Another transfer gone....

One of these days I will be able to have a companion for more than one transfer. ahah Sis. Fleming was the only one of my companions that I've had for 2. So, I am being transferred to Ijmuiden and will be in the Haarlem ward. My new companion is sister kimmons and when everyone was calling me last night they all said that we are gonna rock because we're both really funny. Oh, and I was also called to be the new Sister Training Leader of the Den Haag Zone...so that's going to be interesting. 

It's kind of funny, I always told people that I never wanted to be a STL because I just like working in my city with my own companion, just doin' our thing. But it will be good. And actually, no was really really surprised. Some of them even told me, "Yeah, I was waiting until they were going to call you." So I was really the only one that was shocked. 

But anyways, on to my thoughts for the past few weeks. I've been thinking a lot about repentance and the laws of righteousness. We come across a lot people that tell us that God doesn't exist because of war and because of the bad things that happen to us in our lives. And for a few days I was trying to figure out at what point in history did mankind get the idea that war equals the non-existence of God or that experiencing hard and difficult times equaled the non-existence of God. 

At what point did we get it in our minds that we had the power to determine if God exists or not? Honestly, I do get frustrated sometimes and wish that the human race would just get over itself already. Get over the fact there is opposition in the world and get over that fact of the universal truth we all, eventually suffer in our lives. 

Why was I thinking about repentance, you ask? Well because I've actually found myself talking about that subject with a lot of people lately and I've come more and more to appreciate the gift of repentance. In regards to the laws of righteousness, to which I was connecting with repentance, another universal truth: we all sin. And sin keeps us away; it puts this wall against the blessings of God. Newton's 3rd law: every action has a reaction. Every choose we make has a consequence. 

Repentance, when I teach it I explain it as the action of opening the door to receiving God's blessings. But taking that first step is always the hardest. Now many people react and say, "Well, if God really loved me then He would take it away. If God really did exist then I would not be in this situation suffering." Eerlijk gezegd, 9 times out of 10 the situation people are in is because of their own choices and actions and reactions. And it is prideful to think that we are too good to learn from our consequences and believe that God should just deliver us. He is not going to do that and He will never do that unless we repent. 

For example, you are a student in French 101. If you don't do the work that is required of you to learn how to speak, read, and write French then you fail. But by our reasoning, the natural man reasoning, the teacher should just let us advance despite us not learning the lessons that we needed to learn. So, we are now in 102, and we have no idea what is happening; we are uncomfortable among the other students who were obedient, humbled themselves and asked for help when they didn't understand. We will not want to stay. 

The purpose of repentance is not there to make us feel shamed in front of people or in front of God. Repentance is there for us to be able to learn how to be comfortable in the presence of God. Obedience and humility is the outward expression of our love for Him. And then you have some who say, "well, why do I have to show God my love when I haven't seen His?" 

And I think that's were we make the mistake. That's where the misunderstanding comes in about repentance and humbling ourselves. He already showed us He loves us. He sent His son, Jesus Christ to suffer and die for us; to take upon himself all that we are, everything; so that both He and Jesus Christ can help us to come back to Him. The scriptures say that no unclean thing can dwell with God. We cannot, by the laws of righteousness, dwell and be with God if you do not repent. We cannot have God in our daily lives unless we repent. Unless we use the gift of the atonement to enable us to become better. 

And that is the purpose of missionary work. It is not to collect people or numbers. But to bring that knowledge to those who are searching for the truth; to tell people that God did not just set us here on this earth and said, "Well, here you are, try your best to get back me. Good luck." God is an unchangeable God and He has set the way for us through and with the help of Jesus Christ and the organization of His gospel. Pak zijn hand vast en Hij zal je helpen. 

Love, Jen

(Picture link:  https://www.zephyradventures.com/trip-photos//  )

Newest Post from Jen

It has been a while since I have last posted anything from my missionary daughter who is serving our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ out in the Dutch lands because our connection has not been the best.  For some reason her emails have not been getting to me.  She said that others have reported the same problem, so now things seem to working so here is her latest letter.

Beautiful photo shared from:   http://www.creativejewishmom.com/2011/10/container-gardening-in-holland.html

The past few weeks have been interesting. Because my companion speaks spanish, when she doesn´t know how to say something in English or Dutch, she says the sentence in Spanish to which my brain relates it to what I already know in spanish or translates it into French and then I reply in English but will sometimes have to reply in Dutch because I know the Dutch word and not the English translation. Did that make any sense? If it did then yay, if it didn´t then welcome to my brain for the past few weeks.

Between the two of us there is about 4 (maybe more like 3 1/2) languages going on in our conversations throughout the day. It´s fun but sometimes at the end of the day my brain just hurts. Nothing super outstanding has happened here in Apeldoorn...yet. I say yet because we are working on it. We´re still in the finding process. Long hours of contacting but we get to know each other pretty well.

We know a lot of each others´ life stories and we´re at the point where we make up life stories for each other. And can I just say I´m a lot nicer in the future/past of her life story. She has me married and divorced 3 times with 15 children, but at least (she says...) I will be rich and be able to travel the world. ahaha

We had a zone conference last week which was really amazing. There always comes a time when you need that spiritual boost to carry you through another transfer. One of the more significant things that I took away from the conference is how to start where you are now. Often times we don´t do or work on what we want to because we think that it´s too late for us; that we are too far behind. But as you use the atonement as a DAILY tool in your life to become better than you really can start everyday completely new and change.

