Den Haag... Week 2

Goedemiddag familie!
I hope your all enjoying all your new goodies you received during christmas =P Words cannot describe how great it was to be able to talk with you all. It was great to be able to just explain my experiences I've had in greater detail, and to answer questions about what's going on with my life right now. Hope that you asked most of the questions that was on your minds.. hope so.. but probably not.. It's sad that we don't get more time to be able to talk.. there's just so much to say about what I"m experiencing here.. and also what you all are experiencing back home.. that was one thing I wish we talked more about.. what's going in ya'lls life!!!! It's all good though.. you all don't have a time limit on emails.. so you can put more detail into the emails you ALL send me =)))
Hmm.. let's see.. Yesterday, My companion and I were able to go over to one of our investigators home who has been sick for a long time and give a healing blessing to her.. It was a really neat experience, I annointed, then Elder Hawkley gave the blessing.. right after the blessing, this feeling of peace was over her face, and she said that she was feeling a lot better, and that the pain that she had been feeling was going away.. it was pretty remarkable, I've never seen a blessing work instantaneous like that before.. I really didn't know what to think to be honest.. I just knew that I had been a part of a miracle.. so yeah.. that experience went into the good ol' journal =D I've been so blessed to have seen and experienced the things I have so far on my mission. The apartment is awesome, it's really easy to learn when you have two zone leaders and a district leader in your apartment =) Also last night we went over at a family, and ate an incredibly delicious meal.. we got to cook our own meat on this grill.. it was like a miniture tepenyaki or something.. pretty cool..It was a good day that is for sure =D,

My new address is
Benschoplaan 42
RJ 2546
Den Haag
Nederland

Thank you all again for everything, you all are the best =)
Love Elder Mohrman

P.S Wish the best to all those who has sent me stuff if ya will.. that'd be nice..
Love ya loads

*drum roll.......... Den Haag Week 1!

Hallo Familie!
Hope alles is goed met jullie!! After 5 weeks out in the field I am no longer a greenie!! However I"ve been kicked out of my first city too =0 I am now in Den Haag.. so not too bad.. serving in the two biggest cities in the mission right from the get go =) Den Haag is the only other 4 man apartment, and my roomies are the Zone Leaders.. pretty cool.. and then My new collega is Elder Hawkley, and he is the district leader.. pretty sweet people in the apartment.. it's going to be an amazing transfer I'm thinking =).. Little about my companion, he is in the marine core.. been out.. I don't know.. 8-9 months maybe.. but hard worker, and I'm expecting to do some awesome things with him.. at least that's the plan!! I do like Den Haag, it has the most functional ward in the Netherlands I've been told.. and that's meaning the biggest.. ýesterday there wasn't too many people because we are like getting record coldness and snowness.. and all sorts of miserableness..=( Unlike Amsterdam, I'm now on a bike.. didn't have to buy one.. my collega had one for me, but wow.... I can't even believe this.. I'm so sore! Biking in the snow is HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh man.. but hey.. still having a good attitude =) Umm.. so christmas, I would like you guys to call me at 9:30 a.m your time.. I think that will be 5:30 my time.. you can call that and yeah.. we'll talk or somethin' =)
Just before I end I wanted to share an experience my last day in Amsterdam.. Elder de Meester and I had appointments fall through so we were trying to figure out what to do.. he asked me what I wanted to or felt like we should do, and the first person that came to my mind was this older lady we had met my second or third week out.. non member, but has a couple of kids in the church.. in a messed up situation but she loves the missionaries and since we hadn't visited in a while, i felt like we should go do that.. when we got there we knocked on the door, she answered and she looked really pale.. and sickly.. and we were able to visit a little bit.. Elder de meester was helping her boyfriend set up some christmas lights so that left me just talking with the woman.. she said how she's been going through a rough point with her health, and really just been thinking about us lately, but she couldn't call us to visit because she had lost her card with our number.. And she told me that she prayed last night that we would come, and then we did.. it was pretty incredible.. I didn't feel like that when I thought of her name to go visit that it was the holy ghost or anything, I just felt like, well she's close by the church why not.. but now I know that it was the holy ghost.. that lead us there.. we were able to give her a blessing of comfort, and we promised that we''d return.. I'm hoping I get the chance to go back to amsterdam sometime so I can visit her again.. she's just a sweet old lady who loves the missionary's.. Anyways that was the cool experience (ervaring) of the week.. first transfer.. really not to hectic for me, but for others it was because of all the snow.. the greeenies were delayed coming and so we had 7 missionary's sleeping in the den haag apartment because all the trains shut down.. crazy fun stuff =) It was nice being able to see so many of my youngers from the mtc.. 4 of them are in my zone, and two in my district,.. A sister, sister hill is in Den Haag, yesterday actually because her companion was sick, Elder Hawkley and I were able to take her out street contacting for her first time.. it was fun to see her face but it was really fun to see her get a mans number.. I think it was a good expirience for her..
Oh and I got 3 packages right before I left..I got the mac and cheese (delicious!!!) and what not.. but i don't know how many packages you sent.. oh and the mint hot chocolate is a amazing also, after a hard day of bike riding, there's nothing better then stephens mint hot chocolate =)

Ik hou van Jullie met mijn hele hart!!!

Tot Kerst!

-Elder Mohrman

Amsterdam week 5 :)

Goededag mijn familie!!

