Hoi Familie!
What a wonderful week! At least it sure feels like that when the sun is shining every day and my companion and I don't have to wear any jackets all week! Really nice.. For a couple days we just had our white shirts on.. It's interesting because now people gap and gawk and point and laugh ten times more than they did before.. but it's okay, at least they don't think were Jehovah Witnesses anymore!! Well.. at least the smart people.. =P
So for the past few months I've been thinking that I've been getting really fat.. Thinkin' that I'm pushing 180 pds or something.. well.. I just made a really great discovery.. our scale.. is in kilos.. and so what I was seeing was actually in kilo's and I'm only 75-78 kilos.. totally misread it.. and I did the conversion, and I've actually lost weight since the MTC!!! So much stress and guilty feelings as I ate different type of foods.. so.. yeah.. I'm not fat. Maybe that should of been the title of this email =P Thought I'd share that with you so you don't think I'm turning into a whale or somethin' out here!!
We had a really good week this week.. nothing too special with progressing investigators.. but we got a lot of new potential investigators. We went to the city of Maastricht for a couple of days, (just another big city in our area) and we had a lot of good experiences.. We got contacted by a couple ladies on back to back days.. which is not really normal.. the first one is from Peru, and she just came up and started talking to us because she knew we were mormon missionary's from our white shirts and just spilled her soul to us.. talked our ears off.. but we got her number and we have an appointment with her today in fact.. the next day were in maastricht were just chilling on the water front (maastricht has a huge river that goes inbetween it) (huge tourist city also) and this lady comes up and starts talking to us and asking us who we are and what not.. turns out she's from Romania and we also have an appointment with her today.. so pretty cool.. it makes missionary work easier when people come up and talk to you! ;) We also met with a referal we got from my old companion in Den Haag.. his name is Zahng.. from china.. been living here for 10 years.. doesn't speak any english just simple simple dutch.. and we were able to communicate with him with our simple dutch.. it was neat, he bought us McDonalds.. so cool experiences, cool people I got to meet...
With all these people that I got the opportunity to meet this week, made me think about all the different people i've met throughout my mission so far.. for me the people that I've gotten to know, mostly members, but also investigators and other missionary's even, I think is what I appreciate the most and love the most about my mission.. We have a couple members in Heerlen, that are just amazing people.. amazing families.. Example is a sister who was baptized in Suriname last December, her name is Zuster Van de Bos.. So nice.. so kind, and has a fiery testimony.. really reminds me a lot of Nancy back in Den Haag, my first baptism.. but Zuster VD Bos, she knows so many people, and talks to so many people about the gospel.. we have her son as an investigator right now and a couple other daughters as potentials.. Also the Ward Missionary and his family from heerlen.. the Chardon's.. there amazing as well.. and there's so many others in Heerlen and there's so many other's in the different cities I've served in.. easily the best part of my mission..
Well family, enjoy the week.. Happy Birthday to Tiffani.. hope you didn't think I forgot!! Just saving the best for last ;)
Tot Ziens
Liefde,
Elder Joseph V. Mohrman
Monday, April 11, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Heerlen...bummer...forgot what week....9
Hoi Familie!
Hoe gaat het met idereen?? Hopelijk alles is goed met jullie. So this past week was not bad.. weather is getting better and better every day.. we had our first day in the 70's.. oh man that was nice.. really hot and warm in a suit coat.. but hey.. no complaints.. I'm tired of the cold!
Last week for P-day we visited 6 different castles in our area.. that was pretty cool, granted.. some of them were just old rich man mansions that they just stuck the label "castle" on them.. but still really neat.. a lot of history.. don't know what were going to do today.. It's a little cold so I think were going to take a rustig day =P Went on a few exchanges this week first one was with Elder Taylor.. he's on his 2nd transfer.. so I got to play senior companion again ;) It was fun, he came to heerlen, and we had a few appointments and did some finding.. had a pretty neat experience, we have this investigator her name is Rosemary, she's from Jamaica.. we only meet with her once a week, because her husband is anti religion.. and because of that we don't have your number because she doesn't want us calling and having the husband answer.. so all we have is her word that she'll be at appointments.. and she's kept all of them for the past 6-7 weeks.. but.. this week.. she missed it.. and we had no way to contact her so it was kinda a bummer.. but as we were finishing up our consecrated hour.. we knock on Rosemary's best friends door, and she's in the house! So we were able to set up another appointment, and even have her friend as a potential now! It was pretty neat.. most would say coincidence.. but.. I don't think so.. it was random how we found her again.. she's a really sweet lady, I hope things work out with her.. bummer anti-god husbands, they just cause problems!!
Went on another exchange in Gent, Belgium, Elder Mickelsen did his little District meeting thing, so I got to go to Belgium for the day, and this time got paired up with a Greenie, who's only been in the land for two weeks.. so got to play senior companion a lot this week! It was fun, Elder Calkins is the Elder's name in Gent, and we actually had a lot of success.. taught like 5 lessens to people on the street.. had another appointment with one of there investigators.. and He got us lost! So.. cool exchange ;) It's interesting Belgium and Netherlands are very different.. the buildings in Belgium (or at least Gent) they look fake almost.. like something you'd see in Disney world or something.. I dunno.. it's just strange.. Feels almost 3rd worldish.. maybe because they don't have a government or something =P One lady we talked too, elder Calkins and I, she thought that Elder Calkins looked 16.. and so I asked how old she thought I was.. she said maybe I was born in like 1987!! ha ha It was funny because Elder Calkins is older than I am.. don't think I look that old do I??
Well I told you about my opportunity to give a member a blessing last week.. well this week I went on splits with her husband and we went to some former investigators that we have never met before.. and I got to give my first blessing in Dutch!! Wow.. pretty intense.. really simple, really basic.. but I remember Elder Oaks talk in the April Priesthood session Conference in 2010, so.. doesn't matter if it's simple or basic.. a blessing is a blessing.. it was a pretty neat experience.. the man started to cry, because he felt "heavy on his head" and his wife started to tear up as well.. I'm being really blessed on my mission concerning blessings.. pretty much every one that I've been apart of something really neat and powerful has happened..
Conference though, that was great. Period. (Kim =P) First session the Saturday morning started at 6 p.m live here.. and we were only allowed to watch it if we watched it with an investigator.. so we were scrambling all week trying to find someone, and we ended up going to an investigator's house, his name is serge he's from Congo.. doesn't speak English, and knows Dutch.. so I got to watch my first conference session in Dutch! check that off my bucket list ha ha it was interesting.. I was just glad to be able to watch it.. Then we went to Antwerpen for Priesthood sunday morning.. and then we stayed at our Bishop's house all day with his family and we watched Saturday afternoon, and Sunday Morning was live at 6 p.m.. so two sessions live.. two recorded sessions and we didn't get to see the last session.. kinda a bummer.. but it is what it is.. really loved Pres. Monsons talk on Temples.. then the choir sings Spirit of God.. powerful.. there was a lot of neat talks during conference.. but I've already spent enough time with this email'=P Thanks for the emails everyone.. Hope you all have a great wonderful week..
Ik houd van jullie!!!
Tot Ziens
--Elder Mohrman
Hoe gaat het met idereen?? Hopelijk alles is goed met jullie. So this past week was not bad.. weather is getting better and better every day.. we had our first day in the 70's.. oh man that was nice.. really hot and warm in a suit coat.. but hey.. no complaints.. I'm tired of the cold!
Last week for P-day we visited 6 different castles in our area.. that was pretty cool, granted.. some of them were just old rich man mansions that they just stuck the label "castle" on them.. but still really neat.. a lot of history.. don't know what were going to do today.. It's a little cold so I think were going to take a rustig day =P Went on a few exchanges this week first one was with Elder Taylor.. he's on his 2nd transfer.. so I got to play senior companion again ;) It was fun, he came to heerlen, and we had a few appointments and did some finding.. had a pretty neat experience, we have this investigator her name is Rosemary, she's from Jamaica.. we only meet with her once a week, because her husband is anti religion.. and because of that we don't have your number because she doesn't want us calling and having the husband answer.. so all we have is her word that she'll be at appointments.. and she's kept all of them for the past 6-7 weeks.. but.. this week.. she missed it.. and we had no way to contact her so it was kinda a bummer.. but as we were finishing up our consecrated hour.. we knock on Rosemary's best friends door, and she's in the house! So we were able to set up another appointment, and even have her friend as a potential now! It was pretty neat.. most would say coincidence.. but.. I don't think so.. it was random how we found her again.. she's a really sweet lady, I hope things work out with her.. bummer anti-god husbands, they just cause problems!!
Went on another exchange in Gent, Belgium, Elder Mickelsen did his little District meeting thing, so I got to go to Belgium for the day, and this time got paired up with a Greenie, who's only been in the land for two weeks.. so got to play senior companion a lot this week! It was fun, Elder Calkins is the Elder's name in Gent, and we actually had a lot of success.. taught like 5 lessens to people on the street.. had another appointment with one of there investigators.. and He got us lost! So.. cool exchange ;) It's interesting Belgium and Netherlands are very different.. the buildings in Belgium (or at least Gent) they look fake almost.. like something you'd see in Disney world or something.. I dunno.. it's just strange.. Feels almost 3rd worldish.. maybe because they don't have a government or something =P One lady we talked too, elder Calkins and I, she thought that Elder Calkins looked 16.. and so I asked how old she thought I was.. she said maybe I was born in like 1987!! ha ha It was funny because Elder Calkins is older than I am.. don't think I look that old do I??
Well I told you about my opportunity to give a member a blessing last week.. well this week I went on splits with her husband and we went to some former investigators that we have never met before.. and I got to give my first blessing in Dutch!! Wow.. pretty intense.. really simple, really basic.. but I remember Elder Oaks talk in the April Priesthood session Conference in 2010, so.. doesn't matter if it's simple or basic.. a blessing is a blessing.. it was a pretty neat experience.. the man started to cry, because he felt "heavy on his head" and his wife started to tear up as well.. I'm being really blessed on my mission concerning blessings.. pretty much every one that I've been apart of something really neat and powerful has happened..
Conference though, that was great. Period. (Kim =P) First session the Saturday morning started at 6 p.m live here.. and we were only allowed to watch it if we watched it with an investigator.. so we were scrambling all week trying to find someone, and we ended up going to an investigator's house, his name is serge he's from Congo.. doesn't speak English, and knows Dutch.. so I got to watch my first conference session in Dutch! check that off my bucket list ha ha it was interesting.. I was just glad to be able to watch it.. Then we went to Antwerpen for Priesthood sunday morning.. and then we stayed at our Bishop's house all day with his family and we watched Saturday afternoon, and Sunday Morning was live at 6 p.m.. so two sessions live.. two recorded sessions and we didn't get to see the last session.. kinda a bummer.. but it is what it is.. really loved Pres. Monsons talk on Temples.. then the choir sings Spirit of God.. powerful.. there was a lot of neat talks during conference.. but I've already spent enough time with this email'=P Thanks for the emails everyone.. Hope you all have a great wonderful week..
Ik houd van jullie!!!
Tot Ziens
--Elder Mohrman
Monday, March 28, 2011
Heerlen...week 8
Hoi familie!
Hoe gaat het met alles? Cool pictures I got to see that dad sent me, Arizona looked pretty.. warm ;) But actually the weather has been really great the past week.. We can now go biking without coats.. so that's nice.. Really starting to see the beauty of this place, and also now that we're biking so much (didn't bike with Elder Robert because of bike problems) Really starting to see how Hilly this place is.. wow.. There's a town that is in our area called hoensbroek.. and to get there on bike you have to go over a few hills.. good size ones.. and well.. when you have to do that every day, a person gets a little tired.. Last night I just passed out.. So tired.. probably the most tired I've been on my mission so far.. which is good.. I think that when I have that feeling that means I was working pretty hard during the week =) ...and what a week we had.. lot's of up and downs.. Karel the person I talked about last email, we had our appointment with him, and it was one of the best appointments I've ever been apart of.. really neat, set a baptismal date with him.. committed him to come to church, and meet with us three times every week.. it was amazing.. our joint teach said he had never had seen someone so prepared for the gospel.. so really riding an emotional high after friday with the lesson.. it was great because we had quite a few potentials we found the previous week drop us this week.. so it was much needed.. but of course.. stuff happens, Karel didn't show up to church on sunday, and then we get a text later in the day saying he wants nothing more to do with us.. yeah.. a pretty hardcore drop.. been dropped by plenty of people but this was pretty unexpected, pretty heavy.. but work goes on.. we found success in going through the area book, and so we have a number of appointments lined up for this next week.. including a couple of Americans. We went finding on a street where an american family lives.. so it's a street for american's and we made a couple of appointments to come back.. one guy his name is Äsh Henry" is pretty intense, but a cool guy should be a good experience going over to his house.. it's amazing how much more religious military people are.. a lot of people we talk to in the ward and outside that are apart of the military say that the experiences that you go through during war or what not, really makes a person come to the realization that there truly is a god, that there is something more out there.. back to this guy named Ash, he didn't believe that we were americans ha ha He said a few times, you two aren't americans, where do you really come from.. made us think.. wow is our english really getting bad? I guess that's a good sign right? It's a weird thing to be able to understand a person and one moment.. and then they switch the topic and you can't understand anything that there trying to say.. that's where I"m at right now.. talk about the gospel and I'll talk to you for a while.. but talk about anything else.. it's a struggle.. but getting better.. In my planners I write "line upon line, precept upon precept"so that has helped keep a positive attitude and not get discouraged..
Another neat experience, we were making plans and we decided to stop by this one member's home to ask if he could be a joint teach or something, when we went in, I was talking to the wife, and she was saying how we showed up at the perfect time, because she has been going through a lot of stress with everything, and it had finally taken her toll on her.. so we were able to give her a blessing, and she asked me to give her that blessing.. it was neat because after I was finished she said that I said a line in her patriarchal blessing.. so yeah, really neat.
So summary of this week, lot's of highs.. lot's of lows.. spiritual experiences and not spiritual experiences.. had my first appointment with Jehovah witnesses the other day.. it's not very fun being preached too and being told that everything that we believe is false.. so.. yeah fun eventful packed week I just had.. Really excited for Conference.. It's going to be good.. The super bowl of missionary's I remember my MTC teacher calling it.. so looking forward to that..
