Week 102: The Last One!

Hallo!

This week was great, and it was also my last as a missionary. I will be heading to the mission office on Wednesday, and my parents as well as Derek will be picking me up to visit my areas for 12 days. We're all pretty excited.
But I do feel quite normal. It is a little strange. I will make sure to make these last couple days as a missionary incredible.

This last week was good! We had a lot of solid lessons with members as well as investigators. The highlight was with Ursula, her husband Milton and 11-year-old son Tim. Ursula has been investigating the church for a long time, but for various health problems has not been able to be baptized. We ate Roti (easily my favorite food I have had on my mission) and then gave a lesson on the covenant we make when we are baptized. It went really well, and even though Ursula and Milton love talking, we presented it clearly and helped them with any concerns. We challenged them to prepare for baptism on August 18th, and they all accepted. I am really excited for them and wish I could stay to keep on teaching them and see them get baptized.

I will also miss our other investigator Ron, as well as the wonderful members here in Lelystad. Even though I only had 6 weeks to get to know them, I still got the opportunity to know them really well.

See you all soon! And you are all welcome to come to my homecoming on either July 15th at 11:00 AM in my old Shepard Ward (1955 South 350 East, Kaysville) or combined with my brother's farewell on July 29th at 9:00 AM in the Sunset Ward (925 Deseret Drive, Kaysville).
Love,
Elder Thornton

-Lelystad Skyline with the statue of Cornelis Lely, the founder of Lelystad.

Week 101: Den Haag Tempel!

Gooiemiddag!

This has been a pretty crazy week! We went to the temple with the young men and women, we had our last interviews with President and Sister Bunnell, we had our last Branch Presidency Council, it was the last week of Early-morning seminary, and we stayed pretty busy visiting less active members and investigators. So a lot of fun stuff happened!

The Temple was pretty cool since it was my first time doing baptisms for the dead for 2 years now, and only my 3rd time total for my whole mission, so it was really special. I recieved a lot of revelation, and was really impressed with the branch on all of the names they did. It made me excited to be able to enjoy the temple more when I get home.

Interviews with President was great as always. He is so good at making every missionary feel appreciated and needed, and that was wonderful for me this week. He will be going home with our group this next week, so I got to have him my whole mission. I am super grateful for how much he has taught me. He has truly changed my life.

As members of the Branch Council we have been attending Early-Morning Seminary, and they just finished this Friday. I'm really glad that we got to participate because it helped me get to know the youth really fast, and I was able to gain quite a bit of knowledge and spiritual growth in that 50 minutes every morning. I wish I had enjoyed seminary a little more when I was home.

I hope you all have a great week this week! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Thornton
Photos:
Elder Blackwell burnt a suit to celebrate almost 2 years on a mission.

We also had a super fun P-day with one of the members last week. He does leather working for a job and so he taught us a few of his tricks. It was probably one of the best P-days of my mission.

They are putting on a musical in our backyard! They built a big stage in the middle of the pond right behind our apartment and they practiced all day Saturday and Sunday to get ready.

Week 100! Good stuff.

Good Morning!

This week was good! It was quite busy and we had a lot of great appointments with the members. The members here in Lelystad are pretty great, and they have been taking good care of us

It was also Elder Blackwell and I's last Zone conference, so we both gave our "Departing Testimony." Elder Blackwell's was really good and I felt like I managed to a pretty decent job. I hope that someone was able to get something out of it. If not, at least I felt pretty good about it :). I also saw all of the missionaries from the Apeldoorn Zone, so that was pretty great to get to talk with them.

We talked with Mark, the guy I talked about last week, and he is pretty interested in the Book of Mormon, but I do think we will need to help him understand the whole restoration thing a little better.

I conducted church today as a branch counselor. It was pretty weird, but I did a pretty okay job.

As I have been studying the scriptures and the Liahona recently, I have come across faith, hope, and charity a lot. It has been quite interesting to see how many of the characteristics I have developed through the help of God throughout my mission, as well the many characteristics I still have to work on. It is a good thing I still have a lot of time :). But I am so very thankful for the Lord's daily guidance in my life, and for the constant hope that it brings me.That is one of the many reasons why I want to share this message with everyone, because it is so important and it has helped me so much personally. Don't take it for granted! And strive to make it more important.

Have fun this week!
Love,
Elder Thornton



Pictures:

-The shorter missionary, Elder Haddock, is my great-grandson in missionary terms, meaning that I trained Elder Etchells, Elder Etchells trained Elder Graham, and Elder Graham trained Elder Haddock. I guess that means I'm old :)


-Elder Kennell is a missionary who I have gotten to work with a lot on my mission. He is a recent convert to the church, and an incredible missionary. He just replaced me in Apeldoorn as a zone leader.

-A lot of Dutch people hate door-to-door salesmen, Jehova's Witnesses, and basically anything that touches their doorbell, so they put funny signs on their door to tell us to go away.

Week 99: Spiritual Growth

Hey Everybody!

