December 8, 2014
Transfer twelve has come and gone, but -unlike all of the sister missionaries who came out when I did- I won't be going home just yet. You know what that means -- get ready for another six weeks of Elder Bonney's emails. You know you like it.
So, transfer calls were last night, and Elder Pouwer and I were at the home of a family in the branch -- the de Bruijns -- for most of the evening. Since we had come in together two transfers ago, we were already pretty sure that one of us was leaving -- which is pretty sad, because both of us really wanted to stay in Alkmaar. But, I told Elder Pouwer that I, in the most loving way possible, hoped he got transferred...only one can survive. Kind of like the Hunger Games. On Sunday night, though, I was pretty nervous. And then, the call came...
Oh, wait. There was no call. Because, for some reason unknown to us, they decided to keep us together for a third transfer, which rarely happens. All I can say is, by the end of these coming six weeks (which will be four months total together), we'll either be the best of friends...or one of us will be dead, killed by the other. Let's hope for the former.
All that aside, I'm super stoked to be staying in Alkmaar. And, to clear up any confusion, my address will still be:
Willem de Zwijgerlaan 78
1814 KE Alkmaar
the Netherlands
Remember how I said it was cold last Monday? Well... I spoke too soon. That was just the beginning of one of the top three coldest weeks of my mission. The temperature hovered above and below 0°C until Saturday, when it went up a few degrees. Dressing warm is a challenge, but I did okay. I'll probably attach some picture of myself in my winter get-up...
I got to return to Haarlem on exchanges this Tuesday, to work with Elder Bishop. It was a fun day -- we were busy the whole day, which was nice. One of the highlights of the day was helping this older Dutch member buy her groceries. It was something the sisters in Haarlem had started doing, and now the elders (who have been there for about six weeks now) continue doing it once a week. We showed up at the old folks' home, helped her board her wheelchair, and we were off. During the excursion, I realized -- no one can really get mad at you or give you a dirty look when you're pushing a very old woman around in a wheelchair. Take up all the room in the aisle? No one can get angry. Accidentally knock something off of the shelf? No one can get angry. Have to ask a worker a dumb question about where something is? He can't get angry. I'm pretty sure we could have gotten away with murder. In conclusion: if I ever want to commit a crime in broad daylight, I just need to bring a wheelchaired, elderly amiga along.
On Wednesday, I was working in Hoorn with Elder Hunter, the Scottish guy. It was pretty fun -- I got to see this woman from New Zealand that Elder Pouwer and I worked with before the elders opened Hoorn and took her over! It was cool. She actually goes to church in Lelystad, so I hadn't seen her for a whole transfer. She is so much happier than she was when the missionaries first started meeting with her. It was amazing to see. There's only one downside -- we always meet with her outside, because of her living situation, and, if you remember, it was freezing cold. (She says that her Maori blood is too strong to be affected by the cold...) So, we talked to her on a bench in a park for an hour. In what we later found out was, with wind chill, the equivalent of -10°C. I'll never forget that lesson.
Carlos is doing so well. If all goes well, he will get baptized this transfer. He's started bringing his son to the lessons, too -- his son is around 10 years old, and he's awesome. Carlos is a fantastic missionary -- I don't think he's ever come to church without bringing a friend. Yesterday, he came to church with a friend who was a refugee from the Middle East. I'm not sure how they met -- Carlos does talk to everyone he meets about whatever he wants, so I wasn't too surprised. We had a lesson with him on Friday, and a friend of his was there. It got kind of off topic, and I ended up talking to the friend of Carlos while Elder Pouwer talked to Carlos himself. Carlos' friend was cool, but had some interesting ideas... He claimed that saying "amen" at the end of a prayer was a little discriminatory, and that he'd rather end his prayer with "hallelujah." Or, "amen and a woman." I guess "amen" sounds a little too much like "a man" for his taste. Haha. He was a great guy with some interesting insights, though.
The branch fell in love with the four of us missionaries yesterday (if they hadn't already). Elder Hunter is a musical genius, and we were responsible for a musical number. Elder Hunter came up with this arrangement on the piano, and -since Alkmaar isn't too big of a branch- we came up with a version of the song "Silent Night," with lyrics in the languages of all native-tongues represented in the branch. Elder Hunter, Elder Pouwer, and Elder Cooper had all sung a lot in the past and performed, and I...well, I've sung a lot of Taylor Swift in the shower... Anyways, we sounded pretty dang good, singing silent night in a mix of Dutch, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Ukrainian, and Cantonese. I don't think our Ukrainian and Cantonese were very understandable. But, it's the thought that counts, right? The members loved it.
Also, on Saturday, I got to wrestle Elder Pouwer while we both wore fat-suits. But...de tijd is voorbij. Maybe next time. ;)
-Elder Bonney
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| Me and our previous, proud Maori investigator, now taught by the Hoorn elders! |
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| Chilling with a half-Brazilian part-member family, the Munsters. Gotta love them. |
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