Eli Mail 11/24/14 (Zaandam, Netherlands) Letter 19

Last Monday night we taught a Plan of Salvation lesson to a sort-of-new investigator, Danny. He's about 40 years old, single, and very willing to hear what the Mormons are all about. We started the lesson with the typical exchange of normal small talk and then delved into the lesson after a prayer. I had just refreshed myself about 20 minutes before, and I rehearsed the flow of the lesson the whole bike ride there, so I was very confident in my teaching skills that evening. Elder Toole and I both taught very well, and Danny spent most of the time listening and taking in the information. It all seemed well until we explained kingdoms of glory to him. He just got very upset, because he felt like he could never know for sure if he was going to heaven or not. He felt like you could live a good life, but you could never be 100% positive. I suppose he is right to a very slight extent; we technically don't know until we stand before the judgment seat. I was reminded of the hymn “Keep the Commandments.” It’s one of my favorites, and at one point they sing the phrase, “keep the commandments, in this there is safety and peace.” So clearly, by just simply doing what we’re supposed to do (keeping the commandments, and so for), we just feel comforted that things will really work out. As much as we tried testifying and explaining, Danny just couldn't get over his own trapped mindset. So, it was a sort of a sad conclusion, but it got me thinking a lot, and perhaps one day he'll change his mind.

Hope it isn't getting too cold in the States. This sure has been my mildest fall season I've experienced. The weather has been going back and forth a lot lately. A majority of cloudy, typical Europe overcast days with the occasional rain storm, and about one or two days with sun. If I had to describe this week in one word, I would say drowsy. Drowsy, because of the busyness of normal missionary work and getting home late a few nights in a row. For those who don't know, the Zaandam Elders are typically known for a lot of travel. And we do. If we have an activity at the church on a Friday evening we can expect two hours, round trip, of travel, not even including the activity itself. So, if the time is creeping past 8 o'clock in the evening, we can already expect to be home past 9 pm. That's not necessarily a bad thing, just the life and circumstances of a missionary. One last quick note about time (perhaps I've mentioned this in a previous email), but the darkness is creeping up fast. We are in complete darkness now just before 5 p.m., and the sun doesn't rise till about 8 a.m.  It's so sad to see the sun setting at about noonish, but oh well, just makes us work smarter when we plan.

This week was our annual Turkey Bowl! It was fantastic. We arrived at Vondelpark in Amsterdam at about 10 a.m. on Saturday. It was just the Amsterdam zone, so about 30 or so missionaries in total. We had a lot of fun. We broke up into four different teams and battled it out in some good old American football. I spent most of the time receiving and enjoyed weaving in and out of the crowd. Our mission president even joined the fun, too. He loves and encourages the Turkey Bowl every year, and it was awesome seeing him getting very into it. Just a good overall day, and the Amsterdam Elders with my companion and I went and had some Suriname/ Chinese food. Speaking of food, there are annual food stands that go up about this time of year for “oliebollen,” these deep-fried bread balls covered in powdered sugar. They are way better than I imagined, with a perfect mixture of a crispy outside and a warm, doughy inside. The sprinkled powdered sugar is just icing on the cake, so to speak, and you can also get them with raisons.

The weeks are really flying by here in Zaandam, and I hope everyone enjoys Thanksgiving and Black Friday! We have plans for a dinner at the church on Thursday, so not to worry – we have a place for some sort of Thanksgiving meal. Love you guys. Have a great week!

BULLETS – Here are a few of Eli’s comments in some emails on 11/24/14:

·         Had another busy week filled with a variety of activities, and another busy one to come.

·         I don't have a lot of respect for dogs anymore. Dutch people are very much dog and cat lovers, and we hear a lot of ferocious dog barking at a lot of doors we knock. Not to mention that all of my dress pants basically just attract dog hair like a magnet. But that's not to be pessimistic – just my current feelings on dogs right now.

·         Dutch people have no idea who their neighbors are, unlike most of us Americans. I know that made Elder Nye really sad last transfer; we would knock doors and ask for referrals, but people barely had a clue that they even had neighbors. I guess Elder Nye was used to Utah living, where you get to know your neighbors, I suppose.

·         I don't know if I have had any adventures on bikes. I just take control of the road when I'm on them, because you can do that here. I want to get a little speedometer though. My bike had one, but it got lost a few transfers ago, so it'd be fun to keep track of miles and my speed. Metric system, though, of course.

