Week 11: (In a mosque) "...are you guys converts?!"

August 26, 2013

Well, it's about that time again. Time to try to connect with the real world.

This week was a little slower than the past few weeks, but it was definitely a good week. Started off well -- Elder Eastmond and I set a baptismal date with the investigator from last week, the one with the dream. And, that's just a snippet of what's happening in Kortrijk. This city is on FIRE. (Not literally, my constantly soaked body is telling me that may not even be possible for this city.) But seriously, the Lord is doing work here, and I'm blessed to be a part of it.

So get this -- Elder Eastmond and I are basically the coolest Christians in Kortrijk right now. At least, in the eyes of Kortrijk's large Muslim community. I guess I need to start the story on Wednesday evening...

On Wednesday, Elder Eastmond and I ended up having hardly any time in Kortrijk. We had zone training that morning/early afternoon, so we were in Antwerpen until about 4 PM. We hopped on the train, headed back to Kortrijk, and got there around 6.30 PM. After getting home and eating some dinner, we hit the streets to find some people and do some lookups. We run into this Somalian guy (not a pirate) and start talking to him. He's Muslim, and we're having a good discussion. Then, two of his buddies show up (also Somalians). We sit on a bench, talk for about 45 minutes. Then, they invite us to go to their prayer service on Friday. Woah. We ask them if they'd go to church with us sometime if we went with them. They said for sure. We agree, then head off.

Between then and Friday, Elder Eastmond calls our mission president, President Robinson, to see if something like this is even allowed. Turns out, it is, and President thought "it would be a good experience." So, we meet up with these "brothers," and head over to the mosque with about seven Somalian Muslims, one of which is acting as a sort of tour guide. We take off our shoes and walk in the mosque, the only one in Kortrijk. There are literally hundreds of Muslim men in this mosque. They all start praying, and it was basically the coolest thing ever. We were there for half an hour or so - the only two non-members there. After it ended, pretty much everyone shook our hands. One kid, eight or nine years old, came to us and said, "Zijn jullie bekeerlingen?!" (Are you guys converts?!) Nee, alleen bezoekers (no, only visitors). It was pretty great. Afterwards, the Somalian crew had us over for dinner, and we had a good discussion with the "brothers." They all agreed to come with us to church next Sunday, and they were sincere. They had some serious respect for us after we went to their church.

Fast forward to that evening, and beyond -- almost every relatively devout Muslim man in Kortrijk knows Elder Eastmond and me now. And they all wave at us, shake our hands, or acknowledge us in some way. We feel like superstars. It's the best thing ever. They used to give us weird looks. Now they smile at us as friends.

Life is good. Transfer calls come next week, and Elder Eastmond and I are praying that we both stay here to see all the baptisms that will inevitably happen in Kortrijk next transfer. I love the people in this city. But, my address may (but probably won't) change as of next Wednesday. We'll see. I'll know by next Monday, and I'll keep you all posted. Thank you to everyone who has written me -- letters here are few and far between, so they're so great to get. Remember, three forever stamps, and it'll get here!

Tot volgende keer. Stay true.

Elder Bonney

Week 10: "This isn't funny. I left my bike right there."

Hello again! Another week is done already, seriously? By the end of this week I'll have been in Belgium for a month. Time flies when you're doing WORK!

Let me start with a short story that exemplifies the frequently shown attitude here. So on Tuesday, I was on exchanges in Sint-Niklaas, another city in our district (yes, with the same name as Santa). I was with Elder Pouwer, another greenie who was in my MTC district. That in itself was a cool experience -- doing real work with someone I was taught with back in the MTC. Anyway, we're out doing some street contacting. We contact this girl who's just sitting in the town centrum. We introduce ourselves, then this guy, holding a glass of beer, who is walking a few meters away with his buddy sees us. He yells, "Americans?" "Yeah!!" responds Elder Pouwer, enthusiastically. Oops. This guy yells some unrepeatable things about us and our country, the tries (unsuccessfully) to throw his beer on us. Since that doesn't work, he throws his beer glass itself directly at us. Fortunately, we dodge it, and he misses again. But, he did hit the window behind us, shattering it. He hurries away with his buddy. Then Elder Pouwer and I finish talking to this girl like nothing had happened. It was a weird experience. So, yes, people in Belgium aren't always the nicest.

