I LOVE Amsterdam. I LOVE my companion and I LOVE this work. I have never been so tired in my life, but I have never been so happy in my life either.

Hey guys!  This week has gone by so fast!  I can't believe I am emailing again already.  It went by fast, but it was jam packed.  It sounds pretty similar to how your week went.  I can't believe it was the Horlacher reunion this past week!  It doesn't seem like too long ago I was there with everybody.  I hope you all had a great time catching up with the family.  

So this week in the mission we had Zone Trainings, and Elder Eastmond and I were busy attending half of them while President and Sister Robinson attended the other half.  It involved a lot of traveling and sitting and listening, but it was very spiritually uplifting, and I learned a lot from them.  But I will get to those a little later.  First I will start with last Sunday.  We had church in the morning, and it was really nice, but it was so hard to focus because last Sunday was really hot, and they don't believe in Air Conditioning in this country.  So we were sitting in an oven wearing suits for three hours.  It was SO hot!  After church we taught a few lessons.  There was a guy who the other elders found on the street who came to church that morning. He had big dreadlocks and was wearing a camo vest.  We joined the elders in the lesson with him and he was going off about so many different things!  it was so hard to keep the lesson going, but we finally had a minute to share the Joseph Smith story. And after we shared the first vision, the Spirit was so strong and we had his full attention.  We committed him to be baptized and he accepted!  He has some addictions he needs to overcome first, but he definitely has the desire.  The other elders will continue to keep teaching him, and we are hoping that everything goes as planned.  It was a cool lesson though to see how the Spirit can grab someone's attention so fast, and the quickest way it comes is usually by sharing the restoration lesson.  It is so powerful and my favorite lesson to teach!  Afterwards we went with the sisters to the hospital to visit a member who had an aneurysm a few months ago.  Before I got to Amsterdam she couldn't speak or do anything really, but when we visited her, she was able to communicate with us a little bit.  She was SO happy to see us.  We sang a couple of hymns to her and she really enjoyed it.  It was sad to see, but she is making a lot of progress.  Afterwards we had a dinner appointment with this member named Lucky (no I'm not kidding.  That's really her name haha).  She is a really cool member from Taiwan.  We had a nice lesson with her after we ate.  She LOVES the missionaries haha.  It was a fun appointment.

Monday was our office day. Yay! ( haha not really, but it wasn't too bad)  We got numbers done quickly in the morning and they are still on the rise which is nice.  There were 5 baptisms last week in the mission which was good.  We met with President and Sister Robinson and talked a lot about transfers.  It was long but fun.  I have really gotten to know the mission a lot better in these past four weeks, and it's cool to see how the Lord works through President Robinson with transfers.  We got done and then went on splits with the office elders that evening.  I stayed here in Leiden and the other two went back to Amsterdam.  We talked to a good amount of people here in Leiden and got the information of two different people who both seemed pretty positive.  We had a dinner appointment which was a lot of fun.  We ate spaghetti, (the typical meal missionaries eat either in their own apartment or at members' houses haha).  It was still good though.  I worked with Elder Lyman and he is a great missionary.

Tuesday began the Zone Trainings.  The first one was in Amsterdam which was handy.  They talked a lot about conversion and consecration.  I loved it!  That subject is one of the biggest ones I have studied out here on my mission.  It was well done and a good reminder for me to always strive to become more consecrated to the Lord.  Now is the best time for me to do so.  We met with the Zone Leaders afterwards and talked about how the zone did this transfer and goals they have for next transfer.  It is part of the new program we made with president, and it will help us see what's going on in each of the different zones.  Afterwards we drove to Apeldoorn to do the same thing.  I got to meet with Elder Bourne and see him again.  He is doing really well in Apeldoorn and I have seen a lot of growth since I was first with him.  He is a great missionary.  We got back to Amsterdam that evening and had a lesson with this lady named N.  It was a pretty quick lesson because she had family over, but it was still good.  We talked about prayer with her and read the story of Enos.  She is a christian and is already familiar with prayer, so it was a good lesson.  We asked to set up another appointment and she said she would love to, but she is going on vacation until 20 August!!!  Everybody takes the longest vacations out here, it's crazy!  People go on vacation for 8 weeks every summer.  That is a normal thing to do where they just get work off and leave haha it's crazy.  And that vacation time still doesn't include their Christmas vacation time, new years, 1 pentacost, 2 pentacost, 1 ascension day, 2 ascension day, 1 easter, 2 easter, and spring break.  Haha so many vacation days here!  But it's okay.  We will just look her up when she gets back.

