Elder Hayden Bishop Belgium/Netherlands Mission: They fed us a beautiful 4 course meal, and it was incredible! There was only one thing that was a little too weird for me and that was the pigeon meat they fed us for the main course. It wasn't cooked and it had a really bitter taste. I guess I just wasn't classy enough to enjoy it haha.

Den Haag Temple

Good Morning family! I hope you all had a great week either in Vegas or on the Mountain. I bet the family in Vegas is in love with baby Mia. I can't believe she is a month and a half old already! I hope she can grow into her "I heart Holland" outfit soon haha. But anyways, this week was another crazy week! Instead of being in the car all week (like last week), we were in the Mission Home all week! We didn't have time to get out and do work, but it still went a lot better because I still had some really nice experiences.

So Sunday we had our ward conference. It was a great Sunday and two of our investigators showed up to church! L, one of our investigators came with her grandma who is a member. And Z, our most positive investigator, came with his mom who is also a member. I went with Z to Sunday School for the youth and he really enjoyed it! He is only 12 years old, but he met some members around his age and I think he really liked it. The lesson was really good too. It was focused on my favorite scripture, Moroni 10:32-33. They talked a lot about change through the Atonement. That's been one of the biggest lessons I've learned out here on my mission. I really enjoyed it. The youth were a little rowdy and didn't pay much attention... I kinda felt bad for the teacher, and then I felt bad for my sunday school teachers when my class would get rowdy and not pay attention haha teenagers... We couldn't set up an appointment with Z for the week though because he was out of school all week on vacation and would also be out of town. We will have one with him this week though. He will definitely be baptized within the next few months. He is a solid kid and his mom is so proud of him for taking the lessons and asking questions. They are reading together and praying together daily, and not only is that good for but that's also good for the mom because she has only been active for a couple of months now. I believe those two are the reason I came to Amsterdam. After church we went to visit a newly wed couple in the ward. He was actually raised in Alkmaar, so I know his parents, and she is from Portugal. They both studied in Amsterdam and were married a couple months ago. They are super cool! We had a good time over there. After that we did some lookups and then went to a dinner appointment with the P family. They are that Philippino family who like to have us over on Sundays. We had a really good appointment with them. They fed us good and then we shared a thought. Their two kids were in that lesson I went to with Z during church and so I asked them what they learned from it and what they thought about it. Haha as I expected, they didn't have much to say, but Elder Alston and I bore testimony of it and it was really short and powerful. I think they really liked it. The 16 year old didn't really like it much when we first started to visit but he is doing a lot better now. We always joke around about how he's gonna serve a mission in the Philippines and love it. He's not really planning on a mission, but I think he has started thinking about it recently. We will keep throwing it out there every now and again. He plays the piano, and so that's how I got in with him. I played my Chopin piece for him and he thought it was pretty cool. Elder Alston is really funny and sociable, so we have really built a strong relationship with him. The mom is holding that family together and she appreciates any help she can get, so she invited us over this Sunday again.

Monday morning we drove down to the office to get numbers together and plan for the coming week with President Robinson. The mission is doing really well right now and we are seeing between 10-15 baptisms a month for the past 4 months. That's higher than it's ever been. We have great missionaries doing a great job, and this new training program the President implemented has been key to our success. The mission is so unified now and things are running very smoothly. We met with President and talked more about transfers and then we talked about what we would be presenting in Mission Leader Council. We got our assignments and got out of our meeting around 3. The rest of the evening we were busy planning and finalizing temple conference, checking flights for the sisters going home that week, writing a letter to the missionaries in the MTC, and sending out announcements for the week. That evening we drove to the mission home to stay the night.

Tuesday morning we woke up and got to the temple by 8 am. There were two sessions that day. I went to the first session and then Elder Alston went to the second. We had to make sure that everybody was where they needed to be and that we were moving through at a good pace, because after the temple we had to get everybody to the Zoetermeer Church, eat lunch, and have a two hour training from the Zone Leaders. It was really nice to be in the temple though. Up until the time I entered the session and right from the time I got out, my mind was going a hundred miles and hour, but during, I had no worries in the world. I has happy and peaceful, and I got a lot of confirmations. It was SO nice to be there. As I have been coming down to the close of my mission I have done a lot of reflecting, and I would always question if I had a successful mission. Because I definitely haven't had the most baptisms, and I am not the most skilled. But while in the temple I realized that I don't need to see all the fruits of my labors in order to realize I have been successful. I realized that that's kind of a selfish desire, to see all the fruits of my labors. I'm not in it for myself, but I'm doing it because I love the Lord and I want to be a humble servant for him. A successful missionary is who you are, not what you do. However, what you do reflects who you are. I feel like I have done good things, and I have changed a lot and improved. I got a strong feeling of accomplishment while in the temple, and that helped me out a lot. We got out of the temple, and got the pictures and sent them to the church. The trainings were nice, but Elder Alston and I were interrupted with a problem so we had to miss the last 30 minutes, but it was still good and we got done and a decent time. Afterwards, we went back to the mission home for dinner and to sleep.

