Antwerpen Adventures!

Hallo mijn familie!!!!

I don't have much time, so this will have to be short, and I forgot my camera, so pictures will have to wait till next week. Sorry!

Mom, yaaaayyyyyy on finishing your class! Let me know how it went! Sorry the email was late, but I'm glad you have found a mom support group, I guess... We don't actually have ipads, but you don't need to worry about shipping stuff to me.

Spidermonkey, I'm sorry about autocorrect, Sir Halfsquat can be Zuster Burnham for now, your Antwerpen story is the same one I've heard, though your telling was far more animated, I am very proud of your soccer heroics, although I hope you are conscious of your advanced age when contemplating such antics. Remember that I'd appreciate you being alive when I get back. Woohoo with the Book of Mormon! We're tied now (these Belgians are rather stubborn, but I'm pretty sure I can be more stubborn, so hopefully I'll pull ahead next week). Tell Nato we can never be friends.

This week! First of all, turns out that sleeping on those planes is hopeless, so I just went 35ish hours with 3 hours of sleep, so that is why I looked gross and tired in those pictures you got, but all is good! So, Monday our little caravan of missionaries carrying way too much luggage paraded on and off trains and through the airport onto our plane where we said goodbye to the US for the next 18/24 months. We landed in Amsterdam where the APs and President and Sister Bunnell met us. From there, our little procession managed to make it around Amsterdam and onto some trains to Leiden! Leiden is a literal storybook!!!! It is so pretty- there are canals running all through it, and people just ride boats up and down them all day, and the buildings are all really old and quaint, and in a lot of parts there are no car streets, so everyone just bikes and walks. We got some legal stuff taken care of, interviewed with the president, and then ate panakoeken, which are basically huge, delicious pancakes that can be savory, sweet, whatever. 

The next day I met my trainer, Zuster Burnham (who is super sweet and kind and we get along well), took care of some more legal stuff, and spent the literal rest of the day trying to get all of our (the 5 missionaries heading to the Antwerpen area) luggage and bikes and stuff to Antwerpen. By the end of the day, I was pretty exhausted. 

The rest of my week has been working here in Antwepen! First off, Belgians don't speak Nederlands, they speak Flams, which is a crazy dialect of Nederlands, so it literally isn't the language I learned at the MTC, but everyone keeps telling me, "Het komt" (it comes). Our area is crazy big, so it is kind of hard knowing exactly where to focus, but we're doing our best. We've worked a lot with inactives or recently baptized members this week. I love them all, and it has been really good getting to teach them. One of our inactive members (Grace) committed to coming to church next week, so that is good! We've also knocked a fair amount. A lot of people open the door, see our nametags, say "Nee" and shut it before we can get a word in, but I know there is someone in this city who is ready for our message! We have had a couple people say we could come back next week, so we're going to look them up in the next couple of days. Saturday a lady threatened to call the police on us (the mission record for having the police called is 7, so I think I'm off to a good start), but we talked to her and she softened up, so I guess maybe I'm not so close to breaking the record.

In church, I got to bear my testimony in Dutch, which was good. I love our ward! Antwerpen is kind of split between traditional Belgians and lots of immigrants, so our ward is half stubborn Dutchmen and half African sisters wearing colorful dresses, which is kind of funny, but I love then all. and they have all been super kind to me! Gospel Principles was funny, because the teacher is an old Belgian who only speaks Dutch, but the investigators were Asian, Israeli, Turkish, and African who speak English as a second language and next to no Dutch, so the teacher taught in Dutch, Elder Turner translated into English, and they all read out of Book of Mormons from like 5 different languages. It was cool to see, and it was kind of funny because sometimes Elder Turner would translate and then add his own stuff to clarify/ simplify for the investigators, and there were two older ladies in there who spoke English and Dutch, and they would give him the funniest looks every time.

So, things that Americans take for granted (or at least this American did): 

1) ice and air conditioning- they don't exist here, and apparently this has been Beligium's one week of summer. It is so hot and humid, and you never cool down because there is no air conditioning!

2) free bathrooms and drinking fountains- drinking fountains don't exist anywhere, so if you forget your water, you're out of luck. You pay to use the restrooms here, so if you don't have coins with you, you just have to hold it

3) dryers and dish washers- yeah, the Belgians believe in doing things by hand.

 I'm so grateful to be a part of this work! It is the work of God, and I know that it is for everyone (even if the people here don't know it yet). I'm excited to be a part of hastening the work here in Belgium. I love you all!!!!!

Veel liefde,

Zuster Cluff

News from Netherlands

After two days of anxiously awaiting to find out about Emily's arrival in the Netherlands we received this e-mail from the mission office.  We were so excited to hear all is well and she will be serving in Antwerpen, Belgium.

Dear Parents of Zuster Cluff,

We are very delighted to receive your daughter in the Belgium/Netherlands Mission. She arrived safely on Tuesday, the 23rd of August, with a smile,excitement and an eagerness to serve!
Thanks for preparing her to serve the Lord as she will perform a great work as a missionary.  We will do all we can to love and care for her as our own so she can fulfill the call to be that valiant servant.
Her companion is Zuster Burnham and they will be serving in the city of Antwerpen, Belgium.
I am sending a few shots of the first two days------Enjoy!!

Zuster Burnham and Zuster Cluff

President and Sister Bunnell

Gratefully with love,

President and Sister Bunnell
Belgium/Netherlands Mission

Schuttersveld 2
2316 ZA Leiden
Netherlands

Netherland Bound

Obligatory picture in front of the statue

Our last day with Zuster Larsen

Hallo mijn geliefde familie!!!

