Another Transfer in Apeldoorn!!

Hello Friends and Family-

 

Well the news is out and I get another beautiful transfer here in Apeldoorn!! Unfortunately Zuster Israelsen is being transferred...to America....no big deal. I may or may not have shed a few tears already and definately will on the day she leaves. We are taking advantage of the last two days we have as companions! BUT I will be getting a new companion and her name is Zuster Jones!! I am so excited. She will be on her 4th transfer and she is coming from Haarlem (one of the cities I would LOVE to serve in). Its where they filmed "The Best Two Years". So that is really exciting and I will be meeting her on Wednesday afternoon!

 

We had a really great and productive week! We have been teaching and finding qutie a bit. We were able to have an openhouse for the new church building here in Apeldoorn this past Saturday and that went really well. We saw about 70-80 people come and we were busy talking to all of them. It was really cool...there was a cute little elderly couple that walked in and I started talking to them. They began to tell me that they had been to Salt Lake City one time and had visited the temple grounds and was able to walk into the front entrance/waiting room just to do a little sight seeing. They were completely blown away by the spirit that they had felt there that when they came back to the Netherlands and found out there was an openhouse for the church building here in Apeldoorn, they wanted to be sure to make it over here! So we gave them our number and a few other things and we are hoping to beable to have contact with them very soon. We had an investigator also come by named Peter. He has decided that he doesnt really want to have the "lessons" anymore, but he always says Ïk hou van jullie, jullie zign mijn engelen! Which means he loves us and we are his angels. Haha So he will definately still be in our book and we will stop by. He came to church yesterday as Zuster Izzy was able to give a talk and also sing for the whole ward (she studies opera at home and is SOO good). So he came by and after the sacrament meeting was over he looked at me and said "Well...I thought it was beautiful....what do I do now?" haha So he is definately having some wheels turn in his head so I am excited to see what happens! Sam is still doing great and is planning to be baptized on April 26th. I am so excited for him!! He is making such amazing progress every single time we see him.

 

So I will be doing something tonight that every American that comes to Holland has to do....I will be trying Harring!! Zuster Izzy hasnt done it either on her whole mission so I figure..why not? I might as well do it right now with her. So tonight with all the young single adults we will both be doing it. I will record it and take pictures so you guys can all see the throw up that will probably be there afterwards :) Since being on my mission, I have grown to just kind of like fish. So we will see. I am so excited for General Conference this upcoming weekend. Make sure that you all get a chance to listen to every session! Its the best time of the year! It is slowly becoming warmer and warmer here and it is HEERLIJK! We are planning on going to Koekenhof for the tulips the end of April and I am really excited. I love you all and miss you so much! Thank you for the prayers and support!

 

Love, Zuster Brophy

Well...I accidentally dyed my hair black. :)

Hello Friends and Family-

 

Wow what a busy week we have had! I decided that it really isnt fair anymore. Because the busier you get and the more you adjust to missionary life and everything, the faster the time goes! I feel like you would want it to be the opposite. We were able to do alot of service work this week with presentations and making pancakes for the ward and a bunch of other things. We were only able to go finding one time for an hour this week...thats how busy we were!

 

So yes...I might have dyed my hair black. Its kind of a long story but basically the first time didnt really go so well so I had this fantastic idea to just dye it again in the same day. That wasnt such a good idea. But the good news is after washing it alot and trying to make it look a little bit more like the brown I wanted, its finally getting there :) Unfortunatley I wont be sending home pictures this week but I will next week so you can all see.

 

So we had an amazing experience this week!! Our investigator, Sam, is making some amazing progress. He has decided to quit Soccer in order to come to church because he plays on Sundays, and he has been meeting with us 3x per week and coming to Instituut and JAVO's every single week. He was planning on coming to Church yesterday but then the morning of he had an Epilepsy attack (He has a really severe type of Epislepsy). So he ended up not making it so we decided to make a last minute appointment with him to go over and teach him the last half of The Plan of Salvation since one of our appointments had canceled for the day. We go over there with two joint teaches, Melvin and Jason, who are both YSA's in this ward and are awesome!! They come on joint teach with us multiple times during the week. And we teach the last half of The Plan of Salvation and start talking about how you can do temple work for family members and other people who have passed away and the power of the priesthood, since he just lost his uncle and that was super hard for him. And we had asked our joint teach to share his testimony about the Priesthood and what it means for him. While he was talking I got such a strong prompting/thought in my head that literally said "tell him about Priesthood Blessings". It was one of those things that I just couldnt ignore no matter what I did. So right when our joint teach got done talking I quickly spoke up and said "Hey there is this thing...." and my companion looks at me and goes äre you kidding me?!? And thats when we realized that we had literally had the EXACT same prompting at the EXACT same time and we were both about to say the EXACT same thing. I dont know about you folks...but that is the definition of companionship unity. :) It was SOOOO cool. So he ended up getting a priesthood blessing from our joint teach and it was so powerful. Sam said that he felt some sort of "power"enter the room right when Jason put his hands on his head, which we were able to explain that that was the spirit. I am so grateful for the chance I had to be apart of such an amazing experience! Me and my companion are having such a great time out here in Apeldoorn together and I am going to be really sad to see her leave next week. In the past two transfers we have seen so many amazing miracles and worked so hard together and seen success. We get transfer calls AGAIN (this transfer didnt even happen I swear) this upcoming Sunday so I will find out who my next companion will be and I am super excited. I am having the time of my life out here and I LOVE it. This gospel is true. I know it with my whole entire being!! Its been so cool to come out on a mission with a testimony, but then through the hard times, the good times, and all of these cool amazing experiences I feel like I have almost seen it come to life and figured out what it really means to me. I see it change people every single day, and I see the power of god working through me to influence other peoples lives here in the Netherlands. It is the best job in the world :) I love you all and miss you dearly!! Tot volgende week! Doui!

