Week 25: "Oh, of course! You're American. You guys can't ride bikes!"

December 2, 2013

Hey, guys!

I can't believe that it's already December. I remember sitting in the MTC with my buddies, and we were all talking about how we would just need to make it to Christmas. It seemed so far away! Now, Christmas is in a little over three weeks. It's crazy how time has flown.

This past week has been good. It didn't exactly fly by, but it was a good week. Elder Nelson and I haven't had to go through any real adjustment period with each other -- we've been sharing an apartment for the past six weeks, so this new transfer wasn't a huge change. It is different, not having the other two elders here anymore. It's a little lonely. I miss Elder Besendorfer and Elder England -- it was good having some second-transfer missionary spunk in the apartment. But, Elder Nelson and I keep things lively. We will see success together.

Now that there is only one companionship of elders in Groningen, we've combined our investigators, and those appointments have kept us pretty busy. We're working with a few investigators who are preparing for baptism, working with miracles that happened in our respective companionships at the end of last transfer, and we're starting to see some of our own. Except the first day we had together was...an adventure.

Elder Nelson and I have decided to do this thing where, when we go out finding, we can't come back unless we have at least one potential. Elder Nelson suggested it, and I thought, no biggie. Elder Besendorfer and I always got potential investigators pretty easy. So, when we headed out in the morning, we went to go do some finding. We talked to people. And we talked to more people. And we talked to more people. We almost got some information..but we didn't. An hour went by. Two hours went by. The time we planned to take lunch went by, minute by minute. By this point, Elder Nelson (mind you, he's a big guy who likes his food) and I (a slightly smaller guy who likes his food too) are going crazy. We just want to go home and eat. So, we are talking to EVERYONE. Literally, everyone. It was crazy. We were desperate, but we realized that if we let our desperation show, no one would want to make an appointment. We finally got a number from this one younger woman. I ended up having the best contacting day of my mission. And, we rewarded ourselves by going out to Subway. Even though, they have a six euro thirty centimeter sub, instead of a five-dollar foot-long, it still tasted a little like BYU Subway. Nice.

Later that same day... I was hit by a car. Yes, a car t-boned me on my bike. I had to go to the hospital, and I broke my leg. Okay, stop gasping -- that was a lie. I didn't have a scratch on me, miraculously enough. My bike, on the other hand...well, the damage done to the back wheel rendered the bike unusable. Great. This Asian, middle-aged guy gets out of the car, and we start to have a rapid-fire argument in Dutch. Great. The driver (who turns out to be his also Asian, also middle-aged wife) pulls the car over and gets out, starts apologizing, then sees my name-tag and realizes that I'm not Dutch. She goes, "oh, of course! You're American. You guys can't ride bikes!" Implying, of course, that Americans don't know how to ride bikes. You all will be proud to know that I held back any racially insensitive comments about her ethnicity and her driving. It's not like there are jokes about Asian driving or anything. Even though we never agreed on whose fault it was, we apologized and went our separate ways. I locked my bike to a nearby pole. I ended up having to buy a new wheel (go figure) that costed just as much as my used bike had. Greeaaat. But, so is it. It's not like that was my sixth bike accident on my mission or anything...

Two of our investigators who have baptismal dates came to church this past Sunday! It was definitely a miracle. One of them (she's around 40 and from Curacao) hadn't ridden a bike in about 20 years...and she rode one to go to church! Oh my goodness. I just about died, it was so great. And, I got to witness the BEST fellowshipping ever at church that day. One family just took her under their wing and were SO helpful. It's always good to see people who are friendly too investigators at church. It makes me feel great.

I have to go. But, you all have a great week! Also, Tex asked us to dance again yesterday. Go figure.

Stay true!

--Elder Bonney

PS -- The Book of Mormon. Pure pleasure is inside. I may or may not be standing in front of an ad with George Clooney holding a coffee cup.