Oh how I love all of your emails!!! I report to the travel office in not all too long, so I'm sorry if I don't get the chance to reply to all of your emails, but know that I love and appreciate them!

Mom, I hope you've survived all of the before school madness. If you can make it through today, you're probably home free. Abigail's party sounds fun, and as usual, Sister Lamb outdid herself. I don't think I've read The Guardian, but Gerald Lund is always good. If you haven't read that Divine Signatures book by him, you should. I have an even greater appreciation for family history and temple work since being here. I miss being a temple worker so much. I didn't really think it would be a big deal for me to be released, but I every time we go here, I feel both extreme gratitude for the things that I learned, and a little bit of sadness that I don't get to keep doing it. But, I'm called to do the same work now, just on a different side of the veil. I've been reading stories about our ancestors, and I've gained a new appreciation for them and their faith. I feel like some of them are with me, helping me on this mission, and even more I feel like there are people who will help me to find their descendants and bring them the gospel. 

Dad, verwant actually means relative, but dochter is good. I am flying with 14 other Dutch missionaries, so I will definitely not be alone. It is going to be a long flight, but hopefully I can sleep the whole way, because we get there at 10:00 am the next day, so if I don't sleep on the plane, I'm not sleeping. Soccer Saturday sounds like oodles of fun, as usual. Nothing quite like early mornings, long fruitless drives, and less than ecstatic children to make you excited about life. I love your Book of Mormon goal! We had a workshop on the importance of members in missionary work as part of our in-field orientation, and I was shocked at the statistics. When the ward members are a part of the missionary work, the success in the area soars! It made me feel bad for my lack of support before, but I guess I have a lot of time to make up for it. I expect monthly reports from you, mister. This week we did an activity where we watched a random One In a Million NYT story, which are just mini bios on random people, and then we had to find a scripture from the Book of Mormon and share a message that they needed in their life. It was crazy, because no matter what the life situation was, there was always something in the Book of Mormon that could help them or answer their questions. It truly has the fullness of the gospel. 

This week was good and kind of difficult for our district. Only one person in our district got his visa, so the rest of them got reassigned. Two are going to the Idaho Falls mission (my companion included) and the rest are going to the Chesapeake, Virginia mission. It was cool for me, because I saw the Lord preparing them to accept their new assignments, and I was very impressed with the faith of most of them (one elder is still a little bit bitter and insists that he is only speaking Dutch there and wearing his Dutch name tag, etc. (which is actually ironic, because he is also the one who never actually speaks much Dutch on our Speak Your Language days)). Anyways, they were so humble in acknowledging that it was the Lord's will and that they would willingly serve wherever He needed them. Sister Bonnie Oscarson spoke to us Tuesday, and her devotional was amazing and all about how the Lord gives us missions tailored to our needs and how we need to grow, and she really focused on having the faith to accept His will and follow it with all of our hearts. It was inspired and very powerful for our district. 

This week was filled with lots of goodbyes. It is hard to come to love people so much only to say goodbye to them in 6 weeks, but I'm very grateful for the people the Lord has placed in my life here. Saturday night, our district all got blessings, and it was such an incredibly powerful experience. It was crazy, because I have spent almost all of my waking hours these last 6 weeks with the 18/19 year old boys in my district, so I know them pretty well, but when they were giving blessings, they were no longer the same 18/19 year old boys. They were mouthpieces of the Lord. I gained such a stronger testimony of the priesthood. It was so amazing to see the Lord speak through the elders and to hear such specific guidance and blessings for everyone. Having always had the priesthood in my life, I realized that I have taken it for granted. It is such a marvelous blessing, and I'm so grateful I got to share that experience with my district!

Oh, I almost forgot! Dad, you remember that missionary musical number we heard in Hawaii where they sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer to the tune of If You Could Hie to Kolob that you liked so much? Well, I used that idea and amped it up a bit. I found this gorgeous piano/ violin duet of If You Could Hie to Kolob, and I tweaked it a little bit to add a choir, so the last Sunday, all of the Dutch sang Joseph Smith's first prayer (some in English, some in Dutch) to this beautiful music, and it was so powerful! The Spirit was so strong, and it was beautiful, and it sounded about 10x better than it ever did in practice, which was our little Sunday miracle. I was so proud of all of our Dutchies!

Well, in a few hours, I'll be on a plane saying goodbye to the US for the next 17 months! I'm a little bit nervous, mostly about being surrounded by a language that I don't really speak yet, but I feel like I've kind of learned all that I can from the MTC and now just need to go out and do. This is the Lord's work. He is at the head, and I am only an instrument in His hands. I'm so excited to start truly fulfilling my calling!

I love you all!!! Hopefully I'll get to talk to you in a few hours, we'll see!

Veel liefde,

Zuster Cluff

T-7 Days

Hallo iedereen!!!

Hoe gaat het met jullie? Ik houd van alle jouw emails!!! I'm sorry that Six Flags was a similarly stinky experience for everyone. That's probably karma for trying to have fun without me. Just kidding, I love hearing about your adventures. I'm glad you at least enjoyed the FC game! 

I'm going to start with boring business stuff and get it out of the way. So, I have my travel plans, and I am flying out next Monday at 4:50 pm. It is a direct flight and we will arrive in Amsterdam at 10:50 am on Tuesday. It turns out that burn phones are discouraged by the mission president, so I bought a phone card and will hopefully be able to call you between 1ish and 4ish (my time), so if you could send me a Dear Elder with what number would be best for me to call, that would be great.(I know that's the first day of school and right in the middle of the chaos of pick-up time, so if you can't pick up or whatever, don't worry about it. I think they'll send you an email when I get to the country anyways.) Turns out I can actually talk to you (yay!), but the lines at the airport pay phones are crazy (boo), so I don't really know what kind of time I'll have. If I end up not being able to call you, it is because of lines and not because I'm dead, so don't freak out. Also, if you could maybe let the bank know that I will be in Belgium and the Netherlands, that would be good, because apparently a lot of missionaries have problems with banks shutting off their cards because of "suspicious activity" and then have no way to contact the bank. 

