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

Week 90: More Changes!

Goeiemiddag!

Transfer calls again! Elder White is heading home and I will be getting Elder Niederhauser to train as a new Zone Leader. Transfer calls were pretty crazy because nearly all of the zone leaders will be going home in the next few months, so all of the positions need to be refilled. Elder Niederhauser has been on his mission for nearly a year and he is super spiritual so I am excited to work with him and learn from him.
The end of the week was a little crazy since it was the beginning of a school vacation, we helped our ward mission leader move, and of course ​Ge​neral ​C​onference. But we still did have plenty of time to find some new potentials and investigators.
We watched General Conference with Familie Koenen and Remco, and even though it wasn't the most exciting session for a nonmember he still got a lot out of it.
And Anita is still super golden! The sisters challenged her to bring a question to conference, and she brought a couple. And of course, they were all answered! I love her!
That is pretty much it for this week! Have fun, and enjoy the ​Sp​ring!

Love,
Elder Thornton

The photo was after watching general conference. I had just called Apeldoorn ugly and that was their reactions. :) don't worry, they still love me

Week 89! Fullfilled Promises

This week was pretty incredible! We were super busy with teaching the 3 districts in our zone during interviews with President Bunnell, and going on exchanges in Leiden with the Assistants. The interviews went super well and I think that all of the missionaries were able to take something out of it.

The exchanges were also super cool. I got to work with Elder Enger who is a missionary in my ​MTC ​group. It was super cool to see his enthusiasm for the work, and it is always wonderful to work with other experienced and strong missionaries. We taught nearly the entire day, and we found quite a few new investigators.

We also helped our ward mission leader move, which did take a while, but still was a lot of fun.

So even with nearly 4 full days eaten up by Zone Leader responsibilities and service, we still had a ton of success! We got into contact with several formers, we found 3 new solid investigators, and several other potentials from an Easter DVD campaign. What was the coolest about these past few days is that they have been super guided by the spirit. As we have been planning carefully and asking God what he needs us to do, he has been placing us where he needs us to be.

And even better is that Anita, the polish woman we found last week, is on track to be baptized on April 21st! She is so golden and prepared! We ended up handing her over to the Sisters though... I guess I will have to be content with ta​l​king to her during church and stuff like that. I am pretty excited for her!

I'm sorry the photos haven't been working. The library computers are not the best. Hopefully this one goes through. It is us with Fam. Methorst after we helped them move this week.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Thornton

Week 88: Miracles

Hallo!
This week has been pretty terrific, not only for us but for the entire zone! We had 3 people in church this week, which we were pretty excited about. One of them we met on Friday. She let us in on the door, and we shared the Restoration with her. When we shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon, she said that it must be true. We brought her a Polish Book of Mormon the next day and she told us that she had prayed about it yesterday and said that God told her that it was true. We invited her to be baptized, and she accepted! She didn't want to set a date until she came to church. And she loved it! She was smiling and nodding through the entire 3 hours, and she said that she felt like she was home. We are so excited for her! God truly does bless us with success as we are working hard. 

Remco was also in church, and he is still making slow but sure progress. 

The other investigator was Laurence, a man who just showed up to church a couple weeks ago. We managed to raise a few questions for him during our Gospel Principles lesson, so we will be meeting with him this week to answer his questions and share the Book of Mormon with him.

The rest of the zone also had some pretty great miracles. There were two people who asked to be baptized at church, and Groningen found a super golden investigator. Elder Kennel (a convert from only a few years ago) says that the new investigator is even more prepared than he was himself.

It was super wonderful to be able to see some tangible blessings from our hard work.

We also had Zone Conference this week, and it went really well. My companion, Elder White, had a to talk a ton through it and when it got to his departing testimony, he just went for it. My favorite part was when he told us about a dream he had had about his future daughter, and then said,"I know that our Heavenly Father loves you even more than I love my future daughter." Needless to say, he is pretty excited to go home, but he is finishing super strong, and I am sure we will still see a lot of success in these coming weeks.

Have a great week everyone! And don't forget how lucky you are to know about the restored Gospel! There are people who have been searching for a long time for it. Don't take it for granted!

Love,
Elder Thornton

(Again, his photos did not come through😕 but here are his captions so you can imagine. . .)

Zone Conference! 

We did a Bunker themed Escape room for district Pday last week! It was pretty fun 

A majestic photo on top of the famous aardvark in Arnhem