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