Week 88: "You'll have very kissable lips!"

February 16, 2015

You know, as a missionary, I didn't really expect Valentine's day to be a day of love. I mean, I expected it to be as full of love as any other day as a missionary. Maybe a little less -- for some reason, people here aren't that excited when you knock on their door at 7 PM on Valentine's day. But, I was surprised. (And no, this has nothing to do with the quote.)

So, on the morning of the 14th, Elder Neptune and I were about to head out. We had no appointments, so it was going to be a day of talking to people on the street to see if anyone would invite us back. We always pray before we leave, and we were standing at the door. Elder Neptune prayed, and in his prayer, said something along the lines of, "well, God, we're going to go out, and we won't come back until we've taught someone a first lesson." Wait a second. No coming back for lunch until after we've found someone to teach? I've had really long finding sessions, sometimes even finding..no one.

We went outside and started looking up some people who had earlier said that we could come back another time. Most weren't home; some told us not to come back. Great. So, we were going to have to teach a first lesson to someone we hadn't met yet. We started talking to people on the street, and a couple of people invited us to visit them sometime. But, no lesson -- we realized that we needed to be knocking doors if we wanted to get let in and teach a first lesson. We started knocking doors close to the centrum, but we weren't given much of a warm welcome. We biked to a different area of the city and started knocking some more doors... Nothing. We decided to go do some bell-ups at an apartment complex, choosing random numbers to ring up. People answered, but no one wanted to let us in.

Wonderful. We headed to the next apartment complex, and as we walk to the bells, I see a name that catches my eye. It was a hispanic name, and I said to Elder Neptune, jokingly, "yes, please!" (We were starting to lose faith in Dutch people.) I bell up, and say, "good afternoon! My companion and I are here this Valentine's day to share a book with people about love and God." The woman's response: "alright, come on up." We could hardly believe it... We walked into her apartment, and she immediately offered us something to drink. While getting to know her, we found out that she was Catholic and from Brazil and has lived here for a while, but doesn't really have any family here. We went on to teach her, yes, a first lesson. It was a special lesson. When it was time for us to go, she just looked at us, and she started to cry. I'm not sure exactly why -- maybe she had been lonely, or maybe she'd had a rough time, I don't know. But I do know that those tears were tears of happiness. Two hours since we began our search to teach a first lesson, we'd done it. We're going back this week with a member here who is from Brazil.

So, yes, it was a Valentine's day of love. It was a miracle. I can't say that Heavenly Father doesn't answer prayers. He answered ours (and I might be as bold as to say that He answered some of hers).

It was a really good week. It started to warm up, but today, the temperature dropped -- the rivers froze over again. I got to go on exchanges in Zaandam and Hoorn this week, and they were both good. In Hoorn, on the 13th, I got to teach the Maori woman who Elder Pouwer and I had taught back in September/October again -- she's doing really well. She's pretty funny. Partway through the appointment, I busted out some chapstick -- this cold weather can be hard on your lips. While putting it on, she looks at me and says, "you'll have very kissable lips!" Well, sorry to break it to you, but I won't be kissing anyone this Valentine's day.

Miley and Tadek are doing really well. We had a fun lesson about the Word of Wisdom -- they accepted it all. Teaching a Word of Wisdom lesson in the Netherlands is pretty fun...the amount of marijuana comments you can make is endless. I really love those two, and Elder Neptune and I are going over this Wednesday to eat lunch with them -- Miley promised to cook us up some real Romanian food. I'm excited.

All in all, things are going pretty well here. We're being blessed. I probably only have two more weeks here in Alkmaar, and I'm going to miss it when I leave. I'm just grateful that I've been able to work here.

Well, boys and girls, until next week.

-Elder Bonney