Institute is Once Again in Session

                During the summer break (mostly August) we didn’t have institute class.  It was so great to have it begin again in September!

We have dinner and institute for the Utrecht Ward YSA’s at our house on Wednesday’s.  We are so happy to have Abbie back from England!  Our usual students are Abbie, Noel, Romy, Sander and Julia.   We met a YSA girl in Veenendaal when we were driving the missionaries around to look up referrals.  She now comes to our Wednesday class.  We pick her up and take her back to the Dreibergen train station so it is reasonable for her to come.  Chiara is a great addition to our class.  Abbie and Noel bike 35-40 mins. to get to our house.  Julia, Sander and Romy have an hour or more bus/train/bike ride to come.  It is a real sacrifice for them to come.  They inspire us!   

At YSA camp in August we met kids from Lelystad.  We discovered they don’t have institute : (  Since we live about the same distance from Lelystad as from Rotterdam or Den Bosch, we decided to see if we could help.  We went to church in Lelystad one Sunday in August and met the Branch President.  It was decided we could teach institute there on Thursdays.  Yea!!!  So, we do dessert and lessons on Thursdays.  This is an active group.  Some come from Almere and The Hague.  We’ve met a less active girl through the missionaries and she has started coming.  We are loving Lelystad!

Our group in Den Bosch has lost some kids.  Timo has left on a mission.  (Wonderful!)  Jeremy has gone to Germany to study, and Stephanie is in the USA.  To our regulars,  Daniel, Esmee’ and Amber, we have added a YW from the ward, Marie-Louise, and Stephanie is still with us via Facetime!  Hooray for technology!  She can’t have dinner with us but we’re grateful to have her for the lesson : )

We always invite the missionaries.  Their enthusiasm adds strength and depth to our classes. 

It's great to have institute again.  Spending the evening with these young adults is the highlight of our mission.  No matter how tired we are, how bad the traffic is, or how late it is, we always arrive home feeling invigorated and so happy.  I’m not sure who is blessed the most from these evenings, but I think we are!