I think success as a missionary isn't necessarily measured by what you do, but by who you are and who you have become

Hey everyone!  It was good to hear from you and know that everything is going really good!  It sounds like you are all getting excited for the Holidays.  People are getting really excited here too.  Decorations are being put up and it looks really nice.  You are gonna love it so much when you see it for yourselves!  My week was also really good despite some bad luck.  I got sick on Monday night and it held us back quite a bit throughout the week.  It's never fun being sick, but it's especially not fun while you're on a mission.  I also had some bike problems this week.   We biked through a forest and my front tire popped!  haha dumb I know.  But it was still a really nice week.

Monday was a nice restful P day, no hospitals this time.  We just walked around Haarlem and took  pictures and stopped by some shops just to look around.  I started feeling sick that night and then woke up the next morning feeling miserable...

Tuesday was definitely the day I felt the worst.  I had a really bad headache and a sore throat and ears.  We had district meeting in Amsterdam and we went to that.  Afterwards, I really wasn't feeling well, so I went with Elder Cooper to grab some medicine to get me through the week.  We went back home after district meeting and rested for a little while before our dinner appointment.  Even though I wasn't feeling good, I was still looking forward to our dinner appointment that night because it was with the M's, and I really like them.  We had a nice time eating and visiting.  We got home that night and I was out.

We woke up the next morning and I was feeling a little bit better.  We had a couple of appointments in the morning and mid day.  We taught F.  He is a recent convert who has made a lot, A LOT, of changes in his life this year.  He got in a pretty bad accident earlier in his life and he has some brain damage due to that.  He also can't hear very well, but he is a really good man.  We taught him about the Priesthood to prepare him for the coming Sunday where he would receive the Aaronic Priesthood.  After that we did some service for another recent convert, Y.  She is also a really sweet lady.  Her health prevents her from coming to church every week, but she has been the past two weeks now.  Service wasn't very fun while being sick, but you still get that good feeling afterwards, so it was worth it.  We took it pretty easy the rest of the day so I could get feeling better.  Earlier on in my mission, I tried working through being sick.  Until it hit me one day in Brugge.  I had been sick for about  a week and I wasn't getting better cuz I just kept on trying to work through it.  I felt miserable, and that day we were biking in the freezing cold rain getting soaked.  We were stopped at a light and I told my companion (it was Elder Goates at the time), "This is the most stupid thing we could possibly be doing right now." haha he agreed.  From then on I realized it's better to take it easy and rest up so you can get better faster.  And that's what we did Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday we woke up and I still wasn't feeling any better!  I was getting pretty annoyed at this point.  We had our studies and rested a little longer until our appointment that afternoon.  We had an appointment with A and C, and we brought a really cool member with us this time.  It was a great appointment and she is really starting to feel comfortable around us.  The member was really good for her too.  A is really smart and loves reading and learning.  We showed her the Gospel Library app on her iPad and she absolutely LOVED it!  she mentioned it like 3 different times in her closing prayer.  They are really sweet.  We are just hoping that her work schedule changes!!!    It was a nice appointment though and it lifted my spirits too.

Friday we did some planning and got out of the house at a good time cuz I was starting to feel a little better.  We had an appointment fall through, but we rescheduled with him for next week and he felt really bad.  He is a pretty positive investigator, so we are looking forward to our appointment next week.  Our dinner appointment also fell through cuz the wife was sick.  Everyone is getting sick this time of the year.  We had spent so much time in the apartment the past week that we didn't want to go back to ear dinner until 9 haha.  We looked some people up and met this really nice man who said we could come back.  We also had an appointment with a recent convert named F.  She is from Ukraine and is a really nice woman.  She is very interested in the Book of Mormon and wants to know more about it, so we will be reading it with her every week from now on.  After that is when we rode through the forest and my tire popped... :( so dumb haha

Saturday was an awesome and busy day.  We had the annual Turkey Bowl that morning!  The Amsterdam zone all met at Vondel Park in Amsterdam to play some football.  President Robinson came too and it was a lot of fun!  We got back to Haarlem and had an appointment with and older lady in the ward.  She is in a wheelchair and needs help grocery shopping, so I pushed her in her little wheelchair and we chatted and got some of her shopping done.  She is such a sweet lady and a really good missionary too.  She has her little walker back at the old folks home, and there is always a Book of Mormon sitting on the top.  People stop her and talk to her about it quite often.  She is one of the sweetest old ladies I have ever met.  After that we went to our dinner appointment with the O's.  They are a family from Ghana and really nice.  They have one son who is about 7 years old.  WE had a good time over there.  The wife was pretty sick and has been for a while now, so we were able to give her a blessing.  The Spirit was very strong.  Some of the most spiritual experiences on my mission have been while giving blessings.  It was a fun dinner appointment getting to know them better.

