March 12

Hoi familie!!

Thank you for the emails mom and dad!  A lot of good things have happened this week, with the best of course being the baptism of Jen.  Beautiful service, a lot of people stayed and supported him, his father came, and also his girlfriend, and what was really neat was his father started to cry, feeling the spirit so strong.  He wants to meet with us now =) Monique is doing great!, had some rocky moments as does everyone it seems like the week before baptism.. we went over almost every day to Jen to just make sure he was doing alright, to visit, to talk.. satan was working on him, but he fought through it, and now he is filled with the light of christ.. same with monique, were going to go as much as possible, she came to church yesterday for the 3rd time, had wonderful talks with the bishop and other members, she just can't wait to be baptized, and she will!  She also stayed for the baptism, loved it.. and Sonia!  Wow.. she is doing just wonderful.. but so sad, because her man won't marry with her yet!  She wants to be baptized so much, she has such a strong testimony, but Martinez.. something is holding him back, she is praying and were praying that the spirit will soften his heart.. it was tough, after church, she pulled me aside and asked what the options were if Marinez wouldn't marry her.. I had to explain that either they get married or she would need to find a new place.. not easy, and we don't want that at all.. but I have the feeling that when he comes to the church for the first time, he'll not want to leave.  And his daughter Joanne is scheduled to be baptized on the 8th of April.. so if he hasn't softened his heart by then, his heart will be softened then i'm positive of it.. there such an amazing family, I love them so much.. it's amazing to think back to when I first met them, clear back in December, and going through all the different expiriences that I had with them through the past few months, how sonia couldn't get past being re-baptized, and now she wants it with her whole heart and soul.. Everything will go well with them, keep them in your prayers, they need all the support they can get.  Other neat expiriences besides these wonderful people preparing for baptism, God blessed us with many new investigators this week, we visited a former investigator, turns out they are a part member family, the woman was baptized when she was super young, and doesn't remember much, and she has a daughter who is 13, Florica and Florina are there names, they came to church this sunday, stayed for the baptism also, Loved it!  Florina is about the same age as Joanne and so I told Joanne to lead Florina to all the different classes which she did, and they hit it off right away, it was so cool to see, two investigator girls making a friendship in the church.. Were going again tonight, and hopefully we'll be able to commit her to baptism.. I think that it will be likely =)  We introduced the book of mormon to another man, a man from ghana, and after sharing our testimony's of the book, we asked him how he felt, what his feelings were, and all he could say was, "I'm just excited.."   Were going back tuesday to share the restoration.  We visited a referal last friday, a headquarters referral, from another mission, a woman is getting baptized in southern belgium, and she sent her sisters information to our mission.  We went by, and we met actually that woman who is getting baptized, she was there visiting her mother, we came unnannounced but we had a nice chat on the door, we caught her by suprise, we left, and then we hear her calling us back, so we go back, and the womans mother was there and she wanted us to meet her, turns out that she was just at that moment talking about the church to her mother, trying to help her understand that the church and her decision was a good thing, and then we come by, she took it as a miracle, which it was, and we went back and met then the other sister and her ENTIRE family this past sunday, 5 new investigators a wonderful family.. really neat.  We went by another ghanian family, also a referal, unnannounced and we met the wife of the man who ordered the book of mormon, we went by again last sunday, he shared why he ordered the book of mormon, he had went to ghana, went to church there, saw changes in his friends lives, and he wanted the same thing, he said flat out, "I am here to follow your teachings.."  A lot of neat things, it had been a few weeks since we had some new investigators which was fine because we were focusing on the progressing investigators that we have, but now that there starting to get baptized, god sent us new people.. It's amazing how he works, because now were able to put much more thought and attention to these people then if we would have found them just a few weeks earlier.. wonderful, wonderful, wonderful things are happening =)  I'm anxious with this coming transfer because I just know and feel i'll be leaving, which is so sad to me, to see all this happen, naturally I want to stay and see where it all goes!  But i've been here for 6 months and I've seen wonderful things, so I will just enjoy these last few weeks that I may have here in Antwerpen =)  

Love you all so much, thanks for all your support and examples! 

