Week 83: Ik Ben Dood and Record Breaking Temperatures

Well, I wouldn't be Dutch if I didn't complain about the weather. Disregard how hot I said it was last week because this week was worse! It was a record here. It reached 110 degrees Fahrenheit in our apartment, not fun... we had a lot of wet shirts and towels draped over ourselves. We also used the freezer to freeze the towels and other things. It was awful. We biked to 5 appointments on one of the really hot days, we were very sweaty.

We also had exchanges this week and I got to work work with the one and only elder Nielsen! we were here in Lelystad and had a great time working with each other, so fun. Other fun things is that Elder Chamberlin and I were having a bit of a water fight and I went to throw something at him and he was coming at me and what happened is my hand went full speed into his arm and I pretty much broke my fingers. I write this email in much pain. Playing guitar is also really hard. Despite that and the heat we found 12 onderzoekers this week! So that was nice.

We didn’t pick fruit this week because we had interviews on Wednesday which was cool. I like President Buysse, he's cool, Zr Buysse too! Super nice and friendly. It was weird to have it in Flemish. He told me that he wants to keep missionaries in their cities for a long period of time and that I could very well stay here the rest of my mission. I'd be chill with it though! I love the people here.  I have the photos and vids but i can’t uplaod them today because of the shortage of time.

How you carry bread home in the Netherlands

Week 82: De Hitte

Well this week has reached records here in the Netherlands as the hottest and driest in the last 200 years. It hasn't rained for like 2 months now which is ridiculous. Things are dying, the grass is yellow. I am dying. Oh and it's just going to get hotter this week, above 30 degrees, which sounds not too bad but the humidity kills.

Last Monday we had FHE with the JOVOs which is always so fun. We played Top Trump, it was great. On Tuesday we finally had a district meeting, that was fun, normal but weird to not be a DL anymore.

On Wednesday we had a great morning. We had service set up at this fruit yard/garden thing, not sure what to call it. Pretty much the food bank has a deal with this really rich person who owns a bunch of land with fruit on it. The people don't want the fruit and so they donate it all to the food bank, problem is that it needs to be plucked. That's where we come in, we went and plucked a bunch of fruit! Lots of plums and berries. I enjoyed it very much. The house is in the richest part of town and is literally a mansion! Super beautiful brick house with ivy all on the outside, looks so cool. The fields are extremely well laid out and is also really mooi. It reminds me of Narnia for some reason. It was really relaxing and it was fun to talk to all the old Dutch people. They are really nice when you aren't knocking on their doors in a shirt and tie. Some of them saw my tag and said they know a person with the name Fernhout in the area! I told them to tell him to come next time. They thought it was cool we could speak Dutch, haha.

After that we came home and changed and Elder JF and I headed to a city near by to visit a less active member. We got on the wrong train which added some time to our trip... but we got there eventually and then rented some bikes. This lady is so nice and cool! She and her family. They have 2 beautiful dogs that I could not resist giving attention to the entire time. I even dog wrestled them in the back yard, haha. Her and her husband came to church and yesterday they brought their daughtter too! It was great. We also set up a service appointment but that might get cancelled because of the heat. Even though we went over unannounced she took the time to make us dinner before we left, so nice!

Other than that we had some fun dinner appointemnts. We found 2 onderzoekers this week. One was from Brazil so I was able to pull out my Portuguese haha. Oh also I got my suit dry cleaned for the first time, and repaired, and tightened. Oh I also got a haircut from our neighbour,  he did a great job I'd say! One of the best parts of the week was sports day on Saturday which we organised. We played a bunch of sports with the youth for a few hours and we had a less active there who also came to church. It was great! We also had a few non members there who were friends of the youth. We are gonna make it a normal thing.

Sunday was chill, I gave a talk on prophets. It went well. Some members took us to their house in Enkhuizen which is across the dike. That was really cool. We looked up some less actives there. They also fed us dinner. The brother we were with is an amazing missionary. He street contacted someone and taught them the entire restoration, it was amazing! I love the members here!

Good week.

Week 81: Zone Conference in Apeldoorn

My week was good. I was sick for most of it and so was Elder Crow, even worse than me. So we chilled together a lot this week, we didn't really get much done... so I don't have too much to report. I did get to go to zone conference which was fun. I have a bunch of pics.

Zone Conference took forever to get to and it invlovled a train and 3 buses... it was a good one though and I really like the new Mission President and his wife, the Buysses, they are so cool. The whole thing was in Dutch or rather in Flemish. It is taking me back to Brugge haha. I had a lot of friends at this one so that is fun. When you are this old in the mission you know so many people and so missionary gatherings are really fun!  On Tuesday we got to watch the soccer game between Belgium and France. It wasn't that great of a game but was fun to watch. It was too bad they lost. I have to give a talk next Sunday which will be fun.

