December 29, 2014
Last Monday, after emailing, Elder Pouwer and I took a train down to Amsterdam, to go caroling with the Jovo's (Young Single Adults) and missionaries in the Alkmaar/Amsterdam area. It was pretty windy and rainy outside, so we ended up singing Christmas carols inside Amsterdam Centraal Station. It's a huge train station, so there were a lot of people who stopped to watch. We sang for almost an hour, then stopped to take a few pictures as a group. Suddenly, some guy (who turned out to be an undercover security guard) runs inside, holding tightly and pushing another man, who is resisting, in front of him. He slams him against the wall and holds him there, while two other security guards show up and handcuff the guy, then take him away. We're all watching with our mouths wide open. Two younger girls, who had been watching us carol earlier, yell at us, "welcome to Christmas in Amsterdam!"
And that's how my week started out.
It turned out to be a pretty good week for me (can't say the same for the guy taken down in Amsterdam Centraal). It was the week of Christmas, so I got to do some out-of-the ordinary things -- like Skyping my family. It was good to see them on Christmas day -- the last time I saw them was during Mother's day Skype, seven and a half months ago. It's weird to think that, in five months, I'll see them in person. Christmas day was pretty good overall -- we got to eat lunch at the home of the 't Hoen family (the family of the branch president), and we spent most of the afternoon and evening at the home of the de Bruijn family. Needless to say... I ate a lot of food. I've learned many things on my mission, and one of them is that sometimes, regardless of how hungry the missionaries are, members use the missionaries to eat all the food so they don't have leftovers. But hey -- most the time, I can't complain. I slept well that night.
On Second Christmas (the Dutch love Christmas **cough holidays** so much that they celebrate it twice!), the entire zone met up and sang carols in the Haarlem centrum. That turned out really well -- Elder Pouwer and I had organized the event, and we weren't sure how it was going to be, but there were a fair amount of people out and about who stopped and watched us. Some missionaries handed out cards while the rest of us sang. They even managed to give a copy of the Book of Mormon away to some Americans who were on vacation in Holland. Go figure.
Did I mention that, on Christmas Eve, Elder Pouwer and I went caroling with some branch members in Alkmaar? There were supposed to be a fair amount there, but Christmastime IS flu season here (or at least, a good time to use flu season as an excuse...just kidding haha, some people legitimitely were sick), and it ended up just being us and a couple other young adult members. We spent a couple hours caroling at various member's homes. It was pretty fun -- a great way to spend Christmas Eve. Because, let's be real -- no one wants you knocking on your door on Christmas Eve unless you are family.
And yes, if you are wondering -- I'm tired of singing Christmas carols. If I have to sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" one more time, I might die. I don't even know what figgy pudding is, and I spent half the week begging for it.
It was a good week for missionary work, too. We saw some miracles and met some...interesting people. We'll get the interesting people out of the way first. On Saturday, Elder Pouwer and I were out contacting, and we talked to this younger black man. I asked him if he'd ever heard of the Mormons. "Oh, the Mormons, yeah! Tom Cruise is your guys' Jesus, right?" Say what? "No, I think you're confused..." "No, I'm pretty sure, you guys worship Tom Cruise as Jesus! I can look it up right now if you want." "Well, if you really want to look it up, go ahead. Our church is actually named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, not the Church of Tom Cruise." "Oh...then how does Tom Cruise tie into your religion?" In the end, he just wouldn't accept the fact that we didn't worship Tom Cruise. I mean, in my opinion, Mission Impossible was good, but not THAT good.
For the sake of time, I'll save the other stories of interesting people for another day. Moving on...
So, this elderly investigator we have, Aafje, let us know last week that she decided that she wants to be baptized! Her daughter is a member, and she'd been taught by the missionaries for quite some time. She'd kind of become an eternal investigator -- always coming to church, never feeling ready for baptism. We'd pretty much given up hope. But, apparently, now is the time. We met with her last week, and the first thing she wanted to discuss was the baptismal service -- so, we organized that. Her baptism was announced on Sunday. She's excited as all get out. It's funny, how you can work so hard sometimes, and then Heavenly Father will just drop something in your lap -- something you weren't even expecting to get.
I'll end this email with a story. Back in week 68 ("In the name of Carlos, Amen"), I was on exchanges with Elder Tjong-Ayong. We talked to a ton of people that day, but no one seemed very open. After a while, we headed towards our appointment. We walked past this lady, and then we stopped -- I thought, "maybe we should talk to that lady. I mean, we've talked to everyone else, why not her?" We turned around and walked a few meters back to her, as she was locking her bike. She turned out to be willing to listen, and invited the missionaries to come back. It felt good. We then went on her way -- I didn't even catch her name.
On Saturday morning, I showed up at her apartment with Elder Tjong-Ayong and Elder Pouwer and had the privilege of giving Dewi (that turned out to be her name) her baptismal interview. She remembered me from the very first time, about three months ago. She's been taught all the lessons by the Amsterdam elders -Elder Tjong-Ayong and my good friend, Elder Besendorfer- and has also been coming to church regularly for some time now and has loved it. During the interview, she told me how the restored gospel has been a huge blessing in her life. She passed with flying colors, and yesterday, after the church service in Amsterdam ended, she was baptized.
It's that simple. I am convinced that that thought "maybe we should talk to that lady. I mean, we've talked to everyone else, why not her?" did not come from myself. It was something small, but enough to get me to turn around. I've learned in a better way that God really will help us if we are willing to receive His help. That makes missionary work a lot easier, too...go figure.
And that's all I've got. Until 2015!
-Elder Bonney
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| In Amsterdam Centraal, after caroling -- the Alkmaar and Hoorn elders |
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| With Elder Toole in the Haarlem centrum, in front of some big church. |
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