Elder Mohrman's mission president's wife is wonderful at maintaining a mission blog...posting events, stories etc. It can be found here:
http://belgiumbrusselsnetherlandsmission.blogspot.com/
Some of the pictures are from zone conferences etc and lo and behold...I can spot the blonde Elder from Payson...so there will be specific links and see if you can spot Waldo..oops I mean Elder Mohrman...
Here are a couple of links:
1. Recent Zone Conference - Sept 14...he is in four of the pictures...usually you can click on the pictures for better view...
http://belgiumbrusselsnetherlandsmission.blogspot.com/2011/09/two-zones-come-together-for-zone.html
2. Mission President visited a ward on a Sunday...(this one is too easy...he is in two of them)
http://belgiumbrusselsnetherlandsmission.blogspot.com/2011/08/our-sunday-was-blessed-by-spijkinesse.html
3. Mission President and wife toured the apartments in the mission... (he is in three of these...)
http://belgiumbrusselsnetherlandsmission.blogspot.com/2011/08/saturday-in-rotterdam-spijkenisse-and.html
Monday, September 26, 2011
doing great....
Hoi familie!!
I don´t have a lot of time.. but I made some bullet points that I wanted to say to you all!!
First.. We went to tom´s choir last monday.. it was interesting.. we didn´t sing in it.. just listened.. as dutch as it could have possibly been. Interesting expirience.. nobody was really happy that we were there, but Tom was. We committed him to reading everyday in the book of mormon til general conference.. and I shared with him that lamp story you sent me dad.. it was an amazing powerful lessen.. he said he would do his best, then he said he would do it.. going back tomorrow night, and he said he´s going to bring a neighbor with him to the appointment.. so that´s really neat.. Tom.. wow.. He´s probably one of my more favorite investigators/people i´ve met on my mission.. who would of thought that a relationship/friendship could be built and mean so much between a 50 year old dutch man and a 20 year old american kid.. Amazing...
We set a couple more baptismal dates this week! One with Pat.. really excited about that, she got permission from her husband, and she´s pretty much saying forget the in-laws.. I want this for myself.. she still has a long way to go, but she made that step in committing to a date.. really happy about that.. also set a baptismal date with Bas, the man we were told to go visit by a returned visiting missionary pete arens.. He´s doing amazing, and he wants to make the changes in his life.. i´ve never seen someone so dedicated to the committments that we give.. Pretty amazing story..
So hendryetta did not go through.. but aaltje did.. pretty special seeing aaltje get baptized.. had a lot of flashbacks to where she was when I first met her, to now seeing the glow in her eyes.. one of the more amazing stories from my mission I think.. but of course there´s opposition in all things, and aaltje and her familie aren´t doing so hot right now.. which is affecting hendryetta.. but hendryetta is still committed to being baptized.. she just needs a lot of prayers.. so thank you for all the prayers that have and will be said.
I have more that I could and would like to say.. but I´m in a hurry, just wanted to give some updates on these people.. the 20 year old girl that we found.. she´s now investigating.. really cool appointment.. so the lord is still blessing this area, and i´m still blessed to be in it!
Transfers are the middle of october.. i have no idea if i´ll be transfered or not.. normally it´s between 3-4 transfers in one place.. this is my third..
Love you all, thanks so much for your emails!
Tot ziens,
Elder Mohrman
I don´t have a lot of time.. but I made some bullet points that I wanted to say to you all!!
First.. We went to tom´s choir last monday.. it was interesting.. we didn´t sing in it.. just listened.. as dutch as it could have possibly been. Interesting expirience.. nobody was really happy that we were there, but Tom was. We committed him to reading everyday in the book of mormon til general conference.. and I shared with him that lamp story you sent me dad.. it was an amazing powerful lessen.. he said he would do his best, then he said he would do it.. going back tomorrow night, and he said he´s going to bring a neighbor with him to the appointment.. so that´s really neat.. Tom.. wow.. He´s probably one of my more favorite investigators/people i´ve met on my mission.. who would of thought that a relationship/friendship could be built and mean so much between a 50 year old dutch man and a 20 year old american kid.. Amazing...
We set a couple more baptismal dates this week! One with Pat.. really excited about that, she got permission from her husband, and she´s pretty much saying forget the in-laws.. I want this for myself.. she still has a long way to go, but she made that step in committing to a date.. really happy about that.. also set a baptismal date with Bas, the man we were told to go visit by a returned visiting missionary pete arens.. He´s doing amazing, and he wants to make the changes in his life.. i´ve never seen someone so dedicated to the committments that we give.. Pretty amazing story..
So hendryetta did not go through.. but aaltje did.. pretty special seeing aaltje get baptized.. had a lot of flashbacks to where she was when I first met her, to now seeing the glow in her eyes.. one of the more amazing stories from my mission I think.. but of course there´s opposition in all things, and aaltje and her familie aren´t doing so hot right now.. which is affecting hendryetta.. but hendryetta is still committed to being baptized.. she just needs a lot of prayers.. so thank you for all the prayers that have and will be said.
I have more that I could and would like to say.. but I´m in a hurry, just wanted to give some updates on these people.. the 20 year old girl that we found.. she´s now investigating.. really cool appointment.. so the lord is still blessing this area, and i´m still blessed to be in it!
Transfers are the middle of october.. i have no idea if i´ll be transfered or not.. normally it´s between 3-4 transfers in one place.. this is my third..
Love you all, thanks so much for your emails!
Tot ziens,
Elder Mohrman
Monday, September 19, 2011
Hoi! Week.. yeah.. Been a while here in Spijkenisse!
Hoi familie!
Another week gone by.. crazy.. time flies.. but it was a great.. setting up week.. I mean that we set up a lot of things this past week, for this coming week.. Hendryetta is getting baptized.. with her sister Aaltje.. really awesome, and amazing, and a miracle.. still have to get past the baptismal interviews.. but there doing awesome, and I have complete faith they'll get baptized this saturday. It's pretty unique situation, I taught both of them, set up both of there baptismal dates.. yet they'll be baptized in a different city. In fact today, we have a lessen with Hendryetta in R'dam south, out of our area =0 I don't know the other ward at all, that'll they'll be going too, so I can only hope and pray that they get fellowshipped!
Tom.. our big friendly dutch man.. he's amazing.. he's been telling people at his work and his church that he's been meeting with "mormon missionarys' and of course people have been freaking out, and asking him "aren't they trying to convert you?!!" and he's been telling these people, "yeah, maybe.. but there doing it in a way that's not hindering".. pretty neat.. he's still reading.. still praying.. the only problem with this guy is, that were getting to be too good of friends with this guy! We get distracted on so many different topics that we struggle sometimes talking about the lessens!! But we decided we needed to show more support for him, so i called him up this past week, and said were going to go to his church tonight, and listen to him sing in his church choir.. it's going to be crazy.. as dutch as they come churches.. I think that he might even want us to sing with them.. how about that huh.. singing in a reformed dutch church's choir... that would definitely go in the journal ;) Óur families are also making great strides.. with lot's of enthusiasm.. i don't think i've ever made such strong relationships with investigators before.. I thought Heerlen was good.. man.. doesn't compare with how well things are going here.. It's great! We have lot's of potential for this coming week as I hinted at earlier.. yesterday, we were doing some finding on a street going door to door.. first house, lesbians.. awkward.. second house.. Jehovah witnesses.. third and 4th houses.. rude dutch people.. then the last house on the row, this golden 20 year old, who said she's looking for a church, has never heard of us or the book of mormon, and asked us to come back and tell her more.. i've never had someone ask us to come back on my mission.. well jehovah witnesses.. but they don't count.. it was pretty sweet, especially since our focus for our mission is families, and young adults.. we have both here right now..
well two minutes left of my internet time, just wanted to say I love you all.. thanks for everything, i'm going to be sending some packages home, with dutch goodies.. hope you enjoy.. and okay, tot de volgende week!
Love
Elder Mohrman
Another week gone by.. crazy.. time flies.. but it was a great.. setting up week.. I mean that we set up a lot of things this past week, for this coming week.. Hendryetta is getting baptized.. with her sister Aaltje.. really awesome, and amazing, and a miracle.. still have to get past the baptismal interviews.. but there doing awesome, and I have complete faith they'll get baptized this saturday. It's pretty unique situation, I taught both of them, set up both of there baptismal dates.. yet they'll be baptized in a different city. In fact today, we have a lessen with Hendryetta in R'dam south, out of our area =0 I don't know the other ward at all, that'll they'll be going too, so I can only hope and pray that they get fellowshipped!
Tom.. our big friendly dutch man.. he's amazing.. he's been telling people at his work and his church that he's been meeting with "mormon missionarys' and of course people have been freaking out, and asking him "aren't they trying to convert you?!!" and he's been telling these people, "yeah, maybe.. but there doing it in a way that's not hindering".. pretty neat.. he's still reading.. still praying.. the only problem with this guy is, that were getting to be too good of friends with this guy! We get distracted on so many different topics that we struggle sometimes talking about the lessens!! But we decided we needed to show more support for him, so i called him up this past week, and said were going to go to his church tonight, and listen to him sing in his church choir.. it's going to be crazy.. as dutch as they come churches.. I think that he might even want us to sing with them.. how about that huh.. singing in a reformed dutch church's choir... that would definitely go in the journal ;) Óur families are also making great strides.. with lot's of enthusiasm.. i don't think i've ever made such strong relationships with investigators before.. I thought Heerlen was good.. man.. doesn't compare with how well things are going here.. It's great! We have lot's of potential for this coming week as I hinted at earlier.. yesterday, we were doing some finding on a street going door to door.. first house, lesbians.. awkward.. second house.. Jehovah witnesses.. third and 4th houses.. rude dutch people.. then the last house on the row, this golden 20 year old, who said she's looking for a church, has never heard of us or the book of mormon, and asked us to come back and tell her more.. i've never had someone ask us to come back on my mission.. well jehovah witnesses.. but they don't count.. it was pretty sweet, especially since our focus for our mission is families, and young adults.. we have both here right now..
well two minutes left of my internet time, just wanted to say I love you all.. thanks for everything, i'm going to be sending some packages home, with dutch goodies.. hope you enjoy.. and okay, tot de volgende week!
Love
Elder Mohrman
Monday, September 12, 2011
A Family is Reunited Through the Gospel!
Sampsons, Natasje and Dwight, Spijkenisse, August 27, 2011
Dwight and Natasje were found by missionaries over a year ago. They were very interested in the message the missionaries had to share and also when coming to the church, found out that Natasje was related to several members in the Spijkenisse ward. Over time they gained personal testimonies of the truth of the message, looking forward to the day that they would be able to be baptized. However, Dwight and Natasje were not married and due to circumstances, were not able to be married for some time. After going through some hard times they fell out of contact with the missionaries and the church, but by themselves working out personal problems, they were married in the Spring, then came back to church unexpectedly, where once again we were able to meet with them, and prepare them for baptism. They were baptized August 28, 2011 by Elder Davies, and then confirmed a week later on September 4th by President Broekzitter, who also is a family member of Natasje's. They are a wonderful young couple, looking forward to the day when they will be able to go to the temple and be sealed for all time and eternity with their two little sons Dj and Jd. (Written by Elder Mohrman)
Dwight and Natasje were found by missionaries over a year ago. They were very interested in the message the missionaries had to share and also when coming to the church, found out that Natasje was related to several members in the Spijkenisse ward. Over time they gained personal testimonies of the truth of the message, looking forward to the day that they would be able to be baptized. However, Dwight and Natasje were not married and due to circumstances, were not able to be married for some time. After going through some hard times they fell out of contact with the missionaries and the church, but by themselves working out personal problems, they were married in the Spring, then came back to church unexpectedly, where once again we were able to meet with them, and prepare them for baptism. They were baptized August 28, 2011 by Elder Davies, and then confirmed a week later on September 4th by President Broekzitter, who also is a family member of Natasje's. They are a wonderful young couple, looking forward to the day when they will be able to go to the temple and be sealed for all time and eternity with their two little sons Dj and Jd. (Written by Elder Mohrman)
one year anniversary...
Hoi familie!
What a week! It was a week blessed with new investigators! We have a couple of new families investigating now, one was a referral from malaysia!! Random.. but awesome, there a really awesome family.. I feel like they'll be a lot like Tom in investigating the church.. slow and thorough.. but that's okay, because when they finally get that testimony they will be amazing members! Dwight and Natasje are doing amazing, they set up an appointment with there neighbor and us at there house on tuesday, love those people.. they say that there going to come to utah to be sealed in the salt lake temple.. but who knows.. it's just awesome they have there eyes set on the next goal! Hendryetta is getting ready for her baptism along with Aaltje.. Aaltje is being taught by the other elders now, we gave her over after we set the baptismal date with her, and she's on fire, and they both will be baptized on sep. 24th, in r;dam south.. really excited! ;)
We also finally had a lessen with the referral family from Malaysia.. really neat people, and they have agreed to take the lessens and see if the light that we have to offer is something that is good for them. We also met another family, and turns out the husband was baptized when he was 9, and then his mom left the church when he was 10 and he's never been back since.. he wants to come back, and we've developed a great friendship with them, and they've also agreed to take the lessens.. The teaching calander is great! I love it, because it explains our purpose so clearly.. I really feel like our investigators that we have, know why were there, and know why there investigating, and know that there investigating.. The ward is amazing.. I wish we could use them more, but our appointments always seem to be bad timing for them.. so were working on changing our appointments to work with our members schedules.. there more than willing and eager to help, so it's really a blessing being here, working with these members. Things are going great with Elder Da Cruz, I enjoy immensly being his companion, and also enjoy it when he goes off in one of the many langagues he knows!
