November 18, 2013
Hey guys!
This week went by pretty quickly too... Wow. Some days feel like they will never end, but somehow I'm surprised at how quickly the week went by. It's funny how time works.
So last week (not this past week, but the one before) was a REALLY good week. Elder Besendorfer and I taught a lot, and we got a lot of work done. This week...not so good. At least, that's what numbers would tell you. But numbers don't mean a thing, right? It was a good week. Though, there isn't that much to write about. I'll do my best to appease you all.
My companion and I have this one investigator, and he has had a baptismal date for a while. (It's relatively far out, though -- I think he wants to make us work for it.) We'd made an appointment for Monday, but...he called and canceled. Helaas pindakaas. We optimistically rescheduled for the next day. Again...canceled. Again, rescheduled for the next day. Third time is a charm, right? No. Called. We rescheduled for the next day (you can tell we really care about this guy -- if a girl back home stood me up three times, I definitely wouldn't try for a fourth time...). We came by Thursday morning. Turns out, our investigator had been looking for a job (this we knew -- getting a job would really help his life out, help him start following the commandments and alles). He had found a job, and he had been in the training process! Also, he had had to go to the hospital because he was pretty sick, and then he sprained his wrist, so when we finally met with him, his arm was in a cast... In conclusion, he hadn't just been whimsically canceling his appointments. We sat down with him, talked with him, and he still really wants to be baptized. We laid out everything he would have to change to be baptized (including the often overlooked but undeniably crucial *church attendance*). He said he was willing to do it. I have to say, I doubted a little. He hadn't been to church in months (he's been investigating for a while). We show up to church...he isn't there. Go figure. We finish the first hour and pop out into the hallway -- who do we see, but our investigator, walking in the door. That was fantastic. To top it off, we had two other investigators in church on Sunday. It was great. In conclusion -- don't give up SO easily. Who knows, your investigator may have gotten sick, sprained his arm, and then been in a work-training program.
You know what's cool? The temple. Our mission president has said that being baptized is like walking into Disneyland -- it's cool and everything, you're in Disneyland! But why did you come to Disneyland? To just stand around? I'm sure there are exceptions to this rule (who are probably rolling their eyes right now -- yes, I'm sure you have a justifiably traumatizing experience with rollercoasters in your past), but (generalization warning) most people go to Disneyland to get on the rides! And THAT is what the temple is. Baptism is just the first step. The temple is the real goal.
Of course, I have a story daarmee. So, Bessie and I are sitting in our apartment, in our weekly planning session. We decided we need to visit more less-active members. But who... This one member, who I had met once before, popped into my mind. He's about 30, lives with his girlfriend and his daughter. Doesn't come to church that much (I've seen him there once). Anyways, we call him up. We want to come over sometime. Sure thing, when? Whenever is best for you. Tomorrow? Tomorrow it is. So, we went over the next day. We started off by asking him if he wanted to go to the temple someday. And when. He said yes. And relatively soon. I asked him if he had any problems with any of the commandments (gotta get this guy temple worthy!) and...*drum roll please* he and his girlfriend had decided to separate, because she wasn't happy in the relationship! Now, I know I sound like Johnny raincloud over here, but bear with me -- I'm not excited about his probably broken heart, or the fact that he'll only get to see his daughter a couple times a week, or...wow, I'm starting to think this isn't a great thing anymore... But, he will be living all the commandments now! Well on the way to being temple worthy. And, he brought his mom AND his aunt to church the other Sunday. In regards to his girlfriend, I feel justified in saying that he's losing something good for something better. I mean, you can't get much better than the temple.
Also, Saturday was Sinterklaas, an annual holiday here in the Netherlands. Basically, he comes up from Spain once a year on the Saturday after Sint Maartin (another holiday, that happened on Monday). Sinterklaas, that is. He's like Santa Claus, but he isn't (Santa is the Kerstman here -- who they say is the brother of Sinterklaas). Anyway, when Sinterklaas sailed up from Spain to the Netherlands this year, he sailed into Groningen. While my comp and I were trying to contact people by the centrum. Needless to say, no one wanted to listen to us. But, it was cool to see Sinterklaas sail in...it was a huge celebration, and it was broadcast all over the Netherlands. Also, there were little "Zwarte Piet" people everywhere -- Zwarte Piet is a comrade of Sinterklaas, and he takes the bad kids with him back to Spain, where they work in the coal mines, and the coal dust makes their faces black. People really like to dress up like them. They also throw these little gingerbread things (about the size of coins) at people. I never thought I'd get gingerbread thrown at me while riding my bike. Go figure.
Until next week. In the meanwhile, don't let Zwarte Piet bring you back to Spain.
--Elder Bonney
No comments:
Post a Comment