Week 43: First Days in Zoetermeer

Well, I could write a really really long email about everything that has happened but I will try to not do that! I’ll start from the beginning of the week. Tuesday was our last district meeting as a district which was kinda sad. Afterwards we all signed each others books and ate lunch and said our goodbyes. After that E. Rytting and I went home and cleaned the apartment for a long time. Also packed and wrote a little book for the next elders.

The next morning we woke up and made our way to the station with all of our luggage and stuff. Not fun. We got to Zwolle and met the ZLs who helped us onto our next train. Then from there I got off in the city of Gouda and ER stayed on. When I got off there E. Calmes met me and helped me onto my next train. Good to see him again! Then I got off in Zoetermeer. There I met Elder Occon and Elder Plant [trained by Elder Matt Nielsen], they are the other 2 elders who would be living in the same apartment as us. A few minutes later came Elder Ballard and yes, he is related to the apostle, 5th cousins. He gets asked that soooooo much it’s crazy, haha. From there we all took our luggage except Occon and traveled to the apartment. It was not fun at all, haha, but we made it. We got there and EO filled us in on the details of Zoetermeer. We were all pumped to work there, it is a great city and the missionary work is going amazing.

After about an hour Prez called and told EP that he is being emergency transferred to Groningen. He wasn't too happy about it and got stressed cause we had to leave right that moment. He was being transferred because there is a Portuguese speaking elder coming from Brazil and EO speaks Portuguese so he will be training him. He will get here tomorrow we think. So since Wednesday we have been working in a trio. A crazy day that day. So we were all stressed and tired and just done with the day when EO was like, oh ya, we are going to the temple today! We were all so pumped! So in Zoetermeer because the temple is here they call the elders sometimes to have us go help and that just ended up being on transfer day. How sick is that, Zoetermeer is so lucky, I love it. So ya, at 5:00 pm that day we went there and put in some work doing voorverordeningen. So nice.

The next day we got to work and let me tell you we went to WORK! EO is the same group as Ballard and Rytting so they are pretty young but Occon is a great missionary. We went out for the day and we were walking to the building where we were going to work and just on the way there he gave out 3 BOMs in 3 different languages. So let me tell you about Occon for a bit here. He speaks English perfectly and pretty dang good Portuguese, his Dutch is ok, and he can do parts of Spanish and French and a little Papiamento. So he is all around solid. He has soooooo much energy, like so much. So ya, he gave out a lot of BOMs then at the building we found a sick potential investigator and a few other cool things happened. In total for the day we found 9 really good new potentials, which, btw, is more than Elder Ballard and I combined in our last cities for the entire transfer. So it was a lot! We gave out 7 BOMs which is a ton! At one point we were at the centrum and EO wanted to stand in the middle of the stores and people eating and stand up and start preaching like the missionaries of old. He tried to get EB and I to do it but we wouldn't. So he gets up there and starts talking really loudly about the restoration with a BOM in his hand. After he got yelled at for a bit he came back and as we were walking away some guy who works at a restaurant came out the back of it and asked if he could learn more. We gave him a BoM and exchanged numbers and got his address. So ya, I love this place and these 2 elders are great. EB has incredible Dutch for his age and is so good at talking to everybody, just always contacting. Bold guy. We are going to have some good times this transfer. Another thing to put in perspective is that EB and I last transfer gave out a total 3 BOMs. That's less than half of what we gave out that day. We are ordering 5 boxes of BoMs this next transfer… that’s also crazy. I'm so excited! So ya I could go on forever about all the people we met and cool things that happened but I don’t have time.

The next day we met the ward mission leader. He's great, very on the ball about everything. He showed us around the church building and taught us the ins and outs. The building is soooo nice, big normal sized chapel like back home. That night we had an English class at the church that we teach to people who want to learn English. We met the sisters there, Zuster Cannon and Zuster Bitton, solid sisters. So in Zoetermeer there are 6 missionaries total for this small place. Last area we had 3 investigators, and for a normal place 8 is really good. Here we have almost 30… 30 people! That’s why it was made a 4 man. Our apartment is ok, the one in Emmen was bigger. We have only one bathroom but it’s all good. I like the apartment, it's homey and fun. We get along really well the 3 of us and play Uno in our free time. Also, I am so glad I have the guitar. We make up songs and sing and stuff all the time, it’s awesome, but don’t get me wrong, we do a lot of work.