How is it going? This week was not too shabby. It was a pretty normal week with a good mixture of branch work along with some solid finding time. I have been quite pleased with the amount of success we have with how much time we put into that area, so I do take that as a sign that God is pleased with this work. Things are starting to go a bit slower as Elder Blackwell is  starting to realize that he is going home really soon, so I hope that we can pull it out together and get some good work in these next 3 or 4 weeks.

But, on the bright side, I have been getting a lot more time to grow spiritually without all of the extra responsibilities of a district leader or a zone leader, and I am loving it. I feel like I have learned a ton these last few weeks. One of those things have been a reconfirmation of the power of prayer. That was something I learned a lot about in the MTC and throughout my mission, but I have recently had a strong reconfirmation of how much God will help us as we speak to him.

One of the miracles that we saw this week was this Sunday. We had about half an hour to knock, and and the 3rd door we started a good conversations with a man from the New Apostolic Church. He used an example of a vase being shattered and then all of the churches and people trying to put it back together. What is super cool is that that is one of my favorite examples to share as we teach people about the restoration. We didn't have a lot of time so we gave him a Book of Mormon, explained it a little bit, and made a return appointment. I am so excited to tell him that that "vase" has been restored to the earth in it's fullness!

I didn't take any photos this week... sorry!

I love you guys! Have a great week and enjoy the beginning of summer vacation!
Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 98: Lots of Service

Goedemorgen!

The sun is shining and summer is here! It is getting pretty hot, but it isn't really too bad. As for missionary work, this was probably one of the most difficult weeks I have had on my mission.
My whole mission I have been super used to "grinding" all day long, oftentimes meaning knocking with an occasional appointment in between. Here is has been pretty different with the combination of the Branch Council and Elder Blackwell. We spend a lot of time with the ward, attending the many activities, and strengthening the less active members, so that does fill in a lot of time I am used to spending on finding. And Elder Blackwell has a lot more of a laid back missionary style than me. So the pace of this week just really threw me off.
But what is still really surprising to me is that we still got a lot done, and found several new people who are interested. And now that Elder Blackwell and I have gotten through this first week and understand each other a little better, it will just keep on getting better.

We did a bunch of service for the ward this week, which was mostly just yardwork. We took out the entire backyard of the President Prins, which was quite satifying, and we worked on another member's yard with the youth.

I'm excited to see how this next week goes, especially since I don't have many left and I really want to make it count. Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 97- Lelystad and the Branch Presidency

Goeiemorgen!

This week has been super cool! And really different from what I am used to. For most of my mission I have just hit the doors and streets super hard, just looking for those elect, but here we work a lot more with the members and spend more time with them. I like it, but I am still getting used to it. I'm certain I will able to a lot from the members here, my new area, and my companion.

My companion is Elder Blackwell. He is in the same group as me so we will both be going home together within the next 6 weeks. He from Canada, and he is a great guy! He does an excellent job here with the ward and I am excited to learn a lot from him.

I got to say goodbye to a few people this last week in Apeldoorn. I going to miss them! Bart and Remco are still doing really well, and as far as I know the baptism of Anita went through. I am excited to hear from all of the other missionaries how they are doing.

Fun fact about Lelystad:
Flevoland, the area/land/province that Lelystad is built on, is only 60 years old! They built the Dijks to keep the water from flooding Nederland (since most of it is below sea level) and then they filled in a HUGE area of the Ijsselmeer with dirt, and now we have Flevoland. That means Lelystad is super new, and not quite a picturesque as your average European City.

That is pretty much it for this week. Have a great week, and good luck with everything!
Love,
Elder Thornton

Familie Methorst in Apeldoorn! Last Dinner before I left

-Bert! One of my favorite investigators from my mission

Elder Blackwell hunting a "wild animal" during our hike with the Elders Quorum

 

Week 96: Last Transfer crazyness

Hallo!

This week was great! And filled with a lot of crazy stuff. We had Zone P-Day, MLC, exchanges, Mother's Day Skype calls, remodeling a member's house, and my last transfer calls.

And of course since I was planning on staying in Apeldoorn for my last 6 weeks, God threw me a good curveball to keep me on my toes. I'm being released as a Zone Leader and getting sent to Lelystad. There I will be serving with my companion Elder Blackwell as a Branch Counsellor, something that never happens on this mission because almost everywhere is a ward or has enough Priesthood holders. And what is even more exciting is that Elder Blackwell is in my group,  so President Bunnell told us that we have 6 weeks to reactivate 2 members to fill our places. Pretty crazy. We will be praying a lot this next transfer :).

I'm kinda sad to be leaving Apeldoorn, with all of our wonderful investigators,  and the incredible members. I will miss Bert and Remco, and I will also miss the baptismal service of Anita :(. But Elder Niederhauser and his companion will take good care of them.

As for the rest of the week I will just attach some photos and let them do the explaning.

-We did dodgeball for Zone pday. I thoroughly enjoyed it :)



-driving safely in the zone leader car :)


-destroying the drywall at a member's house

Week 95: Tulips!

