28/12/2015

Hi guys!!

Okay,  the answers to some questions:

Yes, I loved the gifts and they´re hanging all over the apartment!!! I especially loved the ties!!!! I´ll send a little something about them home later.

Yeah, the ward sent me a whole bunch of letters that I just loved reading and if you could tell them that I loved them that would be awesome!!!.

I loved just seeing everyone on Christmas day and just talking, it was extremely fun and a nice boost.

Timo´s lesson on Sunday was great!!!! He´s such a beast and he just ended up bearing testimony again. Can´t wait for that kid to go on a mission!!!!!

So, this week:

So this last week has been pretty difficult. It actually started pretty well with a lesson with a member who´s struggling with his testimony. So you know, he wanted it to be about motivation and we went in and tried to teach how to use the things that he wanted to motivate him and I think that it really helped him. It was such a great lesson and we could feel the spirit so strongly. 

Then on Tuesday we had our first exchange of the transfer. I stayed in Den Bosch with Elder Wilson and it was a great exchange. It was sorta sucky that the two lessons I had set up fell through but we ended up having a great time contacting that day and we found a lot of potentials. It was great to talk to Elder Wilson about the city and everything that´s going on. I think it was the first ever exchange where I felt that it was for a purpose and not just for fun. All of the exchanges I went on when I was Elder Clement´s companion where for him to help the other missionaries get better. But since I had him the rest of the time, I just received that help a lot more often. However, with Elder Wilson, I was really able to analyse myself and how I can better help others in Den Bosch.

 

On Wednesday, I spent the day on Splits with Elder Crowder and it was great. It was so fun plus we had a great chat about leadership and things you need to do as a leader to help others and it helped me realize that I have a pretty great District Leader. On Christmas Eve we spent some time contacting and looking people up. It wasn't the most exciting day... We then went to a part member family and had a great dinner with them.

On Christmas day we spent some time contacting and looking up members that were alone and giving them a bit of a spiritual boost which made me feel great. We then skyped our families!!!! So I was pretty exciting to skype my family since it´s been a while. It was so great to talk to them and share spiritual experiences as well as funny ones. After we hanged up, it was a nice feeling to have talked to them but also I feel ready to continue working. I was worried that after I spoke to them, that I wouldn't feel up to working or that I´d get trunkie but I felt so great because I had gotten to do something great and fun but I also knew what I was here to do. 

The last thing this week is that I had a bit of an epiphany on Sunday. I was thinking to myself, why is it that this is so much harder than I thought. I've always felt great working and I don´t feel like giving up at all but sometimes I look at what I´m doing and what needs to be done, whether it´s for Den Bosch or for investigators or for members, and I think, Why am I finding it so hard? And I realized that before my mission I had never been in an environment that required me to become better at almost all times. I continually try to improve myself everyday but that´s pretty hard. Not only am I not perfect but I´m also not relatively old by mission standards. However, I still try and I find myself looking at the person I was and thinking that I have changed a lot. I am by far a better person than I was and its great to see that in myself. However, it´s also a humbling and sorta exciting experience to understand that I still have a long time where in can better myself more.

And it's pretty much this week!!

Here's some photos, courtesy and comments of my companion, Elder Shaw:

This is the new companion! Ain´t he a looker! I love this kid! (Elder Shaw's words)

This is Elder Serra jokingly trying to find an uncomfortable position to sleep in.

This is Elder Serra genuinely just tuckered out.

Ain´t he a cutie. I take a lot of pictures of him. He´s very photogenic. (Elder Shaw's words)

Cookies Elder Shaw made. We were on a train to Eindhoven.

Apparently Elder Shaw loves to take pictures with cats!!!!

This last one has a bit of a story. WE locked ourselves out of our apartment. We spent an hour and a little bit more removing the door from it´s hinges with the help of Rudy, our building handyman. After forever we finally got back inside. Yeah, we´ll do better at remembering our keys after that ordeal. Yep. Elder Serra's not happy!!!

Okay, I love you guys!!!!!!!!!

Loves, Elder Serra

Hello guys!!

Okay, so this week has been pretty sad. I had to say good bye to Clement on Wednesday which was really sad. Yes, I cried, but that´s not news, I always cry. Anyways, I really miss him, he was a great companion and a great friend. He was a really great guy and very trustworthy. But, it´s alright coz I get Elder Shaw. Elder Shaw is from Austin, Texas and has way too many interests for me to write down but he´s great and we´ve had a great time since he got here. 

