Week 33- Nog meer wonderen!

Hola, en Gooie Morgen!

This week has been yet another week filled with miracles, and it has flown by! I am loving serving here in Amsterdam. Fun Fact: Our area is the biggest area in the mission with the whole capitol city and the outlying smaller towns. It contains 1 million people, which is a 1/16 of all of the people who live in Nederland. Sometimes it is kind of overwhelming to think that it is our job to bring the gospel to them.

But it hasn't been going too badly! We have been continuously picking up more potentials, and we are almost out of copies of the Book of Mormon. Thankfully we are getting some more this week.

We had a really surprising lesson with a couple of our investigators. We met Marco "langs de deur"(tracting or directly translated "along the door.") He let us in immediately with his crazy little dog barking at us the whole time. In the following conversation we found out he was SUPER vegetarian, and gay. But he was super interested, so we set up a return appointment. We went the the appointment thinking that we would probably end up dropping him, but he had already read a bit and wanted to read with us. As we were reading, his friend Lijon, an older Dutch woman, was interested and want to read with us. This last week we had our next lesson with them, and they had both read and loved the restoration. It was one of the smooth and spiritually guided lessons of my mission, and in the end they both accepted a baptismal invitation. We are hoping to put both of them on date tomorrow, so cross your fingers.

I don't have a lot more time to talk about all the other miracles, but long story short, there are a lot of ready people in Amsterdam!


Just rocking my hipster side... :) This was a pretty sweet mural nearby a university.

AMSTERDAM!!!!! Sometimes I wish I could just walk around with my camera, because everything is worth taking a photo of!

Same photo, just Elder Thornton is in the way this time :)
Thanks for your love and support!

Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 32! Miracles!

This week has been so great! We have been talking to so many people, and learning so much! But best of all, we have been seeing so many miracles!

We have been doing our best this week to keep our mouths open at all times, and it has been hard, but super worth it. One day​,​ right as we were walking into the park to talk to people,​we contacted a woman who was leaving. We introduced ourselves and then she interrupted us and said that she knew us, and that her daughter was currently being taught by the Sisters! She told us about her daughter, and it is a pretty incredible story! Her daughter is 7, and recently she had an incredible dream where she talked to God and Jesus, and they told her they needed her. Her mom knew immediately where to go; the Missionaries. She lives nearby the Church so she sees us often. This Mother wants to help her daughter so much, and though she herself feels unworthy to come to church, the Sisters have been working with them. This daughter's spirituality is off of the charts! I was amazed by the timing that allowed us to arrive at the park just in time to talk to her.

Another cool experience we had was on our way to look up some less actives. We talked to the 3 people that we came across on our way, and we gave away both of our copies of the Book of Mormon, and got 2 numbers. 2 out of 3 is pretty good!

One last miracle! We have met a couple times with Robert and his mother Gloria, a member family from Bolivia. They moved here a few months ago, and they felt too intimidated to come to church. We convinced Gloria to come since we have several Spanish speakers. At the around the same time, a recently baptized Bolivian,​ Rosita, was praying to meet someone from Bolivia since she was feeling super lonely, and God told her to go to church. They both came to church for the first time in a long time, and they answered each other's prayers!!! I thought that was so crazy cool!
This was our super cool parking spot last P-Day! If you thought parallel parking was hard, try it next to a canal.

Rembrandtplein in Central!

We decided to try a new thing... We call it statue contacting :) He seemed pretty interested.

You may have noticed the ukulele case that Elder McDivitt was carrying... I bought one last week. And I love it! I'm not super good yet, but ​someday ​I thought I would include a video for those who would like to see it.

I love you all!

Love,
Elder Thornton

From his letter to Mom: ​P.S. Since Elder Bartolini has left, I have been doing a ton of cooking, and I am not too bad! I have made Alfredo, and that special hamburger gravy with mashed potatoes(tried to, at least :)). I plan on using the chimichanga recipe this week. Thank you!

