Christmas is wonderful when we're all together.

Eli Mail 12/26/15 (Leiden, Netherlands) Letter 63

Hello everyone, and merry "second" Christmas! The Dutch people celebrate a second Christmas and, since that is today, I might as well wish you all one! This has been a great Christmas week. I crammed a lot of office work in so I could free up space to teach a few more lessons and, of course, make room for the holidays. Well worth the effort. This was a very memorable Christmas; my last one, sadly, in the Netherlands, but definitely worth it. We have a few wonderful families that were willing to take us in, prepare wonderful meals for us (stuffing me to the brim with all sorts of potato dishes, bacon-covered deliciousness - everything a Christmas dinner should entail). And of course, they let us use up their precious internet in order to Skype back home.

When I think about this week and what has happened, I think on all the small, special, but very significant moments I had to remember Christ this Christmas. We taught a few really great lessons this week, and I can't deny how much it made me realize how much I actually do enjoy doing what missionaries do. It has its stressful, physical and spiritual demands, but those real moments of true joy make it well worth it. Teaching and listening to investigators this week helped me remember how much I love caring for each one of them individually, and how much the message of the restored gospel means to me. I think everyone has a rough patch here and there, but this Christmas season was a simple time of reflection for me, and what I get to do as a missionary, put a smile on my face and gave me a new reason to be even more cheerful. We can each experience that, too, in our lives. The gospel is meant not only to be discovered once. After all, coming unto Christ is no "happening." It is a process; it requires Godly attributes to achieve and will make the difference in our lives after all. So I thank Heavenly Father for helping me remember to see the great good in everything I do, because there is a lot of it.

It was weird going home after Christmas eve dinner, lying down and then thinking, "Wow, Christmas is tomorrow" and "2015 is shortly coming to a close." We all woke up like normal, Christmas morning, except for Elder Cook. I woke up to the sound of him laying on the couch in the other room, and after listening in silence for a little longer I realized he was definitely feeling "under the weather." Turns out he got a little food poisoning or something in him, so we spent the morning attending to him. At 11 a.m. we departed for the Christmas service. It went well; it was great to just sing lots - the Christmas hymns are great. I also translated, and it was quite an adventure trying to scripture chase my way through Luke and Helaman to follow along with the service. Afterwords, we went to a members' home, ate a wonderful meal, Skyped, and played card games for a little while before going home. Great day!

We had another crazy experience this week talking with an Asian guy, but that will have to wait.

Thank you for everyone who sent me "hands," Christmas cards, and even a Christmas package. It was all well received. Thank you for your loving and kind words. It is great to know I have a fan base back in the States.

Love,

Elder Andrew

The Leiden crew with our appropriate "Star Wars" wrapped presents from wonderful members in Haarlem (Christmas eve).

Minions in Leiden and the office Elders, Cook, Evans and Andrew

Eli Mail 12/19/15 (Leiden, Netherlands) Letter 62

Hey everyone! We had another good week here in Leiden – Elders Cook, Evans and I. Transfer weeks are always super busy – ushering in the new missionaries, saying goodbye to departing missionaries, and all the work that needs to be done in between. It was bitter sweet saying goodbye to a good group of missionaries – ones who I have been pretty close to and have lead this mission. Made me really appreciate how cool of an opportunity it is to serve God full-time. We only have that chance once, as missionaries. A lot has been on my mind lately, and I am excited to share a few experiences of the week. Enjoy.

So, has anyone ever been to Ethiopia? Me neither. A few weeks ago, Elder Cook and I had about 10 minutes before we needed to head out for a dinner appointment. So, what did we do? Talk to people of course! We gave a card to a shy African-looking guy, and he requested the address of our church to be written on the back, so we gave it. Guess what? He showed up at church that Sunday! We finally got back in contact with him, and Elder Evans and I taught him on Wednesday, in spite of the craziness of departing missionaries. He has been here for four years, just living the typical refugee life. Far away from home, not many people he knows, just trying to make the best of it. What was so cool was asking him his experience of God. He said simply but powerfully how God has always helped him. He always prays. Wow. His simple and pure example really touched me. He simply has no other choice – he can't hide or ignore God. He sees the need. Sadly, in our world today it is so easy to not see the need of a Savior or religion. For some people it isn't the center of their lives – just sort of put on the side. But H, he relies and depends on God, and that is so cool. I think we would all be a little bit happier in our own lives when we just realize how much we really do need God. Our small talk lead nicely into talking about the nature of God. He committed without a doubt to coming to church again this Sunday. I am excited for H. He understands God's important role in our lives and seems pretty willing to act on his feelings.

I have a funny story. Last week was Stake conference, and we had church in Zoetermeer with the entire Den Haag stake (it was great!), including the American Wassenaar ward. I had remembered H a day or two earlier, and I knew it would be good to call him, but I didn't. I called him after stake conference and to my sorrow he had showed up at church like normal in Leiden and was totally perplexed by the locked doors and that no one was there! I was so sad to hear that! But he recovered quickly and understood, luckily.

The Christmas season is really here! I am excited for next Friday, and I hope you guys are, too! Make it a good one, everyone, and don't forget to find a way to do something out of the ordinary to reach out to others. In my own words, "be unconventional" in celebration of the Savior's birth.

As my companion Elder Cook so finely stated at a dinner appointment, "Jesus is the reason for the season!"

Love you all!

Elder Eli Andrew

Eli Mail 12/12/15 (Leiden, Netherlands) Letter 61

Hello everyone! Saturday morning has arrived once again! It is crazy how days and weeks fold over on each other and suddenly it's P-day again. Kind of scares me, to be honest. These past weeks have been full of fun missionary activities, busy end-of-the-year office work, and me trying to understand and get into that special Christmas Spirit. I am also happy to announce that Elder Evans is finally back with us! The little Belgian only has six or seven weeks left on his mission, but he's back in action after being sick for a while. I heard the buzzer go off the other night while Elder Cook and I were making dinner and low and behold, I opened the door and gave Elder Evans a big old "welcome back" grin. It's good having him back.