Your son, brother and friend

Elder Mohrman 

Hoi Dames en Heren!

Beste Familie!

 

Thanks for all the emails!  Very nice, and wonderful.. I enjoyed them immensly!  Great hearing from you all and your expiriences from this past week!  It's a great exciting time!  You've been hearing of all the miracles that i have been seeing for the past few weeks, and now this coming sunday Jen Onzo Chako from belgium will be baptized, and Moniek Rattan from Suriname will be baptized the sunday after that, so in less than two weeks!  Sonia is preparine also to be baptized, she just needs to get married to her man.. complicated situation, but I think she will be baptized in April, and for certain her daugther Joanne will be baptized on the 8th of April a little over a month.. amazing, amazing amazing.. I really don't know what to say about these people, there just doing really amazing, all of them were in church, Sonia came for the first time to the investigators sunday school class in dutch, she had been going to the gospel doctrine class, and she loved it!  Because it was simpler, smaller, gave her an opportunty to participate, which she did, bore her testimony in the class, very beautiful.  We had an appointment with her last friday, and we talked about being positive, I thought of the hymn "count your many blessings" and so we were at the church and I told her to wait a sec while I got get a hymn book, and when I came back and showed her the hymn, she said that she was just barely singing it to Elder Da Cruz.. It was a neat lessen, because it wasn't a lessen that is on the teaching record or required to teach before baptism.. it was a lessen completely based on what she needed.. it was powerful, and she says multiple times, over and over she wants to be baptized, she wants to be baptized.. Amazing.. just need to have Martinez, her man to soften his heart, and they'll be a great family in the church;  Sonia, Moniek, and also Jen, all have been fellowshipped really well by the ward, it was monieks first full day at the church, and we really made it a point to introduce her to everyone, and many people said after to us, that they want to stay for the baptismal services of both jen and also Moniek's.. Really great! 

Well this past week went to brussel's twice, first to pick up Elder Da Cruz's passport, took the opportunity to see some sites in brussels =P  And then I got a call from my mission president, and he assigned me to a 'secret mission', where I was to return to brussels this week.. I guess a change in law over here in the netherlands and belgium is that american driver licenses are no longer valid to use.. so the area office over the cars, were threatening to take away all of our vehicles.  So my president sent me and another elder to brussels to see if we could exchange our american liscenses for belgium ones.. which we were succesful in doing.. problem is.. they took our american licenses and it takes a month to get our belgium one (so i'll probably be done being in an area with a car).. and we signed everything away on french documents, and they believe that we "surrendered our licenses" so were probably not going to be able to exchange them back at the end of our missions =0  Which means i'll probably have to exchange it back when I get to the states, which will probably be messy.. but the office elder are working on it, and figuring out what we'll need to do to get our american licenses back!   It's a weird feeling to know i'm not technically legal to even drive in America!  But it'll all work out, no problem =)  

Yesterday, we went to a fireside, and the speaker was a jewish business man, talked all about judiasm, and what not, very interesting.  Enjoyed it a lot.  Wish I could tell you more about these things and other things that have happened!, however i'm out of time!  Love you loads,

Your son, brother, and friend!

Elder Mohrman 

Hoi Familie!!

Hoi there Familie!

The first day of my twelfth transfer is today!  Wow, time sure does fly by.. this past group of missionaries that went home was a little hard for me, I lost three former companions and the sister missionaries that were in the MTC when I first got there!  I now have one companion that has been out longer than me left in the mission, and sister kraemer, is on her last transfer!  Good golly gee, better not to think of such things! =P 

