Hoi familie!
Another week. Crazy huh? It was an interesting week, missionary work wise, we found a few people on our own this week.. finally! That was pretty neat, we knocked on this door, and a young guy answered and started talking.. really cool guy, told us his purpose in life was to do the will of god.. I asked him what he thought god wanted him to do, and he said to preach his gospel.. both really good answers.. very knowledgable person.. knows the bible really well.. and he's young! Maybe like 24-25.. pretty crazy, don't see young people like that, that knows the bible so well.. but we talked about Joseph Smith and the restoration, and he said he's never heard about that before.. we made an appointment for this coming wednesday.. so.. hope that goes through, and hope we can create an atmosphere where he'll be able to feel the spirit.. But he was the most positive person that we found on our own from this past week.. it was pretty interesting, when I came into the land I was picked up by Pres. and sister Brubaker, and after I went with the two assistants to go do some contacting in Brussels and to eat out and what not my first day and night. One of the assistants was leaving the next day, so it was pretty neat to be able to talk with him as I was coming in, and he was leaving.. now.. 7 months later or something, he came back with his family, and turns out he served in spijkenisse, and we were able to go to a dinner appointment with a member and this former elders family.. which was cool, I've always enjoyed talking with returned missionary's, but his mother who's name is... Beverly Koons.. who grew up in some place I think called Lakewood, Florida, which is right by a place called Liveoak I guess she said.. And she hung out with/ran around, was good friends with a guy by the name of Jay Mohrman.. what a small flippin' world.. is that not crazy? I don't think I've ever met someone that has only known Uncle Jay and not you dad.. she didn't remember you.. but wow.. so yeah, it was a fun appointment/dinner thing, she couldn't believe that I was related to Uncle Jay.. and she said to tell Uncle Jay that Beverly Koons says hello.. I don't know if you knew her dad? maybe.. probably.. but anyways.. And then for the past three days this other returned missionary has been around, he served about 4-5 years ago, and we've kept being invited to homes that he's visiting, so we've had three appointments with him the past three days.. crazy.. been able to talk to him a lot also, which was pretty cool as well.. he gave us a referal.. just some random guy that he remembered he met during a finding session one time, and he still remembered where he lived, so we went and looked him up yesterday and.. wow one of the most humblest men I've every seen.. we didn't say much, just that we were sent by this former missionary, and he brought up, that he wanted to talk with us again, he told us when, gave us his number.. it was amazing.. we were able to tell the former missionary that today, and he seemed pretty excited.. cool experience for him, to be able to give us missionary's a referal from someone during his time here.. maybe someday I'll be able to do that ;)
Funny guy though, the former missionary that is.. he left his wife behind, and so he brought a camera to make little videos to show her and what not.. and every time he wanted to do something that he hasn't done since he was here.. like eat some vla.. (dutch dessert) or riding a bike.. he would forget to make a video, so I had to remind the guy three different times, to make videos for his wife! Kinda funny.. maybe you had to be there ha ha,
I think this coming week were going to go visit this Jehova Witness guy... should be fun and interesting.. I'm not a good person to bash.. or have people bash with me.. I ask and say to random of things which I suppose is a good thing! Yesterday we were let in by some Jehova Witnesses and they kept wanting to talk Doctrine.. but I kept asking them random questions about how they met.. how many children did they have.. and nothing about faith at all.. it was kind of fun, just because we left with a good feeling of getting to know these people instead of, thinking to ourselves.. wow these people are morons.. so it was fun.. also a really neat experience that I'll quickly share, we have this investigator named Pat, she was found before I got here, and we haven't had a lessen with her my whole time here.. we finally had one a couple days ago, and we were able to really get to know her and know her background I guess you could say about religion.. she's from nigeria and says she's very religious and all.. but a couple of years ago, when she married the dutch guy, she had a problem and she prayed to god every day for a while, but she never received an answer she said.. so she said she was tired of it, and quit praying and all.. quit reading the bible.. everything.. still believes, but just tired of making an effort.. we had a powerful appointment where we committed her to a "testimony" date, and we promised her that if she read, pondered, and prayed ever day til this date, that she would have an answer that the book of mormon was true.. and then I felt impressed to say, that as she reads the book of mormon, thinks about it and prays, that she'll also get an answer to her other problem, question that she had earlier.. she said that she would do it.. pretty neat experience.. hopefully she does..
went to the zoo last p-day.. think I mentioned that we were going last week.. it was cool.. took pictures.. you'll see them I suppose sometime.. but it was sweet.. okay that's all you get from me this week,
Love you all
Tot Ziens
Elder Mohrman
Monday, June 27, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Hey.. it's me.. again! =P
Hoi Familie!