Saturday we got up at 6:00 am and went to do service at a member's farm. Missionaries have been going there every Saturday for the past so many years. It's kinda famous in the mission. So I was really excited to go. We got there at 7:30 and met the owner. It is a milk farm. First, we cleaned up the barn for the cows, then he let the cows in where we had to put a collar on them and then we put some food down, things like brussel sprouts, which they like, and we put down a lot of those. But even better is that when stores have day old bread they sell it cheap to him and he buys it for his cows and so we had 4 wheel barrows full of bread that we fed to the cows and they loooooooove bread. It’s so funny, you hold up the bread and they all look at you then they just eat it up. The best part of the week was the temple, then feeding the cows bread, haha. We also let them loose after he milked them and cleaned up the area again. It took a few hours for all that but I took a lot of good photos! After we were done he gave us each a glass of fresh milk that was from the cows that day. It was cooled and really good. I was so tired the rest of the day.

Sunday was great. Our ward starts at 1:00 pm but the English ward starts at 12:00 pm so we go early and sit in a class and listen to the English then after stay for the Dutch and go to the other Dutch classes, good stuff. We saw the APs there who are in charge of the English ward. Oh, the day before we had a dinner appointment with family T. who are so sick. The dad made these absolutely delicious burgers, like so good. But ya church was great, we had a few investigators there, 5 of whom are going to be baptized in the coming 3 weeks. Between the sisters and us and the APs there is a baptism almost every week for the next month and 2 in one weekend. Good stuff.

Questions:
1.  How did it go on the trains getting to your new area?
2.  What are your first impressions of Zoetermeer?  Have you seen Snow World?  I imagine missionaries are NOT allowed to go.
3.  What area do you cover?
4.  What area do the other elders cover?
5.  So you cover a ward now… how was church on Sunday?
6.  Do you have investigators to teach?  Is the work busy there?
7.  When do you go to the temple?  Do you have a name to take or do you have to find one?
8.  Did you hear much about the changes to missionary work?  They are combining missions and there is a new focus on using technology to find religiously minded people.

1. Ok, stressful and my shoulder had a great workout, just never a fun day on transfer day when you have to move. I had my sling bag and my duffel and my roll and my guitar and my bike which I had to personally carry all over and on and off trains all day, ugh.

2. I heard of Snow World, I don’t remember if we can or not but probs not. I'll have to ask. I love Zoetermeer.

3. Small area, just Zoetermeer and a little bit of the area surrounding it.

4. We are all in the same area.

5. Yes a ward! It felt like back home, although there was some stake event going on so there wasn’t that many people yet. It went well. We have a great bishop who served in Montreal on his mission.

6. Oh yes.

7. Nov. 5 but I already got to go! I'll ask the office to help me get a name because it is coming up really fast and they are happy to help out.

8. All I heard was that missionaries are getting smart phones but not here, haha.

Hou doe,

Elder Fernhout

Zoetermeer Temple

Service at the dairy farm

bread for the cows

that is a lot of brussel sprouts

Elders Ballard, Fernhout, and Occon

Cool building in Zoetermeer

Transfer day

Week 42: Overplaatsingen... transfer to Zoetermeer!

Hoi!

This week was of course transfer week. But it was also interview week and I also went on exchanges to Zwolle. So before I get to transfers I'll talk about the other stuff. In the beginning of the week we had an appointment with A. and T. and it went well! They are on their way back to the fold! We had a dinner appointment with N. and his family. We stayed probably longer than we should have but it was really fun. N. is probs my favourite person here!

Tuesday we had our interviews with President Bunnell. I love Prez. You can always tell that he loves you and sincerely wants to help, and not just for these 2 years but for the rest of our lives. He is great to say the least. I also made it on the Harvest Report which is like the weekly newsletter that gets sent to everybody every week. The photo of me at the graveyard got put in it! Cool stuff. It's hard to make.