But I am doing just wonderful, had some wonderful neat expiriences this past week, that I would be more than happy to share with you all!  I think one of the neatest cooles stories I have ever heard of happend this past week, a Elder who was going home in my zone, on Wednesday morning an hour before he got on the train to go to the mission office, baptized a man, it was a last second thing, the man had asked that elder to baptize him, and he was scheduled to be baptized the previous saturday, but things didn't work out, because he was moving here to Antwerpen, so they post-poned the baptism a couple weeks and we were going to baptize him here, after the Elder of course would of been home, but our mission president called up, and said if he's ready he should be baptized as soon as possible, and that was on Tuesday night, we go in a mad scramble organizing everything, a long with the other two elders, and we got then the permission to baptize him the morning of transfers, and Elder Wilkins then had the chance to baptize him.. There was only missionaries there, because we called all our district and told them to come, even the ones that weren't being transferred, so for Buddah's baptism we had only missionaries there, no members.. I felt like that's how it would have been in the early days, when they baptized people, no members, just the missionaries.. pretty cool story, we went on a mad-dash trying to fill up the font, because we had problems with that of course, so we were boiling water in big pots, and filled the font, by hand pretty much!  It was crazy!  But it was done, and the man was confirmed yesterday in our ward. 

Had some great miracles with other investigators, Monique and Adela, we have been teaching them for the past 3 weeks or so, teaching them slowly, and very clearly, I think I have never been so bold or clear when teaching the restoration as I have been with those two.. it's been strange, but they got the message, and said that before they would commit to be baptized they would have to pray about it.. well we went over there, and we start talking, and we shared a lessen about the dispensations, and we used pictures and all that, so they could see the history of god and how he's dealt with his children in the past, and of course baptism came up again.. and we asked them if they would be baptized again if they came to know these things were true, and Monique starts asking us some questions, and then said that a couple of days before, she had been thinking about it, and she felt really good, and she feels that it was god who told her that this is a right thing to do.. We were blown away, was not expecting that!  So she's super excited and is preparing herself for the 7th of April, but we want to move that up since she has a testimony now.. just a really neat feeling hearing somone share that they recieved an answer, especially with someone, who there concern about baptism was, that they had already been baptized, and by immersion, and they were fully aware of what they were doing! But she overcame all that, and god spoke to her, and she wants to follow god, so now she's going to be baptized in his church!  And she came to church as well!  Took her a while, because she didn't want to come with us, so she got lost, but she found it, sat in in the relief society, and I think she liked it!  So that was a pretty huge step that she took.. Jen Onzo, (found out that Onzo was the last name of the man =0)  Jen is doing amazing, we've taught him almost everything now, all the major ones, and he's accepted all the things we've shared with no problems, with enthouthiasm even!  Sometimes sitting in on his lessens it doesn't seem real, because he's just so prepared.. it's been a huge miracle, he was also in church for the 4th week in a row.. And then there is Sonia, had a wonderful lessen on the plan of salvation with her and her husband, then on friday we organized for her daughter and her to come to the young womens acitivty, so while her daughter was having a blast, we went also to the church and just had a great conversation with her, she talked about her problems, we listened, and waited and then she started talking about the book of mormon, talked about how she had read Alma 5 all the way through to Alma 34 in one night, said how she's been talking about the book of mormon with her family, and how she wants to send book of mormons to different family members, because she has the "feeling" that it will help them.. then she started talking about baptism.. She is also one, also with her man, that she was baptized, been baptized twice actually, but baptized by immersion, and made the choice fully aware and with the attention of making a covenant with god.. difficult, it's been hard for her to accept that she needs to be baptized, but she understands the restoration, she understands why we are asking her to be baptized again.. she explained to us that a few days before she was thinking, thinking about our visits thinking about her problems that keep stacking up, and she said that she said a prayer and asked god, if the reason why she was having all the problems is because she's not baptized.. that also suprised us, and made us super happy, because now she was asking specific questions about baptism.. She said that all she wants to do is follow Jesus Christ, and if she has to be baptized again she'd do it, but she said that she needs to have a very clear answer for her to take that step.. she progressing, it's coming.. keep praying for, pray that she'll receive that clear answer! 

