Leaving Alkmaar with a Bang!

Hey everybody!!! I'm glad you all had a good week despite the sicknesses going around. You guys are ALWAYS sick!!! But it sounds like things still went well. So you already saw it from the title of this letter, but I am being transferred. I was super bummed at first. I do NOT want to leave Alkmaar yet. This is my favorite branch, and I have gained really close friends here. I also love serving with Elder Cooper. We've had a lot of fun together and saw a lot of success. No, we didn't see any baptisms, but we were able to help the zone a lot and also gain better relationships with less actives, inactives, and non members. I will explain throughout the email. But you all are probably DYING to find out where I am going, so I guess I will tell you... haha I will be going to Apeldoorn to be a Zone Leader with Elder Alston!! I am sad to be leaving Alkmaar, but I have been trying to focus on the positives, and I actually found quite a few.

1. Elder Alston is a great elder. We were in the MTC together for a little bit, (he is in the group right below me), and we got along really well.

2. Being a Zone Leader in Apeldoorn means that I will be going on exchanges in Hengelo and Enschede! That is my greenie area and I will get to see a lot of people who I haven't seen for about a year! The family I am most excited to see again is J and her family!!

3. I will be elder Toole's Zone Leader. I trained him and he is one of my best friends. It will be cool to go on exchanges with him.

4. I heard the Apeldoorn ward is great, and It will be the biggest ward I have served in during my mission so far. The biggest one I served in is here in Alkmaar and there are about 50 active members here. Apeldoorn has somewhere between 60-90 I heard.

So ya, I am very sad to leave Alkmaar, but I am going to a cool place with new things in store. But anyways. Let me start explaining why I am leaving Alkmaar with a bang!

Last Monday was FHE in Amsterdam and L finally came with us! She is the non member who we have been working with a lot. She came to FHE with her cousin who is a recent convert and she is coming again tonight!!! She is super cool. Her mom is an active member, and I am convinced that she will be baptized sometime this year.

Speaking of the M Family, we had a dinner appointment with them on Tuesday and, again, it was awesome. We had a good time, and after dinner, Sister M asked us if we wanted to play some games with her family. Normally we wouldn't, but her family is all non members, and it was a great way to strengthen our relationship with them so we went for it haha. We played charades in dutch which was a lot of fun and then the oldest son, brought out another game. He explained that it was a kids game, but all the 20 year old kids use it as a drinking game hahaha. Apparently it sold out of all the stores and it got so bad that they don't even sell it in the Netherlands anymore! It was actually a fun game, and I can see how it would be even more fun if you were drunk hahaha. They are a great family though and they can't wait to meet you guys when you pick me up :)

Wednesday was a busy day. We spent a lot of time planning for Zone Training. We met with the sister training leader in Haarlem and went over the whole zone training in detail. It was a long day of planning, but we got even more ideas and it was worth it. After that long day of planning we were able to have an awesome dinner appointment with the H Family. He is the branch president, and he is awesome. I have learned a lot about leadership from him. they invited an inactive, and we were able to get to know him a little bit better through that. We ate tacos (they don't taste the same here), and we all had a good time. They are a great family and one of my favorites on the mission.

Thursday we spent more time planning... Our theme for the zone training was "teach as Christ taught". We focused on five teaching points; 1. Ask good questions 2. Listen and teach with the Spirit 3. Use scriptures 4. Extend Commitments and 5. teach in unity. We thought it would be fun to tie that into kung fu and train them all to become "Dragon Warriors". It was kinda like Kung Fu Panda haha. Me, Elder Cooper, Sister Schwab (the sister training leader), and the two district leaders were the "furious five". We were planning on having rotations for most of the zone training working on those five teaching points. We cut out old sheets and made belts for everyone, and we made tokens that they would earn after each rotation. They would stick the tokens on their belts and once they got all five tokens then they could trade it in for a cool bookmark with a scripture on the back of it. It took us so long to make all the tokens and belts and bookmarks. We lamanated the tokens and bookmarks, but we were too cheap to buy a lamanator so we used an iron haha. It was kind of funny ironing all the bookmarks. We finally got everything ready by 11 that night.

