Week 52 - Skate Contacting

That would have been fun to hear the Dutch names!  That's really cool that you got to go to the temple with the youth and the new member to the ward!  A member in San Diego who served in the High Council shared his thoughts about new members attending the temple.  He noticed that a high percentage of the members that didn't  go to the temple within 3 months of being baptized who were converts became less-active compared to the members those that did.  He encouraged us to get all of our friends to the temple as soon as possible so that they could experience the importance of constantly learning and experiencing the fullness of the gospel and to help them keep progressing.  I think that's super cool that she got to go!  Good Job!  Leaving at 4 in the morning though does not sound like the best.....maybe a little later is a better/safer idea.  Man....I can't imagine 25 youth in a ward anymore!  I remember in Ottawa when we had more than that.  It's so different being here...there are not a lot of youth.  We have been pretty blessed with the wards we grew up in.  Super blessed. 

Dang....those landscapes would be soooo nice.  Especially along those rest points or whatever they are called.  A lot of the Nederlands people loooove Canada for its beautiful scenery.  It's hard to remember what home is like now-a-days.  A member told us that there are some parts in North America that are buried in snow!  So weird to think about shoveling driveways!  San Diego last winter...no snow yet here or even weather for snow to happen.  Crossing fingers that we'll get some snow just before Christmas.  It would be nice to have a white Christmas.  But maybe only for Christmas seeing how it would really suck if we lost the possibility of using our bikes.....we kind of need those in our area.  If we didn't have them our work would be waaaaay slow. 

This week was a blur.  I feel like I say that every week.  I guess this week I just let the numbers that we share with the zone leaders get to me so last night I was just feeling overwhelmed and trying to figure out what the heck the problem was.  It's nice to know that we can go somewhere private and speak to our Father Heaven.  I find a lot of assurance having some experience recognizing answers and know that He hears our prayers and will help us.  I guess I allowed things to weigh me down to the point where I just needed to have a good long chat with my Heavenly Father.  The feelings and thoughts that come to our minds as we take the time to pray....and then pause to listen......really help clear and rekindle(I wanted to use reguvinate but I don't know how to spell it so I went with rekindle)your mind, your feelings and your spirit. A sister missionary once shared what someone had once told her about listening while praying.  This person said....Imagine someone tells you how they are doing, what's going good, what’s going bad and all the feelings that they are going through, asking for you advice and help but they never stop, giving you no chance to reply leaving you unable to actually help them.  I feel like whenever things start going good I will forget the little things such as allowing my Father in Heaven to try and help me or putting my trust in Him.  Sometimes I get so caught up in life and what’s going on where I forget something that I have been learning all my life like, ''trusting my Heavenly Father in all things.''  Heck, I share this with people very regularly.  Man I suck at spelling.  Curses Dutch spell-check.  People wonder why good things happen to bad people.  We may feel like we are doing so good as we do our best in following the steps of our Savior and then booom.......we walk into a wall.  We get spiritually hit.  I can speak for myself that if I didn't go through things like this....and it's sad to say...I would forget my Heavenly Father. 

Mosiah 1 :17 ''Therefore, as they were unfaithful they did not prosper nor progress in their journey, but were driven back, and incurred the displeasure of God upon them; and therefore they were smitten with famine and sore afflictions, to stir them up in remembrance of their duty.'' 