My exchange with Elder Geddes, the district leader, was on Thursday.  I went to Zwolle to work there for the day. They had no appointments so we knocked for 6.5 hours. Yay. It wasn't so bad. We talked and had some good contacts although nothing promising. I was getting really mad at one point because people were being mean, haha, uhh, Dutch people. Also some people englished us which makes me more angry than anything cause like I am speaking Dutch to them then they speak English back, like why people? I obviously speak Dutch. But ya, fun times. I slept good that night. ER stayed in Emmen to work with 2 other greenies, they had a good day though. They had a dinner appointment and also found a potential investigator here in Emmen. I was glad that the weather was really nice though. Lately it has been like summer! I like it, not too hot or cold.

Friday was market day so we checked it out and I got some tourist stuff cause I was pretty sure I was leaving. I got a flag and some postcards. The market is always so cool. So many weird stands of food, and other things like linens and clothing and music and just everything. We visited these cool rocks called Hunebedden.  I included a bunch of photos of them. They are some of the oldest things here in the Netherlands, over 5000 years old.

During our weekly service appointment with T. she made dinner again and it was a type of stamppot called hutspot and it was even better than the last time, probs one of my favourite meals yet! Super good. Then that same night we got transfer calls. I was pretty nervous but usually they call at like 9:30 p.m. or even 11:30 p.m. so I wasn’t nervous at 8:00 p.m. when they called until I saw it was the Assistants calling! They talked to ER first and told him he will be going with Elder Kennel to open up Eindhoven which was previously closed. He will be in the same district as Matt! Then they told me I will be going to Zoetermeer! That's where the temple is! I will be with Elder Ballard who is from Elder Rytting's group so he is "young". I have only heard great things about him too so I am happy about it.  Even better is that I will be in a 4 man apartment. The other 2 I don't really know but they are also both younger than me mission wise. One of them is actually Matt's "child" haha [meaning Matt trained him], so I will be living in the same house as his old comp and my old comp will be in his district. I talked with Elder Tanner and he is really happy to be a district leader this next transfer! Other than that exciting news we had a lunch appointment with the other V. D.s yesterday after church which was really nice. We had pannekoeken. We will be busy these next 2 days, cleaning the apartment and making a whitewash packet, and packing of course!

Questions:
1.  What is happening with transfers?!
2.  Did you have an interview with President Bunnell this week?  How did that go?
3.  Did you go on exchanges to Zwolle?  Who did you work with?
4.  How is the work going in your area?
5.  Did you get your parcel I sent this week with your birthday presents?
6.  Do you have to lock up your bikes?  Do bikes get stolen often? Is there much crime?

1. Naar Zoetermeer!!!

2. Yes, great.

3. Yes, Geddes.

4. Decent. We watched a Mormon Message with T.

5. Yes I did! Thank you so much! I opened it and shared the chocolate with the district which they appreciated. I liked it too. The rest I will have to open on my birthday I guess. I'm excited.

6. Oh ya. The front wheel too or they might take that and you have to take the lights off or risk them getting stolen as well as seat covers or any other accessories. Emmen is a good city where bikes don't really get stolen but any of the big cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerpen and Brussles are bad. Some missionaries with nice bikes buy a secondary crap bike to use while they are serving in those cities so that their nice bike doesn't get stolen. Crime is pretty low otherwise.

That is all,

Love you lots bye!

Hunebedden

T.'s dog Lillet

Beautiful tree lined street

Fairytale path through the trees

Week 41: #LichtNL

Ya, it would have been a huge pain to replace the card! and no I am still sick and so is Elder Rytting… we have no energy because of it. No, I don't need meds, I am ok. No sadly they don't do Thanksgiving here. Ya, our teacher here also gave a good lesson on that [rescue of the Willie and Martin pioneer handcart companies], we watched a little film with it as well. My hair wasn’t even cut in those pictures haha, but it is cut now.