Amidst the busy schedule of the office, we have had a couple of really cool teaching opportunities. This past week we had our Christmas zone conference, and the Amsterdam Elders gave a really cool presentation on a new way to teach investigators. One of the Elders didn't get his visa for three transfers, so he spent time in a New York mission, and he has brought a few really cool ideas with him. In short, you basically have the investigators teach you. If you can imagine turning the pages of the Restoration pamphlet, you talk about the nature of God, His love for us, the importance of families, prophets, etc. But in this teaching method, you show them the pictures and ask them questions about what they see and what they think it means. We have an investigator we found on the street, and we decided to try the new teaching method with him. His name is Adam. He's been in the Netherlands for eight years, has three daughters that aren't living with him currently, and he is just super grateful to meet with us. We began with prayer as normal. We made a weak attempt and invited him to, but his nerves overcame him, so we prayed. We then started turning the pages of the pamphlet, me fighting the urge to just teach principles, and we searched for his understanding instead. It was super cool – Adam ended up testifying to himself of what we taught, and we just backed up the principles with our own testimonies. By the end, we reached the picture of the girl praying over the Book of Mormon. We had him describe to us what he thought of the picture, why it was important, and how to do it. He thought it was super important what she was doing. We posed the question for the second time if he wanted to pray, and for 30 seconds we bowed our heads in silence. But he looked up at us, glanced at the pamphlet again, and then bowed his head and began to pray. The rest is history, but the real, sincere prayers of an honest investigator are one of the most special things you can experience.

Yesterday was our first day back on our Belgium trip schedule, since Brussels is finally down to a security level of three. With the attacks in Paris and suspicion in Brussels things have been a little more high strung. Except, not in the Netherlands. The Dutch people were pretty shocked with the world events taking place in their backyard, but life has continued as normal. Because of another missionary legality issue we had to take a pit stop in Gent yesterday to sign a Sister in. It was great whipping through round-a-bouts in our big, blue mission van (code name: "Papa Smurf") and gazing at the enormous old churches scattered throughout Gent. Afterwards, we found a Pizza Hut all-you-can-eat buffet, and that made the highlight of the day, not eating the typical Belgium fries, but rather devouring eight slices of American pizza on a Friday afternoon.

Lastly, I have been trying to discover that "real Spirit of Christmas" people talk about so often this time of year. I got to experience it last night. But before that, I think we all know what it is: feeling the special light of Christ in our lives, remembering His eternal sacrifice, and reaching our hands out to others. But I wonder sometimes, to what extent do we actually put things into action? I know I can do better, and for this Christmas I am excited to have the special remembrance of Christ and to share it with others. We had the opportunity to go to a Christmas concert last night, a concert put together by missionaries, and it hit everything Christmas should be! They intertwined telling classic Christmas stories like Scrooge and tying them into Christmas songs. It was fantastic. The chapel was almost bursting full with people, and the combination of a professional violinist with amazing vocals and an incredible storyline made for a sick concert.

I hope everyone is doing well back in the States! Thank you so much to all those who put a hand on my tree. I had to stay up late one evening just to read them all. So, thank you! Also thanks to those who have sent packages and other goodies. I appreciate it a lot.

Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Elder Eli Andrew

PHOTO CAPTION: The mission front office, with Elder Cook (left) who does legality, and Elder Andrew who does finance.

12/12/15 EMAIL NUGGETS

·         We visit a family that lives in Nieuw-Vennep, not in our area technically, but they are super fun and the husband served his mission back in the day in Arizona. He has a bunch of Navajo carvings and Indian stuff in a special glass case, and I love talking to him about it since [Dad] served there, also. But how about that? A Dutch man with a treasured Navajo collection? You don't see that too often.

Eli Mail 11/28/15 (Leiden, Netherlands) Letter 60

Hello everyone! It has been forever since I have written, but I am excited to talk about the past couple weeks with everyone. If I had to sum it up in a few words, I would describe it as potatoes, goodbye, and work. Thanksgiving this year was great. On Wednesday we set up a Thanksgiving dinner appointment with our steadily progressing investigator, Tessa, so it was good to have some American celebration in Europe. Elder Cook and I have been pretty busy in the office lately. As the year draws to a close we are making deadlines while still finding great time to further the work here in Leiden.

Firstly, I have to talk about Elder Evans. I haven't talked much about Elder Evans, but he has been serving in the office his whole mission, comes from Antwerpen, and has a hilariously unique personality. I can't put him into words – you just have to meet him. He makes the office experience complete, that's all I can say. Well, about a week or so ago he got pretty sick. What started out as coughing turned into a week at home on the couch. We came home every day and it seemed like he was getting better for a little while, but then it didn't. Turns out he had pneumonia! We had a late Saturday night at the hospital with him, and after some antibiotics and a night in the hospital, he was fine. His mom wanted him home for a little while in order to fully recover, though. Hopefully, we have our trusty Elder Evans back with us soon.

These past couple weeks we have had some great teaching experiences. A few weeks ago we met a girl on the street K, who is from Aruba and studying here. During our first appointment she opened up to us, telling us a very familiar story of just being away from home and family, and dealing with Dutch people. It was so cool to see how God has been working with her, that because of these difficult circumstances she has come so close to God, praying and reading the scriptures like never before, seeking for answers, comfort, help. Overall she was open and very sincere with us, and it was a great atmosphere to teach a good chunk of the first lesson. K was also pretty excited about the Book of Mormon, and I am excited to meet with her further. She also fed us these great deep-fried goodies from Aruba, a type of deep fried pastry that you put fresh cheese in – surprisingly delicious and sweet. Overall, a great teaching/friend-making experience!

