Eli Mail 6/29/15 (Deventer, Netherlands) Letter 45

Hello everyone! We had another solid seven days here in Deventer, a lot of good contact with investigators, including some of our Chinese investigators that seemed to disappear, having a month of exams, and I think Elder Tolman and I have also just been taking full benefit of the amount of sun we are receiving lately. Oh, and how could I forget?? My one-year mark!!

Among other events, we had great contact with our investigator, Kenny. The great thing about him is his open willingness. He struggles a little putting the willingness into action but is completely receptive to the Spirit. He has kind of a rough background too, as he opened up to us this past Saturday during our lesson. Towards the end of the lesson he told us how he wants to look good when he comes to church with us, because of the obvious difference with everyone else wearing their “Sunday best,” but that he had never worn a dress shirt or tie in his life. His statement took me a little by surprise, and he told us further about how after the age of 15 he had to take care of himself; no one ever told him how to dress or anything – he just simply learned on his own. He got involved with the wrong crowd when he was young, just swept away in the breeze, although always knowing it was bad for him. We went through a few of the baptismal interview questions with him and later discussed about discerning between light and darkness, and it became very apparent to me that he has definitely had help from the Lord, in one way or another. And I believe that qualifies for all of us, too. Just not everyone recognizes the source. Another touching thing he said was about how “it is really painful to make a mistake, and then make the same mistake repeatedly, over and over.” He was referring to smoking here, but it has been remarkable to see Kenny recognize the light of the gospel that has been increasing in his life. We had him on date for baptism for the 4th of July, but we instead replaced that date as the date to stop completely with smoking, which felt much more comfortable for him rather than squeezing in a load of material and commitments in such a short time. To keep it short, Kenny is remarkably sincere and has, as the Book of Mormon describes, “no desire to do evil,” which I admire greatly.

Other than Kenny, we have also had a number of other cool miracles, one of which took place this past Thursday. We had planned to meet with our two Chinese investigators at about 7, but after a number of texts throughout the day the lesson kept getting pushed back later and later. I was a little doubtful of the whole thing, but it turned out fine when we turned the corner to the student housing at the newly appointed time, 8:30. To our pleasant surprise, Zhou, our sassy Chinese investigator who refuses to use an English name, brought along another small Chinese person with him. As we walked up the stairs of the student housing, he quickly informed us he had a lot of questions for us and was wanting to become Christian. How cool is that? We didn´t have much time to start diving into a full lesson. I always struggle knowing whether or not to do the first or second lesson with Chinese people. It’s a matter of answering important, relevant questions but equally requiring lots of explaining and some amount of crisscrossing into the other lesson. So, we just had small talk and talked about some of his questions. It was amazing! He started throwing out these questions, no Joke! “Where do we come from?” and “Where are we going after this life?” and “Why do we experience so many hard things in life?” and “Why are there so many churches today?” Elder Tolman and I smiled at each other in pure excitement and utter surprise when he started rattling through his very deep, soul-searching questions and listening for our answers.

Other than that, we worked hard – did a lot of street contacting and contacting people while riding our bikes. As mentioned in Week 14´s letter, the Apeldoorn Zone Leaders have been teaching a Spanish lady here in Deventer that may or may not have a very cool story attached to it involving us Deventer Elders! Surprises!! But, that will have to wait until next week.

Love you all and have a fantastic Fourth of July!! It will be my first and only Fourth of July not in the States! “Gelukkig!”

Elder Eli Andrew

Eli Mail 6/22/15 (Deventer, Netherlands) Letter 44

Hey, friends and family! It's super exciting to have summer really starting to roll, now. It's been surprisingly mild here, but I'm okay with that since this country doesn't have air conditioning. We had a pretty successful week here in Deventer filled with lots of bike riding, a solid amount of teaching, and also very healthy eating.

We had a number of cool things happen this week, one of which was being taking a train ride down to work in Zutphen, a city comparable in size, and also beauty, to Deventer. I have barely worked there at all, which is kind of cool because it just opens up a whole city 1for missionary work. We walked around, had a few decent conversations with people, and eventually resorted to belling or buzzing people up – nothing too special. I have seen a surprising amount of success from it (bell-ups), and when we push the little button in we generally have a 40% chance that we will hear the click of the front door, indicating they let you in the building. It sounds sketchy, and perhaps it is, but you generally climb a few flights of stairs and meet the person and introduce yourself right at their apartment doorstep, and then it just turns into a normal door approach. The beauty of it is that you contact people who generally have not been contacted before. It is a double-edged sword, because you may climb about five flights of stairs for someone who sees the nametag and immediately has no interest. Overall, we get a few great potentials just from doing these "bell-ups" every once in a while.

