Project Enthusiasm

Hey everybody!

So this week has been a fun one.   We started a project this week: project enthusiasm.   It has really paid some benefits.   We saw a ton more success this week, got some new investigators.  Going about the Lord's work with a spring in your step really pays off.  That enthusiasm spread through the district as well this week and hopefully it will just go further.  Also new this week, a missionary game: contacting baseball.  Person walks by you or doesn't take a card,  Strike.   Person takes a card,  Single.  Get the persons contact information.  Double.  Place a Book of Mormon, Triple.  Get and appointment with them or teach a lesson, Home Run!  Get a dinner appointment with them, Out of the park Home Run!  (That happens sometimes with people from Africa or Suriname, they are really nice if you talk up their country and food).  Three strikes is an out.  3 outs and that's an inning and you have to wait to contact again until other person ends an inning.  Keep track of where your runners are and what your score is. So we played that this week going between appointments and it really helped Elder Stanworth start trying to talk to people, plus it was super fun.

With as many things as we tried to do this week to amp up enthusiasm and have fun, I just want to point out I still know how sacred this calling is that we hold.  We are representing Jesus Christ, this is his work, he is at the head.  The underlying joy I find from living the gospel does not stem from a worldly source, but from a pure one, that being the love of God as I try to follow the path he has set for me.  For each of us actually.  His plan is broad, and yet oh so personal.  Although his son Jesus Christ suffered for a countless number of God's children, he knows us personally, what we are going through, and if we let him he can make more of our lives then we ever could on our own.  He is the ultimate older brother, and our advocate with the father.

Because of Him

I love you all!

Elder Lott

Question of the Week: Are sports seasonal there, with championship playoffs like many sports in the US?

Answer:  Yes, sports are seasonal here.  I don't pay to much attention, but I do know that PSV (Eindhoven) won the soccer title last year.  As far as everything else goes I know it happens but as far as details, I've got nothing.

PSV (Eindhoven) are the Eredivisie 2014-15 Champions
Wikipedia page about PSV

October Ward Newsletter

[Mom note:  Elder Lott's home ward in Bountiful has a number of  missionaries serving at this time.  We have a wonderful ward missionary coordinator (Momma Tara), who organizes holiday treats and coordinates the missionary page in our ward newsletter. October was another turn for Elder Lott to write a letter. This is the letter he sent in response to the questions 'What have you learned during your first year as a missionary, and what can the youth of our ward do to better prepare for serving their own missions?'  Also he sent the new Mission Home address, which should be used for all future letters or packages.  Just for fun, this is a throwback picture of Seminary Graduation, 2014.  All of these dear youth from our ward have now traded those diplomas for missionary tags.]

Elder Fisher, Elder Lott, Sister Beal, Elder Kunz, Elder Dyer and Elder Humphries

On the first year of my mission I have learned so much!  But to sum it up I would say I have learned how important it is to be a true servant of the Lord, and how important it is to serve out of love.  There are 5 reasons you can have for doing something, all with varying degrees of motivation behind each one, which is strongly associated with success.  The lowest on that scale would be that you are forced to do something, you have no motivation and you will therefore see almost no success.  2nd would be that you are motivated out of fear.  In the case of a mission that would be fear of reputation, alternatives, whatever, but whatever motivation fear gives you won't sustain itself and will therefore not equal much success.  3rd would be receiving a reward.  In the case of a mission that could be parents paying for college, a better chance of marriage in the future, praise of others, or the chance to travel.  This gives some motivation, but not the best.  4th on the list which is starting to get somewhere would be doing something out of Duty.  Duty to God, country, the blessings he has given you, your parents/family. This is a pretty good reason to serve or to do something, but there is something more powerful, and that is the 5th reason, which is Love.  Doing something out of Love is the purest and best reason for doing something.  Someone doing something for a love of God, country, family or whatever else, but especially God, will not falter.  It is not a lustful love, but a pure love.  A love which brings the best out of people, causes one to forget self, and calls down heavenly help for success.  On my mission I would say I started out  serving out of Duty.  I have learned though that when I can forget myself and serve out of love, humbly desiring to simply serve God and my brothers and sisters, that there is no better feeling in the world.

