Week 47: "Usually, looking at flowers is a pretty womanly thing..."

May 5, 2014

Hey, everyone! It's a beautiful, warm day in Lelystad, and I'm feeling great.

Well, last time, I promised to share a few things that I skipped over. First off...rice. In Lelystad, there are two sets of elders, and one of the elders in the other companionship comes from Suriname. We were at a dinner appointment together, the four of us elders. I made the mistake of asking the elder from Suriname, Elder Bishesar, to serve me up some rice then stopped paying attention. Mistake. In Suriname (a little country in South America), they eat a lot of rice. And I mean a LOT. My plate came back with more rice on it than I had ever seen... Lesson learned: do not allow the elder from Suriname to serve you rice.

The same day that Carla got baptized was Koningsdag. It was an adventure, to say the least. The night before (Koningsnacht -- King's Night) was pretty crazy -- everyone was drunk, and the city smelled a little bit like something no one should be smoking. The next day was basically a huge garage sale. People busted out blankets, brought out their old stuff, and it was... a huge garage sale. I expected a little bit more on King's Day, but hey -- tradition. Also, EVERYONE wears orange, the national color. It's pretty great. All of us missionaries went to Almere for the afternoon, and we ran a booth. We gave away church materials and copies of the Book of Mormon. It was pretty fun. I got a little into it (I may or may have not been wearing a orange crown) and was talking to everyone. It was pretty fun.

On Tuesday, we got to go to the temple as a mission! Well, half of a mission, actually. The temple is always a wonderful place to go. The Spirit is strong. Just being there makes you want to live the kind of life that will ensure that you make it to the Celestial Kingdom someday. You just feel a sense of unity with everyone and with God. You can feel it. It's hard to describe. God's plan is pretty great, to say the least.

After the temple, we all got to go to Keukenhof, where all tourists go! Tulips everywhere. Fun fact: Dutch people don't actually think Keukenhof is that cool. Most of them have never been there. But, I thought it was pretty sweet -- I've never seen so many flowers in my LIFE. It was nice to relax a little and just look at the flowers. Mm. Felt good. President Robinson, the mission president, said that looking at flowers was usually a pretty womanly thing, but you had to admit that it was just cool. I'm not ashamed to admit that I loved it.

Since Carla has been baptized, the work has slowed down a little, but it's speeding back up. The Lord is blessing us. We're teaching this one man, Mikko, now. He's told us that he wants to be baptized, and we're working towards it. We've only met with him once, but he came to church yesterday. He's on the good path. The Lord really is helping us out. Hallelujah. Pass the biscuits.

Until next week, peeps.

--Elder Bonney

Elder Goates and me at the temple in Zoetermeer!

Just chillin at Keukenhof, with a reunion photo with my trainer/father, Elder Eastmond. He's an assistant to the mission president now. Pretty studly.