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

Week 29: New investigators!

Hallo Iedereen!

This week has been pretty great! We got all of the blessings that seemed to be lacking last week all packed into this week, and it was very refreshing. We also had the "World Wide Missionary Conference," which included some really big changes (I'm not really sure how much everyone else has heard about them). We had the blessing of finding 4 new investigators this week, and we can't wait to keep on teaching them.

One of them is Max. He is a friend of Pedro, a member who has become active thanks to some of the previous missionaries and his own desires to change and become better. We had a dinner appointment with him every week for a while, and this last week we challenged him to bring a friend the next time. He took that challenge super seriously and invited his friend Max. Max is in the same drug recovery program as Pedro, and so he is super ready for the Gospel! A main part of any drug recovery program is the concept of "Hogere Macht" (or a Higher Power), and the essential part it plays in helping someone overcome their problems. But in the program they avoid specifics, and that leaves a open hole in all of the recovering addicts. They all know that there is something, but many of them have never had that as a part of their life, and so that is wh​ere we have come in with Max. Max has been super touched by Pedro's surety of this "Higher Power" and he wants to "have the same type of faith as us." He is so cool, and so open and willing to try everything. His addiction has left him open, and very humble, and I am so grateful that we have the opportunity to teach him, especially with Pedro at our side to be there as an example and bear his testimony.

The even more exciting this is that Pedro has a ton of friends from the program just like Max, and when they heard about Max meeting with us, they have all gotten super excited, so if everything goes to plan, we may not have time to be knocking doors for a while.

The other 3 new investigators are all Spanish, and so I don't know quite as much about them as I would if I was speaking the same language, but they seem super sincere, and I can not wait to see them progress. It is going to be very interesting to see what happens this transfer, because we need a Spanish speaking missionary, but Elder Bartolini has been here for 3 transfers (the normal high for staying in an area.) I can understand Spanish much better than before I came to Amsterdam, but I am still far from fluent.

I love all of you, and I hope that the missionary work is going well for all of you, even if you aren't on a mission! I am going to extend a similar challenge to all of you, that you should do something to invite a friend to learn more about the gospel. It may seem scary, but because Pedro did it, I believe that the Amsterdam ward is going to be teeming with investigators, so put your trust in the lord and just do it! Our mission motto goes along those lines with "Vrees Niet, Gewoon Doen" (Fear Not, Just Do) We have been promised that if we do our part, then God will help us do the rest, so good luck, and fear not!

Love,

Elder Thornton
I may or may not have forgotten to take some photos until Saturday night, so...



This photo does not do it any justice, but I hope you can get the idea. It was so beautiful, with the little alleyways. I reminded me a little of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Week 28: Bevestiging!

Hey Everybody!

Said was confirmed this week, and it was super cool! He and his family were super excited again, especially his father. I love that guy so much! He is super excited to see his son enter into the church. Broeder de Jongen (the previous bishop of the Amsterdam ward) performed the ordinance, and it was super beautiful. I was translating again for church, so I got the really cool opportunity of translating it into English. I hope I was able to do it justice.

Along those lines, my Dutch has been getting much better. I can understand almost anything, and I can express myself in the ways I want to without avoiding different kinds of sentences. I still don't get to speak it as often as I would like because the people here in Amsterdam all speak English, but I do my best to take every opportunity.

Numbers wise, this week was pretty tough. We know we worked hard this week, so we don't feel super awful, but it is always a little disapointing to see how even when you are trying so hard nothing measurable comes out of it. We had a ton of scheduled lessons at the beginning of the week, but everyone except for Said and his family canceled, so we ended up with one total lesson for the whole week... We are going to be spending more time knocking and finding this week since we are pretty much done with the referrals, so that should help us find some more progressing investigators.

Everyone has been super sick in Amsterdam! Almost all of our potentials and investigators have had a least a cold, and it has made it almost impossible to get a lesson.

Elder Bartolini and I have been becoming continually more fast friends, and it has really been a blessing.


Exchanges! I went with Elder Stevenson to Weesp. The trees were white with frost

The video is yet another day of 4 square... Just a sample though :)

Have a great week, and for those of you in Utah, enjoy the snow for me!!!

Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 27: Said's baptism!