Friday morning was zone training. We left early to set everything up in the Amsterdam church. We didn't have a lot of time to get ready and we left the house quick. Right after we left I got that feeling that we forgot something. I hate that feeling, and I always get it every time I leave the apartment, so I just pushed it aside. While sitting in traffic in Amsterdam Elder Cooper and I realized something... We forgot all the belts, tokens, and bookmarks!!! We were SO MAD!!! haha we had spent almost the whole day before making those stupid things and we didn't even bring them! WE realized that there was nothing we could do about it though, and we just went on through the zone training without them. Luckily, the zone training still went really well. it was on topic and the missionaries learned a lot! It was a big success, and we were happy, but we couldn't get the thought out of our heads that it could've been even better. We decided that we would give them all the belts and bookmarks at district meeting on tuesday though, so that will make it a little better. We got back to Alkmaar after zone training just in time for the branch talent show!!! We were asked to do something as Elders, and us four saw it as an opportunity to win the hearts of the branch. We decided that the best way to do that was simply by making fools out of ourselves haha. I played "A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton on the piano, and the other three performed. We all sang, and they had synchronized dance moves haha it was AWESOME!!! The branch almost died laughing. They all thought it was the coolest/funniest thing they had ever seen! We had to perform it two times since then because they honestly could not get enough of it! They all recorded it, and we got it recorded too. haha maybe I will have one of the members email it to you so you can see it. It was a great evening though, and the coolest part about it was that there were about 70 people there! about 20 of them were inactives/non members. It was a great activity for people to come into the church, see that we are normal people, and even make friends with some members. It was a HUGE success.

Saturday we were DEAD tired... We took it pretty easy and got our feet back under us. We did some more planning, this time for ourselves and our area. it was a nice day, and we finished it off by playing volleyball with the branch. L and her sister came too! This branch knows how to get inactives and non members involved. It works best through activities! It was awesome to have so many of them this past week and see a lot of new faces and investigators as well.

Sunday was also a great day to get our feet back under us. I always look forward to church here. This week I was able to do a piano solo in sacrament meeting too. I played "Come Follow Me" and the branch really enjoyed it. That evening we went to The De B Family to eat dinner. They feed us a ton every time, and we always love going over there. We have gotten a great relationship with them these past few months. That night was the night we got transfer calls as well. They were very sad to find out I was leaving. The mom explained to us how big of an impact we have had on their family. She said it was inspired that we came when we did, because their family needed it. I have had some of the most spiritual experiences over there, and it was nice to hear that it really did help them. They told us that they don't offer this to every missionary, but we are always welcome to stay with them if we ever come back. I told them that you were picking me up in December and they said we are more than welcome to stay there for as long as we need to. They are very excited to meet you guys as well! I can't wait for you to meet them too. the De B Family and the M Family are two of my favorite families out here. it was hard saying good by. AS we left their house brother de B said to me, "At least you left Alkmaar with a bang". He was referring back to the talent show haha.

So as you all just read, you can see why I am sad to leave Alkmaar, but I am also excited for the new people I will meet in Apeldoorn. I miss you all so much and hope you get feeling better this week! I also can't wait for dad to get my present this week. You are going to LOVE it! Wees veilig iedereen!

My goal is to become more Christlike and develop the attributes of Christ, specifically, loyalty and love.

24 Maart 2014

Hey everybody!  Sorry, I am not good at coming up with good titles for these emails, so I normally just put the date.  But I switched it up a little bit today and typed it in dutch haha still lame I know...  but that's not important!  I am glad to hear you all had a good week except for the fact that everybody is sick all the time!!  You guys need to stay healthy!  Usually mom is the one telling me this, but now I am telling you, Mom, eat your vegetables!  Drink plenty of liquids, and rest :)  Shout out to dad turning 48 this week!!!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!  I got a present for you that you will get next week that you will love :)  Also, props to kevin for going a weekend out with they guys looking for shed antlers and not complaining once!  I could never do that haha. 

Anyways,  I had another awesome week this week!  I learned a lot and made some more memories, and I hope that I was able to help others come closer to Christ.  Tuesday we were on exchanges again.  Some of the missionaries are still struggling as far as companionship unity goes, but I was able to have a good exchange. We had one of the weirdest appointments of my LIFE that day!  hahahaha it is seriously ridiculous!  We looked up this former investigator,  She was a nice older lady who let us in and talked to us.  At first she seemed really nice. She offered us some water and we got to know each other.  The tv was on silently in the background and she saw that they were talking about that missing plane from a few weeks ago.  She looked back at us and said very nonchalantly, "I know where the plane is."  I was surprised and asked her where it was.  She started explaining to me about "Lichtwerkers" or "Light Workers".  She told me that she was a light worker and had communication with the parallel universe or the Galactical Universe she called it.  She said that in the Galactical Universe, there are other people kind of like us, but a lot smarter.  They watch over us and help us by sending us certain warnings and signals.  She said the travel by Ufo's... hahahahaha I almost started laughing out loud when she told us that.  The other two elders are newer in the land, and they had a hard time following the conversation, but I had to try so hard not to laugh throughout the whole thing!    She then went on to explain that the aliens in the Galactical Universe abducted the airplane to show us their power.  She told us not to worry though, because everybody on the plane is safe and happy with the aliens in their universe now!!!  I seriously could not believe that a 60 year old dutch lady told me that an airplane was abducted by aliens!!  She was very nice throughout the whole lesson (if you can even call that a lesson) but at the end she told us that she didn't need books or anything to help her learn more, and she told us it would basically be a waste of time if we came back.  I agree, it would DEFINITELY be a waste of time to go back, unless you are into scifi.

