Surprise of the week: I ate raw Hearing this past week! And that is a big surprise because I HATE fish!

Hey everybody!  Thanks for the emails, and I'm sorry that I couldn't reply yesterday.  Like I said, I was really busy giving a training in Amsterdam and then we had an appointment in Hoorn that evening, but we woke up early so we could email before district meeting.  Anyways, this past week was another good one, and crazy too, because it was transfer week!  There are three main things that I will talk about that happened throughout the week.

1. Tuesday was our last District Meeting for the transfer.  We had been focusing the whole transfer on, "Do what You do with, Jesus Christ" We gave a big Zone training all about that focusing on who they are as missionaries, and what kind of missionary they want to become, all while keeping Jesus Christ and who he is in mind.  At the end of the Zone training last month, we asked them to come up with "Titles".  This would help sum up the kind of missionary they are/want to become in one word and help them keep that in mind throughout their mission and also throughout their lives.  This is something that Elder Cooper and I have both done earlier on in our missions and it changed both of our missions.  Our goal was to help these younger missionaries not be so robotic, but help them recognize their strengths and apply them in their work.  Elder Cooper and I didn't want them to ever forget the titles they came up with, so we made the buttons for them online and ordered them.  At the last District Meeting of the transfer we gave them the buttons and a personal note of appreciation to go along with it.  They absolutely LOVED it!  It was cool to see how much that meant to them, and we hope that they will always remember who they are, their strengths and weaknesses, and what they have to offer to the mission.  It was a cool way to see that all this time that we put in to the zone and sacrificing our success for their success really payed off.  It was a great day with the zone, and we are happy that a lot of them are staying in the zone for one more transfer.

2.  At the beginning of the new transfer we do a lot of planning.  We plan out exchanges, create a vision for the transfer including goals and how we are going to accomplish them as a zone, we plan for different trainings we give.  Let's just say, it is a lot of planning!  But we came up with an awesome new vision for the zone this transfer.  So after last transfer and finding out what kind of missionaries we are, and developing the desire to do the work, we want to focus on doing the work better and increasing our skills.  As a mission, we are focusing on improving our teaching skills, and that fits in perfectly with what the zone needs, so our theme for this transfer is, "Teach as Christ Taught".  We will be working out of one of my favorite chapters in PMG, ch. 10, and some of the qualities that a good lesson contains.  We are going to be working on 5 different qualities, 1. Use Scriptures 2. Ask Good Questions 3. Listen and Teach with the Spirit 4. Extend Commitments 5. Teach in Unity.  We hope that as we work on these 5 things that we will develop more power and authority as we teach.  The whole vision is based on, "teaching with Power and Authority from God" given by David M. McConkie in the last General Conference.  We are VERY excited for this transfer and helping the missionaries teach with more Power and Authority.

3.  The third thing I want to talk about is an awesome lesson the Elder Cooper and I had this last week.  It was with our investigator P.  He hasn't been making any progress lately and just wanted to read with us from the Book of Revelations.  It is hard to teach from that in Dutch and it was kind of pointless to be honest.  Last week Thursday we witnessed a miracle.  We saw a "mighty change of heart".  P didn't want to talk about Revelations that night though, and he actually had more questions about Joseph Smith and the Doctrine and Covenants.  We talked a lot about that and tied it in to the restoration really well.  We talked more about the Book of Mormon, and we bore strong testimony.  At the end of the lesson, he
told us that this wasn't just a conversation between men, but that the Spirit was definitely involved, and he feels the Spirit whenever we talk to him.  he opened up big time and explained to us that he wants to become a better person and he wants to know what God expects of him.  He asked us to give him some chapters from the Book of Mormon about those topics so that he could read them.  We gave him 3 Nephi 27 and Mosiah 18.  This week we will be committing him to be baptized, because baptism is the perfect answer to both of those questions!!!  It was such a miracle!!  We are very excited.

Well I am running out of time but that was pretty much my week.  I hope you all have another great week!  I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Bishop

Ps. the surprise of the week:  I ate raw Hearing this past week!  And that is a big surprise because I HATE fish!  I threw the first half up, but I swallowed the second half :)  I got it filmed, but it's too long to send, so you will see it later I guess haha.   