Questions this week:
1.  When you went to Zwolle on exchanges with the new elders did you do most of the talking? (I bet your Dutch is getting better since you’ve been the senior missionary so much).
2.  Do you speak mostly Dutch to people?  Do most Dutch people speak English?
3.  What gospel topic are you studying lately?
4.  How is the new bike light referral program going, has that started yet?
5.  What is this new survey that you are using to find new investigators?
6.  How was church yesterday?
7.  Did you get to watch any other sessions of General Conference during the week?
8.  Did you have any funny experiences this week?
9.  What do you eat at dinner appointments?  Dutch winter food, like stamppot, is so good. I’m jealous you get to eat it!

1.Ya, I did all of the talking because people would refuse to talk to the greenies, haha. I'd say that ya my Dutch is good because I have to talk but also not good because I have no one to learn from...

2. Ya, it’s almost all Dutch in this city, which is really nice. But, yes, almost all of them speak English.

3. Lately I have been reading the Leringen Van President Howard W. Hunter. Its great! I read in Dutch which is also fun. We are doing a BoM challenge where we highlight the words baptism, repentance and love. It is going well.

4. It went live a few days ago, so nothing has happened for us yet. But this week we did run around doing all the old referrals that didn’t get done so that we could do the new ones. We had some fun times with that.

5. The survey is just 10 questions about family and faith and God and then from their answers we find what would be best to talk about.

6. Great. The testimony meeting was one of the best ones I have ever been to! It went long because everyone wanted to speak, haha.

7. Yup, I’ve seen them all except priesthood meeting now.

8. No, we did have a good funny dinner appointment with the VD's though. My nickname here is now Elder Fern Gully, haha.  Elder Rytting's is Elder Happy Meal because he didn't eat the food at the VD's and they joked that he was going to get a happy meal after we left, haha.

9. Ya, we had stamppot at the VD’s, haha.

Okay, well short email today.  Love you lots.

Hou doe,

Elder Fernhout

The Belgium/Netherlands Mission Facebook initiative:

Ontdek het licht van Christus en bestel hier uw gratis fietslampjes.

http://lightyour.life

Classic Dutch treat

Sun breaking through the clouds

Oliebollen

Bicycle art

Lethbridge strength winds

biking adventures

Rain brings rainbows

Rainy Days

Cool Sun

Week 40: Ik Werd Ziek and Zone Conference in Zwolle

Well, this week wasn’t particularly special. Kinda lame actually but with some good high points. Some of the crappy things that happened were that I got sick and so did ER and I also lost the very important card that we use to travel anywhere. Buses, trains, trams, metro just anything so that sucks... but that happened only a few days ago so it hasn’t been toooo bad. [The good news is that he has now found it!]

On Tuesday we helped T. in her garden for a few hours. We moved some big tiles around and picked up a door for her, just random things that needed to be done. Wednesday we had zone conference which was definitely the high of the week. It was sick because it was combined with the zone from Amsterdam which is where E. Furniss is at. So when I got to Zwolle I got on a bus with a bunch of other missionaries but then just as the bus was pulling away I saw EF coming out of the station and it was really funny cause he made a funny face and I was like there he is!! Good moment. Then when we met at the church we talked a bunch. It was really great to see him again. I also saw a ton of others like E. Tanner who I sat beside and I saw the 2 from Matt’s group. There's just so many missionaries who I like and it was like a family reunion! Good times.

We also got a new way to contact people and they introduced a new referral program. Good stuff. Then the day after we went on exchanges with Zwolle. I went to Zwolle for the first time on an exchange and I was with 2 greenies. Our District Leader, E. Geddes, came to work in Emmen with E. Rytting. I was kinda bummed because we had a solid appointment in Emmen, as well as a dinner appointment, and then in Zwolle they had nothing… so we did a lot of doors, in the rain… but we had a good time the three of us. We even found a new investigator! We had some other good talks with people. One guy said we will talk again in 20 years and he said he knows that. So I asked him his name. It is Jan and so in 20 years I'll be lookin for him. Toeval bestaat niet! [Translation: coincidence does not exist]. The 2 greenies are E. Robinson from Boston and E. Eck from Utah, both are chill. I had never really talked to EE before but he's prettty sick. Loves skiing so we talked about that a bunch, he would fit in well with all the guys back home I think.

