Week 24: Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Amsterdam is shining with Christmas lights, and people have been really soaking in the Christmas spirit. Sometimes a little too much... Our week was a little slow since everyone has been super busy with Christmas, but we have still been doing great. The Amsterdam ward had an excellent Christmas party, and the missionaries got to decorate it! It was super fun! It was completely filled, and we had to set up a few more tables.

The Skype call with my family was great, but I was very surprised at how fast the time flew! We will still have a lot to catch up on.

​ (Lance didn't have a camera on the computer he was using, so he could see us, but we could not see him :( Instead we saw the cute photo of his 12-year-old self that happens to be his Skype profile picture. ​He held pretty true to the 40 minute rule and we did get to talk for a minute with both his companion and his host, Brother Vervoert​. We also received a package on Christmas Eve from Elder Thornton containing a Belgian Chocolate Letter T!​​)​

Our investigators are still doing well, although they were too busy to meet with us this week... But they are still progressing, and love learning.

I will let the photos tell the rest of the story.

Christmas party set up! I forgot to take photos during it...

Hobo Elder Bartolini... He grabbed a blanket instead of a jacket last p-day, so we just had to take the photo opportunity.

Long story short... Elder Bartolini is a total goofball... :)

On Friday Pedro tried to kill us with a crazy amount of food...

We finished it anyways!

Rob Vervoert and his daughter hosted us for Christmas dinner!

Enjoy the Holidays!
Elder Thornton​

Week 23! Serving in Peru?!

Hola Hermanos and Hermanas!

Things are going great here in Amsterdam! The Spanish/Portugese community is exploding, so I have no idea when Elder Bartolini is going to be able to escape Amsterdam, because we seriously need him here. Our two Spanish investigators are still progressing to their baptism in January (according to Elder Bartolini, because I speak almost no Spanish :) ), and they love church! Said, our 11 year old investigator is doing well, and his Ecuadorian parents are super awesome too! They are super excited for him to get baptized, and when we totally fail at explaining something, they make it make a ton of sense for him. We even picked up yet another Spanish investigator this week, so I am probably going to be speaking fluent Spanish by the end of this transfer :).

Christmas is next week, and if everyone keeps their promises, we are going to have a ton of new investigators at the Church next week! Every we have been trying to contact for the past several weeks has finally decided they want to do something, so that is pretty exciting.


​Elder Bartolini really enjoyed part of my Christmas package :)


Just admiring the Amsterdam landscape... We had to walk down a super long street to find someone, and it was easily the prettiest street that I have ever seen. I took this early on, and I kinda wish I had waited for some of the even better views!

Jamali! He is 8, and he and his mom got baptized a few months ago, so we get to reteach them the lessons every week. We get super delicious Surinamse food!

Vrolijke Kerstfeest!
Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 22: A High-Yield and Low-Maintenance Missionary

Goede Middag!

(Not just hallo, because a grumpy old Nederlander told me it is only for friends and people you know:) )

This week has been going pretty well, and we had Zone Conference with a member of the Area Presidency, Elder Johnson. He was really cool, and he talked to us about how to be "High-Yield Low-Maintenance Missionaries." High yield meaning effective in the work, and low maintenance meaning being obedient, and charitable towards your fellow missionaries. I really enjoyed it, and it gave me a renewed resolution to be exactly obedient.

We also had Stake Conference this week, so I got to see my people in the Haarlem ward! I miss them! The Letorts, and Brother Duineveld to name the ones I knew the best, and also Anna, one of my old investigators. This was her first time in the Church. It is super exciting to see the work in Haarlem and IJmuiden progressing without me.

I didn't take a ton of photos, so I am going to try to get some of the photos from this week from the Zone Leaders. You could put the zone conference photo if you want. Oh, and yes that is half the mission. We are the upper half, and the bottom half contains Rotterdam and Belgium.

Have a great week, and enjoy the Spirit of Christmas!

Love, 

Elder Thornton


​​
A picture we found of Elder Thornton on his mission blog of a Zone Conference in November when they were able to attend the Den Haag temple.