 

Love, Zuster Brophy

  

Celebrating "half-way mark" with sushi! And Madison doesn't even like seafood :)

 Is this safe to eat?

Everything with a cherry on top!

Friends and Family-

 

Well....bad news. I officially was sick this past week for the first time on my mission. I was doing so good and then I hit my half way mark and I guess my body realized I was officially on the down ward slope to dying so it hit both me and my companion with a little bug! I woke up Thursday morning with a sore throat but didnt really think anything of it. Then throughout the day the coughing came, headache, swollen tonsils, and everything else you can think of. Finally after our dinner appointment when I was struggling to keep my eyes open my companion said ok time to go home for you. So we called the presidents wife and went in early Thursday night and ended up taking almost half of friday staying inside. As a missionary, that is the worst thing in the world to stay in the apartment that long. All you want to do the whole time is be outside because you arent used to staying inside. Haha but I got a whole 13 hours of sleep which is the most I have gotten since I left and I am proud to report that I am completely healthy and back on my feet today! So that made this week a little bit on the slow side and made me miss my mom a little bit more. I needed some Diet Coke and chicken noodle soup or something. :)

 

We had a really crazy, busy week with our investigators! We have had lots of appointments with our investigator named Peter. He is SOO funny. I come out with sore abs because I laugh so hard every time we are with him. He is definatley a slow progressor but he is getting there and he is coming to the open house we will have of the church in a couple weeks so I am really excited for that! He also said he would bring a friends which is awesome. Sam is also still progressing and we have had to move his baptismal date to the end of April because of church attendance and other things but a mircale happened. He is quitting his soccer team!!!! Which was keeping him from coming to church every Sunday and he just said I know that something needs to change in order to do this and I am willing to do whatever it takes so he is finishing out this season and then he will be coming to church every sunday!! Woooo! We were so happy! We have been doing alot of handing out invitations/flyers to everyone around the neighborhood for this open house. We are really stressed to say the least. We have been put in charge of another event happening on Thursday. Apparently students from Apeldoorn come and visit churches around Apeldoorn one day of the year and we are preparing an hour and a half presentation for that In Dutch of course which makes it a little more complicated. Then on Saturday we are making Pancakes for everyone in the ward again. So we are super super busy with everything. I love this ward and am so glad I have had the oppurtunity to work with them and keep working with them! I have been told I am staying in Apeldoorn already since my companion is being transferred to America which makes it so I will be here till for sure the middle of May and I am SOOO happy! :) I love and miss all of you dearly!!

 

Love, Zuster Brophy

What a glorious day in the neighborhoooooood :)

Family and Friends-

 

This week has been soooo amazing!! I am especially happy right now because we have also been experiencing some of thee most beautiful weather the Netherlands has ever seen for centuries in March. It was 72 degrees yesterday and about 68 degrees today. I dont know how long it will stay THAT warm but we are definately seeing Spring come around the corner. All of the tulips along the sides of the roads, in our backyard, and all over the fields. I love living in the Netherlands. Period.

 

We had a pretty crazy week full of appointments, exchanges, and anything else you might want to add in there..it probably happened. All of our investigators are doing pretty well. Our two baptismal dates both had a rough week and were either sick or had family issues which made it alot harder to get in contact with them. But we have also increased our potential pool quite a bit. We went knocking one night and ended up setting three appointments there on the door and giving out four Books of Mormon! It was such a cool little miracle. We have appointments with all of them this week and I am super excited to see what happens. This past Saturday me and my companion made lunch for all of the young women in the ward just for fun and we had a really great time. I have pics that will come very soon. We have been planning for an openhouse to see the new church building that the ward here is doing on March 29th. We will be handing out the invitations as a contact method and getting as many people around the neighborhood of the church invited. We will also be doing a workshop for all of the members and to train them on what to say and what not to say and all of that good stuff. It is kind of turning into a way that we will beable to invite our investigators and also potentially find new ones during this process. I am super excited! So we are very busy doing all of that. We will be doing lots of good finding this week and hopefully finding some new people to teach. The longer I am in this city the more I just absolutley love it. At first coming from Belgium, the Netherlands was a bit of a culture shock but now I just love it. Us Missionaries compare to as if you have two children, and you love them both the same amount, just in different ways. Thats exactly how it is with these two countries. :)