Wednesday we traveled to Rotterdam for their Zone Training.  It was also really well done.  They talked about the Character of Christ.  I learned a lot from that as well.  Elder Cooper did a great job.  It doesn't seem like too long ago we were giving a zone training together!  We met with them afterwards then stopped by the office to get a few things organized.  We got home that evening and looked some people up, but NOBODY was home.  It was kinda frustrating, but whatever.  Missionaries always have days like that and I am used to them by now. 

Thursday we traveled to Eindhoven in South East Netherlands for their Zone Training.  They also gave a good one about motivations.  It was a good self evaluation for me going over my mission the past year and a half, and I saw the motives I have had and how they have changed for the good.  It was based off a talk given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks called "Why do we Serve?".  I would recommend it.  It was a good training and also a good reminder of where my motives need to be.  We visited with them afterwards then drove to Antwerp, Belgium to meet with the Zone Leaders there.  We got there late and ended up having to stay the night because we were too tired to drive back to Amsterdam that night.  While driving down to Belgium, you cross the border and immediately feel the difference from the roads.  The Dutch roads are very nice and smooth and then you cross the border and it's only a half step up from a dirt road haha.  That pretty much explains the difference between Belgium and The Netherlands.  Belgium is super ghetto, but I love it SOOOO much.  I would love to go back and serve there one more time...  It was fun staying the night in Antwerp, but it was so hot that night!  Belgium doesn't believe in AC either.  We woke up the next morning and drove back to Amsterdam.  I almost peed my pants on the way back, but we made it just in time, safe and sound.

That afternoon we went out to lunch with some members who are traveling here in Amsterdam.  He is from Texas, and his wife is from Malaysia.  They have lived in Hong Kong most of their lives, but travel a ton.  They were in France the week before and met Elder David Cardon as well haha small world.  They took us to the Hard Rock Cafe though and it was super fun.  We got nice big american burgers...  I remembered yesterday how much I love REAL hamburgers.  Afterwards we had an appointment with an inactive member also from Malaysia.  We have gained a really good relationship with her, and she talks a ton!   We got done with the appointment and then took the other elders and sisters out to dinner.  It was Elder Larsen's birthday yesterday so we took him out for that.  We went to this nice Italian restaurant called Vapiano.  It is in downtown Amsterdam in a BEAUTIFUL area.  There are so many canals over there.  It was not fun driving there though, especially on a Friday.  There were a ton of tourists, and I have never seen so many bikers in my life.  And it doesn't make it easier that I have to drive on a tram line as well, so I always need to be watching out for them.  We made it though (don't worry mom, I am a good driver).  We did some more look ups after that and talked to some people, we met this one lady from Columbia and she had heard of the Mormons back in Columbia.  She was SO excited to have us over and give her a book of Mormon in Spanish.  She was very positive, but... She is going on vacation!!! AHHHH!!! haha but she will be back next month and can't wait to meet with us.  And she told us that she would read the book on vacation too.  We got home that night and were SOOO tired, but we still had a birthday party for Elder Eastmond and Elder Larsen haha it was a lot of fun.  they were all in the back yard and I went upstairs to my study room and dropped a water balloon on them from the second story window.  haha They got pretty wet and we all had a good laugh.  We laid in bed that night and I

was out. I have never been so tired in my life, ever.  It is so hard to stay awake, but I love it so much.  I am so happy that I have this opportunity to serve members, nonmembers, and missionaries.  It is so fulfilling and I am so happy right now.  I LOVE Amsterdam.  I LOVE my companion and I LOVE this work.  I have never been so tired in my life, but I have never been so happy in my life either.

