I promise that if we believe in something and then we work for it, then that belief turns into faith, and with faith, anything is possible!

Elder Bishop and Elder Bourne

Hello!!  sounds like everything is going great back home and the kids are excited to be out of school.  I can't believe they are already done!!!!  CRAZY!  quick shoutout to Ross. His ceramic pot looked incredible!!  nice job man.  Meleese is super pregnant but still healthy so that's always good to hear, and dad cleaned all 500 shed antlers out of the garage this week!  That's what I call productive.  Speaking about dad, and before I forget, I have a question to ask you.  So they are going to be making a few changes to PMG pretty soon and they are going to be focusing more on families and family history.  I noticed in the last general conference how president Eyring shared a story from his family history, and I would love to read some stories about my ancestors.  I know that dad has a lot of stuff back home and I don't know if mom does or not, but I would love some cool stories to read at night to learn more about my ancestors.  They are really motivating stories, and it would be cool to share some with people here.  So could you please send me some stuff?  Thank you!!!  Anyways, I will get started with the great week I had in Apeldoorn.

Monday was a nice pday.  We played basketball with the Apeldoorn missionaries and went to family home evening.  It was nice to get out and run around.  Tuesday was our Zone Conference in Apeldoorn.  our zone and the Amsterdam zone met together and President and Sister Robinson and the assistants gave a great conference.  The theme was raising our expectations.  We read a lot in Jacob chapter 5 and I learned a lot about my purpose of being here on Earth at this time to preach the Gospel.  it was a good training, and that night we worked hard trying to get some things going in Apeldoorn.

Wednesday I was on exchanges with Elder Bean in Hengelo.  He is knew to the area.  He did what we call whitewashing, where the two elders leave and area and two new ones come.  He whitewashed Hengelo with Elder Goates!  I trained Elder Goates back in Brugge, so I am excited to be with him again.  He is a great missionary, and so is Elder Bean.  We got along right off the bat.  he is from Southern California and is really good at basketball.  he is planning on playing at BYU when he gets back.  We had a good day and I showed him around a little bit and brought him to some former investigators' houses who I taught a year ago when I was there.  I took him to this lady's house.  Her name is M and she was really cool, but then she just fell off the face of the Earth.  We knocked on her door and she answered and remembered me!  I asked her how things are going and what was new and she had a baby since I was gone!  That's when you know you've been on your mission for a while...  She was really positive though and told us that she is always trapped at home with the baby now and said we could come whenever.  Haha I may have added the "trapped at home" part, but I just wanted to scare Meleese a little bit.  Hopefully that will be someone to help the Elders get stuff going in Hengelo.  It was a great exchange though and I think Elder Bean enjoyed it as well.

Thursday we were on exchanges again.  I was with Elder Bitters this time in Apeldoorn.  He is also a great elder and we are good friends.  We had a busy day with appointments! FINALLY!  We taught a dutch student.  He is searching for direction in his life and thinks he can find it through religion.  We had a good talk with him and he brought up the concern that he wants to believe but he doesn't know how.  We read Alma 32 with him and explained to him that he needs to plant that seed of faith or the Book of Mormon, and he needs to nourish it.  He needs to read about it and pray about it and come to church.  He will feel good about it all and then the seed of faith will grow.  He is willing to try, and this week we are gonna teach a killer plan of salvation lesson.  I think he will really like it, so I am excited for that.  We also taught our other  investigator.  he has a hard time understanding.  He is the kind of investigator who says he believes in the Book of Mormon and I asked if he has read from it at all and he says he hasn't.  He is kind of oblivious, but still positive and he knows a LOT of people and has people over at his house all the time.  So we are still working with him and hoping to get some referrals from it as well.  it was a great day of missionary work and it is continually progressing. 

Friday we took advantage of our car and drove around outside of Apeldoorn to look up some formers and less actives and referrals.  We drove to Deventer and Zutphen.  They are both really pretty and really old cities.  We didn't have a lot of success though.  Nobody is ever home!  We did get a hold of the referral over the phone though and he said we could come back next week.  That night we had a dinner appointment with the Deventer Elders at the V's home (He is the guy who is really smart and looks like his dog).  We got there and they were wondering what we were doing there.  They totally forgot about our dinner appointment!!!  Haha they felt really bad and we told them it was no problem, but they insisted that we stayed and they went and bought us take out.  it was a good night still and Elder Lee and Elder Tjong Ayong are sooo funny! 