Hope alles is goed met jullie!! What a interesting busy week that I just had. Christmas.. Got to love it.. Love it more with Family.. but hey.. it's all good =) On Tuesday we did a Christmas Concert type thing for the stake of Den Haag. THe missionary's of my zone put it on, so I got to sing in another choir, just all the missionary's sang in it, so taht was pretty legit =) Elder Osmond is the one that put it together, and it was a really well done concert, different people had solo's and duets and quartets and all sorts of fun musical terms! It was a great time, kinda cool too that night, my companion Elder De Meester received a letter informing him that he might be training again.. that would be 3 straight greenies, and 4 overall.. crazy.. I don't know what that poor Elder did to get so many greenies.. ha ha But what that means, is Í'll be getting a new companion.. Me or Him will be leaving Amsterdam, and I will no longer be a greenie.. pretty crazy stuff.. time flies on a mission.. no.. let me correct that.. Time flies out in the field on a mission! MTC was slow.. Anyways, transfers are this friday.. so I could be in a new city for christmas.. or I might still be in Amsterdam.. I don't know.. so next week I'll let you know when you call.. and all that fun awesome stuff.. Really looking forward to talking with the family. So much to say, but so little time.. What I have been thinking, all these wonderful emails that I get from you all and I never respond to any of your wonderful questions ha ha =0 write them down, then when you call we can cover everything! Anyways I thought that was a good plan.. maybe not.. haven't given it too much thought to be honest because I've been thinking of transfers and what not.. We should find out tonight what's up.. or tomorrow night at the latest. so sorry.. no update til next week.. Íf I'm in a new city you'll know by my subject title in next week's email ;)
So I guess the sales here are in January and at the end of summer.. so I've decided to buy a sharp looking European suit in January.. hopefully at least.. that's the plan.. My two that I got before are still fine.. although in the MTC I did lose a pair to my black suit.. and then my third one is pretty trashed, and it's pretty tight on me.. I think i'm growing.. outwards =0 Well I went shopping for you all last week trying to think of what in the world I could get you all.. but I failed.. so this week, me and Elder De Meester went shopping with the sisters in Amsterdam! Sister Holbein who is from Kentucky, and Sister Kraemer, who, yeah I know very well.. I figured they'd be able to help best what to pick out for you all.. since most of you are females.. but unfortunately failed again.. so no package from me for christmas.. sorry.. maybe you'll get a random one in march or something that says merry christmas.. the hard part is, I want to get you all something meaningful that would be useful to you all.. but something that is uniquely dutch.. ahh well.. today I bought a couple of flags, the amsterdam flag, and the belgium flag.. figured I can buy the netherlands one later...
and for my fun experience for the week, On saturday Elder De Meester and I were invited by these two islamic guys (about our age) to go talk religion with them and they said they'll be other christian faiths there and some athiests and we can just share what we believe and visa versa and just have a healthy discussion on religion.. well we thought that was awesome.. chance for us to share our story with all them, so we of course took them up on there offer.. when we went to the place however, it was only us.. and 8 muslims all decked out in there robes and everything.. and a couple of there intents were solely on converting us to islam.. so they asked us all sorts of questions (all in dutch) so I really didn't understand.. and they tried to reason with us how the christianity is false because the bible has faults in it.. Anyways.. they said a lot of interesting stuff.. and I really didn't participate because well I couldn't understand much.. so I kinda had a side conversation with another guy, and I was able to share my testimony and what not so that was good.. but the funny thing was.. There whole approach was attacking christianity.. attacking what we believe, and ""proving"" that it wasn't true.. too bad for them they had never talked with Mormons before, because we whipped out the Book of Mormon, and told them our articles of faith, and how we believe in the bible as long as it's translated correctly, and after that they really didn't have any ground to bash us with, because all there points we agreed with for the most part.. And I kept telling the guy that I was talking too that this was silly to talk about this, because there asking questions to us about things they wouldn't understand if we gave them the answer because they don't know the background behind it.. So him and his other friend, said that they would love to talk with us again, and we'll be able to tell our whole story "lessons" and then we'll be able to talk.. it was a pretty interesting experience.. And after it was all over, and even during, I just got this warm feeling in my chest that yeah.. I know this church is true.
So to close this week's email I just want to leave you my little testimony.. that I know this church is true.. I know, that Jesus Christ was the savior of the world, and I know that his gospel his truth was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. That we have evidence of this because of the Book of Mormon, the most correct book of any on earth. And that God still speaks to man today through his prophet and apostles..
Love you all,
Tot Ziens

--Elder Mohrman

:)

Hello Family!
This is is going to be extremely short, and i apologize for that! But
due to mismanagement of time, we ended not being able to do normal
email time.!! But luckily we have an awesome senior couple here in
amsterdam that is letting us use there lap top to send a quick note,
so you don't think we died or something!! All is good. This week
was a little slow, but that as really I think because of the cold
weather were having. Record coldness here.. yeah.. it's wonderful =0
But everything is just getting better and better, understanding little
by little more dutch, and my companion and the other elders I'm living
with are awesome. We did this last week get to eat over at member's
homes it was really neat, one family is from Idaho, who are now living
here.. another family we ate with was an older couple named the
Janssens, there awesome, they gave me and Elder De Meester Donors..
wow.. those things are amazing, I'm going to get fat on my mission
because of those things!!

I got my first experience with African food, we at at this couples
house from Ghana, and learned some about their culture and food, and I
learned that the ghana people only have 7 names.. one for each day of
the week. So uncle kwame.. he was born on saturday =) I was born on
Tuesday.. but I forget my name.. but it was really cool experience..
how they eat though, they don't eat with utensils.. just your hands..
I got some pics, so it's pretty funny =)

Love ya loads, sorry this was short, and i ran out of time
Elder Mohrman

Amsterdam...week 3!

I definitely notice a difference from time here out in the mission field and time in the mtc.. in the mtc it seemed slow.. it dragged on forever.. here.. days are fast.. we are constantly going back and forth all over the city, and wow three weeks are already gone! Crazy stuff.. I don't have many cool stories this week.. so I'm going to try and answer some questions you all have been sending me.. I don't have a bike yet.. My companion broke his bike a couple days before I got here, but even before that he never rode his bike.. so we ride the bus and metro system.. I wish I could ride a bike, I think it'd be awesome, seeing the scenery and what not, but this is really one of the few cities in the mission that you can survive without a bike.. so yeah no bike yet! My companion he's from Seattle Washington.. like you have already found out, I"m the third person he has trained, the companion he had before me was a greenie also, so he's gotten back to back greenies, and now with 8 new elders coming in, who knows could get a third straight as well!!

Transfers are coming up, I hope I stay, I want to be able to get to know the city beter, know the ward members better as well.. there's a lot of amazing people, but curse my personality, it takes me a little bit to get used to and open up and become good friends with people =P No worries though, I feel more comfortable every day I'm here! I hope you all had a blast for thanksgiving.. We had kinda a thanksgiving meal the night before, and then on thanksgiving day we ate the leftovers of that meal.. so nothing special or anything but it was still nice to eat turkey and pumpkin pie, and talk about america with the elders here in amsterdam. We also had our first church service in the church yesterday, the previous two weeks had been in a school because of mold problems in the church.. so that was nice also.. just something about having church in a dedicated building that makes it feel better ya know? =) I said the closing prayer.. said a whole bunch of stuff, hoped it made sense, but I"m really just trying to speak as much as I can.. I've gotten over the initial fear of talking to people.. and I've had some good conversations with people on the bus and metro and what not.. problem is.. not about the gospel.. so that's something that I'm trying to work on.. harder than you would think! But I was reading in 3rd Nephi chapter something (don't remember =P) and the verse said that members of his church are lions among sheep.. so I say that to myself whenever I start feeling.. umm.. overwhelmed? Not a good word but oh well.. it helps.. the fear leaves, and that's actually how I've been getting the confidence to start talking to people and try and start conversations.
I got to go.. times up but I love everyone, know that your emails and letters make my day, I'm in amsterdam in europe and the thing I look forward to every week is hearing about all of ya'lls lives and what's happening with them.. I'm being honest when I say that, and it's hard to believe me since I rarely write anyone else besides this general email!! But believe me =)
Love you all
--Elder Mohrman

Amsterdam... Week 2 =)

Goededag mijn familie!

I apologize for the last week email, didn't really give any good details and didn't realize I would be extremely rushed! I get too distracted reading up on everyone else's life that I forget to share about mine!! ;) Well I have about 15 minutes to write this probably will take less time so I can get back to the emails however. ha ha okay so just a couple of quick experiences from last week when I got here and then I'll tell you about some this week.