Hey jullie!

I probably say this every week, but it was a really good week! It was vacation, so we were a little concerned with how many people we found and how many people were home since everyone here goes somewhere, but we saw some miracles and made quite a few solid new appointments.
We also had a Zone Conference combined with a trip to Keukenhof, the world famous tulip garden here in Nederland. It was super beautiful, and I got to spend my time there with Elder DuWors, my companion that I trained back in Antwerpen a little while ago. He told me that Tahir is reading daily in the Book of Mormon! Tahir is someone we met in Antwerpen, and has a really long story, and I can't explain it all here, but that is incredible! A super big miracle.

We went on exchanges with the Assen District Leaders a couple days ago, and that was pretty cool. We had some excellent appointments with Bert, who is still progressing to his baptismal date, Remco, and a few others. Even with all of the business with still managed to find multiple new people. One of them was Tom, a guy who was sitting out on his balcony. We had already walked past him on the other side of the street when Elder Kennell said,"I feel like we should talk to him, but now it is awkward." But since it always seems to be easier to follow someone else's prompting, we ran back to him, taught him about the Book of Mormon, and set up a return appointment to bring him his own copy and explain the Restoration. Pretty cool.

Church was also pretty fun. Remco and Nelson came, both regulars now, and Laurence also came. I'm not certain if I have already mentioned him, but he is interesting. Really smart, really socially capable, but pretty prideful. So that made Priesthood very interesting when the combination of him, a less-active but actually atheist member, and a deeply studied older member took over the lesson. I had to chuckle at least a couple times. People are funny, especially when they take themselves so seriously.

I hope you are all enjoying the wonderful spring weather, and that you are all getting excited for summer! Have fun!
Love,
Elder Thornton

Photos:
-Thinking about my best two years on The Best Two years bench

 - Mirror photo with Elder DuWors

Week 94: Just another incredible week

Goeiemiddag!

I am really running out of titles. I always think that I will say something about miracles or something amazing, but I have already used that so many times. So this time I guess it just has to be another really good week.

Before I forget, everyone commented on a couple things, so I thought I should probably clarify that a little. As for my reputation, it is pretty much that I am obedient, and that I take opportunities to correct others in obedience as well. The problem is that not everyone likes that, and it only takes a couple slightly true things twisted a little to make a "mean and strict zone leader." What is great is that it isn't really true, and so it is pretty easy to show missionaries that I'm not overbearing, and that when I correct others it is with love and as guided by the Spirit. I just want everyone to see the blessings of obedience, since if we do want to see success in God's work, we do need to do it in His way. Otherwise we will just "doggy-paddle" our entire mission, and wonder why we didn't make it very far.

And as for the girls, I certainly wouldn't call it a huge problem or temptation. I'm just glad I don't have to turn my head in all sorts of weird directions to avoid looking at beautiful girls in very little clothing, since there are nearly no girls our age here in Apeldoorn.

But this week was really good! I went to Groningen on Exchanges for probably the last time, since they are selling the Elder's House. Kinda sad... But it went really well! We had a lot of success, and we also saw a super cool miracle! We were centrum contacting, and we had to stop really quickly to take a telephone call. Right after the call somebody called out "vriend!" and I thought he was talking to Elder VanDerMeide, but it turns out it was for me! I didn't recognize him at first, but it was someone who I had taught a nearly a year ago... in Antwerpen, nearly the other side of the mission. We talked for a little bit, and there was something he was hung up on with religion, and I directed him to the chapter in the Book of Mormon where he could find a very clear answer. I am still in awe with the chances of that happening!

We also had the National Holiday of Koningsdag or Kings Day in English. Everyone celebrates the Kings birthday by wearing orange and partying all day. There is also always a Second-hand market were everyone comes and sells their old stuff. So we had a stand where we gave out pamphlets and DVDs, and offered copies of the Book of Mormon in different languages. It was a ton of fun!

The rest of our investigators are all in about the same place as last week, and we are excited to see them make some progress.

Have a great week everyone! Enjoy springtime, and don't miss opportunities to share the beautiful message that we have!

Love,
Elder Thornton

-A beautiful sunset in Deventer

Week 93:#baptizing

Another wonderful week in Apeldoorn!
Elder Niederhauser and I found a ton of success in our own area, went on some excellent exchanges in Enschede and Deventer, and got to go to a special Stake Conference with Elder Rasband. The Zone is also continuing to excel in this wonderful weather and with all of the sacrifices they are making to become more consecrated.


We live with the Deventer Elders so exchanging with them was pretty easy. I got to go with Elder Harding to Apeldoorn and we found a ton of new people! It also helped out any of the tension we had in the apartment since my reputation on the mission is less than desirable, and he had heard a bunch of it. Thankfully misinformation can be replaced super easily with truth and a good exchange, and so now the apartment is a ton of fun again. He is a super solid Elder and I am excited to see how he will apply all of his big city skills to the small but beautiful city of Deventer.

