I am continuing to learn and grow even now more than ever before!

Muiderslot Castle

Hey Family!  It sounds like you all had a great week and are busy with a lot of different things.  I had a great week as well.  I got a cold for a couple of days, but I am over it now, and it didn't have too big of an effect on my week anyways.

But last week Saturday we had an awesome P day!  We went to this old castle in a small town right outside of Amsterdam Called Muiden.  The Castle is called the Muiderslot and it was built in the 1200's.  It was destroyed then but built again in the 1300's.  It was a lot of fun, and I got a lot of pictures.  That evening we tried getting in contact with some investigators, but none of them were home.  I don't really blame them for not being home on a Saturday night haha but I hope they aren't being too crazy in Amsterdam!  

Sunday I woke up not feeling good, but I got ready in my suit and went to church.  I had a pretty bad cold and church seemed long that day, but it was still nice to be there.  We got back home and I took it easy for a couple hours.  Earlier on in my mission I got pretty sick and tried working through it.  I was miserable and wasn't getting better.  I was riding my bike in Brugge in the cold rain and the thought came to me, "This is the stupidest thing I could be doing right now"  haha I figured that it was better to rest for a day or two and get better than to be miserable and not effective for a week.  The lessons I learn on my mission....

Monday I was even more sick but I had to go to the office to get the work done.  It was a long day in the office, but I survived ok.  There is a lot going on in the mission right now which is keeping us busy, but busy is good right?  We got home that night and went straight to bed.

I woke up the next morning still feeling pretty sick.  We took it easy that morning and then did some work in the afternoon and evening, but it was pretty slow.  We got some good things done though as far as organizing things for upcoming events in the mission, but it was pretty boring haha.  

Wednesday morning I was feeling better.  We went to Apeldoorn for exchanges with the Zone Leaders there.  I stayed in Apeldoorn with Elder Cockbain.  He is the one from South Africa, and he is a big rugby fan.  He was hating on New Zealand but I had your back dad and I stuck up for them haha.  We had a good exchange though.  We visited a member who loves the missionaries and talks a lot.  He is a really nice guy and doesn't have a lot of friends in the church so he loves when the missionaries visit him.  

Thursday we drove to Eindhoven and were on splits with the zone leaders there.  I worked with Elder Cook and that was my first time working with him, but he is a really cool guy and we had a good day.  We got let in to this house and the lady was really cool.  She was fascinated by what we do and what we believe and why we believe.  We established expectations and she agreed to make an appointment so we could teach her the fisrt lesson.  It was a pretty cool miracle how much she opened up within the 20 minutes we were talking with her.  That evening the Zone Leaders had a meeting in Antwerp and so we went back to Amsterdam to teach a lesson, and that was probably the highlight of my week.  We taught Z , his mom is the one who is reactivated.  I think that those two are the main reason I came to Amsterdam.  They are so cool and they are really opening up to us.  J, the mom, has been coming to church for the past 4 weeks now, and she has brought a different friend every single week!  Her son is not a member, but is interested and really nice.  We taught him the third lesson, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He had some good questions and he understood it really well.  It was very spiritual.  We are teaching him, but we involve the mom a lot and I think she learns quite a bit too because she has been inactive for so long.  He said the opening prayer and she said the closing.  Both of their prayers are getting better and I think they pray together every night.  They also read together from the Book of Mormon.  It is a perfect situation where they are both learning and growing a lot.  They are excited for General Conference tomorrow.  Elder Alston and I were so happy after the lesson.  We have developed such a love for those two.  I think when you help people accept the Gospel you develop that Christlike love for them because that's how Christ expressed His love.  That's another big lesson I have learned out here, what love is and how to express it.

Friday was also a nice day.  We spent the whole day in Amsterdam, and that doesn't happen very often.  We had a lunch appointment with a philippino member and she fed us sooo much food!  It was really good though.  That evening we had a dinner appointment with the N's.  They are an older couple from Ghana, Africa.  They are such nice people!  In this mission we collect old missionary clothes and give them to this couple.  They wash all the clothes and send them to members in Ghana.  They are such nice people and so charitable.  They fed us this really weird meal though.  It was this plantain and yams that we dipped into this oily sauce of ground spinach and fish...  haha I wasn't the biggest fan but by the grace of God I managed to get it down.  Africans are so funny though.  One of the sisters at the dinner appointment couldn't eat all of her food.  She felt bad and politely told them that she simply could not finish.  They smiled politely back at her and replied, "try :)"  hahaha it was sooo funny!  We all started laughing.  It was a really fun dinner appointment even though the food was weird.  

So even though I wasn't feeling well this week, we still made it a good week.  That lesson with Z was incredible.  And I forgot to mention that in church on Sunday, the member who referred that cool young couple to us came up to us and told us how much the young couple loved our lesson!  They thought we were really nice and they understood it really well.  We will continue to teach them and hopefully have a lesson this week.  it was a big relief because we always feel pressure teaching a member referral since the member is showing so much trust in the missionaries.  We are glad we didn't let her down and hopefully she will give us even more in the future.  Anyways, the work is going great here.  I love preaching the Gospel in this beautiful city, no matter how much sin is around us.  That makes it even more fun.  I am continuing to learn and grow even now more than ever before.  I hope you all have a great week and enjoy conference!  I love you!!!!!!!

Elder Bishop