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Monday, February 28, 2011

Heerlen...week 4

Geachte familie..



Ik ben heel verbaasd over het nieuws van de familie!! Tjonge Jonge..

First comes first, congratulations Stefani! Manila huh.. craziness.. really ironic since my ward mission leader went on his mission to the phillipines, and his wife is from the phillipines, every tuesday I get treated to good ol’ phillipino food. I think it’s delicious, so nothing to worry about stefi ;) Also really cool, because in the past few weeks I was listening to some talks by Pres. Hinckley and some of the things in his talks were about the phillipines and the missionary work history of the country. Really cool.. Really neat.. It’s a blessed place, and your going to really enjoy it. Also the temple in manila is very beautiful, kinda like the Frankfurt temple in design.
Tiffani.. way to be.
Mitch & Nikki.. hi.
Kim.. Jealous.

And thanks to everyone else that sent emails.. I just repeat myself every week I think, but I really do appreciate all the emails, telling me about your lives.. what’s happening back home.. ;) So this week, like I hinted at last week was a pretty busy week, had a lot of appointments with new people, and the results of all those appointments resulted in some pretty amazing investigators we now have. Let me tell you about some of them. Bobby is a guy we met ringing door bells in a big apartment building.. he let us in, because his hobby is religion.. Reads a lot and has studied most all of the major religions in the world.. didn’t know much about us.. just knew that we had a bunch of wives or something.. =P But we were able to talk to him, and read out of the book of mormon about adam and eve, and after he was saying stuff like “wow, never thought of that before”, and “Yeah that makes sense, never heard that before” Well we got a return appointment, and that return appointment was this last saturday, we taught the plan of salvation, but for that week, he had begun reading out of the book of mormon on his own, and said that he wanted to check out the church sometime.. really cool to see.. also pretty neat moment happened with him. I’ve had this feeling to carry around the conference issue of the liahona with me.. and had been doing so for the past week.. never having the opportunity to share it with anyone until bobby was saying how a couple of years ago when his mother died he went to church and the guy just stood up there talking about stuff that happened two thousand years ago.. and he didn’t see how that helped him, now. I was able to share the conference issue with him, bearing my testimony that it was things being said directly to us, not something that happened two thousand years ago.. it was a really neat moment, he liked it, and took it, and our next appointment with him is this tuesday, so we’ll see what happens with him! It was just neat to see the answer as to why I was carrying that magazine with me for the past week.. it was meant for him.. only problem was I was studying that magazine for my language study! =S Oh well.. I guess I can find other dutch material to read ;)

Grace is also a really cool person that were teaching, she invited us to a “bible study” and so we got to go, and be with all these college kids who actually want to learn about the bible.. pretty big change to see a group of people who are actually religious! But it was neat, they were all really nice to us, and we got to answer a lot of questions about our church.. we’ll see what happens with that too..

Got to play sports again on saturday, that was sweet! Glad to know I can still hit 10 free throws in a row.. haven’t completely lost my touch.. yet =P

Well I hope all is well with you family.. thanks for the prayers, and know that you all are getting prayed for from this end as well.. I’m probably leaving out some neat stories, a lot has happened this week but, that’s all I got for this week! Het spijt me!

Ik hou van jullie! Bedankt voor alles! Tot Ziens tot de volgende week!


Elder Joseph V. Mohrman

Monday, February 21, 2011

Heerlen....week 3

Hoi Familie!

Hope alles is geweldig met jullie! Another week gone by.. crazy to think Í've almost been out for 6 months.. sure doesn't feel like it that's for sure! But last week was a really good week.. We didn't have to travel so much, still traveled to Antwerpen for a zone conference on Tuesday but other than that, we were able to stay in heerlen, and the results was we had one of the best weeks that heerlen has seen in about 2-3 months! Being really blessed, seems like everytime we go out and dedicate an hour to finding we find a new person to teach! It's amazing.. this next week we have planned 10 lessens with 10 different investigators.. ablsolutely amazing that's the most that I've ever had planned on my mission, and my companion says that's the most for him as well.. so don't know what were doing.. but were being blessed a lot! ;) Couple of our investigators like I said we just knock on there door, we teach a lessen and then set a return appointment.. the thing that is really working that is getting people's interest is the book of mormon.. love that book! We have a card that we give out to people, it's "Life's greatest Questions" and it just lists about 15 different questions, big questions that all people have, that is answered by the book of mormon.. I love showing that card to people as it shows the people what the book of mormon contains inside it.. Really excited about this coming up week.. really happy that the success I was seeing in Den Haag is carrying over to Heerlen ;) Kind of interesting, it's amazing how many people we meet, that have taken the lessens before from missionary's 20-30 years ago.. we've met a bunch lately, one man we met at the bus stop, and he said that he played basketball with the missionary's in some city 15 years ago, and then he started taking the lessens.. but he said he wasn't interested anymore.. but he continued to talk to us through the bus ride.. that really showed me how much god loves us.. here's someone who who had the chance a long time ago.. decided it wasn't for him.. now he's meeting the missionary's again, in a random city, in a random spot.. hopefully he felt something from talking with us.. but anyways
Before I forget Happy 27th Kim!! Hope You have a sweet time in Mexico celebrating your birthday ;)) And Stefi. whoa.. intense.. can't wait to see where you get called too ;) Yeah I dón't have really much to report on.. the work is picking up, really happy about that, and I should have some neat expiriences to share next week ;) Thanks for everything that you guys do, enjoy life.. don't miss me too much.. ;)
Tot Ziens tot de volgende week!!
--Elder Mohrman

Monday, February 14, 2011

Heerlen....Week 2

Hoi Familie!

