January 19, 2015
Well...the Bonney/Pouwer era is over. I never
actually thought that I'd do three transfers with the same companion.
With my patience level, I'd probably end up killing them and getting put
in prison (or even worse -- sent home from my mission). These past four
months haven't been half bad, though. Bless Elder Pouwer's heart for
putting up with me. I don't know how I'll ever be able to get married
and be with the same person forever...but I'll worry about that later.
I've
honestly learned a lot, though, here in Alkmaar with Elder Pouwer. I've
seen a lot of miracles and made a lot of friendships. Elder Pouwer is
now getting transferred, and I...wait for it...will be staying in
Alkmaar for another transfer. I'll be going on almost six months in
Alkmaar! I hope the branch is ready for this. My new companion will be
Elder Neptune, a new zone leader. And we will have no car for a while.
More on that next week...
This last week of the
transfer went by pretty quickly. We had a lot of exchanges and a lot of
appointments -- it was pretty busy. On Wednesday, I got to work once
more in the big, old city of Amsterdam with my good friend Elder
Besendorfer. It's always good to reminisce on the Groningen days. We
were talking about how quickly time has gone by since Groningen -- I
mean, a year ago, I was in Lelystad! And two years ago, I already had my
mission call. That's a weird realization. A lot has happened since
then.
On Thursday, I was working in Leiden with
Elder Reynolds, and I hit a mission milestone. We went out contacting
in the morning, and we talked to a fair amount of people. It was raining
-- not too badly, but still, it was coming down. For some reason,
within about half an hour, my shoes were absolutely soaking wet. As in,
they were to the point where they were heavy with water. Every time I
stepped, some water would get squeezed out, and new water would go in
(at least the water was always fresh...). They were sponges. When we got
home for lunch, I took off my soaking wet shoes and socks. I took a
look at the bottom of my shoes, only to find a long horizontal crack in
both of my rubber shoe soles - the source of the problem which made my
feet freezing and wet! The only logical conclusion you should have is
that I'm a great missionary and spend a lot of time walking around doing
great missionary work. (Though, I'm fairly sure that if anyone wore the
same pairs of shoes for two years, they would start wearing out, too.)
We went to a dinner appointment that night, and the member had us take
off our shoes, since it was so wet outside. Surprising as it may sound,
my socks were -yes- soaked through. And I ended up leaving wet
footprints everywhere I left in the house. I think there was a puddle
under the dinner table from my socks by the time we left. Let's hope the
members didn't make any irrational assumptions about me...
At
least I had another pair of good proselyting shoes. Right? I went home,
took a look at the bottom of those ones, and saw the beginning of the
same problem. Great. Well, what's life without trials? I'll just have to
be careful in the rain. Either way, first pair of shoes worn out by
walking so much -- milestone reached. I can finally feel like a good
missionary. ;)
In other news, we're seeing some
good things here in Alkmaar. Aafje was confirmed a member at church
yesterday -- that old homegirl was all smiles. Unfortunately, Carlos has
decided to take a break from meeting with us, which is sad. It's always
a little heartbreaking to see someone who you've grown to love make a
decision which you know will bring them less happiness. You have to let
them make their own choices, though. We've found some other
investigators, however, and we're working with some great less-actives
who should be on the path back to church soon. I have high hopes for the
near future in Alkmaar.
I've gotta bounce --
we're going with the Hoorn elders to Volendam to take some classic Dutch
pictures as a last hurrah before Elder Pouwer and Elder Hunter leave
the branch. I'll have to send those next week!
Take it easy.
-Elder Bonney
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