Eli Mail 7/30/14 (MTC: Provo, UT) Letter 5

#1 - Got my flight plans on Friday. I'll include this is my big email for sure, but we report to the travel office at 6 am, flight out of Salt Lake at 11 am, one layover in Detroit for an hour and a half, and then it's straight to Amsterdam! It'll be 8:05 am (Amsterdam time) when we arrive so that makes for a total of about 13ish hours of travel time. Not bad. I think somewhere in that window of time before my flight leaves I can call home.

# 2  - Oh, and we leave Monday the 4th, of course. Soo.. REALLY soon!!

#3 - Hello everyone! The weirdest realization just dawned on me today. I only have 4 more days left in the MTC. That's right, 4 more days! To say it went by slowly would be a lie. But to say that time passed quickly would also be a lie. So I'll just leave it at that, the MTC confuses me. A lot of great things have happened this week. I'll start out with the news everyone wants to hear, flight plans. I've watched many others receive their flight plans and I've been eagerly awaiting mine. We report to the travel office at 6 a.m. on Monday, where we will then proceed to the airport for our departing flight at 11 a.m. By the miracle of alphabetical order, I have been assigned travel leader. As the missionary in my district with the least amount of flight experience, I'm in charge of everyone's passports and luggage pick up. Anyway, we only have one layover in Detroit (an hour and a half, not bad at all) and then we will fly directly out to Amsterdam where our mission president will await our arrival. The time will be 8 a.m. in Amsterdam so we will have an entire day of missionary work ahead of us. Every time I look at the flight plans, my stomach churns with a mixture of excitement and nervousness. I'm praying that I'll be able to adjust to the field nicely, because I know this will be one of the biggest life changes I've ever had to make.

I have no interest in lecturing others, but we had a fantastic discussion early this week that'd I'd like to share. Brother Klippel began by having us spew out everything that we had heard about European missions. Just let it all out, don't hold anything back. It was sad to hear, how little faith others have in the Lord's work. Saying things about how ineffective it is to teach or how hard it is just should not be said, no matter how true it is. Look at the missionary's expectations now. I know I fight that urge, the urge to say Europe is "hard" and the feeling that I shouldn't expect much. I am by no means calling anyone out, and I didn't experience much of that myself, but it's an honest point I wanted to make.

The thing I'll probably miss most about the MTC will be devotionals. Getting a bi-weekly spiritual boost is really fantastic. Learning from missionary experiences and ways I can be more effective in converting myself is great. During the first week one of our teachers asked us, "which day was the best day of your life?" As my mind started scanning through all of my childhood experiences and fun memories he said, "today is the best day of your life. And the next day will be your best too." At first I shrugged this ludicrous idea away and thought nothing of it. But as the days have continue on, I am really starting to believe that. Most of my days really are great, I'm always learning and gaining new experiences, and most importantly, increasing my faith. I also finished the Book of Mormon a few days ago. My fastest read yet. And being on a mission makes scripture reading much more engaging and applicable. This time through I noticed all the times the Nephites fasted and prayed. It surprised me a little, and it bore witness of just how important and powerful fasting is. I also kept track of a lot of what the Lord promises us. It's amazing how much we are promised when we simply hope and expect to receive answers, have faith in the Lord, and try our best to be charitable and love others. Before and after every time I read, the thought pops in to say a prayer. It's definitely a prompting from the Spirit, and it makes studying the scriptures really great. I'm excited to read the New Testament and Doctrine & Covenants, there are so many great stories and amazing promises.

My teaching skills are getting better and better. I've learned that I just need to stop worrying about it. I just need to do what I know best. I express my love and concern, and testify of what I know. And as I've pushed away doubt and fear, thoughts have came into my mind as I listen to the investigator. The process of inviting someone with no faith or beliefs to a knowledge of Christ is a beautiful process. Seeing a desire to be baptized is really special too. I never realized how important and meaningful baptism really is. It saddens me that I don't remember much from my baptism, but I suppose that's just how most 8 year old's are. And just from the joy it brings me just to see a fake investigator progress, I can't wait to bring an actual soul back into the fold. We role played street contacting too. Man did I feel stupid, real quick. Coming up with a conversation on the spot and trying to get a person to talk about religion is completely new. But I've learned that as long as I send out the right body language and am happy, people will be much more willing and interested in what I have to say. And I pray that I can have that enthusiasm when sharing my message with them.