Hoe gaat het met jullie! Oh man.. what a week.. rain, rain.. go away.. what has been going through my head this whole week! I love the rain, always have.. but the rain here.. it doesn't go away. And it's not the most amazing experience in the world when you have to bike for an hour to an appointment while it's pouring rain!! But it was okay, because traveling all that way paid off, as we were able to set a baptismal date with our investigator! So once again.. able to set a date.. we'll see what happens, still hoping that Lilian will get baptized down in heerlen, waiting on that news.. finding has been difficult here.. haven't had much success.. in fact we haven't found a new investigator yet.. we've had referals from members which have been awesome! But nobody that we've found.. Sometimes you get into a rut with finding.. get into a pattern.. and well, my companion and I have gotten into one.. but it's good.. fighting through it.. were going to force ourselves to talk to more people on the street, instead of doing doors.. but also like I refered to above, we've gotten referals from members, and Me and my companion have set the goal to really push that and get more from the ward! Had a really neat experience, my first week here, we went to a member house, had dinner what not.. the lady who is single with a few kids, she started talking about a friend she knows and how she wishes that she could find a way to help him, and share the gospel with them.. but he's sick and she had no idea how to reach him or what to do.. And she said that she prayed for him every night.. after she said that I felt really prompted to challenge her, to instead of praying just for his welfare, to pray instead for what she could personally do, to help him.. to ask god what she could do.. I promised her that if she did that she would receive an answer and know how to help her friend. It was pretty neat... never have done that before.. and yesterday at church, I followed up with my challenge and she had done it.. she said that in fact yesterday when she was brushing her teeth, the thought came into her head to send him a card, with our info on it, because he's still sick.. really cool.. I had such a good feeling, just because the sister kept the commitment that we gave her.. so.. pretty neat experience.. Another sister in the ward had a miscarriage this past week.. really sad, so we went by and left a card saying that we loved them, and hope everything was good type of thing.. they showed up the next day to church, and said there thanks to us, that it meant a lot.. just neat little experiences..\
We haven't been finding, but the pool of investigators that we do have are pretty solid.. we have the potential for 3-4 more baptismal dates that could happen this coming week.. really excited about it.. if my companion and I are really dilligent and on top of things, I know that it will happen.. I just have felt that it will.. now the hard part is being dilligent, and doing the little things to keep in contact with these people!
I'll tell you a little about Spijkennisse now.. we actually don't live in Spijk.. we live in a city across the river called hoogvliet.. and the elders to Rotterdam south also live in that apartment.. oh man.. it's a party.. the oldest one (mission wise) is Elder Bjork, and he's on his 7th transfer.. I'm the second oldest on my 6th.. my companion is on his 5th and the other one is on his 3rd.. so a really young apartment.. but it's a blast, I love these guys! It's a really goofy apartment too.. it seems like were always laughing and joking about something.. were saying that this apartment would be a perfect "missionary sitcom" =P
But yeah so we live in hoogvliet and we have to travel over a huge river every day to enter Spijk.. just an outside town, doesn't have any history or anything.. but there's other awesome little towns in our area that have a lot of history.. the area that I am in now is the most dense in terms of members, there's 3 wards around here, two in rotterdam and then spijk.. so it's cool to be more in the thick of things than in the middle of no where in heerlen..
