Jacob 6:12

Family, Friends, loved ones, aquaintences..

 

This is my last email!  I really don't know what to say to be honest.. I have had a wonderful past week, visiting with people, saying goodbye in some instances.. had the opportunity to talk with many friends from past cities, as I've been making the schedule for Mom and Dad.. Had a wonderful birthday, we went bowling.. (i'm horrible at bowling!)  18 missionaries came, and we played some on the beach afterwards, and then I had a couple of dinner appointments.. could not of asked for a better birthday!  We have been super busy with everything, it has been a very rewarding week, very happy that the last week and a half I've been very busy.  Yesterday at church they called me up and I had the opportunity to bare my testimony.. my final testimony in dutch.. it was pretty cool, but other than that brief moment, I have not felt at all that i am leaving, did not feel like that was my last week, did not feel like that was my last sunday in den haag, does not feel like I'll be home in a couple weeks.. just feels like any other transfer or day.. crazy.. I know that when it hits me, it's going to hit me hard!  But that's okay, I still have a couple of days before that happens ;)  Yesterday night had two dinner appointments, tonight have two dinner appointments.. tomorrow.. will have two dinner appointments =)  Ending with style..
I just want to bear my testimony to close this chapter of my life.. I know that what I've done these past two years, has been the work of god.. I know that I was sent to this part of the world, to the netherlands and to belgium for a specific reason, and I know many of those reasons, and I am positive and sure I will find out more reasons as I progress further in my life.  I know that god exists.. he's there and he loves us.. he loves everyone, and I am so honored and priviledged that I've been able to feel and share his love with the people here.. I know that god is a god of miracles just like he was in the stories we read about in the scriptures.. I have seen miracles, I have seen marvelous things.. and I feel like Ammon did in Alma 26, or at least in part what he felt.. I know that Jesus is the christ, I know that Joseph Smith was chosen as his prophet in these latter days, and I know with all surety of heart that Thomas S. Monson his our lords servant now.. in our time.. So grateful for these past two years, and very excited to take what I"ve learned and observed and apply it to my life in a couple of weeks when I return to America!

Love you all, thank you for all your prayers and support!

Elder Joseph Vaughn Mohrman

the final countdown

Family! 

 

I'm 21..  Geesh.. That sounds a lot older than I feel I will not lie.. but today is going to be a super sweet day!  I've been inviting all the missionaries in the surrounding areas, (and some in the not so surrounding areas) to come to my birthday party today!  That will consist of bowling, found a sweet place on the beach, lunch at the beach, and then beach games like soccer or volleyball.. will it be sweet.. absolutely, and then after dinner appointment with a wonderful family, and if that wasn't enough, another dinner appointment with another wonderful family.. birthday successful?  Sure will be!  This whole week is going to be a blast, have appointments scheduled almost every day this week, with all my close friends here, new investigators are starting to come, some really cool people, and just feeling really good about everything right now..  Last week was good, had a wonderful appointment with Rosa, she is back on board, and really has a desire to develop her relationship with god.. seeing miracles and tender mercies all the time!  If it were possible to be over-blessed then I would fit that category, things happen, and I just have to wonder, what in the world did I do to deserve this?? Life has been great, and is just continuing to be greater and better with every day!  Love your faces!

See ya when I see ya,

Love your son, brother and friend

Elder Joseph V. Mohrman

august coming to an end...

Hoi familie! 

Beach volleyball last week was pretty fun, and chill.. Happy to have been able to do that while being on my mission ;)  Family Mule are the coolest people in the world, there the ones that made it possible for us to play.. I love them with all my heart!  Mom and Dad will be meeting them in a few weeks =)  

So crazy stuff, had a zone conference this past wednesday, it was really good, President Robinson is really growing a lot now, and he gave a really good meeting about christlike attributes, I also had the opportunity to give my "farwell testimony"  What a strange feeling leading up to it.. knowing that I was about to do what I had seen all the older missionaries do.. but it was nice, I was able to share an expirience from my mission, and bare my testimony of what I've learned these past two years.  It was really good to see everyone at the zone conference and also of course pretty sad.. most of my good friends from my mission were there, so I was able to see and visit with them and say a proper goodbye.. and that is why it was so sad, saying goodbyes.. I don't like them very much! 

But everything is going well here, we had some pretty intense heart to heart with a recent convert here in Den Haag, he was baptized a couple of months before I got here, and he's been sick and is in the hospital, and we are the only ones that visit him from the church and he was really peeved about that, and about other things, and we were able to go and just talk with him, had him read Jacob 5 out of the book of mormon, and it was really cool because he got the message of the chapter, he understood the points we were trying to share.. so George is his name, he's doing really well.. also someone that Mom and Dad will be able to meet =)

As for Rosa, difficult to have an appointment with her, she is so busy, and so much drama in her life!  But were trying, and we have another appointment scheduled for this coming tuesday, I hope that it goes well.. as for other things I am being absolutely spoiled by the members right now, having wonderful visits and there having us over all the time, one young couple put it, we have to spoil you til you leave!  I'm definitely not complaining ;) next week monday is my birthday.. if that's of any importance to you all ;) 

Hope everything is great on that side of the world! 
Love your faces,
Elder Mohrman

HOT HOT HOT

Hoi familie!