Love you all.. pray for you all.. thanks for all the emails and letters and love and encouragement and info about your lives.. it's appreciated ;)
Elder Joseph V. Mohrman
Hoe gaat het met alles? Cool pictures I got to see that dad sent me, Arizona looked pretty.. warm ;) But actually the weather has been really great the past week.. We can now go biking without coats.. so that's nice.. Really starting to see the beauty of this place, and also now that we're biking so much (didn't bike with Elder Robert because of bike problems) Really starting to see how Hilly this place is.. wow.. There's a town that is in our area called hoensbroek.. and to get there on bike you have to go over a few hills.. good size ones.. and well.. when you have to do that every day, a person gets a little tired.. Last night I just passed out.. So tired.. probably the most tired I've been on my mission so far.. which is good.. I think that when I have that feeling that means I was working pretty hard during the week =) ...and what a week we had.. lot's of up and downs.. Karel the person I talked about last email, we had our appointment with him, and it was one of the best appointments I've ever been apart of.. really neat, set a baptismal date with him.. committed him to come to church, and meet with us three times every week.. it was amazing.. our joint teach said he had never had seen someone so prepared for the gospel.. so really riding an emotional high after friday with the lesson.. it was great because we had quite a few potentials we found the previous week drop us this week.. so it was much needed.. but of course.. stuff happens, Karel didn't show up to church on sunday, and then we get a text later in the day saying he wants nothing more to do with us.. yeah.. a pretty hardcore drop.. been dropped by plenty of people but this was pretty unexpected, pretty heavy.. but work goes on.. we found success in going through the area book, and so we have a number of appointments lined up for this next week.. including a couple of Americans. We went finding on a street where an american family lives.. so it's a street for american's and we made a couple of appointments to come back.. one guy his name is Äsh Henry" is pretty intense, but a cool guy should be a good experience going over to his house.. it's amazing how much more religious military people are.. a lot of people we talk to in the ward and outside that are apart of the military say that the experiences that you go through during war or what not, really makes a person come to the realization that there truly is a god, that there is something more out there.. back to this guy named Ash, he didn't believe that we were americans ha ha He said a few times, you two aren't americans, where do you really come from.. made us think.. wow is our english really getting bad? I guess that's a good sign right? It's a weird thing to be able to understand a person and one moment.. and then they switch the topic and you can't understand anything that there trying to say.. that's where I"m at right now.. talk about the gospel and I'll talk to you for a while.. but talk about anything else.. it's a struggle.. but getting better.. In my planners I write "line upon line, precept upon precept"so that has helped keep a positive attitude and not get discouraged..
Another neat experience, we were making plans and we decided to stop by this one member's home to ask if he could be a joint teach or something, when we went in, I was talking to the wife, and she was saying how we showed up at the perfect time, because she has been going through a lot of stress with everything, and it had finally taken her toll on her.. so we were able to give her a blessing, and she asked me to give her that blessing.. it was neat because after I was finished she said that I said a line in her patriarchal blessing.. so yeah, really neat.
So summary of this week, lot's of highs.. lot's of lows.. spiritual experiences and not spiritual experiences.. had my first appointment with Jehovah witnesses the other day.. it's not very fun being preached too and being told that everything that we believe is false.. so.. yeah fun eventful packed week I just had.. Really excited for Conference.. It's going to be good.. The super bowl of missionary's I remember my MTC teacher calling it.. so looking forward to that..
Love you all.. pray for you all.. thanks for all the emails and letters and love and encouragement and info about your lives.. it's appreciated ;)
Elder Joseph V. Mohrman
Monday, March 21, 2011
Heerlen...week 7
Hoi Familie!
Easiest Transfer ever!! Didn't have to pack.. didn't have to worry about catching trains, or worrying about bikes.. none of that!! So happy I'm able to stay in Heerlen for another transfer! ;) My new companion Elder Mickelsen has been out two more transfers then me.. so 3 months or something like that.. were a pretty young companionship but it's awesome!
Already we have a lot of potential investigators that we found in the past week,and i've noticed how much my contacting has improved just being with him.. it's great. He's from South Jordan, and he went to Bingham High school, and played tennis there.. and he's just as much of a sports nut as me.. we have had a lot of good quality I would say conversations concerning sports ;)
I thought I would share one cool experience.. like I said we found a lot of new people last week.. one of them is a dutch man named Karel.. When we knocked on his door, he was actually reading a Jehovah Witness Pamphlet.. but he let us in, and we were able to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon, and explain about it.. he told us how he believed in the bible but it was difficult to read.. and he said that the Book of Mormon seemed easier.. when we prayed with him at the end, in his prayer he sincerely asked if he would receive an answer that the Book of Mormon was true.. it was really neat, I've never heard a more sincere prayer about whether the Book of Mormon was true or not on my mission..hopefully all will go well with him, we have a return appointment on Friday.. But thanks Mom and Dad for the emails.. And I hope the rest of the family will enjoy there week..it's finally starting to be beautiful weather here.. we get a couple of days of awesome sun.. then a couple of days of coldness.. but the past three days have been sunny, so hopefully that will continue.. Love you all.. prayers are always being said you guys! ;)
Elder Mohrman
Easiest Transfer ever!! Didn't have to pack.. didn't have to worry about catching trains, or worrying about bikes.. none of that!! So happy I'm able to stay in Heerlen for another transfer! ;) My new companion Elder Mickelsen has been out two more transfers then me.. so 3 months or something like that.. were a pretty young companionship but it's awesome!
Already we have a lot of potential investigators that we found in the past week,and i've noticed how much my contacting has improved just being with him.. it's great. He's from South Jordan, and he went to Bingham High school, and played tennis there.. and he's just as much of a sports nut as me.. we have had a lot of good quality I would say conversations concerning sports ;)
I thought I would share one cool experience.. like I said we found a lot of new people last week.. one of them is a dutch man named Karel.. When we knocked on his door, he was actually reading a Jehovah Witness Pamphlet.. but he let us in, and we were able to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon, and explain about it.. he told us how he believed in the bible but it was difficult to read.. and he said that the Book of Mormon seemed easier.. when we prayed with him at the end, in his prayer he sincerely asked if he would receive an answer that the Book of Mormon was true.. it was really neat, I've never heard a more sincere prayer about whether the Book of Mormon was true or not on my mission..hopefully all will go well with him, we have a return appointment on Friday.. But thanks Mom and Dad for the emails.. And I hope the rest of the family will enjoy there week..it's finally starting to be beautiful weather here.. we get a couple of days of awesome sun.. then a couple of days of coldness.. but the past three days have been sunny, so hopefully that will continue.. Love you all.. prayers are always being said you guys! ;)
Elder Mohrman
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Heerlen... week 6
Hoi Familie!
Sorry.. late again.. but had a really fun p-day! We went to the three
point mark.. where germany, netherlands and belgium meet.. that was neat to
go to.. the highest point in the netherlands is also right by there.. then
we went to an american grave site.. i forget the name, but i have never
seen those cemetaries with the rows and rows of white crosses.. that was
really neat also, really feel a lot of gratitude for all those americans that
gave there lives for freedom.. after that we went to a city called
valkenburg and got to explore an old castle.. it says it was the only fortress in the netherlands.. it was pretty amazing.. amazing how they can build such
buildings with the technology that they had.. but that was my p-day.. so a lot of traveling and a lot of sight seeing! but we have great members here,
that let me use there computers ;)
So transfers this week.. and yup.. you can guess.. I'm packing my bags again! ... oh whoops, just kidding, I'm actually staying!!! craziness, but now my companion is the getting transfered.. he's going to a city called eindhoven which is actually in our district, and the elder there, elder mickelson is coming to be my companion, so they just switched places.. I couldn't be more excited to know my companion this time around as I know elder mickelson pretty well, he's going on his 6th and he was actually elder de meesters greenie right before i came.. so i replaced him in amsterdam.. and we've been in the same zone every transfer i've been in the land.. really cool guy, from salt lake, and went to byu.. likes sports.. so it's going to be a lot of fun i think!! I had a feeling that Elder Robert was going to be transferred and I made a list in my mind who would be a good companion to help keep and expand the work...my thoughts kept coming to Elder Mickelson even though we are both young in the mission field. Heavenly Father knows what we all need and I have learned from each companion many things. I don''t have a lot of time, so you get a sorry email this week =P but thanks for all the emails1 almost had a heart attack
when I saw the browns emailing me11 =P ha ha just kidding, thanks for everything,
and glad everyone's lives is going great! Love,
Elder Mohrman
Sorry.. late again.. but had a really fun p-day! We went to the three
point mark.. where germany, netherlands and belgium meet.. that was neat to
go to.. the highest point in the netherlands is also right by there.. then
we went to an american grave site.. i forget the name, but i have never
seen those cemetaries with the rows and rows of white crosses.. that was
really neat also, really feel a lot of gratitude for all those americans that
gave there lives for freedom.. after that we went to a city called
valkenburg and got to explore an old castle.. it says it was the only fortress in the netherlands.. it was pretty amazing.. amazing how they can build such
buildings with the technology that they had.. but that was my p-day.. so a lot of traveling and a lot of sight seeing! but we have great members here,
that let me use there computers ;)
So transfers this week.. and yup.. you can guess.. I'm packing my bags again! ... oh whoops, just kidding, I'm actually staying!!! craziness, but now my companion is the getting transfered.. he's going to a city called eindhoven which is actually in our district, and the elder there, elder mickelson is coming to be my companion, so they just switched places.. I couldn't be more excited to know my companion this time around as I know elder mickelson pretty well, he's going on his 6th and he was actually elder de meesters greenie right before i came.. so i replaced him in amsterdam.. and we've been in the same zone every transfer i've been in the land.. really cool guy, from salt lake, and went to byu.. likes sports.. so it's going to be a lot of fun i think!! I had a feeling that Elder Robert was going to be transferred and I made a list in my mind who would be a good companion to help keep and expand the work...my thoughts kept coming to Elder Mickelson even though we are both young in the mission field. Heavenly Father knows what we all need and I have learned from each companion many things. I don''t have a lot of time, so you get a sorry email this week =P but thanks for all the emails1 almost had a heart attack
when I saw the browns emailing me11 =P ha ha just kidding, thanks for everything,
and glad everyone's lives is going great! Love,
Elder Mohrman
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Heerlen ....week 5
Hoi Familie!!
So.. yeah.. it's wednesday.. ha ha whoops! Nah actually it's not my fault. You all know the great ol' party in louisianna called "marty gra"? Well here, in south holland it's called "Carnival" and it's a week long party here where everyone get's dressed up and drunk.. and well.. all the stores were closed monday, which inclueded the library where we do our emails =0 And nobody was home member-wise that we tried calling so couldn't email on monday!!... and we travelled to Antwerp on Tuesday so had no time there.. so you all get my email today!! So hopefully you weren't having silly thoughts about me forgetting to email.. There was and would always be a reason!!! =)
So Carnival.. I guess ít's a catholic tradition? No idea how or why? Same with Marty Gra.. and also they have it in Rio also.. but it's a week long.. party I guess you could say.. Started last thursday and yesterday was the last day. People just dress up in funky costumes.. mostly clowns.. but saw a lot of pirates and weirdo costume that looked straight from a dr. suess book.. so pretty much halloween.. and they dress up all day, every day.. and starting on saturday they have parades in the different cities in the area, and it's just funky floats with people in funkier costumes, drinking beer while dancing and singing to "carnival" music. Horrible stuff... you have to be drunk in order to like it.. So crazy though, on sunday we were getting out of church and Heerlen was having there parade, and to go to our bus stop we had to walk through it.. nuts. I've never seen crazier people in my life. I was seriously in loony toon land! We saw a couple of members who ditched out on church there at the parade, ha ha they were pretty suprised to see us.. interesting how people make excuses to ditch out on church! =P But on Monday we were able to go to another parade with a member, His name is Bro. Mazurik.. don't know if I told you about him.. he's from poland.. knows Josh Wilson really well.. but that was pretty fun, seeing the parade, and expiriencing the cuture.. even if it is crazy! They throw out bags of tortillas from the floats.. no idea why.. but we have a nice supply of tortillas now! I think the weirdest part of the parades for me, was seeing the people in the parade all dressed up.. dancing and drinking while they march.. and then seeing the people watching the parade also all dressed up... Everyone dresses up!! Last night, as we got back from antwerpen, we had a lesson fall through.. which was kinda a bummer since we asked Bro Kitchen, a member who just arrived a few weeks ago come as a joint teach for us.. so he arrived and took us out to dinner.. really cool guy.. but as we were eating in this resturant we start hearing this carnival music again! We look outside and there's another parade going on!!! A night parade.. I guess one last one to top off the week.. It was crazier then any of the previous ones.. techno lights.. the floats were bigger and better... craziness.. glad that week is over.. made finding pretty hard, as you can imagine.. had a few times we knocked on doors, and have someone in a clown outfit with a beer in his hand answer the door.. strange is a simple word to describe it!
As for the missionary work in heerlen, we didn't have much fire this week.. had a few people drop us, including bobby who I talked about last week, that was a bummer as he was our most positive person.. just didn't want to change, used his free agency =0.. had others say they want to meet in a couple of weeks which would include Grace the other one I talked about =0.. but we were blessed in other ways.. we got a baptismal date, first one that heerlen has had in a long long time.. and then we got a lot of referalls from other missionary's in our mission.. which doesn't happen very much.. so had a down week.. but.. we got other things that we can build on... interesting how things work out like that..
Really enjoying the ward here.. we get to eat out at member's homes about 2 times a week.. so not much.. but the families that have had us over are amazing.. this past week we ate at an English families home.. and a half american and half canadian family.. awesome people.. it's so neat to see and get to know people from other cultures and countries.. something that really doesn't happen much in utah!
But a couple of stories from this past week, we gave a turkish book of mormon a couple of weeks ago to this muslim woman, who said her husband was depressed.. we went back about a week ago and met the husband for the first time, and set up a lessen. We taught him, and although nothing came out of it, we were able to give him a blessing.. not often that you can say you gave a muslim man a blessing.. but he said he enjoyed christian churches and said he would like to come to ours.. so hopefully down the road something will happen.. but it was neat expirience nevertheless.. so i've been itching to play basketball or any sort of sports for a while now.. months!! And I found out that there was a basketball court right by our house, so I bought a cheap basketball from a sports store, and we've been able to play a few times.. On monday after the parade we were able to play for about 3-4 hours.. so nice.. but interesting experience with that on monday.. there were a few moroccan kids playing soccer.. (the hoops are on this miniature soccer court) so we were just shooting, and they didn't pay any attention to us, same with us to them.. and then as they were playing this soccer game, the oldest one kicked a ball and it came really close to Elder Robert's head.. He just said "pas op" which means "watch out" because well.. it almost whacked him.. they freaked out.. the kid who kicked it started swearing under his breath.. some little tiny kids who were watching, started making fun.. saying "pas op.. pas op.. pas op.." being really annoying.. swearing at us.. saying there going to blow us up.. blow up america.. making fun of america.. vulger things.. swearing constantly.. never.. in all my life have I heard stuff as bad as what these little kids were saying, just the disrespect to complete strangers.. it was crazy.. I couldn't believe it.. we ignored them, just kept shooting.. after about 5 minutes of non-stop garbage from these kids, we finally just asked if they wanted to play basketball with us.. and so we played them in basketball.. owned them.. they had no chance.. no one here can play a sport other than soccer... but it shut them up and instead of trashing us constantly they ran there mouths about other things.. we said we'd play them in soccer since they played us in basketball.. so we played soccer with these kids, and actually didn't do too bad, but even then they were running there mouths.. But they said after we were through we were welcome any time to come back and play with them.. I dunno.. maybe we'll go back sometime.. =P Me playing soccer.. who would have thought =P
I can't think of anything else exciting that happened this week.. thank you all for your emails.. really glad I was finally able to read them!!
take care, can't wait to hear from you all on the normal day, monday!
