jordan 12.14.09

ok wow holy week. Man . well the first miracle started when I fit everything in my suitcase. I had 3 suitcases a packpack and a side bag plus a bike. All on a 3 to 4 hour train ride with transferring trains and everything. Kindof a nightmare.
So I met my new comp in Utrecht. Where we were with another elder who was by himself for a couple days so we worked in a three some. My comps name is elder douglass. He is from Washington. Just like my old comp. hes an interesting kid. His dutch is better than my last comps so that is good. Ive been working really hard on being nice to him. Hes not the most obedient missionary so ill see what I can do.
K so I got into assen wed night it is in a flat. We live on the fifth floor. No mom there is not a luxsurios (bad spelling) vaulted celieng. Its twice as small as my last apt. the view is nice though. Not very much room to put all your stuff though. But the first night we had an appointment with a kid named ramone he is 22 and a drug dealer that is the nicest kid. I think he has stopped selling. And wants his life to be happy. He already is happy and enthusiastic but he is looking for more. That night we set a baptismal date with him for jan 2.
Elder kopishka the area pres told our mission pres he wants all the elders that have progressing investigators to give them a baptismal date before the years end. There are 160 progressing investigators. They need those numbers it sounds like. They want 300 baptisms before the end of the year. They are at around 267 ish. Well after our appointment with ramone we slept in assen then cince we were in a three some the other elder that we were with works in Groningen up north. So in the morning we went up there. Wow that city is amazing. We ate lunch at there ward mission leaders house. Strait real dutch people. Then we biked arouned Groningen all day we only had 2 bikes so we do what is called achter op. it is where one person rides on the back of the bike on the rack. It is super common every where you go in Netherlands. You always see people doing it. So we rode around like that all day. The city is full of cool art and rivers and boats. It kindof reminds me of an old pirate town. There are a lot of cool modern buildings and stores. So after we rode around passing out invitations to less active members houses all day. We went to the church where they had a young mens and young womans activity with dinner and a lesson. Groningen has a big ward. And a lot of young woman and men.
The next day we pretty much did the same thing we had dinner at this old couples house that live in Winschotel right next to the German border. If felt like I was eating at the Queen of Englands house se was so proper and spoke with a English accent. Relly nice people. On the way there in the train there was drug dogs and under cover cops. They busted a couple different people with drugs. They try to take them across into germany I guess.
Ok I got to hurry.
After we worked in Groningen we were taken home by a senior couple and on the way we stopped at the sisters in Groningen. We went into there apartment. It was a weird experience. They live in luxury man I tell ya. Ok we got back to assen man its small. We went to eat at this members house. Oh boy. They are kindof a mentally handicapped couple but super nice. The food was a little sketchy though man. They gave me a little Bartje figurine. And made me read the story about him. And gave me some assen stickers. They have really bad st st st st st stutter problems. Man it was hard figuring out what they say. Everybody in assen speakes really nasaly. Kindof red neck.
So every morning I wake up to roosters at about 4 in the morning and cant go back to sleep. There is a big farm right below us in the back. With sheep a mini horseand some other little guys.
Ok so we went to church on Sunday and its in an office building. Tiny tiny about the size of our living room. They share the building with another company. Church was interesting. I find out the interesting character that we ate at has an identical twin. So in sacrament meeting the only one sitting above what I guess you can call the stand was the bishop. I don’t think he has counselors. There was about 19 people in the whole sacrament. It was so weird. That’s including all the kids which consisted about a third. I gave my testimony. There are a couple cool members though.
Ok so about the telephone call on Christmas I think Im going to have you call me at 9 o clock at night here. Which will mean you call me at 1 o clock in the afternoon. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx that’s my # call me! If you don’t end up calling I will call you I guess. Any questions? Write me. I never got the package that was going to make me pee my pants. Did you send it to assen? K g2g love you all, Jordan