 haha I hope you all don't think that I am going apostate or being disobedient by me sharing this scripture. I like it because to me it explains that we all may have the thought to do something like to go and speak to someone, or to go and visit or call someone.  Heck it could the most simplest of things but sometimes, and it could be soooo good, but we shrug it off.  Everyone does it.  If you don't....I'm sorry...you gotta quit pulling the wool over your eyes: )  We ALL do this...it's ok.  haha that's how we learn.  When I shrug off an impression, to me, I am being unfaithful.  Last night we were biking and I saw the other side of the road and just had this feeling and desire that I wanted to bike on the other side of the road.  I didn't do it.  I kept biking on the normal path we take, contacted a dude....didn't go as one would intend....and then saw these 2 other people on the other side of the road.  All I could think in my head was, ''shooot.....that's why I was supposed to go to that side of the road.''  I guess I had many experiences this week where I felt that I knew what it was that I was being guided to do....but I was trying to.....rationalize....or justify...haha there's a word I really want to use but I can't dig it out of my brain.  Ok.  That dude that we contacted.  I felt the impression to bike on the other side of the street.  I didn't because I saw a dude walking towards us and no one on the other side. Because I saw this dude...I brushed aside the impression.  I guess the word could be reasoning.  I'm pretty sure reasoning was the word I couldn’t dig out of my brain.  Man I do that a lot.  I feel like this week was a week of ''reasoning'' for Elder Holt.  Dang that's a tricky thing not to do eh?  I was forgetting to trust in my Father in Heaven.  I forgot that these impressions, if they be good, come from God.  That they come for a reason.  I feel that because I shrugged these impressions that I did not progress as much in my journey of life and was being driven bac, (referring back to Mosiah 1 : 17). I was slowly becoming the person that was forgetting to include my God.  I started to feel the weight of feelings, responsibilities and all that become heavier and heavier.  How grateful I am to have been given the wake up call to remember my God. Sometimes we feel that they are unfair but what a gift it is to find answers to the why of things through the words of our Prophets of old and of today. I didn't fully understand why these feelings of overwhelment were coming from.  I was doing what I should, I was doing my best to be obedient...I didn't fully understand why these feelings came.  But now I have learned and experienced another lesson why God said we are giving afflictions ''...to stir them up in remembrance of their duty.'' We need these moments to help us remember things we may have forgotten.  I can promise you that if you are honest with yourself and do not try and sugar coat things with the intent of making yourself feel better....there will be a lesson that will bless not only your life, but to all those your Father in Heaven has put into your life. 

We went to Brussels last week to get our drivers licences.  Got to eat Belgian Friets and waffles.  I didn't get a Belgian waffle.  I ended up giving my money to a lady...I am sometimes a weak hearted kid.  There was a dude who was 25 skateboarding at our meeting and I really had the impression to go and skate with him. He came to grind the stairs where we were and he screwed up...giving me the opportunity to say hi and start a conversation with him.  We talked about skating....life...growing up skating.  It was awesome.  Well, Elder Holt wanted to skate so he asked his friend Lucas, (who was the skateboarder) if he could use his board.  Lucas replied to me with the comment...''in those shoes?''  haha We laughed and I asked if we could switch shoes so I could skate.  This dude was so cool that we switched shoes. I did a few things.  He challenged me to grind on the stairs and luckily it ended in success. It was nice to share a common joy that we found in life through skateboarding.  Turns out he quit drinking liquor because it cost too much, he didn't feel good after drinking and he found more joy in developing his talent in skating.  Talking to this dude and getting to know him, the Spirit helped me see how the Lord was preparing this young man to receive the Gospel.  While I was skating another missionary contacted him and kind of did the regular normal missionary contact; leaving me feeling like it would be weird to add what I felt the Spirit was helping me to say.  Sad to say that I allowed myself to ''reason'' myself out of it.  I really hope to learn to reason but at the same time trust in answers I know the Lord is giving me and try my faith and just go with it. 

Love you all and I miss you,

Elder Holt

Week 51-Zwarte Piet arrives!

On... Friday I think it was when Sinter Klaus and Zwarte Piet showed up in the boat to Nederland!  They had parades with a bunch of Zwarte Piets and Sinter Klaus haha.  Little Kids were dressed up as Zwarte Piet...it was really funny.  I feel sad over how people think it is discriminatory. I feel like Zwarte Piet is more loved by the people here than Sinter Klaus and this is a tradition that's been going on for a long, long time.  I learned that Zwarte Piet doesn't represent a person coming from Africa but one that goes down the chimney for Sinter Klaus...something like that.  Anyways....I am not a fan of people trying to change Zwarte Piet.  We didn't have time to go and see the parade...just the kids and families going to the parade/festival.  We went and helped a member cut vegetables and stuff to help her prepare for her birthday party she was having and then after that we had to go to Zwolle for the evening.  Sometimes you just don't have time to see the cool things as a missionary. In fact...even our pdays have been short this transfer and today they will be even shorter as we serve the members of our wards.  It's all good though.  Sacrifices are a good thing. 