Saturday was also a busy day.  We had a first lesson with this lady from Peru.  She is so prepared!!!  As we got to know her she told us that she has lived here for 6 years, but she had the feeling to get married and have a nice family.  She married a Dutch man who isn't religious, but he supports her and she told us he will come around soon.  She has a 5 year old daughter who is really sweet.  She told us she was raised catholic, but Catholicism in Europe is a lot different than Catholicism in South America.  She didn't like that and stopped going.  She said she is searching for the truth, and she will know through the feelings she gets.  She said if she feels good about it, then she will join.  And to make it even better, she lives less than a five minute walk from the church!!!  We were surprised and excited at the same time.  The only thing holding her back is she says that she is really busy and that's not really her top priority right now, but we managed to get a return appointment and committed her to read from the Book of Mormon and pay attention to her feelings.  it was a great lesson, and she is a positive new investigator.  We got a new Senior Couple in the mission to be over the YSA center in Deventer!  We have been waiting forever... but they got here on Saturday and we met them at the Apeldoorn church right after our lesson.  Their names are Elder and Sister Kleijn from Ogden Utah.  He was born in Amsterdam though and moved to America when his parents joined the church.  he only 8 when he moved, but he served a mission here too and so his Dutch isn't too bad.  We drove them to their new house in Deventer and helped them unload.  They took us out to lunch and we showed them around.  it was fun and they are really nice people!

Sunday was a cool day.  We started off at church of course, but after that we had an open schedule of finding and look ups.  Sundays are always the hardest days for me to do missionary work.  They are so different out here!  Back home I would come home from church and eat a nice big meal with my family then watch some football with Ross and take a nap and then wake up and eat more food!  Haha it was so relaxing and nice and I miss that.  That's why it's hard for me to get out and do missionary work when I am already exhausted from the whole week, and it's even harder when we are getting doors slammed in our face for hours straight.  it was a pretty trying 4 hours, and Elder Bourne and I had to keep each other up.  We got back for dinner and made a nice spaghetti meal then back out for the night.  We were on the bikes and looking some people up.  One of the guys we looked up lived in a very Muslim neighborhood.  He lived in an apartment complex where all the doorbells are at the bottom outside of a locked door and then the person lets you up.  When the guy didn't answer we rang a few more bells who weren't Muslim (You can usually tell by their name for example, B. Ali).  We found a name that looked Spanish and rang it of course, number 62.  We told the lady about the Book of Mormon and she let us up.  We went to number 62 and knocked on the door, but nobody was there.  We knocked again and nobody came to the door, so we went back down to the doorbells and rang it again.  She answered again and said she would let us in.  We went back up to 62 and the same thing happened!  We were so confused!  We went back down and rang her bell for the third time.  This time she came down herself.  We were all confused, but then she told us she lived in 52, not 62.  WE RANG NUMBER 62!!!! I am 100% positive, and I have no idea why the lady from number 52 answered.  She was Muslim, but didn't practice.  She was really interested in the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ and she wanted us to start teaching her!  She gave us her address and told us to come over whenever.  It was a cool miracle.  I don't know why or how number 52 answered when we rang 62, but I believe that this lady needs to hear the Gospel and is ready to hear it!  I learned yet again why it's important to endure to the end. 

Today was pday and we played soccer as a zone!  We invited a less active member who plays for a club here in Apeldoorn.  He was SO excited and he killed it haha.  it was a great zone pday and my soccer skills are improving.  Nederland and België WC 2014!!!! 

it was a great week with a lot of success.  It is nice doing exchanges more so we always have somebody in our city.


I promise that if we believe in something and then we work for it, then that belief turns into faith, and with faith, anything is possible!  Kevin Garnett said it best after winning the NBA Finals for the first time in his career with the Celtics, "ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!!!!!!!!"  Look it up on YouTube if you want.  Haha I love you all so much and I hope you have another great week.

Veel Lief,
Elder Bishop

Voetbal

Elder Bourne biking into Heaven

Don't listen to those who say that Europe doesn't baptize, because The Belgium/Netherlands is a baptizing mission!