On Wednesday, all the recently new missionaries went to Brussels for legality reasons, so I got to see my MTC buddies again! It was an awesome reunion. It's like they were all in a different country or something. Oh wait... They were. Shared some stories, caught up a little, then we were torn apart again. So is it.

Elder Eastmond and I are tearing it up here in Kortrijk. There are definitely people here who are ready for the gospel. Cool experience -- we were teaching this one lady (one of the many who are so ready for the gospel), and she said she'd had a question for years. After ten minutes with her, she said we'd answered it. She also told us of a dream she'd had two weeks before (I won't go into detail, it's a special thing), and she saw Elder Eastmond and me in a dream. I speak the truth. We challenged her to baptism and she accepted. The message we share is real.

So, there has been this summer festival going on in Kortrijk for the past three days. It's been pretty crazy. And I'm not sure what happened, but somehow, sometime yesterday my fiets (bike) was stolen. MIJN FIETS WERD GESTOLEN. I think Satan stole it.

Keep cool. Tot volgende week.

--Elder Bonney

PS -- I finally remembered to send some pics. First one is me with Elder Eastmond and a guy from Gementee Kortrijk, Aaron Leman, at his farewell. Now he's in the South Africa MTC. He's a stud.

The other picture is my district, all of west Flanders. It was P-day and we went to a sweet castle in Gent. Everyone else is wearing normal clothes because they planned to play frisbee afterwards. And forgot to tell us Kortrijk elders. Because they hate us. And I don't know what my companion is doing (he calls it his "thug face," I think he does it to make friends).

Week 9: "Yeah, I think we might be in France."

August 12, 2013

Hey everyone!

The weeks go by pretty quickly now - I can't believe it's already been a week!

This week's email is actually going to be pretty short (please, contain your disappointment). We have a lot to do today and not much time to do it.

So, the work in Kortrijk is going super well. Elder Eastmond and I have found so many new investigators. We've taught so many first lessons, in Dutch and English. It's great, and I can understand lots of Flams now.

My companion and I have been going on TONS of exchanges. Since he's the district leader, we do exchanges all the time. On Thursday, I stayed in Kortrijk for the exchange (for the first time - before, I'd always gone to the other area). So I was in charge for the first time. I realized I didn't know my way around the area as well as I thought I did... I ended up getting us lost for two hours in the summer heat in the countryside. He got sunburned... and then eaten by misquitoes that night, because I forgot to shut the window. That elder loves me, I know it.

Oh yeah -- while going to an appointment in Menen (right on the French border), Elder Eastmond and I unintentionally ended up in France itself. We didn't realize it until we weren't in it anymore and we looked back. Thank you, country borders in the EU.

I need to bounce now, so I'll have time to send some personal emails before I get kicked off the computer. Be obedient, everyone. Don't get into trouble. Until next week.

--Elder Bonney

Week 8: "Wanna see my tattoo?"

August 5, 2013

Hallo iedereen!

This week has gone by so quickly, but it feels like forever since I last emailed. I am loving it here in Belgium -- it gets better everyday. It's still hard for me to realize that I'm a real missionary. But, I am; missionary work is happening.

We've taught a wide variety of people here in Kortrijk and in its surrounding area. I am understanding more and more every day, getting used to the dialect. I'm not too hard on myself, because I've met people from northern Belgium and the Netherlands who say they can't even understand this western dialect of Flams spoken in my area. There was one inactive member here that we taught my second day here -- I didn't understand a thing. We met with him again on Thursday, and I could understand, like, most of what he said. It was amazing. I realized that maybe I can speak to these people.

Cool experience of the week -- my companion and Elder Pouwer (on splits) ran into this inactive member, around 40, from Chile on the street. They made an appointment with him. Before we went to visit thim the next day, we were warned not to go to his apartment by an elder who had served in our area before. He said this guy had innappropriate pictures all over his walls. We still went. And he had pornography on his walls. (Don't be mistaken, that was not the cool experience.) We looked dead into his eyes as to not unintentionally see any of that stuff. He also had beer cans and cigarettes all over the place. We say an opening prayer -- guy starts bawling in the middle. Tells us about a near death experience he recently had -- super similar to Alma the younger's conversion experience in the Book of Mormon. He says he wants to change badly. We told him to start by cleaning up his apartment. This man immediately gets up and rips all the porn off his walls. This was Friday. He went with us to church on Sunday for the first time in 20 years. Miracles happen.

