First Post from Breda

To my awesome family and others 

well then. Lets see if i can do this systematically. So that it makes sense. and interesting enough so that you actually read the whole thing ±)

The area here is dang good. I’ve been lucky to have gotten Almere and then here. One reason is:
the church building is across the street from the apartment ±) heh. like you can see it from the window. Plus the members here are really nice. We have a dinner appointment every day this week. And we just taught the girlfriend of a recent convert on Saturday. We have a baptism date with her now for may 5th :) she´s really open (name is Rowena) and she has been coming to church and wants to keep coming. 
This area really is great.

Elder Sosa is a pretty dang good comp. He actually lived here when he was young (in Amsterdam for five years) and was baptized into the church with his dad and step mom when he was ten. Then they moved to Chile later. Really cool part was he was born Bolivia, in Santa Cruz. He also has spent a little time on vacation there. It´s pretty cool. He of course speaks spanish and english  and real good dutch, cause he lived here before, so he didn´t have to learn it. He spent the first part of his mission in CHile cause of visa problems but he´s been here awhile now (he has about a year left). He said that in CHile, his whole area was like a six street by six street block lol. And that they worked with stakes, not wards heheheh. The church there really is huge. 
heheh, any who. he´s a really cool guy, patient (which is a must with me) and works really well with the members. the people here really like him. 

So anyways. I like it here :). I heard that Iris back in Almere has started going to ysa activities and that they moved here baptism date a little closer cause she didn´t need so much time. Really cool. Thanks for all your prayers. 

You know something cool? a couple weeks ago we went to a stake thing in Haarlem. It´s the city that they filmed the Best Two Years in. And the church building we went in is the one you see on the movie. You know when the investigator comes to church and how they´re waiting in front of the doors? That´s where we were. :) Pretty cool. Sisters actually work in Haarlem heh. 

Hardest thing we´ve done lately is walk 8.5 kilometers (5miles) with five copies of the book of Mormon each (I know, despicable, I’m using kilometers, but I’m trying to get used to it heheh)

I’ll talk again next week. 
love you guys,
mijn Nederlands wordt wat beter ook. maar ik heb nog veel om te leren. 
that´s good though. That´s why I still have a long time on my mission heheh

met liefde and every ounce of awesome i can muster,
Elder Chantry

Photo Post From Almere

Ivan's Baptism

Magnolia, unknown child, William, Elder Chantry, Naphtali

Almere from Bike Path

The area where we live

Looking toward our apartment

Spiderman Poster and Me

Last Night in Almere

Last Post From Almere

Well.........that\s it.
Just got the call, they're kicking me out of almere.
Bullies.

I'm going to go serve in Breda. In the south of the Netherlands, with Elder Sosa, who is from Chile. heh. I'm pretty sure that none of you guys at home can pronounce any of these city names right. I know I sure as heck couldn't before I left. lol I chuckle to myself thinking of you guys arguing how it should be said. :D (not to be all proud of myself or anything;)

It's really pretty sad I’m leaving. Cause this week is planned to be ÄMazing. Last week we got back in contact with Iris. And guess what? We talked to her and she wants to be baptized. And she has a date :D   yep. So amazing. She had just been busy for a while and then her phone wasn't working. So I decided we would just go by her house and try to talk to her, cause I didn't want to lose her (ya dad you'd be proud;) we found her at home, and set up a return appointment. that was when we set the Doop datum (that's how you say baptism date, in Dutch)
           It's really awesome. She came to church too. And so did Danel, another investigator (a former) and I sat with her and E. Larson sat with Danel. It was sooo a blessing to have them come. Cause stuff came up for both of em but they both decided to come anyways :). The ward was really excited to see em, and they both liked it.
                                The Lord was really nice, cause that was my last Sunday here. and even though I won't get to teach em, they're gonna be taught. :) And I’ll keep praying for them. And the whole area. It’s a great place.