-Elder Mohrman
p.s. Yeah, haven't heard much about the phillipines living condition wise.. so nothing to share on that regard.. all I know is that The phillipines is a blessed country.. a country that the church is growing so much in.. She's (Stefi)going to see lot's of success on her mission, and really see the gospel touch many peoples lives.. I can't remember if I put this in one of my emails or not, but I have listened to a couple talks from Gordon B. Hinckley and he talks about him opening up the phillipines to missionary work.. and how much it has grown in such a short time... and how it is still growing.. beautiful temple there.. =)
Thanks for all the updates.. don't know if I have shared this but one of the assistants played basketball at timpview.. his name is elder brockbank.. He worked out with Tyler Haws and Brandon Davies.. all them.. so I get to talk basketball with him everytime I see him, it's pretty sweet, he's a nice guy.. crazy to think I played against him.. which I did.. he started for Timpview in 08 and 09.. there's also a elder in my younger group that I've played against in basketball he's from "sugar salem"don't know if you rembember that team.. so pretty interesting.
So.. yeah.. it's wednesday.. ha ha whoops! Nah actually it's not my fault. You all know the great ol' party in louisianna called "marty gra"? Well here, in south holland it's called "Carnival" and it's a week long party here where everyone get's dressed up and drunk.. and well.. all the stores were closed monday, which inclueded the library where we do our emails =0 And nobody was home member-wise that we tried calling so couldn't email on monday!!... and we travelled to Antwerp on Tuesday so had no time there.. so you all get my email today!! So hopefully you weren't having silly thoughts about me forgetting to email.. There was and would always be a reason!!! =)
So Carnival.. I guess ít's a catholic tradition? No idea how or why? Same with Marty Gra.. and also they have it in Rio also.. but it's a week long.. party I guess you could say.. Started last thursday and yesterday was the last day. People just dress up in funky costumes.. mostly clowns.. but saw a lot of pirates and weirdo costume that looked straight from a dr. suess book.. so pretty much halloween.. and they dress up all day, every day.. and starting on saturday they have parades in the different cities in the area, and it's just funky floats with people in funkier costumes, drinking beer while dancing and singing to "carnival" music. Horrible stuff... you have to be drunk in order to like it.. So crazy though, on sunday we were getting out of church and Heerlen was having there parade, and to go to our bus stop we had to walk through it.. nuts. I've never seen crazier people in my life. I was seriously in loony toon land! We saw a couple of members who ditched out on church there at the parade, ha ha they were pretty suprised to see us.. interesting how people make excuses to ditch out on church! =P But on Monday we were able to go to another parade with a member, His name is Bro. Mazurik.. don't know if I told you about him.. he's from poland.. knows Josh Wilson really well.. but that was pretty fun, seeing the parade, and expiriencing the cuture.. even if it is crazy! They throw out bags of tortillas from the floats.. no idea why.. but we have a nice supply of tortillas now! I think the weirdest part of the parades for me, was seeing the people in the parade all dressed up.. dancing and drinking while they march.. and then seeing the people watching the parade also all dressed up... Everyone dresses up!! Last night, as we got back from antwerpen, we had a lesson fall through.. which was kinda a bummer since we asked Bro Kitchen, a member who just arrived a few weeks ago come as a joint teach for us.. so he arrived and took us out to dinner.. really cool guy.. but as we were eating in this resturant we start hearing this carnival music again! We look outside and there's another parade going on!!! A night parade.. I guess one last one to top off the week.. It was crazier then any of the previous ones.. techno lights.. the floats were bigger and better... craziness.. glad that week is over.. made finding pretty hard, as you can imagine.. had a few times we knocked on doors, and have someone in a clown outfit with a beer in his hand answer the door.. strange is a simple word to describe it!
As for the missionary work in heerlen, we didn't have much fire this week.. had a few people drop us, including bobby who I talked about last week, that was a bummer as he was our most positive person.. just didn't want to change, used his free agency =0.. had others say they want to meet in a couple of weeks which would include Grace the other one I talked about =0.. but we were blessed in other ways.. we got a baptismal date, first one that heerlen has had in a long long time.. and then we got a lot of referalls from other missionary's in our mission.. which doesn't happen very much.. so had a down week.. but.. we got other things that we can build on... interesting how things work out like that..
Really enjoying the ward here.. we get to eat out at member's homes about 2 times a week.. so not much.. but the families that have had us over are amazing.. this past week we ate at an English families home.. and a half american and half canadian family.. awesome people.. it's so neat to see and get to know people from other cultures and countries.. something that really doesn't happen much in utah!
But a couple of stories from this past week, we gave a turkish book of mormon a couple of weeks ago to this muslim woman, who said her husband was depressed.. we went back about a week ago and met the husband for the first time, and set up a lessen. We taught him, and although nothing came out of it, we were able to give him a blessing.. not often that you can say you gave a muslim man a blessing.. but he said he enjoyed christian churches and said he would like to come to ours.. so hopefully down the road something will happen.. but it was neat expirience nevertheless.. so i've been itching to play basketball or any sort of sports for a while now.. months!! And I found out that there was a basketball court right by our house, so I bought a cheap basketball from a sports store, and we've been able to play a few times.. On monday after the parade we were able to play for about 3-4 hours.. so nice.. but interesting experience with that on monday.. there were a few moroccan kids playing soccer.. (the hoops are on this miniature soccer court) so we were just shooting, and they didn't pay any attention to us, same with us to them.. and then as they were playing this soccer game, the oldest one kicked a ball and it came really close to Elder Robert's head.. He just said "pas op" which means "watch out" because well.. it almost whacked him.. they freaked out.. the kid who kicked it started swearing under his breath.. some little tiny kids who were watching, started making fun.. saying "pas op.. pas op.. pas op.." being really annoying.. swearing at us.. saying there going to blow us up.. blow up america.. making fun of america.. vulger things.. swearing constantly.. never.. in all my life have I heard stuff as bad as what these little kids were saying, just the disrespect to complete strangers.. it was crazy.. I couldn't believe it.. we ignored them, just kept shooting.. after about 5 minutes of non-stop garbage from these kids, we finally just asked if they wanted to play basketball with us.. and so we played them in basketball.. owned them.. they had no chance.. no one here can play a sport other than soccer... but it shut them up and instead of trashing us constantly they ran there mouths about other things.. we said we'd play them in soccer since they played us in basketball.. so we played soccer with these kids, and actually didn't do too bad, but even then they were running there mouths.. But they said after we were through we were welcome any time to come back and play with them.. I dunno.. maybe we'll go back sometime.. =P Me playing soccer.. who would have thought =P
I can't think of anything else exciting that happened this week.. thank you all for your emails.. really glad I was finally able to read them!!
take care, can't wait to hear from you all on the normal day, monday!
-Elder Mohrman
p.s. Yeah, haven't heard much about the phillipines living condition wise.. so nothing to share on that regard.. all I know is that The phillipines is a blessed country.. a country that the church is growing so much in.. She's (Stefi)going to see lot's of success on her mission, and really see the gospel touch many peoples lives.. I can't remember if I put this in one of my emails or not, but I have listened to a couple talks from Gordon B. Hinckley and he talks about him opening up the phillipines to missionary work.. and how much it has grown in such a short time... and how it is still growing.. beautiful temple there.. =)
Thanks for all the updates.. don't know if I have shared this but one of the assistants played basketball at timpview.. his name is elder brockbank.. He worked out with Tyler Haws and Brandon Davies.. all them.. so I get to talk basketball with him everytime I see him, it's pretty sweet, he's a nice guy.. crazy to think I played against him.. which I did.. he started for Timpview in 08 and 09.. there's also a elder in my younger group that I've played against in basketball he's from "sugar salem"don't know if you rembember that team.. so pretty interesting.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Heerlen...week 4
Geachte familie..
Ik ben heel verbaasd over het nieuws van de familie!! Tjonge Jonge..
First comes first, congratulations Stefani! Manila huh.. craziness.. really ironic since my ward mission leader went on his mission to the phillipines, and his wife is from the phillipines, every tuesday I get treated to good ol’ phillipino food. I think it’s delicious, so nothing to worry about stefi ;) Also really cool, because in the past few weeks I was listening to some talks by Pres. Hinckley and some of the things in his talks were about the phillipines and the missionary work history of the country. Really cool.. Really neat.. It’s a blessed place, and your going to really enjoy it. Also the temple in manila is very beautiful, kinda like the Frankfurt temple in design.
Tiffani.. way to be.
Mitch & Nikki.. hi.
Kim.. Jealous.
And thanks to everyone else that sent emails.. I just repeat myself every week I think, but I really do appreciate all the emails, telling me about your lives.. what’s happening back home.. ;) So this week, like I hinted at last week was a pretty busy week, had a lot of appointments with new people, and the results of all those appointments resulted in some pretty amazing investigators we now have. Let me tell you about some of them. Bobby is a guy we met ringing door bells in a big apartment building.. he let us in, because his hobby is religion.. Reads a lot and has studied most all of the major religions in the world.. didn’t know much about us.. just knew that we had a bunch of wives or something.. =P But we were able to talk to him, and read out of the book of mormon about adam and eve, and after he was saying stuff like “wow, never thought of that before”, and “Yeah that makes sense, never heard that before” Well we got a return appointment, and that return appointment was this last saturday, we taught the plan of salvation, but for that week, he had begun reading out of the book of mormon on his own, and said that he wanted to check out the church sometime.. really cool to see.. also pretty neat moment happened with him. I’ve had this feeling to carry around the conference issue of the liahona with me.. and had been doing so for the past week.. never having the opportunity to share it with anyone until bobby was saying how a couple of years ago when his mother died he went to church and the guy just stood up there talking about stuff that happened two thousand years ago.. and he didn’t see how that helped him, now. I was able to share the conference issue with him, bearing my testimony that it was things being said directly to us, not something that happened two thousand years ago.. it was a really neat moment, he liked it, and took it, and our next appointment with him is this tuesday, so we’ll see what happens with him! It was just neat to see the answer as to why I was carrying that magazine with me for the past week.. it was meant for him.. only problem was I was studying that magazine for my language study! =S Oh well.. I guess I can find other dutch material to read ;)
Grace is also a really cool person that were teaching, she invited us to a “bible study” and so we got to go, and be with all these college kids who actually want to learn about the bible.. pretty big change to see a group of people who are actually religious! But it was neat, they were all really nice to us, and we got to answer a lot of questions about our church.. we’ll see what happens with that too..
Got to play sports again on saturday, that was sweet! Glad to know I can still hit 10 free throws in a row.. haven’t completely lost my touch.. yet =P
Well I hope all is well with you family.. thanks for the prayers, and know that you all are getting prayed for from this end as well.. I’m probably leaving out some neat stories, a lot has happened this week but, that’s all I got for this week! Het spijt me!
Ik hou van jullie! Bedankt voor alles! Tot Ziens tot de volgende week!
Elder Joseph V. Mohrman
Ik ben heel verbaasd over het nieuws van de familie!! Tjonge Jonge..
First comes first, congratulations Stefani! Manila huh.. craziness.. really ironic since my ward mission leader went on his mission to the phillipines, and his wife is from the phillipines, every tuesday I get treated to good ol’ phillipino food. I think it’s delicious, so nothing to worry about stefi ;) Also really cool, because in the past few weeks I was listening to some talks by Pres. Hinckley and some of the things in his talks were about the phillipines and the missionary work history of the country. Really cool.. Really neat.. It’s a blessed place, and your going to really enjoy it. Also the temple in manila is very beautiful, kinda like the Frankfurt temple in design.
Tiffani.. way to be.
Mitch & Nikki.. hi.
Kim.. Jealous.
And thanks to everyone else that sent emails.. I just repeat myself every week I think, but I really do appreciate all the emails, telling me about your lives.. what’s happening back home.. ;) So this week, like I hinted at last week was a pretty busy week, had a lot of appointments with new people, and the results of all those appointments resulted in some pretty amazing investigators we now have. Let me tell you about some of them. Bobby is a guy we met ringing door bells in a big apartment building.. he let us in, because his hobby is religion.. Reads a lot and has studied most all of the major religions in the world.. didn’t know much about us.. just knew that we had a bunch of wives or something.. =P But we were able to talk to him, and read out of the book of mormon about adam and eve, and after he was saying stuff like “wow, never thought of that before”, and “Yeah that makes sense, never heard that before” Well we got a return appointment, and that return appointment was this last saturday, we taught the plan of salvation, but for that week, he had begun reading out of the book of mormon on his own, and said that he wanted to check out the church sometime.. really cool to see.. also pretty neat moment happened with him. I’ve had this feeling to carry around the conference issue of the liahona with me.. and had been doing so for the past week.. never having the opportunity to share it with anyone until bobby was saying how a couple of years ago when his mother died he went to church and the guy just stood up there talking about stuff that happened two thousand years ago.. and he didn’t see how that helped him, now. I was able to share the conference issue with him, bearing my testimony that it was things being said directly to us, not something that happened two thousand years ago.. it was a really neat moment, he liked it, and took it, and our next appointment with him is this tuesday, so we’ll see what happens with him! It was just neat to see the answer as to why I was carrying that magazine with me for the past week.. it was meant for him.. only problem was I was studying that magazine for my language study! =S Oh well.. I guess I can find other dutch material to read ;)
Grace is also a really cool person that were teaching, she invited us to a “bible study” and so we got to go, and be with all these college kids who actually want to learn about the bible.. pretty big change to see a group of people who are actually religious! But it was neat, they were all really nice to us, and we got to answer a lot of questions about our church.. we’ll see what happens with that too..
Got to play sports again on saturday, that was sweet! Glad to know I can still hit 10 free throws in a row.. haven’t completely lost my touch.. yet =P
Well I hope all is well with you family.. thanks for the prayers, and know that you all are getting prayed for from this end as well.. I’m probably leaving out some neat stories, a lot has happened this week but, that’s all I got for this week! Het spijt me!
Ik hou van jullie! Bedankt voor alles! Tot Ziens tot de volgende week!
Elder Joseph V. Mohrman
Monday, February 21, 2011
Heerlen....week 3
Hoi Familie!
Hope alles is geweldig met jullie! Another week gone by.. crazy to think Í've almost been out for 6 months.. sure doesn't feel like it that's for sure! But last week was a really good week.. We didn't have to travel so much, still traveled to Antwerpen for a zone conference on Tuesday but other than that, we were able to stay in heerlen, and the results was we had one of the best weeks that heerlen has seen in about 2-3 months! Being really blessed, seems like everytime we go out and dedicate an hour to finding we find a new person to teach! It's amazing.. this next week we have planned 10 lessens with 10 different investigators.. ablsolutely amazing that's the most that I've ever had planned on my mission, and my companion says that's the most for him as well.. so don't know what were doing.. but were being blessed a lot! ;) Couple of our investigators like I said we just knock on there door, we teach a lessen and then set a return appointment.. the thing that is really working that is getting people's interest is the book of mormon.. love that book! We have a card that we give out to people, it's "Life's greatest Questions" and it just lists about 15 different questions, big questions that all people have, that is answered by the book of mormon.. I love showing that card to people as it shows the people what the book of mormon contains inside it.. Really excited about this coming up week.. really happy that the success I was seeing in Den Haag is carrying over to Heerlen ;) Kind of interesting, it's amazing how many people we meet, that have taken the lessens before from missionary's 20-30 years ago.. we've met a bunch lately, one man we met at the bus stop, and he said that he played basketball with the missionary's in some city 15 years ago, and then he started taking the lessens.. but he said he wasn't interested anymore.. but he continued to talk to us through the bus ride.. that really showed me how much god loves us.. here's someone who who had the chance a long time ago.. decided it wasn't for him.. now he's meeting the missionary's again, in a random city, in a random spot.. hopefully he felt something from talking with us.. but anyways
Before I forget Happy 27th Kim!! Hope You have a sweet time in Mexico celebrating your birthday ;)) And Stefi. whoa.. intense.. can't wait to see where you get called too ;) Yeah I dón't have really much to report on.. the work is picking up, really happy about that, and I should have some neat expiriences to share next week ;) Thanks for everything that you guys do, enjoy life.. don't miss me too much.. ;)
Tot Ziens tot de volgende week!!