My first day here in Amsterdam I got to the apartment which is actually pretty good size.. and then we were off me and Elder De Meester to my very first "real" lesson to an investigator.. her name is Glady's she was a former model and actually now is building up another modeling agency.. so pretty interesting stuff with her, she's a surinamer but she was raised in the Netherlands, anyways it was also the first lesson that she was being taught by the missionary's. Wow.. it was quite the expirience.. we taught about the first lesson, so the restoration of the gospel, about joseph smith and what not, as the lessen begins, I'm jet lagged a little, I'm nervous since it's my first lessen and to top it off it's all in dutch, and everyone's speaking super fast and I can't understand anything! Needless to say.. I didn't speak much =) Elder de Meester taught the bulk of it, and when we got to the joseph smith story he let me give the first vision in dutch.. (first time also =P) anyways the spirit was strong there, really strong, and she teared up a couple of times. At the end Elder De Meester asked her if she would say the closing prayer, she was hesitant and tried to get out of it saying she didn't know how, and she never has before, but Elder De meester kept prodding and asking, and I even felt prompted to say, that you need to start somewhere and likened it to me speaking dutch, I have to speak to get better and what not.. and long story short she said the prayer and the holy ghost was strong and powerful and present, and it was just an amazing way to kick off my mission ;) Next lessen that night was much of the same, but I was still able to bear my testimony and the spirit was there and just a really good first day! Okay that's what I wanted to say in the last weeks email.
Now for this week

A couple of expierences from this past week, we were on a train heading down to the southern part of Amsteradam, and one of our goals is to contact 20 people as a companionship, this was on Friday, so we really tried to take your commitments to heart and accomplish this. I was sitting apart from Elder De Meester and the guy sitting by me already gave me the cold shoulder so I was left to sit and think.. Elder De meester was having a really good contact with this girl and her father from china I think.. sitting across from them and listening in to the conversation was a an older dutch man probably around 75 ish. Elder De Meester started telling the girl what we believe, bared his testimony about there is a modern day prophet and apostles just like there were back in the times of Christ, and they speak and talk with God and Jesus Christ today. As Elder De Meester was saying this the Dutch Man, was smirking and laughing a little bit. Just a typical reaction from someone who is set in his ways and not searching for the truth. But as Elder De Meester continued on, explaining about Joseph Smith, explaining about how he saw God the Father and his son Jesus Christ when He prayed to find out for himself, I could see a change come on this man. He stopped smirking and he started thinking.. I wish I could explain it better because the change in his demeanor was drastically different.. as Elder De meester kept talking you could see he started thinking about things.. started thinking about what was being said, and you could see he was feeling the Holy Ghost touch him. Elder De Meester wasn’t speaking to this man, in fact he didn’t even know he was listening in to the conversation. But the holy ghost testified to him of the truthfulness of what was being said nevertheless. It was a neat expirieince for me to see. Here was a man with a wall built up about god, about religion, and to see the Holy Ghost still touch him and work on him in a way that he probably hasn’t felt before. The lesson I took from this was just a reinforcement to what everyone has been telling me while I’ve been on my mission, you need to have the holy ghost with you at all times, because the Holy Ghost is the true teacher, the true person that will get a person to stop and think and ponder.. It was a little thing that happened that I witnessed, I didn’t even get to talk to the man, and bear my testimony as I was feeling that I should do. He got off at the next stop, but as he got off and he walked off, I could still see in his face a change, a subdued look.. wow I can’t really describe it but I hope you know what I mean. After that we got off the train, taught pretty much the entire first lesson on the street to a lady a lesson that both me and Elder De Meester gave and one that I didn’t realize was in dutch until after it was over, because I had understood everything and truly thought it was in english, got to see the gift of tongues in action with me for the first time.. that was a blessing as well and then when we finally got to our actual appointment we were able to set a baptism date with the lady.. It was a pretty incredible string of events that happened.

Love you all, Elder Mohrman

Amsterdam.. Week 1 =P

Goede middag van Amsterdam mijn familie!!

It's weird.. not going to lie, I"m sitting in a library in amsterdam right now.. about the 6th story, by a window looking out at the city.. it's amazing =) Hopefully my pictures will justify this city! Europe.. well.. all I can say is.. it's not America.. not even close.. they have a lot of the same stuff.. there modern, there civilized, but wow.. different.
Plane ride over here, there was nobody that sat by me.. I had a whole row to myself.. the row in front of me and the row in back of me and the row across from me were all empty.. it was insane.. I got a lot of personal thinking time in.. not much though happened.. I slept a little bit.. read a little bit.. slept.. really uneventful long boring flight =0 Although I did hear my first real dutch being spoken! And I actually recognized it as dutch too!! Didn't know what was said.. but it was dutch!! =)
First day I got here in europe I don't even remember what was going through my head.. it's kinda a blur really.. I met Pres. and sister Brubaker for the first time, (eventually) took a while for us to find each other in the airport.. but it's okay, the lord looked out for me and I met a member from utah visiting Belgium, and I walked with him out to customs and the baggage area, so that was blessing.. went to the mission office, and filled out and went over a bunch of different papers and what not.. had dinner at a greek resturant with the mission assistants.. that was pretty fun and interesting, went back to the mission home then.. and got to open my call to see where I was serving! 'Kinda cool to finally have that moment of opening a mission letter.. since I wasn't able to with my original one.. =P But I got my call to the city of Amsterdam.. so starting off in the most well known city of all of netherlands right from the get go =) My companion or trainor is named Elder de Meester.. which means in dutch "the master" He's great, been really helpful to me, and we get along really great! In amsterdam there is 4 elders and two sisters, so our apartment is a 4 man.. the other two elders elder mccarlie? and elder Garrett both are great as well.. definitely 'having a lot of fun with them ;)
This email is kinda boring and I apologize for that, I didn't really prepare what I wanted to say
Gotta go
Love Elder Mohrman

Elder Mohrman arrived in Brussels :)

Email family received in the wee hours of the morning...

Hello,



I just wanted to email you and let you know of the safe arrival of Elder Mohrman in Brussels this morning. There is a nice lunch at the mission home planned for him, followed by a short nap (to help overcome jetlag). After that he’ll be heading to the Brussels town square to do contacting with the Assistants and enjoy some authentic European food. He’ll be staying in Brussels tonight and heading off to his first city tomorrow morning. He’ll be serving in Amsterdam with Elder De Meester as his companion. All mail can be sent to his apartment there. The address is:



Jesse Owenshof 38

1034 WT Amsterdam

Nederland



I’ve also attached a few photos of Elder Mohrman with President and Sister Brubaker. Please let me know if you have any questions or if I can do anything more to help you.