Receiving their flight plans

 Mom, your Sunday School class sounds crazy, but I know you will do great with them, as always. Also, I am super excited that you will be Nativity co-chair, and a little bit jealous that I won't be there to help! I love the Nativity, and it is such a wonderful missionary opportunity, and it is the best start to Christmas, and you are just going to do amazing with it! And I know that you are probably shaking your head reading that, because you always feel like that's not you talent, or whatever, but I mean that very sincerely. You will do so well, and of course the Lord will help you! If you see Mr. Bridges again, tell him hi for me! I miss him, he was a great teacher! I'm sorry your Baked Alaska didn't turn out, but it actually looks pretty yummy in the pictures. That might be partly because of the food here though. Not only is it not good, but with 2900 missionaries in this place, you have to wait in line for 30-45 minutes to eat, and that's if you're there early. Also, tell Tyson to make the most of seminary. A lot of missionaries here have told me that they really wish they would have taken more advantage of seminary, and I have been really grateful here for the things I learned in seminary. It's been a huge blessings to be familiar with the scriptures and helps a lot in our lessons. In terms of sending stuff, if you have found my umbrella, that would be appreciated, more family pictures would be nice if you have some. 

Dad, it is hard to believe I'll actually leave this place. It's weird, because I've gotten really comfortable here, and the thought of actually leaving kind of feels like starting my mission all over again, but for real this time. Some days I feel very ready, and other days it makes me kind of nervous to think about, but I think I've learned about all I can from the MTC and now just need to go and do it. Sounds like you've had a pretty busy week. Try not to kill yourself with all of that driving and not sleeping stuff. I would really appreciate it if you could keep yourself alive at least until I get back. 

On to the week, then. So this week has been my favorite thus far. That is in large part due to our new investigator, Caroline. Zuster Baker and I made a goal to not bring any language notes to our discussions with Caroline. We would plan beforehand really well, and study the vocab/ grammar we thought we might need, but we weren't going to bring anything in with us. That took some faith, but it was such an incredible experience. It kept us from worrying about the language, and instead focus on really connecting with Caroline and teaching to her needs. It felt much more like a conversation than a discussion, and the Spirit was so strong. It was incredible! I felt God's love for her so strongly, and she did too. She gave the most sincere and sweet prayer at the end. After the second discussion we had with her, our teacher came up to us (she is playing our investigator, and usually they have this strict policy where they do not talk about the investigator and pretend to not have any idea what went on during a discussion to keep it feeling real). But anyways, she came up to us and said, "That was such a cool experience for me. The Spirit was so strong, and Caroline felt God's love so strongly. She didn't even believe in God before." (They base the investigators they play off of people they taught on their missions, so she was playing a person she taught who hadn't really known about God.) Anyways, teaching her has been a real testimony booster for me, especially because I haven't had to worry about the language. As I've focused on the message and what Caroline needs, the words have just come- not perfect Dutch, but enough to get the point across. It has made me very excited for when I get to teach real people and truly help them come to know their Savior.  

Neil L. Andersen came and spoke to us this week, which was a neat experience. He gave us some good goals for our missions and promised us that we would see miracles. That was a pretty powerful thing coming from an apostle of the Lord.

I gave my first talk in Dutch this week. I feel like we are at a disadvantage, because two of the three branch presidency members speak Dutch, so unlike the Huns, Albys, and Turks, we are actually understood by the branch presidency, and they can tell how good (or bad) our Dutch is. It went pretty well though, and I'm actually to the point where I can speak fairly spontaneously, so I didn't have to just look at my notes and straight up read the whole time. 

The Duchesses

One funny thing that has happened this week. So, five weeks at the MTC is a long time, and starts to kind of get to everyone, but it has been especially boring for our Elders. To liven up the time a little bit, they have formed gang called "The Dutchmen" and they have been speaking in Brooklyn accents for the past week and have certain elders who are their hit men (apparently there are hide and go seek plunger wars in the elders dorms at night- I'm not exactly sure what that means), and one who is "the Boss" and so on and so forth. It is kind of funny to see how creative missionaries get with limited resources in order to make things interesting. 

The flying dutchmen

Sorry this email isn't very exciting, but not much changes here. There are a lot of things that I have felt especially grateful for this week though, so here's a quick list:

1) Thank you Mom and Dad for having us memorize those scriptures years ago after we finished the Book of Mormon- I have started memorizing all of them in Dutch, and it has really helped my language and my teaching

2) Thank you for teaching me the importance of exact obedience and showing me the blessings of not justifying our actions or tweaking the commandments to make them more convenient- that is a lesson that I have always been grateful for, but I have been really seeing the blessings of it lately and am grateful that I learned that lesson before my mission

3) I'm super grateful for my English classes, because learning a new language is 10 times easier when you already understand grammar rules

Kipzilla- the end result of our grammar lesson on superlative adjectives

4) I am so grateful for the hymns. It is such a powerful thing to sing the hymns in Dutch with the other missionaries, and it really brings the Spirit. 

Well, I love you all and miss you a lot!!! Hopefully I will get to talk to you a little bit next week!

Veel liefde,

Zuster Cluff

Respect Shared Air Space

Mijn Geliefde Familie,

Helloooooo people that I love!!!! Seriously, Mondays are the best because I get to talk to all of you! 