My advice to the Young men and women of the ward preparing for missions, heck even if they aren't preparing yet, to study out of the scriptures (especially the Book of Mormon) and Preach My Gospel.  It doesn't need to be long.  10-15 minutes a day can go a long way. Then think about what you have learned, and try applying it in your own life.  Learn how the spirit speaks to you.  Your Father in heaven loves you, if you ask him for help in doing just these few simple things, he will pour out blessings you can't even imagine.  

I love you all!

-Elder Hayden Lott

Belgie/Nederland Zending

Elder Hayden L. Lott

Schuttersveld 2 C

2316 ZA Leiden

NEDERLAND

Life in Breda?

Hey Everybody!

So from the title of the email I'm betting at least some of you can guess that we didn't spend much time in Breda this week.  That's because we had conference upon conference lined up, from temple conference to stake conference.  It was all super fun but we hardly worked at all in our own city this week.  Monday night we headed out after getting everything we needed to and a dinner appointment  to go and sleep over in Den Haag.  That was super fun because we got to sleep over with some Elders I know and are good friends so we got to catch up.  Then temple conference the next day was fantastic!   I love the spirit that can be felt in the temple.  When we are prepared to enter God's house we can receive direction and revelation to guide our lives, and the peace and confidence necessary to do so.  I took a lot of things away but one thing is definitely that I need to check myself and put more on the 'altar' at this point in my mission so I can stay focused and do all I need to while I'm here.  

The Hague Netherlands LDS (Mormon) Temple

Temple Worship: The Source of Strength and Power in Times of Need
Richard G. Scott, General Conference April 2009

Then we had two 'normal' days to work here in Breda, then we were traveling again to be in Belgium for stake conference.  The conference itself was cool, but what was even better was the fact that for sleep overs I had pulled a few strings and we were able to sleep over in Leuven Saturday night after the adult session of conference in Antwerpen.  So I was able to pop in and say hi to a few members and old investigators.  That was really cool to be able to do.  I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to, but a few I needed to, so that was good.

I'm just loving missionary work right now, expanding my vocabulary in Dutch at a ridiculous rate that only the gift of tongues can explain.  I did mess up this last week in being organized in all the craziness so we have hardly anything planned for this week, so we'll pay for it, but the atonement covers everything so I'll repent this week and move on.

I love you all so much!

-Elder Hayden Lott

Question of the Week:  I found a website with a list of Dutch Birthday traditions. One of them was:

 "If it is your partner or child’s birthday, you must congratulate everyone else in the family. This might sound odd. It goes like this. It is your husband’s birthday. You invite his mother for coffee and cake. She says to you “Congratulations on Fred’s birthday”, you say to her: “Congratulations on your son’s birthday”. You congratulate Fred’s sister on her brother’s birthday and so on. Seriously. You do."   

Have you observed this tradition, or is there something else you've seen instead? 

[Mom note:  The site I found was:  Five Rules for Dealing with Dutch Birthdays.  Click here to see the full list of rules.]

Answer:  I've never heard of congratulating the person's family.  I've heard people congratulate the person directly, so I don't know.  Maybe it's regional? Or I'm just being rude, which I found out I probably have been in that past with other words I've been using that are joking if you are friends with the person but if you have only just met are more direct.  Haha so that's funny.

On the Move

Goede Dag Iedereen!
[Good Day Everyone!]

This week was another solid week.  A pay off week I would say.  I went out to work hard this week, making sure I was using full use of the time I have been given to study, and preach this gospel and it sure has been paying off.  I've seen and felt the Lord giving me and even adding to the effort and talents I have given and what I used this week.  Cap that off with a fast Sunday yesterday and that conference was last week, and I'm feeling pretty darn great.

