Week 65 Never-ending miracles!

This week has been yet another incredible week! I am a little freaked out that we are not going to be able to keep it up! But it has been really cool! We found 4 more new investigators this week, which is pretty abnormal. We had a lot of really good lessons and at least a couple pretty great miracles. 

One of our new investigators was the girlfriend of Chaief, an investigator we found last week. She was even more interested than her boyfriend, so we are excited to see them progress!

We had 5 people promise us that they would come to church, and we were super pumped! But... Sacrement meeting started. And then was over, and then 2nd hour started. We were pretty frustrated, but right then a new investigator from the day before showed up! And then a member escorted someone else in, and I knew I had seen him before, but I could not remember where. I then realized that we had talked to him on the tram 2 weeks ago on p-day! 

He loved it! And he really really wants to learn more, so hopefully our lesson with him later today will go well!

We ate some Lebanese food this past week, and it was super leker!

Action shot :) Elder Thornton choking down his peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the beautiful city of Lier. There was a better one, but I though this one was pretty funny.

We went on a long run today! 5 or 6 miles! It has been forever, and it felt so good! We stopped by all of the old mansions/castles in the area, so that was pretty cool!

Have a great week! I love you!

Love,

Elder Thornton

Week 64! More Miracles and Words from God!

Hallo Iedereen!

This week was excellent! We saw a ton of miracles, we had Zone Conference, and we got to watch General Conference. We also found a lot of new investigators! 

Zone conference on Tuesday was really great, and we got to end the day off with a lesson with a new investigator, and several new potentials. 

The next day I was with Elder Jensen on exchanges. He was in my district in the MTC, so it was a little weird but really awesome to be with someone who could speak as much Dutch as me and who can teach way better than me. We went to an appointment with Derick, someone who we had met on the street last week, but he wasn't there so we belled his neighbors, and one of them let us in! We taught him the first lesson, and he seemed pretty interested. When we were done with that lesson, Derick was home, so we walked right next door and then taught him the first lesson. It felt like I was in Brazil or somewhere in South America. He took it really well and accepted the goal to be baptized on the 19th of November! So that should be pretty exciting. He is from Suriname, so I am pretty excited. I love Surinamers! We also had a really cool lesson in the park with someone who had come there to contemplate becoming a nun. It was definitely no coinicidence! Hopefully she will end up coming to church!

We got to watch the Sunday Morning(6:00 pm here) with Joris! We ate dinner with him and his mother, and then watched the whole session with him. We also found out that he watches BYU TV for fun, meaning he watches Studio C and American Ride. And they had 2 photos of the Salt Lake Temple hanging in their front room... I'm still not certain why he isn't a member... But after he defends his thesis for his doctorate this Wednesday, we will make sure to figure that out with him. I'm pretty sure he took more out of General Conference than most members. 

We also had another miracle with Tahir this week! We didn't have a lot of time left in the day and I thought that we should spend some time finding, but Elder DuWors felt really strongly that we should visit Tahir, so we headed all the way over there, and it turned out that this was his most difficult night since the accident that took his wife and two daughters away from him less than a month ago. It was so amazing to see how happy he got while he was talking to us, and he really recognized the light that we carry as Missionaries of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

My Birthday was great! Elder DuWors made pannenkoeken for breakfast, and then we got to teach people on the street about the Book of Mormon. One of the guys we talked to said,"Why haven't I heard about this yet?!" We told him a bit about it and set up another appointment :) Then we got to watch General Conference. 

 Conference! With some delicious cake for my birthday!

 Budda in the park with Elder Jensen!

 We had to go down to Brussels for paperwork so we took the opportunity to get some frites. It was reeeeaaally good!

Calling the people to repentance :)

This was a pretty long one... Sorry! I love you guys

Love,

Elder Thornton

Week 63! Miracles!

Yet another great week! A little long, but we had some beautiful miracles that kept us going!

