Warning: This letter might be boring. The good news is that after this, I'm going to go send my letter to you guys with the SD card inside. Oh and it's a letter for Mom and Dad's family and Jason's whole family too by the way! Just in case that's not clear. Glad to hear things are going pretty well at home! That'd be super cool if Jason got in with a bigger airline. And apparently Carly's still got every benefit she could ask for with her job =) jeez! I assume Chris and Angie are still alive =) haven't recieved much news about them lately. I'm still kickin' it here in Hengelo! I'm getting bored just working here though, so we've been doing more work going out to Almelo, and a little to Borne and Vriezenveen. Getting investigators to church is still frustratingly difficult. Our Phillipino lady is still going to church pretty regularly though, going to eat with a couple members, keeping commitments, etc. She just has trouble saying yes to baptism though for some reason =) She's just a nervous person, but she loves the church and knows its true and everything. So time will tell. The problem is that she might be going back to the Phillipines for a couple months pretty soon here. She said maybe in two weeks. So if that does happen, it means I won't be able to see her baptized =( but maybe she'll get baptized in the Phillipines while she's there (she wants to go to the church there and meet with the Elders there), which would be super freakin cool for her! Or she might still take her time and come back and maybe baptized by whoever else is in Hengelo at that time. I don't know. But she's so close!!! Baptism would bless her sooooooo much!
I got told for the first time that I had a good Dutch accent =D Not many missionaries actually try that hard to go for the Dutch accent. They still can speak the language very well, but they just stick with their American accent. I've been trying to get a Dutch accent =) cuz I think it's a lot cooler. Don't worry, my English is still totally normal. But so we were teaching an investigator and we had been reading in the Book of Mormon and talking a lot, then at the end of the lesson, I asked her if my Dutch accent was any better than the last time. I was actually trying super hard that whole lesson to make it sound good. And she said.... Yes! Woo hoo! She said that while I was reading, I sounded exactly like a Dutch person reading and she got confused for a second =D Awesome. I usually can't do a very good accent most of the time though unless I'm consciously trying to do it. But that's cool =)
We got some super cool potential investigators from some student housing we found the other day. It's cool to see how the work here in Hengelo is now. Elder Huff and I white-washed it back in October and it had absolutely nothing. No investigators, no recent investigators, no recent potentials, etc. And now Elder Huff, Elder Nielsen, and I, can take credit for all of the awesome work that's going on here. I would love to see just a few of our investigators through to the end if I could while here in Hengelo! That would be so cool. But if not, I just seriously hope that these amazing people will make that first big step of getting baptized sometime in the future. I feel like before my mission, I didn't really understand how important baptism really was. Yeah we all always say how that cleans you of your sins, you take on the name of Christ, become a member of His church, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, etc. But none of those things really meant as much to me before as they do now. Especially now that I've taken out my endowments in the temple, you really start to understand all of the covenants we make with God better. For example, by being baptized, we're physically showing him our willingness to start a new life of following Christ. He wants us to do these physical things, because the natural man inside of us makes it so hard to do those physical things. We often say how easy it is, but Satan and our natural man makes it so hard to actually read the scriptures, get down on your knees and pray, go to church, pay tithing, go to the temple, etc. So many people here think that they're doing enough by just thinking of Christ every once in a while and trying to be a good person each day.
If you want more blessings, you gotta do more. That's how everything in life works. You want money, you work. You want more money? Get a degree, get a better job. You want clean dishes? You clean them =) (Ha ha suprise I've actually been hand washing dishes every day since I've been here. Shocking, I know!) Anyways, I don't understand how so many people just think they have enough happiness. They don't want more happiness if that means they have to do more things. Seams silly when you say it, but we all (especially me) struggle with it. We could all have so much more happiness, so much more blessings, so many more answers, etc. If we just do what God asks with a sincere heart. Easier said than done. Anyways, I'm working hard personally at just trying to see what more I could be doing to improve how I live my life, and also understanding things better. Thank goodness for study time every morning =) But on the days that I really try to show God what more I'm willing to do for Him and His children, I notice so many more tender mercies! Then I just gotta remember to be grateful and stay humble =) Still struggling with all that this entails, but hey, I'm a work in progress.
