Week 39 - He Will Direct You For Good

Goede Dag iedereen,

I can't get over how fun it must be having so much family back in town!  Dang....so cool.  Miss you guys a ton and I hope you don’t have too much fun without me. 

So...this week was really fast.  We have started teaching a few more lessons...It’s kind of difficult arranging times to see people and make it work with our modes of transportation.  It’s a cool experience to be cruising on trains everyday haha.  We are slowly implementing (don't know how to spell that and I have Dutch spell check) our plan that we've created.  We are building a relationship with our members and it’s so dang cool.  We have started to reach out to those that have met with missionaries earlier....found some new people to teach ...and we keep praying that the Lord will help us to help build the branch here in Friesland.  He's really good to us.  Like, really good. haha

This transfer just keeps flying by and I don’t know where it is going.  I have had to really work at the difference of pace and work compared to Genk.  We were so busy it was a struggle trying to find that time to teach everyone that was looking for truth.  Here...we are struggling with the opposite. However, the Lord hears our prayers and blesses those who diligently strive their best.  Elder Thom and I have been praying hard, fasting and are seeking the Lords hand in the work in this area. 

One day this week, we had planned to look up a few people who had sought to learn about the restored gospel in a certain area.  However, plans changed from seeing a list of people, to only having time to see one person.  We really had no idea who it was the Lord would like us to see at that specific time.  After a prayer and seeking for the Lord’s counsel, we were provided with a prompting to see a certain person who was on the list of people to see.  They were not at the top...or the middle...or the bottom.  They were in a random spot but we felt like that was the place to go.  As we walked to the bus in order to travel to the house, we found a map on the street.....we then thought....ok....we now have a way to find where this other person lives...who lives in walking distance and we will make it home on time.  We changed our minds.  We decided to walk to a different address.  That didn’t last long because we became unsure and were overcome with a sense of unease.  We decided to go with the original plan.  As we walked to the bus...we felt good.  We got on our bus and found the address we were looking for.  We knocked the door and were greeted by the house owner.  It was a friendly person but it was not the person we were looking for.  We were told that we were not the first missionaries to knock on their door in search for this person.  haha we laughed about it.  We talked with them...it was apparent that they were invited numerous times by numerous amounts of missionaries to a lot of stuff....church, websites, lessons....you name it....they were invited.  We just chatted with them....we came here for a reason.  We sought for counsel from the Lord and we were guided to go there. We were there for something. We ended up all becoming really good comrades.  We ended up going into his house.  We chatted more and got to know one another.  We learned a lot about it.  How they believed in science, they didn’t believe in a God...this and that....but you could see a change in the person as we shared our very short and really simple testimonies in our conversations over things like.....how cool it was that God gave us so much here on the earth so that we could learn and find happiness in things we did.  They started to agree with us.  We didn’t teach them.  We didn’t pray with them.  But we are going back to their house to teach them.  We set up an appointment to teach them.   

Alma 37:37 Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day. 

How more on the path we will be as we learn to seek for His counsel in all of our doings.  haha From our daily plans, to the things we share with people...pretty much with every decision or dilemma we come in contact with.  Things are going well here in Friesland.  We are finding our rhythm thanks to the help from the Lord. 

I hope you all have an awesome week.  How exciting it must be with everyone there.  Love you and take care!

Love,

Elder Holt

Week 38 - Go and Find Answers to Prayers

The metal heads was all his idea haha  He has been teaching me a lot of having fun with everything.  He is a really cool guy.  Its taken awhile to figure one another out but we are getting there and you can start to feel the unity.  We have made a goal to build the ''Missionary and Member relationship'' and to get the branch more involved in the work here in Friesland. Genk was like one giant family. You walk into that building and you can feel the love that everyone had for eachother. Everyone was on the same page.  People knew who we were helping to learn about the fulness of the gospel. We worked to figure out ways to help them serve the Lord in His missionary work.  In return, they saught to help us and to find those that the Lord was placing in their paths. So, we are focussing a lot of this transfer on building that relationship with our members.  To gain their trust and let them know that we are here to serve them in their missionary work.  I can't wait to tell you what has happened.  

I have been learning a lot about being ''Orderly''.  Funny, I know.  haha hopefully I will learn to keep this ''Orderly" longer than a couple days like what would happen to my room.  Clean it super good and then a couple days later its the result of a disaster. I have thought a little about why God is a God of Order.  Why cleanliness is next to Godliness.  I would explain it but you guys can figure it out on your own.