Elder Marshall

Mission Secretary

87 Boulevard Brand Whitlock

1200 Brussels

BELGIUM

Week 8

Goedemiddag mijn familie!!

this is the last email you will receive from me from america! Pretty crazy to think about. Last thursday I received my flight plans, and I leave on monday! I report to the travel office at 6.. so probably leave 15 minutes after that, and then on my way to another country! That's all fun and dandy, and really exciting, can't even express to you all how excited I am to be leaving.. a little bit of a twist, I am going to be traveling the whole way by myself.. that should be interesting, haven't ever traveled by myself in my life, now I get to go half way around the world, by myself.. should be umm.. interesting.. not going to lie, I'm going to be scared out of my mind!! Probably not to atlanta.. and even from atlanta the first part will be okay.. but half way through that flight, it'll probably hit.. then it's going to be nuts.. going to be interesting to see if I can get any sleep on the flight, I'm going to be so pumped up, I may not!! I dunno, I've been trying hard not to think about it, and it really hasn't set in yet that I am finally leaving.. it was sad I tried to imagine myself walking down a street by the mtc... I couldn't.. That's when I knew I'd been here too long!!

But everything is going great, language is well.. language.. always a work in progress.. sometimes I can speak, other times I can't.. but always learning, always growing so pretty happy about that. I have noticed now that sister kraemer is gone, that my speaking really hasn't improved that much (probably has but I don't see it) but my reading and understanding has improved drastically.. especially the reading, it was pretty cool the other day I started to read out of one of the pamphlets that I've never read out of before and without realizing it I was understanding everything that I was reading!!

The new Dutchees are also pretty cool, Elder White did end up going home, so it's down to 8 elders and 2 sisters, there dutch is improving pretty rapidly as well which also helps me out as well.. It's crazy being the "old one" I've been here the longest in my part of the MTC, so for zone activities, they've been having me help teach ther newer ones, and also give spiritual thoughts.. I teach the other dutchees a lot as well.. it's sometimes a drag, but I really see how teaching is the best way for a person to learn, the grammar principles although still difficult for me to use when speaking I have a pretty good grasp of them now, and that's why my reading and listening has improved so much.

So two weeks ago just a reminder, I had the privilege to see Elder Nelson.. Last week the privilege to see Elder Richard G. Scott.. Last night.. Elder Ballard. Absolutely amazing, after having the fear that I would miss out on seeing ANY apostles, I ended my stay here at the MTC with three straight =) Last night was amazing too, Elder Ballard gave some really good advice and council, and I have a lot of material and notes that I get to review on the plane ride over! I sang in the choir again last night, this time I went to the sunday rehersal so I actually new the song when we were singing it.. I've made pretty good friends with the elders going to Iceland, so there the ones that pushed me into going.. really glad I did.. Song was great, and not only that but both times I've sung in the choir, it was too an apostle.. can't beat that right?? ;)

Also another really cool powerful moment, we knew it was an apostle because the conductor said that we only stand for the brethren of the twelve.. (dead give away) so were all excited and waiting to see who it is, we sing three songs before we start the devotional, and we just finished the first one, then we start the second one and it's praise to the man.. oh man I thought to myself this devotional is made for me.. what a way to be sent out.. hear an apostle for the third straight time, and get to hear my favorite hymn sung by 2,500 missionary's.. but it get's better.. as were singing Praise to the man, that's when Elder Ballard walks in, so were all standing and singing, and he stays standing to the end of the song, and we were about half way done when he walked in.. it was powerful.. As I progress here at the MTC I'm starting to recognize the spirit in my life more and more.. but this time.. it was unmistakable.. so powerful, like a fire in my chest, and especially singing the words standing for an apostle of the lord, "millions shall no brother Joseph again".. can't describe it.. And I wish I could read over this paragraph.. because it probably doesn't make sense.. but I just wanted to share with you a moment I felt during a pretty remarkable night..
Also in the night we go and have a district meeting ( I join with other districts.. since well.. it's only me in mine =P ) and we bore our testimonies and how we got ours.. it was just amazing.. from last weeks devotional Elder Scott told us every time to write down when we feel the spirit in our lives so I bought a journal for my "spiritual guidance" moments.. it's not too full.. but every time I get to put a entry in it, it's amazing, and I just realize how blessed I am..
Well tot ziens family and friends, thank you all for all your prayers, and letters and packages, I made sure to write everyone who sent me a letter back.. so hopefully you all receive the letters.. I sent out a bunch today, and if not.. realize you were thought of.. and just the mail messed up!!
Love you much,
and succes met leven,
-- Elder Mohrman..

Week 7

Goededag!!

So i'm going to just get right into the this email, I tried something new today.. as a result.. I lost a whole bunch of time with my email, I only have 17 minutes to write, so keep that in mind as this is going to be really rushed! Lesson learned.. Never try to beat the system =P

Okay so last week I had said was able to sing in the choir for Elder Neilson, this week!! didn't sing in the choir, instead I chose to go for good seats and ended up 10-11 rows from the pulpit.. the speaker.. Elder Richard G. Scott.. yeah.. After having the fear and the dread of maybe not seeing an apostle at all during my stay here, I now have seen two in a row. last night was amazing, Elder Scott talked on how we can recognize, and follow the holy ghost in our lives, referred to it as spiritual guidance. It was an amazing talk, and the really cool thing is all the bullet points that he went over he had the MTC president give every single missionary a copy of it.. that never happens here or at least I've been told, so it's extremely rare, the copy centers have big signs saying sorry that can't and won't copy the document, there's a big old church copright symbol on it, so it's pretty legit!! But even with how good the talk was, and the points and all that, I just have to say Elder Scott is an amazing man. The coolest most spiritual parts of his talk were when he used his apostle power and gave 3 different apostletic blessings. One to the sisters so that they would have a shield of protection. One to the missionary's learning a language, that we will have the gift of tongues according to our faith, and then the last one was his closing remarks, he said as an apostle of the lord, not as Elder Scott I want to let you know that I Know.. Jesus Christ lives, He is my friend, he knows me and he knows you and his love for us in unimaginable. Pretty amazing, I have never felt the spirit so strong during my stay here at the MTC, so that means my whole life. It was a great way to cap off a most interesting week. He also talked about how spiritual guidance can be so personal its equivelant to a patriarthical blessing, so that's really cool about pettite sassou, if you could tell her congrats for me, that's a really neat step in her life.

New Dutchees, nine elders, two sisters, most of the elders have german base, so it's funny trying to listen to them speak dutch with there german accents. One elder is actually fluent in German, so pretty interesting group, after being gun shy the first couple of days, they have opened up and I've been able to get to know a lot of them, there going to be a great group,

And sister Kraemer is gone, she left early this morning, she was pretty excited to finally leave. So I am now tied for the smallest district EVER in the history of the MTC.. pretty cool huh ;) However, they just hired a new dutch teacher, so he'll be teaching with me a lot, so that'll be a pretty cool experience, I've had the opportunity to teach with a few return missionary's, and it's just an amazing experience. so I"m excited about that. My whole focus and push is to become a better teacher before I leave. I know that the language will come, and especially now I just need to have faith.. so yeah..
Another cool little story that happened, finally met Elder Mondragson, he is the elder that received my call. I guess he had been looking for me the whole time, and now that there's a whole bunch of new dutchees he stood by one of the sisters in line, found out where she was going, made the connection and me and him had a pretty cool little chat about it all. He's going to Tawain or however you spell that.. but yeah pretty cool to hear the story straight from him. Well so much to say so little time, it's kinda nice to be at the point where I won't have to see missionary's come in and then leave, saw my last english district leave this morning, some great elders, they actually came and knocked at my room at 5 in the morning to say goodbye, so still making a lot of new friends, one elder, who left on monday going to Norway, has become a really good friend and he slipped a little letter under my door before he left, I thought that was pretty cool, and neat. So everything is going great.. Keep me in your prayers, and I really appreciate all the letters and emails.. I read all the emails, so that's why this email is a mess, but they mean a lot

For the browns, my mailbox number is 206 =P
Okay tot ziens, and I'll be sending a letter also to finish up what I had to say.
Love you parents and family and whoever else reads this,
Elder Joseph V. Mohrman

Week 6

Dag mijn familie!

