Mission Week 44, Alkmaar Week 5

Hi.
First of all, it was really good to talk to all of you, as well. It was really nice to talk to my family, as well as talk to people in English who don't either have accents or Dutch-corrupted English.
This last week has been kind of slow, missionary-work-wise. Everybody is either on vacation, sick, "busy," or has just dropped off the face of the planet. Everybody, that is, except for Jeroen. He's a seventeen-year-old who let us in when we were at his door a few weeks ago. I'm sure I've already told you all about our contact with him--how he thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses--but I don't think I've told you about our actual lessons with him. We went over there last week and got to know him a little bit better. He's trying to get into the police academy, and I personally think he has a good chance. We taught him the Restoration, and he seemed to understand it all pretty well. We were over there right before we came to the library today, and we taught him the Plan of Salvation, using the amazing pamphlets to help make it simple. He's been reading in the Book of Mormon, but the translation uses a lot of complicated, Old-Dutch words, and so he has a hard time understanding it. We went through the title page with Harry clarifying any word that a missionary who'd been in the MTC for three weeks wouldn't understand. When we were reading out of the pamphlet, he understood it all very quickly, and some of the things made sense because of his knowledge of the Bible. Other things we needed to clarify, because of his previous meeting with the Jehovah's Witnesses. But he seemed to understand it all pretty well.
When we were wrapping up our lesson, Jeroen's parents walked in, and we got to meet them a little bit. We explained to his mother who we are (his dad was in the kitchen) and she seemed very appreciative of the clarification (she's uncomfortable around Jehovah's Witnesses). His parents are actually religious, and we've been able to meet them, and they really are supportive. It's a really welcome change. He even summarizes the lessons for his parents.
Last week, Harry and I went all the way out to Medemblik from Alkmaar (look on Google Maps) to contact a referral we'd received from the missionaries in Lelystad. They had told us that she was a former investigator who the ward said would really appreciate a Joy to the World DVD. So we went on Thursday and dropped one in her mailbox (she wasn't home; thankfully, she lives next to the busstation). When we were doing our nightly planning, the assistants called me, saying that they'd gotten a call from her and she's super-positive. I'm going to call her tonight and schedule an appointment. It'll be worth the two hour round-trip commute.
Other than that, nothing much has really happened. We had the branch Christmas party on Friday, with a lot of members from Den Helder coming. We had to leave before it was over, because it was already five minutes after nine. But it was good, and the Spirit was there.
I love you all. The Church is true. I love celebrating Christmas because, without it (and the reason we celebrate it), everything would be for nothing.