Also, we were teaching an investigator about 50 meters away from France in the city of Menen. We asked him (this dude is like 70) how he shows his love for Jesus Christ. He stands up and takes his shirt off to show us a tattoo of Christ over his heart. Yum.

Keep it real. The Church is true.

--Elder Bonney

Week 7: "You speak good Dutch. You just don't understand anything we say, do you?"

July 29, 2013

Hallo iedereen!!

 

I'm still trying to get used to these foreign keyboards, so bear with me. I don't have much time, so this won't be too too long.

 

Yes, I am here in Europe! Just not in the Netherlands. My first area is about six miles away from the French border, in Kortrijk, Belgium! Out of the 29 new missionaries who arrived six days ago with me, 7 were sent to Belgium. I was one of the chosen ones. Kortrijk is about as fqr South as you can get in my mission; the rest of Belgium is part of a French mission.

 

Down here they speak a dialect of Dutch, called Flemish (Flams). And it is NOT the language I was taught in the MTC. Main differences I've noticed -- they don't use the gutteral G, they hiss their G's? and whenever you'd make a V sound in Dutch, you make a W sound in Flams. Weird. Flams speakers in Kortrijk (it is seriously a dialect within a dialect) all talk very fast and slur their words together. Seasoned missionairies all say Kortrijk is one of the hardest places to understand Flams. A guy at church yesterday told me (in English): "you speak good Dutch. You just don't understand anything we say, do you?"

 

Yay.

 

Needless to say, I rarely understand people when they talk here. And I have a pretty decent grasp on the Dutch language (I was talking to people in Flemish in Antwerpen earlier today). So, that's kind of rough. But, other than that, life is good!

 

I don't have much more time, so what's belangrijk...

 

--My trainer/companion is Elder Eastmond, a short guy from Utah (surprise) with a good heart and work ethic. He's also the District Leader, so we get to go on splits with other compânionships a bit. That's cool.

 

--It rains a lot. I've gotten soaked more than once. We bike a lot. I was left a bike by the last elder here who went home.

 

--Elder Eastmond and I are whitewashing Kortrijk, so we're both brand new here. That's exciting and interesting.

 

OH, my address! Letters are awesome. You can send mail internationally with three US forever stamps.

 

Elder John Bonney

Jan Persijnstraat 20/B3 bus 1

8500 Kortrijk

Belgium

 

I haven't had contact with the outside world for a week now, and I have little time to email, so letters are always welcome.

 

Basically, I'm always tired, missionary life is busy and great, and I'm in Belgium. It's hotter than I thought it would be. Oh, and like 15 percent of people here speak French, not Flams, so we street contact in French (which my comp speaks none of and I've largely forgotten), Flams, And English.

 

Life is exciting.

 

Tot ziens,

Elder Bonney

Week 5, Last Week at the MTC: "There's no way that plane is gonna crash with 29 missionaries on board."

July 16, 2013

"God's gift to you is who you are. Your gift to God is who you become."

This quote was sent to another elder in my district by his brother. It's message is so simple, yet powerful. My purpose as a missionary is to "invite others to come unto Christ." Now, I like to think of my second (lesser, but still important) purpose as starting to become someone new -- paying back my Heavenly Father for all He has given me.

I can't believe another week has come and gone -- I entered the MTC over a month ago, but it seems like I haven't been here for so long. I have learned so much here. My testimony has been strengthened in so many aspects. However, I am ready to get out in the mission field. I don't think I've ever been so excited and so scared for anything else in my entire life (not even for the first date I ever went on. Never thought I'd be more scared than that).

