December 9, 2013
Yes, I stole that from a train conductor. Anyway, this past week has been good! It was a slow week, I can't lie. A lot of appointments fell through, and the weather was AWFUL. But hey, just another day in the life... It was a good week, though.
So yeah, the weather. It has been getting progressively worse. Last Thursday (which was the Dutch holiday of Sinterklaas!), we got texts from members telling us to watch out and that the weather was code red. Great. After an appointment fell through, we were walking to Groningen Centraal to catch a bus. It was raining, but we figured we could make it before it got too bad. Mistake. It started to hail. And, I'm not talking little, fun hail. This was painful hail. It was traumatizing. It stopped hailing soon after and just started raining, but the weather didn't get much better. It snowed the next day. Since then, we've had lots of cold rain and wind. To top it off, I lost my gloves sometime at the beginning of this transfer, so I don't have any right now. Saturday night was the worst... It was way cold and windy, and it wouldn't stop raining. I was soaked. My hands hate me.
Sinterklaas! I've already told a little bit about Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet... Sinterklaas is like Santa Claus, but he isn't. Apparently the Americans stole Sinterklaas and turned him into Santa Claus (who Dutch people call the "Kerstman" -- literally translates into "Christmas man"). Apparently Santa is Sinterklaas' brother. It's weird. Anyway, Sinterklaas brings gifts on the 5th of December. And, our ward mission leader and his wife invited us and the Groningen zusters over for Sinterklaas...he brought us gifts too! It was great. We had a super fun night with them. My best Sinterklaas yet.
Funny story. Elder Nelson and I have this one investigator from Cape Verde. Middle-aged, manly black dude. He's an honest seeker of truth if I've ever seen one -- he's read a lot in the Book of Mormon, and each appointment he has new and insightful questions. He notices things the average reader doesn't notice. He's not trying to prove it wrong -- he just wants to be sure that he doesn't take the wrong path. Good on him. He's great. We had a good lesson with him this past Friday, and he said the closing prayer, as usual. He said a good prayer, but then to close it off, he seemed a little lost for words, and then he said (in Dutch)... "And..and I wish you a fine evening up there. Amen."
I gave a talk yesterday -- my first sacrament meeting talk on my mission! I was supposed to give one in Kortrijk, but the first time I was supposed to give it, it was canceled due to a visit from a member of the stake presidency (who spoke instead). The second time I was supposed to give it...I got transferred. But, I did get to give one up in Groningen! It was on testimony. It really showed me how much help the Lord has given me with this language. I gave a fifteen minute talk, and the language wasn't even an issue. I was more worried about giving a good talk than anything else -- I didn't have to worry about it being in Dutch. Less than six months ago, I walked into the MTC, not speaking Dutch at all. Yesterday, I taught investigators' class and gave a talk, both in Dutch. The Lord won't require anything of us that He won't help us accomplish. It's amazing.
By the way, my six-month mark is this week. I'm about 1/4 the way through. Crazy, huh?
Keep it real.
--Elder Bonney
PS -- Elder Nelson and I, during a great ending to a rough day, with our gifts from Sinterklaas.
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