O,o,

Maandag 27 april 2015

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!!!

So, this week was like absolutely crazy! Satan is attacking the people we're teaching like CRAZY!!!! And it drives me crazy! 'It's like...leave us alone! Ghehehe, funny story though....

 

We had an appointment with a less-active sister and she had a friend over. I'm pretty sure her friend was tipsy (to say the least), because she was going through some really hard times. You could just feel the tension in the room. We say an opening prayer and we're trying to read Mosiah 3 with them. The friend wanted to read it, because she wanted to talk so it would make her feel better. ok... She starts reading and then the two of them started talking about something and within a second they starting fighting and arguing with each other! O.o so we're like...what the ginger ale... O.O so sister Anderson tries to bring it back to reading Mosiah 3, and after reading like 8 verses, the LA is like: ok, I can't handle more for today. so she closed the book. (and in the meantime they had already argued again). So we're trying to leave with the Spirit, so we wanted to say a prayer, and her friend started praying like this: Dear Heavenly Father....(silence)....I'm not sure how to put this into words....(and she has like this whiny voice...) and then our LA started yelling at her and said: If you don't know what you're saying, stop praying!!! Sister Anderson, you pray! Then sister Anderson had to pray. It was soooo awkward, weird, uncomfortable, and at the same time it was pretty funny...

Then we also had a really cool moment this week! We dropped off a meet the mormons dvd for a nonmember and as we're walking back to our car this guy walks by and we started talking to him. So we kind of did our thing and at first he wasn't very interested in talking to us. But as we talked more, he started asking questions. Like who God is? The purpose of life? We started talking about the plan of salvation and at the end he said he had to go, but that he'd love to meet with us another time to talk more! It was AWESOME!!! We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon :D 

We also had lunch with Sister Hoole last week and that was AMAZING! It was so great to meet her! :D

 

Oh, we had our fireside with Kenneth Cope yesterday! We were just thinking of ways to get non-members to come to something and to get members more excited about missionary work. So I asked Kenneth Cope  if he could come do a fireside in our stake! We had it yesterday and the whole chapel was filled! :D It was soooo great! Even some non-members came! :D Woohoo! 

He talked a lot about our potential and divinity as children of our Heavenly Father. It was so beautiful and I felt so uplifted! So I want to testify to you that I know that we have a Father and Brother who love us and who KNOW us perfectly! When life gets dark and dreary, don't forget to pray. The Lord wants to use us as an instrument in His hands right NOW, broken, torn, scattered. 

I am so grateful for the Atonement and for Christ's grace! 

Lots and Lots of Love

Sister Spijkerman <3






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

The Akwardness is real...

Maandag 23 maart 2015

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!!!! :D

 Well, this week was...interesting...and totally crazy...

 

On Tuesday we taught a cute little member family the restoration (they're both returned missionaries from the Scotland/Ireland mission) and their son, Damian (2 years old), called us sisternaries! Soooo cute!!!

 

Then that night we 'taught' our new friend! She is supersweet and she has a 2 year old boy! We sat outside on her lawn and the boy DID NOT want to share her with us, hahaha. So he took her to the other side of the lawn. So we're like screaming to her, trying to do "How to begin teaching", figuring out her religious background, her beliefs and stuff like that. Trying to testify to her of God's plan for her, her family and the little boy just kept leading her away by the hand. So when we went to the other side to sit closer by... He decided to go down the street, and so there they went, up and down, from the left to the right. Us trying to teach her about the Gospel. It was hilarious, and definitely one of the most awkward, but funny teaching experiences on my mission XD Next time we'll be teaching her about the plan of salvation, since she wants to learn the role of Christ in our religion. Her mom passed away when she was in her 20s. So I'm sure she'll loooove the plan of salvation! We're excited! :D

 