What a week.. wow.. felt like you dad, traveled all the time this week!! Tuesday traveled an hour and back to Eindhoven for district meeting.. wednesday traveled 3 hours one way to Amsterdam to get my legality, thursday traveled two hours one way to Brussels then one hour one way to Gent.. the friday went back to Heerlen, Saturday rode a bus for an hour going to this little tiny village in the middle of nowhere to an investigators house, then Sunday I got to go to Germany for the first time! But wow.. tons and tons of traveling.. but really cool week as well, not every day, you can say I traveled and visited three different countries in a half week =)

Like I said was able to go back to Amsterdam, after getting my legality card, we were able to have lunch with a Young Adult from there, Elder Robert served in Amsterdam also about a year ago, and so it was fun to be able to just I guess “relax” in Amsterdam talking about old times.. ha ha I can’t believe I can do that now.. reminisce about old times?? What in the world.. Anyways.. off too Brussels, we traveled all the way there.. got there around 7, hadn’t eaten at all.. so we went with one of the office elders to get dinner.. and where did we go?? To dominos of course and got a pizza! Spent the next day in Gent on exchanges with Elder Brown who is a transfer younger than me.. got to play the big bad senior companion again =) We went for a lot of the day to the city of Brugge which is a very very beautiful old city.. It’s in there area and Elder Brown had never been.. so we decided why not just go there and do some finding.. pretty cool, as I don’t know if I’ll ever have the opportunity to go back. They say that Amsterdam and Brugge our the two prettiest cities in the mission.. check that off my list of places to see while I’m here =) We also during this past week had some bus trips to small little towns in the middle of nowhere like I said above.. long.. but beautiful.. being able to see the countryside and the rolling hills.. I’m definitely in an amazing place. Yesterday, in germany after eating lunch with the family, as they drove us home, they stopped in the city of acchen, germany, and showed us around. It’s an extremely old city, and was actually charlamaigne’s capitol they say.. we went inside his cathedral.. parts of that cathedral has been around since 800 a.d.. pretty dang old.. Had the family write a little note to Stefani in german of course, just saying I was in germany.. When I finally send my stuff home it’ll be in there =) And talking about sending stuff home, I talked with a few American’s, and they will be more than happy to drop off my boxes for me.. talking to one family they said this one size of box will cost 15 dollars but it can weigh any amount.. so since I have this extra American money laying around (thanks to all who sent me American money =)) It won’t be a problem and I’ll be able to send you some Dutch Stuff =) Last week, I saw the cartoon Asterix and it was only a couple of euro’s.. so of course I got it =) Thought of dad ha ha

So for language, been reading those children story books about the book of mormon and old testament, new testament, doctrines and convenants.. finished the book of mormon book, and about half way through the doctrine and convenants book! It’s pretty neat because it’s simpler dutch obviously, but to be able to read it, and understand everything is a pretty neat feeling.. and plus reading the doctrine and covenants book, reading stories that I’ve never heard before, I feel like I’m understanding the D$C a lot better! My next one will be the old testament.. also got the packet that was sent to Den Haag.. thanks for everything in there, the Tootsie rolls were a nice surprise =) Thanks for all the leafs as well.. I think I have enough for a VERY long time =) Broke my camera though earlier this week.. so I don’t have any pictures of Heerlen.. got to look for a new one.. but I’ve spent enough money already so I feel kinda bad about spending more.. Hopefully I’ll see one on sell or something.. let’s see is there anything else.. I dunno.. hopefully stefi get’s her call this week! Looking forward to hearing where my little sis goes!! =) ha ha ha Okay

Love you all Familie thanks again for the emails,

Elder Mohrman

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Midweek surprise post of pictures

Joseph's new companion's mother just sent us some pictures from earlier this week...the district getting together to eat at a members place...what a wonderful person to be so willing to feed so many!

The older gentleman is from I understand an 80 year old man who goes out with the missionaries daily. He even keeps the same schedule as the missionaries...that is simply amazing.

The food looks good...typical european salad and the apple type cobbler with ice cream...I think they are spoiled :)





Monday, February 7, 2011

Heerlen....Week 1

Hallo Familie!