It is HOT!!  Oh man.. these past few days has literally been the hottest days of my mission.. Last summer was no summer as it just rained the whole time, but this summer.. geesh.. Literally, it's only about 80-85 degrees farehnheit.. so you wouldn't think it's that bad, as we get 90's all the time in Utah.. but the Humidity.. It's been so humid, I kid you not we could see the humidity in the air.. the weirdest thing!  We were in our suits at the peak of the heat yesterday for a good 5-6 hours.. miserable.  But good.. church was amazing for multiple reasons, starting of course with Ama!  Cool you guys heard about the baptism already, even though it takes away the thrill of me telling it to you!  But it's all good, the bishop came up to me before sacrament meeting and said that normally he likes to ask one of the brothers in the ward to confirm new converts but this time he had a feeling that I should do it.. so I was able to confirm Ama and give her the Holy Ghost and my greenie companion was able to baptize her.. mission success! =)  So spiritual.. Sister Robinson talked a little about it on her blog, but wednesday the day of the baptismal interview, was literally one of the most spiritual moments of my mission.. we arrived there early, and Ama was still waiting on us ha ha but we were able to just talk with her, and before the Robinsons came she just shared some more amazing miracles happening in her life, and went off on how she likes this church, and she knows it true, she got up from her chair, and I don't know how else to describe it, but I believe I witnessed someone being overcome with the spirit in some small degree, like we read about all the time in the scriptures, she went off praising god, and giving thanks, bearing her testimony, crying and holding our hands.. powerful.. humbling.. All I could think about was the first couple days that we met her.. and the craziness that followed, and now 7 weeks later, she is baptized.. who would of thought.. surely not us!  All our concern was at the beginning was helping her try to pick up her life, and see if we could ship her off to ghana and trust that she would find the church there!  But God had other plans, and those plans are starting to unfold now.. But after that, the robinson's came, and she went in with President for the interview, and Elder Van Komen and myself had the opportunity to share Ama's story with sister Robinson.. she was touched as well, and just like she said when they were done with the interview, no words could be said, only hugs, and there wasn't a dry eye among us all.. So then at the baptism, went really well, had a good turnout from the ward.. and Ama, like Isaac in Antwerpen was baptized in ICE Cold water.. oh man.. but she did it, and did it with a smile on her face.. so yeah, that is literally the highlight of the week, highlight from the past two transfers!  I was looking back and I found it interesting that the two people that I had the priviledge of baptizing were from Suriname, and the two people that I gave the Holy Ghost too were both from Ghana.. Just an interesting stat I guess ;) 

Rosa is coming along, still going through some difficulty said she would come to church then didn't =0 but that's okay, I've seen this before and I know that things will work out with her in the end.. it was pretty cool, had two powerful lessens with her this past week, watched the restoration dvd, she loved it.. really understood it too.. her understanding is really good.. and then finally, finally got to teach her the plan of salvation.. and.. yes.. it was a good lessen.. she said at the end of it, that she had never had it explained to her in such a clear way and that it answered many of her questions that she's had for her entire life!   I asked her how she felt right now, and she said peaceful.. better.. and then I followed it up with why do you think that you feel that when we come over.. and it was cool to see the connections working with her.. she wants it to be true.. she really wants it to be true.. so I'm excited to see how much progression she'll be making in the coming weeks!

Other things.. just keeping myself busy, get this, so I started running in the morning this past week.. don't know what came over me.. but I decided to do it last second one morning with another elder in the apartment.. and now we have the goal as an apartement to switch off every day between running together and playing soccer.. the two things I hated the most before my mission.. is now how I'm finishing my mission.. go figure.. that's life huh!  Well I'm off to the beach to play some beach volleyball!  Trying to make my p-days count now ;)   I love you all, thank you for the emails, and the support, mean the world to me! 

Have a wonderful week

Your son, brother and friend

Elder Mohrman

Another wonderful week!