This Christmas doesn´t feel too Christmassy but I´m sure as I continue to devote myself to the Lord, that it´ll still be a great Christmas!!

 

Anyways, so a couple of stories from this week: 

Firstly on Tuesday me and Clement stayed up till like 1am to pack his stuff but also to make sure the house was clean for when Shaw would arrive. That was probably the most tiring night ever. There was so much to pack plus in the process of packing the house looked a mess so we had a lot to clean up. But we got it done and when we went to bed the apartment looked great. Then on Wednesday me and Elder Shaw had a really long trip back home because we had to haul all of his stuff through the train and I´ve never had to do that because I´ve always had a car while on my mission. I was sooooo sad to see the car leave. It was soooo nice to have a car plus I´ve never not had a car which means I have to adjust to working in Den Bosch without it. But it´s worked out pretty great. 

So on Friday we had a lesson with our investigator Timo. Timo is sooooooo awesome. He´s 20 years old and me and Clement taught him for the last two transfers and he´s now had all the lessons and is getting baptised in January. But we´ve now decided to give him refresher lessons so we started with the Restoration. And it was so awesome because we would talk about one of the points and he would bear testimony. Then at he end of the lesson he said he was thinking about going on a mission which was AWESOME!!!!!!! He is like the perfect investigator and I can´t wait to see him progress!!!

Then a cool thing happened in another lesson. The investigator wouldn´t commit to reading from the BoM unless a sister missionary asked him to do it. So we pull out our phone and call a sister that we both know and she just commits him right then and there and it was such a funny experience. 

Okay, that's it for this week!

loves 

Elder Serra

Some Photos from the Christmas Zone Conference from last week:

Antwepen and Eindhoven Zones - Elder Serra right in the middle

Elders Brunner, Stanworth and Harry 

Hey Guys!!

First of all, I want you guys to know that I miss you like crazy!!!!!!!!! It's almost been 4 months but it feels like yesterday I entered the mission field.

Ok, to answer your questions mum:

1.Yes, we still have p.day next Monday so I´ll email you and get all the details.

2. The family I'm spending Christmas with are the Stomps and I´ll get all the information I need on Thursday because that's when we have a dinner appointment.

3.Yes I loved the presents you got me. Can't wait for the ones on Christmas dAY!!!!

4. Conference was awesome!!!!!

Okay, so A BREAKDOWN OF LAST WEEK!!!ii

On wednesday we worked pretty hard trying to get a lot of work done and contact as many people as possible since it was going to be Elder Clements last full working week. Then we drove down to Antwerpen so we could sleep at the apartment of the Elders there so we would be close enough to the chapel the next day. The Zone Conference was awesome!!!!!

I just loved being there with so many missionaries and seeing so many of my old friends, it was great. There we got taught a whole bunch of stuff that isn't really relevant for you guys so we'll skip over that. Then it was time for the leaving missionaries to say their departing testimonies. So Elder Clement went up and just bore testimony about what it was he learned while on a mission and it was great because these were all things that he'd taught me so I understood them and I feel better about what it is that I know because of him and how it will help me with Den Bosch. 

On Friday we went to the last singing elders concert and it was so awesome. The Singing Elders are beast!! They just sang awesome and made everyone feel the Spirit. Then after the concert we had to speak to people because that's the point of the concert, for missionaries to speak to member and investigators. That's when I met the people in the photo. They're from the Portuguese branch here in the Netherlands which is funny because I'm probably going to end up serving there (hopefully). 

Then on Sunday was Clement´s last Sunday in the ward. It wasn't too emotional but I'm sure they're going to miss him quite a lot. Also, a new missionary returned to Den Bosch after serving in South Africa so he was pretty cool. 

Then we finally got the transfer calls after the whole day. My new companion is Elder Shaw and he´s actually one of the singing elders and he´s pretty cool so it'll be great to have him as my companion. I don't actually know a lot else about him but I'm sure he´s great. 

Okay, I think that's it for this week. 

Elder Serra with an Elder (don't know who) and Carolina Serrano from Rotterdam at the Singing Elders Concert 

Elder Clement and a few of his buddies at the Singing Elders Concert!!!