·         Oh yeah, lots of thievery. One of the sisters in Amsterdam just had a bike stolen the other week. She didn't lock it, but still. There are gangs who go around in black vans apparently and snip locks off of bikes in Amsterdam. Scary stuff. Bikes are just easy money, but I think mine is safe here in Zaandam.

Aerial of Vondelpark, Amsterdam. 

Eli Mail 11/17/14 (Zaandam, Netherlands) Letter 18

Hello everyone! I know you haven't heard from me for a while, but rest assured I am very much alive and well here in the Netherlands. I haven't explained too much about Zaandam and my experiences, so I'd love to dive in a little bit. I may have mentioned our proselyting area, but it mainly consists of Zaandam; a bigger neighborhood city called Purmerend; a few small towns; and North Amsterdam. Because of the lengthiness of travel, Elder Toole and I generally prefer to stay in Zaandam. It's a very unique and interesting town. Part of the city is divided by a couple bigger canals, and occasionally we'll get stuck waiting at a bridge because they lifted it up to let a big boat go through. Factories. There are quite a few factories in Zaandam, a number of which are chocolate factories, which makes for a very hungry bike ride if we end up passing one. Everyone I've talked to who has served in Zaandam has mentioned the smells. A strong scent of blueberry muffins lingers around in certain places, too. That is something I don't really understand, but either way it keeps Zaandam very refreshing to be around when you're out and about all day.

One big change that I'm loving a lot is the OV chip card. Every missionary gets one, and they don't work in Belgium, so I've loved using them here. Whatever public transportation you want to take – bus, train, tram, or whatever – is accessible by the wave of a blue credit card. That's another great thing about this country, too. How efficient and accessible it is to travel from city to city. The trains are very nice, too; another sharp contrast between the two countries. But I suppose that's another benefit of crazy high taxes. And for those who are wondering if I've had the chance to stroll around Amsterdam: yes, I have. Super cool city; there are always a ton of foreigners. And whether it's a cold Monday morning or a clear Friday evening, Amsterdam is always nuts and sometimes results in the occasional headache. Other than that, the only unique thing about Zaandam is the amount of windmills. There's a very famous windmill place called Zaanse Schans about a 25 minute bike ride from the apartment.

Now, what have I done in the past two weeks? Who have I taught, and where have I been? Well, I don't know where to start so I'll begin with Thursday, November 6th. We had a normal morning of studies, and we just weren't sure where we wanted to go that day. After lunch we came to the conclusion of just getting on the bikes and to start looking around for a good place to find. After about 40 minutes of biking, we ended up somewhere in the middle of a little town called Wormever. We followed a big canal all the way up to the city, not really sure where to go. Eventually we realized we didn't have all day and just went down a couple streets and parked our bikes. The day had been very cold and windy, but in this neighborhood everything was very quiet and calm, and suddenly I didn't even feel as cold anymore. We only had time for seven or eight doors to knock, and to our pleasant surprise we had nice, healthy conversations with about five or six people. We didn't end up getting any potentials or even a lesson on the door, but we just were able to share our message with them and had a gospel-orientated conversation. It made a world of difference, because most days we can knock about 50 doors or so and about 35 of them will almost immediately close the door when they see our name tags. Elder Toole told me later that he had prayed that we could talk with more pleasant people, and it happened. So, that was really special to see his prayer answered.

Another day I was on an exchange with the district leader, Elder Besendorfer. We had just gotten home from district meeting and were at an investigator's house when we learned about a holiday that was going on that evening. Apparently, in North Holland they do a version of Halloween, but the little kids have these little, bright homemade lanterns. They carry them around door to door with a sack full of candy and sing a little Dutch tune, and the people at the door put candy in their bags. The name of the holiday slips my mind, but I know it has some Dutch roots to it. So, with a little time left in the evening we knocked a few doors, and we had some very surprised people who did not expect fully grown guys at their door with white shirts and ties on. But it was fine. We even got a couple of bars of chocolate from people. It was a good evening.