--Elder Mohrman
Hope alles is geweldig met jullie! Another week gone by.. crazy to think Í've almost been out for 6 months.. sure doesn't feel like it that's for sure! But last week was a really good week.. We didn't have to travel so much, still traveled to Antwerpen for a zone conference on Tuesday but other than that, we were able to stay in heerlen, and the results was we had one of the best weeks that heerlen has seen in about 2-3 months! Being really blessed, seems like everytime we go out and dedicate an hour to finding we find a new person to teach! It's amazing.. this next week we have planned 10 lessens with 10 different investigators.. ablsolutely amazing that's the most that I've ever had planned on my mission, and my companion says that's the most for him as well.. so don't know what were doing.. but were being blessed a lot! ;) Couple of our investigators like I said we just knock on there door, we teach a lessen and then set a return appointment.. the thing that is really working that is getting people's interest is the book of mormon.. love that book! We have a card that we give out to people, it's "Life's greatest Questions" and it just lists about 15 different questions, big questions that all people have, that is answered by the book of mormon.. I love showing that card to people as it shows the people what the book of mormon contains inside it.. Really excited about this coming up week.. really happy that the success I was seeing in Den Haag is carrying over to Heerlen ;) Kind of interesting, it's amazing how many people we meet, that have taken the lessens before from missionary's 20-30 years ago.. we've met a bunch lately, one man we met at the bus stop, and he said that he played basketball with the missionary's in some city 15 years ago, and then he started taking the lessens.. but he said he wasn't interested anymore.. but he continued to talk to us through the bus ride.. that really showed me how much god loves us.. here's someone who who had the chance a long time ago.. decided it wasn't for him.. now he's meeting the missionary's again, in a random city, in a random spot.. hopefully he felt something from talking with us.. but anyways
Before I forget Happy 27th Kim!! Hope You have a sweet time in Mexico celebrating your birthday ;)) And Stefi. whoa.. intense.. can't wait to see where you get called too ;) Yeah I dón't have really much to report on.. the work is picking up, really happy about that, and I should have some neat expiriences to share next week ;) Thanks for everything that you guys do, enjoy life.. don't miss me too much.. ;)
Tot Ziens tot de volgende week!!
--Elder Mohrman
Monday, February 14, 2011
Heerlen....Week 2
Hoi Familie!
What a week.. wow.. felt like you dad, traveled all the time this week!! Tuesday traveled an hour and back to Eindhoven for district meeting.. wednesday traveled 3 hours one way to Amsterdam to get my legality, thursday traveled two hours one way to Brussels then one hour one way to Gent.. the friday went back to Heerlen, Saturday rode a bus for an hour going to this little tiny village in the middle of nowhere to an investigators house, then Sunday I got to go to Germany for the first time! But wow.. tons and tons of traveling.. but really cool week as well, not every day, you can say I traveled and visited three different countries in a half week =)
Like I said was able to go back to Amsterdam, after getting my legality card, we were able to have lunch with a Young Adult from there, Elder Robert served in Amsterdam also about a year ago, and so it was fun to be able to just I guess “relax” in Amsterdam talking about old times.. ha ha I can’t believe I can do that now.. reminisce about old times?? What in the world.. Anyways.. off too Brussels, we traveled all the way there.. got there around 7, hadn’t eaten at all.. so we went with one of the office elders to get dinner.. and where did we go?? To dominos of course and got a pizza! Spent the next day in Gent on exchanges with Elder Brown who is a transfer younger than me.. got to play the big bad senior companion again =) We went for a lot of the day to the city of Brugge which is a very very beautiful old city.. It’s in there area and Elder Brown had never been.. so we decided why not just go there and do some finding.. pretty cool, as I don’t know if I’ll ever have the opportunity to go back. They say that Amsterdam and Brugge our the two prettiest cities in the mission.. check that off my list of places to see while I’m here =) We also during this past week had some bus trips to small little towns in the middle of nowhere like I said above.. long.. but beautiful.. being able to see the countryside and the rolling hills.. I’m definitely in an amazing place. Yesterday, in germany after eating lunch with the family, as they drove us home, they stopped in the city of acchen, germany, and showed us around. It’s an extremely old city, and was actually charlamaigne’s capitol they say.. we went inside his cathedral.. parts of that cathedral has been around since 800 a.d.. pretty dang old.. Had the family write a little note to Stefani in german of course, just saying I was in germany.. When I finally send my stuff home it’ll be in there =) And talking about sending stuff home, I talked with a few American’s, and they will be more than happy to drop off my boxes for me.. talking to one family they said this one size of box will cost 15 dollars but it can weigh any amount.. so since I have this extra American money laying around (thanks to all who sent me American money =)) It won’t be a problem and I’ll be able to send you some Dutch Stuff =) Last week, I saw the cartoon Asterix and it was only a couple of euro’s.. so of course I got it =) Thought of dad ha ha
So for language, been reading those children story books about the book of mormon and old testament, new testament, doctrines and convenants.. finished the book of mormon book, and about half way through the doctrine and convenants book! It’s pretty neat because it’s simpler dutch obviously, but to be able to read it, and understand everything is a pretty neat feeling.. and plus reading the doctrine and covenants book, reading stories that I’ve never heard before, I feel like I’m understanding the D$C a lot better! My next one will be the old testament.. also got the packet that was sent to Den Haag.. thanks for everything in there, the Tootsie rolls were a nice surprise =) Thanks for all the leafs as well.. I think I have enough for a VERY long time =) Broke my camera though earlier this week.. so I don’t have any pictures of Heerlen.. got to look for a new one.. but I’ve spent enough money already so I feel kinda bad about spending more.. Hopefully I’ll see one on sell or something.. let’s see is there anything else.. I dunno.. hopefully stefi get’s her call this week! Looking forward to hearing where my little sis goes!! =) ha ha ha Okay
Love you all Familie thanks again for the emails,
Elder Mohrman
What a week.. wow.. felt like you dad, traveled all the time this week!! Tuesday traveled an hour and back to Eindhoven for district meeting.. wednesday traveled 3 hours one way to Amsterdam to get my legality, thursday traveled two hours one way to Brussels then one hour one way to Gent.. the friday went back to Heerlen, Saturday rode a bus for an hour going to this little tiny village in the middle of nowhere to an investigators house, then Sunday I got to go to Germany for the first time! But wow.. tons and tons of traveling.. but really cool week as well, not every day, you can say I traveled and visited three different countries in a half week =)
Like I said was able to go back to Amsterdam, after getting my legality card, we were able to have lunch with a Young Adult from there, Elder Robert served in Amsterdam also about a year ago, and so it was fun to be able to just I guess “relax” in Amsterdam talking about old times.. ha ha I can’t believe I can do that now.. reminisce about old times?? What in the world.. Anyways.. off too Brussels, we traveled all the way there.. got there around 7, hadn’t eaten at all.. so we went with one of the office elders to get dinner.. and where did we go?? To dominos of course and got a pizza! Spent the next day in Gent on exchanges with Elder Brown who is a transfer younger than me.. got to play the big bad senior companion again =) We went for a lot of the day to the city of Brugge which is a very very beautiful old city.. It’s in there area and Elder Brown had never been.. so we decided why not just go there and do some finding.. pretty cool, as I don’t know if I’ll ever have the opportunity to go back. They say that Amsterdam and Brugge our the two prettiest cities in the mission.. check that off my list of places to see while I’m here =) We also during this past week had some bus trips to small little towns in the middle of nowhere like I said above.. long.. but beautiful.. being able to see the countryside and the rolling hills.. I’m definitely in an amazing place. Yesterday, in germany after eating lunch with the family, as they drove us home, they stopped in the city of acchen, germany, and showed us around. It’s an extremely old city, and was actually charlamaigne’s capitol they say.. we went inside his cathedral.. parts of that cathedral has been around since 800 a.d.. pretty dang old.. Had the family write a little note to Stefani in german of course, just saying I was in germany.. When I finally send my stuff home it’ll be in there =) And talking about sending stuff home, I talked with a few American’s, and they will be more than happy to drop off my boxes for me.. talking to one family they said this one size of box will cost 15 dollars but it can weigh any amount.. so since I have this extra American money laying around (thanks to all who sent me American money =)) It won’t be a problem and I’ll be able to send you some Dutch Stuff =) Last week, I saw the cartoon Asterix and it was only a couple of euro’s.. so of course I got it =) Thought of dad ha ha
So for language, been reading those children story books about the book of mormon and old testament, new testament, doctrines and convenants.. finished the book of mormon book, and about half way through the doctrine and convenants book! It’s pretty neat because it’s simpler dutch obviously, but to be able to read it, and understand everything is a pretty neat feeling.. and plus reading the doctrine and covenants book, reading stories that I’ve never heard before, I feel like I’m understanding the D$C a lot better! My next one will be the old testament.. also got the packet that was sent to Den Haag.. thanks for everything in there, the Tootsie rolls were a nice surprise =) Thanks for all the leafs as well.. I think I have enough for a VERY long time =) Broke my camera though earlier this week.. so I don’t have any pictures of Heerlen.. got to look for a new one.. but I’ve spent enough money already so I feel kinda bad about spending more.. Hopefully I’ll see one on sell or something.. let’s see is there anything else.. I dunno.. hopefully stefi get’s her call this week! Looking forward to hearing where my little sis goes!! =) ha ha ha Okay
Love you all Familie thanks again for the emails,
Elder Mohrman
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Midweek surprise post of pictures
Joseph's new companion's mother just sent us some pictures from earlier this week...the district getting together to eat at a members place...what a wonderful person to be so willing to feed so many!
The older gentleman is from I understand an 80 year old man who goes out with the missionaries daily. He even keeps the same schedule as the missionaries...that is simply amazing.
The food looks good...typical european salad and the apple type cobbler with ice cream...I think they are spoiled :)
The older gentleman is from I understand an 80 year old man who goes out with the missionaries daily. He even keeps the same schedule as the missionaries...that is simply amazing.
The food looks good...typical european salad and the apple type cobbler with ice cream...I think they are spoiled :)
Monday, February 7, 2011
Heerlen....Week 1
Hallo Familie!
Hard sticka bedankt for all of the wonderful emails this week! It’s always great to see how everyone is doing and what’s the updates with everyone’s life. Bummer again for Stefani.. man.. all this waiting.. you just got to know your whole mission is going to be just as crazy!! =) Maybe you’ll be a solo or something also?
My address for Heerlen
Zeswegenlaan 295
6412 HK Heerlen
Netherlands
I left last Wednesday from Den Haag and what of course happened? The package you sent me arrived.. luckily my new companion is a district leader as well as my last one, so he can give him the package at a district leader training but that won’t be for a couple of weeks. Really excited though, do love mail. So let me tell you a little about this place.
It’s in the middle of no where and there’s tons and tons of hills. Yeah… fun.. I was blessed though, the ward missionary leader in the Den Haag ward let me have one of his bikes so I didn’t have to buy one. Only problem was that it was stuck in the hardest gear.. fine for a flat city of Den Haag but for a hilly place? But we knocked it down to a couple of easier gears, and the bike is holding up the few days I’ve been here. It’s really different being in a 2-man apartment though. Amsterdam and also Den Haag were 4-man’s.. 2 man’s definitely a little more quieter. But my companion Elder Robert and I have gotten along just great so far.. It’s a pretty interesting situation though, Elder Robert just turned… 25 in January.. graduated in 2004.. the guy is older than Tiffani!! Ha ha He can’t believe that I graduated in 2010.. We’ve had some good jokes about our ages.. I call him grandpa or old man, and he tells me I still have baby fat on my face =P IT’s going to be a fun transfer I’m sure =) Heerlen is a beautiful place.. I guess a lot of people retire here because of the beauty.. Very green, and the hills are very nice to see from all the flatness of the big cities. The three corner mark is in my area, and they have a monument there, for a p-day were going to go there, and I’ll be able to be in 3 countries at once! And most of the members actually live in Germany, so I get to be the rare exception and cross the mission boundaries and travel into Germany when we go to member’s houses. In fact tomorrow on Tuesday will be the first time =) I’ll take pictures for ya Stef ;)
The ward is mostly American… it’s pretty nice to talk with Americans again.. American English!.. and it kinda has that feel of a ward back home.. But there’s still plenty of dutch people as well and I’ve met some pretty amazing people here. My first dinner with members was with this polish family, who knew and are friends with Josh Wilson quite well. Small world.. but it get’s smaller as my second dinner appointment was with this dutch couple who are extremely good friends with this older couple in payson.. pretty close to where we live too.. we were able to talk about different land marks in payson and the wife was just there this past march.. Extremely small world! The dutch couple were amazing, the man is a artist and he actually has two pieces in the church art museum.. one of the pieces is a statue of Job, and he still has a few limited editions left and after I said Job was my favorite story in the bible , they gave me and my companion a statue of it.. really really cool! There’s only 150 of them in the world, and like I said it’s in the church art museum in utah.. only problem is I don’t know how I’m going to send that home because it’s so fragile! I have a lot of other stuff I need to send home as well.. it’s pretty sweet that we have American bases so close because I can give my packages to american’s and they can send them off and I’ll get American pricing.. that’s going to be super nice! But on sunday I was able to bare my testimony to the ward and introduce myself, I shared my experience from Amsterdam, where it was my last day and I felt we should go to the old woman’s house and it turned out she had been praying for us to come. It was pretty special, I hadn’t shared that story with people before at least not over a pulpit. I’m really excited about my opportunity to be here in Heerlen.. Unlike Den Haag where I came in and had a lot of investigators already there.. Heerlen is really different, there’s hardly anything going on. But I think that there could be… hearing from my companion who’s starting his second transfer, there’s some really positive people here.. and if we involve the ward more in missionary work, this place and really any place I think could just explode. It’s going to be a challenge, but my goal is to be having the same numbers in Heerlen as I was in Den Haag, (the most productive city in the mission) I listened to a talk by Pres, Gordon B Hinckley this morning actually and the title is “A true successful story” or something like that.. he gave it in 1985.. it’s all about missionary work, and the miracle of it all.. and how if we just put a little more effort we could double our convert baptisms.. it was a really good talk.. one that made me think, and so all morning I’ve just been thinking that yeah.. I just need to put a little more effort to what I’ve been doing on my mission.. and then the work will improve in Heerlen.. It was neat it’s what I needed to hear.
Last thing I’ll say before I wish you a very happy week, I’ve been spoiled with dutch in Amsterdam and Den Haag.. the dutch there is clear.. and for a person learning dutch that’s the perfect place to go.. Here they have this funny accent, and they guttural there R’s along with there G’s.. First time I heard I had to take a second and really concentrate because all the guttural sounds flying out was confusing me! It felt like I was hearing words I’’ve never heard before!! But actually in reality it’s not too bad.. just different, I know a lot of people think that the Dutch language is an ugly language, but I’m in love with it.. I’’m already making plans on how I’m going to keep it up when I get home.. So.. okay.. have nothing really left to say.. Success met de week.. en.. Tot Ziens!
