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

3rd WEEKLY MTC POST

So, it's insanely cool that Rachel's going to Russia :) I've been telling people all about it. That kinda thing is exciting here lol....

They said that the average amount of mission aplications since conference has been around 3,400 each week. They said that's about 471% increase from the weekly average before 8D....awesome stuff.

Our sacrament meetings aren't in Dutch cause we have a mixed zone. A lot of our old zone left this Monday though. Actually, most of em. The only ones we have now is our Dutch group, a few of the old Dutch group who have to wait for their visas cause they're going to Suriname, and a group of English Elders who are going to Denver North.

But just this week we got one Danish Elder (he's all by himself. He got assigned to our districts and Staley and Liang bring him from place to place) and 8 more English elders.

And I have to tell you all something, this last week, me and Elder King (that's right, weep over my grammar;) got called to be the Zone leaders. So now we're in charge of making assignments for sacrament and also doing orientations on Wed and Thursday for the new Elders. We're doing a meeting and a tour tonight. Heh, good thing I know where I'm going most the time now lol.

So that's new. We're able to go to the temple each week too, and that's nice. Yesterday, we had a role-play where our teacher (Brother Norton) taught me as the investigator with Elder Muse, and he taught about the plan of salvation. It was an amazing experience. It was a full role-play, about thirty minutes, and I could feel that spirit of the message as he taught.

I was able to catch a glimpse of what it was like to be taught the gospel, and be told about the hope that it brings. I was reminded too of my testimony of this church. The Gospel's true. I know it, and that's why I'm here, cause I want others to know it. And that's what God wants too :) Ik hou van jullie and wish you the best.

From the MTC, (where time really doesn't exist) (and it snowed today:) (and the cafeteria is determined to double your size),

Elder Chantry :)

SECOND MTC P-DAY

I'm getting the hang of things here. I don't get lost any more. And I've started to understand  Nederlands now (which is heel goed:). My speach is neandrathal still (however you spell that) but I'm working on it. Ik weet dat over tijd de nederlands van mij wil (be) mooi! (that was terrible sentence structure by the way. I just wanted to use some dutch words, don't repeat it though lol)

The best thing at the Mtc are the teachers. they're smart, and spiritual, infinitely patient and they'll always help you out. We have 3 of em and I couldn't ask for better :)

I'm gonna try to send some pictures this week. Last week I had problems but I think I can do it this time...

First picture is my District. The second one is the Elders in my District. The next one is me with the Netherlands flag :).

(and if you care, the names of the people in the pics are, E. Muse and E. Jex. the four sisters, Juchau, Israelson, Raun and Nogeruira. then it's E. Staley, district leader, and elder Liang. E. King my companion is in the front with lovable old me:)

I'll talk to you all again soon. I love you and wish you the best,

Elder Chantry

First P-Day Blog

So here's some stuff that happened:

I was in class first after I checked in. The teacher started to talk to me and I was like: ..................0.0................... it was hilarious if you were watching I"m sure. lol and he was saying the simple nederalnds phrases too hehheh.....

There's a group that's been in here for weeks and they're learning dutch too. One of 'em preteneded like he was from the Netherlands and we all totally believed it. We were all scared to talk to him and everything lol. E. Eastmond, and he's a great guy :)

What's cool is like half the people learning dutch are going to Suriname in the West Indies. South America. You can look it up :) they get to run from anacondas and head hunters hehheh.............

Boy, it's insane here. but cool too. Elder Bednar spoke to us this Tuesday and he outlined his study plan when he studies the teachings of general conference. I don't have time for the whole thing but mainly it was too look for:

• doctrines
• invitations
• promised blessings

Cool stuff :) he quoted a scripture in regards to the age change in missionary work. He said that "the Lord is in charge of His work and He can hasten it in His own time" or something to that effect. Awesome huh? You know the stay time at the mtc is being shortened too? it's from 9 weeks to like 6 for foreign missionaries. Not for us though :) we get the extra time. Our estimated leave time is December 3rd. There's soo much more I wish I could say! Like how awesome and terrible the investigator lessons are. And how I always turn the wrong direction and Elder King (my companion) has to drag me back the right way lol. Or how, well, there's tons of things.

BUt I miss you all and wish I could write each of you! I will whenever I get a chance. I'm still pretty slow at stuff so I'll get better soon (hopefully).

I'll send some pics as soon as I can make it work. It's kind of a pain....

I love and miss jullie! (thats dutch, not a person).... take care, continue to be awesome and I'll write more when I can...

Elder Chantry!!

(P.S. This is Carsten's mom...I looked it up "jullie" means you in Nederlands "Dutch")