But everything is good.. I said last week that the apartment had decided and were determined to do dutch week.. well.. we got to friday night.. it's difficult.. man.. but we almost did it! We just kind of got burned out.. but it was the best attempt of dutch week I've ever had on my mission, so next transfer I'm excited for dutch week! (at the start of each new transfer, the first week is dedicated as dutch week)
Oh yeah.. so now that I'm back up here in the heart of the Netherlands, people are telling me once again, that i pronounce my name wrong.. really interesting, at church I introduce myself to people, and I say my name.. they look shocked at first then théý'll get really close and look at my name badge, and say "oh! It's MohrmAAn, not "Mormon".. To which I respond, "Well no.. ít's pronounced Mormon" and they'll actually try and argue with me.. amazing.. got to experience it I guess to understand ha ha
Well I guess were going to go to some zoo with a bunch of other missionary's.. so I gotta go.. Love you all, and thanks so much for all the emails, I love hearing about everyone, and yeah.. Doei! Tot Ziens, tot de volgende week! Ik verwach uitstekend emailen van jullie voor de volgende week!
Ik hou van jullie!
Elder Mohrman
Hoe gaat het met jullie! Oh man.. what a week.. rain, rain.. go away.. what has been going through my head this whole week! I love the rain, always have.. but the rain here.. it doesn't go away. And it's not the most amazing experience in the world when you have to bike for an hour to an appointment while it's pouring rain!! But it was okay, because traveling all that way paid off, as we were able to set a baptismal date with our investigator! So once again.. able to set a date.. we'll see what happens, still hoping that Lilian will get baptized down in heerlen, waiting on that news.. finding has been difficult here.. haven't had much success.. in fact we haven't found a new investigator yet.. we've had referals from members which have been awesome! But nobody that we've found.. Sometimes you get into a rut with finding.. get into a pattern.. and well, my companion and I have gotten into one.. but it's good.. fighting through it.. were going to force ourselves to talk to more people on the street, instead of doing doors.. but also like I refered to above, we've gotten referals from members, and Me and my companion have set the goal to really push that and get more from the ward! Had a really neat experience, my first week here, we went to a member house, had dinner what not.. the lady who is single with a few kids, she started talking about a friend she knows and how she wishes that she could find a way to help him, and share the gospel with them.. but he's sick and she had no idea how to reach him or what to do.. And she said that she prayed for him every night.. after she said that I felt really prompted to challenge her, to instead of praying just for his welfare, to pray instead for what she could personally do, to help him.. to ask god what she could do.. I promised her that if she did that she would receive an answer and know how to help her friend. It was pretty neat... never have done that before.. and yesterday at church, I followed up with my challenge and she had done it.. she said that in fact yesterday when she was brushing her teeth, the thought came into her head to send him a card, with our info on it, because he's still sick.. really cool.. I had such a good feeling, just because the sister kept the commitment that we gave her.. so.. pretty neat experience.. Another sister in the ward had a miscarriage this past week.. really sad, so we went by and left a card saying that we loved them, and hope everything was good type of thing.. they showed up the next day to church, and said there thanks to us, that it meant a lot.. just neat little experiences..\
We haven't been finding, but the pool of investigators that we do have are pretty solid.. we have the potential for 3-4 more baptismal dates that could happen this coming week.. really excited about it.. if my companion and I are really dilligent and on top of things, I know that it will happen.. I just have felt that it will.. now the hard part is being dilligent, and doing the little things to keep in contact with these people!
I'll tell you a little about Spijkennisse now.. we actually don't live in Spijk.. we live in a city across the river called hoogvliet.. and the elders to Rotterdam south also live in that apartment.. oh man.. it's a party.. the oldest one (mission wise) is Elder Bjork, and he's on his 7th transfer.. I'm the second oldest on my 6th.. my companion is on his 5th and the other one is on his 3rd.. so a really young apartment.. but it's a blast, I love these guys! It's a really goofy apartment too.. it seems like were always laughing and joking about something.. were saying that this apartment would be a perfect "missionary sitcom" =P
But yeah so we live in hoogvliet and we have to travel over a huge river every day to enter Spijk.. just an outside town, doesn't have any history or anything.. but there's other awesome little towns in our area that have a lot of history.. the area that I am in now is the most dense in terms of members, there's 3 wards around here, two in rotterdam and then spijk.. so it's cool to be more in the thick of things than in the middle of no where in heerlen..
