Week 11! (P-Day won't actually be on Monday...)

Goede Dag!

I know I told you we were going to change P-Day to Monday, but we realized that we have too many investigators who are only available on Monday, because it is their day off. We visit Beverwijk every Monday, and all of the investigators there, naturally, are available on Monday. So I will still be writing on Saturdays... Sorry...

Anyways... Beverwijk! The Golden City! We have 3 investigators in the same building, and another a little further. And that is only in Beverwijk. We have 6 total progressing investigators right now, and a couple other new investigators. I am pretty excited!

I will share two more super awesome things. We found a Polish man, and he doesn't speak very much English or Dutch, but we were able to communicate just enough to give him a Polish Book of Mormon. We checked back up on him a week later, and he has already read to Alma 25! And he says he loves it! We really need to speak Polish...

Also, Joelle, our #1 investigator, promised to follow the Word of Wisdom! I promised with her that if she wouldn't drink wine at social gatherings for 3 weeks, I would not eat candy for 3 weeks. You have no idea how hard that is going to be. I have a couple pounds of candy from the MTC, and more from a birthday present from the Mission President. But if Joelle can completely change her lifestyle for the gospel, I can refrain from candy.

I forgot the camera chord... again... Sorry! I have some really amazing photos, so next week. I also am going to post segments of my journal, because I write about the same things I want to write in my journal.

Tot ziens!

Love,
Ouderling Thornton

(We don't get to use that title, because it means elder, as in old person, not elder, but a guy can wish) :)
Here's some more from my personal letter. I asked him what his typical PDay looks like:

P-Days in IJmuiden are super busy. We follow the normal 3 hour study schedule in the morning (personal, companion, and language), and we go grocery shopping. We then go do emails at the church. It takes us nearly an hour to get to the church on the busses, so we end up having nearly no free time. Normally after emails we head straight to our dinner appointment. Today we got to play soccer with our zone as a special activity, but that means we had almost no time to do proselyting.

Week 10!

Here is some more info he wrote in my letter:

I really enjoyed your letter! It is a little weird to think that you guys are still doing normal things, and I am being a missionary. It hits me every day that I am a missionary, because it seems so strange. You look forward to and imagine a mission for such a long time, that it is really weird to actually do it.

I am so excited for everyone runningwise! That sounds pretty awesome. Elder Stanger has been running with me a little bit, but not very long or very fast. We do get plenty of exercise walking and biking, but I probably will gain a bunch of weight, because we do have to do a lot of sitting on the bus and during lessons, and the members feed us almost every night.

We are allowed to listen to any music that is centered on Christ, not just motab, so most people just put music on a usb port.

Since my emails are going to be shorter, I think I am going to send excerpts from my journal so I don't have to spend all my time typing out this letter. The Miracle (or miracles) of the week, has to do with bu​ses. We live a whole hour from our church and basically everywhere, so we spend a lot of time on the bus. Often, we miss our bus, and I get a little frustrated because we are late so often. Sometimes, this turns out to be a miracle. Multiple time we have missed the bus, and the one after it had a investigator or potential in it. It has been so amazing, and I know that God can place us in the right place with something simple, like missing a bus.

I think we found Jackie's house! (the Filipino woman) It is in the right area, and has a brand new tag on the door with the correct first initial and a Filipino last name! We are going to check that apartment every time we pass by now.

​​I forgot my cable to the camera, so I will try to send those photos next week.​ Love,

Elder Lancey Pantsy Thornton

Week 9! (I think... I may have lost track...)

Hallo van Nederland!

I love being a missionary! It is crazy hard, but also rewarding enough that you just can't get enough. We didn't have a ton of appointments this week, so we did a lot of knocking. I love it is short amounts, but sometimes it is a little long.

One day we knocked an entire street in a few hours, and almost the entire first half of the street was not interested, and not particularly nice either (which is weird, because for the most part I have found that people here do their best to be polite, even if they have "Geen geinteresseerd.") On the second half of the street we found several people, and had to bring back a Book of Mormon because we ran out. That was a little weird, but so awesome. On this street we found 3 19 year-old boys, who all were interested and took a Book of Mormon. We are hoping to teach them together, cause that would be so cool!

I had my first exhange this week, and I finally broke through the barrier of speaking to people on the bus. I now can have a full conversation with someone on the bus, and for the most part understand what they are saying, which is so cool.

My trainer is super good at Dutch, and I am doing my best to learn from him. I have improved a ton since I got here.

My trainer is super awesome! Elder Stanger is really good at Dutch and talking to everyone. He actually has done musical theater since he was 8, so we have enjoyed that, and he is almost the exact same height and weight as me, to which everyone in our ward has commented on.

Our investigators are doing pretty well. Joelle is progressing, and wants to be baptized, but doesn't want to commit to a certain date. Dionis and Peter did not do their reading, so that is a little frustrating... Joka is from the Dutch Reformed Church, and doesn't really think it is important to change, even though she has asked us to pray with her multiple times. I think we are going to be able to get all of them going this week, with a little help from above.