Zone Conference on Dec. 7th. Elder Thornton is in the top right corner. This is when they received Christmas packages that were sent to the mission home. (Ours was full of decorations and a gift to open every day until Christmas, but it sounds like Elder Thornton thinks he is supposed to wait until Christmas Day to open it. Oops!) This is half of the mission!

Week 21! Below Freezing!

Hallo Familie and Vrienden!

It has gotten crazy cold down here! A few days have gotten down to -5 degrees Celsius, which is super cold with the humidity. The smaller canals currently have a thin sheet of ice. I feel bad for Elder Ocampo who is still in Ijmuiden, because it is even colder there because it is a port city right next to the ocean.

This week has been super great! We have been working hard and it has really been showing. We have three people progressing seriously to baptism, although most of that is Elder Bartolini since 2 of them are Spanish speaking and the other has parents who are Spanish speaking, but we do get to teach him in Dutch, which is super nice. His name is Said (SI-eed) and his parents are less-active members. He is 11, and he really wants to get baptized, so that is pretty cool. The other two are Jonathan and his mom, Lilliana. They are from Peru, just like Elder Bartolini. They were all at church this Sunday, as well as a couple others who found the church on their own. We will be meeting with them this next week.

They celebrate Pakjesavond today, which is when Sinterklaus comes and brings them gifts. It is basically the same thing as Santa in America. We get to celebrate it with the Jansens tonight, so that will be super cool. We all drew someones name for the gift giving, and I still need to find a present for Elder Dierden... But it should be a blast!

​Exchanges with Alkmaar! We played some serious games of Uno. I tried to pull a serious face...

​Delicious Olliebollen with cream!

​One of the crazy beautiful parks in Amsterdam. We spent a few hours on the 1st (the church wide service day) picking up trash.

I love you all!
Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 20! #REDLIGHTs

Goede Dag Iedereen!

Amsterdam is still crazy! I think I already have more stories here tha​n​ in my first 2 transfers in IJmuiden. It has been a blast, but I am still trying to figure everything out since it is such a big city and Elder Bartolini is still super new here too!

I can now say that I have been in the Red Light District! We were trying to find a street in the the Centrum, and we started to notice that some of the shops were a little skanky, and then… well, red light district… We got out of there pretty quick...

On the other side of the story, we were looking up people f​ro​m the area book, and we saw two young men in white shirts and ties that we did not recognize. We were a little confused, and then we saw another pair... and then another! We realized that we were super close to the Jehovah​ 's Witness Church, and their service had just ended. There were so many! And we smiled and waved at all of them :) They said "Hallo Broeders," so I don't think they realized who we were :)

Thanksgiving isn't really celebrated here, but we had some nice enough members who fed us. Rob "One-Leg" fed us on Thanksgiving, and it was some delicious pasta (I love pasta). He is a super cool member who has some crazy stories.

(Here is a story from Lance's journal he wanted me to put here.) We had a special "Thanksgiving" Lunch with Sister Giok. It was pretty delicious, but not turkey, just a lekker pasta casserole. For some reason her food always kills Elder Bartolini's bowels, so he excused himself right before the spiritual thought. Right as the Zone Leaders started sharing, we hear Elder Bartolini's explosive reaction to the food in the bathroom. It was physically impossible not to laugh​, and we spent the rest of the spiritual thought trying to smother our laughing. It was pretty bad.

We ate a real Thanksgiving Dinner on Saturday with some super cool British members, so that was kinda funny. It was absolutely delicious!

​Elder Bartolini modeling the Missionaries Nederland's favorite cereal

Me on the Tram! (But I think he was just trying to get a photo of the girl in the background :) )

​I totally would take more photos, but I would not know where to start! Amsterdam is so pretty. You could just try looking it up on google images. (be careful though, Amsterdam is known for a little more than their beautiful buildings #redlights)

Have a great week, and don't forget to share the Christmas Spirit!

Love,
Elder Thornton!