My district got our flight plans this past Thursday! We report to the MTC travel office on Monday, July 22, at 7:30 AM. As I've said before, there are 10 missionaries in my district, but 28 total missionaries in my zone going to the Belgium/Netherlands mission. And, we are all on the same flight to Amsterdam. Apparently there is a mystery missionary no one in my zone has ever met who is going to our mission too (he's an advanced speaker, I think), and he's flying with us too. So there are 29 of us on the same flight. To top it off, it's a non-stop flight. We take off from Salt Lake at 11:10 AM, and we arrive at around 8:30 AM the next morning (with the 8 hour time difference). 13.5 hours of fun with the greatest airline known to man. Delta.

Last Wednesday, my district had the opportunity to help "host" the incoming, new missionaries. It was great! It's weird to think that, just four weeks before, that was me being dropped off at the curb, looking up to my host like he knew everything about the MTC. I mean, he'd been there for five weeks! How can you survive five weeks? Well, now I know. My only question now is... how did he survive five weeks learning Spanish, when Dutch is probably superior in every way? How could you be content with your MTC stay when you see the happiness of the Dutchies, those fortunate missionaries learning the best language known to man, and you still have to learn...Spanish? Some questions are never meant to be answered, I guess. Anyway, I got to host three new missionaries - two going to Mexico, and one going to Idaho. Seeing the surprise/shock/amazement of the new missionaries reminded me how much I'd grown since coming here. I'm so happy that they will have the same opportunity I've had. We get to host again tomorrow, our last Wednesday here at the MTC!

--Disclaimer, for speakers and advocates of Spanish-- Although I openly insulted the Spanish language, I was in no way sincere in what I said. I think Spanish is a beautiful language. Just one I don't understand.

One funny mistake -- we were practicing our Dutch sentence structure and verb conjugations, and the elder I was practicing with tried to share a sentence we came up with. The sentence originally was "I run to the bathroom to use it." In Dutch, there are two words -- gebruiken (to use) and getuigen (to testify). He accidentally said "I run to the bathroom to testify of it." The teacher was pretty confused.

I actually don't have much more to say this week. The days are mostly the same -- no other funny mistakes that are appropriate enough to share, no new discoveries about the MTC. Just ready for my last six days. Although my basketball skills have increased greatly from my productive gym times, I am ready to do what I was called to do. One week from this moment, I will be in Nederland! Probably already with my first companion.

Note -- if you're going to write me, remember that I won't get any DearElders sent past 12:30 PM on Friday and the last day we get snailmail is Saturday. Anything that arrives after that I WON'T GET. I'd LOVE to get letters, especially this week of all weeks, because I'll have 13.5 hours on a plane to write back. So please please please. Even if you send me an email, and include your address at the end -- I should be able to get on email one last time before we leave real quick to print off emails (since we leave on our mission p-day and the day before our MTC p-day). I'll respond!!

That's all for now! Next email you get from me will be sent from Europe! I'm not sure how soon after arriving I'll be able to email, but we'll see.

Remember -- God's already given you who you are. What are you going to give Him back?

Veel liefs,

Elder Bonney

 My awesome district on our Sunday temple walk! From left to right, Elders -- Moomey, Pouwer, Bean, Price, Bonney, Cook; left to right, Zusters -- Greenwell, Thorley, Brophy, Reeder.

Five of us District 37-G Elders, showing some pride for the Belgium/Netherlands Mission. Elder Price and I are holding the Belgian flag, Cook and Moomey have the Netherlands flag, and Pouwer is a little lost.

Week 4, still at the MTC -- "Too Bad, Peanut Cheese"

July 9, 2013

Goede dag, iedereen!

I can't believe it's already time to send another email. Sometimes, in the classroom, the days are like weeks, but oftentimes, the weeks themselves feel like days. I can't believe I've been in the MTC for almost a month. Two weeks from now, I will be in the Netherlands! I have a feeling these next two weeks will fly by. This Friday, all us missionaries in my district get our travel plans for our flight to the Netherlands -- I'm so excited!

So, this past week included the 4th of July. The MTC announced a special 4th of July program for that night, which entailed watching the LDS film "17 Miracles," a movie about the struggles of the early Mormon pioneers, and going outside on the MTC campus to watch fireworks. The movie was extremely good -heartbreaking at times, but good. Just to see the trials and persecution the early Mormon pioneers went through, what they sacrificed, makes me feel like this two year sacrifice is the least I could give. After the movie, we got to watch BYU's 'Stadium of Fire' fireworks (from within the confines of the MTC fence, of course). We could hear the crowd cheering. It was a nice reminder that there are other, normal people out in the world...

