Week 85: "I look like a monkey."

January 26, 2015

It was Friday night, and Elder Neptune and I were making some plans for the next day. The phone started ringing -- it was a member of the branch. "Hello elders, we just wanted to give you a quick weather update! There is a serious warning through the whole country for black ice tomorrow morning. So, be careful."

We did have to leave early the next morning to travel to Amsterdam for a meeting with the district leaders in our zone. While traveling to the Alkmaar station from our apartment, I looked at the canals and saw ice on top of them. It was the first time I saw them frozen over outside (the winters during my mission have been relatively warm, so the lakes/canals never froze). Yeah, it was pretty cold. Did I mention that we're on bikes? We're still waiting for Elder Neptune's driver's license to come, so for this past week and its beautiful weather, we've been traveling with buses and bikes. It's great. Looks like God wanted to make sure that I got to experience a little bit of real Dutch winter (and not from the inside of a car).

And our train was canceled - all of the trains until noon were canceled because the tracks were iced over or something. So, we bused down to Amsterdam. Don't even get me started on the kind of people you travel with while on the bus to Amsterdam...

And there was snow on the ground in Amsterdam.

Things are going really well, though. Elder Pouwer and I had a good last few days together -- on Tuesday, we had a really good lesson with some of the investigators we had found together a while ago - a Romanian woman and her Polish boyfriend. A few years back, I went on a pretty cool trip for a couple weeks to Romania to help build playgrounds, and the kids there taught me a little Romanian -- I have to admit, I never thought it would come in handy. (Given, the only things they taught me that I remember how to say are "I look like a monkey," "you look like a parrot," and "where is the bathroom." Also, a questionable way of telling a girl that she's attractive, but I try not to use that one...) Our Romanian investigator thinks it's hilarious. She's absolutely amazing -- she reads in the Book of Mormon every day and knows that it's true. Her boyfriend, though, isn't so sure. She remains a good example for him and helps him come to church -- they've been three Sundays in a row now. I think they'll go places. Arăt ca o maimuță.

On Wednesday, Elder Pouwer and I drove down to Leiden and ended our four month-long time together. I have to admit, it was sad to see it end. We were together for a while - all the time I served with him is now less than all the time I have left. I'm glad that I'll still see him around, though -- we're still in the same district.

I waited around in the Leiden station for a while, helping run transfers, and then Elder Neptune showed up. We finished running transfers, then took the train - leaving the car behind :( - back to Alkmaar. Since then, we've spent a lot of time figuring out how to get everywhere without a car. Besides our Saturday morning incident, things have gone relatively smoothly. We've rented some bikes, so that helps. We've also been spending a good amount of time preparing for tomorrow's zone training - Elder Neptune is a new zone leader and has never given a zone training before, and neither has our new sister training leader, and we only have had a week together to put it all together, but it should work out.

There's not much to complain about -- things are going really well. Life is good. And the winter won't get much worse...will it?

Arăți ca un papagal.

- Elder Bonney

 

 

Haarlem district, after the last district meeting of the transfer!

At the station with Elder Pouwer

Week 84: "I think I'm leaving footprints in the carpet..."

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

Week 83: "No, Nielsen is the name of the elder who gave you the interview, not the name of the prophet."

January 12, 2015

 

I'm making it through the winter, slowly but surely. It's not too cold, so nothing to complain about there... it's just the wind and rain that make it hard. At least I'm in a car and not on a bike when I'm in Alkmaar. (I apologize to all those missionaries who bike. I've been there, too.)

Anyways, today's email won't be too long, because we went shopping in Zaandam earlier today, and I don't have much email time. I'll try to give you the good stuff.

This Tuesday, we had interviews with the mission president and his wife. I always look forward to those -- some people don't realize just how big of a role the mission president and his wife play in the lives of the missionaries they work with. I love President and Sister Robinson. Our interviews were during district meeting in Amsterdam on Tuesday afternoon. When it was our turn, they pulled me and Elder Pouwer out of district meeting. First was my interview with President. It was going well -- we were having a good talk. He asked me a question about back home, and I started to answer, but while I began answering, I watched as his head started nodding..and nodding..and then he was asleep. All within about five seconds of asking me the question. I just sat there for a little bit, not exactly sure what I should do... "Are you a little tired?" He sits up straight again. "Just...closed my eyes for a little bit there. It's been a long day." I thought it was hilarious. Like Elder Moreira, the area 70, once said, if the mission president is falling asleep in meetings after two and a half years as mission president, you know he's been doing a good job. Haha.