The first one was on Tuesday! Our appointment had fallen through, and for us, that almost always mean knocking in the area. Because if you don't have appointments then you got find some new ones. As we were working our way down the street we came across a house that was completely demolished for renovation, and we almost skipped it. But we had a prompting to knock on it anyway. So we did, and we heard someone say, "Hallo, what can I do for ya?," in English! We then had an excellent conversation with this man! His name is Chris, and he is from South Africa. He has had a really rough past few months, and really needed someone to talk to right as we knocked on his door. We talked to him about the Book of Mormon, and he said that he would read it in the next month, and that he would love to keep on meeting with us to talk about it. As we were leaving he said "Keep in touch!" at least 5 times. We are really excited to work with him!

The next day we were looking up some former investigators and as we were parking our bikes we felt prompted to talk to the man sitting on the bench. Little did we know that just this last month he lost his wife and his 2 daughters. He was in total despair, and we showed up at the perfect moment to help him. As we listened to him, we testified of the reality of life after death, and eternal families. He really opened up, and he accepted a Book of Mormon. As we were leaving, he asked us if he could give us a hug, which was super amazing because both Elder DuWors and I had the feeling but we both felt too awkward to ask. I feel super blessed to have been in the right spot and at the right time for him!

As for our other investigators, we made some amends with Sarah with some pastries since we have been pretty demanding on her. Joris said that he really enjoyed church and that he wants to come again after he defends his thesis on the 4th. 

This week has made me feel super blessed and has helped me better understand the blessings of obedience and hard work. For the most part we found a lot of rejection this week, but because we just kept on pushing through we were able to play a huge part in the lives of several people.

I did a pretty poor job of taking photos this week, but here is one of minigolf! Elder DuWors and I were neck and neck until the last few holes, where I really lost my game... 

I love you all! Thank you so much for the birthday wishes, and enjoy the fall!

Love,

Elder Thornton

Week 62: Lots of Miracles... and rain.

Goedemorgen!

This week has been great, but it was super wet! Easily the wettest week of my mission. Before Sunday it had rained every day since Elder DuWors had gotten here. But we worked super hard, and talked to a lot of people, and so we saw quite a few miracles.

Joris (the investigator I talked about last week) came to church! I'm not really sure what he thought of it. He still doesn't quite get that he needs to take studying this a little more seriously. So we will do our best to help him out with that.

We finally got back into contact with Sarah, who was set to baptized on the 30th of September. After asking several different members to go on a joint teach with us, we finally found one, but we called him 10 minutes before to confirm, and it turned out he had forgotten... So we decided to just head in there without a joint teach and hope for the best. Her cousin opened the door, and said that she wasn't home, so we went to leave, but I felt prompted to share the Book of Mormon with him. And he let us in! After about 15 minutes of explaining the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, Sarah walked in! She actually was home... but after she ranted about how all churches are saying different things and so forth, we just reminded her of the story of Joseph Smith, and told her to come to church. So hopefully she gets it a little more. We're going have to get after her because she didn't actually come to church. 

But we did find a couple more people to teach this week, so we are excited! It's gonna be great! 

We also got a few referrals from a member, so we are excited to follow up on that.

 We took the opportunity to teach this lovely family last p-day!

 And we walked through a pretty cool graveyard.

And we helped build a member's shed. 

Love,

Elder Thornton

Week 61: Elder DuWors first week!

Hoi!

This week has been super great! It has been pretty crazy with transfers and with a greenie who needs to do a bunch of paperwork for visa stuff, but we have seen a ton of miracles! 

Elder DuWors is super cool! He is from Seattle (I have still never had a companion from Utah. The goal is to go the whole mission without one :)  ) and he did cross country before! YAY! More running! He is super hard working, and at the pace he is going he will learn a ton in these next couple transfers. 

For his first lesson we got back into contact with a sort of "investigator" from a few months ago. His name is Joris, and he has already read all of the Book of Mormon. On top of that, he knows it is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. But he has some problems with polygamy and church history. Now before everyone starts sending me advice on how to fix that, don't. Trust me, I tried everything. We are going to keep on helping him understand it a little more, and help him develop the faith to overcome his challenges. By the way, he is super smart! He is currently working on his Doctorate and he is studying the effects of pornography and sexting on the teenage mind. So you could say he is a kingdom builder. Plus he has been to Temple Square 4 or 5 times and knows the Mormon Tabernacle Choir director. So yeah, pretty cool.

