Elder Diogo Serra

Hey Guys!!!

Well, this week was great! It started on Monday when we had a great P-day. Quite a few missionaries from the zone ended up coming to Brugge for their P-day (totally unplanned) and so we met up with a few of them. It was pretty fun having them all there and it was great to spend time with the district considering that we haven't had a lot of district meetings due to terrorists... But it's all good now so it's awesome. 

On Tuesday we had two member present lessons which were pretty good. The first was with a really Catholic lady who wasn't so interested after the lesson but it was a nice lesson anyway. The second was with our best investigators. So over the last few weeks we've been having lessons with Venus who is a Phillipino lady with 3 kids. When we started teaching her it was just her. However, over the last few weeks she's invited two other women from her work to take the lessons. Which brings us to Emmy and Cristina. So we've been teaching them and it's been going ok and then there were a few weeks were we couldn't get in contact with them but now it's back to normal. Anyways, Emmy couldn't make it to the lesson on Tuesday so it was just Cristina and Venus and we taught them about Sabbath, Prayer and Scripture and it was awesome, the two of them were really attentive and willing to put those things into their lives. Cristina works on Sundays and she was worried that she wouldn't be able to keep the Sabbath as we were asking but we were able to teach her that it's a time where we try to turn to God and to our families and we committed her to try to spend some more time with her 7 kids individually and see the blessings that would come as she tried to concentrate on her family more and less on work. Hopefully we'll hear some good things next Tuesday. 

Anyways, then on Wednesday we had quite a bit of time where we knocked doors and withing that time we were able to find 3 really positive potentials and we have lessons with all of them this week so it should be pretty fun. Then we made the 5 hour trip to Utrecht so we could sleep there so we could attend the temple on Thursday it was a long trip but we got to talk to a lot of people on the train which was pretty fun. 

Then on Thursday we woke up pretty early to get ready fro TEMPLE!!! It was soo nice to be in the temple again after the last 6 months. There's a special serenity in the temple that you just can't beat. I also had the opportunity to read my Patriarchal blessing while I was in the Celestial Room and it gave me some cool highlights into what I could be doing better and I hope to be able to incorporate that in the next few weeks. It was also pretty cool to go to Keukenhof. It was soooo fun to be with other elders and sisters and just spend some time walking and enjoying some nice flowers. Plus, I got some pretty cool pictures so my mum will be pretty happy about that. It makes me pretty excited to go next year. 

On Friday we had weekly planning and began to plot things on a new map that we bought so now we can finally organize all of our inactives and former investigators so we know who we can visit in which places. 

Saturday I woke up and I was pretty ill, we ended up going to a little village in the morning with a member and proselyting there but when I came back I was pretty out of it so Elder Leigh suggested I sleep while he made some calls. It actually worked out for the best because when I woke up I felt a lot better and Elder Leigh had gotten a hold of a few people and made a few appointments. 

Sunday was Stake Conference so we again got to see a lot of the elders and sisters we saw on Thursday so this week has just felt like a big missionary reunion. It was pretty cool though and I got some pretty cool insights from one of the speakers who talked about it not being easy after you get started on the path to Heavenly Father. 

Loves

Elder Serra

Elders and a Dutch Clog.... of course!

Keukenhof!!!! A bit late but here it is!!!!

A windmill, as is the custom in Nederland!!