The apartment is great, get along with all the elders, one elder here, is a lefty.. played baseball.. loves sports.. yeah.. we get a long really well ;) We switch off from playing catch every morning to.. sit down when you read this.. jogging! WHoa.. came out of nowhere I know.. but hey.. I figure why not start off my 21st year doing something i've never done before? So we've been jogging.. crazy.. never thought I could be so out of shape.. I've been gaining a lot since I've been in spijkenisse, when I left heerlen i weighed 76-77 Kg.. now I'm up to 83 Kg.. which is somewhere around.. well I'll let you figure it out =P Life is great.. Ward is amazing.. what i've noticed now with the dutch people, it takes a while to crack them, but once you crack them, and make a friendship make a bond.. the bond lasts, and it really means something.. It's been really neat getting to know, and making these bonds with these members here in spijkenisse.. today we did some more service for our bishop who's having back problems.. and we've been finding little odds and ends to do to serve these people.. don't know what else to say, so i'll say tot ziens for this week!
Love you all,
thanks for everything!
Elder Mohrman
What a week! It was a week blessed with new investigators! We have a couple of new families investigating now, one was a referral from malaysia!! Random.. but awesome, there a really awesome family.. I feel like they'll be a lot like Tom in investigating the church.. slow and thorough.. but that's okay, because when they finally get that testimony they will be amazing members! Dwight and Natasje are doing amazing, they set up an appointment with there neighbor and us at there house on tuesday, love those people.. they say that there going to come to utah to be sealed in the salt lake temple.. but who knows.. it's just awesome they have there eyes set on the next goal! Hendryetta is getting ready for her baptism along with Aaltje.. Aaltje is being taught by the other elders now, we gave her over after we set the baptismal date with her, and she's on fire, and they both will be baptized on sep. 24th, in r;dam south.. really excited! ;)
We also finally had a lessen with the referral family from Malaysia.. really neat people, and they have agreed to take the lessens and see if the light that we have to offer is something that is good for them. We also met another family, and turns out the husband was baptized when he was 9, and then his mom left the church when he was 10 and he's never been back since.. he wants to come back, and we've developed a great friendship with them, and they've also agreed to take the lessens.. The teaching calander is great! I love it, because it explains our purpose so clearly.. I really feel like our investigators that we have, know why were there, and know why there investigating, and know that there investigating.. The ward is amazing.. I wish we could use them more, but our appointments always seem to be bad timing for them.. so were working on changing our appointments to work with our members schedules.. there more than willing and eager to help, so it's really a blessing being here, working with these members. Things are going great with Elder Da Cruz, I enjoy immensly being his companion, and also enjoy it when he goes off in one of the many langagues he knows!
The apartment is great, get along with all the elders, one elder here, is a lefty.. played baseball.. loves sports.. yeah.. we get a long really well ;) We switch off from playing catch every morning to.. sit down when you read this.. jogging! WHoa.. came out of nowhere I know.. but hey.. I figure why not start off my 21st year doing something i've never done before? So we've been jogging.. crazy.. never thought I could be so out of shape.. I've been gaining a lot since I've been in spijkenisse, when I left heerlen i weighed 76-77 Kg.. now I'm up to 83 Kg.. which is somewhere around.. well I'll let you figure it out =P Life is great.. Ward is amazing.. what i've noticed now with the dutch people, it takes a while to crack them, but once you crack them, and make a friendship make a bond.. the bond lasts, and it really means something.. It's been really neat getting to know, and making these bonds with these members here in spijkenisse.. today we did some more service for our bishop who's having back problems.. and we've been finding little odds and ends to do to serve these people.. don't know what else to say, so i'll say tot ziens for this week!
Love you all,
thanks for everything!
Elder Mohrman
Monday, September 5, 2011
Hoi familie!
Hoi familie!
First email.. as a 20 year old!!! Crazy huh?? Birthdays are definitely different out here in the mission field.. what i did you may be asking.. well.. had lunch with a member.. did a few hours of finding in the sun.. looked a few people up.. had a birthday dinner with another member in the ward.. looked another person up, and went home.. exciting huh? ;) Nah I made that sound lame, but it was really neat having a lot of missionary's call and wish me a happy birthday, a senior couple drove out and dropped off cookies for me.. on sunday, I went over to a members house (from peru) to celebrate her grandson's birthday, who's birthday was also on september 3rd.. and after we sang to him, cut out his cake, the sister went back into the kitchen and came out with this big ol' cake saying "Happy Birthday Elder Mohrman!" It was so cool, so then everyone sang to me, and I was able to cut the cake.. she even got me some presents.. some socks.. and other random things that a missionary would need.. I was really touched, super nice of her to do that!
So that was my birthday.. the rest of the week.. shipped Elder Davies out to Den Bosch.. Got my other companion Elder Da Cruz.. Dwight and Natasje were confirmed members of the church this past sunday.. and oh.. so get this, This lady who was 79 or something, she passed away in another city, and she requested that missionarys, since she loved them so much, carried her coffin along with her family.. well the elders in the city weren't able to make it, so they asked us if we could do it.. we had nothing so we said why not.. and so I went to my second funeral in as many weeks, and this time carried the casket of the lady.. interesting expirience.. the family were non-members.. so it was really interesting being in the room with just the family when they put the lid on the coffin and seeing the family say there last goodbye's.. A very interesting expirience.. then after the service in the church, we thought we were done, and the son who organized it, asked if we were going to the grave site as well.. and then invited us to ride with him.. turns out the son was excommunicated for different reasons.. but he loved his mother very much, and talked a lot about her, and her service in the church.. we get to the grave site and we help again carrying the coffin to the actual burial site.. and were just standing and are with this family for everything.. all the private moments and what not.. just a really interesting expirience.. a little awkward not going to lie.. but intersting.. so in short.. i carried a dead person on my mission.. cool huh?! =P
Investigator wise.. Tom is awesome.. he's progressing slowly, but that's okay, he is making progress and it's very visible.. our last appointment, he usually has some problem with the book of mormon that we have to answer about.. but this last appointment, he finally said the the whole story of 1st nephi was very beautiful and very interesting to see the reactions of laman and lemuel and then of nephi dealing with all there.. "crap" for lack of a better word.. he really enjoyed the baptismal service, and is still committed to coming to a service of ours.. he's also in his church choir, and so we said we wanted to go to his church and listen to him sing.. think he appreciated that.. building a really great friendship with that man.. Naika.. after an amazing first appointment with her a few days ago.. she did not come to church, and then she sent us a text message saying thanks.. but no thanks.. so another classic story of someone getting anti'd.. pretty sad.. but it happens.. had enough of these expiriences on my mission to not let it get me down.. but still a bummer nevertheless.. But we have a great week planned.. let you know if anything amazing happens! ;)
Love you all, thanks for everything and the birthday wishes..
Tot Ziens!
Elder Mohrman
First email.. as a 20 year old!!! Crazy huh?? Birthdays are definitely different out here in the mission field.. what i did you may be asking.. well.. had lunch with a member.. did a few hours of finding in the sun.. looked a few people up.. had a birthday dinner with another member in the ward.. looked another person up, and went home.. exciting huh? ;) Nah I made that sound lame, but it was really neat having a lot of missionary's call and wish me a happy birthday, a senior couple drove out and dropped off cookies for me.. on sunday, I went over to a members house (from peru) to celebrate her grandson's birthday, who's birthday was also on september 3rd.. and after we sang to him, cut out his cake, the sister went back into the kitchen and came out with this big ol' cake saying "Happy Birthday Elder Mohrman!" It was so cool, so then everyone sang to me, and I was able to cut the cake.. she even got me some presents.. some socks.. and other random things that a missionary would need.. I was really touched, super nice of her to do that!
So that was my birthday.. the rest of the week.. shipped Elder Davies out to Den Bosch.. Got my other companion Elder Da Cruz.. Dwight and Natasje were confirmed members of the church this past sunday.. and oh.. so get this, This lady who was 79 or something, she passed away in another city, and she requested that missionarys, since she loved them so much, carried her coffin along with her family.. well the elders in the city weren't able to make it, so they asked us if we could do it.. we had nothing so we said why not.. and so I went to my second funeral in as many weeks, and this time carried the casket of the lady.. interesting expirience.. the family were non-members.. so it was really interesting being in the room with just the family when they put the lid on the coffin and seeing the family say there last goodbye's.. A very interesting expirience.. then after the service in the church, we thought we were done, and the son who organized it, asked if we were going to the grave site as well.. and then invited us to ride with him.. turns out the son was excommunicated for different reasons.. but he loved his mother very much, and talked a lot about her, and her service in the church.. we get to the grave site and we help again carrying the coffin to the actual burial site.. and were just standing and are with this family for everything.. all the private moments and what not.. just a really interesting expirience.. a little awkward not going to lie.. but intersting.. so in short.. i carried a dead person on my mission.. cool huh?! =P
Investigator wise.. Tom is awesome.. he's progressing slowly, but that's okay, he is making progress and it's very visible.. our last appointment, he usually has some problem with the book of mormon that we have to answer about.. but this last appointment, he finally said the the whole story of 1st nephi was very beautiful and very interesting to see the reactions of laman and lemuel and then of nephi dealing with all there.. "crap" for lack of a better word.. he really enjoyed the baptismal service, and is still committed to coming to a service of ours.. he's also in his church choir, and so we said we wanted to go to his church and listen to him sing.. think he appreciated that.. building a really great friendship with that man.. Naika.. after an amazing first appointment with her a few days ago.. she did not come to church, and then she sent us a text message saying thanks.. but no thanks.. so another classic story of someone getting anti'd.. pretty sad.. but it happens.. had enough of these expiriences on my mission to not let it get me down.. but still a bummer nevertheless.. But we have a great week planned.. let you know if anything amazing happens! ;)
Love you all, thanks for everything and the birthday wishes..
Tot Ziens!
Elder Mohrman
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Baptism was great and staying put ;)
Hoi Familie!!
Dwight and Natasje's baptism did indeed go through! It was really super and amazing.. couldn't have gone smoother and been more spiritual.. They asked me, if I would give a talk at there baptism.. so I did so on the Holy Ghost.. my first ever talk on my mission and in Dutch!! Bummer.. almost made it a year ;) They were so excited, and also the ward. They were baptized right after church, and most of the ward stayed to support them.. also, we had 4 investigators show up! Tom came, Pat came.. and two new investigators that we got this week, Naika.. and Robbie... Couldn't have been better for these people.. Naika.. called us actually letting us know that she was coming to church.. she's from curaco, and after having a great lessen with her with a couple of sisters from the ward, I had another lady from the ward introduce herself to her as she's also from curraco and it turns out that they were neighbors.. in curraco.. they freaked out, lot of hugs.. kisses.. papioments.. the language there.. absolutley crazy. Naika couldn't beleive it, and the other sister couldn't believe it.. and Naika is super excited to now meet with us, and we have an appointment with her on thursday!
Another new investigator that we got this week, was Bas.. he was the referal from a returned missionary passing through here about a month ago..Pete Arens.. and we stopped by after a few weeks, and he finally let us in,and we were able to get to know him and teach him.. he opened up, and told us about his life and his problems.. and we were able to share scriptures out of the book of mormon about the savior and let him know that god loved him.. he got emotional and we were able to explain our purpose what we do.. lessens that we share that sort of thing.. and he thinks it's all a great idea, and wants to go further to see if he can find the peace he's looking for.. absolutley an amazing lessen! Amazing expireince.. It was great to get some new blood into our teaching pool as we've been riding all these
great investigators that we've had these past few months.. Really excited for this up and coming transfer! Which will be in Spijkenisse for a 3rd transfer.. excited about that, and also excited about my new companion.. he's from Brazil.. his name is Elder Da Cruz.. and He speaks about 5 languages.. just a master with language.. he's going on his 6th i'm going on my 8th, so not too much of a gap, and he has a lot of expirience already, we'll be able to take off with a running start hopefully! ;) Thanks for all the birthday wishes.. doesn't even feel like sep 3rd is my birthday.. my birthday it feels like is sep. 8th.. my year mark on the mission =P But I got two packages so far and one of the envelopes and also the birthday card from grandma and grandpa bell!! Thanks so much!
Love you all
Tot ziens
Elder Mohrman
Dwight and Natasje's baptism did indeed go through! It was really super and amazing.. couldn't have gone smoother and been more spiritual.. They asked me, if I would give a talk at there baptism.. so I did so on the Holy Ghost.. my first ever talk on my mission and in Dutch!! Bummer.. almost made it a year ;) They were so excited, and also the ward. They were baptized right after church, and most of the ward stayed to support them.. also, we had 4 investigators show up! Tom came, Pat came.. and two new investigators that we got this week, Naika.. and Robbie... Couldn't have been better for these people.. Naika.. called us actually letting us know that she was coming to church.. she's from curaco, and after having a great lessen with her with a couple of sisters from the ward, I had another lady from the ward introduce herself to her as she's also from curraco and it turns out that they were neighbors.. in curraco.. they freaked out, lot of hugs.. kisses.. papioments.. the language there.. absolutley crazy. Naika couldn't beleive it, and the other sister couldn't believe it.. and Naika is super excited to now meet with us, and we have an appointment with her on thursday!
