Monday, November 23, 2015

So you can understand, it was my birthday on Saturday, and I didn't receive any card.... obviously I complaint!!! (MUM)


Elder Serra's reply to my email this week:

Woah Mother!!!!! The card´s in the mail!!!!!!! Jez Luise......!!!! How could you not trust your beloved son to send you a card ;)

Okay, I actually don´t have a lot of time this week because today we´re playing AMERICAN FOOTBALL!!!!!! IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME!!!!!! I´m so excited and we have to leave in a second so I´ll just briefly go through the things that happened this week! Also, I´m sorry but the camera wasn't working this week up until Saturday so I haven´t got any pictures but I´ll redeem myself next week!!! 

So firstly we had Zone Training were the whole zone got together and it was great to see Elder Stanworth and Elder Brunner (MTC Group) and catch up a little bit. The Zone training was so spiritual and I learnt so much about what I can do as a missionary to find the elect of Christ. It made me really happy that I was missionary! Is all I´m going to say about it!!!!!!

Then we had a whole bunch of exchanges with other missionaries which meant I got to learn a lot in terms of things I could do better as a missionary. I feel like this week I was able to grow so much in terms of what I can do to help others progress. 

Then I feel like it culminated in this experience:

So this week I found a guy at the door who was Muslim but had rejected the Muslim faith because it didn't have the answer to his questions about why we´re here. (btw he only speaks English) And so me and a different companion (Elder Clement was on exchanges) went in and thought the Plan of Salvation. At the end we thought him to pray and told him to pray with us.... He didn't say it out loud like mos people but he knelled silently and spoke to Heavenly Father for 8 or so minutes.... Let me tell you now... I could feel the spirit so strong and I knew that he was praying for answers even if I couldn't hear him and I knew that this was someone that needed the gospel and all that it contains. 
It was also nice to know that I know a lot about what I´m here to do and that´s awesome!

Okay, I promise to send pictures next week!!!!!

I love you all so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elder Serra


PS: For those of you reading this in the blog.... I DID NOT FORGET MY MUM´S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!






Since he didn't send any photos this week, here is the photos of his planner from last week's email (MUM)

Monday, November 16, 2015

Hi Fam!!

Okay, This week has actually been a pretty boring week in terms of pictures :P

So on Monday we went shopping but we didn't really find anything cool but it was still pretty fun. 

Then on Tuesday I finally got a BIKE!!!!!!! And by the way guys, my bike is flipping awesome!!!!! It´s all slick and black... It´s Black Thunder is what it is!!! 

Yeah, we had the whole of Wednesday when we got to ride it until Elder Clement´s bike broke so we had to lock them somewhere and came back the next day :(. Sucks for Elder Clement... but at least he doesn't have to wear a helmet anymore. Backstory on that... No one here in the Netherlands wears a helmet but a sister and two elders got hit by cars (just some embarrassing bruises) and so now everyone has to wear one which sucks because it looks ridiculous. But there you go, we don´t get to wear them a lot. 

On Thursday we had a really nice boring day but at the end of the day I just felt good, like I´d worked all that I could and that felt great!!! Actually here´s something that I wrote this week:
 "I feel like the way you begin to change yourself while you´re on a mission is by immersing yourself in the work. You can´t attempt to change yourself without serving other people. You can only find yourself and who you can become as you serve and do your best to think about other people´s needs. As you do that, I feel like you begin to change yourself but not because you feel you want to become that, but because that person you´re becoming is who your investigators need. And it doesn't matter what those changes are, because as you try to become someone more able to help your investigators, then you become someone who is more Christlike. Then, as you because more like Christ, you do you realize that the change that you've made has also changed your heart and made you eligible for the peace and comfort the Atonement provides." 
That was a real nice realization I had and it made me feel pretty great!!!

Then on Friday I started making my own planner. So backstory, here in the mission you have missionary daily planners, like every mission but here you decorate the front and back so it´s more spiritually uplifting to look at. And because I´m a beast at Graphic Design :P,  I just made the best planner of any greenie missionary, not that I´m proud or anything!!! ;) 

And yeah, then we found a cool tower in Den Bosch that let us see pretty high up. 

Also something that was pretty great was that on Wednesday we went to check Anne (#not real name) up and make sure that she was okay because she hadn't come to church or answered any of our texts ad we were worried.... like freaking out "WHAT IF SHE DOESN'T WANT TO BE BAPTIZED ANYMORE...THIS CAN´T BE!!!!!" And then we checked her out and actually she was just sick and her phone was broken!!!! Woop woop!!!

And Yes, we've had a lot of D.A.s (dinners appointments) so that´s good, we actually didn't even have to cook this week!! How cool is that??!!

The thing in France hasn't changed our schedule at all. The President said something about it and told us the situation and just said to keep away from populated events so all good there!!! 

Okay, I think that´s it for this week,
See you next week!!! 



Black Thunder!!!



Us gone shopping, out on the town, you know!!



Us in a tower... not that cool but YOSO!! (not sure what this means!!)


