Eli Mail 3/30/25 (Deventer, Netherlands) Letter 35

The title of today´s letter is 1000 Steps in Darkness. A number of great things happened this week, including a very inspiring zone training, a few cool experiences, and just work as usual. As mentioned in the previous letter, conference is right around the corner so I hope everyone is getting ready.

I will begin this letter with the events of our zone training this past Tuesday. It was held in the wonderful little church building in Zwolle. I had never been to this town and thoroughly enjoyed a quick stroll through the centrum and a nice little sneak peak at classic, old buildings and the usual cobblestone roads. The zone leaders did their training on a few scriptures. Sadly, I don´t have the exact scriptures, but they compared two stories, the first being the classic story of Nephi not knowing beforehand where he must go to get the brass plates. The second story was from the Old Testament when Moses led the Israelites and had to part the Red Sea in order to escape. The beauty of the two stories was that in both cases Moses and Nephi had to take a step of faith, Moses leading the Israelites and not knowing beforehand where to go, and Nephi wandering through the gates of King Laban´s palace. In both instances you could say they both made a mistake. Noah was trapped at the shore of the sea and Nephi was eventually led to slay King Laban. The Lord provided in both instances, but it first required walking into the darkness. The zone leaders compared that to us as missionaries. We have to take steps in the darkness, talking with everyone on the streets, knocking a row of doors, not really knowing beforehand what the result will be. But eventually, just like Nephi and Moses, the Lord will provide, but it first requires those “1000 steps of darkness.”

On Wednesday we had an exchange again with the district leaders, and I was with Elder Steenblik this time. It was fun, and during the exchange all of our appointments in Deventer with Elder Clukey and Frisbee went through. It was fantastic! Two new investigators and two first lessons. We had a really cool experience that evening, too, after the exchange. It was 8 o´clock and Elder Clukey and I went out and starting doing bell ups, our usual evening activity if we don´t have a lesson. On the first row of bell ups a man came walking down the stairs and opened the door. He was a typical Dutch man, older, and we quickly did our usual introduction. He scanned us over, looking at us up and down for a moment. The conversation began again and he declared he didn´t have interest but kept talking with us. The conversation grew and I asked if I could have some water. He then walked back up the stairs and let us into his apartment. He was very happy to have guests over and treated us to a stroopwafel and a glass of water. After introductions we taught him a quick first lesson. He had already declared he wasn´t going to change but he was still open enough to listen. Eventually, I got the feeling he needed to pray. We talked about taking steps of faith for a while and invited with him to pray at that moment. I had the feeling that it was a ´do or die´ situation – he needed to decide right then if he was going to pray. The Spirit was very strong, and I knew with 100% surety that if he were to pray at that moment that God would answer his prayers. It was powerful, especially because at that moment there was no doubt or fear in my heart. I had complete confidence in Heavenly Father´s ability to answer his prayers. He eventually decided to use his agency and didn´t. But it was a learning experience nevertheless.

We have been working hard this week, even on “Sunday.” I mention Sunday because of how many reactions I have seen in Deventer to people not understanding us doing doors on the Sabbath. It´s just funny seeing how people make excuses. There never is “a good time to knock” in this country, but we will press on!

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Andrew 

PHOTO CAPTION: Deventer Centrum

BULLETS – Here are a few of Eli’s comments from some emails on 3/30/14::

·         I may have mentioned this in previous letters, but during my four and half months in Zaandam, we could see almost every plane coming into Schipol (airport) from our apartment. Now, of course some days any sign of planes was just impossible due to clouds, but on days with blue skies I loved watching them decelerating and coming down  for landing. During my time in Belgium I saw F-16 flybys all the time, too, and I loved hearing them tear through the air. So, that's been my experience with airplanes on the mission so far.

·         I won´t have to worry about drivers license stuff at all unless I become a zone leader, in which case you just swap your American and you get a Belgium one (no return on the American one, sadly, until you go home).

·         Tulips will come, don´t you worry. Easter here is the same: just eggs, the usual. They basically copycat America. Or maybe we copy them.

·         I listen to general conference in English. They have two rooms, one with translation and with just English, and I´d rather hear the power of the actual apostles´ voices.

Awesome bridje in Purmerend

Cool mailbox

Eli Mail 3/23/15 (Deventer, Netherlands) Letter 34

We had a pretty busy week here in Deventer – a few uphills and slight downhills – but everything is working out great. I'm excited to see that spring has had its official start, so let's start pushing for the warm summer again!