We woke up the next day to do it all over again. It went even better the next day and I really enjoyed being in there again. The trainings were nice afterwards and it all went smoothly. I was pretty happy that it was over and it went well. Right when it was over, we were on to the next item of business. 4 sisters were going home on Thursday, so we had to get them ready Wednesday night. We drove to the Mission Office after the temple training's to get their bags weighed and have their final interviews with President. Afterwards we went to dinner in Leiden. We went to this really nice buffet called the Luxor. It is a nice Chinese buffet and it was delicious! I'm sorry to say it was even better than the chinese buffet on Main street in Cedar ;) They had awesome desserts too, and it was just a lot of fun to be there. We don't get that too often on a mission haha. After that we went back to the mission home for the departing devotional.

Thursday morning we woke up at 5 to go to the airport and send them off. It was really busy in the airport at the 8:00 hour, but we finally got them all off. We got back to the mission home around noon, and we were all beat. We all took a nap and woke up a couple hours later. We were still dead tired, but we remembered that we were giving a 30 minute presentation each at Mission Leader Council the next day and we were totally not prepared. Haha so we went to the office and got it all ready. I had to present on becoming master finders. Haha it was super tough to prepare because I am NOT a master finder. Of course I can find people to teach, but so can everybody else I was presenting to! I took a different approach to it though and finally got it all finalized. We got back to the mission home that night, both feeling a little unsure about our presentations. When we got there we talked with President and Sister Robinson before going to bed and they said the same exact thing haha. We were all a bit nervous, but figured we just had to go for it.

Friday morning we got everything set up for Mission Leader Council and it started at 10. We all gave our presentations and they all went sooo well! The approach I took was not necessarily how to find, but how to find effectively. I did some research the day before and totaled how many baptisms we have had as a mission this year and how all of them were found. We have had 105 baptisms this year, and 58 of them were referrals! 37 were proselyting, and 10 were from the Area Book. Of the 58 referrals, 31 of those were member referrals. That means 1 out of every 3 baptisms in this mission are from member referrals. So I talked a lot about how to get member referrals. I also talked about planning days out to proselyte and not just writing in big capital letters across your planner "FINDING" haha. I also talked about being obedient, faithful, and diligent, and when you do that, and are outside, you will see miracles happen. That was my whole 6 months in Brugge. I bet I talked to half the people in that city and I hardly found anyone by doing that. But we were outside doing the work and pressing on and we saw the Lord's hand while doing the work. He led people to us. People walked into church, we got Head Quarter referrals, people stopped us on the street. It was incredible! I just went on to talk about how this is the Lord's work, not ours, and if we do it His way then we will see miracles and always have people to teach. I've seen it everywhere I go, and it helps me realize that I don't do hardly anything in this work, I just do what the Lord expects of me and he will make things happen. I feel like it was one of the best presentations I have ever given. Elder Alston did a great job too. He is a killer speaker and everybody loved it. President and Sister Robinson also did a great job. The council afterwards was effective and on topic. It was a great Mission Leader Council, probably the best I have been to. President and Sister Robinson were very pleased as well. We were exhausted after that though. We chatted with President and Sister Robinson for a while, first about the mission and then more about them and their family. I have come to realize how great those two really are. I have learned SO much from them. They are humble and mind their own business. They don't strive for positions, but do what they're asked and do it well. I have really enjoyed being around them and learning from them. They have been so good to me out here. Elder and Sister Winmill, the office couple, showed up at 6 that night because they will be going home next week. We took them out to dinner in Leidschendam. it was right downtown along the canal at this restaurant called De Oude Melkhandel. That was the nicest restaurant I have ever been to in my life! haha we sat down and they came up to us and told us what the menu was for the evening. They fed us a beautiful 4 course meal, and it was incredible! There was only one thing that was a little too weird for me and that was the pigeon meat they fed us for the main course. It wasn't cooked and it had a really bitter taste. I guess I just wasn't classy enough to enjoy it haha. It was really nice though. We got back late that night and stayed in the mission home again, for the 5th night in a row! No, we were not in Amsterdam once this week. We woke up this morning and packed up. We drove to the office where I am at now typing this email. We will probably go back to Amsterdam after this and spend the rest of our P day there. The new Office Couple got here this morning and they are getting everything organized right now.

Next week should be a really good week though. We have a lot of time to work and will be on 3 exchanges this week. I will get to work with Elder Cooper and go back to Alkmaar this week, and I am really looking forward to both of those! The week after is transfer week and I will be off to my new city! I am really looking forward to getting out of the car and being back on bike. Even though I am really looking forward to that, I will still miss my time as an assistant. It has been great being so close to President and learning so much from him. I have grown a lot with the opportunities I have been given, and now I am excited to apply those for my last transfer and then after my mission as well. I gotta get going though, but I love you guys so much and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Bishop