Also, we're working with this super cool part-member family. The dad was baptized as kid but went inactive at 16, and his wife and son have not been baptized. We have weekly lessons with them, and it's super cool to see how much the gospel has changed them. Before they were meeting with the missionaries and coming to church, their marriage was falling apart and they just weren't happy. Since they've been keeping commitments and praying together they've been able to work out their problems and they're a lot happier now. The wife loves reading the gospel principles book, so teaching them has been super spiritual and interactive. The dad realized and know how important it is to get back on the right path, and he's working to get the Priesthood now. I love  teaching families, and it's cool to see how the gospel brings families closer together like Preach My Gospel says. The wife's baptismal date is in late December, and I'm excited to be able to take part in their progress.

I don't have too much time left, but I hope these few experiences will do for now. The hours of sunlight during the day are shortening fast and winter is soon upon us, but all is well here in the Netherlands. Christmas decorations are coming up and everyone is getting into the spirit of the holidays. Hope everyone has a good week. I know Thanksgiving is coming up, so I hope everyone is getting into the spirit too, love you guys!

Zaanse Schans (image found on the Internet)

Eli Mail 11/10/14 (Zaadnam, Netherlands) Letter 17

EDITOR'S NOTE: Eli is happy and doing well in his new area of Zaandam, Netherlands with his new (third) companion, Elder Toole. Eli promises a letter is on the way via snail mail. To tide us over, here are some bullet points compiled from emails back and forth with Eli during his weekly online session.

·         We were out and about this afternoon and decided to email in the Amsterdam church and hang out with the A'dam Elders.

·         No worries about food, we are sitting just fine with that.

·         Last p-day we were just walking around Amsterdam, and we went through this huge flower place. You can buy those wooden shoes, tulip bulbs, all sorts of tourist stuff. So, if you want me to buy some of that stuff and send it for Christmas, let me know.

·         I also think it would be cool to just send over a load of different Belgium chocolates to you guys. If you want to pay the shipping, though...

·         Elder Toole got a Christmas package from relatives before Halloween. That was weird. But if President says to send packages now, well then I guess that's the best idea.

·         I've had it great with all my companions; no problems with any of them. It was just a little annoying after a while being in a four-man. Elder Toole is great, though. Elder Claflin had been his companion, and he told me some funny stories about them two, so it was cool when I found out I was going to be his companion. He's got a big heart, and we are very sarcastic all the time in the apartment. Makes it light and fun.

·         A church member here in Amsterdam goes to Germany and can get 95 "Pick-Up" German chocolate bars for 15 Euro. So, I’ll probably take advantage of that and get some to you guys. It's a pretty good ward. I kind of miss the small branch [in Belgium], but Amsterdam is cool. There are always Americans here on Sunday, so after Sacrament meeting they pass a mic around and introduce themselves. Pretty interesting.

·         Dinner appointments aren't very ideal for us Zaandam Elders. We get about three a week, because it takes an hour for us to usually get to an appointment in Diemen (Amsterdam).

·         Last Monday evening at a McDonald's with a member we saw a mouse running in and out of its little peep hole. I managed to snatch of a few photos of it, too, I’ll upload them to Dropbox. So nasty!

·         It's a 10-minute train ride from Zaandam to Amsterdam Centraal, but we have to take a tram that stops all the time to go to the far end of Amsterdam, Diemen, where the church is located. It makes for about 50 minutes of total travel to church. The life of Zaandam! But we ride bikes a lot in our own town, so I'm not traveling insanely like in Belgium.

·         The biking is soooo awesome here. I love it. I haven't experienced anything that crazy yet, but I have total right-of-way on my bike. It is very safe here biking, despite no helmets, with all the bike paths and everything.

·         It may only be 4C at times, but it feels even colder. Something about the index of moisture in the air just freezes you to the bone. Much more different than Wisconsin. Our apartment is loaded with hand warmers, but I don't think they all work too well. But yes, hand warmers are nice.

·         Oh yeah, I bought a winter coat for 40 Euro. I thought I was getting a great deal 'til all the buttons started falling off. I think I can still make it work though, but maybe my thriftiness will come back to get me.

·         President loves Turkey-bowl, and we have that going on in a couple weeks, so that's exciting. No thanksgiving meal, I believe: just football. But we'll see, though.

·         They don't do any thanksgiving of any sort, sadly. But a member will be having us over, not to worry. That's all the time I have. Forgive me, I forgot my journal so I couldn't write an email about this week. Expect a written one for sure, though, in the mail!

Here are Google street view screenshots of Eli's new ward building in Dieman.
The satellite dish gives it away.