Liefs,
Elder Mohrman
p.s sad day for salem
Hard sticka bedankt for all of the wonderful emails this week! It’s always great to see how everyone is doing and what’s the updates with everyone’s life. Bummer again for Stefani.. man.. all this waiting.. you just got to know your whole mission is going to be just as crazy!! =) Maybe you’ll be a solo or something also?
My address for Heerlen
Zeswegenlaan 295
6412 HK Heerlen
Netherlands
I left last Wednesday from Den Haag and what of course happened? The package you sent me arrived.. luckily my new companion is a district leader as well as my last one, so he can give him the package at a district leader training but that won’t be for a couple of weeks. Really excited though, do love mail. So let me tell you a little about this place.
It’s in the middle of no where and there’s tons and tons of hills. Yeah… fun.. I was blessed though, the ward missionary leader in the Den Haag ward let me have one of his bikes so I didn’t have to buy one. Only problem was that it was stuck in the hardest gear.. fine for a flat city of Den Haag but for a hilly place? But we knocked it down to a couple of easier gears, and the bike is holding up the few days I’ve been here. It’s really different being in a 2-man apartment though. Amsterdam and also Den Haag were 4-man’s.. 2 man’s definitely a little more quieter. But my companion Elder Robert and I have gotten along just great so far.. It’s a pretty interesting situation though, Elder Robert just turned… 25 in January.. graduated in 2004.. the guy is older than Tiffani!! Ha ha He can’t believe that I graduated in 2010.. We’ve had some good jokes about our ages.. I call him grandpa or old man, and he tells me I still have baby fat on my face =P IT’s going to be a fun transfer I’m sure =) Heerlen is a beautiful place.. I guess a lot of people retire here because of the beauty.. Very green, and the hills are very nice to see from all the flatness of the big cities. The three corner mark is in my area, and they have a monument there, for a p-day were going to go there, and I’ll be able to be in 3 countries at once! And most of the members actually live in Germany, so I get to be the rare exception and cross the mission boundaries and travel into Germany when we go to member’s houses. In fact tomorrow on Tuesday will be the first time =) I’ll take pictures for ya Stef ;)
The ward is mostly American… it’s pretty nice to talk with Americans again.. American English!.. and it kinda has that feel of a ward back home.. But there’s still plenty of dutch people as well and I’ve met some pretty amazing people here. My first dinner with members was with this polish family, who knew and are friends with Josh Wilson quite well. Small world.. but it get’s smaller as my second dinner appointment was with this dutch couple who are extremely good friends with this older couple in payson.. pretty close to where we live too.. we were able to talk about different land marks in payson and the wife was just there this past march.. Extremely small world! The dutch couple were amazing, the man is a artist and he actually has two pieces in the church art museum.. one of the pieces is a statue of Job, and he still has a few limited editions left and after I said Job was my favorite story in the bible , they gave me and my companion a statue of it.. really really cool! There’s only 150 of them in the world, and like I said it’s in the church art museum in utah.. only problem is I don’t know how I’m going to send that home because it’s so fragile! I have a lot of other stuff I need to send home as well.. it’s pretty sweet that we have American bases so close because I can give my packages to american’s and they can send them off and I’ll get American pricing.. that’s going to be super nice! But on sunday I was able to bare my testimony to the ward and introduce myself, I shared my experience from Amsterdam, where it was my last day and I felt we should go to the old woman’s house and it turned out she had been praying for us to come. It was pretty special, I hadn’t shared that story with people before at least not over a pulpit. I’m really excited about my opportunity to be here in Heerlen.. Unlike Den Haag where I came in and had a lot of investigators already there.. Heerlen is really different, there’s hardly anything going on. But I think that there could be… hearing from my companion who’s starting his second transfer, there’s some really positive people here.. and if we involve the ward more in missionary work, this place and really any place I think could just explode. It’s going to be a challenge, but my goal is to be having the same numbers in Heerlen as I was in Den Haag, (the most productive city in the mission) I listened to a talk by Pres, Gordon B Hinckley this morning actually and the title is “A true successful story” or something like that.. he gave it in 1985.. it’s all about missionary work, and the miracle of it all.. and how if we just put a little more effort we could double our convert baptisms.. it was a really good talk.. one that made me think, and so all morning I’ve just been thinking that yeah.. I just need to put a little more effort to what I’ve been doing on my mission.. and then the work will improve in Heerlen.. It was neat it’s what I needed to hear.
Last thing I’ll say before I wish you a very happy week, I’ve been spoiled with dutch in Amsterdam and Den Haag.. the dutch there is clear.. and for a person learning dutch that’s the perfect place to go.. Here they have this funny accent, and they guttural there R’s along with there G’s.. First time I heard I had to take a second and really concentrate because all the guttural sounds flying out was confusing me! It felt like I was hearing words I’’ve never heard before!! But actually in reality it’s not too bad.. just different, I know a lot of people think that the Dutch language is an ugly language, but I’m in love with it.. I’’m already making plans on how I’m going to keep it up when I get home.. So.. okay.. have nothing really left to say.. Success met de week.. en.. Tot Ziens!
Liefs,
Elder Mohrman
p.s sad day for salem
Monday, January 31, 2011
Den Haag - Week 7
Heerlen? Where and what is Heerlen?
Transfers this week!! but of course you wouldn't think that I would be leaving right? I just got here to Den Haag.. already moved cities.. 3 cities in 3 transfers to start of my mission? No way who would ever think of such crazy nonsense, certainly i sure didn't.. but of course I learned once again that I can't predict anything.. I've been transfered.. again =0 craziness huh? =) I was spoiled serving in Amsterdam first then moving to Den Haag.. and that spoiledness just keeps on coming as I will now be serving in Heerlen. The ward in Heerlen is english and a lot of them are americans I have heard because it's right by an army base. I've been told it's refered to as "mini-america!" So awesome.. going from a marine companion, to an army ward.. Took me by suprise to be honest, Heerlen is the most southern city in the Netherlands mission on the border of Germany and Belgium. I guess I can be in three countries in a day, and the 3 point mark where all the countries meet up is in heerlen.. Knew companion's name is Elder Roberts.. don't know anything about him.. but you'll get all that info next week.. if I remember that is.. I don't think I explain my companions very well.. ha ha.. Well Bummer! Can't believe Stefani didn't get her call.. was waiting and guessing and talking about it all week!! That's a bit of a downer.. hope they didn't send your letter to someone else =) ha ha Well the past 3 weeks or so have just been awesome, me and Elder Hawkley have grown a lot together in doing the whole missionary thing.. this coming week that we had planned would have been just awesome, with all the lessens we have planned.. Was going to set some baptismal dates and what not.. but.. yeah.. Elder Hawkley will get to enjoy this week with a greenie.. he found out that he was training. The whole mission got shook up.. Lot's of changes. Elder De Meester for his last transfer was made a zone leader of the antwerpen zone.. which is the zone that my new city is in. So it will be good to be able to see him his last transfer.. His parents are going to pick him up so it'll be fun.. Hope you haven't sent to much stuff to me just recently.. Heerlen is in the middle of no where, in fact the closest elders to me aren't even in my mission, there german elders.. and then the next closest is french I think is what they said.. so yeah.. completely in the middle of nowhere =0 But I had a good time In Den Haag.. I enjoyed it more so then Amsterdam because I understood more.. taught bunches more.. and of course Nancy getting baptized will be the best memory I have from this place.. Little sad that the apartment is getting broken up. One of the zone leaders Elder Bastian is leaving also. We got along great and had a grand ol'time with each other.. We actually all thought that we would all stay for one more transfer, and we all wanted that too.. but.. yeah.. it'll be fun, and just enjoying the journey.. =) Winter is almost gone.. so excited to see the flowers, I've seen pictures from other missionary's and it's amazing here in this country.. well.. I don't know what more to say.. I"ve given you all the info I know about Heerlen.. This past week was awesome, but nothing too unique.. just have some awesome investigators here that Í'll miss a lot... but it's all good. Really enjoyed my time in Den Haag. I felt I made a lot of progress and growth being able to learn and watch Elder Favero and Bastian. Elder Hawkley and I were doing great. We have some really good investigators, one is named sun, and we are planning to set a baptismal date with him this week. He's come a long way, his first time ever praying in his life was with us. And he came to church this past week and enjoyed it. Also our other investigators our baptismal dates Jerry and Inus are making progress as well.. Inuz is a little scared to get married. She had a bad expirience before with a marriage not working. But Jerry is on board, and is looking forward to his baptism, and marrying Inuz. Looking forward to Heerlen =)
Love you all.. and thank you so much for the emails.. Everyone who sent me one gave awesome stories.. Stefani's japanese story (lack of a better summary title =P) Mom's tithing story, that was really neat, hope you send me that one in a package.. and yeah.. love you all.. Take care.. get a mission call or something Stefani.. and Tot Ziens!!
Transfers this week!! but of course you wouldn't think that I would be leaving right? I just got here to Den Haag.. already moved cities.. 3 cities in 3 transfers to start of my mission? No way who would ever think of such crazy nonsense, certainly i sure didn't.. but of course I learned once again that I can't predict anything.. I've been transfered.. again =0 craziness huh? =) I was spoiled serving in Amsterdam first then moving to Den Haag.. and that spoiledness just keeps on coming as I will now be serving in Heerlen. The ward in Heerlen is english and a lot of them are americans I have heard because it's right by an army base. I've been told it's refered to as "mini-america!" So awesome.. going from a marine companion, to an army ward.. Took me by suprise to be honest, Heerlen is the most southern city in the Netherlands mission on the border of Germany and Belgium. I guess I can be in three countries in a day, and the 3 point mark where all the countries meet up is in heerlen.. Knew companion's name is Elder Roberts.. don't know anything about him.. but you'll get all that info next week.. if I remember that is.. I don't think I explain my companions very well.. ha ha.. Well Bummer! Can't believe Stefani didn't get her call.. was waiting and guessing and talking about it all week!! That's a bit of a downer.. hope they didn't send your letter to someone else =) ha ha Well the past 3 weeks or so have just been awesome, me and Elder Hawkley have grown a lot together in doing the whole missionary thing.. this coming week that we had planned would have been just awesome, with all the lessens we have planned.. Was going to set some baptismal dates and what not.. but.. yeah.. Elder Hawkley will get to enjoy this week with a greenie.. he found out that he was training. The whole mission got shook up.. Lot's of changes. Elder De Meester for his last transfer was made a zone leader of the antwerpen zone.. which is the zone that my new city is in. So it will be good to be able to see him his last transfer.. His parents are going to pick him up so it'll be fun.. Hope you haven't sent to much stuff to me just recently.. Heerlen is in the middle of no where, in fact the closest elders to me aren't even in my mission, there german elders.. and then the next closest is french I think is what they said.. so yeah.. completely in the middle of nowhere =0 But I had a good time In Den Haag.. I enjoyed it more so then Amsterdam because I understood more.. taught bunches more.. and of course Nancy getting baptized will be the best memory I have from this place.. Little sad that the apartment is getting broken up. One of the zone leaders Elder Bastian is leaving also. We got along great and had a grand ol'time with each other.. We actually all thought that we would all stay for one more transfer, and we all wanted that too.. but.. yeah.. it'll be fun, and just enjoying the journey.. =) Winter is almost gone.. so excited to see the flowers, I've seen pictures from other missionary's and it's amazing here in this country.. well.. I don't know what more to say.. I"ve given you all the info I know about Heerlen.. This past week was awesome, but nothing too unique.. just have some awesome investigators here that Í'll miss a lot... but it's all good. Really enjoyed my time in Den Haag. I felt I made a lot of progress and growth being able to learn and watch Elder Favero and Bastian. Elder Hawkley and I were doing great. We have some really good investigators, one is named sun, and we are planning to set a baptismal date with him this week. He's come a long way, his first time ever praying in his life was with us. And he came to church this past week and enjoyed it. Also our other investigators our baptismal dates Jerry and Inus are making progress as well.. Inuz is a little scared to get married. She had a bad expirience before with a marriage not working. But Jerry is on board, and is looking forward to his baptism, and marrying Inuz. Looking forward to Heerlen =)
Love you all.. and thank you so much for the emails.. Everyone who sent me one gave awesome stories.. Stefani's japanese story (lack of a better summary title =P) Mom's tithing story, that was really neat, hope you send me that one in a package.. and yeah.. love you all.. Take care.. get a mission call or something Stefani.. and Tot Ziens!!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Den Haag...week 6
GoedeDag Familie!!
Hopelijk alles is goed met jullie! Wow, what a week!! Easily the best week of my mission! I mean granted having a baptism is always going to be a highlight of a mission, but even the rest of the week was just awesome! The Baptism for Nancy did indeed go through, it was an amazing night. Happened on Saturday, and my companion Elder Hawkley baptized her. She asked me to be a witness, which was pretty cool, because then I got to be in the front and actually see it =) But the whole week leading up to the baptism, meeting with her, talking to her about the baptism who she wanted to do what.. see her excitement.. she called us every day, asking us questions and concerns.. wanted to know if she had to pay to be baptized, and just funny little stuff like that. It was definitely a huge blessing for me to be able to have a baptism so early in my mission.. but also to see how strong of faith she had. She had the flu earlier in the week, and so we gave her another blessing. This time I had the opportunity to give the actual blessing while Elder Hawkley did the annointing.. and just like the first blessing we gave her, she said she felt the sickness leaving her instantly.. just an incredible lady. Got to bare my testimony at the baptism, and it was just an awesome, awesome night.
So another fun thing, I had my first expirience being the "senior companion".. We were in Harlem which is a city in the northern part of holland right by Amsterdam for district meeting, and we went out and blitzed the city meaning that all the companionships in the district go out and find for an hour around the same place. We mixed up companionships and I was paired with Elder Davies. This is my second Transfer and this is his first. So technically I was the senior companion'=) It was definitely a growing expirience.. I and Elder Davies were forced to speak, and help each other.. and actually it was the best finding I've ever done on my mission.. go figure right? ha ha But we taught a few lessons on the street.. got a number.. and oh yeah.. we got lost in the city for a few hours.. but we got some awesome pictures so it's all good!! =) Asked a mailman if he would take a picture of me and ELder Davies, and got to talk with him a little bit.. kind of interesting, doubt he would of talked with us if we would of just done the normal approach.. made me see that you have to be creative when talking to people! Work in progress, biggest thing I need to work on is sealing the deal, getting a persons number and asking for an appointment.. usuaully I just panic and give them a card and thats it!! =0 .. ideas are always helpful and appreciated =) (shout out to you dad thanks =)) I would love the testament movies if you could send like 5 or so.. I've been using the Joseph Smith movie and the whole packet that you sent me with the members.. been watching them with newly baptized and other members of the ward.. seem to be very effective.. the main thing that I need is leaves too.. Really love giving them out to people.. but I'm almost out.. and I have a list of people that I need to give them too! But Thanks so much for all that you send me.. I think the best things that you have sent me is the Mac and Cheese..and the Hot Chocolate.. Oh and the Hand warmers were a life savor when it was super cold =)
I got to finally play some basketball!! We live by this super big park, called zuiderpark, and we ride through it going to different peoples homes.. well they have a basketball court in there and on tuesday we were riding through it and I saw someone playing basketball, I asked Elder Hawkley if it was allowed contacting while playing sports, and so I went over and asked the girl if she wanted to play P.I.G.. It was awesome!! Couldn't believe how long it had been since I shot.. but it felt so good.. the girl was pretty cool, played in a leauge here in the netherlands, she was 17 I think from some african country, and of course if you were wondering I won =) But it was pretty neat, just able to talk to her while, and we'll see later if anything comes from it. We have a few new investigators one in particular who is super positive, his name is sun.. he's from china and when he met us and went to the jovo center with us (young adult center) he said that was the first time he's ever heard a prayer and then later that night by himself he said that was the first time he had ever prayed by himself.. pretty cool because he's so opposite of Nancy, yet he has that same desire to learn and grow.. were meeting with him tonight actually, really looking forward to seeing what will happen for him..
