Well, it sounds like everyone's week was ok. And also full of rain. I think it's funny how much the weather where everyone is at is a parallel of the weather I'm experiencing here.
To start off I thought I would tell you guys a story. So I emailed you guys on Monday and transfers were on Wednesday. So, I got all packed up and ready to go and the zone leaders came with the van. After we dropped off Elder Mercier we made our way to where I would be staying. At one point in the trip we wanted to turn around. Now, a couple of things; one, it had been raining that whole day so the streets were wet and muddy; two, the van is old and has almost no power so it gets stuck easy. So we turned into a street that had a little bit of grass to the side. We pulled in and tried to back up but we got stuck. As I'm sure you all know missionaries back each other up when we are in cars, so I told Elder Hood that he was stuck and because he was in mud he was digging himself deeper. He decided he would pull forward and try to turn out rather than back up. At this point I was on the side of the van and Elder Hood pulled forward and turned to where the back was now towards me. The van got stuck again and before I knew it, it was flinging mud from the back end. The pictures explain the rest. Elder Hood is the one standing next to me.
That was day one in my new area! I actually thought it was pretty funny so it was no big deal.
The days following were spent trying to find some new people. A lot of the investigators that the area had were simply not progressing and needed to be dropped which forced us to do a lot of finding. We met some interesting people. One of them was a total atheist from Holland. He was probably in his late 20's and we tried speaking to him in Dutch but he speaks English really well so the conversation turned to English. His mom saw us and then immediately went back inside to grab us drinks, they were both really nice people. They asked us a little bit about how we learned Dutch, if we are paid, what we want to do when we are done with a mission that sort of thing. It was cool because even though the guy was atheist, they both said they have a lot of respect for us leaving home and learning a foreign language in a foreign country. One thing that I have immediately noticed about the city is that the people here speak Dutch really well so if we stumble a little bit they immediately ask, "Do you speak English?" It's definitely different.
Another person we ran into was this young lady, also in her 20's who knew the Bible well and at first seemed really cool. She was busy cleaning her balcony when she saw us knocking on the door of a house down the street. When she saw us, she invited us over. At first me and Elder James were really excited because she explained how she had always wanted to talk to us and at first it seemed like she would be our next investigator. We quickly realized that it was a trap though, because she began to pick apart every little thing we said about the Book of Mormon and about the Restoration. By the end she asked us to bear our testimonies and we shared how we both knew the Book of Mormon was true. She then bore her testimony and explained how the Bible is all we need and also that she would pray that we would find God. Even though we went through all of that, she accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and said she would read it. In which case, you never know.
Well, I will finish it off here. I love you guys so much! I hope you guys have the best week!
Love,
Elder Cole Cooper
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