I haven't mentioned this yet but we have a senior couple here in Deventer, and every Monday they host a Family Home Evening and every Friday an Institute of Religion class. They're a wonderful senior couple, Elder and Sister Kleyn, and I love their great company here in Deventer. (Interesting side note: Elder Kleyn was born in Zaandam! They are Americans at heart but Elder Kleyn has Dutch roots). I love Institute. We are currently in Doctrine and Covenants, and I find it quite interesting – all the little gold mines that are in there. It's also a great place to bring investigators, too – a comfortable environment with a good amount of members.

Elder Clukey and I had a pretty cool miracle this past Wednesday. During our first couple days together we found a potential in a more rich neighborhood. I had voted to just stop and move somewhere else because of the lack of success, but Elder Clukey urged us forward, determined to just try every door. It paid off when we got a potential, a women at the door who had friends in the states who are Mormon. We talked about families and said we'd return the next week. The next week came and we pulled up on our bikes and approached the front door. She opened it to our surprise and ushered us both in. Elder Clukey and I both exchanged glances as we stepped in the front door. She told us a lot about her life, how despite everything Christ was there for her. It was quite inspiring – a women who had drawn closer to Heavenly Father during challenges instead of blaming God and distancing herself from Him. That's a big step of faith, trusting God, especially when things seemingly don't get easier. We taught her a fairly good first lesson and she gladly accepted a Book of Mormon. All in all a wonderful experience, until we got the sad news that she wanted more time, a month to be exact, before we can contact her again. But who knows what will happen!

This past Friday was some Nederland thing called "Nederland doet" or something of the sort. Basically, the whole mission got to do service on Friday. It was great! Our district was assigned to go to Eschede to read to old people all afternoon. We all arrived and no one was there for the first hour, so we got to basically just talked and cracked jokes until the librarians were all ready. It was an interesting experience going to a nursing home with lots of old people just staring at you. There was a weird sort of quietness there, and the usual weird hospital smell. I mostly just had a conversation with my old person, who had lived in Australia for many years. I had found a Harley Davidson picture book in the library and entertained him with some good old Wisconsin fame, but we ended up mostly just talking. I asked him for life advice, just to see what he would say. His reply was to "find a job." He had started working at the age of 14 and hadn't stopped since, and he said the most important thing was finding a job. I could certainly argue that a little bit, but it certainly is important to find your place in the work force.

Last note for the week is the miraculous difficulty of getting to church yesterday. We caught our normal 8:30 bus and arrived at the station to meet our newly baptized Chinese student, Alice. We waited there for the train but were disappointed when the train was canceled. In fact, we quickly discovered that almost all the trains for that day had been canceled! I suppose Satan didn't want us at church or something. So we had to get a ride to church (thank you zone leaders) and were an hour late. Later that day we found out the sad news: a train had hit a car somewhere in between Deventer and Apeldoorn.

PHOTO CAPTION: De treinen zijn allemaal kapot! (Translation: The trains are all broken.)

I've been enjoying reading General Conference talks in preparation for this coming General Conference, and I hope everyone else is getting excited too! Have a wonderful week everyone! 

Elder Andrew

PHOTO CAPTION: Alice, who was baptized during Eli’s first week in Deventer.

Eli Mail 3/16/15 (Deventer, Netherlands) Letter 33

My first week in Deventer is officially in the books! This week I was pleased to see the sun shine for about three or even four days in a row. It was unbelievable! I had just forgotten how buildings cast shadows and how warm the sun on your face feels. The three or so months of cloudiness has just really brain washed me, apparently. But anyway, we had a slower week these past seven days. Nothing bad, but Elder Clukey and I have been just getting in the rhythm of things.

We have a few solid investigators, one of which is a family of seven from the little Dutch territory of Curaçao. [Editor’s note: Curaçao is an island located off the north coast of South America near the western part of Venezuela.] The wife and the husband are kind of gangsters almost, loaded up with tattoos and all sorts of crazy stories, but yet have a soft spot for the Gospel. The husband was explaining the amount of heat in Curaçao by comparing skin tones with mine. He explained that he used to be as white as me, but simply living in the Carribean for a few years will permanently make you darker. I could only laugh at the experience. I've only met with them once, but I really enjoy their humility and praise of God, something you don't always come across.

Due to my companion and one of the district leaders needing to go to Belgium, I got to enjoy an exchange with Elder Frisby, the only other Wisconsin missionary in the mission. We had a blast together. He's a convert to the church (baptized in 2011) and discovered the church due to his love of philosophy. I enjoyed listening to his vast knowledge of just about everything you could a imagine. Doing work during the day was fun; he's very fresh and lively at the door, and you could sense the people felt our energy together. It really showed the power of unity, when you can just set aside your differences and just have a good time. We finished the evening off with re-arranging the loft, located on the third story of the apartment, and drinking a very delicious Dr. Pepper from the UK. The soda isn't the same here – I miss my Dad's soda shop back home!

