Well I'm Here (Email's from June 19, 2017)

So I made it here.  the flight was a little long and a tad boring but I am in the Netherlands now!  I am in the city Rotterdam.  It is a bit of a poorer city but it for sure has nicer parts as well.  My companion is Elder Lowder from Morgan Utah, he has been out for three months and actually just barely finished getting trained haha.  Together we speak some Dutch.  He speaks way more than me.  But when we need it, it is definitely there so the gift of tongues is real. We have a super good area here. There are about 13 or so investigators we have that are all promising and four of them actually have baptism dates for july 15! it is super exciting. They all seem really excited for it and  like super cool people. We have met so many different people from just about any country you can think of. Lots of them speak dutch, lots of them dont haha. It is a very humbling experience and I am so greatful to be here. It seems like everytime I pray for help with finding  people something happens that lifts my spirits just enough to want to keep going. It is super cool. Anyways I hope all is good.

Peace, Elder Harding

Elder Harding's Letter to his mom. I basically ask a ton of questions in hopes of getting more than two lines from him.  He copy's and pastes my letter and answers the questions.

So I am here haha. It is quite an interesting experience. Definiently harder than I thought it would be, but it is good still. It´ll probably get better as time goes haha. But I actually didn´t get your package so It sounds like I will get it at zone conference in like 2 weeks or so.

How is your new companion? Tell me all about him. He looks like a nice guy. So My companion is super nice, He is from Morgan Utah and he actually just barely finished getting trained himself haha, he has been here three months so our language skills are interesting to say the least. But he is good, We get a long well and work hard together so that is way nice.

How is your area? Looks like a big city. Is it hard to get around? Do you feel lost? Is it pretty? So our area is actually huge, We mostly take the metro to get around and go to places so I haven´t actually biked yet. I do feel pretty lost most of the time but not so much anymore, I am getting better at knowing where we are and stuff. No way I could get around without a companion that knows the area though. 

Do you have any investigators? So funny story, We actually have tons of investigators, like 13 good investigators and maybe 7 or so are progressing and then 4 have a baptismal date! So That is way sick. If all goes well we could have four baptisms on the 15 of july. 
If so tell me all about them. I haven´t met with all of them yet but I have with some so:

Hawa, She is from africa on some little Island and she was baptised into some other christian church about 20 years ago, she is probably 50 or so. She believes that Joseph smith is a prophet and the book of mormon is true but doesn´t know why she needs to be rebaptised. We tried to explain it to her last time but she didn´t quite get it (which is probably our fault) but we will work on that next lesson, Also she doesn´t speak dutch so the lesson is in ]English haha. Kind of lame but nice because I can contribute more.

Quira, She is about 30 or so maybe younger and is a single mom with a 14 year old boy and a 3 year old boy. She is from Cabo Verde and is on baptism date spo that is awesome. She is our best investigator really she comes to church every sunday and follows up on all of the commitments and stuff. She does speak dutch so it´s cool to have that haha ummm Oh also her 14 year old son may be baptised as well which would be sick. We have tons more but I dont have tons of time

What kinds of things are you doing to find investigators? Not chasing people down in a park I hope. We have Done bell ups which is where you ring the doorbell and they answer on a little speaker thing on the  bottom of the apartment, It honestly is not effective at all, But then we knock doors which is better and have had some good conversations with people from that. Other people just shut the door haha. Then we do street contacting where you just stop people as they walk by and ask them about their life and tie it into church somehow, I like this the most but It is the scariest to do.

How is the Dutch? I want the details here.
Dutch is coming, I am very limited in what I can say,especially on non gospel related stuff but oh well. I can understand most of what is said to me usually. I have had some lessons where I understand everything and then some where I get nothing. It really depends on the accent of the people. Some of them I can barely understand in englaish. But it is coming along ever so surely
How are your living arrangements?

How is the food? The food is amazing. Everything even just store bought stuff tastes so much better than in america and is so much fresher. I havent tried Harring yet but I probably will today or something. But ya the food here is good.

What about money? Is your card working ok? Do we need to set anything up? Grandma Deb and Fran both said they were going to send money for your birthday.  Through your account. I think it works I actually haven´t even bought anything yet. I will after this though we have to go do some shopping and get bike helmets and locks and stuff, But that is ver6y nice of them

How was the mission president and his wife? They are super cool, way better than our MTC branch president. President bunnel and his wife are super nice and caring people. It is cool to seethat they have just such a genuine care for the missionaries

Oh my heart is full of pride and joy as I think about you over there!!

Tell me at least one spiritual experience from the week
In gospel principles we had 3 investigators there and they were all asking reallly good questions and stuff and the spirit was there super strong
Tell me anything else that was interesting from your week.

Uhhh well there is a lot haha,  yesterday we went to check on one of our investigators and he opens the door in just a towel haha, turns out we interuppted him and his gf having sex... so ya haha. Also I had some crazy guy on the Metro (its like a subway) just stare at me for like five minutes and I just stared back at him. It was weird, then he showed us his drug phone that was taped to his leg so the cops wouldn´t find it and then he showed us an ID he stole from some muslim person. So ya. Oh also we were doing contacting at these apartments and this couple was screaming at each other and slapping each other and stuff. It was really sad actually. Plus tons of other stuff that happens like that every day. 

I am glad to hear everything was ok with girls camp and that dad and abbie are doing good, It is good she had such a good experience at EFY It seems to have helped her a lot. 

Love you guys, Elder Harding

Letter from his Mission President  

Dear Parents of Elder Harding,

We are very delighted to receive your son in the Belgium/Netherlands Mission!
He arrived safely on Tuesday the 13th of June with a smile, excitement, eagerness, and a little jet lagged.
Thanks for preparing him to serve the Lord as he will perform a great work while serving the wonderful people here. We will do all we can to love him as our own as he fulfills the call to be a valiant servant.
His companion is Elder Lowder from Utah.  They will be serving in the city of Rotterdam (north), Netherlands.
I am sending some pictures of the first two days in the land. Enjoy!