Amsterdam is really awesome. And I've got great companions. But lately, I suck getting up at 6:30 every morning and I often sacrifice my exercise time for a bit more sleep. But now I've asked one of the APs to force me to go running with him every morning. So I'm being obedient and not lazy. And hopefully getting my face slimmer. We'll see how that goes.
In other news, Elder Sosa leaves Wednesday morning so Elder Larson and I will take him to the Mission Office in Leiden and say adieu. He's a super awesome guy and I learned a lot from him already, so it's sad that he's gotta go, but that's how it works! Elder Larson is great as well though and I'm sure we're gonna have a good time and get some really good work done. Elder Sosa told me an interesting story the other day though. He said that he was one of the missionaries that got interviewed by our area 70 a while back and the area 70 told him he's glad that his family wasn't coming to pick him up because he had done that when he was on a mission and regretted it ever since. I've heard from a lot of people now that it's a lot better to have the experience of going back home first and everything. Then saving a ton of money up and returning in a year or however long it takes. So I'd still like to do that.... But I guess it's still up for debate...
So the missionary work in Hengelo was all mostly door knocking, a tiny tiny bit of street contacting, and like one or two referrals my whole time there. The work in Amsterdam is all mainly street contacting, with three or so referrals every week, and a little bit of door knocking. So I've lost my touch quite a bit at door knocking, but I'm having a lot of fun street contacting. Especially because our whole mission is working on a new way of doing it. Every missionary in the world has thesemormon.org cards that are really easy to hand out, but most of us here usually think of them as last resorts if you can't get an appointment with someone or give them a book of mormon. Now we've all been asked to start every contact with these cards, even on the door sometimes. But it makes it really chill at the beginning rather than coming up with some question or something like that. Then you can branch off of the card and try and get an appointment or give them a book of mormon. Sometimes people will just take the card and keep walking, but at least they have the card rather than us just getting shut down completely. There's also this recent convert down in Belgium who's a marketing professional and he's helped start up some mormon.org advertising campaigns down there and he's worked with all of the stakes in now having personalized facebook websites for the stakes and personalized QR codes for the specific area on each mormon.orgcard. So we're definitely moving more and more towards getting people on the church websites online so that they can easily get information, come to know actual church standards better, etc, etc. It's super cool and the whole mission is seeing a ton of success from it. We're also trying to work with all of the members in creating mormon.org profiles so that people can read the testimonies of actual Dutch people online. So the referrals are starting to come in more, contacting is easier and more chill, and the members are helping out more with missionary work through online means.
Next: Yaaaayyyyyyy Elder Johnson has a normal computer to work with! Okay so I made a Dropbox account so that I don't have to individually send a bunch of pictures through email. So you guys can just log on to dropbox.com into my account and look at the photos or you can make your own accounts and I can share them with you. I think. I'll send my info to mom and dad really quick after this though and then you guys can ask them for it if you want.
I don't really got any good stories right now... We got one investigator who's absolutely golden. She and her husband are from Sri Lanka, her husband has been a member for a long time now, but now she's investigating and she is absolutely a golden investigator. She loves the gospel and it makes a lot of sense to her. Super super cool. The Spirit is definitely helping and preparing her. She's from Sri Lanka though and does that little Indian head bobble thing! It's so freakin funny sometimes and makes me think of Carly all the time. Remember when she used to do that at Astro Burger? Oh crap.... Now I want Astro Burger.... Looks like we'll be going to get lunch soon =D
Maika, a friend of mine, came to Amsterdam a week ago! Super freakin weird. I didn't see her, but she didn't know at the time that I was actually serving in this city. That would have been way weird if she came to church! She just emailed me and told me that this week though. Funny stuff.
We'll hopefully start going to see some museums and stuff next P Day. We just haven't done it yet because Elder Sosa doesn't have the money to and do that stuff. Plus, he used to live here when he was younger and he's already been here for a long time. So all of this stuff isn't that special to him anymore of course. Things are going well! Can't think of much else to say right now... Love you guys and have a great week! Tot dan!
