHHH it's such a burden. Almost too heavy to bear. It is probably the greatest use of self control ever! I hear plenty of music all day long on the Streets or at the maarkts and shoot it's hard not to dance sometimes. I was thinking to myself, are dance battles allowed. Because I feel like I could dance battle people into listening to us. Or at least it might earn us some respect around here. Well, I will be asking about this dance battle business because I really think great things could come of it.

2. Lord of the Rings.

I have no idea why I'm having Lord of the Rings withdrawls. I receive daily reminders of something within the Lord of the Rings and then I think "oh I'll just put it on when we get home" nope. No LOTR for me :( not yet....

3. Mexican food or the lack of rather.

I believe I have mentioned this before. We found black beans today.....I'm so close and yet sooooooo far! They were a tiny can and super expensive so we didn't buy them. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh rage!

In other news we met a kid on a train named Roger. He was listening to music and this is how it went down:

Zr. Packer; What are you listening to?

Roger: blah blah blah (some radio station)

Zr. Packer: What kind of music is it?

Roger: yeah

Zr. Packer: What kind of music is it?

Roger: Yeah. It's nice.

Zr. packer: no, what KIND of music is it?

Roger: yeah

It was so funny.

And now for contacting corner. This weeks top contacting stories,

1. I begin contact and get rejected. Zr. Packer asks what she believes in and she replies, "I believe a lot and I'm closing this argument"

hahaha it was classic. I mean that was a really heated encounter....not. So now Zr. Packer and I interrupt one another and close the argument that wasn't happening.

2. People like to touch our name tags and say "Oh, I already know about you." - Zr. packer HATES it.

So this week we did service at a lady in our ward's house. It was hilarious! Both Zr. Packer, myself and apparently the next door neighbor can't understand her. So, she tells us what to do in the garden. We don't understand so I just start raking up the leaves. She comes barreling out and starts yelling at me telling me that I need to leave the leaves so that the plants have a nest. OOOOOOkay. So, I ask her what are we supposed to do then? She says something else I don't understand. So I start sweeping the patio and taking out the weeds from in the cracks. Here she comes again. No no no no no, you can't pull out the weeds you must cut them out with a knife. oooooooooookay. So we cut out weeds for two hours and her patio looked "netjes" as she said. Then she wanted to give us something as a reward for our work. Corn. Cold corn on the cob. hahahahaha it was the greatest. It was super yummy, it was just so random. But the next day I was reading in Ruth and after she had worked for Boaz for the day she was rewarded with corn just like us. I felt so great!!! We were just like Ruth just then and I felt so proud!

So I was on exchanges with Zr. Gallego on Wednesday. LOVED IT!!! Here I am 178 cm and she is 140cm. It was quite a sight. She is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I don't know what it is, but people just want to do great things around her. We've been trying to get this one lady to pray for weeks and Zr. Gallego barely mentions prayer and the lady says, "You know I think I want to try that.". WHATTTTTTTT!? I was just sitting there like are you kidding me? Well, it was super great! I learned so much from her. She's just amazing!

OH OH OH! I found Mexican food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! well, sort of. Once upon a time I haven't had Mexican food for the whole time I've been here, true story. I tried to make it, turns out refried beans, black beans, don't exist? And the flat things they named tortillas are NOT tortillas.

So, we go to the Maarkt every week. It is FABULOUS!!! It's a great way to contact and we get fresh fruits and veggies there. Also, they have all the fish out there too. We walked passed this huge fish booth and I got so excited. There are so many different kinds and they were just calling to me but I looked at Zr. Packer all expectantly and she just shook her head. Needless to say, we haven't bought any fish. It's probably good anyway, we don't have time to cook it.

Well, here we are at the maarkt and all of the sudden, Zr. Packer gasps and says "ZR. ELTING!" and I turn and the most beautiful sight is right in front of me in the form of the Mexican flag. Yes!!!!!!!!!! Well, we ordered burritos and I chatted with the lady for a bit about how hard my life is without Mexican food and whatnot. Then, they give us the burritos and it was yummy, but I was still very sad. They had to use the dutch tortillas and there were no beans. So I'm still searching, but it will tide me over for a while.

Zr. Packer had a great idea though. We are going to use my intense need for Mexican food as a way to contact. I'm just going to ask people anywhere we go for a Mexican food place. Also, it's getting a little out of hand because every time I see someone who looks Mexican or if I hear Mexican music I freak out and say "oh Zr. Packer! They could cook for us!" Well, anyway, I will be ever searching it seems.

I have officially decided this week. I love tracting! Street contacting scares me to death but tracting, no! I love tracting!!! It is not very effective but at the door I feel like they know for sure what we're offering. On the street it's hard I feel like I have to get into this guarding position to make sure they listen to me for just a second.

Zr. Packer and I are going to write a book of excuses we've heard here. Some are hilarious. Also, when we contact Muslim people they just say "I'm Muslim”, as if that makes us walk away. Turns out we still have something we want to share with you. That doesn't change.

So, coolest thing happened this week. We Always visit this inactive member and she is in a assisted living place. She has some CRAZY Nederengels. Meaning she speaks both English and Dutch and they are super intermingled and it gets confusing. Well, we shared my favorite old testament story in 2 kings 6:11-17 about the army of angels, and we talked about the angels in our lives. I told her about Cole and how I've been able to feel him helping me. She just looked at me and said, "Are you making this up?". So we asked her loved ones that have passed on, and asked her if she thinks they still cared about her. She said she didn't know but it was a nice idea. We testified to her that they do love her and that they are there for her. It was silent for a moment and I was fighting crying. When we left, we got into the elevator and Zr. Packer just turned to me and said, "Did you feel them?" They really are all around us. I can't imagine how hard it is for them, that we can't see them. I know for a fact they are there. They were there in the lesson with us. So cool.

So, one of our investigators has been drinking for 40 something years and stopped for 10 days. We were in contact with him every day to make sure he was alright. Well, Tuesday his Phone is shut off and we were a little concerned. We thought the worst. After a couple days of trying to get in contact and nothing. We were super concerned but Sunday comes and he just waltzes into church. So no worries everyone. We found him.

What more can I say? hmm....well, I don't know. All I know is that I love it here! It is so hard to get discouraged when you live in the Netherlands. I love it here so much. The flowers just kill me! I love them so so so so so much!!! I get a little distracted by them...I think other missionaries get annoyed with how excited I get about things here, but it's just so amazing! At kinderdijk I was just beside myself. I LOVED IT!!!!!! LOVED IT!!!!!! I just kept reminding everyone that we're in the Netherlands and that it was real life.

Also dutch is coming along swell. I can understand most things and I can say more and more everyday. I learn so much every day! And it is super nerve wracking to try new things but people are super patient with me and help me so much. I'm getting to the point where Dutch doesn't sound like a foreign language anymore. which is a good thing but now I don't feel cool speaking it I just feel normal. Before I felt like I knew a secret code or something, but now it's just what you do. I guess that's a good thing...

Well, everyone. Do your home and visiting teaching. Say your prayers and eat your veggies for tomorrow we die. (That's how the scripture goes right?)

IK HOU VAN JULLIE

Liefs,

Zuster Elting