Anyways haha we followed that lesson up with a nice dinner appointment.  They had a 16 year old son who was inactive, but really cool.  We talked with him a lot.  He loves basketball and asked us if we wanted to shoot some hoops with him afterwards.  We played some basketball in our missionary clothes on a playground court in the rain for about 30 minutes.  It was SO much fun!!  Afterwards we told him that he should bring his friends next time and they could play a pick-up game. It was a good exchange overall, I just hope they both were able to learn something from that lesson at the end.  Because it doesn't matter how hard you work, if you don't have unity with your companion, then you won't see success and you won't enjoy your mission.

Wednesday was a busy day with a lot of planning.  We found out a few weeks ago that the Amsterdam sisters were moving to a new apartment and we needed to help organize that.  They told us that the sisters need to be moved by May 1, so Elder Cooper and I were going to worry about that after our zone training in April.  We found out on Wednesday that we needed to help the sisters move by the end of that week!!!  We had to find a day and get missionaries there to help and coordinate everything with the ward mission leader so that he could bring some members to help that day as well.  Luckily, it went very smoothly and the sisters are now moved, but man talk about short notice! haha.  That night we had a dinner appointment with J, his wife, and the branch president and his wife.  J is the nonmember who got married to a Ukrainian member.  He has been coming to church every week for the past couple months with his wife.  He isn't very open, yet.  haha but it was really good because he got a really good relationship with the branch president.  Our branch president,  is an awesome guy, and they were friends off the bat.  We ate some very healthy Ukrainian food and had a good dinner together.  J's progression is very slow, but he is definitely making steps, and he loves church, so it's only a matter of time!!

Thursday we had a lunch appointment with an older couple in the branch.  She is from Suriname which is a dutch colony in South America.  She made us a surinames meal, pindasoep (peanut soup).  It was very different, but VERY good!  she gave me the recipe, and it calls for one jar of peanutbutter!  you know how much I like peanutbutter haha.  It was definitely a weird combination, but it was really good.  I will makie some for you guys when I get back.  We got back from the appointment and saw a paper on our fax machine.  It was a mormon.org referral!  Looks like those few days of handing all those mormon.org cards out wasn't a waste of time!  We haven't got contact with her yet, but apparently she wants a Book of Mormon and a missionary visit!  Hopefully we can get in contact with her this week.  We had an appointment with the V R family.  she cooked us some dinner and we played the piano a little bit.  She then showed us a mormon message with her son who isn't a member.  it was a good one and she absolutely loves it!  She is a nice lady.  I think she has given me at least 6 different piano books haha not pieces, books!  I don't know what to do with all of them!!  After our dinner appointment we had another appointment with P.  it was a great lesson.   We talked a lot about prayer, and not just praying to God, but consulting with Him.  It was a very spiritual lesson.  We committed him to read and study Enos and continue to pray about baptism.  He is so ready!!!  I hope he finds his answer soon.

Friday was mission leader council at the mission home.  It was a good council and I learned a lot, as usual.  Sister Robinson Always gives the best talks!  She gave a great talk about mercy, and you will see later on in the email that grace and mercy came up a lot this week.  I guess the Lord needed me to learn more about that this week.  Maybe I am merciless or something I don't know haha.  But It was a good council, and that evening we had a sweet dinner appointment with one of my favorite families, the M's.  I have mentioned them quite a bit in these last few emails, but they are SO cool!  We have become good friends and go over on a weekly basis now.  The mom is the only member, but the middle child, is continually showing more interest.  We had a good appointment with them and invited them to volleyball the next night.  Instead of churchball, they have church volleyball here haha.  They said they would come though!

Saturday was a long day.  We had to write a report on all the missionaries in the zone.  We send it to the assistants and president to help them with transfers.  We call this report, "The Beast" and that's exactly what it is...  It takes FOREVER!!!  but we finally finished and then went to our dinner appointment and then volleyball.  Volleyball was so much fun!  Sister M was there with her husband and two of the three kids!  haha L is so unathletic though!  She reminded me of Meleese at times hahaha ;)  She had fun though and she is going to FHE tonight in Amsterdam with us!  She is starting to make a lot of progress! 