Sunday was probably the highlight of my week.  I love Sundays here in Haarlem!!  We woke up and I was SO sore from the Turkey Bowl the previous day!  It was pretty pathetic haha.  We had church at 9:30 and President and Sister Robinson came to give a combined lesson about Preach My Gospel.  They asked the 4 missionaries in the ward to share something too.  They asked me to talk about the section, "A Successful Missionary".  I had no idea how direct that towards members, but I think it went well.  That is a subject I have been thinking about a lot lately as my mission is winding down.  Sometimes I think to myself if I was a successful missionary or not.  I think every missionary asks themselves that at some point on their mission.  I think success as a missionary isn't necessarily measured by what you do, but by who you are and who you have become.  And of course, what you do reflects who you are.  But there is only so much we can do as missionaries.  There are 3 parts in missionary work.  God's will, Our will, and their will.  We can only control our will.  I think successful missionaries do their best to align their will with God's will, because missionary work isn't our work, but His.  So if our will becomes His then He will lead us to those who are prepared to accept the Gospel.  The best way we can align our will with His is simply by praying daily and gaining a personal relationship with Him, obeying His commandments, and diligently working.  When we do those three things, our faith will grow and we will become great tools in His hands, and He will make us the means of performing miracles and bringing people to him.  I tied it in to the members by inviting them to pray for opportunities and then seek for those opportunities to be a part of His work.  After I was done, I sat down and really started reflecting on my mission, and I reallized that God really has led me to everybody who I was able to share the Gospel with.  I think it went well though.  Second hour was Gospel Principles which was nice, and the sacrament meeting was the Primary Program.  There are about 12 kids in the Primary here, and they are crazy! haha they are so cute though and I loved playing the piano while they sang the whole hour.  After church Frits was ordained a priest, and he was soooo excited!  I was excited for him.  I met him back in March when he wasn't baptized and he is a different person now.  It's so cool seeing how the Gospel changes people.  It was also nice seeing President and Sister Robinson again.  They are such great people, and I miss not being around them all the time.  It was just a good Sunday.  After chruch we went to our ward mission leader's house for lunch and correlation.  Our ward mission leader is SO cool!  He is French and he feeds us all this French food haha last week he fed us this cheese that he claims is illegal in America haha it isn't pasturized or something.  It was actually pretty good though!  We had a nice discussion and planning meeting with him.  We are holding a ward thanksgiving dinner and talent show on Saturday night, and so we did a lot of planning for that.  We hope it is a good turn out!  That night we went to Sister C's.  She is a really cool woman.  She lived in Utah for a lot of years, and she made 7 layer dip!  That was the first time I had eaten seven layer dip in 2 years, and it was so good.  I LOVE 7 layer dip!  It was a nice close to a nice week.  Even though I was sick and got a popped tire, it was a great week, and next week is set up to be another great one.  I can't believe I only have 2 weeks left!  CRAZY!!!  I am getting really excited to see you guys.  I miss you a ton and pray for you daily.  I love you so much!  I hope you have a great week!!!!!

Elder Bishop

I love the principle "giving is better than receiving" It just shows how good God is

Elder Bishop playing the piano in Amsterdam Centraal

Hey everybody!  Sounds like a busy, and cold week!  I can't believe it snowed a few days ago!  It has only been raining here the past three days, and it has been really cold and wet here, but still no snow...  It was a really good week though with a lot of miracles.

Monday was a better Pday than the last one even though we started off in the hospital haha.  We were only there because Elder Silva had to get this xray for some paperwork that needed to be done from the office.  It was really fast and easy, and after that we took it easy and went to some shops and saw some of the city.  It was a nice Pday.