On Wednesday, we were on exchanges with Hoorn -- I worked with Elder Womeldorf in Hoorn. It was cold and windy. We taught a lesson in Enkhuizen, and the lesson went a little long. Right after, we got a text from our dinner appointment, canceling -- something came up. I said, jokingly, "dang, we're working hard, and our dinner appointment doesn't even go through! We have to eat!" We took the train back to Hoorn afterwards to make some lunch. It was around 3 PM. We made some great burritos (I'd like to say that Elder Womeldorf can make good Mexican food because he's from California, but I'm not sure if that's stereotyping or not). I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to eat a lot, especially since our dinner appointment had just canceled. Right after stuffing myself, we got a call from a member, inviting us to eat out with her and her son that night. To an all-you-can-eat Japanese/Chinese buffet. I don't know if I've ever been so full as I was that night. Making room was a challenge. In conclusion: don't complain about not having a dinner appointment, because Heavenly Father will give you a blessing so big there won't be "room enough to receive it."

We had splits in Den Helder on Thursday, and...that was probably one of the hardest days of my mission. Elder Crowson, a young missionary finishing his first month, and I hit the streets of Den Helder, in the cold rain. We then watched all of our appointments for the day fall through. Bummer. It wouldn't have been so difficult, except for the fact that the rain was wrecking us. Elder Crowson's bike broke, so we had to walk the whole day. My gloves were so soaked that I took them off -- my hands were warmer in the cold, wet wind than they were in the soaking gloves. My shoes and socks were soaked all the way through. As was my jacket. I remember knocking doors, counting off the hours until we had dinner. We endured, though, and ended up finding seven people that day, which was definitely a miracle. In conclusion: things may be horribly awful. But, it gets better.

On Saturday, we participated in a blitz in Amsterdam, led by the Amsterdam ward mission leader. Right when it started -you guessed it!- the rain and the wind kicked in hardcore. I'm pretty sure it blew everyone off the street, because there was no one to be found. Elder Pouwer and I just went down the street doing bell-ups. We didn't find anyone that day. But while I was nearly being blown off the face of the earth, I realized how much I love this windy, rainy little place, and how much I'll miss it when I go home. I might as well keep enjoying it while it lasts.

Oh, before I forget -- Aafje had her baptismal interview on Tuesday. The district leader, Elder Nielsen, came up to do it. I waited outside with Aafje's middle-aged daughter. They came out, and Aafje had a huge grin on her face. I told her, "congratulations, you passed!" She just winked at me and said, "psh, of course I passed!" Of course. Since then, though, she hasn't been able to remember if the prophet's name is Nielsen or Monson. We have to help her out on that. Thanks, Elder Nielsen. I'll have to ask him about what he told her during that interview...haha.

She was baptized on Sunday, and it was a great service. The members stand behind her 100%. She'd asked me to speak on the Gift of the Holy Ghost in the service, and that was definitely a privilege. She was so happy. Maybe she is 79, but she says she's planning to live until 102, and that wouldn't surprise me. So, she's still got 23 years left to be a solid member of the Alkmaar branch. ;)

And that's all for today. Stay dry.

-Elder Bonney

 

Elder Pouwer, Br. de Bruijn (he baptized her), the queen Aafje herself, Coen (he stood in the corner -- Aafje wanted another one in the water just to feel safer), and yours truly. Right before the baptism.

 

Week 82: "Ha, Agents -- from the system. Trying to stop our meeting."

January 5, 2015

It's a cold afternoon, windy with clear skies. Elder Pouwer and I are walking in a park, and a man approaches us. We shake hands and start to talk. Two ladies walk past us with their dogs, and one of their dogs' leashes wraps around Elder Pouwer's legs. The man with which we're speaking lets out an annoyed little laugh and says, knowingly, "ha. Agents -- from the system. Trying to stop our meeting."

Which got me saying to myself, "oh no. Here we go..." We'd contacted that guy the day before on the street, and he'd set up a meeting in the park. Little did we know, he was actually an evil genius who is on the brink of exposing a lot of phonies and fixing a lot of the world's problems, and he spent almost an hour telling us about "the system" and how they're trying to keep him quiet. Who knows? Maybe he's right. Just another day in the life of Elder Bonney.