 It's all good. I want to share my testimony with you guys, I know this work is true. I've said before one of the hardest things in life is perspective. Remember to keep that perspective. It’s really easy to get distracted with all the worldly stuff. Not so much that it's all down right evil, but that it takes up all your time. (I see it every day, in the trains and busses, people always staring at the phone)

My mission has helped so much with that already. I was one of the most people most guilty of that alive. I've improved in a lot of ways actually. I know, hard to belive heheh. But the Lord helps. You just have to take the first step you know? If you want the Lord to help with something, pray, then start setting goals, start working for it, follow up with Him each night, and he can work wonders. I've already seen it. I love you guys. I miss you a lot. ánd i pray for you :)

keep living happy :)
k?
toch?
k :)
Elder Chantry

PS
The temple is in Zoetermeer. Just next to Den Haag. (hehe none of you could say either of those;)
And the church here is getting ready to grow, things have been kinda small here in the Netherlands, but that's gonna change :) I’ll talk some more about things here next week..........

Photos from Almere

Christmas

So our ward is about 50 or so strong. Pretty cool ward. Lots of people from other countries. We do wash in our apartment cause we have our own washer and drier. On pday we study, clean the apartment (which believe it or not, i usually have to spear head) and then email, then shop for food, then we have free time. One week E. Pimentel and I walked around and took pics of cool things. One pday we went and played American football and got super muddy :) awesome. Several pdays we went shopping and looking at clothes and stuff (cause we live right in the centrum. like living in the mall except it's all out doors and way bigger). Next week we're gonna go bike down and look at this castle that they didn't quite finish building lol. This is a new city so theirs not a ton of cool history stuff. I’ll do more of that in other areas.

We hear about transfers next Sunday! Can you believe it??? I might go. I really hope not.
 

Elder Pimental

Here, we have 12 missionaries that come in May, 18 that come in June, 30 that come in July. We’re gonna go from 80 ish missionaries to 180 by next year :D they said that there’s gonna be two more elders put in Almere :D soo cool ..
The mission is getting 22 new apartments and by this summer they're gonna have 45 sister missionaries.
This stuff is kinda important to me lol

I’m praying for the ward, and for the Coffey’s.

New Years

First Planner in the Netherlands

Ok. I’m gonna try some pics. Love you guys. The work here is going good. We’re really gonna focus on finding this week (lots of  contacting people :) the work is dang good stuff

Elder Chantry

A

A Good Week in Almere

Well well well
I would say that I’ve become fluent in Dutch. But, that might not be entirely true. Especially since i apparently told a member on the phone that we would call them if we wanted a ride to our appointment with him. But in my head i had said, yes, indeed we want a ride. so ya. that made an interesting evening.
       cool thing is though, I’ve gotten really good at the "oh I’m super sorry, it's my fault, I didn't hear you right" shpeel. :)
                   Turned out alright in the end lol
  
You know what's annoying? I never really know what temp it is cause everything is measured in Celsius. No stinkin clue.  I only know at 0 degrees. cause that's freezing lol so it's 32 Fahrenheit.

So I did actually, get the last referral. I had to call elder Pimentel though lol.............I've been doing this thing where elder Larson asks me: "do you know who the Reekers are?" and I say,"ya, I’ve heard that name"   "who are they?"  ........."well, that's an excellent question" lol            
It has gotten better, but there's just a lot of people and places and names and stuff. lots. te veel.
Good thing is though, my comp is super cool about it. We've had a lot of good laughs together. :) His bike just recently broke down. hehe and he only has like nine more weeks on his mission. So he was kinda cursing his luck lol i just told him it's part of enduring to the end hehheh
  
So on Saturday’s some members in the ward play volleybal. Cause the church is gonna have this competition dealio. so we've been invited cause there's less actives and nonmembers who come and play too. Well, truth of the matter is, I don't actually know the rules to volleyball. lol and the first week I did it (a littile while back) I like kept doing it wrong and they were like yelling things in dutch and I was just thinking, 'I really think it'd be a good thing if i new what they were saying' lol. I kinda learned somma the rules, but I still mess up. And these people are pretty competitive! It reminds me why i never liked organized sports! lol i keep saying, "sorry, my fault" in dutch heheh

Good week though. We got to do service, and help put grout in between tiles and also dig up two plum trees (heh dad would've been proud. all we had was one little shovel that wasn't even very pointy. these people here really don't do anything big. Then we drove the trees in the back of a prius, sticking out the trunk into the open. While I sat on the back seat holding the roots so they didn't hit the roof hehe. The open door sensor beeped the whole way to the new place we were planting em.......i mostly claimed the shovel cause I wanted to stay warm and I looked too much like a government worker if I stood and watched my comp do it lol...........)
  
With love (met liefde)
ELDER Chantry!