Hmm.. what else to say.. Went down to Belgium this week.. got all legal.. and also I'm legal in the Netherlands now.. 'so... yeah not really important or anything.. but hey just so you know =) oh hey also, if in the next package if you could send Some of tiffani's emails.. like all the ones up to where I am at on my misison.. I would love to re read them and just see how she was doing at the point of where I am at.. don't know if mitch still has his or not.. but just an idea I heard from another elder and I thought it was awesome.. would love it if you could do that.. and then whenver you send other packages you could just send the emails that correlate with me.. awesome! And if you wanted to put a letter in every package also.. that would be great too =) Best part of any package is the letter hearing from my parents =)
Okay you guys were spoiled this is way too long, can't let you guys think that this will be normal or something!!!
=)
veel leifde!
--Elder Mohrman
Hopelijk alles is goed met jullie! Wow, what a week!! Easily the best week of my mission! I mean granted having a baptism is always going to be a highlight of a mission, but even the rest of the week was just awesome! The Baptism for Nancy did indeed go through, it was an amazing night. Happened on Saturday, and my companion Elder Hawkley baptized her. She asked me to be a witness, which was pretty cool, because then I got to be in the front and actually see it =) But the whole week leading up to the baptism, meeting with her, talking to her about the baptism who she wanted to do what.. see her excitement.. she called us every day, asking us questions and concerns.. wanted to know if she had to pay to be baptized, and just funny little stuff like that. It was definitely a huge blessing for me to be able to have a baptism so early in my mission.. but also to see how strong of faith she had. She had the flu earlier in the week, and so we gave her another blessing. This time I had the opportunity to give the actual blessing while Elder Hawkley did the annointing.. and just like the first blessing we gave her, she said she felt the sickness leaving her instantly.. just an incredible lady. Got to bare my testimony at the baptism, and it was just an awesome, awesome night.
So another fun thing, I had my first expirience being the "senior companion".. We were in Harlem which is a city in the northern part of holland right by Amsterdam for district meeting, and we went out and blitzed the city meaning that all the companionships in the district go out and find for an hour around the same place. We mixed up companionships and I was paired with Elder Davies. This is my second Transfer and this is his first. So technically I was the senior companion'=) It was definitely a growing expirience.. I and Elder Davies were forced to speak, and help each other.. and actually it was the best finding I've ever done on my mission.. go figure right? ha ha But we taught a few lessons on the street.. got a number.. and oh yeah.. we got lost in the city for a few hours.. but we got some awesome pictures so it's all good!! =) Asked a mailman if he would take a picture of me and ELder Davies, and got to talk with him a little bit.. kind of interesting, doubt he would of talked with us if we would of just done the normal approach.. made me see that you have to be creative when talking to people! Work in progress, biggest thing I need to work on is sealing the deal, getting a persons number and asking for an appointment.. usuaully I just panic and give them a card and thats it!! =0 .. ideas are always helpful and appreciated =) (shout out to you dad thanks =)) I would love the testament movies if you could send like 5 or so.. I've been using the Joseph Smith movie and the whole packet that you sent me with the members.. been watching them with newly baptized and other members of the ward.. seem to be very effective.. the main thing that I need is leaves too.. Really love giving them out to people.. but I'm almost out.. and I have a list of people that I need to give them too! But Thanks so much for all that you send me.. I think the best things that you have sent me is the Mac and Cheese..and the Hot Chocolate.. Oh and the Hand warmers were a life savor when it was super cold =)
I got to finally play some basketball!! We live by this super big park, called zuiderpark, and we ride through it going to different peoples homes.. well they have a basketball court in there and on tuesday we were riding through it and I saw someone playing basketball, I asked Elder Hawkley if it was allowed contacting while playing sports, and so I went over and asked the girl if she wanted to play P.I.G.. It was awesome!! Couldn't believe how long it had been since I shot.. but it felt so good.. the girl was pretty cool, played in a leauge here in the netherlands, she was 17 I think from some african country, and of course if you were wondering I won =) But it was pretty neat, just able to talk to her while, and we'll see later if anything comes from it. We have a few new investigators one in particular who is super positive, his name is sun.. he's from china and when he met us and went to the jovo center with us (young adult center) he said that was the first time he's ever heard a prayer and then later that night by himself he said that was the first time he had ever prayed by himself.. pretty cool because he's so opposite of Nancy, yet he has that same desire to learn and grow.. were meeting with him tonight actually, really looking forward to seeing what will happen for him..
Hmm.. what else to say.. Went down to Belgium this week.. got all legal.. and also I'm legal in the Netherlands now.. 'so... yeah not really important or anything.. but hey just so you know =) oh hey also, if in the next package if you could send Some of tiffani's emails.. like all the ones up to where I am at on my misison.. I would love to re read them and just see how she was doing at the point of where I am at.. don't know if mitch still has his or not.. but just an idea I heard from another elder and I thought it was awesome.. would love it if you could do that.. and then whenver you send other packages you could just send the emails that correlate with me.. awesome! And if you wanted to put a letter in every package also.. that would be great too =) Best part of any package is the letter hearing from my parents =)
Okay you guys were spoiled this is way too long, can't let you guys think that this will be normal or something!!!
=)
veel leifde!
--Elder Mohrman
Monday, January 17, 2011
Den Haag...week 5
Hoi Familie!!
I'm in amsterdam today.. it's pretty cool to be back, we went to breakfast with a bunch of missionary's in our zone, a member who's here on business always feeds the missionary's breakfast when he's around, he actually did when I was serving in amsterdam too, so us four in den haag decided to come up as well, and then spend our p day in Amsterdam, get to go to my first museum!! Probably going to hit up the Anne Frank museum, buy her journal in dutch since that's the original language that it was written in.. never realized that til I came here! Another member that was at the breakfast thing, was from Japan, it was fun being able to try and remember my japanese and talk a little about the culture and what not with him. I honestly don't remember that much but as he was talking I started remembering some random words. Like baseball! Yakyu! That's a good one to remember, I miss sports.. I haven't done any sports since I've been here.. I'm itching to play catch or shoot hoops.. play ping pong.. something!! Especially since the weather has been a lot better.. (meaning no snow) Still not the best.. raining a bunch right now.. every day non stop.. yesterday we were outside in the rain for about 4 hours non-stop.. I don't think I've ever been so wet for so long in my life.. it's been a blessing that I haven't gotten sick yet!! I went on exchanges to zuutemeer.. however you spell that.. and that's actually where the temple is!! So I finally got to see the temple.. after 2 and a half months my temple drought is over!! It was pretty sweet not going to lie.. something about temples.. the peace.. knowing that it's the house of god.. something that I really miss about Utah is just all the temples.. driving down the highway and seeing temples on your left then on your right.. Beautiful place where we live =) But the Netherlands when it's not covered in snow is a very beautiful place as well.. driving up and biking around, so many cool things to see, with windmills.. and old houses and artitechture.. canals, and boats.. really amazing scenery.. I was reading in my patriartichal blessing and the part about my mission said that I will learn to love the land.. I can see that.. didn't have much love when I came with it being so cold.. but as I'm getting used to things.. as I get to see the country how it really is.. I can totally see how I"m going to fall in love with the netherlands.. This last week language wise was the best it's been while I've been on my mission.. hopefully I'll say that every week, but this last week had my first conversations with complete strangers in dutch.. it was a few.. and not too complicated I guess.. but I actually understood what they were saying and able to respond and what not.. it was a nice glimpse to see what it will be like being able to talk really good! =) Me and Elder Hawkley have decided to do a new finding approach we ask people if they'll help us out with an opionion survey and then ask them who do they think god is.. were getting a lot more people who will actually talk with us.. instead of the whole not interested stuff they'd say before.. so were growing.. not very good at steering conversations to the gospel.. and getting people's numbers and setting up appointments or anything.. but it was a good start!! If you all want to share your ideas and what you did on your missions that'd be awesome.. or your thoughts on finding how you made it fun that'd be great I'd really enjoy reading that in all of your emails next week =)
Really excited about stefi's call.. I want to know where everyone else guessed.. but my guesses for country is germany, frankfurt... and for state will be the kirtland visitor's center.. I've been thinking about it a lot as I've been biking through the rain, and about all of you really.. have a lot of time to think when your biking =) But hey.. hope alles gaat goed voor jullie deze volgende week!!!
Love you all..and happy birthday to mom and Nikki!
--Elder Mohrman
I'm in amsterdam today.. it's pretty cool to be back, we went to breakfast with a bunch of missionary's in our zone, a member who's here on business always feeds the missionary's breakfast when he's around, he actually did when I was serving in amsterdam too, so us four in den haag decided to come up as well, and then spend our p day in Amsterdam, get to go to my first museum!! Probably going to hit up the Anne Frank museum, buy her journal in dutch since that's the original language that it was written in.. never realized that til I came here! Another member that was at the breakfast thing, was from Japan, it was fun being able to try and remember my japanese and talk a little about the culture and what not with him. I honestly don't remember that much but as he was talking I started remembering some random words. Like baseball! Yakyu! That's a good one to remember, I miss sports.. I haven't done any sports since I've been here.. I'm itching to play catch or shoot hoops.. play ping pong.. something!! Especially since the weather has been a lot better.. (meaning no snow) Still not the best.. raining a bunch right now.. every day non stop.. yesterday we were outside in the rain for about 4 hours non-stop.. I don't think I've ever been so wet for so long in my life.. it's been a blessing that I haven't gotten sick yet!! I went on exchanges to zuutemeer.. however you spell that.. and that's actually where the temple is!! So I finally got to see the temple.. after 2 and a half months my temple drought is over!! It was pretty sweet not going to lie.. something about temples.. the peace.. knowing that it's the house of god.. something that I really miss about Utah is just all the temples.. driving down the highway and seeing temples on your left then on your right.. Beautiful place where we live =) But the Netherlands when it's not covered in snow is a very beautiful place as well.. driving up and biking around, so many cool things to see, with windmills.. and old houses and artitechture.. canals, and boats.. really amazing scenery.. I was reading in my patriartichal blessing and the part about my mission said that I will learn to love the land.. I can see that.. didn't have much love when I came with it being so cold.. but as I'm getting used to things.. as I get to see the country how it really is.. I can totally see how I"m going to fall in love with the netherlands.. This last week language wise was the best it's been while I've been on my mission.. hopefully I'll say that every week, but this last week had my first conversations with complete strangers in dutch.. it was a few.. and not too complicated I guess.. but I actually understood what they were saying and able to respond and what not.. it was a nice glimpse to see what it will be like being able to talk really good! =) Me and Elder Hawkley have decided to do a new finding approach we ask people if they'll help us out with an opionion survey and then ask them who do they think god is.. were getting a lot more people who will actually talk with us.. instead of the whole not interested stuff they'd say before.. so were growing.. not very good at steering conversations to the gospel.. and getting people's numbers and setting up appointments or anything.. but it was a good start!! If you all want to share your ideas and what you did on your missions that'd be awesome.. or your thoughts on finding how you made it fun that'd be great I'd really enjoy reading that in all of your emails next week =)
Really excited about stefi's call.. I want to know where everyone else guessed.. but my guesses for country is germany, frankfurt... and for state will be the kirtland visitor's center.. I've been thinking about it a lot as I've been biking through the rain, and about all of you really.. have a lot of time to think when your biking =) But hey.. hope alles gaat goed voor jullie deze volgende week!!!
Love you all..and happy birthday to mom and Nikki!
--Elder Mohrman
Monday, January 10, 2011
Den Haag week 4
Goedemiddag familie!
Another week.. pretty crazy how time can seem like it''s so slow.. then be so fast.. for me I feel like every day whether it's a monday or a tuesday or a saturday that it comes quick and it just feels like I had that day.. however looking on a broader block of time.. it feels like I've hardly done anything.. hardly been out on my mission!
Benschoplaan 42
2547 RJ Den Haag
Netherlands
That's my address.. I can't remember what I put the last time.. but I saw an envelope one of the other elders recieved and so I wrote down the address and just to make sure that you do have my right address I'm reapeating it!! Hope it was right all along, but never hurts to be safe right? =) I got my package from kim this week.. it is sick!!! Love the hoodie.. oh man can't tell you how good it feels to wear something nike again.. =) Bedankt kim, your awesome!!
Was a pretty eventful week, had mission interviews this week, and then this coming week I have my first zone conference and that will be in a city called Breda.. my companion Elder Hawkley served there for a while so he's going to try and hook us up with some dinner appointments down there.. it should be pretty fun. It was a good week for the fact that I think me and Elder Hawkley are finally getting more organized and on the same page in what we want to do.. pretty much all the goals that we set for the week, we accomplished lesson wise, and so that was pretty cool.. I would have to say it was one of my best weeks on my mission so far.. langauge.. still smiling, and still trying =)
My cool story for the week, one of our investigators named Nancy, she's the lady that we gave the blessing too where after she felt better.. well ever since that blessing she's been on fire, came to church the first time last week, said she loved it, and then this last appointment we had with her, she said that she will always come to our church no matter what.. she said that the only reason that she wouldn't is if her legs were broken,.. but then her faith would let her fly to the church! ha ha love the african faith =) She had a baptismal date set for febuary.. but now we moved it for the 22nd of january.. I'm pretty excited going to be my first baptism, of someone that I actually taught and saw the change in there life! She has this adorable kid too, about 1 in a half.. really fun to play with.. can't wait til we have a little guy like that in our family... (hint hint... won't mention any names but going to throw out a random color.. brown..s..) =D Also pretty interesting, We went over to this family's home this week not members, not investigators but just really devout christians.. the mother is from england.. well wales.. (I guess there's a difference?) =) and the dad is from Netherlands.. really nice people, were hoping that as we keep visiting them they'll ask us questions and then get interested in the gospel. But anyways the wife's maiden name is vaughan.. and when she found out my middle name she told me it was welsh because it was Englishcized from having the -an at the end to only having the n.. and what it means is "small"" so now I know what all my names means.. my name translated to it's origins is ""Joseph small dark/black man"".. thanks for the name parents =) ha ha love my name, just interesting and funny =)
Hope all of your weeks will go great, today for p-day were going to delft which I hear is a pretty good city, pretty old city, should hopefully get some good photo's!! oh yeah still need to send my card to you guys.. hmm.. I'll do that someday.. okay love you all
Tot ziens en tot de volgende voorbereidings dag!!
-Elder Mohrman
Another week.. pretty crazy how time can seem like it''s so slow.. then be so fast.. for me I feel like every day whether it's a monday or a tuesday or a saturday that it comes quick and it just feels like I had that day.. however looking on a broader block of time.. it feels like I've hardly done anything.. hardly been out on my mission!