Those are the moments you just step back and realize how blessed you are to be able to take part in God's plan and be an instrument in His hands.

hey everybody!  sounds like there weren't too many surprises this week, thank goodness!  haha It seems like every week I get on there are big surprises, but at least they are good surprises, so that helps.  I just can't believe how much is changing while I'm gone.  It's crazy!  But since this is happening I want to share surprises with you as well.  I don't know if I will have one for every week, but these last few weeks, I learned how to juggle, so that is the surprise of the week :)  Anyways...  This week was not the best week, but I learned quite a bit.  I don't know, I've noticed that after you have a few killer weeks, a longer week is bound to come, but it was still great.

On tuesday we had zone training in Apeldoorn.  We stayed the night in Hoorn and then woke up early that next morning and drove over the big dike from Enkhuizen to Lelystad.  it was a really cool drive, and the zone training was awesome.  Sister Robinson gave a great talk about the doctrine of small things.  She talked about how in life, there are a lot of seemingly small things that we do, but they turn out to have a huge impact later on in life.  it was a good zone conference and I got to see Elder T there!  he is doing really well and has grown a lot already :) 

Wednesday we spent the day working in Amsterdam with the Elders there.  I was with Elder S and we went to a lesson with a guy named G.  G was a cool guy.  he is about 30 years old and has been a member for about 10 years but went inactive a few years after his baptism.  We had a great talk with him about life and what he aspires in this life.  he is pretty lost, and doesn't know where to go.  He is a good guy, but he just can't figure it out.  he has lost the true source of happiness.  it was a great lesson, and a good reminder that there are SOOOO many people in this world with that same problem, and they look and look and try different things, but they just can't find the solution.  It is also frustrating sometimes when you have the solution and you offer it to them, but they just don't take it!  Just accept the gospel!!!  haha.  it really does break my heart.  it was a good lesson though.  We got home really late that night, but as we were on the train these people came up to us and the lady grabbed my name badge and started reading it.  She was obviously a little drunk, but they started asking us questions.  They had some DEEP questions about life, about who God is and how Jesus Christ was perfect and why we are here on Earth.  We basically taught them the whole Plan of Salvation.  They were a little drunk, but they could still understand everything we were talking about.  They were trying to stump us, but there is a secret when it comes to that.  the first impression is to just argue, but that does no good because they already feel so strongly about it that even if you do prove them wrong, most of the time they still stick with how they feel.  The secret is to bear testimony, and that's exactly what we did.  They ended up taking a Book of Mormon and our card.  I don't know what will come from it, but I do remember the doctrine of small things, and even though that was a small thing, I know they will be thinking about that more than they used to.

thursday I was on exchanges with Elder P in Hoorn.  He is our district leader and he is an awesome missionary.  We had a lot of fun and biked in the pouring rain :)  Friday was Valentines day so elder Cooper and I went on a date to a nice little burger joint.  it's the closest thing you can get to an American Diner here.  We got burgers fries and a milkshake.  It wasn't the same, but it was still fun haha.  Our appointments got cancelled but we held our heads up high and hit the Streets.  Saturday we did a lot of look ups and a lot of finding.  We were knocking doors, but that didn't last long, because every door we knocked the answer was the same, "Ik ben nu aan het schaatsen te kijken!  ga maar weg!" or in english, "I'm watching Ice skating! go away!" haha that happened three doors straight so we decided that wasn't the best use of our time.  The Dutch are crazy about their Olympic Ice Skating! 

Saturday was also a very special day though, because  J's  husband got baptized!!!!  That is a HUGE miracle!!  When we taught J  last May, he would sit in for a couple minutes then leave.  He would drop J and the kids off at church, leave for 3 hours, then come back and pick them up.  He was addicted to smoking and had been smoking since he was 9 years old.  He supported his wife but didn't have a whole lot of interest.  he is now a member and can be sealed to J and their kids next year :)  The doctrine of small things!!!  He started off very slow and we did a few "small things" at first like becoming friends and watching mormon messages with him, and now he is baptized!  It is so cool to see and I am so happy for them.  Those are the moments you just step back and realize how blessed you are to be able to take part in God's plan and be an instrument in His hands. 

Sunday was another good one.  We had a dinner appointment with the De B Family again, and they had a colleague from Dallas, Texas visiting.  It was weird to hear american english again haha.  She isn't a member, but we shared a nice message about how God is Love.  She LOVED it, and we all had a good night together.  Elder Cooper and I will be staying another 6 weeks together and we are both very excited about that! Things are going great and we are having a blast.  I hope you all have a great week and I can't wait to hear from you next week!  Love,

Elder Bishop 

Pics

1. Alkmaar centrum

2.  Thank goodness for companions!

That is one of the biggest lessons that I have learned on my mission, that Love HAS to be our motivation.

