Bruno Mars did the halftime show? Ridiculous. That's amazing that the Seahawks demolished the Broncos!! I'm pretty bummed out that I missed all of those great superbowl commercials though. Bummer. But all is well because..... Viola is getting baptized this Saturday!! It's pretty dang official and I think she's definitely ready! It's been announced in church and now my companion and I just gotta talk to her about throwing together a program for it. Super cool! My first baptism. We're gonna try and see if she'll let this member baptize her because we think it would be great for her and for him. So hopefully that works out. She's the small Phillipino lady by the way. In other news, I went to Belgium on Friday for the whole day (it's quite the journey to Leiden and then to Brussels and back), ate some delicious food, and then found out that the legality people were actually on vacation this week. So we went back home with nothing and learned that we would be returning this next Friday. So that'll be good......... Kinda sucks, but Belgium's awesome and it's funny to be with other missionaries.
So time has been flying by. I'm almost done with my third transfer. Like two weeks left. And then I'll probably be in a new city with a new companion. There's a slight chance I could stay here for a fourth. But it's slim. I'm really getting a lot closer to the ward and my companion though. Investigators are going pretty well. I'm still loving the area. Bla bla bla, etc. So it'll be super weird to leave this city when I do. We've been trying to figure out where I might go (transfer monkeying). It's possible that I may go down to one of the cities in Belgium. Which I'm super freaked out about. They're just totally different countries and I'm scared to have to deal with the Flemish, culture, and all of the weird little things like sorting your trash. It's just a ton different. But it would humble me a lot probably and the cities there are beautiful. So it has its ups and downs. That's for sure. Anyways, we'll see in a couple weeks (or in 8 weeks).
Sometimes my mind wanders though and I imagine coming home (all missionaries do). And I've talked a lot with other missionaries about it, and I don't really want you guys to pick me up here.... It's up to you though. But here's my reasoning: I really want the whole experience of coming down that escalator and seeing you all and then chilling at home, get released as a missionary, and be able to see my friends and enjoy America. And then later come back hopefully. If you guys pick me up, then there's this awkward phase where you show up at the mission home, ring the door bell, and I get wide eyes and go and open up the door and hug you guys. But I have to stay a missionary while we're here in the Netherlands. And then actually coming home to the States doesn't feel quite as awesome as coming back to your family as well. But it would be a lot less expensive if you guys picked me up. Considering the plane tickets. But also fyi, everything here is ridiculously expensive. Travel between everywhere is going to be expensive, attractions, food, shopping, etc. So there's also all of that to think about... I don't know.
Funny side culture thing: A lot of the Dutch people have construction jobs, because there's constantly construction going on. So the foreigners often actually work at restaurants and stuff. But what's funny is that I swear the Dutch construction workers have their own annoying music like (pardon me, not trying to be rude, just observant!) the Mexicans have their own annoying music! It's so funny! Remember how Mom gets so annoyed by that music? It's like that here too. Just random annoying crappy Dutch music. It's not popular either, I swear I only hear the construction workers listening to it and occasionally singing to it! It was way funny though because we traveled to Oldenzaal the other day and there's this big construction project going on outside of the train station, and they were playing their annoying music SOOOO LOUD!!!! We could hear it even like half a mile away. It was ridiculous. And so annoying. Hilarious though when you see the workers singing along to it and everything. Also, I don't remember if I told you this before. But whenever we do service or see workers, they take so many breaks. They take breaks like every hour and go get food and stuff and talk for a half hour and then go back to work for another hour. It's annoying sometimes when we wanna just keep working and get the job done!! ha ha but whatevs...
I'm gonna probably go get another haircut today. I'm excited to get that straightedge blade again =D I think it's super cool. A couple weeks ago, I started a new segment called, "5 Minutes with Elder Johnson." So whenever I'm with the zone leaders, my district leader, sometimes with a group of other missionaries, etc. I welcome everybody to 5 Minutes with Elder Johnson and begin with a deep gospel question. The funny thing about it is that we call it 5 minutes, but it always ends up turning into a 20 or 30 minute discussion. And I'm still working on my theme song for it, it changes every time. Anyways, topics in the past have been the Ark of the Covenant, Urim and Thummim, the Adam/God Theory, Eternity and Worlds, the Lost Books, etc. It's pretty fun =D Of course it's all mainly speculation and our personal opinions, but it's fun to try and figure things out and come up with our own theories about things.
So I'm getting to know Jehovah's Witnesses pretty well. They're everywhere. We've gotten their 2011 yearbook, What Does the Bible Really Teach?, and some other pamphlets and stuff. Absolutely ridiculous. They literally contradict themselves on some of the things they say. And when we bring up points like how they've removed scriptures from their translation of the Bible, and how the Bible explicitly says never to do that. Then they ignore you and go on to their next ridiculous point. I try to understand every religion's point of views and where they're coming from, but they really just don't understand fully...... Daarom ben ik so echt dankbaar voor de profeet en voor het juiste gezag van God die is weer op de aarde. That's why I'm so grateful for the prophet and for the correct authority of God that is on the Earth again. Plus we have the fulness of the Gospel. People are always like, "You guys need to focus only on the Bible." Well you need to read 2 Nephi 29. Just kidding, we don't usually rip them on that, but I love that scripture. The Book of Mormon is so great. I've got an even better appreciation for it now that I've been studying the Bible and the Book of Mormon every day. I love them both, particularly the whole story of David in the Bible and other stuff. But Joseph Smith totally knew what he was talking about: http://www.lds.org/ensign/1984/06/the-most-correct-book?lang=eng That is a super good article.