Tuesday we had District Meeting which I Always look forward to, because we have really cool missionaries in the district.  After District Meeting, Elder Cooper, Elder Hunter, and Elder Silva and I stayed after to practice a musical number we will be performing at the next zone conference.  Elder Moreira from the area 70 in Portugal will be holding a zone conference and President Robinson asked us 4 to give a musical number.  I will be playing the piano and the other three will be singing a medley of Joseph Smith's first prayer and O  my Father to the tune of Homeward Bound.  It's gonna be so good.  And Elder Hunter sang a solo in the last General Conference during the Priesthood Session in the missionary choir, so yes, he is good haha.  That night we had a dinner appointment with Sister R.  She is a nice old dutch lady who had us over and enjoyed our company.  We went with the IJmuiden Sisters. (IJmuiden is just north of Haarlem, and they are in the Haarlem ward).  It was a fun appointment.

Wednesday we were on exchanges with the Alkmaar Zone Leaders, and I was in Alkmaar with Elder Pouwer.  It's been a miracle that I have been able to go back to Alkmaar so much after having served there.  That was my favorite branch, and one of my favorite areas.  We had a great day too.  We went to lunch at McDonald's haha and then went to visit T.  He is a former investigator who I taught with Elder Farmer.  His girlfriend is a Jehovah's Witness and she called them over after he went to our church and they bashed us pretty good, and since then he didn't really want us to teach him any more, but he is really cool, and we just stopped by to see him because it had been a year since I saw him last.  We knocked on his door and he answered.  His dread locks were long as ever and he was holding a new baby boy!  It was crazy to see how much has changed in his life since I saw him last, because it doesn't even seem like that long ago since I taught him!  It was good seeing him though.  After that we taught a lesson to a recent convert.  She is our age and we taught her about Eternal Marriage, so it was automatically a little awkward haha but it went well.  After that we got back to the car, and Elder Pouwer realized that he lost his wallet!  It was pretty bad.  We looked everywhere and couldn't find it.  We were praying as we retraced our steps back to the McDonalds.  It had been a few hours though and we began to lose hope.  We figured if it was there, some punk teenager would've stolen it.  We were almost there when we got a call from an unknown number.  She told us that she found the wallet in the McDonald's.  I told her that we were headed there right now and she told us that she would meet us there.  He got his wallet back!  She was a nice middle-aged Dutch woman who gave us that wallet and smiled.  We thanked her and then she turned back and drove off.  Her face lit up though when she gave it to us.  It was a miracle!  We prayed and thanked the Lord, and continued on to our dinner appointment.  I have been studying the topic "Riches" in my personal studies lately though, and this story goes along perfectly with what I have been studying.  In Jacob 2:18-19 it talks about how we receive riches and what riches we should be seeking for.  I realized that we only get riches if we don't want them for ourselves.  We need to want them and seek for them so that we can bless others.  I have seen that so many times on my mission, and I think that's part of the reason why missionaries grow so much in the two years, because everything they do is for others.  We pray for others, study for others, and serve others, and we are blessed so much.  I just love the fact that our Heavenly father uses people to be the means of blessing others, and then he blesses those people even more.  Just like we were blessed with getting the wallet back, but that lady was blessed so much more.  I could tell when I saw her face light up.  I think the saying, "giving is better than receiving" is based off of this principle, and I love this principle.  It just shows how good God is.

That night we ate with the 't Hoen's.  They are one of my favorite families out here.  It was fun being there with Elder Pouwer and Elder Cooper.  We just needed Elder Strikwerda and it would've been just like last year.

Thursday was a miracle day.  We had an appointment with the lady we found doing the "Chocolate" contact.  We had a great first lesson with her and set a date for her to be baptized!  She is very religous.  Her mom is even an evangelical pastor haha but she is searching for the truth and searching for that feeling that it's right.  We committed her to read and pray, because that's how she will find that answer and get that feeling.  It was a miracle.  She is a solid investigator now, all because Elder Silva wanted to see me use the word chocolate in a contact haha.  After that we had a lesson with our other two baptismal dates.  We had a nice lesson with them and are becoming good friends.  They are such great people. It was a really good day for us.

Friday we had a lesson with F.  He will be receiveing the Aaronic Priesthood this coming sunday so we taught him about what the Priesthood is.  After teaching that it reminded me of how great the Priesthood really is.  It was a nice lesson, and afterwards we had an appointment with another new investigator we found knocking doors.  His name is D and he is from India.  He is catholic but not active.  He wants to grow closer to Christ, and we had a great appointment with him.  He is a cool 26 year old guy who started his own business.  We are going back this week to continue to teach him.  That evening we biked and biked and biked in the rain...