Goeie Middag!

Said got baptized! And everything went fairly smoothly. His dad was so excited to be able to baptize him, and his mom brought a ton of food and a beautiful homemade cake. I didn't get to take a photo until it was almost gone. :( His mom was slightly hesitant about baptism, but she says she will be baptized with her youngest son in December, so that is still pretty cool.

This week was yet another busy one contacting and following up on all of our referrals. Most of them have been interested, but it has been really hard to set appointments with them since they all are really busy :( Everyone here in Amsterdam seems to be always working... Anyways, we have managed to set up several appointments this week, so we will finally start teaching them.

Sorry that my email was so short last week. I just wrote the things I wanted to, and I couldn't think of a ton more. There is always more, but I can't bore you with the normal daily stuff, or with investigators that we don't know if they are solid or not.

But we did find an incredible new knocking place. It is a beautiful little town called Weesp right outside of Amsterdam. We looked up a referral there, and then knocked for 30 minutes, and in that 30 minutes we gave away both of the copies of The Book of Mormon that we had, and one of them wanted to pay us for it. We will definitely be returning there sometime soon!


Our last court wasn't quite big enough...
Said's Baptism!

The last of the beautiful cake Said's mom made!
Weesp! It is your typical Euroupean "dorpje." Canals down almost every road, beautiful houses, cute little bridges... I am in love. The whole tiny little town looks just like this.

I love you guys!

Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 26: All over Amsterdam!

Feliz Año!

The beginning of the year has been super great, but super busy! We have been getting a couple new online referrals almost every day, and it has been super hard to keep up. A lot of them seem to be pretty golden, and a couple of them who live super close to the church said that they are looking for a new church, so cross your fingers. We are already teaching a couple of them.

Along with the referrals, we have been getting Said's baptism service ready! He is the 11 year old son of a couple members, (or so we thought) and is ready to be baptized. We just found out that his dad is going to be able to perform the ordinance, and that his mom is actually not a member. She has been in all of the lessons with us, and so we are going to see how ready she feels for baptism. Hopefully she can get baptized with her son this Sunday!

Have a great new year!

Love,
Elder Thornton

It snowed! Not a lot, but it stayed all day since is was pretty cold.

Proselyting! (of sorts) There are a lot of "community bookshelves" here, and so whenever I see one I make sure to donate my favorite book :)

Week 25! Happy New Year!

Fijne Niewe Jaar! (Happy New Year)

En Beste Wensen (and best wishes) Everyone says that, at least in the church.

This week was super fun! Missionary work was a little slow since everyone was super busy with the holidays, but we had a good time. Elder Bruneau, one of our zone leaders who lives with us, got transferred, and now we have Elder Smith. He is super cool, and he loves 4-square. We may have made a decent sized 4-square court in our living room...

New Years Eve was a little crazy, so much so that we were required to be inside our apartments at 4:00, since it is completely dark at 5:00 here. We made some long term goals for the new year, and played 4-square for a couple hours. You could say it was pretty great.

New Years Day was easily the most impossible day for missionary work. We looked up all of our investigators, and potentials, and no one was home, and we didn't dare to knock, so we ended up going home and updating records and planning a little better for the coming week, because everyone told us to come back after the Holidays. By everyone, I mean literally everyone.

Our investigators are doing good, but we weren´t able to meet with all of them, so that made it a little hard to know exactly where they are at currently. Said (SI-eed), an 11 year old boy with parents who love the gospel but just can´t get work off, is super ready to be baptized, and his date is the 11th. I hope it will go through, but it may be difficult to get all of the lessons in by then, so we definitely need your prayers!

I hope that jullie have a great New Year!

Love,
Elder Thornton


4-square with the Zone Leaders and Zaandam!

Muhammad is the most sweet guy who met with the missionaries over 20 years ago in Denmark, got imprisoned in Syria for 10 years for political reasons, and finally got back into contact with the missionaries. Unfortunately his wife is super Muslim, and so is his family, so it would be too dangerous to meet with him now that his wife is back from Dubai. You guys should totally pray for him.

The combination of fog and freezing caused all of the trees to be covered a huge layer of frost. It looked so cool! When it melted later on in the day it sounded like it was pouring rain.

The 4-square squad!!