Another new investigator that we got this week, was Bas.. he was the referal from a returned missionary passing through here about a month ago..Pete Arens.. and we stopped by after a few weeks, and he finally let us in,and we were able to get to know him and teach him.. he opened up, and told us about his life and his problems.. and we were able to share scriptures out of the book of mormon about the savior and let him know that god loved him.. he got emotional and we were able to explain our purpose what we do.. lessens that we share that sort of thing.. and he thinks it's all a great idea, and wants to go further to see if he can find the peace he's looking for.. absolutley an amazing lessen! Amazing expireince.. It was great to get some new blood into our teaching pool as we've been riding all these
great investigators that we've had these past few months.. Really excited for this up and coming transfer! Which will be in Spijkenisse for a 3rd transfer.. excited about that, and also excited about my new companion.. he's from Brazil.. his name is Elder Da Cruz.. and He speaks about 5 languages.. just a master with language.. he's going on his 6th i'm going on my 8th, so not too much of a gap, and he has a lot of expirience already, we'll be able to take off with a running start hopefully! ;) Thanks for all the birthday wishes.. doesn't even feel like sep 3rd is my birthday.. my birthday it feels like is sep. 8th.. my year mark on the mission =P But I got two packages so far and one of the envelopes and also the birthday card from grandma and grandpa bell!! Thanks so much!
Love you all
Tot ziens
Elder Mohrman
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
hoe gaat het... :)
Hoi!
Familie!
hoe gaat het... :)
August 27th, 2011.. the day Dwight and Natasha Samson will be baptized.. mark it on your calenders, because well.. it´s awesome :) Were really excited about them.. there doing great and everything is in order for them to be baptized this saturday! There making us dinner tonight, Some surinamse food called Roti.. which is extremely delicious, and our zone leaders will be giving them there baptismal interviews.. then after all that were all going to go together to a baptism in Gouda.. it´s going to be a great night! I´ve only been District Leader for a month or so now, but I feel like I´ve done everything a district leader can do.. Last week sometime... oh it was saturday, Gave my first baptismal interview to the lady who is getting baptized in Gouda.. really neat expirience.. Just being able to ask her to bare her testimony on the different questions, the spirit was really strong, she was a little nervous about the whole interview thing.. this old dutch lady, but she was amazing.. Being the district leader I get to follow the progression of my districts investigators, so every week I would get updates on this lady from the sister missionary´s in gouda, so pretty special for me to be able to finally meet her.. and also see the joy in her face after it was all done.. when we got out of the room, she threw her arms in the air and started to do a little dance thing with the sisters :) Pure joy and happiness.. can only be found in the gospel.. church is true.. period.
Other investigators are doing well.. we did something strange with one of our investigators his name is Vincent.. he wants to be baptized, been investigating the church for a few years, but just has to work out some personal problems/concerns, and so we decided to go a different route with him, we took him to a members house for dinner... he´s dutch, the lady was from the carribean completely different expirience for him, and then we took him, vincent, our investigator, as a joint teach to another investigators house Tom. I wouldn´t say it was the best lessen in the world for tom.. but it didn´t hurt anything, and made a huge impact on Vincent, as he was able to expirience the church and what we do in a different way, as if he was a member.. he came to church then on sunday, and was able to meet our mission president who suprised us by showing up.. so president brubaker came to our sacrament meeting, to meet our baptismal dates, dwight and natasha.. but.. they weren´t there.. perfect timing to not come to church right? But also we had a lady walk into the church, who was just curious about how we worshipped.. so I sat by her during sacrament meeting explained a little what goes on.. gave her our articles of faith.. and also a book of mormon.. she seemed to like it and said she would do her best to come to the baptism on saturday and then again on sunday.. I dón´t think I´ve ever had a lady walk into church before because she was curious.. it was definitely an interesting expirience! And during sacrament meeting, our bishop felt impressed to have Elder Davies, me, and President Brubaker all give our testiomonies in the middle of sacrament meeting... that was also a pretty neat expriience.. right before that happened, i was actually thinking to myself.. "what would I say, if I had to bare my testimony right now..." so I was thinking about that, then that announcement came up.. so I was a little prepared!!
Were developing a pretty good relatioionship with the ward, were switching things up a little bit, whenever we go over to there house, instead of us teaching a small lessen, were having them teach us.. and that was also announced during sacrament meeting.. a lot of the members were shocked about this.. so we´ll see if we´ll still be getting as many dinner appointments now :) A big thing in the ward, for a group of the men, is to go play squash.. so I finally got the bishop to take us to go play squash yesterday.. pretty fun game.. just like raquetball.. I had begginners luck and beat our bishop all 3 games we played :) But now i´m really sore and stiff.. man.. i´m getting out of shape!!
Also this past week, went to my first ever funeral.. an old dutch lady from the ward passed away.. so me and elder davies went to show our support.. I don´t know how dutch funerals are different from american funerals but I thought it was interesting, and it was a pretty neat service.. neat to see how many lives a person can touch in there lifetime.. and to hear different stories about them..
Well.. that´s about it.. I´ve rambled long enough =P Love you all.. thanks for all the emails, letters.. and prayers.. you all are the best!
Tot ziens!
tot de volgende week!
Elder Mohrman
Familie!
hoe gaat het... :)
August 27th, 2011.. the day Dwight and Natasha Samson will be baptized.. mark it on your calenders, because well.. it´s awesome :) Were really excited about them.. there doing great and everything is in order for them to be baptized this saturday! There making us dinner tonight, Some surinamse food called Roti.. which is extremely delicious, and our zone leaders will be giving them there baptismal interviews.. then after all that were all going to go together to a baptism in Gouda.. it´s going to be a great night! I´ve only been District Leader for a month or so now, but I feel like I´ve done everything a district leader can do.. Last week sometime... oh it was saturday, Gave my first baptismal interview to the lady who is getting baptized in Gouda.. really neat expirience.. Just being able to ask her to bare her testimony on the different questions, the spirit was really strong, she was a little nervous about the whole interview thing.. this old dutch lady, but she was amazing.. Being the district leader I get to follow the progression of my districts investigators, so every week I would get updates on this lady from the sister missionary´s in gouda, so pretty special for me to be able to finally meet her.. and also see the joy in her face after it was all done.. when we got out of the room, she threw her arms in the air and started to do a little dance thing with the sisters :) Pure joy and happiness.. can only be found in the gospel.. church is true.. period.
Other investigators are doing well.. we did something strange with one of our investigators his name is Vincent.. he wants to be baptized, been investigating the church for a few years, but just has to work out some personal problems/concerns, and so we decided to go a different route with him, we took him to a members house for dinner... he´s dutch, the lady was from the carribean completely different expirience for him, and then we took him, vincent, our investigator, as a joint teach to another investigators house Tom. I wouldn´t say it was the best lessen in the world for tom.. but it didn´t hurt anything, and made a huge impact on Vincent, as he was able to expirience the church and what we do in a different way, as if he was a member.. he came to church then on sunday, and was able to meet our mission president who suprised us by showing up.. so president brubaker came to our sacrament meeting, to meet our baptismal dates, dwight and natasha.. but.. they weren´t there.. perfect timing to not come to church right? But also we had a lady walk into the church, who was just curious about how we worshipped.. so I sat by her during sacrament meeting explained a little what goes on.. gave her our articles of faith.. and also a book of mormon.. she seemed to like it and said she would do her best to come to the baptism on saturday and then again on sunday.. I dón´t think I´ve ever had a lady walk into church before because she was curious.. it was definitely an interesting expirience! And during sacrament meeting, our bishop felt impressed to have Elder Davies, me, and President Brubaker all give our testiomonies in the middle of sacrament meeting... that was also a pretty neat expriience.. right before that happened, i was actually thinking to myself.. "what would I say, if I had to bare my testimony right now..." so I was thinking about that, then that announcement came up.. so I was a little prepared!!
Were developing a pretty good relatioionship with the ward, were switching things up a little bit, whenever we go over to there house, instead of us teaching a small lessen, were having them teach us.. and that was also announced during sacrament meeting.. a lot of the members were shocked about this.. so we´ll see if we´ll still be getting as many dinner appointments now :) A big thing in the ward, for a group of the men, is to go play squash.. so I finally got the bishop to take us to go play squash yesterday.. pretty fun game.. just like raquetball.. I had begginners luck and beat our bishop all 3 games we played :) But now i´m really sore and stiff.. man.. i´m getting out of shape!!
Also this past week, went to my first ever funeral.. an old dutch lady from the ward passed away.. so me and elder davies went to show our support.. I don´t know how dutch funerals are different from american funerals but I thought it was interesting, and it was a pretty neat service.. neat to see how many lives a person can touch in there lifetime.. and to hear different stories about them..
Well.. that´s about it.. I´ve rambled long enough =P Love you all.. thanks for all the emails, letters.. and prayers.. you all are the best!
Tot ziens!
tot de volgende week!
Elder Mohrman
Monday, August 15, 2011
Great week!
Hoi Familie!
This week, was just a happy week. Had some downer moments sure.. but the highs were amazing.. Last week when I sent my email on wednesday I said I was going to go to an appointment to try and set a baptismal date.. that appointment was with one of those three sisters that we've been teaching, Aaltje.
Aaltje is the middle sister, the oldest is Hendryetta with the baptismal date, and then the youngest is Petra.. this was our first lessen with Aaltje without the other two sisters.. What an amazing appointment.. She had asked us to meet with her seperatley, and the progression with this girl has been extroardinary.. I'll back up a little bit, she was found by Elder Davies and the other Elder before me.. and had one lessen with them before I came.. My first lessen we talked about faith, and shared Alma 32 with her.. she was very skeptical, didn't beleive in god.. but did believe in something.. would not pray.. she had said that if she would pray she would be a hyprocrite.. would not come to church, because of bad expiriences in the past.. and really wasn't that open because her life was okay at the moment for now.. but we shared that chapter, told her and promised her that if she does the invitations that we give, and read and what not, she would notice something change in her.. that she would feel a seed grow in her.. again.. very skeptical.. but she said why not.. so she read a little bit at first.. then a little more.. then she went to a young adult center and liked it.. she started to pray on her own every now and then.. then a little more and a little more.. and every week was a noticable change in her.. even though she was trying to fight it, the gospel of jesus christ was touching her life and we were excited.. it's neat so see the light of christ fill someone up.. Well eventually she went to church.. she liked church.. she prayed out loud for the first time and thought that was a neat exprience.. and she just opened up more and more, and made many new friends and made so much progression.. so last wednesday, we shared once again Alma 32.. asked her if she remembered it.. she said she did.. asked her if this chapter was applicable to her.. and she said it was.. We were able to bare our testimony's about how much growth and progression we have seen in her.. and I lie not, she was glowing.. absolute transformation. We set a baptismal date with her.. for September 24th.. and as we were walking away from that appointment My companion had tears in his eyes, and I had a itch in mine.. so powerful.. so much joy.. One of the best moments of my mission so far.. ;)
We made great steps with our other investigators as well.. Dwight and Natasha we talked to them about the commandments and what they need to do to be baptized.. Dwight committed to living the word of wisdom, and as of yesterday has been clean.. there really excited for there baptism which is now on the 27th of august.. Hendryetta came to church once again.. meaning all of our baptismal dates were at church! It was amazing.. Tom, said he would come to the baptismal service of Dwight and natasha, and we gave him Joseph Smith the prophet of the restoration movie to watch as well as the movie about President Monson.. Another Investigator, who has been investigating for two years wants to be baptized this coming saturday! But that won't happen.. but hopefully in a couple weeks.. an inactive family came to church that we've been visiting! That was super, wish I had more time to tell you about that appointment.. and the other miracles that happened this week.. but.. alas.. I don't have any more time! Thank you all for your emails! Love you all so much!
Pray for these people.. there all going through some sort of adversity but there making it.. slowly but surely there making it to baptism!! ;)
Tot Ziens!
Elder Mohrman
This week, was just a happy week. Had some downer moments sure.. but the highs were amazing.. Last week when I sent my email on wednesday I said I was going to go to an appointment to try and set a baptismal date.. that appointment was with one of those three sisters that we've been teaching, Aaltje.
Aaltje is the middle sister, the oldest is Hendryetta with the baptismal date, and then the youngest is Petra.. this was our first lessen with Aaltje without the other two sisters.. What an amazing appointment.. She had asked us to meet with her seperatley, and the progression with this girl has been extroardinary.. I'll back up a little bit, she was found by Elder Davies and the other Elder before me.. and had one lessen with them before I came.. My first lessen we talked about faith, and shared Alma 32 with her.. she was very skeptical, didn't beleive in god.. but did believe in something.. would not pray.. she had said that if she would pray she would be a hyprocrite.. would not come to church, because of bad expiriences in the past.. and really wasn't that open because her life was okay at the moment for now.. but we shared that chapter, told her and promised her that if she does the invitations that we give, and read and what not, she would notice something change in her.. that she would feel a seed grow in her.. again.. very skeptical.. but she said why not.. so she read a little bit at first.. then a little more.. then she went to a young adult center and liked it.. she started to pray on her own every now and then.. then a little more and a little more.. and every week was a noticable change in her.. even though she was trying to fight it, the gospel of jesus christ was touching her life and we were excited.. it's neat so see the light of christ fill someone up.. Well eventually she went to church.. she liked church.. she prayed out loud for the first time and thought that was a neat exprience.. and she just opened up more and more, and made many new friends and made so much progression.. so last wednesday, we shared once again Alma 32.. asked her if she remembered it.. she said she did.. asked her if this chapter was applicable to her.. and she said it was.. We were able to bare our testimony's about how much growth and progression we have seen in her.. and I lie not, she was glowing.. absolute transformation. We set a baptismal date with her.. for September 24th.. and as we were walking away from that appointment My companion had tears in his eyes, and I had a itch in mine.. so powerful.. so much joy.. One of the best moments of my mission so far.. ;)
We made great steps with our other investigators as well.. Dwight and Natasha we talked to them about the commandments and what they need to do to be baptized.. Dwight committed to living the word of wisdom, and as of yesterday has been clean.. there really excited for there baptism which is now on the 27th of august.. Hendryetta came to church once again.. meaning all of our baptismal dates were at church! It was amazing.. Tom, said he would come to the baptismal service of Dwight and natasha, and we gave him Joseph Smith the prophet of the restoration movie to watch as well as the movie about President Monson.. Another Investigator, who has been investigating for two years wants to be baptized this coming saturday! But that won't happen.. but hopefully in a couple weeks.. an inactive family came to church that we've been visiting! That was super, wish I had more time to tell you about that appointment.. and the other miracles that happened this week.. but.. alas.. I don't have any more time! Thank you all for your emails! Love you all so much!
