Eli Mail 1/23/16 (Leiden, Netherlands) Letter 66

Hey, everyone! Another week decided to go by again. It’s getting harder to put the brakes on that kind of stuff. I don't have much time this bright Saturday morning, but I do have some thoughts and experiences I would love to share with you all. A correct title for this week's letter would be "Bitter or Better." These past two weeks have entailed a number of good teaching opportunities and a number of learning opportunities, one of which is from a museum we visited this past Saturday.

One pattern that I have recognized in myself and I am sure others too, is having the courage to let go. Letting go – meaning frankly forgiving others and ourselves. Everyone, meaning every person who has or ever will ever walk this planet (except for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ), will have hard or negative feelings about someone else. Like two little children who have a warm dispute with one another, we still do that as God's little children wandering about the Earth. This past week we had the opportunity to visit the "Corrie Ten Boom" house in Haarlem. It was kind of like the Anne Frank house, but much cooler and has a way better story, in my opinion. There was a lot of hiding going on when the Nazis were terrorizing the Netherlands, and in one Christian home they put six people in a very small stow-away room closed off by a home-made wall to avoid slave labor camps. I won't tell the whole story, but one the survivors lived on (they all lived, by the way, despite being crammed and starved in a little hole for 42 hours) and thanked God continually for the miracle in preserving her life. This girl continued her life, forever scarred, but instead of turning inwards and being selfish shared her survival story, leaving the simple invitation to people to believe in God and His miracles among His children. At one point, the tour guide said that she had the choice to either "be bitter or be better" from the situation. This girl could have had been so bitter and full of hate from terrible Nazi war experiences, but instead she gave the glory to God and "let go" of her tendencies to even hold so much as a grudge. How about true character right there? When people willingly choose to release the hard, natural tendencies in their hearts and replace them with love and good works, something incredible takes place in the heart of the individual – namely, solace, peace of conscience, and true satisfaction. It is our choice. Will we be"bitter"? Or do we become "better"? I invite all of you, if you have any hard feelings towards others, even your worst of enemies (as we are always instructed to love our enemies) to pray about them and to reconcile yourself with God about these feelings. I know that Christ can heal every aching wound inside of us. He knows exactly how it feels after all. I have seen that in my own life – choosing to overcome such feelings allows us to remove ourselves from the gloomy past and see the bright new dawn on the horizon, all thanks to God.

This week has entailed a lot of busy office work and good ol' missionary work, of course. My companion and I were sitting the church building at 8 p.m. last week, waiting nervously to see if our lesson with a newer investigator was going to go through or not. Low and behold, it did. J, a 23-year-old Christian guy showed up. He had read and deeply thought about the pamphlet! We reviewed it and taught a powerful first lesson, with a lot of interaction between the three of us, explaining the pictures of the first lesson. He even had the courage to pray for us, the real step of faith from the lesson. In that prayer he said, "Please bless me as I discover this new path the Elders are showing me." That left such a strong feeling when that line came out of his mouth it was hard to open my eyes when we said amen.

Continue to be great everyone, let me know how you are all doing too! I love hearing from you.

Elder Eli Andrew

PHOTO CAPTION: At the Corrie Ten Boom house in Haarlem.

Eli Mail 1/9/16 (Leiden, Netherlands) Letter 65

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is having a great week! Us office Elders have been doing well. My companion Elder Evans only has three weeks, but you would not be able to tell. He's great and still rockin' and rollin’.

A number of things happened this week, but I want to highlight the best moments of the week. First off, we had a wonderful little miracle this past Tuesday at our bi-monthly "games night." Elder Evans organized a bi-monthly activity with games and treats and all the YSA kids from around north and south Holland come together to have listen to a little spiritual message and then play board games and similar activities. In the past few months, the attendance has wavered quite dramatically. One time we had around 15-20 youth from around the stake come, and then another we had three. But this time we had a nice average at about six to seven. We did the spiritual thought and then started playing as usual, but during the first initial 15 minutes the phone kept buzzing, indicating received text messages, but I just ignored it. But 10 minutes later an older Dutch woman showed up at the door to the room we were playing with a girl behind her, telling us she had gotten lost on the way trying to find the church. Evidently, one our student investigators read a mass text we sent out earlier that day and went out to find the church by herself! She had gotten horribly lost and had texted us for help, but I had simply ignored the buzzing! I felt so bad, but my companions and I warmly greeted her and we had a good evening of games together. She had wound up by another church, the apostolic church, and her over-sized tandem bike broke down on the way, but she was diligent and showed up! I was very impressed, and it was a cool blessing to see her desire to come to the church on a Tuesday evening just for a good atmosphere and games! It was a great evening.