The other exchange was with Elder Becktol in Enschede, which is a student city. All I need to say is that God knew what he was doing when he sent me to Apeldoorn for my last few transfers, where there are nearly no beautiful women anywhere near my age :).

The Stake Conference with Elder Rasband was excellent, and Remco had another really good experience with it. He was deeply impressed with how personal Elder Rasband was, and it added to his awe and wonder with the way that the church members are and feel. The next step is to help him understand that he himself can feel that exact same way.

We also got Bert, the older Christian man who came to church last week, to commit to be baptized on the 9th of January! We are super pumped to see him progress, and he is also really excited to make the steps to reach that. Along with that, Anita had her baptismal interview! And she is ready to be baptized! She will have to wait a couple weeks since she is visiting family in Poland for a couple weeks, but we are all really excited to see her continue to be amazing.

I love all of you! Enjoy your spring, and good luck with everthing!

Love,
Elder Thornton

-Service with Brother Methorst. We destroyed his backyard so he could get a shed build and electricty running to it. I got to put the bricks back in place, which I loved.



-Beautiful day in the park!


-Beautiful view of Deventer

-Pday on the Dock

Week 92: Beautiful!

Goeiemiddag Iedereen!
It is yet another beautiful sunny day here in Nederland! The spring is here, and it is finally warm. The birds are singing, the sun is shining, and the people are smiling! and staring ​at us ​

a little bit more now that our white shirts are no longer covered up by coats and jackets :). Missionary work is also going pretty well, and we had a pretty successful week as a companionship and also as a zone.
We had a couple really good first lessons this week. One was Bert, a really nice old Christian who loves to talk. It was a little hard to keep him on track in the beginning, but he loved the restoration and the Book of Mormon. He even came to church with one of his neighbors! We are excited to see where it goes with him.
The other was with a young student named Angela. We found her knocking the day before, and she seemed pretty interested. The problem was that we aren't allowed to be alone with someone of the opposite sex, and the Sisters already had an appointment, and no members could come. Plus I have just recently decided to be "exactly obedient," and that was actually the only rule that I was slightly more lax with... Otherwise I am really obedient. So we had a problem. We decided to just go and follow the spirit, and as we were walking up the stairs her door was slightly open (the sign that they expect you to come inside) and she was waiting for us... with her boyfriend! We were super grateful, and they both listened really well and want to learn more! That was just a little miracle that we had.
As for the zone, we shattered some records! We found 118 new investigators this week! (For clarification, a new investigator is someone who has had a lesson and made a return appointment, so often it is someone we met on the street, shared a short lesson on the Restoration, God, or something like that, and made a return appointment.) On a good week we find about 70, and an average week is about 50. So that was pretty crazy. We also had 21 investigators in church, which is way higher than the normal 13 or so.
But what is even cooler than the numbers are the reasons and people behind it. The Lord is hastening his work, and the missionaries here are hastening with it. The missionaries in our zone are working super hard and following the spirit, and that is why we are finding so much success. Because we are doing his work, not just ours. He helps us, and as we let him do that even more he shows us even more success. I am super grateful for the missionaries here, and am super excited to see what the rest of this transfer will bring! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Thornton

-Beautiful view of Deventer (the city we live in)

-Beach Volleyball on P-day!

-Rainbow!

Week 91: Lots of Changes!

Hallo Iedereen!

Yet another awesome week! My new companion Elder Niederhauser is super cool and spiritual, so I am excited to learn a lot from him this transfer.
We had a super good MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) this week, and a lot happened.  The new language standard for the mission is to speak Dutch whenever we are outside of the apartment, which is super difficult because the mission is super young and 90% of us are Americans. But it is going to be really good for the mission since the average level of Dutch has gone super down.
We also decided that in order to build our faith in our work and especially in our ability to baptize, we are going to redo 12-week (the training for new missionaries) as a mission. Pretty crazy! That means that I will be doing the beginning training for missionaries every day for my last 12 weeks.
The District Leaders and Sister Training Leaders are also super pumped about it, so I hope that their excitement will catch on with the other missionaries.
The missionary work here is Apeldoorn is still going well. We continue to find new people, and we are doing our very best to continue to progress. Anita, the golden investigator that we gave to the Sisters, is still super golden! She said that she asked God this Saturday what she could do to show him her love, and he told her to get baptized. Pretty cool. She also had a super spiritual experience during the baptism of an 8-year-old this Sunday. What is even cooler is that Elder Niederhauser found her with me while we were on exchanges this last transfer, so he will get to see her get baptized! Needless to say, we are super excited.
I tried to attach some photos but the computer is giving me problems.  The one that did work is a last minute photo of Elder Niederhauser. Have a great week everyone!
Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 90: More Changes!

Goeiemiddag!