17 months ago today we said good bye at the MTC! 

Hey everybody!  Sounds like you had a great week full of service, and were very fulfilled from it.  That sounds like a week of a good missionary!  I'm glad you all had those opportunities to serve, and I'm glad you all had fun.  I can't believe this is the last week of school for Ross and Lainey!  Summer is coming fast.  It's coming really fast here too!  Last week was pretty overcast and rainy until Saturday.  And now the weather is incredible here!  There is a whole different vibe in this country and people are outside, and happy.  That makes missionary work a LOT easier and more effective.  So thanks to the weather and a great new companion, this week was really good!

 

Monday was bowling as a district.  The first time must have been a fluke because I lost the second time...  haha it was still fun though.  We went to family home evening that night and had a good time.  It is a great way to build up a relationship with the YSA in Apeldoorn, and they feed us grilled cheese so that is also a plus.  Tuesday was pretty busy being the last day before transfers.  We had our district meeting in Hengelo and got subway as a district afterwards.  Subway is SOOO expensive here!  Afterwards, Elder Alston wanted to visit some mebers that afternoon and he spent time packing so I just spent time cleaning up the apartment, studying, and organizing some things for this coming transfer.  We woke up early that next morning to drive to Utrecht for transfers...

 

Wednesday was transfer day and they are ALWAYS crazy.  The way we do transfers in this mission is via trains.  The zone leaders go to specific cities that are the "hotspots" where everybody meets and then leaves to go to their own cities.  There are three hotspots in Holland and one in Belgium.  The zone leaders make sure that everything goes smoothly and that everybody catches a train to where they need to go.  Elder Alston left for Rotterdam station early in the morning, and I was the only zone leader for a lot of the day.  it was really busy and crazy,and Utrecht central station is one of the biggest in the Netherlands!  After getting some groups of missionaries sent to other hotspots to meet their new companions, I found out the the train company in the Netherlands came out with an announcement that showed on all the screens in all the stations.  it said, "Verstoring, Elders".  or in English, "disruption Elders".  Hahaha!  They said that we were all sending too many missionaries with all their luggage at once and it was crowding all the trains.  They made a rule telling us that we can't send any more than 6 missionaries on a train at once, so we had to split up all the groups.  It was CRAZY!!!  Elder Bourne, my new companion, finally got to the station to help me out.  We got everybody sent off to where they needed to go and then we just had to wait to get a few more missionaries.  We waited FOREVER because they were coming from Belgium, and not only that, but one of the elders fell down some stairs with his luggage at a train station and had to go to the hospital!  We had to wait for him to get checked out and make it to utrecht station.  I was at the train station for 8 hours, and after sending missionaries off (in smaller groups), getting my new companion, waiting to get more missionaries, and then waiting for the elder in the hospital, we finally made it back to the apartment.  We had just enough time to get back, eat dinner, and get Elder Bourne up to date with things going on in Apeldoorn.  Elder Bourne is awesome though!  No, his first name isn't Jason, haha  He is a young missionary approaching his year mark, and I love training him as a zone leader.  he is adjusting well.  We are very organized which will lead to a great transfer.  He is pretty quiet, but really cool and we get along great.

 

Thursday was a lot of planning for the transfer.  We spent a lot of time on thursday getting paperwork organized and buying a few things we needed like folders and stuff like that.  We talked about our zone plan for the transfer and goals for the zone so we know how we are going to accomplish that plan.  We talked about it a lot and came up with something great.  I already told you, but these last few weeks, I have been studying the relation between consecration and conversion.  Sister Robinson brought something up in interviews last week to all the missionaries.  She expressed her concern on how high the percentage is for missionaries who go inactive when they get back home.  She talked about conversion and how we simply need to look to Christ and live.  We need to go to the best sources, namely, the Book of Mormon.  Elder Bourne and I got some ideas from her and come up with a zone plan for this transfer.  It is titled, "Consecrate our service".  We are focusing on obedience and diligence this transfer, that we may become more consecrated missionaries in giving our time, talents, and strength to the Lord in our everyday missionary work.  We have goals that every missionary in the zone will read and study in the Book of Mormon every day, we will read and study the white handbook every day and underline rules that we need to work on, and we will also be calling different companionships throughout the transfer, encouraging them to make a good plan and work diligently the next day, and then report to us that night.  If the zone really focuses on these 3 simple goals this transfer, then we will all become more consecrated.  And the deeper our consecration, the deeper our conversion.  So we also expect the missionaries to become more converted by the end of this transfer.  That is a byproduct of our plan.  We hope and pray that it works well and that the missionaries will become more converted as we consecrate our services to the Lord.  Thursday we also had a correlation meeting with our ward mission leader, and got things organized with our missionary work in Apeldoorn.

