Week 47: Ik heb koeien geschoren!!!

Ya, it does feel like Christmas but not like it does back home, haha. I just wish we had snow.

This week was really really good. It had some downs but also ups and we had a bunch of cool miracles. Early in the week we had the ZLs come over and do an exchange with the other 2 elders.  One of them, Elder Waters from Idaho is really good at the guitar and I had him teach me a few things. The other one is Elder Packard from Arizona, he dies soon [translation, he goes home soon]. He's cool too. So that was fun. Although we burned through all our food for the week really fast, haha. This week has been really good with dinner appointments though so we did fine.

For my bday we all went to the farm to help Wouter. We usually go every Saturday but this week we couldn't and went early. I didn't mind going to the farm on my bday cause it is really fun. We got to shave the cows this time too. That was super fun. Their backsides and tails get really gross and we just shaved those right down. Funny story, Elder Ballard was shaving the tail of one and it pooped all over him. Streaming cow poo just shot out, it was so funny. He really didn't think so but we all did. He cleaned it off and was okay. After we had gone home and cleaned up we went to lunch and got kapsalon, one of my favourite foods. It’s Turkish. I also opened my presents. Thank you, Mum! I am currently wearing my Canada shirt now, haha. Also, the towel is a good idea. E. Ballard has the same one, different colour. I wore the tie to interviews, haha, goes good with my suit. But other than that for my bday we had a dinner appointment that was good. They felt bad they didn’t know it was my bday but they fed us good food! E. Ballard bought me a loempia which you should look up, I loooove them, they sell them at little stands all over the place. It is pretty much just a spring roll, but better. He also got me a guitar pick! Because Elder Occon and I share a bday I went and got him a capo for his guitar. I inspired him to get a guitar haha, E. Ballard too. So I got E. Occon a capo and he really loved it. It was a good day!

Some other lame things and miracles that happened this week. We tried to stop by this lady investigator we have, because she is single we were going to pass her off to the sisters but she wasn't home. Later that day though we saw her at a tram stop and were able to make an appointment and also give her invites to the baptism and the primary program for next week. So that was cool that we randomly saw her. We went by later in the week and had a really good 2nd appointment with her and she is reading and all is good. Then she called and said she can’t go to the baptism cause she is sick. We called her right before the baptism to check to see if she was feeling better then she dropped us and said she doesn't want to die Christian… ugh she was so cool. When we saw her that one time she even said that she misses us ahah. She is so cool. So we are going to stop by just one more time and see where she is at and if she still doesn't want to then we will leave her alone. We also went to our appointment with these Polish people we met. We already had one appointment with 4 of them. So we went back this week for our 2nd one and the main guy came to the door and told us that he doesn't want to go any further. But he did say he is moving to Poland and will look us up there so I guess we have a referral for the Polish elders??? He did say that his sister who we had given a Polish BoM to would probably like to talk and to come by the next day. So we were sad that he and the other 2 dropped us but excited for the sister. We talked to her the next day and she was like “I haven’t read that much in the book, I am only half way through” so we were like ah that’s okay. She said she will be done in a week and to come back then. We emphasized the importance of prayer and not just reading, looking forward to going back.

Okay, just 2 more miracles. We had some time before a dinner appointment so we went to this building where there were like 20 potentials we just had to go and follow up. We tried to find it with the printed off directions that we had but it didn't work out, so we were like lets just go back and work by our dinner appointment. On the way back to the tram stop we came across the exact building we were looking for. Really weird… so E. Ballard was like we gotta do some of them now, there is some one here for us. We were ringing the bells and getting nothing positive so we were like, okay, we will do one more then we need to go. We rung her up and she let us up to her door. At first she was not having it, then we told her about families and happiness and the BoM and she opened up. She asked which church we were and she read our tags and as she was reading I saw it in her eyes that she knew we were representatives of Christ. That touched her and made the difference. So we gave her a Dutch copy of the BoM and then told her we have a Turkish version, cause she is Turkish, and she told us to bring that by later. So we were lit after that, haha. It was our last door miracle and it was funny cause it was 6th floor last door. So cool. We went back just yesterday and had a great appointment with her and her husband and they also have 4 kids. Pretty young but still! The husband loved having a Turkish version cause his Dutch isn't so good. They are just so nice! Really cool new investigators.

