Thanksgiving Rush

Hey all!

It's been another great week in the Netherlands!

This week we had a tri-zone mission conference and a member of the Seventy came to speak to us.  Elder Moreira or something like that, he is from Portugal.  He is a super funny guy, always happy and bouncy.  He stressed to us the importance of dedicating our mission to the Lord.  How it is not our mission, but the Lords.  It was really good to hear because he actually answered a bunch of questions I've been having and gave us some great advice.  I didn't really come away with anything specific other than that feeling, but it was cool that the next day during personal study I came across a scripture, and it is Matthew 19:26 which is already super powerful.  But when you read the Joseph Smith translation, it adds that all things are possible for those who give themselves up to the Lord. [JST Matt. 19:26  But Jesus beheld their thoughts, and said unto them, With men, this is impossible; but if they will forsake all things for my sake, with God whatsoever things I speak are possible.] This hit me pretty hard, and I realized between these two things that lately I've been making this more my work, and not the Lords work.  I need to do as it says in Proverbs 3:5-6 and "Trust in the Lord with all your (my) heart and lean not unto your own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Sometimes it can be a little scary to try and act on promptings we get or to follow the path the Lord has set for us, either because we are afraid we are wrong and it is just our own thoughts or whatever other reason it may be, but I can testify that we don't need to be afraid in following the Lord.  If we are trying our best to follow him, we will eventually come to recognize the way that He lights the path we should take.

We got to have a Thanksgiving dinner!  We went to the Txx's and had turkey, stuffing, pie, the whole shabang!  That was super fun.  Before that we had a turkey bowl with all the other missionaries in our zone. That was super fun even though we lost in the end.  It made me realize just how out of shape I've gotten :p

Feeding the Ducks

More Ducks

Nesseland
[This narrow strip of beach/grass is a few minutes away from Elder Lott's apartment.  The buildings pictured are very iconic ones in Rotterdam, and Nesseland Beach is a popular volleyball circuit site.]

I will also say once again that exchanges are great.  I have learned some of the greatest lessons so far from each of my exchanges, and they never let me down. I had the chance this week to be with Elder Endicott this week in Ommoord.  He was able to give me some really great advice on some things I've been struggling with, and gave me a super good example of some things I can put into my contacting.  Mostly just making sure that I am teaching and testifying at every opportunity I get.  We had a cool stretch of about 20 minutes when we first, placed a Book of Mormon with an Islamic lady (miracle!), and then starting talking with another lady while going back to our bikes, talking and walking with her for about a mile, and gave her pretty much and entire lesson!  Turns out that she lived in Amsterdam so we gave her those Elders number and a card, but hey, still super cool.

Train Station in Capelle

We bought a coconut for a euro!

Super Heros!
Elder Lovin and Elder Lott

Love you all!

Elder Hayden L. Lott

ps In response to my moms question about hand-warmers.  They are pretty nice.  I have some that Elder Chantry gave me.  But actually what I've found is that a pair a leather gloves is super good as well.  What mostly bites is the cold wind, so if you can keep that off you'll be fine for the most part.  (The jacket from Uncle David and Aunt Di is super good at keeping the wind off!  With that and a sweater and the leather gloves, I've been warm. Oh and thermal leggings.  Just keep the wind off!)  Also, yes we have a microwave in our apartment, and every other apartment I've been in has one.  They all have a stove.  But what is weird is that only about half or less have an oven.

Just Another Week in the Netherlands

Hey all!

Well, the weeks are flying by faster and faster it seems like!  It's hard to imagine that I have been out on a mission for almost 4 months!  Crazy stuff.  This week has been pretty smooth.  Nothing too crazy really.  Really just hitting the grindstone.  Not sure how many hours we spent on doorsteps this week, but that doesn't matter.  What matters is that we are trying, and the Lord is blessing us with keeping our sanity and even being happy through it all as we continue building this area from the ground up.  Still not seeing the fruits of our labors as far as numbers go, but as far as blessings go it's unbelievable!  We are seeing some progress in working with less actives, teaching a couple families, and individuals.

I guess this would be a good week to talk about an investigator that we have.  I haven't really talked about her in the past because I'm not exactly sure how to tell her story, and I will say that there is a lot I will leave out.  But her name is Jxx, she is from Bulgaria, but has lived here in the Netherlands for awhile now though.  She doesn't like the Dutch language, she says it makes her sick to speak it, so we just teach her and talk with her in English.  She is a health nut, and just a super sweet lady!  She is so loving it is unreal.  I have really been able to connect with her, and have some really spiritual experiences with teaching her.  This week we had a really spiritual lesson with her.  She ended up relating to us why she started to take the lessons from us, and why she loves being around us.  In the past, apparently she has had other people come to her house from other religions but she told us she didn't like them because even though they talked about God and Christ they always, as she puts it, were forcing their beliefs on her.  She felt that they were angry with her even while they were teaching, so she didn't like them much.  But with the Elders before us (Elder Johnson and Giles), they simply shared what they believed and took interest in what she believed and simply added to that.  She said also when she sees us, she always sees a light around us, she always feels calm, and can feel the love coming from us. (We have been able to tell her that this is the spirit and the Light of Christ.)  The final thing that put it over the edge was when she was talking to her teenage son about us he made a comment, "Oh Mom, it is good you are meeting with them, Mormons are the nicest people in the world." Although he shows no interest in meeting with us, I'm glad he can a least say that about us.  She knows that everything is true, and wants to be baptized.  But it is sad because there are some things out of her control keeping her from that for now.  One day I know she will be baptized, and I will rejoice with her that day!  I hope and pray thought that day will be sooner than later.

I love this gospel.  I love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I love the people of the Netherlands, especially those whom I have met so far.