Hoi familie!
Long time no hear!... Not!  Seems like yesterday I was at this Internet Cafe reading your wonderful emails! =)  This has been a most wonderful week.. great things happened, are happening, and will happen.. Ama.. planning on being baptized this coming saturday.. 6 days.. craziness!  I look back on the first day we met her, and I just shake my head in awe.. can't believe that it's come this far, and will go even farther.. truly a miracle from god!  We met with her 4 times or so last week.. finished all the lessens, she has no problem with them and is so happy to be getting baptized.. she wanted to see the baptismal font, so after church yesterday, we watched the restoration dvd by the baptismal font, and even before we started watching the film.. she was tearing up, and all she could say at the end of the film, was "it's true.." I am being blessed here.. I will be the first one to admit it.. so cool to see.. seeing the change in people, seeing someone come closer to god, and gaining a testimony in the Restored Gospel is just priceless and never get's old.  So this week we will be busy meeting and strengthening Ama every day, so nothing will happen, and planning her baptism.. a lot of people are excited for it here in Den Haag, the other missionaries here have a lot of investigators on the edge, and for them to be able to see a baptism will be absolutely huge for them!  Good things are happening here!  As for Rosa, man, the devil.. he just sends all sorts of things at people, and Rosa got hit hard this week with tribulation.. but.. we did our best to fight through it, and we weren't able to make an appoinment this weekend, and it was looking like we weren't going to be able to see her at all because she was a little sick, so we decided to buy her some flowers, and bring her over a couple of church movies, and we dropped them off.. We didn't know if it would be awkward or not since we really don't know her that well, and we don't have a steady or any sort of a program with her yet, but using a baseball analogy, we went for a homerun, and she loved it!  So appreciative of the flowers, said that she is crazy about flowers, and she was so grateful because no one ever does kind of thing for her, so me and my companion think we hit a triple with that kind deed.. and so she's still positive, and hopefully.. hopefully.. i'm praying for it, hopefully we'll see some good progression from her this week.. we really want to get her to the baptism and then to church this week.. I think once she comes she'll not be able to leave!  Well.. that's pretty much the updates with those two wonderful people, have some potentials that we have appointments with this week.. we'll see how it goes.. Love you all.. thanks for all your support!  Today I get to go to Spijkenisse and visit Familie De Reus with my Brazilian buddy Elder Da Cruz, looking forward to it! 

Alright, have a good week

Your son, brother, and friend!

Elder Mohrman

Another day, another week.. Oh boy! Life is just great. I seriously can't complain about anything.

Hoi Familie!!

Another day, another week.. Oh boy!  Life is just great.  I seriously can't complain about anything.  I don't know what it is, but god just keeps sending miracle after miracle, and keeping us busy!  So much happened this week, Looking back on it, it's a little difficult to know where to begin!   It was transfer week.. said goodbye to Elder Neilson and Elder Bjork.. My first two companions in the MTC.  That was a lot tougher than I thought! Probably one of the hardest goodbye's I've had to say so far on my mission.  It's crazy to think there gone, there done!  And because there gone, that means I'm next =O  But it's okay, that's why god is so great, he's keeping us busy so I don't have to think about it! =)  Advice that I got from different people entering into my last transfer was to just make sure I have as many appointments as possible, visit the members, visit whoever, just make sure I'm indoors visiting with people, so I took that to heart, since appointments are my favorite part of this missionary thing, and we had 16 member lessens this week!  That is easily by far the most I've ever had on my mission.. and the most I've ever seen.. so neat to be able to visit all these people, to find out who these people are, what makes them click, and build the friendships and relationships that will last my entire life!  I told one family at church yesterday, Love them with all my heart, so i told them that I leave in about 5 weeks, and I wanted to make sure I came over at least once a week before I left.. they said yes, and I've done that with a number of families here in Den Haag.. super cool, so i'm setting it up so I'll stay busy til' the end of my mission!  But not only on the member front is things going really well, Ama.. oh bless her heart.. she came to church once again, we had three lessens with her this past week, and she is just getting more and more enthused about this gospel and church.. she is getting excited for her baptism coming up.. she doesn't retain everything that we say, so we have to review a bit, so there are question marks about the 18th if that will go through or not on that day, but for sure she is getting baptized this month.. I'm so happy for her, I love that woman so much!  Every wednesday we have what we call "Portia day" where Portia our member friend who always comes on joint teach with Ama, she cooks for us, and makes us ghanian food.. but this wednesday we told her she has done so much for us, were going to cook for her!  And also Ama is planning on coming, so were going to make them a true blue american meal.. good thing my companion can remember what a true american meal is =P ha ha But I'm excited, just a good feeling when you serve people!  

And Rosa.. oh wow, had some really neat lessens with her this past week.. she is the cleaning lady for another member that we visit, his name is george, and so past week is when we were finally able to teach her, and wow.. some powerful lessens!  She said that she had been feeling down the whole week, but when we went over and started talking to her, she felt peace.. we had another appiontment on saturday, but she had to call it off because of family issues, but she called us, and said how much she really wanted us to come over, and so we suprised visited her yesterday and had just a wonderful visit!  She is on board for sure about learning about the church.. I'm excited to see where it goes with her, but I have a very strong feeling that she will get baptized, she's prepared, just when is the question.. I would love and pray that she does before I leave, but if not, that's okay, I'm just super grateful that I have the chance to teach her.. maybe she'll be ready by the 15th of september, when mom and dad come.. that'd be cool right?  See a baptism while your here ;) But again we'll see.

