Sad Day, Happy Future!

Hello family!

Well, to day is a sad day- we found out that Zr. Ekstrom will be leaving to go to Amsterdam tomorrow, and we´re both a little mopey about the whole thing. We just got along so well! Its ok though, I get to stay here in Groningen for another blessed transfer, and I will be joined by Zr. Stapleton, the Zr. from St. Kits who was in the MTC 6 weeks behind me. It´ll be a fun challenge to combine her Caribbean personality with my good old-fashioned American work ethic. It´ll be fun :)

We had an amazing zone conference this week in Amsterdam. I was truly inspired by the messages from the assistants and President Brubaker. He spoke about optimism and how we can develop a spirit of optimism in our work. It sounds a lot like the coaching workshop dad´s going to. Anyways, he talked about how helplessness and despair are the opposites of hope and optimism. He emphasized how they are all learned responses to our situations and we can control and reprogram ourselves to respond to our situations with optimism. He talked about how the Gospel is the gate that leads to optimism, Christ being the only person who has truly overcome the world and the cares that it brings. It was very inspiring and a great reminder to keep our expectations and optimism high.

We saw an amazing miracle this week. We went tracting on Monday night and were let into a door of a young Indian woman. She led us upstairs and had us sit down and said "I´ll go call everyone". It turns out there are 13 nurses who had immigrated about a week before for a work program from India, and we were able to teach a first lesson to 11 of them and made a return appointment to bring them all copies of the Book of Mormon. It was so cool!! We got 11 new investigators in just one hour of tracting. A total miracle!

Our other investigators are doing well too. Joanne, our favorite, is doing great and is working to recognize her answer to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. She says that she´s pretty sure she has her answer, she just has to wait a little while to be sure ;). She will miss Zr. Ekstrom a lot, but we are convinced that she will be ready soon to be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. It is so exciting!

I spent a day after Zone conference working in Zwolle, and was able to work with Zr. Wieland, my comp from Rotterdam, again for a day. It was fun to get back together and see how we have grown and changed in the 7 months since we served together. She goes home in 6 weeks, along with the group of sisters that was just ahead of me in the MTC. That will leave zr. Bennett and I as the oldest... yikes!

Life is just fabulous here on my mission. I am just so full of joy as I get to work here in Groningen. The Lord has taught me so much, and has so much in store for this area. It is probably a blessing that Zr. Ekstrom and I are being separated- we were just so comfortable together, it was hard to progress like we do in other companionships. It will be great for us. I have been feeling lately that I need to do some serious pondering and figure out what kind of missionary the Lord needs me to become to accomplish His work in the best way possible. Our potential when we work with the Lord is so large- and I don´t want to just work at the comfortable level and never achieve the kind of missionary that He knows I can become. It is a daunting task, but I want to do everything possible to be the best that I can.

I love you all and hope that you all stay happy and safe.

Ik hou van jullie!

Liefs,
Zuster Cherie Gulliver