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