November 10, 2014
Last week, I wrote about how we had been blessed with the nicest November weather ever. Well, I spoke too soon. The temperature dropped about 10 degrees (Celsius) the very next day -- just in time for three back-to-back exchanges. But, I made it through alive. It could have been worse. I should consider myself lucky -- for the whole time I was away on exchanges this week and outside of the house, it didn't rain...
Before I go on, I gotta explain something really quickly. Some people who don't know much about the Netherlands might think that we spend all of our time here working with and talking to Dutch people. That is not true. There are a TON of people from different places here, and there are also missionaries called to meet those needs. In my mission, most missionaries are called to speak Dutch, but some are also called to speak Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese. (These missionaries all have to speak Dutch too, though.) Surprised? Did my mission just get cooler in your eyes? I hope so.
So on Tuesday, after district meeting, we went on exchanges with the Amsterdam elders. I got to work with Elder Tjong-Ayong again, in Amsterdam. He's called to the mission speaking Chinese. And so, for a little over an hour, I got to sit in a lesson with a recent convert from China who speaks no Dutch and no English, only Chinese. The only English he knew was "nice to meet you" and "bye-bye," in his very Chinese accent. (To be fair, the only Chinese I know is "ni-hao" and a phrase I learned on TV -- supposedly meaning, "duty before self; I will not disappoint you, rainbow chicken" -- but it turns out, that isn't real Chinese anyway -- the guy didn't understand my attempts of unproductive communication.) So, for most of the appointment, I sat there, trying not to fall asleep. And when we watched the Restoration video in Chinese, it was really hard to stay awake. But, I made it through.
The next day, Wednesday, we were on exchanges with the Den Helder elders. I worked in Den Helder with Elder da Silva, a Brazilian who was called to the mission to speak... Portuguese. But, I didn't have to sit uselessly in any Portuguese appointments. We did, however, contact a few Portuguese-speakers. How (and why?) do any Portuguese-speakers make it to Den Helder? Beats me.
By Thursday, I was starting to think that I was a hobo-missionary, without my own city... I worked in the city of Leiden with Elder Argueta. And he was called to the mission to speak...Spanish. Yeah, it was a pretty international week. Elder Argueta and I had a pretty fun day together -- we gave a restoration lesson to this one guy, and he was really great. And crazy. I forgot his complicated Algerian name, so Í'll just call him Mel (because he reminds me of an Algerian, crazy, Dutch-speaking Mel Gibson). According to Mel, he knows very many things, but is not a prophet (actually, what he said is, "I won't say that I'm a prophet."). He gambles a lot, because, in his words, "gambling is investing, and that's better than just throwing my money away on beer or something." Well...yes and no. Somewhere in the middle of the lesson, Mel starts telling us about how he came to believe in God. Apparently, one day, he was walking down the street. Mel sees a coffee shop (uh oh). He says to himself, "hey, I'm feeling a little sad and bored. Maybe I should go smoke a joint." (Great thought process, I know.) He walks into the coffee shop...and smokes a marijuana joint. Mel tells us that he's contemplating smoking another one, when...God struck him. "I was standing there, and then...God slapped me. Softly. Not hard." He shows us on his own face. Needless to say, teaching Mel was something to be remembered.
Later that day, in the evening, we went to go contacting in the centrum, and stumbled upon some charity concert for child rights. We found the Dutch Justin Bieber. Also, in the middle of the fifteen minutes of singing, a flying man came out of the river that runs through the city. No, seriously -- he had like a water jet-pack...kind of. The water like came out of his feet. He looked like Iron Man. It was awesome.
Do you guys remember Carlos? Well...he's back! He got back from vacation, and we'll be meeting with him on Tuesday. I'm super stoked. I've missed that Guatemalan amigo.
Here's something cool -- on Saturday, Elder Pouwer and I went to go on splits with the elders in Hoorn. They're re-opening the city after it had been closed for a few transfers, and they'd been struggling to find people, so we thought that we'd go help them out. Hoorn is a beautiful city -- right on the IJsselmeer. I got to work with Elder Hunter (the singing Scot!). Before we left to go finding, we decided to say a prayer and set a goal with God for how many people we wanted to find who would let us visit them. Afterwards, we were both feeling the same number -- four. Four is a pretty ambitious goal for the three hours we had to find people, but it felt right. We went out and talked to a ton of people, worked really hard. Three hours later, when we came back for dinner, we had found four people. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Yesterday, we taught this cool Romanian homegirl, Miley. I got to practice my three and a half year old Romanian. Unfortunately, the only Romanian I really remembered from my few weeks there in the summer of 2011 were some of the phrases the Romanian kids had taught me, meaning, "I look like a monkey." "You look like a parrot." "Where is the bathroom?" So, I at the appointment, I told Miley that I spoke a little Romanian, then rehearsed those sentences by memory in that order. She got a kick out of that.
Well...I'm done.
-Elder Bonney
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| Here's me, Elder Argueta, and our new homie, the Algerian Mel Gibson. Why does he remind me of Mel Gibson? I haven't figured that one out yet. |
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