Jullie hebben het wel druk

From e-mail dated October 12, 2009.

Wow, life is busy for ya'll at home...
And thanks for the package. I already got it-- and yes, I already opened it-- You crack me up. The CD is great! And thanks for the cake and such. I thought it was really funny that you sent a cake pan, too :). Did grandma Snyder tell you that she already sent me $100 for my birthday? I'll probably just leave it in American money and use it when I get home rather than using it here--it's just too much of a pain to exchange money. It sounds like the American dollar is worth less and less every day! I pulled out 100 euros last week and that ended up being $146? AAAAH! I'll have to be a little more thrifty. Zr. Fritz and I have been doing a lot with the Elders on P-day lately because if you're going to spend your money anywhere, it's Amsterdam--the rest of the Sister cities don't have as many museums and such.
As for birthday p-day plans-- not anything exciting-- we're celebrating birthdays today because there are quite a few of us with birthdays this month. Next week on p-day, Zr. Fritz has a legality appointment, so most of the day will be spent on legality. Hooray for birthdays :)
So, what has happened this week? Well, we've had some pretty funny experiences. Last Monday for P-day we went to the wax museum, so that was fun. Then on Monday night we were going to do some finding it was raining, so people weren't really outside and Zr. Fritz and I have been avoiding langs de deuren as much as possible because it just really isn't that effective. Anyway, so the Elders had told us that in some cities they go "bike finding"--meaning they ride their bikes along until they see someone and then they stop and talk to them. Well-- we decided to try it. We were riding along and saw a man walking, so I put on my brakes-- but with the rain, my brakes started squeaking like crazy! I screeched to a halt next to the man and he was pretty scared that I was going to run into him. We had a short conversation with him, and it was good. But, needless to say, we'll avoid bike finding in the rain from here on out.
We had an amazing appointment with a new investigator this week. His name is Marcel and he is really open and looking for the truth. (Pray for him) But, there was a really funny part in his lesson. We asked him to read in Moroni 10:3-5, and he came to the part where it says "vanaf Adam"(where it says 'from Adam to'... in English) and in the Netherlands A'dam is short for Amsterdam--and because he was reading along, he didn't really think about it and he said "vanaf Amsterdam..." Zr. Fritz and Zr. DeNijs (our joint teach) and I really had to hold in our laughter. It was hilarious. Maybe one of those 'you had to be there moments'.
But besides funny moments, this week has also been full of miracles. On Saturday we went to teach Vili and Ani (they are from Bulgaria). They had told us that they didn't believe President Monson could be a prophet, so we asked them to listen to his talk to the YW from April and then to pray about it. They told us they didn't listen to the whole talk and when they prayed they didn't get an answer. We told them they really needed to listen to the whole thing before they could get an answer, and then we felt impressed to just listen to it right then and there. We pulled it up and listened to the talk in Bulgarian. When it was over we asked them how they felt. Vili looked over at us and began to cry--she told us that she didn't believe before, but now she knew--she said this is the happiest she's been. Then her boyfriend came into the room and he asked what was going on, and she bore testimony to him--he then sat down and started talking to us and even agreed to read the Book of Mormon! The spirit was SO strong!
We also had a really great experience with Familie Todorovic. We have been really concerned that they haven't been making progress, so we were going to give them back to the Lord. However, when we went for our appointment, they had actually read! And as we were talking about it, the granddaughter had all sorts of questions for us and everything finally clicked for her. The spirit was amazingly strong and really testified to her that what we were saying is true. The others in the family are still a little behind and not really progressing--but she is really excited about the gospel now and was even getting frustrated with her family that they weren't getting it!
Anyway, my time is up. I've gotta run. But I love you. Next week we have special permission to go to the temple, and I'm so excited! I encourage you all to go to the temple--I miss it so much. It really is the house of the Lord.

I love you!
Zr. Fowler