Week 102: "You knew the end would come the day you signed up."

May 25, 2015

Is this real? This past week, we had interviews with President and Sister Robinson, two people who I have grown to love so much over the past two years. In my interview with Pres. Robinson, I walked in, and when it started he says, with a little laugh, "well, Elder Bonney, don't tell me you never thought the end would come. You knew the end would come the day you signed up." "Yeah, I guess that that's true. It just kind of sneaks up on you, though."

This will be my last time emailing from the Netherlands. On Thursday morning, I'll board my plane back to America. Next week, I plan on sending one last email (so don't freak out yet). Then, this journey will have to make way for a new one.

My last full week was a good one - full of good, old missionary work. Elder Byers and I kept ourselves busy, talking to a lot of people about our message. We were actually stopped while in the centrum the other week by a reporter for the local newspaper, the Brabants Dagblad. He wanted to interview us sometime so that he could write an article on what we do. So, on Tuesday, we met him in a café and were interviewed. (I made it to the top! It's the beginning of a life of fame.)The article was published on Thursday, and you can read it online here: 

http://www.bd.nl/opinie/blogs/stadsgezicht/stadsportret-elder-bonney-elder-byers-1.4932710

In my opinion, it's pretty well written...besides the bad photo and the one time I was quoted out of context (it was bound to happen). The reporter asked me if we're here to "convert people from other faiths." I laughed and responded, with the mindset of "we don't convert, the Spirit does," saying something along the lines of "na, converting people is much too difficult! Impossible, even. We just share information with others and invite them to try certain things so that they can find out the truth for themselves and see what it can mean for them." What ended up in the paper: "but they aren't here to convert people of other faiths. Elder Bonney laughs: 'much too difficult.'" And that's all that was quoted. Oh well...a life of fame has its downsides. On the plus side, we have had people around who recognize us from the paper, so that's pretty cool.

I have to admit something. For the past few weeks, I've kind of let myself go, trying to enjoy the best of Dutch food and delicacies before I head out. Pannenkoeken, stroopwafels, Belgian waffles, fries, Indonesian food, all kinds of Dutch pastries... the list goes on. I'll miss the food here, it's true. But, it will probably be good when I stop my binge of eating enough to feed a small family.

Just had to get that off my chest.

Last Wednesday, the legendary Harry van de Sande (the 84-year old sidekick to the Eindhoven missionaries, remember?) came to work with us here in Tilburg. It was good to work with him again. He inspires me. He went to a few appointments with us, and he contacted with us in the centrum, too. It's funny -- it's hard for people to be rude to such an old, short, nice-looking guy as Harry. In general, people were a lot nicer to us that day. I will miss Harry -- he's become a great friend.

Something I've been forgetting to write about is our Chinese investigator, Aimee! She lives in... Beijing! Cool, huh? Her boyfriend is a member here in Tilburg, and we teach her once a week via Skype at his place. Because there are no missionaries in China (besides Hong Kong), the missionaries started teaching her a few months ago. She's an incredible investigator, and it's always fun to teach people with really thick Chinese accents. :) She should be moving to Tilburg in a few months, and I have no doubt that she'll be baptized soon after. She has made amazing progress over the past couple months. I'm going to miss teaching her -- it was fun. The best part about teaching people from countries with little exposure to religion is that it's almost like teaching a child -- you start and build from the ground up. Aimee is a great student, too, which helps a lot. And she questions things, which is good -- she questions certain things, but always stand open for the Spirit, which confirms our words or answers her questions. It's been a great experience.

Yesterday was my last Sunday in a Dutch-speaking unit (at least, for a while). I showed up, and a member from Lelystad, Christiaan, had come down to see me, which was a cool surprise. But when I walked into the chapel, who else did I see but...Elder Price's parents! The parents of my MTC companion, who was in the neighborhood for all my transfers in Eindhoven and Alkmaar. Nothing slaps you in the face with "face it, you're going home" like seeing another missionary's parents. They were here seeing a few things before picking Elder Price upon Wednesday, and they decided to go to church here. Go figure.

The primary gathered together dandelions and put them in a cup for me. That was a nice going away present... Haha. I will miss this little branch. I've really come to love them. Yesterday evening, we were at our regular Sunday dinner appointment, and the family had prepared me a "funeral dinner," since I was going home. It was super fun (and the food was great). I was sad to leave. I hope that I can see all these people again someday.