Another week has indeed come and gone.. and what a crazy week it was! Do want to ask if you'll tell the Bjarnsons thank you for me.. I didn't have an address to send them a thank you, so my thank you I guess will need to come through you!

But yesterday, it finally happened.. We got an apostle for a devotional! Elder Russel M. Nelson came and spoke to us, and obviously we didn't know until he walked in, but since I missed out on singing in the priesthood choir, I've been wanting to try out the MTC choir.. so I did.. I went to it yesterday, learned the song (choir is nuts by the way, they never breath I swear!!) So I got too be in the choir and sing to an apostle.. it was pretty neat to say the least ;) Elder Nelson gave some awesome comments on how to be when you meet someone, always make eye contact, listen to names, really be focused and always have a smile on your face, he said to let people know that your excited to be there, and excited about what your doing. I really liked that.

Heading from the devotional to our room we had to wait by the door where all the missionary's exit out of, and as missionary's walk by, they look at the name tag (I was with an elder going to iceland) so we got a lot of comments about where were going and what not, one elder though stopped and said "Mohrman! That's awesome! Are you related to the Mohrman who works at the TRC?" I said I was, and thought it was pretty cool, that my mom has fame here at the MTC ;)

I've been making lots and lots of new friends. It sure seems like every Elder I meet that is in my branch, or in my hall, there great guys who I click with. I've been getting good friends with my companions and the other two danes, and becoming better friends with icelandic missionary's.. Norwegians.. Swedish.. English in our branch, so it's pretty neat to see this wide variety of people, and always have something in common with them. I've seen Brett a couple of times, I waited for him when he came in last wednesday.. forgot to tell you that, got a couple pics with him, but I really don't see him much.. Haven't been seeing much of anyone lately it seems like.. Have seen Spencer Turnbow, that was nice, he leaves next tuesday.. Which is also the day that Sister Kraemer leaves!!

Thank you very much for the packages, and all the letters from people I sent off a bunch of letters today, and still have a couple I need to write to Kim and Tiffani! But just to let you know, if I ran out of time on my p-day thank you =)

This week at the TRC we were able to teach an actual dutch man. He is on vacation. I guess he has gone on missionary splits every single week for the past 30 years or so, and all the missionary's that he's touched paid for him to come to utah for a couple months this summer.. pretty cool too meet him.. however.. wow. Dutch do not have the same sense of humor as americans.. In fact I've met a couple of dutch people, one elder is from the netherlands and he's going to hungary (exact opposite of sis kraemer, yeah.. pretty ironic =P)

Language wow.. it.. was going good.. now I don't feel so good about it. I've been trying to memorize the AofF.. but found out I really need to do more with vocabulary.. I have no vocab really to teach or really speak conversation wise, so I felt my first feelings of being overwhelmed.. it was silly though, because I've been teaching in Dutch.. and actually participating and what not.. I just panic.. did learn how to say that in Dutch so I'm all set!! =)

But yeah, I have my struggles, I work through them, just so you don't think life is all good with me =) But I am learning a lot.. I am growing a lot.. read Alma 32 the other day, it's an amazing chapter spent two days going through and marking it all up, getting both personal and teaching things out of it.

New dutchees are here.. kinda nice to be the "older district" =) Should really help my speaking a bunch!!!
There's 9 elders and 2 sisters.. two brazilians that were supposed to come didn't get there visa's.. it's a mess with that situation, but that's all good.. pretty good size district.. looks like they'll have there own district too, so I'm still a solo member of my district!! =)
Ik hou van jullie!

Tot ziens

--Elder Joseph V. Mohrman

Week 5

Goededag familie!!
so pretty cool, a missionary going to San Antonio texas had about ten minutes left on his email, and let me check my email with it.. got to read all the emails so I get to dedicate the entire 30 minutes to this email!! Hope it's interesting =P

So first of all an update with the mtc, my "teaching partner" sister kraemer has been informed as of yesterday that she will be leaving the MTC early. As early as today. (guess not now) but probably next week she'll be on her way to the mission field. Pretty exciting for her.. pretty crazy at the same time. Last week was when I got wind of it, and I had overheard some conversations with her and our teachers and asked her about it. She was asked if she wanted to by our teacher Bro Bond, and of course she excepted. I'm happy for her, she wasn't getting as much being here, ha ha sad as it is to say, I'm a little bit of a hinderence =) but in a good way of course. Kinda crazy to think though that i'll be a true solo though.. no classroom companion, no one at my "level" kinda to speak too.. TRC is going to be interesting and so is class.. I guess I'm going to really have to focus on areas of the language that I can improve on, like memorizing scriptures, reading.. that sort of thing, because my speaking is going to take a hit!! But it's okay.. kinda worried like I said, but not really.. my whole MTC expirience has been unique so far, so I mean what else can they throw at me to make it even more memorable right? =)

So I guess the cool thing with Sister Kraemer leaving is that I get a blog post entirely dedicated to myself now!! That'll be fun.. can't wait to go and do the contacting by myself.. that'll be quite the expireience.. and also flying.. wow, never been on a trip bymyself ever, and now I'm going to be flying halfway across the world.. alone! looking forward to it though for sure.. it's something..

oh just an update, sister kraemer just walked into the computer lab, and informed me she's leaving in two weeks.. and the other dutch missionary's (all 14 of them) will be here when she leaves.. so won't be too bad.. won't be the only dutch missionary in the MTC =P

I have never in my life worn a V-necked sweater.. I'm a fan. Wore them for the first time this last week, and wow, there comfortable.. Wish I would have taken picking them out more seriously, because that brown one is UGLY!! but the gray one is pretty good.. if you could send me a black V-neck one before I leave that would be just swell! I'm sure dad you can find a good deal on one online.. and if not don't worry about it.. I still have the grey one and the ugly brown one!

I did teach for the first time on monday at the TRC in dutch.. it was quite the expirience.. were lucky that there's a lot of return missionary's at BYU that speak dutch and those are, our investigators there.. this last time we had two RM's who we taught.. the lesson went pretty well. I was worried about it of course leading up to it, but when I'm there, I'm teaching and I'm listening thoughts come into the mind of what to say, and grammatically I'm butchering the languague but I can at least say what I need to say, and they understand what I'm trying to say.. I have so much work to do though.. it's crazy to think about.. those children books are awesome.. I can understand the meaning of pretty much all of it, just certain words get me.. but I guess the major part of the languauge I'm having trouble with, is what to study.. I want to learn vocab, but I never use it, so it's pointless.. I learn vocab as I am in class and use it that way, so in Language study I've been memorizing the Articles of Faith.. I've got the first ten down, so almost done with them.. I've actually been able to use them a little when we teach in class..