Sonia and her kids were also in the church, so church was very packed and very busy, and my companion and I were running all over the place trying to make sure everything was in order... tireing but fulfilling for sure.  Some Americans from Utah were there visiting, a man took a picture with me and had me give him your guys phone number so he could call and let you know that "your son, is doing well!" All I could remember is dads number so I think that's the one that I gave him.. Hope I didn't mix up his and the house number =0  Also one of the sisters from my olders who went home, came to Antwerpen with her parents, like I said that was super weird, and also we had a lot of other people come to church, less-actives, and what not, a really good sunday, and as icing on the good week, Isaac taught the english sunday school for his very first time, so it was pretty neat to see.. he's continuing on his path and his progression.. he asked some questions about the sister who was with her parents, and I said, that's what some parents do, they come pick up there son or daughter, and I told him that you were coming in september, and that I was going to come like that sister missionary and visit him and Christiana with my parents.. He was excited =)

Well love you family!

Take care, and have a wonderful week, thanks for all the emails!

--Elder Mohrman

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Hoi Familie!! Febuary 27, 2012

Hoi Familie!

Hoe gaat het met leven??

God is great, and we had another wonderful week in this city called Antwerpen!  So many miracles!  So much to share, where to begin, where to begin.. well let's start off with the investigators, Jen!  He's amazing, he's doing it, he had an addiction to marijuana, pretty severe, but for the past few weeks, ever since we introduced the word of wisdom, he's made self goals, and plans to stopping, planned the whole thing out, and he's followed through with everything, and his final day was this past saturday, and in celebration he wore a suit for the first time to church, to show that he is a new man, on a new path, he's wanted no help from us, because he has said that it's something he must do by himself, but we gave him a priesthood blessing after church, more of a sealing of his own committment to stop, it was neat, he was emotional and thanked us for giving him the blessing.. were hoping to move his date up a week because he is just ready.. amazing man, he's went to parties where there was temptations of every kind, and he' s stared it in the face and overcame everything that satan threw at him! 

Next stop Sonia, we had an amazing sunday, one of the best sundays of my mission that there wasn't a baptism.. serious, and I don't say that lightly.  After church, after the exprience with Jen, we went by Sonia, she wasn't able to come to church, we were worried so we came by, you know the norm.  We start talking, she asks questions about trials, and why does god sometimes acts like he doesn't answer prayers.. we read a couple of scriptures from the story of alma and his people after they fled the presence of King Noah, how they were put in bondage when they had done everything they were asked to do!  She got it, and she was comforted, she hasn't been reading because of the stress and tiredness of life, we again turned to th book of mormon and read great verses about scripture study, again she got it, and committed to read every day, rain or shine, tired or not, she said she would, the spirit was very strong, and finally we started talking about baptism again, i've shared her story I believe, from the first contact with her, to the period of no conatct, to once again having contact, all the prayers and fasting on behalf for her, her concern about being baptized again, because she has already been baptized.. all came together at this point, and she said that she has been connecting the dots, and she shared some personal stories about her life and how she now sees that god was preparing her for this moment to accept his gospel, she said that she hopes she can be baptized next month, her only concern is financial and she needs to save up and what not for her baptism.. we once again turned to the book of mormon, read the classic Mosiah 18, told her that this was what God expects and requires of her to be baptized and that it said nothing about money in there, spirit was so strong, first time that she had ever said that she wanted to and was planning on being baptized, we extended a date, and she accepted.. and even if she doesn't make that date, she'll be baptized, she's committed herself to this.. it was amazing, and her daughter Joanne is also on board with a date now for March 17th.. So much joy, so much happiness, it was truly a miracle, Sonia connected the dots and is going to be baptized!! 