Next transfer is going to be even busier too.  We have an apostle coming to the mission, Elder Ballard.  And we have a Zone Conference that we will be presenting on top of that.  Plus our monthly Mission Leader Council, Zone Leader Meetings, and a presentation that my next companion and I will be giving at the regional YSA camp.  It will be busy, but it will be a blast.  I can't wait!  These next three transfers will go by so fast though.  I am a little nervous.  It's weird because my companion is going home in a week and a half and I will see his parents because they are picking me up.  It has made me think about you guys picking me up, and it's gonna be awesome.  I love you all so much and I hope you have another great week!!!

Groetjes,

Elder Bishop

 

Hard Rock Cafe Elder Bishop and Elder Eastmond

Happy Birthday to Elder Larson and Elder Eastmond

My mission is really focused more on the missionaries now, but I LOVE that, and we still find time to do "normal" missionary work in Amsterdam, luckily.

Goudse Stroopwafel!

Well guys, it's summer once again!  I can't believe that last year I was in Bruges, Belgium enjoying the summer in that beautiful city.  Here we are, one year later, in Amsterdam.  It was SO warm this week and humid too.  I love the summer, but it's tough as a missionary sometimes, wearing a shirt and tie every day.  It is so beautiful though, and I am loving it so much!  Thanks for the emails mom and dad.  It sounds like you both had a great week visiting people, and enjoying your summer in Southern Utah.  It sounds like the hunting season is coming up again, and dad is getting really excited!  I am happy for you all and happy everything is going well.  I also had a great week!  It feels like I am in a whole different mission though.  I am starting to adjust and I enjoy the different things I get to do.  My mission is really focused more on the missionaries now, but I LOVE that, and we still find time to do "normal" missionary work in Amsterdam, luckily.

Anyways, Sunday was pretty good.  It was interesting in church though.  There was a big argument between a member and the bishop in Priesthood opening.  The member brought up something really stupid and wanted to discuss it in Priesthood opening.  The Bishop told him that it wasn't the right time or place to discuss something like that.  He offered that anyone could come and talk to him about it afterwards.  The member didn't like that and continued to try to lead the discussion.  The Bishop asked him to sit down and he didn't.  He started getting fired up and left.  It was pretty bad haha.  We had a good lesson afterwards though about baptism and the rest of the service was nice.  There were a LOT of tourists in church who were on vacation and visiting.  There were members from Sweden, Finland, and America all there.  After church the sisters had a baptism!  He was so excited for his baptism and it went really well.  I played the piano and a lot of ward members came up to me afterwards, so the word is now out.  haha there is a member here who can play really well though, so I don't think I will be called as the organist like I was in Brugge.  It was overall a nice Sunday.

Monday was our office day.  We had a long meeting with President and Sister Robinson that day.  There were a lot of things to discuss, and we were there for about 3 hours total.  It is awesome working with those two.  They are such good people and I learn a lot.  They care so much about the missionaries, and want them so badly to see success.  I have a lot of respect for both of them.  It was a good office day though and we got a lot planned for the big conference next transfer. That transfer is gonna be BUSY!  I am so excited!

Tuesday we drove down to Gouda to attend the district meeting down there.  It was awesome because two of my best friends out here were at that district meeting, Elder Toole and Elder Cooper.  We had a great time, and afterwards we went on splits with the Elders in Sliedrecht.  Sliedrecht is a small city outside of Rotterdam.  It was a lot of fun.  I worked with Elder Knudsen from Bountiful and we got him his first Stroopwafel.  We became good friends and had a good day with each other.

Wednesday we continued to Rotterdam and went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders there.  I worked with elder Cooper in Rotterdam and it was awesome!  We had a lot of fun.  Our appointments fell through, but we found a couple new potentials.  We caught up on things and it felt like were back in Alkmaar.  We had a fun dinner appointment with a younger couple.  The guy was funny but got mad when I told him my favorite team was Ajax from Amsterdam haha it was a good dinner appointment though.  Rotterdam is unlike any other city in the Netherlands.

