SORRRRRRY ZOO! WEEK 63!

Lieve Familie,

        So right now I have 14 minutes on the computer....  our day today has been super super busy we spent most of it at the Zoo here in Emmen! This week was awesome. Full of miracles and just lots of hard hard work. I spent almost 3 full days outside of Emmen working and having meetings with other missionaries and also giving baptismal interviews. It has seriously been a super busy week and last night while we were making plans for this upcoming week we were both just surprised at how busy we truly are! My testimony has grown because I don’t know how we, missionaries, get so much energy to handle 15-hour days of just performing a Labor of Love. It is amazing and every single night I go to bed just exhausted, but wake up the next morning with energy to spare! I seriously don’t know how it happens.

So yeah I now have 9 minutes left to email... Sorry I didn’t have time to read any emails today only enough time to send this one, but hopefully tomorrow we can make some time to come back and read some emails.

I love you guys soooo much and miss you all like crazy! This Gospel brings me so much happiness in my life and so much peace. I love LOVE and I know that Heavenly Father not only has a great sense of Humor but also loves each and every one of us soooo much. You are all in my prayers. LOVE YOU GUYS and MISS YOU GUYS!

Liefs,

    Big Dude

TIME WEEK 62!

Lieve Familie,

          Wow what a week it has been. So many emotions, so many experiences, so many things learned, so many blessings received, so many trials, and so many laughs. Every week I feel so humbled just sitting at the computer and thinking about the past week that went by. Many times I have found myself just asking.. "How did I just make it another week?". I am truly surprised and impressed by the love and daily strength/ support that Heavenly Father gives each one of us to make it through in life. He truly is amazing and I can't even understand it. But He just keeps on showing me, when He sees that the time is right, how real and mindful He is of me. I really am left speechless.

          Familie it has been a great week. A week of figuring things out, a week of learning, and a week of testing. Elder Loving and I are really having a good time as a companionship. He is a great kid and I am grateful that we get to spend this sacred time together. I have this feeling that this transfer will be a interesting transfer for me. One of just teaching and learning. I have a strong desire to help and support my new comp and grow a brotherly relationship with him which will be nice because I don't like feeling alone. It has been fun and it's only the end of week one;)

         The weather hasn't been the best, but we are staying positive! The work is going good.  A little slow right now, but we have been able to see miracles. Not huge miracles, but tender mercies from the Lord. We have been doing a lot of less active work and we have been successful in bringing many back to church. I am grateful that I have the privilege to be here in Emmen and serve others. It has been very humbling a great learning experience.

         As many of you know or noticed.. many of my friends or people that I hold close to in my heart have finished their missions. And I am so proud of each and everyone of them. Even though they have done a great job in getting me more and more "Trunky" they truly do inspire me to just keep on going and have been great examples to me. I thank all those who have been examples to me in my life, you know who you are. Time is so crazy and weird for me to think about. Time of being here on a mission, time of being home from the mission, and time before the mission.. time really does terrify me, but I am grateful that I still do HAVE time or can MAKE time to figure things out. To figure out what really is important or to figure out the purpose of just doing certain things. I am grateful that I still have 9 months left on my mission, because I need all the time I can get to figure myself out better and to strengthen my weakness. More time to just get to know that man upstairs better. Time goes by quickly so let us all make the best of it and enjoy the time we have, no matter how hard it can be. My sister Chloe has the perfect mindset for it:

                          "The time to be happy is now; the place to be happy is here. 

               The way to be happy is to make others so"

         I love you all and MISS YOU ALL. I will be praying hard for your safety and protection. YOU ALL have been amazing examples in my life.

Love,

        Big Dude.

Enjoy to the End

Lift Where You Stand WEEK 61!

Lieve Familie,

          Wow what a week it has been. Just as my good'ol friend Elder Samuel Smith Curtis said in one of his last emails- I love starting up a new transfer. It is new, exciting, scary, and just a fresh start! It’s like turning a new page. The start of this new Transfer has been great. I seriously cannot complain. My new comp Elder Lovin (McLovin) is such a great kid. He is very young so these first couple of days have been a good wake up call to me of just how important it is to be a good example and to always train your replacement. Sometimes I feel like I am just with a lost puppy out here! But he has got a great spirit and a great attitude! I am very exciting to help him and teach him many things, but at the same time learn from him and see how I can improve to become better. So this upcoming transfer will be a lot of work, but I am looking forward to the challenge.

