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 :)

Week 76: Christmas!

This week has been a lot of fun! And we got finish it off yesterday with Christmas!

We went on exchanges with both Vlissingen and Eindhoven, and it turned out pretty well. Elder Penman and I found a young (and quite pretty) new investigator in Vlissingen. You could tell that she really liked Elder Penman :). He is a super incredible teacher and speaks the best Dutch in the mission. I was with Elder De Castro in Eindhoven. He is from Brazil, and he is a super solid missionary. He knows how to work hard, and has a ton of faith. And his Dutch is progressing super fast.

We spent Christmas with Familie Van Den Vlis. They had a couple of their children and spouses there, as well as a Senior Couple. We spent the first little bit doing some service to help them prepare the last minute things, like hanging up light fixtures and cleaning a bit. (They have been remodeling an old farm house for a while.) This was the first meal that they have ever served in their house, and it was delicious! It was great to be able to Skype my family and spend a little time playing some games.

 We went bowling as a district last P-day!

 Christmas decorations at the fancy little shopping centrum in Roosendaal

 Opening Christmas presents!

This is where we had christmas dinner! That is Brother Van Den Vliss

Merry Christmas everyone! Enjoy the break, and don't forget what is important!
Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 75: Snow!

Hey jullie!

This week has been pretty great! I'm honestly not really sure what happened this week. It is all a little blended together. We have been working really hard, and are still going to this next week. What we really need is some miracle investigators.

Last P-day it snowed. A LOT. We got over 6 inches of snow, which is pretty unheard of here. So for our last three hours of proselyting that day we decided to borrow a couple snow shovels and we shoveled a pretty large section of a nearby neighborhood. The first neighborhood was a little too rich so they all were just super confused at why we were helping. We moved to a less rich area we knocked a little while ago and we got a lot better of a reaction. "Blessed are the meek," I guess :).

We dropped by our gay investigator to see how he was doing and we were surprised to hear that he was still following the law of chastity! We have been praying super hard that he will feel a difference, and decide to keep it up.

My Bike after after the first storm


We shoveled a ton of snow.


A snowy view of Roosendaal. The entire city is houses like this, with a little bit of variation.

Have a great Christmas!
Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 74: White Christmas!

It is snowing!

This has been a pretty eventful week! We have been working really hard and it has been paying off. We had a couple super cool miracles this week, even with all of the craziness 

Friday night we looked up a referral, and since he wasn't home we knocked in his area. His neighbors had somehow all read anti material, and the other side of the street were all non interested muslims. We were pretty convinced that it wasn't the best area. We still had 15 minutes, so we said a prayer to ask for some guidance. We had a very slight feeling to head back down the street, and the 2nd door we knocked was super excited to talk to us, and we will be headed back this next week!

The very next day we were looking up a less active member who supposedly just moved back from a long vacation in Africa, but we had forgotten to write his house number down. It was getting pretty late, and we weren't sure where to go to next. As we were walking to find somewhere to knock, I had a prompting of "that door." We knocked it, and the daughter who opened the door let us in. It turns out that the father had studied with the missionaries in the past, and his schedule has just recently become more free! It was pretty crazy to see how God helped us in those small amounts of time to find solid investigators. It also really strengthened my testimony with the need of the Holy Ghost. 

We taught one of our investigators the Law of Chastity this week! And even more interesting is that he is gay... And it actually went really well! He took the challenge to live it for the next 10 days, and so we will see how that goes. 

It is also definitely winter. It snowed really hard yesterday during church, so when we got out we had 2 or 3 inches, which is pretty abnormal here. We biked back to the station in the snowy slush, which was quite an adventure. All of the trains were cancelled, so we ended up taking a bus to Etten-Leur, a city inbetween Breda (where the church is), and Roosendaal (where we live) to look up a couple of referrals. Neither of them had interest, and so we ran back to catch the bus to get to the station. It didn't come... At this point it is no longer snowing, but pouring rain, making all of the snow nice and slushy. So we walked for 30 minutes back to the station in Etten-Leur, and finally made it back home at about 6. It was quite an adventure. But lots of fun!

Photos!

The Cathedral in Breda!

Biking in the snow!

Have a great week! Enjoy the Holidays!

Love,

Elder Thornton