Week 31! Happy Valentines from the Red Light District!

Goeie Middag Jullie!
This week has been an adventure! We had transfers this Wednesday and after we sent everyone on their way, my new companion Elder McDivitt and I got to work! He is from the same MTC group as me, so we are both pretty new. He is super obedient and hard-working, so I am really excited to work with him! He also speaks Spanish, which is a definite requirement for how many Spanish people we have left from the super transfer I had with Elder Bartolini.

I had a super cool experience yesterday when we were meeting with Said and his family (the recently baptized 11-year-old). Elder McDivitt was speaking to his parents in Spanish and I was overwhelmed by his faith and the Spirit. Elder McDivitt had a couple years of Spanish in High School and spoke to a few Mexicans in California, but that was all of his experience before his mission. He marked the 2nd out of 5 options in fluency on his language, which is that he can speak and understand a little bit. He was then called to the Belgium/Netherlands Mission Spanish speaking, and he recieved no training in Spanish in the MTC. Then he went another 6 months on his mission with no Spanish speaking, and the moment he got to Amsterdam he just jumped into the pool of Spanish investigators and members without hesitating. It has really been a miracle, and I had to hold back some tears during our lesson last night.

We had a bonfire right before Elder Bartolini left. We burned one of his old shirts, a couple photos of his ex girlfriend, and an "apostate book," (Twilight in Dutch, by Stephanie Meyers) :)

It snowed a ton! 3 inches, which is crazy for the Netherlands. I couldn't keep my eyes open because of the snow.

Snow in Weesp!

Crazy beautiful view with the windmill in the background!

Yet another :)

I got a super cool surprise in church! We always have at least a few American tourists in church, and a couple weeks ago a couple from Kaysville came. I got the chance to talk to them, and they were super nice! They asked if they could bring me anything from home since he would be coming back in a couple weeks, but I told them thanks but I didn't really need anything. This Sunday he brought this Valentines package from home with homemade mint brownies!!! You could say I was pretty excited... :)

I love you all!

Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 30: Nog Steeds Amsterdam!

Hallo familie en vrienden!

This week has been a lot of ups and downs, but still super good. Transfer calls came this Saturday, and I am staying in Amsterdam. Elder Bartolini is heading to Deventer to be a district leader, and I am getting Elder McDivitt, an Elder who was in my MTC group. He speaks really good Spanish from high school and living in California, which is a really good thing, because we still have several Spanish investigators. I am really excited to work with him!

We currently trying to get Max into more of a teaching situation now because he has only really met with us during and after dinner appointments. We cooked for him and two other of Pedro's friends at Pedro's apartment, but we couldn't really pin down them because they were all just having too much fun. We did share a pretty good spiritual thought with the mormon message "Refiner's Fire." So hopefully we will be able to set up some lessons next time.

We found yet another Golden Investigator! Her name is Patricia, and she is from Suriname. She is super nice, and the entire first lesson I was just waiting for her to say something or tell us one of those hated phrases like "the bible is all I need," or "I already have a church," or even worse,"I'm a Jehovas Witness." :) But really though, there are so many of them in Nederland. But she gave so many perfect answers, and responded so well to everything. When we asked her about prophets, she said "God would call prophets in every age, especially in this time." We even checked to make sure she understood what a prophet was, and it was solid. I really hope she continues on this well!

I'm sorry that this is yet another long one, so I will end it real quick. One thing that I have learned this transfer, that it isn't What or Where we are doing it, but How and Why. Once we get the How and Why down, the What and the Where will come automatically.

I hope you enjoy the last few silly pictures with Elder Bartolini! Ik hou van jullie!

I feel a little guilty about this one, but it is just too good not to send home... I hope you guys get it :)

Beautiful view from one of the members's roof. (The crane was a bit annoying, but it gives a fairly accurate representation. There is always a crane on the horizon in any direction you look here.)

One last model shot with Elder Bartolini :)

Love,
Elder Thornton