Hoi Familie!!
Dwight and Natasje's baptism did indeed go through! It was really super and amazing.. couldn't have gone smoother and been more spiritual.. They asked me, if I would give a talk at there baptism.. so I did so on the Holy Ghost.. my first ever talk on my mission and in Dutch!! Bummer.. almost made it a year ;) They were so excited, and also the ward. They were baptized right after church, and most of the ward stayed to support them.. also, we had 4 investigators show up! Tom came, Pat came.. and two new investigators that we got this week, Naika.. and Robbie... Couldn't have been better for these people.. Naika.. called us actually letting us know that she was coming to church.. she's from curaco, and after having a great lessen with her with a couple of sisters from the ward, I had another lady from the ward introduce herself to her as she's also from curraco and it turns out that they were neighbors.. in curraco.. they freaked out, lot of hugs.. kisses.. papioments.. the language there.. absolutley crazy. Naika couldn't beleive it, and the other sister couldn't believe it.. and Naika is super excited to now meet with us, and we have an appointment with her on thursday!
Another new investigator that we got this week, was Bas.. he was the referal from a returned missionary passing through here about a month ago..Pete Arens.. and we stopped by after a few weeks, and he finally let us in,and we were able to get to know him and teach him.. he opened up, and told us about his life and his problems.. and we were able to share scriptures out of the book of mormon about the savior and let him know that god loved him.. he got emotional and we were able to explain our purpose what we do.. lessens that we share that sort of thing.. and he thinks it's all a great idea, and wants to go further to see if he can find the peace he's looking for.. absolutley an amazing lessen! Amazing expireince.. It was great to get some new blood into our teaching pool as we've been riding all these
great investigators that we've had these past few months.. Really excited for this up and coming transfer! Which will be in Spijkenisse for a 3rd transfer.. excited about that, and also excited about my new companion.. he's from Brazil.. his name is Elder Da Cruz.. and He speaks about 5 languages.. just a master with language.. he's going on his 6th i'm going on my 8th, so not too much of a gap, and he has a lot of expirience already, we'll be able to take off with a running start hopefully! ;) Thanks for all the birthday wishes.. doesn't even feel like sep 3rd is my birthday.. my birthday it feels like is sep. 8th.. my year mark on the mission =P But I got two packages so far and one of the envelopes and also the birthday card from grandma and grandpa bell!! Thanks so much!
Love you all
Tot ziens
Elder Mohrman
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
hoe gaat het... :)
Hoi!
Familie!
hoe gaat het... :)
August 27th, 2011.. the day Dwight and Natasha Samson will be baptized.. mark it on your calenders, because well.. it´s awesome :) Were really excited about them.. there doing great and everything is in order for them to be baptized this saturday! There making us dinner tonight, Some surinamse food called Roti.. which is extremely delicious, and our zone leaders will be giving them there baptismal interviews.. then after all that were all going to go together to a baptism in Gouda.. it´s going to be a great night! I´ve only been District Leader for a month or so now, but I feel like I´ve done everything a district leader can do.. Last week sometime... oh it was saturday, Gave my first baptismal interview to the lady who is getting baptized in Gouda.. really neat expirience.. Just being able to ask her to bare her testimony on the different questions, the spirit was really strong, she was a little nervous about the whole interview thing.. this old dutch lady, but she was amazing.. Being the district leader I get to follow the progression of my districts investigators, so every week I would get updates on this lady from the sister missionary´s in gouda, so pretty special for me to be able to finally meet her.. and also see the joy in her face after it was all done.. when we got out of the room, she threw her arms in the air and started to do a little dance thing with the sisters :) Pure joy and happiness.. can only be found in the gospel.. church is true.. period.