 

Friday was a long day.  it was our Mission Leader Council.  We focused a lot on the facebook project and the success we have seen and how we can make it even more productive.  the Easter Campaign was a pilot, and the success exceeded our expectations.  We received, as a mission, 545 referrals.  We have contacted about half of them, and 40% of the ones we contacted were positive.  We got 48 New Investigators from it and 5 are on date to be baptized.  We worked on how we can contact these referrals more effectively so we can get into their homes, give a short introduction, bear testimony, set another appointment, and then leave with the Spirit.  It was a great council, and I learned a lot.  That night we had a dinner appointment with an old lady from Austria.  her name is sister Stomps and she is such a sweet old lady.  She has such a strong testimony!  it was a lot of fun, and all 6 of the apeldoorn missionaries were there.

 

Saturday we were able to do some work in our own cities.  We got a new investigator named F.  He is progressing very slowly and has a hard time understanding everything, but he has a desire to be baptized.  He brought a friend to the lesson and she was pretty interrested as well.  She was a little timid committing to meet with us again, but she has a book of mormon and a card with our number.  Hopefully we can start teaching her in the future though because she has potential to be baptized quick if we start teaching her.  We also stopped by B's house.  he is the inactive who has thought about writing himself out.  I have been praying for him a lot and when we went by on Saturday, he was doing SOOO much better!!  He said he hadn't been depressed at all and his blood sugar has been stable (He is diabetic).  We had a great talk with him and committed him, just like we committed the zone, to read and studay the Book of Mormon every day.  he said he would and we promised blessings like crazy.  it was very spiritual, and I am so glad he was doing better and will start reading again.

 

Sunday was also a great day.  We had a good church meeting and had some more time to work in our area.  Elder Bourne is a hard worker and I am really happy he is.  A lot of zone leaders get caught in a trap where they are so busy all the time helping the zone that when they don't have anything else, they come up with excuses and waste their time instead of work.  I want to make sure that Elder Bourne keeps the mind set where he puts the zone as his top priority and then when he has time, he takes advantage of it and works hard to keep his own city going.  We have been working with that mindset, and we are being blessed because of it.  We put the zone first and got everything organized, and then when we had time, we were outside looking people up, and knocking doors.  We have a couple of new appointments set up next week with some positive people!  I am really looking forward to this transfer.  The zone could potentially baptized 6 people on June 14!  I pray that the people will all go through with it.  We should also be seeing some more success in Apeldoorn this transfer.  Don't listen to those who say that Europe doesn't baptize, because The Belgium/Netherlands is a baptizing mission! 

 

I love you all and can't wait to hear from you next week!  I can't believe it was 17 months ago today that I went to the MTC!  Tijd Vliegt!

 

Groetjes,

Elder Bishop

 

The more consecrated we become in giving of ourselves, the more converted we will become as well.

Hey Everybody!!  It was soooo good Skyping you guys yesterday!!!  Luckily it still worked despite the crazy snow storm you got.  It has just been raining here non stop!  Hopefully the weather will get a little better as we roll into summer.  It seems like things are going great back home though.  Lainey and Ross look older, Meleese looks fatter ;) dad had a mean sunburn, and mom looked great.  It is just crazy that that was my last time skyping on my mission!  The next time I see you will be in the Airport in Amsterdam!!  The time is just flying by.  This week, especially.

Family Home Evening/Institute Building

 

Last Monday was a really fun Pday.  The six missionaries in Apeldoorn went bowling at this cool bowling ally in the centrum of Apeldoorn.  it was a lot of fun. We were all terrible!  haha I won with the high score of 130.  That night we went to FHE in Deventer.  I am starting to get a better relationship with the YSA here which makes it better. 

