Week 98: "I think we just met Amulek."

April 25, 2015

...surprise! I'm back already, even though it isn't Monday. Like I said last time, next Monday is Koningsdag (King's Day), so President Robinson switched P-day to today. Koningsdag is always insanely busy, and most everything will be closed for what is, in essence, a national yard-sale day. We'll be going to Breda as a district to hand out church materials at a booth. More on that next time.

I didn't have time to write much about it last week, but stake conference for the Antwerpen stake was great last weekend. On Saturday, Elder Byers and I caught a train heading to Antwerpen, where the first session of stake conference. Once in Antwerpen-Centraal, we had about a half-hour before our metro left, so we headed into the city for a few minutes, grabbed some Belgian frites (honestly, french fries should be called Belgian fries, because Belgium does them best), and looked around. We later caught our metro and headed to the Antwerpen chapel. Stake conference was actually a really cool experience -- Kortrijk, Eindhoven, and Tilburg are all in the Antwerpen stake, so I was able to see members from those three periods of my mission (the beginning, the middle, and the end). It was extra special to be able to talk to members from Kortrijk and think back to my days there and to realize how much I've grown since then.

After that session, we got on a train to Leuven with the Leuven elders, and we spent the night there. And who else would be serving in Leuven but my old friend and third companion, Elder Besendorfer? We went on splits with the Leuven elders on Sunday, and it was great to be able to talk and catch up. We reminisced on our Groningen days and reflected on how much we'd changed since then. It was also great to get to work in Belgium again! I haven't worked in Belgium since October 2013, when I spent my last weeks in Kortrijk. Belgium is... Belgium :) It's great. (Though it does have a unique smell to it, which missionaries dub the "Belgian funk." We won't talk about that.) Leuven was beautiful -- it was an area of Belgium I'd never been to before. Unfortunately... I forgot my camera. So goes life. After working in Leuven, we got a ride to the second session of stake conference, held in Brussels. The conference itself was great and uplifting. We then headed back up to Tilburg and got there late that evening.

I'm not going to lie, things were pretty discouraging earlier this week with the work here. We've been working really hard, but no one seems to be open, and those who are open are never home for their appointments. I've spoken with more aggressive atheists this transfer than I have in a long time (Elder Byers and I handled them pretty well, but it still isn't positive as far as the work goes). And, on Thursday night, we had to bike way far out to a referral that wasn't even home, and no one on her street was interested in Jesus. (That two and a half hours of biking there and back with a twenty minute break in the middle was rough... My bike seat isn't the kindest, and it even put a hole in my pants. My rear end was pretty sore afterwards. I won't grace you with more details.)

What I'm trying to say is, there were a few nights when I wanted to tear my hair out and ask God, "why don't you use me to help someone? I'm the most skilled I've been my whole mission, and I'm willing to work. Why can't we just be blessed with solid people to teach?" I was pretty frustrated. Yesterday morning, I was studying in the Book of Mormon, in Alma 8, and I read about Alma and part of his ministry. He was working in the city of Melek, where things were going well -- he was seeing a lot of success. Then, he headed to a city called Ammonihah. There, the people weren't so receptive... It even said that Satan had gotten ahold of the hearts of the people of Ammonihah. (While I was reading this, I jokingly thought, "hey, like Satan seems to have ahold of the hearts of the people we've been speaking to recently!") In short, they rejected his words, spit on him (I wonder if it was Redbull?), and cast him out of the city.

So, Alma's not super impressed with those people, and he decides that he's just going to go to another city. He's on his way when an angel appears to him and tells him that he's doing a good job and that he needs to go back. I can imagine what Alma could have been thinking... "A good job? That must be why, uh, no one is listening to me. And you want me to go BACK?" But, regardless of what he was thinking, he went back. He gets to the city, and he's hungry, so he walks up to a man and says, "will ye give to an humble servant of God something to eat?" (The last time he told something to people in that city, he wasn't treated nicely, so I imagine him having a tired look on his face that says, "please don't spit on me...") This man responds, saying, "I am a Nephite, and I know that thou art a holy prophet of God, for thou art the man whom an angel said in a vision: Thou shalt receive. Therefore, go with me into my house and I will impart unto thee of my food; and I know that thou wilt be a blessing unto me and my house."

