Week 42: "I can't stop! I have no brakes!"

March 31, 2014

Dames en heren, jongens en meisjes, omas en opas...

I'm sure you've heard it around, and I'm here to tell you that, yes, the word on the street is true. The curses have been broken, and I will be staying in Lelystad for a third transfer, my second with Elder Goates. For the first time on my mission, I'll stay in a city for more than three months, and I'll be with a companion for more than six weeks.

You may applaud.

This past week was, as usual, a good one. Spring is here -- you can smell it in the air and feel it on your skin. It's pretty rejuvenating, and it makes you want to be outside and tell everyone how they, too, could be as happy as you are! Yeah! Funny thing, though. We've been wearing sweaters and/or jackets all winter long (layers, baby), and suddenly, we can go outside in just our white shirts. I hadn't realized just how much we hadn't been sticking out until we started sticking out again. I think a white shirt and a tie can look pretty classy, but some of these Dutch people stare at us like we have and extra limb. Fortunately, that doesn't stop us.

As a missionary, there are things that you need to worry about that don't pertain to the work itself -- not saying that the work isn't our focus, but there are things we need to do to make life more than just going through the motions. This includes keeping your meals exciting. I have a small personal dream of helping invent something that becomes a staple missionary meal, and I've recruited my companion to help me out with this. Our latest endeavor has been missionary pizza -- homemade pizza that can be made with few ingredients in a short amount of time. In our latest attempt, we ended up with what turned out to be a sort of melted cheese and tomato sauce on top of half-cooked french toast. It wasn't what I'd envisioned, but hey. It's a work in progress.

On Wednesday morning, we came back from the gym, only to see a missed call from the assistants to the mission president, two missed calls from the zone leaders, and a text from the district leader. Our worst nightmare -- something important happening when we were at the gym. Turns out, they wanted to let us know that Lelystad was receiving two new elders that very day! We were surprised, to say the least. It was a new missionary from Surinam and his trainer. We welcomed them to Lelystad on Wednesday afternoon. We aren't the only Lelystad elders anymore.

They always say that, if you are prepared, the Spirit will give you the exact words you need to say exactly when you need to say them. I saw this this past week. We showed up for an appointment with our Polish investigators, and it turned out that they'd faced some anti-Mormon material from their neighbor. We walk in, and they start letting it loose. I wanted to just yell out, "but we don't even BELIEVE that. AND you didn't read the pamphlet we gave you!" But, I kept my cool. Then, the responses started coming to us. We were able to address their concerns and get invited back for a return appointment. The Lord truly helps His missionaries.

The other day, we were riding through a part of the city, and a little girl was playing around, lying in the middle of the bike path. She got up, made a funny face at us, and then got out of the way. I made a funny face back. A little while later, we were on our way back, and she was still there with her friends. Playing around, she stood in the middle of the path and told us to stop. I yelled out, "I can't stop! I'm going too fast!" Elder Goates yelled out, jokingly, "we have no brakes!" Then she started chasing us. I said, "what are you doing? You must stop!" She responded, "I can't stop! I have no brakes!" You're a sassy one.

But, we can't stop either. Lelystad is heading in a good direction, fast.

Keep it real, and stay true. Until next time.

--Elder Bonney

PS -- From left to right, there's Elder Goates, myself, and Elder Hulet, another member of our district. Looking good at zone training.