Pray for these people.. there all going through some sort of adversity but there making it.. slowly but surely there making it to baptism!! ;)
Tot Ziens!
Elder Mohrman
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
weekly email...two days late :)
Hoi Familie!
You were worried, weren't you? Admit it.. you all thought, that I had forgotten about you guys! But of course I haven't, Just late that's all, it's what happens when you spend 5-6 hours of your p-day cleaning your apartment.. it was insane, our mission president is re-dedicating all of the mission apartments, which means for us.. cleaning.. and lot's of it.. but that's the reason why no email on Monday.. not going to be a regular occurance no worries!
Thank you all for the emails and the letters, I had mentioned a few weeks ago, that I hadn't written a letter in a long long time (no need to repeat how long that was =0) but now I'm happy to say that I am almost all caught up with the letter writing thing, and most have been shipped off and on the way! Yay.... =0 sorry for being so late with them!
What a week we had, some really great great lessens with our investigators and also less actives.. I had this past week District Leader Council, where all the district leaders come and we get a special conference with our president, it was sweet, learned a lot, things that we talked about the most were baptismal dates and church attendance and how important they are to a investigators progression.. well it made me think about all of our investigators, and i was able to apply what I learned with our investigators and make some really big steps in the right direction! We had 8 progressing investigators this past week, a record for me.. I've never been so blessed so far on my mission! It was also pretty crazy at the council.. every other district leader in the mission has been out for over a year and a half.. and then there was me.. out for 11 months.. felt pretty young =0 Dwight and Natasha the couple with the baptismal dates for August 20th, they were doing so good! and then this last lessen yesterday, dwight had a cigarette.. man, that was a bummer.. we thought they were clean.. but we have another lessen on thursday, and we'll once again talk about word of wisdom with them, but who knows, the baptismal date may have to be pushed back.. hope not.. but possibility, still great, awesome and going to get baptized.. it's just stopping and overcoming these small things!
After I'm done sending this email, we'll be off to an appointment with Aaltje, who is the sister of Hendryetta who has a baptismal date.. she's had some amazing experiences these past few weeks, and on monday said her first ever prayer out loud.. amazing.. were going to talk to her and commit her to baptism today.. and hopefully her sister as well petra.. that's the plan! So we'll see how it goes.. Other investigators.. making progress not much to report about.. life is good.. a member asked me just this morning if i've been fasting a lot.. because i don't look as fat as I did before.. ha ha anyways.. thanks again for all you do,
Love you loads,
Tot Ziens!
Elder Mohrman
You were worried, weren't you? Admit it.. you all thought, that I had forgotten about you guys! But of course I haven't, Just late that's all, it's what happens when you spend 5-6 hours of your p-day cleaning your apartment.. it was insane, our mission president is re-dedicating all of the mission apartments, which means for us.. cleaning.. and lot's of it.. but that's the reason why no email on Monday.. not going to be a regular occurance no worries!
Thank you all for the emails and the letters, I had mentioned a few weeks ago, that I hadn't written a letter in a long long time (no need to repeat how long that was =0) but now I'm happy to say that I am almost all caught up with the letter writing thing, and most have been shipped off and on the way! Yay.... =0 sorry for being so late with them!
What a week we had, some really great great lessens with our investigators and also less actives.. I had this past week District Leader Council, where all the district leaders come and we get a special conference with our president, it was sweet, learned a lot, things that we talked about the most were baptismal dates and church attendance and how important they are to a investigators progression.. well it made me think about all of our investigators, and i was able to apply what I learned with our investigators and make some really big steps in the right direction! We had 8 progressing investigators this past week, a record for me.. I've never been so blessed so far on my mission! It was also pretty crazy at the council.. every other district leader in the mission has been out for over a year and a half.. and then there was me.. out for 11 months.. felt pretty young =0 Dwight and Natasha the couple with the baptismal dates for August 20th, they were doing so good! and then this last lessen yesterday, dwight had a cigarette.. man, that was a bummer.. we thought they were clean.. but we have another lessen on thursday, and we'll once again talk about word of wisdom with them, but who knows, the baptismal date may have to be pushed back.. hope not.. but possibility, still great, awesome and going to get baptized.. it's just stopping and overcoming these small things!
After I'm done sending this email, we'll be off to an appointment with Aaltje, who is the sister of Hendryetta who has a baptismal date.. she's had some amazing experiences these past few weeks, and on monday said her first ever prayer out loud.. amazing.. were going to talk to her and commit her to baptism today.. and hopefully her sister as well petra.. that's the plan! So we'll see how it goes.. Other investigators.. making progress not much to report about.. life is good.. a member asked me just this morning if i've been fasting a lot.. because i don't look as fat as I did before.. ha ha anyways.. thanks again for all you do,
Love you loads,
Tot Ziens!
Elder Mohrman
Monday, August 1, 2011
happy pday!
Familie!
Hey.. what's up? Everything is just great and... wonderful here! I'll just start off with the biggest news, we set two new baptismal dates this past week with a young couple.. there amazing, a true miracle, they were former investigators about a year ago, there whole problem was law of chastity, they were living together.. they got married this past april, and then showed up in church, we got an appointment with them, set the baptismal date for august 20th! So real soon, and there on fire, I went through all the baptismal interview questions with them, and there great, passed every one.. we still want to review everything with them though before hand, and we made a great plan on how to do so! Really excited, as well because our other baptismal date, Hendryetta went to church for the first time! And she brought her boyfriend along! Miracles.. gotta love them right? ;) We have some really great appointments set up for tonight, and if all goes well,
then we'll have hopefully 2-3 more baptismal dates.. really hope we can create an eviornment for the spirit to testify to these people, but me and ELder Davies, are getting better and better at teaching in unity.. I've felt the most comfortable teaching alongside him, then any other companion I've had so far. It's been great.
We started delivering cookies now! The referal that we received from the return missionary a few weeks ago, he had told us that he didn't have any time to meet with us, but we made him cookies and delivered them to him, and he really appreciated it.. said that he wants to talk with us, and so were going to go back in a week, when his children aren't around.. it was awesome, glad that he just got back into the picture.. he's an amazing guy..
Well.. There's a lot more that has happened, but.. my mind is drawing a blank.. so I think I might have to end this pretty short this week =P Sorry.. but, hey know that i love you all, and appreciate all the emails you send..
Take care,
Elder Mohrman
Hey.. what's up? Everything is just great and... wonderful here! I'll just start off with the biggest news, we set two new baptismal dates this past week with a young couple.. there amazing, a true miracle, they were former investigators about a year ago, there whole problem was law of chastity, they were living together.. they got married this past april, and then showed up in church, we got an appointment with them, set the baptismal date for august 20th! So real soon, and there on fire, I went through all the baptismal interview questions with them, and there great, passed every one.. we still want to review everything with them though before hand, and we made a great plan on how to do so! Really excited, as well because our other baptismal date, Hendryetta went to church for the first time! And she brought her boyfriend along! Miracles.. gotta love them right? ;) We have some really great appointments set up for tonight, and if all goes well,
then we'll have hopefully 2-3 more baptismal dates.. really hope we can create an eviornment for the spirit to testify to these people, but me and ELder Davies, are getting better and better at teaching in unity.. I've felt the most comfortable teaching alongside him, then any other companion I've had so far. It's been great.
We started delivering cookies now! The referal that we received from the return missionary a few weeks ago, he had told us that he didn't have any time to meet with us, but we made him cookies and delivered them to him, and he really appreciated it.. said that he wants to talk with us, and so were going to go back in a week, when his children aren't around.. it was awesome, glad that he just got back into the picture.. he's an amazing guy..
Well.. There's a lot more that has happened, but.. my mind is drawing a blank.. so I think I might have to end this pretty short this week =P Sorry.. but, hey know that i love you all, and appreciate all the emails you send..
Take care,
Elder Mohrman
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Pday
Familie!
Hello from the Netherlands! After having every p-day so far in Spijkenisse be, let's just say not the best weather, today it's finally sun, and warm, and just great!! Which means were going to go out of our little bubble here, and go see something cool! We've decided to go to Kinderdijk, which is a very well known place here in this country, it has a lot of windmills I guess, and a "must see" for anyone who comes here.. or so I've heard.. we'll see, and I'll let you guys know if it's really that great ;) Were going as a district so that'll be just great, it's always fun, spending time with other missionary's. I felt pretty bad for the new elder in our apartment, he came on Wednesday, and we hadn't gone shopping for food for the week.. so we had to really get creative to eat these past few days, and definitely applied the principle "waste not" this week. It was good though, A few weeks ago I was saying that you all would be suprised at my cooking skills now.. well get this, my companion and i have now moved on to baking! More so my companion than me, he's a fiend when it comes to baking now.. makes bread and cookies and all that.. but get this, because he's had this baking bug these past few weeks, it's kinda rubbed off on me as well, and so a couple days ago, we pulled a sister missionary thing, and made a list of people we'd give cookies too.. Is that not weird? What's weirder, we don't think it's that weird, were just trying to think outside the box, so we made a list to give cookies to people, to brighten there day! It's been fun. =)
There's not that many questions being asked by you guys anymore.. I wonder though if it's because I"m not that good at responding to them.. =0 probably it.. sorry.. but the one question that I got unanimously from all the emails, was how did District Meeting go.. well let me tell ya. I got the little sheet from Elder Bjork our previous district leader right before he got shipped off to his new city, and I come to find out that the subject that it's supposed to be on, he already did.. so I was left with scratch.. so I made my whole district meeting, and it didn't go too bad.. The topic of district meeting was on finding faith to find, and so I used a talk from elder hales, titled finding faith in Jesus Christ, and he uses enos story as a example for us to develop faith, so I used that because he had 5 points and I wrote them on a board, then I had the missionary's in my district apply them to us.. it was neat.. also had everyone share there favorite scripture on faith that they use with investigators, and then apply it to themselves.. it was neat to come up with these ideas to use.. like you said, using my creative mind for good! ;) It seemed to go pretty well.. at least for the first time, just glad 'that it's over, not going to lie! But.. my personal study was shot preparing for this thing, so i haven't really read that much in the new testament, I'm really enjoying the new testament.. the epistles are interesting, I don't know where they've been my whole life, but i'm glad that I found them on my mission!! Pretty much that goes for the whole bible =0 sad huh..so i'm in 1 corinthians 15 or something, i'm reading the epistles in order, so it's the 4th epistle i've read.. pretty cool..
Well that's about it for little odds and ends.. it was a little odd not having to do anything on transfer day, just have a normal day.. but it's pretty sweet, glad that i'm going two transfers with Elder Davies. We have some great investigators like i've been saying the past few weeks, Hendryetta the girl that texted us about having a testimony.. we set a baptismal date with her on wednesday, and then testimony dates with her two sisters, and one of the sisters, aaltje, went to church for the first time yesterday!! It was so cool, and she loved it, and said she will go back! It's so amazing, because there the first people I met when I came to spijkenisse and just seeing there change that they've all gone through, Aaltje wouldn't pray and didn't even pray, and said she would never, go back to a church, and now Aaltje says she believes in god, and went to church.. and there loving the jovo center, where all the single adults meet, they've been hit with some pretty heavy subjects in the jovo center and they've been cool with them all, so were really excited about them!
We once again are meeting with tom, tonight, really looking forward to seeing what he's done this past week, i imagine, that he would have read, i have that faith, and we also got our "dream" joint teach I guess you could say to come along.. it's awesome when you make plans for people, think of things to teach them, or people for them to meet, and then have it all work out.. we had that with our other investigator Gino.. we thought that the bishop would be the best person for Gino to meet, and we got the bishop to come last night for our appointment and they talked for almost 2 and a half hours!! Intense.. but it was awesome, made me late getting numbers for my first time =0 but ah well..
It was interesting president brubaker sent me an email, saying pretty much, that this is the point in my mission that really determines my potential, and that I really need to strive to be an example and 100 percent obedient.. it was pretty neat, I don't know what is in store for me, with this mission thing, but I'm just grateful that i'm getting confident enough, and yeah don't know other words to describe it, i'm drawing a blank, but to be having the success i'm having..
Well That's pretty much all I believe.. if you all have any questions, I'll put an extra amount of effort into trying to answer them.. umm.. oh we found two young families this past week, that was just great.. and.. yeah.. love.. you.. all!