Wow. Basically, Alma comes back to the city that rejected him, and what may have very well been the first person he spoke with after being back tells him that he's been told about him in a vision. That man was Amulek, and he fed Alma and helped him recuperate. He later became one of Alma's best missionary companions. Now, I'd read that story before, but this time it really hit me. What if Alma had given up and not gone back? Or gotten lazy? For some reason, God wanted him back in that city he'd been struggling with. Then, after it had been so hard, he was hit with a really amazing miracle. It was a cool learning moment for me -- re-learning that life has trials, but if we endure them well, we'll be blessed. I shared what I'd learned with my companion, and we had a good talk about it.

Later that day, Elder Byers and I showed up to a first appointment with a younger Dutch guy. We were knocking doors a couple days before and had set an appointment with him. And what do you know, he's actually home! We went and talked while sitting in his backyard. He asked if we could talk in English -- he wanted to practice his English while hearing what we have to share. Textbook lesson about the restoration -- this guy was pretty cool, seemed sometimes skeptical, but he had good questions. After the lesson, we asked him to pray. In his prayer, he says the words, "I'd like to thank You for answering my prayer." I open my eyes while still bowing my head. What did he say? After we said amen, he looks at us and says, "Actually, I have a confession to make." He goes on to tell us that the same day we showed up on his door, he had suddenly had a desire to learn more about God. He'd even texted a Jehovah's Witness he'd met earlier to see if they could meet sometime -- he was trying to contact people he knew would talk to him about God. A couple hours later, we showed up on his door and, according to him, answered his prayer. I think he's right. It was a miracle. He is excited to learn more and we have another appointment for early next week.

As we were biking away, Elder Byers was pretty excited -- he'd said that was the coolest thing that had happened on his mission. It was awesome. Suddenly, a thought came to my mind. I turn to my companion -- "hey, Elder Byers. I think we just met Amulek." Never give up. You never know who God needs you to keep going for, just like Alma going back and meeting Amulek. Trust in Heavenly Father and things will always work out.

Until the fourth of May. Don't miss me too much next week.

-Elder Bonney

Week 97: "I won't shoot the messenger... Actually, that's hard to do here. Firearms are illegal."

April 20, 2015

 

The last transfer has begun. On Wednesday, Elder Matos and I hopped on a train heading to Rotterdam Centraal, where Elder Byers was already waiting. Elder Matos and I said our goodbyes, and my new companion -Elder Byers- and I grabbed the next train back to Tilburg.

And so it begins. Elder Byers and I hit the ground running -- he was ready to work, and I was too. I felt like some parts of our first day together were straight out of a TV show. We were walking around the centrum, contacting people, and we talked to this one guy who was wearing a cowboy hat and looked Mexican. He spoke fluent English and Dutch and preferred to speak in English, so we started explaining who we were and what the Book of Mormon was. He proceeded to introduce himself as John the Baptist. He was dead serious. "I'm not the same as the one from the Bible; we just have the same name. Similar missions, though!" He was also religious and tries to help others. After a long conversation in which he quoted lots of random scriptures about how great Christ is, we realized we weren't really getting anywhere, and we thanked John the Baptist for his time and moved on.

Five minutes later, we're standing at a crosswalk, waiting for the signal to walk. I was thinking about how great the weather was (and it was great -- the newspapers called it the "first day of summer"), when Elder Byers and I were suddenly sprayed by something wet. I thought a car had used their windshield cleaner at a bad time or something, but then I saw a younger guy with a look of disgust staring us down as his friend drove away. Yep, we'd gotten spit on. I looked at Elder Byers, who had a deer in the headlights look, and he said, still looking stunned, "it's either Red Bull or Monster. I'm pretty sure it's Monster." Well, at least I know what the guy spit on us. I wiped the energy drink from my face...and we pressed onward.