 

So...I am freaking out. I hit my half way mark in TWO days. Where on earth did time go?! I cant even believe it! Us and a few members decided if was an important enough day to go out to eat and get some really yummy food so we will be doing that Wednesday night and I am really excited. :) We are having a blast doing missionary work here in Apeldoorn. I am just counting my blessings every day for the oppurtunity I have to do this. I am really starting to see how fast time flies and its freaking me out, but also reminding me how much I need to cherish every day. I love you all and miss you! Tot volgende week :) Success! Duoi!

 

Zuster Brophy

 Happy 20th Birthday!

 Say hello to "Amber" the bike...

 Let's Celebrate! Happy Birthday Zuster!

 Elder Yokum, Zuster Brophy, Elder Elkins

 Zuster Brophy's first REAL Pannekoeken…Happy Bday!

 Happy Valentines Day!

No Heating and No hot water? Fantastic.

Hello Friends and Family-

 

What a week we have had! It started off perfect and then got a little interesting. Last tuesday me and my companion wake up just like any normal day. Im laying on the kitchen floor trying to stay awake and my companion goes in to get in the shower and all of a sudden I hear her scream and start freaking out and she yells "there is NO hot water." And im thinking youve got to be kidding me! And here in Europe I swear the water is colder here. Its like a cold that when you are under it too long you literally get a headache and feel like a giant ice cube. And then we discovered there was no heating as well throughout the whole apartment. So we got to take cold showers for about two days until they came out and fixed it. Our house is just SO old. At least like 25 years and it was an elders apartment way before it was a zusters and lets just say...we find little treasures daily. It was a nice beginning to our week! :)

 

This past weekend here in Apeldoorn we had Stake Conference. If you were looking at a map you would see the city of Arnhem and its basically that and everything north-east of it. So its a big area! President and Zuster Robinson came and spoke Sunday night and all of the missionaries in the Stake came and sang "Called to Serve" in the Saturday night session. Its funny because with every stake conference you have in a foreign speaking mission you get more and more out of it with every single one because you understand more. Haha I understood everything that was being said this time and it was AMAZING! I decided that Dutch has almost become my "spiritual language" you could say. I plan on doing all my gospel studies and reading and even watching T.V. in Dutch after my mission. I still have plenty to learn and can always improve though so we will see!

 

We had kind of a weird week with our investigators. One of them had an uncle die in their family and so he was really sad and had lots of things to do to prepare for everything so we didnt see him nearly as much. And the same thing also happened to Guvendi our other investigator. So it was kind of weird! We are hoping to get everything back to normal this week! We had a super cool miracle this week. We went door knocking last tuesday night and randomly decided to do some apartment bell-ups (which are usually my least favorite thing to do). We start talking to this guy who makes absolutley no sense but we got out of it that he was in the middle of bible study and wants us to bring a Book of Mormon by that same weekend. So we go back Friday afternoon and no one was home. So then the next day, Saturday, we were in the neighborhood again and decided to try one more time. He ends up being home and lets us in for some tea and cookies. (Thats another thing...I am addicted to tea now. They drink it over here ALOT more than they do in America and its my new favorite thing). We go in and get to know him and his wife, end up teaching them the Restoration and he said that they would come to church the next day!! two new investigators! What a beautiful day in the neighborhood! So we have another appointment this week and hopefully things go very nicely :) We have lots of appointments and potentials to follow up with this week and we are just really trying to keep our finding pool high and also our potential pool to keep ourselves busy and get up to teaching at least 14 lessons a week, if not more. I had a really cool experience personally this past week as well. I have always loved the people here and the place I am in, but we were driving home with a member in their car and the hymn "Praise to the Man" came on and I just felt the spirit SO strong. These people have literally become my family and I love them SO much. Every single one, not just the members, but every person I even see on the street. And Beligum and The Netherlands has become my second home and sacred ground. Its so cool how the experience of a mission will do that to you. Because I always heard Return Missionaries say that but you dont really understand it until you are actually the one experiencing it. I know without a doubt that this gospel is true. I can see it in the eyes of members, investigators, and even people I talk to on the street every single day. The happiness you can receive and see through the gospel is absolutely incredible. Im so grateful I get to be here half way across the world speaking a foreign language of these people and become part of their lives and also a part of mine. Missionary work is the most amazing experience in the world and its the best decision I have ever made. I love you all and miss you dearly! Thank you for the prayers and support!

 

Love, Zuster Brophy