This week for my year mark I'll be heading to Brussels, Belgium!  We figured that since we have had short pdays and we would be losing even more than usual today, that for my year mark we would go do something cool...something like a cool restaurant or museum or castle or w.e....turns out we'll be going to Brussels in order to get our drivers licences that day.  It'll be nice going back to Belgium and really nice to see Brussels again! It's a whole new world there.  Way more French than Dutch or Flemmish.  It's kind of crazy thinking that almost a year ago I was getting ready to be set apart, and then heading to the MTC.  It trips me out every transfer when new missionaries come in.  I remember when I first came in... remember the mission leaders... realize that they are either home now or almost home... and realize that the new missionaries are going to start looking up to the me as I looked up to my mission leaders.  So weird.  I was reading a talk by Elder Dube this morning as I was doing some bathroom reading.  He talks about how he was working on a plant field with his Mom or something and he looked back and said to his Mom, ''look at how much we did!'' she didn’t reply so he figured she didn't hear. He repeated what he said then she told him to not look back at what you’ve done but to look forward at what you are still to do.  Something like that.  That kind of hit me.  I've done a lot of looking back at what I've done.  It makes me feel like I have accomplished things. Time to start looking at what tasks are in front of me and looking to accomplish them.  I guess if we always look back at what we have accomplished...we'll be missing some pretty important lessons and experiences as we work to succeed the tasks at hand.  I'll have to think about that more.  Three cheers for scripture studies!

Earlier this week we went to visit a friend of the church who had joined the church about four years ago.  They met with the missionaries for three years or something like that.  They are now in-active. Sucks but it happens. We got to see them finally, after trying to set something up for the past two weeks.  We had a really good time.  The choices that they have made in life have left them with becoming a parent.  It's really cool for them.  They asked what we wanted to talk about with them.  After thinking about it, the Spirit just informed us to ask them what they wanted to talk about.  Boy....did they have some questions.  The first was about baptism for babies.  They knew that baptism was required to go into Heaven and they wanted to know if the baby needed to be baptized.  I love situations like this.  So many times I have learned that if I put in a really good scripture study and I treasure up the words of Christ, that I will truly be given the words of what to say when they are needed.  We ended up reading Moroni chapter 8 with them.  After the Sprit testified to our friend the truths of this, they moved to the next question.  Again, the words of guidance were given.  Sad to say that I also experienced that people will only hear what it is that they want to hear and if they are not willing to accept or listen to the truth, they will not understand it.  I wanted to dig deeper into the question that he posed to us.  I realized that I could know more about the question than I did.  So...for the next day I worked on becoming more acquainted with the truth of the question and where to find it.  Had a lot of cool experiences this week with my studies and not only studies, but diligently studying and using all of the books of scriptures to find the truths.  I have experienced the power that comes from seeking the truths from the Bible, Book of Mormon and D&C.  What a good feeling it is to have these testimonies. To have the words of truth in such a magnitude that if we seek to obtain and understand the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we will not be left with questions in the end. 