Last night's devotional was mostly centered on testimony. The speaker was John Groeberg, and apparently there's a movie based off of his mission called 'The Other Side of Heaven'. I really like what he said about testimony. "A testimony isn't exclusive of what you know to be true, but expounds upon all aspects of the individual's life." What we say, what we do, and all sorts of things witness to others of what we believe. Somewhere in the talk I heard the line "that is all I want, to serve God's children with all my heart." I want that too, and I hope I can "lose myself in the work" as Gordon B. Hinkley's father said.

Outside of the classroom and daily routine, I've been enjoying a good mixture of basketball and soccer. Our whole zone will play a soccer game together and it's a great time. A few of the new Danish Elders are British and can leisurely fake me out but that's no problem. Oh and one of the Brits, Elder Amos, is apparently really good at sowing. He started a teddy bear business when he was a kid and I wish I had some material so he could make one for me, but no worries. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Andrew for the package, I appreciate the homemade items. Mom, just got the converter today and I've thanks for more clothes, super nice! I appreciate all the prayers and letters, keep 'em coming! Next time I write I will be in the Netherlands, so weird! 

Love you guys have a great week! 

Itinerary for travel in hand!

Eli Mail 7/23/14 (MTC: Provo, UT) Letter 4

Another week passes by in Provo. I've learned a lot about myself this week, and my knowledge and perspective of Christlike attributes has deepened. I wish I had some great stories to tell, but things are very routine, and not a whole lot happens here. The new Danish missionaries are great! We have 2 from the UK and I can't get enough of the British accent. I've asked them a lot about the politics and social views out of curiosity. It's great getting a new perspective on life and I feel like my sense of the world is more fully broadened. I won't go too much into detail but he waited in the ER for 4 hours with a broken nose before he received service! With the free health care a lot of people take advantage of it apparently. But enough on EU politics, how has my week gone? It's been a spiritual roller coaster to be quite frank. The teaching and learning of Dutch has been going great. I thought memorizing the missionary purpose was going to be difficult, but I memorized the first vision in 2 days! I found a great way that I can easily memorize in which I'm basically reading the page off in my head. It's amazing when I think about how much the Spirit has blessed me. During the school year I have a breakdown maybe once every 2 weeks because of stress. But I haven't felt overly stressed here at all. I'm relatively calm and my mind is always very focused and active throughout the day.

I think I mentioned this but every Sunday they announce who's giving the 5 minute talk during Sacrament meeting. I didn't get picked but I was sort of amazed with the talk I wrote. I'll share my closing analogy. The topic was on the Atonement. "I don't really have an experience that I can really relate it to, I think the Atonement is incredibly personal. But I can relate it to video games. I'm sure we've all had an experience with a video game, whether it's Pac-Man or a first person shooter. What makes video games so great is re-playability. To be able to play it over and over again until you're the best. Some may say video games are unrealistic in the fact that you get an unlimited amount of lives but I would like to change that to an unlimited amount of retries. You can reach that "game over" screen again and again, you can screw up an infinite amount of times. So long as you are willing to put in the effort to try harder next time. Having a determination and faith that you can make it to that next level. And that's powerful. Our life isn't a game of unlimited lives and re-spawns, but it is a battle to conquer weakness, and with the Atonement, we have the opportunity to hit that retry button as many times as we need, so long as we have the faith and hope to persevere into our next trial. This is my belief, and I know the power of the Atonement." 

