The Netherlands

So, owing to the many questions and repeated inquiries posed by many various parties concerning the nature and specific happenings of this fine mission, I have taken it upon my humble (and exceptionally capable) self to condescend to your level and indulge your eager minds with the glorious details of this magnificent portion of the Lord's vineyard:

(Well, enough of that;)

I’m gonna start with what the Netherlands is like. First off, "Holland" is a province within the Netherlands (although the whole country is sometimes called Holland just cause people decided they would say that). The Province is (if you wanna pull out the map on google at this point) is kinda the arm part of the Netherlands, that sticks out (but if you google it i think you can get a better map)
Even though the country is super small there's a lot of people here and the language accent varies quite greatly. In many areas there are even other dialects that we as missionaries can't even understand (but we don't have to speak it cause like all those people speak Dutch as well) ...........

The church is actually pretty small here. There are three stakes in Nederland (Den Haag, Appeldoorn, Rotterdam) and one that is the south part of Nederland and the north part of Belgium combined (Antwerpen) That's where I am now, in that stake. 

The ward I’m in now is actually one of the biggest. There were about 100 people there Sunday. There are lots of branches in this country 15-40 people in a branch is pretty normal. But things have been growing lately....

Here in Breda we had been taking the bus a lot to work, but we fixed Elder Sosa's bike so now we've been biking. It's pretty big city, but manageable. I can't say I know it really super well. But I know the bus routes and we have maps on the phone and I could get around when I need to. (hopefully)

Recent news. We just got today. Elder Sosa and I are staying here for another transfer (YEah!!) But, we're getting another elder. Elder Wayman. We're gonna be in a 3some now. (heheh)...so we'll have to see how things go. gonna make things kinda crowded, but I bet some good stuff comes out of it. We’ll see............

               Elder Sosa and I have been doing great together. Rowena is getting baptized this coming Sunday (:D) and the ward is happy to have her. Thank you all for your prayers for her, and for the others we're teaching. We'll still going with them (last Monday our investigator named Judith decided to stop smoking :) so were gonna follow up with that and see how it goes:)
We also found a Chinese student this last Saturday so we're trying to teach him as well......things are good here :)

ok. Ik moet toch wel weg. maar, ik wens jullie een vijne week and sucess met alle de noodzakelijke dingen (maar meer de leuke lekker dingen ;) 

Love
Elder Chantry

Land of the Tulips

Vandaag zal ik iets slimmer doen. Ik ga de brief eerst schrijven en daarna ga ik lekker emails lezen. time efficient denk ik.....:)

Well, 

The weather here is getting warmer (gellukig). You asked in a letter mom about the difference in weather here and Almere. It´s a little less windy here (volgens mij) not as close to open water. ....

We don´t have to wear our suit coats now :) so I went a couple times in just a long sleeve white shirt. I stand out soo bad heheh Like a bumblebee in your sock ......

We got to go to the temple Wednesday. really cool. And they did it in Dutch. It actually wasn´t that tough. I did about as good as I do in English heheh :) which, you know, is a definite average......
              Pretty temple, and you know what else was pretty? Keukenhof. We went to this like big garden area and they had like TONS of flowers really intense and pretty like. ANd other cool landscaping and verschillende dingen..... I got some cool pictures and i got to see ELders King, Muse, ANd sister Juchau from the mtc. And also Elder Pimentel :). 

Rowena is still on track to be baptized. She never like has any problems. She´s completely ready. It´s really a blessing to be able to help teach her.............You guys wanna hear somthin? Well you get to. Rowena´s boyfriend was introduced to the missionaries by a friend he had online who was a member....he was baptized and then now recently he invited his girlfriend to be taught. and she´s gonna be baptized. THen, she told us that her mom was coming to her baptism and she´s already given her mom different books from the church.... And with the Lord´s help we´ll be able to teach her as well. ....
         My point? All of this came about because one member introduced her friend to the church. Just a friendly invitation, that came about naturally cause the church was a part of her life.
                             Ideally missionary work for us would be just teaching. We only tract when we don´t have someone to teach. If the members are always open to invite. If they live in such a way that the gospel is part of their life, so that it doesn´t have to be awkwardly brought up out of no where. Then the work really will progress. And the missionaries will be able to teach these people soo much better because they will have more experience teaching. 

Maybe I’m lecturing a little (just a little;). This gospel is destined to fill the earth. I feel so much better when I know that I’m able to be a part of spreading it. 