This week we have done pretty well with the work. Sadly, most of our planned lessons haven't been working out and contact with our solid investigators has been slipping lately, but I am hopeful to keep things on track and make more time to call and visit people. Our legality Belgium trip yesterday became very memorable, perhaps not for the best of reasons either, but memorable none the less. Friday morning Elder Cook and I were trying to think of some way to "change up" the Brussels trip, make it a little more exciting. We attempted to think of some pranks, or anything for that matter, but nothing came to mind so we just carried out plans as normal. We all left at around 9:40 a.m. and arrived like normal around noon in Brussels. After finding our usual underground parking lot, we all piled out and walked around Brussels centrum for lunch, eating fries and waffles as we always do. After about an hour, we all met up again and headed back to the car. I walked over to the side door, and Elder Cook climbed in the front seat, and one of the new missionaries was just staring at his door. Elder Cook saw him and exclaimed, "What the heck?!" I was ruffling around in my bag in the back seat and shot my head to the front of the car at the sound of his surprise. As I climbed over the seat and looked at the front passenger side door I saw glass all over the seat and ground. We had been robbed! Turns out someone smashed in our side window and stole our GPS out of our glove compartment. It was weird, but they left everything else – our gas cards and spare change – just taking the GPS. We spent the rest of the afternoon filing damage reports and then spent a few hours waiting in line at the Brussels police department to report the accident. It was a crazy, weird Brussels trip. Perhaps Elder Cook and I should not wish for more crazy things to happen like that again. We didn't even get to do the legality work either, but it was a memorable trip. Elder Cook miraculously guided us home, from Brussels all the way to Leiden, Nederland, without a GPS. I was very impressed.

Anyway, I am loving things out here! The days are still pretty wintry and dark, but I am finding a lot of joy in what us missionaries do, inviting others unto Christ, and I hope you all continue daily to invite yourselves unto Christ. It will help you inherit what D&C 88:19 describes: "crowned with glory, even with the presence of God the Father."

Have a wonderful week.

Elder Eli Andrew

Eli Mail 1/2/16 (Leiden, Netherlands) Letter 64

Happy New Year, all! It is officially 2016! Isn't that weird? I am pretty sure I will be writing 2015 on all my notes for the next couple months, just out of habit. But the reality of a bright, hopeful New Year has now sunk in, especially with the Netherlands going explosive on the 31st.

New Year's Eve of course was fantastic. Last year Elder Toole and I flipped the couch in our apartment around facing the big, open windows in the direction of Amsterdam. Sadly, last year I decided to "lay down" for a little bit before midnight and woke up to the alarm at 6:30 that next morning! Elder Toole claims he tried to wake me up, but I just slept through it. This year I did not want to let that happen. We played Monopoly and Phase 10 to pass the time away, and when it as finally time we climbed the ladder staircase to the top floor our apartment complex. Surprisingly, no one else joined us on the top floor, so we got to have the whole space to ourselves. The view we had was great, we had a clear few of the entire centrum area of Leiden, making for a loud, colorful evening of fireworks.

It was a pretty tame week as far as office work goes – nothing too insane other than end-of-the-year deadlines. We had a great time this week sharing the gospel, teaching as we went about, mainly focusing still on a Christ-centered Christmas, but also diving into New Year's resolutions. Speaking of which, our mission did a "mission-wide" goal setting evening. Because of the high risk of explosives on New Year's Eve, we had some time in our apartments, and did enjoy a little time to reflect on a full year of full-time service out in the mission field. I reflected on what went well, where I improved, what could have gone better, and where I want to go. I don't think everyone has to be super extravagant with New Year's resolutions, especially since they tend to sputter out quickly, but the wise words of my former mission president ring in my ears: "Make resolutions simple. For example – to be nicer, to see the good in others, etc. Anything simple and achievable, that will bring you closer to Christ." I am paraphrasing there, but I invite everyone if they haven't already to make one simple, achievable resolution and make it a part of you, internalize it, really work on it and become it.

Among the bomb-like explosives going off throughout the week, we did a lot of good work. On Monday evening after our typical lesson/dinner appointment with a part-member family, we decided to do something we had never done before – work in their area. It had gotten pretty late, and our only option was to knock a few doors. I was pretty hesitant about it, especially the hour of night, but I just set aside my little anxiety and focused on the people we talked to on the doorstep. I noticed, because of our calm and collective attitude that evening. It affected the people on the doors. We talked to an older lady who without us even asking, asked if we could come back another time, and we set a return appointment. Just a few doors further a young family let us in on the door, and we were able to share our testimonies and experiences with faith! I think the real miracle was just listening to the young father's needs. He told us about how horrible this world is and how the only thing he cares about are his kids. So, we talked and testified about hope in Christ and also about the importance of families. They have two toddlers, but both parents drink and smoke. The father at one point neglected our credibility, saying that we were too young and haven't experienced the real hardships in life. We all experience life differently, but again, we were able to share more personal experiences of hardships and then coming through it, thanks to Christ. It made the conversation very "down to earth." I like it. It was a fun little surprise, and they invited us back in the coming week, so I am excited for that!

I wish everyone the best of luck with this New Year and of course, have a great rest of the week.

Thanks again to everyone who sent Christmas postcards, spiritual experiences, and more green hands for my tree. I still don't have a picture of the tree yet, but it is on the way.

Love,

Elder Eli Andrew

PHOTO CAPTION: The taste off. [Root beer samples shipped from his Dad’s root beer shop in Galena, IL.]

PHOTO CAPTION: Olliebolle is back! Can't complain at all. Battered up, deep fried, and dunked in powder sugar.

PHOTO CAPTION: Had some great conversations one night and posed for a scenic picture in Leiden