That evening, we were biking to an appointment. I got a little lost, but we managed to find the way. All of a sudden, I felt something wet right above my knee. You know, they say everything that comes from above is a blessing, but when I looked down at my pants and saw bird poop on my leg, I disagreed with that statement. In the middle of informing Elder Byers about my bad luck, I hear a clank and a hissing noise. Elder Byers says, "I think I just rode over a piece of glass. Yep, my tire is flat."

And that was the first day of the transfer. You know, we all have days like that every once in a while. You just have to laugh at yourself -- I laughed a lot that day. I think Heavenly Father was just testing me... But, things always get better. Now, Elder Byers' tire is fixed. My face has no Monster energy drink on it, and neither does my shirt. My pants are washed. As for John the Baptist, he's still out there, somewhere.

Welcome to Tilburg, Elder Byers! Haha. My last companion is a good guy. He's from Nashville, Tennesee, and he's been on his mission for about five months. He's a funny person -- we're going to have a good transfer together.

Being companions with a younger missionary is always fun -- they've often got that young missionary spunk, and they are ready to learn. It's also fun to watch the mistakes... We were in a lesson last week, and we shared a scripture about the Atonement. Elder Byers was trying to say that it was one of the clearest scriptures about the Atonement that he knew. In Dutch, you have the word "duidelijk," which means "clear" or "evident." You also have the word "dodelijk," which means deadly. You already guessed it -- he told the recent convert we were teaching that it was the deadliest Atonement scripture he knew. We had to laugh. Enjoy the little things, right?

I'll go ahead and start wrapping up. The next day, Elder Byers and I were let in my an interesting man -- kind of a hippie. We discovered (though he did not say it) that he let us in because he loved Americans... He listened to us, but told us he didn't agree, though he did like us. That's when he said, "I won't shoot the messenger... Actually, that's hard to do here. Firearms are illegal." Clever.

After we left, we ran into this younger homeless guy who always stops and talks to us. He seemed to be in a rush today, but he stopped us and shared a verse from the modernized Bible he always has with him. In the middle, he gets a call from a friend, and he says, "politie in de buurt, waar kan ik komen?" ("Police in the neighborhood, where can I go?") Apparently, he'd been on the run from the cops. Go figure. At least he thought it was important to make time for Jesus.

This Saturday (we have an early P-day because next Monday is King's Day), I'll tell you all about this past weekend -- we had stake conference in Antwerpen and Brussels. It was a fun weekend.

That's all for today. Have a great week. And hey -- if the police are in the neighborhood, you're always welcome at my house.

-Elder Bonney

 

I promised more pictures of Keukenhof... Remember about how I told you all about the not yet in-bloom tulips? Yeah.

Saying goodbye to Elder Matos in Rotterdam.

 

Week 96: "If you want to hang out with Chinese people, just stay in China! You’ve got 1.4 billion of them there!”

 April 13, 2015

I’m always afraid to say it, because I feel like whenever I say it, it ceases to be true…but, I’ll say it. I think spring is here to stay. I woke up this morning and the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and I’ve hardly worn my heavy coat at all this past week. Things are looking up for my last transfer.

And yes, my last transfer starts this Wednesday! My last six weeks. In this mission, you have sixteen six-week long transfers (plus the six weeks in the MTC). I remember when I was a young missionary, on my first few transfers, and the last transfer just seemed so far away. But, it’s almost here. I’ll be getting a new companion for this last month and a half – Elder Matos is getting transferred, and I will be getting an Elder Byers as my last companion. He’s been out on his mission for almost six months. I’m sure you’ll here more about him next week…

These past six weeks have flown by. Elder Matos and I have worked hard, and looking back, we’ve seen a good amount of success – we found a ton of people with whom we were able to share the message of the restoration. I might have taught more first lessons this past transfer than ever before on my mission. Some of the people we’ve found and taught have chosen to stop meeting with us; some people are still learning. No one is making a whole lot of progress, but I count my blessings that we have been able to teach so many different people. I’m convinced bigger steps will be made this transfer. I mean, we’ve seen miracles and been answers to prayers for these past weeks, and I see no reason for that to stop now!

