January 30, 2012 I'm happy...

Hoi Familie! 

How is everything going?? Thank you so much for all the emails!! I think I got an email from most people in the family, which doesn't happen every week!  Thank you so much =)  Another chapter of the story of Isaac and Christiana is complete, Isaac baptized his wife yesterday, and this coming sunday she will become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints, beautiful story, cute new young family of the church.  I love them with all my heart.  Another family that I love with all my heart, Sonia!  And her kids.. and they came once again to church yesterday, stayed for the baptism.. miracles left and right.. we had two great appointments with her last week, even brought Isaac on joint teach, the second appointment met the husband, and tonight we'll read Alma 32 with her, and invite her to be baptized, and you know, I really feel like she'll say yes.  And if she's not ready for a date tonight, I have no doubt whatsoever that she will be baptized.  It's an amazing feeling, really, when you care so much about someone, you pray for them, you fast for them, and then you see god's hand in there lives blessing them in ways they can't even imagine.. It's amazing seeing people grow in the gospel, it's amazing how the gospel changes and improves lives.. I was reading in the Book of Mormon the other day, and I found the "Return Missionary" chapter, Alma 26.. Great chapter and one that I'm starting to relate to already, and one that I know that I will relate too at the end of my mission.. Hopefully a chapter that every Return missionary relates too.. It's beautiful, and a few months ago, when I was still in spijkenisse, I sent an email home expressing how I was feeling.. I said I felt Happy.  Well the other night I was laying in my bed just thinking about everything, and I came to the conclusion that the best way to describe how I was feeling, is I'm just happy again.  So many things is happening, so many people to teach, so many blessings just keep pouring in.. We have another man, also from Ghana, who was a referral from a set of sister missoinaries in Amsterdam, we taught him a lessen about prophets, we told him that there was a prophet on the earth today, and asked if he wanted to know if that was true or not.. he said of course he did, and when he prayed as we left, he said a very beautful, sincere prayer asking if there was indeed a prophet on the earth.. Were really excited about him, and also, I think it's a sign, I took a few spanish lessens from a sister in the ward you know, next think I know, we have many south american investigators!!  They just keep popping up, I think I'm going to learn spanish just because I'm surrounded by it so much =P  But it's been great, had a pretty cool moment yesterday in church, we had a combined priesthood and relief society, and all four of us missionaries were translating, my companion into french, sister kraemer into french too I think, me and the other sister were translating into english.. just an interesting fun exprience, I've realized while doing translation the few time that i have done it, it is just teaching.. I don't get all the words, just the gist of what is being said, so then I just teach the subject, and the lady that I was translating too, she just started asking questions, and so really instead of translation, just a had a nice discussion with this lady who is a little less-active.. cool expireince.. So much more to share, but out of time!  Thank you again for all the emails, it makes my day when I get to hear from you all.. Have a wonderful day! 

Your son, bro, and friend!

-Elder Mohrman

photos from Jan 23rd email...

Hoi Familie Mohrman!

Hoi Familie!

Hoe gaat het met jullie?? I had a really wonderful week, thank you for asking! =)  So at the beginning of the week, my companion and I, Elder Da Cruz, we took a step back and we said to ourselves we need to find new people!  We've been finding a little bit, but we've been holding out on current investigators and finding other activities to fill up our days.. but this week, we said we were going to change all that, we were going to dedicate the week of just finding, finding, finding!  And of course that's not at all what happened =P  So many random things kept coming up that ruined our planned day, we went with Isaac and christiana to the "gemeente huis" I forget the word in english, it's where legaltiy stuff takes place.. government building for Antwerpen, but anyways we went there for about 3 hours with Isaac and I served as a translator for Isaac.. super crazy, but everything worked out, and all the problems that Isaac had been having with legality issues were settled, which he was very grateful for since he's been having these issues for a couple months!  We then went another day to the hospital for a couple hours to help another recent convert, and just different odds and ends throughout the week.. but we still had our normal appointments with Isaac and cristiana, and with other people as well.. Cristiana is doing really well!  We went over all the baptismal interview questoins and she has such a sweet pure testimony!  Isaac, blessed the sacrament for the first time yesterday, and they really are just a happy "soon to be" mormon family..   Even though we weren't able to spend so much time on finding like we were planning, the Lord blessed us still with New investigators, a couple of families came out of nowhere, one from suriname, and one from Equador, we had lessens with them, they both agreed to take the lessens.. Sonia, oh man, we had no contact with her for the longest time, called her up out of the blue with hopes that she would answer, she did!  She came to church with her two children, turns out one of the sisters in the ward is her sons school teacher.. they really enjoyed church, and she said that she "has a lot of questions" for us.. so we had the goal for new investigators, to replenish our teaching pool.. and we got them, just not in ways that we expected or even planned.. it's amazing how that works, but really, really excited for the coming weeks and the potential this place has to just explode.. We also had a meeting with the stake president and our mission president, as zone leaders that's our responsiblity as well, and it was interesting to be in a meeting like that where decisions were made how to better help the stake with missionary work.. so it was a good week!  Really good week, sunday was such a joyful day, when we were able to get sonia to church, she was someone that has been on my mind for weeks!! Praying, even fasting.. that she would in some way be able to come to church.. and it happened, and a lot of miracles happened for her, she was really touched at church.. Kwame and Elizabeth will sadly not be being baptized this sunday with Christiana, they need to wait a couple of weeks, but Kwame came and everything to church, so I hope he handles the news okay.. pray for him! 