Sunday was an awesome church service!  The whole day we learned about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and how we receive mercy through the Atonement.  I received a lot of personal revelation that day.  The things I learned that day confirmed to me that my mission goal I came up with in Brugge was inspired!  My mission goal is pretty simple.  My goal is to become more Christlike and develop the attributes of Christ, specifically, loyalty and love.  Those are the two biggest attributes that define me as a person.  The scripture this goal is based off of is Moroni 10:32-33.  It talks a lot about Grace and becoming "Perfected in Christ".  I studied it more today and read a fantastic talk given by Brad Wilcox in a byu devotional titled "His grace is sufficient".  I would encourage you to read that.  It honestly changed my outlook on the Atonement and life in general.  I wish I had more time to explain it, but I will share a few of the things I learned.  The first thing is that we are all saved by grace.  That is possible because of the Atonement.  So if we are all saved by grace then why do we need to keep the commandments and follow Christ?  For a long time I thought that I kept the commandments and followed Christ to do my part, and then He would cover my mistakes and the things I didn't do through His grace.  In 2 Nephi 25:23 it says that we are saved by grace after all we can do.  So what is all we can do? and when does grace kick in?  The answer is, Christ's grace is sufficient for all.  He paid the full price.  His grace is Always there!  We don't keep the commandments and follow Him to "do our part" or, "pay Him back".  We can't do that even to the smallest degree!  The reason we follow Christ is because we love Him.  We try to become like him.  We all know that we are saved by grace, but the real question is, "Are we CHANGED by grace?" As we follow Christ and keep His commandments because we love Him, then we will become more like him.  The whole purpose of this life is to transform; to change by grace so that we can become perfected in Christ.  "If we deny ourselves of all ungodliness and love God with all our might, mind, and strength, then is his grace sufficient, and by His grace we will be perfect in Christ.  I am sorry if that is a little confusing.  I don't have a lot of time and it is hard to explain, but I want you all to know that I have a powerful testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  Thanks to Him we can change.  We can become like Him.  First, we must know Him, and then we must follow Him.  I know that if we get to know him through the scriptures and prayer, and if we follow Him and keep His commandments, then we will have a better understanding of how much He really loves us.  His grace is sufficient for ALL of us, no matter what we have done.  We can change and strive to become like Him.  That is the message of hope in this life, and I am so grateful to be able to share that message with others who need that hope so badly in their lives.  Not only is this my mission goal, but this is my life goal, and I hope you all have that same goal in the name of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Ik hou van jullie allemaal en ik wens je een fijne week.  blijf gezond en blijf gelukkig.  En die gene die ziek zijn, beterschap!!  Ik bid voor je elke dag!

Veel Lief,

Elder Bishop

That is one thing that I did not expect on a mission, is how many friends you make out here!!

Hey everybody!  thanks for the emails (except for ross, he forgot this week haha)  but it sounds like you had a lot of fun at the Rugby tournament!!  I wish I could've seen that soooo bad!  I'm not sad that I missed out on the seafood buffet though.  I eat it quite a bit here and it's not as bad, but I definitely don't look forward to eating it still.  Anyways,  This week was another great one!  Tuesday we were on exchanges with Leiden.  I went with Elder K again and we had a great time.  We talked more about sports, but realized that we are way behind and don't know anything anymore.  I can't even name one starter for the Jazz right now haha but I can tell you that Ajax is in first place in the dutch soccer league (obviously).  They are like the miami heat of the Netherlands.  But FC Twente which is in Enschede where I first served is in second place!  Club Brugge is also in second place in the belgian league.  Neither of the leagues are all that great, but their national teams are both awesome this year!  I don't know who to cheer for in the world cup this summer!  I guess it depends where I will be serving this summer, because if I was cheering for Belgium in Holland, I would probably die!  Sorry I got off on that tangent, but back to Elder K, we taught another lesson to brother De V.  He is the inactive who wants to come back to church.  We had another good lesson.  We had given him a Liahona last appointment and he told us that he read through some of the talks and really liked them.  I found out a lot about him this lesson.  I found out that we have the same favorite Book of Mormon Prophet, Nephi, and so I switched up our spiritual thought and shared a few scriptures about Nephi and what kind of man he was.  He really liked it.  He is still planning on going to the talent show and we are so excited for the branch to see him because they will do SO good at fellowshipping him.  We are also excited about the talent show because us four missionaries are going to perform!  I will be on the piano, and the other three will be singing 1000 miles by vanessa carlton hahaha its gonna be like the clip off the movie white chicks.  We hope that we can make the branch laugh :).  Elder K and I had a great exchange though.  We became good friends and sealed our friendship with a nice mountain dew and pillow talk that night.   That is one thing that I did not expect on a mission, is how many friends you make out here!! 

Wednesday we spent some more time preparing our segments that we are giving at zone training.  This zone training we will be doing so many role plays!  We have 1 1/2 hours set aside to practice 5 different role plays that will be lead by me, Elder Cooper, Sister S (the sister training leader) and the two district leaders.  I will also be talking about the word and the power of the Gospel based off of David M McConkie's talk in the last GC and I will be talking about Observing and Obtaining, basically two different ways to learn.  I am very excited and I hope that they will all learn something from it.  That night we had an appointment clear out in Wervershoof with a part member couple.  The lady is a convert who is from Ukraine, and the man is a really nice Dutch man.  They met online and got married and are now living here in Holland.  The lady is a great member, and even though there is still a big language barrier, she comes to church every week.  Her husband drives her (40 min) to church and sits in through sacrament.  He feels very welcomed by the branch and in his own words, he feels "like one of the members".  We are going to slowly work with him and help him actually become a member!!!  We got a really good relationship with them and got a dinner appointment with them for next week, and the branch president and his wife will be there too!  it's gonna be awesome.