That said…this past week was a pretty good week. I mean, we got to go to the temple on Wednesday, and that was great. On Tuesday night, we got on a train to Rotterdam, and we slept over at the apartment of some missionaries there (one of whom was Elder Byers, who I’d never met before and never imagined would become my companion one week after that…go figure). The next morning, we got up early so that we could be at the Den Haag temple (which isn’t actually in Den Haag, but in Zoetermeer…) by 8:15. While we walked to the temple, it was super foggy outside, and it was kind of cold. Not great weather. The temple was a great spiritual experience, like it always is – it’s great to set aside the everyday things for a moment and feel close to Heavenly Father. Half of the mission went on Wednesday – the other half had gone the day before. When we got out of the temple, it was sunny and warm. There’s a cool metaphor in there somewhere, if I wasn’t too lazy to look for it…

After the temple, we all walked to the Zoetermeer chapel, where we ate lunch. Then, following the spring temple conference tradition, we all got on a bus and headed to Keukenhof, the park of the tulips. It was great – I mean, flowers can be pretty cool. Unfortunately, we were there a bit early in the season, and only about half of the tulips had bloomed (last year, we went later, and all the tulips had bloomed and about 30% had died – you never see all the tulips in bloom because they bloom at different periods). But hey, I can’t complain. We had a good time.

The work moves onward here in Tilburg – Elder Matos and I were street contacting the other day when we talked to this Asian guy. He spoke English, and after a quick conversation, he invited us to sit down with him at the nearest cafe and talk. His name was Shen, and he was pretty funny – he was from China, used to live on the west coast of the USA, and loves American football. Go figure. He went off about how he loves hanging out with people from foreign places – he started talking about how Chinese people go to foreign countries but just hang out with each other while living there. He started to get passionate about it, and said loudly, “if you want to hang out with Chinese people, just stay in China! You’ve got 1.4 billion of them there!” He cracked us up. After hearing about his life for a while, we had a good gospel discussion. It was great.

Later that same day, we went to look up someone we’d talked to on the street, an older man. We knock on his door, and he came down in a bathrobe (and quite possibly just a bathrobe). After recognizing us, he invited us in. I thought, oh great, we’re going to have to teach someone in a bathrobe, and obviously, the only people who would let strangers inside while they are only wearing a bathrobe are weirdos and crazy people. At least, that’s how my logic went. But, he told us to wait a minute, went upstairs, then came down fully dressed and told us about how he was about to take a shower, but he wants to hear what we have to share. This man had his priorities straight – better to be spiritually clean than physically clean, right?

That’s all for today, folks. Enjoy spring.

-Elder Bonney

My old Eindhoven housemate, Elder Hills and I found some tulips that were in bloom. I can't lie, there were a ton of tulips in bloom. Also a ton of tulips that weren't. There are just a ton of tulips at Keukenhof, okay?

Week 95: "Second Easter? Another Easter??"

April 6, 2015

 

Ladies and gentlemen...this week's email will not be very long, because the library is closed today, so Elder Matos and I have to share the church's one computer to email. Sorry...

So yeah, the library is closed today for tweede paasdag, or "second Easter." I've probably talked about this before, but I don't understand second Easter. They also have a second Christmas. I've probably said that before, too... We showed up at the library today and saw that it was closed, and Elder Matos got a little frustrated and said, "second Easter? Another Easter?? But you don't even believe in God!!" It made me life. Needless to say, we've talked to a lot of people together who don't believe in God, but still like getting a day off from work. Those bums...

But it's okay, you know, because Jesus Christ DID live. And we aren't the only ones that know it (or want to know) -- this past week is a testament to that. Things are getting exciting here in Tilburg, that's for sure, and we've been seeing some miracles. The Easter video from the church website, Because He Lives, has been spinning around Facebook and generating a good amount of referrals for us, and we've found some people to teach because of it, which is great! That includes this one woman who was pretty positive and ended up coming to general conference yesterday with some member friends from other units. She seemed to enjoy it... We'll see what happens.

