Here we go :D

Maandag 20 april 2015

Heeeeeey everyone!!! :D

 So, first things first! My new companion is Sister Anderson! :D She is from Miami Florida and we actually go home together... :) Crazy huh?!

 

So they're white washing the area in a couple of weeks, which is kinda sad, because we worked so hard in this area to get things going and finally little by little we see the fruits of our labors. But hey, we can't argue with the Lord's will :)

 

We've had an INCREDIBLE week! One of our investigators called us and said she wants to get baptized! So I taught her very briefly the first 3 lessons in 30 minutes over the phone. Then on Saturday we taught her the restoration and as for now she is still struggling with Joseph Smith. She is reading the Book of Mormon, praying and she came to Church yesterday! We know she will receive a testimony soon :D I just absolutely LOVE her! I just feel like I had to be here for her :)

 

Sister Anderson and I get along super great! It feels like we've been companions forever :) Well, actually, we've served around each other quite a bit, so maybe that's why :) We had a great week full of tracting, street contacting, teaching and it's just been great. We had some pretty hilarious and cool experiences while tracting. There where a lot of college students living in the apartments, so must of them where either drunk or high, so it was quite interesting.

 

My favorite story is the following! We knock on this door, this guy answers the door and is kinda staring at us and says: Hi... And we were like: HIIII!!! :D We are the sister missionaries and we are here to share a message with you about Christ that will bless your life so much! He kept staring at us and said: I would LOVE to talk about that! But...I am going to close the door now. And then he closed the door. And we still tried to testify and give him a Book of Mormon, but it was too late :( It was pretty funny though. we're like: what just happened O.o

 

But then we also had a pretty cool experience :D This girl answered the door and welcomed us in to warm up .She immediately said she wasn't Mormon and that she doesn't want to be one, but that we were welcome to come in and have some water. We went inside and we talked for like 45 minutes about what we do as missionaries and why we do it :) She said she was looking for truth in her life, but she wasn't ready to meet with us quite yet. We invited her to watch Meet the Mormons so we're going to buy her a copy today so she can watch it and feel the Spirit :) It was an amazing experience! We all felt super uplifted and she said we were just beaming because we were so convinced of what we believed in :)

I love y'all!!!

Lots and Lots of Love

Sister Spijkerman <3

Sister Kreiberg, sister Spijkerman and 2 adorable children with their mom

TRANSFERS! (AGAIN O.o)

Maandag, 13 April 2015

*tromgeroffel*

Well, I'm going to die in Hillside Stake! woohoo!!! :D Sister Kreiberg is leaving me though, so I will have one more companion :) I'm excited to find out who it is! :) 

Hm....this week was actually a really good week! We had some good lessons and interactions with people! :) I was on exchanges twice and I had a great uplifting time! The sisters here are just so great! :D

 

Thursday we had a lesson with one of our investigators and it was at a part member family's house! One of our ward missionaries came as well. We talked about the Plan of Salvation. Then during the lesson our investigator told us how when he met us. He had actually had a hard day that day, but he felt something when we met each other that it made him happy and it made his day feel better! :D We told him it was the Spirit and that he needed to keep looking for that! :) But also, that day when we met him, as we were talking to him I didn't feel quite like he was sincere or not, so I wasn't sure how everything was going to turn out. But then he told us this during the lesson!

 

It taught me a big lesson that we really never know what seed we're planting! Even when we think we haven't done anything or that the person isn't interested, they still could have been touched by the Spirit! :) So, never give up! Never doubt!

 

 'Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not' is what the Savior invited us to do :)

 

This week I was reading in Alma, and I loooove this scripture in Alma 36:24-25

 

forgot to take pictures last week, sorry

Yeah, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that i might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.

Yea, and now behold, O, my son, the Lord doth give me exceedingly great joy in the fruit of my labors;

 

Isn't that like the best Scripture EVER?! :D

 

I love yáll so much! :D Have a great and blessed week!

Lots and lots of Love,
Sister Spijkerman

General Conference: A Missionary Holiday

Maandag 6 April 2015

HAPPY EASTER!!!! :D

So, this week was pretty awesome obviously, seeing General conference! :D

I went on exchanges again as usual, this time with Sister Gilmore from upstate New York :)  I absolutely love her and we definitely had a great time together :) Due to exchanges I haven't met our new investigators that we found this week yet...Anyways, 

GENERAL CONFERENCE! 

We attended General Conference downtown at the Conference Center for the Saturday morning session and that was AWESOME! Guess who I ran into?! :D ELDER MUNTINGA! He is serving in the Ogden mission so I didn't expect him to be there, but he was sitting in the same section as we were, so that was super awesome! :D Man, all the sessions  were just sooo amazing! I LOVED Elder Pearson's talk! (Staying by the tree). It's probably because I know him, since he was in my last area :3 He is AMAZING! He is a wonderful spirit about him when you talk to him. He would always go through the congregation after Church to talk to all the members, and hug them. Put a hand on their shoulders... He is one of the most Christ-like people I've ever met :) Anyways...IT WAS AMAZING!