 

Tuesday we were on exchanges with the Assistants.  I was with elder Eastmond in Apeldoorn.  Elder Eastmond is a great Elder and a hard worker.  He served in Apeldoorn as a Zone Leader for 6 months, so he knows the area and members better than I do.  We had some time to visit some members.  We visited this guy named B.  He was baptized a couple of years ago and right after his baptism, he was hit with really bad clinical depression.  He hasn't been to church since.  We had a really sad lesson with him.  he is slipping away fast.  he told us that he wants to write himself out of the church.  he has been meeting with Jehovahs witnesses and they have been encouraging that.  We talked to him a lot about the covenant that he would be breaking and how big of a step he would take back.  We helped him realize how big of a decision that is and how he really needs to think about it.  We committed him to pray sincerely about it and ask if this is really what God wants him to do.  We will be keeping good contact with him this week.  It broke my heart when I found that out, and I really hope he endures and comes back.  We also visited with the college students from Nigeria.  They are just finishing up school this week and then we are going to start teaching them.  They are really cool and I hope we can help them get baptized.  They seem really positive!

 

Wednesday we exchanged back, did some planning and some look ups and had a nice dinner appointment that night.  It was a really boring day though and not much to talk about haha, but Thursday was a lot of fun.  We went on a last minute split with Hengelo.  I was with Elder Nielson in Hengelo.  We were on the bikes doing missionary work in a familiar area.  It was a lot of fun, and I always love going back to my greenie city.  We did service for the Sumters again and it was raining again when we got there, so we couldn't do much yard work for him.  We spent a lot of time standing under a shed waiting for the storm to pass.  it wasn't a waste of time though because I had a good talk with Elder Nielson. 

 

Friday, we had some time to do work in Apeldoorn.  We did some more look ups and finding and we finally got in contact with one of the facebook referrals.  he let us in and we were so excited!  We sat on the couch and he turned off the tv saying, "You guys aren't allowed to watch tv." We were pretty surprised he knew that, so we asked him if he has already met with missionaries before.  he replied, "I was a missionary myself, but now I'm excommunicated".  We were really surprised by that point.  He was a nice guy though.  We talked a lot about the church.  he knows a lot still too.  I told him where I was from and he asked me if that's the city where they will be building a temple.  He LOVES temples, so we talked to him about them, and he also told us about him mission.  We tried to get him to think back on the good memories and spiritual experiences he had on his mission.  It was a great appointment and he invited us to eat dinner with him sometime.  He is a nice older guy from Aruba.  We will continue to stop by every now and again to help him remember the spiritual experiences he has had in his past.  That night we had institute in Deventer.  There is a kid in the ward who just turned in his mission papers and he gave the lesson.  It was a KILLER lesson!  it was cool because it went right along with what I have been studying lately.  I have been studying the correlation between consecration and conversion, and the more consecrated we become in giving of ourselves, the more converted we will become as well.  That is one of my goals I will be working on for the rest of my mission, becoming more consecrated so that I can go home with even a deeper conversion.  The lesson given in institute was based off of 4 Nephi, and that is a PERFECT example where you can see the correlation between the two.  I don't have a lot of time to go into detail, but I would encourage you all to study 4 Nephi and look for those signs.  There is one verse I want to share from it though.  It is 4 Nephi 1:15 "And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people".  The biggest motive behind consecration is love.  All we really need to do is keep the two great commandments, 1. Love the Lord thy God and, 2. Love thy neighbor.  As we keep those two great commandments then we will live a more consecrated life, giving of ourselves.  And as we live a more consecrated life then we will become more converted the Jesus Chirst, His Gospel, and His restored church.  The proof is in the first half of 4 Nephi.  That was the biggest lesson I learned this week.

 

Saturday was a busy day.  We had interviews in the morning, we all went out to KFC for lunch and then we came back to the church for a baptism.  The Chineese Elders have taught him


and he is awesome.  He was so happy to be baptized.  That is the second baptism in the Apeldoorn ward in 2 weeks, and there are more to come this next transfer.  The Lord is Hastening his work in the Apeldoorn Stake!  Afterwards, we all celebrated with a BBQ.  All 6 missionaries were there, the 2 recent converts and a couple more members.  it was a lot of fun and a great way to end the busy and fulfilling day.

