Week 20! #REDLIGHTs

Goede Dag Iedereen!

Amsterdam is still crazy! I think I already have more stories here tha​n​ in my first 2 transfers in IJmuiden. It has been a blast, but I am still trying to figure everything out since it is such a big city and Elder Bartolini is still super new here too!

I can now say that I have been in the Red Light District! We were trying to find a street in the the Centrum, and we started to notice that some of the shops were a little skanky, and then… well, red light district… We got out of there pretty quick...

On the other side of the story, we were looking up people f​ro​m the area book, and we saw two young men in white shirts and ties that we did not recognize. We were a little confused, and then we saw another pair... and then another! We realized that we were super close to the Jehovah​ 's Witness Church, and their service had just ended. There were so many! And we smiled and waved at all of them :) They said "Hallo Broeders," so I don't think they realized who we were :)

Thanksgiving isn't really celebrated here, but we had some nice enough members who fed us. Rob "One-Leg" fed us on Thanksgiving, and it was some delicious pasta (I love pasta). He is a super cool member who has some crazy stories.

(Here is a story from Lance's journal he wanted me to put here.) We had a special "Thanksgiving" Lunch with Sister Giok. It was pretty delicious, but not turkey, just a lekker pasta casserole. For some reason her food always kills Elder Bartolini's bowels, so he excused himself right before the spiritual thought. Right as the Zone Leaders started sharing, we hear Elder Bartolini's explosive reaction to the food in the bathroom. It was physically impossible not to laugh​, and we spent the rest of the spiritual thought trying to smother our laughing. It was pretty bad.

We ate a real Thanksgiving Dinner on Saturday with some super cool British members, so that was kinda funny. It was absolutely delicious!

​Elder Bartolini modeling the Missionaries Nederland's favorite cereal

Me on the Tram! (But I think he was just trying to get a photo of the girl in the background :) )

​I totally would take more photos, but I would not know where to start! Amsterdam is so pretty. You could just try looking it up on google images. (be careful though, Amsterdam is known for a little more than their beautiful buildings #redlights)

Have a great week, and don't forget to share the Christmas Spirit!

Love,
Elder Thornton!

Week 19! Amsterdam!

Hallo!

Amsterdam is crazy! It is absolutely ginormous, and I have pretty much no idea where I am most of the time. We have a super "gezelig" (There isn't really an exact translation for that one. Gezelshap means companionship, if that makes anything clearer.) layout in our 4-man apartment. We got our Christmas tree already set up, and it feels just like a house. We live with the Zone Leaders, Elder Dearden and Elder Bruneau.

Elder Bartolini is my new companion. He is from Peru, and he is a really cool and funny guy! He isn't really a lover of the rules, so sometimes we clash a little on that, but I think this is going to be a really fun transfer. When I came in all of our investigators were Spanish, so I am hoping to pick up some Dutch investigators so I can actually do something :). His Dutch is pretty minimal, so I end up doing a lot of the talking on the doors. My Dutch has really gotten a lot better, and rarely do I not understand people.

I have quite a few photos, so I will let them do the rest of the talking.
Sinter Klaus came to Nederland on the 11th, so we were su​r​pri​sed while we were knocking with a hundred or so "Zwarte Petes" ​(I looked this up just in case you are curious like me: The Zwarte Piet character is part of the annual feast of St. Nicholas, celebrated on the evening of 5 December (Sinterklaasavond, that is, St. Nicholas' Eve) in the Netherlands, Curaçao and Aruba and on 6 December in Belgium and Luxembourg, when sweets and presents are distributed to children. The characters of Zwarte Pieten appear only in the weeks before Saint Nicholas's feast, first when the saint is welcomed with a parade as he arrives in the country (generally by boat, having traveled from Madrid, Spain). The tasks of the Zwarte Pieten are mostly to amuse children, and to scatter pepernoten, kruidnoten and strooigoed (special sinterklaas candies) for those who come to meet the saint as he visits stores, schools, and other places.​ Traditionally Zwarte Piet is said to be black because he is a Moor from Spain. Those portraying Zwarte Piet typically put on blackface make-up and colourful Renaissance attire, in addition to curly wigs, red lipstick and earrings. In recent years, the character has become the subject of controversy, especially in the Netherlands.)


I have some super nice winter socks, but everytime I wear them they rip out my leg hairs. So I decided to shave them... I won't be wearing shorts for a while :)



Knocking in Hoofdorp. (Old area)

Last photo of the beautiful Haarlem station :(

​Elder Ocampo posing in the forest on the way to an appoin​t​ment :)

First Photo of Amsterdam! The Centrum is amazing!

Elder Bartolini posing with an extra large leaf :)

I love you all! Have an amazing Thanksgiving!

Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 18: Drum-roll please!

Hoi!

Can you believe it? I have now been in Nederland for 2 transfers! And you know what transfers mean! Transfer calls!

I am going to Amsterdam! I will be serving with Elder Bartolini, an Elder from Peru who ended up serving in Peru for 8 months because of visa issues, so he got here at the same time as me. When I saw him 6 weeks ago, he spoke almost no Dutch, so we will see how that goes. I prayed for a challenge, and I think God took me a little too seriously. He really does have a sense of humor.

I'm a little sad to be leaving IJmuiden and Haarlem, especially the members that I got to know really well. Luckily I won't be leaving too many serious investigators, just Joelle and a few others who we just started with. Joelle is continuing to "observe the water" from the outside, and she didn't have time this week for a lesson, so I hope that Elder Ocampo and his new companion will be able to help her.

On Saturday we had a little miracle. We had a full day planned, but literally everything fell through. Even our dinner appointment with a member... After we finished our missionary made dinner, we were going to finish weekly planning, but I had an impression to visit Thies, a potential who we had tried to contact so many times without success. We biked down there, and he was home! It was the first day he had been home for a while, as he had been in the hospital for the last couple of weeks. I was super grateful, because I was getting pretty frustrated that day with the lack of success.

I forgot my camera today, which is super sad because I had some awesome photos this week. I will make sure to send them next week, along with some great ones from Amsterdam!

I love you all!

Elder Thornton

Week 17: Halloween!

Goede Dag!

To be perfectly honest, I completely forgot Halloween was last Monday until we were biking home. It isn't very big here, so we didn't have very many reminders.

Nothing crazy happened this week, just a lot of biking and finding in the area book. We have set a goal to get 30 hours proselyting this next week, which is 5 over the missionary standards for our mission, so hopefully that will motivate us to really work hard this week.

My Dutch is getting much better. I have had several people this week think I was from Nederland! That made me pretty happy. The language has always been something I worry about, and so I am so happy that God has been helping me.

Sorry this one is short! Hopefully I will have something incredible to share with you next week!

Tot Maandag!

Love,

Elder Thornton

​From his journal this week, since the letter is so short: "There was one cool miracle that I want to remember. We were late for an appointment, and so we were biking pretty fast. It was a pretty rainy day and the leaves had finally fallen. I was taking a corner really fast when my bike just slipped out from underneath me. The wet leaves made a pretty slippery surface and my bike and I just skidded to a stop. My pants were almost rubbed through, but I was almost completely not physically harmed.​ I got the tiniest scrape on my arm and another one on my hip, and that was it. God really does protect his missionaries!"

​View from the tallest building in IJmuiden!