We went on exchanges with our missionary friends this week. The Elder who I served with for the Day and I had a really good day.  We talked with people but it didn't feel like we were contacting just to contact.  It felt like we were contacting because we really cared for these people.  I made a goal to not just go through the routine of contacting.  Sometimes missionaries can get stuck into a routine to the point where the sincerity of the message is lost.  I wanted to apply what we all learned from each other last district meeting.  That being listening. Everyone has experiences in life that have helped them or are helping them to find the truths.  As we discussed contacting/finding new friends who are seeking the truths, we ended up speaking about listening to what people were saying and discerning how the Lord has been preparing them in order to share with them things that are personally for them. Now was the time to apply what I had learned at district meeting and work to help my missionary friend do the same.  We ended up having really good conversations with some people.  We are seeing a friend, hopefully this week, who we met that day, we ended up giving out 2 Book of Mormons and for the people that declined...we still felt successful because we knew that what we shared was working inside of them and that the experiences that we shared were going to be on their minds.  We felt the Spirit work through us.  We ended up meeting a man who loves Canadians and Canada.  It's nice to be Canadian.  We ended up losing track of time. At 3 oclock we head to an Albert Heijn to buy some snacks.  As we biked to the grocery store we saw an antique shop and decided we wanted to go in the antique shop after we bought our food. We did just that.  There were so many cool things here.....man....clocks from 1700's...guns that pirates probably used  (I have no idea I'm just trying to give you a picture of how old they are), really cool dressers...paintings....things like that.  We found a box of random things...including some mini Dutch Bibles. We found one from 1884.  I asked the dude how much it was (the one Bible for 15 Euros) and the conversation somehow lead to Fryslan clocks.  He showed us around the entire store, taught us some things and we just had a cool time learning about this dude’s hobbies and how he got to where he was with his collection.  The Spirit made us aware of how this man was prepared to hear Gospel.  We shared a little bit about the Book of Mormon in the way that he needed to hear it.  He and no other.  We shared our experiences with it and asked if we could give him one.  I feel like if we didn't make it personal for him and invited him in the way the Spirit had showed us...he would have said no. He is Dutch after all....they are really good at knowing if you are sincere and they like things to be of personal worth.  The way we invited him was so cool.  He ended up giving us 2 Bibles; the one I wanted and another for 10 dollars so that we both left with a Bible.  His words were, ''om uw dienst'' or something like that.  I think that means, ''For your service''.  Super cool day. We taught 2 lessons and learned a big lesson on listening.  To listen to the people, to gain a sense of a love for who they are and to see how they have been prepared to hear the gospel.  To invite and share in a personal way according to how they had been prepared. 

This week we are pretty busy and I hope that we will have time to get all we want to get done, done.  We will be losing a full day which is a bummer but it'll all work out.  Things are going will in Overjissel.  It's a nice place.  The ward is really fun.  I haven't been fed like this since San Diego...we're eating at members’ houses almost every night!  We're building relationships with them and hopefully we will be able to find people who are looking for the Gospel so that we can bring missionary opportunities to the members so that they can catch the fire of sharing the gospel.

I'll do better at making photos this week.  I've been still getting used to things here but I did make a photo today of my companion and I because I knew you would like one!  Love you guys and until next week.

Elder Holt

Week 50 - Perfecting our Faith

This week was pretty good.  It wouldn't look like it if you saw the amount of lessons we taught but it's been important to keep pushing along.  The Lord’s work won't push along if you don't help push it along.  We've had appointments fall through but the Lord has helped us find 2 new friends.  Really nice people.  They had learned a little from missionaries a few years ago but they didn't feel loved by the ward members.  They felt like the ward members just wanted them to get baptized and didn't feel a ''family connection'' with them.  Opened my eyes on how important it is to remember the greatest commandments: 

''...Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.  And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.'' Matt 12:30, 31

I've started studying the Epistles of Paul.  I was curious on the lead up to the great apostasy.  What were the saints of Jesus Christ going through?  What events happened?  What were the remaining Apostles guiding the Saints to do?  So many questions filled with curiosity.  There is a ton I wish I could share with you but, lucky for you guys, the limited time on the computer has reduced that amount by drastic measures.

One insight that I had was why we are tried.  This answer gets pretty big and complicated so I won't get into it all.  I want to talk about perfecting our faith.