And how could I forget the crazy experience that happened the other week? Last Friday I made a last minute decision not to go on the Belgium legality trip with Elder Cook because of the work I had to do. We arrived a little late in the office that morning only to discover the internet wasn't working! It was a little annoying, just having to deal with all the little problems that come with a new office, but I went down to the ground floor electrical room to see if I could fix the problem. It was only a few minutes earlier that Elder Cook and his group left when I heard a knocking at the glass front door. I felt a little reluctant, since all you have to do is hit one of the bells to get in the building, but I walked over to open the door for the Dutch man. But as I approached I realized it wasn't any Dutch man at all. In fact, after a moment of immediate disbelief and shock, I found myself staring directly at my Uncle Bruce. Uncle Bruce! Standing right before my eyes, waving at me, smiling, and pointing towards the door! I didn't really know what to do, so I just smiled, opened the door, and gave him a big hug. It took me completely by surprise, but we quickly starting talking. I showed him my office, and before I knew it was time for him to leave to catch his flight back to the States. Such a crazy experience! I was happy with my reaction. I didn't even freak out!

The weather is getting nice and cold here, and I am loving it. What has changed me this week is simple thankfulness. God wants us to be thankful. When we are thankful, we allow God to show us our many blessings. I realized recently how much I ask for – for His Spirit, for His guidance and help, when in fact I have been forgetting to see how much I have. We are all very privileged, and I encourage everyone to take a moment and reflect on everything you have, not what you want. It helped heal me; I know it can help heal you, too. We all took a moment and at the request of our investigator during Thanksgiving dinner said we were thankful for, and it left such a wonderful warm feeling in the room – sharing our gratitude with each other.

Love,

Elder Eli Andrew

Elder Andrew with his Uncle Bruce

PHOTO CAPTION: Turkey Bowl 2015. We met at a big, open field in Den Haag. We brought three zones together and played a brawl of four games simultaneously. It watered down to just the football lover group, and then we took it seriously. It was all very clean, no hard feelings, and as Elder Steenblik said, "It defied all my expectations!" He had been waiting for Turkey Bowl the whole year, and it made me happy to see how happy he was about it. Great! We then all went to McDonalds, which felt like home again, eating fast food after sporting. It was wonderful!

11/28/15 EMAIL NUGGETS

·         We surprised the Leiden Elders last night and showed up last night at 10:15 in sleep over gear. We went around the back, banged on the back window while I simultaneously banged on the front door, we scared the crap out of Elder T, a young missionary on exchanges. We played cards last night and then slept out in the living room. This morning we got out of the apartment early and headed over to Zoetermeer to play basketball with the Zoetermeer Elders, Sisters, and the us Leiden missionaries. It wasn't their p-days but some of them switched. I forgot, we stopped at McDonalds on the way and picked up egg McMuffins before playing. McDonalds seems to be a reaccuring theme but I just honestly never eat out these days! The Zoetermeer chapel is fresh new American building, and I eventually got my basketball game on. My companion Elder Cook is just a big football/ basketball kid and me, being an individual sports guy, took me a while to get into my basketball groove. But it was super fun when I did. After that, we partied with the Leiden Elders, grabbed some lunch and have been in the office since. It is getting very dark very early these days, and as I look out the window the dark clouds have taken over. But I do enjoy the rain! Mostly. Not with wind. (Dutch missionaries talk a lot about the weather.. humor me on this one). Now, it's getting a little late and I have a 20-minute talk tomorrow I have the think about. Ah! It'll be fun.

·         My days are pretty routine and usually stays exciting in the office. It keeps me on my toes and very busy just keepin' this mission somewhat financially stable. I feel like I am living real life honestly. Wake up. Get ready. Squeeze in a little personal study. Wait in traffic while driving to work. Work. Eat. Leave. Go on joint teach with the missionaries all evening. It's cool life preparation in a way. It is a little sad that our study time is very limited, 45 minutes usually, but as they say in Dutch, so is life!

·         Our teaching pool has been a full pond then goes shallow quick; it's been hard so far to find "the one" lately, but it continues on. We found a family that has been living here for 3 months, and they are from Burma (M). They let us into their humble abode, top story apartment with bare walls and only two, small stools. They are so poor but so loving and sweet. They offered us the only thing they could make us: coffee. I felt so bad I almost drank it, but then we had to leave and just apologized. There is of course a language barrier. They speak better English than Dutch, but I would love to see them progress. So yeah, there are more stories and stuff to tell, but all in good time.

·         My journaling habit fell off the cliff when I got into Deventer, but has turned back on since I have gotten in Leiden. Yeah, sad I know, but hey, I am doing better now! I think the main thing I strive for every day is the Spirit. That's one of the coolest things about the mission. Feeling the Spirit work through you. I have seen that on a super personal and unique level being on a mission. Connecting with people, making smiles, doing everything good.

·         I hope thanksgiving was a wonderful food feast. Last year I just avoided thinking about American holidays. I didn't want to even bother being "trunky" or whatever the kids call it these days. But this year I allowed it. Why not, right? We went to mission leader conference with all the zone leaders on Friday and helped cook. Wow. We had American turkey and everything. The smells took me WAY back. We had back-to-back dinners and lunches this week. I was soo full of potatoes. When it's cold the Dutch love cooking potatoes more than anything, lekker! 

Eli Mail 11/14/15 (Leiden, Netherlands) Letter 59

SPECIAL NOTICE FROM MISSION PRESIDENT BUNNELL’s 11-14-15 ONLINE BLOG: In light of the recent bombing in Paris we would like to let the families of our missionaries know of the love and concern of each missionary we serve with. We are aware of the bombing in our neighboring mission, the Paris-France Mission. We are so grateful all missionaries are safe and in their apartment and no members have been hurt in the violence. We are in contact with the LDS Security professionals in Frankfurt Germany and receive daily update regarding any safety concerns in Europe. At this time there is no immediate cause for concern for our missionaries. We will inform you by our mission blog or email if any event arises that may involve our missionaries. We are praying for the safety of all the people of Europe and the many missionaries that serve here. Please join your prayers with ours. - President Bunnell

Well, things are great here in good old Leiden. It finally feels like November now. The winds are blowing quiet harshly, and the air is getting nippy. I miss Wisconsin cold! Dutch cold is not the same! But man, this was a busy week. Our lease was up on our old mission office, and we luckily were able to move in across the street. We hired a Dutch moving crew to do it; it would have been a nightmare for Elder Cook and I hauling our 300-pound filing cabinets with mission records from the past 10 years. It was fun arranging things, and about mid afternoon the senior couple asked if we could order sandwiches from our favorite local sandwich shop. We ate amazing club sandwiches and pushed office equipment around, assessing the best way to arrange all the furniture. It just so worked out that I got the window seat, so now I look over the Leiden train station. I have even spotted missionaries hop on and off trains, but only quick glances. It's fun.