Elder Clement and his two sons!!!!! Me and Elder Byers... I'm the better looking one of course eheh!!!

Oh, and I saw Elder Johnson at the Singing Elders Concert so that was great!!!!

Love you all so much!!!!!!

Elder Serra

On the 7th of December, Elder Serra Wrote:

Okay, to answer your questions mum:

Yes, I have a family that is giving us Christmas Dinner and is letting us skype but I don't know what time we'll skype because I don't know when my new companion will be able to do it since I don't know if he´s American or not.

I'll get the Christmas package on Thursday when we have Christmas Conference.

So I have a few pictures to send but what´s cool is that they´re from the last 2 P-days that I´ve had!!

The First P-day!!!

So we had to go to Den Haag (The Hague) on Wednesday to pick up my identity card from the Portuguese Embassy and we thought we´d have a nice day out in Den Haag. Then a member called and let us know we could have a tour of the Twede Kamer which is a political building or something. So we call President to find out if we can go and he told us that we could and to invite other missionaries which was great. So we invited the Assistants. So Elder Bonner is a... Marine which means that he is hardcore looking and was evaluating the security of the building and talking about how the guards should do better in keeping watch of the place. But he´s also pretty funny so hat was great. Then Elder Hirsch is the New Assistant and I don't actually know that much but he seemed pretty cool while we were with him. Anyways, the tour was pretty cool plus there were a whole bunch of cool places to see in the building. (Pictures to follow).

So then we leave and drive to Leiden so they can have a copy of my identity card in the office. So while we're in the office, Elder Clement goes crazy and reverts back to an Office Elder and just takes calls and has a blast. 

After all that we drove back home and thought a lesson to a guy called Sebastian and it was actually really sad to teach him because unlike most people we teach he wasn't even willing to try to read the Book of Mormon to know if it was true. He just sort of didn't really want to do anything hat required him to get a testimony. However, it made me happy to realise that all of the things which I was trying to get him to know about were things that I myself knew were true and that I had found out for myself were true. 

Then on Thursday and Friday we had exchanges which were extremely fun. While on exchanges I realised that there´s a lot that I rely on Elder Clements for and that if I want to become a capable missionary I have to try to become not only self reliable but better at doing the things that missionaries need to do. The last few days especially have helped me realise that in your mission you will always be trying to improve, no matter whether you've been out for 3 months or 23 months. It doesn't matter. What matters is that you continually use the Atonement as well as the resources give you by the Church to become a better missionary and a better Disciple of Christ.

The Second P-Day!!

So yesterday we went down to Maastricht or rather to Valkenburg which is a small town in the South of the Netherlands which is a pretty old part of Europe. So we went with our whole District to explore. There were caves with loads of Christmas Stuff in it which was great because it was the last cool thing Elder Clement would get to do on his PDay since his last would be spent cleaning our whole apartment because that´s what you have to do before the end of a transfer. We then went to explore the ruins of the oldest castle in the Netherlands....or something like that.... And it was great, got some great pictures of everything in there. 

Anyways, I think that´s it this week.

I love you guys soooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!

Love 

Elder Serra

No pictures so far...I'll post them as soon as I get them!  

So, on the 2nd of Dec, Elder Serra wrote (we can call it a microscopic email, if you know what I mean...)

Hey Fam-Fam!!

Wow, this last week and a half have been busy. The biggest event (I guess you can call it that) is that we had Thanksgiving last Thursday and it was great. We first spent the day with a whole bunch of kids in a high school somewhere because the school asked us to go teach the kids about the Church! WHAT!!! Crazy right? So we got there and they were all cooking thanksgiving dinner. So we helped them out with that and we spend the day with them having some fun. We then ate dinner with them but that meant we had no time so they asked us to come back in January to give a full lesson about the church which should be great fun. Sadly, couldn't take pictures :( 

Next thing is we found some Geese in our city so that's fun. 

Oh, I've also been  making a few videos of things happening around here so that we can have a fun time so you'll see those in a second.... 

I guess that's it. Watch the videos and you'll see what I mean!!!!!

Love Elder Serra

A few moments later, Elder Serra sent another email:

Arghhhhhhh

It won´t let me send videos!!!!!! I´ll figure something out next week I promise!!! You can still have the Geese photos!!! :)

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)

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!!)

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!!!

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!!