Thursday was a pretty crazy day.  We accidentally booked two appointments at the same time, and they were our two most important appointments too!   We didn't want to cancel one, so we asked the Den Helder Elders to help us.  We came up with this big plan on who is going where and when and where we would be meeting up.  We only had one phone that night though because one of the Elders took the companionship phone to another city on exchanges.  I was with the Hoorn elders , and elder Cooper was with one of the Den Helder Elders.  After our appointment we went to the station to meet up, but Elder Cooper and the Den Helder Elder wasn't there.  We looked forever at different train stations, and we couldn't call them because they didn't have a phone.  We finally got a call from the other two Den Helder Elders (there are 3 missionaries in Den Helder), and Elder Cooper was up in Den Helder.  Haha they were waiting at a different train station for a long time then finally just took a train to Den Helder.  It was just a big misunderstanding that led to us driving around looking for two missionaries at 10:30  at night.  The funny thing is, is that one appointment didn't even go through, so we basically went through all that trouble for nothing!!  It was a good memory though, and that's pretty much how a mission goes haha it can be very hectic at times.  The appointment with the M's went awesome though!  our relationship is continuing to grow, and now we are working on starting to teach them, especially the middle child. We asked her to go to FHE in Amsterdam tonight, but she has a big presentation she has to give in school tomorrow.  She said next week for sure though, so we are very excited for that!!  They are seriously one of my favorite families that I have met on the mission. 

Friday we were on another exchange with the Amsterdam Elders.  I was in Amsterdam with Elder L  He is a farmer from northern Arizona, and he also played football in highschool and they ran the option too, so we talked a lot about that.  ahaha it was good reminiscing about high school days.  We also had a great day though.  We taught C.  She is a recent convert who I gave the baptismal interview too.  She is doing soooo good right now and has given three referrals to the elders there.  They are teaching 2 of her nieces right now.  We taught them when we were at C's.  She is going to be a strong member and bring many to the Gospel.  It was nice to go over there and teach her and her nieces.  We also had a spiritual lesson with a less active guy.  We taught him the importance of keeping the commandments.  We had a good talk with him and then shared Mosiah 2;41.  The Spirit was SO strong after we read that with him.  It was a great short lesson that was lead by the Spirit.

Saturday we met with the sister training leader and talked a little bit more about zone training and getting everything planned for that and then we went to a members house to help her with her yard.  She has MS and has a hard time getting around.  She LOVES doing yard work but she has a hard time doing it.  We went over and helped her a lot (I realized how much I miss working in the yard with dad).  She made us Chicken Enchilladas for dinner, and they were legit.  This member grew up in California her whole life and she is an awesome cook.  It was the first REAL mexican food that I have eaten in over a year!

Sunday was a great service.  There were a lot of people and good talks as well.  Afterwards was an activity for the youth and young single adults from Den Helder, Alkmaar, and Haarlem.  There were about 20 people there, and L came as well!  We had a lot of fun with all of them and ate some lekker bratwursts.  That night we had a dinner appointment with one of my other favorite families on my mission, The De B's.  We ate even more over there and had a great time.  We are trying to get R to go to EFY this summer.  he always says, "Ik zou lekker in bed blijven liggen" or, "I would rather lay in bed." haha we will get him to go :)  It was a great evening to finish off the week.  Elder Cooper and I are in love with this branch.  There are SUCH good people here!  Transfers are coming up in a couple of weeks, but I hope that I stay in Alkmaar.  I would serve six months here, but I would love that!  I could serve here even longer than that.  We both have a feeling that I will be leaving though...  I guess it is the Lord's will, and I will be happy wherever I go.

Today we had our zone pday!  We organized one to help create more unity in the zone, and that's exactly what it did.  We went to the beach just north of Haarlem, and there is this cool bunker museum there!  There are a ton of bunkers from WW2 right on the shore.  It was fun to run around in there.  It turned all that history into real life for me, and it was cool to see.  After that we ate sandwhiches and played some football on the beach.  Don't worry guys, I still got it in me ;)  haha no but we all had a good time, and everybody LOVED it!  It was a huge success.  This week is another busy week, but I am excited to see what it has in store for me.  I love you all so much!  Nog een fijne week verder!
Veel Lief,

Elder Bishop

It is so cool to see somebody develop faith in Jesus Christ and gain a relationship with Him.

Hey everybody!  It was good to hear from you all and know that everything is going well.  I am so glad to hear that Rugby is off to a great start!  I love the new jerseys and can't wait to see how you guys do this season!  It sounds like mom was busy with Relief Society and Dad was busy with work and Rugby.  meleese is just buying her preggo pants and the kids are working hard in school.  What more could an Elder ask for?!  haha this week was another great week in the cheese city.  The weather is incredibly warm for this time of year in this part of the world, and everybody is outside and happy because of it.  It seriously feels like a whole different city now!  it turned from an old grey dutch city with old grey people and grey hair to a Sunny, green city with flowers everywhere, kids playing outside and markets on the old Streets as the church bells ring.  We also had a great week of appointments this week! 

