Week 33- Nog meer wonderen!

Hola, en Gooie Morgen!

This week has been yet another week filled with miracles, and it has flown by! I am loving serving here in Amsterdam. Fun Fact: Our area is the biggest area in the mission with the whole capitol city and the outlying smaller towns. It contains 1 million people, which is a 1/16 of all of the people who live in Nederland. Sometimes it is kind of overwhelming to think that it is our job to bring the gospel to them.

But it hasn't been going too badly! We have been continuously picking up more potentials, and we are almost out of copies of the Book of Mormon. Thankfully we are getting some more this week.

We had a really surprising lesson with a couple of our investigators. We met Marco "langs de deur"(tracting or directly translated "along the door.") He let us in immediately with his crazy little dog barking at us the whole time. In the following conversation we found out he was SUPER vegetarian, and gay. But he was super interested, so we set up a return appointment. We went the the appointment thinking that we would probably end up dropping him, but he had already read a bit and wanted to read with us. As we were reading, his friend Lijon, an older Dutch woman, was interested and want to read with us. This last week we had our next lesson with them, and they had both read and loved the restoration. It was one of the smooth and spiritually guided lessons of my mission, and in the end they both accepted a baptismal invitation. We are hoping to put both of them on date tomorrow, so cross your fingers.

I don't have a lot more time to talk about all the other miracles, but long story short, there are a lot of ready people in Amsterdam!


Just rocking my hipster side... :) This was a pretty sweet mural nearby a university.

AMSTERDAM!!!!! Sometimes I wish I could just walk around with my camera, because everything is worth taking a photo of!

Same photo, just Elder Thornton is in the way this time :)
Thanks for your love and support!

Love,
Elder Thornton

Week 32! Miracles!

This week has been so great! We have been talking to so many people, and learning so much! But best of all, we have been seeing so many miracles!

We have been doing our best this week to keep our mouths open at all times, and it has been hard, but super worth it. One day​,​ right as we were walking into the park to talk to people,​we contacted a woman who was leaving. We introduced ourselves and then she interrupted us and said that she knew us, and that her daughter was currently being taught by the Sisters! She told us about her daughter, and it is a pretty incredible story! Her daughter is 7, and recently she had an incredible dream where she talked to God and Jesus, and they told her they needed her. Her mom knew immediately where to go; the Missionaries. She lives nearby the Church so she sees us often. This Mother wants to help her daughter so much, and though she herself feels unworthy to come to church, the Sisters have been working with them. This daughter's spirituality is off of the charts! I was amazed by the timing that allowed us to arrive at the park just in time to talk to her.

Another cool experience we had was on our way to look up some less actives. We talked to the 3 people that we came across on our way, and we gave away both of our copies of the Book of Mormon, and got 2 numbers. 2 out of 3 is pretty good!

One last miracle! We have met a couple times with Robert and his mother Gloria, a member family from Bolivia. They moved here a few months ago, and they felt too intimidated to come to church. We convinced Gloria to come since we have several Spanish speakers. At the around the same time, a recently baptized Bolivian,​ Rosita, was praying to meet someone from Bolivia since she was feeling super lonely, and God told her to go to church. They both came to church for the first time in a long time, and they answered each other's prayers!!! I thought that was so crazy cool!
This was our super cool parking spot last P-Day! If you thought parallel parking was hard, try it next to a canal.

Rembrandtplein in Central!

We decided to try a new thing... We call it statue contacting :) He seemed pretty interested.

You may have noticed the ukulele case that Elder McDivitt was carrying... I bought one last week. And I love it! I'm not super good yet, but ​someday ​I thought I would include a video for those who would like to see it.

I love you all!

Love,
Elder Thornton

From his letter to Mom: ​P.S. Since Elder Bartolini has left, I have been doing a ton of cooking, and I am not too bad! I have made Alfredo, and that special hamburger gravy with mashed potatoes(tried to, at least :)). I plan on using the chimichanga recipe this week. Thank you!

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