Week 96: Spans!

It is going pretty good. Elder Clemente is my new comp, he's from Spain and has been in the mission field a year! We only speak Dutch with each other which is really fun. He only learned English a year ago at the same time as Dutch. We have been working hard these past few days and have been having success which is nice. We have had a few rainy days where we don't want to go out but we have and the weather has turned really nice every time. So that's nice. We have already found more investigators this week than I did all last transfer, haha. I am learning a bit of Spanish from Elder Clemente.

Elder Clemente has a cool background.  He was born into the church but was the only member in school (he is from Valencia). He is absolutely amazing on the piano, like I can't describe it. He has done it for 11 years. He studied at the conservatorium and has a degree in piano. He played at a jazz bar for a while to earn money for his mission. What's cool about him is most good piano players are good at classical, which I enjoy, but he can also do really really good jazz and blues. He just improvises everything. It's amazing. He played the hymns in church yesterday and had no time to prepare but just played an improv version of the hymns that was more fancy than the real thing. He also has perfect pitch and if you sing something he can play it on the piano. Not only that, but he plays guitar. He can also play things on the guitar if he hears it. So I have this fun game we play where I play a song on the speaker that I want to learn on guitar, then he figures it out and we play it. Even if there are 2 or 3 parts he can play the one and teach me the other. It's so cool! Anyway, he is a cool dude. He also loves cooking and is very clean.

Ya, we have money and food now. Thanks btw for everything. I really don't need much or expect much honestly. I like living like a poor man, at least a little poor.  It was Elder Clemente's bday yesterday and he didn't tell me!! He stayed up late 2 nights ago and the next morning surprised me with a cake for his bday... what a guy. I will definitely miss it here. It is so close to the end of my mission now that I can feel the want to be back here already and miss being a missionary. It motivates me to work harder. I will so so so miss just being a missionary.

Week 95: De Winter Komt Aan

We have been having cold weather lately, not too bad though. It is really good sweater weather but it's definetly cooling off. We had a few dinner appointments this week and we were fed stamppot at every one. That's when you know it's winter, when you eat stamppot 4 times in a week...

Tranfers actually changed quite a few things around here, like my companion....... we were not expecting that but Elder Jeanfreau is beign transferred to Eindhoven. My new comp is Elder Clemente from Spain, so that should be cool. I have never met him before. I'm looking forward to working with him though! It is sad to see elder JF off though, we were expecting to go another 7 weeks. He is sad to leave but happy to be going to a good city. I will still be in the branch presidency however my companion will not be. I do know Zr VDGraaf, she is cool. I've never heard of that other guy though (LDS cartoonist Arie Van De Graaff). Wow, that's atually really cool about Gent, haha. I had no idea. I've been there too!!! [The peace treaty that ended the war between the United States and Canada (and Britain) was signed in the city of Ghent in 1814].

Well, last pday we were in Amsterdam for zone pday. It was fun, we did a lot of sports and I loved it. I brought my guitar and we sang some songs. But what is really cool is the news came to do a media piece on us. Only 5 of us were going to be in it because they were singing a song for it. However, Elder Dial and I were walking back from sports and got in it! I have a picture of it that I uploaded, haha.

On Thursday we had a good few appointemtns. We had a really good visit with R. When he was reading in the BOM he came across some verses talking about being redeemed and I asked him what that meant and we got on the topic of baptism and he said he is not ready for baptism yet. However, he noticed other people in the church have tasks that they do and he asked if he could also start doing that so that when he gets baptized it will be an easier transition.!!! He asked us to have a calling. Then he also said that members of the church proobably pay money to the church because like how else is it supposed to run and he said he would also be willig to pay a bit each month. We haven't even taught him tithing yet!!! He is so cool, one of my favorite people I have taught. We did some service after that, then dinner, and correlation meeting with this sick family in the gemeente.

On Friday we taught seminary to the class. Then went with the young women to their activity which was service at a theatre. We helped fold, organize, and iron clothes. It was fun. The last few days have been busy preparing for Elder Jeanfreau to leave.

Questions:
1.  What did you focus on this week, finding, teaching, work with less actives?
2.  What did you learn about the Gospel this week?
3.  Did you work in the orchard this week? (I always enjoy hearing about that)
4.  Is your bike holding up?
5.  Tell me about transfers and the changes in your district and zone.
6.  How was church on Sunday? Did you have any responsibilities?
7.  Do you attend all the branch activities? It was great to hear about your associations with the youth.

1. teaching.
2. take the priesthood seriously
3. yup. we got honey!! or was that 2 weeks ago. idk...
4. nope. but misison bikes are coming soon!
5. not too much. E. JF is gone and we got a replacement for Zr Bratt. other than that only one ZL is changed and one other person in the whole zone.
6. normal. I had to be the door watch. I liked it though.
7. we try to. we love the youth so much! they are so fun and great!

Here is the link to the Dutch television show featuring the missionaries (Nick appears on sidewalk).

Week 94: WE HEBBEN HET DRUK! HEEL DRUK

I really feel my call to this area is inspired. I look back at my other areas and see a bunch of connections as well, with family, people, and for myself.  Mission presidents really are inspired! It feels weird to be coming home in less than 2 months. I'm glad people haven't forgotten me yet.

Well, last pday was district pday and it was pretty fun. We chilled and played some games and it was fun. The next day we had service and it was as usual. We are so chill with all the ouwe bessen there, it is really nice. We had to prepare for zone conference which was on Thursday. We had to go all the way to Apledoorn which was okay but we also had to bring all of our exchange stuff because we were going on exchanges the day after in Amsterdam.

Zone confernce was good. I saw some old friends. Elder Nielsen and Sisters Baldwin and Platt, and a few others from my zone. Exchanges were also good.  I worked with someone Elder Nielsen trained, Elder Plant. He is a pretty cool guy. We didn't have all that much time to do anything because we had to be home pretty early Friday night for appointments, but it was fun. We had a lunch appointment which was delicious. The rest of the day we booked it back to Lelystad.  We were late for our dinner with the branch president and his family and we had no time to prepare the seminary lesson we were asked to give. But then we ended the night going to Young Mens which was combined with the Young Women. We did service in the pitch black with flashlights in a garden. It was pretty fun. The youth here are the best. They are so funny, anything we do with them is hilarious. Saturday we had a sport activity for which turnout was low, it was still fun though. The weather here has been insanely nice! We have a heat wave or something. This is the hottest on record it's ever been in October. I don't mind though! Sunday we had church as normal and ya that's about it.

Questions:
1.  How is your teaching going?
2.  How is your work with the members going?
3.  Did you do service this week?  Are you done at the orchard now that it is Fall?
4.  Will your bike hold up until the end of your mission?
5.  Did you have zone conference this week?
6.  Did you have exchanges?
7.  Did you travel anywhere?
8.  Did you eat well?

1. teaching is good!
2. that is really good!
3. just the cassic stuff at the orchard. I think this service will go through the winter. We have to maintain the grounds still and the trees, lots of work to do.
4. I don't think so but we are expecting mission bikes in a few weeks.
5. yup
6. yup
7. Apeldoorn and Amsterdam
8. not really, I don’t feel too good because of it. We haven't had time to eat!!!