PHOTO CAPTION: See Zutphen in relation to Deventer.

This past Friday we had the Assistants to the President over for a short, five-hour blitz, in which both companionships exchanged and worked with each other for a few hours. Elder Amos and I were in the car, but we discovered that the electronic way of paying for parking in the Netherlands wasn't working for us, so we spent almost an hour just trying to find free parking. It was quite funny. We had a very good exchange, and I learned a lot from him, just from the style of how he works and conversationally. This week we also met several times with Kenny, who still has a baptismal date for July 4th. We had daily contact with him, whether it was texting or a lesson, so that made it especially meaningful to him. We taught him the word of wisdom with the Deventer senior couple, and we discovered he has started smoking again since he arrived here in Deventer around three months ago. I, being a little inexperienced in how to go about a problem like this, was very pleased with the advice the senior couple, the Kleijns, gave him. They spent time also as "addiction recovery missionaries" so their advice and testimony was crucial and really had an impact on Kenny.

Other than that, things have been pretty normal here. We have a large number of new Elders coming in these next two transfers, along with the new mission President, so we have that to look forward to. I have loved my time with President Robinson. He and his wife have shaped and influenced me in countless ways. I will never forget the advice Sister Robinson gave about always having a strong testimony about the Book of Mormon, how we need to spend at least 15 minutes a day in it, along with many other precious things I have learned from their example.

Have a great week, everyone!

Love,

Elder Eli Andrew

Eli Mail 6/15/15 (Deventer, Netherlands) Letter 43

Hello, everyone!! The sun is shining this beautiful Monday morning, and I am excited to write to you guys about this week's events.

I have to start with the most exciting part of the week: we had an investigator in Church! It was super awesome. We met twice this past week with him, Kenny, and we got the help needed from a member to give him a ride. When we met with him this past Friday, we told him it would show his willingness to Heavenly Father, along with reading and other commitments, and he gladly agreed. We were a little set back, though, when he told us he had no means of getting there. Despite living a 30-second walk from the train station, he didn't have the money or means to get a train ticket. We told him we'd work something out (I was personally willing to spend my own money to buy a ticket) but it all worked out when a willing member agreed to give him a ride. What stunned me also was to see how the service and talks given seemed to be almost exactly directed toward what he needed to hear – messages centered around repentance and faith in Christ. After church we had a brief discussion together, and I'm positive he had a Spiritual experience, just because of the number of times he would tell me things he liked from the talks. Right from the start this guy's intention has been to follow Christ, and he's definitely feeling the joy and warm feelings that go along with becoming a disciple of Christ and a willing heart. I'm just super grateful to be able to see people change. "We have a front row seat at the Atonement of Jesus Christ" as one missionary booklet declares, and I affirm that statement.

PHOTO CAPTION: Elder Tolman and I after a rainy day!

Going along with great and rewarding experiences, about two weeks ago Elder Tolman and I stopped a lady while walking over a bridge. We quickly found out she spoke very little Dutch and was from the Dominican Republic. This little, dark skinned woman excitedly gave us her phone number and address and stood up on her tippy-toes. I instinctively bent down as I received a big old kiss on the cheek. It was super funny and unexpected at the moment, and Elder Tolman just accepted it also and bent down as she went for the kiss. We called later and set up an appointment for this past Friday, and Elder Argueta and I (he is the zone leader in Apeldoorn and, helpfully, speaks Spanish) taught her on an exchange. After I found out what happened during the lesson, it was incredible! She said she had been praying and had a dream in which she knew God was going to call her soon. And a couple of days later, my companion and I contacted her. She said she felt very strongly that it was from Christ and no coincidence. She even called us that evening to tell us she had been reading in the Book of Mormon and was almost crying and she didn't know why! Best of all, she came to Church this Sunday, also.

This week has been a real blessing, and I've been enjoying the sweet pleasure of hard work and noticing Heavenly Father blessing us in seen and also unseen ways. I've been taking more time lately to reflect. And what I have noticed from times of reflection is that we are better able to see how God has blessed us in our daily lives. I have a strong testimony about the importance of finding ways to remember and recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives. It will make us more grateful, and trying to remember will allow the Holy Ghost to bring a lifetime of blessings back into our remembrance. So, my challenge for all of you this week is to find a way or spend time to notice and remember the hand of the Lord.