Thursday was more of a day to prepare for our mission leader council.  We spent time in the morning at the office getting talks and studying to get our presentations ready.  Afterwards we got back to Amsterdam and worked there for a while.  A LOT of people are on vacation now, but we managed to get an appointment with a new investigator.  Our most positive investigators come back tomorrow though, so we are SUPER excited for that.  We had a dinner appointment that night and it was a nightmare getting there!!!  haha.  We were driving on the ring in Amsterdam and we get to the very north west part of Amsterdam to pick up the other elders.  The dinner appointment is right at the north part of Amsterdam.  We are on our way and see that the tunnel is closed to get to North Amsterdam.  We had to go clear around the ring again to go the other way.  It was about a 20 minute delay.  We called to tell them and they were fine with it, luckily.  On our way back around Amsterdam there was an accident and we got caught up in TERRIBLE traffic!  We started freaking out and getting frustrated.  Dutch people HATE it when you're late haha.  In the middle of traffic, I look down and realize that we are almost out of gas!!!!  Our car was flashing, "Tanken" or, "Fill up" haha it was bad.  Seriously, it couldn't have gotten any worse!  We finally got out of the traffic, filled up and made it to the dinner appointment, only 1 hour late!!!!  We called before to tell them and luckily they were okay with it.  it was bad though.  We felt terrible!  They cooked us BBQ
and it was actually one of the best BBQ's I've had here in Holland.  it was a fun appointment and they are really nice people.

Friday was our mission leader council.  That is where all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders meet and council on things going on throughout the mission.  The Assistants and President and Sister Robinson lead the meeting.  We introduced our new program throughout the mission to help get information and training's through to the rest of the mission.  We are delegating a lot more to the Zone Leaders to help us out, and we are all very excited about it.  It will help all the missionaries become more personally converted and increase their skills to become more effective missionaries.  President presented that and then I gave a presentation on ministering to others.  I have been studying that a lot lately and it has helped me with the whole adjustment.  I mentioned how we can prepare to minister.  We must pray for those we lead by name and pray for opportunities to serve them.  Once we do that, then we must seek for those opportunities to serve.  I gave an example from Matthew 9.  The Savior gets off a ship and immediately heals a man of palsy.  afterwards he goes to a house to eat and discuss with the pharisees and his disciples when a man enters and asks him to raise his daughter from the dead.  On his way to raise the girl a woman stops him and he heals her, then he continues to the girl, raises her from the dead.  He is on his way back when two blind men stop him.  He restores their sight then casts a devil out of a man.  He did all this in ONE chapter!  Christ ministered as he went, and he always prayed and searched for those opportunities.  After that I went on to discuss our personal ministry and how we can find that.  As we magnify our callings, obey the Lord and love him, and study our Patriarchal Blessings, then our personal ministry will unfold before us.  I ended by expressing how lucky we are to minister to other missionaries.  We are called to these positions, not to be ministered unto, but to minister.  I was honestly pretty nervous to give that speech, but I think it went well.  I felt very strongly about it, because I have studied my Patriarchal Blessing a lot and I have seen my personal ministry unfold right in front of me.  I know the strengths the Lord has blessed me with, and I know how I can help others, and I love helping them!  I have received so many blessings from ministering and serving.  I have had great examples in my parents.  You are always serving others and putting them before yourselves.  Thank you so much for that example.

This morning we woke up and played soccer.  it was actually a really good game.  We are emailing now and then we are going go hit up a few museums this afternoon!  I am so excited and I will be sure to take pictures.  I gotta get going though!

I love you all SO much!  Have a great week!!

Elder Bishop

Rotterdam Skyline at night

We will be having the wonderful opportunity of having an Apostle and three other General Authorities tour the mission in September!

Hey guys!!!  It sounds like a lot has happened this week with the big trip to Salt Lake and Lagoon and a concert!  I had no idea you were even planning on doing that!!  haha but I'm sure it was a blast and I knew Lainey would ride all the rides eventually.  She is so grown up now!  14 years old!  I was in Australia when I turned 14 and that doesn't seem like that long ago!  Anyways, I'm happy you all had a great week.  I also had a great/crazy/spiritual/awesome week!  Sunday morning was church.  I LOVE the Amsterdam Ward.  It is so unique.  I am convinced there is no other ward like it.  There are people from EVERYWHERE!  We have people who only speak Dutch (of course), but we also have people who only speak english and people who only speak spanish.  A lot of people visit from all around the world, either on vacation or business.  There are new faces every week, but despite all the changes and different people, I feel welcome in this Ward.  After church began our week of hunting.  We were trying to get in contact with people throughout the whole week, and it is so hard to do!  We have been trying to contact all our investigators to teach them, but something terrible happens in the month of July in Holland.  People get 6-8 weeks of vacation time here, and EVERYBODY leaves the country to vacation!  haha It is so frustrating.  People are always going to Spain or Turkey or anywhere else warm in Europe.  We stayed diligent though and found some more potentials throughout the week.  So that's what Sunday consisted of.