We woke up Saturday morning and biked in the rain some more haha it was a pretty long day on saturday, but it was still good.  We met with the Hoorn elders and practiced the musical number some more that evening.  Sunday was a nice day.  We had church of course and the first hour I was with the primary practicing for the primary program haha I am playing the piano, and it was SO funny!  The kids were crazy!  but so cute.  After church we had correlation and then a dinner appointment with Sister C  She is such a funny woman and we have a lot of fun over there.  It was a nice end to a great week.  I can't believe I only have 3 left...  I gotta get going though, but I love you all so much!!!!  I hope you have a great week!

Love,

 Elder Bishop

Haarlem

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Haarlem

Just to make it fun I told Elder Silva to say any word in English and I would use it in my door approach. He said, "Chocolate"..... "Good evening maam, my companion and I are here in the area to share something. It's even tastier than chocolate, and that's the Book of Mormon" She laughed and so did I but it got her attention and we made an appointment this coming week!

Haarlem

Hey guys!  Here we are, another Monday emailing.  I Always love hearing about things going on back home with everybody, and I am glad everybody is safe, healthy, and happy :)  That makes it a lot easier for me out here.  This week has been another busy week with a lot of time to work, and a lot of miracles to see.  Last Monday was definitely not the highlight of the week though haha.

After we got done emailing, we wanted to bike to the beach and see those cool WW2 bunkers that I saw at the beginning of the year while serving in Alkmaar.  It was a lot longer bike ride than I thought and it rained the WHOLE way!  We got there soaking wet and saw a few bunkers and then went back home haha right when we got home we had to change and then bike back to the northern part of Haarlem for a dinner appointment and then back for the night.  That was our whole Pday we biked for a total of about 5 hours that day.  Pdays are supposed to be days to rest, but that was the most tiring day of the week!  Oh well, what do you do?  haha we just laughed about it later cuz it was so stupid!  Poor Elder Silva, that was his first Pday in the land and it was probably the worst one I've had on my mission!  At least they will only get better for him.

Tuesday was District Meeting in Amsterdam.  We got to the station there and it kinda felt like I never left haha.  We have the coolest district in the mission if you ask me, so it was fun being with them all.  Elder Cooper and I are in that same district again and it's cool to see him every week.  After district meeting we went back to Haarlem and we stopped by and met some investigators.  There is a mother and her daughter. They have a goal to be baptized on December 6, and we are working with them to try to make that happen.  They are super cool though.  The mother is from Ethiopia and her daughter is half Ethiopian and half Greek, weird, I know haha but they have been investigating for about 6 years now!  And they now understand that baptism is necessary.  I hope it works out!  But they are super cool and we are already really tight with them.  After that we had a dinner appointment with the Den H's.  They are a nice older dutch couple.  She is the relief society president and he isn't a member.  We are gonna try to work with him and hopefully start teaching him soon.  it was a nice dinner appointment though.  We had a really dutch meal.  It was sauerkraut mixed with some potatoes and then some meat and green beans.  That's about as Dutch as it gets haha but it was good.

Wednesday we had some stuff that we had to do in the morning and the afternoon we met some more people and did some finding.  We had an appointment with a recent convert named Y.  She is a really nice lady and we had a good visit with her.  We will be doing some service for her this next week.  That evening we had an appointment with a new investigator named J.   He is an older Dutch man and loves to read.  He is very smart, but just socially awkward.  That makes teaching less intimidating though to be honest haha.  It was a pretty good lesson.  We tried teaching the Restoration, but we only got through the first two sections.  We got hung up on the fact that God is a loving Heavenly Father.  He brought up the infamous question, "If God loves us then why is the so much bad in the world today?" That wasn't the first time I had been asked that question and we talked about agency and opposition, and the bigger picture.  That is acutally one of the big lessons I have learned out here.  Gods ways are higher than our ways.  His perspective is way bigger than our perspective.  I also believe that when we try to change our perspective to match his then we understand who He really is and how we can follow His will.  It can get pretty deep, but it's very interresting.  Anyways, we came to an agreement in the end and set up another appointment with him.  It was a nice way to finish off the night.

Thursday was a pretty tough day to be honest haha.  Some plans fell through and we had to do a lot of door knocking and didn't see any success.  I have had tons of days like that these past two years, so I wasn't too discouraged, but poor Elder Silva haha he was pretty bummed.  I talked to him about it and told him that's missionary work, and we need to find the positives every day or else we won't enjoy our mission cuz a mission is filled with days like that.  I also told him days like that make the good days even better, and I was just hoping that we would have some good days to finish up the week, cuz it was still pretty hard for him.