With love,

Elder Eli Andrew

Eli Mail 6/8/15 (Deventer, Netherlands) Letter 42

Hello everyone! Another week has concluded here in Deventer as we roll into another action packed week. We had a pretty solid week, we got a lot of work done and had a number of very cool small miracles.

 

One of these miracles happened this past Tuesday. We had a late dinner that evening and when we left the apartment we only had about an hour to work, not including biking time. We did some look-ups and then started biking around the area for a bit. Upon seeing a young teenage looking kid I stopped my bike quickly and carefuly, as to not alarm the boy, and started the contact. We were all smiles with this 20 year old kid, and introduced ourselves as "2 volunteers out of America" because the teenagers here love and are totally perplexed seeing Americans here. As the conversation progressed, we discovered that he was not only religious, but participated in studies and other church activities. For whatever reason, I started explaining and expounding upon Christ's early church when he asked about us, and about the need for a Restoration. After a little bit of explanation, he looked up at the sky, then back down at us, deep in thought. I was a little nervous about the sudden silence and almost opened my mouth to begin babbling again but I just decided to wait for him. After another moment or so, he looked in my eyes and said, "Thank you". Whatever I said about the need of a restoration left a sounding and surprisingly strong resolve that we could see in his eyes. Earlier in the conversation, we attempted to get information out of him to try to share our message but he wasn't too enthusiastic about it. But after this moment he quickly pulled out a sheet of scratch paper and starting writting something down, and asked us if we could stay in contact with eachother. We will see what happens with this guy but it was cool to see the Spirit just make things "click" in his brain, I think that's one of the great gifts of the Spirit, enlightenment.

 

On a bit of the other side of things, we had a little unfortunate event happen this week, and yes, it involves bikes. For those of you who don't know, on one of my first days with Elder Tolman I had a very unfortunate accident. We were just doing our normal ride back home when all of the sudden I hear an loud "pop", I looked around me in an attempt to find the source of the shotgun blast when I noticed that it was my tire. I knew my bike was in bad repair, but I still continued on, just biking at a very slow pace, when the entire bike wheel gave out! I finally gave in because I knew repairing the bike would be nearly 100 Euros so the next day I went searching for a new bike, and found a pretty decently used one for a very resonable price. But as luck would have it, we rolled out of our apartment this morning and I discovered that I have another flat tire! It's a very unfortunate turn events, and I'm sad to admit that I'm currently on my 3rd bike now! It's not so bad afterall, but I just wanted to mention it because of how memorable the tire exploding sound was, it was awesome!

 

Things are going great here in Deventer, we didn't have a lesson with our baptismal date, Kenny, but hopefully we can make some ground with him this week. We are also doing a lot of street contacting, which I love. It's super funny and interesting seeing how people react to us on the streets. Elder Tolman is doing great too, his Chinese is coming along just dandy.

 

Love,

 

Elder Andrew

Eli Mail 6/1/15 and 5/26/15 (Deventer, Netherlands) Letters 40 & 41

6-01-15

My goodness, another week in the bag!! This was a pretty exciting week, with crazy activities ranging from being at Schipol airport (scary!) to tromping through the beating rain on Sunday evening. 

This past Tuesday was Elder Da Silva's last day on this mission. After district meeting we basically just contacted around while attempting to finish up a number of last minute activities before he left. The weird highlight of the day was when we contacted this man about to get on his bike while someone else came up to us during the conversation and also attempted to talk to us. It was super strange, the second man approached and posed the question, "Have you found God?" I wasn't sure if it was sincerity or just utter sarcasm, but Elder Da Silva and I looked at each other very confusedly after it was all finished and done. It was the second time that had happened, too. The weird people in this world!

Transfer Wednesday finally arrived, and we left the apartment at 7:30 and I didn't get back until around 4:30! It was an insane day of travel; I was in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, and all sorts of stations in between. At one train stop I realized in a split second that I was getting off and Elder Da Silva was leaving. The moment came strangely fast and unexpectedly, and I had to give him a last good bye before the train doors closed a moment later.

My new companion, Elder Tolman, and I had a good first day, too, when we set up two appointments in one evening. Elder Tolman was called Chinese speaking on top of Dutch. His ancestors and parents are all Dutch, so I guess they just decided to throw another language on him. Pretty funny. We had a couple of Chinese friends already, and we had a very good appointment Sunday evening with two of them. Chinese people are so different to teach. The two girls we taught had no concept of God, so we had to start at the very basic level, more basic than I thought was possible. But it turned out to be very spiritual, and they both opened up to us and even one of them admitted to us, "I want to believe; it's just hard." We have a return appointment this week where we will also be making Sushi (Japanese food, I know), so I'm very excited.