Monday was our office day...  Luckily that is our only day in the office throughout the week.  It drags on, but we are able to get a lot done in the office.  We meet with President and I learn a lot every time we meet.  This past week we set up a new program that we will be implementing in the mission.  It gets the Zone Leaders a lot more involved in training the district leaders and helping their zone see success.  The biggest problem we have is our communication throughout the mission.  We train the Zone Leaders every month, but they don't get a chance to train the district leaders on the same thing, and all the material we send through gets lost.  We need it to get to the District Leaders because they are the ones who really run this mission.  They have the biggest impact on all the missionaries.  We created a program with President Robinson to help patch up the leaks and make sure our district leaders know what they need to be doing.  We also talked about something very exciting.  We will be having the wonderful opportunity of having an Apostle tour the mission!  He (I will tell you who "He" is next week after Mission Leader Council)  and three other General Authorities from the 70 will be arriving in September!!!  I am so excited, and I hope that I will be able to have some time to talk with them.  They will be giving a two hour training at a mission conference.  This is an incredible opportunity, but it requires soooo much work on our end!  We are so excited though.  We talked about that with President and a few more things and then got all the numbers totaled up.  The numbers are increasing every month.

Tuesday we drove to Zwolle to see their District Meeting.  Afterwards, I drove Elder Cockbain back to Amsterdam for an exchange with him.  He is from South Africa and he is SO cool!  We talked about Rugby A LOT.  He played lock and he told me that I would be a good flank.  I don't know what that means, but dad would, so I wanted to get his oppinion haha. It was a good day as well.  It was raining when we woke up and it didn't stop before we fell asleep that night.  We had a service project helping this member move.  Not gonna lie it was pretty miserable moving all her stuff in the rain haha.  I felt bad for her, and she really appreciated the help, so it was good.  We looked up a few more people with little to no success...  We were able to find two new people who were positive though.  So that was a plus!

Wednesday we woke up and it was still raining!  We taught a lesson to a guy named J that morning.  We taught him the Plan of Salvation and it was a nice lesson.  He has some different ideas but was open to hear what we believed.  He plays the guitar and wants to jam with me on the piano sometime haha. That would be awesome.  After that we had a long day in front of us.  We talked to a lot of people and looked some more people up.  We got let in by this guy who we met last week.  He threw out some objections, "I'm Muslim", "I have no time", etc. but we agreed to leave a Book of Mormon in his mailbox and come back to give a 5 minute explanation.  We came back and he let us in.  We brought up the fact that he was a Muslim and he said, and I quote, "Oh, I was just kidding.  There are a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses who knock on my door so I just tell them that and they go away."  HAHAHA it was so funny.  We began to explain the Book of Mormon and how we can learn of God's Plan when we read it.  It was really good and at the end, he asked us, "What is God's Plan then?"  We told him that's a good question, but our five minutes are up.  We offered to come back another time to tell him about it and he agreed.  it was perfect getting him hooked, inviting the Spirit, and then leaving while on top.  He is SO excited for us to come back next week!  That night we received permission to watch the world cup game.  Nederland v. Argentina.  it began at 10 pm and it was a heart breaker!!  We made a good run though.  Nobody even expected Holland to make it past the group rounds.  it was fun to watch though.  We got home LATE that night.  Totally worth it.  

The next day we were on exchanges with the Den Haag Zone Leaders.  I worked in Den Haag with Elder Bitters.  He is one of my best friends out here and we had a blast!  We found a really positive potential investigator and set up an appointment with him.  he taught a recent convert there, and we had a lot of fun catching up on things.  We ate at this place called "Hapje" and they have the closest things to American Hamburgers there.  They were super good, but still just not the same.  It was a good day though.