Missionary work is going great too. We are limited, obviously, but the task of balancing the two is fun. I have learned to love time management and just working under stress and then going out and sharing my testimony all evening. It's great. I am learning a lot right now. I am learning how important it is to be myself, to not only help the work in the area but to help my companions and myself. Sounds obvious, but for the longest time I cared more about the progress of the work than my companion – a sore mistake, and I am trying to be better. So, yeah, the office is allowing me to open my eyes and has allowed me to grow in so many unseen ways I can't even believe it. There's a really cool chapter in Preach my Gospel, a manual for us as people and not just missionaries, chapter 6 – Christlike attributes. I would encourage a little dive into the first page or so. What has been constantly coming back into my mind is the line, "Just as vital as what you do, however, is who you are." This line has become a part of me, and I realize that just equally important as what I say, is actually who I am. That goes for all of us.

Also, this Christmas I don't want a package. I just want to hear experiences everyone else has had. That would make me really happy this Christmas reading letters on Christmas morning. Simple hand-written letters with experiences from the past year. It doesn't have to be incredible; it can be as simple as something you heard or read that inspired you, but something that has helped you learn or grow. I would love to hear it.

Elder Eli Andrew

Eli Mail 10/30/15 (Leiden, Netherlands) Letter 58

Happy Halloween everyone! What a nice little perk to having preparation day on Saturday and being able to celebrate Halloween. It is occasionally getting nice and brisk here in Leiden. I am loving the leaves falling on the ground and that freshness fall has. It is fantastic. These past two weeks have been really cool. I have had a lot of fun with my companions Elders Cook and Evans as we run the supporting "engine" of the mission and seeing really special miracles in the work.

As I said, a lot has happened these past two weeks. First I would like to talk about the events of this past Sunday. It was a pretty normal church service. We are doing our best to chat it up with members and keep building relationships and laughing with them. It's pretty great. It is a perfect ward to have a three-man companionship, too, because a good chunk of the ward consists of widows, so we can visit them without having to worry [about propriety]. We drove to the office as normal afterwards to prepare lunch. We made bean soup out of a can, a new Sunday afternoon favorite Elder Cook and I have discovered, and we then proceeded to make plans for the coming week. After a pretty productive planning session the late hours of the afternoon starting to creep on us, and we were all pretty thirsty to get of the office and proselyte. We scheduled a few look-ups of a few investigators we haven't had contact with in weeks, and to our pleasant surprise both people we looked up were home and let us in to teach them. The first appointment we had was more of a discussion, but it was cool to follow some advice our mission leaders have been giving us to spend more time getting to know investigators. As we get to know our investigators and learn how to be ourselves around them, teaching them and discerning their needs will become more natural and less robotic. That goes for all activity in the Church and in life. Making personable people connections goes a long way. It is very easy as a missionary to fall into traps of becoming a little robotic – just teaching and losing some of the personality of it. I am definitely guilty of that sometimes.

So, this investigator's name is S, he is from Africa with a Dutch woman. S met with missionaries one year ago, and we were the first ones to make contact since then. His girlfriend isn't religious, but she participated in the discussion anyway. S is from Sierra Leone and told us about his experiences in the civil war back in the 90's. The girlfriend also talked to us about the beauty of seeing life around the world, she has made it a priority to visit countries around the globe to experience how people live (although she hasn't been to America yet). We did a lot of listening and answering questions, and we did get a very good discussion about life. I am always looking for ways to not only be able to testify to others what I know to be true but to do it in a way that is meaningful to them. In the lesson I testified about God knowing us and knowing our situations, and I hope to make lasting impressions on others by discerning what they need to know, and helping them feel it. S has the Book of Mormon, and we were able to leave with prayer, a very spiritually uplifting way to leave the house.

The other teaching opportunity was with R, a 19-year-old biology student that a couple young kids had referred us to. It was late Sunday night, and we knew she definitely had work to be doing and had most likely just spent the weekend with her family back in Rozenburg (Spijkenisse area!), but we decided to look her up anyway. We pushed on her bell in the student complex and almost immediately the bell buzzed, and we quickly went to grab the door before it locked again. She was very surprised it was us at the door, and we tried to joke about being "unexpected" and she was nice and let us in. We chatted it up with her for a while, got caught up with how she has been doing and, again, I tried to take more of a personal interest in her and her desires rather than just trying to cram an entire lesson in or something, and it turned out great. It naturally led to a discussion about Christ and his gospel and we shared the video "Because He lives" with her. It was a really powerful way to lead each of us, three in a row, to testify about the living reality and personal application of Christ's ministry and Atonement and to re-invite her to begin reading in the Book of Mormon. The Spirit was strong as we closed with prayer. We also invited her to our "games night," a fun evening of snacks and games Elder Evans has been putting on here for the “JOVOs” (jongevolwassen, or in English, YSA "young single adults"). She wasn't able to come that following Tuesday, but she still texted us, telling us that she was disappointed about not being able to come. So, by the time the evening drew to a close, Heavenly Father really blessed us with a couple great lessons with still open future teaching possibilities.