Other investigators are doing well.. we did something strange with one of our investigators his name is Vincent.. he wants to be baptized, been investigating the church for a few years, but just has to work out some personal problems/concerns, and so we decided to go a different route with him, we took him to a members house for dinner... he´s dutch, the lady was from the carribean completely different expirience for him, and then we took him, vincent, our investigator, as a joint teach to another investigators house Tom. I wouldn´t say it was the best lessen in the world for tom.. but it didn´t hurt anything, and made a huge impact on Vincent, as he was able to expirience the church and what we do in a different way, as if he was a member.. he came to church then on sunday, and was able to meet our mission president who suprised us by showing up.. so president brubaker came to our sacrament meeting, to meet our baptismal dates, dwight and natasha.. but.. they weren´t there.. perfect timing to not come to church right? But also we had a lady walk into the church, who was just curious about how we worshipped.. so I sat by her during sacrament meeting explained a little what goes on.. gave her our articles of faith.. and also a book of mormon.. she seemed to like it and said she would do her best to come to the baptism on saturday and then again on sunday.. I dón´t think I´ve ever had a lady walk into church before because she was curious.. it was definitely an interesting expirience! And during sacrament meeting, our bishop felt impressed to have Elder Davies, me, and President Brubaker all give our testiomonies in the middle of sacrament meeting... that was also a pretty neat expriience.. right before that happened, i was actually thinking to myself.. "what would I say, if I had to bare my testimony right now..." so I was thinking about that, then that announcement came up.. so I was a little prepared!!
Were developing a pretty good relatioionship with the ward, were switching things up a little bit, whenever we go over to there house, instead of us teaching a small lessen, were having them teach us.. and that was also announced during sacrament meeting.. a lot of the members were shocked about this.. so we´ll see if we´ll still be getting as many dinner appointments now :) A big thing in the ward, for a group of the men, is to go play squash.. so I finally got the bishop to take us to go play squash yesterday.. pretty fun game.. just like raquetball.. I had begginners luck and beat our bishop all 3 games we played :) But now i´m really sore and stiff.. man.. i´m getting out of shape!!
Also this past week, went to my first ever funeral.. an old dutch lady from the ward passed away.. so me and elder davies went to show our support.. I don´t know how dutch funerals are different from american funerals but I thought it was interesting, and it was a pretty neat service.. neat to see how many lives a person can touch in there lifetime.. and to hear different stories about them..
Well.. that´s about it.. I´ve rambled long enough =P Love you all.. thanks for all the emails, letters.. and prayers.. you all are the best!
Tot ziens!
tot de volgende week!
Elder Mohrman
Familie!
hoe gaat het... :)
August 27th, 2011.. the day Dwight and Natasha Samson will be baptized.. mark it on your calenders, because well.. it´s awesome :) Were really excited about them.. there doing great and everything is in order for them to be baptized this saturday! There making us dinner tonight, Some surinamse food called Roti.. which is extremely delicious, and our zone leaders will be giving them there baptismal interviews.. then after all that were all going to go together to a baptism in Gouda.. it´s going to be a great night! I´ve only been District Leader for a month or so now, but I feel like I´ve done everything a district leader can do.. Last week sometime... oh it was saturday, Gave my first baptismal interview to the lady who is getting baptized in Gouda.. really neat expirience.. Just being able to ask her to bare her testimony on the different questions, the spirit was really strong, she was a little nervous about the whole interview thing.. this old dutch lady, but she was amazing.. Being the district leader I get to follow the progression of my districts investigators, so every week I would get updates on this lady from the sister missionary´s in gouda, so pretty special for me to be able to finally meet her.. and also see the joy in her face after it was all done.. when we got out of the room, she threw her arms in the air and started to do a little dance thing with the sisters :) Pure joy and happiness.. can only be found in the gospel.. church is true.. period.