De Nederlands taal (the Dutch language) is still coming along. I feel like I can say a lot, feel like I can communicate, but I fear that July 23, the day I arrive in the Netherlands, is going to hit me like a brick in the face. Our teachers are so great, though -- Broeder Klippel and Zuster Moses put up with the ten of us missionaries (especially the six of us elders -- long hours in the klaslokaal have us crazy sometimes) in the best of times (cooperative, alert, soaking it all in) and the worst of times (dozing off, not paying attention, dozing off...). I honestly envy and admire their patience. They have taught us so much, and both of them, having served in the Belgium/Netherlands mission, are so in love with those people. It is great to hear them talk about their experiences there, and it gets us really excited -- sometimes on days when we really need it. I just know that those two were such great missionaries, so lost in the work.

My district is on fire (figuratively speaking). We get so much studying and language study done, and one of our teachers has told us we've learned more than the other districts -- by the end of this week, we will have covered just about all the language material in our MTC basic language book, a week early. We just need to master all the concepts. How hard can it be? Probably just as hard as the brick of Dutch that's going to hit me in the face in two weeks.

My companion is still as interesting as ever. He often wanders off frequently without telling me where he's going, and I have to spend a few minutes finding him. And, his constant off-key singing is killing me. KILLING me. But, he's growing in the MTC, and he is going to be one diligent, enthusiastic greenie. I wish his first companion in the field, his trainer, luck with bridling his excitement. His Dutch gets better every day (though he says "good job" and "good luck" in Dutch when he gets excited about something -- even if it has nothing to do with the situation. It's a work in progress).

This past week, my testimony of the restoration has grown so much. I have no doubt in my mind that Joseph Smith was divinely called to be a prophet, and that he translated the Book of Mormon with the power of God. Learning more about what he went through, the faith he had to have to make it through his trials -- how could the man not be a man of God. There is no doubt in my mind.

That's all for this week! Next Tuesday will probably be my last email before I get to the Netherlands. Also, thank you to everyone who has sent me letters or DearElders -- you are the best. If you're planning on sending me a letter anytime soon, the last day I'll be able to receive letters is not this Saturday, but the next -- July 20.

Oh, and "too bad, peanut cheese?" Well, this past week, we learned that a common phrase is "helaas pindakaas" (pronounced 'hey lass, pend a kass'). It translates directly into "too bad, peanut cheese." In Nederland, they call peanut butter 'peanut cheese.' What's up with that, anyway? Well, they say it because it rhymes. Go figure.

Jullie zijn geweldig!! Have a great week. Until next week!

Veel liefs,

Elder Bonney

PS. No pictures this week. But, you can imagine me doing something, as you see fit. Just as good as a picture, ja?

Week 3 at the MTC -- "They only keep Canadian speakers here for 2 weeks?"

July 2, 2013

Goede daag, iedereen!

This past week has flown by -- I can't believe it's already P-day again! The days go by so quickly here. Today marks halfway through the MTC for my district - 20 days from today, and we'll be out of here, on our way to Nederland. While I like it here at the Missionary Training Center, I cannot WAIT to get to Europe.

This past week has been a slow week, but I'll share what I can.

The language is great! The Lord truly blesses His missionaries. I've seen the gift of tongues exhibited by so many missionaries here -- the amount of Nederlands my district can speak would not be possible without the Lord's help. It's amazing. There are hard days, and there are great days, but overall we've learned so much! The other day, some members of another Dutch district were sitting on our benches (yes, our district is kind of clique-y -- what can I say, we're close, and we like our benches), so we had a sort of "Dutch - off" and the elders in my district and I ended up telling some crazy story about how, once upon a time... A missionary tried to escape from the MTC, but he got caught. The upset MTC president cursed him and put his soul in a duck body (for those who aren't Mormon, no, that kind of thing does NOT actually happen in our church). Then killed the duck (don't ask). Now there is a duck spirit that roams the MTC campus. And we told that story almost completely in Dutch (and this was almost a week ago).