We saw some real success this week looking up old investigators and getting appointments.  Although some of them we have had so far were a little bit frustrating.  We do our part to prepare, the spirit guides the the lessons, I'm able to speak Dutch way better than I should (shout out: gift of tongues!), we start to open it up, then right at the end they talk themselves out of it.  Arrrrrgghhh! Oh well, people have their agency.   Through Preach my Gospel and experience though, I've come to an even greater appreciation for how central the Book of Mormon is to our faith.  

Article of Faith #8

Because of the Book of Mormon we can truly know that Jesus is the Christ, the only begotten son of God.  People can pick the Bible apart, or doubt that the translation or accounts are right and true of the Bible.  But if the Book of Mormon is true, it provides that separate second witness necessary to firmly sustain the truth.  When a person comes to know of the truth of the Book of Mormon by a witness of the spirit, something so clear it is not just some psychological effect, it all comes into place.  It's the blinders of the world and peoples own laziness that keep people from peace and from the truth.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and because of that and personal experiences and witnesses from the spirit, I know that Jesus is the Christ, the son of god, our redeemer and savior, the only perfect one to ever live.  Through him is the only true way to peace and to happiness both in this life and in the world to come.  Trust in him, lean on him, take some steps into the dark if you must, and I promise he will catch and embrace you.

Patterns of Light, Elder David A. Bednar, (All 3 parts on youtube)

Each part can be viewed separately on lds.org, as well.

We also had a super powerful lesson with a less active this week, he is striving now to make it back on the path after some setbacks, but you can see the hand of God in his life.  He knows it now too.

Love you all!

-Elder Hayden L. Lott

Question of the week: Since you enjoy so many of the Belgian and Dutch foods, we have been wondering if you've been able to try the pickled herring, or if it is only a seasonal thing?

Answer:  No I haven't tried pickled haring... none of my companions have made me yet.  I will before the end of my mission, just not now.

Conference!

Hey everybody!

So.. how about conference!  I still haven't seen all of it but let me tell you, it fit my bill perfectly!  I am so pumped to go out and work now - well even more than before anyways.  It is always good to know that we can receive guidance every 6 months from men truly led by God.  I am excited to pour over and apply all the things I have learned over the next 6 months.

Fifth Article of Faith

As far as the rest of the week went, I just need to start expecting that things will be crazy.  I went and picked up my new companion on Wednesday, Elder Stanworth, fresh off the airplane.  He is from Hurricane, Utah.  He just graduated from High School a couple of months ago.  He is a lot quieter than my last greeny, very observant, and just super cool!  We're going to have a lot of fun. He played Football and Soccer, and snowboarded in High School.  He kind of got thrown into a tornado on his first couple days.  We've been doing things you wouldn't normally on your first couple days, because the singing elders have been working in our area this week, plus general conference, but it's been all good. 

Elder Stanworth and Me

Elder Lott and Elder Stanworth

We've seen some cool miracles so far.  We've been having to walk places until we can find him a bike helmet.  (It is almost impossible to find one in this country, I swear!)  But the good thing has been we've been talking to a ton more people than just on buses or biking so that has been good.  It's always fun to see who you will meet in this country.  We really are called to teach all nations.  You can find people from every continent just about every day here.  

I'm super impressed with how pretty Breda is, there are so many unexpected cool things that you find here.

I love you all!  Hope you have a good week!

-Elder Hayden L. Lott

Question of the Week:  We received word this week that the Mission Office moved to a new building.  Do you know why, and have you had a chance to see the new place?

Answer:  For the question of the week I don't know why the mission office is moving, and I haven't had a chance to see the new one.  I did know it was moving though; hopefully they can figure it all out quickly and smoothly.

New Mission Office Address:

Belgium Netherlands Mission

Elder Hayden Lott

Schuttersveld 2 C

2316 ZA Leiden

NETHERLANDS