Other investigators are doing well.. we did something strange with one of our investigators his name is Vincent.. he wants to be baptized, been investigating the church for a few years, but just has to work out some personal problems/concerns, and so we decided to go a different route with him, we took him to a members house for dinner... he´s dutch, the lady was from the carribean completely different expirience for him, and then we took him, vincent, our investigator, as a joint teach to another investigators house Tom. I wouldn´t say it was the best lessen in the world for tom.. but it didn´t hurt anything, and made a huge impact on Vincent, as he was able to expirience the church and what we do in a different way, as if he was a member.. he came to church then on sunday, and was able to meet our mission president who suprised us by showing up.. so president brubaker came to our sacrament meeting, to meet our baptismal dates, dwight and natasha.. but.. they weren´t there.. perfect timing to not come to church right? But also we had a lady walk into the church, who was just curious about how we worshipped.. so I sat by her during sacrament meeting explained a little what goes on.. gave her our articles of faith.. and also a book of mormon.. she seemed to like it and said she would do her best to come to the baptism on saturday and then again on sunday.. I dón´t think I´ve ever had a lady walk into church before because she was curious.. it was definitely an interesting expirience! And during sacrament meeting, our bishop felt impressed to have Elder Davies, me, and President Brubaker all give our testiomonies in the middle of sacrament meeting... that was also a pretty neat expriience.. right before that happened, i was actually thinking to myself.. "what would I say, if I had to bare my testimony right now..." so I was thinking about that, then that announcement came up.. so I was a little prepared!!
Were developing a pretty good relatioionship with the ward, were switching things up a little bit, whenever we go over to there house, instead of us teaching a small lessen, were having them teach us.. and that was also announced during sacrament meeting.. a lot of the members were shocked about this.. so we´ll see if we´ll still be getting as many dinner appointments now :) A big thing in the ward, for a group of the men, is to go play squash.. so I finally got the bishop to take us to go play squash yesterday.. pretty fun game.. just like raquetball.. I had begginners luck and beat our bishop all 3 games we played :) But now i´m really sore and stiff.. man.. i´m getting out of shape!!
Also this past week, went to my first ever funeral.. an old dutch lady from the ward passed away.. so me and elder davies went to show our support.. I don´t know how dutch funerals are different from american funerals but I thought it was interesting, and it was a pretty neat service.. neat to see how many lives a person can touch in there lifetime.. and to hear different stories about them..
Well.. that´s about it.. I´ve rambled long enough =P Love you all.. thanks for all the emails, letters.. and prayers.. you all are the best!
Tot ziens!
tot de volgende week!
Elder Mohrman
Monday, August 15, 2011
Great week!
Hoi Familie!
This week, was just a happy week. Had some downer moments sure.. but the highs were amazing.. Last week when I sent my email on wednesday I said I was going to go to an appointment to try and set a baptismal date.. that appointment was with one of those three sisters that we've been teaching, Aaltje.
Aaltje is the middle sister, the oldest is Hendryetta with the baptismal date, and then the youngest is Petra.. this was our first lessen with Aaltje without the other two sisters.. What an amazing appointment.. She had asked us to meet with her seperatley, and the progression with this girl has been extroardinary.. I'll back up a little bit, she was found by Elder Davies and the other Elder before me.. and had one lessen with them before I came.. My first lessen we talked about faith, and shared Alma 32 with her.. she was very skeptical, didn't beleive in god.. but did believe in something.. would not pray.. she had said that if she would pray she would be a hyprocrite.. would not come to church, because of bad expiriences in the past.. and really wasn't that open because her life was okay at the moment for now.. but we shared that chapter, told her and promised her that if she does the invitations that we give, and read and what not, she would notice something change in her.. that she would feel a seed grow in her.. again.. very skeptical.. but she said why not.. so she read a little bit at first.. then a little more.. then she went to a young adult center and liked it.. she started to pray on her own every now and then.. then a little more and a little more.. and every week was a noticable change in her.. even though she was trying to fight it, the gospel of jesus christ was touching her life and we were excited.. it's neat so see the light of christ fill someone up.. Well eventually she went to church.. she liked church.. she prayed out loud for the first time and thought that was a neat exprience.. and she just opened up more and more, and made many new friends and made so much progression.. so last wednesday, we shared once again Alma 32.. asked her if she remembered it.. she said she did.. asked her if this chapter was applicable to her.. and she said it was.. We were able to bare our testimony's about how much growth and progression we have seen in her.. and I lie not, she was glowing.. absolute transformation. We set a baptismal date with her.. for September 24th.. and as we were walking away from that appointment My companion had tears in his eyes, and I had a itch in mine.. so powerful.. so much joy.. One of the best moments of my mission so far.. ;)
We made great steps with our other investigators as well.. Dwight and Natasha we talked to them about the commandments and what they need to do to be baptized.. Dwight committed to living the word of wisdom, and as of yesterday has been clean.. there really excited for there baptism which is now on the 27th of august.. Hendryetta came to church once again.. meaning all of our baptismal dates were at church! It was amazing.. Tom, said he would come to the baptismal service of Dwight and natasha, and we gave him Joseph Smith the prophet of the restoration movie to watch as well as the movie about President Monson.. Another Investigator, who has been investigating for two years wants to be baptized this coming saturday! But that won't happen.. but hopefully in a couple weeks.. an inactive family came to church that we've been visiting! That was super, wish I had more time to tell you about that appointment.. and the other miracles that happened this week.. but.. alas.. I don't have any more time! Thank you all for your emails! Love you all so much!
