So hopefully that answers your guys questions about all of that? I'm way excited to call you guys!! And also very excited to open my presents =D I did indeed get the package from the mission office on the 20th, so no problemo there. And I'm super happy about a few things about it so far actually =D First off, I kept thinking, "Oh crap, I forgot to ask for a chocolate orange... That's a tradition... Bummer..." Then there it was! Dank je wel! Also, The newspapers you used to help cushion the presents were quite enlightening =) some good articles in there to read during a bit of my free time. Shows you how shut off from the world I am when I un-crumble English newspapers for a bit of a break from the crazy Dutch newspapers. And yes, we are allowed to read those. They help with the language A LOT and give us things to talk about with people. Also, word is that there's concern about me and girls on my mission. Ha ha ha =D You need not worry at all, for some missionaries that has actually been a problem, but I'm not like them at all. Elder Nielsen has been flirting it up lately with a couple girls in our ward, so that freaked us all out a bit. We had a kind of joking (but not really joking) light-hearted (for the most part) intervention with him as a result! Funny stuff. It's gonna be super weird dropping off Elder Huff this week, the day after Christmas (2nd day of Christmas here, and also his birthday). Me and him have been super close and had tons of freakin fun together, so it's weird that now I won't see him for at least two years (if ever). But yeah, he's a super fun companion to have and it's been fun and awesome for our missionary work, being in a trio. But now it's all gonna change on Thursday. Elder Nielsen's a cool guy though and we've been having fun with each other, so it'll just be back to missionary life as usual!
Anyways, missionaries (elders and sisters both) talk about the opposite gender a ton actually. It's pretty funny sometimes, but of course, we all keep it within control and don't let it affect our missionary work. It's just fun to talk about at nights and stuff. All things in moderation, right? But nobody's gotta worry about me, promise =) So we texted that one flirtatious girl though, which took a llloooonnnnng time for them to convince me to do it, but she said her parents didn't want her to have anything to do with faith. DUMB!! Taking away their child's agency.... Psh. Let 'em make their own decisions and at least learn! But then the rest of her text was about her feeling bad, wishing us success, and we could text her if we used this free texting app (whatsapp). But we don't have smartphones, so psych! Hopefully she'll get the gospel in the future.
Oh here's something funny that happened which our Zone Leaders told me about the other day. When I went to zone conference that other week, we all shook hands with President Robinson and stuff. Anyways, it was just a quick hi with him and not anything else. Then, I guess he told the zone leaders that I seemed a lot more mature than when he first met me. No idea what that really means, that's all they said that he said. I don't feel like I've really changed at all. We all say that a perfect missionary is just an improved version of themselves, but they're still themselves. So maybe I've improved a bit in this short time? No idea. Or maybe it's just that I seemed pretty immature coming from the MTC and then arriving in a totally new and different land. Or maybe it's the new hair. That's it.
So I went to Belgium for my first time on the 20th. CRAZY STUFF!!!! That country's messed up. Wait fast forward for a second, talking to this young guy last night, he said that all Nederlanders think Belgium is really dumb and they think the Netherlands should just split Belgium with France (which makes a lot of sense actually). And I've heard that from time to time before, but now I understand what they all mean. Belgium is insane. The good thing about it is that the architecture is absolutely amazing and so freakin cool!!! Can't describe how amazing it is, hopefully my pictures are good enough to help out with that. But it's amazing. Plus I went there during Christmas time =) So there was a few Christmas stuff around the cities and whatnot. Anyways, Belgium waffles truly are so delicious. So lekker. Not to make you guys jealous, but.... They are. I didn't get a chance to buy any of their chocolate though. Hopefully another time. Okay, here's why they're insane: First off, they have hardly any traffic laws at all!!!!!!!!! There are literally round-a-bouts with 5 or so different lanes, but without any lane lines. So you all just drive in, in this crazy circle, move in and out between each other, and pull out of the chaos when you need to. It's ridiculous. There roads are just horribly designed, so horribly designed.... Next, you can pee anywhere there. Kind of cool sometimes, I've heard. But yeah, they just find a spot kind of out of the way, on the street or wherever, and pee. They also have this famous little statue of Monica Pis. He's this little boy who's peeing as a water fountain. But there's all of these people crowded around every day, laughing, giggling, and taking pictures with professional cameras. Getting the angles and whatnot. Tourists..... You pay for your food and everything, after you've eaten it, etc, etc. Just very weird and different. So many weird things... But amazing architecture.