One of the coolest miracles from the past week happened on Saturday -- Elder Matos and I were walking to look up someone we'd met, and we decided to knock some doors on the way. The first few doors were decidedly not positive people. Then, this young adult guy opens a door and defers immediately to his grandmother, who was pretty sassy. They were from the Dutch Caribbean. The grandma first tells us to come back another time, then says, "wait...I don't have time right now, but my grandson needs to talk to you. He's got problems." And she gives him that grandmotherly "you know I'm right" look. So, we come inside and start talking to him. To make a long story short, he'd been going through some rough times and wanted to find happiness and strengthen his relationship with God. We taught a really good lesson, and he seems excited to meet with us again. Before we left, the grandma (who had been sitting in the same room doing something else during the lesson) tells us that just a half hour before we came, she'd been sitting on the very same couch we were sitting on, and she prayed that God would send someone else besides her to talk with her grandson about God. Then, we show up. She (who is a self-declared very converted Catholic) looks at us and says, "the Lord sent you two for my grandson, answering my prayer." Pretty cool, huh? Being a missionary can be pretty great.

There aren't a lot of Muslims in America, but maybe one of you has seen a Muslim man, decked out in his worship clothes (beats me what they're called). Robes and everything, with a nice, thick beard. I was on exchanges with Elder Hosea the other day, here in Tilburg, and we were biking somewhere. We often stop while biking to talk to people we see (it looks weird, but we're weird enough as it us -- we stop people all day to talk to them about Jesus. Doing it on bikes isn't much more weird), and we were riding past this Muslim guy. We pretty much avoid contacting people who are very obviously Muslim -- it's the religious equivalent of trying to sell electric scooters to Amish people. Furthermore, they often get offended ("I'm obviously Muslim! I respect your religion, you need to respect mine!" <-- we get that a lot). Anyway, I jokingly say to Elder Hosea that we're going to talk to this guy. I just hear his voice behind me... "whoa..okay." I laugh. I ride past the guy, and then I hear the sound of Elder Hosea's brakes -- he was actually talking to him! I figured this man would shut Elder Hosea down pretty quickly, but after a few minutes, I approached the conversation. Turns out, he was trying to explain Islam to Elder Hosea and...well, convert him. Yep. Just another day in the life.

All work and no play makes Jack...hate life. Elder Matos and I like to have a little fun every now and then -- last Monday, we went to Amsterdam for Elder Matos' birthday. (He has distant relatives in the Amsterdam area and got permission from Pres. Robinson to visit them.) His relatives loved seeing him, and because it was his birthday, they treated him well -- taking him out to eat for lunch and dinner, paying for a boat tour, and more... Since I came with Elder Matos (as missionaries, we're kind of a package deal), they payed for me too. I didn't get any birthday gifts, like Matos did, but still -- not too shabby. ;)

I gotta run. That's all for today. Stay fresh, amigos. (Obviously, with Elder Matos, I'm picking up some Spanish.) And..adios.

-Elder Bonney

 

Hanging out on the famous Rembrandt square in Amsterdam.

 

Week 94: "ah, Greek people... crazy."

March 30, 2015

 

Good morning, America. I am Elder Bonney.

This week went by pretty quickly. Time is just escaping me... Did you know that two months from right now I'll be home? It's strange to think about -- two months is nothing. Gotta make the most of it while it lasts.

Yesterday, it rained. A lot. And it's been raining a lot this week, so when I say that it rained a lot yesterday, you know I mean a LOT. The wind was also crazy, which only added to the experience. Furthermore, the gears on my bike broke at some point in the last two weeks, and my bike is stuck on the...highest gear. Let's just say that it was a pretty funny sight yesterday afternoone when I was riding my bike uphill, in the rain, absolutely drenched, against the wind, on the highest gear. At some point during this, I was thinking, "wow, this is my mission. Riding a bike in the rain." Then, I just busted out in a huge grin -- my mission has been awesome (even in the moments when you're riding a bike uphill, in the rain, absolutely drenched, against the wind, on the highest gear).