Here is some street Eli took a picture of and uploaded to Dropbox.
He probably wanted his Mom to see the Christmas lights.

Eli Mail 11/3/14 (Genk, Belgium & Zaandam, Netherlands) Letter 16

Hello everyone! Hope everyone enjoyed their American Halloween back in the States! I've had a pretty crazy couple of weeks here, so I’ll just jump right in. I'll begin with 22nd of October, the Wednesday evening we were having the baptismal interview with our baptism hopeful, Jozef.

All four of us went to Hasselt because Elder Elkins had to be in there alone with Jozef, and it just worked out better that way. So, we entered into the building, rang the buzzer, and all squeezed into the cramped elevator, and everything was pretty normal thus far. As soon as we stepped out of the elevator and opened the door to our right to enter into the hallway, a guy had his head poked out of doorway at the end of the hall. Not really taking notice, we walked a little ways down and knocked on Jozef's door. Elder Elkins entered in, greeting Jozef, and the three of us were left standing quietly in the hall. As soon as the door closed in front of us, the guy at the end of the hall started talking to us. Not just talking though – more like yelling. He questioned what we were doing, demanding that we either leave or go in the room – all sorts of gibberish and nonsense. Bugged, Elder Nye took a few steps closer and started talking back to him. After a few minutes of quarreling the guy finally closed the door, and we were left in silence once again. After about five minutes I realized Elder Nye and I needed to make phone calls, so we walked back towards the door that led to the elevator. As soon as we had opened the door, a lady and an old man appeared right on our tails. It was super weird; I didn't hear them come down the hall or anything or even hear their door open. The old lady glared at our name tags like all Dutch people do and started demanding that we leave. She was very rude, and the quarrel ended with her closing the door in our face. Annoyed and rather confused, Elder Nye and I left the apartment complex to make calls while Elder Clement stayed in the hallway while the interview was being conducted. About six or seven minutes later, both Elder Elkins and Clement popped out of the complex, and I was super confused at this point. Long story short: during the whole interview Jozef was doubting himself hardcore and didn't feel good; everyone was telling him not to get baptized. Then, some time during the interview someone was banging on his glass window over his balcony and the old lady was banging on the door, demanding Jozef open it. It turned out that the angry guy had climbed over like four balconies, five stories off the ground, and was now banging on Jozef's window. After realizing the situation, Elder Elkins felt something weird inside, and decided to stop the interview and leave as fast as possible. Why did this all happen? I don't think any of us knew for sure, but the adversary was sure working hard to keep Jozef from being baptized. I had never had problems with his neighbors before that night, and the fact that the world was just collapsing on Josef on the evening of a very important interview seems like too much of a coincidence. We called Jozef the next morning. He felt a lot better, wanted to set a new baptismal interview, and everything ended up going through with the baptism that Sunday.

Transfer calls came that evening, and my heart leaped out of my mouth a little bit as I discovered I would be leaving my comfort zone of Genk. It was bittersweet to leave, but I became very anxious the more and more Elder Elkins informed me of Zaandam (since he had served there, also). Transfer day was nuts. It was a day filled with waiting for hours in train stations, unloading and loading suitcases, and talking with other missionaries. It was alright in the end, but I didn't make it to the apartment until about 8:00 p.m., which totaled out to about 11 hours of travel that day. I was very excited to have a fresh new start, new area and everything. It felt like a new beginning of sorts. I've really enjoyed my time so far in Zaandam – the insane amount of people on bikes, very clear Dutch, and lots of Dutch trains. The Schipol airport isn't too far away, so I get to wake up and see very low flying passenger jets flying in the distance; it’s quite peaceful. My new companion, Elder Toole, is great. He’s been out for quite a while, my oldest companion so far, and is just a very easy going guy. The work is a lot different here. We’re spending more time doing finding here since we don't have too many solid investigators. We've got one solid family we’re working with, so that's exciting. I love biking around, too. Such a good change of pace. I wish I could take you on the tram ride we take every week to church. Unbelievable. It’s like going on a world class tour through Amsterdam. Super cool! The ward here is cool. Lots of Americans, which is fun. That's all the time I have this week. Love you guys a lot! 