Okay missionary work: We had a pretty solid week last week. Not overly great or anything, but just pretty solid. Two of our investigators know that the Church is true, but are nervous and stuff about committing to baptism, no matter how we help. So hopefully that'll change with them this week. Some other investigators are fizzling out or aren't really interested, don't wanna talk much, etc. That's hard, but at least they work with us a bit. But here's the miracle for this week. Last week, Elder Huff and I found this one girl around 20 who said she's really busy with school, but her friend is been talking to her about faith and so she's kind of interested in it now. Anyways, Elder Nielsen, Elder Torniainen (a greeny, we were on exchanges), and I go and have our first lesson with her this week. The lesson's going pretty well, I'm leading it, she's understanding everything really openly, and then I ask Torniainen to tell us how he got his testimony of the Book of Mormon. He wasn't saying much, so I wanted to get him involved, but asking him to do that, was absolutely inspiration from the Spirit. He gave this awesome testimony, really bringing the Spirit in, then Elder Nielsen said a few words after, cementing the Spirit and opening her more up. And then.... I knew I had to try and give her a baptism invitation. I haven't had an investigator as solid as this, at all yet, so we'd only given a few baptism invations on the first lesson before (plenty in later lessons), but none of them have panned out. Now, I just felt super strong though that I had to invite her to be baptized, which is really quite scary to do sometimes, especially on a first lesson. Anyways, the Spirit gave me a ton of courage and helped me figure out how to explain it for her. We set baptismal dates as goals to help the investigator along, so I explained all that to her, and asked her if we could set a goal to be baptized during the first week of February. All of a sudden she's like, "Yeah! Let me hurry and go get my planner to make sure that works out." OH MY GOODNESS THE CHURCH IS TRUE AND WE'RE AMAZING AND THE SPIRIT'S AMAZING AND MY COMPANION'S ARE AMAZING AND THE GOSPEL IS AMAZING!!!!! We're all like quietly freaking out and fist bumping and everything as soon as she leaves the room, going crazy! She comes back, we decide on the 1st of February, talk about a bit more, and boom. It's done. Our first baptismal date. Oh PS, she is studying American English in her college right now, so I also felt prompted to offer to help her practice her English and whatnot. She got way excited about that and it totally cemented her excitement over the Church and everything. So cool.
And now, I make an end of these writings. Unto my people, I would exhort you to pray unto thy God for the truth over these things. Just kidding, but seriously. As a district, we all were invited to read Moroni 10:3-5 and test Moroni's promise. We all already have testimonies, but it's always good to give Heavenly Father that chance to remind you of the truthfulness of these things. Great experience to do every once in a while, as long as you pray with a sincere heart. I love you all a ton and hope everything's going well! Can't wait to talk on Christmas! To everyone else who I won't be talking to on Christmas, Merry Christmas!! Bye byes and stuff
Anyways, missionaries (elders and sisters both) talk about the opposite gender a ton actually. It's pretty funny sometimes, but of course, we all keep it within control and don't let it affect our missionary work. It's just fun to talk about at nights and stuff. All things in moderation, right? But nobody's gotta worry about me, promise =) So we texted that one flirtatious girl though, which took a llloooonnnnng time for them to convince me to do it, but she said her parents didn't want her to have anything to do with faith. DUMB!! Taking away their child's agency.... Psh. Let 'em make their own decisions and at least learn! But then the rest of her text was about her feeling bad, wishing us success, and we could text her if we used this free texting app (whatsapp). But we don't have smartphones, so psych! Hopefully she'll get the gospel in the future.
Oh here's something funny that happened which our Zone Leaders told me about the other day. When I went to zone conference that other week, we all shook hands with President Robinson and stuff. Anyways, it was just a quick hi with him and not anything else. Then, I guess he told the zone leaders that I seemed a lot more mature than when he first met me. No idea what that really means, that's all they said that he said. I don't feel like I've really changed at all. We all say that a perfect missionary is just an improved version of themselves, but they're still themselves. So maybe I've improved a bit in this short time? No idea. Or maybe it's just that I seemed pretty immature coming from the MTC and then arriving in a totally new and different land. Or maybe it's the new hair. That's it.