So, Mom. First of, thank you so much for the package! I loved it, and we have one of the pictures of Christ in the class room to keep us in line. If you happen to be sending another package, I would love the conference Ensign, because they only carry them here right after conference, not in August apparently. Also, if you find more family pictures, it would be much appreciated. I actually have the cord to my camera, so that must have been something else. For whatever reason, cords don't work here, you need the card reader things. I miss Kenna! I'm glad she's not dating Tyler, I think she can do better. Also, hearing about the Olympics and things doesn't make me homesick or anything, so you can still tell me. I heard that I can use a burn phone, but really you probably know more than me, so you can do whatever you want. Truthfully, all we're supposed to say is, "Hi, mom, I'm still alive, love you, bye!" So if you don't want to hear that, you don't even have to worry about it if you don't want to. I'm glad you're getting used to people turning  you down, I think that's a lesson I'll be learning soon. Also, you're totally welcome to use my laptop any time, so no worries. 

Dad, the lack of teacher situation is weird because in the first place, we were only supposed to have two Dutch districts, but right before we came they switched it to three, so they only had teachers for two districts, then one of the teachers moved, then another is getting married and leaving on a honeymoon, and then another is going on vacation, so apparently we just drive teachers away. 

We kinda accidentally matched

District C

Well, the highlight of this week was Wednesday, because the Dutch got to host! It was so much fun! The hosts are the ones who drag the missionaries away from their crying families and take them through the whirlwind orientation process and then say, "Good luck!" It was actually a little bit hard seeing all of the tearful goodbyes, because I knew exactly how all of those poor missionaries were feeling, all of a sudden not so sure what they had gotten themselves into, but it was a blessing to be able to pay forward all of the love and happiness my host showed me. It was crazy to think that three weeks ago I had been in their shoes, because I feel like a different person now. But anyways, the first person I hosted had actually flown in the night before because she was international. She spoke an African dialect that I had never heard of before and only a little English. My little Dutch wasn't very useful either, so I smiled a lot and used hand gestures. I felt really bad dropping her off in her Marshalese classroom, because the teachers only speak Marshalese, and the students only speak English, and she mostly only speaks that African dialect, so I was really worried about her getting along okay, but I ran into her yesterday, and she gave me a hug and seemed to be happy, so hopefully it all turned out okay. The other ones I hosted were Canadian and American, so I could talk to them a little bit more, and I was glad that I could be the one to tell them how amazing the MTC was, and how much they were going to love it, and basically keep them talking so that they didn't have time to think about the families they just left behind. I was grateful for my host who did that for me, so I loved getting to pay that forward. 

The Surranites + me (the black sheep of district C)

Quick word of advice for the future Cluff missionaries: Respect shared air space. We have one elder who has been passing some pretty nasty gas in our little classroom with very little circulation pretty much nonstop for the past three weeks. The only problem is, we were all pretty sure it was Elder Ricks, who is the sweetest elder and is kind of in his own world most of the time, so no one had the heart to say anything about it. After three weeks of suffering in silence, Zuster Baker decided that we needed to learn some gas related vocabulary in Dutch, so that we could talk about it without embarrassing anybody. So, the next time it happened, she mutters some of those words under her breath, and I lost it. I wanted to laugh so badly, but the classroom was quiet and everybody would have known exactly what I was laughing it, so I spent the next few minutes trying to contain myself. Then, later that day, Elder Rasmusson said as he was walking out the door, "Elder Ricks (read this with a really strong Oklahoman accent), I need to have a word with you." I think after he said it, he realized he should have just kept quiet, becuase Elder Ricks says, "Huh, what?" and then Elder Rasmusson just said, "Oh, nothing, I was just kidding," and he starts walking out the door. Then Elder Ricks says, "Oh....is this about the air?" Elder Rasmusson took that as his cue to leave, and Elder Ricks mutters to himself, "If they would just stop serving us that food..." Again, I had to really fight to hold in my laughter. So now Elder Ricks has taken to getting up and spraying febreeze every time he lets one loose, which actually makes the smell even worse. (I'm realizing once again that this might have been a had to be there moment, but trust me, it was really funny. You should probably cut this one out of the big email though.)

One funny story. So last night, we watched Ephraim's Rescue, which was a unique experience with hundreds of missionaries. Any time something even semi-romantic happens, everyone makes a big deal out of it since nothing of the sort happens here. There is one part where the guy kind of snubs a girl, and this Elder behind us goes, "Now there' s a good elder," The later there is a part where two of the pioneers kiss, and the whole auditorium erupted in a mix of cheers, clapping, 'oooooohhhhhs', and then all over, you see missionaries holding up their white missionary handbooks yelling, "PAGE 33!!!!" It was pretty funny. 

All the Dutch Missionaries

Last thought, this week I've been studying weakness. It is crazy to me that I have never realized before how prominent this theme is in the scriptures. Now I can hardly read a chapter without seeing it somewhere. All of these prophets and heroes that I have grown up hearing about are just people. Not only that, but they are young, uneducated, imperfect people. There is not a single prophet I have read about yet that doesn't talk about their weakness, or their youth, or their lack of skill at something, or who doesn't make a mistake and get reprimanded by the Lord, etc. They all have weaknesses, but the Lord uses them to accomplish amazing things! The Lord intentionally calls the weak things of the earth, because those who are weak are ready to rely on the Lord. In Lehi's dream, the pride of the world is the greatest culprit in the downfall of men because the prideful do not rely on the Lord. We cannot do anything without the Lord, so he gives us weaknesses to remind us to rely on Him, so that we can find strength in Him. I have been made aware of a lot of weaknesses here, but I am so grateful for them, because they give me more opportunity to rely on the Lord, and I know that He can do great things through me if I am humble enough to turn my will over to Him. I'm grateful that He uses weak things like me to preach His gospel!