 Oh, and I got a headset and I listened to the session in Dutch, so I could hear pappa speak! :D It was soooo coooool!!! :D And it really helped me understand President Packer's talk too, hahaha  *sigh* I just don't have the words today to describe this weekend!

We watched the Saturday afternoon session at the Drysdale's and they made poffertjes :3 I loved the talk about music :D And I loved the one about that it doesn't matter what calling we hold! It was really amazing, because just the night before the zone leaders and I had talked about how some of the sisters feel like they're bad missionaries because they have never trained before or because they have never been a Sister Training Leader. Other sisters just really want to have the title...

I tried to explain to them that it's not about the title, but that we can serve and influence others for good without the title of a trainer or sister training leader.We were just really concerned about this and then BOOM: A general authority gives a talk on that subject! :D

 

Sunday morning we went to one of our WMLs for Easter breakfast and a little Easter hunt, and they had made us little Easter baskets with Deseret book stuff :3 Soooo sweeet!!! Then we watched General Conference at their house :D It was awesome! In the afternoon we went to another WMLs house :) After our wonderful dinner with the Brushes we went to a recent convert's house and we watched Finding Faith in Christ with her :) 

It was definitely one of the BEST Easters EVER!
 

I have loved reading about Easter in the scriptures and it filled my soul with so much gratitude for my Savior and for all the pain He went through for me personally. I wish it could have been me who suffered, but I never would have been able to pay the price for my own sins. I loved the talk on Grace too by the way. Grace is an amazing concept :) I'm grateful for His grace and for the strength He gives me every day :)

I love y'all and wish y'all the best!!! Keep praying for me :)

Lots and Lots of Love

Sister Spijkerman <3

Higher Ground

Maandag 30 maart 2015

Goodmorning/evening my beloved family!

Wow, it's been quite a week!

 

We went to the Jordan River temple on Tuesday morning and it was AMAZING! I miss the temple so so much...In the Celestial Room a brother explained to me some of the symbolism in the temple. He said it took him a long time to discover some of it, but he told me he comes to the temple EVERY day! :D Lucky him! I learned a lot from him :)

 

Wednesday I went on exchanges with Sister Case, and that was absolutely awesome! We walked a lot, laughed a lot, talked to a lot of people, and had some crazy funny experiences!

 

For example we started talking to this guy on the street. So we shook his hand and he kind of kept walking, and I kept asking him questions, asked if he'd met with missionaries before, etc. He said he had, and when I asked him what his experience was he said he couldn't remember (O.o) and that he was in a hurry to get to his appointment. So we kept walking and started tracting a certain street and then we saw the same guy coming out of his house ten minutes later....hahahahahha XD Yup, he was definitely in a hurry to get to an appointment! Busted, haahahha! It was pretty funny.... :)

 

Gosh, missionary work is just the best. Yesterday I realized that for the most part the joy of missionary work comes from sharing the Gospel. Not the results that come from it! That night we didn't have a dinner appointment, so we had three different kinds of cereal for dinner :) It was awesome!

 

Thursday we had Zone Conference!!! :D I had to give a training with Sister Crotts on the Miscellaneous use for Mobile Devices, which is like the biggest joke EVER, because I don't even know how to use an Ipad myself... But it went surprisingly well, since we had an open discussion with all the missionaries on what we could do on our mobile devices to do effective missionary work.

 

Sister Eberhardt gave an amazing training about staying active after our missions. I loved one of the things she said: 'Do not get life in your way!!!' Always put visiting teaching etc first before homework and other stuff. It was amazing! On Friday we had a mission devotional and Elder Allen of the missionary department and the Utah area president came to speak to us and he spoke a lot about repentance and the Atonement. He gave us 8 questions to ponder:

1. What gifts/treasures have I given to the Savior?

2. Do all of my sins have a cloak?
3. What are my temptations?
4. What have you forsaken?
5. In what ways do I forsake Him and flee?
6. What are my spiritual gifts and how am I seeking after them?
7. If the Savior were to come to you and would ask you 'Lovest thou me more than these?', what would your 'these' be?
8. What kind of a disciple am I?

This week I'm going to ponder and work on these questions and I would invite all of you to do the same :) It was a great spiritual moment! What I loved the most about that evening was being united and gathered as a mission and being one in heart, mind, spirit and purpose. Before the devotional we took a mission picture outside and we sang our mission song "Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy". It still gives me chills thinking about it :) 

Saturday we got locked out of our car, because the keys feel out of Sister Kreiberg's bag, so they were still in the car when we locked it...hahahahha. missionary life... Went to the Conference Center with a recent convert. The Women's Conference was absoutely wonderful! My favorite talk was from sister Oscarson! :) 

Wow, that was a long email... :D And I got tons of pictures too! :D

I love y'all so much!!!

Lots and Lots of Love
Sister Spijkerman