In Chula Vista San Diego, we had an amazing relationship with our members.  They trusted us with their friends.  They saught to help us when we needed it.  I learned on the importance of a healthy relationship between members and missionaries there.  I also learned how much smoother the work was after we organized everything so we could create more structured plans.  Genk was the time to apply these things that were learned.  We worked hard to show the word, through our actions, that we were there for them.  That we were there to help them with their branch grow and become stronger.  We showed our love and our willingness through actions vs words.  Actions speak louder than words.  This relationship was of huge help.  Our friends who we were teaching the Gospel could feel this love.  This love is helped them to recognize the Holy Ghost witness to them that they were on their way to finding that true joy that they knew was out there.  The relationship of the members and of the missionaries is that example to those who are searching for the truth.  Someone at church said that, ''we should be the example of what we want our kids to become.''  I think that implies for us, as members of the Church of our Savior.  We need to be the example of what these people want to become and what they want to feel.  Loved, welcome, a part of the family, appareciated, cared for, looked after....they want to know that they can depend on people and know where they can seek for help in any situation.  Its a blessing to be on earth at this time.  We are the ones that our Heavenly Father has chosen to gather His children.  He has choosen every single one of us because of the talents and gifts we have.  He knew that we had the potential to be successful.  He chose us.  I have seen the importance and it makes sense more and more everyday why the greatest commandment above all is Love.  When we love, it makes it harder to become angry.  To become jelous. To become upset.  Love helps us want to serve others.  I hope this all didnt sound to corny. 

Another thing I would like to quickly throw in there. Are prayers are answered and the more we SHOW that we want an answer, we will get one.  I dont know how many times this has happened but this past week was awesome.  It has been a struggle trying to find the answer if spending most of our time trying to get to the know branch members. We have spent a lot of time organizing everything, setting goals and steps to achieve these goals, that most missionaries would trip out. Well, We sometimes have to wait for answers.  If we want an answer we got to not just wait for it to come to us but we need to go and find it.  Then when we have done what our Heavenly Father wants us to, he will help us recognize our answer.  Follow the steps.

Elder Thom and I went to the train station to catch the train home. We saw 2 members sitting at the station waiting for their train.  We impressed to go and speak to them vs going out and contacting people.  It was exactly what we were to do.  We got to know these to members and help start that friendship that we are hopeing to build.  Well, last week in my talk I mentioned that I was from Alberta, Canada.  Canada is a big place.  One of these members knew that and thought it would be silly to ask, ''hey do you know so-and-so?''  So she didn't say anything to me that Sunday.  This sunday....samething...she didnt ask me!  As we were talking she was overwhelmed with the thought to ask me if I knew the first missionary that knocked on her door and his wife that were from Alberta, Canada.  haha She asked if I knew Bob and Fran Van Bruggen.  haha I reassured her that I did and explained why I called them Uncle Bob and Aunt Fran.  In this explanation I explained how I was related to Uncle Gerald Van Bruggen haha This lady light up like a christmas bulb on chirstmas eve. She told me how much she loved those young men and how happy she was with this whole situation. We are pretty much best friends right now and man.......haha I really dont know how to write this better.  Its all pretty amazing. It is really cool to see the impact that 2 of my uncles have made on on this lady. She was taught many and many years ago and I got to witness the impact that we all make on people.  Always remember the impact that you can maek on people.  

Love you all and until next week, 

Elder Holt 

When it rains...it rains in Nederland

Week 37 - new area, new companion, new language...

Friesland is VERY beautiful.  haha I am very lucky to be serving here.  It has a lot of nature and heritage.  Dang...its kind of hard to describe.  haha I've been trying to learn some Fries while being here.  I use to think that Fries was a dialect of dutch but apparently it is an entire different language,  I have learned to say "how is it going?'" and Bye.  Its kind of hard learning more due to the fact that I'm trying to adjust to the difference is dialect of dutch from that of Genk.  It is a lot easier to understand the dutch here though, which makes me super happy.  haha people have asked if I have grown up speaking dutch with my parents and are always super kind by saying that they cant believe that I've been speaking dutch for a little more than 5 months!  Really good encouragement.  Nederlanders are really nice people.  One thing I love about them is how they say how it is....or atleast how they think it is haha.  They are really honest with you, whether that be a good thing or not. haha so funny. They canals.....man these canals....