Monday we had a great lesson on the role of the Holy Ghost. As I was studying about the Spirit's role in teaching, I was reminded of a scripture a general authority related. The scripture said that without the Spirit your voice shall "be like the tinkling of brass". For those who know how symbols sound when they are clashed together, it's very annoying. And that is truth of those without the Spirit, you're words will just be annoying. It's a very frank statement, but we as missionaries can't make it very far by ourselves. We role played with our teachers after the class discussion. My companions and I listened to a few instructions from Brother Norton, and we began a mini discussion. Was I overwhelmed with the Spirit? No. I just did what I knew best. I expressed my love and testified what I knew. And that was good enough. Looking back, I realize how good my grammar was, and the words I needed to express myself came to me. We ended up making our teacher tear up by the end. It was amazing how united we were as a trio. We've learned that 1 person can say the doctrine, 1 person gives the application, and the last gives a testimony/experience. At the end of the evening, I simple phrase came into my mind. "Deciding to serve a mission isn't a guarantee of anything." There isn't an origin for this statement (except my mind), but it's really true. You make this experience what you want of it.

I saw Elder Joncas yesterday! I was finishing up blessing my dinner when I opened my eyes and heard the exclamation "Elder Andrew!" I stood up and gave him a big hug. We talked for a while, in fact long enough that I didn't get to eat much of my dinner, but the trade off was well worth it. With every stateside missionary I see, it feels like they leave within a blink of an eye. This is how a normal conversation might go: "When did you get here?" "2 days ago." "When are you leaving?" "On Monday." It's such a weird thing to think about in my head. But I'm glad I have the opportunity to stay 6 weeks. Not only to learn the language but there's a lot of valuable lessons you can learn with a longer stay in the MTC. I'll definitely have a picture with Joseph, I mean Elder Joncas before I leave.

Had a great devotional last night. Elder Ellis of the Seventy and all 8 of his children bore their testimonies and shared unique messages. All 8 served missions and they are all super strong in the gospel. It's the family I want for sure. Not that big, but definitely strong in the gospel. My favorite lines included, obedience is the passport to power, we can't bring joy to others if we don't have hope ourselves, and hope helps conquer discouragement. I'll miss hearing weekly from General Authorities most when I leave for the field.

Sounds like you guys had a great trip. I would have really loved to see Colin. Thanks Justus family for the package! That got here very quickly and I love wearing "Wisconsin" all over the MTC. Also thanks to Steenblik's mom. The lapel pins are awesome and I feel very loved from that note you gave me. I appreciated the DearElders Dad, but I got a few sheets of song lyrics which confused me a little. The mail is arriving in the correct MTC campus now, and keep me posted on all the Wisconsin news and anything else that's interesting

Love ya guys hope you have a great week!

Eli keeping up on his backflipping skills. (The Angel Moroni [on temple spire] couldn't bear to look and faces east.) 

Eli crossing paths at MTC with Joseph Joncas (heading to California Long Beach Mission), who moved from Baraboo to Pennsylvania years ago. A welcome reunion. (At least we're TOLD it's Joseph, and not his identical twin Nathan. Ultimate twin prank, swapping mission calls? Beware heavenly lightning.)

Eli Mail 7/16/14 (MTC: Provo, UT) Letter 3

Hello family and fellow readers! Just completed week 3 of the MTC and I'm at the halfway mark! Before I continue I must inform everyone that my unit was wrong. Some Argentina Sisters on West Campus have been getting my mail so for clarification, my unit is 129. Now this week has had some ups and downs. From my previous email I talked about our first investigator that turned out to be our teacher. Well, this past Saturday was his last day teaching. They only let you teach for three years in the MTC, and it was an emotional evening when he broke the news. Brother Robinson meant a lot to me with his hilarious charades and excellent teaching skills. He was the beginning of my mission in a way, he helped me gain a love for others and deepened my testimony. Words can't really convey the feelings that night, but it was truly bittersweet. Also, somewhat saddening is that the Danes left on Monday. Elder Higby is a strong Elder, 20 years old, and a great example to me, so I wasn't looking forward to saying goodbye. The Swedes and Nords leave next Monday too, so the Icelanders and us Dutchies will turn from "newbies" to the seniors in our zone in a matter of two weeks.

