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