I love you all, and I miss you!

Veel liefde,

Zuster Cluff

Halfway There

Hallo mijn geliefde familie!!!!

I just love getting your emails. I don't really get homesick, but by Sunday I'm usually REALLY ready to hear from all of you, so I love love love reading what happened in your weeks! 

So, today marks just about the halfway point. This time three weeks from now I will be packing my bags and heading for the Netherlands! It is crazy, because in some ways it feels like I have been here my whole life, but it other ways it feels like I got here yesterday, and it is crazy to think that only 3 more weeks of Dutch lessons and I will be attempting to speak to real Nederlanders!

This week we got a new batch of Albanians in our zone! There is 20 of them, so our zone is almost 60 strong now! I love not being the newbie anymore, and I love getting to pass on the love, help, and support that everyone gave me when I first got here, so it has been a lot of fun working with them! It's a lot easier to see the gift of tongues at work in them, because they got here Wednesday and by Sunday were giving prayers totally in Albanian! That shocked me for a minute, but then I remembered that the same thing happened for us Dutch folks, but it seems a lot faster when you're watching someone else learn the language than when you're trying to do it yourself. This week we are getting four Turkish missionaries! We're excited for that!

We have been teaching our new investigator Monique, this week. She is a lot harder to get a read on than Gijs was, and Zuster Baker and I have struggled to know what to teach her, plus because of some weird lack of teacher situations going on here, we only got to teach her for like 10 minutes at a time. We struggled to really invite the Spirit and help her understand principles in only five minutes, but it has been good practice, and it has really helped me to focus in on what it is most important that I teach people about the gospel. We really prayed and worked on our lesson for tonight to know what she needed in her life, and we felt very guided to two specific principles that she needs in order to feel the Spirit and feel God's love. It is such a powerful experience for me every time that we receive direction like that. God knows His children, and He knows what they need at each moment. Even though it is role play, the person acting as "Monique" is a child of God and needs the gospel in her life, so I hope that the Spirit will teach her something that she needs through our lesson.

We had a really special experience this week. One of our sister training leaders, Hooper Nuver, called all of the sisters into her dorm Wednesday night and told us that she was being tested for cancer. She has been sick a lot of the time since we had been here, and we knew that she had had surgery to remove a growth before she came here, but she told us that they had been testing the growth for cancer for the last 6 weeks (the whole time she's been here), and she was supposed to be getting the results that week, but they hadn't come. She had been so happy and strong and selfless the whole time I've known her, that none of us guessed that she had been going through something so hard the whole time. She decided to tell us because she was struggling and asked us to fast for her and her family while they waited for the results. We all said a prayer together right there, and it was so powerful. It was such a powerful testament of the message we are all going out to share, because we did not know if the results would come back good or not, but we knew that it was in God's hands. We all had such faith that God would be with her and her family, and we knew that even if the worst happened, her family is eternal, and God has a plan for her and her family. We knew that, and we could pray and support her in her time of need because we have that knowledge. It really drove home to me why I am here. Some people face times like that and don't know that it will all be okay in the end. They don't know that they have loving Heavenly Father, and they don't know that their family can be eternal. The Spirit was so strong in that room. We fasted all the next day as a zone, and the happy ending to this story is that right as we were about to end our fast, she got her results and they were negative! So, of course we had a break the fast party in our dorms that night with all of the candy different mothers have sent us to celebrate!

So, this week we taught our first TRC, which is when real members from the general Provo area come to the MTC, so that we can practice teaching them in Nederlands! It is such a cool experience, because it is not role play! They are being themselves, and we get to help them to come further unto Christ! First we taught a returned missionary, and we had an amazing experience with her. The Spirit was so strong, and she really opened up to us. I could understand everything she said, and I could respond to her in semi-decent Dutch, and I felt like we truly helped her. Then we taught Michael. Michael is actually from the Netherlands, but his mom is from Suriname (where my companion is going), so he not only spoke legitimate Nederlands, but it was mixed in with in with a little bit of a Suriname dialect (I think.) All I could think of was that scene from The Best Two Years where the elder speaks to his first Dutch person and then says, "That's not the language they taught me at the MTC." It sounded like a different language than the one I've been studying. He spoke so fast, and I caught a few words, but really didn't know what he was saying half of the time, so that was fun! It made the three weeks I have left look like no time at all, because I am going to need all of it and more to learn this language. 

Last story. This week has been a little bit difficult, because I've been worried about learning the language fast enough, and it's been frustrating to me that I can't just teach people the gospel, becuase I can't say all of the things that I need to say. I've also been worried about leaving my family for so long, and the reality of what I am doing has just kind of hit me. At breakfast the other day, one of the Huns shared this thought that their teacher had shared with them: (I've edited it to make it applicable to my mission) "Before I came to this earth, I was with people that I loved, and there came a time when our Heavenly Father gave us our callings for our time here on earth. My call said that I would be born to a good family who loved me and who would raise me in the gospel of Jesus Christ and teach me to follow Him. Someone else got their call, and it said that they would be born to a family in the Netherlands. They would face trials, they would suffer, and they would not have the gospel of Jesus Christ. They read their call and were devastated, because they would not have the gospel. I turned to this person that I loved and said, 'I will find you. I will leave my home and all the things I have been given, and I will go to the Netherlands. I will learn Dutch, a not so easy language that I will probably never use again, so that I can preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to you in your own language. I will bring you the gospel, so that you can have happiness in your life.'" Obviously this is mostly speculation, but I do believe that there our people in my mission who are waiting for me. They are waiting for me to bring them the gospel that they so desperately need, and that they once chose. It made everything that I am doing seem entirely worth it, and it made the things I am giving up seem so trivial. I have been blessed with so much in my life, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to share those blessings with others. If that means learning Dutch and leaving my old life behind for 18 months, then I will gladly do it if it means that I can bring my fellow brothers and sisters to know their Savior.