So I went to Belgium for my first time on the 20th. CRAZY STUFF!!!! That country's messed up. Wait fast forward for a second, talking to this young guy last night, he said that all Nederlanders think Belgium is really dumb and they think the Netherlands should just split Belgium with France (which makes a lot of sense actually). And I've heard that from time to time before, but now I understand what they all mean. Belgium is insane. The good thing about it is that the architecture is absolutely amazing and so freakin cool!!! Can't describe how amazing it is, hopefully my pictures are good enough to help out with that. But it's amazing. Plus I went there during Christmas time =) So there was a few Christmas stuff around the cities and whatnot. Anyways, Belgium waffles truly are so delicious. So lekker. Not to make you guys jealous, but.... They are. I didn't get a chance to buy any of their chocolate though. Hopefully another time. Okay, here's why they're insane: First off, they have hardly any traffic laws at all!!!!!!!!! There are literally round-a-bouts with 5 or so different lanes, but without any lane lines. So you all just drive in, in this crazy circle, move in and out between each other, and pull out of the chaos when you need to. It's ridiculous. There roads are just horribly designed, so horribly designed.... Next, you can pee anywhere there. Kind of cool sometimes, I've heard. But yeah, they just find a spot kind of out of the way, on the street or wherever, and pee. They also have this famous little statue of Monica Pis. He's this little boy who's peeing as a water fountain. But there's all of these people crowded around every day, laughing, giggling, and taking pictures with professional cameras. Getting the angles and whatnot. Tourists..... You pay for your food and everything, after you've eaten it, etc, etc. Just very weird and different. So many weird things... But amazing architecture.
Okay missionary work: We had a pretty solid week last week. Not overly great or anything, but just pretty solid. Two of our investigators know that the Church is true, but are nervous and stuff about committing to baptism, no matter how we help. So hopefully that'll change with them this week. Some other investigators are fizzling out or aren't really interested, don't wanna talk much, etc. That's hard, but at least they work with us a bit. But here's the miracle for this week. Last week, Elder Huff and I found this one girl around 20 who said she's really busy with school, but her friend is been talking to her about faith and so she's kind of interested in it now. Anyways, Elder Nielsen, Elder Torniainen (a greeny, we were on exchanges), and I go and have our first lesson with her this week. The lesson's going pretty well, I'm leading it, she's understanding everything really openly, and then I ask Torniainen to tell us how he got his testimony of the Book of Mormon. He wasn't saying much, so I wanted to get him involved, but asking him to do that, was absolutely inspiration from the Spirit. He gave this awesome testimony, really bringing the Spirit in, then Elder Nielsen said a few words after, cementing the Spirit and opening her more up. And then.... I knew I had to try and give her a baptism invitation. I haven't had an investigator as solid as this, at all yet, so we'd only given a few baptism invations on the first lesson before (plenty in later lessons), but none of them have panned out. Now, I just felt super strong though that I had to invite her to be baptized, which is really quite scary to do sometimes, especially on a first lesson. Anyways, the Spirit gave me a ton of courage and helped me figure out how to explain it for her. We set baptismal dates as goals to help the investigator along, so I explained all that to her, and asked her if we could set a goal to be baptized during the first week of February. All of a sudden she's like, "Yeah! Let me hurry and go get my planner to make sure that works out." OH MY GOODNESS THE CHURCH IS TRUE AND WE'RE AMAZING AND THE SPIRIT'S AMAZING AND MY COMPANION'S ARE AMAZING AND THE GOSPEL IS AMAZING!!!!! We're all like quietly freaking out and fist bumping and everything as soon as she leaves the room, going crazy! She comes back, we decide on the 1st of February, talk about a bit more, and boom. It's done. Our first baptismal date. Oh PS, she is studying American English in her college right now, so I also felt prompted to offer to help her practice her English and whatnot. She got way excited about that and it totally cemented her excitement over the Church and everything. So cool.
And now, I make an end of these writings. Unto my people, I would exhort you to pray unto thy God for the truth over these things. Just kidding, but seriously. As a district, we all were invited to read Moroni 10:3-5 and test Moroni's promise. We all already have testimonies, but it's always good to give Heavenly Father that chance to remind you of the truthfulness of these things. Great experience to do every once in a while, as long as you pray with a sincere heart. I love you all a ton and hope everything's going well! Can't wait to talk on Christmas! To everyone else who I won't be talking to on Christmas, Merry Christmas!! Bye byes and stuff