But of course, the day was not over, Moniek and Adela people we set baptismal dates with last week, also weren't at church, so we stopped by and visited them.. Moniek the super positive one, she comes out, and is so excited to see us, she sits us down and explains how she was going to be late to our church, so she just decided to go to her church, while she was there, she heard a voice saying "go home,"  she heard it three times, before she finally decided she should listen and go home, she arrived 5 minutes before us.  She was so amazed, and we were so amazed, and she said that she will always come to our church that she learned her lessen, we had felt that since she had her answer maybe we could move her date up to March 17th instead of in April, but she didn't give us a chance to ask, she asked us if it would be possible if she could be baptized on the 17th since she heard we were having a service then, we said yes of course!  We explained however what needs to happen though if she will be baptized on that day, and she is fully committed to doing it.  Amazing, and then we decided to share all these miracles with our ward mission leader, Brother Nuyens who is a 70 year old man who just does his best, we tell him our stories and miracles, and he gets choked up.  Amazing, amazing, amazing..

Well I hope you all have also had a good week =)

Love you loads,

Elder Mohrman

Another good week...

Hoi there Familie!!

Another week, another month!  Had a pretty okay week, not so much excitement as the previous week, but nevertheless a good week.  Last week a man came to church, his name is Onzo, born and raised here in belgium, came with a member, just to check it out.  Loved the church, loved the baptismal service, and we met with him twice this past week talking about a lot of different things, he's awesome, keeping committments, really excited about what he's found here, came to church again this past week, had some great lessens, on the restoration and prayer in priesthood that really touched him, and to top it off, he went to school with some members, and they were super excited to see him come to church, I've never had members come up to me before and ASK to come on joint teach.. pretty cool, things are looking very good for him, he has a good foundation already to carry on in learning the gospel.  He was the only one though that came to church.. pretty sad, saturday night, we committed 9 people to church, all said they would come, all had been reminded 3-4 times in the week, but.. helaas.. they didn't show, not to say there not positive anymore!  Just means we have to work that much harder, and pray that much harder for them!  Sonia, love that woman, but I feel like she might be the modern day Job!  Everything you can think of is just piling up on her.. Its so sad to see, because it's hindering her progression!  But were fighting for her, I don't think i've ever prayed more intensly for someone on my mission, she's a special one, and she'll come around, she just needs prayers!  So pray for her, and if and when you go to the temple, please put her name in the temple.. She became super sick this weekend which is why she didn't come to church, it's amazing, sometimes with some people, you really feel the adversary working against them, he really doesn't want sonia to be baptized.. but solutions are being found, and she also has a good foundation in the church with members and what not, and she'll weather this storm.  Kwame.. his addiction is killing him!  But we had a great lessen on saturday, we asked him to make a goal, of when he can be stopped with alcohol and Weed, and he said one month, so we gave him a poster of jesus christ being baptized by John the baptist, and told him to hang it up on his wall, and to hang up a calander right by it, and every day he goes without smoking or drinking he can cross of his days, a way for him to see how much he truly is progressing.. we'll see what happens, but we haven't given up on him!  Really cool exprience with another investigator, her name is monique, she is a friend of another investigator and she sat in on a lessen a couple weeks ago, she has been searching for a church for a very, very long time, has been to every kind of church you can imagine!  And she's heard nothing but bad things about the mormon religion, and so finally since we were there, she decided to finally find out what we were all about!  She asked us the classic questions about who and what is "mormon", and if we believed in the bible, so we were able to explain, what the name of the church really is.. she loved it.  She said "Oh, I like that name much better!" and we said "Yeah, we do too! Because it truly is the church of jesus christ!"  Well anyways we didn't have an extra book of mormon on us, but the other investigator had an extra one, and she gave it to her friend monique to read, who was super excited because she said that she was going to ask her friend for a book anyways because she had nothing to read, and she said that she'll read it!  Then on Saturday, I was cooking, then I had the thought, call Monique!  So I told Elder Da Cruz to call her and she had been reading like crazy in the book of mormon!  Can't put the book down, and she said that though she hasn't read all of it, she believes it's the word of god, were going over tonight to have a lessen with just her, I'm excited for how it will go.. so lot's of wonderful miraculous things just keep on happening here in good ol' antwerpen! 

Love you all loads!

Elder Mohrman

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