Yesterday was a really fun day, too. I may have mentioned this in previous letters, but I will repeat it just in case. Almost every Friday we get to go to Brussels because of the need to be legal, not only the Netherlands but also Belgium. Hence, the need to do sign-in work in the Brussels town hall. And as office missionaries, Elder Cook and I love taking the young missionaries out early enough before the town hall appointment to go walk around and explore Brussels (I am sure you all remember my excitement when I was new in the mission), so it is cool to again be a part of that experience. Everything was going as planned, but the time really started to tick, and before we knew it, it was 1:45 and we were going to be late for our 2 p.m. appointment! The young missionaries were all laughing in the back, being goof balls, but Elder Cook and I were all business up in the front weaving in and out of traffic to attempt the GPS scheduled arrival time. To make things even more complicated we had a senior couple who were following us because they couldn't get the GPS to work, and like you would expect we lost them amidst the traffic of Brussels. And to even further complicate the situation our phone was dead, and no one else in the car had a phone either. It was definitely a classic "face palm" moment. We couldn't really do much but continue forward, so we raced to the embassy and saved the appointment, only late by five minutes. During the legality appointment, I tried a number of phones but could not locate the senior couple's phone. Perplexed, Elder Cook reminded me I could just call back to the office and get them in contact with the Hills (the senior couple). It turns out they had already done that and were apparently well on their way there. I quickly forgot about their arrival situation, but then Elder Cook reminded me later that they still weren't here. In a desperate, last minute attempt, I decided to go outside and to attempt to look for them. I had a little prayer in my heart, asking God to help this situation to work out. As I opened the main doors and looked over the railing overlooking the street, I saw precisely at that moment a blue, Opel Corsa rounding the corner with a Dutch license plate. I quickly waved it down and ran down the embassy steps. It was them! It was a great little tender mercy. Just having things work out like that in the last second is a great office Elder miracle. In the words of my companion Elder Cook, "it was clutch."

I love and continue to pray for you all.

Have a great week.

Elder Eli Andrew

PHOTO CAPTION: Eli’s new mailing address, which is the mission office, shows this glass building and the entrance to the right of the bush.(Google street view.)

PHOTO CAPTION: Here is the Leiden Ward meeting house, where Eli goes to church. (Google street view.)

Eli Mail 10/17/15 (Leiden, Netherlands) Letter 57

Hello, everyone! It is a cool, misty morning here in Leiden, and I am excited to be cozily confined at my office computer this morning. These past two weeks were busy and decently stressful as usual, filled with office Elder duties, including our weekly or sometimes bi-weekly legality trip to Brussels, all wrapped up nicely with numerous opportunities to continue sharing the gospel message with our fellow men in the "always moving" city of Leiden.

But first off, we recently received three new members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles!! How astounding and incredible it has been for me to have had the opportunity to listen and get to know each of the apostles on a more personal level, simply by listening to their Spirit-driven talks. Although it is a sad event to see three incredible men leave us, what a privilege to see and hear the testimonies of the new apostles in the Sunday morning session! I have learned to love to hear the apostles testify of the living reality of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. That is something we are trying to focus on here with the members. Elder Cook had the idea to come up with a centralized spiritual message for the members, something that we could do to help them improve their lives. We brought the idea up in ward council, and it was decided that we would center our message on "coming closer to Christ." What I have learned from studying this subject is that we can ALWAYS come closer to Christ, there is ALWAYS something we can improve on, and it was cool developing a message catered to this subject. Our finished product wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but we found a great film on LDS.org with every member of the Quorum of the Twelve testifying of Christ. We tied that in with a short scripture and our testimonies, and it is incredible the atmosphere that rests in the members' homes. I would encourage everyone to take a quick peek at this video.

Temple conference came out of nowhere this week! It was special to be able to attend for the third time now on my mission, and it is honestly fantastic that the Netherlands actually has a temple. I take that for granted occasionally. There was also construction going on during our visit, and I recently discovered that the local government finally gave in and sold the church the adjacent field! The church's property line only went out about a meter around the temple, so last year I was shocked seeing Dutch people casually letting their dogs' poop within a 10 feet of the temple. But soon all will be changed and we won't have people and their animals sauntering around the temple. Last note, a crane accidentally slammed angel Moroni! He was decently off-center, but luckily that did not disturb the sacred holiness with its walls. In other news, I was in charge of ordering pizzas for temple conference. I placed an order for 35 pizzas from Dominos, but to my (and everyone else's surprise) they were the 25 cm size, which is barely bigger than those personal pan pizzas you get for reading 10 books at the library. Luckily, I had attempted to order more than needed, which ended up being two "okay sized pieces" for everyone. The life of an office Elder; always learning.

And to my cousin Karina who just recently received her mission call to Denmark: I cannot be more excited for you. What a mission can do is hardly measured in words. As you learn and feel the gospel even more it will bring added understanding and an increased measure of light into your life. And to my cousin Colin who is now engaged, all I can say is, "Goed zo man." 

Have a great week everyone.

Elder Eli Andrew

Eli Mail 10/3/15 (Leiden, Netherlands) Letter 56

Hey, everyone! Yes, the time has finally arrived: Elder Andrew finally adds another edition to his weekly letters. These past few weeks have just blown past, and I am excited to tell you all about it. I would first like to give a personal "thank you" to all those who have given me so much love and support the last little while. I am super grateful for your supporting me supporting others, if that makes sense. 

Well, the time finally came this past week when Elder Heinricks and Elder Clement, our office trainers, had to leave. It was a little frightening at first – the thought of taking over all the financial affairs all by myself – but I am doing alright in that regard. My job depends on careful mental and time organization. I have a lot of things to do, and the mental organization that has been required is stressful, but it keeps me busy and loving it. This week was transfer week, one very busy week for our office crew. There're all sorts of background operations that take place beforehand – getting accounts set up, getting missionaries legalized … all that jazz. Tuesday morning we "suited up" and three of us headed to the airport in the mission van to pick up luggage. Now, because of the beautiful clear blue sky and Elder Clement's intense fascination for commercial airplanes (he can list off a hundred facts about a plane in the sky – the brand, passenger size, you name it) we actually spotted the Delta flight carrying all the missionaries. So, we had an exciting day of doing presentations for the greenies, going out to eat, and just getting to know them. I valued the experience a lot, and I find it incredible just to be able to be part of their initial experience on their mission and to help let that mission enthusiasm grow. So, I was busy mostly this week preparing for the new missionaries then doing a huge amount of back work to catch up on the usual week's load of financial work.