Pray for these people.. there all going through some sort of adversity but there making it.. slowly but surely there making it to baptism!! ;)
Tot Ziens!
Elder Mohrman
This week, was just a happy week. Had some downer moments sure.. but the highs were amazing.. Last week when I sent my email on wednesday I said I was going to go to an appointment to try and set a baptismal date.. that appointment was with one of those three sisters that we've been teaching, Aaltje.
Aaltje is the middle sister, the oldest is Hendryetta with the baptismal date, and then the youngest is Petra.. this was our first lessen with Aaltje without the other two sisters.. What an amazing appointment.. She had asked us to meet with her seperatley, and the progression with this girl has been extroardinary.. I'll back up a little bit, she was found by Elder Davies and the other Elder before me.. and had one lessen with them before I came.. My first lessen we talked about faith, and shared Alma 32 with her.. she was very skeptical, didn't beleive in god.. but did believe in something.. would not pray.. she had said that if she would pray she would be a hyprocrite.. would not come to church, because of bad expiriences in the past.. and really wasn't that open because her life was okay at the moment for now.. but we shared that chapter, told her and promised her that if she does the invitations that we give, and read and what not, she would notice something change in her.. that she would feel a seed grow in her.. again.. very skeptical.. but she said why not.. so she read a little bit at first.. then a little more.. then she went to a young adult center and liked it.. she started to pray on her own every now and then.. then a little more and a little more.. and every week was a noticable change in her.. even though she was trying to fight it, the gospel of jesus christ was touching her life and we were excited.. it's neat so see the light of christ fill someone up.. Well eventually she went to church.. she liked church.. she prayed out loud for the first time and thought that was a neat exprience.. and she just opened up more and more, and made many new friends and made so much progression.. so last wednesday, we shared once again Alma 32.. asked her if she remembered it.. she said she did.. asked her if this chapter was applicable to her.. and she said it was.. We were able to bare our testimony's about how much growth and progression we have seen in her.. and I lie not, she was glowing.. absolute transformation. We set a baptismal date with her.. for September 24th.. and as we were walking away from that appointment My companion had tears in his eyes, and I had a itch in mine.. so powerful.. so much joy.. One of the best moments of my mission so far.. ;)
We made great steps with our other investigators as well.. Dwight and Natasha we talked to them about the commandments and what they need to do to be baptized.. Dwight committed to living the word of wisdom, and as of yesterday has been clean.. there really excited for there baptism which is now on the 27th of august.. Hendryetta came to church once again.. meaning all of our baptismal dates were at church! It was amazing.. Tom, said he would come to the baptismal service of Dwight and natasha, and we gave him Joseph Smith the prophet of the restoration movie to watch as well as the movie about President Monson.. Another Investigator, who has been investigating for two years wants to be baptized this coming saturday! But that won't happen.. but hopefully in a couple weeks.. an inactive family came to church that we've been visiting! That was super, wish I had more time to tell you about that appointment.. and the other miracles that happened this week.. but.. alas.. I don't have any more time! Thank you all for your emails! Love you all so much!