 

Well, Sunday I saw you guys!  haha that was definitely the highlight.  Afterwards, that family fed us dinner and we came back home to get a fax with all the transfer information, and we called everybody to let them know where they are going and who they are serving with.  Elder Alston will be leaving to Eindhoven to be a Zone Leader there and I will be training a new Zone Leader, Elder Bourne.  it's a cool name, I know haha.  I don't know him, but I have heard great things about him.  I am excited to teach him how to drive in Europe hahaha.  Bowling was so much fun last week that we are going again today!  This time as a district.  After that we will be going to a dinner appointment and then FHE again.  it will be a lot of fun! 

 

Library Where he Emails Each Monday

Ik mis jullie maar het was toch héél goed om je weer te zien.  De tijd vliegt en in een ogenblik zullen wij elkaar weer ontmoeten in Schipholluchthaven!  geniet van de sneeuw!

Elder Bishop Skyping for Mothers Day!

 

Apeldoorn Missionary P Day 

Veel Liefjes,

Elder Bishop

A memorable week with a trip to the Temple and Keukenhof (the Tulip Gardens)

Hey everyone!!  Thanks for the emails and updates.  It sounds like things are still going great back home.  I can't believe the kids only have two more weeks of school!!  I bet they are both really excited, especially Ross haha.  I still can't believe how pregnant Meleese is... It is starting to scare me how soon that is coming up.  I feel like I just found out and she is 20 weeks pregnant already! 

 

This week was a very spiritual week and a little bit more relaxed compared to the past month.  Last Monday was pretty easy going for our Pday.  That evening we had Family Home Evening with the Young Single Adults in Deventer.  About 30 minutes in, we called a member to invite her to come.  She told us that she had a terrible day and was very depressed and just wanted to stay home.  We were really concerned and left straight away to go talk to her.  We talked to her for a while and gave her some words of comfort.  She told us that she made some pretty stupid decisions the night before and she felt terrible about it.  We helped her get in contact with the bishop so she can overcome it.  She was nervous to talk to him and still depressed, so we gave her a blessing of comfort and told her to call us whenever she needed us. 

 

The next day was incredible.  We went to the temple in the morning as missionaries.  I understood a lot more and learned a lot as well.  I was talking about goals in last weeks email, and at the temple I was searching for guidance and goals for the last 7 months of my mission.  I learned a lot and feel prepared now to finish my mission strong, and I am excited to see how it turns out.  After a refreshing morning in the temple, we went to the church in Zoetermeer to eat lunch.  On the way we got kind of lost and I ended up driving on a bike path where a ton of bikers were riding!!  haha me and Elder Alston were freaking out and flipped around (luckily we have a small car) to get out of there.  We finally found the church though and ate pizza with half the mission.  It was fun seeing a lot of people who I hadn't seen for a while.  After lunch we went to Keukenhof.  It is a MASSIVE garden just south of Haarlem.  There were a lot of flowers everywhere this year.  I walked around with Elder Toole and Elder Goates, both of the missionaries I trained.  It was fun being with them again and seeing how much both of them have grown.  Elder Toole, my first greenie, hits his year mark next month!!!  I couldn't believe how long he has been out already...  It was a really pretty garden though with flowers EVERYWHERE.   After Keukenhof we talked with the member who was struggling and she told us she would be meeting with the bishop on Sunday to clear things up.  She sounded a lot better than she did the day before. 

 

Wednesday was the begin of our exchanges for the week.  I was in Hengelo with Elder Frederico that day.  It was really fun to be there with him.  it was cool too because he is exactly where I was at a year ago, a greenie in Hengelo.  We visited some members and looked up some referrals.  The work is going pretty slow there in Hengelo right now, and Elder Frederico was getting down about it.  He asked me a lot of questions and tips for advice.  He asked me how we found people to teach when I was there and how we taught so much.  I laughed a little bit when he asked me that and told him that he reminded me a lot of myself last year.  I told him that we didn't have a lot going on when I was there either.  We didn't do anything special or have any secrets to getting more investigators.  I told him that we just worked hard and endured and the miracles followed.  He asked a LOT of questions that day and even that night when we were in the apartment.  We got to the apartment soaking wet that night after biking in one of the biggest rainstorms I have seen on my mission!!!  But we had a really good talk inside the apartment.   I told him that missionary work starts with your relationship with God, then your relationship with your companion, then your relationship with the members.   He thanked me afterwards, and I hope he can use some of the tips I gave him so he can be ahead of where I was at when I started, because he has a lot of potential.  It was overall a great exchange. 

