Week 31! Happy Valentines from the Red Light District!

Goeie Middag Jullie!
This week has been an adventure! We had transfers this Wednesday and after we sent everyone on their way, my new companion Elder McDivitt and I got to work! He is from the same MTC group as me, so we are both pretty new. He is super obedient and hard-working, so I am really excited to work with him! He also speaks Spanish, which is a definite requirement for how many Spanish people we have left from the super transfer I had with Elder Bartolini.

I had a super cool experience yesterday when we were meeting with Said and his family (the recently baptized 11-year-old). Elder McDivitt was speaking to his parents in Spanish and I was overwhelmed by his faith and the Spirit. Elder McDivitt had a couple years of Spanish in High School and spoke to a few Mexicans in California, but that was all of his experience before his mission. He marked the 2nd out of 5 options in fluency on his language, which is that he can speak and understand a little bit. He was then called to the Belgium/Netherlands Mission Spanish speaking, and he recieved no training in Spanish in the MTC. Then he went another 6 months on his mission with no Spanish speaking, and the moment he got to Amsterdam he just jumped into the pool of Spanish investigators and members without hesitating. It has really been a miracle, and I had to hold back some tears during our lesson last night.

We had a bonfire right before Elder Bartolini left. We burned one of his old shirts, a couple photos of his ex girlfriend, and an "apostate book," (Twilight in Dutch, by Stephanie Meyers) :)

It snowed a ton! 3 inches, which is crazy for the Netherlands. I couldn't keep my eyes open because of the snow.

Snow in Weesp!

Crazy beautiful view with the windmill in the background!

Yet another :)

I got a super cool surprise in church! We always have at least a few American tourists in church, and a couple weeks ago a couple from Kaysville came. I got the chance to talk to them, and they were super nice! They asked if they could bring me anything from home since he would be coming back in a couple weeks, but I told them thanks but I didn't really need anything. This Sunday he brought this Valentines package from home with homemade mint brownies!!! You could say I was pretty excited... :)

I love you all!

Love,
Elder Thornton