Well I love you family, your the best, I really appreciate the Kent Williams c.d, going to listen to that as I drive around from place to place!  Attached a few pictures, the one with the belgium family is Simon and his family, we went over there last saturday, and had lunch with them, really interesting and a really good visit.; they have respect for the mormons now I think =)  I asked for a copy of his report that he's turning in, so that'll be interesting to see what he has to say about us.. had to straighten out some anti stuff with him =P

But anyways, love you again, have a wonderful week!

--Elder Mohrman

yet another happy week!!!!

Hoi Familie!!

 Ik hope alles goed met jullie is!!  It was a good week last week, we kind of have been sifting through investigators for a while, but were starting to get some more investigators that are actually investigating!  We met this one man, his name is Ali, he's from iraq, and in fact worked with the american army for many years during the height of the iraqi war.  It was through the american service men that he learned about jesus christ, and started to believe.. he lived in italy for a long long time, so he's fluent in italian, and that's where he met the church, and he studied with missionaries there and really loves the book of mormon and church activities!  We gave him an arabic book of mormon, and he has been reading that like crazy, in one evening, he read all the way to Jacob 2.. craziness, he's worried about baptism thought, because all his family is muslim.. so he's said he's not ready, but he's very positive.. we read Moroni's promise, and when we explained it, he said, "okay, let us pray then, and ask if it's true.." so he bowed his head, said a silient prayer, and were a little taken back, but we do the same, and when he was done, he looked at us and smiled and nodded and asked "that's the holy ghost right,?" but the name of the holy ghost in itailian, and we nod, and say yes.. that's the holy ghost.. so he was happy and we left, and now we'll see where it goes!  Christiana and Isaac are doing wonderful as usual, had a wonderful lessen with them this past week on dispensations and apostasy, got pictures and made a timeline so they could see the different prophets and periods of time, and gave an explanation of the bible.. christiana had great questions and was able to voice some concerns that she had, and isaac, wow, that man, he's amazing, before he would translate everything she said, especially when she had questions, but now he just answers and resolves her concerns.. so everything is going great, she understands, and Isaac received the priesthood yesterday, which was great!  He asked me to perform that, first time i have ever gave someone the preisthood before!  It was a pretty cool expirience, and afterwards, I said to Christiana "Your turn!" and she just smiled and laughed.. going super well.. Other than that, were still visiting and focusing on Kwame, trying to help him with his Addictions.. were really going to put an extra focus on him this week, to see if we can help him and his daugther reach there baptismal date at the end of the month.. so pray for them, they have it the most right now!  We've been visiting a lot of inactives, and seeing great things, had some really good visits.. a lot of these people, they just need love, and they need some attention, something that they feel they haven't had, we have re-activated one lady her name is nancy, a recent convert, really enjoying church again, and makes us nigerian food everytime we go over there.. this week we have a  lot of dinner appointments with less-acitves which is super!  Allows us the chance to get to know them better in a calm setting..  Simon, the refferal from Tiffani, sent me a text yesterday, and were going to be going over there on saturday, that should be fun, I'm really looking forward to that.. so yeah.. Other neat things that happened I witnessed for the first time in my life someone proposing to somone!  It happened also yesterday, it was the teacher of our sunday school class, he's a recent convert from nigeria, and his girlfriend is also a recent convert from nigeria, and during the middle of the lessen he pulls out the ring and asks her to marry her.. pretty cool stuff, pretty smooth! 

Well, hope that you all have a wonderful week! Love you loads,

-Elder Mohrman

another happy week

Hoi familie!!