Yesterday was our planning day.  We began arranging sleep overs for the big mission conference in September.  It is a big project trying to fit the whole mission in 1/3 of the mission boundaries.  We also needed to plan for a new sister arriving today.  We just found out about it this week, so we needed to talk with President and decide where she needs to go.  It was a pretty long day of planning and we were on the phone so much yesterday!  I went to bed that night exhausted.

This morning we woke up and picked up the new sister at the airport.  We brought her here to meet her trainer and now we are emailing.  It was a pretty crazy week.  We didn't teach a whole lot of lessons this week and we were very busy with other things, but it was still a really great week.  I am SOOO tired!  It is a lot of new stuff I am dealing with, but I love it.  I love serving in Amsterdam, and I really am happier than I ever have been in my life.  This city is incredible.  there are soooo many people who are ready for the Gospel here.  I have ran into a ton of people with really weird names too haha.  For example, I have met people named, Ghost, Chocolate, Prem, and Bright.  Haha I'm sure I'm forgetting some too.  I really am gaining a testimony of Matt. 16:25  and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.  I am learning what God expects of me while being out here and serving in Amsterdam.  I miss you all so much and hope you all have a great week!  I love you!

Elder Bishop

I was reminded three times this week that all we need to do is explain clearly, share scriptures, and testify. As we do that, the Spirit will be present.

Hey Everybody!!!  Once again another great week in Amsterdam!  It sounds like you have been really busy with summer things like bbq and family reunions going four wheeling and camping.  I miss that so much!  But I would still MUCH rather be out here doing what I'm doing right now, because I had an incredible week that made wearing a shirt and tie, and waking up at 6:30 every morning all worth it.  

Last Monday we were in the office for most of the day.  It is REALLY busy in the office, and I don't really like it that much haha.  We had to gather all the numbers for the mission and total them up.  The mission is doing really good right now though.  In the city of Amsterdam, between 4 companionship's, we have 20 people with dates to be baptized!  This Facebook project has exploded and, not only is it providing us with more referrals, but it is raising everybody's expectations, and the work is definitely hastening.  After we got all the numbers ready, we met with President and Sister Robinson to talk about the mission and things going on.  We are in there for hours sometimes depending on what we need to get done.  It is cool seeing the mission at a whole different perspective.  I am learning a lot as well, which I am very grateful for. That evening we got back to Amsterdam and looked up a few people, but not much happened that night.

Tuesday was a great day.  We were on exchanges with the other Amsterdam Elders, and I was with a greenie who had only been out for a week.  We had a few appointments scheduled for the day, and I was looking forward to teaching with him.  Our first lesson was with a man named R.  He investigated a little bit a couple of years ago, but lost contact with the missionaries.  We had an appointment with him and taught him the first lesson.  He is protestant and knows quite a bit about the Bible.  We began talking about common Doctrine; God, Families, Prophets, Christ.  We began teaching about the Great Apostasy and we saw his eyes widen.  He became a lot more focused.  We introduced Joseph Smith and taught him the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ.  The Spirit was SOOOO strong during that part of the lesson.  He felt it and told us.  We brought up the Book of Mormon and committed him to Baptism.  He liked it, but he went on to explain how he had been baptized catholic and protestant.  He then asked the question, "What will I get from your baptism?"  We began to explain the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  We told him that what he was feeling then, he could feel all the time.  We read John 3:3-8, and the Spirit was even stronger.  He told us that he felt he needed to do this.  We set a date for August 10 and he accepted!!  We will continue to meet with him and bring him to church so he can make that step.  He is a Spiritual guy and can feel it very strongly, so if we continue to teach with the Spirit, then he will definitely be baptized.  Elder Bonner, the Greenie, was so excited afterwards too.  The other two appointments fell through, but we were too excited about the first one that we didn't get down about it.  We did some finding and look-ups in Amsterdam the rest of the day.  It was a great Spiritual day.