Hello everyone!  This week was INCREDIBLE!!!  It sounds like you guys had a pretty average week ;)  haha no it actually sounds like you all are doing great!  I'm very glad to hear that everything is going good.  This week I learned that it is definitely possible to be "Spiritually Drained".  That's how I feel right now.  I will explain by starting off on Tuesday.  I was on an exchange with Elder S.  He was a greeny in Gent, Belgium back when I was in Brugge as his District Leader, so this wasn't our first exchange.  He is a really cool kid though and we get along great.  He is a very patient missionary  and does a great job.  We talked a lot about his strengths and how he can utilize them to help fulfill his role in the mission.  It was a great talk!  That night we had a dinner appointment with the M Family.  This is the family where the wife is the only member and the husband is a tulip farmer.  They are a great family,  and I really get along with the kids since they are all around my age.  I planned this awesome spiritual thought that was an object lesson, and I was very excited to share it with them after dinner.  As I was pulling out the materials I started explaining it to them, and I came to learn that they had already had that lesson before!  I was a little disappointed and felt bad.  They said that it was no big deal, but I just grabbed my dutch bible and shared one of my favorite scriptures, 1 John 2:6.  I bore my testimony on how that short verse has changed my life.  Even though it didn't go as planned, it still turned out really well and the Spirit was very strong (That last sentence summed up the life of a missionary haha). 

Not a whole lot happened on Wednesday.  Elder Cooper and I had to fill out some surveys on a mini missionary in our zone and send them to Salt Lake for further evaluation to see if he is able to serve a full-time mission.  and then we spent the night in Hoorn.  We ate dinner with the Elders there and then went to seminary.  The two youth who were there are really cool.  One of them isn't even a member, and the elders in Hoorn are working with him right now to try to get him baptized. 

On Thursday we had mission leader council at the mission home in Leidschendam.  It is a big meeting for the zone leaders and sister training leaders that lasts for 6 hours!  It was sooooo good though.  The Assistants gave some presentations and then Sister Robinson talked about 'divine motivation'. It was a great talk where she listed 6 points of motivation, the first one being the worst form of motivation and the 6th one being the best.

1. for riches and honor

2. to obtain good companionship

3. out of fear of punishment

4. out of duty and loyalty

5. hope for an eternal reward

6. love of God and love of fellow men

It's cool to look back this past year on my mission and see my motivations change.  When I got to the MTC, my motivations were hanging around 3 and 4, and then in Hengelo they moved down to 5 and now I am down at 6.  I still have traces of other motivations, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but my biggest motivation is love.  I came out on my mission with the mindset, "God has been really good to me, and this is a way that I can try to 'pay him back'", I learned really quick that it doesn't work like that!  The harder we work the more we are blessed.  It is impossible to 'pay God back'.  We will Always be indebted to him.  So now my mindset is "God has been so good to me.  I want to show Him that I love Him by diligently working, keeping His commandments, and serving those around me."  That is one of the biggest lessons that I have learned on my mission, that Love HAS to be our motivation. 

I learned a lot during the mission leader council though, and elder Cooper and I have some good ideas of what we want to do differently next transfer, that is, if we stay together next transfer.  Cross your fingers!!

Friday was another very spiritual day.  We went down to Amsterdam to give some baptismal interviews.  There was a mom and her daughter.  The mom is about 30 years old and her daughter just turned 8.  I interviewed the mom and Elder Cooper interviewed the daughter.  it was the most Spiritual interview that I have ever given.  She came in contact with the church through her sister.  Her sister is a convert of a few years and just got sealed in the temple.  She was mad that she couldn't be there for the wedding and thought that her sister went crazy, so she got online to find out more about the church and what her sister was getting herself into.  She saw the facebook page of the church and some members sent her the address to the closest church to her (the one in Amsterdam).  She showed up to church and LOVED it!  she loves how we not only preach of Christ, but we follow him and we do what he asks us to do.  I asked her how she gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  She told me about the feelings she had when she reads.  I shared Gal 5:22 and told her that these feelings were from the Holy Ghost testifying that it is true.  She broke down in tears.  The Spirit was so strong!  We talked a little more and I finished the interview and congratulated her at the end, telling her that she would be baptized that Sunday.  She was SOOOO happy!  She grabbed my hands and thanked me over and over again.  She begged us to come to the baptism, and so we told her we could make it.  That night we had an appointment with our investigator P.  We read some more from revelations, but it didn't really get anywhere.  We want to start teaching him some more fundamentals of the Restored Gospel and get him coming back to church!  He is a nice guy though and we always have a good time when we go over there. 