The next morning I was feeling really crappy but we had a pretty chill day ahead of traveling to Den Haag to pick up ER's ID card. That was a lot, a lot, of trains. We got some Subway there, then went to Leiden quick to scan his ID for the office, then we came home to Emmen, then we took another train to Coevorden to go to a dinner appointment with the Van Dammes who are a sick family. We talked about our families and Sister VD says to tell you that you are an amazing mum, haha [Sister VD sounds awesome :)]. After we took a train home. I was dead after. The next day we went to T.'s again to do service and she also fed us some food. She made stamppot! my first. It was really really good too. It had endive (lettuce stuff) and bacon bits and potatoes and that’s it. She also made some red beets in vinegar and sugar. All really good! We helped her in her garden again. It was raining the entire time though and we got really muddy, not particularly the best weather to do garden service.

Sunday we watched General Conference in the morning and then later that night with the VDs. They fed us dinner again, what is really funny though is that Zuster VD made oma soup, like it was just the same! [as the way Oma Fernhout makes it] and she said that her oma taught her and they call it oma soup, haha. So I told her about our oma soup. She thought that was super funny cause she hasn’t met anyone else who makes it like that. We had it during Conference.  Super nice of them! So I have only seen 2 sessions so far. That takes us to now.

Ya, I did hear about Elder Hales, just this morning though. I miss 7 layer dip. Oh and that's really funny that you made oma soup too! [and for General Conference as well!] haha. Noooo I can't believe we lost to Raymond!

Questions:
1. How was Zone Conference?
2. What did they feed you at zone conference?  Dutch food?
3. How much of General Conference did you get to watch?  Did you watch it from the church?  Will you get to watch the sessions you missed sometime?
4. Did you have a favourite talk from General Conference?
5. How did the missionary work go this week?  Did you find any Fernhouts?
6. What techniques are you focussing on to find people?
7. Are you able to get around on the trains and other transportation okay?

1. Good

2. Uh, it was rice and chicken curry thing, so not really Dutch no, haha. It was really good though.

3. 2 sessions, both morning sessions. One from the church and one from the VDs. Ya, we will watch them at the church this week sometime.

4. I left my notes at the house on accident but my fav was Elder Waddell's talk.

5. Decent. Not too much time for any proselyting but a little in Zwolle, and no, no Fernhouts found, haha.

6. Using this new survey, we ask people questions and then from their answers we know how to best relate the Gospel to them. I like it!

7. Haha, funny you ask that this week. The week I lose my travel card.

Dat is alles.

Algemene conferentie is Dutch for general conference, btw.

Okay love you lots bye.

Flat Lelystat

He found a hedgehog!

Elder Fernhout and his trainees

Elders Fernhout, Tanner, and Furniss photobombed by a  Zuster

Elders Fernhout, Tanner, Furniss

Elder Fernhout with Zwolle Elders

Week 39: A Visit to Nieuw Amsterdam and Deventer

Ya, I think so too! [How special it is that he is serving in the area his ancestors are from].  Ya, it does help me feel more connected to the area, I feel like I want to go out and find these relatives. One of the members here that I told about the Fernhouts looked up the grave and called the people and someone here is paying for the upkeep or something like that. It is paid for forever so it will be there a long time. I want to find out who these people are and tell them who I am, haha. I went to Nieuw Amsterdam and took photos of the graves, I’ll send them to you. Also, I found another Fernhout but I don’t think I am closely related. Ya, I searched all the graves in the Netherlands and there are a lot of Fernhouts. All over though.

Well, this week was not going to be very busy or exciting one but it turned out to be! We got a call telling us we would be going on exchanges with the ZLs [Zone Leaders] and both Elder Rytting and I would be going to Apeldoorn to work there, for a 48 hour exchange! The ZLs are great so I knew it was going to be fun and not only that but they actually live in Deventer with 2 other missionaries so there would be 6 of us there. The other two missionaries are also really cool guys, one of them (Elder Blackwell) is from Magrath. So we talked about home a lot and how hard it is to explain coulees to people, haha. Also one of the best moments of the exchange was when we were talking about Raymond then like 10 seconds after the conversation we both, in perfect sync, whispered under our breath “fetch Raymond" it was so perfect. So it was really fun to hang out with all those elders. We were going to head there Thursday morning but instead went on Wednesday night. It turned out that they were just finishing exchanges with 2 other missionaries so for the first night there were 8 of us!!! But the apartment is massive so we all fit just fine. One of the other elders was Elder Chamberlin, who is awesome.  He was in my district last transfer and he was also in Matt's [MTC] group. That night we watched the 4 original missionaries continue their game of Axis and Allies. Great time. We stayed up a little longer than we probably should have, haha.