Pray for these people.. there all going through some sort of adversity but there making it.. slowly but surely there making it to baptism!! ;)
Tot Ziens!
Elder Mohrman
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
weekly email...two days late :)
Hoi Familie!
You were worried, weren't you? Admit it.. you all thought, that I had forgotten about you guys! But of course I haven't, Just late that's all, it's what happens when you spend 5-6 hours of your p-day cleaning your apartment.. it was insane, our mission president is re-dedicating all of the mission apartments, which means for us.. cleaning.. and lot's of it.. but that's the reason why no email on Monday.. not going to be a regular occurance no worries!
Thank you all for the emails and the letters, I had mentioned a few weeks ago, that I hadn't written a letter in a long long time (no need to repeat how long that was =0) but now I'm happy to say that I am almost all caught up with the letter writing thing, and most have been shipped off and on the way! Yay.... =0 sorry for being so late with them!
What a week we had, some really great great lessens with our investigators and also less actives.. I had this past week District Leader Council, where all the district leaders come and we get a special conference with our president, it was sweet, learned a lot, things that we talked about the most were baptismal dates and church attendance and how important they are to a investigators progression.. well it made me think about all of our investigators, and i was able to apply what I learned with our investigators and make some really big steps in the right direction! We had 8 progressing investigators this past week, a record for me.. I've never been so blessed so far on my mission! It was also pretty crazy at the council.. every other district leader in the mission has been out for over a year and a half.. and then there was me.. out for 11 months.. felt pretty young =0 Dwight and Natasha the couple with the baptismal dates for August 20th, they were doing so good! and then this last lessen yesterday, dwight had a cigarette.. man, that was a bummer.. we thought they were clean.. but we have another lessen on thursday, and we'll once again talk about word of wisdom with them, but who knows, the baptismal date may have to be pushed back.. hope not.. but possibility, still great, awesome and going to get baptized.. it's just stopping and overcoming these small things!
After I'm done sending this email, we'll be off to an appointment with Aaltje, who is the sister of Hendryetta who has a baptismal date.. she's had some amazing experiences these past few weeks, and on monday said her first ever prayer out loud.. amazing.. were going to talk to her and commit her to baptism today.. and hopefully her sister as well petra.. that's the plan! So we'll see how it goes.. Other investigators.. making progress not much to report about.. life is good.. a member asked me just this morning if i've been fasting a lot.. because i don't look as fat as I did before.. ha ha anyways.. thanks again for all you do,
Love you loads,
Tot Ziens!
Elder Mohrman
You were worried, weren't you? Admit it.. you all thought, that I had forgotten about you guys! But of course I haven't, Just late that's all, it's what happens when you spend 5-6 hours of your p-day cleaning your apartment.. it was insane, our mission president is re-dedicating all of the mission apartments, which means for us.. cleaning.. and lot's of it.. but that's the reason why no email on Monday.. not going to be a regular occurance no worries!
Thank you all for the emails and the letters, I had mentioned a few weeks ago, that I hadn't written a letter in a long long time (no need to repeat how long that was =0) but now I'm happy to say that I am almost all caught up with the letter writing thing, and most have been shipped off and on the way! Yay.... =0 sorry for being so late with them!
What a week we had, some really great great lessens with our investigators and also less actives.. I had this past week District Leader Council, where all the district leaders come and we get a special conference with our president, it was sweet, learned a lot, things that we talked about the most were baptismal dates and church attendance and how important they are to a investigators progression.. well it made me think about all of our investigators, and i was able to apply what I learned with our investigators and make some really big steps in the right direction! We had 8 progressing investigators this past week, a record for me.. I've never been so blessed so far on my mission! It was also pretty crazy at the council.. every other district leader in the mission has been out for over a year and a half.. and then there was me.. out for 11 months.. felt pretty young =0 Dwight and Natasha the couple with the baptismal dates for August 20th, they were doing so good! and then this last lessen yesterday, dwight had a cigarette.. man, that was a bummer.. we thought they were clean.. but we have another lessen on thursday, and we'll once again talk about word of wisdom with them, but who knows, the baptismal date may have to be pushed back.. hope not.. but possibility, still great, awesome and going to get baptized.. it's just stopping and overcoming these small things!
