San Mateo

view from my apartment

Here I am in this library in San Mateo and it is kind of awesome! But it kind of sucks at the same time. This has been an interesting week!

Let me rewind to the beginning of last week. Monday evening had a great lesson with Tracy, who is now a member as she was baptized and then confirmed the next day to receive the Holy Ghost! Too bad I was not able to see her baptism because I left to this area on Tuesday morning!

Tracy's baptism

planner cover

Well this side of the Bay is a lot more compact and it feels a lot more modern :-) but I do miss so many people who I gained friendships with in my last areas. But I guess I can do that here too!  

view

We are working a lot to bring less active members back to church and thus far we may have found a few who will come back :-) We have a ward directory, a car, and a GPS. That is all missionaries need and since we cover like 3 cities and have over 900 members in this ward the missionaries in the past divided the area up into 9 sections. So we look and go to an area like area 5 and then we look at the directory and see who else lives in that same area and then we travel there. We knocked on Sharins door like 5 times in the night time - just as we were about to walk away she opened the door and after a few minutes talking invited her to come to church to which she said that she has been thinking about that for a few weeks now. So we will call her and see if we can go and help her return.

Even though change is difficult at times I do know that this is the Lord work and I see his Hand in the work everyday and in all the details. I honestly feel a little bit of His love for all of us as we go out and try to bring people into this fold - not to increase our numbers - but to share what we know and add to what they already know to be true. I know that this is Christ's church and that he used Joseph Smith to restore it. I know that if we follow God's commandments that we will feel closer to Him and feel peace and joy in our lives. If we follow Him we will be happy.

Love, Elder Kloosterboer

watching movie in the church

our beds