Have a great week!

Beverwijk! A pretty little pond in our area

Haarlem Centraal! We take our a 30 minute bus ride to IJmuiden from here almost every day. (We are super far away from the church, about 1 hour on the bus, if we time it right.)

My classy companion and I on our bikes. :)



​Vla! Zuster Majors made this pretty awesome vla flower for me at a dinner appointment.

Love Elder Thornton!

Week 8! At least one miracle a day!

Hallo!

This week has been so awesome! I have seen so many miracles! There is a least one that I have to tell you about.

Last Sunday my companion and I were on our way to church on the bus, and we had decided that next time we would sit next to people who looked like they were going to church. As we were getting off of the bus, we helped a woman with her child and stroller. She said "Thank you" in English, so we asked her where she was heading. She said, "I'm looking for a church." AHHHHHHHHH!!!! That was so cool! She and her extremely smart 1 year old came with us to church and stayed for the full 3 hours. We are hoping that she will come back this Sunday, since she did not know her number yet, and the member who gave her a ride home doesn't remember the address (argggg). Keep her in your prayers! We think we know the street she lives on, so we are going to knock it tomorrow. I forgot to mention she is ​Filipino (my Dad served his mission in the Philippines, so that is kinda cool.

Next, I want to debunk a myth. First of all, my mission is not a hard mission. Everyone here is so nice, and miracles happen every day. Everyone may not be ready for the gospel here, but there are so many people who are. We currently have two people who have a soft baptismal commitment (said yes to baptism, but aren't ready to set a specific date yet). They are Joelle, an amazing woman from Kurasao, and Peter, an old man who plays the organ at the Catholic church. We also have Dionis, a woman from Dominican Republic, who was amazed at the first lesson, and I feel like she has a ton of potential.

Another miracle along those lines is Joka, an older Nederlander woman. She has been struggling with her health for a really long time, and she had become very scared. At that moment, we knocked on her door. She invited us in and started sobbing and telling us her story. She has allowed us to come back a few times more, and believes the restoration is true.

The language is coming along okay, I guess. I understand very little details, but most of the time I can understand the general context. I learn more and more every day. Some of you may have heard me at one point or another say that "the weather tastes good"-​ cause it totally does. Guess what! They say "Lekker Weer", or "tasty weather" here. So ​I'm not that crazy!

One more miracle is that some people here really are so prepared for the gospel. We were talking to a man on the bus, and our conversation turned to religion, of course! He said that he believes all of the churches have a "shard" of the truth, which is the metaphor we use all of the time for the reason for all of the Christian churches, and why the true church had to be restored. We got his information, and I am super excited to contact him.

Sorry it is long! I have so much more I want to tell all of you, but I only have time for the most important stuff. Have a great week everybody, and believe that miracles are so real, and can happen to anyone if they believe.

Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 7! In Nederland!

Hallo!!

I'm here! The mission field is so different than the MTC. But different in a good way! I do miss the food, but other than that, it is way better.

Nederland is soooo beautiful! Almost every building here is a work of art. The canals are absolutely amazing, and every street is picturesque.

You may have noticed, but my p-day is on Saturday because we are in the same district as the office Elders, and they take it on Saturday.

I am serving in IJmuiden, a suburb of Haarlem. My trainer is Elder Stanger, and I totally believe that he is the best trainer in the mission. He speaks Nederlands very well, and he actually laughs at my sarcasm (that is a relief, because no one in my MTC group understood it).

The people of Nederland are super nice! Every once in a while you meet a crazy one, or a rude one, but for the most part if you talk to them as a friend they will talk to you as a friend. Everyone before my mission told me that "it is a hard area," so I am happy to say that you are wrong. It may not be South America, but there are many people here who are interested in the gospel.

One incredible investigator we have is named Joelle. She is amazing!! She is more comfortable in English(she is from a small country in South America), so I got to help teach her the 2nd lesson. Everytime we say something she says,"That makes so much sense," or "Wow, that is amazing." She has felt the spirit, and is consistently reading the Boek van Mormon and filling out the pamphlets we gave her. She wants to go to church tomorrow, and we didn't even talk to her about it. She is so ready for the gospel, and I love it!! I would not be surprised if she was baptized within this transfer.

One small miracle happened yesterday right at the end of the day. We were contacting, and an older woman was walking her dog, and for no reason it just layed down. This gave us the opportunity to catch up to her and talk to her. She is planning on coming to church tomorrow, and we got her contact information. It was pretty amazing, and I hope something more will come out of it. I know that God is helping us find those who are ready, and that dog did not lay down for nothing.

So many other amazing things have happened, but I don't have time to tell everything. My hardest thing has been going out of my way to talk to people, mostly because I am super afraid of speaking to them in Dutch. I have been able to start a few conversations on the bus and train by asking people if I can practice my Dutch with them. After a while they get curious and ask why we are here, and then we can tell them about our church :) (we aren't allowed to "proselyte" on public transportation, but there are ways around it.)

Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Thornton