Tot Ziens,
--Elder Mohrman
Hello from the Netherlands! After having every p-day so far in Spijkenisse be, let's just say not the best weather, today it's finally sun, and warm, and just great!! Which means were going to go out of our little bubble here, and go see something cool! We've decided to go to Kinderdijk, which is a very well known place here in this country, it has a lot of windmills I guess, and a "must see" for anyone who comes here.. or so I've heard.. we'll see, and I'll let you guys know if it's really that great ;) Were going as a district so that'll be just great, it's always fun, spending time with other missionary's. I felt pretty bad for the new elder in our apartment, he came on Wednesday, and we hadn't gone shopping for food for the week.. so we had to really get creative to eat these past few days, and definitely applied the principle "waste not" this week. It was good though, A few weeks ago I was saying that you all would be suprised at my cooking skills now.. well get this, my companion and i have now moved on to baking! More so my companion than me, he's a fiend when it comes to baking now.. makes bread and cookies and all that.. but get this, because he's had this baking bug these past few weeks, it's kinda rubbed off on me as well, and so a couple days ago, we pulled a sister missionary thing, and made a list of people we'd give cookies too.. Is that not weird? What's weirder, we don't think it's that weird, were just trying to think outside the box, so we made a list to give cookies to people, to brighten there day! It's been fun. =)
There's not that many questions being asked by you guys anymore.. I wonder though if it's because I"m not that good at responding to them.. =0 probably it.. sorry.. but the one question that I got unanimously from all the emails, was how did District Meeting go.. well let me tell ya. I got the little sheet from Elder Bjork our previous district leader right before he got shipped off to his new city, and I come to find out that the subject that it's supposed to be on, he already did.. so I was left with scratch.. so I made my whole district meeting, and it didn't go too bad.. The topic of district meeting was on finding faith to find, and so I used a talk from elder hales, titled finding faith in Jesus Christ, and he uses enos story as a example for us to develop faith, so I used that because he had 5 points and I wrote them on a board, then I had the missionary's in my district apply them to us.. it was neat.. also had everyone share there favorite scripture on faith that they use with investigators, and then apply it to themselves.. it was neat to come up with these ideas to use.. like you said, using my creative mind for good! ;) It seemed to go pretty well.. at least for the first time, just glad 'that it's over, not going to lie! But.. my personal study was shot preparing for this thing, so i haven't really read that much in the new testament, I'm really enjoying the new testament.. the epistles are interesting, I don't know where they've been my whole life, but i'm glad that I found them on my mission!! Pretty much that goes for the whole bible =0 sad huh..so i'm in 1 corinthians 15 or something, i'm reading the epistles in order, so it's the 4th epistle i've read.. pretty cool..
Well that's about it for little odds and ends.. it was a little odd not having to do anything on transfer day, just have a normal day.. but it's pretty sweet, glad that i'm going two transfers with Elder Davies. We have some great investigators like i've been saying the past few weeks, Hendryetta the girl that texted us about having a testimony.. we set a baptismal date with her on wednesday, and then testimony dates with her two sisters, and one of the sisters, aaltje, went to church for the first time yesterday!! It was so cool, and she loved it, and said she will go back! It's so amazing, because there the first people I met when I came to spijkenisse and just seeing there change that they've all gone through, Aaltje wouldn't pray and didn't even pray, and said she would never, go back to a church, and now Aaltje says she believes in god, and went to church.. and there loving the jovo center, where all the single adults meet, they've been hit with some pretty heavy subjects in the jovo center and they've been cool with them all, so were really excited about them!
We once again are meeting with tom, tonight, really looking forward to seeing what he's done this past week, i imagine, that he would have read, i have that faith, and we also got our "dream" joint teach I guess you could say to come along.. it's awesome when you make plans for people, think of things to teach them, or people for them to meet, and then have it all work out.. we had that with our other investigator Gino.. we thought that the bishop would be the best person for Gino to meet, and we got the bishop to come last night for our appointment and they talked for almost 2 and a half hours!! Intense.. but it was awesome, made me late getting numbers for my first time =0 but ah well..
It was interesting president brubaker sent me an email, saying pretty much, that this is the point in my mission that really determines my potential, and that I really need to strive to be an example and 100 percent obedient.. it was pretty neat, I don't know what is in store for me, with this mission thing, but I'm just grateful that i'm getting confident enough, and yeah don't know other words to describe it, i'm drawing a blank, but to be having the success i'm having..
Well That's pretty much all I believe.. if you all have any questions, I'll put an extra amount of effort into trying to answer them.. umm.. oh we found two young families this past week, that was just great.. and.. yeah.. love.. you.. all!
Tot Ziens,
--Elder Mohrman
Monday, July 18, 2011
Spijkenisse... The Week of July 18th
Hoi Familie!!!
Transfer week! And.... i'm staying. And so is my companion.. craziness.. I've never had a companion for more than one transfer before! In fact my longest companion that i've been with, was in the MTC, with my "teaching partner" Sister Kraemer.. It'll be interesting, i'm excited we have some really good things going on here in Spijkenisse. The other two elders in our apartment, Elder Bjork and Elder Guanuna are getting shaken up a little bit.. Elder Guanuna is staying and getting another companion who's name is Elder Fullmer, but Elder Bjork is getting shipped off to be Zone Leader.. he was our District Leader.. but now I've been called to be the District Leader =0 Crazy huh? I'm pretty nervous about this.. I wasn't expecting it at all.. I thought if I got any leadership it would be to train someone.. but of course got shocked again.. what's transfers without something shocking happening?? ;0
So that's transfer news, I give my first district meeting on Friday, with president there.. because of course were having interviews that day.. so it'll be just great.. got a smile on my face and can't wait to see what happens =P
But now let me tell you about the interesting things, about our investigators! I told you last week about how we have some pretty awesome investigators and the lessens didn't disappoint.. Start off with Hendryetta.. Hendryetta is the oldest investigator that we've had, meaning we've taught her the longest, and on wednesday after having not the best lessen on the plan of salvation in the world, i committed her to reading the plan of salvation pamphlet and then to pray directly afterwards that night.. after she had said that she thinks it's all true, but not too sure, so I said to read then to pray that night to know for sure, and then to text us after she did it.. well.. she did.. and she texted us saying that she knew now for certain that the things that we were saying were true, that the book of mormon was true and everything.. that was quite an amazing text to receive, man... brought so much joy to me!! You ask, and ask, and invite and challenge so many people to do these small little things, and when someone finally does it.. it's pretty amazing.. haven't had people do so well with keeping commitments on my mission so far, so that was really neat, we'll be talking with her again on wednesday and talk about baptism.. try and set a date and alles.. Also we had a really great lessen with Tom.. we gave him a general conference liahona and after we left, he read the magazine til 12:00 midnight!! He's making a lot of progress as well.. keeping all of his commitments as well.. what's cool about tom is he's a member of a reformed church's council.. part of the leadership.. and were teaching him and he's being this awesome.. Really excited about him.. And Gino.. watched the film with him last night.. prophet of the restoration, but the neat thing is, his wife, who we haven't taught yet, she looked it up for herself, and they watched it together, but he still wanted to watch it with us as a review.. he's amazing.. he knows the book of mormon is true, knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet... knows that he needs to be baptized again, and knows that we have the authority.. he just has one hiccup that we need to work through and were going to baptize I believe a future bishop of spijkenisse.. I'm being so blessed here with investigators.. I don't know where this is coming from.. investigators who keep there commitments.. man.. I might be seeing baptisms here!! Crazy huh?! =P Well I love you all.. thanks for all the emails, got a bunch this week, so i'm very apppreciative.. You all are always in my prayers!
Tot Ziens!
Elder Mohrman
Transfer week! And.... i'm staying. And so is my companion.. craziness.. I've never had a companion for more than one transfer before! In fact my longest companion that i've been with, was in the MTC, with my "teaching partner" Sister Kraemer.. It'll be interesting, i'm excited we have some really good things going on here in Spijkenisse. The other two elders in our apartment, Elder Bjork and Elder Guanuna are getting shaken up a little bit.. Elder Guanuna is staying and getting another companion who's name is Elder Fullmer, but Elder Bjork is getting shipped off to be Zone Leader.. he was our District Leader.. but now I've been called to be the District Leader =0 Crazy huh? I'm pretty nervous about this.. I wasn't expecting it at all.. I thought if I got any leadership it would be to train someone.. but of course got shocked again.. what's transfers without something shocking happening?? ;0
So that's transfer news, I give my first district meeting on Friday, with president there.. because of course were having interviews that day.. so it'll be just great.. got a smile on my face and can't wait to see what happens =P
But now let me tell you about the interesting things, about our investigators! I told you last week about how we have some pretty awesome investigators and the lessens didn't disappoint.. Start off with Hendryetta.. Hendryetta is the oldest investigator that we've had, meaning we've taught her the longest, and on wednesday after having not the best lessen on the plan of salvation in the world, i committed her to reading the plan of salvation pamphlet and then to pray directly afterwards that night.. after she had said that she thinks it's all true, but not too sure, so I said to read then to pray that night to know for sure, and then to text us after she did it.. well.. she did.. and she texted us saying that she knew now for certain that the things that we were saying were true, that the book of mormon was true and everything.. that was quite an amazing text to receive, man... brought so much joy to me!! You ask, and ask, and invite and challenge so many people to do these small little things, and when someone finally does it.. it's pretty amazing.. haven't had people do so well with keeping commitments on my mission so far, so that was really neat, we'll be talking with her again on wednesday and talk about baptism.. try and set a date and alles.. Also we had a really great lessen with Tom.. we gave him a general conference liahona and after we left, he read the magazine til 12:00 midnight!! He's making a lot of progress as well.. keeping all of his commitments as well.. what's cool about tom is he's a member of a reformed church's council.. part of the leadership.. and were teaching him and he's being this awesome.. Really excited about him.. And Gino.. watched the film with him last night.. prophet of the restoration, but the neat thing is, his wife, who we haven't taught yet, she looked it up for herself, and they watched it together, but he still wanted to watch it with us as a review.. he's amazing.. he knows the book of mormon is true, knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet... knows that he needs to be baptized again, and knows that we have the authority.. he just has one hiccup that we need to work through and were going to baptize I believe a future bishop of spijkenisse.. I'm being so blessed here with investigators.. I don't know where this is coming from.. investigators who keep there commitments.. man.. I might be seeing baptisms here!! Crazy huh?! =P Well I love you all.. thanks for all the emails, got a bunch this week, so i'm very apppreciative.. You all are always in my prayers!
Tot Ziens!
Elder Mohrman
Monday, July 11, 2011
Spijkenisse.. July 11, 2011
Familie.. Hey.
Thank you, once again, and always for the wonderful emails you guys send! A lot of things happened this past week, it's always amazing to me, how 1 week can feel like 2-3 weeks because so much happened in the week! Monday.. July 4th, our wonderful nations independant day.. kinda sad, that there was no celebration over here.. no parties or fireworks.. no american flags.. songs about america and freedom.. I really took for granted July 4th back home.. I didn't realize how much it meant to me.. It was just another day =0 But for district meeting the next day, we sang the national anthem before we ate, which was really neat.. So grateful to be american!!
I think I also forgot to wish dad a happy birthday.. I wrote it down in my planner and everything, and I even remembered that morning, but I had a brain cramp, and totally forgot to achnowledge it last week!! So dad, Happy late Birthday!! No I didn't forget.. but at the same time I kinda did??.. =0
So last week, we had a slower week.. things weren't working out for most of our potential investigaters and also some of our better investigators.. but this week exploded for us, and we saw some pretty neat miracles. We managed to get 5 new investigators which is the most that we've had this whole transfer.. and there pretty solid as well.. One is a sister of the two girls were teaching, that went to the talent show last last week.. she also went to the talent show, but this past week we finally taught her along with the other two, and it was a pretty powerful lessen.. really felt the spirit.. I really felt the spirit bare testimony to that girl.. and I know.. that she felt it as well.. We committed them to every day reading and praying and to keep records of all that they do.. and they agreed and have been doing it.. one sister, has been texting us every day to wish us a good day, and to say that she's praying for us to be able to find other people to share gods word with ;) It's really neat.. she was the one, who is really shy, and had problems with saying prayers outloud.. so what she has done is send us a prayer through texting.. it sounds a little weird, but it was a start for this girl, and she has since wrote out a prayer and said it out loud in an appointment, and also said she will say the prayer without notes the next time.. I think personally the coolest part of my mission (besides the people I meet) is seeing actual progression in investigators.. to see them commit and then do, things we ask them to do.. and then to see them change a little every time we meet with them.. We have a few of those type of investigators right now.. Another one that I don't know if I mentioned her name is Pat.. she is from Nigeria, she has two kids and i'm pretty sure I talked about her in the last email.. but this week we once again had a really good lessen with her.. I once again distracted the little kids, so pat could focus on the lessen.. so weird to have little kids climbing all over me.. but I guess it's good practice for my on-the-way nephew ;) Also with Pat she said she would come to church again, she's been once but with her husband.. he's gone which is why she hasn't been coming, but she said that she would come to church with the two little girls, which is no easy thing, since she doesn't live very close and doesn't have a car, meaning that she has to use the public transportation system.. but however once sunday came around we were waiting and she never showed! Which was really sad, but I called her up, and she explained how she had tried to come! but the poor woman got lost, and had wandered around spijkenisse for a couple hours with her two little girls.. she had eventually found the church but just after church had ended.. really sad, but really neat that she tried, and she's really dedicated to now coming this coming week!
Found some other really cool people.. don't really have time to talk about them though.. but pretty powerful lessens with them, there names are Tom and Gino.. Gino knows the bible inside and out, and has been reading the Book of Mormon and loves the thing.. He's actually a refereal from the other elders in our apartment and I got to meet him last night for the first time.. were going to go back this next sunday and watch prophet of the restoration with him and his family.. the man sure seemed like a sincere seeker of truth, one of the most positive people i've ever met on my mission.. with the exception of Nancy.. and she got baptized.. so i'm praying.. he's getting some pretty hardcore anti thrown at him from friends and colleagues, and he's noticed and said this isn't from god these feelings, and that's actually why were going to watch the prophet of the restoration.. to show that with all good things there is always opposition.. should be really powerful.. i'm excited..