Other than that, not much more to say.. just livin' the life.. one day at a time.. Thank you all for your emails, they were wonderful and great!  And I look forward to hearing how all your weeks were next week! 

Love your son, bro, and friend

Elder Mohrman

happy new week and almost august...

Hoi Familie! 

Transfers yesterday, and suprise, suprise, I am staying in Den Haag, together with my greenie Elder Van Komen, and the other two hoodlums.. pretty sweet, I like this apartment a lot, and it's cool that we'll all stay the same for my last transfer!  I've made it number 16!  I'm going to stay District Leader, finish in leadership.. didn't really expect to, to be honest, but it happened and i'll do my best!  Crazy.. I was looking at the mission, and I figured out that I have been a missionary the longest over everyone in my mission.. more so even then my mission president!  And all the senior couples.. But I feel good.. Not feeling trunkie at all, no worries there.. hard to be trunkie when I see miracles left and right every day!! 

Ama Kusi.. our ghanian wonder here in Den Haag.. she is doing really, really well.. I have almost no doubt now that she will be baptized and that I will be able to see it.. super excited for her.  She came to church.. on her own!  Huge step, second time now that she's been, and I called later that night, and she answered the phone, and said "Mohrman!  Hello!! I feel happy!!  Thank you Thank you, Thank you! " Sweet old lady.. god is really blessing her with peace and happiness even though she is going through all sorts of trials!  But she's just letting everything roll off her, and looking towards god, and has the faith and knowledge that everything will turn out alright in the end.  Had some powerful lessens this past week.. I forget sometimes when things happened, it feels like I''ve known this lady for a long ol' time but I was looking at my planner for this past transfer and I realized we had only known her for a month!  So much happens in so little time!  But if I repeat stories, I apologize, things are starting to get blurred together with her ;)  But we taught her the plan of salvation this past week.. oh man.. I can honestly say, there is not a better feeling then applying the plan of salvation to someones life.. I had the strongest feeling to shape our lessen on the plan around the fact that her two sisters are passed away.. neatest thing to be able to say to this woman that after this life, she will be with her sisters again.. that her sisters are hearing about the same message of the restoration in the spirit world, as she is now from us.. she started to tear up.. she cried.. spirit was super strong.. She is building her foundation in christ like Helaman 5:12 says.. it's interesting, the anti for african people here in Europe is two times worse than it is actually in Africa.. In ghana the church is growing at a tremendous pace.. and the people are open there to hear the missionaries out.. but the ghanian people here, and other african countries, when they leave they get blasted that much worse with Anti, and it's that much harder to find people who are willing to listen to us.. interesting to see and witness.. the other ghanians are blasting Ama with all sorts of Anti nonsense, and she stands up to them saying, "no the church is good, the church is good" Ah I love this woman!  Her and Portia, our member from Ghana who has helped out so much!  They are two of of the most amazing people I have ever met.. But had other good lessens, she is getting more and more excited, and it was capped off with her coming to church on her own.  So that's the Ama update! Other news, things that happened, tid bits that you might find interesting to read..

We have a few other positive potential investigators, really hoping this lady named Rosa goes places.. she is half spaniard and half dominican.. super cool lady, she is the cleaning lady of a member we visit often, we started talking to her, and we answered a question she had about polygamy.. and then said, if you ever want to talk, that's what we do, and she said, actually I would like that very much.. and gave us all her information without us even asking.. really sweet.. neat spirit about her.. so we'll see what happens.. other things.. I swear, we have the worst bike luck in the world, wé have seen 4 bikes break on us in the past week.. we keep borrowing from the members and then that bike falls apart!  Finally I am riding a purple girls bike, and elder Van Komen was riding a bike without a seat.. oh man, we looked silly.. but he finally got a seat, and i'm returing the purple bike tonight, life and expiriences of a missionary!  The best was last night, were visiting a member, and we hear this loud thunder outside.. we look at each other then at the member and we say, we gotta go, keep in mind we don't have jackets or anything just white shirts and tie's on these goofy looking bikes, and we start pedaling super hard, and we got blasted by the rain.. I mean absolutely blasted.. We looked like two clowns I'm sure, and we made many dutch peoples nights ha ha That happens a lot actually.. getting dumped on.. joys of this place, never know when it's going to rain, and when it's going to be blistering humid heat!  Most of the time you get both in the same day, multiple times! 

But I think I've rambled on enough, thank you all for the wonderful emails, I love you all. 
Tot de volgende week!

Your son, brother, and friend

Elder Mohrman

Hoi Familie!

Hoi familie!

