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