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