Transfer calls again! Elder White is heading home and I will be getting Elder Niederhauser to train as a new Zone Leader. Transfer calls were pretty crazy because nearly all of the zone leaders will be going home in the next few months, so all of the positions need to be refilled. Elder Niederhauser has been on his mission for nearly a year and he is super spiritual so I am excited to work with him and learn from him.
The end of the week was a little crazy since it was the beginning of a school vacation, we helped our ward mission leader move, and of course ​Ge​neral ​C​onference. But we still did have plenty of time to find some new potentials and investigators.
We watched General Conference with Familie Koenen and Remco, and even though it wasn't the most exciting session for a nonmember he still got a lot out of it.
And Anita is still super golden! The sisters challenged her to bring a question to conference, and she brought a couple. And of course, they were all answered! I love her!
That is pretty much it for this week! Have fun, and enjoy the ​Sp​ring!

Love,
Elder Thornton

The photo was after watching general conference. I had just called Apeldoorn ugly and that was their reactions. :) don't worry, they still love me

Week 89! Fullfilled Promises

This week was pretty incredible! We were super busy with teaching the 3 districts in our zone during interviews with President Bunnell, and going on exchanges in Leiden with the Assistants. The interviews went super well and I think that all of the missionaries were able to take something out of it.

The exchanges were also super cool. I got to work with Elder Enger who is a missionary in my ​MTC ​group. It was super cool to see his enthusiasm for the work, and it is always wonderful to work with other experienced and strong missionaries. We taught nearly the entire day, and we found quite a few new investigators.

We also helped our ward mission leader move, which did take a while, but still was a lot of fun.

So even with nearly 4 full days eaten up by Zone Leader responsibilities and service, we still had a ton of success! We got into contact with several formers, we found 3 new solid investigators, and several other potentials from an Easter DVD campaign. What was the coolest about these past few days is that they have been super guided by the spirit. As we have been planning carefully and asking God what he needs us to do, he has been placing us where he needs us to be.

And even better is that Anita, the polish woman we found last week, is on track to be baptized on April 21st! She is so golden and prepared! We ended up handing her over to the Sisters though... I guess I will have to be content with ta​l​king to her during church and stuff like that. I am pretty excited for her!

I'm sorry the photos haven't been working. The library computers are not the best. Hopefully this one goes through. It is us with Fam. Methorst after we helped them move this week.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Thornton

Week 88: Miracles

Hallo!
This week has been pretty terrific, not only for us but for the entire zone! We had 3 people in church this week, which we were pretty excited about. One of them we met on Friday. She let us in on the door, and we shared the Restoration with her. When we shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon, she said that it must be true. We brought her a Polish Book of Mormon the next day and she told us that she had prayed about it yesterday and said that God told her that it was true. We invited her to be baptized, and she accepted! She didn't want to set a date until she came to church. And she loved it! She was smiling and nodding through the entire 3 hours, and she said that she felt like she was home. We are so excited for her! God truly does bless us with success as we are working hard. 

Remco was also in church, and he is still making slow but sure progress. 

The other investigator was Laurence, a man who just showed up to church a couple weeks ago. We managed to raise a few questions for him during our Gospel Principles lesson, so we will be meeting with him this week to answer his questions and share the Book of Mormon with him.

The rest of the zone also had some pretty great miracles. There were two people who asked to be baptized at church, and Groningen found a super golden investigator. Elder Kennel (a convert from only a few years ago) says that the new investigator is even more prepared than he was himself.

It was super wonderful to be able to see some tangible blessings from our hard work.

We also had Zone Conference this week, and it went really well. My companion, Elder White, had a to talk a ton through it and when it got to his departing testimony, he just went for it. My favorite part was when he told us about a dream he had had about his future daughter, and then said,"I know that our Heavenly Father loves you even more than I love my future daughter." Needless to say, he is pretty excited to go home, but he is finishing super strong, and I am sure we will still see a lot of success in these coming weeks.

Have a great week everyone! And don't forget how lucky you are to know about the restored Gospel! There are people who have been searching for a long time for it. Don't take it for granted!

Love,
Elder Thornton

(Again, his photos did not come through😕 but here are his captions so you can imagine. . .)

Zone Conference! 

We did a Bunker themed Escape room for district Pday last week! It was pretty fun 

A majestic photo on top of the famous aardvark in Arnhem

Week 87: NLdoet and Groningen!

Goedemiddag!



This week was super fun! We were pretty busy, and it continues to fly by. We went on exchanges with the Elders in Groningen (my favorite city), we had some pretty good lessons with some of our investigators, and we got to do a lot of service with the national service day of NLdoet.



When I was in Groningen on exchanges with Elder Plant we got the opportunity to look up some old potentials from when I was there, nearly a year ago. One was a super cool guy from Ghana, and the other was a student that we had met miraculously. I don't have time to tell the full story of how we found him, but it was super incredible. He was home, and we had the opportunity to teach him the restoration, he took it very well, and I can't wait to see him progress, even though I won't get to teach him. Even cooler is that as I was pondering that morning of what I was going to train on during exchanges, I was told that we would find someone who would be baptized, and I do believe that it will be him.



We did a bunch of service for NLdoet dag, which was a ton of fun. Friday we did a few jobs around a school, and then Saturday we got to do a few heavy jobs at a scout camp. It was a ton of fun.