Haarlem

Friday was better than Thursday luckily.  We had an appointment with The mother and daughter again. At the beginning of the lesson I told her that we brought her a present.  I pulled out a Book of Mormon in Amharic.  She almost started crying she was so happy haha.  Amharic is the native language in Ethiopia, but not a lot of people know that.  It's not a common language, and I was surprised we even had a copy in that language, but I have taught a few Ethiopians throughout my mission, so I knew that they spoke Amharic.  haha the things you learn on your mission...  She was so surprised, and she absolutely LOVED it!  It was a good way to start off the lesson haha.  We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it was a really great lesson.  She really wants to be baptized with her daughter, but there is one thing holding her back.  She works a lot of Sundays...  She needs to come to church two more times to be baptized.  We are praying and she is praying that she can get it off.  I really hope it happens!  It was a good lesson though, and I am super excited to be teaching them.  That night we had dinner at the Bishop's.  We go there every Friday night and the sisters come too.  It's a lot of fun.  The ward here is really good at feeding the misionaries!  It makes the work a lot better when you are fed well and have a good relationship with the ward.  I love the Bishop here.  He is a great man and has a sweet wife.  They have two sons around my age who are both inactive.  We are gonna start playing soccer with one of them though and hopefully he will come back to church soon.  We will invite him in a couple of weeks after we become better friends.

Saturday was our miracle day. Finally!!!  I was praying for this day all week, and it came :)  In the morning we had a lesson with a potential investigator.  His name is J and we found him on the street.  He is a nice guy too.  He didn't have a lot of time, but we explained the Book of Mormon and gave him a copy.  He is gonna read and we are going back next week to follow up and hopefully teach the first lesson.  We came back for lunch and then did service.  We met a sweet old lady who is a member at her care center.  Her name is Sister Den B.  We rolled her down the street in her wheel chair and helped her with her grocery shopping.  We brought her back and unloaded all her groceries.  She is about 80 and such a sweet lady.  She is very lonely and really liked us, so she asked us to come have family home evening with her once a week.  We are excited to visit with her every week and have a family home evening with her.  We both had a great feeling after serving her.  After that we had another lesson with Jan.  We finished the Restoration and he actually really liked it.  He was very interested in Joseph Smith and wants to know more.  We invited him to church and he said he would love to come, but he works a lot of Sundays...  Why does everybody work on Sunday?!  haha it's so frustrating cuz we can't do much about it.  Why can't people have concerns we can actually address?!  haha it was still a great lesson though and we have another appointment with him this coming week.  After that we had some time to knock some doors in his area.  We had a really good feeling about this area, and it came through for us.  We got three new potential investigators (2 of which we made appointments with) in just 30 minutes!  The really miracle was how we found the last one though.  So we found the first two and we were pretty happy.  We got to the last door of the street and then we were gonna go home for dinner.  Just to make it fun I told Elder Silva to say any word in english and I would use it in my door approach.  He said, "Chocolate" haha.  Nobody answered the door, but he really wanted to see me use the word chocolate in my contact, so we went to a house around the corner.  Nobody answered.  We walked down the next street a little ways and knocked on a door there.  A woman answered and I said, "Good evening maam, my companion and I are here in the area to share something.  It's even tastier than chocolate, and that's the Book of Mormon" haha she laughed and so did I, but it caught her attention.  I told her it was another testament of Jesus Christ and asked her if she believed in Christ.  She is very religious and was very interested!  Her cute little daughter was in the back and we made an appointment to share this book with them this coming week!  They were super positive, and we were both so excited!  haha it was a miracle we even knocked that door, just to use the chocolate contact...  God works in mysterious ways haha. It was a great day though and Elder Silva was SOOOOO excited!  it was cool to see how excited he was.  He reminds me a lot of how I was my first transfer.

Sunday was a great day in church.  I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting and it went really well.  I talked about how there is only one true Gospel.   I shared the Joseph Smith story and it never fails.  It brings sucha  strong Spirit.  After church we had a correlation meeting with our ward misison leader.  They fed us lunch.  I really like our ward mission leader.  He is a good guy and supports us in everything we do.  We had a fun dinner appointment that night to finish off the week.