Wednesday was very busy.  Elder Eastmond and I were back together with some time to work in our city.  We talked to a lot of people and found some new potentials, and afterwards, we had a lesson with a guy named A.  He is from Sierra Leone and was also affected in the war there.  He was shot in the back and still suffers from the wound.  He goes in for medical treatment every now and again.  He LOVES sports though, and we hit it off right off the bat.  We also taught him the first lesson.  He is catholic, and we had a little struggle with the Godhead concept.  He was open for the idea though, and after that was another great, spiritual lesson.  He understood it all very well.  He loved the section about families being together forever.  He told us that during the war in his country, his family got split up.  He was separated and later moved up to Holland.  He has been here ever since, but he has no idea where his family is or if they are still even alive.  We finished up the Restoration lesson and he was open to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.  We told him that God is the only one who can tell him it is true.  He agreed and said he would read and pray.  We brought up baptism at the end, and he told us that if he received an answer that it was true then he would be baptized.  We set a date for the 10 of August as well!!  It was another great, spiritual lesson.  It was confirmed to me twice this week that we do not do the teaching, but the Spirit does.  All we need to do is explain it clearly, share scriptures, and testify.  As we do that, the Spirit will be present, and they will NOT be able to deny it.  It was a great reminder this week.

That night we picked up a mini missionary from Amersfoort and brought him to the Mission Home.  He would be leaving for his real mission the next morning.  We had a nice testimony meeting and dinner with him and President and Sister Robinson.  It was nice.  He is a great guy who is a convert of only a couple years.  When he was baptized, his mom thought he was the Devil himself and she kicked him out of the house.  I can't even imagine having to choose between the Gospel and my family.  I know I would choose the Gospel, but that doesn't make it any easier.  I am so grateful I will never have to make that choice.  We woke up that morning and drove him to the airport.  He caught a plane going to London where he will be serving for the next two years.

Thursday morning after sending the Elder to his mission, we traveled back to Amsterdam to work some more in our city.  We had an appointment with a member who is inactive due to her sickness.  She is older and very sweet.  We read Mosiah 24 which is one of my favorites and talked about why we have trials and how we should react to them.  I was SOOO tired that day that I almost fell asleep during the lesson like five different times haha.  I was fighting to stay awake, and it was a tough battle, but I made it.  That evening we had another appointment with a less active member.  he has some serious struggles with the Word of Wisdom.  He has a testimony, but the natural man is winning.  He is so addicted that he feels hopeless.  He feels like it is impossible to quit the things he is doing.  We gave him some advice, but it was so sad to see.  A part of my testimony was strengthened that night that God weeps for us.  He has a perfect love for us and wants the best for us.  He wants to help us, but he can only do so much because of our agency.  It was a very sad lesson, and I want to continue to help this man overcome his addictions.

Friday was also a good day.  We were able to teach L and D.  They are progressing towards baptism.  It is a mother and daughter, and the Grandma is a member from Columbia.  They will be baptized within a few months.  They are SO cool and very open.  We taught the Plan of Salvation and they understood it and accepted it.  They are going on vacation to Turkey for 2 weeks, but afterwards, we will pick back up and get them baptized!  We looked up another member who is inactive afterwards and taught him.  We had nothing planned, and Elder Eastmond asked me on the spot if I could share something.  I looked down at one of the verses and saw the word "Charity"  we read it and I asked some questions that really made him think and we talked about it and it actually turned out to be one of the best thoughts I have given!  It was a miracle haha.  The Spirit lead that lesson and that was the third confirmation this week that we don't teach, but the Spirit does.

It was nice to have so much time this week to get our city going and have some appointments set up at times we will be home, because the transfer is only going to get crazier and busier from here.   It is very busy, but I love it so much.  I am a little scared though because I think it will make my mission go by even faster...  I am creeping up on five months left until I see you.  That is insane!  De tijd gaat zo voorbij, maar ik ga echt zo veel leren in de tussentijd.  En ik ben er heel erg entusiast voor.  Het Evangelie is waar!!!!  Ik hou van jullie allemaal!

Veel Lief,

Elder Bishop

PS President Robinson authorized us to watch the Belgium game tonight and the Holland game next week if they make it through!!!  GO HOLLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!