I love you all! I think about you and pray for you every single day. Thank you for all that you have given me and for all the support you give me!

Veel liefde,

Zuster Cluff

Magic Tuesday and Mormon Rap Battles

Hallo mijn familie!!!

I loved all of your emails, and Dad, yours made me laugh a lot. I read my companion the part about running around saying "Neeeeiiigh," and she said, "No, we asked, but they wouldn't let us talk!" Also, I am a missionary now, and am far above such petty things as BBTan scores (although I doubt the validity of your claim) Just to answer some questions, my companion was one of the Boise State mascots, but not the one who went to football games since she was a freshman. My investigator was role play, but more on that later. The other 2 Dutch districts are going to my mission, and all of the zone's classrooms are right next to each other, and we do everything together, so I associate with the other Dutch and the Huns quite a bit (especially the sisters because we room either together or right next to each other). That's so cool that you got to meet a Belgian! I feel like I do a fair amount of spitting here, too, so I'm glad you got a small taste of it. I'm sure Landon did great, and he is really going to appreciate those short sleeve shirts in the MTC. That's what the Suriname elders (my district) wear, and I think they get great pleasure out of watching the other elders swelter during devotionals in their suit coats. I have seen Elder Whiting a couple times this week, and he says he's doing good. I kept trying to get him to tell me if he needed anything, but he seemed like he was adjusting pretty well. I will definitely keep BYU in my prayers, especially because my companion is a BYU hater, and it would really annoy her if we got into the Big 12. 

Mom, I'm glad you had fun in Utah. The scones sound way better than the food here. The first week I thought, "I don't know what Dad was talking about, this isn't that bad," but by the second week, I have become a big fan of the salad and fruit bars, because most everything else seems pretty gross. Umm.. as far as things I need, if you could find a BYU t-shirt or two, I forgot mine and would like some to wear for when my companion is wearing her Boise State stuff. Also, if you happen to see some sort of shower caddy somewhere, that would be very useful for the shower situation here, but mostly I'm good. Also, I have been really curious as to how girls camp went, so I would love a report. Oh, and I still need Evie's address, please. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know next week. Thank you for the cookies though! That was super sweet, and you became very popular with the sisters in my zone. Some of them were quite certain they were the best cookies they had ever had.

So, this week. It began with a little something called "Magic Tuesday," which I had heard about in a letter the old Dutch zusters left us, but I guess the elders didn't get the same kind of warning. Belgium is apparently very concerned about the health of those who they let into their country, so in order to get a visa, you have to have blood tests and stool tests. Like I said, I knew about this, but when the elders heard that all the Belgium/ Netherlands missionaries were going to the nurse, they didn't believe that it could possibly be for a stool test. One elder in particular was adamant that this was a big joke everyone was playing on him. The whole walk up there, he was saying, "That can't be a sound medical practice," "There's no way they would have us do that," and "I'm not pooping for anybody." Let me just say that when the nurse walked out with eight pooper scooper kits, his face was priceless. His eyes got big, his jaw dropped, and he just looked horrified. Then when the nurse started explaining the less than pleasant process, he just starts shaking his head, and then puts his head in his hands. This is making the rest of us laugh hysterically, and so the nurse turns right to him as she finishes the explanation of how once you collect the sample, you have to put it in a solution and mix it up until it becomes liquid, and he turned beet red. It was soooo funny! Also, they couldn't find my vein at the MTC, so I got to take a visit to the Student Health Center to get blood drawn. So, just a fun fact, manhandling your poop is quite the experience, and they make you place it in a vial that has the poison warning label, and then put that in a ziplock bag that has the hazardous waste symbols all over it, so it really makes you feel good about your poop. 

A highlight of the week was that Gijs committed to baptism! Unfortunately, we were "transferred" the next day, so we don't get to teach him any more. The person who was playing Gijs, though, is now one of our teachers, so we got to meet the real person. It was actually kind of sad. I know it was just role play, but I think the Lord allows it to be real in a strange way, because the person playing Gijs (Bruder Cooper), is a member, has been on a mission, etc., but when we were teaching Gijs, we got to watch him become converted. As we taught him, there was more and more light in his eyes. He visibly softened. It was such an incredible experience, and I grew to love him. So when I met the real person, it was like my investigator had died, because the person I had come to love and see truly grow closer to the Lord was no longer there. It's hard to explain, but I know that God's love for His children is real. I know that this gospel is the only way that we can return to Him, and I know that it has the power to change lives and change people. I can't wait until I can share it with true investigators and watch them come to love the Lord. We have a new investigator that we're meeting and teaching tonight, though. Her name is Monique. Teaching in Dutch is a lot easier now. I know a lot more of the language, but I'm also better at relying on the Spirit and worrying less about how good my Dutch is and more about inviting the Spirit to teach.

