Week 24: Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Amsterdam is shining with Christmas lights, and people have been really soaking in the Christmas spirit. Sometimes a little too much... Our week was a little slow since everyone has been super busy with Christmas, but we have still been doing great. The Amsterdam ward had an excellent Christmas party, and the missionaries got to decorate it! It was super fun! It was completely filled, and we had to set up a few more tables.

The Skype call with my family was great, but I was very surprised at how fast the time flew! We will still have a lot to catch up on.

​ (Lance didn't have a camera on the computer he was using, so he could see us, but we could not see him :( Instead we saw the cute photo of his 12-year-old self that happens to be his Skype profile picture. ​He held pretty true to the 40 minute rule and we did get to talk for a minute with both his companion and his host, Brother Vervoert​. We also received a package on Christmas Eve from Elder Thornton containing a Belgian Chocolate Letter T!​​)​

Our investigators are still doing well, although they were too busy to meet with us this week... But they are still progressing, and love learning.

I will let the photos tell the rest of the story.

Christmas party set up! I forgot to take photos during it...

Hobo Elder Bartolini... He grabbed a blanket instead of a jacket last p-day, so we just had to take the photo opportunity.

Long story short... Elder Bartolini is a total goofball... :)

On Friday Pedro tried to kill us with a crazy amount of food...

We finished it anyways!

Rob Vervoert and his daughter hosted us for Christmas dinner!

Enjoy the Holidays!
Elder Thornton​

Week 23! Serving in Peru?!

Hola Hermanos and Hermanas!

Things are going great here in Amsterdam! The Spanish/Portugese community is exploding, so I have no idea when Elder Bartolini is going to be able to escape Amsterdam, because we seriously need him here. Our two Spanish investigators are still progressing to their baptism in January (according to Elder Bartolini, because I speak almost no Spanish :) ), and they love church! Said, our 11 year old investigator is doing well, and his Ecuadorian parents are super awesome too! They are super excited for him to get baptized, and when we totally fail at explaining something, they make it make a ton of sense for him. We even picked up yet another Spanish investigator this week, so I am probably going to be speaking fluent Spanish by the end of this transfer :).

Christmas is next week, and if everyone keeps their promises, we are going to have a ton of new investigators at the Church next week! Every we have been trying to contact for the past several weeks has finally decided they want to do something, so that is pretty exciting.


​Elder Bartolini really enjoyed part of my Christmas package :)


Just admiring the Amsterdam landscape... We had to walk down a super long street to find someone, and it was easily the prettiest street that I have ever seen. I took this early on, and I kinda wish I had waited for some of the even better views!

Jamali! He is 8, and he and his mom got baptized a few months ago, so we get to reteach them the lessons every week. We get super delicious Surinamse food!

Vrolijke Kerstfeest!
Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 22: A High-Yield and Low-Maintenance Missionary

Goede Middag!

(Not just hallo, because a grumpy old Nederlander told me it is only for friends and people you know:) )

This week has been going pretty well, and we had Zone Conference with a member of the Area Presidency, Elder Johnson. He was really cool, and he talked to us about how to be "High-Yield Low-Maintenance Missionaries." High yield meaning effective in the work, and low maintenance meaning being obedient, and charitable towards your fellow missionaries. I really enjoyed it, and it gave me a renewed resolution to be exactly obedient.

We also had Stake Conference this week, so I got to see my people in the Haarlem ward! I miss them! The Letorts, and Brother Duineveld to name the ones I knew the best, and also Anna, one of my old investigators. This was her first time in the Church. It is super exciting to see the work in Haarlem and IJmuiden progressing without me.

I didn't take a ton of photos, so I am going to try to get some of the photos from this week from the Zone Leaders. You could put the zone conference photo if you want. Oh, and yes that is half the mission. We are the upper half, and the bottom half contains Rotterdam and Belgium.

Have a great week, and enjoy the Spirit of Christmas!

Love, 

Elder Thornton


​​
A picture we found of Elder Thornton on his mission blog of a Zone Conference in November when they were able to attend the Den Haag temple.

Zone Conference on Dec. 7th. Elder Thornton is in the top right corner. This is when they received Christmas packages that were sent to the mission home. (Ours was full of decorations and a gift to open every day until Christmas, but it sounds like Elder Thornton thinks he is supposed to wait until Christmas Day to open it. Oops!) This is half of the mission!

Week 21! Below Freezing!

Hallo Familie and Vrienden!

It has gotten crazy cold down here! A few days have gotten down to -5 degrees Celsius, which is super cold with the humidity. The smaller canals currently have a thin sheet of ice. I feel bad for Elder Ocampo who is still in Ijmuiden, because it is even colder there because it is a port city right next to the ocean.

This week has been super great! We have been working hard and it has really been showing. We have three people progressing seriously to baptism, although most of that is Elder Bartolini since 2 of them are Spanish speaking and the other has parents who are Spanish speaking, but we do get to teach him in Dutch, which is super nice. His name is Said (SI-eed) and his parents are less-active members. He is 11, and he really wants to get baptized, so that is pretty cool. The other two are Jonathan and his mom, Lilliana. They are from Peru, just like Elder Bartolini. They were all at church this Sunday, as well as a couple others who found the church on their own. We will be meeting with them this next week.

They celebrate Pakjesavond today, which is when Sinterklaus comes and brings them gifts. It is basically the same thing as Santa in America. We get to celebrate it with the Jansens tonight, so that will be super cool. We all drew someones name for the gift giving, and I still need to find a present for Elder Dierden... But it should be a blast!

​Exchanges with Alkmaar! We played some serious games of Uno. I tried to pull a serious face...

​Delicious Olliebollen with cream!

​One of the crazy beautiful parks in Amsterdam. We spent a few hours on the 1st (the church wide service day) picking up trash.

I love you all!
Love,
Elder Thornton