Well hey, I love you all, thank you again for all your support and prayers..
Oh and also, I don't think i've written a letter in about 3-4 months something like that.. and so all of you out there who may read this that has sent me a letter in that time frame or even earlier.. I really apologize, I'm going to repent and write you back!! Have faith in me! Don't hate me! I love you!
-Elder Mohrman!
Thank you, once again, and always for the wonderful emails you guys send! A lot of things happened this past week, it's always amazing to me, how 1 week can feel like 2-3 weeks because so much happened in the week! Monday.. July 4th, our wonderful nations independant day.. kinda sad, that there was no celebration over here.. no parties or fireworks.. no american flags.. songs about america and freedom.. I really took for granted July 4th back home.. I didn't realize how much it meant to me.. It was just another day =0 But for district meeting the next day, we sang the national anthem before we ate, which was really neat.. So grateful to be american!!
I think I also forgot to wish dad a happy birthday.. I wrote it down in my planner and everything, and I even remembered that morning, but I had a brain cramp, and totally forgot to achnowledge it last week!! So dad, Happy late Birthday!! No I didn't forget.. but at the same time I kinda did??.. =0
So last week, we had a slower week.. things weren't working out for most of our potential investigaters and also some of our better investigators.. but this week exploded for us, and we saw some pretty neat miracles. We managed to get 5 new investigators which is the most that we've had this whole transfer.. and there pretty solid as well.. One is a sister of the two girls were teaching, that went to the talent show last last week.. she also went to the talent show, but this past week we finally taught her along with the other two, and it was a pretty powerful lessen.. really felt the spirit.. I really felt the spirit bare testimony to that girl.. and I know.. that she felt it as well.. We committed them to every day reading and praying and to keep records of all that they do.. and they agreed and have been doing it.. one sister, has been texting us every day to wish us a good day, and to say that she's praying for us to be able to find other people to share gods word with ;) It's really neat.. she was the one, who is really shy, and had problems with saying prayers outloud.. so what she has done is send us a prayer through texting.. it sounds a little weird, but it was a start for this girl, and she has since wrote out a prayer and said it out loud in an appointment, and also said she will say the prayer without notes the next time.. I think personally the coolest part of my mission (besides the people I meet) is seeing actual progression in investigators.. to see them commit and then do, things we ask them to do.. and then to see them change a little every time we meet with them.. We have a few of those type of investigators right now.. Another one that I don't know if I mentioned her name is Pat.. she is from Nigeria, she has two kids and i'm pretty sure I talked about her in the last email.. but this week we once again had a really good lessen with her.. I once again distracted the little kids, so pat could focus on the lessen.. so weird to have little kids climbing all over me.. but I guess it's good practice for my on-the-way nephew ;) Also with Pat she said she would come to church again, she's been once but with her husband.. he's gone which is why she hasn't been coming, but she said that she would come to church with the two little girls, which is no easy thing, since she doesn't live very close and doesn't have a car, meaning that she has to use the public transportation system.. but however once sunday came around we were waiting and she never showed! Which was really sad, but I called her up, and she explained how she had tried to come! but the poor woman got lost, and had wandered around spijkenisse for a couple hours with her two little girls.. she had eventually found the church but just after church had ended.. really sad, but really neat that she tried, and she's really dedicated to now coming this coming week!
Found some other really cool people.. don't really have time to talk about them though.. but pretty powerful lessens with them, there names are Tom and Gino.. Gino knows the bible inside and out, and has been reading the Book of Mormon and loves the thing.. He's actually a refereal from the other elders in our apartment and I got to meet him last night for the first time.. were going to go back this next sunday and watch prophet of the restoration with him and his family.. the man sure seemed like a sincere seeker of truth, one of the most positive people i've ever met on my mission.. with the exception of Nancy.. and she got baptized.. so i'm praying.. he's getting some pretty hardcore anti thrown at him from friends and colleagues, and he's noticed and said this isn't from god these feelings, and that's actually why were going to watch the prophet of the restoration.. to show that with all good things there is always opposition.. should be really powerful.. i'm excited..
Well hey, I love you all, thank you again for all your support and prayers..
Oh and also, I don't think i've written a letter in about 3-4 months something like that.. and so all of you out there who may read this that has sent me a letter in that time frame or even earlier.. I really apologize, I'm going to repent and write you back!! Have faith in me! Don't hate me! I love you!
-Elder Mohrman!
Monday, July 4, 2011
Happy 4th of July
Hoi!
Thank you for the emails, Sorry about your job.. kinda caught me by suprise, won´t lie.. but.. yeah I trust all will work out, you have two missionary´s out.. I mean you can´t help but get blessed!
To be honest there´s not really a lot to share this week.. it was one of those weeks, where you build up a lot of potentials, and things are starting to get really exciting!! And then the next week things unravel and you have to start over.. pretty much what happened this week.. which means the next couple weeks will be on the upward pattern again! Njurka, are baptismal date.. haven´t had contact with her for two week or so, so we had to drop her date.. hopefully we´ll get into contact with her soon.. praying so at least.. Pat, an investigator who we had a very spiritual expirience with, committed her to pray and read everyday, she had been doing it too, and she said that she was going to come to church.. but she had a "family meeting" before church, and then she didn´t show up and haven´t heard from her yet.. kinda a bummer, worried about that.. and the referall from the former missionary, the man wants to meet with us, but doesn´t have time right now, so he´ll call us.. oh and the old lady the member referal she dropped us.. so.. yeah.. pretty depressing if you just hear all that, but we had positives as well.. like I said PaT Was doing amazing, keeping commitments, the best investigator in keeping commitments i´ve had on my mission.. we had a lessen with her this past tuesday, and she has two little kids, who are pretty distracting for her.. so While elder Davies taught the lessen, I distracted the little kids and played around with them.. let them draw pictures in my note book.. and it worked, because Pat paid attention.. and it was just great! We also are teaching these two dutch sisters.. and we got them to come to a Jovo activity, this past friday and they participated and had a blast.. they even brought there other sister, who will become a new investigator for us this coming week.. it was awesome.. it was great to get them to a church activity! Let them socialize with other kids, and let them see the other great blessings of church.. it was really great.. there just making more and more progression which is really wonderful to see.. Oh and this was really really great, at the Jovo activity I got to play.... PING PONG!! for the first time on my mission!! Oh man.. it was so great.. little rusty.. but it came back pretty quick.. we played around the world for a while with everyone, that´s the game that broke our investigators in with the other young adults.. then I played my old companion Elder MIckelsen in a game, and smoked him.. so that was pretty sweet :) And get this.. the activity was a talent show.. and so all the games and what not were before the talent show part, but during the talent part, our investigators sister sang a song, and also one of the investigators!! Way cool.. I even played my Book of Mormon stories on the piano.. some talent huh, but hey I participated!! ha ha While I was playing some of the other jovos came up and started doing the signs for the song.. pretty cool experience, and a good night.. and we also have appointments with other potentials.. been visiting less°actives and members also.. so staying busy and lot of positive stuff to balance out the not so great stuff!!
Love you all loads..
Elder Mohrman!!
Thank you for the emails, Sorry about your job.. kinda caught me by suprise, won´t lie.. but.. yeah I trust all will work out, you have two missionary´s out.. I mean you can´t help but get blessed!
To be honest there´s not really a lot to share this week.. it was one of those weeks, where you build up a lot of potentials, and things are starting to get really exciting!! And then the next week things unravel and you have to start over.. pretty much what happened this week.. which means the next couple weeks will be on the upward pattern again! Njurka, are baptismal date.. haven´t had contact with her for two week or so, so we had to drop her date.. hopefully we´ll get into contact with her soon.. praying so at least.. Pat, an investigator who we had a very spiritual expirience with, committed her to pray and read everyday, she had been doing it too, and she said that she was going to come to church.. but she had a "family meeting" before church, and then she didn´t show up and haven´t heard from her yet.. kinda a bummer, worried about that.. and the referall from the former missionary, the man wants to meet with us, but doesn´t have time right now, so he´ll call us.. oh and the old lady the member referal she dropped us.. so.. yeah.. pretty depressing if you just hear all that, but we had positives as well.. like I said PaT Was doing amazing, keeping commitments, the best investigator in keeping commitments i´ve had on my mission.. we had a lessen with her this past tuesday, and she has two little kids, who are pretty distracting for her.. so While elder Davies taught the lessen, I distracted the little kids and played around with them.. let them draw pictures in my note book.. and it worked, because Pat paid attention.. and it was just great! We also are teaching these two dutch sisters.. and we got them to come to a Jovo activity, this past friday and they participated and had a blast.. they even brought there other sister, who will become a new investigator for us this coming week.. it was awesome.. it was great to get them to a church activity! Let them socialize with other kids, and let them see the other great blessings of church.. it was really great.. there just making more and more progression which is really wonderful to see.. Oh and this was really really great, at the Jovo activity I got to play.... PING PONG!! for the first time on my mission!! Oh man.. it was so great.. little rusty.. but it came back pretty quick.. we played around the world for a while with everyone, that´s the game that broke our investigators in with the other young adults.. then I played my old companion Elder MIckelsen in a game, and smoked him.. so that was pretty sweet :) And get this.. the activity was a talent show.. and so all the games and what not were before the talent show part, but during the talent part, our investigators sister sang a song, and also one of the investigators!! Way cool.. I even played my Book of Mormon stories on the piano.. some talent huh, but hey I participated!! ha ha While I was playing some of the other jovos came up and started doing the signs for the song.. pretty cool experience, and a good night.. and we also have appointments with other potentials.. been visiting less°actives and members also.. so staying busy and lot of positive stuff to balance out the not so great stuff!!
Love you all loads..
Elder Mohrman!!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Spijkenisse
Hoi familie!
Another week. Crazy huh? It was an interesting week, missionary work wise, we found a few people on our own this week.. finally! That was pretty neat, we knocked on this door, and a young guy answered and started talking.. really cool guy, told us his purpose in life was to do the will of god.. I asked him what he thought god wanted him to do, and he said to preach his gospel.. both really good answers.. very knowledgable person.. knows the bible really well.. and he's young! Maybe like 24-25.. pretty crazy, don't see young people like that, that knows the bible so well.. but we talked about Joseph Smith and the restoration, and he said he's never heard about that before.. we made an appointment for this coming wednesday.. so.. hope that goes through, and hope we can create an atmosphere where he'll be able to feel the spirit.. But he was the most positive person that we found on our own from this past week.. it was pretty interesting, when I came into the land I was picked up by Pres. and sister Brubaker, and after I went with the two assistants to go do some contacting in Brussels and to eat out and what not my first day and night. One of the assistants was leaving the next day, so it was pretty neat to be able to talk with him as I was coming in, and he was leaving.. now.. 7 months later or something, he came back with his family, and turns out he served in spijkenisse, and we were able to go to a dinner appointment with a member and this former elders family.. which was cool, I've always enjoyed talking with returned missionary's, but his mother who's name is... Beverly Koons.. who grew up in some place I think called Lakewood, Florida, which is right by a place called Liveoak I guess she said.. And she hung out with/ran around, was good friends with a guy by the name of Jay Mohrman.. what a small flippin' world.. is that not crazy? I don't think I've ever met someone that has only known Uncle Jay and not you dad.. she didn't remember you.. but wow.. so yeah, it was a fun appointment/dinner thing, she couldn't believe that I was related to Uncle Jay.. and she said to tell Uncle Jay that Beverly Koons says hello.. I don't know if you knew her dad? maybe.. probably.. but anyways.. And then for the past three days this other returned missionary has been around, he served about 4-5 years ago, and we've kept being invited to homes that he's visiting, so we've had three appointments with him the past three days.. crazy.. been able to talk to him a lot also, which was pretty cool as well.. he gave us a referal.. just some random guy that he remembered he met during a finding session one time, and he still remembered where he lived, so we went and looked him up yesterday and.. wow one of the most humblest men I've every seen.. we didn't say much, just that we were sent by this former missionary, and he brought up, that he wanted to talk with us again, he told us when, gave us his number.. it was amazing.. we were able to tell the former missionary that today, and he seemed pretty excited.. cool experience for him, to be able to give us missionary's a referal from someone during his time here.. maybe someday I'll be able to do that ;)
Funny guy though, the former missionary that is.. he left his wife behind, and so he brought a camera to make little videos to show her and what not.. and every time he wanted to do something that he hasn't done since he was here.. like eat some vla.. (dutch dessert) or riding a bike.. he would forget to make a video, so I had to remind the guy three different times, to make videos for his wife! Kinda funny.. maybe you had to be there ha ha,
I think this coming week were going to go visit this Jehova Witness guy... should be fun and interesting.. I'm not a good person to bash.. or have people bash with me.. I ask and say to random of things which I suppose is a good thing! Yesterday we were let in by some Jehova Witnesses and they kept wanting to talk Doctrine.. but I kept asking them random questions about how they met.. how many children did they have.. and nothing about faith at all.. it was kind of fun, just because we left with a good feeling of getting to know these people instead of, thinking to ourselves.. wow these people are morons.. so it was fun.. also a really neat experience that I'll quickly share, we have this investigator named Pat, she was found before I got here, and we haven't had a lessen with her my whole time here.. we finally had one a couple days ago, and we were able to really get to know her and know her background I guess you could say about religion.. she's from nigeria and says she's very religious and all.. but a couple of years ago, when she married the dutch guy, she had a problem and she prayed to god every day for a while, but she never received an answer she said.. so she said she was tired of it, and quit praying and all.. quit reading the bible.. everything.. still believes, but just tired of making an effort.. we had a powerful appointment where we committed her to a "testimony" date, and we promised her that if she read, pondered, and prayed ever day til this date, that she would have an answer that the book of mormon was true.. and then I felt impressed to say, that as she reads the book of mormon, thinks about it and prays, that she'll also get an answer to her other problem, question that she had earlier.. she said that she would do it.. pretty neat experience.. hopefully she does..