In other news, Elder Sosa leaves Wednesday morning so Elder Larson and I will take him to the Mission Office in Leiden and say adieu. He's a super awesome guy and I learned a lot from him already, so it's sad that he's gotta go, but that's how it works! Elder Larson is great as well though and I'm sure we're gonna have a good time and get some really good work done. Elder Sosa told me an interesting story the other day though. He said that he was one of the missionaries that got interviewed by our area 70 a while back and the area 70 told him he's glad that his family wasn't coming to pick him up because he had done that when he was on a mission and regretted it ever since. I've heard from a lot of people now that it's a lot better to have the experience of going back home first and everything. Then saving a ton of money up and returning in a year or however long it takes. So I'd still like to do that.... But I guess it's still up for debate...
So the missionary work in Hengelo was all mostly door knocking, a tiny tiny bit of street contacting, and like one or two referrals my whole time there. The work in Amsterdam is all mainly street contacting, with three or so referrals every week, and a little bit of door knocking. So I've lost my touch quite a bit at door knocking, but I'm having a lot of fun street contacting. Especially because our whole mission is working on a new way of doing it. Every missionary in the world has thesemormon.org cards that are really easy to hand out, but most of us here usually think of them as last resorts if you can't get an appointment with someone or give them a book of mormon. Now we've all been asked to start every contact with these cards, even on the door sometimes. But it makes it really chill at the beginning rather than coming up with some question or something like that. Then you can branch off of the card and try and get an appointment or give them a book of mormon. Sometimes people will just take the card and keep walking, but at least they have the card rather than us just getting shut down completely. There's also this recent convert down in Belgium who's a marketing professional and he's helped start up some mormon.org advertising campaigns down there and he's worked with all of the stakes in now having personalized facebook websites for the stakes and personalized QR codes for the specific area on each mormon.orgcard. So we're definitely moving more and more towards getting people on the church websites online so that they can easily get information, come to know actual church standards better, etc, etc. It's super cool and the whole mission is seeing a ton of success from it. We're also trying to work with all of the members in creating mormon.org profiles so that people can read the testimonies of actual Dutch people online. So the referrals are starting to come in more, contacting is easier and more chill, and the members are helping out more with missionary work through online means.
Next: Yaaaayyyyyyy Elder Johnson has a normal computer to work with! Okay so I made a Dropbox account so that I don't have to individually send a bunch of pictures through email. So you guys can just log on to dropbox.com into my account and look at the photos or you can make your own accounts and I can share them with you. I think. I'll send my info to mom and dad really quick after this though and then you guys can ask them for it if you want.
I don't really got any good stories right now... We got one investigator who's absolutely golden. She and her husband are from Sri Lanka, her husband has been a member for a long time now, but now she's investigating and she is absolutely a golden investigator. She loves the gospel and it makes a lot of sense to her. Super super cool. The Spirit is definitely helping and preparing her. She's from Sri Lanka though and does that little Indian head bobble thing! It's so freakin funny sometimes and makes me think of Carly all the time. Remember when she used to do that at Astro Burger? Oh crap.... Now I want Astro Burger.... Looks like we'll be going to get lunch soon =D
Maika, a friend of mine, came to Amsterdam a week ago! Super freakin weird. I didn't see her, but she didn't know at the time that I was actually serving in this city. That would have been way weird if she came to church! She just emailed me and told me that this week though. Funny stuff.
We'll hopefully start going to see some museums and stuff next P Day. We just haven't done it yet because Elder Sosa doesn't have the money to and do that stuff. Plus, he used to live here when he was younger and he's already been here for a long time. So all of this stuff isn't that special to him anymore of course. Things are going well! Can't think of much else to say right now... Love you guys and have a great week! Tot dan!