Well there are just a lot of interesting people living here. I don't know how to explain it, it's jsut different than Alkmaar. I loved Alkmaar.

Here are the questions for the week:
1.  How has the weather been lately?
2. Do you have a mission bike in your new area since you left your old one behind?
3. How was church on Sunday?
4. How is it going being branch counsellor?
5. Did you travel anywhere this week?

1.. Hot and not cloudy, unDutch.
2.  No I have Elder Blackwell's old one which is slowly falling apart... it's fun. It sounds like a tie fighter...
3. Good. I was sick and had to push thorugh it but not bad at all.
4. Great! I love it.
5. Nope. Well, Apeldoorn for zone conference.

(pictures are from last transfer... but too pretty not to post)

Week 80: Gemeente Raadgever

Good to see Elder Blackwell made it home safe. Ya, I am in his old area.  Ah, I love the Willoughbys! Monday night we had FHE with the YSA at this member's house, that happens every week. It is so fun, we play a bunch of games and eat dinner.  On Tuesday we met the president and he is super cool! Pretty much all meetings will now be in Dutch, well Flemish. He is pretty spunky and hyped. We all like him. On Wednesday we had a few appointments with members and also branch council. Thursday we had a lot of appointments with less actives. Friday we did a ton of service, lots of yard work. Saturday was awesome because we had a ward BBQ. It was great! Sunday was good, we always have to sit on the stand and if you show any sign of being tired the members will roast you, haha. It's really hard. You also get self conscious about everything, like if you are blinking too much or crossing your legs weird or all kinds of things.

Questions this week:
1.  Did you meet the new mission president and his wife yet?
2.  It looks like Lelystad is an island, do you take a lot of trains then? Are there a lot of bridges?
3.  What are your impressions of your new area?
4.  I’d like to hear about your duties as branch counsellor?
5.  Is the four man apartment working out well?
6.  I’d like to hear about the work this week?  Are you able to find many investigators?  What do you focus on in the area?  What is the best way to find?

1. Yes!
2. Yes it is. No we bike a lot, we don't cover a very large area. Ya, a decent amount of bridges, nothing like Brugge though.
3. It's good. I really like the youth and members here!
4. We have a lot of meetings and we come up with activities that would be fun for youth and we help out with less actives.
5. Really well!
6. We got nothing this week.... We are doing a decent amount of doors. We found a crazy Canadian Indonesian Dutch photographer motorcylce hunting military Christian guy last night! That was fun.

Week 79: Lelystad

Well, I don’t know how but it is hotter here in Lelystad than it was in Alkmaar… super hot. Also, I had to leave my borrowed bike behind so I didn't have a bike. I inherited Elder Blackwell's but Elder Jeanfreau left his in Haarlem. We went and got that today which is why I now have no time to email but transfer day absolutely sucked! All the busses in the country decided to go on strike on transfer day and we needed to get all our luggage to the station from our apartment in Alkmaar so we had no choice but to walk. I had my really large bag which had no handle plus my duffel and my side bag and my guitar. I had to carry that for 1 hour and 20 mins all the way to the station. Easily one of the hardest things I have ever done on the mission. It was so awful. My shoulder muscles are still in pain from that day. My big black bag was so heavy and awkward that when I got to Amsterdam Centraal the other elders came to help and couldn’t even carry it… without carrying my other bags at the same time... at least I don't have a bike. Other than that it was mostly fine. We had to wait for a bit in Amsterdam Centraal but I had already met Elder Jeanfreau there. There is a piano open to anyone to play and he is really good so he got on it and I pulled out my guitar and we played some music. We even got a bit of a crowd going, it was fun, I want to now be a rockstar…

We met up with Elder Chamberlin who is in Lelystad because it is a 4 man apartment. We went together to Lelystad where we then had to wait for Elder Crow. He also had a bunch of issues but we found him. We then went grocery shopping. We went so HAM and it came to a total of 111 euros. Usually it's like 30 for 2 elders so we are set. We had branch council that night and met some cool people, like the branch president. He is sick. We had some other appointments the other days, a few with less actives and one with a member. We are whitewashing into this area but there is pretty much no teaching pool so we will have to build it up. We did a lot of walking and getting lost this past week because the city is laid out really weird, really weird. On Sunday we had a dinner appointment with an investigator who had fed the missionaries every Sunday for the past year. She is really cool! We also had a cool miracle on Sunday, at the end of the 3 hour this random lady walked in and said she wants to learn more and wants to talk with a priest. We have an appointment for this week.

The branch is cool, lots of youth but still small. Sorry no time for a geestelijke toetje!

Here is President and Zuster Buysse's Mission blog link: http://buyssebelgiumnetherlandsmission.blogspot.com