went to the zoo last p-day.. think I mentioned that we were going last week.. it was cool.. took pictures.. you'll see them I suppose sometime.. but it was sweet.. okay that's all you get from me this week,
Love you all
Tot Ziens
Elder Mohrman
Another week. Crazy huh? It was an interesting week, missionary work wise, we found a few people on our own this week.. finally! That was pretty neat, we knocked on this door, and a young guy answered and started talking.. really cool guy, told us his purpose in life was to do the will of god.. I asked him what he thought god wanted him to do, and he said to preach his gospel.. both really good answers.. very knowledgable person.. knows the bible really well.. and he's young! Maybe like 24-25.. pretty crazy, don't see young people like that, that knows the bible so well.. but we talked about Joseph Smith and the restoration, and he said he's never heard about that before.. we made an appointment for this coming wednesday.. so.. hope that goes through, and hope we can create an atmosphere where he'll be able to feel the spirit.. But he was the most positive person that we found on our own from this past week.. it was pretty interesting, when I came into the land I was picked up by Pres. and sister Brubaker, and after I went with the two assistants to go do some contacting in Brussels and to eat out and what not my first day and night. One of the assistants was leaving the next day, so it was pretty neat to be able to talk with him as I was coming in, and he was leaving.. now.. 7 months later or something, he came back with his family, and turns out he served in spijkenisse, and we were able to go to a dinner appointment with a member and this former elders family.. which was cool, I've always enjoyed talking with returned missionary's, but his mother who's name is... Beverly Koons.. who grew up in some place I think called Lakewood, Florida, which is right by a place called Liveoak I guess she said.. And she hung out with/ran around, was good friends with a guy by the name of Jay Mohrman.. what a small flippin' world.. is that not crazy? I don't think I've ever met someone that has only known Uncle Jay and not you dad.. she didn't remember you.. but wow.. so yeah, it was a fun appointment/dinner thing, she couldn't believe that I was related to Uncle Jay.. and she said to tell Uncle Jay that Beverly Koons says hello.. I don't know if you knew her dad? maybe.. probably.. but anyways.. And then for the past three days this other returned missionary has been around, he served about 4-5 years ago, and we've kept being invited to homes that he's visiting, so we've had three appointments with him the past three days.. crazy.. been able to talk to him a lot also, which was pretty cool as well.. he gave us a referal.. just some random guy that he remembered he met during a finding session one time, and he still remembered where he lived, so we went and looked him up yesterday and.. wow one of the most humblest men I've every seen.. we didn't say much, just that we were sent by this former missionary, and he brought up, that he wanted to talk with us again, he told us when, gave us his number.. it was amazing.. we were able to tell the former missionary that today, and he seemed pretty excited.. cool experience for him, to be able to give us missionary's a referal from someone during his time here.. maybe someday I'll be able to do that ;)
Funny guy though, the former missionary that is.. he left his wife behind, and so he brought a camera to make little videos to show her and what not.. and every time he wanted to do something that he hasn't done since he was here.. like eat some vla.. (dutch dessert) or riding a bike.. he would forget to make a video, so I had to remind the guy three different times, to make videos for his wife! Kinda funny.. maybe you had to be there ha ha,
I think this coming week were going to go visit this Jehova Witness guy... should be fun and interesting.. I'm not a good person to bash.. or have people bash with me.. I ask and say to random of things which I suppose is a good thing! Yesterday we were let in by some Jehova Witnesses and they kept wanting to talk Doctrine.. but I kept asking them random questions about how they met.. how many children did they have.. and nothing about faith at all.. it was kind of fun, just because we left with a good feeling of getting to know these people instead of, thinking to ourselves.. wow these people are morons.. so it was fun.. also a really neat experience that I'll quickly share, we have this investigator named Pat, she was found before I got here, and we haven't had a lessen with her my whole time here.. we finally had one a couple days ago, and we were able to really get to know her and know her background I guess you could say about religion.. she's from nigeria and says she's very religious and all.. but a couple of years ago, when she married the dutch guy, she had a problem and she prayed to god every day for a while, but she never received an answer she said.. so she said she was tired of it, and quit praying and all.. quit reading the bible.. everything.. still believes, but just tired of making an effort.. we had a powerful appointment where we committed her to a "testimony" date, and we promised her that if she read, pondered, and prayed ever day til this date, that she would have an answer that the book of mormon was true.. and then I felt impressed to say, that as she reads the book of mormon, thinks about it and prays, that she'll also get an answer to her other problem, question that she had earlier.. she said that she would do it.. pretty neat experience.. hopefully she does..
went to the zoo last p-day.. think I mentioned that we were going last week.. it was cool.. took pictures.. you'll see them I suppose sometime.. but it was sweet.. okay that's all you get from me this week,
Love you all
Tot Ziens
Elder Mohrman
Monday, June 20, 2011
Hey.. it's me.. again! =P
Hoi Familie!
Hoe gaat het met jullie! Oh man.. what a week.. rain, rain.. go away.. what has been going through my head this whole week! I love the rain, always have.. but the rain here.. it doesn't go away. And it's not the most amazing experience in the world when you have to bike for an hour to an appointment while it's pouring rain!! But it was okay, because traveling all that way paid off, as we were able to set a baptismal date with our investigator! So once again.. able to set a date.. we'll see what happens, still hoping that Lilian will get baptized down in heerlen, waiting on that news.. finding has been difficult here.. haven't had much success.. in fact we haven't found a new investigator yet.. we've had referals from members which have been awesome! But nobody that we've found.. Sometimes you get into a rut with finding.. get into a pattern.. and well, my companion and I have gotten into one.. but it's good.. fighting through it.. were going to force ourselves to talk to more people on the street, instead of doing doors.. but also like I refered to above, we've gotten referals from members, and Me and my companion have set the goal to really push that and get more from the ward! Had a really neat experience, my first week here, we went to a member house, had dinner what not.. the lady who is single with a few kids, she started talking about a friend she knows and how she wishes that she could find a way to help him, and share the gospel with them.. but he's sick and she had no idea how to reach him or what to do.. And she said that she prayed for him every night.. after she said that I felt really prompted to challenge her, to instead of praying just for his welfare, to pray instead for what she could personally do, to help him.. to ask god what she could do.. I promised her that if she did that she would receive an answer and know how to help her friend. It was pretty neat... never have done that before.. and yesterday at church, I followed up with my challenge and she had done it.. she said that in fact yesterday when she was brushing her teeth, the thought came into her head to send him a card, with our info on it, because he's still sick.. really cool.. I had such a good feeling, just because the sister kept the commitment that we gave her.. so.. pretty neat experience.. Another sister in the ward had a miscarriage this past week.. really sad, so we went by and left a card saying that we loved them, and hope everything was good type of thing.. they showed up the next day to church, and said there thanks to us, that it meant a lot.. just neat little experiences..\
We haven't been finding, but the pool of investigators that we do have are pretty solid.. we have the potential for 3-4 more baptismal dates that could happen this coming week.. really excited about it.. if my companion and I are really dilligent and on top of things, I know that it will happen.. I just have felt that it will.. now the hard part is being dilligent, and doing the little things to keep in contact with these people!
I'll tell you a little about Spijkennisse now.. we actually don't live in Spijk.. we live in a city across the river called hoogvliet.. and the elders to Rotterdam south also live in that apartment.. oh man.. it's a party.. the oldest one (mission wise) is Elder Bjork, and he's on his 7th transfer.. I'm the second oldest on my 6th.. my companion is on his 5th and the other one is on his 3rd.. so a really young apartment.. but it's a blast, I love these guys! It's a really goofy apartment too.. it seems like were always laughing and joking about something.. were saying that this apartment would be a perfect "missionary sitcom" =P
But yeah so we live in hoogvliet and we have to travel over a huge river every day to enter Spijk.. just an outside town, doesn't have any history or anything.. but there's other awesome little towns in our area that have a lot of history.. the area that I am in now is the most dense in terms of members, there's 3 wards around here, two in rotterdam and then spijk.. so it's cool to be more in the thick of things than in the middle of no where in heerlen..
But everything is good.. I said last week that the apartment had decided and were determined to do dutch week.. well.. we got to friday night.. it's difficult.. man.. but we almost did it! We just kind of got burned out.. but it was the best attempt of dutch week I've ever had on my mission, so next transfer I'm excited for dutch week! (at the start of each new transfer, the first week is dedicated as dutch week)
Oh yeah.. so now that I'm back up here in the heart of the Netherlands, people are telling me once again, that i pronounce my name wrong.. really interesting, at church I introduce myself to people, and I say my name.. they look shocked at first then théý'll get really close and look at my name badge, and say "oh! It's MohrmAAn, not "Mormon".. To which I respond, "Well no.. ít's pronounced Mormon" and they'll actually try and argue with me.. amazing.. got to experience it I guess to understand ha ha
Well I guess were going to go to some zoo with a bunch of other missionary's.. so I gotta go.. Love you all, and thanks so much for all the emails, I love hearing about everyone, and yeah.. Doei! Tot Ziens, tot de volgende week! Ik verwach uitstekend emailen van jullie voor de volgende week!
Ik hou van jullie!
Elder Mohrman
Hoe gaat het met jullie! Oh man.. what a week.. rain, rain.. go away.. what has been going through my head this whole week! I love the rain, always have.. but the rain here.. it doesn't go away. And it's not the most amazing experience in the world when you have to bike for an hour to an appointment while it's pouring rain!! But it was okay, because traveling all that way paid off, as we were able to set a baptismal date with our investigator! So once again.. able to set a date.. we'll see what happens, still hoping that Lilian will get baptized down in heerlen, waiting on that news.. finding has been difficult here.. haven't had much success.. in fact we haven't found a new investigator yet.. we've had referals from members which have been awesome! But nobody that we've found.. Sometimes you get into a rut with finding.. get into a pattern.. and well, my companion and I have gotten into one.. but it's good.. fighting through it.. were going to force ourselves to talk to more people on the street, instead of doing doors.. but also like I refered to above, we've gotten referals from members, and Me and my companion have set the goal to really push that and get more from the ward! Had a really neat experience, my first week here, we went to a member house, had dinner what not.. the lady who is single with a few kids, she started talking about a friend she knows and how she wishes that she could find a way to help him, and share the gospel with them.. but he's sick and she had no idea how to reach him or what to do.. And she said that she prayed for him every night.. after she said that I felt really prompted to challenge her, to instead of praying just for his welfare, to pray instead for what she could personally do, to help him.. to ask god what she could do.. I promised her that if she did that she would receive an answer and know how to help her friend. It was pretty neat... never have done that before.. and yesterday at church, I followed up with my challenge and she had done it.. she said that in fact yesterday when she was brushing her teeth, the thought came into her head to send him a card, with our info on it, because he's still sick.. really cool.. I had such a good feeling, just because the sister kept the commitment that we gave her.. so.. pretty neat experience.. Another sister in the ward had a miscarriage this past week.. really sad, so we went by and left a card saying that we loved them, and hope everything was good type of thing.. they showed up the next day to church, and said there thanks to us, that it meant a lot.. just neat little experiences..\
We haven't been finding, but the pool of investigators that we do have are pretty solid.. we have the potential for 3-4 more baptismal dates that could happen this coming week.. really excited about it.. if my companion and I are really dilligent and on top of things, I know that it will happen.. I just have felt that it will.. now the hard part is being dilligent, and doing the little things to keep in contact with these people!
I'll tell you a little about Spijkennisse now.. we actually don't live in Spijk.. we live in a city across the river called hoogvliet.. and the elders to Rotterdam south also live in that apartment.. oh man.. it's a party.. the oldest one (mission wise) is Elder Bjork, and he's on his 7th transfer.. I'm the second oldest on my 6th.. my companion is on his 5th and the other one is on his 3rd.. so a really young apartment.. but it's a blast, I love these guys! It's a really goofy apartment too.. it seems like were always laughing and joking about something.. were saying that this apartment would be a perfect "missionary sitcom" =P
But yeah so we live in hoogvliet and we have to travel over a huge river every day to enter Spijk.. just an outside town, doesn't have any history or anything.. but there's other awesome little towns in our area that have a lot of history.. the area that I am in now is the most dense in terms of members, there's 3 wards around here, two in rotterdam and then spijk.. so it's cool to be more in the thick of things than in the middle of no where in heerlen..