 ''Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith''

I hope this doesn't sound crazy or I leave it with too many holes. Reading it now I kind of am confused how I got to my answer from my question.  After I read this verse I was thinking about the trials that the saints were going through.  I thought about the trials that we go through.  I really wanted to know more about why we have trials.  The last part of the sentence, ''might perfect that which is lacking in your faith''  We live two parts of life.  A temporal life and a spiritual life.  This temporal, just may, help us work to perfect our spiritual aspect of life.  In this new area I feel like a lesson I am to learn working towards perfecting my faith.  There is a reason why faith is number one in ''our purpose.''  We live lives where faith is constantly exercised.  Sometimes we do all we can and work so hard…and the outcomes are not what we thought.  We contact people daily.  We do our very best to help them in their own personal way but some days...the fruits of the labour are unseen.  I've been experiencing that perfecting the faith is to keep moving forward with your head up and holding fast to your hopes and goals. We had a really slow week.  Our goals for the week were slowly becoming a downer.  My comp has a really good attitude about everything.  He would always say...''well....we’ve got two more days. Let's keep going.''  We kept going.  If we didn't we wouldn't have found our two new friends.  I've been focusing a lot on ''Perfecting my Faith''. 

Oh how much I care for this Gospel.  How much I care for the men and women that have made it possible for me to have this Gospel.  We have a Heavenly Father that loves us a lot and will help us.  He loves us so much that He will put us into situations that will help us become better people; situations that have the potential to help us, ''Perfect our faith'', as long as we allow our Savior to nourish our faith.  I find great comfort in the Scriptures.  I have particularly enjoyed seeing both sides of the page as I study both Testaments of Christ.  The Lord lives.  We can learn His ways through applying what we learn in the scriptures.  Everything requires faith.  Let us all work towards perfecting our faith: 

“Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus 

Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that‍ there be no divisions‍ among you; but that‍ ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind‍ and 

in the same judgment.” 1 Corinthians 1:10

Let us all be united with our Father in Heaven and not divide ourselves against the ways to achieve all the good things in life.  Let us follow the footsteps of our Redeemer, even Jesus Christ.  We will all stand before Him one day.  Let us prepare by walking in faith in a world that is governed by sight. 

“But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.'' 2 Corinthians 2:9-16

Trust in God.  He loves you.

Love you and I hope you all have a sweet week!

Elder Holt

PS.  Sorry about no pictures

Week 49 - What Are We Going to Do to Get Answers?

Goede Middag!

It was sad and a shock about being transferred so quickly but I am really enjoying my first week here in Overijssel. I will have to send you guys a video of where we live.  Ohmygoodness.....I never knew a missionary home could be so sweet. haha.  This is my first time serving in ward here in Nederland.  It's kind of like the size of the ward in St. Albert....we have a tiny make shift church building but are waiting for the go-ahead form the city to build the new church building.  We have really funny members.  I have only met a couple of them on Sunday but the people I met just made me laugh.  Their sense of humor is so dang contagious.  They make you smile. There are two sets of Elders in this ward.  I guess they have had a lot of missionaries from Utah so when they heard that the 2 new missionaries in their ward were from Canada they were pretty happy haha. My new companion’s name is Elder Hulet from Cedar City, Utah.  He's been out on his mission for almost 18 months.  He's a really good dude; a hardworking and fun missionary.  We prayed and figured out what the Lord knows we can accomplish.  I am confident that as we serve, giving it all we got and do so with the Lords help that we are going to succeed our goals.  It is going to be a good transfer.

It has been interesting working without the resources that you have back at home with missionary work.  I never really noticed how much resources and help are given to us back at home until serving all the branches and ward here in Nederland.  The church is in a beginning phase.  We serve covering an entire province without a vehicle so it makes it harder to get around.  Fortunately we have an amazing ward that is ready to take on the responsibility of building up the Lords Kingdom here.  I haven't met all of our friends who are learning the Gospel here yet.  We actually don't have too many.  The entire district and zone seems to be struggling with building up a foundation of finding and teaching those who are ready for the Gospel and are seeking for the truths of the world and life.  I find it funny because my Nederland trainer, Elder Robbins, is now my zone leader.  I know that he is going to work his tail off making his city an example for the zone and I feel as if I am serving in his zone to help my rekindle the feelings and joy that came from the much success in Genk, Belgium.  I am excited to be serving with him on exchanges and to be learning more with more experience under my belt.  It's going to be hard but the Lord is going to help us bring life to our areas as we serve and are accountable.