Hard sticka bedankt for all of the wonderful emails this week! It’s always great to see how everyone is doing and what’s the updates with everyone’s life. Bummer again for Stefani.. man.. all this waiting.. you just got to know your whole mission is going to be just as crazy!! =) Maybe you’ll be a solo or something also?

My address for Heerlen

Zeswegenlaan 295
6412 HK Heerlen
Netherlands

I left last Wednesday from Den Haag and what of course happened? The package you sent me arrived.. luckily my new companion is a district leader as well as my last one, so he can give him the package at a district leader training but that won’t be for a couple of weeks. Really excited though, do love mail. So let me tell you a little about this place.

It’s in the middle of no where and there’s tons and tons of hills. Yeah… fun.. I was blessed though, the ward missionary leader in the Den Haag ward let me have one of his bikes so I didn’t have to buy one. Only problem was that it was stuck in the hardest gear.. fine for a flat city of Den Haag but for a hilly place? But we knocked it down to a couple of easier gears, and the bike is holding up the few days I’ve been here. It’s really different being in a 2-man apartment though. Amsterdam and also Den Haag were 4-man’s.. 2 man’s definitely a little more quieter. But my companion Elder Robert and I have gotten along just great so far.. It’s a pretty interesting situation though, Elder Robert just turned… 25 in January.. graduated in 2004.. the guy is older than Tiffani!! Ha ha He can’t believe that I graduated in 2010.. We’ve had some good jokes about our ages.. I call him grandpa or old man, and he tells me I still have baby fat on my face =P IT’s going to be a fun transfer I’m sure =) Heerlen is a beautiful place.. I guess a lot of people retire here because of the beauty.. Very green, and the hills are very nice to see from all the flatness of the big cities. The three corner mark is in my area, and they have a monument there, for a p-day were going to go there, and I’ll be able to be in 3 countries at once! And most of the members actually live in Germany, so I get to be the rare exception and cross the mission boundaries and travel into Germany when we go to member’s houses. In fact tomorrow on Tuesday will be the first time =) I’ll take pictures for ya Stef ;)

The ward is mostly American… it’s pretty nice to talk with Americans again.. American English!.. and it kinda has that feel of a ward back home.. But there’s still plenty of dutch people as well and I’ve met some pretty amazing people here. My first dinner with members was with this polish family, who knew and are friends with Josh Wilson quite well. Small world.. but it get’s smaller as my second dinner appointment was with this dutch couple who are extremely good friends with this older couple in payson.. pretty close to where we live too.. we were able to talk about different land marks in payson and the wife was just there this past march.. Extremely small world! The dutch couple were amazing, the man is a artist and he actually has two pieces in the church art museum.. one of the pieces is a statue of Job, and he still has a few limited editions left and after I said Job was my favorite story in the bible , they gave me and my companion a statue of it.. really really cool! There’s only 150 of them in the world, and like I said it’s in the church art museum in utah.. only problem is I don’t know how I’m going to send that home because it’s so fragile! I have a lot of other stuff I need to send home as well.. it’s pretty sweet that we have American bases so close because I can give my packages to american’s and they can send them off and I’ll get American pricing.. that’s going to be super nice! But on sunday I was able to bare my testimony to the ward and introduce myself, I shared my experience from Amsterdam, where it was my last day and I felt we should go to the old woman’s house and it turned out she had been praying for us to come. It was pretty special, I hadn’t shared that story with people before at least not over a pulpit. I’m really excited about my opportunity to be here in Heerlen.. Unlike Den Haag where I came in and had a lot of investigators already there.. Heerlen is really different, there’s hardly anything going on. But I think that there could be… hearing from my companion who’s starting his second transfer, there’s some really positive people here.. and if we involve the ward more in missionary work, this place and really any place I think could just explode. It’s going to be a challenge, but my goal is to be having the same numbers in Heerlen as I was in Den Haag, (the most productive city in the mission) I listened to a talk by Pres, Gordon B Hinckley this morning actually and the title is “A true successful story” or something like that.. he gave it in 1985.. it’s all about missionary work, and the miracle of it all.. and how if we just put a little more effort we could double our convert baptisms.. it was a really good talk.. one that made me think, and so all morning I’ve just been thinking that yeah.. I just need to put a little more effort to what I’ve been doing on my mission.. and then the work will improve in Heerlen.. It was neat it’s what I needed to hear.

Last thing I’ll say before I wish you a very happy week, I’ve been spoiled with dutch in Amsterdam and Den Haag.. the dutch there is clear.. and for a person learning dutch that’s the perfect place to go.. Here they have this funny accent, and they guttural there R’s along with there G’s.. First time I heard I had to take a second and really concentrate because all the guttural sounds flying out was confusing me! It felt like I was hearing words I’’ve never heard before!! But actually in reality it’s not too bad.. just different, I know a lot of people think that the Dutch language is an ugly language, but I’m in love with it.. I’’m already making plans on how I’m going to keep it up when I get home.. So.. okay.. have nothing really left to say.. Success met de week.. en.. Tot Ziens!

Liefs,
Elder Mohrman
p.s sad day for salem