Thank you for all the emails and prayers, saw some wonderful miracles this week.. oh man.. wonderful end to the week!  Are one true positive investigator, Ama.. you all know her story, all know that the previous week we had trouble meeting with her.. well we finally arranged an appointment, we went to a ghanian shop that she's working at for the moment, and when she came out and saw us, she lit up like a light bulb, and came over to us, and gave me and my companion the biggest hugs.. There is no stopping a 50+ year old ghanian lady when she wants to give you a hug =P  ha ha and we proceeded to walk to a nearby park talk to her a bit.. we had our member translator Portia there, and also Portia's friend Esther, who is an investigator for the other elders, and she's also a ghanian track star, has competed in the olympics and everything.. so that's who was all there, and the last time we had met with Ama we had asked her to read 3rd Nephi 11.. she did.. and when I asked what she got from it, or what did she understand she said something that blew me away!!  Think now for a minute about 3 Nephi 11 and what comes to your mind.. for me I think of the savior coming.. think of the destruction.. that sort of thing.. what did Ama get from it, after reading it just one time.. she says "If you accept the gospel of Jesus Christ, you need to be baptized.." I have never heard that before on my mission.. someone getting that out of 3rd nephi 11.. super cool.. we were blown away, and we proceeded to ask how does she feel about that, and she asked the sincere question about how she was already baptized, we read out of 3rd nephi 11 about how Jesus Christ gave the authority to Nephi to bapize.. she accepted it, said she will and wants to be baptized, and we set a date with her for August 18th.. it's just a goal, if she feels ready for that day, and we still need to teach her a lot, and she needs to come to church a couple more times, but I have no doubt in my mind that this lady is getting baptized now.. god has touched her heart, and I'm so grateful that I was able to see it! 

It was pretty cool because during the lessen, I was dominating the speaking aspect, but I stopped and turned to Elder Van Komen and asked him if he wanted to extend the committment, so he was able to do that for the first time on his mission.   It was also pretty cool, because our member Portia and the Investigator, were both baring testimony and helping her with other concerns that she had.. super cool to see.. so we have someone on date again.. and she's really positive.. and we also have been working a lot with the members, and we are starting to see the fruits of our work with them beginning to come forth.. Cool stuff!  Mission is the greatest thing in the world!

LIfe is great, just pluggin' along, seeing things happen, making memories, and I just have a very deep feeling of gratitude for everything.. I'm so grateful for so many things, and I'm really excited for this coming week!  Love you all, wish you all a wonderful week!

Your Son, Bro, and friend

Elder Mohrman

basic week with a great companion

Hoi familie!

Too be honest, not much to report this week on the front of missionary work.. Did have a wonderful appointment with Amma at the beginning of the week, she brought her cousin along, huge blessing that she even met her, different story, but anyways brought her along, we were able to teach her the restoration, and Amma.. bless her heart, Amma bears her testimony to her cousin letting her know this is good, and that even with her situation she has felt happiness these past two weeks since she met us.. super cool.. but then since everything can't go super smoothly, we had three appointments that did not go through with her to close out the week =0  stuff happened, but she's still good, still positive, a little hiccup, that were hopefully going to solve this evening.. hopefully will also be able to set a baptismal date with her.. that would be really nice.. I would like that very much.. so were hoping now for August for her.. Keep her in your prayers, and thanks.. because I know you all have ;)

Other than that, things were SUPER slow this past week.. oh man.. but it's okay, had great visits with some members, and we have things back on track with other investigators.. and just finding the joy in the day to day journey!  Slow weeks happens, just a little annoying when you don't have too many weeks to spare! =P  But on a side note completely away from missionary work, I'm getting a lot better at soccer.. suprise suprise, got the soccer bug bad!  We play every morning with the other two missionaries in our apartment.. so far we haven't lost yet =P  Also playing some ping pong.. representing the family name well don't you worry ;)  So having fun, just need to get some more action going on the missionary front, and it will be paradise here!  Love my new companion, I don't think I've ever talked so deeply about life with anyone before.. well more listen to someone talk so deeply about life before.. he has a story for everything, good guy.. interesting.. but a good guy.. lovin' the members here.. oh man, so many cool people!  Wish I could tell you about them all!  Helped a member get on the path to get her patriarchal blessing that she lost 4 years ago.. seeing the joy on her face when she found out that she'll be able to get a copy of it again.. giving blessings.. ahh.. cool stuff! 

But thanks for all you do!  or the support, for the love,

Have a wonderful week!

Elder Mohrman

Another most excellent week...

Hoi familie! 

