I hear the ocean is quite nice this time of year

hello, This week was pretty interesting. Week had quite a few ups and downs. So, on tuesday we had an amazing lesson with this couple from india and they were asking all of the right questions and felt the spirit so strongly ( or at least I did) and then later that night we got a really solid referral. So tuesday was great. Then wednesday we had two lessons planned. both of them went not so great. One was a word of wisdom lesson with a chain smoker who has been making tons of progress but does not think he should quit smoking if we are still allowed to take prescription drugs because they are both bad for us. The other was with a newer investigator, he has a crazy story but anyways he doesn't really like dutch people. Our joint teach happened to be dutch and he kept talking bad about people from Rotterdam the whole lesson. We didn't realize our investigator had such a strong distaste for Rotterdam people. But ya that lesson did not go to great. Then on Thursday Elder Dial got a package from his gf back home so he was all happy about that, then later that same day we had to use the computers and he checked his email only to see that she'd broken up with him that same day. That was rough... Also directly after we had a lesson with our guy on baptismal date. Well he said his parents in china were super against it and he didn't want to worry them a ton... so for the moment he isn't on date. We will work with him though. We did have stake conference this week though. It was actually really cool. It's fun to see so many members there and stuff. Plus the talks were all really good. It is a little different than stake conference in Utah, Dutch people are very direct haha. It's kind of funny sometimes. Also yesterday we got caught in the pouring rain in the middle of the city with just our bikes haha. We got soaked. but it was all good. Anyways haha that was this week. Oh also last monday we made mussels haha, we saw them on sale for 3 euros for 2 kilos. So we thought why not. I had no idea how to cook them haha but we just put some garlic and oil and butter and other spices. Also a non alcoholic beer. Then we boiled them for a tim until they all opened. It actually turned out pretty good. I was surprised at how good they were haha. Also neither of us got sick or died. so that was exciting haha. Also one day this week we jsut randomly saw this bright green parrot looking bird flying around by our house. so that was cool. Itried to get a picture of it but idk if you can really tell. anyways until next week

Sincerly, Elder Harding 

Heeft Uw wat tijd om iets kort te lezen?

So this week has been good. So have all of them. We have finally started pick have the work pick up and ended up¨teaching a lot this week which was super nice. I love it whne we can get some good teaching in. The transfer ended this week and it looks like I´ll be staying in Rotterdam again. That means I´ll do 6 months in my first city. Pretty crazy. So funny story. We have been doing this cool thing lately where we go around with a page from the book of mormon and ask people to read a little bit then answer a few questions. It works really well... if the person will actually read it haha. We had one guy he other day and we asked him if he had a minute or two to read a short piece out of a book. All he did was look at us and yell "Bibliotheek" then walk away. That means library ps. But it was just funny to see some of the responses people give us other than no time haha. Also there was a Europe conference this last sunday from Elder Ballard. I don´t know if anyone of you guys saw it but it was really good. He talked a lot about miracles. Miracles have not ceased. it is so cool that our heavenly father blesses us with Miracles still in this day. So ya, Miracles still happen to us. Anyways I hope you all had a good week

Hasta luego, Elder Harding​​​​​​​​ 

de politie klinkt zoals

Hola, So we had an encounter with our neighbor below us yesterday haha, It did not go great. So apparently the missionaries in our apartment about a year ago were super loud or something and since then our neighbors have hated the missionaries. So they have came and yelled at us a couple times for random things. (We do actually try to be quiet though) But yesterday morning we were walking down to go to church and the guy was standing there and just starts yelling at us that we can´t wake up at 6.30 on sunday because everyone in nederland has to be chill and rellaxed on sunday (He didn´t say that exactly but I don´t know how to translate rustig properly) So we told him it was a rule that as missionaries we wake up at that time everyday and he said he was going to call the police haha, I don´t know what he was going to tell them, but I told him he could call the police and we would glady talk to them, then he just gave us a frustrated look and said we were devils. But ya fun fun. We are pretty quiet and honestly not even home that much so I´m not sure what we are doing that he hears so much. But anyways haha other than that it was a fairly normal week. We did a lot of teaching though so that was nice. We have been trying to incorporate the ward a lot more with our investigators so we have had a lot more joint teaches. It really helps so much to have members there. The investigators actually see that we have normal people in our church too, not just weird American kids with sup par dutch. Also something that has really impressed me this week is how much the lord answers prayers. I have always known that but sometimes I just forget to make use of it. Even just for little stuff if we pray about it and do our part we will get an answer. Also here are some other pictures. I don´t know if any of you have seen bike racks like these before but they are all over here and it amazes me how many bikes there are in this country. This one is a little empty but normally they are packed full, also we found this crazy slide that looks like you´d die if you went down it you would die. I don´t know if you can really tell from the picture though.  

tot volgende maandag,

Elder Harding

Conference and Conference again

So this week was a bit strange because we had general conference and zone conference almost back to back. So our weekend was very busy. Other than that this week was really good. It was interesting watching conference from a missionary perspective. I feel like I was able to take a lot more from it than normal so that was cool. We didn´t have tons of success this week but it happens. Some weeks are good and some are not. it´s kind of like Elder Uchtdorfs talk about light. Sometimes we are in a shadow and just need to wait and be patient. Anyways sorry for the short email this week.