So, the other day, I ran into an old friend, Carlos Longo (well, Elder Longo now), who's here brushing up on his already fluent Portuguese before heading to NYC. I hadn't seen him for three years or so, then ran into him in the MTC cafeteria. We've had a few good chats since then. It's stuff like that that makes you think how far you've come in a relatively short amount of time -- in Elder Longo's words, "it seems like not that long ago we were just kids, running around the stake center." It was amazing how much we both had matured over the past few years.

We saw another batch of newbies enter last Wednesday -- the amount of languages taught at the MTC is astounding. One of my district's elders met someone, and asked him where he was going. The new elder responded, jokingly, "Canada. Speaking Canadian." After the elder in my district asked him how long he was here -- 2 weeks, the standard amount for English-speaking missionaries -- the elder in my district got this puzzled look, and said, "they only keep you here for two weeks learning Canadian??" After a few seconds of contemplation, he realized his mistake. But, it was pretty funny nonetheless.

My companion, Elder Price, and I have two more onderzoekers -- Roos and Jan (still our teachers, Zuster Moses and Broeder Klippel, role-playing real investigators from their missions). They are progressing investigators, and we teach them each twice a week. Every lesson gets a little better, even though our teacher-onderzoekers now pretend to not know English at all, so if we don't know a word, we...can't use it. It's painful at times, but really good. We teach a discussion almost every day now. Which means we are preparing for discussions a lot of the time. I've found that, the more I study the gospel (in English and Dutch) to share with others, the more I love the small and simple truths that I take for granted. My testimony has grown so much since being here. 

In my never-ending quest for an Adonis-like body, there have been a few roadblocks. MTC food is one of them. It probably (definitely) isn't the most healthy stuff on the planet, and it's all you can eat, every day. I try to restrain myself. Also, sitting in a classroom for most of the day is pretty rough too. We do have an hour to exercise every day, though, which is nice. Though I spend lots of that hour playing basketball on our gym days (three times a week). Either way, I've lost five pounds. Not sure how I feel about that.

The elders and my district are becoming a tighter group every day (9+ hours in a classroom will do that to you). The six of us have become quite the musical bunch, too -- we have started singing spontaneous a capella numbers together (not having any music to listen to drives you to things you thought you'd never do). And hey, we're actually pretty good. Our rendition of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is something I'm proud of. There are other times, too, in the middle of class, when one of us will start tapping our pen..then someone else joins in...and before you know it, you have STOMP going on in the middle of MTC's building 14M.

Thank you so much to all those who have written me! I really appreciate the time and effort that goes into your letters. I've gotten a few questions about how to use DearElder this past week. I cannot access the site from the MTC, but from what I remember, all you have to do is make an account using an email address (it's free to make an account), and then you go to send a letter to the Provo-MTC main campus (not West Campus). My unit/box number is 331 and my departure date is July 22. My mission is Belgium/Netherlands (BEL-NETH). This is all free. If it's not free, you're not doing it right! So, let me know if you have any questions. Letters are ALWAYS welcome (plus, I feel cool when I get more mail than the other elders, too, though it's tough to top Elder Cook).

Ik hou van zendeling leven! Het is een goede leven. Soms makelijk, soms moeilijk, maar altijd de best. De Nederlands is goed -- alles is mogelijk met de hulp van Hemelse Vader! Ik weet dat Hij van zijn zendelingen houd -- ik heb dat hier gezien. Wij kunnen alles door Jezus Christus doen! Ik weet dat dat waar is. Ik hou van de kerk -- ik weet dat het waar is! Daarom ben ik hier!

That's all for this week -- until next time! Oh, and have a happy 4th of July this Thursday. I'll enjoy it from the confinements of the MTC campus. (Three more weeks!)

Tot ziens,

Elder Bonney

L2R, Elder Montgomery, me, and Elder Blackhurst. The three of us were in the same freshman ward at BYU. Elder Montgomery and I actually met months before I even decided to go to BYU. We've been good friends ever since

These are the elders in my district (along with the two Icelandic-learning missionaries, who are basically a part of our district), trying to appreciate some of the few precious moments we have outside after class at the end of the day. You have to enjoy the little things.