The language and teaching has been going great. Our trio taught two lessons to our two investigators yesterday, and we learned all sorts of past tense Dutch verbs too. My language and grammar skills have been increasing exponentially, I'm picking up new vocab words all the time. I've easily learned more Dutch in three weeks than the three years I spent sitting in Spanish class. I also committed to memory the missionary purpose in Dutch. I will recite it to you, and you'll have to take my word for it. Anderen uitnodigen om tot Christus te komen. Door met uw hulp het herstelde evangelie aan te nemen. Met geloof in Jezus Christus en zijn Verzoening, bekering, de doop, de gave van de Heilige Geest en volharding tot het einde toe. I can also give you a direct translation for those who are interested in Dutch grammar structure. Others invite to Christ to come. Through with help the restored gospel to receive. With faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and endure to the end to. What's interesting is bekering means repentance and conversion. There's a lot of cool bits like that that I love figuring out. That reminds me, Elder Daw has a sister in Russia and apparently the translation in "Come, Come Ye Saints" from the verse "All is well, all is well" translates to "Not so bad, could be worse." Hilarious! Supposedly that sounds better to them.

In my personal study I started reading "Our Heritage" from the Missionary Reference Library. I love the history of the Church and it's really incredible how much revelation Joseph Smith received even after translating the plates. During district devotional I brought up something that struck me as an incredible test of faith from the book. A teenage Saint was sitting by a campfire alone when a mob member came from behind with a gun and told him to denounce his belief in Mormonism. The boy refused to deny his faith even in the midst of total peril. Made me really think about my own faith and how it's growing. I've spent a while pondering Alma 32 lately, too. It talks a lot about faith and how anyone can plant a seed of faith and decide whether to grow it or not. I'd highly recommend reading it. I also have a collection of tidbits from the devotionals I've attended. I'll note inspiring lines in no specific order. "Your character = moral qualities." "Learn of Christ, not for Him." "To sin is to turn from God." These are my favorite two: "We are representatives of things not seen" and, "God's power is exercised in response to faith." Last one, "There is never a mission accomplished with a new convert."

Hope those lines are of interest, they are for me. Our district has been doing a lot of beach volleyball. Great fun. Starting to love volleyball surprisingly. I neglected to mention this but sacrament meetings can be a little stressful. They randomly pick two missionaries from the zone to give a five-minute testimony on the assigned topic. The idea is to help us have talks prepared for when were out in the field, but I don't buy that for a second. They must like making us anxious, at least a little. I also met an Elder who was assigned to a sign language mission in California. Sign language! I had no clue that kind of a mission existed! The ASL missionaries are always up front during devotionals attempting to model their teachers signing during the hymns and such. Also exciting is the temple is finally open. It has been closed since I got here but today will be my first time the Provo temple so I'm looking forward to that on P-days. Oh Uncle Bruce, I was talking to a Sister in our zone going to Sweden and I remembered she mentioned her Dad was an FBI agent and she was from Virginia. I asked her where in Virginia and she replied, Fredricksburg. I asked if she knew you and she remembered working in the primary and you played the piano. Hah, crazy! Her name is Sister Sorenson and she attended your wedding reception apparently. We ended up talking about your family and everything and it was great to finally have a connection with someone.

My wish list is a bit lengthy this week, but I've been thinking about it a lot this week. I'd like some family photos from back home, conversion stories of grandparents/ancestors, couple more t-shirts/shorts, an outlet converter for Europe (the ones here are pretty expensive), and maybe a Badger's t-shirt. I think it would be hilarious to walk around the MTC with big old Bucky Badger or a Packer's jersey. Perhaps a lapel pin with the Netherlands flag for my suit, I just saw Elder Steenblik with it and I looks awesome. I did get your package mom and am very grateful to finally have my own sheets! Thanks Aunt Kara for the cookies, that meant a lot to me. Also Uncle Craig for the weekly update. It was nice to hear about what's going on with your trip Dad, and the pictures. The DearElders have been nice this week.

Thanks everyone for keeping me in your prayers. Have a great week!