Okay love you guys, thanks for all of the emails, and keep updating me on how everything is going! Everything's interesting, trust me. Ehhhh, maybe I should be careful about saying that =) Just kidding. Okay byyyyyeeeeeee
So time has been flying by. I'm almost done with my third transfer. Like two weeks left. And then I'll probably be in a new city with a new companion. There's a slight chance I could stay here for a fourth. But it's slim. I'm really getting a lot closer to the ward and my companion though. Investigators are going pretty well. I'm still loving the area. Bla bla bla, etc. So it'll be super weird to leave this city when I do. We've been trying to figure out where I might go (transfer monkeying). It's possible that I may go down to one of the cities in Belgium. Which I'm super freaked out about. They're just totally different countries and I'm scared to have to deal with the Flemish, culture, and all of the weird little things like sorting your trash. It's just a ton different. But it would humble me a lot probably and the cities there are beautiful. So it has its ups and downs. That's for sure. Anyways, we'll see in a couple weeks (or in 8 weeks).
Sometimes my mind wanders though and I imagine coming home (all missionaries do). And I've talked a lot with other missionaries about it, and I don't really want you guys to pick me up here.... It's up to you though. But here's my reasoning: I really want the whole experience of coming down that escalator and seeing you all and then chilling at home, get released as a missionary, and be able to see my friends and enjoy America. And then later come back hopefully. If you guys pick me up, then there's this awkward phase where you show up at the mission home, ring the door bell, and I get wide eyes and go and open up the door and hug you guys. But I have to stay a missionary while we're here in the Netherlands. And then actually coming home to the States doesn't feel quite as awesome as coming back to your family as well. But it would be a lot less expensive if you guys picked me up. Considering the plane tickets. But also fyi, everything here is ridiculously expensive. Travel between everywhere is going to be expensive, attractions, food, shopping, etc. So there's also all of that to think about... I don't know.
Funny side culture thing: A lot of the Dutch people have construction jobs, because there's constantly construction going on. So the foreigners often actually work at restaurants and stuff. But what's funny is that I swear the Dutch construction workers have their own annoying music like (pardon me, not trying to be rude, just observant!) the Mexicans have their own annoying music! It's so funny! Remember how Mom gets so annoyed by that music? It's like that here too. Just random annoying crappy Dutch music. It's not popular either, I swear I only hear the construction workers listening to it and occasionally singing to it! It was way funny though because we traveled to Oldenzaal the other day and there's this big construction project going on outside of the train station, and they were playing their annoying music SOOOO LOUD!!!! We could hear it even like half a mile away. It was ridiculous. And so annoying. Hilarious though when you see the workers singing along to it and everything. Also, I don't remember if I told you this before. But whenever we do service or see workers, they take so many breaks. They take breaks like every hour and go get food and stuff and talk for a half hour and then go back to work for another hour. It's annoying sometimes when we wanna just keep working and get the job done!! ha ha but whatevs...
I'm gonna probably go get another haircut today. I'm excited to get that straightedge blade again =D I think it's super cool. A couple weeks ago, I started a new segment called, "5 Minutes with Elder Johnson." So whenever I'm with the zone leaders, my district leader, sometimes with a group of other missionaries, etc. I welcome everybody to 5 Minutes with Elder Johnson and begin with a deep gospel question. The funny thing about it is that we call it 5 minutes, but it always ends up turning into a 20 or 30 minute discussion. And I'm still working on my theme song for it, it changes every time. Anyways, topics in the past have been the Ark of the Covenant, Urim and Thummim, the Adam/God Theory, Eternity and Worlds, the Lost Books, etc. It's pretty fun =D Of course it's all mainly speculation and our personal opinions, but it's fun to try and figure things out and come up with our own theories about things.
So I'm getting to know Jehovah's Witnesses pretty well. They're everywhere. We've gotten their 2011 yearbook, What Does the Bible Really Teach?, and some other pamphlets and stuff. Absolutely ridiculous. They literally contradict themselves on some of the things they say. And when we bring up points like how they've removed scriptures from their translation of the Bible, and how the Bible explicitly says never to do that. Then they ignore you and go on to their next ridiculous point. I try to understand every religion's point of views and where they're coming from, but they really just don't understand fully...... Daarom ben ik so echt dankbaar voor de profeet en voor het juiste gezag van God die is weer op de aarde. That's why I'm so grateful for the prophet and for the correct authority of God that is on the Earth again. Plus we have the fulness of the Gospel. People are always like, "You guys need to focus only on the Bible." Well you need to read 2 Nephi 29. Just kidding, we don't usually rip them on that, but I love that scripture. The Book of Mormon is so great. I've got an even better appreciation for it now that I've been studying the Bible and the Book of Mormon every day. I love them both, particularly the whole story of David in the Bible and other stuff. But Joseph Smith totally knew what he was talking about: http://www.lds.org/ensign/1984/06/the-most-correct-book?lang=eng That is a super good article.
Okay love you guys, thanks for all of the emails, and keep updating me on how everything is going! Everything's interesting, trust me. Ehhhh, maybe I should be careful about saying that =) Just kidding. Okay byyyyyeeeeeee