But everything is good.. I said last week that the apartment had decided and were determined to do dutch week.. well.. we got to friday night.. it's difficult.. man.. but we almost did it! We just kind of got burned out.. but it was the best attempt of dutch week I've ever had on my mission, so next transfer I'm excited for dutch week! (at the start of each new transfer, the first week is dedicated as dutch week)
Oh yeah.. so now that I'm back up here in the heart of the Netherlands, people are telling me once again, that i pronounce my name wrong.. really interesting, at church I introduce myself to people, and I say my name.. they look shocked at first then théý'll get really close and look at my name badge, and say "oh! It's MohrmAAn, not "Mormon".. To which I respond, "Well no.. ít's pronounced Mormon" and they'll actually try and argue with me.. amazing.. got to experience it I guess to understand ha ha
Well I guess were going to go to some zoo with a bunch of other missionary's.. so I gotta go.. Love you all, and thanks so much for all the emails, I love hearing about everyone, and yeah.. Doei! Tot Ziens, tot de volgende week! Ik verwach uitstekend emailen van jullie voor de volgende week!
Ik hou van jullie!
Elder Mohrman
Monday, June 13, 2011
Monday June 13
Don't have much time so I'm skimming the emails from this week.. we are at a member's house because all the stores and shops are closed for second pentecost day? Never heard about it before but it's a holiday here, and the dutch are fanatical when it's a holiday, everything shuts down... kinda like jerusalem on there sabbath.. dutch is different.. there's definitely a difference between the dutch culture and American culture.. one that you just have to experience.. but were doing a dutch week this week.. nothing but dutch, and all 4 of us have really commited to do so.. i'm excited.. already learning a lot.. and praying lot naturally ;) Church was interesting.. it'd be so easy to not like an area, but i've noticed that it doesn't have to be that way, so i've made a personal goal to make this area just as great and memorable or better than my time in Heerlen.. if I'm trying to make it awesome, it should make things better right? ;) My simple reasonings.. okay, Love you all again I really don't have much time.
So yeah.. these emails is really the only thing I need in the box.. and snack food.. i noticed that the other day.. I didn't have any more snack food! and sweeter snack food.. if that makes sense.. so combos.. maybe laffy taffy's.. ;)
Can't wait til next week!
Love, your son, Elder Mohrman
So yeah.. these emails is really the only thing I need in the box.. and snack food.. i noticed that the other day.. I didn't have any more snack food! and sweeter snack food.. if that makes sense.. so combos.. maybe laffy taffy's.. ;)
Can't wait til next week!
Love, your son, Elder Mohrman
Monday, June 6, 2011
Heerlen... Last Week =0
Hoi Familie!
The adventure in Heerlen is coming to a close. And what a fun adventure it has been! I had a lot of mixed feelings going into Sunday, the day we find out about transfers. At the beginning of the week, things were going slow, our most positive investigators were dropping off the face of the earth, and I just really felt like it was my time to go! As the week went on however, we had some amazing appointments and re-contacted most of our investigators, with the peak coming yesterday, hearing that Rick (the american referral, who was anti-ed) had convinced the lady (who had antied him) to listen to us. And we should be having our first appointment with him hopefully tonight. Also made contact and made strides with other families that we were teaching, so going into Sunday, I didn't want to leave this place! It was back on fire.. things were going great with the companion, with investigators.. but while I was on the phone talking with some members about Rick actually last night, My president called and gave the news that I am indeed being transferred. I'm headed to Spijkenisse? No idea how you spell it, but it's a suberb of Rotterdam, which is more known. My companion is going to be Elder Davies, who is going to be going on his 5th transfer, so.. I'm going to be a senior companion for the first time on my mission! Crazy huh? I'm excited I know Elder Davies from the MTC, and I've been on a couple of exchanges with him when I was serving in Den Haag. I'm looking forward to this transfer, it's going to be definitely interesting.. Get out of my american bubble i've been in here in Heerlen and back into the world of Dutch!! I've really enjoyed my time in Heerlen like i've said.. the people here are amazing.. Calling the members back who I was on the phone with at the time Pres. called. They invited us over to have dinner and ice cream tonight to say goodbye.. so that will be fun..