EDITOR’S ADDITIONS. Here is a compilation of Eli’s comments [with editor’s interjections] from some emailing back-and-forth with him:

10/27/14: I'm getting transferred to Zaandam this Wednesday. So, I'm basically going to be in Amsterdam. It’s a town that's basically connected to Amsterdam. Elder Nye is going district leader and Elder Elkins is going zone leader in Den Haag. Crazy! Oh boy, it’s going to be a huge adjustment. I’ll finally have money though; we burn through so much [money] on train passes and stuff. I’ve heard it’s maybe the most clear Dutch out there. Elder Elkins was there during his third and fourth [transfers], so he’s told me a lot of what to expect. I’m really excited. The big old Amsterdam Ward – so cool! Yeah, I did have it – Elder Nye’s and my first baptism. It was very cool. Timid looking fellow, Jozef Goris. [See above.] But very patient and child-like. That was one of my mission goals: find someone myself and bring them along all the way to baptism. So, yeah, baptisms happen here. I'm glad I have my first one out of the way now, too. Kind of broke the ice. It’s a mission rule that members do the actual ordinance of baptism, which I like. Gets the members more involved and builds relationships. He’s a very interesting guy. You’ll hear more about him in the weekly letter [above], but he always says this: I don't want to be 70 or 80 percent Mormon, I want to be 100 percent Mormon. So, that's his motto. I always found that funny.

11/03/14: Amsterdam is a pretty big step up from little Genk in terms of scenery. It’s a pretty stark difference between the Netherlands and Belgium, but it’s pretty cool. The language is just very clear, very understandable. I've noticed they say a few things differently, but it’s not hard at all. The Dutch people are kind of a spray of hot glass in the face; you would not believe how hard it is to get a potential on the door or anything. But I like it – fun challenge working with rude, stubborn Dutch people. But I love ‘em all the same. Still have lots of respect. We go to Amsterdam Centraal like every day, so it’s super cool just being in the heart of the Netherlands and everything. I'm super spoiled, by the way. Got another huge, nice apartment. It’s the building in between the green and brown one. [See below.] So, no: it’s not the super cool looking Dutch one, but our complex is attached to it. Yeah, so Elder Elkins went zone leader and is using a car, now. Bought his bike off him for 50 Euro. Super nice bike, good amount of locks, very new and nice. I scored! We've had a few dinner appointments. Members of the Amsterdam Ward are pretty cool. Every week or so this African guy and his wife will have all the Amsterdam missionaries over. So, that includes the two Amsterdam Elders, two Amsterdam Sisters, the APs [Assistants to the (mission) President], and us. So, eight missionaries in total around this big coffee table. We ate some rice balls that we had to dip in soup and eat with our bare hands. Very messy, but surprisingly good. Um, we had one other dinner appointment with this guy that just made kip [chicken] nuggets and lasagna. Not much to say there!

Left to right, Elder Nye, Jozef Goris and Elder Andrew.

This is a Google street view of Elder Andrew's apartment
building (between the green and the brown buildings).

Eli Mail 10/20/14 (Genk, Belgium) Letter 15

Hello fellow Americans. I hope you've all been enjoying the cold starting to set in, especially in Wisconsin because it is still fairly warm here. We had one those heat waves you typically get mid September when you'd be sitting in class, totally regretting being in class because it's so warm. But anyway, if I had to describe this week in one word, I'd say: meetings. Lots and lots of meetings.

I'll start with our exciting Monday last week. We spent the day in Brussels. We kind of wanted a day to just dink around with no real objective, just four missionaries tramping around Brussels. We went through the main central place that all the tourists go through and saw the major let down that is Manneken Pis*. And then something crazy happened. While walking through a narrow street there were four American-looking guys with white shirts and tags – we had randomly ran into Paris, France missionaries! We talked, took a picture, and the whole time they were suspicious a little bit because it's a little debatable whether or not Brussels is in our mission. We spent the rest of the day attempting to get directions from French people and walking over to this big church we saw far off in the distance. We ended up a good chunk of the way out of the city and we eventually found the subway back home. And then amazingly as we were taking an escalator down to the metro, the SAME Paris, France missionaries were coming up the escalator. It was so random to see them once and then to see them again at some random metro station. Crazy.