It's time to go. I'm going to miss this, but life moves on. That said, this country will always have a little spot in my heart. I'll write one last time next week. For now...I'll see you on the other side.

-Elder Bonney

At a park, dramatically contemplating life after the mission. 

With the members who prepared me my "funeral dinner" -- Pirousjka, Zakiya, and Darinusjka. Gonna miss the three amigas.

Week 101: "I once met Jesus. We drank Coke together!"

May 18, 2015

This morning, we went to Eindhoven for a zone activity -- we all got together to play some sports. While waiting for our bus, this old, deranged guy came up to me. He was riding in a motorized wheelchair and waving around a sign about Jesus. He started talking to me, saying a bunch of nonsense. At one point, he started speaking English, asking me what I thought of his sign. He told me, "I once met Jesus, you know. We drank Coke together!" Oh, is that so? Don't worry, I didn't make any jokes about hard drug use. He went on to tell us about how, when we die, and we have no body, we are still somebody, not nobody (and he put extra emphasis on the word "body" every time he said it). After having a good laugh with the guy (he was weird, but thought he was pretty funny himself), our bus pulls up. I go to shake his hand, and he grabbed my hand and...didn't let go. I had to pull my hand out and run to the bus. And that was the beginning of the day.

You know, I'm going to miss this. Sometimes people just fascinate me, and I've met all sorts of them out here. I'll miss it.

On Monday night, Elder Byers and I hopped on a train to Antwerpen, where we spent the night. The next morning, we had a zone conference in the Antwerpen chapel. I remembered being in the same chapel as a young missionary on my first couple transfers, seeing elders and sisters deliver their "dying testimonies" -- in every zone conference, the missionaries going home that transfer share one last testimony with the other missionaries. I never thought my time would come. But, it did -- I was able to stand, along with a few other good friends who go home next week, and look back on the years I've spent in the service of God. The change I see in myself is incredible. It was nice to be able to testify of how the Lord changes us as missionaries -- while standing up there, I just felt really grateful for the things I've experienced out here.

But I'm not done yet, so enough with the sappy talk. Let's get down to business.

We had investigators show up in church on Sunday! These were the first real investigators (people who were actually making progress) that have come to church the whole time I've been serving here. One of them thought the service started at 12 instead of 10, but at least he made it for priesthood. They both seemed to enjoy it, and the members were pretty happy to see guests. I was really happy that I was able to see some investigators in church before I leave Tilburg. God has been helping us -- slowly but surely, Elder Byers and I have been able to build up a good teaching pool here. Good things are in store for Tilburg.

I was able to work in Eindhoven one last time -- last Thursday, we had exchanges with the zone leaders. I was able to see some members and visit some old places -- it always brings back good memories. We did service at the ward mission leader's home. Br. Stewart is from Ireland, and he's a great man -- one of my favorite members in Eindhoven. Intense, but in a good way. He gets things done, and when we all got to town on those weeds in his yard, he wasn't messing around. Haha. It reminded me of the way he worked with us when I was serving in Eindhoven -- he doesn't just feed you cake afterwards (which he did do, though), but he gets down and weeds WITH us. When I see that, it makes me want to do an even better job weeding! It's the same with missionary work. That man and his wife invite the missionaries over to eat, but he also shares the gospel whenever he gets the chance. Not to cheesily reference D&C 4, but he's not just sharpening the missionaries sickles -- he's out there doing the dirty work with the missionaries. I hope that I'm able to be like that as a member. It's inspiring, to be honest.

As the end approaches, I realize that I'm going to miss some things, things I never thought I'd miss. For example, Dutch people and the achterops on their bikes. Dutch bikes are different than American bikes. They are mostly street bikes made for daily travel. On the back of most Dutch bikes is a little rack - a rack "achter op de fiets." On this rack, people will carry packages...or groceries...or other people. I've done all of those. It's not uncommon to see a baby seat attached achter op the bike, since they make special baby seats for that. What makes me laugh is what people do when they sit on the back of someone else's bike. You'll often see teenagers blasting music -- one riding the bike, the other sitting on the back holding speakers. Pretty gangster, huh? (I feel like a lot of people would make fun of these teen, Dutch thugs in America...) My all time favorite has been a woman fixing her mascara while looking in a little mirror WHILE sitting on the back of her man's bicycle. Trust me, it was funny. I laughed. It's the little things I'll miss the most.