After I'm done sending this email, we'll be off to an appointment with Aaltje, who is the sister of Hendryetta who has a baptismal date.. she's had some amazing experiences these past few weeks, and on monday said her first ever prayer out loud.. amazing.. were going to talk to her and commit her to baptism today.. and hopefully her sister as well petra.. that's the plan! So we'll see how it goes.. Other investigators.. making progress not much to report about.. life is good.. a member asked me just this morning if i've been fasting a lot.. because i don't look as fat as I did before.. ha ha anyways.. thanks again for all you do,
Love you loads,
Tot Ziens!
Elder Mohrman
Monday, August 1, 2011
happy pday!
Familie!
Hey.. what's up? Everything is just great and... wonderful here! I'll just start off with the biggest news, we set two new baptismal dates this past week with a young couple.. there amazing, a true miracle, they were former investigators about a year ago, there whole problem was law of chastity, they were living together.. they got married this past april, and then showed up in church, we got an appointment with them, set the baptismal date for august 20th! So real soon, and there on fire, I went through all the baptismal interview questions with them, and there great, passed every one.. we still want to review everything with them though before hand, and we made a great plan on how to do so! Really excited, as well because our other baptismal date, Hendryetta went to church for the first time! And she brought her boyfriend along! Miracles.. gotta love them right? ;) We have some really great appointments set up for tonight, and if all goes well,
then we'll have hopefully 2-3 more baptismal dates.. really hope we can create an eviornment for the spirit to testify to these people, but me and ELder Davies, are getting better and better at teaching in unity.. I've felt the most comfortable teaching alongside him, then any other companion I've had so far. It's been great.
We started delivering cookies now! The referal that we received from the return missionary a few weeks ago, he had told us that he didn't have any time to meet with us, but we made him cookies and delivered them to him, and he really appreciated it.. said that he wants to talk with us, and so were going to go back in a week, when his children aren't around.. it was awesome, glad that he just got back into the picture.. he's an amazing guy..
Well.. There's a lot more that has happened, but.. my mind is drawing a blank.. so I think I might have to end this pretty short this week =P Sorry.. but, hey know that i love you all, and appreciate all the emails you send..
Take care,
Elder Mohrman
Hey.. what's up? Everything is just great and... wonderful here! I'll just start off with the biggest news, we set two new baptismal dates this past week with a young couple.. there amazing, a true miracle, they were former investigators about a year ago, there whole problem was law of chastity, they were living together.. they got married this past april, and then showed up in church, we got an appointment with them, set the baptismal date for august 20th! So real soon, and there on fire, I went through all the baptismal interview questions with them, and there great, passed every one.. we still want to review everything with them though before hand, and we made a great plan on how to do so! Really excited, as well because our other baptismal date, Hendryetta went to church for the first time! And she brought her boyfriend along! Miracles.. gotta love them right? ;) We have some really great appointments set up for tonight, and if all goes well,
then we'll have hopefully 2-3 more baptismal dates.. really hope we can create an eviornment for the spirit to testify to these people, but me and ELder Davies, are getting better and better at teaching in unity.. I've felt the most comfortable teaching alongside him, then any other companion I've had so far. It's been great.
We started delivering cookies now! The referal that we received from the return missionary a few weeks ago, he had told us that he didn't have any time to meet with us, but we made him cookies and delivered them to him, and he really appreciated it.. said that he wants to talk with us, and so were going to go back in a week, when his children aren't around.. it was awesome, glad that he just got back into the picture.. he's an amazing guy..
Well.. There's a lot more that has happened, but.. my mind is drawing a blank.. so I think I might have to end this pretty short this week =P Sorry.. but, hey know that i love you all, and appreciate all the emails you send..
Take care,
Elder Mohrman
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