But amidst the chaos of transfer week, Elders Cook, Evans and I had a very unique teaching opportunity this week. Now, for a little back-story: Last week we went out like normal on the streets, walking and talking, when we stopped two young teenage boys who were midway talking with each other. We started up a conversation, and they shot us down pretty fast with the whole, "I am totally not religious at all" thing. We were just trying to push it a little farther in an attempt to make them think about something deep and meaningful amidst the normal Leiden night life, when Elder Cook implored, "Well, do you know anyone that would be interested?" That's a pretty common comeback for us missionaries on the streets: asking for referrals, and when we did the two looked at each other, exchanged smiles, and burst out laughing as they said, "Yes, we do know someone." We beckoned further, with a "why not?" attitude, and the two happily gave us a number of girl they knew that was supposedly "religious." I was definitely as skeptical as could be, but we called the number a few days later, and Elder Cook found out she had been to Salt Lake before and wanted to make an appointment. I was taken aback a little, surprised that something might actually come from this seemingly not-so-promising number. We showed up for the scheduled appointment, and we taught a really great lesson to a nice 19-year-old woman. We testified hard about Christ's Atonement and the power that it brings into our lives. I hope she felt the Spirit, because I did. After the great conversation about the nature of God to the importance of families, she was especially excited about the Book of Mormon. So, there you have it: just another "mysterious" way in which the Lord works. He tends to be very good at that.

More is to come, but for now I hope you can all share with me the excitement of being able to hear the powerful words of Christ spoken by modern-day prophets. My prayer is that we can all find time this weekend to give an ear to a few sessions and to listen especially to the things the Spirit may prompt us about while we listen. 

Have a fantastic week!

Met vriendelijk liefde en groet.

Elder Eli Andrew

Parent Post

We had a miraculous chance meeting of Eli's former mission president in Salt Lake City while walking to General Conference.

Eli Mail 9/12/15 (Leiden, Netherlands) Letter 55

Hey, everyone! This is a very unexpected email, but guess where I am? Leiden, Nederland! This is quite a surprise, but I have been actually called as an "Office" elder, meaning for the next six months. Elder Cook, Elder Evans, and I will be in charge of everything concerning legal and financial business for the mission. I have been avoiding talking about the subject at all, because it was only speculation by other missionaries. To fill everyone in on mission mechanics, every six months two new missionaries are called to the office with Elder Evans, who has and will be serving his whole mission here (the reason for that, I am not sure, but it is not too important). Normally, every six-month period there will be two companionships in the mission who become threesomes, which happened to be me. Halfway through the transfer (right now) those companionships will typically receive a call if someone is being called to the office, and that was me this past Sunday morning. The call wasn't anything unexpected for me. As soon as we became "tripanionship" everyone started cracking jokes about me leaving, which ended up being true. Initially, I was pretty taken aback, not sure what to expect, but for the next couple weeks Elder Heinrichs will be training me to take over all the finances for the mission. Big job! And for those wondering, yes, we still do normal missionary work, thankfully. So, there you have it. And because of unexplained reasons, Saturdays are our official "P-days" here.

Wednesday was my last day in Spijkenisse. I was trying hard to make the excuse with investigators that I was leaving and to try to meet with as many people as I could before I left. Some went through and some didn't, but one of the great ones was our appointment with Rebecca. Quick fill in, most of my time proselyting in Spijkenisse was either spent pulling over on my bike to start up a conversation with someone, or on the street – both surprisingly effective (when you learn how to do it in a not-so awkward way). And Rebecca was one of those "golden" investigators found by pulling my bike over. She is incredibly open, Christian, and is always checking for her own understanding when we teach a principle. I have learned so much just from teaching others. One of the most powerful ways you can teach is done by asking inspired questions in such a way as to help them discover for themselves the truth of the principle. And that's what it is like for her: she has a questioning, searching mind, and I always try my best to help her answer her own questions. A sister missionary told me once that when we teach and testify about a principle, we feel the Spirit, so with investigators it is the same. We help them uncover truths and feel them. We were planning to teach the third lesson but ended up spending the whole time answering her questions. It was awesome – you can see the light of Christ working in people. 

Tuesday we went to our typical dinner appointment at 6 p.m. by family Van de Pebbel. They live a little ways out, and we travel there by bus. It was rush hour. Everyone was going home after work, and the bus was packed (almost like a Belgium bus!), so Elder Shelton and Henrichsen stayed up front while I walked to the back to find a place to sit. And just like every bus I get on, of course I fall asleep. I was dozing pretty nicely in and out when I suddenly shaken awake and noticed the bus to be a lot emptier than before. I looked nervously around, and my companions were nowhere in sight. I was alone! I sighed, barely able to believe I had really slept through our stop and rushed to the front to speak with the bus driver. I asked her how far away we were from my stop and she let me out on the side of the road. She pointed in a general direction, giving me instruction on where my bus halte was, and I started running through a city I barely knew, trying to find my companions while simultaneously not being late for the dinner appointment. After a brief jog I turned left, having a somewhat vague remembrance of my surroundings, and I cornered the first row of houses. "Marmoot," read the street sign. I was on the right street! I walked a little further searching for the house and rounding the other corner at the same time were my companions! It was a glorious reunion. Being separated from your companion is never fun. We all exchanged smiles, Henrichsen cracked a joke about me "trying to run away," and we rang on the doorbell at 6:02, not a moment too soon.

The rest of the week has been an adventure in every sense of the word. I had no idea what to expect here, but it's a lot of work and responsibility. But I am loving and just accepting the renewed feeling of every new beginning. "What the heck am I doing?!" Lastly: testimony time. One thing I will forever "treasure up in my heart" as the scriptures so firmly decree, is the Word of God itself. Reading the scriptures used to be me trying to just "start a good habit" or "fulfilling an assignment," none of which are inherently bad, but I enjoy now "getting into the scriptures." With a simple prayer and determined heart, finding and learning truth through the compiled, inspired stories of others can be "enlightening" and really joyous. I love a study that I prepare myself physically and spiritually for, and I just dive in. It's like the rising of the sun. Gradually with time (and a little needed effort), God can communicate with us.

