Week 41: Getting There. .

Dierbare Family en Vrienden!

Live is still going great here in Nederland! It has been yet again crazy this week! We had two exchanges this week, and since Elder Mostoller and I are District Leaders of the biggest district in square miles in the mission, that included a lot of travel time. But we had a great time!
We have also been very busy with the Mission-wide DVD campaign that happens every Easter and Christmas. We offer "The Lamb of God" DVD for free on Facebook, and it generates a ton of referals in a very short period. We currently have thirty that we need to contact, and Leeuwarden, one of the cities in our district, has over 40! It is an excellent way to find the ready people within the huge mass of people here in Nederland. Even if they all live in "dorpjes"(little villages) that are all at least 40 minutes away from us.

Marcel is set to get baptized this Saturday! Everything is arranged, he is prepared to make the changes in his live, and we are super excited. It has been a crazy miracle, because we did not expect to get a baptism this transfer, but with some inspiration from President Bunnell we set an abnormally soon date with Marcel, and he has met those high expectations! So yay!

Photos:

Moving a piano... It was a lot more work than we thought, but after 1 1/2 hours and minimal damage :) we got it up and around the stairs.

Biking! I'm getting way better with no hands, so now I can take photos.

Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 40: The Prettiest Garden in the World!

The Bench from "The Best Two Years"


Gooien Morgen!

This week has been a crazy one, so I am sorry if this email turns out a little long! I sincerely hope that this will have been the busiest week of my entire mission. I was not in my area for half of the week.

This Wednesday we got to go to Keukenhof, the most famous garden in Nederland for Zone Conference. It was incredible! I will attach the best photos with me in it, but if you actually want to see the garden just google it.

Thursday we went on exchanges with Leeuwarden. There was a huge event called "The Passion," so all 4 of us stayed in Leeuwarden to work. The Passion is a "hip and modern"reinactment of the last days of jesus. It happens in a differnet city every year, so we were lucky enough to be present. A lot of people from all over Nederland attend, and many who don't come watch it on TV. I was with Elder Robinson, a Jamaican who visa waited in Jamaica for 7 months and just arrived. It has been weird for him to adapt from sunny, friendly Jamaica to a relatively cold (in multiple ways) Nederland, but he is doing great and we had an awesome time. We street contacted the whole day, and we gave out several copies of the Book of Mormon and got several numbers of the people who accepted them.

Near the ending of the Day I got pretty frustrated because everyone was rushing to get a spot a the show and there were a ton of representatives from other churches. We talked to a couple of them, and one of them tried calling me to repentance... So you could say I was pretty frustrated. After a while we decided to pray, and I got the average God to Elder Thornton answer, "You already know what to do. Get to work." The next person we talked to was Syrian (Syrians are the nicest people I know), and he wanted a Book of Mormon in Arabic, so they should be taking that to him this week. The next two people we talked to were two young students. I was continuously surprised the entire conversation with their reactiions and overall acceptance! And one of them lives in Groningen!

Moral of the story is, God is real, and he seems to enjoy teaching/teasing Elder Thornton often. :)

Easter Sunday was also pretty great with Marcel and Rinus. Marcel is progressing to his date on the 29th, and Rinus has come for the past 4 weeks! (I will probably talk about them more when I don't have so much to say)

I love you all!


Thank you for reading to this point :)



Exchange with Elder Robinson!



Classic Name tag photo :)



Really big klompen (old fashioned dutch wooden shoes)

Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 39: Sunshine!

Spring is here, and it feels wonderful! The sun isn't super common during the winter here in Nederland, so it has been great to feel it again. This week we will be going to Keukenhof as a mission. It is a super famous garden, so expect some super amazing photos!

This week has been yet another pretty full week, but it has been a lot of fun! I "gave" my first district meeting this week. It went pretty smoothly and everyone participated, so our part wasn't super difficult.

We have been working really har​d as a zone to get 60 new investigators during the time of the Easter Campaign, and our district members have been doing really well! But... we are going to keep on working this week :). We talked to a ton of people, and even gave away several copies of the Book of Mormon, but no one wanted to meet with us. So we are going to kill it this week :) !

We did have two long lost investigators show up on Sunday, so that was pretty exciting. One showed up to church, and we had a great lesson with the other one. Both of them are super positive, so hopefully we will be able to keep on working with them!

For photos, you can see my beautiful helmet (no one wears helmets here,

​so​ we receive a lot of comments on them), and also my bike "Inigo Montego". :)

A nice old lady offered to take our photo, so that is a real Nederlander's finger in there :)

Ik hou van jullie!
​ (I love you!)​

Love,

Elder Thornton

Week 38 Lots of Biking!

Hallo!

This week has been pretty packed, but I didn't feel like we got a ton done. With zone conference, General Conference, and all of the biking inbetween, we didn't have a ton of time for a lot of finding.

It was a really good week though! We set a really high goal as a zone, with 60 new investigators during the Easter campaign. We are super excited, and ready to help North Nederland come closer to Christ!

We got a new investigator, and his name is Anas. He is a Syrian! Syrians are my favorite group of people! They are super nice, polite, and willing to learn! Plus all of the ones I have met love God, and He is a legitimate part of their life, not just something that they say they believe in.

Photos:

Groningen Centrum is super pretty!

​I made pannenkoeken for Elder Mostoller's Birthday!

And

It rained really hard on Saturday, but we were lucky enough that one of the members who lived nearby was prepared with a couple umbrellas.

I love you all!


Love,


Elder Thornton

​(When we ask questions, Lance is pretty good to answer them so we can learn more about what his day to day life is like. Here are some of the answers to our questions)

General Conference was wonderful! And we do get to watch most of it live, when it isn't in the middle of the night, the others we have to catch up on, either on the Sunday or the next week for the Sunday afternoon.

The members here are incredible. They are from all ages, and there are a lot of families! Many of them are a multi-generational members, and so we have A LOT of youth, the most in all of Nederland. They do an incredible job of feeding the missionaries, fellowshiping investigators, and magnifying their callings.

The members do the translation here, which is probably best :). But when I have a hard time concentrating​

I mutter or think the translation to keep myself awake. To be perfectly honest, that was a big reason why I loved doing it in Amsterdam. Attention is still something I struggle with in long meetings.

Elder Mostoller is my former district leader in Amsterdam. He has been on his mission for about 20 months, and is still going super strong. He is really smart, and is a man a few words. But when he does have something to say it is always super profound.

We do a ton of biking here. We use the train or bus if we need to got to a "dorpje"or small village in our area.

As for the food, it is all incredible! I love food, and I think my taste buds have gotten a little less picky, if that is possible. The treats here, like vla and their cakes are super good. Also roti, a Surinam dish, is super delicious. I have not really had anything that wasn't good.

(This week we got a photo of Lance from the parents of our former neighbor and Priest Quorum Advisor, Adam Hill. They are serving in the same mission and have been anticipating meeting Lancethere. They finally met this week at a Zone Conference​!​

When I wrote to thank them for taking time to send us a photo, here is her cute response):

Sister Thornton,

He is so lucky to serve in Groningen with the Caldwells! They spoil those missionaries around them, and are such good people. I am sure he will learn from and enjoy their association til they leave on May 4.

He sure looked good and was happy when I took his picture. He was going through the lunch line, however, which might have been really positive for him! (smile) We love to seen them happy and serving faithfully. With this new Easter campaign, they have commiited to 60 investigators in the 2-3 week time period. We have some faith-filled, hard-working missionaries! They won't know if they can do it if they don't try!

Congratulations on having a great missionary to send out and to help gather Israel!


The Hills​