Geliefde mensen,

Scripture of the Week

Words of Mormon 1:7-8 - "And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will. (7) And my prayer to God is concerning my brethren, that they may once again come to the knowledge of God, yea, the redemption of Christ; that they may once again be a delightsome people. (8)"

Hoi! Ik ben in Nederland! Finally... The last week in Las Vegas was fun. I found out my visa was cleared on Thursday, packed, said "hoi hoi" to missionaries and members, and on Monday morning I left for Nederland. The flight wasn't too bad and I met some fun people on the way. Paul was super cool. I talked to him on the plane from Salt Lake to Amsterdam. He is actually a less active member from Germany and he plays is the Deutsch Oper orchestra in Berlin.

I got to Amsterdam after only a 9 hour flight. I honestly thought it was going to be 13 hours for some reason so that made me very happy. The airport is just outside of Amsterdam actually and there is a lot more English than I thought there would be. It's kind of nice though. Although I do need to improve my Dutch... A lot. Church yesterday was a little rough, but I do feel like I'm improving. Slowly but surely. We walked out of the baggage claim and President Bunnell was right there with the APs and Sister Bunnell. It was very good to see the Bunnells again, not going to lie.

We went to a hotel to eat food and nap and do legality. I got to see some elders from the MTC including the one and only Elder Sosa! The trains here are awesome. I'm still working on understanding how to navigate myself around but fortunately it's not too complicated. That night I found out where I will be and who my trainer will be and the next morning I was able to meet my trainer. I'm in the Rotterdam Zuid area with Elder Wilson. It's the most modern city in the Netherlands and the south area that I am in is on a little more of the ghetto side. It's sick. Elder Wilson is pretty sweet. He is from Calgary, and he actually is good friends with a few people who were at BYU with me and one of his best friends is Elder Stewart, who was my zone leader in the MTC and is now in Iceland.

Rotterdam is fun. Our apartment is pretty nice. It looks pretty run down on the outside but inside it's super cool. They use military time here and Celsius and euros and all of that fun stuff. So far I haven't said anything incredibly stomb yet. We're whitewashing (basically neither of us have served here before and we have no idea what's going on) Rotterdam Zuid, so this week wasn't super productive and there was no food in the apartment so we had to restock that. The Dutch people are actually super nice. Rotterdam is 50% non-Dutch though which is cool and weird. A ton of African people and Muslim people. They're a lot of fun. I like how people here don't really know who we are so they don't run away from us like they did in Vegas. It's pretty comforting. At the same time there are a ton of people who have no religious beliefs so that's also really great. No it's not but we'll work with them. Rotterdam will be a different city after we leave. God has a lot for us to do here and we're going to make Him proud. 

Ik weet dat deze kerk waar is. Ik ben soooo dankbaar voor de gelegenheid ik heb om God te diensen. Ik weet dat door Hem wij kunnen deze mensen helpen om meer dicht tot God te komen. Ik houd van mijn Hemelse Vader en zijn Zoon, Jezus Christus. Ik zeg deze dingen in de naam van Jezus Christus. Amen.

That was pretty rotten Dutch but it still means the same thing. I love being a missionary and serving my Heavenly Father and His children. I know that He answers our prayers, maybe just not when we want Him to. I love you all and have a great week! 

Tot ziens!
Elder Wright