Hard at Work

What we all feel like at the end of the day

I love going to the temple

Saturday we worked on street contacts for about 15 minutes, which pretty much meant that we role played 3 minture, then 2 minute, then 1 mintue contacts with each other with no preparation. It is hard enough to teach the whole first discussion in 3 minutes in English, but it is way harder when you have to translate everything to Dutch in your head. Then our teacher was like, "Alright, let's go!" And we went outside and had to contact other missionaries sitting outside. It was kind of funny, because they didn't know Dutch, so it should have been super low pressure, but it was actually really nerve racking. I was surprised though that I could say mostly what I wanted to say with no preparation and under a time crunch. It made me feel better about how much Dutch I've learned, because sometimes it feels like you're making no progress, but sometimes (like that time) you look back and think, "It's been less than two weeks, and I can get invite the Spirit and teach gospel truths in another language!" The gift of tongues is real.

So, Sunday. It was pioneer day, and so for a special treat, they brought in the Nashville Tribute Band to sing and do a devotional instead of the regular Sunday devotional (they are a Mormon country band which is kind of weird, but kind of cool). It was better than I expected, and it was a fun change of pace. We had to get to choir rehearsal early, since we had to rehearse with the band, and we had to be really early if we wanted seats in the actual choir stands (the choir was about 2000 strong last night). So anyways, we spent a lot of time waiting in line for the doors to open, and so some of the missionaries in this massive line started singing hymns, and everyone joined in, and it was really fun, but then this missionary decided he should do a "gospel rap." It was kind of weird, but it was short, and I thought that was going to be that, but then this big Polynesian guy lifted up this scrawny, nerdy white guy and yelled "White guys can rap, too!" And then all of the Poly guys in their district kind of beat boxed, and this little white elder in the district rapped "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" and then all of the Polys were like, "Yeah, take that!" It was really funny, but now that I'm typing this I'm realizing it might have been a "had to be there" kind of moment. Oh, well. We don't get much humor or entertainment here, so the little things are way funnier than usual. 

A few quick spiritual thoughts from this week: This world is a scary place. People are hurting, people are suffering, people are dying. Everyone out there is facing some kind of problem, and all of their problems and needs are different, and so many of them don't know how to fix it. I am going out as a missionary, because I know how they can fix it. I can help. I carry the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is the answer to every problem. The gospel can heal all of those suffering, struggling people. There is not a problem in this world that gospel cannot fix. At home, it seemed nerve racking to share the gospel, because I didn't know if people would want it, and I didn't want them to feel like I was forcing it on them, or all sorts of other silly reasons. Now I realize how dumb that is. I am not a used car salesman. I am not offering them something that they might want. I am offering them the true doctrine of Jesus Christ, the only way to salvation. I am offering them the way to find happiness, the way to be healed, the way to face all of the horrible things in this world. Everyone needs that so desperately. I feel so blessed that I get to share that message of hope and joy and healing with the people in Belgium and the Netherlands. The way to salvation is so simple, and so doable, but so many people just don't know about it. What a privilege we have of being instruments in bringing them to know their Lord and Redeemer. 

I love and miss you all, and I pray for you every single day!

Feel lifde,

-Zuster Cluff

I MADE IT TO SUNDAY!

to jeffreycluff, me

Hallo mijn familie!!!

How are you all??? I hope you are having a great time up in Utah. I'm sorry that the downhill biking wasn't what you hoped it would be, but I hope you had fun anyways. I'm glad that Tyson enjoyed EFY, it really is an awesome experience. The MTC kind of feels like a big EFY, except that it's not in English, and the Elders and Sisters aren't allowed to touch, much less spend the whole week flirting, but the spiritual side is mostly the same. This week has been crazy! They say that the days are weeks and the weeks are days here, and that is definitely true! I get to the end of every day and feel like it has lasted an eternity, but at the same time it feels like my first day was yesterday. I'll warn you right now that this is probably going to be a long email, because everything feels new and cool and significant. Next week I'll probably have nothing to say except "same old same old."

First, business: I'm supposed to tell you that DearElder.com will let you type a letter that they will print and deliver me the same day, (and it's free!) so if you want to make your missionary's day, you can send me letters, so I don't have to wait till P-day to hear anything from you. Also, if you could please use that to send me Evie's address, that would be great, because I forgot it. And if you're planning on sending me stuff from home, if you could throw in a few family pictures, I forgot some and it would be greatly appreciated. I think that's all! 

So, first day: They rushed me through a bunch of different stations and then dropped me off in a classroom where they started speaking to me in Dutch. (My teachers aren't allowed to speak English, so you're kind of forced to learn fast.) That was a little intimidating, because they were trying to tell me to do stuff, and all I could think was "No habloespanol!" They were very kind and patient though, and I was surprised at how much I could understand by context and hand gestures and the Spirit. Within the hour, I could at least get the gist of everything they said, and it's a lot better know that I know actual vocabulary. It was crazy though, because my first day, I saw like six people that I knew from school, and a girl who stood up to say the prayer was going to Lubbock for her mission, and it turns out that I have actually met my companion before (more on that later), so I felt very at home, instead feeling like I was in this weird place with 2400 strangers! That was a huge blessing. We also got to sing a bunch of hymns at orientation that night, and singing hymns about being called to the Lord's work with hundreds of other missionaries is an incredibly powerful experience. The Spirit was so strong, and I felt like, "Hey, we're all in this together, I can do this!"