We have been doing a lot of contacting and knocking doors. Some days I love it....some days not so much.  I don't really fully understand why I don't always have the zin to contact and knock doors but now is the time to search for solutions to always having that desire to invite as many people as possible and as many people as the Spirit prompts me to.  Maybe that is one of the reasons why my trainer is my zone leader haha.  To help me apply what I learned from him. 

A few days ago we were doing some look ups and contacting while riding our bikes around the city.  We came across a lady who was walking her dog.  We began a conversation with her about her dog.  He was a really cool Jack Russell Terrier.  When the conversation changed into seeing where she stood with God it turned out that she had a lot of doubts with the fact that we have a God who is our loving Heavenly Father.  She thought it didn't make sense that children would die, get sick, and become subject to various amounts of different unfortunate things.  She had a legitimate concern.  One that I think every human being ponders about.  At that moment I knew why my life was happier with the Gospel being a part of it.

The Gospel has helped me to learn the answers to the questions and concerns that I had and have.  I have found and continue to find answers to things about life through the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I have received confirmations through the Holy Ghost as he testifies to me the truthfulness of the things I learn and ponder.  I am given feelings of comfort and peace to know that everything is ok and will work out. We all have concerns and questions....but what are we going to do to get answers or find solutions?

This lady that we contacted who shared her dispute or concern....I don’t really know what to call it...was sincere. The only thing that would help her was to comfort her and to thank her for her sincere concern.  We bore our testimony that the world seems unfair.  That not everything is rainbows and sunshine.  We bore our testimonies that we had learned and could show how the children of the world are protected and saved from the dangers of mortality.  We bore testimony about how perfect God’s plan is; that even though we don't fully understand why things happen....that there is a way to find peace, answers and solutions.  We invited her to hear more.  She said yes and we exchanged contact info. 

I often feel like my natural response to people who share their concerns with me is to ''prove'' to them why what I share is true.  I feel like the Lord is helping me see to not ''prove'' that what the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is true but to share and provide comfort; to help His children experience that what I share, through the restored Gospel is the truth.  The power of comfort, peace and joy. 

''For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.''

Oh how true this principle is.  We learn here a little and there a little. In the end...all these littles transform into a grand architect of truths.  How thankful I am to live a life according to my Heavenly Father, the source of all truths; to experience His teachings as I test my faith by following His called and chosen prophets.  We all have questions and concerns.  haha Sometimes these turn into complaints.  We can sit around and complain all we want but what are we going to do about finding solutions and answers?  It is my prayer that we will all live a life of goodness through the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  That we may reap the blessings that come from it.  That we may find peace, comfort, happiness and joy as we, day by day, learn the principle of ''here a little, and there a little.' ''Line upon, line, precept upon precept.'' 

Ant hills are pretty dang interesting if you think about it. haha.  These guys take tiny grains of sand and dirt and one by one...build a hill.  They do it grain by grain.  The Lord’s principles are all around us if we are looking for them and seeking for His counsel.  This, my family and friends, is my experience that I share with you.  Know that whatever your concern, question, doubt, problem...heck even your complaint; it can be answered.  Prayer is our first step.  There is a power behind prayer that helps us to find the answers we are searching for.  Go out and find your answers with the help of a loving Heavenly Father, who is the source of all goodness and truths.

I love you all and hope that you all have a great week.  Keep going strong and always look to the right source for everything.  Trust in the wisdom of God, your Eternal Father.

Love,

Elder Holt

Temple Conference