Concerning Lilian, her baptism did not go through sad to say, she called the day before her interview and told us she wasn't ready.. not yet.. she is still going to come to church and investigate, but she said that it was too fast, and she needed more time to prepare.. but to be honest, I feel it's what''s best is for her. She'll be able to now have more time to read the Book of mormon, and to build relationships with the ward.. I was going to be the one to actually baptize her.. so obviously I can't now, but I'm looking forward to hearing when she finally does get baptized. Keep praying for her ;)
Well the next couple of days are going to be a lot of good byes.. to investigators, and too members. But last week for p-day which was kind of fun and interesting, after emailing you all, me and my companion decided to take an adventure and we biked to the three land point of germany, netherlands, and belgium.. I repeat we BIKED there.. about 15 or so miles there.. (hilly country mind you) then as the 3 land point is on a massive hill, we did a lot of mountain biking on trails.. thought of Mitch, he would of been proud =) and then we rode back.. so all in all I would say we did a good 35 to 40 MILES of biking last monday...what an adventure.. I'll have to tell you more about it sometime ;) But because of that and other fun stuff we've been doing on P-days, I've had no time to write letters.. so if you've written me a letter, I would just ask for patience with me! I'll try to get them out as soon as possible!! I haven't forgotten or ignoring you!
But I think that's about it.. my new address is
saffraanstraat 261
3193 XK hoogvliet
netherlands
So.. yeah.. thank you all for the emails.. they were wonderful.. and love you all!
-Elder Mohrman
The adventure in Heerlen is coming to a close. And what a fun adventure it has been! I had a lot of mixed feelings going into Sunday, the day we find out about transfers. At the beginning of the week, things were going slow, our most positive investigators were dropping off the face of the earth, and I just really felt like it was my time to go! As the week went on however, we had some amazing appointments and re-contacted most of our investigators, with the peak coming yesterday, hearing that Rick (the american referral, who was anti-ed) had convinced the lady (who had antied him) to listen to us. And we should be having our first appointment with him hopefully tonight. Also made contact and made strides with other families that we were teaching, so going into Sunday, I didn't want to leave this place! It was back on fire.. things were going great with the companion, with investigators.. but while I was on the phone talking with some members about Rick actually last night, My president called and gave the news that I am indeed being transferred. I'm headed to Spijkenisse? No idea how you spell it, but it's a suberb of Rotterdam, which is more known. My companion is going to be Elder Davies, who is going to be going on his 5th transfer, so.. I'm going to be a senior companion for the first time on my mission! Crazy huh? I'm excited I know Elder Davies from the MTC, and I've been on a couple of exchanges with him when I was serving in Den Haag. I'm looking forward to this transfer, it's going to be definitely interesting.. Get out of my american bubble i've been in here in Heerlen and back into the world of Dutch!! I've really enjoyed my time in Heerlen like i've said.. the people here are amazing.. Calling the members back who I was on the phone with at the time Pres. called. They invited us over to have dinner and ice cream tonight to say goodbye.. so that will be fun..
Concerning Lilian, her baptism did not go through sad to say, she called the day before her interview and told us she wasn't ready.. not yet.. she is still going to come to church and investigate, but she said that it was too fast, and she needed more time to prepare.. but to be honest, I feel it's what''s best is for her. She'll be able to now have more time to read the Book of mormon, and to build relationships with the ward.. I was going to be the one to actually baptize her.. so obviously I can't now, but I'm looking forward to hearing when she finally does get baptized. Keep praying for her ;)
Well the next couple of days are going to be a lot of good byes.. to investigators, and too members. But last week for p-day which was kind of fun and interesting, after emailing you all, me and my companion decided to take an adventure and we biked to the three land point of germany, netherlands, and belgium.. I repeat we BIKED there.. about 15 or so miles there.. (hilly country mind you) then as the 3 land point is on a massive hill, we did a lot of mountain biking on trails.. thought of Mitch, he would of been proud =) and then we rode back.. so all in all I would say we did a good 35 to 40 MILES of biking last monday...what an adventure.. I'll have to tell you more about it sometime ;) But because of that and other fun stuff we've been doing on P-days, I've had no time to write letters.. so if you've written me a letter, I would just ask for patience with me! I'll try to get them out as soon as possible!! I haven't forgotten or ignoring you!
But I think that's about it.. my new address is
saffraanstraat 261
3193 XK hoogvliet
netherlands
So.. yeah.. thank you all for the emails.. they were wonderful.. and love you all!
-Elder Mohrman
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