Zuster Cluff and Baker

So, my companion. Her name is Zuster Baker, and she is from Arizona. She spent the last year at Boise State though, and when my roommates and I went up to Idaho, we met up with a girl from our ward who was visiting Boise at the same time, and she brought some friends we didn't know with her, and one of them was Zuster Baker! Crazy world. But she is a mascot, she is very friendly and funny, and we get along pretty well. She is like twice my size, and she grabs the stuff for me from the top shelves in the laundry room, so we're a good team! She is headed to the Trinidad, Port of Spain mission, assigned to serve in the Suriname region. Actually, a girl didn't show up, so they had to move some things around, and I ended up in the Suriname district. There are three Dutch districts: 2 going to my mission, and 1 to Suriname, and I am the only black sheep in my district going to the Netherlands, but alles goede! I like my district a lot, and we have a lot of fun trying to learn Dutch together, so I'm glad (although I might be singing a different tune when I have to say good bye to them all in 6 weeks). My zone is amazing. Right now, it consists of Hungarian and Dutch missionaries, and all of the Huns were so great about making all of us newbie Dutch feel welcome. We've made lots of friends and had a lot of fun together!

So the second day was mostly studies, but we also taught our first investigator, named Gijs. Luckily, he is a golden investigator (they go easy on the foreign speaking missionaries since we don't know what anyone's saying). It is a little intimidating to teach in Dutch, because you're not always sure what you're saying, and even less so what he is saying, but the Spirit was there anyways, so all went well. We taught him again the next day, which was a little harder because he asked questions that we didn't anticipate, so we had to completely improv, but I think we got our point across, even if it was in broken Dutch. I've now learned to pray and testify in Dutch, and I know a fair amount of vocabulary, but I definitely have a lot to learn. The gutteral sounds aren't as bad as I expected, but by the end of the day, my throat is pretty sore, because my weak American throat is not used to the "g's" that the Dutch think should be put in every single word. Really though, the gift of tongues is real. It takes a lot more faith than I realized to open your mouth even when you don't know what you're saying, but I am learning so much faster than I would be able to on my own. (Although part of that is the fact that I would never study 10 hours a day on my own). 

Sunday was definitely the highlight of my week. Everyone says that if you can make to Sunday, you've made it through the hardest part (at least of the MTC). I don't know if that's true, but I did make it to Sunday! Church was interesting, because everyone has to prepare a talk on the topic of the week, and then you find out if you're speaking when they announce the speakers, so as my companion said, it's kind of like an LDS Hunger Games kind of thing. Plus, your prepared talk has to be in your mission language, so we got to hear Hungarian talks that I didn't understand a word of, but it was fun to just listen and feel the Spirit. That night, our whole zone almost decided to join the choir, but apparently 1500 other missionaries had the same thought, so I got to sing in the biggest choir I have ever seen. It was incredible to hear that many missionaries all singing together. Then it was time for devotional. Usually on Sunday nights, you go to devotional and then pick a "movie" to go watch (and by movie, I mean general authority address, or church history film, or stuff like that). Everyone told the newbies to watch Character of Christ because it is life changing, but the mission president decided that since so many of the missionaries were new this week, we should watch it for devotional. If you have not watched Character of Christ by David A. Bednar, you absoultely should, and if you've seen it, you should watch it again because it is incredible. I learned a lot, but the main thing I learned is that when the natural man would look inward and focus on himself, Christ looks outward. He gave a lot of examples of how, especially in times of adversity, Christ turns outward in love and service. Especially as a missionary, I really need to focus on that. Then, the lights came on and the closing hymn started playing. All of a sudden, everyone started standing, and I thought we were just standing for the hymn, but then the music stopped and the mission president got up and announced that David A. Bednar and his wife had dropped by for a surprise visit (apparently they do that 1-2 times a year), and he was going to speak to us. He then held a question and answer session that was absolutely incredible. Weights I didn't even realize I'd been carrying were suddenly lifted. One of the main things I learned was that when I am constantly worrying about if I'm doing good enough, or have the Spirit with me always, or am communicating effectively in the language, I am turning inward. It may not be selfish, but it is self-centered, so instead of worrying if I am doing things right, I need to just focus on serving those around me and turning outward in the character of Christ. The other thing I loved was that he said, "It is a miracle that anyone joins the church with 18 or 19 year old men and women as the forefront of teaching the doctrine of Christ." People are not going to join or not join the church because of something that I say. They will join because of the Spirit that they feel and the fact that what we teach is truth. If they don't join, that is because they are children of God who have been endowed with agency. I am giving myself too much credit if I think that it has anything to do with me. My job is to become someone that carries the Spirit, so that others can feel it when I teach. That was a relief, because it relived a lot of my worries about not really being able to communicate well in Dutch. All in all, it was an incredible experience (and Dad, you should be jealous because I got to see your favorite person, and he was in typical frank and direct Bednar character last night). 

Anyways, this is the Lord's work. I have felt that so strongly since being here. I am in the right place, and I am going to Belgium and the Netherlands for a reason. I'm grateful to be here even though I miss all of you. I pray for you every day. I promise I'll send a shorter email next week.

Lots of love, tot ziens!

-Zuster Cluff

Roommates

Our District

Still Alive

Hoe gaat het? We aren't allowed to read your emails till p-day, so sorry if I'm not answering your questions, but my P-day is Monday, so I'll tell you a lot more then. For now, I'm alive, it's going good, I like my companion, and my address is:

Zuster Emily Cluff

AUG23 BEL-NETH

2005 N 900 E Unit 6

Provo UT 84602

Lots of love, tot ziens!

-Zuster Cluff

Emily's Adventures Begin

Emily gave a wonderful farewell talk before leaving to the MTC.  She was set apart as a missionary by her dad the morning before she left for the MTC.  Her Grandpa and Grandma Yardley were able to be there.  We drove from Beaver up to Provo.  We had lunch together and then went to the MTC to drop Emily off.  It was hard to say goodbye.  We will miss Emily tremendously, but we know she will be serving the Lord and we are excited for all of her adventures.

Tyson went to EFY on Monday so they said goodbye a few days earlier