Last MTC Blog Entry!!

Wow, it feels like it's been awhile since I talked. And boy let me tell you. A lot has happened :) I"ll give you the run down:

Thursday (thanksgiving) was soooo awesome. There was stuffing and pumpkin pie and turkey and spuds (true it was MTC style, but who can blame em? there's a chief lard of us;) We did the service project that was fun (although we would've worked longer if they let us) the packages are going to Mali. Country in Africa :). Super cool

What else is super leuk is that Elder Holland came with his wife and some of his children and grandchildren. His wife spoke, his grandkids bore testimony (some of em) one had her mission call. Some of em sang songs and piano and all that. And Elder Holland Spoke last. He told us we were all adopted into his family that day, that's why he brought his family. So we could feel that family experience. It was awesome. When he spoke it was so leuk. I"ve seen some of the recordings of him at the MTC, and boy can he give it to us lol. But when he came it was so great because he was kind and joking and bore powerful testimony of what he was grateful for and said that we should Always we grateful for the gospel in our lives. He said that even he is not usually as grateful as he should be for the chance to have the fullness of the restored gospel. He said that every other age in the history of the world has Never had what we have now. How could we be any more blessed? :) Life truly felt good. Still does.

Later that night we had a super Fun program that they put on for us (they had missionaries do a skit and everything) and then we All got popcorn and they let us watch a show called:

17 Miracles. Have any of you ever seen it? It's so stinkin awesome. I loved it. You all ought to watch it if you get the chance :)

I love and miss you all. I'll admit i missed being with the family for the holidays (now that I think about it its the first time I've ever Not been with the family.....)  I'm not very used to being around hordes of people. And boy are there hordes of people here. Heel Veel mensen. Te veel heheh....

But I'm enjoying it here. Elder King and I got asked to help with the workshop for the new missionaries. You know that fireside that I told you about in the first week where there was a big group of us and we all taught this one investigator? Well, I didn't mention that they would have two Elders come in and start it off then after awhile they would pause the role play, excuse the elders, and let the group take over. Elder King and I got to be those two Elders. Boy, it was a really cool experience. I was super nervous to start out cause they give you microphones and everything and there's all these people watching you 0.0 hehheh. But it was awesome. Hard because they wait until you just start to get a break through with the inverstigator and your just starting to really teach them something, and then bam. they stop you. That's acuatlly really hard. It's hard to explain unless you've been a missionary lol but I'll bet those of you who've gone knows how it feels.............

Anyways. Wow I leave on Monday. Super crazy. I'm drop dead nervous. There’s no question about it. But I'm so looking forward to going :) And I know I'll be taken care of. Thank you all for your prayers letters and love. Het is alltijd appreciated.

With the best of wishes, (hoping that you'll give the same back cause I need em;)

Elder Chantry

Thanksgiving MTC Post

Dear all,

We were told that there would be an apostle coming today :D (much joy and rejoicing) I heard a rumor that it'd be Elder Scott, but my bet was Elder Oaks so I hope I'm right lol..........We get to put together Educational and Health packets in conjunction with some Humanitarian organizations in the middle east. We were given special assignments to supervise a table and I'm excited to do it. It's gonna be awesome.

(Bytheway, learning Dutch has rendered me terrible at spelling. So bear with me lol)

We got our Flight plans yesterday! We fly to Detroit at 11 (leave here at 8) and then we have just a short wait til we go over to Amsterdam. They made me travel leader when we go. So me, having never flown, will be able to "keep track" of everyone else lol it's awesome. I'm super excited. I'm working hard to do my best here the last few weeks that I"m here.

I'm gonna miss home today, but I hope all of you people have a blast with your families, and eat as much as you possibly can (it's good for you :) (just, you know, this once lol)

We've talked about "enduring to the end" here with our teachers. In Dutch that's: "volharding tot het einde toe" it applies not only to life in general but to each circumstance we happen to be in. It not only means get to the end of things, but to get to the end of things having worked our hardest and being able to look back and be proud of what we've done.

Thats some thing I've been working on here :)

I wish you all the best. I think I'll just have one more time of emailing you here at the MTC. And then I'm off :) I"m excited and nervous. It's a good combo.

Ik hou van jullie, en success met u leven.

Talk to you all soon :)

Elder Chantry

ANOTHER WEEK IN THE MTC

HOLO,

I hope thanksgiving goes good for everyone :) Here at the MTC we get to put together care packages, and I'm exceedingly looking forward to that.