Eli Mail 7/9/14 (MTC: Provo, UT) Letter 2

Hello everyone! Another week has flown by out here in Provo. Hope the Fourth of July was swell for my fellow Wisconsinites. We had a very pleasant Friday evening here. The day started as usual, powered through 6 hours of teaching and learning Dutch, attempted not to indulge in the unlimited MTC buffet, and we proceeded to gather in the enormous gym at around 7pm. I admire how quickly they can transform a gym into a chapel. They roll in a large, oak pulpit and set up about 2,000 seats with an array of TV's, projectors, and cameras. Anyways, they announced we would be enjoying the film "17 Miracles." It was an excellent depiction of the Saints traveling to Zion, I highly recommend it. The MTC staff was very clever, keep them all in one building on a holiday with a great movie. At about 10:15 they let us lose and we enjoyed Magnum ice cream bars while watching the finale of fireworks from the "Stadium of Fire." Elder Shaw from our district attempted to rally all the missionaries to sing our national anthem. It failed hilariously and all the missionaries began to sing it about 5 minutes later. We were all gathered on the west side of campus, like a herd of well dressed sheep, desperate to see anything from within the our well protected sanctuary. As the fireworks concluded I discovered I was softly singing to myself. The primary song "I Hope They Call me on a Mission" came to mind and my eyes welled up as I walked back to the Res Hall. I fell asleep to the gentle rumble of fireworks and distant cheers.

As I said last week, days are long but the weeks fly by. We prepare and teach lessons with investigators daily. It's actually a lot of fun. On Saturday afternoon we were preparing for our last lesson with our first investigator when he walked into the classroom with a teacher's name tag on. I was a little embarrassed to be honest. This guy had heard a lot of broken Dutch come out of my mouth and now he was teaching us. Yes, the investigators are pretend but there's no reason to not take it seriously and teach with the Spirit. I genuinely love my teachers. We have almost 8 surprisingly, with around 2 per classroom session. A few just got off their missions and are teaching because there's going to be a large influx of "Dutchies" coming after we leave. I also got news that we're getting 4 Suriname missionaries next week! So exciting to not be the only Dutch district. They're the only other mission that learns Dutch. Our Branch President told us that the first Suriname Sisters arrived this May, and it makes me feel like a pioneer of sorts. To keep ourselves sane on a daily basis, we have nightly rap sessions. We have a "Nord" in our zone who has an incredible beatboxing talent and a few Elders who love to freestyle rap. A group of about 10 of us gather in a dorm with only one lamp on, everyone sprawled on the upper and lower bunk beds, and we jam out to our own beat. It makes for an exciting conclusion to the evening, despite going to bed almost an hour after "lights out". 

During my 2 weeks, I've had a dream 12 nights out the past 14. Typically I'll have maybe 2 dreams a month I can even remember, but something in the MTC is stirring my subconscious mind. I suppose it could be from the new people, different food, learning new locations, and exercising a lot of brain power during a loaded 16 hour day. I even had a full length dream during a half hour nap, crazy! And about Magic Tuesday, we have some Paris, France missionaries coming in today who serve in the lower half of Belgium, so the legend will continue! I haven't seen anyone I knew from back home. Not a glimpse of the Joncas brothers. Which is sad since my Utah companions are high fiving High School friends left and right. It's not a problem though, I have no worries.

We've also had the privilege to listen to 3 general authorities. 2 from the Seventy and 1 from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles! One Seventy message was very entertaining, he worked on the "Homefront" Mormon message videos from back in the 70's, so we got watch a lot of heart warming (perhaps a little cheesy) TV commercials. The musical numbers have been wonderful too. We had an entire Sunday night devotional featuring Josh Wright. For those like me who are unfamiliar, he is a professional pianist who served his mission in Nebraska from 2007-2009. Brother Wright has played at Carnegie Hall and is working towards his Doctorate in musical theory. I have never seen someone play piano like that before! It was like a toddler pounding his fists on the keys, except the music was absolutely beautiful. Anyways, we had the opportunity to listen to Neil L. Anderson last night. He spoke powerfully about how Holy Ghost works and how we can be more sensitive and worthy of it. I'd like to share some of thoughts I wrote down after the talk.