The next couple of days were a blur. We knocked on a few doors and then had to quickly get back that afternoon to pack for temple conference. Yes, at 3 p.m. on Tuesday we were packing for temple conference that was at 9 a.m. the next morning. After all sorts of trains that evening, we finally arrived in Den Haag (The Hague, The Netherlands). Hungry and kind of exhausted from travel we decided to eat somewhere kind of nice that evening. Let me say, Den Haag is beautiful. It was a nice, warm evening, the red cobblestone roads glistened after a fresh rain, there was gentle hum of chatter from all the cafés, and the trees were all decorated with white lights. It was such a treat after being in Belgium for so long. The following morning we did a session in the temple. The Den Haag temple is small, but of course beautiful. And it was very cool to be able to go through the session in Dutch. I'm surprised how much I understand; I can comfortably listen without worrying about understanding. The zone conference afterwards was great, too. We're focusing on our studies this transfer, and one thing that struck me was when a sister said one of her best study sessions was one verse long and she spent the hour thinking and pondering. And pondering is a commandment of God, or at least it makes it easier for Him to be able to communicate with us.

Thursday and Friday were our only days of regular missionary work, and they were both busy. Thursday was really fun. We took the bikes and looked up referrals around town solely by map navigation. Yes, physical maps. Crazy, I know. I actually really like it, and I can understand why my Dad would always pull out the enormous maps when going on road trips. We have a cool thing going on too with referrals. Some ward mission leader started this in the Netherlands. It's a Facebook campaign. He got the church to buy advertising space for the "My Family" pamphlet, which is a little introduction to family history search and stuff. So, when someone orders a pamphlet we get a text from church headquarters with the address so we can give a little explanation to the pamphlet. It's a really easy way to get referrals, and if we make a return appointment that means a new investigator! A lot more useful than eight hours of knocking doors (which we do, by the way). We also had a first lesson with an African guy. He's here for college and is from Nigeria. He really appreciated us coming over. The poor guy; he's far away from home in a country where the people don't really like him and he can't speak the language. But anyway, he was my second English lesson this transfer, and it was hard. Everything is weird in English now. Praying, talking and things have been in Dutch mostly. But it was cool in English. I can express myself a lot better and be more myself, I guess you could say.

Saturday and Sunday was Stake Conference. Sunday’s session was in Brussels. It was cool to see a lot of church members in one place, and we were able sing "Called to Serve" in Dutch and English for the whole stake. That was pretty much it for this week. I've been a little silent about Joseph, who's getting baptized next Sunday, but that'll be for next week. I'll just say this: I'm probably going to be baptizing here on transfer No. 2, which doesn't happen a whole lot. Super cool.

Calvin, I hope you get the letter I sent you. It may be a little late. Hope your b-day was great. Also, if anyone is thinking of sending me anything in the future, like food, use Amazon.uk. It saves a lot of money on shipping supposedly.

Love you guys, have a good week,

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Manneken Pis "Little man Pee" is a landmark small bronze sculpture in Brussels, depicting a naked little boy urinating into a fountain's basin. It was designed by Hiëronymus Duquesnoy the elder and put in place in 1618 or 1619. (Wikipedia)

P.S. In a separate email, when asked about food Eli responded by saying, “I love Belgium fries. They have these places called Frituurs, and they are everywhere in Belgium. Everyone loves fries, especially with this sauce called Samurai sauce. Super tasty, spicy sauce that's sort of like a spicy mayo, but better. Whenever we are in Antwerpen, we always get Cécémel, chocolate milk in a glass bottle from France. So good, you have to shake it up too because some of the delicious chocolate settles to the bottom. Everyone in Belgium and the Netherlands LOVES broodjes. They are at every train stop and all over the place in grocery stores. It’s just a normal sandwich, but all the ingredients are fresh and they just taste heavenly. The Belgium chocolate is pretty good, too, but I haven't really had much yet. But on a daily basis we make a variety of sandwiches, some sort of cooked meat with rice, or something with eggs. And yes, I do eat eggs now – look at all the things a mission does for ya right there! In the mornings, I love a healthy-sized bowl of Cruseli. Cruseli is a cereal made by Quaker and includes these nice, filling granola chunks with a fair amount of chocolate squares. All “greenies” fall in love with Cruseli, and for now I am under the spell, too. In Den Haag this past Tuesday we ate at a fancy place called Vapianos, an Italian place with pastas and stuff they cook right before your eyes. Super fancy, and reasonably priced. I ate a big calzone, sprinkled with my favorite crushed red pepper. I’ll have to show you guys how you slice bread at a grocery store.

