Elder Hayden Bishop Belgium/Netherlands Mission: The more consecrated we become in giving of ourselves, the more converted we will become as well.

Hey Everybody!! It was soooo good Skyping you guys yesterday!!! Luckily it still worked despite the crazy snow storm you got. It has just been raining here non stop! Hopefully the weather will get a little better as we roll into summer. It seems like things are going great back home though. Lainey and Ross look older, Meleese looks fatter ;) dad had a mean sunburn, and mom looked great. It is just crazy that that was my last time skyping on my mission! The next time I see you will be in the Airport in Amsterdam!! The time is just flying by. This week, especially.

Family Home Evening/Institute Building

Last Monday was a really fun Pday. The six missionaries in Apeldoorn went bowling at this cool bowling ally in the centrum of Apeldoorn. it was a lot of fun. We were all terrible! haha I won with the high score of 130. That night we went to FHE in Deventer. I am starting to get a better relationship with the YSA here which makes it better.

Tuesday we were on exchanges with the Assistants. I was with elder Eastmond in Apeldoorn. Elder Eastmond is a great Elder and a hard worker. He served in Apeldoorn as a Zone Leader for 6 months, so he knows the area and members better than I do. We had some time to visit some members. We visited this guy named B. He was baptized a couple of years ago and right after his baptism, he was hit with really bad clinical depression. He hasn't been to church since. We had a really sad lesson with him. he is slipping away fast. he told us that he wants to write himself out of the church. he has been meeting with Jehovahs witnesses and they have been encouraging that. We talked to him a lot about the covenant that he would be breaking and how big of a step he would take back. We helped him realize how big of a decision that is and how he really needs to think about it. We committed him to pray sincerely about it and ask if this is really what God wants him to do. We will be keeping good contact with him this week. It broke my heart when I found that out, and I really hope he endures and comes back. We also visited with the college students from Nigeria. They are just finishing up school this week and then we are going to start teaching them. They are really cool and I hope we can help them get baptized. They seem really positive!

Wednesday we exchanged back, did some planning and some look ups and had a nice dinner appointment that night. It was a really boring day though and not much to talk about haha, but Thursday was a lot of fun. We went on a last minute split with Hengelo. I was with Elder Nielson in Hengelo. We were on the bikes doing missionary work in a familiar area. It was a lot of fun, and I always love going back to my greenie city. We did service for the Sumters again and it was raining again when we got there, so we couldn't do much yard work for him. We spent a lot of time standing under a shed waiting for the storm to pass. it wasn't a waste of time though because I had a good talk with Elder Nielson.

Friday, we had some time to do work in Apeldoorn. We did some more look ups and finding and we finally got in contact with one of the facebook referrals. he let us in and we were so excited! We sat on the couch and he turned off the tv saying, "You guys aren't allowed to watch tv." We were pretty surprised he knew that, so we asked him if he has already met with missionaries before. he replied, "I was a missionary myself, but now I'm excommunicated". We were really surprised by that point. He was a nice guy though. We talked a lot about the church. he knows a lot still too. I told him where I was from and he asked me if that's the city where they will be building a temple. He LOVES temples, so we talked to him about them, and he also told us about him mission. We tried to get him to think back on the good memories and spiritual experiences he had on his mission. It was a great appointment and he invited us to eat dinner with him sometime. He is a nice older guy from Aruba. We will continue to stop by every now and again to help him remember the spiritual experiences he has had in his past. That night we had institute in Deventer. There is a kid in the ward who just turned in his mission papers and he gave the lesson. It was a KILLER lesson! it was cool because it went right along with what I have been studying lately. I have been studying the correlation between consecration and conversion, and the more consecrated we become in giving of ourselves, the more converted we will become as well. That is one of my goals I will be working on for the rest of my mission, becoming more consecrated so that I can go home with even a deeper conversion. The lesson given in institute was based off of 4 Nephi, and that is a PERFECT example where you can see the correlation between the two. I don't have a lot of time to go into detail, but I would encourage you all to study 4 Nephi and look for those signs. There is one verse I want to share from it though. It is 4 Nephi 1:15 "And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people". The biggest motive behind consecration is love. All we really need to do is keep the two great commandments, 1. Love the Lord thy God and, 2. Love thy neighbor. As we keep those two great commandments then we will live a more consecrated life, giving of ourselves. And as we live a more consecrated life then we will become more converted the Jesus Chirst, His Gospel, and His restored church. The proof is in the first half of 4 Nephi. That was the biggest lesson I learned this week.

Saturday was a busy day. We had interviews in the morning, we all went out to KFC for lunch and then we came back to the church for a baptism. The Chineese Elders have taught him

and he is awesome. He was so happy to be baptized. That is the second baptism in the Apeldoorn ward in 2 weeks, and there are more to come this next transfer. The Lord is Hastening his work in the Apeldoorn Stake! Afterwards, we all celebrated with a BBQ. All 6 missionaries were there, the 2 recent converts and a couple more members. it was a lot of fun and a great way to end the busy and fulfilling day.

Well, Sunday I saw you guys! haha that was definitely the highlight. Afterwards, that family fed us dinner and we came back home to get a fax with all the transfer information, and we called everybody to let them know where they are going and who they are serving with. Elder Alston will be leaving to Eindhoven to be a Zone Leader there and I will be training a new Zone Leader, Elder Bourne. it's a cool name, I know haha. I don't know him, but I have heard great things about him. I am excited to teach him how to drive in Europe hahaha. Bowling was so much fun last week that we are going again today! This time as a district. After that we will be going to a dinner appointment and then FHE again. it will be a lot of fun!

Library Where he Emails Each Monday

Ik mis jullie maar het was toch héél goed om je weer te zien. De tijd vliegt en in een ogenblik zullen wij elkaar weer ontmoeten in Schipholluchthaven! geniet van de sneeuw!