So one of the big things that I got out of this week spiritually wise was on monday, I got theletter from you dad, and read about all the mess about what's going on at temple square with the protesting and what not.. the comments about Pres. Packer and I agree it is all stupid the protesting.. and so with that in mind I was reading in alma, chapter 5, and near the end of the chapter, in verse 58, it said something to the effect of "It matters not what you say or do, because the words of god must be fulfilled." and the verses before that was talking about pride, and how there lifted up in there pride.. Pres. Packer, and all the other apostles are speaking the words of God, and whoever questions that.. is filled up with pride, and those verses explain what's going to happen to them.. it was pretty interesting.. and definitely kind of neat that I read that right after I read your letter dad..

We have LGM's or large group meetings that we go to every monday, well this past monday as we were in one, a missionary stood up and told us his conversion story.. I thought it was pretty neat and pretty cool.. He was converted a year ago and he and his brother were converted at the same time.. there previous faith.. FLDS.. insane, never met one or heard of one before being converted to our faith.. he said as he was talking that the doctrine that he was hearing was no different from what he had heard his entire life.. and how he knew it was true.. he felt the holy ghost.. something he hadn't felt before.. Just confirmed to me, how important the holy ghost really is to us.. how amazing it is to have him as a companion in our lives to lead us and to help us with things.. the big thing here as we learn how to teach is to teach with the holy ghost.. as he is the greatest teacher.. really liked that.. and that elder the former FLDS one, was a true example of how the holy ghost can work in someones life..

Tot Ziens
Elder Mohrman

Week 4 - (more pictures will be on facebook site)

Goededag mijn familie!!
So first things first, about my brand new colleague's.. there's two that are assigned to me and two other ones in there district, there's also a solo sister that is companions with sister kraemer, she's from sweden.. yeah.. getting the feel for how europeans are already!! prolly a good thing, I'm trying to work on my etiquette, I guess it's big over there? At least the euro sisters say it is.. it's lame, I like to enjoy my food, not think of how I'm going to eat it!! well slower week in the letter department, thanks to my sis tiffani, and DeVan, letters will be sent by the end of day!
So more about the danes, the two I'm with are named Elder Veach and Tolman, Veach is from N.C.. went to SUU for a year before coming.. cool guy.. has red hair. Tolman is fresh out of high school like me.. except with know college experience, he's a goof ball, quick story about him, first day they were here we were at breakfast and the poor kid picked porridge to eat.. well of course he didn't like it, and went to get more food, 15 minutes later were all ready to leave, and we didn't know where he was!! We see him with a full tray of food buttering and putting jam on some toast.. problem for him was it was 8:45 and we had to go to class.. I felt bad but I went up to him and let him know that it was true, it is a buffet, but only in the alotted time. He had to dump the whole tray of food, ha ha I had a good laugh, it's pretty fun being the experienced one and having them ask me all the different questions how to do things and what not.. Makes me feel all important inside ;) There all pretty sweet, even the other two elders always stick with us so we do everything together, that's nice that we have that unity right from the get go. I've been blessed with the companions I've had so far.

So last friday, day before conference one of my teachers Bro. Bond, told me that conference for missionary's was equivalent to the super bowl. I saw what he meant, conference was amazing.. Everything shuts down for those two days, and everything is focused on conference.. I don't think I've ever, in fact I know I've never taken as many notes or listened and understood so many talks.. Every talk I got something out of, and truly was just amazing.. Couple talks that stood out to me was Henry B. Eyring's talk in trusting in god.. I'd go into detail, but I'm losing my typing skills here and I'm already down to ten minutes!!! Other one was Pres Monson's talk on gratitude.. really made me realize how blessed my life has been, and how I haven't showed thanks enough to family and friends. The family that i've had, the way I've been raised the blessings of being friends and knowing the people I've known.. truly blessed, and I'm so grateful to my family and all of my friends.

I made this bullet list of things I wanted to say in this email.. doesn't look like I'm going to get through it all.. oh is well, but one thing I did want to say was sunday night we had an MTC devotional and all we did was sing songs.. and the whole purpose was for the missionary's to realize the importance and power of songs. I thought it was great. Especially with my new calling that I just received. They had some missionary's stand up and give there favorite hymns and why and we sang some pretty good songs.. just none of my favorites =0 no A poor way faring man of grief or Praise to the man.. not even Spirit of God!!! Oh well.. now I know what songs my branch is going to be singing on sunday =) I get to pick =) but the last song we sang was actually pretty neat. One elder went down and said his favorite hymn was the star spangled banner... and he said the reason why is for the words and what this country was founded on.. I thought it was great. The MTC presidency was pretty nervous about singing it but they had to since they said favorite hymns and that is a hymn, so the whole mtc sang the first verse of Star Spangled Banner, it was pretty funny watching sisters Kraemer's and Rhondstrom's (danish sister from sweeden) faces lol Sister Kraemer is a little anti US.. so she didn't like it at all, it was funny. Had a good laugh over that one as well ;)

I've seen and taken pictures with a lot of friends this past weekend, Dustin Belliston, Kyle Shuler, Spencer Smith, Tannen Fawcett,.. Saw Devin Bennett it's really great to see all those guys and see them in a different setting then what were used to seeing each other in..

Also.. had my first haircut from someone not named Dixie Hill!!!! It was intense.. but I think they did a good job, I took pictures of all angles of my head so you'll be able to see family, tell me what you think ;)

So language.. My goals in language is to memorize the Articles of Faith.. so far I have the first 8 down.. It seems the more I focus on the religious side of the language and try to learn that the better my whole dutch is.. We have goals me and sis kraemer, to do english fasts, meaning we can't speak english in class or too each other for the whole day, we do this three times a day, and this last one which was on monday, I actually was able to do it.. I felt like I had hit a wall with the language last, last week, but this last week I felt like I was progressing again.. pretty cool.. pretty excited about all that I"m learning in gospel as well.. down to 30 seconds, just want to say thanks again for all the love and support
Love you all.. hope the email was better this week

Elder Joseph V. Mohrman

Week 3

Thank you so much to everyone who has written me this week, it was a pretty busy day, writing all the letters, and getting new companions and what not.. but anyways I received letter's from kaitlin clark, ashley smith, stefani, DeVan, Marissa Sainsburry, Mitch & Nikki (the browns!) Jason Johnson, Jordan Riley, Abby Simmons, and Sarah Madsen.. letters have been written and on the way! And of course Mom and Dad.. your even going to get a letter this week, just because I don't have much time with this email.