Oh, and 2014 is over! I can't even believe it. On New Year's Eve, we are required to be inside our apartments by 4 PM, because the Dutch people like to light off a lot of fireworks and drink a lot of alcohol on "Oud en Nieuw" (what they call New Year's Eve). Needless to say, not the best combination. We stayed up until midnight (as in, we went to bed early and set an alarm for right before midnight...) to see the fireworks. They didn't disappoint. It seems like people here just try to get the loudest fireworks and blow them up more and more as the 31st of December goes on, so midnight was a treat. I couldn't have slept if I wanted to. There was this one long-haired, bearded, probably drunk Dutch guy on the street right outside our apartment building, and he was loving all the fireworks he'd purchased. Our windows shook everytime they went off, and we're on the third floor... It was a free pass for people to explode whatever they wanted. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they were throwing grenades up in the air just for fun...

2014 was a great year for me. I learned a lot and saw a lot of miracles, had a lot of fun. And now...it's 2015. As missionaries call it, the "year of the jet..." Well, there's no better time to work my hardest and try my best. Might as well make these last months the best ones!

The other parts of the week in Alkmaar were pretty good. On Tuesday, we went to visit Carlos, and he took us for a walk on the beach. His progression is slow but steady. He told us about how Steve Jobs must have been inspired by God, because - how else could he have invented the iPad? We also worked a lot with Aafje this week, our 79-year old gem. Next Sunday is the baptism! I spent about half the week working in Leiden, Zaandam, and Haarlem on exchanges -- nothing like being back on a bike in the winter rain. Honestly, though, it makes you feel alive.

So, I don't know if I ever emailed about an investigator in Groningen named Julio. Elder Besendorfer and I worked really hard with him and taught him almost all the lessons for the first time (before I got there, he'd been taught the first lesson or two). He was great, and we tried really hard to help him build up his faith. Unfortunately, there were some difficulties, some small things that stopped him -- things we couldn't fix for him, but he'd have to fix for himself. That was over a year ago.

This past Saturday, in the Groningen church building, Julio was baptized.

About five months ago, I was companions with Elder Rudolph in Eindhoven. It was our first week together, and I was having a rough time -- I'd been out for a little over a year, and I was tired, in some ways, of missionary work. I'd prayed that I would have a spiritual experience that day to give me a little boost. We were walking down a street, contacting people, when Elder Rudolph and I got the feeling that we should bell-up a certain apartment. I usually would have disregarded it, but I thought, "hey, maybe this is what I was praying for." We rang up, and a nice guy came down, named João. He was from Brazil, if I remember correctly. He told us that

he was religious, but wasn't really "churchy." He told us we could come back. We came back a few times, but never found him home. On my last week in Eindhoven, we found him leaving his house, and we got his phone number. I never saw him again.

This past Saturday, in the Eindhoven church building, João was baptized.

I don't really know what else I can say. You never really can know how much good you do. You can never say that your effort was wasted. I didn't get to see either of the baptisms, but the Lord had definitely used my companions and me to help Julio and João come closer to Him. I can't really ask for more -- I mean, that's what I came here to do, isn't it? Being a missionary is great.

Keep calm and have a great start to 2015.

-Elder Bonney

 In Zaandam, on exchanges, Elder Toole and I found a Christmas tree that hadn't exactly made it through New Year's Eve...

Alkmaar from the top of a hill. Exciting, huh.

Week 81: "It's actually the Church of Jesus Christ, not the Church of Tom Cruise."

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

In Amsterdam Centraal, after caroling -- the Alkmaar and Hoorn elders  

With Elder Toole in the Haarlem centrum, in front of some big church.

Week 80: "I get to play the window?"

December 22, 2014

This week was a week full of unusual things. The more I think about it, the more I realize that, for missionaries (at least, for me), there are no "usual weeks." I guess that keeps things exciting...

I'm happy to be able to say that, after emailing last week, Elder Pouwer and I kicked ourselves into gear and finished planning the zone training. On Wednesday morning, after much blood, sweat, and tears (and being up way past bedtime the night before, finishing planning... Better to ask forgiveness than permission? Don't quote me on that), we gave a great zone training - if I do say so myself. We gave it a Christmas theme, and we both even sang a song we wrote to kick it off, a duet - "Elder, it's cold outside." Yes, to the tune of "Baby, it's cold outside." Don't think I'm ridiculous. It was about getting out and working, even when you have to fight the cold and wet Dutch weather. Maybe someday you'll see a video of us singing it. Either way, it was a great way to kick off the training, and everyone loved it. The rest of the training also went well. That said...

I actually can't complain about the weather right now (you knew a weather report was probably coming...). It's been unseasonably warm. It has rained a lot, too, though. But hey -- could be worse.