Another week, another day, and for sure making memories along the way!  Had a great week.. really great.. not just because we had an awesome saturday at a baseball game, but because god has blessed us so much with people.. finally we have progressing investigators, that I could really see being baptized, top of the list is Amma, our ghanian lady friend.  We had a great week with her, went to the social services place again on Tuesday, just for the final touches so we know, and she knows what she needs to do to get everything under control, and god has really been blessing this lady.. We were able to arrange meeting in a park here in Den Haag with Amma, and also a sister from ghana, same city in fact, and she served has her interpreter.. super amazing lessens, since we were able to get the legality stuff out of the way, or at least bring some comfort in knowing theres a solution, we have been able to focus on the spiritual aspect now, and she's taking off!  Espescially with Portia, the lady from ghana who is translating for us.. great questions, spirit super strong.. and the best thing is, she understands.. she understands our message... at the end of our saturday evening appointment, she asked the question, How do I know?  How do I know if this is the truth, because I was raised Pentecost, and they say there true, and so does all other churches.. we were able to teach prayer, and she lit up, she understood, and we used the book of mormon, and she knows that it's the word of god.. oh man, and then she came to church yesterday!  The member bless her heart, is really taking amma under her wing, and picked her up, and brought her to church.. amma had a great time!  Our mission president and his wife came to church in den haag yesterday, and talking with sister robinson afterwards she said wow, she was glowing.. and she was, turns out that Amma knows all the ghanian members here.. after sacrament meeting all the ghanians came up to her one by one and started talking to her.. she would turn to me and say I know him, or I know her!  super cool.. and then at the very end, the thing that really made me feel just super good and happy, she turned to me and mouthed with a big smile and her thumb up, "i'm happy.. I'm happy" Oh man!  Super cool!!  I'm excited, she can be baptized really soon, especially since she has the time, and the member has the time to meet whenever.. so in the next couple weeks, I'm fully expecting to make even bigger strides with Amma, and she will I imagine have a baptismal date for the end of this month or the very beginning of August.. and you know she'll make her date as well.. wow god has been so good to me on my mission.. I was looking back, and from about this time last year to now, I've always been blessed with at least someone who was seriously preparing for baptism.. just super neat.. I couldn't ask for a better mission then the one that I've been given!   Also this past week, which is also really, really neat, but when I was here the first time around in Den haag, more than a year and a half ago, me and my companion found this girl her name was Irene.. she was super cool, and a spiritual story how we even found her.. well I left and stuff happened so she stopped investigating, but now since I came back and this last week, Able to meet with her again, and invited her to investigate, and she said yes!  Has a big hill to climb naturally, who doesn't, but had a super good feeling about her.. not very often I think you could say you taught someone twice on your mission!  But I've been given the chance, so we'll see where it goes.. ;)  Well.. I love you all, and thank you so much for all your emails.. they are wonderful, and make my day every time!  Really happy to be getting emails from Grandma Mohrman now, she has wonderful insights and thoughts about life! 

Let's see.. trying to think about what else to write.. there's always many things I miss.. but in the moment I panic and get a stupor of thought as I write these emails!  My companion Elder Van Komen, is a wonderful guy, it's ridiculous almost how blessed I've been with companions.. just have been given some awesome guys to work with, Elder Van Komen has a story about everything let me tell ya.. our bike rides are never boring, I think we've talked about everything under the sun already, and were still finding more stuff to talk about!  He's progressing really rapidly, and it's been really fun to see him from day 1 scared, nervous not knowing how to do anything, to this point, where he has more confidence in teaching, and everything.. cool expirience!  I'm happy now that i've been given the chance to train, didn't really want to before =P 

Okay, well I think that's all your going to get out of me for this week, but i love you all, thank you all for everything, And I'll talk to ya in a week! 

Your son, bro, and friend,

Elder Mohrman

July 2, 2012

Hoi Familie! 