I´m gonna send some pics. I can´t believe that next Monday we hear about transfers. Insanely fast. April´s already over half dead. man...
Love you guys. Thanks for all your letters and love.... 

love you guys,
Elder Chantry
(de gene die helemaal blij is)
(en de beste familie heeft)

Keukenhof

Stuff I Do

I’m sending this letter before i read anything, and it's just gonna be about stuff that t I did. 

cool things first:

This week we get to go to the temple! We have temple conference two times a year. They’re always around gen conf. After the temple we get to go to Keukenhof which is a city that has a lot of the flowers that you guys always hear about. Hopefully it doesn’t rain and there’s lot s of flowers this early in the season. Wednesday is when we go. 

Another cool thing. Rowena (the one who's gonna be baptized) bore her testimony in church yesterday (fast Sunday for us). And she’s completely prepared. She never has a problem. Like, we taught the Word of wisdom and she was totally willing to live it. She had recently already given up smoking and drinking and she said she would give up coffee too. We hardly had to do anything. 
We also began teaching the nonmember wife of a less active man who wants to be back in the church. And we had Amazing lessons with this lady Judith and this guy Wilko. Both of em have been investigators for awhile but they're really making progress lately. The Bishop and his counselors went on splits with us last week and we both had awesome lessons. The work here is going great :D   (if i do say so my cute little self)

I love you guys a ton, and i hope it warms up for you all.it was cold and cloudy this last week then Yesterday it was 20 celsius. (like 60 farenheit)          -- :)----       the weather here changes so ridiculously fast heheheh

Fun stuff. 
Take care guys tot volgende week!

Conference Week

HOI! 

How bout conference eh? Good stuff. Here Saturday morning plays Saturday 6pm. and priesthood and Saturday afternoon are the next day. Sunday morning I watched at 6pm on Sunday, and I still haven´t seen Sunday afternoon.(it started at 10pm out time)

we watched with Rowena and her bf on saturday, and then watched sunday with a family in the ward, at their house. . . 

I actually thought of you guys a lot as I listened. 

First, was this
I read a talk by elder Oaks in the February ensign this year. it was about truth, and tolerance. it struck me cause  in conference pres. packer talked about tolerance, and pres monson and also another talked about truth. 

ok. I’ll go now. So cool that the girls got to missions safe. I’m looking forward to hear how it´s going :) 
how about them numbers for missionaries? 65thousand some? And i heard that by the end of the year it could be up to 100 thousand in the field. 
How about THAT for a lard of troops eh?! heheheh

love you guys
sucess met alles. en ik wens jullie een fijne week :)

Elder 
CHANTRY

(The final line says: success with everything and I wish you a great week)

Another Good Week (with photos)

Time flies. I've decided I’ve reached the point in my mission where I don't want any more time to pass. I've been out long enough to not be a greenie and short enough to where I still have time to learn the stuff I need. I really love the work :).

Mel and Rach are in for an awesome time. The work of God is going forth and there isn’t a thing that will stop it.

And I’m working on bringing it forward in Dutch. heh. 

Something our president wants us to do is memorize the first lesson in Dutch. Not cause he wants us to teach it as a speel, but cause he wants it in our heads so we teach doctrine and not goo goo clusters en dat zort ding. So I’m working on it. It’s kinda slow, but I’m motivated. Cause I want to learn the language. 

See in this mission it's quite common for missionaries to go home after 2 years and still not have That good of Dutch. 

Reason? 

In South America, everything is Spanish. Your always speaking, hearing etc (elder Sosa told me lol. he served in Chile for a little while).... But here, a lot is English. The president almost always does things in English, (he knows Dutch, just doesn't use it really with us)........

And then the other problem is the people in this country all know English! lol. And quite a few of them just speak English with you. Members do anyways. I still get plenty chance to use Dutch, and lots of people have actually told me that my Dutch is really quite good for 4 months in the country. ............

But I’ve been thinking. I was called to speak Dutch. And even though they don't speak it like anywhere in the world (except like 3 or 4 places) I wanna know the language :) heheh......I mean, why not? My biggest goal right now is to become a good teacher. And unless I’m fluent in the language, I won't be a very good teacher. It’s pretty straight forward. The spirit can work through barriers, but why not take down the barriers if I can? Makes things so much better........

So even though it ain't quite pretty, and even though this language is pretty dang tough (in my opinion;) I'll get it.

I know, kind of went on and on, but you know, too bad :) you get it all anyways

I hope you all had a good Easter. yes? no? yes :)

I did too. 

We’re gonna watch Saturday conference with an investigator who has a baptism date, and her boyfriend who is a member :) so good week ahead of us. I hope the same for you guys

Love, (and all that sappy stuff)

Elder Sosa and Elder Chantry

Elder Chantry

Soccer in Almere