Anyways, now that I've gone so hard on the Gospel =) We have a ton of dinner appointments lined up for the rest of this month. The 1st Counselor of our ward brought up that we didn't have very many each week, so then the Ward Council decided to make a calendar for people to sign up on to feed us dinner. Then this little 12 year old kid got assigned as Deacon's Quorum President to go take around this list during church. HE WENT CRAZY! He was almost guilting people into it sometimes =D It was hilarious. Anyways, now we have a pretty full calendar of dinner appointments for the rest of the month =D Fantastic. The other night, this super super cool member took us to KFC, bought us this huge family bucket thing, and then big drinks, and then shakes, and gave us the leftovers as well as banana bread. It was awesome. Going again with him on Wednesday =D woo hoo!! PS, have I mentioned how weird all the KFC's, McDonald's, and Burger King's are here? Those are the 3 most popular fast food chains. They usually are all like really nice places, sometimes their own huge buildings. And they're all relatively the same as in America. A few diferences, but not much.
Oh! We gave a blessing to a sister member in the ward the other night. Pretty cool experience. I didn't participate on this one, I just let Elder Nielsen do the first part and another member did the second part. But the member who helped us with the blessing was saying how he's learned that you don't need to know anything about what sickness the person has or anything like that. You just trust in God, have faith, and let him speak through you to say whatever needs to be said to them at that time. Totally true, so cool. And the sister we were giving the blessing to was telling me how she gets so upset thinking about how her daughter doesn't have the priesthood in their home. So they can't give their kids blessings for school, sickness, etc. She was so sad and that reminded me how amazing it really is to be a worthy priesthood holder and to help others with it.
Anyways, wow. Lots of spiritual stuff in that letter. I love you guys very very much and hope that life keeps going good! Hopefully, these letters aren't turning too much into my journal... But hey, felt like that was all good stuff to share =) Oh PS, I actually gained like 10 pounds apparently since I've been on my mission. I don't think I look any fatter... Maybe it's all muscle? Hopefully =D Anyways, when you see my pictures, let me know if I have a chubbier face or something. The good news is that the people in the Netherlands have a taller average than in America. So I actually fit really well into Medium sized stuff a lot. So I'm not too fat. And I look good in European clothing =D mwa ha ha ha! Okay peace out, much loves, bye bye!
I got told for the first time that I had a good Dutch accent =D Not many missionaries actually try that hard to go for the Dutch accent. They still can speak the language very well, but they just stick with their American accent. I've been trying to get a Dutch accent =) cuz I think it's a lot cooler. Don't worry, my English is still totally normal. But so we were teaching an investigator and we had been reading in the Book of Mormon and talking a lot, then at the end of the lesson, I asked her if my Dutch accent was any better than the last time. I was actually trying super hard that whole lesson to make it sound good. And she said.... Yes! Woo hoo! She said that while I was reading, I sounded exactly like a Dutch person reading and she got confused for a second =D Awesome. I usually can't do a very good accent most of the time though unless I'm consciously trying to do it. But that's cool =)
We got some super cool potential investigators from some student housing we found the other day. It's cool to see how the work here in Hengelo is now. Elder Huff and I white-washed it back in October and it had absolutely nothing. No investigators, no recent investigators, no recent potentials, etc. And now Elder Huff, Elder Nielsen, and I, can take credit for all of the awesome work that's going on here. I would love to see just a few of our investigators through to the end if I could while here in Hengelo! That would be so cool. But if not, I just seriously hope that these amazing people will make that first big step of getting baptized sometime in the future. I feel like before my mission, I didn't really understand how important baptism really was. Yeah we all always say how that cleans you of your sins, you take on the name of Christ, become a member of His church, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, etc. But none of those things really meant as much to me before as they do now. Especially now that I've taken out my endowments in the temple, you really start to understand all of the covenants we make with God better. For example, by being baptized, we're physically showing him our willingness to start a new life of following Christ. He wants us to do these physical things, because the natural man inside of us makes it so hard to do those physical things. We often say how easy it is, but Satan and our natural man makes it so hard to actually read the scriptures, get down on your knees and pray, go to church, pay tithing, go to the temple, etc. So many people here think that they're doing enough by just thinking of Christ every once in a while and trying to be a good person each day.