Other than that, the weeks are filled with the typical variety of finding, teaching and, at some point, baptizing. We had a really cool challenge given by the district leaders this week, and that was to invite at least one person a day to baptism. To some, that may sound like a disaster, but when we would focus on the promise part of the ordinance, not the physical manifestation, I was pleasantly surprised by the reactions I received (people would say, yes, to making a promise with Heavenly Father).

My apologies for the briefness of the letter, but I love my mission, and I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Eli Andrew

 BULLETS – Here are a few of Eli’s comments in some emails on 3/16/14:

·         The apartment is great. I especially love the hilarious style of the building. I just laughed when I first saw it … another crazy-looking apartment. I can even see the bus stop from my window, and if I zoom in my camera on it I can see the times the bus will be leaving.

·         We live in a pretty nice part of town, whether that's for good or worse. The richer Dutch people are more stubborn, sadly. (But I still love it!)

·         Elder Clukey also had a head cold this first week we were together and then I got a very mild version of it for a couple days, but nothing too serious.

·         I've been fighting off a lot of preconcieved notions lately. If you let yourself think certain ways about your area, you are a lot less likely to see success, so I'm just shoving the doubts down the drain.

·         I had an interesting conversation about root beer with my Ward Mission Leader this past Sunday. He just got off of his mission two years ago to England and told me about his first experience with root beer. As he said, "It tasted like tooth paste!" But he liked it the more and more he tried it. He also said that Europe has no idea about putting ice cream inside of soda. Completely unheard of here, apparently. Weird, isn't it?

Eli Mail 3/9/15 (Deventer, Netherlands) Letter 32

Wow, it feels like I haven't sent an email for quite a while, but it really has only been a week, apparently. I hear talk of possible warm weather ahead in Wisconsin, and I know the Netherlands is right ahead of the curve, so there definitely is light at the end of the tunnel. This week was quite crazy with the hustle of transfers, crazy trains and starting in a new city, so I'll hop right into it.

Elder Da Silva and I waited all Sunday evening, slightly on edge, in case of an "unexpected" call. Finally 9:20 p.m. rolled around, and we assumed we were safe. But the slightly heart-breaking call did come, and I received the bittersweet news that I'd be leaving. The last two days were a rush of visits and packing, including my last few appointments with investigators. (Sometimes you can get away with scheduling more appointments with people if they know you're leaving. It's mostly just a nice way to get people progressing and such). Wednesday morning rolled around, and I had a blast getting to my new area. I saw my trainer and a few old companions for the first time in months, which was great, and we even went out for ice cream in Utrecht Centraal to celebrate the reunion. My new companion is Elder Clukey. He's just finished with his first couple transfers, and I'm what they call his "breaker." (Breaking him from his trainer). Clukey is a fun guy out of Maine, 18 years old like me, with a lot of fun energy and a geeky side, which is nice change of pace. We do pretty well together thus far, and I'm really excited for what the future holds this transfer.

Now, Deventer. Not too big, but I love it. When I got here, I could not believe how quiet it got during the evening. I'm so used to busy Amsterdam lights and all sorts of business, and when I arrived here I discovered very quickly that the city goes to sleep at around 7:30. No one is outside, and most people don't even answer the door – crazy! But it's good. We just have to keep ourselves busy and work smart with the evenings. Another highlight of Deventer is that we have a "jovo centrum," which is basically the really nice home of a missionary senior couple where we hold weekly family home evenings and institute on Mondays and Fridays.

PHOTO CAPTION: The deck to Elder Andrew’s apartment in this interestingly designed building in Deventer can be seen two levels up directly above the mailboxes.

We had a really awesome miracle on Saturday when our investigator, Alice, was baptized! Now, it's kind of a long story with her, but basically she was found almost a year ago by the Deventer Elders, but later in the fall she moved to Zaandam where I began to teach her. She's a Chinese student here just for studying and job opportunities but who agreed to talk to the missionaries when approached at the door. I don't know if I ever mentioned her in my weekly letters in Zaandam, but I loved her humble prayers and deep desire to find out if there really is a God. It was super interesting and a new challenge to teach an a Chinese person, someone who grew up with no concept of God at all. A few weeks ago I found out that she had moved back to Deventer, and I called the Deventer Elders just to check up on her, and I was happy to hear she had a baptismal date. Fast forward to this Sunday afternoon of last week: I felt like I should call her, so I did. I told her I was really excited for her, and it was a nice check up. That evening I received the call that I would be transfered to Deventer. I don't think it was coincidince at all. It was a pretty incredible miracle that I got moved there right in time for her baptism. Super cool experience. That was the miracle of this week, the much anticipated baptism of Alice (that's her English name, FYI) that I got to be present for.