It was a nice, warm evening, the red cobblestone roads glistened after a fresh rain, there was a gentle hum of chatter from all the cafes, and the trees were all decorated with white lights.

In Den Haag this past Tuesday we ate at a fancy place called Vapianos, and Italian place with pastas and stuff they cook right before your eyes. Super fancy, and reasonably priced. I ate a big calzone, sprinkled with my favorite crushed red pepper.

The Hague Netherlands Temple, taken by Eli last week

Temple Conference for Den Haag, Eindhoven and Antwerpen Zones

(Brussels)

Eli Mail 10/13/14 (Genk, Belgium) Letter 14

Hello everyone! Just another average week here in little, small-town Belgium. The week started off on a fun note with our barefoot path (bloedevoedepad) adventure in Zutendaal. It had a number of cool views, muddy paths, and all sorts of terrain. You'll just have to look at pictures or something online if you want a better idea.

The following afternoon was pretty normal. I had been waiting to take the "36 bus" to Putersplein, a big neighborhood loaded with doors to be knocked. It sits in between Genk and Hasselt, our two main cities, and for the most part can be overlooked because only one bus travels there. After a fair amount of knocking, a very pregnant lady opened the door with her hand resting on her belly. After a brief conversation, we discovered she was getting induced that day! To no avail, we eventually returned back home to ready for our evening adventure of traveling to Geel. Our whole district stayed over at the Geel apartment (aside from the sisters, of course) because we had to arrive at the Turnhout church building early that morning for interviews with President. I'll just say that there wasn't too much excitement. But funny pranks were pulled; all eight of us raided the Elder's poor apartment, and we even had a little ping pong going. One thing I really liked: one Elder put some bacon in the frying pan with cherry Coke and fried the two together. The sugar in the coke caramelized as the bacon sizzled, which made for a tasty combination of sweet but savory bacon. I highly recommend it, especially because of its simplicity. But anyway, the following morning was swell, with a very insightful district meeting as President pulled people in and out for interviews. I liked one thing that was shared during the meeting: an Elder expounded upon the fact that people have holes in their souls, and they don't know how to fill them. They try the endless cycle of carnal pleasure, but we all know that really only widens the gap between lasting happiness. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can satisfy the heart's real desire. Some people question the need for religion, but it all filters down to the fact that we need a remission of our sins and only through Jesus Christ can we receive it.

This past weekend was "Genk goes America." All sorts of American flags were hanging up, there were sales promotions, "real" American burgers, an American muscle car and everything. I myself found it very funny. So many people hate on America but I think a lot of Europeans have at least a tiny amount of American pride, and I find that interesting. You would never see Belgium flags flying around America ever. The longer I'm in Europe, the more convinced I am at how awesome America is.

This past Saturday was a hard one. The morning just didn't get off on the right note, and it was pretty gloomy-looking outside. We had a number of things planned for the day, and I was at least hopeful for that. We had a lesson planned, and I had only ever been to this person's house by car with a member so I wasn't certain as to which bus to take. I remembered or at least I thought I remembered passing the apartment when we took the 45 bus to Masseik, a city far from Genk. So we went on a whim, took a little risk, and went on the 45 bus. To my surprise the bus immediately headed for the freeway and with nothing more we could do, we watched as we furthered ourselves from the appointment. We ended up having to cancel it of course, and then I started to fight battles of pessimism for the dumb mistake I had made. Do you want to know what made the difference? The weather didn't just magically let up, we didn't see some miracle happen and have an inspired contact with someone. No, the difference came in keeping a simple prayer in my heart. I prayed that I could just free my mind of the burden of negativity. And low and behold, the day gradually progressed better and better, not because extraordinary things appeared, but because of simple faith and understanding of what God desires of me. That's one thing we also teach investigators, that they can "pray always," and I invite others to do the same.

This Sunday we had an interesting experience, too. Our branch president came in with a friend during sacrament meeting. He spoke English, and Elder Clement quickly became busy translating for him. (Have I had to translate for others? Yes. It's not as bad as you'd think). Anyway, after the service we talked to him, and it turns out he's a BYU professor. He had just arrived in Brussels that morning and has been doing studies all over the place, including Jerusalem. I think it may be part of some church calling, but I'm not sure. He teaches the Book of Mormon and the New Testament, I believe, and he's incredibly insightful. He was curious about learning the basics of Dutch. His last name is Woods, by the way, if anyone knows him. So, yeah – it was just cool to meet an American that was Mormon for once, aside from missionaries.