The next day we did studies and had a chill morning, then after lunch we went off to Apeldoorn to do some work. I went with E. Enger and E. Rytting with E. Grondel for the day. We all went to this one neighbourhood then split there and went door knocking. We got a lot of work done and it was fun because EE is personable and has good Dutch. We had some good convos with people but no new investigators. The other 2 elders, however, found 2 new investigators so that was good. After about 1.5 hrs we went to another neighbourhood for a bit then to the centrum to street contact people. After that we got ijs! This week is cheap pizza week so on the way home we picked up some pizza for dinner. The next day was almost the same except we went to the church for a bit. That night we played the 6 man board game.  I got betrayed by my own companion, however, the alliance I made with EE and EB went well and EE ended up winning. Anyway, I had a great time. The next morning we left to go back home to Emmen.

Okay, on another note, I finished the Doctrine and Covenants in 9 days total. I had never read it that intensely before, only once for seminary… so it was nice to read it all again so fast. I will now begin the New Testament again which I am excited for. Although I really want to read the BOM again, haha. I will do that right after the New Testament. What I think is cool about the BOM is that it is much more pure than the Bible… the Bible has been translated so many times, for example the Holy Ghost is only mentioned 90 times in the New Testament and only a handful of times in the Old Testament. In the BOM it is mentioned over 300 times. The BOM is straight from the original words of prophets and translated one time to English by another prophet of God. I think that was cool.

Lately I have realized that if I decide to workout in the mornings it doesn’t happen so instead I workout at nights, which goes a lot better. For cardio I would like to go running but ER does not so instead I skip rope in the apartment which I really enjoy. Then in between I do exercises like pull ups and push ups and curls and dips. Skipping rope is great for indoors and I can do it in our apartment cause we are on the bottom floor.

After our exchange we came back and did some service for T. It went well, we helped her build a new path of bricks which was hard cause the path was curved so we had to get creative. Then after, I climbed on her roof to put something up there so her vines could grow… then I fixed her fence, just a bunch of random projects that needed doing. She then made us dinner which was her really good veggie and meat and rice dish. Healthy and tasty!

Questions:

1. How is your journal streak going?  Do you still write when you are staying over in other cities?
2. How did the work go this week?
3. Did you get to any other cities this week?  Did you go see your 2x great grandfather's gravesite in Nieuw Amsterdam?
4. Where is your zone conference this week?
5. When are transfer calls?
6. Did you have some good dinner appointments this week?  Do you have good visits with the families?
7. What topic are you studying in your personal study time?

1. 100 percent still, sometimes I have to catch up the day after but it's still good. Ya, when we sleep over sometimes I just write on a paper I find and then tape it into my journal when I get back.

2. Well we worked a lot in Apeldoorn, but it went well there. We are using this survey that works really well.

3. Yes and I went there already, haha. It’s only 15 min away and we worked in that little dorpje [town] for the day so it all worked out well.

4. It will be in Zwolle which is nice, not too far away. Also I get to see Elder Furniss!!

5. Saturday the 14 of next month.

6. No we didn't but we were gone, just T. This next week though we have some good ones!! Also, I am pumped for General Conference!!

7. The language and the D&C, and also how to explain the Gospel on door contacts. All kinds of things.

The word this week is, if you want to say “is that allowed?” you just say “mag dat” which literally translated means "may that?"  It's nice when Dutch is shorter than English!

That is all, tot ziens.

Hou doe

Elder Fernhout

Deventer

Dope orange cat

Fernhout gravestone

Elder Fernhout's 2x Great Grandfather Fernhout

Grey sky over Emmen

A rainy day