Hey Everyone,
Wow Amsterdam!... I'm not even sure where to begin! There are so many things I want to talk about and of course so little time. The plane flight over was really great. I met this awesome girl named Laurence Bernard from Belgium and I gave her a Book of Mormon. She actually began to read it on the plane.
When we (missionaries) got to Brussels, the first thing we did was take a nap. After that, we went to the dedication site and talked to people in the "Grand Platz" in Brussels. Following we went back to the mission home to find out our assignments. Amsterdam! I absolutely love it here. On the train I saw a friend from Northwestern - Go figure. Eric Andreas was in the class behind William and I saw him randomly on the train to Amsterdam. Funny thing was I was thinking about him randomly the night before. Too much to be coincidental haha. Ok, back to Amsterdam. I love it here. It is incredible! It does not have a lot of older architecture but it is more modern. It is the most diverse place I have ever seen! Personally I have talked to people from all over the world. It's encouraged that we pick up a few phrases in different languages to talk to people. We have talked more in English here than in Dutch so far it feels like. This last Saturday was Queensday. Holy cow! Probably the craziest thing I have ever witnessed. It was like Mardi Gras on steriods. Everyone was wearing orange (national color) and there was a lot of drinking and smoking marijuana. Just madness everywhere. 1 million extra people from outside the country came to help the Nederlanders celebrate. We did meet a lot of very awesome people however. We got quite a few referrals and appointments set up for next week.
The ward is really cool and very diverse as well. Each class had it's own English translator because English is the only common language among the many members from Ghana, Nigeria, Brazil, Suriname, you name it. The people here are really fun. They are very straight forward in their thoughts and words and are kind hearted. My companion is awesome! He's taking very good care of me. His name is Elder Robinson from Sandy, Utah. His Dutch is incredible and his accent his superb. He's a great example and this is his last transfer. We live with Assistants to the President in a nice apartment. We are all new to the Amsterdam district so we are all trying to figure out the city. The transportation system here is great. I love taking the buses everywhere. My address is
Jesse Owenshof 38
1034 WT Amsterdam
Netherlands
My P day is every Monday from 11 to 6. My travel experiences so far have been great. I love it here. I love the language. I love the diversity. I'm not exactly sure how I pick up mail but I can get regular mail to this address. Elder Robinson thinks I'll be here for a few transfers as well due to us all being new here and he'll be going home next transfer. The mission president is awesome. He and Sister Brubaker are so very nice!
It's been a hectic week to get settled in but this week should be easier now knowing the way things work. Thanks so much for the pictures that you have sent. And I heard the big news about Osama Bin Laden and the big tornados, wow. A lot going on right now. My Dutch is coming along pretty well. I bore my testimony in church the other day in Dutch and they said I did well! I love this work! I apologize to anybody that I haven't written to. We have a million and one things that we have totake care of today since it's a new area to all of us. Hope all is well. Dag!
God Zegend,
ELder Schulte
No comments:
Post a Comment