March 5, 2008 Letter

Hey! How's everything going?
Last week I got to go on exchanges with the zone leaders, so I went and stayed two nights and one day in Northern Rotterdam with Elder Thomas, who is one of our zone leaders. It was so nice to get away from my companion. And we actually ate something besides sandwiches for every meal. It was so much better. I liked it alot and I talked to some really cool people on the street. It was fun.
The other day we tracted into a lady that had investigated the Church in 2001 but then stopped, but has been paying her tithing to our Church ever since. She has been paying money to a church she doesn't attend or belong to for seven years! And she let us in and we talked for a while and she fed us and it was really cool.
Then we also had zone conference last week. It was really good and I got to see some other the other guys from my MTC group. It was fun and we had good food and had training from the Mission President, the APs, and both of the zone leader companionships (we combined with Apeldorn zone.) It was good.
I have sucessfully cleaned most of our apartment. I cleaned the refrigerators, stove top, sink, dishes, table, and bathroom. It was so disgusting. It took me 2 hours just to clean the stove top!
(Sean's mom is loving this!!!) And there was food in the refrigerators that had been here longer than my companion (at least 4 months). There were apples and pears that wre already completely fermented. I could smell the alcohol in them. It was disgusting. But now it's alot cleaner.
Our ward has about 80 members that are active. They are all really nice and we eat at members houses alot. They are a great ward and have alot of RMs. ANd one even served in our Sandy ward, Elder Dave Stomps. It's cool to talk about my home area with him and look at his mission picture to see my home area.
I've realy learned alot. I've learned how to keep up with cleaning and to just DO it. I've learn how to be patient and tolerant. And I've learned how to be cooperative. That's the biggest thing. I've learned how to work with someone effectively that is difficult. I've learned to seek the good and try to look past the bad. I still don't like my companion and we are just very different people, but I've learned how to make the work easy even if I'm about to explode at him. It's difficult, but I'm getting really good at it. I've learned how much my family really means to me. Before I really didn't know how much I loved my family and how much they mean to me. I've realized how blessed I am to have grown up when I did and especially where I did. America is truly the 'promised land' and Ut is definitely 'the place'. I appreciate all that I have so much more now that I see what it's like in other places. I'm truly blessed.
So far we have biked just over 300 miles according to my bike computer! Everyone here bikes. It is the main mode of transportation. It's very expensive to get a driver's license and gas is about $10.00 a gallon. Is it safe? Not really, but no one get hurt badly if they get hit by a car because the cars aren't going very fast in the places where people could get hit. The problem is that cars are supposed to yield to bikes, but sometimes they don't. But missionaries don't get hit very often and it's never resulted in anything more than a bruise or scrape.
The summer Olympics are coming up...will you record the water polo matches and save it for me? And keep me updated on it too.
It's really cold and rainy here. I'm alway soaking wet and then the wind blows and makes it really cold and gives up a brain freeze and we can't wear hats while contacting. It's Cold!!!
Hey, will you pray for my investigators? I have five that are close to baptism. They can really use as much help as possible.
Bibi--from Algeria, he used to be Muslim/Amanuel--from Erithrea, he has been in alot of African wars, very humble/Yousif--from Iraq/Clark--from the Netherlands/Kenneth--from Nigeria. We are also teaching Henk--from the Netherlands/Mano--from Indonesia/Steven--from Guana/Stella--from Kurisou/Cliff--from Aruba/Antillies/Eddie--from Romania/Chental--from somewhere in Africa/Florence--from Nigeria.
Anyway, that's all for now.