Benschoplaan 42
2547 RJ Den Haag
Netherlands
That's my address.. I can't remember what I put the last time.. but I saw an envelope one of the other elders recieved and so I wrote down the address and just to make sure that you do have my right address I'm reapeating it!! Hope it was right all along, but never hurts to be safe right? =) I got my package from kim this week.. it is sick!!! Love the hoodie.. oh man can't tell you how good it feels to wear something nike again.. =) Bedankt kim, your awesome!!
Was a pretty eventful week, had mission interviews this week, and then this coming week I have my first zone conference and that will be in a city called Breda.. my companion Elder Hawkley served there for a while so he's going to try and hook us up with some dinner appointments down there.. it should be pretty fun. It was a good week for the fact that I think me and Elder Hawkley are finally getting more organized and on the same page in what we want to do.. pretty much all the goals that we set for the week, we accomplished lesson wise, and so that was pretty cool.. I would have to say it was one of my best weeks on my mission so far.. langauge.. still smiling, and still trying =)
My cool story for the week, one of our investigators named Nancy, she's the lady that we gave the blessing too where after she felt better.. well ever since that blessing she's been on fire, came to church the first time last week, said she loved it, and then this last appointment we had with her, she said that she will always come to our church no matter what.. she said that the only reason that she wouldn't is if her legs were broken,.. but then her faith would let her fly to the church! ha ha love the african faith =) She had a baptismal date set for febuary.. but now we moved it for the 22nd of january.. I'm pretty excited going to be my first baptism, of someone that I actually taught and saw the change in there life! She has this adorable kid too, about 1 in a half.. really fun to play with.. can't wait til we have a little guy like that in our family... (hint hint... won't mention any names but going to throw out a random color.. brown..s..) =D Also pretty interesting, We went over to this family's home this week not members, not investigators but just really devout christians.. the mother is from england.. well wales.. (I guess there's a difference?) =) and the dad is from Netherlands.. really nice people, were hoping that as we keep visiting them they'll ask us questions and then get interested in the gospel. But anyways the wife's maiden name is vaughan.. and when she found out my middle name she told me it was welsh because it was Englishcized from having the -an at the end to only having the n.. and what it means is "small"" so now I know what all my names means.. my name translated to it's origins is ""Joseph small dark/black man"".. thanks for the name parents =) ha ha love my name, just interesting and funny =)
Hope all of your weeks will go great, today for p-day were going to delft which I hear is a pretty good city, pretty old city, should hopefully get some good photo's!! oh yeah still need to send my card to you guys.. hmm.. I'll do that someday.. okay love you all
Tot ziens en tot de volgende voorbereidings dag!!
-Elder Mohrman
Monday, January 3, 2011
Den Haag... Week 3
Groetjes Familie!
Hopelijk alles is steeds goed met jullie!!
Thank you all so much for all of the emails!! Wow.. it was like christmas.. but with emails!!! =) Definitely do appreciate everyones emails, and updates on life and questions (that I'll probably forget to answer) ha ha So dad, crazy traditions the netherlands do have.. however.. nothing quite like your story with the cake. They do love ollie bollie like I explained on the phone.. or tried to actually, they only have ollie bollie's during the month of december, and they eat a bunch of them on new years.. we got a bunch from different members of the ward.. close to a 100 or something insane like that.. but that's really there only food tradition that they have.. there other tradition is to go completely insane. And I mean.. literally insane. The country of Netherlands bought somewhere close to 65-70 million fireworks this year. All for New Years. I don't think I can ever truly appreciate fireworks again after being here for a new years. For a couple days leading up to New Years, You would hear little pops and booms every 5 minutes or so. And ít's just exploding fireworks that people throw around as there walking.. as it got closer and closer more and more fireworks would go off at a much higher frequency.. then on Dec 31, starting around 10 it was non-stop.. just a constant stream of fireworks going off.. it sounded like I was in a War Zone.. on Dec 31 we had to be in our house by 4;00 pm because it get's so crazy here.. but we still had a couple of appointments throughout the day, we'd pass groups of people, mostly teens, and they'd just be walking and chucking fireworks at everything.. As we were riding by the center of the city, we say something on fire.. had no idea what it was.. a houseboat was on fire that we saw.. and this is all during the day!! At around 6;00 that's when the fireworks that you usually see at special events, the ones that go up into the air.. that's when people started lighting those off.. anyways around 11:30 pm between 200 am was the climax of all this, were in our home, in a pretty nice area, and things just went chaotic!! Fireworks were going off everywhere, in probably 5 minutes flat, they had set up a bon fire in the middle of the street in front of our house full of boxes, christmas trees, old furniture.. whatever and lit that on fire.. people were blowing up the street signs and putting that in the fire.. throwing fireworks into the fire.. oh wow.. I got some videos but geesh.. it was the most craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. I doubt if I'm even describing it very well.. Oh well I tried.. ha ha it was a pretty unique thing to witness that's for sure! The next day, there was hardly any snow left on the ground.. the smoke from all the fireworks had completely melted most of it.. Every couple of blocks there were ashes of bon-fires people had made with all sorts of stuff in them.. there was a bike in the one outside our apartment.. trash cans were blown up.. just insane.. absolute scene of choas!
But before New Years, I got to see my second baptism since I've been here, first one was the day I arrived in Den Haag actually, and this one was the other Elders, Her name is Barbara, and she's an awesome lady.. had a rough life, but the gospel has really changed her, and healed her.. really classic story you hear so often, pretty neat to be able to be there, get to know her..
Last P-day I bough Kung fu panda in dutch.. pretty stoked about it.. all the disney pixars you can get in dutch.. I"m also trying to look for books to buy in dutch.. like the Harry Potter books or something.. I was thinking those would be pretty cool to have after the mission =)
Anyways, that was pretty much my week.. the main thing was new years.. Still going great love where I'm at, language will come.. sometime.. but it will come!! Keep the emails coming.. love them.. and okay, tot de volgende week!!
Liefs
-Elder Mohrman
Hopelijk alles is steeds goed met jullie!!
Thank you all so much for all of the emails!! Wow.. it was like christmas.. but with emails!!! =) Definitely do appreciate everyones emails, and updates on life and questions (that I'll probably forget to answer) ha ha So dad, crazy traditions the netherlands do have.. however.. nothing quite like your story with the cake. They do love ollie bollie like I explained on the phone.. or tried to actually, they only have ollie bollie's during the month of december, and they eat a bunch of them on new years.. we got a bunch from different members of the ward.. close to a 100 or something insane like that.. but that's really there only food tradition that they have.. there other tradition is to go completely insane. And I mean.. literally insane. The country of Netherlands bought somewhere close to 65-70 million fireworks this year. All for New Years. I don't think I can ever truly appreciate fireworks again after being here for a new years. For a couple days leading up to New Years, You would hear little pops and booms every 5 minutes or so. And ít's just exploding fireworks that people throw around as there walking.. as it got closer and closer more and more fireworks would go off at a much higher frequency.. then on Dec 31, starting around 10 it was non-stop.. just a constant stream of fireworks going off.. it sounded like I was in a War Zone.. on Dec 31 we had to be in our house by 4;00 pm because it get's so crazy here.. but we still had a couple of appointments throughout the day, we'd pass groups of people, mostly teens, and they'd just be walking and chucking fireworks at everything.. As we were riding by the center of the city, we say something on fire.. had no idea what it was.. a houseboat was on fire that we saw.. and this is all during the day!! At around 6;00 that's when the fireworks that you usually see at special events, the ones that go up into the air.. that's when people started lighting those off.. anyways around 11:30 pm between 200 am was the climax of all this, were in our home, in a pretty nice area, and things just went chaotic!! Fireworks were going off everywhere, in probably 5 minutes flat, they had set up a bon fire in the middle of the street in front of our house full of boxes, christmas trees, old furniture.. whatever and lit that on fire.. people were blowing up the street signs and putting that in the fire.. throwing fireworks into the fire.. oh wow.. I got some videos but geesh.. it was the most craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. I doubt if I'm even describing it very well.. Oh well I tried.. ha ha it was a pretty unique thing to witness that's for sure! The next day, there was hardly any snow left on the ground.. the smoke from all the fireworks had completely melted most of it.. Every couple of blocks there were ashes of bon-fires people had made with all sorts of stuff in them.. there was a bike in the one outside our apartment.. trash cans were blown up.. just insane.. absolute scene of choas!
But before New Years, I got to see my second baptism since I've been here, first one was the day I arrived in Den Haag actually, and this one was the other Elders, Her name is Barbara, and she's an awesome lady.. had a rough life, but the gospel has really changed her, and healed her.. really classic story you hear so often, pretty neat to be able to be there, get to know her..
Last P-day I bough Kung fu panda in dutch.. pretty stoked about it.. all the disney pixars you can get in dutch.. I"m also trying to look for books to buy in dutch.. like the Harry Potter books or something.. I was thinking those would be pretty cool to have after the mission =)
Anyways, that was pretty much my week.. the main thing was new years.. Still going great love where I'm at, language will come.. sometime.. but it will come!! Keep the emails coming.. love them.. and okay, tot de volgende week!!
Liefs
-Elder Mohrman
Monday, December 27, 2010
Den Haag... Week 2
Goedemiddag familie!
I hope your all enjoying all your new goodies you received during christmas =P Words cannot describe how great it was to be able to talk with you all. It was great to be able to just explain my experiences I've had in greater detail, and to answer questions about what's going on with my life right now. Hope that you asked most of the questions that was on your minds.. hope so.. but probably not.. It's sad that we don't get more time to be able to talk.. there's just so much to say about what I"m experiencing here.. and also what you all are experiencing back home.. that was one thing I wish we talked more about.. what's going in ya'lls life!!!! It's all good though.. you all don't have a time limit on emails.. so you can put more detail into the emails you ALL send me =)))
Hmm.. let's see.. Yesterday, My companion and I were able to go over to one of our investigators home who has been sick for a long time and give a healing blessing to her.. It was a really neat experience, I annointed, then Elder Hawkley gave the blessing.. right after the blessing, this feeling of peace was over her face, and she said that she was feeling a lot better, and that the pain that she had been feeling was going away.. it was pretty remarkable, I've never seen a blessing work instantaneous like that before.. I really didn't know what to think to be honest.. I just knew that I had been a part of a miracle.. so yeah.. that experience went into the good ol' journal =D I've been so blessed to have seen and experienced the things I have so far on my mission. The apartment is awesome, it's really easy to learn when you have two zone leaders and a district leader in your apartment =) Also last night we went over at a family, and ate an incredibly delicious meal.. we got to cook our own meat on this grill.. it was like a miniture tepenyaki or something.. pretty cool..It was a good day that is for sure =D,
My new address is
Benschoplaan 42
RJ 2546
Den Haag
Nederland
Thank you all again for everything, you all are the best =)
Love Elder Mohrman
P.S Wish the best to all those who has sent me stuff if ya will.. that'd be nice..
Love ya loads
I hope your all enjoying all your new goodies you received during christmas =P Words cannot describe how great it was to be able to talk with you all. It was great to be able to just explain my experiences I've had in greater detail, and to answer questions about what's going on with my life right now. Hope that you asked most of the questions that was on your minds.. hope so.. but probably not.. It's sad that we don't get more time to be able to talk.. there's just so much to say about what I"m experiencing here.. and also what you all are experiencing back home.. that was one thing I wish we talked more about.. what's going in ya'lls life!!!! It's all good though.. you all don't have a time limit on emails.. so you can put more detail into the emails you ALL send me =)))
Hmm.. let's see.. Yesterday, My companion and I were able to go over to one of our investigators home who has been sick for a long time and give a healing blessing to her.. It was a really neat experience, I annointed, then Elder Hawkley gave the blessing.. right after the blessing, this feeling of peace was over her face, and she said that she was feeling a lot better, and that the pain that she had been feeling was going away.. it was pretty remarkable, I've never seen a blessing work instantaneous like that before.. I really didn't know what to think to be honest.. I just knew that I had been a part of a miracle.. so yeah.. that experience went into the good ol' journal =D I've been so blessed to have seen and experienced the things I have so far on my mission. The apartment is awesome, it's really easy to learn when you have two zone leaders and a district leader in your apartment =) Also last night we went over at a family, and ate an incredibly delicious meal.. we got to cook our own meat on this grill.. it was like a miniture tepenyaki or something.. pretty cool..It was a good day that is for sure =D,
My new address is
Benschoplaan 42
RJ 2546
Den Haag
Nederland
Thank you all again for everything, you all are the best =)
Love Elder Mohrman
P.S Wish the best to all those who has sent me stuff if ya will.. that'd be nice..
Love ya loads
Monday, December 20, 2010
*drum roll.......... Den Haag Week 1!
Hallo Familie!
Hope alles is goed met jullie!! After 5 weeks out in the field I am no longer a greenie!! However I"ve been kicked out of my first city too =0 I am now in Den Haag.. so not too bad.. serving in the two biggest cities in the mission right from the get go =) Den Haag is the only other 4 man apartment, and my roomies are the Zone Leaders.. pretty cool.. and then My new collega is Elder Hawkley, and he is the district leader.. pretty sweet people in the apartment.. it's going to be an amazing transfer I'm thinking =).. Little about my companion, he is in the marine core.. been out.. I don't know.. 8-9 months maybe.. but hard worker, and I'm expecting to do some awesome things with him.. at least that's the plan!! I do like Den Haag, it has the most functional ward in the Netherlands I've been told.. and that's meaning the biggest.. ýesterday there wasn't too many people because we are like getting record coldness and snowness.. and all sorts of miserableness..=( Unlike Amsterdam, I'm now on a bike.. didn't have to buy one.. my collega had one for me, but wow.... I can't even believe this.. I'm so sore! Biking in the snow is HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh man.. but hey.. still having a good attitude =) Umm.. so christmas, I would like you guys to call me at 9:30 a.m your time.. I think that will be 5:30 my time.. you can call that and yeah.. we'll talk or somethin' =)
Just before I end I wanted to share an experience my last day in Amsterdam.. Elder de Meester and I had appointments fall through so we were trying to figure out what to do.. he asked me what I wanted to or felt like we should do, and the first person that came to my mind was this older lady we had met my second or third week out.. non member, but has a couple of kids in the church.. in a messed up situation but she loves the missionaries and since we hadn't visited in a while, i felt like we should go do that.. when we got there we knocked on the door, she answered and she looked really pale.. and sickly.. and we were able to visit a little bit.. Elder de meester was helping her boyfriend set up some christmas lights so that left me just talking with the woman.. she said how she's been going through a rough point with her health, and really just been thinking about us lately, but she couldn't call us to visit because she had lost her card with our number.. And she told me that she prayed last night that we would come, and then we did.. it was pretty incredible.. I didn't feel like that when I thought of her name to go visit that it was the holy ghost or anything, I just felt like, well she's close by the church why not.. but now I know that it was the holy ghost.. that lead us there.. we were able to give her a blessing of comfort, and we promised that we''d return.. I'm hoping I get the chance to go back to amsterdam sometime so I can visit her again.. she's just a sweet old lady who loves the missionary's.. Anyways that was the cool experience (ervaring) of the week.. first transfer.. really not to hectic for me, but for others it was because of all the snow.. the greeenies were delayed coming and so we had 7 missionary's sleeping in the den haag apartment because all the trains shut down.. crazy fun stuff =) It was nice being able to see so many of my youngers from the mtc.. 4 of them are in my zone, and two in my district,.. A sister, sister hill is in Den Haag, yesterday actually because her companion was sick, Elder Hawkley and I were able to take her out street contacting for her first time.. it was fun to see her face but it was really fun to see her get a mans number.. I think it was a good expirience for her..