Okay so to start off, my old Companions, Elder Neilson and Elder Bjork along with the two sisters in there district left monday morning at 6. This past week has been hard especially since I was able to be present seeing the teachers give them presentations about the Netherlands that they reserve for the last week.. the country is amazing the stories coming out of there is amazing, and I really just can't wait to go. I did see them off, I woke myself up at 5:30 and dropped them off at the travel office where we took pics and man hugged and what not.. yeah I know special ;) so when I send you the letter you'll be able to see a whole bunch of pictures.. Maybe you can post the best ones on the blog or something.. I dunno, but yeah.. so the gym also opened up for the first time on thursday? I dunno something like that, and I was able to play basketball with the elders leaving one time. Pretty interesting expirience.. Three elders who left on monday were on a team (at the MTC it can only be 3v3) and I was waiting to play like everyone else.. well they wouldn't switch up the teams, so it was those three elders (who were semi decent.. knew how to play) against me, my companion elder neilson (never played before.. soccer nut) and this elder named Elder Gouph who is mentally challenged.. so not the fairest of teams, but I didn't mind it was all in the spirit of fun anyways.. first few points however the other team scored were back door cuts to the elder that Elder Gouph was supposed to be guarding.. it was cheap in other words, and when we were on offense, they stuffed and kept stealing the ball from Elder Gouph.. absolutely ticked me off, couldn't believe that they were doing that.. you know its an unspoken rule that you mellow out especially with someone with difficulties, and these elders were exploiting that all to win and feel cool about themselves... well, because of lack of time, I'll just say a fire lit up in me, and it was like I never stopped playing basketball.. I didn't miss a shot from that point on, and I returned the favor to those elders and kept stealing the ball from them.. We won that game and the next game, and the game after that. With both my companion and Elder Gouph both scoring.. It was a great moment.. because the kicker is the next day while I was playing basketball.. I played exactly how I should've been playing.. rusty.. couldn't hit a shot, out of breath all that.. but I really believe honestly that the spirit helped us with those games, to help elder gouph, and to humble those elders.. that's what I thought.. and maybe I'm just overanalyzing it.. but still a pretty cool story nevertheless..

So had some pretty interesting days... had some issues with my "teaching partner" that we had to work out.. but things are doing okay now.. it's good she has some companions again, her new companion is a sister from sweeden who is serving in denmark.. having that european friend will help her out a lot.. I'm doing great, really making a lot of new friends, and actually before I came here, met my new rooming buddies.. don't know anything about them.. just took there picture while they were coming in, so they prolly think I'm a nut, but it's all good, I'll keep you posted =)

So one more cool expirience I'll share before my time runs out,

I got my first calling.. it's not a district leader, or a zone leader or any of those traditional ones you might think of.. I was called to be the music coordinator... yeah... I know.. I was shocked, my responsibilities are I get to pick the songs each week for sacrament meeting, and find a chorister and what not.. crazy huh.. never been musically talented in my life, never been in choir or anything and now I have a music calling.. it's actually really cool, because for the longest time all summer, I've just been thinking how powerful music can be, how much I feel the spirit when I listen to certain songs.. songs such as "praise to the man", "a poor wayfaring man of grief" and what not.. that's why I wanted to pick my songs for my farewell because I wanted to hear certain ones, and talk about the power and testimony that these songs give.. well anyways fast and testimony meeting was this last sunday, and as I was sitting there, I had this sudden impression to go bear my testiomony.. not about the normal things but about the testimony i've been building about hymns.. and how there a testimony to us.. I've felt that feeling before, and I haven't acted on it before.. but as I was sitting there, I decided why not.. I mean I never gave my testimony in my home ward I never felt comfortable doing it.. but I did it.. and as I was up there, words filled my mouth and I gave the testimony that was in my heart about hymns.. it was amazing.. when I was done and I sat down, I had such an amazing feeling of peace.. it wasn't because I bore my testimony I believe, it was because I followed the prompting of the spirit.. and that's what was so cool and amazing and memorable to me.. time is really running down and I'm typing crazy fast, but just wanted to share that with you.. hope it made sense, hope it all made sense!!!!!

Ik hou van jullie!

Tot ziens!!

Elder Joseph V. Mohrman

Week 2

Week 2!

Goedemiddag mijn familie!!

Second P-day, oh wow this day couldn't come fast enough! My collega Elder Nielson doesn't like these days very much, but I enjoy them because you can just relax.. thanks to all the letters, I've responded to everyone I recieved one from (with the exception from Dad, and mom.. you get emails =)) So Kim, Tiffani, DeVan, Chris, and Abby are the letters I sent out.. if anyone sent me a letter.. didn't get it.. sorry..

But okay life at the MTC is still going great.. felt like earlier in the week I hit a wall with the language.. I mean I started off pretty quick, with the prayer, testimony and contacting but I didn't feel like I was progressing.. but I worked through it.. tried harder, improved what I could say, and I feel (not great) but definitely better about the whole language thing.. it's insane, we did our second trc on monday, and were just contacting in dutch and what not.. nothing too big, and we get invited in to talk a little more.. sister kraemer goes off and almost teaches the entire first lesson in dutch.. it's disgusting, but really cool.. my comprehension is definitely better now because she can hold these conversations with people.. ha ha actually she would have taught the entire thing, but I kinda blew it for her, after she had read a scripture about one church, and what not, I piped in (because I was excited to be able to talk) Mogen wij onze booschap terugkomen? Which means can we come back later.. oh well.. she forgave me.. I told her I panicked =)

Cool thing happened today though during lunch, last week during P-day we met this sister who's going to Guatamala on her mission, and she was excited to meet us because she had a friend from the netherlands who she had talked about the gospel with. She gave him a dutch BoM and everything. She didn't have his address with her so we gave her our info and what not.. but she never left us his address. So today we run into her again, and she told us that she had been trying to think of a way to get us the info without it being an "letter to a Elder" so she had it all ready and everything. So I have my first referral as a missionary ;)

Sunday night we have firesides, and it was just great. The talk was by a former mission president in Chicago and he spoke on obedience and everything and that was good. Took good notes, just forgot them otherwise I'd share them with you =P but the beginning we had a musical number by a few elders going all over the place and they did the hymn "Praise to the Man" The best version of the song I have ever heard.. and well since it's my favorite hymn it was extra neat.

Last night on Tuesday we have firesides, and a member of the 1st quorum of the seventy spoke to us.. it was really good also, took great notes again ;) You'd be proud of my organizational skillz i'm developing ha ha, actually everytime I do something I think of a better way to do it, so I'm still kinda in the process of trying how to organize stuff like scriptures and what not.. My scriptures I brought are kind of a mess with how much I've been marking them, and trying to figure out how to organize all that data.. I'm thinking I may want new ones by the time I leave.. because it really is a mess.. I'll worry about that later..

Oh also sunday night got to watch the Testaments, really great to watch that again, I was bothered with my lack of ability to really explain about the atonement, so I went in with a prayer that I'd be able to write my own personal testimony about the atonement, and throught the course of the movie I wrote 3-4 pages worth of stuff.. it was wonderful.. next TRC were teaching about the Plan of Salvation..