Okay and the coolest miracle as the last. We were once again on our way to a dinner appointment and we were walking and we were cold and it was dark and rainy and we just wanted to get there. But we had about 20 extra minutes and were stopping people on our way there. I stopped this one lady and asked if I could do a quick survey. I asked the first Q which was "what does happiness mean for you?" She answered saying probably the same as you, your relationship with God. So she started talking about her religion which isn't a specific religion but she believes strongly in angels. After I had asked her some q's about her I thought it would be a good idea to talk about Joseph Smith and the First Vision. So I did and she thought it was really cool and we gave her a BoM and told her a bit about it. She said she had a q and asked about the big beautiful white building. We told her it was a temple and she wondered about the guy on top of it, the golden one. We told her that he was an angel and that he actually showed JS where the plates were and that he wrote in them as well. It all just connected so well. We told her that it was translated out of old Egyptian and she thought that was cool too, ahha. Then she told us that God has a plan for us here on earth and that we all have 2 angles with us all the time helping us. She said that sometimes they appear as other people. She said that we were those people and that God had a plan for her and that we were sent and that it wasn’t coincidence that we met her. She said that she knew God wanted her to learn something from us. I was so happy and amazed. We talked a little more, then she said that an angel just whispered to her that everything we told her was true and right. I was just amazed, haha. Easily one of the coolest miracles I have had yet. She had the BoM in her hands and asked if she could really have the BoM and we said ya of course. She treated it like something really special. So ya.

Questions:
1.  What did you do for your birthday?  Did you celebrate with the other missionaries since it was Elder Occon’s birthday as well?
2.  How did the teaching go this week?
3.  When are the next transfers?
4.  Did you go on exchanges or travel anywhere this week?
5.  What was the worst thing that happened this week?
6.  What was the best thing that happened this week?
7.  How are you all getting along in the apartment?
8.  Is there a missionary skill that you are working on personally?
9.  Are you having good experiences with the ward members?
10.  How was church on Sunday?

1. already answered
2. uh, great
3. soon, transfer calls are on Saturday! I expect to stay with E. Ballard though.  I will be surprised if I am transfered out.
4. nope.
5. getting dropped...
6. all the freaking miracles!
7. good, you really see how people were raised when you live in a 4 man, who cleans their dishes and who does what and cleans and stuff like that.
8. teaching! I really want to be a good teacher. Such a good life skill too.
9. definitely. we have a lot of dinners.
10. good. although I was up at 4 am that morning and it is a long story. I think I’ll tell it next week cause this email is already really long, haha. Remind me to do that.

That was my week.

hou doe

elder fernhout

Elevator selfies

A piece of home

View from the apartment 

Sheep by the Church in Zoetermeer

Week 46: Den Haag and Rotterdam Zone Conference and an Early Preparation Day

Well I write to you from a short week cause today is our pday. We are playing football as a zone, should be fun, as long as the rain stops... well not too much has happened this week. We went to the farm as usual which was fun. We went into the attic part of the barn and our job was to clean away all of the spider webs, the cobwebs. I have never seen so many webs before… we had these long poles thank goodness that we used to clear them away but they got so covered in webs it was ridiculous. Also there was mice running around the whole time and we had to make sure we didn't fall through the weak floor onto the cows below haha, but it was fun. We had a good time scaring each other pretending mice were running up each others legs and whatnot. We did the usual feeding cows and scooping their poop.

Something else cool that happened was zone conference. We gathered as 2 zones here in Zoetermeer. My zone, Den Haag and the Rotterdam zone. I got to see Elder Steele, Elder Cameron, Elder White, and a bunch of others. I always love seeing people at zone conferences. It was also really great because we went to the temple. We had to be there at 7:00 in the morning so luckily we live in Zoetermeer where the temple is! We didn't have to wake up at crazy times like some other missionaries. But ya we all met there and did the names we found for people. It was a really nice time. So much peace to be found at the temple. It was just a gezellig time. The rest of the conference was also good. The temple president spoke and so did the APs and President too. Afterwards we all talked and looked at our packages and letters and took pics with each other, fun times. Elder Cameron met a member who loves Canada and they brought back a Tims Horton's peach drink for him, so sick. I was talking with Elder DeRochie from Okotoks about Canada a lot and all the things that the others don’t get like Tim Hortons and coulees and Canadian Tire and stuff, haha, so funny. Oh ya and they sang to me cause of my bday and then I had to stand there for a minute while they all gave me compliments. I hated it, but people said nice things.

We had a good lesson with A. this week and his brother. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and the beginning of the lesson was just decent. We probably were talking too much but it was ok. They weren’t really getting it though and weren't feeling what we were saying. EB and I both knew that something needed to change so we began to testify and use our life experiences and from then on the spirit was more present and the lesson was so much better. Their perspective changed and it made more sense to them, they were feeling it in their hearts and knew that it was not only important for us but for them too. They like to know everything before they do something they said but often we learn a lot as we just go out and do. So we committed them to read and pray and hope and think that they will do it before our next appointment. We met at the church for that appointment and after they offered to drive us home which was super nice of them, because it was really cold and windy and dark and we were not feeling like walking and taking the tram... super cool guys.