It was such a great week, and I love this work.  I love my mission, and it scares me how fast it is coming to an end.  It's definitely bitter sweet though, because I am so excited to see you guys again.  It feels like forever since I last saw you!  I love you all so much though and I hope you have a great week!!!

Elder Bishop

**this is what you get when you move into a sisters apartment...

workout set

My Bed!

bottom drawer

We bike a lot in this city, and our butts our sore and we have blisters on our feet, but we aren't complaining, only enjoying. This is the perfect last chapter, and I am going to work til I see you guys, so don't worry about me!

Hey everybody!!!  Sounds like you all had another crazy week with a lot going on!  haha I think I can relate.  This week has been so crazy!  It has been super good though.  So since it's been 10 days since my last P day , and it was transfer week, I got a lot to say with not a lot of time to type, so I will get started.

Sunday was my last church service in Amsterdam.  It was a good one too.  We taught the Gospel Principles lesson about temples, and how it has always been a commandment to build temples.  It went well I think.  It's kinda hard to have a 45 minute lesson on that subject while keeping it simple, but we managed to do so.  I saw J in church and she gave me a necklace that Z made for me before I left.  It was a nice present and I really appreciated it.  I will definitely miss those two.  After church we went straight to President's to break our fast and then went to the office to finalize transfers.  We got done that evening and made some calls to let the mission know what was happening.  We got done and headed back to the mission home to stay the night. 

Monday morning we woke up and drove to the office.  We had a long day in the office getting things ready for transfers, and the numbers got mixed up so it took us forever to gather them all.  It was pretty stressful, and let's just say I was super excited that was my last day in the office!  We got back to the mission home that evening and ate dinner and went to bed early.

Tuesday morning we woke up at 5 and were out the door by 6:30 to pick up the new greenies!  They all came through the airport that morning and made a big scene haha a lot of people were stopping and staring at us and even a few asked us who we were and what we were doing.  It was a good missionary opportunity.  We got them all situated and back to the office to get some legality and financial stuff figured out.  They had their interviews with President and meanwhile we took them contacting.  It was pretty funny.  The sisters were terrified.  The first guy I stopped was this old man smoking a cigarette.  He was actually pretty nice.  We talked to a few more people and got this one guys information so they could give him a book.  They were so excited after that.  haha It's Always fun talking to people on a missionary's first day.  We had lunch and then they went out with the office elders to apply for their residency cards.  While they were gone, we met with President and assigned the greenies their trainers, that means I also found out who I would be training.  They came back and napped, and I went out with one of the office elders to run an errand with him.  While we wer out we stopped this lady and started talking with her.  We mentioned the Book of Mormon and Jesus Chirst.  The first thing she said back was, "I'm shocked".  We didn't know how to take that haha but then she started explaining.  She turned around and pointed to a spot on the walking path about 20 meters behind us.  She told us how she was just standing there a minute ago praying to God in her heart, asking him if she could get in better contact with him.  She went on to explain how she was walking home from work and she Always walks on the opposite side of the canal, but today she had the feeling to walk on this side of the canal.  She couldn't believe it, and neither could I to be honest haha.  She wanted to hear more about what we have to say and whe also wanted to pray with us.  We set up an appointment for the next day.  What a miracle!  It goes to show that God leads those who are prepared to us.  That's one of the biggest lessons I have learned out here is that this work is God's work, not ours.  If you think about it, we, as missionaries, do virtually nothing haha.  All we do is go outside and talk to people and then teach them, but even when we talk to people, He leads them to us like what just happened.  And even when we teach people, we aren't the ones teaching, but the Holy Ghost.  All we have to do is be obedient and faithful, and we will be great instruments in the Lord's hands. 

That evening we had a fireside with the new missionaries and they opened up their letters to see where they would go and who they would be with.  We got to the very last one, Elder Silva.  He opened up his letter to find out that he would be serving in Haarlem with me as his trainer!  I gave him a big hug right after and we were both so excited.  Elder Silva was born in Brazil, but moved to Lisbon, Portugal when he was 8.  He knows the Flukigers, and he is a super cool kid.  He wants to work, and wants to see success, and that's what we are planning on doing. 