That said, Elder Matos and I had to make a quick stop at the apartment before our dinner appointment, because we looked absolutely ridiculous. We threw our pants and socks in the dryer and changed our pants, socks, and shoes. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten that my jacket is like a sponge whenever it rains, so that was still soaking wet when I put it back on. Oh well.

On Saturday, I had the really cool opportunity to get to go back to Eindhoven on exchanges with the zone leaders. I worked with Elder Holt, another Canadian. (Get this -- my companion, district leader, and one of my zone leaders all come from Canada. Go figure...eh?) We had a good day. It was cool to get to visit and see people I taught and worked with when I was serving there last summer. We visited and taught Genzeer, the Sudanese homie who Elder Alston and I baptized. It was really good to see him -- he opened the door with a big smile and said, "Ah, Mr. Bonney is back!" He's doing well -- he has grown a lot spiritually, and that was cool to see. More recently, he hasn't been going to church as much as he should, but he's working on that. He lived in Greece for a while, and Elder Holt decided to tell Genzeer that he needs to help me find a Greek girl... Genzeer just laughs and shakes his head, saying, in his Sudanese accent, "ah, Greek people...crazy." Whatever that's supposed to mean.

We also saw a cool couple who we visited almost every week back in the day -- a recently baptized man and his wife, who is a less-active member. It was great to see them, but really sad and awkward...let me try to describe this scene:

Them: "Elder Bonney! You're back! It's good to see you."

Me: "Yeah, it's great to see you guys! How's it going?"

Him: "Ah, it's alright. We've just been busy with moving."

Me: "Oh, yeah? That's exciting. Where are you guys moving?"

Her, pointing at him: "You should ask him where he's going."

Him: "We're splitting up."

...I didn't know what to say. Once I got over the awkwardness of the whole situation, it made me really sad. I'd had so many good memories in their home, a lot of laughs and a lot of good experiences. It was really sad to hear that they're getting a divorce.

It really made me realize that life does go on. Things aren't the same in Eindhoven, and they never will be exactly the same as they were when I was there -- things change, people change. That's life, I guess, and you have to learn to roll with it. Things will happen that I (or we -- everyone, really) won't like, but you have to hang on to the good memories and hope for the best.

Saturday ended with us cooking dinner at the home of some members. That's right -- we cooked dinner. It was pretty fun. I was put in charge of the rice, and I consider myself relatively good at cooking rice without a rice cooker. However, I usually make rice for one, two, maybe four people. We were cooking for ten. Let me just say, after the first attempt, when I took the lid off of the pot, it wasn't steam that came out, but lots of smoke. Way to go, Elder Bonney. Fortunately we had a lot of rice, and the second time, it turned out well. Good thing we have the Atonement.

The work in Tilburg is moving along well -- we're seeing little miracles all the time, and we can tell that the Lord wants us to see success and is willing to help us.

But, I have to go now -- there are places we need to be. Hopefully I'll have some cool miracles to report on next week. Have a great week, and if it's raining, just smile. It makes the rain better.

Peace and blessings,

Elder Bonney

 

I finally got a picture with Elder Matos at zone training on Thursday. Enjoy.

 

Week 93: "my food...the stove...my house. If my house burns down..."

March 23, 2015

I’m happy to say that I’m feeling a lot better today than I did last Monday. The cold fought hard, but –just so everyone knows – I won.

It was a pretty good week here in Tilburg. Elder Matos and I have been hitting the streets and working hard, and it’s starting to pay off – we found a number of new investigators last week and were able to teach some good lessons. We knew that this week would be pretty good when, on Tuesday afternoon (it was beautiful weather, by the way) while we were walking around the centrum and talking to people, a bearded man walked out of an ice cream shop and said, in very American English, ice-cream cone in hand, “hey, elders! Do you guys speak English?” And that’s how we met Brian, a member from Anaheim, California. He was in Tilburg for the week for some project. In contrast with the…well, not so polite rejections we’d been getting, it was really nice. It was like God was telling us, “cheer up, guys. There ARE people out there who will be happy to see you.”