This email is all over the place.. just another thing to add on my "need to organize" list.. ummm.. yeah okay so food. Food here is pretty good.. not going to lie, I can easily see how someone can get fat while being here.. luckily for me I haven't been gorging myself, and only usually take one helping of the main meals.. there have been exceptions, like when they had raviolli.. or when I'm craving something but for the most part I'm doing really good at not getting fat!! Every meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner since I've been here I've had at least 1 glass of Chocolate milk.. kinda my own unique tradition.. don't know why.. but I started out doing it, and I'm going to keep doing it.. thought I'd just share that with you all =)

So my companions and the sisters going to the netherlands have gotten there travel plans, they leave monday at like 6.. they fly into atlanta and then to brussels.. i've been told that's the standard route for missionary's to take going to the netherlands.. so that's prolly what I'm going to be doing.. Don't know what's going to happen on monday when the leave, haven't been told anything, don't know if there just going to let me room by myself for a few days til' wednesday or if there going to make me move.. then move back.. I do know however that whoever my new companions are it'll only last 3 weeks because I will get new dutch companions when the come in three weeks.. so three different sets of companions while I'm here.. pretty crazy huh!

Thanks for the packages of food, don't prolly need any more oreos.. or doughnuts or that sort of thing.. don't have any time to eat them and when I'm back in the room, I don't feel like eating them... but thanks!! The elders on the floor have enjoyed them.. Did really like the crackers and cheese though!! You can keep that coming for as long as you want ;) okay.. well.. I'm prolly leaving stuff out.. but I can't think of anything else to write.. so hope you enjoyed the pics.. just wanted to let you know what's it like here.. and oh.. can't remember how to charge my camera if you could dearelder that to me dad taht would be wonderful =)
Ik hou van jullie!!
Tot Ziens!!
Ik weet dat de kerk waar is!
Elder Joseph V. Mohrman

First week

Dag! Familie!

Hope everyone is doing well. It's great to finally be able to write this email! Just like I hoped it wouldn't my p-day came at the last possible day I could have it! So much to say, so little time.. well I guess I'll start off with how my situation is. Upon leaving you guys at the MTC, I waited in line and what not and then as I was checking in I got pulled off to this "special line" I was informed that I was a "solo" elder meaning I was the only elder coming into my mission.. yeah.. kinda through me off.. I have never heard of a solo elder before.. so it's been pretty interesting =) But it gets better, there is also a sister who is going to my mission that came in with me.. but she's the only sister so.. two solo's make up our little class. Her name is Sister Kraemer and she is from Hungary, but was born in Belgium so is a belgium citizen. She speaks Hungarian, English, French and Spanish and since she's lived in belgium for a time, she picks up Dutch like crazy! She's a recent convert to the church, joined about 3 or 4 years ago, and it's been pretty interesting talking to her and what not. Since her and I are the only two in the class, we teach together, and we do companion study together.. and in a sense she's my class companion.. but since Elders and sisters aren't allowed to be called companions, we are technically "teaching partners". Odd situation, in fact when I got here the teachers, and the branch president didn't really know how the situation was going to work. But I got put with two Elders going to Netherlands, and they leave in two weeks now. There names are Elder Bjork and Elder neilson. Both from Utah, both have great personality's and both have been very helpful in helping me get used to the MTC. I'm looking at this whole solo thing as a blessing, since I got paired up with and didn't have to figure out for myself what to do, where things are and what not. And so Elder Bjork and Elder Neilson are my companions in all things outside of class, and are my companions so I"ll refer to them as such. So yeah pretty unique situation, everyone I've talked to has never seen anything like this before. Makes me feel all special inside ;) However since my companions are going to be gone in a couple weeks, no one knows whats going to happen.. I'll be the only Elder in the whole MTC learning Dutch for a period of 3 weeks til' the next batch of "Dutchees" (our term for ourselves) comes in.. so who knows who my companions will be.. maybe danish elders. But I'll let everyone know about that when we get there!

As for the MTC itself, the first 3-4 days were the longest I have ever expirenced in my life. I haven't felt home sick at all (sorry nikki, don't know what you felt when you left =P ) but I have never expireinced a schedule where there was just all work and no relaxing time! It's study, class, eat, study, class eat, study, study, study, then go to bed. It's insane, and the first few days were really long like I said. But once Monday hit, I didn't have to go to any more "new missionary" meetings or what not, so the days have started to become less long.. I am having a blast here, my companions are great, we have great times especially at night, however don't worry I'm very aware of getting to bed on time! Class with teachers is my favorite thing here at the MTC, my two teachers, Bro. Jestice and Bro. Bond are great guys and great teachers, being in a class with only one other person, and one who picks up languages really fast is definitely helping out my learning of the dutch language. I started saying prayers in dutch on my second day, and also bear my testimony the second third day ish.. Rosetta Stone definitely helped, I wish I kept up with it the last few weeks before I left. But yeah, since this is the 7th day, already taught in the TRC.. that was interesting.. never thought teaching would be so hard with a companion.. especially a sister! But were getting better, and were helping each other out a lot.. I mean were both in the same boat and all.. the best is getting all the weird stares as people walk by our classroom and it's only me and her in there.. ha ha it crazy, and I'll let you guys know more about things especially as I get better at writing these email things! I really appreciate all the letters.. I lied earlier I guess, because I love going with my companions to get the mail, and then receiving letters and packages. Thanks to Dawn for sending me the cookies, there a big hit with all the missionary's on my floor =) I lost her address, so I couldn't write her a thank you, but if you could tell her that would be greatly appreciated.. Oh just let you know how things work district wise, were in the older dutch missionary's district.. two elders (my companions) and two sisters (her companions) Sister Perry and Sister Ence.. all really great, and really helpful.. I know because of there kindness and help is why I haven't felt any homesickness.. but doesn't meanI don't miss you all!!

Dear elder is a great site, you can write emails to me and I recieve them in the form of a letter in the mailbox.. and it's the next day delivery.. I reccommend that too all my friends ands sisters.. but only while I"m in the MTC.. okay.. I'm leaving a lot out I know.. but oh yeah had a fireside last night, it was a brother richards, former member of the second quorum of the seventies, it was an amazing talk, and they played a clip of Elder Holland, and what Elder Holland spoke about was why is missionary work so hard.. I mean it's the truth so why aren't people flocking to the baptismal font.. well it's because salvation isn't easy.. the atonement wasn't easy for the savior, so how can we just expect salvation to be easy for ourselves.. we all have to go through a trials and like it says in James chapter 1 verse 22 we have to be doers of the work and not hearers.. I guess that's my main thing I want to leave you all with.. Make sure you always remember that trials in our lives are necessary, and that we will never have to go through what the savior did..
bu
tot ziens

Facebook farewell...

Last time on facebook for a couple years, just wanted to say thank you to all my friends and family. You all have helped me be who I am today. Appreciate all the support I've received, means a lot. My mission blog which will have my weekly updates/emails is..
http://josephvaughnmohrman.blogspot.com/
All my addresses ...are there, anyone who writes me I will always write back.. Definitely know this church is true! And.. God be with you til' we meet again ;)
-Elder Joseph V. Mohrman
Jacob 6:12