First week of the transfer, gedaan!  Time just flies, I feel like I was just here sitting at this turks internet cafe emailing you all, letting you know how things were.. But another week, another week full of memories and stories.. and what an absolutely crazy week we had.. geesh.. had one of the most stressful most intense expiriences I've had so far in my mission.. Let me explain.. I won't do it justice in writing, my companion is a better story teller than me, but I'll do my best!  Earlier in the week I was thinking to myself, what we needed to do as a companionship, what we could do to find more people to teach, since we really didn't have anyone making progression.. and I got this feeling that when we look people up, instead of just biking from one house to the other, to just walk.. it's extremely awkward at least for me, to be riding a bike then stop in front of someone and contact them about the gospel, other missionaries do it very well, me, never got the hang of it.. so got the feeling to just walk then, less awkward, a lot easier to stop people on the street, so I told my companion, and we said we were going to implement it!  Next day we have a great appointment with a girl from the phillipines. she's a member just moved here, and were meeting her in the centrum, and on the way we get off our bikes and start walking, literally in a couple of minutes, this dutch man, walking the other way, shouts "You guys the mormons??" and a big smile on his face, and you know it's not everyday that someone stops us.. so we are about ready to talk about the gospel with this guy, and out of nowhere Folly.. a member here in Den Haag, a crazy intense african member comes up behind us and starts preachin' to this guy.. totally ruins the contact, the opportunity with the man, scared him off.. were just like oh man.. start talking to folly a little bit, but then folly starts talking to this random african man, and before we know it, they were having this gospel discussion, african style, and the two of them were joined by a couple other africans all praising the lord, and talking about christ and there belief in him.. which was different from each other.. when africans go at it, it's crazy.. but at the end of all this, we get 3 potential investigators, so folly came through in the end.. Anyways, so we go to our appointment meet up with this girl, she buys us lunch, it's great wonderful, we then have someone to look up, and so we start walking again, and the second person we have an opportunity to stop, is this african woman, and her face lights up when she sees us.. recognizing her look of recognition we go over there start trying to talk to us, she says she knows us, she's seen us before in Ghana.. we try turning it into the gospel, but randomely she pulls out this piece of paper and asks for directions to the salvation army.. I offer to help her find it, so we type into our phone, find the route and start walking with this woman, who's name is Amma, to this place, we continue starting to talk about the gospel introduced the book of mormon, she loved it, said she was going to read it, and we promised we would get her one in twi, the ghanian language.  We get to the salvation army, we say here it is, going to depart ways, but she asks if we can come in with her.. come to find out, she just got here to Holland on monday, after being in ghana for a year, and when she came back someone had moved all the stuff in her home and changed the locks, so she is without a home.. and so she has been directed to this place because she is "homeless".. she doesn't speak any dutch, and she speaks broken english, so it's even difficult for us to talk with her.. but as were talking to this guy at salvation army, it became very apparent that this lady would not stand a chance in finding out what happened because of the communication barrier, and both sides were not understanding each other, so I served as the mediator, and we found out that she couldn't sleep there, but we had to go to social services and get a pass for her to sleep somewhere else.. so knowing this lady couldn't go alone and do it by herself, we go with her to the social services place, had to talk to these people, about her situation, learned all sorts of more crazy things, and to cut this story short, we then had to go to one bank, then go to another bank, back to another homeless shelter, carrying her luggage all over Den haag, but eventually we got things pretty sorted out, got her a pass to sleep at the place and also a meeting with social services where they'll be able to talk about her situation, and we got sucked into that meeting as well.. but man.. the most hectic two days of my life.. spent 6 1/2 hours with this woman, trying to figure out her life and what happened.. but it was all made worth it in a minute and a half, we set up an appointment with stephen and victoria, stephen is the recent convert from ghana, and they were able to explain to her in Twi all that had happened and what her situation was now.. but as we were ending our meeting with them, I felt like we should share a scripture with this lady, so I shared Alma 7: 11-12 Stephen translated it into twi, and I was able to tell her that everything would be okay, and that Christ knew what she was going through.. pretty powerful, spirit was strong, she was crying, she cried a lot those two days, but these were different tears, these were tears from feeling the spirit.. so we'll see what happens with her.. I know though for a fact, that we were led to this lady to help her through these couple of days.. amazing..

Also have some potential investigators for this coming week, some cool stories, that I wish I had time to share, but things are going well.. the work is slowly, but starting to pick up, and I'm really excited for the next coming of weeks.. I know good things will be happening soon ;) 

Ramone if anyone is wondering, cannot accept what has happened to him, and is in denial of the fact that he can't do things like he did before.. really sad to see, if only he could look at the positives in life, if only he could recognize gods blessings in his life.. but he's struggling, and he's becoming crazy from it.. and we've actually lost contact with him for the past little bit, but we haven't given up on him, we'll see what happens..

Thanks for all your support and love,

Love you all so much!

Elder Mohrman

greetings training with a great Elder :)

Hoi familie!!

You know I told my new companion that you would google him, once they found out who he was, and i was right! =P  Ha ha Elder Van Komen, fresh out of america, fresh in a lot of things.. been a very interesting 5 days.   Definitely see the blessing of getting this opportunity to train, especailly at this stage of my mission.  The most interesting part has been to observe him, and how he handles things that we come across.. the absolute excitement of setting up an appointment, or having a great lessen, to the hardcore dissapointment of when that appointment we set up doesn't go through, or when there not positive in a lessen.. really have seen how important it is to not let the little things get you down.. to just shrug off dissapointments, and just look forward to the coming appointment or day..He's a good guy, has a big heart, powerful testimony, and i'm looking forward to what these 12 weeks with him will have in store for me.. what I'll learn!  Definitely will keep me on my toes!  He is one that likes to ask the questions!  But this past week to give a little more detail, we got back into contact with Ramone the young man in the wheelchair, after not having any contact with him for a couple weeks, found out that he was in jail for those two weeks.. organized everything again for him to come to church again, had a great lessen with his cousin brian, had a great lessen with his uncle leonardo, all three were going to come to church, of course they didn't show, but we have there numbers and addresses, so we'll go look them up pretty soon.. Ramone.. ramone.. going to be one of those roller coaster investigators.. but most of the roller coasters I've been apart of on my mission have been the times where I've seen the most miracles.. so I'm excited it'll be a great challenge for me and Elder Van komen.. Elder Van komen is really great with people, so i'm excited.. good things are going to happen here =)  Other than that, our investigators are dropping like flies.. but that's okay, no feeling of sadness, because we have a lot of good things that will happen soon, I just have that feeling.. which is really nice to have, because to be honest this past week was the worst numbers week i have ever had on my mission.  I think before I would be feeling bad, and being like, man, what in the world am I doing wrong??!  But I don't feel that right now, just.. peace.. were also getting our phillipino fix, set up appointments with all the phillipinos in our ward, so I get to feel like stefi this coming week! 