Saturday we spent the whole day filling out a report that we call "The Beast".  It is a massive report of evaluations on every missionary in the zone and how they are doing as companionships and recommendations and evaluations.  It is ridiculous and I hate doing it, but I survived...

Sunday was one of the best days of my mission!  We had an awesome church service and then left right after to go to the baptisms.  4 people got baptized in Amsterdam yesterday!  2 of those were the mother and her daughter.  They were soooo happy and very grateful that we came.  It was cool to see their faces and the light that they received.  After the baptisms we had a dinner appointment with the De B family.  They are a very strong family with 3 kids.  The oldest is a returned missionary and married, the middle child is a girl about my age and she has been inactive for a few years now, and the youngest is a 14 year old boy who is active and looks up to the missionaries a lot.  We ate so much meat that night and had a lot of fun with them!  But it was after we ate dinner when the really cool part came.  Elder Cooper and I gave a spiritual thought based out of 1 Cor 2:12-14.  We talked about how our testimonies come through the Spirit, not by logic, but through our feelings.  We asked the parents to share their conversion stories and that brought the Spirit so strong!  We closed with our testimonies and as we bore our testimonies, the youngest boy started crying.  The inactive daughter, who was fighting with him 10 minutes earlier, came around the table and gave him a big hug and told him that she loved him.  She went back to her seat and she started crying too.  The Spirit was so strong and we sat in silence for a long time.  The mom started talking some more and she started crying as well.  I couldn't believe how strong the presence of the Holy Ghost was in that room.  We talked about receiving testimonies through the Spirit and we all felt it and I am confident to say that all of our testimonies were strengthened.  I gained a stronger testimony knowing that God knows us individually and loves us more than we can comprehend.  it was the best spiritual thought that I had ever been a part of.

That night, Elder Cooper and I were Spiritually drained.  I began to understand a little bit of how Ammon felt in Alma 27:17 haha.  It was such a good week with so many experiences and I am glad that I was able to share most of them with you.  Mom and dad, I hope you realize how big of an influence your testimonies have on us as your children.  I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Bishop

I felt home... It was a weird feeling, but being out here for a year now all the unusual things are becoming more normal

Hey everybody!  I can't believe how fast the time is flying by!  2014 is already rolling and its just gonna keep rolling faster and faster...  It sounds like you all had a great week though.  I wish I could've seen the super bowl with you guys!  Im glad the seahawks won.  Keep me updated on CHS Rugby as well.  Im glad that it is such a good turn out!  But anyways.  This week was incredible just like every other week.  We started off last Monday going to an all you can eat asian restaurant with an inactive member and her son who is not a member.  Elder Cooper and I put down so much food!  it was super good and we got a really good relationship with the lady and her son as well.  The lady loves the piano and we talked a lot about it a few weeks ago.  I told her that I love Chopin so she brought a book full of chopin pieces to the dinner and gave it to me.  I wish I had more time out here to practice it, but I will just have to wait until after the mission.  It was a great dinner though.

Tuesday we were busy making pin buttons for the members of the zone.  It is something that goes along with the zone training we gave a couple weeks ago.  We all came up with "titles"and we got them printed witha  cool Amsterdam logo on the buttons.  They should be here next week.  We felt like it was a great idea to unify the zone and also help the missionaries remember what we taught.  I will send a pic when we get them.  That night we had one of the funniest dinner appointments ever!  Me, Elder Cooper and the Hoorn Elders were at a families house, and they are SUPER dutch.  They are nice, but the mom is a little crazy, ok, a lot crazy.  We had a nice spiritual thought planned for our new stake plan and wanted them to each make a dutch mormon.org profile.  While we were eating, she just went off about how we shouldn't use the title "mormon".  We told her we understood but then we explained that it is a website for nonmembers and when non members want to learn more about our church, they type in 'mormon' more often than they do 'the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints'.  We also explained that at the top of the page, our church logo is there with the full name of our church.  She still didn't understand though and just went on and on about how that was a big mistake from the church.  Elder Cooper and I were laughing so hard because we knew that the other two elders would be giving a spiritual thought about mormon.org right after dinner.  Throughout dinner she kept doing really weird things and during the spiritual thought (The Hoorn Elders were smart enough to share something else) she kept feeling the pages of our scriptures and saying how nice they felt compared to hers hahaha.  She started bashing on Utah and was just weird.  Elder Cooper and I are like little girls who giggle at everything too, and when one of us starts giggling, we can't stop!  It got so bad that Elder cooper had to leave the room for a second!  It was seriously one of the best dinner appointments I've had on my mission.