"As I contemplated Neil L. Anderson's words, I came to an understanding. When he started talking about pornography, I rolled my eyes. But after the devotional I thought deeply about why this message appears so often in general conference messages and so forth. If pornography was an epidemic, a plague of sorts, our human race would be near extinction. There is nothing that can more easily take you away from the Lord's presence. Our world is and has very quickly become tainted with the instant access of the internet." I share this thought with you because when I was looking over it during our devotional discussion, I had a burning in my chest like I've never felt before. It was incredible and I felt the urge to share the note with the rest of the district. As I learned during Elder Anderson's message, you can't choose when your going to get a confirmation from the Spirit. I was expecting to have an overwhelming feeling of the Spirit during his talk and I didn't. My confirmation of his words came later, during deep contemplation.

Thanks so much Grandpa and Grandma for the package! I just got it today and these paisley ties look amazing! My district has already started making offers on them, which I gladly denied. The letters and DearElders have come in a nice steady flow. I will have to take a picture of of the amount of food Elder Steenblik's mom has sent him, we have almost two shelves loaded with a variety of candies and chips. It's fantastic. Wow, first you get the new car, then a practically new fridge!?! It almost hurts to hear about that but I suppose I'm happy for you. Hope your trip is fun Dad. Sounds like you guys are gonna have a busy summer.

Love you guys! Hope your weeks goes well.

The load of candy and chips sent from Parr and Steenblik families!

A close up of the loot!

Eli Mail 7/2/14 (MTC: Provo, UT) Letter 1

Oh my goodness! My first P-Day has finally arrived! I'm sure you're all eager to hear so I'll jump right in. My mission started when I got through the airport security on Tuesday evening. It was a slap of reality in the face sitting on the plane all alone for probably the first time in my life. But all was well and I met Kelly and Aaron and stayed the night in their cozy apartment. We enjoyed a hike on the Y that Wednesday morning and I marveled one last time as my whole world was on the verge of completely changing. We rushed out into Aaron's car with 2 minutes to spare and drove to the MTC. I was greeted by a "host" missionary and he asked me where I was going. Once I told him he said, "What?? No way!!" This host missionary that happened to help me is from Rotterdam! More on him later. The rest of the day became a blur of stone brick buildings and all sorts of MTC orientation. And Dad, I always envisioned the "Called to Serve" hymn being awesome, and my expectations were fulfilled. Right away we were quickly swept into our classrooms where we met our district. Turns out there are 7 of us "Dutchies," as we're called. 5 Elders and 2 Sisters originally. Do you know what 5 Elders means? Companionship trio! Yes, I'm in a trio which has been awesome. My first companion is Elder Steenblik (yes Mom, I do happen to know him hah!) He's a tall, 6'5" lanky 18 year old Utah kid. His humor is hilarious and I love him. My other companion is Elder Parr. Another Utah kid who I can only compare to Elder Leonhardt. He's an all around sports guy but has a very loving spiritual side and just rock solid in the Gospel. We originally had one Sister from Aruba. And for those who don't know, that's a little Caribbean island somewhere above Brazil. She grew up speaking Portuguese and Spanish, and learned Dutch and English in school. 4 languages! She was transferred and we haven't seen her since day one. And did we jump right into Dutch the first day? Oh, you bet we did. Brother Klippel, our teacher, started the immersion into Dutch right away. And let me just say, learning Dutch has been incredible. I love being challenged and of course it's hard, but it's a real blessing to 'Predijk Mijn Evangelie' in another language. I'll also add, saying your first prayer in a foreign language is really special. It's very humbling offering up a prayer to Heavenly Father in another tongue.