Other than that we had random appointments and it was a regular week. We stayed busy doing things. We got the card game Phase 10 last pday so we play that at night. I’m glad the walls are really thick cause there is some crazy moments we have, haha.

Questions:
Is your back still hurting?
1. My back is fine. I did buy a backpack though so that helps, cause it does hurt sometimes after long days with the shoulder bag but I am just seeing if I want to use a backpack full time. I'll have a pic of it for next week.

Did you get to see Matt?
2. Noooo, I was at the church here at the same time as him. I was in a different room and was waiting for his conference to end but we had to leave 2 minutes before he got out. We had a dinner appointment so I never got to see him but we were 10 meters apart from each other in the same building, ahha. Even if I stayed for a second to say hello it wouldn’t have been cool cause then I’d have to go and we couldn't even talk. So we still haven’t seen each other.

How was your visit to the temple?
3. great!

Hou doe,

Elder Fernhout

Spiffy new haircuts

Not the Zoetermeer Missionary Training Center!

Beautiful sky over the Zoetermeer LDS Temple

Elders Fernhout and Steele

Elders Cameron and Geddes

Elders White and Fernhout

Zone Conference

Week 45: Kringloops and Halloween

Well last Monday after Pday we went to a Kringloops which is always fun. Kringloop stores are pretty much thrift shops but cooler. They always have fun things to buy. I got a Dutch comic book for after the mission. Anyway, you should look up what a Kringloops is. Tuesday we had district meeting but EB also had to go to Brussels so we had to drop him off in Leiden. We waited for the bus half an hour but it never came so we called and they said they would come and pick him up from the church here in Zoetermeer. So we went there and a bit later they came in the mission van with a few other greenies. I got to see 2 other elders from Zwolle I got to know when I was in Emmen and they are great so that was nice. After they drove away we headed to district meeting where we did a Halloween game then continued on with the normal meeting.

Later that day when EB got back we had a dinner appointment that was really good. Family B is sick, they area a young couple who have one kid and another soon on the way. I asked what the name of the new one is and they said that it is Dutch tradition not to tell anyone the name of the kid until he comes out. The next day was trunk and treat at the church. That was really fun. We had a lesson with J and his kids just beforehand on prophets and that also went well. My costume was just my Eagles hat, haha. There were people from both wards there, the English ward and the Dutch ward so it was fun to talk with everyone. As missionaries we only got a little bit of candy, really fun though. Normally on Wednesday the missionaries put on an English conversation class which we invite people to and we teach them English. It was cancelled for the Halloween thing but still some people showed up. It turned out to be good though because they stayed and had a really good time and then we got their info and later that week had a really good lesson with one of them.

The next day we had another dinner appointment which was good as well, although I had to eat some fish… our dinner appointments are getting more and more! This week we worked a lot on making a digital version of our area book so we made a map of all our investigators, potentials, and members. It'll be really useful.

Saturday we went to the farm and helped out there, same thing as last time, feeding the cows and what not. Really fun though. When we got back we all had to put our clothes in the washer because they smelled so bad, haha. Later that day we had a lesson with the guy from the Halloween activity. Super nice guy, he even drove us back home after the appointment because it was raining. That night there was a speaker coming to the church, he studied the book of Isaiah his whole life pretty much and so he gave a lecture about it at the church. There were a lot of non-members there, it was pretty interesting too! But ya, then the next day was Sunday and that is always good. Great weather too! So ya, Elder Ballard and I found 2 new investigators this week, so that was sick.

Questions:
1.  How is the work going? How is J doing and how old are his children?
2.  I think you said last week that you were going on exchanges.  How was that?
3.  Do you have birthday plans yet?
4.  Did you have more dinner appointments this week?
5.  Are you eating ok?

1. Good, J has a date which is the 18th, so really soon. We are inviting all to come to it. We really want his 3 kids to be doopt on the same day but we will see if that happens. We taught them the lesson on prophets and they are 16 then 14 then 9, I think.
2. We were supposed to do 2 exchanges but that never happened for some reason. One because EB went to Brussels.
3. Dinner appointment, other than that idk. Today I am buying a backpack for myself. My back is hurting lately.
4. Ya, EB and I are getting a lot of dinners lately, it's nice.
5. Ya, pretty good, we eat a lot of cereal. We bought 7 boxes last week and it wasn't enough and so we will buy even more today.

All is good here, living the Zoetermeer life.

Hou Doe,

Elder Fernhout