Life is going just great over here in belgium!  Elder Da cruz is great, it's like we never stopped being companions the first time.. he's a great elder and i'm excited for our coming transfer together =)  We did a lot of traveling this past week, had zone leader council, that was Elder Da cruz's first day down here, and then he had a great first day as zone leader as he grabbed the wrong coat from the mission home!  In fact he grabbed Sis. Brubaker coat, (there about the same size =P) so our keys were left in the netherlands, and we had no way to get into our apartment that night when we found out about the mistake, so we spend the night over at some other elders apartment then drove all the way back up to the netherlands to get our keys.. it was a great first couple of days, great way to break him in for being a zone leader =)  We had a really great appointment with Isaac and Chrisitiana, we brought the bishop a long and he was able to talk with them and let them no what the following steps for them are as new members, and also what is expected as new members of them.. Isaac then had his interview with the bishop on sunday, and he will be receiveing the priesthood next sunday!  And they've also changed there minds and isaac will now baptize christiana most likely.. so cool.. and he's again asked me to give him the priesthood!  Kwame also came to church with elizabeth so we had all three of our baptismal dates in church, along with a suprise, a man who comes from Iraq, his name is Ali, i guess he had been going to "the book of mormon church" in italy for a while, and loved it there, and he really wanted a book of mormon in arabic, so we were able to give it to him, and then bring him to church on sunday, and set up another appointment with him later.. a miracle, and he seems super positive, so it'll be great to see where this leads.. Other investigators that we have have been gone, or stuff has been happening, so a part from our main base of investigators we losing all our other ones and so were going to be in finding mode here soon.. Thanks for all the emails, Love you loads, but gotta go! 

Take care,

Elder Mohrman

Happy New Year

Hoi Familie! 

 

Another transfer!  And... I am staying put, Elder Frahm is sadly gone, so I am getting a new, yet old companion!  Elder Da Cruz is coming!  My brazilian buddy, i'm excited i had a blast with him in Spijkenisse, and now we get round two with each other.. pretty interesting, doesn't happen very often that you get the chance to serve with someone in two different cities, but just another unique thing to add onto my list of unique things for my mission =) 

It was a good week, started off really really well, had some really neat lessen with people.. Sonia, she is from Suriname, we gave her a book of mormon a week before our second appointment, and when we came for the second appointment she had read all the way to the middle of Jacob!  Super cool lady, super prepared, came back talked about baptism, she had problems at first, but we sorted them out, and asked us if she would be able to come to our church!  Amazing right.. except she didn't come =0  We haven't been able to get contact with her, but we have a scheduled appointment for tonight, i have been praying and stressing about her for the past couple days, so i really do hope the appointment goes through.. It's heartbreaking when you find someone so prepared and have such a spiritual expirience with them, and then lose them for one reason or another.. it hurts inside =O I don't know if I ever told you about Dirk, but had an amazing first couple appointments with this man, he loved the book of mormon, read in it, testified of the truthfulness of it, said he felt goosebumps when he was talking to us, lost contact with him for two weeks, got back into contact with him, and he was just amazing, set a baptismal date with him, then that sunday, supposed to come to church, and texted us and said he recieved an answer from god and that he's going to stay protestant.. so sad, and he won't pick up or anything so we can't talk it out with him.. We had good appointments with Christiana as well... she is not going to be baptized this coming sunday however, she doesn't feel comfortable being baptized so soon after giving birth, an african culture thing, so she's going to wait out the "period of uncleaness" in there culture, and so she'll be baptized at the end of January now.. still really positive, and so i'm happy that i'm still going to be here! 

Kwame and Elizabeth, we invited them both to come to church, but they partied to hard, and weren't able to come =0  Teaching them is going slower, they just don't understand alot!  We have to teach using pictures, and object lessens which i haven't done my entire mission.. it's interesting, but they should also get baptized this coming transfer.. Well.. I already shared a little of the story with Tiffani about her refferal she gave me, it went really well, had a good conversation with the kid, and he dished out 70 euros treating us to lunch =0 And he texted us after saying his mom wants to cook for us.. so cool, return appointment, and we'll see how it goes! 

Well.. I suppose that's about all.. made my goals for this coming year, and number one on the list, is finishing my mission strong!  I figure the way i finish my mission will be a huge indicator how my life will go after the mission, finding drive to do things and what not, so there it is, written down now and official!  I will finish these last 8 months strong! =)  You all are my witnessess now!

Okay, let you know how everything is next week!
Chow (as they would say in brazil)

Elder Mohrman