I am excited to get to know the beautiful city of Leiden, and if anyone still has more questions about what I do, I will answer your questions to the best of my ability.

You are all in my prayers.

Elder Eli Andrew

Eli Mail 9/7/15 (Spijkenisse, Netherlands) Letter 54

A good description of this week: exchanges. For a number of combined reasons, we ended up having a number of exchanges this week making for constant busyness, a good number of laughs, and the occasional case of sleep deprivation. I loved this week, and it just flew by. Things are starting to cool down here in the Netherlands, and perhaps the chilly autumn months are actually approaching! I had kind of forgotten my desire to slip on a pair of warm, slim, rain-proof gloves that I so dearly love.

Funny things can happen on missions. And we had one of those moments this past Monday. Our recent convert, Edwin, wanted to have us over for dinner, and we gladly agreed. He also talked to us about a movie he had found on the internet, as he has been happily enjoying all sorts of church productions to my surprise. But the film he started describing involved all sorts of weird events, including a plot surrounding Mormon missionaries in Africa and explosives and all sorts of interesting things. I came to the conclusion that we would first have to ask for permission before watching it with him, assuming that it wasn’t "Finding Faith in Christ." So, on Monday evening we scrambled out of the apartment to catch a bus leaving within a few minutes. As almost all of my companions know, I am kind of always "last minute" for things, and we had to pray and walk very quickly in order to catch this crucially important bus. Dutch people hate it when you are late. So, we arrived well, with another member we brought along, and Edwin invited us to sit, so we plopped ourselves down on the couch as usual. After chit-chatting for a while, he asked us again about the movie, and we told him we just didn't get around to figuring it out. To our surprise, he closed the blinds, served dinner on the coffee table, and started rolling the film. I am not sure why this story is worth telling, but I could feel it was Edwin giving us a "thank you" for everything we had helped him with, and for us helping and supporting him as he was so diligently preparing for baptism a few weeks prior. It was a fun evening, not because of the “apostate” watching of a movie, but it made me happy seeing him so joyous about enjoying his new membership in the church.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: I believe “Freetown” is the film Eli is referring to, which follows the faith-filled and courageous story of six LDS missionaries in war-torn Liberia who flee to Freetown, Sierra Leone, to continue their proselytizing.)

 A few weeks ago we were knocking some doors located close to our metro station when we finally struck a little gold with a pretty weak potential investigator that just said to “Come back another time." Well, Wednesday we spent our normal afternoon of doing look ups and just having conversations with people on the streets when I asked Elder Shelton, "Should we look up that weak potential we found?" And as a typical Elder Shelton response, he shrugged his shoulders and said, "Why not?" So, we mounted up, all three of us on our silver steeds, and went to the previously mentioned door. And yes, she was home and invited us in! One of the blessings of being in a three-man is you never have to worry about the "three-man rule," because you do have a third man! We entered cautiously into the dark, bare apartment. She told us to sit, and we started talking. To our surprise she was very open, had incredibly accurate ideas about faith despite being from a Muslim background, and had an amazing ability to discern "wordly things from important things" in life. We taught her the first lesson and all had a prayer in our hearts that she was feeling something, and we testified of gospel truth. She listened intently and was very excited about the Book of Mormon. Who would have known! Little miracles like that remind me of the power of the gospel and heart-piercing truth that enters into the sincere heart. One thing I have come to treasure on my mission is the rush of excitement I feel after teaching a powerful lesson, and after that lesson we biked home for a late 3 p.m. lunch, all smiles. 

Friday I got to enjoy an exchange with Elder Fredrico who joined the three-man with Elder Shelton and I for a day. Elder Fredrico is from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and we spent the afternoon doing what he calls "Portuguese finding." Portuguese finding involves walking around apartment complexes, looking at all the names listed we can bell up, and trying the ones that could possibly be a Spanish or Portuguese person. The conversation would go as follows: "Good afternoon, m ‘am, we are missionaries from the Mormon church and we are just talking with people today about faith. I saw your name and wanted to ask you if you speak Portuguese. Yes? Okay, Could I speak Portuguese with you?!" The rest is history and either involves a conversation about how sad Dutch weather is, religion, or that they don't really want to talk. But it was entertaining, I enjoyed it.

Love you guys a lot, thanks for all the support, and don't forget: I love receiving personal emails, so don't be shy!

   

Elder Eli Andrew

Eli Mail 8/31/15 (Spijkenisse, Netherlands) Letter 53

Hey, everyone! Here in little, old Spijkenisse we have reached the wonderful beginning and end of another week! Among notable events of the week, the greatest is our leap in transportation. We have graduated from foot travel to now somewhat decent bike travel, although we will be scrubbing our bikes with tooth brushes and Coca-Cola soon, which cleans a chain incredibly well. And for whatever reason, when you go a little while not biking, it always takes a little while getting your muscles all back into the biking groove. So, that's my analysis for y'all; we are still truckin' along.

We have had some great success this past week, including getting in contact with our baptismal date, Drusella. We have had a regular teaching schedule with her, lessons twice a week, and she has been attending church every week, but out of the blue she just disappeared. We received no answer to our phone calls. She missed church a few times, and when we would drop by there was no response to our knocks. Now, if I had to describe Drusella to my audience, that is not at all the sort of vibe you would get from her. She has an incredibly strong faith, always keeps every commitment we give her, and even cooks us a delicious Curaso rice meal we sometimes take home. But for whatever reason, we were just completely in the dark. Now me, being the worry wart that I am, didn't start panicking, but I was getting pretty uneasy by the lack of any sort of contact from her. But during our emailing last week I heard the phone ring in my pocket, and low and behold it was Drusella calling! It was an awesome miracle having her contact us and solidifying the next lesson. At church this week she leaned over and whispered to me, "Are you people getting the baptismal things ready, because it's almost September already." That one made me smile. In conclusion, our islander friend is still steady as a rock.