So I have a new companion who has been out for 4.5 months...my first companion that is younger than me in the mission. He is the guy that is constantly looking to serve people.  He is the guy that you pass by on the street who says hello and makes your day.  He is a really loving guy.  His name is Elder Thom.  He is a Surinamer.  Which is awesome because his mother language is Dutch.  It is a different story not working with missionaries who have been out longer than I.  It is taking some time to learn the role and to figure things out.  I am extremely happy to be serving with Elder Thom and am excited to learn as I work with him. 

I am serving in another branch.  This branch is bigger than the branch in Genk and also have amazing members.  haha just my luck, I was asked to give a talk on my first sunday.  It went really well and people thought that I had been in Europe speaking dutch longer than I have. The work is different here.  How we get around...the time that we have...things like that and it is going to take some time adjusting.  I came from a city that was extremely busy to a city that is ready to pick things up.  I guess the hardest part is that I dont know the city, I dont know the branch members and I dont know the people that are seeking to learn the Gosepl from us.  But...thats where time will come into play.  We just got a new Branch Mission Leader yesterday...he jsut got back from his Mission one month ago...the trippiest part is that he served in the Ireland/Scotland mission......haha I told him that I had a cousin serving there, told him her name and he said that he served in the same zone as her!  I cant believe how small the world is serving a mission haha.  I am excited to work with an RM as we do our best to build the Lord Kingdom here in Friesland.  

It is nice to be progressing in the mission.  Of course it is sad because 9 months have already flown by....but I must say I enjoy be given new tasks and new oppotunities to learn and meet new people.  Its sometimes nerve racking to take the lead but I take great comfort in the example the Christ set for us. He did everything our of love and for the benefit for others.  Everything he did was not for him.  I have realized this a coupld times on my mission but as the mission goes on, this thought becomes more and more of a reality.  Serving for the best interest for others sometimes means I have to keep my mouth shut, suck it up and let it go.  Sometimes it means not being able to hang my wet clothes up to dry and find a new creative way to dry them.  Ether 12:27 is the scripture that I have read this weak that has stuck with me.  Later on in the same chapter in verse 37.  It reads, ''...And because thou hast seen thy weaknesses thou shalt be made strong...'' . 

Time and new situations have helped me to see the importance of noticing my weakness's for myself.  Especially in the places that I thought were my strongest.  It is one thing to change because someone has pointed something out and we accepted it.  I feel like as we learn to recognize and accept our weaknesses by ourselves, we will become that much stronger in becoming the people that we were set out to become.  Its a good time to be on the world.  Yes there are a lot of sad things happening but we live in a time where we are blessed with the restored fullness of the Gospel.  We live in a time where the Lord knew we could succeed and he chose us to be here at this time to help him serve His children. 

On another note....we have had some interesting experinces.  Yesterday we were looking up some people and knocking some doors and we got into a house of a lady who had interest.  I guess she suffers from a mind sickness becuase she totally forgot who we were and was gettting worried.  She called to her husband who was preparing herbal tea for everyone....we had to go get him....this couple is people 85-95....we told him what was up that it would probably be best for us to leave. haha he apologized and said that sometimes she is good and others not.  As we said goodbye this sweet older lady was mumbling things like, ''people are going to steal from me....I dont trust anyone....who are these people...I dont know you...''it was sad but it was also tad humerous.  A few days ago we were walking the streets and were street contacting.  There were a lot of people who reminded me a lot of my brother Grayson haha This really made me miss him.  They had long hair...some curly...they had heavy metal band shirts on...some people looked like the people you would see on the movies going to a rock concert.  We followed the sounds and the crowd and came upon a heavy metal rock concert being played outside.  We got a lot of funny loooks haha I mean a lot...Especially when they would stare at your tag and you take it off, show it to them closer and ask if they could read it.  They could not beleive that we were walking around in the crowd we were.  Some people were really happy and nice.  Some not so haha but we kept it cool. The people who started off tryin to chirp us ended up feeling bad and probably didnt expect us to be so cool about it. In the end we would end up being their friends. We even had people stand up for us.  It was a really cool experience.  They would say they were impressed in how good the language was and we would get to throw in how we get the help we need from Christ as we strive to help him. Charity and humility.  ohyeah and it turns our Megadeath was playing.  

Love you guys,

Elder Holt

Week 36 - Transfer to Friesland!

Yeah.  It’s crazy how things work out.  The whole story of Francois is a good one and one day I will have to tell you all about it.  He is going to his "conference" today in order to find out if he will be able to stay here or if he will be sent back home.  It was sad because I guess it was set up that he would receive the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday after church.  I guess he wasn’t able to leave Brussels because he never showed up.  But the Lord has a plan and he will help my buddy in the future.  Man I wish I had time to write my friends story....it’s so sweet. 

