Temples, Tulips and Trunkiness

"We have missionaries too...but ya know what? They mostly always all come from Utah!! But I know that place is very catholic so they send everyone!" - 9yr old from Canada A family from Canada was here visiting, the father served his mission here 20 years ago. And i had the privilege of translating sacrament meeting for them. This young man was cracking me up! Well by the subject of this email you can tell it has been a good week. Now in all honesty this week was what we like to call a "Freaky Week". Way too many things did not go as planned and the time just flew by! To start the week we had Temple Conference... it was definitely the highlight of my week. Ya know I have been going pretty strong this transfer... Just feeling so strong and just kept going and working really hard. It was all talk that I was going home at the end of this 7 weeks. We got to the temple and it was magnificent... we could not have asked for a more beautiful day. Walk inside and just hit with an indescribable sense of peace. By the end of our time in the temple, my face was hurting from smiling so much. There were only 6 sisters in our group and I was the last one, all the sisters had gone forward. Sister Van Der Putt welcomed me forward and we were alone for a moment. She began speaking to me, in Dutch, and the spirit swept me off my feet and the water works began. It hit me that this is it... I am going home. I am going to miss this place... this language! The temple was a very sweet experience and I felt so strongly that the Lord and Heavenly Father are so proud of me. They accept my mission. As I sat in the Celestial room, sitting in the corner of the room praying, I felt arms around me and heard a gentle voice telling me: "You are a success. You have done all that I have sent you here to do. Well done my daughter..." We got to go to Keukenhof... breathtakingly beautiful! Love the flowers and windmills... Nederland. I love it here. This place has become such a sacred land for me. I would never trade these 18 months for anything, or anywhere else. Now for the trunkiness... It has hit me that I am going home.. so trying to finish strong and a victor. Everything has clicked that I am going home.. everything! My body is slowing down; my brain and attention is decreasing; my patience is gone quickly; my boots are degrading 10x as fast! It is just time to go home... but then the thought of going home is crazy and nerve racking. but I am excited to see you all! Okay leaving it at that! Enjoy the picture overload!! -- Zuster Young