Monday was our P-day and we went to the Rijksmuseum.  I think I already mentioned that last week, but it was awesome!  We got back and had an appointment with Sister V.R. and her son.  Sister V.R. is the one with a crowded house and 9 cats running around everywhere.  She is a recent convert of a couple of years, but she isn't very active.  She is a little different and doesn't have the best relationship with the members because she is a little different.  But I actually get along really well with her, because she LOVES the piano and loves making songs.  Her son  is our age and addicted to video games.  I can't have a normal conversation with him because the only thing he knows is video games, and not the ones I like, namely madden and FIFA.  But luckily, Elder Cooper likes video games too, so they have a good time together and I play the piano with sister V.R.  It is a great combo actually, and it has helped them out a lot.  Sister V.R. has been coming to church about every week for the past month and she usually just comes once in a month.  M isn't a member, but we had a good discussion with him last week, and he really respects our church a lot.  It was a great appointment.  I learned a few new things on the piano, our relationship grew, and they both felt the Spirit.  I would say it was a big success.

Tuesday was the beginning of our long week of exchanges.  We have a few missionaries who are really struggling in the zone.  We went on exchanges with these missionaries this week to try to help them out.  On tuesday, I was with an elder who struggles with obedience, and he is very stubborn, and that makes it hard for his companion because he is a white handbook missionary to the tee, and he is also very stubborn.  I brought him here and mainly just tried to teach him through example.  I was obedient, but we still made sure to have fun while being obedient, because for some reason missionaries don't think you can use "fun" and "obedient" in the same sentance.  We had a KILLER day though!  We came back from district meeting and had an appointment with C.  he is the guys whose shell we cracked last week and now we are good friends.  He just goes off when you ask him a question.  He doesn't stop talking!  I think he is just lonely.  he doesn't have anybody to talk to, but we had a great chat with him.  We shared a strong spiritual thought about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and the importance of the Sacrament.  He understands it all and believes it all.  He is set on coming back to church soon, and he told us that once he does, he knows about 10 others who would come back with him!  what the heck?!  haha that would be awesome if we helped reactivate 11 members!  he is a great guy though and we invited him to come to this talent showat the end of march that the branch is doing.  I will be accompanying this lady on the piano as she sings ABBA.  haha its gonna get wild! ;)  His face lit up as we invited him and he told us that he will be there for sure.  Activities are great like that to get inactives back in the church and talking to members again.  I wrote that last sentance specifically for the new ward missionaries Meleese and Kevin hahaha.  After that, we had a dinner appointment with one of my favorite families out here, the M Family!  She is the only member, her husband is the tulip farmer, and they have 3 kids, all around my age.  They may not all be members, but I give them props because I NEVER see a family in the Netherlands with teenage kids who sit around the dinner table together at night, member or nonmember families.  The middle daughter,  has the most potential to become a member at this point.  We were talking to her and the mom after dinner and we got on the topic of Institute.  She said that she went once, but didn't really like it because she felt out of place and they talked about church a lot.  I told her that Elder Cooper and I could go with her and we wouldn't talk about church once.  She said that she would love that!  We will invite her to come to institute with us next week!  We are very excited about that, because once she gets a better relationship with the members her age, then I think she will be a lot more positive.  The whole family is also going to the talent show at the end of the month!!!  We are very happy for the progress that they are making.  I hope that the Elder learned a lot, because we were obedient, but we still had a lot of fun that day and saw success.

Wednesday we were on another exchange, and I was with an Elder who struggles a lot socially.   It's sad, but he is still a good kid, and we had a great time.  We were out walking around and talking to each other and talking to other people while looking other people out.  It was a great way to do missionary work, but still be able to talk to him and become his friend.  He is actually a really cool kid.  We like the same type of music and he played the bass guitar in a band before his mission! haha we had a good time together.  We got to enjoy the beautiful scenary as we drove from Alkmaar to Hoorn that evening for a dinner appointment.  It was with one of my other favorite families here, the  H. Family!  he is the branch president and the wife's parents are american, so we ate american food, tacos!  haha ok so maybe they aren't "american" but you know what I mean :)  The Elder was also very quiet with them, but I could tell that he enjoyed it.  We stayed the night in Hoorn with elder P and elder S that night, and for all you who served a mission, you know how much fun 4 mans can be haha, we had a lot of fun that night, and the Elder I was with loosened up a lot.  That was exactly what he needed.  