Monday, November 9, 2015

Hey Guys!!

So this week has been awesome!! 

On Tuesday we had to say goodbye to the Senior Couple that was working in our area #sadface. Buuut it meant we finally got to try Sister Hills fajitas and that was flipping awesome. We had great time and we had a lot of food plus, since everyone was american besides me, they all reminisced over America which was hilarious, literally, so much American pride you can't even handle it!!!  

Anyways, then on Thursday we had Harry van de Sande with us!!!! So backstory, Harry is a convert to the church and he´s like 76 years old or something. However, once he was baptized he loved missionary work so much that he decided to just become one. So he basically teaches with the missionaries in Eindhoven, and walks around with the missionaries and dresses like a missionary and, the best part, is that he´s done this for long enough so hat the church just decided to give him his own tag!! He´s like a fully qualified awesome missionary. Anyways, he came down to our city and we had boschebolle, which is basically a cream filled ball of yumminess!!! 

Then on Friday we found this awesome trail of trees as we were walking to an appointment and it looked like Narnia, so many leaves and it went on forever!!!

Also, I should have mentioned him earlier but I forgot... oh well! Theo is the first lesson I had to give in Dutch when I arrived here and he´s just the most carrying guy. He can´t physically go to church because he´s so old so we have to go to his house twice a week and he´s such a nice guy!!!! Pray for him, he´s pretty old and always tired!! 

Then last crazy story!! Late last night we had an undercover cop car stop someone in front of our apartment!!! it was bonkers!!!!!!! 

Also, last thing, last night was transfer calls and I´m staying in Den Bosch with Elder Clement for this transfer which is great because it´s his last!!!! Unless you´re getting transferred, transfer calls aren't really that exciting. But I found out that two people from my district got transferred so it´ll be fun to find out who the new guys are!!!!

Cool experiences this week, we taught a lesson to our investigator this week about what would happen when he became baptized and how it would be hard at times and he needed to trust in the Lord and he was just so ready for it. He told us how he´d been waiting a while to get bapized and that he knew that Satan would tempt him but he said he was ready, that he was committed to living his life the way he should and it was great, you could really feel the Spirit of what he said, I´m so happy that I was there to experience his testimony. We've almost set a date since he´s waiting for on of his friends from America to come visit and baptize him but he´s almost there!!!!!

Ok, I love you guys, I miss you all like crazy and I hope everything´s going good over there!!!!




Our last District picure together before the Hills left :(



Harry eating a boschebolle.... AWESOME!!!




Pictures from the Tree Trail (as it is now dubbed)





Theo and his wonderful smile!!!!!


Undercover Cop Car.... yeah, that actually happened!!!




Monday, November 2, 2015


Here is an excerpt of Elder Serra's Email this wek:

Ok, Spiritual Experience Time!!!

So we´re out teaching this investigator and she´s 29 and has a baptismal date, let´s call her Marie #notactualname. So while we´re teaching it´s going great and were teaching her about the Holy Ghost and I share that scripture from 1 John 4 and I talk about the feelings that I had where I first read it and it was great, I could feel myself feeling those exact same things again and it was a real testimony to me that the Spirit will always testify of the truthfulness of the Gospel if you´re ready for it!

Funny Experience Time!!

So on Friday I went on exchanges with one Elder Roberts who is probably the best missionary at contacting people ever. Anyways, so we have a great days work and go home and when we get in, he brings out a small book that his girlfriend wrote him about how they met, and he reads it out to me. And that was the funniest story I´ve ever heard, I´ll have to email him for some quotes from it but it was hilarious!!! Anyways, another funny thing is that morning me and Elder Roberts made a video of us two.... I´ll send you the video next week, it´s hilarious!!!!

Investigators!!

So we have 3 really

Marie #notactualname: I only met her last Thursday because we've always been on exchanges when we've had appointments with her so I don´t know a lot but she´s really awesome and came to church yesterday and really enjoyed it. The cool thing is that she´s only had 3 lessons altogether but is already looking to get baptized which is awesome!!! Also, she has a cool dog so that´s great!!!!!

Tom #notrealname: he´s been waiting to be baptized for a while but his parent haven´t been really up for it until recently. He´s 19 and has been to America with a Mormon family which is were he got interested. He plays rugby so he´s pretty buff. He´s also 19 so he´s like one of the guys. He´s a Homie!!!!!!

Artie #canttellyouhisname he speaks Portuguese so our lessons are in Portuguese which is great. He´s married to a Portuguese less active and has a lot of deep questions so let´s hope I have some deep answers. Anyways, he has been coming to church for a while and everyone loves him so let´s see if we can´t get him on Date..

This week hasn't been that hard... I had a pretty great interview with President so it sort of sorted out my whole week really ;)

Ok, I love you and Miss you guys a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!


On his Pday last week, Elder Serra had a visit from a family of his ward in England and had a really good time! Being spoiled is an understatement!! 

His smile says it all!


Thank you Donker's!!


Food


And more food!!