​

I don't have a ton of time, but I want you all to know how grateful I am for this gospel! I love you all!



(He sent some photos, but I was unable to access them, so maybe next week. . .)

Week 86 Interesting Miracles

Hallo Iedereen!

We had a pretty varied week, and I really enjoyed it. It flew by like normal, and I have a hard time remembering everything we did, but overall it went really well. We went on exchanges, had some good appointments, went to the Mission home for Mission Leadership Council, and like usual spent a lot of time finding.

We had a pretty funny and unexpected miracle this week with one of our investigators. We were pretty certain that our investigator was lying about reading in the Book of Mormon, so we probed a little bit by asking what story he was on and what he had learned. After a subtle subject change, and another promting from us, he started flipping through the pages to "find where he was." At the last Stake conference a member of the Seventy promised us that we can find answers to our questions by just flipping to a page in the Book of Mormon. I can't say that I believed this promise 100%, but this investigator randomly flipped to 2 Nephi 27 where it speaks about many churches who will claim to be of God but will argue and fight with one another with the knowledge of men. He tried to prove a point with the scriptures, but it was pretty impossible because we had just been talking about that. God definitely answers questions through the Book of Mormon! Hopefully he will actually read this next time, otherwise we will have to stop teaching him :/.

We also ran into a ton of less active members on accident this week, which doesn't happen often. One of them is an excommunicated member who wants to go back to the temple, so we are hoping to help him to that goal

It was super cold this week, so the canals froze over!

We played soccer this last pday with some dutch kids. It was below freezing but we had a ton of fun.

Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 85- Meetings and Miracles

Hoi!

We were crazy busy this week, but it turned out really well! Transfer day went fairly smooth, everyone traveling across country in the beautiful train system here, and all of the beginning of the transfer meetings were super uplifting and inspiring.

Along with that we had a last minute meeting with Bishop Waddel on Sunday. He is the Second Counselor in the Presiding Bishoprick, and also a super cool and inspired person. He talked to the leaders of the mission about faith in teaching repentance and baptizing converts. It was really good, and I excited to let the Lord guide me a little more in his work.

Remco came to church again, and said the closing prayer in Gospel Principles. It was incredible! He is progressing so much!

The other Remco dropped us... :( We were pretty bummed about that. He said that he just couldn't believe in God, and I wish he would give us just one more chance. Hopefully he will be more ready later on.

We were so busy, and we had found almost no one as we were nearing the end of the week, so once we finally had some time Saturday night we hit some apartment flats super hard. As we were walking up to them it looked like almost no one was home, so I doubted the inspiration we had to knock there for a bit, but as we started knocking everyone opened up, and we found 3 new investigators! It was a pretty great tender mercy.

I love all of you!

-Elder Thornton

Picture: We had a Harry Potter themed Zone Competition, so we made wands for District Pday!

Week 84: Lots of exchanges!

Hallo!
This week has been really busy, but we still saw a ton of cool things. We went on 3 exchanges this week, so Elder White and I were barely together this week.
On Valentines day this week we were knocking later on and may have interupted a special date... It was pretty awkward.
Later in the week we finished up working in a 10 story apartment building, and as we were leaving we saw some women struggling to move a couch. We came over to help them, and got it pretty quickly to the elevator. Unfortunately the couch didn´t fit... So Elder White and I carried the fairly large couch all the way up their apartment. Thankfully they only lived on the 4th floor (5th floor if you were in America).
Another funny story is that we accidentally knocked into a member on exchanges, and I did not recognize them immediately. I figured it out quick enough that I didn´t make it too awkward, but I did feel pretty awkward.
Church was really good this week! The spirit was super strong and the lessons were really good.
We also got to meet with Remco later that night, and he is still doing really good! He continues to impress me.
The other Remco is also making a ton of progress. He is one of the few investigators I have had who has read all the way to 2nd Nephi already. And he said a prayer for the first time ever in our last lesson, so that was pretty amazing.
I will be staying in Apeldoorn with Elder White for this next transfer, so we are excited to kill it again!
I love you!
Love,
Elder Thornton

Pictures:
Windmill!

 We made Valentines boxes for zone Pday. It was pretty fun!

 Remco´s huge dog! 60 kilos or 130 pounds

Week 83! Tons of Meetings

Hallo!
We had a ton of fun this week! Even though we weren't in our own area for most of the week, we still found a bunch of success and we learned a lot from all of the meetings we went to.
We visited all of the district meetings in the zone and taught about the Book of Mormon. The many experiences and testimonies strengthened my testimony of the book even more, and it make me even more excited to share it. We also had interviews with President and Sister Bunnell, and I learned a lot from their council.
On Friday we went to MLC (Missionary Leadership Council). It took the whole day, but we learned a lot and discussed and solved several problems that are currently affecting the mission. It was a open council, so if you know me well then you would know that I participated a pretty ridiculous amount. I have changed a lot on my mission, but I still have some pretty strong opinions... I guess we all have some things to work on. :)
On the two days we spend in our area we had a ton of appointments and still managed to find a few new investigators. We are planning on seeing quite a few of them in church this next week, so keep on praying! Our teaching pool has gone from 0 at the beginning of the transfer to several progressing investigators with even more with a lot of potential.
Remco was in church again, and I am so excited for him. He has been praying and reading daily, and loves meeting with us. His desire to change amazes me, and how much he has changed amazes me even more. With the amount of effort he is putting into finding God he will get his answer very soon!