Tuesday night was a funny scene. If anyone had walked in the door of the school I was in, they would have seen me, biking my heart out on a stationary bike, sweating like a maniac, with electronic dance music playing in the background. (I wish I could say I was wearing a white shirt and tie, but I was wearing exercise clothes.) No, I didn't go rogue. A member, Rayco (a young teenager) had invited us to help him out with a school project, raising money for abused women in Africa. There was going to be a twenty four hour bike-ride (on stationary bikes), and if we biked, Rayco would be able to take a break. So, when it was my turn, I hopped on that bike and biked my heart out for twenty minutes. To some crazy electronic European dance music that the program was blasting. It was great.

Our move from Heiloo to Alkmaar is complete -- on Thursday morning, we went to do a final clean and rip out all of the carpets with the Robisons (a senior couple from the mission) and Br. van der Put, a member in the stake who helps with the apartments. When we showed up, we realized...after Elder Pouwer and I had done our last basic clean of the apartment, we turned down the heat and opened the refrigerator, so it could air out. At some point, though, the landlord had come in, turned the heat up a bit, and closed the fridge. Uh oh. The fridge was almost intirely black on the inside -- with MOLD. I was afraid some mutant mold creature was going to emerge. The landlord wanted to keep the fridge (heaven knows why), and guess who got the assignment to clean it out? Yours truly. It was possibly the worst thing I've ever been required to do. I barely made it through alive.

So, Elder Pouwer sings, and he and Elder Hunter (and another elder) were invited to sing a version Elder Hunter arranged of "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" at the Rotterdam Stake's Christmas concert. As Elder Pouwer's companion, I was also invited to the concert. On Saturday afternoon, we all piled into the car and took a roadtrip down to Rotterdam. (It's a little over an hour drive -- the Netherlands is a pretty small country.) The concert was organized and directed by Vesna Gruppman, who is only, like, the best female violinist in the entire world. And coincidentally a member of the church in the Rotterdam stake. At one point, her husband, Igor Gruppman (who is one of the best male violinists in the whole world, and conducts the Orchestra on Temple Square and concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic), came up, and they played Vivaldi's Christmas Concerto together. It was amazing. And, due to the size of the church in this country (not THAT big), there weren't that many people there. Not that many people get to see the Gruppmans perform in such a small setting. Just one of the many perks of being me, I guess.

Our branch had a Christmas party on Friday evening, and it was a huge success. There are about fifty active members in the Alkmaar branch (or something like that), and ninety people were at the Christmas party! Victor (remember our Aruban?) was there, too, and we bought some canned fruit so that he could make an Aruban drink for the party. Before it started, he was in the room that leads to the baptismal font, going to town with the tiny blender we brought, trying to blend all the fruit. He got it all done, and we had, like, twenty liters of Aruban fruit punch. We ended up bringing a lot home. (Sidenote: drinking pure fruit can do unpleasant things to the human body. But we won't go there.) It was awesome, though, to see him help out and be involved and included.

Carlos was also at the party, and he brought his wife and his son! After everyone finished eating, there was a short performance -- different people had signed up to sing or play an instrument or read a poem, things like that. Carlos' son had signed up to play the violin, and he was impressive. Carlos got up too, and he went to the podium with his guitar and played an awesome version of "Down by the Riverside." He got everyone singing along and clapping and everything. It was great. Neither of the songs that Carlos or his son played had anything to do with Christmas...but hey. We must have not given through the memo. It was fun anyway.

The primary presidency gave a puppet show about Christmas and its true meaning. They had contracted Elder Hunter to play the piano, and Elder Pouwer was asked to play a few other characters. As I stood in the room, holding up the puppet-theater-structure thing (that was my job), I wondered if I would get to play a part. Then, the window that was taped to the little theater fell off. The primary president asked me if I would hold it through the whole performance. I asked her if I was playing the window. Yes, I played the part of the window! He didn't say anything and didn't move for the whole puppet show. But, I played a crucial role. I think I was the star of the show.

Enjoy this Christmas week, and remember Jesus Christ. If any week is good to think about Him (and really, any week is), it's this one.

Life is what you want it to be. You could be the star of your puppet show, even if you're a window. That's too cheesy. I should just stop.

-Elder Bonney

Going to town on that stationary bike

Elder Pouwer and me, after our killer zone training

Week 79: "Mormon and Muslim -- they both start with M! They're like two lost brothers!"

December 15, 2014

You know, I have to admit -- this week wasn't that exciting. It was transfer week, and Elder Pouwer and I also spent a lot of time preparing for our upcoming zone training. I'll share the few highlights, though.

As missionaries, we have "transfers" once every six weeks -- as in, the missionaries who are going to a new area all travel on transfer day (always a Wednesday) to a main station, and then they travel to their new areas. It's the responsibility of the zone leaders to make sure that this all goes the way that it is supposed to go. That leads me to the following story...