And there were, that’s for sure. Later that day, we taught a restoration lesson to a student here in his mid-20s. Great guy with a lot of good questions. Students love experiments, so we shared Alma 32 with him and invited him to find out for himself if the answers we were giving were true or not. We’ll see how it goes.

On Thursday morning, we were approached by a man who, as he tells us, used to be a member but wrote himself out while he was in prison in Den Bosch. I asked him why he left the church, and he told me he couldn't answer that until he got the microchip out of his brain that the people in the prison (supposedly) implanted in him. As missionaries, we somehow always find the weirdies...

Later that day, though, we were meeting with this less-active member from America who lives in our branch boundaries. We’re starting to work with her and her sons. She’s super cool, and we’re excited to work with them more. Anyway, while we were in her home, her neighbor, Robert, dropped by, and she invited him in to meet us. He had a lot of questions, and before we knew it, we’d taught him a short lesson and given him a Book of Mormon. It was great. It was hilarious, though – at some point, we were talking to the less-active member, and then Robert just looks up, with a blank look on his face, and mutters, in English, “my food…the stove…my house. If my house burns down…” We were like…what are you talking about? He stood up and informed us that, when he’d dropped by, he’d left food cooking on the stove. Food which was…still cooking. Oops. He sprinted out the door and down the street to his home. His house was fine; the food, however, was inedible. Count your blessings, right?

The next evening, Elder Matos and I had an appointment with a lady from Congo who spoke mostly French and very little Dutch. I was convinced that I had forgotten most of the French I’d learned (from living in Africa and studying in high school and college), but Elder Matos, being from Montreal, speaks good French, so we showed up for the appointment. In the appointment, though, my French started to come back, and we taught that lady together in French. Elder Matos looked at me at one point with a look on his face, “are you serious right now?” I can’t lie, Elder Matos definitely took the leading role and spoke more than I did, for sure, but I definitely had heavenly help in that lesson. It was a cool lesson. Unfortunately, she refuses to read in any book of scripture that isn’t the Bible and wouldn’t accept the Book of Mormon, but…we taught her! That’s something, right?

Thursday and Friday were the NLdoet days -- NLdoet is a big thing encouraging volunteer work and service. Our district was planning on helping out with a service project -- making blankets for poor kids. Elder Matos and I got to Breda late, though, because a train hit a person (ouch). Apparently, though, the other missionaries in the district showed up at the service place, and the people in charge asked them if they'd brought their own crotcheting needles. Well, surprise surprise, none of us knew how to crotchet. After Elder Matos and I arrived in Breda, we all went to another service project -- doing yard work in front of an old folks' home, and not crotcheting. The elderly women inside the home were watching us elders rip out old bushes. I think they enjoyed it. And we did our good deed for NLdoet.

Well, I gotta run. Stay good, and...if you're cooking something up on the stove, keep an eye on it, alright?

-Elder Bonney

PS -- unfortunately, I haven't taken a single picture here in Tilburg yet. Sorry.

Week 92: "Elder, are you dead?"

March 16, 2015

Before I forget, like I have the past two weeks, here is my new address:

Burgemeester Brokxlaan 1950
5041 SJ Tilburg
the Netherlands

Now that that’s out of the way… Well, while I’d love to say that I’m pretty sure I have the plague right now, I’ll have to tell the truth and admit that it’s probably just a bad cold. Being sick on a mission is not the most fun thing in the world; being sick at home is bad enough, when you can sit back and watch TV, or go on Facebook, or read a real book – all the things we do when we’re sick to pass the time without expending too much energy. Out here, it’s different, because…you don’t have the option of doing those things. Instead, you can…read your scriptures, or watch a church film (for the umpteenth time), or the never-failing solution: sleep. I’ll admit, though, as a missionary, whenever you are inside, you feel the urge to go outside and, well, do missionary work. Which, I’ll admit, I have been giving into – and that’s why I have a bad cold instead of an almost healed cold. A member at church yesterday was talking to me, and he asked, "Elder, are you dead?" I thought he was referencing the way I looked, and I was...a little offended...but it turned out, he wanted to tell me about how he felt dead tired his last 2-3 months of his mission. But yesterday, I did feel very dead.