I got to host new arriving missionaries yesterday. We had 650 (about) Missionaries arrive and it was pretty awesome. They're putting up Christmas lights everyday now and it looks great. They haven't turned em on yet though and if they don't do it before I leave I'm prbly gonna cry.

We get our flight plans a week from friday 0.0 time is flying ya? Heel snel! I really don't know Dutch well enough to not feel scared lol. But I'm making good progress and I hope that soon I'll be ready to at least understand most of what de Nederlanders say hehheh...

I wish I had a lot more news for you all. (I don't) But that's ok :) Just learning everyday and working hard to be a better Missionary. The one that this work deserves :)

Ik hou van jullie!

Elder Chantry..............

5th Week, Still at the MTC

To Family Friends and any one else who might care to read,

(Note: My Mail Box # WAS NOT CHANGED. It was a mistake before when I said it was changed to 163. It is actually STILL 158. The address is still exactly THE SAME)

I have now been in the MTC (training center) for over a month. Decemeber 3rd I'll leave and begin teaching in the Netherlands and Belgium  Crazy, cause it feels like I've been here for ever, but I'm gonna be super terrified to leave. Owing to the fact that I don't exactly speak Dutch yet lol. I have learned a lot though. and the purpose of the mtc is not to make people fluent, rather to just make them familiar with what they're gonna have to speak :) so i'm not worried. But I am still nervous though lol.

I teach role play lessons almost every other day or so. I practice Dutch, the gospel, and trying to not get lost in a maze of buildings that all look the same lol. We get pizza on Fridays (which is glorious) and there are poppysead muffins which are better then like you know, anything (but pizza and pumpkin pie).

I'm able to construct sentences in dutch, properly formatted, but not when I'm trying to talk lol. At least not very well. I absolutely love my teachers, they work hard to get what we need to know in to our heads, even when they're pretty dang busy in their own lives (one just proposed to a girl yesterday! lol)

Anyways, ik heb geen meer tijd, maar here is a picture of me and my companion (I might have already sent it but I haven't taken any new ones yet so hehheh sorry. I'll try to do that)

I wish you all the best, and I have to say: this gospel is true, and I know that there is no better thing in this world (and the world to come) that'll bring lasting happiness. My testimony is growing everyday and I am so grateful for the chance to serve. I pray for you all everyday and I wish you all the best.

4th Week MTC Post

Hoe gaat het met u? Dank u well for the letters you all sent :) means a lot. 

So I hope halloween was fun for you all :) sounds like it was.. They don't do anything here for halloween. But sister Jucahau's mom sent a bunch of tiny klein pumkins and we drew on em lol. Also cool, the office elders over in the Netherlands sent us a package of stroop wafels :) they're very much good. oh! and I made a geest (ghost) out of tissues and drew a face on it and hooked it to my suit coat hehhehheh (who ever thought that I'm not creative? hehe). 

I've been using 2Nephi 31 and Alma 32 a lot in our lessons. I love Het Boek Van Mormon :) het is heel geweldig. Whenever we need a good scripture to get our point across that's what we use :). You know what I would recommend? (look out , lol I'm getting preachy;) I recommend when you study the scriptures, to get a journal/notebook to write in while you study. Just mark down the main things you learn. You don't have to write down every little thing you read. Just what hit you strongest. It's ten times better when you study that way. I know, cause I was a crappy studier before I left lol. I'm not saying I'm pro now, but I am better :).

The Dutch, well, I'm not gonna say I'm good at it lol. Cause I'm not. But I'm way better then I was :). I can pronounce most words, (like 'w' sounds like a 'v' and 'v' sounds like a 'f' and 'j' makes a 'ya' sound :) and a whole host of other things) and I can talk kinda sometimes and usually understand what my teachers are saying. They have a thing called TRC where you teach like a home teaching lesson to other people in you language. So we've done that twice now and taught all sorts of dutch speakers. It's hard, but it's fun :). I love this language. I love that it's kinda close to english and I'm so looking forward to when I can actually speak it with people for reals. When I think about it I actually know a fair amount over Dutch :) our teachers are awesome. And my District is too. 
We got ten new english elders yesterday (actually 8. the other two were delayed cause of the storms on the east coast. I hope everything is alright over there. we don't hear much). The new Danish elder in our district is a cool guy. He's hard core cause he's learning the language all by himself. 

I hope that everything keeps going good at home :) 
love, sincerely, awesomely, leukly (can't really say that lol), epicly and from the MTC (so always trying to be spiritually),
Elder CHANTRY :D