Wednesday we got sick, we stayed in. I wasn't that sick. We had some appointments, so I went out with members for a couple of hours. But it was sooo weird not having a missionary companion with me...I have to admit: I simply did not know what to do with myself! O.o It was weird. For dinner we went to the Palmers and they're friends with the Bryner's. They had invited the Bryner's over for dinner!!!! :D :D :D IT WAS SOOOOO AWESOMEEE!!!! :D

 

Friday I went on exchanges with Sister Tatafu and it was a lot of fun! :D So recently we've had a lot of funny experiences with people. Since we're walking every other day we try to talk to people on the street, but seriously, every single person that walks on the street will literally cross the street, turn the other way, or suddenly walk into their backyard or walk to their door (I'm CONVINCED that people just walk up to a random house so they can avoid us. It's TOO much of a coincidence that EVERY time we see people they are at their house and that they have to go inside their house. hahahahha! It just cracks me up!) Missionary work in Utah is the best :3 Well, that's about it :D Weird stuff going on, but life is great!

 

Seriously, the lyrics of the song 'You Raise Me Up' are true! On Friday morning during my personal study time I felt prompted to read my patriarchal blessing and to make a list of two things. On one side I wrote down the things Heavenly Father told me to do in order to for me to be happy and blessings to be fulfilled. Then one the other side I wrote down all the blessings and promises that lie in store for me based on my faiithfulness. I discovered that my list was only like  bullet points, while my blessings didn't seem to come to an end! So our Father in Heaven is so loving and merciful! :)

I love you all!!!
Have a great and blessed week!!!

Lots and lots of love
Sister Spijkerman 

 

The Lord loveth His children

Maandag 16 Maart 2015

Halleu Halleu!

Wow, I can't believe another week has flown by! I have to admit, this was probably one of the hardest weeks on my mission. Investigators dropping us, investigators and other people canceling, not showing up, nobody that we're trying to contact being home...Missionary life... I feel like my whole mission I've been able to be happy and cheerful no matter what, but somehow this week I just couldn't find the strength to do it. I have always taken this quote to heart: 

 

“Pray as though everything depended upon God. Work as though everything depended upon you. 

 

It has always worked out so far, but for some reason even that didn't seem to work. But then the answer to my prayer came yesterday. We ended up having dinner with a family that I absolutely love, because the family that had signed up was sick. This family is a very special and precious family. The husband is convert, got baptized about 15 years ago and the wife is the sweetest person on the planet. They have two ADORABLE children, a girl and a boy.They asked us about us and our families and our conversion stories and they told theirs. The Spirit was strong and it uplifted me so so much. It testified to me again that no matter what's going on on our mission, even when we don't see any seemingly results, this is where we're meant to be. There is no better choice or place. At the end when we had to leave the boy and the girl didn't want us to leave and told us we had to stay and that they were going to be missionaries with us. The little boy (he's like 2 years old) even cried his little heart out! It was soooo cute and so sad!!! I just wish I could take this family home with me!!! I'm sure they would fit in my suitcase! So that was definitely a tender mercy and an answer to my heartfelt prayers :')

Well, so far it's been maybe a little bit of a depressing email, I'm sorry about that...But I know this week is going to be a lot better! We have quite a bit of appointments, so I'm excited! The weeks coming up are going to be sooo awesome! In 2 weeks we have zone conference, a mission devotional and we're going to the Jordan River temple, I'm super pumped! Then the week after that we have General Conference. We're going to the Saturday morning session at the Conference Center with a friend of the Church. We're excited about that! Then we're also taking a recent convert to the Women's Conference at the Conference Center, so yup, good and exciting things are ahead of us!

The weather here has been absolutely fabulous by the way! It's been in the 70's (so in the 20's celsius), so that's ridiculously warm for February and March! But I'm not complaining :) 

zuster Iris Spek en zuster Debby Spijkerman

 

Well, I think that's it for this week. I don't want you to worry about me, because I'm doing great! We all have our ups and downs, because that's part of life! There needs to be opposition in all things :)

I love you all and I want you to know that you're always in my prayers :)

Lots and Lots of Love

Sister Spijkerman