Change is in the air

From email dated February 15, 2010.

So, this week has been crazy.
I don't know if you've heard anything from the mission blog or anything-- but the mission boundaries are changing. The French side of the mission will be joining the Paris Mission and all that will be left is the Dutch missionaries in this mission. Yeah, lots of changes happening. It means there are lots of transfers in the middle of the transfer to take care of filling spots in the office and such. Nothing is happening with the Sisters, but there are tons of changes going on in the mission in general. I'm interested to see what happens.
It sounds like things are pretty crazy at home, too. I hope that you had a good time with the missionaries. I love seeing how the members can receive so much when they participate in missionary work. I hope that you are taking the opportunities to go on joint teach when you have time--there's such a power in the members who make sacrifices to do missionary work--and they receive so many blessings. It's like the hidden secret--and although we try to help everyone receive these blessings, it isn't until they actually try it out for themselves and participate in missionary work that they see the blessings in their homes. There are a couple of families here that are super busy with missionary work--they invite our investigators over for dinner and they sit next to them in church--and seeing how their families are blessed for it is AMAZING!
So, I will be sure to pass the word on to Zr. Ekstrom from that Elder. Yes, she was one of my many MTC companions. She and I will be going on exchanges on Friday in Amsterdam! I'm super stoked to be going back to Amsterdam, even if just for a day. I hope I get the chance to see Kim and Marijke and many of the other people I adore.
Saturday I actually get the opportunity to go to the temple with Lucky--she has been a member for a year and while I was in Amsterdam we helped her prepare to go to the temple and President has given me and Zr. Fritz permission to go since we worked with her for so long. I'm super excited about it!
So, I'll share a couple of miracles really quickly (they are changing email systems, so I had to do some things with that and it took up a good chunk of my time-- and still didn't work--)--first, we went finding on Tuesday--we had prayed about and picked out an area that morning and when we got there, we locked up our bikes, prayed, and started walking until we thought we should start knocking on some doors. As we were knocking we both just had this really weird feeling-- so we decided to pray again and see where the Lord wanted us to go. We tried to follow the spirit and walked out of the neighborhood that we had picked that morning. The first woman we talked to used to be Jehovah's Witness--and she wasn't interested at first... but I asked her about her school because she was wearing a backpack--and it turns out that she studies the same thing I do! Well, as we continued talking, she opened up and all of a sudden she asked us, "Would you like my phone number and we can set an appointment so that I can learn more about your church?" Well, we have an appointment for Wednesday. We continued talking to people throughout the hour, and at the end of the hour we went to unlock our bikes and there was a woman bringing her trash outside. We exchanged pleasantries and she noticed our name tags. We started talking with her and ended up setting an appointment for 2 days later. Well, we went back two days later and taught her, her husband, and her 8 year old daughter. When they first got married they had a couple of friends who were members of the church. They are super positive. I'm excited to see where it goes.
I don't have much time left-- please continue praying for the investigators and members here in Den Haag. Sheba, Patricia, Doralin, and Alina especially need your prayers.
I love you so much. In the spirit of Valentine's Day, remember how much God loves you and I love you! John 3:16.

Love,
Zr. Fowler