New Years was really nice, although there were no fire works and we just went to bed at the normal time. We had a great feast for lunch though! It lasted from 1130 to 3 ish, we ate a course then opened presents and played games in between. It was a lot of fun. So like I said nothing crazy, probably because fireworks are banned in Sint Niklaas. The city did celebrate its 800th year of existence though, but we didn't go and see, we were in a four o clock. On new years day the bishop asked us (the night before) to sing, so we came at ten to practice (sacrament meeting, the only meeting of the day was pushed back to eleven like Christmas). We sang Far Far Away on Judea's plains and It came upon a Midnight Clear. That was great, I love singing. The bishop and his counselor were the only two speakers.
Thanks for the pictures, they are really nice, I sent a bunch too. The district was using their bodies to spell Antwerpen. I was at the end and just pretended to be an exclaimation point. I'm not the best actor. The accordian was really fun to make sounds with. You can try and delete the copies, that would be helpful.
I will send a package soon.
Thanks for all the love and concern, we're going to Ghent today.
Love, Ammon
January 9
Exciting news, I got emergency transferred up to Hilversum. It's right next to Amsterdam and is included in the province North Holland. I won't go into depth on emergency transfers, suffice it to say that no one is in danger, president just decided to switch me and the other elder. I got the call last Tuesday night from president Bunnell informing me that I would be getting transferred. It's been an exciting week!
I've got quite a bit to report about Hilversum. It's a small city and we also work in the three small cities surrounding it which we travel to by train. The branch is very small, the meeting house is a very nice house with three floors, which is very nicely kept, I really like it, it's super cozy. For the first time, I will be accompanying the sacrament meetings on piano, which I will enjoy. We have a baptism this Saturday! He's a really great guy from Friesland, the north-westernmost province of the Netherlands. He's almost as tall as me, so I'll be lending him my temple pants to get baptized in.
My new companion was born in Portugal. His family moved to england when he was eleven. He came out on his mission shortly after turning 18 and came in the group after me. He's called to speak Portugese and dutch. He actually doesn't speak portugese as well as he used to, he's just an english kid now, although his english accent has been mostly worn off. We'll be going on more exchanges here since there are five elders in the district (there's a three man in Almere).
So, I'm super refreshed to be in a new place with new things and new people!
January 16
Nico's baptism and confirmation went well! It's super special to see how well he's taking things, he's really been set on a fast track but he's keeping up and super happy and ready to embrace all the wonderful things membership in the church has to offer.
Wow a new piano! Now I'm really excited! So many super cool things to come home to! I love the piano so much. I'm excited for when I develop the discipline to practice as well as Jenna, I want to play well so much!
We've actually gotten snow a couple times since I've been here, there is an inch or two layer! It's kinda nice, as long as the temperature stays up.
I'm really liking being in Holland again, I enjoy acclimating myself back to the Hollands accent which differs from the Flemish accent mostly in intonation and more subtle pronounciation differences, which make a difference, but are difficult to authentically integrate into the way one speaks without sounding uncomfortable and ingenuine. Basically, to sound more like a Hollander, I am practicing speaking with the guttoral r (flemish most often employs a tongue r, which is the easiest for me) and the raspier "hard" guttoral g (flemish is charaterized by a "soft" guttoral g, and Hollands by a "hard" guttoral g).
We had a really fun, busy week. We had a zone training in Almere, exchanges with the Amersfoort Elders, some dinner appointments (one with a fantastic accordion concert afterwards and another with Sam and Valerie Lee, members from the states who are taking a long term European tour, they're considered buying a house in forest Grove or Happy Valley), and then the baptism and confirmation.
I did some reading on Winkel.org, which made me wonder if anyone has any documents of writing from Hendrick or Everdina in dutch. I would love to see that.
This week we're doing exchanges with the Zone leaders in Amsterdam and the Amersfoort Elders. Today we spent hours reorganizing the appartment, it looks wonderful! We switched things around a lot. It's really refreshing. Lastly, on Friday we go to Zoetermeer to see a concert by Savannah Stevens, the actress who plays Mary in the church's Bible Videos and also plays Glinda in the musical Wicked. She's from England and will be singing and talking about the church. We're going to bring Nico.
Playing piano in church is fun.
January 23
Well that makes three of us, I haven't grown either, but I suppose I can't complain. I sent Chase an email, we've exchanged a few in the past, but not recently.
Many American snacks have a sort of equivalent here, but there aren't a lot of them of the same brand. There aren't cheese its, but there are some fancier and tastier cheese crackers. They're unbelievably tasty! I really should sent some of those, I don't know that they're easy to find in the states. I still haven't sent anything, but I did get a box of chocolates and an investigator gave us some delft blue plates and a member some delft blue windmill figurines.