If you want more blessings, you gotta do more. That's how everything in life works. You want money, you work. You want more money? Get a degree, get a better job. You want clean dishes? You clean them =) (Ha ha suprise I've actually been hand washing dishes every day since I've been here. Shocking, I know!) Anyways, I don't understand how so many people just think they have enough happiness. They don't want more happiness if that means they have to do more things. Seams silly when you say it, but we all (especially me) struggle with it. We could all have so much more happiness, so much more blessings, so many more answers, etc. If we just do what God asks with a sincere heart. Easier said than done. Anyways, I'm working hard personally at just trying to see what more I could be doing to improve how I live my life, and also understanding things better. Thank goodness for study time every morning =) But on the days that I really try to show God what more I'm willing to do for Him and His children, I notice so many more tender mercies! Then I just gotta remember to be grateful and stay humble =) Still struggling with all that this entails, but hey, I'm a work in progress.
Anyways, now that I've gone so hard on the Gospel =) We have a ton of dinner appointments lined up for the rest of this month. The 1st Counselor of our ward brought up that we didn't have very many each week, so then the Ward Council decided to make a calendar for people to sign up on to feed us dinner. Then this little 12 year old kid got assigned as Deacon's Quorum President to go take around this list during church. HE WENT CRAZY! He was almost guilting people into it sometimes =D It was hilarious. Anyways, now we have a pretty full calendar of dinner appointments for the rest of the month =D Fantastic. The other night, this super super cool member took us to KFC, bought us this huge family bucket thing, and then big drinks, and then shakes, and gave us the leftovers as well as banana bread. It was awesome. Going again with him on Wednesday =D woo hoo!! PS, have I mentioned how weird all the KFC's, McDonald's, and Burger King's are here? Those are the 3 most popular fast food chains. They usually are all like really nice places, sometimes their own huge buildings. And they're all relatively the same as in America. A few diferences, but not much.
Oh! We gave a blessing to a sister member in the ward the other night. Pretty cool experience. I didn't participate on this one, I just let Elder Nielsen do the first part and another member did the second part. But the member who helped us with the blessing was saying how he's learned that you don't need to know anything about what sickness the person has or anything like that. You just trust in God, have faith, and let him speak through you to say whatever needs to be said to them at that time. Totally true, so cool. And the sister we were giving the blessing to was telling me how she gets so upset thinking about how her daughter doesn't have the priesthood in their home. So they can't give their kids blessings for school, sickness, etc. She was so sad and that reminded me how amazing it really is to be a worthy priesthood holder and to help others with it.
Anyways, wow. Lots of spiritual stuff in that letter. I love you guys very very much and hope that life keeps going good! Hopefully, these letters aren't turning too much into my journal... But hey, felt like that was all good stuff to share =) Oh PS, I actually gained like 10 pounds apparently since I've been on my mission. I don't think I look any fatter... Maybe it's all muscle? Hopefully =D Anyways, when you see my pictures, let me know if I have a chubbier face or something. The good news is that the people in the Netherlands have a taller average than in America. So I actually fit really well into Medium sized stuff a lot. So I'm not too fat. And I look good in European clothing =D mwa ha ha ha! Okay peace out, much loves, bye bye!