This week was a blurry one.  Don’t really remember much that went on.  We had a lot of cool miracles.  We have found many people who have started to learn the Gospel and many others who are ready to hear the Gospel for the first time.  We only got to teach 6 lessons last week, but the amount of times we taught a 5 minute lesson as we contacted people was amazingly high.  The Lord is continuing to help the members reach their inspired goal for the year.  One of my friends who got baptized is working to receive their Patriarchal Blessing!  Super excited for that.  It’s really nice to see these people embrace the Gospel and become anchors for the branch.  Like what Mom was saying, these people cannot be convinced to love the gospel.  They have to be loved into the Gospel.  My time here, I feel like the Lord really wanted me to learn how I can portray my love to people through my actions and not through my words.  I guess you can say I learned a little about the phrase; "actions speak louder than words".  A member in San Diego told me that if I told people that I loved them, like how people tend to do in America, that the Dutch and the Vlaams would think I was a fake.  He told me to SHOW the people that I loved them.  This was really confusing at first.  Sometimes it still is.  But I took that in and have seen the differences in showing the people I love them vs. telling them I love them.  Another thing that I think I was to learn was to put in the same amount of work and effort to help my companions as I do with my friends who have that desire to learn about the Gospel.  Haha, sad to say that I learned this a little late in the transfer and I feel like this lesson was learned through being unsuccessful but I guess the important thing is that I have learned it.  When I am done being a full-time missionary and start life as a member again, it is going to be important to help my ward members become more converted to Christ as much as it will be to help others find the truth that they are seeking for.  Same goes with my companions.  I am excited to learn and to put that into action.  

It has been 4.5 months here in Genk, Belgium and the Lord has called me to serve his people in Nederland.  I will be transferred this week and heading to Friesland.  Haha just my luck....I learn Vlaams Dutch and then get sent to Friesland....where they speak a whole new story of Dutch. I had a feeling I would be going to Friesland but I honestly thought that it would be when my Dutch was better. I'm hoping someone can let Uncle Gerald know about the move and maybe I can get in touch with him somehow. I am sad to leave here but I am excited to move forward.  The ward is in good hands here with the Elders that are here.  Going to miss ‘em a lot.

I hope you guys have an awesome summer.  I am super happy that you all get to have this sweet end to the summer.  I hope all turns out well and that it is an awesome time.  Love you guys and until next week where I will have to relearn how to type on an English keyboard and not a French one.

Love, 

Elder Holt

Week 35: Church of the Devil

Yeah last week was the national holiday, kind of like Canada Day, in Belgium.  Everything was closed so we did our emailing on Tuesday!  Sad to say that 4 weeks earlier we agreed to play a board game with a member so we didn't get to go to Brussels and see all of the amazing things that were going on.  Palace tour, parade, crazy shows!  Its ok though...that would have been something that WE would have liked to for OURSELVES and not doing it for our ward members who deserve everything we can do with them.  haha it was a fun game anyways and we had a good time.  

This week was a good one.  I have been told that we were of the Church of Devil a couple times out here on my misson but this week was one for the record books haha.  These people can start off soooooo nice and then they ask a question about what we believe....haha well....they agree about a lot.  They are saying yea, yea, yea...they then share something and we agree with them or agree with the parts we do agree with.  We like to build their faith and point out what is common. The question that is asked where things flip is always, "so if we are pretty much the same, what makes us different?" haha we recap the restoration in a 1 to 2 minute lesson and then introduce the Book of Mormon. It is jammer when people freak out the way they do and then call it what they do.  We then are bashed by Bible verses that have been twisted to try and catch us in our words.  haha. Every time this happens I can't help but smile and feel sad for these people.  We know that they feel the truth that we testify.  After they are done bashing us we simply bear our testimony and invite them to read a verse with us to help them experience the love of God that is with in.  They won't even let us read a word with them. 

Another sad thing is that one of my friends who got baptized is being deported back home.  It is amazing how everything worked out.  A miracle you could say.  He is going to be an amazing member back at home.  They are lucky to have him.  He is a man that was converted by the spirit and allowed the spirit to change him for the better.  He does not understand Dutch but he came every week to church.  He served the people.  He came to activities.  He is a man that has taught me about the conversion done by the spirit

Elder Holt