I can't send any photos this week, but I will make sure to send them next week!.\
I love you all, and I hope you all remember the incredible opportunity you have to know the gospel. It makes me so happy to see people discover it for the first time!

Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 82 Stake Conference!

Hey people!

Yet another great week! We got to spend a lot of time this week just working, so that was pretty great. We have been working in some huge apartment building, and we have found quite a bit of success. We had several good lessons with return appointments, so we are finally going to be able to see some people progress, which is super nice since when we started this transfer we had no solid investigators. Now we have 5 or 6 who are progressing, one of them being our Jewish investigator I have mentioned a couple times. She is still doing great, and even though she has been sick we have good contact with her.

We had zone conference this week which was pretty fun, if not a slight bit stressful with the couple trainings that we had to do. Thankfully the Assistants did most of the work, so it wasn't too bad. Just super spiritually uplifting.

We also had Stake Conference this week, and it was really good. I was really impressed with the talks, especially one from a recent convert. The member of the Seventy had some really good stories in the Saturday night session. I got so into it that when he annouced that he would like to hear from some of the missionaries in the congregation, I just got a little confused, and thought,"I wonder who. There aren't very many missionaries here." We were actually the only two missionaries there because we had to bring an investigator in order to come, and it was in our city so it was a bit easier for us. I was then very suprised when called Elder Thornton and Elder White to come up. He asked us to tell why we came on a mission. I went first so I had no preparation time, but thankfully I was guided on what to say.

And now that I say that, I'm not sure if very many of you know why I came on a mission. So I guess I will share a little about that.
To be perfectly honest, I came out on my mission because of Duty. Also because it was something that my parents wanted and something I had been planning on for my entire life. I knew logically that the church was true. But when I got to the MTC something changed. I have never really struggled very much in my life. School was always easy, my social life was never too tough, and I was blessed with a wonderful family. But in the MTC I found out that I was not capable. For the first time I couldn't do it on my own. So it came to the point where I had to figure something out. I prayed hard for help, and for a general confirmation of God's presence.
And I recieved it. And that help and affirmation has continued to grow as I have been out here.
I understand now that I truly am nothing. Just a tool in God's hands. And through the many blessing I have been given I can help him in his work. This church is true. We are led by a modern day prophet. God loves us and wants to help us, we just need to let him do that.
My reason why I am here has definitely changed. I am here because I love it. I love the growth it has brought in me. I love to see the people around me come closer to Christ. And I am super grateful for it.

I hope this email wasn't to long and that people are still reading at this point ! :) I love you all! Good luck with all of the craziness in life, and don't forget to rely on God!

Love,
Elder Thornton

Photos:
Our zone after we won the mission wide competition :)

 Pday in Europe!

Week 81: Exchanges and Miracles

Hey!

This week has been really great, and pretty packed. We went on exchanges with both Groningen and the Assistants in Leiden, and they were both super good experiences! We also had some pretty incredible lessons with some newer investigators.

Being back in Groningen was awesome! (I served there for 4 1/2 months a while back.) I was a little nervous because when I was there we did not have a ton of success, but the moment I got there I remembered how much I love it! It is such a beautiful city. We managed to find 2 new investigators in one day in comparison to the several weeks of nothing. I really wish I knew then what I knew now.

We also went on an exchange with the Assistants. It is always really great to be working with more experienced Elders, and I will definitely be applying some of their contact techniques.

We had a super good lesson with the Jewish woman that I mentioned last week. We met her on the door last week and we showed her "Dankzij Hem" (last Easter's video) on the telephone. At the end she was crying, said she felt something, and told us she wanted us to come back! We had that appointment this week, and it was so incredible. She took the Restoration really well, and she is really excited to learn about the Plan of Salvation. She is totally going to get baptized!

Centrum Contacting in Leiden

Back in Groningen! It was super windy, so my hair was everywhere!

Week 80: Prophecies!

Hey Everybody!

We have been seeing a bunch of success here in Apeldoorn! We are working hard, and have knocked a ton of doors this week. Thankfully we got let in a bunch, and found several new investigators. One of them was pretty cool! We have been showing the easter message from last year on our Phone on the door, and there was a Jewish woman who was super touched by it, and we have an appointment with her this Wednesday because she "felt something." The prophecies in the Book of Mormon are coming true!

Church also went pretty well with both Remco, the friend of a couple members, and Ammar, our 18 year old Muslim investigator there.