But everything is good.. I said last week that the apartment had decided and were determined to do dutch week.. well.. we got to friday night.. it's difficult.. man.. but we almost did it! We just kind of got burned out.. but it was the best attempt of dutch week I've ever had on my mission, so next transfer I'm excited for dutch week! (at the start of each new transfer, the first week is dedicated as dutch week)
Oh yeah.. so now that I'm back up here in the heart of the Netherlands, people are telling me once again, that i pronounce my name wrong.. really interesting, at church I introduce myself to people, and I say my name.. they look shocked at first then théý'll get really close and look at my name badge, and say "oh! It's MohrmAAn, not "Mormon".. To which I respond, "Well no.. ít's pronounced Mormon" and they'll actually try and argue with me.. amazing.. got to experience it I guess to understand ha ha
Well I guess were going to go to some zoo with a bunch of other missionary's.. so I gotta go.. Love you all, and thanks so much for all the emails, I love hearing about everyone, and yeah.. Doei! Tot Ziens, tot de volgende week! Ik verwach uitstekend emailen van jullie voor de volgende week!
Ik hou van jullie!
Elder Mohrman
Monday, June 13, 2011
Monday June 13
Don't have much time so I'm skimming the emails from this week.. we are at a member's house because all the stores and shops are closed for second pentecost day? Never heard about it before but it's a holiday here, and the dutch are fanatical when it's a holiday, everything shuts down... kinda like jerusalem on there sabbath.. dutch is different.. there's definitely a difference between the dutch culture and American culture.. one that you just have to experience.. but were doing a dutch week this week.. nothing but dutch, and all 4 of us have really commited to do so.. i'm excited.. already learning a lot.. and praying lot naturally ;) Church was interesting.. it'd be so easy to not like an area, but i've noticed that it doesn't have to be that way, so i've made a personal goal to make this area just as great and memorable or better than my time in Heerlen.. if I'm trying to make it awesome, it should make things better right? ;) My simple reasonings.. okay, Love you all again I really don't have much time.
So yeah.. these emails is really the only thing I need in the box.. and snack food.. i noticed that the other day.. I didn't have any more snack food! and sweeter snack food.. if that makes sense.. so combos.. maybe laffy taffy's.. ;)
Can't wait til next week!
Love, your son, Elder Mohrman
So yeah.. these emails is really the only thing I need in the box.. and snack food.. i noticed that the other day.. I didn't have any more snack food! and sweeter snack food.. if that makes sense.. so combos.. maybe laffy taffy's.. ;)
Can't wait til next week!
Love, your son, Elder Mohrman
Monday, June 6, 2011
Heerlen... Last Week =0
Hoi Familie!
The adventure in Heerlen is coming to a close. And what a fun adventure it has been! I had a lot of mixed feelings going into Sunday, the day we find out about transfers. At the beginning of the week, things were going slow, our most positive investigators were dropping off the face of the earth, and I just really felt like it was my time to go! As the week went on however, we had some amazing appointments and re-contacted most of our investigators, with the peak coming yesterday, hearing that Rick (the american referral, who was anti-ed) had convinced the lady (who had antied him) to listen to us. And we should be having our first appointment with him hopefully tonight. Also made contact and made strides with other families that we were teaching, so going into Sunday, I didn't want to leave this place! It was back on fire.. things were going great with the companion, with investigators.. but while I was on the phone talking with some members about Rick actually last night, My president called and gave the news that I am indeed being transferred. I'm headed to Spijkenisse? No idea how you spell it, but it's a suberb of Rotterdam, which is more known. My companion is going to be Elder Davies, who is going to be going on his 5th transfer, so.. I'm going to be a senior companion for the first time on my mission! Crazy huh? I'm excited I know Elder Davies from the MTC, and I've been on a couple of exchanges with him when I was serving in Den Haag. I'm looking forward to this transfer, it's going to be definitely interesting.. Get out of my american bubble i've been in here in Heerlen and back into the world of Dutch!! I've really enjoyed my time in Heerlen like i've said.. the people here are amazing.. Calling the members back who I was on the phone with at the time Pres. called. They invited us over to have dinner and ice cream tonight to say goodbye.. so that will be fun..
Concerning Lilian, her baptism did not go through sad to say, she called the day before her interview and told us she wasn't ready.. not yet.. she is still going to come to church and investigate, but she said that it was too fast, and she needed more time to prepare.. but to be honest, I feel it's what''s best is for her. She'll be able to now have more time to read the Book of mormon, and to build relationships with the ward.. I was going to be the one to actually baptize her.. so obviously I can't now, but I'm looking forward to hearing when she finally does get baptized. Keep praying for her ;)
Well the next couple of days are going to be a lot of good byes.. to investigators, and too members. But last week for p-day which was kind of fun and interesting, after emailing you all, me and my companion decided to take an adventure and we biked to the three land point of germany, netherlands, and belgium.. I repeat we BIKED there.. about 15 or so miles there.. (hilly country mind you) then as the 3 land point is on a massive hill, we did a lot of mountain biking on trails.. thought of Mitch, he would of been proud =) and then we rode back.. so all in all I would say we did a good 35 to 40 MILES of biking last monday...what an adventure.. I'll have to tell you more about it sometime ;) But because of that and other fun stuff we've been doing on P-days, I've had no time to write letters.. so if you've written me a letter, I would just ask for patience with me! I'll try to get them out as soon as possible!! I haven't forgotten or ignoring you!
But I think that's about it.. my new address is
saffraanstraat 261
3193 XK hoogvliet
netherlands
So.. yeah.. thank you all for the emails.. they were wonderful.. and love you all!
-Elder Mohrman
The adventure in Heerlen is coming to a close. And what a fun adventure it has been! I had a lot of mixed feelings going into Sunday, the day we find out about transfers. At the beginning of the week, things were going slow, our most positive investigators were dropping off the face of the earth, and I just really felt like it was my time to go! As the week went on however, we had some amazing appointments and re-contacted most of our investigators, with the peak coming yesterday, hearing that Rick (the american referral, who was anti-ed) had convinced the lady (who had antied him) to listen to us. And we should be having our first appointment with him hopefully tonight. Also made contact and made strides with other families that we were teaching, so going into Sunday, I didn't want to leave this place! It was back on fire.. things were going great with the companion, with investigators.. but while I was on the phone talking with some members about Rick actually last night, My president called and gave the news that I am indeed being transferred. I'm headed to Spijkenisse? No idea how you spell it, but it's a suberb of Rotterdam, which is more known. My companion is going to be Elder Davies, who is going to be going on his 5th transfer, so.. I'm going to be a senior companion for the first time on my mission! Crazy huh? I'm excited I know Elder Davies from the MTC, and I've been on a couple of exchanges with him when I was serving in Den Haag. I'm looking forward to this transfer, it's going to be definitely interesting.. Get out of my american bubble i've been in here in Heerlen and back into the world of Dutch!! I've really enjoyed my time in Heerlen like i've said.. the people here are amazing.. Calling the members back who I was on the phone with at the time Pres. called. They invited us over to have dinner and ice cream tonight to say goodbye.. so that will be fun..
Concerning Lilian, her baptism did not go through sad to say, she called the day before her interview and told us she wasn't ready.. not yet.. she is still going to come to church and investigate, but she said that it was too fast, and she needed more time to prepare.. but to be honest, I feel it's what''s best is for her. She'll be able to now have more time to read the Book of mormon, and to build relationships with the ward.. I was going to be the one to actually baptize her.. so obviously I can't now, but I'm looking forward to hearing when she finally does get baptized. Keep praying for her ;)
Well the next couple of days are going to be a lot of good byes.. to investigators, and too members. But last week for p-day which was kind of fun and interesting, after emailing you all, me and my companion decided to take an adventure and we biked to the three land point of germany, netherlands, and belgium.. I repeat we BIKED there.. about 15 or so miles there.. (hilly country mind you) then as the 3 land point is on a massive hill, we did a lot of mountain biking on trails.. thought of Mitch, he would of been proud =) and then we rode back.. so all in all I would say we did a good 35 to 40 MILES of biking last monday...what an adventure.. I'll have to tell you more about it sometime ;) But because of that and other fun stuff we've been doing on P-days, I've had no time to write letters.. so if you've written me a letter, I would just ask for patience with me! I'll try to get them out as soon as possible!! I haven't forgotten or ignoring you!
But I think that's about it.. my new address is
saffraanstraat 261
3193 XK hoogvliet
netherlands
So.. yeah.. thank you all for the emails.. they were wonderful.. and love you all!
-Elder Mohrman
Monday, May 30, 2011
May 30th
(Note: the first line is in reference to last week when Elder Mohrman asked teasingly, whose email will we open up first now that his sister is also on a mission and entered the MTC this week. I replied it depends how he looks at it as she will be in the Philippines and so a day ahead so we will get her emails on Sunday and his on Monday. So he was told that he could view it as we read his first and then six days later read hers or we read hers first and then his the next day...)
hoi family!
I think I"m going to look at it that you read my email first, and then after six days of pondering over my experiences and stories then you'll be ready to read stefi's.. =D Ha ha Nah Just kidding.. That's exciting for her, I'm glad she has a big group. She'll really enjoy it.. I don't know how much she would have enjoyed being in a situation like I was in.. but I can see that situation I was in was perfect for me, for my growth and the situation stefi is in is perfect for her and her personal growth.. Interesting how people need different things ;) I hope that my few thoughts were appreciated by her..I just feel sometimes to share stuff with the family, and so I do.. If Icould, I'd go back to the MTC, and so I just really wanted to let Stefi know the amazingness of the MTC, because so many missionary's elders and sisters, they don't appreciate it while there there.. That's awesome your reading the New Testament the way you are.. I just finished the book of mormon.. and now I've committed myself to read all the other standard works.. starting with the New Testament, and then Doctrine and Covenants and then I'll tackle the Old Testament.. but I really want to read all the scriptures on my mission..
It'll be fun to be able to share our thoughts to each other as we read the New Testament at the same time! =)
I am learning more and more about the importance of communication. Missions are a great way to learn about patience and working with people. I can't be like I was back home and let people stew and not talk to them about problems.. problems just don't go away with time..and so they need to be addressed sooner than later.. these are good lessons.. If there's just communication with investigators, members and even companions, then things can always be so much better..
I am hoping to be moving on this next transfer so I can work on Dutch more but I am excited to think that I will end with a baptism! It's been so neat to see the progression of Lilian, from coming only for one hour to church, then to two hours the next sunday, and then to all of church.. to now this past sunday she even wore a skirt! Her prayers are night and day difference, she prays to the father in the name of Jesus now.. and it was neat to see that progression.. she's an interesting lady and definitely a blessing for me.
Also last thing, yesterday for memorial day, we were able to go to margratten or to an american world war 2 cemetary.. the biggest in the netherlands.. and you know it's the classic row upon row of white crosses..but they had a ceremony there, and it was huge thousands of people, it was just neat to be apart of and witness.. made me think how these young americans came over to liberate the dutch from physical oppression, and now here I and the other missionary's, young americans come over to free this people from a spiritual bondage.. kind of a neat thought..
I recieved the packages.. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
I have a lessen with Lilian actually in five minutes so don't have time to write more.. I appreciate everyone’s thoughts..I do want to hear more about people’s missions though.. mom got out her journals and I've committed her to read through them again and share stories with me.. I'd love for others to do the same.. so.. that would mean a lot!
Ik hou van jullie gezichten! (I love ya'll faces!)
Your coolest missionary... son =)
Elder Mohrman
hoi family!
I think I"m going to look at it that you read my email first, and then after six days of pondering over my experiences and stories then you'll be ready to read stefi's.. =D Ha ha Nah Just kidding.. That's exciting for her, I'm glad she has a big group. She'll really enjoy it.. I don't know how much she would have enjoyed being in a situation like I was in.. but I can see that situation I was in was perfect for me, for my growth and the situation stefi is in is perfect for her and her personal growth.. Interesting how people need different things ;) I hope that my few thoughts were appreciated by her..I just feel sometimes to share stuff with the family, and so I do.. If Icould, I'd go back to the MTC, and so I just really wanted to let Stefi know the amazingness of the MTC, because so many missionary's elders and sisters, they don't appreciate it while there there.. That's awesome your reading the New Testament the way you are.. I just finished the book of mormon.. and now I've committed myself to read all the other standard works.. starting with the New Testament, and then Doctrine and Covenants and then I'll tackle the Old Testament.. but I really want to read all the scriptures on my mission..
It'll be fun to be able to share our thoughts to each other as we read the New Testament at the same time! =)
I am learning more and more about the importance of communication. Missions are a great way to learn about patience and working with people. I can't be like I was back home and let people stew and not talk to them about problems.. problems just don't go away with time..and so they need to be addressed sooner than later.. these are good lessons.. If there's just communication with investigators, members and even companions, then things can always be so much better..
I am hoping to be moving on this next transfer so I can work on Dutch more but I am excited to think that I will end with a baptism! It's been so neat to see the progression of Lilian, from coming only for one hour to church, then to two hours the next sunday, and then to all of church.. to now this past sunday she even wore a skirt! Her prayers are night and day difference, she prays to the father in the name of Jesus now.. and it was neat to see that progression.. she's an interesting lady and definitely a blessing for me.
Also last thing, yesterday for memorial day, we were able to go to margratten or to an american world war 2 cemetary.. the biggest in the netherlands.. and you know it's the classic row upon row of white crosses..but they had a ceremony there, and it was huge thousands of people, it was just neat to be apart of and witness.. made me think how these young americans came over to liberate the dutch from physical oppression, and now here I and the other missionary's, young americans come over to free this people from a spiritual bondage.. kind of a neat thought..
I recieved the packages.. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
I have a lessen with Lilian actually in five minutes so don't have time to write more.. I appreciate everyone’s thoughts..I do want to hear more about people’s missions though.. mom got out her journals and I've committed her to read through them again and share stories with me.. I'd love for others to do the same.. so.. that would mean a lot!
Ik hou van jullie gezichten! (I love ya'll faces!)
Your coolest missionary... son =)
Elder Mohrman
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