As we have been working super hard we have been seeing Gods Hand in our days! It feels like my first transfer with Elder Stanger, where we just put the pedal to the metal and started baptizing. I am super excited! 

One example is Monday! We had to go all the way down to Leiden in the Netherlands for some paperwork, so it took the entire day, but on our way back to the station we ran into Jamiel, who was interested in meeting with the missionaries, so we got his number and sent it on through to the Leiden Elders. The rest of the day was filled with perfectly timed travel miracles, for which we are always grateful.

Elder DuWors and I

 Station in Gent! Super Pretty!

I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Thornton

Week 60! Third time's the charm...

Hey everybody!

This week has been pretty great, and we heard about Transfer Calls this Saturday! Elder Dial's mother is coming in October for a family reunion and is going to stay for a few months, so it wasn't going to work for him to stay in Antwerpen. So he is headed to Rotterdam! And I am staying here and will be getting another greenie! I am pretty excited and I feel pretty lucky, not only because I get another opportunity to train but because there are a few other missionaries who are training again, but they are keeping their 2nd transfer greenies! That means they will be a 3 man companionship with two greenies! 

We had zone conference this Wednesday, and it was incredible! Elder Gary B. Sabin of the Seventy came, and he was incredible! He talked a lot about personal conversion and helping investigators achieve that too. I was super impressed with his scripture knowledge, and I now have the goal to memorize more scriptures. I really liked how he explained true identity, how we have an eternal destination. It was super spiritually up-lifting.

Our lesson with Elder Dial's aunt went ok, but she doesn't think that she needs a church in order to be a good person, which is totally true! All she needs is Jesus! We are

​n't​

here to sell a church, or a prophet, or even a book! We are here to deliver the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and thankfully it has those sources of truth like a church and a prophet! I just wish that people would give us a little more of a chance to help them understand it and to be open to just test it. If it isn't true, then you just took a little time to find out why a whole bunch of "weirdos in Utah" do "strange things." If it is true, then it is pretty important. I have developed a super strong testimony of the completeness of this gospel, and its ability to answer the questions of life. But yeah... she didn't want to keep on "investigating." But someday! Elder Dial's mom is coming, so you never know what could happen!

We are going to kill it here in Antwerpen! I am super excited for this next transfer!

 It is the beginning of fall! I love it!

 There was this huge line of old military vehicles that drove through the middle of the city! They were

Bus back from Zone Conference :) 

 escorted by tons of police bikes that stopped traffic at every intersection. It was pretty cool! 

Have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Thornton

Week 59: Miracles!

Hey Guys!

This week has been super great! A little interesting but super great! We saw a bunch of miracles and found some new investigators, which is always super great!

We have been helping a less active who originally from California, and has a really really long story, and she has been having some serious problems. She is getting evicted from her house this week, and so we helped her get all of her stuff moved out on Saturday. It was really dirty... But in addition to that we have been texting scriptures to her daily, and she told us that one in particular really helped her! She has some friends who were willing to pay for her to leave the country, but she got our text of Alma 7:12, and decided that if Christ suffered then she can withstand her trials a little longer and not illegally flee the country... So that was a miracle!

One other miracle is that one of our new investigators is Elder Dial's aunt! She believes in almost all of the same things we do and she seems super ready. She even wanted to get baptized a couple years ago, but her husband didn't support her. Now she is divorced, and seems to be pretty willing to take some steps! We are really excited!

We went to Gent last week for P-day, so lots of the photos will be of that. It is super beautiful, and so old! One thing that was kind of funny is that they have so many churches. The tour guide said that the reason for that is because they believed that you either had to do good things or build a church to be saved, so they built a church :). I don't know how true that is, but there are a ton of huge and beautiful churches.

 Boat tour with other missionaries!

Gent Castle! The only "battle" that has ever happened there was with students in the 1950's complaining about beer prices, but it was still pretty cool :)

 

The whole city is so beautiful!

Keep it real!

Love,

Elder Thornton