Bridge to Kampen
Random castle thing in Kampen
Big Catholic Church in Zwolle
Sounds like fall! I don't know what to write about this week, I had a good week. Waking up has been hard, we're getting back to doing Insanity so that should help. The main problem now is that my feet have been really worn out. I don't think my shoes are a problem and we don't do an excessive amount of walking most days, just biking. We just did normal missionary work on Halloween, there wasn't any apperent celebrating. That pumpkin gum you sent was good though. We've been knocking a lot more doors this week and doing bell-ups (lots of apartment-type buildings). This week was a bit slower than most but only relatively, it's still really fast. Fast Sunday was really nice, my fast worked really well so that was cool. It was just sort of a revelatory, spiritual, good-feeling sort of day. We had dinner with a member family, they were in a really good mood, lots of laughing and lively conversation, which isn't unusual. Next week is most likely the last full week I'll have with Elder Isaksen so we're planning on breaking all of our records as far as goals, we want to work harder than every before. We work pretty hard, I'm not sure what I can compare it to but we almost always work in accordance with the general mission schedule. The main exceptions would be dinner appointments always go over one hour and sometimes we spend too much time around meals.
Other than that, we can always work on efficiency which includes planning, study, obedience, and teaching and finding skills. Often throughout the day I feel like I should be a more effective missionary and I have to figure out if I'm being too critical of myself or if thére's something I need to work on. There's always plenty to work on, and Sunday I did a lot of thinking and planning for adjustments I want to make to myself.
I hope I don't say the same things every week, but I feel like in essence I do. What do you think I should be writing more about? I have so many thoughts everyday and so many experiences but when I sit down here all I can seem to talk about it myself. Most other missionary emails I've read are more focused on what happened that week. I think it just hard for me to remember everything that happened. I'll get out my planner. Okay so we only taught seven lessons this week and four were on wednesday. We had a few dinner appointments, for one a member took us to a pannekoek huis (you can guess at what that means). Last night we met with a former investigator that we made a return with. He is concerned by the fact that we have more prophets, but he wants to know how he can know if they are true or not. He's interesting, he's a guy out of Africa and Elder Isaksen thought he was probably drunk, but he seemed pretty sincere either way. I'm really excited to meet again, he seems pretty open. I've thought quite a bit about what makes people join the church and it's definitely the spirit. People that listen to the spirit (even if they don't recognize it at first) are the people that will join the church. I've been also thinking about the fact that there must be more people in Zwolle that are prepared to listen to the spirit and maybe even already have their lives in order to be baptized, so what do I need to become and do in order for the Lord to send me to them or them to me. Anyways, my expectations for what the Lord can do with me are very high. Elder Isaksen and I see and count little things as successes and blessings every day, even if it's just that someone let us in or let us come back or even just have a good conversation. We are very blessed here. By next email I'll know who my new companion is, and then that wednesday is transfers. On p-days we mostly just stay in, clean, shop, email, and one other project. Today the project probably should have been bike repairs, but instead we made super cool scripture cases. I'll have to send a picture next week, it's for my mini scripture set and it's really cool. I'm really proud of it. P-days are always nice.
To answer mom and dad, there are quite a few outdoor basketball courts and football fields, but hardly anyone ever uses them, especially the basketball courts. I haven't found an indoor basketball court yet either, haven't really looked though either. I might be able to play sometime if I go to a big city or something. I wish we could play regularly somewhere though, that would be so nice. I have had a little throat thing for a while now, so I'll try the tea thing. Tea is really big here, whenever we go into someone's house they always offer tea or coffee or juice. It's a culture thing, everyone does it automatically to be nice to guests. It's nice I guess.
Love, Elder Knaupp
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