Ether 4:11-12 -> "But he that believeth these things which I have spoken, him will I visit with the manifestations of my Spirit, and he shall know and bear record. For because of my Spirit he shall know that these things are true; for it persuadeth men to do good... And whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do good is of me; for good cometh of none save it be of me. I am the same that leadeth men to all good..."

Dear family and friends,

I am now in the beautiful city of Tilburg. It's been a pretty eventful week and I've been introduced to a whole new part of the Netherlands. I am definitely not in Holland anymore. It's actually not too different, and I've really enjoyed it so far. As far as I have heard the accent isn't really that different, at least in Tilburg. It was sad leaving Rotterdam after being there for so long. I was able to say goodbye to Oma Buntin, Familie Pieplenbosch, Familie Palmans, Summer and co, Familie van Doderwaard, and Deng on Tuesday. Unfortunately I still missed some people because I tried to cram all of the visits into one day so I will just have to make some calls. I love Rotterdam South and will always have good memories of the area. I have no doubt that Elder Thornock and Elder Mancer will take good care of it for me. Along with their new companions, Elder Fairbanks and Elder Henrichsen.

I got to Tilburg on Wednesday and we had a mildly busy transfer day. We had to make stops in Den Bosch and Eindhoven to help some missionaries out with their transfers before going home to eat food and then go out and work. We found some cool people that first night and were able to set up a return appointment with this girl named Dafne. She gave up trying to get our snap chat or see if we would go clubbing with her and consented with just having us come over to share the gospel with her. She's an interesting girl. We will see how it goes.

Since then we have been able to meet a bunch of fun people. I'll just share a couple really cool experiences. On Sunday we went and looked up this sort-of-investigator Joep, and had a neat talk with him while he rolled a joint. He ended up being really interested in the Book of Mormon though which was cool. He said he would read it. The cool part though was after Joep, we went and walked around a park in the neighborhood and talked with people. We shared the Dankzij Hem video with this woman named Jesi and her husband and after it was over she teared up and thanked us for sharing it with her. She said that her dad is very sick and will die soon and she really needed some comfort. We talked with her for a little bit and testified of eternal families before leaving her with a card and our number. She's going to be super busy in the next couple of weeks but she said she would call us so that we could come share a message with her. It was cool and I was thankful that God was able to work through Elder Sosa and I to touch Jesi's heart. 

The other cool experience was Sunday evening when we went to look up these two Curdish guys we had met on the street. They live in a big apartment building with a lot of students and when we got inside there were six Curdish guys sitting in the room. It was pretty cool talking to them all and we were able to share the Book of Mormon (in Arabic) with Alle and two of his brothers after three of the other guys left. It was cool and we learned a little bit about their backgrounds and about Curdish culture. Apparently in Syria, it is not allowed for you to read and write in anything but Arabic. So they speak Curdish because they lived in the Curdish part of Syria, but they can't read and write it. You get sent to prison if you do. We're going to go back this week to help them with Dutch and share a spiritual message with them. It's been really humbling to interact with refugees like Alle and his brothers. It's weird too because they are about my age. They've gone through a lot and have experienced things that no 20-year-old, or person of any age, should have to experience. I'm excited to get to know them better and see how the gospel can help each of them. 

I am really excited for this transfer. Elder Sosa is fun and I am learning a lot from him and he's a great friend. I might have to pick up a little Spanish/Portuguese this transfer to keep up with him though. Language machine. The members here are super cool. We have a branch of about forty members and most of them are young families. Half of the branch is part of Familie Boom. Boom means 'tree' in Dutch so I heard multiple jokes yesterday about how there is a whole forrest in the Tilburg branch. We are going to try and start working with more students this transfer which Elder Sosa and I are both excited before, because haven't done that a whole lot on our missions. We're going to see miralces here.

If anybody would like to join us, our mission will be doing a Book of Mormon challenge for the rest of the year. Starting 13 October and ending 31 December the whole Belgium/Netherlands mission will be reading the Book of Mormon cover to cover. That will be about 6 1/2 pages a day. President Bunnell testified that this will be a holy time for our mission and for the missionaries as we will see strengthened testimonies and miracles in the work. I add my testimony to his that we will see miracles all around as we participate in this challenge. Give it a try! I know you will see miracles in your own life as you do so, even if you've never read the Book of Mormon before. 

Veel success deze week!
- Elder Wright


Pics - Bye bye Oma, Dooi Deng, Goodbey Familie Pieplenbosch, South Squad pic







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