Bit of sad news, the senior couple that was serving here in Den Haag, the sister, Sister Moore, passed away over the weekend.. she had been really sick, but still really shocking, even more so, because at the Jovo Centrum we were there, and we didn't have anything that night, (appointment fell through)  and instead of just going home, decided to stay and just talk with the moore's just get to know them better, talk about life.. really cool, really neat because sister moore pretty much bore her testimony of how great elder moore was and how supportive he was in her life through all her sicknesses and what not.. and then she passed away that evening.. really glad I followed that feeling to just talk with them, even though most people would of thought that, that would be a waste of time.. had some pretty good appointments with members this past week, just giving support and love, this one brother from nigeria, he is really sick, has to go to the hospital every day, his family is all in nigeria and he has no one here, we have been visiting him, and he is a sport FANATIC.. so funny listening to him talk about sports.. he get's really into it, but it's neat to see how appreciative he is of our visits.. memories for life! 

Love you all so much, thanks for all the emails,

Tot de volgende week!

Elder Mohrman

Another beautiful day in the Netherlands

Hoi familie! 

First news to report, Stephen was baptized this weekend!  Oh man, it was amazing, the spirit was so strong, just a really amazing service.. You couldn't ask for a better service then the one that he got, just super smooth, lots of people came and supported him, really, really cool, after the service, we were sitting in the back arranging everything, and he runs back to us and says "I couldn't wait" and gives me and my companion a big ol hug!  His wife and daughter spoke at his baptism, expressing there joy and happiness that now every member of the family is baptized.. Were going over tonight for an "African feast" with them =) 

Second news, transfers is this wednesday, we heard last night, I get to stay, no suprise, but I lose my companion, and I'm getting a brand spanking new companion.. I'm training =O Thought it wouldn't happen, thought that I would slip under the radar, but they got me!  Oh well, new challenge, new expirience, so looking forward to it.. trainings last 12 weeks.. I have, as it just so happens, 12 weeks, so this will probably most likely be my last companion.. craziness.. but i'm really happy with the work right now, we have some people that could really progress, and they have already started the journey, going to try and help this one man, his name is Angelo stop with weed.. he's been addicted since he was 11.. going to be probably the hardest person to teach on my entire mission, but he's willing, and he's asking us for help.. it should be interesting.. Never really had to help people stop a hardcore addiction..  We have some other people who should be getting back on the radar, Fang, our chinese friend, has already said that he wants to be baptized, but we haven't had contact with him for a couple of weeks because he's been writing a thesis paper.. but now that should be done, and hopefully we'll be able to get him prepared pretty quickly.. thanks for all the support and love, This is going to be an exciting transfer! 

Love your faces,

Elder Mohrman

Another brand new week

Hoi familie!! 

Thanks for all the emails, great to know what's going on with everyones life!!  This past week was a very busy week, filled with all sort of great, wonderful, and even humorous things.. we were extremely busy with many appointments, and the best news from this past week is that Stephen is going to be baptized this coming saturday.  Really excited, him and his whole family is really excited about it.  A couple other investigators who fell of the radar, came back on, and also on the flip side, a couple of investigators that were doing really well, fell off.. so another great week, and really looking forward to this coming week, it's going to be jam packed, with exchanges, and a mission conference, where our mission president will say goodbye to us all, so yes, if you have any questions about life over here, please feel free to ask them!  Right now is the european championship (soccer)  It is massive here, and everyone is going crazy, orange everywhere, doesn't matter who you are, everyone is stoked about it.. i've never seen so much pride in a team before in my life.. sad thing is though that netherlands who were highly favored to win lost there first game, and now everyone is a little depressed.. interesting how missionary work will be effected because of a sporting event!  So we have also been visiting and offering support to a lot of different people, recent converts, and what not, and it just never gets old developing relationships with people, getting to know them, understanding what makes them tick..

Well I love you all, i'll hopefully have the chance to send pics of the baptism next week, if not, you'll see it soon enough =P 
Love your faces!

Elder Mohrman