Elder John Bonney: Week 61: "Do you have any Lamanite blood in you?"

August 11, 2014

Another week in the life. Things are going well over in Eindhoven. As cheesy as it sounds, we've got blessings to count.

I have a new companion now! On Wednesday, Elder Alston and I woke up early and drove all the way over to the mission office in Leiden, where he met his new companion. I'm going to miss that guy. I really enjoyed the six weeks we had together; they were some of the most fun and miracle-filled weeks of my mission. My new companion is Elder Rudolph, and he's....big. Just like I said last week. If any of you have seen the Blind Side, that's the position he played in college football. Left tackle, offensive line. He's got a big heart, too -- he's a great guy and a good missionary. I hope we get some good work done together.

So...we had another baptism on Saturday! Petra, the investigator who asked to be taught after five months of coming to church, was baptized. It was great. I'm getting better at this planning a baptismal service thing... Because I had a new companion and we, the missionaries, had to organized the service, I was pretty much responsible for the whole thing. I thought I'd covered all my bases when the service started -- white clothing, check. Font filled, check. Programs out, check. Speakers, check. Prayers, check. Refreshments arranged, check. Someone to conduct the music...yeah, I forgot that one. The pianist started playing the opening hymn, and I saw some weird looks from the bishopric and from Harry (he conducts music a lot, but he was going to baptize Petra). Once realization hit, I grabbed my hymnal, headed to the front, and started conducting just in time. Niks aan de hand. For the closing hymn, though... You see, How Great Thou Art is one of the harder hymns to conduct, and our pianist (he was really good) was a little liberal with the playing style. It sounded really good, but my conducting skills aren't so flexible, and... I ended up looking like an idiot. Another succesful baptismal service planned by Elder Bonney.

For real though, it was a really beautiful moment for Petra. You could see the happiness in her eyes. She was originally a referral from her friend, who is an awesome member in Amsterdam. She came down to give a talk at Petra's baptism, and that in and of itself was a great thing to see. Member missionary work is what works. I can only imagine how grateful Petra is for her friend and her willingness to share something so special. Elder Hills and I had the privelege of being the witnesses at the baptism -- Elder Hills is one of the other Eindhoven elders, and he had worked with Petra a good amount at church in the Gospel Principles class.

After the service, one of my favorite members here, Zuster van Empel, took us elders along with a friend of hers out to eat. Her friend had been inactive for a long time, but she had talked to us at the baptismal service, and she wants to come back to church. She lives in Amsterdam, so we told her we'd talk to the Amsterdam elders (one of them happens to be a really good friend of mine, Elder Alston, so that's not hard). Sitting there at dinner, talking to Zuster van Empel and her friend, I started thinking about the moments that missions are about. We'd just seen one of our investigators get baptized, but I've realized that baptisms aren't the only things that matter. I'd always thought that baptizing was the pinnacle of success as a missionary. But, having seen two baptisms in the past ten days, I've come to an even better realization that there's a lot more.

The real sign of success is if we are doing our best to be true representatives of Jesus Christ. Whether that's helping someone get baptized or helping someone through a hard time, carrying a thousand little tiles for the elderly Zuster Deza or offering that lady on the bus for help getting her stroller off. As missionaries, our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. If you serve others with a pure intent, you'll be preaching the gospel, even when you aren't speaking. Your example is a testament of Christ. Just a thought.

During my and Elder Rudolph's first evening together, we had a dinner appointment with our ward mission leader. He's a great man from Ireland -- a little intense sometimes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. One of the first things he asks Elder Rudolph... "do you have any Lamanite blood in you?" Apparently not. Mostly German. But, that is an interesting question.

At church yesterday, I was translating for this member from America. He was in Gospel Principles class. The lesson was on free agency, and there was a discussion on why opposition was important. Our ward mission leader says, in Dutch, "well, if there was no opposition, we couldn't walk." I translated that, and then... the American member and I exchanged confused looks. They started talking about it further, and then his point became more clear. He said that if we put our foot down, if there was no opposition from the ground, our foot would go through... confusing, but okay, whatever. About five minutes goes by, and then an investigator raises his hand and says, "Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden before they sinned for the first time and were cast out. It says in 2 Nephi that because of sin there is opposition. So...Adam and Eve could walk before there was opposition." Translating that whole discussion was a blast. The investigator was quite passionate. Hopefully that little story wasn't too boring...

That's all for today. God is good. Until next week.

-Elder Bonney