Week #5 In Amsterdam, Netherlands

 Dear Family and Friends,

It feels like the Twilight Zone here in Amsterdam because I am starting my last transfer. I never really thought this day would come, but now that it's here I am ready to work hard and push to the end!

This week was good! We got transfer calls and we are all staying the same here in Amsterdam except one of my Zone Leaders, Elder Lewis, is going to Leiden and we are getting Elder Kennel as our new ZL. 

This week we found a super cool Spanish couple! They let us in right away thinking we were their Airbnb guests but then realizing who we were when we started sharing our message. They are interested and we are having a lesson with them this evening!

Zuster Roberts and I are working on sharpening our contacting skills, so we enlisted the help of the elders this week. We went banner contacting with them and got some great tips from them. Wow, elders are truly the best.

This week for weekly planning I made sugar cookies but instead of using our Christmas cut outs I decided to cut out the names of every missionary in our group. It was quite the task but I got it done. The elders seemed to enjoy it, and the sisters Loved eating the leftovers. I guess I am the resident baker now.

Something I focused on this week was having a better attitude towards everything I do. In district meeting last week Elder Balthar shared something from his time serving in Brasil while he was visa waiting. He shared that attitude shapes the way we see things and can affect our whole lives. So I decided to try and change my life and have a better attitude about going out and serving. I saw many miracles and answers to prayer. Life got better and I feel so blessed to live in this world and speak Dutch to everyone I see.

I am so grateful for Elder Balthar and his words of wisdom. He is going home tomorrow and I'm so sad!! I'm going to miss my favorite Brazilian!

This week I completed a life goal of mine. Have you ever seen the movie "Elf"? In this movie Buddy the Elf eats pasta with all this sugar and crazy things on top of it. Well Sister May, Elder Goodson, and Elder Whitlock and I all decided to do it one night. It was an experience. 

We had to do it Dutch style because we only had Dutch sweets. We decided that American Elf pasta would probably taste better. It was super fun though!

Well that's it from me!

I hope you are all working on reading the Book of Mormon by the end of the year! I just made a schedule for myself so I can finish! It's totally possible.

Love you all,

Zuster Grace Acheson