hello from Leiden!

So as for my week! I am officially loving being in a trio. Zr. Knoelk is one
of those ridiculously sunshiny people constantly seeing the beautiful around
her. She's the perfected the art of taking photos of the beautiful Dutch
sunsets while riding her bike - I aspire to her coordination, but so far I
have come to terms with the fact that God loves me because I haven't died on
my bike yet. Riding a bike in a busy city in a midcalf length skirt is quite
the adventure! Zr. Kabenda is such a cool companion as well. She hails from
Suriname, so she is so great for really learning the language, and she has a
really great perspective on things - she's also the only one of us that can
lay the guilt trips down on our flakier investigators. I love team work. =)
Finding with them is so fun, and I'm really happy here in this city. We're
working with a lot of great people and keeping really busy. Missionary work
is just... fun!
So last Pday after e-mailing, Zuster Bakker from the ward made us
dinner and took us sightseeing to thank us for letting her daughter come on
a two week mini-mission. I was only here for Jessica's last few days as a
minimissionary, but it was pretty fun. They took us to the only mountain in
Nederland, which happens to be junk from WWII with grass and gravel paved up
over it. Gotta love Europe! I found it oddly like home, since the only hill
in Southwest Louisiana is the landfill in Westlake (Sulphur?). But it was
really cool to see the city from that viewpoint.
Wednesday we had zone leader training and interviews with our mission
president. President also worked with us in the evening, coming to a couple
appointments and going finding with us. All in all it was really neat to be
able to work with him. He reminds me a lot of Dad. We were also able to find
a neat little family to come back and teach while with him. He's a great
example of faith, and this was really a unique opportunity to have him along
with us.
The Dutch is getting better and better. Through some kind comments
of others I've realized I really am doing just fine and need to stop
worrying so much about it - just dilligently keep on learning and do my
best. Thursday while we were in the stadthuis (town hall) sorting out my
comps' legality business, I was able to strike up a conversation with a man
and we'll go and teach him in a couple weeks. I can't understand everything
people are saying, but I get the gist of most of it, and can be understood.
In Church on Sunday I followed almost all of Relief Society and it was so
wonderful to just feel spiritually filled from Dutch lessons. The gift of
tongues is so real.