We didn't go to the fireside, Nico was busy and we had to bring someone if we wanted to come. No one else could come. A member couple went, they said it was fantastic.
Wow the girls must be stake celebrities by now, not that that's important of course. I love how within the church, wards and stakes, so many friends can be made and everyone comes together to do fun stuff so often.
I'm definitely excited to come home and see all the nice new things we have now! Don't let the cat wreck it.
There aren't any objects that I need, no.
This week felt pretty long. Some missionaries have a sort of anxiety about going home. I don't get it, maybe I just have a lot to look forward to. I'm happy with how things are going though.
Love, Ammon
January 30
This week, well, I don't think I've been able to bring myself to say that I had a bad week, or really anything less than a "good week", this week was a good week. With so many good things happening there's just no way I can say I had a bad week. A good week is a week that's behind me.
Since you asked about Hilversum, it's probably got about the highest percentage of native dutch people and it's quite afluent. We ride our bikes everywhere as usual. It's been a little warmer the past couple weeks.
There are a couple portugese investigators, but we haven't been able to get an appointment with them yet. There are quite few portugese people here. If Elder Serra were serving in Rotterdam or another big city he would have loads of people to talk to. We haven't been finding many potentials here, we also haven't spent as much time finding as I have in other areas. Hmmm interesting encounters...well I saw a princess of the Netherlands visit a library in Almere when I was in the apartment in Almere for exchanges with Elder Wright. That was fun, we talked about BYU quite a bit since he's been there a year already.
We had an interesting first lesson with a man that ordered a dvd through a facebook campaign. We got a hold of him and set up an appointment. Most referals like that where I've served won't do that but he did. Elder Jensen was with me in Hilversum on exchange. As we talked to him be sort of spilled out some teaching about the restoration. It wasn't well organized, but he kinda prompted it by asking what we believe in. He had some good things to say and seemed to be willing to learn more. Hopefully he hangs in there. We had an awesome lesson with Nico about the temple, he's a great at learning and super prepared.
Do I feel shielded from the world as a missionary? I think I am. We visited an old lady yesterday evening. We sat in the living room while she and her son ate some dinner. The TV was on, we saw the last couple scenes of some dutch film set in the middle east and then a dutch mythbusters-sort program for teenagers. The material from those shows was pretty innocent, but viewed from my perspective of a missionary, I had a lot of conflicting feelings about the underlying messages that one would absorb by watching such media. I would say that one of the largest struggles I've had as a missionary is my attitude towards worldly messages, beliefs, and behaviors, especially when displayed by myself or others I'm working with. It's difficult to live in the world but not be worldly. The doctrine of Christ asks us to leave worldly things behind. Letting go of those things and trusting him that he can grant us greater rewards is difficult and requires diligent and enduring faith in the sacrificing and denying ourselves of worldliness. I often experience anxiety when confronted with realizations of my own weakness and things I still haven't brought myself to let go of. Even when one battle is won, there's still a war being fought. How often I am reminded of my weakness. I always have a lot of confidence for the future and feel plenty assured a gratefully every day that I'm on the right path, it's just difficult living with constant reminders of my weakness. Every single day and week of my mission has been filled with this. I'm very grateful for it, it's the best way to grow. I just try to avoid all negativity and keep walking forward. It's a vicious cycle sometimes dealing with deciding whether to take a step forward or procrastinate it and do something easier. It's a whole lot of good better best. I feel like I never really take a big enough step, but that feeling only leads to less progression. I am too harsh when assessing myself. Better to just not think, just do. I feel like there's no point measuring myself when measuring myself to anything less that perfection seems insufficient. I'm learning lots though, making the most of my time. I always ultimately am very content with myself, I enjoy being a missionary and I know that this is all part of the program. This is just what happens when I try to express myself, I'm sure you've noticed.
This wednesday we have interviews with president. He instructed us back at new years in making a variety of life goals. I still don't have any written down, I ought to do that before interviews.
The new schedule is cool, I think it will mean for me that I will get to bed up to an hour earlier if we hit everything right, which will help with getting up on time. The other advantage of the new schedule for me will hopefully be a little more time in the morning for eating breakfast. I love being able to buy so many nice groceries, I'm eating lots of fruits and vegetables every day. We've hardly had any dinner appointments the past couple weeks.
I wrote all of this up to here earlier today at the library, then we went to a member's house east of here to play card games with them and the Amersfoort elders. It was pretty fun. I sure do miss basketball though.
I haven't gotten that email from Grandpa's cousin, no.
Transfer calls this Saturday.
Love, Ammon
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