Hoi Familie!
Another week here in Antwerpen! It's interesting, I've
really been here a while.. thinking back on it.. we don't get fed that much
here, in fact not really at all, and i've been trying to get this dinner
appointment with this specific family since my first few weeks here, with the
craziness of transfers, haven't really asked, and then this past sunday, I was
talking to the man, and I said, "when are you going to feed
us?" and he said, "we've just been busy for the past little
bit.." and I said "for the past 7 months??" kinda caught him off
guard, as he realized, how ridiculous it was to have never had the missionaries
over for the whole 7 months that I've been here, so he turned to his wife, and
said we need to have them over, so who knows maybe I'll get a dinner
appointment with them before I leave in a couple of weeks! If I do, I
think I would have accomplished everything that I was meant to have
accomplished here In Antwerpen =)
Thank you all for all the prayers concerning the
investigators here, especially about Sonia and Martinez.. it was neat, I went
to the temple on Tuesday, praying for them, wrote there names in the temple..
twice =P And found out that they did indeed go to the city center, and
they are not married, but they found out everything that they need now to get
married and have made a huge step in that direction. It will probably
take 2-3 months maybe longer for them to gather all there papers from Suriname
and the Netherlands, but again, they know what they need to do, and there doing
it.. I had a neat appointment with them on Wednesday, when I found out all
this, and Sonia was talking about how her son Joantly was just not doing well
with school, and how she wants us to bless him, so he can focus more.. The
first thought that came into my mind was Baptism, and so I told her that, and
said because I'm thinking about the gift of the holy ghost and how it
leads us and guides us, and is a help for us, and so I was able to testify to
them that maybe Sonia and Martinez had to wait to get baptized, but Jo-Ann and
Joantly didn't have to wait, and that it would help there whole family out
having Jo-Ann and Joantly be baptized and recieving the gift of the holy ghost..
wow talk about enthusiasm! Sonia was like "THERE DOING IT, I give my
full permission!!!!" and so I had to calm her down, and ask Jo-Ann
and Joantly individually if that's what they wanted, and JoAnn was super
excited. I now know that the reason why she came up to me the other week
telling me she wanted to wait for her mother.. because Sonia wanted them all to
be baptized at the same time, and totally understandable also.. but now Sonia
is fully on-board, she wants it, almost to the point of forcing her kids in the
water!! ha ha not really, but the baptismal service is planned and set for
Jo-Ann Janki and Joantly Noordzee for this coming Sunday.. I'm happy for them,
the whole family, and Martinez was in church now for the second week in a row
with his family! Doing wondeful, thank you again for all your prayers
=)
Jo-Ann has asked that I baptize her which is really special
for me, because re-wind 3-4 months, we are at the church, her first or
second sunday there, she just saw the baptismal service of Christiana, and
we are standing in the hall looking at a big painting of John the Baptist
baptizing Jesus, and I asked her if she was going to follow the example of
Jesus Christ and be baptized, she said yes, but that I WOULD NOT be the one
that baptized her, saying that I would drown her and what, just being silly,
and I just remember thinking to myself, "I'm going to baptize this
girl.." And now I am. If all goes well that is, but I can't
see anything major happening, but keep them in your prayers, I'm really
thankful that's for sure to be able to at least see half the family get
baptized, At one of our appointments this past week, it came up again that I
would more than likely be leaving, and Sonia the faithful woman that she is,
said "just pray! And God will let you stay to see our
baptisms!" ha ha but I was able to testify to her that God had
already heard and answered my prayers, saying that the transfer before I had
prayed to stay so I could see them be baptized, and he gave me these extra 6
weeks, where so much had happened, where I was able to see Sonia and Martinez
develop testimonies and desires to be baptized, and I had the priviledge of
teaching them all the lessens, where now all they have to do is
wait til' there married to be baptized, that's the joy of
missionary work I've found, is seeing somone devolop there testimony,
seeing how the gospel of Jesus Christ changes someone, so I told them, even
though I won't now see them be baptized, God answered my prayers and
I saw everything from the beginning to the end of them developing a
burning testimony of the gospel.. Sonia understood, and the spirit was
really strong, so now I'm more than convinced that I'm leaving this
place, to spend my last 3 transfers in another city, expiriencing and
growing relationships with other people. But I suppose we'll just have
to see in a couple of weeks what will happen, in the mean time!
Jo-Ann and Joantly are getting baptized on the 29th, and then the
last sunday of the transfer, we have Charles planned, and he was also at
church, loving life, and he is looking like he will make it for sure.. not a
bad way to end a stay in a city if I do go, with 3 baptisms, and a number
of people well on there way to that step =)
Another cool lessen that I had while on exchanges, also
happened with Sonia and Martinez, didn't know what I was going to share
with them, so I went in, with the trust that the spirit would lead
the appointment, Jo-Ann was leaving to go to the young womens activity,
and how she left, just a lot of contention in the home, and I felt
bad, and the spirit was definitely not there, so I thought about
hymns, and I asked them to get the hymn books that I had given them, and we
sang a couple of songs, and then we read the intro to the hymn book the
message from the first presidency together, super cool, how fast the
spirit came back after we started singing hymns with each other, and also
cool to testify of the power of hymns, and to commit them that if they ever
feel contention, as a family sing a hymn with each other.. said they
would, thouht it was a neat lessen because it was
pretty unorthodox, teaching about hymns?? Never thought about
that before, but it was what they needed at that moment..
Also had an expirience where we were knocking some
doors, and we met this kid who let us in, kind of an akward kid, but we
watched the restoration dvd, and we testified of Jesus Christ and asked if
we could come back the next day, which he said we could, next
day we come with a spanish joint teach because this kids mother is from chile,
and as were talking on the door, she gets a phone call and when she tells
her friend that were mormons, the friend freaks out and starts anti-ing her
right there while on the phone! It was nuts, and what added to it, it
was all in spanish, my companion speaks spanish, and so I'm watching this
all play out not really understanding any of it, and then I get this
feeling 3 nephi 11, and so I tell my companion who had pulled out the book
of mormon, to give her 3 nephi 11 to read, and to explain the chapter, which
she really found interesting that Jesus Christ appeared in the Americas, and
then I felt to go a step further and have our joint teach translate
for me as I bore my testimony of the book of mormon, just a neat spirit was
there as this lady did a complete 180 and is really looking forward to us
coming back on Tuesday. So some neat expiriences, can't share everything
with you all of course =P But I loved the temple, really glad we
were to go this past week, kinda weird to think it was my last time on my
mission, I dunno, I kinda don't want it to be, so I think maybe we'll go
to the temple when you come pick me up mom and dad! =)
Love you all loads and thanks for all you do fo me!
Your son, bro, and friend
Elder Mohrman