Last sunday, one of the elders gave a talk in sacrament meeting about the atonement. And he said that the atonement is there so that we can feel at home in the presence of God. Christ paid the price for you and He doesn´t want you to pay Him back; it´s paid for. He just wants you to come to Him so that He can help you. He said that God doesn´t just set you on earth and say, `okay, there is the path, make your way back to Me.` Christ is there to help you along the way. He will hold your hand and walk with you if you let Him.

I´ve noticed that as I learn how to better apply the atonement in my life, my conviction of where I am and who I am at this time becomes stronger. I am still astonished by how much potential each of us have but most of the time we do reach it because we think it´s all up to us to get there. We are not supposed to do it by ourselves. It´s not possible and it´s not how it´s supposed to be.

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This past week I've been really thinking/ pondering about decisions. But before I go into my email, I wanted to tell you guys this riddle/joke-thing that is very popular in the mission. I personally don't think it's that funny (well, actually it's kind of growing on me)but so many missionaries love it and sometimes their face lights up when they tell it, so I act like I've never heard it before when they want to tell me hehe. It's kind of a running joke so I will spread it out through my email (like you do in a conversation with someone when you are telling the joke). Let me know what you think. 

Q: How do you get an elephant in a refrigerator? 

A: You open the door, put the elephant in and then close the door.

The reason for the my subject choice this week is because of the sequence of events that happened last weekend. It all started on Saturday. We were on exchanges, so I was with the Sister Training Leader in Apeldoorn and sis. Ramirez was in Leeuwarden. I had this really really busy day planned and after we were about a 30 minute bike ride from our home my bike got a flat tire. A FLAT TIRE. So flat that I ended up having to walk about 45 minutes to our next appointment and then walking it again for about an hour to the bike shop (because it was closer than our house). 

Michael (the guy as the bike shop) fixed my tire which had a hole due to the tiniest piece of glass. That annoying little piece of green glass. (a rant on how the small things really mess you up is for another email another time). Long story short, got my bike fixed, was able to make the train to Zwolle and exchange back. 

Q: How do you get a giraffe in a refrigerator? 

A: You open the door, take the elephant out and put the giraffe in and then close the door. 

That was Saturday. On to Sunday. After church we biked to another far away place to look someone up and just after we finished my bike got another flat tire! This time on the back wheel. By the time we were able to get back home I had missed the baptism someone to whom I´d promised I´d be there.The bike shop doesn´t open until Tuesday so I had to wait till then to get it fixed. 

So on Monday, we had to rent OV Fiets, just bikes that you can borrow. Just a side note, I strongly dislike back-pedal brakes which are the only types of bikes the OV Fiets have. Anyways, we get the OV Fiets and do our shopping; on the way back home the strap on the bag of groceries broke which made the bag fall. And it fell just as I was about to cross the street to which then I had to use those stupid back-pedal brakes which didn't work so well and nearly led me to getting hit by a car. 

At this point, you are probably asking yourself why am I not just taking a bus. Well, in Apeldoorn, buses aren't really thing. Which means that you get to have a lot of great adventures with bikes, such as this. :) 

Q: There is a party and everyone is invited. Which animal is not at the party? 

A: The giraffe because it's in the refrigerator.

By the time I get home I realize that my companion is nowhere to be found. So, I put the groceries inside and then go back out to go find my companion. All the while, I was just getting really frustrated with what was happening the past 3 days. Once I finally found my companion I asked where she was, and she said she stopped to buy to some candy and she thought that I saw her and would wait. 

So just being frustrated with life for awhile I just kept praying to calm down. The scripture of Alma 37:35 kept coming to mind that says, "O, remember, my son, and learn wisdom in thy youth; yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God." In my mind, I changed the word "learn" to "decide". Decide to be wise in your youth. Decide in your youth to keep the commandments of God. 

As I thought a lot about the impact of deciding I realized the importance of deciding early on which way you are going to go instead of waiting until the circumstance arises. Ik bedoel that you have to decide how and who you are going to be before the opportunity comes when you have to make an important decision. 

For example, I decided when I was 9 years old to go on a mission. It became really difficult to make the decision to come on a mission as the time drew closer but I remembered telling 9-year-old self that I was going to go on a mission. So I went. When I was 11 years old, I decided that I was going to do everything in my power to go to college. So I arranged my life in such a way as to help me achieve that goal. I was 12 when I decided I wanted to travel the world. 

When I was thinking about all this during my week I realized that all that I have accomplished and became thus far is because of the decisions that I made when I was a child. Now that I've become older I know that I have to start making more important decisions that will impact my future, for example, getting married in the temple. But I can also do that with the smaller things life; like deciding now that I will not react immediately to something that I don't like or agree with without thinking about. 

It's a practice; it takes a lot of work, effort, and sacrifice just like those other things that I did in my life. But as I see where I am now and looking back to then where I wanted to be, I can say with all conviction that deciding years before about doing something I will have to face in the future and then working as hard as I can to get there, that it's worth. Becoming something in your life is worth it. Start where you are right now. 

Q: So, there is a river full of alligators. How do you get across? 

A: Just swim because the alligators are at the party. 

I hope you all have a great week. I love you!