Sincerely, Elder Harding

Here are some pics of me by erassmuss bridge and a turtle we say the other day

The Mystery of Jacob 4

Well, The sun finally came out again, this week we actually had super nice weather. Which was good because we were outside a lot. This week was good, the last few weeks it´s felt like every single lesson we had was falling through, but this week we had about 60 percent or so go through. So that was super nice. It always reminds me that we do actually help people sometimes and not just annoy them by knocking on their doors. We did have a pretty stereotypical cool missionary experience that I will share though. So we had a lesson, but the guy wasn´t home. Our backup plan was to knock this street close by. Well it was a really big street. We ended up knocking the one street for almost 3 hours. After about 30-40 people saying no and the other 60 or so people not being home, someone talked to us! It was kind of weird at first, we could tell there was a pretty big party or something that was going to happen there in a little bit but we decided to knock it anyways. First thing this younger girl answers the door (probably around our age) and she just says oh no we don´t need to talk to you guys, then she half shuts the door and we could hear someone else asking who it was and the girl just says oh it´s the Jehovahs witnesses. So I said "oh no, actually we are the mormons" and the other lady ,she turned out to be the girls mom, opened the door again and was actually super interested. She said she was raised Catholic but never really had a personal testimony of it. She said she has been searching for something that she feels is true though. so we have an appointment with her this week, hopefully all goes well! It was just a really cool experience for me about how we just have to endure sometimes. She was literally the very last door on a street about a third of a mile long and everyone who had answered before said no. If we had decided that it wasn´t worth it to continue we never would have had success. So that was cool. Another thing I have been trying to figure out lately is Jacob 4. A couple weeks ago our bishop told us to go study that chapter, he said "there´s something going on there I haven´t quite been able to figure out". So the past week Elder Dial and I have spent a lot of time reading Jacob 4 and the chapters surrounding it. Definitely interesting, but I still have no clue what the bishop was hinting at haha. It probably just takes someone smarter than me to figure it out. But that has been our big joke this week whenever we don´t know something. The answer is in Jacob 4. Anyways hope everyone is having a good life and such. Sorry I have been terrible at taking pictures lately. Maybe next week

Peace out, Elder Harding

Did I Mention It Rains Here A Lot!

So last week i think I said something about the rain. Well just so everyone knows it hasn't stopped. I have gotten caught in the rain more times in the past 2 weeks than probably my whole life before. It's always funny when we go knock and peoples doors and it's pouring rain, they give us some pretty strange looks haha, some of them even talk to us. This week was busy though. I went on exchanges with the zone leaders for 2 days, so that means Elder Dial went to another area and one of the zone leaders came here for 48 hours. It was good. It helped me realize how much more I have to learn and how much I can improve. Especilly in my language skills haha. I have gotten to the point where I can explain most things I want to say and be understood, but i still say things totally wrong. Then on Friday Elder Dial went to Brussels for some paper work stuff so I got to work with another random missionary for a day. That was pretty fun. We actually found someone too so that was sweet. There are always people out there who are ready to hear the gospel. Even if they don't know it yet haha. Sorry this is kind of short, Also I forgot to take pictures this week. Oh well.

Sincerely Elder Harding

it rains here, a lot

So this week was very rainy, I think I have seen the sun maybe 5 times for a brief moment since tuesday. Other than that it has been raining fairly hard pretty much the whole time. So that has been fun haha. I also am training now so I have been 'in charge'' everyday. That has been pretty fun. A little stressfull sometimes but it's all good. My new companion is pertty cool. he is from idaho, so still a mormon state, But so far so good haha. He said it's hard to understand the people here because in Belgium they talk so differently, So I have to pay really close attention to make sure I understand everything haha. it has helped my dutch a lot though. Also Elder Lowder is gone so I have to translate for one of our investigators who doesn't speak dutch during the gospel principles class, That was pretty cool. It is super hard. But ya this week was good. Just more teaching people and trying to help them come closer to christ, you know, the usual missionary stuff haha. I sucked at taking pictures but I do have a couple, these are from the past little while that I havent been able to send. anyways till next week

Elder harding