Haarlem--Week #4 (mission week #27)

First off, the thing I said about getting sick and then starting to feel better? I was wrong. I'm quite sick now. It sucks. I actually had to stay in Saturday night. It was not a pleasant experience. It has also made sleeping very difficult. I'm going to try and take it very easy today. Don't worry about me though, people! I'm safer right now than any other place I could be while sick.

Christmas was pretty cool. We had fun appointments with members. I actually ended up having Indonesian for Christmas dinner. They don't really have a tradition for it. I think I already mentioned this, but they also have a second Christmas. It's the day after the first one, and NO ONE knows why. I would guess it's just to have another day when they don't have to do anything. But we took a big group of missionaries and went to carol in the city center. While we did that we would have a few missionaries that contacted around those that were singing. I actually met a husband and wife from Austin. I was actually with Elder Hunter at the time, which was perfect, because he's a country singer, and actually apparently helped Carrie Underwood write some song. It made us the perfect team to talk to them and we gave them a Book of Mormon.

Yep, it snowed on Saturday. All day. However, NONE of it stayed. It was the weirdest thing. The air was constantly filled with snow, but there was no build up!

Well, I'm feeling done, so I'm going to get off the computer now.

I love you all,

Elder Shaw

Fijne Kerstdagen?

Okay, interesting stuff about the week-- They are having this huge radio charity event in the city center and it's ALWAYS packed full of music and people and hustle and bustle and blah blah blah blah blah blah. I'm a little impatient at the moment, just because I feel like I have so much to do and am struggling to complete it all. I've never been great dealing with the logistics behind things, which means that OF COURSE I have a lot of opportunities to deal with them out here. Goodness! Also, our teaching pool has been taking a little bit of a beating this week, so we need to fix that!

Dutch people say either their equivalent of Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays pretty frequently. It's this weird thing where everyone else needs to be politically correct, except the Dutch about Dutch things. Very strange. I've already spoken about most of the traditions. Not sure what else there is to say. If you want to know a little more about Haarlem, go watch "The Best Two Years." They do some contacting in front of a station there. Let me just say I spend a lot of time working via that station. There's actually a member that works in a store there and gives us totally full- priced hot chocolate (;D) when she's there. It's a very fun place.

I have plenty of pictures.

I got out of the shower one day to see Elder Silva putting this up in a doorway. I stared at him for a second, then he said, "Can we pretend you didn't see this?"

Our Christmas tree.

It snowed food in Haarlem. Therefore, I put on my winter best and decided to make a food angel.

This is Sister Johanson. I got her to chug Vla-- a popular Dutch pudding-like treat.

Silva, did you know?

He got a little too into it.

That's it for this week! Merry Christmas everyone!

Elder Santa

Geef de schuld aan het Boogie (Blame it on the Boogie)

Oh my goodness, I'm not sure what to say about this week, so much has happened. Goodness.

Okay, transfers were on Wednesday. That was fun; a little bit stressful-- but s'all Gucci.

Elder Silva is hilarious. He's a very talented singer, and a little ball of good times. EVERYTHING makes him trunky, and it's so funny. I'm pretty sure he does it on purpose, but it's funny just the same. 

Haarlem is a very cool place. Very different atmosphere from Rotterdam; I like it a lot. I have a few stories from the week.

Saturday we had a bunch of missionaries sleep over so that they could all make it to stake conference on time the next day. It was a nice night, but the morning after became HELL. First, we didn't know how to get there, so Elder Silva and I had to get up early to come look up how. We got back, then it happened. See first picture. Because of this we missed our bus and it became a terrible morning of trying to get there on time.

I am now suit-less, and don't have time to buy one today. SUCKKKKKKK. WE actually have an appointment today (yeah, I know), and then we have to wait for someone to come look at our washer, because that broke before I even got here. So, no P-day for us today, really, just email and grocery shopping. Also I'm feeling pretty ill today. Surprisingly, despite all this, I'm happy! How weird right?

Other stuff-- met a very cool investigator. We went bowling with him and the Elder's quorum on....... Friday? I think. I can never remember days out here. He's a very funny guy; I have a picture of him later. He sounds kind of like a mix between George Carlin and Bobcat Goldthwait. But he's a little Indian guy born in the Netherlands. I like him.

Okay, funny Dutch thing. The word "hoor"-- it is pronouned like "or" but with a very slight aspirated H. It hard to explain the meaning, but it's something kind of between calling someone buddy, and telling them thank you. And............. They will throw it at the end of almost every phrase. That's an exaggeration, but they do use it a lot. Because of that, in my last week Elder South and I did try to put it at the end of EVERY dutch phrase. People complimented our Dutch a lot! How dumb is that?

Well, here are pictures.

Dinu, the investigator, and us

The Silvanator

The street of my people. (We're gonna knock the crap out of it.)

Artsy transfer photo

The remnants of that sleep over

I sick today.

Love you all!

Elder Shaw

Tot de volgende keer, Roffa.

Good morning, good morning, It´s great to say hello.........

I´m getting transferred! To Haarlem! It´s right next to Amsterdam. I´ll be with an Elder from Portugal on his second transfer. You have absolutely no idea how excited and nervous I am. It will be difficult, but people say it´s their dream city, so I´m very lucky.

I don´t have packages. Hopefully I get them on the 16th. We´ll see! The work went much better this week! We found a ton of potentials that I´ll be leaving for Elder South and his new greenie. Yep, he´s training. I´m really going to miss him, but he´s gonna be a good trainer. Yep, Elder Shaw is feeling good. His Dutch has improved, he is getting in better shape, and had success this week! How cool is that? I´m pretty jazzed this morning I guess.

Dealing with the cold is a matter of less biking, and more layers. I will wear thermals, a white shirt, sweater, scarf, and jacket. That generally is enough for your body, so long as you also have gloves. The wind here is insane. It can push through so many layers like they´re fishing nets. But it isn´t too bad.... yet.

I have a few pictures!

This was four in the afternoon on Friday. So weird.

Someone lost a bird.

Look how European I look! It´s hilarious right? Don´t worry, I don´t dress like this every day.

We got an advent calender.

Elder South is sleepy on the train.

Elder South got the swag on.

Pretty lights. Rotterdam is pretty at night

Good bye everybody! 'Til next week!

Elder Shaw

IT`S FREEZING

It´s hard to know what to say about this week. It was hard. Most of our appointments canceled, so we ended up doing a lot of contacting. Which yielded....... nothing. But, I do have a few stories and some pictures to go along with them.

Thanksgiving was a lesson on the wonders of the internet. The family that fed us got all of the recipes online, and it ended up being a very good meal. That was a good experience. 

Baptisms. Nearest is in January. We´ll see what happens.

Okay, picaturs. (No, that isn´t Dutch)

Okay! This handsome devil is Raymond. He was a less active member who has recently started coming back to church. We meet with him a decent amount.

Well! He got us presents! Hahahaha. We were very surprised. He got us chocolate letters and hand knitted us scarves--which I am currently wearing. This is us with the stuff. 

This is the fine Dutch art of achteropping. (literal translation: after-on-ing or behind-on-ing) I took this very cool picture out with the sisters one night. I was on the back of a bike with Elder South when I took this picture. 

I made a cake!

Then I covered it with peanut butter and sprinkles.