 

Thursday we were in Enschede.  I was with Elder Carter.  He is a district leader in the zone and he is doing a great job.  He is FULL of enthusiasm which is really helping the district.  We had a lunch appointment with the Van B Family.  It was fun being there again.  We also visited the Nauden ten Cata's and ate dinner at the bishop's, Bisschop De Ceuninck van Capelle.  Long last name, I know haha but it was a lot of fun.  I also convinced Elder Carter to apply to SUU haha I want to get as many missionaries as possible to go there so I don't get too lonely.  Not a whole lot happened that day, but it was still really good seeing familiar faces.

 

Friday we finally had time to do some work in our own city!!  We didn't see a lot of success though haha NOBODY was home.  We did visit that member who had been struggling that week though.  She really appreciated the support we have been giving her.  And she was continuing to do better and better every time we saw her.  We had a dinner appointment that night with sister S.  She is this tiny old lady from Austria. She makes us the same meal every time chicken with potatoes and green beans.  Half the time the chicken isn't cooked fully and we have to sneak the raw parts in napkins and throw them away haha but luckily it was all cooked this time.  it was a fun appointment and she is a sweet lady.

 

Saturday was a busy day!  We woke up and got our studies in and then had a lunch appointment with a recent convert.  she is a single mom with two boys who remind me of Tanner and Gavin haha but they might be even crazier!!  All six of the missionaries were there.  halfway through the lesson we heard a ring at the doorbell and there is another mom with two more kids and birthday presents in their hands.  After that a couple more came haha there was a birthday party that we didn't know about!!  It was CRAZY!!!!  we tried doing a spiritual thought and sharing a mormon message but the kids were just running around screaming hahaha it was one of the funniest spiritual thoughts I have ever been a part of!  It was fun though and a great memory.  Afterwards, we had a baptismal service!  The Deventer Elders had a baptism.  They are the elders who were called here chinese speaking.  They baptized a chinese guy, he is really cool and it was a nice baptism.  The deventer elders will be having another baptism this saturday too!  His name is Wu Quing.  haha they are gonna baptize all the Chinese people in that city!!  That night we had to write the big report on the zone.  We call it "The Beast".  We went to KFC and got a bucket of hot wings to make it a little more enjoyable haha.

 

Sunday was a great day.  There is a new guy who is from czhek and was baptized in England who moved to our ward.  He is a 25 year old kick boxer haha we have helped him get his records in this ward and we are excited to have him.  I translated for him in Priesthood and there was another visitor I translated for too.  He lives in Colorado but went to college at SUU!!  it was a state college back then but he thought it was really cool I was from Cedar City.  After church, we talked to the member who had been struggling all week  She talked to the bishop and was doing SO much better!  The first scripture I thought of when I saw her again was about Alma telling his conversion story to his son Helaman, "Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy." - Alma 36:21.  it's cool that Mom and Meleese learned so much about Grace through the Atonement of Jesus Christ this week at Women's conference.  I saw a first hand testimony of that this week.  If we fully repent and turn our lives to Christ then we will feel the joy of His Grace, and through His Grace, we will change.  I bear testimony of that again as I have seen that in myself and so many others out here on my mission.  I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!!  I can't wait to skype with you on Sunday!  It's crazy how that will be the last skype of my mission...  De tijd gaat zo voorbij, Ik kan het bijna niet geloven.

 

Veel Lief,

Elder Bishop

(from left to right) Elder Alston, Elder Lee from Singapore, Elder Bishop, Elder Tjong Ayong from Suriname

Elder Bishop with the 2 missionaries he trained in Brugge (Elder Toole (L) Elder Goates (R))

Elder Cooper (last companion) and Elder Bishop in Keukenhof

Temple Day