October 13th, 2014
So, there I was. Sitting on a bench, all alone, in the rain, in a city I'd never been to before. Without a phone. It was one of those times that I had to take a step back and ask myself how I got there. I feel like I have a lot of those moments...
I was in Den Helder, at the very top of North Holland. To make a long story short, I was on exchanges with Elder Da Silva, an elder from Brazil, and we were first working in Schagen, a city about 15 minutes (by train) south of Den Helder. As we were walking back to the Schagen train station, we saw the train pull up into the station. Elder Da Silva and I look at each other, and he says, in his thick Brazilian accent, "I think we must run." "Yeah, I think so too." We drop into a sprint to catch the train, which only comes once every 30 minutes. We get to the platform -- the train is still there. Good. Unfortunately, everyone who just got off of the train is swarming around the OV-chipcard scanner thing, trying to check out, and we were trying to check IN. Elder Da Silva pushes his way to the front of the swarm, but there's no way I'd make it. Divide and conquer -- I run to the next one, scan in, and as the whistle blows, I hop on the train, assuming that Elder Da Silva would jump in the train car in front of me. As the train pulls away, I walk to the next car and see Elder Da Silva...through the train window.
You've gotta understand, I'd never been to Den Helder before. Elder Da Silva and his companion (who is actually my MTC companion, Elder Price!) had left their phone at home that morning, so there was no way I could get in contact with him. So, I rode the train all the way to the last stop in Den Helder, the main Den Helder station, got off, sat down on a bench, and waited. (Okay, I got off, checked out, found the closest mailbox, mailed some letters I needed to send, came back to the station, sat down on a bench, and waited.) This is the moment I found myself in. Nevertheless, sure enough, thirty minutes later and after some self-contemplation, I see a very relieved Elder Da Silva get off the train.
And that was only Tuesday. That was only the beginning of the week.
I have to be honest, though -- I'd be lying if I said the rest of the week was so exciting. It was a good week, though. On Wednesday, we met with our homie, Carlos. (Isn't it a good thing he didn't kill me?) He's going away for a few weeks on vacation, but we had a really spiritual appointment with him. Turns out, he wants to be baptized. Who knew? I'm going to miss seeing that guy for a few weeks, but he'll be back in November.
I got to work in Amsterdam again this past week, this time with Elder Besendorfer. It wasn't planned to work in Amsterdam (the plan was to go on real exchanges and for me and Bessie to work in Alkmaar), but Elder Pouwer and I brough our car in to have the brakes checked out, and...our brake pads needed to be changed. So, car-less, we went on splits with the Amsterdam elders. We had a cool day -- found some cool people, had a good talk. We reminisced on the good old days in Groningen -- it was almost exactly a year ago that we became companions.
On Friday, Elder Pouwer and I ate dinner with a member, her adult son, and one of our investigators, Priscilla (who could get baptized this Saturday! I hadn't mentioned that yet...). Priscilla was talking about how one of her roommates doesn't understand how we could think that 30°C is pretty hot. The member asks, "waar komt ze dan vandaan? Groeneland?" (Where is she from? Greenland?) I was sitting there thinking...uh..Greenland is cold, and like nobody even lives there. Priscilla tells her that her friend is from Suriname. The member's son asks, "Where did you get Greenland from?" She couldn't remember... It's the little things that you have to laugh about.
The other day, Elder Pouwer and I went on splits with the elders in Zaandam/North Amsterdam. The heavens opened up and it poured on us. But, we still found four new people who were willing to give us their information and let us come another time. Blessings from diligence... I also almost accidentally stabbed a man with my umbrella, but that's a story for another time. For now, it's time for me to go.
Have a great week! Keep it classy.
--Elder Bonney
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| Last Monday, Elder Pouwer and I went to Alkmaar's cheese museum. This city is famous for its cheese market. It was a pretty fun museum, and we were like the only ones there, so we got some good pictures, including this one of me and a model of the Dutch cheese girl. Looks like my T-Rex girlfriend just got replaced. I never was one for following the rules... |
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