(*Note...The Flukigers are Hayden's Great Uncle and Aunt who are serving as Mission President in Portugal)

Wednesday we woke up and had lunch and then the trainers came and we all had the trainers meeting.  It was nice to be getting that training and not giving it haha.  We went to the city hall afterwards to get a few more things organized and then we headed to Haarlem, niether of us having been there before.  We got all our suitcases on the bus and found our apartment.  Right when we got to our apartment, we had to leave for a dinner appointment.  We went with the IJmuiden sisters.  They cover the northern half of the Haarlem area and serve in the Haarlem ward.  It was a nice dinner appointment though.  We headed back to our apartment on foot that night.  It was a long walk, but we we able to talk to some people on our way.  The first person we talked to in Haarlem was such a funny story!  So he had his headphones in, but I stopped him anyways and asked him about the Book of Mormon. He told us he had heard of the book of mormon.  We asked him where he heard of it, and he told us that he was on the series "Survivor, Holland" He ended up winning Survivor and it was held near Bryce Canyon, Utah.  He said that after he won, they gave him a Book of Mormon too.  hahahaha what the heck?!  We asked him what language it was in and he told us english.  We gave him a dutch one and he told us that he would read it while on vacation.  It was so weird!  We had a good laugh about it.  We got home that night super tired.  We didn't even unpack, but we just planned for the next day and went straight to bed.

Thursday was a busy day.  Our first priority was grocery shopping.  We got that done with right after studies.  Next priority was bikes.  We bought Elder Silva a bike.  I bargained it from 120 down to 100 and he got a good lock with it too haha.  We took a train to Heiloo after that to meet the Alkmaar Zone Leaders at the station.  They had my bike that I left in Alkmaar.  I forgot how trashed my bike got from riding the Streets of Brugge for six months haha but it's still good enough to ride.  We had our bikes, and then we were off!  We talked to a ton of people and met a few of the investigators that the previous sisters were working with.  We also called the Ward Mission Leader and asked if we could stop by that night to introduce ourselves.  We stopped by that evening and practiced the Restoration lesson with them.  He is a cool guy and I think he appreciated us stopping by.  It was so nice to be on a bike again on the beautiful Streets of Haarlem.  This city is incredible!  We were happy to be out working.  Maybe its cuz I've been in a car the past year, but it felt so good to be on a bike that day just talking to everybody.  I have never had such a desire to work.

Friday we had an appointment with a recent convert named F.  I met him back in March when I was a Zone Leader in Alkmaar.  When I saw him Friday morning, I almost didn't recognize him.  He was baptized in May, and he has made a lot of changes since.  He cut his hair and he hasn't been smoking for a while now.  It was cool to see how much change the Gospel has brought him.  I absolutely love seeing that change in people.  We did some good planning that afternoon and mapped out the area and figured out where everything was and where the members and investiagators and potential investigators lived.  We set some good goals and really just got our feet under us.  It was very productive.  We got out that night for a dinner appointment with the Bishop and his family.  The bishop's son was there and he isn't active, but he is about 23 and really cool.  We had a really good talk with him and he wants to play soccer with us now.  We are just gonna try to become his friend and help him and support him.  It was a good day.  Saturdaywe had some bike problems haha so it involved a lot of walking.  A LOT of walking, but we got the bike fixed eventually and had a lot of time to talk to people.  We were exhausted by the end of the day, but we set up a few appointments for next week.  We were so tired that night that we went to bed around 9:30 right after we finished planning.  Doing this stuff for 2 years really wears on you once you come to the end of it.  But I felt very satisfied.  It was fun working with Elder Silva too.  He is also super tired, mainly from jet lag, but we work hard and have fun.  Greenies are soo funny!  haha There are 3 things that he says over and over again, and all greenies say these 3 things too. 1. "There is SO much water in this country!" 2. "Everybody rides bikes in this country!" and 3. "When am I gonna see the sun again?"  I told him april haha.  Poor Brazilian...

Sunday was a great day in church.  I felt a click with the ward, even though it is a super dutch ward filled with old people.  They are all really nice, and I think they like me and Elder Silva.  We had correlation afterwards and then a dinner appointment.  It was a nice evening and we came back exhausted again.  We bike a lot in this city, and our butts our sore and we have blisters on our feet, but we aren't complaining, only enjoying.  We have set up 6 new appointments for this next week and we are really excited to see how it goes!  I am so happy to be ending my mission this way.  This is the perfect last chapter, and I am going to work til I see you guys, so don't worry about me.  I love you all so much, and I hope you have a great week!  Sorry I forgot my camera, I will send twice as many pictures next week!  I love you!

Elder Bishop