Well, amigos, I can't lie, I feel like I'm reaching the end of a marathon. My body is more tired than it ever has been. Some of my pant-seats are wearing through. Even the bike I have is wearing down -- part of the gear-changing mechanism snapped, and it's constantly stuck on the highest speed (that doesn't help with the tiredness....haha). I'm just going to try and finish strong. Thanks for accompanying me on this two-year long journey. It's not over yet.

Stay true.

-Elder Bonney

 

I told Elder Byers not to make a face and that this picture was getting sent out, but...you can't stop Byers.

At zone conference with Elder Pouwer. That face is a sixth of my mission. Love that guy.

 

Week 100: "It's Enrique Iglesias! I'm feeling like we should maybe go...towards the music."

May 11, 2015

Wow. My hundreth week. Who would have ever thought I'd make it this far? I remember back when my weeks were in the single digits, and two years seemed like it would be an eternity, that it would never end. Now, I only have a little more than two weeks left.

This past week was a good one. I'm learning an important lesson about enduring to the end - the closer I get to the end, the harder it is to keep going strong. It reminds me of when I was a child. In a ridiculously high percentage of all the instances when I wet my pants, the sad event happened when I was in the bathroom. I don't know what it is, but in those last few seconds, your bladder has the hardest time! (Don't try to tell me it isn't true for you.) If I liken that to my current situation, I would say that I'm remembering (consciously and subconsciously) all of the things I left behind that I'd kind of forgotten, a lot of the sacrifices. And it makes the final stretch a bit harder... When I was a kid, I remember, in those strenuous moments, telling myself I had two choices. First, hold on a little longer, in spite of the extreme discomfort, and make it to the toilet, or two, have to change my pants. And deal with the embarassment of telling my dad. (My dad is great, but for some reason, he was never happy when I told him that I'd wet my pants...again.) In these final weeks, whenever I keep the end goal in mind, and the blessings that enduring for the last bit will bring, I get motivated to stay focused.

Excuse me if my analogy seems a little crude, but hey -- a man has got to express the feelings of my heart. (Or his bladder. Sorry. I'll move on to higher thoughts.)

The work definitely has been picking up here in Tilburg. Our "Amulek" investigator from a few weeks ago is still doing great -- it's awesome to see the Spirit work with him. We've also found a few new people. On Tuesday, we were knocking doors, and this woman (maybe 30 years old?) in a wheelchair answers the door. After a nice, short conversation, she told us we were welcome to come back another time. We were in the neighborhood the next day, so we thought, why not? We dropped by, and she let us in. We were able to teach a great lesson about the restoration and the Book of Mormon, and she was super open. We're hoping to be able to teach her again this week. I learned an important lesson on gratitude while teaching her -- she wasn't raised religious, so I asked her how she came to believe in God. She responded with something along the lines of "because there are so many beautiful things in the world." This woman is in a wheelchair, and still she chooses to see the good. She doesn't limit her gratitude (or her happiness, for that matter) to her circumstances. That's something I still have room to work on.

Later that day, we were knocking doors in an area close to where we'd worked before. Suddenly, I started hearing soft music, like it was coming from far away. As I listened closer, I realized that it was an Enrique Iglesias song that I'd really liked back home, a song I hadn't heard in almost two years. I said, half jokingly, "hey, Elder Byers! It's Enrique Iglesias! I'm feeling like we should maybe go...towards the music." My companion just laughed, and we headed towards the source of the music. After walking for about twenty seconds, we turned a corner, and boom -- there was a kids' party going on in the park. At that point, I started to feel a little creepy, and the song ended, so we started walking away, a different direction than the one from which we came. We realized that we were right by a super cool woman we'd found earlier who we'd never been able to get in contact with. We'd kind of given up on her, but since we had ended up in that area, we gave it a shot. She was home, and she was more than willing to set a solid appointment with us for this week. Sometimes, good things happen in funny ways. God played off of my strengths that day (humor me by allowing me to call missing normal music a strength...haha).

On Saturday, we had a lunch appointment with a Columbian family from the branch, the Peña family. I'd talked to them a lot at church, but since they live so far away from Tilburg and work a lot, we'd never eaten there before. We took a forty minute bus ride out to their town, Baarle-Nassau. It's an interesting place -- part of it is technically in Belgium, the other part in the Netherlands. But it's not even like it's split in half; there are just fragments of the city that are considered to be part of Belgium. There were these dotted lines on the sidewalks and roads informing everyone what was Belgium and what was the Netherlands. I'd never been to a city like that before. We had a really fun lunch appointment with the Peña family, by the way -- they were great.

