Week 53: "What are you young men thinking?? Those people need the missionaries!!"

OOOHHH, we're halfway there, WOAAHH OH, livin' on a prayer... (you have to actually imagine me singing it)

 June 16, 2014

OOOHHH, we're halfway there, WOAAHH OH, livin' on a prayer... (you have to actually imagine me singing it)

I'm singing a terrible rendition of the Bon Jovi classic because, yes, I have hit my one-year mark. I hit it last...Thursday? It's hard to believe that it's been one year since I sent out that "ik ben een zundeling" email (with the badly spelled Dutch). Time goes by fast. I still feel like a young missionary. From the MTC to Kortrijk to Groningen to Lelystad... one year, eight transfers, ten companions, and three blessed cities later... With a little less than a year left, it's time to work harder than every before.

HUP HOLLAND! I didn't get to watch the World Cup game, but... beating Spain 5-1? No one saw that coming. From our apartment, we could tell whenever the Netherlands scored because of the cheering coming from every other home in the city. A member may or may not have let us see the highlights from the game -- how about the flying Dutchman? That's how we do it. Take that, 5PA1N. Unfortunately, we have to decline all the invitations by my gemeente Lelystad homies to come watch the WK -- but, we can probably interpret the outside noise into a play-by-play update.

One of my favorite parts of missionary work this time of year is all the service. No, not because it's a "break" from normal missionary work, but because you have the opportunity to unselfishly help other people, usually people who have you do something they couldn't do themselves. We do all sorts of things -- from laying tiles to assembling IKEA furniture to a lot of yard work in between -- and my favorite part is seeing the look on the member/investigator/random stranger afterwards. They (usually) get this big grin on their face, and you know that you've done something meaningful for them. It's great.

We did service for this one lady this past week -- a woman saw us doing service for a member, and asked us to help her mother out. We made an appointment, went over, and she showed us what she wanted. We pulled a bunch of weeds, moved some tiles, layed some turf...by the time we were done, that yard was looking good. Real good. The Lelystad Four -- we should be a professional team. Anyways, at some point, we were all inside, talking to this lady, and she told us that she can "read" people. Okay, a little weird. Then she looks at the elder next to me, and says some random attributes he supposedly has. Then, she looked at me, and told me that I have a lot of sadness and anger inside. Gee, thanks. Lesson learned: there are no such things as psychics. Or...something about my future wife has something to do with farms. Who knows?

So, remember how I told you all about the cool, young Dutch couple that Elder Hunt and I taught here in Lelystad on exchanges? Well, last Sunday, I'm sitting in the Almere church building for stake conference (Lelystad and Almere combine for broadcasts, and it was being broadcast to all of Europe from Switzerland), and the phone rings. I pick it up..."hey -- we're here for church in Lelystad, but there's no one here!" "Uh..it's in Almere today.." We'd clarified it a few days before, because we'd invited them, and they wanted to come to church, but there was a slight miscommunication. Very awkward. But, to my surprise, about 20 minutes later, they show up in Almere for church! Then, yesterday...they came to church again! They loved it. It's just so great knowing how much the Gospel can mean for them -- how much it can help them -- and seeing them take steps to developing a stronger testimony in and relationship with Christ.

After sacrament meeting, we started introducing some members to them, and then we walked into the hall and let the members take it away. A few minutes later, an older member comes up to me, looking excited but a little upset, and says, "there are some people in there, and they aren't members! These people are wonderful! They are searching! Why aren't you talking to them?? What are you young men thinking?? Those people need the missionaries!" I had to interrupt him -- "Brother, I know -- they're our investigators." "You guys need to be teaching them! They are --" "Yes, we understand... we are teaching them. We invited them to come to church." "..oh." Then he walked away, slightly confused, but no longer upset. It's cool to see the members so excited about investigators, though. They did exactly what they should have done, fellowshipping and showing love. It was great.

Well, I gotta roll. Thanks for sticking with me for the first half of this adventure. They say everyone forgets you after a year, but I'm out to prove them wrong. We've still got a year to go. Gotta make it the best one. Keep it real, wherever you are in the world.

Stay clean.

--Elder Bonney

PS -- photos next week. Promise. I've got some nice one-year reunion photos with some of my MTC boys.