It's Wednesday morning, around 6:20. Elder Pouwer and I are both asleep (we don't have to get up for another ten minutes), and I'm dreaming about something. I don't remember exactly what, but I'm assuming it was a good dream. Anyway, all of a sudden, we are woken up by our phone ringing -- it's the elders to Den Helder. (That day, at 9:30, they'd both have to be in Leiden so that Elder Price could pick up his greenie on time.) Elder Pouwer picks up and puts the phone on speakerphone. It's Elder Price, my beloved MTC companion. "Hey guys, we need some help...we were on the train from Den Helder to Leiden, and we got kicked off in Alkmaar because Elder da Silva had a bike on the train." (No bikes are allowed on the trains between 6:30 AM and 9 AM).) I groan in my head...why were they on the train so early in the morning? I never actually figured that one out.

We told them that we'd figure something out, then give them a call back. So, we went back to sleep for a few minutes, then got up and decided to go pick them up from the train station. I threw on some sweats and a jacket, and we were off. We threw Elder da Silva's stuff in the car, then drove back to our apartment. I got ready really quickly and ate breakfast in the car on the way to the Alkmaar station. I then proceeded to ride the train with Elder Price all the way down to Leiden. Later, Elder Pouwer showed up with Elder da Silva. Elder Pouwer and I went on to spend a good portion of the day in Leiden Centraal, making sure transfers went according to plan. I'm not really sure why I shared all this, but hey -- just another crazy day in the life. While in Leiden Centraal, waiting for more missionaries to arrive, I may or may not have used the 2€ massage chair. And yes, it was worth it.

The other day, Carlos gave us a call and invited us to come teach some Muslim friends that he had made. (While on the phone with us, he played the Happy Birthday song on the trumpet. He wasn't lying -- he can play it on almost every instrument.) That night, we rolled up to the hotel he works at, and we met in an upstairs room. Let me tell you -- Carlos is a great (and hilarious) joint-teach. We brought an Arabic book of Mormon for the two Muslims, and he takes it and holds it up as high as he can while looking straight up and saying, in his Guatemalan accent, "this is the truth!!" Then he gave it to the Muslim guys, one of which spoke no English or Dutch (the other one translated for him) -- I'm pretty sure he was convinced that Carlos was insane. Nope, he's just Carlos. The Muslims made it pretty clear that they weren't going to budge on their views, and we were just having a nice chat. Carlos, however, doesn't give up that easily. Still looking for an in, he says, "they aren't as different as you think! Mormon and Muslim -- they both start with M! They're like two lost brothers! I can feel the unity." ...didn't work. Haha. It was a nice try, though.

This past weekend was stake conference for the Den Haag stake! On Saturday, it was held in the Haarlem church, and on Sunday, it was in a huge conference center in Noordwijkerhout. (No, I do not expect anyone to have heard of it. I hadn't even heard of it.) A member of the 70, Elder Dyches, was there, along with an area authority from England with a pretty posh accent. They gave some pretty good talks -- I enjoyed them. On Sunday, the entire stake presidency was released, and a new stake presidency was called. The old stake president, President Oddens, had served for almost ten years, and he had done a phenomenal job, so everyone was wondering who would replace him. It was amazing to see a man who had devoted so much time and energy to helping others, yet seemed to say that he got more out of the experience than anyone else. It's very admirable. The new stake president, President Scheltinga, will do a great job.

For me, though, one of the best parts of stake conference was getting to see a lot of members from Lelystad, since it's in the Den Haag stake. It had been about six months since I last saw the Lelystad members, and since about a quarter of my mission was spent there, it was really good to see some of them that I consider really good friends. It made me miss Lelystad a lot. It's funny -- on my mission, I've always dreamed of serving in the big cities -- Rotterdam, Amsterdam, or Den Haag, but I think the little city of Lelystad may have won my heart. Sorry, Rotterdam.

I'm really excited for Christmas next week -- it'll be a good one. The last Christmas of my mission! This Christmas season, we're inviting people to share this Christmas video, so I might as well share it with all of you. Remember the reason for the season - and it isn't oliebollen, as absurd as that might sound. #sharethegift

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/share-the-gift?lang=eng

Well, I've gotta go finish preparing the upcoming zone training. Wish me luck. Expect a good email next week. In the meantime, don't freeze.

-Elder Bonney

We played some lasertag with the de Bruijns on Elder Cooper's last P-day. 

Haarlem district, looking good. From Den Helder to Leiden and everywhere in between (except Amsterdam).