Yesterday was, of course, Mother's Day (Moederdag!), so I got to Skype my family! My fourth and final Skype. It was weird to think that, in just a few weeks, I'll be seeing them in person. I also gave a talk in church. It was a nice moment of reflection -- two years ago, on Mother's Day, I gave my farewell talk. Weird, right? I've changed a lot since then, that's for sure.

Well, I'm out. Be good and enjoy life. Until next week!

-Elder Bonney

 

In Baarle-Nassau, by one of the markers. I never thought it would be so easy to be in two countries at the same time - go figure.

 

Week 99: "It has nothing to do with the police... You just can't bite people!"

 May 4, 2015

 

Here I am. It looks like I made it through the nine days since I last emailed…haha. Judging by how crazy it was on Monday, you might not have been sure that I’d make it to today!

Monday was Koningsdag (King’s Day), and all the missionaries in the district went to Breda, where we set up a table and handed out pamphlets, cards, and copies of the Book of Mormon. To try and describe Koningsdag…  I don’t remember what I said last year, but it’s basically a mixture between a giant, national party (with more than enough alcohol) and a huge yardsale. Because yardsales aren’t usually legal here, everyone uses Koningsdag to go out, throw blankets on the ground, throw all their old stuff on those blankets, and sell all of it. I have to admit, there were some pretty good deals, and I would have bought a lot of stuff if I were actually living here as a normal person. (So, for the sake of keeping my living space organized, it’s probably a good thing I’m a missionary.) Since there were eight of us missionaries at the same location in Breda, we took turns going out and seeing the different ways people were trying to make money. Besides the usual yardsale stuff, there were a lot of interesting attractions -- kids were playing their musical instruments, there were breakdancers, there were challenges (“hang two minutes from this pull-up bar and win twenty euros!”), but my favorite (and the most ridiculous) were the people who were letting themselves get pelted with raw eggs for money. There were at least three locations with people doing that. I kid you not.

And guess who came to our table when we were handing out copies of the Book of Mormon? John the Baptist. The same from a few weeks ago. Go figure.

After the giant yardsale and all the attractions, the only thing remaining is all the partiers…and the alcohol. So, we dropped by a Turkish restaurant, ate some shoarma, then headed home while trying to avoid running into too many drunk people (I can’t speak for the rest of the Netherlands, but in Breda and Tilburg, there were a lot). And…that was Koningsdag.

On Tuesday, I got to go on exchanges with Elder Goff in Vlissingen. Vlissingen was beautiful, just like the last time I was there – last August. We had a dinner appointment, and it was with an older woman from Suriname and a middle-aged Dutch man, who she’d invited (they were both members). Partway through, she started talking about how some people in the country had recently been arrested for fighting and biting a police officer. “You aren’t allowed to bite police,” she says. Then the Dutch guy gets this look in his eye, and he says, “it has nothing to do with police… You can’t just bite people! It doesn’t matter who they are.” They went on for a good little while, and Elder Goff and I just laughed. The conversations I’ve been in…

Unfortunately, later on, I started getting sick, and for most of Wednesday, I was stuck at home with a fever. It wasn’t much fun. On Thursday, we were able to get a little more work done, but I still wasn’t 100% (I’m still not, but I’m almost there now). A number of appointments this past week were canceled, too, due to other people being sick – a lot of members were sick last week. So, I guess I fit right in? I belong here. It must be true.

Later, on Thursday, we were on the bus back from the branch president’s home. It’s about a 35-minute bus ride. At one point, in this little town, the bus driver stops the bus (not at a bus-stop), leaves the bus running, and just gets out, leaving the door open. There were about five or six of us in the bus. We were looking around – what is he doing? Where did he go? After a few minutes, he returns triumphantly, ice cream cone in hand. He looked pretty happy. Elder Byers and I thought it was pretty funny.

I don’t have much else to report from this week – the investigators are doing alright, and the members are taking good care of us. The weather is pretty nice, so I guess it’s time to get some good work done!

Keep it real. Until next week.

-Elder Bonney

The district on Koningsdag. For those of you who have wondered who my companion is, he's the one on the far right of the picture.

Saw this in the centrum this morning. Someone got pranked, the Dutch way.