Because of Him

Witness of Christ - Dallin H. Oaks

To answer Moms question from last week, everyone in this mission has at least a washer in their apartment.  We are one of the lucky ones with a dryer as well.  My Christmas package, if it happens at all this year, will be super small by the way.  Packages are super expensive as you probably know, and so most of gifts and other things might better come in a few years when I get home.

Love you all so much!

Elder Hayden L. Lott

ps.

no pictures this week, I forgot my card reader at the apartment.  Sorry everybody :/

Oh, one small thing I missed on the letter is that we are going to a zone turkey bowl today! That will be fun.  I will miss going to Grandma and Grandpa's for Thanksgiving, but it is all worth it for 2 years.  We are getting a Thanksgiving dinner from the Txx's  though!  They're sweet.  Love you mom!  [The Txx are the dear couple that Elder Lott watched General Conference with his second week in the mission.  We are so in love with members who take care of missionaries!]

Eyes Opened, Faith Strengthened

Hey all!

This week has been one of potential, and of a vision of what hopefully is to come, not necessarily in getting to see the fruits of our labors.  Slowly but surely we are starting to see more success in our finding efforts, and also in seeing miracles that I never would have hoped for.  Most all of our lessons fell through this week, but we are filling in with some people who we have been talking and working with for a week or two who are pretty positive, and getting lessons now which is awesome because for the first time since I first got here we are starting to have a teaching pool rather than a lesson here or there.  Out of those we have, about 3-4 we have prayed about and see to be positive.

Inside of Cathedral in Gouda

Stained Glass in Gouda Cathedral
Virtual Tour of Sintjan (Gouda Cathedral)

In Counsel Room in Cathedral in Gouda, Reading the Holy Bible

Singing in the Cathedral

It has been interesting how my view of finding people has changed this week.  The first experience that helped me open my eyes was going on splits with Elder Bitters (Lone Peak High) this week.  Throughout the day, which was made up of mostly just straight door knocking, he shared a lot of experiences that he had already seen on his mission.  What stuck out to me the most was nothing he directly said, but was what the spirit taught me through his words.  In this mission especially, we are not going to be able to logically convince anyone that our church is true.  The only people who will truly end up listening to us are those whom have allowed themselves to be prepared by God in one way or another, whether consciously or unconsciously.  We then are responsible to be ready to teach those whom we teach, and not just with knowledge, but with spiritual strength.  In this way, God will help guide those who are prepared and those who are ready to teach together.  Once again, this is always something I had known in my head, but that became a much more powerful lesson when learned through the spirit.

I am glad I learned this lesson before my second experience of this week.  Because even after learning this lesson, my next experience was a hard one.  During our contacting during the week, we came across a man who was fairly interested in what we had to say.  He actually brought up a few things he knew about our church and said he was very interested in what we had to teach.  He set up an appointment with us to come back the next day!  We were so pumped and excited after that we hardly stopped to think about what had just happened.  So the next day we came back, thinking that this would be a great lesson because we had prepared to answer some questions he had, and were simply so happy to be teaching a lesson.  When getting there, we found that his son was there. He was in his 20's and we were like, alright!  We sat down, started our lesson, and started to answer and the questions they had before with some scriptures we had found, and then the whole situation turned on us.  Turns out both the Dad and that son were Baptist and super well versed in the Bible.  After answering the first question, the son pulled out his ipad and proceeded to ask us about some super deep doctrinal questions and before even letting us answer, he would move on to sharing a whole bunch of scriptures that supposedly proved that our church was wrong and of the devil.  At this point, I had a feeling that of course now I know was the spirit telling me to just get out.  But we were bull headed and tried to defend ourselves, but at this point the spirit had left the room.  I was able to show that most of what they were using against us was out of context and was in fact not the truth, but no answer was good enough for them. As frustration rose I finally just calmed down, bore my testimony, and we kinda forced a prayer and left.  After the lesson I just felt sick.  Not because of anything they had said, but because I had gone against a lesson that I had been taught just this week (that we cannot convince anyone this is true, the spirit must bear witness or nothing we say will convince anyone) and I had gone against a spiritual prompting and not gotten out when I should have.  As I knelt in prayer that night, I was once again humbled because of the love and patience I felt from my Heavenly Father.

      

Working out on Nesselande Beach

They have some sweet beach volleyball courts here too!
It would be fun to be here during the summer.
[Mom research discovered that Nesselande Beach is a popular
beach volley circuit site, but could not find webpage in English to link to.]

Elder Lovin going through skate park at Nesselande Beach

God is our Heavenly Father, He loves us more then we can even comprehend.  He is patient with us, and is ever merciful with us.  He sent his Son, Jesus Christ to atone for our sins.  Christ felt all pain and sorrow that we felt.  He knows the heartache of both he who is wronged and he who did wrong.  His atonement is truly infinite and through it, all losses, pains and wrongs experienced in this life will be made up.  If we are faithful and follow Him, by repenting, being baptized, receiving the Holy Ghost, and doing our best to endure to the end in following Him and becoming like Him, we will live with Him and God and our families forever.

I love all of you so dang much!

Elder Hayden L. Lott

Me (Elder Lott) and Zwarte Piets!

I can't believe I forgot to talk about this in my email!  It was St. Marks (or some st. anyways) on Saturday

!  That means that Sinterclaus comes to town along with all his helpers, Zwarte Piet!  I would love to tell more but I suppose I'll have to another time because my time is almost up.  Look up info about it, its so cool!

Zwarte Piet and Sinterklaas

 It was impossible to prosolyte because no one was home, they were all in a centrum here or there to watch Sinter Claus come in!  It was one big party here in the Netherlands. 
Man, I can't believe I forgot to write about this!