The first couple days were a little rough though. My mindset and what I wanted out of the mission was completely backwards. I had very little interest in teaching investigators and it took me a little while to fully believe my "doel" (purpose). I'm not here for myself, I'm here to invite others to come unto Christ. I spent the first couple days only caring about learning Dutch which is totally wrong. I'm here learning to love and teach people, and I'm doing that with Dutch. Things have gotten way better, and the Spirit here is strong. And speaking of investigators, we had our first lesson with an investigator on the third day. That's right, after only 3 days of being exposed to Dutch, and we were preparing to teach. It's been an adjustment learning how to teach but I'm so thankful for it. A lot of growth takes place when you have the opportunity to teach. And I liked how my teacher put it, "We have an extra challenge learning Dutch. We have two languages we're learning. We're learning to teach with the Spirit and the Dutch language." The amount of learning has been incredible. We're mostly learning gospel terms right now but stringing together thoughts and building phrases is exciting. Hey fun fact, children in Dutch is kinderen, and in the U.S. we have kindergarten for 5 year olds. English does lots of borrowing. Oh, Reedie and Calvin will like this. The translation for father is vader. So you can call Dad vader* now. I really believe the gift of tongues is real. As I have studied hard and specifically prayed for certain things I have been able to increase my understanding and be able to communicate my message. It's truly a blessing.

And a little bit more on my district, the other companionship is Elder Hammond and Elder Shaw. Shaw comes from Texas and is full of energy. Elder Hammond is very reserved and intellectual. He likes a good laugh and went to North Eastern college in Boston for a year. Both are familiar with German so they are catching on quick. Poor Sister Fredrickson! She's a solo Sister now and we are basically her family. She's great though and we all enjoy each other's company. Our zone includes the Swedes, Danes, us Dutchies, and the Icee's (maybe the Nords?). Icee's meaning Icelandic. The Icelandic Elders are quite unique in fact that only 2 or 3 come out once a year. There are 6 Elders in Iceland currently and about 200 members. They have an incredibly special calling. Out of the 80,000 missionaries serving, they are the select 3 chosen to speak Icelandic. I get along really well with them and enjoy them a ton! The fact that I've even seen them is a mathematical improbability. They're in a trio just like us Dutchies. One last thing about our zone, apparently there's a Nerf gun that gets passed down to the zone leaders after every exchange. We played some late night roulette with 2 Nerf bullets in the 6 round chamber our first night.

I must share the best bonding time any MTC missionary can experience. So sometime during Friday an Elder mentioned something called "Magic Tuesday". Our district was completely befuddled and had no idea what it was. No one would tell us what it was and they hyped it up has something that violates you and destroys your dignity (and it did). And it only happens to the Belgium Elders. So we were freaked out for about a day and a half and nobody would tell us. Finally we found out. All Belgium missionaries have to collect a stool sample and get blood drawn. Nothing brings a district together like defecating for the Lord. 

And Dad, how's the food? I'll say this, you have a lot of temptations. There are 4 lines of different dishes at every meal and access to unlimited soda and BYU Creamery products. The food is great but Mom still makes way better beef stroganoff. A typical day includes sack breakfast at 6:45, gym at around 8:30, 3 hours of class till 12:50, then maybe more class till dinner at 5:45, and then 3 hours of personal, language, and companion study. So the days are very long and full. It's kind of a weird time vortex. The week went fast looking back but in the middle of the day it's very long. We got to go on a temple walk on Sunday! I had been completely unaware that there was still a bustling city around me. It's nice to be able to tune out the noise of the world and focus entirely on my calling, but hearing about what's going on is great. I appreciate all the DearElders and letters I've gotten. Mail means a lot to a missionary and it gives a little variety to the day. I like the notes Mom and Dad, they were nice. Uncle Whitney, thanks the family update. I don't follow sports much but I'm definitely interested in that drafting stuff. I appreciated some mail on the first day Uncle Craig, thanks a bunch. And Aunt Christine too, much obliged**. Just got the Grandpa Andrew's now and I'm excited to read it. Mom and Dad, if you're thinking of sending a care package to me I have a few requests. Sour Skittles (they don't have them here), sheets and pillow case (the ones here are uncomfortable), a paisley tie or two (they are way cool!), and the camera of course. No word on the Visas, won't know for a while. The Tide wipes have been helpful too Mom. 

It's hard to imagine that I'll be in Nederlands in about a month. The Church has never been so strong and I know I'm in the right place at the right time. Love you guys!

*all v's in Dutch sound like f's and there's less emphasis on the a. Just google translate it.

(L-R: Elders Andrew, Parr, and Steenblik)

(L-R Elders Andrew, Parr, & Steenblik; Sister Fredrickson, Elder Shaw, & Elder Hammond)