The next day we exchanged back and Elder Cooper and I spent a lot of time planning.  We are going to have a zone pday next week that we needed to plan for and then we have a zone training that we will be giving at the end of this month.  We also did our weekly planning and got everything situated for the rest of the week and this upcoming week.  That night we had a lesson with Pl!  We followed up with praying about baptism and he said that he hasn't got an answer yet, but he is still praying.  We asked him what he expected for an answer and read from D&C 9 with him.  we all shared different experiences of when we felt the Spirit and how we felt the Spirit.  They were all different, but all powerful.  He told us about his experiences that brought him to realize that God exists.  He has come such a long ways, and it is so cool to see somebody develop faith in Jesus Christ and gain a relationship with Him.  That is probably my favorite thing to be a part of as a missionary, and that has happened with P.  it was a great lesson and very very spiritual, like always with him.

Friday, I was on an exchange with Elder J in Amsterdam.  He has been out 6 months and is doing a great job.  We hit it off right off the bat too.  he was a percussionist before his missionl, and he loved playing the vibes, marimba, and xylo!  i think he is the only other missionary in this mission who knows what a vibraphone is too!  haha We talked about that a lot, but we also had some great lessons.  We taught this lady from Sri Lanka named Ki.  She has a CRAZY story!  her Husband has been sick for a long time and has been living in Amsterdam because of his sickness.  He joined the church here and has been a member for over 10 years now.  They couldn't afford for the whole family to go to Amsterdam though, so he came by himself and she stayed back home with her three kids.  They only saw each other once in the 22 years that they were separated!!!!!!!!  Only once!  they kept in touch via email and Skype, but they only saw each other once in 22 years!  Talk about loyalty and commitment.  She was finally able to come over here to be with him and she has been here for 2 months now.  Her husband introduced her to the church and she has a baptismal date for march 30.  She is really excited to be baptized as well!  We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and she loved it and understood it really well.  it was a cool lesson, and I am grateful that I was able to meet K.  She is a GOOD woman.

Saturday we exchanged back and immidiately went to a workshop that our branch was doing for mormon.org.  We got 2 new branch missionaries called in this branch who are focusing on the work digitally.  We are still helping the branch create mormon.org profiles.  They have a facebook page created for the church here in Holland already, and we are well on our way to reach this country with what they use most, the internet.  We had the workshop to help members create the profiles right then and there and answer any questions they had.  it was a success.  We have already gotten 5 positive referrals for this zone these past 3 weeks, and we are expecting a lot more as this stake mission plan really gets rolling.  After the workshop we went to the De B's  Family's house.  We have a great relationship with the 13 year old son and he invited us to his birthday party! hahaha it was a lot of fun.  We ate junk food for dinner and then played games that evening. 

Sunday was another great day at church.  We are really starting to see the fruits of our labors with the members.  We have been working so hard to get a good relationship with them, and this week we scored 8 dinner appointments!!!  (two on Wednesday) haha.  Normally you are Lucky to get 4 a week here in Alkmaar,  but we LOVE this branch and they love us back.  It is really cool to see.  We were able to stand in when R
got set apart to the office of a teacher.  He had tears coming down his eyes again.  He is an emotional kid, but his mom came up to us afterwards and thanked us for everything we have done for him.  She said that us 4 are perfect for him, and we have had a HUGE influence on him these past few months.  This is definitely my favorite branch that I have served in.  I look forward to seeing all of them at church every week.  After church we did some more planning since we haven't been together a whole lot this past week and the zone training is sneeking up on us.  Yikes!  We are excited for it though. 

That brings this week to a close though.  I wish I had more time to tell you more about the lessons I learned this week, but I have to get going.  I love you all so much and wish you the best with everything you do this week.  With work, callings, school, and rugby :)  haha love you guys!!!

Elder Bishop

Pannenkoeken with peanutbutter and hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles)











Elder Bishop and Elder Cooper

This week was filled with a lot of miracles and a lot of learning experiences.

Hey everybody!  First off, I am very surprised that neither dad or Ross mentioned anything about shed hunting!  THANK YOU!!!  haha It sounds like you all had a great week, except for Meleese, that just stinks.  I had another awesome week though. Tuesday, I was on exchanges with Elder E in Amsterdam.  We looked some people up and got some appointments scheduled for them, and then later that night, we had a correlation meeting with all 8 of the missionaries in Amsterdam and their ward mission leader.  We are focussing a lot on the stake plan and having everybody create a Mormon.org profile.  They were talking a lot about ideas and after time got some things figured out.  It was a good correlation meeting even though some of the missionaries were really young and didn't seem to understand how much the ward mission leader put in to make this all happen, and they were very impatient at times when they found out that some things were taking longer than wanted haha.  I talked to the ward mission leader after and told him how good he was doing.  He really appreciated it.  Afterwards, I told the missionaries that he was doing a great job and reminded them to make sure they let him know that.  I have learned a lot about working with ward leaders and getting on the same page, and it is SOOOO important to be their friend and all have the same goal, and thank them for everything they do to help.  As you do that, then they will want to help even more, and you will build each other up.  It doesn't work if you try to motivate them through intimidation or force, only through love and appreciation.  I don't understand why so many people don't get that simple principle!!!  haha anyways, it was still a great meeting.  Elder E and I had a great time that night.  We have become great friends and I have been able to give him a lot of advice for the rest of his mission.