This past P-day was great, but I'll have more details next week. We have a busy week coming up with Temple Conference in Den Haag and Stake Conference in Brussels. Hope everyone's week goes well. Happy B-day, Calvin – shout out to you!

Love you guys,

Elder Eli Andrew

This past weekend was "Genk goes America."

Eli Mail 10/6/14 (Genk, Belgium) Letter 13

Hello friends back in the states! Just another normal week in Belgium, aside from General Conference*. The weather has been holding up quite nice this past week, and we've been staying pretty busy teaching a healthy amount of lessons. But I'll first start with the adventure of trying to watch General Conference. For one thing, it doesn't play in our church building, and secondly we have a significant time difference between Utah, obviously. But we were invited for Saturday morning session at 6 p.m. by the amazing Knoops family. They took us in for both the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions, which was really nice. The Saturday morning session was quite good. I enjoyed Todd D. Christofferson and President Uchtdorf's talks the most. Uchtdorf spoke on personal revelation, which is helpful for all of us. The only way to find the truth of the church is through personal revelation, making his topic very applicable. I think I mostly enjoyed the way he ended his talk: "Do your part, and it will come." That instills a confidence in us that as long as we are keeping our half of the deal, God will do the rest for us. So, after an evening of scratching down notes and eating American homemade cinnamon rolls, we retired back to the apartment.

The next morning with nowhere else to go we headed up to watch the prerecorded session of Priesthood in Antwerpen. That was also very good. Elder Cook started it off right and really put pre-mission Eli in his place. He spoke on moderation and reaching your full potential. And what he said is true: if we're distracted on trivial things all the time that aren’t necessarily bad, it just takes us away from reaching our full potential. President Uchtdorf, again with a classic talk on looking inward instead of blaming others. After a quick lunch at the Antwerpen church building we headed off to catch the Sunday morning session at the Knoops’. I haven't seen all the sessions yet, so hopefully there'll be more time during the coming weeks.

One worthwhile story I would like to share from this week: Saturday afternoon we had a lesson with our investigator named Nina. She's a nice, sweet 25-year-old with a boyfriend who was baptized four years ago, named Rafael. It was the second time we met with them that week, and we brought a member both times. The couple both struggle with a lot of things, and it makes her very humble and sensitive. We read through 2 Nephi 31 together and did a quick outline of the gospel of Jesus Christ. During the reading, I posed a few questions, and when I asked how you knew when you feel the Spirit, she started tearing up. It was a very sweet lesson, and it was a testimony builder of the power of the Book of Mormon. We as members use it so much and testify of it because it works. It really does change lives. It makes people want to turn away from sin and begin anew. I'm very grateful to be able to witness stuff like that, and I also have a testimony of the efforts of members. This past Wednesday our ward mission leader went with us to an appointment in the afternoon, had us over for dinner, and went with us to an appointment in the evening. I really do believe that once members get engaged in the work, people come, baptisms happen. The more I'm out here, the more I realize I don't want to stop doing some of these things once my mission is over.

Anyway, we have a lot of cool things lined up for these next coming weeks. Today, we will be enjoying a picnic with our district and going on this famous "barefoot path" outside of Genk. Apparently, it's really cool walking through mud and all sorts of terrain all in your bare feet.

Hope your week goes great back in the States, love you guys!

 *General Conference is a semiannual gathering of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), held every April and October at the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. During each conference, members of the church gather in a series of two-hour sessions to listen to sermons from church leaders and inspiring music. It consists of six sessions, one exclusively for female members of the church and one for male priesthood holders. While originating from Salt Lake City, General Conference is considered an international event for the church. The sessions are broadcast worldwide in many languages, primarily through local and international media outlets, and over the Internet.

Saw this spray painted on the side of a train. The graffiti here in Belgium can be pretty awesome sometimes.

Today, we will be enjoying a picnic with our district and going on this
famous "barefoot path" outside of Genk.

Eli's district poses for a picture after walking the "barefoot path" in Zutendaal, Belgium on September 29. L-R Elder Andrew, Elder Steenblik (Eli's former companion at the MTC), Elder Losee, Sister Riley,
Sister Astin, Elder Clement, Elder Eby, Elder Nye (Eli's current companion),
Elder England and Elder Elkins. 

Biking on trails