Week 19! Amsterdam!

Hallo!

Amsterdam is crazy! It is absolutely ginormous, and I have pretty much no idea where I am most of the time. We have a super "gezelig" (There isn't really an exact translation for that one. Gezelshap means companionship, if that makes anything clearer.) layout in our 4-man apartment. We got our Christmas tree already set up, and it feels just like a house. We live with the Zone Leaders, Elder Dearden and Elder Bruneau.

Elder Bartolini is my new companion. He is from Peru, and he is a really cool and funny guy! He isn't really a lover of the rules, so sometimes we clash a little on that, but I think this is going to be a really fun transfer. When I came in all of our investigators were Spanish, so I am hoping to pick up some Dutch investigators so I can actually do something :). His Dutch is pretty minimal, so I end up doing a lot of the talking on the doors. My Dutch has really gotten a lot better, and rarely do I not understand people.

I have quite a few photos, so I will let them do the rest of the talking.
Sinter Klaus came to Nederland on the 11th, so we were su​r​pri​sed while we were knocking with a hundred or so "Zwarte Petes" ​(I looked this up just in case you are curious like me: The Zwarte Piet character is part of the annual feast of St. Nicholas, celebrated on the evening of 5 December (Sinterklaasavond, that is, St. Nicholas' Eve) in the Netherlands, Curaçao and Aruba and on 6 December in Belgium and Luxembourg, when sweets and presents are distributed to children. The characters of Zwarte Pieten appear only in the weeks before Saint Nicholas's feast, first when the saint is welcomed with a parade as he arrives in the country (generally by boat, having traveled from Madrid, Spain). The tasks of the Zwarte Pieten are mostly to amuse children, and to scatter pepernoten, kruidnoten and strooigoed (special sinterklaas candies) for those who come to meet the saint as he visits stores, schools, and other places.​ Traditionally Zwarte Piet is said to be black because he is a Moor from Spain. Those portraying Zwarte Piet typically put on blackface make-up and colourful Renaissance attire, in addition to curly wigs, red lipstick and earrings. In recent years, the character has become the subject of controversy, especially in the Netherlands.)


I have some super nice winter socks, but everytime I wear them they rip out my leg hairs. So I decided to shave them... I won't be wearing shorts for a while :)



Knocking in Hoofdorp. (Old area)

Last photo of the beautiful Haarlem station :(

​Elder Ocampo posing in the forest on the way to an appoin​t​ment :)

First Photo of Amsterdam! The Centrum is amazing!

Elder Bartolini posing with an extra large leaf :)

I love you all! Have an amazing Thanksgiving!

Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 18: Drum-roll please!

Hoi!

Can you believe it? I have now been in Nederland for 2 transfers! And you know what transfers mean! Transfer calls!

I am going to Amsterdam! I will be serving with Elder Bartolini, an Elder from Peru who ended up serving in Peru for 8 months because of visa issues, so he got here at the same time as me. When I saw him 6 weeks ago, he spoke almost no Dutch, so we will see how that goes. I prayed for a challenge, and I think God took me a little too seriously. He really does have a sense of humor.

I'm a little sad to be leaving IJmuiden and Haarlem, especially the members that I got to know really well. Luckily I won't be leaving too many serious investigators, just Joelle and a few others who we just started with. Joelle is continuing to "observe the water" from the outside, and she didn't have time this week for a lesson, so I hope that Elder Ocampo and his new companion will be able to help her.

On Saturday we had a little miracle. We had a full day planned, but literally everything fell through. Even our dinner appointment with a member... After we finished our missionary made dinner, we were going to finish weekly planning, but I had an impression to visit Thies, a potential who we had tried to contact so many times without success. We biked down there, and he was home! It was the first day he had been home for a while, as he had been in the hospital for the last couple of weeks. I was super grateful, because I was getting pretty frustrated that day with the lack of success.

I forgot my camera today, which is super sad because I had some awesome photos this week. I will make sure to send them next week, along with some great ones from Amsterdam!

I love you all!

Elder Thornton