Wednesday was a pretty slow day to be honest.  Elder Cooper and I were sooo tired from our crazy Pday, if you could even call last Monday a Pday, and then the exchange after that.  But we had time to do some work so we built up the energy to get out and talk to people.  We didn't see a whole lot of success, but no efforts are wasted right?!  It was an opportunity to show Heavenly Father that we are willing and have desires to find new people, and we are confident that as we continue to show that desire, we will be blessed with people to teach. 

Thursday was an awesome day!  We went on exchanges with the Assistants, and I was with Elder L in Alkmaar.  he is a great missionary and we saw a lot of success.  Elder L served in Alkmaar for 6 months, so he knows a lot of people and former investigators.  We took about an hour to go through the area book and got a lot of names of people who he used to teach.  We spent a lot of time looking them up and we got a couple of appointments set up!  He told me that the people we looked up who weren't home were very positive, and he told me that if we want to teach more lessons, then look these people up!  I am convinced that that was a blessing from God.  Like I said, we have desires and we show those desires through our works, and the Lord blessed us in an indirect way.  I have seen that over and over again and have a testimony now, that God answers us as we show that we have that "real intent".  A lot of times, it comes through different sources rather than how we think it would come too. 

The coolest part of our exchange though, was our lesson with P.  Elder L was the first missionary to start teaching Him when he was back in Alkmaar.  They hit it off and are great friends, and Elder L and I were able to teach him that night!  The lesson went great.  We based it off of 3 Nephi 27, and talked about baptism, and then moved into Mosiah 18 and talked about the baptismal covenant.  The Spirit was SO strong and he has the desire to be baptized!  He still has a few questions though, and said that he would pray about it this week.  We are praying for him too.  Elder L was so happy after the lesson.  He told me that he is convinced that this investigator is the reason that he got called to this mission.  It was a great lesson to be a part of.  We celebrated afterwords by getting some KFC haha.

Friday Elder Cooper and I were back together.  We spent some time looking some people up and got let in to this inactive guy's house.  His name is C.  He is SOOO Dutch! haha The typical Dutch person is like a turtle.  They have a big shell around them, and come off very rude at first, but once you see passed the shell, they are a bunch of softies :)  We talked to him for a little at first and he was really mad at us and told us it's annoying when people show up to his house unexpected.  The trick to get past a Dutch person's shell is through compliments.  We gave him a few and he opened right up.  He is a great guy and has a testimony.  He prays every night.  The reason he doesn't come to church is because he thinks the people there don't like him, and he doesn't like a lot of them.  Dutch people are so stubborn sometimes!  haha He told us that he will go back to church though, sooner or later(hopefully sooner).  We are going to be meeting with him on a weekly basis now :).  That night we had a great dinner appointment with the D family.  We ate the typical Dutch meal during the winter time, Stampot and worst.  They are an older couple, and they are a little different, but they are great people and we have a great relationship with them.

Saturday we were in Haarlem in a meeting with the sister training leader in the zone.  She is over all the sisters in the zone, all three of them haha.  but we talked about her vision for the transfer with the sisters and how we can help her with that.  We also talked about our zone training that we will be giving in a few weeks.  It is gonna be about teaching as Christ taught, and we will focus a lot on teaching skills and do a lot of role plays.  We hope that it will be a good training and that all the missionaries will become better teachers because of it.  After that, we stopped by the church so I could run though the hymns we would be singing in sacrament meeting.  The organist has been sick these past couple weeks, so they asked me to play.  We also had some time to talk to people on saturday.  It was the market in the centrum so there were a ton of people out.  We talked to quite a few people and got rejected hard core haha.  This would be a typical conversation we had on Saturday... "Hey excuse me sir, we are sharing these cards (mormon.org cards) with people today..." and they would interrupt and say, "Good luck with that!" haha all we could do is just laugh it off, buy a fresh stroopwafel, and sit on a bench and enjoy the beautiful city.

Sunday was another great day.  It was fast Sunday, and I gained a stronger testimony of feeling the influence of the Spirit more abundantly as you fast.  It was a very Spiritual day.  We had great lessons in church and then we had a killer testimony meeting.  it was one of those testimony meetings when you feel like the branch grew closer together by the end of it.  I got up and bore my testimony about my time in Alkmaar and thanked them for helping me with everything.  After the closing hymn.  Brother and Sister De B came up to me and thanked me for my testimony.  They told me that it really touched their youngest son, who is 14, and he was crying afterwards.  It has been cool to help him and become his friend, since he is the only young man in the branch. 

This week was filled with a lot of miracles and a lot of learning experiences.  I wish I could tell you all of them and explain them better, but I am out of time!  Ik heb jullie ZO veel lief en ik wens u en fijne week met veel geluk!  tot de volgende week!

Veel Leifjes,

Elder Bishop