PHOTO CAPTION: Elder Andrew’s ward building in Apeldoorn is likely where Alice’s baptism took place.

I'm loving Deventer and am looking forward to learning this town frontwards and backwards. Sorry, I didn't have much time to write you all this week, but I hope this will suffice! Love you all. Have a great week!

Elder Andrew

Eli Mail 3/2/15 (Zaandam, Netherlands) Letter 31

Before I get started I'll probably just get it out of the way. We got phone calls again last night, and guess what? Yes, that's right, I will be leaving beautiful little Zaandam. I enjoyed this week a lot, but sadly my mind was caught up in the fear that it would be my last.The exciting news is that I'm going to Deventer, very close to Apeldoorn. I don't know much about it except that it is a student city.

Monday evening we enjoyed an appointment with our new Nigerian investigator, Simeon. I'm not sure if I mentioned him in my last email, but he just moved to Zaandam for the next five years to find work, learn the language, and hopefully lead a better life. During the appointment he told us a little bit about his back story and his complete loss of family, aside from his brother who he has no contact with and who is still in Nigeria. But it was amazing how Heavenly Father was still looking out for him and how prayer really blessed his life. Halfway during the lesson he declared in his big, deep voice, "dinners ready," so we all sat up to the table as he dished out a big plate of a starch-based goo with a pot of chicken wing soup. I've learned how to eat somewhat like an African, and the biggest mistake you can make is by eating with your left hand. I won't tell you why, expect for the little hint that they don't use toilet paper in Nigeria. But anyway, by the end of the surprisingly delicious meal I had not really eaten any of the chicken because there really wasn't any chicken on it – mostly just skin and other interesting proteins. Simeon looked at us both, Elder Da Silva and I, and asked us if we were going to eat our chicken or not. We exchanged glances and quickly starting gnawing at the chicken, almost eating the bones themselves (Simeon did!). It was just a great evening, and he felt the Spirit strong enough by the end of the lesson to accept a baptismal invitation. So, that was really cool.

The following day we enjoyed a wonderful zone conference in Zoetemeer. There were a number of great talks given, but perhaps the interesting highlight would be that we got to enjoy the movie, "Meet the Mormons." It was a fun movie, I really enjoyed the stories, and it was a pleasant surprise to all of us. We also watched a few clips of missionaries in our mission who got to be on TV. They were hilarious, and seeing my MTC companion on the big screen was just hilarious and awesome.

(EDITOR’S NOTE #1: The TV clip of Eli’s MTC companion, Ben Steenblik, the tall one, on Belgian TV is here:http://www.fansofflanders.be/Channels/Special%20Guest/29_January_2015/14012015_Mormons#disqus_thread  (His companion is Elder Cockbain.)

(EDITOR’S NOTE #2: information about the film Meet the Mormons: http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/meet-the-mormons-movie-on-cable-video-on-demand  )

I must give a quick honorable mention to Sister Nichols, an American member from Chicago, who, upon much anticipation (and coordination with my mother) made American cinnamon rolls for my last dinner appointment. So, thank you, Mom, for sending the recipe! 

We had a really cool miracle on Wednesday. I was kind of feeling the need to change things up a little during the afternoon, and I didn't want to just do normal street contacting in Zaandam, so we decided to head over to the nearby town of Purmerend. After walking the centrum for a while we wound up finding ourselves walking into a back alley area with a row of houses that could only be accessed by climbing up a flight of stairs. We shrugged and decided to just go for it. At about the sixth house in or so, a little lady and her small son opened the door. Upon seeing the child I immediately directed our message towards families. After a short conversation and her shivering in the cold, she invited us in. We stood in the living room, not sure where this was really going to go when she mentioned that her mother had passed away the previous week. The room was immediately filled with the Spirit as she explained how she had been thinking a lot about life and religion, and she firmly declared that it could not have been by coincidence that we arrived at the door. She listened openly as we brought up points of the Plan of Salvation and invited her to read the Book of Mormon. It was a sweet and tender experience, and it reminded me that we need to always stand open for the promptings of the Spirit, because people in the world need it.

I love you guys a lot and look forward to a new city with lots of new adventures awaiting me! Thanks for those who emailed me this week. Loved hearing from you. Have a good week!

Elder Andrew

PHOTO CAPTION: A church member in The Netherlands sent this surprise Sunday/sundae picture of Eli during a dinner appointment.