Wednesday we started our exchange week.  I was with Elder E who is a younger missionary. He is really cool and we got along great.  We had a great appointment helping this old couple move.  They are both members but the husband suffers from severe alzheimers. (I think that's how you spell it).  He is 87 and the wife is 80.  She is doing great though and was helping us move things outside.  It was sad to see the man though.  He kept repeating himself over and over again.  It was so sad to see her help him do everything and give him medicine.  True love.  But she cooked us some really good Indonesian food.

thursday we were on exchanges again and I was with Elder K.  He is also a younger missionary and  He is also a great Elder and we had a killer appointment!!  We taught this guy named N.  He is from Ghana, His faith is incredible but he struggles keeping commitments.  He was baptized Protestant and has the typical question, "Why do I need to be baptized again".  We did our best to explain it, but he got off topic a lot and talked more about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  It got very spiritual at that point though and so we went with it.  We talked about how God loves us and he wants to talk with us through prayer.  He shared a spiritual experience about prayer and we asked him if he believed that God could answer his question about baptism.  Of course he answered yes, so we knelt down right there and he prayed.  after is great prayer we sat in silence for about 10 minutes.  The Spirit was so strong and he finally broke the silence telling us that a picture kept coming up in his head.  It was the picture of Peter, James and John giving Joseph Smith the priesthood.  We told him that was why he needed to be baptized again, because it needs to be done with proper authority from God.  It was such a great lesson and he is a lot more positive now.  he still has a few questions but is a lot more positive.  It was another testimony confirming that God DOES answer our prayers!  I have had so many confirmations of that principle out here.

Friday was another exchange, this time with the Assistants.  I was with Elder V here in Alkmaar and we had a good day.  We had a dinner appointment with a cool family (only the 20 year old daughter is a member) but her family was nice.  She plays the saxaphone and they had a piano there so we had fun playing music after dinner, and they really enjoyed it.  Its not the same as Utah where every other person can play the piano haha but its pretty unusual if you can play the piano.  it was a fun night and Elder V and I had a good time together.

Saturday we were back in Alkmaar just me and Elder Cooper and we were exhausted from the back to back to back exchanges, but we somehow made it through and had a nice dinner appointment that night with the De B Family.  They are the older couple who are also very dutch, so we had a very dutch meal, Potatoes, sausage, Baked chicory with cheese, and some cold salad.  She has an organ in her home and played us a few songs, and thats when I realized that I really like the organ!  I want to play it more and more so I can get better.  It was weird that night.  I was sitting down on the couch, listening to her play the organ, and just looking at a painting of flat ground with windmills.  I felt home...  It was a weird feeling, but being out here for a year now all the unusual things are becoming more normal. 

Sunday was also really good.  There are 4 elders in the branch now.  We were asked to give a musical number before everybody bore their testimonies.  (In small branches 45 minutes is usually too much time for testimonies, so they like doing other things that help take up time)  But anyways, we sang Blijf bij mij or Abide with me.  I was on the piano, and the other three were singing.  Elder C and Elder P have great voices, but the greenie  has a terrible voice so we had him stand in the back hahaha.  it was really good though and the branch really liked it.  After that, we got back and contacted some people and then had a great dinner appointment with the other De B family.  (He is the son of the older couple).  They feed us soooo much and we laughed soooo hard.  They are my favorite family in the branch.  It was a great week.

Today we were in Amsterdam for Pday.  it was fun, but now we are just resting for our crazy week coming up this next week!  I love the mission right now, and I am having so much fun and making so many friends!  the weather is really nice too!  Hope you all have a great week as well.  I miss you and love you all!

Veel Liefjes,

Elder Bishop