Oh and I got 3 packages right before I left..I got the mac and cheese (delicious!!!) and what not.. but i don't know how many packages you sent.. oh and the mint hot chocolate is a amazing also, after a hard day of bike riding, there's nothing better then stephens mint hot chocolate =)
Ik hou van Jullie met mijn hele hart!!!
Tot Kerst!
-Elder Mohrman
Hope alles is goed met jullie!! After 5 weeks out in the field I am no longer a greenie!! However I"ve been kicked out of my first city too =0 I am now in Den Haag.. so not too bad.. serving in the two biggest cities in the mission right from the get go =) Den Haag is the only other 4 man apartment, and my roomies are the Zone Leaders.. pretty cool.. and then My new collega is Elder Hawkley, and he is the district leader.. pretty sweet people in the apartment.. it's going to be an amazing transfer I'm thinking =).. Little about my companion, he is in the marine core.. been out.. I don't know.. 8-9 months maybe.. but hard worker, and I'm expecting to do some awesome things with him.. at least that's the plan!! I do like Den Haag, it has the most functional ward in the Netherlands I've been told.. and that's meaning the biggest.. ýesterday there wasn't too many people because we are like getting record coldness and snowness.. and all sorts of miserableness..=( Unlike Amsterdam, I'm now on a bike.. didn't have to buy one.. my collega had one for me, but wow.... I can't even believe this.. I'm so sore! Biking in the snow is HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh man.. but hey.. still having a good attitude =) Umm.. so christmas, I would like you guys to call me at 9:30 a.m your time.. I think that will be 5:30 my time.. you can call that and yeah.. we'll talk or somethin' =)
Just before I end I wanted to share an experience my last day in Amsterdam.. Elder de Meester and I had appointments fall through so we were trying to figure out what to do.. he asked me what I wanted to or felt like we should do, and the first person that came to my mind was this older lady we had met my second or third week out.. non member, but has a couple of kids in the church.. in a messed up situation but she loves the missionaries and since we hadn't visited in a while, i felt like we should go do that.. when we got there we knocked on the door, she answered and she looked really pale.. and sickly.. and we were able to visit a little bit.. Elder de meester was helping her boyfriend set up some christmas lights so that left me just talking with the woman.. she said how she's been going through a rough point with her health, and really just been thinking about us lately, but she couldn't call us to visit because she had lost her card with our number.. And she told me that she prayed last night that we would come, and then we did.. it was pretty incredible.. I didn't feel like that when I thought of her name to go visit that it was the holy ghost or anything, I just felt like, well she's close by the church why not.. but now I know that it was the holy ghost.. that lead us there.. we were able to give her a blessing of comfort, and we promised that we''d return.. I'm hoping I get the chance to go back to amsterdam sometime so I can visit her again.. she's just a sweet old lady who loves the missionary's.. Anyways that was the cool experience (ervaring) of the week.. first transfer.. really not to hectic for me, but for others it was because of all the snow.. the greeenies were delayed coming and so we had 7 missionary's sleeping in the den haag apartment because all the trains shut down.. crazy fun stuff =) It was nice being able to see so many of my youngers from the mtc.. 4 of them are in my zone, and two in my district,.. A sister, sister hill is in Den Haag, yesterday actually because her companion was sick, Elder Hawkley and I were able to take her out street contacting for her first time.. it was fun to see her face but it was really fun to see her get a mans number.. I think it was a good expirience for her..
Oh and I got 3 packages right before I left..I got the mac and cheese (delicious!!!) and what not.. but i don't know how many packages you sent.. oh and the mint hot chocolate is a amazing also, after a hard day of bike riding, there's nothing better then stephens mint hot chocolate =)
Ik hou van Jullie met mijn hele hart!!!
Tot Kerst!
-Elder Mohrman
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Amsterdam week 5 :)
Goededag mijn familie!!
Hope alles is goed met jullie!! What a interesting busy week that I just had. Christmas.. Got to love it.. Love it more with Family.. but hey.. it's all good =) On Tuesday we did a Christmas Concert type thing for the stake of Den Haag. THe missionary's of my zone put it on, so I got to sing in another choir, just all the missionary's sang in it, so taht was pretty legit =) Elder Osmond is the one that put it together, and it was a really well done concert, different people had solo's and duets and quartets and all sorts of fun musical terms! It was a great time, kinda cool too that night, my companion Elder De Meester received a letter informing him that he might be training again.. that would be 3 straight greenies, and 4 overall.. crazy.. I don't know what that poor Elder did to get so many greenies.. ha ha But what that means, is Í'll be getting a new companion.. Me or Him will be leaving Amsterdam, and I will no longer be a greenie.. pretty crazy stuff.. time flies on a mission.. no.. let me correct that.. Time flies out in the field on a mission! MTC was slow.. Anyways, transfers are this friday.. so I could be in a new city for christmas.. or I might still be in Amsterdam.. I don't know.. so next week I'll let you know when you call.. and all that fun awesome stuff.. Really looking forward to talking with the family. So much to say, but so little time.. What I have been thinking, all these wonderful emails that I get from you all and I never respond to any of your wonderful questions ha ha =0 write them down, then when you call we can cover everything! Anyways I thought that was a good plan.. maybe not.. haven't given it too much thought to be honest because I've been thinking of transfers and what not.. We should find out tonight what's up.. or tomorrow night at the latest. so sorry.. no update til next week.. Íf I'm in a new city you'll know by my subject title in next week's email ;)
So I guess the sales here are in January and at the end of summer.. so I've decided to buy a sharp looking European suit in January.. hopefully at least.. that's the plan.. My two that I got before are still fine.. although in the MTC I did lose a pair to my black suit.. and then my third one is pretty trashed, and it's pretty tight on me.. I think i'm growing.. outwards =0 Well I went shopping for you all last week trying to think of what in the world I could get you all.. but I failed.. so this week, me and Elder De Meester went shopping with the sisters in Amsterdam! Sister Holbein who is from Kentucky, and Sister Kraemer, who, yeah I know very well.. I figured they'd be able to help best what to pick out for you all.. since most of you are females.. but unfortunately failed again.. so no package from me for christmas.. sorry.. maybe you'll get a random one in march or something that says merry christmas.. the hard part is, I want to get you all something meaningful that would be useful to you all.. but something that is uniquely dutch.. ahh well.. today I bought a couple of flags, the amsterdam flag, and the belgium flag.. figured I can buy the netherlands one later...
and for my fun experience for the week, On saturday Elder De Meester and I were invited by these two islamic guys (about our age) to go talk religion with them and they said they'll be other christian faiths there and some athiests and we can just share what we believe and visa versa and just have a healthy discussion on religion.. well we thought that was awesome.. chance for us to share our story with all them, so we of course took them up on there offer.. when we went to the place however, it was only us.. and 8 muslims all decked out in there robes and everything.. and a couple of there intents were solely on converting us to islam.. so they asked us all sorts of questions (all in dutch) so I really didn't understand.. and they tried to reason with us how the christianity is false because the bible has faults in it.. Anyways.. they said a lot of interesting stuff.. and I really didn't participate because well I couldn't understand much.. so I kinda had a side conversation with another guy, and I was able to share my testimony and what not so that was good.. but the funny thing was.. There whole approach was attacking christianity.. attacking what we believe, and ""proving"" that it wasn't true.. too bad for them they had never talked with Mormons before, because we whipped out the Book of Mormon, and told them our articles of faith, and how we believe in the bible as long as it's translated correctly, and after that they really didn't have any ground to bash us with, because all there points we agreed with for the most part.. And I kept telling the guy that I was talking too that this was silly to talk about this, because there asking questions to us about things they wouldn't understand if we gave them the answer because they don't know the background behind it.. So him and his other friend, said that they would love to talk with us again, and we'll be able to tell our whole story "lessons" and then we'll be able to talk.. it was a pretty interesting experience.. And after it was all over, and even during, I just got this warm feeling in my chest that yeah.. I know this church is true.
So to close this week's email I just want to leave you my little testimony.. that I know this church is true.. I know, that Jesus Christ was the savior of the world, and I know that his gospel his truth was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. That we have evidence of this because of the Book of Mormon, the most correct book of any on earth. And that God still speaks to man today through his prophet and apostles..
Love you all,
Tot Ziens
--Elder Mohrman
Hope alles is goed met jullie!! What a interesting busy week that I just had. Christmas.. Got to love it.. Love it more with Family.. but hey.. it's all good =) On Tuesday we did a Christmas Concert type thing for the stake of Den Haag. THe missionary's of my zone put it on, so I got to sing in another choir, just all the missionary's sang in it, so taht was pretty legit =) Elder Osmond is the one that put it together, and it was a really well done concert, different people had solo's and duets and quartets and all sorts of fun musical terms! It was a great time, kinda cool too that night, my companion Elder De Meester received a letter informing him that he might be training again.. that would be 3 straight greenies, and 4 overall.. crazy.. I don't know what that poor Elder did to get so many greenies.. ha ha But what that means, is Í'll be getting a new companion.. Me or Him will be leaving Amsterdam, and I will no longer be a greenie.. pretty crazy stuff.. time flies on a mission.. no.. let me correct that.. Time flies out in the field on a mission! MTC was slow.. Anyways, transfers are this friday.. so I could be in a new city for christmas.. or I might still be in Amsterdam.. I don't know.. so next week I'll let you know when you call.. and all that fun awesome stuff.. Really looking forward to talking with the family. So much to say, but so little time.. What I have been thinking, all these wonderful emails that I get from you all and I never respond to any of your wonderful questions ha ha =0 write them down, then when you call we can cover everything! Anyways I thought that was a good plan.. maybe not.. haven't given it too much thought to be honest because I've been thinking of transfers and what not.. We should find out tonight what's up.. or tomorrow night at the latest. so sorry.. no update til next week.. Íf I'm in a new city you'll know by my subject title in next week's email ;)
So I guess the sales here are in January and at the end of summer.. so I've decided to buy a sharp looking European suit in January.. hopefully at least.. that's the plan.. My two that I got before are still fine.. although in the MTC I did lose a pair to my black suit.. and then my third one is pretty trashed, and it's pretty tight on me.. I think i'm growing.. outwards =0 Well I went shopping for you all last week trying to think of what in the world I could get you all.. but I failed.. so this week, me and Elder De Meester went shopping with the sisters in Amsterdam! Sister Holbein who is from Kentucky, and Sister Kraemer, who, yeah I know very well.. I figured they'd be able to help best what to pick out for you all.. since most of you are females.. but unfortunately failed again.. so no package from me for christmas.. sorry.. maybe you'll get a random one in march or something that says merry christmas.. the hard part is, I want to get you all something meaningful that would be useful to you all.. but something that is uniquely dutch.. ahh well.. today I bought a couple of flags, the amsterdam flag, and the belgium flag.. figured I can buy the netherlands one later...
and for my fun experience for the week, On saturday Elder De Meester and I were invited by these two islamic guys (about our age) to go talk religion with them and they said they'll be other christian faiths there and some athiests and we can just share what we believe and visa versa and just have a healthy discussion on religion.. well we thought that was awesome.. chance for us to share our story with all them, so we of course took them up on there offer.. when we went to the place however, it was only us.. and 8 muslims all decked out in there robes and everything.. and a couple of there intents were solely on converting us to islam.. so they asked us all sorts of questions (all in dutch) so I really didn't understand.. and they tried to reason with us how the christianity is false because the bible has faults in it.. Anyways.. they said a lot of interesting stuff.. and I really didn't participate because well I couldn't understand much.. so I kinda had a side conversation with another guy, and I was able to share my testimony and what not so that was good.. but the funny thing was.. There whole approach was attacking christianity.. attacking what we believe, and ""proving"" that it wasn't true.. too bad for them they had never talked with Mormons before, because we whipped out the Book of Mormon, and told them our articles of faith, and how we believe in the bible as long as it's translated correctly, and after that they really didn't have any ground to bash us with, because all there points we agreed with for the most part.. And I kept telling the guy that I was talking too that this was silly to talk about this, because there asking questions to us about things they wouldn't understand if we gave them the answer because they don't know the background behind it.. So him and his other friend, said that they would love to talk with us again, and we'll be able to tell our whole story "lessons" and then we'll be able to talk.. it was a pretty interesting experience.. And after it was all over, and even during, I just got this warm feeling in my chest that yeah.. I know this church is true.
So to close this week's email I just want to leave you my little testimony.. that I know this church is true.. I know, that Jesus Christ was the savior of the world, and I know that his gospel his truth was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. That we have evidence of this because of the Book of Mormon, the most correct book of any on earth. And that God still speaks to man today through his prophet and apostles..
Love you all,
Tot Ziens
--Elder Mohrman
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
:)
Hello Family!
This is is going to be extremely short, and i apologize for that! But
due to mismanagement of time, we ended not being able to do normal
email time.!! But luckily we have an awesome senior couple here in
amsterdam that is letting us use there lap top to send a quick note,
so you don't think we died or something!! All is good. This week
was a little slow, but that as really I think because of the cold
weather were having. Record coldness here.. yeah.. it's wonderful =0
But everything is just getting better and better, understanding little
by little more dutch, and my companion and the other elders I'm living
with are awesome. We did this last week get to eat over at member's
homes it was really neat, one family is from Idaho, who are now living
here.. another family we ate with was an older couple named the
Janssens, there awesome, they gave me and Elder De Meester Donors..
wow.. those things are amazing, I'm going to get fat on my mission
because of those things!!
I got my first experience with African food, we at at this couples
house from Ghana, and learned some about their culture and food, and I
learned that the ghana people only have 7 names.. one for each day of
the week. So uncle kwame.. he was born on saturday =) I was born on
Tuesday.. but I forget my name.. but it was really cool experience..
how they eat though, they don't eat with utensils.. just your hands..
I got some pics, so it's pretty funny =)
Love ya loads, sorry this was short, and i ran out of time
Elder Mohrman
This is is going to be extremely short, and i apologize for that! But
due to mismanagement of time, we ended not being able to do normal
email time.!! But luckily we have an awesome senior couple here in
amsterdam that is letting us use there lap top to send a quick note,
so you don't think we died or something!! All is good. This week
was a little slow, but that as really I think because of the cold
weather were having. Record coldness here.. yeah.. it's wonderful =0
But everything is just getting better and better, understanding little
by little more dutch, and my companion and the other elders I'm living
with are awesome. We did this last week get to eat over at member's
homes it was really neat, one family is from Idaho, who are now living
here.. another family we ate with was an older couple named the
Janssens, there awesome, they gave me and Elder De Meester Donors..
wow.. those things are amazing, I'm going to get fat on my mission
because of those things!!
I got my first experience with African food, we at at this couples
house from Ghana, and learned some about their culture and food, and I
learned that the ghana people only have 7 names.. one for each day of
the week. So uncle kwame.. he was born on saturday =) I was born on
Tuesday.. but I forget my name.. but it was really cool experience..
how they eat though, they don't eat with utensils.. just your hands..
I got some pics, so it's pretty funny =)
Love ya loads, sorry this was short, and i ran out of time
Elder Mohrman
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