Thanks for all of the love and support. Enjoy the warm beginning of summer, everyone, and I'm thinking and praying for you all.

PHOTO CAPTIONS: Eli at a district meeting.

5-26-15

Hello everyone! This last week with Elder Da Silva has been very special – not just this week, but the whole transfer has been just awesome, spent with laughs and answered prayers. I'm still in the process of replying to the emails from my birthday, so don't be worried if you haven't received or heard anything yet. It's coming. I would also like to apologize for a random Tuesday letter. The Dutch have a wonderful talent for extending vacations through the weekend and into the next week for whatever reason, so we didn't have time to access the library.

I'll start the letter off with this past Wednesday, my birthday! We had a wonderful plan set for the day, including a lesson with a Brazilian woman name Isabel. This "Isabel" lady has actually a pretty funny story. We just found her while calling old potentials from a potential list from 2007 or something like that. We ended up calling her number, and she was pretty suspicious at first but eventually became very interested in us. Well, more specifically, Elder Da Silva (since he was the one speaking Portuguese). They talked on the phone for over an hour and a half! And she told us her whole life story and was taking a very weird interest in Elder Da Silva, from what he told me. But yeah, long story short we never actually got to meet her, but it was still funny because she nearly fell in love with Elder Da Silva over the phone. But we went out and worked anyways and had a short exchange with the zone leaders, with plans to return to Deventer for a "mensen 6" [six person] dinner appointment with our recently baptized member, Alice.

I don't know why this always happens, but whenever I'm with Elder Argueta, something weird or amazing always happens. I was with Elder Argueta in Apeldoorn, and during this exchange we had both. We went to go teach a lesson with an African man, which was supposed to be a quick little Restoration lesson that ended being, you guessed it: a drug party! More people arrived in this tiny, decaying apartment while we were teaching, and the room quickly became filled with smoke, and I could feel myself getting dizzier by the minute. It was just a bad atmosphere, literally and figuratively, and I felt as though I was back in Amsterdam. Hah! But our day was like the storm before the calm, and afterwards we got let in on a bell-up in an apartment complex and taught a Restoration lesson to a very chill, somewhat religious Dutch kid (who wasn't "under the influence" thank-goodness)! He was very eager and interested in our message – very exciting. My birthday was concluded with a very pleasant dinner appointment that included a wonderful assortment of spicy Chinese dishes and pleasant conversation with our Deventer senior couple and the other Apeldoorn missionaries. It was a pretty good birthday.

Now, to our big miracle of the week. I've attempted to describe the work here in Deventer in the past as a roller coaster, with ups and downs. One missionary told me another analogy, too, as when a truck is stuck on ice and is attempting to get traction, it sometimes takes a few wheel spins before the tires actually catch, and I think the work here in Deventer caught some good traction this week. On an exchange with Elder Steenblik a Friday or so ago (yes, the exchange in which I left the keys and phone in the apartment, which I usually never let happen!), I decided to do my usual stroll through Deventer, avoiding main pedestrian travel points and walking along more of the outer rim of the Centrum, closer to modern shopping areas and ATMs to avoid the huge influx of elderly people and catch the younger population walking to and from college, when we finally struck gold! We stopped a guy, the second person of the day, a 20’s looking kid who appeared to have some sort of South American/slightly European descent. We stopped him, had a quick conversation, smiled, and to our surprise he set his bags on the ground and told us sincerely, "Yeah, I would actually really like that” (to talk about God). We exchanged numbers right then and there and went on our way (after informing us he was from Portugal and also spoke Portuguese). That next day I felt like we shouldn't wait and we just called him right then and there. We set an appointment and taught an awesome Restoration lesson. He admitted to us that he had been wanting to talk with someone about God for a while and that he knew it wasn't coincidence we met. So, we taught him the second lesson later in the week, and he told us of his real desire just to follow Christ, and we set a baptismal date which he gladly accepted. The lessons have been all in Portuguese but I was still able to follow along (to some degree) and taught in Dutch when it was my turn. He's a super cool guy, named Kenny, and I'm excited to see what the future holds.

Tomorrow, Elder Da Silva goes home, so we are going to have a late night of packing tonight. What's crazy is that his family never received his itinerary, so if he hadn't checked his email today he would have arrived in the airport in Salvador to no one! But luckily things are all worked out. My next companion will be Elder Tolman who I predicted would be my next comp! He's got Dutch parents I believe and was called here, Chinese speaking, so we're going to practice some Chinese this coming transfer. I'm loving my mission and excited for the future. Have a good week everyone!

Love,

Elder Eli Andrew