Life goes on. Even though this sickness is trying to stop it, the work in Tilburg is picking up, slowly but surely! Elder Matos and I worked hard this past week, and we were able to find some new people and teach some of them the message of the restoration. It was great. However, I’m constantly surprised at the number of people who aren’t home when we come by for their appointments. Or, even better (this is my all-time favorite), when a woman will make an appointment with us, so we show up with a member to teach the lesson, and then her husband comes to the door to inform us that they aren’t interested. Sigh. But hey, we don’t let that stop us from knocking more doors and finding more people.

Knocking doors to find people is almost like an interesting social experiment. Seeing the way people react, or the things they do, or the different types of people you meet… I’ve been out here for over 21 months now, but it still kind of fascinates me. Apparently, the Jehovah’s Witnesses hit Tilburg pretty hard pretty regularly, so a lot of people assume that we are them and immediately slam their door right after opening it and seeing us. (Those poor Jehovah’s Witnesses…) Once you get beyond that, though, these Tilburg people are pretty nice.

We knocked one door this past Wednesday, and a man opened his door. Right after he opened his door, his dog ran outside, and he came out to chase it. Right after he ran outside after his dog, the wind blew, and his front door shut. Now, don’t ask me why, but most Dutch front doors don’t have a front door-knob to open the door. They can only be opened from the inside, or from the outside with a key. His keys were in the keyhole inside. So, within ten seconds of us knocking this guy’s door: dog out, man out, door shut, locked out. He comes back to the front door and yells out of frustration to himself something along the lines of “why now?” Apparently, though, this had happened before, because one of the windows on his door was broken, and he busted it up a little more and let himself in. Poor guy. Needless to say, he wasn’t too enthusiastic to hear our message after that.

The weather taught me an important lesson this past week. The weather from last Sunday to Thursday was pretty great – blue skies, not too cold. Spring was definitely in the air. Great weather for missionary work. Then, on Friday, the weather started getting bad. The infamous grey skies returned. It rained a little. While we were biking somewhere, with the wind blowing in my face and rain starting to fall, I thought to myself, “Heavenly Father wants us to see success and enjoy the work… Why can’t He just bless us with good weather??” And then, I realized… He had. For five days in a row, it had been just about the best weather of the year so far. Instead of being grateful for that, it took me a grand total of something like a day to stop being grateful. I kind of laughed at myself and started enjoying life again, remembering to be grateful for the good things. Life’s a lot better that way.

Two days later, I woke up sick, and it was hard to be grateful again… I guess God’s trying to get me to work on my gratitude. :)

One last story before I go. So, Tilburg is a small branch, and so there aren’t a lot of members to feed us. We ended up having a lot fewer dinner appointments this past week than I had been used to. When Elder Matos and I went shopping last week, though, I still shopped like we would get a lot of dinner appointments… To make a long story short, yesterday evening, I woke up from a nap, feeling…well, the way you feel when you have a bad cold. I wanted to make myself some dinner, and when I looked at what food we had, we had: rice, beans, and eggs. I felt like I was back at college, trying to create some weird recipe… I ended up making something I like to call Elder Bonney’s rice, beans, and eggs. (I basically cooked them all up and mixed them together. But don’t let the secret out.) And I threw some weird spices and stuff in there. It started smelling, well, not super great. And the pan I was using had no handle, so I had to hold it with a cloth while I stirred the concoction. I was holding the cloth a little too close to the stove, and it caught fire. (All while Elder Matos was sleeping…) I put out the fire. At that point, I could empathize with the guy we’d talked to earlier: “why now?” I guess I need to work a little more on my gratitude.

And yes, we bought more food today. It should be a good week.

Keep calm and be grateful. Until next week! ...and please, pray for me. Haha.
-a cold-infected Elder Bonney