           The work here as been going good. These last couple of days McLovin and I have been working hard and have seen some pretty amazing miracles! It’s funny because we would have a miracle and then while we’re biking away I would be going crazy and be super stoked while McLovin wouldn’t be... I didn’t understand until I realized that he couldn’t pick up on the fast Dutch. So then I would tell him and then like 5 minutes later we would both be stoked!! Hahah Miracles are always nice. We have been doing lots of work with less actives and with Frances which has put a hold on finding new investigators for a bit, but this last week we found peeps who were super positive and interested and now we have some new appointments set up with new investigators. I love having new people to teach! So we are actually really looking forward to this upcoming week!

            Frances is doing awesome and before Cowboy left we were able to go to her house and say goodbye. She really opened up to us and told us just how much we saved her life. That without us she wouldn’t be here anymore. It was very humbling and an emotional experience for me. Definitely something I wont forget.

           This last week I have been thinking a lot about the phrase "Lift Where You Stand" and it has actually brought me a lot of motivation and determination to do my own part in making this mission successful. As I look back to the many sports teams I played on that had success, especially our East High Football, I see that it wasn’t just one player or one person that decided the outcome of the game or season. But it was a team effort of everyone doing their own part or in other words everyone was "Lifting where they stood" with one goal and one purpose in mind. I am convinced that our East High Football team saw much success not only because we had amazing coaches like coach Matich and players, but because we all did our own individual part of contributing. We all "Lifted Where We Stood". So my "advise" or "message" for us all this week is to Lift Where You Stand. Inside our family- do your own part to bring each other closer together. In a relationship- do your own part to strengthen the relationship. On a sports team- do your own part to make sure your team has unity with each other. You truly can apply the phrase "Lift Where You Stand" in any aspect of your life.

           As for me I will continue to lift where I stand and do my own part in building up Zion here in Nederland and Belgium. Just don’t forget that no matter how hard it is to understand, Heavenly Father’s plan is perfect and that everything truly does have a reason. He is our Father in Heaven who loves and is always there for us. I am truly convinced through the many confirmations I have received.

          I truly am grateful to each and every one of you for the support and love I receive; especially from you Mom and Dad.  I love you all and hope you all have a great week. You will be in my prayers as always.

 Enjoy to the End:)

Love,

     Big Dude

Just Do It. WEEK 60!

Lieve Familie,

              Just like Jake told me this week... sometimes the Lord just hits you with a curve ball. Well peeps to be honest I have felt like the Lord truly has pitched me a curve ball these past couple of weeks and I was definitely not expecting it. But here we are once again about ready to start a new week and a new transfer and this time I'm going to the plate ready for the curve ball.

              So I will be staying in Emmen and continue the work here and my companion (cowboy) will be leaving. The call came surprisingly, but I think we are both looking forward to the next upcoming transfer and doing our best to just stay super positive! My new companion will be Elder Lovin and you’re never going to guess but he is from Highland High School and apparently we have played against each other in Ward ball before?? hahah small world right! But I am exciting to get him. He is a lot younger then me so I am exciting to feed off his young energy! I think and am hoping for that this next up coming transfer will be awesome.

            I am glad that I am staying. My connection with the members is finally starting to grow a lot more, now that they are all back from vacation, since leaving Kortrijk. The work here is definitely ready to be turned around and I am feeling pretty motivated right now to get back into just working hard and starting up a new transfer. It should be a good new start!

              Heavenly Father works in such an interesting way and it amazes me and always leaves me just realizing how much I truly do need him. These curve balls that he throws are only to make us better and stronger. To test us a little more to make sure that we are still ALL-IN with his plan and not forgetting him. I really love the importance that Familie Leman (love them and miss them so much) taught me in Belgium of the word REMEMBER. As unperfect human beings we tend to be forgetful a lot. Forgetful of just how blessed we are, forgetful of the people around us, and sometimes forgetful of just how great our Heavenly Father is. Just look at the Book of Mormon and you can see so many examples of people forgetting the mercy and love that Heavenly Father has for them and all the many things that he has ALREADY done for them. It truly amazes me that it has taken me so long to realize how important the word REMEMBER is and the significance behind it. I hope we all do our best to remember those around us, to remember how blessed we really are, and to remember that the Lord doesn’t give us anything that we cannot handle or overcome. Just like Familie Leman, I am going to always do my best to remember the mercy and love that Heavenly Father has for me and to not be so forgetful. Let us all try to do that!

Afterall Christ never forgets of us:

 “.... Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

                  ....Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands"  

Isaiah 49:15-16

Family I love you all so much. Words cannot describe the love that I have and just how much I miss you all. You are all in my prayers. Have a great week. Enjoy to the End!

Love,

                    Big Dude