Wednesday we had the opportunity to have a member of the Quorum of the Seventy visit us, Elder Timothy J. Dikes. It was a great conference. At the beginning he asked for a raise of hands to see how many of the missionaries were “greenies,” and over half the chapel full of missionaries raised their hands. I don't know anyone here anymore! But his message was very much focused on overcoming fears and doing the work – a great message and great encouragement to keep working hard. He told a story when he served in Germany on his mission, about difficulties he faced, and I think it connected and was exactly what our missionary force needs at this point. Although it was not quite the message catered to me, it still applies.

Lots of good things happen daily here, one of them being the wonderful power of the Atonement. It is so cool to be able to see and become change and to watch as it transforms other people. I love how our message is centered on Christ and the simple but endearing fact that we do have second chances, and that no mistake has to be an end. We had a special dinner appointment with a young, recent convert family that lives close by. I loved hearing their story, beginning when they watched the Youtube channel "Shaytards," ordering a Book of Mormon, and getting two teenagers at the door. I also love the gospel principle that you can start from any sort background, like this family, who grew up with nothing but have now found so much more hope and happiness in their lives. I would encourage everyone to renew that feeling of happiness you enjoy from the gospel, because we all have a right to be happy in this life.

Here is a great video you may or may not have seen, and it is a great even after the hundredth view.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S3TI4bYerU

Love you guys,

Elder Eli Andrew

PHOTO: These little kids are crazy about us; they call us "Eldertjes."

PHOTO: We watched the lady make this LEKKER, a little dough patty that she rolled out, pressed in a waffle iron, then cut in half and the filled with sweet hot syrup in the middle. (Those are probably the wrong order of events, but it was cool! I had never seen one made by hand before!)

PHOTO: The band back together, for the first time in a year.

Eli Mail 8/24/15 (Spijkenisse, Netherlands) Letter 52

Well this has been your typical crazy transfer week in the Belgium/Netherlands mission! What can I say? Getting new companions, lots of traveling, figuring out new schedules, and finally settling in. This transfer day broke a new record for me. I wasn't home until 10:15 p.m.! This week was very successful and fun, especially with two new companions.

Early this week it was the bittersweet last couple of days for Elder Drinkwater. We visited a number of members and said good-bye, and I was just so impressed by how sorrowful he was leaving his first city. For clarification, it is sad having to leave, but his pure love for the members here in Spijkenisse was very special to see. Makes me want to love the people around me even more. Tuesday evening came and went, and as we arrived home we realized we had forgotten to visit the cool part-member family that we work with, Frank den B and Zr. V. Frank is just a normal guy, born here in the Netherlands and super receptive to spiritual things despite not being a member. He's a quieter type, but very personable and funny. Zr. V is a member from Costa Rice and was found a long time ago by knocking on her door. She always jokes, because wherever she goes the Church usually follows one way or another. Late that evening Elder Drinkwater called them and told them he would be leaving the next morning. To my surprise, they promptly replied, “we´re coming,” and they showed up at our door to wish Elder Drinkwater good bye. We had a nice conversation, and it was a nice surprise for Drinkwater´s last day.

I arrived in Rotterdam Centraal at 10 a.m. and started the long wait for my two new companions, Elder Henrichson and Elder Shelton. Elder Shelton was training, so I knew it would take a little while before they would actually leave Leiden because of legality stuff with the 25 new missionaries. So, I spent the whole morning/afternoon sitting on a bench and helping missionaries with their luggage occasionally. A wrench was thrown in the day when someone jumped in front a train between Rotterdam Centraal and Den Haag, so all trains were at a still stand for over an hour trying to get things back in order. It is of course a very sad thing to hear, but it was very eventful because it just made things even more exciting and crazy trying to get people to their new cities and so forth. But eventually, after an evening with the Schiedam Elders because the wait was so long, my new companions arrived around 9 p.m.! So, there you have it: my craziest transfer day yet.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. It has been really fun doing “firsts” with Elder Henrichson. For example: his first street contact, first door, first dinner appointment … the list could go on. We have been doing a lot of walking, because we don´t all have functioning bikes yet. So, I have really enjoyed swarming people on the streets in our, as Elder Shelton calls it, “tripanionship of destiny.” I am excited for this transfer. We work pretty well together and talk about all sorts of interesting world events.

At our routine dinner appointment on Thursday with the Pieplenbosch family I shared a Spiritual message that turned out to be very spiritual and applicable to them. In my studies I am busy reading the Book of Mormon now, in Dutch. It´s so awesome reading it in a different language. Different scriptures stick out for me when reading it in Dutch. But I shared with them the first two verses of 2 Nephi chapter 2. In these verses Lehi is addressing his son Jacob who was born in the wilderness. What was very cool is in verse 2, which paraphrased Lehi addressing his son, by saying that despite being born into such harsh conditions, having such a rough life, it will be for your well being and will strengthen your relationship with God. After talking and explaining the two verses we opened it for a discussion.  We asked for similar experiences where, despite hard conditions or because of difficult circumstances, they were able to draw closer to the Lord. And one of the family members said something that I have been thinking about a lot this week. He said, as translated, “We should be creators of our own circumstances, not creations of our circumstances.” So, my hope for everyone this week is that we can be agents and be 100% responsible for the results we get in life and, through that, draw closer to the Lord. It can be very tempting to push the blame on someone else, blaming our outside circumstances, looking outward when we should really be looking inward. I love this principle. It is scattered throughout 2 Nephi 2 –  being our own agents instead of being objects or "creations of our own circumstances." That's one of the great blessings of the gospel: we not only become fully responsible for our own actions but we have the difficult but incredibly rewarding responsibility to do the will of Christ also.

You are all in my thoughts and prayers daily.

Elder Eli Andrew