I don't have a ton of time today, but I just want you to know that the Church is true! I am so very grateful for it, and also for the opportunity I have to share it everyday! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Thornton

(From part of his letter to me in response to me complimenting his positive attitude in such a hard mission)

And I wouldn't say our mission is so hard. It is just an incredible experience! and thankfully we get to see a plenty of success even with the incredible amount of atheists and not open people here. I would definitely go so far as to say that it is the best mission.
I can't believe Derek is 6 feet tall! Bother... I'm pretty sure I haven't grown at all...

The beautiful thing is that the gospel is pretty logical if looked at in the right way. And even more beautiful is that it rests on one thing. Is the Book of Mormon true?
People can attack Joseph Smith or Brigham Young or Polygamy or whatever, but no one has or ever will be able to explain the Book of Mormon away. Because it is true. The more I read it the more I am convinced of it's divine origin, and I can never get enough.

Week 79 - Apeldoorn

Hoi Jullie!
This week has been crazy, but super good! I said goodbye to Roosendaal, and now I am back up north here in Apeldoorn.
We found a couple more Arabic investigators while I was in Roosendaal, and I heard that they finally set up an appointment with a miracle investigator that we found a few weeks ago!
It has been pretty crazy up here with all of the beginning of the transfer meeting and planning for the zone, but we have finally finished all of that crazyness so hopefully we will be able to spend even more time finding this next week.

My new companion is Elder White (and yes, that is his real name) I may have accidentally called him Elder Black earlier on my mission. In my defence it is a pretty common mistake. :) He is a really good Elder, and lots of fun. He only has 2 transfers left, so I will probably end up "killing" him.
I felt a little overwhelmed this last week, especially when I was sitting down with all of the leaders of the mission and I realized that I still have a lot to learn. But I am definitely going to be able to learn it here!
The ward here is incredible! My first Saturday here we attented a baptism of an 8 year old, and he invited his entire school class to his baptism, so his classmates and their parents came to watch it. It was a pretty incredible service, and while we didn't get any new investigators or appointments from it, I'm sure it was a super good experience for them!
And speaking of ward missionary work, a member brought a friend to church and he is really positive. We still need to figure it out with the ward member to see what their expectations are, but this guy is definitely going to be baptized!

I am super excited for this next week, and I hope that you all have an incredible week too!
Love,
Elder Thornton

This is Jeroen, one of our investigators in Roosendaal. He is pretty cool

Week 78: Back to the north!

Hallo!
This week has been pretty great! We have been working hard, and seeing a pretty good amount of success. Elder Jeanfreau and I have become pros on the door, especially with Muslims. We have a ton of people here from the Middle East, both 1st and 2nd generation. We have learned the perfect way to present the Book of Mormon to them in a way that they cannot resist, and then set up an appointment with them to talk about the necessity of a Christ. We have had multiple people try to convert us to Islam, but the funny thing is that nearly everything they bring up we already agree with... #greatapostasy #moderndayprophetsarenecessary!

It has strengthened my testimony of Christ even more, if that was possible! Jesus is so incredibly important! 2 Nephi 2 and "His Grace is Sufficient," by Brad Wilcox are super good and explain it very well. If you haven't read both of them recently I highly suggest it. I am so grateful for his sacrifice that made it possible for me to return to my Heavenly Father, and I am going to continue do my best to follow his example to show him my gratitude.

We got transfer calls! I found out that I will be heading to Apeldoorn! I will be a zone leader with Elder White with 2 other Elders in the most fancy apartment in the mission, or so I've heard. I'm excited to have some new opportunities to learn, and a new change of responsibility and scenery is always nice. I will miss Elder Jeanfreau though. We have had a super good transfer and got along really well.

I failed to take any photos this week...

I love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Thornton!

Week 77: Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar!

Hey Everybody!

This week has been great! Even all of the busyness and crazyness of the holidays, we still mangaged to be pretty effective. We found several new investigators, and we are really hoping that we can do better this week to turn them into progressing investigators and actually have more than a couple who we teach regularly.

They take the New year very seriously here, so we were required to be in our apartment at 4:30 on New Year's Eve since missionaries make very good firework targets. We thought we would have a little bit of down time during that so we had bought a 1000 piece puzzle the p-day before. We ended up finishing the day before New Years... oops. All on P-day time and after 9 of course.
But the fireworks were crazy. We got up to watch it for a few minutes, and is impossible to describe. In America you have a few big firework shows around you, but in Nederland everyone buys a ton of aerial fireworks, and the moment the New Year starts they go crazy, and don't stop for a while. The entire horizon was covered in fireworks.

This email wasn't super spiritual, so I would like to end it with a bit of my testimony. This church is so very true. I did not understand that before as much as I do now. We are so very blessed to have these opportunities to be led by leaders called of God. The power of the Priesthood is real. Jesus Christ truly is the Son of God and has made it possible not only to have eternal life here after, but find happiness here on Earth. I promise that true happiness comes through this gospel. I hope that you will all take the chance this new year to continue to know your God, and to better understand his love.

I love you all!
Love,
Elder Thornton


The Puzzle!


Enjoying my Christmas package :)